Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 31: The Fight For The Ring & The Royal Title of Parmanie's Princess! Lucy vs. Risa! Strong Explosive Emotions & Surprises After The Battle
Lucy's POV
I woke up to the sight of sunlight shining through the bedroom windows, which made my room seem a bit brighter than it normally was, and I got out of bed to walk over to the red bureau. Picking out some nice clothes for today's battle would be important, since Risa would probably want me to look fashionable during an event that was going to be shown to every single person in Parmanie Town, and I had to look great for this fight. As I slowly opened the bureau's top drawer to look at some of my red shirts, I started to think about how I wasn't just getting ready for a typical battle.
This fight would involve going up against Risa, a fellow mage who I had an awesome friendship with in the Sabertooth guild, and the fact that this battle could end in my favor for me to get the ring would be so great towards completing the goal of getting all seven rings. By obtaining all of the legendary rings, I could reverse Kotomi's spell and get back in my own body. I couldn't do that with only six rings in my possession while one would have to belong to someone else, so this was one situation where I frowned with a mix of determination and regret at how I had to win.
On the other side of this situation, my victory would mean that Risa couldn't become the princess of Parmanie Town. That wouldn't be good for her or any of the other residents, since Risa was a nice person who deserved to have a title that would allow her to change classist laws or get rid of unfair ordinances that were created by the royals. Her dream of becoming a princess would be crushed, too, and I didn't want to be responsible for that. Not only would it make Risa's victory against Kyoko be meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but Risa would probably hate me for winning.
That was something I didn't want to happen, and I looked down at my clothes while deciding on what I needed to do in this fight. As I opened the bureau's other drawers, I thought about how Risa and I both promised to make this be the a joyous battle. We even wanted to show each other how cool and powerful we could be with our different types of magic, but were we being blindly confident and optimistic from how Risa finally avenged Sara? Even if that was the case, I still felt some pressure from how the stakes of this fight were pretty high for me and Risa.
"In order to get the crucial fourth ring from winning, I have to defeat my best friend." I stated aloud to myself while continuing to frown, as one dream being fulfilled from this situation meant that another person's dream would obviously be crushed.
After getting a crimson red plaid shirt and a cherry red long skirt out of the drawer, I shouted to Risa in a friendly tone, "Morning, Risa! I'll be ready to go soon!"
Upon not receiving a response after the first minute, I loudly asked to where Risa would've heard me through the closed door, "Risa?"
The fact that I didn't even hear Risa groan in a frustrated manner from possibly being woken up out of her sleep made me wonder if she left the house to already be waiting at the train station, and that made me waste no time with getting ready to leave. I took off my comfy red pajamas to be wearing the scarlet red bra matching the lacy panties that were in a cherry shade of red, and I proceeded to put on the long skirt that complimented my plaid shirt. Afterwards, I walked over to the nearby red wardrobe to retrieve some scarlet red high-heeled boots that had crimson red horizontal stripes on the fronts of the boots.
I definitely looked quite fashionable now, and I styled my hair into a ponytail on the right side of my head. After doing that, I went out of my bedroom to go towards the front door. Risa was probably waiting outside for me like last time, which made me quickly unlock the front door, but I opened it to suddenly see that Sting stood outside with a calm smile on his face while Lector was beside him. It seemed like Sting had been waiting for me to wake up, and I calmly smiled back at him. Sting would probably do his best to not pick a side, but I did hope he would cheer for both Risa and myself during the fight.
As I stepped outside and turned away from Sting for a moment to notice how the sunrise seemed like it occurred only recently, I soon heard Sting close the door and lock it with Risa's pink house key. I turned around to see that he put the key into the left pocket of his black suspenders, and I began to have a confused look on my face from how Sting had Risa's house key. She normally had it, and Risa wouldn't just give it to Sting for unimportant or strange reasons. I started to glance at the left and right sides of the streets, looking for Risa, but only seeing Yukino walk down the right side of the street made me turn my attention to Sting with a curious facial expression.
"Sting, where did Risa go?" I nicely asked him, before noticing that Rogue and Frosch weren't with Yukino.
He explained to me with a small smile on his face, as he folded his arms, "Risa went on to the train to Parmanie Town an hour ago, and she's with Rogue and Frosch. Apparently, Risa wanted them to see her royal outfit for the fight. I personally think it's just like any other dress, but saying that when Risa stopped by the guild to get Rogue made Risa give me the job of keeping her house secure and locked."
"I guess you could say she locked you out of seeing her royal outfit and other preparations for the fight, Sting." I jokingly replied to him, before giggling a bit.
He responded to me while looking somewhat amused, before smiling calmly, "Well, you definitely learned a few puns from Risa's snarky humor. I hope you learned more than that about her, too."
That last sentence made me slightly widen my eyes in a surprised manner, and I wondered if Sting was implying that he hoped I had a good understanding of Risa's skills. I had seen some of Risa's spells during this quest for the fourth ring, as well as seeing her other spells during the situations where I needed to get the three previous rings, but there was one new problem. I didn't get to see any of Risa's spells when she went berserk against Kyoko yesterday, since I only entered the throne room to see her going berserk when she wanted to tear through Kyoko's dying body even more than how she had wounded Kyoko.
If Risa was going to use more spells of her magenta-colored Psychic Magic or even enter the berserk form with that dark magenta color, then it would almost be like fighting a completely unfamiliar person with hardly any crucial information on them. In contrast to that, Risa hadn't seen my final two spells of Lightning Magic. Not getting to see two spells wasn't probably going to be a major issue for Risa, since she could probably foresee them to really get some psychic visions on how the spells worked, so this would probably be a difficult fight for me while I also had to not look bad in front of everyone.
I got out of my own thoughts for a moment to see Sting still smiling at me, almost like he was believing that I could do well in a fight against Risa, and I glanced at Yukino to see her smile at me while kindness was in her hazel eyes. She wore a light blue midriff to match her white jeans that complimented her light blue flat shoes that had straps, and Yukino started to look a bit for cheerful like she was silently telling me that Risa and I would definitely have a joyous battle. I hoped that it would be a fight where Risa wouldn't go berserk on me, and I walked to the train station with Yukino while Sting and Lector us. Even though my anxiety started to decrease, how was Risa feeling right now?
Meanwhile, in a coronation room... (Risa's POV)
As one of the psychic wizards from Nazuna's group helped me with putting on a royal dress that was in a pretty color, I felt somewhat nervous about the fact that I'd be fighting against Lucy soon. She was such a powerful wizard, especially to the point where she helped Master Sting take down two thieving and petty bullies from my past who proved to still be jerks in the current time, and hearing Lucy tell me last night how the tough fight ended in a draw made me feel worried about having to fight her for the title of who would be Parmanie's new princess.
I didn't get to actually see Lucy help Master Sting fight against Miru and Shizue yesterday, nor did I even make the magenta-colored Psychic Magic be sent into Lucy's mind for me to see her memories of that battle. Therefore, I'd only be able to fight against Lucy with limited knowledge of her skills with Lightning Magic. The only possible advantages I'd have over her were the fact of how I could use Psychic Magic to foresee her moves, and I had seen her strategies in different battles to have some ideas about how Lucy would counter my attacks.
That made me feel like I had a chance of winning against her, and I would finally be able to fulfill a dream that had been in my mind for many years. I'd be able to rule over this town as its queen or princess, and Master Sara would've probably been proud to see me show Lucy how much I learned from my new friend about things pertaining to being a great mage in a guild. If Master Sara was able to make her spirit watch this battle today, then I would gladly display to her that I'd fight Lucy with as much Psychic Magic as necessary for me to claim my victory.
Winning against someone as powerful as Lucy would allow me to feel like a princess who could protect her loyal followers from being harmed by any mages, since I would be proving to everyone that I could defeat one of the strongest people who I had ever encountered, and the people of Parmanie Town would definitely perceive me as being worthy enough to rule over them as their queen. After all, a weak leader who couldn't protect people from getting harmed would just be leading Parmanie Town to another fateful day of destruction and I couldn't let that happen again.
"After today's fight, I'll hopefully be able to make Parmanie Town be reshaped into being a wonderful place where psychics and others can thrive without any conflict involving different types of Psychic Magic or classism." I calmly stated to the slightly older female mage who was helping me put on the royal dress, feeling her gently fit the sleeves of the dress on to my arms.
She replied in a calm tone, as we both looked in the mirror that was in this coronation room, "Those are interesting ideas to base your laws around, especially when Princess Kyoko's ring will be yours for you to have much more psychic power."
"Yeah, I'm totally desiring to have more power from Kyoko's legendary ring after what happened yesterday. The ring should totally be an accessory that only I can wield. Wait...!" I responded to her in a snarky manner, before my cherry red eyes widened with a feeling of realization.
