Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 63: The Pink & Purple Hues of Beauty! Risa & Rogue vs. Sutairi! Dark Fortunes Being Foretold! The Tactical Plan of the Sabertooth Mages!
The sight of the flat and somewhat invisible lilac wall made Risa look perplexed, prompting her to try attacking it with the Psychotic Slicer spell. Risa stretched out her hands, before firing a pink wave of energy that was shaped like a crescent, and she watched the projectile create a light pink blast! However, the blast began to spin inward while Sutairi created a spell in her left hand. The spell was simply called Lilac Dark Screen, and Suitari made the large lilac sphere in her left hand become engulfed in a lilac aura of Darkness Magic.
That caused it to gain much more power, and Sutairi slammed the sphere against the mirror that was starting to shatter. When that occurred, the mirror began to repair itself while the lilac spell that touched it was now making dense lilac beams of light shine through the mirror! Risa quickly covered her eyes, only to feel the sudden attack of her blast from earlier striking her! She screamed in agonizing pain, even feeling the dense beams of light graze her skin, and Risa fell to the ground. She slowly got up to see that the lilac smoke filled the area again, before another mirror appeared beside the first mirror in midair.
Risa decided that she would need to use spells that were more powerful, which caused her to activate Extrasensory Psychic Soul Destruction. Risa fired a large ball of psychic energy from her left hand, and the outer rims of the ball were light pink while the rest of the sphere was in a normal shade of pink with bubblegum pink beams swirling around it. The spell even had pink thin beams of light shining from it, and Risa fired the spell at the mirrors. When the spell struck Sutairi's mirrors and created a large pink blast, and the mirrors were levitated up to the ceiling and they spun around in a circle.
The mirrors that had pink light shining off of of them managed to produce shadows in the fashion store, prompting both Risa and Rogue to start eating the shadows of shoe racks and clothes. Eating those shadows gave Risa a large surge in power, allowing her to access her magenta-colored Psychic Magic, and her eyes became magenta as she foresaw Sutairi unleashing another spell. Predictably, Sutairi fired the spell called Lilac Glitter Vortex up at the mirrors. She shot out the spell from her mouth, seeing the lilac vortex of dark magic strike the mirrors, and the explosion that occurred was filled with lilac-colored glitter.
Risa stated in a stern manner, paying attention to small lilac beams falling from the lilac smokescreen, "I won't be distracted by a trick like that!"
"It doesn't really matter to me. Personally, I just want you to get that gaudy pink light out of my mirrors." Sutairi replied with a nonchalant smile on her face, as she berated the color of Risa's magic.
Risa asked with an offended look on her face, the feeling of annoyance in her eyes,"Oh, like you're such a passion-filled fashion expert?"
Risa merely kept looking annoyed as she watched the lilac purple beams fall down to the ground, seeing them create large lilac purple blasts that started destroying the fashion store, and she dodged them as she picked up their shadows to start eating them. The blasts only resulted in more mirrors appearing, their invisibility faintly being undone by the lilac clouds of fog that surrounded the battlefield, and they were now in different parts of the fashion store. Risa attempted to leap over one, only to feel herself touch an invisible wall.
The mirrors could create spatial barriers when they were in different areas of the battlefield, effectively hindering Risa's movement. That didn't prevent her from using Shadowy Psychic's Psychokinetic Magenta Scream, and Risa unleashed a large burst of spiraling psychic energy in a magenta color from her mouth. This shade of pink was quite dark to where Sutairi could see thin beams faintly emerging from the shadow of the attack, but seeing the spell strike a nearby mirror gave Risa an unorthodox idea.
She decided to immediately fire the spell at that specific mirror again, resulting in two massive magenta blasts occurring, and the tremendous amount of light was being reflected off of that mirror. Risa heard it slightly break, almost like the dense beams of magenta light being produced were only capable of easily bouncing off of the mirrors that were the most durable, and hitting a mirror with the same spell at rapid speeds prevented the mirror from quickly regaining its durability. Upon seeing the magenta beams bounce off that mirror to hit other mirrors where they would ricochet and create blasts in midair, Risa felt that she outsmarted Sutairi.
Risa asked the antagonist with a somewhat confident smile on her face,"Can you handle multiple attacks at once, or are all your mirrors going to break?"
"You think that's my only spell for creating more mirrors? The best fashion designers know how to use several lilac mirrors to their advantage, you idiotic mage." Sutairi responded with a smug look in her eyes, before smiling in a vicious manner.
Upon hearing the fashion designer imply that she only liked the lilac hue of purple, Risa philosophically argued back, "If you're such a fashionable person, you should be using more shades than solely lilac to prove that you have a passion for fashion!"
Risa watched all of Sutairi's mirrors start to shatter while the magenta blasts struck them with high levels of power, and she turned her head to see Rogue activate Shadow Drive. As he engulfed himself in the black aura of shadows, Rogue picked up the largest shards of the lilac mirrors. They strangely hadn't disappeared, despite being affiliated with spells, and coating the shard in the aura of Shadow Dragon's Slash allowed Rogue to see the piece of mirror turn onyx black. He curiously showed it to Sutairi, who panicked at the sight of a slashing wave of shadowy energy emerging from the mirror's shard.
