Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 57: Finding The Purple Ring's Location! Intense Training & Team Natsu's Tragedy! The Magic Council & The Routes To Gunjou!
The following day, Sting was in the guild master's office with Lector, Rogue, and Frosch. They were all now looking at a gold folder that contained a list of dark guilds, wanting to see the one that Minerva was in. Sting wasn't intending on rescuing Minerva, as she had seen the Sabertooth mages in Seigan Town without trying to make them take her back into a legal guild, and he felt that she wasn't interested in returning. That made Sting narrow his blue eyes for a moment, perceiving Minerva as a strong enemy, and he wondered if she would be involved with guarding the final legendary ring.
That was only contingent on if Minerva's guild was connected to the legendary ring, however. Sting glanced down at the list of dark guilds, noticing that he was looking in the section of the list for guilds that were at the same skill level as Cerulean Frost. Although, Kūkiatsu had informed him that Minerva's guild mark was a design of six eerie-looking flames in a circle while they surrounded a seductive-looking eye. That prompted Sting to shift his attention to the last category of dark guilds on the list, since they were only slightly weaker than Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartaros.
When Sting attentively looked at the roster of guild insignias in this specific category, he confidently smiled from seeing Minerva's specific guild insignia. It belonged to a guild known as Hexing Enchantress, which only had its description claiming that the violet sky and amethyst moon were displaying the beauty of dark magic and enchantresses. Sting felt that this town differed from Kyoko's views on beauty that involved the kinds of Psychic Magic being allowed in Parmanie, since the mages of Hexing Enchantress weren't discriminating against a category of their magic that was in a specific shade.
Although, the difference in philosophies also came with the difference of the fact that the wizards of Hexing Enchantress wouldn't reveal which town they were in. That wasn't listed for them, unlike Cerulean Frost. Although, Sting recalled yesterday's situation of seeing a purple sky in the book that Sorano retrieved from Sabertooth's library. That was associated with the empress named Kogomurasaki, being connected to the town where she resided before disappearing. Therefore, Sting began to grin with more confidence in his eyes from believing that there was now a strong possibility of where the final legendary ring was being kept.
"Rogue, don't hexes and enchantresses make you think about Darkness Magic?" Sting calmly asked his friend, having no feelings of doubt on his face.
Rogue replied with hardly any emotion in his voice, seeing a portion of Sting's logic, "That makes sense. Although, we still need to find the town's exact location."
Lector commented in a calm manner, agreeing with Sting's question, "Sting-kun is right, so we should check the towns that specialize in Darkness Magic."
As Sting gave Lector a high-five and grabbed a nearby book on Fiore's different towns, Rogue felt somewhat worried about the situation. Despite the fact that Risa could use dark magenta Psychic Magic, that didn't seem the same as Darkness Magic itself. The dark magic pertinent to the mages guarding the ring would presumably be flames and hexes that were in shades of violet, along with magic staves possibly being involved for casting curses and malicious kinds of spells, and Rogue hoped that wizards such as Lucy and Kusabue would be equipped for handling those situations.
Since Lucy would wield Ice Magic in conjunction with her Water Magic, Rogue thought that she could just freeze magic staves and quickly break their glass orbs by making them cold enough to where any scalding hot water would make the glass shatter from rapidly experiencing a change in its temperature. As for countering curses, Rogue started to look a bit worried from how curses themselves seemed very diverse. It would be possible to essentially curse water by making it very unsafe to drink, but cursing ice to make it slippery or become soft like ice cream wouldn't majorly help an enemy in any way.
Any hexes that made Kusabue famished enough to eat plants that would get her drunk could also be counterproductive to enemies, as they would only end up being confused as to why the young girl became more aggressive and hyperactive after being hexed. Of course, this meant that Rogue's teammates were going to be capable of winning in the specific situation where they could all easily counter specific hexes. However, Rogue felt that fate would never be that kind to the protagonists.
"If Risa had some kind of psychic spell that could minimize the effects of hexes, then that would be good. Even if dark magenta magic turns out to be weaker than Darkness Magic, at least we'd be able to endure it." Rogue thought to himself in a calm tone, wishing that he could blindside a dark mage who wanted to make the Sabertooth mages more susceptible to pain.
Rogue continued thinking to himself, as he glanced at a pink book that was on a nearby stack of them, "Then again, we could try to make the best outcome emerge from this situation where we may be at a disadvantage."
He proceeded to pick up one of the books that Sting asked him to retrieve from Sabertooth's library, and this book was focusing on Psychic Magic. Rogue felt that he wouldn't personally need to read this book, but he flipped through several of the pages until he found an interesting spell. It was called Wondrous Psychic Screen, the same spell that Miru Itsuki wielded as one of her signature moves, and this spell created shields that reduced the amount of damage that she and Shizue received from any attacks.
However, that wasn't the spell Rogue was searching for. He wanted to help Risa have a more advanced version of Miru's spell, as he thought that learning from an enemy was the best way for someone to improve their skills. If Risa had more kinds of shields in her arsenal, then that would likely push enemies such as enchantresses into using up their magical power for their strongest attacks that could be impeded by the shields. That would allow Risa to strike those enemies, and Rogue began to softly smile at that strategy.
He would need to tell her about this strategy later, since Risa had come to the guild earlier for the purpose of leaving him a note on the request board that informed everyone of how she would be out training in the underground caverns of Seigan Town for a while. That made Rogue wonder if Risa realized that all of the team members would need to become stronger, especially since the fashion sale in Seigan was yesterday. Since Risa was willingly going to be in a place without tourism or a sale like how she had done during the team's five-month training period, she was definitely going to be serious about being a strong ally for Lucy.
Meanwhile, in Seigan Town's icy underground caverns...
Risa went to the underground caverns of Seigan Town, being in the area where she was a few steps away from the thick sheet of ice that Kusabue and Sherria encountered at a previous time. She felt that training in a quiet and desolate place would allow her to use new and powerful spells of Psychic Magic without harming anyone, and Risa also adopted Lucy's method of training by having one of Sara's magenta pink spell books in her left hand. The book was opened up to one of its last chapters, which contained spells that absolutely needed to be used in dire situations.
The battles that the Sabertooth mages would encounter in the next grand adventure were possibly going to be dire situations, prompting the mage with light pink hair to make it become magenta. Risa's eyes began to match her hair color, but she wasted no time with summoning all her feelings of rage towards Suzuna. That allowed her hair to become dark magenta while also making the magenta aura around her body become that color, and Risa unleashed a new spell. It was known as Mystical Psychic Screen, and this spell made the aura surround Risa's hands.
She dropped the book for a moment, before quickly and firmly lowering her hands as if she was putting up a shield. Risa ended up creating a dark magenta shield that was in front of her, seeing it be a dark magenta rectangle before the shield expanded to become a dome. Risa fired an Esper Ball from within the dome, seeing it go outward before she used Stellar Psi to pull it backwards. When the sphere outside the dome ended up striking the shield, it ended up bursting into several dark magenta beams that went outward. They ended up striking random parts of the icy floor and icy walls, creating several dark magenta blasts that were large, and this spell made the air be filled with the pink aura of Psychic Magic.
The pink aura of Psychic Magic would be crucial for Risa's next spell, which was called Zen Magenta Psi Distortion. Risa made a dark magenta pink aura engulf her body, before spinning around at fast speeds, and she ended up creating a dark magenta dome of the aura. That was followed up by stretching out her hands in the same moment where she activated Stellar Psi, and Risa made her hands be aimed in opposite directions. She unleashed the spell called Magenta's Psychic Glittering Dark Flares, and Risa focused her magic into her hands. She fired rings of dark magenta flames from them, seeing the fire go out of the dome, and Risa noticed that the pink aura formed small rings around the flames.
"What's going on?!" Risa asked aloud with a curious facial expression, as the flames began to combust.
Risa continued speaking, looking amazed as her tone of voice became calmer, "All of the Psychic Magic... is starting to be distorted."
The flames themselves created explosions that resulted in larger flames bending towards the left and towards the right, before they started to circle around Risa and the dome in a somewhat peaceful manner. The flames that resulted from the explosion shifted between being in a regular shade of pink and being dark magenta, before the energy from the rotating flames made them be distorted. They were bending in abnormal ways while oddly growing larger from all the Psychic Magic in the air, but the flames ended up bursting into large blasts that shifted from the regular hue of pink to faintly be bubblegum pink before they were in a dark hue of magenta.
This process only created more flames and waves of psychic energy, but Risa picked up the spell book and activated a new spell called Dark Magenta Extrasensory Psyche Delusion. This spell caused Risa to make her magenta eyes glowed brightly, and the Psychic Magic was infused into her eyes. Risa glanced down at the book, which had turned to this page because of the shifting winds from all of the explosions. The instructions only wanted Risa to use her imagination, though, and she rolled her eyes in a somewhat annoyed manner at how the instructions were not very clear.
She decided to imagine the flames around the dome moving at warp speed, which caused Risa to express disbelief at how the flames began to rapidly move at that level of speed. Risa couldn't even see the flames clearly, since they were moving incredibly fast. Risa imagined the flames slowing down to be as slow as snow falling from the sky during the wintertime, and the flames shifted to where they moved at that slow speed. This effect made Risa blink her eyes for a moment, and imagining the flames shifting between multiple shades of pink made them be obedient to Risa's imagination.
