Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 12: The Green Winds of a Treasure Hunt! The Mystery of Sky Cave! Shiozaki's Impatience & Phoebe's Thievery! Lucy and Minerva Fall!
Lucy's POV
The day after getting that special job request, Minerva and I took the train to the Skyward Fauna guild that had been in Zephri Town. The town of Zephri was a place with moss green cobblestone streets while the streets were bordered by dark green grass that looked like it belonged in meadows. When I tried to step on that dark green grass and get near a group of shamrock green flowers that formed a square, those flowers bloomed to create a small garden of shamrock green flowers. This garden ended up releasing a shamrock green aroma into the air, but something strange soon occurred.
The shamrock green aroma was followed by the petals rising up from the flowers, and the petals proceeded to form a spiraling tower in midair as the winds entered the space around them. The plants that flew into the air certainly gave me the impression of fauna going skyward, but Minerva and I would need to find the Skyward Fauna guild. Whoever sent this request sounded very eager to find some treasure, but where would they even start looking for it? Upon seeing a road in the distance that led out of Zephri Town, that road only contained a light green dirt path.
It didn't lead to the woods or a forest, which prompted me to look very curious. Minerva also had a curious look on her face while she held the green flyer in her hands, and we went down a road that turned left to see that there were some mages who made leaves fly through the air. The leaves almost sliced each other while being surrounded by pale green auras, which were the same shade of green that surrounded the hands of the two female mages who were levitating them in midair. They soon saw Minerva and I watching them, prompting them to get startled enough to where the leaves ended up bursting.
The bursting leaves left behind pale green sparkles in midair, and the sporadic sparkles made both of these women groan in frustration as if their performance was lousy. They proceeded to activate the spells again, causing several sharp-edged pale green leaves to emerge from their hands. They made all of the leaves pas right by each other while slight collisions created pale green sparks in midair, and the sparks that fell down to the ground ended up creating pale green auras that were shaped like orbs. As the leaves were about to strike the orbs, the two women were interrupted by the sound of another woman screaming.
"It's my treasure map!" A woman with long and fern green hair stated in a defensive manner, as she ran down this street with an alarmed look on her face.
That prompted a somewhat older woman with dark green hair in soft curls to respond with an aggressive facial expression, "Even if you found that map, the treasure will need to be found by me! You know that I'm the only one who can read maps, Shiozaki!"
"Koyanagi, you weren't even there when I stumbled upon that treasure chest in the Wind Sage's Forest!" The woman named Shiozaki responded with an arrogant look on her face, before looking panicked at the sight of the performers in front of her.
As the two performers started to scream in a worried manner and tried swerving out of the way to where only their emerald green dresses would be touched by the falling sparks, Minerva used her Territory Magic to warp Shiozaki directly behind us. Shiozaki managed to evade the spells of the performers, who saw their attacks create sparkles that fell down to make the pale green orbs rapidly spin outward without them harming anyone. Their large winds pushed in two directions, some of them blowing Koyanagi several feet backwards.
Despite the fact that the spell seemed powerful and beautiful, both of the performers sighed in a frustrated manner. They soon glanced at me, taking notice of my mauve purple T-shirt went well with my deep mauve purple skirt and lilac purple shoes that Minerva bought for me yesterday after our date. After that little date had ended, Minerva picked out an elegant light purple dress with a mauve purple stripe going across the waist area. The dress went well with her eggplant purple flat shoes, but Minerva's fashion sense did cause her to look at Shiozaki in a somewhat impressed manner.
Shiozaki simply wore a fern green coat with a plain miniskirt, along with jade green shoes, and her coat somewhat resembled a business suit. That business suit wasn't as elegant as Koyanagi's jade green fur coat, which had mint green fur on the collar of the coat, and this woman wore a form-fitting fern green dress that showed up her voluptuous figure. The fern green dress complimented her basil green flat shoes, which were the same hue of green as Koyanagi's eyes. Koyanagi moved her long and curly hair away from her eyes, and she proceeded to look at Minerva.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Koyanagi asked Minerva with a confused look appearing on her face.
As she glanced at the flyer right before looking at the other woman, Minerva told Koyanagi with a calm facial expression, "We're just here to help someone acquire a treasure, even if you don't have the map."
That caused Shiozaki to respond with a delighted look in her jungle green eyes, "Wait, you... You're Minerva Orland from Seductive Witch! This is Lucy Heartfilia, who you're partnered it!"
"Nice to meet you, too..." I stated with a somewhat embarrassed facial expression, as Shiozaki excitedly shook my hands.
Shiozaki excitedly squealed while she looked very delighted, almost like she was thinking she could find the treasure simply because we were here. She proceeded to hand me the treasure map for a moment, prompting me to look at it. There were several matcha green houses drawn on this map, resembling the marbled matcha green pitched roofs that complimented the pale green houses, and this alleyway that was known as Performer's Alley was also on here. Going south from this alley would take me and Minerva in the direction of the guild, so I walked back out of the alley.
Going back out of the alley and going to the right took me to a new street, which had several women using their Plant Magic to make seeds in dark green flower pots quickly grow into being flowers. Some of them grew to be roses while other flowers were pansies, but they were all in different shades of green. These flowers all surprisingly aromas, but they lacked actual smells. Why couldn't I smell any of the flowers on this street? Now that I thought about it, why couldn't I detect any fragrances from the flowers in this town?
Walking down this street and going past some green-haired botanists also allowed me to cross paths with a slightly younger girl who had moss green hair, and she wore a moss green skirt with a matcha green T-shirt as she carried a plain green basket in one hand. The basket was full of perfumes, and she handed me a mint green bottle of perfume. When I sprayed the mint green perfume into the air, it surprisingly had no smell as if its own magic had just been nullified. However, maybe the nullifying spells would be coming from the guild that had been up ahead while being near a end dead.
10 minutes later, in the Skyward Fauna guild... (Shiozaki's POV)
The interior of the Skyward Fauna guild had light green round tables, which went well with the dark green brick walls, and the carpet had been moss green. Some mossy rocks were also near some of the tables, which symbolized how the people in this guild cared for plants. There were even some flowers on the rectangular and plain green stage, which stood at the back of the guild. I walked on to the stage with a delighted smile on my face, feeling happy that this small guild now had enough people available for everyone to engage in a treasure hunt.
The hunt for the treasure would start in the Fern Meadow, since that was where the map had informed me about where to start looking for the treasure. After that, I would have to get help from Lucy and Minerva on where to look for the treasure. The stories about this supposedly amazing treasure had been claiming that it could be found by brightening up the meadow, which had always been such a cryptic clue. Even people with Lightning Magic couldn't make the treasure appear within the meadow, and failed attempts to get the treasure resulted in many of the current guild members being doubtful of the treasure's existence.
However, I excitedly smiled at my unyielding determination in believing that the treasure was real. I truly felt that the treasure existed, and it couldn't have just been a random fable. In order for it to even be a fable, I would have to prove that this map led to nothing being at the end of the journey. I even wanted to go on this quest by myself, only for Koyanagi to run after me when I hurriedly left the guild. Koyanagi wanted me to let her read the map, since that map pertained to some of the areas where she had completed jobs.
Getting fern green plants and rare flowers from the Fern Meadow may have been good for Koyanagi, but she had also gone into the Sky Cave and found a dead end. Sky Cave was on the treasure map, the cave being a crucial area pertaining to how the meadow could be brightened. Even though I would have to enter the cave, Koyanagi disliked my ambitiousness because of the fact that she only found a dead end in that cave. Even if the cave was vast, how could the treasure be located past a dead end? This was an interesting question, but I felt determined to solve the mystery regarding the treasure.
"Listen up, everyone! I'm finally going to search for the Fern Meadow's treasure, and these two mages from Seductive Witch shall help me!" I stated aloud to everyone with a cheerful smile on my face, as my hand pointed at Lucy and Minerva.
That caused Koyanagi to ask with an irked look on her face, "Just because you have help from dark mages, do you really think they'll be useful for helping you find the treasure?"
That caused Minerva to respond with a somewhat annoyed facial expression, "I'm actually making sure that Lucy and I won't get used like dispensable pawns, so we'll be taking portions of that treasure for ourselves."
Personally, I didn't mind the idea of Minerva and Lucy taking some treasure for themselves. They had been invited to participate in this treasure hunt, and I had no intention of wasting their time. That prompted me to jump off of the stage, before walking up to Minerva, and I handed her the map. She proceeded to unfold the map in front of everyone, and Minerva smiled softly as her eyes had a slight look of realization in them from looking at one part of the map. Lucy joined her in looking at a specific portion of the map, and I walked past some guild members to be next to Lucy.
She and Minerva were both putting their fingers on the part of the map pertinent to the Fern Meadow, which had been colored in as being fern green. That entire section was fern green, excluding a jade green part of the meadow. The jade green coloring always seemed odd to me, since there was only jade green grass in that portion of the meadow. That detail had to be ignored by me, since every part of the map had been colored in a different shade of green. The Sky Cave had been colored in as being mint green, and the room with the treasure was basil green.
Getting into that room to see all of its treasure, along with the largest treasure chest would be nice, and I proceeded to run out of the Skyward Fauna guild. As I was on my way out of the guild, Koyanagi had a sultry smile on her face and she sent Wind Magic down into her feet. She hastily got in front of me, causing my face to end up colliding with her large breasts, and she slowly looked down at me. Glancing up at Koyanagi allowed me to see her smiling, only for her smile to become filled with more confidence.
"Shiozaki, I wanted to tell you that I'll just be cheering for you from afar." Koyanagi told me in a calm manner, as a friendly smile started to appear on her face.
