Creation began on 11-02-21
Creation ended on 11-23-21
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Grimoire of Evangelion: Past and Future, Friends and Brothers
A/N: The grand scene.
Nacht had returned to his former home that had been in disrepair ever since his family had been reduced to just himself due to their practice of contracting devils. His encounter with Guardian of the Void and the return of House Ikari had left him feeling very…muffed over the fact that, despite having four mid-tier devils under his possession, he wouldn't be strong enough to defeat either Guardian or Harbinger, the latter of whom had destroyed an entire country and the devils contracted with the Dark Triad, who were the strongest of mages within the Spade Kingdom. But that wasn't the primary reason he was back at his old house. No, even as he stepped inside the ruins of the building, the nobleman entered a room that had been his father's study…and stood before the painted picture of Rika Ikari, looking exactly as she had described it when he said his family had it, and it had been painted by her husband when she was younger, before what remained of her family had been forced to flee from the other royal and noble families that attacked them.
His intention was to return the painting to Rika, since it wasn't really his family's right to have it to begin with. No matter how many years went by and how many things his family may have taken from House Ikari after their self-exile to survive, it was only right that they regain as much of them back as possible. It didn't even matter if his family had a falling out with House Ikari over their disagreements on pacts with devils in exchange for more power, as his encounter with Guardian and three of the members of House Ikari had shown that, despite the severity of their absence away from this world and their return, the current matriarch, Rika, had a degree of magic in her that was more potent than his own magic that had been augmented by the four devils he had. Hers, her daughter and her grandson's magic were still pure, untainted by a sense of corruption and ambition.
"I pray that House Ikari never returns," he remembers his father saying once, even though he had never met them. "If they do, however, I pray they fall on hard times."
"But, Father," he remembers his brother said to him, "how can we just hate a family we've never met before? We've heard of this prophecy that states that they will return one day, but none of us have seen or spoken to these people, so how can we hate them? They've never even met any of us. Shouldn't we just try to talk with them should they eventually return?"
"They can use all forms of magic that make them far more powerful than any other mage that ever existed," their father explained his own dislike of the family. "Nobody knows how they came to possess this…Infinity Affinity…but they were praised for it and viewed as gods among all of us mortals. Fire Magic, Earth Magic, Light Magic, Spatial Magic, Plant Magic, they could do it all…and they made those around them seem insignificant."
"But, Father," Nacht recalled himself speaking, "Morgan's right. We've never met these people before. And this painting of one of the women from the family…doesn't seem to suggest any sort of self-righteous attitude. How old is the women in this painting? Twenty? Eighteen? She looks like she's royalty, but she looks like she doesn't revel in luxury. Didn't they choose to live in the Forsaken Realm with other people that lived there?"
But their father had already made up his mind about the Ikaris, choosing to despise them…simply because of who they were. This hatred of the family was to be expected, not overlooked or ignored. Any that had nothing against the Ikaris in a negative manner were considered either unwilling to hate them…or were just sympathizers of the injustice that drove them away over fifteen-hundred years ago. But Nacht had to agree with Morgan over the fact that they hadn't met the family…and even after he had met three of the family, there was no sense of arrogance or self-righteousness from any of them.
"Time to return you to your home," he expressed to the painting.
-x-
GASP! A young man gasped as he came to on the ground, surrounded by people he barely recognized.
Until his vision's disorientation cleared and he saw at least two familiar faces: Two women, one serene, the other, almost pale and empty.
"Wha…what?" He uttered, weakened. "Secré? Secré Swallowtail?"
"My Lord," the woman, Secré, responded.
"Something's wrong with him," they heard one of the other unfamiliar faces say, and the young man turned to see that he was laying beside another man on his left, with pointed ears and white hair. "He's not responsive."
"Licht?" He expressed, trying to get up, but was unable to. "Licht?!"
