Chapter 49

alerx09- Okay.

Konsilisto- We shall see.

CapMorgan55- Well the conditions of that fight were that there was a Rune trap around the building that prevented the Dark Guild wizards from being harm by those that drank water provided by the mayor of the town. That's why they were taken down so easily. I'm guessing you want more of a struggle though. Them fighting back despite the conditions, yes? And an alternative magic instead of vines yes? Please respond so that I can go back and alter that fight or if it's not needed at all.

Diederick

"Ah shit!" Yelled Diederick as he dodged an attack from the enslaved Juvia with Lucy. He was about to pull out his bow and shoot when he saw Juvia's face and hesitated. That hesitation cost him as Juvia sent a Water Nebula at him, sending him flying across the room and slamming him across against the wall, injuring him.

"Diederick!" Yelled Lucy in alarm as she watched her friend slump to the ground in pain. She then glared at Vidaldus, who was laughing at all this, before engaging Juvia in battle. However, because of the fact that Juvia helped them out when they needed it, Lucy was hesitant on fighting her. As a result, she had her summoned spirit, Taurus, keep Juvia at bay while she thought of a way to defeat Vidaldus. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that if she knocked out Vidaldus, then maybe Juvia will return back to normal. Thus, she had Taurus attack Vidaldus while she kept Juvia busy.

"Taurus, get the creep there." Said Lucy as she grabbed some dirt and threw it at Juvia's face, enraging her and sending her against Lucy, who screamed in panic before running away from the enraged Juvia. Vidaldus, meanwhile, was laughing out loud as he dodged Taurus' swings.

"Nice try, bimbo, but you're going to need more than a cowman to beat me!" Yelled Vidaldus as he dodged another attack before stringing his guitar and sending a soundwave against Taurus. The cowman tried to resist the attack, but eventually, it overpowered him and it sent him flying towards a wall, headfirst.

"Taurus!" Yelled Lucy as the Celestial Spirit faded into golden stars. Her shock and horror at her spirit's defeat left her open to an attack from both Juvia and Vidaldus. Getting hit with both the hair of Vidaldus and a Water Nebula, Lucy was sent to the ground in pain, causing the member of Trinity Raven to laugh out loud.

"That's what you get for going against someone from Trinity Raven, dear! Oh yeah!" Yelled Vidaldus before ordering Juvia to finish Lucy off. Upon hearing that, there was a slight hesitation from Juvia along with a twitch from her mouth, but she soon complied with Vidaldus' orders. As she viciously walked towards the down Lucy, Diederick looked at Juvia and realized that, unless a miracle happened, then Lucy was going to die and so was he. He then looked on in horror as Juvia stomped on Lucy's head and continued to do so without respite.

"Stop! You're going to kill her!" Yelled Diederick as he got up and tried to stop Juvia, only to get hit from the side by Vidaldus and his magical hair.

"That's the point, kid!" Yelled Vidaldus with a laugh as he had his hair pin Diederick to the floor. "I'm an assassin! What do you think will happen when you lose to me! Now stay down and shut up. Your turn is coming up after my succubus deals with your friend." Diederick just thrashed around as he tried to break free of the hair. He even tried going for his knife, but that just caused the hair to tighten around him, nearly preventing him from acquiring oxygen while also preventing him from moving at all. As a result, he was forced to do nothing but watch as the enslaved Juvia mercilessly beat on Lucy, laughing all the while, but it was forced laughter and she was crying as she did so.

Seeing this, Diederick realized that Juvia was trying to fight Vidaldus' control but couldn't break free. Seeing her forced to do something without her consent enraged Diederick. No one should be enslaved to do anything against their will. He remembered how his mother, Arahan, was touched and defiled when he was just a boy by some sick wizard. They didn't get far before Diederick stopped them, but the memory of that day still burned in his mind. How he nearly failed his mother and how she was nearly sexually violented by those pieces of filth. Granted, he was a child at the time, but the stink of failure still lingered in his mind in the form of regrets. If he had only took the shot earlier against them, then Arahan wouldn't have endured such indignity against them in the first place. And something similar to that was happening right now. Except this time he couldn't do anything about it.

