Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 68: Kusabue's Friend! Tsuki's Respects To Ayame! Rairakku's Desire For Happiness! Aiding The Enemy With Information About The Tyrian Temple!
Tsuki entered the guildhall of Hexing Enchantress, her eyes noticing the lavender wooden floor that complimented the dark purple brick walls. There were dark purple tables in the guildhall while they were round, along with being made from different kinds of wood from the trees that were in the Wine Woods, and the tables all had some amethyst purple wooden chairs surrounding them. Tsuki sat down in a chair that was close to the guildhall's entrance, and she decided to wear a dark wine purple dress with Iris purple stripes on the front of it.
That was Tsuki's way of quietly paying her respects to Ayame, who had been the only top commander to end up losing her life and the entirety of her soul on the previous day. Without Ayame around, Tsuki could only have a depressed look on her face from how she had been the only commander without a partner. Partnering up with anyone wouldn't have likely mattered for today's agenda, however, and that was because of how Minerva ordered everyone to recover their strength until the Sabertooth mages would come back.
When the wizards from the Sabertooth guild would come back, Tsuki would get to see Kusabue again. The green-haired girl may have taken out her anger and revenge on Tsuki, but the dark witch wasn't upset with Kusabue. Kusabue at least apologized and wanted to be her friend, and that situation was where Tsuki got flowers added to her hat by the very first friend in her life. Ayame was unfortunately just her teammate while they didn't have anything resembling a strong bond, but Tsuki at least had the decency to also carry a bouquet of Iris purple flowers wrapped in a dark wine purple cloth.
She thought that Yuuta and the other top commanders were busy with arranging Ayame's funeral, since no one asked Tsuki to lead them to where Ayame's body was located in the Wine Woods. There were no funeral directors in this town, as Maruberiki seemed disgusted enough with mages to where he prioritized absorbing their shades of dark magic above mourning any of the guild members, and not caring for the dead mages only made Tsuki begin to wonder if he maintained enough sanity to negotiate with the ones who were still alive. He would certainly have to negotiate with Tsuki, as she got ou from her chair during the moment where he walked into the guild.
"Maruberiki-san, can I ask you a question?" Tsuki asked in a polite manner, speaking loud enough to get the guild master's attention.
As Minerva entered the guildhall with Rairakku walking behind her, Maruberiki responded in a stoic tone, "You can ask me anything, Tsuki."
"Will you spare the life of Kusabue-chan, the sound-wielding mage? Even if you kill the others, can she at least stay alive?" Tsuki asked with a nice smile on her face, hoping that Maruberiki had mercy.
That prompted Maruberiki to reply with an astounded look in his eyes, "Absolutely not! If I give even one of those wizards the chance to stop my noble plan of separating magic from mages, they would kill me! Besides, a guild war doesn't end until one side surrenders or has their whole army wiped out!"
Upon hearing Maruberiki's philosophy in that last sentence, Tsuki simply frowned at him in a displeased manner. She felt that he would let the Hexing Enchantress guild lose several members instead of surrendering to Risa and her friends, since that was evident by how Maruberiki didn't stop Kyasurin and Matsuba from dragging all of the living top commanders to the Magic Council for them to be interrogated by members of the Custody Enforcement Unit. The interrogators wouldn't be able to get many answers out of mages who had no passion for anything, but even Tsuki felt that not rescuing them was kind of a harsh punishment.
That harshness mainly came from Minerva being Maruberiki's right-hand woman, since she thought that it would only be a waste of time to attack Kyasurin and Matsuba before they killed the top commanders. If Kajino and others died at the hands of wizards who also used Darkness Magic, then that just meant that their souls and magic would be sent back to the Tyrian Temple that resided under the Gunjou Moon. The moonlight managed to touch those members of the Magic Council, meaning that they couldn't be able to send their victims to an afterlife where their souls weren't absorbed by the dark goddess.
In fact, Minerva started to have a sadistic smirk on her face from realizing that Kyasurin and Matsuba were strengthening the power of the dark goddess by using their magic to kill the top commanders, so Maruberiki and Minerva could take in more of her power and madness. Minerva glanced down at her new dress, which was in a deep hue of mauve purple with seven orchid purple flames forming in a circle in the area that was just below her large breasts, and she wore royal purple stilettos that had dark purple straps on their sides.
"None of those weak losers deserve to be kept alive tomorrow, especially since that trash named Rogue and his filthy friend named Risa destroyed my favorite dress." Minerva stated with a vengeful smile appearing on her face, as feelings of malice entered her eyes.
That caused Maruberiki to reply with a calm facial expression, before turning his attention to Tsuki, "Well, I wouldn't annihilate them for that reason alone. By getting rid of that mage who has six rings, it would rightfully send a message to everyone else in Fiore. Even if a mage's magic can speak to me, it's bizarre for your magic to express anything less than dark feelings of malice towards our enemies."
"You can't just say that about my Darkness Magic and be so petty, Maruberiki-san!" Tsuki responded to him with an offended look on her face, viewing his last sentence as a personal attack.
Maruberiki argued back, questioning Tsuki with anger in his voice as he looked miffed, "Petty?! Tsuki, didn't you say before giving up some of your soul to the dark goddess that you cared about no one other than yourself?! Didn't you want to incorporate sadism and viciousness into your Darkness Magic for Gunjou Town's goal to be accomplished, even if you had to watch all of the other top commanders die?! If you truly followed my wisdom, why is your magic sounding foul and claiming you want happiness?!"
In this moment, Tsuki could only look at Maruberiki with a saddened facial expression. She wasn't about to cry from his harsh questioning, but recalling how Kusabue fixed her hat and even added real flowers to it only made the young witch think back to yesterday. That vicious battle may have ended with Risa trapping Tsuki in a beautiful illusion where she could feel everything as actually being real, but real flowers touching the illusory hat actually caused it to become real while Tsuki's feelings of joy in the purple meadow actually felt real.
