A/N: Completely my fault for the super late update, truth is, I had the plot all written down, but I just never got around to typing it out, since I was distracted with tons of other stuff: Light novels, animes, mangas, and other fan fictions. Anyways, hope you enjoy this new chapter, if anything is to go by, I hope you guys get the refrences in the new artifacts.
Chapter 3
Of Pacts and Pactios
Fairy Tail Guild Hall
One hour after the one-sided beat down of Natsu: Fairy Tail and the gang from Ala Alba were enjoying themselves in the rowdy guild hall.
Mirajane slowly approached Mana Tatsumiya, who was at the moment, drinking a cup of tea while sitting on one of the benches stationed next to the corner tables, while silently observing the guild and taking in the cheery atmosphere. Mana thought to herself, 'It's been a long time since I've seen a guild be so cheerful. There is so much death these days…'
"Hi! I'm Mirajane Strauss," Mirajane greeted Mana with a smile. "But you can call me Mira for short: I help run the bar."
"Hello," Mana diverted her attention from the brawl that just started between Natsu and Gray, and changed her focus to Mirajane, and as a result, gave an unintentional fierce glare that she developed over her many years of fighting.
"Umm…" Mira said nervously while shifting her eyes from Mana's, "Ever since I saw you appear out of Kaede-san's cloak, I've noticed a faint demonic aura and I felt it grow immensely the moment you began to transformed. So therefore, I've been wondering. Are you the user of a high-level demonic take-over?"
Mana stared at Mira with the hint of the combination of amusement, interest, and malice on her face, "No, I do not use take over magic."
"Eh?" Mirajane, with a blank look on her face, tilted her head as Mana responded.
"I use magic similar to what you call Requip, I use Ikuudansou: it allows me to store my guns and ammos in a separate dimension."
"But, how?" Mira protested, "I saw you transform-"
"Simple, that's because I'm a half demonfolk."
"EHHH?!" Mira exclaimed. Due to the nature of her own take over magic, she studied the history and culture of demons and similar creatures. Even now, Mira could still remember reading a book that showed her the hierarchy of the demon race when she was a child: it was a system based on strength. Therefore, the most powerful of the demons stood at the top and the weakest on the very bottom, and at the very top of the ladder, was none other than the Demonfolks.
Mana was faintly grinning with amusement, she was beginning to enjoy herself, "And by the way, I'm royalty of the demonfolk side." Mira fainted at the revelation, who would have thought that one of the strongest demon in existence was sitting down inside Fairy Tail, enjoying a cup of tea? Her mind just couldn't keep up with the information. "Heh, maybe I shouldn't have gone that hard on her."
Kaede, who was currently standing next to Eva with her eyes closed, shifted her head several centimeters to the right in order to dodge an incoming mug, which shattered against the wooden wall behind the bar. She then proceeded to dodge several more flying objects in the same manner without opening her eyes or exerting any effort.
A few chairs and glass bottles later, Natsu ran up to her, and challenged her to a fight, one that she promptly declined with a smile, "Maybe some other time, Natsu-san."
Eva looked at the group with a scowl on her face, "Kaede, remind me again why exactly are we going to train these noisy brats. Whatever did I do wrong to deserve this crappy job?"
"Ahahaha, Eva-san," Kaede chuckled, "We're here because Negi-bouzu asked us to come. Remember that you were reluctant to come too, well at least until Negi-bouzu pouted at you. You suddenly changed your mind said you were going to help."
Eva, whose face blushed with a subtle red, coughed and turned her head, "That baka of a boy..."
The library duo Nodoka and Yue, were together at a table located in the center of the guild hall. Out of the two, Nodoka was enjoying a cup of freshly made tea, courtesy of Yue's alchemy, while reading a book. Next to her was, of course, Yue, who was drinking a weird liquid that she created in a flask. Yue had activated her pactio, and taken out her artifact, Orbis Sensualium Pictus, which was connected to and updated continuously, so she could read up on Fiore's history and geography.
After a few minutes of reading, Yue slammed her artifact shut with a magically amplified clap and glared up to the brawlers in front of her with massive killing intent, causing: Natsu and Gray to cold sweat and wrap their arm around each other's shoulders while say stuff like "We're just having a loud, friendly conversation!"; Elfman to say, "A Man must not disturb a woman's reading time!"; and Gajeel, who did absolutely nothing wrong, to shudder a bit in cold sweat. Satisfied by the results, Yue reopened her artifact to prepare to indulge herself in her studies once more, but not before she noticed Lucy walking in her direction. She had a feeling that Lucy wanted to talk to her, so she dismissed her artifact and waited for Lucy to get into talking range.
