Chapter 38: Challenged Ideals
Disclaimer:
First of all, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year. I hope it was enjoyable and fun for everyone. During December, I was away at a cousin's wedding and that's why I was inactive for a lot of the time. I always had the urge to write but I just got super busy xD. I'm back now though, but now my university has also started so uhh… we'll see what happens with the updates, but I am definitely not stopping the FanFic!
"Maybe I should have gone with Lucas and the others to help…", Mimosa spoke to Rebecca at the restaurant.
The female trio of Mimosa, Noelle, and Rebecca were tasked with keeping things as calm as they could back at Nean. A lot of families were in disarray with their children having gone missing and the people that stayed had a job to do.
"Mimosa, I understand that you're worried, but we have to leave it up to the others who left. I'm glad Pem, my baby brother, wasn't affected… Sometimes I wish I was stronger so that I could protect people, but we can't have it all…", Rebecca replied, trying to lift the mood.
"Stronger…", Mimosa muttered under her breath as she clenched her fists.
"What was that?" Rebecca asked.
"N-nothing!" The Plant mage quickly responded. "About you wanting to be stronger, have you ever considered joining the Magic Knights?"
Rebecca walked away from the restaurant counter and sat next to the royal on the table near. She sighed and started talking.
"Sure I have, I'm pretty sure everyone has had the idea cross their minds". The red-head gazed outside and looked at Noelle who was busy doing something. She looked at her baby brother that was in her arms sleeping and gently brushed her fingers across his little cheek.
"Is it because you have to take care of your siblings that you don't want to join?" Mimosa asked.
"Yeah… I gotta take care of them. Our parents aren't around a lot so I'm kind of the only parental figure they have… even though it makes me feel old. I'm only 16!" Rebecca laughed.
"… I honestly don't know how Daisy does it, you know?" She added.
Mimosa looked outside as well. "I'm guessing her family situation is similar then?"
Rebecca looked back at the Vermillion. "It's much worse than you can imagine… but it's not my place to talk about that sort of stuff. I do envy how strong she can be though".
"I guess the way you envy Daisy is the way I envy Lucas. He's so strong and it doesn't seem like he's ever fazed by the problems that he faces. I wish I could be like that", the Golden Dawn mage spoke.
"Well, you never know what could happen. Sometimes people haven't got to that point where things start to become too difficult for them. Maybe his time will come where he reaches a brick wall and needs your help to overcome it", Rebecca winked.
Mimosa started to blush, and her heartbeat was faster. She calmed down after a while and smiled back.
"How do you think Noelle's getting on?" Rebecca asked. All this time she was slowly tapping her foot on the floor as if she was waiting for something or was becoming impatient.
"She's contacting some other Magic Knights to help out. I'm sure they'll come in no time!" Mimosa replied.
As if on cue, the door to the building opened and Noelle walked in. She was trying to warm herself up as she was outside in the cold for too long.
"Brrrr! I managed to contact Se…Sek… hm, what was his name again? Oh, I think his name was Fuhha or something like that. Well, he said he would get a few high-class Magic Knights to help out!" Noelle told Mimosa and Rebecca.
"That's great!" Mimosa put her hand to her chest.
"I sure hope they hurry up. I'm worried about all of the kinds, not to mention Asta and the others", Rebecca said.
This comment made a vein pop out on the side of Noelle's head.
"Oh no…", Mimosa thought.
"Thank you for your concern over my squad mate, but he'll be just fine. Considering the amount of missions that I've been on with him, I know him well", Noelle said as she closed her eyes and smirked.
"Well, I'd hope you would know more than me, being in the same squad as him…". Rebecca's tone switched to that of a mild suspicion as she squinted her eyes.
"You'd expect anything else?" Noelle replied.
"Of course not", Rebecca answered.
Mimosa's eyes kept switching from Noelle to Rebecca plenty of times. "Oh, boy", she facepalmed.
"Light Magic: Spark-Charged Beam!" Lucas gathered energy from the many cracks in the cave into his left palm and then fired a strong beam of pure light energy towards Sally and Max.
"Let's see you evade one of my strongest spells!" Lucas shouted.
Sally saw the intense beam of light coming to her through her big, round glasses. Though, instead of worrying, she smiled as she looked at Max right next to her. "You can deal with him, right? I'll focus more on my lovely Asta down there!"