That caused me to respond with a friendly smile on my face, my eyes displaying some happiness, "Thank you, Koyanagi. I'll be sure to bring back some treasure for you."
"No, don't bring me back any small portions of treasure." Koyanagi replied to me with a humble smile appearing on her face, before she quickly got behind me and shoved me past the guild's dark green entrance doors.
As I walked out of the guild with Lucy and Minerva following me, I smiled nicely at how Koyanagi was wanting to stay behind and allow me to get the treasure. That was a very sweet decision that Koyanagi made, as she usually accompanied me on every job that we did together. Whenever we would take jobs, Koyanagi would make sure to do most of the work and use that as a way of justifying why she deserved to always get most of the profits. Despite leaving me with meager amounts of profits, I still viewed Koyanagi as a beautiful and honest woman.
Koyanagi had always been very beautiful, wanting to wear elegant dresses that were in different hues of green, and she would probably be the winner of the upcoming fashion show that would be held in Zephri Town. Seeing Koyanagi in a dark green evening dress would cause my cheeks to blush, since she was extremely beautiful, and Koyanagi would probably also do well in the portion of the contest where clothes had to be improvised from flowers and grass. She had been very familiar with the grassy and floral areas near this town, along with the routes to reach them.
Speaking of routes, the route to the Fern Meadow involved going up in the northern direction. That prompted me to go all the way to the other end of the street, before running up towards the northernmost section of the town where some of the classier-looking houses such as Koyanagi's had been located. In between the houses, there had been a path of fern green dirt that led to the Fern Meadow. Upon seeing the meadow's ferns in the distance, I smiled happily as Lucy and Minerva had been running after me to catch up with me. I had been running fast while feeling excited, even if I was also quite impatient.
10 minutes later, in the Fern Meadow... (Minerva's POV)
Shiozaki may have been impatient, but her impatience did cause her to run through the Fern Meadow at high speeds. There were several ferns that were appropriately in a fern shade of green, which seemed very appropriate for this meadow, but I felt much more interested in going over to the right side of the meadow. On this side of the meadow, there was that circle of jade green grass and it seemed very bizarre that this location was colored in on the map. It truly appeared to have no significance, and getting closer to the circle made me only see all of the grass.
Stepping on to the jade green grass made me realize that this area of the meadow had its grass feeling much softer than the fern green grass, but walking towards the center of this area allowed me to feel the ground be extremely soft as if it had been quicksand. That prompted me to activate my Territory Magic, but the energy waves that were on my hands were mint green. I fired the mint green energy waves down at the center of the jade green grass, and the mint green blasts that occurred had been very large.
The blasts spun outward while Lucy and I both looked surprised from hearing the ground start to break apart, and the blast's light that quickly faded away to reveal that there were several cracks in the ground. I gently put my feet on some pieces of the cracked ground, only for them to instantly fall into a hole where something had buried. Retrieving that buried item required Lucy and I to grab the chunks of the grassy earth that had fallen into the hole, and we threw them all on to the fern green grass.
When all of the grassy chunks of earth were removed, Lucy and I glanced down into the hole to see that a jade green orb had been resting inside of it. Lucy bent over to retrieve the orb, before I gently put one hand on it. This orb felt somewhat cold while it wasn't as cold as ice from a glacier, and looking at this orb allowed me to see that winds were swirling around inside of it. Did this orb have the purpose of being a mundane item that pertained to Wind Magic, or was it much more important? Lucy had a happy look in her eyes from seeing this orb, almost as if her intuition informed her that it had been important.
"Minerva-sama, this orb can probably make tornadoes or blades of wind be unleashed!" Lucy told me with a pleased facial expression, before sending dark magic from her ring into the orb.
Upon seeing her amethyst purple aura go into the orb and get shot out as a twister of jade green winds, I stated with a slightly amused look on my face, "Well, it'll do that after rejecting your magic."
Lucy's dark magic wasn't compatible with the Wind Magic of this jade green orb, but I decided to create jade green energy waves in both of my hands. I ended up making both of the energy waves touch the orb, resulting in it glowing with several jade green beams of light being emitted from it. The orb's brightness quickly faded away, and I blinked my eyes in a curious manner from wondering why it reacted that way to my energy waves that were filled with extremely dense winds. Lucy soon felt the orb be dense like a platinum ball, evident by how she suddenly struggled to hold it in her hands.
The heavy amount of weight in this orb certainly made me feel quite curious, and I teleported the orb to the area that was right behind Shiozaki. Warping the orb to be near her was an interesting idea, since Shiozaki would be surprised, and I ran out of the meadow with Lucy running behind me. We both watched the orb loudly fall to the ground, which caused several jade green blasts of Wind Magic to suddenly occur! The jade green blasts were massive while they spun outward, causing several heavy gusts of wind to blow through the meadow.
Lucy didn't want either of us to get blown away by the heavy winds, causing her to tightly hug me, and I also tightly hugged Lucy. We endured the cold winds that came our way, my feet firmly pressing into the ground. The winds started to blow more harshly against me, causing me to fall while Lucy was under me. Lucy ended up landing on the somewhat soft fern green grass, before I landed on top of her, and I kept myself pressed down against her. My own cheeks started to blush pink from looking down at Lucy, her face also blushing pink as I wanted my own body to endure most of the winds.
"Minerva-sama, you... tried to keep me safe again." Lucy told me in a sweet whisper, as a nice smile appeared on her face.
That caused me to respond with a kind smile on her face, "I managed to keep you safe, sweetie."
Keeping Lucy safe also involved having my body rest on hers for a few more minutes, and we both smiled in an appreciative manner at how I was being intelligent enough to wait for the winds to subside. The heavy winds started to become much softer breezes in the air, prompting me to slowly get my body off of Lucy's body. We both continued to blush at each other while smiling, happy that we were safe from the winds. Although, the sight of the winds sending Shiozaki high into the air caused us both to be surprised.
I watched Shiozaki fall towards the ground, but I quickly used my Territory Magic to teleport her out of the sky. She was teleported to be right in front of me, looking very surprised at how her recent expedition through the meadow involved heavy winds interfering with her quest. Shiozaki turned around to see the jade orb, which rolled away on the path that was beyond the meadow, and I teleported the jade orb for it to land at the very end of the meadow. The jade orb softly touched the grass, prompting me to run over to it with Lucy by my side.
We both glanced at the orb for a moment, but I fired several jade green energy waves at it. The energy waves contained high amounts of Wind Magic, but the orb didn't shine brightly again. It probably had to recharge itself after unleashing so much magical power, as evident from how it now felt light as a feather. I triumphantly held the orb in my hands while feeling very glad that I had found something so beautiful and mysterious, but I hoped that the actual treasure from this adventure would be interesting. After all, it seemed like the Sky Cave's impasse and the area beyond that were hiding treasures that many thieves would want.
15 minutes later, in Zephri Town... (Phoebe's POV)
Many teams of wizards who hunted for treasures would certainly want to get large troves of treasure, including the treasure that was being hidden by Sky Cave. I had been to the town of Zephri at a prior point in time for a fashion show, but I hadn't cared much for the rumors regarding Sky Cave having an amazing treasure because of how no one ever got through the part where the cave ended. There had been nothing within that cave to inform people that there was a blatant path to the treasure, yet those two losers from Seductive Witch seemed very interested in finding it.
If they would end up being the people who found the grand treasure, then they would just be making this treasure hunt be much easier for my team. My teammate named Yūreimura, who had her short purple hair hanging down in soft curls, snickered in a vicious and arrogant manner as she stood behind me to be near my left side. Yūreimura wore an elegant and deep purple dress with dark purple gloves, which went well with her dark orchid purple shoes. Yūreimura stood on the opposite end of Maboroshi, who had deep grape purple hair that was wavy and long. Maboroshi wore a deep grape purple dress with plain purple stripes around the waist, and she also wore dark amethyst purple shoes. Maboroshi giggled evilly at thought of messing with Lucy and Minerva, who had proven themselves beforehand to be very weak.
Although, those weaklings were probably intending to push themselves very hard to find the treasure. If they were so determined and pushed past all of the obstacles that would've been in our way, then how could I not be grateful that they were essentially clearing a path for us to easily reach the treasure? Some people who worked so hard to find treasure usually made sure that no one was going to be following them, but Yūreimura's suggestion of taking an earlier train and hiding on the route going to Starria Town had been a great idea.
By hiding on the route to Starria Town, I could just wait until I sensed Lucy's magic or Minerva's magic. I had been able to detect Minerva's Territory Magic, but there had also been other mages near them. If there were too many people around, then I couldn't eliminate that meager team very quickly. If Lucy and Minerva had teamed up with other mages, then I would just have to make sure that their allies were all annihilated before they could all find the treasure. According to the rumors regarding the treasure, going past Fern Meadow would be important.
"Based on memory, Fern Meadow is on the opposite end of this town." I told Yūreimura and Maboroshi with a confident smile on my face, before sending Darkness Magic down into my feet.
That prompted Yūreimura to reply with a somewhat concerned facial expression, "Even if we go there, we still need to be a little careful. It seemed like some wind-wielding mage recently unleashed powerful spells in that meadow."
"If someone else is after the treasure, we'll just make them be another person on our list of people to obliterate." Maboroshi stated arrogantly, before smirking a bit.
