Last chapter of this season, unless I post like once a month.
Lucy was on top of the roof of the Hotel she was residing in. She was contemplating the red skies and the low sun, as she lived through the moments of her day. To say it was an eventful day was an understatement, she met the Guild of the cursed men; she saw Lyserg, who was thought to be the supportive character who gave the plans, completely destroy a Rune Barrier with ease; she saw Horohoro move faster than even Laxus' lightning, as he single-handedly defeated half of the cursed members; she saw his wife, Medusa, attack the rest with her lances; she saw demons, real-life demons; and she saw death right in front of her eyes.
It was more than obvious she wasn't mentally prepared for this kind of mission. She thought it'd be easier for some reason. "Because lifting a curse just screams easy. Damn, now I'll have to fight someone who is on the same class as the monster Gray lost his parents and his master to. How will I survive it? I'm not strong enough, even with the training I've been having, it's not enough. At least Horohoro informed me that mine wasn't that cruel, so I guess you could call that lucky, huh? HrrrrrrrRAH, and then I'll have to go back to the guild where everyone will ask about the damn break-up I had with Natsu! Damn, I swear, I just want to disappear, right-" her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone opening the door that lead her to the roof. She saw Laxus emerge from the dark room 'wearing' his large, brownish coat with light brown, spiky fur trimming, as it was only supported by his shoulders.
"Hey," the blonde man said, with a low, gruff tone of speaking, "You okay?"
"Hmm, I guess not, can you really be 'okay' after today?" Lucy sighed and turned back to the horizon.
"It's going to get dark pretty soon, maybe we sh-"
"How do you do it, Laxus? You saw the same things as I did, and yet here we stand, I'm getting depressed and you look your unfazed, normal self. How can you handle it all? Is that what six years of experience do to a man?"
He sighed and got closer to the edge of the hotel. He sat down on that edge and patted the place next to him, invinting Lucy to sit down with him. She hesitated a bit, but complied and went to sit next to the man. While both were watching the beautiful sunset, Laxus finally said, "Well, honestly, I don't know, I guess at the time, I wasn't making any sort of emotional connection with those two, so his death made me act like pretty much the same. Of course, I might also just be repressing this for some reason, you may have to talk to a psychologist if you really want to know that."
Lucy smiled softly, amused by the way Laxus' mind works, as it doesn't go through the trouble to even focus on itself long enough to try to understand its own way of working, but can so easily focus and catch small changes around him, "But, Laxus, how do you feel about the demons? Aren't you scared?"
"I'm afraid they might try to use the innocents' lives, but I'm not scared they might kill me. I train as a mage all day long to prevent that from happening, and I trust you do the same, don't you, Lucy?"
"But what if it's not enough?"
"It simply will have to be, besides it's not like we'll be attacked right away. True they might be demons, but they know better than that. They explicitly said they wanted to see the city, therefore they wouldn't want to risk their stay by fighting us. I'm even betting on the fact we'll be the ones looking for them in the end."
"Speaking of the end, when will this mission end? When all demons are defeated?"
"Yeah, the ideal would be ending this in three weeks. That way, we can still catch the announcement for the S-class Exams. But, let me guess, you don't want to go that soon because you don't want to face your friends after running out on them so suddenly," Laxus grinned at her, making her blush slightly. He, then, noticed some goosebumps growing on the blonde's uncovered arms, "Shouldn't you be wearing a coat or something? We're in the middle of the winter."
"Yeah, but it was warm at midday and I haven't been in my room ever since," her response made Laxus sigh, as he gave her his own coat, leaving him with only his purple shirt and Lucy with a blush quite intense.
"Why are you blushing so much? Nobody ever gave you their jacket when you were cold?"
"That's not it, this has a very intense smell... your smell," Lucy's face was as red as a tomato by now, and Laxus also had a small blush on him.
"What do I smell like?" Laxus muttered, avoiding eye-contact, "I always smell others just fine, but I can never tell my own."
"There's... huh... the smell from your colone, which you should know what it smells like, and something like... petrichor? Yeah, definitely petrichor, which I always found very smoothing, to be honest. I associate this smell with the afternoons I used to spend just writing or relaxing, and I love to fall asleep with the sound of the rain, so it actually makes me a bit more serene-"
"Lucy, I would advice you to completely shut up now, you're getting way too comfortable with my scent," Lucy blushed furiously, "I guess that means I can really be the man to make you calm down."
