Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 72: Lucy's Dark Thoughts! Training In The Wisteria Wasteland! Risa & Rogue's Romance! Sting's Love For Lucy! Kotomi's Wrath!
Lucy woke up in her bedroom, groaning in a tired manner as she slowly got out from underneath the red comforter that covered her bed. The bed itself felt very soft while Lucy gently opened her eyes, seeing the sun's light that came through the window of this room of the house that she shared with Risa. The pink-haired girl had gone to the Sabertooth guild an hour earlier for the purpose of seeing if Sting had any specific plan for when Lucy would have to confront Kotomi, but the fact that Lucy wasn't woken up earlier meant that Sting currently had no plans prepared for dealing with that thief.
Preparation for dealing with that blonde-haired mage would be important, and this circumstance also meant that Lucy felt like she needed to prepare for her personal training with Mauveria in the Wisteria Wasteland. The powerful dark witch probably wouldn't mind if Lucy showed up to Gunjou Town in the light purple T-shirt that she wore with her mauve purple shorts, since Risa helped Lucy discover that those clothes were on sale yesterday, but Lucy's mind started to have dark ideas regarding the spells that she would need to create.
Lucy lightly smiled at the thought of using a spell that would make her body become a deep purple silhouette, wanting herself to be intangible before bursting into flames, and Lucy imagined herself reemerging from those flames to make her body revert to its original state. She could watch her enemy get severely burned, but Lucy began to smirk in a confident manner from recalling the time where Mauveria made a simple flame burst into larger amounts of fire around the Sabertooth mage's body. If Lucy had a variant of Heather's Hex, she could really make the most of that spell.
Regarding her desire to make the most of spells, Lucy also felt that she would need some powerful spells that had aftereffects such as confusing her opponents. If enemies ended up being dizzy like when Kusabue became confused during the fight with Mauveria, then Lucy could probably be capable of hitting her enemies with illusory attacks that would feel even worse in actuality. As Lucy softly giggled at that dark thought, she gently heard the sound of someone knocking on her bedroom door. That prompted Lucy to go to the door, opening it up to see Risa smiling in a pleasant manner.
"Good morning, Lucy! After being in Gunjou overnight, I think we're all still needing more sleep and some breakfast. Although, I don't mind if you only eat with me until you have to start training." Risa told her friend with a happy smile on her fight, before slightly giggling.
That caused Lucy to say with a delighted smile on her face, feeling relaxed, "After absorbing all that magical power, I feel like I have enough energy to do anything! Although, it's a bit sad that we can't immediately just fight Kotomi and get me back in my own body."
When Lucy mentioned the situation of returning to her own body, that made Risa ask with a curious facial expression, "Lucy, have you thought about which guild you'll join when you get your body back? You'd be interested in returning to Fairy Tail and rejoining your other friends, right?"
"Going back to Fairy Tail honestly wouldn't interest me." Lucy replied to Risa in a somewhat colder tone, as her mind flashed back to the sight of Erza's dead body.
Being in the depths of Gunjou Cave allowed Lucy to discover that Erza was dead, and that made her start to feel slightly anxious about the thought of fighting Kotomi. If that criminal was responsible for Gray being dead, then there was no reason for Lucy to doubt that Kotomi was able to kill Erza. Kotomi had already fought the members of Team Natsu in Tokiwa Town, and spending so much time around them probably allowed Kotomi to take note of all their weaknesses. Lucy started to sternly frown at the seventh legendary ring on her right hand, thinking that Erza let her guard down in the search for this ring and Kotomi killed her with a sneaky attack.
That also brought her mind back to how Juvia didn't disclose the full details of Gray being hurt, almost like she hadn't been around to see it. That wasn't surprising, since an experienced user of the Kaze's Feather Dance spell could obviously move extremely fast to the point where it would look like she was teleporting. Lucy herself had mastered that same spell to where she could move at rapid speeds, but Lucy thought about how each instance of using Kaze's Feather Dance made her legs be stronger to where she could jump with the lightness of a feather.
This thought made her start to have the thought of her first spell of Darkness Magic, imagining it to be very light while it had the potential to make enemies suffer high amounts of damage. If people were left in awe at the power of Lucy's weakest attack, then all of her attacks would mean that she wasn't playing around with dark magic. Lucy felt like the dark thoughts in her mind were Kogomurasaki's way of being sane enough to tell Lucy that she had to be a dark witch with some sense of responsibility, since Lucy would need to be the kind of sorceress who didn't get overindulged in a lust for power.
"I don't want to feel like I'm so closely associated with that woman who wanted so much power, even to the point where she took away all my gold keys." Lucy stated aloud with a serious look on her face, also indirectly elaborating on her response to Risa.
Risa responded with a kind smile on her face, "Yeah, I think you'd make the choice between whether using your keys or the rings."
"Speaking of the rings, we should celebrate at the Sabertooth guild later. Lucy, we went through some of the toughest adventures to get each one." Risa added with a delighted facial expression, thinking that everyone in Sabertooth deserved to celebrate this accomplishment.
Lucy replied with a nicer smile appearing on her face, taking notice of Risa's attire, "Well, it won't take me very long to buy a new outfit after breakfast."
Risa giggled in a happy manner, as she felt glad that Lucy would still want to engage in being fashionable at this point where she looked very stylish with seven beautiful rings on her right hand. The amethyst purple gem that was part of the Amethyst Purple Ring certainly looked beautiful, but Risa felt that Lucy needed to wear some Heather purple jeans with midnight purple high heels. Risa would probably recommend that the heels could be matched with an orchid purple shirt, which could have a plain purple bow in her hair accompanying it.
Risa currently wore a magenta pink crop top with some dark magenta circular bracelets on her wrists while her ruffled skirt was bubblegum pink, and she wore light pink high heels. The high heels matched Risa's pink hair, which was tied into two wavy ponytails that framed her face. She gently touched the top of her own head, looking somewhat surprised at how she almost forgot to put on a fuchsia pink hat, and Lucy watched Risa run back to her room. She took notice of one of Risa's cerise pink bra straps slightly being visible, and Lucy wondered if Risa was wanting a party to be part of her date.
She smiled nicely at how Risa was likely wanting to go out on a date with Rogue today, since neither of them had a reason to be training. Rogue probably needed Risa to be a comforting person who could be by his side, especially since he had to watch Minerva die yesterday. Minerva also died in front of Sting, which caused Lucy to feel that she would need to comfort the light dragon slayer. However, she felt that it would be good to go see Sting and just find out if he had any missions for Lucy to handle after her training. Lucy would gladly use those spells on a little mission, one that she'd handle after training, and the sight of Risa emerging from her room with a fuchsia pink beret on her head made Lucy feel like they could now leave the house. As Lucy walked into the living room and went towards the house's front door, she started to look concerned from wondering if Fairy Tail's mages found out that an impostor was living in her apartment.
Meanwhile, at the Fairy Tail guild...
After getting back from Kuria Town with Kotomi, Mira wasted no time with going to Makarov's office and informing him that Lucy's body had been stolen by an impostor. This certainly surprised Makarov, who had also seen the newspaper article where the real Lucy Heartfilia obtained the Sapphire Blue Ring in Seigan Town. That newspaper article wasn't as surprising to either of them as what Mira was now seeing in the guildhall, however. Mira was reading the newest issue of the newspaper that included a section from Sorcerer Magazine, and a woman named Rairakku had gone to them for an interview.
