"We're dark mages!" - Talking
'We're dark mages!' - Thinking
"We're dark mages!" - Communication via Lacrima / Telepathy
"WE'RE DARK MAGES!" - Screaming
"Fairy Law!" - Spells
[ Here / Now ] - Place / Time
Chapter 0: The shadows begin to move.
[Phantom Lord Headquarters / 5th October X784]
"Do you really think you can win this way?"
Jose Porla, current guild master of Phantom Lord, looked at the tall figure leaning against the wall, which was staring at him from under a large dark hood. Snorting in amusement, the man stared back at the ocean as his guild, the entire building to be exact, moved along the coast in the direction of their rival guild, Fairy Tail.
"But of course! I have already defeated them once without even having to lift a finger! Those miserable fairies are very wrong if they think I'll leave such an affront unpunished!" he then looked back at the hooded figure "Of course, once I have wiped out their guild and killed all of them, you will be free to move as you see fit in the area around Magnolia, as agreed."
"I just hope you don't screw it up. My mistress has spent money, time and resources in order to complete your project." said the figure walking toward him, with the body covered by a black cloak provided with two black metal shoulder straps. The voice, clearly male, was deep and monotonous, with no hint of emotion in it, while his face was covered with a black mask that looked like a skull, but without the mouth.
Jose narrowed his eyes "Are you thinking we're going to lose this war, Shirros?"
The now named Shirros tilted his head "Laxus, Mystogan, Gildarts. Those three would be enough to destroy this building to its foundations, and I'm not even sure you can defeat them." he then walked over to Jose, looking down at him due to their height difference "So yeah, I think you're going to lose this war, but since those three aren't here...you should be able to win with one hit."
"You should watch your mouth, boy." hissed Jose, with dark purple energy leaking out of his body "Or your mistress will end up with one less servant."
The two stared at each other in silence for several seconds until the hooded man looked out the large window "It seems we have arrived. Shouldn't you go tell your mages something?"
"This isn't over." growled Jose before walking away "Once I kill those fairies, I'll deal with you!"
"I am sure you will keep your word." with a shake of the head, Shirros moved toward the window, looking at the coast and the easily recognizable Fairy Tail building, still damaged by the previous attack.
"But I have the impression that it will not go as you think."
Never were words spoken more true.
Staying comfortably inside the "throne room", as Jose had called it, Shirros had been able to admire the defeat of Phantom Lord's mages one after another. The so-called "Element Four" had been defeated, except Aria who was Kami knows where, while Gajeel Redfox had found defeat at the hands of another dragon slayer. Now the hooded man was watching with his purple eyes the clash between the two guild masters, but it was clear that Makarov was not using all his power.
"As it is the custom of Fairy Tail's justice...I shall give you until the count of three." said Makarov with his voice as cold as ice, staring at Jose with a furious look "Kneel."
'He wont' kneel...his pride will not allow it.' thought Shirros watching the clash between the two until Makarov activated a powerful magic that sent chills down the back of the hooded man.
"Fairy Law. Activate."
In a dazzling flash, the fight ended.
A few seconds later, in the now destroyed room, Makarov sighed heavily, observing the defeated form of Jose whose face was a mask of terror. The old guild master shook his head at the stupidity of such a powerful wizard before turning his gaze to one of the few columns that remained standing "Who are you?"
Shirros came out from behind the column, taking only a few steps before stopping, observing in turn Jose, who still hadn't moved after receiving that last attack. His hair was now gray and his complexion pale as that of a corpse, not to mention that his magical power seemed to have vanished into thin air, as if he had never been a mage.
'What a fearsome spell. I bet my magic wouldn't be able to do anything against him either.'
He could feel Makarov's magical power grow, so he looked back at the Fairy Tail's master, noticing his hard gaze. Instead of answering him, Shirros just moved his head to the right just as Aria appeared behind Makarov, ready to hit him with a surprise attack. However the little mage enlarged his arm and hit him with such force that he crashed into the wall and lost consciousness.
When Makarov looked back at Shirros, he had disappeared into thin air.
