It is now Monday, August 29th, X783.
I should've brought this up earlier with Cana, but I wanted to go to Bosco to try to deal with the situation myself since a small part of me felt guilty for what was happening there. Though… considering what I had seen about the few nobles I had investigated, they might just deserve what happened to them. However, Daylight seemed to be killing every noble they could get their hands on without discrimination, so I couldn't be too sure about that.
To distract myself from that, I went to my garden to take care of my plants and relax while I considered how I wanted to prepare for this. Learning the Nature God Magic seemed like the obvious choice, but I wondered what else I could do.
Farming Gains 620. Now at rank 4 (566/5000).
Spells gain 2090.
Conjure Clone rank 20 (803/1050)
Growth rank 32 (521/1650)
Storm Devil's Flight rank 25 (26/1300) - 4 major and 6 minor upgrades available.
Storm Devil's Water Bullet rank 24 (1033/1250) - 4 major and 4 minor upgrades available.
Satan Soul rank 31 (1585/1600)
Right, the first and most important thing I needed to do was to study the book Idunma gave me. I wasn't entirely sure why she did that, especially as she also ensured that I would be able to easily learn her Magic. However, I figured there was nothing malicious about her gift as the seed of energy she gave me was harmlessly flowing through me, just waiting for an opportune moment to sprout into something great, and it was up to me to do that.
I took out the book and sat down on the ground, planning to learn this in just a few hours at most since I had so many other things I wanted to do today. I chucked as I thought about that. Here I was thinking of learning the Magic of a Goddess in just a few hours with complete confidence in my success.
I wondered how many other people out there could say the same?
Green and Healing Magic were absorbed by Nature God Magic.
Nature God Magic (36)Rank 1 Passive Bonus: Immune to all types of Nature Magic. Immune to Poison. Can eat all types of flora to restore Mana. Nature God Spells ignore 25% of a God's Magic Resist. Gain 1200 bonus EXP to all EXP rolls for Physique and Soul.
Rank 10 Passive Bonus: Gain a bonus when working with plants equal to 2x the level of Nature God Magic. Plants will naturally grow faster when near us. Greatly boost the growth of all plants when using Magic on them.
Rank 20 Passive Bonus: Minor Flora Control. Can manipulate all types of flora with only a thought.
Rank 30 Passive Bonus: Gain armor against physical and magical attacks equal to 10x the level of Nature God Magic. (+360)
—Nature God's Bellow (0/50): A breath attack that deals 1d400+200 magical damage. Costs 150 Mana to use.
—Nature God's Thorn Armor (0/50): An enhancement spell strictly focused on defense. Gain +150 armor against physical and magical attacks. Deal 20% of the damage done against us back to the attacker.
—Nature God's Photosynthesis (0/50): Heal for 20 Health per round. Costs 100 Mana per round to use. Spell is two times less effective during the night.
—Nature God's Treant Soldiers (0/50): Bless nearby trees and turn them into loyal soldiers. Treant Soldiers have 400/400 Health, 200 to battle mod, and deal 1d100+50 damage. Cost 100 Mana per round for each Treant Soldier.
— Nature God's Root Manipulation rank 32 (1126/1650)- Manipulate up to twenty roots to strike your enemy for up to 20d840+3000 physical damage or to ensnare them, forcing them to roll with Physique to not be stunned(DC 1480). Cost 40 Mana per root. - 6 major and minor upgrades available.
—Nature God's Growth rank 32 (521/1650) Massively Boosts the natural growth of most types of flora. Works on all types of flora, including magical ones. Can be used a limited number of times per day before damaging the lifespan of the flora. Costs 100 Mana per cast.
Nature God's Heal rank 8 (208/450): Targeted Spell that heals another being. Restores 180 HP per cast. Costs 400 Mana per cast. - 2 minor upgrades available
Nature God's Cure (0/50): Cures any mundane ailment with a cast. Costs 200 Mana per cast.
I listed through the book in seconds with my glasses, finding out that I couldn't actually read it all. Not because I couldn't understand it, but because the last few pages refused to budge no matter how much force I used. Perhaps I needed to learn the other Spells first?
"Well, that's easy," I said to myself as I took a deep breath. I already had experience with the breath Spells of Devils and Dragons–I was working on both of those attacks at the moment with my wolves–so this was incredibly easy for me, especially as I had Idunma's energy inside. I just had to mimic her energy and…
"Nature God's Bellow!" A large torrent of greenish-black energy shaped like a storm of razor sharp leaves erupted from my mouth, firing towards the sky. I watched it for a moment before nodding to myself and moving on.
"Nature God's Thorn Armor." Spiked thorns protectively covered my body, tightly wrapping around me. I stood up and moved around, finding that they didn't hinder my movement at all.
"Yeah, that was pretty easy." I nodded to myself.
"What…" The voice came from my apple trees, and I turned to see Idunma's head poking from one of the trunks. Her blue eyes blinked at me in surprise.
"Hello." I waved at her while she continued staring at me.
Idunma stepped out of the tree and marched over to me as all the plants in my garden began dancing and wiggling their bodies due to her presence alone. She stopped in front of me, placing a hand on my forehead and blinked. "How?"
"It wasn't that hard." I shrugged my shoulders. "It isn't that different from other types of Magic."
"Not that different?" She asked with an edge to her voice.
"Well." I scratched my head and took a step back. "It's definitely stronger than anything else I know."