He was Lemiel Silvamillion Clover, revived and whole once more, and beside him was Licht, the leader of the Elf Tribe, before he was forced to resort to using a forbidden form of magic to impede a devil that had caused them a great misfortune. Somehow, they had been revived. Looking at the other women he recognized slightly, Lemiel could see that she was Rika Ikari, a little older and wearing three of the magic stones belonging to the elves; he deduced that she was the one behind their revival. If she was stronger and more experienced in magic, it would make sense for her to use the stones to augment her magic if it was already potent.
"Rika?" He questioned. "You've gotten taller."
"Bad time for a joke, Lemiel," she responded, her right hand aglow over him. "Fifteen-hundred years a bad time for a joke…but nice try, anyway."
Secré looked down at Licht and sensed what was wrong with his revival; while Rika had been able to restore his body from the remains of the demon skull that was believed to be all that remained of him due to using magic that was so restricted through the magic stones associated with the elves, she couldn't revive his personality, which was sealed away for some reason. But Secré, probably because of how her Sealing Magic was viewed by Rika, could set him free. She had been suggested by the current matriarch to go train under Lemiel, who didn't view her magic as useless, same as as House Ikari when they learned of her, and she was glad that they believed in her ability.
"Anyone's magic has the potential to become strong," Rika's husband had told her one time. "You just have to be open to the possibilities that you're capable of achieving and put in the effort to pursue those possibilities. If Sealing Magic enables you to open and shut things, there should be more to it than what we currently know about it. Closing doors can turn to locking them, opening chests can turn to opening restraints. Who knows what you'll be able to achieve when you go further, Ms. Swallowtail?"
They believed in me when my own parents couldn't, Secré thought as she placed her hands atop Licht's chest. They had faith that I could use my magic to help others in ways that only someone like me could help them. And Lemiel…he believed in me, too…and still does.
"But where's the faith you have in yourself, Secré?" Rika had asked her, which had been a week prior to the birth of her third daughter, a week before the family had been attacked and forced to flee for their lives when the other families that attacked them made their intentions to kill them clear and how nobody would be left breathing if they were an Ikari. "It is your belief in your abilities that will help you most of all."
I believe in myself, she thought to herself as her grimoire appeared beside her and opened to a spell she needed. "Sealing Magic: Inverse Release."
Licht was aglow with blue light and his eyes blinked a few times, as if making sure his eyes were lubricated as he started to move his head.
"I'm…I'm alive?" He spoke, confused.
"You, Lemiel, and the elves," Rika told him as he rose up. "How do you feel?"
Licht looked at his hands and then at Patolli and the Third Eye, noticing that Fana was holding an elf infant.
"That child," he uttered.
"He's yours, Licht," Fana revealed to him.
"Fifteen-hundred years," Lemiel sighs as he got up, examining himself and opening and closing his hands, flexing his fingers. "Has it really been that long?"
Rika bowed her head to the original Wizard King and leader of the Elf Tribe. While she, Tenshi and Suki had spent over fifty years in self-imposed exile in Japan, fifteen-hundred years, more than fifteen lifetimes, had come and gone by in this world, and it was a long time for people to try and make sense of how to pick up the pieces of their past and move on towards their future. For Licht, it was the absence of his wife, Tetia, a young witch that he loved deeply, and the return of their child that had been taken because of the devil that attacked them and made it seem like it was the nobility that committed the unforgivable act. And for Lemiel, it was having his life restored and being in a different era that is unfamiliar to him.
"The devil?" Lemiel questioned.
"Currently locked away by the Magic Knights," Secré informed him.
"Tetia?"
"She lived with one of her children…but I don't know what happened to them after you fought with Licht's demonic form that day."
Rika had her condolences for Licht's personal loss; he had lost the love of his life because of a devil, got stuck in limbo with the other members of his tribe that were attacked that day, lost fifteen lifetimes' worth of happiness to live out his days, but had regained some of it all back. He had gained a son, the return of his tribe…and his life restored to him.
"Hmm?" She heard Vetto go. "What's that over there?"
