(A/N: So since I'm reading One Piece and therefore am not going to be rewatching Code Geass so that I may continue Soul Chess for quite a while, I decided to finish this series up while I had the opportunity. This is the last chapter of the series and if you guys liked this, let me know and I will make a sequel utilizing the OCs from this fanfic as a parallel fanfic to canon. Let me reiterate, so that no one is confused, this is taking place BEFORE the time skip BEFORE the Edolas arc).
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. All OCs from Adventurer's Gauntlet © draconichero
Gant's Mansion
With Lucy in his arms, Natsu rushed outside, carrying Lucy in his arms, in hopes that he wasn't being paranoid, but, sure enough, Luciella was haphazardly making physical strikes at Gant who was slowly backing away just out of her reach. Natsu could tell just from watching that her magic was sealed and soon enough her free will would be sapped just like Lucy's.
"Luciella!" Natsu called to her.
Luciella stopped attacking and slumped forward, holding her arm to her shoulder wound. "Natsu…run," she told him.
"Why the hell would I run? You're in trouble."
"Well if it isn't the brat from before. So nice of you to come by," Gant said with a smirk. He then noticed Lucy in Natsu's arms. "What are you doing with that? That is my property. Give it back!"
Natsu scowled intensely. "Don't you dare treat Lucy like she's just a thing!"
"Hmph, you don't have the right to tell me how I can and cannot treat those under my contract," Gant's hand glowed yellow, "Lucy come hither."
Lucy's body glowed and she began to unwillingly struggle against Natsu's grip, frightening her, but Natsu held her securely and stood firm in his place as his magic flared around him. In a flash of an instant the glow around Lucy stopped and Gant's hand recoiled involuntarily upward and when the slave owner glanced at it, the skin was singed.
"I won't ever give Lucy to you," Natsu scowled, "Lucy isn't a thing or a piece of property! She's a human being! She's a mage of Fairy Tail and a proud one at that! She doesn't belong to you or anyone else! Lucy is Lucy and she belongs with us! We're her friends and family! That's what it means to be a member of our guild!"
Luciella smirked. Well said Natsu, a philosophy Grimaios and our former guildmaster would be proud of.
Gant looked frightened as he stared at Natsu's ire, but he was more frightened at how Natsu seemed to have cancelled his magic by willpower alone. It doesn't make any sense. I should have complete control over that girl, yet somehow his will completely overpowered me and cancelled the effect. How is that possible?
Natsu, Lucy clung tighter to him. She was so happy to hear those words and very comforted by them.
"Don't worry," Natsu said, keeping his grip on her firmer as he cradled her in his arms, "I'm right here. He's not going to hurt you."
Natsu, Lucy shed a tear. She felt so safe and secure whenever Natsu was around and this time was no different, especially since she really needed it.
"Dammit, if not for you meddling kids, Lucy would already be mine!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Natsu scowled.
Natsu, don't.
Gant smiled to show his teeth. "Lucy is mine under contract. I can do anything I want to her," his smile grew wider, "Anything at all."
Lucy was frightened, especially when Natsu began to let go of her. She was afraid Natsu was abandoning her, that to him she was damaged because of what happened. N-no, I still have my hymen intact. I'm still a virgin. You can still be my first. Natsu don't let go of me! Don't let go! "Natsu, please!" Lucy sat up, already on the ground as she turned to look at Natsu in fright. However, she could only see his back and she could not see the look of disgust and hatred reflected in his eyes.
She then saw Natsu's fist clench tighter and a spark of flame emerged from it. "Fire Dragon's…"
"Eh?" Lucy was confused as to Natsu's statement, wondering what was coming.
"ROOOAR!" A gigantic stream of flame shot out from Natsu's mouth and went streaming towards Gant like an explosion down a narrow corridor. There was no time to dodge and no time to put up a defense. And yet, despite this, Gant was still alive. His clothes were on fire, his face looked even worse. He was bleeding a lot and given the damage to his nether regions he'd never be able to procreate again. "I should've done that when I first met you," Natsu said as he wiped his mouth. "Nothing will happen to Lucy so long as I don't kill you right."
He did that…for me? He…still cares about me?
"How dare you do ecchi things to Lucy! You bastard!"
Gant coughed up blood and char as he stood up. He yelled at Luciella. "You fool! Why didn't you stop him?"
"I still have some free will, you pig," Luciella said with a trolling smirk.
"Get him!" Gant growled.
Under a direct order, Luciella did not have the willpower to oppose Gant as she staggered to come in between him and Natsu.
"Don't do it Luciella," Natsu urged.
"I'm sorry Natsu, but I can't control myself, please…please try to survive." Doing her best to fight it, causing herky-jerky motions to be seen throughout her limbs, Luciella extended her arms forward. "C-Crimson Bats!" Immediately a bunch of crimson colored energy-made bats flew towards Natsu. There were far too many to count, but Natsu didn't flinch as they came towards him.
"Fire Dragon's," Natsu stood still, speaking without his usual upbeat tone, and still remaining in his sour attitude, given the circumstances, "Brilliant Flame!" The bats exploded on impact with the fire he ignited around him. "Lucy," he said glancing back at his friend, "You might want to back away." He looked back at Luciella and took a stance. "I don't know how difficult it will be to keep you from getting dragged into this. Luciella is a powerful mage. I don't want either of our magic to hurt you. Just stay back and don't worry, I'll protect you."
Natsu, Lucy smiled at him.
Meanwhile, Juvia had been making her way through the house and finally stumbled upon Gant's study. The study. If the contracts aren't in the records room, they might be here. Sakina had managed to send out a warning message using her power of the Shaperate in rather creative ways, by attaching a pair of eyes and lips to a book or light mounted on the wall and relaying the message if she saw a member of Fairy Tail of what was going on outside. Meanwhile, she continued to tear up the records room, just in case the contracts were actually there and just weren't leaping out at her.