If I were to win against Lucy, then how would she be able to get the fourth ring? She needed all seven rings to undo that spell placed on her by that evil impostor named Kotomi, and not having all the rings in her possession would make Lucy be stuck having the identity of a criminal forever. Since I had been labeled as a criminal for reasons that were unfair, I felt like I could really relate to that aspect of her situation. Lucy and everyone else on our tea may have been making life better for different groups in Fiore, but some people would still have Lucy branded as a criminal.
Could I just give her the fourth ring after winning as my way of preventing Lucy from going through years of people hunting her down until a major event took all the attention off of her? I began to smile at how that idea seemed nice, since it would make me be happy to see a fourth ring be on Lucy's right hand. However, I started to think about how Lucy was just as confident as me yesterday when I wanted her to be my opponent. Lucy was always determined to win, and that determination probably meant that she wouldn't accept a ring without actually earning it.
Plus, it might hurt our friendship if I pitied her in any way. If I gave Lucy the ring after I won our fight, then that probably wouldn't be fair to her. That would make me be a friend who did something with unfairness, and I couldn't make Lucy's dream be fulfilled while possibly wrecking the chances for my own dream of royalty in the process. After all, any of the townspeople who saw me give Lucy a ring out of pity would probably deem me as an unfair queen. That would make me be as bad as Kyoko, and I didn't want to be following in her footsteps of being an unfair queen. I looked towards the balcony's doors where I'd walk through to greet the townspeople, before looking at the coronation room's front doors to see Rogue walk in, and my anxious facial expression got his attention while he walked in with Frosch on his shoulder.
"Risa, are you nervous about fighting Lucy? Battling a friend with emotions involved is difficult for you, isn't it?" He asked me with a curious facial expression, as he walked towards me.
I explained to him while looking somewhat more nervous, as i realized my emotions could work for and against me in this fight, "It's not just that the battle will be tough, Rogue. No matter who wins, one side will have their dreams be crushed. Even if I prosper from winning, Lucy will be in pain from not getting the ring. The other way around is also true, and my perspective on protecting people also includes keeping my friends from perceiving me as a bad person."
"Yes, that makes sense. Neither of those outcomes really brings absolute happiness for everyone. Risa, you have every right to be worried about those possible outcomes of the battle. However, I personally think you should just wait to see the end result of this battle." Rogue responded to me while frowning, as he understood my concerns.
"Fro thinks so, too, Risa!" Frosch cutely added with a nice smile on his face, before flying to be on my head.
As Frosch flew off of my head to soon be in my arms and smile at me, I smiled back. Frosch and Rogue were right to think that I couldn't worry about the battle's result right now, since the fight wasn't scheduled to happen right now, so I would have to wait until my fight with Lucy ended to see what the circumstances would be. I started to turn my attention back to the mirror, looking worried that I had been letting my emotions get the better of me to where I almost got overwhelmed by two difficult choices, and I exhaled a soft breath of air from my lips to keep myself more calm while being glad that Rogue was nearby.
He had such a calming effect on me, being able to keep my emotions from clouding my judgement, and Rogue wouldn't want me to do anything foolish like giving Lucy the ring or hastily deciding that she'd be the one to crush m dream. I had to focus on the current hours that preceded the fight, which meant that I could think more about how Lucy and I promised to make this be the best battle ever between two close friends, and I would be sure to fight as hard as I could to win without restraining any of my punches or magical attacks.
I started thinking about how I didn't want Lucy to restrain herself, either, and it would definitely be an unceremonious battle if she didn't fight me at full strength like a true princess who was also a mage. I started to hope that Lucy would hit me with her most strategic attacks, since brute force and powerful magic weren't really going to make either of us be impressed with each other, and I would be glad to show Lucy that this would definitely be a fierce battle of royalty. If I wouldn't hold back in this fight while many people were watching, then I would hold Lucy to that same standard when she got here.
Four hours later, in the coronation room... (Narrator POV)
After Lucy arrived in Parmanie Town, she was guided to Kyoko's tower by two female psychic wizards who wore pink robes over the fuchsia T-shirts that matched their hot pink skirts and bubblegum pink shoes. The psychic mages who looked quite fashionable took Lucy all the way up to a room that was near the throne room, and going through the light pink doors allowed Lucy to see that she would be in a room with bubblegum pink walls matching the light pink tiled floor, and the hot pink carpet had two orbs with swirl patterns designed in the center of it. The carpet led up to the magenta throne, and Lucy could see that Risa's back was turned to her.
Lucy took a few steps forward, causing Risa to turn around with a stern frown on her face, and Lucy got to see Risa's pink hair be down while she wore a light pink coronation dress that looked quite nice. The dress even came with a magenta brooch in its center, the brooch appearing to be an orb with a smaller orb inside of it, and gently spinning around for a moment allowed Risa to show off the fashionable trait of how the dress created glittery sparkles when psychic power was released from the user's body. and Risa only released that energy to make Lucy sense the intensity of her power for this fight.
It didn't faze Lucy at all, though, and she simply showed off the immense level of her own power by making a yellow aura of Lightning Magic engulf her body. As Lucy turned her head to the left for a moment to notice the rose pink marble columns that were in between some of the bubblegum pink arched glass windows, her eyes soon noticed that the brown doors were open to reveal a pink orb resting on the balcony. The orb was already tapped by someone for it to be turned on, thin pink beams of light shining outward from the orb, and Lucy was glad that this event would be televised for everyone to see her joyous battle against Risa.
However, the orb also seemed to work in reverse when someone tapped it with the slightest bit of Psychic Magic. That was demonstrated by Nazuna lightly sending up a pink aura of Psychic Magic from her body for it to touch the orb, and a rectangular Lacrima Vision screen started to appear near the wall. Lucy and Risa both walked towards the center of the carpet to be near the Lacrima Vision screen, and they soon saw Nazuna's smiling face appear in it. She used her psychic power to make the orb's camera briefly focus on Sting and Cordelia, who would also be acting as referees, and Nazuna softly cleared her throat to speak about this fight's rules.
"Ladies, we are all going to watch this fight from within Parmanie Town and only you two shall be in the coronation room for this fight. The battle will have a time limit of four hours, but it can end if one of you dies or admits defeat. If you are both ready, then begin the match." Nazuna explained in a calm manner, as she began to frown a bit.
Sting commented with a stern facial expression, talking to Lucy and Risa as their guild master, "Hey, Lucy and Risa. I want to see a fun and epic fight between you two, but play fair and don't try bashing each other through windows to fight on the outside of the tower. You cannot kill each other, and I can reserve the fight to step in and stop the fight if there's an obvious winner."
Cordelia told Lucy and Risa in a kind manner, smiling nicely while thinking about how the girls were teammates, "Lucy and Risa, you don't have to rush into it. If you two have anything you want to say to each other before we begin, then go right ahead and say whatever's on your minds."
The crowd got quiet for Lucy and Risa to speak, both of them surprisingly being silent, and the awesome idea of this battle was definitely conflicting with their thoughts on the outcomes involving their different dreams. Lucy and Risa merely said nothing to each other, only waiting for one side to make a move, and the two women ignored the psychic mages going past them to carry the mirror from earlier out of the room. This fight was tense for both of them, as they could feel the excitement and the pressure at the same time, and the room's doors soon closed while Lucy's confident smile began to wane.
Upon seeing that, Risa narrowed her cherry red eyes and took a step forward. She didn't want Lucy to lose even one ounce of confidence, especially not before they were about to battle, and Risa tightly clenched her fists. She proceeded to make her Psychic Magic lift up a window's shadow, after aiming her right hand at it, and it seemed like Risa ate a bit of Rogue's magic when he was in here earlier. The magenta aura surrounded her body again, and that showed Lucy how her friend would be fighting her at a very serious level.
Lucy started to frown a bit more from the pressure, going back to wondering if she could beat Risa, and she let out a soft sigh. Both women definitely had things to say to each other, but Lucy not talking about the little bits of doubt in her mind only made Risa feel more frustrated. She wanted Lucy to fight with her fullest amount of strength, even if Lucy had to push herself to use destructive spells that would wreck this room, and Risa broke the silence by making her left fist loudly strike her right palm. That definitely got Lucy's attention, and she snapped out of her thoughts to look at Risa's serious face.
"Lucy, I won't insult you by fighting you with anything less than my best skills." Risa told Lucy in a calm tone, wanting them to have a great fight where the battle could be a thrilling one.
That prompted Lucy to calmly respond while starting to look more serious, "I wouldn't want you to go easy on me, Risa, and I won't go easy on you."
Both women exclaimed to each other, beginning to smile at the intensity of each other's power, "Let's begin!"