He pointed to something glowing behind a rock.
Rika went over to the rock and looked behind it.
"It's a grimoire," she told them, picking it up. "I believe this is Licht's grimoire."
Gasp! The elves gasped.
"What?" She asked them. "It seems obvious that it would return once he did. Why doesn't it?"
"We kept assuming that his grimoire was in the possession of the boy from the Black Bull," Rhya explained, though it was merely because of the fact that Asta had access to swords unreasonably similar to the ones Licht had access to. "Just corrupted and everything."
"No, I looked at that grimoire personally when I met with the young man. If his grimoire were really Licht's, I'd have informed him and the other Magic Knights. I would've felt the slightest trace of Licht's magic from the pages or even the hardback bindings, but during the brief time I examined the grimoire, there was absolutely no trace of Licht's essence within it, not like this one. It was a Black Clover grimoire, and it had sword spells inherited from Licht's grimoire to further enhance its Anti Magic capabilities. If I had to wager, this grimoire here still contains the original spells used by Licht, along with the original weapons he came to possess."
Rika levitated the grimoire to Licht, who took hold of it, and felt the familiar magic flow into him, like an old friend greeting him after a long time apart. Even the clover was a four-leaf one; it had become a five-leaf clover due to his despair over the assumption that Lemiel had betrayed him and the elves, but once his despair was undone, the clover returned to its original state, symbolizing the restoration of his hope and faith in Lemiel. Then, she saw a sword hilt emerge from the pages, and he pulled out a sword. It resembled the smaller sword that Asta possessed that used to be covered in dirt and rust in the beginning before his grimoire was cleaned to reveal its clover, only this one was white and silver, shiny and looking like it was made of polished marble, glass, metal and crystal.
"The Demon-Dweller Sword," went Patolli; he couldn't believe that it was here, in its original state. "That's the Demon-Dweller Sword."
-x-
"…It seems like his grandmother's like a goddess right now, reviving these people," said Misato as she saw the picture of Rika with the elves as Licht held up a sword that looked like it was made of light.
"She's hardly a goddess," Gendo expressed his personal opinion.
Asuka then turned the page, seeing a picture of Shinji training with that pole arm he got during his fight with Patolli, bringing the blade right up against the left side of Guardian's neck, stopping just an inch away from it.
"You're getting better at your precision, Shinji," Guardian had praised him.
"Thank you," Shinji had replied, and then swung the back of the pole arm at his legs, knocking the large beast to the ground.
"Whoa," Fuyutsuki uttered, not thinking that Shinji actually had a move of that sort in him to do.
"If you think he's got some hidden moves, you should see his uncle in this one," said Kaji, pointing to another photo that displayed Tenshi, looking as those he was training those two people from last time. "Look at him."
-x-
Gathering up mana from a Grand Mana Zone was one thing, but doing so while training others to use the Mana Method to invoke greater feats of magic at the same time was a new high for Tenshi. Returning to the Ultime-Volcano Mountain Trail to complete his attempt, he also had to teach Mereoleona and Zora Ideale, who would be trying to put into use what he taught them about the Mana Method and invoke True Magic. So far, he had absorbed a little of the additional mana from this place that he needed to achieve his goal, but he still had a long way to go. If he could amass more than half the mana he needed within twenty-five minutes during this training session, he would win, and if he had absorbed less than half, he would have to put his goal on hold and teach these two mages how to access greater feats of magic for the next week, something he still would've done, even if he did win, if they were willing to put in the effort to learn and master what he had to teach them.
Twelve minutes left to go, he thought as he hid behind a large rock, his Dao sword pointed to the ground as he inhaled a new breath in this fiery environment. I think I just sweated out that last bit of alcohol I drank when I was eighty.
"Are you sure you don't regret not using Mana Skin?" He heard Zora ask him from around where he stood behind the rock. "I keep expecting you to break under pressure and use it."
