Author's Note:This is the last chapter for the Lucy Heartfilia saga, the next saga will be Princess Jellia. In this saga, I'm planning to have Natsu find the four Edolas came to Earthland. Another plan is that Natsu will find the Fire Minion Hive. One last thing before we start the story, I had a review in the last chapter about Millianna being part of Happy's harem. So I would like to ask what do you guy think about this? Seeing how Happy as a human and battle form, do you want her to be part of Natsu's or Happy's Harem? Please let me know, it'll be a few chapters before she be seen so you have time to think about it.
Chapter Twenty-One…
(Lucy Heartfilia - Part 10.)
13th of February 783 - Heartfilia Konzern, Afternoon:
It had been two days since Natsu found Lucy Heartfilia and was able to persuade her to return home. They finally arrived at the Heartfilia's estate. Unfortunately for them, there had been a problem with the tracks delaying their arrival. Upon inquiry, they had learned that the tracks had been broken and in the end this delayed their trip for a day. Lucy had been happy for the delay to be honest; she didn't really want to see her father. Not after how he treated her over the years since her mother died.
He treated her as if she wasn't there and had the mansion staff look after her. To her, they were her family, not her father. She was nervous about what her father wanted from her. She just hoped that it wasn't too bad. The only reason she agreed to return home was that she knew she had no other option. It was either go willingly, or be forced back by the Mage he father hired. She decided to go willingly, seeing that as soon as Natsu got paid and left, she could run away again if she wanted. So here they were at Heartfilia Konzern Station, making their way along the path to the mansion. Lucy just hoped that things with her father would go well.
As she walked toward her home, she realized that this could be for the best. The last time she ran away, she didn't say a word to her father or those who raised her. She just took her chance and ran without a goodbye. Now however she could tell her father what she really thought of him and say goodbye not only to him, but to her real family too.
Little did she know as they walked towards to the mansion. Natsu noticed that there was movement among the trees. The Mage, as Natsu quickly noticed from the symbols on the back of the jacket, was from Eisenwald. This Mage however just seemed to be a lookout, as he retreated into the shadows as soon as Natsu spotted him.
The Fire Dragon Slayer had a feeling that the Mage had run off to report to the Eisenwald Mages that their target had arrived. That they should start killing those in the mansion as planned. Natsu clenched his fist but smirked. There would be a fight soon. It had been a while since his last fight, and he was itching for one. He just hoped that these Mages could give him what he wanted. If they didn't he would be really pissed off and would have to do something about it.
Either way, Lucy didn't know about this Mage. So the two of them followed the path to the mansion. As they neared the mansion the sounds of a battle reached their ears. Worried about the people who worked and raised her there, Lucy asked with a hint of fear and worry in her voice. "What's going on in there?" {A flash of alarm surged through her heart, more for the servants who raised her than for her own father. "What's going on?" Lucy demanded, worry sparking in her tone as she grabbed Natsu's sleeve.}
"I don't know," Natsu lied, when someone came running out. It was a small man with a shaved head, a large, round nose, which was visibly darker on the front as if it were burnt, and rather hairy arms. He was wearing a typical cook outfit, consisting of a white shirt closed by two large buttons, with its sleeves rolled up and an apron tied around his waist. He was bleeding, from a wound on his back.
"Aed…" Lucy said in shock. She raced to him worried about one of the few people here who really cared for her and caught him as he collapsed into her arms, in front of the fountain. "What happened here?"
"Mis-Mistress Lucy, y-you're back," Aed wheezed painfully.
"I am, Aed," Lucy said softly as she held him close to her, fighting back the hot prick of tears in her eyes. "What happened here?"
"Mis-Mistress Lucy, r-run, the mansion is un-under attack," Aed warned his Mistress before he died from the blood loss.
Before Lucy could even think about mourning, a lady ran out of the mansion. She had short spiky red hair, pointed ears, fair skin, and red eyes. She was wearing a red trench coat with a blue scarf and gold pauldrons and wrist guards. She was also wearing black pants with a blue cloth belt and boots, lastly on her back was a double-bladed staff.
"Well, well, what do we have here," the female said with a smirk. "Lucy Heartfilia. We were told not to kill you, but accidents do happen. I can make it out that I tried to kill the Mage with you, but you got in the way." The red headed Mage created a huge fire circle, before gathering it in her hands and pushing it towards Lucy in a blazing torrent.
Natsu leapt into the way, shielding Lucy, his body absorbing the fire with glee. Lucy cried out in fear and shock. Why would he do that? Over the last few days she got to know him a little and he didn't seem to be too bad of a person. Sure he can be an ass and would do things she didn't agree with, but that didn't mean he should be killed in such a way. What shocked Lucy however was Natsu's reaction.
As the flames surrounded him, Natsu stood there as it was nothing. Instead of screaming in pain or for help, he bellowed with laughter. As he inhaled deeply, the flames flew towards him. Neither Lucy nor the Dark Mage could believe what they were seeing. Natsu was sucking in the flames and looked like he was eating the fire vanishing into his mouth.
"Have to say I have tasted better flames before," Natsu said with a smirk.
"Wh-what are you?" the Fire Mage asked fearfully. "Some kind of demon?"
"Close," Natsu said with a smirk and patted his stomach. "But to you, I'm death." Before either Lucy or the Dark Mage could ask what he meant, the Dragon Slayer Requiped a huge sword and stabbed it right into the Mage. His foe coughed, staring down at the blade in disbelief for an instant before dying. He slid off the sword to hit the ground with a squelch.
Lucy was shocked at seeing someone die. Or as the current case would have it being killed in such a careless fashion. "W-why did you do that for?" Lucy asked in a whisper, shock and fear, as she looked down at the now dead Mage. "Couldn't you just knock her out?"
