Chapter 21
Don't Own Fairy Tail or anything else Only The Oc
'thought'
"Speech"
"Powerful Creatures Speaking, like a dragon or a god"
"Text via book or newspaper... when those are around..."
I stand alone in the arena, finger raised to the sky my six large wings flapping once.
Cheers erupt throughout the stadium as my transformation drops, a deep fatigue filling my body as I turn and begin walking back to my teammates.
"U-UNBELIVABLE!" Chapati shouts. "MERLIN AMBROSIUS MANAGED TO DEFEAT ALL SEVEN MEMBERS BY HIMSELF! Merlin of team fairy tail has scored a resounding victory! Without any question! A TREMENDOUS WIN!"
With a brief glow of Meteor I leap up, landing with the others chosen to compete.
"You could have ended that earlier." Laxus observes.
"Eh... people paid to be here. I already ended something that could have lasted upwards of ten rounds in just one. Thought it'd be kind of shitty to end it anticlimactically." I shrug idly.
"Tch." Natsu grumbles. "I could have done all that."
"You really had to fight them all at once, hm?" Levy deadpans.
"THAT'S MANLY AS HELL!" Elfman booms.
"Eh." I shrug. "I wanted to make this a little more fair." I impishly grin.
"You got the snot beaten out of you for a bit." The girl observes.
"That was to give them hope." I shrug.
"Merlin... You did good." Erza nods. "I hadn't thought of facing all seven at once... if I had, I would have done the same."
"What's the deal with the blue haired girl and that fire guy anyways? You sort of pulled your punches with them." Grey questions.
"Oh, that's because I don't necessarily hate them like I do the others." I shrug.
"Hah?" Natsu blinks. "Why not?! They're in Phantom Lord!"
"Well, I mean, the fire guy hasn't done anything particularly bad and I've heard no shit rumors of him, plus his magic is probably the coolest of the bunch."
"Hmmmm." Natsu hums, thinking deeply. "Damn it! I hate that you're right... I also wanted to taste his fire!"
"Yellow fire stank really bad, so you'd probably have a bad time fighting him... oh. Plus he has pyrokinesis. Expect punching yourself in the face a lot."
"And the blue haired woman?" Levy questions, I can sense a small tidbit of jealousy in her tone.
"Oh... she's just clinically depressed."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Her emotions change the weather, all this rain makes her sad which changes the weather into rain which makes her sad, she's stuck in a feedback loop and... honestly I sort of feel like she deserves better. I wasn't lying when I said she has potential. It's just a shame that Jose doesn't act on this shit and finding a 'Rival' in phantom lord, one that won't merely try to cripple or fuck you over at the first opportunity is probably an S class quest in and of itself."
I tilt my head. "Honestly, maybe I should see if I can convince her to join Fairy Tail. She's clearly wasting her time at Phantom Lord."
"Whatever." Laxus states. "You're right in saying that she's probably the... least shit of the bunch."
"What got you so pissed off by the others, anyways?" Levy questions.
"Oh, well, for the two weaker mages I took out almost instantly, they're Gajeel's goons, not really important in the grand scheme, Sol was going to run away like a pussy and be a problem that entire time, plus he is genuinely- and I cannot stress this enough- THE WORST. Aria has that one dangerous spell that probably would have killed Makarov if it hit, and, well, Gajeel's a bitch."
"Oi OI! Merlin! I just remembered something." Natsu begins. "What did you mean by July Seventh Seven-Seven-Seven? You know that's the day Igneel disappeared, right? I told you that much at least... what's it have to do with Gajeel?"
"Well-"
"AND WHEN WERE YOU GOING TO TELL ME YOU WERE A DRAGON?!"
"I'm not. It's takeover." I reply with a half lidded stare. "Like him."
I gesture to Elfman.
"It was manly as hell! You've got dragon soul or something? I didn't think that could ever exist!" The giant laughs
"Well, no..." I begin to clear up. "it's Bahamut soul... as in... just him. No taking over others. also, I'm fairly certain there's this one girl in Alverez which has Takeover God Soul, so, like, dragon takeover probably exists out there somewhere."
"Oh!" Levy begins, seeing that we have grown off topic from Natsu's question. "For the Seven-Seven-Seven thing, Merlin and I met another dragon slayer a couple of days ago. She said her dragon also disappeared on the exact same day yours did... and judging by Gajeel's reaction, his did as well."
"Huh. Strange." Natsu mutters. "That's a weird coincidence."
