A long shadow loomed down the corridor. Soft footsteps echoed, slowly. Torches flickered at her presence, and the doors to the dark chamber opened, revealing green candlelight upon the pentagram walls, tiny bookshelves, and a single, bloody desk meant for study.
Mard Geer Tartaros set down his book on the desk. Shadows enveloped it and the desk absorbed it, keeping it hidden. Safe.
"You must sense it too, then," Mard Geer said, his eyes meeting Kyoka as he maneuvered around toward his chair.
"Torafuzar is in danger," Kyoka said. "It's unprecedented."
"Not entirely," Mard Geer said. "By Imperial standards. Either we have a traitor in our midst, or some rebel has decided to at last make themselves known. Either way, it does not look good for our Division."
The doors closed behind Kyoka. "Not at all, yet, Torafuzar will be back should something happen to him. This is a matter of slight embarrassment. We can kill the slaves there, ensure no word escapes of what has transpired."
Mard Geer took his seat, folded one leg over the other, and pondered the idea.
"And rid ourselves of, if indecent, workers?" Mard Geer asked. "The work cannot be delayed per our associates in the Twilight Division. And yet…"
And yet what would be more important, in the long run of the Empire's reign? Burning a few Alikitasian cities to the ground, to continue their already-obvious dominance over there? Or exposing a potential great foe of the Empire? At any time, Alikitasian upstarts could be brought under heel. But few wizards remained to challenge Torafuzar's power. That princess, Hisui, perhaps, and Jellal.
But if either were to rise up and fight the Empire, it would be Kyoka reporting to Mard Geer. It'd be Invel, perhaps even August. Whoever this upstart was had no serious name to them, leaving it out of the hands of those who couldn't be bothered with trivialities.
"Allow me to go stamp this out, Lord Mard Geer," Kyoka said.
Mard Geer sneered at her obedience. "I appreciate your sentiments, Kyoka my old friend, but do not appreciate the doubts you place in dear Torafuzar. I have a better idea, though. Regardless of the outcome, this foe that is opposing Torafuzar has a level of strength unseen for years. I believe that power is best used, not made null, don't you?"
Kyoka raised an eyebrow and rested a hand on her hip.
"What are you proposing."
Mard Geer shifted his position in his seat before standing up, running a hand over his dark throne.
"Stay here," Mard Geer said, striding by Kyoka. "My mind is racing for the first time in quite a while, and I'm in quite a need for entertainment."
Mirajane couldn't let up her pursuit, pushing through the gusting winds toward her prey. Torafuzar blasted out of the ground and caught Mirajane's fist as she soared at him. Mira flipped over him and kicked out. He blocked, attempting to parry her, but stumbled a bit. Mirajane landed in front of Torafuzar, standing between the demon and the sea.
"I see," Torafuzar said. "Modicums of demonic power on your own? Fascinating. You'd have made a worthy ally were it not in the hands of a fool wizard."
"You'll pay for what you've done to these people!" Mirajane shouted. "Evil Explosion!"
She cupped her hands and then released the magic on Torafuzar, who swung his arms together in an attempt to block it, getting punished back further into the hill as he did so. Mirajane roared more of her magic out, summoning further and further while her rage clawed at what was in her soul. She saw nothing but red, and thought of nothing but the pain she could inflict on this demon.
Torafuzar brushed off the dust clinging tightly to him, ripping free his shirt to reveal scales.
"Your power is impressive, woman," Torafuzar said. "But you've made a grave error attacking me here. I'll ensure you are begging for the release of death by the end of this."
He sliced the two blades growing out of his arms together while Mirajane fell into her defensive stance. Torafuzar charged, and at the last moment, lowered his head, ramming it into Mirajane's gut. Mirajane, reflexively, kneed Torafuzar in the face, but he grabbed her leg and slammed her into the ground. He sliced down at her, cutting across her face as she rolled away. She ignored the blood running down her face while Torafuzar continued his attack.
