Chapter 6: Friends in Need
A new day dawned and Erasiel was already up, he stepped out of the room to allow the Trix to change, he then noted the day was Saturday and remembered the Winx had been punished for something that was not their fault. He then decided the best way for the Trix and him to build a friendship and alliance would be to help them with their task, so far, he had already established the Trix as trustworthy, now the time came to establish an official friendship.
Erasiel then returned to the Trix's room to inform them of his plan, after explaining the benefits of said plan they were quick to jump on board; it also helped that they remembered his gift of the Dragon Flame yesterday which helped him know that he had cemented their trust in him. The day was rather clear which didn't stay that way for long when he had Stormy practice her new spells which essentially caused it to rain and rain hard, the weather report was completely out of whack when magic was involved and even more so when Stormy was the cause. With regards to their training the Trix were improving and exceeding with regards to the topic, they were becoming strong rather quickly, however Erasiel still held cards to his chest; he was not willing to give them more until they had mastered what they had so far, besides the Dragon Flame opened some interesting options with regards to magic and it gave the Trix more to learn.
During the off time Erasiel was inclined to take notes with regards to the other witches in Cloud Tower, something that he hadn't had time to do so far, but he noted it would be important if he was staying here long term, also if he identified strong potential candidates now he would be able to educate them as well as the Trix providing an useful mix, of the students he observed he took interest in one in particular as she reminded of a certain witch who was also a faerie, specifically Faragonda: the name of the witch in question was Mirta, She was a pale girl with freckles, grey eyes, and short burgundy hair that had a long blue streak in it, with a few beads separating it from the rest of her hair. Her most frequent outfit had a punk goth style to it. She wore a frayed white shirt with a pumpkin decal in the middle, a gray shirt underneath that shirt, and a black vest that covers both. Her black skirt had a gray layer on it and is held up by two belts, white and dark red respectively. She wore dark red leggings underneath the skirt. Her black boots are knee-high with grey straps on them. She accessorized with grey arm cuffs, her figure and age were the same as the Trix though she had been held back do to disagreements with Professor Eritrude. Erasiel regarded Mirta with obvious interest both in the romantic department and in the skill department, but her biggest quality was her obvious ability in different lores of magic which allowed her to use Illusion magic, light magic, dark magic and to an extent nature magic; her personality though didn't suit a witch, in fact it suited a fairy more, so as to how she ended up in Cloud Tower of all places was beyond his guess. Erasiel now resolved to build up a relationship with Mirta, then have her transferred to Alfea, where she could be taught as Fairy as well as witch, she was also a senior witch like the Trix though not as powerful, so she would have all the abilities that came with that level of education.
Erasiel's Faceless friends meanwhile were keeping an eye on Alfea, and soon Gripmaw came to Erasiel. "My lord, I bring you some information that may be of use to you, the entire Alfea staff and students are going to concert in Magix tonight, however the Winx and the other faeries are being left behind to clean the school, they won't have access to magic" Gripmaw reported.
"Interesting and useful, Gripmaw gather a group of Faceless and have them monitor Alfea and await further orders" Erasiel commanded, Gripmaw nodded then flew off leaving Erasiel to grin. "This will be more useful then I originally planned" Erasiel thought to himself then studied the forests around Cloud Tower, he noted Forest Goblins fighting against a Beastmen war herd with the Goblins winning due to archers hiding in trees who were equipped with poison arrows, the barriers around the forests kept these dangerous creatures away from the schools as did a number of fortifications, the Beastmen while aggressive were not stupid as to fight outside their forests. He noted that the Goblins strategy was above that of the Beastman, who usually focused on ambushes and didn't handle being on the receiving end of one well. "This is why you don't underestimate Goblins" Erasiel thought to himself. Erasiel however lost his focus when a certain purple haired witch pressed himself against him. "Hi Stormy" Erasiel greeted turning to face her.
"Hey Nathan, what are you doing?" Stormy asked.
"Just watching some Forest Goblins beat the crap out of some Beastmen, it is quite amusing because so many people think Goblins don't pose a serious threat, however looks can be deceiving and you underestimate your enemy at your own peril especially if they are Goblins as goblins are very smart despite their size which is why so many people underestimate them" Erasiel responded. "So why are you here?" he asked.
"Looking to spend some time with you, you know you are the first guy I have met that wasn't either afraid of me or treated me like I was an object, that means something to me, I know you're my tutor, but I would be more then interested in going out with you, as for my sisters I don't mind sharing you with them, also I asked them if they felt the same way and they do" Stormy responded with a twinkle in her sea blue eyes.