It quickly struck her, resulting in a black explosion occurring, and the black shard quickly turned into black dust. A black mirror appeared in midair, the shadowy black clouds displaying it for only a brief moment before it became invisible, and Risa felt like she needed to smile at this odd occurrence. Rogue's mirror could be utilized to her advantage, and Risa unleashed the spell called Psychotic Magenta Psi. She created a two-layered magenta sphere in her right hand, and Risa aimed the spell in Sutairi's direction as it struck the black mirror.
That caused a large dark magenta beam to emerge from the mirror, only for Sutairi to counter that attack with a spell called Lilac Stylish Stream. She put her hands together while stretching them outward, before shooting out a large beam of dark magic that was lilac purple. Sutairi threw some of her shards at the beam, causing them to brightly glow when they touched it, and the shards powered up the attack to where smaller lilac beams were now being fired from within this attack. Since Risa foresaw that, she applied Psychic Magic to some shards near the rack of dresses and she threw the magenta-colored glass at her own attack to enhance its level of power.
When both of the attacks collided, the dark magenta explosion was massive while the lilac blast was slightly smaller. Sutairi watched a lilac mirror appear in front of her while several dark magenta mirrors appeared in front of Risa, and Sutairi could tell that Risa's attack absorbed some of the power from Lilac Stylish Stream. That didn't stop the fashion designer from unleashing a spell called Lilac Petals. Sutairi created a lilac purple sphere in her right hand, before thin beams emerged from it while they resembled the petals of a rose, and the beams spread outward.
Some of them struck the mirrors that Risa created, which surprisingly resulted in them falling down into their shadows upon experiencing the collision. Risa looked curious about why her mirrors that were infused with Psychic Shadow Magic worked differently than the earlier pink ones, and she soon saw the beams reemerge from the shadows in a dark lilac hue of purple. They all headed straight for Sutairi, who applied Darkness Magic from her left hand to the mirror for it to intercept the attacks, but the first dark lilac beam immediately created a massive blast in its color!
The power of the blast immediately broke the mirror, shattering it into dust, and Sutairi quickly avoided the other attacks by letting herself get sucked into a nearby piece of glass. She smirked evilly while staying inside of its lilac void, watching the other beams destroy her fashion store, and the dark lilac blasts made her feel that the place needed to be demolished. Without having much passion in her work these days, Sutairi merely felt like all of her horrible-looking clothes could be destroyed by dark magenta flames while she wouldn't even care.
In an odd sense, Sutairi grinned in a manner displaying insanity as she felt that it wouldn't be difficult to remake all of those trashy clothes by using her dark magic. She created a lilac purple aura in her left hand, before emerging from the shard of glass like a transparent ghost, and she made the sphere in her right hand shine brightly for Risa and Rogue to see its lilac color reach all of the mirrors. It ended up being absorbed by the dark lilac mirrors, which had formed as a result of the blasts, but glancing at the reflections of the mirrors caused Sutairi to look concerned.
"What have your mirrors done to my magic?!" Sutairi asked in a shocked tone of voice, seeing a dark magenta mirror make her orb and physical appearance have that color.
Risa commented with a calm smile on her face, walking over to one of the dark lilac mirrors and seeing the orb also match that mirror's color, "I guess my mirrors have tinted your magic into looking better than it already does. Lilac without mauve, violet, wine purple, or boysenberry as a complimentary hue just makes your magic look gaudy."
"Stop spouting nonsense! By making one shade of purple be beautiful, my magic is something fashionable and should be adored!" Sutairi responded defensively, as she looked miffed at Risa's critiques of her fashion choices.
Risa explained with a baffled look on her face, "That's a surprise, since all your normal lilac-colored merchandise was so horrendous to look at. Seriously, your collection had nothing that made it really appeal to lovers of fashion such as myself. Your lilac clothes are made with no genuine effort, and having no variety of shading just shows me that you're destined to be the worst fashion designer in Fiore."
Upon hearing Risa's critiques, Sutairi threw the orb against one of the dark magenta mirrors in an aggressive manner. The spell was reflected back at her, prompting Sutairi to activate a spell called Lilac Gleam Mirror. Sutairi put both of her hands in front of the spell, allowing her to create an elegant-looking lilac-colored mirror that shined brightly, and the shiny mirror's light strengthened the power of her orb. It quintupled in size to be massive, before going into the gleaming mirror, and the attack was immediately propelled out of the mirror.
The orb was at its regular size, but touching a dark magenta mirror made the attack explode in a tremendous blast that was in a lilac color! Risa and Rogue wasted no time with eating the shadows that were produced from the blast, but having more power wouldn't automatically give them the advantage in this fight. The Sabertooth mages got to see that all of the mirrors had been shattered into dust, which implied that Lilac Gleam Mirror added a tremendous amount of strength to Lilac Petals' orb, but the elegant-looking spell hadn't disappeared.
Sutairi narrowed her eyes at Risa in an angry manner, feeling like she couldn't let this mage in pink clothes have the audacity to criticize her fashion sense. At that moment, she felt furious enough to unleash the spell known as Lilac Glass Gemstones. Sutairi made a lilac aura engulf her body, before seven hexagon-shaped lilac crystals were produced from the aura, and they all had the reflections of Risa appearing in them. The gems almost looked like they were made from the finest quality of glass, but they ominously glowed in a lilac color under the moonlight.