"Stop it, I'm already worried as it is, this is really not the time to think about relationships or one-night cases."
"I'm flattered you'll be considering me as a boyfriend, honestly, but I wasn't exactly asking you for any of those things. Anyways, we have to go talk with the others, seeing how we will plan our next course of action."
Lucy nodded and got up. She noticed that even at full height, a good portion of the coat Laxus had given her was being dragged over the floor, and she started feeling very small. Especially when Laxus went to be next to her, and she had to tilt her head up to be able meet his face instead of his shoulder. Yup, this guy was just that tall, she could reach his shoulder. Add to that the fact he was quite muscled, had blonde hair and blue eyes (resulting in very handsome man), a calming scent, a good sense of humour and an over-all great personality (once you get used to him) and Lucy has what she might have called the perfect boyfriend when she was a teenager.
"Oh, good, you're finally here," Lyserg started, and Lucy looked around the room, seeing a new figure, the woman called Bianca. Lucy couldn't help but start staring at the woman, "I know that Bianca being here might be a big surprise, but I found it necessary as the woman has the same mark as we do. Speaking of which, I find it necessary that each of us know all the pairings made. Just raise your hands and I'll write the pairing here," he said, and then made a black board and a piece of chalk appear out of seemingly nowhere.
"Where did that come from?" Bianca asked, voicing the thoughts of Laxus and Lucy as well.
"I made this out of thin air because why no-"
"He's a Requip Mage with not many armours or weapons and a really big quantity of magic, resulting in a lot of empty space in his pocket dimension, which he fills with other random objects," Horohoro interrupted his brother.
"Anywaaay, now we have the pairings, now, we'll tell you three," Lyserg pointed at Bianca, Laxus and Lucy, "some important details about the kind of demon you will be facing, as we, Horohoro, Marie, Medusa and I, have already seen them in battle and do not need the information. So, Laxus, you have Saber, a strong woman who is capable of using the water element and has two blades that she can use, but her main strength lies in her agility and grace, it is fairly hard to predict where the next sword is going to be, but with your heightened senses, you should be able to do fine with her.
"Lucy, yours is Rider, who is an expert at using her flying capabilities to get the higher ground advantage, and she has a halberd and can use the wind element, so try to be as careful as you when fighting her. Until such a time arrives, you will keep your training with Horohoro and Laxus.
"And Bianca, yours is Caster, who can be truly difficult to fight with since he most likely knows the kind of magic you use and can find the most perfect counters to them. But he usually creates what Elena calls 'Labyrinths' where you'll be transported to a different dimension. In each dimension, Caster displays a different form of himself, as well as different types of monsters that will help him to beat you, who he calls 'Minions'. He can't transform the Labyrinth, but he can leave the dimension and form another afterwards, so you can't get used to the traps you might find, but don't worry too much about that, it costs him a lot of Ethernano to create a Labyrinth, to create two in a row is something that might be to expendable to use. Anyone else has anything to add?"
"Yes," Medusa said, "I believe this is the time in which we explain our different magics in a more detailed manner. Everyone knows by now what a Shaman or a Requip Mage are, but the others should give a brief explanation to the new girl about each one's powers. In exchange. of course, you, Bianca, will tell us your type of magic. To start, I'm a witch. A witch is someone that doesn't possess Ethernano and, in order to get that kind of power, kills a beast and drinks its blood. In case you don't know, a beast is an animal who has magic, like the famous Exceeds and Dragons. I killed a magical snake when I was very young and gained my powers doing from the fight. Next, Marie, you can go, now."
"Wait, hang on a second, you defeated a beast when you didn't even have magic when you were a teenager?!" Lucy asked with incredulity, as if knowing Laxus and Bianca were thinking the same thing.
"I was part of a group, call it a cult if you will, where we were given the choice as children to pick a fighting style and maybe a weapon we would want to use to defeat a beast. After doing and mastering my part of the training, I went to find a beast when I was eight, so I wasn't even a teenager. I found one and made it bleed, but I couldn't kill it with my abilities, so I quickly drank its blood in the middle of the battle to gain some sort of magical power and was then able to defeat it. Now, are you done?" the trio nodded and Marie cleared her throat.
