Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 15: Wind Magic & Plant Magic! The Green Depths of The Sweetened Woods! Eggplant Purple Magic & Evil Thoughts! Natane's Harshness!
Minerva's POV
Lucy and I arrived in the town of Bloom, seeing the tiled streets that were deeply light green as the grass bordering certain sides of the street had been emerald green. The emerald green grass had some tropical green tulips growing on different parts of it, but they didn't cause heavy gusts of wind to emerge from them. These flowers were different from the plants in Zephri Town, which meant that they were probably created by one of the mages from Aroma Flair. Speaking of those wizards, we would have to find the client.
Trying to find the client by sensing her magic would be an interesting task, but I narrowed my eyes in a stern manner as I walked down the street with Lucy by my side. Lucy may not have been in Bloom Town before, but I had been in this town for a few easy jobs at prior points in time. Even though those jobs involved delivering fashionable clothes to some people who were too busy to buy the clothes from this town's regular fashion store with their own money, I still ended up knowing how to navigate through this town.
Bloom Town was a large town, somewhat larger than Mauve, and I walked to the eastern side of this town with Lucy. We walked down a street that had magenta pink flowers in flowerbeds, which were in front of the light pink houses, and I felt that it had been interesting for Aroma Flair to have buildings in different colors. Some pink-haired mages interestingly went into those houses with job requests in their hands, and their clothes pertained to the most recent high-end fashion trends for pink clothing.
Those stylish clothes of the girls in the Aroma Flair guild hadn't been displayed in Sorcerer Magazine yet, but any of the girls who didn't end up appearing in Sorcerer Magazine would probably in some of the magazines that were less popular. Hexy Magazine did feature girls from Aroma Flair in one issue, but they were only featured for apparently being more fashionable than many women who were in dark guilds. How could all of these women even be considered fashionable, if they wore outfits that were in gaudy hues of pink?
"Hopefully, this client won't be a girly mage who heavily adores the color pink." I stated aloud with a somewhat irked look on my face, disliking the possibility of dealing with a client who would be too happy.
That prompted Lucy to reply with a shocked facial expression, "Minerva-sama, pink is a pretty color! In fact, some necklaces are pink!"
"If this girl lost a bright pink necklace that we end up easily retrieving, then I'll try not to immensely laugh." I retorted with a rude smirk on my face, imagining that the client would be ditzy enough to lose such a flashy necklace.
The necklace was in the Sweetened Woods, which had their entrance being located on an adjacent street that intersected with the ends of several streets such as this one. Going down this specific street allowed me to see that there was a high-end fashion store on the end of one intersecting street, and there was a library on the end of a different street that was coming up. Lucy and I proceeded to run past that street, since we were getting closer to the woods. There were enemies that probably awaited us in the Sweetened Woods, but I wouldn't be scared.
If I felt very scared in this situation, then Lucy would also feel very scared. She already felt fearful of Annette, and I didn't want Lucy to be terrified of some woods that we would be visiting. If I felt brave enough to fight any enemies who attempted to ambush us in the woods, then Lucy could also feel brave to the point of fighting alongside me. Besides, we could probably end up unleashing our magic against an enemy who had the necklace or the incense in their possession. Getting those items back was the highest priority right now, and we would just have to find them.
However, would it be easy for Lucy and I to find a necklace in the Sweetened Woods? Upon walking on the grass that was near the entrance, I started to smile in a satisfied manner from smelling several sweet scents that were emerging from the woods. That prompted me to unleash my Territory Magic, and I created dark green energy waves on my hands. These energy waves were thrown at the space in front of me, resulting in dark green blasts that were large while they occurred in midair. These attacks may not have been strong, but I used them in an interesting way.
As Lucy saw several clouds of dark green smoke come towards her, she asked me in a calm manner, "Minerva-sama, did you change the scents of the woods?"
That caused me to reply with a proud smile on her face, "Well, the scents near the entrance are now fused into one aroma."
I gently sniffed the air, sighing happily at the aroma of matcha milk tea being in the air. Lucy also sighed happily while she got a whiff of the aroma that was in the air, and she elicited a cute giggle at how I made this part of the woods have a sweet scent that we could both enjoy. Lucy proceeded to walk into the Sweetened Woods while I walked beside her, and I took some more steps forward for Lucy to be behind me while I took on the leadership position. I maintained a confident smile as I enjoyed being the leader on this mission, and Lucy wouldn't want to let me down.
After all, my sternness and dominance caused Lucy to view me as a strict leader. She wouldn't want to show any signs of weakness or stupidity around me, especially if we were dealing with dangerous enemies. The sound of a possibly dangerous enemy suddenly reached my ears, as I got to see a tropical green bush rustling on this path that had mint green trees with pear green sharp-edged leaves on them. The parakeet green dirt on this path in the woods made the tropical green bush almost blend into it, and I had only seen it because the bush lightly shook.
That prompted me to create pale green energy waves on my hands, and I fired them at the ground. The energy waves ended up creating pale green explosions, which were powerful enough to make pale green flames heavily burn through the bush. The appearance of the fire was followed by the sound of a green-haired girl gasping in shock, before she got up from the ground with a terrified smile on her face. She ended up running away from the bush, but I quickly teleported her towards me and Lucy. I turned around to look at Lucy, who was just as curious as to why this woman seemed terrified as she tried having calmness in her eyes.
Five minutes later... (Meladori's POV)
After I managed to calm myself down, I proceeded to have a stoic look on my face while I glanced at the woman who just attacked the bush. She was a bit rude to set it ablaze, but her powerful magic was likely sensed by the dark mages who were in a deeper area of the Sweetened Woods. I closed my eyes for a moment while I faintly sensed their auras, so those mages were still in the depths of the woods. They were probably planning to come here out of sheer curiosity, and I had a scared look on my face from thinking that they would attack me.
Before I could ask the two purple-haired women if they also desired to attack me, the older woman who looked much more elegant pulled out a green flyer from the right pocket of her dress and she calmly displayed the flyer to me. I noticed that the flyer had my handwriting on it, which meant that these women from a different guild had been the ones to accept my job request. That caused me to widen my eyes in an amazed and happy manner, and I also smiled while realizing that they would help me get my necklace back.
