Hi ! I am back to give you the new chapter of this fanfiction, the 18th. And I know that you are many to like this story, so thank you all for the support. Well, I'm not someone that is really talkative so let's not waste any more time and let's go already.
Chapter 18 : Shadow games and nightmare
The sun had now half disappeared under the horizon, letting only a weak light shine on the smooth sand of the beach, a starry sky devoid of the slightest cloud adding to the already romantic landscape which had everything needed to be the ideal place for a date. Everything was combined for a date, except the atmosphere. Indeed, the pressure was heavy and so thick you could cut it with a knife and the persons that were responsible for this unusual pressure stood on the beach, two groups facing each other. On one side stood a single man, dressed in a long sleeve black pullover, a pair of pants of the same color and black sneakers, his unkempt dark hair falling on his face, hiding a part of it but letting see his jet-black eyes who shone with a slight sadism, a toothy and dark smile on his face. In front of his stood a group of 4 people, more exactly mages, Erza, Jellal, Miliana and Kagura, their faces marked by the apprehension after they had been ejected by their opponent from where the grave of their friend and brother Simon had been raised. They gauged their opponent, looking for a possible approach, which was hard given that the only indication they had on his powers was the fact that he was probably some kind of darkness user, which augured no good. Either way, they had no time to think about it any longer because Esteban was the one who attacked first.
FLECHAS OSCURAS !
In one second, a multitude of black arrows appeared from the darkness behind him and rained down on the mages who, being all experienced fighters, had no difficulties dodging the arrows which crashed on the ground, although they really were numerous. In the middle of the assault, Miliana threw herself at Esteban.
NEKOSOKU TUBE !
She threw her whip-like magic weapon at the dark Strizer but a dark mass appeared on her trajectory, countering the attack and repelling the young woman with the same black wall which he had called. But at the same time, Jellal began his own assault.
METEOR !
He suddenly approached by using his high speed but when he was about to reach the Strizer, the latter used a little trick of his own.
PORTAL OSCURA !
A shadow suddenly appeared in front of Jellal who was unable to slow down and was absorbed by the mass of shade before re-appearing then next second from the wall which had stopped Miliana and since he hadn't lost his speed and had been taken by surprise by what had just happened, he collided with the catgirl mage quite hard, both mages finding themselves on the ground, rendered breathless by the violence of the shock. It was then Kagura and Erza's turn to attack, the latter wearing her Heaven's Wheel Armor, both young women rushing with their swords in hands.
SLASHING FORM !
TRINITY SWORD !
Both swordswoman slashed at the Strizer at the same time, the air pressure of the attacks digging deep furrows in the sand but regrettably, the Strizer had suddenly disappeared to reappear further away, going out of the ground before pointing a hand covered in an black aura towards both mages, the shadows between them suddenly swelling as if they were being filled with water.
SOMBRA EXPLOSIVA !
The dark bubble exploded like a over-inflated balloon and the mages were blown away, joining Jellal and Miliana, the only man of the group seeming to have realized the trick.
- " He just controls shadows. That will be easy to counter now that we know it. "
- "Hey ! What's that, did you really underestimate me so much ?!" Spat Esteban, irritated by the idea that his power could be reduced as much as that. "It is true that the shadows are a big part of it and one of my favorite weapon. But I have more than one trick in my bag. And I'm going to love showing it to you." But he had barely finished his sentence that he felt as if his body suddenly weighed 5 times as heavy, folding under the sudden strength which had for origin a certain brunette, allowing Miliana, Jellal and Erza to spring into action once again. But Esteban only smiled while standing up once again with no problem, the mages looking at him surprised, not understanding how he could move freely in spite of the heavy gravity pressing on him.
- "As I just said, let me show you what I can do."
PLACAJE GRAVITACIONAL !
The 3 attacking mages were suddenly pressed down to the ground by a gravity like force which stopped them brutally in their assault while pushing them several centimeters into the ground before the strength subsided as quickly as it had come, letting the 3 mages to try and get over the commotion, Kagura looking at the Strizer with big eyes filled with surprise.
- "Xun is the light and the sun. Thus by being his perfect opposite, I am the shadows. BUT !" He broke off suddenly. "Xun is not only that. Since the sun is a star, he also are the stars and all kind of shiny celestial bodies. So I also have an affinity with space too and is there something dark you can find in space ?"
This question seemed completely out of context for the 3 girls but Jellal understood and his eyes opened wide with fear by understanding what it meant.