Max looked unfazed as he nodded to the black-haired mage. He quickly moved in front of Sally and used a defence spell.
"Water Creation Magic: Sea Urchin's Defence!" Max summoned a wall of purple and yellow sea urchins that expanded their black spikes to form a jagged barrier that protected both Sally and him from the Light mage.
Daisy looked up at the enemy Water mage. "Surely he can't be the same guy from the Royal Capital attack? Thinking about it… he wasn't that intimidating back then, but now…".
As both Lucas and Daisy looked at Max, they saw the most intimidating, yet depressed facial expression they had ever seen in their lives.
Max's face was scrunched up with his brown eyes and black eyebrows looking menacing. His eyes were completely fixated on Lucas with small red veins popping out in view. His mouth formed into a slight smile with his teeth fully showing.
"He looks like this but there's still a sense of overbearing sadness to him. I can't quite figure it out… but…". Lucas turned to Daisy and all the kids that were in the cave behind him. "These kids got involved in their schemes and I can't lose focus of that".
"Daisy! Let's team up to beat this guy down!" He spoke to the Ice mage.
"Of course,", she said calmly. Though Lucas knew how much Daisy wanted this whole ordeal to be over.
Behind the sea urchin wall, Max stood and thought to himself. He had started to sweat down from his head for some reason and his palms were also getting sweaty.
"I can't mess up this time. After my failure at the Royal Capital… I… I never want to go through those sorts of consequences ever again!" He shivered as he thought about what had happened.
FLASHBACK - AFTER ROYAL CAPITAL ATTACK:
A group of Eye of the Midnight Sun mages were gathered around the stone tablet which Asta, Lucas, and Julius had found earlier. The injured Rades was on the floor alongside Sally and Valtos.
The cave was dark and cold with the only bit of light coming from the entrance and various cracks around the walls.
"C'mon now, Max!" A loud voice was heard from the cave entrance.
The three of Rades, Sally, and Valtos all looked ahead and saw two of their teammates. However, one was behind the other and walking quite slowly.
"B-big Brother… please! You're not going to hurt me, are you? I made a mistake!" Max shrugged and tugged the man in front of him who had now grabbed a hold on his clothes.
"It's alright Max. I'll just help you in training, so you don't mess up again! You do know that Licht won't be happy with you. Such a simple mission and you got beaten up by a guy who was injured!" The big brother dragged his sibling away into a different section of the cave.
The other three saw the incident and knew just what was going to happen.
"Say… I know I'm not one to take the high ground, but he's clearly giving mixed signals to Max here. I mean… he's saying he'll help him train but acts like that…?" Rades commented as a sweat droplet fell from his head.
The sound of magic spells clashing were heard…
"If only Licht was here to see this. He would never let his subordinates get hurt, especially by the hand of his own", Valtos responded.
The sound of shouts were heard…
"I would love to experiment on those two. Maybe the corrupted sibling dynamic between the two can show me something… but honestly… it might be too much of a hassle to involve myself with their affairs", Sally added.
"I think he's been through enough. Draien is the only person Max has… it's a shame he had to be so twisted. He says he'll help Max, but the way he does it is well…". The three mages thought in unison.
FLASHBACK OVER
Max thought about his situation again. "If I… If I think about it clearly, it was all that guy's fault in the first place. I could deal with his Light Magic as well as those darn blades of his, but there was something else he did… some other power he used to get the best of me!" Max clenched his fists and a look of determination stretched across his face.
"I'll get him to use it again, but this time he'll be defeated!"
Just on the other side of the cave, Sally was busy introducing herself to Asta once more, as well as speaking with Baro.
"You took your damn time!" Baro shouted at the girl in glasses.
"I can't teleport at a snap of my fingers, you idiot. I'm only a little girl", Sally teased and giggled. "Relax, I'm here now so there's no need to worry! Anyway…", she turned her attention to a certain magicless mage.
"Asta! How's it going?" Sally greeted casually.
"Don't talk to me as if we're friends who've just seen each other after a long time! You're crazy!" Asta shouted back in a different tone to which he received from Sally.
"Oh, don't be like that. I just want to rip you apart and experiment on you! It's nothing too serious, Asta!" Sally walked forwards and past Baro.