"Hi there, my name is Lucy Heartfilia, nice to meet you! You two are Yue-san and Nodoka-san right?" Lucy said as she pointed at the two.
"Yes, I'm Yue."
"Hi there! I'm Nodoka." replied an overly joyous Nodoka: must be something Yue put in her tea.
"Is there something you need?" Asked Yue
"Ah, well actually I was wondering about that book Nodoka-san had when she fought Natsu."
As if she was expecting Lucy to ask her that question, Yue took a sip of her beverage and explained, "That was what we call, an artifact: artifacts are granted based on your personality and the one you are contracted to."
"The one you are contracted to?" Lucy asked as an image of two people appeared in her head: one of them, with the word "contractor" written on his face, was giving embarrassing orders to the other one. "It's not like a slave contract is it?"
"No," Nodoka replied with a tilt of her head, "it's nothing like that, where'd you get that idea from?"
"Ah, nothing," Lucy flustered, "Nothing at all, just ignore what I said!"
"Hmmm," Yue mused to herself before continuing, "Artifacts are the result of a pactio, or a pact, between two people, the contractor; the Magister (or Magistra if female); and the contracted, the Minister (or Ministra if female). The pactio takes on the form of a tarot card, and the term of the pact is more or less: the Minister has to protect their Magister with their life, and in exchange, the Magister will lend them their strength. When the Minister activates the contract with the phrase 'Adeat', their artifact appears, along with a steady flow of magic from the Magister, which is then used to enhance the Minister's own strength, stamina, reaction time, speed, agility, and magical power. Plus, on a side note, the amount of magic being channeled varies from person to person: for instance, Nodoka here receives an incredible amount of magic from her pactio, while someone like me only receives the bare minimum."
"Whoa, that seems pretty useful, especially if anyone can form a pactio." Lucy said in awe.
"However," Yue continued. "Because of the large amounts of magic being leeched off of the Magister, most of them can only form one or two pactios. Anymore than that and it will become detrimental to them."
"Wait a minute, you mean if a Magister makes more pactios than they can handle, it's bad for them? But then, can't they just cancel the contract?"
Yue shook her head, "No, the contracts are permanent since they represent a bond that ties the fate of the Magister and the Ministra together, so if someone makes more pactios than they can handle, then chances are, it would either shorten their lifespan or kill them." Lucy felt a chill go up her spine. "But, there is a way to work around this. If you are under 18, you can make a provisionary contract that will last until you become 18. After that, the contract expires and you will have to create a permanent one if you want to keep your artifact." Yue paused, scanning Lucy, "Hmm… looks like that option is impossible for you, seeing as you're over 18."
"Ehhh? How did you know?" Lucy gasped as she took a step back in surprise.
"I have my ways; I am a magical detective after all." Yue puffed with pride as Lucy seat dropped.
"So… how exactly do you make a pactio?" Lucy said after she recovered from her momentary stasis.
Yue hesitated for a moment, thinking of when she first made her pactio with Negi. Then with a faint blush on her face, Yue finally answered, "A kiss… A kiss is required to form a pactio."
"Eh?" Lucy's train of thought just got derailed at the speed of sound and crashed into a cave lined with explosives. Moments later, a flustered Lucy asked, "I-I-Is t-there any other way to make one without k-k-kissing?"
"Yes, but it's a little gruesome and I don't think our readers would be too keen on hearing about it."
"Readers? What are you talking about?"
Completely disregarding what Lucy asked and speaking out of turn; Nodoka jutted in and casually mentioned, "Oh! And by the way, since the pactios are permanent, the Magister and their Ministra tend to usually get married and spend the rest of their lives together." This, as you might have guessed, caused a dead silence between the groups.
As the seconds slowly ticked by, Yue finally broke the silence and coughed with a slight blush on her face, "Well, there are special cases…"
As if acting on reflex, Juvia jumped out of nowhere and shouted, "Juvia demands to know what these special cases are!"
"Well, if you insist…" Yue quietly mumbled, her blush growing brighter by the second, "Negi-sensei has no less than thirty permanent pactios."
Lucy's face grew bright red and began counting her fingers as she stammered, "T-T-Thirty p-p-pactios?"
"Whoa," Juvia gasped, "This man is married to 30 people?" 'There's no way I'll let Gray-sama marry to anyone other than me!'
Yue shook her head, "For starters, two of them are guys,"
"!" Juvia gasped, 'BL?!'
Nodoka continued, "Six of them are married,"
Lucy, Juvia, and everybody else that was listening on to the conversation gasped. Then Erza said "He doesn't even let marriages stop him huh. What a beast, he must be struck down."
