He walked between the past and the present. However, not through magic. If he had the ability to manipulate time, he would have long ago destroyed any semblance of monarchy and government here in Veronica. More importantly, he would have warned a naive fool to run as fast as he could to anywhere other than this damned hellhole of a country. Instead, he walked down the halls that haven't changed since he was last here. His mind overlapped three times he walked down this hall: one when he was an advisor, after that when he was dragged in as a prisoner, and now when he came back as its destroyer.
Under the blood-stained night, Arjuna walked into the throne room and an overload of nostalgia. He raised his hand and blasted the decorated and well-kept throne into dust.
But that was it. Over centuries of grief, anger, pain, and torture, and all it amounted to was him blasting an empty chair and leaving a hole in the wall. Even back then...
Instead, his anger grew. At the very least, he could turn this new and old anger towards his enemies. Meanwhile, Kain felt more annoyed and exasperated than usual but couldn't pinpoint why. When the old sorcerer turned, he spotted the descendant of his former king bowing politely at him.
"Lord Arjuna, it is an honor to meet you." That was a different reaction, Arjuna would admit. He didn't know how to react to seeing the descendant of the damnable man who condemned him. Maybe he should do the same thing as he did with the throne. Come to think of it...
"You are fairly calm for someone whose symbol of their heritage was recently obliterated."
Ravanas simply stood back up and smiled. "An empty chair shouldn't be the symbol of my country."
"I care little of your country and people," All three eyes studied the well-dressed man. "All I care about is the return of The Mahika and the remainder of The Nail."
"Then we will help you." Ravanas eyes showed something despite his calm look. There was something about his eyes that seemed twisted beyond the influence of the Mahika. "I knew my forefather's knowledge was nothing but lies. Here you are, not as some damned monster, but like a messiah for a truly divine being!"
He sounded more like a zealot than a politician. The only reason why he didn't destroy him then and there was that he was curious as to where this would go.
"Sir!" A soldier from Ravanas' side saluted to the leader and then bowed. "We received a message from the Magic Council!"
Arjuna watched as Ravanas' eyes narrowed. Without a word, he left the room and the soldier followed after him. Arjuna, while curious, trailed after the handsome man into an elaborate room that showed a specialized orb lacrima in the center.
The entire room changed by the power of the Lacrima, revealing an over-elaborate room with giant hands raising people up as if they were the god's chosen.
"Magic Councilmen," Ravanas began as he held his hands behind his back. "To what do I owe this call?"
Among all of those standing around him, a towering man wearing specialized black robes, wielding a curved staff, a witch hat, and sporting a large gray beard, towered over the Prime Minister.
"Prime Minster Ravanas!" This powerful figure pointed down on the Prime Minister. "You are to take back your war declaration as of this instant!"
The Prime Minster fixed his tie. He looked up with the same smile he entered the room with and asked, "Head Councilman, Gran Doma, why would you order that of me?"
From Ravanas' left, someone spoke up. "We are aware that you only declared war because you were attacked by a guild in Fiore! We of the Magic Council and the King of Fiore, have found out that Fairy Tail has acted for its own benefit and under no one else!"
From outside the room, Arjuna kept up with the conversation. Or seeing as Ravanas made no attempt to even close the door, he assumed the Prime Minister wanted him to see this. The ancient sorcerer couldn't help but frown as he heard the words from someone 'higher'. No matter how much time passes, heights of power only gave tyrants the impression others were ants. A shame their great views didn't show them how they looked if the situation was reversed.
"Furthermore," Another voice from Ravanas' right declared with more importance than necessary. "We have disbanded the guild and arrested all of their members. We give them to you to punish as you see fit. We'll even send our forces to help hunt down those criminals that attacked you."
Arjuna's grip tightened after hearing this. Even in another country, centuries in the future, how quickly do those in power sacrifice whatever they want without consequence to themselves.
"Excuse me?" Ravanas repeated as he gave off this empty stare.
"You have no need to declare war." Gran Doma took the attention back towards him. "This matter could be solved very easily, boy. You're still too green to become a great leader like your father was."
Arjuna sensed what everyone else could not. The mention of his family caused an agitated twitch in Ravanas. Yet everyone, including Ravanas, saw Ravanas point to Gran Doma with a stillness akin to the calm before a storm.