Asta face palmed knowing this wasn't going anywhere. He brought his Anti-Magic swords out of his grimoire and was ready to fight.
"Wait a minute, Asta!" Sister Theresa interrupted. "Go undo the spell that the children are under. Every second we waste is bad for them!"
"You got it!" Asta ran around and started to undo the spell by gently tapping each kid with the hilt of his large Anti-Magic sword. He started with Rebecca's sister, Luca, and then went around to the other children.
"While he does that…", Theresa turned to Gauche who was still busy beating up Neige on the floor. "Leave him for a moment and go occupy the glasses girl".
Gauche kept on beating the enemy Snow mage up without letting him take a break. "Huh? What the hell is in it for me? Marie is safe beside me and I can hurt the one who's responsible".
Theresa deadpanned and sighed. "I'll give you money to buy Marie some presents if you focus on this Sally girl", she said.
"Mirror Magic: Reflect Ray!" Gauche fired a beam of light towards Sally as he immediately dropped his current sequence and focused on the Eye of the Midnight Sun mage.
"A simple, yet freaky man…", Theresa said under her breath.
Sally jumped up and used a magic spell to help counter Gauche's magic. "Gel Magic: Sticky Salamander!" The enemy formed a sticky, yet fluid and purple lizard which she sat on top of. The Mirror Magic hit the substance, but it was easily refracted within its body and deflected outwards.
"My Gel Magic really is amazing! I have to thank Master Licht for showing me that my magic can be useful in this way", she smiled as she carried on.
"Licht this, Licht that… just shut up already!" A vein popped out on the side of Gauche's head as he began to get frustrated. He fired more of his light rays towards Sally, who easily countered them using the same trick as before.
"I want to fight Asta! You're so boring, tall guy. It's great that my magic is good against forms of light which is why this is so easy. If I was against that Lucas, then it'd be easy too!" Sally laughed.
Gauche clenched his fists in frustration, and grinded his teeth together. "You know what… now I'm mad! Mirror Magic: Real Double!"
The Black Bull created a clone of himself which stood behind Sally's Salamander spell. The real one was in front and exclaimed "Mirror Magic: Double Reflect Ray!"
Both Gauche pairs used light beams to try and pierce Sally's spell. They fired from different directions and angles to try and make a difference, but the enemy spell was too tricky to break through. Sticky Salamander easily absorbed the attacks and deflected them away from itself.
"Tsk. That sticky substance is really annoying", Gauche muttered.
Whilst the Black Bull and the Eye of the Midnight Sun mages were occupied, Asta finished undoing Neige's spells on the children. Some magic spoke emitted from their heads to show how they had recovered from its effects.
"Asta… where are we? What's going on?" Luca ran to the magicless mage and hugged him. She, along with a lot of the other kids, was scared and confused.
"Everyone, you were put under a spell from the bad guys! If you stay here and huddle in a circle, then we can easily take you back home!" Asta comforted.
To the side of Asta, the footsteps of three children were tiptoeing towards him very slowly due to exhaustion. He turned around and saw three of Daisy's sisters. The twins, Grace and Sonia, were the ones that tugged on Asta's leg, whilst Chloe hid behind them.
"A-are you Asta? I heard that scary glasses woman shouting your name… wh-what's going on?" Grace asked, shivering.
"Why are we here?" Sonia added.
"You three must be Daisy's sisters. Right now, some bad people have showed up so we're just going to defeat them. If you all huddle together, then it should be fine-". Asta spoke but was interrupted by the youngest Calor sibling.
She slowly walked up, and her big purple eyes stared sadly into Asta's. "Our other sister, Alice. Sh-she's n-not waking up… is something bad h-happening?" Chloe sniffled and worried.
Asta knew what had happened. He could hear Daisy's shouting from when she went ahead into the cave before him. He also had to hold back from hurting Baro since he knew what deeds he had done. However, he couldn't say all of that right now to them.
"Alice is just a bit colder, you see. I'll carry her here and you lot make sure you're there for her!" The Black Bull lied. He couldn't disclose the truth since he didn't know how they would react, but he also needed the sister to be safe.
Asta ran towards Alice and picked her up. As he did, he knew what Baro had done was the truth since he also has no magic. There was an unseen connection that only he could feel. "Dammit", he muttered under his breath.