"I accept that, I am perfectly fine with that" Erasiel responded, then pecked her on the cheeks, she responded by kissing him on the lips, it was a tender kiss and no doubt her first actual kiss and it lasted briefly.
"I'm glad you accepted, to be honest you are a first guy I have ever dated, though not the first Icy has" Stormy responded.
"What's that about Icy" Erasiel asked curious about that detail.
"Oh that, I only thought it would be necessary to warn you about that, her ex dumped her very badly, it really hurt her and the way she found out was about it was bad, never met the guy myself; if I did it would've been bad news for him, also I probably could have told her he was bad news from the start, also before you ask Darcy hasn't met him either, though I will tell you if I ever find out who he is I will break every bone in his body and then some" Stormy stated he expressions varied from sadness, annoyance and then anger then back to happiness throughout the conversation.
Hours later Erasiel had talked with Darcy and Icy and they were ready to head to Alfea, apparently the entire school, staff and students had gone to concert in Magix City, leaving the Winx and the other fairies tasked with cleaning the school behind, this couldn't have gone any better for his plan. Erasiel and the Trix hovered into a large room, where they found the Winx and the other five fairies at work preforming various cleaning acts, none of them had noticed them yet. "Need some help?" Erasiel asked, causing everyone to face him and the Trix.
"Nathan what are you doing here?" Bloom asked, as did everyone else.
"Just watching you work, I actually came here to offer help" Erasiel stated.
"How exactly?' Musa asked not fully sure as to why Erasiel and the Trix were keen on coming here to help them.
"Rather simple, I intend to help by having my Faceless servants do this job for you, I found the whole thing unjust punishment as the whole fight at the dance was my fault in the first place" Erasiel stated as if on cue numerous shadowy figures materialized with cleaning supplies.
"You're fault how?" Musa asked taken aback.
"I was the one who told you that Pig-face groped your butt Musa, also I threw the first punch and a half-starved crazed weasel in the fight, also I found the whole situation hilarious, also I intend to help you as way to once again make a mockery of Griselda" Erasiel responded, Everyone grinned at the mention of Griselda being mocked. "Anyway, while the Faceless clean up the mess I thought we could hold a small party, it's not much compared the concert downtown, but it's the best I can think of at short notice, also look at it as a reward for humbling some noble prick Specialists the other day" Erasiel responded, to which everyone cheered. "By the way love the new name you girls are going by the Winx, nice name and original and on top of it all catchy" Erasiel commented.
"Thanks for the offer" Flora stated. "But I'm not sure it's the right thing to do" she added.
"Don't worry Flora, I intend to make sure nothing goes wrong, also I made sure that concert downtown will go into overtime" Erasiel stated.
Everyone soon dispersed, the Faceless took up the mantle of cleaning the School, while the group heading to the largest room they could find, Erasiel had made sure to bring his personal collection of music and Musa had a larger collection of albums. Setting up everything proved to be simpler than expected because everyone pulled their weight, it took a half-hour to get refreshments ready but Faceless made light of this task, after about an hour of preparations everything was ready, Erasiel started the music and the party commenced.
As the party went on Erasiel found that the ladies couldn't avoid flirting with him, he danced with Flora and Emily, sung with Amaryl and Francine, Musa inched herself to him by moonwalking backwards to him and they had a pretty good discussion, Erasiel also continued a talk with Tecna, overall the party was going along smoothly, however that would soon change.
In the absence of Faragonda the protective barrier around Alfea had weakened slightly, this had been Erasiel's doing to get the Trix and himself into the school however this had an unintended side effect that anything that wanted to get in could get thru the hole he had opened in the protective barrier. Soon something did, an Outcast Minotaur by the name of Khurdos; this minotaur had been driven out of his local Beastman tribe due to eating the tribe's bray-shaman, he had also been mutated due to previous accomplishments which had gained him the favor of Tzeentch the god of Change, the most powerful of the four Chaos Gods specifically the most powerful in the Magic Dimension due to the absurd levels of magic and the constantly change in the Dimension as a whole, his skin was now a bright blue and he had a mane of red hair, his most distinguishing feature however was the extra set of arms in which alongside his original set he held large morning stars, he was clad in armor, and was in the mood to destroy stuff, which he now was going to do just that, he smashed thru the walls of Alfea and let out loud roar which could be heard inside the school, he then began to smash other things, Erasiel was alerted by Gripmaw who had been keeping an eye on outside in case the school staff and students returned.
