AN: Hey everybody, guess nobody felt an urge to comment on last week's chapter. I'm going to hope that was because you wanted this week's opening to be short and not because you're too sick to read. Stay safe and healthy everybody!
But for now, enjoy the chapter! :D
...
Chapter 30: Heritage
...
...
==ONE MONTH EARLIER==
...
Erza stood still while Master Precht laid his hand on her head to examine her the way he had Jerry. It was still such complete and utter madness to think that Jerry had been operating on the verge of Magic Deficiency Syndrome. It was absurd to think that someone so strong had actually been so weak, but Master Precht had proven it by enabling him to access a level of power that had made her hair stand on end just being near him. Now Master Precht's lone eye was growing wider and wider as it seemed to peer into her very soul. Erza couldn't help but wonder as the silence grew, Is my magic that restrained as well?
Master Precht lifted his hand away and conjured a stone bench to sit down, leaning his staff onto his shoulder as he sat and putting one hand on his chin to think. Erza stood, patiently and expectantly waiting for his verdict. After a moment, Master Precht looked up at her, "Erza, tell me, what do you know of your parents?"
"My parents?" Erza asked curiously, "Absolutely nothing, I'm an orphan." Then her eyes went wide with shock, "Wait! Are you saying you know something?!"
Master Precht nodded and patted the bench he had just conjured, "I believe so. Sit down child." Her heart in her throat, Erza sat, wondering what secrets the Second Guild Master might be about to reveal.
Master Precht turned his gaze up to the sky, "You may or may not know, but the reason I left the guild was to go out and search on my own for the origins of magic, to strip away all pretext and impurity and see it for what it truly is. In the process I studied and learned many forms of magic, searching for a common point to act as a key for my study. My search has led me all over the world. I've spoken with the greatest minds I could seek out and poured over tomes of magic so ancient that I had to reinforce the pages with magic to keep them from crumbling at the slightest touch."
He took a breath, "One of the magics I took a particular interest in even before I left on my journey was that of Dragon Slaying Magic. At its core, it is a shockingly simple enchantment, to change the nature of a human to that of a dragon. It's been applied to other beings as well, gods and demons and who knows what else. I actually once read a tome on God Slaying magic that I later entrusted to the current head of the Magic Council. It's a fascinating form of magic and I have discovered that it is the key to virtually limitless magic power."
Erza started slightly at the revelation, "Limitless…?"
Master Precht nodded, "Yes. It's the key to revolutionizing the entire magic world as we know it should it be used properly. Your friends Jerry Granger and Levy McGarden have already begun working on a way to turn Jerry's ability to consume light into a virtually infinite source of magic."
"That's incredible! Why haven't they told anyone?!" Erza demanded, with infinite power I could save everyone!
"Likely for the same reason I haven't," Master Precht responded quietly, "While there are certainly many good things that could be done with infinite power, there are also many who would use such a power for ill. Such a power source could and very likely would spark a war the likes of which hasn't been seen in centuries to control it."
Erza flinched and suddenly nightmarish images of what any dark wizard would do with unlimited power, what manner of horrors they could cook up, the mountains of bodies they might produce... She went slightly pale, "You make a very good point."
Master Precht nodded, "But rather off topic nevertheless." Erza looked up at him in surprise and he continued, "In my search for the workings of dragon slayer magic and its offshoots, I found a centuries old text detailing the origins of dragon slaying magic. I was able to learn much from it, and it eventually led to my discovery of the tome on God Slaying Magic and everything I've learned on the matter since." He suddenly pulled the book from an extradimensional pocket, "This is that book."
He gently handed it to her, "My apprentice Ultear was able to restore it to peak condition with her magic, so it won't crumble at a touch, but please do still treat it with care. It's one of my most treasured possessions."
Erza gingerly accepted the priceless tome and read the title, "A History of Dragnof?"
Master Precht nodded and with a gentle flick of his hand, the book flipped itself open to reveal, "Specifically, I'm referring to its last queen and her lifelong advisor, the dragon Belserion. It was through their efforts that Dragon Slaying magic was brought into existence to aid their nation in the great dragon war now known as the Dragon King Festival."