"This spell corresponds to what I'm imagining, which means that it can extend to making spells of Psychic Magic seem stronger or even seem at the level of obliterating an enemy's spells." Risa theorized aloud with a confident smile on her face, thinking that she could confound her opponents with mind games.
Risa assumed that there would be drawbacks for using a seemingly powerful spell, however. She ceased with using it, allowing her eyes to no longer glow, and the pink aura that filled the air began to disappear. Risa attempted to use the spell again, but she was surprised to see nothing happen. Risa waited around for a few moments, only to see the spell fail to work, and she wondered if Mystical Psychic Screen was a spell that needed to be used first for other spells to be usable at a later point in a fight.
That prompted Risa to activate Mystical Psychic Screen again, and she watched the spell replace the dark magenta aura with the dark magenta dome of Psychic Magic. She turned a few pages to the right, and Risa smirked in a confident manner from seeing a spell called Magenta Psychic Mind Rift. Risa shot out a dark magenta beam of Psychic Magic, from in between her palms, and firing it through the shield caused the attack to become a dark magenta orb that floated in midair. Risa felt herself be restricted into using that attack, as she could only fire another beam from her palms.
It struck the orb, causing it to shine in a dark hue of fuchsia. That color alternated with dark magenta, before Risa shot out a third beam. The dark magenta beam caused the orb to be in a darker shade of bubblegum pink, before the orb alternated between those three colors, and it immediately exploded to make several beams of Psychic Magic in those shades of pink burst outward. They all ended up striking the dome, before surprisingly shrinking as their auras grew larger. All of the beams bounced off of the psychic shield in curved trajectories while they created massive blasts in different hues of pink, demonstrating that the smallest attack could majorly deceive an enemy;s mind. Although, Risa sheepishly laughed a bit from thinking that no one would be tricked into ignoring all of the craters and destruction that occurred in Seigan Town's icy caverns. As Risa hoped that she and Rogue could be strong allies for Sting and Lucy, she wondered if Lucy's training was going well.
Meanwhile, in the tundra...
Lucy was training out in the icy tundra that was close to Seigan, and she was wielding Yukishimou's book of spells in the place where Suzuna gave the group some prior training that would help them become stronger. This specific place made Lucy feel like she could unleash her spells of Water Magic without any drawbacks, and she activated a spell called Aquatic Admiral Blue Rotation. Lucy aimed her left hand down at the dark blue water that was surrounded by some dense ice, and moving her hand around in a clockwise direction at rapid speeds made the water spin in the same direction with a high amount of speed.
The water immediately had a large twister of dark blue water come out of the sea, before it became admiral blue, and Lucy felt that she needed to aim her left hand at the projectile. She watched the rotating water have admiral blue bubbles emerging from the top of it, and this caused Lucy to make a sapphire blue aura surround her body. Aiming her left hand at the attack allowed Lucy to make the admiral blue bubbles quickly float towards her, almost like she was a magnet that attracted the bubbles, but curiously making her right hand go in the counterclockwise direction made the bubbles all come together. They formed a ring that went back to the twister, before some of them broke off to form smaller groups of rings, and the twister was now looking like a five-ringed twister. Although, it became sapphire blue and allowed the bubbles to also have that color.
Lucy's spell was now strong enough to where she tightly clenched her fists, resulting in all the water taking the form of sapphire blue beams that rained down upon the watery part of the tundra. Some of them struck the ice, resulting in admiral blue blasts that became sapphire blue at the last moment, but the ones that landed in the water doubled in size and power before detonating. Although, all the projectiles made a large amount of sapphire blue frost emerge up from the water. Lucy let herself become enveloped in the frost, sensing that she was only imagining the feeling of being extremely cold whilst her body didn't even slightly shiver. Lucy began to softly smile at how the water and ice no longer felt cold to her at all, almost like she spent her entire life living in a town with the coldest blizzards near a frigidly cold sea.
She decided to pick up the spell book, before turning to the page where the sixth chapter of book began. This chapter of the book featured spells of Water Magic that were useful in close combat, and Lucy turned to the next page. She was now looking at a spell called Sapphire Wave Slash, and Lucy made the sapphire blue aura heavily surround her hands. She dropped the book on to the ice behind her, before aggressively putting her hands into the cold water. After a few seconds, Lucy felt some sapphire blue bubbles slowly emerge from her hands. They were stuck to her palms, before Lucy crushed them in her fists. She removed her hands from the water, only to see her hands be transformed into large claws that were made from sapphire blue water.
"What am I supposed to do now? Is Yukishimou wanting me to slash at the ice?" Lucy asked aloud with a curious look on her face, as she saw the Sapphire Blue Ring begin to pulsate in its respective color.
Lucy stated in a startled manner, her eyes looking concerned as Yukishimou seemed to make her right hand be raised high into the air, "Although, I guess I'm about to find out why she's happy with me using this spell!"
She followed along with Yukishimou's nonverbal instructions, and Lucy fiercely slammed her right claw down against the water. She watched large ripples of water quickly go towards the ice, before the frigid ice in the tundra started to break apart. The roaring water had sapphire blue waves rising up from it while the waves were almost as large as tsunamis, and seeing the waves crash into different chunks of ice that were falling only made Lucy feel very curious. She watched the light blue ice become sapphire blue while detonating, ignoring that every piece of ice being touched made the aura and her claws shine with sapphire blue beams of light. Lucy worriedly slashed at a piece of ice that was about to hit her, but slashing the ice caused a sapphire blue blast to occur!
The blast resulted in the water roaring more than before while the shattering ice created a massive amount of frost, and the frost itself went on to Lucy's claws. She jumped up high and quickly slashed at the ice that was falling in midair, seeing them explode from being struck by the watery claws. The sapphire blue chunks of ice all broke apart to engulf Lucy in a thick cloud of frost, and she inhaled all of it. That made the sapphire blue aura around her body become light blue for a moment, and Lucy felt herself have more strength. She also felt her body become dense like iron again, too.
However, this spell wore off after only thirty seconds. Therefore, Lucy felt that she would have to intensely train with this attack for her to use it in a long battle. Lucy moved on to her seventh spell, picking up the book and turning the pages to see that it needed to be a spell called Yukishimou's Sapphire Blue Bouquet. Lucy placed the book on the ice, before putting her hands in the position of holding a bouquet of flowers, and a sapphire blue aura engulfed her hands. Several sapphire blue bubbles emerged from the water while the water inside the bubbles formed small roses that were about to bloom, and the bubbles formed a makeshift bouquet in between Lucy's hands. After six seconds, the roses bloomed to shoot out many miniature sapphire blue bubbles. They all descended down on to the ice, but some of them lightly rolled away and bounced up from touching the water. They still fell into it, and those bubbles aggressively sprang up while sparkling. They were different from the bubbles that hit the ice, since those bubbles on the ice glowed brightly before sinking down into the ice as if it absorbed them.
"What happens now?" Lucy wondered aloud with a curious look on her face, as she saw the ice and water become sapphire blue.
The sparkly bubbles quickly came down from the sky to create sapphire blue blasts that were massive, gaining more power as they struck the water and ice that had become denser. The dense ice was broken apart, before exploding in the sapphire hue of blue, and even mild splashes of water made the damaged chunks of ice explode. Lucy could use this spell to attack enemies who would try to swim away from her, and making the aura-covered ground be denser made the bubbles be attracted to attacking those specific areas. Although, putting her left hand into the water made Lucy's hand feel like it was becoming engulfed in tempered steel.
She looked amazed by the spell's effect on herself, prompting her to drop the book and repeatedly put both of her hands in the water. She felt them become very dense while the spell's aftereffect made them look like sapphire blue metal, and Lucy playfully threw some punches that made spirals of light blue frost go through the air. This meant that Lucy could unleash dense punches, as well as use their coldness to potentially freeze her enemies. This made Lucy feel delighted enough to pick up the spell book again, and she activated her final spell of Water Magic.
Lucy went to one of the last pages in the book, and she smiled softly at the image of the spell. The spell was called Coastal Cerulean Sapphire Whirlpool, and it required Lucy to place her hands into the water. Lucy followed those instructions, before moving her hands around in a circular motion underwater. The sapphire blue aura surrounding her hands only grew larger, along with it making Lucy move her hands at a much more rapid pace. That led to Lucy unintentionally putting more power into the spell, resulting in eight large twisters of sapphire blue water appearing underwater. They had cerulean blue spheres of water forming on top of them, and the twisters started to rapidly circle around the ocean floor in the counterclockwise direction. They quickly created a whirlpool, which started to suck in all the ice and the water. The intense force of the whirlpool smashed through the ice that Lucy stood on, resulting in her having to surf around the large whirlpool on a slab of ice.
"What's going on?!" Lucy asked aloud to herself with a shocked facial expression, hearing loud explosions occur underwater as tsunamis of water came bursting up like sea bombs.