Juvia approached Gant's polished, birch wood desk complete with comfy chair only find a fine red powder on the desk. As she rubbed her hands over the powder an explosion damaged both her and the desk and sent her flying into a bookshelf. From a corner of the room that was in Juvia's blind spot when she had entered, a maid with short purple hair stepped forward. "I will apologize to Master Gant for destroying his desk, but in the case of intruders we are ordered to fight for Master Gant and drive them out. I am Illara, the powder mage. I will be your opponent. Sleep Powder!" A whirlwind of green dust went hurtling towards Juvia. However, it seemed to have no effect on her.
"Juvia is not sleepy," Juvia remarked and she was completely unharmed from the explosion.
That's impossible, my magic has never failed me even against S-class mages. How is she not affected, even from my fire salt powder she should've been somewhat damaged.
"Juvia will bring this battle to a quick end," Juvia extended one arm forward, "Water lock."
The mage known as Illara was trapped inside Juvia's wet prison. Water…I should've known…my powder is ineffective against water. Illara was dropped from Juvia's prison when the water entered her lungs and she passed out.
"Juvia apologizes. Juvia and her friends don't want to hurt you, you've been brainwashed." She returned to searching the study, "Now where are those contracts?"
As part of the search, Gray found himself stumbling upon the Trophy room, lined with rare, priceless metals and jewelry as well as trophies, according to plaques, from maid contests. There were picture frames, a prized sea bass, a sculpture of Gant minted in copper, and several different kinds of empty suits of armor: one each of gold, silver, steel, obsidian and amethyst, swords and helmets included.
If these girls are his slaves, maybe he considers this an accomplishment. I'll look here. Gray began by opening one of the drawers to one of the cabinets below one of the trophy cases only for a steel helmet to go flying across the room. Gray dodged and rolled to the side only to turn his head and see a short, but still post-pubescent (though still petit) girl with short, blond hair with fairy curl pigtails. She smiled at Gray.
"Master doesn't like it when strangers touch his things."
"Who are you?"
As her hand sparked with purple lightning the girl used the strange power to call the silver sword from its respective suit of armor, to her to wield it. "My name is Tomo, I am master's magnetic mage." She gave Gray a look of determination. "And I will drive you out of master's trophy room."
Just my luck, Gray thought to himself.
Gajeel, with about as great a sense of direction, under pressure, as a squirrel with a death wish, stumbled across a large empty hall with yellow ceramic tile floors, olden style paintings on the ceiling and large staircases leading up to a second floor in many parts of the hall. There was also a large glass door at the other end leading to an outdoor balcony. Gajeel was in the ballroom.
Man, I have the worst luck. There is no way someone would keep contracts here. He turned his head towards the staircase. I wonder if there are any doors on the second floor. As Gajeel headed towards the staircase though, a woman dropped down from up above and Gajeel dodged. Her leg had created a crater in the floor, indicating the very powerful force she had struck with. "And just who are you?" Gajeel wanted to know.
The woman stepped forward, revealing a maid with long green hair and eyes. "I am Sasami, master's most treasured maid." It was the same woman Lucy had met when she met Gant for the first time. "I will drive out all intruders from master's home."
"Bring it on, bitch," Gajeel said with a bountiful smile. "Fighting's more my thing than searching for a needle in a haystack anyway." Without missing a beat, Gajeel called out, "Iron Dragon's Sword!" He struck forward Sasami and with the weapon split her in half. Oh shit, should I have held back? Gajeel knew that the group had intended NOT to kill the maids, but after what he witnessed, he didn't think he was going to do THAT much damage.
However, much to his amazement, Sasami's entire body turned silver, eradicating all detail from her body making her look like an unfinished life-like figurine. However, then the silver transformed into a liquid puddle on the floor and slipped between Gajeel's feet. Sasami reformed herself and attacked with robotic precision as she transformed her left arm into a blade. It was all a part of her magic ability: Liquid Metal.
"Iron Dragon's Scales!" Gajeel called out quickly, in order to block with the side of his arm as Sasami emotionlessly pushed against it. "So you do have some fight in you, you're not half bad. This should be fun!"
Sasami made no response and just transformed her entire body into a puddle of goo. She strapped herself to Gajeel's body like a strait jacket and then transformed her head into a spear. She then tried to jab him through the face, but Gajeel, covered his entire body with his Iron Dragon Scales and Sasami could not pierce through his forehead.
"Iron Dragon's Roar!" Sasami's spearhead was blown off the rest of her body and she let go of Gajeel and her body reformed as she took back to her standard appearance. She turned both of her arms into gigantic axe blades. Gajeel smirked and readied himself. Now this is my kind of rescue mission.
Mirajane opened a door that led to a staircase going down. It was dark with no lights on and darkness generally had things to hide so the S-class mage slowly proceeded down the staircase, feeling the wall for a light switch and sliding her hand down the banister for balance. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, feet flat on the ground, she still had not found a light switch.
As she took two steps forward, her footsteps echoing, a voice called out. "Lights on." Suddenly a bright light blinded Mirajane momentarily as she stared into the basement. All around the walls were rocky like a medieval dungeon in a castle. Mirajane looked all around there were racks upon racks of sexual toys and gizmos as well as whips, chains, ropes, you name it, it was somewhere in the room.
"Wh-what is this place?" Mirajane asked, looking around.
The click-clacking of heels coming from a pair of stilettos alerted Mirajane. Over on the far side of the room from the stairs was an ebony-skinned woman wearing a maid outfit. She had glossy lips, yellow eyes, short, dark-scarlet hair and wore a sadistic smile as she looked at Mirajane. In her hand was a leather whip rolled up in her hand. She held the handle with her right hand.
Behind her was a young mage, around Lucy's age, dressed in a rubber dress, or what used to be a dress. The dress part of her outfit had been torn off just beneath her navel and she was nude there with several red marks on both her legs left by whippings to them. Her arms were in handcuffs attached to the wall and hanging up over her head. Her sunset red hair was cascading down around her, hiding her face and the massive amounts of cleavage her chest was sporting from her open robe almost down to her navel.
"Who is that?" Mirajane asked.
