Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 20: Paintings of Bright Love, Secrets of Dark Nature
Lucy and the other members of Team Sabertooth had decided to get up early for the chance to do some sightseeing before the tournament would once again occur, and it never hurt anybody to just have a bit of fun before going into something that would seem serious. Today was the third day of the Grand Magic Games, the same day that Fairy Tail had their best performances in the tournament last year, and Lucy was feeling good about the possibility of eventually facing off against someone from the guild of her past.
After all, this day and the fourth day were the only two days left before the final battles would begin. There was a bit of a chance that Fairy Tail and Sabertooth would cross paths again like how they had done in the tag-team battle, thrilling the entire viewing world, and Lucy was going to win that fight. She had been feeling really good, ever since yesterday when she defeated Yuka Suzuki from Team Lamia Scale in their battle, but Lucy still did not know how she had managed to do it without even reciting a spell.
She was still unaware of Darcy's existence within the book, hiding like an alter-ego that showed its face only when something was triggered, and Lucy was actually beginning to like her Darkness Magic. She liked it a little bit, since it hadn't blown the stadium sky high with its powerful spells, and Lucy had taken Sting's advice for this type of magic. She had to embrace the fearlessness of it, not be frightened by this new power, and Lucy's fierceness was also the reason for Darcy taking over. The fiercer that the blonde mage acted, the more powerful the amethyst-eyed spirit became.
Darcy's spells of darkness had always made Lucy lose consciousness while she used them, but she was never actually knocked out. The emotional parts of Lucy's heart would be unconscious while Darcy had taken over, letting her sinister purple aura engulf Lucy's soul for a temporary amount of time, and the violet-haired woman was certainly powerful. After all, she had managed to defeat a skilled user of Wave Magic by using her dark melody from Lavender Town. That actually put him to sleep, and following up with Nightmare Eater and Dark Optica was a great strategy.
Lucy and Sting were in the art gallery of the main museum located in Crocus, looking at many of the beautiful paintings that were on the walls, and each painting was situated perfectly in a golden frame. There were paintings of the Fairy Tail guild, a painting of Galuna Island, and there were even portraits of mages like Zeref. He surely wouldn't be posing for a picture, but he seemed to be sleeping in one painting. Whoever managed to paint that sight without being killed was certainly lucky, were they not?
Lucy's outfit today consisted of a sky blue T-shirt with a viridian green miniskirt to match, and her flat shoes were red. She wore her blonde hair in a side ponytail on the left side of her head, and Lucy looked fashionable as always. She smiled happily while standing next to Sting, both of them admiring a portrait of two people romantically kissing at a cafe, and Lucy sighed happily while hugging the guy who was certainly her best boyfriend. Lucy felt so happy to be around Sting, especially he cared so much about her.
After seeing him defeat Natsu in the event on the previous day of the Grand Magic Games, Lucy was glad to know that Sting loved her enough to not let a jerk like Natsu get away with talking bad about her. She had really wanted to personally make that jerk pay, though, since the conflict was more intense between the two of them. Lucy still found herself laughing at the fact that Natsu had forfeited his match to Lisanna yesterday because of a supposed crotch injury, and she only wished that she had been the one to crack his walnuts with her powerful kicks.
"Yesterday was so great, Sting. You encouraged me to do my best, and I won the match. We even got to see Natsu forfeit as well, and Erza probably isn't too happy about that. You did really good in the event, and that new move of yours was really cool. If you have a battle today, I'll definitely be cheering for you because I have faith in you. I know that you'll win, Sting." Lucy told him in a kind manner, smiling happily with joy twinkling in her beautiful cocoa brown eyes that looked lovelier than chocolate.
The white dragon slayer replied calmly, smirking with his usual high amount of confidence, "Thank you, Lucy. It makes me happy to hear you say that, you know. I'll definitely win for you if I have a battle, and the event probably won't be too hard for you or Rogue to do. Hearing you cheer me on would be the best sound in the world to me, and I agree with you about Natsu's withdraw against that white-haired chick. I didn't even see him shimmy down the pole or slide down it to even get a crotch injury, but we both know how stupid he can be."