Underneath Lucy and the giant whirlpool, the large chunks of ice that sank down towards the large twisters were caught in the circular jet stream of water that they created. When the ice chunks made the slightest amount of contact with any of the orbs, the ice chunks exploded in sapphire blue blasts while the orbs shifted to being cerulean blue. The resounding waves of the blasts made massive cerulean blue tsunamis of water emerge from below, prompting Lucy to surf on them as a way of riding the constantly-shifting waves of water, and Lucy ended up rapidly going up a wave after another explosion gave more power to the twister that corresponded to the tsunami that Lucy was on. The tsunami became cobalt blue, the same color that the orbs now had, and it grew larger at the same time that Lucy was propelled into the air.
She lost the slab of ice that had been beneath her feet, and Lucy saw it shatter like glass upon hitting the water. The water was now very dense, almost like every tsunami or part of the whirlpool was a solid floor, and all of the tsunamis grew larger as more explosions occurred underwater. Lucy aimed her hands down at the water, thinking that would make the twisters rise up from the sea. However, that only made the orbs push themselves down on to the twisters. The orbs were propelled upward at high speeds, and Lucy watched them go into the clouds for the purpose of turning them cobalt blue. When they roared like thunderclouds, the twisters from below fired themselves upwards in the form of several spiraling beams that shifted between being sapphire blue. cobalt blue, and cerulean blue.
Some of the cold and blue beams went upward to strike some of the clouds, resulting in blasts that were in the three aforementioned hues of blue, and the aftereffect made large downpours of rain occur over the tundra. Lucy was somewhat hindered by the rain, seeing blasts occur in midair to create more clouds of chilly frost, and each of the beams that struck her body made the sapphire blue aura grow larger cycle through sapphire, cobalt, and cerulean shades of blue. Despite Lucy smiling at how she felt her body become much more tempered and durable, the immense amount of bulk that she felt in her muscles weighed her down to where she fell out of the sky like a sphere of platinum metal making its descent through the air. Lucy fell down towards the water, which ceased with being an aggressive whirlpool while the tsunamis crashing into each other as a way of slamming down on any opponents in the sea, and Lucy saw Yukishimou's waterproof book sink down into the water. Lucy's scream was faint as she crashed down into the water during this immense rainstorm, however, and she made an enormous splash that drenched some ice floes.
"I... I can breathe?" Lucy thought to herself, looking shocked as her orange eyes expressed disbelief.
She was able to breathe, due to this spell having the secondary effect of protecting the wielder's life if they were underwater. Lucy watched her hair stay in its ponytail on the right side of her head, noticing that her blue scrunchie was unaffected by the water, and her light blue midriff and ocean blue leather skirt were also unaffected. She swam down to a deeper part of the sea for a moment while her lapis blue high-heeled shoes were unaffected, and Lucy managed to get the spell book. The entire book was heavily coated in the three auras, allowing the pages to be dry without any signs of damage.
Lucy turned to the first section in the book, and the increased amount of light from Yukishimou's pulsating Sapphire Blue Ring made it easy for her to read the pages in the dark blue sea. She activated a spell called Siren's Rushing Ocean, and Lucy aimed her left hand at the area in front of her. The spell made a small blue twister of water appear, before it quickly faded away to reveal that the water left behind a sapphire blue harp with light blue harp strings. Lucy swam over to it, and she smiled as she playfully started to play a melody as if she was a harpist. However, the light blue musical notes that emerged from it were surrounded by sapphire blue bubbles. The bubbles went into Lucy's mouth, before the act of swallowing them made their aura go down into her feet, and Lucy began to quickly swim through the water at rapid speeds. She quickly swam around the harp, happily laughing as she played more musical notes on the aquatic instrument.
As Lucy took in more bubbles and made the aura around her body grow much larger, she began to move much faster. Despite being weighed down earlier, Lucy felt that she now had a way to compensate for that in the situation where enemies such as Minerva would fight her underwater. However, using this spell for the first time made Lucy experience its drawback of how too much speed would make it all burn out quickly. She ended up floating down to the seafloor, her magical power decreasing, and Lucy's body was starting to feel exhausted. Even if Yukishimou wanted Lucy to be accustomed to Water Magic and Ice Magic, that would still require her to have more than one day of training. Still, the fact that Lucy was willing to push herself and her body to learn nine spells of Water Magic caused Yukishimou to make the ring pulsate brighter. She made some of her own magical power leak out of the ring for it to completely engulf Lucy's body, and seeing the green-haired girl look like she was about to take a relaxing break under the ocean's surface made Yukishimou send magical power into Lucy's right hand for it to be raised up at the sapphire blue cloud.
"This feels like a wonderful dream." Lucy thought to herself with a happy smile on her face, glad that she felt stronger as she was underwater.
Lucy thought in a curious manner, almost fully closing her eyes in a moment of resting as a somewhat familiar and blue figure came down towards the ocean's surface, "Aquarius...? Is that you...?"
A male voice asked in a loud and irritated sound sounding quite monstrous as Lucy was gently swept up by the water's ocean current to be in this creature's mouth, "WHAT IS IT?! WHERE AM I?! YUKISHIMOU, WHY DID YOU SUMMON ME AGAIN?!"
Lucy responded in a startled manner, comically looking scared as she opened her eyes and recognized the dragon's light blue tongue, "Oh, no! I'm in here again!"
The dragon asked loudly, sounding more angry after Lucy slowly swam out of its somewhat-opened mouth that was filled with water, "YUKISHIMOU, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!"
Upon seeing the dragon's face and swimming up to its eyes, Lucy sheepishly explained with an embarrassed smile on her face as she realized the situation, "Sapphire dragon, it was technically me who raised my arm and summoned you. Even after using Siren's Rushing Ocean, my body was too much like steel and I sank down here to the seafloor. Therefore, I just thought you could get me out of here."
"YOU SUMMONED ME, YOU LITTLE GIRL?! AREN'T YOU THE ONE WHO YUKISHIMOU ORDERED ME TO ASSIST LAST TIME?!" The dragon sternly asked Lucy while narrowing its eyes, having felt Yukishimou's willpower be stronger in both instances.
That prompted Lucy to swim on to the dragon's face, looking offended at the sentient spell as she spoke in a strict tone of voice, "Listen, you Sapphire Dragon! Yukishimou's soul is now in my sixth ring, and she'll eventually let me train alone! Since she hasn't made her ring slip off my hand after being beaten by me, that means I'm like her master and the master of you!"
"MASTER?! YOU CLAIM TO BE THE MASTER OF ME, SUOU SHUI?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU'RE SPEAKING TO, YOU BRAT?! IF YOU TRULY SUMMONED ME AND YOU'RE LESS ASSERTIVE THAN YUKISHIMOU, AREN'T YOU JUST MY HENCHMAN?!" The dragon argued back, before rudely laughing at Lucy's claims.
Lucy responded with a comical look of shock on her face, swimming on to Suou's back, "Well, it's common decency for a boss to help out their henchman! Please get me back to the surface, almighty Suou Shui!"
The dragon simply laughed in a triumphant manner at Lucy agreeing to summon him when she needed his assistance, and he proceeded to go back to the ocean's surface. Lucy tightly held on to the dragon's back, looking slightly worried as she felt the dragon moving at high speeds, and Suou ended up bursting out of the water. Lucy tried her best to stay on his back, not wanting him to leave her alone when they were high up in the midair, and the dragon began to fly through the rainstorm that was still persisting.
The rain allowed it to fly at a much swifter rate, and being covered in water was how the dragon could soar after having its prey or its master in its mouth. Suou was at least glad that Lucy didn't need his power again, feeling that she was the equivalent of having platinum or steel on his back. He carried her as far as he could take her, which was to an area of the tundra that was near the rainstorm, and Suou suddenly felt lighter as the aura around Lucy's body began to fade away. The rain also faded away, which caused Suou to fly down to the icy ground. Lucy gently slid off of his back, before she fell down on her ass. She slowly got up to politely bow her head, thanking him for rescuing her.
Suou merely scoffed. before detonating in a sapphire blue blast. The blast was harmless while its winds carried Lucy towards the lake, and she quickly got her footing on the ice. Lucy slowly approached the lake, which no longer contained a whirlpool, and she simply glanced down at the water for a moment. She softly smiled at how Yukishimou allowed her to use the spell that would make it easy to move around underwater, but taming the soul of a goddess who wielded water and ice seemed like it would be a tough task. Although, looking down at the ring let Lucy see that it stopped pulsating. This likely meant that Yukishimou wouldn't interfere as much during the quest for the final ring, since she could sense that Lucy had the desire to earn respect from her and Suou to where the goddess and her spells would someday bow down to the orange-eyed mage. Lucy felt glad that she was on this smaller quest to earn Yukishimou's respect right now, and she decided to give herself a small break by going to Seigan's fashion store for some dry clothes.
Three hours later, at the Moon Rainbow guild...