"Just someone who didn't know her place, the bitch wanted to dominate Master Gant. He typically doesn't like that unless it's under the right circumstances." The dark-skinned maid walked over to her masochistic partner. "So I am training her to be allowed to dominate him, but first she has to understand what it's like to be a masochist. That way, when we switch roles, she will know how to more easily please her victim because she knows what it's like to be on the bottom. She'll hesitate at first, but she will come to revel in her hidden sadism all the more after having her spirit broken." The maid tilted her partner's head up with the handle of her whip revealing her face. The teen had visible bags under her eyes, which were red, and eye-makeup around the sides, giving her face a gothic look. However, what bothered Mirajane was the fact that this woman was smiling. "Isn't that right, Flare?"
"Yes…Flare is a masochist, Mistress Nocturna. Flare likes…your punishment." The teen laughed nervously.
"What have you done to that innocent girl?"
"Innocent?" Nocturna asked as she turned away from Flare, letting the girl's head bob down again as it was too heavy to hold up. "My little Flare is a very dirty, punishment craving little whore, isn't she?"
"Yes, mistress Flare is a whore. Hurt this woman and punish Flare more!"
"She doesn't know any better under that stupid spell! Aren't you also contracted? How could you do this to her?"
"Under contract? Me? I am employed here. I am paid by Master Gant when his father was still alive. I have worked for this family for ten years. No one controls me except for myself. And Master Gant's contracts do not change one's desires or will. Master Gant simply saps the free will of those he brings here so that they will serve him. One's sexual desires and fetishes are not affected."
"Mistress has trained Flare for five months now," Flare said, laughing nervously. "Flare likes it."
Suddenly Nocturna's whip coiled around Flare's neck. "Did I say you could talk Flare?"
Flare began grasping at her throat.
"Stop it! She can't breathe!" Mirajane exclaimed.
"She'll be fine, asphyxiation is part of the training."
"I said, stop it!" With a fierce kick, Mirajane entered her Satan Soul form flung forward and her foot impacted onto Nocturna's face as she jerked the whip and uncoiled it so as not to injure Flare's neck.
"That was foolish," Nocturna said, as she rubbed the bruise. "If you had kicked me any harder, you might've killed my little pet in the process."
Flare coughed as she regained power of her lungs again. She just stared creepily over at Mirajane and Nocturna.
"Don't you have something else you should be doing? I don't see how this girl is your concern. Master Gant does not control me. I'm under no obligation to fight you and don't you have a friend to save?"
"Natsu will protect Lucy. I trust my friends, I can put aside looking for the contracts for the moment. You need to be stopped, though. I can't let you hurt another human being, even if they're not one of our own."
"What makes you think she wants to be saved?" Nocturna asked.
"I suppose I will find out," Mirajane took a stance.
"You need to understand the kind of position you're in, whitey." The next thing Mirajane knew her opponent was in close proximity to her. "Lights out." The room went dark and the door to the room slammed shut as Nocturna attempted to drive her knee into Mirajane, but her knee was caught by Mirajane's clawed hand. Nocturna was grabbed by her right forearm and flung into the wall.
"Light's on!" Mirajane exclaimed. She beat her wings slowly, once.
"You think I'm scared of you. I can make any man or woman cry out in pain and ecstasy with my Torture Magic." Nocturna materialized another electrical vibration rod in her other hand.
"You should be," Mirajane said to her, "Because by the end of this, you will be apologizing and you will be the one calling me mistress."
"You've got spunk. I like that in women before I break them. Ex-quip vibration rods!" Nocturan stood up and ex-quipped two electrical sparking vibrating rods. "Now then, miss I believe you need to be taught a lesson about not interfering with the work of others."
"I have a name, you know, I'm Mirajane of Fairy Tail."
"And I am Nocturna, but you already know that, but I am known as Mistress Nocturna, the Bondage Queen!"
"It doesn't matter to me your title. For what you and your master have done with Lucy," Mirajane appeared so swiftly that she had disarmed Nocturna and had her pinned against the wall, face first, one arm in Mirajane's grasp with the white-haired woman looking like she was going to break it, "I'll break you. Lights off." The room went dark.
As chaos swept through the mansion, Wendy and Carla kept looking in different doors. So far Wendy had been lucky enough not to encounter one of the battle maids, but her luck was about to change for better or for worse. As she entered the attic, Wendy saw a strongbox sitting on a crate in the back by the window.
"Ah!" the little girl cried out and ran over to the strongbox and picked it up, it was light and whatever was in it felt weightless. She shook it by her ear. She could hear paper rattling around on the inside. "Paper!" she declared triumphantly holding it out in front of her. "I think I found the contracts!" she cried happily.
"Good work, now let's go back to Sakina and—"
Before Carla could finish, Wendy was struck by a barrage of small projectiles that sent her flying into the wall and into a rack of costumes. "Wendy!" Carla called out.
Wendy popped her head out from underneath a queenly looking robe. Across from the Exceed and Dragon Slayer, there stood a maid with short blue hair. "I am Etsuko, the Marble Mage." A bunch of tiny thumb sized marbles appeared around Etsuko's humerus and shoulders. "That is Master Gant's private property that no one is allowed to touch, put it back."
"But the contracts are in here!" Wendy said, holding up the box. "If we rewrite them you will be free."
Etsuko either didn't hear Wendy or was so fargone that she didn't care because she prepared to attack again. "Little girl you are five years too young to understand what Master Gant means to us. Prepare to be annihilated."
As Etsuko rushed forward, creating a sword shape with her marbles and attempted to attack Wendy, a torrent of water splashed up from down below. A hole in the attic showed Wendy that the 5th floor attic was directly above the 1st floor lobby. Etsuko and her marbles fell down as Wendy rushed over to the hole in the attic and saw Juvia down in the lobby.
"Juvia?"
"Wendy?" Juvia had made a hole in the lobby in order to create a faster path of transport for herself in between floors. Catching Etsuko in her attack was just a bonus.
Wendy held out the strongbox. "I think I found the contracts."
