Chapter 91: The Light That Destroys Shadows
A/N: Double Update, to celebrate Thanksgiving! Don't miss the previous chapter!
Previously, on "The Guild Next Door" . . .
Pierce looked back at the Poison wizard in surprise, noticing his cocky smirk, and wondered; 'Did he just read my mind?'
"Yeah, I did. I also heard the thoughts of those two bumbling fairies," Cobra snorted. "That's how I knew they were coming,"
"That could have just been a variety of Ward Magic," Pierce said, testing the waters, before thinking; 'But if you can really hear my thoughts, you'll know something that I never tell anyone but my closest friends; that the identity of my father -'
"Is Jarod Blastreyne," Cobra finished his sentence, even as he thought the words. Pierce blanched. There was no way he could have known that any other way . . it was true. Cobra could hear his thoughts.
Previously, on "Crowns of Thorns" . . .
Not far away, Kinana suddenly stiffened. "You think that, even if you fall, your friends will be able to help you? There's no way you can win believing in something so naive," she recited.
"This again, huh?" Pierce observed. "Can you tell where Erik is?" he asked.
Shivering, Kinana weakly raised an arm and pointed to their right and downwards. "This way," Pierce guided Raya, who moved in the appropriate direction. "We're coming to get you, old friend,"
-[CoT]-
Cobra and Erza paused in their fight, taking breaths and sizing each other up.
But that was when he heard it. That voice . . the voice he hadn't heard in seven years . . . "We're coming to get you, old friend,"
"Who said that?" he questioned, looking around wildly. However, he heard someone lunging towards him and narrowly dodged Erza's spear. "I don't have time for this!" he shouted, roughly shoving her away and searching the area around him. It couldn't be. He had vanished, seven years ago, along with the being he cared about most . .
"You'd think that in a serious fight like this you could do your opponent the courtesy of paying attention!" Erza snapped, attacking him again. Again, Cobra dodged.
And then he saw them. An orange speck high above, vaguely recognisable as a flaming bird. Coming towards him. "No way," he breathed, his eyes widening.
Erza followed his line of sight and paused. "That's Pierce. He is a wizard from the Phoenix's Eye guild. Why are you so interested?" Her first instinct was to attack while he was distracted, but the Requip Mage restrained herself. Something else was going on here, and she wouldn't interrupt.
"But . . he's dead . . and he's here . . and he's with her," Cobra stilled.
Barely a minute later, Raya flapped and landed on one of the adjacent struts that the two were fighting on. Pierce immediately dismounted, along with a lithe, purple-haired girl that Cobra didn't immediately recognise . . and yet she was so familiar . . .
"Erik," Pierce greeted him, looking concerned.
"How can you be here?" the Och member demanded. "You died! Half of your guild died! Cubelios died!"
"Actually, we were all sent six years forwards in time," Pierce corrected him, before peering at him in curiosity. "What happened to your eye?"
"I got rid of it. Not like it matters. I only need my hearing, anyway," Erik shook his head. "But why does this girl here sound so much like Cubelios?" he demanded, not wanting to deal with small talk when important things were going on.
Pierce frowned. In the month and a half that he'd spent sailing back to Fiore on board the Fowl Iris, he'd had a lot of time to think. He knew that most of the Oracion Och, with the exception of Mylene and Brain himself, had been slaves in the Tower of Heaven. Which was ruled by cultists and dark wizards. And he'd come up with a hypothesis. "In the Tower of Heaven, the dark wizards that held you and your friends captive. Did they ever perform magical experiments on slaves?"
Erik blinked. He hadn't anticipated this line of questioning. "Yeah, all the time. Why?"
Erza stiffened at mention of the Tower. But she didn't respond, knowing that she had no place in these proceedings.
"You first met Cubelios there, in the Tower, didn't you?" Pierce further confirmed, and the maroon-haired man nodded confirmation. "Why all the questions?"
