A/N: Alright my darling readers. I am reading your comments and listening to your wants and needs. I also wanted to celebrate a little because this story finally has over 100 comments, 135 followers and 84 favorites. All of you are amazing and keep me motivated to finish this story without the quality suffering. Well, I hope the quality isn't suffering.
Thank you all for staying with me my loyal readers!
Chapter 26
Anguished filled screams tore through the expansive hall completely ignored by the dozens of persons moving about their workspaces. In the center of the room a tall man stood with his hand on the shoulder of the source of the bone chilling noise. His calculating emerald depths gave his otherwise blank countenance a fire that did much to enhance his handsome features. He pushed his magic further into the screaming mage forcing greater control over him to override the needs of self-preservation as he forced him to fully discharge his summoning magic into the large collection larcrima.
The crystal was massive and swirled with dozens of colors, each from a different mage he'd forcibly drained the same way in an attempt to fill it. When the scream finally cut off Nuryev relinquished his hold and the man hit the floor finally completely drained of his peach colored magic…and life.
"Put him with the others then clean this mess up. We're done for today," the now ruler of Seven ordered his assigned scientists and attendants their tasks as he quitted the Pergrandian labs for his personal rooms to bathe the stench of death off and relax after the trying day. The worst part of killing a person as such was that right before they died their bowls evacuated. The smell and mess was awful and another reason he hated having to be here but his current options were limited. It had never even occurred to him that his present condition was an eventuality after obtaining Karadin's help in killing him mother. His lack of forethought was no one's fault but his own.
He wanted to be finally freed from that bitch and her sister and time was running out. Not only were they sick and twisted by the succubus magic flowing through their veins but their single minded greed and need for pleasure was destroying Seven's economy leaving their people starving and growing more and more discontent. It would have been only a matter of months before they started banding together to take her out themselves. While he was used to the darkness that came with the slaughter given how used he was from such a young age, he had no desire for his people to be so corrupted as well. So, he finally took action but because of the timeline and how Seven was currently viewed but the other countries of Ishgar his options were limited.
Reaching out to Bosco would have been ideal since King Altiene was honorable enough to help if only to rid himself of Kressa's influence in the world but his mother already had their crown princess under her thumb with spies enough trying to contact anyone else would have been a death sentence. Fiore could have helped but after their war with Alverez they were too focused on restoring their own country and restabilizing their government to be able to help out one of their neighbors. Iceberg was also not an option given the issues they'd been having within their own borders and economy. Every other country was either not strong enough to help or, like in the case with Minstrel, were too wary and distant help him; they'd rather deal with the evil they knew.
That unfortunately left him with Pergrande. Their hate of everything female made the likelihood of an alliance probable but their king was also power hungry. Nuryev had no doubt that Karadin would come after Seven in the chaos caused in the after math of his mother's death so while he had enlisted their help, he also started planning for their inevitable invasion.
So, it was much to his surprise that instead of trying to take Seven by force with the number of berserkers they had installed there – a big reason why his team worked so diligently to free those disfigured and perverted creations from Pergrandian control – Karadin had remained quiet. The man waited for Seven's citizens to accept Nuryev as their new monarch before he acted by calling him to Pergrande for a "treaty revision" between their countries.
The young king found out a little too late what the bastard actually intended for him; a broken and faithful sex puppet to rule the country for him to avoid drawing other nation's suspicions and potential aid to limit Pergrande's influences. Karadin planned to break him in his bedchambers, something not even his mother had been able to do after decades of trying even with magic but such was his arrogance. Fortunately the captured Hrothian priestess from Iceberg divulged some key information that gave Nuryev the leverage he needed to extricate himself from that frequent attention and focus on his initial plans – subvert and destabilize Pergrande from the inside out. All it took was some decent acting, his formula to free berserkers and very careful planning.
He'd initially thought about denying Karadin's "request" in favor of letting the anticipated war break out between them but the young king had always been a patient and intelligent man first and foremost. He cared for his people unlike his mother had and did not wish to have their blood unnecessarily shed. Even with the freed berserkers back home supporting Seven now by their own will, Pergrande had a massive military and scientific labs that had been creating horrors for decades to combat and he doubted Seven would be able to fend off a full out war for long on its own. By coming to Rommell and playing the broken yet brilliant mage he had access in those labs and the potential opportunity to free all the berserkers under Pergrande's thumb thus crippling their strongest fighting forces. It was not an opportunity he could pass up.
