White Eclipse
Chapter 52
"I'm so sore." Luke whines out as he and the rest of White Eclipse, along with Sting, Rogue, Yukino, Lucy, Natsu Happy and Gray, sit around the outside of the Magnolia inn. Everyone was wrapped slightly in bandages. Everyone except Sidney and Calium and Happy.
"Well, at least the bandage wrapping wasn't painful like Erza's.." Gray says over to Natsu.
"Aye..." The Dragon Slayer nods to Gray's statement as he rubs his bandage covered torso.
Zain hears the comment and looks over at the two fairies. "Does your guild's doctor not specialize in bandage wrapping or something?"
"Guild's doctor?" The two say in unison as they look at each other, and then back at the rest of White Eclipse. "We just have a healing mage." Lucy states.
"Erza tries but..."
Natsu shudders at the painful thoughts of Erza wrapping their bandages.
"I see.."
"Well well, ladies and gentlemen." Walking up to the resting mages,
were the captain, Aloysis, Odin, and Correll. They simultaneously come to a halt in front of the battered and beaten mages as Captain Aloysis begins speaking.
"HI CORRELL!" Cutting off Aloysis before he could say a word, Skye and Kairi both stand a wave at the same time with hearts in their eyes, only to be not only ignored by the blonde haired captain, but pulled back down in their seats by Selene and Taya.
"I would say a job well done to you guys but..." Aloy begins to scan the mages, and then the rest of the city, seeing buildings ruined and pulled out from the ground; toppled over. "I can't really tell who won here."
"Heh...looks like a draw to me." Correll says. "The whole crew looks beaten down and the city is halfway in ruins. All that's left is the Inn and the bar, along with a few houses and apartments here and there. You sure you all didn't do that on purpose?" He smirked at his accusation as Natsu was about to stand up.
"What do you mean by that!?" The Salamander asked in annoyance as Gray held him down. "Everything isn't a fight, flame head."
Correll began laughing. "Sit down Dragneel you're out of your league. That wasn't even worth getting riled up about."
Growling, Natsu took heed and folded his arms pouting angrily. "I don't trust the council. They blame everything on us."
"Because you do everything." Odin replied. "Do you know how thick Fairy Tail's file is? And inside that thick file, do you know who's name shows up the most?"
"I have an idea." Gray says with crossed arms as he smirks cheekily at Natsu.
"You wanna go Gray!?" Natsu growls out as he was now head to head with the ice make mage.
"I'm right here hot head!" Gray retaliates as the push head to head.
"Weren't you just calming the idiot down?" Takeru asked, confused by both if their actions. Happy tugs on Takeru's shirt, causing the Shadow Dragon to look over as he shakes his head. "Don't even try."
"Anyways." Aloysis says, gaining everyone's attention back. Didn't you say that you had something to show us?
"Right!" Natsu says as he quickly hops up. "We found something while fighting that portal guy!"
"Well? Lead us to it."
A few minutes time skip later.
Aloysis now stood over the exposed lacrima as everyone else stood behind him watching. He then bent down to a knee and began pulling up the street with his bare hands, exposing more and more of the giant blue crystal. After a good five minutes, Aloysis finally stops as he stands once again. He uncovered half of the street, showing nothing but lacrima. "Well, we now know what they're after..."
"What are they after?" Natsu asked, blinking. Everyone stares at the ditz of a Dragon Slayer in disbelief.
"Just let him talk, Natsu." Lucy says as she face palms.
"Well then... Like I was saying, we now know what they're after. But the question is...why are they after this, and how did the lacrima get here?"
Correll looks around at the ruined area. "So this is where Sidney and that Tartaros mage Rugal fought huh? Damn Sidney, this damage is beyond criminal."
Sidney acknowledges Correll's words. "Rugal did the damage. I stopped him."
Correll began to grin a bit. "Yeah but it was due to your fighting he released a black hole right? If you ask me.."
"Let it go Correll." Odin interrupts. "We should be thanking Mr. Castle over here or there wouldn't be a city left. Countless people could of died today. Speaking of which.." Odin begins walking off. "I'll go get a victim count now, Aloysis."
Aloy nods as he stares at the lacrima. "Alright." He then turns back to the mages. "I'll be heading off as well. Don't touch the lacrima, we'll call in a team to block off these streets until Seigrain gives us an order of what to do with it."
Sting leans over to Natsu with a slight nudge and a mischievous grin on his face. "Hey Natsu-San." He whispered. "I dare you to eat a chunk. I heard it'll make you really strong.
"Been there... Nearly choked to death." The Salamander replied, leaving Sting shocked at not only the lack of hearing this story, but at how calmly he said it. "But yeah, it makes you really strong, if you can get it down."