She sent her dark magic into the interviewer's mind, allowing them to vividly see the illusion of Lucy Heartfilia smiling proudly with all seven rings on her hand as she walked out of the Tyrian Temple. Rairakku made that specific illusion become realistic by using a spell pertinent to hexes, and the photos that interviewer took were real as they listened to Rairakku's words about what had actually happened in Gunjou Town. This was a special issue of the newspaper, along with the newest issue of Sorcerer Magazine having Rairakku on its amethyst purple cover to promote the special issue.
Mira even got to see photos from Lucy's fight with Maruberiki, effectively showing everyone proof that Lucy was on a dangerous quest to obtain all the legendary rings. Mira herself vaguely heard of the legend, but going to Gunjou around dawn allowed her to hear some dark mages talk about how these rings were legendary treasures that did exist. Even though the rings existed, a certain blonde-haired mage wouldn't have them as her treasures. Cana angrily glared at Kotomi while sitting next to her at the bar, purposely smudging the back of her right hand with a brown rag that was next to a white bottle of guild insignia removal. The bottle resembled nail polish removal, but Cana was glad that Lucy's impostor thought she was finally getting rewarded for doing well in Kuria Town.
Kotomi did well on that job, obtaining the 900,000 jewels after showing the client that she now had the gold ring in her possession. Kotomi hadn't shown off the gold ring to anyone, thinking that she could always fool the mages of the Fairy Tail guild by just doing her best to act like the real Lucy as she handled other jobs over the next few days. She glanced at her hand, wondering why Cana was being so rough like she intended to break the wizard's hand while everyone else seemed to have an attitude of silence towards the blonde-haired mage. Cana looked at Kotomi's hand, now seeing that the guild mark was removed.
"Hey, what are you doing?!" Kotomi worriedly asked aloud in Lucy's voice, having a startled look on her face from seeing that the pink Fairy Tail guild mark was removed.
Cana asked aloud with a serious facial expression, having seen Sorcerer Magazine's newest issue, "Did you really think that taking an A-Class job wouldn't look suspicious, Lucy? How come you've never seemed drained from using two Celestial Spirits, if you've even summoned them? Why did you get so strong, Kotomi?"
Upon being unable to properly process Cana's deliberate barrage of questions, Kotomi asked Cana with feelings of shock entering her eyes, "W-What?! What did you call me?"
Mirajane spoke for Cana, closing her eyes as her lips formed a sadistic smile, "She's just saying what the real Lucy told Rairakku, who's letting everybody know about Lucy recently taking on a dark mage named Maruberiki to finally get the last legendary ring."
Kotomi proceeded to have a look of sheer disbelief on her face, not wanting to accept that the weak girl who she defeated in Tokiwa Town was now much stronger. She would have to accept that her immediate shift to a feigned look of arrogance was what made Cana smirk in a confident manner. She caught Kotomi in the act by reading her facial expression, since the real Lucy wasn't going to care about a girl getting legendary rings unless the situation majorly related back to her. Cana felt glad that her history with Lucy allowed that little detail to be caught, just like how she caught Lucy's impostor.
This woman was obviously going through multiple emotions right now, not even trying to deny that she was Kotomi. That gave Cana the idea of how the Sabertooth guild needed to be informed of what the Fairy Tail guild now confirmed to be true, especially since Cana would indirectly be validating what Sting tried to report to Natsu earlier on the day where he directly contacted the fire dragon slayer. Even though Natsu was no longer here, the pink-haired mage would probably like the idea of Cana poetically avenging Team Natsu by trying to rectify their mistake.
Cana proceeded to pull out a blue Communications Lacrima Crystal from the left pocket of her orange Capri pants that went well with her white bikini top, and Cana gently tapped the orb with one finger for it to turn on. She used one of her white sandals to keep Kotomi restrained, harshly kicking the evil woman in the stomach during her moments of trying to regain her composure, and Kotmi fell off the bar stool while Cana rubbed the orb to scroll down her list of contacts. Once she got down to Sting's name, Cana lightly touched the orb and heard it start to loudly ring for everyone to hear the call. However, the ring soon cased as Kotomi groaned.
"Hey, this is Sting from Sabertooth! Aren't you Cana from Fairy Tail?" Sting stated with a confident smile on his face, before curiously asking Cana a question.
Cana told the light dragon slayer with a stern look on her face, "Sting, get Lucy on this call. The impostor confirmed what Lyon told us the other day, and we saw Sorcerer Magazine's special issue."
That prompted Sting to reply with a somewhat disappointed facial expression, "Lucy isn't here in the guild right now, but I can try to see if she's in Kogane. Lucy and the rest of the team recently went through hell with Maruberiki and the dark mages, but I heard they're spreading all the claims of what went down in Gunjou. We even found Erza Scarlet dead in Gunjou Cave, but I wonder if Natsu can sniff out who killed her."
Cana told Sting in a calm manner, trying to not sound too shocked, "Erza is... actually dead. Well, Kotomi killed Natsu in her quest to get some treasure. I'm sorry that something like this mess went unchecked for so long."
As Cana proceeded to end the call, the sight of Kotomi getting up and sending Celestial Spirit Magic down into her feet made Cana get off of the bar stool. She wasted no time with pulling out a deck of Magic Cards from the right pocket of her orange Capri pants, and confidence entered Cana's eyes as she felt that it would be possible for her to take on Kotomi with various types of magic. She sent some magical power into her first card, which was known as Earthquake Chasm. This specific card glowed orange, before Cana threw it on the ground.
In a few seconds, the ground around Kotomi specifically began to shake as if a violent tremor was occurring. The ground around her quickly cracked, and that was followed by a plain orange blast occurring in average size. The attack struck Kotomi, but that only happened after she made a deep golden aura surround her body. She wasn't even slightly damaged by the attack, causing her to evilly give Cana a pitying smirk. That evil look in Kotomi's eyes definitely showed everyone that she was not Lucy Heartfilia, and she charged up a high amount of magical power.
Kotomi unleashed a spell called Star Gold Burst, and she felt glad to have learned this spell on the day after visiting a place as bright as Kuria Town. Kotomi created a light gold orb in her left hand, charging it up to where it looked very large, and she smirked evilly as Cana and Mira moved away from the counter. Kotomi lunged towards Cana at high speeds, almost like she would slam the orb against her face. Much to Cana's surprise, Kotomi made the orb strike the ground for it to create a harmless light gold blast that spun outward. The high amount of light blinded everyone's eyes, giving Kotomi the chance to quickly flee from the Fairy Tail guild, but that didn't stop Cana from just waiting for it to vanish. The light soon went away, which was the perfect time for Cana to run out of the Fairy Tail guild to chase Kotomi down. As Mira was able to sense Kotomi's magical power from a general direction, she ran after Cana and hoped that Kotomi wasn't going out of Magnolia to kill Lucy.
40 minutes later, in Kogane Town...
After eating breakfast with Risa at a restaurant in Kogane Town, Lucy went with her to the town's fashion store for the purpose of getting a new outfit. Lucy picked out a plain purple beret with an amethyst purple blazer, and she wore a mauve purple shirt behind it. The shirt complimented her grape purple pants, which went well with Lucy's plum purple flat shoes that had the designs of Rairakku's menacing ghosts on the fronts of them. There were even images of seven ghosts floating around in a circle on Lucy's shirt, but all of the boysenberry purple ghosts looked so happy.