"That's great!" Juvia exclaimed only to notice Etsuko getting up. "Quickly! Jump down! Juvia will give you a ride to the records room so you can give those to Sakina."
"Okay!"
"Wait! Wendy!" Carla was going to say that she could just fly Wendy to Sakina, but Wendy already leapt down as Juvia splashed up a fountain of water that she then, once Wendy landed on it, carried Wendy towards the second floor west wing.
"Thanks Juvia!" Wendy waved and ran off with Carla doing her best to keep up with Wendy's head start.
Juvia waited for Etsuko to get up and prepared to strike again if she attacked again.
If it was any wonder why none of the other maids had attacked the rest of the group it was because the remainder of them had already been effortlessly defeated by Erza who stood triumphantly over them now in the 4th floor penthouse. Why Gant needed one on top of the ballroom, master bedroom and gigantic main lobby was anyone's guess though.
The maids lay groaning on the ground behind Erza as the queen of the fairies ex-quipped her standard armor whilst she stared out the window. She saw the battle going on between Natsu and Luciella and knew that she had to help out.
Outside, Natsu and Luciella were still going at it. The Vampire of Adventurer's Gauntlet was uninjured and not the least bit fatigued whilst Natsu had been giving it his all without using his secret arts and wasn't getting anywhere, which frustrated him.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu shouted.
"Crimson Barrier!" A misty barrier, like many times before in their clash, appeared in front of Luciella and protected her from Natsu's attack in its entirety. Both fighters were holding back their power considerably and yet Luciella was the only one not feeling any amount of fatigue, which clearly showed the difference between the two.
"That's it! Luciella, I order you stop holding back!"
Lucy gasped, Luciella felt a wave of dread and Natsu realized that his mind controlled comrade was about to unleash a powerful attack.
Sorrowfully, Luciella said, "I'm sorry about zis, Natsu of Fairy Tail." She drew her arms out at her sides and then crossed her arms over each other taking the same stance Gray would if he were to use Iced Shell. "Crimson Shockwave!"
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Using the strike defensively, Natsu braced him for whatever was about to come forward. He watched as Luciella unleashed a crescent arc of crimson colored energy that ripped towards him. It was too wide to dodge and if he jumped or ducked over it, it would hit Lucy. Natsu was confident that because Luciella hadn't used this attack yet that he had a good gauge of her power and that this was just one of her more powerful spells, but he was wrong. Luciella was much stronger than Natsu could have anticipated and the crescent-shaped, blade-like energy ripped right through Natsu's attack's perimeter. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu did his best to stop the strike, but it tore right through his flame breath and dug into his stomach.
"NATSU!" Lucy called out to him.
Natsu dropped to one knee and clutched his stomach. Despite his greatest efforts, Luciella's attack still had the capacity to rip right through his skin and almost cut into his stomach and intestines. Any deeper and she might've done serious damage. Natsu had to remain absolutely still to avoid bleeding profusely. Using his fire magic he seared the wound shut, but the blow had cut his stamina considerably and the burning scar on his stomach hurt a lot. If she does another one of those, I don't know if I can stop it. If Lucy wasn't here I could just dodge it. I need some help.
Luciella repeated her stance. "Crimson Shockwave!"
Natsu went to stood up to do his best to outlast his attack, but suddenly a lance of pure, yellow colored, energy went sailing towards the shockwave and disintegrated it.
"Looks like you could use some help," A familiar voice called out. Standing before Natsu, garbed in leather pants, a thick leather coat, fingerless leather gloves, leather boots and a pointed leather hat, all of it reddish-brown was Erza.
What kind of armor is that? Natsu wondered.
"Who are you?" Gant asked.
Erza stood up having been crouching down slightly and pushed up her hat so both of her eyes could be seen. "You can call me Erza Scarlet, queen of Fairy Tail." Erza said with a smirk. She looked at Luciella. "Crimson Nightmare, when Gajeel first said the name, I didn't really think it was what I just saw," she pointed her finger with a bent wrist, "But that attack just now was unmistakable. Many have claimed to have Crimson Nightmare, but yours is the real deal. It's one of the three lost Nosferatu arts alongside Twilight Nightmare and Shadow Nightmare. In other words: technically you are a real vampire, aren't you?"
"Not as you vould know it," Luciella said, "But I am as close to as a traditional vampire in ze modern day as one can get."
"I thought so, and that's what makes this armor perfect to combat you," Erza reached into her coat and pulled out three silver-spiked daggers. "It's an armor specifically designed to combat magical creatures of the night and completely counter their powers. Although it's used for all nocturnal and dark creatures, it is simply referred to as Vampire Hunter Armor. With it, I will subdue you."
"Ha! Go ahead and try!" Gant shouted.
"Why don't you go to sleep?" Erza said with a calm scowl. She threw all three daggers she was holding, but Luciella interfered and used her Crimson Barrier to block Erza's attacks. The daggers penetrated right through the barrier, but lodged themselves into it and did not pass straight through. "Your magic is strong, queen of the night."
"So is yours, Erza Scarlet."
Erza held her arms out at her sides and ex-quipped two jousting lances made of silver ore. "Let's dance." Erza declared.
Back inside the mansion, Wendy made it to where Sakina was and shouted triumphantly. "Miss Sakina, I found the contracts…I think!" She was holding the strongbox over her head.
"Good, bring it here," Sakina said. Wendy placed it on a stack of papers. "Hmm, it's locked, but no matter." Sakina used the power of The Shaperate to transform the strongbox itself into one mad out of transparent glass and, seeing the rolled up scrolls inside grabbed the box with her hair and smashed it against the wall, scooping up all of the contracts with locks of her hair. She held the individual scrolls in front of her. "Hmm," Sakina said studying the first page of the scroll in front of her eyes that so conveniently happened to also be Lucy's. "It will take me some time to read these things through so that I can alter them properly, but when I do, everyone will be okay."
"You can do it!" Wendy was ecstatic.
"There isn't a single inanimate object the Shaperate cannot change in some form," Sakina said with a smirk, "Now, let's get down to business."