"That." He only said one word, but that had more weight and power than those grandstanding around him. "That right there proves how little you care about my country and your own people."
His voice was calm, but it didn't need to be loud for everyone to hear his words.
"What!?"
"None of you knew of who my so-called father really was: he was a small, fat, greedy, and cruel man. Every day, he would feast while my country would suffer. The only reason why you thought of him as a good man was because he bootlicked any one of you the opportunity he got. And even when we were allies, you ignored every request for help during borders. When our sandstorms destroyed lesser cities, you taxed our silk trades! When our crops were ruined, you increased sales in your deliveries! And don't you start with that Supply and Demand bullshit because I requested several times if we could work out a proper deal with our lack of money, but you all still rejected me at every peaceful opportunity!" Ravanas was no longer calm as he listed all the wrongs he had to suffer. "Now, here you are, sacrificing your own people just to keep The Principality in a one-sided scam!?" He threw his hand out as a magical aura exploded around him.
"How dare yo—"
Ravanas interrupted Gran Doma. "You have long lost your right to silence me! If I am to be shamed for something, it is listening to you and believing that one day you would honor our pact as allies!" Ravanas continued with a stomp of his foot. "I did not even point out the most damning evidence of sacrilege that the Magic Council has just attempted! Among my attackers was a Descendant of Fiore's most idolized defender, Horus Anhur! You would even tarnish the bloodline of your most vaunted hero!? Is there even such a thing as respect among you!?"
That caught everyone's attention for the wrong reason. Meanwhile, Kain felt a migraine coming up.
"What do you mean Horus Anhur's descendant!?" Gran Doma slammed his cane to his standing podium and the whole room shook. "His family tree died with him! He had no offsprings!"
"Once more, you have validated the fact that you know nothing of your own home!" Ravanas brought a fist close to his chest. "Even I knew that Queen Isodara erased records of her grand general after the man's death! It's obvious she purged records to give her friend more respect you did! But I tire of this!" Ravanas looked around the grand room in search of something else but didn't seem to find it. Instead, he shouted out loud, "I know you are listening to this as well, Kings and Leaders of Ishgar! You may think of me as young and foolish, but I hereby take the future of my people back from the Parasite known as the Magic Council!"
"You little—"
Ravanas sent a magical pulse that deactivated the specialized communication Lacrima. The room returned to the state it was in previously: a room covered by the crimson night.
The Prime Minister looked over to Arjuna. For a second, the two stilled before he sighed. "Lord Arjuna, Lords of Carbuncle," It took a second fo Arjuna to notice his followers were also behind him. Had they watched the entire process as well? "I take it now you understand the reason of why I declared war? If not, I shall be clear in case I was too vague. I hate my family. I hate how they treated me and the country I was supposed to love and serve. I hate everyone around me for belittling every attempt I made to try and fix things. I hate most of all, my inability to do anything until now." Ravanas opened a hand towards Arjuna. "I will help you, to either convince your God to raise up Veronica or have the rest of this world die by its hand. Anything is better than my home slowly dying in this damn hellhole."
Arjuna closed his eyes. Those last words mirrored his own thoughts of this place. Perhaps this descendant wasn't as bad as his ancestors.
All three eyes snapped open. "We need the third piece of The Nail. Do you know where it is?"
Ravanas had a smile on his face that promised chaos and mischief. "Oh yes. If I were a gambling man, that is where we will also find our elusive enemies."
It was the same dream that started this adventure.
Only, no words were screaming at her from every direction. Instead, there was a light that Éclair walked to follow.
She noticed that the light moved towards her as well. Wait, since when did light look like a peacock? Éclair never expected to see a peacock in her dreams, but this one was pure silver and gleamed like that of the stars.
It said something. Its voice was like rain after a long drought, but the amnesiac couldn't make out what the bird was saying.
It moved closer, but the amnesiac forgot this was a dream. The reason why this was important to remember was that as the peacock walked closer to her, it grew bigger. She did not realize it was still far away from her.
"Detivni era ew. Tsaef eht."