Maboroshi and Yūreimura also sent high amounts of Darkness Magic into their feet, before we all ran off towards the meadow. We ran at very high speeds, making large gusts of wind blow through this town, and I felt like we could easily catch up to Minerva's team. They wouldn't be allowed to get too far ahead, since that would truly ruin the fun of making Minerva experience despair on this treasure hunt. I wanted Minerva to feel like all of her hard work would go to waste, and it would give me pleasure to see her in pain.
When Minerva would be crying tears of pain, I would merely be displaying how treasure hunts that involve mages from Seductive Witch should only allow the professionals to accompany the locals. In fact, I recalled that only the strongest wizards would be capable of discovering the secret of how to get through Sky Cave. That mage who unleashed all that Wind Magic made their presence seem almost nonexistent, so they were probably very far ahead of everyone else in the treasure hunt by now.
I sensed them by making more Darkness Magic surround my body, the aura being royal purple, and I managed to feel that their Wind Magic was heading towards the Sky Cave. They seemed to be getting closer to it, which prompted me to run towards the Fern Meadow. As I ran fast and began to see the meadow come closer into view, I started to widen my eyes in a shocked manner. That strong wizard may have been gone, but where did Lucy and Minerva go? They couldn't have been far ahead without a battle occurring, unless Minerva teleported everyone to the cave once she had seen it.
"Even if Minerva got past that strong mage, the cave is said to absolutely be a dead end." I stated aloud with a calm look on my face, before smiling a bit at how the race for the treasure was only beginning.
That caused a woman who stood near this town's exit to ask me in a curious tone of voice, "Did you say Minerva? Isn't she one of the people who went off with Shiozaki to find the treasure?"
I turned to face this woman that wore an elegant coat, before asking her with a feigned smile of sweetness on my face, "Yes, but where did that fellow mage of Seductive Witch go? Was she defeated by one of your enemies?"
That prompted the woman to tell me with a frown of bitterness on her face, "No, but I had studied up on the treasure for a long amount of time and Shiozaki impatiently refused to have me as her partner. When I see her again, I'll be sure to ask her about that strange amount of wind and the orb."
This woman's last sentence caused me to raise an eyebrow while smiling in a somewhat surprised manner, and it seemed like she only followed Shiozaki up to a certain point before letting her friend have that little adventure with Minerva and Lucy. Although, the fact that they found an orb in the meadow was certainly interesting. The orb was likely a keystone, based on what I had gone through in previous treasure hunts. If Minerva and Lucy had the keystone, then there wasn't actually a strong mage standing in my way!
In that sense, there was now a reason for me to send more Darkness Magic into my feet. I soon sensed Yūreimura and Maboroshi applying more dark magic to their feet, and they quickly caught up to me. Both of my teammates started to look surprised from sensing the Wind Magic that had been fading, still believing that there would be a strong enemy standing in our way. I would refrain from telling them that we had no reason to be very cautious, since Minerva and Lucy were practically going to uncover the treasure.
They would get to deal with all of the dangers in Sky Cave while I proceeded to run through Fern Meadow at high speeds, and I detected Yūreimura and Maboroshi quickly following me. We weren't too far behind Lucy and Minerva, as the path coming up interestingly had its ground being plain green while the cave had been at the very end of this long path. I ran down the path with my teammates, not minding that someone from Zephri Town had been running after us. Even if we had been in the lead for who would obtain the treasure, no other mage would seize it.
20 minutes later, in the Sky Cave... (Lucy's POV)
Seizing that treasure would be tough, if Minerva hadn't been accompanying me and Shiozaki. Minerva led us to Sky Cave, which was a mint green cave with two jade green statues of tornadoes on its left and right sides. The statues of the tornadoes had nothing important inscribed on them, so I frowned at them in a mundane manner from realizing that a lack of information was probably the issue that made other treasure hunters think hat Sky Cave contained nothing valuable. This dome-shaped cave that had a dark green whirlwind-like rock formation in the center of its top portion, so this cave seemed like it would be very interesting.
Although, going into this cave only led all of us down a path with moss green walls and a light green floor. The floor and the walls complimented the ceiling, which was jade green while it had rhombus-shaped jade green crystals protruding from it. The crystals looked very beautiful while they strangely glowed from how I blew air towards them, and the other crystals shined brightly as I pushed my palms against the air to make bursts of air go towards the gems. Each of these gems seemed so mystifying, and I had never seen anything like them before.
I attempted to physically touch some of the moss green crystals that had been embedded in the walls, only for them to release moss green bubbles of wind that floated into the air. The bubbles of wind immediately ended up bursting, which caused heavy winds to occur around our group, and the Wind Magic in those bubbles had been powerful enough to where simply stepping back resulted in me being pushed further into the cave! Going deeper into the cave while staying on this same path proved to be an interesting situation, however.
When I finished sliding back during my trip to the end of this path, I felt myself take some more steps back for my legs to brush up against something. I quickly turned around to see that this object was a gigantic gem, the gem being jade green while it had been embedded in the wall, and I started to rub my hands on the top portion of the gem. It certainly felt as hard as the other crystals that were in this cave, but the front of this gem felt as soft as a pillow. Why did the front portion of the gem feel so different?
Upon seeing me curiously touch the gem as she ran towards me, Minerva asked me with a calm facial expression, "Lucy, is this really the end of the cave?"
That caused me to say in a disappointed manner, before surprisingly seeing a small jade green plaque on the bottom of this gem that resembled a five-sided diamond, "Minerva-sama, it seems like there's nothing here and this gem won't move. Wait, there's... something written here!"
"Revitalize the gem of Skylenia, the goddess of Wind Magic. To reach her temple in the winds, pay respect by offering up her cherished jewel." I calmly read aloud, my eyes focused on the circular plaque.
This cave belonged to a woman named Skylenia, who had been a goddess of Wind Magic? That had been very interesting, and I smiled nicely at the thought of paying my respects. Although, displaying respect would require something to be offered up. At that moment, my eyes widened in realization as I glanced at the jade gem. This gem had been in the same shade of green as the orb that we found in the Fern Meadow, and I remembered all of the winds that emerged from the orb. If the jade orb could now unleash winds, then it would be very useful.
Minerva glanced at the orb that she had been holding in one hand, and she made a massive jade green energy wave be created in her other hand. She made that energy wave touch the jade orb, resulting in it emitting several jade green beams of light. The orb also glowed brightly, and Minerva walked towards the gem. She leaned down for a moment while I moved aside, examining the plaque with her own eyes, and Minerva gently pressed her hand against the plaque. That interestingly caused the plaque to slowly slide upwards,
When the plaque slid upwards and made the loud sound of a stone wall being finished with moving back into its slot, Minerva and I were both surprised to see that the plaque had been hiding a circular indentation. The indentation obviously meant that something needed to be placed into it, and Minerva calmly put the orb in the hollow spot. The orb perfectly fit into the hollow spot, causing the orb to shine much brighter. The intense amount of light nearly blinded our eyes, but I slightly opened one eye to see Minerva creating a jade green energy wave in her hands. She fired the attack the orb, resulting in its strength growing as the orb released five jade green twisters of wind that were very large.
Shiozaki shouted in a startled manner, before sounding impressed, "Wow, I'm surprised that this is happening! Although, I think that we just solved the mystery of Sky Cave!"
Upon seeing five more large twisters of jade green winds emerge from the orb and become moss green as they slammed against the moss green crystals, I stated with a concerned look on my face, "Shiozaki, I think that Sky Cave is about to be destroyed!"
The moss green twisters of wind grew much larger, before aggressively going towards the gem, and Minerva quickly grabbed my hand for us to run away from them! The heavy winds were creating sharp blades of air that I could lightly feel tearing against my body, but some blades of air were striking the ceiling! They ended up creating crevices in parts of the ceiling, before the five moss green twisters lunged towards the ceiling and detonated against it! They created moss green blasts that were quite large, even to where their Wind Magic decimated the ceiling's falling rubble down into jade green piles of ash.
The jade green piles of ash felt very hot, and I joined Minerva in feeling pained as the ash fell on to our bodies. Shiozaki also winced in pain from feeling the ash touch her body, but she joined Minerva and I in slowly standing up to see that the moss green smoke was strangely floating upward for it to leave this cavern. This cave started to become filled with the sound of air exiting the cave, almost like an upward draft was occurring for winds to be exiting the Sky Cave through the ceiling. Shiozaki walked up to the area where the cave's ceiling had been demolished, only for one of the jade green twisters to capture her and fling her upward.
Shiozaki proceeded to scream with some feelings of worry in her voice, prompting Minerva and I to run towards that jade green tornado. The tornado sucked us into its heavy winds, before propelling us up to a high altitude to where I soon had an aerial view of the cave while it looked very distant. Minerva and I ended up falling back down at high speeds, only for the winds from the five jade green tornadoes to continue sending air upward. Minerva and I held hands for us to stay together while we both looked concerned, not wanting to fall back into the cave.
Ten minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
Instead of falling back into the cave, I pushed through the air by aggressively kicking my feet against the air current. Resisting all of the heavy air currents allowed Lucy and I to end up falling on to a jade green square tile of stone, which had several clouds floating beneath it while the clouds absorbed the jade green winds. The clouds themselves became jade green, causing me to have a surprised look on my face. I felt even more surprised by looking down, seeing that this floating land was on neon green clouds that were pushing down their own neon green air currents.
The neon green air currents were interestingly on this map, drawn as neon green clouds that had been above the Sky Cave. Whoever entirely explored Sky Cave and this place had likely been the creator of this map, possibly wanting someone else to have the joy of exploring this place. The desire for exploration prompted me to start walking up the long jade green staircase, which had winds softly blowing around it. Lucy didn't want to get blown away by those winds, and she tightly held one of my hands.
