Chapter 14
Disclaimer. That's it. I'm done, what more do you want?
"So how'd your first mission go, Lucy? I got most of the details from Levy and I must say it was admirable of you to return the book to the author's son", Mira asked cheerily from over the bar
"Yea I suppose didn't get any money… But then again that doesn't really matter that much, because I got this key!", Lucy said proudly getting out Virgo's key and showing it to the white hired barmaid
"Umm ok. How does it work?", Mira asked confused why the blond girl was getting so excited over a key
"well when Everlu was sent to prison his contract with this spirit was broken and it was sent to me as requested by the spirit, I actually don't know why, I guess I'll just have to ask her.", Lucy explained
"Oh so that's a spirit key?", they heard Lisanna ask as she came up behind them and pointed at the key in Lucy's hand
"Yup! This is the golden key of the maid; Virgo. Thinking about it I should really set up a contract with her sooner rather than later", Lucy said
"Hmm? How does that work?", Mira asked
"It's easy really, I'll head back to my flat then I'll set one up, you can come if you want…", Lucy began before being interrupted by Mira
"You aren't in fairy hills?", She asked
"Fairy hills? What's that?", Lucy asked confused, Lisanna began to lightly laugh before answering
"fairy hills is the female dorms of the guild, the rent is only like 50,000 jewels a month so literally everyone except me and Mira live there", the younger white haired girl explained
"50,000!? That's 20,000 less than what my normal rent is!? Ugh! Why wasn't I told about this sooner!?", Lucy exclaimed only causing Lisanna to laugh harder, Mira giggled a little before returning to the matter at hand
"about the contract. Why don't you do it here, I'm sure everyone would be interested to see how it works", she proposed
"I uhh well I don't know…", Lucy stuttered uncertainly
"nonsense. Hey everyone! Lucy's going to show us how spirit contracts are made!", Mira called gathering the attention of those nearby
Calls of "really?" And "sounds interesting" we're heard and soon the trio had a small crowd, noticing the gathering of his guild mates a man with spiky orange hair, blue tinted frameless glasses and a green frilled jacket approached from behind one of the gathered members
"What's going on?", He asked
The man with sandy blonde hair jumped before turning around to face the man
"Oh Loke. You surprised me", he exclaimed
"Sorry Max, but anyway what's going on?", Loke asked
"Oh? Apparently the new girl's gunna show us how celestial spirits are contracted", Max said, he then turned back to the matter at hand, not noticing Loke break out into a cold sweat and quickly make his way out of the guild hall
"OPEN: GATE OF THE MAIDEN! VIRGO"
Lucy called, pulling the golden key through the air, a white/gold glow encased her and the space before her and suddenly a petite woman in a maid's outfit and pink hair was standing with a slight bow in the space
"Good morning mistress, my name is Virgo and I will be your personal assistant from now on", the spirit said respectfully, oohs and ahhs were heard throughout the assembled crowd
"Uhh, nice to meet you Virgo, but please, don't call me mistress, my name is Lucy and I don't need a personal assistant…", Lucy began only to be cut off by the pink haired spirit
"If you didn't need assistance why did you summon me, Master?", the spirit asked
"please, Virgo don't call me that, and I don't want a servant, I hope that instead we can be friends", the blond said with a bright smile, stunning the spirit as she detected no signs of ulterior motives in her new key holder
"I…uh… What would be acceptable for me to address you as?", the spirit asked trying to get the conversation back into familiar ground
"Just Lucy will be fine, Virgo", the young mage said cheerfully
"No, that won't do, will director be fine?"
"No", Lucy sighed
"Lady?"
"No"
"Governor?"
"NO!"
"Princess?"