"Ugh. Flame Brain." Gray scoffs. "Twice is a coincidence. Thrice is a pattern."
"You want to go Ice boy?!" Natsu replies.
"Any time any place smoke breath-"
They are knocked flat by Erza's gauntleted fists.
"So. What now?" I ask the group.
"I've got better things to do than pat you on the back for beating a bunch of second rate losers... and a mage which is squandering her potential." Laxus scoffs, then with a crackle he disappears.
"Hah. That guy." I sigh rolling my eyes as the corners of my mouth turn upwards. "Better than he was, though."
"So Levy, want to go out and grab something to eat?"
"Sure!"
"Ah... there we go. Clothes fixed." I note as I pull down the sleeve of my newly repaired hoodie.
"I'm still so jealous of your household magics." Levy sighs.
I offer the girl a small shrug as she takes a sip of her milkshake.
"So, have you thought about how you'd face the Phantom Lord mages?" I question.
"While watching... I've given it a bit more thought." The girl admits. "I could probably handle most of them. Aria would have been difficult, though."
"His Metsu spell is something to fear." I agree with a slow nod.
"What about that Sol guy? You jumped on him pretty hard. I don't think I could have beat him if he just sunk into the earth like he was trying to do."
"Oh, I've heard bad things about Sol... he's the type of guy who would bring up your greatest pains in order to psychologically destroy you. If you have a dead friend, he'll create a bunch of earth clones of them and have them beg for their lives, just saying absolutely deplorable shit like how they're disappointed in you and how you failed to save them. Then his ultimate spell locks a person in their worst memory as they slowly turn to stone... causing them to suffer eternally."
"That is-" the woman gasps, hands coming to her mouth. "That's horrible!"
"Honestly, I should have probably beat that scumbag more, but, ah well. He's shockingly more agile than he looks but didn't seem to be that durable... which is strange for an earth magic user honestly, as most people tend to have traits of their magic."
"Traits... of their magic?" The girl echoes.
"Yeah, like Natsu. Hot headed."
"But Grey's ice and he still gets in a bunch of fights..." She points out.
"Yeah, but he wears shorts in the middle of winter. That's his trait. Incredible resistance to cold. Look, I'm not saying that it's perfect and that all wizards mirror their magic, but some definitely do." I continue.
"And me?"
"Bookworm, smart." I shrug.
"You?" She questions.
I'm silent for a moment. "To be honest, I'm not that good at reading my own traits... spontaneous maybe?"
"Yeah. That seems pretty accurate." The girl notes. "Still... it was pretty cool of you to fight all seven of them at once."
"As for my own strategies..." The girl mutters quietly to herself. "Ah... well, Gajeel's just a vehicle or lightning, Juvia is lightning, Totomaru is anything but fire, preferably water or ice, I... might be able to hit Sol with a solid script drill, sort of depends on if I'm lucky or not... and I could try and vacuum Aria?"
"Those are all pretty sound strategies, honestly." I shrug.
"That... Metsu spell you were talking about." The girl begins quietly. "The one you said could kill Makarov... how badly do you think it'd hurt me?"
I let out a low hum. "Well, that's kind of a tough question, honestly... before your... training... you'd probably be able to at the very least survive it fairly easily, it's basically causing your magical power to explode inside of you. But now? You'd definitely be taken out of the fight."
"Hm..." The girl hums. "Did you learn it?"
I take a sip of my drink, the corners of my mouth turning upwards. "No comment~"
"Whaat come on! Tell me the goodies you got." The girl smiles.
"Scales, Rainbows, Roar, Metsu, Air Form, and that's about it." I list off. "The rest really didn't interest me that much. I'll probably get rid of Air Form at some point. It's not exactly the most useful spell and I learned it just so I could stop Aria from using it. I can't attack while I'm using it either, and sure, people can't see me either, but it's not an immunity to damage. A wind wizard shooting a wind blade through my air body would cut me as if I were flesh and blood. Mainly other gaseous magics and things like 'heat'. Heat would transfer over quite well, actually, so fire magic, cold magic, and even lightning magic to an extent."
"Huh... well, that's another useful piece of information if I ever have to fight them." The girl mutters under her breath. "So, what's the plan now that you've proven yourself and the fairy tail guild?"
"Go home, go to bed?" I shrug. "I'm honestly mentally and physically exhausted. So many eyes on me reaaaaly strained my social batteries for today."
