Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 71: Passions & Philosophies! Palette of The Dark Arts! Rairakku, The Dark Witch! Gunjou Moon & The Purple Altar!
Lucy confidently smiled at Maruberiki, believing that she would ultimately be the wizard who would be triumphant at the end of this battle. However, there were other triumphs that needed to occur before Lucy could defeat the dark mage. She looked away from Maruberiki for a moment to glance down at the Sapphire Blue Ring, realizing that it probably now gave Lucy just as much power as the magic that the dark goddess bestowed upon Maruberiki. Even though both mages had high amounts of power, any kind of power that was untamed would only lead to corruption and self-destruction.
That made Lucy start to have sternness in her eyes while she looked down at the Sapphire Blue Ring, realizing that Suou Shui could still go berserk in this room. If that powerful water dragon went crazy enough to devour Lucy, then she would end up being dead and Suou Shui would be uncontrollable. Even if he took down Maruberiki, nothing good would result from a victory where dark mages couldn't stop a dragon that could probably use Water Magic and Ice Magic. There was the possibility of freezing that giant dragon in ice, but Lucy frowned at the thought of him creating hot water to thaw himself out.
Suou Shui hadn't been nullified by Lucy on this battlefield, but her eyes slightly widened from remembering that Sting was the one who kept the water dragon from rampaging. He didn't want the sentient spell to take in much more power at the cost of Lucy's life, and the sound of the light dragon slayer's voice was what brought Lucy back to feeling conscious during those moments where she couldn't control the spell. If Lucy couldn't immediately handle this problem by herself, then she would definitely need help from her friends.
She turned around for a moment to face her boyfriend, who was smiling just as confidently about the prospect of Lucy defeating Maruberiki. Sting hoped that Lucy could get rid of all those flames pertaining to Darkness Magic, since those maelstroms were probably just as dangerous as any regular spells of Darkness Magic that could be fused with them, but he started to have a curious facial expression from seeing her start to look at him in a very serious manner. Lucy walked up to him, looking directly into Sting's eyes as she felt that this request needed to be made.
"Sting, please allow me to use the spell called Sapphire Blue Water Dragon. When Suou Shui goes berserk again, I need you to call out to me and help me stay conscious." Lucy explained to Sting in a calm manner, having a look of trust in her eyes.
He replied with a look of assurance on his face, "I'll totally help you stay alive, Lucy!"
"Thank you, Sting. When you're assisting me, I'll also be trying to tame Suou Shui. That dragon needs to understand that I'm his master now." Lucy responded with a calm smile on her face, glad that Sting would stay close to her.
Sting told Lucy while smiling proudly, "Yeah, and you're not a tyrant who would just want power or thrive on hatred and rage."
As Lucy nodded in a happy manner and turned back around to face Maruberiki, Sting felt that this was going to be an important moment for both him and Lucy. The sheer sight of Suou Shui being berserk made Sting's mind think back to when Rogue's future self made several dragons go berserk throughout the city of Crocus after the Grand Magic Games came to an end, and Sting felt like he could prove his dominance over an actual dragon by repeatedly sealing away its power. If Suou Shui ever felt the need to kill him, then Sting would gladly put up a fight.
He hoped that Lucy would also put up a good fight against whatever kind of battle she'd find herself in against Suou Shui, and Sting had complete faith in his girlfriend. He believed that she could make Suou Shui be obedient to her, almost like a noble piper who could play a flute to control a dragon. Controlling the giant dragon would also Lucy to work alongside Suou Shui while she could probably even command him to unleash his full potential, and Lucy would gladly prove that she was worthy of being the dragon's new master.
After all, Lucy was different from Yukishimou in how she wouldn't need Suou Shui to always devour her enemies and their spells. Yukishimou may have thought that her frigid and watery powers needed to grow stronger whilst her dragon could absorb negative emotions such as hatred or sadness, but that came at the expense of making Suou Shui absorb feelings of pain and hateful thoughts. Even the spells of enemies such as Maruberiki had feelings of hatred in them, and Lucy wouldn't want to see Suou Shui ever become corrupted again.
"Fourth spell of Water Magic, I call upon thee! Sapphire Blue Water Dragon!" Lucy exclaimed with a fierce look on her face, as a sapphire blue aura heavily engulfed her body.
Upon seeing the aura shift to become neon blue right before it became cerulean blue, Maruberiki thought to himself with a calm facial expression, "She is such a shoddy, yet bold artist to even think of summoning that berserk dragon again."
After the large maelstrom of water went up into the air to form a sapphire blue cloud, Lucy heard Suou Shui say aloud in an angered tone, "MORE HATE... RAGE... I NEED TO DEVOUR... EVERYTHING NEGATIVE. NEED... POWER... AND HATEFUL RAGE."
The giant dragon came down from the cerulean blue cloud, before he shifted to being ocean blue with navy blue eyes. Suou Shui glared down at Lucy, who felt herself lose the ability to see like she had lost her pupils. She literally had no pupils in her eyes right now, before her body started to become ocean blue. That color changed to being dark blue in the same moment where it became water itself, which was being sucked up by Suou Shui. As the water dragon was about to start devouring Lucy, Sting immediately ran up to her and activated White Drive.
He made the aura of Light Dragon Slayer Magic engulf his body, allowing the blond-haired male to amplify his own level of magic. Sting narrowed his eyes as he put his hands on Lucy's right hand, primarily sending his magic into the Sapphire Blue Ring, and Sting felt that giving his magical power to Lucy would allow her to endure the first moments of pain. However, Sting boldly felt that he had to ignore his own body starting to become dark blue in this moment from how Suou Shui was attempting to now devour the magic that he was fusing with Lucy's magic.
Upon seeing Sting's body get devoured by what appeared to be dark blue ghostly figures with malicious ocean blue eyes, Sorano applied Angel Magic to her feet and hurriedly ran over to Lucy. She wasted no time with sending her own magic into the Sapphire Blue Ring, trying to prevent Lucy from getting devoured. Sorano groaned in a pained manner from feeling her own bosy become dark blue, but the ghosts eating away at her body wouldn't stop Yukino and Rogue from getting near her to send their own magic into Lucy's body. Rogue tried to heal her body with his Water Dragon Slayer Magic, and he felt he ghosts bite into his body. As Rogue saw Kusabue run up to Lucy and transfer Sound Magic into her sixth ring, they hoped that she could feel everyone's feelings of love and determination as they endured most of the pain that Suou Shui only wanted Lucy to feel.
Meanwhile, in a plain blue void... (Lucy's POV)
I now found myself to be in a plain blue place, presumably inside of the Water Magic that composed Suou Shui. The water dragon was circling around me while growling in a hateful manner, seeming like he had a lust for more power as the dark blue ghosts appeared around every part of my body. I quickly made a cerulean blue aura of Water Magic engulf my body, along with creating a neon blue aura of Ice Magic to surround me as I felt that I could defend myself against these ghosts by making my body become as dense as glacial ice mixed with platinum.
As my body felt very heavy and dense, I narrowed my eyes at the sight of my sentient spell. Suou Shui appeared in front of me with a menacing look on his face, before turning dark blue with sky blue eyes, and his power seemed to be increasing as I could hear my friends groaning in reality. Were they trying to keep Suou Shui from devouring me by sacrificing themselves? They were fighting so hard to not let the water dragon consume me, and I wonder if they would even intercept any spells that would be unleashed by Maruberiki.
His spells contained so many painful emotions, and I felt so much sorrow in every ounce of his Darkness Magic. My enemy's magic was honestly making me be mournful towards him, just like how I felt like mourning the sight of Suou Shui. The dragon continued to change his hues of blue while opening his mouth, almost like he was planning to eat me. Even if he wanted to feast on all of my magical power, I couldn't let him continue to go berserk. Yukishimou was no longer alive to tame him, so it would all be up to me.
As soon as Suou Shui jumped high into the air, I simply frowned in a stern and intimidating manner. I glared up at Suou Shui, who quickly came down towards me in an aggressive manner while widely opening his mouth for me to see that he wanted me to get chewed up between his vicious fangs. I allowed him to slam down on to me, but the last second of his attack was where I felt my strong and dense hands easily push both sides of his mouth apart. I kept the dragon's mouth open, refusing to feel his sharp fangs pierce my hands.
"RAGE... HATRED... I MUST DEVOUR AND DESTROY... EVERYTHING! THE PRESENCE... OF DARK... GODDESS... MOTIVATES ME TO... DO THAT!" Suou Shui fiercely exclaimed to me, before making me be engulfed in a blue bubble of his Water Magic.
That prompted me to reply in a strict manner, tearing through the bubble's water with my hands, "No, Suou Shui! You may be a powerful water dragon, but you can't destroy everything! Yukishimou may have needed you to absorb the hatred and sadness within her enemies and their spells, but you weren't always like that! The dark magic of Gunjou Town may have corrupted you, but you're not a cold and soulless husk! You're a spell that carries out the wishes of your master, who is me!"
"YOU'RE NOT... YUKISHIMOU! I AM... STRONG ENOUGH... TO DESTROY EVERYTHING!" Suou Shui rudely told me, as he started to have an angry glare on his face.
I responded to him with a high amount of authority in my voice, "Well, you're not going to destroy me! If you even try to take my life, I won't hesitate to kill you and make you no longer safely exist in the Sapphire Blue Ring! Lend me your strength instead of opposing me, you damn useless dragon!"
At that moment, Suou Shui stopped trying to bite down on me. He proceeded to get in front of me without saying a word, his eyes seeming to almost express the feeling of shock at how I described him in the final part of my last sentence. I never wanted to purposely hurt the feelings of any spells or Celestial Spirits, but Suou Shui thinking he could be strong with power alone really made me perceive him as being idiotic. If he wanted to be dumb enough to disobey me and possibly get us both killed, then I would certainly forbid him from doing that.
I even stretched out my arms from side to side, forming a blockade like I was refusing to let him leave this place and lash out in reality. He made the choice of raising his left claw upward, before trying to slam it down on me. That prompted me to raise my right palm up high in the air for it to intercept the attack, and my palm firmly pressed against his hand. The neon blue aura of Ice Magic that surrounded me began to glow much brighter, as I sent more icy energy into my hand for the giant dragon to feel the cold part of my personality.
I didn't have any feelings of fear in my body right now, and I merely frowned at Suou Shui with an immense amount of sternness in my face. He started to gently move his claw away from my hand, and he slightly moved backwards as if I had been scarier than Yukishimou at her angriest moments. That only made me take a step forward, and I tightened my left fist. I aggressively tried to slam my fist against Suou Shui's fangs, only for him to open his mouth at the last second for his giant fangs to move in opposite directions. However, seeing him start to have a pained facial expression from trying to bite down on my arm that had intense amounts of density only made me smile proudly at how I just demonstrated that I was his new master.
"LITTLE GIRL, YOU'RE... MY MASTER?" Suou Shui asked me in a curious tone, seeming like he was coming back to his senses.
That caused me to explain with compassion in my eyes, my voice remaining stern, "Yes, Suou Shui! It may be awkward that Yukishimou is sealed in the Sapphire Blue Ring, but your former master is gone! I am the person who now commands you, and my name is Lucy Heartfilia!"
"LUCY... HEARTFILIA..." Suou Shui calmly responded, looking at her with a look of understanding starting to appear on his face.
I told the dragon with a strict facial expression, thinking about the battle against Maruberiki, "Yes, Suou Shui! I am Lucy Heartfilia! I'm your master now! Listen to me, Suou Shui! Do not devour my friends! I order you to only devour Maruberiki's sadness and hatred!"
Upon hearing my stern commands regarding what was happening right now in the crucial battle, Suou Shui nodded his head in approval. He narrowed his eyes in a strict manner, choosing to obey my commands. That caused me to proudly smile, and I watched the giant dragon start to become sapphire blue again. He was reverting back to his normal appearance, signifying that he regained control over his own lust for power. Although, seeing Suou Shui start to become ocean blue and grow a larger teardrop-shaped emblem on his forehead made me smile.
Suou Shui wasn't just obeying my commands, but he was also growing much stronger from how I desired for him to unleash his highest level of power without losing control. As I started to look at him in a proud manner, Suou Shui and I both began to get surrounded by a cerulean blue aura that became much brighter. As the aura started to have an intense glow, I felt the willpower to have control over this spell instead of letting the ghosts symbolizing hateful thoughts eat away at my body. I aimed my hands at all of them while quickly moving around in a circle, wanting the light to scare them away.
The ghosts began to scream in pain from seeing the light be so intense, as well as disliking my choice of pressing my icy hands against their faces. These ghosts didn't seem to like the coldness of my magic, similar to the ghostly spells that were used by dark mages in Gunjou Town. If ice was just as necessary as water for making Maruberiki regain his passion and sanity, then I would be happy to freeze any attacks that weren't related to The Dark Spells of Artistry. As I thought about that book and its spells, the sudden sound of Sting's voice caused the cerulean blue aura to completely engulf me and Suou Shui for us to be brought back to reality.
Back in reality... (Narrator POV)
Lucy regained consciousness to see that she was back on the battlefield while her body reverted back to its original state, and she was no longer be devoured by Suou Shui. The water dragon also ceased with devouring Sting and the others, causing them all to start feeling relief while their bodies also started to heal. Sting smiled in a calm manner from seeing that Lucy was conscious again, and he joined everyone else in gently hugging her. As Sting hugged Lucy, he had an amazed look on his face from seeing the enhanced version of Suou Shui.
The water dragon now had cerulean blue frost breath emerging from his mouth while water flowed on the outside of his body, creating puddles that Lucy could use for her other spells of Water Magic. Lucy ended the hug with everyone for a moment for the purpose of slamming her hands down into the water, which now turned neon blue, and the neon hue of this color made Lucy narrow her eyes at Miko for a moment. Miko was now a soulless witch, grinning evilly like a servant to the dark goddess, and she probably didn't even care about her goal of restoring Maruberiki back to his passion-filled self.
That only made Lucy look at Maruberiki, who watched his opponent tightly clench her fists in the same moment where she activated the spell known as Sapphire Wave Slash. Seeing sapphire blue bubbles emerge from Lucy's fists for her to aggressively crush them made Maruberiki send Darkness Magic down into his feet, and he hastily ran towards Lucy like he intended to grapple with her. Lucy was slightly shocked from seeing Maruberiki get in front o her, and he viciously punched her in the face.
Lucy was sent rolling towards the statue of the dark goddess, which now had a royal purple aura engulfing it while that same shade of purple started to engulf Maruberiki. He proceeded to swiftly kick Lucy over to Minerva, before dashing to punch Lucy as she flew through the air. Maruberiki finished this physical fight with a several harsh punches to Lucy's face, putting much more power into the final punch to where she ended up stumbling towards the statue of the dark goddess. Lucy groaned in a frustrated manner while trying to get back on her feet, letting her bruised and bloody face be pressed against the statue of the goddess.
Upon seeing Maruberiki frown in an annoyed manner while he started to have royal purple flames appearing in his hands, Lucy stated aloud as she looked at the statue of the dark goddess, "He fights... against... his own passion, because... of your... madness."
As Lucy moved her right hand for the Gunjou Moon's light to shine down on all of the rings to let them all shine with genuine brightness, she heard a woman's voice say in a commanding tone, "Hear me, bearer of the six rings! Grasp the ring of dark magic and place it into your own hand!"
Minerva asked with a startled look on her face, seeing Lucy look shocked for only a moment before grabbing the ring that slightly shined on the right hand of the goddess, "What?! What is that trashy girl doing?!"
The sight of the amethyst purple ring perfectly being pulled out of the cracking stone that encased it caused Minerva to exclaim with a look of disbelief appearing on her face, "This is impossible! Lucy shouldn't be able to unbind that ring!"
When Lucy looked fierce and placed that seventh legendary ring on her right hand's ring finger, Maruberiki asked her with a stern look on his face, "How..? How did you do that with your own brute strength?!"
Lucy explained to him with sternness in her voice, "When I started my arduous journey of getting the legendary rings, I had faith in myself! I always believed in my own spells and my own passion, no matter how tough my opponent seemed! Maruberiki, I'll defeat you with the spells of Water Magic and Ice Magic that have grown alongside me! No matter what shades of blue emerge, I'll show you that my truths have allowed me to be the most artistic mage!"
That prompted Maruberiki to go back to his own side of the battlefield, before aggressively telling Lucy with a look of displeasure on his face, "If your spells truly do make you perceive yourself as a great artist, then show me! Show me the power of your spells, Lucy Heartfilia! I'll gladly be the heroic king who proves that my ideals outshine your truths! If you really want The Dark Spells of Artistry to be painted in this room as your last request, then I will let the goddess see me triumph over you!"
Maruberiki watched the aura around his body change to be boysenberry purple, matching the aura that now surrounded the statue of the dark goddess. However, her aura seemed to be somewhat smaller in this moment than before Lucy removed the legendary ring. That little feat didn't matter to Maruberiki, who subconsciously made his right hand form the position of holding a paintbrush as he activated the spell known as Moonlight Lunar Orb. The flames in his hands fell down to the ground, before becoming royal purple paint.