"Two of them are related,"
'Incest!' Lucy thought as a dark background looms over her. "Hey, why's it getting so dark?"
"What are you talking about Lucy?" Erza asked.
"Then, for security reasons, we cannot tell you the rest of it." Mana finished, surprising everyone, as she appeared out of nowhere, but Lucy had a slight feeling that she appeared from the shadow looming above her.
"But to have thirty pactios… even if two of them are guys," Lucy thought back to the kissing condition, "This Negi of yours must be one heck of a good looker."
Yue, without agreeing or disagreeing, quietly brought up her pactio card, murmured "Adeat," and looked through her personal picture files. After a few seconds of browsing, she held up her artifact to face the crowd, which now consisted of no less than everybody in Fairy Tail (it seems that last bit of conversation caught everybody's attention). The results were immediate, all the girls in Fairy Tail blushed, and the all the guys dropped their jaws: heck, even Juvia was at a loss of words (or thoughts). Yue had just shown them a picture of Negi Springfield, without his glasses, showing his trademark, carefree, Negi-smile®.
Somewhere in the back of the room, Kaede sweat dropped. 'Guh, this happens every time Yue shows someone that picture. And this monologue inside my head isn't healthy, de-gozaru.'
Lucy, who thought she had just seen an angel, finally snapped out of her trance when Yue closed her artifact and realized something, "Wait a minute, you mentioned that if a normal Magister has more than one pactios, then they are in serious trouble right?" Yue nodded, which caused Lucy to be a little taken back. 'Just how insanely powerful is this guy…?' Her thoughts were cut short, because suddenly, a cold chill went up Lucy's spine.
"Judging by the look on your faces, I guess you kids want to perform pactios huh?" Eva grinned with an obvious evil intent.
"Umm…" Lucy said, "No no, I think I change my mind!"
"Alright, then I'll help you all make pactios," Eva paused, then with an evil aura, she threatened, "So… Who's going to be my first vict- I mean, who wants go first…?" Which, of course as you might have imagined, caused the bulk of Fairy Tail to turn tail and run away, leaving only; Erza, Gray, Juvia, Laxus, Wendy, Levy, Mirajane, Gildarts, Lucy, the Exceeds, and Gajeel and Natsu, who were absolutely clueless. "Pft, well, wasn't that was a total disappointment. I was hoping for some more entertainment too." Eva sighed, "Well whatever, follow me."
Eva led the group to Kaede, who seemed to have gotten the message, because she summoned her artifact, Tengu no Kakuremino, a cloak that is connected to a pocket dimension. She then held up her artifact and Eva gestured the group to follow her into the cloak. However, the fairies were reluctant, and thought of it as a trap seeing as how Eva was the one that told them to enter. Well, at least until Eva kicked Natsu headfirst into Kaede's cloak and disappeared, that was when Erza took the initative and walked in without a moment's hesitation.
One by one, each of the fairies vanished into the cloak, and when only the Ala Alba group was left, Makarov asked while sitting cross legged on the bar table, "Is this really ok?"
Eva replied with a smirk, "Of course it is, you said they needed power right?"
Nodoka quickly followed up by whispering to Makarov, "You don't worry, Eva-chan won't do any permanent damage anyone unless they are an enemy."
"Did you say something?" Eva threatened Nodoka with an evil glare
"Ah! Nothing, I didn't say anything Eva-chan!"
Break: Inside Kaede's cloak
"Whoa, what is this place, it's huge!" Natsu yelled out loud as he surveyed his surroundings: the group was standing in the grounds of a nine square kilometer Japanese mansion. "Hey Happy! I bet if we look around, we'll find tons of booby traps!"
"Stop dreaming, Natsu." Gray told Natsu, "There's no way there would be booby traps in a house that the owner invited us to."
"You're just jealous because you can't find any booby traps!" Natsu shouted at Gray, which caused him to retaliate back in a fist fight.
"Hmm…" Erza mused as she looked at the front building, "This architecture, I've never seen something quiet like it before, but, I like it."
"Ehhh?!" Lucy screamed, "What is this place? I could have sworn I was just pushed straight into a cloak, now I'm in a weird place with a mansion. There's even a sun! I mean what the heck, there are even electrical appliances here; just how mismatched can that be in this place?"
"Yeah, Yeah, enough of the shouting, you're starting to make my head hurt." Eva groaned, "Just be quiet and follow me." Eva and the rest of Ala Alba (including Kaede) lead the group into a big room littered with open mangas, books, and empty chip bags. Then out of nowhere, Eva shouted, "Oi, perverted ermine get out here."