He gently put her down with the others and went on to focus on Sally. Though as he reached there, a huge chunk of Sally's Salamander grabbed him and pulled him up towards the ceiling.
"Why hello there, Asta! How's it going?" Sally giggled and licked her lips. Her red eyes were wide open as if she had just received a gift that she always wanted.
Asta was pinned down and Sally crawled on to him.
"Get off me, you crazy psycho!" Asta shouted, turning his head since he did not want to look at her crazed expressions.
Sally slowly traced her fingers up and down the swordsman's cheek. "Oh, but come on… I need your amazing body for my experiments!"
"My body is not for anyone but myself!" He replied back, wriggling away yet still being trapped.
"Just a drop of your blood, your spit, or even your hair will do! I need your DNA to see just why you have no magic". Sally smiled as she got closer to Asta's neck and bit it. "Now, that's a good amount of blood, I just need to put it in these vials…".
Asta closed his eyes and didn't know what to do. "This crazy freak! If I can just reach my grimoire, I can get one of the swords out…! I wish I could just call on them!"
Suddenly, Asta and his surrounding area started to warm up and a bright flash of red surrounded him and Sally.
"Flame Magic: Brilliant Flame Cross!" Sister Theresa shouted as a cross of burning hot flames shot out towards the gel and made it explode on impact. "Get away from that fine Magic Knight!"
"Holy flames… I guess the name of that spell signifies you're a nun!" Sally retreated backwards, shaking off some of the remaining flames on her clothing.
Asta, as he fell down and landed on the floor, turned to Theresa. "Thank you! The power of that spell… were you a Magic Knight once?" He asked excitedly.
"You're correct. I was part of the Crimson Lion Kings and actually taught the current captain, Fuego. I had a nickname, 'The Crimson She-Leopard'. Quite cool if I do say so myself", Theresa responded.
"Woah, a nickname and you know Fuego- wait… Fuegoleon Vermillion?!" Asta jumped up and down, surprised at the fact. "To think you taught him, are you crazy powerful then?"
"Not anymore no, I got much older since those days, but I can definitely pack a mean few punches!" The old woman smiled.
Sally also landed on the floor and for the first time she didn't have a smile on her face. "These odds are something I don't like. It's three against one and I can't rely on Max right now since he's with those other two Knights…", she muttered under her breath.
Baro, who was just sitting down this whole time, whispered to the girl with glasses. "Hey, if you heal me, I can help you out. My magic can be quite powerful if I'm all recovered", he said.
"Great idea! I knew I could count on you… but before I help you, did you get the data from this whole mana removal experiment?" Sally asked.
"S-sure I did! The papers are by the machine… now can you hurry up?" Baro was growing impatient. "I just need her to heal me, and I can escape with my Mud Magic. I'll grab Neige if I can and make a break fo-!" He was interrupted as he felt a sharp pain to his neck.
The large man turned his head to the left and saw Sally smiling with a huge syringe in her arms with the needle poking into his neck. He could see a strange, pink liquid being injected in him and the last thing his consciousness saw as it faded was Neige on the floor.
"Oh! Maybe I should've said what I was going to do? Oh well, I'll grab my data you gathered and escape after these guys get beaten… thanks for the help, Baro!" Sally waved as Baro underwent a disgusting transformation.
Where Baro once was, now stood a pile of dark, brown mud. First it started forming from the man's eye sockets and ear holes, and then the mud started pouring from every crevice of his body until all you could see was the dark substance.
"She used it…", Max gulped as he stopped to see what was going on.
Lucas and Daisy had also paused to see what the tremor was and as they saw what was happening, their eyes widened, and they felt sick.
"You know something about that, don't you? Explain", Daisy ordered.
"That monstrosity you see now is because of Sally's Dark Magic Items she loves to create and use. She has many of them but that particular one makes your magic go out of control and consume you… that man you saw once…", Max began to explain.
In the middle of the cave there was now a huge, brown Mud Magic monster that towered above all of the mages. Asta had asked Theresa to protect the children, so it was just him and Gauche.
The 'Mud Monster' had no humanity in him and had just become a force to rampage.
"Unforgivable…", Lucas said as he clenched his fists and grew angrier.
Max finished his explanation as the duo of Lucas and Daisy turned back to focus on him.
"… He's dead now".
"Light Creation Magic: Energy Whips!" Lucas rushed in, angered expression and with a faster speed than before. His left arm generated the whip and he used it to attack Max who was standing still.