That last remark about Natsu made Lucy giggle happily, definitely knowing that it was certainly true, and she was really glad to have a guy like Sting as her boyfriend. Not only was he so powerful, confident, smart, and totally hot, but he was also a pretty nice guy who could tell very funny jokes. Lucy always laughed at any puns that he would come up with, such as when they once fought a few enemies in a cave near the town of Nibi, and the fact that those guys were wielding spears made Sting say that they looked like they had a few points to make. (Was that corny, or not?)
Since the Grand Magic Games started in an hour, with a ticking clock interestingly placed above a portrait of a clock, Sting and Lucy both blushed at each other before they smiled and shared a passionate kiss. Their love was certainly great to see, and their chemistry really helped with their teamwork as well. Sting and Lucy were a pretty good duo, even though they never used their abilities in combinations with each other to make a Unison Raid, and they certainly were a cute couple. The blue-eyed male smirked at Lucy, before challenging her to a race to the Domus Flau, and Lucy giggled playfully while chasing after him to make sure that he wouldn't win three races in a row.
While they had ran off to have some fun and enjoy the tournament, Lucy and Sting did not even know that Karen had been watching them from inside of a shadow that a painting of the constellations in the night sky was casting. The woman with silvery-blue hair had specifically hid underneath this particular painting, not because it looked pretty cool, but it was made solely with Heavenly Body Magic. No matter how many times the painting would be defaced or broken when it fell and hit the floor, the Heavenly Body Magic would make this painting repair itself perfectly without any damage ever being seen.
Karen knew that her master, the original wielder of this strange book, had used Heavenly Body Magic back in the days of when their plan almost came to fruition. However, an incident with Fairy Tail had caused the plan to be halted almost indefinitely. Karen was able to survive back then without getting a scratch, but her master was not so lucky. In order to save her dying master, Karen had merged the book wielder's soul with the shadow of the spell book. The light from her master's opponent was bright enough to not only stretch out the shadows, but it pulled out the many types of magic and spread them across Earthland. Since Karen did not have a pure soul and a heart of gold, there was no way for her to look for the auras or transfer those types of magic from other people into the book for her to use.
When Lucy came into her plans by pure coincidence, Karen obviously had to see if she was the one who could read the book. While it was true that ages had gone by since her master had been sealed into the book, there was one thing that the woman with silvery-blue hair was shocked to realize when she was finding out some info on Lucy. This certain piece of info had really shaken Karen up, getting her more excited about this instead of being freaked out, and it made Karen glad that she had chosen Lucy. She had secretly smudged Lucy's spell book with the pink paint of Heavenly Body Magic, waiting for the book to change color, and that would lead to the seventh seal.
However, the gift after that was not obtainable by natural means of traveling to distant lands or absorbing another type of magic. This special gift was one that Karen's master had asked her to keep safe before she had to be sealed away, and it could only be used when the seven seals were all broken. Was it limitless godly power, giving her abilities like Erza with her Nakagami Armor? No, it was not. After all, no matter how much she wanted all the power to be unleashed, Karen knew about the book's tips and rules that the book wielder had to abide by. She just had to get Lucy alone with her to give this gift to the blonde maiden, and she certainly deserved to hear some interesting things. Karen sunk down into the shadow of a nearby painting, and went off to wait for the right moment.
Meanwhile, at the Domus Flau...
Natsu had looked pretty beaten up for forfeiting against Lisanna yesterday, and Erza had obviously given him a left black eye. She wasn't the type of person who liked to lose, and she certainly did not want to lose the Grand Magic Games against any of the other competing guilds. Team Fairy Tail A was currently in third place with 26 points, only six points behind the other team competing for the Fairy Tail guild, and it was all because of Natsu. If he had beaten Sting and Lisanna, then Fairy Tail would have been in first place with 38 points to be tied with Sabertooth.