"Thank you so much for accepting my job request! My name is Meladori Hāpī, and I'm a mage of Aroma Flair. It's nice to meet you." I happily stated to the women, before calming myself down.
The younger of the two dark mages replied with a nice smile on her face, "Nice to meet you, too, Meladori! My name is Lucy Heartfilia."
"My name is Minerva Orland, and we'll gladly help you find your missing necklace." The older mage stated in a calm tone, before looking a bit bored.
That prompted me to respond n a worried tone, "Well, it may not be dropped on the ground anymore. I... I haven't seen it in the area where I dropped it, so I think those dark mages have it."
Minerva and Lucy both raised eyebrows at my response, and I also looked worried about fighting against those dark mages. Could I actually win against dark mages in fights without Natane by my side? The thought of going into a fight without my stronger partner caused me to put my fists up against my chest in a concerned manner, but Minerva started to have a look of assurance on her face as she locked eyes with me. The confidence in her eyes told me that this mission was going to go smoothly, and I wouldn't lose my life.
Since she was assuring me that I wouldn't die, my lips formed a somewhat confident smile. I trusted Minerva to a small amount, but trusting a new teammate to some extent would allow us to work together in this task of finding the necklace. I proceeded to lightly run down the dirt path that was in front of us, but Minerva and Lucy soon ran past me with confident smiles on their faces. They started to run much faster, causing me to run after them with Wind Magic being concentrated in my feet, and it seemed like they would take down any enemies who ambushed us.
Minerva kept going down on this dirt path, before she went on a left path that would take us to a group of hot pink trees that had light pink candles on their branches. The candles smelled like sweet pink strawberries while the flames heavily released the aroma, and I watched Lucy make an amethyst purple aura engulf her hands. She grabbed one of those candles, before handing it to Minerva, and Minerva quickly found herself having to create eggplant purple energy waves on her hands to keep the extremely hot candle from burning her hands.
Minerva made her energy waves glow brightly in their eggplant shade of purple, and her magic made the candle itself become eggplant purple. That caused me to have an amazed look on my face, and she easily held that candle while seemingly making its fire have a low amount of heat. Minerva handed the candle back to Lucy, who made her amethyst purple ring touch the flame. The amethyst purple ring started to glow brightly with amethyst purple beams of light shining from it, and the ring itself soon became eggplant purple.
"Minerva-sama, you just converted that magic into Darkness Magic!" Lucy stated to Minerva with a delighted smile on her face, glad to be assisted by her teammate.
Minerva responded with a sweet smile on her face, "I'm just upgrading that powerful magic that you wield, Lucy. If you don't view it to be very strong, then I'll make it be much stronger."
I told Lucy with a somewhat kind smile on my face, "Maybe you should test out your new magic, even if you may have new spells."
Lucy replied with a nice facial expression, seeming to have more feelings of confidence enter her eyes, "Well, new spells won't be a problem for me."
Lucy hastily turned to face the trees that had candles on them, and she built up a large amount of magical power. Lucy proceeded to create an eggplant purple fireball in her left hand, and the fire was only a small flame. Lucy still held the candle in her other hand, and she made it be on her left hand. The small flame quickly grew into a large twister of fire from the hot candle that was on Lucy's palm, and my eyes widened in shock from seeing the candle's wax start melting away. Those candles never melted before, due to the high amount of magic that a certain pink-haired mage of Aroma Flair had incorporated into them.
She would probably be just as surprised to see the hot wax melting at such a fast rate, especially since the wax got absorbed into Lucy's twister of fire. The eggplant purple attack was thrown at the trees, resulting in a large explosion occurring while eggplant purple fire spun outward. However, that fire touched the space right in front of the trees instead of directly touching them. The fire that spun outward was quite strong to where its Darkness Magic seemed like it had almost been at the level of an A-Class mage.
Lucy cheerfully giggled at the sight of that spell, liking how it decimated all of the trees, and any portions of the trees that remained had hot pink wax emerging from them. That wax making contact with Lucy's flames caused them to combust while the explosions were extremely large, but that fire smelled extremely sweet as if Lucy poured flammable perfume on to a small flame for the smell to become extremely potent. I liked the lavender scent of the flames, and I calmly smiled while taking notice of how Lucy essentially created a new path in the woods.
I moved around the fire to reach that new path, and I soon walked on to a mint green dirt path. I hadn't seen this path before, so would it take me to those dark mages? I proceeded to shoot out a shamrock green tornado of wind into the air, aiming it straight ahead in the direction of where I had been sensing those other mages. My average-sized tornado of wind flew through the air for several seconds, but it soon detonated after being struck by a moss green ring of energy that quickly appeared from below! Even though those dark mages could sense my magic, I lightly smiled at how they revealed their location to me.
Concurrently... (Lucy's POV)
After walking on to the mint green path with Meladori and seeing where the enemy launched an attack, I built up a high amount of magical power. My magic's eggplant purple aura may have been large to where enemies would see it and also sense it, but I closed my eyes while keeping myself calm. After a few seconds of being calm, I started to precisely sense magical power in the distance. That caused me to lightly smile while my mind envisioned my enemies in the form of mauve purple silhouettes that were behind the dark purple silhouettes of the trees.
I opened my eyes to see that the positions of the trees were reflective of their silhouettes in my mind, and I sent a small amount of dark magic into my feet. I ended up running at high speeds while having a surprised look on my face, not expecting this level of dark magic to be such a major step up from having amethyst purple dark magic. This eggplant purple dark magic allowed me to run as fast as a hyperactive woman who drank ten cups of sugary coffee, and I ran incredibly fast to where I turned around for a moment to see that a trail of flames had been left behind.
Minerva teleported several flames for them to be in front of me, prompting me to grab them all in the moment before I slammed my hands together to create a large ball of eggplant purple fire. I tightly held on to the fireball while running past several trees that had mint green leaves on them, and the bushes on this path were tropical green. They had tropical green fruits on them while the fruits also smelled very sweet, but I ran past those bushes to quickly jump over a ledge. I landed on the ledge below that one, only to see the dirt path change to be tropical green.