Maruberiki picked up some of the paint, before making his Darkness Magic shape it into an orb. Maruberiki slammed his palm against the orb, sending it towards Lucy while all of the moonlight that shined down on the spell caused it to become a mix of lavender and boysenberry purple. The attack became neon purple for a moment, signifying that the dark goddess was still somewhat insane, but the fact that Maruberiki's level of power somewhat decreased made Lucy feel like slamming her claws down on to the water.
That caused a large stream of sapphire blue water to rush towards Maruberiki's spell, before it shifted to being sky blue and cobalt blue. The stream of water had a dense amount of pressure, and it collided with Maruberiki's projectile. The orb ended up detonating in a lavender blast, which was followed by a much larger boysenberry blast, but that didn't stop the stream from going straight towards Maruberiki. He watched the water become boysenberry purple, only for it to change to being neon blue, and the boysenberry waves of the aura left behind hadn't been effective in nullifying Lucy's attack.
As Maruberiki was struck by Lucy's attack and engulfed in a large neon blue blast, he heard his younger self proclaim in a happy tone, "Boysenberry is such a beautiful hue of purple!"
The smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that Maruberiki was bruised and bloodied, but he looked at Lucy in an aggravated manner while saying, "You won't prove to me that you're actually the hero in this fight! I refuse to believe it!"
He saw his fierce opponent get replaced by his younger self saying with a smile on his face, "I believe that I can be the best artist, and it's because that's my dream! I'll be a great artist, no matter what anyone says!"
That caused Maruberiki's current self to unleash the spell called Neon Midnight in an enraged manner, and he placed his left hand under a thick amount of moonlight. The moonlight touching his hand allowed Maruberiki to have seven neon purple orbs form in his palm, but the orbs grew larger from the rays of the Gunjou Moon's light touching them. The light also moved like the clock on a sundial, and reaching the clock's position of midnight caused the orbs to become midnight purple. They started to also have a midnight purple aura surrounding them, and Maruberiki watched the attack go towards Lucy.
Lucy chose to counterattack by activating the spell known as Water Wave Shield, and she aimed both of her hands at some water that was on the ground. That caused the puddle of sapphire blue water to have its water rise up in the form of a large tidal wave, before that tidal wave split itself into four tidal waves that were somewhat smaller. They all became celestial blue, before Lucy moved her left hand around in a clockwise direction to make the tidal waves rapidly follow that specific current of water.
Lucy's tidal waves became much denser and stronger from taking in more water, allowing them to be like walls of solid platinum when Maruberiki's orbs struck them. Most of the midnight purple orbs struck one specific tidal wave, before the boysenberry purple aura from earlier powered them up. Those orbs joined the others in creating boysenberry purple explosions, which were accompanied by midnight purple explosions that were more fiery, but they only did significant damage to one tidal wave. Even though Maruberiki watched that celestial blue wave become several bursts of water that made many large celestial blue puddles be on the ground like an abstract mess on a canvas, Maruberiki widened his eyes in a startled manner from seeing Lucy be replaced by his younger self confidently smiling as if he was going to find a way to make the errors on a canvas be artistically used to his advantage.
Lucy activated the spell known as Cerulean Bubble Gum, and the bursts of water became light blue. That occurred right before smaller factions within the water formed light blue bubbles, which all went into Lucy's mouth. She wasted no time with chewing all of them in her mouth, letting it nearly look full like she was eating giant blue gumballs, and Lucy inhaled air through her nose. That led to her shooting out many light blue bubbles from her mouth, seeing them go towards Maruberiki at high speeds.
The powerful wizard wasted no time with dodging several of Lucy's projectiles while sending Darkness Magic into his feet, and Maruberiki unleashed a spell called Mauve Madness. This spell made a mauve purple aura engulf his body, and Maruberiki slid around on some of his previous spell's purple paint. It became coated with mauve purple paint, which Maruberiki utilized for forming a swirl pattern on the floor. This spell caused several mauve purple flames to shoot up from the ground in the formation of that pattern, and Maruberiki started to rapidly spin counterclockwise.
That caused the swirling pattern of flames to become hotter from him quickly using his anger to generate heat waves, and the artist watched his flames grow much larger. When they grew to their highest height, Maruberiki aimed his right hand at Lucy for all of the flames to start spinning outward to go towards her. That caused Lucy to unleash the Cerulean Bubble Gum spell again, and the water that went into Lucy's mouth hastily became aegean blue. As she felt it form several aegean blue bubbles that became azure blue, Lucy had a look of realization in her face from seeing the exploding light blue bubbles form some more puddles in this room.
This prompted Lucy to unleash the spell known as Coastal Cerulean Sapphire Whirlpool, and Lucy placed her hands down into the water. She moved her hands around in a circular motion while sending more magical power into the puddles, and that caused an azure blue aura to surround both of her hands. The aura in her right hand changed to being sky blue, and this gave Lucy an interesting idea. When the azure blue and sky blue whirlpools rose up from the puddles, Lucy quickly raised her hands up into the air and watched the whirlpools go up high into the air.
"The whirlpools may not be at their highest levels of power, but it's no different than an artist's masterpiece only involving a minimal amount of paint!" Lucy confidently stated to Maruberiki, before aggressively clenching her fists.
Upon seeing a brief moment of a flashback, Maruberiki responded with a stern look on his face, "What?!"
He watched all of the azure blue and sky blue twisters of water burst in midair, causing them to create the sight of a massive downpour of rain. Every single beam of rain descended down to the ground, gaining more speed and power to where all the rain created more puddles of Water Magic. The puddles were in different shades of blue, and the water that rained down upon Maruberiki's flames ended up exploding upon impact. The azure blue and sky blue explosions were dense enough to douse the flames while the explosions contained cold air, and Lucy smiled confidently as the aegean blue and azure blue bubbles were still in her mouth.
She shot them out of her mouth, firing all of the bubbles like a turret gun, and Lucy watched all of the projectiles become coated by the icy winds. The cold air nearly froze the bubbles, but they were also tempered like platinum while also becoming somewhat shinier. Maruberiki attempted to dodge the attack, only to find himself sliding backwards from his feet touching dense water. He glanced down at the ground to see that it now involved his purple puddles having blue puddles of water blending into them, almost like Lucy used all that water in combination with a giant paintbrush for watercolors.
Not only did that strangely increase the density of Water Magic and Darkness Magic, but it also opened a way for Lucy to unleash her spells of Ice Magic. She watched the icy bubbles strike Maruberiki, seeing them create aegean blue blasts that were massive while the azure blue blasts were enormous, and the icy gales that blew across the battlefield were able to create some frost on the ground. Lucy proceeded to use Freezing Snowfall while making her hands form a sphere, and she was now like an artist who was having so many thoughts of inspiration going through her mind.
"Don't underestimate me, Maruberiki! I can improvise how I fight, too!" Lucy told him with a fierce look on her face, as she made a light blue engulf her hands during a moment where she glanced at some frost.
Maruberiki was bruised and bloodied while hearing his younger self add in a happy manner, "Even when I don't have the kind of paint that I want, I can improvise with this spell!"
"I'm not going back to that! I will not have my art be destroyed through critiques!" Maruberiki angrily responded to the spirit of his younger self who seemed to be manifesting in Lucy's magic, prompting the powerful warlock to use a spell known as Ominous Tinted Mulberry.
Maruberiki slammed his right palm on top of his left palm, before shooting out a vortex of mulberry purple magic from his hands. That vortex was accompanied by Maruberiki watching an orchid purple orb form in his left hand, and that orb didn't contain any power. This wasn't a fusion spell, but Maruberiki subconsciously threw the orb into the vortex. That caused the vortex to become a vortex of orchid purple rose petals, seeing their color shift away from mulberry purple while that hue was drenched down to the ground like it melted off of the vortex.
The orchid purple petals started to reshape themselves into looking like flames that headed towards Lucy, who closely observed it in the moments before shooting out the Ice Snowflake spell from her mouth. She fired the periwinkle blue snowflake at the attack, seeing the periwinkle blue explosion only freeze the attack to a slight amount for frost to be on its tips, but even using Ice Snowflake with minimal power still generated some icy winds. They all went to the sphere that her hands formed, and Lucy had more sternness mixed with confidence in her eyes.
She took notice of how the icy air blew some of the frost from earlier towards her while the recent icy blast made some already-existing frost grow much larger, and Lucy unleashed Freezing Snowfall. With her hands aimed at the space in between them, the icy air emerged from there in the form of six periwinkle blue beams. They became cobalt blue at the last moment, striking Maruberiki's attack. The antagonist watched an orchid purple blast spin inward while the periwinkle blue blasts spun outward to freeze the ground beneath them.
Maruberiki glanced at the ground in a startled manner, seeing his mulberry purple paint get frozen over with the other hues of purple for him to be incapable of using them. Even if those purple shades of paint al thawed out, the water's hues of blue would taint his art and also probably be frigid enough to where any flames that he created would merely feel cold. That made him think back to Lucy's criticisms regarding how she disliked his artwork, and Maruberiki's eyes expressed shock at how Lucy was like an artist who was improving her skills in the midst of creating a painting.
That only made Maruberiki clench his teeth in anger, refusing to believe that a new artist was making herself be more skilled than when he worked with this first assortment of spells associated with Darkness Magic. Maruberiki angrily glared at Lucy while activating a spell called Mulberry Moonlight Bloom, and he aimed his right hand up at the ceiling. His right hand began to get engulfed in a mulberry purple aura, before a mulberry purple sphere formed in Maruberiki's hand. He watched the sphere grow larger from being struck by some rays of moonlight, and Maruberiki interestingly threw the attack up high into the air.
The mulberry purple sphere ended up being directly under a crevice where slightly thick beams of moonlight came through the cracks, causing the spell to gain much more power from the Gunjou Moon. After it shined brightly like a full moon, the mulberry purple sphere ended up violently exploding to where mulberry purple beams of dark magic rained down from the sky. They all went down towards Lucy, who quickly got the idea of using the spell known as Icy Tsunami to counterattack. Lucy aimed both of her hands at the ice, a neon blue aura engulfing her hands, and she watched two large neon blue tsunamis rise up from the ice.
The icy tsunamis lunged across the ground, creating thick neon blue sheets of ice that soon shifted to being aegean blue, and light blue stalagmites rose up from the ice. Lucy interestingly decided to break some of the stalagmites out of the ice itself, before aggressively throwing them towards the beams. When Maruberiki's beams collided with the icy projectiles, they created mulberry purple explosions that were large while the ice was dense enough for it to break apart at the very last second. The density of the ice was reinforced by the tsunamis going across the battlefield.
Upon seeing those chunks of ice become large stalagmites, Maruberiki stated with an astounded look on his face, "Your interesting artwork turns to piles of crap, yet you have the audacity to make artwork out of rubbish!"
"If I'm making such fine artwork out of spells that are like garbage to you, then are you admitting that I have talent?" Lucy asked with a confident smile on her face, watching her tsunamis crash down on Maruberiki.
That prompted Maruberiki to angrily exclaim, looking riled up as he didn't want to praise Lucy's supposedly shoddy spells, "Shut up! Autumn Purple Moon's Wrath!"
Maruberiki allowed his body to become completely frozen in a thick sheet of ice, only for the autumn purple aura of his magical power to take the form of an aura surrounding his icy statue. The ice that froze Maruberiki had the moonlight reflecting off of it, blinding everyone's eyes. Lucy briefly opened her left eye to see the autumn purple aura being intensified by the moonlight, almost like it was charging up in power. When the autumn purple light reached a much brighter level of intensity, Maruberiki surprised Lucy by aggressively and swiftly moving through the ice by making his body's spirit be autumn purple and ghostly.
It crashed into Lucy, causing her to be more bruised and bloodied while the autumn purple explosion also made a cyclone of dark magic start to surround her. The force of the cyclone lifted Lucy up into the air, only for Maruberiki's spirit to have a vengeful facial expression as he appeared above her. Maruberiki punched Lucy in the stomach with a tremendous amount of force, and the autumn purple engulfed his hands for him to make Lucy fall through a spiraling twister of autumn purple flames. The flames roared with an immense amount of heat, strengthening the heat of the autumn purple cyclone that began to have large explosions occurring on its outer layer.
The heat and the smoke caused Lucy to have tears of water heavily emerging from her eyes, and the twister of flames compressed against her before she could hit the ground. Lucy made a cerulean blue aura heavily engulf her body, seeing it become celestial blue right before all of the flames aggressively crushed her body. Lucy elicited a spell in the form of a faint whisper, crying as the flames proceeded to harshly burst against her body. The fiery explosions within the cyclone caused everyone other than Sting to look worried, especially with all of the ice in the room now starting to melt. As the ice quickly melted off of Maruberiki, his spirit returned to his physical body and he shifted his attention to Lucy being motionless on the ground.
"A mermaid princess crying tears of defeat as she dies. That's a lovely name for this portrait." Maruberiki stated in a calm manner, closing his eyes as he smiled confidently.
Upon hearing Lucy's body itself start to break apart like shattering glass with water flowing out of her, Maruberiki asked in a shocked manner, "What?!"
"Perhaps you could name that portrait something like... Autumn purple flames around her spell known as Mermaid's Celestial Ice Body." Lucy told Maruberiki with a stern frown on her face, as she slowly rose up from the larger amount of water with a celestial blue mermaid tail temporarily replacing the lower half of her body.
Lucy's previous body had become a celestial blue shell of ice with water of that shade of blue leaking out of it, and the ice broke apart to float into the watery battlefield. Lucy activated that spell by meeting its interesting conditions, since she needed to display the blue tears of a mermaid near a body of water. Furthermore, Lucy also needed to be struck by a physical attack that would deal with a tremendous amount of damage to her body. Her skin was currently charred brown from all the flames and the explosions, but the cyclone sending one of her tears into the water allowed Lucy to let it expand large enough for her to reform from that bubble's water.
She aimed her right hand at the nearest chunk of ice, causing it to become aegean blue, and Lucy clenched her fist to make more magical power be sent into that chunk of ice. She gently closed her eyes while thinking about Juvia's smiling face in her last moments of life, and Lucy would gladly dedicate this next spell of Ice Magic to her deceased friend by using the water to her advantage. The spell that Lucy unleashed was simply called Blizzard Rush, and the ice chunk that had more magical power detonated in an aegean blue blast of ice.
The blast spun in place, the light fading away to reveal that the icy air formed a spiraling twister of aegean blue icy winds. The frigid winds were cold enough to send diamond dust towards Lucy, the cold air gradually healing the burns and injuries related to her charred skin. She narrowed her eyes at how this wouldn't be a battle where she could wait for her body to be fully healed, and Lucy dove down deep into the somewhat icy water. She quickly emerged up from it to propel herself high into the air, before getting behind the twister of icy winds and aggressively slamming her tail down on the water.
When Lucy's mermaid tail slammed down on the water, the large spiraling twister of icy winds was propelled towards Maruberiki at high speeds. The air that it absorbed became very frigid, powering up the Blizzard Rush spell even more. It ended up striking Maruberiki, creating a massive aegean blue blast that became sapphire blue at the last second, and the icy winds pertinent to this attack went down into the water. As the water started to become frozen again, Lucy's mermaid tail went away and her legs returned.
That prompted Lucy to send a heavy amount of Ice Magic down into her feet, and she proceeded to jump up high into the air. Lucy glanced at the blue clouds of smoke to see Maruberiki slowly standing up, and he wasted no time with running out of the smoke. Maruberiki activated a new spell called Plum Moonlight Shield, and a plum purple aura started to engulf his hands. He aimed both of his hands at his chest, causing Maruberiki's body to faintly display a plum purple shield in front of it while that shield was shaped like a full moon.
Feelings of confidence entered Maruberiki's eyes while he felt that his defensive spell was durable enough to endure any attacks that would strike it, but he widened his eyes in shock from seeing Lucy start to rapidly spin in midair. She quickly came down to the ground for the purpose of activating the spell known as Glistening Icy Wonderland, and the high amount of magical power in Lucy's feet caused her to spin at high speeds to where she was making the trails of ice expand outward from one point.
This caused the ice that was dense like a glacier to become as tempered as titanium, but Lucy smiled in a proud manner at how the hardness of the ice could be utilized to her advantage. Lucy activated a spell known as Frost Avalanche, and that caused a navy blue aura to engulf her entire body. Lucy slammed her left hand down on the ice right before the aura became sky blue, and the loud sound waves that were transferred through the ice caused the battlefield to break apart. The ice cracked in several places, before the icy air went down into the crevices.
Upon seeing the icy winds propel all of the ice upward, Maruberiki asked aloud in a stunned manner, "Do you really think that all those projectiles can break through my shields?"
Lucy asked with a confident smile appearing on her face, "Who told you that this ice was only useful for that?"
As Lucy threw a chunk of ice at him, Maruberiki told her in a smug manner, "Well, you're pathetic and predictable to do something like-"
The ice chunk that was about to hit his shield ended up exploding in a burst of sky blue frost, which felt like a winter blizzard heavily engulfing him, and Maruberiki watched his shield glow plum purple as it made the frost on it explode in a plum purple burst. The winds from the frost made several other chunks of ice be lifted into the air, and Lucy thrusted her right hand forward. That caused several of the ice chunks to head towards Maruberiki, who watched the aftereffect of his shield's ability create more plum purple shields around his body.