"If you really think my fashion sense is so horrendous, then this spell may show you how I can create clothes as quickly as possible!" Sutairi told Risa with a stern facial expression, as the gems floated in midair.
Risa responded in a confident manner, staying a bit humble as she chose to analyze the situation, "If all those gems will possibly fly directly towards me, then let's interfere with that by using Psychic Cerise Confusion!"
She fired a zigzagging vortex of cerise pink Psychic Magic from her left hand, and Risa watched her spell approach the gems. When the vortex appeared in their reflections, the gemstones shattered to leave behind seven lilac vortexes of Darkness Magic. They all went towards Risa's attack in a zigzagging manner, intending to strike it from different directions, but Risa activated Stellar Psi at the last second to levitate the shadows of those vortexes up off the ground. Risa made them hit the cerise vortex, coating the spell, and it became a darker hue of cerise pink.
Risa's spell grew larger while its level of strength also increased, and the dark cerise spell began to aggressively tear through the vortexes that brushed against it. When the large vortex tore through the smaller waves of energy, the dark cerise pink waves of psychic energy pulsated outward to where they touched the remaining vortexes. When the psychic energy even slightly touched the vortexes, they ended up changing from lilac purple to cerise pink while their shadows became light pink. The vortexes started to follow Risa's thoughts of attacking her enemy, which took Sutairi by surprise.
She was quickly hit by those four vortexes, resulting in four large cerise pink blasts occurring, and the intense amount of pink light blinded Sutairi long enough for the dark cerise vortex to move at a high level of speed. It hastily struck the fashion designer, creating a dark cerise pink blast that was massive, and the plentiful amount of pink shadows that went outward from the blast went back towards Risa. She felt herself become much stronger while the cerise and light pink auras engulfed her body, and Risa started to smile in a calmer manner from thinking that this battle was now over.
The pink clouds of smoke stayed in the remnants of the store for a few more minutes while Risa could faintly see that several cerise mirrors were now bordering a mirror that was in the color of dark cerise pink, and she waited for Sutairi to retaliate. The woman who was now her doppelganger did indeed retaliate, and Sutairi aggressively glared at her. She slammed her left palm against the leftmost cerise pink mirror while applying her lilac aura of Darkness Magic to the shiny glass, and the sight of the mirror becoming lilac only made Suitairi smirk in an arrogant manner.
Despite being heavily bruised and bloodied from Risa's previous attack, that wouldn't prevent the dark witch from activating a spell called Lilac Aurora Fashion Flair. She made lilac aurora lights surround her left palm for a moment, before they went into the lilac glass for the purpose of glistening brightly enough to blind Risa! As she tried to keep her eyes open, Risa proceeded to pick up the pink shadows of the mirrors and eat them. She was immediately engulfed in a dark magenta aura, but the intense amount of light also made Risa quickly have to dodge the dense beams of light that came through the mirror.
Having to dodge projectiles and deal with blinding lights only made Risa narrow her eyes in an angered and frustrated manner, before unleashing the spell called Mystical Psychic Screen, and this spell made a magenta aura of Psychic Magic surround Risa's hands. She firmly lowered her hands like she had been putting up a shield, and a dark magenta shield immediately appeared in front of her. The lilac purple beams of dark magic struck the shield, which became a large dark magenta dome in the same moment where Risa sent more power into the spell, and the moment where the beams passed through the shield was where they were quickly repelled out of it.
They ended up striking the area around Sutairi while becoming dark magenta at the last second, and Sutairi made the aurora in her left hand start to surround her entire body. She wasted no time with sending the aurora lights into the other mirrors, causing them all to become lilac purple, and Sutairi felt like she needed to end this battle soon. She activated a spell called Lilac Dark Distortion, and she felt like it would be in her best interest to try striking Rogue. The shadow dragon slayer noticed the thick and pink aura filling up the entire store as a result of the blasts that destroyed an entire section of Sutairi's shop, and he wondered if Risa had a plan.
"Shadow Dragon's Roar!" Rogue fiercely stated, before shooting out a large black vortex of shadows from his mouth.
Risa exclaimed in the exact same moment, looking determined to win, "Dark Magenta Extrasensory Psyche Delusion!"
Rogue's eyes caught a slight glimpse of Risa's magenta eyes starting to glow, and a high amount of Psychic Magic was infused into her eyes. She wasted no time with imagining Rogue's attack to be much larger, which caused it to actually grow three times its original size while the illusory black shadows seemed to really be going into his spell. The attack instantly struck Sutairi, who had been watching the Lilac Dark Destruction spell rearrange the positions of the mirrors while they all glowed lilac during the moments of being warped away to surround Rogue.
The mirrors all detonated around Rogue in massive lilac purple blasts while they all had the effect of twisting Rogue's body into several bizarre directions, but the spell's effect was immediately undone. Risa glanced at Rogue, smiling as she imagined him to be fully healed, and they both watched Sutairi's spell leave more lilac mirrors behind. They all warped to different areas of the fashion store, before Sutairi used the spell called Lilac Glass Gemstones. That prompted Risa to unleash the spell called Magenta's Psychic Glittering Dark Flares, and Risa made the dark magenta aura engulf her hands. She fired rings of dark magenta flames from them, only for the flames to appear in the reflections of the gemstones.