Mirajane blocked each of them just as Torafuzar gave her no space to find a way in to break his own defenses. The demon was a wall, impenetrable. One of her stray attacks that did land felt as if she were punching pure, reinforced iron. She ignored the pain it inflicted and scooted back from one of Torafuzar's swings.
They re-engaged with fists that collided, causing a crater to form around them as the winds whipping around from their combined strike temporarily gave pause to the rain before the howling winds rushed it all back.
A faint voice in the wind called her name but Mirajane ignored it and focused on Torafuzar, who lunged at her, moving faster as another gust of wind pushed water around him. He barreled into her, slicing her across the leg. She kicked out at him but he swatted her kick aside and punched her into the ground. Mirajane rolled away, sliding out from under his hulking form. Mira pushed herself to stand. Torafuzar came to a running halt, too.
"Pest," he muttered. "It is time you faced true horror."
The oceanic waters, not far from them, shuddered, and at once, dark waters burst out from the ocean as if from a separate basin. Mirajane leaped back but couldn't avoid being swept in it. Torafuzar swung his arms down, reveling in the power, and, in the blink of an eye, loomed over Mirajane. Mira's eyes widened, and, at the last moment, a woman jumped out of the newly arrived waters and slammed into Torafuzar.
Torafuzar slid back, far more annoyed than hurt, while the woman swam back for Mirajane.
"Let me help you, sis!" Lisanna, having performed a Takeover spell, exclaimed. A fin stuck out of her back while gills formed along her neck and her clothes were replaced with a leather set of bra, underwear, boots, and gloves. Her teeth were also more fang-like.
"You should help the others," Mirajane said. Someone else was watching, not far away. Probably Levy, trying to figure out how she could help. "I can handle this one."
"With the deep seas of Hades now at my beck and call, there is nowhere for you to run nor is there a power you can summon to help you," Torafuzar said. "It is over."
His power had indeed increased, but it wasn't dwarfing his previous form.
"It's never over!" Mirajane exclaimed. "Satan Blast!"
The swirling magic in her hand shot forward toward Torafuzar, temporarily vaporizing the water around him to give Mirajane the opening she needed to attack. Lisanna rushed after Mira but Mira didn't have time to babysit her little sister in this fight.
Mira kicked at Torafuzar, who blocked it and then stifled Lisanna's much weaker strike. The tides surged back, bringing with it the darker waters Torafuzar summoned. Lisanna sank beneath them, moving fast with her magic abilities boosting her. Mirajane's wings flared and she swooped around before boosting her speed to punch Torafuzar across the face. He stumbled back, then roared and summoned forth even more water.
A wave slammed over Mirajane. She temporarily went under but swung back out as Torafuzar made a strike at her, one, with his blade arms, that would have cleaved her leg clean off. Mira whirled around.
"Evil Orb!"
She cast the orb over her head and launched it down at Torafuzar, who took the blow head-on, falling back into the ocean.
Mira set her jaw. This power wouldn't cut it. She had to go even further beyond.
"Satan Soul: Sitri!"
Darkness whirled around her, then vanished in a fiery aura quickly extinguished by the tumultuous rain all around her. Still, her power washed off of her in waves, and as Torafuzar made another strike, she easily deflected it. He grunted.
Mira laid into him with another attack, even diving into the water to pursue. Try as he might, with her boosted power and speed, even he couldn't keep up with her as she wailed on him, obliterating his defenses and at last punching him free, to the uninfected waters, where Lisanna moved faster. She leveled her own strike on him. He flipped, end-over-end, loosely into the rest of the waters.
Lisanna gave Mira a nod. Mira tried to get her to leave, but, Lisanna didn't listen. She drifted back to join Mirajane. Mira sighed. What a stubborn girl.
Torafuzar emerged from the oceanic depths—changed. His form was almost entirely unrecognizable, save for his face. He almost glistened in the water, as if he were made of some form of metal. And that dark water from before…it was all-consuming, taking over everything. Lisanna curiously glanced around…and paid the price.
