Creation began on 03-03-20
Creation ended on 11-29-20
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Unlock the Sphere
Bash! Slam! Slash! Guardian of the Void was struck with immense force from Vetto as he fought him, feeling his magic power was augmented to a much higher level, leaving him thinking that this member of the Third Eye was a worthy opponent for him.
Unfortunately, his sense of despair blinds him to a crucial fact that most adversaries neglect, he thought as he was thrown backwards against a cave wall and fell to the ground. I am far from beaten by someone fueled by their negative emotions. Vetto lets his despair override his judgment, and the more despair he allows to consume him, the more he seals himself away on the path to defeat.
Vetto, still emanating the increase in his magic power, approached him and grabbed him by his neck, lifting him off his feet.
"You will taste despair!" He yelled at him.
"Yeah, well, your despair doesn't taste all that different from the despair of others that have suffered," Guardian told him, and then felt his airway getting closed. "Gaaaurgh!"
Meanwhile, Shinji, barely able to do anything but defend himself from Fana's augmented Fire Magic, was pinned between a rock and a wall of intense flames, trying to wait out the attack Fana threw at him with an Earth Magic spell used for defense.
"You know, this is insane!" He yelled at her, feeling the heat behind the earth wall. "We need to sit down and talk! This is just senseless violence!"
"Wretched, cruel, vile!" She yelled back, the dragon in front of her breathing greater streams of fire. "You are more dangerous than you seem, and must be dealt with severely!"
Shinji was on his left knee and beginning to feel the strain of the difference in magic power between himself and Fana.
"Magic isn't so much dependent on the strength of the body as it is on the strength of the mind and will," his uncle had informed him during the training sessions before the trials that were part of the process to becoming a Magic Knight. "Breathe through your nose, Shinji, not your mouth. It's definitely like Firebending from Avatar; the breath becomes energy. It flows through you, extending beyond your limbs…and becomes power that can be put to use. Breathe through your nose and out your mouth. Inhale and then exhale."
Shinji inhaled through his nose, slowly, and then exhaled out his mouth. Slowly, he felt his pulse slow down and his way of thinking clearer. He felt a bit better, despite the air around him feeling hotter, and he could accept that as long as Fana was enraged and unwilling to cease her actions against him and the other Black Bulls, there was no way that they could resolve this feud without violence. He didn't enjoy the idea any more than he had to accept it, but he had to fight back against Fana in order to resolve this.
Come on, Shinji, he thought as he looked through his grimoire, searching for a spell to fight back against Fana, this is not the time or the place for you to call it quits and die. Find a solution. Find a solution to this problem!
-x-
"Shinji looks like he's bin pinned in between a wall of stone and flames," went Asuka, seeing a picture of the boy trying to avoid getting burned alive. "Why doesn't he just fight back against the girl?"
"Maybe because he doesn't want to kill her," said Misato to her.
"That's pathetic. The girl's clearly trying to kill him, and he's just trying to talk his way out of conflict instead of doing his job and fighting someone that clearly doesn't want to talk."
"Ikari-Kun isn't trying to echo his previous obligation in his new life in the Clover Kingdom," Rei explained. "If he can avoid conflict, he will find a way to persevere."
"But he has the Eva in his book," went Ritsuko to them. "Why doesn't he just use it to fight back? Not using it is illogical."
"He is not going to fall back into something that he is uncomfortable with doing. He swore never to use the Eva again after it was sucked into his grimoire."
"Which is a choice for those that show weakness," Gendo expressed, which earned him a look of contempt from Fuyutsuki and Katsuragi. "He is showing weakness."
"You call it weakness when it's actually restraint and adaptation," Fuyutsuki told him. "He didn't want to pilot the Eva to begin with, and then an opportunity is presented in front of him that relieves him of it…and you call him weak for not relying on it? He's in a different world, Ikari. One where there is no need for the Eva, and where your son has adjusted to life."
"Life among a bunch of people that don't even use technology, that rely on some ridiculous belief of magic and fairytales."