As Lucas attacked, Daisy didn't even realise the speed at which he did. "What the…? The speed of Lucas's Light Magic is quite slow so he's making up for it by his own speed… but this is just… is it the fact that he saw what happened with the Mud Magic guy that made him change?"
Lucas attacked and shouted at Max. "How can you call yourself human if you allow things like that to happen?! We may fight on opposing teams but aren't you guys friends? Aren't you close with them? You just took a life… just like that?!"
Max looked straight into Lucas's blue eyes. "You seem to be wrong about a few things there…", he jumped and started summoning his own magic spells.
"Water Creation Magic: Poseidon's Judgement!", Max formed a light-blue trident in his right hand and used its three spiky tips to shoot out two high-speed balls of water to Lucas. "First of all, I have no friends. The only person I'm close to is my brother!" He shouted.
Lucas used his Energy Whips to block one of the balls of water that was coming to him. He landed on the floor with his feet and ran forwards again, though this time he was about to be hit with the second ball of water.
"Ice Creation Magic: Crystalised Barrier!" Daisy, to protect Lucas, had summoned a barrier of cold and sharp ice between him and Max's attack. "Don't get too ahead of yourself, Lucas-san! Calm down and think!"
Though, when she spoke to him, the reply she got back showed that Lucas wasn't in a state to think rationally and for the first time, she saw a different side of him.
"Don't you think I am thinking?! We need to defeat these guys before more people die!" Lucas shouted at the mage.
Suddenly, Max stood behind Lucas, and he spoke. "The other thing I want to correct you on is… life… it means nothing to me".
Since Lucas had a head full of anger, he didn't notice how quick Max was to move in behind him. Since his trident had three spikes, there was one more water ball to fire out since he had only used two prior. He jabbed the trident into Lucas's arm and the last water ball attack struck him as he fell back into the cave wall.
"Lucas-san!" Daisy ran over to him and saw his wound on his arm.
It was a large gash with blood pooling out. Since Daisy had no Recovery Magic, all she could do was press on the wound to help stop the spill of blood.
"I know!" She took off her Blue Rose squad robe and tied it tightly around the injured area. She also applied some of her Ice Magic to freeze the wound and robe in place.
"S-sorry I didn't listen to you…", Lucas apologised as he slowly stood up again.
Daisy turned and was surprised he got up so quickly. "It's fine but are you sure you can carry on. You're still wounded, and the injury will only get worse if you aggravate it", she spoke softly.
Lucas walked on slowly without replying at first.
"That whole ordeal with the Mud mage…!" Daisy realised why it seemed to effect Lucas a lot.
"I hate unnecessary violence and I want to change all that to make the world more peaceful. I'd like to face these problems and fix them… and save these people"
Daisy widened her eyes as she realised. "What he said before we got to the cave… it's because what happened went against his ideals and that's why this is happening".
"Max… your group took a life with such ease. It can never come back and for that, since you're part of it, it's simply unforgivable", he spoke calmly. It seemed that his head had cleared up and he was thinking straight again.
Max remained silent as he showed no signs of a reaction.
Lucas turned to Daisy who was behind him. She looked surprised with how important Lucas's ideals were to him and to see what he would do to see those upheld.
"Daisy, don't you remember what I said earlier? This is also for your siblings, for Alice. I'm gonna be there for them", he smiled with his teeth showing.
"Lucas-san…!" Daisy breathed in and sighed. She walked up next to him and became ready for battle, properly this time. "That's right. I'm an experienced Magic Knight so I know how important it is we win here. For Alice… I'm not sure if her magic can ever come back, but I will still protect as many of these children here as possible!"
Max shut his eyes and seemed disappointed. "I knew you people… you Magic Knights won't let this go". His grimoire flicked through a multitude of pages and landed on a different spell.
"I'm going to win!" He charged forwards.
NOTES:
Hope you enjoyed this chapter guys! I know it's slightly shorter than what I had been uploading previously, but I felt that this point was good to leave off at.
A few different things happened here. Obviously, Max is back and for revenge it seems like but who is this Draien? Well…
We also get a better look into Lucas's ideals. The way he holds people's lives at such a high importance and the fact that it's being challenged now could show for some juicy stuff in the next chapters .