'?' The fairies thought to themselves for a moment, thinking that Eva was going a bit crazy. Then a voice appeared out of nowhere, "Yes? What is it?" surprising all of them except for Gildarts, who raised an eyebrow.
"I need you to perform pactio rituals for these people over there." Eva pointed to the group of confused fairies.
"Umm…" Lucy said, "Who is she talking to?"
"Hey, nee-san look over here on the table," Lucy did as the voice had instructed, but still couldn't see anything, "Look down nee-san."
Lucy shifted her head down and saw the talking ermine; leaving Lucy with her mouth gawked open.
"Hey look, a talking rat!" Happy shouted.
"Hey, look who's talking!" the 'talking rat' shouted back, "And I'm an ermine, not a rat."
"So, who is this anyways?" Erza asked while staring at the 'talking rat'
"The name's Chamo." Chamo said while smoking a cigarette.
"So, by the way, Eva-san," Levy asked, "What's a pactio?" It seems that Levy was one of the people that weren't paying attention to the first part of Yue and Nodoka's explanation.
"Oh, you'll see…" Eva said with a grin filled with dark intent, after centuries of grinning evilly, it rubs off on you, and it becomes hard to distinguish the difference between a regular smile and an evil one. But that's not to say she can't smile with pure intent. "Oh right, Nodoka, come over here for a moment." Nodoka obeyed Eva's request and walked over to her, then Eva whispered, "Use your artifact to find out which guild member they want to kiss the most in this room."
"I'll try," Nodoka nodded, "Adeat, Diarium Ejus, split into eleven forms; Natsu Dragneel, Gildarts Clive, Lucy Heartfilia, Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Lockser, Levy McGarden, Wendy Marvell, Erza Scarlet, Laxus Dreyar, Gajeel Redfox, Mirajane Strauss." Then Nodoka took a deep breath, readying herself for the outrageous task that she was assigned to, and shouted, "Umm, which of your guild members here would you want to kiss the most?"
"EHHH?!" Lucy, Erza, Mira, and Levy yelled out loud with a blush. Juvia yelled out "Gray-sama!" as she leapt onto an unsuspecting Gray, who let out an "Eh?" Wendy, with a faint blush, stared at the ground quietly where she stood, Natsu stood there with a blank face, and Gajeel grunted. Gildarts on the other hand, stood where he was, thinking about his daughter, while Laxus didn't seem to have heard the question at all.
"Hmm… I see," Eva mumbled to herself as she read Nodoka's artifact, "Hmmm… even though the question was, 'who in this room do you want to kiss most,' half of them thought of somebody else." Eva sighed, and then looked up with another grin full of malice, "I guess we just have to compromise... This might actually turn out to be pretty fun after all." She took a few deep breaths, and then yelled to the fairies, "Alight, you guys do remember that book Nodoka had when she fought Natsu right?"
"Heh, how could we forget, Natsu got his ass handed to him for once." Gray smirked.
"AH? You wanna go, frost breath?" Natsu retaliated.
"Yes," Erza replied, causing Natsu and Gray to take a step back in fear, but it was for a wrong cause as she wasn't referring to those two, "If I remember correctly, that book allowed Nodoka-san to read Natsu's mind and copy his techniques right?"
"Yeah well, that was an artifact; right now we're going to get you all an artifact too." Eva paused, allowing her listeners to process what she just said, "Although chances are, you will get something completely different, since two people with the same artifact are extremely rare considering the amount of different artifacts archived, not to mention new ones that are created."
Somewhere in the background Lucy is blushing: realization hit her hard after hearing what Eva said.
"Hey: Gajeel, and Levy, get over here." Eva pointed to an empty space in front of her, "Now, Levy stand in front of Gajeel."
"Like this?" Levy questioned: she was standing about thirty centimeters away from Gajeel.
"Closer."
Levy shifted about fifteen centimeters: her face showed signs of an incoming blush.
"Closer." Eva repeated.
"Erm…" Levy nervously asked, "Is this close enough? Anymore and our faces are going to touch."
"That's the point," Eva said in a monotone.
"Eh?" Levy deadpanned "What do you mean, 'that's the-'"
"Closer," Eva repeated with a threatening voice: yet another plus of being the world's most feared mage for a couple hundred years. "Good, now kiss."
"But-"Levy tried to protest.
"Kiss."
"Eek!" Levy squealed, and then she moved her head closer to Gajeel's, who was at the time, completely blanked out due to a tranquilizer dart Mana fired par request of Eva in order to make the whole thing much easier: though it was surprising how he could still be standing. Eight centimeters… 'Am I really going to do this?' Six centimeters… 'Is this right?' Four centimeters… 'S-So close'… Levy blushed, two centimeters… 'No! I can't do this after all!' Levy stopped advancing her head.
