Chapter 9: A Race Against Time and Pixies
In Shadowhaunt…. "The time has come my sons to implement the next phase of my plan" Abolithon stated his blood red hair flowing despite his helm.
"It's been weeks since we last did anything what's been the delay?" Retribution asked bluntly.
"What has been the delay? Two things Retribution, one gathering the materials for this ritual and two the Weather, I need a clear day for the ritual, under high noon and with no rainclouds in sight, and so far it has been nothing but Lightning storms and cloudy days for the past week thanks in no small part to the practicing from those Witches at Cloud Tower getting ready for that Magical Tournament, now however we have a clear day and I have the materials ready to preform the spell" Abolithon stated.
"And what exactly is the spell going to do?" Ambition asked.
"It will cause the Pixies to sleep walk outside of Alfea and under my control, and cause them to be homesick, rather homesick so much that they will stop at nothing to get home, then once they are on their way Deception will recapture them and I'll finally be able to get a Codex fragment, one of those Pixies is Darkar's daughter and the Princess of the Pixies, she would be a perfect trade for a Codex fragment" Abolithon explained.
"That's cunning and well thought out father, one problem; Darkar doesn't let those Pixies out of his sight, especially his daughter, he and the Winx are sharp and they will notice if they go missing" Deception remarked.
"Which is why I'm only sending one of you three, if I send all three of you one of you is likely to give away the whole thing, now I'm aware of the risks but this should work" Abolithon stated.
Meanwhile at Alfea… Flora was lost in a daydream as she was focused on Erasiel ignoring most of what Professor Palladium was saying while drowning out Chatta's load of chatter from her mental link, her current daydream was about her and Erasiel getting married, it helped that Erasiel had given her a picture he drew of her earlier much to her enjoyment. The Current lesson was on how important it was to word a spell. "In wording a spell it is important to remember that that one syllable out of place will cause the spell to do something completely different from its intended purpose" Palladium stated.
"In other words, a wrongly worded spell might accidently turn you into a Chaos Spawn" Erasiel added.
"Exactly, now as you can see the chest hovering in the center of the room, it is locked and unlocking it will require you to use an unlocking cantrip as so: Expedio Catenam!" Palladium continued and casted, forming a leaf with his wand and unlocking the chest, which he then proceeded to lock again. "As you can see the effects are of a properly cast spell are exactly as intended now for someone else to cast this to demonstrate it" Palladium added.
"Alright; Flora" Erasiel stated then turned to her. "Flora" Erasiel called, then said Flora again. "Flora!" Erasiel shouted. Flora broke out of her daydream. "While I love having girls study my appearance, I prefer them to focus on studying other things while they're in school" Erasiel lectured.
"Sorry Nat- Professor Darkar sir" Flora replied.
"It's alright now can you cast the spell Professor Palladium just demonstrated.
"Sure I can do that" Flora commented. "Exaggero Catenas" Flora casted and some kittens materialized on Palladium and turned into large fluffy balls of cuteness, to the sheer laughter of everyone bar Palladium.
"HA! Flora you are just like me when I daydream, you remember the spell but get the words wrong" Erasiel remarked, than continued laughing.
"Professor Darkar" Palladium stated.
"Not now Palladium Exaggero- HAHAHAHHAAHAHHA!" Erasiel stated then continued laughing before preforming a flourish with a wand he pulled out of his sleeve, the wand was golden and decorated with gold and with the handle having an ornate figure of a dragon's head like the one on his staff it was topped by a small Star Sapphire, he then dropped. "Expedio Catenas" Erasiel casted and dropped a bunch of kittens on everyone's desks to collective cries of so cute.
"Never mind I think that concludes today's lesson, I can't work this out with him in this mood" Palladium thought to himself. "Any questions" Palladium asked rhetorically but no one was paying attention to him as the students were otherwise engaged in collective gasps of so cute and playing with kittens.
The next two classes were far more serious with Professor Avalon giving a through lecture on the applications and dangers of various magic items, followed by Bloom once again demonstrating sword fighting with the sword that Avalon had given to her last time she demonstrated sword fighting.