- "Black holes !" The three young women became afraid by realizing what it could involve, fear which became more marked when a black mass formed in the hand that Esteban was pointing at Kagura.
HOYO NEGRO : ASPIRACIÓN DIRIGIDA !
The black mass then began sucking everything that was in front if with such a strength, Kagura was torn away from the ground despite her gravity power which she had used on herself to try to protect her from the inhalation but it didn't worked and she got dangerously closer to the Strizer which was smiling like a madman.
ORBE DE GRAVEDAD !
While all thought that Kagura was going to be destroyed by the black hole, the latter suddenly took off from the hand of the Strizer, now acting like some kind of cannonball which crush Kagura's rib cage by pushing her away until she reached the others, landing in a large cloud of sand. While they got up, Esteban continued his explanation to the mages.
- " And since I have black holes by my side and they are bodies with an infinite mass, I also learnt to control gravity. I am thus not only a 'hombre de sombra'. But I still haven't said anything about the favorite part of my power which made me so different than the other Strizer. But now that the lighting is good, I am going to be able to show you my 'illusions'. " He ended while looking at the moon which began to appear behind him, her silvery light drawing long shadows on the beach while quoting the word illusion with his fingers.
- " Illusions? " Repeated Erza before a small smile appears on her lips. " Sorry but if you really did your researches, you should know that I am not really perceptible to this kind of trick. "
- " Did I forget to mention that 'illusion' was not exactly the good term to describe this power ? "
Then he whistled, a noise which reverberated in the night, the silence answering him until rustling noise, that was become louder as time passed by, was heard, accompanied with a howl which was strangely familiar for the mages. Then a big black mass suddenly land on the sand between the Strizer and them, Esteban suddenly looking a lot more smaller as if he suddenly jumped a good ten meters away. By looking at their surrounding closely, they realized that everything had gone away from them and had grown, as if they had become smaller themselves. But when the sand-colored cloud, lifted by the fall of this strange entity fell down again, they were all paralyzed with fear.
Scales as black as the darkest of the nights, covered with bluish marking, covering a body of a good dozens of meters long, the down part of his body being grey colored. His long forked tail beat the sand in a rhythm echoing his impatience, immense wings which, like a roof, covered the mages and preventing them from seeing the sky, but the most impressive thing was his aura, which was filled with an anger and a thirst of destruction that none of the mages had felt before in their life. They were paralyzed, refusing to believe it, but the aura this massive body was releasing, the small tremors on the ground each time he moved, his growls filled with hatred which made their body trembles so much and the heat of his death smelling breath on their skin, there was no doubt possible.
Acnologia was standing in front of them, alive and well.
- " N-No, it's impossible ! Natsu destroyed him ! " Miliana, with tears in her eyes exclaimed by trying to move away but without succeeding, as if her brain was too disturbed to make her body move.
Others would have loved to answer her, but they were speechless and for probably the first time of their life, they were truly afraid. A fear which paralyzed them, preventing them from moving a single bone to try to defend themselves. Erza got up nevertheless, calling upon her swords but her armor disappeared as soon as she had put it on and after that, she was not able to call any of her armors, as if her magic had been shut down. Defenseless, she found herself powerless in front of the dragon of chaos which began to approach them, the mages feeling like at each step he was becoming even larger and monstrous. Sweating bullets, the mages could do nothing, or rather their bodies refused to move. Acnologia then opened his huge mouth, bluish flames which shone like thousand stars filling his throat, ready to let them out. Erza managed to get over her paralysis and tried to flee, something that she would have never did under normal circumstances but she had no other choices and tried to go to put herself in a safe place but no matter where she went, she was literally trapped, the beach stretching even further at each step she took. A howling accompanied by an intense light was felt behind her, she turned around, seeing her 3 friends disappearing in the flames, turning to ashes in a matter of second until the same flames finally reached her, her body disappearing in the flames, a white veil falling in front of her eyes.
Then everything stopped. Erza found herself sitting on the sand, back on the beach that was back to its usual shape. But did all of that even happened ? There was no remains that could attest of the presence of the dragon, Esteban had not moved and still looked at them with a naughty gleam in his eyes, the 4 panting mages, as if they had just woken up from a horrible nightmare.
- " What was that ? " Wondered Jellal, getting his breath back while Kagura got up with difficulty.
- " I really thought that you were all cooked by that dragon, it seemed so real. "
- " How did you do that ? " Erza, amazed wondered. " Illusions don't work on me, normally. "
- " Look at your shadows. " Simply answered Esteban, the mages obeying in spite of their perplexity and they realized that there were sorts of black lines similar to snakes slithering in their shadows. By following the tendrils to their origin, they discovered that they all came out of the Strizer shadow, which was darker than the other shadows.