Mira tried to get in the way but Torafuzar was too fast, too powerful, and slammed a fist into Lisanna's belly. The air burst out of her just as fast as Lisanna flew out of the water, unconscious sweeping over her as her Animal Soul dropped. Mira cried out and tried to chase after her sister but Torafuzar grabbed her leg and flung her down, down, down into the ocean, until the pressure popped her ears and she was slammed to the bottom.
He let go of her, trying to grab her neck and suffocate her, but she unleashed a quick burst of magic from her feet that, powerfully, carried her back to the shore. She gasped in the free air and was buffeted a few feet forward by the raging storm. Mira rolled onto solid ground.
Torafuzar stalked out of the water, a titanic mass of metal and hatred.
"Congratulations," Torafuzar said. "I'm unsure when it was necessary that one of the Tartaros Division had to summon forth their Etherious form. You die making history, little girl. But die you shall, nonetheless."
Mirajane gasped, trying to get her magic sort, trying just to catch her—
Torafuzar punched the ground, shaking it, but giving way for the water to try and consume her. She scrambled away. He pursued. She summoned forth magic into her fist and punched at him. It bounced off cleanly. Mira widened her eyes as Torafuzar took her face and slammed her in the water once, twice, and a third time before landing a kick in her belly, and flinging her into the oceanic depths.
Mira barely managed to open her eyes. She pooled her magic into her hand once more, blasting him, knocking him slightly aside, but, once he was in the water, Torafuzar was an entirely separate animal. A true demon, and with such power, slammed his elbow into her head, where darkness took her, and death was soon, surely, to come.
Levy screamed Mira's name against the maelstrom but it fell upon no ears. Lisanna lay defeated not far from her. Torafuzar clambered out of the ocean, his work complete. Levy balled her fists.
It wouldn't end like this. No. Not when they just got started!
The dark waters lapped on the shore. Levy could hardly sense them. How? If it was magic, she could be able to sense some sort of magic power, some sort of presence within it, even if it was just at tainted version of the true ocean.
Unless…
As a demon, would Torafuzar have to use magic particles? Ethernano? Or…could it be…
She had to trust her gut. She had to run with this. It was their only hope. Levy stepped forward but the storm shoved her back. She resisted, taking another step, and continuing to run down the cliff toward the water. She was of such little regard for Torafuzar, so nothing, that he let her go. What would she do?
Levy hit the water, and immediately, the poison Torafuzar embedded in it met Levy's skin, sizzling against it, gnawing at her very soul. Levy swiped a hand across her face, casting a Solid Script spell for Air over it so she could breathe.
Levy pushed against the fierce current of the poisonous ocean water, kicking her legs with all of her might while she kept her hand firmly by her mouth, continually running magic into her Solid Script: Air spell. Mirajane continued to drift, some blood coming out of her mouth while her white hair loosely drifted around her.
With a lunge, Levy caught Mirajane's hand. Mirajane meekly opened an eye, widening it at the lone sight of Levy. A massive pull from the current nearly dragged Levy away, but she held on tight to the demoness. Levy shivered from the cold.
"Absorb the water!" Levy shouted, her voice escaping only through her spell. "Absorb the poison in the water! It's made of Bane particles, the same as—"
She doubled over. All of said poison around her continued to afflict her bare skin. No, no, no! She had to have more time!
Mirajane held onto Levy, and with a fierce look, nodded.
"You can beat him!" Levy exclaimed, darkness claiming her vision. Her body wasn't going to hold out for long. Come on! "Solid Script…Air!"
Levy transferred the air around her mouth to Mirajane, who gasped in the sudden burst of fresh air while Levy held her mouth shut, preventing any of the water from entering. She didn't have the strength to hold onto Mirajane anymore, and let go, slowly moving away.
Until a hard grip grasped her wrist, and the sensation of the poison spreading across and through her skin slowly faded away…
All of the darkness around Mirajane abated, sucking in toward her like light to a black hole. The tumultuous waters from the heavy storm continued but were no longer infested with the venom that Torafuzar infused within it. Levy was cured of her poison, her skin clearing up. Mirajane continued to hold tight to Levy as she, with two kicks, soared out of the water, her magic restored, if not completely reinvigorated.