"Oh, I don't regret this at all, Ideale!" He told him, smiling. "I'm having the time of my life right now! Are you?!"
"Mana Method!" He heard Mereoleona yell, up in the air above Tenshi. "Fire Magic: Untamed Calidus Brachium!"
The runes surrounding her were impressive, and Tenshi could feel the heat generating from her palms, despite being a considerable distance away.
"Union Magic," he uttered, his grimoire flipping through pages to the desired spell he needed. "Rainforest Shelter!"
Mereoleona fired a stream of intense flames that were shaped like a large fist wearing five rings, and watched as Tenshi was wrapped up in a ball of rock with a rain cloud over it.
"That little shell won't protect you from my attack!" She yelled as the fire fist made contact with the defense spell Tenshi used.
BLAST! The shelter exploded and released a widespread smokescreen.
Zora used an ash spell to search for Tenshi in the smoke; no matter how skilled or clever he was at hiding himself, there was no way Tenshi could hide his mana from this spell designed to track mana from mages.
"Where are you hiding?" He spoke, looking at the smokescreen below him.
He then felt a hand on his left shoulder and turned to see…Tenshi, standing right behind him.
"I'm right here," he heard him say; on his face were at least four cuts, two on his right cheek, one on his nose and another over his left eye. "Lightning Slash Magic: Chain-link Electro Shocker!"
Zora felt a surge of electrical energy flow right into his nerves! It was like every last strand of hair on his body was set on fire!
"Aaaurgh!' He yelled.
Mereoleona couldn't believe that Tenshi not only avoided her attack, but had relocated himself from his shelter and behind the rogue mage…and she didn't detect his mana at all! Before she could do anything else, she saw a bolt of lightning coming her way and it reached her right leg, sending a jolt up her spine!
"Rrrraaurgh!" She howled.
Tenshi then sent Zora flying towards Mereoleona, causing the two to slam into each other before hitting the ground. But he didn't let them hit with force; he summoned a water and cotton spell that mirrored a waterbed, softening their fall. In addition, the spell contained a recovery boost that started once the water broke through the cotton and onto them.
"Not even using the Mana Method," he expressed to them as they stood up, recovered, "and you two are making me go through hoops more intense than I anticipated on going through. How are you feeling?"
"Confused," replied Zora. "How did you conceal your mana from detection? I could feel it a mile or three away, but after her attack made contact, it just vanished. What kind of magic did you use? Some sort of concealing ability?"
"It wasn't so much a magical ability as it was hard-learned skill to suppress mana within yourself. Not easy to master at first, but after a grace period, it becomes second nature."
"You're saying that you can suppress your mana at will?" Mereoleona questioned. "You can just…mask it so that you don't give off any sense of having any magic? Like, at all?"
"Not at first…but it got easier over time. I can teach you how to do it if that's what you want to do, but I can't promise you'll get far."
"Either way, it looks like you won this session."
Ding! A timer Mereoleona had set to time the training session had gone off, alerting the three to the fact that Tenshi had either gathered enough natural mana from the environment…or less than what he was looking to amass.
"Well," Zora wanted to know, "did you pass or fail?"
Tenshi brought his right arm up and conjured a scale to confirm whether or not he had gathered enough mana. The scale on the left represented his victory while the one on the right represented his loss. For a few seconds, the scales were fairly balanced…until they tilted. It looked as though his victory scale was going down, weighed down by the mana he had gathered…and it did.
"I wasn't really sure I'd succeed," Tenshi told them. "And it looks like it's just enough to make my spell work out."
"This blend of Spatial and Time Magic," Mereoleona spoke, "what makes it so powerful?"
"Being able to travel through space and time, to go to a place that is far and beyond what you know…is a feat that I need to master for the sake of mastering, not for myself, but for my nephew and others."
"But…what is it that makes this type of magic so special?"
"You can go just about anywhere with Spatial Magic, but combine it with Time Magic…then your destination expands to not just wherever you can go…but whenever, too. Go back to yesterday…or yester-week…or yester-month…however far back you can go."