"Something wrong Heather?" Luke asked, looking over at the distraught poison dragon slayer.
"Huh? Oh, nothing. It just reminded me of that broken forest, where we fought Silent Sanctum. I almost got sucked into that lacrima. And now, we have more just sitting here, like it's waiting on it's next victim."
"Which is why it shouldn't be touched." Aloysis says once again. "Now, our work here is done. Lets leave this area so that the guards can get ready to so their job in sealing off this area." Upon command, the group all leave the exposed lacrima where it is, and arrive back at the inn, where Aloysis and Correll both bow to the mages. "If anything else happens, let us know." Aloy then turns on his heels and begins walking off with Correll right behind him.
Now standing around, the mages of White Eclipse begin to head back to the inn.
"Thanks for the back up guys!" Aira says as she waves while walking with her group.
"Back up?" Natsu says with an irritated twitch.
"Whatever." Gray shrugs as he slides his hands in his pockets, walking away.
"After all of that..." Lucy sighs out. "They still hate us... They called us back up...as if that's all we were.."
"Screw them!" Sting yells out as he turns on his heel to the opposite direction. "I'm going home. I don't want to get caught in this beef. Sabertooth has it's own problems with regular people looking down on us already from the Grand Magic Games."
Yukino watches Sting start to walk off, and then watches Rogue trail him. She then turns back to give Lucy and the others a slight wave. "See you all. I hope you find your key Lucy."
"Same here Yukino." Lucy says while waving back. She then turns back to her three guild mates with an inquisitive look on her face. "I think things are slowly beginning to add up around here. Tartaros is starting to make sense."
"Hm?" Gray raises a brow while he looked at Lucy. "What are you saying?"
"Can we go to the guild first?" asked. "I want to sit down.."
"Lets go to my place instead, it's closer, and we don't know if they're done attacking today, especially with the lacrima now exposed."
"Fine..." Natsu huffed out as the four began walking down the street towards Lucy's apartment.
Just a ways past Lucy's apartment, the three captains continue their slow walk out of the half ruined city. They scanned over the damages as they walked, looking at the tilted over buildings and uprooted streets.
"Hard to believe some shadow puppets and portals did this by theirselves." Odin says as he continued walking with the other two, his hands entangled behind his back.
"You're suggesting the mages did more harm than good, Odin?" Aloysis asked.
"Well, I mean look around. This place is recklessly destroyed. I can't believe Tartaros did this on their own. Fairy Tail is known for property damage, and White Eclipse is like a near spitting image of the lunatics."
Uninterested in the conversation, Correll's eyes wander as he begins to think aloud. "I wonder how old Ultear is now that she's reverted back to her current age."
"You're still too young, Correll." Aloy says with a smirk, snapping the blonde haired captain out of his trance.
"Huh!? You heard that!?" Correll shifts his eyes around as the other two captains laugh at his disposition. "Embarrassing... Oh well there are other cute girls in my-" As they walk past the bar, something inside catches Correll's eye. He stops and squints, then smirks. "Hey..I'll catch up with you guys back at headquarters. I've just become parched."
"If you're gonna drink then I'm gonna clock you out okay? No drinking on the clock." Odin says as they continue walking. Correll just waves him off as he begins walking to the bar. "Yeah yeah Captain Rule Book, I hear ya."
A moment later, Correll walks into the near empty bar. Inside were only two people besides him. He sits down beside one, and smiles at the bartender. "Let me get an ale please, bartender."
Seconds later, a mug of alcohol was slid down to the blonde. Correll grabs it and takes a few gulps. After he wipes his mouth and places the mug down, he turns his attention to the person beside him. "You're telling me your drunk ass slept through the entire chaos?" He asked the deaf ears of the drunken mage beside him. Knowing he wasn't going to get an answer to the sleeping mage, Correll then kicks the bar stool from under Bacchus, causing him to hit his head as he fell to the ground. Snapping awake, Bacchus held his head as he quickly stood up. "Huh!? What happened!?" The wavering mage asked these pointless questions as he looked around at the empty bar. "Did I fall asleep drunk again?" Bacchus then spots Correll after coming from his daze, still swaying around a bit as Correll took another swig from his mug. "Oh...it's you." The magic palm user sneered a bit as he looked at Correll. His drunken manner then takes over as he begins laughing at the mage before him. Correll seemingly ignores him as he finished his drink. "So Bacchus." The palm user stops laughing as Correll addressed him. "You slept through all this?"
"Through all what?" Quatro's S class mage raised a brow as he looked at Correll in confusion. Correll merely points to the window, and Bacchus drunkenly walks to it. His eyes widen to the scenery outside, looking upon the destruction of Magnolia. "Huh...what happened here?"
