Chapter 16

*Recap*

Celestial Secret Art: Divine Radiance of the Zodiac

*end recap*

A large Golden magic circle formed around Torus' key that seemed to shine like the heavens, or so Gray thought anyway. Releasing the key from her hand Lucy took a step back while it remained stationary, as if still being held by some invisible force, around it in a triangular formation formed three balls of golden flame like energy that began to orbit the key in a clock-wise direction. The other mages stood in shock and awe as they sensed that each of the orbiting fires packed roughly twice the magical energy / power as Lucy's Celestial Radiance, meaning that in theory this spell would be roughly six times as strong, which was a thought that scared them all. As they watched, energy from the orbiting spheres began to siphon off into the key, like gas caught in a vacuum, the more energy transferred the brighter the key shone until all three spheres were completely absorbed and the key shone brighter than any star in the night sky. Lucy held up both palms towards her target, her fingers spread out wide and her thumbs overlapping before speaking one final word..."shine!" The moment she spoke a huge beam of unimaginably intense light and power erupted from the key and magic circle, engulfing the immobile Mira completely in less than a second, the air pressure created by the spells backlash nearly sending the other mages flying as they braced themselves while listening to the trees groan and crack. Within the beam the black energy entity screamed in pain as the light engulfed it "aaahhh! This isn't over! You may have defeated this servant but others will descend upon you and claim your souls for me! And once they do...I shall...become...unstoppable...HAHAHAHAH...A..." It screamed it's final words as the last of the black energy dissolved into oblivion within the light. A few seconds later the spell ended and the light faded to nothing, Torus' key, which was now a lifeless grey colour, landed in Lucy's hand before she fell to her knees in pure exhaustion. "Lucy!" Gray shouted as he ran to the woman he loved as the others marvelled at their surroundings, everything from the trees to the grass bore damage from the spell, ranging from slight charring to 'burnt to ash' and much of the ground had been turned to glass. When Gray got to Lucy he slid to the ground and held her close to him supporting her, but before he could speak there was a small bang as something impacted the floor, all the mages snapped out of their daze to find out the source of the impact, which turned out to be who they least expected, Mira's unconscious body. "Gray..." Lucy struggled to speak, "promise me...you'll take Mira...back to the guild...and get Stein...and Lord Death...to check her over..." Without another word darkness began to engulf her vision and she lost consciousness, her body going limp in Gray's arms, "I promise Luce, I promise" replied Gray with a loving yet worried voice.

Opening her eyes a bit too quickly the sudden onslaught of light caused Lucy to squeeze her eyes shut to try and stop the stinging, but when she tried to lift her hand to her eyes she found it was stuck under something that was putting a small pressure on her stomach. Slowly she opened her eyes, becoming accustomed to the light and looked down, there she found Gray, he was sat in a chair next to the bed she was in and had clearly fallen asleep holding her hand as both hers and his were on top of the covers, on her stomach under his head. Noticing the stubble on his chin she deduced that she had been out for at least a day if not longer and, judging from the bags under Gray's eyes, he hadn't been sleeping well. With great difficulty she looked around what little of the room she could without waking Gray to find she was in Fairy Eater's infirmary, which was confirmed when she saw Wendy tiding up some medical supplies. Turning around to see Lucy awake Wendy let out a squeal of joy that made Gray wake up with a jump, "Wendy you scared the hell out of me!" Gray said with a slight chuckle, "what were you squealing at anyway?" She pointed next to Gray, it wasn't until he followed Wendy's finger that he saw Lucy leaning on her elbows looking at him with a loving smile on her face. "Lucy?...LUCY!" he exclaimed with relief practically jumping on her and pulling her into a big hug, "I'm alright love really" Lucy said "just a little tired and looking forward to using you as my personal teddy bear in my own bed." Smiling she stroked his hair as he clung on to her for dear life, she stopped for a moment when she thought she felt him tremble like he was trying to hold back tears but as it only lasted for a second she thought she had imagined it. Eventually the two broke apart, if only for a moment before becoming locked in a deep kiss, once they broke apart again Lucy got out of bed and looked around finding Mira laid unconscious in another bed. "Did you manage to get her checked out?" she asked Gray "yeah" he replied, "both Lord Death and Stein checked her ever extensively and concluded that your spell completely purified her of any corruption, apparently she was able to fight it off because she was such a strong take over mage. Stein said she must had separated and segregated part of her mind when she felt...whoever trying to take over her body, but re-surfacing to help you cost her a huge amount of magical and physical energy, hence why she still out." It was a lot to take in, especially after just waking up "huh, and how long have we been out?" she asked, the worry crept back into Gray's eyes before he answered in a slightly shaky voice "...3 days...", "3 days!?" Lucy said surprised "I must've used more energy that I thought, a good night's sleep should do me good and you too," she looked to Gray "I can tell you've not been sleeping have you?" with a yawn he shook his head, "no he hasn't" replied Wendy in his place "he hasn't left your side for more than a few minutes." Lucy smiled and giggled slightly noticing the clock on the wall that showed it was a little before mid-night, taking Gray's hand Lucy led him towards the door "come on, I think we both need the sleep, and so do you Wendy!" she turned to the young dragon slayer "I can tell your tired, if anyone is still awake you can tell them I woke up but have gone for some rest, after that straight to bed with you." The tone she used was motherly as, truth be told, she had always thought of herself as a surrogate mother to Wendy, who was so pleased she ran over and hugged Lucy before heading out the doors, thinking that she wished Lucy really was her mother. Arriving in Lucy's room the two mages got ready for bed, which in Gray's case consisted of him stripping completely, and sat on the bed. Lucy could tell something was wrong. Especially when she looked into his eyes and saw he was repressing his emotions, "Hey what's wrong?" she asked caringly "wrong? Erm...nothing...nothing I'm fine" Gray replied unconvincingly, he trembled again which Lucy saw clearly this time, she brought him into a comforting hug and whispered "it's alright, I'm here you don't have to hold it back anymore," responding to her words he made the hug tighter, buried his head into her shoulder and started to shake slightly, when Lucy found her night shirt becoming wet on the shoulder she realised he was crying, something she had only ever seen him do once. "W-W-WWhen w-we brought you back t-to the g-guild Wendy didn't have enough energy to heal you" Gray said through the tears, "It scared me Luce, I was terrified there was something wrong and you weren't going to wake up, that you were gonna leave me alone like Ur. I mean you were barely breathing, in fact I'm pretty sure you stopped a couple of times, I...I don't want to lose you Lucy, I won't! I love you too much for that." She knew why he had been holding it in, everyone always thought that, aside from anger, he didn't really have too many feelings being an ice mage, she was so very happy that he could open up to her. She brought him out of the hug and put her hands on his cheeks pulling him up to her face, his eyes were very red and tears were flooding out, "I'm not going anywhere Gray I promise, after all I can't leave the man my heart belongs to behind now can I?" She brought him into a long tender kiss, which made him feel better as he nodded in agreement when they broke apart. Deciding it was time for bed Gray climbed under the sheets to wait for Lucy to snuggle in next to him, feeling the wet patch on her shoulder Lucy decided she couldn't wear that shirt to bed so removed it and tossed it to the ground, revealing her bare chest to Gray, an act that would normally have sent him into a lust fuelled frenzy but tonight he just wanted to snuggle up and sleep. This is exactly what happened a few moments later when Lucy climbed in and they both drifted off to sleep with Lucy cuddled up in Gray's arms.