Speaking of looking happy, Lucy seemed very joyful after paying for her new outfit and walking out of the store. She felt happy that her training with Mauveria would begin soon, and Lucy watched Risa kindly wave goodbye as she was going to spend some time with Rogue. While Risa would enjoy some time with the shadow dragon slayer, Lucy would enjoy getting in touch with her darker side. She proceeded to run out of Kogane Town, going all the way to the entrance. However, the sight of the town's entrance allowed Lucy to see Sting standing there with a stern expression on his face while Lector was flying next to him.
"Good morning, Sting. Good morning, Lector. I'll be training in Gunjou for several hours, so I'll be back in time for a party if you want to celebrate that we got the final ring." Lucy told her boyfriend and his confident ally with a nice smile on her face, before taking a step forward.
Sting told Lucy with a serious facial expression, as he gently placed his left palm against her chest to stop her from moving, "Lucy, I wouldn't be so happy right now if I were you. Cana from Fairy Tail called me earlier today, and it sounds like Kotomi killed Natsu. They figured out that Kotomi has been pretending to be you this entire time, but I think she was the one who also killed Erza and Gray."
At that moment, Lucy asked Sting with a shocked facial expression as her mind tried to process everything, "What...? She not only fooled my friends, but she also killed them? Was she doing that because they got suspicious? Even someone as strong as Natsu... lost? If Erza couldn't win against her, then what guarantees that I'll get my body back?! Even if I train, how do I assure myself that I won't die?! Isn't this battle carrying higher stakes, Sting?!"
Sting stated to Lucy with a calm facial expression, slightly smiling, "Fighting against Kotomi after she took down your former teammates would be tough on a second attempt where she probably has so much Celestial Spirit Magic, but you're carrying more motivations than some thieving girl. You're carrying the lessons that you learned from everyone who you encountered. Lucy, you're smart and I believe you can defeat her."
Those last words from Sting only made the tears continue to be in Lucy's eyes, as she saw Sting smile more while Lector confidently smiled alongside him. Even if Lucy was now in similar circumstances of being the last person left from Team Natsu to be capable of fighting Kotomi, she wasn't truly alone like before. Sting would never let Lucy go off alone in this kind of situation, and he wouldn't be worrying like when Gray was worried for Lucy's safety in Tokiwa Town. Despite being somewhat close to Tokiwa, Sting loved the fact that Lucy drastically improved her own skills from when she was previously there.
In fact, Sting started to smile at the poetic idea of Lucy going back to Tokiwa and defeating Kotomi with the types of magic involved with the seven legendary rings. Those seven important quests all allowed Sting to see that Lucy could endure whatever spells were thrown at her, and any losses before obtaining the rings only made Lucy feel like she aggressively needed redemption. In that sense, fighting Kotomi was no different than when Lucy got payback against Emiria Hindenka. Sting didn't want Lucy to feel frazzled by any opponents who sounded strong, since he saw firsthand in the Tyrian Temple that Lucy could even get stronger in the midst of a fight.
Right now, she needed to get stronger during her training. Even if Lucy wanted to fight like a dark witch, Sting would be like her light in the darkness that could allow Lucy to push herself to have more emotional strength. He wouldn't let Lucy's heart and mind be shaken up by news of a tragedy involving a close friend, especially since Lucy already had the death of Kūkiatsu as something that weighed on her mind. Kūkiatsu wouldn't have wanted Lucy to lose confidence in analyzing her chances of beating Kotomi, and Sting maintained a confident attitude as Lucy proceeded to hug him.
"Sting, will you... still love me on that first day where I get my body back? What if some people treat me like a pariah based on Kotomi's bad deeds?" Lucy asked Sting with a somewhat worried expression on her face, thinking of the possibility of those events happening.
That caused Sting to kindly tell Lucy with a genuine and loving smile on his face, "If you keep being as awesome as you were from the first day we met, then I'll love you for the rest of my life."
Sting's words caused Lucy to hug him much more tightly, feeling emotional as he assured her that there would be nothing to worry about after she got back in her own body. Lucy would still be loved by Sting, no matter what. That really displayed the strength of their relationship, which made Lucy start to have feelings of happiness enter her eyes as she looked up at Sting. Lucy proceeded to gently kiss Sting on the lips, her cheeks blushing light pink as she had more joy in her eyes from realizing that Sting would always bring brightness to the dark parts of her life.
Even if Lucy had several dark thoughts today, Sting kissing back in an affectionate manner caused Lucy to realize that she needed to aesthetically make some of her darkest spells be capable of having some brightness. If they were all dark purple, then that would probably just reflect Lucy giving in to her darker desires. She would probably need to make her darkest thoughts be moderated, the mauve and plum shades of purple entering her mind as Lucy's thoughts of Sting were coupled with not wanting her mind to fully sink into darkness.
As Sting became associated with the good thoughts that were in Lucy's mind, she gently ended the kiss and had a very happy smile on her face. She watched Sting also look happy while he blushed, and Lucy felt much more upbeat for her training with Mauveria. Lucy would surely train quite hard, and she sent a plain purple aura of Darkness Magic into her feet. Lucy decided to run all the way to the Wisteria Wasteland, noticing that she was now running at extremely high speeds that were faster than when she used Ice Magic, and Lucy now felt optimistic about the future.
Three hours later, in Gunjou Town...
Future events soon made their way into the present moment of time, as Lucy arrived in the Wisteria Wasteland. She glanced down at the ground to see that it had been fully repaired from the harsh battle that occurred when Lucy and her friends battled against Mauveria and her dark witches, but Lucy found herself quickly walking into an invisible person again. The person who became visible turned out to be Mauveria, who had a confident smile on her face at how she was prepared to train Lucy in the same way that she trained her own witches.
Mauveria proceeded to create a mauve purple flame in her left hand, frowning in an aggressive manner while she had the dark thought of setting Lucy ablaze. The Amethyst Purple Ring allowed Lucy to instantly sense that dark thought, and that prompted her to autonomously think of a spell known as Glittery Amethyst Moonlight. Lucy aimed her right hand at Mauveria's flame, causing amethyst purple glitter to come up from all the sand to form the shape of an orb. The orb that was formed by the glitter immediately solidified, and it had a dark purple crescent moon appearing within it.
Lucy threw the attack at Mauveria's flame, resulting in the spells colliding, but Mauveria's flame immediately created a large fiery blast while Lucy's attack formed an amethyst purple blast of the same magnitude. However, her attack grew much larger as it was within Mauveria's flames. The glitter turned out to be highly combustible, causing the massive blast of Darkness Magic to spin outward, and the side effect of this spell was that its energy went into the sky. This caused the blue sky to become amethyst purple, almost like Lucy temporarily created her own version of the Gunjou Moon.
That only made Mauveria evilly smirk at Lucy while the blasts faded away, her eyes displaying feelings of malice as she was glad that she felt her own dark magic rise in power. This caused Mauveria to use the spell known as Mauve Flame Dance, and Mauveria let her hips sway from side to side in a sultry manner. As Lucy glanced at Mauveria's tight-fitting dark mauve jeans that matched the eggplant purple midriff shirt complimenting her new dark purple cape, large twisters of mauve flames appeared in Mauveria's hands.
"Do you think that you can counter this attack?" Mauveria asked Lucy in a stern manner, taking notice of all the flames that heated up the sand.
Lucy responded with a vicious smirk on her face, having dark thoughts, "I'll eradicate those flames with your own fire. I'm glad to be a devious witch."
