"Are you sure you want to do this now?" Enna's voice was worried as she looked at Brody with a frown, "Why don't you wait a bit more to recover some more? Or at the very least, have some breakfast."
"I'm fine," Brody reassured the old woman with a smile, holding up his left arm, covered from the wrist to bicep in a thick bandage, "And I'll get something to eat later, I'm just not really fond of eating in the morning before I go out anywhere, especially when there won't be many bathrooms."
"Just shit in the woods," Garrick rolled his eyes and snorted, "Or is that too low class for the great and mighty 'Dragon Fist'?"
Brody rolled his eyes right back, "No, but I still don't feel like it." he replied. Though he supposed, with his Requip space he could bring camping gear and toilet roll and other necessities, it wasn't like he was really using up the space with anything else.
Eight days had passed since the Wyvern attacked Onibus, and things had…changed.
For one that name, 'Dragon Fist'. It was a nickname the towns people had given him for defeating the wyvern. Many of them had seen him defeat it first hand and the state he'd been left in afterwards. Apparently, it had left an impression.
Especially since mages were rare to see in Onibus, never mind one capable of fighting a wyvern.
Albeit barely.
Ever since, he'd had tons of well wishers wanting to see him and whenever he was out on the street, the few times he had been over the last few days after recovering as much as he had so far, ended up with him swamped by towns people.
He wasn't really going to complain about the name, It was better than something stupid like Black Steel Gajeel.
"Stubborn one, aint ya?" Garrick snorted, before turning to his wife, "He's fine woman see? No need to mother hen him, he's a big monster killing boy after all. I hear the mayor even wants him to start a guild here."
…Yeah, he'd hard that too. He wasn't sure how to feel about it though. From what he'd gathered, making a mage guild in a town, needed the express permission of the authorities, such as the mayor himself, otherwise they'd need to do so outside the settlements.
He'd always figured if he was going to join a guild it would be Fairy Tail, never even considered making one himself.
Enna clicked her tongue, "He's only one boy, what is that twit thinking?" she huffed, "Strong or not, one mage does not make a guild."
"Can't blame the man," Garrick shrugged, "Ol' Dragon Fist here killed that big lizard right in front of everyone and showed just how strong mages are compared to normal folk like us. And we ain't had a single vulcan attack since he showed up. People are safer thanks to the boy here doing his thing and they know that now."
"I mean, if I did, I'd have to stop working here." Brody pointed out with a grin.
"Oi, oi, oi let's not be hasty here," Garrick quickly turned back to him, "It's not like you have enough cash to get your own guild base or something, unless you want to operate outta a rickety lil' shack. You can just work outta here, and continue being the bartender until you build up enough to buy a nice grand place. Sides' we already have a mage job board and everything, be a shame not use it."
Brody snorted, "Yeah, sure." he waved him off. It wasn't like he'd even decided on such a path anyway. And guild business was out of the question right now, especially joining or being involved with Fairy Tail.
A lot of shit was going to go down around them. Like…
Brody frowned as nothing came to mind.
'…What?' he blinked. No, that wasn't right. He remembered some things. Like, Galuna Island, Lyon was there trying to awaken Deliora. But, before that…Lullaby?
Something about the demon Lullaby. Someone was going to use it? But, why couldn't he remember who? Or why?
Or what happened after Galuna Island.
He knew there was something to do with Lucy. And, Lisanna was in Edolas after getting almost killed by Elfman.
But, how did they get to Edolas again? Lisanna was alive and came back…he thought? Or did she stay in Edolas?
'…What the fuck is going on?' Brody felt a pit of dread well up in his stomach as he realised something.
He'd forgotten a ton of things somehow.
He could remember Zeref created the Etherious. He was Natsu's older brother and brought him back from the dead. Igneel was inside Natsu and he and the other first generation dragon slayers had been sent four hundred years in the future. He was cursed by a god. He met Mavis. Fairy Heart. Lullaby and Deliora were Etherious, and he could remember the other ones in the guild of Tartaros, and their abilities. But, not what they would do in the future.
