"Just don't get in my way, Droy. This is my chance to prove myself to Levy." Jet spoke confidently to his partner, splitting up from the rest of the group to search more of the cave at a quicker rate. Naruto had chose to go off alone, allowing the other four to pair up, exclaiming that he is 'never alone'.
Droy scoffed loudly in amusement at his orange haired companion. "That's funny, you speak as if you have a chance with her, we both know that it is my strength she admires more than yours."
"Oh yeah!" Jet spoke accusingly, stopping in his movements to press his forehead against Droy's, glowering intensely at him. Droy mirrored the action as his response, glaring back at Jet angrily. They remained like this for a few moments, neither seeming to want to give him.
"Once I've showed how more valuable I am, my only competition for Levy's affections will be Naruto." Jet spoke before continuing on down the dark tunnel.
Droy stood motionless for a few seconds, staring in confusion at Jet's leaving back. "Naruto isn't of any competition for Levy. I'll admit when I first met him I thought he could be, Levy seemed to really like him, but you remember what Levy whispered to us back at the guild?..."
Jet stopped for a moment, allowing the black haired mage to catch up with him. He thought back to when they were at the guild, suddenly the memories came back to him. "Oh yeah..."
-Flashback-
"These are Droy and Jet!" Levy beamed, running around to throw her arms around their necks. Naruto noticed how they both seemed to loosen up with the physical contact with the girl. "We're in a team together, we're called Shadow Gear. We've been a team for a long time."
"Cool, what's up Jet and Droy?" Naruto nodded his head towards both of them, giving them a smaller smile than he would usually give strangers. He didn't like the way they were treating him at first.
"Nothing much." They both seemed grumbled back together in an annoyed tone. Levy suddenly brought the duo down to her height by the ears.
"Be nice to him, both of you."Levy spoke in a hushed voice to the both of them, frowning at them slightly. "This is Lu-chan's boyfriend, you know the one I was telling you about..."
Both of their faces radiated with glee at the news, any suspicion against Naruto possible making a move on their Levy had disappeared.
In unison they grinned wide, both of them throwing an arm around his neck. "How are you, Naruto? Shadow Gear was just about to go on a job, and Levy wanted to ask if you would like to come along seeing as you and her are both friends of Lucy. She wants to get to know you better!" They both spoke in incredibly happy, excited voices. That was the greatest news they had ever been told.
-Flashback-End-
"Yeah, gotta admit I was worried that he and Levy would become attracted to each other. It was really good to find out he already has a girlfriend." Jet sighed heavily in relief, recalling the excellent news. "Still, gotta hand it to him. Naruto got himself one hell of a catch."
"I can't believe I didn't see it earlier, after all, he and Lucy are rather friendly with each other all the time!" Droy laughed loudly as he continued along the darkness with his friend.
Evergreen and Levy walked side by side in the silence, the tension between the two females was obvious. They had never exchanged long conversation between them, they had never even spent a decent amount of time in each others company, but Naruto had split the group up in order to search more of the cave quicker, Jet and Droy leaving as one team and Naruto continuing through the cave himself.
Evergreen's loud exhaling broke the silence. "So... this Naruto, never seen his face before... how recent a member is he?" She asked in order to spark up a conversation with the petite bluenette.
But there was another reason behind her motives for asking about Naruto. Laxus liked to be informed about all new members of the guild. To know how strong they were, and if they would prove themselves an embarrassment to the name Fairy Tail.
"I think he joined a couple of weeks ago, around the same time as Lu-chan." Levy replied honestly, he and Lucy appeared at the same time with Natsu, but she had never seem them work together. 'But there's THAT factor between the two of them...' She added in her mind with a childish giggle.
"Really? And what are his abilities?" Evergreen didn't dodge around the question, she asked it bluntly. This Naruto, he held himself with pride and confidence, a type that was only visible in people who had full confidence in their powers. It was a similar way that Laxus held himself.
"He's got quite a few magics." Levy replied with a smile. Completely unaware of Evergreen's ulterior intentions. "The first one he has is kind of like Lu-chan's Stellar Spirit Summoning, but his is more of a Lost Magic version of it, he uses Shēngxiào Entity Summoning, I haven't seen any of his summons yet, but supposedly their very powerful, I have read about them in a book once. The other two he has in one called Flash Step, which is a teleportation Magic, the final one is a sell I've never heard of before, he calls it Rasen, and he creates pure, concentrated spiralling magic in order to attack."