Erza stared at the portrait and all the color started draining from her face as suspicion started growing, the puzzle pieces clicking together in her head rapid fire, "M-master…what are you implying?"
"Shortly after the war ended," Master Precht told her quietly, "Queen Irene, the woman you see there, was overtaken by one of the horrific side effects of prototypical Dragon Slayer magic, which can still plague modern Slayers of any sort. Due to her vast overuse of her Dragon attribute during the war, she became a dragon herself."
Erza's head snapped up to meet his forlorn gaze. He nodded, "Before her transformation was complete, the whole kingdom turned on her in fear wrought by the dragon slayer who singlehandedly ended the war and pushed dragon kind to the brink of extinction. They were afraid she would become an unstoppable rampaging monster like him, and after three years of horrific persecution which I am temporarily blotting out of this book for the sake of your mental health, refusing the whole time to lash out against her people and insisting that she was human," The book suddenly glowed in Erza's hands as Master Precht continued, "she transformed fully when informed of her pending execution. As a fully grown dragoness, she obliterated the entire capitol city in a single attack and flew away to parts unknown, still desperately screaming that she was human."
Erza felt slightly ill as she looked back down at the happily smiling woman and dragon in the picture. Master Precht let his words hang in the air for a moment and then continued, "There's…one other oddity about her tale which I'm afraid is very relevant."
"That's my mother, isn't it?" Erza asked quietly.
Master Precht took a deep breath, "Your body is under an immensely powerful enchantment, almost a reverse Dragon Slaying enchantment by the look of it. What's…under it…" he trailed off.
"Are you saying that I'm actually a dragon?" Erza asked quietly.
"Half," Precht answered quietly, "Queen Irene swore up and down that she was pregnant, that she was holding her unborn child in stasis with magic to protect them. Her husband through political marriage who she claimed was the father swore equally fervently that they had never consummated their union. It bears noting that the dragon Belserion was not only her closest companion but also an immensely skilled user of magic in his own right. Judging by the resemblance you bear to Her Majesty, what I just found out, and the strength of the enchantment suppressing your draconic traits…" He trailed off and a decidedly heavy and uncomfortable silence filled the air.
Master Precht cleared his throat after a moment, "You actually have an immense latent potential for enchantment magic, I'd even go so far as to say you are naturally a High Enchantress, which is one of the most feared, versatile and formidable abilities in-"
"Do you think she's alive?" Erza asked quietly.
"Almost certainly," Master Precht answered quietly, "Very few things can even hurt a dragon, and Irene was by all accounts a master mage of titanic strength even before that. There are only a very small number of things I can think of which could even hope to hurt someone of her abilities."
"Then why…? Why would she abandon me?"
Master Precht thought his next words over very carefully as he noted the faint tremble in Erza's arms, "If I were to guess, she may still be stuck in draconic form. If she is, then she may have wanted you to be able to live a happy and normal life without the knowledge of her tragic tale or the burden of having to hide a fully grown dragon to mar it."
Erza was quiet for a moment and then, "The enchantment suppressing my draconic traits… do you think it could change her back if she's still stuck in dragon form? Can you teach it to me?"
Master Precht took a deep breath, held it for a moment while he thought and then, "It might. I would have to lift it partially to look at its underlying mechanics and discern its workings. Doing so will definitely grant me the insight I need to replicate it and teach you how to as well, but doing so might partially or even completely unravel it, and there is no way to know what effects that might have on you."
"Do it." Erza ordered firmly.
"But…"
"DO. IT." Erza repeated, the light in the gaze that rose to meet Precht's leaving no room for doubt that the young woman before him was a natural born royal.
Precht nodded and rose to his feet. There was no arguing with that tone, "Very well, please lie down here so that I may examine you."
...
==THREE DAYS EARLIER==
...
"It's as good as new," Jerry marveled as he put the card Erza had accidentally stripped of its enchantment through a number of trials and tested every function he could think of. Erza was sitting at the bar in the living room of the Card House while Jerry stood behind it to work on dinner.