It led into another portion of the woods, seeming to go deeper into the Sweetened Woods. I soon saw a woman with long hair in a pale shade of green run out from behind a tree to run into the woods, prompting me to throw my fireball at her. I aggressively threw the attack for it to land in front of the woman, causing her to quickly step back as a moss green aura engulfed both of her feet, and she wore a moss green bodysuit with dark green leggings. The leggings went well with her shoes, which were in a plain hue of green while her eyes were deeply emerald green.
As the fireball created a large blast and spun outward, the sight of the flames caused the woman to turn around and tell me with a stern glare on her face, "Well, it looks like Aroma Flair's women aren't just a bunch of fashionable wimps."
Upon seeing that a jade green necklace was around this woman's necklace, I stated with a surprised facial expression, "Hey, that necklace belongs to Meladori!"
After Meladori caught up with me, she timidly exclaimed to the stranger with a scared look on her face, "Give... me..! Give me back that necklace! It means everything to me, and you can't have it!"
That caused the woman to respond with a smug smile on her face, "Actually, this necklace and a nearly-empty incense jar may sell for high prices in my town. All that cash can be mine, and you're the fool for not taking care of your accessories."
Meladori proceeded to have tears well up in her eyes while clenching her fists, not intending to let this stranger get away with taking her necklace that consisted of several jade green beads. Meladori proceeded to run towards the woman at high speeds, only for the evil mage to put her hands together and quickly create a moss green sphere of energy in between her palms. This attack made the ground beneath her feet start to shine brightly while the mint green leaves that fell from leaves started to become moss green, so I narrowed my eyes at the thought of Plant Magic being involved.
My thought ended up being correct, since Meladori's opponent threw that sphere down at the ground for it to strike some leaves. The leaves absorbed it, before large bushes quickly sprouted from them, and Meladori soon saw those bushes detonate! Several moss green blasts occurred around Meladori, causing her to scream in excruciating pain, and the power of the blasts sent her flying high into the air. The moss green blasts also made several moss green flames appear, and the antagonist sent the moss green aura of her Plant Magic into them.
That caused the flames to grow much larger, and the thief aimed her hands up at Meladori to make the flames go up towards her at rapid speeds. Before the flames could strike Meladori, Minerva fired a plain purple energy wave up into the air while she had a confident smile on her face. Minerva's energy wave captured all of the flames, before turning them purple, and Minerva warped the flames for them to be in front of the antagonist. Before that woman could counterattack, I activated a new spell called Hex's Flame Bombardment.
After I shot out six eggplant purple flames up into the air for them to come down and form a hexagon, Minerva asked me with a curious facial expression, "Are you planning to make a shield to protect yourself from harm, Lucy?"
I replied with a slightly confident smile on my face, "No, Minerva-sama. I'm just going to gamble with this new spell."
Based on how I had envisioned this spell, the six flames that were around me started to attract the purple flames that were in front of the antagonist. She watched all of the flames go into my projectiles, powering up my flames to where they became eggplant purple twisters of fire, and I glanced at each fiery twister. I charged up more magical power, before distributing my dark magic's aura to each twister, and the twisters of fire soon became much hotter. They also grew much larger to where they all fired flames into the sky, and the sky itself became eggplant purple.
The new color of the sky was followed by eggplant purple beams of supposed sunlight shining down on the antagonist, and the light around her body started to expand. It started to make six eggplant purple clouds of steam rise up from the ground, and the steam clouds were suddenly struck by flames that emerged from my twisters to hit them. That caused the flames to immediately grow, before exploding in massive fiery blasts that formed a hexagon around the antagonist, and she screamed in pain as the blasts spun towards her.
However, I wasn't done with my attack. My flames left behind several eggplant purple clouds of hot steam, which prompted my twisters to fire several flames at them, and the flames grew larger as they went into the steam. These flames could be controlled by the movements of my hands, since I pushed my hands towards the thief, and the flames bombarded her to create several eggplant purple explosions! The explosions were massive, and I took notice of the fire continuously making the flames form a hexagon around her as a way of preventing her from leaving while she would also be getting hurt.
Three minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
Upon seeing Lucy be brave enough to strike her opponent with several hot flames, I smiled at my girlfriend in an approving manner. I enjoyed seeing Lucy refuse to display feelings of fear towards this woman, even if the eggplant purple smoke revealed that she was still standing. The antagonist had been moderately bruised while her skin had been charred to where it was now eggplant purple, but she would not give up. She proceeded to slam her hands down against the ground while sending a moss green aura down into it, and she smirked evilly as several moss green plant roots emerged from underneath Lucy's feet.
The plant roots were about to constrict Lucy's legs, but I fired several orchid purple energy waves at them to make those plant roots be engulfed in orchid purple explosions. Lucy utilized the fire from my explosions for her own next spell, which was known as Orchid Eggplant Flare. That spell simply made Lucy shoot out an eggplant purple and orchid purple beam of fire from her mouth, and the attack was quite large. It ended up striking the antagonist, causing her to be engulfed in a massive blast of vicious flames.
The fire left behind smaller flames, and Lucy quickly utilized them for a new spell that was called Witch's Purple Hex. Lucy grabbed several eggplant purple flames in her left hand, before picking up some orchid purple flames in her right hand. Lucy made the flames cover her hands, before hurriedly running towards the antagonist with a fierce look on her face. Lucy aggressively punched her opponent in the face with her left fist, before striking her with a barrage of punches that were coated in fire. That caused the antagonist to be engulfed in a flame that alternated between being eggplant purple and orchid purple.
When the flame was orchid purple, it aggressively exploded to burn the green-haired woman. She screamed in excruciating pain, before the flame turned eggplant purple to make a somewhat smaller explosion. When that explosion occurred, my eyes widened in a somewhat startled manner at how it made eggplant purple piles of ash be on the ground. The flames themselves burnt down into piles of hot ash, before the orchid purple fire appeared around the villain, and the combusting fire caused the piles of ash to aggressively explode.
As Lucy quickly leapt back, she stated with a stern facial expression, "Well, it looks like strengthening my attack is the only way to burn through this woman's durability."
The antagonist responded in a pained manner, before smirking, "Oh, I... didn't introduce myself. I am Komidori, the youngest of three sisters in the dark guild known as Matcha Moon."
That caused me to ask with a slightly surprised look on my face, recalling something about the Balam Allance, "Matcha Moon? Aren't you just a smaller guild working under Tartaros?"