Even though the real Lucy was able to be a Sabertooth mage who could go out and train as part of her daily activities, Tifani of the Moon Rainbow guild currently stood in front of Kirika while looking down at the floor. She didn't want to see the green couch where Kirika was sitting with an angered look on her face, especially since Kirika had tightly clenched her left fist. That fist had the Snow Blizzard Ring in it, which was a valuable accessory for a wizard to wield, but there was just one significant problem with Tifani's acquisition of this ring. The Snow Blizzard Ring was not one of the legendary rings that the guild mistress desired.
She had been wanting the Sapphire Blue Ring, which was reportedly now in the possession of Lucy Heartfilia from the Sabertooth guild. The strong and clever wizard seemed to always be a step ahead of Kirika, which made her angrily slam a pink wine bottle down on to the floor, and she perceived this situation to be ridiculous. She had been pursuing treasures for a longer amount of time, hoping that her mages could always bring her riches and expensive-looking rare items, but it seemed that the odds of finding one legendary ring were slim.
They were even slimmer because of Tifani, who brought back a ring that wasn't as powerful as the Sapphire Blue Ring was labeled to be. From Kirika's perspective, Tifani's story about being persuaded into making the deal that left her with no Ice Stones and a lesser ring had been no different than the scenario of Tifani being an idiot who grabbed a fake ring. This was Tifani's sixth time in a row with failing at the task of obtaining the ring, but Kirika felt that these past two instances of failure were utterly abhorrent because Tifani had been in close proximity to the Sabertooth mages.
Tifani felt that this was an embarrassing situation, since Kirika felt that the red-haired mage nearly had the rings in her grasp. She came very close to achieving her goal, only to be pushed further away from success by unforeseen circumstances. There was only one thing that she anticipated now, though. Kirika got up from the couch to slowly walk towards her, narrowing her eyes in a displeased manner, and a pink aura engulfed her hands. She slammed them against Tifani's body, causing her to be sent flying backwards as the wind was knocked out of her body, and Tifani became covered in a burst of flames that changed between being pink and red while they were part of Kirika's Memory-Make Magic. The illusion had enough strength for it to be real, charring Tifani's skin and making her scream in immense pain.
Upon seeing the red-haired mage still standing on her feet, Kirika told her in a cold tone of voice, "This guild will no longer have you as a mage, and you'll never be allowed back."
"Mistress, do I really have to leave? Why...? Why was this my... last chance?" Tifani asked in a somewhat timid manner, tears nearly forming in her eyes as she felt the flames painfully sizzle against the spot where guild mark was located.
Kirika shouted fiercely, before using her magic to make pink flames engulf Tifani's body, "Silence, you imbecile! I thought you would have some potential for getting me the legendary rings, but all you've done is give me lesser items! If you think I'll just accept anything less than what I ask of you, you don't deserve to be here!"
As Tifani was getting scolded, the other females and males of Moon Rainbow merely stood against the walls. They all stayed silent, none of them displaying any sympathy for the rookie who made yet another blunder that angered Kirika. Tifani couldn't even touch her charred and brown skin, feeling the burns to be almost as hot as a fiery furnace, and she wished that this situation had been prevented. Failing at her job multiple times wasn't admirable to anyone, and Tifani even felt that she lost the respect of her fellow guild members.
She attempted to walk towards the request board, wanting to at least take one last job in a desperate attempt to prove that she could be useful to Kirika. However, Kirika went over there at a quicker pace to unpin a flyer from the board. She briefly read it, before sliding it across the floor for it to nearly reach Tifani's feet. She wasted no time with picking up the flyer, seeing that it was an outdated job that had been on the board for the past three months, and Kirika kept it on the board as one of the jobs that she could give to someone out of sheer pity.
Tifani glanced at the job, noticing that it would require her to go to the town of Gunjou. That only made her eyes widen in fear, causing her to nearly start crying more. Whether or not someone was in a legal guild or a dark guild, Tifani had heard rumors in Cerulean Frost's guild about how the cold snowstorms and blizzards with hail in Seigan made that town seem like a winter paradise when it was compared to the alleged danger that resided within Gunjou. Even the most hardened criminals who were S-Class mages avoided that place, as they didn't want to lose their lives. Tifani didn't want to go there, either, but Kirika loudly clenched her fists.
"There's no reason why you can't go to Gunjou, you piece of garbage. At least Kotomi brought back some treasure from there, so you can make yourself useful by letting me eventually hear the news of your death." Kirika stated to Tifani in an annoyed manner, not liking that the mage was hesitating on going there.
With Kirika no longer being her guild mistress in this moment while she felt tired of Kirika's attitude regarding Kotomi, Tifani replied in a slightly rude tone with a bit of confidence in her voice, "You only like Kotomi because of her physical appearance. Even when she hasn't been here on certain days, you don't punish her for that. Unlike you, shallowness won't be my downfall."
Kirika merely glanced down at her hot pink halter top and bright pink yoga pants for a moment, her eyes slightly twitching from how Tifani disrespected her on the way out of the guild. Tifani immediately left the guildhall, not even looking back to say goodbye to anyone. She felt that they were just people who went along with Kirika's wishes, as they never once thought that she was excessively cruel or too lustful. Tifani actually thought that the controversies involving the rings being nabbed wasn't even her fault, and she began wiping away her tears.
From Tifani's point of view, Kirika was at fault for not sending her out on those quests sooner than when Lucy Heartfilia embarked on her adventures for the legendary rings, and Tifani believed that she could've obtained the first ring if she had been faster. Although, she started to slightly frown at the fact that Kirika wanted magical items and riches without putting in the effort to look for them. She was like a leader who just bossed people around without actually contributing to the tasks that needed to be done, and Tifani hoped that the entire Moon Rainbow guild would be destroyed at some point.
She walked to the train station, wondering if the dark guild known as Hexing Enchantress would take her in. Before Gunjou Town seemingly fell under someone's rule, the Hexing Enchantress guild would only teach their magic to the mages who wanted to work in that guild. Tifani felt that she had no other options, since trying to join a legal guild would involve the Magic Council needing to be notified, and the Magic Council seemingly wouldn't investigate Tifani's status as a mage until a later point in time. She tucked away the violet flyer into the left pocket of her violet miniskirt that matched her amethyst purple midriff shirt, and Tifani wore white sandals as she hoped to get new clothes after possibly finishing an unofficial job that would be overlooked by the Magic Council.
Meanwhile, at the Magic Council's headquarters in the town of Era...
Nazuna wore a bubblegum pink tuxedo with bubblegum pink pants, and she wore a magenta pink dress shirt under the tuxedo. The woman with long and pink hair sat down in a hot pink chair that had a heart-shaped back with the seat also being in the shape of a heart, and Nazuna sat down in front of a long table that was in the ivory shade of white while it had pearl white jewels shaped like bars of gold treasure embedded in the legs underneath it. She sat next to a woman who had short and dark green hair while wearing a matcha green kimono that a princess would wear, and this woman was Haruna Senzai.
Haruna sat down in an emerald green chair that had its back be a tornado's image, which was the same image as the seat. The princess of Ryokufū Town had to take on the role of being the Magic Council member for her district in Fiore, as well as having a job of royalty. This was her second prominent meeting, as she didn't count the act of being inducted as a meeting, and the first meeting had occurred on the day after the town's festival that celebrated the end of the perfume pandemic. That particular meeting concerned the fact that Haruna never reported the researchers and their harmful perfume to the Magic Council or the Rune Knights when the trouble first began, and there had still been no reports on the day where Haruna had gone to the Sabertooth guild.
She would never forget the team and their kind efforts, even softly smiling at the newspapers that had been in front of each council member. Haruna was the only one who seemed happy that Lucy managed to claim the sixth legendary ring, as Nazuna glanced down at Risa with a neutral facial expression. Nazuna glanced over at the person who occupied the third seat of the council, and that person had been Emiria Hidenka. She was only here to request that Cerulean Frost could become a legal guild, since she didn't want her guild to be outclassed by Sabertooth.
Emiria wore a pale blue winter coat with some light blue winter pants to match, and her snow boots had been in the Tiffany shade of blue. She sat down in a chair that had its back part a light blue snowflake while the light blue seat itself was in the shape of a water puddle. She simply glanced at the person who sat at the furthest end of the table, and that person was a tall and elderly woman who had a long nose. That woman also had her hair in the wine hue of purple while it had been pulled back into four small ponytails that seemed to fan out into several spiky tufts of hair. She loudly slammed the Sangria purple staff in her right hand against the floor that was designed in a chessboard pattern, and her amethyst purple eyes contained the feeling of sternness as today's meeting would begin.
"Today, we have to discuss the mages of Sabertooth. Anyone who is new should just refer to me as Chairwoman Vinume Umeshu, if you need to address me." The chairwoman sternly stated, before putting her hands together in a serious manner.
Vinume continued speaking, seeming displeased about certain situations, "These wizards recently defeated Suzuna Hiyayakana in an event that was illegal, handled matters in Ryokufū Town that weren't reported to us until they were over, and the elimination of Kyoko Kamizuru was unofficial. Even satisfying the goddess of fire in Cramoisi Town wasn't officially a job, and unauthorized missions should not be tolerated."