"It is far stronger than anything else you know," Idunma said at first. "And it's also completely different as it will continue changing you the more you use it."
"Like Devil Magic does?" I asked with a frown while thinking over her words. "Will that be a problem somehow?"
"Please." Idunma rolled her eyes. "Devil Magic is vastly inferior to our own. So is Dragon Magic for that matter."
"Which means that the effect of God Magic–"
"Will take precedence, yes." Idunma finished my sentence.
"But how exactly will it affect me?" I asked
"The more you use it, the faster it will change you, turning you into one of us. Most don't have to worry about that since the transformation usually takes hundreds of years, but…" she trailed off.
"But I'm different," I replied with a nod. I already figured as much after I realized just how much quicker I learned compared to anyone else. Levy, for example, was incredibly intelligent and yet even she struggled to keep up with me.
"You are." Idunma nodded with a glint in her eyes. "There hasn't been a new God, one not naturally born, in thousands of years."
"What are the side effects? The downsides?" I asked since I already figured out the current benefits just from looking at my Status, noticing how my body was already that much more durable than moments ago and that was just from learning the Magic.
"Immortality," she answered without hesitation.
"How is that a downside?" I tilted my head in confusion as that certainly didn't sound like a downside.
"It is a downside as you get to watch every single other being you care about slowly die while you continue on endlessly until the end of times," Indunma said with a deep and sad sigh. "You will understand in the future."
I narrowed my eyes. That… I didn't like the sound of that. However, wasn't there an easy solution to that? I just had to ensure that everyone I cared about could live for as long as me. As long as they wished for that, that is. I wouldn't force anyone, but I would make sure to give them the option at the very least.
"I…" She took a deep breath. "Will meet you again when you progress further."
"What about the rest of the book?" I stopped her before she could leave.
"It will naturally open up to you when you progress with the Magic," Idunma explained as she turned around. "We will meet when you learn the other two Spells inside it. Goodbye for now."
"Goodbye," I muttered as I watched her disappear, turning into petals that slowly drifted away before they vanished.
I had some thinking to do, but I figured I could do that later. I… did have all the time in the world if her words were the truth. Right, I could do that later since I wanted to improve some of my other Spells before I went to Bosco.
Passive Bonuses—Shadow Panther: +100 to Stealth; Griffin: +100 to Observation; Earth Scion: +300 damage to Unarmed attacks, and +200 Armor against magical and physical attacks; Blizzardvern: +800 armor to physical and magical attacks. Cold resistance; Vulcan: +200 to Will fights; Chimera: +2 Multitask; Dingonek: +600 armor against magical and physical attacks.
Passive Bonus: Lord'oran: +160 to Seduction and +100 to Persuasion. Voice becomes even smoother. Immune to normal Sound and Illusion Magic; Ifrit: Immune to regular Fire Magic. +200 armor against physical and magical attacks.
Storm Devil Rank 90 Passive Bonus: Gain Armor equal to 5x Magic School rank. (465)
Earth Dragon's Rank 10 Passive Bonus: Can freely tunnel through the ground and move as fast as normal.
Nature God's Rank 40 Passive Bonus: All attacks deal 25% more damage to Gods.
As much as I wanted to ensure all of my Spells were as strong as possible before rushing over to Bosco, I also needed to bring this to Cana as well. I believed I could handle this on my own, but her help would be invaluable and there was no question about that. Thankfully, she was quick to accept without hesitation.
Of course, I also went ahead and informed Makarov since I felt he deserved to be aware of this. We were going to go after a Dark Guild, after all.
"You are aware that both of you aren't S-Class Mages, right?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Why is that important?" I asked back in confusion since I didn't think one had to be an S-Class Mage for such a thing. We did already take down one Dark Guild with Cana, after all.
"Because the subjugation of Daylight is an S-Class Job," Makarov explained.
"But we aren't going on a Job," Cana replied, and I nodded, agreeing with her.
"We are going to Bosco because we want to," I said, receiving a smirk from Cana. "I wasn't even aware it was an S-Class job."
Makarov stared at us with narrowed eyes. "Hmm."
"Yes?" I replied.
"Hmmm." He narrowed his eyes even more.
"Well…" Makarov trailed off. "Since you aren't going on a Job… I can't really stop you, now can I?"
"Yes." Cana pumped her fist, and I saw Makarov's expression change as he was starting to doubt his decision of letting us go.
"Don't worry, Master," I quickly said. "I will ensure that we are all safe. I did learn Healing Magic, after all."
"Yeah, yeah." He waved his hand with a sigh. "Get out of my office before I change my mind."
We rushed out, but I didn't forget to leave him my Clone, one that looked nearly identical to me, to help out with his paperwork. Cana went over to talk with a few of our Guild mates while I made my way over to the library. Mavis spotted me the second I entered, and she rushed over.
"Hello, little fairy," she said as she jumped right into my arms, and I caught her before spinning us around. She giggled and looked at me with sparkling eyes. "What surprise have you brought me today?"
"How about a new wolf to keep you company?" I replied as I dismissed the current one before summoning the new and improved version, the one I made with the Chimera in mind.
"Ahhh!" Mavis gasped and jumped out of my arms. "Two doggies! And it's even fluffier!"
"Mhm." I nodded, proud at how I managed to conjure it two times smaller than its usual size. Thankfully, my control of my Magic was good enough, else the wolf wouldn't have fit inside the library otherwise.