Meladori replied for the woman, looking calm as she floated down from the sky, "Tartaros has some of the strongest dark mages, but they also have several problematic mages working under them. Mistress Corinne only told us to not decimate Matcha Moon, since Tartaros would destroy Bloom Town in that situation."
If Matcha Moon's mages were going to run off and tell Tartaros that they had been attacked by the mages of Aroma Flair, then I could only have a scheming smirk on my face. It wouldn't really cause problems for Matcha Moon's wizards to be attacked by people from another dark guild, and I used my Territory Magic to warp Komidori towards me. I wasted no time with getting the necklace off of her neck, before punching her in the face, and I created a lavender purple energy wave. This energy wave simply made a lavender purple explosion occur around Komidori, and she screamed in pain as this attack had the properties of making flames bombard her.
The fiery blasts spun inward, severely damaging Komidori, and I proceeded to create a much larger lavender purple energy wave. This attack may have had the same properties as my previous attack, but its strength would be much more intense. I threw the attack at Komidori, causing a massive and lavender purple blast to occur while it spun inward. The flames that were outside of the blast quickly caught my attention, and I motioned for Lucy to charge up more magical power. I teleported several of the flames on to her body as an eggplant purple aura engulfed her, and I watched the flames get absorbed into her body.
This was my way of sending more magical power into Lucy's body while also greatly increasing her physical strength to where she could probably grapple with Annette Rosia, but Lucy would need to grapple with our current enemy. The lavender purple clouds of smoke slowly cleared up to reveal that Komidori was heavily bloodied and bruised, her bodysuit burnt and torn in several places while she shakily stood up, but her eyes didn't display their pupils. She slowly fell forward, landing on the ground without even groaning in pain, and she seemed to be dead.
I told Lucy with a proud smile on my face, ignoring that the wind from that final attack made me drop the necklace, "Well, that's the end of one problem."
Meladori commented with a calm smile on her face, as she picked up the necklace that landed on the grass, "Yeah, we just retrieved my necklace. Now, it just has to be joined by my incense."
Lucy asked Meladori with a curious facial expression, "If you don't mind me asking, what aroma is the incense supposed to release?"
Meladori responded nicely, "Well, I'm not sure how jade is supposed to smell."
This female wizard had an incense of jade green powder, yet she didn't associate jade with a specific smell? Even putting some jade green perfume on that powder to identify it by a smell would've been nice, but it seemed like we'd also have to look for the lamp that contained the powder. I glanced at the path up ahead, noticing that it led to a deeper area of the Sweetened Woods, and I began to have a confident smile on my face from realizing that the incense could be there. After all, a group of female dark mages would want to burn sweet-smelling powder.
Burning powders with sweet aromas would hide their own scents, but they couldn't hide their different auras of magical power that suddenly appeared in a somewhat distant area of the Sweetened Woods. Were they charging up power to fight us? It certainly seemed that way, since Lucy and I unleashed such strong attacks to where the enemies could probably pinpoint our exact location. However, I didn't even feel scared. Instead, I continued to be brave and ran through the next entrance that had been bordered by some tropical green tulips.
Going into the next part of the woods resulted in my eyes seeing the dirt path to be emerald green, along with the trees being olive green, and some of the bushes were filled with tropical green tulips. The olive green trees had some juniper green trees behind them, all of the trees having candles in their respective hues of green, and the candles interestingly gave off the scents of sweet plants. Although, those green leaves were a bit troublesome because the auras of those mages almost blended in with them.
Five minutes later... (Lucy's POV)
Seeing the auras of those mages caused me to run faster, and I ran behind Minerva while a smile of confidence started to appear on my face. I felt very optimistic about being able to defeat the dark mages who would be standing in our way, and I even thought of some new spells that would be useful for decimating them. Taking down those dark mages would also mean that their guild would be destroyed, so Minerva and I would definitely be victorious. The thought of obtaining victory on this job interestingly made me widen my eyes in amazement, since I truly felt confidence surging through my body.
I confidently felt that I could succeed on this mission, which had been different from my earlier feelings about not wanting to be in Bloom Town, and I would probably come back to Bloom Town with the expectation of being praised by Meladori for being such a useful ally. Meladori ran beside me while she built up some Wind Magic, and Meladori fired a shamrock beam vortex of wind from her left palm. The vortex of winds interestingly got smaller as it got closer to an area that was between the trees and the auras, but it ended up detonating in a massive shamrock green blast!
As all of the winds spun outward, Minerva created tropical green energy waves on her hands and absorbed all of the winds into them. She proceeded to unleash Meladori's spell in the form of two large tornadoes, before throwing her energy waves at them, and the energy waves interestingly contained the properties of heavy winds. This allowed Minerva to strengthen her attacks, and she watched them tear through the trees. They soon approached the same spot that Meladori fired at, before detonating in blasts that were massive, and the winds that blew to be behind us were teleported by Minerva. She warped them to be beneath our feet, causing us all to get propelled into the air.
After Minerva sent me soaring through the air beside her, I tightly grabbed on to one of Minerva's hands while having a somewhat worried look on my face. I felt terrified of falling from high heights again, and Minerva was happily giggling as she flew through the air. She was joyful about getting to fight our enemies, even if I was more confident than joyful, and glancing down for a moment allowed me to see the emerald green ledges of this route that we briefly flew over. Minerva and I joined Meladori in landing in front of a dark green building with an emerald green pitched roof, and this place had parakeet green tinted windows while having a dark green drawing of a coffee mug on the front of the building.
Upon landing on the soft grass and seeing someone walk towards me as they wore emerald green high heels, I looked up to say with a slightly worried facial expression, "Oh, it's nice to meet you. The Sweetened Woods is such a deep place."
The dark mage who had somewhat short and straight melon green hair replied with a disgusted look on her face, "Well, we just found the idiots who were making all that noise in the woods. That moron Komidori shouldn't have been lookout, and now she's probably slacking off."
The female who was beside her had emerald green hair that was long and wavy responded with an angered look on her face, "Komidori couldn't beat these girls, so let's take them down. Midomelo, let's use our strongest spells to tear them apart."
That caused Midomelo to reply with a rude smirk on her face, as I glanced at her melon green vest top, "Emeralda, you're right. We'll have fun with annihilating these mages."