Éclair woke up with a gasp as she sat up from the bench. It took her a second to realize that she was still on the bus Fairy Tail stole back in Veronica's Capital. It was the dead of night, and nearly everyone was asleep.
"Huh? You alright?" Well, almost everyone. Two people were assigned to switch between night watch and driving.
And Kageyama happened to be the one doing the night watch.
"Huh? Kage, you say something?" Max asked in a low tone from the driver's seat.
"It's nothing; I got it," Kage spoke in consideration of everyone else asleep before turning to Éclair. "You okay?"
The amnesiac looked at Kageyama, the former criminal, and someone who practically embodied everything she hated about mages. She knew she hated mages, even finding out about her history made her despise mages more for ruining her life. But her talk with him before they went to the capital, and the one they had on the train, he seemed to care for her despite how distant she was.
"Why are you so nice to me?"
"He thinks your gorgeous." Kageyama's eyes widened before he looked towards Kain with a glare as threatening as a kitten. The shadow mage's face became redder than the lawyer's armor.
Kain laughed lightly. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding."
"Asshole!" Kageyama summoned a shadow hand that slapped the back of Kain's head, but the lawyer only suppressed a laugh from the action.
The shadow mage looked back to the amnesiac, who by now was his own night light. "D-Don't listen to that bastard! I know how you're feeling! Wait, I meant to say that I am you!"
"Kage's a big softie," Kain added even though another shadow hand smacked the back of his head harder. "Of course, he cares."
And then Kage went on a whisper/shout/rant towards Kain, who powered up his armor to prevent more damage from Kage using his shadows to slap his noggin silly. But the amnesiac felt a smile coming from her lips. There was something honest about their bickering right now. Perhaps it was good for them to unwind after the problems before and soon to come.
However, the immortal sighed as she looked out the window. When she looked to the stars, she felt strange—
"Stop the bus!" Her shout woke up the rest of Fairy Tail from their slumber. "We need to stop!"
Max slowed down the bus to a stop as everyone got their bearings.
"Éclair, what's wrong?" Momon asked as the immortal pointed to a mountain range to the east.
"There. We need to go there." There was a small part of the amnesiac's voice that didn't believe what was coming out of her own mouth.
Everyone looked to Kain after she said that. The lawyer looked over to Levy.
The blue-haired girl stilled for a second before she looked up and pointed to where their friend did. "Max, let's go!"
"Aye, mam!" Max laughed before he started driving the bus up towards the mountain range.
"So, why are we heading up there?" Happy raised his paw.
"I," Éclair struggled to find the words. "I don't know."
As Fairy Tail drove up the mountain, a fierce sandstorm started to blow. The thing was, their Amnesiac begged them to go through the storm. After a struggle that involved Max trying to manipulate the storm from blowing them off a cliff, Natsu and Gajeel suddenly losing the effect of their anti-motion sickness spell at the same time they crossed a territory of giant, dessert pangolins, which rose up and attacked them for trespassing, Fairy Tail's newly commandeered bus looked more like a convertible from Kain's world minus the part where they had options to change it.
After much effort, the storm died down... the same time their bus' engine did.
Fairy Tail groaned as they got out of the bus without a ceiling. It was still the dead of night, so it was dark, cold, and everyone was without sleep proper sleep.
As Kain removed his overcoat and placed it over Wendy, he looked to the others and rubbed his eyes. "Éclair, do you still sense where we need to go?"
The Amnesiac pointed over to the distance where everyone saw clouds obscuring a lower part of the mountain range. Or at least, the view stayed like that for a few seconds.
When the amnesiac pointed, it was like an ID card being validated. The fog lifted and revealed a lush jungle hidden by the clouds. In the center of the jungle, they spotted a land with a grand temple that looked brand new but was styled in the same way the old temples back in the city they had first arrived.
Kain sighed. "As always. Magic is BS. Come on, everyone, we're taking the rest of the travel by foot."
When Fairy Tail reached the edge of the jungle, the first thing they noticed was the ground.
"Is the ground?" Levy trailed off as she bent to touch the earth. "Silver?"
"I think it's silver sand," Everyone looked to Max as he waved his hand. The silver moved to mirror Max's wave. "Yeah, I can definitely control it."
Fairy Tail looked ahead before Bisca spoke up. "So what do we do?"