Correll raised a brow at his simple reaction. "Tartaros. And you slept through it. How, I don't know."
Bacchus laughs a bit. "Sorry, drunk a little too much. Everything is okay now right? We aren't in danger anymore are we?"
"I'm not..."
Bacchus turns back around to Correll's words. "Hm?"
"Let me ask you a question, Bacchus. Fairy Tail, they're known for property damage right?"
Bacchus gives a bit of a shrug. "What mage isn't these days. They've kinda set the bar for this generation of mages."
"Yeah, no. That's inexcusable. Anyways. When you look out that window, what do you see? Tartaros, or another job from Fairy Tail?"
"What are you trying to say?" Bacchus arched another brow as he turns back to Corell. The blonde haired council captain then walks towards Bacchus, now face to face torn him. "I want you to agree with me when I say that, Fairy Tail, and even White Eclipse, are more harm than good. Think about it, with them off the street, where does that leave Quatro Cerebus?" That's right, on top." Correll then holds his hand out, looking for a handshake. "They're nothing but a nuisance in the long run. But I need support from 'witnesses.' A statement from an S class mage, saying that he saw Fairy Tail and White Eclipse do this will go over big in the council."
Bacchus looks at the captain in a skeptical manner. "And what's in it for me?"
Correll laughs a bit. "Besides your guild being number one? I'll pay you, heavy. How's ninety thousand jewel sound? That should hold your drinking habit for a lifetime correct?"
Bacchus takes a minute, and then grins. He lets out a hiccup as he reaches for Correll's hand, and slaps it away. "Sorry, but I'm not really the being bribed type. And we'll beat both Fairy Tail and White Eclipse on our own terms."
Correll snarls from having his hand slapped away. The immaturity and abuse of power begins to slowly show now as he takes a step closer to Bacchus.
"Lets try this again. Either accept my offer and make a statement against the two annoying guilds, or be arrested."
Bacchus lets out another hearty laugh. "Arrested for what?! You're the one who should be locked up, trying to threaten and bribe me."
"Arrested for what you say?" Correll asked rhetorically as a small glimmer was shown in his right eye.
"Even the walk to Lucy's apartment is long!" Natsu hunches over as he continues walking with the others.
"Stop complaining so much, flame head." Gray gives Natsu a one handed shove as he continued walking. This causes Natsu to bounce back into Gray's face. "Do you wanna go!?"
"I thought you were too tired?" Happy asked as he shook his head.
"You're not helping!" Natsu screamed back. Lucy just continued walking, rubbing her head in aggravation.
"We're almost there, can you three just relax until we get there?"
Natsu and Gray then separate, crossing their arms and averting their faces away from each other. As they continued walking, they were about to make their way past the town bar. Until Bacchus crashes out of the window, landing on his back.
"What the!?" Natsu looked up to see the drunken mage angrily making his way to his feet.
"What's Bacchus doing here? Has he been here the whole time!?" Lucy asked as she then turned to the blond haired mage making his way out of the bar. "Correll?"
Correll looked over at the four. "Tch, stay away. This has nothing to do with you four."
"What did he do?" Gray asked as Bacchus groaned, now fully standing and dusting himself off.
"Right now it's public intoxication." The captain smirked at the petty offense. "I'm gonna have to take this guy in.
"You threw me out of the bar you asshole!" Bacchus yelled as he readied himself to attack. "Public intoxication!? You should add assaulting a captain to that as well!"
Bacchus then charges Correll. Correll stood with a smirk on his face as he did so. At the last second, Correll slid into a fighting stance, then ducked Bacchus's first palm strike. Correll then quickly follows up with two punches; one to his abdomen, and the second to his jaw. Bacchus stumbles back, but he keeps Correll in melee range as he began to throw a combination of palm strikes. Correll covers up, taking the palm strikes head on just to test Bacchus's power behind them. Though they heavily stung, the blonde haired captain began to grin as he felt the palm strikes connect. He finally sways away from one, and throws a hard uppercut at Bacchus, but the drunken mage quickly leans back in an awkward fashion and fires an open palm to his sternum. Correll goes sliding backwards from the blow but remains on his feet. "Heh...not bad for a palm user."
Correll laughs a bit as he regains his stance, holding his fists right in front of his face. "I've never fought a palm user before, which is funny since I use fist magic."
"Fist magic?" Natsu looked on with interest.
"I don't care what you use. You'll never be as wild as me!" Bacchus charges Correll once again. He rears back his right arm and swings in a heavy palm. Correll meets him halfway, swinging a haymaker. His fist meets the palm user's palm, creating a shock wave strong enough to cause Natsu and the others to shield themselves. "Heh! Here then, eat this! Titans fist!" With his free arm, a magic circle appears in front of Correll. He swings his arm through the seal, causing his fist to grow ten times it's size. The now giant fist slams into Bacchus, throwing him backwards until he finally crashes into the ground. Bacchus tumbles a good bit until coming to a sliding stop on one knee.