"If she was alone, maybe," Natus said with a shrug, not letting her know that he might have killed her either way. He was just glad he left his gauntlet back at the tower, as otherwise the Dark Mage's lifeforce would have appeared. Then he would have to try and come up with a reason for why it happened. Either way, he went on. "But we don't know how many of them there are in the mansion. So it would be better to keep her out of the fight permanently. And as for why I killed her, she was a Dark Mage and she tried to kill me. If I wasn't resistant to fire, I could have died and then you would have been next. If I gave her a chance, she would just try again to kill me again."
As much as Lucy hated to admit it, she could see Natsu's side of things. Not only did this Dark Mage tried to kill Natsu, but she also killed Aed, someone that she cared for a great deal. If Natsu hadn't done what he did, the Mage would have killed her too. However Lucy didn't have time to muse over this for long, nor ask how Natsu had a resistant towards fire so that he could live through being burned. Five other Mages came out of the mansion, ready to fight.
Instead of talking they went on an all out attack, charging towards Lucy and Natsu. Through her grief for the death of her surrogate uncle she pulled out a golden key, which Natsu recognised as a Golden Zodiac Key. "Oh Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Gate of the Water Bearer, I open thee, Aquarius!" she called out, placing the key into the fountain. At the same time, Natsu created a wall of fire around them so he could watch what happened next.
The water formed a spiral and out of it came a royal blue tailed mermaid. The mermaid known as Aquarius had a long, blue fishtail, light blue hair that reached up to her waist, and large breasts. She had blue eyes that seem to have no pupils. The mermaid was wearing a revealing dark blue bikini top and on each arm, she had a golden armlet and bracelet. She was also wearing a headband, three piercings on her tail, a golden belt at her waist and light blue crystal earrings. A dark blue tattoo resembling the zodiac symbol rested right under her collarbone. In her hands she carried an urn.
What shocked Natsu was that Aquarius didn't seemed to be happy to be there, unlike Virgo was when she was summoned. Then again, Virgo was strange in the head anyway. Still, it was a summons. Natsu thought that all summons were meant to be ready to help their Master, in whatever they needed as long they didn't abuse the spirit. This Aquarius however looked like she didn't want to help anyone. She glared at Lucy as if she were a piece of trash.
Lucy was annoyed by this, but she didn't have much time to deal with Aquarius's attitude as she needed her help to fight these Mages to save those who she cared about. "Aquarius, I need your help to get rid of these Mages."
"Tch," Aquarius scoffed. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you. You just interrupted my date with my hot boyfriend." Oh how Lucy hated that Aquarius would bring up that she had a boyfriend, and a hot one at that.
"Because if you kill her, you'll be banished from the Celestial Spirit World." Natsu smirked knowingly. "As killing your Summoner directly or indirectly, means banishment."
"So all those times she threaten to kill me…?" asked Lucy in shock.
"All a bluff," admitted Natsu.
"Fine. I might not able to kill her but that doesn't mean I have to help her either," Aquarius said with a sneer. She hated that some snot nose Mage, let the cat out of the bag about not being able to kill her Summoner. It was one of the few things that kept the brat from summoning her too often. Then again there was another way to stop her Summoner from summoning for a while, so with a smirk she said, "also it doesn't mean I can't make things harder for her for ruin my date." Here she used her urn to spray water onto the fire wall to put it out. And before she popped away she turned to Lucy and said. "Don't summon me again for a long time."
Here the Dark Mages couldn't believe what happened. A summons turned on their Summoner, making it easier for them to fight them. They just couldn't help but laugh at this, they never saw this coming. All Natsu said was: "What a bitch. Is she always like this?"
"More or less," Lucy admitted sadly.
"Do you have another that Key that can help us?" Natsu asked as he saw that the Dark Mage stopped laughing and was about to make their move.
"I have only one that I can think of. My second strongest spirit," said Lucy as she pulled out another key, and called out, "Oh Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Gate of the Golden Bull, I open thee, Taurus!"
From the ground, an extremely tall, heavily muscular and athletic humanoid whose physical features are highly reminiscent of a bull jumped out. His body was covered in a black and white pattern, which from his waist up, seemed more massive than the lower one. But his head was like a bovine, with small, elongated ears jutting outwards from the sides of his head, and a pair of horns. His eyes were dark whilst he had a flat nose with a large golden ring in it. His muscular chest bore six teats: two on his pectorals and four on his upper abdominal area. The tail sprouting from his back, ending in a dark tuft, was quite small, if compared to the large mass of his body.
Taurus was wearing a dark blue pair of swim briefs, held up by a gold studded belt, with a circular buckle. He was also wearing a simple dark boots. Around his neck Natsu could see a dark red belt circling his neck, to which a golden cowbell was attached. His forearms was wrapped in bandages, and he was wearing a pair of brown fingerless gloves. Crossing his chest diagonally and passing over his right shoulder is a large, plain dark belt closed by a simple buckle, which his axe was attached to.
"Oh wow, Miss Lucy, I almost forgot what a nice figure you have. Why don't you come over her and give me a smooch." Taurus said pervertedly.
"But the problem is that he's a pervert too," Lucy admitted with a sigh to Natsu, before saying to Taurus. "Taurus, please take care of men for me."
"Of course, Miss Lucy," the pervert bull told his mistress as he pulled his axe from his back and began to attack the Dark Mages. The first four attacked Taurus with different magic. Natsu saw a Card Magic User and a Requip user. He didn't see the other two as they were knocked out before they could do much. The last one stood back and waited for his team mates to be defeated.
Once they were though, he summoned some water and then pulled out a black key and as he placed it in the water he said. "Oh Dark Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate of Darkness. Gate of the Water Bearer, I open thee, Aquarius!"
Now like the Golden Key Aquarius, this Aquarius appeared out of a spiral of water. Unlike the Golden Gate Aquarius, everything below her hips was the main body of the shark, instead of a normal fish. The underside of the shark half was a pale blue and the back was dark blue. Apart from having a tail, Aquarius almost looked human. Her eyes glowed a haunting yellow surrounded only by the black sclera. She had dark blue hair that bled white at the tips, matching her pale blue, corpselike skin. She had elfen ears with dark blue skin covering the outside, which pointed outwards.