"Pure Magic? Preposterous!" Evergreen snorted mockingly in return. "There's no such thing anymore, magic must be concentrated through a medium, such as an element or transformation. Do you not understand the intracity involved with having to use magic simply in the form of pure magic?"
"I thought that too, until her showed it to us..." Levy replied honest. "He held out his palm, and this spiralling sphere of pure magic appeared in his palm, then he smashed it into a rock, blowing it to bits in milliseconds. It was incredible!"
'Laxus must know about this!' Evergreen thought with a determination. 'He could be the one... he reminds me of Laxus, how he takes control of a group so easily.' She thought in honesty, the similarities between the two blonds was very visible. "He may have some incredibly abilities, but he will never be Laxus."
'Laxus...' Levy thought with interest as well as sadness, she remembered the strain and distance between Laxus and Makarov, grandfather and grandson. Perhaps this was an opportunity for her to find out about the renegade grandson of the master, in order to give the master some peace of mind. "Laxus... how is he?" She asked simply.
"Stronger than ever!" Evergreen replied quickly and smugly. "He will become the fourth guild master in no time. His abilities are second to none." Evergreen left so many questions for her to ask, but Levy could tell that she would be answering none of them. She could see it in her eyes.
"Stop." Evergreen's hand jutted out in front of her, stopping her movements and train of thoughts. "Look ahead." Evergreen nodded down the tunnel. Looking, Levy saw a dim light in the distance, eerily glowing through the darkness. Levy turned towards Evergreen, whose eyes had narrowed in the direction. "Follow me..." She practically ordered, beginning to make her way towards the distant light.
"I wish I had a better incentive as to what I'm actually supposed to be look for in this cave, and where I should find it..." Naruto mutter to himself as he slowly tread through the darkness of the winding caverns of the cave. Each one of his steps echoing as he moved further and further through the pitch black.
They had split off into groups, Naruto chose to continue alone, allowing Jet and Droy, and Evergreen and Levy to partner up. Sometime he preferred to work alone, his spirits were his true companions, he worked better with one of them than he did with anyone else.
His movements stopped as he heard a low, almost childlike chuckling in the darkness. He looked around in surprise, trying to locate it's source. "Who's there?" He called out into the darkness, hoping to hear a reply. The treading of footsteps, the quiet breathing they might give out.
"How silly of you..." A voice replied in an amused tone, the voice resonating echoes through the cave. "Treading so far into the darkness with no way of locating the light..."
"Show yourself!" Naruto shouted into the darkness once again. Suddenly a lit torch was thrown at him from the darkness, he caught it easily, the fire lighting up a small portion of the cave he was in. Instantly Naruto looked in the direction of which the torch was thrown.
He couldn't see much, only a pair of pointed-toe shiny dress shoes on the crowd, standing with the weight leaning more on one foot. It was a leisurely, calm stance that Naruto recognised.
And suddenly a pair of gleaming eyes pierced through the darkness. The iris of the eyes were odd. The right eye was a glowing deep ocean blue, darker than his own blue eye colour, like the dark depths of the ocean. The left eye was a gleaming yellow, a stark comparison to the right eye. It glowed much brighter than the right eye. "I'm happy... we finally get the chance to meet, Naruto." The shape of the eyes narrowed, possessing a happy set to them. Naruto could only think that this person was smiling.
It was obviously a male, the pitch and tone of the voice suggested that. Yet his tone was laid back, unafraid of Naruto or the darkness around him. "Who are you?" Naruto near shouted at the person, anger growing in his voice. How did this man know his name?
"Surely your spirits must have spoken about me? I am Spedisie." The man introduced himself. From how his head moved, it showed that he gave a small, courteous nod of his head with the introduction of his name.
"You're Spedisie?" Naruto replied in honest surprise, he hadn't expected that he would meet the man in such circumstances. "I have heard of you, only a small amount, but you did manipulate Yirrow into almost destroying that town in Maguma."
"Really?" Spedisie responded with slight surprise of his own, followed by a short, dry chuckle. "So what have you heard?"
