Chapter 7: Scarlet Weather
A brisk breeze woke me up with a chill. I opened my eyes to find myself lying in a bed in a darkened room and a painful headache. Clutching my head in an attempt to dull the pain, I heard a voice from the direction of the cold wind.
"You're pretty good, you know that? I never expected that a shrimp like you could beat me." It was the fairy that I fought earlier. She sat on the window sill with one leg lazily hanging outside, gazing out the window into the night sky. She sighed and smiled to herself. "Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. The name's Emily." She held a hand out to me.
"Carol." I said as I shook her hand.
"I know. The other fairies just won't shut up about you." She stood and stretched herself out. "Well, now that you're up, I guess I'll go tell them. See you around, kid." She waved over her shoulder.
"Bye." I said, watching her leave with her overconfident attitude.
Suddenly, she poked her head back around the corner. "I'm gonna want a rematch later, got it?" She didn't even wait for my answer before leaving again.
"Geez." After a moment, I pulled myself out of the bed and made my way to the window.
It was a nice night, with the clear sky and stars shining brightly. Looking down, I saw the courtyard, which had already been cleaned up after the battle. Outside of the gate, small lights danced around. The guard fairies are unusually active tonight.
"Ah, so you're up. How are you feeling? Headache?" Koakuma's voice came from the door behind me.
I turned to face her, surprised. "Yes, I do have a headache, how did you know?"
She nodded. "I thought so. The reason why you fainted was that you used too much magic at once. You exceeded your limits so to speak."
"Then what do I do?"
"Magic is all about preparation. You prepare most things before to save your mana when you need it. Take spellbooks for example, those are filled with quick spells that you can use just by putting a little bit of mana into them." I thought back to the huge book that Patchouli always carries around. That must be her spellbook.
"Then can I get a spellbook?"
"Unfortunately, no. Those take a very long time to make. We will, however, give you crystalline runes. They're basically rocks imbued with the elements, and crystals are the most pure and efficient form." She pulled a red crystal from her pocket, it seemed to contain a small pulsating ember.
I took it and cradled it in my hands. It's warm and moving, almost as if it's alive. "So, what do I do with this?"
"Naturally, you can reabsorb it to get small amount of its respective element for you to control or you can throw it and it'll explode on contact, again with a small amount of the element. To be honest though, I think throwing them is a much better use."
"I will get more, right?"
"Of course, Miss Patchouli can easily make them. Anyway, we need your help setting up a spell. The Mistress wants the plan to begin tonight." She climbed out the window and glided down to the courtyard.
This feels so improper… I thought to myself. Nevertheless, I followed suit and flew through the window.
At the gate, a small group awaited us. Remilia, Sakuya, Patchouli, a tall woman in a dress that showed off her powerful frame, and Chen all stood in a group, just chatting. Fairies patrolled in groups around the mansion, led by one carrying a lantern.
Remilia turned to me and pouted upon seeing us approach. "Took you long enough." As if I could do anything about it.
Patchouli cleared her throat and stepped forward. "There are six nodes around the mansion, we need someone at each of them to feed them energy to create the magic circle for the spell, hence why we needed you and Chen here as well. Once you get to your node, wait for Remi to begin the ritual. Any questions?"
The tall woman sheepishly held her hand up. "How do I know when the Mistress starts?"
"Trust me, you'll know." Patchouli paused before smirking at her. "China."
The woman pouted and muttered under her breath. "My name's Meiling." Judging from her reaction, I'm fairly certain Patchouli regularly calls her that just to spite her. It almost makes me feel pity for her.
"Any more questions?" After a moment of silence, Patchouli continued. "Good. Now take your positions. Carol, your node is to the right side of the gate."
We all split up from there, Remilia went back toward the mansion; Chen, Koakuma and I headed to the right side; Patchouli, Sakuya, and Meiling headed the other direction. Chen and Koakuma let me have the first node, which appeared to be a scarlet crystal buried halfway into the ground. It looked very similar to the rune that I got earlier except larger than a fairy.
Standing at the node and guarding it with a small squad of other fairies was Emily with her arms crossed. She looked over her shoulder and dismissed me with a hmph as I approached. Well excuse me for winning a match that you agreed to. I didn't say anything in an attempt to not piss her off any more.
It seemed that the other fairies couldn't contain themselves. They all quivered with excitement that they were by the fairy who beat their squad captain. The fairy holding the lantern spoke up first. "Hey Carol, you were so coo-"
"Can it." Emily cut her short with a sharp command. The fairy immediately stopped talking and bit her lip, desperately trying not to talk. She must be pissed because they keep talking about me.
The next few minutes were spent in tense silence. I busied myself with studying the node, Emily continued standing there with her arms crossed, and the other fairies somewhat kept watch. The node did seem to have a set of magic instructions inscribed lightly into it, much like the ward, but I still couldn't read it.
Suddenly, a bright swirling orb of what appeared to be scarlet chains launched into the air above the mansion. Oh, so that's what Patchouli meant when we'll know. I began pumping my magic into the crystal, causing it to illuminate itself and draw curved lines around the mansion and straight lines through it on the ground, I recognized it as a huge magic circle. The crystal then fired a scarlet chain toward the floating mass which entwined itself with the six new chains. The sky above began to fill with red clouds that rapidly spread, blocking out the stars and the moon from view. Once the sky became filled with the odd clouds, the chains disappeared and the orb began floating back down toward the mansion.
