This chapter's song is Heathens by 21 Pilots.
"The last day of the Grand Magic Games, folks! I hope you're as excited about this as I am! The contestants are Morrigan, Midnight, Nightshade, Noctus, Lucifer, Vidaldus, Erigor, Cobra, Ortelloth, Kessie, Orion, Racer, Rustyrose, Nexus, and Kurohebi! On the opposing side we have Levy, Gajeel, Lucy, Laxus, Mirajane, Lisanna, Gildarts, Cana, Natsu, Wendy, Jura, Lyon, Sherria, Eve, Jenny, Bacchus, Rocker, Kagura, Millianna, Arana, Rogue, Sting, Minerva, Dobengal, and Flare! Wow, that's a lot of names. In addition to those, also joining the side against the Black Hand is Jellal, Meredy, and Hoteye! Give it up for these reformed criminals!" Jason announces to the roaring crowd.
"Last days of the grand magic games are always the most fun, and you know why! It's a battle royale! This year, it will take place underground! Contestants, get ready! Get set!"
The arena's floor opens up, and the entirety of the two teams fall through, Kessie laughing, Morrigan and Erigor neutral, Noctus saying whee all the way down with Lucifer smiling at her, Vidaldus yelling, and some just not even noticing.
At the bottom, there are still grunts of pain as the lacrima vision kicks in, giving us a look at everyone there.
"GO!" Jason's voice resonates over the microphone, and the contestants either run to find better ground or just start preparing spells. The lacrima vision spins around, giving us a full 360 view of the place, and there's rubble everywhere. Looks like it's from construction.
Kessie immediately leaps into action, teleporting this way and that until the only ones left behind are her and Ortelloth, who she smiles at widely and jumps with again, right behind the other team.
From there, Ortelloth uses magic to send most of the team flying with her Eruption magic, some of them cursing. However, out of 28, she only got about 10, so there are still plenty to take out and I doubt they'll be down for long.
Noctus and Lucifer stand on a pile of rubble, and she fires a Dark Rondo at the remaining people.
Lucifer, for his part, won't let his girlfriend hog all the glory, sending fireballs at them, one of which Natsu swallows and licks his lips afterwards.
Rogue, being the Dragon Slayer that he is, sucks in the Dark Rondo, making Noctus look at Lucifer, and immediately the two grin and switch partners, Noctus using a Shadow Claw to drag Natsu to a separate location. Lucifer launches fireball after fireball at the Shadow Dragon Slayer, who avoids most of them but gets hit twice.
Nexus, appearing next to his Brother with a smirk, starts singing softly, "She's in love with the devil, she's in love with Lucifer. This is her revenge for all the years of hate and tears."
"Stop standing there and do something, Nexus!" Ortelloth says, now in a close battle with Hoteye. Both of them are melting the earth down and trying to use it against the other. Once or twice Kessie's deemed it too close and saved her love from the 'evil man.'
"Fine, fine, calm down. Surgere a dormitabit, ministro ego tantum. Perdere mea hostibus, vos sunt meus nunc et aeternum, donec ego solvo vos."
The spell has an immediate effect, waking the dead around the place and rising up, breaking through the loose topsoil and moving up, until dead bodies of the fallen are completely exposed. As soon as they arrive, they converge on a person not from the Brotherhood, earning shrieks of terror from most of them and cause more than a couple of panic attacks.
Those that are destroyed stay down, and Nexus cannot summon any more until they all fall. (123)
A square hit to Kessie sends her spiralling, and as Ortelloth rushes to her, her eyes swell up in tears. (124)
Her girlfriend whips around, activating her Shadow Force, which I always find surprising, for some reason, even though I've seen her do it like ten times.
From her throat rips a scream, and magic swirls around Ortelloth, the very earth around her feet commanding her obeys and covering her, solidifying and staying still for a moment. That moment passes, and out Ortelloth steps, instead of in her usual outfit of robes covering her entire form, in her Shadow Force form.