Vidaldus was too powerful for him to beat alone and he didn't know how to defeat Juvia without killing her. Breaking her servitude to the punk rock wizard was also out of the question as he didn't know how to in the first place. As the mind-controlled Juvia kept attacking Lucy, Diederick was thinking rapidly on how to save his friend. As the options were becoming shorter and shorter, they were either impossible or relied on miracles to happen. Eventually, Diederick realized that, unless a miracle happened, then Lucy and him were going to die here and Juvia will be a slave to Vidaldus.

As the situation became clear to Diederick, a sense of hopelessness filled the boy as he the situation dawned on him. Hopelessness that he tried to squash down and fight, but was slowly losing due to his mind telling him that there was no way to win this battle. As the hopelessness encroached all of his being, Diederick prayed for someone, anyone, to help them in this plight. To help him and his friends to survive this battle. Though Diederick thought it was all wishful thinking at this point that someone will help them, someone was in fact listening to his plight. Someone with great power that can aid him and his friends. Someone that should not exist yet did. And, if one were to ask any sane person, getting help from this individual was something that no one should ever ask for as they always had an ulterior motive for it all. Unfortunately for Diederick and his friends, they had no choice in accepting the help or not. For Tzeentch was too powerful for any of them to handle at the moment.

Laughing as he felt the thirteenth Everchosen's plight, Tzeentch started the next stages of his grand plans. Through his gift for the Everchosen, Tzeentch can sense the Everchosen's plight. He felt that he was in danger and that he had prayed for salvation. Both for him and his friends. Amused at the concept of friends, Tzeentch saw a perfect opportunity to convert the Everchosen to the path of Chaos as well as to figure out where he was. Thus, Tzeentch decided to give him a little boon for him. Just a little morsel so as to entice him to join the Chaos Gods. A morsel that would change Diederick's life forever.

As Diederick struggled to break from Vidaldus' hair, he suddenly felt something burning inside him, causing him to scream in pain. His whole body felt like it was on fire, yet he wasn't on fire or anything. It was as if his inner body just went up in flames. His screaming caused Vidaldus to look at him in surprise.

"Yo, buddy! Can you keep it down?" Said Vidaldus as he pointed at Juvia and Lucy. "I'm watching a catfight here." Then, before Vidaldus' eyes, Diederick suddenly stopped screaming and looked at him. To Vidaldus' shock, the teens' normal brown were now glowing bright blue with no pupils at all. The eyes glared at him with such intensity that Vidaldus could have sworn that they were staring at his very soul. Then, before Vidaldus could do anything, Diederick ripped one of his hands-free from his hair and, to his further shock, dark purple energy flowed from his hand as he pointed it at Vidaldus. Then, without warning, Vidaldus' soul was ripped out of his body, quite painfully if one might add, causing him to scream as his soul was being ripped out, killing him. Once the soul was fully leeched out of his body, it went straight for Diederick's palm, where it disappeared, along with the dark purple energy. Once they were both gone, Diederick eyes changed back to their normal brown.

Shaking his head, Diederick watched as Vidaldus suddenly went crashing to the ground, eyes white and mouth wide open, while Juvia gasped out, free from Vidaldus' magic. Stunned to see all this, Diederick tried to make sense of everything when he suddenly felt very fatigued and exhaustion soon overtook him. The last thing that Diederick saw was Juvia kneeling before Lucy, screaming apology after apology to her.