Erasiel shot to attention and killed the music, which got everyone's attention they all now could hear the noise outside. "What is going on, what's that racket outside" Emily asked.
"That my dear Emily is the sound of an angry four-armed minotaur smashing the courtyard and now the front door" Erasiel responded, as he received an update from Gripmaw that Khurdos had broken down the door and was heading inside.
"What do we do?" Flora asked.
"We fight it" Bloom responded causing the other faeries to look at her with shock as they had no magic.
"No Bloom is right, between the 14 of us we can handle a minotaur even if most of you are only freshmen" Erasiel stated only to be interrupted by Amaryl who told them they had no magic, then they gathered into three groups, team one would be Erasiel and the Trix, team two would be the Winx, and team three would be Emily, Ortensia, Amaryl, Francine and Jennifer. Team three would distract the minotaur and lure him out into the courtyard, team two would be the secondary bait while Erasiel and Trix would deal main attack, the plan was simple, draw the minotaur into the open then attack from all sides and do him in.
Khurdos was angry, he picked up Griselda's clipboard and smashed it, then tore up her office which he had found his way into, he was keen on just smashing anything and everything. "HEY UGLY THE SCHOOL'S ON BREAK!" Amaryl yelled at Khurdos which made him angry, he moved to gore her only for her jump over him and to run off, he followed her, then received a side attack from Emily who threw a stool at him, which hurt and caused him to run in her direction, the rest of team three harassed him angering him and more as they drew him out into the courtyard, where he was attacked from the side as the Winx threw rocks at him, Khurdos was hurt badly but his rage allowed him to power thru his wounds and charge morning stars in head toward his attackers only to have them jump out of his reach at the last second causing him crash into a wall his horns stuck in it, suddenly he found himself under attack from every direction and his armor was rent and hide was torn by magical attacks from all sides caused by Erasiel, the Trix and the Faceless, suddenly a massive fireball hit him and life faded from Khurdos's eyes as he lay on the ground fried beef and all.
"Minotaur burger anyone?" Erasiel asked, causing everyone to glare at him.
"That was awesome!" Stormy yelled.
"Indeed, that was fun" Jennifer noted.
"You sure know how fight and we make a great team how would you all like to join the Winx" Bloom asked.
"Thanks, but no, we Trix are family and are our own team" Icy responded.
"Maybe someday" Amaryl responded, as did the other faeries causing Bloom to turn to Erasiel.
"That depends do you accept guys into your club Bloom" Erasiel asked.
"I have no problems with that" Bloom responded, also the Other Winx made remarks about Erasiel, mostly about how hot he was, and that Flora, Musa, and Tecna were more than keen to let their new love interest into the club, Stella was the only one who was silent, but she thought about then she agreed. "Welcome to the Club" Bloom answered.
"Then its official I'm a Winx" Erasiel remarked.
Suddenly all celebrations we cut short by the sudden arrival of Faragonda, Griselda and everyone else returning from the concert leaving Griselda angry, and Faragonda puzzled as to the scene in front of her. Erasiel himself was unsure how to respond, he didn't betray how he was shocked that Gripmaw didn't warn him about them, leaving him the option of humor. "Minotaur Burger anyone?" Erasiel joked, the Winx and Trix glared at him as the joke wasn't funny the second time not that it had been originally.
"What are you doing here Erasiel and what happened?" Faragonda asked.
"Minotaur hunting" Erasiel stated hoping she would buy that. "I know you're not going to buy that one, alright I'll level with you honey; I felt bad for the Winx and came here to help them clean the school, now don't even think about punishing them for this, and leave the Trix out of this they're here with me and under my protection also I outrank you as council head so not punishing them is an order, we had a party and suddenly this minotaur comes roaring into the school smashing stuff, so we killed him, don't worry about the mess I'll have the Faceless clean it up just like they did everything else, so that's the story and I'm sorry, also Griselda the minotaur wrecked your office" Erasiel explained, Griselda mad with rage charged towards the Winx only to be restrained by Kerborg and Gripmaw in their true faceless forms instead of bat forms, in their true forms they were large floating shadows but had wings and their faces were mask-like in appearance however they still had human like features with hair that resembled cowls and they had large wings that were angel-like but were Byzantine purple in color while they wore plate armor made of Relix.
"I see, well then you are at fault Erasiel, now I am capable of punishing the Winx however I am incapable of punishing you given your position, in light of that and the fact that you outrank me: no one will be punished, also the Winx and company will be rewarded for their heroism" Faragonda responded at that everyone cheered.