Grimoire Blastia
Rated: T for swearing, violence, ETC.
BB Pairings: Ragna/Noel
ToV Pairings: Yuri/Rita and Estelle/Flynn
Disclaimer: Not mine. Neither of the series. The story idea was developed between myself and someone else on deviant art.
Warning: Ragna is really a grumpy person. Combine that with the ability to cuss…and you get a grand old mess.
AN: Hey guys. Stuff. Yeah. Whatever.
Chapter 06
Floating Palace of the Magistrate
Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
"It only goes down…"Noel sighed.
Currently, the party was gathered in what could pass as the Palace's dungeons. Unfortunately, because of this, they were pretty much forced to wander through the halls. It took what felt like an hour to get through until they finally managed to get into section outside of the secret entrances.
It was when they entered the first room of this section that a soft wailing got their attention. "Someone's…crying?" Estelle mumbled.
"Huh, maybe it's a ghost?" Karol wondered out loud.
"G-g-ghost?" Ragna stuttered, a strange wide eyed look on his face. The party stared at him, confused. "Y-you're joking r-right? There's…no ghosts here…right?"
Karol stared blankly at the elder male. "…Are you scared of ghosts, Ragna?"
The red clad swordsman looked away, his cheeks stained red. "N-no way! Why would I b-be?" The party exchanged look that clearly said 'Yeah right.' He glared at them, embarrassed by their obvious denial.
Estelle sighed, shook her head, and moved away from the party, seeking the source of the crying. Surprised and unwilling to leave the pinkette alone, Noel followed. Ragna in turn followed the dual gunner and it just went on from there.
The pinkette studiously ignored Yuri's questions (and demands) about where they were headed. Eventually, they came to a room and a young boy was curled up in the corner, crying. "Guess it wasn't a ghost after all." Karol grinned when Ragna jolted slightly at the word 'ghost.'
The little child finally got up, looking tired, most likely from his crying. "Are you all right?" Estelle kneeled down next to him.
"I-I think so…who're you?" The kid mumbled.
"I'm Estelle, and these are my friends." She brushed some of her short hair out of her face. "We're here to help. Are you the child of the couple from the boat house?" The tiny red haired boy nodded slowly and she smiled. "Alright! Come on, we'll take you with us, okay?" The boy smiled weakly before taking her hand.
It was after fighting through the monsters in this section of the basement that the party was finally able to get a key that lead to another room. This room was cavernous and everyone was eyeing it warily, almost unwilling to enter it. Finally, giving in, Ragna stepped into the room, followed by the rest of the group.
"Tch, looks like a jail cell." He grumbled, eyeing the huge wall of iron bars. Yuri couldn't help but agree with the silverette.
Rita glanced at the bars, her brows furrowed deeply. "…There's someone over there." The party warily approached the bars…only to find that on the other side was Magistrate Ragou.
"Well, well, what do we have here? More delicious snacks for my pet, it seems." The old council member chuckled.
Yuri glared. "So, you're Ragou? You've got some disgusting hobbies."
He chuckled again. "Hobbies? Oh, you must mean my basement. Only someone with my refined sensibilities could understand the pleasure I derive from such things." He crossed his arms behind his back. "It's the privilege—"
"Privilege my ass!" Ragna snarled. "You just get your kicks out of torturing people. Guys like you disgust the hell outta me!"
Ragou looked irritated by Ragna's interruption. "You lot are just like all those senile old men on the council. They bored me to death and never let me have fun." He sighed. "Might as well go fetch Rhybgaro. He would enjoy the new toys here."
The dark haired man snorted. "Sorry, but we already took care of Rhybgaro. There' be no point in fetching him."
"What did you say…?" Ragou actually looked a little unnerved. Yuri mocked him with a simple 'Are you deaf?' The magistrate glowered. "You…what have you done with my pet?"
"Che, not that it's any of your business, but let's just say that guy won't be hurting anyone else any time soon." Ragna snickered. It wastrue: The Rhybgaro would be unable to hurt or injure anyone without its horn.
Ragou was very irritated but with a quick breath in and out, he calmed. "Ah, well, with a bit more money, I can simply buy another." Estelle looked down as she noticed the young boy cling to her hand.
She stepped forward, still holding the little kid's hand. "Ragou! How can you say such things and still call yourself a servant of the Empire?!"