"That sounds like an impossible feat," Zora stated.
"We do the impossible every time we go to extremes."
-x-
Rika, once it was confirmed that all the elves had been revived and the people their souls had been placed into were relieved of them, which took less than an hour to make sure, returned the three stones to Licht. But Licht, after coming to terms with what happened in that moment and what needed to be faced with a clearer understanding, gave her back the three stones.
"You hold onto them," he told her. "I'll come back for them at another time."
Rika bowed her head to him and put the three stones into her grimoire pouch. She had wanted to return the stones right there and then to avoid becoming a power-hungry sorceress, except now she would have to put them somewhere they couldn't entice her to become greedy for more of what was unnecessarily sought after. It was one of her most terrible of privileges, to be a custodian of ancient and powerful relics that could be dangerous if misused by those either misguided, arrogant or just ill-suited and reckless.
"We should probably look for a new place to settle down," said Fana to them, still holding Licht's son in her arms.
"But where?" Patolli questioned; the original intention before all of this had been to take the Clover Kingdom from the people and remake it so that the elves could live there, but now that things had changed, they could've retaken their place in the Forsaken Region of the kingdom.
"If I can suggest one place," Rika expressed to them, "try the forest northwest of the Heart Kingdom. It's in a Grand Magic Zone that lies within the neutral space between Heart and Spade. You should be safe there."
"But…wasn't Spade recently attacked by a creature that was more dangerous than the devils that once resided there?" Vetto asked her.
"That's just it," she explained, "only Spade was attacked by Harbinger. He didn't make any attempt to look for anyone that might've hid in the neutral zone in between Spade, Clover, Diamond or Heart. Nobody's sure why, though. Of all the kingdoms, Spade had the most people in terms of population. Fifty-million, give or take, and now only less than a thousand. Diamond has over five-million, Heart has over eight-million, and Clover has less than four-million."
"What if whoever let Harbinger out to begin with…decides to come after us?" Rhya suggested.
Rika didn't want to consider that possibility. But after hearing it being asked, she had to take it into consideration. Whoever was now in league with Harbinger would likely have knowledge of the elves' return and may consider them a threat. This put a target on their backs as it did everyone else's.
"I'll come with y'all," said Lemiel to them, surprising Secré and Rika.
"Are you sure about this?" Licht asked him.
"Yes," he answered. "If this Harbinger is a threat to everyone, then I'll put my life on the line to make sure that he can't hurt any of the elves."
-x-
It was one thing to read a letter from Shinji that spoke about his days as a Magic Knight and his concerns for the people due to these threats that came and went as the days did, but the one issue Yui had with her son's letters was sending one back to him that had similar issues regarding the life of a Magic Knight. His last letter to her was two days ago, and it was about how the Elf Tribe had left Clover to find a new place to call home, and she was sitting in her room, facing a blank piece of parchment paper, unsure of what to write back to him. Personally, she'd rather not write anything back to him because she felt it was all moot; just because the Elf Tribe had been brought back to life, it didn't change her own goal for the people of this world. It just meant that they would have to be included into the final outcome or excluded, and she could imagine a brighter future for all of humanity with these…faux-people.
But if she didn't keep up the pretense that she was doing fine as a Magic Knight, Harbinger would get on her case. Everything had to go in a precise and refined manner, like any goal that followed an exact science; if they wanted their different goals that led to the same conclusion, they needed to do so carefully. But every time she thought about wanting to tell Shinji her actual feelings regarding the Clover Kingdom, the people, the Magic Knights…and their family, she imagined seeing him, his face full of hurt at her revelation about all of it. And then…there was their family, her mother and elder siblings, walking away with Shinji.
Why can't any of them see? She wondered, writing something different to pass the time with her limited encounters with him. This is not how any of us are supposed to be living. We're more evolved than this. This…is just taking a tremendous step backwards. But one day, you'll see. One day, you'll all see.