"Geez! Would you just get on with it already? I don't have all day you know!" Eva yelled, shoving Levy's head towards Gajeel's, causing Levy's lip to touch Gajeel's. This action resulted in a bright white light to glow from the floor surrounding Gajeel and Levy.
"Pactio!" Chamo yelled as he jumped about 1.75 meters in the air in order to grab a tarot card that just appeared: it had a picture of Levy in a pose on it.
"There, now that wasn't so hard." Eva puffed while crossing her arms.
"M-M-My f-first k-k-kiss…" Levy cried with sorrow blank round eyes while shaking a little.
"Moving on," Eva said while ignoring the mourning Levy, "Now, I want Wendy to come here now."
"M-Me?" Wendy pointed to herself while wearing a shocked face. Eva turned to stare her straight in the eye, causing Wendy to simply nod and go with her plan; she was afraid of what would happen if she didn't go with what she said. Wendy walked in front of the still upright, unconscious, Gajeel and tiptoed so her lips could reach his.
"Pactio!" Chamo grabbed a tarot card with a picture of Wendy posing.
"Alright," Eva said, "Next is Erza."
"Wait a minute," Lucy said, "Is it safe for Gajeel to make three pactios? I mean Yue-san told me that it would be dangerous for a person to make more than one or two pactios."
"Don't worry about that kid, I have it all worked out." Eva replied in a sigh. "Come on Erza, just go up to him and kiss him, the sooner we finish this the better."
A somewhat disappointed Erza slowly walked towards Gajeel: she mental sighed, 'I wish he was Jellal, but I guess this doesn't count since it would just be a quick peck to the lips.' Then, just as she intended, she quickly pecked Gajeel's lips and heard a "Pactio!" However, instead of a pactio card of Erza, a pactio card of Gajeel appeared instead.
'Eh?' Lucy thought. 'A Magister can be a Minister too?'
"Ok, so somebody get this wannabe rock star off the stage," Eva said as she motioned for somebody to move Gajeel out of the Pactio circle. Levy began to walk over to him with the intent of moving him, but that desire quickly faded when Kaede walked over to Gajeel and used Shukuchi to move him some three meters forwards.
"Alright, three down, eight to go." Eva said, in a slight cheery mood, probably since the pactio rituals are going a lot faster now that there's a lot less complaining. "Hey pink haired brat, you're up next."
"EHHH! But why me?! I don't want to kiss Erza!" Natsu protested, which caused Eva's mood to take a sudden plummet.
"Natsu, get on with it." Erza threatened with a cold stare, causing Natsu to shut his mouth and walk towards her in cold sweat. Eva was beginning to take a liking to Erza already.
Natsu was trembling with cold sweat as he stood in front of Erza, 'Why does it have to be her?!' He closed his eyes, gulped, and quickly pecked Erza on the lips.
"Pactio!" Chamo yelled again, grabbing a pactio card of Natsu with his two fists slammed against each other.
Eva pointed to Lucy, "You are forming a pactio with Natsu next. Go!"
"Ack!" Lucy took a step backwards; a faint blush appeared on her face. 'I knew this would happen sooner or later, but so soon already? I don't think my heart is ready for this.' Then she started walking forwards, 'I'll probably get threaten by Eva-san if I don't start walking towards Natsu. One step at a time… one step at a time…'
Tick marks began to appear rapidly on Eva's head as Lucy took her sweet time getting to Natsu.
'Eek!' Lucy shuddered and began to walk faster: it felt as if impending doom would fall upon her if she didn't walk faster. She now stood in front of Natsu: she looked up at his face, gazed into his eyes and sweat dropped. At any other time, she would see strong eyes filled with energy and cheerfulness, but not right now, right now, his eyes were blank: apparently he was still in a stasis of shock after kissing Erza.
*smack* "Pactio!" A pactio card with a picture Lucy holding a key on it appeared.
"Ehh?" Lucy cried out while her lips touched Natsu's. It seems that had Eva lost all her patience and decided to smack her head towards Natsu's, much like what she did with Levy.
"Gah!" Eva shouted, "This is ridiculous, it's taking far longer than required. Lic Lac La Lac Lilac. Aer et Aqua, Facti Nebula Illis Somnum Brevem! Nebula Hypnotica. Nebula Hypnotica! (Mist of Sleep)" A light mist, whose origin was Eva, appeared and quickly engulfed Fairy Tail. Soon, each of the fairies began to dropped like flies; beginning with Lucy and Levy, and ending with Wendy and Gildarts.
Break: Sometime later…
"Lu-chan, are you awake?" Levy asked as she shook Lucy's shoulder.