Mirajane landed safely on the shore. The winds continued to whip at her. She couldn't simply lay Levy's unconscious body down somewhere, she'd be picked up and flung around by the storm. She straightened as a heavy wave, filled with renewed toxins, slammed into her. She absorbed it, thankful for the little treat, as her dark-red aura appeared around her.
"Don't worry, Levy," Mirajane said. "I'll get you to safety."
The hangars were too far away, but there were enough undamaged buildings for Levy to safely head into.
Torafuzar landed in front of some, having brushed off whatever injuries Mirajane inflicted on him earlier, making it seem as if she hadn't done anything to him in the first place. Mira hefted Levy into her arms with ease and stepped forward.
"Move," Mirajane said.
"I would rather not," Torafuzar said. "I can skewer you both from here."
Mirajane set her feet. "You won't touch her, monster."
Torafuzar leered. His titanous Etherious form loomed large, even from such a great distance. Lightning arced in the sky above, bringing light to the dark clouds. He opened and closed his metallic fists, then charged, moving with great speed through the rain.
"Satan Soul: Sitri," Mirajane said, her voice soft, yet her power was quite the opposite, as her aura burst around her as her form took hold of her, the darkness and poison of the waters leeching into her soul while she tamed and quelled the monster desperately seeking for a way out. Levy remained in Mirajane's arms while Torafuzar closed in.
She side-stepped Torafuzar's strike and moved with near imperceptible speed to the cover of an awning, where the wind buffeting Levy would only serve to push her into the building. She would remain safe, and, importantly, dry. Mirajane brushed some of the hair out of Levy's face, then faced a flummoxed Torafuzar.
Her power, that of the Sitri form, felt different, in a way. It was lecherous as if wanting to continue festering within her while also searching for something to eradicate, much as the poisons of the water had. She glanced at her hands—though her talons were still demonic in their own way, it was as if they'd gained something.
Perhaps, though this was the Sitri form of her Satan Soul Takeover spell, it was an advanced form of it. Mirajane swelled her magic and let it unfurl in its own wave. Her clothes were no longer mere leather or whatnot, but metallic armor. It still retained its lightness to allow her to move with the same speed, but her defenses—
Were about to be tested, as Torafuzar charged her and swung down a fist to shatter the entire block. Mirajane brought her hands together, braced her legs, and caught the fist in place. A crater formed from the power surging down through her. Mirajane allowed the rebound of such power to carry through her as she flung Torafuzar back, into the air.
Black flames scorched the ground around her as she pursued him into the air, bringing down her leg to crush him back onto the shore. A wave slammed onto him, but just as fast, Mirajane landed in front of him and landed a punch right in Torafuzar's jar. The metal of her hands and his body sent a resounding clang all throughout the Cedar area. Yet, finally, Torafuzar's head cocked back. Mirajane kicked him away into the ocean.
"Soak it up," Mirajane said as he skidded against the waves before finally sinking. "You're going to need it."
Fire flared around her, possessed entirely of damnation such that not even the waters of the ocean could afflict it. Wisps of hair—no longer white, but tainted colors of poison—drifted into her vision.
Torafuar burst out of the waters after slicing through them at top speed, almost too fast for Mirajane to catch. She ducked under his punch that blasted a shockwave over her head, then delivered another swift, and flaming, punch into his gut. The metal seared. Torafuzar grunted.
Mirajane rammed her head up, slamming it underneath his chin. He doubled back. Mirajane leaped and caught him, unable to wrap her arms around him but still able to fling him into the sands.
Torafuzar rolled back. Mirajane landed. He tried to summon the nearby toxic waves to him, but Mirajane held her arm out and commanded them to stop. Torafuzar gasped, his jaw hanging in confusion and despair.
"What? I—I command the seas of hell itself!"
"No. They listen to a new master, now."
She swung her arms down, and, imbued with her own flames, the oceanic waters slammed and flung Torafuzar away. He drifted with them, regaining temporary control of them to round about toward Mirajane.
Darkness wheeled in her hands, unleashing right in Torafuzar's face as he tried to punch her once more. The fist landed, and Mirajane's nose broke upon impact, but she stood strong, unmoving, as her spell blasted into him, puncturing his iron scales.