Lucy started off the fight by using the Lightning Voltage spell, and she fired a yellow orb from her left hand. The orb faintly changed into being a saffron color, but Risa noticed that and struck the orb with her spell known as Gleaming Magenta Psi Aurora. Risa was quickly surrounded by a pink sphere of Psychic Magic, before unleashing that psychic energy in the form of a magenta pink wave that was quite large from Risa being determined to show Lucy her best skills. Risa watched Lucy quickly evade the attack, before seeing it create a large magenta-colored blast when it hit the ground, and she faintly saw the yellow electricity appear within the blast.
That prompted Lucy to activate the Thunderbolt Arrow spell, and a yellow bow appeared in her right hand with five arrows in it. Lucy fired an arrow at the electricity within the blast, making her own arrow be electrified, and Lucy had aimed the arrow for it to strike the window. She released the arrow with a high amount of force, causing it to be pushed off the window, and Lucy fired another arrow at the first one while making her shot be at an angle. That made the first arrow curve to where it landed in front of Risa's feet, creating a yellow blast of electricity, and Risa quickly slid back to avoid the electrical attack.
She soon foresaw an interesting move that Lucy would try out, and Risa watched the green-haired girl fire her second arrow through the blast. It gathered electricity, before that lightning faintly became a saffron color, and Risa ended up seeing the arrow start spinning in the clockwise direction. Lucy's projectile gained more power to where it was spinning, almost like she purposely created a variation of the Lightning Voltage spell to throw off Risa, and the large blast that it created was faintly in a saffron color before becoming a plain shade of yellow. Risa was quick to evade that attack, only to see Lucy quickly run towards her with an arrow aimed at close-range.
Lucy struck Risa with one of her arrows while being quite close to her, the yellow blast's power sending Lucy flying backwards while Risa screamed in pain, and Lucy wasted no time with firing her other two arrows at the blast to enhance their power. Lucy watched the arrows become electrified while they started spinning, and the sight of more blasts occurring to create some flames on the carpet made her wonder if she overdid it with her attacks. She did hear Risa let out painful screams from feeling the electricity, after all.
The yellow smoke cleared up to reveal that saffron yellow currents of electricity were flowing around Risa's body, but she didn't mind. Risa simply retaliated with the spell known as Psychotic Magenta Psi, and it caused a two-layered magenta sphere of Psychic Magic to be in her right hand. Risa threw the attack at Lucy, only to see her activate the spell known as Electro Shield to defend herself, and this spell of Lightning Magic made a very tall shield rise up from the ground while the shield of electricity was also wide. The shield had two gold pillars on both sides of it with a gold jewel shaped like a lightning bolt in its center, and it started to bend from Risa's attack harshly striking it in the center. The shield soon reflected the attack back at Risa with the magenta magic now having electricity surrounding it, and Lucy started to smile confidently at her logical strategy.
However, Risa creatively countered it by using the Psychotic Magenta Psi attack again to throw a second sphere at her first sphere. She also created an Esper Ball in her left hand, making Lucy widen her eyes in shock from what Risa was now doing, and she watched the magenta spheres strike each other to create a massive magenta explosion. The explosive collision made some magenta flames be sent flying towards Lucy's shield, having a high amount of magical power in them to where they were large flames that began to made the shield be set ablaze, and Risa applied Psychic Magic to her feet while running towards the shield.
She aggressively slammed the Esper Ball in her left hand against the shield, seeing the pink orb turn magenta for a moment because of her current level of power, and the attack was strong enough to create a large pink blast that had a high amount of Psychic Magic in it. The spell's power strengthened the flames to where their intensity burned the shield to the point of cracking, and hearing a slight crack made Lucy fire the Lightning Voltage spell at her shield. The yellow orb struck the part of the shield that was primarily just electricity, repairing it, and the shield started to become more durable. However, the fact that reflecting Risa's attack would get her nowhere caused Lucy to make her shield be dispelled for a moment by removing the Saffron Gold Ring. The flames that were in midair started to fall down, prompting Lucy to hastily put the ring back on her finger, but seeing Risa smile in a scheming manner made Lucy widen her orange eyes in shock.
"Was she wanting me to do that?!" Lucy asked aloud, as she noticed that the flames became frozen in midair.
Risa replied to her with a confident facial expression, before giggling in a delighted manner, "That's right, Lucy! I wanted to push your shield to its limits because I knew you'd have to dispel it or do something to help it stay up, so you not only gave me an opening. You also gave me some useful information pertaining to your shield."
"You're using that magenta magic, Risa, so that last comment is just you being sarcastic!" Lucy told her friend while looking a bit annoyed, seeing Risa's eyes be in a magenta color.
Risa asked her in a calm tone while frowning in a somewhat guilty manner, "That little detail interested you that much to not even forget it in a fight like this one, Lucy?"
Even if Risa couldn't make that little detail about her eyes get past Lucy, the green-haired girl seemingly took her attention off of how the magenta flames were in midair. They appeared to all be levitating, which was simply part of the Esper Ball spell's aftereffect, and the flames began falling to the ground. Risa started to manipulate all of them simultaneously with her hands slowly moving in a psychic manner, and she activated the spell known as Magenta's Psychic Ascent. Risa aimed her right hand at Lucy, levitating her high in the air, and she fired four jagged and crescent-shaped blades down at the ground while they came from her left hand. The blades soon joined together to form a ring while spinning rapidly, and four magenta flames were attracted to this ring for it to grow larger.
It soon shot a magenta twister of flames straight up at the sky while spinning rapidly in a clockwise manner, and Risa used psychic power from her left hand to telekinetically make the twister of magenta flames hastily move to strike Lucy! She ended up being caught in the attack, screaming in pain from the powerful flames burning her body while the twister created multiple explosions around her, and the heat of this spell was quite intense. It ended up making burns be on Lucy's skin while her body started to be charred in a dark brown color, and she fell to the ground.
As Risa used her spell to create some more rings that would attract the falling magenta flames, she didn't let her mind lose sight of the magenta flames that landed on the ground to make the carpet be set ablaze. She aimed her right hand at one of the flames' shadows, making the black shadow spread outward to have all of the flames fall into it, and the shadow soon got pulled up from the ground to be in Risa's right hand while taking the form of a magenta-colored sphere. She started to sternly look at Lucy, but seeing her slowly stand up and softly chuckle made Risa start to look surprised.
"Risa, how come you never told us that you're so strong and strategic?" Lucy asked her in a kind tone, speaking as if they were evenly matched.
That prompted Risa to respond in a calm manner, sounding snarky, "Well, it's not like I had to spend all my time learning from you."
"Lucy, that next attack of yours makes so much sense to where it would practically be predictable without me even having to foresee what you'll do." Risa added in a calm manner while reading Lucy's other thoughts pertaining to how she'd use her Lightning Magic in the next few moments.
That only made Lucy groan in frustration, as she planned on using the Sacred Discharge spell to strike the flaming twisters with electrified punches to provide a chain of electricity to power up the attack following that spell, and she would have to alter her next move. Lucy decided to activate that spell, and she made the surprising decision of sending more Lightning Magic down into her feet. Lucy tried running straight towards Risa, only to see her opponent telekinetically move some of the twisters in front of her to form blockades, and that would make lessening the distance between them be a difficult task.
Lucy felt like she couldn't even risk taking down one of those twisters, as its fiery explosion would create more flames that Risa could utilize for another attack. In addition to that disadvantage, striking even one twister with a punch would probably make Lucy be distracted enough for a crucial amount of seconds that Risa could use for bombarding Lucy with the flaming twisters. Lucy simply had to charge at the creator of those twisters, and she veered off to the left. As Lucy curved upwards to get at Risa from an angle, one of the twisters quickly got in her way.
Lucy went around it by making a sharp turn, before jumping up quite high in the air, and she watched Risa send several twisters up into the air. That only made Lucy be hasty enough to make herself fall down to the grund, and landing on her feet allowed Lucy to run up towards Risa. The psychic mage quickly made one of the twisters be near her for the purpose of removing some of its magenta flames, and they began to engulf her left fist. Risa decided to try striking Lucy with a punch to the face, prompting Lucy to attempt to hit Risa in the face with her right fist, but their fists soon collided for both girls to see and sense each other's energy. That was quite a contrast from how some audience members thought that Lucy and Risa unintentionally just created an awesome gesture of making the most epic fist bump in Fiore primarily occur in Parmanie Town.
Sting began to smile at how Lucy and Risa were both fighting with moves that either seemed improvised or created from detailed thoughts, and the levels of strategy shown by these two mages were quite impressive to Sting. The light dragon slayer folded his arms while thinking about how Lucy was right by trying to find a way to hit Risa without letting the flaming twisters impede her progress, and the way Risa was using her psychic powers definitely displayed how she was learning from Lucy's style of battling to develop her own techniques.
