Author's Note:
Hey all! It's Wednesday! And time for a new chapter! Sorry about leaving you all hanging like that, I hope this chapter makes up for it. ;D
As always, HUMONGOUS thanks to everyone who reviewed. You are all amazing! Big hugs and kisses to my repeat reviewers: illleashya, valerioux, quidditchChick6, stranger1999, sakshishetty3003, Perfect Memories, Lexi1994, Donthedarkdragon26, mikeczajk12, agirl0ntheinternet, Mihara, Leomae2.0, Lunar13, SunnieDayys, Firefly9917, and Anna5949.
Also, I just wanted to say that unfortunately life is catching up with me, I know, I know, shocker. But, that is to say that there have been some MAJOR stress factors lately in my life, and at a certain point stress just makes my brain shut down and I can't write. Soooooo, that means I've gotten a teeny, tiny, itsy, weensy, little bit behind in writing. O.O This is especially not good for me, because I seem to have this terrible habit of getting writer's block from time to time, especially when I get close to finishing something. That's why I try to keep way ahead of schedule...*sigh.*
So anyways, sometimes I may be a little late updating. Hopefully nothing too major, maybe just an extra day here, an extra day there, or at the worst, I might end up missing a Wednesday update and just go with Sunday for that week. But I promise to do my utmost to keep with the schedule as MUCH as possible.
Along those lines, I'm also going out of town next week to visit my grandparents for Christmas, so we'll see how that affects things.
Anywho...I hope you all enjoy this chapter. :D And be sure to check out the sneak peek at the end. ;D
Lucy, Sting, and Taurus charged out the door at top speed and barreled down the long hallway on the other side.
Unfortunately, without Rogue to follow, they were running blind at the moment and had no idea how to get to Yukino. They could always just run around and hope to stumble across her by accident, but that was a truly terrible plan. Way too many things could go wrong, and they would end up wasting a ton of time. So, Lucy quickly started racking her brain for a contingency plan.
Thankfully, a promising idea occurred to her before they even reached the end of the first hall, and she quickly told the others, "We need to find somewhere safe where I can summon Crux. I think he might be able to help us locate Yukino."
"Who's Crux?" Sting asked as they skidded around a corner and into a new hallway.
"He's one of my spirits. He can use archive magic, and hopefully he'll be able to map out this place with it."
"Gooood idea Miss Luuucy." Taurus lowed.
Sting nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sounds like a plan."
However, when they rounded the next corner, it was only to run headlong into a pack of demons coming their way.
"Shit! Open! Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!" with a flash of golden light, the centaur popped into being, but he didn't offer his normal cheerful greeting. Instead he had arrows already cocked.
It didn't take a genius to see who his targets were, and without anyone saying anything he had already shot a volley of deadly projectiles, taking out the low-leveled demons with ease. Only one survived the attack… a demonic hulk of a man that looked to be made of rock. He shook off every volley of arrows Sagittarius shot at him. It very quickly became apparent that he was going to be a pain in the ass and soon her archer spirit stopped shooting.
"Shall we, Miss Lucy?" Sagittarius asked calmly, offering her an open palm.
She nodded solemnly and gritted her teeth as she reached for him. He must have sensed her pain though, because instead of grabbing her palm, he reached past and gripped her forearm. He swung her up onto his back with ease, and she gripped tight with her knees.
"Ready Taurus?" she asked, and he lowed an affirmative.
With a jolt, Sagittarius was off at a dead run. He was fast, and they had already reached the enemy in a matter of seconds. As they passed the enemy, she hitched her feet under her and pivoted. Jumping off, she wrapped both legs around the demon's neck and threw them both to the ground using her super-strength. With a yell, he toppled over and performed an impressive faceplant, and she landed sitting on his head.
"Now Sagittarius!" she yelled.
From behind, four golden arrows shot – pinning each arm and leg to the ground – and she leapt off him. He shouted with pain and thrashed, but there was no escaping those particular arrows.
Right on cue, Taurus stalked forwards with his ax raised, looking every bit the part of an executioner. Eyes gleaming with rage, he showed no pity towards the demon, who was swiftly sent back to the demonic realm missing its head. Rock or no, apparently decapitation was sufficient to defeat a demon.
After that, Lucy quickly thanked Sagittarius and then sent him back to conserve power.
They still needed to put some distance between them and the 'extraction chamber' so they set off again at a dead run. Thankfully they didn't encounter any more demons, and after a bit they finally found an empty chamber where they could take shelter for a short time.