"You deserve a good rest." The girl smiles. "I also imagine a lot of the guild wants to buy you drinks and food."
"Oh boy... let me just disappear for a couple of days, then." I sigh. "That's what you'd do, right?"
The girl smiles, rolling her eyes and shaking her head in exasperation.
"Don't you shake your head at me! You totally did that for your birthday!" I point at her, causing her to let out a few muted laughs behind her fist.
I flop back on my bed, letting out a long yawn.
A screen pops into view, now that I'm no longer near anyone I can sort through everything I've gotten.
The spells?
Air Form is literally just Gaseous Form plus Invisibility... and Gaseous Form is a notoriously bad spell.
All it does is give you ten 'damage reduction' that is overcome by 'Magic'... when it's a third level spell and plus one weapons are a dime a dozen at that level.
The other spells are quite good.
Iron Dragon Slayer Magic: Iron Dragon's Scales
Spell Level: 3
Casting Time: Standard Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute/level
You tap into the sheer durability of an Iron Dragon, granting you greatly improved defenses.
You gain a 4 enhancement bonus to your existing natural armor bonus (if you do not have a natural armor bonus, you are considered to have an effective natural armor bonus of 0). This enhancement bonus increases by 1 for every 4 caster levels above 6th, to a maximum of 7 at 18th level.
While you're under the effects of this spell, if an opponent confirms a critical hit or sneak attack against you with a physical weapon (not a spell or magical effect), you can dismiss this spell to negate the critical hit or sneak attack and treat it is as a normal hit. Dismissing the spell in this way is not an action, but you must be conscious and aware of the attack to do so.
Overcharge: For each additional MP you spend on this spell, you are granted an additional 1 enhancement bonus to your Natural Armor
Better 'Iron Skin' spell. Frankly, I'm already looking forwards to the absolute juggernaut I can turn Cath into.
I should see about looking into 'Persistent Spell' so this buff spell would last a full twenty-four hours.
Iron Dragon's Roar is pretty boring, just another AOE spell, but I'll probably shoot it at Bahamut sometime just to see if it sticks any better than punching him in the eye.
Metsu... is just a large block of text. One I don't fully feel like reading through right now... the basics are Bigger MP bigger damage.
But the main issue is that I myself must spend a comparable amount of Mp.
Not AS much exactly, but it's not just a spell I can cast dozens of times like I can with my other spells.
Does Bahamut have MP? A large portion of the bosses don't actually have an MP pool...
Huh.
Further testing is needed.
Rainbow fire is... honestly, pretty cool. I mainly picked it up because I had a slot open and thought I'd do something nice for Natsu.
Rainbow Fire sort of reminds me of the 'prismatic' spells, with each color doing a different thing.
Rainbow Blast:
Spell Level: 4
Casting Time: Standard Action
Range: Long (40040 Feet/Level)
Area: 20 Foot Radius Spread
Duration: Instantanious
Saving throw: See Text
Spell Resistance: Yes
You create a blast of multicolored fire that detonates at a position within range, dealing 1d6 points of damage per caster level to every creature in the radius (Maximum 15d6), reflex for half.
Every creature in the area is randomly struck by one or more shades of fire, which have additional effects. (Roll 1d8 to determine what they are struck by)
1: Red: Causes 1d4 points of Bleed Damage
2: Orange: Deals an extra 4d6 Fire Damage
3: Yellow: Nauseated for 1 round (Fortitude Negates)
4: Green: Gain the 'Poisoned' status for 1 Round/2 Levels (1d6 Damage per round)
5: Blue: The spell's Damage Type is now cold instead of fire and deals an extra 4d6 Cold Damage.
6: Indigo: Confused for 1 Round (Will Negates)
7: Violet: Target loses 1d6 Points of MP
8: Struck by multiple hues: (Roll twice more, Ignoring any further rolls of 8)
Overcharge: For each additional MP you spend on this spell, you deal an additional 4d6 damage. For every 2 additional MP you spend, the effects of the rainbow shades improve by one half the base, rounding down. (Thus at 6 MP, Indigo will still only confuse for 1 round, yet orange will deal an additional 6d6 fire damage. At 8 MP, however, Indigo will confuse for 2 Rounds Etc~
I mean, it's better than Hell's Prominence.
Plus Natsu'd probably beg to get shot by it.
Sort of worried about the whole 'bleeding' and 'Poison' thing...
But eh, I can sort of just wave my hands, cast a cura, and rid him of bleeding, then out-heal the poison.