- " Did your shadows did that ? How you can use your shadows to show us things like those ? " Wondered Miliana.
- " The shadows are basically the reflection of our own person, but not only the reflection of our physical body. It is an immaterial entity which never leaves you, like your soul and spirit, in a way. 'By infecting' your shadow with mine, I can reach your spirit and your brain and I can use it to make you live, not feel, live, a whole lot of things. This is why I cannot really use the term of illusion. An illusion is when make someone perceive thing by playing on their 5 senses, like lighting and colors effects to deceive the sight. This is why I prefer the term of nightmare. "
- " If you like that kind of power, why did you didn't used it immediately ? " Wondered Jellal.
- " Since we are at this point, better explain everything. " Began Esteban. " Where Xun is the sun and the day, I am the moon and the night. Of this fact... "
KITTEN BLAST !
PLEIADES !
- " Eh ? " Esteban was suddenly struck by a coiled tube of pink energy which burst when it came in contact, pushing him back as 6 rays of light fell from the sky and exploded on him, making him kneel down. By seeing that Kagura and Erza had moved to attack too, a grin took shape on his lips.
- " What a dirty little trick. But I said that I would give some explanation, and I will explain them. " He began dodging the attacks of the mages, while resuming his explanation. " During the day, Xun takes advantage of the power of the sun to reach his full power, where I can only use my shadow to attack unless it directly gets in touch with other shadows so I can infect them. On the other hand in the night, Xun have to limit himself to artificial light sources, like lamp for example, which are never as good as the sun whereas I can control and infect freely the shadows created by the light of the moon. Which means that as long as the moon will be up in the sky … "
Keeping the end of his sentence suspended for now, Esteban call upon the darkness, dark masses suddenly sprigging out of all the shadows surrounding the mages, including theirs, the Strizer smiling grimly.
- "… I have no dead angle. "
CORTAR REMOLINO DE LA SOMBRA !
The dark masses grouped together to form a whirlwind which inhaled the mages, throwing them towards the sky by slashing at them from all around, before sending them to the ground. Esteban had not finished however.
TRABA NEGRA !
Black strands came out of the mages shadows, winding around their legs to nail them on the spot, the mages trying everything that they could to release themselves but unsuccessfully, the shadows re-forming immediately when they were destroyed.
- "It's useless, don't try to free yourselves, I'm not going to let you leave that fast. Now that you know all this, it is time for me to make play my favorite game. Let us see who of you will be the first to be broken by my nightmares."
SOMBRAS ROBAR : ILLUSION DE PESADILLAS !
/- Miliana -/
Miliana opened her eyes and she saw that she was in a dark room, a weak light coming from a tiny opening in a wall and made her understand that wherever she was, it was dark. She tried to get up, because she was on her knees but she was blocked by something that bound her feet together. By looking down, she saw that it was chains who attached her to the wall behind her. More than that, she saw that she wore a short pale blue dress which was really worn out. With horror, she recognized this holding, since she had carried it for a long time in her childhood. In her childhood as a slave. The room got more and more clear and she realized that she was back in the tower of Heaven and it felt so real she felt like she never left the place. She was in a cell similar to the one into which she and his friends had been locked in the time. But this time, she was alone and through the bars of her jail, she saw other people, dressed in the same clothes as her, which worked under the eyes of guys dressed in long black hooded dress who whipped the slaves without any form of pity. Miliana tried to struggle but she discovered with dismay that her magic had disappeared. This alarming realization arrived at the same time as a man who was now standing in front of her, having entered the cage silently. By looking at the newcomer closer, she recognized Jellal but not the one who was with her on the beach. It was the one that he was when Zeref had corrupted him.
- " Well, Miliana. I was told that you persisted in refusing to do your work ? " He told in a sweet voice which made her shiver with discomfort. " Do I Have to remind you once again what will happen if you continue to persist ? " He then threw in front of her something which fell heavily with a thud on the ground and Miliana's cry tore the silence. On the ground was lying the dead body of Sho, blood trickling down from his half-open mouth. Miliana tried to throw herself on him, but her wrists had suddenly found themselves attached to the back wall by chains, preventing her from approaching. " I would have thought at least that you would have agreed to do your part to allow your friends to survive, but it seems like you preferred to see all 3 of them dead. " The words of Jellal pushed back Miliana, who touched the stone wall by curling up to be as far away as Jellal as possible, realizing what he meant.