'Who was that man? I didn't see the Phantom Pain mark on him and he didn't help Jose during the fight...plus his magical power was so cold and dark.' thought Makarov before walking away 'I've a bad feeling about this...'
"So, how did it go? Did Jose lose as expected?" a bored female voice asked through a small Lacrima.
"Yes. Makarov was still weakened, but he defeated him." replied Shirros, staring at the small crystal in his hand, while hiding behind a tree "What do we do now?"
"I've already made Phantom Lord's money vanish from their treasury, so their debt is paid, but I want that idiot to pay for his reckless actions." growled the voice "The Jupiter and the Mage Giant were two incredible creations, and he managed to destroy them both in one day. Bring him to me."
Shirros nodded before putting the Lacrima away and coming out into the open. That road passed in the middle of a forest and he was already quite far from Magnolia but he couldn't afford to waste time, so he started walking towards the small group of Rune Knights who were advancing around a carriage, pulled by two horse. It was a carriage used to transport prisoner mages and it was easy to guess who the prisoner in question was.
"Halt! Not another step!" shouted one of the knights while pointing his staff at Shirros "Stand aside! We are transporting a prisoner to Era!"
In response, Shirros raised an arm and pointed the palm of his hand towards them, creating a dark purple magic circle in front of him. The knights quickly mobilized to activate their magic and undo his, but suddenly several skeletal hands came out of the ground and grabbed them. Chaos erupted within seconds, and before they could react, they were pierced in the chest by long spears that burst out of the ground along with black-boned skeletons wearing ruined armors of the same color. Vomiting blood and trying to escape in vain, the knights fell to the ground, with the two horses being killed a few seconds later along with the coachman of the carriage.
The skeletal soldiers remained standing, before kneeling as Shirros arrived and activated his magic again, releasing a mist from his magic circle. The fresh corpses were shrouded in that dense purple fog and under the calm gaze of the hooded wizard, their flesh melted leaving only black skeletons as their robes changed colors into black and purple. After a few seconds, the skeletons began to move and knelt with the others in front of their creator.
Nodding in satisfaction, Shirros looked at the armored carriage and one of the skeletons stood up, pulling out a set of keys from under its tunic. Along with two other skeletons, the one with the keys walked around it and opened the heavy metal doors, allowing Shirros to see Jose's chained form, who looked at him with surprised eyes.
"Y-You?! W-What are you doing here!?" shouted Jose, almost afraid of the light of the sun "Are you here to help me!? Y-Yes! That's it! Y-You still need my money, right?!"
Shirros didn't answer him and two skeletons entered the carriage before grabbing Jose by the arms and dragging him out, ignoring his cries of protest. After letting him out, they forced the former guild master to his knees as the masked wizard turned away from him while opening his arms, creating a large magic circle in front of him.
Under Jose's astonished gaze, two large columns made of human skulls came out of the ground, being joined above by an arch formed by several bones. At the center of what looked like an entrance, a small purple light lit up from which a spiral of energy was created, contained between the two columns and, without saying anything, Shirros walked into that energy, vanishing into it.
With a last desperate scream, Jose tried to resist the skeletons that lifted him without effort before vanishing in turn in that vortex of energy. Once they disappeared, the energy dissipated into the air and Shirros' construct turned to dust, being blown away by the wind.
[Unknown location / 5th October X784]
"Well well well...would you look at that?" asked an amused female voice as Jose was thrown to the ground by the skeletons before they turned to dust "The mighty Jose Porla, guild master of Phantom Lord, Fiore's strongest guild."
With slightly blurred vision, Jose looked up and saw a woman sitting comfortably in a large armchair behind a black wooden desk. Her complexion was as pale as that of a ceramic doll and this highlighted her cold black eyes as well as the black lipstick that covered her lips. Her hair, also black, was long and let it fall free over her shoulders, almost merging with the raven feather cape she wore, along with a white robe that hugged her slender physique at the waist and hips.
Smiling at the man on the ground, she picked up a set of papers before starting to read them "One of my mages has already given me a report of the damage caused by you and your feud with Fairy Tail. I see you spared no expense."