Sting kept his eyes focused on the Lacrima Vision screens, which now showed a magenta explosion occurring from Risa's fiery punch colliding with Lucy's electrified fist, and his eyes took notice of the faint sight that involved electrical energy quickly building up in a single spot. Sting could guess that Lucy was using Sacred Discharge in a way where making one object be electrified at least four or five times would greatly increase the power of the next attack in only a few seconds, and Sting waited to see what would occur after the explosion.
The explosive collision sent Lucy and Risa flying in opposite directions, both of them harshly hitting the walls of the coronation room, and both women had their skin looking charred in a mocha shade of brown from the explosion. As Lucy was the first one to get back on her feet, she started to smile nicely at the plan she carried out only mere seconds before the explosion occurred. That smart and fast use of logic seemed like it would make this battle start to shift in her favor, but seeing Risa quickly get up with a frustrated facial expression definitely surprised Lucy.
Risa looked down at her left fist for a moment, noticing how it was now heavily electrified with yellow electricity, and she looked quite shocked to recall how Lucy simply poked her fist with two fingers from her right hand while doing that five times. Risa started to think about how that Sacred Discharge spell was a chain attack that didn't necessarily involve each strike doing high amounts of damage, and even the weakest punch would be very beneficial to Lucy's next attack. She was improvising so well, almost as well as Risa, and the pink-haired girl was stunned at how neither person seemed to truly have an advantage over their opponent right now.
"This isn't how the fight was supposed to go, Lucy! You can't seriously be making that lightning be evenly matched with my magenta-colored Psychic Magic, regardless of your strategies!" Risa stated to her friend, wondering how Lucy's first four spells were seemingly much stronger now.
Lucy asked Risa in a serious tone, as she also looked stern, "If we're so evenly matched, Risa, then why don't we make this fight more dangerous?"
That prompted Risa to fiercely reply with determination in her eyes, not wanting to lose, "Bring it on, Lucy! I'll definitely increase the danger by sending your spells or punches back at you, and they'll be four times more powerful than before!"
Risa decided to activate another spell of her Psychic Magic, and it was known as Magenta Psychic Shadowy Rings. Risa closed her eyes, and she slowly moved her hands in a psychic manner to create four rings that were in a magenta color. The rings were created from the magenta aura that began to surround her body again, and the rings started to float in midair while eerily looking like magenta silhouettes of solid rings. Pushing forward with her left hand caused the rings to glide across the ground, before they absorbed the flaming twisters of psychic energy to make themselves be coated in flames.
The rings grew larger, and Risa wasted no time with firing them at Lucy. Risa watched Lucy quickly apply Lightning Magic to her feet, running quite fast to evade the fiery magenta-colored blasts of Psychic Magic, and seeing the third ring explode right behind Lucy only caused Risa to feel more frustration. As Risa watched Lucy run towards her to possibly punch her in the face with a powerful spell of Lightning Magic, Risa aimed her right hand at some magenta flames to quickly make them be propelled towards her at high speeds.
Risa made those flames all enter her mouth, before she fired them all at Lucy in the form of the spell known as Shadowy Psychic's Psychokinetic Magenta Scream. Risa shot out a large burst of spiraling psychic energy from her mouth, and it was in a magenta color while flames were surrounding it. Risa also noticed that the flames made shadows appear on the walls, prompting her to telekinetically grab them, and Risa sent them into her attack. Upon seeing the attack start to be dark magenta, Risa watched it become somewhat faster to strike Lucy from the front while her last magenta ring struck Lucy from behind. As Lucy let out a pained scream and couldn't retaliate against the massive magenta explosion, Risa smiled nicely at how she had won.
"It looks like this fight is over." Risa stated aloud, thinking that she was victorious.
Lucy replied to her while slowly standing up, blood dripping from her wounds, "It's not the end yet, Risa. In fact, we're still just getting started."
"What?!" Risa asked with an astounded facial expression, seeing the magenta smoke clear up to reveal that her attack wasn't immensely strong.
Lucy began to glance at the pink orb on the balcony, giving it a regretful look as if she was giving that look specifically to Sting, and she called upon the seventh spell that was known as Raiu's Thunder. It caused a saffron yellow orb to be created in her right hand, and the orb immediately fired sporadic jolts of electricity that created explosions of lightning when they hit the walls of the coronation room. One of the lightning beams even went towards the magenta flames, striking the area in front of them to create saffron yellow fire that had electric currents flowing through it.
The sight of those flames and that spell only made Risa unleash the Shadowy Psychic's Psychokinetic Magenta Scream spell again while quickly creating an Esper Ball in her left hand to throw it at the attack, but seeing Lucy's saffron-colored sphere absorb the electricity in the air to make itself and the yellow ring shine brightly definitely made Risa start to be more careful. She watched Lucy quickly evade her attack, before seeing her pick up some of the yellow flames with her left hand, and Lucy decided to put them on top of the sphere.
That only made the sphere become more electrified, before it shot out a powerful saffron beam that headed straight towards Risa, and Lucy watched the saffron-colored blast occur. The blast was quite large to where the sporadic electricity started going past Lucy on different paths to make the floor seem electrified, and the explosion's force knocked Lucy down to where her body surprisingly absorbed the electricity. As Lucy noticed electric currents starting to flow around her body, she wondered if Risa would retaliate with any close-combat spells.
Risa decided to fight back by levitating the shadows of some nearby flames with her left hand, and she also applied Psychic Magic to that hand for an Esper Ball to quickly appear in the center of her palm. The sphere was soon coated in the shadows of the flames, which came into contact with it after Risa pulled that hand back to pull the flames towards her sphere, and the pink sphere started to shine in a magenta color. As Risa began to smirk at Lucy in a scheming manner, Lucy had the feeling of worry in her eyes from being aware of what was coming next.
Lucy watched Risa run towards her, before applying Psychic Magic to her feet for a tremendous burst of speed, and Risa suddenly vanished right in front of Lucy! The wielder of Lightning Magic soon felt Risa strike her right side with the sphere from her left hand, creating a magenta pink blast that was quite large, and Lucy screamed in pain from feeling this attack's high level of power. As she felt the intense amount of pain, the light from the blast made Risa's shadow stretch towards Lucy for her to start seeing the silhouettes of her friend's clones appearing.
The light soon faded away to reveal that Risa's six clones were standing in front of Lucy, all of them looking just as determined as Risa to win this fight, and the fierceness in their magenta eyes made Lucy feel like this fight would be much more difficult. She soon watched light pink auras surround their bodies, before those auras changed into being a magenta color, and Lucy took notice of how the actual Risa made her eyes reflect the changes of those auras. That was new to Lucy, which made her wonder if Risa's psychic powers made her foresee a new spell.
Lucy was correct to be curious, as Risa's clones raised their hands up into the air for a moment to send their six magenta auras high into the air, and those auras soon went up into six magenta pink vortexes of psychic energy that briefly appeared in midair. Upon seeing those six vortexes make a brief appearance before presumably vanishing into the shadows on the ceiling, Lucy recalled how Risa's clones could activate spells by themselves. She attempted to charge at the real Risa, only to see a clone get in her way by aggressively punching her in the face, and Lucy was sent rolling across the tiled floor.
"If you want to get to the queen, you have to get through us first!" The leader of the clones sternly told Lucy, before folding her arms.
One of the other clones added with a confident smile on her face, "Although, Lucy, I doubt it'll be easy for you to even hit us with your attacks!"
Lucy responded kindly while slowly getting up, impressed at the strength of the clones, "I wouldn't want you all or Risa herself to go easy on me. In fact, seeing all your skills firsthand is making this battle be very fun."
Lucy started to smile in a pleased manner, before creating the orb for the Lightning Voltage attack in her left hand, and she also applied Lightning Magic to her feet. She ran towards the leader of the clones at high speeds, intending to strike her, but Lucy surprisingly made her orbs lightly touch each other before veering off the right. Lucy ended up striking one of the clones from behind, creating an average-sized yellow blast of electric energy, and that clone soon vanished in a magenta-colored puff of smoke. Lucy confidently smiled at that, but she soon found herself having to dodge several slashes from the other clones who cleverly made the blades of the Magenta Psychic Ascent spell be created to their fingernails. She may have been able to dodge their actual slashes, but the waves of psychic energy that were created made Lucy become levitated in midair.
