Hi everyone I'm back with the second Chapter. There isn't a lot of action in this chapter but it explains the background of the story. Please enjoy the story.
Chapter 2
Lucy frowned at her dwindling food supplies, wishing it would somehow multiply but the hundreds of books she had read in this past week hadn't taught her how to do that.
"I got to get to that village soon..." Lucy sighed to herself, "Wonder if anyone did that request yet. I could use some money."
She made up her mind to leave Doram Vita the next morning to head to the village before her supplies got too low and headed back to her makeshift table of stacked books.
Over the last few days, Lucy had explored the entirety of Doram Vita, finding many nooks and crannies and dead ends but generally everything was in pretty good shape considering it had been abandoned for like a thousand years.
She had summoned each spirit as she visited their "Shrines" and they all exclaimed in wonderment, professing their love for the place. Even Aquarius was slightly less mean and did not highlight Lucy's lack of a lover for once. Each "Shrine" had been decorated to suit their ruling deity's character although most of the silk hangings and tapestries were mostly gone by now, eaten by moths.
Secretly, Lucy liked Aquarius' "Shrine" the most, not that she would ever tell the temperamental spirit of course. It was a cavern at the base of the mountain with a ridiculously gorgeous waterfall (which Lucy could not figure out, came from where, or where all the water went to either) and several smaller fountains. However, Lucy chose to spend her nights in Doram Vita at Aries' "Shrine" for obvious reasons – comfort being the most pre-dominant.
Besides the Grand hall (Virgo told her what it was called) where she had "destroyed" Loke's statue, she also came upon sleeping quarters, a large kitchen with an accompanying pantry and cellar, a large dining area, a huge ballroom and her favourite (obviously), a library jammed full of books where she was spending most of her time.
The cellar and pantry had nothing left but a few barrels of several centuries old whisky, which Lucy's spirits decided was a good idea to consume in celebration of returning to Doram Vita. With the permission of the Spirit King (who, according to Loke, wanted to join them himself), the Spirits crossed the gate into the human realm, using their own power, and proceeded to get blindingly drunk.
The following morning, after most of the spirits had gone back to their own realm in effort to escape their pounding headaches, Lucy asked Capricorn (who was the only sober spirit left) why they could cross the gate without her summoning. Capricorn explained that the gate here was easier to breach due to the proximity of Doram Vita to Olympa, which was the point where the 2 realms crossed, and also the place was imbued with centuries of celestial magic.
Lucy chuckled to herself as she recalled the drunken antics of her spirits. Sagittarius, her chosen companion for the day looked at her weirdly, "Moshi-moshi. Is something wrong Lucy-dono?"
Lucy giggled harder looking at the man in the horsesuit as she remembered what her spirits told her about Sagittarius being quite the Romeo once when courting Andromeda, another spirit. "That explains the breeches" Lucy thought to herself, stifling her giggles.
Either Sagittarius knew what she was thinking about and decided to save himself the embarrassment of asking or he was used to Lucy's weirdness and decided to ignore her. Lucy sobered up and went back to the book she was reading.
With the help of her Ultra Super Hurricane Force Glasses (Patent Pending), she had read nearly half the books in the library already in the last few days. There were many books on general topics like farming and geography as well as fictions and fairy tales, but what really interested her were the books on the up-till-now lost history of Doram Vita and its religion.
Lucy was an academic at heart and she knew that history was written by the winners and thus could be inaccurate. Therefore she proceeded to read about 50 books that were in Japanese or English on the history of the land, and while there were some discrepancies here and there between who started what fight and what not, the general history was the same.
A couple of millennia ago, a darkness emerged to plague the land, a creature the people then called Imperatus. A few books had provided an illustration of a humongous creature with a gaping maw, tentacles and scales. It is said that the outer body was a shell and the true evil spirit resided within the creature. The creature was resistant to all magic with the exception of Celestial Magic, considering that it was a creature of darkness. But even then, it took a truly great celestial wizard to even subdue the creature.
Celestial wizards, or Summoners, as they were know back then would form contracts with Spirits and train to battle Imperatus. Once in a few decades, a Summoner would succeed, not in ending Imperatus, but only to send it to sleep for a few years. To subdue Imperatus, the Summoner would cast a spell, using his own spirit to trap Imperatus for a few years. Some of the greater great Summoners kept Imperatus subdued longer for over a decade, but in the end, Imperatus would always rise again.
Then there was this one guy, a thousand years ago, who fell in love with a Summoner and absolutely refused to let her die to earn a few years of respite and so somehow they found a way to defeat Imperatus for good. It helped that the Summoner came from a long line of successful Summoners, descendent from the Spirit King and Queen themselves, contracted all 12 golden gates, and her companions were all powerful mages in their own right.