Erza beamed, utterly delighted that her first attempt at enchanting something had worked perfectly. A moment later Jerry shuffled the card back into his deck and looked at her, "You said you can put that enchantment on anything now?"
Erza nodded proudly with a large smile, "Yep! Absolutely anything!"
"You do realize you could destroy the world with that right?" Jerry asked bluntly.
Erza's pride vanished in an instant as his words registered and she went suddenly very pale as she almost squeaked, "What?!"
Jerry blinked at her for a second, a faint blush coloring his cheeks as he muttered, "God you're cute…" then he shook his head and looked away, his blush even redder in wake of what had slipped out, "What I mean is that my cards can turn into iron hard shields or blades big enough to casually knock down entire buildings given enough momentum. I could very easily destroy a city with them and probably do it pretty quick. If you apply this enchantment to say, a pile of rocks? Then all of a sudden, you've got an entire meteor storm at your command. Not just that, a meteor storm which you can reuse as many times as you want because the rocks will jump at your command no matter how many times you slam them into the ground as fast as bullets the size of entire buildings. Even one shot like that would pack enough force to level a town if it hit."
Erza twitched slightly as her mind played out images of such an attack, "Your mind is a very frightening place Jerry…"
Jerry nodded with a small smile, "Thank you. I take that as a compliment."
"Why?" Erza asked warily. Does he like it when people are afraid of him?
"My mind is frightening to you, correct?" Jerry asked as he leaned over the bar and poked the side of his head. At Erza's careful nod, he pointed to her, "That means that my mind is formidable enough to frighten one of the most powerful wizards I've ever met. Basically, you just said that you think I'd be a formidable adversary because of my mental capabilities, which constitutes a very high compliment coming from someone as accomplished as yourself."
Erza's musing on that was cut short by Jerry asking, "Can you pull and replicate any enchantment like that?"
Alarm bells went off in Erza's head as he unwittingly trod very close to the truth of what her brief time with Master Precht had yielded, "In theory. It's something I learned from Master Precht."
Jerry laughed slightly as he turned back to his skillet, "That doesn't surprise me. That guy's amazing ain't he? Wish he had been able to stick around a bit longer," he mused, "If I had met him before joining the guild proper, I probably would've followed after him like a lost puppy begging him to teach me everything I could learn."
Erza's gaze snapped up to look at the back of his head as he offhandedly added, "I never could now though."
"Why's that?" Erza asked curiously.
"Mira." Jerry could've said a lot more, but the sheer affection he put into her name said everything he needed to.
Erza slid off the barstool, "I'm going to go lie down for a moment, please call me when dinner's done."
Jerry shot a glance over his shoulder, "You alright?"
Erza's back was to him, so he didn't see the look of absolute shame on her face, "Yeah. I'm fine. Just, going to go…practice my enchantments! Yeah, that's it! I wanna try adding an element to the enchantment I got from your cards!"
"Well…good luck, I guess. If you need me to send your dinner up to you, let me know."
"Thank you, I will."
...
==A FEW HOURS EARLIER==
...
Really wishing now that I had actually been doing that! Erza thought angrily as she rocketed through the air, swerving and spinning desperately as the forest of tentacles stretched into the air with seemingly limitless reach. She'd tried flying out of reach, but even when almost at the ceiling of unnatural clouds, the tentacles had still been hot on her heels. Refusing to lose her sight while being pursued, she'd had to swoop back down and continue to try evading.
If I live through this, I am enchanting the shit out of every single weapon and piece of armor I own! There will not be a single piece in my armory that hasn't got at least three enchantments on it! Erza thought angrily as she realized upon sorting through her mental catalogue that the weapon in her hand was the only one she had that was actually imbued with Holy magic.
Come on Erza THINK! She berated herself, screwing up her face in concentration, How do I kill these things?!
Then Jerry's words echoed in her mind, You could destroy the world with that.