As the clones began to fire the jagged and crescent-shaped blades from their fingertips to make the blades form magenta rings again, the process of sending their five magenta rings up into the air was interrupted by the six vortexes from earlier appearing around Lucy to brightly glow before they detonated around her to create powerful blasts. Lucy screamed in immense pain from that attack, the blasts feeling quite hot like magenta flames to where she'd probably get burned worse than before, and she fell down to the ground. Lucy struggled to stand up while being bruised and bloodied, wondering how that attack just occurred without a spell being used, and she watched Risa's clones shift their attention to making light pink auras surround their bodies. Those auras became magenta, before they were sent up into the air for five vortexes to briefly appear, and Lucy wondered how she would counter that spell.
However, Lucy soon had to focus on the clones using their psychic abilities to make their five magenta rings float high above her head. Each clone focused the Psychic Magic into their right hand, before making a magenta vortex be sent down from the first ring. When the vortex passed through the second ring, its size and power doubled. Its power kept increasing from going through the rings, the third and fourth rings tremendously boosting its power, and going through the fifth ring made the vortex be quite massive while it also seemed to be quite fast.
"It looks like you're out of luck, Lucy. Even a chain spell can't destroy that attack." The actual Risa told Lucy with a confident look on her face, foreseeing her attack hitting the ground to create a massive magenta blast that would be quite destructive.
Lucy responded while smiling just as confidently, the yellow ring on her finger starting to shine in accord with the saffron-colored sphere that fired beams of electricity at some flames, "There's more to a fight than just spells, Risa. In fact, our first battle as a team let you see that firsthand."
Risa exclaimed in a stunned manner, foreseeing what Lucy would do, "Oh, no! Everyone, dispel that powerful attack before it hits you!"
However, those words were spoken at the wrong moment. Lucy was quick with applying Lightning Magic to her feet, and she hastily ran towards the leader of Risa's clones. Lucy wasted no time with vanishing right in front of her face, before surprisingly punching that clone in her right side, but that strong punch with no magic infused into it caused the clone to still be in the coronation room. She quickly got up, only to find herself directly underneath the vortex, and the clone screamed in a concerned manner while the attack struck her directly.
It created a massive magenta blast, which was what Risa predicted while seeing the clone disappear in a puff of smoke, and the magenta flames that resulted from the blast were bursting out of it. Lucy struck some of them with the beams from her saffron sphere, seeing them turn yellow, and faintly seeing Risa's fist still be electrified gave Lucy a nice idea. The clones were now busy with using psychic power to merge many flames together to create powerful spheres of Psychic Magic that they could utilize for different spells, and Lucy purposely made her left hand stretch outward to attract the yellow flames. She lightly put them on top of the saffron sphere, strengthening it even more, and the sphere's luminous glow in accordance with the ring made Lucy feel like this was now the perfect chance to interestingly make her saffron beams strike the carpet.
When Lucy's supercharged electric attacks struck the carpet, the electric currents that were in the carpet and the tiled floor began reacting to the saffron yellow blasts. The electric currents created large jolts of electricity that went across the ground at high speeds, and Lucy watched Risa quickly use the Stellar Psi spell to levitate herself high into the air. Risa's clones were electrocuted by the jolts of lightning, however, and that was causing electric currents to be seen flowing around their bodies. Before those four clones would disappear, Lucy narrowed her eyes at how she had to strike them right now.
Lucy activated the spell known as Electrical Luminous Thunder Burst, and she put both of her hands together to form a simple gesture of praying while the saffron sphere soon became a saffron yellow aura that surrounded her body. Lucy proceeded to aim both of her hands at Risa's four clones, smiling confidently at how the electric currents continued to be visible on her enemies, and she soon shot out a large beam of Lightning Magic from her hands. It alternated between being saffron yellow and pastel yellow, showing how the lemon yellow beam and the saffron spell fused together to make its second and third colors be more prominent while the attack's power seemed like it would be immense after enhancement.
Lucy watched Risa's clones evade the attack by spreading outward to form the corners of a large square, causing Lucy's attack to divide itself into four smaller beams that ended up striking them with somewhat more speed, and Lucy groaned in frustration at how her attack created four average-sized blasts. That wasn't what she had been intending to happen from using such a powerful spell, but the only upside was that Lucy eliminated all of Risa's clones. She panted softly while some yellow flames started moving towards together, almost like Lucy's beam left behind another large surge of electricity.
That electricity would have to make those flames be useful, especially since the vortexes from earlier appeared near the ceiling again to fire some magenta pink orbs at Lucy. Upon seeing the orbs, Lucy decided to make the unorthodox decision of eating those electrically-charged flames. She proceeded to unleash a stream of yellow fire from her mouth while rapidly spinning around, causing the fire to soon look like a yellow twister of flames that had electricity flowing throughout it quite prominently, and the moment that she could no longer unleash any fire was when Lucy used the Raiu's Thunder spell to make the saffron sphere be in her right hand again. She followed that up by shooting out the Lightning Voltage spell from her left hand, and the yellow orb struck the maelstrom to simply strengthen this twister of Lightning Magic.
The fact that it was strengthened allowed the twister to grow faster and larger, before repelling the five orbs of Psychic Magic towards Risa, and the pink-haired girl was quite surprised to see her magenta orbs have saffron currents of electricity rapidly flowing around them. Risa attempted to dispel the orbs, only to see Lucy push her hands outward to make the twister burst into several chain lines of flames that went into different directions, and she watched the magenta orbs land in front of her to create large magenta blasts that were brightened from the Lightning Magic that had been on them.
"It's so bright! I can't see anything!" Risa exclaimed with an annoyed facial expression, as she had to cover her eyes.
Lucy responded fiercely while looking determined to win, running straight towards Risa, "You can't see anything, Risa, but now I'm the one who's foreseeing what will happen next!"
Risa shouted sternly, feeling quite serious while not wanting to lose, "We'll just see about that, Lucy! In fact, you haven't even seen the true power of Magenta Psychotic Zen Future Burst! Allow me to show you how a true princess handles any type of attack!"
The blasts soon faded away for Risa to get struck by a chain line of yellow flames that had electricity surrounding them, causing her to scream in immense pain from the fiery blast that was quite large while she could feel herself being electrocuted, and flames that were infused with became even stronger from striking Risa's fist that had been electrified earlier. She may have been in enough pain to carelessly counterattack, since Risa raised her right hand into the air while telekinetically interrupting the time that her spell needed for it to charge up. She commanded its five vortexes to appear while sending several black shadows from the ground to go up towards the vortexes, and they quickly obeyed her commands. Lucy didn't bother to look up at them, as she intended to strike Risa at close-range with her saffron sphere.
Lucy quickly struck Risa in the abdomen with her sphere, before using her other hand to put several yellow flames on it for their energy to get absorbed into the sphere, and the sphere detonated quickly in the form of an electrical discharge that was quite powerful. Risa let out pained screams from how the electricity was making her body feel shocks that were very dangerous, but she lowered her right hand for her orbs to come down from the sky. As Lucy's spell showed the aftereffect of creating a massive saffron yellow blast with electricity flowing across the ground in a berserk manner, Lucy's smile was quickly replaced with a stunned facial expression from seeing shadows of projectiles all converge to be above her.
Lucy found herself trying to evade some dark magenta orbs that came down from the vortexes, only to see them go towards her like a shadow that was inevitably following her, and even running away from the throne at high speeds to evade them wouldn't work. Lucy ran back towards Risa, who simply managed to see Lucy's right foot approach her during the electric blast that was still occurring, and Risa aimed her right hand down at Lucy's feet while using the Stellar Psi spell to simply push psychic energy in the air down on Lucy's feet to immobilize her right now by making Lucy fall to her knees.
"Your speed is very fast, Lucy, but I can foresee your attacks at a much faster speed. Also, it shouldn't surprise you that I'm being so strategic with my spells and even improvising with them. Lucy, I learned about that mainly from you." Risa explained to her friend with a stern frown on her face, wondering how Lucy would get out of this predicament.
Lucy replied with a confident smile on her face, before frowning with sternness to show how she was feeling enjoyment and seriousness in this battle, "If I didn't teach you so very well about being smart with how you use your attacks, then this wouldn't be such a fun battle."
"Yeah, it'll be very fun for you to not get the ring in the end. There's totally nothing that can stop you right now." Risa told Lucy in a sarcastic tone, as the yellow blast faded away to leave behind flames that were in a saffron yellow color.
Risa watched the dark magenta orbs descend with more power and speed, as they were also within range for Stellar Psi to make them be pulled downward like how Lucy was on the ground, and Risa's projectiles crashed into the ground to create dark magenta blasts that were quite massive. Lucy coughed up a bit of blood from feeling the intensity of the blasts that were filled with psychic energy, and she screamed in tremendous pain from feeling the power of this enhanced attack! Lucy was sent flying up into the air, before her body harshly hit the ceiling, and she loudly hit the ground.