Lucy let out a sigh as a lot of the onlooking crowd began to snicker
"No… actually nevermind, that's fine Virgo, if you insist on calling me something that will do", a small smile made its way onto Virgo's face and she bowed again
"I'm glad you find it acceptable, Princess"
"Heh, well how about we get onto the nitty gritty bit, Virgo… When are you available to be summoned?", Lucy asked, at this Virgo looked confused
"Whenever the Princess sees fit, I am here to serve after all", she answered simply
Now the confused look made its way to Lucy's face
"Really? There aren't any days you want off? Just to have to yourself? I can just summon you for whatever, whenever?", the blond asked
"Yes princess that is correct.", the maid spirit replied
"Huh wow, I can't even summon Aquarius most days because of her contract, well with the exceptions of emergencies", Lucy said, surprised
"Well on to the next bit of business, Virgo, am I capable of summoning you in your battle form?", the celestial spirt mage asked
"Undoubtedly princess, although I will require new weapons and armour since changing key keeper.", Virgo answered
"Of course, we'll sort that out at a later date, is there anything else I should know about Virgo?", Lucy asked
"Yes. I have a form of magic called 'earth mover' allowing me to preform fairly advanced earth magic and dive through solid ground", the pinkette replied
"Wow that could be useful, well Virgo it looks like this concludes the forms of our contract. I will be able to summon you from wherever I see fit, whenever I see fit in either your battle or you regular form, you will be unable to bring myself harm and will protect me absolutely until the event of my lawful incarceration or death unless our contract is terminated before hand. Do you agree to these terms?", Lucy concluded putting her hand out for a formal handshake
The small smile made its way back onto Virgo's face
"Indeed I do, princess", Virgo agreed firmly shaking Lucy's hand, a bright flash engulfed the two of them and Virgo disappeared
"Until I am summoned again, princess", the assembled fairy tails members heard Virgo's voice call
A small stretch of silence ensued before chaos broke out, calls of "that was awesome" or "so cool" we're fairly common
"Are they usually this rowdy?", Lucy asked the platinum haired sisters watching with amused smiles
"Yup pretty much… You get used to it", Lisanna answered
"It's not bad, just… Confusing", the blond elaborated before the front doors were bashed in and Loke came running right back in
"Hey Loke, what's up?", A random member asked, curious to know what had got one of the stronger sub-main members so riled up
"Erza! Erza just pulled in at the train station!", He exclaimed
Immediately the chaos that had been brewing and silence prevailed for a second until everyone began moving quickly to what appeared to be assigned positions
"We have a CODE RED people let's move", was shouted from the top floor and soon everyone was acting inconspicuous
"What just happened?", Lucy whispered to the Strauss siblings that had remained unmoved throughout the 'code red' -whatever the hell that was-
"Hmm, I suppose you wouldn't know would you? This is as you've probably guessed this is called a 'code red' scenario, we use it to judge what kind of mood Erza's in before we do the normal crazy shenanigans", Lisanna explained
What kind of beast is Erza!?, Lucy thought beginning to sweat a little as the light flooding in between the guild hall's open doors was blocked, turning to look at the blockage Lucy saw an impossible sight: in the doorway was a slender woman with long red hair, she was wearing simple armour from the brand 'heart kreuz' and a blue miniskirt with black boots, Lucy could see her blue guild mark on the upper middle of her left arm
In one arm she carried an impossibly large horn and in her other she wielded a sword also of the smiths at heart kreuz, her brown eyes scanned the room before falling on the smiling Mira, the terrified Lucy and the curious Lisanna. She dropped the horn on its larger edge with a resounding thud that Lucy swore made the floor quake and strode purposefully towards them
"Mira!" She called
"where's master?", She asked as she approached the bar and sat down
"He's in clover at the annual meeting for guild masters, why?", Mira responded
"Shit! It's as bad as I feared! Mira, you know everyone here better than I do… I need a team of the strongest here", Erza commanded, Mira looked annoyed for a brief second at being ordered by her ex rival but it quickly disappeared and she looked thoughtful
"well I guess if you want powerful mages, you would want Gray, Cana, Alzack, Bisca and my brother and sister; they're probably the strongest non S class mages.", Mira responded
"When do you need them?", Mira asked
"Now!" Erza quickly shot back
"oh well in that case your options are only Gray and Lisanna, Elfman's off training heaven knows where, Alzack and Bisca left on a mission this morning and Cana's passed out; drunk off her ass behind the counter over there", Mira explained pointing to the brunette sleeping peacefully sprawled out behind the bartop