"To each their own," Asuka stated, and noticed that on the next page, Shinji had been attacked by the beast man and not the angry girl with the serpent. "Gott im Himmel."
"What happened?" Misato wondered; she had expected Shinji to be facing the girl with the serpent, not getting attacked by a man beast.
-x-
He had been taken completely by surprise! While his actions were to stop Fana, Shinji had been counterattacked by Vetto, who had thrown Guardian aside like a ragdoll. And worse, the attack had left Shinji feeling like an invalid; as he lay on the ground, he couldn't move his arms or legs. It was though he'd been immobilized by Vetto's Beast Magic slash on his back.
"Aaaurgh…aaaurgh… Damn…" He grunted, still able to move his head.
"Hmm…ha-ha!" Vetto snickered, his claws glowing with his magic and covered bits of Shinji's blood. "Demon Beast Magic: Vicious Sabretooth."
Guardian got back up and saw Shinji had been injured…and from the degree of his back injury, it was likely a spinal-based one. But he continued to breathe, meaning he was still alive.
"Yeah, we have definitely bitten off a bit more than we could chew," he uttered, "but I can see possibility, and we will prevail over those that seek vengeance against something committed generations ago."
Asta had summoned his Demon-Slayer and Demon-Dweller Swords and charged towards Vetto.
"You're going to pay for that!" He told the Beast Magic mage.
But Fana intercepted him and used Salamander to release a fireball at the Anti Magic mage.
"You who have no magic cannot hope to overpower us," she told him, but he deflected the fireball with his Demon-Slayer Sword, sending it flying towards a wall.
Blast! It hit the wall and exploded.
"I'll never give up!" Asta told her.
The other Black Bull members got into the battle, seeing that there was nothing Rhya could do now that he was restrained and his grimoire useless.
"Water Creation Magic," Noelle yelled, aiming her wand at Vetto. "Sea Dragon's Roar!"
"Lightning Creation Magic," went Luck, summoning his own attack. "Thunder Dragon!"
"Fire Restraining Magic," Magna called out, summoning fire around Vetto. "One-Hundred-Degree Chains!"
Before Vetto could move, the flames took the form of heavy chains that wrapped around his body, immobilizing him. He saw the dragon-like constructs of water and lightning charge towards him and braced for impact.
BOOM! He felt the increased power of these attacks, but was still standing.
"Is that all you got?!" He demanded.
"No," he heard Guardian say behind him, turning around to knock him aside, but was grabbed by him with much greater force. "We have more."
Pierce! Vetto felt something stab him in the back, and turned his head around to see Asta, using his Demon-Dweller Sword on him.
"Rrraurgh!" He roared, unable to move with Guardian holding his arms at his sides, and could feel his augmented magic power slipping away from him. "Rraurgh!"
"You really should've considered stopping to converse about what happened and why," Guardian told him, and then him threw him over himself, slamming him onto the ground, driving the Demon-Dweller Sword through his abdomen.
"Aaaaurgh!" Vetto screamed in agony. "Aaaugh!"
"Consider yourself lucky to still be alive," Guardian stated. "Such a move would've killed an ordinary human. But you're not human, are you? Your magic aura doesn't register as human…and you don't look it."
"Wretched," went Fana as Salamander charged another fireball, "disgraceful, unforgivable… I will destroy you!"
Shinji looked up at Fana and Salamander, unwilling to let either one harm his squad while he was still able to do something.
Even if my body's crippled, he thought as he tried to move his left arm, reaching for his fallen grimoire, even if my limbs have been torn to shreds…if I can still breathe…I can still fight!
His grimoire flipped through pages and found a spell that mirrored his desire to help.
Suki flipped through her grimoire for a spell to counter the draconic spirit, but wasn't finding anything to defend against it.
"Oh, shit," she cursed under her breath.
"Die," Fana uttered. "Die, die, die!"
Salamander was about to unleash its attack…when suddenly…
A strange wave of energy came upon the entire temple…and Salamander's fireball dissipated from its mouth.
"What?!" Fana reacted, falling onto Salamander as it fell to the ground. "My magic! My magic's gone! What have you done?!"