Risa walked out of the blast with her skin being quite charred from Lucy's lightning-based flames, and she sent many of Lucy's yellow flames down into the shadows while also sending some magenta flames down into the shadowy depths. As Risa built up a magenta pink aura of Psychic Magic in her right hand and placed it on the ground to enhance those shadowy flames when they would resurface later, Risa started to think about how she had to use the darker shade of her magenta magic if she wanted to win. since that was the only way for her to earn the title of being Parmanie Town's princess.
She wasn't going to lose her chance to be the ruler of this town, wanting to be a strong and kind princess who could show her people that she could help them triumph over any challenge, and Risa raised her hands upwards to make the flames emerge from the shadows. They were now in a dark magenta color, prompting Risa to hastily eat many of them, and she picked up some shadows to consume them after eating the flames. Risa's hair started to become dark magenta while her eyes remained in the plain shade of magenta, and her fingernails became longer. Risa's teeth became fanged, and her desire to become Parmanie's princess seemed to be just as immense as her feelings of determination to win against Lucy. In fact, Risa was determined enough to win to the point of letting some Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic make the left half of her body be engulfed in a black shadow.
Risa watched her body be surrounded by a dark magenta aura, and she slowly took some steps towards Lucy. Her friend was groaning in pain while struggling to stand, having taken so much damage from Risa's psychic attacks, and Risa simply glared down at her. Risa didn't glare at Lucy in disgust from how she was looking heavily bruised and bloodied with her skin also still looking charred, which was as horrible as how her clothes were somewhat torn, and Risa was now giving Lucy a stern glare that simply communicated how she wanted Lucy to get up.
Lucy wasn't the type of girl to just lay on the ground and surrender, since Risa had seen Lucy fight so hard against other people without giving up, and Risa simply folded her arms as she waited for Lucy to get back on her feet. Lucy slowly stood up, panting heavily from how this tough fight nearly left her exhausted, and she got to hear Risa start panting heavily from using so much magic without ever healing herself. Risa wanted to keep this fight completely fair, which made her restrain herself from even using a healing spell for a single minute, and this part of battle would only consist of their final spells or brute force to finally decide a winner.
Risa chose to activate her final spell of the dark magenta magic, which was known as Light Magenta's Psychic Radiance From The Pink Shadows, and the spell caused a dark magenta aura to create an orb in her right hand. The orb was in the same color as the aura, before becoming light magenta with thin beams of light in that same color emanating from the sphere, and it soon became a plain shade of magenta. Risa watched the orb quickly change into being a regular shade of pink, before its color changed to being in different shades of pink such as bubblegum pink or fuchsia pink, and it even became cerise pink for a moment from how Risa was still sending Psychic Magic into the orb for its pink shades to correspond with the ones she was thinking about while wanting to win this fight. Risa watched the orb's thin beams of light correspond with its colors, seeing it end with the rosewood shade of pink after becoming hot pink, and it became dark magenta right before the variants of pink displayed themselves again.
As Risa charged up that attack, Lucy also felt like she would have to end this battle with her strongest spell. Lucy activated the spell called Lightning's Sparking Saffron Thunderclouds, and it caused a saffron yellow thundercloud to appear near the ceiling while it was directly over Lucy. The cloud sent down a beam of yellow lightning to strike Lucy, only healing some of her wounds from how the thundercloud wasn't supercharged like last time, and Lucy watched white clouds of steam sizzle up from some of her wounds that were healing. At the same time, she got to see the remaining electric currents in the ground go up towards the thundercloud like they were drawn to it. They began to give it more power, before the thundercloud sent down electricity into Lucy's left hand for it to create a saffron yellow orb, and the saffron-colored sphere instantly shined with eight large flashes of light. The flashes ended after ten seconds, revealing that eight saffron spheres were now in front of Lucy to form a circle while an aura in different shades of yellow engulfed each sphere. Lucy threw her sphere of electricity into the center of the circle, making it be like the main piece of this attack, and the other spheres quickly attached themselves to it. Afterwards, a massive amount of saffron lightning came down from the ceiling to heavily electrocute and enhance the attack with many strong volts of electricity. Lucy's attack now seemed to be fully charged up, just like Risa's ultimate attack, and a single spark of electricity lightning hitting the ground made them quickly narrow their eyes at each other while preparing to finish this fight.
"I'm going to be Parmanie Town's princess! Master Sara, that dream will be part of reality!" Risa thought to herself with a stern facial expression while running towards Lucy, resisting the urge to enhance her dark magenta spell with any feelings of anger.
Lucy thought to herself with a fierce look on her face, as she quickly punched her saffron sphere of electricity to send it towards Risa right before running behind it, "I'm going to get that fourth legendary ring! Sting, I'm going to achieve victory to get my body back from Kotomi!"
Both women simultaneously stated aloud to each other with determination in their voices, tightly grabbing their spherical attacks, "My final attack will help me win!"
Lucy chose to grab her attack right before it hit Risa's sphere, choosing to send her strong emotions pertaining to victory into her projectile, and she slammed it against Risa's spell. Lucy winced in immense pain from feeling the intensity of Risa's attack, perceiving it to be quite strong, but she wouldn't give up. Lucy attempted to push her attack forward, which made Risa slightly step back while pushing back against Lucy's attack with just as much strength, and their attacks were quite powerful to where the collision eventually resulted in a massive blast that spun outward! The color of the blast appeared to be dark magenta, before changing to being other shades of pink, and it soon changed to being saffron yellow with other shades of yellow appearing afterwards.
The force of the blast made some windows shatter, causing some of the fight's viewers such as Sting to step back. Sting could hear some of the electrical explosions occurring within Lucy's powerful attack, frowning in a stern manner from hoping Risa wouldn't die while she let out screams of excruciating pain, and Sting could hear Lucy also screaming in pain from the damage being dealt to her by Risa's psychic attack. The billowing pink and yellow smoke clouds emerged from the blast, only to quickly clear up for the audience to see Lucy and Risa rolling across the ground in opposite directions.
Both girls struggled to stand up, being heavily bruised and bloodied with painful wounds while they both had charred skin that was dark brown, and they weakly walked towards each other with the auras around their bodies completely fading away. In addition to the aura disappearing from around Risa's body, her hair returned to its normal pink color while her eyes were cherry red. Still, she fiercely looked at Lucy while hoping to end this fight with one harsh punch. Risa pulled back her left fist at the same moment when Lucy pulled back her right fist, and they infused some of the remaining magical power into their fists. A yellow aura engulfed Lucy's fist while a magenta aura coated Risa's fist, and they quickly collided to simply create a powerful wave of energy that spread outward to just create a strong gust of wind. Their punches appeared to have equal power, neither side having the advantage, but Lucy and Risa's little battle of brute force was soon interrupted by the sight of a Lacrima Vision Screen appearing in front of them. Nazuna's face was on the screen, and she cleared her throat while frowning at the situation with sternness in her eyes.
"The four-hour time limit is up, which means that this match is over. This match has ended in a tie, and it's settled with a simple decision. Risa Ryusei, Lucy Heartfilia couldn't defeat you. Therefore, you are Parmanie's new princess by default and the ring that once belonged to Kyoko is now yours." Nazuna explained to Risa while seeing her take some steps back from seeing Lucy suddenly fall to her knees in disappointment at the news, as Nazuna was smiling calmly at this decent rule that the royals had in place.
Risa simply stated while turning her attention away from Nazuna to run up to her friend, responding in a regretful manner at seeing small tears fall from Lucy's eyes, "Lucy... I... I'm..."
Lucy replied nicely while getting up, wiping her tears away with one hand to feign an immediate smile of happiness, "I... I guess you won, Risa!"
Risa replied regretfully, looking guilty at how she probably hindered Lucy's chance at getting that ring, "I guess that's the case, Lucy."
Lucy kindly told her friend with a genuine smile beginning to be on her face, as she stretched out her right hand for a handshake, "Congratulations, Risa. You fought really well today. We definitely had a joyous battle, and you did a great job of showing me how cool you are."
Risa happily responded to Lucy's nice words while choosing to shake her hand, showing great sportsmanship between them, "Thank you, Lucy! I'm very glad that you were my opponent!"
Their friendly handshake caused many of Parmanie Town's residents to let out cheers of happiness while clapping their hands, glad that such an amazing battle of power and strategy ended with both mages being on good terms with each other. The fact that Lucy also initiated the handshake with the hand that had the three legendary rings on it also made some people cheer her name, thinking that the girl who was Kuchiba Town's princess deserved to have a fourth legendary ring on her hand, and a battle that ended in a draw could have both sides be victorious.