Nazuna replied with a calm facial expression, coming to Risa's defense, "Risa Ryusei and her friends have been making these towns become better places in Fiore, Vinume. Additionally, it's not like they randomly went to certain towns for the purpose of causing trouble. Therefore, Sabertooth and its mages cannot be punished."
That prompted Vinume to respond with a somewhat worried facial expression, as she took notice of a small photo in the newspaper, "The Magic Council sought these legendary rings for decades, as the books of myths claim that they can allow its wielder or seven wielders to carve a peaceful or perilous future for the world. Leaving the world in the hands of one girl would be a ridiculous idea, especially if she gets the last ring in her grasp."
Those words only made Emiria shake her head in a gentle and disapproving manner, believing that Lucy was doing a somewhat decent job right now with how she utilized the rings. She didn't hear anyone agree with Vinume, since the other three council members weren't even able to show up. They all had empty black chairs that were designed from onyx black jewels, which actually signified that they had recently resigned from their positions. Those three individuals had been annoyed at the thefts being carried out by someone with high speed and Celestial Spirit Magic, but Vinume never viewed the thief as a serious problem.
Nazuna had been wanting to go after that criminal herself, feeling confident that she could achieve victory. However, the Magic Council was currently in somewhat of a state of disarray from all the significant things occurring with guilds such as Sabertooth. Even if dark guilds were being made to reform their behavior or stop being disguised as religious churches, the legendary rings had been a troubling issue. Going after Lucy would be a bad idea, especially since Haruna had argued that the green-haired girl was trying to reclaim her body.
Going after the rings themselves was a risky task, as any group of council members could end up getting entirely decimated by the enemies who had the rings in their possession. Vinume started to wonder about the level of strength regarding the goddesses who were reportedly in the rings, before wondering how chaotic the world could become if Tartaros managed to obtain the last ring. As she started to put one hand under her chin, the room's rectangular brown entrance doors were quickly pushed open by someone. Vinume remained stoic while Emiria looked surprised at the sudden sound of a person's feet tap-dancing in a playful manner.
"Ara ara, I couldn't help but overhear that you're concerned about the last ring. If you want it so badly, Vinume-san, you should've had us dispatched to the town of Gunjou weeks ago. That would've been more favorable than missing out on the crises in Ryokufū and Seigan, which would've only required a few swift assassinations." A woman with long and lavender hair stated in a calm and slightly persuasive manner, before sadistically giggling and removing her plain purple witch's hat.
That prompted Vinume to ask the woman with a slightly irritated look on her face, "Kyasurin, what do you want? Can't you see we're in a meeting?"
Kyasurin explained with a disturbing grin appearing on her face, viciousness appearing in her iris purple eyes, "Ara ara, I'm only here to suggest that you send me and Matsuba-san to take care of the problem in Gunjou. We've been doing espionage there for the past two weeks, and it's so boring to have our Darkness Magic be wasted when the opportunity for killing is coming up."
As Kyasurin began to happily tap dance for a few seconds at the thought of her purple magic being able to draw blood, the sight of her plain purple aura actually frightened Emiria enough to raise her right hand. That was a signal for shifting topics, as she wanted to make Cerulean Frost be a legal guild. Kyasurin had worked up through the ranks to be an S-Class mage of Hexing Enchantress as a spy for the Magic Council, but she had previously been hired with permanent work in assassinations by the Magic Council alongside Matsuba. This line of work served as a way for them to avoid punishment for the crimes of being excessively violent to outlaws in their dark guild known as Sangria Crystals, which had been close to Hexing Enchantress and Moon Rainbow, but Kyasurin and Matsuba had been vicious enough to get themselves excommunicated by decimating guild members who even slightly questioned their behavior.
Kyasurin wore a shiny purple corset dress, along with some Heather purple flat shoes, and she had a violet rose on the right side of her head while it was actually the end part of a lavender dagger. The dagger seemed to absorb the aura around her body, and Kyasurin pulled it out for a moment. She made the Darkness Magic engulf her right hand that held the dagger, causing it to be duplicated by an unnamed spell, and Kyasurin put all five of the daggers into her hair. She simply waited for Matsuba to walk up to her, seeing him arrive with a joyful smile on his face.
The man who had neck-length purple hair framing his face merely kept his eyes closed while holding a Sangria purple tome that contained spells of dark magic, and Matsuba had a coif of hair over his right eye. He wore a purple cloak with the insignia of Hexing Enchantress on the collar, and he also wore a purple shirt that was in a grape hue of that color. His sneakers were in an amethyst hue of purple, having the designs of crescent moons on the fronts of them. He merely smirked in a gleeful and malicious manner, before bowing his head towards Vinume. She nodded with permission for them to leave, and Vinume watched Matsuba and Kyasurin proceed to walk away as a signal that they would depart for Gunjou before the Sabertooth mages.
Four hours later, at the Sabertooth guild...
After Lucy and Risa returned from training, they were surprised to see Jenny Realight walk into the guild five minutes after they arrived. The beautiful woman from the Blue Pegasus guild had received Sherria's message over a Communications Lacrima Crystal, and Jenny had been informed that she needed to assist Sabertooth with finding the final legendary ring. After seeing that the Sapphire Blue Ring had been in Seigan Town, Jenny thought that it would be wise for the group to not just look in random towns.
Instead, she pulled out a brown map from the left pocket of her purple party dress and she placed the map of Fiore on the table where the protagonists were sitting. They all curiously viewed the map, seeing six names of the towns be circled with a mocha brown pencil while the areas of land containing the crucial towns themselves were colored in correspondence to the respective rings. Lucy blinked her eyes in a somewhat puzzled manner, noticing that the order in which she obtained the rings didn't seem to create a blatant trail.
However, Sting started to smile in a somewhat confident manner from seeing that there was a certain pattern displaying itself. The pattern involved each of the colored towns being in different hues, which was evident by the land involving Cramoisi Town being colored in different shades of red. The land involving Kuchiba Town was colored in different shades of orange, similar to how Fiore's land involving Yamabuki Town was colored in different shades of yellow. Sting observed this pattern existing for Parmanie, Ryokufū, and Seigan.
Although, one extra area of the map also had this kind of pattern. Gunjou Town may not have been easily accessible, but the mages there had never made any specific rules that prevented tourists from staying outside of the town to observe it. On the map, this area of Fiore was colored in different shades of purple. Therefore, Sting felt that Jenny was guiding the group to a simple theory. The last legendary ring was in the town of Gunjou, and viewing the legendary rings from the perspective of a rainbow meant that it had to be purple. Sting felt that the team could succeed at this mission, and his confidence caused him to get up from the chair.
"Listen up, everybody! The last legendary ring can be found in Gunjou Town, so we need to just focus on that place!" Sting stated in an optimistic tone, before kindly smiling at Lucy.
Jenny replied in a calm manner, seeming a bit miffed, "I was just about to say that."
"According to what Rogue and I discovered, the mages in that place wield Darkness Magic. That kind of magic may seem intimidating, but don't let that scare you! In fact, just think of it as magic being wielded by a dark guild that has to be eliminated." Sting explained to his teammates with an encouraging smile on his face, feeling ready to fight.
Lucy responded with a joyful smile on her face, feeling her cheeks blush pink at Sting's confidence, "Sting, I'm so glad that we're truly one step closer to getting my body back!"
She could only proceed to get up and hug him, before turning her attention to Jenny. Lucy gently hugged the blonde-haired woman, delighted that Jenny came here to provide the group with a map. Lucy ended the hug for a moment to look at the map with Jenny and Sting standing beside her, and it seemed like the train and the routes for walking would both take the group to that area of Fiore. Although, the area outside of Gunjou had been labeled as the Witch's Forest. Lucy seemed a bit intimidated by that name for a forest, but Sting simply scoffed.
Dealing with any witches would be like taking down giant monsters, since Sting felt that they couldn't defeat him with every kind of hex in their arsenal. If one of the witches tried to make their magic be colored white as a way to hide its sinister effects, Sting could just eat the white magic without any trouble. He glanced over at Kusabue, who was still absorbing sound waves into her hands, and she put one hand near her right ear as a way of trying to display an enhanced sense of hearing like a dragon slayer. She got up to look at the map, seeing the direction that the Witch's Forest was in, and Kusabue walked towards that direction for a moment while her Sound Magic acted as a compass.
Kusabue high amount of Sound Magic may have allowed her to hear distant sounds, but that only reached to the entrance of the Witch's Forest. Kusabue seemed a bit disappointed that her hearing couldn't reach past that point, but Risa got up to give her a comforting hug. As Risa glanced down at her periwinkle blue winter jacket and plaid blue winter pants that went well with her ocean blue snow boots, she felt that it would be good to help Kusabue update her fashion with Gunjou's current fashion trends that didn't involve anything related to Rairakku.
"Don't feel disappointed, Kusabue. When we're in Gunjou's fashion store, we'll able to sense enemies and shop for the trendiest clothes." Risa told the younger girl in an assuring tone, as she had a comforting smile on her face.
Kusabue asked with a happy smile on her face, before speaking in a curious manner, "Risa-san, can we buy some of the purple and scary clothes that Miss Rairakku likes to wear? Risa-san, what kinds of purple clothes do you personally like?"