"This is probably good enough. Open! Gate of the Southern Cross! Crux!"
With a hoot and puff of feathers, the elderly owl spirit popped into being.
Not wasting time on pleasantries, Lucy hurried to ask if he could locate the prison cells in this stronghold, and Crux immediately closed his eyes and started snoring. As golden magic started swirling around him, Sting and Taurus stayed by the door to keep a lookout, and Lucy stuck with her spirit, silently urging him to work as fast as possible. If demons caught them right now, they would be cornered in this room. Sure, Taurus could bust down a wall, but if it was load-bearing that might cause a cave-in.
Those few minutes were nerve-wracking to say the least.
Then, finally, Crux woke with a loud hoot that made the two tightly wound mages jump at least a foot into the air, and even Taurus flinched pretty hard.
"Yes, I found what you were looking for. Here, I'll upload a map to you minds."
Touching both Sting and Lucy's foreheads with a taloned finger, golden magic swirled around them all for a moment, and then suddenly they had complete knowledge of the castle's layout firmly lodged into their minds.
"Wonderful! Thank you so much Grandpa Crux!"
With a hoot, he poofed back to the celestial realm, and once again they took off at a dead run, now following the map in their heads. It led them down a series of winding hallways, and somehow they managed to avoid anymore unexpected encounters along the way. To conserve power, Lucy sent Taurus back, but kept his star dress on for protection.
Soon enough, they came upon a series of barred cells, one of which held the limp form of a passed out celestial mage.
"Yukino!" Lucy gasped, and immediately kicked down the prison door.
The immense sound roused her somewhat, and she weakly pushed herself up. "L-Lucy? Is that you?"
Sting rushed forwards into the cell to check his girlfriend over. "Yeah, it's her, and me too. We're here to rescue you."
She made a soft noise of pure relief, and then she passed out again. Lucy didn't need to be a pharmaceutical mage to see that she had magic loss sickness. They must have drained her almost completely, but only kept her alive to probably repeat the process over and over again.
"Sting, can you carry her?"
"Of course! Just 'cause I can't use magic doesn't mean I don't still have my physical strength!"
Thankfully finding Yukino seemed to have galvanized a little more life into Sting, and he whisked the curvy white-haired mage up into his arms easily.
"Alright, now to get out of here…"
That map in their minds once again came in handy. Crux had really outdone himself. Instead of just giving them a set of directions to the cells, he'd given them a complete map of the building, which allowed them to also choose an escape route. As the rescue team, their first priority was to get Yukino to safety.
For a while they met very little resistance. The few demons they stumbled into were relatively low-level and were quickly taken care of with Taurus's star dress… but it was inevitable that they would eventually run into a much stronger opponent.
It was just their bad luck that one wrong turn ended with them confronting the same ice demon who had defeated them before. This time though, he didn't have the advantage of surprise on his side. As soon as they spied his dark hair and furred coat, Sting and Lucy instantly put on the breaks and attempted an abrupt reverse. Unfortunately, he had already seen them.
His hand extended and a wave of ice exploded outwards, freezing everything it touched as it rushed towards them.
"Shit, shit, shit…" Lucy muttered as she grabbed for her keys.
She managed to summon Taurus at the last possible second, and the bull spirit immediately countered the oncoming ice by smashing his ax into the ground, which sent a shockwave rushing to meet the ice. Pieces of the stone floor and ice went flying, throwing them all back. A dust cloud hung in the air for a moment, obscuring their vision, and Lucy quickly gestured at Sting to go back the way they came. He grabbed Yukino even tighter and nodded, rushing back down the hall as Lucy and Taurus turned to stall the icy bastard while their comrades got away.
With an arrogant slash of his hand, the dust whirled away, exposing their opponent. He cocked a brow to see their party reduced.
"Well, well, well…it looks as if your friends have escaped my clutches. For now at least. And as for you, I'm surprised you managed to break out of the extraction chamber…. with a few less keys though I see."
Lucy gritted her teeth at the solemn reminder. "Yes…and it's your fault!"
"I merely captured you. Arboss was the one who melted them." he countered calmly, then smiled. "And I will do so again, now that you have so kindly stumbled into me. It really cut down on my workload."