Around her neck and upper chin was dark blue skin and within the center of that was a red mark, which was her zodiac sign. It was surrounded by a metal accessory reminiscent of a shark's jaw. Her arms were a deep blue that reached up to the upper arms and on her forearm were two fins sticking out. Around her wrists were spiked bracelets and around her upper arm where blue skin turned pale blue. From her upper chest the dark blue skin fell between her chest towards right above her stomach, right between two sets of gills, stretching above and around the top of her chest, and stretched around to her back. Around her waist was a dark blue like belt, with what looked like spikes. Lastly she had a bikini which was made of two skulls and some bones to cover her huge breasts.
"My Lord, how can I help you?" asked the Dark Aquarius, after she defeated Taurus without a problem, making him disappear back to his own world. Lucy was surprised that this Aquarius was treating the man better than her own Aquarius treated her. "Do you want me to deal with these pests?"
"Just the pink haired one," the Dark Mage said. "I want some fun with the female, before I decide what to do with her."
With that Aquarius pulled the lid off her urn and a powerful jet of black water shot towards Natsu. Upon seeing this Natsu called out, "Fire Make Wall!" A huge wall appeared in front of him, taking most of the impact. The problem
is that with the attack was water and more powerful than Natsu was expecting. Deciding to take cover, he ran towards a shocked Lucy, who was surprised to see a dark version of her Golden Aquarius, and picked her up and ran for cover behind the fountain.
Not wasting any time, he pulled out his own Golden Key and called out, "Oh Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate. Gate of the Maiden, I open thee, Virgo!"
Here Virgo appeared out of the ground, thankfully in her full maid outfit, but before she could say a word Natsu said. "Virgo, I need an emergency tunnel now."
"At once Master," the spirit said with a bow, before taking her Master and Lucy in hand and creating a hole underground, filling the hole behind her.
And Then…
Once underground, Natsu took a few deep breaths to regain his strength. He thought about what happened. He wasn't expecting the summoner to have a damn Dark Aquarius, and that the Mage would be a Water Mage too. Things were becoming more problematic.
"Can I be punished now, Master?" Virgo asked eagerly.
"What!?" asked a confused Lucy, not believing what she was hearing.
"Not now, Virgo, we have more important matters to deal with," Natsu told the Spirit, before turning to Lucy as he said, "Forgive Virgo about this, although she is meant to be a maiden, she's a masochist and enjoys sex."
"You, you don't mean that…" Lucy stuttered and blushed at the thought.
"That I punish and fuck her, yes I do," Natsu admitted as if he was doing nothing wrong.
"But that's wrong, you shouldn't be doing that to the spirits," Lucy told him angrily.
"Who are you to say what we can and cannot do with our spirits?" Natsu told her, "Sure we should treat them with respect, but if they want to be treated a certain way, why shouldn't I treat them that way? Would you punish Virgo the way she wants if you had her?"
Lucy blushed even redder at this. "N-No I wouldn't, as it's wrong."
"Even if that's what they want?" asked Natsu, "You do know that many Celestial Spirit Summoners use their spirits in many ways we don't like? I heard that at some point there was one Mage used one of her spirits to escape her fans and men that fancied her. She even mistreats them too, but yet no one done anything about this as to the rest of the world she wasn't doing anything wrong."
Here Virgo said dreamingly, "oh I wished that I was her summons, I would be in heaven."
Natsu ignored her. "But me? I treat Virgo with respect and the way she wants, which makes her happy and more eager to help, but yet you think that is wrong? What right do you have to say what I'm doing is wrong when I'm not even hurting my spirit? Well, I am, but that's because she wants me to hurt, not because I'm being abusive and hurting her for no good reason. Anyway, what right do you have to push your beliefs onto others?"
Lucy was stumped. She was taught by her mother that one always treat their Celestial Spirits with respect. So she thought she should have others do the same, and if she found other Celestial Spirit Summoners she would pass on what she was taught. So far, Natsu was the first other Celestial Spirit Mage she came across, other than the Dark Mage she faced, and when she tried to tell him that how he was treating his spirit was wrong, he rebugged her telling her she had no right to tell him how he should treat her.
She couldn't believe it. She never expected that this would happen. She thought they would listen to her. But she was wrong, very wrong, instead of listening to her and changing his ways about what he did to Virgo, he thought punishing her and having sex with her was right. It made her feel sick. But yet Natsu didn't care what she thought, or change his ways despite what she said. She didn't know what to think of this.
But as she was thinking about this, Natsu put his thoughts back to the matter at hand. Sure he knew that thanks to his plans there would be a fight, but he never thought it would give him this much of a problem. He never thought he would face a Water Mage, not only a powerful one, but one that held a Black Zodiac Key. The Aquarius Key no less. With a sigh he said, mainly to himself, "damn it, who would have thought he would have one of the Black Zodiac Keys. I thought that most of them were hidden far away and hard to find."
This brought Lucy back to the moment too. Instead of thinking about telling Natsu how he was wrong about how he was treating his Celestial Spirit, she remembered about Aed's death and how he was killed. She couldn't believe that there was another set of Zodiac Keys, Black Keys which seemed to be a darker version to her set.
"I-I just remembered, that the Mage th-that killed A-Aed, seemed to had a strange Black Key that looks like mine." Lucy sobbed a bit as she thought about Aed. "And he summoned Aquarius, although she looks nothing like the Aquarius that I have. How is that possible?"
"Because he had one of the Black Zodiac Keys," Natsu told her.
"The Black Zodiac Keys? What are those?" asked the Celestial Spirit Summoner. As a Celestial Spirit Summon, she thought that she knew everything there was about the magic. But she never heard of these Black Zodiac Keys before.
"To put it simply they are a darker version of us Golden Spirits," Virgo explained to Lucy.