The plum purple aura that engulfed his body made the two hands of Maruberiki's spirit emerge from the aura, and those ghostly hands grew larger when the Gunjou Moon's light came down upon them. They were able to physically touch the pairs of shields that appeared on the left and right sides of Maruberiki while he used his hands to control the shield that was in front of him, and Maruberiki felt that Lucy couldn't break through his durable shields. He watched several of them make contact with his shields, exploding to create sky blue blasts, but he soon gasped in a startled manner from hearing frost cover his first shield.
The dense frost stayed on his shield, almost like heavy snow from an avalanche staying on a mountain pass, and the icy winds from every explosion increased the density of the ice. Even if Maruberiki's shields were producing plum purple explosions, they weren't as fast as Lucy's newest tendency with throwing chunks of ice. She threw them towards Maruberiki at a rapid pace like being in a deadly snowball fight, but that only happened after she finished with briefly doing a handstand on both hands.
"She sent Ice Magic into her feet, which powered up her height for jumping. She thought this far ahead by absorbing that magical power from earlier into her hands..." Maruberiki stated with a look of shock on his face, viewing Lucy like an artist repurposing different shades of blue from a small sculpture for them to be in a painting.
After throwing some more sky blue ice chunks in the moment where Maruberiki's first shield shattered, Lucy stated aloud, "There's the opening in your defenses!"
Lucy proceeded to stretch out her hands, absorbing some icy winds from the explosions that were already happening. She felt her hands become strong like tempered steel, and Lucy ran towards Maruberiki. She watched him get struck by her last chunks of ice, seeing them change from being sky blue to be royal blue, and running through the path of those frigid winds made Lucy's entire body become much more tempered. The cold air from the blizzards didn't even feel damaging to Lucy, who was extremely durable like pressurized water or an extremely hard glacier.
She heard the frost from her spell break through Maruberiki's shields while it became dense enough to freeze them over, and the icy air that came from all the frost started to make Lucy feel more strength enter her legs. As she ran across the ground of this room, Maruberiki found himself feeling very cold as if he was actually buried underneath an avalanche. The weight of the Ice Magic around him was very intense to where he couldn't move very quickly, and that also included how he couldn't evade Lucy's punches.
Lucy proceeded to rapidly move her fists around in opposite directions for them to form circles, before striking Maruberiki with a barrage of punches. Her fists were covered in the royal blue aura, which shifted to being plain blue, and the aura soon became azure blue as Lucy watched her opponent become encased in a sphere of ice that shifted between those specific hues of blue. They were part of a spell called Yukishimou's Frigid Fists, but this spell could only be used during snowstorms or blizzards for Lucy to freeze her enemies.
In the frozen ice... (Maruberiki's POV)
Even though Lucy froze me in this ice, I felt my face form a miffed expression at how I refused to lose this battle. There was no way that the dark goddess could allow me to lose this battle, especially since I had begged her for so much power and Darkness Magic. If my dark magic was insufficient right now, then how could that be possible? The dark goddess seemed like she loved my work, praising me with lavender purple magic as I wanted her validation. Whatever she had taken from me as a price, I didn't care for it.
Taking away whatever ounce of passion I had left wouldn't really affect me, since it was already taken away by those wizards who negatively criticized me and started to chain of other people finding flaws with my work. No matter how good of an artist I wanted to be, how could I ever become skilled enough to the point of having no flaws? My artwork was perfected to the point where no one in Gunjou Town even thought of criticizing me, and Minerva even made all of these people become cultists who adored me.
Although, the ones who turned against me certainly didn't adore me. The magic of the dark goddess told me nothing pertinent to Tsuki's soul, so I guess Rairakku went out of town to kill her. I'd need to kill Rairakku for also turning against me, trying to criticize the art of this guild war itself. If destruction was not a part of war, then wouldn't the current portrait of Gunjou Town have a glaring discrepancy? There were no major disagreements going on in the town, since those spies Kyasurin and Matsuba were eventually going to run out of magical power and join some of the warlocks and witches in death.
As a warlock, the mere sight of Lucy Heartfilia and her hair shifting between different hues of blue only made me angry enough to aggressively build up magical power. My magic was being fueled by my emotions, which were rage, hatred, sadness, and displeasure. I felt very displeased from getting a glimpse of that plain blue aura, disliking how that shoddy artist was trying to symbolize that something bland could be beautiful. She wasn't going to stand against every spell from The Dark Spells of Artistry, and she didn't deserve to be standing in front of me with that confident smile on her face. She had no reason to act like her skills were praiseworthy!
"This is the worst artwork I've ever seen! It's nothing that I could ever praise!" I remembered a critic rudely saying, prompting me to look more angry as I charged up more magical power.
"Art galleries shouldn't be filled with trashy paintings!" A female mage stated in a disgusted tone, saying that about my entire art gallery as she disliked all of my portraits.
If my artwork was made with pride and joy, then having so much optimism was my downfall! I believed in my magic and my artwork! I was happy to create my art, but it was jut never going to be good enough to satisfy everyone! I felt that all my time had been wasted with The Dark Spells of Artistry, especially because I could no longer paint anything to make myself happy. All of my recent paintings needed to exist for making others happy, even if they were mages with no passion or souls. If I'm unhappy and hating my craft, then no one should be happy or have any passion!
That only made me glance at Lucy Heartfilia with a frown of utter annoyance on my face. How in the world could an aspiring artist have any love for the kinds of spells that she was wielding? They were just creative spells of magic in shades of blue, which made them seem lesser than the spells in my arsenal. Even though I had been trying to take her down with spells that had high amounts of power in them, she was still defiantly standing against me. Lucy Heartfilia would not back down, but where the hell did she get that motivation to keep fighting?
She surely has the foresight to understand that I can break out of this ice with just the aura of my Darkness Magic, especially since I watched the lavender purple aura around my body start to grow to a high level from my feelings of hatred. This next attack was going to annihilate that Sabertooth wizard, no matter what spell she attempted to use! As I started to angrily glare at her in the moments where my huge aura turned boysenberry purple and started to slowly melt the ice, I could tell that my eyes had some frustration in them from looking at Lucy.
"Go ahead and defrost yourself, Maruberiki. I'll wait." Lucy told me in a faint and calm manner while looking cold and strict, her voice sounding quieter from the dense ice blocking out sound.
At that moment, my eyes widened in a somewhat offended manner. Was she trying to pity me by not attacking while I was encased in this ice? I hadn't been fighting fair against her throughout this battle, yet she was making an admiral blue aura engulf her hands as if she was the person in control of the battle's flow. Lucy's aura soon changed to being neon blue, and this only made me become much angrier. Why was that blue ring allowing the shades of blue to rapidly change? Was Lucy trying to show off her spells throughout this fight, even if I would dislike them?
If she was actually expecting me to like any of her spells, then I would have to be the critic who frowned upon all of them. The hard work of an artist would mean nothing when criticisms could easily destroy the passion of an artist, but Lucy defied my philosophy. She was continuing to fight me, no matter how much I wanted to retaliate. The fact that this meager artist was standing tall with a proud smile whilst being in front of me was just something that I couldn't tolerate, and I screamed in anger as my aura broke through all of the ice.
As all of the ice that encased me started to shatter, I gave Lucy a deadly glare. Every counterattack that I carried out was like a criticism of every spell that she used, yet she had the nerve to be like my younger self by not caring about how I wanted to take her down. She had the nerve to express love for her craft, almost like a way of expressing disrespect towards me. If she didn't perceive my criticisms to be anything that could make her strive to be a better artist in the afterlife, then I'd humor her by seeing exactly which emotions and feelings motivated her to have so much defiance towards a superior artist.
Back in the fight... (Narrator POV)
Maruberiki decided to stretch both of his arms forward, and he unleashed a spell called Haunting Lavender Moonlight. This attack took the form of a giant lavender orb, which had beams of moonlight shining down to touch it. When the moonlight touched the orb, it doubled in size to where the dark magic's pressure caused the lavender purple aura to smash through the cracked parts of the ceiling. This made much more light from the Gunjou Moon come down upon the orb, making it become tremendously larger.
The orb became almost as large as the Gunjou Moon itself, glowing with lavender purple beams emanating from it, and a small portion of the lavender aura became boysenberry purple. It detached itself from the orb, and the aurs started to form a ring. It solidified to become a boysenberry purple ring with a boysenberry purple full moon inside of it, and the Gunjou Moon's light shined down on the ring. That led to an eggplant purple aura breaking off from the orb, before forming an eggplant purple ring that became solid.
This pattern continued with an amethyst purple aura forming a ring, followed by an Iris purple aura, a mauve purple aura, and a plum purple aura. The plum purple ring that formed in midair proceeded to solidify, before it joined the other five rings in floating around the gigantic orb. This wasn't a fusion spell, but the enormous attack shifted between all of the shades of purple pertinent to the rings as the moonlight came down upon them. The rings all flipped to have one side downward instead of it being behind them, and they all floated down to the middle of the orb.
The orb pulsated in a lavender purple color during the same moment where the rings started to glow in a clockwise sequence, the glowing rings slowly spinning with ghosts in the air appearing to fly through them. When the mauve purple and plum purple rings started glowing and spinning, that caused the gigantic orb to fire a swirling purple beam of dark magic that had been charging up power. The strength of this attack seemed very high, as the beam looked powerful enough to obliterate any mage who would be in its path.
"If you truly think of yourself as the better artist, let's see if you can outshine the absolute brilliance of my best attack from The Dark Spells of Artistry!" Maruberiki aggressively stated with a fierce look on his face, as the aura around his body grew much larger.
Lucy coldly told Suou Shui, looking stern as she quickly built up a high amount of magical power, "Suou Shui, go forth and devour that attack. Only consume its evil and its power before I amplify your magic, my sentient dragon.
"YES, MASTER LUCY!" Suou Shui yelled in a stern manner, before charging towards Maruberiki's attack.
The giant water dragon proceeded to widely open his mouth, letting it stretch out just enough for the entire beam to enter his mouth, and Suou Shui felt that Darkness Magic explode within his body. Faintly seeing the lavender purple lights coming from within the dragon's body prompted Lucy to activate Freezing Snowfall, and she gathered air from the waves of the explosion that emerged from the dragon's watery body. When the air reached her hands, Lucy made them form a circle of air right before some neon blue beams of Ice Magic were fired from them.
Lucy watched the beams strike Suou Shui for them to create six neon blue blasts that were large, and the icy blasts ended up freezing the giant dragon. That didn't matter to Suou Shui, however, and he loudly roared as the ice around him began to melt. That ice melted down into water, which ended up getting absorbed into Suou Shui, and the large dragon grew to a much bigger size. Suou Shui also started to become cobalt blue, mirroring the shifting shade of the blue aura that was around Lucy's body.
She watched the cobalt blue dragon collide with Maruberiki's attack, before seeing its giant fangs viciously bite down on the orb. When Suou Shui tore into Maruberiki's gigantic attack, all of the emotions that formed the exploding energy began to come out of it. Maruberiki glared at Lucy with a hateful look on his face while his hands sent more of his aura towards the attack, wanting it to repair itself, but he soon saw Lucy close her eyes as she was sensing the feelings and thoughts within his Darkness Magic.
"This is the worst artwork I've ever seen!" Lucy heard a female critic's voice exclaim in a disgusted tone, before her body felt pain from the emotions of rage and hate that were associated with that thought.
Lucy started to cry tears from hearing a man's voice arrogantly tell Maruberiki, "If you call this artwork, then I could paint a picture of garbage and it would be slightly better than your waste of a painting."
As he saw Lucy crying with tears starting to stream down her face, Maruberiki asked aloud with a curious facial expression, "She's... crying? Are those... mournful tears?"
Lucy told Maruberiki with a stern facial expression, keeping her eyes closed as she endured the pain from all of his spell's emotions, "Maruberiki! I can feel all of these painful thoughts from how your work as an artist wasn't entirely praised! You sent all of that hate, sadness, and rage into your most powerful spell! However, this current spell and representation of your artwork is such a sorrowful power and a reflection of your own bitterness! You've tainted your own artwork, and I feel so much sadness for you!"
"Suou Shui, I command you to devour all of this sadness! Devour that spell, and prevent Maruberiki from ruining his artwork any further!" Lucy stated in a commanding tone, as she slightly opened her eyes to aim her right hand at the spell.
Those words caused Maruberiki to step back for a moment, his hateful glare changing to a devastated facial expression. Lucy sternly criticized him as being a bitter person who ruined his own artwork by putting so much negativity into his spells, and he could only watch her emotions fuel the aura around her body. It grew to a much larger size, before turning celestial blue, and Suou Shui also became celestial blue. The giant dragon made the orb explode, which interestingly caused the six rings to grow much larger.
They all proceeded to detonate in front of Suou Shui, who exhaled a large breath of icy air. All of Maruberiki's rings became frozen in celestial blue ice as they exploded, and Suou Shui consumed all of them into his giant mouth. The dark magic that exploded within him only felt like a meager amount of pain, symbolizing that Maruberiki's spell wouldn't have been able to destroy him. Instead, the enormous dragon grew much larger and cycled through different shades of blue as the aura around Lucy also did that.
As Lucy genuinely cried for Maruberiki, he watched her sentient spell shift its attention to him. Maruberiki couldn't hide the look of despair on his face, thinking about the current situation. When an artist loses his passion, he also loses his purpose for existing. Therefore, Maruberiki felt that he needed to die after seeing his most beloved piece of artwork get obliterated. He heavily charged up the aura of his Darkness Magic, letting it cycle through multiple shades of purple. This drew Suou Shui to him, wanting to eliminate the rest of the dark magic's thoughts that were upsetting. She slightly opened her crying eyes to see Suou Shui charging at Maruberiki, who feigned a genuine look of aggression as he ran and jumped toward the giant dragon. Suou Shui ended up devouring him, before six enormous blasts in various shades of blue filled up the room with the dark goddess' statue viewing the entire battle.
The statue of the dark goddess maintained its purple auras while the celestial blue, aegean blue, admiral blue, periwinkle blue, azure blue, and sapphire blue blasts filled the room. The immense power of this attack could be seen by every mage in this room, as well as being sensed by many of the mages in Gunjou Town. That also included Lucy, who saw high amounts of water splash towards her as an aftereffect of using such a powerful spell. The six blasts soon faded away, leaving behind many clouds of smoke in hues of blue, and Lucy heard Maruberiki's body loudly hit the floor. That was followed by the sound of Lucy herself falling forward to land in a large puddle of water, her blue hair turning back to being green with her eyes reverting from blue to orange, and the sapphire blue aura around her body vanished.
Lucy was now unconscious, causing Risa to have a shocked look on her face. Even though Lucy now had the seventh and final legendary ring, she didn't have enough energy to fight Minerva right now. Minerva also noticed the sight of Lucy being knocked out, prompting her to now try hitting Risa with an amethyst purple energy wave. Risa ended up being struck by that energy wave, which felt like a dense amount of titanium, but she felt that this was a fight where losing wasn't a viable option right now.
She proceeded to activate the spell known as Dark Lilac's Fabulous Fire, and Risa built up a high amount of magical power. Risa created a dark lilac sphere of Psychic Magic in her mouth, before letting the light from the Gunjou Moon shine down on the orb for it to gain more power. The orb shifted to being lavender purple right before it became deep dark lilac, and Risa shot out the attack at Minerva. The dark witch may have been good at avoiding long-range attacks, but Risa had a small plan in mind.
Risa watched her attack spin counterclockwise, before seeing six neon purple flames emerge from it. That caused Risa to widen her eyes in a somewhat startled manner, since that shade of purple deviated from her plan, and the flames matched the neon purple aura that just engulfed the dark goddess. The more powerful dark witch seemed to be expressing her level of control related to the flow of this battle, and Risa watched Minerva defend against the fire with lavender purple energy waves forming on her hands.
Those defensive waves of energy quickly became engulfed in flames, which created dark lilac explosions. That quickly prompted Minerva to change the properties of her Territory Magic, and the energy waves now like Wave Magic in how they nullified Risa's flames. That led to Risa throwing the dark lilac sphere up into the air, letting the moonlight touch it for the sphere to interestingly transfer the power of the moonlight into her body. As the rays of the moon's light shined down on the orb, the lavender aura engulfed her body.
"This may not be enough of a boost in power, but your evil scheme and lust for power will end here!" Risa angrily told Minerva, looking furious at the soulless opponent.
Risa's anger caused Minerva to ask in a curious tone, "Why are you getting so riled up? Are you pushing yourself to get a victory, just because my strongest pawn is now dead for me to be the guild master of Hexing Enchantress?"
Minerva continued speaking arrogantly, grinning at Risa, "It will be such a pleasure for me to eliminate a guild of weak trash that disgraced my beautiful name in the Grand Magic Games, just like how the sight of you reminds me that a lack of power reminds me that Sabertooth is full of worthless failures who deserve to die!"
As Minerva cackled evilly with her eyes starting to eerily glow dark purple like the aura that now engulfed the dark goddess, Risa fiercely yelled, "SHUT UP!"