The blade had since been reforged and reinforced with Relix by Erasiel though it kept the orange hue it originally had, the colichemarde sword which was the type of the weapon had been decorated elaborately when Bloom had asked Erasiel to reforge the sword for her she hadn't expected him to go over the top and decorate it with ornate electrum hand guard which was decorated by pearls and rubies nor the dragon head on the cross guard or the dragon tail wrap, all in electrum and reinforced with Relix , also the over all lightness of the blade was a significant, where the blade had been light before it felt now like an extension of her own arm. Bloom named the sword Shimmering Dragon, she sparred with Stella often and overall regretted it every time because their sparring sessions resulted most of the time with Stella kicking her butt and causing her to fall flat on her butt, as if to make it more humiliating Stella added the touch of pointing her blade at whatever part of the body she had been aiming for mostly the neck and saying "Dead." While this had been teasing on Stella's part it didn't really do wonders for Bloom's self esteem but granted she had only been learning the art of dueling and fencing vs traditional swordplay for a few months now, and while could handle herself well with a broadsword, the more slender blades were trouble, Stella on the other hand had been practicing sword play since she was six in accustom with her position and was Solaria's self-proclaimed best duelist and had a number of tournament and duels under her belt before she even met Bloom.
This relationship was further complicated by the fact that Avalon noted this and decided to assign Stella the honor of countering her in tests of artifact weapons, bouts which usually resulted in Stella winning 8 times out of 10. Fortunately he didn't do this all the time and usually paired her against someone else. Today's class proved to be that case and of course the results impressed both Avalon and Erasiel. Soon Lunch came, and people noticed something in the Courtyard which caused everyone to rush outside.
A portal opened and out came a Two headed Dragon followed by some other dragons all had riders, and they were followed by a massive carriage pulled by two dragons which was accompanied by a number of pegasi riders carrying banners and few more Dragons carrying what appeared to be baggage and a lot of it. "What's going on?" Bloom asked.
"By the looks of things, Whisperian royalty" Erasiel commented
"How can you tell" Bloom asked.
"I have very good eyesight, also the rider on the two-headed dragon is obviously Princess Esdeath" Erasiel noted "Before you ask how I know that it's the banners above the Palanquin, which is notable because you know she's not on the warpath" Erasiel explained further.
"Why are they here?" Bloom asked.
"No idea but judging by their flight pattern they are heading for Red Fountain, which means I'm going to need to Riven" Erasiel commented.
"Why?" Bloom asked.
"To find out what's going on, you don't have Esdeath show up somewhere unless it is extremely important also the dragons riders are Supreme Militum Guard, also there is still the matter of the carriage; someone important has come to Magix and the Emperor Darancar XVIII of Whisperia thinks that who ever it is requires Esdeath and 16 dragon riders as escort" Erasiel commented, then pulled out his phone.
Meanwhile…. Esdeath observed the forest of Magix, noting that it hadn't changed much in the four years since she graduated from Red Fountain granted there were a few new craters around Cloud Tower but that wasn't unusual, then there was the saddening ruins of the Old Red Fountain Academy which had been leveled by the Lighthaveners a year ago, soon she made her approach to the new School, which she liked the design, made from latest in high tech engineering and funded exclusively by the head of the Wizard's Council so she heard. "Riders make ready, honor guard landing patterns, clear the courtyard for approach" Esdeath ordered via a headset, then opened another comm pattern. "Red Fountain Air control: this is Crown Princess Esdeath of Whisperia, clear the courtyard of any people to allow for our Dragons to land unobstructed, if anyone is still in the Courtyard when we land, well they'll find I'm not in the mood to wait" Esdeath remarked.
"We read you Princess we will do as instructed" The control tower communications officer replied.
"Good. Also inform Headmaster Saladin I will be expecting him to be there to great me: no excuses" Esdeath added.
"Yes your highness" the Operator replied.