I proceeded to walk in front of Lucy while still holding her hand, wanting to continue establishing that I was the dominant person in our relationship while also assuring her that I would keep her safe in this strange place. I turned away from Lucy for a moment to see Shiozaki hastily running up the stairs, however, and she had applied Wind Magic to her feet. Shiozaki quickly ran to the top of the staircase, prompting me to run much faster with Lucy right behind me. Lucy and I both groaned in frustration at the same time, and she must have shared my thought of not wanting the impatient client to keep going off by herself.
Shiozaki had the audacity to run back down the staircase, before applying more Wind Magic to her feet, and Shiozaki grabbed both of us for the purpose of making us hastily reach the top step of the stairs. That step of the staircase was followed by Shiozaki stepping on to a neon green square tile that was at the end of this staircase, and we all got up there to see that we were now in a circular area of what seemed like some sort of temple pertaining to Wind Magic. There were winds floating around in the green circle that had been in the middle of the neon green tiles, but the circle of winds that shifted between different hues of green had an emerald green stone in front of it.
"What is this place?" Shiozaki asked aloud in an awestruck manner, before smiling a bit.
Upon seeing that there were some gates that had orbs in front of them in different shades of green, Lucy asked with a curious facial expression, "Why do all of those gates look sacred? Which one leads to the treasure?"
"Maybe we can find the treasure, if we examine that rock." I responded with a calm smile on my face, before quickly walking over to it with Lucy and Shiozaki.
Shiozaki read aloud with an excited smile forming on her face, "Welcome to the Wind Temple of Skylenia, travelers. If you use Wind Magic to offer up the clouds to this barrier, it should open for you to unlock its gates. Although, my partner and I have found out that each gate that you unlock takes you closer to the...!"
Unlocking each gate would result in something happening? The text that had been engraved on this rock ended up being faded out in its final portion, almost like someone was trying to impede the writer with leaving behind an important message. Well, any tragedies that were left behind in this place wouldn't prevent me from finding the treasure. If I wanted to even access the treasure, then I would have to follow the instructions that were written on the rock. I glanced up at the sky to see that there were many clouds in different shades of green, some of them even being celestial green.
I teleported one of the celestial green clouds down to be in front of me, and I wasted no time with shoving Shiozaki into it. She was able to touch the cloud with her hands, which started to be engulfed in a fern green aura. That aura soon became celestial green as all of the Wind Magic from the cloud was transferred into Shiozaki's body, and Shiozaki soon found herself being able to push the cloud into the circle of winds. It got sucked into the hole, causing the winds to become celestial green while they all started glowing.
That was interestingly followed by the sound of the gate directly across from us loudly opening, the doorway of the gate being celestial green while it had been bordered by two celestial green round pedestals that had celestial green orbs on them, and the celestial green gates retracted upward. They revealed that a small and celestial green treasure chest was in that room, and I warped it over to Shiozaki. She watched me quickly open it to just be surprised at the sight of a celestial green orb sitting on top of many celestial green coins and celestial green gems that could be exchanged for high amounts of jewels.
"This is treasure, but it's certainly not the legendary treasure." I stated with a frustrated look on my face, before angrily teleporting a jade green cloud to be in front of me.
Shiozaki told me with an eager smile on her face, not even feeling discouraged, "We just have to quickly unlock this part of the temple, and we'll easily get the treasure!"
Lucy asked me with a kind facial expression, "Minerva-sama, isn't all that money probably worth much more in this era of time?"
Lucy's smart question caused me to sigh in a somewhat appreciative manner, realizing that we would at least be getting high amounts of money while we progressed through this particular puzzle. Shiozaki helped us make more progress by absorbing the jade green cloud's winds, before pushing it into the hole of winds. As that made the section with jade green orbs have its gate open up, Lucy and Shiozaki got to see me teleport a neon green cloud down to be beside me. This cloud had its magic absorbed by Shiozaki, before she shoved it into the hole for winds to consume it.
That allowed another gate to loudly open, prompting me to make a dark green cloud be warped down to this part of the temple. Shiozaki consumed its Wind Magic, before making the hole's winds absorb it, and Lucy decided to apply dark magic to her feet. She quickly ran to the gate that was on the bottom-left side of the temple, retrieving its jade green treasure chest after going down some stairs that contrasted with the staircase on the other side going up. Lucy brought the jade green treasure chest to me, before running to the neon green treasure chest that had been behind the unlocked gate in the top-left corner. Across from that corner, the top-right corner was where the dark green treasure chest had been located.
After Lucy put that treasure chest on the ground near me, I teleported a pale green cloud out of the sky and I saw Shiozaki aggressively kick it for the Wind Magic to be absorbed into her feet. She pushed it into the hole of winds, which allowed a gate on the upper floor of this outer portion of the temple to open up. Lucy went up a small flight of dark green stairs that were near where the dark green treasure chest had been found, and she went into that room to retrieve a pale green treasure chest. Lucy brought it to me, before I quickly opened all of the remaining treasure chests, and holding all the orbs caused something interesting to happen.
Five minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
When I carried all five orbs over to the hole of winds, they all began to shine with intense levels of brightness while the winds started to aggressively flow into each of them. The orbs soon released massive twisters in their respective shades of green, and all of the twisters went down into the hole. They went deep into it, before glowing brightly and releasing heavy winds that blew against the mint green spiraling staircase that had been revealed. Shiozaki grabbed me and Lucy again, before running down the stairs with us.
We ran down to what appeared to be the midpoint of this spiral staircase, and there was a painting on one of the jade green walls. The painting depicted all five orbs being lined up in a row, being positioned from left to right in the order that we found them. Above the orbs, there was a depiction of a woman with long and flowing neon green hair while she also had neon green eyes that went well with her neon green dress. Neon green winds were painted to be flowing on the left side of her, but jade green winds were on the other side.
This mysterious painting wasn't visually communicating any blatant information to me, almost like this painting was trying to give me a hint regarding how I could find the treasure. These five orbs had been perceived as treasure, but glancing at them closely made my eyes widen with a look of realization. The orbs were hollow spots that needed to be filled in, similar to the smaller jade orb that had been in the Fern Meadow, and I inserted each of the orbs into their respective spots. That immediately caused them to shoot out winds, which interestingly blew away from us in the form of large twisters in their respective shades of green.
All the winds were strong enough to push the orbs back, almost like they were experiencing recoil, and I made sure to grab them all. As I finished retrieving the orbs, the painting retracted itself to the left for it to slide into a slot and reveal that the winds were vortexes that started to form five twisters on daises. The daises were square-shaped while being in different hues of green, and the light from the twisters allowed me to see that each dais had the symbol of a green five-sided gem that looked similar to the jade gem.
"That jade gem was so bright, but this room is so dark." I stated aloud, before creating light green energy waves on my hands to throw them at the space in front of the large twisters.
Upon seeing my energy waves explode and brighten up this room to where I could see several green treasure chests on the shelves, I told Lucy with a proud smile on my face, "Well, we just found so much treasure!"
"Minerva-sama, maybe we should open that neon green treasure chest that's on the celestial green throne." Lucy told me with a confident smile on her face, her eyes looking very calm before she affectionately hugged me.
Shiozaki told me with a surprisingly anxious facial expression, stepping back as she felt uncomfortable, "I... I can feel someone's magical power. It's... overwhelming, almost like it... wants to strangle me."
Shiozaki's look of discomfort was followed by Lucy and I both starting to sense a sudden breeze blow past us in this room that had a royal green carpet in front of the mint green steps of the stairs, and I soon heard the wind's high level of air pressure firmly push against the stair steps while the winds went down the stairs. Was this someone's way of making themselves have a fancy entrance? I remained on guard while the air around me started to feel quite shallow, the winds starting to sound as if they were being inhaled.
The winds seemed like they were being consumed by a Sky God Slayer, but the wind that was inhaled had actually been a large amount as if this person could inhale air from far distances. They even took in some air from the tornadoes, before a heavy gust of wind started to pull us forward! Lucy and I were propelled towards a celestial green twister, which was massive while it formed in front of the stairs. The twister soon faded away to reveal that a certain woman with neon green hair was standing in front of me, and I had been feeling the pressure of the heavy winds to where I could only be on my hands and knees.
I groaned in frustration, before my eyes displayed the expression of amazement from seeing that the woman in the painting did exist. My eyes glanced down at her jade green high-heeled shoes, which appeared to be made from elegant jade itself as if she had come from a different kingdom outside of Fiore, and looking into her soulless neon green eyes made me gasp in a somewhat shocked manner. This woman was the guardian of the green temple, and she frowned down at me and Lucy in a disapproving manner.
"Travelers and trespassers who defile this sacred place... What a rare sight. Based on your looks, I'd say that... several centuries have passed." The woman told us in a disturbingly pleasant tone of voice, her soft voice echoing throughout this room.
Shiozaki asked aloud in a timid manner, before trying to sound assertive, "Who... Who are you? I just came all the way here to see if the treasure is real!"
The woman replied in a menacing tone, calmly smiling as the winds around us felt very cold and threatening, "I am Skylenia, guardian of the Wind Temple. After being disturbed by treasure hunters 300 years ago, I never expected anyone else to get up here, I even made the fern green rocks of my previous long staircase be disposed of for the peasants to create a meadow. Green-haired wizard, you presumably went through there and got past my slaves in Zephri to get here. Although, you belong on the ground and without my treasures. You'll either die here, or plummet from the skies."
"If you want to fight someone, I'll take you on!" A familiar woman's voice stated in a confident manner, as she entered the room with other people behind her.