Since Risa now earned her title of being Parmanie Town's princess, she could give the ring to Lucy later as her prize for them both being part of such an amazing battle. That would definitely be fair, and it would show that Risa was a kind queen who also valued fairness towards other people. Some of the town's residents began to cheer the name of Risa Ryusei, accepting her as their new princess and queen while others also cheered the name of Lucy Heartfilia for being bold enough to fight so hard against Psychic Magic being wielded by someone who could foresee her spells to easily counter her strategies.
Since the match ended in a draw, Risa felt like it would be good for herself and Lucy to go out to the balcony for them to just wave to everyone. Lucy watched Risa smile at her in a friendly way, before giving Lucy a very proud smile at how her dream was finally accomplished, and she ended the handshake for Risa to go out on to the balcony first. Lucy went outside after her, standing on the left side while Risa stood on the right side, and they simply waved down to the crowd. Lucy waved down to Sting, who was happy to applaud her while cheering loudly for her with Lector by his side. Frosch and Rogue happily cheered loudly for Risa, causing her to playfully wave down at them while winking with one eye for a moment, but Rogue soon saw Risa widen her eyes in a surprised manner from seeing a certain magenta-haired woman stand near him with a proud smile on her face. Risa could see Sara's spirit simply applauding for her, causing the pink-haired girl to be happy that her kind mentor could see that she grew up to achieve her dream with her new mentor by her side, but looking away for a moment to wave to other people before glancing back at Rogue made Risa see that Sara was suddenly gone.
One hour later, in the throne room...
After waving to the crowd and receiving a new coronation dress that was light pink with a magenta sash around the waist to go with the magenta brooch, Risa put on the dress in the throne room. Risa started to think about how Sara was right to encourage her with following a dream, as she could definitely make her dream come true with enough effort and confidence in herself. Risa stared out of a broken window for a moment, thinking about how achieving her dream was one accomplishment that she'd be glad to have in Parmanie Town, and fighting against her new mentor was something that probably made Sara's spirit be very happy.
Risa soon saw Lucy walk into the room with the other mages from Sabertooth, as well as Nazuna and Cordelia. The sight of Nazuna walking in with a bubblegum pink crown on a hot pink cushion made Risa look a bit surprised at how that was her crown, noticing its four spikes protruding upward with orbs in different shades of pink below each spike, and Risa started walking towards the crown. She was glad that the title of being Parmanie's princess would now officially be hers, and Risa stretched out one of her hands in an attempt to touch the crown.
Risa watched Cordelia gently slap away her hand to keep her from touching the crown right now, and Cordelia's other hand had a fuchsia pink cushion with a pink ring on it. The ring was in a plain shade of pink, looking pretty as it beautifully glittered with sunlight shining down on it, and the ring even had a rose quartz gemstone in its center. The gemstone was shaped like a sphere, nicely representing how Risa enjoyed using attacks that involved orbs of psychic energy, and Cordelia picked up the ring with one hand to gently place it on the ring finger of Risa's right hand.
Risa gestured with her left hand for Cordelia to stop, though, and she motioned for Lucy to walk towards her. Lucy started to widen her eyes in shock at the sight of Risa picking up the ring to place it on the ring finger of her right hand, and that prompted Lucy to simply take it off. Lucy may have needed the ring to get back in her own body, but getting the ring when she didn't officially earn it made Lucy feel like she couldn't take it from the girl who managed to earn the title of being Parmanie's princess. Although, seeing Risa put it back on her ring finger made Lucy wonder what criteria Risa would use to determine that she deserved it.
"Lucy, you were so strategic and powerful in our battle. In fact, I'm glad that you were able to put up such a great fight and Master Sara is probably glad that I met you on that fateful day. Lucy, you definitely showed me how cool you are! Anyway, this is the Fuchsia Pink Ring. It will allow you to use Psychic Magic, and it can enhance Psychic Magic that you learn." Risa explained to her with a happy smile on her face, before winking with her left eye and giving her a thumbs-up.
"Speaking of learning, Risa Ryusei, you'll have to start learning about laws tomorrow. I've already told Miru and Shizue to be your bodyguards for when you have to be diplomatic towards other royal individuals or guild masters, and Cordelia can be your advisor who helps you make the laws that you desire to create for the people of Parmanie." Nazuna told Risa in a calm tone, as she started to look serious about how Risa would have many important responsibilities.
After thinking about Nazuna's words, Risa explained to her in a calm manner, "Being diplomatic with others and creating laws to improve Parmanie Town will be nice, Miss Nazuna, but I'd like to keep helping my friend Lucy with getting back in her own body first. In my absence, please let Miss Cordelia be a temporary stand-in for me. These are my first orders to you."
Nazuna responded nicely while picking up the crown to slowly place it on Risa's head, before she looked away for a moment to see the recording pink orb near where Kyoko's throne once was, "That's understandable. I'll gladly obey that order from you, Princess Risa Ryusei! We shall all acknowledge Cordelia Isshin as the temporary princess for you! All hail the will of Risa Ryusei!"
The crowd stated in unison, right before Lucy and the other Sabertooth mages cheerfully shouted, "All hail the will of Risa Ryusei, Parmanie Town's official princess!"
As Risa removed the crown from atop her head for Cordelia to now be wearing the crown, the older woman simply smiled with happiness in her eyes at how Risa had grown into such a fine woman who was truly displaying how someone who came from poverty could eventually be royalty. Risa was now a princess who had new privileges, along with a tower officially being her own new castle that could be her second home, and Risa still going to be a Sabertooth mage who desired to help her friend get out of a predicament that involved using the rings to reverse a body-switching spell.
Cordelia turned her attention to Lucy for a moment, seeing her green hair and orange eyes. Lucy fought quite well, even though she wasn't in her own body, and recalling how Lucy went into the tower in an attempt to stop Kyoko made Cordelia smile happily at how Risa was definitely as kind as Sara to be helping someone who was just as caring towards others. Cordelia had heard rumors about ancient spells that could affect two different people, but not being able to foresee what Lucy's impostor would be doing made Cordelia feel like Lucy would have to go elsewhere for more info on the spell.
Cordelia was confident that Lucy could get her body back, especially with help from a great princess such as Risa. Cordelia turned her attention to Risa for a moment, thinking about her words pertaining to how Sara must've been glad that Risa met Lucy, and Cordelia realized something important. She never got to show Risa something that would probably serve as better closure than her revenge against Kyoko, and Cordelia started to walk towards the doors of the throne. However, she stopped for a moment while smiling nicely at how it would be better to let Risa see a certain room in the tower.
"Risa, please come with me." Cordelia calmly told her while frowning a bit, still having her back turned to the younger girl.
Risa asked her with a curious facial expression, "I'll follow you, Miss Cordelia, but what do you want me to see in this high and royal tower?"
"Well, I wouldn't exactly say it's in any of the rooms on the floors leading up from the entrance. Just follow me to see a hidden piece of Parmanie Town's history." Cordelia responded to Risa in a kind manner, before walking towards the throne room's doors to push them open.
Risa chose to follow Cordelia, wondering what was more special than seeing other rooms in this tower that was now officially hers, and she walked out of the throne room while everyone else chose to follow her. Risa was led down the staircase by Cordelia, seeing her walk somewhat fast like she was going to show Risa something important, and Cordelia's actions made Risa start to wonder what could be at the bottom of the tower. She thought about how a great treasure could be buried there, since a villain like Kyoko had to have some treasures stored away in the tower.
The legendary ring couldn't possibly be the sole treasure in this place, as a wealthy villain would have to leave money or gems somewhere for good people or thieves to eventually take them away. Risa felt like she and her teammates were good people who deserved to take all of the treasures out of this tower, since it would be a wise decision for her to keep them from being stolen by bandits or thieves who would attempt to look for riches in Parmanie Town, and hiding them in Sabertooth would be very smart. After all, no thieves would mess with a guild consisting of herself and other powerful mages such as Lucy.
Risa looked back at Lucy for a moment to simply glance at her with curiosity in her eyes, causing Lucy to also start looking very curious about what the hidden piece of Parmanie Town's history could be. Lucy didn't see any castles that looked old, and she also hadn't seen any paintings in the castle that would give away the prominence of a hidden item or a hidden area of some ancient ruins. The pink tiled battlefield near the forest seemed similar to ruins, but Lucy felt like Risa would share her thought of that battlefield being too new of a landmark in Parmanie Town while it also wasn't hidden below the town.
30 minutes later, at the bottom of the tower...
Cordelia led Risa and the other Sabertooth mages down to the lowest floor of the tower where Lucy and Sting fought against Miru and Shizue, ignoring how the steps of the stairs were broken and cracked while she guided the group down to the ground. Risa looked quite surprised to see this place, never imagining that a room with simple walls would exist at the bottom of a staircase in a royal tower, and she watched Cordelia walk towards one of the walls. Cordelia made a pink aura of Psychic Magic engulf her hands, before pressing them against a wall that had some cracks in it, and that psychic energy quickly exploded to make the cracks expand.
