Fate: Intertwining Star

Fate Chapter Five: A New Enemy

-Negi-

Its been four days since I've been in this body, I woke up from my coma just yesterday, it feels strange but a relief at the same time. Seeing my real body charred and burned right after waking up, Shiori was and mother was there with me when I woke up. They immediately explained to me what happened and that mother relocated my body in a Miniature Sphere in order to make my real body heal faster. She said at the amount of damage I sustained even magic would take a while to restore it to optimal conditions. While we were talking about my recovery and the reason I was hurt mother explained to us what those people could have possibly wanted with Shirabe. The fact that mother knew was not surprising, what was surprising was the reason those people took Shirabe.

"For quite some time now it has been known to us that there is a certain occult that in search of magic that can revive living beings from the dead. Shirabe possesses such abilities."

We all knew the horns of her kind were imbued with magic and that it was, most of the time, taken against their will and grounded finely to be made into a heal all potion. It also had another power, or rather their kind has a unique power. My mother explained that with dark magic and a specified incantation they could suck her magic and her life line and transfer it to another being. With that being said, I offered my hand to help Homura and Shiori to find their dear friend in the underworld. We were already on our way out of the room when my mother told us something that stopped all Five of us where we stood.

"Wouldn't it make your lives easier if you formed a Pactio with Negi," we stood still, like statues in the halls of Justice as my mother asked us the question.

"eh..." Homura looked back at my mother.

"NO WAY!" Koyomi yelled out.

"I wouldn't mind..." Shiori muttered shyly as her face blushed and glowed red.

"EH!" her response surprised me.

"I don't either," Tamaki was always calm and put logic before emotions but I didn't expect her to be so calm about making a pactio with me, "It would be beneficial for us in the long run."

"You can't be serious," I yelled, "But it might not work since I'm currently in a body of a doll."

"Oh it'll work, even though your body is a doll right now, all of you including your magic and your ability to create pactios are within the doll. All of it will transfer back to your original body when your consciousness returns to it."

"..." I was skeptical but she was right, it could help us if they did make a pactio with me.

-Negi-

The gigantic Demon was getting closer to me, Homura kept the Demon preoccupied while Shiori and I got back on our feet. Out of nowhere a black shadow struck the side of the demon's face and it fell to the ground, it was Koyomi and her Shadow Arts.

"Koyomi!" I yelled at her as a huge dragon came out of nowhere and stomped on the demons head, "what took you girls so long?" I jokingly asked as I smiled

"Sorry Negi-Kun, we were held up because Tamaki got hungry..." she smiled as she disappeared in the shadows again.

The demon was still moving but with Tamaki and Koyomi it will at least lift some weight from the three of us dealing with it ourselves. Just when relief finally came more danger came along with it, as Koyomi proceeded to attack the demon another three came out of nowhere on of them struck Tamaki in the gut and she fell on her side. The one on the ground stood up again and the four of them now stood in front of us like a gigantic wall. Just as the demons went into formation, the girls also came by my side. Tamaki was now in her human form again, Its been only five days but it seems like the girls are finally warming up to me. It felt nostalgic, it felt like Asuna and the others surrounding me and protecting me all over again. But this time it was different, because we were helping each other out. We were hear because we want to rescue a friend.

"All right!... Let's go!" I yelled as I absorbed Magic within myself twice activating Raiten Taisou II and taking control of Magia Erebea.

"ROGER!" in unison the four answered me as they flew each to their target while I activated my Magia Erebea.

Tamakai transformed into a dragon and began biting and scratching the demon, she was even using her fire at close range to the Demon. Homura was enjoying herself bombarding another demon with lightning, beams and fire; Koyomi used her shadow mask to continuously jump and strike it at different locations. Luna on the other hand was using Asuna's sword and Setsuna's wings. Of all the artifacts they received I feel like Luna's is the most useful but then again she hasn't really mastered using those weapons and abilities yet since she is only imitating them.

As they attacked the demons close up I began enchanting to summon a new spell I've learned in the few days I was here in the underworld. I guess you can no longer just call me a wind and lightning wizard. I can now also be considered a conjuring wizard, I summoned a thousand swords that surrounded me. I combined it with my lightning bolts and used my wind to shoot them right at my enemies. The girls immediately saw the light coming right at them and fell back as the swords imbued with lightning bolts struck their targets, two hundred and fifty for each demon. I saw the demons one by one fall to the ground and their skin begin to steam and dissolve into thin air.

"whew... that was a close one" Luna said out loud.

"They caught us off guard, we should be more careful from now on," Homura was shaking off some dirt from her clothes as she said that.

"Arika-sama did warn us about the dangers we will face down here, but to think there would be an abundance of large demons like that here," Koyomi said as she returned to her regular human form.

"We should get going, these probably more demons like that roaming this mountain side, we should head for that town that your mother spoke of," Tamaki always had a calm voice.