Risa replied nicely, only having a faint look of distaste in her eyes for Rairakku's sense of style, "As much as you may admire her, I prefer purple clothes that are for a girly princess. Pastel purple is a cute color, just to give you an example."
Hearing Risa mention pastel purple as a cute color made Kusabue smile a bit, but she personally thought about combining pastel purple with a fashionable outfit inspired by Rairakku. Kusabue wondered if a small pastel purple sash would compliment the waist of a rasin purple blouse that had eggplant purple lacing on the bottom of the blouse, and Kusabue thought that outfit could be completed with a long violet skirt that would go well with wine purple flat shoes. Kusabue thought that all those shades of purple worked in harmony, not minding that most of those hues created a dark assortment of the shades of purple.
In contrast, Risa liked clothes in the plain hue of purple and in its lighter hues. The dark magenta magic may have seemed like it was in the category of purple colors, but Risa only wanted to wield it when the circumstances made that magic need to be utilized. She preferred to use her light pink and regular magenta Psychic Magic most of the time, personally believing that her magic that was in varying shades of pink could prove that a princess didn't need to wear dark clothes or wield magic in dark colors to constantly prove that she was strong.
Risa glanced over at Lucy, who was now walking towards Sorano and Yukino while happily wanting to show off her Water Magic. The sapphire blue aura looked pretty, even though it made the glass of water on the table start to have a large blue bubble emerge up from it, and Lucy was now trying to make the Water Magic shift to a different shade of blue. Lucy must've thought that still being soaked from spending time underwater would've overloaded the Sapphire Blue Ring for Yukishimou to grant her some more power, but that wasn't happening. Lucy still needed to spend more time training with Water Magic, as well as Ice Magic, and Risa felt like she would need to speak to Rogue about going to Gunjou in the following week. Another thought related to Lucy and the rings entered Risa's mind, and she was simply curious as to how much more powerful the real Kotomi Takeuchi had become.
Meanwhile, under Kuria Town...
Natsu went down a staircase in an alley of Kuria with Kotomi by his side, and the staircase had been concealed by ivory-colored wood that needed to be burnt away. Natsu was happy enough to burn away the wood with his Fire Dragon's Roar attack, before letting Kotomi go down into the staircase. They had walked down several white pathways while Kotomi was primarily focused on each set of stairs descending down to where the treasure was allegedly located. The underground area was bright, however, and the grey stone walls complimented the cobblestone floor that was in a plain hue of white.
Kotomi continued to walk with Natsu by her side, going down another flight of stairs to the left before they reached a doorway containing a large room. This particular room only had a canal of light blue water flowing in the leftmost direction while some pearl white stairs to the right led up to another doorway, and Kotomi easily climbed up the stairs. Natsu climbed up at a somewhat slower pace, and the pink-haired mage felt curious about how much further they would need to walk. He went through the doorway before Kotomi did, only to keep going straight until he ran into some porcelain white bars that had star-shaped spikes topping them.
Natsu moved around the bars for a moment to see that he and Lucy's impostor were now in a much larger room, his grey eyes noticing that there was an arched door in the center of the back wall, and the door that was in a lace shade of white had seven star-shaped indentations in its center. The indentations were in an arch, similar to the arched door, and Natsu also took notice of a circular pearl white pedestal being in the middle of a larger white platform that was shaped like a star. Natsu got off of the stone platform that he and Kotomi were on, and he gently jumped off the ledge to get a closer inspection of the pedestal.
He quickly ran towards it, seeing that the pedestal was in a cream hue of white while a honey gold star was painted into the center of it. Natsu seemed curious about the pedestal, noticing that his hands couldn't push down on it, but the sudden sound of a book being opened caused him to turn around and look at his blonde-haired teammate. Kotomi smiled in a calm manner while walking towards the pedestal, and she faintly smirked at Natsu. He wondered what she was going to do, and Natsu took a step back as Kotomi proceeded to stand in the center of the pedestal.
"Celestial Star Cassiopeia!" Kotomi shouted fiercely, before gently setting the book down on the platform below the pedestal and stretching out her arms.
Natsu asked her with a curious facial expression, "Luce, what are you doing?"
"I'm just unsealing the treasure, Natsu." Kotomi calmly replied, feigning a smile of niceness on her face.
Kotomi kept her palms close together while creating a golden sphere of Celestial Spirit Magic in between her hands, and gold beams of light were shining from the sphere. The sphere soon became honey gold when Kotomi infused more magical power into it, though, and a honey gold aura engulfed her body while the sphere itself vanished. The honey gold aura made the star on the pedestal start to brightly shine, causing seven layers of golden beams of light to spread outward, and some clusters of light formed seven circles around the pedestal.
That caused Kotomi to unleash the spell called Celestial Horologium, and Kotomi created a beam in her right hand. The beam alternated between the colors of harvest gold and light gold, and the colors alternated back and forth at a somewhat normal level of speed. Kotomi fired the spell down at the first small circle of lights, creating a harvest gold blast that was large, and its aftereffect made her own levels of power and speed greatly increase while the harvest gold aura engulfed her body. The harvest gold aura started to pulsate when the blast left behind a gold beam that spiraled in place with the lights surrounding it becoming harvest gold.
Upon seeing that beam, Kotomi moved on to activating her next spell. The spell was called Artsy Stars, and Kotomi sat down in a yogic position to quietly meditate. She focused her magical power on the next circle of lights that was near the beam, and a metallic gold aura started to engulf Kotomi. When she opened her eyes and stared at that circle of lights, the aura broke off into seven metallic gold stars. The stars started to float around on pure gold rings like they were orbiting around her, and Kotomi sent more magical power from her hands into the spell for the stars to move around much faster on the larger rings.
"What's going on?" Natsu asked aloud, looking puzzled as Kotomi waited for all the stars to shine in unison.
Kotomi announced aloud, still looking fierce, "Artsy Stars, descend upon that circle of lights!"
Upon seeing the stars create seven metallic gold blasts on that one circle, Natsu stated with an amazed look on his face, "Whoa, that's a cool spell!"
Natsu's compliments only made Kotomi smile in a proud manner at the metallic gold beam that rose up from the circle of lights, and she liked how those lights became metallic gold. Since that spell was no longer useful in this next moment, Kotomi proceeded to activate the next spell that was known as Celestial Astra Nova. This spell made a circle of lights in a pure hue of gold appear beneath Kotomi's feet, and the beams slowly rotated around her. She glanced upward to see four pure gold stars appearing directly above each of the beams. Kotomi aimed her right hand at the next circle of lights, prompting the star-shaped projectiles to all converge on that one spot.
The stars crashed down into the circle of lights, creating pure gold explosions that had an intense amount of brightness to where Natsu needed to close his eyes. He briefly opened them to see that the explosions resulted in a pure gold beam of Celestial Spirit Magic rising up from that circle while its lights shined in the beam's color, and Natsu smiled at Lucy's impostor in an impressed manner. He felt glad that the girl who he viewed as a friend had gotten so strong with her magic, and she was making each spell lead her a step closer to obtaining the treasure.
Kotomi picked up the book again for a moment, turning a few pages to find her next spell, and the attack was called Celestial Cannon. The spell simply made Kotomi fire a spiraling beam of celestial energy from her mouth while it had a rotating star on the front of it, and Kotomi aimed this spell at the next circle of lights. They were struck by the attack, which created an explosion that was in an aspen shade of gold, and the large explosion was followed up by the lights around the circle matching that color. Although, they also radiated with an Aspen gold aura engulfing them while an Aspen gold beam emerged from the circle.
Kotomi followed up that attack with her sixth new spell, and it was called Celestial Starry Corona Borealis. Kotomi followed the spell's instructions, raising her hands high up at the ceiling, and the aura that engulfed her body became a caduceus shade of gold. The aura left her body, before it went up into the sky for the purpose of forming a large caduceus gold ring of celestial energy. When the ring was formed, several large caduceus gold stars emerged from it and they quickly moved around the ring to strike each other. They surprisingly only left behind caduceus gold glitter, which Kotomi directed down to a circle of lights by aiming her left hand at the circle.
The glitter descended there at a rapid pace, before several blasts in the caduceus shade of gold occurred! These blasts were enormous while their high amount of wind nearly blew Natsu off of the ground, and he watched the lights around that area become caduceus gold. Natsu took notice of two circles of lights remaining, and he watched Kotomi turn towards it. She wasted no time with activating her seventh new spell of Celestial Spirit Magic, and it was called Celestial Star Blade. In exchange for setting the book down on the ground, Lucy gained a champagne gold blade in her right hand. The handle of the blade was light gold with seven plain gold stars horizontally in it, and Kotomi aggressively swung the blade towards another circle of lights.
The sword's slash created a wave of champagne gold stars in midair, and they all shined with an immense amount of brightness. When that light reflected off the blade of the sword, the blade itself began to have champagne gold beams of light coming out of it. Kotomi began to move the sword in a circular motion, causing the wave of stars to form a circle, and rotating it downwards only made the champagne gold stars slam down on to the circle. They created an enormous blast that was in the champagne hue of gold while the wave's energy went outward for Natsu to sense the spell's high amount of power, and both of the mages felt happy about this specific spell.