"Reveeina...what do you want?" growled Jose, trying and failing to be threatening. The anti-magic handcuffs were still tight around his wrists and he still wasn't healed from his fight with Makarov. He had never met this woman in person, but he knew well of her reputation and could distinctly feel her magical power, which was far superior to his.
"Oh many things, but for now, I'll just mock you." she grinned at him "If I'm not mistaken, you promised us to be able to operate freely in Magnolia and instead now we will also lose the turf previously occupied by Phantom Pain. This is, in effect, a big loss for me."
"I can still win! I just have to rest and then I'll kill that damn Makarov!"
The woman stared at him silently for a few seconds before bursting out laughing "My guild has dealt with Fairy Tail multiple times when it was still led by Makarov's predecessor and I can confidently say that even after fifty years of rest, you would never be able to defeat that titan."
"You're just the mistress of a small dark guild! You have lasted until today only thanks to me!" Jose tried to stand up but Shirros kicked him in the back, sending him on the floor face first "Damn you!"
"I can concede that my guild is...understaffed compared to other guilds. However Oración Seis has only six members, yet it is feared by many." Reveeina nodded at him with a shrug "That may change in the days to come, however, especially now that the Rune Knights come to take over the area occupied by your guild."
"You still need my money!"
"I don't need you money, not anymore." she smirked at him "I've already cleared your treasury, so your debt is paid. Too bad you won't live long to see how your money will be used."
"W-What? You want to kill me?!" now Jose was afraid, not so much because they wanted to kill him but because he had nothing to trade with them for his freedom "Do you have any idea who I am?! I am one of the Ten Wizard Saints!"
"I doubt the Magic Council will let you keep that title after your decision to wage war on Fairy Tail. You are, in all respects, a man already dead, Jose Porla." she stood up from her armchair and only then did the man notice the three particular medallions hanging from her tunic, at the height of the heart, and their vision froze the blood in his veins.
One was partially covered in dried blood, the second appeared to be covered in soot, and the last had a single diagonal claw mark that cut it in two.
"T-Those are...!"
"The medallions given to Wizard Saints once they become such." she showed him an evil smile "Unlike many guilds who only know how to talk, we also know how to make ourselves understood with actions without attracting attention. You can die peacefully knowing that soon Makarov will join you in the afterlife too."
"W-Wait! Don't ki-GAH!"
Reveeina buried her right hand in his chest effortlessly, watching with satisfaction as life left his eyes, before removing it and letting Jose's body fall to the ground. Oddly, however, no puddle of blood formed under it.
"Magic is to be loved when needed, this 'vampire marble' is something divine." she joked before walking again toward her armchair, where she took a white napkin with which she wiped her hand and Jose's medallion, which she then went to place next to the other three. Meanwhile, Shirros activated his magic again and, as with the Rune Knights, the flesh of Jose's body melted before it became a black skeleton with its now black and purple uniform; in a matter of seconds, a new skeleton was kneeling in front of him and the masked wizard made it dissolve with a wave of his hand.
"You did good, Shirros." said Reveeina with a small smile while leaning back in her armchair "The game was destined to end, but we still earned something."
"What are we going to do now, mistress? The other guilds will start to divide up the territory and I don't think we will find other clients like Phantom Lord." Shirros stood in front of her, waiting for an answer.
"I doubt it too, but there is no need to fear. However, the time has come to move."
Shirros looked at her in the eyes "Really?"
She nodded at him "Yes, the world has come to a standstill by now. With the exception of Zeref and Acnologia, two legends, everything you hear in the underworld is about the Balam Alliance and that's it. All the other dark guilds have become subordinates of those three big names, leaving us as the only independent dark guild." she sighed "It's kind of sad, especially when you think about the fact that none of the three have attempted anything big in the last few years."
"There is a rumor that Oración Seis is preparing something."