"That is true, they were created about more than a hundred years ago," explained Natsu, "when there was a war between Celestial Spirit King and a power Dark Mage known as the Overlord. To stop the war, the Celestial Spirit King agreed to create the Black Zodiac Keys, which would summon a dark version of the Golden Spirits. But after a while most of the Keys were taken and hidden away and the information about them kept secret, so that they don't fall into the wrong hands." Natsu explained to Lucy about what some of what he knew about the Black Keys. "The only reason I know about them is that in my travels I have found a few, and gained some information about them."
"So these Black Celestial Spirit are evil?" Lucy asked worriedly.
"No more than us Golden Spirits are," this came from Virgo. "Most of us follow our Summoners orders no matter what they are. Be their orders be good or bad. The only ones who would disobey are either too weak or have a high enough morals that they aren't willing to kill, and don't like doing bad things."
"So you're saying that most of the Golden Zodiac Spirits don't care about doing good or bad things?" asked a shocked Lucy, never thought this was possible.
"Not all but some," Natsu admitted here, "however the Black Zodiac Spirits have an easier time to do evil than the Golden Spirits. But like all Celestial Spirits, they'll follow their Summoners orders, be it good or bad, meaning it's their Summoners that makes the Black Keys do evil deeds or not."
What Natsu didn't tell her though was that the Black Keys play with their Summoners minds, to slowly turn them into a Dark Mage. Only a strong willed Mage could fight off the dark suggestions, and not to submit to them. They might become a bit more aggressive and get into fights more, but they would stay as good as they used to be. With what he had planned for Lucy, Natsu knew that it would be matter of time before she submitted to the darkness like him and joined him in his plans to rule the world. The first thing that he had to do was to give her her first Black Zodiac Key and let things go from there.
As for Lucy, as she thought about what Natsu said about the Summons of the Zodiac Key and had to admit he was right, it was the Summoner that made the Spirits do bad things not the spirits themselves. Sure like her Aquarius, they have different personality, and might hate their Summoners to try and have them give their Keys up anyway possible, so that they could find someone who they wanted. But it didn't make the spirit evil itself.
But as she was thinking about this, she remembered what was happening what was happening above, and how her 'family,' was being killed off. "W-what are we going to, to do about the Mages attacking my home?"
"One of two things. Either stay here and wait for them to leave and then search for any survivors, or we can go back up there and fight them," Natsu informed the young blonde. He would prefer if they fought the Dark Mages, so she saw those who she cared for die, and her father being killed. But with the Water Mage and the Dark Aquarius Key Holder up there, he couldn't risk it. As the Dark Mage was powerful and right now he couldn't defeat him easily. Not because Natsu wasn't more powerful than him, but because he was an Elemental Mage that he was weak against at the moment. Sure he had a fair idea how to defeat him if he was forced to fight him, but he didn't wanted to test his idea where if he was wrong, he could be killed.
"We can't allow any more to die. We have to save them if we can," Lucy told Natsu firmly, not wanting anyone else she cared about die.
"Even if it means we die too?" Natsu told her simply.
Lucy pursed her lips for a few moments. She hadn't thought about herself dying just that to save the ones she cared about. But at the same time, she realized that if it meant that they were saved, she would die for them willingly. So standing up straight and with conviction, she said, "Yes, as long those who I cared about live, I'm willing to die for them."
Natsu sighed at this. He knew he couldn't allow her to go out by herself, as he had plans for her. So with another sigh he said, "Fine I'll help you, but I need your help to do so."
"What do you need me to do?" Lucy asked.
"I need you to distract the Dark Aquarius, whilst I kill her Summoner," the Fire Mage told her as if it was nothing.
"What, what, can't you just knock him out?" asked a frightened Lucy.
"If we are dealing with a normal Celestial Spirit or a weak Zodiac Spirit maybe, but we're not," Natsu told the Celestial Spirit Mage.
"What do you mean?" asked the female Mage.
"Tell me, as you're a Celestial Spirit Mage, tell me how do we Spirits normally get sent back to our world?" asked Virgo.
"There's two ways I can think of, the first is for the Summoner to close the gate between the two worlds and in doing so, send the Spirit back," Lucy told the Golden Zodiac. "The other is for the Summoner to be knocked, as they need to conscious to keep the Spirit in our world, or the Spirits would be sent back to their world. Seeing that this Mage won't send his spirit back, it would be best for us to knock the Summoner out."
"Normally you would be right," this came from Natsu. "But what you may or may not know is that the strongest of the spirits, be it normal or Zodiac can open a gate to our world without their Summoners. Sure it would be easier with one, but the strong Celestial Spirits don't need one."
"I didn't know that," Lucy admitted, surprised to hear something new. She thought she knew it all about Celestial Spirits, but it would seem she was learning something new. "But what has this got to do with not being able to knock the Mage out?"
"Just like the ones who are strong enough to enter our world without, the same ones can stay even if their Mage is knocked out," Natsu informed Lucy. "And I can tell you that these Black Zodiacs are the strongest out there; stronger than your Golden ones, as you seen with the Dark Aquarius been able to defeat Taurus. So even if we knock the Mage out, this Aquarius would be able to stay here. So the only option we have is to kill her Summoner, as once he is dead she would have no reason to stay in this world, and so leave."
As much as Lucy hated to admit it, if what Natsu told her was true than the only way to stop this Black Zodiac was to kill her Summoner. It was something she didn't agree with, but if she wanted to save those at the mansion, she had to allow it. But still, she had to ask. "How can I help you? I don't have any spirits strong enough to deal with this Aquarius."
"I can lend you one of the Black Zodiac Keys that I found," Natsu told the Celestial Mage, as he pulled out the Black Keys for the Sagittarius, Gemini and Aries.
"I'm not too sure I could use them. They seem too dark for my liking," Lucy told the pink headed Mage.