However, the scarlet-haired mage also had no clue that Natsu was actually forced to throw that battle yesterday. He owed Lisanna for being a total jerk to her and to Lucy, even though he was really showing no remorse for the latter because she was dating his blond rival, and the white-haired girl was also blackmailing him with a Videotape Lacrima Crystal. There was also an Audio Lacrima Crystal as well, letting everyone hear about how Natsu had acted around Lisanna, and they would also hear how he had treated Lucy.
Lisanna had wanted to be on good terms with Lucy and be great friends with someone who was so well-liked, but Natsu had definitely ruined that plan by starting a fight with Lucy. She had surprisingly managed to kick his egotistical butt with Fire Magic, really making a big blow to his pride, and Natsu was only lucky that Erza had stopped the fight. Otherwise, Lucy's fourth spell would have destroyed him. She had even kicked his butt with Earth Magic when he stormed into the Sabertooth guild to look for the red book, and hurting Sting was certainly a bad move.
The fire dragon slayer was certainly getting his bad karma for what he done, and he looked over at Team Fairy Tail B's booth to see that Lisanna evilly smirked while using her Take-Over ability only on her hands to show him her sharp Tigress claws that were ready to maul him when that time came around. If he wanted his pride to be protected, as well as earning Lisanna's back, then he had to do exactly as she instructed. Natsu lasting longer than Mira in that event yesterday, along with fighting against Sting, were things that Lisanna had not allowed him to do. He would certainly be getting pain for that, right?
He also could not tell anyone about the deal that he had made with Lisanna, leaving him silenced and begging for mercy from Erza when he had forfeited that match. She had even made Mira tear Natsu's clothes off to see if he had even gotten a serious injury to his crotch in that event on the second day of the Grand Magic Games, and the blue-eyed woman had seen that everything was fine. For lying to the team like that, Erza had given Natsu a hard kick to his groin for him to know the pain of being kicked in such a tender area.
"I don't know what made you be off your game yesterday when you had the opportunity to show off and be arrogant about fighting your ex, Natsu, but you better get your act together today. We're in third place, and I was hoping that we wouldn't descend further from second place. If you lose anything else for us, then you can guarantee that I will make your life become miserable in Fairy Tail. It would be perfect for how you treated Lucy." Erza sternly told him while narrowing her brown eyes, ready to pound some sense into his head.
The fire dragon slayer replied while looking annoyed, muttering under his breath, "Lisanna's already making me going through a living hell, so just shut up."
Erza angrily asked him to say that louder to her, not hearing exactly what he had said, and Natsu looked a bit scared while putting his hands up in a defensive manner. He really had a habit of not thinking before he spoke, often saying the wrong things loudly to make himself look bad, but Natsu was lucky this time. He simply scowled in a frustrated manner while hearing Gajeel and Laxus both snicker at his misfortune, making the fire dragon slayer sigh sadly at the fact that he was now in a lose-lose situation with the opposing wishes of Erza and Lisanna.
At least he was now learning the biggest life lesson, involving the fact that a girl should never get used by a guy, or she will retaliate in a big way. Upsetting women could also make them have a dislike for him, and Natsu was learning this lesson the hard way. He already had Lucy and Lisanna hating him for all of the horrible things that he had done to them, and now Erza was hating him for throwing a challenge that could've given Fairy Tail a pretty close edge near Sabertooth to help them when the final day arrived.
10 minutes later...
Lucy and Sting made it to their team's booth to see that the rest of their team had gotten there before they did, but it did not really matter that much. Everyone wondered the event of the third day would be, hoping that it wouldn't require so much creativity like Appealing Ace or be pretty deadly like Pillar Battle, and some people were actually happy that the events were different than the ones from last year because they did not want to participate in games like Pandemonium or Hidden.
Either way, the game would have some kind of twist to it to most likely prevent anyone from making a straightforward strategy that would help them win easily. That would efface anyone's hopes of saying that the games were mediocre, since they certainly were not. Of course, there were ways around the stern rules of each event. Some people who were smart like Lucy could find the malleability in the rules, and crafty people like Karen could be sneaky without anybody seeing or sensing a single thing.