"I doubt that's enough! Are there any others?", Erza asked after deliberating for a moment,
"Not really in the same league. Why?", Mira asked becoming curious, Erza let out a sigh before answering
"It would take too long to explain but as a summary, the guild masters are in danger!", Erza said
"What? What's going on?", Lisanna cut in
"I caught wind of lamia scale uncovering a plot by the dark guild eisenwald to kill the guild masters, they managed to stop them, but I hear a few escaped, I expect they plan to try again before the guild leaders leave clover which is… When?", Erza elaborated
"The meeting ends tomorrow, meaning they'll probably attack tonight, crap you're right you need to leave immediately", Mira said grasping the situation
"And you'll probably need more members than just sis and Gray", Mira repeated, thinking out loud
"How about Lucy? I heard she did pretty well on her first mission.", Lisanna put in, pointing at the blond who had been watching the discussion with interest
"Wha!? Me!? But I-I-I've only been on one mission, is it really wise to let me come on something so important!?", Lucy asked flustered as the conversation was directed at her
"Oh? I don't believe we've met, I'm Erza Scarlet, Fairy tail S class mage, I use requip magic. And you are?", Erza introduced
"I uhh… I'm Lucy, uhh new recruit? I use celestial spirit magic. Nice to meet you", Lucy stumbled out her answer
"Celestial spirit magic? That's a type of summoning magic isn't it?", Erza asked, her interest peaked
"Uhh yea, it's a holding type of magic, I use my keys to summon spirit from their realm and they help me with my problems, usually involving violence", Lucy answered
"And you have a range of spirits under your control?", Erza asked
"uhh well I have four of the stronger ones but I can only summon them one at a time and even then the longest I've ever had one out for was about three and a half hours and that was simply because she refused to go back…", Lucy trailed off remembering the time Aquarius refused to return to the spirit world and thoroughly drained her magic, Erza nodded once then turned back to Mira
"Is there the possibility of anyone else?", She asked, once again seeming to completely ignoring Lisanna and Lucy
"You'll probably be fighting dark mages. Hmm. I would recommend team shadow gear but they do tend to tire quickly when faced with more than one opponent", Mira brainstormed out loud
"yea, and then Levy has to bail them out", Lisanna mumbled recalling when she went on a mission with the team and seemingly the instant they entered a fight Jet and Droy were out cold and she and Levy had to face the rest of the goons on their own
"Did you say something sis?" Mira asked
"Huh? No. how about Loke? He's pretty strong", Lisanna proposed
"Hmm I'd rather not, his magic's kinda a one shot deal, not really suited for extended brawling, well no matter we'll just have to make do with what we've got, Mira. If the Gunslingers return tell them to head to clover as fast as they can.", Erza commanded before standing up
"Gray!", she called across the hall, a man with long spiky raven hair looked up, his fringe obscuring his forehead, he was seated but he appeared to be naked, his chest displayed with a total lack of concern, around his neck was a silver pendant in the shape of a sword
"Hmm? Yea, what?", He called back
"We need to leave. It's urgent, master may be in danger, I will explain it all to you on the way to clover", Erza said as she strode past with Lisanna following close behind, she turned to look at Lucy who was still seated at the bar, amazed by the woman's dedication and one track mind
"Aren't you coming?", she said to the blond
"Huh? What! Me?", Lucy exclaimed
"Yes you! Come on, we don't have time to lose!", the red head exclaimed and Lucy shot up and ran to catch up with the other three
"Can one of you lot take this to my trophy in my room please. Thanks!", Erza called into the guild hall behind her as the four of them left. The assembled members all looked with faces of apprehension at the absurdly large horn that Erza had deposited in the hall
While on the express train to Clover, Erza explained the situation further, it turned out that the dark guild eisenwald planned to use a demon sealed inside a flute to kill every guild master while they were together and unsuspecting at the conference
The demon called lullaby had been sealed almost two hundred years ago, near the end of the black wizard Zeref's reign of terror and destruction and the curse it released when played was supposed to kill everyone who heard it
Lamia scale had stopped the initial attack but had sustained severe injuries and many of the eisenwald dark wizards escaped with the cursed flute in their possession
"So that's the situation. Any questions?", Erza asked
"Yea actually, if this involves all of the guild masters, why are we the only ones going for defence?", Lucy asked
"All of the guilds are sending teams but fairy tail is the closet and we'll be the only ones who can make it in time", Erza explained
"Heads up guys, this is our stop", Lisanna said, she had casted a slayer technique that essentially hovered her a few centimetres in the air, allowing for her to glide at high speeds, walk on water and conveniently dodge the effects of motion sickness