Her hair is kept out of her eyes with a simple knot on the back of her head, falling down, but with two strands in front of her ears, the rest kept behind by her ear ornaments, golden attachments in the shape of elves ears. A choker collar of red adorns her neck, and gloves of bright gold extend from upper arms to her fingers, with her right wrist holding a red and blue bracelet with spikes. Her top connects to a circle in the middle of her chest, then breaks off, going to her back in two directions. Red cloth covers her chest while gold, yet again, appears, circling her midsection, three buckles holding it secure while exposing a teeny bit of Ortelloth's former guildmark, an ice blue something around her belly button. A brown belt keeps her skirt up, a small pouch with gold accentuating it, the same gold on the line at the bottom of the skirt. A small golden button keeps it secure, and her skirt is a red that looks absolutely lovely on her skin tone. Her shoes attach to her feet via thin straps of black, while the platform bottoms are gold. On the belt, right next to the pouch, is a tiny piece of candy along with a bracelet, courtesy of Kessie.
Out of the pouch, with Hoteye simply standing there, stunned, Ortelloth draws two things, and I smile with fondness, thinking of how I found Ortelloth.
Two puppets are in her hands, a woman in a dress in her right, while a jester hangs comically from it's strings, in Ortelloth's skilled fingers.
Bickslow leans over to me. "Why does she have puppets?"
"Ortelloth used to use puppets to channel her magic. If I'm not mistaken, the jester one can make anyone laugh, and the lady makes them captivated. Those are her oldest puppets, and she can work them quite well. It's actually how she and Kessie got together; she's the only one who can resist the lure." I finish, and continue looking at the lacrima vision.
"Seriously?"
"She gets very protective of Kessie." I say. "She doesn't like being alone, and Kessie is very gifted at sensing Ortelloth's emotions."
"Huh." Bickslow states, very articulate today.
"They're an unusual couple." I remark, smiling. "But they're very sweet together."
Case in point, Ortelloth starts to make the puppets dance. The Lady claps her hands, almost seeming to giggle like she's alive. The Jester starts to dance, and Kessie, seeing what's happening, teleports around to the team, snapping in front of their faces, knocking them out of the allure of Ortelloth's magic. A cut she received from the fling back is bleeding, and she wipes it away from her forehead with a hurried hand as she continues her task, not bothering with the undead under Nexus' control, as they won't be affected as long as he isn't.
Ortelloth continues to play with the puppets, Hoteye starting to be affected. He laughs, clapping his hands at the sight of the magical puppets. Ortelloth smiles, turning her little man around and around, making Hoteye rumble the earth with laughter, shaking the ground. I watch as Ortelloth's eyes start to gleam, the purple orbs coming alive and dancing, following the movements of her puppet. Lady, now able to move because of Ortelloth's magic stands, wobbling a bit on her doll legs, walks to her shoulder, sitting once more on Ortelloth's shoulder, continuing to clap at Jester's antics and capturing the attention of the opposing team, especially Jura and Hoteye, both of them falling into the hypnotic dance of the Jester.
Slowly, the two start to crumple in on themselves while everyone watches something else, for example, Nexus, focusing on the ruins, probably thinking about how to sketch them later on. (125)
The puppet dances faster and faster, Ortelloth using both hands now, and the other two earth magic users start to keel over, their legs trembling from the pressure of their laughter. (126)
The two keep laughing, tears streaming out of their eyes and they begin to be panicked, as they can't stop laughing long enough to breath correctly, their laughter making it impossible to do anything besides fall down and hope to breath. Even not seeing the puppet, they can't stop laughing, and Kessie, back at Ortelloth's back, taps her shoulder, Lady whipping around and stopping her clapping, allowing the two on their backs stop laughing, though they're down for the count.
Ortelloth blinks, stopping Jester from dancing, and turns to Kessie, who smiles at her and hugs her, holding her girlfriend as the Shadow Force shimmers out of existence. The puppets fade out, and Ortelloth slumps into her girlfriend's arms, unconscious from all the power she's used. She's not running on empty, but this happens every time with her, and almost always with the Shadow Force unless you've got an already enormous amount of magic at your disposal, like Morrigan, Noctus, or Nightshade. (127)
Kessie tends to Ortelloth, flicking a wrist and creating a bubble around them, giving them both privacy and security. I've tried to break one of those shields of hers before, it took me at least five minutes with constant spells of extremely high caliber.