She displayed her deviousness by imagining a spell called Amethyst Bliss Trick, and Lucy gently picked up seven mauve purple flames with her left hand. She proceeded to gently make her lips touch each one of them, kissing them like they were cherished flames, and Lucy watched these flames lean backwards. They soon became amethyst purple, before shooting out seven large trails of flames. They reacted in such a hostile manner, due to Lucy having a slight amount of the amethyst purple aura in her mouth, allowing them to be strengthened even more.
This spell interestingly passed through the large twisters of mauve purple flames while heading towards Mauveria, causing her to activate a spell called Mauve Darkness Shield. Mauveria aggressively stomped her foot down on to the sand, causing a large wall of mauve purple glitter to rise up and be in front of her. Mauveria viciously smirked from thinking that she was shielded from Lucy's powerful attack, but she soon saw seven massive amethyst purple blasts spin outward as they surrounded her vortexes!
Lucy's attack truly displayed her devious side, as it followed her command of only tearing through Mauveria's spell while it gained much more power after destroying the vortexes. Their destruction allowed Lucy's attacks to get much stronger, expanding the range of her Darkness Magic. Lucy watched the amethyst purple blasts fade away, leaving behind glitter in midair, but Lucy felt that she could use this circumstance to her advantage. She thought up a new spell, and it was known as Nightly Purple Silhouette.
Upon seeing Lucy make an amethyst purple aura surround her body and kick up the sand's purple glitter towards herself, Mauveria asked with a curious facial expression, "What do you think you're doing?"
Lucy replied in a calm tone, her green hair obscuring a dark expression entering her eyes, "I'm just embracing the brutal strength of my dark magic."
Lucy watched the purple glitter coat her body, before seeing herself completely turn into an amethyst purple silhouette as if she was a shadow. Lucy quickly ran across the Wisteria Wasteland to get as close as she could to Mauveria, who made a mauve purple aura engulf her own hands. She smiled in an arrogant manner, being able to grab Lucy's arms and aggressively use a spell known as Gaze of Mauve Darkness. Mauveria made her dark mauve aura coat Lucy's silhouette, causing it to become that hue of purple.
Mauveria's eyes became dark mauve, before shifting to a normal shade of mauve, and Lucy's silhouette reacting in the same way by changing colors allowed Mauveria to hypnotize Lucy into overusing the power of this spell. Lucy viciously growled, evilly smirking under the influence of Mauveria's hex before her silhouette detonated in a massive amethyst purple explosion. Mauveria's aura grew stronger as she absorbed some of the explosion's magical power by walking into it, and she frowned at Lucy in a stern manner while only liking her tenacity in this fight.
However, that tenacity allowed Lucy to emerge from the shadow of the explosion while taking the form of an amethyst purple silhouette. The shadow that she emerged from was as dark as nighttime itself, allowing Lucy to feel herself be slightly healed as the amethyst purple sky sent down rays of moonlight in that hue of purple. When Lucy was bathed in the moonlight, Mauveria got to see all of the bruises and burning wounds that Lucy sustained from the explosion. However, the feelings of pain caused Lucy to start giggling in a vicious manner.
"Mauveria, this pain definitely put me in a vengeful mood. Let's see if Hex's Purple Blood is a spell that helps me bring you down." Lucy stated in a disturbingly happy tone, before rushing towards the older woman.
That caused Mauveria to reply with an amused smile forming on her face, before narrowing her eyes in a sadistic manner, "Lucy Heartfilia, you'll get burned down to a pile of ashes if you carelessly rush to attack me."
Mauveria concentrated her Darkness Magic into her right hand, and she unleashed a spell called Hexing Mauve Punch. This spell made Mauveria turn into a mauve purple flame that slowly moved away from Lucy, before she quickly reverted back to her normal appearance for the purpose of swiftly moving towards Lucy with the intent to hit her. Mauveria's right fist was heavily coated in flames, and she watched her fist be slashed by long and feminine nails appearing on the left hand of Lucy's silhouette. Lucy's nails cut through Mauveria's skin, making the dark witch bleed with purple drips of blood falling on to the sand.
This spell interestingly made Lucy feel a reduced amount of pain from Mauveria's attack burning her body, and the rays of moonlight started to heal all of her wounds. That wasn't the only effect of this hex, since Mauveria felt the moonlight come down on her bleeding wound to make Lucy's nails pierce through different parts of her opponent's hand. Mauveria bled more from the new cuts on her hand, feeling them to be much more painful, and she watched Lucy try to slash at her stomach. However, Mauveria sent Darkness Magic into her own eyes for them to start glowing mauve purple.
She kept her eyes focused on Lucy while activating a spell called Hexing Mauve Hypnosis, and the mauve aura that heavily engulfed her body gave her enough speed to quickly step back without being injured. As she saw Lucy's body getting burned, Mauveria placed one hand on her forehead and sent the magical power of her hex into Lucy's body. She watched Lucy regain the orange eyes and green hair of her physical body, and Lucy's hands also turned back to normal like Mauveria influenced Lucy to cease with using her two spells that were both active. Lucy's thoughts were still dark, however, and Mauveria watched the amethyst purple color sky revert back to normal. As Lucy continued to grin in a malicious manner, Mauveria was glad that her recent hex would hypnotize Lucy into fighting like a sadistic dark witch who would just be sparring with Mauveria during this training instead of killing her. From Mauveria's viewpoint, her hypnosis of Lucy would strengthen this girl much more than what Violara did for Risa.
Meanwhile, in the Sabertooth guild...
Risa sat down at a table in the Sabertooth guild, smiling happily as Rogue sat across from her, and both of the mages were using this day to relax instead of training. Risa had feelings of confidence in her heart while feeling that she trained herself to be as powerful as she could hope to be, and the pink-haired girl would be glad to spend time on a date with Rogue today. He had been there for her throughout the negative experiences that she endured in Gunjou Town, even believing that Risa's magic initially deriving from dark witches didn't make her inherently evil, and Rogue was by Risa's side during those fights with Minerva.
Rogue would gladly stay by Risa's side and live out the rest of his life with her, even if that made him end up being the prince of Parmanie Town. It would be interesting for a bright and pink town like Parmanie to have a shadow dragon slayer as its prince, but Rogue felt that he could join Nazuna and Cordelia in helping Risa learn about all of the necessary laws that she would have to create. After all, Risa would have to eventually go back to Parmanie and change several of the rules favoring classism if they didn't already get dismantled by Cordelia.
When that day would come for Risa to return to Parmanie Town, Rogue smiled nicely at the thought of seeing Risa in her official coronation dress. It would certainly be a second coronation ceremony, but that wouldn't prevent it from being more special than the previous one. The day where Risa would have a pink crown on her head would symbolize how she came back to Parmanie as a much more mature princess who drastically grew as a person, and Rogue chose to smile at her in such a proud manner.
He really admired the fact that she managed to calm the rage of Kusabue, who ended up striving to become a much kinder mage instead of seeking revenge. Kusabue had always been vengeful towards certain people, but Risa being able to quell the young girl's immense amount of anger really displayed that Risa was an amazing mentor. Not only that, but working alongside someone as vicious as Rairakku allowed Risa to show her that even the kindest princesses could be very powerful. Rogue felt glad that he was spending time with someone as amazing as Risa, but seeing her smile at him in a slightly seductive manner as her cheeks blushed certainly caught his attention.
"Risa, were you really wanting to have sex with me in that nightclub?" Rogue asked her in a calm manner, blushing as he started to look a bit flustered from thinking about that event in their lives.