"You don't have to keep them," Natsu told her, "as long as you don't sign a contract, you can give whichever you use back. But the thing is you have no option but to use one of them, as I need you to distract the Dark Aquarius, whilst I kill her Summoner. As I am now, I can't deal with both of the Water Users, as I'm not that powerful yet. So I need your help. So you either use one of these keys, or we stay here and wait for these Dark Mages to leave, which means that those at the mansion will be killed."
"Why can't you use the Key?" asked the blonde, not understanding why he wouldn't use it instead.
"Because I need all my power to deal with the Water Mage." Natsu informed the teen girl.
Lucy had to admit defeat here, as she knew that she couldn't allow anyone else she cares about to die, so she had to fight. Even if she didn't want to use these Black Keys, but she had no other option. So with a deep sigh she said, "Fine, I'll take one, but I won't keep it."
"I don't mind that," Natsu said with a smile. This was the first step of her getting one of the Black Keys. "Just as long as you're willing to help me than I'm okay with not wanting to keep it. So which key would you want?"
"I'll take the Sagittarius Key," Lucy decided after some thought, knowing that out of the three of the Zodiac Keys, Sagittarius was the warrior type of the three.
"In that case once we get back to the surface, summon Sagittarius at once and deal with the water bitch," Natsu told the other Mage.
"Okay," was all Lucy was able to say as Natsu had Virgo take them back to the surface.
And Then…
Once the two Mages returned to the surface, they were met with the mage that they escaped from in the first place. And he still had the Dark Aquarius in their world. He hadn't sent her back yet, and upon seeing them the Dark Mage said, "so you have returned. You should have stayed away, now I'll have to kill you."
"It won't be that easy," Natsu told him.
Before the Dark Mage could say anything, Lucy held the Black Sagittarius Key and called out, "Oh Dark Spirit, answer my call and pass through the Gate of Darkness. Gate of the Archer, I open thee, Sagittarius!"
Then running out of a fiery portal, a demonic looking centaur appeared. The horse part of the centaur was dark brown, with feathered hooves, and his tail was unruly. Along his horse back looked like he had a skeletal spine armour, with spikes coming out of it. Around the centaur's waist he had a belt made of skulls with horns with torn red rigs coming from it. The belt had a chain of skulls without horns going around his back of his body. Lucy had to blush at seeing the big cock between the centaur's back legs.
As for the human part of the centaur's body, it was tanned and he had what looked like a rib bone armour, to protect his bare chest. On both of his wrist were dark grey gauntlets which had had spikes fan out along the elbow, but on the inside of it, it had a bone design which had three spikes, and lastly there was a red gem on the back where the hand was. On his back there was a bone white back guard to protect his back. On each of his shoulders was a bone skull with a horn. Around his right bicep was a dark brown bandage.
Then there was his head, which looked like a human, with black unruly hair, and a scar starting from the top of his nose and going down his right cheek. But unlike a normal human though, he had a horn on the middle of his head and had horse ears instead of human ones.
As Sagittarius being the archer, he had a quiver bag full of arrows, and a bow made of bone and skulls on his back. The bow had one big skull with horns, this skull had a open mouth were the arrow would be placed to aim and fire the arrows. On the lower part of his back, there was two blades, with the handles made of bone too, with the top of them looking like skulls with a horn on them.
"Ahh, finally I have returned to this world. It has been a long while since I've been here," Sagittarius said as he looked around, glad to be able to visit Earthland once again. Looking down at Lucy and seeing that she held his key, he asked, "are you my new Summoner my Lady?"
"No," Lucy told Sagittarius, surprised how normal he seemed, unlike her own Golden Gate Keys. "I'm just borrowing your key so that I can deal with another Black Zodiac."
"Oh?" Sagittarius asked in surprise, than looking around he saw the Dark Aquarius, who with her Summer was looking at him and Lucy in shock and surprise. Seeing Aquarius, Sagittarius said, "well, well, Aquarius, it's been a while since we last saw each other."
"That it has you bastard," Aquarius said with a smile.
The Dark Mage was shocked upon seeing the Dark Sagittarius. "How is this possible! I thought I had the only Black Zodiac Key. I thought no one else knew about them."
Seeing that the Dark Mage was in shock, Natsu took this moment to deal with him. So before running towards the dark Mage, he turned to Lucy and told her, "keep Aquarius busy."
"But how do you expect me to -" began Lucy, but Natsu was already gone to deal with Aquarius's Summoner, so turning to Sagittarius she had to ask, pointing to Aquarius. "Do you have any ideas how to deal with her?"
Sagittarius looked at his temporary Summoner in disbelief. If she meant to be a Celestial Spirit Mage, she was a shit one if she didn't know how to fight. But at the moment he didn't have time to say much seeing that he had to deal with Aquarius first, but if he ended up being her summons, than they would be having words. So with a sigh he said, "yeah I know how to deal with her, just stand aside and don't get in my way. You'll be more of a hindrance than anything else."
"That bitch is your new Summoner?" asked Aquarius, shocked that Sagittarius was stuck was such a worthless Summoner.
"No, she's just using my key that her friend found to deal with your Summoner and his friends," Sagittarius informed the other Zodiac. Lucy was shocked to hear that the two of them was were talking about this as if she wasn't there, and that there was a fight in her home our between the two Mages nearby.
Aquarius sighed at this. Her fellow Dark Zodiac hadn't got a contract with this stupid bitch, whilst good seeing that he won't be with her for long with luck, at the same time he'll be limited to what he could do. While she didn't mind having an unfair advantage, with a fellow Dark Zodiac that she liked, she couldn't go all out like she would normally. Then she had an idea. "So we're going to finish the fight that we begun all those years ago to see who is the strongest?" asked Aquarius. "And I won't use some of my more powerful skills seeing that you can't use some of yours."
"If that's alright with you?" Sagittarius inquired with a smile. "The wager is still the same?"
"A bit of a change to it," Aquarius told Sagittarius. "Your part is still the same; if you win I go on a date with you. But for me, if I win I'll kill your Summoner so you don't have to worry about her in the future."