Hearing the voice of Phoebe Hauntra surprised me, since I didn't sense Phoebe or her teammates at all when I had been in Zephri Town with Lucy. Lucy hadn't sensed them, either, and she looked very amazed that Phoebe was here with her teammates. We turned around to see them viciously smirk as they walked up the royal green carpet, before Phoebe aggressively kicked me in the ass to push me away from the winds. I had been sent crashing into one of the shelves with treasure chests on them while Lucy was kicked towards me by Yūreimura, who sadistically giggled at the sight of Lucy crashing into two jade green shelves.
Lucy groaned in frustration as Maboroshi aggressively threw Shiozaki towards Koyanagi, who caught her friend in her arms and slid back towards the tornadoes. Koyanagi may have been tagging along with Phoebe's group, but she soon looked surprised from seeing the three women of Seductive Witch start to grab several of the treasure chests that were on the other side of the room. Phoebe was intentionally provoking Skylenia into fighting her, evident by how the sight of Phoebe opening a large treasure chest full of gems was enough to make a celestial green aura heavily engulf Skylenia's body.
Phoebe charged up the royal purple aura of her Darkness Magic, before moving the treasure chest back to the right side of the room, and she was ready to fight. Phoebe unleashed a spell called Purple Specter Haunting, and she simply fired several purple flames from her mouth. The flames were in various shades of purple, some of them even being eggplant purple, and Phoebe aimed her flames at Skylenia. The goddess of Wind Magic had a mundane frown on her face, however, and she unleashed a spell called Jade Wind Twister.
Five minutes later... (Lucy's POV)
Skylenia simply fired a large jade green twister from her right hand, the twister moving at high speeds as the aura around her started to become royal green, and she fired three small royal green twisters from her right hand. Phoebe wasn't worried, since Yūreimura activated a spell called Witch's Poison Combust. She fired a large and plain purple stream of purple poison gas from her mouth, the gas making the flames grow much stronger while it turned into oil upon hitting the ground. Phoebe's attacks collided with Skylenia's winds, which started to become purple from the gas going into them.
Skylenia watched her tornadoes explode in massive fiery explosions that were purple, before the explosions made Phoebe's royal purple flames combust in massive fiery blasts. The fire spun outward to damage Skylenia, who was somewhat durable to where the fire wasn't harshly burning her body, and she groaned in pain from having to endure the attacks of these dark mages. They even made the fire in this room feel extremely hot, almost as hot as magma in a volcano, and they weren't fooling around.
Phoebe unleashed a spell called Haunting Flame Pressure, and she gathered up some of the royal purple fire into her hands. She created a massive fireball, before throwing it at the space above Skylenia. The fireball exploded, only to send down streams of royal purple flames on to Skylenia while the fire slammed down on her with a tremendous amount of pressure. Skylenia screamed in pain from having to endure that attack, but she soon ran out of the flames with an enraged look appearing on her face.
Skylenia growled in an angered manner, seemingly refusing to die in a fight against mages who were humans while she seemed like a deity. Skylenia unleashed a spell known as Hurricane's Feather Burst, and she made her hands form a circle. She unleashed a large jade green vortex from the space that was between her hands, and the vortex had several sharp blades of wind surrounding it while they were shaped like feathers. Skylenia struck Phoebe with this attack, causing Phoebe to harshly scream in pain while a jade green blast occurred!
"Let's follow up that attack with Jade Feather Slicer, shall we?" Skylenia asked in a calm tone, her facial expression starting to look more stoic.
Upon seeing Skylenia aim her right hand at the spot where Phoebe stood, Yūreimura responded in a confident manner while smiling, "You're too slow."
As Skylenia shot out several jade green blades of wind that formed a vortex that gained much more power from the winds of her previous attack, Yūreimura unleashed a spell called Poison Splash. She shot out a plain purple bubble of dark magic from her mouth while aiming the projectile at the vortex, and Yūreimura's attack ended up bursting to create a large amount of purple water. Despite how the winds of the Jade Feather Slicer spell sliced through Yūreimura's spell, the poison gas from this spell strongly gave off a pungent aroma.
Yūreimura watched Phoebe dodge out of the way while the smoke cleared, and the Jade Feather Slicer spell ended up crashing into the ground. It ended up creating a massive purple blast that spun outward, the slicing winds being purple while they strangely coated everyone with purple water. Minerva and I both soon gasped in shock, feeling sickly as if we were poisoned, and even Skylenia had some drops of poison touching her body. She started to join me and everyone else in getting covered in a plain purple aura, indicating that she had been poisoned.
Yūreimura wouldn't cease with her attacks, though, and she unleashed a spell called Poison Tidal Wave. Yūreimura started to build up a high amount of poison in her mouth, before chewing on all of it like she was chewing on poisonous berries, and Yūreimura fired her attack in the form of several purple bubbles. They were all aimed at Skylenia, who let out a sickly cough right before she could counterattack. The purple bubbles struck her body, before all of their puddles of water created a purple tidal wave! It swamped Skylenia at point-blank range, before all of the bubbles created large purple blasts!
"Wow..." I softly whispered in an amazed manner, taking notice of the swiftness displayed by Phoebe's team in defeating Skylenia.
Minerva told me with a stern look on her face, before her eyes displayed frustration, "Don't take your eyes off of them, Lucy. You and I will have to eventually be as skilled as them, if we ever want to kick their asses."
Phoebe told Yūreimura with a stern look on her face, as Skylenia proceeded to stand up, "She still wants to fight, Yūreimura. Lend me some of your poison for me to truly go wild."
"As you wish, Phoebe-sama." Yūreimura replied with a subservient look on her face, before aiming her hands at Phoebe.
Yūreimura fired a spell that was known as Toxic Hysteric Cloud, and she fired two large purple clouds of poison from her hands. Phoebe wasted no time with inhaling both of those large poison clouds, causing a purple aura to heavily surround herself while she made that aura become deep eggplant purple, and Phoebe had eggplant purple steam emerging from every part of her body as if she had been bathing in extremely hot poison. She started to charge up much more magical power, the aura growing much larger while she seemingly gained much more strength from being poisoned.
Phoebe aggressively unleashed an attack called Flame Smog Implosion, and she fired several deep eggplant purple flames from her mouth. All of the flames took on the appearances of clouds while they quickly went towards Skylenia, and the temple's guardian got to see those clouds send out royal purple gas while the poison started to surround her. The poison gas soon ignited from the fire being so close to it, resulting in all of the clouds lunging towards Skylenia while those royal purple fiery explosions were occurring.
Those explosions were followed by much more powerful blasts of fire and poison, which were deep eggplant purple while the aroma was heavily concentrated around Skylenia for the poison to accelerate with harming her body, and her skin was soon becoming charred while it was getting to be in a sickly hue of purple. Skylenia ended up being bruised and bloodied, her blood being purple from how Phoebe's team made her ingest such a high amount of toxins, but Minerva decided to end this fight by striking Skylenia with an amethyst purple energy wave that created an explosion in that same hue of purple.
Ten minutes later... (Minerva's POV)
Even though Phoebe and her teammates did most of the work in beating down Skylenia, Lucy and I were supposed to fight against that guardian of the wind temple. Skylenia was about to try and kill us as soon as Phoebe showed up, but I would've easily defeated that green-haired woman. Seeing Skylenia fall to the ground made me frown in a miffed manner, since only landing the finishing blow made it seem like a hollow victory. If Skylenia had been taking damage from me and Lucy, then I would've had so much enjoyment in that fight.
However, I couldn't enjoy the sight of Phoebe and her teammates smiling in a triumphant manner at how they defeated the person who guarded this room's many treasures. They had probably taken several of the coins from the five treasure chests that had been on the upper floor, and Phoebe herself chuckled evilly as her eyes glanced at a treasure chest that had been near me. I quickly turned around to grab that treasure chest off of the shelf, holding it in my arms as if it had been extremely precious to me. All of the treasure chests genuinely belonged to Lucy and myself at this point, since we were the first team to solve the mystery of Sky Cave and the Wind Temple.
Phoebe's team didn't even solve any of the mysteries regarding this treasure, and it seemed like they had been following us throughout the entire quest! They were just wanting us to do the hard work of solving every puzzle, as that made it easy for them to get into this treasure room without wasting any magical power. Lucy and I were currently poisoned while trying to remain standing, and I loudly coughed to get Phoebe's attention. Phoebe turned to face me, her facial expression being very mundane as if she was uninterested in fighting me.
Phoebe's disinterest caused me to fire some purple energy waves at her, only to see Phoebe unleash a spell called Royal Purple Spectral Rings. Phoebe shot out five royal purple rings of fire from her mouth while they collided with my energy waves, which were explosive, but the massive royal purple explosions of fire soon became transparent as if those flames were ghosts themselves. Phoebe slammed her hands against some flames, propelling them towards me, and I screamed in pain while being bombarded with fire!
After quickly being engulfed in those explosions and falling forward, I raised my head to tell Phoebe in a pained manner, "This was... our job. Don't... take any... of the treasure."
"Don't take any of these treasures? Did you think I wouldn't just leave for Lucy to take them?" Phoebe asked with a feigned frown of compassion appearing on her face, the caring tone in her voice sounding somewhat manipulative.
Phoebe told Lucy in a somewhat casual tone, smiling confidently, "Lucy, you can come over here and start collecting all the treasure chests if you want them. Just walk past us to get the treasures, and go back to the Seductive Witch guild with Minerva."
Lucy asked Phoebe in a serious manner, narrowing her brown eyes, "You're going to attack me if I try to even open a treasure chest, won't you?!"