The fairy tail mages quickly made heir way out of the station
"So where's the conference centre from here?", Gray asked
"It's still a couple of miles out, we should acquire a magic four wheeler", Erza said casting her gave around the town in search of a dealership
"Are you sure that's a good idea Erza? Those things take up a lot of energy at high speeds, we're going to need all the magic power we can spare if this is as bad as you say", Lisanna pointed out
"That doesn't matter, you three can defend if they attack early and we still have time for me to get my strength back", the redhead rebutted as she purchased a magic powered car from a shrewd looking dealer
On the short trip to the centre the four of them decided to get to know each other further, Gray described his magic as being able to form ice into any structure he saw fit, the only two limits being his imagination and the magic required to form large quantities of ice quickly, he briefly described his childhood, how his parents had been killed by the demon Deliora which had since disappeared, how he had been adopted and taught magic by a woman named Ur along with another boy called Lyon, unfortunately a threat appeared in the country they lived in and Ur sent her pupils away while she stayed to assist in dealing with the threat, Gray had made his way to fairy tail and Lyon to lamia scale
Lisanna described her time from joining the guild onwards, she smiled ever so brightly while talking about Natsu but as she reached the end of her story her face fell but both she and Happy looked determined when they exclaimed that they would find him. Her takeover magic was a simple to learn, impossible to master type of magic that had the Mage and all their forms constantly evolving to tackle new challenges faced by them
Erza also described her life since joining the guild, her rivalry with the old Mira, her ascension to S class and a extremely long list of weapons and armour she could utilise in battle, she luckily opted not to demonstrate on account of her being the one driving the vehicle
Lucy noticed that neither of the other two female mages talked about their childhood before joining the guild but could respect their wish to keep them quiet, she didn't particularly want to tell them her past either albeit for different reasons, luckily she didn't get the chance to talk about herself as they arrived at the top of a hill looking down at the conference building just as the sun began to set
They decided to stay there as they could see the entire area and could make it down quickly if need be. They set up camp, sent Happy down to alert the masters that hey had arrived and were fortifying the area, it turned out they had arrived just in time because just as Happy returned to his mother's side, eisenwald appeared
The sun was slowly setting and Natsu was running the perimeter of the now abandoned guild hall, it was an impressive building, one that Sabertooth had refused to give up in favour for something more camouflaged and practical like this world's fairy tail had
Catching a scent on the wind that he had learned to associate with fear Natsu picked up the pace, he turned a corner to be faced with a shocking image, a white haired woman who looked to be about twenty years older than himself was pinned down beneath one of the men he recognised to be from the fourth battalion by his uniform
"What the hell do you think you're doing!?", Lieutenant Ignea exclaimed in indignation, the man who was holding the woman captive jumped at being caught, as he turned to see who his captor was with a lecherous look on his face, he relaxed seeing his commanding officer which only served to piss Natsu off even more
"Oh, lieutenant it's just you, I was just going to have some fun with this saber trash, you know, teach her a lesson", he turned back to his conquest whose face had morphed into one of terror, whether because she heard her captors intentions or because she recognised the powerful lieutenant or even a mixture of both
"N-no please", the woman sobbed, the man pinning her down laughed a cruel laugh
"you hear that lieutenant, I got her to cry, pathetic", he slapped his captive and Ignea's expression darkened even more, his enhanced hearing caught the sound of sobbing coming from somewhere other than the Sabertooth woman, the woman in question also seemed to hear the noise and moved her gaze away from lecherous man pinning her to the earth
Ignea followed her gaze and saw a girl, with silvery-blue like hair like the woman pinned down only as old as those two boys who had helped the master's daughter in his earlier fight, it seemed the man from the fourth battalion also saw the girl and his grin only grew
"Oh? It looks like we have an audience. How fun, perhaps I'll have my fun with you when I'm done here too", he said in what appeared to be full seriousness, the woman's face showed terror but also a hint of determination
"Yukino! Get out of here! Quickly!", the pinned woman called in desperation, the man only laughed harder as she remained frozen in fear
"b-but Sorano…," the little girl sobbed
"GO!"