"Deal," Sagittarius said with a smirk, as Lucy called out "Hey!" As she didn't like the idea of this one bit, and wanted to say something, but Sagittarius pushed her aside and went after Aquarius, firing arrows as he did so, where she would use her water to shield herself. All she could do was to watch as the two Dark Zodiacs fought.
And Then…
With Natsu:
Whilst Sagittarius was locked in battle with Aquarius, Aquarius's Summoner was dealing with Natsu, who took the Mage's distraction to make a critical attack. But instead of attacking with a fist of fire like her would normally would, he hit the Dark Mage with his bare fist. In fact his fist slammed into the Dark Mage's cheekbone with a satisfying crack. "IDIOT!" the Dragon Slayer howled, a blaze of fury shining in his eyes as his opponent crashed into the wall. "They may not be well known, and they're hidden, but that doesn't mean others wouldn't know them!"
His enemy stood, wiping blood away from the corners of his mouth derisively. "It matters not," he sneered, his fingers melting into water as he spoke, and hardening to vicious claws. "That just makes things more interesting!" He slashed at Natsu as he spoke, his claws extending with the swing. The dragon slayer jerked back just in time - the watery blades grazed the skin of his neck, drawing a shallow red line.
"Fire Make: Lance!" Natsu howled, weaving fire magic between his hands. Ten balls of fire bloomed in the air above him and molded into spears, raining destruction towards the Dark Mage in a bombard. But his enemy was fast, not missing a beat before countering.
"Aqua Shield!" The Water Mage shouted. Drawing water from the air, the mage summoned a crisscrossed shield, blocking the screaming lances of flame before they struck. Even with the elemental advantage, it took all his concentration to stop the flames. Steam hissed with each blow, filling the room with hazy mist and black smoke, which lit up with flashing bursts of scarlet fire.
When the attack faded, the mist hid them from view. Natsu spun warily, searching the steam for the enemy he knew was nearby. He could still hear the clash of battle from the Zodiac Spirits distantly.
"You're strong, for a Fire Mage, I give you that." The Water Mage admitted with a bit of ademption, that a Fire Mage could make him work hard for a fight, "But not strong enough!"
Natsu whirled towards the voice, gathering magic before he even saw the meteors of water hurtling towards him. "Fire Make: Wall!" he shouted, slamming his foot against the stone. A fiery magic circle flared to life as he spoke, and a wall of fire roared to intercept the balls of water.
What Natsu wasn't prepared for his defense to be shattered in an instant.
The spheres of water punched straight through the wall of flames without slowing. Natsu's shout of pain was drowned out as the surge of water smashed against his chest, throwing him across the room. He skidded against the floor, coughing harshly as he rose shakily to his feet. His pink hair was plastered to his forehead, but the water did nothing to douse the fire in his eyes. "Fire Make," Natsu ground out, weaving hand signs despite sharp pain in his ribs, "Wolves!"
Five wolves flared from thin air, their lean bodies flickering with scarlet flames. They tore across the stone, their fiery paws sending curls of steam from the water soaked floor, snarling as they attacked the Dark Mage hungrily.
Razor thin sheets of water sliced the wolves in two, and they howled with fury as they fizzled to nothing, leaving only more steam. The Water Mage smirked, as he called into the steam, "Give up, your powers are useless against someone like me."
'Damn it,' Natsu thought to himself as he dealt with the pain in his ribs, 'this is ridiculous. I'm getting beat by some damn Water Mage. I need to get serious if I want to win this fight. But I don't have enough strength to use my Dragon Slayer powers.'
Then he realized that the Dark Zodiac Sagittarius could help him, so he called out, "Sagittarius, if you can hear me and are able to help, I would like it if you could fire a powerful fire arrow to light me up!"
"What are you doing?" asked the Dark Mage in confusion, wondering what the Fire Mage was up to, as he shot a few more thin sheets of water at where he thought Natsu was. "You do know if he does that, he'll show me where you are."
"Doesn't matter, as it'll be the start of the end for you," said Natsu with a smirk, as he dodged an arrow coming towards him. The arrow had a bright fire as the tip of the arrow, and as Natsu caught it, it exploded and engulfed Natsu in flames.
The fire was bright enough that even through the steam, the Dark Mage could see the outline of Natsu engulfed in flames. The Mage couldn't help but laugh at this, thinking that all Natsu did was to kill himself. "Oh this is so funny, I can't believe that he had someone set him alight like this."
But he then stopped laughing as he saw the flames disappearing inwards, as if the Mage he was fighting was inhaling them. "What the hell?" the Water Mage asked in shock and fear, unsure what was happening.
"You're the first person other than my trainer to force me to use this power," Natsu informed the Water Mage with a frown, annoyed that this Mage was strong enough to force him to use his true abilities. "I don't know if I should congratulate you or be pissed at you for forcing me to use it."
"What are you talking about? What is going here? How were you able to suck that fire within you?" the Dark Mage asked Natsu, wanting to know what the hell was going on.
Natsu wasn't about to give him an answer that he wanted. Instead, Natsu called out, "Fire Dragon's Roar!" as he inhaled to gather fire in his mouth, before releasing a huge exploding ball of fire in the direction of the Water Mage.
Seeing this huge blast of fire, the Water Mage had no option but to pull up a huge water wall to protect himself. As the fire hit his water wall though, whilst there was a lot of steam, the fire was able to break through the wall, forcing him to dodge the attack. He was barely able to do so when he was punched in the face by Natsu who appeared out of nowhere. He didn't have time to think about how all this happened when he saw two fists engulfed in fire heading towards him.
Once again he was forced to dodge again and again at these. He had to use many water attacks to defend himself, as the Fire Mage went on the offence, using Makers Magic and this Dragon's Magic that he never heard of before. And so to beat this Fire Mage, the Dark Mage knew that he would have to using his most powerful water skill: Water Prison.