"Let me tell you about all the crazy things that happened recently," I said as I sat down in front of the wolf while she dangled her head from atop it.
I told her all about my recent adventures and accomplishments, especially how I successfully developed the Magic of Devil, Dragons, and Gods. Though I obviously cheated with the second one since I just implanted a Dragon Lacrima for that.
Interestingly, Mavis got worried when I told her about the God one, though she calmed down after I told her about the meeting with Idunma. Though she did warn me to be careful when dealing with Gods as they were unpredictable with their behavior.
We spent a good amount of time together, and I even fed her some of my food before I returned back to working on my Magic.
Most of my preparations were done, and I had even accumulated quite a few of the Apples and Peaches. I would even get some more after today, and I thought it would be a good idea to turn some of them into food before we left for Bosco.
It is now Wednesday, August 31th, X783. The luck Cana divined we would have this month have will run out after today. There is one more Action we can do before departing in the morning.
I managed to improve my Lightning Speed before I went ahead and cooked a nice pastry for dessert, using both the Apples and Peaches for it. There were a few other Spells I could've worked, but I figured this would be the most useful one for Bosco. If I ended up finding Daylight, I needed to be as quick as possible, so I could catch them before they ran away. Or at the very least, knock out the person responsible for their teleportation.
We hopped on the now flying wolf after breakfast, and I made sure to leave two more wolves back here. One at the Guild with Mavis, and the other at my home so it could use Growth on my garden instead of me.
"Do you remember our first date?" Cana asked as we cuddled on top of the wolf while it flew towards Bosco.
"Yes?" I replied, recalling how we drifted on one of my Data-Shields on our way back from Oshibana.
"Let's have another date like that," Cana said with a coy smile and licked her lips. "But one with a very happy ending."
I grinned back at her. "We do have a few hours left before we arrive…"
Her top was already off before I finished my sentence, and she began pulling down her pants. I stored her clothes alongside mine while pushing her down.
"So what exactly do you want me to do?" I asked with a whisper while slowly rubbing my erection over her moist slit. Cana moaned while wiggling her body, trying her best to get me inside her, but I held her in place.
"I want you to hug me, kiss me," she replied as she wrapped her arms around me, placing small kisses around my mouth. "And make love to me."
"As you wish," I kissed her back and positioned myself before pushing into Cana, her hot insides tightly wrapping around my erection as she tried to hold me in place.
The rest of the journey to Bosco was enjoyable to say the least. Shortly before we arrived, we washed ourselves under a light drizzle.
Now we had to figure out where Daylight was hiding. We could've asked around, maybe even found someone who was already searching for them to get some clues, but we had a different solution for that.
"Just leave it to me," Cana said confidently as she took out her cards and began trying to divine their location.
It didn't take us long to reach Srita as my wolf was quite fast in the air, and I had to say, the city was a beautiful one. It was build right next to a large lake, and the inner parts of the city were surrounded by large walls.
I liked the look of the main plaza that had an expensive statue in the middle, the palace was a bit too gaudy, aseptically since it wasn't even the capital, though… well, I wondered if it had anything expensive they wouldn't mind misplacing. I got plenty of things from Everlue, but it wouldn't hurt to have some more as I never knew when I might need them.
"What do you think?" I asked Cana as we watched the city from above. "Should we look around the city or its surroundings first?"
Cana hummed as she looked around. "There don't seem to be many places they could be hiding at outside of the city."
I had to agree as it was surrounded by plains from almost all sides, though I pointed across the lake. "Could be somewhere behind those hills."
"Maybe, we can quickly check before looking around the city," she said, and I directed my wolf to fly over them. We looked around, and I used the Griffin's eyes to perfectly see the area, but there didn't seem to be any signs of people hiding here.
"So, the city next," I said, and we flew over to the entrance before entering inside. Cana tried her Magic one more time while I kept my senses sharp.
I noticed there were quite a few Rune Knights vigilantly walking around and overheard something interesting with my sharp senses. It seemed that Daylight had murdered the nobles overlooking Srita during the night before running away. That meant they weren't here, but… it also meant that the big palace was currently ownerless.
"I don't believe they are here," Cana said after she heard what I found and stored her cards.
"So are we leaving or sticking around for a bit?" She asked with a raised eyebrow as she noticed me staring at the palace.
"We should probably leave and check one of the other cities," I said with a sigh.
"You sure you don't want to investigate the palace?" Cana teased me with a smirk. "You never know what you find there."
I pouted, just imagining what expensive things I could possibly find there. "Yeah… who knows what expensive types alcohol we can find there."
"Huh?" Cana froze before focusing her eyes on the palace.
"Alas, that's not why we are here, right?" I teased her back.
"Well, let's not rush," Cana said with a chuckle. "Maybe they left some clues for us to find in the palace. Who knows?"
"Nope!" I quickly said and grabbed her arm before dragging her away. "Though we can maybe come back later once we are done with Daylight."
Cana didn't resist too much, but her eyes stayed glued to the palace as I dragged outside of the city. Just before we flew away, I heard a familiar voice.
"Well, well, well." We turned around to see Laxus mockingly grinning at us. "What are the little babies doing around here?"
"Laxus!" I greeted him in a friendly manner. By throwing a Lightning Bolt in his face, of course.
"Haha! That tickled." Laxus laughed in response, and I narrowed my eyes, noticing that my Spell hadn't even fazed him. He raised his arm, Magic Power gathering in his hand. "This is how you do it!"
