Creation began on 09-28-19
Creation ended on 03-03-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Some limits can't be surpassed
Since his spells were still active, Shinji found it crazy that any grimoire would need to be open for combat purposes; it practically gave the mage away with both the glow of the book and a sense of predictability. And yet, here he was, inside a cavern in a temple, miles underwater in a magical world, trying to assault a guy he only met for the second time in his life, and with his grimoire, to boot.
"Not very organized, are you?" Rhya asked him, backing away and dodging his attempts to hit him with the book.
"Barbaric, I admit, but you're the one evading the hits," Shinji responded, "so what does that say about you? Don't you want to copy the spells within my grimoire?"
Rhya's eyes widened as he continued to back away. His Imitation Magic could enable him to assimilate every spell within another person's grimoire, but there was something about this kid's grimoire that made him feel…threatened by his abilities. But this was only the second time he's seen Shinji; he shouldn't have felt anything short of disgust towards him, not a feeling of dread.
"Uh, Imitation-Water Creation Magic," he grunted, bringing his hands together as a form of water materialized in between them. "Sea Dragon's Roar!"
At that moment, Guardian appeared in front of Shinji, facing Rhya, and he grabbed the man by his arms, pulling them apart as his copied spell from Noelle's grimoire struck him.
"Urgh!" He grunted, feeling like he just took a bad fall off a building several stories tall. "Noelle would be disappointed to know that one of her latest spells obtained by having faith in others that see her worth had been used by someone that can't bring out its full fury."
Then he threw Rhya aside, hard, as he turned to face Shinji, a gray bruise forming on his torso.
"Are you alright, Guardian?" He asked him.
"I've been through worse than this, Shinji," Guardian told him, and then held up something in his right claw. "Care to see what will happen to this grimoire when exposed to your own?"
Rhya's grimoire has been confiscated by Guardian before he was thrown aside. As he got back up, Rhya gasped at how the pair had his grimoire in their possession.
"Hey, now, let's not do anything that we'll regret," he expressed.
"Rhya, sir, the only thing I'm regretting right now is that we're all fighting each other instead of just talking about what the problem is between your group and the Clover Kingdom," Shinji explained his opinion over the current situation. "Couldn't we all just sit down and discover what the trouble is without the need for violence? I had an interesting conversation with Mr. Spirito…and I'd like to have a conversation with someone of the Third Eye."
"Not everyone can be won through conversation."
"But we'd at least know what the problem is."
Suddenly, Shinji was whisked away off the ground by Guardian…avoiding Vetto, who had several threads and bits of cotton covering his body, from slashing him.
"It would appear that Vetto has tried to switch from facing Ms. Enoteca and Ms. Pappitson to facing you, Shinji," Guardian told him.
"Well, that ruined the talk I was trying to have with Rhya," Shinji pouted as Guardian grabbed onto the side of the upper cave wall. "Must talking be ignored in this feud?"
"You can't force them to cease their attacks and sit down to chat like you did with Mr. Spirito, Shinji. These three must be shown the error of their drive, even if it means it must be through conflict and pain."
"Guardian, that's something I'm hoping to avoid causing entirely because I don't want to go too far on any one of these three just to get my voice heard."
"You're a kind person, Shinji. It is a challenge for those with kindness to bear their hearts out to those that refuse to share their life stories with those around them."
Shinji then sighed and took his grimoire up, about to place it against Rhya's grimoire.
"No!" Rhya gasped. "Don't do it! I don't know what could happen if your grimoire was assimilated into mine!"
If it weren't for the fact that Vetto had tried to assault him just a moment ago, Shinji would've been more willing to listen to Rhya's plea not to risk damage to his grimoire. But as he saw Vetto look up at him and Guardian, he couldn't risk being merciful to an enemy of this sort.
"Tell Vetto to stand down, then," he told him, raising the grimoires in his hands.
Vetto glared at them and leapt into the air.
"Vetto, stop," Rhya ordered, but it was already too late.
"You will taste despair!" Vetto roared.
Shinji frowned and then put the grimoires together, causing a reaction.