So here he was, back in the role he'd finally been liberated from after so long, acting as project lead in Karadin's latest power play. The lunatic was going to pick up where the Hroth cult had left off in resurrecting a god of ice and winter but instead of letting the God free to act as he wished, he planned to channel that strength through the recovered circlet from Seven to control the immortal to he own ends - world domination. Thankfully the spell the Hrothian priestess was using to drain anyone and every one of their lives and souls to gain the power needed to accomplish the task had yet to be divulged so Nuryev stepped in with his plan to forcibly drain mages of their magic completely. It would take a lot of time to actually pull off and by the time the resurrection spell could be cast Nuryev would hopefully have already killed Karadin's strongest and most loyal followers and freed the berserkers from their torment.
That was when he would strike unleashing the berserkers loose on the senate and their beloved king while he fled for home. Karadin's death would be painful and the thought had him smirking internally.
Opening his room the young king froze on the threshold briefly in surprise. "King Karadin," he greeted quickly with a bow - not something one royal would give to another but it all played into his assumed subservience to the man currently lounging in his rooms with his private guards stationed around him.
"To what do I owe this pleasure?"
"Good news from my men. They were able to get more out of the female trash about Hroth." Karadin sneered as if even speaking about the opposite gender was offensive.
"That is good news," Nuryev responded mind working quickly to potentially prevent damage to his current actions. Last time she'd spoken he'd almost been caught out by unnecessarily killing those loyal and strong mages to power the lacrima. If he hadn't already had the "invention" of the magic collecting collars setup by a team of Pergrandian scientists as a back-up plan he might have found himself dead there and then. Those collars had been something he'd already worked up back at home as a way to keep prisoners with magic subdued without letting that magic potentially go to waste but Karadin didn't need to know that.
"I also discovered something during today's activities," he continued hiding any nervousness he felt hoping by offering this knowledge would counter act whatever damage might have been done this time. The fucking priestess needed to die already so she would stop interfering.
Nuryev sat on the chair across for the man he wished he could just kill keeping his eyes lowered. He could easily kill him but his own death would follow shortly after; that was not beneficial for anyone.
"Oh?" Karadin prodded for him to continue. This was all just too much outside the norm. If Karadin wanted to see anyone they came to him. What the hell was he doing in his rooms?
"The last man I had drained for the lacrima. His summoning magic was more potent than the others. It seemed to fill the crystal I designed to power the resurrection spell more so than all the others with similar magic levels."
"Hmmm," Karadin's expression was guarded but thoughtful. "That fits in with what the priestess has just informed us. While she has still not shared the incantations for the life draining spell she did say more about how the resurrection spell functioned. It breaks dimensional barriers to call him forth into our world so it would make sense those who's magic summons or uses any kind of spatial magic would work more efficiently. Either way I've already given orders to my men to scour Earthland for as many of those mages as they can find." Karadin cut his gaze back to the other man in the room heatedly.
Nuryev internally relaxed; he'd chosen correctly. Better even since it was something Karadin had already known and it solidified his pretense.
"The team has also almost perfected the draining collars so we can siphon magic directly into the lacrima continually without the mages having to die. This way our power sources will last indefinitely."
The room was quite as the two men sat in thought; one about how very much he couldn't wait until he could leave this country safely with no threat of them coming after him or his country again, the other about just how deliciously the lab coat pulled across the strong shoulders of the other man.
With a sharp look from Nuryev to the bed Karadin wordlessly commanded what the younger man was to do. It had been quite a while since he'd taken this beautiful specimen of masculinity and he wasn't keen on waiting any longer.
Taking care not to let his blank mask shift, the younger man stood while slowly unbuttoning his coat and shirt as he crossed the room to straddle the older man. Karadin wasn't unattractive, just like his mother wasn't unattractive, but they were both dark and twisted in similar ways that twisted his gut. It made it next to impossible for him to physically respond to Karadin's advances without imagining he was with someone else.
As Karadin pulled him harshly into a kiss the only thing on Nuryev's mind was the enticing thoughts of what a pair of Boscan spies he'd discovered months ago at home would be like if he ever got the chance at a formal introduction. They were Boscan, of that he had no doubt, and might just be amenable to his attentions. He had let them wander around unmolested after he'd felt the strange magic signatures in the palace and labs; even made the security just that tiny bit easier for them to get around in hopes of Boscan support of his reign in the future.
