Chapter 10

Explanations

"What are you doing?" Antonio saw how Lovino was picked up and placed on the couch. Without answering, his shadow placed one finger on Lovinos forehead and closed his eyes. After focusing for a second, the finger started glowing. Slowly he moved it in small circles and his eyebrows furrowed in concentration. "Stop it!" Antonio noticed that Lovino was breathing faster and faster and his hands unconsciously gripped the fabric of the couch. Whatever it was doing, it seemed to be painful.

"This was weird" His shadow mumbled as he moved the finger away. He opened his eyes and carefully lifted Lovino so he could sit down on the couch and place him in his lap. Still deeply lost in thought he petted Lovinos hair, twirling it around his fingers before he pulled out a few loose strands. "I thought it would be easy…"

"What did you do to him?" His body looked at him, surprised by the sudden anger and despise in his voice. His shadow grinned at him and picked up Lovinos wrist to place a gentle kiss on it before he kept going up along the arm to stop right above the unconscious boys mouth. Antonio had stopped breathing and didn't realize he was quietly repeating "Stop" over and over again. His shadow suddenly gave off a soft giggle that made Antonio feel chills up his spine.

"That would have been fun would it" Antonio saw how his body stood up and placed Lovino back on the couch before he walked right up to him, slammed a fist right next to Antonios face on the wall and whispered. "I'm only preparing right now. There's no need for us to hurry, I won't hurt him yet" The shadow backed off and walked around the room. He picked up Lovinos cellphone and read the text that had been sent out to all the nations telling them what had happened and to check up on their closest friends and family out loud. Giggling, he put the phone back where he had found it. "Aww isn't that cute? Lovino sees you as a friend or maybe even family!"

"What do you mean by 'I won't hurt him yet'?" Antonio felt cold and he felt his mind drift away in an attempt to escape reality. He forced himself back only to be answered with a chuckle that didn't explain anything but at the same time, everything.

"Well this text explains a lot actually" His body moved around, unable to sit still. "Do you understand how I could do this? Or why I could now but not before?" He laughed again when he saw how Antonio shook his head. "I guess there's no harm in explaining while we wait for him to wake up" He sat down on the floor and yawned to show how boring and stupid he found this conversation. "I haven't been able to touch you before because you weren't able to use magic, but because of this spell, now you are" He laid down on the hard floor and looked up on the roof. Antonio felt himself get dragged down as well to mimic most of his movement. "Most magicians would be able to defend themselves but you didn't know about the magic, meaning that…" he snapped his fingers, easily creating a small blue flame "…I easily defeated you and now got the magic and know how to use it".

"That doesn't matter" The confused stare he received made Antonio shiver but he continued. "What did you do to Lovi?" With a big smile, his body sat up again.

"So you care about him THAT much?" He walked back to the boy and sat down, placing him the same way he had before. "I just changed around in his memory for a bit, though it was harder than I thought" He got lost in thoughts again but returned pretty fast "Some people might be able to hear you if they touch you so to make sure that won't happen I erased some parts of his memory." Smiling, his shadow ran his hand through Lovinos hair again before he put a hand on his chest, right above his heart.

"What did you-"

"When he wakes up he will only remember touching you, touching my shadow, and feeling a lot of pain before passing out. I'll be the good guy and you'll be the bad" His laughter echoed through the house.

.

After flipping through one of the many books he brought, Arthur finally nodded. "Yes, it's just as I thought" The others gathered around and listened carefully. Arthur that wasn't used to such a big audience of people that were actually listening cleared his throat nervously. "Berwalds spell is an attack spell"

"An attack spell?" Tino asked a bit confused. Arthur realized it would be easier to explain everything from the beginning.

"Okay, so spells are divided into three categories, they all have subcategories but we'll skip that for now. They are: 'Attack spells' which you use to attack your enemy, 'Defense Spells' which you use to defend yourself from attacks and 'Neutral spells' which is used mainly for science or party tricks." He looked over at Francis "Or to mess with people."

"But how is Berwalds spell an attack spell?" Mathias asked, very confused. He didn't see how turning into a child would have any advantages in a fight. Arthur sighed and shifted positions.

"As I said, his spell isn't only turning into a child. It also turns him incredibly adorable making you feel compelled to help and protect him. You can all feel it right?" They all nodded thoughtfully causing Berwald to blush which made the others look at him. "As you can see, he also attracts attention from the people around him."

"I still don't get how this is an attack spell?" Mathias sighed. He didn't like to not understand. Arthur rubbed his temples in an attempt to think of an easy way to explain this.

"What if you saw Berwald just standing there crying? What would you do?" He looked around at the others before Emil gave the obvious answer.

"We would go over there and comfort him" Mathias started to see how this all worked just as Arthur nodded.

"And when you do he would easily be able to catch you off guard and stab you right in the heart. Then while you die you will still forgive him. He is only a child after all." The terror showing on the nations faces was nothing compared to Berwalds. He stood up and walked outside where he laid down on the grass and took a few deep breaths. The others had frozen in place and felt a chill down their spines as Arthur added "But that's not all"

"There's more!?" Tino sighed, This was not good at all.

"The spell will only get stronger and stronger. Since you guys have been spending a lot of time with him you'll be fine but if he meets anyone new and the spell has grown too strong they will be drawn to him, like hypnotized. A group of people all trying to protect a single child can easily hurt the child in the process" Arthur met their eyes one by one so they would realize the seriousness in the situation. Mathias had to sit down for a moment while Tino had to walk around to keep calm. Emil leaned against the wall and tried to breathe normally.

"We just have to protect him then." All eyes were turned towards Lukas that was eyeing them a bit less suspicious than before. Mathias stared at him.

"I think that's the first sane thing you said in a while"

"Shut up"

They were interrupted when Berwald came back inside. "Let's move on" he said and pointed towards a door. "You wanted to see the room right?" Happy about the distraction Mathias stood up and walked over. Arthur nodded and followed him into the room and was delighted to see that it was completely untouched.

"Well I guess I'll go start dinner then" Tino hurried off so he wouldn't be in their way.

"I'll help you" Francis followed with Alfred still carrying Matthew walking right behind. Arthur walked into the room and saw how papers and books had spread over the floor. A circle of candles was present in the middle of the room and he saw that something was drawn on the floor. He hurried over and moved a few loose sheets of paper. The others saw how he carefully traced the circle and heard how he mumbled when he read the letters.

"We're lucky that Arthur's still sane." Emil whispered so he wouldn't disturb the focused nation. He noticed how Lukas carefully walked up behind him. He looked a bit confused but it seemed like he finally trusted them, even if it was only a little bit. He heard Arthur gasp and saw how he stood up and stumbled out of the circle. He turned around and stared at Lukas that took a step back because of the intensity in his eyes.

"Are you some kind of genius?"

A/N Thank you for reading this far! I appreciate all favs/alerts/reviews and treasure them with all my hearth! A question some of you have asked is if I'll write about any more nations and the answer is yes. I'll include the most popular nations and probably a few others too! Remember, there's a world meeting soon!