FLASH! The light produced by their being put together was so intense that it blinded Vetto, who was pushed back to the ground.
"No! Stop it!" Rhya yelled. "My grimoire!"
In front of him, Shinji could see the two grimoires locked in what appeared to be a power struggle, with Rhya's feeling the full force of the False Destiny Breaker's multitude of different spells, many of which Shinji had yet to practice with. He then saw his grimoire unleash a partial manifestation of the Evangelion, his darkest dread that appeared more organic and horrific, armor and all from the lower waist up, and watched it reach for Rhya's with a sickening expression of hunger and sadism. It gripped the open book it its claws and caused it to catch fire as it snarled.
"What is that thing?!" Vetto demanded, seeing the creature and was immediately feeling something that was beyond the despair he had.
Everyone else within the cavern could see the Eva through the intense light, and some were feeling something that was not positive.
"That thing looks dangerous!" Gordon gasped.
"It looks like a monster from the deepest depths of the underworld!" Magna added.
"I wouldn't want to fight that thing!" Luck admitted.
Fana watched with scorn and uttered, "Wretched, demonic, unforgivable… It is a world-ender, not of this realm. Dangerous, inhuman… I must destroy it."
She summoned Salamander to her aid and unleashed her attack at the Eva. It collided with the Eva's head and neck, but it showed no signs of injury.
"Rrrrrrraaaurgh!" The Eva roared at her, its inhuman, mechanical sound reminding Shinji of the horror he had gotten into when his father gave him no other choice but to pilot the Eva.
Suddenly, the intensity of the light dimmed…and the Eva started to fade away from sight, letting go of Rhya's grimoire, letting it fall to the ground below.
"Whoa," Asta went, thinking back to when Yuno received his grimoire and it was revealed to be a four-leaf clover one, only this display of power being somewhat darker and more extreme than the positive reaction he had seen. "What was that?"
"Something Shinji wants to get away from," Suki told him, being simple and subtle.
Rhya ran over and picked up his grimoire, his expression that of a broken man.
"My grimoire," he went, flipping through the pages. "There's nothing in it. All the spells I ever copied…are gone. The magic has faded from its pages."
"How is that possible?" Noelle wondered out loud; she had never heard of a grimoire losing the spells in its pages.
"Shinji's grimoire completely obliterated his own of its stolen magic spells," said Vanessa; she had known Shinji was something of a strong mage when he started training them, but she never thought he was able to do something like this with his magic.
It was frightening to say the least.
"That Ikari…is not someone we should face," Rhya told Vetto and Fana, but it his fellow Third Eye members weren't listening.
"Merciless," went Fana, her Salamander opening its mouth again, "uncaring, filthy… The sooner we kill you, the better."
-x-
Wandering through the lonely tunnel of the dungeon she was in to clear it of danger, Yui pondered how anyone in the Clover Kingdom could just accept that magic was how they lived without ever seeking to rely less on it through science and technology. Sure, it was impressive to see Fire Magic, Earth Magic, even forms of magic associated with metals and minerals, but the more she found out about magic, the less she felt these people were able to see the future.
"Doesn't anyone here use a flashlight, Ms. Vermillion?" She had asked Mimosa before she left to do the mission solo.
"Uh…what's a flashlight?" Mimosa responded, which confirmed to Yui that these people were so dependent upon magic for everything that they saw no reason or desire to advance in any other field that was possible for them.
"Never mind," she gave in and left. I don't believe the people here. I simply don't know how they can just accept this belief and ignore all else that is within their reach if they were more educated and fearless.
"We're not like you, Yui," a memory of an older Suki had told her the year before Second Impact occurred. "We can't project our beliefs on those that don't want to understand what you're trying to make them understand. Some get lucky, but those that do manage usually end up doing more harm than they expect from the perspective of one that now questions everything they thought they knew. That's like taking Christmas out of Christmas by saying Santa Claus is just pretend to a small child that still writes letters to him, or turning Thanksgiving into a day of sports instead of a day to give thanks to the small things we appreciate over time with family and friends. You put science and logic in everything that doesn't need them, you take the joy outta everything. You'd just be a party crasher or party pooper, just looking for an excuse to remove fun and happiness in favor of things that make sense."