When the gemstones shattered, they left behind lilac purple rings of flames that all headed towards Risa's spell. Sutairi began to have arrogance in her eyes, thinking that she won this battle, and she watched her rings of flames strike Risa's attack. However, the massive inferno of flames that occurred seemed to take the fashion designer by surprise. They appeared to be Sangria purple and boysenberry purple, before some of the flames looked Iris purple, and Sutairi widened her eyes in disbelief. Even though Risa's flames were still dark magenta within the inferno, Sutairi's beloved lilac hue of purple was nowhere to be seen.
"What in the world have you done to my magic?!" Sutairi asked in an appalled manner, before she frowned with an immense amount of rage in her facial expression.
Risa explained in a somewhat relaxed manner, having a pleased smile on her face, "Well, you can't be surprised that my Psychic Magic could mess with how your mind is seeing shades of purple mix together. At least they all look better than lilac purple, which is way more gaudy than any shade of pink."
"Don't mess with me, you little bitch! Lilac Purple Shooting Mirrors!" Sutairi responded in an aggressive manner, looking enraged as she unleashed her final attack.
Sutairi put her hands together for the purpose of making a lilac orb appear in between them, before it grew much larger, and she threw it up high towards the Gunjou Moon. When the orb reached its highest point, it ended up bursting to create several lilac mirrors that floated in midair. They aggressively came down from the sky towards the shop, all of them being engulfed in a lilac aura for them to resemble meteors, and Sutairi aimed the Lilac Stylish Stream spell up at them. She stretched out her hands while aiming them up at the sky, before firing a large beam of Darkness Magic that was in the lilac hue of purple.
When the lilac beam appeared in the reflections of the mirrors, it immediately split itself into several smaller beams that were aimed at each of the mirrors. They struck the mirrors, causing them to grow larger, and the mirrors descended at a faster rate. That didn't stop Risa from making those mirrors shift to being grape purple while imagining that they misfired grape purple beams of Darkness Magic down on Sutairi, and the grape purple blasts that occurred were very large! Sutairi screamed in agonizing pain from that attack, wondering how it had been altered, and she soon felt her level of magical power decrease to an extremely scarce level.
She couldn't manipulate the projectiles in any way, only seeing Risa's illusory spell fire the beams in the Sangria and mauve hues of purple while seeing the mirrors also be afflicted with those hues of purple. The mirrors soon became orchid purple, before becoming amethyst purple, and Sutairi gasped in shock at how her lilac hair and lilac eyes were changed to those shades of purple as she saw her reflection. She didn't have time to process how she was experiencing a taste of happier times, only letting herself get struck by all the mirrors that became mulberry purple at the last moment. As the mulberry blasts occurred and shifted through the shades of purple that she recently saw in this fight, Sutairi simply let herself suffer an immense amount of damage during this moment where her thoughts shifted away from the lilac shade of purple.
Concurrently, in the blasts... (Sutairi's POV)
The sight of that mulberry blast just reminded me of my first mulberry hat that I made for a dark witch in the town of Gunjou, and I had even made a mulberry evening dress to match it. Of course, that outfit couldn't have been completed without making sure that woman had mulberry purple high heels. Those high heels were glittering under the moonlight, and this shade of purple had made the customer smile in such a gleeful manner. The sight of someone being so happy to wear clothes that I designed seemed so amazing, especially when I had put my heart and soul into my creations.
The amethyst purple blast looked lovely to me, giving me the memory of when I first became famous for making amethyst purple party dresses that had their belts and buttons made from the most beautiful amethyst purple crystals. Those dresses were made with passion, created with the desire to show off my best work to many customers. When women would smile happily at my dresses in this store, I actually liked getting all of their compliments. They inspired me to keep using my dark magic to create the finest kinds of fabric that existed in mirror dimensions, as having cheap fabric in actuality made its opposite counterpart exist in a parallel dimension.
That only made me think about how the psychic mage who fought me had even made some of exploding mirrors create an orchid purple blast, which brought back a nice memory of when I received praise in the fashion industry for making flat shoes that were orchid purple, and the designs of glittery orchid purple gems on the fronts of the shoes actually attracted high amounts of attention. Many other designers in the fashion industry seemed to admire that I could successfully combine the natural gemstones from Gunjou Cave with the materials for fashionable products, and every person who wore that pair of shoes seemed so happy to have bought duplicates of them.
The orchid leather for the shoes was just as beautiful as the mauve purple leather that I previously used for some boots, and those mauve purple boots looked great with dark mauve stockings. Even a violet leather jacket seemed to look great with those boots, as I demonstrated when I once walked on a runway in Seigan Town to show off Gunjou's sense of style during fashion week, and the judges were praising how I made all of the shades of purple work so well together. Just because I wanted my lilac pieces of clothing and accessories to be beautiful, did the lilac purple brightness blind me into obsessively thinking about this color?
"Hey...!" I heard a woman's voice state with concern in her voice, only for me to not pay attention to it.
All I could focus on right now was the fact that my first spell made me become a mirror image of the person who was my opponent, but were my lilac eyes and lilac hair only a reflection that made me be the foil to this woman's personality? She seemed to love fashion, evident by the multiple hues of pink that I witnessed in this fight while she seemed like a passionate critic who thought that my shoddy clothes disrespected the art of fashion itself. She must've activated a spell that made me see varying shades of purple, almost like she possessed the passion that I now lacked.
