Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 58: The Orange Feather's Secret! Miko Goetia, The Shimizuakira Council Member! Theft of Pink Magic & Passionless Hues of Purple!
After Sting gave everyone a week to prepare for the team's next adventure that would take place in the town of Gunjou, Lucy spent all that time on training with her magic. Not only did she need to train hard with Water Magic, but Yukishimou's book of reserved spells also contained interesting spells involving Ice Magic. That type of magic could help Lucy alter the weather during a fight, since creating a blizzard or a hailstorm would provide her with a plentiful amount of ice that could melt down into water.
In that sense, Lucy could wield Ice Magic and Water Magic in creative ways that would allow her spells to be synthesized. That would probably be extremely important, especially since reflecting on her adventures for the previous rings made Lucy realize that every group of fights always seemed to raise the level of difficulty up from the previous adventure. If Lucy thought that her most recent enemy and the secondary enemies had been tough, then she wouldn't be able to relax during this next adventure.
She sat down at a table in the guildhall while her orange eyes contained the feeling of curiosity, and she wondered what Gunjou Town's culture would be like. According to Jenny's map, there had been a dark forest full of witches in that area. Since mages from other towns reportedly weren't allowed to be in Gunjou, Lucy shuddered at the small thought of those witches using their Darkness Magic to instantly eradicate any wizards who wanted to slyly get into that town. Witches could attack people with hexes and curses, prompting Lucy to look a bit worried.
Lucy hoped that Yukishimou and the Sapphire Blue Ring would give her enough power to win against a witch in a battle, especially since Lucy tried to feel somewhat optimistic about the fact that witches couldn't cast hexes on chunks of ice for them to feel sick or lose their voices. Those kinds of hexes would be pointless to use against Ice Magic or Water Magic, but Lucy felt that she and her friends would just have to quickly dodge all the other hexes that could be very dangerous. Sting wasn't feeling worried, though.
"Lucy, try to relax. Before you can even fully process it, we'll be back in Kogane to throw a party and you can dance while having that last legendary ring on your hand." Sting told her with a confident smile on his face, feeling good about their chances of obtaining the ring.
Upon hearing Sting mention the thought of the final ring being on her hand, Lucy asked him with a concerned facial expression while she attempted to predict the future, "When I have all seven rings on my hand, will I still be a mage of Sabertooth after switching back with Kotomi?"
Lucy's question caused Sting to respond in a comforting manner, as he made one of his hands gently touch hers, "Lucy, you can return to being a Sabertooth mage after you're back in your own body. We've spent so much time together to where it wouldn't be good to not have you around."
Sting's words made Lucy give him a soft smile for a moment, before she got up from the table to give him a kiss on the cheek. Sting's cheeks blushed from how Lucy's kiss felt very sweet, and he was glad that he could help her be happy today. Lucy may have been nervous about venturing into a new town, but Sting personally thought that most of her anxiety was just stemming from the fact that she was very close to getting her body back. The previous adventures only involved Lucy getting one more step closer to her goal, and she was now at one of the final steps.
Although, the light dragon slayer's blue eyes started to have calmness in them from having an interesting perspective. From Sting's point of view, Hexing Enchantress was just another dark guild that needed to either reform itself or be decimated. He also doubted that the mages would really surprise him with any of their magic, as the shadows created by Risa and Rogue were very dark, and he also believed that any dark mage's flames weren't as hot as the flames that Lucy generated after getting her first ring.
Sting glanced at the Crimson Ring for a moment, thinking that Lucy had definitely been on a long journey. That first ring had been the start of some of the team's most interesting adventures, and Sting recalled the moment where Kaen informed her that all seven rings being together could reverse any spell. Sting was curious about the possibility of spells being enhanced if the wielder had a certain number of rings, and he started to smile at Lucy in a proud manner from thinking that the Sapphire Blue Ring could allow her to make dark mages be submerged under whirlpools.
"Lucy, it doesn't matter who the guild master of the Hexing Enchantress guild is. You're going to defeat them." Sting told Lucy with assurance in his voice, as he continued to give her a confident smile.
That caused Lucy to reply with a nice smile on her face, before taking out the orange feather from the left pocket of her plaid pale blue pants that matched her light blue T-shirt and sky blue high heels, "Thank you, Sting. Although, we should probably shift our attention to how this feather from Kuchiba will get the attention of the Shimizuakira Council members."
"Since it's orange, you could try infusing your Earth Magic into it." Sting told her with a kind smile on his face, thinking that her magic would be able to activate an interesting effect of the feather.
Sting's advice prompted Lucy to send magical power into the Sherbet Ring by touching it with her fingers, which caused an orange aura to engulf her body. Lucy was now wielding Earth Magic, and she walked out of the guild with the feather in her hands. Sting followed her outside to see that Lucy gently placed her right hand down on the feather, and she did that right before it quickly fell to the ground.. After Lucy sent her earthy energy down into it, the feather on the ground started to brightly shine with orange beams of light emanating from it. Lucy and Sting both looked amazed at what was happening, but they soon saw the lights fade away in the moment where the feather changed to being in different hues of the color yellow.
This new color made Lucy blink her eyes in a confused manner, not expecting that specific result to occur. She glanced down at the yellow feather, before feeling curious enough to send magic into her Saffron Gold Ring. That made Lucy's Lightning Magic now be the current kind of magic that was active, and a yellow aura engulfed Lucy's body. She leaned down to send that aura and its electric energy down into the feather, causing the feather to shine brightly with yellow beams of light coming from it. Lucy got to see the feather change to being in different shades of green, prompting her to touch the Emerald Green Ring.