With that, he sent another blast of ice at them, which Taurus successfully stopped. However, this time their opponent followed the first attack with a second wave. Lucy was quick to stomp on the ground with her extra strength and thankfully managed to create another shockwave that drove back the second icy attack. Hers wasn't nearly as strong as Taurus's of course, but it still did the trick…. or it would have if Zero hadn't sent yet another wave of ice roaring down on them. He seemed determined to batter them into submission without giving them a chance to breathe.
They went back and forth like this for a little while, Taurus and Lucy taking turns sending shockwaves down the hall. It was obvious that they were at a temporary stalemate, but without Natsu to boost her power she was pretty sure she would run out of spiz faster than the ice demon. Besides that, the floor would likely give way at some point, which would knock them off balance and probably give Zero the chance he needed to freeze them.
So, the next time it was Taurus's turn to smash the ground, she quickly summoned Leo into the fray. As usual, the lion spirit was quick on his feet and used a Regulus blast to knock back the wave of ice that Lucy didn't have time to counter. In the heat – or cold in this case – of battle, they didn't have a chance to speak to one another, but that didn't matter. They worked together like a well-oiled machine.
Taurus and Leo flanked her, beating back the ice, but they were strictly on the defensive still. She was the only one free to attack, but Taurus's star dress wasn't particularly well-suited for long-range assault. So, she swapped her star dresses and donned Leo's instead.
The familiar tingle passed through her as a gold and black gown slid onto her body. The shiny gold bustier was sleeveless, corset-style with a heart neckline, and ended in a point at her waist. The skirt was two-part – a front panel and a wrap-around overskirt. The front ended at mid-thigh and gathered up at the sides, which made it look like a ballgown aside from being too short. In contrast, the second part of the skirt wrapped around her backside and fell straight to the floor in thick folds. To top off the whole look, her hair was in an elegant bun, under which an elaborate golden headpiece curled along the bottom of her skull.
In all honesty, it wouldn't have looked like an outfit suited to battle…if it hadn't been for the material used to make the gown. The front draping panel of the skirt looked like black sparkly cloth from a distance, but up-close you could see that it was actually a fine chainmail. Each side of the corset had black armor layered in horizontal strips which strangely made the bodice easier to move in. There were also three panels of black armor over the cape-like skirt – thinner ones on each side and a wider one in the back. The outfit was topped off with metal armor boots that went above her knees, armored gloves that stopped at her elbows, and shoulder guards that stayed on seemingly with magic. Of course the armor was incredibly beautiful, elegant, and finely detailed…made of gold with black inlays.
Over all, it was one of her favorite star dresses… because it made her feel like some kind of war queen. Plus, it wasn't nearly as heavy or constricting as it really should be, thanks to the fact that it was magical apparel. So she could easily fight in it.
Right now though, she donned it for one reason alone…. the magic it gave her. With this outfit on, she could harness Regulus's power, and that meant she could attack the frosty demon while Leo and Taurus held off his ice.
As soon as the dress settled on her, she launched into the ultimate attack of this form. She wasn't playing around with this son of a bitch; it was time to put him down for good. Thrusting both hands in front of her, she began the incantation required to summon an ancient power.
"I, summoner of the stars and priestess of the Lion, beseech thee. Dawn light of exorcism, grant me the divine might of thy fangs, that I might smite a hundred evil spirits! Come! Regulus Aurum!"
Between her spread palms, intense light began to grow and a rumble sounded, shaking the air around them. As the last word passed her lips, the light expanded and took on a new form, until finally a massive lion made of pure radiance stood before her. Its jaws gaped and a roar sounded, the noise echoing and massive and eerie…as if coming from a completely different world altogether, and then the creature made of light charged.
It crashed through the walls of ice that Zero erected hastily in front of him, sending shards of clear frozen water through the air in an explosion of sound and velocity. Simultaneously though, right as it looked like they would win, they were attacked by a trap Zero had set for them while they were busy fending off his waves of ice. With a sharp slice of his hand through the air, enormous icicles they hadn't seen forming above them fell.
Leo immediately whirled and slammed into Lucy, throwing them both to the icy floor, where they landed hard and skidded out of the way. They halted by slamming into the castle wall, but the brunt of the impact smashed into the leonine spirit's side. He had positioned himself firmly on top of her and wrapped his body around hers to shield her from falling ice as well as the wall they crashed into. Even so, the hit knocked some of her breath out.
"You okay?" she wheezed at Leo, and he grunted an affirmative.