"Welcome to the third day of the Grand Magic Games, ladies and gentlemen! I can tell that Sabertooth is really letting us all know that they plan to make quite a comeback, but the Fairy Tail teams aren't too far behind! They aren't getting lazy about this competition, and Fairy Tail could come from behind to win! Will they ever settle their rivalry, and can anyone topple them down? We'll have to see what thrills us all today!" Chapati exclaimed with an excited facial expression, wanting to see some more raging battles like Lucy's battle against Yuka from Team Lamia Scale.
"Let's see who is the best at working in sync with their magic, shall we?" Yajima commented, as a smile found its way on to his face.
The guest judge for the third day was Lahar, the Head Captain of the Custody Enforcement Unit and he was also a member of the Magic Council. He smiled while not saying anything, and only hoping he wouldn't have another situation like when him and Doranbolt found out that Jellal was posing as Mystogan. He also hoped that there wouldn't be cheaters this year, like Team Raven Tail. The Rune Knights also sat in various places to watch the Grand Magic Games, and one of them even failed to recognize Suna from the dark guild known as Silent Outcry while he was sitting right next to her in the stands.
Lucy looked down at her spell book that she had in her left hand to see that it had somehow turned pink, not being purple anymore to represent the spells of Darkness Magic, and she gasped in shock while wondering what type of magic she had came across now. She hadn't found any auras, nor had she absorbed a new type of magic from anyone, so what was up with the book? Lucy had no idea about what Karen had done, and the Heavenly Body Magic had the unique non-spell ability of removing the pink paint while the book remained in that color. It did not want Lucy to get suspicious, from the looks of things.
Despite having a new type of magic, Lucy wasn't going to use it right away. She did not even know if it was going to have strange effects like the Darkness Magic that made her lose consciousness when she had used it, and she had also felt a weird presence from it as well. This new type of magic could probably make her go insane, jump to high heights for the spells to be used, or even run at high speeds. However, she could not just assume what it would do or assume what side effects it would have. Just to be safe, though, Lucy would only use her Celestial Spirit Keys.
Everyone turned their attention to Chapati when he announced the event for the third day of the Grand Magic Games, and he surprisingly announced that this event would be quite a major change for everyone who competed in last year's tournament. The event was known as "Great Gambler", and it was not a mental challenge or a physical challenge. This was a game of luck, just like how a real gambler would hope to get lucky and win big, prompting everyone to look a bit shocked that something like this would be happening.
Luck had never been part of the Grand Magic Games in the past years, and some people like Rufus looked a bit shocked at this. He could not memorize or cheat to change things that would occur in a game of chance, and the cards would also probably be face-down as well. Lucy looked a bit disappointed at the fact that she wouldn't be able to use her Celestial Spirits in something like this, and the book also would not prove to be useful here. Sting also looked shocked at this change, but then he became calm while having faith in Lucy. After all, her name was only one letter away from spelling "lucky."
No magic was allowed in this event, leaving it all up to chance, and that made this event pretty hard for everybody. Gajeel volunteered to do this event for Team Fairy Tail A, much to Natsu's annoyance since it would break his deal with Lisanna, but the iron dragon slayer grinned confidently while knowing that he always had pretty good luck. Team Fairy Tail B chose Lisanna to represent them because she wanted to do it, and Sting had given Lucy enough encouragement for her to participate in this event for Team Sabertooth. All that she needed was a little luck, you know.
The blonde maiden's participation in an event that did not involve magic was certainly a bit troublesome to Karen, who stood in the booth where Team Sweet Melancholy was located, and she smiled calmly while jumping down from her team's booth with a clever smirk on her face. She was not going to let luck not be on Lucy's side, and Karen wanted the confidence of the blonde mage to keep rising for her strong emotions to be unleashed whenever she used spells from the book. Besides, there was only one seal left.