The man stepped back, startled by the pinkette's presence. "You…?! Impossible!" Yuri was fed up. Unsheathing his sword, he brandishing at the gates of the iron bars and sent them flying into pieces. Ragou fell onto his behind, looking horrified. "S-stay back! W-what do you intend to do? S-someone, arrest these intruders!"
"Coward…" Noel muttered, sending the now fleeing man a look of dislike. Ragna shot her a look of faint surprise as it was well-known that it took a lot to make Noel hate you, or even dislike you.
Yuri frowned. "We need to get going, or else enemies will be crawling all over the place. Come on!" Rita was stopped when she attempted to create the emergency for the Knights to respond to and they moved out to locate the Weather-controlling Blastia.
Up the stairs from the jail cell room, they found a large entrance-hall type room with a humongous blastia in the center of it. A light blue blastia core glowed from the center with cat walks leading this way and that around it.
"Is this the blastia we're looking for?" Karol questioned.
Rita ignored him and dashed up the stairs to the cat walk in front of the core. Raising her hands, a magic circle appeared and she began to go through the formula for the blastia. "Strihm…Laitos…Rockra…Fleck…" Rita mumbled as she went though. "They just patched together blastia with different formulas! This formula could manipulate the weather, but how could they use them like this?"
"She's pretty much in love with blastia, if you haven't noticed yet." Ragan muttered to the party. There were several stifled snickers at this statement.
"It's just like at Ehmead Hill!" Rita cried out. "They don't have a slightest respect for what they're working with."
Estelle clapped her hands. "This is exactly what we need for evidence."
"You're going to have to finish that later, Rita." Noel called, concern etched on her face.
Rita hissed slightly. "Just a little bit more…I just need to check a few more things…" The brunette sounded just a tad stressed out.
Yuri stepped forward. "You can have Flynn let you have a look later, after we're done. We've got to start out little 'emergency', remember?"
"Can't we break something that won't be missed?" Estelle questioned.
"Don't think so." Ragna spoke up, one hand on his hip, the other rubbing the back of his neck. "Ragou won't count that as an emergency if we don't do something that'll really piss that guy off." Karol rather suddenly began to slam his hammer down on the ground, making the whole room shake. Rita cursed in anger before shooting off a couple 'fireball' spell artes (Noel cried out as she was forced to dodge one).
Karol in turned cursed back at her when he too was nearly hit by one. The brunette scoffed. "We need to get the knights' attention, right?" She spun and shot off a few more 'Fireball' artes. "So we've got to set off a real emergency here."
"Well, yes, but I don't think burning the mansion down is really smart." Noel groaned.
"Really! What a way to behave in someone else's home!"
"Oh, god, not you again…" Ragna glowered at Ragou, who had reappeared into the room, most likely drawn in by the shaking and yelling. Of course, he decided to bring along some mercenary buddies. "Really?" The silverette snorted. "Rita knocked out two of your guards with a single Fireball arte. Do you really think you'll be able to actually match us?"
Said mercenaries glared at the red clad swordsman in utter fury. How dare he mock them? It was enough…to get them to through away on semblance of strategy and attacked him.
Ragou ignored him. "Remember, you can do whatever you want to them…except for the young woman with pink hair! She is not to be touched!"
"Are you guys…from the Blood Alliance?" Karol cried, surprised.
Rita was ignoring the panic down below, throwing fireballs towards walls and ceilings. "Here! Have another!" She cried, throwing them around like they were candy.
Taking out the mercenaries, Yuri ran to Rita, who had moved down to the bottom floor. "Hey, Rita, we need to go!"
She opened her mouth to argue. "Oi, Lovebirds, now is so not the time!" Ragna cried over any of Rita's attempts to argue. "We need to leave before the knights come!"
Rita scoffed. "I doubt they're that fast." Her last fireball detonated just above Flynn's group of imperial knights.
"Yes, yes I do think they're that fast." Yuri said mock-cheerfully while Flynn offered Ragou his help.
Ragou turned his head away. "My…he sure is enthusiastic…" Unfortunately, his answer to Flynn as cut off by the shattering of glass above them. It was the dragon rider, the one that had been mentioned at Ehmead Hill.
Above them, the knights are attempting to fight the dragon rider, but to no avail: He easily squeezes by them and slashes the blastia. "No!" Rita yelled. "The Blastia!" The brunette then began to scold the rider, furious.
Estelle, on the other hand, was gapping. "There really is a person on that dragon!" Rita, in her anger, began to shoot off fireballs at the Dragon Rider. All of them missed by a mile. The brunette started shaking, her eyes flashing in fury.