…He could only remember things that had already happened then? It was a recent thing to, because while he could not remember them, he could remember, remembering them and thinking about plans before.
Someone, or something was doing this, actively suppressing his memory of future events.
Ankhseram?
'Fuck.' Brody cursed inwardly.
Later, Brody rested his forehead on the cool glass window of the train he was riding in. It was going to be a long journey, a frown on his face.
'It's not all bad.' he thought to himself. From what he could put together, he could remember all of his knowledge of things that had happened up until now. And had vague recollections around things that would go down in the future.
And he could feel it in his bones, that Acnologia would one day destroy the world if he wasn't stopped.
'Well, you win some, you lose some I guess.' he shrugged internally.
It was fine anyway, because beyond getting involved in whatever crazy nonsense would sweep over Fiore in the future, none of it changed any of his plans for the most part.
Because the things he'd decided on, were based on events that had already happened.
And provided some benefits too.
Like, the fact he knew God Serena was a second generation dragon slayer, with eight dragon lacrima, meant the man had already obtained all eight of his dragon lacrima.
It was hella convoluted though and gave him a headache for sure.
'Well, no need to worry about it right now.' he mused, holding his hand out and concentrating on his Requip space, a second later, a book appeared in his hand.
A thick, heavy book that went into a lot of detail about lacrima's and the creation of them.
He'd had it over a month read it multiple times by now, but wanted to keep his knowledge fresh and review what he knew.
Lacrima were fascinating.
At the basic concept, they were simple things. Just a storage of magical energy. But from there, the sky was the limit. They could be used to power devices, the could be used to trigger explosions, the magical energy inside could be converted into spells. The magical energy could be linked with other magic in other lacrima's to communicate over fast distances.
They could even be designed to draw in magical energy passively to restore their own energy, akin to a solar charger, and the same way a mage's body passively took in ethernano from the air to refill their reserves after using it.
Which was important, because that was a process that would for sure need to be used in the creation of a Dragon Lacrima.
Which he'd also found out the process of. Frankly, it was actually simple. And not really unique to dragons. They could actually be made from almost any creature with magic. But in this regard, it was a body part seeped with the magic of the creature the lacrima was made out of, generally the heart was the best to use because that tended to be the most magically rich part of a body.
…Technically speaking, it would be possible to make a lacrima out of a human heart as well.
'And to think that's still not where the amazingness of lacrima's end.' he mused to himself.
No, as he said, the sky was the limit. And there was even an organic way to use lacrima's. Or, the creation of a pseudo lacrima in the body.
What he was referring to, where Magic Eyes.
Quite simply, they weren't any inborn ability or even all that special. What they were, was generally a magic spell or effect ingrained into the eyes and triggered instantaneously through them.
The only down side was that, to create them, one would need to know how the creation of lacrima were done and have more or less mastered the spell or effect one wanted to use.
It was why most mages apparently tended to store a powerful effect or spell that took a lot of effort or even a chant to use. Because they could be triggered instantly.
Which was really quite unfortunate for him because besides Take Over and Transformation magic, he didn't know jack about any magic spells.
It would be a while before Brody could hope to create an Eye Magic of his own.
It was mid afternoon when Brody arrived at his destination. The popular and bustling home town to Blue Pegasus.
It was tempting to go pay them a visit, after all, one of their main sources of revenue was being a host club. And maybe check out the local weapon places and magic shops, a place like this, should have some good ones with how popular Blue Pegasus was.
He could probably even get his hands on some magic weapons like the type Erza Scarlet tended to use to supplement his inability to use offensive magic right now.
But, they'd be hella expensive and while he had a total of nine hundred thousand jewels, that would go bye bye very fast buying stuff like that. After all, even a simple book on Requip magic cost him a hundred thousand.
So, instead of visiting anywhere that interested him, he instead left the town behind and made his way out towards the towering mountains in the distance.
Mount Hakobe.
About thirty minutes into his walk there, Brody could feel the temperature in the weather begin to drop the closer he got and paused, "This should do." he mused to himself.