"This guy is incredible." Gray says watching.
"Isn't Bacchus drunk too?" Happy asked.
"The council really has upgraded." Lucy added as she continued watching the two mages go at it.
"While you for are over there gawking, Mr. Incredible over here wanted me to make a statement against Fairy Tail to have them all arrested!" Bacchus screamed at the four as he rose back to his feet.
"What!?" Natsu quickly turned his attention to Correll. Correll merely grins as he shrugs his shoulders. "The country would be a safer place without you idiots running around destroying everything."
"Destroy this!" Without listening to another word, Natsu lunges forward and fires off a Roar of the Fire Dragon. Correll doesn't move as he watches the roar hurls towards him with a grin. Before the roar could connect with the blonde haired captain, something like a gust of wind pushes against the roar, dissipating it into nothing. "Heh... I knew you were around still, Odin."
From around the corner, Second Captain Odin appears as he continues to walk forward to the group. "I knew someone as immature as you was only staying back to start trouble." He replied as he eyed everyone around him.
"Tch..." Correll sucked his teeth, but then laughed as he turned to Natsu. "If you're wondering what happened to your little fire attack, Odin here knows oxygen manipulation magic. And since fire needs oxygen to live, and Odin can take that away, I suggest you back up while I handle the drunk over here because you're out of your league."
Both Natsu and Bacchus snarl at the cocky captain as he laughs once again.
"Like hell!" Natsu yells out, only to be held back by Gray Fullbuster.
"Calm down! We can't afford for anyone else to be arrested! They let Erza go, but no one else will be safe Natsu!"
Gray's words reach Natsu as he comes to his senses. Still snarling in anger, he calms down and watches the scene unfold.
"Actually Correll." Odin interrupts. "You don't have any real crimes against Bacchus either. I overheard the little 'negotiation' you made Bacchus, and it's not gonna fly." Corell rolls his eyes as he slides his hands in his pockets. "Here we go again. Captain rule book is in effect." Correll begins walking towards Bacchus. At first, the drunken mage stood ready, but he then relaxed as he realized Correll was going to walk past him instead of to him. The captain stops however, right beside Bacchus as he whispers. "You'll get what's coming to you. One day. Karma doesn't have a deadline Bacchus."
Bacchus listens, and then smirks. "You should take your own warning, kid."
Odin turns to the party. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
"Sorry isn't going to cut it all the time!" Natsu exclaims, but Odin ignores the comment as he follows Correll out of the city.
"Today has been too much!" Lucy yells in frustration as she pulls on her own hair. "I just want to go home and take a bath..."
.
"Didn't we just leave the bloke's study?" Maggie asked as she, Kiora and Sora begin walking towards the Tartaros library."
Kiora sighs a long one as she hunches over while walking. "This day has been so long. I just want an acid bath and a nap."
"I was in the middle of playing too." Sora says as she puffs out her cheeks in annoyance.
"I don't care, this better be good or we riot!"
"Kiora...we aren't gonna riot." Maggie scoffed at Kiora's statement, causing Kiora to scoff right back. Sora then joins the two.
"What are you scoffing about?" Kiora asked the pink haired girl. Sora shrugs. "I don't know, it seemed like the thing to do."
Maggie blinks a few times and then stares at Sora. "You're special, Sora."
Sora smile brightly, taking it as a compliment. "Thanks! Daityas says so too!"
Maggie and Kiora stifle their laughter as they open the doors to the study, where everyone was waiting. Their laughter quickly stops at what they say. In the middle of the room, Daityas had his arm draped over Tobias's shoulder with a huge grin on his face. Tobias stood with his arms crossed, grinning as if he's accomplished something great, standing proud next to his leader.
"And what's going on here?" Kiora asked, blankly looking on at Daityas and Tobias being buddy buddy instead of the ridicule Tobias usually receives. Daityas looks up at the three mages entering the room. "Oh look, Kiora and Maggie. Last one here as usual."
"Yeah yeah, just tell us what's up." Kiora sasses back as she walks over to Ruika. As she walked, she could feel Daityas glare pierce through her, so she decided to not make eye contact as she now stood between Ruika and the giant Mithril. Maggie walked over and now stood next to Arc and Rugal, who was nearly healed from all of his injuries. She looks over to her right to see all of Silent Sanctum, including Master Jikan, in attendance as well. Sora stayed near the door to round out the circle as Daityas and Tobias took the middle.