"Do you think the cultists there might have been interested in turning a human into a snake?" the Tamer addressed the matter.
Erik stiffened, looking at Kinana with new eyes. "You . . mean?"
Nervously, the young woman peered at him, taking a hesitant step forwards. "It's you, isn't it?" she muttered. "You're the one whose voice I've been hearing,"
The Poison wizard stared, slowly nodding. "It is you . . . all this time, I missed you so much, and all I ever had to do was wait," he murmured. Erik looked away, suddenly unable to meet her eyes. "I've done such horrible things . . I thought the world hated me, but . . what the hell kind of sick joke is this? I wait for years and nothing happens, but I go back to the darkness and suddenly you two are here again? It's too . ." he paused, and frowned. "Convenient," he settled on, suddenly regarding the two with suspicious hostility.
Kinana paused, drawing back. "What's wrong?"
Cobra growled, recalling something that Pierce had told him. The Tamer only told his closest friends the identity of his father. If his suspicions were correct and this Pierce was an imposter, then he wouldn't be able to answer that question. "What is your father's name? What's his role, and where is he now?" If this boy couldn't answer that perfectly . .
Pierce blinked, surprised. "Alright," he frowned. "My father is Jarod Blastreyne. Former Guild Master of the Dark Guild Severed Tusk. Last I checked, he was still in prison, but to be honest? I don't really care anymore," he admitted. "And you're asking because when we first met, I told you that only my closest friends know that, and if I was a fake, I wouldn't. Right?"
"Right," the Dragon Slayer nodded, his suspicions assuaged.
"And I know your name, Erik. You told me once that I'm the only person who calls you by your actual name. That should also prove my identity," the Phoenix told him.
Erik nodded. "I believe you," he confirmed.
"Then what are you going to do?" Erza interrupted, and the three suddenly looked at her. "Touching as this is, you're still part of the dark guild that is currently trying to destroy the world. Do you still want to go through with that?"
The man blinked, thinking to himself. Something occurred to him. "Hey. If you're here, then your guild's baby dragon is too, right?"
Pierce chuckled. He had almost forgotten Grace's old nickname; 'Phoenix's Eye's Baby Dragon'. "Yeah, she is,"
"Well, that settles it, doesn't it?" Erik declared, clenching his fists. "I can't destroy this world. Not when it's the one that my family lives in,"
"Then take your seal off the Infinity Clock," Erza commanded. The maroon-haired man frowned. "I can't just snap my fingers and make it disappear. The Clock has a seal for every member of the Neo Oracion Och that hasn't been defeated yet,"
"Well, what if you weren't a member of the Neo Oracion Och?" Kinana posed. The three wizards blinked, and looked at her. "What did you say?" Pierce blinked.
"I think she's onto something," Erza nodded. "Where's your guild mark?" she asked her former foe. With a flash, her Lightning Empress Armour vanished, and suddenly she was dressed in an apron and wielding what looked like a tattoo removal kit.
Erik just smiled and started to take off his shirt.
(And Kinana may or may not have swooned at his muscles!)
-[CoT]-
Meanwhile, the rest of the assault team of Phoenix's Eye were trying to navigate the interior of the Infinity Castle.
"This place is an architect's nightmare," Artorias observed, looking around.
"Do you know where we're going?" Donna directly questioned Sarph. This entire situation was putting her on edge. It hadn't escaped her notice that this entire mess was being caused by a clock, when the words that haunted her referred to clocks and time and had been spoken by a man named 'Clockwork'.
"That way," the golden knight philosophically replied, gesturing in the direction that the group was walking.
Grace appeared from a rift, leaping past them, before pulling open another bend in space and leaping into it - only to bounce off it as though she had just walked into a wall. "Damnit," she frowned, dispersing the rippling breach in reality.
"What happened?" Artorias asked, concerned.