"All right let's go," I said as I led our little group down from the mountain side.

-Asuna-

The halls of the ship were surprisingly well lit, this whole gigantic tin can was very spacious and very comfortable. The ship was being prepared for take off, the whole place was getting all rowdy. I was making my way to the bridge and accompanying me was Ayaka and Chisame, the others were already at the bridge ahead of us since I went back to my room to grab a few stuff before leaving.

I finally reached the door to the bridge, as I enter I was greeted by some really bright lights. Amazing, the bridge, it was all digital. There were still windows but there were so many digital screen in front of each station, before me was a huge table or at least that's what it looked like. It was a strategy table, filled with data and the whole table displayed a map image of different places. Stood around it were my friends and fellow Ala Alba members, including Eva-chan and Satomi-chan.

"You're late," Eva-chan was a strict as always.

"Sorry," I said embarrassingly, "i had to grab a few stuff."

"The ship can't take off without the second in command of Ala Alba," Yui exclaimed as she smiled.

"Well then shall we get going, Finding Negi isn't exactly going to be easy," Haruna yelled out as she turned from what I would suspect is the captains chair.

"Wait! Who made you captain!?" I asked surprisingly.

"Well since I was the one with more experience in the ships of the Magic World, I thought I'd volunteer for the job," she winked and gave me a thumbs up as if reassuring me she can handle the task.

That's Haruna for you, "i see," I smiled and gave her a serious face, "All right, Let's go!"

in unison all of us cheered on as another adventure in Mundus Magnus Awaited for us.

The ship began to rumble as its engines roared to a start, I saw Albireo-sama standing right in front of the ship and casting some king of spell. Then I realized that the wall in front of us had some kind of pylons sticking out of it. He finished his incantation and a blue light appeared in front of us and a circular gate bordered by some kind of ancient writings appeared in front of us. As fast as it appeared an image showed through the gate, it was New Ostia.

"All right I've opened the gate," Albireo-sama's face appeared in the monitor above the main screen, "good luck out there girls!"

"We'll bring Negi-Bozu back," Kaede said as she came into the bridge along with some more of the other girls.

"All right, all ahead full Satomi!" Haruna yelled out as she pointed out ahead.

"Aye aye!" Satomi responded as she pushed the Ala Alba to full power.

The ship slowly moved forward and slowly the ship was swallowed by the portal and before we knew it we were swimming in the clouds surrounding New Ostia. The clouds divided as the ship sliced through it. We were greeted by another ship, a vessel from The Ostia and a royal envoy from the palace. We were escorted back to the Palace, Nagi told us that Arika-sama will be waiting for us as we arrive at Mundus Magnus. We flew past the island cities that represented Ostia, I could see the people from the edges of the island looking at us and waving at us as they welcome us with big smiles. The logo at the side of the ship did give us away, the people knew that Ala Alba, saviors of Mundus Magnus, were the new group to take Ala Rubra's place. We were getting closer to the Palace, I could already see it. I knew what it looked like since I have been there before.

"Looks like Lady Arika is really looking forward to meeting us," Ayaka spoke out.

"Well yeah, look who's at the balcony waiting for us," Yue responded as she pressed something to show a zoomed image of Arika-sama waiting for us at a balcony of the palace.

"The ship will be docked but Arika-sama wants to see us right away," Ayaka spoke out as she began walking out of the bridge along with Beatrix-san.

"The lady is has instructed me that she wanted to meet you guys, especially you Asuna-san," she explained as she turned and started walking, "there's a ship awaiting for us at the hangars to take us directly to the palace."

"Don't worry, i'll take care of your ship," Emily explained as she stood next to Haruna.

"Don't scratch her," Haruna stood from her chair and high-fived Emily.

"All right then," I exclaimed as I started walking out of thw bridge but then I was stopped by what Ayaka said.

"But is'nt it a little nerve Wrecking... meeting your lover's mother for the first time," she exclaimed as she smiled and covered her mouth in a smug way.

It completely shocked me because she was right but the way she said it, "LOVER?" I turned and gave her a shocked look. I remembered that when Arika-sama came back to Ostia to take it back and rebuild it we never really met because we all went back to school when she came back. Even when Negi was presented to Mundus Magnus as its heralded hero, we all had to come back to school.

Everyone laughed as they saw my reaction to A and calling Negi my lover. I mean yes I admitted that I like Negi but that doesn't mean he's already my lover. We made our way to the hangar and we boarded the smaller ship that we will take to the palace. The ship was small but the whole gang was able to fit in it. We made our way to the palace, the ride was a little rough but the little ship got us there without a hitch. It landed softly and Arika-sama greeted us as the rear hatch opened, she had a serious face on her. One that would scare even Nagi and Rakkan.