He shoved himself up into a crouch, though he stayed protectively over Lucy, and she managed to twist onto her belly and pushed herself up from the floor too.
The sight that met her eyes made her gasp, "Shit! Taurus!" and reach for her keys.
The bull spirit hadn't been as lucky as them. A spire of ice pierced him, and the cursed element had frozen him solid instead of sending him back to the celestial realm.
The demon was faster than her, and before her fingers had closed around the golden key, a magic circle appeared over the ice. Taurus suddenly shattered and Lucy felt his gate shut with a bang, locking with a curse that she knew she didn't have hope of opening. She certainly wouldn't be able to do it without completely draining all her magic, so she couldn't risk calling on Taurus again.
"Damnit!" she cursed and cringed back against Leo. His steady warmth soothed her some, but she was still shaken.
Her Regulus Aurum spell had broken, either from the shock of the attack, the impact of hitting the floor, or slamming into the wall. The only comfort was that Zero also looked somewhat shaken…or at least a little less smug than before.
Summoner and Spirit stood together, their matching movements fluid and feline. The lion's star dress blessed Lucy with the gift of cat-like grace and agility, which instantly came in handy as they both leapt into the air to avoid a wave of ice that coated the floor. While still in midair, Lucy pulled Sagittarius's key.
"Open! Gate of the Archer! Sagittarius!"
She and Leo landed as Sagittarius popped into being behind them. With a series of gestures, she motioned her plan to her comrades and they immediately put it into action. Sagittarius launched volleys of arrows at Zero, which forced him to erect ice shields and created an excellent distraction. He still sent waves of ice at them, but Lucy and Leo smashed the attacks to bits with Regulus light as they slowly advanced on the sides. Once in position, she slashed her hand up and Sagittarius redirected his arrows towards the ceiling directly above Zero.
She had timed it perfectly to coincide with him erecting a new ice shield, which tied up his attention right as the ceiling caved in on top of him. Meanwhile, Lucy switched her star dress to Cancer's and flew up the hall with lightning speed, launching herself through the falling rubble.
As soon as she got within range, she switched back to Leo's dress to attack, because she couldn't wield Cancer's swords with her broken hands. The feline agility boost also came in handy, since Zero was blasting the rocks away from himself with an explosion of ice when she reached him. While nimbly dodging, she knocked away the chunks of flying debris with Regulus light and also slashed the radiance at him, catching him off guard. She managed to slice him across the shoulder, which sent him reeling backwards in surprise and pain.
He recovered quickly though and brought frosty hands up to defend himself as she continued to press forwards with light-based attacks. He was obviously a skilled fighter, so it wasn't surprising that he managed to block or evade her, while simultaneously sending back vicious attacks of his own. That was okay though, because she was just a decoy at the moment. If she got a few shots in, so much the better, but it wasn't necessary. Her biggest priority at the moment was carefully maneuvering Zero around to give Leo the perfect opening.
They were both patient and cunning about it, until finally what they were waiting for happened. Zero made a blunder and punched at Lucy too hard, sending his whole shoulder forwards and leaving a big opening for Leo. He instantly saw it and responded within a millisecond by coated his fist with Regulus light and punching the demon with full force, sending him staggering forwards.
His attention wavered for a second as he stumbled, and his head reflexively turned to look over his shoulder. Lucy used that as an opening to dash in and land her own blow on his cheek, then dodged as he instantly responded to the injury with a blast of ice. A flash of light on his other side said that Leo had dispersed the ice with a counterattack, blowing away the demon's element with a blast of his own, and Lucy followed suit.
The twin explosions of Regulus light momentarily knocked aside the ice and left him temporarily unprotected, which Sagittarius quickly took advantage of. Several arrows flew through the ice-less air, meeting little resistance as they buried into Zero's leg, shoulder, and hip. They had been carefully aimed to hit places that would cause the most pain and thus limit his movement.
He shouted, his composure finally breaking completely, and his face fixed into an ugly scowl. The pain only enraged him though, and things took an unpleasant turn as he switched to a more defensive – and yet somehow more aggressive – battle method and summoned a vicious ice storm to form a protective cyclone around his body. It also pushed Leo and Lucy back, as they were forced to retreat from the sharp particles of ice that whipped through the air at high velocities.
He'd obviously wised up and now intended to keep them at a distance and protect all his sides at once, which was going to make this fight a lot more difficult. Then, to make matters worse, he started expanding the typhoon, forcing them further and further back.