Lucy was now currently using Wind Magic and Plant Magic, the emerald green aura surrounding her body, and Lucy proceeded to do a handstand on her left hand while using her right hand to send the emerald green aura of her magic down into the feather. The windy and botanical energies went into the feather, causing it to brightly glow with emerald green lights shining from it. In a few seconds, the feather became sapphire blue and Lucy sent her magical power into the Sapphire Blue Ring. That caused a sapphire blue aura to surround her body, and Lucy sent the aura associated with her Water Magic and Ice Magic down into the green feather. That made the feather shine brightly with sapphire blue beams of light coming from it, but it soon became various shades of purple. Since Lucy didn't have any Darkness Magic in her arsenal right now, she could only watch the purple feather start rapidly shifting between different shades of purple. It soon sent a harmless beam of violet-colored energy into the clear blue sky, and grabbing the feather only made Lucy change the location of where the beam was when it shot upward like a signal.
Meanwhile, in a distant forest...
The purple light caught the attention of a girl who had long hair that was in the shade of midnight purple, and she glanced in that direction with a curious look on her face. She started to look somewhat concerned, almost as if that light signified that she needed to go there. Although, this girl who wore a neon purple witch's hat shifted her attention back to her current task of walking into a somewhat run-down house that had a flat Sangria purple roof on top of it. Sangria purple smoke came from the roof's chimney, which indicated that someone was in this abode.
The woman who wore a violet dress behind her the royal purple corset around her waist simply walked up the neon purple wooden stairs that loudly creaked, before she opened the door and went inside. This house had lilac walls with the wooden floor being in a mauve hue of purple, and the bookcases that were on the left side of this small house contained several books that were in different shades of purple. They appeared to be magical tomes, which could help wizards cast spells of Darkness Magic.
Unlike those shelves, the bookcases on the right side of this room had items such as Magic Cards, magical bracelets, purple potions, necklaces of witchcraft, and violet coins of dark magic. Some violet coins of dark magic were on the rectangular orchid purple table that was against the center of the back wall, and the Iris purple chair that had an elegant-looking back with Heather purple sparkles on the seat that was shaped like a pumpkin. The seat was currently occupied by a woman who wore a boysenberry purple shawl over her violet blouse that almost reached down to her stomach, and this woman wore a long skirt that was mauve purple. It complimented her violet sandals, which went well with her royal purple headband that had rhombus-shaped Heather purple gems hanging down from it. The Heather purple gems went well with the woman's large hoop earrings that were in a grape hue of purple, and she wore several necklaces, bracelets, and belts that were in different shades of purple. The fortune-teller's makeup consisted of royal purple eye shadow with some of it covering her cheeks and the sides of her face, and she also wore dark purple lipstick. The woman who resembled a gypsy had her dark purple hair slightly pinned up, and it flowed down to her ass.
This woman was named Nioi Uranaishi, and she was a dark mage who liked being a gypsy and a fortune teller. The woman who walked into her abode was named Miko Goetia, and Miko's flat shoes that were plum purple gently made the floor creak as she walked up to Nioi's table. Nioi glanced up from the candles that were on both sides of her table, seeing the lavender purple flames send out the purple aroma that smelled just like lavender tea, and seeing Miko be in her shop right now caused Nioi to be very relaxed as if this was a fated event.
"Miko, you arrived at my shop today. Judging by the predictions of my dark magic, you've recently seen that you're needed in the town of Kogane." Nioi told Miko in a calm manner, as she picked out three tarot cards displaying the foreseen events.
That prompted Miko to reply in a concerned tone, as feelings of anxiety were in her royal purple eyes, "You may be the fortune teller of Hexing Enchantress, but I'm unsure if you foresaw that without the dark goddess' guidance."
"Regardless, the Magic Cards of dark magic have foretold me of the problem that plagues you and the residents of Gunjou. Even though your future may be darkened at the end, you must seek out the girl with green hair and beautiful rings. She may be the one to fulfill your dream." Nioi explained with a somewhat stern look on her face, as she picked up a card that started to have a green-haired mage's smiling face on it.
Upon seeing the card's image look like an actual person, Miko asked with a curious look on her face, "How do your cards do things like that?"
Nioi quietly demonstrated that ability by unleashing Darkness Magic from her right hand in the form of a violet-colored aroma, and she used her magical power to make the aroma go down into a stack of blank Magic Cards that were in the table's smallest shelf. Nioi retrieved them from the compartment, before picking up one of the cards to show Miko that it was being engulfed by violet flames of Darkness Magic. That color of the flame interestingly corresponded with the hue of purple pertaining the back of the card, since the next card had orchid purple flames literally burning a predicted image into the Magic Card.
The first card displayed the sight of Miko being surprised at a different mage's aura that was interestingly in a shade of pink, but Miko only wondered why the goddess would want her to encounter someone with pink magic. That color was associated with Psychic Magic, which supposedly wasn't even in the same tier of power as Darkness Magic. In fact, Miko looked curious about Nioi's newest prediction as she recalled the history-loving witches claiming that Psychic Magic was derived from Darkness Magic by wizards who normally didn't make their magic manifest in angry, evil, sadistic, or hate-filled thoughts.
This led Miko to assume that the town of Kogane contained several nice mages who didn't just specify in one type of magic, and she started to wonder if the guild in that area could assemble a strong team of mages to help her achieve the goal of making Gunjou be open to tourists again. The town formerly had been welcoming to tourism, until one of the dark mages felt that Gunjou was better off without outsiders trying to criticize the townspeople for believing that their best efforts in applying Darkness Magic to their daily lives had actually produced results that the critics would enjoy.
"Just because he believed in the goddess, he still relies on her after she had forsaken us. Still, I need to somehow speak with her and see if she can bring the town back to its happiest times." Miko stated aloud to herself, before looking worried about the well-being of a certain man.
That prompted Nioi to nicely reply with a soft smile on her face, as she picked up the orchid purple card that showed someone approaching the younger witch, "On your path to the goddess, you may be met with danger. Keep your suspicions up, regardless of the end result."