A large Lightning Bolt shot at us, and I snapped my head forward, crunching on the lightning and gulping it down before grinning at him "Slightly crispy. Not bad. I see you haven't been slacking off."
"Oh?" Laxus raised his eyebrow in surprise. "Learned some new tricks, have you?"
"Who knows?" I grinned at him. "Maybe I will beat the weakness out of you this time around."
"Bahahaha!" He laughed so hard, he had to hold his stomach in pain. "You? Beat the weakness out of me? Bahaha!"
"Maybe," I replied with a grin, confident in my chances due to all the advantages I had. After all, he couldn't even hurt me with his Magic now due to my immunity granted by learning Storm Devil Magic.
"You might've learned a few new tricks, but…" Laxus fired another Lightning Bolt my way. "I'm still your better."
I crunched down on the Spell just like I did with the last and immediately realized there was something very wrong with this one.
"Bleugh!" I coughed and spewed it out quickly after I felt it damaging my insides. "What…"
"I taught you everything you know about lightning, but not everything I know," Laxus said arrogantly with a grin.
"That was D–" His eyes widened in surprise, and he immediately appeared before me. I barely managed to put my guard up as he punched, sending me flying away from my wolf.
I saw Cana's worried look and how she was pulling out her Shadow Cards, but I contacted her with Telepathy and told her everything was fine. I landed on the ground a good distance away from the city, and Laxus materialized in front of me.
"Can't have you babbling about that in front of others," he said with a shake of his head before cracking his knuckles. "Well, let's see how much you've improved and if you are ready for the S-Class trials."
"With pleasure," I replied as I readied for an interesting fight.
Cana directed the wolf to fly after them and ordered it to stay a good distance away from them. She bit her lips as the two squared off. She might've been worried, but she also found him so sexy with those black markings covering his skin.
"You learned quite a few new tricks, huh?" Laxus mused with a relaxed stance, just eyeing the thorn armor that wrapped around Leon.
"Oh, you will be surprised," he replied back with a voice even sexier than normal.
"Well, let's see what you can do," Laxus said as lightning burst around his body before disappearing from his spot.
Multiple clones emerged from Leo as he reacted in a split second, and Laxus ended up punching one, though his fist passed right through it. Her boyfriend attacked him from the back, but Laxus scoffed as he slapped the swords away.
"You have to do better than this." Laxus smirked as the lightning dancing around his body intensified, and he moved so fast, Cana couldn't even follow his movements.
"Too slow." Leo smirked right back at him as he danced around Laxus before attacking with his swords.
"You little brat," Laxus roared as he slapped his blades away, and Cana noticed how his stance shifted as he turned serious.
"Don't die," Leo chuckled and the ground shook as multiple roots all as wide as trees emerged from beneath Laxus.
"Shit!" Laxus cursed as he turned into lightning and quickly got away before all the roots slammed right where he stood moments ago.
The ground shook as if an earthquake had just gone off, and Cana's eyes opened wide as she saw the massive hole caused by those roots. She froze, holding her breath as she tried to imagine how anyone could survive being hit by that! Perhaps… only that man stood a chance against something this dangerous.
"Right." Laxus rolled his right shoulder. "Time to end this."
"Agreed," Leo said as he appeared behind him, and Laxus quickly turned around, fist full of lightning as he swung it at her boyfriend.
"Time to end this," Leo continued, narrowly avoiding the punch by simply tilting his head to the side.
"Fuck!" Laxus cursed and tried to reposition, but it was too late as Leo struck him with the backside of his blades.
"You…" Laxus snarled as he was pushed back and held a hand over his stomach where Leo just hit him.
"I will show you how a Devil Rages." The voice came from one of the illusionary clones in front of Laxus. However, the massive pillar of blue energy came from behind him, slamming right into Laxus' back.
"GAAH!" He yelled in pain, but Leo's attack wasn't done as another torrent of blue energy formed right after the first one, hitting Laxus once more, throwing him tumbling down the ground.
Cana couldn't believe it. Leo could actually do this! He could win against Laxus! That sounded so absurd, but she just witnessed her boyfriend beating the ever living shit out of Laxus!
"Oh.." Cana got worried as Laxus stood up and roared as a massive amount of Magic Power erupted from his body, turning into a giant lightning pillar that shot in the sky.
"Go, Leo! You can do it!" Cana yelled with all her might, hoping he heard her voice.
'I can't lose in front of my girlfriend, now can I?' Leo chuckled in her mind, and her cheeks flushed in embarrassment as she forgot he contacted her earlier.
Laxus roared as a massive amount of lighting gathered in his hand, and he turned into a bolt of lightning as he flew towards Leo. He cocked his fist and roared. "Take this!"
"Too slow." Leo's form dissolved as he reappeared right on top of Laxus' arm, swords already in position.
Cana saw how his eyes widened in fear as Leo's weapons slashed out, and she could've sworn she saw scales beginning to form on Laxus' body. She wasn't sure what that was all about, and she wouldn't get to see if it would've changed anything because Leo opened his mouth and roared a torrent of blue energy right in Laxus' face.
"Holy shit!" Cana breathed hard as she saw one of Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages be defeated by her boyfriend! That… that made her breath grow heavy. Fuck… her Leo was already as strong as an S-Class Mage!