Jason, startling himself out of his spellbound state, says to the audience, "It appears that Jura and Hoteye are both down, along with Ortelloth! Is Kessie going to participate after this, though? With her teleportation powers, this could spell the end of the Black Hand's dominance in the magical field!"
I glare at Jason, taking my eyes off the lacrima vision for a quick while, making him sweat when he looks up at me. "Then again, maybe it could mean that the playing field will just get more interesting!"
I reluctantly focus back on the game, determined to support them even if they can't feel my gaze or the support.
I do, however, doubt that Kessie will leave Ortelloth's side until she recovers, which could be a while. Kessie will have no trouble maintaining the shield over both her and Ortelloth, especially since she won't be bothering anyone else and the people left will be distracted by the ones attacking them.
Noctus and Lucifer, teaming up, fire a unison raid at the two Dragon Slayers they're fighting, Natsu and Rogue. They scramble to get out of the way, of course, but the spell chases them, growing more massive as there isn't enough light there to kill the shadows. Finally, it catches them, cocooning the two of them in a mix of fire and shadow, making the shadows too hot for Rogue to swallow and the shadows too dense for Natsu to eat as well. The two writhe in agony as the substance covers their faces, blocking out any screams they might have.
Eventually, the two pause their movements, and the magic recedes a bit, allowing them to breath. We don't need to kill anyone here (128) but we do need to prove that we are better in our ruthlessness and our mercy than others.
Look, they're alive. That's very generous for assassins.
Dobengal, however, hits Lucifer in the back with a magic dagger, knocking him down and making Noctus gasp. He seems to realize he's not made the best move, but keeps fighting (129). The mage from Saber Tooth shoots off two more daggers in Noctus' direction, one tearing her outfit and another missing, though not by much. Noctus pieces together a Dark Seeker, sending it after Dobengal, letting it do its job as she helps Lucifer up. The Seeker chirps, letting Noctus know it found it's target. Smiling, Lucifer lights up his fist with fire and shoots the spell at the ninja.
Dobengal's pained shrieks echo throughout the cavern. (130)
Just to be sure, Lucifer sets the area around where Dobengal is on fire, slowly closing in and watching the terrified and very, very warm ninja run away smoking. He runs straight into a Darkness spell set up by Noctus, his shouts muffling themselves against the spell and slowly stopping.
As this happens, though, Sting hits Noctus in the back with a light spell, sending her flying in the direction of Dobengal, hitting the ground with an unceremonious thud.
Lucifer turns just in time to see an iron pillar from an arm hit him in the face, making him spiral and fall off the pile of rubble the two of them were standing on.
Gajeel and Sting stand there now, Gajeel with Iron skin and shadows dancing around his feet, Sting with white scales on his face and down his body, randomly placed, it seems.
They've entered Dragon Force.
I wonder if they'll be a match for Lucifer and Noctus?
This will be interesting.
Lucifer and Noctus take a look at their opponents, once they're standing, and then look at each other, nodding once.
Together they go into Shadow Force, and the transformation takes about a second, but allows the two Dragon Slayers to power up their own spells.
Lucifer appears in a swirl of red, his hair now styled in a mohawk with red highlights instead of green, his hands and feet claws or talons, a gas mask around his neck. Stitches in his lower torso are apparent, with a set of red bracers on his forearms. Spines stick out of his skin at his elbows and knees, tinged red and black. Black shorts and a sleeveless shortened black turtleneck top cover him just barely. His face still has a smile on it, delighting in his opponent's confusion and soon to be terror.
Sting and Gajeel release their spells and Noctus and Lucifer switch positions, taking the spells they could withstand much better than the other.
Smiling almost insanely, Noctus grins at the two up on the pile of rubble, who start to realize this is not their brightest idea ever.
Noctus and Lucifer fly at the two of them, using basic spells to send the rubble falling underneath their opponents' feet. Gajeel dissolves in shadow while Sting launches himself at the attacking pair.
He hits Noctus, sending the both of them into the ground but hurting Noctus more than him. Unfortunately, he forgot that Noctus, in this form, can use Death Magic with almost minimal effort.
And I can't stop her from this position. (131)
Her hand finds his neck, latching on and choking him, preventing him from using any of his voice based attacks on Noctus, which, at such close range, would not be good.