Miko responded with a sweet smile on her face, believing that she was aware of the most dangerous mages in Gunjou, "If you're referring to Ruina and Medusa strongly worshiping the dark goddess to where they paid the price for it, I'll be glad to avoid battles against them."
"That's not concerning me, but I suggest that you leave the Witch's Forest. Altering fate by telling you anything further could be catastrophic for our town." Nioi calmly replied to Miko, before narrowing her eyes at how Miko's journey would not be a relaxing one.
Miko simply bowed her head in a polite manner, before leaving the fortune teller's house. She walked down the front steps to find herself being back in the Witch's Forest, which had its tall leaves and trees in dark hues of purple. The lavender ground was merely the dirt that had been surrounded by wine purple gravel, and Miko glanced up from looking at the house to see some lilac purple crows making some of the haunting sounds that deterred most of the cowardly tourists. They were probably also disturbed by the sounds of some of the witches cackling evilly as they trained on this route, since they could purposefully misfire their hexing spells before fleeing to Gunjou or their forest-based cottages that were purple like their dark magic.
Miko made a neon purple aura engulf her hands while she looked in the direction of the beam that was still shining up into the air, and she had an ambitious look on her face. Confidence entered her eyes, feeling like the mages in Kogane Town would be able to assist her with the task of speaking with the goddess. Gunjou Town's goddess may have convinced her most devout person to be the leader of the town, but the goddess had been giving out certain orders that made Miko feel like the town had a terrible atmosphere.
Even though mages trained with their magic in the Witch's Forest, they always seemed to unleash spells of dark magic with the obsession of satisfying someone else's expectations. The dark mages never seemed to incorporate any feelings of joy into their magic, only seeming very sadistic as they followed the teachings of the goddess who had wanted Darkness Magic to thrive. Miko also followed the goddess, but not to the extent of making her purple spells seem like they were just destructive attacks without any love and care put into the art of using magic. As Miko softly smiled and walked down the dirt path leading to Kogane Town, she hoped that the mages in that town would understand the dilemma plaguing Gunjou Town.
Three hours later, in Kogane Town...
After spending most of his time with helping Sting look into the history of Gunjou Town, Rogue had taken a break from that activity to calmly sit on the ledge of the town's water fountain while he watched Risa display a new feature of her Psychic Magic. She created an Esper Ball in her right hand while the magenta pink aura surrounded her body, but Risa put more power into the spell while making it start to become hot pink. This shade of pink may have been the specialty of Miru, but Risa made her psychic energy be strong enough for the Esper Ball to start shifting between magenta pink and hot pink.
Risa had done this interesting gimmick for the purpose of seeing if she could make the same spell be in varying shades of pink, as she desired to make her spells have different aftereffects that would be contingent on the shades of pink that they were currently in. Risa had a serious look on her face, since she had heard from Rogue and Sting about the fact that Minerva could use Territory Magic to make the properties of her energy waves be altered, Some energy waves could be extremely hot, or Minerva could make them be as dense and heavy like titanium.
Therefore, Risa felt that she and Rogue were the best pair of wizards who could battle against Minerva. Rogue was now a Water Shadow Dragon Slayer, which meant that he could strike opponents with scalding or frigidly cold water to damage them, and shadows wielded by either Rogue or Risa could immensely harm opponents or at least immobilize them for the chance of precisely hitting them with other attacks. Risa felt that her strategy was simple, yet it would hopefully be effective. Although, the other strategy of making all of her spells change to different shades of pink at her command was still a plan that needed its first results to be seen.
As Risa tried to make the Esper Ball shift to being in the cerise hue of pink, Lucy and Sting walked out of the Sabertooth guild with happy smiles on their faces. They were glad that the purple feather would be able to get the attention of the Shimizuakira Council's representative. The beam was still coming from the feather, even though it was in the left pocket of Lucy's pants. That got the attention of Kūkiatsu and Kusabue, who walked out of a nearby restaurant with Sorano and Yukino coming out of a nearby shop where they restocked on magical coins. Even though everyone started to look awestruck at the sight of the beam, the sound of someone walking up to the group had gotten Risa's attention.
Upon seeing Miko remove her witch's hat and act like she was just a tourist visiting Kogane, Risa told her with a kind smile on her face, "Hello, stranger! Welcome to Kogane Town!"
Risa exclaimed in a startled manner, as the woman with midnight purple hair boldly stole the Esper Ball with her right hand and didn't get damaged, "Hey, give that back!"
The sight of the theft caused Lucy to sternly shout while running towards Miko, who was now running out of the town with Risa pursuing her, "Give that Psychic Magic back to Risa, you thief!"
Risa wasted no time with applying Psychic Magic to her feet, adjusting the magenta pink jacket that she wore with hot pink pants and light pink flat shoes while being glad that the pink aura was causing her to run extremely fast with Rogue quickly catching up to her, and they wouldn't even care if this thief would run all the way to Seigan Town. Rogue's feet were surrounded by an aura that shifted between dark blue and black, but he smiled confidently while thinking that chasing someone all the way to Seigan would be good for the team of Sabertooth mages. After all, Lucy could probably unleash Ice Magic to freeze that thief.
That was interestingly what Lucy chose to do, as she unleashed her first spell of Ice Magic from her right hand. The spell was called Ice Snowflake, and the spell made Lucy fire a light blue snowflake her mouth. The projectile landed in front of Miko, who jumped over it right before the snowflake could convert that section of the ground into light blue ice. The aftereffect of this spell was that it made a stream of icy wind rise up from the ice itself, causing the air to become much colder in Kogane Town. Lucy activated that spell two more times, striking the ice, and she made the area of the ice be tripled in size. This also increased the amount of icy winds, which became stronger to the point of making the clouds become colder.