The passion was even felt from her spells, too. Not only were they strong, but seeing one of them create pink shadows really showed me that this psychic mage was someone who infused her emotions into her art. She wasn't passionless like me, but seemed to be striving towards making her own passion thrive. This girl was someone who didn't have most of her soul torn from her body by Maruberiki and the dark goddess, but the very idea of using dark magenta magic in defiance of what was a currently acceptable trend seemed so refreshing.
That girl seemed to be creating her own fashion trend by liking the different shades of pink, along with trying to show me different shades of purple. Was this kind of thinking really possible from someone who didn't seem to be as experienced as me in dark magic? She seemed to be a mix of a dark witch and a psychic mage, but the fact that she primarily used several pink spells of Psychic Magic to defeat me really just displays that someone can wield other colors in varying shades to prove that their magic is more powerful.
"Hey, wake up...!" A girl's voice told me in a stern tone, as my eyes began to see the purple hues of light from the blast fade away.
I responded with a surprised look on my face, as my first spell finally wore off for me to revert back to my normal appearance, "Those hues of purple... I can't... believe that they're so beautiful.."
"Maybe you should be daydreaming, after you repair this fashion store." The pink-haired mage replied to me in a calm manner, as she sternly folded her arms.
She was right about needing to repair the fashion store, which had mostly been torn down by the power of my final attack that had been altered by her Psychic Magic. The only area that was left standing had been the back room, which contained several items that were part of the fashion store's inventory, but the winds from the battle had displaced al of the boxes while several clothes that hadn't been worn were now sprawled out on to different parts of the floor. The heavy winds even blew a plum purple sundress hat to be on the counter, and the hat had an Iris purple bow on it.
This hat consisted of two shades of purple, the design being so royal by being in the color purple itself. However, this hat seemed like it was worthy of belonging to someone other than me. As much as I admired this hat that was in different hues of purple, the sight of its black shadow appearing on the counter made me feel like a fashion designer such as myself wasn't worthy of wearing that hat anymore. Instead, I did my best to slowly stand up and I had a stoic facial expression as I walked up to the counter.
Since I needed to start regaining my passion for fashion, I felt that this hat deserved to be worn by someone who already seemed like she had the desire of being the most fashionable person in Fiore. I slowly walked back to the girl whose hair became light pink, and I gently placed the hat on to her head. Upon seeing how it looked beautiful on her, my lips started to form a small smile. This moment made me feel like I had picked out the most stylish choice of accessories for a customer, bringing me back to happier times, and the fact that this girl produced Darkness Magic in varying shades of purple made me believe that she would be capable of reviving the feelings of passion within other artists who resided in Gunjou.
Elsewhere, in the Witch's Forest... (Lucy's POV)
There had been several kinds of artists in that town of Gunjou, including actresses and actors. However, none of the witches in this forest were pretending to be dark mages. They purposely fired hexes at me, making them deliberately be fired with bad timing, and this was likely a form of torture that they liked to put people through in the daytime. I wondered if Risa had endured this same kind of treatment when she was in the Witch's Forest earlier, and it wouldn't have surprised me if Violara or Mauveria ordered this group of witches to refrain from actually hexing us.
Violara's behavior towards Risa actually did concern me, since I heard about the deal that Sorano made with that dark witch. Even if Violara kept up her end of the deal now, would Maruberiki just let Risa not be a dark witch? He had seen her dark magenta magic yesterday, and I looked worried about the possibility of him and Minerva not just forgetting about that. Plus, they had seen the dark magenta book that Violara gave Risa. That book also came with Violara's scrunchie, which had been confirmed to be hers by Risa.
Personally, I just thought that Violara giving Risa her scrunchie was like a way of making her be a follower in that group of dark mages. Dark magic was sensed by me and the others earlier today, and it mainly seemed to come from Risa and Violara. Were they fighting again with the only difference being that Violara wanted Risa as a servant? That fight seemed to have ended with Risa delivering the final blow, though, and Risa must've prevailed. That explained why I was now experiencing waves of her Psychic Magic coming from elsewhere, along with someone else's dark magic.
However, approaching a run-down house in this forest also made me stop walking while all of my friends stopped alongside me. Miko walked past me with a kind smile on her face, before going up the wooden steps to knock on the front door, and the sounds of her soft knocks were immediately followed by the door quickly opening to reveal that a woman resembling a gypsy stood in the doorway. Upon seeing that woman stoically look at Miko, before smiling in a pleased manner from seeing me, I looked at the gypsy in a curious manner.
"It's great that you're finally here." The woman calmly told me, which made my eyes become filled with more curiosity.
That prompted me to kindly ask, "You were expecting my arrival?"
"This is my friend Nioi, Lucy. She's a fortune-teller, and her predictions are very precise." Miko explained to me with a sweet smile on her face.
Nioi motioned with her left hand for me to come into her shop, and I started to walk towards the house's front steps with a nice smile on my face. She probably had some good information about the future to relay to me, as well as possibly wanting to inform my teammates of their own fates. Although, quickly entering the house made me realize that Nioi would also be capable of telling me that a horrible fate awaited me. Upon seeing her walk over to a chair that was behind her table, I gulped in a nervous manner.