"True, but this does not take away the fact that they are only rumors. Brain is strong and so are those brats of his, but I doubt they will do much against Fairy Tail and other guilds." she sighed; having battled Brain a couple of times she knew what he was capable of, but in her youth she had witnessed a fight between her predecessor and Makarov's, an old man named Precht, and she was certain that Brain was weaker than them.
'Than again, that old man was a force of nature...I wasn't kidding when I said that our guild and Fairy Tail have clashed in the past, but he has always defeated our best mages alone.'
"How do you intend to act? Our guild currently has about one hundred and fifty members."
Reveeina tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair "Fresh blood will help our cause, so I want you and the others to start looking for suitable recruits, but first I want to speak to the others, they need to know what's going to happen."
Nodding, Shirros stepped aside to let her out of her office first, through two intricately carved wooden doors. Once out of the room they found themselves observing a large hall full of tables, chairs and people who were drinking, eating and talking in serenity. Two rows of stairs connected the huge hall to Reveeina's office, one on the right and one on the left; while under the black wooden parapet where she had leaned there was a large bulletin board with missions hanging from it.
"The mistress has to say something important!" the voice of Shirros echoed in the hall, attracting collective attention and all noise ceased in that instant as everyone present turned to their guild master.
"Thank you Shirros." she nodded at him before looking at her guild-mates "As many of you may have already known, Phantom Lord has lost in its war with Fairy Tail, their guild master is dead, and most likely their territory will soon be divided among the guilds of light. This means that we will no longer be able to act freely as before, even if it will not be a problem given our past."
Many in the hall chuckled at those words, after all their guild was one of the oldest in all of Fiore. Many had been born before, but few were still active, and despite being aware of their existence, not even the Magic Council was able to eradicate them, with or without the help of legal guilds. They were strong but they knew how to act behind the scenes, away from prying eyes, unlike other dark guilds led by idiots hungry for power.
"However, this is not the reason why I have decided to speak to you. For several months now, we have become the only dark guild to be completely independent, away from the Balam Alliance. All those idiots who have sold themselves have forgotten what it really means to be a dark guild! They want to be free from the limitations imposed by the Council and yet they do not hesitate to serve someone else!"
Her eyes went from wizard to wizard, noting with pleasure how everyone agreed with her. One policy that existed from day one in their guild was that in order to join, you had to deserve it and be in line with their principles. If you thought you could join because you wanted to be part of a dark guild you were seriously in the wrong place. None of her mages were bloodthirsty monsters out of control; all of them were loyal to her and to the freedom they earned by becoming part of the guild, and she knew they would never back down from their oath.
"This kingdom has forgotten what it's like to fear a dark guild! Nowadays you just need to send a request to some legal guild and everything is solved, without any consequences! Guilds like Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus...all feared by the lesser dark guilds because they know they can't hold a candle to them and their best mages! I bet that, aside from the three Balam Alliance names, all the other dark guilds are mocked and called jokes!" she slammed her fist against the railing "Well enough of this! It's time for this kingdom and its legal guilds to understand what it's like to face a higher force! It is time for the dark guilds to understand that being under the Balam Alliance is not enough to instill terror and respect!
"We are few, but I can bet my soul that each of you could defeat one of the lesser guilds on your own! From today we will make everyone understand what it means to fight against a dark guild!" Reveeina pointed to the banner hanging above her, depicting the head of a snake with its jaws wide open "We are Shadow Soul and our fangs will sink into the light of this world!"
A shout of triumph rose in the air causing the entire hall to tremble, but after a few seconds Reveeina raised a hand to bring the silence back.
"Train and become strong, my comrades. Many battles await us and we must be ready for everyone, but the same goes for our enemies. After all..." she smirked at them with dark energy radiating from her body.
"The shadows are moving."
TO BE CONTINUED...
Hello everyone, SoImAWriterSoWhat here for you. This was the beginning, or chapter 0 if you prefer, of my story. Fairy Tail is one of my favorite manga ever (although I liked the last story arc much less than the others) but I always regretted the lack of attention to dark guilds, which were used just for a story arc as main enemies and that's it. My story instead wants to focus on that aspect, following the adventures of Shadow Soul, a dark guild created by me.