That only caused Phoebe to have a slightly surprised look in her eyes, as she arrogantly thought that Lucy wouldn't be able to see through her lies. Since Lucy proceeded to build up magical power, that prompted Yūreimura to activate a spell called Toxic Roses. She aimed both of her hands at Lucy, before shooting out several purple roses that didn't have any stems. All of the roses headed towards Lucy, but she activated the Amethyst Purple Gravity spell that she used in Mauve Town's meadow.
That spell ended up making an amethyst purple flame appear in her right hand, and an amethyst purple sphere of gravity started to circle around the flame in a slow manner. The gravity was attracted to the flame's heat, causing the sphere to be lit on fire. Lucy threw the flame at the space in front of Yūreimura's roses, attracting the explosive spells towards it. The sight of Yūreimura's roses instantly exploding in purple poison gas caused Yūreimura to evilly smirk, however, and she watched Lucy's attack combust as gravity pushed the flames towards Phoebe.
The fire may have been covered in poison, but that didn't stop Phoebe from inhaling all of the flames into her mouth. She took in all of Lucy's and Yūreimura's dark magic, and Phoebe now had a deep amethyst purple aura engulfing her body as she felt more poisoned. Taking in more poison only increased her strength, and Phoebe unleashed a spell called Poison Flame Soul. She shot out a deep amethyst purple flame from her mouth while the flame was headed towards me, but the flame soon became transparent!
"Do you... think I'll be... frightened of your... disappearing attacks?" I asked Phoebe in a pained manner, struggling to stand up as I created a lavender purple energy wave that had the properties of healing myself.
Phoebe told me with a condescending smirk on her face, as her eyes became filled with malice, "You should certainly fear this one, you little weakling."
Phoebe's attack soon had its poison clouds being visible while the flame passed through my stomach, and the flame soon exploded inside of me! I felt that high amount of dark magic combust inside of me, before feeling much hotter and more sickly from the poison. The toxins were heavily flowing through my body, and I started to choke on the pungent air that was emerging from my mouth. Phoebe proceeded to hit me with a spell called Spectral Turbulent Vortex, and she fired a deep amethyst purple vortex of poison-covered flames from her right hand.
The attack ended up hitting me much faster than I could react to it, causing me to become engulfed in a deep amethyst purple fiery blast! The intense heat of this attack only grew much larger from all of its poison instantly detonating, the poison gas exploding as it smelled awful. As I was engulfed in the fiery blast, I felt myself become much more sick to where waves of nausea were flowing throughout my body as I perspired. Sweat went down my body at a fast rate while I tried to stand, and all of the damage from Phoebe's powerful attacks even made my vision become royal purple because of the poison in my eyes.
I looked over at Lucy to see that she was becoming just as sickly as me, the poison in the air making her feel ill as her eyes became deep amethyst purple from being irritated by Phoebe's poison. Lucy's crying eyes didn't prevent her from unleashing a spell called Amethyst Purple Shadow, and she placed her right hand down on the shadow of Phoebe's fire. That caused Phoebe's previous attack to emerge in front of Lucy while it was deep amethyst purple, but Lucy used the Amethyst Purple Shadow spell again. She aimed her first vortex at Phoebe, who simply ran towards the attack and endured its large explosion!
"My durability can't be broken through that easily, loser." Phoebe coldly told Lucy, before emerging from the amethyst purple flames and getting struck by Lucy's second attack.
Lucy surprisingly responded with a confident smile on her face, sounding very calm, "Well, that's why this attack exists."
Lucy watched her second attack get powered up by her previous attack's flames, strengthening her dark magic to where several large and fiery explosions were occurring. Those explosions were utilized to Lucy's advantage, since she proceeded to use the Amethyst Purple Gravity spell again. Lucy conjured up an amethyst purple flame in her right hand while an amethyst purple sphere of gravity surrounded it, and she made all of the gravity attract all of the flames towards her lone flame as she threw it at Phoebe's legs. Phoebe became engulfed in more fiery explosions, which had flames erupting upwards from the gravity being so low to the ground.
All of the amethyst purple flames ended up combusting, and amethyst purple smog started to fill this room. The smog was immediately inhaled by Yūreimura, causing a dark purple aura to massively surround her body. She giggled in a sadistic manner, followed by the smog revealing Phoebe's slight smile of amusement. She probably thought that we were just a team of weaklings, but the fact that she had been slightly injured with some meager bruises caused Phoebe to display a very sadistic and malicious grin on her face. I widened my eyes in a somewhat scared manner, and I had seen that expression on her face before.
Phoebe proceeded to walk towards Lucy, and she activated a spell called Haunting Slash. Phoebe's fingernails became royal purple while growing longer to where they resembled the blades of sharp swords, and she aggressively slashed at Lucy! Phoebe's sharp nails ended up slicing Lucy's body while they also became engulfed in royal purple flames, causing Lucy to scream in pain from all of the damage that she was taking. Lucy felt more damaged from the flames, which were bursting into infernos that heavily coated her body!
As Phoebe maliciously smiled at the sight of how she was inflicting pain on Lucy, Yūreimura walked up to be next to Phoebe and grinned in a pleased manner. Yūreimura and Phoebe proceeded to slam their hands together, before Phoebe shot out a giant royal purple fireball from her mouth. Yūreimura fired a spiraling beam of dark purple poison gas from her mouth, and they were planning to end this battle by killing Lucy! I quickly ran over to Lucy, only to see Phoebe get in front of me as that fusion attack ended up bursting.
Upon seeing the attack produce a high amount of hot gas that didn't explode, I asked Phoebe in a pained manner, "Why don't you... just let me die... with Lucy?"
Phoebe responded with a rude smirk on her face, before making a royal purple flame shoot out from her mouth for it to burn my cheek, "Killing you two would only get me into trouble with Mistress Violetta, and it's also fun to just torture amateurs. You won't even die here, but you'll truly be failures."
That prompted me to angrily respond while looking enraged, "Phoebe, you disgusting and evil bitch!"
I attempted to strike Phoebe with my right fist, only for her to roughly grab my hand and start squeezing my wrist. I screamed in pain, only to start feeling myself inhale more of the toxic gas that had been unleashed, and its heat caused me to feel like my body was burning up. I tried to clench my teeth, feeling the waves of heat burst into fire that burned against my body, and I looked at Phoebe with tears welling up in my eyes from all the poison gas. She laughed in a snobbish manner as I cried, showing superiority as she resisted all of the poison that was in the air.
I couldn't resist the Poison Magic that Yūreimura combined with Phoebe's fire, and the heat started to burn through some of my hair. This noxious gas was not only dangerous, but it also led to my body feeling much heaver as I felt more feverish. The toxicity of that fusion spell was going to knock me out soon, but I decided to use my remaining strength to teleport into the fire with Lucy. She was soon pushed out of it by me, and I walked towards some treasure chests with Lucy weakly walking beside me.
This mission wasn't for Phoebe's team to handle, which meant that I refused to let them have any of the treasures. If I couldn't protect all of the treasure chests, then I could at least protect the ones on the left side of the room. These were going home with me and Lucy, even if I had to push myself very hard to fight against Phoebe. Phoebe merely walked up to Lucy, her eyes displaying sadism as she wanted us to suffer for getting in her way, and I could see that Lucy was heavily bruised while many of her wounds were bloody.
Lucy weakly told Phoebe with her hair obscuring her eyes, her voice sounding pained, "All these... treasures... belong... to us."
Phoebe responded with an annoyed look on her face, before loudly cracking her knuckles, "You must really want me to beat the crap out of you, weakling. Minerva would probably want you two to share an experience like that, just like on Minerva's first day in Seductive Witch where that loser had to pass out after-"
My pride of not wanting Lucy to hear anything embarrassing about me caused me to impulsively walk up to Phoebe and tell her with a defeated facial expression, "Please don't tell Lucy about our first fight, Phoebe. You don't have to make me look weak in front of Lucy, so I... I give up. You can have the treasure chests."
Upon seeing my crying eyes and my defeated face as I fell backwards in my moments of passing out, Phoebe told me in a condescending manner, "Always remember that tearfully crying with that expression of failure is a great look for you, Minerva."
I stayed down on the ground while Lucy fell right beside me, both of us succumbing to the poison that would eventually fade away. I weakly sighed as the poison flowed through my body with all of that heat, my body aching from all the burns, and I soon felt myself get stepped on by Phoebe's shoes. Seeing her feet step all over me like I was garbage caused me to sigh in a frustrated manner, and I even coughed up a bit of blood. The pain that I felt from being so subservient to protect Lucy was probably similar to the pain Lucy experienced from seeing me be submissive to Phoebe, and tears streamed down my face.
I couldn't even protect Lucy from Phoebe's attacks this time, and I couldn't even endure all of those attacks to keep my new girlfriend safe. Honestly, was I really such a bad leader when it came to fighting against S-Class opponents? I didn't even feel like a leader right now, since Maboroshi and Yūreimura came over here to trample over myself and Lucy while they gathered up treasure chests for Phoebe. Phoebe proceeded to squat down beside me while giggling evilly, liking the sight of how badly her attacks had wounded my body.
She started to smile at me in a triumphant and dominant manner, causing me to cry more as I looked up at her. I tried my best to be calm, but my fate was in her hands right now. Phoebe could worsen my poison for it to kill me, or she could personally end my life right now. My eyes glanced up at her in a pleading manner, not wanting her to kill Lucy if Phoebe desired to kill me. Phoebe simply smiled in a pleased manner from seeing me beg for her to pity me, almost like I was her disobedient little dog that had been reprimanded. As Phoebe kept looking down at me, I felt myself become unconscious in this moment where I saw her have a smug smile on her face.