"Shit…" That meant that her chances in the upcoming trials were practically nil.
'Don't worry,' Leo's smooth voice came over through their mental connection. 'We'll pass them together. I can promise you as much.'
'Leo…' Her heart thumped in her chest as she directed the wolf to fly down.
"We will pass the trials and become S-Class together," he said as his black markings receded alongside his thorn armor.
Cana's lips trembled as he cupped her cheeks and gently kissed her. She hugged him tight and buried her face in his chest.
"Yeah… we will pass them together," she promised, already imagining the day where she would finally confront that man.
Leo placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before releasing her. "Now let's get this brute healed up."
Cana chuckled, still finding it hard to believe that he actually beat Laxus, but the results of their fight was clear to see. One of them was knocked out while the other didn't even take a single hit.
Laxus got up after Leo used his Healing Spell on him. His fists were clenched as his head swirled left and right as if searching for his opponent.
"You!" He pointed at Leo with a weird expression on his face. "Show me your Status. Now!"
"If that will make you feel better," Leo grinned at him, and Laxus snarled, prepared to continue the fight, but his attention quickly moved to the screen that Leo formed with Archive.
"What the fuck have you been doing?" Laxus stared at it with wide eyes. "It's barely been a month!"
"I made sure to grow strong just like you told me to," Leo replied, puffing his chest in pride.
"Right…" Laxus rubbed his head before staring daggers at both of them. "This never happened! No one gets told about this, got it?"
"About that…" Cana trailed off, looking to the side where a sizeable crowd had gathered, including a few dozen Rune Knights.
"Fuck me…" Laxus cursed as he followed her gaze.
"I'd rather not," the two of them replied at the same time, and she chuckled with Leo.
"This is just a bad nightmare, yeah, just a bad nightmare," Laxus fell down, hand still on his head.
However, no matter how much he wished this to be nothing more than a nightmare… well, he clearly lost and in front of multiple people at that.
For winning against a stronger opponent, we earn a Perk Point….. again!
Storm Devil Rank 100 Passive Bonus: Double the EXP bonus. Doubles the power of Demon Form. Demon Form can now be used twice a day.
Nature God Rank 50 Passive Bonus: Minor Control over animals and monsters. Cannot control a being stronger than us.
Nature God Rank 60 Passive Bonus: Gain Bonus Damage to all attacks equal to 10x the level of Nature God Magic. (+680)
Take Over Rank 40 Passive Bonus: +80 to all will fights.
Due to Take Over reaching rank 40, a few Souls get the chance to evolve. Starting with the Shadow Panther. Bo4 1d100t70
"You got lucky," Laxus grumbled from beside us, sitting on a wolf with his arms crossed defensively. "I was just about to win…"
After we assured the Rune Knights that everything was fine, we left Srita, and Laxus asked to come along, so we could drop him off at another city. One where the people hadn't just seen him get his ass beat up. Ah, that was so satisfying. I finally got to return the favor of all the times he beat me up during the training trip. It felt good, really good.
It also showed exactly how much I had progressed after we last saw each other. I wasn't just a regular Mage with a lot of potential anymore. I was one of the strongest Mages of Fairy Tail! I mean, I beat Laxus! Even Erza spoke highly of him. And while Laxus might be an asshole, he was one of the strongest people I had ever seen.
"Sure you were," I grinned at him, and Cana chuckled.
"You wanna go again?" He jumped up, standing on top of the wolf with his hands raised, ready to fight.
"Nah, I'm good," I replied with a smile.
"Coward," Laxus spat out, though he sat down, muttering quietly, "I was about to win…"
"Keep telling yourself that," I said smugly, and I saw his face twist in anger.
'You don't want to reveal your secrets, right?' I asked while contacting him with Telepathy.
'You little shit,' he grumbled back, but he didn't dispute that.
"Anyway." Laxus changed the topic quickly after that. "What are you two doing here?"
"Searching for Daylight," Cana answered as she grabbed her cards, and I took out the map to give it to her.
"You two babies? What…" Laxus paused as I turned to grin at him, reminding him exactly what happened earlier.
"We already took out a Dark Guild in Fiore, and we figured we might as well do it again," I said and looked at Cana, noticing the grin on her face.
"Maybe you can be useful," Laxus grumbled and crossed his arms again.
"We even have a few locations in mind thanks to Cana," I said, nodding at her. Laxus stared at us and narrowed his eyes.
"Is that so?" He asked with a weird expression.
"Mhm." I nodded back. "Srita was the first place we checked, but it seemed we were too late. We still have Hopolis and Cuidport left to investigate."
"They ain't at Cuidport," Laxus confidently said. "I checked there already."
"Well, good thing we are going to Hopolis now, right?" I replied back.
Cana nodded to herself as she packed her cards. "Yeah, they should be there."
"You sure about that?" Laxus asked with an intense gaze.
Cana met his eyes without fear and replied, "Yes. After confirming that they aren't at Cuidport or Srita, I'm now certain they are somewhere near Hopolis."
"They better," Laxus grumbled. "I've had enough of running around Bosco already."
"We will still need to stop them from teleporting away," I said and grinned.
"Well, good thing you got that weird Magic of yours," Laxus replied as he knew about Boss Battle and had seen it in action.
"Just stop them from running and leave the rest to me," he continued with a savage grin. "I have a bone to pick with those fools."
"We'll see," I replied teasingly.
"We'll see my ass!" He yelled back.