Back outside, Erza was going toe to toe with Luciella. Erza's silver-made lances were the perfect weapon for combatting Luciella and so even with the vampire using her best defenses, each blow shattered Luciella's defense with ease.
Luciella levitated into the air. "Crimson Bats!" Luciella shot forward a multitude of crimson colored energy bats at Erza as the little winged creatures fluttered towards the red haired mage. With deft dexterity, Erza swatted and slashed each one away, dispelling each creature with a battle cry.
Impressive. I have met wielders of zis zame armor who vere utterly annihilated by my powers. Zis girl is zomething else. "Crimson Howl!" A tornado of crimson energy barreled towards Erza as she protected herself by momentarily switching armors to her Adamantine Armor. Even with no armor she couldn't hope to dodge in time, so blocking was her only means of defense and it was still a close call because she barely ex-quipped the armor in time.
"Erza!" Natsu cried out, but as the dust cleared, Erza had switched to her Heaven's Wheel Armor and had taken to the skies and was attacking Luciella with a barrage of telekinetic swords.
"Crimson Barrier!" With a wave of her hand, Luciella deflected all of Erza's blades. "Crimson Lightning!" With a forward thrust of her arm, a fierce, elongated and thick bolt of pure, crimson colored, plasma, as big as a human torso, ripped towards Erza and sent her slamming back to the ground. Erza sparked all over from paralytic electromagnetism. She ex-quipped back to her Vampire Hunter armor as Luciella touched to the ground for a strike. "Crimson Blade!" A thick vertical crescent of energy went slamming down towards Erza, but she dodged back and attacked.
"Solar chains!" Erza dug into her coat and flung out a pair of glowing, turquoise, chains made up of metatarsal sized chain-links. She used them to bind Luciella as she bound her arms to her torso. "You were right. You aren't a true vampire, just an imitator. A true creature of the night would've been burned by the holy energy of these chains. My armor can affect your magic, for that is true vampire magic, but you yourself are not a true vampire. How interesting. You are certainly a very interesting opponent, Luciella Vamplasa."
"I could zay the zame about you, Erza Scarlet. Crimson Nightshade!" An outpour of crimson energy flowed from Luciella's ribcage, outward, disintegrating the chains on her body. "Crimson Lightning!"
"That won't work!" Erza rushed forward and met Luciella's attack head on and pulling a blade out of thin air as she ducked down. Thanks to her armor, the attack was mostly nullified and Erza hacked upwards with both hands on the wide broadsword. "Witchblade!"
"Way to go Erza!" Natsu exclaimed.
Luciella staggered back as she bled from the injury and looked back at Gant with a pained smile as she held her wound with her arm. "I tried my best," she said, trying to duck out of the fight.
"Oh I don't think so. You will use all of your power to crush that brat and the other brat you didn't finish off. You will not defy me again!"
"Luciella!" Erza called out to her.
Luciella did her best to resist as she staggered back and forth, trying to fight the omniscient power Gant had on her brain, but it was to no avail. Luciella's friendly demeanor when she stopped and looked at Erza, was gone. Luciella was methodical and looked poised to kill. "Crimson Lightning." Smacking her left wrist over her loosely made right fist a bolt of human sized lightning ripped towards Erza. Even with her Vampire Hunter armor, Erza not only lost her hat, but took serious injury to her fatigue, the leather armor took most of the blow though.
"Erza!" Natsu called out.
Luciella took two steps forward. "Crimson Puncture." With a simple wave of her hand a blunt blow was dealt to Erza and she bled from the side of her face. With more casual steps and waves of her hand, Erza was pushed back towards Natsu unable to even make a motion to stop the advancing mage.
"Stop it! You'll kill her!" Natsu rushed towards Luciella, fist imbued with flame.
"Crimson Decimator." Holding her wrists casually together in front of her and opening up her hands like a blossoming Chrysanthemum, Luciella blasted Natsu back and sent him flying near Lucy. Natsu was in pretty awful shape after an attack of that magnitude. He could barely get up.
She's too strong, Erza grunted while on one knee. Dammit, I had no idea the members of Adventurer's Gauntlet were this powerful. I dreadfully underestimated her. Erza looked at the eerie, merciless, icy, friendless stare, Luciella was giving her and Natsu. Look at her just standing there. We're no match for her and she's fully aware of it. Damn. Erza ran forward with all her strength and might as she ex-quipped her Vampire Hunter armor again. As she ran forward the hat flew off her head. "Witchblade!"
Erza ran towards Luciella and swung only to find that she was the one who was slashed as Luciella's arm glowed brightly with blade-shaped crimson energy and Witchblade was snapped in half.
She's too…powerful. Erza slumped to her knees and fell over. She remained conscious. She wanted to get up, she and Natsu would never give up, but they were clearly outmatched by a woman who had to be on Gildarts' level or above.
"Finish them," Gant ordered.
Luciella's bright energy blade extended two more feet. "Don't do it Luciella," Natsu said, rising to his feet. He too was heavily battered from the fight. Luciella arched her torso to the side and pulled her arm back to thrust the blade into Erza's chest. She thrust forward.
"ERZA!"
Erza waited for the blow to strike as it aimed down towards her heart, but then finally the blade stopped a sixth of an inch in front of her leather jacket.
"I don't see any blood, what are you waiting for? Finish her!"
Suddenly a cylinder of yellow energy encased both Lucy and Luciella around their entire bodies (though Lucy's was bent considering she was on the ground, leaning on one arm).
"What? What's happening?"
Inside the mansion Sakina dropped to her knees and slumped to the ground in exhaustion she had to use her shaperate powers with such precision no less than 17 times that it took a lot out of her.
"Hey! Are you okay?" Wendy asked her.
"I'm fine, just a little winded," Sakina said with smirk, "We did it. These contracts are now null en void."
"That's amazing! What did you do?"
"I rewrote the contract so that they expire after two seconds of the signature, by this point they're already way past their expiration date."