One hour later... (Lucy's POV)
Phoebe may have been smiling in a smug manner from winning that fight against us, but I slowly opened my eyes to see that she hadn't killed me. Phoebe was gone, along with her teammates, and Minerva was still laying next to me. Minerva groaned in a pained manner, which was followed by a loud groan of pain and frustration escaping from my lips. I still felt that my body was in tremendous pain from that fight, along with not feeling good from the poison that flowed through my body while scorching-hot burns coated my skin.
When Minerva's hand gently touched my body, I winced in pain from how my charred and purple skin was very sensitive and heavily damaged. The poison that seeped into my skin had been steadily harming my body, but I felt waves of nausea start to fade away as if the poison was starting to wear off. The feelings of intense heat in my body began to quell, along with the fever that I had been experiencing, and I slowly started to stand up. Getting back on my feet and looking around only made me gasp in shock, however.
All of the treasure chests that had been on the shelves were gone, and the neon green treasure chest from earlier had been untouched. Did Phoebe and her team completely ransack this treasure room to get its most valuable items? They had taken all of the treasure, and I glanced over at Shiozaki to see her looking very disappointed. She really wanted to solve the mystery regarding Sky Cave and the Wind Temple, so bringing back even one treasure chest would've absolutely been a way to provide legitimate proof of the treasure truly existing.
However, my face also expressed the emotion of disappointment from realizing that this entire adventure had really been for nothing. We didn't get any treasure, we didn't get to fight Skylenia, and we were ironically being thieves who had our treasures stolen by other thieves! The fact that Phoebe even followed us on this mission because Minerva and I were specifically requested for this job caused me to clench my fists in an infuriated manner, and I really disliked the fact that Phoebe didn't want Minerva and I to be successful at this job!
"Since Phoebe took all of the treasures, Minerva and I will be going now." I sternly told Shiozaki with a defeated expression starting to appear on my face, feeling like we could just settle for being happy that we found the Wind Temple.
Koyanagi told me with an annoyed look on her face while Minerva slowly stood up, all of us looking upset, "Wow, you're certainly not an experienced treasure hunter if you give up so easily."
Shiozaki asked her with a curious facial expression, "Koyanagi, how can there be more treasure in this part of the Wind Temple?"
"I'm honestly uncertain, but those twisters of wind being on pedestals just feels like it's an interesting clue." Koyanagi replied in a calm manner, starting to have a confident smile on her face.
That prompted me to glance at each of the daises, before my eyes looked over at Skylenia's throne. The throne had been heavily damaged during both of the vicious fights that occurred, along with most of the floor being destroyed. The floor behind the throne had been damaged by the fire and the gases, the bursting fire and smaller explosions causing the rubble to start breaking apart as if it could only be stable for a limited duration of time. As the floor crumbled, I walked up to the throne and wondered if there truly were any secrets remaining in this room.
The damaged throne had a large dais behind it, the dais being olive green, and the dais had been broken by all of the explosions. Stepping on to the dais caused it to break apart, and I ended up falling into a small hole. The hole was surprisingly filled with something large that I landed on, and I looked down to see that I was on top of an olive green treasure chest. Why was this treasure buried, instead of being kept with the other treasure chests? I got off of the treasure chest to see that it was actually three times the size of the ones that Minerva and I tried to protect earlier, and I tried to pick it up.
Picking up that treasure chest would be impossible, however, and it felt extremely heavy like it had been filled with titanium. The treasure chest couldn't even budge when I tried to push it against the wall, and I proceeded to climb the treasure chest while applying dark magic to my hands. By sending more strength into my hands, I quickly scaled up the treasure chest while having a stern facial expression. I felt more determination enter my body, wanting to solve the mystery of this treasure chest, and getting up to its cover that had no lock caused me to softly smile.
"Wow, Koyanagi was right! This is-" I joyfully exclaimed with a happy smile appearing on my face, before the treasure chest and I were suddenly teleported out of the hole.
Minerva replied to me with a calm facial expression, as she warped to be under the chest's lid and lift it up, "Well, that certainly is a tremendous amount of treasure."
Shiozaki exclaimed with a delighted smile on her face, before comically looking shocked, "Wow, that's the biggest treasure chest that Skylenia had! Wait, look at... all those gems! Oh my gosh, there's so much treasure and we have to bring it all back to Zephri!"
Even if Shiozaki wanted to bring the treasure chest back to Zephri, how would we all carry it and also prevent it from falling out of the sky? The thought of throwing the treasure chest on a powerful air current had crossed my mind, but how would that even be possible? Koyanagi proceeded to unleash a spell called Windy Green Turbulence, and she shot out a dark green twister from her left hand. She made the twister go outside of the treasure room while it absorbed winds from the large twisters that were on the daises, and Koyanagi's attack went down to the bottom of the spiral staircase.
It took in more Wind Magic from the massive twisters, before Koyanagi pulled both of her hands back towards her body for her attack to come back to her. It came back in the form of a gigantic twister, which nearly blew away me and Minerva, and Koyanagi calmly smiled as she made her massive spell engulf the treasure chest. Koyanagi placed her hands on the twister, before pushing it into the neon green twister. That caused it to strangely get warped to a different location, but I soon heard the sound of something faintly touching the top of a cave.
If the twisters could teleport treasure to Sky Cave, then that gave me an idea. I turned around to look back at the damaged throne, realizing that the neon green treasure chest from earlier hadn't been taken. I proceeded to run over to it, before picking up the larger treasure chest, and Minerva came over to grab the left side of it. As I grabbed the right side and ran alongside my girlfriend, we happily smiled and jumped into the jade green twister together. Going into the twister interestingly resulted in us being warped into the sky, and we interestingly fell down directly towards Sky Cave.
Five minutes later, above Sky Cave... (Minerva's POV)
Falling down towards Sky Cave was a situation that I hadn't anticipated, but I frowned in a stern manner as the air pressure from below started to grow much larger. It pushed me and Lucy upward while the treasure chest fell down to the top of Sky Cave, and losing that treasure chest caused me to gasp in a startled manner. It would probably crash into the cave's dense exterior, since those gems inside the cave seemed to be filled with dense amounts of Wind Magic that sent windy energy into the cave itself.
Crashing into the cave was something that I could probably endure, but I started to have a worried frown on my face from hearing Lucy scream in a fearful manner. She closed her eyes while looking worried, not wanting to look down at Sky Cave or the ground that had been around it. Lucy wouldn't crash into the ground, though, and I stretched out my left arm to tightly grab her right arm. My grip on Lucy's hand was tight as we were quickly falling towards Sky Cave, and I pulled her very close to me for the chance to hold Lucy in a tight embrace.
Lucy tightly clung to me while still looking fearful, her scared face causing me to feel just as scared in this moment. I tensed up my body, allowing myself to fall much faster while wrapping my arms around Lucy, and I would probably land on Sky Cave in the next minute. That was followed by the winds of the cave's tornadoes pulling me and Lucy down at a much faster rate, however, and I simply closed my eyes while taking one hand off of Lucy's waist for me to fire an energy wave down at the ground.
That plain purple energy wave had the properties of making a small purple explosion occur, and it ended up transpiring in the place where Lucy and I would fall. Lucy was positioned to be on top of me while the soft winds of the explosion were starting to bring us down at a slower level of speed, and we ended up smashing into the exterior of Sky Cave! The impact caused me to wince in pain while my body felt several of my muscles be pained, but Lucy and I ended up being in a small crater with purple fire around us. This fire had the properties of softening the ground around us, making the top of this cave almost feel like soft sand.
"Well, that was... quite an adventure." I told Lucy with a proud smile on my face, before wincing in pain and clenching my teeth.
"Minerva-sama, you saved my life again. You didn't want me to hit the ground, and I'm only alive because of you." Lucy told me with an appreciative smile on her face, feelings of gratitude being in her eyes as she stayed on top me and gently touched my hair.
That prompted me to tell Lucy with a sweet smile appearing on my face, "You're welcome, Lucy. It's only natural for a dominant woman to save her submissive subordinate."
Lucy nodded in an agreeing manner while her cheeks began to blush fuchsia pink, and my cheeks also started to blush fuchsia pink from how Lucy and I were so close together. We slowly moved our lips towards each other's mouths while closing our eyes at the same time, and I just felt like this treasure hunt had been such a harsh adventure that could end with a soft kiss. Lucy and I proceeded to share a kiss that was very soft, our lips feeling warm in this moment where we were blushing, and I felt like I always needed to keep Lucy safe from harm.
Lucy was the teammate who I cherished more than treasure, and I honestly didn't mind that we would only bring back one treasure chest to the town of Zephri. At least all this treasure would mean that we completed the job for Shiozaki, who would have to give us our reward money. Hopefully, she would give us much more jewels as compensation for having to deal with such an arduous adventure. After all, there were several situations where the Wind Temple's winds could blown us off of the temple for us to fall to our deaths.
I soon opened my eyes and saw Shiozaki comically falling down to Sky Cave, screaming while she made celestial green Wind Magic engulf her hands, and Shiozaki aggressively spun like a drill. The drill of air became coated in celestial green Wind Magic, which was accompanied by Koyanagi using her Wind Magic to create tornadoes of dark green wind around her feet, and both of them interestingly ended up falling down at an extremely fast pace. They slammed into the soft ground of the cave's exterior, only to be blown back up to it by the air from the twisters after falling into Sky Cave.