Behind her was Harbinger, see-through because he was contemplating whether or not to make his presence known to her. He was about to consider doing so…when he felt the presence of similar magical energy in this room that didn't belong to Yui…and turned towards a wall where her bed was. It didn't look like there was anything wrong with the wall, but Harbinger was no fool to not notice what was there, and frowned.
Someone's trying to monitor her, he thought. Someone with very little trust or faith in this woman. I'll have to look into this.
And then he vanished, making it seem as though he was never there to begin with, leaving Yui to write her letter to her son.
-x-
"Every time that creature appears near Yui, it's like it becomes more brutal in its attempts to do things," Fuyutsuki says to everyone in the office, looking at the picture of the ghost-like Harbinger behind Yui as she sat at her desk writing a letter.
"Yeah," Kaji agreed with him, looking at the previous picture of Rika with the elves. "It doesn't even seem like it's manipulating her at all."
"It wouldn't need to," went Rei.
"Why is that?" Gendo wanted to know.
"This…creature and she…are after the same thing," she explained, "but pursue it through different means. However, their shared goal…puts them at odds with everyone around them. Yui Ikari isn't even trying to befriend anyone there."
"So, she's a loner," Ritsuko stated. "A lot of people prefer to be alone over being around others."
Asuka placed her fingers on the picture of Yui and Harbinger, getting a bad vibe from it.
"That's mostly for privacy," she says. "The more this woman keeps to herself, the more I see how she and her son are as different from each other as day is different from night. He's trying to fit in, his mother's out to get everyone."
"We don't know that for sure," Gendo stated, despite it seeming obvious to them that this was the case that his wife was demonstrating hostility towards the people of the Clover Kingdom and the rest of the world they were living in if she unleashed Harbinger on the Spade Kingdom.
Fuyutsuki turned the page and saw a picture of a younger Shinji with a bandage on his left knee, sitting next to an older Suki. Underneath the photo was the teenage Shinji and his younger-looking Aunt Suki looking at the girl with horns that seemed similar to Rei, only more alive and not an albino, a sad expression on their faces.
-x-
It wasn't something any of them had actually expected to happen so soon, but it was inevitable from the very start. But one of the things that made it easier to accept was how it could be viewed.
Secré Swallowtail, an assistant to the original Wizard King that had been revived, a member of the Black Bull Magic Knight squad, was going on a mission of her own to make sure that the revived Elf Tribe and the first Wizard King got to their destination near the Heart Kingdom in one piece. Once they were settled, however long it took them, she was to report back to Captain Yami. It was hoped by then that Rika would have found the right remedy to treat her Weg affliction and remove the horns on her head that were the result of using the magic stones to enhance her Sealing Magic.
"However long it takes?" Secré questioned.
"However long it takes," Shinji replied. "Whether it's a month, three months, a year, two years, you make sure the Elf Tribe gets settled wherever it is they choose to relocate. And then you come back here, Ms. Swallowtail."
"Yeah, 'cause my mother still wants to remove your curse," added Suki, "and believe me, that curse isn't permanent. And I want whatever details you get on the Elf Tribe; their habits, their likes and dislikes, whatever it is that you see and hear."
Secré didn't think this day would ever come. In the beginning, she had thought it would be Asta that would help resolve the disorder that befell the elves so long ago. Even though it was believed that he had no magic, she saw his conviction and tenacity to persist, eventually joining the Magic Knights and swearing to become the next Wizard King, no matter how long it took him…and was willing to put her faith in him. But then, these Ikaris show up and made the impossible possible, and she still couldn't believe any of this was actually happening. And now, she was off to make sure the elves were able to get to their destination safely and were able to establish their new home. Maybe by the time she returned, Asta would have gotten stronger and more proficient in his Anti Magic.
"See ya around," she told them, and bowed her head to them.
"Definitely," Suki replied.
"We'll be here," Shinji added, and Secré turned to leave the woods where Henry's house resided.