Now for the main reason I have done all of this in the first place.
The quest.
Phantom Lord Problems:
With great cunning you have solved the main issue of Phantom Lord's war on Fairy Tail... but! Bad blood still exists. Show them why Fairy Tail's the number one guild.
Objective:
Have your team win the Phantom Lord Vs Fairy Tail Duel: [x]
Bonus Objectives:
Compete in the duel and beat at least one of the mages: [x]
Complete your match being untouched by your opponent: [-]
Defeat all seven members by yourself: [x]
Fight all seven AT ONCE: [x]
Reward: 500 Exp
Bonus Rewards: 31000 Exp, "I Will Face All Of Them!" Achievement, magic items worth up to 100,000 GP, 1 Bonus Feat, A choice of one of three randomly generated special.
{Randomizing Choices}
{Body Synchronized.}
Choice 1: Awakened Ancestry {Etherious}
Choice 2: Extra page in the Spell Book
Choice 3: Meta-Magic Addon.
"..."
Damn it.
Those don't tell me what they do.
Alright... guessing time.
I assume one makes me more powerful? Maybe gives me access to cursed power?
That'd be interesting... I do need ways to fight in a magic-less world if Edolas happens... frankly, I'm unsure if there's anything I can do to put a stop to it.
Oh god...
What if I have an Edolas counterpart...
What would he be like?
I shake my head.
Not an Etherious, certainly, so that could be something I could use to hold an advantage over him.
Choice two either gives me access to some sort of 'rare' or 'obscure' magic or it lets me store more spells.
I mean, I'm technically at my limit for learned spells, that thirty-one thousand wasn't enough to level up and get two more slots, but as of this moment, I could freely swap out some things. I don't need Regen anymore. Healing Ruby FAR surpasses it in literally every way except mana cost.
And while it does technically cost twice as much as regen, healing Ruby heals double what it can so it balances out.
Overall. I'm satisfied with my current spell slots.
That leads me to three...
I use metamagic quite extensively. Will it grant me the ablity to apply metamagic to my spells for free?
Will it unlock third edition metamagic feats? Would I gain access to free metamagic feats?
"Damn." I lowly curse.
Of course it didn't tell me.
I close my eyes, letting out a long breath. I rub my temples.
I...
Sort of have to choose the first here, don't I? Even with Metamagic being sort of my go-to for improving my casting.
I...
I could ask Levy.
My gaze strays to my new achievement.
I Will Face All Of Them!:
In true Fairy Tail fashion, you are a one-man army, taking down numerous opponents all at the same time. Now you perform even better against numerous foes.
When you are outnumbered, all of your stats improve by 1 (Roughly a 20% increase)
Well.
This is certainly a very... 'fairy tail' achievement.
One that seems to be mirroring Erza's stance on those one hundred monsters in the Grand Magic Games arc... I'll admit, I was channeling a bit of her energy when I made that declaration.
Also...
If one stat point is roughly a twenty percent increase...
Maybe I should get stat increasing spells...
Those improve everything by a flat plus six... which would be like... a one hundred and forty percent increase or so? Just like... off the top of my head not taking into account exponential growth.
It'll definitely be a lot larger. Probably around a three times multiplier...
Oooh there's also some interesting potential effects I can toss in.
I already have that one special effect that doubles the power of my enhancement spells for the first six seconds I have cast them... that's why Meteor is so deadly.
If I remember correctly, there's a white mage talent which allows me to improve the overall strength of the enhancement by two at tenth level and by four at twentieth.
I could toss out buff spells that give people a flat plus ten to stats.
There's also 'Persistent Spell' which I could grab relatively soon.
Just have ALL of my buff spells last for a full twenty four hours.
That sounds kickass.
The issue is that for 'Fairy Tail Spells' which can overcharge they won't be as strong as they COULD be considering how expensive Persistent Spell is.
Still.
For base pathfinder spells?
That sounds quite interesting.
I'll use my quest bonus feat to grab Persistent Spell, so now theoretically I can have an endless Meteor spell cast on me... a lower powered Meteor spell, but a Meteor spell nonetheless.
Pallug's going to be soooo fucking broken!
"Heeeey Levy." I begin quietly.
"Mhm?" She hums as we sit in a corner of the library, she's reading a newer book that apparently some big author just put out not that long ago and I myself am thinking about the optics of pirating books from my system.