Tsuki couldn't exactly put these feelings into philosophical sentences that Maruberiki could comprehend, but that short amount of time under the pink morning sun made her experience happiness. Tsuki never felt happy before, even when completing jobs as a dark witch alongside Ayame, and being so heavily devoted to the dark goddess without any scrolls on how to live life with any happiness certainly made Tsuki question her life's purpose. Based on the dark wine purple aura of her Darkness Magic could be visible, it could be said that Tsuki's magic was questioning Maruberiki about if her life had a major purpose in his plan.
He didn't even address Ayame's death, as no flowers were in his hands while the lavender T-shirt matching his amethyst purple khaki pants didn't have any Iris purple accessories on them. This just made Tsuki believe that Maruberiki cared nothing about all of the top commanders, prompting her to worriedly look at Rairakku. The older woman had to deal with Maruberiki proceeding to give her a disapproving look, almost like he had expected her to be powerful without Minerva having to take over in fighting the Sabertooth mages, and the corner of Rairakku's right eye allowed her to get a glimpse of Tsuki walking out of the Hexing Enchantress guild.
Ten minutes later, at Rairakku's villa in Gunjou Town...
Tsuki wasn't brave enough to leave the town of Gunjou, and she simply waited for Rairakku to finish conversing with Maruberiki before more dark mages would enter Hexing Enchantress. When Rairakku left the Hexing Enchantress guild, the sight of Tsuki still being in front of that building made the older woman believe that she needed to take the young girl to a place where she would feel more comfortable. Rairakku took Tsuki to her villa, which was an eggplant purple villa with light purple walls that matched its amethyst purple carpeting.
The amethyst purple carpeting was complimented by a Heather purple square table where Tsuki sat across from Rairakku, and the two dark witches were drinking Taro milk tea from two eggplant purple teacups that were on lavender purple plates. Tsuki gently sipped her hot tea, before the sight of the lavender purple plate made her start to frown in a stern manner. Lavender was Maruberiki's favorite shade of the color purple, and that only made Tsuki start to think about why Maruberiki wouldn't spare Kusabue's life.
Many of the lavender purple buildings in Gunjou Town were all damaged by Kusabue during her rampage, and many of the dark mages who chose to wield lavender purple Darkness Magic had to deal with the young girl's wrath. Maruberiki thought that Kusabue's rage couldn't just go unpunished, but Tsuki felt her legs slightly tremble with anxiety from feeling like Maruberiki would possibly offer up the remaining pieces of the top commanders' souls to the dark goddess because he was so obsessed with this idea of viewing himself as a hero who seemingly carried out noble actions at a constant rate.
Maruberiki's decision of making Minerva force Rairakku to take in the power of the crystal from Gunjou Cave made Tsuki start to doubt the nobleness of his actions, however. In fact, it wasn't noble for her to be manipulated into believing that it was good to think out of fear instead of thinking clearly. Tsuki felt that she could've avoided being branded with that seal of Darkness Magic if she chose to flee from Gunjou after losing to Kusabue in the Wine Woods, but her luck was terrible enough to where her footsteps were being tracked by the sound-wielding mage yesterday. If Tsuki had driven Kusabue to want revenge that badly, then she could only give Rairakku a determined and stern look from feeling like she needed to apologize with actions instead of words.
"What's wrong, Tsuki? Isn't this your favorite flavor of milk tea?" Rairakku asked Tsuki with a curious facial expression, seeing Tsuki's stern expression nearly become a serious glare.
Tsuki replied in a calm manner, sounding very serious, "Yes, Miss Rairakku. Although, I'm not opposing your choice of tea flavors. I... I want to oppose Maruberiki-san!"
Upon hearing Tsuki speak her mind, Rairakku asked with a confused look on her face, "Tsuki, what are you trying to say? You want to go against someone as strong as Maruberiki?"
Rairakku angrily shouted at Tsuki, looking displeased as she saw the young girl nod her head in agreement with that statement, "Don't say such stupid stuff like that! I think you're just changing your stance on him now because of that girl named Kusabue! Don't have such a ridiculous motivation! Even if Maruberiki kills your friend, you're working with him for the purpose of having a long live in Gunjou! Even if you're miserable, you can't beat him! You'll just end up dying, and I'll suffer from losing another ally! If you just remain afraid of him, then you'll have a fate of at least being alive while you're in darkness and unhappy!"
Rairakku furiously continued, as she aggressively got up from her orchid purple chair to go towards Tsuki to repeatedly slap her across the face, "Fear will keep you in your place, Tsuki! Being afraid of Maruberiki's power is good for you! If you're afraid, then you'll just be submissive and obey whatever orders he gives you! If you have no power to defeat him, then you just need to know your place and keep yourself from suffering! When you suffered by offering up some of your soul to the dark goddess, you received horrible luck! I now have the unfortunate luck of being a model and a musician who does sexual favors for dark mages just to survive, so don't make me suffer more in this harsh and unforgiving town of darkness by seeing you throw away your life like an idiot!"
Even if Rairakku thought that Tsuki was being very idiotic, she gasped in a slightly shocked manner from seeing that all of her harshest slaps didn't affect the serious look on Tsuki's face. The young girl didn't even make herself become ghostly, instead acting as if she was a ghost who didn't even feel fazed by Rairakku's attacks. Tsuki simply looked at Rairakku to see that she was stressed enough to now be crying tears of sadness during her moments of sadness, and Tsuki sent some Darkness Magic into her feet.
Tsuki levitated herself off of the ground for the purpose of looking deeply into Rairakku's eyes, wanting to see if her emotional words actually had conviction behind them. As Tsuki sternly kept her eyes on Rairakku's eyes to see what she was feeling, she made a dark wine purple aura of Darkness Magic surround her body. Rairakku watched Tsuki pour more magical power into the aura, almost like she was about to fire a spell, but Rairakku's hands trembled while the eggplant purple aura of her Darkness Magic only appeared for a few seconds.