"Now that you're all here. Tobias has a plan. A damn well beautiful one. Better than any Lava tsunami, and portals sucking up Magnolia."
Maggie, Kiora, and Rugal all eye twitch to Daityas's comment.
"Now, we all know I like to do things without getting my hands too dirty."
"Lazy!" Kiora coughs out the word. Her eyes then widen as she ducks an incoming hells flame fire ball just in time. She then stood quiet, not daring to say another word. Mithril, who towered over her, licked his, index and thumb, and then pinched the strand of hair sticking out of Kiora's head to douse out the fire she didn't recognize burning on the top of her head.
"As I was saying. I'm not a fan of getting my hands dirty. Since spoiled brat number three over there.." Daityas then eyes Ruika a bit. The celestial mage quickly averts her eyes to a random spot in the room as she whistles. "..didn't want to finish off what Rugal started, Tobias has come up with a brilliant move that requires all of you to participate. And I mean all of you. Ladies and gentlemen. We're going to have visitors soon."
Maggie quickly raises a hand. "Um, excuse me love, but...what?"
"Oh, spoiled brat number two has a question." Daityas then grins as he backs away from Tobias. "Explain it to them Tobias."
Tobias smiles as he raises a finger. But before he could speak, a figure walks in, pushing the doors open.
"Sorry I'm late, council business."
"It's okay Aloysis." Daityas says as he leans against his desk with his arms crossed. "You're just in time from my main man Tobias's master plan."
"Tobias?" The white haired mage gave a skeptical look.
"That's what we said." Maggie mumbled to herself.
"Anyways." Tobias says as Aloy slides into the circle, next to his Silent Sanctum brethren. "As you've heard, we are going to be having visitors here at Tartaros castle. Which means one thing. We will be raising Tartaros castle from the underground."
"Hate this plan already. We all agreed not to raise the castle until we had all the tools needed to awaken Zeref." Maggie protested.
"But that's the thing." Tobias fires back. "Once we raise the castle, we will have the necessary tools needed to revive Zeref. Listen carefully and try to keep up. I'm not going to give full details, because that's no fun, so just listen for your part in this. We've been going after the wrong lacrima. The lacrima we need to retrieve first, is the one Sora planted in the council headquarters."
"That one is no where near ready though." Arc protested.
"Ah but it will be! Once we ambush the entire council headquarters." Tobias grins, now gaining Arc's full attention.
"Kind of dangerous to take on all of the council guards and captains don't you think?" Myou asked, causing Tobias to chuckle a bit. "I'd expect such a question from such a lesser guild. That's why you'll be our first line of 'defense' in the castle."
"Okay I'm getting lost. Everyone let Tobias finish." Ruika says as she refolds her arms.
"Right, so.. As I was saying. Our first mission, is to take out the council headquarters. The more magic used around lacrima, the faster the process will speed up, so don't hold anything back on anyone. Attack any and everyone."
"What about Siegrain? He's no walk in the park is he?" Hokori asked as he inhaled his smoke stick, holding in the fumes as he waited for an answer."
"Leave Siegrain to me." Daityas stands back up from leaning on the desk. "I made Jellal give that backstabber life. I even gave him back Ultear. He had one job, to keep the council busy while we operated. And since he wants to betray us, I'll have his head."
"Can I mount it on my wall!?" Ruika asked with a bit of excitement. All of Silent Sanctum look at her as if she was insane, yet it was normal for Tartaros. "I have a thing for heads on walls...it adds a nice touch to any room."
"So... We're all in agreement here right?" Tobias asked, getting a unison of nods and mutters saying that they're all in.
"And when does this attack take place?" Jikan asked.
"I'm going to need you to stay back on this one, Master Jikan. In fact, only a select few are coming along on this. And by select few I mean your Silent Sanctum crew, me of course, Ruika, Kiora, Arc and Daityas."
"A very odd lineup. But it's your plan. And if Daityas likes it, then it's obviously a perfect one."
Tobias nods to Jikan Calium's words. "To answer your question by the way. We ship off to attack in a few minutes."
"I haven't been in action in so long." Myou says quietly, yet loud enough for Maggie to hear.
"With those rags you have on, you look like you've just came from a brawl, 'love.'" The lava mage snickers at her own comment, causing Myou to stare at her. "What?"
Myou doesn't answer Maggie. She just continues to stare, causing Maggie to awkwardly look away. "Weirdo.."
"Myou would kill her.." Byron says to himself, internally sticking up for his strange guild mate.
"Alright!" Daityas claps his hands together once, creating a small ball of hells flames that quickly dissipates. "You all heard captain Tobias. Get ready to ship out!" Daityas walks to the exit, giving Tobias a hard slap on the back in the process. "I'm proud of you Tobias! And to think I almost killed you for barging into my study because I thought you had some stupid idea going on in your head."
