Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail
/ Magic Council - Joya Branch /
Two days after the incident, the Thought Projections of the nine councilmembers stood before the last surviving member of Emerald Sword, who was heavily bandaged. A trial was to be held for two purposes: to find who did such a gruesome act and to charge the remaining dark mage.
The Chairman, Gran Doma, began, "Tsubasa Goga. Concerning your membership of the former Dark Guild known as Emerald Sword, you are suspected of innumerable thefts across Joya. There are no witnesses, but your status as a dark mage will be enough to charge you nonetheless."
The mage, Tsubasa Goga, simply nodded in understanding as the Chairman continued, "However, we are currently more concerned about who your guild was attacked by."
Never lifting her eyes from the ground, Tsubasa managed to squeak out, "... short girl … long black hair … black clothes … and-" She froze, remembering the smiles that the girl had managed to give their guild while massacring them.
The councilmembers looked to each other, all thinking relatively the same thing. "Well, this certainly sounds like our new first-ranked Wizard Saint," one commented.
As the councilmembers all agreed that it was most likely the one they had met not so long ago, the Chairman spoke up, "Very well. As it appears, the first-ranked Wizard Saint is the one who destroyed Emerald Sword. While its destruction wasn't in a remotely decent way, it was still a Dark Guild and thus, no punishment will be pushed for the Wizard Saint."
As Tsubasa's eyes filled with a world of hurt at what the Chairman had just said, he continued, "Tsubasa Goga, the last remaining dark mage of Emerald Sword, is hereby sentenced to life in prison for her actions as a dark mage."
With that, Tsubasa Goga was dragged off to prison with tears streaming down her face, grieving for her fallen friends that she would never be able to avenge. Even if they were a Dark Guild full of dark mages, it's not like they weren't friendly with each other. They all understood each other well and knew what the others desired and felt. That's what had made them the strongest Dark Guild in the country. But now, it stood no more, completely annihilated.
/ Crocus /
Azu had decided to take a few days off before moving on to her next target, but she didn't like what she read one morning in the international newspaper.
Titled "'Black Blood' Massacres Strongest Dark Guild in Joya", it was surprisingly accurate and included a description of her clothing, hair color and size. She even got a nickname, but what bothered her was the fact that her mask had been pretty useless in the end. But then again, she did half expect this since there aren't many like her.
Well, I guess the mask over my face won't help much anymore with concealing my identity, if it ever did… She thought. But maybe I'll be able to find another use for such a technique. Whatever the case, I hope Fairy Tail can handle having a mass murderer in their guild…
I've rested enough for the time being, so I'll head off to Bosco to deal with Flaming Pine, Azu decided. I can also test out my ability to eat flames there since the mages are mostly fire mages, like their guild's name suggests. Actually, this shouldn't be too hard, so I'll just eat my fill and see exactly how much 'my fill' is in terms of magic power.
Setting her newspaper down, she got herself ready for the day and teleported herself to the capital of Bosco.
The Boscan capital was absolutely disgusting. It reeked of poverty and corruption and slavery was apparently still a thing. It was a port city and the only place that didn't reek of poverty was the waterfront, where all the rich slave traders lived. As a trade-off, that place reeked of an entirely more disgusting stench, one devoid of humanity.
I'm getting the hell out of here, Azu immediately thought. Hopefully, the mountains on the other side of the country aren't anywhere near as bad.
Reappearing at the summit of a mountain near the border with Seven…
It's equally disgusting here… She complained, Why is the entire country like this, even so much that its highest peaks cannot escape?... Running back to Fiore for a bit to get away from this doesn't sound half bad.
With a little snow in her hair (because it was snowing on the summit), Azu left for southern Fiore to search for Flaming Pine from there.
Laxus and his team were walking through the forests of southern Fiore, looking for a training spot for the Grand Magic Games that were to be held in a few months. Suddenly and unexpectedly, a girl in black appearing inches before him. In a spur of the moment reaction, Laxus sent a few bolts of lightning towards her and Evergreen turned her into stone with her eyes.
I don't remember Zeus and Medusa being on good terms, Azu thought to herself sarcastically.