Lucifer searches for Gajeel, who hasn't materialized from the shadow. As the Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer remains missing, Noctus slowly proceeds to drain Sting's magic.
Surprisingly, he has more than Mirajane, who is renowned for both her magic power and her pin up ability (132). Noctus can't move though, while this is happening.
Gajeel reappears, tugging Sting out of Noctus' grasp and breaking the drain.
Sting gasps for air, and simply breathes for a while, before Lucifer hits Gajeel with a Spinning Kick of White Hot Pain (133) and Noctus grabs at Sting again, this time hitting him into the pile of rubble they stood upon at the beginning of the battle. Noctus slams him back into the rubble again and again, before releasing a vice like grip on his arms and instead grabbing his head with both hands and slamming it into the rubble pile, over and over, until his eyes roll back in his head and Noctus' hand drifts from his head to his neck, feeling his pulse and beginning to draw on it. (134)
Gajeel hits Noctus with an Iron pillar before she can get too far, although she's already siphoned off a fair amount of his magic. Sting exits Dragon Force, lying on the pile of rubble, almost smoking.
Returning his focus to the fight with Lucifer, he sends an Iron pillar at him as well, only to have it melt in the face of Lucifer's fire magic, so white hot that it can set buildings on fire with a single touch. He can melt stone with it, even, and iron? Not a problem.
With a huge outlet of flames, Lucifer smiles brightly, his eyes gleaming evilly and setting themselves on fire as well, his hands channeling his power directly towards Gajeel. The air crackles with the sounds of the fire, and after a few moments Lucifer lets up his assault, watching with satisfaction as the Iron Dragon Slayer powers out of Dragon Force, his outfit on fire, desperately trying to pat it out. Burns cover his arms, but he admirably throws himself at Lucifer, hitting him with a Shadow attack unexpectedly, the shadows holding him down while Gajeel uses Iron Shadow Dragon Slayer's Roar, actually causing the rubble nearby him to fall and land on the fire magic user.
Noctus, screaming at the sight of her "honeybunch" being buried by rubble, charges Gajeel, hitting with a Death Magic Strike.
Anyone else would be either severely injured or dead, but Dragon Slayers are extremely resilient. Gajeel takes the blow, clawing at the ground to gain a grip, probably causing great pain to himself with the burns covering him now. Noctus, not even caring that she might cause some sort of terrible consequence, goes after him, tackling him to the ground again, the two wrestling and Noctus slashes at him, her armor elongating to cover her fingertips, claws appearing and trailing dark energy, probably death magic, but who knows at this point.
Gajeel wisely tries to get away, activating his Iron skin in the process, but the claws penetrate it, making him gasp in pain as Noctus strikes him again and again, everywhere, even as his iron skin recedes and Gajeel goes unconscious, his energy significantly drained because of the death magic. (135)
Noctus doesn't even halt until Lucifer places a hand on her shoulder, back in his normal form, and she relaxes, smiling and her own Shadow form shimmering away.
"You're lucky he's not dead, otherwise you'd be suffering eternally." she spits at Gajeel, standing up and walking away, arm in arm with Lucifer. He ruffles her hair, and the two go to search for other opponents, although Noctus is being supported by Lucifer, having used a lot of her magic and her pretty much down for the count in a fight.
What else is going to happen here?
123- The downside to necromancy.
124- I'm never sure if she's serious or not, but it does this to Ortelloth, no matter what.
125- He's a very talented artist, and as soon as I told him about Argonians, he started drawing them. The sketches became better once he found out more about them and their culture, due to some books and pointers I gave him.
126- They have really weird laughs.
127- Using a secondary magic as a main one because of several reasons can also unleash the restrained magic, like Noctus' and Ortelloth, although it takes something to bring them out of it, like a swift kick or a tap on the shoulder. They lose control of themselves for a while at the benefit of gaining more power to defeat practically anyone they wish.
128- Although it's already happened, rather accidentally.
129- Admirable.
130- I didn't know someone could scream so high.
131- Do I want to, though? No. Need to? We shall see.
132- Is that a real thing?
133- This is a real attack he uses, I swear.
134- In her Shadow form, anything that moves is considered a target, and she has this habit of even taking foxes life forces. I like foxes.
135- Now we know.