Tobias gulps, thinking about the recent memory that no one was around to see, how he had to quickly tell Daityas everything before the demon slayer could get to him in time.
"Well well. The elemental mage Tobias is making moves." Kiora says sarcastically as she heads for the exit. "Now that that's finally over. Sora come run Kiora a quick acid bath and I'll tell you where I hid your favorite doll."
"Coming!" The little pinkette yelled out as she scurried behind Kiora.
"Run me a lava bath too and I'll give you the head back to your favorite doll." Maggie says as she follows them out.
"Best. Day. Ever!" Sora screams out as she runs ahead. Everyone else followed behind to get ready or to go about their business.
.
"Ahh..." Natsu plopped into a chair in the celestial mage's apartment. Feeling refreshed after his shower, he sat across from Gray as Lucy stood up from her bed. "So Lucy.. You said you had some idea on what those guys were up to?"
Lucy perks up and snaps her fingers. "Right! Okay here's my theory, and I may need Levy to look this up to verify, but I think Tartaros is planting and gathering lacrima to revive Zeref. Just like that Silent Sanctum group was trying to do in that forest!"
Gray and Natsu look at each other, and then back at Lucy.
"...duh."
Lucy's face drops from Gray's comment. "You mean, you know?"
"Come on Lucy." Natsu says. "It's like the tower of heaven all over again, except no tower, but an entire city!
Lucy drops her head completely. "Even Natsu had the same hunch."
"Ehe...hey!"
"So now we have to protect Magnolia even more right!?" Happy asked while raising a paw.
"Right! But this raises another question. This can't be the only place where they've hidden lacrima. So where else could there be any?"
"Good question, Gray." Lucy rubs her chin as she ponders the thought. "But...if there is more, why continuously attack Magnolia? I mean we're all over here, why not gather the others? Unless they already have, and we're the last line of defense to Zeref's awakening!?"
"Slow down Lucy, we can't jump to any conclusions. They could cost us."
Natsu then jumps up after Gray finished. "Aye! I say we find them and bust them up!"
"Great idea Natsu! Only one problem... We don't know where they are flame brain!"
Natsu smirks as he points to his nose. "But we do, I have that green haired guy's scent!"
"You can follow a scent even though he disappeared into the shadows?" Happy asked.
"...No"
"Idiot! We're getting no where!"
"Maybe that's a good thing." Lucy says as she straps her keys around her waist after counting to make sure they were all there. She gave out a small sigh at the fact Loke was still missing. "We should head to the guild and see what's going on there."
"I agree." Gray says as he stands from his seat.
"Aye! Maybe Gramps has an answer!"
.
"Sir Siegrain." Standing in the hallway, Siegrain and Ultear were conversion as Lahar and Doranbolt approach them both.
"Lahar. What is it?"
Lahar respectively bows. Doranbolt joins in the bow. They both then return to their standing positions. "Just making sure you haven't forgotten about us."
Siegrain chuckles a bit. "Forgotten? My best two men? Of course not. I don't need you two out there for every petty little attack that Tartaros throws at us. I need you both ready at a moments notice, just in case anything major goes down."
Doranbolt then nods a bit. "Sir, if you don't mind me asking... What if Zeref is revived? You usually have a plan for everything. So I was just wondering.."
"Say no more, Doranbolt. I've thought of this as well. And there's one solution to Zeref if he's revived. Etherion."
Lahar's eyes widen. "I thought that the Etherion has been discontinued!? Ever since.."
"Since I destroyed it?" Ultear asks rhetorically. "We've made repairs, the Etherion is up and running and just waiting on the Death mage to show his face. But we're sure it won't have to come to that."
"That's our Ultear and Siegrain-Senpai." Correll says as he walks up with Odin. "Always thinking ahead, having everything covered."
Siegrain gives Correll a look over. "Correll, been in a scuffle?"
"And nothing more." The blonde says with a smile. "Just played around with that Bacchus guy."
"Hm.. Anyways. Not that we're all here, or at least...no, where's Aloysis?"
Odin looks around a bit aimlessly. "I thought he was here? He left before us. I guess that means he didn't give you the update on Magnolia either?"
Siegrain shakes his head. "I didn't receive anything."
"Maybe he stopped somewhere." Correll says, shrugging.
Just then, a loud explosion was heard from the main entrance to the council headquarters. "What was that!?"