He focused for a moment, and a warm winter jacket shimmered into existence in his grasp and he slid it on. He still was nowhere close to skilled enough with the magic to change outfits with it after all.
Jacket on, Brody focused again, deep inside himself for a moment, before opening his mouth as he pulled on his magic power and something else, "Beast Soul: Wyvern!" he declared.
Green light enshrouded his body, before massive green wings erupted from his back and a long scaly green and spiked tail jutted out from his backside.
Power rushed through his veins, strength filled his muscles and Brody for a moment, closed his eyes and luxuriated in the feeling.
It was only a partial take over, adding only a portion of the Wyvern's strength to his own, but even still, he was stronger like this, than he was with his full vulcan form.
That was how truly powerful the wyvern he'd devoured had taken over had been.
He could assume the full wyvern form too of course, but he could only hold the transformation for around two minutes at most. The sheer strength of it, coupled with his magic being passively used to give him the same resistance to magical and physical attacks that the wyvern itself had, meant his magic power was drained rapidly.
The partial form, he could hold for a good fifteen minutes though. Which would be plenty enough time for him to ascend the mountain peaks.
'And the perfect place to hunt too.' he grinned to himself. After all, Mountain Vulcans tended to live in large groups throughout Mt. Hakobe. And if he was lucky, he might just run into a Blizzardvern.
They were rare monsters with a low population, but their habitats were limited to cold places, so Mt. Hakobe was one of the few places they actually lived in Fiore.
With a jump and a flat of his massive scaled wings, Brody whooped as he ascended into the air and shot upwards at a breakneck pace, like a racing bullet towards the peaks of Mt. Hakobe.
The Hakobe mountain range was home to a large variety of creatures. While it was the preferred habitat of the likes of Blizzardvern and Mountain Vulcans, they of course were not the only creatures lived there.
In fact, most animals Brody would think to find on snowy mountains back in his own home world, were present there was well.
The only difference was, they were super sized.
The ones that lived in hostile environments and lived on as a species to this day at least. Brody wasn't sure how they got so big, but he assumed, it had to do with the magic particles in the air. Even if they were incapable of storing and using it in most cases, just constantly living in it would have to have some effect, right?
From twenty foot tall stags, to wolf packs filled with members easily twice the size of a dire wolf. Owls that made eagle's look puny, and snow rabbits over three feet tall while on all fours.
The most dangerous atop the snowy peaks though, as far as animals went, had to be either the Polar Bears living atop them or the Snow Leopards.
Well, at least according to the books he read on the place. And he'd read quite a few. His gale force reading glasses really made speed reading through books for information so much easier.
'And they definitely weren't lying.' Brody thought to himself as he stared down at the beast laying beneath his boot, his head atop its skull.
It was a big, white furred bear. A polar bear.
An absolutely gargantuan polar bear. When standing upright, it had been at least thirty feet tall.
It wasn't a much for him as he was now, and he'd easily overwhelmed it and killed it when it attacked him when he landed beside mistaking.
…But, with its sheer size, strength and bulk. He was sure it could have killed any of the Gorian's one on one without much problem.
Brody stared down at his kill for a moment, before reaching down and placing his hand atop its head and focusing on it with his magic, "Take Over." he said.
Bright light suffused its body, before it disappeared, absorbed into the greater whole that was him. He easily squashed the remnants of its will moments later, and integrated it.
"…Yeah, about as expected." he frowned, clenching and unclenching his fist. Going by how strong it was, one would expect an increase in strength greater physically then the Gorian forest vulcans he took over.
But it didn't even come close.
"Compatibility, huh?" Brody clicked his tongue. This was the first animal he'd taken over, and he had to admit, Elfman indeed knew his stuff when it came to Take Over.
And it confirmed what he read in the book he'd gotten about Take Over magic in general.
Technically speaking, one could use Take Over on any living creature in the world, as long as they had a good understanding of the creature, heck it could even be used on non living creatures in some regards as well. The thing was, compatibility came in different flavours. There was compatibility with certain species.