It was a little painful to leave, as she had gotten attached to the Black Bulls. She never believed in these…misfits from different walks of life, and then she met Asta, the only person that everyone believed was without an ounce of magic, and then she did believe in them. None of them were perfect in the slightest sense, and yet they were able to face individuals who were unbelievably stronger than most…and were able to defy belief and rise above their limitations.
"The one thing about those of House Ikari that most don't really see is their belief in others and not just themselves," her father once told her after finding out that she became a research assistant to Lemiel Silvamillion Clover. "It's a two-way street with them. They don't just create mages with great potential. Mages with great potential create House Ikari. It seems to stretch back through the past and can potentially reach into the future. If they believe in your Sealing Magic, then it means they have faith in you becoming a great mage in your own right."
Even after you were attacked, killed and driven into exile, Secré thought as a small smile formed on her face, my parents didn't stop believing in any of you. I didn't stop believing in any of you. That prophecy that formed the night three of you were able to get away was proof that, despite the injustice you were dealt, you were better than the nobles that detested you. You didn't let other people's negative emotions such as jealousy or vindictiveness cloud any of your actions. You could've wanted revenge against the descendants for what was done to you, but you don't blame any of them for the choices made by their ancestors. You're all capable of hatred, but you don't take it out on anyone unless they have done something to you personally…and only with the intention to mitigate, not escalate. You Ikaris really are some of the great ones to have ever lived or will ever live.
"Do you two think she'll be alright on her own with the elves?" Shinji and Suki heard Asta ask them, and turned to face him.
"My mother believes in Ms. Swallowtail," Suki expressed. "I see no reason to disbelieve her faith in her. I believe that she'll be alright with the elves until they get settled in wherever they go and she comes back."
"And she's older than she appears, too," added Shinji. "Maybe she hasn't had much experience with fighting anyone, but her Sealing Magic isn't bad. If she can't fight someone, she can at least hinder them. And did you see the way her eyes were when she found out that she was going with the elves to help them find a new home near the Heart Kingdom? She was relieved."
"Relieved?"
"Well, yeah," Suki explained. "That other guy she was with? He's the original Wizard King, someone my mother and Tenshi know, who was close to dying from his injuries back when that devil that attacked the elves forced him and their leader to fight one another to save others…and then he gets turned into a statue by Secré to preserve his life until he could be revived…and now he's more alive than ever. I mean, he could've challenged the current Wizard King for his position, but he instead chose to relocate with the elves. And you want to be the Wizard King one day, right? What else do you need to reach that goal, Asta? What else does it take to achieve the desired ambition?"
"All I really understand is that one needs to have merit," he answers her.
"That's true, but that requires one to have self-control."
"Self-control?"
"Restraint," Shinji tells him. "Even if nothing goes the way you want it to, you don't go into a fit and act crazy. No restraint, no control over one's own impulses, no proper results to get you closer to your goal."
"You two don't seem like you get angry and lose your restraint at all."
"Oh, you'd be surprised with how wrong that assumption is," Suki responds. "We can get angry. We can lose all sense of self-control. One thing I have the most anger about, though…is that someone took my dog when I was younger. Um, older. Um, in my earlier years. And I never saw her again."
"You had a dog?"
"Yeah, a small one. She was a birthday gift from my mother. I really loved her. It still pains me to not know why anyone would up and take her."
Shinji could sympathize with her; it was upsetting to not know what drove people to do what they do to other people. Everyone was different and had different reasons or agendas that drove them to do what they did. One of the only ways to get around these drives was to have a drive of your own that went against those of others if you didn't support their drives. He didn't support the drive of his parents…and chose to follow the drive of his grandmother, uncle and aunt, wanting to find his own way in this strange world that felt more like the kind of place he enjoyed living in as time went by, becoming more at ease and less concerned about the life he left behind in Tokyo-3. As far as he was concerned, even if he went back there once Tenshi mastered the spells he required to facilitate traveling between worlds, there would be nothing except that cruel obligation he had been forced into by his father, but so long as the Eva remained in his grimoire, no bad could come about the world.