In the meantime, a shocked group of four were trying to figure out how this girl had simply appeared before them in an instant. On top of that, how did she have snow on her head when it was summer in Fiore and the mountains were across the country?
Well, now that I'm stone, I shouldn't exactly be able to think, but since I can do that much, I can easily escape, Azu reasoned, still frozen in place. If I had to come up with a simple verbal command for it, it could just be Null, but being unable to move my mouth at the moment, I can reconsider later.
Releasing herself, she turned to face the four, who were now even more shocked that someone had canceled out Evergreen's magic unfazed. Fulling facing them, she recognized them from her analysis when she first researched mages from around Fiore.
"Laxus Dreyar, Freed Justine, Evergreen, Bickslow," Azu began, "Fairy Tail. Are you asking for a fight?"
"You've got some nerve thinking that you're able to take us on," Laxus said confidently with a hint of annoyance.
"If we get just it over with, it wouldn't be a problem," Evergreen pointed out to Laxus.
"It'll be a warm-up for our mission!" Bickslow added with a hint of excitement while his floating dolls chanted "warm-up" repeatedly.
Freed, seemingly trying to remembering something he had seen that morning, was a little unsure of what they were about to do. However, once Laxus seemed to approve of the idea, he had no second thoughts and decided to follow their leader.
"You better be ready," Laxus challenged Azu, who had kept a straight, indifferent face the entire time.
"A warm-up wouldn't hurt," she responded.
Writing in the air with his sword, Freed shouted, "Dark Écriture: Pain!" followed by "Dark Écriture: Suffering!"
Evergreen followed up with "Fairy Bomb: Gremlin!" and let Bickslow follow her with "Line Formation!" courtesy of his dolls.
With dust swirling around the spot where the girl was, Laxus figured he'd better just finish off the area, just in case. "RAGING BOLT!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as he raised his hands skyward and then at the girl, creating an extremely powerful attack that hit Azu head on.
A few seconds later, Laxus and the others were a little disappointed in how easy their target had been, just until they could see her casually waving the dust out of her face, unscathed.
"Is that it?" She asked. "A little pain - a paper cut could do way more damage, a little explosive dust, lost souls attacking me, and a little electricity? Do try harder than that, or I'll start attacking."
The four Fairy Tail mages looked to each other and immediately understood that they were not facing an easy target. In fact, she was probably stronger than most of the mages they've ever seen, and they'd all seen a lot in their years. This was no longer a warm-up, for it was a real battle to see if they could even take down their opponent in the first place.
Laxus took the lead, filling his mouth with lightning and shouting "LIGHTNING DRAGON'S ROAR!", immediately followed with "Baryon Formation!" from Bickslow and "FAIRY MACHINE GUN: LEPRECHAUN!" from Evergreen.
Machine gun? That? Azu thought as she materialized a heavily modified lightning rod and threw it at Laxus's attack while dodging both of Bickslow's and Evergreen's attacks. Even with magic, you still can't do as good as Earth's technology? Disappointing…
While she was thinking, Freed was busying himself with "Dark Écriture: Wings!" and "Dark Écriture: Darkness!" However, he was being far from silent and Azu easily heard him.
"'Darkness', you say?" Azu asked the newly flying demon-Freed. "Well, let's see how you like this: BLACK DRAGON'S ROAR!" She made sure to imitate Laxus's actions perfectly to make it seem as natural as possible.
Freed was literally blown away, leaving the three remaining Fairies in shock once more before Laxus spoke up. "So, you're a Dragon Slayer too?" He asked Azu with a smirk on his face.
"Maybe, but if you're practically worshipped by the 'Thunder God Tribe', does that make you a god?" Azu asked with the same smirk plastered on her face. Raising her fist and preparing to propel herself towards the Lightning Dragon Slayer, she said, "Well, let's see how you fare against this, fake god."
Shooting towards Laxus, Azu shouted "FALSE GOD'S TITANIUM FIST!"
Connecting with his chest, the spell sent Laxus flying backward straight into a tree, nearly flying straight through it despite it being nearly twice as wide as his arm span.
Teleporting Freed back to their relative location from wherever he ended up, Azu turned to the four mages, two moderately injured and two uninjured, and asked, "So, would you like to continue or would you let me get on with my business?"