Those loud words caused Minerva to look a bit surprised for a moment, watching Risa's hair become dark lilac as it started obscuring her eyes. Risa had an immense amount of anger in her eyes from how Minerva reminded her of a lightning-wielding priestess who had been the ruler of Yamabuki Town, and some tears fell from Risa's eyes as she recalled how all of those brainwashed people were like pawns in Kanata's chess game. Minerva may have been making people's souls be absorbed into a dark goddess, but being different than Kanata Luster in terms of plans didn't prevent Minerva from carrying out actions that were worse.
That led to Risa looking at Miko, who was just glancing at Maruberiki's unconscious body with eyes that showed no emotion. Miko had been brainwashed into being a sociopath with no soul, as she proceeded to viciously smile at the statue of the dark goddess that had a wine purple aura starting to be around it. Miko's eyes shifted to being that color, along with Minerva's eyes. Minerva proceeded to maniacally laugh up at the Gunjou Moon as she chose to let her body bathe in its moonlight, and feeling a surge of power flow throughout her body only made Minerva start to growl in a malicious manner like a vicious beast.
She proceeded to rush towards Risa at high speeds, prompting the Sabertooth mage to unleash the spell known as Witch's Amethyst Flame Helix. As the sphere from earlier detonated in a massive twister of flames, Risa quickly spun around in the counterclockwise direction. Her arms formed a double helix, causing the moonlight to make a wine purple aura form a large double helix around Risa. The aura quickly turned into flames, which exploded upon being touched by Minerva's energy waves. The fire that resulted from the collision ended up going towards Minerva in a tall jet stream of flames, only for her to block it with an energy wave that had the properties of dense diamonds.
"All I have to do is continue nullifying your powerful spells until you get exhausted, and then you'll die." Minerva told Risa with a sadistic smirk on her face, as she created a massive plum purple energy wave in her right hand.
As Risa looked somewhat nervous and readied herself for what seemed like a very strong attack, Rairakku worriedly thought to herself during this moment of standing behind her, "If Minerva becomes the guild master of Hexing Enchantress, then... she'd probably execute all of the top commanders along with Maruberiki for losing to these Sabertooth mages."
Upon seeing Risa aim her hand at Minerva for another stream of flames to go towards her opponent, Rairakku kindly thought to herself in the moment of recalling the moment where Tsuki was mercifully killed by Lucy, "They gave Tsuki a peaceful death. They could've even killed me when I was walking away with my back turned, but they viewed me as more than a pawn."
In the moment where Minerva mockingly teleported Risa's flames up to the ceiling for them to explode under the Gunjou Moon's light, Rairakku remorsefully thought aloud, "I'm... I'm sorry, Minerva. Aside from Violara-san calmly rejecting me as her apprentice, this girl named Risa is the first person who's ever been kind to me..."
Rairakku wasted no time with building up a high amount of eggplant purple Darkness Magic, and she proceeded to run towards Minerva. The elegant woman watched Rairakku create an eggplant purple flame in her right hand, seeing her act as if she was going to slam it against Minerva's face. That caused Minerva to throw the massive energy wave at Rairakku, who simply made herself become an eggplant purple silhouette that went down into the attack's shadow. She reemerged from the shadow of a flame that fell right in front of Minerva, before letting that flame itself fall into her right hand.
Rairakku's original flame was part of a spell called Heather's Hex, and that spell had been a tribute to Violara from how Rairakku could make the eggplant purple flame become Heather purple if another flame touched it. When Risa's flame made contact with Rairakku's fire, Rairakku had a disturbing smile on her face as she felt the eggplant purple flame absorb that magic for it to become much larger. She interestingly dropped the flame down on to Minerva's right foot in a gentle manner, and this spell also allowed Rairakku to essentially have the curse of moving through shadows.
As she resurfaced from Risa's shadow and reverted to her normal appearance, Rairakku started to narrow her eyes in a serious manner. She watched her flame heighten as it softly crackled, before seeing it engulf Minerva in what seemed like a geyser of deep eggplant purple flames. The spell was meant to accumulate power without being able to damage the enemy upon contact, since it felt like a hex in how it could only damage enemies with its strength if the initial amount of contact dealt no damage.
Minerva's skin became charred and mocha brown as eggplant purple burns appeared on her body, and she proceeded to angrily glare at Rairakku. The younger witch initially felt a bit nervous about this act of betrayal, but recalling the brief moment of seeing the sun in Kogane Town made Rairakku not want to go down without putting up a decent fight. On top of that, she also wanted to get back at Minerva for making her deal with the powers of Gunjou Cave's crystals instead of upholding the town's culture.
That prompted Rairakku to quietly put her hands in a praying stance, wanting the dark goddess to assist her with helping Risa win, and Rairakku watched Minerva begin to retaliate. Minerva fired an energy wave that became Heather purple, but Risa countered that attack by using a spell called Dark Magenta Moonlight Inverse. This spell caused Risa to raise her right hand up at the moonlight, before aggressively lowering that hand down for it to be aimed at Minerva's attack. As the energy wave was about to hit Risa, the rays of moonlight that struck the attack caused it to suddenly vanish.
The moonlight created shadows on the ground, and Minerva's energy wave ended up exploding inside of a shadow. It surprisingly reappeared in front of Risa as a dark magenta wave of energy that was being powered up by the moonlight, and this spell allowed Risa to take control of her enemy's attack. She infused some of her Psychic Magic into the energy wave, before throwing it towards Minerva. As the antagonist thought that she needed to block this attack by creating an energy wave that turned mulberry purple, Risa's energy wave ended up bursting to create a dark magenta screen of light that brightened when the moonlight touched it.
Minerva threw her attack at the dark magenta wall of light, only to see it create a meager mulberry purple explosion. This was the aftereffect of Dark Magenta Moonlight Inverse, as it allowed Risa to use her enemy's attack to create a powerful move that was a much stronger defense. Interestingly, Risa's curious idea of throwing an Esper Ball at the wall caused it to become dark magenta while it also gained much more durability. Minerva ended up being struck by the attack, which felt like titanium while it created a massive blast.
"Just in case that didn't work, I have this new spell!" Risa stated with a fierce look on her face, as she glanced away from the dark magenta blast to put her left hand under the moonlight.
As the dark magenta smoke cleared up, Minerva shouted in a vengeful tone, "This place will be where your execution occurs!"
Risa shouted fiercely, activating her new spell, "Dark Magenta Moonlight Ring Burst!"
In a few seconds, a large dark magenta ring appeared above Risa's left palm. Risa lightly thrusted her palm upward, causing the ring to ascend up through the rays of moonlight. That caused the ring to grow in strength, gaining more magical power to where seven dark magenta orbs formed directly underneath it. The seven dark magenta orbs were attached to some dark magenta flames that protruded from the underside of the rings, and the orbs began to rotate in a clockwise manner. The orbs gained more power as they rotated under the moonlight, and they also gained more heat.
The heat waves started to spiral downward for the purpose of engulfing Minerva, who was engulfed in another dark magenta geyser of fire that came from the spell called Heather's Hex. That prompted Rairakku to activate a spell called Midnight Purple Phantasm, and she aimed both of her hands at Minerva. As the flames around Minerva were starting to die down, six flames from Risa's heat waves started to surround her. The intense amount of heat allowed Rairakku to fire an eggplant purple beam from her hand.
The eggplant purple beam had Rairakku's spirit angrily protruding from the front of it, representing how she was vengeful towards Minerva. The dark witch watched her beam of Darkness Magic precisely strike Minerva's right hand, which had a small flame slowly dying down on her palm, and the impact of this attack caused Minerva to be engulfed in an eggplant purple blast that was followed by a fiery midnight purple blast. This blast was much larger from the heat waves that were around Minerva, and coating Minerva in more fire also extended the duration of Heather's Hex.
"Don't be surprised by my level of strength, Minerva. You're still the newest witch in Hexing Enchantress, so I'm just showing you the potency of actual Darkness Magic." Rairakku told Minerva with a rude smile on her face, feeling like she could win this fight.
That prompted Minerva to tell her, as some midnight purple clouds of smoke appeared, "If you dare to mock the power of my magic, you'll gladly die at my feet like the dog you are! Whimper and cry as you die, Rairakku!"
Minerva's words caused Risa to exclaim in a rage-filled tone, recalling Kirie's tears as she died and remembering Yukino being brainwashed, "NEVER AGAIN. I NEVER... WANT TO SEE ANYONE CRY THOSE TEARS OF PAIN EVER AGAIN!"
She glanced up at her orbs that were under the ring, sensing that they contained more heat than a volcano, and Risa swung her arms towards Minerva. That caused the rotating orbs to all crash down on to the purple-haired woman, along with the ring, and seven massive blasts in the color of dark magenta occurred! The blasts were all extremely hot, powering up the flames that were previously around Minerva, and Risa's rage increased the strength of this attack to where its temperature was quite hot.
The strength of the seven massive blasts was powerful enough to make a large crater occur while some rocks were propelled upward, but Rairakku and Risa weren't going to be struck by any of the rocks. Rairakku watched some bursts of fire go through the wall of light that Risa created earlier, and they were dense enough to where they could grow large enough to let themselves collide with the rocks. This resulted in more purple smoke filling up most of this room, prompting Risa to make the dark lilac aura surround her body for it to act like a source of light.
The dark lilac aura was certainly seen by Minerva, who emerged from all of the fire with a menacing glare on her face. She ignored the geyser of fire surrounding her again, and Minerva could feel that her heavily bruised body was now bleeding from the dense impacts of those blasts. Despite how she felt that some parts of her body seemed crushed, Minerva tried using healing properties from her energy waves of Territory Magic to slowly heal all the damage. She wouldn't let Risa heal, however, and Minerva growled in an enraged manner at how she was taking damage from someone who she perceived as a lowly piece of trash.
Minerva looked over at the statue of the dark goddess, before using her Territory Magic to teleport herself to the top of it. She let her feet rest on the aura that surrounded the statue, causing the aura that became orchid purple to start engulfing her body. Minerva was now taking in more power from the dark goddess, trying to absorb as much power as she would be given. The aura around her body soon turned Sangria purple, going along with the changing aura of the statue as the dark goddess still retained feelings of insanity.
The power of Gunjou Cave's crystals was still inside Minerva's body, but extracting power from the dark goddess herself made the former Sabertooth wizard feel much more power suddenly flow through her body. Minerva angrily glared down at Risa while created several energy waves in her hands, seeing them be different shades of purple, and Minerva threw all of her projectiles down at Risa. That only prompted Risa to use a spell called Dark Lilac Lunar Burst, and she created a dark lilac orb in her left hand.
The dark lilac orb was purposely held up to some moonlight, causing several dark lilac beams to emanate from it while the orb shined brightly. The dark lilac orb started to attract the energy waves to it, and their shadows interestingly became dark lilac from being under some parts of the moonlight. The dark lilac shadows propelled themselves up towards the orb, sending their high amounts of magical power into it, and this also caused the energy waves to instantly explode in dark lilac bursts of light!
That dark lilac light only grew much brighter from the Gunjou Moon's light going into it, and the light itself became several dark lilac beams that were redirected back at Minerva. She wasted no time with warping out of the way of the attack, allowing the statue of the dark goddess to suffer damage from being hit with several dark lilac explosions. Rairakku gasped in a concerned manner, thinking that Minerva was disgusting enough to treat the dark goddess as if she was a shield who deserved to endure powerful attacks until she'd be a pile of dust.
"You're not going to get away with that!" Rairakku told Minerva with a fierce facial expression, as an eggplant purple aura started to surround her body.
Minerva explained to her with a vicious smirk on her face, "Well, I'm pleasantly relieved that the dark goddess will allow me to at least have some fun by taking the life of someone who should've been killed in the Grand Magic Games to prevent most of the problems that Hexing Enchantress encountered in the guild war."
Upon seeing Minerva teleport herself to be in front of Lucy's unconscious body and charge up power, Sting stated with a worried facial expression, "Minerva, get away from her!"
Sting hastily ran towards her with Rogue by his side, and the light dragon slayer unleashed the attack known as White Dragon's Holy Breath. Sting fired a somewhat large sphere of white light from his mouth, aiming the attack straight at Minerva's stomach. She glanced at that attack, ignoring the sight of Rogue using the spell called Shadow Dragon's Shadowy Spread. Rogue fired two black vortexes of shadows from his right hand, and they quickly fused together to form a much larger onyx black vortex.
This powerful attack ended up engulfing Sting's attack, almost like it was a Unison Raid, but the ball of light interestingly shined more when the shadows coated it. The light was producing more shadows within this attack, the shadows interestingly being grey as they shined alongside the sphere of light. Rogue and Sting watched this attack strike Minerva in the chest with enough force to make her slide several feet backwards, making her be unable to bludgeon Lucy with any energy waves. Sting and Rogue watched the energy in their attacks detonate in an enormous blast!
The blast was white, before it became grey, and the remainder of the blast was black. Rogue watched the brightness of this attack produce more shadows, which all remained on the ground because of the moonlight now shining through the floor that could be heard breaking apart. Sting hoped that the weight of the blast would make Minerva fall into a part of Gunjou Cave, but all of the smoke cleared up for him to see that Minerva was still standing in the same spot while she was heavily bruised and bloodied. The effect of Heather's Hex from earlier still occurred, making her be burnt by flames, and the memory of Sting surrendering in the Grand Magic Games made Minerva's eyes look as if they were enraged at his sheer presence being in front of her right now.
"I... won't... lose to you! This next... attack will annihilate you all! Even if I die, you can all have your lives end here!" Minerva exclaimed in a pained manner, her facial expression displaying hostility and anger as she put all of her remaining magic into the energy wave that was above her head.
Rairakku commented aloud, looking somewhat frustrated as she saw the gigantic attack, "Even if my most powerful spells make Minerva's attack explode, some of the energy might go outward like shrapnel and heavily wound us all!"
Risa thought to herself with a panicked expression suddenly forming on her face, seeing Rogue and Sting pant heavily as Lucy was still unconscious, "Everyone's... going to be harmed again. The strength of my enemy's attack will... kill all of my friends."
Risa stated aloud, tears starting to well up in her eyes as she thought of Lucy, "No..."
Risa quietly uttered aloud, starting to cry as she recalled some dark mages groaning in pain or begging for help after Kusabue's rampage, "No..."
Upon seeing images of the painful battles that her entire team had to endure as the dark lilac aura was strengthened by the moonlight, Risa shouted in an emotional and fierce manner like a queen, "NO ONE WILL DIE HERE! NO ONE WILL GET HURT ANYMORE!"
As Risa expressed her strong desire to protect everyone from dying, she aimed both of her hands at Minerva. Risa proceeded to unleash a spell known as Dark Lilac Moon Psi, and she thrusted her hands forward in the same moment where Minerva threw her enormous energy wave of Territory Magic at her opponents. Minerva watched her attack instantly explode in several tremendous blasts that were in varying shades of purple, and she started to smirk in a victorious and sadistic manner from thinking that she killed all of her enemies.
The clouds of smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that a giant dark lilac shield was in front of Lucy, and the shield had a dark magenta circular border with two dark magenta crescent moons facing opposite directions as the shield was in between them. As Minerva looked at the shield, she soon saw it display the image of some dark witches nearly being dead on a street in Gunjou. The image changed to Lucy being unconscious and heavily bruised on the ground, before the shield displayed the experiences of Rairakku and Kajino being hurt by their opponents in the nightclub.
Since this shield didn't reflect Minerva's attack back at her, Rairakku had a curious look on her face from wondering if this shield was just a barrier. She watched Risa look more determined to win, causing several of the cracks in the shield to start repairing themselves with a dark lilac aura filling the crevices. The sound of the shield healing itself seemed to work in accordance with Risa's desire to protect her friends from being harmed, and Risa even sent Psychic Magic into the shield for the dark lilac glass to start becoming more durable.
As the dark lilac glass of the shield repaired itself, Kusabue looked at Risa in a proud manner. Risa was attempting to protect Kusabue and the others, but she was also showing her young teammate how the kind and girly princess was able to endure the power of an attack that would've caused problems if Rairakku had aggressively struck it like a vicious princess. As Risa seemed to be waiting for her shield to fully repair itself in this moment where Sting and Rogue were still trying to regain some magical power, that gave Kusabue the idea of running towards Rairakku.
The girl with dark green hair got close to Rairakku, before aiming one hand at her own chest in the same moment where she aimed her other hand at Rairakku. Rairakku watched Kusabue unleash the spell known as Slowed Sound Wave, and Kusabue slowly moved her hands. Three green beams were fired from both of her hands, hitting Kusabue right before Rairakku was hit by three beams. As the dark witch watched Kusabue start to giggle with the sound of her laughing being slowed down, Rairakku felt herself be much more hyperactive.
Rairakku started to smile at Kusabue in a happy manner, feeling glad that her new ally made her level of speed rapidly increase. Rairakku sent more Darkness Magic into her feet, resulting in her body moving at much faster speeds. She quickly activated the spell called Purple Lit Lick, and Rairakku stretched out her amethyst purple tongue. Rairakku's tongue had a circle of flames appearing on it, and the circle moved in the clockwise direction. The flames became eggplant purple from being under the moonlight, before growing much larger, and Rairakku licked the air for her flames to form a stream of fire.