Shortly…. Saladin descended down the stairs into the main Courtyard where a number of Dragons and Pegasi had already landed, they were followed by Yendral the massive two-headed Dragon of Princess Esdeath Trix of Whisperia with said princess herself dismounting, as the Carriage landed. Esdeath went to the carriage and opened the door allowing the guards to disembark followed by the passengers. Saladin noted Esdeath who was clad in a luxurious gown of many colors which was festooned with gems and precious metals with a special bracelet on her arms which was a powerful magical Artifact, she wore a mantle of glorious crimson but it was enchanted with powerful spells, on her back was a massive greatsword Rospera Grandus the weapon of the Magister Militum the head of the Whisperian military which Esdeath held, in addition to this was an small golden orb on her waist alongside a long rapier that was as long as Esdeath's own arm, these were obvious notes about her appearance. Esdeath herself was a massive 6'8 easily allowing her to tower over 5'2 Saladin, her hair was deep Aqua and was long going down half her back and decorated with diadems and an ornate wire crown of mithril and festooned with opals and sapphires, her figure was athletically strong, her most distinguishing feature was one of the two Royal Birthmarks had by members of the Royal House Trix, the mark was that of a capital Y with crosses like those of a T atop the lines in a pattern of a partial circle, said mark resided at the base of her neck above the cleavage of her breasts which were massive F-cups, her height was added to by high healed shoes, Esdeath had no shortage of magic artifacts on her person, including an Amulet which she wore, her magic skills were beyond those of even Saladin, she was no nonsense and would not take no for answer or suffer any insult lightly, her face was stern and she rarely smiled.
"Headmaster Saladin it is good to see you again: I've come here on important business, it concerns family matters, specifically your newest students; my half-sisters Akame and Kurome, they have graduated ahead of schedule and of anyone else in Whisperia's Royal magic Academy and are the best Battle Mages in school' history, in light of that my Father has sent them here to Red Fountain for additional education, they have with them two of Whisperia's most powerful Artifacts, I am entrusting the security of them and of their royal guards to you, I expect nothing less than stellar results, also keep the male population of the school from flirting with them, their less forgiving of slights then me if that gives you any ideas about them" Esdeath explained.
"I will do exactly as you ask, especially since this is coming from this school's greatest student, trust me they will be right at home here, also I will do my best to keep them protected" Saladin stated.
"Yes indeed, I expect nothing less, now as to recent events I was certain that sending my sisters here is absolutely needed especially with the lack-luster performance at the Tri-Schools Tournament, I'm seriously disappointed in the Red Fountain team, though I'm glad that the team captain was suitably punished for his failure by the opposing combatant" Esdeath replied.
"I'm aware, but as you can see here I am of late required to cater to the position of students in their status, the Team was selected to accommodate that" Saladin stated.
"I understand that, side note Akame and Kurome are professional killers, if any of your students give them a reason to kill them they won't hesitate to do so, also I trust you will endeavor to make sure that this fact is common knowledge, other then there are few things, also don't interfere with them if decide to go hunting, it's important for them to hone themselves with actual dangers, mainly any Danger Beasts of any level save true SSS Rank, other then that I'm not worried: I will now allow them to introduce themselves to you: also make sure you buy lots of meat, Akame will eat all of it and don't touch Kurome's candy if you value your hands and your life" Esdeath explained and stepped aside to allow the two sisters to step forward.
Both were of similar builds, their height was average though one was slightly taller than the other, their figures overall were fit and their breasts while ample were not as massive as their half-sister's, they wore black and red gowns, and had pale Asian skin with blood red eyes in Akame's case and Black eyes in Kurome's and they both black hair, one had long black hair and other short black hair, their attire consisted of gowns which were black and Red but decorated with garnets and onyxes studded in silver threading, with images of skulls, their birth marks were on opposite shoulders, the gown allowed for that mark to stay visible leaving the shoulder bare, in their hair were death-head ribbons and ornate diadems interwoven with golden wire studded with onyxes, they wore headdresses of noble design and carried ornate fans, each had at their side a Katana with a black hit, the weapons themselves made of Relix. "It's nice to meet you Headmaster Saladin, I am Akame Ga Kiru Evenai Trix and this is my twin sister Kurome Ga Kira Trix" the Long-haired sister stated. "These are our retainers and Handmaidens" Akame added pointed to the heavily armed women who had accompanied them. "I trust you will provide us and them proper accommodations befitting us and meat- I mean Lunch, I mean meat to eat" Akame continued, then blushed.