- " No. They cannot be dead. It's a bad dream, I am going to wake up ! " She repeated to herself like a mantra, her brain being assailed with images showing her Erza, Simon and Wally, all in the same state as Sho, trying to go out of this nightmare, but the burning pain from the whip she received on her face brought her back down to Earth. This pain was too real to be only an illusion.
- " You wanted to save yourself from sufferings, right ? Well I am going to make sure that you suffer more than ever in your life. Sirs, she is all yours. " On these words, he left the cell, closing the door behind him, leaving only Miliana with hooded men who seemed to be more and more numerous and big as they approached her, diverse torture tools in their hands.
- " No. What are you doing ? No ! NOOOOOOO ! "
/-Kagura-/
Kagura, from her part, hadn't changed clothes, she was in the same clothes as those she had on the beach but she was in the dark, in a really narrow space that forced her to squat. The only source of light came from a small opening the size of a CD reader. Approaching the small opening, she took a look by the hole to try and see where she could be and what she saw made her let out a gasp of surprise. She saw Rosemary's village, her and her brother Simon home town, but also where Erza had grown. She understood now. She was in the sort of container in which Erza had hidden her when the people who wanted to build the R system had attacked the village. Kagura did not understand what all this meant, until Erza and Simon appeared in her field of vision, or to be more precise their younger selves, which were running and playing together. This show made a light smile appear on her face, but it only lasted one time. Flames suddenly appeared, setting the village on fire, Erza and Simon getting engulfed in flames too while still playing with a smile before getting reduced in ashes. Then, the hooded mages appeared, shouts ripping through the air in the village, filling the ears of Kagura who began to struggle in her prison while seeing the mages kidnapping the children, killing those who resisted too much. Soon the corpses of people Kagura knew and who lived in this village piled up in the ruins of the village.
" You did nothing to protect them." Said a hoarse voice which addressed Kagura. " You did nothing to help them. YOU could have been able to save your brother and Erza if you had gone out of your hiding place. But you did nothing. Because you are a COWARD ! "
- " NO ! It's false ! I am not a coward ! SHOW YOURSELF, WHOEVER YOU ARE ! " She roared, struggling more and more without succeeding, not able to bear anymore what she saw. The landscape outside changed and she found Jellal, who faced Simon, the latter just killed by the first one.
- " NO ! ANYHTING BUT THAT ! NOT MY BROTHER ! "
" You sentenced him to death by letting these men do as they pleased. What do you think he thought of that ? " Threw the voice, the crack closing and Simon, his eyes white and his voice hollow approaching her.
- " Kagura. Why did you abandoned me ? What did I do for you to abandons me like that ? " The vision of her brother and his voice full of reproach was too much for Kagura who felt tears swell in her eyes.
- " No. I did not abandon you. I… I … "
" You let him down. Coward … Coward … Coward... Coward … "
- " STOP THAT! "
/-Jellal-/
Jellal needed some time to become used to the light that was too strong for his eyes compare to the darkness of the night but when he finally got used and could see where he was, he was in shock. He was standing in the center of a blue crystals looking platform with spikes which raised themselves towards the starry sky here and there. Looking down, he saw that he had changed his clothes. Basically, he wore a long black hooded coat that was strangely familiar to him. Quickly doing the analysis, he understood that he was back on top of the Tower of Heaven, but he will quickly realize that he was not alone. By looking a little farther, he saw two bodies laid out on the ground which he recognized, rushing to them.
- " Natsu ! Simon ! What is that ? What's going on ? " He put his hand on the nape of their neck and was struck by horror.
- " T-They are … "
- " Dead indeed. "
Jellal turned to this voice, almost breaking his neck in the process, feeling like he heard it somewhere before, and came face to face with Zeref. The dark mage looked at him with a certain pride whereas Jellal looked at him as if he had just seen a ghost. Which was the case in a way.
- " What ? What the hell is happening here ? You are dead. "
- " You do not remember ? I would have thought that killing 2 innocents in cold blood would be rather striking. It would seem that you and I have a lot more in common, my dear assistant. " Jellal was suddenly paralyzed, shaking his head like he was refusing to believe what he had just heard.
- " I AM NOT LIKE YOU ! AND I AM NOT YOUR ASSISTANT OR I DON'T KNOW WHAT ! " He roared, feeling the guilt of his pasts acts starting to return.