"Neh, Sagittarius, do you still remember Lanea Adastra?" Lucy asked
"Of course, moshi moshi" Sagittarius replied, saluting for no apparent reason. "Lanea-sama was the greatest Summoner of all time and she was kind as she was beautiful. It was a true honour to have served as her spirit, Moshi mosh."
"Ehh.. I would love to have known her" Lucy mused, looking at the illustration of Lenea Adastra. "All 12 spirits huh…"
"Lenea-sama was the only summoner ever to contract all 12 keys," Sagittarius said, "Lucy-dono is the only other summoner who has come so close to all 12"
Lucy smiled to herself, happy at the indirect praise. "Can you tell me more about her?"
"Lenea-sama was the scion of two of the 4 great Houses. Each House had their own element and the corresponding zodiacs of that element were contracted to that house Moshi moshi."
Lucy nodded in understanding, having read some of this in the books, indicating that Sagittarius should continue.
Clearing his throat, Sagittarius continued with the story, "Now Lenea-sama was the daughter of Adastra and Compostela, the Houses of Fire and Earth, and so she controlled the keys Taurus, Capricorn, Virgo, Leo, Aries and myself. Normally, a Summoner would only control at most 3 keys if they were the only scion of their house, but Lenea-sama was the only scion left for both houses. During that time, Imperatus had been growing a lot stronger and many Summoners had perished trying to subdue him. The 4 great Houses were in fact, dying out."
"So how did she come to contract all 12 keys?" Lucy interrupted.
Sagittarius raised an eyebrow at his master's impatience but made no other signs of displeasure. "I was just getting to that part moshi-moshi. The only other 2 Summoners that that time were Esne Bidea of the Water and Ciel Atamena of the Air. Both Esne and Lenea-sama were considered Fiore's greatest hope in defeating Imperatus. However, Esne had always been jealous that Lenea-sama controlled 6 keys while she only controlled 3. So before they left on their journey to defeat Imperatus, Esne challenged Lenea-sama to a battle for her keys. While it was rare for such challenges to be issued, considering the dwindling number of summoners, their code demanded that the challenge be accepted."
"What?! What kind of rule is that? That's so unfair!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Lucy-dono, you must understand things were different back then. Summoners carried a great deal of responsibility and it is only fair to determine which was the stronger Summoner and provide him or her with the best arsenal of Spirits possible. Power concentrated in one summoner was worth more than many weak summoners." Sagittarius explained.
"Oh… Okay, I understand Sagittarius. Please continue" Lucy settled back down in her chair.
"As you probably guessed, Lenea-sama won the challenge and Esne was disgraced as the scion of house Bidea, losing all her keys, including those of her house Cancer, Pisces and Aquarius." Sagittarius continued, "With 9 gold keys, Lenea-sama carried an even greater responsibility as the last hope for Fiore."
"Ceil-sama was a lot older than both Lenea-sama and Esne so he had already started his journey some time ago. While Lenea-sama was still travelling, Ciel-sama had already tried to go against Imperatus once but failed, barely escaping with his life. Along her journey Lenea-sama met up with him in a village where he revealed to her that he was dying from his injuries from his battle. While Lenea-sama was visiting the village, it was attacked by Imperatus' minions trying to eliminate the last 2 Summoners who pose a threat to Imperatus. Ciel-sama died in that battle protecting the village and entrusted his keys to Lanea-sama. That's how Lenea-sama came to hold all 12 keys of the golden gates, moshi moshi."
Lucy was intrigued by the history Sagittarius was sharing, but the romantic in her had to ask. "So what about the guy who fell in love with her?"
"Ryu-sama? Moshi moshi." Sagittarius thought for a bit before continuing. "Traditionally, a Summoner would have a group of fellow mages travelling with her for protection and also to aid in the fight against Imperatus. Ryu-sama was one of the mages travelling with Lenea-sama. He was a powerful mage, loud and boisterous, but fiercely protective of his friends. Lenea-sama fell in love with him, not only because he saved her life many times but also because of his faith in his friends, his faith in her. And this love between them was what ended Imperatus for good."
"Ehhh... So romantic." Lucy sighed, wondering if ahead would ever find a love like that. "So what magic did Ryu-sama use?"
"Ryu-sama was a dragon slayer, an earth dragon slayer." Sagittarius answered.
"Dragon slayer?! Like Natsu and Gajeel?" Lucy exclaimed, sitting up in her seat.
"Yes moshi moshi." Sagittarius replied, saluting again.
"Wow they had dragon slayers a thousand years ago too!" Lucy said, "Then what about the dragons? Then have not disappeared yet right, 1000 years ago. Why didn't they help fight Imperatus?"