My eyes started to contain feelings of anxiety, wondering what inevitable event of fate awaited me. Nioi fired a violet-colored aroma of Darkness Magic from her left hand for it to strike the deck of Magic Cards that had been on the table, and the aroma went down into the cards. When Nioi picked up one of the cards, I started to look a bit surprised at how the card was being engulfed by violet flames of Darkness Magic. Those flames were different from the boysenberry flames that rose up from the card below that one, and both hues of purple responded to the backs of the cards.
When Nioi saw the image finish being burned into the violet card, she calmly turned it around for me to see something that made my mouth display a horrified facial expression while my eyes were filled with the feeling of confusion. The card displayed the strange sight of half of my face being dark blue, almost like a shadow that was ripping itself away from my own body, and my eyes displayed no pupils as if I had been unconscious. What in the world would cause such a horrible thing to happen to me?
"This spell is one of yours, I presume?" Nioi asked me with a slightly curious facial expression, after picking up the boysenberry card to glance at it.
Upon seeing the card be turned around for me to see a certain sentient spell looking rage-filled while being dark blue, I replied in a startled manner while looking very shocked, "That's...!"
In addition to that shocking sight involving a certain dragon, Nioi stated aloud in reference to a certain green-haired male who stood outside while the deck's third card was picked up, "Although, it looks like someone else and their sister may find themselves in a perilous situation."
As she placed that card with an orchid backside down on to the table, Nioi had calmness in her eyes from seeing Kūkiatsu take some steps forward for him to be across from the doorway. He remained outside while seeming surprised, and I had turned around to see him look up at me for a moment. I began to look puzzled, wondering what Kūkiatsu's fate had to do with Nioi reading my fortune right now. Was I going to do something that would put Kūkiatsuand Kusabue in harm's way? I felt that I would never do that, but my future seemed very dark.
From what Nioi had shown me earlier, one of my most powerful spells was going to be involved with rage and destruction. If Suou Shui was going to angrily destroy the town of Gunjou during a fight, then I just needed to keep Kūkiatsu and Kusabue away from the areas where I would be battling against dark mages. That seemed like the best plan for me to avoid letting either of them possibly be harmed by my spells, and it would also probably be beneficial for my Water Magic to not amplify Kusabue's Sound Magic to an extremely high level.
If she ever made it be highly destructive because of wanting to engage in teamwork with me, then Kūkiatsuwould probably be upset at me for making his sister value high levels of power as a higher priority than the importance of protecting innocent people. Since it seemed like my allies would encounter a dark future if they stayed near me during the entirety of this specific quest for the final ring, splitting up to take down different warlocks and witches in Gunjou seemed like the smartest tactic right now. Fighting different people in Gunjou would also allow us to catch up with Risa, who was unleashing powerful magic. The thought of catching up with my friend caused me to politely bow my head towards Nioi while smiling in a somewhat thankful manner for giving me my fortunes, and I turned around to walk out of her house.
Meanwhile, in Gunjou Town's fashion store... (Narrator POV)
Risa and Rogue walked away from the remnants of the fashion store while helping Sutairi walk outside, and the wounded fashion designer slowly fell to her knees. She had been severely wounded and bloodied from the fight against Risa, not even feeling like she could walk over to the plaza, but the woman who had lilac hair didn't want herself to be healed by Risa. Sutairi felt that the pink-haired girl would only be pitying her, and the older woman looked regretful as she felt that blaming herself was the only logical thing to do right now.
Sutairi now realized that it had been foolish of her to go along with Maruberiki and Minerva in their plan of satisfying the dark goddess, since wanting artists such as fashion designers to have no passion for their craft was like a way of displaying that the dark goddess was going insane, but she couldn't just easily retrieve the portion of her soul that had been ripped out of her body. Not only would Maruberiki have no qualms with decimating Sutairi, but him and his strongest warlocks could easily incinerate her with one strike.
Although, the idea of being incinerated would probably be more favorable right now in the current situation where Kyasurin was slowly walking up to the group. The female wizard who secretly worked for the Magic Council approached Sutairi with a sadistic look on her face, almost like she felt delighted at the sight of the dark mage being defeated. However, Kyasurin wouldn't exactly want to praise Risa right now. Instead, she applied Darkness Magic to her feet and quickly got next to Risa for the purpose of gently pushing her aside with her left hand.
As Risa was gently pushed aside, she took notice of Kyasurin pulling out her lavender wallet and opening it up to display the lilac identification card that proved Kyasurin to be a member of the Magic Council. By sternly displaying her form of identification to Sutairi, the fashion designer groaned in a displeased manner from realizing that she was now being arrested by one of Fiore's mages who enforced the kingdom's laws. She simply let Kyasurin get behind her for the purpose of pulling out Heather purple handcuffs that were linked together by a wine purple chain, and being cuffed by these restraints would prevent Sutairi from using her magic until she was no longer handcuffed. As Kyasurin helped her stand up, Sutairi looked at Risa with a calm facial expression before saying some parting words.
"Pink-haired mage, promise me that you'll be one of the people who brings more shades of purple and more happiness back to the town of Gunjou! You may primarily use Psychic Magic in several shades of pink, but your strong passion for fashion will hopefully provide some much-needed light to as many dark mages as you want." Sutairi told Risa with a small smile on her face, before predicting that Risa's love for fashion would prove to be beneficial.
Risa replied with a kind smile on her face, "I promise you that I'll help my friends change Gunjou Town into being a better place, and fashion is definitely an area where I have expertise!"