The coldness of the clouds was followed by them becoming covered in light blue frost, before Lucy unleashed her second spell. It was simply known as Freezing Snowfall, and this spell required Lucy to aim her right hand up at the clouds. That caused the clouds to fire light blue beams down from the sky, and they all converged on Miko. She jumped forward while applying the aura of Darkness Magic to her feet, however, and Miko smiled in a complacent manner at how she dodged the attacks that ended up striking the ice.
"If these mages relied on the power of a goddess, then they would be able to hit-" Miko stated aloud in a confident tone of voice, before being interrupted by the sound of ice hardening around her.
Miko's words prompted Lucy to ask aloud in a stern manner with Sting running beside her, "Do you really think I'm reckless enough to destroy the town or not cleverly utilize my spells?"
When the light blue beams from Freezing Snowfall landed on the ice, they created large blasts of Ice Magic. Those blasts had the icy winds spinning outward, resulting in the entire town reaching a colder temperature, but the blasts also broke the ice that was previously created. That ice may have been broken, but the Ice Magic from the beams powered it up upon contact for its chunks to freeze anything that they touched. Lucy had managed to throw some of those pieces at Miko's ankles, which allowed the green-haired girl to slow down the thief.
Miko placed her witch hat back on her head, before creating a neon purple flame of Darkness Magic in her left hand. This flame was surprisingly hot enough to easily burn through Lucy's ice, but quickly changing the temperature around her body made Miko comically look pained as her legs started to have light blue ice burns on them as if she soaked them in dry ice. She didn't expect Lucy's ice to be much colder than the ice in a tundra, and Miko was also impeded by the fact that she had to defrost her left leg before unfreezing her right leg.
The large flame of dark magic may have easily melted the ice, but Miko made the neon purple aura of Darkness Magic engulf her body. She proceeded to run away from the mages as fast as she possibly could, but seeing Risa quickly manage to get in front of her only made the dark mage look extremely startled. Taking a step back only made her be cornered by Rogue and Sting, who narrowed their eyes at Miko's thievery, and Lucy simply gave a curious look to the flame in Miko's hand. Its color looked odd, but she felt like it couldn't even be touched because the flame was extremely hot like it came from a hellish and hexing witch. As Risa held out one hand for Miko to return the Esper Ball to her, she noticed that this mage had unintentionally harmed her legs by infusing too much magical power into her dark magic. That only made Risa create a magenta aura around her body, and she felt that it would be necessary to heal the thief and interrogate her.
30 minutes later, in the Sabertooth guild...
After using her magic to heal the witch's body, Risa sat across from her at the table while the other mages sat in the chairs that were around her. They all looked at the witch, who displayed an expression of joy from feeling no more pain. However, her facial expression quickly looked like an apologetic one where she displayed remorse for what had happened earlier. She started to look into Risa's eyes, seeing that the fashionable wizard was not happy about the spell being taken out of her hand. Since Risa was the one who healed her, Miko believed that Gunjou's goddess made this interaction be fated.
That was also the same prediction for how she had to evade spells that were being unleashed by Lucy, who fitting matched the description of the person who Miko was ordered to find. Lucy was the woman who had rings on her hands, but Miko still frowned in a remorseful manner. She didn't want any of the mages in this guild to perceive her as someone who was simply using them to fulfill her own goals, as Miko actually thought about the fact that she would need several strong allies to help her reach a mage who reshaped the town's culture into being darker than it had previously been.
Miko closed her eyes for a moment, not wanting to think about the memory of seeing some of an artistic mage's Darkness Magic get extracted for the purpose of leaving them passionless. That mage was only feeling the need to wield their spells for vicious purposes, not even having any emotions such as joy infused into their magic. Some of their magic had been taken away by a man who personally believed that he was doing what the goddess viewed to be correct, even if the goddess herself had presumably gone insane.
The dark goddess had stopped blessing the residents of Gunjou with bountiful harvests, as well as ceasing with her yearly tradition of blessing people in that town by increasing the levels of power in their Darkness Magic to where the dark mages were able to keep becoming more powerful. This was not a consequence for having any heretics in the town, but the goddess herself had been fated to go insane during her eternal duration of ruling over the town. Even in the current time, her spirit tainted the heart of a man who Miko strongly cared about. Upon thinking about how her friend used to be so passionate in the art of painting, the thought of him obeying the newest mage of Hexing Enchantress only made small tears start to well up in her eyes.
"I am truly sorry for stealing that sphere from you, psychic mage. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Miko Goetia, a mage of the Hexing Enchantress guild in the town of Gunjou. I need to be escorted back there, since my friend Maruberiki will probably return to normal if I speak to the goddess in front of him and convince her to bless our town with a good hex." Miko explained with a stern and pleading look on her face, as she sounded like she was begging for help.
That prompted Risa to ask with a curious facial expression, as she looked back at Miko, "Do you mind telling us about Maruberiki?"
"Maruberiki Ōkami is a dark mage who used to be the best artist in Gunjou, but everything went bad for him after the critics in an art gallery made him believe that his paintings that had been infused with magic were just worthless trash. After becoming despondent, he begged our insane goddess to grant him the power of destroying passions in both art and magic. When I saw him for the last time, he physically looked soulless after..." Miko explained in a tearful tone, before crying and trembling as she recalled the moment where Maruberiki accepted the goddess' power into his own magic.
Sting asked with a stunned look on his face, wondering what Miko meant, "Soulless? Is he like an immortal zombie now?"
Miko only shook her head in a rejecting manner, as that wasn't what she meant. Miko had seen that Maruberiki still had his personality, as he had always been strange enough to claim that everyone's magic was able to talk. However, any instance of activating her Darkness Magic involved Miko hearing no words from her spells. She proceeded to create some neon purple flames in her hands, before gently placing them into Risa's hands. Risa felt that Miko put no power into her flames, but she only looked puzzled at Miko's choice of handing her the flames.