Meladori responded with a fierce facial expression, noticing something sticking out of Midomelo's melon green Capri pants, "That's the jar for my incense! Give it back, you thief!"
Midomelo simply shook her head in a manner expressing refusal, prompting Minerva to fire a melon green energy wave at her. That caused Midomelo to pick up some grass and eat it, before building up a high amount of magical power in her mouth. She shot out seven melon green rings that were formed from melon green leaves, which glowed brightly, and Emeralda built up an emerald green aura in her hands. She fired the aura at the rings, causing them to grow much larger while they became emerald green.
The attacks not only grew in size, but they also became faster to where Minerva had to rapidly create a lavender purple energy wave. It collided with one of the projectiles while being dense enough to withstand the massive melon green blast that soon became emerald green, but the sight of the other projectiles aggressively crashing into the energy wave to smash through it was something that made me angrily narrow my eyes. I immediately unleashed a spell known as Purple Hex Silhouette, and an eggplant purple aura engulfed my body.
It soon tore off from my body to create a perfect silhouette of me, and that shadowy version of myself ran towards the attacks at high speeds! The eggplant purple silhouette was quickly attacked, resulting in a fiery explosion that contained eggplant purple flames, and those flames went down into their shadows. That caused me to unleash a new spell, which was known as Hexing Purple Whip, and I aggressively slammed my hands down on the ground while looking at Midomelo. That caused several eggplant purple shadowy hands of Darkness Magic to emerge from the ground, but they soon went up into the sky.
"Well, wasn't that quite a misfire?" Midomelo asked with a condescending smirk appearing on her face, before evilly giggling.
That caused me to reply with a confident facial expression, as the shadowy hands came down with eggplant purple auras engulfing them, "Actually, that wasn't a misfire."
My eyes became filled with more confidence from seeing my projectiles aggressively slam down against Midomelo, and she was being bombarded with several eggplant purple blasts. They created several eggplant purple flames, which were useful for unleashing the spell that I could now call Dark Inferno Twister. I picked up some eggplant purple flames in my hands, before watching them become larger twisters, and I proceeded to throw the attacks at Emeralda. That only made her shoot out an emerald green beam from her left hand, and she aimed it down at the ground.
That beam created an emerald green explosion while its heavy winds pushed against my twisters of fire to where they were sent back towards me, and I started to look shocked. I wondered if my own flames were going to burn me, but Meladori ran to be by my side. She unleashed a somewhat weak spell from her mouth, firing a shamrock green vortex of winds. That was followed by a shamrock green cloud being fired from her mouth, and the cloud released a high amount of wind to where it strengthened her own attack.
Heavy winds started to appear in front of my spell, and Meladori positioned her hands to be in front of the cloud. The large cloud and its winds thrusted forward in the same moment where Meladori thrusted her hands forward, and I smiled nicely from seeing my twisters be sent back to Emeralda with more speed. Having more speed allowed the twisters to quickly strike her, but the average-sized explosions of eggplant purple fire made me groan in frustration. I felt irked from realizing that Emeralda purposely made my spell's level of power drop by making her own attack push against it for a significant duration of time.
Meanwhile... (Minerva's POV)
The clouds of eggplant purple smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that Emeralda and Midomelo had hardly been damaged, and they respectively had emerald green and melon green auras surrounding their bodies. Midomelo quickly aimed her hands at me, and she shot out several melon green tulips without stems. They all ended up landing in front of my feet, before creating melon green explosions, but these flowers left behind melon green powder that quickly blew towards me. The powder ended up making my body fall to the ground, and I couldn't move. What was happening?
My arms and legs started to feel numb, and I couldn't move at all. That spell contained powder that caused paralysis, and the explosions didn't hit me because Midomelo had the actual goal of immobilizing me. That was very clever, and I groaned in frustration at how these enemies weren't as weak as Komidori. Midomelo proceeded to unleash a large tulip green flower from her hands, and that flower quickly struck me. I became engulfed in a massive melon green blast, and I screamed in excruciating pain from how several explosions were occurring around me.
My screams of pain were followed by me coughing up some blood, but the moment where I was about to hit the ground was the moment where Midomelo made a melon green tulip engulf her left fist. She hastily ran towards me, before striking my body with several harsh punches, and those punches made the flower start shedding melon green petals that latched on to my clothes and my skin. They all glowed brightly, before detonating in melon green explosions, and I was sent flying into the air. I ended up coming down to be near all of the other green-haired dark witches, and I roughly slid across the grass as my dress started to be torn.
The rough feeling of sliding on the grass caused me to groan in a pained manner, but seeing the dark witches start to build up their auras in varying shades of green caused me to start looking frustrated. They all proceeded to fire tulips down at me, but I was soon blown away from them in the moment where Lucy threw a large flame at those dark witches. The flame's eggplant purple blast had been fiery while it spun outward, and the sight of Lucy's aura going into those flames to make them larger caused me to look somewhat surprised.
"Don't get away from my flames, Minerva-sama! I have an idea, but leave it to me and Meladori-san!" Lucy stated with a look of assurance appearing on her face, before cutely winking at me.
I kindly thought to myself with my lips forming a slight smile of respect, "Wow, it took you long enough to make a good plan."
Lucy told Meladori with a confident smile appearing on her face, "Meladori-san, lend me your weakest winds!"
That command may have caused Meladori to blink her eyes in a somewhat perplexed manner, but she unleashed a small shamrock green tornado of wind from her hands. She quickly hit Emeralda with the attack, before Lucy shot out an eggplant purple stream of flames from her mouth. She synthesized that attack with an earlier spell involving her eggplant purple aura forming her silhouette, and the shadowy version of Lucy jumped into those flames. The combined attack was aimed at Emeralda, who was caught in the miniature explosion that had been in a shamrock hue of green.
She was quickly struck by Lucy's fusion attack, which created a massive eggplant purple blast that had a second large eggplant purple blast within it. Both of the blasts spun outward while their flames started burning the grass, and Midomelo ended up getting burned by some of Lucy's flames. All of this fire that she created was feeling extremely hot, the fire's heat being so hot to where it felt like Midomelo's powder from earlier was hot spice burning against my skin, and I sweated profusely. Sweat went down my body in droves while I felt feverish, and I felt like I had been in the hottest sauna.