Rairakku couldn't properly build up magical power when her emotions were troubled, and letting Tsuki continue to look in her eyes allowed the young girl to have an understanding smile slightly appearing on her face. Rairakku wanted Tsuki to be afraid of Maruberiki, but that was only because Rairakku herself was fearful of him. The slight feeling of bravery in her eyes was just as noticeable as the fear, and Tsuki interpreted that as Rairakku trying to hide that she wanted to have enough courage to fight Maruberiki. However, Tsuki started to look strong and courageous as she wiped away her friend's tears.
"Miss Rairakku, you want to fight for your own happiness. That's why I can sense some bravery in you, and there's no need to restrain yourself from thinking that this fight can help you discover a path leading towards what makes you happy."Tsuki explained to Rairakku in a confident manner, before nodding in approval towards her friend's feelings.
That prompted Rairakku to rudely deny those feelings, looking miffed, "It's not...! That's not what I...! Look, don't think that the idea of seeing the morning sun for the first time had any effect on me whatsoever!"
"You don't want a future of darkness and despair, Miss Rairakku. Deep down in the remaining part of your soul, you want the dark goddess to get better and bless our town again. Since that's how you really feel, start feeling happiness from giving yourself the passion for what you think is your first purpose in this new chapter of your life!" Tsuki replied in a persuasive tone, sensing Rairakku's emotions from the magic that she was trying to build up in her hands.
Rairakku looked down at her eggplant purple flat shoes, which went well with her light purple corset dress that had two eggplant purple brooches right above her breasts. The eggplant purple brooches went well with her eggplant purple ruffled skirt, which complimented her Iris purple leggings. The leggings were Rairakku's personal way of paying her respects to Ayame, as they were still dark witches in the same guild. Despite the fact that Ayame wasn't her close friend, the sight of Tsuki being in front of her made Rairakku feel like it would be a touching tribute for her to fight by Tsuki's side.
Tsuki started to look very confident, having a strong resolve in her desire to fight Maruberiki. Even if he were to end her life, Tsuki felt that didn't really matter. She recalled Risa's words about how people's lives would eventually end, and Tsuki felt that she could agree on how her accomplishments in life were more important than the timing of her death. If she were to die while trying to fight Maruberiki, the confidence in her spirit and her actions would probably be passed on to Rairakku and the others.
She looked into Rairakku's eyes again, seeing her have more feelings of bravery and confidence. Rairakku felt that she couldn't prevent Tsuki from going back to Hexing Enchantress by herself, and she had the philosophical belief that seeing this current task through to its last moment would allow her to have some happiness. Rairakku stretched out her left hand for a moment, having her palm up as she wanted Tsuki to put her hand into their retaliation against Maruberiki, and Tsuki touched that hand with her right hand. Tsuki noticed a familiar woman's ghostly hand joining in on this small alliance for a moment, and seeing the Iris purple aura entering the hands of her and Rairakku made Tsuki smile nicely at how she could also fight for Ayame. She wouldn't let her teammate's death be in vain, and Tsuki held Rairakku's hand as they proceeded to walk out of the villa.
45 minutes later, in the Hexing Enchantress guild...
After Rairakku went into a nearby alley and got her mind in a calmer state to where she could smile in a confident manner and build up magical power, she walked to the Hexing Enchantress guild with Tsuki by her side. The young girl took notice of the lavender purple wide roof that had been made from strong wood, seeing that it was the biggest roof while two roofs faced the left side, and three roofs faced the right side. All of the roofs had plain purple round ghosts on them, along with their eyes being menacing, and the ghosts greatly complimented the deep lilac windows that were bordered with plum purple metal.
One of the rectangular glass windows allowed Tsuki to see that some dark witches were burning a plum purple incense on a table, and that just reminded Tsuki of Hatankyō and Yūrei. Even though those two strong top commanders weren't here, Tsuki felt like they would support her decision of going against Maruberiki. He couldn't exactly think in a way that lived up to his own expectations as an artist, and expecting everything to perfectly fall into place for him was definitely a flawed idea.
Tsuki tightly clenched her fists in anger from remembering how Maruberiki used to say that strategy was part of creating artwork while art couldn't be crafted with arrogance, but he definitely followed Minerva's suggestions of placing the top commanders in places where she thought they could defeat their opponents. Tsuki thought that she and Ayame may have been victorious by fighting in the Gunjou Theater, since stationing Yuuta and Masako in the Wine Woods would've forced them to fight very hard like other dark mages instead of getting invested into plays and acting.
Philosophically, Tsuki was starting to believe that all of the smaller teams suffered losses because of Maruberiki and Minerva not making the best choices. Therefore, the guild master and his right-hand witch thinking that the commanders needed to be eradicated seemed very irrational. Tsuki narrowed her eyes at Maruberiki as she entered the guildhall with Rairakku, going past the wine purple bricks of the exterior as the Gunjou Moon was shining its light down near her. Tsuki stretched her right hand backwards for it to be bathed in the moonlight, wanting to give herself some more magical power in a situation where there was no turning back.
Upon seeing Tsuki walk into the guild with the dark wine purple aura surrounding her body, Maruberiki got up from his chair to ask with a curious facial expression, "Tsuki, why are you readying your magic? Have those Sabertooth mages returned to fight us?"
She responded with a soft smile on her face, thinking about those minutes of happiness with Kusabue instead of several months where she was miserable, "Maruberiki-san, this is my last day in Gunjou Town. Since it's my final day, I'll celebrate Ayame's life and not let her death be in vain! If you want to treat the top commanders as if we don't matter, then I'll feel happiness by taking you down!"
That prompted Maruberiki to reply with a cold and egotistical glare on his face, immediately building up a tremendous amount of the lavender aura pertaining to his Darkness Magic, "If you wish to defy me and go against the dark goddess, then this just means I'll have no qualms with killing you."