"That's not just a wall. It's all solid," Grace shook her head, gesturing at the side of the corridor they were progressing along. "I tried to get through it, but there's no 'through it' to get to,"
"Whoops," Donna sweatdropped.
"No matter. We'll keep going," Sarph declared.
The group walked onwards. Artorias frowned, watching Sif. The wolf seemed on edge, regularly glancing in every direction.
"Something's wrong with Sif," Donna observed. The Blood wizard nodded, agreeing. "I wonder what she senses? It's a shame that Pierce is absent. He could probably interpret," he chuckled. The girls giggled with him, but Artorias didn't miss the absence of Sarph's accompanying chuckle. "Didn't you like the joke, Sarph?" he questioned, looking around. But there was no sign of the golden knight. "Sarph?"
Donna and Grace looked around too. "Where'd he go?" the Electrian wondered.
"Be on your guard. The Clock may be trying to separate us. Both of you, take my hand," Artorias commanded, extending his arms. Grace clung to his left arm, and Artorias tensed a little, expecting Donna to take his right. But the anticipated contact never came.
"Donna?" Grace blinked, looking around.
The Blood Mage frowned, keeping Sif in his sights and Grace's hand in his. "Stay back to back. We can't be surprised if our fields of vision cover all 360 degrees," Grace nodded, spinning and covering his back, leaving inches of space between them that were cast into shadow.
The two continued onwards, watching their surroundings. "Show yourself!" Artorias challenged.
"If you insist," a voice echoed rom the room, and suddenly, a hand was around both of their necks. Grace screamed, and Artorias gritted his teeth, clutching at the black fingers pressed against his jugular. 'How did he get between us?' the Blood wizard silently questioned. Focusing, he targeted the blood that was in his enemy's fingers. Surely, he could force them to unclench . . . but there was nothing. "What?" he questioned, his customary veil of indifference broken by confusion.
"You're trying to manipulate my blood, aren't you?" their assailant hissed, and his grip tightened. Grace squirmed. "Well, I'm sorry to say that that won't work. I left that behind a long time ago,"
"What do you mean by that?" Artorias squirmed, still struggling against his grip. Meanwhile, Grace stopped moving and closed her eyes, focused, feeling every fibre of her being. She had an idea, but if it was going to work, she'd need to warp space with surgical precision.
"You remember me. Don't you?" the voice hissed.
Artorias would have shrugged if he could move. "I've fought a lot of psychopaths. You can't expect me to remember every last one,"
"Even a phoenix of blood cannot fight his own shadow,"
The Phoenix stiffened. "You're right. I do remember you,"
Canceller chuckled. "I'm glad. It will make eating you so much more satisfy - what?" Suddenly, the pressure was released, and Artorias dashed forward, away from the attacker. But Canceller was otherwise occupied, looking away from him in confusion. "Where did she go?"
"I'm the Reality Dragon Slayer! The world itself bends to my will!" Grace challenged, clenching her fists and growling from a few feet away.
Artorias grinned as he realised what had happened. Contrary to popular belief, Grace's abilities weren't conventional teleportation. She was able to manipulate the fabric of space itself, to take two points in three-dimensional space and temporarily exchange their positions. She must have carefully taken the exact area that her body occupied and exchanged it with a point of equal shape and size down the corridor. Which . . he sweatdropped, realising that this new ability basically was teleportation.
"I know. It's the reason that I want your magic so much," Looking back at Canceller, Artorias raised a curious eyebrow.
Before, the man had been near-constantly cloaked in a hood and cape. It obscured his body, but he was at least noticeably human. Now, though . . his body seemed more amorphous. Less distinct. He couldn't see any trace of exposed skin anywhere. It was as though Canceller had become a living shadow. "You look different," he noncommittally observed.
Something shifted in Canceller's body. Artorias thought he might be looking at him. "The Neo-Oracion Och have all made sacrifices. I'm no exception,"
Grace tilted her head curiously. "What did you sacrifice?"
