Chapter FOURTEEN

"Ready?" Darque asked. Lucy nodded, and closed her eyes as the spirit placed her hands onto her head.

Darque took a deep breath and Lucy felt the sudden tug she had felt when Darque had downloaded the battle mode summoning words into her head. Images, words and graphs flooded through her brain and to Lucy's amazement, she could understand them.

She felt Darque's hands leave her head and the rush stopped, leaving her breathless.

Lucy narrowed her eyes and concentrated. The air in front of her blurred and Happy appeared. Lucy smiled in sanctification, but the moment she lost concentration, the image blurred and disappeared.

"That was good for you're first time." Darque encouraged. She smiled. "The keys of Afterlife can bestow their contractors with a few different types of magic. Illusion magic it one of the basics. I can also teach you teleport, telekinesis, and a few others. However, I think you have potential, so you can skip those can go straight to the most powerful, which includes the ones I have mentioned before. I have ever taught someone this type of magic, but I think you can manage it."

When Lucy looked at the spirit curiously, Darque giggled. "It's a secret." Mist surrounded her and she flew over to Jellal to help him with his illusions.

Lucy peaked out from where she was hiding, in the shadow of a destroyed house. Jellal was crouched beside her. He had his mask down as it was already night and he didn't have to worry about any of the villagers recognizing him. Even if they knew who 'Jellal' was, the villagers were too scared to leave their houses during a moonless night.

This was their second night in the village. Yesterday, the moon had been shining brightly and just as the mayor had said, the monster did not appear. However, today, clouds covered the moon, and Lucy had to squint to see the trees.

"We're not going to engage it here. It's too dangerous, as it can harm the village. Instead, we'll follow the monster once it appears to wherever it goes." Lucy paused. "We're going to have to find out what type of magic it uses so we can attack it effectively."

Jellal nodded. "Try not to destroy anything. Once we find out where the monster stays during the day, we'll scout the area and find an effective way to deal with it."

Lucy suddenly giggled. "If this were team Natsu, everyone would have stormed in to fight the monster."

Jellal thought for a moment, then nodded in amusement. "Yeah. And destroy the forest and town in the process."

It was around midnight when Jellal saw a flash of movement inside the forest. He nudged Lucy and narrowed his eyes. Due to the faint light, he couldn't make out any of its features. However, a few things were certain. It was nowhere near the size of a house, and it was walking on two feet.

The 'monster' staggered over to a patch of moon light and Jellal's eyes widened. The 'monster', as far as he could see, definitely didn't look like a monster. It, no, he had brown hair and hazel eyes. He didn't look any older that Wendy.

Jellal glanced at Lucy, and noticed her slap her hand over her mouth. Jellal turned back to look at the boy, and just about managed to hold back the gasp that would have exposed their hiding place.

The boy had collapsed onto the floor, now crouched on his knees. As Jellal watched, an eerie light surrounded the boy, glowing so bright that Jellal had to look away. When he looked up again, there was no boy. In his place stood a furry creature. This monster was the size of a small house. Jellal wondered why the mayor hadn't told them about the boy, then decided that maybe, he didn't know about him.

Jellal glanced Lucy and pointed towards the boy-now-turned-monster. For the past hour, he had run around, destroying the already damaged buildings. his movement was now coming to a stop, and he started lumbering back into the trees. "I think it's going back now."

Lucy nodded. "Okay." She whispered.

Lucy wordlessly held out Darque's key. "I, Lucy Heartfilla, call upon the gate of the Underworld to summon the afterlife. Open, the Gate of Hell, Darque di Daemon!"

Darque appeared in a puff of mist and smoke. Jellal was hit with the smell of blood before it vanished so quickly Jellal wondered if it was his imagination. He glanced at Darque. Yep, her dress was still splattered in the blood like substance.

The spirit crouched, and Lucy nodded. "Okay. You guys remember the plan, right?" Jellal and Darque nodded.

Darque transformed into her half mist state, then floated into the air. She suddenly blurred, and Jellal caught sight of her floating just in front of the entrance to the forest. She blurred again Jellal lost sight of the spirit.

A good ten minutes later, Darque suddenly appeared in front of them, mist swirling around her body. "I got it." She said. "There is a cave in this clearing deep in the forest, and that is where the monster boy is." She said.

Jellal pulled out the map the mayor had given them. Darque took it from him and touched one of the red splatters on her dress. Using her finger, she marked a small clearing with an X.

Jellal nodded. "Okay." He glanced at Darque. "The thing you do with the mist, where you sort of teleport. What is that?"

Darque smiled. "I don't really have names for it, but when I need to, I refer to it as black carpet." She said. "I'm not teleporting." She grinned. "I'm just moving super duper fast!" She flung her arms into the air, as if to emphasize her point.

Jellal smiled. "Can you keep up with the speed of a meteor?"

Darque smirked. "Is that a challenge?" She demanded.

Jellal smirked back. He turned to Lucy and offered her his hand. "Here."

Lucy looked confused, but took his hand. Jellal smiled, then dragged Lucy down with him as he crouched. He wrapped one arm around Lucy's waist placed the other on the ground. A magic circle appeared by his feet.

"Ready?" He asked.

Darque folded her arms. "Any time."

It took a heartbeat for Lucy to realize what was going on, and it that heartbeat, Jellal and Darque were dashing full speed into the forest, Jellal using Meteor and Darque using black carpet.

A second later, they were flying through the forest.

Here's the new chapter~

Sorry if it has a few errors. It was sort of rushed.

Did the characters seem OOC?

Oh, and just in case, if Jellal can't use Meteor while carrying someone, just pretend that he can, because we didn't know if he could or not.

Read and Review.

Raven: I actually nearly forgot about the new chapter. However, I remembered in the last second. :P

Darque: Good thing you did.

Raven: Why do always have to criticize my bad points? Why can't you praise me for what I do correctly.

Darque: That's cause there aren't many good points I can praise.

Raven:... By the way, I read you're PM with a fellow fanfiction author. Why is it that I'm written in such a bad light? And I got a fourteen, not a thirteen. Plus, I was away for a few weeks and now the main antagonist of the story is based on me?

Darque: That's none of you're business. It's between two people who understand the difference between normal people and weird people. XD {Maybe not, but, oh well.}

Raven: Some times, I wish you weren't in some other country. If you weren't, I would have murdered you in your sleep by now.

By the way, do you know how had it is two write this author argument thingy at the end? We have to wait for the other to write a line before going onto the doc and adding our own.

See you next chapter~