Chelia Blendy decided to join in on the game for Team Lamia Scale, and Hibiki Lates volunteered to try and win the event for Team Blue Pegasus. Kagura allowed Milliana to participate in the event for Team Mermaid Heel, and Bacchus was going to try and win this event for Team Quatro Cerberus because he was pretty good at card games that involved gambling. After all of the participants had been chosen for each team, they all walked to the center of the battlefield for Mato to explain the rules to them.
He commanded the field to open, simply having the mages behind the scenes use magic to create what appeared to be a poker table, and everyone looked surprised by its sudden appearance. The table had only sixteen playing cards on it, making everyone look really curious as to why this game would not be played with a full deck, and Mato told them that the event known as "Great Gambler" required all the participants to pick two random face-down cards from the table. It was a simple game of chance, really.
Nobody knew what cards they were going to get, and Mato also let them know that aces counted as eleven points instead of one. Whoever had the highest number from the total of their pair would receive ten points for their team, and whoever had the lowest number would get zero points for their team. Mato smiled and danced around while telling everyone to simply choose two cards from the table. The competitors were also not allowed to look at each other's cards, but who really would want to see who got lucky?
Lucy looked a bit nervous, being the last one to grab two cards from the table, and she groaned in frustration at her luck when she saw what cards she had gotten. They were a two of clubs and a three of spades, totaling up to five, and that was the lowest score that could be achieved in the game. She looked pretty down about this, thinking that luck had run out for Sabertooth, but she did not know that this event had a sneaky cheater in its midst. Lucy was wishing that the cards could be reshuffled and drawn again, but she wouldn't be saying that when her eyes were closed in frustration.
When the blonde mage had closed her cocoa brown eyes, Karen had a sly smirk on her face while everyone stood around the table. The woman with silvery-blue hair noticed that everyone's cards were making shadows above the ground, prompting her to silently direct the shadows of the cards to switch to different people, and switching the shadows of the cards would also switch around which cards everyone had in their possession. Nobody even noticed how their cards had been tampered with in the blink of an eye, or the reshuffling of the shadows, and this game was sure to get interesting now.
Bacchus grinned confidently while playing his cards first, knowing that he had a black king of spades and a red queen of hearts, but then he looked shocked to find that he now had Lucy's two of clubs and her three of spades. This totaled up to five, the lowest score in the game, and Team Quatro Cerberus immediately earned zero points. Bacchus Groh left the field with a somewhat annoyed look on his face, and he muttered about the event not being wild enough to be in his favor. Milliana played the three of hearts and the three of diamonds, earning a score of six, and Team Mermaid Heel had only gained one point. She walked back to her team's booth, and Kagura simply looked annoyed.
Hibiki now had the four of spades and the four of diamonds, totaling his pair up to eight, but that wasn't exactly a pretty high score. He earned two points for Team Blue Pegasus, and looked pretty shocked to know that his calculations were off. Well, nothing could really be calculated exactly in a game of chance. Chelia had the four of clubs and the five of hearts, getting her a score of nine, and that helped her earn three points for Team Lamia Scale. Lyon sighed sadly while thinking that he should have done the event, since he wouldn't have picked the first two cards on the left side of the top row of four like Chelia had done.
Surprisingly, Gajeel had drawn the ace of spades. However, he had only gotten a score of thirteen because he had also drawn the two of hearts. Since none of the other three competitors looked at him like their pair values were lower than his, Gajeel earned four points for Team Fairy Tail A. This made Natsu want to laugh at him, but it would be stupid to do that. After all, Gajeel could easily make a comeback that let Natsu know that he did not forfeit his battle on the first day. Burning a fire dragon slayer like that would be irony, would it not?
Lisanna kindly showed Lucy and Karen her pair of cards to let them see that she had the ten of clubs and the six of diamonds, but neither of her opponents looked like their cards had a lower pair value than sixteen. Lisanna got six points for Team Fairy Tail B, and she hugged Lucy while wishing her good luck before she went back to her team's booth where they were waiting for her. Natsu looked upset to know that Lisanna scored higher than his team by playing fair, but he had to cheat on her. On top of that, Lucy was still in the event.