"My flesh," the wizard murmured, before he suddenly lunged towards Grace. She flicked her hand, and suddenly fell through the floor, landing behind Canceller and near Artorias.
"This is serious," the little girl murmured.
"I agree," the boy nodded, unsheathing «Sleepless Dream». Sif growled, and the three Phoenixes watched their foe carefully.
"You said you were going to eat me. What does that mean?" Grace checked.
"It means this," Something shifted in Canceller's body, and suddenly the faces of their two missing friends emerged from his shadowy form. Donna spluttered, eyes frantic. "What's going on?"
"He's absorbing our magic!" Sarph burst out, trying without success to break free, and panting heavily.
"Indeed I am," Canceller hissed, raising an arm. "And I can use it. Archive!" he declared, surging forwards as his arm launched golden lasers at the wizards. Sarph gritted his teeth, before, with a roll of darkness, the two trapped wizards vanished. Grace gasped. "No way," Artorias pulled her aside, and they narrowly dodged his swing.
"It's that scythe. I think it was called Gluttony. It lets him consume other wizards' magic," Artorias recalled.
"What scythe?" Grace questioned. Artorias blinked, and realised she was right. Canceller was weaponless.
"So, you remember it!" Canceller smiled, folding his shadowy arms. "But I don't need it anymore. Indeed, I have become Gluttony,"
Artorias raised a challenging eyebrow.
"I sacrificed my corporeal form. I melded with the magic of my weapon. And now what remains of my body is an endless void that will drain the magic and the life of all who enter it," the man seemed to smile.
"We need to get them out of there," the Blood wizard murmured.
Grace frowned. "I might be able to use my spatial magic to breach his interior dimension. But how do we fight a shadow?"
"Leave that to me," Artorias gritted his teeth. Blood slicked along «Sleepless Dream», generating a long, flowing cord extending from the end of the weapon, which ended in a heavy, spiked ball. The boy charged forwards, bringing his mace back for a pass.
"That's not going to work," a voice piped up. Artorias ignored it, but Grace started, looking around. A blue/green falcon appeared before her, hovering, before perching on her shoulder. "Oh, hey Quarla," she greeted the yokai.
For a second, they watched Artorias try fruitlessly to hit the shadowy man. He was certainly fast enough, and made contact several times, but on every occasion it simply passed through Canceller as though . . well, as though he were made of shadow.
"I don't know who that man is or what he's done to himself, but somehow he's converted his entire body into ectoplasm," the falcon tutted, cocking her head disdainfully.
"What's that?" Grace questioned.
"It's what yokai like me are made of. Ectoplasm . ." Quarla paused, wondering how to explain it to Grace. "It's sort of like it exists at a tangent to the real world. It's present, and it can be seen, but how tangible it is tends to vary,"
Grace watched Canceller dish out a punch that made contact with Artorias' shoulder. "So he's only solid when he wants to be?"
"Basically, yes," the falcon confirmed. "And the only thing that can make contact with ectoplasm regularly is more ectoplasm,"
And then it hit her. "You're made of ectoplasm, right?" Grace eagerly asked.
"Um . . yes," Quarla confirmed.
"So you can fight him!"
"Are you out of your mind?" the small yokai asked. "What do you expect me to do? Peck him to death?"
And suddenly Grace had it. "Fuse with me," she breathed.
Quarla spluttered, shocked. "Excuse me?"
"Yokai Unison. Pierce and Kit can do it. Why not us?" the Dragon Slayer questioned. "You already did it once, back in Ghoulia,"
"That wasn't Yokai Unison. I just helped you release your magic. What you're talking about," Grace blinked, realising Quarla looked nervous. "It's completely different,"
Artorias grunted as Canceller knocked him back. He cast a glance in their direction, raising an eyebrow.
"I need to help them," Grace protested, shooting her friend a pleading look.
Quarla gulped as their eyes met. She paused, considering it. ". . It might not work," she pointed out.