"That really is clever," Wendy agreed.
"I just hope I wasn't too late. Your friends were battling Luciella. Apparently Gant doesn't have to have a person sign a contract in order to create one. He had a bunch of blanks in this strongbox I guess just for this situation. He must be a specialized blood mage to be able to pull that off."
"Ah! Are they going to be okay?"
Sakina got to her feet. "Let's go find out."
So one by one all of the contracts were let go and all of the fighting stopped, except for the battle with Mirajane and Nocturna, but that battle had already ended a while back and, as Mirajane promised. Well…
"Yes! Yes mistress! Punish me! Punish this masochistic insensitive bitch!" Nocturna cried out.
Mirajane, still in her Satan Soul form was now holding one of the whips and using it to whip Nocturna across the back as she hung suspended from the ceiling if she took her legs off the ground. She was tied together with leather bondage gear and her arms were tied behind her back and attached to a length of chain attached to the pulley system connected to the ceiling. Also the lights were on again.
Nocturna had already been subdued by the powerful S-class mage and because the lights were off, it couldn't be said for certain exactly how it happened.
"Now say you're sorry!" Mirajane demanded and whipped Nocturna.
"Ahhh! I'm sorry mistress! I'm sorryyyyy!" Nocturna squealed.
"I think you've learned your lesson." Mirajane said and undid the winch and let Nocturna collapse on the floor. She went over to Flare and checked on her condition, switching out of Satan Soul as she walked over to her. Outside, Mirajane could sense that the chaos was subsiding so she knew everything was done for the most part. She tilted Flare's face to look at her and caressed it. "Hey," she said in a sweet, somewhat motherly voice. "Are you okay?"
"Flare is okay," Flare said, a little groggy. With the contract broken Flare's true self was returning. She had been aware of what was going on around her the whole time, but she didn't fight it at all. "Are you Flare's new mistress?" Because of the psychological damage done to her, Flare was still largely a willing masochist, and therefore, as Mirajane had feared, did not understand that she was free to go.
"Don't be silly," Mirajane said to her sweetly, "You're free again. You can go back to your guild. I'm sure they miss you."
"Flare is free?" Flare was still confused, like an animal that didn't understand what death was and was wondering why his master wasn't getting up.
"Of course, your contract is null en void," Mirajane said and began undoing the latches on the cuffs. Flare's arms dropped to her sides.
"Flare is…free," Flare said again. She laughed nervously as she had done before and then started to cry. Mirajane put her arms around her and comforted the younger mage and let Flare use her chest as her pillow to get it out of her system.
Back outside, Luciella was using her magic to restore some of Natsu and Erza's magic reserves. She didn't have to give them too much. They had just reached the point of really near total collapse so Luciella was able to heal their pain and fatigue to stabilize them and eventually Sakina and Wendy came outside and the younger mage took it from there.
As Luciella stood by and watched she extended her arm backwards behind her and her palm glowed red for a moment as she outstretched it. Gant, who had been slowly tiptoeing around towards the back of the house, was immobilized.
"And just vere do you zink you're going?" Luciella asked without even turning to look at the bastard. She turned around and smirked. "Natsu, vould you like a vree shot?"
Natsu cracked his knuckles and walked past Luciella. "You have had this coming for a long time," Natsu scowled. He charged towards Gant and picked him up. "Fire Dragon's WING ATTACK!" Natsu sent Gant soaring into the air, several stories above his mansion.
"Crimson Hold," Luciella said casually and brought Gant screaming down towards the ground into a crater. Natsu walked over to Erza and the two slapped their hands against each other. Erza went over to the whimpering sad sack of near dead flesh that was Gant and saw him whimpering under her very presence. She then turned away. "Tch, forget it. He's not worth the effort. Lucy do you—" Erza stopped herself when she saw that Lucy was holding herself, trying not to fall apart at the seams.
Luciella pushed casually past the red head. "Allow me."
"Why what are you going to do?" Natsu asked.
Sakina put a hand on her chest. "Luciella can reject emotional pain. I used to look no different from any other human. And well," Sakina gestured to her body, "You can see the result."
"What? You mean Lucy could look like you?"
"What's wrong with the way I look?" Sakina asked suddenly surrounding Natsu's head with locks of her hair pointing at him like sharp pointy spikes.
"N-n-nothing," he backed off.
"Still, if you change Lucy's external appearance," Erza said, while imagining what Lucy would look like with Orange sclera and green skin and freakishly long nails as well as a forked tongue. "Won't that damage her even further? She's not exactly the most self-confident person even now."
"I am much stronger than Lucy," Sakina said, "And at the time my power, the Shaperate, was incomplete and untrained. My transformation is a part of that. Lucy is a Stellar Spirit mage and her magic power is way less." Sakina's eyes turned sympathetic. "Though her emotional scar might be deeper, it will not take as much of Luciella's magical power to repair her soul."
"But isn't confronting things that have happened to you—"
"Natsu!" Erza snapped. "Do you really think this is something she can just forget about and move on from?"
Natsu shut up and understood.
"She will not completely forget about what happened. She can still grieve or feel dread, but the psychological trauma will be completely taken away as if there is an emotional void or lock in her heart or soul. If I did not have such a thing from Luciella, I would've withered away, possibly joined a dark guild."
"You almost look like you belong in one," Happy remarked. Sakina glared at him with her glowing eyes. Happy used Natsu as a human shield.
All throughout this talk, Luciella still was using Crimson Hold on Gant. Finally she hoisted him into the air and. "Crimson Hold: Lock." She locked gant in place as he was hoisted above the group.
"Luciella-sama?"
"Erza ztep away vrom me, I don't vant you to get caught in zis," Luciella said considering Erza was standing right next to her.
"Why? What are you going to do? Aren't you going to heal Lucy?"
"In a minute. Right now, I have zome unfinished business vith zis man."
"Hey come on, you're going to make Lucy better aren't you? We already gave him what for do we have to."
"Zilence, dragon slayer! I am a mother. If ve let zis man live, he'll just lick his vounds and try again another time. I vill not allow that."