The blonde girl fiercely looked into Karen's eyes, seeing nothing but calmness in her silvery-blue eyes, and Lucy really wanted to earn those ten points for her team. She could hear Karen giggling a bit, almost as if something was a bit funny, but what was there to laugh about? Lucy did not intend on losing this event to her, and she showed Karen her pair of cards while the mysterious woman did the same for Lucy. Karen had the ten of hearts and the ten of spades, totaling up to a score of twenty, but Lucy had surprised everyone. She had the ten of diamonds, and the ace of hearts to get a score of 21.
Lucy had won the event for Team Sabertooth, having the pair of cards that totaled up to the highest numerical value, and she had earned ten more points for her guild. Karen had earned eight points for Team Sweet Melancholy, but that still let them hold fourth place for now. She was glad to have helped Lucy out in this event, seeing the look on her face that told Karen that she did not want to lose, and Karen smiled in a scheming manner while knowing she just had to keep letting Lucy's confidence go up. The poker table disappeared, and both girls went back to their booths while having tasted victory.
10 minutes later…
The battles of day three were now ready to begin, and everyone looked thrilled while anticipating what kinds of battles they would get to witness today. Karen knew that she did the right thing by giving the spell book to Lucy, and she also knew that the blonde maiden would not immediately use her seventh type of magic. After all, the Darkness Magic had pretty much frightened Lucy before Sting had encouraged her to embrace it. Besides, the Heavenly Body Magic still needed some more time to charge up to its full potential.
Karen had been smirking evilly while the first battle had put her up against Bacchus from Team Quatro Cerberus, and she started things off by doing nothing at all. She simply stood there while he drank some booze, getting ready to defeat her with the Drunk-Chop Hanging Palm, and Bacchus had laughed wildly when he finished drinking from the brown gourd. He ran towards her at high speeds, preparing to end the match in a single strike, but Karen snapped her fingers while giggling at the fact that Bacchus did what she wanted him to do.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks when he began to feel like there was nothing he was standing on. Karen had made the shadow of Bacchus turn into a large hole that spread out around him, making him no longer feel the sandy ground, and the drunk man fell through the hole while screaming. The shadowy hole quickly closed up and vanished, making everyone wonder where Bacchus went, and Karen had won the match by the fact that her opponent had left the arena. Team Sweet Melancholy gained ten more points, putting them on even footing with Fairy Tail A while both teams had a score of 32 points.
The second battle was between Gray Fullbuster from Team Fairy Tail A and Risley Law from Team Mermaid Heel. Gray immediately used his Ice-Make Magic to simply make Risley be frozen inside of a large ice cube, and the ice mage gained ten more points for his team. Team Fairy Tail A was now ahead of Team Fairy Tail B by only four points, but could those tables turn once again? Lisanna certainly hoped so while she continued to glare at Natsu for not holding up the end of their deal, and she was thinking about cutting him loose from her list of guys to ever date.
The third battle pitted Toby Horhorta from Team Lamia Scale up against Cana Alberona from Team Fairy Tail B, and Cana was quick enough to play an Explosion card. This card made three sticks of lit dynamite roll towards her opponent, and the explosion from the short fuses sent Toby flying high into the skies. He landed somewhere far from the arena, presumably crashing into a house when he came down to the ground, and Cana won the match. She earned ten more points for her team, now putting them six points ahead of Team Fairy Tail A.
With that battle over, the final battle of the third day could now commence. It was obviously between Team Sabertooth and Team Blue Pegasus, since they were the last guilds left to fight. Sting knew that the time was finally here for him to have a great battle against whoever his opponent was, and the white dragon slayer smirked confidently with strength had made its way into his calm blue eyes. He let Lucy know that she had to give him a kiss if he managed to win against someone like Ichiya, but he looked shocked to see her opening up the now pink spell book to check out the seventh section.
Now realizing that the book had turned pink, Sting looked over his girlfriend's right shoulder to see that the readable words were in hot pink text while the unreadable words were in lemonade pink. He couldn't read the book, but he could tell what was readable from seeing all the lines of the first two pages of the seventh section in hot pink while the rest of that section had its characters in lemonade pink. Lucy seemed very focused into this type of magic, smiling at the names and the descriptions of the spells, and Sting was lucky to be focusing his attention on her right now.