But to Yui, things were better when they made sense and everything. She was certain that if she could get others to see things from her perspective, then they would understand that they could have a better life here. A more-understanding life filled with logic. All she had to do…was make them see…and they would know. They would understand.
"But will they understand from you?" She heard a voice in the darkness of the tunnel. "Yui Ikari… What you seek…is not for the weak of heart, which is what the people of the Clover Kingdom, no this whole world…are. They have lived with their understanding of magic and wonders for thousands of years, and any that try to tear down this belief that magic is something else would be viewed as an insult or act of disrespect towards their very passion for it, a passion…that you seem to lack within your own heart. A woman that learns how magic is in her family, in her blood…and yet secretly despises it and the belief that things are better than what she knows only as make-believe in another world she thought was just a fairytale. They won't follow you. If they won't follow you as you are, what will you do to make them see things from your perspective? What, will you try to rally the like-minded and try to make a political campaign against what you might call the magic establishment that has been around for ages? How far are you willing to go? What price would you pay? Who would you sacrifice to make them see the world the way you see it?"
Yui looked into the darkness of a corner tunnel, thinking she had seen someone hiding, but she saw nobody there.
"You won't find me in the darkness," the voice told her. "I am part of the darkness. I am the shadows in every corner, within every room yet to be illuminated by the light. I'm still waiting to hear your answer: How far are you willing to go to make the people of this world see the way you feel it should be?"
"Who are you?" Yui asked the being hiding from her.
In front of her, something emerged the darkness that was being illuminated by her Light Magic spell. It was quite large, standing at an inhuman height of nearly nine feet, a sort of chimeric beast of reptilian and mammalian, with large, curved horns on its head. For some reason, Yui almost mistook it for that creature that came out of Shinji's grimoire, but aside from similar colorations and body proportions, this creature had a scarlet feather boa wrapped around its neck and signs of burn and decay emanating from it.
"I am the end of all things," it spoke to her, "the bringer of ruination, the messenger of reckoning. I am Harbinger. I am the Harbinger of Death and Destruction. No matter how I'm perceived, I am an embodiment of inescapable fates."
Yui should've thought of running from this creature, but something about it had her wondering why it appeared to her in this dungeon. And she felt an aura of unfathomable strength emanating from it.
"So, you're basically an evil creature, Harbinger," she spoke.
"Evil, dangerous, negative," it responded. "I am merely a servant of the universe that needs to clear out the rogue elements and junk that jam up the natural order of things. And human beings are merely the next in a long list of organisms that need to be…cleansed from their existence."
And "cleansed" is just another way of saying that they need to be neutralized, Yui thought as her arms emanated with magic to display her Goshinki's Fatality, just in case this creature tried to attack her.
"Blood and Steel Magic combined to create a balance," Harbinger expressed. "You're definitely a member of House Ikari, the strongest family within the Clover Kingdom, the only family to possess the capacity to use all forms of magic, making them stand out among the rarest of individuals. The Infinity Affinity, a wondrous blessing that House Ikari has possessed for generations. But for some reason, your magic appears to be…consciously selective of what sort of spells you prefer to use over the rest of your capabilities. Blood and Steel Magic seem to be your predominant preferences, something that sets you apart from your relatives. Why is that?"
"I'm a scientist, not a witch," she expressed.
"You're a scientist? Not a witch? But you're a female…and no matter what you say, females in this world are considered to be witches if they use magic. But you…why call yourself one thing if you're another?"
"I'm a person of logic, of clarity. I can't believe magic to be some sort of mystical art when it has to be some kind of science. I have to believe in there being some kind of equivalence in order to achieve these…feats of magic, whether these powers come from another dimension or from the matter of this world that nobody uses. You can't obtain without first meeting some sort of requirement or sacrificing something in return."
"Logic," Harbinger expressed. "You remind me of a member of House Silva, the royal family that summoned me in the beginning to help destroy your family's ancestors. He had spite towards them only because they helped those from pathetic beginnings to rise above their superiors. Of course, my spite towards House Ikari stems partially from being imprisoned in the Void and being unable to carry out my objectives. Have you ever been stopped from carrying out your objective?"