At a sharp bite on his shoulder he forced himself to moan instead of sneer giving the man under him exactly what he wanted. Karadin would soon be just as dead as his mother was in the end.
-DTRE-
"Crux, I don't care what Stash Face told you. You will tell me what the hell is happening with Zen!" Lucy seethed her magic flaring around her riding the emotional vengeance she felt from her mate through their bond for their brother.
It had happened an hour ago, whatever it was. Set her mate's temper right off and that was really hard to achieve given his very mild temperment. She'd been playing Scrabble against Vander and Gin, Cristoff curled around her and Safra watching the game as Vander managed to play "zipperfish" on a double-word score giving him 38 fucking points when suddenly Vander and Cristoff just disappeared. A minute later Zen was sitting dazedly on the couch where Cristoff had been before absolute rage flowed through her veins from her still absent mate.
Zen had tried to explain what happened when his eyes finally focused but he was having some memory lapses and obvious lingering confusion preventing a full explanation but it was enough that Safra, Gin and she had wrapped themselves around him comfortingly.
All they really needed to know was that Zen was not in his right mind and Hestor had been involved, a White Sea mage that used celestial magic that Zen had been uncharacteristically a little obsessed with. Hestor was a bit of a man whore even by Boscan standards and Lucy was kind of grateful Zen was having trouble remembering specifically what happened – it couldn't have been good judging by the volatile emotions she felt through her bond.
Stars, everyone in the family already knew whatever was happening with him had to do with celestial magic mages after Zen started showing Hestor some attention since the archangel mage had flatly refused even having male sudepah in his lessons; like hell he'd actually want that man in his bed.
It was Farron who'd made the connection between each of Zen's obsessive conquests but finding any information about the previously thought extinct Archangel magic was harder done than said. It had already been a week since they realized something outside of Zen's natural preferences was affecting his judgement where celestial mages were concerned and so far none of her spirits were talking, the Dean of the Academe Celestine in the Stargazer Mountains hadn't been available and Safra's father was still accumulating information on Archangel magic from the Fairy's library to scan into Archive and send to them when he found something.
It was all only a matter of time before they had all the answers that they wanted but with what happened tonight Lucy had lost all of her patience with no fucks to spare and would pry answers from the Spirit King himself if she had to.
"Princess I can't," Crux pleaded tugging on his white mustache nervously.
Lucy's eyes softened at her spirit friend's obvious distress. It really wasn't his fault the Spirit King had commanded him to not answer her questions so he didn't deserve her wrath nor would she have him punished for disobeying a direct command from Stache Face no matter how much she disagreed with it. She would just do what she'd done before and try and take direct action.
"I understand," she said voice tight before pulling away from the cuddle pile and standing. The Star Dress spell she was so skillful at using was typically reserved for gold key spirits only since the power required of the spirit to "lend" their magic to their contract holder was so immense the silver keys just couldn't do it but, Lucy was no ordinary celestial spirit mage. Her bond with all of her spirits went beyond what most of her kind could manifest proven by that fact that even her silver keys were capable of opening their own gates whenever they wanted for whatever they wanted. Her mate had even commented on the size of her magical containers before when they'd started training her in hopes of maybe opening her third origin – which was now on hold given her pregnancy.
Thinking of her mate also brought with it the knowledge that she had his power to fuel her and keep her safe should she not have enough magic alone to supplement Crux's magic. Since the knowledgeable spirit was not a mortal dragon with vast amounts of internal magic temporarily tied to one of Draco's keys she fully anticipated needing to feed Crux magic for his side as well as maintaining her side of the bond to pull this off.
Concentrating hard Lucy held Crux's key to her breast and instead of unleashing her power to open the gate she channeled it and more into herself. Warmth spread from her chest to her limbs as her body suddenly felt weightless and the room was so bright with her efforts warm brown eyes closed instinctively.
"Lucy?" Zen called. Something deep within him begged for him to go to her drawn in by her magic resonating with his own but there was also a deep impression that he needed to stop her immediately. It was similar to the pull he felt towards celestial mages in general but instead of the "normal" wanting to do their biding, to make them happy by any means, it was to force her to stop.
His mind swam like he'd been drinking as he fought internally between concern and hope, fear for her and fear for something he couldn't define. He knew, rationally, whatever she was trying to do was perfectly safe; she'd used the Star Dress spell enough for him to recognize that was what she was doing now even if her clothing hadn't changed to some weird puffy pantaloons and tights ensemble. Irrationally, guided by that foreign presence deep within him, he "knew" that it was the most dangerous thing should could ever do.