- " But nevertheless, you did things even I would have feeling guilt about doing. To sacrifice his only love to brought me back, I couldn't be prouder than you, Jellal. " The over sweet voice of Zeref struck the mage deep down in his heart while the latter put a hand on his shoulder, a gesture that he felt perfectly, excluding any possibility that this was a nightmare. He then remembered himself of the real function of this tower. He shot his head toward a flat piece of crystal which was standing of the ground. In front of the latter, he saw a sword, a sword which he recognized immediately, making him rush at this stone, falling on his knees just in front of it, his spirit breaking, realizing that the worst scenario he could have ever imagine had just became a reality. He had killed Erza.
- " ERZA ! No, I did not do that. I DID NOT DO THAT ! NOOOO ! "
/-Erza-/
Erza stood in the middle of Magnolia, or rather, what was left of it. The city was in ruin, flames dancing on the rests of the houses and corpses were lying here and there, no matter where she looked, there were corpses. In front of her, the HQ of the guild was in flame, the symbol of Fairy Tail devoured by the flames while the building was falling down. All of her friends, her only family, had been reduced to nothing, their bodies unrecognizable because of the violence of what they had undergone. She knew this landscape of destruction by heart. It was the 35th time that she underwent this torture. She tried everything : she tried to fight but without ever managing to overcome anything because her magic was melting away like snow in the desert, to run away but the streets stretched every time, giving her the impression of not moving. In the end, she always end up dying, powerless before going back at the beginning and reliving the massacre of her family, again and again, the shouts of agonies filling her soul with each repetitions. Eyes filled with tears of frustration, she turned then to the persons in charge of this massacre. In the middle of the ruins stood Zeref, who looked at her disparagingly but the most horrible thing for her was to see Jellal, always under the influence of the dark mage, looking at her with the same sadistic air as the time of the Tower of Heaven. They walk on her as she fell to her knees, already knowing what they were going to say, having heard it far too often.
- " Here is a very interesting show. The great Titania giving up so easily. So weakness. Jellal, my dear friend, abbreviates her sufferings. "
The latter obey his master, approaching Erza, who didn't even tried to move, even when Jellal forced her to raise her head, a gaze filled with sadness and frustration meeting another one filled with satisfaction, villainy and mockery. Like every other time, her voice came back only to pronounce a single sentence, in a hope that this time, thing would be different.
- " Jellal. Don't do that, please. "
But as for all the previous times, he held not counts of her words and plunged his hand in Erza's upper body, piercing her heart without even batting an eye. And life left the body of Erza Scarlett, killed by the only man who she never loved.
For the 36th time in a row.
/- Real World -/
Esteban looked with a sadistic pleasure at the 4 mages who twisted themselves like worms, tortured by the nightmares which he was making them live. He had however a slight headache which began to come. Maintaining a mental manipulation of this level on 4 people at the same time needed a big effort, especially that it manipulated the parts of the brain bound to the 5 senses to made the nightmares more than real. However, while he was looking at his victims, he was disturbed by an unexpected guest, that he recognized without looking at him, which made him heave a sigh of frustration.
- " What the hell are you doing here, cabrón ? " Asked Esteban without turning around, knowing very well that Xun approached as indicated the noise of his steps in the sand.
- " I simply came to make sure that you do not over do it this time. " Indicated the Strizer of the sun by approaching his colleague, his arms crossed.
- " I don't see what you're talking about ? " Answered Esteban by pretending not to understand while perfectly knowing what Xun was referring to.
- " I'm speaking about your barbarian way of doing things. " Answered Xun by looking at the 4 mages. " The last time you did that, your victims had to undergo therapy to recover. It is not something that we can allow ourselves to do with them. We need them in a good shape, not traumatized. "
- " Please. They are not as weak as that. " Esteban, already tired by his colleague, sighed. " Go back to your own business and let me work. " To answer the question, Xun began shining brightly, a bright flash which lasted only a moment but which was enough to irritate Esteban.
- " Stop your bullshit, asshole ! " The dark one suddenly roared, the cry giving birth to a deep pain at his temples. " Return to the HQ and leave me alone. "
- " Very well. I am going to let you do as you please. Good luck. " And on those words, Xun went away without any further ado, which surprised the other Strizer who did not expect him to leave for real, or not that quickly and quietly. But what he ignored was that Xun, who hated this way of torturing people, whom he qualified as barbarian, had left a ray of hope to the mages. A literal ray of hope.