That caused Risa to start thinking about the fashion store, which now had pieces of its ceiling crumbling off for them to fall to the ground, and rebuilding this specific store would require more than just the exterior portion of the building to be repaired. From Risa's perspective, repairing the interior of the building also meant that the fashionable clothes and accessories would also have to be in varying shades of purple. Lilac purple couldn't attract all of the customers in Gunjou on its own, and other hues of purple were needed.
Risa pulled out the dark magenta book from her pocket for a moment, and she softly smiled at the thought of Sutairi's shop having some dark magenta purses on display. They would probably be complimented with dark lilac shoes next to them on nearby podiums that would be in an Iris shade of purple. Those podiums could have a mirror in the regular hue of purple across from them, and Risa's eyes expressed feelings of delight from how her mind imagined the mirror being infused with Darkness Magic for the purpose of showing people the different shades of purple that could serve as accessible variations of their outfits.
This idea caused Risa to have a pleased smile on her face, as she felt herself being like a fashionable person who was skilled enough to even find inspiration for stylish fashion choices in places featuring piles of rubble. She even viewed the collapsing building with damaged clothes on display as a place that could probably be repaired by Lucy using her Earth Magic to rebuild it up from the ground, and Risa liked the idea of Lucy making the rebuilt fashion store have lavender walls that were dense as steel. As she began to get lost in her own thoughts, Risa was met with the sight of Kyasurin gently tugging on her pajama shirt.
"Ara, ara. I hope you don't mind if Matsuba and I take full credit for your little victory." Kyasurin told Risa with a menacing smile on her face, as she gently pulled a dagger out of her hair to simply hold it in her hand.
That prompted Risa to respond in a calm manner, humbly trying to foresee later events, "Well, I guess you can brag without the fear of a dark witch or warlock ever eradicating you."
"Ara, ara. No need to worry, Sabertooth mage. I'm a high-ranking spy, and no one in Hexing Enchantress has any interest in targeting me. Speaking of that guild, I'll be taking that fashion designer back to the guildhall now." Kyasurin explained in a disturbingly gleeful manner with a frightening grin appearing on her face, before tap dancing for a moment and proceeding to walk away.
As Kyasurin walked away with Sutairi walking in front of her, Risa felt glad about the fact that this fight had the result of Maruberiki and Minerva losing one of their allies. If Maruberiki and Minerva wanted several of their allies to prevent Miko from speaking with the dark goddess, then Risa smiled a bit at her current strategy. She believed that the dark witches and warlocks needed to be taken down, even if some of them were living husks who gave up the entirety of their souls to bring pleasure to the dark goddess, and weakening the guild's power was the best way to interfere with this army.
Although, Risa began to notice a strange fact regarding Gunjou Town. Even though there were several loud blasts and many dark mages passing by, no one from Hexing Enchantress even bothered to attack Risa from outside the store or even go inside to assist Sutairi in battle. That may have been the result of Sutairi possibly proving herself to be a competent mage who didn't need to rely on assistance from other wizards during fights, but her situation of just losing a battle didn't seem to even get the attention of the depressed-looking mages.
Risa even got to see a man with short eggplant purple hair walk past hr an Rogue, who noticed that this man had a prideful-looking girlfriend by his side, and the male who wore a dark purple blazer with lavender khaki pants above his bare feet simply sighed in a displeased manner at the sight of some blood on the fashion store's floor. His prideful girlfriend turned around to face Risa, who simply saw that the woman had orchid purple hair that went well with her royal-looking orchid dress as her hair fell to her hips, but she walked past Risa with a bored look in her amethyst eyes from thinking that the fight didn't seem very exciting.
30 minutes later, in Gunjou Town...
Even though that woman didn't think highly of Risa's skills, the sight of the damaged fashion store made Sting seem very happy. He didn't perceive Sutairi as a powerful dark witch like Mauveria, but Sting felt that it was good for the Sabertooth mages to take down any warlock or witch who seemed like one of the strong wizards in Maruberiki's army. From Sting's perspective, the dark mages of Hexing Enchantress weren't panicking over Sutairi being defeated because Risa merely defeated an expendable pawn. If that hypothesis was true, then winning this guild war and escorting Miko to the goddess required one simple strategy.
Sting and his friends in the Sabertooth guild would need to split up into different groups, just like when they fought the gatekeepers. However, the main difference in this situation involved how they would need to split up into smaller groups. Having smaller groups would allow Sting and his teammates to fight multiple mages at the same time, possibly resulting in several victories while also making the number of mages in Hexing Enchantress start to dwindle down to a lower quantity. If there were no powerful mages guarding any areas, then those areas could be used as pathways for guiding Miko to the location of the dark goddess.
Therefore, the best idea right now was to take down the guards who were supervising the most important areas pertaining to the path leading to the dark goddess. That prompted Sting and Lucy to both look around this area of Gunjou in a curious manner, wondering if there was an accessible path near the plaza that could be used as a starting point for them to start paving a safe path for Miko. The purple-haired woman glanced around in a calm manner for a moment, hearing the sound of a leaf whistle weakly being played in the alley that was to the left of the fashion store.