The story will diverge from the canon in several places because this guild (and your OCs as a result) will have a lot to do with the Balam Alliance and Fairy Tail, thus changing several events that have taken place in canon history. However, the timeline will be the same as in the manga (as orders of narrative arcs I mean).
Now, however, I want to note some general things: first of all, as mentioned in my profile, I am a working man and therefore I do not have all the time in the world to write. I will try to stick to 'one chapter per month' schedule, maybe every three weeks if all goes well. Therefore, I would like it not to be sent private messages with the only question "when do you update?". On my profile I will try to put a tentative date for the next update.
Now, to finish this first chapter, the last two things: a set of rules to participate and then a recap of the OCs (due to the pauses between updates it is possible that people forget about certain characters. With this recap at the end of the chapter you can always reconnect everything).
RULES:
1) I don't want Gary Sue or Mary Sue (I think that's the correct term) as characters. Perfect characters don't exist, so I'd like everyone to have credible weaknesses, etc...they can be strong sure, but not invincible.
2) If you want to participate write it in the review or send me a private message and specify if your OC is already part of the guild or if it is an OC to be recruited. Based on your choice, I will send you the appropriate form to fill out.
3) When you have created an OC, send me a new private message with the completed form. The subject of the message must be "Shadow Soul (name surname of the OC)". You can also use Fictionpress.
4) Not quite a rule as much as a warning. I am not inside your head so I don't know how you want your OC to be rendered. If it's good or not good how I describe or use him/her, please let me know.Furthermore, this story will be a "meritocracy". If I see that you follow the story continuously, your OC will rightfully have more space; on the contrary, if you send the OC and vanish into thin air, the character will not be killed unfairly but will become a side character.
5) Your character cannot be related to canon characters, so no family ties. They may have met various canon characters and all, but they can't be related to them.
6) Each user can send one or two characters, but it is not guaranteed that both characters become part of the story.
7) There is no expected number of OCs, I could stop at 6 or 30. It depends on the characters that will arrive and how many will want to participate.
These were the rules, now the small OC recap (which will grow from chapter to chapter!)
RECAP OC
- Shadow Soul:
A dark guild that is at least sixty years old. Contrary to other dark guilds it has always acted in the shadows, causing damage but without exposing itself too much; it is currently the only dark guild left independent of the Balam Alliance. In the past it has clashed with Fairy Tail and other guilds of the light, its first guild master has fought on several occasions against the second guild master of Fairy Tail.
In recent years it has conducted illegal business with Phantom Lord, but due to the war and subsequent defeat at the hands of Fairy Tail, Shadow Soul has severed all ties with the other guild.
The current location of the headquarters is unknown and has around 150 members in its ranks.
According to Reveeina, each guild member could face and defeat one of Fiore's lesser guilds.
- Reveeina Van Sterig:
The second guild master of Shadow Soul. Known as master, mistress or Lady Reveeina, she has a power that rivals that of other Wizard Saints, but her magic is currently unknown. After the defeat of Phantom Lord, she has decided that it is time for her guild to step out of the shadows and make the kingdom of Fiore understand what it means to fear a dark guild.
She is a woman in her fifties, tall and with a milky complexion. Long black hair, dark eyes and black lipstick on her lips make her a particular beauty, also thanks to her slender physique.
- Shirros:
The second-in-command and S-class mage of Shadow Soul. Loyal to his mistress, he acted as an intermediary between Shadow Soul and Phantom Lord during their clandestine and illegal deals, but after the defeat of Phantom Lord, he killed several Rune Knights and kidnapped Jose Porla to bring him in front of Reveeina. He is a necromancer and his magic allows him to create magical skeletons from the corpses of his enemies, as well as create special portals.
He is a young man in his late twenties, quite tall and with a robust physique, always covered by a large black cloak with a hood. He has purple eyes but they appear as glows in the sockets of the black mask he wears; the mask has the features of a skull but without mouth / teeth.
That's all for this chapter. I hope this story interests you and leads you to show your dark side with this guild! I await your reviews and your OCs. See you soon!