Even Vetto felt the strange energy that had removed his magic power from his body.
Other members of the Eye of the Midnight Sun felt deprived of their magic just come undone…and couldn't understand why.
"What is this?!" One member demanded.
Suki summoned her Grizzly Mayhem and watched it send several of the mages from the group flying across the place.
Somehow, it appeared that only the Black Bulls' magic was unaffected by this unusual phenomenon while every other mage was unable to perform any spells at all.
"Thread Restraining Magic," Vanessa uttered, summoning her threads to entangle Fana and Salamander. "Steel-Laced Threads!"
"Cotton Restraining Magic," added Charmy, wrapping the two within a large wad of cotton. "Cotton Wad!"
Guardian approached Shinji and confirmed the spell that disabled Fana and Salamander came from his grimoire.
"Well done, Shinji," he praised him, picking him carefully. "You managed to unlock one of Anti Magic's strongest spells: The Sphere of Influence."
"Sphere of Influence?" Shinji questioned. "Aaurgh!"
"I'll explain it after we're done here."
Suki used her magic creation to pick up Vetto, making sure not to remove the Demon-Dweller Sword from his body, leaving as a failsafe in case whatever was happening were to cease so that it could resume draining him of magic. She looked over at Shinji and felt unease at how he got injured by a beast of a man.
"If he loses the use of his arms and legs," she threatened Vetto, "you will know exactly how it feels like to not be able to scratch an itch or kick a ball."
"You will taste despair," he told her as his third eye vanished. "All of you will know despair."
Suki sighed…and then smacked Vetto in his face!
"Despair, despair. Would you please get an extended vocabulary?!" She told him. "It's very annoying when you say the same thing more than once! You practically reminded me of my withered years around several ladies that literally lost bits of their minds where I was exiled to! Dementia. Alzheimer's. Ugh! I kept fearing I'd end up no better than they were."
Vanessa walked over to Guardian and Shinji and asked the boy, "Is she serious? About what she said about her age and women losing their minds?"
Shinji looked at her and responded, "Yes, ma'am. My aunt was in her fifties before we came to the Clover Kingdom. We actually visited a senior center and I saw one of the negatives of being elderly. It's heartache when other people visit their loved ones and have to pretend everything's fine when it's hardly so."
"Ugh," the witch shuddered, and then looked at Suki, seeing that she was quite preserved for a woman that was originally less than sixty years old in body…and over fifteen-hundred years old due to being from a time that was way before any of theirs. "To lose your mind as you age on…that is terrifying."
"Just as terrifying as losing those around you," he told her.
Out of every member of the Eye of the Midnight Sun that was present, only Rhya didn't give the Black Bull any further trouble; as his grimoire was stripped of his copied spells, he wasn't much of a threat, and he couldn't find the will to fight back.
"You could kill us if you wanted to," Rhya told them. "Why don't you and be on your way?"
"You sound as though you wish you faced a Magic Knight squad that actually believed in murder," Guardian told him. "Murder is something that should only be considered as an absolute last resort when trying to talk fails and every other non-lethal method has been exhausted. When talk fails, it's only because those it's attempted on choose to believe it's not worth attempting. Murder…is only for those that actually get a thrill from doing it, taking lives when it is unnecessary…simply because they believe it resolves every issue they have when it really doesn't. Murder begets only more suffering…until there's no end to it."
"Who…and what…are you?"
"I am…as I've always been. The Guardian of the Void."
"The faithful servant of House Ikari? You show up every few generations and become a fairytale all over again? I once heard a rumor that you're older than the elves themselves. Is that true…or just a rumor?"
Guardian looked at him and responded, "It's only true…if you actually choose to believe it."
-x-
"…It looks like Shinji did something," Misato expressed as they looked at the picture of the Black Bull squad restraining these people in white robes with eyes.
"Yeah, but it looks like he got injured," Asuka stated, seeing that the dark creature that was associated with his grimoire was carrying him on its back."
"No one is a failure if they have others to help out," went Rei, reiterating an old saying.