Risa thought that she wouldn't even be able to absorb them with the dark magenta variant of her Psychic Magic, and she also remained silent with the feeling of confusion appearing in her eyes. She hadn't been able to hear any voices coming from Miko's flames, which burned out very quickly. Risa did manage to sense that Miko wasn't using her magic for evil purposes, as she could've easily burnt Risa's hands if she chose to do that. Miko was being sincere in her statements, and she needed the help of the Sabertooth mages.
Since they had seen that Miko was the first wizard to touch a spell of Psychic Magic without it causing her any pain, Sting and Lucy wondered if Darkness Magic was dangerous to the point where it could overwhelm any spell of Psychic Magic. If that was true, then Risa would probably need to be in her Psychic Shadow Dragon Mode throughout the entire adventure. Lucy and Sting both looked at each other with calm smiles on their faces, since they both felt that it would be a great idea for Risa to mainly counter dark magic with shadows.
Sting told Risa with a confident look on his face, trying to have a good plan, "Risa, listen to me. On this adventure, I think you need to unleash your dark magenta magic at its fullest potential. Darkening the shades of your other spells may work, but this will be the first time that you and some others will be fighting against people who use Darkness Magic."
That caused Risa to respond with a smile of assurance on her face, feeling glad that she would be able to prove herself against more dangerous mages, "I'll be glad to show Gunjou's mages that they shouldn't underestimate psychic abilities! Darkness Magic doesn't scare me."
Kusabue asked Miko with a polite smile on her face, "Miko-san, do hexes of dark magic interefere with Sound Magic itself in any ways?"
After wiping away her tears with one hand and looking calmer, Miko replied in a kind tone, "From what I've seen, some hexes can silence people from speaking and nullify magic. Although, I think any mage that uses hexes to warp objects elsewhere would have a difficult time doing that to actual waves of sound."
That information only caused Kusabue to happily cheer, and the young girl believed that she could be very strong like Risa. In fact, seeing Risa go back to creating an Esper Ball in her right hand for the purpose of changing its shade of pink only made Kusabue build up a shamrock green aura of Sound Magic in her hands. She wanted to change its color, similar to when she and Lyon fused their green kinds of magic together. However, building up a high amount of power didn't allow Kusabue to make her magic become mint green. She simply glanced down at her dark green shirt that matched her forest green jeans and plain green flat shoes, before briefly glancing at her brother's pear green sweater vest that went well with his mint green shoes and shorts. She hoped that Kūkiatsu would be happy to see the eventual day that she would be very powerful, causing her to joyfully giggle.
Kūkiatsu simply glanced over at Kusabue in a somewhat concerned manner, as he hoped that her shifting idolization between Risa and Rairakku wouldn't make her ambitions of being strong ally become problematic. The teenage researcher felt that he and Kusabue were better off with fusing their magic together for them to unleash powerful attacks that could be as strong as Unison Raids, especially since wind and sound were an interesting combination. If Kusabue fused her own spells together and only thought of making them powerful without a decent strategy, then she wouldn't be a smart wizard.
Therefore, Kūkiatsu simply maintained a silent and worried look towards his sister. He feigned a faint smile of approval when she looked at him for a moment, but Kūkiatsu had only done that to not worry her. They had both been privately trained by Kagura, who taught them how to increase the pressure and potency of their spells. Kūkiatsu and Kusabue were strong, but this would also be their first time dealing with enemies who wielded Darkness Magic. As they saw Miko get up from the table to walk out of the guild with the protagonists following her, Kūkiatsu looked somewhat worried about going through the Witch's Forest and encountering the types of plants growing in Gunjou's area of Fiore.
Three hours later, in the Witch's Forest...
Kūkiatsu went to the Witch's Forest with the rest of his teammates, noticing the orange sunset sky making the purple trees display black shadows, and the thin rays of the sunset's light allowed him to see that this forest was quite different from the one in his hometown. The lavender-colored flowers may have looked pretty, but even trying to touch one caused the flower to have two lavender purple orbs emerge from it. The orbs were small, only being around the same size as the petals of wine purple daisies that were nearby.
Those flowers were known as Midnight's Moon Daisies, and going up to them made Kūkiatsu quickly experience the sight of purple powder shooting upwards from them like they contained geysers. He quickly stepped back while believing that the powder was poisonous, but breathing in a tiny bit of it didn't make him become sick. Kūkiatsu only felt dizzy like he had a terrible headache, but the effect only lasted for a few seconds. That wasn't necessarily due to the small amount of powder that he inhaled, though.
The powder from the daisies only had potent effects during the nighttime, and that actually confused Kūkiatsu. In the distance, there was the perplexing sight of the sky over Gunjou being in a dark shade of purple. That atmosphere of nighttime didn't match with the current sky, which implied that someone used a powerful spell of Darkness Magic to make the sky have that appearance. Lucy and Sting had also seen it, which caused them to run down the forest's main path. Miko followed them with Risa and Rogue staying close to her, but they were as startled as Kusabue from hearing the sounds of nearby witches sadistically cackling.
One of the witches who stayed hidden behind some trees had pulled out a wine purple scepter from her Sangria purple cloak, and the glass orb of the scepter had Darkness Magic swirling around inside of it. She aimed the scepter's magic at Kusabue, who found herself swiftly dodging a glittery beam that was in a violet color. She and the other Sabertooth mages were all pushed away by the force of the beam hitting the ground, as it created a violet blast. Despite stretching out her hands to absorb the sound of the blast, Kusabue felt that this wasn't the moment for her to play around.
"The spell came from near the northern direction!" Kusabue stated aloud with a fierce look on her face, before running off to confront the wizard.
Risa responded in a calmer tone, as she quickly charged up an Esper Ball, "Instead of running right into their hexes, I have a better idea!"
"I've got a great idea, too!" Sting stated with a confident facial expression, as he made a white aura heavily form in his mouth.