He had not been paying attention to Chapati's announcement about the match between Team Sabertooth and Team Blue Pegasus, and it had actually pitted Rogue Cheney up against Ren Akatsuki. Rogue had started off the match by disappearing into the shadows, and he appeared behind his opponent to send him crashing into a wall with a simple Shadow Dragon's Roar. Since Rogue was not interested in dragging this fight out, he looked emotionless while wanting to end it as fast as possible. Rogue won the match, giving ten more points to Team Sabertooth.
Later that same day, in a grassy park...
Lucy sat down on a bench in a grassy park, all alone with nobody around for her to really have some quiet time, and she had been studying the spell book that had recently turned pink. The book had informed her that she had now entered the section of Heavenly Body Magic, magic that focused mainly on the powers of the stars and planets, and this type of magic did not come with a spirit like Darcy. Lucy could freely use this magic without many worries involved, and the color pink must have meant that this magic was drawing its power from Lucy's positive energy.
She had tested out the first spell that was known as Heavenly Slice, and the pink book had made hot pink beams of light shine from the first two lines of hot pink text on the first page. This spell caused the fingernails on Lucy's hands to grow long and pink, reaching about at least three inches, and something interested happened whenever she spun around while pretending to slash at enemies. Many pink blasts of energy transpired around her, almost like she had sliced the space around her, and her fingernails turned back to normal after thirty seconds.
The second spell had caused Lucy to spin around at an extremely fast pace, something that would make her future enemies seem a bit curious, and this spell was known as Heavenly Barrier. Many pink star-shaped projectiles floated around Lucy in a circle, spreading out to widen their defensive radius upon her command, and the pink stars would all explode in miniature pink blasts when even one was hit. The wider the radius, the larger the blasts. It was quite useful on distant foes, since the blast could even be warped to hit a faraway foe. Quite useful, don't you think?
Her third spell was known as Spacial Saint, and it caused a pink beam of Heavenly Body Magic to come down from the heavens and hit Lucy. This beam had not hurt her at all, but it made her become extremely durable while healing her completely and boosting the power of her attacks with every blast that she would create afterwards. It was quite useful in conjunction with the first two spells, since its side effect enhanced everything. She could move much faster while being strong enough to crash through a nearby rock, and Lucy was unscathed.
Finally, her fourth spell was known as Spacial Shooting Stars. It caused Lucy to be able to move at high speeds, and she could also jump high into the air like Jellal Fernandes when he used the Meteor spell. The pink spell book had let her know that this spell interesting required Magic Circles to be drawn, similar to when Jellal used Grand Chariot, and Lucy had drawn the shape of a star while putting Magic Circles on the five points of the pink star. Many small pink meteors rained down from the sky, making many pink explosions when they hit the ground, but they were all only concentrated on hitting a large boulder at Lucy's request.
Lucy came down from the sky while slowly floating downward because of the pink aura surrounding her body, and she fell to her knees when she landed on the grass. Using all four spells in succession like that had caused Lucy to use up a lot of magical power, but she could replenish it by inhaling air when the stars were out at nighttime, and she could also gain more energy by using the non-spell ability of Heavenly Body Magic. She could throw rocks high into the air, making them go high enough to reach outer space, but then hey would come crashing down like meteorites while a pink aura surrounded them. Lucy could touch the meteorites, and absorb their spacial energy, filling up her stamina.
"Well, well. It has been quite a long time since we last met, young maiden." A familiar voice told Lucy in a kind manner, as the woman began to emerge from the shadow of the nearby bench.
Lucy used the non-spell ability of Wind Magic to replenish her energy by inhaling air, and she was able to stand up on her own two feet. She looked straight ahead to see Karen Melancholia, the woman who had given her the sealed book for her to try and open it when they had first met, and Lucy also recognized her from being on Team Sweet Melancholy. However, the blonde mage did not know that those teammates of Karen's had actually been made from the shadows to act as a real team for Karen to do her observations without easily looking creepy.