"Good," she said with her cheerful voice, "Well, in a nutshell, 'Soul Weapon Magic', or 'Weaponsmith Magic' as some might know it as, is a magic that opens three different paths the user can follow. There's the Warrior, a mage forges his blade that will be able to turn into a different, stronger weapon when he wants; the Angel, where it is forged a weapon of choice that can unlock a different magic or special capability; and the Demon, in which you forge a blade that can make you transform into a 'monster', to put it simply, kind of like a Take-Over magic. These transformations are called 'Releases' and their appearances and powers differ on the person who do it. One also shouldn't be able to control all three types of this magic, unless he sacrifices the sight of one of his eyes, which means he gains the ability of seeing the weapons of his soul and pick the form he wants to take. I did this ritual over something that is of no concern at the moment. Now, that is all there is to know about my magic, and, from the cameras around town, we should all know Laxus' and Lucy's kind of magic, so all there's left is for you, Bianca."
Said woman sighed and closed her eyes, before starting, "I'm a warlock. A warlock is someone with the capability of using curses, even though they're more commonly found in Zeref's Demons. With the growth of the black curse, what we, as a group called these black marks, we were more open to use this type of ability. They derive from a different kind of emotions, while the Mages get stronger as their love or admiration grows, these curses' power grows as our despair and loneliness grows. I see now that those demons only basically introduced the negative emotions in our minds to make our curses grow stronger."
"Does that mean, if we do defeat the demons, you will stop being a warlock?" Lucy asked, worry in her feautures.
"No," Lyserg answered, knowing the answer from Bianca would be wrong and answer something 'noble' like not caring about her own fate, "once the black curses disappear, that does not mean the negative emotions will disappear, as everyone has them. The curse you have will weaken, sure, but there is something you can do about it. All demons, even the ones we're about to fight, use curses, and yet they are just as strong as us mages can be. That is because they know how to feel the negative emotions without being overrun by them. You just have to have control over them, and you'll be able to use your magic just as well as any other mage. Of course if you do want to lose the curse you have, you just have to forget you even had it in the first place, and live your life just like any other human. However, if you ask me, that last option is way worse than the alternative, as you lose your chance of protecting the ones you love. All you have to do to be a strong warlock is the same thing a strong shaman has to do, and calm down to the point of not being overrun by his own emotions. We, as mages, are the only ones to have that luxury, but it can backfire as well, we can be overly sentimental and let ourselves be easily mad over even mocking a close friend we might have."
Everyone stopped and thought about what Lyserg said, and Laxus soon said, "Now, in an unrelated business, how did you get out of that rune? You said something having to do with the force of a weapon, but I couldn't follow the logic," this sentence made Lyserg sigh, much to Laxus' annoyance, but he tried to shrug it off.
"Well, basically," Medusa said, before Lyserg would say anything else that would compromise the unity of the group, "say you enter a barrier, but part of you still out of the said barrier. The rune's walls won't cut through that part, they will go from the sides. So, it is true that you can't destroy the rune from outside or the inside, but you can destroy it from within, which is where that bodypart is. By running ethernano through the part you have within the barrier, you'll be disrupting its structure, and can, with enough quantities, destroy it. When he said he used simple physics to destroy the barrier, he lied. The wire that run through the building was just to cover the way he really destroy the barrier. The weapon he had was in fact a magical pendulum, one that can release magic by the user's wish, just like any other magical object. But he didn't want the enemy to know this, so he used the cover-up. That's basically it."
"Ohh, now that makes sense, the guy lied about the whole damn thing basically."
"Well, not everything, you should have known, what kind of Requip Mage would I be if I didn't have some magical weapons. Anyways, do you have anymore questions? We should really start planning the next fight."
"Who's Elena?" Lucy asked.
"She's my adopted sister-"
"AND MINE," Lyserg interrupted Horohoro, not liking how his brother just left him out of the picture.