As Kusabue crazily ran towards the woods to find the specific witch who used that dark magic, she heard noises that resembled the sounds of magical power charging up. There were no auras that could easily be seen, only the faint sight of the witches with cloaks making their scepters appear and retract from behind the trees like they were intending to hit the group with sneaky attacks. This only prompted Kusabue to focus on the sound of one witch cackling, prompting her to apply Sound Magic to her feet. She ran much faster while her eyes focused on the scepter itself, and Kusabue jumped up into the air. She made the shamrock green aura strongly engulf her hands, before making them aggressively slam down on the scepter's orb, and the sound of its glass cracking only created more waves for Kusabue to intake.
The witch who had tanned skin and short lavender hair in a bob style watched her scepter be unable to work, due to the cracking glass making the violet-colored Darkness Magic leak out into the air. Before she could absorb it into her hands, Kusabue unleashed a new spell called Sound Slowed Wave. She aimed her hands at the witch while stretching them outward in a comically slow manner, only for the shamrock green beams that emerged from them to strike her at high speeds. Kusabue's opponent found herself taking in the Darkness Magic at a ridiculously slow pace, only for Kusabue to rapidly punch her in the face with her right fist.
This prompted the other witches to fire their spells at Kusabue, only for her to rapidly jump up to a high altitude while she moved at hyperactive speeds. The side effect of Kusabue's spell was that she would move in a hyperactive manner, as opposed to her opponent having much slower movement. That witch even gasped in a manner where her speech appeared to be in slow motion, and Kusabue readied the spell called Resounding Wave Vibration. As she was about to clap her hands, Kusabue saw Risa's attack strike a tree to create a light pink blast that was somewhat large. She did that two more times, allowing her to change who the witches were focused on attacking.
One of the witches sadistically stated, before laughing in a disturbing manner, "Attack the one who's using Psychic Magic! Her mind will fear the dark, unlike the one who can hear well in the dark!"
Sting shouted sternly, distracting the witches before he fired a giant white beam from his mouth, "White Dragon's Roar!"
Sting told the witches with a confident facial expression, "Unfortunately for you, my mind doesn't fear anything!"
Sting's giant beam of light went high into the air, before it ended up bursting to create several white projectiles of dense light. They gained more power and speed during their descent towards the forest, and the projectiles created large explosions when they struck the ground. The immense amount of light blinded the eyes of the witches, causing some of them to misfire their hexes, and even unleashing an orchid purple flame that was hexed to nullify a blast couldn't prevent the witches from letting Sting fire that same spell again.
As he made more projectiles burst out of the light and fall to the ground, Sting watched Lucy unleash her first spell of Ice Magic from her right hand. The Ice Snowflake spell was fired at one of the falling bursts of light, causing it to have a light blue coating made from frigid ice. When that icy burst of light hit the ground, the light blue blast's energy that went outward ended up freezing most of the ground that was around it. A large stream of icy air rose up from the ice, causing the air to be very cold.
Lucy activated her third spell of Ice Magic, and it was known as Icy Tsunami. This spell caused Lucy to aim her right hand at the ice, and a light blue tsunami of ice began to rise up from it. The attack lunged towards the witches while freezing the area of the forest that its icy air came into contact with, but the falling ice didn't just cover the ground and plants in thick sheets of light blue ice. Light blue stalagmites rose up from the ice, one of them even piercing through a scepter for the sharpness to break it. That witch was someone who had wine purple hair going down to her shoulders while her Heather purple eyes displayed timidness, and she stopped running when she was far enough from the ice. She glanced at Lucy, who looked back at her with a stern frown, and that witch fled towards Gunjou with the other six witches retreating. As Lucy and the other mages were happy about chasing their enemies, Miko looked concerned about the fact that the town's gatekeepers acted like they needed to report back to Maruberiki.
30 minutes later, outside the town of Gunjou...
After the witches had gone away, Lucy and her friends continued to walk through the Witch's Forest. They were still feeling like that they needed to be aware of any other witches who would come out from behind the trees to attack them or hurt Miko, and Sorano activated a spell of Angel Magic. The spell was called Angel's Messenger, and a light blue aura surrounded Sorano's body. She raised her right hand up into the air, allowing her magic to create a light blue burst of light. Several light blue projectiles with fanged mouths and winged tails emerged from the burst of light, before Sorano made them swarm the distant part of the forest that was up ahead.
She smirked in a confident manner from seeing them split off into three different paths, which was fitting because the path to Gunjou was straight ahead while the two side paths that had dirt in darker hues of purple were veering off to the left and right sides. Sorano felt that Lucy could've used her Ice Magic in that manner beforehand, since coldness going down any path would make any mage visibly shiver or have frost breath if they weren't accustomed to cold weather. However, this secondary plan still worked.
Sorano happily put her hands in a praying manner, feeling glad that this magic was the color pertinent to Yukishimou. Sorano hoped that the goddess wouldn't be offended by the fact that this powerful magic in a shade of blue was unrelated to ice or water, especially since the Angel Magic created powerful light blue explosions. The explosions meant that the projectiles came into contact with mages, as well as their spells, and Sorano heard some of her attacks inflict damage on the witches who were screaming.
Those sounds of screams prompted Kusabue to stretch out her hands, hearing the waves of sound go towards the group. As Kusabue absorbed the Sound Magic and kept getting closer to the town, she joined the other Sabertooth mages in stopping for a moment. She watched Miko walk ahead of everyone in a concerned manner, before making purple flames be juggled between her hands, and Miko heard everyone else walking behind her. As she started to run and get very close to the elegant-looking violet entrance gate, the sounds of a woman tap dancing from behind the gate had gotten her attention. The tap dancing was done in a playful and happy manner, sounding rhythmic as it happened. Upon seeing the tap dancing woman and her partner appear from behind the purple trees that shielded them from view, Miko groaned in a frustrated manner. She felt that activating her magic was important for sensing any invisible mages, but it also got the attention of these wizards who tried to conceal themselves.