"I'll take the chance. It's worth it," Grace resolutely retorted.
Quarla nodded, and spread her wings, before leaping into the air. Grace watched as she swooped upwards, turned on a dime, and dove back towards her. And, all of a sudden, she glowed white, before striking Grace and dissipating into her chest. For her part, the Dragon Slayer relaxed, doing her best to allow Quarla to enter her unimpeded.
Like a wave, unfamiliar energy flowed through her. Grace gasped as her entire nervous system tingled, a strange, but pleasant sensation. Suddenly, the world looked different; colours more vibrant, shadows more clear. And then she felt light-headed, as something else came forward and took control of her body. Her «Dragonwing Dress'» twin trailing ruffs glowed as excess magic flowed into them, and lengthened, coating themselves with green feathers and becoming long, semi-prehensile tendrils, quickly accompanied by several blue/green tailfeathers from the small of her back. Her left arm tingled, before erupting with blue feathers that coated her shoulder down to her forearm, while her hand became scaled and grew into avian talons. Quarla, having taken control of Grace's body, looked at the asymmetry in surprise as her feet became similarly scaled.
"Hey, it's like my Dragon Force form. But with feathers!" Grace observed. "Is that so?" Quarla questioned with surprise, before nodding. "I suppose I activated the same magic circuits, then,"
Artorias coughed, narrowly dodging a knife-like blow from Canceller.
"On it," Quarla declared, throwing their body forwards. Their shadowy adversary turned and regarded them. "I don't know what you -" The punch they landed knocked him backwards, off his feet. "How did you -" But the combined pair didn't let up, leaping upwards and dealing a crushing blow to his chest.
Artorias watched in amazement. "Not bad," he agreed. Sif sat at his heels.
"I see," Canceller frowned, before raising an arm, and, suddenly, in his hand, was one of Donna's crystal keys. "Open, Gate of the Battlefield! Mars!" A doorbell rang out, and the armoured spirit manifested, brandishing a sword. "Celestial Spirit Mars, at your . ." he barked, before looking around in confusion. "Where's my mistress?"
"He ate her," Artorias informed the Celestial Deity, gesturing at Canceller.
"And since I wield her magic, that makes me your Master," the shadowy, humanoid mass leered. "Kill them," he commanded, before throwing up a screen of Archive magic to block an attack from Quarla.
Instead, Mars blinked in confusion. "That's . . not how a contract with a Celestial Spirit works," he pointed out.
Canceller paused. ". . . It isn't?"
"No. But if you're holding my Master hostage -" Suddenly a spear was in his hands, and he lashed at Canceller, face twisted with fury. "- then you are my enemy!" The Och member, though, didn't even try to dodge, letting the weapon pass through him.
"Only I can hit him," Quarla told the Spirit, and he raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? In that -"
"Close, Gate of the Battlefield," Canceller declared, and Mars vanished before he could finish his sentence.
"Damnit," the united wizard/yokai muttered. "Hang back," Quarla commanded Artorias and Sif. "We'll handle this,"
Reluctantly, Artorias nodded. He was pragmatic; he could tell when he would only be a hindrance. Obeying her master, Sif patiently sat at his heels.
Reality rippled around Quarla's borrowed hands, and the yokai grinned. "This is fun," Suddenly, she was above Canceller, and delivered a crushing double kick to the back of his head region. The man collapsed into a shadowy mass that spread across the floor. "I'll consume your power!" he declared, opening wide in preparation to swallow them both.
Grace briefly surged forwards in their combined consciousness and splayed her fingers. "Reality Dragon's Null Space!" Since the fight with fake-XaXa and Necrozma, she had perfected the technique of cancelling out gravity in a given area. Undaunted, she hung in the air, looking down at Canceller.
Canceller snarled, before surging upwards - and suddenly found himself above the Dragon Slayer. He barely had time to register that he had just passed through a spatial warp before Quarla, having wrested control of Grace's powers, fell downward, into a rift, and flew at him from the side, delivering another strong blow from her left fist. Canceller was knocked backwards, sending his shadowy body spilling out of the rift it was still partly submerged in.