That prompted Risa to reply with a light pink blush appearing all over her face while she had a mix of happiness and shyness in her eyes, "Well, I... really did want to have my first time... be with you. I trust you that much, Rogue."
Upon seeing Risa be so shy about the matter while trying to look away from him, Rogue told her with a calm look of support on his face, "I trust you, too, Risa. When you were on my lap in front of the vanity, I would've gladly carried you to the nearest bed and took things slow with you if that's what you wanted."
"I would've loved that, Rogue." Risa responded with a cute and sultry whisper, before she happily giggled at how Rogue was such a great boyfriend.
Risa had been thinking about having Rogue over at her house for them to have sex, but she felt that they could wait until the eventual day when Risa went through her next coronation in Parmanie Town. Cordelia was the current princess of Parmanie, but she was only standing in as the princess until Risa returned. When Risa officially reached that high point of being a princess for the rest of her entire life, then she felt that she could ascend up to her next goal of expressing her romantic feelings through sex with someone as refined as Rogue.
Rogue was certainly the type of man who would wait until marriage to have sex for the first time, as positive emotions would certainly be running high between him and Risa after they experienced their wedding ceremony. Rogue marrying Risa would not force her to give up any royal titles, especially since him helping her fight against Kyoko Kamizuru in the throne room did technically make Rogue qualify as a member of Parmanie Town's next group of royals, and being alongside Princess Risa Ryusei would allow them both to share intense feelings of happiness together.
Speaking of happiness that Risa and Rogue could express together, Rogue watched Risa glance at his outfit. Rogue had his black hair tied back in a long ponytail while he simply wore an ebony black shirt with onyx black jeans that matched his sandals, which were in a soot shade of black. Despite his attempt to look fashionable, Risa felt that Rogue's outfit could've really been improved by helping him find clothes that were charcoal black and leather black. That would likely balance out the ebony shade of black in his current attire, which made Risa have a joyful smile on her face.
"Rogue, didn't the request board have a job taking place in Noire Town today? We don't usually handle jobs in extravagant towns like Noire or Parmanie, but would you want to go shopping with me afterwards in that town?" Risa asked Rogue with a kind smile on her face, recalling a job that was offering 400,000 jewels.
After hearing her questions, Rogue replied while gently smiling, "That sounds like a good plan, Risa. Not only will we be handling an important job, but we'll also be getting more money for the party."
"Yeah, tonight's party will be great! It's so awesome that we helped Lucy get all seven of those rings, so this party is totally necessary!" Risa responded to Rogue with a delighted smile on her face, before getting up from her chair.
As Risa walked past Rogue, she turned around for a moment to catch a glimpse of his face blushing more pink again. He gently sniffed the air, liking the scent of Risa's cherry pink perfume that she sprayed on her clothes for their date today. This caused Risa to cutely giggle, and she walked over to the request board. She quickly got in front of the large list of flyers, but her cherry red eyes were primarily focused on the job that would take place in Noire Town. Interestingly, this job in that town wouldn't even be dangerous.
The only danger that Risa and Rogue would encounter involved the danger of failing, which wouldn't happen on a job where they had to make a jewelry store's newest gems be in different hues of the same color. According to the client, they were wanting some artsy mages from Sabertooth to make their luxurious shop's new assortment of gems not just be midnight black because of the fact that a nearby jewelry store was selling small rings of Holder Magic in varying shades of black. If this was a popular trend, then the client wanted to capitalize on it with help from mages such as Rogue.
Risa unpinned the raven black flyer from the request board, and she walked back over to the table where Rogue had been sitting. He quickly got up to glance at the flyer, smiling in a confident manner as he liked the job and the reward that came with it. Rogue started to have an idea about how they could succeed at this job, and he was glad that Risa picked it out for them. He gently kissed her on the lips, causing her to happily return the kiss, and both of the wizards happily blushed as they went out of the guildhall together.
Four hours later, in the town of Noire...
After healing Rogue from his motion sickness on the train ride from Kogane, Risa arrived in Noire Town with Rogue by her side. They both glanced up at the sky for a moment to see that the black smog was still in the air while all of the black-haired wizards didn't seem to mind, and Rogue was able to guide Risa down a street that had metal black cobblestones on the ground. This was the street where Rogue had seen that specific jewelry store, and he glanced over at the right side of the street to see a rectangular ebony black building with soot black neon lights forming an arched doorway.
Rogue walked through the store's doorway with Risa right behind him, and they both got to see that this store had ink black carpeting with midnight black walls. There were plain black glass cases that were rectangular while they all formed a line of cases that all contained gems, and Risa walked up to one of the glass cases that was right in front of the cashier. Risa glanced down at the four onyx black gemstones that were in the glass case, smiling in a happy manner at how they seemed pretty, and her eyes shifted upwards to look at the cashier.
"Welcome to Nightly Gemstones, Risa-sama! I got up very early to take this job of bringing in the newest glass cases that the original cashier couldn't carry, and now I'm subbing in for her while she's gathering more gemstones!" Kusabue told Risa with a joyful smile on her face, glad to see her friend in this town.
Risa explained in a kind manner, pulling out a flyer from the right pocket of her ruffled skirt, "It's good to see you, Kusabue. Anyway, we're just here to change the shades of the gems for more customers to be intrigued by their beauty."
After gently taking the flyer from Risa, Kusabue examined it with a polite smile on her face. She perceived the idea of changing the hues of gemstones to be very interesting, especially since her attire was currently in varying shades of green. Kusabue wore a pale green T-shirt with shamrock green jeans, and she also wore some pear green flat shoes that had the designs of mint green cyclones on the fronts of the shoes' straps. After glancing up from her shoes, Kusabue picked up a black key that was near the cash register.
She gently inserted the key in the keyhole that was located in the middle glass case of the seven cases that were there, causing all of the glass lids to lightly lift themselves up. The glass slightly squeaked, but Kusabue opened the case in front of Risa for her to see the first set of gems that could have their colors changed. These were the onyx black gemstones that she just saw, and Risa carefully picked them all up in her hands. She handed them to Rogue, who made the black aura of Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic start to surround his hands.
He held the gems above the glass container, allowing the shadow dragon slayer to see all of their shadows. Rogue sent some of his magic into his hands while silently commanding the aura of his magic to become leather black, and the aura started to heavily coat the gems. Rogue lowered his hands downward, prompting the aura to go down into shadows of the gems, and those shadows became leather black. This interestingly made the gems themselves permanently be in that hue of black, and Rogue sent more of his magic into the gemstones.
That caused them to shine brightly with leather black beams of light being emitted, and Rogue put them all back in the glass case. He proceeded to pick up the two plain black gems that were in the glass case to the left of that one, and Rogue sent a large amount of his magic into them while wanting the gems to be ebony black. Upon seeing the gems change their shading and have ebony black lights emerge from them, Rogue gently put them back in the glass case. Even though the gems inside the glass were dark, their intense amounts of light were starting to attract a few women who were walking by.
One woman who had her short black hair in a bob style calmly asked aloud, "Wow, where did they find those beautiful gems?"
Upon seeing that woman's raven black coat going well with her leather black pants, Rogue stated aloud to Risa, "It looks like we're attracting customers, Risa."