"The dragons did try to help moshi moshi. But you see, Imperatus was a dragon slayer, the dark dragon slayer, so the dragons were disadvantaged against him. They also couldn't risk losing one of the dragons or the whole balance of the elements would be upset. So the dragons helped by training humans as dragon slayers to help defeat Imperatus. Moshi moshi" Sagittarius answered patiently.
Lucy nodded in understanding, "Things were so tough for Lenea-sama... How did she manage to defeat Imperatus?"
"While Lenea-sama was a one of the greatest Summoners who ever lived, if not the greatest, that alone was not enough to defeat Imperatus. Besides holding all 12 keys, Lenea-sama made one of the longest journey as a Summoner, travelling to the far west to learn their secrets." Sagittarius replied.
"She went to Chi'an?" Lucy interrupted again.
"Yes moshi moshi. Back then it took a lot longer to travel that far and it was a lot more dangerous as Imperatus often travelled through the oceans." Sagittarius answered before continuing.
"The maesters of Chi'an told her she had to find the dragon and the phoenix to gain the power to defeat Imperatus but she had to defeat them first for they were proud beings that did not submit easily to a master. So Lenea-sama travelled with her companions to find the celestial beings and managed to defeat them with the help of the 12 keys combined and gain the 2 new crystal keys of the Dragon and the Phoenix."
"What was so special about the Dragon and the Phoenix?" Lucy asked.
"The Celestial Dragon is the Light Dragon, the counterpart to the Dark dragon. His power was required to defeat Imperatus." Sagittarius answered. "The Phoe-"
"If the Light Dragon's power was required, how did the previous Summoners defeat Imperatus?" Lucy cut Sagittarius off.
"The previous Summoners did not defeat Imperatus, they only had to weaken him enough to cast the final spell to bind their soul to Imperatus' consciousness, sending him to sleep for a few years. Since Lenea-sama did want to use the spell, she had to totally defeat Imperatus and not just weaken him. For that she needed the power of the Light Dragon." Sagittarius, the never-ending well of patience, answered his impatient master.
Lucy nodded, motioning for him to continue.
"As for the Phoenix, she provided the power of resurrection. Th-"
"Wait, wait, wait. I thought Lenea-sama wasn't going to use the final spell. Why does she need to resurrect if she wasn't going to die?" Lucy interrupted yet again.
"Imperatus is immortal, which is why it plagued humanity for so long. With the 12 gold keys, it was possible to kill an immortal, but it takes another immortal to do so. Alight in the flames of the Phoenix, Lenea-sama became was immolated temporarily, long enough to cast the spell to end Imperatus' immortality"
"How come no one thought of doing this before?" Lucy asked.
"People were a lot more traditional back then, no one thought to question the traditions and not a lot of Summoners had enough power to contract all 12 keys and defeat both the Dragon and the Phoenix. The Final Spell that sent Imperatus was Earthland's only hope for a few years of peace. No one was going to complain about the cost."
"That's stupid…" Lucy mumbled to no one in particular. "So what happened after that?"
"Lenea-sama returned to Fiore a hero, married Ryu-sama and had many children to carry on the Adastra and Compostela lines. She returned the Water and Air keys to the respective houses and her children inherited the Fire and Earth keys. Even though Bidea and Atamena had no Summoners left to wield the keys, it was their by right." Sagittarius replied.
"So then why was Doram Vita abandoned?" Lucy asked
"Without Imperatus, there was no longer a need for Summoners and eventually as time passed, the religion faded out of existence as science advanced and mankind moved on." Sagittarius said, with a hint of sadness.
"Oh that's so sad, how could everyone forget what the spirits and Lenea-sama went through to bring them eternal peace." Lucy pouted, feeling unjust for her fellow celestial mage.
Sagittarius chuckled, "Sometimes, Lucy-dono, it is easier to forget than to remember all the pain and suffering that gave birth to a hero like Lenea-sama."
"Hmm… I still think she should be remembered. But I guess it was a thousand years ago, at least her beloved spirits still remember her." Lucy smiled at that thought, wondering if the spirits would remember her a thousand years from now.
"Lucy-dono, it is late. You should get some rest now moshi moshi" Sagittarius said, watching Lucy yawn.
"I guess you're right Sagittarius." Lucy smiled at Sagittarius, appreciating his concern, "Would you like to go back? I can get Plue and Sirius to keep me company tonight."
"If it is not too much trouble, moshi moshi. All this story telling has left me thirsty for a glass of the Milky Way" Sagittarius said, saluting his master.
"No problem Sagittarius, thanks for telling me about Lenea-sama. Goodnight." Lucy smiled at the disappearing Sagittarius, waving goodbye.
Requiping the 2 silver keys, Lucy summoned Plue and Sirius once more to keep her company and together they made their way to corner where Lucy made her temporary bed.
End of Chapter 2
Thank you for reading, please review! Thank you!