Although, Kotomi started to smirk in an evil manner from activating her seventh spell. The attack was called Celestial Cosmic Wrath, and Kotomi turned to face the final circle of lights. She aimed both of her hands at it, the aura around her hands becoming a sunglow shade of gold, and Kotomi aimed her left hand up at the ceiling. She watched a enormous sunglow gold beam be fired upwards, before it ended up bursting in the shape of a gigantic star. In that same moment, several sunglow gold projectiles rained down upon this room while Kotomi infused more power into the spell for the sunglow gold aura to surround her body.
"Whoa, this spell is very strong!" Natsu exclaimed with an excited facial expression, before comically looking shocked as he dodged the projectiles that came down towards him.
As she saw some of the beams strike the remaining circle to create large sunglow gold blasts, Kotomi thought to herself in a satisfied manner, "Well, the ritual is finally completed."
She saw Natsu exclaim with a surprised look on his face, as they both noticed the final circle of lights having a sunglow gold beam emerge up from it, "Luce, something crazy is about to happen!"
Kotomi stayed on the pedestal during the moments where the beams and their circles of light all glowed brightly in their respective shades of gold, and she smiled in a delighted manner at the high amount of power that she felt in this room. All of the beams began to send their energy outward, making the larger circles of light beams shine in their various shades of gold. The room was extremely bright to the point where Natsu couldn't open his eyes, as even the light from the largest circle was intense.
In a few seconds, all of the beams were engulfed by auras in their respective shades of gold and the auras completely absorbed their energy. The auras reshaped themselves into gold stars that floated within the circles of lights, causing those areas of lights to glow much brighter in the different shades of gold. The star-shaped auras began to vanish in the order that the beams had appeared in, but they soon reappeared in the star-shaped indentations that were on the white door. The stars perfectly fit into the indentations, before all of their energies made them solidify themselves into being dense star-shaped projectiles.
The star-shaped projectiles all shined in unison, prompting the white door to start cycling through the different shades of gold. and it eventually stopped on the color of sunglow gold. The sunglow gold door started to pulsate, doing that seven times in an aggressive manner. The door slowly began to open itself outward, making a large mass of golden light emerge towards the Fairy Tail wizards. Natsu kept his eyes closed as Kotomi evilly grinned at the sight of the treasure finally being accessible, and she waited for all of the light to fade away. The room up ahead had plain gold walls with a sunglow gold tiled floor, and the golden treasure chest sat down on a rectangular honey gold podium. As Kotomi began to walk towards the treasure, she looked back for a moment to see Natsu slowly opening his eyes.
"How awesome will it be for the client to hear that we completed that grand puzzle in a place like this?" Natsu asked Kotomi with a happy smile on his face, feeling amazed that a seemingly legendary puzzle was finally solved.
Kotomi nicely replied to Natsu, feigning a happy smile as she kept pretending to be the real Lucy, "Natsu, I'm just glad you were here to protect me from any enemies who would've probably interfered with me trying to solve the puzzle. Anyway, let's go get the treasure."
"If we take the treasure chest back to the guild, then everyone's gonna be thrilled that we probably became Fiore's best treasure hunters!" Natsu joyfully stated with a goofy grin on his face, before comically running towards the treasure chest at high speeds.
Kotomi simply maintained her smile of happiness, and she casually got off of the circular pedestal. She stepped through the doorway to be in the room with the treasure chest, and Kotomi watched Natsu walk up to it. He noticed that there wasn't a lock on the treasure chest, but the lid wouldn't even slightly budge when he attempted to open it. Natsu proceeded to attack the treasure chest by using Fire Dragon's Sword Horn, and he made flames engulf his entire body before ramming into the treasure chest.
Despite the fact that Natsu's spell created a fiery explosion, the treasure chest remained unharmed. It seemed to be affected by an ancient spell that made certain types of magic be ineffective against it, but Natsu still used attacks such as Fire Dragon's Wing Attack. He produced red flames from both of his arms, before rushing towards the treasure chest, but it wasn't set ablaze or sent flying away. This only made Natsu look a bit frustrated, as he got to see that the flames landing on the treasure chest were instantly nullified by a celestial gold aura that surrounded the treasure.
Since Natsu made it possible for Kotomi to see that this was another puzzle that needed to be solved, Kotomi built up magical power for the Celestial Cosmic Wrath spell again. When the sunglow gold aura engulfed her hands, Kotomi infused more magical power into it for the aura to engulf her body. She proceeded to touch the treasure chest, before smiling confidently at how she was able to absorb the entirety of the dense aura, and Kotomi felt her body have much more strength. She easily lifted up the lid to find a celestial gold ring inside the treasure chest while the ring had a sunglow gold star-shaped jewel on top of it, and seeing the celestial gold aura that engulfed the ring made Kotomi be unable to resist snatching it up to put it on her right hand. She began to slowly close her eyes, feeling an immense amount of Celestial Spirit Magic enter her body, and auras in varying hues of gold surrounded her body. She slowly opened her eyes, which changed from being cocoa brown to being sunglow gold.
Kotomi opened her eyes to look at Natsu, who simply stared at her in amazement. He started softly smiling at how his friend Lucy Heartfilia had been strong enough to obtain the ring, and she seemed strong enough to wield it without any of her spells or Celestial Spirits seeming weak. Natsu started to walk back through the doorway to be in the larger room, feeling glad that he and Lucy could now go back and inform the client about how they managed to find the legendary treasure. However, Natsu heard his own footsteps going forward as his blonde-haired friend softly took a step back.
Kotomi remained standing in front of the treasure chest, smiling proudly at the fact that she obtained a kind of power that was seemingly above the strength of any S-Class mage. That proud smile slowly shifted to being an evil smirk, however, and Kotomi's blonde hair obscured the malicious look in her gold eyes. Kotomi's eyes were filled with arrogance regarding this achievement, feeling that it was a foregone conclusion that Natsu would be stupid enough to help Lucy's impostor unlock more power.
She began to giggle in an evil and disturbing manner, before building up magical power in her right hand. She felt herself become engulfed by the Celestial Spirit Magic itself, letting its power be combined with her own strength, and Kotomi felt a surge of power in her feet. She wasted no time with rushing towards Natsu at high speeds, before punching him in the face with her right hand, and Kotomi sent him flying backwards. That only prompted her to use the Celestial Starfall spell, and Kotomi shot out two rings from her right hand. The rings were now sunglow gold, however, and their effect would be slightly altered.
The rings quickly struck Natsu while binding him around the waist, and some star-shaped projectiles came down upon him in a spiraling formation. The sunglow gold stars immediately struck him while creating large blasts in their shade of gold, and Natsu screamed in pain from being hit by that attack. Even though he was the one feeling pain from the attack, Kotomi grinned evilly at how the ring enhanced the power of this particular spell that had been weaker than her recent attacks. However, she soon frowned as Natsu was still standing.
"Luce, what are you doing?! If you wanna test out the ring's power against me, can't you at least ask for a battle?!" Natsu asked Kotomi with an irritated look on his face, believing that he was attacked by his friend for no plausible reasons.
That prompted Kotomi to reply in a colder tone of voice, frowning at Natsu in disgust, "If you're trying to make suggestions on what I should do, then you really are an idiot. I don't have to listen to the moron who made it possible for me to attain this power, and you're frankly of no further use to me."
As some of her hair moved away from her eyes, Natsu asked Kotomi in a slightly terrified and puzzled manner, "Lucy, what's going on? Why are you making yourself look vicious?"
"If you still haven't figured out the obvious truth by now, you really are naive to think that your little team is merely just fractured. Erza and Gray are dead because of me, Natsu. As for me, I'm not really Lucy Heartfilia. We swapped bodies, Natsu. You took me back from Tokiwa, and then you allowed me to be in Fairy Tail after I convinced you that the weak little bitch was a lying criminal."
Upon hearing the revelations that were coming from Kotomi's mouth, Natsu could only widen his eyes in disbelief while his facial expression displayed a state of shock. The girl who woke him up from unconsciousness in Tokiwa Town had not been Lucy, and she was only an evil impostor putting up a facade. All this time, she had been fooling everybody into thinking that the team finished the job in Tokiwa without anything bad actually happening. This woman only gave the Emerald Star back to the museum as a way of maintaining the illusion that she was the real Lucy, and Natsu began to build up a high amount of magical power.
The flames that began to engulf him stemmed from his anger, hating the fact that he was deceived by Kotomi. She made everyone believe that they were talking to the same bubbly and nice Lucy, but Kotomi made those kind interactions be rooted in lies. Natsu felt that he needed to stop this woman from ruining Lucy's reputation with other people, but he also became much more furious at what she told him about Erza and Gray. They were both dead, which was true. Judging her by how she claimed that it was her fault, Natsu wanted to make her life end as a way of avenging his friends.