They started spreading outward, before the wall broke apart to reveal a light pink brick wall with an orb-shaped indentation in its center, and Cordelia nicely smiled. She turned her attention to Risa, who created a plain pink sphere in her right hand while making it have solid properties instead of being an explosive attack, and Cordelia watched Risa place the sphere in the hollow indentation for it to perfectly fit in place. In a few seconds, the brick walls slid to the left and right sides with a pink aura of Psychic Magic surrounding them. They revealed the entrance to a room with pink grass and pink trees looking like the ones that grew in the Parmanie Forest, and there were hollow spots in the walls behind the trees. The hollow spots contained treasure chests, as well as saffron old artifacts and other gold items stolen by Kyoko.
The gold items weren't what made Risa look more surprised, however. In the center of the circle that the trees formed, Risa noticed that there was a grey gravestone with sunlight shining down on it from a window, looking up to see some of Nazuna's psychic mages using their abilities to follow her orders of digging through the ground to possibly see buried areas around the tower, and it seemed like this was a buried piece of the old castle that had a window on top of it. Even though the castle had been torn down during the start of Kyoko's reign, it seemed like Cordelia had gone to the castle at some point to bury someone while also using Psychic Magic to preserve and bury away this particular bottom room that was hidden with a gravestone in it.
Risa walked towards the gravestone, seeing the light green halter top and violet plaid skirt be neatly folded in front of the buried body while the dark blue wedges were on top of them, and Risa simply widened her eyes in a stunned manner from seeing this grave for Sara Hoshiakari. Sara had been buried here, which made Risa have a soft smile on her face from knowing that her former mentor's body was safe here, but Risa's smile quickly turned into a saddened frown that shifted into a calmer look while Risa let out a calm sigh for her teammates to not seem so worried about her standing in front of Sara's grave. She turned away from the grave to nicely smile at her teammates, who all just took a few steps forward without saying anything, and they saw Risa turn back around to face Sara's grave while she was rightfully the person who could break the silence in this room with a peaceful conversation that would probably help her officially have closure.
"Hi, Sara. It's me, Risa Ryusei. I defeated Kyoko yesterday, and it felt like you were by my side when I battled against her. After that, Sara, I became Parmanie Town's princess after getting a draw in a joyous battle against my friend Lucy. She saw the strength of my magic, and I finally achieved my dream! Sara, you were right about the effort not being pointless. Due to all my effort, Parmanie will now be a better place where people can learn to thrive without facing classism because of their Psychic Magic or their wealth." Risa explained to Sara's spirit with a happy smile on her face, as small tears began to form in her eyes from thinking about how Sara's speech to her in the forest was truly impactful for her life.
Risa added with a softer smile appearing on her face, wanting Sara's spirit to not worry about her, "Also, Mommy, my great friends in the Sabertooth guild helped me make my dreams come true for someone like me to be considered royalty. Although, I'll never forget that I wouldn't have ever learned the magenta magic if you weren't so kind to me on that fateful rainy day. I wish you could see how I've improved with the magenta Psychic Magic over the past ten years, Master Sara, and I may now even be as great as you."
"Speaking of being as great as you, Sara, I've taken great care of these sunglasses just like you always did. Your influence on my fashion choices has still made me stylish to this day, even if that... caused me to make my new master wait very long for me during one of my earliest missions... where I met Lucy Heartfilia before getting a free jacket. Whenever I'm shopping, I'm always... thinking about you. I hope you think about me, too. I really... miss you, Master Sara." Risa continued to speak, before making some pauses to let herself cry with a mix of emotions from being in front of Sara's grave while envisioning the magenta-haired woman happily smiling.
As Risa started to get on her knees to cry in front of Sara's grave with sadness in her voice from thinking about how the kind woman wasn't here anymore, Lucy watched Risa's sunglasses gently fall on to Sara's grave. Lucy was quick to give Risa a comforting hug, and the other members of Sabertooth walked towards them. Rogue and Frosch proceeded to hug Risa, before Yukino joined in, and Lector hugged Risa right before Sting also joined in on the comforting group hug. Risa opened her eyes to see that her friends were by her side, which was a drastic change from when Risa was a young child who watched Sara die, and Risa chose to hug Lucy while being glad that her friends were just here to make sure that she'd be okay.
Risa felt grateful to them for caring so much about her, really happy that their support helped her start to cry from recalling some of the happier memories involving when Sara was alive, and ending the hug Lucy made Risa think about her new goal was to get back on the path with helping her friend get back in her own body. Risa wouldn't just be a snarky and emotional girl who loved fashion and wielding Psychic Magic, but she would continue to follow Sara's example of being a very kind and strong person who would protect her friends. Risa looked at them all, seeing their happy smiles, and she wiped her tears away with her hands.
Risa proceeded to smile in a very happy manner, glad that they helped her start to think about how there would be many more good experiences in her life, and Risa could share those great times with the people who helped her overcome the trauma involving her past in Parmanie Town. Lucy and the others got up to simply look down at Sara's grave, prompting Risa to lightly touch Sara's gravestone in a kind manner while gently closing her eyes to silently say good prayers for her spirit, and Risa slowly opened her eyes from feeling the sunglasses suddenly be placed back on her forehead.
"Where did that psychic power come from for the sunglasses to be on my forehead again?" Risa asked with a curious look on her face, briefly turning around to only see Lucy and Cordelia looking just as surprised.
Lucy told Risa in a kind manner, thinking about what just happened, "Maybe Sara wants you to keep them as a reminder of finally getting through your past trauma, Risa. She did give them to you, so take good care of those sunglasses and start looking towards the future."
Risa thought to herself with a nice smile on her face, as she could feel the sunglasses firmly being on her forehead like someone wanted her to always have them, "Thank you for everything, Master Sara. You were a great mother, a great mentor, and even your spirit is still being a kind friend to me. We'll always be together, Mommy."
Risa stated aloud with a smile still being on her face, as she got back up to stand in front of Sara's grave, "Well, I'll be going now. Goodbye, Sara. When I come back to Parmanie Town someday, I'll have so many more exciting things to share with you. I love you, Mommy, and I feel like I'm going to be okay from now on."
As Risa turned around to start walking away, the smile that was on her face was one that showed true happiness. She finally got to thank Sara for all that she had done, as well as getting to say goodbye, and even their one-sided conversation made Risa feel very glad. Getting to finally speak again with the woman who brought so much joy to her life for many months made Risa feel like she truly had some closure, glad that this chapter of her life was one that could now end with many good things happening, and Risa hoped that the next situations that she found herself in would be just as fun.
Of course, they wouldn't be fun without the friends who would be by her side. Risa got to see Rogue walk up to her, and he proceeded to simply put a hand on her shoulder. Risa smiled happily at him, glad that he had been by her side for such a long time, and the fact that Rogue had been so kind to her while even risking his life to help her out with her problems made Risa feel like she needed to reward him with a quick kiss to his cheek. Risa's cheeks blushed light pink while Rogue's face comically became quite red from getting kissed by Risa, and they both simply stopped to chuckle about it.
Even though Risa stopped walking, Lucy walked towards her with Sting by her side while Yukino was behind them. Once the group got together, Risa's friends went out of the hidden room first before Cordelia also exited the room. Risa turned around for a moment to take one last look at the grave, before giving it a thumbs-up and winking with one eye to simply show Sara how cool she had become. Risa looked back at her friends to go run and join them, but Sara's spirit soon appeared fully clothed to simply smile at Risa in a very proud manner. Sara also smiled at one of Risa's friends, too.
"I love you, too, Risa. Thank you for making me proud by fulfilling your dreams, and keep being an awesome mage. You're very cool, kid." Sara's spirit told Risa in a pleased tone, before closing her eyes for a moment and grinning.
Sara added nicely while opening her eyes that had feelings of joy and trust in them, continuing to smile, "Thank you, too, Lucy Heartfilia. Risa is so blessed to have crossed paths a great friend like you."
How was Chapter 31? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Risa and Lucy had their crucial battle to see who would rule as Parmanie's princess, and the fight ended in a tie. Risa gave the ring to Lucy while making Cordelia temporarily be the princess while she's away from the town. Risa even got to see Sara's grave, and having one last chat with Sara allowed Risa to fully feel ready to move on from her trauma. However, there are still some tasks left for Risa and the others to handle in Parmanie Town. Those tasks won't involve battles, though, and that's because this is the tenth and final chapter of the Fuchsia Psychic Arc! The next chapter shall be where the post-Fuchsia Psychic Arc begins, and I'm excited to write about that while the next arc may be just as fun! I'll update soon. :)
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