Maruberiki activated a spell called Lavender Moon's Malice, and he made a lavender purple orb of dark magic appear in his left hand. He threw that orb up into the air, before combining it with a spell known as Lavender Vortex of Shading. That spell caused Maruberiki to shoot out a lavender purple vortex of Darkness Magic from his right hand, and Maruberiki aimed the vortex at the orb. When the vortex struck his previous attack, the stronger dark magic started to coat his first spell for it to become deep lavender purple while it also grew much larger.
The sight of the fusion spell prompted Tsuki to unleash a spell called Dark Ghostly Wave, and Tsuki shot out a dark wine crescent-shaped wave that had feminine spirits giggling from within it. The attack struck the orb for a dark wine explosion to occur, sending flames of that color back towards Tsuki for a moment, but Maruberiki's orb easily pushed through that attack. It immediately hit Tsuki, resulting in a lavender purple explosion that was quite large, and Maruberiki remained stoic. He calmly watched the lavender clouds of smoke quickly clear up to reveal that Tsuki was badly bruised and bloodied from that attack, but she didn't even scream.
Instead, Tsuki looked up at Maruberiki for a moment to let him see that she was smiling in a confident even made herself become transparent like a ghost for a moment, essentially healing herself for a moment by becoming intangible, and the moment where she became solid again was where Tsuki chose to just laugh in a joyous manner. This only made Maruberiki unleash a fusion spell known as Lavender Lunar Kreimhild's Wrath, and he fired a lavender purple orb from his right hand. It bounced towards Tsuki in the same moment where Maruberiki shot out lavender-colored beams resembling medieval lances from his mouth, and the beams rotated around each other in midair. They soon rotated around the orb upon reaching it, all of the projectiles becoming a deep hue of lavender.
As she sent Darkness Magic into her feet and dodged this attack, Tsuki stated aloud with a happy smile on her face, "That attack won't intimidate me, Maruberiki-san! It brings me joy to think about how I healed myself after having several broken bones yesterday, so your attack just seems utterly weak!"
Upon seeing his attack loudly create five massive lavender purple blasts, Maruberiki replied in a soft whisper, "Don't underestimate me, trash."
Rairakku shouted with a worried facial expression, seeing Maruberiki nonchalantly raise his right palm higher into the air, "Tsuki, look out!"
Tsuki sent more Darkness Magic down into her feet while not caring that Maruberiki activated a spell called Lavender Moon Teleport in the same moment where he pushed his left hand forward to unleash a spell called Lavender Eradication Twister, and Maruberiki watched the spell in the blasts get bathed in some moonlight. That allowed him to make some lavender purple flames be warped to the space above Tsuki's head, and Maruberiki aggressively lowered his right hand for the flames to fall down on her.
The first flame struck Tsuki directly, engulfing her in a lavender purple explosion, but she still had Darkness Magic surrounding her feet. She kept her eyes open long enough to get a glimpse of the shadows of the flames, and Tsuki simply moved across the floor in swift movements to dodge the falling flames. As they made the area become covered in lavender fire, Tsuki picked up one of her dark wine purple flames. She threw it into the fire, causing it to violently burst while all of the fire shifted to becoming dark wine purple. That was no different than viewing Maruberiki's flames as alcohol, which meant that they could strengthen her own flames.
Although, stretching out her right hand to levitate all of those flames towards her caused them to form a massive fireball. Tsuki made it strike Maruberiki, seeing the dark wine explosion occur. However, that only led to him firing the Lavender Vortex of Shading Spell four times. They gained more power and speed from the amount of dark magic in the guildhall, causing Tsuki to have to dodge the vortexes at a rapid pace. Even though the attacks exploded in the moments where Tsuki's body got grazed, Rairakku's somewhat scared expression changed to one displaying curiosity. Tsuki was getting burned and needing to rapidly dodge attacks, but she maintained a smile of confidence on her face. Tsuki seemed like she was letting herself choose how she'd die, being so happy like she could gleefully dance on the edge of an abyss without fearing death.
Tsuki's lack of fear towards death inspired Rairakku to have a stern look in her eyes, and she activated a spell called Purple Phantasm Punch. Rairakku's fists were engulfed in an eggplant purple aura, which was followed by round eggplant purple ghosts with angry-looking dark purple eyes appearing on her fists. Rairakku ran towards the lavender purple fire, which caused the ghosts to widely open their mouths for the purpose of inhaling the fire, and the ghosts grew much larger. They even started to obey Rairakku's thought for the ghosts to take a deep breath, and the spirits tightly held their breath.
They sensed Rairakku applying Darkness Magic to her feet for them to be coated in an eggplant purple aura, and Rairakku quickly ran up to Maruberiki. He watched her punch him in the chest with both of her fists, which prompted the two ghosts to exhale two massive eggplant purple streams of fire from their mouth, and Maruberiki was hit by the powerful attacks at point-blank range! That didn't seem to bother him, though, and Maruberiki frowned at Rairakku as if her magical power was at a mediocre level.
The strength of Rairakku's attack didn't even leave any bruises on Maruberiki's body, but he felt like it was heroic of him to at least be pitying a treasonous mage who thought they could fight against him. Maruberiki unleashed a fusion spell called Cosmic Moon Blitz, and he raised his right hand into the air. That made the flaming twister from earlier be levitated into the air during the same moment where his left hand moved around in a circular motion to make a lavender ring of dark magic surround and immobilize Rairakku.
Rairakku winced in a pained manner from feeling her body start to be compressed in the moment where moonlight hit the lavender ring for thin beams of light to emanate from it, and lavender purple projectiles resembling full moons began to glide around on the ring. They moved around in the clockwise direction, gaining more power and speed with each lap they completed around the circle, and the high amount of Darkness Magic attracted to twister of fire to where it split itself up into six smaller twisters. They descended upon each of the six moons, causing them all to release bursts of light that were shaped like flames.