"No thanks," Cana and I shot back in sync.
Laxus grumbled something about upstarts under his breath as we continued flying towards our destination. Once we started nearing the place, I controlled the weather, making it clouder to hide our presence in the air. That was exceptionally easy since Hopolis already had clouds above it as it was near Iceberg.
"Do you think they are hiding in the city or somewhere outside of it?" I asked as I watched the place from above. It was so different that the Srita, though mostly because of the snow. I used to hate winter due to the snow, but I kind of liked how the city looked.
"Probably somewhere outside of it," Laxus said after a moment of thinking.
Cana then took out her cards again to try and divine their location while I decided to search from above.
"I can't see shit," Laxus grumbled as he peered from atop the wolf while waving his hands at the clouds as if that was going to do something. "Move those away, so I can take a look!"
"That sounds like a you problem," I chuckled while inspecting the surroundings of Hopolis, having absolutely no problem at all seeing everything below us despite how far away it was.
"Oh, I'm–"
"I got it!" Cana exclaimed, interrupting whatever he was about to say.
"You found them?" Laxus instantly switched his attention to her, eyes open in surprise as if he hadn't expected her to do so.
"I knew you could do it." I, on the other hand, had complete confidence in her ability.
"Heh." Cana bashfully chuckled. "They have something that makes it hard to divine their location, but I just had to figure out which location was giving me trouble, and it was easy to find them from there."
"Huh." Laxus muttered with a weird look in his eyes before he shook his head. "Well, what are we waiting for? Tell us where they are!"
Cana rolled her eyes at him and directed the wolves to fly further North before we arrived at a hill a bit away from Hipolis. She then pointed at a place that was devoid of snow on the ground. "Over there."
I narrowed my eyes, noticing there was a small tunnel in the ground, barely noticeable even with my vision.
"Alright," Laxus said, taking command of this operation as he cracked his knuckles. "Go do your thing and then call us when you're done, so I can blast those fools out of their hidey hole."
"I'll be done in a moment," I said and jumped from the wolf, slowly descending down as I transformed into Lord'oran and used his Illusion Magic to hide my presence. I dropped down, carefully looking around to see if there was anyone nearby, but I didn't sense anyone. Knowing that it was safe, I transformed into my Panther form as that was my only way inside since the tunnel was barely big enough to fit a small animal.
Sneaking inside was super easy, barely an inconvenience for my Panther form, especially since I could so easily meld with the shadows on the ground. There was a small problem when I finally reached their base as there was plenty of lighting around. However, the new Spell of the Panther resolved that for me as it allowed me to teleport to nearby shadows.
There was a large cave that had three more tunnels attached to it. There were twelve people gathered there around a heating device in the middle of the cave. They were all quietly talking with each other, and I watched them for a moment, noticing that Yoset was amongst those people. However, he was standing to the side, slightly away from the main group.
"Huh?" I saw Yoset staring at the shadow I just moved on from, and he narrowed his eyes at it. I quickly jumped to another shadow, one adjacent to a tunnel that led even deeper inside.
"What's wrong?" One of the members asked.
"I thought I saw something," Yoset replied as he walked over to inspect the shadow, but I was long gone from there.
"So?" They asked, all prepared for a fight.
"Nothing…" Yoset answered, cupping his chin in thought.
"Take a rest, dude. You still haven't slept." Another member clapped him on the shoulder. "We have a noble to deal with later tonight. You don't wanna miss that, right?"
"Yeah…" Yoset replied and shook his head before entering one of the tunnels and walking away.
Once I was sure I was safe, I moved from shadow to shadow, checking out the first few tunnels. All of them were sleeping rooms and each had four people resting inside them. I even recognized one of the people as it was the guy that delivered Levy and I that message when we were in Bosco. I wasn't sure what to feel about that, but I moved on, returning back to the main cave.
There was one more place to check, but Yoset went there, and I wasn't sure I wanted to test my chances with that as he was proficient with Shadow Magic. There was a chance he would notice me, but I could perhaps take him out before he could alert the others.
However, even if I checked that place, that didn't change the fact that I didn't know who was the one responsible for teleporting them away. Plus, I also had to widen the tunnel to allow Laxus and Cana to join me here. Though that was easily done. I just had to summon Kamina and allow him to do his thing.
'Any idea who the teleporter is?' I asked the two over Telepathy.
'Fuck if I know.' Laxus was the first to respond. 'Just tell me when to jump in.'
'In a moment,' I replied, waiting for Cana.
'It's a woman,' she told me as she reshuffled her deck. 'I can't see much more than that.'
'Well, that does narrow it down a bit. I've seen four women so far,' I replied as I moved, figuring I should check the last tunnel just in case. Though I had to be extra careful since Yoset was there, and he was the one that had the biggest chance of spotting me.
I carefully moved, doing my best to minimize my presence as much as possible even in my shadow form. Slowly, I entered the tunnel and found the last cave, which had four more people, with Yoset being one of them. There wasn't a woman amongst them, so this made things easier for me.
There were still four of them, however, and I wasn't sure which one was my main target. I could just use Boss Battle on all four of them, though I figured I could try to find out the correct one by sensing their Magic and deducing which one was the Space Mage. Though there was also the possibility of them using a Magic Item instead.