Natsu thought he was winning now that he was finally able to attack the Water Mage, and that he wasn't able to fight back much. However though, when he saw the Dark Mage drop his guard for a few moments, he decided to go in for the kill. But it wasn't until he wasn't for the last second that he realized he fill for the Water Mage's trap as the Dark Mage called out, "Water Prison!"
Here water expelled from the Dark Mage's hands and a sphere started to form around the Dragon Slayer, and water started to fill the sphere. Natsu knew that if he didn't do anything, and fast he would be dead. As the water filled the sphere, the Dark Mage panted to catch his breath. He was glad. He knew that the battle was over and that he had won this fight.
With a smile the Water Mage said, "I don't know what the magic used, and to be honest I don't care, but in the end though, your Fire Magic meant nothing against me. I'll be sorry to see you die, as you were one of the best fighters thought I came across in a long while. Only a rare few in my own guild could give a fight that you give me, but none of them, other then my Guild Master, were able to force me to use Water Prison on them though. So be honoured that you're going to die by one of my powerful skills that a rare few ever see."
Natsu wasn't sure how he could escape this. He didn't think he had powerful enough attacks to escape this water prison. Then as the water was rising to his neck, Natsu remembered what Inferna told him once. That one day his fire could become so strong that he could evaporate water. Up 'til now he hadn't tried to evaporate water, either because he was busy with missions or he was training with his other skills.
He knew that this was his only option. He had to evaporate the water around him. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but he could think of only one thing, to make his body so hot that the water evaporates. So he pushed his magic all around his body to heat it up, which quickly heat up and slowly boil the water. But as the water covered his head and he begun to drown, he knew it was now or never, so he pushed most of his power into heating his body to the point where the water would evaporate.
As he was about to blackout, Natsu found that the water was beginning to evaporate, enough at first to be able to breathe once more. And as he pushed more of his magic into himself, and evaporated the rest of the water and breaking the sphere to the shock of the Water Mage. As the steam from the sphere covered him, Natsu took this time to Requip a sword and cut the head of the Dark Mage before he could react.
Looking down at the lifeless body of the Water Mage, Natsu was catching his breath as he panted, "Damn it, I didn't realize this was going to be such a tough fight. I'm glad this is now over." Natsu told himself. This was the toughest fight that he had for a while, if it was any other Mage he knew he might been able to deal with them as long as they weren't too powerful. The problem with this Mage wasn't more powerful than him, yes he was powerful, but the problem was that he had a power that was strong against fire which give him problems.
Although the fight was over, and the steam was clearing up, Natsu knew that he couldn't rest, seeing that the other Dark Mage's were in the mansion. He also had to stop the Dark Aquarius from attacking Lucy, so taking a few more deep breaths to catch his breath and his strength, Natsu begun to walk to where Lucy once was.
And Then…
With Lucy:
The battle between Aquarius and Sagittarius seemed to be over, seeing that Aquarius called time out for some reason. The fight was unlike anything that she ever seen, whilst Aquarius seemed to be hold back her power, Lucy thought she would still beat Sagittarius, but she was wrong. Sagittarius used many different attacks, lightning, ice and other trick arrows to defend himself, whilst Aquarius used her water, in creating weapons and other attacks.
The fight seemed to have no winners, as they were equal in the fight, not one giving an inch. So when Aquarius stopped fighting all of a sudden, she said, "Will Sagittarius, looks like my fight with you is at the end."
"What are you talking about?" asked Lucy, wondering what happened.
"My Summoner is dead, so I have no reason to fight with you." Aquarius informed her, "It would seem that Fire Mage was much stronger than I give him credit for. I might ask him if he would like to be my Summoner, if he is able to defeat my Summoner he would be a great ally to have."
"Thanks but no thanks," said Natsu as he walked out of the steam which was now more or less gone, "I have a Golden Key that I want to keep for now, she is useful."
"Keep my key around just in case you change your mind," Aquarius told the pink haired teen, "or if you find someone strong enough to be my Summoner. But please, don't give me to that blonde over there, as I would kill her if you do." The mermaid warned, and as she was going to leave before they could say anything, a smirk came across her face, guessing why he wanted to keep his Golden Key, "Oh, so you know, I have another form other than this mermaid form." And with that she transformed her shark body into sexy legs, where she was wearing a sexy dark blue mini shorts, before she disappeared in a spiral of water.
"Well now that was something I wasn't expecting." Natsu said surprised about what he saw, as he caught Aquarius Black Key.
"Me too," admitted Sagittarius, a bit jealous that Aquarius seemed to gotten a thing for the pink haired Mage, "as far as I know, she never showed any of her Summoners that form before. You must really impress her."
"Why, why do this Aquarius hate me too?" Lucy whined a bit, breathing heavily as she feel her magic fastly depleting.
"You have to forgive Aquarius," Sagittarius apologized, "she hates those who in her words are weak and pathetic. She can't stand them and would like nothing more than kill them all. One you proved to her that aren't, she is a good ally to have. Anyway, I need to get going, I can sense that your magic is about to go, so I leave before it happens." And with that before another word could be said, he was gone.
"You're alright?" asked Natsu.
"I'm fine, although I feel like I can sleep for a week." Lucy informed the Fire Mage.
"Not surprising," Natsu admitted, "those Black Zodiacs Keys take more power than the Golden Keys, seeing they are more powerful." Looking at the mansion and realizing that it was quiet, he then said worriedly, "I think we should hurry to the mansion, it has gotten too quiet for my liking. I'm worried that we could be too late and everyone there is dead, or if they aren't, your friends are hiding and it could be only matter of time before they are found and killed. If you want you can rest up and I'll go and make sure they are save."
"No, no, I'll go with you, I need to make sure they are save myself." Lucy informed Natsu, worried about her friends and family.
"Okay, stay behind me, and I'll deal with anyone that tries and kill us." Natsu told her as he Requiped a sword. He was too weak to use his fire magic, but he believed he would be fine with using a sword.