And then there was soul style compatibility. Animal soul, Beast Soul, Satan Soul, Machine Soul, people didn't name their Take Over styles that just to sound cool.
It was the type of target they were most compatible soul wise. And the usage one of say the Beast Soul would get out of the Animal Soul, was minimal. And as he could confirm right now, even the base increase ability from taking them over, was minimal as well.
'If I wasn't focusing, I wouldn't have even noticed any increase at all.' Brody thought, giving a sigh.
Well, if it was that easy to gain strength, he supposed any smart Take Over mage would have mass hunted creatures like this to add to their strength. But as always, there wasn't really a super easy route to becoming unstoppable.
'Well, time to get a move on.' Brody mused, dispelling his Take Over form and letting his wings and tail recede. Usually being on a massive snowy mountain peak like this without any equipment, would be a death sentence.
Not really so for him who was massively beyond any normal human from back home and could leap thirty feet through the air and shatter stone by clenching his fist around it.
With that, he started walking, boots crunching in the snow as he did, and his thoughts wandering as he made his way toward the peaks. They were the most likely places to find a Blizzardvern after all if there were any around. They roosted in the highest and hardest places to get to for other predators.
And he kept his eyes pealed for any caverns as he went, seeing as according to the books he read Mountain Vulcans tended to live within them instead of outside.
'…Too bad about that animal soul though.' he mused. He'd seen a pack of Snow Leopards on his flight up, and yes, they did live in packs, which was what made them a match for the Polar Bears who were solitary.
But despite being behemoth's of around fifteen feet tall, they weren't really worth going after if the Polar Bear he took over just a moment ago was anything to go by.
Too bad.
'Though, going by their colour scheme and the shape of their paws, I'm pretty sure Lisanna's first take over was one of them.' he mused. Her Neko form was her main combat form, and beyond a cat-like agility, a normal cat take over wouldn't have increased her ability like, at all.
And it did line up considering Elfman's first Take Over was a bear of some kind. And from what he read, when Snow Leopard's from Mount Hakobe got kicked out of their packs, it wasn't uncommon for them to show up in the East Forest during the winter months.
Considering it was Lisanna's preferred form which she used most, she probably had a high compatibility with them.
"Well…hello there." Brody grinned a savage grin an hour later as he stood in the entrance of a wide icy cavern.
The white furred mountain vulcan standing guard at the front blinked at him, before frowning, "Ew, man ugly, go away." it shood him away. Its voice was a lot more sophisticated and clear than the Gorians he'd met, if still a bit halting.
Its eyes widened as his fist found purchase in his mouth and dropped it like to the icy ground.
"How rude." Brody snorted, reaching down to grab it by the face and a moment later, it was consumed in a flash of magic as he took it over and consumed it fully.
Hmm, neat.
He noticed almost immediately as he integrated it, that it connected to the forest vulcans within him as well. Meaning, just as he thought. Mountain vulcans and forest vulcans were part of the same genus.
He grinned, "Beast Soul: Vulcan!" he declared, and pulled upon the power of the beast within. His muscle mass increased, white fur sprouting over his body, his hair turning white and a long white monkey tail sprouted from his backside.
Hmm, toasty. The cold that was nipping his fingers until just a moment ago, all but disappeared.
They really had adapted to living in this environment huh?
'Maybe I'll keep this up for a bit.' he mused with a laugh. It certainly would make travelling more comfortable on him.
With that done, he swaggered his way into the icy cavern and found over a dozen white furred mountain vulcans lazing around in various states of consciousness.
Most of them were asleep, but a few were awake. Even still though, they glanced at him, before shrugging and going back to doing whatever they were doing.
…They hadn't noticed he wasn't one of them despite the fact he was over a foot shorter than any of, didn't have black skin where his fur didn't cover, and didn't have a pencil shaped head.
Dumb monkeys, were dumb monkeys, huh? Even the smart ones, were still dumb monkeys in the end.
"I'm about to go Frieza on your asses." Brody laughed and launched forward towards one of the few awake ones, best to take care of the ones that were awake and alert, ready to react first.