Ignea's gaze hardened he intends to do this! And with children present no less. Monster.
"Ho? Lieutenant, still here? Oh I know! You want to teach her a lesson first?", He asked
"A lesson? You know what. Get off her.", Ignea ordered, the man did just that with a look of excitement on his face, fully expecting a show
Natsu took a step towards the woman on the ground who had made no effort to stand up but was still staring at the younger girl, in the extreme corner of his peripheral vision Ignea could see the man beginning to lower his fly, growling loudly he swiftly pulled dragon's fang off his back and poked it into the shocked man's chest
"Flame lock"
Ignea calmly said and a large orb of fire surrounded the man ho could only flail in fear and pain "burn", Natsu said with the upmost contempt for the man with no regard to his fellow human being, the orb of fire burned away the man's jacket while he writhed and convulsed in a desperate attempt to save himself
Before the attack could leave the man with any long lasting injuries Natsu cut of the magic supply leaving the man to slump in pained relief as the three women looked on in shock,
"Tell me soldier, what makes this woman less than you? What makes these children trash? Is it because they use magic? Is it because they fight for a cause you oppose? Is it because you feel like more of a man by making a pretty woman you've never met submit to your disgusting will? Is it!? GET OUT OF MY SIGHT! AND IF I EVER HEAR OF YOU DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS AGAIN THE FIRE IN HELL WONT COMPARE TO THE WRATH I WILL RAIN DOWN ONTO YOU!", Ignea roared expressing the lungs his father had changed his human ones into
The man with terrified tears in his eyes quickly got up and ran away, fearing for his life. Satisfied, Natsu turned to the Sabertooth woman behind him; she had got up and was standing protectively in front of the younger
"Your sister?" Natsu asked, seeing and smelling the similarities between the pair
The woman only nodded before she found her voice again
"y-yes, thank you", she said timidly still scared, especially after seeing the man's temper released
"What will you do now?", Natsu asked, the three lowered themselves into identical fighting stances with their fists in front of their faces
"We won't go in without a fight!", the first woman said, her determination returning
Natsu only smiled behind his cowl and turned sharply on his heel and began to walk away
"if you go east for about fifty miles you'll come across a small village", he called over his shoulder, if he had turned he would have seen the oldest girl's look of shock and the youngest break into a bright smile
"Thanks mister!", the youngest girl called causing Natsu to smile as he continued on his patrol
From their vantage point the fairy tail mages could see a group easily exceeding thirty dark mages beelining it towards the conference hall
"I thought you said lamia scale culled their numbers!", Lucy exclaimed beginning to doubt their success
"They did. But look that group's from ghoul spirit and those ones are from dark unicorn", Lisanna said pointing out some of the attackers
"It's seems that eisenwald brought reinforcements, no matter, DO NOT LET THEM GET TO THE CONFERENCE HALL!", Erza yelled as a battle cry and requipped into her heavens wheel armour and speed towards the now alerted dark mages
"So much for the element of surprise…", Lucy commented dryly before drawing out her Taurus key
"ICE MAKE; SLIDE!"
Gray exclaimed and quickly sped down the hill on a intricately designed slide of ice that melted away seemingly as he slid down it
"Fullbody takeover; dire wolf!"
Lisanna said loudly as her form morphed into that of a large shaggy grey/white wolf with cold blue eyes and rows of razor sharp teeth, Lisanna in the quite imposing form shot down the hill after her guild mates
"OPEN: GATE OF THE BULL; TAURUS, ANIMA FORM"
The area shone briefly before a large gold bull with a ring in the shape of his sign through its nose appeared, the bull was easily twice the size of the normal of the animal it represented, Lucy quickly and expertly vaulted onto the large beast's back
"quickly Taurus, follow that wolf", Lucy commanded pointing out Lisanna's rapidly retreating form, Without a word at how ironic that command was Taurus broke out into a run with Lucy holding onto a harness along the large cow's back
"Ho ho Lucy, enjoying the ride back there…", the golden bull said without moving its mouth
"Perhaps we could do this again sometime… In my normal form…", the cow said lecherously
"Ugh! Not now Taurus can you just focus on getting us to those dark mages please", Lucy asked having just been reminded of Taurus' perverted tendencies
"Anything for Lucy and her beautiful body!", the bull exclaimed before speeding up towards the field rapidly turning into a battleground
Erza had shot through the ranks of the dark guilds, immediately knocking out three of them and was presently making short work of a group of about ten while the rest of their ranks continued their desperate dash towards the hall
"ICE MAKE, WALL!"