Minerva wasn't able to counter Rairakku's swift attack, resulting in her getting caught in a fiery eggplant purple explosion. As Minerva was wounded by this attack, Rairakku kept up the pressure of this battle by unleashing a spell called Ghastly Sorcery Trick. She aimed both of her hands at Minerva, before shooting out an eggplant purple orb from in between her hands. Rairakku watched the orb rapidly head towards Minerva, who was also being burned by Heather's Hex, and the sight of the eggplant purple orb being coated in flames made Rairakku happily smile right before the moonlight made it become neon purple with the trait of being ghostly and intangible.
"Are you afraid to die?" Rairakku joyfully asked Minerva with a disturbing smile on her face, having a vengeful look in her eyes.
Minerva responded in an aggressive tone, running out of the flames, "You won't kill me so easily, you vermin!"
Rairakku told her in a stern manner, narrowing her eyes as she moved her hands towards her chest, "Sadly, you're wrong."
Rairakku's action of pulling her hands backward made the orb go through Minerva's body in a ghostly manner, before it quickly floated backwards to strike Minerva from behind. Minerva was caught in a large neon purple blast, which had a wave of neon purple fire slowly emerging from it. That prompted Rairakku to use a spell known as Witch's Cosmic Lunar Slash, and she made the eggplant purple aura of her dark magic surround her hands. Rairakku hastily ran up to Minerva, before slashing the light of the blast while her hands also touched the flames.
Rairakku's hands became large claws that were made from dark magic, and the moonlight touched Rairakku's claws for them to become neon purple. As soon as the neon purple smoke started to fade away, Rairakku aggressively made her hands slash at Minerva's body. causing her opponent to see eggplant purple crescent moons come down from the moonlight to touch Rairakku's claws. After a few seconds, Rairakku felt herself become much more powerful. She proceeded to hastily slash at Minerva's body again, tearing at her dress and her body with much more power.
Minerva felt an immense amount of pain from how she was being attacked by Rairakku's hands that had flames on them, and she started to wince in pain. Rairakku's claws tore through different parts of Minerva's body, and the bruises that Minerva sustained from Rairakku's barrage of slashes caused her to breathe heavily from feeling her body suddenly start to get weaker. The power of the moonlight relating to this spell may have given more strength to Rairakku, but it also caused Minerva's body to start getting weaker.
Upon seeing Rairakku giggle at her in a manner that mocked her, Minerva felt riled up enough to say in an angered tone, "I won't... let you... win against my immense level of power!"
The sight of Minerva creating a ball of Territory Magic in her hands prompted Rairakku to say in a stern manner, "If you want to act like a vicious princess, I'll show you how powerful a vicious princess can truly be!"
Rairakku activated the spell called Midnight Moonlight's Dark Brilliance, and she hastily shot out a giant eggplant purple orb from her right hand. Rairakku gently touched the orb with her claws, enhancing its power to where it became neon purple while it started to grow. As the orb grew, the light from the Gunjou Moon shined down on it for the orb to grow large enough to where some of its power took the form of a somewhat smaller orb that emerged from it. That neon purple orb was quickly heading towards Minerva, only for Rairakku to quickly get behind it for the purpose of slashing the orb.
That caused a neon purple explosion to occur right in front of Minerva, the waves of energy making smaller blasts start to surround her, and she was caught in these blasts. That provided enough time for Rairakku's much more massive attack to reach Minerva, who tightly clenched her stomach as the power of the Gunjou Cave's crystals started to detonate inside of her. The orb was able to strike Minerva, resulting in an eggplant purple blast that was massive, but Rairakku watched Risa help her put an end to this fight.
Risa aimed her right hand at the massive twister of flames that resulted from the orb of the Dark Lilac's Fabulous Fire spell detonating, and she used her Psychic Magic to quickly levitate the spell towards Rairakku's massive blast. The massive twister of flames ended up exploding within the blast, creating several dark lilac fiery blasts within Rairakku's powerful attack, and both of the women watched their combination of attacks wound Minerva. Minerva was soon heard falling forward in the same moment where all of the fire was spreading outward, and the strength of the attacks made the ceiling of this room in the Tyrian Temple start to loudly crack. As Kusabue absorbed all of those loud sounds into her hands, she heard Minerva weakly groan in a pained manner during the same moment where Lucy began to wake up.
Lucy groaned in a groggy manner, before lightly shaking her head and looking at the situation around her. This sacred room of the dark goddess was now filled with dark lilac flames and eggplant purple flames, along with the ground being just as broken as the ceiling that had rubble falling from it. As Lucy quickly rolled to her right side for the purpose of avoiding some nearby rubble that fell from the ceiling, she kept her eyes on the sight of Minerva now being on the ground. The evil mage laid on the ground, her eyes reverting back to normal as she felt the power of the crystals pertinent to dark magic exploding inside her body.
That wasn't as painful as the damage that she recently endured from Rairakku's and Risa's attacks, though. Minerva's skin was heavily charred and dark brown, her body covered in many purple burns and vicious bruises, and her dress was torn in several places. Minerva felt the last eruption of the flame from Heather's Hex burn her dress, along with her hair looking very damaged and disheveled. As Minerva was laying on the ground, tears emerged from her eyes. She cried about how the choice of accumulating so much power couldn't help her achieve victory for Hexing Enchantress in the guild war against Sabertooth, and she couldn't make the dark guild be as strong as more powerful dark guilds such as Tartaros. Minerva felt that she deserved to die at the hands of Risa, as she philosophically believed that it was disgraceful for her to lose to the newest rookie from a guild that she perceived as weak.
Minerva cried much more from realizing that the Sabertooth mages would make her painstakingly-built cult now be dismantled, since Risa seemed like she wouldn't tolerate its existence. The fact that Minerva couldn't defeat her only made the dark witch imagine Jiemma's voice in her mind, viciously scolding her for being a failure who couldn't make any guild be prosperous. Minerva felt her body tremble in the moments where she heard her own blood drip on to the ground during the moment where Lucy and the others were running towards her, and she closed her tearful emerald green eyes as she felt that they would make her die a few minutes earlier than how she coughed up blood twice as a way of displaying how she was in so much pain.
As Minerva closed her eyes to take away that pain and wanted Lucy to bludgeon her in the heart with a powerful attack, she felt her trembling body be met with someone gently putting a hand on her chest. That caused Minerva to slowly open her eyes, seeing that Lucy was gently touching her like she was an actual person instead of an inhuman husk that only lusted for power. Upon seeing Sting, Rogue, Risa, and Rairakku walk up to her with looks of concern on all of their faces, the sight of Risa's hair reverting back to being light pink as if she restrained her feelings of hatred only made Minerva cry with a frustrated look on her face.
The sight of Lucy being like someone who had the method of Minerva's death entirely in her hands caused Minerva to say aloud, "Lucy, please... forgive me.. before you... end my life. That pink-haired.. girl.. had to replace... such an immature fool."
"I sought.. power with.. such a weak... and vindictive heart.. for losing the.. Grand Magic Games. I thought Sting and the... others would only... bring me down, but.. they helped you.. get this... far." Minerva continued in a frustrated and regretful manner, coughing up some blood and lightly wheezing from the excessive pain.
The sight of Minerva being so injured prompted Risa to say with a sad and pitying frown on her face, "Maybe I can heal you up enough to where you can rejoin the guild, and-"
"Don't waste... your magic.. on healing me. When I absorbed so much... power from... the crystals, and let the dark goddess... corrupt me... so much, I... knew that overusing... my strength.. and giving up my.. soul would destroy.. my body." Minerva sternly responded to Risa, feeling her body be weighed down by the pain.
Risa nodded in a manner of understanding while she assumed that Minerva's action of absorbing power from the statue of the dark goddess allowed her to regain enough of her soul, but absorbing the insanity of the dark goddess also caused her to keep fighting until she was now in this situation of having her wounds bleed out. Minerva wanted to die in the Tyrian Temple, feeling like this was the best way for her life to end. She felt some humiliation from how weaker mages such as Yukino had to see her in such a pitiful state, but even Yukino was crying with tears falling from her closed eyes.
Yukino may not have been liked by Minerva, but she still viewed the older woman as someone who had been one of Sabertooth's strongest mages. They still obtained second place in the Grand Magic Games, which made Yukino feel that Minerva did work hard to make amends for the younger wizard's loss against Kagura Mikazuchi. Yukino even felt like Minerva had avenged her loss from the tournament's second day by defeating Kagura on the final day, and Yukino was just as surprised as Sting and Rogue when Minerva never returned to their guild.
If Yukino had been able to stop Minerva from running away so quickly on the final day of the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour, then she would've been glad to at least have a casual conversation about why one of Sabertooth's most prominent wizards just left without even saying goodbye. Even if Minerva had revealed at that time how failing to win the tournament was still weighing on her mind, Yukino would've assured her that she was proud of Minerva's brute strength. Minerva may have been physically strong, but she was only now trying to mentally and emotionally grow in her final moments.
"Sting... Rogue.. I'm so.. sorry... for all of this.. madness.. in Gunjou." Minerva weakly told them, as she felt her arms become numb.
That caused the light dragon slayer to tell her in a forgiving tone with a caring smile on his face, "Milady, we're not gonna hold grudges against you. As far as I'm concerned, the king and queen of Hexing Enchantress were taken down and the guild war is over now."
Those kind words from Sting prompted Minerva to cry tears of regret and sorrow, before glancing at Lucy as she recalled a certain memory, "Lucy, I'm... sorry. I'm truly.. sorry for... almost killing you... in the.. Naval Battle."
"You're not.. a weak girl.. anymore, Lucy Heartfilia. You... defeated.. the warlock who.. is much more powerful.. than me. Please.. help Miko.. by sparing.. Maruberiki." Minerva added, barely able to lift a hand to wipe away her own tears.
As Minerva started to feel the Gunjou Moon's light shine in her eyes, Lucy stated with a look of regret on her saddened face, "Thank you for your kind words of respect, Minerva. I really wish we could've met under different circumstances, since the dark mages of Hexing Enchantress didn't seem like friends to you. Maybe we could've ended up being friends, and I know someone as strong as you would've pushed for me to get all the legendary rings much sooner if you were in Sabertooth."
In her last seconds of life, Minerva told Lucy in a stern and encouraging tone with her lips forming a soft smile, "You have... all seven of them.. now. Lucy, get your original body.. back from.. that girl. Defeat her, and.. stand above.. her like.. a queen. You're a strong tigress, but.. I know.. you.. can.. become the.. strongest.. queen."
Minerva's eyes slowly closed while her lips ceased with moving, and Lucy's hand felt Minerva's heartbeat stop. She was now dead, prompting Lucy to quietly get up and close her own eyes in a respectful manner. As Lucy silently prayed for Minerva's soul to not get eaten again by the dark goddess, Rairakku placed her hands in a stance of prayer. Minerva may have viewed her as nothing more than a pawn, but Rairakku only hoped that her fellow dark mage would be capable of finding some semblance of peace in the afterlife.
Since Minerva had taken in so much magical power from the dark goddess, that led Rairakku to think that Minerva made other souls be released while other people probably regained their sense of passion. However, the sight of Miko Goetia still being a soulless husk that was blocked off from her enemies by a row of flames made Rairakku wonder if it was impossible to make Gunjou not be a place of perpetual darkness. As Rairakku recalled that there was still the legend of the Mulberry Crescent Moon taking the goddess up to the altar, she ignored the wind and some leaves falling into this room during the concurrent sight of the dark goddess being engulfed in a mulberry purple aura that surged in power.
That power was surging from her own insanity that still remained, almost like she wanted someone else to absorb her dark magic and join her in feeling mad enough to where they could destroy themselves. As her aura grew even larger and shifted to being neon purple, everyone who was conscious starting to look concerned about what the dark goddess was going to do. The collapsing ceiling made more of the Gunjou Moon's light enter this room, increasing her power to where she was even making purple winds of Darkness Magic fill the sky. The wind blew one of the plain purple leaves from a tree into Kusabue's hand, causing her to glance at it in a curious manner as she was moving at a normal level of speed again.
Kusabue held the leaf in her hand while feeling compelled enough to walk towards the statue of the dark goddess, and she chose to stand in a spot where the moonlight was heavily in the room. It almost felt like Kusabue was under a spotlight with the dark goddess being the sole member of the audience who needed to listen to her performance, and Kusabue turned around for a moment to smile at Risa. There were no folk songs of Parmanie Town that she could play on this new leaf whistle, but there was a calming melody that Kusabue wanted to play as if she was a kind princess.
She felt some sadness in her heart from thinking about how Kūkiatsu wouldn't get to hear this song, but he probably would've been happy to see the shamrock green aura that surrounded Kusabue's body as she continued to have several thoughts of sadness in her mind. However, she strayed from crying by realizing that this moment was also Minerva's funeral while the dark goddess herself could be mourned for losing herself in her own madness. That prompted Kusabue to activate the spell called Sound Soul Wave of Amplitude, and she would make the spell be used in a harmless way this time.
Kusabue imagined the sound of several violins loudly being played, followed by a melody being played on a piano, and she imagined the sound of the winds from above blowing on the wind to produce harmonizing notes on the leaf whistle. These instruments all had their sound harmonizing with each other while Kusabue let her mind remember the song that she was happily singing in the forest during the day where she and Kūkiatsu first met Lucy. The moments were accordingly playing the melody of that song, making it be loud while the melody itself was very calm in the first verse.
"On the mint green winds of the tower, the hero is who they see. The wielders of wind and plants clash over their differences, feeling the pain of the strife before the hero silences them both. The heavens come down, and earth comes up with both of them concealing truths that the other lacks. Reaching out with her hands, the hero slams her palms into the winds and the plants. The wind and the nature's aroma must come together to create a beautiful thing, dulling the pain and exemplifying the power of the ring. The wind and the plants, they must be the best of friends. The friends must flow together like a smart haiku, going slowly with five-seven-five for harmony to start to extend." Kusabue sang in a slow manner, her voice sounding calm enough to possibly quell the rage of the dark goddess.
Kusabue continued singing in a compassionate manner, remembering the rest of the song, "The heavens of the goddess are pink with her psychic energy, and she feels joy as she can foresee that her morning sun is calming to the vicious dark witch who opposes her. The hero makes both of their powers be grasped in both hands, viewing the sun and the moon as energies that have to work in harmony. The dark witch of the moon is humbled by the powers of water and ice, she feels the need to laugh heartily as the triumphant hero continues the rise."
"Exalted goddess, grant peace to the humble hero who started out with a red flame. Sing with me a song of sacred flames, as the hero overcomes all of the enemies around them." Kusabue sang in a sweet manner, her last few notes sounding very gentle.
As Kusabue stopped singing, her lyrics were followed by the action of her playing the song on the leaf whistle. She blew air against it while the winds contained Sound Magic, and the leaf that was pertinent to Darkness Magic started to have plain purple waves of energy pulsating from it in a calm manner. The waves of energy went up through the ceiling of the Tyrian Temple, allowing all of the mages in the streets of Gunjou Town to hear the song that was being played. Combining Sound Magic with Darkness Magic caused these waves of energy to contain energy related to Kusabue's thoughts, and she thought of wanting peace.
Kusabue kept her eyes closed while the statue of the dark goddess mistook the leaf for a conduit that wanted to absorb her energy, and sending power into it only strengthened the power of Kusabue's spell. She continued to play the song's melody, thinking about how there had been so much strife and bloodshed in the town of Gunjou. All of the dark mages who were starting to overwhelm Kyasurin and Matsuba in the plaza joined them in hearing the melody, calming down for a moment as their minds were taking in the sound waves of Kusabue's emotional thoughts.
Some of the mages joined her in feeling mournful for Kūkiatsu in the Wine Woods while others were crying for the mages who were harmed in the Spectral Tower, and even the top commanders who were defeated in the Gunjou Theater had people mourning them from how they followed Kusabue's thoughts of how it felt so wrong for their sense of passion to be gone. The dark magic that the goddess provided to Kusabue's leaf interestingly contained small bits of auras, these purple auras going back into some people while others would have to wait for their souls to come back.
The aura that had been surrounding the dark goddess still remained intact, however. Kusabue glanced at the aura that was now shifting to be mauve purple while feeling like the dark goddess hadn't entirely been freed from her own madness and rage. The mauve purple aura started to aggressively surge up again, meaning that the dark goddess was building up much more Darkness Magic. The presence of that type of magic being so strong caused Lucy to narrow her eyes in a stern manner, and she felt like this was only way to contain that immense amount of magical power.
"Sting, I can tell that you've still got some strength left. Throw me to that statue, and I'll punch it in the head." Lucy told her boyfriend with a serious facial expression, thinking that this was the safest option.
Lucy's request caused Sting to respond with a confident facial expression, "Well, I can promise you that I won't miss. The greatest dragon slayer in Fiore always hits his target."
Rairakku asked herself in a curious manner, keeping this thought to herself, "Wow, she managed to take down Maruberiki and she now wants to lunge at the dark goddess? These mages... Where does all their bravery come from?"
Lucy jumped into Sting's arms, before feeling him put her on to his shoulders. Sting sent White Dragon Slayer Magic into his feet, causing him to hastily run towards the statue that now had an orchid purple aura surrounding it. Sting jumped up very high, before quickly grabbing Lucy's legs and swinging her high up into the air. Lucy soared up to a high altitude to where a high amount of the Gunjou Moon's light shined down on her newest ring, and Lucy quickly came down to furiously slam her right fist down on the dark goddess' statue.