Erza's eyes widened and she raised her sword in front of her, a grin quickly growing on her face. She raised her free hand, "Enchant!" The magic flowed out of her palm and quickly bound itself to the blade. It was still a strange sensation, almost like peeling away tape from her skin and feeling it as it stuck to the new surface, but as she felt it stick and the sword registered suddenly with her senses almost like a spare limb, she found that it was quickly becoming one of her favorite sensations.
She loosened her grip and willed the sword to fly along just out of her grip. It raised and hovered an inch from her now outspread palm, easily keeping pace with her. Erza was so focused that she was almost batted from the air as something suddenly flew through the air at her. She barrel rolled out of the way and upon a quick look around realized that she'd made it back to Base Camp. Base Camp was now overrun with the tentacles, and more pressingly, the people were standing in the street staring up at her with glowing blue eyes. Erza's gaze snapped back over her shoulder and she realized with horror that the thing that had just nearly knocked her from the air was a person.
Said person was a heavyset old man that landed on a tentacle with agility far beyond what he should've been capable of. The tentacle immediately flexed and shot him back at her like an arrow from a bow. SHIT! Erza dropped and narrowly dodged the flying person as a fresh but shorter forest of tentacles erupted all across Base Camp. What seemed like half the town was perched on top of them and before Erza could try to come up with a solution, the glowing eyed puppets were suddenly all flung at her, hands outstretched and grabbing.
Erza shot upward and they slammed together, falling from the air with their gazes still locked on her despite their obvious injuries from the impact. They fell only a few meters before the tentacles lunged and caught them, starting to juggle them through the air with alarmingly good aim and a complete disregard for their victims in an attempt to hit her. I have to get out of here before somebody gets killed!
Then she realized that the entire valley was now writhing ahead of her with the tentacles. Fear streaked through her, and she hurled herself skyward, I have to get high enough that they can't reach me! If I can get even a moment to breath I can win! They've put up this cloud cover, light must hurt them! If I can just break through the clouds…
"GYAAAAAAAAAAH!" she screamed as she flew face first into a wall of what felt like the same mind consuming terror as she'd felt when fighting the Shadow Monkey. In that single instant of shock, the telekinesis she'd been holding herself together with flickered, and all her wounds from the Monkey's attack returned with a vengeance, further shattering her concentration.
She plummeted back towards the ground and just as she spread the wings of her armor and caught herself, a tentacle slammed into her like an entire tree trunk. Erza shot through the air like a fly smacked out of the air.
It was hard to think, everything hurt. She could tell the wings on her armor had been broken by the skid on her back along the ground. She tried to focus through the pain, make her body move with her magic, but every fresh twitch was a new lance of pain jabbing through her. As she felt the tentacles start slithering across her skin, she desperately lashed out with her magic, "NO!"
The tentacles faltered for a moment and then continued their advance. Panic surged through Erza's mind as the tentacles began to probe the cracks in her armor, quickly taking advantage of the fact that it left much of her stomach bare to slide between her and the protective armor. The tentacles fizzled and hissed, burning against Erza's skin as they forced themselves on against the holy magic imbued in her armor. Then they suddenly turned rigid and Erza's breath hitched as she realized with horror that they were about to… EEEEEECLANG!
With the sound of tearing metal, the torso of the Black Wing Armor was torn apart at the joints and flung out of sight. Then the tentacles began attacking her armor in earnest, every touch stinging Erza and keeping her from concentrating as she felt her armor being made short work of. In what seemed like less than a minute, she had been stripped naked and the tentacles were starting to bind her in a vicious stinging grip. "NONONONONO!"
"GET THE HELL OFF HER!" A voice suddenly shouted. An instant later there was a burst of light and Erza's form was decidedly tentacle free. Erza forced her eyes open and tried to focus on the odd white blob hovering over her, "ERZA! ARE YOU OKAY?!"
Erza blinked, her brow furrowed in confusion. The color was wrong but that voice, "Serena?"
Serena breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh thank god, I was worried that they had gotten you too. Come on, Elric and I have set up a…" EEEEEEEEEEEK!
The whole world seemed to rattle as the Shadow Monkey suddenly leapt from the trees with an ear rending screech, its eyes blazing like green infernos of hate. The whole world seemed to rattle as it landed, towering over them like doom incarnate as the ringing in Erza's ears drowned out everything else.