He thought about also needing to avenge Lucy, who probably felt incredibly upset when her closest friends didn't believe her claims of being the actual Lucy Heartfilia. Natsu aggressively slammed his left fist down against the ground, creating some hot flames around the altar, and Natsu was angry with himself. He was angry at Kotomi, but Natsu also started looking somewhat guilty at the fact that he should've done more to see if the girl in the Sabertooth guild had been truthful. Since Natsu was now staring at a liar, he wasted no time with creating a large fireball in his left hand.
"If you lose to me, then you're gonna give Lucy's body back to her!" Natsu aggressively stated, sternly glaring at Kotomi as he threw the large fireball at her.
That prompted Kotomi to ask Natsu in a calmer tone of voice, letting him see that she had feelings of arrogance entering her vicious-looking eyes, "Do you really intend to hurt me, knowing you'll be doing damage to your friend's actual body? Won't she be permanently trapped by the spell, if you end my life?"
Natsu responded with a frustrated look on his face, not wanting to believe her words, "You're lying to me! You just don't want me to defeat you!"
As her lips formed an overconfident and devious smirk, Kotomi replied in a calm manner, "I doubt that you can win."
Kotomi's doubts would immediately be proven, since she simply stood in one spot while activating Celestial Horologium. Kotomi fired a large beam from her right hand, and it alternated between the colors of celestial gold and light gold. The beam ended up landing on the color of light gold, resulting in the beam creating a massive amount of light when it struck the red fireball. This shade of gold made the fireball become light gold, before it ended up getting absorbed into the light itself. Kotomi absorbed that new burst of light into her right hand, and she felt herself have more power.
She fired the Celestial Horologium spell again, seeing it have the form of a much larger beam. The beam headed straight for Natsu, who saw it become celestial gold in its final moments. The beam created a celestial gold blast that was enormous, and its aftereffect made Natsu's own levels of power and speed greatly decrease while the celestial gold aura engulfed his body. He felt himself runnng towards Kotomi at a slower pace, feeling the flames around his body weaken to where they were only half their original size. Since Natsu was also coated by the aura of Kotomi's attack, this fight was where the odds of winning were not in his favor.
He watched her unleash the spell known as Celestial Cannon, and Kotomi fired a celestial gold beam from her mouth. The beam was quite large while it had five stars rotating counterclockwise on the front of it, and it quickly went towards Natsu. It struck him at high speeds, before brightly shining as a reaction to the celestial gold aura. Kotomi's spell created a massive blast that was in a celestial gold color while its power made Natsu scream in agonizing pain, and Kotomi watched the altered spell display its aftereffect of making smaller explosions occur around Natsu.
Natsu was sent rolling across the ground with some bruises on his body while blood slightly dripped from his wounds, and he activated the spell known as Fire Dragon's Roar. He shot out a large stream of red fire from his mouth, thinking that the heat from the earlier explosions would strengthen his attack. However, Natsu watched Kotomi activate the spell called Celestial Star Cassiopeia. She made the golden sphere form in between her hands, before seeing it become celestial gold with the honey gold color faintly appearing for a moment, and the sphere vanished to give Kotomi its power.
She proceeded to block Natsu's attack by striking it with her fists, before rapidly waving her hands up and down for the flames to be extinguished. Kotomi smirked at Natsu in a manner that was very ridiculing, since she actually felt no pain at all from his attack. That only made Natsu angrier, prompting him to build up a massive amount of Fire Dragon Slayer Magic in his hands, and Natsu activated a spell called Fire Dragon's Flaming Windmill. Natsu put both of his hands together to create a red sphere of fire that was very large, and five streams of fire protruded outward while they rotated to resemble a windmill of fire.
Natsu aimed this attack at Kotomi while running towards her, hoping that any streams of fire that she nullified would still explode, and he watched her get engulfed in some of the fire. It didn't faze her, however, and the flames that spread out in different directions began to glow in a plain shade of red. Natsu slammed the sphere against Kotomi's face, seeing the large sphere immediately detonate into a fiery blast that was massive, and the rest of the fire that Natsu created with this spell ended up bursting into large walls of fire as if his sphere set off multiple bombs of fire by exploding.
The sight of his spell creating an immense amount of fire to damage Kotomi caused Natsu to confidently smile, thinking that he ended up achieving victory in this fight. The plain red clouds of smoke that resulted from the explosions would prove that he was wrong, however. They cleared up to reveal that Kotomi was undamaged, not even having a single scratch on her body, and the celestial gold aura was still around her. That only made Natsu gasp in shock for a moment, feeling like he needed to find some way to fight her. Although, the moment where he panted slightly from expending so much magical power was when Kotomi decided to end this battle.
"Celestial Supernova Starfall!" Kotomi fiercely shouted, narrowing her eyes at Natsu as she raised her hands into the air.
That prompted Natsu to ask in a startled manner, before quickly leaping back, "What are you doing now?"
This spell made a large circle of harvest gold stars appear around Kotomi, before a portion of those stars became metallic gold. Another portion of them changed to being pure gold, before the fourth portion of stars became Aspen gold. That was followed by the fifth portion of stars becoming caduceus gold, before the sixth part of the circle had its stars change to being in a champagne shade of gold. The seventh and final portion of the circle had its stars change to being in the color of sunglow gold, and all of the stars rose up into the air.
They all fired beams of celestial energy high into the air, before the beams came back down to glow brightly and rapidly fall through the ring as if they were shooting stars. The glowing beams soon became several small star-shaped projectiles in their respective shades of gold, and they all converged down on Natsu. He attempted to get into a stance for using Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame, but the fire-wielding mage saw his body be coated in a pure gold aura. This was because of Celestial Supernova Starfall immobilizing the target that the stars converged on, which was an aftereffect.
Natsu could only look up at the falling stars with a panicked look on his face, and the moment that he was struck by the attacks was the moment where several blasts in the varying hues of gold occurred around him. They became massive from reacting to each other's energy, cohesively giving more power to each other, and the projectiles severely bruised Natsu's body. This first wave of attacks was followed by a second wave of the star-shaped projectiles raining down upon Natsu, and the plentiful amount of explosions damaged his body even more. The dense amount of light around him had taken the shape of many beams, which pierced through several parts of his body as if the light beams were long and thin blades with an immense amount of density.
Kotomi asked Natsu in a calm tone, feigning concern in her voice, "What's the matter, Natsu? Did all those golden attacks severely injure you?"
That prompted Natsu to weakly reply, as he struggled to stand up in the gold clouds of smoke, "You... won't... win. I.. need.. to.. help Lucy.. defeat.. you."
"You can't even help yourself stay alive, Natsu. Although, I'll gladly end your life now." Kotomi happily said in Lucy's voice, making Natsu feel even worse about the situation.
As Kotomi infused more power into her attack for the ring of stars to start glowing brightly, Natsu thought to himself in a regretful manner while looking very pained, "Lucy, I'm sorry that the team let this kind of problem ever happen."
He watched Kotomi swing her arms downward, causing the ring of stars to go down towards Natsu. He simply widened his eyes in a panicked manner from seeing the giant ring come down upon him, and Natsu also saw Kotomi waving goodbye to him with a sadistic grin on her face. She watched the massive ring of stars detonate, seeing it create massive golden blasts around Natsu while the sheer strength of the attack was severely damaging his body, and Kotomi watched the massive amount of light tear into him from every direction in a matter of seconds.
She liked seeing how her attack smashed through the ground, resulting in rocks being sent flying upward, and some of the rocks that came down ended up landing on Natsu's body. They were still crushed by the light from the blasts, which continued to impale him after they destroyed the rocks. The blasts and their golden hues of light began to fade away, allowing Kotomi to see that Natsu was heavily bruised and bloodied from that attack. He was facing the floor while being down on the ground, and Natsu wasn't even moving.
Since he could no longer battle, Kotomi won this fight. She stopped using her magical power, causing the aura around her body to vanish. She proceeded to start walking out of this room, thinking that she could just get away with leaving her dead teammate in this sacred place. As Kotomi jumped back up on to the ledge and towards the doorway that she and Natsu had passed through to get here, her eyes that still remained golden were now filled with shock at the sudden sight of Mirajane and Cana respectively standing on the left and right sides of the doorway.
Both of the girls looked at her with seemingly genuine feelings of relief and concern on their faces, feeling somewhat glad that they tracked her by sensing where Natsu's strength was coming from. Both of the women got here in time to only hear Natsu's final conversation with Kotomi, but Mira followed Cana's lead in thinking that Lucy Heartfilia was uninjured by a nasty monster that brutally attacked Natsu. Mira assessed the situation for a moment, thinking that they could retrieve Natsu's body at a later point in the day. Right now, she stood on the right side of Lucy while Cana stood on her left side. They both began to hurriedly walk away with her, starting to have urgent looks on their faces while Kotomi was a bit shocked, but Mira and Cana both confidently smiled at each other for a moment. Even though she let Kotomi keep the ring on her hand, Cana faintly smirked at how Kotomi would be getting an unwanted kind of reward for her efforts when she got back to the Fairy Tail guild.
How was Chapter 57? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy has now learned more spells of Water Magic, and they will be useful to her on the next adventure. However, Lucy will also have spells of Ice Magic. She will need these kinds of magic, especially for dealing with her next group of enemies. Anyway, this is the last part of the post-Azure Ice Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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