"Ugh, what just happened?" Lucy muttered as she got off the ground.
"I think we were put under a sleeping spell." Erza answered as she raised her right arm above her eyes.
"Hmmm… that was much different than the one that Mystogan uses." Gildarts said while yawning.
"What the hell was that old man?" Laxus growled, "That was much stronger than what Mystogan uses."
"Food!" Natsu yelled as he woke up "…Eh? I could have sworn I was chasing after a giant flaming steak."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Gajeel mumbled as he sat up straight.
"I think he was having a dream about food." Wendy replied as she rubbed her eyes.
"Eh?" Mira let out as she opened her eyes, she was for some reason sleeping, with a sitting position, on top of Gray's back.
"Arg," Gray groaned as he opened his eyes, "where am I…" His vision quickly cleared and what he saw shocked him greatly, so much so that he immediately jumped up and backed off a few meters, causing Mira to fall to the ground with a *thump*. When he woke up, the first thing he saw was Juvia's face, apparently, after Eva was finished with him she dumped his body on top of Juvia, with their lips still locked together.
"Gray-sama~ come back here~" Juvia gasped, it appears that she woke up much sooner than Gray and was fully taking advantage of the situation by pretending to still be asleep.
*Clap* "Hey brats, you all awake from your nap time yet?" Eva, who sat on a sofa, called out to the fairies without turning her back: she was preoccupied with a retro game and a bag of potato chips. "Because if you guys are, then we can move on to the next part." She stood up from the sofa, fully dressed, and turned around, "Alright, so as you can see, you all have a pactio card with your image on it now." Natsu and the others held out and inspected their own pactio cards. "Now, what I want you all to do right now, is to hold it out and say the word 'Adeat'. Nothing more, nothing less."
"""Adeat!"""
A great flash of light permeated from the pactio cards, blinding everyone inside the room. As the light faded, the outline of the fairies became visible. "Oh? Looks like there are some interesting artifacts these brats have." Eva commented as the light dimmed more, now all eleven fairies are plainly visible; whether it was big or small, each of them had a change of appearance.
Gildarts stood upright with an aura of confidence, his figure seemed somewhat, heroic. He was wearing: a golden breastplate with intricate runes engraved throughout each lair of the armor; golden shoulder guards with silver trimmings that emitted a faint white glow; a giant belt of leather, gold and silver that protected his abdomen; silver leg guards and greaves with gold trimmings and inscriptions that protected his lower body; a pair of silver boots engraved with golden trimmings; a pair of golden gauntlets engraved heavily with inscriptions; and a black cloak draped over his armor.
"That is the Defensiva Armaturam Arem, armor of Ares, the god of war and crafted by Hephaestus, the god of the forge." Yue read out loud from her artifact, "The armor grants the wearer resilience to magical and physical attacks, as well as boosting their magical and physical power."
"This armor…" Gildarts said while staring at his hands, "It's incredible, I feel like I can take down just about anything right now."
Laxus was holding onto a golden Polearm with engravings covering every inch of the four meter long shaft and inscriptions on the one meter long dual blade.
"That is the Dios est Scriptor Fulminis, also known as Zeus's thunderbolt, crafted by Hephaestus." Yue explained, "Due to the sheer size of the weapon, it's highly ineffective to use it as a means of close combat fighting. However, if you were to throw it, then it would another story. By channeling your magical energy into it, you can fill up its magical reserves, and release it all at once in a huge explosion. Naturally, if you were to load it with lightning magic, the effects would be much stronger. Although there is an upper limit on how much magic you can load into it, it's highly unlikely you will be able to supply enough magic to overload it in on go: It was after all, created by a god, for a god, and the magic stored vanishes after you put it away."
"Hmph, easy enough to use, now I'm pretty anxious to test this thing out."
Erza is holding onto an unusually large silver broad sword with a music note on it. "What is this, a normal sword?" Erza questioned.
"No," Yue responded, "That's the Decem Potentiarum, it's a sword with ten forms; Eisenmeteor 'The Metal Sword', Explosion 'The Explosive Sword', Silfarion 'The Sonic Sword', Runesave 'The Sealing Sword', Blue Crimson 'The Twin Dragon Sword', Mel Force 'The Vacuum Sword', Gravity Core 'The Gravity Blade', Million Sun 'The Solar Sword', Sacrifar 'The Bloodlust Sword', and Ravelt 'The Holy (World) Sword'. Of course it's only a copy, but the powers are still the same as the original."
'This sword, it feels familiar somehow…' Erza thought, and then smiled, 'It's like the one my counterpart used.'