"As if we'd give up that easil-" Laxus began, standing up again. However, he didn't continue because he suddenly couldn't stand. Looking for the source, he found it in the girl they were fighting, who had a massive amount of magic power radiating from her.
This power! I've never felt so much of it before, Laxus thought. Not from Hades, not from the Old Geezer, not from Gildarts.
"Wrong answer," Azu told them in monotone before disappearing once again to a location a few miles away so she could search in peace.
…
When he was sure that the girl was gone, Freed weakly lifted his head up and spoke of his initial uncertainty that had just about been confirmed: "I knew there was something special about that girl, but I couldn't remember what. She's the one they're calling 'Black Blood'."
Evergreen turned to him with a very grim face, "We'd better be thankful that we're still alive, then."
Even Laxus had to agree with that assessment of the situation, but then he remembered something else. "She said a phrase that a Dragon Slayer would in order to take out Freed, but for the attack that she hit me with, her phrase was that of a God Slayer, if those exist," Laxus pointed out to his team. "Is that even possible? Being a Dragon Slayer and a God Slayer all in one?"
Of course, no one had an answer to that one.
Eventually, Azu located Flaming Pine in a part of Bosco that was pretty close to the border with Stella. Coincidentally, she located Heaven Horn, Stella's strongest Dark Guild, at the same time since it was barely 20 miles from the location of Flaming Pine.
There ought to be a reason for that… She reasoned.
{Flaming Pine and Heaven Horn are important partners of each other… Flaming Pine helps out Heaven Horn's organizational issues because a single person running everything gets difficult… Heaven Horn helps out Flaming Pine in terms of power since the former has much more powerful members in comparison to the latter… }
Very well, Azu thought. Looks like I'll have to end up fighting both today. Of course, I'm not complaining. It just makes things more interesting.
DIsappearing from Fiore, she reappeared on the roof of Flaming Pine, which was surrounded by pine trees in a thick forest.
Alright, so no mask today since there's no point at all, Azu reminded herself. Also, entering through the front door is what I did last time, so the roof should do it this time around.
Smashing through the roof, Azu accidentally ended up collapsing the entire building.
"My bad," she mocked as the pile of wood exploded in flames, taking the surrounding forest with it into the ashes.
Might as well start testing myself now, Azu thought as she began to eat the flames. She finished quickly, revealing the mages below. She hasn't had her fill quite yet and all her opponents seemed fine, so all was well to begin the 'fight'. That is, until she noticed one of them holding a lacrima, calling Heaven Horn.
Calmly, Azu whispered "Swords of Thanatos."
As soon as her dual swords materialized, she lunged forward, slashing both the lacrima and its user in half. She knew it wouldn't prevent Heaven Horn from coming in full force, but it would prevent any unwanted challengers (because she actually wanted Heaven Horn to join, but not anyone else).
It took a moment for Flaming Pine to realize what she had just done, but when they finally did, whispers erupted.
"Could it actually be her?"
"Do you think?..."
"Not possible"
"What if it's true?"
"Is that really her?"
Dropping her swords and faking a maniacal smile when she heard them whispering, she said to them, "Black Blood? Hello, that's me. Guess what happens next!"
Some of the dark mages began to cower in fear at this revelation, but they were all more or less recovered after a quick load of encouragement from those who remained unfazed. Once they finally regained their full composure, they began attacking the young girl that had dared to attack them. Several began shouting:
"RED SKULL!"
"HELL PROMINENCE!"
"BURNING SKY!"
With many more spells than she would care to count being shot at her, she began consuming all the fire that was being thrown at her. The dark mages had heard of such an ability before and remained unfazed, reasoning that she couldn't eat forever, but when the girl before them just wouldn't stop eating, they began to have doubts.
I don't have any current benchmarks to compare to as for how much magic energy I can consume… Azu realized. Quick mid-battle analysis?
{The Magic Council uses MPFs… Magic Power Finders give magic power a numerical value… Its maximum value is 9,999… A single attack from a high ranking Rune Knight could average at 500… Rune Knights are the military of the Magic Council… }
Right now, the magic I've absorbed is at a value of roughly 50,000. Not bad, Azu thought. I've received about 100 attacks, so these guys are on the same level as the high ranking Rune Knights, whatever that means.