Ritsuko turned the page in the album and they saw another old picture of the Ikari family with Yui when she was a preteen and her older siblings, noticing that Suki, who looked rather…stunning in a strange sort of way, possessed a small dog, a Hokkaido, in her arms. And then, she noticed a second picture of a missing dog, the very same one that Suki had, and started to wonder what happened to the dog. A third picture depicted of the three siblings in what seemed to be an unpleasant conversation.
"It looks like his mother rarely got along with his aunt and uncle," said Fuyutsuki, noticing that Yui seemed…at odds with Suki and Tenshi.
Rei looked at the picture of the Hokkaido and touched it.
Flash! She saw a younger Yui and Suki arguing about the older sister's missing dog…but not getting any sense of sympathy from the younger sister…as if she had something to do with it.
"I think his mother killed his aunt's dog," she told them.
"That's a pretty heavy accusation," went Fuyutsuki to her. "What makes you suspect that?"
"Ikari-Kun's mother… She never got along with her elder siblings. They were…beneath her."
"That's very awful," Misato stated; if Yui couldn't get along with her siblings, and this was before they returned to the Clover Kingdom, it was anyone's guess as to how her son was able to get along with his aunt and uncle when his mother seemed incapable of such a simple social feat. "What is his grandmother doing?"
A different photo showed Rika Ikari on a broomstick flying over a large body of water, a look of serenity on her face as she flew towards her destination.
"I wonder where she's going?" Kaji questioned as he looked at the next picture under her, seeing the Black Bull squad look as though they were set to leave the underwater environment they were in, with Shinji looking slightly better.
-x-
To the surprise of the Black Bulls, Nero, due to the influence of Shinji's recent Anti Magic spell, the Sphere of Influence, was affected by it…and exposed as a young woman and not an anti-bird.
"Quite a shocker," went Guardian as he bowed his head to the woman that was once an anti-bird. "I did not see this possibility at all."
Shinji, due to both Suki and Noelle's Healing Magic, was up and walking again, and he questioned, "You see possibility every time, but you didn't see the possibility that…Nero…was actually a girl?"
"With her, there was only this possibility: That she was hiding something. Beyond that, this was a surprise."
The girl in question, bore a slight resemblance to the anti-bird. She wore a dark dress with a ruffled skirt that resembled the feathers of a bird, was about the average height of a woman in her mid-to-late teens, though her skin tone seemed rather pale, with her eyes showing dark bags under them, as though she had been deprived of rest for a long time. Her eyes were reddish and her hair was dark and bob-styled with two strands of it pointing up on top of her head, and on either side of her head was a small, dark horn, as if she had some relation to a demonic being.
"Wow," Suki expressed, never imagining that anti-bird could've been a person. "It's nice to meet you, miss. How are you?"
But the girl didn't respond. Her very facial expression, down to her slanted eyes, was unchanged; to Shinji, the girl reminded him of Rei Ayanami, except her hair was black instead of blue and she had a little more life to her.
"I'm guessing she doesn't talk," Magna suspected.
"No," stated Guardian, "she merely refuses to speak."
"So, what do we do with her?" Grey questioned.
"She helped find the magic stone," Asta spoke. "She probably knows why the Eye of the Midnight Sun is after them."
"Assuming she'll tell us anything," went Noelle.
"Only patience will tell," said Suki; whoever this woman was, they had to give her the benefit of her aid in finding the magic stone before the enemy did.
Finral opened a portal back to the Royal Capital.
"Until next time, people," he told the Seabed Temple's people.
The Black Bull left with the captured members of the Midnight Sun and the Third Eye, and Shinji looked back at the place one last time before going through the portal himself. It was the first and only place so far that he had ever been to that was underwater, surrounded by creatures that he wouldn't see back in Japan if he went back there due to the ecological devastation he had read about over and over again that made no sense after he was told a different truth from NERV…but even that had its holes due to human-derived errors.
"Shinji?" Guardian spoke to him.
"Sorry," he apologized to him. "This place is…just another reminder that this world is amazing."