"Don't worry I will see to it you and your sister receive the finest dorm on campus" Saladin replied.
"Good because we packed heavy" Kurome stated and with that one of the dragons came over with large amount of luggage, which a number of retainers began to unload.
"I trust you will fill out the necessary paperwork yourself, I would love to stay but I have other matters to tend to, namely another suitor who my father tests my patience with, perhaps 147 with be the one if not, well all the worse for him" Esdeath stated, then turned and mounted her Dragon. "Draka Vodakh Yendral!" Esdeath shouted and her dragon took off.
"She's the only one going home to Whisperia, the rest are staying with us for 'security reasons' I say in air quotes" Kurome responded.
"Now show us to our dorm: MARCH!" Akame ordered, Saladin turned and lead them off rapidly.
Meanwhile…. Abolithon had ascended to a high outcropping above ground above Shadowhaunt, an large table had been brought with them along with a large cauldron. "Good my sons, now we prepare the mixture at noon the sun will shine upon our labors and charge the range of this spell, with the added range I will be able to hit anywhere on Magix with this spell and hit the targets I need" Abolithon explained. Abolithon then began casting, the spell strengthening with each word, eventually it was ready and green orbs materialized then teleported out of sight, they then flew inside Alfea and hit each Pixie in the school without anyone noticing as they were all outside playing Bamboozle Ball which was a sport Pixies played in their off time. "Excellent, now all we need is to wait for nightfall, their dreams should draw them back to Pixieville allowing you Deception to capture them, now we have a lot of free time now so use that to prepare yourselves" Abolithon stated.
That night… Erasiel slept with Katy, Priscilla and Luna, Luna being on top of him, they no longer slept in their dorms but with Erasiel in his room, though they kept their things in the dorm. As Erasiel slept so did Zing and Livy who slept above his head, suddenly both flew up and began sleep flying, opened Erasiel's bedroom door and joined up with other sleep flying pixies.
In the Winx Dorm Flora woke up from a nightmare and looked around her room, noted Bloom asleep in her bed, Kiko snoring in his, and two empty makeshift beds that had been made for the Pixies Lockette and Chatta, Flora got out of bed, her first instinct was to check the bathroom which she found ajar and empty, then she checked other rooms and noted the absence of pixies in general, not just Lockette and Chatta, but all the other pixies had disappeared. Flora moved to wake up Bloom. "Bloom! Bloom!" Flora tried.
"Five more minutes mom" Bloom mumbled.
"Bloom the Pixies are missing!" Flora yelled, that caused Bloom to fall out of her bed.
"Are you sure Flora; it's the middle of the night, they probably went to use the bathroom" Bloom remarked.
"Checked it, checked all them, also its not just Chatta and Lockette, all the pixies are missing" Flora replied.
"Alright we'll look into it, lets go get Nathan he'll know what to do, also that will give us the option to check on Zing and Livy and see if they are still their in his room" Bloom replied.
As Flora and Bloom went to search for Erasiel, the forest was not asleep, nor was a vistor flying about the woods, Akame Trix flew about clad in a hunting outfit with her sword Muramase in hand, she was hunting any large and monstrous creatures, when she noted several pixies fly by, something she didn't think much of at first then noted they were sleep-flying the next thing she noted was a black armored figure with wings, a Naginata, and a net heading right for them, on instinct she knew something was not even remotely right about the figure or about the situation in general and as the figure moved to throw his net Akame let magic surge thru her. "Mournblade!" Akame casted and a long spinning blade shredded the net.
"What the hell!? You'll pay for that!" Deception yelled as the Pixies flew by him, he then readied his naginata.
"Eliminate!" Akame retorted then dawned her battle form, crimson and red armor enveloped her body save her face and hair, she then charged sword in hand and attacked, the katana was parried by the naginata, thus commenced a fight of epic proportions the blows striking with precision and speed, Deception was surprised that he was receiving such a hard fight much less one from a person who was clearly no where near as old and battle hardened as himself, yet her prowess was that she was on equal footing.