That sound also reached the ears of Kusabue, who ran in that direction to see a woman with light mauve and short hair weakly playing the leaf whistle with a depressed facial expression. She had a look of despair in her eyes, which were in the normal hue of mauve. The woman wore amethyst purple Capri pants with a Heather purple crop top that went well with her violet flat shoes, and she didn't even put much effort into playing the leaf whistle. The musical notes in her song all seemed to follow one saddening melody while all the notes were flatly in the same pitch, and this woman's lack of energy in her music only made Kusabue narrow her eyes in frustration.
"Excuse me, Miss! If you have any enjoyment for your music, you should play the leaf whistle much better!" Kusabue told the woman with a somewhat stern look on her face, before picking up a lavender leaf that was on the ground near a tree.
That caused the woman to ask with a gloomy facial expression, looking sad as she turned her attention to Kusabue, "Well, why don't you show me how the leaf whistle should be played?"
"I'll gladly do that!" Kusabue responded to the woman, as the feeling of confidence entered her eyes.
Kusabue began to exhale her breath against the lavender leaf while putting it against her mouth with her left hand, and she slowly closed her eyes. The sound of her melody was accompanied by the shamrock green aura engulfing her body, as she was infusing Sound Magic into the leaf. Kusabue was making herself play a melody that sounded very energetic while the notes of the song seemed to easily flow in harmony with the beat of her left foot lightly tapping against the ground, and Kusabue moved her hands around as if she was playing a flute.
The sound of her melody made the depressed woman start to look a bit curious, almost like she was wondering how the young girl was finding joy in the sound of her music. Kusabue's tune sounded very happy, reflecting how she felt very optimistic about the team's chances of winning. Happiness was in her eyes while she smiled at the sight of the destroyed fashion store, viewing that as a sign that this was the only the beginning of Sabertooth's victories against Hexing Enchantress. Kusabue watched Miko start to guide everyone else down the alleyway that had lavender trash cans knocked over with garbage sprawled out in the alley, and she stopped playing the leaf whistle. Kusabue chose to put it in the pocket of her dark green skirt that matched her shamrock green T-shirt, and she joined her friends in waiting for Miko's directions.
Miko quickly walked through the alleyway with a confident facial expression, liking how she could see the end of it coming up quickly. The alleyway led to a somewhat busier part of Gunjou Town, which was a lavender street that seemed to have its paths going to the western and eastern directions. Those routes only had northern and southern directions at their endpoints, which meant that this street was like another gateway that was used for getting to certain parts of Gunjou. As Miko looked in the northwestern direction for a moment, the trees of the Wine Woods in the distance made her shiver in a horrified manner.
"Since I can sense the immense power of those hostile witches from this distance, we're close to the Wine Woods that are in the northwest." Miko calmly told Lucy with a slight frown on her face, not wanting to get harmed.
Upon seeing a radio tower in the northeastern part of Gunjou, Lucy asked Miko in a curious manner, "What's that tall building on the opposite end of the street for, Miko?"
That prompted Miko to kindly reply with a somewhat smile on her face, "That's the Spectral Tower, known for being a place of prayer. Although, I highly suggest that you and your friends be quite careful when exploring that place."
"Well, that shouldn't be a problem for Sting and I to handle. We'll defeat the warlocks and witches in the tower. In the meantime, Kūkiatsu and Kusabue should go to the Wine Woods. Yukino and Sorano should investigate the theater, and that probably leaves Risa and Rogue with the town's nightclub." Lucy explained aloud to her teammates with a confident smile on her face, feeling like she had a good plan.
Risa had no issue with going to the nightclub that was in the southwestern part of the town, believing that she and Rogue were strong enough to take down any enemies who were going to attack them. Risa felt that she had strengthened her mind enough to where changing her spells' shades of pink would be a great way to compare herself to a dark mage who probably mastered dances in different styles, and she turned around to happily smile at Rogue. The shadow dragon slayer kindly smiled back at her, before his enhanced hearing allowed him to hear different tracks of music quickly being played in the nightclub.
Those loud sounds could also by heard by Kusabue, but she shifted her attention back to the sight of Kūkiatsu walking off in the northwestern direction. Kusabue wasted no time with following him in that direction, smiling as they both quickly saw a path going north into the Wine Woods. Those trees began to loudly creak from a howling breeze of wind that passed by, but Kusabue didn't feel any fear. Kūkiatsu gulped a bit, seeing some wine purple bushes up ahead in the distance while they surrounded a dark purple entrance that had a violet sign nearby.
The thought of signs being near places caused Yukino to happily smile at Lucy, before walking off with Sorano to find the theater. That left Lucy and Sting with Miko, who was now frowning in an anxious manner from how she would be part of the group that would be battling mages in the Spectral Tower. Miko glanced at the distant tower for a moment, before imagining some warlocks attacking her with spells of Darkness Magic through the tombstones of ghosts. That certainly seemed scary, but seeing Lucy look at her with eyes that displayed unwavering confidence made Miko start to build up some feelings of bravery in her eyes. She tightly clenched her fists, building up magical power for her spells of Darkness Magic, and Miko began to guide her new friends towards the Spectral Tower as she walked towards it with feelings of fearlessness causing her legs to move somewhat faster.
How was Chapter 63? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Risa and Rogue defeated Sutairi, along with making her remember her past passion for being a fashion designer who put love and care into her work. Although, that happy situation has been followed by Lucy finding out that one of her spells will end up being tainted. However, what does fate specifically intend to do to Kūkiatsu? By the way, this is the sixth part of the Mauve Darkness Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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