"Hold on, what about the council. We can imprison him like you did his father."
Luciella scowled. "I have made my decision. Erza, stand back."
Erza knew better than to make a mage that had just shown to have superior skill to her make her repeat herself more than once, and stepped back.
Luciella held her hands apart to make a C-shape on the right side of her body. Crimson colored dust began forming in between her hands and around them, but it was thick and chalky and incredibly oblique. Luciella's yellow eyes also turned feral, not emotionless when Gant had control of her, but if one looked at Luciella's eyes right now, they'd see less of a woman and more of a creature of the night.
Mist? Erza wondered what was so dangerous about a mist or fog or whatever it was Luciella was conjuring.
"Crimson Fog." Luciella brought her hands together and the declared to be so fog straightened out, Luciella rotated her arms back and thrust them forward as the fog ripped towards Gant and then slowed down as it passed through him. Gant began screaming at the top of his lungs.
"What the hell are you doing to him?"
"Crimson Fog: my most powerful and my most lethal technique. It burns and eradicates everything around it slowly like watching a plant shrivel up at the rate water drips from a leaky faucet. It destroys everything in its path, but for humans it…well you'll see in a moment." The fog finished passing through Gant and evaporated and dispersed. Knowing the effects, the moment the fog evaporated, Sakina covered Wendy's eyes.
"Waah! Why did it get pitch black again? I wanna see! Let me see!" she flailed her arms in front of her.
"Trust me, this is for your own good," Sakina told her.
Moments later a blood encrusted skeleton fell from the sky. Erza was wide-eyed, Carla looked like she was going to be sick. Natsu and Happy both had WTF faces. The skeleton had a still beating heart and several still held in and intact, organs and muscles.
"Hmpf, it is amazing he is zis well held together. Normally no vone lasts a zingle pass. Zould he count himself lucky or unlucky zat he is vat?" Luciella's hand was encased in crimson light.
"Hey! Wait!" Natsu said. "He's already dead! There's no need to do anymore."
"His heart yet beats. You vould be zurprised how zat can zometimes come back to bite you." She looked at what remained of Gant. "Crimson Impact."
Sakina turned her head to the side. Erza winced and brought her hand up by her face. Natsu glared. Luciella looked at him now that Gant's remains were in pieces. "I do not regret vat I have done and I do not believe my actions vere uncalled vor. You can veel disdain towards me and consider my murder unjust, but I have done ze world a vavor by getting rid of zis…pig."
"She has a point. This man was an abomination of our race."
"And you think for that he should die?"
"Take a look at Lucy's condition and ask that again."
"That's low Erza!" Natsu snapped.
"It's reality," Erza scowled.
Natsu humphed. Luciella put a hand on Natsu's shoulder. "Are you not happy, Natsu zat he is dead?"
"Strangely, I am. And that terrifies me," Natsu said, shaking his head at the last sentence.
"I feel the same, but I'm willing to admit it at least," Erza said.
Luciella looked at the both of them. "Zat fear means zat you two are ztill very human. You zould hold on to zat."
Both Natsu and Erza felt a little better.
Things panned out rather well, Luciella helped Lucy recover and the other maids were set free and given to the council to be returned to their guilds. Because Mirajane did not hear about Luciella's pain rejection, nor did Flare show any obvious signs, after her good cry, of being traumatized, she left that mansion with what she had endured. If she had stayed, and Fairy Tail had never gotten involved with Gant in the first place, she would have eventually been given back her free will and killed Gant without hesitation before returning to her guild: Raven Tail.
At the moment though, her guild was a dark guild and if the council knew that, with her in their custody, she would never be allowed to go back so, in the middle of the night, Flare escaped to return to Raven Tail, or such was her intention, but that is a story for another time.
Upon returning to Fairy Tail, after Natsu's motion sickness wore off from being teleported (by this point Wendy's Troia spell had worn off), Erza, Luciella, Sakina and Natsu chatted with one another.
"Our guilds zould cooperate more often," Luciella stated at one point.
"I agree," Erza nodded, "Intra guild relationships are a good thing for us official guild. It's disappointing we didn't have your guild to fight against the Balam Alliance."
"Our glory days are long zince passed, Erza Scarlet, but zere vill be other battles vith ze dark guilds. Ve vill assist you if you call upon us. Do not vorget zo, zat because of zis, you owe us."
Erza nodded. "Call upon us if you need us. Fairy Tail will do whatever it can to do what it is right."
"I am glad to hear zat," Luciella smiled.
"Natsu," Sakina said, feeling guilty as she held one of her arms with her other arm and avoided eye contact. "I am really sorry I was so uncooperative. If I had been less selfish…"
"It's okay," Natsu said, "Really. We had no idea we were racing against the clock. Besides, Luciella said Lucy would be back to her old self soon thanks to her treatment, so it all works out."
"It is not all right!" Erza decked Natsu one. Natsu rubbed his sore head. "Think about how traumatic this situation would be for Lucy if we didn't have Luciella."
"Oww," Natsu groaned, "You didn't have to hit me." Erza scowled. "I-I mean y-yes ma'am, I understand."
Erza looked at Sakina though. "Really though, I can't blame you. Considering…what you've become, something really awful must have happened to you. I do wish you had been more cooperative though. It makes me curious as to what she had to help you cope with."
"Well I—" Sakina began, but Luciella stuck her arm in front of the dark sorceress.
"A ztory vor another time," Luciella stated. She looked up at the sun. It vill be high noon zoon. Ve should be heading home."
"Why what happens at high noon?" Natsu asked.
"My powers are at zere weakest. I vas able to overpower you so eazily because we vere vighting at night. I believe I told you zat my powers are amplified at nighttime. If I do not take a nap at high noon, or at ze very least ztay out of ze sun, I vill become very vatigued until ze sun sets."
"I thought you weren't a real creature of the night," Erza stated.
"Again, a ztory for another time," Luciella told her. "Ve must go."
"Come back soon okay," Natsu said with a big grin.