His fist smashed into its face, bodily lifted it up, carried it along, and smashed it through a glacial pillar.
And then he sprang along to the next, driving his knee into its face and crunching bone with a spray of blood while the other awake ones stared gobmsacked.
Only then did they react.
"Race Traitor!"
"Devourer!"
"Gay boy!"
They whooped and hollered in anger, shooting to their feat and screeching as they did, rousing the others into wakefulness.
'Gay boy?' Brody blinked as he shot forward towards the ones rushing him, spinning around ones punch and driving his elbow into its temple, grabbing another by the neck and breaking it with a jerk of his arm and then leading him to the one that just accused him of being gay.
He headbutted it.
It hit the floor unconscious with a busted nose. He then stomped on its skull for good measure. And kicked it in the crotch hard enough to shatter a boulder.
'Is that a tactic of theirs?' he wondered. The one thing they shared with forest vulcans, beyond looks and intelligence, and body odour…well they shared a lot with forest vulcans really. But they especially shared the lust for human women.
Did they gaslight shame each other out of trying to take each other over, by calling whoever did it, gay?
'Literal homophobic, women raping monkeys.' Brody couldn't help but snort at the absurdity of it all.
By now, the ones sleeping had been fully roused and seen what was going on, and with similar rage filled shrieks and howls, they rushed him.
Eighteen of them left by his account, they rushed him from all sides.
That was fine though.
Reaching down, Brody grasped the pencil headed homophobe monkey by the tail and bodily lifted its body that had to weigh over five hundred pounds at least into the air, before spinning around and swinging it like a chain mace or flail.
Monkeys went flying as their own monkey brother was used as a weapon to smash them around. Bone crunched, cuts ran with blood and lives were lost all too quickly.
Letting go of the mountain vulcan and sending it launching like a cannonball, it slammed into another and carried it along to smash it into the wall twenty feet away.
And then Brody sprang into action one again, springing into the air with a simian grace and spinning around one white furred vulcan, his tail wrapping around its throat and bodily lifting it into the air and squeezing, while he landed and continued on to bury his knee into the stomach of another, dropping it to its own knees, before his fist caved its skull in.
And as he throttled one with his tail, he continued on, a blur of motion and violence that broke bone and crushed skulls.
And before long, a whole group of mountain vulcans lay strewn around the icy cavern. Many dead, most of the rest unconscious, and the only one still awake, couldn't move at all.
Due to the fact Brody had broken both of its knees.
"Disgusting….traitorous, gay!" it snarled, spitting insults at him as he went around and took over its brethren one by one.
He took over twenty one of them, not including the one standing guard, before his attention turned to the final remaining one.
"You gay, suck penis!" it howled at him as he made his way over, an amused smirk on his face, "Butt boy! Rectum licker! Ball shiner! Penis slurper!"
"No you." Brody laughed, he couldn't help it. It was just so funny having a literal monkey slinging insults like that at him.
It blinked, before outrage shone in its eyes to go along with the general rage over what he'd done to the pack of them, "ME NO GAY! YOU G-!" it began howling at him, but it was cut off by him slapping it across the face with his tail, before wrapping it around its throat and lifting it into the air.
"Whine more, virgin," he taunted it, "Take Over!" he declared, and ended things then and there.
Just before it was consumed in a flash of light, it had enough strength to glare into his eyes and raise one hand.
And give him the middle finger.
Brody laughed again, "Well, I'll give you that." he nodded in respect, even as he felt it howl within him and batter against his mind with its own, to no effect.
He could respect it refusing to give in to the very end.
It was kind of funny though how better their vocabulary was when it came to slinging gay insults as well.
And so we return with chapter 5, been a while huh? Honestly, this month has been pretty crappy so far for production when it comes to writing, but just gotta keep chugging along I guess.
We're a few chapters ahead on the Pa-atreon if you wanna read ahead still, among other things, but yeah, not a whole lot happened this chapter beyond Brody setting out on the journey to find Atlas Flame. Either way, hope you enjoyed it.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.