To Lucy's horror, Leo wasn't fast enough and got caught in the melee of ice and air, which resulted in him being battered to a pulp. Even worse, he was frozen solid within seconds, but this time she was ready for it and managed to send him back before his gate could be cursed. However, he'd been beaten so badly by ice shards before getting frozen that she still didn't want to summon him again if she could help it.
As for Lucy though, she managed to escape by switching back to Cancer's dress for speed and quickly retreated to regroup with Sagittarius.
The next logical choice was to summon Gemini, which she did swiftly. For a second she staggered and winced as the magic drain reached a very unpleasant level. With a deep breath, she reached into her Second Origin and knew she would have to fight very smart from now on. As such, she was forced to send Sagittarius back, since he wouldn't be much help against the ice storm. His arrows would just be knocked aside.
Cancer's star dress wouldn't be much help either, so she switched back to Leo's and had Gemini turn into her – also equipped with Leo's star dress. With double the fire-power and long-range attacks that were less likely to be deterred by ice and wind, they had a much better chance of breaking through the ice storm and reaching Zero.
"Gemini! We have to do a joint Regulus Aurum!" she called, knowing that spell was the only one likely of getting through the enemy's defenses.
If she wasn't distracted this time, and they combined the spell to be doubly powerful, they had a chance. Gemini nodded seriously, obviously agreeing, and they both started the chant. Radiance grew between them, blinding in seconds, and then an enormous lion took form. It was twice as big and gave off twice as much light and power – naturally, since it was summoned by two people instead of one.
Both Lucys had to squint in the face of that blinding light and winced at the sound of the enormous roar that shook the entire castle. Then it charged, ramming into the wall of swirling ice and knocking it aside like a pesky bit of smoke. It hit Zero at full force and the ice demon flew back all the way down the long hallway before slamming into a wall at the end.
With a flash of golden light, the lion dispersed, and both Lucys exhaled a breath of relief. Holding that spell always took an insane amount of concentration and power, and it had unfortunately drained a good deal of the magic she had left. But they didn't have any time to waste relaxing, because he hadn't dispersed back to the demon realm…which meant he still wasn't hurt badly enough. So, Lucy switched to Cancer's dress and her doppelganger followed suit. Using the speed boost, they flew down the hall even faster than their opponent had been thrown. Priority number one was making sure he poofed and hitting him hard while he was down was a solid strategy for doing that.
As soon as they reach him, the real Lucy switched to Leo's dress again and attacked with light while Gemini simply kept Cancer's dress and attacked with swords… both taking vicious advantage of their opponent being wide open. Normally Lucy wouldn't have been so heartless, even towards an enemy, but Zero was a very powerful demon and she couldn't risk him staying in the castle. From personal experience, she knew that demon kings and queens took a lot of damage before they were forced back into Asphodel, so she had to be coldly calculating and inflict as much damage as she possibly could.
Gemini's swords cut him repeatedly, but never got as deep into his vitals as they really should thanks to the tough armor over his torso… but his legs and arms were less protected.
As soon as she realized this, Lucy said, "Cut behind his knees, the insides of his arms, behind his ankles…go for the ligaments. I'll keep aiming for his chest, neck, and head with Regulus."
Of course, being cut up and blasted in the face didn't really make for a peaceful doze, and it wasn't long before he was rousing out of his stupefied state. Unfortunately, he did it swifter and more abruptly than Lucy anticipated, and his retaliation caught them unawares. An explosion of ice knocked them back a surprising distance, and she only just barely managed to somewhat counter it with a blast of light.
Lucy flew at an angle and smashed into the wall, stunning her for a moment, but she scrambled to make sense of the situation despite her befuddled brains. The cold pain in one leg told her that she'd been partially frozen. Blinking blurry eyes, she saw something even worse though. Gemini had been frozen completely solid – like Lucy undoubtedly would have been if she hadn't managed to get off a blast of Leo's power at the last second.
Before she could close Gemini's gate, Zero did it for her, and she ground her teeth with frustration. Turning burning eyes back on him, she contemplated her options. They weren't great to be honest.
Of the spirits that she could still summon, Leo was her best bet, but he was still pretty badly hurt and she didn't want to have to summon him if she could help it. Cancer would be even worse, his attacks were all based on physical contact with his pinchers…he'd be frozen solid in seconds. So that just left…
"Open! Gate of the Rabbit!" she called, and Pikachu popped into being with a zap and an angry squeak.