"Yes, ve vill be in touch." Luciella and Sakina then made their way away from civilization so they could safely teleport. After that Erza went back inside to do guild-oriented stuff, while Natsu went to go check on Lucy. He found her on her couch feeling down. She was not traumatized, but she still seemed a little depressed, though then again who wouldn't? Even when Natsu made Sakina remember her traumatic experience it struck a chord in her.
Lucy still had a bite on her neck from Luciella, but she was told that would heal within ten days. Loke was back where he belonged and Lucy had summoned him and hugged him because he was all right, but right now she could only think about how there were still things she had to know.
"Are you okay?" Natsu asked when he first walked in the door. Lucy didn't respond. Natsu scratched his head. "Okay, I guess that was a stupid question."
"I'm fine," Lucy said and smiled, "And I'm glad you came by."
"But we cut it way too close!" Natsu exclaimed. "Gant he…"
"Just don't talk about that okay!" Lucy said quickly, wincing, "I feel better if you just don't bring it up, all right."
"Zere vill ztill be zigns of trauma over ze next couple of days, but ze vill zubside. Just do not make her talk about it and ze vill recover quicker."
"Okay," Natsu said and sat down next to Lucy on her couch. "Lucy…I—"
Lucy interrupted Natsu. "Will you always be there to save me when I'm too weak to save myself!"
Natsu stood up and exclaimed triumphantly. "Of course! You know you can count on me! And on anyone in the guild! We're your friends!"
Lucy smiled more. "Thank you."
Natsu sat down again. "It must have been terrible. I can't even picture it."
Lucy sniffed and wiped her eye.
"Whoops, sorry. I-I'm not supposed to talk about it," Natsu panicked, "I—"
"Natsu?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I…" Lucy looked at Natsu looking like she was about to break down again. "Can I cry on you?"
"Cry, but…" Natsu wanted Lucy to be happy.
"Please?" Lucy sniffed.
Natsu pulled her in close without hesitation. "Of course you can." He told her. Lucy cried again, just as she had done when Natsu rescued her. Natsu stayed there for her until she felt better and when she was all done, she smiled again and it made Natsu happy too to see her smile.
As he began to leave, assured that Lucy was fine, he said to her: "You can always call upon me if you need anything."
"Thank you, Natsu," Lucy said to him.
Natsu smiled and left with Happy who had been uncharacteristically quiet the entire time.
As Lucy closed the door behind her rose haired friend she leaned against the door and smiled awkwardly while blushing. I couldn't ask him, she thought to herself. She felt a powerful thump in her chest. How am I supposed to confront these feelings I have for you welling up inside me? I mean I… she remembered what she did when she was at Gant's and flushed. Ah! I can't believe I really did that! I mean, that had to be a result of the contract! That couldn't have been my real feelings! I mean! I wasn't! That wasn't for sexual satisfaction, I just wanted Natsu with me and…and… Lucy continued to flush, but stopped freaking out and smiled. "And I like him."
Natsu…when will I be able to admit how I really feel?
That Evening
It was a rough night at the guild for Natsu. He hadn't been able to sleep, thankfully Mirajane was burning the midnight oil so he had someone to talk to and he needed to talk to her specifically. Something had been bothering him about the whole experience.
"You really mean that?" Mirajane asked when she heard what he had to say.
"Is that wrong?" Natsu asked her. "I mean…Lucy was the one in danger, but—"
Mirajane reached across the table and smiled with her eyes closed as she ruffled Natsu's hair. "I think it's sweet." She smiled with a comforting, heart-warmed, open-eyed smile, "Lisana would be happy that you were thinking of her like that, if she were still here. But you still did it for Lucy, you know that. You just miss Lisana. We all do."
"Yeah," Natsu admitted.
"And that's why it's sweet," She ruffled his head again and then folded her arms on her side of the table. "Feel better?" she asked.
"Yeah, thanks," Natsu said and then yawned. "I'm tired now all of a sudden. Night Mira."
"Good night, Natsu, have good dreams, okay?"
"Yeah, thanks," Natsu went to his room where Happy was already asleep, hand on stomach, lying on his back, drooling and dreaming of fish.
Natsu lay down in bed and went to sleep. As he fell asleep he wondered if he and his friends would ever see Adventurer's Gauntlet again. They would, of course.
But that's another story…
Blood Contract: END
(A/N: And that's a wrap folks. So to address a few things. 1. This is a spin-off from canon so stuff that I changed a little bit, if I decide to continue the series will fall in line with this "new path" I've set off. Most notably, before you all rush for the review box, Flare Corona. Now, as I mentioned in narration, Flare was going through masochism training and then being given the opportunity to turn the tide and become a sadist. I mean…have you SEEN the way she WALKS. That is just the look of someone who is not right in the head. I don't care if she apologized. Flare is still a PSYCHO! I actually, when I first penned this, did not intend to use Flare, but now that I really want to do a spin-off using Adventurer's Gauntlet, I think I figured *shrug* what the hell? So as you might imagine, Flare has been changed since she never learned how to be a sadist. And, remember, Flare is 7 years YOUNGER than in the Grand Magic Games arc. Only Team Natsu and the Tenrou Island group were affected by the no age change. Flare is still much younger so I felt that giving her the whole 3rd Person person perspective would be fitting for someone who's reveling in their masochism [and there are people like that] and much more immature than she would be in seven years, so that's why she's doing that considering what referring to one's self in the 3rd person means to the Japanese people.
Moving on, of course, what did you guys think of my OCs? Most specifically: Luciella, Sakina, Grimaios and Narzia. Stella doesn't count cause she was only in like one scene and you knew the others for a while. Yeah you didn't get to meet all of Adventurer's Gauntlet either so I'm saving that for the sequel. Kind of like how Banjo-Tooie was to Banjo-Kazooie, how the makers all left hints that, yes, we are making another one. If I make another one I'll probably title it "Adventurer's Gauntlet" plain and simple.
If you guys have any more questions leave a comment or a review. And…I'm done, not much more to say here. Later folks).