"Wow, that was... amazing! That entire treasure hunt resulted in the discovery of a Wind Temple in the sky, and we may have been the first team to find it! Also, we found two giant treasure chests!" Shiozaki stated in a hyperactive tone, sounding extremely pleased as her eyes twinkled with delight.
Koyanagi responded with an irked facial expression, groaning with displeasure in her voice, "Shiozaki, you could at least apologize to these two mages from Seductive Witch for putting them through so much trouble! I only let you have this adventure by yourself, since I knew you would encounter some kind of situation where you couldn't be safe without me around!"
As Koyanagi built up a dark green aura in her hands and came over to put her palms on me and Lucy, I asked her in a stern manner, "Why didn't you fight Phoebe and the others, if you didn't want Shiozaki to possibly get killed?"
Koyanagi replied with a slight frown on her face, before looking remorseful, "Well, I just thought that the guardian of the Wind Temple would've made everyone expend so much magical power before getting defeated. Although, Phoebe's team in Seductive Witch certainly live up to being elite mages. I've heard rumors of their successes at getting treasure."
Even though Phoebe's team was successful at getting a high amount of treasure for themselves, I glanced over at the neon green treasure chest in a curious manner. It may not have been as large as the olive green treasure chest, but I did wonder if there were any valuable artifacts or actual treasure in it. Lucy and I both stood up while the dark green aura engulfed our bodies, and Koyanagi had used a spell called Wind Heal to simply make us feel revitalized. I felt energized enough to walk over to the treasure chest, and my heart was beating softly.
I anticipated the idea of finding nothing in that treasure chest, as its association with Wind Magic made me wonder if it was purposely heavy on the outside while being very light on the inside. I opened up the lid, opening it slowly, and my eyes widened in an amazed manner. There were several neon green coins in this chest, along with many neon green gems that were gleaming, and seeing several neon green jewels concealing some artifacts caused me to have a smile of satisfaction on my face.
Based on exchange rates, neon green jewels were worth much more when they were converted to the current jewels that were mocha brown. Still, getting a tremendous amount of money and selling artifacts didn't take my mind off of how Shiozaki would have to give a large majority of credit to me and Lucy for discovering the Wind Temple's existence. The keystone for getting to the temple had been in the Fern Meadow, which Shiozaki had impatiently ran through, and I sighed in an annoyed manner from seeing her hastily climb down Sky Cave to quickly run back to Zephri Town.
Ten minutes later, in Zephri Town... (Lucy's POV)
After getting back to Zephri Town with the neon green treasure chest and the much larger olive green treasure chest, Minerva and I got to see Shiozaki be in the center of the town while she stood beside Koyanagi. They opened up the olive green treasure chest for everyone to see that there were several olive green artifacts within it, along with many olive green coins that looked as beautiful as the olive green gems. Several of those gems were retrieved from the chest by Shiozaki, and she excitedly smiled at them.
She definitely loved the fact that she managed to find such a large amount of treasure, even though Phoebe's team probably arrived back in Zephri before us. The townspeople who were nearby didn't seem very interested in getting any of Shiozaki's treasure, and her story about the Wind Temple seemed like it had recently been told by an arrogant mage. Phoebe didn't just interfere with our task of claiming a vast amount of the legendary treasure, but she probably made herself and her teammates seem like the main heroes of that quest.
Even if they were heroic for saving us from Skylenia, beating down me and Minerva was certainly a very villainous thing to do. If Phoebe wanted to be so evil, then I could be evil by reporting Phoebe's team to Mistress Violetta when we got back to Mauve Town. After all, the guild mistress would probably be very surprised that Phoebe went on an unofficial job today whilst not being part of Minerva's team. Minerva simply folded her arms in a stern manner while frowning at Shiozaki, and she probably wondered if Shiozaki would've sensed Phoebe's team being near Zephri if she was a more patient person.
Shiozaki having patience would've probably allowed us to detect Phoebe's team, but they probably would've been somewhat weakened by us before fighting Skylenia. If Skylenia had been strong enough to beat them, then it would've been nice for us to finish defeating the wind-wielding guardian and we may have even gotten respect from Phoebe's team. However, patience was a virtue that Shiozaki just didn't have. In fact, I wondered if her admiration for the gems meant that she wouldn't give Minerva and I our reward money as she turned around to look at us.
"Whoa, I need to give you all that money for helping me find all of this treasure!" Shiozaki stated with a look of realization appearing on her face, before hastily running off to the guild.
That prompted me to ask Koyanagi with a somewhat embarrassed look on my face, "Is she always so impatient?"
"Yeah, and she ran off before even thanking you. Therefore, I really want to thank you for helping her obtain the treasure. Also, thanks for keeping Shiozaki safe from doing anything stupid in the Wind Temple. I care about Shiozaki, even if I am very strict." Koyanagi responded in a calm manner, before smiling in a somewhat grateful manner.
As Koyanagi expressed that she was grateful towards me and Minerva, Shiozaki came back to this part of Zephri Town while running at high speeds. Shiozaki stopped running when she got right in front of the olive green treasure chest, and she held a neon green bag of jewels in her right hand. I gently took the heavy bag away from Shiozaki while opening it with one hand, and Minerva glanced inside the bag to see that there were at 600,000 jewels in here. However, Minerva and I both smiled at each other in a calm manner from realizing that we did so much work on making this recent quest end in success.
Since we had been successful at finding the keystone for Sky Cave and found the orbs to unlock Skylenia's room that had been filled with treasure, Minerva used her Territory Magic to simply teleport the neon green treasure chest into the large bag of jewels. The bag became much heavier from Minerva warping several piles of olive green coins into the bag, along with several olive green artifacts falling into the bag, and Minerva made sure to teleport two large portions of that treasure out of that giant treasure chest.
Shiozaki ended up being left with a decent amount of treasure after Minerva retrieved our huge shares of it, so Shiozaki couldn't really complain. Speaking of complaining, I started to look at Minerva in a somewhat stern manner. She may not have complained about losing all of that treasure to Phoebe's team, but Minerva letting Phoebe just take the treasures as a way to keep us both from sustaining further injuries caused me to feel like Minerva was still needing to display confidence without being scared or submissive.
"Minerva-sama, do you think you'll be okay if you compete in Zephri Town's fashion show? You know, would you be scared of mages who are much more powerful?" I asked Minerva with a somewhat worried look on my face, hoping that she wouldn't be fearful of very powerful mages.
That prompted Minerva to tell me with a serious facial expression, her eyes expressing distaste at my smart question, "If you're thinking that I'm terrified of Phoebe and her teammates, then you're wrong. I just wanted to keep us both safe from Phoebe's sadism, since she really could've killed you."
"Did Phoebe's clique ever beat you down at some point, Minerva-sama? I don't mean to be rude, but why do you seem so... traumatized by them and also seem very fearful?" I asked Minerva with a curious look appearing on my face, since she hadn't opened up to me about that.
Minerva simply responded to me in a calmer manner while putting a finger against my lips, smiling a bit with some feelings of manipulation in her eyes, "I'm just glad that you want to share my pain, since I saved you from crashing into the cave."
Minerva's mention of how she saved my life caused me to quietly respond with a soft smile appearing on my face, and I didn't want her to think that I was ungrateful for that. I felt very grateful that Minerva literally took a rough fall for me to be safe, similar to how I attacked Phoebe for her to divert some of her attacks away from Minerva, and I would return Minerva's act of kindness at a later point in time. At this current moment in time, I felt that Minerva and I now needed to leave Zephri Town and get back to Mauve Town.
Not only would I want to tell Mistress Violetta about what had transpired in the Wind Temple, but I felt that Minerva and I needed to buy some new clothes from that high-end store. If we wore extremely fashionable clothing as a result of obtaining so much treasure, then this adventure would feel like it ended up bringing us closer together as girlfriends. Minerva and I had both been very happy to handle this job, and I actually felt very happy from seeing Minerva act like a great leader as she solved all of those puzzles.
Minerva always excelled at being a leader, since she never wanted our team to get annihilated on a mission. Minerva's leadership was a major factor in how we had been successful at all of our past missions, and Minerva's choice of taking high amounts of treasure from Shiozaki felt very fair. Minerva was starting to display more fairness as a mage while I had been displaying more viciousness and tenacity in battles, so we were truly growing as a couple and learning from each other. Minerva and I chose to proudly smile at each other, before sharing a soft kiss and walking to the train station as we each had a hand on the bag of green treasures that we acquired.
How was Chapter 12? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and Minerva helped Shiozaki find the treasure while they encountered Skylenia, but Phoebe's team stole most of the treasures for themselves! Phoebe's thievery is irritating to Lucy, but seeing Minerva still be somewhat fearful and terrified of Phoebe is starting to make Lucy want to find out exactly why Minerva feels like she has to be subservient to Phoebe as a way of not getting hurt. Speaking of people getting hurt, Lucy and Minerva will face stronger opponents in this story. Some of the opponents may even disrupt their calm demeanor, and this chapter partially hints at an aspect of Lucy and Minerva's relationship by how they have to stay calm in situations.
Speaking of calmness, this post-arc chapter did show the romantic aspects of self-sacrifice by how Lucy calmly pushed herself to fight Phoebe while Minerva didn't hesitate to make herself be the one who would suffer pain instead of Lucy after they descended from the Wind Temple. Also, the romantic aspect of unity was displayed from how Lucy and Minerva both held the neon green treasure chest together. Speaking of Lucy and Minerva being united, they will both be in Zephri Town's fashion show! That occurs in the next chapter, since this is the second part of the post-Cerulean Cosmos Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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