The dark mages just kept adding and adding to the fireball that surrounded Azu as the numerical of the magic power she absorbed reached 100,000, 200,000, 500,000, and finally 1,000,000. At that point, the dark mages could barely continue, having used up so much of their magic power. On the other hand, Azu somehow still wasn't "full".
Since Azu wasn't able to absorb power anymore, she decided to test how much she could output. However, she couldn't really decide what would be a "most powerful spell" for her because she could use so many different kinds of magic.
Eventually, she decided on "Sǐwáng", Chinese for "death". It wouldn't necessarily be death magic, but its sheer power would be able to kill a normal person.
Spotting Heaven Horn closing in fast, Azu decided to get rid of the humans before she dealt with the artificially created mages. Gathering her magic power up, she focused her attention on the area surrounding her and whispered "Sǐwáng", releasing a massive burst of energy and killing every single member of Flaming Pine.
2,109,485,763, Azu thought as she observed the numerical value given for her attack. That's the exact amount of people I've killed on Earth. Assassinations, slaughtering of terrorists, executions, and some population control really add up… Well, maybe it's related. Although, this spell currently has an interesting side effect…
The dark mages were all dead, yes, but they also had a giant hole through where their hearts used to be. Just as Azu had finished observing the damage she caused, she was hit in the side with an attack from one of the Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers.
While her heavily modified body took the attack with no damage, it still annoyed Azu that she had been hit so easily.
Looking back over at the army of Dragon Slayers closing in on her, she noticed that they were in all black armor with red glowing visors.
{Purely magical entities… Can be defeated if their magic power is drained… Very high physical abilities… Stealing their magic directly would be the best course of action… Perhaps enchanting some physical weapons with that Null spell would work… }
With that quick analysis out of the way, Azu picked her swords back up, enchanting them with a whispered "Enchant: Null". Her swords were actually made of no magic whatsoever but rather reinforced steel. She had managed to play around with the steel so that it could cut through virtually anything, no matter how hard or thick, so it was more than enough for her.
I might actually want to change the properties of my swords so that it permanently keeps the effect I just put on it, Azu thought. I don't have a reason to believe that I can cut through magic without magic, so I'll keep to the "safe" side.
By the time Azu was done with her modifications, she realized that her targets, with the exception of Heaven Horn's master, were all close to her location. However, they weren't even attempting to attack her. For whatever reason, they seemed much more interested in deforesting the area around her.
If you're going to do some deforesting, at least use the wood for something… Azu complained inwardly. Although confused by her opponents' actions, Azu took advantage of their situation momentarily and located their human member, the guild master, who was still back at their guild 20 miles away.
Attempting to catch the attention of the artificial beings that were too busy destroying the forest, Azu started waving her arms (with her swords) above her head saying, "I'm not a tree and I'm not over there…"
Somehow, that made the Dragon Slayers come back to their senses and they all came charging for Azu. She responded with a charge in their direction, prepared to strike with her swords. The Dragon Slayers, being artificial, had incredible reflexes, but they could still not keep up with Azu's practically inhuman movements.
One after another, they fell, limbs thrown in all directions. Some were split clean in half. Others exploded under the sheer force of her attacks. No matter what weapons or magic they used, they all ended up the same: depleted of their magic energy and utterly destroyed.
After Azu had finished with all the artificial beings, she took a breath and teleported in front of Heaven Horn's headquarters.
"Fall," she whispered, causing the building in front of her to collapse onto itself.
Throwing some of the rubble around, she eventually found the man she was looking for. He was shaking with fear as she held him up by his hair, his eyes being forced to stare into her pitch black ones. She liked her bloodshot eyes (which were black due to her blood being black) because they usually gave people quite the fright before she killed them.
Cutting his head off in one clean motion, Azu turned to look at the sky.
No matter what happens down here on a clear day, the sky always manages to keep itself pristine, Azu thought. Maybe someone will change that in this world, eventually. There's certainly potential for that to happen with magic…
Well, I guess I can get a few days of sleep for now… I have a lot of sleep to catch up on from all those years of obsession, Azu reminisced.
And with a flash of light, she was gone.
Dark Guilds Left on the Hit List: 11