As my body continued to perspire, I slowly started standing up. Wait, why I was now able to stand up? Did the powder's paralysis fade away, or did Lucy intentionally try to boil me with all of this heat? She must've been trying to burn away all of the powder, which was evident from how some emerald green explosions were occurring within the eggplant purple flames. Lucy was certainly quite smart to think of a strategy like that in the midst of a battle, and she was now making strategies with her temporary teammate's magic.
Lucy stated to Meladori with a confident facial expression, "Meladori-san, we're going to try a combination! Although, you need to be in the air!"
That caused Meladori to reply with a soft smile on her face, believing in Lucy, "Yes, Lucy Heartfilia! I shall fully cooperate with you!"
Meladori sent a high amount of Wind Magic into her feet, allowing her body to jump up to a very high altitude, and she charged up a high amount of Wind Magic. Meladori unleashed a large shamrock green vortex of wind from her hands, and this spell started shimmering after she sent a shamrock green aura into it. Its power was increasing, and the spell would come down to strike Midomelo. Emeralda attempted to intercept the spell by firing seven emerald green beams from her right hand, but Lucy quickly threw an eggplant purple flame up at her projectiles.
The collision resulted in several emerald green explosions occurring while flames in that shade of green rained down, but the hot winds that resulted from the collision caused Meladori's attack to grow larger. It also gained more power and speed on its descent towards Midomelo, but I also widened my eyes in shock at how the hot winds were strengthening the emerald green flames. Emeralda shot out a large stream of leaves from her mouth while she was probably planning to hit Lucy with burning projectiles, but I quickly activated my Territory Magic.
I made wine purple energy waves surround those flames, causing them to become wine purple while they also had the properties of being associated with Darkness Magic, and I watched Emeralda's attack collide with the falling flames. She immediately gasped in shock from seeing her attack explode against the flames, which were altered for them to be as dense as titanium, and the winds from the explosion powered up Meladori's attack as the flames rapidly fell towards Emeralda. The villain turned to face me with an aggravated look in her eyes, but she soon found herself having to avoid Lucy's next spell.
Five minutes later... (Lucy's POV)
My next spell was known as Dark Burning Wave, and this spell interestingly involved me aiming my hands at Emeralda. That caused an eggplant purple hand to appear on her emerald green blouse, and that led to several shimmering eggplant purple hands appearing in the space that was in front of her. The hands slammed into Emeralda, before their moment of touching the first hand led to them all being set ablaze. That caused all of the hands to start melting, before the dripping dark magic viciously combusted as if it was oil.
Emeralda elicited strident screams of pain, before screaming more as the wine purple flames came down at a rapid pace. As they rapidly came down to strike Emeralda, I swiftly moved to pick up Midomelo and throw her at her ally. Midomelo screamed in a somewhat fearful manner as she collided with Emeralda, and they were both struck by the wine purple flames. As the wine purple blasts of dark magic occurred and quickly spun outward, the large flames that resulted from them were generating intense amounts of heat.
The high level of heat caused the grass to start being set ablaze from the flames, and I picked up some of the wine purple flames to throw them at the remaining dark witches. They all ran back into their guild, only for the flames to explode as they touched the building, and I started smirking evilly as I threw more flames at the building. Those women deserved to burn to ashes with their guild, since they almost harmed my girlfriend, and anyone who even thought about harming Minerva would need to die.
I wasted no time with throwing more wine purple flames at that building, before eating some of them, and I activated the spell known as Eggplant Purple Flaming Stream. This spell simply made me shoot out a stream of eggplant purple flames from my mouth, but the flames soon became wine purple while the stream of flames grew much larger from absorbing the tremendous amount of heat waves. My attack ended up striking the building, before detonating in a massive wine purple blast, and I got to hear many of those women elicit screams of severe pain.
"Are you afraid to die?" I asked them with a sadistic smile on my face, before seeing some of the flames melt down into oil.
Midomelo responded in a pained manner for her teammates, struggling to stand up as her skin was charred to be wine purple and eggplant purple in several places, "I won't.. let you... kill my... teammates. You can.. have the.. incense."
As Midomelo took out the incense with her shaky hands, I responded with a disturbing smile of malice on my face, "Actually, we're past the point of mercy. You showed no mercy to my lover, so you must perish."
Midomelo proceeded to throw the incense down on to the grass, before unleashing several melon green leaves from her hands, and the melon green leaves soon became sharper blades of energy. Midomelo's projectiles were all aimed at me, but I quickly ate some eggplant purple flames to make the eggplant purple aura around my body grow much larger. It soon became wine purple, due to me picking up some wine purple oil from the flames and greasing up my hair in an attempt to dye it. As the oil seeped into my body and my magic, I even imagined my eyes becoming wine purple.
I started to have a malicious look in my eyes while I easily endured the attacks that created melon green blasts, and I unleashed a spell known as Eggplant Sweet Burst. This spell required me to build up a high amount of dark magic in my mouth, before I shot out seven small eggplant purple fireballs. They all touched Midomelo's feet, before exploding to where her feet were covered in eggplant purple flames, and the moment that the flames heightened was when they combusted to make Midomelo be engulfed in flames. She screamed in excruciating pain from being set on fire while her feet started to be covered in eggplant purple ashes, but those piles of ashes soon became wine purple.
As Midomelo glanced down at those piles of ashes, she soon gasped in a worried manner from hearing the roaring winds of Meladori's gigantic vortex. She quickly looked up, but she couldn't fire any spells before the flames on her feet combusted again. The explosions even damaged Emeralda, who was burned and bleeding on the ground while being covered in flames. She struggled to stand up in the same moment where Meladori's vortex came down upon her, along with harming Midomelo, and a giant shamrock green blast occurred!
Hearing the loud sound of the blast destroying this area of the woods caused Minerva to tell me in an alarmed manner, "Lucy, don't get hurt by that attack!"
That caused me to reply with an immense amount of confidence in my voice while stepping back with a smile of arrogance on my face, "Well, I'm not the one who's getting decimated into ashes."
The shamrock green blast contained a very high amount of Wind Magic, and the winds were dense to where I could see them slicing against Midomelo's body as if they were blades of air. The winds may have pertained to Meladori's strong attack, but they were still weak enough to where they made my flames grow much larger. All of the fire loudly crackled while the heat became much more intense, and I could even see some resin melting out of the green trees that were exuding sweet aromas. They were as sweet as the incense that Meladori had been wanting to retrieve, and I walked over to the lamp.