The next morning Lucy woke to find her room bathed in sun light, the clock next to the bed reading 07:08am. Slowly and carefully she untangled herself from Gray and made her way to the bathroom, instantly missing Gray's warmth and touch, to have a shower and let Gray catch up on some of the sleep he had missed. The hot water felt amazing on her still slightly aching muscles, plus she hadn't had a shower since before the fight with Mira so it was nice to fell clean again. After drying herself off with a particularly fluffy towel she left the bathroom and sat at a small desk with a mirror, not even bothering to cover her naked form, and began to comb and straighten her hair. Being rather adept at this procedure it only took a minute or two before she was done and putting down the straightners, which is when she saw something on her desk that made her smile, it was her keys and purse in the middle of a circle of runes with a note next to it reading;

Lady Master

If you are reading this then I hope you have recovered well. As I write this you are still residing in the infirmary and we were unsure what to do with your valuables, as such I thought it prudent to place them within an enchantment that will allow only you to retrieve them. I truly hope you have made or will make a full recovery Lady Master as does the rest of the Guild.

Yours Faithfully, Freed Justine.

She giggled slightly and made a mental note to remind Freed to call her Lucy before retrieving her keys, causing the runes to fade and disappear. It was then that her smile dissipated and was replaced by a look of worry and guilt, holding up Torus' key she found that much of it's golden colour had returned but there was still patches of lifeless Gray making the key unusable, but to make matters worse Lucy knew that it would take Torus months if not longer to recover fully as the spell forced him to expel nearly all his own spiritual and physical energy, which to a spirit is like life force, hence why the spell was a last resort and could only be used with a willing member of the Zodiac. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she jumped when a pair of strong arms wrapped around her torso, making her moan slightly with pleasure as she practically melted onto the embrace. "You're meant to be sleeping mister" she said as she rose from the chair and wrapped her arms around gray's neck, "how could I sleep when you're awake" he replied with a husky voice that made Lucy excited, "besides, I saw that look Luce, I researched that spell before you woke and I know that it was Torus' choice as much as yours so don't beat yourself up okay?" She nodded in agreement with a small tear forming in her eye before noticing that she wasn't the only one excited, she rubbed her thigh against a certain part of Gray's anatomy gaining the moan she was hoping for, leaning in close and allowing her bare chest to rub against his she whispered in his ear "I think someone deserves a reward for looking after me" a lust filled smile broke across her face as she led Gray to the bed, pushing him onto it and climbing on top of him capturing his lips with hers, the two allowing their passions to run rampant.