Lucy positioned her fist to where the purple ring was the one that lightly touched the surface of the statue, and she watched the aura get sucked into the ring. Lucy narrowed her eyes in a stern manner while aggressively screaming, sending her own magical power into that ring for it to absorb all of the Darkness Magic at a much faster rate. Lucy ignored the sight of her hair starting to cycle through various shades of purple, along with hereyes, and she used her new surge of power to simply make the ring follow her thought of devouring the entirety of the aura.
The seventh legendary ring started to shine in the hue of amethyst purple while the large aura quickly went into it, and Lucy watched it all get absorbed. She smiled in a pleased manner, before realizing that she was nearly balancing on one fist like she was attempting to do a handstand. She proceeded to stand on her hands for a moment, and jumping off of the large statue allowed Sting to catch her in his arms. He gently held Lucy in a bridal-style fashion, both of the mages smiling at each other as purple glitter from the final remnants of the aura came down upon Lucy in a spiraling fashion. As some of the glitter landed in her hands, the statue of the dark goddess glowed brightly in a plain purple light.
Five minutes later...
The light engulfed everyone to where the brightness of the room was overshadowed by the presence of a woman who had long and straight hair, her hair being amethyst purple as it went well with her left eye that was mauve purple. That was interestingly different from her right eye, which was Heather purple. She wore a mulberry purple orb earring on her left ear, a wine purple orb earring on her right ear, and the earrings were lowered down from her elf-like ears by plum purple chains that pierced her ears.
Those small chains went well with the woman's orchid purple dress, and she wore some royal purple flat shoes. The woman had her palms together in a praying stance while she closed her eyes, and Lucy had a curious look on her face. She wondered about the identity of this woman never seeing her before, and she looked very similar to the statue. It actually wouldn't be a mistake if Lucy thought that this woman was Kogomurasaki, the dark goddess herself who had ruled over the town of Gunjou as an empress before her death. As the mysterious woman kept her eyes closed, Rairakku kindly got her attention.
"Darkness Mother! You're Kogomurasaki, the exalted empress and sorceress of Darkness Magic!" Rairakku happily stated with a polite smile on her face.
That caused the woman to calmly explained, "Many have referred to me as the Darkness Mother. I, Kogomurasaki, did create the most potent Darkness Magic. However, no such power remains within me."
"Lucy Heartfilia, gaze down at the Amethyst Purple Ring that is now in your hand. Along with the other six jeweled rings that you wear, my ring was crafted from Zeref carving it out of my brightest fang whilst mixing it with my purple blood that strongly had the auras of my magic flowing through it. Despite having such immense power as I ruled Gunjou and blessed my citizens with their wishes for dark magic, Zeref knew that corruption and madness would eventually befall me. He warned me about waiting too long to seal away the ring, but my lust for power and a long life of selfish desires for happiness caused me to petrify myself into stone as a means of keeping the ring's power flowing through me. I wanted to eternally live under the darkness of the Gunjou Moon, my beautiful creation that has lasted as long as my duration of insanity and foolishness." Kogomurasaki thoroughly explained, having a regretful facial expression.
That explanation caused Lucy to ask with a puzzled look on her face, "How did you manage to tell me to grab the ring earlier, if you sealed yourself in your own magic and insanity?"
"Lucy Heartfilia, the moment of your forehead touching my hand allowed me to see your six previous experiences that displayed the strength of mankind. You overcame so many troubles to obtain those rings without extreme reliance on a goddess. Perhaps mages have been always been happy in life without religious blessings that would come at a price, and I simply refused to acknowledge it." Kogomurasaki responded in a proud manner, feeling bested by Lucy's willpower.
At that moment, Lucy gasped in a manner expressing realization at how the mages of Gunjou Town felt so upset and had their passion taken away. Their happiness had been gone for what seemed like quite a long time, and relying on Kogomurasaki to fulfill all of their blessings ironically made them all become more frustrated. She provided them with so much dark magic, yet all of that unrestrained power led to them emotionally destroying themselves by believing that the offerings of their souls were what she wanted.
Kogomurasaki may have gained more power from consuming their souls, but that power only drove her more and more insane. She couldn't even control Gunjou Town itself anymore, as Maruberiki was a faithful follower who let himself be manipulated into letting Minerva have a large amount of control. Minerva lusted for power, no different than Kogomurasaki herself, and they were both dead now. The spirit of the dark goddess may not have passed on to the afterlife yet, but she was dead as a mage by no longer having any magical power in her body.
All that she now had was her mark of leaving behind blessings that were filled with her feelings of madness, and even her most powerful dark mages were unable to defeat Lucy Heartfilia. Furthermore, the slight glimmer of the ring that Sting first saw had actually been Kogomurasaki slightly unbinding herself from her own seal after the defeats of the eight top commanders. Witnessing those battles from within the statue caused Kogomurasaki to look even more regretful, as she thought about how she gave Maruberiki tremendous amounts of power for him to separate magic from mages.
"Lucy Heartfilia, I entrust the Amethyst Purple Ring to you. It will allow you to utilize as many spells of Darkness Magic, and all of the magic that you absorbed from me will permit them to be in as many shades of purple as you desire. You are my strongest dark witch, even standing above powerful mages such as Maruberiki." Kogomurasaki told her in a kind manner, her eyes showing the feeling of being proud.
That caused Lucy to say to herself in a saddened manner, remembering her recent enemy, "Maruberiki..."
"It seems that you are a dark witch with a heart of kindness, Lucy Heartfilia. Therefore, please show compassion to Maruberiki and take the Mulberry Crescent Moon up to the altar for the Amethyst Purple Ring to permanently end my madness and revive a sense of peace." Kogomurasaki stated to Lucy with a nice smile on her face, smiling in her final moments as the purple light around everyone grew much brighter.
Lucy and the others were all blinded by the light for a few moments, resulting in them all shutting their eyes while the high amount of light went into the Amethyst Purple Ring. After the light went into the ring and made this room of the Tyrian Temple become dimmer again, Lucy and the other conscious mages opened their eyes to see that Kohomurasaki was gone. That prompted Lucy to look down at the amethyst purple gem of her seventh legendary ring, wondering if the dark goddess viewed the void within that ring as her afterlife.
Even if Kogomurasaki wanted to be in the afterlife, Lucy would still fulfill her final requests. She looked over at Maruberiki, who was facing the ground while his body hadn't moved at all after taking one of Lucy's most powerful attacks. Maruberiki was heavily bruised and bloodied, causing Lucy to run over to him with a concerned look on her face. She concerningly glanced down at him, before glancing up for a moment to see Miko have remnants of the recent purple light filling her eyes. She fell forward without saying a word, leaving Lucy to kneel down beside Maruberiki.
He wasn't dead, but the sound of Miko's body hitting the ground caused the artist to start hearing a similar sound in his mind. That sound was pertinent to the day where he first proved that he was an artist filled with passion for his work, but Maruberiki started to recall how he only had that optimism because of how there had been someone else loving his work. In fact, this person had been humble with a low level of dark magic. However, that never stopped them from praising Maruberiki and admiring his talent.
Maruberiki's Flashback to several years earlier...
Maruberiki quietly walked into one of the warehouses that was located in Gunjou Town's harbor, and he took notice of the concrete ground not being colored in any shade of purple. That caused him to groan in a displeased manner, thinking that his very first art studio would really need to look wonderful. He tried to furnish the place by getting an eggplant purple round table for him to place a boysenberry purple kit of boysenberry purple gouache paint on it, and other additions to this warehouses were simply some canvases that Maruberiki could use for his artwork.
Not only did some jobs from Hexing Enchantress allow him to buy the paint and the canvases, but having some neon purple furniture made the young artist calmly smile about the prospect of eventually painting great works of art in various shades of purple. Right now, he would just have to use boysenberry purple paint. Maruberiki picked up a plain purple paintbrush that had been on the round table, and his brown palette had been resting on the edge of the nearest canvas. Maruberiki grabbed the palette with his right hand, placing it close to the orchid purple painter's smock that matched his neon purple pants.
As Maruberiki was about to paint a friend's requested portrait of a spell called Neon Moonlight Flames, the gentle sound of someone else's footsteps could be heard in the warehouse. Miko ran into the warehouse with a pleasant smile on her face, her hair being tied back into two midnight purple pigtails while she wore a grape purple T-shirt with plum purple jeans that matched her orchid purple boots. She had been running with the neon purple aura of Darkness Magic surrounding her body, as that helped her carry a royal purple shelf into this warehouse.
The shelf had several paint cans that were perfectly balanced on it, and Miko felt like buying them for Maruberiki as a way of helping him with his newfound hobby of painting. He seemed to be getting devoted to the image of the spell that was in his mind, as he only motioned with his right hand to silently point to where the shelf needed to be placed in the warehouse. Miko sent some dark magic into the wooden shelf itself, levitating it upward in the moments before the aura made itself be firmly stuck to the boysenberry brick wall.
Miko told Maruberiki with a kind smile on her face, "Maruberiki-san, you're really committing yourself to your hobby. Although, painting solely for me makes you seem like a lowly freelance artist."
"I believe that I can be the best artist, and it's because that's my dream! I'll be a great artist, no matter what anyone says!" Maruberiki stated to Miko with a confident smile on his face, the feeling of happiness entering his eyes.
"Wow, that's such a wonderful dream!" Miko responded to Maruberiki with a pleased and inspired facial expression, as her cheeks slightly blushed pink.
Maruberiki smiled in a kind manner as he stayed focused on his work, and he painted a picture of a boysenberry purple flame on the canvas. He also painted the image of the flame going through the purple sky under the Gunjou Moon, perfectly adapting the image that Miko displayed to him in reality. Despite the flame not being neon purple, Maruberiki believed that this variation of the flame would inspire other people to create spells of Darkness Magic with some artistic beauty involved. In fact, Maruberiki liked how this spell was so simple and simultaneously displaying its beauty.
That only made him think about how Miko's other spell, Moonlight Spiral Wave had beauty in its supposed simplicity. Maruberiki sent his boysenberry purple Darkness Magic into the canvas by placing his hand on the paint, which had ended up drying very quickly, and Maruberiki was able to efface the current painting from the canvas. The side effect of this action was that the image on the canvas would be swallowed up by his magic, which meant that he would be able to permanently have the image of the Neon Moonlight Flames spell in his mind.
This allowed him to have a blank canvas again, and Maruberiki painted a portrait of the Moonlight Spiral Wave spell under the moonlight. The sight of the neon purple aura forming a drill around Miko under the Gunjou Moon was perfectly portrayed on the canvas, and Maruberiki's effortless ability at painting such a beautiful image caused Miko to smile with a look of amazement on her face. She felt that her friend was naturally talented while being incredibly passionate about his artwork, and she could see that he was putting postive emotions such as feelings of love into his work.
"Miko-chan, is there anything else that you want me to paint?" Maruberiki asked her with a proud smile on his face, turning around to look at her.
Miko told him in a calm manner, only viewing her suggestion as an idea, "Well, it's nothing I'd really want for myself. Maybe you could just paint your spells on to canvases, since they're always so powerful to where other dark mages fear them. People fear what they don't understand, but you can make them see the artistic beauty within your dark magic."
"That idea... is perfect, Miko-chan! In fact, these paintings on canvases will be part of my first assortment! The Dark Spells of Artistry!" Maruberiki replied with an overjoyed smile on his face, feeling extremely inspired.
Maruberiki walked away from the canvas to go towards the shelf that Miko brought into the warehouse, and he picked up the can of Heather purple paint. Maruberiki gently removed the paint can's lid, before sending the aura of his Darkness Magic into the thick paint. That caused the Heather purple paint to start shining somewhat brightly, and the paint that was on his paintbrush reacted to the thin beams of Heather purple light. The paint changed from being boysenberry purple to being Heather purple, and putting the paintbrush on the palette caused all ofthe boysenberry purple circles of paint to become Heather purple.
That was accompanied by the palette itself becoming a pearl hue of white, and Maruberiki gasped in a curious manner. Miko smiled in a happy manner at how she had gone to see Kogomurasaki in Gunjou Town's plaza for the purpose of asking her about blessing the paint that she would bring Maruberiki throughout his hobby as an artist, and Miko recalled the sight of the dark goddess sending her magic into the paint. She was so happy that Maruberiki was now seeming happy, glad that the dark goddess assisted her with helping him fulfill his dream.
Maruberiki's second flashback, one year before the Grand Magic Games of X791...
Throughout their time in Gunjou Town, Miko and Maruberiki had been thriving from the dark warlock's career as an artist. Maruberiki managed to get his own section in the art gallery of Gunjou Town's museum, earning some extra money that was added to all of the jewels that he received from taking S-Class jobs in the Hexing Enchantress guild. Maruberiki's skills at taking down giant monsters and eliminating some guild masters who led illegal guilds already made him gain a high amount of notoriety, but his beautiful artwork made him gain much more fame.
In fact, Maruberiki became famous enough to where his monetary wealth had really increased. He now had enough cash to buy himself some bookcases that would be used to hold his high quantities of art supplies such as colored pencils, and Maruberiki even purchased a wooden table that was in a plain shade of purple. This table was meant to be used for when he wanted to just write about his accomplishments in his royal purple diary, and even the most mundane achievements related to being an artist were recorded in the book.
However, that wasn't the only book in this warehouse. Maruberiki closed a drawer that had a boysenberry purple book in it, the book having the insignia of Hexing Enchantress on it, and he felt like this was the day where he could focus on the current chapters of his career instead of reminiscing about where his chain of successes truly began. Maruberiki's current inspiration was the notion that Sabertooth was the most powerful guild in the entire kingdom of Fiore, and Maruberiki viewed it to be preposterous.
From his perspective, Maruberiki felt that it went against logic to say that Sabertooth was the strongest guild when they didn't even defeat the wizards of Hexing Enchantress. If someone couldn't win battles against the most powerful dark mages, then they weren't exactly the strongest wizards in the entire kingdom. Maruberiki felt like he wanted to view the situation in artistic terms, and he felt that people who viewed Sabertooth as strong were the same people who thought that the color blue was royal and prestigious without noticing any existing shade of purple.
"These fans of Sabertooth must love the color blue, but anything blue... would look so much better in a hue of purple!" Maruberiki confidently stated with the feeling of happiness entering his eyes, glad to have found new artistic inspiration.
Miko asked him with a curious facial expression, realizing an important fact, "Maruberiki-san, how will you accomplish that without high amounts of blue paint? Would you go all the way to Seigan, a place where they allegedly love the color blue?"
"Even when I don't have the kind of paint that I want, I can improvise with this spell!" Maruberiki responded with a happy smile on his face, making his right hand form the position of holding a paintbrush.
He activated the spell known as Moonlight Lunar Orb, and Maruberiki unleashed the spell near a white rectangular kit of assorted colors of paint. Maruberiki formed the orb by combining the light of the Gunjou Moon with the blue paint that was in one of the circular indentations, and he watched some of the blue paint form the shape of the orb. The orb wasin his right hand while he held his paintbrush in his other hand, and Maruberiki walked over to the nearest canvas. He proceeded to aim the orb at the canvas, causing the blue sphere of paint to make itself drench the canvas.
Maruberiki watched the plain blue Moonlight Lunar Orb display itself on the canvas, looking so perfect as it matched the orb that he previously held in his hand. Maruberiki picked up the white palette that sat on the edge of the canvas, and he took notice of how all the paint in the palette consisted of different shades of purple while boysenberry purple was excluded from the palette. Maruberiki perceived himself as one of the most professional artists in Fiore, and he felt that there was no reason for him to humbly return to his roots of using boysenberry purple paint.
As Maruberiki coated his paintbrush in mauve purple paint and carefully painted it on the orb, he smiled with a sense of superiority about how he seemed to be above using boysenberry purple or even using plain purple paint. In his mind, being that humble would make him no better than the artists who expressed that they could never reach his extremely high level of artistry. In fact, he was even so great to where he made the concrete floor of the warehouse be painted in the mauve shade of purple with ordinary paintbrushes that could hold thick amounts of paint while sending his Darkness Magic into it.
Upon seeing the orb on the canvas now be a portrait of a plain blue orb becoming mauve purple orb, Maruberiki told Miko with a joyful smile on his face, "Miko-chan, this new painting will serve as my reference for when I paint the image of hot springs transforming into the Heatherberry Swamp! I'm successful, even with a minimal amount of paint!"
That caused Miko to reply with a kind smile on her face, "That's great, Maruberiki. You're always outdoing yourself with every assortment of exhibits for your art galleries, and everyone is so proud of you!"
"Be proud of yourself, Miko-chan. You helped me get so many tarps, shelves, and extra tables for my art supplies. Also, it's great that Hexing Enchantress recently promoted you to being a shrine maiden for the Shimizuakira Council." Maruberiki stated to her with a calm smile appearing on his face.
Miko responded with a polite facial expression, "Yes, but working under the dark goddess can be tough when she criticizes me for seeming too pure to teach myself many spells of Darkness Magic. Maybe I could appease her in the outbursts of insanity by wearing boysenberry purple earrings."