Then she summoned Sagittarius, even though she was digging deep into her Second Origin to do so.
Seeing her peg-legged predicament, he immediately swooped her into his arms bridal style. "Allow me Miss Lucy."
"Thanks Sagittarius…"
Almost immediately he was forced to jump aside to avoid a wave of ice that blasted them, and Pikachu zipped along next to them, easily keeping pace with the centaur. The rabbit spirit was actually much faster than Sagittarius…. so this was nothing. In fact, Zero's attacks probably looked slow to him.
With that thought in mind, Lucy hesitantly asked the little spirit, "Pika, do you think you could get behind him and put him down with your strongest lightning? We'll keep his attention on us, and you're so fast and small I bet he won't even see you."
She hated sending the little guy in by himself. He was pretty strong for a silver key spirit, but he only had a limited number of powerful shots in him before he ran out of spiz, and he was physically very weak. Despite that though, he seemed unafraid as he squeaked, "Pika!" and saluted her before zipping into the fray. He was nothing more than a yellow glowing blur as he moved.
While he got into position, Lucy got Zero's attention to the best of her ability.
"You aren't looking so good there, Buddy…sure you wanna keep this up?"
It was true at least. Their opponent was bleeding freely from multiple lacerations, not to mention the arrow wounds from Sagittarius's earlier attacks and the nasty burns from Leo's power. Regulus Aurum had seriously hurt him, probably breaking several bones and crunching his chest armor in a way that was probably constricting his lungs painfully. Gemini had obviously also managed to cripple him, he couldn't really walk anymore. Instead he had frozen his legs and had fashioned some ice crutches to prop himself up. But he could still manipulate that damn ice of his, so he was still ridiculously dangerous, even if he was mostly immobilized.
He was also majorly pissed.
"If you think I'm going to give up after all of this damage, you're laughably mistaken. I'll make sure you're repaid a hundred times over for these injuries. You'll pay with your blood and pain." The last part was snarled so viciously it made her cringe.
He was a far cry from the cold disinterested person he'd been before…bloodlust had replaced frigid logic in his now nearly psychotic gaze. It was enough to make her tremble, but she suppressed the fear and forced a sneer on her face.
"Oh please, like you could defeat me in your state. Take a look at yourself! You can't even walk anymore! I might as well be fighting a lamp post."
A malicious smile twisted his lips. "Pathetic."
With a violent swing of his arm, he erected a massive wall of ice that froze the entire hallway behind him. Another sharp motion had the ice cracking, and to her horror Lucy saw a familiar yellow body fall limply amongst the chunks of debris before he flashed back to the spirit realm in a pop of golden lightning.
Zero had known what they were up to and had timed his massive attack perfectly to catch Pikachu. Even the little lightning spirit couldn't escape something of that magnitude when it was sprung on him from point blank range.
"No! Damnit!" Lucy gasped. Her heart clenched, hating that yet another of her spirits had been hurt by this bastard.
It had the opposite effect on Zero, and he started laughing, though it certainly wasn't a sound of joy. "Foolish human…you really thought you were a match for me? Well…you'll have plenty of time to realize your mistake once I have you in chains."
And with that, he seemed to get some kind of second wind…or maybe he simply tasted victory and became eager to capture his prey. Whatever the case, he roared and sent a massive wave of ice at them. It was substantially larger than any he had sent before…. This one filled the hall from floor to ceiling and rushed them like a glacier on steroids. Lucy used Regulus on it, to try and slow it down or at least cut a small path into it for them, but it quickly became apparent that Leo's attacks wouldn't do much this time around. No mater how much ice she cracked and blew away, more just replaced it.
All they could do was run, which Sagittarius had already whirled to do. But it was like running from an avalanche. They were too close…much too close, and the forward-most edge of frost was quickly nipping at their heels.
There wasn't a shred of doubt in Lucy's mind that they were about to be caught, and a rush of cold terror flooded her senses. It was somewhat numbed by the shock that was sweeping her off her feet as surely as the avalanche descending on them. She'd been so sure they could take him out. How could she have miscalculated so badly? Either he'd been hiding his true power this entire time, or else he'd mustered everything he had left in an all-out attack.
Working on pure instinct, she popped open her keyring and shoved them all in her mouth. To say it was a tight fit was an understatement, but she forced them in. It was the only thing she could think of to try and keep them safe, and discomfort was secondary to that.