"Is the compression of my body just part of flashy spell, you failed artist?" Rairakku coldly asked in a stern manner, recalling that she experienced pain from stronger attacks on the previous day.
That caused Maruberiki to reply with an angered and emotionless look on his eyes, sounding bitter as if Rairakku hit a nerve, "You still haven't learned your proper place in my dream of utopia, you low-class mage."
Maruberiki watched Rairakku be blinded by the intense bursts of light, before the moons themselves slammed against her body. Rairakku was engulfed in six lavender blasts, but this only gave Tsuki the chance to unleash a spell called Dark Wine Moon Wave. Tsuki stretched her right arm backwards while moving her left hand forward, and Tsuki shot out dark wine waves of energy from her left palm. The waves all resembled crescent moons, and passing through the blasts that had the Gunjou Moon's light shining off of them only strengthened Tsuki's attacks.
Tsuki watched her projectiles strike Maruberiki in the same moment where the blasts around Rairakku faded away, and seeing Rairakku be heavily bruised from Maruberiki's fusion attack made Tsuki look worried. She shifted her attention back to Maruberiki for a moment, seeing him get caught in the dark wine purple explosions. Even though those explosions had the aftereffect of making the gravity around Maruberiki's body increase to where the pressure would possibly crush him, Tsuki frowned in a stern manner.
She watched all of the purple smoke clear up to reveal that Maruberiki was barely damaged by that attack, only having a small bit of blood dripping from how one of Tsuki's strong crescent-shaped waves hit a projectile's explosion to increase that attack's impact. Even if Maruberiki was mildly hurt by Tsuki's hurt, she maintained her frown as she felt that this was her way of avenging Ayame and also making amends with Kusabue. Upon hearing Rairakku also make sound waves by gently clapping her hands as she dusted them off, Tsuki felt like she had an idea.
"Rairakku-san, please assist me with a spell that can make multiple projectiles hit Maruberiki-san. I don't care how strong he is, since I want to enjoy my last day of life." Tsuki explained to Rairakku in a calm manner, ignoring that some of her wounds started to bleed.
That prompted Rairakku to respond with a stern facial expression, as she ran to Tsuki's side, "I was already thinking of a way to kick his ass for using those two dangerous spells against me."
Rairakku shouted fiercely with feelings of hatred for Maruberiki appearing in her eyes, "Let's see if you can withstand this, you bastard! Witch's Nightclub Delight!"
Rairakku smiled in a disturbing manner, before firing a large eggplant purple beam from her mouth. She fired it at the moonlight that was in front of Maruberiki, causing the spell to grow much larger while the dark magic split itself up into five smaller beams. That caused Tsuki to unleash a spell called Dark Wine Moon Gleam, and Tsuki made a dark wine purple aura heavily engulf her hands. She aimed them at the moonlight itself, causing the sky above Gunjou Town become a dark hue of wine purple, and this also made dark wine purple glitter come down from the moonlight in plentiful amounts.
The glitter came down in a spiraling formation within the moonlight, and it levitated in midair. The glitter quickly formed the shape of a dark wine purple orb, before solidifying into being an actual dark wine purple orb of Darkness Magic. Tsuki's orb had one of Rairakku's beams pass through it while the orb itself strangely seemed like a ghostly orb that couldn't be damaged by solid attacks, but the orb immediately glowed for its darkness to shine. That enhanced the power of that specific beam, turning it dark wine and transparent like a ghost.
That beam passed right through Maruberiki while he shook off the gravity from Tsuki's previous attack, and he simply stretched his hands forward for Rairakku's beams to attack him. Even if she infused more magical power into the Witch's Nightclub Delight spell, Maruberiki frowned in a bored and malicious manner from believing that there was a clear difference in strength between them. He built up another violently large surge of the lavender purple aura around his body, and that caused the beams that struck his hands to feel like some of the weakest attacks on Earthland.
As Rairakku watched her attacks explode in eggplant purple blasts that were quite large, she watched the final beam that was converted by Tsuki. That beam haphazardly bounced around Maruberiki's body after passing through him, gaining more power from the blasts that occurred, and the beam grew much larger. It remained transparent, before the moment of the orb vanishing was when the beam became solid again. It struck Maruberiki directly, resulting in a massive blast that shifted from being eggplant purple to being dark wine purple, and this attack came with the aftereffect of making the moonlight intensely shine towards Tsuki and Rairakku.
Despite the fact that they both felt themselves receive boosts in their levels of magical power, glancing through the window for a moment let Tsuki's eyes see a glimpse of the sky above Gunjou changing back to its original hue of purple. That made her remember that the sky reverted back to its original color after Dark Wine Moon Gleam was no longer active, and Tsuki started to think about her next attack. However, she would need to think fast as Maruberiki wasted no time with retaliating against her and Rairakku.
Maruberiki unleashed a fusion spell called Lavender Revenge of Dark Spirits, and he fired seven lavender rings from his left hand. That spell was followed by Maruberiki aiming his right hand at Minerva, who sat down at a nearby table, and Maruberiki watched a lavender aura quickly engulf her body. Minerva simply smirked in a sadistic manner, conjuring up several evil thoughts in her mind, and Maruberiki's aura extracted them for those thoughts to be converted into a high amount of magical power. Maruberiki shot out that dark magic at the space within the rings, allowing the lavender aura to take the form of Minerva being ghostly and lavender as this ghostly version of her had a look of evil in its dark orchid purple eyes to match its menacing frown.