Levy stood back up. "Well seeing as how we got into this mess because of a temple, let see if this one can get us out of it."
Lucy looked over to her blue-haired friend in surprise. "Levy, that sounded like Kain."
The script mage smiled. "I thought I'd channel him a little to help me lead! All I have to do is act super sarcastic!" With that, she started to walk ahead into the jungle-land.
"Hey, I resent that! I am more than just sarcasm!" The lawyer exclaimed but followed after the group.
"You also whine a lot more than Gajeel and Natsu can eat their elements respectively." Kageyama smiled with all the smug the brunette had earlier that night. "You know I wonder if you're secretly the Dragon Slayer of being a smart-a—mouth." Kageyama caught himself when he looked over to Wendy at that last word.
"Ha!? This brat? A dragon slayer!? HAHAHAHAHA!" Gajeel gave a peal of booming laughter that came deep from his lungs. Even Natsu soon joined in the laughter.
"Ahh, Karma, always the jerk." Kain cursed in PG-13. "Now I'm half hoping that another ancient power attacks us right now."
Éclair watched as Fairy Tail continued their friendly banter with each other. She found herself enjoying their company again, but she felt a little sad not to be a part of it. Not to mention, as they walked through these strange lands... why did this place feel... familiar?
Soon, Fairy Tail made its way towards the outskirts of the temple. Natsu and Gajeel froze, signaling the others to get into a fighting stance.
In the distance, they spotted a figure walking towards them. Although it was night, they watched something step out of the shadows-
"I-Is that a peacock?" Lucy asked as the silver bird slowly moved towards them.
Éclair couldn't believe what was in front of her. It was the same peacock from her dream! It was real?
\I welcome one and all to the temple of the Parshuma—He who Defends./
No one really expected the peacock to speak, no one expected said peacock to sound like Éclair.
/Come, there is not much time. We must prevent the return of the Mahika./
The peacock turned and started to walk. Fairy Tail all looked at each other, but Éclair found herself walking after the bird. Her action made the rest of Fairy Tail follow after.
"Ah! Éclair, where are you going!?" Momon shouted as he flew after the girl, which prompted everyone to do the same.
However, the amnesiac went beside the space peacock. She asked, "Who are you? What are you? What is this place?!"
/Your questions tie together. Allow me, a humble servant, to reveal a tale long woven in the stars./
The Peacock's eyes glowed and for a second time, a light enveloped all of Fairy Tail—
"AM I THE ONLY ONE GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS!?"
"NO!"
Kain was glad to know that at least before the light consumed them again.
They saw something similar to the art back in Veronica's Capital City. They watched something like a golden goddess with many arms create the fertile lands. They watched the goddess use her many hands to create smaller creatures like her, a feeling of other lesser gods came into their minds.
They watched as the goddess and her children go on adventures of sorts, slaying strange beasts and forming new lands. However, something seemed to change in this vision. The colors of the art seemed to grow darker and there were these... strange figures... that seemed to encroach upon the lands of the golden goddess. Unlike the (India-styled) art that was shown in their vision, they saw what looked to be blobs of black?
The Golden Goddess moved her children away from the blobs. When they did, one of the blobs moved closer to the golden goddess, wielding what looked to be a sword of some kind.
The blob slashed one of the goddess' arms before they seemingly ran away for almost no reason.
They watched as the goddess' blood started to leak out, but it turned as black as the other strange beings.
From the droplet of black blood formed a creature that looked similar to Loke's vision of the Mahika.
In its first moment of existence, the Mahika gave a war cry like a roar. It attacked its mother, slaying her with one strike. Soon, it hunted the rest of its siblings. One remaining god, a human-looking diety with silver skin, fought the Mahika with a silver staff.
Their battle raged on, destroying the luscious lands of the golden goddess into a barren, dessert-filled wasteland. However, the Mahika gave a fatal blow to the silver god. Before he lost his life, the god used his staff to send the Mahika into a different plane of existence.
However, as the god used the last of his life force to seal away his evil brother, the Mahika stole the staff from the dead body before it could be sealed away completely in the different dimension.
It seemed like the story would end there, but it didn't. The painting/mural went on, showing a now desolate world from the battle of the Veronica Pantheon. People still survived, albeit barely. However, it started to show the story of a man born into poverty.