Yui was going to deny having ever been stopped from doing what she thought was the right thing to do, but thought back to the day her son got that grimoire that turned the Eva into a spell, cutting off any chance she had of getting back inside it. Back when she had a plan to save the human race, before it turned out her family's stories of a place where magic was the norm and where people could really fly on broomsticks or carpets. She didn't want to believe any of this, despite it now being a part of her life.
"Okay, I admit that I was stopped by my family from doing what I knew would save the human race," she gave in and told the creature.
"You were going to save the human race…by destroying it?" Harbinger questioned.
"It would've been temporary, only as long as it took for my son to make the choice of what he wanted to happen."
"Your son, this…Shinji Ikari, who wields the False Destiny Breaker, the grimoire that holds Guardian of the Void, my ancient rival who protects him now? What did he think about what you were planning to do?"
"He (she recalls how she was outed for her past attempts and how Shinji became somewhat distant with her, most often wondering how he was going to engage in any conversation with her after discovering her deception)… He seemed relieved after I couldn't do what I had initially planned…and I often wonder if he will ever forgive me for my transgressions."
"Be honest now. If you could still achieve your goal…would you still want to do it?"
Yui lowered her arms down and nodded in the positive that she would've still attempted to do what she had initially desired to achieve.
"So, you're an extremist, then," Harbinger told her. "No matter what anyone else says or thinks about your past choices, you will do what you feel must be done. You merely lack the means and the assistance to achieve your goal."
"I don't lack the means," she told it. "I have accessed Blood and Bone Magic, mastered Steel, Iron, Mercury, Copper and Gel Magic to create a series of replicas of what I lost to my son since I got here. All I need now is…"
"But you will fail in your endeavor. You will fail…because you need your son to willingly aid you in your agenda. You can't force him to help you."
"How do you know that?"
"I know…because that's what your original plan required of him. You required him to make the ultimate choice, to cast out the world that he knew. But he has matured differently from how you needed him to be. He has grown accustomed to life in a world where magic is everything, surrounded by people that can do the impossible, and where he can become a part of the impossible and be more than he thought he had to be in life."
"But he wasn't meant to do any of this. None of this was supposed to happen; we weren't supposed to end up here in some world where witches and wizards exist, where we're related to people that are over fifteen-hundred years old…or were forced into self-imposed exile which created a prophecy that foretold their return. Shinji and I were supposed to…to…"
"Go on."
"We were supposed to show the world a brighter future…but he has turned away from me in favor of my mother and elder siblings, three complete strangers that held onto a past I can't be a part of because it isn't logical."
"Children grow up, but they don't all grow up on the path you build for them. Sometimes, they stray away from the predetermined guide in front of them, just to explore what doesn't fit in their future. Other times, they will question their future and seek to alter it so that they can find some sort of passion for it. It is clear that your passion for the future…is not the same as your son's passion, who is limited because he can't see the future beyond what is already in front of him."
"Every time I want to tell him that we can still fix things, I can't help but wrap my head around the possibility that he'll bring up something related to magic or that group of people he joined that everyone says is the worst of the Magic Knights, the Black Bulls. Why would he join a group like that? There's nothing special about them. They don't have any ties to politics or even impress the people that have seen them. They're just a bunch of…misfits. Some of them probably have criminal records, based on the fact that at least one of them came from nobility and had lost everything alongside his sister and recently regained it all after discovering that his parents were murdered by a rival member of the nobility…and all Shinji had to do in that case was just be a witness to the revelation. Why did he have to choose such a group that has no real future when he could've chosen the Golden Dawn like I did…or the Crimson Lions, the Blue Rose or even those Green Praying Mantis members that are comprised of commoners, something it seems the majority of the Magic Knights frown upon? Why would Shinji give up on a brighter future…for one like this?"
"Why do you think he would choose this life?"
But Yui knew why…and simply couldn't bring herself to speak it.
"You think that by removing all that is from the equation that is existence, you will ensure a brighter future for humanity, with your son as the deciding guide?"
"He needs to be the one to save everyone."