After a bit of skulking around, I deduced that the woman in the main cave wasn't the one I was looking for. She had a fiery presence that reminded me of Natsu, though she was weaker than him, that was for sure. Plus, that woman seemed responsible for keeping the heating device charged, so I was sure she was a Fire Mage of some sorts.
The other two women also weren't the ones I was looking for. One seemed to be an Earth Mage, perhaps even the one responsible for creating all of this. The other one didn't have a particular presence, but I noticed the rings on her hand that pulsed with power. There was a chance one of them allowed her to wield Space Magic, but they didn't feel like it to me, so I moved on.
There was only one woman remaining, and she was in the first tunnel I had checked, the one with the glasses guy we met in Roza. I had to focus hard, and it took me a moment, but I noticed how the space around her pulsed ever so slightly. Right, I had my target. Now I just needed to decide on how to handle this.
I summoned Lord'oran next to Laxus and Cana, so he could hide their presence while they descended down.
"Why hello there, big guy," he smiled seductively at Laxus.
"You threw out the bear, but you kept him?" Laxus frowned and shuddered.
"Oh, my." Lord'oran covered his mouth. "You have to try a bit harder to get me out of my pants."
"Fucking Incubus…" Laxus shuddered while Cana laughed at the scene.
"We can do that later, big guy, fufufu," Lord'oran chuckled as he hid them with his illusions.
Laxus looked away, doing his best to avoid looking in his direction. Though Lord'oran ensured there was always a clone of his right in front of his eyes.
They landed on the ground soon after, and Laxus was on the verge of blasting apart the entire hill, but he held back once I asked him to wait a moment. Kamina appeared next to them to widen the tunnel for Cana. Laxus didn't really need that since he could turn his body into lightning and enter through the small tunnel.
With that done, I focused on the Space Mage, whom I planned on using Boss Battle on while silently taking her out. Kamina and Lord'oran weren't available at the moment, but I turned into the hybrid form of the Blizzardvern as I exited the shadow and positioned myself above the woman.
After using Boss Battle on her, I placed my hand over her mouth and struck hard. Her eyes snapped open and closed just as quickly. I held her down for a moment longer, ensuring that she was out for good before ordering Kamina to go ahead.
My Beast sprang into action and used his Earth Manipulation to widen the tunnel. Laxus immediately rushed in, followed by Cana, who was summoning her monsters while running after him. She got out her three most powerful ones before she did something that forced them to merge into a singular being that radiated with power.
"Time to play, bitches!" Laxus roared as he appeared inside the large cave, lightning dancing around his body as he cracked his knuckles.
"Sylvia, get us out!" The Dark Mages yelled, though it was too late. They realized their predicament a moment later and prepared for a battle.
"Gate Guardian, attack!" Cana jumped in with her monster in tow as a massive amount of Magic Power gathered in front of it before it fired an attack eerily similar to my own Storm Devil's Rage. The beam of energy struck the Mages, and the Gate Guardian swiped it left from right, decimating them all in a single attack.
The entire hill trembled from the force of the Spell, and Kamina stomped its feet on the ground in anger as it was forced to hold the place together with its Earth Manipulation. It grumbled in frustration as it just lost the opportunity to fight all of them on its own.
"What the…" Laxus turned to Cana, his eyes opened wide as he moved his gaze to her monster and back to her. "Huh?"
"Hahaha!" Cana laughed loudly at the devastation she had caused with a single attack.
"What's going on?" The three Mages inside the small cave with me all jumped to their feet, their gazes instantly snapping towards me and the downed Sylvia.
"Good night~" I smiled as my form flashed, appearing beside the three, my fists striking them all with tremendous strength. Two of them were thrown into the walls of the cave before listlessly dropping on the ground, knocked out for good with only a single punch from me. The third, however, the one with the glasses managed to avoid my attack as he turned his body into blood.
"Who are you?" He asked with a snarl, not recognizing my current form and threw his hand in my direction. I felt a burst of energy harmlessly wash over me, trying but failing to do anything due to my high resistance to Magic.
"Just a regular Mage," I replied as I appeared beside him, his eyes wide open in surprise. His body began turning into blood again while I activated Boss Battle on him as well before I delivered two quick Lightning Punches to his gut. Blood spewed out of his mouth, landing on my scales before it began harmlessly sizzling, failing to go past my defenses. The guy dropped down, eyes rolled back and his head thumped against the ground while my reward materialized with a flash of light.
After ensuring that they were all out for good, I exited the cave to go assist with the rest, though my two companions obviously didn't need any help. Laxus was someone as strong as me–I chuckled just thinking about how I won against him earlier even though he didn't really get to use his trump card–and Cana was… well, she was dominating the Dark Mages with her Gate Guardian, the monster living up to its name as it stood in front of the tunnel that led to the outside, stopping anyone from escaping.
Kamina no longer had to hold the place together, and I noticed that it dove in the earth, going after the Earth Mage that was trying to escape. I allowed my Beast to have his fun and entered the main cave.
The rest of the Mages from Daylight, including Yoset, rushed in from the other two tunnels, and they saw how all of their members were already taken out. Knowing they had no way out of this, they prepared for a fight.
However, Laxus was pissed. Not only did he lose to me earlier, but Cana took out the Mages before he could even get the chance of letting out his anger on them. He flashed in front of them and began beating them with ferocity. I contacted him with Telepathy, asking him to leave Yoset to me, and he begrudgingly accepted. That actually surprised me, but I wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.
Yoset immediately snapped his head in my direction the moment I used Boss Battle on him. "Oh… it's you."