Rogue wasted no time with going over to the furthest glass case to retrieve its three gems that were ebony black, and Rogue used his magic to make them become raven black. They had raven black lights shining outward from them, and Rogue watched them darkly shine as he put them back in the glass case. The shining gems certainly appealed to this businesswoman who wore sunglasses with black frames over her eyes, and she wasted no time with walking up to them. She was prepared to buy those gems that had no price displayed, but her offer surprised Rogue.
She pulled out 400,000 jewels from one pocket of her purse, and she walked over to him. She placed the money in his hands while her lips formed a satisfied smile, and that caused Kusabue to get those gems out of their case. She gently handed them to the woman, who was glad to have obtained such rare and shiny jewelry for herself. Since Kusabue was able to sell her those gems, Rogue felt that it was only fair for him to hand the money to the young girl. She accepted all of the jewels with a pleased smile on her face, and Kusabue placed them all in the cash register.
Kusabue glanced up from the cash register for a moment to see Rogue walking over to the other end of the glass cases, and he made those soot black gems become charcoal black. Similarly, the charcoal black gems in an adjacent glass case became soot black from being affected by his magic. Rogue smiled in a very confident manner, and he certainly enjoyed this job. He had been inspired to use his Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic in this creative way, due to that day where Risa was trying to make her Esper Ball have a different shade of pink.
She was still working on that nice idea, wanting the Esper Ball to shift between multiple shades of pink, but Risa's love for fashion allowed her to be very creative. That was another trait that Rogue loved about his girlfriend, and Rogue would gladly split the money from this job with her. Since Kusabue was subbing in as the boss, she took out 200,000 jewels from the cash register for her fellow mages to get paid. Rogue accepted his share of the money, putting it in the left pocket of his onyx black jeans. The sheer sight of his jeans made Risa hold her portion of money with one hand, and she used her other hand to gently lead Rogue out of the store. As Risa ran towards the nearest fashion store with Rogue and happily giggled to celebrate their job being completed, Kusabue started to have a look of curiosity on her face from faintly hearing the distant sound of a powerful explosion occurring in a different part of Fiore.
Concurrently, in Magnolia Town...
The explosion that faintly reached Kusabue's ears sounded quite loud in the town of Magnolia, and it involved Kotomi using the Celestial Horologium spell to destroy Magnolia Town's fashion store. She fired a beam of Celestial Spirit Magic from her right hand, the beam shifting between harvest gold and light gold. When the beam struck the fashion store, it created a large harvest gold blast while its aftereffect made her own levels of speed and power greatly increase. Kotomi felt glad to be moving faster, since using this spell at different times throughout her rampage allowed her to viciously harm people at high speeds.
Several people in different parts of Magnolia had been hurt by Kotomi, who was using her Celestial Spirit Magic to display that she wouldn't easily be hauled off to prison by any of the Fairy Tail mages. She was specifically wanting her high level of power to be seen by Cana, who had to work alongside Mirajane in making the choices of trying to rescue injured people instead of fighting against Kotomi. The blonde-haired thief watched Cana send magical power into a spell known as Card Seal, and the white backside of this card glowed as its effect allowed Cana to place people in the cards themselves whilst also healing them.
The only downside to this strategy was that Cana had now used up half of her Magic Cards to save several of the town's citizens, making her strategy unfortunately contain feelings of arrogance if she sought to save people in the middle of a fight. Cana proceeded to send magical power into a Fire Burst Card, which had a red background, and several fireballs emerged from the card. She watched Kotomi easily dodge this spell, however, and Kotomi quickly retaliated by using the spell known as Celestial Chaos.
Kotomi made a golden aura engulf her body while several golden stars emerged from her hands, and these stars were much larger than when Kotomi attacked Erza. She immediately pushed her hands forward, sending all the projectiles towards Cana's fireballs. The large orbs of fire immediately detonated in powerful explosions after colliding with some of Kotomi's projectiles, but the golden stars that struck them managed to land right in front of Cana. The enormous golden blasts blinded her eyes, and she couldn't avoid getting hit by the rest of the projectiles.
"You should've have enough sense to not mess with me, you weak bitch." Kotomi told Cana in a vicious tone, smirking evilly as she heard the street in Magnolia get destroyed.
Cana weakly replied, struggling to stand up as she roughly pulled her body out of some rubble, "After what you... did to.. my friends, you should.. be concerned about dying."
Upon seeing all of the blood that dripped from Cana's wounds as she was severely bruised, Kotomi replied with a smug smile on her face, "Judging by how I'm not injured, you'll be the one who dies here."
Kotomi created the Celestial Radiance spell in her right hand, and the auras that engulfed her body caused the sphere to be quite large while it shifted between different shades of gold. Kotomi stretched her right hand backwards, almost like she was about to throw it at Cana, but the sight of Mirajane running up to the battle in her Satan Soul transformation only made Kotomi combine her attack with a spell called Celestial Shining Arrow. This spell seemed like a mere upgraded version of Celestial Arrow, since Kotomi now held a giant golden bow with gold arrows that head star-shaped arrowheads.
However, firing all of the arrows up into the air allowed Kotomi and her foes to see them violently burst for the purpose of creating ten golden rings. The rings shined brightly, before shifting to be in a pure hue of gold, and they had several smaller rings emerging from them. That prompted Kotomi to throw her large sphere at Mirajane, who wasted no time with unleashing the spell known as Soul Extinctor. Mira focused her magical power into the space between her hands while the energy took the shape of a spherical vortex, and she released the attack in the form of a large blast!
This blast contained a high amount of plain purple Darkness Magic while Mira narrowed her eyes at Kotomi's attack to see if her own spell would annihilate it, but Mira soon saw several rings from earlier rain down upon the large orb. They gently touched the attack, causing it to become pure gold, and Mira could faintly see pure gold energy spiraling downward inside of the sphere. That energy was pertinent to the rings being like arrows, which had their celestial energy spinning outward in the form of many pure gold blasts that were large!
"Why are they becoming much larger?!" Mirajane asked with an astounded look on her face, before closing her eyes to avoid the immense amount of brightness.
Upon seeing the ten rings come down from the sky to be zeroing in on her while Kotomi lowered her hands down to her sides, Cana stated with a worried look on her face, "Oh, no!"
Cana was immediately bombarded by the large rings, which all created pure gold explosions that were massive. Their power had been strengthened by the Celestial Radiance spell fusing with the smaller rings of Celestial Shining Arrow to create tremendous bursts of light, but that wasn't the only effect of the spell. The Celestial Shining Arrow spell made the blasts in the entire area have celestial gold beams of light raining down from the blasts themselves, striking Mira and Cana with enough power to create several large celestial gold blasts.
Kotomi laughed in a sadistic manner at the sounds of her opponents screaming, and she watched Mira have some frustration in her eyes from how her own spell was repelled by her enemy's power. Mira fell to her knees for a moment, feeling the celestial beams of light piercing through her body before they exploded. That certainly made Kotomi seem like she was Lucy's evil twin, wanting to torture her opponents like a sociopath before killing them. Mira only had a slight amount of blood dripping from her lower lip while getting up to fight Kotomi, and Mira wondered about what she could do.
It seemed like her most powerful spells weren't going to be useful, and Mira felt like she would only be provoking Kotomi into laughing hysterically by firing weak spells. As Mira channeled negative thoughts into her Darkness Magic for it to take the form of a purple drill that surrounded her right hand, Cana was barely standing. She kept her eyes on Kotomi while panting heavily, and Cana sent her remaining amount of magical power into a Mudslide Coat Card. As this card had plain orange beams shining from it, Cana's hair and eyes became plain orange. Her attire became mocha brown, and the ground itself made an orange aura flow all throughout Cana's body as if she was swamped by a powerful and durable mudslide.