They watched the man live a hard life, losing his parents early on and forced to be the caretaker of his two younger siblings. However, with how scarce food was, it didn't take long for the younger siblings to die from starvation, even with thievery from their eldest brother. When the orphan was about to die, he was found by an elderly scholar. The scholar took him in and raised him as his own. They watched as the scholar taught the boy astrology and other forms of craft, including magic.
The boy eventually grew to be a wonderful young man with great wisdom. His wisdom and knowledge were used to help others, and soon he became widely known to the point of catching the king's attention.
The king or leader of that land asked an impossible task of the young man. With the wisdom of the scholar, the young man solved the task with great creativity. As a reward, he was made advisor to the king and lavished with riches.
It was then that the watchers started to notice something. The more the advisor became acclaimed, the more jealous the king looked. He especially didn't like the way his daughter and the advisor seemed to get along.
One day, the country was in an uproar. They watched as the king accused the advisor of murdering the queen.
They all had a feeling something was wrong, but the advisor was silenced and sent to prison by the king's soldiers.
They watched as the advisor was tortured while in prison. He was no longer the vibrant young man in the vision, he was broken, bloody, and beaten.
Then, as if to humiliate him further, the king threw the near-corpse into a strange and dark land.
It was there, in his dying moments, something fell to the advisor's side: the staff of the silver deity. However, it was twisted and transformed into the familiar pieces of...
Fairy Tail recognized that staff. Arjuna wielded it...
It didn't take them long to figure out that Arjuna was the betrayed advisor.
The Mahika, while trapped, could still peer into the world he wanted to destroy. He sent the twisted version of the staff to the weakened Arjuna, whose hate and malice attracted the hateful god.
With nothing left to lose, Arjuna grabbed the staff and unleashed a horrible power.
They watched as he made his way back towards the capital, destroying cities and armies with little trouble. They watched as several figures, also wronged by the greed of the king, swear fealty to Arjuna, taking on the familiar symbol of Carbuncle. With Carbuncle assisting Arjuna, the kingdom fell like a sandcastle to a tsunami.
In the ruins of the land, Arjuna spotted the princess... with another man. Whatever sliver of humanity was left in him died with her and her husband.
Soon, the vision showed Arjuna above the king, sniveling in fear as the man he betrayed became a multi-armed demon.
Arjuna took his revenge by ripping the head of the king. He and Carbuncle made the fallen kingdom the ground for a special spell that would bring back the Mahika. It required them to find a demigod, the offspring of the silver deity that was hidden deep within the castle bowls.
This was familiar territory for Fairy Tail as they watched the vision show three different factions come from afar: the humans led by a Crusader, the dragons led by a Fire King, and the lone Grand Spirit. The factions did battle with the Arjuna and his forces that shook both the earth and the heavens.
Ultimately, Fairy Tail watched the part of the fight they didn't find out.
The vision showed The Crusader stealing the staff from Arjuna. He used its power to send the Mahika back into the portal with help from the Celestial Spirit King.
With the Mahika sent back, Arjuna and Carbuncle were sealed away by the new king... the husband of the princess, who seemingly survived the attack from Arjuna. The king helped break the staff into three pieces and used two pieces to seal away both Arjuna and Carbuncle.
With the last piece, the vision showed the new king hiding the staff in a new land, one that looked similar to the land Fairy Tail was in.
Soon the vision slowly faded, and everyone saw themselves back on the temple grounds.
"Whaaa!? My head hurts, ya stupid bird!" Natsu cried out as he made a step towards the silver peacock, only to get stopped by his friends.
The amnesiac turned to peacock. "You didn't explain what you are."
/I am another reincarnation of the Silver Deity, Parshuma. After Arjuna's defeat, my spirit was freed by The Crusader and I was allowed to reincarnate once more. I now take the form you see before you./
The peacock showed off its tail, revealing extravagant feathers that even stunned the two dragonslayers.
/Warriors from afar, I can sense the weave of the Katuha./
"The what of the what?" Gajeel asked what many in Fairy Tail didn't understand.