Discomfort quickly turned to pain as Sagittarius got caught and fell, sending them into a jarring tumble across the ground. Loud snaps indicated he'd broken bones, probably in his legs, but he barely even grunted despite the agony stamped across his tight features. That should have been enough to send him back to the celestial realm, but he stayed.
Her eyes flew to his, telling him silently to go, but he merely met her gaze with a solemn one of his own and bent his body around hers, protecting her from the ice that was now crashing over their heads. Darkness fell as an overwhelming crushing weight slammed on top of them. Pain shot through her from everywhere, and for a wild moment she wondered if Zero had changed his mind and had decided to simply kill her instead of capturing her.
As she felt her mind start to slip towards oblivion, she contemplated swallowing the keys…knowing good and well there was a high probability she could swallow wrong and stab herself or get one lodged in her throat which would likely result in death. Before she'd even started working the first back towards her throat though, a massive force crashed through her senses, knocking her silly. The enormous weight was lifted off her and she was tossed a fair distance as well. Sagittarius was finally blasted back to the celestial realm, and she was left to crash amongst the rubble on her own.
She landed in a heap amid enormous broken chunks of ice …. and frankly felt pretty broken herself. Every part of her hurt, badly, though her hands and the inside of her mouth managed to ice the cake. At least one of her teeth had broken on the keys in her mouth, and she felt multiple nasty cuts oozing an iron taste across her tongue, but she was just thankful she'd managed to hang onto them and not spit them out or swallow accidentally. She couldn't entirely suppress the tears of pain that froze on her cheeks and made her eyelashes stick together.
Even worse perhaps, Leo's dress had melted off her, thanks to pain, shock, and magic drain, leaving her without protection.
One of the chunks of ice had pinned her shoulder to the ground, and it was too heavy for her to even hope to move in her current condition. She still tried though, even with her hand dripping blood into her face as she pushed at the ice hanging over her head. The other was pinned to the ground under ice as well.
Suddenly the weight was removed, tossed aside like it weighed less than a piece of paper, and she was staring up into the face of a familiar fox demon.
"Ku-wa-wa?" she sputtered around keys and blood, forgetting about the state of her mouth temporarily in her shock. The pain reminded her though and she winced and choked as one tried to slide down her throat.
Kurama instantly bent down and slid an arm under her to prop her up, before gently putting his hand under her chin for her to spit the keys into. Just in case she didn't get the message, he said, "Spit 'em out…come on."
She followed the suggestion, and gingerly let them fall from her lips…along with plenty of blood and broken teeth.
They both grimaced at the sight.
"I think you might have to visit the dentist after this." he noted, trying for a lighthearted tone and failing spectacularly.
When she didn't respond and stayed frozen with her mouth open, his tone switched to worried. "Hey, you okay? Is there one stuck in there?"
She grunted an affirmative, trying to keep her mouth and throat as still as possible as she reached up with her hand to lightly tap along the outside of her cheek, quickly finding metal. It had pierced her cheek, though thankfully she determined that the head of the key hadn't gone all the way through. That would have acted like a barb and would have made it much harder and more painful to pull free.
Kurama quickly noticed her discovery and sucked in a shocked breath. "Shit, that's nasty. Here, I'll get it, hold these."
He dumped the bloody keys in her hands and gently tilted her head just enough that he could get a good look inside her mouth. She winced and closed her eyes as the change in angle made the key shift, tugging on injured flesh. With her eyes closed, she clearly felt how he put one hand on the outside, bracing the skin to prevent tearing and then a second set of fingers invaded her mouth. He didn't prolong it, with a quick pull from the inside and a push with one finger from the outside, it was popped free with minimal damage to the surrounding tissue.
The pain forced a sharp yip from her throat, and Kurama grunted a soft, "Sorry bout that," as he deposited the key into her hands with the rest.
Finally closing her mouth, she gingerly said, "Thanks." It came out slightly slurred thanks to all the injuries, but at least she could talk, painful though it might be. She'd just have to speak as few words as possible.
"The curse?" she gingerly asked.
Thankfully he understood the implied questions. "It's still locking my gate up tight, but there's a big-ass gate that all these guys are coming through. I just snuck through with 'em. It was easy for a guy with my talents."
She nodded and grunted in an, 'oh, that makes sense and I'm happy you're free,' sort of way, and then an obvious thought occurred to her.
"Zero?" she questioned.
"Oh, yeah, better finish him off. Hold on a sec."