Natsu was wearing a pendant with a large black oval gem wrapped with two gold chains: the gem emitted a faint dark glow with yellow electricity running visibly inside it. "Eh?" Natsu tilted his head, "What the heck is this?"
"That gem, Cordis Fulgurum, is where the ultimate spirit of lightning was sealed in. And after a thousand years of holding the spirit captive, some of its essence transferred to the gem. Now, the gem can be used as a focus that amplifies lightning magic, but in your case, you can probably tap into its magic and be able to stay in your Lighting Flame Dragon Mode for a much longer duration before running out of power."
"Oh, Cool!" Natsu smiled with a fire in his mouth, "Now I can use it without worry."
Gajeel stood with a faint bluish-white aura emanating from his body.
"Hmm…" Yue looked through her artifact, and after a few minutes of searching she said, "Oh! Found it, that's the Benedictionem de Glaciei Deus. The artifact takes form as an aura that surrounds the owner, the aura will move along with the owner regardless of how they move, whether it is transforming or teleporting. Whatever the aura touches will be chilled to below freezing, save for the owner and whoever said owner decides to not freeze."
"I don't see how this matches my personality at all." Gajeel mumbled to himself.
Wendy didn't look any different at a first glance, but upon a closer inspection, you can tell that she was wearing an extra accessory. On her right leg, was a sky blue anklet made of an unknown metal, with intricate runes engraved on it."
"Its name is the Periscelis Caelorum, it envelopes the wearer in a protective barrier made of wind and allows you to manipulate the air around you."
"Hmm," Wendy thought out loud, "Maybe I can use it to make my attacks more powerful."
Gray was wearing a silver colored ring on his right middle finger; embedded on the ring was a small dark-blue gem.
"Hmm," Yue said as she skimmed through her artifact, "Weird, you guys sure are getting a lot of magic amplifying artifacts. They are supposed to be pretty rare too, but you guys are getting them one after another. I wonder if it has something to do with the type of magic that you use… Anyways, that ring is called Cordis ex Glacie, as you might have guessed from hearing my previous statement, this ring amplifies ice magic. So if you first channel your magic into the gem before you release it, you will get a much better resulting effect."
Gray stared at the ring and thought with a bead of sweat rolling down his face, 'No way, could this be? I saw a picture of this ring in one of UL's books. It was suppose to be the ring of the creator of ice-make magic. Damn, if this really is that ring, then these artifacts are not to be underestimated.'
"Oh!" Yue said, "On a side note, it says here that the ring can be used to chill drinks in place of ice." Her statement caused Gray and a few others to sweat drop.
Juvia held onto a one meter wide blue metal fan with a long tail attached to it.
"Let's see here," Yue said before reading out loud, "Found it, the fan is called Flabella Superbae Mutatio. It can deflect just about any incoming attacks. Even though it becomes pretty much useless when you are facing someone like that idiot, Jack Rakan, it's still very useful on just about any opponent."
"Oh Gray-sama~ I'll protect you with all of my body this fan! Nobody will be able to get between us anymore!" Juvia cried out loud with hearts in her eyes, causing Yue and Nodoka to sweat drop: they were thinking of how bold Juvia's approach to her crush was.
Lucy held onto a translucent, bluish key in her right hand. "Wait," She had sweat beats forming on her body, "Could this be?"
"Yes," Yue answered, "That is, assuming you thought it was a celestial key anyways."
"So I was correct, this is a celestial key… I think… I think I saw something like this once in a book my mother showed me, it was a book that contained information on all of the celestial keys and I remember reading about the secret keys. There were twelve Golden Zodiac Keys at the top, and a few unknown keys above that!" Lucy's figure began to tremble as she looked at her newfound key.
"Correct," Yue answered her suspicion, "That is indeed one of the unknown keys; it's the Zeroth Key of Draco. Just like all other celestial spirits, Draco drain's the mage's magic in order to perform attacks, however, when you use Draco, it will drain all your remaining magical power into one single attack, so the larger your magical reserves are, the more powerful the attack is. Therefore, you must train your magic power so you will be able to lessen the stress put on your body from the large drainage of the key," Yue's face darkened, "or you could die from the stress..."
Lucy could only nod in acknowledgement as she was still stunned from receiving such a powerful key as an artifact.
Mira was wearing a very dark cloak on her back. Mira held the cloak in her hands, when she gazed into it, she felt strangely calm, almost as if it smoothened her senses. Perhaps it was because the cloak looked like a manifestation of the darkness itself, as it seemingly absorbed all light being shined on it. Or perhaps it was because it seemed like a void, a void that absorbed everything, and was neutral in nature. Mira could only smile as she held the unbelievably smooth cloak to her face.
