Chapter Six: Runes
I rounded another corner, not really paying attention to where I was going. I could have been running in circles and I wouldn't have noticed because of the tears in my eyes. Although, my hearing was still sharp so I pulled up short when I heard voices around the next corner.
"Finally, some excitement around here," said one guy to another, "The foolish King has finally made a move."
I inched to the edge of the corner and peered stealthily around it. There was only one way to go, two double doors with a little sign above it stating it was the Guards' Room. So they did have some followers. After making sure the coast was clear, I walked quietly to the doors, hoping my boots didn't make too much noise on the hard floors.
I looked inside through a little glass panel in each door and saw many men and women dressed in black outfits. They each had different outfits but it was all black. I scanned the room, looking for some sort of secret entrance or some other way to get to the room other than through the front. Then I saw red hair.
Infra? I thought, peering closely. Then the woman turned around and Erza looked back at me. Of course she would blend in here since she was wearing black and there were so many people, no one would have noticed her. Her eyes widened slightly and mouthed, where's Gray?
I must have started tearing up again because Erza bit her lip and nodded slowly. Then she stood up and her magic circle appeared. All the guards looked up at her in surprise, and then Erza transformed into her usual armour and got a sword out of another circle.
"'Titania' Erza!" yelled one person, "She's working for the King!"
There was a huge ruckus in the room and I decided to step in now. As soon as I ran in, everyone turned towards me, except Erza, busy slashing up people.
"Gate of the Crab, I open thee!" I said, taking out Cancer's key, "Cancer!"
As he appeared, Cancer looked around the crowd, "There are lots of people this time, -ebi."
"We have to help Erza," I said, unhitching my whip, "Onegai, Cancer!"
Cancer nodded and charged through the crowd with his scissors and attacked many people in the crowd. I used my whip to keep most of them at bay and prevent them from escaping. The last thing we needed was someone running to warn everyone the King's spies were in the building.
In a few minutes, the crowd was defeated. It turned out there were only three mages; the rest were normal people with guns and swords. I ran to the other side of the room, walking around the unconscious people scattered on the ground. On the other side of the room, directly opposite the door I was peeking in, was another corridor with a corner to turn. There was no door in front of it so either it never had one or we had blown it straight off its hinges when we were fighting.
"I'll check if the coast is clear," said Cancer, who was closer.
"Yeah," I said, skipping around a KO'd man. Erza was close behind me.
As Cancer ran through the corridor and checked around the corner, he nodded to Erza and me and ran around the corner. Then a red glow shone around the corner and my intuition flickered, "Cancer! Come back!" I got out his key and made a forced gate close.
A second after I did, a fire blast hit the wall. Whoever had done it was around the corner and I had a good idea who.
"Infra!" I yelled, running through the corridor. I looked back to explain to Erza who Infra was but she was standing in the room was the unconscious people.
"Erza?" I said, turning around, "Come on, we have to hurry!"
"I… can't…" said Erza, glaring at whatever was preventing her from coming.
Don't tell me… I walked to the place where the room and corridor connected and knocked it with my hand.
Sure enough, purple symbols appeared. Runes!
"Redheaded humans can't pass through this side," read Erza, glaring murderous intent.
I tried to go back through so we could find another way to go through together but I couldn't, no matter how hard I pushed on the Runes.
Some more symbols appeared and I read them aloud, "Once you have passed through from either side, you cannot go back."
"Nani?" I yelled, kicking the Rune wall. Someone had sure planned this out right.
"Lucy," said Erza seriously, "You'll just have to go by yourself. I'll try to find another way in."
"Demo—" I said.
She already ran away.
I took a few deep breaths.
Impossible, I thought, how could she have beat Gray so quickly? She must be really strong…
After I calmed myself down, I rounded the corner and looked up expectedly.
Infra was standing there, not one hair ruffled, not one spot of dirt on her, nothing was given away to show she'd just had a fight with a mage. I couldn't believe it.
"And… you again, Not-Lucy," said Infra casually, arms folded across her chest.
"What did you do to Gray?" I demanded shakily, not summoning up nearly as much courage as I wanted. I was too afraid of what I thought I was about to hear.
"Gray?" said Infra, playfully thinking, "Oh yeah, the Ice mage. Of course I defeated him. Our elements are merely not fit for each other and even the weather was on my side. You wouldn't believe how quickly his ice melted," she laughed again, "with my fire and the heat working against it. 15 minutes tops was how long it took."
"But…" I said, shaking even more, "Is he… Did you…"
She rolled her eyes, "I never kill those I have a sliver of respect for. The fact he was willing to sacrifice himself for your sake was quite worthy of my respect. He's just being held captive in the same room as the princess. Although, don't be too relieved. If he does anything suspicious, we'll kill him. We are on opposing sides, after all."
I nodded, shaking less now, "Thank you."
She seemed taken aback by that, "'Thank you?" she said in disbelief, "I mock your teammate and say we might kill him and all you have to say is 'thank you'? Did you hate him or something?"
"No," I replied, smiling slightly, "You let him live. That's all I wanted."
She blinked and looked surprised at me before shaking herself and snapped back to reality, "Whatever. It's not like it changes anything. I'm still going to kill you."
She charged straight at me instead of firing fire like I expected her to and leapt at me, hitting me in the face. I stepped back a few steps, clutching my face which was probably going to swell up. I had never been good in close combat. Now seemed like a good idea to improve.
I sensed her coming at me again, so I thrust my arm forward as hard as I could. I could feel the sound as it connected to her shoulder, jarring my hand as well and Infra leapt back. I could see the surprise in her eyes. Obviously, close combat wasn't her strongest point and she only used it because she'd underestimated me.
Clutching her shoulder with one hand, she made her magic circle and this time, a phoenix came out. I jumped to the side as it came past and hit the wall behind me, making it burst into flames. I put my hand to my keys but winced as I did so. I suddenly realised my magic power was running low. How many spirits had I summoned today? Aries, Gemini and Cancer. Three spirits. I was near my limit and even if I did summon her, she couldn't do anything here. Instead, I pulled out my whip and lashed it towards Infra. When it was about to hit her, however, she somehow transported in a ring of flames and appeared next to where she was standing a second ago.
"Oh, by the way," she said, "I can transport to short distances away." She disappeared again and suddenly she was jumping on top of me. She must have transported to the ceiling above me and dropped down. I was knocked down, facing upwards at her and she was pinning me down, a crossbow made of fire pointed at me.
"Wait," I said, realising something, "How did you get past the Runes? You're a redheaded human!"
"Obviously, I was here before Nero made the Runes," she answered simply, "I wouldn't be talking if I were you."
I ignored that, "Why are you doing this? Why did you kidnap the princess?" I yelled.
"Shut up!" she shouted, "You don't understand, none of you! This island is messed up and we're trying to do something about it!"
Island, I thought, suddenly, a plan forming in my mind.
Infra pressed the point of the crossbow down until it was practically touching my neck, "Now you'll die."