"Who are you?!" Deception asked as he parried another onslaught of attacks.
"Akame Ga Kiru Trix! And you are my enemy. Eliminate!" Akame replied and a slash broke Deception's defense and slashed against his armor and to his shock thru it because of the fact this was Relix plate, which meant her weapon was a Relix weapon, he then realized he was up against a Whisperian and one with a weapon that belonged clearly to one of noble blood and one clearly made by the Phoenix armsmiths from the planet which were renowned for creating more powerful Relix weapons than anyone else save Hagan Greatsmith who's secrets were guarded harder than Fort Knox, each blow continued, then Deception trusted his instincts.
"Wave of shadows!" Deception casted and several duplicates of himself materialized around Akame and attacked with very real weapons, she was undeterred, dodged then cleaved off the heads of two of the duplicates which dissolved into shadows.
"Nice trick I can do better: Mourngate of a Thousand Umbral Blades!" Akame casted and large purple hole in the fabric of reality appeared and spewed forth purple blades of umbral energy which tore threw the duplicates and flung Deception back against a tree;.
"Father I need help" Deception stated mentally, then he had to dodge another Eliminate from Akame who had he not moved would have cleaved him clean in half, not that death mattered for a Phoenix but still the fact he would've died to someone not even remotely close to being a quarter of his own age would still be humiliating.
"Deception how many are there and how did you manage to get into trouble this quickly?" Abolithon asked.
"One and she's not even one of those Faeries or Witches, this girl is someone else, she's absurdly good at this and she's kicking my ass at the moment, she calls herself Akame if the name rings a bell, anyway I'm currently trying to avoid losing to this bitch so could you please send help to put her to task!" Deception replied.
"How the hell is one girl putting up more of fight then you can handle? You know what fine I'll send Retribution; he'll handle this, but we are going to have serious talk when you get back!" Abolithon replied irate as a blow cleaved Deception's naginata in half, he used the bladed half as a make shift sword to hold until he could draw one of his Rhettian axes which it did decently enough as he danced side to side trying to avoid a killing blow, eventually he parried with the guard spikes on one of his axes so he could draw the other one, taking up dual axes as he kept Akame on her toes, Retribution came out of a portal with his greatsword and as he was about to strike another blade caught his.
To Retribution's surprise there was another girl and this one wasn't a shadow copy of the other no this was someone else, a sister, she had Black eyes and those eyes were like singularities in space drawing him into oblivion, the newcomer was of the same physique as the other girl save for the black eyes and shorter hair. "I am Kurome and I don't appreciate people trying to kill my sister" Kurome greeted, then continued an onslaught of strikes before following up with death magic energy blasts.
As the two Pheonixes were locked in battle with the two Trix Twins: Bloom and Flora had awakened Erasiel along with Katy, Priscilla, and Luna who had followed the trail of the Pixies, as limited as it was but Erasiel's extensive knowledge in the field of Pixie tracking that allowed them to make headway and keep up with their fleetly friends. Erasiel then noted ahead something, specifically Piff laying asleep on the ground. "There you are; I figured you wouldn't fly too far before you decided to lie down again" Erasiel stated softly to his sleeping daughter, who mumbled in her sleep. "Shh, sleep Piff sweet sleep" he soothed, then cast a scanning spell, and noted the cause of her wanderings.
"What's happening to the Pixies this is completely bizarre" Flora remarked.
"It's a homesickness spell, a potent one too, definitely Abolithon's doing, I've got a clear idea that he intended to take Piff captive with this, fortunately he hadn't counted on how long my daughter will move while sleep flying before landing, and that is, about 2 miles" Erasiel remarked then turned towards Bloom. "Bloom I'm going to teach you something that will be useful for the future; the spell I'm about to cast on Piff to dispel this sickness is one all fire magic users can cast: Soothing warmth!" Erasiel casted, an orange cloud surrounded Piff and out came from her body dark energy that had been driving the spell.
"Wow I didn't know fire magic could heal" Bloom replied.