"SHE taught me the Shaman Arts when we were around ten. Our parents found her stealing something from a store and decided to take care of her. It seems that her family had been in a competition with another Shaman family to see who had the best shamans. First it was a simple one, but the losing family wasn't happy, so they started to have battles between shamans. These fights eventually led to a death, which resulted in an all-out war between the two families and she was the only one left from either one. So she was left to roam the streets, and started to grow some bad emotions, mostly loneliness and despair. It led to the demons we're about to fight to appear in front of her. Instead of trying to fight them, she decided to get to know them, as she thought they''de be the only company she would have in a while. Now, she likes to let them out to see some cities around, to give them some freedom. And that's where we are now. When we ask her why she still does it, even though a lot of deaths were caused, she just says 'because why the fuck not'."
"But if you know them, can't you reason with them?" Bianca asked.
"I wish, but you saw what happened yesterday, they killed a man, they must suffer now," Horohoro said, angered over the demons' reckless action.
"But if we fight them, then we might get killed!" Bianca tried to reason.
"So? See this as just like any other fight you'll have as a warlock, you can't lose your temper over something so small like the fear of death. If you don't want to die, then worrying in the middle of the fight is probably not the best way to do it," Lyserg said, tired of useless rants like these. He wanted to get on with it and actually prepare for the battles ahead of them, as he knew that, with a good strategy, they would defeat them easily.
"What about the other people of this town? Did you even remember the defeated people when we passed the exit? Or rather, how all of them were missing? They took them, and who knows what they might do with them, we have to hurry for you to talk to them and take care of all this without any bloodshed!" Bianca said, but seeing the soulless eyes Lyserg and Horohoro had as they looked at her, as if saying 'That's not important right now', she saw who she was really working with, and left the room, running.
She could faintly hear people screaming 'Hey, where are you going' and what she heard next made her sure of her decision. 'Let her go.' That's when she really left the building.
However, there was a problem with that. No matter how much she ran, no exit would come. She kept on running and running, but no sign of exit or even a door was seen. "What's happening?" she asked, fear running through her body.
"Hihihihi," she heard, and turned back, to see many little creatures coming at her. She thought about what was happening, but quickly pushed the thought to the back of her mind and started fend off the different little creatures. They were small bugs with a big white head and butterfly-like wings. She didn't even stopped to consider the weird shape, and started right away to fend them off.
Her curse allowed her to quickly and selectively make the temperatures of the room colder, making her able to create ice from water vapour in the air, as long as she didn't freeze any living thing. As the room she was in seemed limitless, she didn't think she had to hold back, and started to send the creatures following her waves after waves of cold icicles. She was still quite busy, as the little things were impressively fast, before finally seeing the end of the battle. Soon, much to her disappointment, a second wave of creatures came, but these were different, these could attack. They also had the butterfly-like appearance and white head, but these ones had a stave of the form of a long rose, and they could use said stave to create some vines towards her, but nothing out of control.
Once the last one was destroyed, she was already quite tired, but happy, as the maze vanished and she saw herself in same spot, in the front of the room she had run from. Bianca still couldn't face the men that didn't want to solve this problem by talking, so she still left the hotel and went to where she had been living.
"Oooohh, we have warlock of the Cold Curse, huh. Heh, just my luck, I already know that curse. Still, I might have a bit of fun with her now, I just have to keep myself hidden from her sight," a man in a black robe said from the shadows. He was the very one Bianca would have to defeat, Caster.
THE END, for now anyways, you're still lucky I got this one in time, really you are.
As I stated in the last chapter, and again in the beginning of this chapter, I might not be able to upload again, since I wanted to focus a bit more on my studies this term. So, with all that said, I hope you are all enjoying this story, and I am still able to answer any questions you might have about this story, so if you catch any plot-hole or lack of something, do please tell me on the reviews. I would really appreciate it.
Also, I'm going to base Caster's power from the Madoka Magica's witches and minions, these ones belong to Gertrud.
Finally, this last part won't matter much, as I really just want to get to the 40 000 words, instead of sticking to a small 39 915 that I would have if I didn't do this. So, basically, to achieve my goal, the forty thousand mark, within this chapter, I have to keep writing words until I reach it. Now, I know you must be thinking I'm stupid to do this, to which I say: Done!