"Oh I do not have the patience for you right now…" Serena snapped although Erza couldn't hear her as she had turned to stand between Erza and the Monkey. Serena raised her hand and shouted something Erza didn't catch and then… A flash of golden light later, there was an explosion and the whole world turned white.
Her ears ringing, her eyes suddenly blinded by light and her whole body racked with pain, Erza's mind finally declared it had had enough and shut down.
…
==PRESENT==
…
Erza jerked awake as an almighty explosion roared through the air. "Hey hey hey, easy now." Elric soothed as he laid a cool hand on her shoulder, "Take it easy, that's just Serena venting some frustrations."
Erza tried to sit up and briefly caught sight of a seemingly solid white figure with something very large and metallic in its hand arguing with a pink haired one. Her eyes were severely blurry and her ears were still ringing faintly. Elric gently pushed her back down, "Calm down. Miguel and Happy are almost to Jerry, and the others are together and it sounds like they're about to go apeshit on the person responsible for all this." He winced and shot a glance off to the side, "Oh yeah, Levy at least is definitely about to go apeshit."
"You're wizards…?" Erza managed to force out.
"We're undercover, don't ask me anything else about it," Elric told her sharply. Confusion still filled Erza's mind, but she let it drop.
The next order of business was, "Is everyone else alright?"
Elric nodded, "You've taken the worst beating by far. Every one of your ribs is at least fractured along with your nose being broken and several of your joints have been nearly forced out of socket. Your entire body is basically one gigantic bruise right now. You need to take it easy."
"Like hell I'll take it easy!" Erza snapped as she tried to sit up again, only for Elric to shove her right back flat with one hand.
"Perhaps you didn't hear me," Elric mused icily, "Allow me to repeat myself. I said, you just got fucking wrecked. STAY YOUR ASS DOWN AND TAKE A BREATHER BEFORE I SEDATE YOU WITH SOMETHING THAT WOULD KNOCK A DRAGON ON ITS ASS," he snarled.
Erza immediately stopped trying to get up. That tone and glare were much too similar to Porlyusica for her to consider arguing a good plan.
"What about my armor?" she asked quietly.
"I'm sorry," Serena declared as she walked over and sat down on Erza's other side, "It was a choice between carrying you to safety or stopping to gather up the shredded pieces of your armor that had been scattered all over the place."
Erza grimaced, That was one of my favorite sets… "It's alright, I can put it back into my Requip Space no matter where it is. Am I allowed to use magic?"
Elric crossed his arms and nodded, "As long as you hold still. With your ribs in that condition, you don't need to be moving around."
Erza nodded, "Alright." She reached out with her magic and exhaled as she felt the pieces of her Black Wing Armor flash back into her Requip Space. Then she furrowed her brows slightly and with a clattering crash of metal, the broken pieces tumbled to the ground in a pile nearby. "This may seem like a strange request," Erza declared, "But I need you to hand me a piece of that."
"Why?" Elric asked cautiously.
"Speed up my recovery and help us fight those things if there are anymore of them," Erza declared, "I need to replicate the enchantment that grants that armor Holy properties and see if I can amplify them. If I can, then I'll be able to make short work of those tentacles."
Serena smirked, "No need to worry about those," she declared, "I got rid of them."
"But there are more of those big shadow monsters like the monkey," Elric declared as he got up and went to select a piece of the ruined armor, "So any advantage we can get is a good thing."
A moment later, he handed Erza her gauntlet and Erza got to work, ignoring the confused looks from Elric and Serena as she angrily bit the gauntlet and felt an understanding of the enchantment flow into her along with the surge of magic that flooded her exhausted body with strength. Next time, she thought grimly, I won't lose. Hang on everyone, I'll be there soon.
...
...
NEXT TIME on Mad Little Slice of Heaven...
...
Gajeel's eyes went wide as the massive shadow took form, "Ohhh crap..."
The Shadow Dragon's glowing silver eyes locked onto him and Gajeel realized he was about to have to EARN his title as a Dragon Slayer.