"Then you know what you need to do to ensure that he listens to you. You have to make it so that he has no other alternative but to aid you. Make him see that to save the people, he has to remove them from existence."
"He'll never make such a choice, no matter what I tell him, no matter what happens. And the Eva I worked on in the beginning, it's locked up in his grimoire and he's made a promise to himself never to use it. He was never happy about having to pilot it, believing it deprived him of any future. I don't believe my husband ever really told him about what we were doing."
"You do realize that I can tell when you're lying about your own understanding of your son's past experiences regarding your husband and this…Eva? You know he didn't understand anything…because neither of you told him anything, just expecting him to know the moment he got drafted into conflict with an enemy he knew nothing about. You know that his vow to never use the Eva that got sucked into the False Destiny Breaker…is one he believes will set him free from the sorrows of his past…and at the same time, vowing to never use it will save others from its relentless fury. Lie to me again…and I will throttle you with such force you never thought was possible for a human to experience."
"Yes," she expressed. "His promise to never use the Eva would free him and the world from it. But I still believe that it is necessary, no matter what he thinks. To save the human race, it must be purged of magic and all that they believe in, for better or for worse, to be free from their physical shackles and united as one being."
"Free from their physical shackles and united as one being, huh?" Harbinger questioned, sounding intrigued. "To me, that is no different from the eradication of all living things. Your desire…may actually aid in my own goal. Since a collective existence without any physicality is no different from a lifeless existence, I shall help you fulfill your ambition. Enter into a pact with me, Yui Ikari…and we will both get what we want in the end."
-x-
"…Now, Yui's talking to that strange creature her mother saw," said Fuyutsuki as he and the others in Gendo's office saw a photo featuring Yui engaged in conversation with the creature.
"She's opening her grimoire," went Rei, seeing the next photo showing the woman's grimoire being opened to reveal a blank pair of pages. Something seems...wrong about what she is doing. But what is it?
On the right page, they could see Tenshi engaged in swordplay with the man in armor, Excalibur, atop a mountain with a spring nearby.
"You don't trust your little sister is following the straight and narrow path of redemption?" They heard the armored man ask him.
"Yui has not been…a trustworthy woman ever since she got into science. Her passion for it…masks a sense of superiority and loneliness that she won't own up to. Of course, she had a few friends in her league, but they left her as soon as they found out she was dating Gendo. I guess they got bad vibes from him, too."
"You old bastard!" Gendo yelled.
"Seriously?" Kaji asked. "You're going to raise your voice every time someone from your wife's side of the family expresses their personal feelings about either you or her?"
"Not everything they say is the truth."
"I believe that's why they're called opinions," Ritsuko uttered. "Whatever they say is simply how they feel, regardless of whether or not it's the truth. Your in-laws clearly have negative views about you that your wife was unable to change."
Personally, I would agree with them about him, thought Fuyutsuki as he turned to the next page, seeing a photo of Yui walking out of a dungeon, surrounded by an aura of darkness in the shape of Harbinger. "What has she done?"
Asuka looked at Shinji's mother on the left page and felt intimidated by her departure being somewhat indicative of releasing a rabid animal out of its cage. Looking to the right page, she saw Shinji being attacked by Vetto and Fana, both members of the Third Eye displaying looks of fury towards him.
"He looks like he's bitten off more than he can chew with these two," she expressed.
"I'll rip you to pieces, human!" They heard Vetto yell at Shinji.
"You'll burn in the inferno for your past crimes!" They heard Fana yell.
-x-
"Poison Plant Restraining Magic," Shinji gasped as Guardian kept him in the air to evade Vetto and Fana after Rhya was defeated with the breaking of his grimoire. "Poison Ivy Spheres!"
Surrounding the Magic Knight and Guardian of the Void were light green spheres that totaled in five, presumably the number Shinji's magic could support for now with this spell, and two of the spheres collided with Vetto and Fana.
"Rrraugh!" Vetto roared, feeling the sting of this sphere's poison properties affecting him. "Curse you, human!"
"Aaaurgh! Fire Magic!" Fana yelled, her grimoire flipping through pages. "Searing Heat of the Dragon's Nest!"