"Boysenberry is such a beautiful hue of purple!" Maruberiki impulsively stated, before looking shocked at himself like nostalgia accidentally overtook him while not minding that he accidentally gave Miko more confidence for talking to the dark goddess.
His words caused Miko to get up from the eggplant purple table for the purpose of hugging him from the front as she happily told him, "You're such a great friend! I'll always be your friend and one of your friends, Maruberiki!"
Maruberiki put the paintbrush and the palette down on the edge of the canvas, before returning the hug. He took notice of how Miko dyed her hair grape purple while tying it back in a long ponytail, her hair matching the Iris purple blouse that she wore, and Miko also wore a somewhat long midnight purple skirt that went well with her boysenberry purple flat shoes. She ended the hug for a moment to just give Maruberiki a very polite smile, which occurred in the moments before she looked slightly confused by his attire.
Maruberiki wore a studio purple tuxedo with lilac purple dress pants, and he wore some dark mauve dress shoes. Judging by this outfit, Miko giggled in an amused manner at how her best friend was already preparing himself for today's scheduled unveiling of his artwork belonging to a previous assortment of paintings. These paintings all pertained to some of his best friends in the town of Gunjou, as one of the paintings displayed Kajino performing the best dance moves in the disco genre, and there was even a painting of Rairakku thinking about her ambition in life.
He really hoped that everyone in Gunjou would continue to love his artwork, especially since Rairakku and Kajino had told him that they would bring along six of their teammates while they would be the first ones in the line of people to look at his wonderful artwork. He started to kindlylook at Miko's eyes, hoping that she would join everyone else in praising him. Maruberiki proceeded to walk out of the warehouse with Miko by his side, and they both smiled at each other in a caring manner as the moonlight shined down on them.
Back in reality, at the Tyrian Temple...
Maruberiki slowly opened his eyes to primarily see the moonlight that shined down on him in this room of the Tyrian Temple, and he wondered if the high amount of light was a sign of him now being dead. He started to feel like he rolled over on to his back, and weakly getting himself to sit up allowed the powerful warlock to see Lucy crouched down by his left side. She had a kind smile on her face, not looking like she was intent on fighting him anymore. Lucy would just let Maruberiki continue to exist in this world, even if he felt that he was an artist with no purpose in life.
Speaking of having no purpose in life, the sight of Minerva being dead on the ground and the lack of an aura around the statue of the dark goddess made Maruberiki frown in a manner that expressed his feeling of being defeated. The sound of a nearby portion of the ceiling crumbling down to hit the floor only echoed that feeling in a somewhat strident way, and Maruberiki felt like he couldn't lead a cult without Minerva or Kogomurasaki supporting him. In fact, not having a way to get more power from the dark goddess only made him start to look at Lucy in a puzzled manner after she helped him stand up beside her.
As everyone else walked towards them, Maruberiki glanced at Lucy's purple ring and told her in a remorseful manner, "Philosophically, it appears that I am the one who was wrong about everything. I have no right to proclaim myself as a hero. Lucy Heartfilia, I want to talk to you about something. Back when we first met, the magic associated with your blue ring told me something very interesting. Your magic said that it liked you. Until now, I had never heard magic say something like that."
That prompted Lucy to explain to Maruberiki with a compassionate smile on her face, "Until now, it seems like you only ever encountered wizards who used magic for harmful purposes. When it comes to using magic, people like me and my friends think about more than just power and negative emotions. From my perspective, positive emotions such as love being infused with my magic makes it be strong and beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that's my artistic philosophy."
Lucy's last sentence made Maruberiki say with a look of realization appearing on his face, "Your views on art involve love and your own tastes in beauty to support your strength. That's what seems to make you such a successful artist, even with shades of a color such as blue."
"It's not just love, Maruberiki! My ideals of self-love are important to me, and my truths of treating any type of magic like a beautiful and cherished friend are what matter! Until I found myselfon this arduous and tragic journey, I never thought to immensely love myself and my magic to the point where hurtful opinions from critics won't harm my unshakable dream!" Lucy told him with some sternness in her voice, speaking with high amounts of ambition in her eyes.
At that moment, Maruberiki started to have a slight look of understanding on his face. Lucy was boldly telling a prominent artist that she wouldn't be weighed down by anyone's harsh critiques of her spells, since she believed that beauty was in the eye of the beholder. Lucy viewed herself as the most important critic of her work, loving each type of magic like a cherished friend while all of her spells were perceived as the grandest works of art that she could display to anyone. In their recent fight, Lucy essentially displayed her own art gallery of spells to Maruberiki with unwavering confidence.
He remembered how his criticisms of her spells never stopped her from trying to win against him in this fight, and she even went so far as to remove Kogomurasaki's ring. From Maruberiki's perspective, Lucy was like an artist who confidently borrowed someone else's coated paintbrush for her own canvas to get the atmosphere of the portrait itself, and she made herself seem like a powerful goddess with all seven rings on her right hand. That act of defiance towards Kogomurasaki and her shifting purple auras made Maruberiki look at her in a slightly impressed manner, almost as if she dismissed all the varying criticisms from a goddess.
Lucy may have gone up against Darkness Magic that belonged to a more powerful mage, but she ultimately proved to Maruberiki that she was a much more talented artist than him right now. Not only could she make her magic be artistic works in several shades of blue, but having access to the seventh legendary ring meant hat Lucy could probably even utilize shades of purple that even Maruberiki hadn't encountered. She would probably go on to use them at a future point in time, and that made Maruberiki start to sigh in a somewhat humble manner.
If criticisms meant that he just had to make himself be satisfied, then Maruberiki would do that after his feelings of artistic passion were restored. He started to frown at Lucy in a somewhat respectable manner, realizing that a great artist could come from anywhere in Fiore whilst wielding any color of paint that suited them. Glancing at all the rings on Lucy's hand made him now view them with the perspective of how Lucy had to display several different colors of her spells at various points in time before getting here, and she overcame so many fierce battles to reach this point as an artist.
"Lucy Heartfilia, I have no other choice but to admit that you're the superior artist standing in this room of the Tyrian Temple. You've bested me, and I admit that." Maruberiki told her with a sense of peace entering his eyes.
She nicely stated in response, before looking up at the moonlight that still remained in the sky over Gunjou Town, "Thank you, Maruberiki. Although, I still need to ascend even higher and paint the picture of a beautiful morning sky over Gunjou."
Rairakku explained to Maruberiki with a kind smile on her face, seeing him look a bit confused by Lucy's words, "She wants to find the Mulberry Crescent Moon, which would allow her to ascend to the altar under the moon."
"There used to be a staircase in the hallway outside of this room, but even I have forgotten how to access it. All I recall from our town's lore is that the Gunjou Moon rose in the west." Maruberiki replied with a somewhat regretful frown on his face, feeling like he couldn't help Lucy get any further to her goal.
That last sentence caused Lucy and Sting to both look perplexed, since the moon rising in the west didn't seem like it would directly affect a staircase. Although, the western direction for locations didn't just seem applicable to the Gunjou Moon. There were two boysenberry purple statues of Kogomurasaki in the hallway, one being on the east side of the entrance and one being on the west side. The statue on the west side was probably the key to solving the issue of the staircase, and Lucy proceeded to walk out of this room with Sting.
The light dragon slayer smiled in a confident manner as he went into the hallway with Lucy, feeling like she was able to test out an interesting idea. Lucy made the Amethyst Purple Ring gently touch the western boysenberry purple statue, causing a thick boysenberry purple aura to make itself be heavily extracted from the statue. That aura went into the purple ring, giving it a high amount of magical power, and Sting got to see Lucy's hair become boysenberry purple. Her eyes also changed to that hue of purple, before cycling through different shades of that color.
When Lucy thought about making her spells be mulberry purple, her hands became engulfed in that aura. She wouldn't fire a spell at the statue and break it, though. Lucy proceeded to press her hands against the statue, sending the aura into the statue that wouldn't budge when she pushed against it. The statue reacted to the mulberry purple aura by becoming that hue of purple, but Lucy soon heard something within the statue start to turn like a key turning inside a keyhole to open a lock. The statue itself started to face the western direction, doing that in the same moment it suddenly became heavily engulfed by the aura.
As the statue loudly moved in its process of changing which way it faced, this entire hallway where Lucy stood with Sting began to aggressively tremble like it was experiencing an earthquake. Lucy's ability to wield Earth Magic allowed her to firmly move across the ground as if she felt nothing, and easily lifting up the heavy carpet allowed her to see the cracking floor break apart in the shape of a crescent moon. Lucy looked curious in this moment, watching a mulberry purple slab of rock perfectly come up through the hole whilst being in the shape of a crescent moon, and this was certainly the Mulberry Crescent Moon.
The high amount of Darkness Magic emanating from this large stone took the form of a mulberry purple orb, which grew to be large, and the orb rammed itself into the hallway's western wall. That caused a large mulberry purple blast to occur, its energy being powerful enough for everyone in Gunjou Town to sense it. Rairakku ran out of the other room with the remaining Sabertooth mages to see a large gaping hole in the wall, but she gasped in a surprised manner from seeing the rubble's rocks start to levitate in midair to form a slanted staircase.
Upon witnessing the Mulberry Crescent Moon floating towards the staircase, Sting jumped on to it while grabbing one of Lucy's hands. They respectively stood on the left and right sides of the moon-shaped stone that was carrying them up the staircase, and the Sabertooth mages took notice of the staircase leading to a hole where moonlight was shining in to hit the highest steps of the stairs. When the Mulberry Crescent Moon made contact with the moonlight, it absorbed a large amount of Darkness Magic and began to move faster.
The Mulberry Crescent Moon moved at high speeds to reach the top of the staircase, before going outside of the Tyrian Temple for the purpose of getting bathed in the moonlight. The Gunjou Moon's light coming down on it only prompted the Mulberry Crescent Moon to ascend upward while gaining more magical power, and it aggressively levitated up to a very high altitude. Sting glanced down for a moment, smiling confidently at how the alleged best dragon slayer in Fiore was probably soaring higher than any dragon had ever ascended in the sky.
Lucy maintained her focus of looking upward, ignoring that the Mulberry Crescent Moon passed by some mulberry purple rocks that floated in midair. Those rocks that floated in midair formed a path pertinent to the broken tower that formed on a plain purple landmass above Gunjou. The landmass that floated in the sky was small, looking like a barren island, but Lucy's eyes could see that there were some small steps that led up to a seven-story tower that had its layers in different hues of purple. However, every layer of the tower was damaged while some upper layers somehow stayed in a perfect balance with the rest of the structure.
As the Mulberry Cresent Moon slowly made itself perfectly fit in with a piece of the landmass, the sight of the Gunjou Moon being only a few feet above the tower's pinnacle made Lucy say in an amazed manner, "This must be the altar that Rairakku told us about in Kogane Town, Sting!"
"Yeah, this looks like the place for an important altar. Well, let's go get rid of the Gunjou Moon." Sting told Lucy with a calm smile on his face, before looking more confident.
"There's something up ahead!" Lucy replied to him with a happy smile on her face, running towards the small plain purple staircase.
Lucy got to see that the staircase was in front of an altar that had a midnight purple circle of stone in the center of the crescent-shaped slabs that surrounded it on both sides. There were three crescent moons on the left and right sides of the stone, all of the moons pointing to Lucy and Sting. The blond-haired dragon slayer took notice of how each crescent moon was in a different shade of purple, which seemed interesting. There was also a mulberry purple plaque below the midnight purple stone, but it had no words on it.
Instead, this plaque just had the image of the Amethyst Purple Ring being in the middle of a circle that consisted of the three moons from the right side being on the top half of the plaque while the stone in the middle and the three moons from the left side were on the bottom half of the plaque. Lucy got closer to the plaque, only to have a confused look on her face. It seemed like a clue for getting rid of the Gunjou Moon, but there were no specific directions provided. That only left Lucy with the task of closely observing the diagram, taking notice of the darkest shades of purple being above the ring while the lighter shades were below it.
That quickly gave Lucy the sense to look at the crescent moons themselves, noticing that the rightmost moon was drawn on to the top-right portion of the plaque. Lucy proceeded to absorb Darkness Magic from the dark purple crescent moon by firmly placing her right hand against that slab, and she took in a high amount of its power. After getting that surge of power, Lucy absorbed more Darkness Magic from the boysenberry purple crescent moon that was to the left of it in actuality and on the plaque.
Upon seeing Lucy take some steps towards the plum purple crescent moon and absorb its dark magic, Sting thought to himself in a calm manner, "By extracting the magic from these large stones of the altar, Lucy will get rid of the Gunjou Moon. The moon itself probably just seemed permanent after dark magic was heavily infused into these stones."
Lucy smiled in a calm manner as she absorbed Darkness Magic from the plum purple crescent moon, and she glanced over at the midnight purple stone that was in the middle of two crescent moons. Lucy started to smile softly at the midnight purple stone, viewing today as the day where it would no longer seem to always be midnight in Gunjou Town. Lucy firmly pressed her right hand against the midnight purple stone, absorbing its midnight purple aura, and she moved on to the mauve purple crescent moon.
As she placed her right hand against the slab and extracted the mauve purple aura, Lucy also felt her mind begin to have the thoughts of a dark witch. She was beginning to wonder about how her spells of Darkness Magic could contain some tricks and evil surprises to use on her opponents, and Lucy started to envision some mauve purple spells in her mind. They were soon replaced by thoughts of orchid purple spells, aligning with Lucy proceeding to extract magic from the orchid purple crescent moon.
After feelng all of that stone's power flow through her body, Lucy walked over to the last crescent moon. This crescent moon was Heather purple, the brightest shade of purple in the group, and Lucy placed her right hand on the center of it. She had a fierce look on her face while taking in all of the stone's magical power, and all of the energy went into the Amethyst Purple Ring. The seventh legendary ring began to brightly shine in all seven shades of purple with their massive auras surrounding it, and their auras propelled themselves up towards the Gunjou Moon itself. They all positioned themselves around the moon, before detonating in enormous bursts of light that changed the sky's hue of purple. The Heather purple version of the sky was followed by the Gunjou Moon becoming an Iris purple silhouette, before getting eradicated as beams of genuine sunlight started to pierce through it.
Five minutes later...
The purple auras that had gone up into the sky were now descending down on Gunjou Town in the form of meteorites, but they began to take on specific hues of purple. One aura was neon purple, and it fell down towards the Tyrian Temple. The aura was harmless, quickly going into Miko's body without any problems. She slowly regained consciousness as her skin and eyes returned to normal, and this signified that Miko's soul was back in her body. She not only regained her soul, but Miko now felt a surge of passion flow through her body.
As Miko cheerfully giggled from feeling herself have the passion to be a shrine maiden, Maruberiki slowly turned around to look at her. She took notice of his guilty and apologetic facial expression, almost like he was realizing that he made his plans with Darkness Magic spiral out of control. Maruberiki maintained the look of guilt on his face as Miko walked towards him, and he wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to hit him with a barrage of attacks. Maruberiki may have felt a boysenberry purple aura heavily return to his body, but he wouldn't act as if any hate towards him was undeserved.
He frowned at Miko, who simply gave him a very tight hug. She could sense that her friend came back, no longer being a mage with no passion. Maruberiki got to hear Miko express her feelings through loud cries that occurred alongside her tears of happiness, and her trembling body made Maruberiki feel like Miko finally reached the endpoint of an ardous journey. She was a weak dark witch who had to be escorted throughout the town of Gunjou and not get killed or severely injured, and she was truly very brave.
This only made Maruberiki frown at her in a saddened manner, stepping back for a moment as he felt that someone who had so much bravery and passion didn't deserve to be friends with a coward that hated his artwork after a few criticisms. Upon seeing Maruberiki look like he had no interest in being friendly, Miko proceeded to narrow her eyes in a stern manner. She stepped to the side as a small piece of the ceiling crumbled near her, and Miko picked up a cracked piece of the orchid purple ground. It somewhat resembled a paintbrush, and Miko placed it in Maruberiki's right hand.
"Since you aren't madly being faithful to the dark goddess, you should devote yourself to being an artist again! I've been wanting to see the beauty of your work return, Maruberiki-san!" Miko told her friend in an assertive tone of voice, frowning as she seemed like any responses of refusal would be unacceptable.
Maruberiki asked Miko with a curious look on his face, recalling his flashbacks, "Miko... You... always loved my work?"
That prompted Miko to tell him in a somewhat aggressive manner, gently placing her hands on to his palms, "Yes, Maruberiki-san! If you want to view me as your first and most prominent critic, then understand that I always loved the artistic pieces that you created with your Darkness Magic speaking so highly of you!"
The final part of her last sentence made Maruberiki gasp in a somewhat stunned manner, as he had been the only person in Gunjou who could hear different kinds of magic be able to talk. Miko was also hearing them, but she heard Maruberiki's magic speak with optimism through his artwork. Even when he was faced with criticisms, the talented artist's magic never refrained from believing in him. Maruberiki's high level of dark magic seemed to have the type of bond that involved putting his artistic skills on a high pedestal, since he had always been so confident in himself before any negative criticisms arose.