"Knock knock!" Kiora says as she continued firing off shadow make: lances each and every way, slamming them into walls and council guards alike. Seemingly endless were both the guards and the lances. The more guards that came, the more lances were fired, knocking them off of their feet and even piercing through most of them. She stops firing for a minute to let the next wave of council guards come around the corner. As a magic seal appears before her, she gives a whistle. "Cerberus! Here boy!" Though not the normal conjuring of the three headed shadow dog, Cerberus lunges out of the seal and wastes no time mauling the soldiers in front of him; sending the weak at heart panicking. Though the strong stayed and fought, their normal weapons had no effect on the three headed dog. Finishing off the rest of the wave, the hellhound now stalked the one remaining guard that began crawling away for his life. The three headed dog crouched, and then lunged towards the helpless guard. He let out a scream as the beast lunged towards him, but before Cerberus could land it's attack. A woman, about five feet, ten inches, comes sliding in front of the hellhound holding a giant shield. Cerberus rams head first into the shield, and begins whimpering as it shakes it's head vigorously, trying to shake out the grogginess. The bleach blonde haired mage stood tall in her council outfit, holding her shield in her right and her sword in her left. She stared down the shadow make mage and pointed her sword, causing Kiora to raise a brow.
"And who might you be?"
The council soldier glares for a bit longer. "You have no right to ask questions. You're trespassing, and you're now classified as a mass murderer and you're under arrest for both crimes. So the real question is. Who are you!?"
Kiora begins to laugh. "Who am I you ask? Who am I? I am the hope of hell. The answer to all living things who cry out for death. I am the darkness in the light! I am decievement! Ally to evil, and a nightmare to you. I am.." A magic seal appears beside Kiora as a well sized serpent slithers out and coils around Kiora. Cerberus at this time, finally regains itself and now stood at attention to the right of Kiora. "I am Kiora, the Fatal Embodiment! And this is the last thing sight ever see!"
The girl blinks a few times, stating at Kiora dumbfounded. "...Nice speech."
Siegrain and the captains continue to stand around, standing ready incase anything attacked. "What's going on!?" Siegrain yells. "Someone update me!"
"Sir!" A random, bruised and battered up guard comes rushing down the hall panting. "It's...Tartaros! They've breached the council building! They're inside!"
"Shit!" Siegrian immediately begins walking off at a fast pace. "Ultear, Odin, Correll! Spread out and make sure no one gets through! You two Lahar and Doranbolt!"
"Right!" As all five of them take off in different directions, more explosions were heard from every direction, luring them to the sounds.
Down in the West Wing, A tall warrior, about eight feet tall with an iron mask stood over the rushing guards. He picks a couple up with his bare hands and begins squeezing on their heads until they stopped moving. The warrior takeover mage Hokori then throws the guards in his grasp into more incoming guards, knocking them over like bowling pins. He then turns his attention to the random pillars in the west wing and begins walking towards them while smacking away anyone in his way. Hokori then winds up and rears back a right fist. He slams it into the pillar, quickly breaking it into pieces. He does the same with a hard backhand to the pillar beside him and just like that, the ceiling starts to break from over the entire room. Following behind him.. "Here comes the..." Byron jumps out holding a giant hammer with two hands. He slams it down in the middle of the room, causing a huge explosion to take place, throwing the guards every which way if they weren't fried in the process. "Boom!"
Byron then continues laughing as he and Hokori continue to break apart the council walls from their side.
"Stop!" Coming to a sliding halt, Odin confronts the two Silent Sanctum mages. They both turn with a grin as they glare at the second captain.
"Oi! What's this!?" Hokori reverts to his normal form as he lights a cigarette. "You're all the sent to stop us? You'll be dead before you know it council man."
"Let me bring the hammer down on this clown." Byron says as he takes a few practice swings with his explosive hammer.
Odin curls his lip as he fixes his gloves. He then slides off his council jacket. "You two have no idea who you're dealing with."
"Oh?" Hokori grins as he exhales the smoke. "Please, tutor us."
Ultear ran down the hallway as explosion continued to happen down the East wing. She ducks her head as one explosion happens just above her head. She comes to a sliding stop as she spots a female at the end of the hallway.
"Hello." Ruika says as she stands on top of a pile of guards, across from Ultear. "You must be here to stop me?"
"More or less." Ultear says as she pulls out her time ark orb. "So, you gonna stand there or are you gonna show me your magic?"
"Well if you insist." Ruika nonchalantly sits down on the pile of bodies, causing Ultear to raise a brow in confusion. Ruika then reaches to her ring of keys as she yawns. "Gate of the warrior. Open up. Orion." Out of a shining gate, the celestial warrior, Orion, appears. Before he could do his usual routine of carrying Ruika bridal style and confessing his love, the celestial mage gives him the evil eye and points vigorously. "I swear to god Orion, take another step and I'll leave your key here when this place comes down."