I picked up the lamp to feel it be as hot as steel that had been burned by extremely hot flames, but I felt no pain because of the aura that surrounded my body. The lamp didn't burn my hands, and I firmly held it close to me as Meladori floated down from the sky. After Meladori came down to the ground, she had a pleased smile on her face while the feeling of calmness was in her eyes. She started to calmly smile from seeing that her incense's lamp was still intact, and she ran up to me. I gently gave the incense to Meladori, only for her to wince in pain at the lamp being extremely hot.
Speaking of things that were extremely hot, my two enemies were now covered in flames as the shamrock green clouds of smoke cleared up. The disappearing smoke revealed that they were both dead, their bodies reduced to ashes by the intensity of the attacks, and I started to evilly smirk as I looked over at the witches' guild that had now been destroyed. Even though its destruction occurred, what would truly stop any dark witches from pretending that they were dead? If they were going to try faking their deaths, then I would be happy to make them truly feel more pain to where they would die.
Ten minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
Seeing Lucy walk towards the burning guild with an evil smirk on her face caused me to frown in a disapproving manner, and I felt that we didn't need to make this fight last for another minute. I proceeded to teleport in front of Lucy, and I looked into her eyes to see that they were filled with feelings of vengeance. Did Lucy want to get revenge for me, since I was nearly killed by those dark witches? Even though I felt okay now, Lucy wasn't okay with the fact that I had been harmed. Still, any pain that had been dealt to me wouldn't matter because I believed that all of those green-haired mages were dead.
Lucy didn't perceive them to be dead, since she built up more magical power for the eggplant purple aura around her body to be extremely large. That giant aura quickly became wine purple, and I widened my eyes in a startled manner. Lucy must have consumed some of the flames that had been altered by my magic, but it seemed like her own eggplant purple dark magic would end up being corrupted if it absorbed too much dark magic that was in any shade of purple that the ring didn't yet unlock.
Lucy was currently glaring at me in a displeased manner, since I refused to let her excessively engage in bloodshed. She proceeded to create a wine purple flame in her right hand, before trying to slam it against my chest. However, I made an eggplant purple energy wave appear in front of my chest, and it had the properties of nullifying any magic that touched it. Lucy's flame ended up exploding against my projectile without dealing any damage, and I proceeded to smirk at her in a rude manner.
That only caused Lucy to growl at me in an extremely angered manner like a feral beast, and she proceeded to activate a new spell that made eggplant purple fire engulf her entire body. She leapt back to be a few feet away from me, before running towards me at high speeds like a raging animal. Before Lucy could slam into me, I struck her with an eggplant purple energy wave. This attack had been tiny while it didn't damage her, but it interestingly had the properties of transferring Lucy's excess amount of magical power into my body while she would move at a much slower speed.
"What.. did you.. do to.. me?" Lucy asked aloud in a somewhat more demonic tone of voice, her eyes losing their pupils as she made herself become surrounded by wine purple flames.
I responded with a nice smile on my face, as Lucy's excessive eggplant purple aura entered my body, "I'm simply slowing down your movements, sweetie."
Lucy replied in a pained manner, as the aura around her started to fade away, "I can't... stop... using spells, or...!"
Upon seeing Lucy start reverting back to normal while her voice slowly sounded like her regular tone, I had a calm look of realization in my eyes. I realized that Lucy's magic at this specific level would lose its power if she was forced to be immobilized, and not being able to do anything meant that she could no longer use several dangerous spells without any restraints. That eggplant purple magic certainly displayed that it had no restraints when stronger magic in unfamiliar shades of purple made contact with it, so I could only glance at Lucy's ring with a small frown of curiosity on my face.
That ring was now eggplant purple without even slightly being wine purple, so it didn't seem like more power could be unlocked by throwing it into wine purple fire. Maybe Lucy would have to push her eggplant purple dark magic to its limits, almost like each shade of purple was a tier of her Dark Celestial Spirit Magic. This tier seemed like it was strong, but I honestly perceived Lucy's current level of dark magic to be the best of the weakest tiers. After all, her magic would actually be at its full potential when corruption or drawbacks were nonexistent.
If Lucy didn't want to get corrupted by her eggplant purple magic, then I could only narrow my eyes in a stern manner at how she would have to learn to control it. I smiled in a smug manner at the thought of teaching Lucy how to calmly control her magic, since I perceived myself as an expert in that task, but I couldn't teach her anything right now because of the fact that I looked startled from sensing someone walk into the Sweetened Woods. The person who entered this area of the woods had long and fern green hair tied back in an upwards ponytail, and her eyes were deeply fern green as she wore a jungle green vest top with forest green capri pants that complimented her forest green shoes.
"Well, it looks like you were finally strong enough to get the necklace back." The woman told Meladori with a disapproving facial expression, folding her arms as she looked stern.
Meladori replied with some calmness in her eyes, as she started smiling somewhat timidly, "Hello, Natane-san. Yes, I finally got it back and I'm happy that our team can get back to-"
"What are you happy about?! It took you this long to complete such a menial task?! Meladori-chan, you're still as useless as ever." Natane asked with an angered facial expression, before commenting in a very frustrated tone.
That caused me to respond with a somewhat calm look on my face, "Well, at least she had some help."
My little comment only caused Natane to look at me as if I was some insignificant mage, and she walked away without even uttering a single word. She wouldn't even thank me or Lucy for helping Meladori retrieve the necklace and the incense, which both seemed so important, so I just scoffed as I walked over to Lucy. Lucy slowly opened her eyes, smiling softly at how she was now just observing the fire that continued to burn in this area of the woods, and I watched Lucy start to sheepishly giggle as if she overused her magic.
In my opinion, Lucy didn't extensively use her dark magic today. She unleashed a high amount of it, but that magic hadn't been anything that made me feel impressed. Besides, Lucy didn't even unlock it without my help. Therefore, I had still been the main reason why Lucy felt so strong and confident today. She proceeded to look up at me with confidence in her eyes, looking like she felt that it was possible for her to handle any mission where I would be her wounded ally, and I felt glad that I showed Lucy that there was no harm in coming to Bloom Town.
