Chapter 30

The King of Paradise

Loke

I was not all too keen about bringing two hostages along with us. Millianna was following silently towards the back of the group, while Gajeel was carrying Wally over his shoulder. I had no doubts that when we get caught in another battle, they were going to join the other side. I did not have much time to dwell on that though, the staircase we had been climbing came to an end and led to a wide-open corridor. There were seven side corridors we could choose from.

"Millianna, would you please tell us where to go?" Lisanna asked as nicely as she could.

"The second one on the right." Millianna replied without a second thought.

"You seem a little eager to help us." Gray remarked.

"You aren't trying to trick us, are you?" I added.

"She's telling the truth." A new voice called out to us.

Walking out from the second corridor on the right was the dark-skinned boy from the casino, Shô. With him was a large group of Tower guards.

"Frankly, it's kind of annoys me that you would accuse Millianna of being a liar." Shô continued, "Especially when he's on your side."

Shô spoke with words laced with venom and pointed at Natsu. Natsu growled at the card-dealing mage but made no move at him.

"No words for me?"

Natsu cracked his knuckles, "I'm just gonna make you eat those words!"

Natsu charged at Shô, but the guards moved in quickly to block Natsu. He swung at the guards and started to fight them. Gajeel quickly joined in, dropping Wally to the floor, and started pummeling more guards, creating the space Natsu needed to reach Shô. Natsu's fist was lit ablaze and he swung at the man. Shô ducked under Natsu's fist and threw two cards towards the rest of us. We all jumped out of the way, but it was soon obvious we were not the targets, Wally and Millianna were.

The moment the cards struck those two, they were sucked into the card. They then flew back at Shô who was busy trying to stay away from Natsu. He then put those cards in his shirt pocket.

"Gotta make sure my friends are safe first. You know how it is, right?"

Before any further action could be taken, a guitar riff echoed throughout the room and began to violently shake the floor beneath all of us. The floor beneath us broke, and everyone, minus Natsu and Gajeel, fell to the floor below. We landed in another wide-open corridor. This time a pale man with a guitar was facing us.

"Hehe, welcome to hell!" He cried as he strummed on his guitar.

The resulting sound pushed us back as we all instinctively plugged our ears. It muffled the sound somewhat, but I could still hear it and it hurt. Once the sound passed, I was able to get a better hold of my surroundings. It was a pretty barren corridor and the only people in here besides the rocker-looking guy was Lucy, Gray, Juvia and me. Looking up, I saw the Lisanna and Happy flying above me. I gave them a signal to meet up with Natsu and Gajeel.

"Oh, look at what we got here, two sexy ladies!" the rocker shouted as he played his guitar.

Juvia glared at the man before us, "Aren't you…Vidaldus Taka of Death's Head Caucus?"

"Whoa! Looks like one of the babes recognizes me!"

"Death's Head Caucus?" Lucy repeated in confusion.

"It's a dark guild that specializes in assassination. Vidaldus is one of their best mages and a member of the Trinity Raven team." Juvia explained, "Not as dangerous as the guilds of the Balam Alliance, but still up there."

"Hey, enough chit-chat! How about you babes come over to my side?"

"As if!" Both Lucy and Juvia replied.

A wicked smile crossed Vidaldus's face, "I wasn't really asking."

Vidaldus began to jam out on his guitar. We all covered our ears as the sound bombarded us, bringing us to our knees. The girls, however; screamed in pain as they physically began to change as the dark mage played his song. Their skin grew pale as their clothes also changed. Juvia's clothes changed to a pair of skinny jeans and a revealing purple top. Lucy's clothes changed into a pair of denim short-shorts and a purple crop top. Across their stomachs was a heart-like symbol. When their transformation was done, both girls faced us and smiled evilly.

"Take a look at my new love slaves!" Vidaldus rejoiced, "Take 'em out girls!"

"Will do master!" the girls replied enthusiastically.

Gray and I grew wide eyed as Juvia shot a water slicer at us. We quickly ducked out of the way as the blade of water made a deep cut into the wall behind us. This version of her spell looked much more dangerous than the one she used earlier against the guards.

"Hey Juvia, would you mind giving me some water?" Lucy asked.

"Oh no," I muttered as I picked myself up off the ground.

"What?" Gray asked.