Putting his figurative foot down Zen's eyes focused on Lucy's floating figure. She looked completely at ease, like she was sleeping soundly. With Lucy's magic active around him it made ignoring that insistence feeling easier and since she was most obviously not in danger he would not interfere.
One thing above everything he knew was unquestionable. Lucy was family and he needed to protect her so at the first sign of danger he would intercede.
It didn't take long before he felt the shift in Lucy's magic, the increased pressure in the room as her eyes finally opened glowing amber and a sneer darkened her face.
Zen was on his feet in a flash, arms around Lucy's now glowing form holding her to his body tightly willing her to stop whatever it was she was trying to do now. She was pregnant and the sheer magical pressure she was putting off was so heavy Safra was pinned down with Gin hovering over her protectively. Her concentrated magic burned against his skin but he ignored the pain trying to ground her magic through him instead of her own body – he didn't think the babies in her womb would be able to survive this kind of onslaught yet.
"Stop this right now!" he demanded but instead of an answer her magic wrapped around him as well forcing his wings to snap out without his beckoning. A small amount of panic flashed across his face before his wings wrapped around the pair blocking the shocked and awed stares from the fairies.
-DTRE-
Cristoff paused, fist pulled back from one of the men that he and Vander had found essentially gang raping their intoxicated brother, as the ghosting feeling of liquid fire and pain echoed in his limbs. Eyes wide he was running for the nearest exit before he could even register what was happening.
He knew that pain all too well. Opening a third origin was not the sort of agony one forgot no matter how much time passed and that was exactly what he knew his beautiful mate was feeling right now.
So many questions assaulted his mind chief among them was what had triggered her third origin to open making his moon shift back home seem longer than he knew it actually was. The scene he came upon after flashing into his father's living room where he'd safely left his mate not even half an hour ago made his instincts go even wilder.
Eyes fully silver, Cristoff bit back a snarl seeing Zen wrapped around his mate while she was in agony screaming. The smell of burning skin irritating his nose and making his blood boil. He knew his brother couldn't have been responsible for what was happening. Zen would sooner cut off his own arm before hurting Lucy but that knowledge and faith wasn't stopping his dragon's murderous intent from manifesting in his mind's eye. With those damned wings out he knew there was no way of getting to Lucy without potentially harming her more or his brother.
Holding his dragon back from lashing out in anyway was taking every bit of control he had as he circled the pair still looking for a potential opening to get to his mate.
Fortunately for everyone involved it didn't take much longer before Zen's wings opened then disappeared with a final flash of light. Cristoff was on him with a snarl and he wrapped his arms around his mate even with Zen still clinging her unconscious frame to his chest.
The Lunar slayer was about to strike his brother down but Zen's dark amethyst eyes now flecked with gold looked so grief stricken Cristoff was finally able to rein in his instincts. With a soothing rumbling growl and slayer adjusted his grip to wrap around his brother as well just in time to catch him as his eyes rolled back in unconsciousness leaving a confused and upset dragon slayer to deal with the both of them.
Slowly Cristoff lowered his precious cargo to the floor laying them each out carefully. He brushed Lucy's golden locks from her face before he called his magic to scan her for any injury and to check on the health of their unborn children. He could hear the fluttering of their tiny heartbeats still but he needed the additional confirmation.
As his magic swept through her body he found that she was only severely magically depleted so he opened his stores of magic to her to fill her containers somewhat so she was stable. Gods it was the day before the new moon so his power was at its weakest so he couldn't do more right now; what fucking timing. Moving on to focus on the pair of hatchlings growing in her womb Cristoff relaxed fully finding them completely healthy. If anything they had developed even more than was to be expected from his check-up of them the month prior and seemed to be…excited…?
Cristoff's brows furrowed as his sensed something else outside of his precious twins so he delved a little deeper in search of the source. If Lucy had some weird parasite hiding away it wasn't going to be there for long.
Finding the source the slayer at first couldn't figure what it was. The presence was hiding itself well but after he growled in frustration the barrier dropped and he gasped. There, a third heartbeat thrummed away as another little hatchling was finally recognized and it seemed chagrinned. Stars above he loved the heightened empathic connection he had with his mate and because of it their hatchlings. That little guy or girl had been playing hide and seek and it was only 2 months along. His knew then and there that little one was going to cause him years of strife the moment they were born.