Mirajane ignored the stars in her vision to follow Torfauzar as he soared back.
"Sitri Inferno!" Mirajane roared, fires igniting all around her, accelerating her power toward its ultimate point. As Torafuzar caught himself, trying to recover, Mirajane cast her final spell, giving him no recompense: "Soul Extinctor!"
Torafuzar's eyes went blank, white with abject fear before the entire area around them was at once sucked into an infinite, purple-outlined darkness that, in the same instant, exploded.
Amidst settling carnage, as debris rained down in slow drifts, Mirajane landed in the crater holding nothing but Torfuzar's broken body. She settled out of her advanced Sitri form—what she decided to henceforth call Satan Soul: Sitri-Kimetsu—to her basic Satan Soul, in case Torafuzar attempted anything.
This, though, would not be the case, as his body slowly fizzled into tiny particles that were absorbed by the atmosphere, and then, was drunk by the ocean came to claim its false, demonic son. Mirajane stepped out of the crater as it vanished into the sea.
Lahar and Lisanna, the latter at last recovered, had Levy with them, who also seemed to be coming to. Mirajane glowered at the hangar, where soldiers were gathered en masse as if to fight them, while the slaves monitored said soldiers with bated interest.
Mirajane raised her hand toward the guards, magic power drifting around it in waves of vapor mist. The guards tensed. Mirajane's demonic eyes did not waver, nor did her will. She stood, stout, at the edge of the Empire's reign on the continent, and would not budge. She would only advance and wipe them out.
At once, though, the slaves advanced. Mirajane moved with them, accelerating up the hill to the hangars and wiping out a batch of them instantly while the other guards were swallowed up and tossed aside by the mass of slaves. Mirajane slid to a halt while any guards with any sense left got to running away.
Mirajane's hard gaze softened as she shifted it to the other slaves around her.
"Never come back to this place," she said. "Pick up the weapons of the Empire. Now is the time to begin fighting back."
They did so, one by one taking up weapons once meant to inflict harm to them that would trend the Empire asunder. Her fellow wizards joined her.
"Where do we go?" one of them asked.
Lahar stepped up. "You'll follow me. I know of a safe haven. It's still well off from us, and it will be a difficult journey. But if we stay together, we can make it there."
"And with Mirajane's help, I'm certain we can make it there no sweat!" Lisanna said, clapping Mirajane on the shoulder.
Mira finally let go of her Takeover magic, breathing out as her normal human form took hold.
"I can't go with you," Mirajane said, at last listening to the growing sense of dread formed in her gut.
"What?" Lahar seethed.
Levy noticed it, the twinge that captured Mirajane's expression.
"It's not over, is it?" Levy said.
"You need to start running now," Mirajane said. "Get as far away as you can." Mirajane raised her head as the clouds broke above them, but the sunlight was still too faint to break fully through and rain light upon them, to return the town to its once splendor. "The Empire will know about this soon. I'll stay back and fight them off to buy you more time." She placed a hand over her heart. "I sense something even worse than Torafuzar may be on its way, soon."
"Let us stay to help," Lisanna said. "Please, Mira!"
Mira shook her head but rested a hand on her sister's soft cheek.
"Lead them," Mirajane said. "I know you can do it."
She nodded to Levy, who resolutely nodded back.
"You heard the lady!" Levy exclaimed, wiping away a tear that speckled her cheek. "Let's go, people! We're running out of time."
Lahar stayed behind while Levy organized the crowd.
"Don't you dare die, Mirajane Strauss," Lahar said. "The rebellion needs you."
Mirajane smiled but said nothing. Lahar hesitated, then joined the rest of the rebels, emptying Cedar Airfield of its workers, of its slaves, and at last leaving it free. Mirajane squared her shoulders and let out a breath of air, tasting the poison on her tongue.
Whatever came for her, she'd face it with her new power. She would save her friends once again. She would do whatever it took to keep hope alive.
Even if, in the end, she could not be alive to see it return to the world.