"Ara ara, you've finally made it back! Welcome home, Miko-chan." Kyasurin told her with a disturbing smile of gleeful maliciousness on her face, before giggling.
Miko merely replied in a bored tone, dropping her flames on to the ground, "Kyasurin, you and Matsuba need to also keep the gate open for the mages who are accompanying me into this place."
Matsuba evilly responded for Kyasurin, opening his sadistic-looking eyes that were in the color of deep mauve, "Sorry, but there's a surprise for them! They're not allowed in, unless they want to die! That wizard, Lucy Heartfilia, has gotten quite a prominent name for herself! She's the one who may eliminate us all!"
These two mages seemed like the types of mages who were ready to fight, not even caring if there would be a high amount of bloodshed. Miko didn't want anymore people from different towns getting hurt, and she looked back at the Sabertooth mages with a disappointed facial expression. She felt that they wouldn't be able to help her speak with the dark goddess if they couldn't enter the town, which meant that an alternative route would need to be taken. Despite this setback seeming like a predestined event to Miko, Lucy didn't view it from that perspective.
She sternly narrowed her eyes while walking up to the gate, making the Ice Magic heavily engulf her left hand, and Lucy wondered if she could freeze the gate. That had was quickly slapped away by Kyasurin, who strangely giggled before slightly moving off to the side. Kyasurin quickly winked with her right eye in a slightly friendly manner, as if she and Matsuba were spies who just had to do their jobs. The fact that no other warlocks were around this area right now meant that Kyasurin and Matsuba could respectively pull out lavender and sangria wallets from the insides of their shoes.
They held up the wallets, which were quickly opened for the lilac identification cards to be in a lower slot. These lilac identification cards contained violet-colored insignias that proved Kyasurin and Matsuba's roles of working for the Magic Council, as well as showing them both evilly grinning as their photos were next to Heather purple metallic badges that were in the same shape as the Magic Council's insignia. However, adhering to the current rules of Gunjou Town and the rules of Hexing Enchantress meant that neither Kyasurin or Matsuba could allow the Sabertooth mages to enter the town.
"If you want to get into Gunjou so badly, there is something you may be willing to try. Mauveria's Abode is on the right path involving the Wisteria Wasteland, but Violara's house in the Heatherberry Swamp is on the left path. You'll end up in Gunjou, no matter which path you take." Kyasurin explained with an unpleasant grin on her face, before giggling at the thought of the wizards going through both paths.
Lucy replied with a somewhat concerned look on her face, sensing that the dangerous town was even surrounded by more danger, "Somehow, I feel that taking either route will result in fights occurring."
Matsuba responded to her statement with a calm look on his face, assuring her that a duo of mages wasn't leading to a predictable outcome, "Actually, rumors say that Mauveria and Violara are only serving the Hexing Enchantress guild to further their own separate ambitions. If you kill one, then the other won't chase you down."
Miko simply gasped at what Matsuba had said, as those two mages weren't officially stationed anywhere in the past. Back when Gunjou Town hadn't been a place where Maruberiki and his accomplice discovered some hidden treasures in an area with crystals, any mages who went into the Wisteria Wasteland or the Heatherberry Swamp were merely stopped and battled by the dark mages who were either doing jobs in those areas or wanting to just have thrilling fights with tourists as a way of passing the time.
However, Miko felt like those parts of Gunjou's culture had changed when the newest dark mage in Hexing Enchantress accompanied Maruberiki down into the deep cave that had several crystals. Gunjou Cave hadn't been famous for anything very special, not even having an altar for someone who would worship a goddess, but the cave's paths led to interesting areas where dark mages had enjoyed unleashing their magic. In those hidden areas of the cave, a specific shade of Darkness Magic would get stronger if it matched the crystals around it.
Miko wanted to obtain some crystals for herself, as they were sometimes used as currency, and crystals in any shade of purple were capable of being exchanged for high amounts of jewels in Fiore. Miko wanted to express her own feelings of happiness to Maruberiki by getting several of those beautiful crystals, even if the color purple made him feel passionless. Whether she had those gemstones or the money, Miko wanted to share her happy experience with Maruberiki for him to possibly regain his passion for making artwork. However, all she could do right now was see which way the Sabertooth mages would go in their quest for escorting her to the dark goddess. They were all currently looking deep in thought, weighing their options, and Miko hoped that Maruberiki could weigh his own options when listening to the guild's newest dark mage named Minerva Orland.
Meanwhile, in the artist's studio...
Maruberiki stood in a studio that served as a room for his artistic pieces of work, but the man who had his long and wine purple hair in a fluffy ponytail simply had the feeling of displeasure in his Byzantium purple eyes. He glanced down at his lavender blazer, which had a grape purple dress shirt behind it, and he wore some amethyst purple jeans. The jeans complimented his wisteria purple sneakers, as well as the Tyrian purple bracelets that he wore on his wrists. Also, the bracelets interestingly had rings as the necklace's beads.
Despite the fact that his clothing was in varying shades of purple, the dark purple palette in Maruberiki's right hand only had lavender paint in each of the seven indentations. He had obsessively applied lavender paint to the white canvas for the purpose of creating the image of a beautiful lavender vase with lavender tulips inside of it, but Maruberiki finished the painting only mere minutes before looking disappointed. His feeling of sadness came from the painting not being judged as a masterpiece, which was the same criticism for all of his wonderful paintings that were on canvases.
The paintings were all in the lavender hue of purple, even if they were displaying images such as the Hexing Enchantress guild or a witch who liked to dance in a nightclub. The main images within the paintings had all been in this particular color, since the bright variant of the purple seemed like a color that was only subjected to negative criticism instead of being liked by the most elite artists who viewed Maruberiki's paintings in the past. No matter how much time he spent with trying to make the lavender portraits be beautiful, Maruberiki himself never perceived them as being satisfactory.