"That you are a villain." Naruto was extremely blunt with his response, his eyes narrowed at the man hiding in the darkness. He watched as the man's eyes moved even more to match a large smile, before he resonated another dry giggle.
"Who isn't a villain in this world?" Spedisie responded as he exhaled out his breathing, calming his laughing fits. "Even those who claim they want to achieve peace are themselves Narcissistic egomaniacs who believe they can change everyone in the world. They want everyone to behave themselves in accordance to what they believe is peace. Is that not an attempt at world domination?" Spedisie asked with another giggle, yet his voice held a serious tone to it. "Even your precious spirits are villains, Naruto. They betrayed me in the past as well, they were once my friends as well, but they turned their backs on me as soon as they found appropriate..."
"What are you talking about?..." Naruto's eyes narrowed in scepticism at the man. His spirits, with or without the inclusion of Riegin depending on how you looked at it. Had always been his trusted companions and friends, he had earned their respect and they had always had his in return.
"That doesn't matter now..." Spedisie responded in a relaxed, easy voice. Brushing off any worries. "I have gained the power to destroy them all with a flick of my wrist if I wanted to. Even Riegin would fall against me now."
"If that's the case, why do you insist on hiding in the shadows?" Naruto smirked cockily at the odd eyed man, whose smiled fell at the small jab at him, his eyes held a small amount of annoyance and hatred, before he let out another echoing chuckle.
"Cheeky brat..." Spedisie laughed loudly, before calming considerably. "The only thing of worth in this cave is back the way you came, I left a small present for you in this cave as well. If you go back, you'll find it." Spedisie's eyes moved to smile one last time. "Until we met again." He spoke before a splash echoed through the cave. Where his feet once were was a pool of ink, slowly creeping towards Naruto.
Naruto stared at the puddle of ink, before looking back in the direction he came. 'If Spedisie tells me to go back...' He suddenly turned to the direction he was already going. 'I will continue moving forwards!' He assured himself in his mind.
Stepping around the puddle Naruto continued on with the torch in hand, guiding him through the dark of the caves, onto whatever fate held in store for him at the end of this tunnel.
Naruto stopped in his tracks as he stared at what was ahead, his interaction with Spedisie was long behind him, he had travelled further and further into the cave until he reached this dead end.
But it wasn't a dead end so to speak. The tunnel expanded into a circular small room, completely empty save for a desk made of stone at the far end from the entrance.
Naruto approached the stone desk, over it was two torches, which he promptly lit, giving himself that extra light. On the desk was a book, looking as if it was ready to fall apart. It looked years old, the cover was tattered and damaged. Carefully Naruto picked it up, gently blowing off the dust covering the front.
There was no name, no title, no indication who's this book was and what it was about. 'Easiest thing to do is to check it's contents.' Naruto nodded in his mind, picking a page in the book. 'I'll start with the last page, if this is a diary, the most recent entry will be there...'
He flicked to the final page of the book, sure enough, it was in fact a journal, yet no dates were given for each entry. So Naruto had no idea how old this book could be. He read the text of the final page under the flickering light of the fiery torches.
'It is time I leave this place, my home for the past six years. Here I have honed everything that makes me, me. I entered these caverns frail, and weak, and scared, and small. Now I leave them with strength.
A new home has been offered to me, one that I intend to accept, I have already come to terms with the idea that I would have to leave this home of mine someday, but I'm worried... I built these caverns, what will become of them once I leave?...
So I have left my statues in this cave to forever protect what I have accomplished here. They are my precious treasures, proof that my life has meant something so far. I pray that they will last for an eternity.'
'Incredible...' Naruto thought with utter surprise in his mind, exhaling deeply as he slowly closed the book once again. 'Someone did actually live up here, and what's more they created these caves...'
Naruto stared in astonishment at the book for a few more moments, until a high pitched scream echoed through the caves. Naruto's head snapped up quickly, looking down the entrance to the room. "That sounded like Levy?..." He muttered, before running out of the room, darting back down the corridors following the recurring screams.
Naruto charged into the large circular room, sure enough Levy and Evergreen were the source of the scream, both slightly bruised and covered in dirt. Levy was leaning against a wall cowering whilst Evergreen gritted her teeth, kneeling on one knee with her fist pressed into the ground. "My Stone Eyes do nothing against these things!" She screamed out in frustration.