He stood, then helped her to her feet before marching across the rubble-strewn battle ground. Zero lay in a bloody heap a ways away, but it looked like he was struggling to sit up. Kurama stomped over towards him, cracking his knuckles in a menacing way.
…
After what he'd just witnessed, Lucy had earned the fox demon's eternal and undying loyalty.
Once his gate had been cursed shut, he had instantly started making his way to the big gate, even though his instincts told him to run. He risked being caught, and if they already had his key then he was done for. But he couldn't stand the thought of Lucy being at their mercy…even though he'd only known her for a little while.
Sure, he had his doubts… didn't know if a human girl could follow through with the crazy statements she'd made about thinking of him as a friend and even family, but so far she hadn't done anything to disprove them either.
Unlike celestial spirits, demons didn't share a sensation bond with their masters, so he hadn't felt her pain. However, their contract did let him sense when she was in danger and when she had been injured… though he never would have dreamed that some of her injuries would be self-inflicted. But after seeing her ripped-up hands, it was easy to see she'd broken herself to get free. He liked Lucy, and didn't want to see her hurt, but that wasn't what made it feel like someone had punched the air right out of him.
At first, he'd assumed she ripped free of the shackles because of an insanely strong will to survive – which he certainly respected, but it wouldn't have made him super emotional. No, what really hit him hard was when he saw the damage to her mouth and put two and two together. If she had gone that far to protect her keys in the fight against Zero, he suddenly realized that she'd probably torn up her hands to get to her keys… not just to protect herself.
This was irrefutable proof that what she had told him was true – she really did think of her spirits as her family and protected them with her life…. and one of those bloody keys had been his. He hadn't even realized just how much he doubted her until all those doubts were blown away, leaving him staggering on uneven unfamiliar ground.
Kurama had never had friends or family. He was an orphan who everyone thought of as a mischief maker, a screw up, and basically a troublesome brat. Even if he was technically a demon king, he'd never been treated with respect unless he scared it out of someone. So, to abruptly realize that someone actually cared about him, enough to injure herself to protect him, was like a blow to the head. It made him nearly dizzy.
On the heels of those emotions were others…shock, amazement, awe, loyalty, and finally the sense of friendship and belonging he'd always been looking for. And as he turned to face Zero, rage unlike any he had ever felt before began to build inside him.
Stalking towards the other demon king – who was only able to push himself up into a sitting position – Kurama admired the job Lucy had already done on him. He was hanging on by a thread, beaten, bloody, and bruised, and Kurama was only too happy to finish him off…. though he would have liked a little longer to inflict some pain on him for what he'd done.
"Well now…isn't this a surprise? I was sure that I sealed you away…Traitor." Zero grunted at him as he approached.
"You sealed my gate…but that's not the only way into this castle, now is it?"
The other demon's expression soured. "So you somehow snuck through the royal gate…how crude. Even for you."
"Personally, I'd call it clever." he said as he finally came to stand over his opponent, and then he leaned down a bit to loom over the beaten body. "Now it's time for you to shut up and go home with your tail between your legs."
Zero started to scoff, but Kurama didn't feel like listening to him jabber anymore. He covered himself from head to toe in his fox cloak – a glowing orange aura that was both defensive and offensive, protecting him while burning whatever it happened to touch. The floor under his feet smoked as the aura came into contact with it, and when Zero tried to ward him off with a weak wave of ice, it wouldn't stick to him. He could just shake it off using his fox cloak. Of course if Zero had been at full power, he would have had a much harder time of it, but as it was, this was child's play.
He didn't waste any time in spawning a second tail and coated it in an extra thick layer of aura, before stabbing it through Zero's chest. Simultaneously, he formed a small beast bomb in his mouth and spat the ball at his opponent's head. Even the ice king couldn't survive being stabbed through the heart and having his head blown up, and with an explosion of frigid black ashes he was knocked back to Asphodel. With those injuries, he wouldn't be coming back anytime soon either.
Sneak Peek
Before he had taken so much as a single step though, a blast of hellish heat exploded through the hall, making him wince and stagger back a few paces. A few seconds later, Natsu tumbled through his gate, in the middle of transforming back to his human form, and Kurama barked a laugh as he took in the sight of the fire dragon in such an uncoordinated state.
He somehow managed to hit the floor running, and by the time he'd made it to Lucy's side he was back to his normal pink-haired self and had stopped trying to bake them alive.