"Katuha is basically another word for destiny," Éclair spoke up, surprising everyone including herself. "People of Veronica always believed Destiny acted like a web. Its paths were always being woven—it's more of a religion. So it's hard to explain." The amnesiac ended.
/If I may? Katuha has led all of you, echoes of the warriors that defeated Arjuna back into the land of the last remaining staff piece. No doubt, Arjuna and his forces return on their way here. Yet there is still hope to ensure that the Mahika will never return to this plane./
"We can stop them? How?" Carla raised her brow and folded her paws.
The peacock pointed a wing towards the moon in the sky.
/In your tongue, I believe the words for this spell is called... Moon Drip?/
Lucy, Natsu, Happy, and Kain's eyes widened. "WHAT!?"
Back in Magnolia, Fairy Tail was currently under house arrest.
For the guild, house arrest for them translated to being surrounded by several battalions of rune knights with twitchy fingers and all their armed weaponry aimed right at and inside their building.
Everyone inside said building were corraled into one circle in the center of the guild.
But there was a slight problem.
"I can't believe it, even when retired, those brats still give me headaches!" Makarov shouted as he pointed to the rune knights near his favorite bar spot.
"How the hell do you think I feel, old fart!?" Laxus' body was currently unable to do magic, but people could still feel electricity cackle around the fourth guild master. "I expected that brat to reign in the other dragon-idiots! That group wasn't even filled with that many trouble makers, yet they caused another international incident in less than half a week!?"
"You are under house arrest." Lahar Vondarun, the recently promoted Magic Council commander pushed his glasses up and glared at the two men from across the table. "You two are being awfully noisy for someone in your predicament."
"Commander Lahar, there is no need to be harsh." Tarsus Steelsoul, a fairly recent ally from a while ago, put a hand on Lahar's shoulder to calm him down. "Though I do admit, Fairy Tail seems to find themselves in these escalating situations more often than someone should."
"Those brats!" Makarov began brooding. "Troublemaking with people, buildings, towns, the government, now a different kingdom!? At the rate they're going, they might cause the end of Earthland!"
As soon as he said this, a very, very curious thing occurred. First, the ground started to shake. Second, the temperature dropped as if Gray was using one of his ice attacks. The third thing was the sound that felt like a countless number of giant legs heading towards their direction. And the lastly fourth, and most notable thing, was the sky bathing in red while the moon split colors between red and silver.
Laxus pinched the bridge of his nose. "At this goddamn point, I hope the world does end. Cause the paperwork after we survive will make this shit look like a school play."
Author Notes
I originally wanted to write out the scene where on Fairy Tail's way up the mountain, everything goes to crap before they stumble on to the lost holy ground of the area. As much as I would like to, I decided to cut it out as it wasn't that important besides making other mages fight more and a little character development. This arc dragged out longer because of some parts my life becoming a nightmare these past months.
Another deleted scene is I kinda wanted Fairy Tail to be sent to the moon and mess with Kain.
Here it is:
| When Fairy Tail entered the grounds of the temple, everything started to shine in bright light.
Everyone else closed their eyes to protect themselves from the brightness.
When the light died down-
"YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!?" Kain screamed at the top of his lungs. Why? "DID WE REALLY GET TELEPORTED TO THE MOON?!"
For all intents and purposes, the entire temple seemed to teleport all of them straight to the surface of the moon. The reason why they could tell this was because of how the entire landscape around them reflected that of the moon's surface back in Kain's world. The second and more alarming thing to note was the planet in the sky that clearly showed the Planet Earthland.
If you're wondering why Kain is especially upset over this development, refer back to chapter 10 in the first line. |
The reason why this was deleted because I realized Kain is the only one from a world where space travel is possible. I also wanted a chance to have a quick cameo of the new Lunar Dragon, Selene, but I scrapped that idea too.
I am so glad to finally get back to writing. These have been a very trying time for me, more than usual.
It's another short chapter, but at the same time, I can tell there's going to be at least two or three chapters left before the Edolas Arc! At this point, I've been planning it for years and that is the one arc I am most excited to show you guys!
I am half thankful for the quarantine for giving me time to focus on my writing. It feels good to write again.
Be safe guys. Clean yourself, wear made-up masks, and please acknowledge social distancing! Thanks for reading!