Although, the sight of Natane roughly grabbing Meladori by her wrist and walking back to Bloom with her caused me to think that some harm would come to that mage. I honestly just thought that Natane was miffed at Meladori for taking such a long duration of time to retrieve a necklace, and I ran after them with Lucy running behind me. We got to hear Natane scoff in a stressed manner, almost like she was very irritated by Meladori. Meladori losing fashionable accessories was what almost any girl would do, but did this ever happen at a prior point in time?
One hour later, in Bloom Town... (Meladori's POV)
Losing that necklace led to Natane continuing to sternly glare at me, her eyes displaying displeasure at how I hadn't retrieved it on my own. I honestly couldn't get it back without help from Minerva and Lucy, but Natane only folded her arms in an irked manner while looking at them. The feeling of displeasure in her eyes was accompanied by her fists being tightly clenched, and I started to tremble in a concerned manner. As my legs started to shake like jelly, I wondered if Natane was very aggravated that I asked dark mages for their assistance.
Natane expressed her feelings of being aggravated by going into Aroma Flair's pale green building that was right in front of us, and she hastily emerged from the guildhall with a shamrock green bag of jewels that I had been planning to give to Minerva and Lucy. They watched Natane walk past the two pale green gates that bordered the entrance in front of the building, and she set the bag down near some tropical green tulips on the ground for a moment. She took out 100,000 jewels from the right pocket of her capri pants, and Natane stuffed them into the bag.
She proceeded to throw the bag at Minerva, who easily caught the bag with one hand. Minerva started to smile at the bag in a pleased manner, liking the fact that she and Lucy received such a high amount of money. They also received the polite gesture of me bowing my head forward to them, wanting to show my gratitude for how they helped retrieve the necklace. The necklace was still in my hands, but the moment that I tried to place it around my neck was the moment when Natane took the necklace from me.
She proceeded to put it near the left pocket of her pants, before pulling out a neon green receipt. That neatly-folded receipt obviously pertained to the necklace, and I started to frown at Natane in a saddened manner while I knew what was going to happen. Natane began walking to the high-end jewelry store at a fast pace, snobbishly scoffing as she walked past Minerva, but the moment where she walked past Lucy was the moment where Lucy firmly grabbed one of Natane's wrists. Was Lucy being bold, or being idiotic?
Lucy told Natane with a stern facial expression, "Wow, you're very bold to think you can take back that necklace and undermine our hard work to get it back for Meladori!"
Natane responded coldly, her facial expression displaying disapproval, "You've done your job, dark mage. This isn't any of your business."
Natane continued, sounding very irked right now, "In fact, it shouldn't have been your business. You only got that job, since Meladori has the tendency of being a bumbling idiot."
Upon hearing Natane refer to me as an idiot, my eyes glanced away to the ground in an ashamed manner. I genuinely felt bad that I couldn't retrieve the necklace sooner, and being braver at an earlier point in time would've probably led to Natane having a slight bit of respect for me. However, Natane turning to look at me with a miffed facial expression only made me quickly lock eyes with her again. I started to have a saddened look in my eyes from thinking that this was Natane's way of punishing me for not caring about my fashionable accessories, but at least she wouldn't attack me with spells.
When Natane would get very angry at me, she tended to unleash powerful attacks that left me bloodied and bruised for several days. She probably would attack me when Lucy and Minerva left this town, but I sighed in a calm manner while feeling so accustomed to Natane's behavior. Natane was one of the coolest girls in Aroma Flair, along with being one of the strongest women, and she was very fashionable to the point where I would never get connections to anyone in the fashion industry without her help.
Natane's potent magic always made me feel like I couldn't be successful without her helping me on missions, and I really thought that it would've been good for me to wait until she felt merciful enough to help me. However, Natane had been refusing to give me any mercy on missions and she wouldn't even give me any sympathy. I honestly blamed myself for not being pitied by Natane, as I felt very apologetic for being a weaker mage who she had as a partner. She hated that I couldn't measure up to her expectations, and the moment where she freed herself from Lucy's grip to walk away made me feel like I was just going to watch her continue to be distant from me.
"Meladori, I'll deal with you later." Natane told me in a stern manner, turning around to fiercely glare at me.
I replied with feelings of defeat and acceptance in my voice, "Yes, Natane-sama."
The memory of Natane striking me with powerful spells pertaining to Plant Magic caused me to remember when one of her attacks was very similar to a green whip that roughly hit my face, and recalling the feeling of that bruise made me put my right hand on my right cheek. Natane used that specific spell a few weeks ago to attack me for not being strong enough to defeat an enemy with my most powerful attacks related to Wind Magic, and she even made other girls from Aroma Flair attack me with Plant Magic to increase all the stress that had been pushed on to me.
From Natane's perspective, harshly punishing me and putting me through immense amounts of stress would be the only way for me to get stronger. My strongest spell was the Windy Verdant Vortex spell that came down from the sky, but it only gained much more power after Lucy and Minerva wanted me to strike my enemies with aerial attacks for their levels of power to increase. Natane never taught me how to use my spells in creative ways, since she expected me to unleash my spells at full power without any kind of enhancement.
Even though I couldn't enhance the power of my spells, I wanted to enhance my gratitude to Lucy and Minerva. Maybe I could buy them some incenses in a situation where we all crossed paths again, and those sweet-smelling incenses would probably smell as sweet as the incense that I currently held with the lid flimsily being on it. The flimsy lid reminded me of a thought regarding my own happiness, since a part of myself made me secretly believe that my happiness with Natane wasn't stable. Although, the fact that our team would still be intact caused me to softly frown as Lucy and Minerva proceeded to walk to a different part of Bloom Town.
How was Chapter 15? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and Minerva handled the job of helping Meladori find her necklace, along with the incense. Although, completing this job didn't seem to make Natane feel happy. In fact, Natane's relationship with Meladori will be expanded upon in this arc. Speaking of this arc, it also will involve Lucy learning to be as calm as possible when training with her magic. Even if Lucy has to train with her magic, Minerva will have to prevent Lucy from pouring too much emotion or dark magic into her spells. Although, Minerva's own emotions may be tested again in this arc. By the way, this is the second part of the Tropical Tulips Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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