"It can, I know a number of other simple healing spells from the lore of fire that I will teach you in time, but for now I need you to do something very important; that is holding onto to Piff and keeping my little girl safe and sleeping" Erasiel replied, Bloom took the infant Pixie and held her close to her chest. "When we find the other Pixies I want you to demonstrate what I just taught you on them, I need the help in making sure we heal all of them in a timely manner" Erasiel added.
They moved thru the forest and Erasiel looked up and noted the loud clashes of metal and magic. "Wow that looks like trouble" Katy remarked.
"Don't worry its not for us, by the looks of things Abolithon's pixie catchers ran into some actual challengers" Erasiel remarked, then noted Kurome decapitate Retribution with ease before moving to assist Akame who had been pushing her luck against Deception, Kurome's surprise attack cleaved the Pheonix warrior in two. "Also by the looks of things they are dead now, the Pixies aren't under any threats now" Erasiel remarked.
Meanwhile…. "That was a shocker, Phoenix Warriors in the wilds, what's next armies of Dragons" Akame remarked.
"Those two were surprising, well how was your kill tally before you ran into him" Kurome asked.
"Two Beastmen warbands, four large mobs of Goblins about a 200 each, and one angry Mama Arachnarok Spider with her brood; in short 1750 kills" Akame replied.
"That's decent: Two Entire beastmen Warherds, a tribe of Forest Goblins, 80 bestial Minotaurs, 6 Cygors, two angry giants, a Jabersclythe, and now two Phoenix warriors: 3000 kills; I say I win" Kurome replied.
"2998, you don't get to count the two Phoenixes as kills they don't stay dead, remember our rules" Akame replied.
"Fine you still lost either way, now lets get back to Red Fountain before those idiots come back" Kurome replied and the two sisters flew off.
Erasiel and his team then found the pixies in an awkward position, caught in the web of a large red weaver spider, said spider was easy to dispatch with a flick of his wand. "Expedio Catanas!" Erasiel casted and green leaf materialized drawing the spider away from its webs. "Akhum's mind razor" Erasiel casted increasing the strength of his magic. "Slicing axe of Sharkrath!" he added and giant blade cleaved the confused spider in two, leaving the faeries to look at Erasiel in understandable amusement. "Please I'm just showing off my wand, I don't use it often usually most of the time my staff works but I didn't bring it with me did I?" Erasiel remarked, they laughed.
The temporary laughter faded and Erasiel gave them a serious expression. "Alright lets see to the Pixies" Priscilla remarked.
"We'll cut them down after we heal them: Bloom, Flora, I require your aid in that" Erasiel instructed.
"Soothing flames" Bloom casted.
"Nature's nourishment" Flora casted.
"Healing flames of Akhar!" Erasiel casted, dark energy departed from the Pixies who awoke their current situation.
"What in the name of Ninfea happened here?" Didget remarked, joined in her cries of shock by the others rapidly as they noted they were tangled in spider silk.
"A case of serious sleep walking, Abolithon's doing, don't worry as to the Spider webs, its what happens when you have no idea where you are going" Erasiel replied.
"Really?! He's gone and ruined our sleep what's he going to do next?!" Lockette replied shock.
"And this vile spider silk, it's so unkempt, and my dress and hair; I will have to spend a week recovering from this whole ordeal" Tune replied.
"And you are going to do so under strict bed rest until I'm absolutely certain that the spell had worn off entirely" Erasiel replied, they returned to Alfea as the sun dawned to find Griselda waiting for them.
"What were you doing out in the forest?" Griselda asked sternly.
"Light night class, also pixie chasing, and you didn't get any sleep did you?" Erasiel replied.
"Whether or not I slept isn't your business" Griselda remarked.
"Well it certainly isn't but it's your half-sister's business: Piff could help Griselda sleep" Erasiel replied, the Pixie Princess awakened and well rested flew up to her half-sister and sprinkled some purple sand on her as Griselda tried to run away, Griselda fell down on the ground fast asleep, Erasiel opened a portal to her room underneath and she fell into it onto her bed. "Good job Piff she needed that" Erasiel replied and Piff laughed. "Yes you're the best pixie in all of Magix yes you are" Erasiel cooed and carried Piff inside followed by Bloom and others ready for another day at Alfea