"Thank you Natsu." Lucy said weakly, unsure what they were going to face, and frightened at the fact too. But she knew that she had to do this.
And so the two of them walked toward the mansion, unsure what they were going to face. Lucy hoped that she wouldn't find anyone else she cared about dead, but she knew that as much as hoped she would, she would find a few of them dead. She just hoped that there were a few were able to find somewhere to hide.
And Then…
Over the next ten minutes, Lucy and Natsu searched the mansion for survivors, but found none, as the Dark Mages within the mansion had already killed them. Lucy lost part of herself with each dead member of the staff, the staff that she considered as family, and when Natsu killed these Mages, she didn't say a word about it. As if she had the power, she would have done it herself for what they had done to those she cared about.
The last place that they went searching for was upstairs to Lucy's father's studies, as she told Natsu, it was one of the safest places to be at should something happen. As the doors were made to withstand most things, so if they were in danger, that would be the place they would be.
As they got there though, the doors were open, and there were two dead men in front of Lucy's father's desk and behind it was Jude Heartfilia, with a young man behind him holding a knife at his neck. The man was of average height and weight with black eyes and black hair which he ties in a short, spiky ponytail. He was wearing a white shirt with a high collar and an intricate symbol on its back over a plain, dark red undershirt. He was also wearing a pair of aquamarine pants, black shoes and small black earrings in each ear.
"Father!" Lucy called out in fear. Sure she had problems with her father, but she didn't want him to die like this.
Upon them arriving, the young man said, "Well, well, looks like things have an interesting turn of events. I thought that Markus would be able to deal with you Fire Mage."
"You mean that Water Mage," Natsu said thoughtfully, as he thought about the only person who give him problems, "I'll admit that he give me some problems, but in the end he was no much for my fire."
"I can see that now," the young man said with a clam voice, "not that it matters, but is he still alive?"
"Nope, killed him along with most of the others of your guild," the Dragon Slayer said simply, "the only ones that are alive are those that Lucy knocked out."
This surprised the young man, he wasn't expecting this. It would seem that the information that were given about this Fire Mage inaccurate, he had some extra power that they don't know about. That and he was willing to kill without mercy, just like them. Something about this wasn't setting will for him, sure he and his guild information on the Fire Mage, but it would seem that either the person who give it to them, withheld important and she didn't know the full range of this Mage's powers. Whatever the reason he knew two things, one he couldn't fight him alone if their strongest Water Mage wasn't able to deal with him, and two he had to warn his guild just in case he came after them.
"What happened to these people doing here?" asked a panicked Lucy.
"Oh these people?" the Dark Mage said as he point to the dead people, "Your father was talking to that man," here he pointed to the elderly man, and went on to say as he pointed to the other man, who was fat and ugly, "was talking about selling you off to marry his fat ugly son of his."
"What!?" Lucy yelled in shock at this, looking at the fat son again, she said, "Why father? Why were you going to marry me off to this fat man? He looks like he's in his late thirties."
"Thirty-nine." the Dark Mage informed the man, "And from what I heard whilst waiting to act, your father has a few money problems and needed cash to help his business going. It would seem that he is running low on money, and if he didn't do something to get more money in the next few years, he would be forced to sell everything that he has to keep going."
"Is this true father?" Lucy felt sick at this, she couldn't believe that her father would do this to her. As for Natsu, if he didn't know that Jade was going to die soon, he would kill the man himself. Sure he was now evil, but Natsu still cared about one thing above all else: family. He would never treat his family like Jude was doing.
Jude could only nod at his daughter's question, as he was stuck by fear and couldn't say a word right now.
"Now as much as I would like to see him dead for the way he is treating his daughter, I can't allow you to kill him." Natsu said playing the part of a good guy, "He's my client at the moment, and I need him alive, so please let him go and leave,"
"No can do," the Dark Mage informed Natsu, "we were paid to kill this man and everyone here at the time, and if we were able to, kill you too. But seeing how powerful you are, my bet is kill this man and escape."
Just then the Dark Mage slit Jude's, as Lucy cried out in fear and upset, "Father noooo!" Sure she didn't like the idea of her father marrying off someone twice her age and who was fat and ugly, but it didn't mean that she wanted him to die. Just then Natsu was about to make his move, the other Mage stepped back and as Natsu got to him, he disappeared into the shadows, making his escape.
As Natsu turned round he saw that Lucy was on her knees crying, crying for everything that she lost that day. Natsu could only hide his smirk, seeing how his plan for the her was going as planned. For now he would allow her to cry for a few moments, before acting on his next part of his plan for her.
To be Continued!
Author's Note - PLEASE READ TO THE END:Here's the end of the latest chapter Dragon Overlord, I'm sorry for the wait, but I had a problem to find the words that I wanted to use. Not only that, but I had problems with the fight, as I wasn't sure how to write it fully, but was able to get some help from someone on discord. Either way, I thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story and spare a few moments to give me your feedback with thoughts and ideas for this story.
This is the last chapter for the Lucy Heartfilia arc, and in a few chapters time. For the next chapter or two, the chapters will be fillers to explain the outcome of the arc, and to set up for a few things for future chapters. So if you got any ideas as to what you want to see please let me know.
Now I would like to ask for the next arc, I'll be adding four OCs, and I would like to ask for names for two of them, and powers that their weapons could have. Here's the basic details so far for them: Kou = Axeman and Aiko = Swordswoman, these are the named characters, and here's the unnamed ones: Spearwoman and Swordsman. I hope you can help with this. And in this arc, if there's anything you want to see to happen, or ideas you might have, please let me know and I'll see if I can add them.
The next arc is about finding Princess Jellia and getting to Edolas. So if you got any ideas for this arc, I would like to hear them. I'm thinking that each of the four people from Edolas will be found in different towns and areas looking for Princess Jellia, so I would like ideas for how these encounters end up like.