He walked across the violet tiled floor that matched the studio's orchid purple walls, and Maruberiki frowned as he looked at one of his paintings that had been near the studio's wine purple door. The painting featured the image of a ring, an item of Holder Magic, but this painting always made Maruberiki have an angered look in his eyes. That was because of the fact that he hadn't personally seen the legendary ring, and he felt that trying to satisfy the egos of his critics would be impossible if they saw such a subjectively mediocre painting. As his hands reached for the canvas to tear it apart, Maruberiki heard someone open the studio's door.
"Maruberiki, I just came here to inform you that the angered dark mages are still acting hostile. They're not doing it to a severe extent, but their loss of passion really displays how they respect you in following the goddess." Minerva Orland calmly told him, her lips forming a sadistic smirk as viciousness was in her eyes.
That prompted the artist to sternly reply while turning around to face Minerva, "The dark goddess herself is mad and passionless, but everything will be fine when the last witch with a pure heart offers up her soul."
The wizard's plan caused Minerva to respond with a somewhat concerned look on her face, her eyes starting to display feelings of worry, "If you're referring to Miko, she went out of the Witch's Forest today. We thought she could be stationed there, but the other gatekeeper witches are probably obsessed with only hurting tourists."
Upon hearing that the witches made a mistake in letting Miko leave to wherever she wanted to go, Maruberiki sighed in an annoyed tone. He simply walked towards Minerva, before dropping the palette and paintbrush to create a lavender flame of Darkness Magic in his right hand. He simply crushed his magic by making his palm form a fist, and Maruberiki extinguished the flame. His purple hand surprisingly made him feel no pain from the fire's burns, as he felt that working on artistic pieces to satisfy critics had been more important than anything else. He had been painting out of frustration and obsession for years, which caused his hands to essentially resist the feeling of pain.
However, Maruberiki felt upset at Minerva mentioning that Miko was gone. Without her being in Gunjou to offer up her soul to the dark goddess, the town would continue to be in a passionless and gloomy atmosphere. Maruberiki felt that this was the most optimal plan for making Gunjou be a better place, but the idea only came to mind after Minerva was the one to manipulate him into having that belief. Now that she was a dark mage in the Hexing Enchantress guild, Minerva desired to prove that she was capable of making her new guild be the best one in Fiore.
Minerva looked down at her elegant and strapless dark purple dress that had a lilac shade of purple on the area of the dress under some of her exposed cleavage, and she frowned in disgust at the thought of the Sabertooth guild. Some of the mages from that guild were being perceived as champions for defeating a powerful mage and goddess, yet they couldn't even win the Grand Magic Games. The purple-haired woman wondered if Miko had gone to them for assistance with taking down the cult that Minerva convinced Maruberiki to make, but her thought of taking down Lucy was interrupted by one of the witches hurriedly pushing past her to get through the doorway.
"Lord Maruberiki, high and noble king of the Violet Faithful! I'm here to report that Miko Goetia is in the Witch's Forest, and she's heading here with a group of mages!" The tanned witch stated in a respectful manner, as she got down on her left knee and lowered her head to be facing the ground.
That report prompted Maruberiki to ask in a calm manner, as his eyes expressed some feelings of being interested, "Who is accompanying Miko back to this town?"
"Well, one of the mages with green hair uses sound waves. Another green-haired girl was using Ice Magic while she wears rings, and there was a blond-haired guy fighting alongside a psychic mage. It was too difficult to concentrate, since the air became too cold and-" The witch replied in a kind manner while still being on her knee, before Maruberiki motioned for her to be quiet.
Since this witch mentioned a girl who wore rings, Maruberiki curiously wondered if she was collecting the legendary rings. He had heard of them in Gunjou's purple books regarding myths, as well as reading about them in some wine purple scrolls that were in the Tyrian Temple. The books and scrolls had only made him interestingly narrow his eyes in a manner that expressed distaste for the legendary rings, however. He despised the fact that those rings supposedly preserved various kinds of magic, especially since he viewed Holder Magic to be just as problematic as Caster Magic.
As hypocritical as it sounded, Maruberiki wielded his Darkness Magic as part of a goal where he wanted to lead Fiore's mages down a path of destruction that would end with him using his own magic to make himself cease with existing. He didn't want anyone tainting magic with their unrelenting desires of harming other people, and he personally thought that the town's insane goddess bestowed upon him the power to be the hero in this situation. He wanted to separate people and magic, believing that this dynamic would just lead to endless war. He frowned at the thought of someone who wasn't a tourist being brave enough to come here and stand against his goal of making the entire kingdom have no strife.
Maruberiki chose to walk out of his art studio, before going down a dark hallway that had royal purple carpeting, and he paid no mind to a locked room upstairs. Instead, he simply went out the front door with Minerva and the witch being right behind him. They stood on one of the purple roads that had the designs of ghosts and hexes being featured in different shades of purple, and the antagonists were all just calmly looking around Gunjou to see the cultist mages fighting each other. Their sounds of fighting ceased when Maruberiki loudly clapped his hands, getting their attention. They all looked in his direction, staying quiet and looking emotionless as they ignored the sound of a woman near the harbor singing without any music. Maruberiki merely frowned as he glanced around the area to see the passionless wizards of Hexing Enchantress, but Minerva evilly smirked at the witches and warlocks as she viewed this situation like Sabertooth declaring a Guild War on the place where she could rule with her dark magic.
How was Chapter 58? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and the other protagonists have met Miko, who is characterized to put a lot of her beliefs in faith, fate, destiny, and the dark goddess. They will all eventually go into the town of Gunjou, but even that will make Lucy and her friends be met with some mages to the point where different philosophies clash. As shown in the last section, Maruberiki's philosophical view somewhat involves him believing that the town's insane goddess wants him to have the belief that he must be passionless and spread that feeling on to others. Anyway, this is the first part of the Mauve Darkness Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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