I waited for a moment, unsure if the ritual was complete. As soon as Koakuma and Chen came into view, I knew it was done. I met up with them as they walked around the outer wall to the gate.
"So, why did we need to fill the sky with clouds?" I asked when I got to a reasonable speaking distance.
"We didn't need to do this. Lady Remilia is just bored from having to stay in the mansion all day. Blocking out the sun with clouds lets her go out during the day. I'm sure there's easier ways but we let her do whatever she wants to do. She is the Mistress of the mansion after all." Koakuma shrugged.
"I don't think she'll have too much time t' have her fun. Incidents as obvious as this tend t' get resolved quickly." Chen said as she looked up at the not-at-all suspicious spiral of scarlet clouds directly over the mansion. Way to be discreet about it, Mistress. Then again, drawing attention to herself might be her goal.
As soon as we got back into the library, Patchouli immediately told me to drink a potion to restore my magic and to put on thigh holsters filled with more crystal runes. It seemed that I would be thrown into yet another battle today.
As we walked down a hallway to the foyer, I heard the fairies chanting my name and cheering. I used the time to again check my crystals. Twenty, I have four for each element, will this be enough? Probably not, but I'll have to use them sparingly.
"Ah, I almost forgot to tell you. This time you will fight Sakuya's best fairy. Her specialty is knife throwing, but she might also have something else up her sleeve as well. It's still Saturday if you were wondering." Patchouli said as she floated down the hall next to me.
When we entered the foyer, Patchouli and Koakuma went to join the others on the second floor. The floor was lined with fairies with maid's dresses of all colors.
In the center of the floor stood a straight-faced fairy in a blue dress. Upon seeing me, she curtsied, revealing her own thigh holsters lined with knives. "Iris, beginning attack." She said before immediately throwing a handful of knives at me. A mostly transparent magic wall appeared around the open area, enclosing us in.
I easily sidestepped it and let it bounce off the wall behind me. She's testing me out. Most likely, she'll save her trump card until the end. If that's the case, I'll return the favor. I pulled out a yellow rune and absorbed it, creating a floating orb of metal, which I used to create my own knives.
Watching me carefully, she threw another set to which I easily dodged and returned with my own knives. She moved out of their way just as easily as I did. This continued until I saw her holsters empty with the last knives held in her hands. She's out of ammunition, now she should start using her special ability.
Suddenly, the air in front of me filled with knives that simply appeared out of thin air. I just barely caught it but she's moving fast enough to be teleporting. I checked the ground behind me quickly before rolling out of the way. The knives are gone, which means she has to collect them when she runs out. That's when I'll have my chance, but how will I hit her if she's moving that fast?
I threw a fire crystal into the cluster of newly planted blades and created a barrier of flames around them. No matter how fast you move, you still can't pass through a wall! Your turn, Iris. As if to respond to my challenge, she held her hand out in front of her in the same way she held her knives. The knives floated out of the fire back to her hands, she began cleaning under her nails with a knife with the slightest hint of a smile on her face.
"Well now that's just not fair." I said in the lull of battle.
"Consider this: Not only can you use magic and close combat, you've already stolen my technique. What more do I have on you other than speed?" She glared at me, her cold eyes really sent shivers down my spine.
"I'm sure you have something else up your sleeves, why not use it now?" If I can draw out her strongest right now, this fight could at least get somewhere.
She shrugged. "I suppose. Throwing knives at each other, hoping to get a lucky hit isn't going to get us anywhere." She suddenly disappeared, leaving knives in her wake.
As they began to move, I realized that they were moving way faster than normal. She can go even faster? I caught brief flashes of her as she stopped to fill the air with more and more knives. Then I suddenly realized that the other fairies outside were moving faster as well. No, she's not going faster. I'm slower!
My clothes began to tear as knives began skimming the edges. In my desperation, I used the orb of metal to create a wall to block the knives. How can I even beat her like this? I had to quickly shift the wall around to block more projectiles from opposing side. That's when I spotted the fire from the crystal I threw, it was on the side closest the door. I suddenly remembered something that I had gotten from Remilia. The fire, it's south of me and today's Saturday, which means I can easily channel earth. If I can get the other three directions, I can call on the power of the gods to help me.
I threw out the respective crystals in the necessary directions: water toward the back of the mansion, metal toward the library, and wood to where group 2B is stationed. I checked back to the source of the flying blades. She's too busy throwing and recollecting her knives to notice, that's perfect for me.
I began to form the magic circle discreetly as I continued blocking knives with my shield. As soon as I finished, I activated the spell with a powerful burst of energy. "Suzaku, God of Fire, please allow me to use your divine power!" I soon began to feel an outside power flowing through me, the holy flames of the God Suzaku.
I fired a stream of flames into the air, nearly catching Iris in it. That one shot left me exhausted with my vision slowly fading. I dropped to my knees, unable to keep myself standing. Oh great, I'm going to black out again. But I couldn't have overexerted myself this time, then what?
I couldn't see anything anymore, my vision had completely faded to black. I felt myself drop to the ground, I couldn't even move anymore. I heard heels click to the ground. Iris is here, looks like she wins.
"I forfeit."
I didn't have the chance to comprehend what she said before losing consciousness.