"Oh, great." Ragna muttered. "A temperamental Mage that is now furious. I feel real safe right now." Yuri stifled his snicker.
"No! He's getting away!" Whether Flynn met the rider or Ragou, the party didn't know. However, Ragna did catch Rita and Yuri both running after the magistrate. Soon enough, the rest of the party followed them.
Once outside, Rita stomped a foot childishly. "ARGH! What the hell! Who rides a monster like that?!" She was shaking with barely suppressed anger.
"That was the dragon rider." Noel mumbled softly.
"Dragon Rider?! More like Dragon Freak!" She screamed at the blond. The dual gunner flinched back, startled. "Husting my blastia like that!"
"Rita!" Ragna snapped. "Calm the fuck down before I kick you! You hurt Noel!" The brunette calmed slightly, seeing the blond's face.
Estelle bit her lip. "A-anyway, why do you think someone would go around destroying blastia?"
"Tch, how should we know?" Ragna ran a hand through his hair. "If we could track the guy down, then sure, maybe we'd find out, but right now? Sure as hell ain't gonna happen."
Rita sniffed. "As if you could have a normal conversation with someone like that."
Yuri sighed before glancing at the young boy, whom looked absolutely terrified. "Hey? Do you think you can get home on your own?"
"..You're going to get that bad Ragou person, right?" The boy mumbled.
"Yeah."
"Then I'll be fine." The little boy ran away and the group turned to watch him go.
"…I was starting to become fond of him…" Noel sighed.
Ragna scoffed. "Tch, I wasn't."
Karol grinned evilly. "What, because you thought he was a ghost?"
"Shut the hell up."
Karol dissolved into giggles while Ragna glared PURE DEATH at the male brunette. Yuri turned to Estelle. "What's wrong?"
"The magistrate…He did such horrible things…" She looked down at her feet, sadness radiating off her in waves.
Noel let out a puff of air. "Unfortunately, even I can tell that's really common here." She shook her head. "…We shouldn't talk about this right now. Ragou's escaping, remember?"
They raced after Ragou, only to see the ship was about ready to kick off from the harbor. Rita was grumbling in anger over everything and Yuri was grinning like a maniac. Why did Ragna have a bad feeling…? "You guys ready?" The dark haired man said happily.
"Hold it, Hold it, Hold it! I'm not read—" Karol screamed as Yuri threw him over his shoulder and the party threw themselves over onto Ragou's ship. They landed with a harsh 'THUMP' onto the wooden planking of the ship and Karol fell to his knees, swearing under his breath.
Rita was rifling through a nearby chest. She hissed. "These are all blastia cores!"
Karol frowned when he stepped up behind her. "Why are there so many? They're just the cores…" She shot him a glare over her shoulder.
"I," She said, "Have no idea. We don't even have as many this in the laboratory."
"Is he the real blastia thief?" Noel questioned. Yuri mumbled a 'maybe.'
Their hammer wielding friend frowned. "But I thought the one behind it was a huge guy with one eye. That's doesn't fit Ragou at all."
Ragna crossed his arms. "Obviously, there's more going on here then we first thought."
"I wonder if the core from the Lower Quarter is here…" Yuri questioned.
Rita shook her head. "Sorry, none of these are big enough."
By Noel, Repede began to growl, his hackles raised. The reason why was soon made apparent as several pirate like beings appeared. Karol leaned away from the sailors. "I knew it…They're Blood Alliance, one of the five master guilds." The male brunette mumbled.
The pirates began their attack, and they were soon torn about in only a few minutes. Ragna snorted over their KO`d bodies. "Morons."
Karol moves to try and get up the stairs that lead up to the second floor. Of course, he was blocked by a large mercenary man, yelling at the male brunette to get out of his way. "Ooooh, who is this?" Noel cried out, confused.
"Ha!" The man laughed. "Was that spineless worm Ragou running from a bunch of kids?"
Ragna narrowed his eyes. "…He only had one eye. And he's a big guy. What do you think, Yuri?"
Yuri gave the large man a cold smile from behind him. "Oh, yes, He's probably the one we've been searching for." The dark haired swordsman pulled out his sword and pressed it against the large man's side.
"Maybe I am." He grinned. "Maybe I ain't." The large man attacked Yuri with his sword, which seemed even bigger than Ragna's Blood-Scythe. "You're quick and you've got guts. My arms gonna feel that...Wish you were in my guild."