Indeed, while they were still trapped in those never-ending nightmares, where they had no more notion of what was the reality and what wasn't. However, the discharge of light had weakened for a single moment the shadows which freed, for just one second, the mages who saw their nightmare sizzle like a television which signal was becoming weak, a ray of light enlightening their field of vision for a brief moment. It had only lasted a fraction of a second, but it had been enough. Taking advantage of the fact that they got back the control over their sense and brain, they concentrated and gave everything they had. The sudden surplus of intellectual activity multiplied tenfold Esteban's headache who had taken his head between his hands. The 4 mages, by their will only, were at the same time getting over the brain control but also submerging the Strizer who had more and more difficulty to keep it under control. And after several minutes, he collapsed on the ground in a cry of pain, whereas the 4 mages just recovered, finally getting out of this nightmarish world, deeply inspiring, as to convince themselves that they were back.
- " Is it … Is it finished ? Oh thank you my god. " Said Kagura feeling relieved that her ordeal was finished. She got up, the shadows threads around her having disappeared, which also was the case for the others who got up in their turn.
- " It was horrible. " whined Miliana, still shocked. " It was so real I feel like I have scar on my body because of the whip slash. "
- " Let's not speak about it anymore and finish it there. This guy have done enough. " Declared Erza by beginning to approach the Strizer.
ARNÉS DE LA SOMBRA !
The shadows of the mages suddenly got out of the ground and wound around their owner, preventing any movement. In front of them, Esteban had held out a hand towards them, a knee on the ground and their back turned at them.
- " You are going nowhere ! " Mumbled the Strizer by getting up, grinding his teeth. By turning around to face the mages, the latter realized that he had a big nosebleed, his face distorted by anger.
- " I won't let this Xun bastard throw away MY fights ! "
- " Then it was him, this light that we saw ? We will need to thank him for the little help. " Noticed innocently Miliana, a small derisive smile on her lips.
- " It looks like your group is not as united as that if there is that much rivalry between yourselves. " Jellal laughed, seemingly not bothered by their current situation.
- " My relationship with Xun is very particular. " Explained Esteban by approaching the mages slowly, while wiping the scarlet liquid which flowed from his nose with his hand, the other one covering with shadows. " Everything in us is opposed, our powers, our personalities, our way of living and our way of seeing the world. The only things that we have in common are that we are both guys and that we are a part of the same group, having consequently the same objectives. And if the situation requires it, we know how to put aside our difference to work together. And just to be clear, you would have never be able to get out of my nightmares if his light had not weakened my shadows, comprende ? " He ended his explanation by brandishing his shadow covered hand, looking like a big black claw but had no time to use it.
- "What about my light, then ?"
They had no time to understand where this new voice came from that a playing card crashed in the sand at the Strizer's feet. Nobody understood where it came from and the mystery was only thickening when the card began shining with an intense light similar to that of the sun, blinding the Strizer and mages while dissipating the shadows which held them prisoner.
POLYGON MAGIC : CUBE RUSH !
While he still had his sight disturbed by the bright flash, Esteban was struck by a multitude of purple cube which threw him back on several meters, landing heavily in the sand. When the eyes of the Strizer and mages had finally recovered, they saw 2 new people standing between the mages and the Strizer, a blonde young man with tanned skin and dark beady eyes, and another man in purple suit wearing a hat with a white scarf around his neck and characterized by a literally cubic silhouette. A vision which made Miliana and Erza smile, Kagura surprise by those stranger appearance, but Jellal was feeling a little ill-at-ease, not knowing if those guys, like the girls, had forgiven him.
- " Sho ! Wally ! "
- " It looks like being late was not such a bad thing. " Remarqued Sho by collecting the now blank playing card.
- " To be late is not something that a Dandy like me usually does, but saving his friends is cooler than everything. " Said Wally, in his usual attempts to be cool.
- " Tch. I hadn't planned that. " Growled out Esteban by looking at the blood which still flowing of his nose, even if the flow had greatly weakened. " Well, it look like I won't be able to send you all back into my nightmare world. Too bad, but it's ok. We shall do it just like old times. "
The mages took back their position, ready for the fight, in front of the Strizer who did not seem to be bothered by the disadvantage in the very least. A thing was sure, with the arrival of Sho and Wally, the mages had restored their self-confidence.
OK, the nightmares thing, it was an idea which I had in mind for a long time, but I had some uncertainties concerning the way of using it. And I also wanted to show other kind of relationship between the Strizers, in particular by pointing at the opposition between Xun and Esteban. I hope that you liked this chapter and that you will like the next chapter. See you next time !
Next time: one against six under the moonlight. Making amends. The knell of midnight.