Within her poison sphere, the air was ablaze with fire, burning through the sphere until there was nothing left.
"Whoa!" Shinji gasped again, guessing that five spheres were better than two, and then realizing something else happening around him; throughout the madness, he failed to notice Guardian was no longer nearby…and he was levitating on his own. "What the…"
"Took you long enough to realize you had matured enough to enable yourself to levitate under your own power," Guardian told him, floating close by. "Careful now, the girl is still fighting back to get to you."
Shinji looked at Fana, who had burned through his other poison spheres and flew towards him. He panicked and flipped through the pages of his grimoire and quickly called the quickest spell that dealt with defense.
"Spatial Water Magic: Tsunami Vortex Barrier!" He called out, and he and Guardian were covered by a sphere of water.
"Flame Magic: Firestorm Cannon!" Fana called out, and her hands burned with intense flames. "I will scorch you both into ashes!"
She unleashed her flame attack against the sphere and caused several streaks of fire to be sent back towards her while most of the fire started forcing the water to evaporate.
Shinji could feel the strain of supporting this spell against such an offensive power starting to affect him, but had to hold out until she ceased. Because Water and Fire Magic naturally opposed one another, this had to be resolved by being a battle of attrition; one side had to outlast the other.
"Vetto, deal with the others!" Fana ordered, as Vetto broke free from the first poison sphere and used a recovery spell to rid his body of the poison that lingered. "This time, show no mercy!"
Vetto slammed down on the ground in front of the Black Bulls and flexed his claws out as he bared his fangs.
"Rhya!" He yelled, seeing his comrade tied up by Vanessa and Charmy, his grimoire just lying there on the ground, presumably still useless. "Damn you humans! You will know despair!"
Flipping through a page in his grimoire, Vetto unleashed a Beast Magic spell that covered his body in the aura of a large gorilla. This was his Gorilla Fury, a Beast Magic spell that would augment his Reinforcement Magic by a tremendous factor that would make Reinforcement Magic alone seem like a temporary increase in desperate situations. Now, he would make these Black Bulls, these inferior humans, pay for their crimes.
"Rrrraurgh!" He roared as he charged towards them with his claws extended.
Asta brandished both his Demon-Slayer and Demon-Dweller Swords, his grimoire flipping pages to make use of a new spell he had access to.
"Anti Magic: Limitless Divider!" He yelled, swinging his swords to unleash energy blades at Vetto to impede him.
Bash! Vetto took eight of these slashes and it felt like he was ripping through trees or stone walls.
"Mirror Creation Magic," went Gauche, unleashing a new spell he obtained through training his muscles off with Shinji, "Duplicate Threat."
A large mirror appeared in front of Vetto, reflecting his image.
"Do you really think a mirror is going to stop me?!" Vetto questioned, unimpressed by their meager efforts to stay in control of the situation.
Suddenly, the reflection started to glow with a grayish aura instead of Vetto's orange one…and stepped out of the mirror, which then vanished behind him.
"Let despair turn into hope," the duplicate uttered, which surprised Vetto; it was unlike anything he'd normally say.
"Mirror Vetto, attack the real Vetto," Gauche commanded, "disable with extreme prejudice."
"Yes, sir!" Mirror Vetto obeyed, and then charged towards the real Vetto.
Slam! Vetto locked hands with his copy and felt like he was really facing himself at this time.
"Now, while he's distracted!" Gauche told his squad mates.
"Water Creation Magic," went Noelle.
"Lightning Creation Magic," added Luck.
"Fire Creation Magic," added Magna.
It was some sort of Compound Magic, the way Vetto saw their spells coming together.
"Elemental Dragon Storm!" The three yelled, and out from their hands came three dragon heads, corresponding to their magic affinity, encircling Vetto and his duplicate.
This was an impressive feat of magic that Vetto was feeling from these mages. He knew they were strong before when he fought them last time, but this time… It was like they were on a completely different level, like they were only holding back or something when those House Ikari brats joined their little group. But now…now, they weren't holding back. Now, they were serious, fighting for real.