The magic literally froze two of the mages in their tracks and the rest screeched to a halt before the large and intricately cut ice wall Gray had erected in front of them, before they could even begin to start wearing it down, Lisanna –still in her dire wolf form- pounced on them, knocking one out and giving another a nasty gash on his arm, her form glowed and she changed again in midair
Her new form was also her oldest and favourite; her tigress takeover was the first takeover form she had ever designed for battle and as such was the most refined and deadly of all her takeovers, when she had first created it, it had been simple; a pair of cat ears appeared on her head and a tail at her lower back, her hands and feet had morphed into the clawed paws of the tigress and her attire had changed into a simple white tiger stripped two piece bikini
But over the years, that had changed, the takeover was now a lot more intimidating, her snow white hair grew down to the middle of her back and spiked out, her face took on a more feline quality as did her eyes which seemed to look into the depths of your soul, instead of the two merger articles of clothing she instead wore white tiger striped cargo pants and an open jacket which cut off at her ribs that exposed her midriff and a similarly patterned bra
Instead of the large padded paws on her hands and feet she instead wore white fingerless fighting gloves but her fingers still grew intimidating claws and her feet were wrapped in both white and black fabric that was as tough enough to completely nullify the bone breaking kick the newly transformed girl unleashed on the nearest dark mage
The distinct crunch of a bone breaking brought a small smirk to the girls face, revealing her razor sharp fangs and a sadistic glint in her eye she had slowly inherited from Mira, Gray was content to just watch the two girls tear through the dark mages with brutal efficiency, perhaps this will be easier than we thought, he mused silently until a shout caught his attention
"Gray there's a second wave coming from the west!", Happy called down to him seeing as he was unoccupied
"Shit! Seriously? Come on let's go!", He exclaimed, jumping into the air, trusting the blue feline to catch him
"What's going on?", Lucy yelled
"There's a second front on the other side of the hall, we need to go deal with it!", Gray exclaimed quickly
"How fast can you get there?", He asked
"I don't know, Taurus?", She replied
"Just set the speed ice man and I can keep up", the bull responded, Gray simply nodded
"Let's go Happy!", He said
"Aye sir!", the cat exclaimed as he shot off, Taurus quickly matched the blue cat's pace
"What about the other two?", Lucy asked slightly worried about the other two they were leaving behind
"Don't worry about it, they can handle it", he said reassuringly, as they ran/flew the second group of dark mages before them Gray noticed something and released a string of profanities
"What!?", Lucy asked incredulously, wondering what got her teammate so suddenly worked up
"you see that guy at the front", Gray growled out, Lucy looked and saw a tall, lean man with spiky silver hair, his chest and face were adorned with blue tattoos and his lower half was covered by a torn skirt like article, he carried on his shoulder a large, wicked looking scythe but the thing that most shocked Lucy was that he appeared to by flying, Seeing her shocked look Gray continued
"That's Erigor, he's eisenwald's strongest and an extremely powerful wind mage, let me deal with him, do you think you can take the grunts?", He asked
"Uhh, yea sure, no problem", she said with as much confidence she could muster, picking up on her fear Gray commented
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine besides if you can't handle it, Happy can get you out and the others will help", he reassured
She nodded and returned her attention the the dark mages who had stopped and were waiting for the two of them to attack, as they approached Lucy drew her whip and pulled herself into a crouch on Taurus' back and Gray fisted one hand and placed it into the palm of his other
Simultaneously Lucy leapt from Taurus' back and Happy dropped Gray, the two of them taking battle ready stances and Taurus continued to charge at the dark mages
"ICE MAKE, CANNON!"
"NOW TAURUS! BATTLE FORM!"
The two yelled in sync and Taurus' form was engulfed in light.
that's the format editing done. now everything is perfect, there's no more errors (hopefully) and some points make more sense.