"That is Velamine in Nihilum, cloak of the void, if used properly; the cloak can engulf your surroundings in a blanket of darkness, cutting off the sight and sound of anyone except for the wearer. Another function is that you can absorb pure magical attacks, so long as it hits the cloak and not you." Then, as if to prove what she was saying, Yue held her right hand above her head and chanted "Foa Zo Cratica Socratica, Locos Umbrae Regnans Scáthach! In Manum Meum Dedo Iaculum Daemonium Cum Spinis Triginta! Iaculatio Fulgoris! (Lightning Spear Throw)" A spear created from pure lightning floated above Yue's hand for an instant before she threw it directly at Mira.
*Fwoop*
As expected, the spear slipped into Mira's cloak without slowing down and disappeared.
"Whoa!" Natsu protested, "Hey, that's not fair! How will any big attacks affect her now?!"
"Stop crying brat." Eva said coldly, "If you have enough energy to complain then you have enough energy to be an ice sculpture."
Natsu felt chills go down his spine and let out a quiet whimper.
Levy was a bit surprised, it seemed like she just had déjà vu. She could have sworn that she saw Yue explaining everyone's artifact before.
In fact, she did see Yue explaining everyone's artifact before. "You are wearing Conspectu Oraculum, or the sight of the oracle." Yue explained while pointing at Levy's new pair of silver winged glasses, "It lets the wearer to take a peek into the future."
Immediately, Levy started having fantasies on her future love life, but was interrupted by what Yue said next.
"Of course, you can only see as far as how much magic you channel into it, so even if you could see far ahead into the future, you won't be able to look for long. Therefore, the best option is to put just enough magical power into it to see a few seconds ahead so you will be able to make use of it on the battlefield."
Levy nodded, a part of her was crying a little inside, as something just shattered, and it started with an H.
Eva walked over to the group of fairies, "Alright, now that we're done getting explaining your artifacts, come follow me!" Eva moved out of the large room and kept walking for five minutes; eventually she came across a small dark room.
"Hey," Laxus asked, "What exactly is that?" He pointed to the array of spheres lain on top of stone blocks with a large magical circle underneath; in the center was a sphere with a miniature castle and flowing waterfall; then there were four other spheres connecting to the center sphere, each one with a different appearance; one looked like an endless plain of sand, another had a miniature range of volcanoes inside it, the third had water filling it half way, the last had a jungle-like appearance. Then, not connecting to any other spheres, was a smaller sphere with a tower=like structure in the middle of a body of water.
"This," Eva turned around with a sadistic grin that sent chills down everybody's (save for Ala Alba) spine, "is training."
Omake:
"Lic Lac La Lac Lilac. Aer et Aqua, Facti Nebula Illis Somnum Brevem! Nebula Hypnotica. Nebula Hypnotica! (Mist of Sleep)" Eva finished chanting the sleeping spell and spoke out loud, "Hmmm… now what to do with these brats…" She mused, "Hey Nodoka, who do you think I should match them up with?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Nodoka?" Eva asked as she turned around and deadpanned, "Eh? Why are you guys asleep?" she said as she saw Nodoka sleeping on the ground while hugging Yue.
"Eva-san" Kaede said as she sweat dropped, "You could have at least aimed the spell instead of blasting everyone in the room with it."
Eva grinned mischievously, "Hoh oh oh, maybe I should make pactios with Nodoka and Yue as the Magistra."
"I don't think they will take too kindly to that when they wake up, Eva-san." Mana said while poking the sleeping beauties.
"Ugh," Nodoka said as she slowly woke up, "I had a dream that Eva-chan was forcing me to make pactios as the Magistra."
"Eh?" Eva flinched a little.
"Well, Eva-san here was kindly telling us of how should would make you form pactios with everyone here with you as the Ministra." Mana said with a mischievous grin.
"Eva-Chan!" Nodoka had teary eyes, "*sniff* I thought I could trust you!"
"Ack!" Eva backed away a little wit another flinch.
"I thought you wouldn't try anything like this again now that most of us are related by law with our marriages to Negi-kun." Nodoka said while holding back her tears.
*Ahem* Eva blushed as she coughed into her fist; she was falling victim of the guilt game that she somehow dragged herself into.
A/N: Ahahaha... its amazing how one misspelling can ruin a whole omake joke. Glad I fixed it
A/N: Yes, Negi is married to Evangeline, Nodoka, and a few others, completing his unintentional harem because he couldn't bear to reject any of them, but there is one that he actually confessed to, based on my interpretation of one of the last few chapters, but that will have little to no effect of the main story, but maybe in the Omakes.