"Good for you."
Tch, pushy guys like you…I gotta watch out for `em, because they upset the balance of my guild. So, nothing personal, okay?" The large man smirked.
Ragou finally decided to make his appearance. "What are you doing, Barbos?! Dispose of these brats!"
Barbos 'Tch'ed again. "I did all the work you asked for. And the knights'll be here soon. I'd rather not have those guys following me around, ya know?" He shrugged. "Next time we meet, you kids won't be getting off easy."
While the leader of Blood Alliance dashed past Ragou to the life boat, the former magistrate cursed. "He's still inside…! Zagi! We leave the rest to you!"
An odd man with red, yellow, and black hair appeared from the shadows. Apparently, this was Zagi. "Who is it?! Who do I get to kill this time?!"
Estelle gasped while Yuri groaned. "Know this guy?" Ragna raised an eyebrow.
"Unfortunately, yes."
"My blade…! It aches to kill…!" Zagi trembled as the boat shook roughly. Ragou and Barbos were attacking them with cannonballs. "I've got to kill something!"
He leapt at Yuri head first, but the swordsman dodged. Instead, Zagi's attack hit the mast of the ship. "Whoa~! Go easy on me this time."
"No choice!"Ragna hissed. "We've got to fight!"
BOSS
Zagi
"Man, I already don't like this guy!" Ragna hissed as he dodged one of the man's two blades. Noel shot at Zagi's feet, perhaps hoping to unbalance him, but he simply dodged the attacks.
All around them, explosions were going off and Karol was forced to nearly jump off the boat because of one of the tri-color haired man's ludges. "This guy…Is freaking crazy!"
"No shit!"
A whirl wind of blades managed to catch Ragna on his upper right arm and that same arm jerked back, forcing Blood-Scythe out of his hand. Instead of fumbling after it, the silverette pulled out Fireseal and set to work to either disarm the man in return ro hurt him enough that he'd stand down.
Ragna didn't have to worry much about the wound, as Estelle healed in seconds later. What he did have to worry about was dodging Rita's wild casting of the 'Fireball' arte along with Zagi's equally wild strikes. Yuri leapt over him as he crouched down to punch the assassin in the face.
Another explosion rocked the boat and Karol was forced into an even harder spin…which knocked Zagi off his feet. Repede took the chance to stab Zagi in the side.
When he got back on his feet, the dual wielding assassin was again knocked off his feet by an irate Yuri. "Graaah…! That hurts!" Yuri rolled his eyes at Zagi's insanity.
Fire raged around them, quickly burning the wooden boat. "Well, you put up a good fight." Yuri mumbled, sheathing his sword.
"I-I retreated…" He started laughing insanely. "You're tough! Yes, tough! You're definitely tough! I certainly won't forget that, Yuri, Ragna!"
The silverette groaned. "Great, now he's going to chase me too."
"I'm definitely going to kill you both!" He smiled wickedly. "Gonna carve you into little pieces…! Don't move a single muscles." Seconds after he started laughing again, he was blown off the ship by another explosion.
Noel mumbled. "…How odd."
"Oh…!" Karol gasped. "It's sinking!"
"Everyone!" Yuri gestured to the sea. "Get into the water!"
They heard some coughing. "I-is anyone there?" Yuri spun around, but before he could make a grab towards the door, Ragna grabbed him and threw him off the boat.
"Go!" The silverette snapped. "I'll get this guy out!" Noel shot him a concerned look before following the dark haired swordsman into the ocean. The rest of the party were quick to follow her example.
They were floating in the water as they watched the boat sink into the sea. "Ragna…!" Noel whispered desperately as they treaded water. "Please don't do this to me…"
Yuri glared at the burning corpse of a ship. "Dammit, you idiot, why did you do that?"
"Tch, who're you calling an idiot?" The group turned to a spot behind them to see the red-clad swordsman moving towards them, a blond man clutched in his arms. "What? You actually thought a burning boat would kill me? Don't be stupid."
Noel would probably have thrown herself on the swordsman if they hadn't been in the middle of the ocean. Karol managed to get attention back on track by asking a rather obvious question.
"Who's that, Ragna?"
Chapter 06
Floating Palace of the Magistrate
END
Guild Profiles
Zagi
An assassin for hire, he is well-known for his merciless killing ethic. Want someone dead for absolute certainty? Hire ZAGI.