"Now, you will know the true power that is hope," his duplicate told him, and the three dragon heads attacked all at once.
BOOM! They collided and caused an explosion.
Whoa, man, thought Shinji as he blocked Fana's flames while he watched the scene take place below them. They ganged up on Vetto like he was a weed.
"Aaaurgh!" Fana howled as her flames intensified against his water barrier. "You will know the hatred that burns through my soul, Ikari!"
"I would really prefer it if we just sat and talked, ma'am!" Shinji expressed. "There's no need to fight if we could find out what the problem is and go from there!"
"Your kind ruined us long ago! You humans! You always think you deserve more! All you deserve…is to suffer as we have suffered!"
"And that's the thing! I don't know what you're talking about! You're saying that people did something to you a long time ago, but you're not exactly explaining what it was, where it was, or even when it was! How are we supposed to know about what you say we did to you…if we don't even know what we did?! And I only got here less than a year ago! I barely know anyone aside from my family and the Black Bulls! I don't know who you are, aside from your designation and the designations of your two friends!"
And with that declaration of common sense, Rhya had to admit that Shinji was speaking the truth. How was he supposed to understand what was the problem between the Clover Kingdom and the Midnight Sun…if one side knew nothing about what happened a long time ago? And from the way he sounded, it seemed as though this Shinji Ikari…really wanted to understand what the problem and resolve it without violence. There was no hint of treachery in his words or a sign of deception in his soul. Even after witnessing the destruction of the copied spells within his grimoire, the reincarnated elf couldn't view his attempts to settle this as being vicious or full of any malice towards any of them.
"Yeah, he's right, you know," said Asta as the dust cleared to reveal Vetto was still very much alive, but looking ready for a burial. "Why are we fighting instead of talking? Surely, we can resolve this problem without violence."
But Vetto… Vetto of the Despair wasn't willing to sit down and talk with any of these humans, even if it could help them resolve their problems. He was going to get rid of these humans if it was the last thing he would do, no matter what it took of him.
"You humans," he growled, his singed body quickly rejuvenating due to being bathed in a dark red aura. "You will never stop unless I stop you! I will stop you! You will know despair! Rrrraurgh! You will know despair!"
Although it was from a distance and in the air, Shinji could see the change in Vetto. He saw the third eye that just popped open on his forehead, causing him to cringe at the feeling of dread being emanated from this man.
"My hatred will destroy you!" He heard Fana yell, seeing a third eye appear on her forehead, as well. "My hatred will destroy you!"
What is going on with these two? He wondered. It's like someone turned out the light in them and left the water running. I could feel their magic being big enough to compare to the size of the Geo-Front, but now… Now, it's big enough to fill up three Geo-Fronts!
And worse was now their magic auras were dark and like fire.
"Uh, Guardian?" Shinji asked.
"Yes, Shinji?" Guardian responded.
"I think we're going to get hurt."
Guardian looked at Vetto and Fana, the only two of the Third Eye that appeared to give into their respective positions as the opposite of the Clover Kingdom's epithets of hope and love, while Rhya was still calm, almost like he admitted defeat after his grimoire was wiped clean of spells after it came into contact with the False Destiny Breaker, and was now being handled by the members of the Seabed Temple. Their despair and hatred growing well beyond the capacity of a human mage, almost to the point where it was fatal to them rather than who they were up against.
"Right now, I can't see any possibility where we can simply sit and talk about what's wrong between the kingdom and this group of rogue mages," he told Shinji. "These two have gone beyond the realm of conversation and are stuck in the realm of conflict. They're just itching to fight us now."
"Demon Beast Magic," Vetto yelled as he glowed with an outline shaped like a large, horned beast, "Great Rage of the Minotaur!"
"Demon Fire Magic," Fana yelled as her flames took on the appearance of a bird of fire, "Phoenix Singe!"
Guardian could feel their magic taking a sinister turn and had to wonder if the Black Bulls could still handle both of these mages after Shinji worked them to the bone.
To be continued…
A/N: Uh-oh. The Black Bulls are in some serious trouble and who thinks Yui has made a choice that will make others think less of her when it comes to wanting to do some good?