Upon seeing Minerva's ghostly self go through the rings and become much larger to where she made dark orchid purple orbs appear in the space between her hands to create a much larger attack, Rairakku and Tsuki both looked worried. As Rairakku was about to activate a spell called Dark Witch's Fanatical Slashing Dance, Tsuki smiled in a satisfied manner as she recalled that the Lavender Ring Vengeance spell was commonly used alongside Dark Spirit Extraction by Maruberiki because both attacks involved as much foul play as Dark Witch's Fanatical Slashing Dance. Before Rairakku could boldly activate the spell that would likely result in her demise, Tsuki touched Rairakku's left hand to send half of her Darkness Magic into the other woman's body.
Rairakku asked Tsuki in an astounded manner, seeing the dark wine purple aura engulf her body as she became transparent for the next ten seconds, "Tsuki, what the hell are you doing?!"
Tsuki replied with a smile of farewells on her face, only having half of her remaining magical power surrounding her body, "Rairakku-san, you're willing to not believe that Maruberiki-san's fusion spell would kill you. Even though your spell may be strong, I can sense from your magic that you're fighting hard for your own happiness. I already became happy to where my own death will feel like victory! Even if Maruberiki gives my soul to the dark goddess and becomes more powerful, his magic feels as if he can never be happy. In that sense, I feel that having a friend for the first time and being happy means that I accomplished so much in my life."
Rairakku stated with tears in her eyes, looking saddened as her hands were unable to touch Tsuki right now to transfer the magical power back to her, "Tsuki, don't die for your friends! I'm... I'm one of your friends, too!"
"Respect my last wish, Rairakku-san. Find your own happiness in life, and please find your passion again. You never displayed it in Gunjou, not even when you had your soul. Even if you never get a small fraction of your soul back, please regain your passion. If you do that, maybe Violara-san would respect that you're so rude and obsessively idolize her as a dark witch. After seeing Risa's dark lilac magic yesterday, you're like a representation of if she was orphaned with no master and let herself become fully evil." Tsuki responded with her back to Rairakku, sounding stern as if she gained much more wisdom from thinking about Rairakku's past.
Rairakku could only nod her head in a manner that expressed obedience, as she watched her own tears fall from her eyes in the moment where Tsuki was struck by the ghostly and gigantic Minerva Orlando. The collision created a massive lavender purple blast that made several of the mages flee from the guildhall of Hexing Enchantress out of fear, and that blast soon became dark orchid purple. Tsuki felt herself being damaged by the dark magic, but she didn't even stop smiling as she coughed up blood.
The power of this spell was intense in the first part of the impact, but the second part of it involved the moonlight that touched the blast. When the moonlight shined down on the blast, some of the moon's light bounced off of it touch the rings. That caused the lavender rings themselves to glow much brighter, before violently spinning in the clockwise direction. They were pulled into the center of the blast, causing seven large lavender purple explosions to occur, and Rairakku had one arm positioned above her eyes as she felt the scorching waves of heat from that attack.
The dangerous level of heat in the blast made Rairakku cry more, looking saddened as she ignored herself becoming tangible again. Rairakku decided to just let herself get injured by the lavender streams of fire that were produced from the aftermath of this attack, and Rairakku started to smile as if the flames didn't even feel dangerously hot. She was trying to follow Tsuki's words of being happy, not even letting herself get shaken up by Maruberiki's most dangerous attacks, and Rairakku watched the blast's light fade away to reveal that Tsuki's body was heavily charred, bruised with lavender burns on the wounds, and she was also bloodied.
Upon seeing Tsuki act as if she was struggling to stand up, Rairakku ran up to her and happily stated, "Tsuki, you're alive! You're not dead!"
Rairakku exclaimed in a startled manner, seeing that Tsuki's upper half became detached from the lower half of her waist where everything below that area burnt to ashes, "What?!"
Tsuki weakly told Rairakku, smiling in a proud manner as she took much more damage than her teammate, "Rairakku-san, I... couldn't defeat Maruberiki. It'll be... up to you. If you.. want to.. run, then try to... sense where.. Risa or Kusabue.. may be."
Maruberiki stated aloud with an arrogant look on his face, "Whether it's you or the mages from Sabertooth, Rairakku, no one will stop me! After Tsuki dies, I can give the rest of her soul to the dark goddess and separate magic from such an unsightly mage! When you have no passion, power is everything!"
Minerva added while smirking deviously and getting up from her chair to gently and lovingly caress Maruberiki's face with one of her hands, "That's exactly right, my dear Maruberiki. We'll engulf the world in the darkness of our lust for power, and I've been right in encouraging you to let the dark goddess bless us with madness when necessary. You even killed a worthless pawn that stood against you, and that little bishop Rairakku is the next piece to remove from the chessboard."
Rairakku thought to herself in a stern manner, proceeding to carry Tsuki's upper half with one hand that contained the aura of eggplant purple dark magic to heal her, "Kajino-san. If you were my partner right now, you'd probably regain your own passion from seeing my quick footwork."
Rairakku placed her other hand under some light from the Gunjou Moon to give herself more magical power, but she applied that magical power to her feet. Rairakku's aura of Darkness Magic instantly engulfed her feet, and she even let her legs slightly touch the moonlight. Rairakku proceeded to run out of the Hexing Enchantress guild at rapid speeds, running so fast to where she kicked up large eggplant purple clouds of dust that obscured the eyes of the dark mages who were outside, and Rairakku wasted no time with going towards the Witch's Forest.
The direct path to that forest may have been blocked off by Kyasurin and Matsuba locking the gate, but Rairakku wasted no time with swerving to put herself on the alternate path that involved going through the Heatherberry Swamp. The dark magic from the bogs didn't bother Rairakku, as she felt like her body was now like a witch's husk to where inhaling as much poison as possible would strengthen her Darkness Magic. Taking in some Heather purple smog allowed Rairakku's magic to be strengthened, and she was able to run much faster while following the familiar traces of Risa's magic that were on this path.