A pillar of water rose in front of Lucy and I watched as she pulled out Aquarius's key. I quickly grabbed for Aries Key.

"Open Gate of the Ram: Aries!" A doorbell run out as the Ram spirit herself appeared before me, "Aries, stop her!"

Aries fired wool at Lucy to block the Key from reaching the water pillar, but it was too late. Lucy stabbed her key into the water and called out, "Open Gate of the Water Bearer: Aquarius!"

Another doorbell run out as the mermaid herself, Aquarius, appeared.

"Twice in one day Lucy!" Aquarius shouted at her summoner.

Aquarius turned around to face Lucy and expressed surprise at her summoner's appearance.

"Lucy, are you okay?"

In response, Lucy only pointed at Aries and I, "Just take them out!"

"Are you," Aquarius sounded genuinely concerned.

"Just do it!"

I could see the confusion and reluctance in Aquarius's eyes. She knew that Lucy would never wish harm on her friends, but she also could not disobey her. A breach of contract would be devastating for her. Aquarius blasted us with water. Aries put up a wool wall to shield us from the water, but it proved ultimately ineffective as the water shot through the wall.

"Hey Aries, why don't you come over to my side?" Vidaldus called out to my spirit as he jammed on his guitar again.

"Oh, no!" I cried out as Aries began to change.

Aries's skin color began to change to a tanner color as I realized my control over her was dwindling greatly. Rather than put Aries in an awkward situation having to fight me, I chose to instead close her gate. It wasn't easy, normally closing a Celestial Spirit gate requires help from both parties, but I was able to do it on my own regardless. Unfortunately, doing so had the effect of greatly diminishing my own magical power.

Gray

I raised an ice wall as more Water Slicers were sent my way. The water was quickly chipping away at my ice. I jumped out from behind my wall and shot some ice shards at Juvia. Unfortunately, they passed right through her as though she were made of water.

"Yeah, cut 'em up my water succubus!" Vidaldus cheered as he jammed on his guitar.

"Yes Master Vidaldus!" Juvia exclaimed excitedly.

Juvia sent more Water Slicers at me. I dodged out of the way of the attacks and decided to try something for myself.

"Ice Make: Ice Slicer!" I conjured up dull blades of ice that were launched at Juvia in a similar fashion to her water slicers.

I smiled as Juvia transformed into water, "Ice Make: Floor!" The floor in front of me rapidly changed to ice and sped towards the now watery Juvia. When the ice reached her, it quickly froze her. Just a I was about to turn my attention to Loke, who out of the corner of my eye I could see was fighting a losing battle, I noticed the temperature begin to rise in my ice. I looked back to Juvia and saw that she was melting away ice. I only had a moment to react as she exploded out of the ice encasing her and sped towards me.

"Ice Make: Ice Geyser!" I called out quickly.

Pillars of ice shot out in front of me and struck the seemingly boiling Juvia. To my relief, this also had the effect of pushing her back and away from me.

Juvia gave me a wicked smile as she went to cast her next spell, "Water Lock!"

Water quickly rose around me. It picked me and encased my whole body in water. I was fully submerged in the water with no way to breathe. I attempted to swim out, but the moment I tried, I felt like I was punched in the gut and was kept in place. The hits did not stop there. It was as though the water was alive and attacking me. I fought not to scream out in pain, lest I lose what oxygen I have left.

My salvation came in the form of Loke being propelled by a blast of water at high speed towards me. Loke collided with the Water Lock and knocked me out of it. Both Juvia and Aquarius sent a blast of water at us. I countered with a blast of ice of my own, with Loke using an ice ring to aid me. We were able to stop the attack, but there was a problem, Loke's addition did very little to aid in stopping the combined attack. I ended up using a large amount of my own magic to counter it.

"Dude, please tell me you have some trick up your sleeve." I plead to Loke.

Loke

I knew my aid did very little to help Gray. Aquarius was absolutely destroying me. Without Aries I stood no chance against the Water Bearer.

"Loke, you have to run!" Aquarius called to me as she fired more water at us.

Gray put up an ice shield that successfully blocked the attackers spell. Unfortunately, Juvia soon followed up with water of her own and cut the shield in half horizontally. Luckily we were given more than enough time to get out of the way.

"Lucy's under the control of some kind of dark magic." Aquarius informed me, "And as you are now, there's no way you can beat us."