Guardian nodded his head in agreement; he had seen this world's beauty and wonderment many times in the past…and it never ceased to amaze on how the people could adapt to environments due to their magic and ingenuity.
"Yeah, it's truly beautiful…even when you think it isn't."
They then went through the portal.
"You really need to tell me about that spell I used. I mean, I was desperate to continue helping to stop the Third Eye…and that spell helped out a lot."
"And I was impressed that you were able to use it while injured. It's only been used six times by four past wielders of the False Destiny Breaker, which makes you the fifth to have ever used it."
-x-
Licht couldn't believe this! The Third Eye had been defeated by the Black Bulls! Somehow, the worst squad in the history of the Clover Kingdom's Magic Knights, strengthen by their House Ikari members, had defeated his three comrades that were much stronger than he was as a combatant. Not only that, but they were able to obtain another magic stone. If he was going to avenge the past atrocities committed by the Clover Kingdom's nobility…then he would have to take a direct approach against the squad, starting with the youngest of House Ikari!
I will make you pay for this, he thought, holding a picture of Shinji in his left hand, and then causing it to smolder in his possession.
-x-
When Tenshi heard that his sister and nephew were in the Royal Capital with a lot of members from the Eye of the Midnight Sun, he opened a portal to there and walked through, stepping out onto the streets of the city and looked around.
"You two had best be in one piece," he sighed as he headed towards the Magic Knights' headquarters, since that was where the Black Bull squad would be. Yui, you should want to know the success of the squad Shinji and Suki are in, too. Where have you gone at such a time?
Of course, he tried to find his baby sister, but Yui was nowhere to be found. At least, not in the places he tried, which were the places he had seen her around, like the library or the Golden Dawn HQ, but lately, those places seemed devoid of her presence. He even tried searching her room, but it was empty, with just books and pieces of parchment paper lying on her desk. It was like trying to find a ghost, only the ghost didn't want to be found.
-x-
Using his Anti Magic spell from earlier, Shinji made sure the Third Eye was kept in check when presented to the Wizard King and the other Magic Knight captains that had been at HQ when the Black Bull arrived with the captured members of the Midnight Sun.
"Sphere of Influence?" Jack the Ripper questioned, feeling his own magic disappear from his body. "How is this possible?"
"It's like magic can't exist as long as that spell is in use," Charlotte suspected, opening and closing her left hand.
"Uh, yeah, that's…how it is for most," Shinji had explained; as best as Guardian had informed him, Sphere of Influence's effects and range were dependent upon his emotions, relationships and current magic level. "Not everyone is affected all the time."
"This spell only affects certain people?" Fuegoleon asked him.
"People I don't know or trust are the ones that can't use their magic," he revealed, "and those I do remain unaffected."
"That's," went Rill, impressed by the spell, even if his kept him from using his magic, "a very impressive spell you have there."
"And these three were the strongest of the Eye of the Midnight Sun?" Nozel wanted to know, looking at the Third Eye, each member restrained by Yami's Dark Magic, as he was the only captain among them that could still use magic due to Shinji trusting him. "Beast Magic… Fire and Spirit Magic… Imitation Magic… And your squad defeated them?"
"That's right," responded Yami.
"Really impressive," said Julius as he kept his distance from Vetto and Fana; because his magic was also affected by Shinji's spell, he was vulnerable until there came a time when the young man felt he could trust him, removing him from the negative aspect of his sphere and enabling him to use his magic. "It is nice to meet you three."
Of the three, Vetto merely growled while Fana frowned and Rhya remained silent.
"Oh, they're not going to be talking for quite a while," Guardian told the Wizard King. "Maybe Rhya, but not Fana and Vetto."
"You believe them to be under an enchantment?" Nozel questioned.
"No, they're just unwilling to divulge anything they know," he stated. "Whatever their reason, they hold animosity against the Clover Kingdom and the people within it."
"Just like Rades Spirito said," added Shinji.
"Don't you have a spell in that grimoire that can make them talk," Jack the Ripper asked him.