Speaking of criticisms arising, Maruberiki started to glance up at the sky with curiosity in his eyes. He had a puzzled facial expression, blinking his eyes in an intrigued manner at the Heather purple sky that had the sun's light coming down from it. From Maruberiki's perspective, the new appearance of the sky was like a modern painting in itself, something so new and beyond his understanding right now. He got to see the sunlight fill his eyes as he felt the sun's warmth in the Tyrian Temple, and the sky soon became Iris purple as more sunlight shined down on Gunjou.
As Maruberiki placed his right hand above his eyes during this brief moment of looking up at the sun, he felt his mind have surges of artistic inspiration for his next pieces of artwork. This feeling of passion caused Maruberiki's face to form a small smile of genuine happiness, causing Miko to happily smile at how her friend was getting back on the right path in life. Speaking of getting on to the right path in life, Miko glanced at Rairakku to see her skin obtaining some color as her hair looked like it was fully dyed eggplant purple and in the style of twin tails.
Rairakku asked Risa with a happy smile on her face, remembering something that the psychic mage told her in the town's plaza, "Risa, did I fight hard enough to accomplish the task of proving that my existence has meaning?"
That caused Risa to respond in a kind manner, "Yes, Rairakku! You helped me stop Minerva from killing anyone, and you contributed to making many people in Gunjou see the sun for the first time! Rairakku, you're a dark witch who turned Gunjou away from a perpetual future of darkness and violence! You accomplished something great!"
"Not only am I proud of you, but I think that mages such as Violara and Kajino would very proud to know that you're a strong ally!" Risa added with a joyful smile on her face, as she proceeded to shake hands with Rairakku.
The slight mention about Kajino made Rairakku remember that she was thinking of him when she ran through Gunjou Town at rapid speeds, and Rairakku had gone to the Heatherberry Swamp in her quest to find the Sabertooth mages who could give Tsuki a merciful death. Not only did Rairakku wear a Heather purple corset dress with a wine purple brooch above her breasts to display that she respected Violara and Tsuki, but her socks were mauve purple with black stripes. She also wore eggplant purple high heels, which went well with the eggplant purple choker around her neck.
Rairakku was trying to make herself look like a much more versatile dark mage, which was fitting for how she was skilled at modeling and scratching music disks for their tracks to flow well with Kajino's dance moves. Kajino and the others were likely having their auras of magic pass through their bodies, causing them to regain much more passion and happiness. Rairakku even wondered if Kajino would surprise his interrogators at the Magic Council's headquarters by suddenly going through nine different styles of dance with absolute flawlessness, and it seemed like everyone's sense of passion was now revived.
Although, the thought of people feeling revived in the town of Gunjou made Rairakku glance at Kusabue for a moment. She started to frown in a saddened manner, realizing that Kūkiatsu was still dead. His body wasn't destroyed by a spell that exclusively involved Darkness Magic, meaning that the Amethyst Purple Ring would not revive him. However, the sight of some winds firmly blowing down around Kusabue for the aura around her to become mint green for a moment meant that his spirit would always be with her.
Twenty minutes later, in Gunjou Town...
Kusabue and all the other mages who left the Tyrian Temple felt gentle winds blowing throughout the town of Gunjou, due to the auras moving at such swift speeds to where they left behind large breezes through the wind. However, the winds weren't just carrying different purple auras of dark magic. As Kusabue quickly ran towards the plaza with Risa by her side, she heard the woman near the town's harbor joyfully singing a hymn pertinent to Gunjou Town's dark goddess. The sound of the woman's cheerful and passionate singing was carried by the winds, even the ones that curved to blow behind her.
The winds that blew behind her went into the wind currents that gently blew through the northern part of Gunjou Town, and the sound of the woman's joyful singing prompted the teenager who beatboxed to start beatboxing in tune with her singing. The woman who stood near the harbor started to smile in a happy manner as she sang in a peaceful tone, hearing someone on the other end of the town make several musical beats accompany her singing. However, she would soon have another person joining in on this hymn of peace.
The woman with light mauve and short hair began to play her leaf whistle in an energetic manner, sounding very happy. The sound of the leaf whistle from the western side of Gunjou Town prompted the female guitarist on Gunjou's eastern side to take notice of the three people who were harmonizing right now, and she proceeded to play her guitar in tune with their music. The sound of the guitar being strummed on the east side of Gunjou caused Kusabue to dance around in a happy manner, hearing the four mages beautifully play the song in harmony.
The song's peaceful nature seemed to make many of the other dark mages feel calm enough to just happily live their lives, and everyone in Gunjou seemed to have their passion back. Of course, some mages such as Kyasurin and Matsuba still retained their passions for doing their jobs in the Magic Council and they walked past Risa and Kusabue. The two females watched the dark mages walk past the other Sabertooth mages without saying a word, and they both stood in front of Maruberiki. He watched Kyasurin and Matsuba respectively pull out lavender purple and Sangria purple wallets, the wizards opening them up to reveal their identities as mages working for the Magic Council.
"Ara, ara. Maruberiki Ōkami, you're under arrest for building up an army of dark wizards for the purpose of maliciously separating magic from wizards by any means necessary. Your crime resulted in so much destruction, and Minerva Orland will also be arrested for being the dark witch who had a high position in this chaos caused by Hexing Enchantres." Kyasurin told him with a sadistic smile appearing on her face, before lightly tap dancing.
That prompted Maruberiki to say with a calm facial expression, "My accomplice Minerva is now dead, but you can go ahead and arrest me. Gunjou Town's different areas were like my canvases for painting images of chaos in varying hues of people, so an artist such as myself can't defend those objective pictures that you've seen."
After putting Maruberiki's hands behind his back and locking them with dark purple stone handcuffs to seal away his magic, Matsuba told Maruberiki with a disturbingly happy grin on his face, "I'm sensing that you just lost a painful fight, but it's a shame I didn't get to see the moments where you were bleeding on the ground!"
As Matsuba started walking towards the central gate with Maruberiki beside him, Kyasurin told Lucy with a dark facial expression that involved malice in her eyes, "Lucy-chan, I see that you have that purple ring now. Although, you better stay as quiet as a dead woman around Sorcerer Magazine and just let us actual assassins have all the credit for restoring Gunjou to being a decent place for tourism again."
Before Lucy could even say anything, Kyasurin simply put a finger to the green-haired girl's lips and gently whispered a shushing sound to silence her. From the perspective of Kyasurin, it would be very beneficial for no one outside of this guild war to find out that Kyasurin and Matsuba would fabricate a news story detailing how they saved the residents of Gunjou from the wrath of Hexing Enchantress. Not only would they claim that the guild was going to be dismantled, but this fake news report would allow Kyasurin and Matsuba to keep their jobs of espionage and assassination.
After all, they would probably be fired from the Magic Council if they allowed Lucy Heartfilia and the other protagonists to essentially say that Sabertooth did all the hard work on this mission. There was also the matter of how Miko Goetia never sent Sabertooth a flyer regarding her mission of being escorted through the Witch's Forest and Gunjou Town, which would mean that Sabertooth went against the Magic Council's rules by unofficially handling a mission. Kyasurin continued to smile at Lucy in a dark and threatening manner, thinking that they had cut her enough slack in regards to her quests for the legendary rings.
There was also the possibility of someone snatching up all seven legendary rings when Lucy least expected it, and Kyasurin felt that this was the best way for one of the most popular legal guilds to quietly have a strong mage wielding Darkness Magic without dealing with swarms of thieves showing up for fights. Kyasurin giggled in a rude manner at the thought of telling Sorcerer Magazine that Sabertooth's mages only came along to clean up a minimal amount of trash by killing some of the weakest mages. However, her giggling was interrupted by Maruberiki loudly clearing his throat to get everyone's attention.
"Dark mages of Hexing Enchantress, I have one final order as your guild master! Help Rairakku and the other top commanders genuinely tell the truth about what happened in Gunjou Town! Join Kusabue in telling the story of what happened in the Wine Woods! Even tales are art!" Maruberiki stated in a commanding tone, looking serious as he glanced at several dark mages in the plaza.
Maruberiki told Kyasurin in a kind manner, before sternly talking to Rairakku, "Please release all of the top commanders who were arrested, as they were all just meager people following myself and Minerva. Rairakku, do whatever you want with the Hexing Enchantress guild and its dark mages. You're in charge."
Rairakku asked Maruberiki with a miffed look on her face, "Maruberiki, you want me to be in charge and spread the word about Lucy Heartfilia having the purple ring?"
Maruberiki explained to Rairakku while sternly froening, before nicely smiling at Lucy, "It's better for everyone to know that Lucy Heartfilia saved Gunjou Town from forever being a dark and vicious place. Rairakku, I never want to see anyone manipulated into obsessively devoting themselves to a dark goddess and lose their passion again. Don't let Tsuki and Ayame die in vain. Not dying in vain also applies to you, Lucy!
Maruberiki continued speaking to Lucy, recalling their philosophical argument as he faintly sensed her Darkness Magic, "Lucy, you told me that you're confident that you can make your dream come true! Your magic certainly helped you speak truths, and your artistic ideals will allow you to paint more glorious images of victory for yourself! Lucy, your new magic is even telling me that you now have thoughts of the doorway your final major battle. Therefore, make your dream become a reality."
As Lucy nodded and watched Maruberiki walk away, she started to have a look of realization on her face. She still had the boysenberry purple manual of spells in the right pocket of her ocean blue jeans, and she ran up to Matsuba for the purpose of handing it to him. To the surprise of Matsuba and Lucy, Maruberiki shook his head in a refusing manner. Even though he created The Dark Spells of Artistry, Maruberiki felt that all of its blank pages needed to be filled in by an artist who was far superior to him.
He would gladly leave his first manual and the royal purple diary with Lucy, believing that she could get much stronger with dark magic from where his younger self left off. From Maruberiki's perspective, this was like his way of passing on his paintbrush and palette of purple paints to Lucy for her to create a new set of spells pertinent to Darkness Magic. Maruberiki even felt that they would surpass his own spells in power and creativity, especially since she would probably have to use them in the most crucial battle of her life.
As Maruberiki and Matsuba walked towards the central gate that was open, Lucy glanced down at the Amethyst Purple Ring/ By having this ring, she could probably go fight Kotomi after spending some time training with Darkness Magic. The thought of that thief caused Lucy to sternly narrow her eyes down at the ring while Kyasurin walked past her, and Lucy wondered what everyone in Fiore would say after she viciously took down Kotomi Takeuchi. That would certainly be an amazing story to tell, but Lucy looked back at her friends and smiled nicely at how she would have her friends standing by her side.
20 minutes later, at the central gate...
Lucy and the other Sabertooth mages stood on the side of the central gate that led out of Gunjou Town while Rairakku stood on the other side of it with Miko, Mauveria, and Violara. Violara's skin was now fair while she had Heather purple eyes, and she wore a Heather purple short dress with some dark purple high-heeled shoes to match. She had a genuine smile of happiness on her face, being glad that her soul was returned to her body. Violara now had more of a passion for life, and she would conduct more studies on the various poisons involved with Darkness Magic.
The sight of so much smoke generated by Rairakku in the Heatherberry Swamp had actually gotten Violara's attention, as she could sense that Rairakku made that eggplant purple smoke extend for multiple miles. That level of smog seemed to intrigue Violara, but she had been busy with wanting to see if Risa could become very strong. Hearing that Risa helped Rairakku deliver the finishing blow to kill Minerva caused Violara to smile, as she never liked that woman very much. Still, she felt impressed that Rairakku took on such a strong woman with no hesitation.
That only made Violara perceive Rairakku as someone who deserved to be given the title of guild master by Maruberiki, as she was brave enough to fight maliciously when it was necessary. On top of that, hearing the accomplishment of Rairakku using the Heather's Hex spell in such a smart manner made Violara feel glad that the gothic mage fought like a true dark witch who could use devious tricks to her advantage. Rairakku's skills also impressed Mauveria, who had sensed the high amounts of magical power that Rairakku used when fighting alongside Kajino in the nightclub.
Rairakku's past interactions with Kajino started to make her happily chuckle at the current circumstances, since he would probably have to get her some discs containing certain songs of music when she'd be busy with paperwork in the guildmaster's office. That would certainly be a nice little way of reversing their roles, but Kajino would be allowed to hold dance battles in the guild when Rairakku was busy with her hobbies of modeling or being a disc jockey. Rairakku even wanted to hold a celebratory party tonight for all of the dark mages working together to rebuild Gunjou, but the thought of getting music from the nightclub made her made her smile at Risa in a grateful manner.
"Risa Ryusei, I'm really glad that you helped me become a much better person. Thanks to you, I'll be the type of guild master who can do things to please myself instead of needing to just gain the admiration of others to be happy. Also, I'll only use my vicious tendencies to discipline disrespectful people who try to push me around." Rairakku told Risa with a thankful smile on her face, as she stretched out her left hand for a handshake.
Upon shaking Rairakku's hand, Risa responded with a friendly look in her eyes, "That's great, Rairakku! You're definitely putting yourself on a great path by learning from me, and you no longer seem lost without a mentor. Honestly, I think we were two sides of the same coin."
"In terms of two-sided coins, that reminds me. I'll probably have to promote Hatankyō and Yūrei to be S-Class mages. Hatankyō will probably be training so hard under the night's moonlight to try and reach your level of power, Lucy. Yūrei's gonna be boosting his confidence to try and match Sting in terms of power, too." Rairakku told Lucy with a nice smile on her face, having heard about that fight's details from Lucy on the trip out of the Tyrian Temple.
As Lucy smiled proudly at how the wizards of Gunjou Town were all going to become better people, she felt that this adventure also made her become a much better person. She learned the importance of being very strategic in how teams were organized, since sending the group's two weakest mages off by themselves hadn't been the best idea, and learning how to be more creative and more mature than her enemies was something that made Lucy feel like she was mentally growing as a person.
Power and physical strength weren't the only components that decided who would emerge victorious in battle, and being a morally good mage who had an unyielding sense of determination to win was just as important. Lucy started to smile in a determined manner as she looked down at the Amethyst Purple Ring, and Lucy intended to learn several necessary spells of dark magic without letting herself be consumed by any evil desires. There were several beautiful shades of purple pertaining to different assortments of spells, which made Lucy feel like a sorceress who needed to train in the Wisteria Wasteland.
Not only was the Wisteria Wasteland a place with an intense amount of Darkness Magic, but Mauveria also resided there. The woman who had fair skin and mauve purple eyes currently wore a light purple sundress with dark mauve purple flat shoes to match, and Lucy hoped that the powerful witch would let her use the wasteland for training. It seemed like a much better option than training in the Tyrian Temple, which would probably crumble down into pieces if any of Lucy's spells tore down any of the walls.
"Mauveria, may you please you allow me to use all of my new spells of Darkness Magic in the Wisteria Wasteland?" Lucy asked with a curious look on her face, almost sounding like she wanted to be trained by a dark witch.
That caused Mauveria to tell Lucy with feelings of sadism appearing in her eyes, "Yes, Lucy. However, expect me to train you in the same way that I train my dark witches. In fact, giving up my entire soul to become a husk and getting it back only makes me realize that I'll need to push you to where you feel drained and dead."
Rairakku interrupted for a moment, looking at Mauveria in a stoic manner, "Speaking of the dead, we should put gravestones in the plaza for Ayame and Tsuki. Not only would that be a nice gesture, but you need to make Lucy feel the power of a mage who fully has passion in her vicious attacks."
Mauveria politely nodded in an understanding manner, and she gave Lucy a serious glare as if their training session would involve Mauveria striking Lucy with spells that were designed to kill her opponents. There were some spells in Mauveria's arsenal that wouldn't be utilized for quick assassinations, since Darkness Magic could also psychologically damage opponents by putting them under harmful illusory spells. There were also enhancement hexes that came with aftereffects pertinent to dark magic, and Mauveria felt like Lucy would be a quick learner.
She watched the Amethyst Purple Ring faintly shine in different hues of purple, seeing its lights cycle through seven different shades, and that faint amount of brightness came from Lucy's thoughts that were slightly dark. Based on the lore of Gunjou Town, Mauveria assumed that the noble mage gained some dark thoughts from takin all the magic of the altar's moons. If that was the case, then Mauveria felt that Lucy would just need to really tap into her vengeful thoughts relating to why she sought out the seven rings.
As Lucy turned around to walk away with her friends, Mauveria and Rairakku both caught a glimpse of Lucy's eyes becoming plain purple for only a small moment. She seemed to mostly be refraining herself from discussing the fact that she was now eager to get to the final battle involving the legendary rings, almost like some feelings in Lucy's heart were welling up to where her magic wanted to be the speaker right now. Lucy certainly had unfinished business with a certain girl who had blonde hair and cocoa brown eyes, but taking care of that problem would require her to have as much magic as possible.
How was Chapter 71? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy defeated Maruberiki, obtaining the seventh legendary ring in the process! However, this Amethyst Purple Ring will require Lucy to create her own spells of Darkness Magic like a true artist! It may break the formula of Lucy getting different books on magic, but Lucy herself broke the formula by asking Mauveria for help. Lucy won't be fighting her in an intense rematch, but this training will be important! Also, the other characters will have their own things to do in the post-Mauve Darkness Arc! Speaking of the Mauve Darkness Arc, this is its fourteenth and final chapter! I'll update soon. :)
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