Cana felt powerful enough to run towards Kotomi, wanting to fight her in a situation where close combat would be involved. As Cana raised her right fist, Kotomi nonchalantly sent celestial energy in her left fist. She watched the aura engulf that fist, prompting her to swiftly dodge Cana's first punch that would've felt like being hit with a ton of bricks. Cana aggressively lunged towards Kotomi with a fierce look on her face, and she tried to harshly punch her in the face. Kotomi quickly stepped back to avoid that punch, and she got to see Cana's fist violently break the ground of this street in Magnolia Town.
This only made Kotomi smirk in a devious manner, however, and she activated a spell called Star Impact. Kotomi simply moved her right fist around in a circle while it went around in the counterclockwise direction, and her quick moment of building up magical power caused a sunglow gold aura to heavily coat her right fist. The aura tore itself off of her fist to form a circle in midair, and the high amount of magical power within this aura allowed five sunglow orbs to form around it. They formed the shape of a star, and Kotomi thrusted her right fist towards the circle.
That caused the starry formation of orbs to go inside of it, before the spell itself went towards Cana at high speeds. It slammed itself against her body, the impact being harsh enough to create five sunglow gold blasts that were large. Cana clenched her teeth for a moment, before screaming in pain at how Kotomi's attack was strong enough to break through her durability. Star Impact was the type of spell that reacted to the opponent's own enhancement spells by enhancing its own power to be at a quintupled level, and Kotomi hoped that it would break several of Cana's bones.
She interestingly heard Cana weakly pop some of her bones back into place, before hearing the Fairy Tail mage try her best to be lightly panting. Cana still wanted to fight, no matter how strong Kotomi could be. Kotomi watched the sunglow gold clouds of smoke fade away to reveal that Cana had a frustrated look on her face, and Kotomi couldn't restrain her urge of laughing hysterically at the sight of Cana failing to build up any magical power. She expended all of it in the process of using up many Magic Cards, and Cana couldn't defend herself against Kotomi's next attack.
"It's time for you to die!" Kotomi sadistically told Cana with a devilish smile appearing on her face.
Mirajane shouted with a harsh glare on her face, wanting to protect her friend with this new spell, "You'll be the one who dies here! Soul Darkness Drill!"
Mira hastily flew towards Kotomi, before slamming the purple drill of dark magic against her opponent's stomach. Mirajane watched the powerful attack shine brightly while wanting it to drill through her opponent, hoping that she could make Kotomi be dead. Mira watched Kotomi be engulfed in a large purple explosion, and she smiled in a confident manner from thinking that she tore through Kotomi's body. Mira watched the explosion's purple smoke fade away, but she soon groaned in anger while having a frustrated facial expression relating to the sight of Kotomi still being able to stand up.
Kotomi wasn't just standing up, but her hair and eyes were now shifting through different hues of gold at a rapid pace. Mirajane wondered how this was possible, and she even saw Kotomi's fatal chest wound start to heal itself at a rapid pace. Mira's eyes were astounded at the sight of Kotomi seeming like she was invincible, but her blue eyes glanced down at Kotomi's hands for a moment to see that she had taken out one of the golden Zodiac Gate Keys that could summon a Celestial Spirit. She didn't summon a Celestial Spirit, but firmly slamming the key against her legendary gold ring allowed Kotomi to unlock the ring's full potential.
It interpreted the Zodiac Gate Keys as a different form of Celestial Spirit Magic, almost like another Celestial Spirit Wizard sent their magic into the ring. This new surge in power caused Kotomi to feel delighted, laughing evilly as she fired the Celestial Berserker Beam spell from her right hand. Kotomi watched the beam be much larger than when she previously used it while the beam was pure gold, before becoming Aspen gold, and the beam became honey gold at the very last second. It harshly struck Mirajane to create a massive blast that obliterated the nearby rubble, and Mira screamed in intense pain!
Upon faintly seeing several smaller light gold beams strike Mira from various directions within the dome that had its light shift to that shade of gold, Cana tearfully screamed, "MIRA!"
As the small beams created large explosions, Kotomi stated with a smug smirk on her face, "This new level of power is making it hard for me to go easy on weak pieces of trash, it seems!"
Cana stated in a distraught and shocked manner, seeing Mira fall to the ground and be motionless as she was bleeding, "Mira, you... Mira, you can't be dead..."
"It looks like you'll be next to perish." Kotomi sweetly said in Lucy Heartfilia's voice, feigning a smile of niceness on her face.
Cana could only let tears descend from her eyes as she realized that Mira attacked Kotomi on purpose, trying to keep the blonde-haired girl's next attack from killing Cana. However, there was now nowhere for Cana to run or hide. She had tears flowing down her face from seeing the woman who stole her friend's life smile in a happy and menacing manner, almost like Kotomi was preparing to kill her. Kotomi unleashed a new spell called Celestial Galaxy Blade, and she made a long blade appear in her right hand. The blade was celestial gold, before becoming honey gold, and it soon became a golden rod hue of gold. The blade's handle that had seven plain gold stars on both sides also followed that same pattern of golden shades, and the blade had gold lights shining from it when Kotomi sent what seemed to be a limitless supply of magical power into the spell.
This next attack was going to be powerful while Cana moved a few inches to position herself and the distant Fairy Tail guild in a straight line, and she felt that this was all that could be done. Cana watched Kotomi send Celestial Spirit Magic into her feet, causing her to run extremely fast, and Kotomi evilly giggled as she swung the blade down towards Cana. This attack caused Cana to be blinded by an intense amount of golden light, before a dense waterfall of golden lights came down on her body. The lights pierced through Cana's bikini top and her Capri pants, along with tearing through the rest of her body, and several goldenrod blasts engulfed her!
Cana faintly breathed, weakly keeping her eyes open as she took damage, and Kotomi moved at extremely high speeds to evade the blasts. She stood several feet away for a moment, giggling in a vicious tone as the light quickly faded away. Cana weakly looked down to see that she was harshly wounded and bruised, feeling pain from her fatal wounds as blood dripped from several parts of her body. She tried her best to stay on her feet, which resulted in Kotomi quickly running up to her for the purpose of ending this fight. Cana was too injured to even breathe or speak right now, and she could barely lift a finger. She weakly raised her head to see Kotomi feign a look of sheer concern, and the fact that she displayed Lucy's facial expression felt like a metaphorical stab to the heart. That was soon followed up with Kotomi literally making her sword's blade strike Cana's heart, and she was able to kill the brown-haired woman.
With Cana now dead, Kotomi removed her blade like she was easily getting a sword out of a stone. She glanced around this place for a moment, taking notice of how golden flames filled Magnolia Town while almost every building was destroyed. Kotomi only kept the apartment intact, wanting to be petty like she would have the entire town under her authoritarian rule. However, ruling with an iron fist would require Kotomi to get rid of the remaining Fairy Tail mages who could be seen running from a distance to see what was happening. If Makarov gave them all the order to fight Kotomi, then she would gladly annihilate them all while also making them see the girl who they initially perceived as Lucy to be the one who would decimate the Fairy Tail guild.
As Kotomi started walking towards the path that led to the Fairy Tail guild and more fights with its mages, she chose to ignore the presence of a woman with sky blue hair quietly walking through the entrance to Magnolia Town. The woman who wore a light blue jacket with six celestial blue diamonds on the bottom of it chose to quietly survey all of the damage from afar while having a plain blue flyer in her left hand, and this certain woman who wielded Ice Goddess Slayer Magic also wore a periwinkle blue ruffled skirt that went well with her royal blue high-heeled shoes.