I hated to admit it, but Aquarius was right. In my current state I could not hope to stand up to those two girls. Gray might have been able to handle this is it was just just Juvia, but it was clear that the addition of Lucy and Aquarius was taking its toll on him. He was panting right next to me and it was clear he was running low on magic. I relented; I was going to have to go all out.

I pulled out a second golden key. It was severely beaten up and cracked in a lot of places. On the key was the symbol of Leo the Lion.

"Open! Gate of the Lion: Leo!" There was no doorbell ring, only a flash of golden light. The light enveloped me, and I felt my magical power grow. My clothes changed into a ragged black suit with a tie. I felt my hair style change to reflect more of a Lion's mane,. Finally, the blue tinted glasses I was wearing began to crack, with one of the lenses breaking completely.

"Wait, what's going on?" Gray called to me as he blocked another attack from Juvia, "Since when did you have Leo's gate key, and why did you transform?"

"I think you know the answer Gray. I am Leo the Lion."

I ran forward towards Lucy. With a quiet, "sorry", Aquarius attempted to blast me with more water. I was able to dodge out of the way of the attack. If I had not opened my gate, I probably wouldn't have been able to dodge it.

"Take him out, Aquarius!" Vidaldus cried out in a shriek.

A devious smile formed on Aquarius's face as she turned around to face Vidaldus.

"I only take orders from Lucy!"

This act alone gave me the perfect opening to get past Aquarius and get right at Lucy. I clenched my right fist and placed my other hand over my bicep.

"O Regulus…grant me your strength!"

My fist became engulfed in light. I opened my fist and grabbed Lucy's face. I proceeded to force my magic into her to purge the dark magic from her body. Lucy screamed out in pain, but I could feel the magic leaving her body. Color slowly returned to her skin and the light enveloped her as her clothes returned to normal and the tattoo on her stomach disappeared. The next thing I knew, we were both on the ground out of breath with a sphere of water, provided by Aquarius, protecting us from the combatants outside.

"Loke?" Lucy asked when she got her breath back, "What happened."

"You were…taken over…by Vidaldus." I replied as a clenched my stomach.

"Why do you look so different?"

I pulled out my two golden keys and handed them to Lucy, "Listen, I don't have much time left. Please take good care of Aries."

"What? What do you mean you don't have much time left?"

Aquarius spoke up for me, saying, "He's dying. Loke, he's really the Celestial Spirit Leo. A few years ago, something happened that he was banished from the Celestial Spirit Realm. He's been stuck in Earthland ever since."

"What!?" Lucy cried as she grabbed onto me, "What happened, why were you banished?"

"My last owner...We had a disagreement and I ended up getting her killed."

Once again, Aquarius spoke up, elaborating on the event, "His previous owner had contracts with him and Aries. She was abusing Aries, humiliating her and physically abusing her, so Leo decided to keep his Gate open until their owner released Aries's contract. Until then, she wouldn't be able to summon any other Celestial Spirits. They're old owner got into a fight with a dark mage and tried to summon Aries anyways. The strain of trying to double summon and being attacked by a dark mage...She didn't survive."

"So, you were just trying to protect Aries!" Lucy shouted, "You made a mistake, I'm sure you didn't mean for your last owner to die."

"No, I didn't. But I failed to protect her. It was my fault."

"It was the Celestial Spirit King's decree that he be banished." Aquarius explained.

"This isn't right!"

"This isn't for you to decide!" Aquarius and I yelled back.

"Well, what if I made a contract with you and closed your gate!"

"The Celestial Spirit King would never allow it." Aquarius told her.

"I still have to try!"

I looked to Aquarius. She seemed to agree with Lucy, that we should at least try.

"Okay, fine." I held out my hand with my key in the palm.

Lucy grabbed my hand and said, "I hereby forge a contract with Leo the Lion."

The simple act was all it took. An immense magical power permeated through the area as golden lights shot forth through the sphere of water, breaking it. Vidaldus, Gray, and Juvia all stopped moving as though time had stopped. Light seeped in from every wall until it blasted through, shattering the wall. Standing there in all his glory was a humongous man in full plate armor. What was most striking about him though was his very large mustache which reached down to about his torso. We all recognized, in one way or another, we were in the presence of the Celestial Spirit King.

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