"You should've just stayed in jail," I said with a shake of my head as I stepped towards him.
"You don't understand," he began speaking as he readied for battle.
"Don't care for your excuses," I appeared in front of him, lightning charged in my hands, and I punched him in the stomach. Yoset keeled over, spewing blood from his mouth as I delivered one more blow to the back of his head, and he slammed against the ground with a loud thud.
Laxus had already finished with the rest of the Dark Mages by that time, and he was just kicking them on the ground while cursing up a storm.
"Trash! Pieces of shit! Kept running away every time I even neared you, eh? TRY RUNNING NOW, BITCHES! COME ON! RUN!" He cursed as he angrily stomped on their legs one by one before spitting on them. "Fucking lowlifes. Wasted almost a month of my time."
I picked up the third reward from this and moved towards Cana who was fiddling with her cards. I noticed that they were all blank when I neared her, and she offered me a bright smile with a wink when I stepped next to her.
"Watch this," Cana confidently said and pointed a blank card at one of the downed Mages. A burst of light flew out of the card and hit the person before dragging him back towards the card, where he was imprisoned inside it.
"Wow! That's amazing," I clapped my hands, happy that she had discovered a new way to use her Magic.
"Thank you, thank you," Cana replied, comically bowing before she used the rest of the blank cards to capture the rest of the Mages.
Laxus watched her with a weird expression the entire time, and once she was done, he said, "Good job."
Cana was flabbergasted, just staring back at him with wide eyes, unsure how to respond until I urged her to at least say something. "Ah, well, thanks?"
"Hn." Laxus grunted and looked around, making sure everyone was taken out and captured. "Alright, let's leave this place and go take those guys in."
Laxus was silent on the way back to Hopolis, peeking at us every now and then without saying a word. Cana had her chest puffed in pride the entire time and had a large grin on her face.
"You did great," I said, and her smug look practically demanded more praises from me. "I even have a surprise for you since one of the rewards is perfect for you."
"Oh?" That instantly got her attention.
"Where's my reward, asshole?" Laxus finally spoke up.
"It disappeared when you tried stealing my own rewards," I quickly replied with a frown.
"Tsk." He clicked his tongue. "As if I want your stupid rewards."
"Oh, and I here was thinking of cooking something for all of us," I said with a sigh. "Oh well, I guess only Cana and I…"
"Fine! I'll accept that!" Laxus quickly interrupted me. "I'll even share some of the money for the Job with you two… not like I need it in the first place."
I chuckled at his antics with Cana, and we watched him grumble at us like an angry cat. We reached Hopolis shortly after, and I noticed how odd the weather was as it rained just above the building where the Rune Knights were stationed.
The clouds disappeared with a wave of my hand, but they started forming again, forcing me to focus slightly to stop it from raining. Whoever was doing that had some skill, but my control over the weather trumped theirs.
A moment later, two people exited the building. One of them was a tall guy with spiky black hair and red eyes that had a bunch of small iron studs pierced into his skin.
The other was a blue-haired and blue-eyed woman, who had a blue cap and was dressed in a thick fur blue coat–she really was into the color blue, that one. She had a dazed look on her eyes as she stared at the sky in astonishment. "The rain is gone…"
"Pah, what are a bunch of fairies doing here?" The guy asked with a leer.
"Actually doing something useful," Laxus snarled back. "Unlike you, weaklings."
"Wanna go?" The guy bared his teeth at Laxus.
"I'm gonna put you ten feet under!" And, of course, Laxus didn't back down and was ready to throw it down right there and then.
"Let's not fight in the middle of the city," I said, trying to calm them both as I saw the worried looks of the Rune Knights inside the building.
"Who the fuck do you–" The guy's words died in his throat as roots emerged from the ground, tightly wrapping around him. He struggled against them, but no matter how much he tried, he failed in breaking out of their grasp.
"Pha! You can't even escape from that and you want to fight me?" Laxus leered at him and walked past him. "Pathetic."
"Don't do anything stupid," I told him as I released him, and he tightly clutched his hands as he stared at me, though he didn't dare attacking me.
He took a deep breath and turned to his companion, who was staring at me in a daze. "Let's go, Juvia."
"But the rain…" She murmured as he pulled her away, her eyes focused on me the entire time. I waved my hand as I felt the clouds beginning to form again, and her gaze turned intense. She reached out towards me with a grasping hand, but she soon left my sight as the guy dragged her away.
I wondered if I should've done anything else. However, Juvia didn't seem to be really resisting that guy, and I later found out they were part of the same Guild, Phantom Lord. Apparently, it was full of weaklings–according to Laxus–that believed they could actually compete with Fairy Tail. He thought they were a bunch of upstart fools.
We entered the building after that and explained that we had dealt with Daylight entirely. Cana had to slowly release the captured Dark Mages as the Rune Knights placed Magical handcuffs on all of them, one by one.
Once we got paid for capturing them all, Laxus dragged us outside of the city, so I could cook something for us. He ate in silence and stood up once he finished his meal.
"Good job, you two," he said and took a deep breath. "I'll be back at the Guild in about a month. There's… something that I have to do."
Laxus left after that, disappearing in a burst of lightning. Cana and I finished the rest of the food, and I showed her the new card I got before handing it to her. Then we hopped on my wolf and began flying home while Cana made sure to show me exactly how much she liked her reward.