Chuckling lightly and in a much better mood the Lunar slayer did a quick exam of his brother who was also perfectly fine except for some minor burns he healed and being magically taxed similar to his mate. It was time to get these two in bed; questions could wait until they woke.
-DTRE-
Levy sat back at what had become her small family's usual spot looking out at the rest of the guild. Winter was just getting its teeth into Fiore as the temperature dropped below freezing. So many of their members were out on the flood of last minute job requests that always came around this time.
There were parties, festivals and countless other celebrations people wanted magically enhanced as well as repairs and deliveries made before the snow had a real chance to set in. Still, there were a lot of the key members hanging around any given day drinking or enjoying Mira's treats that the hall was still plenty rowdy.
It gave the small woman a chance to think over something that had been nagging her in the back of her mind for months now – Lucy's developing dragonish behavior. She wished her friend were still here for the holidays so she could keep an eye on her but she understood her desire to stay in Bosco where the weather was much more mild and warm. Plus, her soon to be family was there to spoil her and cater to her ever want and need… If Levy were being honest she was just a little jealous she hadn't gone with her friend when she'd offered but Lucy was going to spend the rest of her pregnancy there in Pelerno so there was still time to visit.
Still, being around Lucy a lot more until recently had given Levy plenty of time to catalog the changes in her behavior. At first, the solid script mage thought her blonde friend's more possessive and aggressive behavior, especially toward her mate, was from her mating the Lunar slayer but that didn't really fit. From what Bix had said she'd started acting like his sister Emi typically did when she found a particular partner she wanted to bed right after meeting his brother.
Levy and Gajeel had been dancing around each other for years and even though she'd felt hate and jealously at women who'd flirted with her as yet to be claimed mate, where she wanted to rip some chick's hair out for lusting after Gajeel even after they mated but it was easy to control. Lucy it almost seemed like she checked out when something like that happened. Only days after meeting Cristoff, Lucy had uncontrollably lashed out at Erza for just being near him.
Neither Levy nor Xally were even close to having those kinds of experiences. Xally and she were as human as ever and they were probably mated to the most difficult, temperamental and instinct driven of the slayers that currently existed.
That was another reason why the couple went back to Bosco. The majority of Fioren people had absolutely no respect for their relationship and women still aggressive followed Cristoff around testing Lucy's control and raging hormones. In Bosco, while more men and women were likely to approach either one of them a simple, "We're promised and pregnant," got them to back off immediately.
The aggressiveness wasn't even the only oddity. Lucy was even being affected in similar ways as her mate to moonlight. Not even while pregnant had Levy craved metal so Lucy's draw to the moon now really was different. None of it made sense.
Even the events of their matings, while similar, neither Xally nor she had lost control of their actions nor even acted out of character leading up to the final event. From what Lucy said there were parts for her that she felt like she was just watching the events play out without any control.
Looking back on her interactions with her best friend over the years she tried to pinpoint when Lucy started doing things she now recognized as dragon behavior. Small things like hording stuff they see as valuable, an innate arrogance and an attitude on invincibility in how they hold themselves, being more territorial, appreciation for fine foods and clothing, an obsessive curiosity and even Natsu had an ingrained vanity in his appearance.
The boy curled his bangs up daily and was very particular of the quality and color of his clothing even if it was a bizarre sense of fashion – it was still a sense of fashion that he kept well maintained. Laxus always had his rich fur edged coat hanging off his shoulders, silk button up shirts and slacks - not the easiest thing to wear while fighting. Gajeel's clothing choice was always elaborate with adornments that had no purpose whatsoever outside of decorative. Wendy had those little wings around her arms and ankles worked into whatever she wore. Even Rouge and Sting always presented themselves with care.
Her celestial mage friend had always been a bit vain and appreciated quality in everything but it wasn't important to her like it seemed to be becoming now. It wasn't until after she got back from the 100 year mission with her team that Lucy really started acting much more in line with the other slayers – she trained a lot more, her clothing both in quality and a unique style increased, she became increasingly attached to and protective of all the dragon slayers in the guild (especially little Tysun) and not to mention her "horde" of keys – magical, ancient or otherwise – that she started collecting. What was happening to her best friend?
-End of Chapter-
Please leave a comment to let me know what you think. - Blas