"Unfortunately, none that are subtle," he answered; he found some of the other spells associated with making people speak the truth weren't exactly as friendly as other spells, including one he was looking at in his grimoire.
"Any spell that can make them speak would suffice," Julius informed Shinji.
He sighed and uttered the chosen spell.
"Shadow Communication Magic: Doubtless Confessions."
Beside the members of the Third Eye, shadow-like creatures rose from behind the floor and cloaked them in their long, skeletal, limb-like wings, the tops of their heads forming strange hats, almost as though they were wearing dark costumes.
"Grr…" Vetto growled, baring his fangs.
"Aaurgh," Fana groaned, moving her head around as if she were in pain.
"Yeah, it's torture if you try to resist," Shinji stated.
"This spell isn't necessary," Rhya spoke, the least affected by the spell because he wasn't resisting at all. "I'll talk…but only to you (he raises his left hand to point his index finger at Shinji). You're the least likely to raise a fit when an answer is given…and you're clearly not aggressive, even for a Magic Knight."
"Aggression isn't always the answer…even when people think it is."
"I don't see how you're able to do as you do without succumbing to the corruption of their imperfect order."
"There's no desire to become corrupted. Magic Knights are supposed to be the people that protect the helpless. The minute you start to deviate and do something that isn't… It'd be easier to just sit and talk the problem out rather than resort to violence."
"Heh-heh… You don't seem to embrace violence…and yet you joined the Magic Knights, a group that uses violence. You can only avoid violence for so long."
"Too true, Mr. Rhya. Too true."
The shadow-like cloak on Rhya tightened on his shoulders and caused him to groan a bit.
"You're trying slightly to refrain from speaking of what the problem between your group and the kingdom is," Shinji told him. "You really shouldn't. If you can, please, tell us what the reason is that you are always attacking the Clover Kingdom?"
"Because it was the nobility of the Clover Kingdom," Rhya uttered, "that killed the Elf Tribe."
Shinji turned to face the Magic Knight captains and the Wizard King, and then turned back to face Rhya.
"What do you mean by that?" He questioned the mage, his curiosity aroused.
"Long ago, in the land that would be later known as the Forsaken Realm, the Elf Tribe resided, rarely having anything to do with humans, especially the nobility, who were jealous of our magic, and then one day, the leader, our leader, Licht, befriended two of the nobility, Lemiel Silvamillion Clover…and his sister, Tetia. Unlike the majority of the nobility, they didn't have any prejudice against commoners or elves. There was…only kindness and understanding. Lemiel and Licht, they had much in common. They desired an era where all were equal, whether they were human or elf. The three became friends…and then Licht asked for Tetia's hand."
"Tetia's hand? You mean, Licht asked Tetia if she would marry him?"
"That's right."
"I can't see anything wrong with that. I mean, if their relationship was mutual, then it was natural that it would progress into romance."
"To be honest, I was expecting you to react with horror."
"If the relationship were forced, I'd question it. Was their relationship forced? Did your leader, Licht, desire Tetia in a negative way? Did Tetia, even once or twice, try to get away from the elf out of hatred or fear? I'm asking you, Rhya of the Treacherous, did any of that happen in the past? Any of it happen at all?"
"And I will only tell you…no, none of that happened at all. Licht loved Tetia and Tetia loved Licht, despite their being from different races and different worlds. They had hope that their child would unite the two races once they were married."
"Okay."
"You're surprised?"
"I am."
"Disgusted?"
"No, why?"
"Tetia was human…and Licht was an elf. If you're not disgusted, then they're most likely disgusted (he pointed to the Magic Knight captains and Wizard King)."
"If they're disgusted by a union between human and elf, that's on them," Shinji declared, pointing his right thumb to them. "I'm not going to agree with anyone's prejudice if they're unsatisfied with a particular truth. If it's a lie, then it's a sign of treachery."
Rhya sighed and continued.