With wide eyes, Orion bows. "Yes my love Ruika!"
"Pushing it!"
"A celestial mage?" Ultear looks on as she readies for combat. "This shouldn't be too hard then."
Ruika chuckles as she watches on. Her head was propped up by her own hand. She gave Orion a "carry on" style of wave.
"Go ahead Orion. Kill her. And destroy everything around you as well."
In the south wing, the young blonde haired mage began running through the collapsing hallways. Quickly losing his jacket, the now shirtless Correll begins sliding and flipping over broken and tossed around pillars and walls until he came to a sliding stop to turn the corner. As he did so, he was immediately attacked. A fireball slammed into Correll's sternum, lifting him off his feet as he hit the wall. Trying to make his way to his feet, Correll began to cough profusely as a grey smoke covered some of the room. Now appearing, was Myou and Tobias. Tobias began to laugh as Myou stood there staring at the young captain. Correll tries to move forward, but his body wouldn't let him. "What is...?"
"My smoke attacks the body, stalling the nerves. Just long enough to let me torture my victim." Myou recited her words in an emotionless tone as she walked towards Correll. She stood in front of him, and backhanded the captain. The force of the backhand sent Correll flying into and through the wall. Still unable to really move, Correll twitched about as his lunges began to take in the fresh air since he was no longer in the same room. The second he makes it to his feet though, Tobias meets the mage with a magic seal right in front of him. Out of the seal, spouts a wave of rushing water that quickly filled the room. The rapid currents slammed Correll around and about until he slammed back first into another wall, breaking it. Fortunately for him, the water began to drain due to the hole in the wall. Corell gasped for air as the two mages stalked him once again.
"Correll right? I thought you were supposed to be the young hot shot?" Tobias said as he began laughing.
Correll lunged forward quickly and threw a right glowing fists, but Myou catches it with ease. She then emits a red smoke around Correll quickly. In the next second, it explodes, causing Correll to let out a yell as he goes tumbling backwards, now on one knee as he looked up at the stalking mages.
"I guess you had a good run as a council man." Tobias says as he raises a palm, creating a magic seal.
"But that ends here."
Seigrain quickly makes his way out of the council building, by walking through the North eastern wing. He stepped lively to the closest chariot. He steps were soon halted as Daityas stepped from behind the wagon with a menacing grin. Siegrain curled his lip at the demon slayer. "Daityas."
"Oh no... No need for formal greetings you know good, two timing piece of shit."
Daityas begins to take steps toward the magic council leader. The blue haired wizard saint counteracted with the same pace of backwards steps. "Oh? Retreating like the coward you are? Come on Seigrain I only want to talk."
"Then talk to us." Doranbolt and Lahar appear in between Siegrain and Daityas in a fighting position. "Sir Seigrain, we'll take it from here. Get to safety." Lahar suggested. Siegrain had no problem following those orders as he began heading to the carriage over to his right.
"Heh... Not so fast." Behind the carriage that Siegrain was now heading to, Arcturus stepped out. He began walking past the frozen council leader as he made his way towards an equally frozen Lahar and Doranbolt.
"A-a-...Arcturus!?" Lahar and Doranbolt had on expressions of those that have seen a ghost.
"The one and only." The darkness demon slayer grins as he stands next to Daityas. "Daityas, go handle your business, I'll take care of these two."
Daityas grins. "That boy Tobias saw all of this coming. Do your thing Arc." Daityas begins to walk towards Siegrain. Seigrain begins to take off his jacket as if he was getting ready for a fight. He waited for Daityas to be near feet away before his body began to glow.
"Shit!" Dait began to sprint towards the wizard saint but it was too late. "Meteor!" In a light of heavenly magic, Siegrain takes off into the air... He was soon halted; as another heavenly body knocks him clear out the air with a haymaker. Siegrain hits the ground face first. As he struggles to his knees, he looks up to see Aloy now in front of him. "Aloy...!"
"You're a fool for trusting a dark mage. Former or current." Aloy grins as he begins walking to Lahar and and Doranbolt to give Arc the backup that he doesn't need.
Siegrain tries to scramble away once again, but before he could take off, Daityas grabs him by the back of his collar and slams him down. With hells flames wrapped around his right fist, he slams a clean hook into Siegrain's jaw. The Bluenette spits out a couple spools of blood. "You thought you could betray me!? And live? You're more insane than me. I- hold on a second. We have to do this inside like Tobias said." Daityas gets up. He the. Holds Siegrain by the back of his head and slams him into the ground. He then proceeds to drag him back inside the council building, keeping his face planted in the ground as he forcefully caused it to bring up the ground on the way back to the building.
"Come on Siegrain...
We're gonna have a little talk."