The brown-eyed girl replied happily while running to hug Karen, having worried about the so-called strange merchant for a while, "You're the woman who helped me out in the event today, and you also gave me this spell book. I never got to thank you for that, and it's worked so well for me. I know seven types of magic now, and I can't wait until my Heavenly Body Magic is perfected to eventually give Natsu what he deserves."
Karen innocently asked who Natsu was again, despite having kept an eye on him through the shadows when the attention was not focused on Lucy, and the blonde girl let Karen know that he was the guy who had kicked her off of his team to replace her with Lisanna. He had been acting like such a jerk to her, putting his stupid arrogance over kindness, and Lucy had even beaten him down with Fire Magic. She could not wait to face him in another battle, especially since he had talked so bad about her yesterday, and Lucy looked confident about winning against him.
Before she could continue on, Karen told her in a sweet manner while gently placing her soft left hand on Lucy's right cheek to caress it, "You are such a beautiful and ambitious young girl. I'm very glad to have given you that book, and I can even feel your power being emitted while we stand here. Lucy, you are so very kind. However, I don't think that you know how to tap into your full hatred for Natsu. You really should show him that he cannot push you around, especially with all the power you wield with the book. It's a very sweet power."
Lucy's brown eyes widened a bit from hearing that there was a power sweeter than this pink Heavenly Body Magic, and she smiled a bit while liking the fact that Karen had referred to her as "ambitious." She certainly was a very driven person, and Lucy clenched her fists upon looking at her motives from another angle. She wasn't just looking for romance, but she sought power as well. With more power, she could become stronger. Of course, she could still only use one type of magic at a time. Did power come for free, though?
"What kind of power is it?" Lucy curiously asked, wanting to know more about what Karen was offering to her.
Karen explained nicely while hugging Lucy, having the blonde girl's face in front of the ample cleavage behind her yellow top, "It's the power that was once wielded by the previous owner of the book. You and her are so much alike, it's almost scary. Well, she was like you. I can't even remember how many ages ago it was, really."
Lucy did not understand what Karen meant by many ages going by, especially since this woman looked like she was in her twenties. What was going on?
Karen released Lucy from the hug, and handed her an object that appeared to be black perfume in a bottle. This was what Karen's master had told her to keep safe from so many centuries, and that was no ordinary perfume. Lucy happily looked at the bottle, seeing how expensive and how full the bottle had looked, and it seemed like no other store carried this kind of perfume. It smelled okay when Lucy sniffed the cap, smelling something reminiscent of chocolate and coffee, prompting her to smile a bit while accepting Karen's gift.
"I promise to take care of this gift. Thank you so much, Karen Melancholia." Lucy told her in an appreciative manner while smiling at the bottle of black perfume that she now had.
Karen replied in a sultry tone while walking a few steps closer to Lucy, getting close enough to where some news could be whispered in her right ear, "I did some checking around about you, you sweet blonde maiden, and guess what. The kindest people like you are the ones that are really loved by almost everyone, and I have a feeling that you'll fight Natsu tomorrow. With my perfume of beauty, you will finally show him that you are powerful. Smell good for him and Sting, Lucy, and you will show them how you can also not be a sweet girl in a fight."
Before Lucy could ask about that, Karen disappeared into the shadow of a leaf when tourists began to pass by. She left Lucy feeling a bit confused about the perfume for a few moments, but then the blonde mage smiled and saw this as good news to help cheer up Sting since Rogue had told him that he was not chosen to fight in the battle today.
How was Chapter 20? Did you like it? The StiCy keeps on coming, and Sting will have his epic battle in the next chapter. I changed the plot a bit to fit it with the upcoming chapter, since that's where you'll find out what the book means. Anyway, how will the next day's tag-team battles go? Will Lucy and Sting finally fight Natsu and his partner? What happens when the black perfume is used? What will the book unleash? Why does Makarov tremble? Standby for the update!