Naruto looked across to where she was looking, and was utterly surprised he didn't see these things first.
It was an army of statues, gargoyle statues made of stone. And they were moving towards the two girls, they didn't move as he thought statues would, they walked quite comfortably, without strain or sluggish movements. The mass army were disfigured in ways, some shabby and broken, with chunks of themselves missing. Others, on the other hand were perfect, every detail was immaculate.
Yet they all seemed to hold the same design, two designs as a matter of fact. One was a smaller design, with large, menacing, bat-like wings, their mouths agape with their fangs baring, their eyes forming sinister, pupilless stares of fury, claws were bared and ready to rip apart flesh. There was no clothing detailed on this form, allowing the detail of a bony body to shine through. Their stone wings flapped heavily through the air, causing them to hover their weighty bodies above the rest of the stone army.
The other design were larger, if only be a couple of feet. With a much bulkier physique, these statues stood dressed in a glorious knight's armour, dressed from the neck down in armour detail befitting a royal warrior, however the face was still exposed, like the previous form, the mouth was agape with fangs bared, accursed fury filled eyes, bald head and pointy ears. Instead of wings these statues held a variety of stone weapons, stone axes, stone swords, stone pole-arms, stone spears, stone maces, and even stone scythes.
"What's going on!" Jet and Droy suddenly rushed into the room, probably hearing the two females screams and hurried to Levy's location. Their eyes instantly went wide in unison at the sight of the marching army of stone Gargoyle statues.
Again in unison they both let out high pitched screams of terror, louder than what either of the two females made, before jumping to Levy's side, one on each side of her.
Naruto looked behind him and sighed. 'Looks like I'll have to do this by myself...' He thought with a slightly annoyed expression. Before he looked down at the journal in his hand. 'I'll look into this later...' He mentally noted to himself as he placed the book in the small bag around his waist, before turning to the stone army.
"If you can fight, then fight." He spoke aloud to the other four, taking more of a battle stance, drawing a summon disc and his summon gun.
"Who put you in charge." He was caught by surprise when Evergreen stood next to him, a smirk on her face as she looked towards the stone army. "Just because my Stone Eyes have no affect doesn't mean I'm down for the count. I have many more defences at the ready."
Naruto smirked in return to her, giving her a small nod. Looking behind him, he saw that Levy, Jet and Droy seemed to have composed themselves, now all three of them had stood up, together as a team, Naruto nodded at them before turning back to the Gargoyles. "Let's begin!"
A/N: Yo! Rinne-Kami here, saying I'M BACK BABY!... no this was actually torture for me to write. I just couldn't muster the will to write for so long. I feel like this chapter is sloppy, underproduced, short and just in general bad.
We're nearing the end of the Drifting Mountains Arc, perhaps 1 or 2 more chapters and it will be complete, then we enter the Phantom Lord Canon Arc
I feel like you guys deserve an explanation as to why my writing has been stalled, and why I may be leaving Fanfiction and giving all my stories to DeathGodSlayer. I have been in a state of spiralling depression, nothing seems to be working for me, now I'm not usually one to get depressed, rather the opposite I'm usually the one to tell people to get the fuck over it. But these last few months have not been easy, and I have begun to lose my love for Fanfiction, both in writing and reading. And my state has seriously affected my writing skills, and it's unfair to shot such shotty pieces of chapters for you guys to rad in front of you.
Should I not return, and DGS takes my stories, I don't want you to worry. DGS is my best friend in real life as well, he lives literally just down the street from me, I didn't discover that he was DGS until we started talking about things, and he said that he has a FF account called DGS, and thats how it happened, anyway. I wanted you to know that even if I personally do not write any further chapters, I am never too far away from them, DGS knows exactly where I planned on taking each of my stories and has contributed some excellent Ideas himself to them, i trust that they will be in good hands. And should I return, he's perfectly happy to return them to me. Hell I may take some time away from Fanfiction then return and start anew. But whatever happens, I'm glad you all have enjoyed my stories, and I hope you will continue to enjoy them no matter what. Things will get better for me eventually. :)
Anyways, the plan for next chapter, will be specifically battling the Gargoyles, Yirrow will reutrn with a new form and new powers. And I hope to introduce a new summon disc and OC character very soon.
Perhaps for the final time...
Rinne-Kami, out...