"Their wedding day was supposed to be a day of celebration," he expressed, "but that day became one of bloodshed and pain. Only the Elf Tribe, Lemiel, Tetia and a third human knew about the wedding's time and location, but somehow, the nobility of that time found out and attacked us with Light Magic. Our magic stolen from us with some kind of magic tool that had been developed by Lemiel. We were murdered that day…and somehow…Licht used forbidden magic to suspend our souls in limbo, awaiting the day for our reincarnation and revenge. I don't remember anything after a hail of light struck us down and the laughter of nobles as they felt strengthened by their stolen magic."
"That's just cruel," Shinji shared his opinion. "Who turns a day that was supposed to be a happy one into one of carnage and heartache? Who would…willingly, purposely commit such an atrocity against those that wanted no part in such atrocity?"
"People that will always desire more, either out of fear or greed," went Vetto, no longer resisting the effects of the spell the Third Eye was under. "The nobility…will always desire power over all else. Nothing else matters to them except their greed and ruthlessness."
"They would turn on each other, just as they did to Tetia," added Fana, "just for loving Licht."
"But…do you three really believe that Mr. Lemiel Silvamillion Clover would…actually…betray the Elf Tribe? That he would…betray each of you…and murder his own sister?" Shinji wanted to hear from them. "Based only on the way you described him, Mr. Rhya, Mr. Lemiel didn't seem like the kind of person that would ever turn against you if he desired coexistence between humans and elves."
"Other than one of our own, Lemiel was the only human we dared to trust that used Light Magic," Vetto stated. "Who else but him would use Light Magic to massacre the Elf Tribe?"
"I mean, he couldn't have been the only person back then that used Light Magic. There had to have been other mages back then."
"There were those of House Ikari," went Fana, surprising Shinji, "but they were already driven into exile by the same nobility that attacked the elves…and we never had any reason to suspect any of them. They were each of them trustworthy and all loved by the mana just as much as we were. More so than all of the nobility combined due to their unique ability to use all forms of magic, including combining them in ways we could never imagine possible. You're a member of House Ikari, and you're living proof that the mana loves you more than others."
Shinji turned to face the Magic Knight captains and Wizard King again, making sure they heard everything that was being said. And then he returned his attention to the Third Eye.
"But something doesn't add up from your recollection of the events that led up to that cruelty," he tried to clarify. "Someone that day used Light Magic to kill you, prompting your leader to use a forbidden form of magic to grab hold of your souls and reincarnate you later on. You suspect that it was Mr. Lemiel, but something about his potential involvement doesn't seem likely so. Then you say that one of your own members can use Light Magic, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions and point the finger at one of your own. That's not likely true, either; why would a member of your own tribe want to attack Licht and Tetia on their wedding day? Why risk murdering everyone there that day? If you say all the elves were murdered that day, then that includes Licht, as well, but he was able to save your souls before he, too, succumbed to his wounds. Does any of this make any sense to you?"
Rhya thought about it…and had to admit, if only to himself, that there were gaps missing from their recollection. Despite his ability to ascertain truth and deception from people, he couldn't detect any deception from Lemiel. Not even from Licht's wife-to-be and the mother of his unborn child. He couldn't even see deception emanating from this Ikari, and he was trying to understand what went wrong, and what, if anything, could be done to resolve the matter without further violence.
"If I may intervene for a moment," went Guardian as he approached the four and took hold of Shinji's grimoire, "I would recommend this spell."
"Why this one, Guardian?" Shinji asked him.
"Secrets have a cost, and someone that tries to hide such secrets will often always find themselves faced with adversity when they are exposed to light."
And so Shinji used the recommended spell, hoping he was strong enough to make it work out for all involved.
"Compound Magic," he uttered, "Revisit the Calamity."
The grimoire glowed with intense light…and enveloped everyone within the room.
To be continued…
A/N: I didn't really think about stopping it here, but I want y'all to be intrigued further by how this story continues to deviate, and take multiple stabs at character development, such as how the people at NERV poke and prod at selective memories of the Ikari relatives and get curious about what's going to occur later on. Where do you think Rika's going? How powerful do you think Shinji has grown? And how will the Magic Knights and Clover Kingdom react to revelations when they hit?