Meanwhile

Jellal

"Intriguing." Said Jellal as he watched what happen between Vidaldus, Juvia, Lucy, and this nonmagical person called Diederick. At first, he assumed that Vidaldus would defeat them without an issue, and it did indeed appear that way at first, but then something happened. A miracle, Jellal should say. He watched Diederick cast magic and use it to defeat Vidaldus, winning the battle. Whether Vidaldus is dead or not, was irrelevant to Jellal. What was relevant was the magic that Diederick used. Not just any magic, but magic that he had never seen before, much less heard of. And he knew plenty of magic during his time in the Tower of Heaven, both known and lost. So, to see one that he didn't know of in action and kill or incapacitate an experienced assassin like Vidaldus in one hit, was something that raised his interest with the previously nonmagical teen.

Clutching his chin, Jellal wondered what to do with this latest development and if he should use Diederick for the ritual instead of Erza.

Magic Council

As all this was happening, the Magic Council had just finished voting on whether or not to fire Etherion. And, as luck would have it, they decided to not fire it.

"And with that final vote, we have decided to not fire Etherion." Said Leiji before sighing. "Etherion shall not be used against the Tower of Heaven."

"This is absurd!" Protested Siegrain as he looked at his fellow council members. "Don't you all realize the stakes!?"

"We know the stakes, Siegrain." Said Org. "We've already debated over it and we decided that there are still other options to predicament. Unless you have information that can sway us, the usage of Etherion has been decided." Upon hearing that, Siegrain sighed.

"I didn't want to do this, but it appears I must." Said Siegrain before speaking up. "You're talking about peace when history's on a turning point?! Jellal is going to resurrect the dead!"

"You say that, but we don't know whether the R-System is even operational." Said Councilor Michello "We can't just resort to an offensive yet, especially when it could lead to deteriorated relations with Caelum. War at the worst."

"That's because you can't feel it." Said Siegrain. To the surprise of a few councilors, they can sense a trace of fear within his voice. To hear fear from the otherwise composed Siegrain was a shock to some of them. "The dark magic gathering there, the strength of the man he'll resurrect..."

"Just what are you talking about? Who is Jellal planning on resurrecting?" Said a fellow Council Member, causing Siegrain to sigh again.

"He's planning on bringing back the Black Wizard, Zeref." At this, nearly the entire council had their jaws dropped and eyes bulged in horror. They had thought the R-Tower can be used to bring back the Black Wizard, but that was because of its potential. They didn't think that Jellal would actually plan to resurrect the Black Wizard.

"Why would he do such a thing!?" Demanded Org, causing Siegrain to sigh again.

"I don't know nor do I know his ultimate goals in resurrecting the Black Wizard, but I do know this." Said Siegrain as he looked at his fellow council members in fear. "We need to stop him now or else the greatest threat to our entire planet will return and doom us all to another Age of Darkness. So...are you all willing to go back to the idea of using Etherion to end all this before it's too late?"

Tzeentch

The Chaos God of Magic couldn't help but laugh at what he felt. His laughter caused ripples throughout his realm and for new daemons of Tzeentch to form. New daemons to obey and follow the wishes of their master and father.

It seemed the Everchosen could not properly handle his gift to him without knocking himself. A shame, but that just made things more thrilling in Tzeentch's eyes. After all, if he remembered what he did, he would wish to harness his gift to him. Try to control it. To use it for his own benefit. And who could teach him how to use such gifts then the followers of Tzeentch. Laughing out loud, Tzeentch was thinking long and hard about this when he felt a new soul enter his domain. A soul that felt…new yet had the touch of the Everchosen himself. And his gift to him.

Realizing what this meant, Tzeentch made another round of laughter before plucking this soul from wherever it landed in his domain in the Chaos Realms. Once he acquired the soul, he began to siphon the soul of the knowledge it possessed. All the knowledge it had. The Chaos God…wasn't gentle and the screams of the soul amused him.

"Do not fear, Vidaldus. I will not kill you. You have too much use to me. And that usage will keep you alive. For now." Said Tzeentch as he siphoned the soul's name from it along with any other information it had. Information that intrigued the Chaos God greatly. Greatly indeed.