Rairakku frowned at how Risa had been selected as Violara's protege, but she philosophically decided to view it from a more motivating perspective. Risa beat her in this unofficial race to become Violara's apprentice, but Rairakku felt that she was currently proving to Violara that she could surpass Risa in terms of running at high speeds across long distances. Instead of letting herself admire Violara through obsessiveness and jealousy, Rairakku smiled proudly as she ran at extremely high speeds to display that she was now worthy of Violara's admiration. In fact, Rairakku hoped that the massive eggplant purple dust clouds from her nearly-burning feet were even proving that the marsh and the muck couldn't even slightly slow her down on her way to Sabertooth.
One hour later, in Kogane Town...
Lucy sat down on the edge of the fountain with a mournful look on her face, realizing that this was the first day where Kūkiatsu wouldn't be coming to the Sabertooth guild. He wouldn't even be in Ryokufū Town, which was the place that Kusabue was currently in. The young girl informed Sting yesterday that she would be staying home to grieve over Kūkiatsu's death, especially since she would also need to explain the tragedy to her parents. They would probably be more distraught than Lucy, since they probably felt that missions in a guild could be like situations where they entrusted their children to the Sabertooth mages who saved Ryokufū Town from the perfume pandemic.
Feelings of guilt were in Lucy's orange eyes as she felt that the fight in the Wine Woods would've gone more smoothly in the situation where she was paired up with Kusabue, and Lucy regretted the idea of not creating better strategies for dealing with unfamiliar enemies. She started to have a frown of frustration on her face from thinking that it was stupid for neither her or Risa to send excessive amounts of Psychic Magic into their eyes, as that would've probably given Lucy the foresight of how the entire day's events would transpire.
Although, going against Nioi's foretelling of their fates by sending Kūkiatsu to the Spectral Tower or the Gunjou Theater would've probably led to the circumstances of his death being altered. If fate was philosophically unavoidable, then that made Lucy's mind think back to when Nioi precisely predicted that Kūkiatsu and Kusabue would be in danger. There was also a foretold danger regarding Suou Shui, the sentient dragon that was a spell of Lucy's Water Magic, but the thought of him expressing rage made Lucy look puzzled with her hands under her chin as she wondered about what would happen in the future.
As Lucy started to glance down at her dark blue funeral dress that matched the light blue roses around its waist area, the next moment of glancing at her Tiffany blue flat shoes was interrupted by her suddenly sensing a high amount of magical power. Yukino and Sorano also detected that high amount of magical power, respectively wearing light blue and ocean blue funeral dresses as they emerged from a restaurant with Miko behind them. Miko wore a neon purple kimono that was purchased from Kogane Town's fashion store by Sorano yesterday, and Miko glanced down at her orchid purple flat shoes as the eggplant purple magic seemed very familiar to her. Risa also sensed it, as she quickly ran out of the fashion store wearing the dark pink funeral dress that she just purchased with a magenta pink scrunchie to tie her hair back into a ponytail. Rogue and Sting both wasted no time with running out of the Sabertooth guild, the shadow dragon slayer wearing a black tuxedo with onyx black pants as Sting wore a dark blue tuxedo jacket over a light blue dress shirt with plain blue dress pants. Sting narrowed his eyes in a stern manner at the billowing clouds of eggplant purple dust that were being created throughout multiple streets of Kogane Town, seeing Rairakku smiling with feelings of determination on her face as she appeared to carry an unconscious girl under one arm.
"Sting, this level of magical power makes me think Rairakku's here to retaliate against us!" Rogue stated to his teammate with a fierce look on his face, as he quickly built up magical power in his hands.
Upon seeing Rairakku run up to her and gently drop a young girl who appeared to be sliced in half, Lucy shouted with a startled look on her face, "What?!"
The sight of Tsuki weakly crawling on her stomach and right hand towards Lucy as she struggled to remove her own damaged hat with her wounded left arm caused Risa to glance at Rairakku's bruised and bloodied body, before asking in a concerned tone, "What happened?! Also, what are you two even doing here?!"
"Sorry about.. all the.. damn smoke and dust. I was... hoping to.. find you as... quickly as possible.. for you.. to let Tsuki's.. soul be free." Rairakku replied in a slightly respectful manner, panting as she spoke.
Rairakku calmly explained further, after taking a deep breath to slightly relax herself, "Tsuki begged and fought Maruberiki in an attempt to make him spare Kusabue from being killed, and... you can obviously guess correctly about who won from seeing how the battle turned out. I fought alongside Tsuki with some of my strongest spells, but she's more happy than me about dying. If she dies from her injuries and blood loss, Maruberiki would probably use his magic to make her soul get offered up to the dark goddess. Although, she'll probably have a more peaceful time in the afterlife if you kill her before she bleeds out."
The sight of Tsuki shakily using her remaining arm to hand Lucy her hat with one intact flower on it prompted Rairakku to mention with a somewhat kind look on her face, "Kusabue gave that replacement hat to Tsuki, by the way. The kid stubbornly wanted to fight for her very first friend, and she wouldn't accept my refusal to fight. Oh, well. I guess our paths crossed today as a miraculously sane punishment from the goddess as a consequence of me not listening to my own advice."
Even if Rairakku wouldn't take her own advice, Lucy nodded her head towards both Tsuki and Rairakku in an understanding manner while she would gladly take the dark witch's advice about letting Tsuki's soul be free. Lucy gently accepted the hat from Tsuki, before putting it on the edge of the fountain. Lucy proceeded to put her right hand in the fountain's water, charging up magical power for her Water Magic. Lucy built up enough magical power to where she felt a sapphire blue bubble engulf her hand, and she removed it from the fountain's water.
This bubble was almost as strong as Lucy's weakest spells of Water Magic and Ice Magic, which meant that it was at least strong enough to kill mages who were already reaching their last seconds of being alive. Lucy glanced down at Tsuki's stoic and bruised face, seeing the young girl accept that this was how she would die. Lucy kept her eyes on Tsuki while infusing some more magical power into the bubble, making the water be denser, and Lucy raised her right hand into the air. She quickly swung that hand down upon Tsuki's head, almost like she bludgeoned the dark witch with a dense and metallic hammer.