Emiria Hindenka chose to just take a few steps further into Magnolia, her face looking stoic as it seemed that she wouldn't be able to handle a job request that would've earned her a high amount of money. However, she only earned the chance to see several of Kotomi's spells over the past few hours whilst downplaying her own level of magical power to be undetected like a clever dark mage. This interestingly caused Emiria to remember that her strongest rival was recently in the newspaper for obtaining dark magic, and Emiria felt that she would need to chat with Sabertooth's guild master soon.
Four hours later, at the Sabertooth guild...
Sting walked into the Sabertooth guild with Lucy by his side, smiling proudly at his girlfriend for how she seemed to be getting stronger from her training session with Mauveria in the Wisteria Wasteland. Lucy would need to have more training sessions with the powerful dark witch, but Lucy smiled happily at how she was able to autonomously create spells of Darkness Magic. That creativity would hopefully help Lucy defeat Kotomi, and she was looking forward to their eventual fight. Before that could happen, Lucy would need to keep looking straight ahead at the guildhall as she could now look forward to a celebration.
The moment that Lucy walked towards a table with a large and round white cake on a gold plate was the moment where Rogue and Risa blew into some noisemakers, and Kusabue happily popped some green balloons. There was an emerald green banner hanging from both sides of the staircase, along with a sapphire blue banner hanging directly below it, and Yukino recently helping Sorano hang the amethyst purple banner. Sorano simply wore a white party dress with celestial blue buttons shaped like angelic wings right below her breasts, and she gave Lucy a very smug smile.
Everyone else in the guild happily smiled at Lucy, too, and they wanted to celebrate her accomplishment of obtaining all seven legendary rings. The white cake had seven different colors of icing on it, the icing being thick while each color of it. Each ring on this cake looked identical to the rings that Lucy wore on her hand, due to Risa having them vividly memorized in her mind. She actually obtained this cake from the bakery in Yamabuki Town, which had improved itself into being a place filled with bakeries that used Lightning Magic to provide the heat for their food, and Risa interestingly received the vanilla cake from the female baker who received the vanilla brownies from her.
There was also a giant plate of freshly-made vanilla brownies resting on a nearby table, and they were simply another reward from that female baker who also took on the role of the mayor who outlawed religious extremism in the policies of Yamabuki Town. The female mayor, along with the town's residents, always felt very grateful to Lucy and her friends for taking down Kanata Luster and her religious cult. The news of Minerva Orland's death even reached the people who lived in the town of Yamabuki, and hearing that Risa was partially responsible for ending her life made them feel as happy as Risa felt for Lucy right now.
"Lucy, we wanted to celebrate your awesome accomplishment! This party is your reward for going through so much trouble to get all of those rings!" Risa told Lucy with a proud smile on her face, before gently hugging her friend.
After nicely hugging Risa, Lucy told her with a kind facial expression, "Thank you, Risa. It's really sweet that everyone wanted to throw a party for me."
Rogue told Lucy while looking very calm, as Frosch stood on his right shoulder, "Actually, many people in Fiore are celebrating. Lucy, your royal citizens of Kuchiba were happy to learn that you have all the rings. I think Nozomi was brave enough to even share the news with the people who loved you in Cramoisi, too."
Upon hearing that Nozomi had heard about the adventures that Lucy endured, that only caused Lucy to nicely smile. She had come so far from the day where she entered Cramoisi Town to help Risa with that job of delivering coffees to the pop idol known as Akai Hinotama. Lucy could only chuckle in the moments where she heard one of Akai's newest songs being played on a Music Lacrima Crystal that was on the table near Yukino, who liked that the song was named Scarlet Flames Becoming Crimson Fire.
The Crimson Ring may have only been the first legendary ring that Lucy would receive, but remembering Kaen tell her that it allowed her to use any kind of Fire Magic allowed Lucy to have slight feelings of confidence flaring up in her heart. She may have put herself on this long journey of obtaining all the legendary rings, but Lucy was also going through the secondary journey of making herself regain all of her confidence. In order for Lucy to be confident instead of arrogant in her rematch against Kotomi, attaining the Crimson Ring allowed her to realize that she would have to fight against strong enemies.
By making herself go up against strong foes, Lucy felt that she learned so many important lessons from all of those battles. She had grown mentally and emotionally, along with using some spells to enhance her own physical strength. Lucy's own growth was so significant, as the act of viewing her rings allowed her to look back on all the moments where she took on the role of a leader or delivered the finishing attack that ended fights as if she was the strongest member of the team. All of her teammates seemed happy to be by her side, and Lucy simply held back some tears at how far she progressed.
"Even though we're partying, Sting, we'll... need to have a much bigger party after I get my body back!" Lucy stated with a happy smile on her face, closing her eyes as she cried tears of happiness.
That caused Sting to reply with a confident facial expression, as his hands gently wiped away her tears, "Yeah, and we'll be celebrating that you triumphed over a trashy thief. Lucy, listen to me. Enjoy this party right now, since it won't be as enjoyable as when you continuously get stronger during that fight."
Sting's confident words caused Lucy to happily giggle, and she loved that Sting had such a strong belief in her strength. That caused Lucy to walk over to the plate of vanilla brownies with Sting, and Lucy picked up one of those delicious treats. She held it above the other brownies for a moment, before easily breaking it in half with her hands. Lucy put one half of the brownie in her mouth, before gently putting the remaining half in Sting's mouth. He ate his half of the white brownie while Lucy enjoyed the delicious dessert, and Sting watched Lucy smile at him.
She proceeded to give Sting a passionate kiss on the lips while closing her eyes, and Lucy's cheeks started to blush fuchsia pink. Lucy felt her cheeks become warmer as Sting's hands gently touched her face, and she made her own hands gently caress his face. Sting gently broke the kiss for a moment to kindly chuckle at Lucy, and he blushed as he gently closed his eyes. Upon seeing that Sting liked the kiss, Lucy felt glad that they shared such a romantic moment. It felt a bit more romantic from how they also shared a brownie together, too.
Lucy hoped that Sting would always be by her side, especially since he was one of the mages who saved her life in Tokiwa Town. If he and Risa hadn't been there, she probably would've died. Since Sting wouldn't let Lucy die, she would also keep him alive. Lucy would also keep her friends from dying, as she saw Risa wearing a pink dress to slow dance with Rogue. Rogue's black tuxedo complimenting Risa's bright pink dress really paralleled how Lucy chose to start slow dancing with Sting, putting her arms around him as the sight of her purple ring touching his white guild mark made them go well together like darkness and light.
How was Chapter 72? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy is training with Mauveria and creating new spells, but she thankfully has Sting to restrain her from getting corrupted by her own dark thoughts. Those dark thoughts are helping Lucy create powerful spells of Darkness Magic, but she'll also need to know how to effectively use them in an actual battle. Speaking of battles, Kotomi Takeuchi is proving that she is stronger than the mages of Fairy Tail. She finds pleasure in taking out her vengeance on them, but fighting out in the open certainly made Kotomi leave herself vulnerable to Emiria witnessing her spells of Celestial Spirit Magic. Emiria will certainly relay this news to Lucy in an interesting way. As for interesting things, this is interestingly the first part of the post-Mauve Darkness Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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