"You ever have a moment where you have like... choices on how you want to better yourself... but you know that if you take one path, the others will be borderline impossible to get to locked off? Like... if you understood how to use onomatopoeias, but in order to do so, you'd be forced to give up something like 'Living Script'?" I begin quietly.
Her gaze slowly turns to me. "Are you in that sort of scenario?"
"Sort of..." I nod slowly. "At the moment, I'm strong. Arguably one of the strongest mages currently in fairy tail, but... I don't know how I should progress."
"You're feeling stagnant?" She echoes.
"Less stagnant... I know how to grow, and I how generally how to progress, but I've been thinking about possibly trying some other things with my magic and I was wondering if you could give me some input."
"Alright." She nods slowly. "What's your plan."
"I have two real options here... but first, a bit of context, when I copy a spell, I don't learn the magic, you know that much at least. The spell practically stays the exact same, with the only real sort of change I can have on it being how much magical energy I put into it. However, there's another small addition I can toss in to alter the spell... think of it like prefixes or suffixes to your word magic. For an attacking spell... I can statically improve its damage output by fifty percent with a wave of my hand... or for another spell I could double the duration... recently, I got my most powerful effect, the ability to extend something to a full twenty four hours."
"WH- T- T-TWENTY FOUR HOURS?!" The girl shrieks.
she gets her voice under control, glancing around the library in embarrassment despite the fact that we're probably the only ones here on such a nice sunny day. "T-That is..."
"The only issue is that the spell is generally weaker as I put less magical power into strengthening the effects." I admit.
"Weaker?" She questions.
"Quite a bit weaker for the majority of my spells." I nod slowly.
She is silent for a long moment.
"Your magic is sooo bullshit." She sighs. "So, like, is it a flat twenty four hours for... ANY magic? Like, if I had a spell that multiplied my strength by one hundred for one second... could you make it a full twenty four hours?"
"Ah. That's tough." I mutter. "It should apply to anything without an 'instantaneous' duration."
"What qualifies as 'Instantaneous'?" She echoes.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist, Roar, Ice Make Lance, Solid Script Lightning." I list off. "Typically attack spells. But if you did something like... 'Wall of fire', and as long as it didn't take your focus to maintain, it should work."
"Huh... so... like Meteor?" She questions.
The corners of my mouth turn upwards.
"Oh my god." She whispers.
"We've gotten a bit off topic." I observe. "Two choices. Focusing on my meta-magic is one."
"What could possible be considered on par with THAT?!" The girl hisses.
"I could try and awaken some of my inhuman heritage."
"..."
A frown tugs at her lips. "Are... you sure you want to do that?"
"I don't know." I sigh, shaking my head. "That's why I'm asking you."
"On one hand, I could try for enhanced metamagic... or... I could delve into that." I frown.
"Why... would you want to?" The girl slowly questions.
"To protect the guild..." I let out a long sigh. "That Metsu spell... if it hit I likely would have died... or at the very least been utterly out of the fight. However. Etherious don't use magic. They use the opposite."
"The opposite?" She echoes.
"People say that all magic descended from one thing... the one true magic... love... demons, however use magic descended from negative emotions... hatred primarily."
"I want to do this because, well, what happens if we come across a situation where I can't use magic. Where no-one can. What happens if there's a situation where I have to cast aside magic? If metsu hit me today, I'd probably die. But if I had cursed energy? If it nourished and improved my body to the strength of an actual demon... I would have been able to fight regardless."
"I'm willing to toss aside my humanity to protect the people I care about."
"..."
"What... what could possibly drive you to do something like that?!" The girl hisses.
"..."
"Levy. Before I came to the guild, I wandered for a while... and, during my travels, I found myself under the city of Crocus. Do you want to know what I found there?"
"W-What?" She whispers.
"Dragons. I found dragons... dozens of them... possibly hundreds of them... all dead... all killed. What I'm afraid of... is what managed to kill all of them."
"Merlin." She whispers, slowly wrapping her arms around me. "You don't need to do that. We- we can figure something out. Surely."
"I'll give my decision some more thought." I sigh, rubbing my forehead, the conversation becoming quite heavy. "I guess I'll have some time to think."
Dun dun dunnnn!
Anyways I have a patroom which I am now posting some QQ exclusive snippets I have on there (with everything going free eventually) sooo check it out if you want some extra free content, currently I've been posting chapters of what I like to call 'Gacha Saiyan' which is a Dark Wolf Shiro celestial roulette inspired fic. you can find it at Flameclawsxx!
I hope you all enjoyed!