The result of that attack created a miniature sapphire blue blast of Water Magic while everyone heard the ground in front of the fountain slightly crack, and Rairakku took some steps back as she felt that Lucy's Water Magic wasn't too hot or too cold during this merciful killing. The small amount of wind that resulted from the attack lifted Tsuki's hat up from the fountain for it to ascend several feet high into the air, and everyone watched Rairakku quickly get down on her knees as she flatly put her palms together for them to be in a praying stance as she closed her eyes.
"If you have your sanity, goddess of Psychic Magic and creator of the pink morning sun from the dawn, please take good care of Tsuki's soul." Rairakku thought to herself in a caring manner, wanting Tsuki to rest in peace.
Lucy thought to herself in a kind manner, closing her eyes to pray as her teammates briefly followed her actions, "Tsuki, I'll finish what you started by taking down Maruberiki tomorrow."
Rairakku opened her eyes and stood up to turn her back towards Lucy, before asking her in a calm manner, "Green-haired mage with the rings, can I ask you for a favor? If Sabertooth wins the guild war, will you revive everyone who lost their souls and lost their lives to make us all no longer feel dead?"
Lucy opened her eyes and got up from the fountain to say with a stern look on her face, conviction in her eyes, "Yes, I promise you that I'll revive everybody! When Miko speaks with the dark goddess, I'll also use the seventh legendary ring to make many mages from Hexing Enchantress no longer have their magic tainted by the lavender hue of purple and Maruberiki's madness! I promise that to you, as well as to Tsuki."
That caused Rairakku to softly say loud enough for only Rogue, Risa, and Sting to clearly hear her words that sounded like she was speaking in a caring tone with tears being held back, "Thank you.. so much."
As she took a moment to wipe away hr tears, Rairakku explained in a proud manner with her hair obscuring her eyes, "If you're going back to Gunjou tomorrow, follow the Tyrian Temple's mulberry map in the foyer and follow the path of aboveground and underground rooms to reach the lavender room with the goddess first. That's where a sacred ring is rumored to be, according to the oldest residents. After you get it, go upstairs in the Tyrian Temple until you reach an area with the Mulberry Crescent Moon. I've never seen it for myself, but I hear that it takes the goddess up to an altar under the Gunjou Moon."
Since Rairakku revealed such important information as if she was switching allegiances, Sting asked her in a confident manner, "If you're really intent on being helpful to our goal of saving Maruberiki from the clutches of the insane dark goddess, then do you want to join Sabertooth?"
Rairakku wasted no time with raising up her left arm to wave goodbye while stating in a somewhat nice tone, "Sorry, but I think I'd be better off if I enter the Tyrian Temple on my own. Even if I'm healed, having too large of a group may only slow you down. If you need that ring as quickly as possible, then run through hat temple as if your life depends on it. As you'll probably be forming a plan for getting through there, I'll go shopping in Kirliahoshi Town today to buy some accessories for Violara-san."
Upon hearing the name of that town, Risa's eyes widened in a surprised manner from hearing Rairakku's words. The dark witch was going to be shopping in Sara Hoshiakari's hometown, which only made Risa smile in a pleasant manner. Just like how she had been a psychic mage who had to learn that dark magic needed to be appreciated, Rairakku was a dark mage who would probably learn to like Psychic Magic. Although, hearing that she would probably buy scrunchies or rings containing Psychic Magic for Violara didn't make Risa think that Rairakku was the best person to handle the task of color-coordinating outfits.
From Risa's perspective, a person couldn't just put magenta pink or any hue of pink with a random shade of purple. Before she could advise Rairakku on possible new fashion choices, Risa and the others watched her curiously walk towards the window of the fashion store. Rairakku seemed like she was quite surprised to see the posters of her gothic fashion still having enough popularity to where some women were buying several purple outfits that were exported from Gunjou, and recalling how Kusabue wanted to look as intimidating as her only made Rairakku feel like she hoped that Kusabue would talk to her after the war for the purpose of finding out that Rairakku only wore the outfits that Kajino and Sutairi thought would bring popularity to Gunjou's most obscure collections of fashionable clothing.
Even though the dark purple clothes that Rairakku saw were part of unappreciated fashion collections in Gunjou, seeing the rays of sunlight come down near her only made the dark witch turn around to look up at the sky. The sight of the sun caused Rairakku to have a genuine smile of happiness on her face, as the sun brought down a pleasant feeling of warmth to her through its sunlight instead of the being like Gunjou's constant state where morning never arrived. The morning sunlight even shined down on the spot where thescorch mark from the explosion was located, and sunlight hitting that spot made Rairakku feel a happy emotion in her heart that informed her of how Tsuki's soul would be at peace now.
If she was able to have peace, then Rairakku could possibly put herself on a path towards accomplishing more important tasks in her life for the prospect of repeatedly experiencing happiness. She felt some joy in her heart from letting Lucy decimate Tsuki with mercy instead of maliciousness, and turning around for a moment to see the Sabertooth mages starting to calmly discuss possible strategies for battles in Tyrian Temple made Rairakku have happiness in her eyes from realizing that she was willingly giving herself a significant role in the quest for stopping Maruberiki by making her own actions of defiance have an impact on the dark goddess and Gunjou Town's future.
How was Chapter 68? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. For this chapter, I put more focus on Gunjou Town's mages and made this chapter somewhat shorter than the last three chapters for it to serve as a slight breather for the Sabertooth mages. By doing this, their day of recovering from the harsh battles allowed them to get some vital information involving the Tyrian Temple. Lucy and the others will encounter some surprising fights before they reach Maruberiki, but even reaching him and the dark goddess will prove to be a fateful showdown. Also, this is the eleventh part of the Mauve Darkness Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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