And then Quarla flexed Grace's fingers and closed the spatial distortion. With Canceller still inside it.
The dark wizard screamed in agony as space itself tore his body in half. Quarla landed, a menacing glimmer in her eyes as the severed bottom part of Canceller's body rapidly broke down and washed away like sludge, leaving a seemingly catatonic Sarph and Donna lying on the ground. A few metres away, still screaming in agony, the remnants of the dark wizard hit the ground, taking the form of the head, shoulders and chest of the man he had once been. Callously stepping over Grace's guildmates, Quarla advanced, reality flickering and distorting around her fingers.
And then she stopped, feeling strange inside. "What are you doing?" she muttered, before spasming. And, with a massive flash of light, the transformation that had overtaken Grace in the Yokai Unison reversed as the girl physically threw Quarla out of her body, leaving the falcon to crash to the ground a couple of metres away.
"What am I doing? What are you doing?" Grace demanded, looking uncharacteristically cross. "You can't use my powers like that! It's dangerous! Look at him!" she gestured to the emancipated remains of their foe.
"He's our enemy. It's the easiest way to dispatch him," Quarla snorted, oooking confused and annoyed. "You want to win, don't you? To save your friends? Well, we just did. And I was about to finish it,"
"Not like that!" Grace vehemently shook her head. "I-I mustn't use my powers like that, it's too dangerous,"
And, suddenly, Artorias was there, resting a hand on Grace's shoulder. "No, you shouldn't. Restraint is a good thing, and you don't seem to have any of that," he frowned disapprovingly at Quarla.
The yokai spluttered, annoyed. "Don't make me the bad guy here! I don't know why you don't want to use your powers to their full extent, but it works. We won. You should be happy about that,"
"If we win like that, then we're no better than them!" Grace retorted, looking disturbed.
Quarla sighed, before huffing in irritation. "Who said we have to be?" With that, she was gone, sinking into the floor.
Canceller moaned, and Sif crouched over him with a warning growl.
Artorias looked around. "Well, so much for our offensive," he muttered in irritation, before carefully lifting Sarph. "Help me get these two back outside. The Magic Council can clean him up," he gestured to Canceller.
"Right," Grace agreed, lifting Donna.
"Lync should still be outside," Artorias asserted, setting off. Sif used her broad back to help her master carry their guildmate.
As they left, an echo reverberated through the Infinity Castle. "Warning: Another seal has been erased. Now only two remain,"
A/N
A/N
Finally! Been looking forward to this fight for a while. Grace's first Yokai Unison . . and it ended badly, as well as what's arguably the first demonstration of the true capabilities of her powers.
I'm sure people can see why they scare her.
It only took ninety chapters, too! XD Also, Canceller's back. People might remimember him as an OC submitted by Sushiforsale back when I was accepting OCs, and . . okay, we probably won't see him again until Crime Sorciere recruits for former Och members . . assuming the Magic Council can capture him in his new state. Actually, now that I think about it I have a couple or ideas for where to take his character . . but that's for later.
But the most important thing about this chapter is that Erik's back! Now, to be honest I was considering making him fight Pierce again. He could have not believed Pierce was the real deal, he could have not cared, I even flirted with the idea of Klodoa showing up and mind-controlling him. But ultimately I decided there would be no point. Erik and Pierce fighting would have just padded the story out unnecessarily. And . . since I really want to get to Grand Magic Games ASAP (and I'm sure I'm not the only one), I really didn't feel like padding out the story with a totally unnecessary fight that serves little to no greater purpose in the overall narrative.
I hope no one's too disappointed. (And anyone who is, I assure you that next chapter will make up for it in every way.) And regardless, there'll be plenty of opportunities to see Erik in action in the future.
Peace!