"It's nice to finally meet the ladies who have protected my child during all his adventures," she gave us a really pretty smile and the seriousness faded as the atmosphere lightened up and we felt our nervousness fade away, "Asuna, it is a pleasure to see you again."

"The pleasure is all mine my lady," I exclaimed as I bowed to her.

"The princess of Ostia needs not to Bow down to her queen," she smiled at me as she lightly lifted my head with her fingers.

"Ehh... hehehe," I laughed awkwardly, "I haven't been a princess for a long time Arika-sama."

"Oh? I thought that you were the one that everyone sees as my son's lover? no?"

That statement made me blush really bad that it was probably really visible to everyone, everyone looked at me and smiled, some even laughed.

"Well then first of all, before anything else you should all come with me," her serious face returned and for some reason I felt like something bad has happened.

We followed her through the palace, we went deeper and deeper into the chambers bellow the palace. There were little chatters here and there between our group but beyond that it was complete silence. She took us into a circular chamber surrounded by angelic statues, in the middle is a globe. Inside was a resort and a huge castle looking ctructure. A miniature world similar to the one Eva-chan has probably.

"Asuna, do you love my son?" she asked as she stopped right in front of a door.

"Eh..." the question caught me off guard, "uhm well... you see..."

"Before I let you see what lies within this world."

With a firm resolve and a hand on my heart I answered her with how I truly felt, "If you would have asked me a few weeks ago I would have denied it and I would have wavered, but losing Negi these past few weeks has made me realize how much I really felt for him. I realized that I trully did love him, I was lost without him, I missed him so much. I know he's still just a boy but I myself am still a child," when I looked up Arika-sama was smiling at me.

"The both of you should never be considered children with the amount of experience you've been through, but it makes me happy to hear that. When he was here he never stopped talking about how he wanted to get stronger for your sake Asuna."

That made me smile.

"We'll all get stronger together!" Yue yelled out for my sake, "Right Asuna?"

"Yes!" I yelled out as I smiled everyone else yelled out yes or just an acknowledgment to the statement.

"Well then that's good, because he will definitely be needing your help.

Arika-sama took us into the miniature world, It was somewhat similar to Eva-chan's resort. Arika-sama explained that Negi had this made and designed fairly similar to Eva-chans, he would come here to relax one his few hours off from work and he would spend days here to rest. Arika-sama took us within the palace, we finally arrived at an open area surrounded by a garden and something unfamiliar in the center of the room. Arika-sama approached it and touched something, it lifted from the ground and stood up, the cylindrical object opened up and revealed a glass inside filled with some kind of liquid. Slowly it showed a small frail body from within, half of its body was badly burnt and the other half was filled with scratches and cuts. Looking at it closely made my eyes open I complete surprise, My hands curled into a tight fist in anger and my eyes teared in sadness.

"N... Ne... gi..." I fell to the ground as I softly said his name, everyone else fell into a complete shock.

Negi's half burnt body was standing in front of us, "he ended up like this because he wanted to get stronger for me, this is all my fault," I felt Konoka's hand touch my back as I cried ther on the ground.

"Don't worry, he's not dead, and he's out there working right now."

We all looked up at Arika-sama, "Working?" Set-chan asked her all puzzled

"we transferred his consciousness to a doll, just like that body Fate possesses."

"What kind of work?"

"his original intention was to come visit me and train here and travel in search of better techniques and more powerful spells he can use to assist his Magia Erebea and to hone it. But his plans were changed, As you can see Shirabe a demi-human was kidnapped. Our suspicions are that some people from the underworld wanted to use her horns reviving power to revive a Demon from world past. A demon that was buried deep underneath our world in the hopes that no one would find it and revive it; our intelligence suggest that an occult group has found it and is planning to revive it. A Demon that in legends past nearly brought our world to ruin."

"so..." Ku Fei asked with a serious face.

"as of two days ago Negi along with Shiori and the others are with him in their way to save Shirabe and hoping to stop the occult from reviving the demon."

"They will be needing our help!" Nodoka shouted with a fist as if ready to take on another adventure, not that she wasnt ready this whole time.

"Yeah!" Ayaka was looking as energetic as always when it comes with Negi, "Negi-kun will be needing us!"

"YEAH!" everyone else yelled as they raised their hands in cheer.

"Yeah! Let's go, Negi needs us all right now..." I faced Arika-sama, eyes still red from crying but with a face showing my resolve to be with Negi, "Well be heading out now Arika-sama."

"Please take care of Negi," she gave us a smile that lifted our spirits even more.

So with spirits high and moral at its best we took off from the palace along with a few of Ostia's guard units who would guide us to the entry towards the underworld. And forward we rode Ala Alba, with its engines roaring, and its chambers filled with the high spirits of all Ala Alba, we took off for the Underworld.

-Note-

Sorry this update took forever, school and work has given me very limited time to write and of course writers block is every author's Achilles heel. But anyways thank you for sticking with me and reading my material...