"Nobody, not even a young man that has been left alone by his parents, deserves to be exploited, used like that, Yui," Tenshi had told his mother once he was made aware of her previous intentions by their mother. "Nobody deserves that."
Everything happens as it must, he thought he heard someone say, and turned to look past the trees, seeing nobody there.
"Shinji?" Suki questioned.
"I thought I heard someone talking just now," he told them.
"What'd they say?" Asta asked him.
"Nothing good. Nothing good."
-x-
If he pulled it off this time, it would be within his ability to achieve this impossible feat that only the invincible could do. After gathering enough of the natural mana from the Grand Magic Zone around them, Tenshi looked at Zora and Mereoleona as his grimoire floated on his left side.
"You two ready to see into the world I spent over five decades of my exile in?" He asked them.
"Let's see it," Mereoleona responded.
"Mana Method: Spatial Time Magic: Gateway to the Present Days!"
A tear in space opened up in front of Tenshi, revealing the outside of Tokyo-3, displaying the futuristic city to the two Magic Knights.
"Oh, my," Zora gasped, seeing the metal and glass skyscrapers. "What is this place?"
"That is Tokyo-3."
"Tokyo…Tokyo-3?" Mereoleona spoke. "What happened to the first two Tokyos?"
"Unnecessary calamity," he told her, and then the tear expanded as the image of the city shifted to one of the Geo-Front, just like before. "That's odd. It doesn't seem like a lot of time has passed since we left this place at all."
"There's an underground village?" Zora expressed in confusion, seeing the metal pyramid.
"Sort of."
The image shifted again, showing the inside of the room where Tenshi saw those people from before again, only more clearly and without weakness now that he had gathered the necessary mana to sustain the connection.
"Who are they?" Mereoleona asked him. "I don't sense any mana within them."
"That's because they don't have any. They're just regular people. They can't do magic like we can. Hold on a minute."
Tenshi passed through the portal and set his feet down on the floor of this room. Already, he could feel the sense of being helpless in a place where mana was scarce and was grateful of being rejuvenated. But he had learned where he messed up the first time and rectified it.
"Hello again," he greeted them.
-x-
Misato, Asuka, Kaji, Fuyutsuki and Ritsuko couldn't believe that this man was here again. Not only that, but he managed to come right through a tear is space and time. This was Tenshi Ikari, the maternal uncle of Shinji Ikari, and the guy that clearly had a more positive influence on the boy than Gendo ever could.
"Are you really here?" Asuka asked him.
"Yeah, wherever…'here' is," he replied.
"This is NERV HQ," said Misato to him.
"How long has it been?"
"It's only been…"
"Irrelevant," went Gendo, cutting Misato off from divulging unnecessary details. "Where is the Third Child?"
This time, Tenshi didn't like how Gendo spoke about Shinji. The guy just seemed to lack any measure of actual concern for his own son, only wanting to know his current whereabouts.
"Who is this guy?" They heard the masked man question.
"He's Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari," Tenshi explained. "He's the father of my nephew, Shinji."
"This man?" The fiery woman questioned, pointing to Gendo. "You mean, this pathetic excuse for a person is your brother-in-law?"
"As much as I wish he wasn't, yes. Yes, he is."
"I seriously can't imagine your nephew turning out like this guy if the way you talked about the both of them is true," the masked man told Tenshi, and then saw Gendo produce a gun at the three. "Hey, now…"
"Ikari, this is unnecessary," Fuyutsuki told Gendo.
"Where…is…the…Third…Child?" Gendo reiterated.
But Tenshi wasn't having any of this threatening behavior from Yui's disgrace for a husband. And there was no way he would subject Shinji to being reduced back to a pilot for some man-made behemoth his parents made that carried an expiration date for this world.
"How long has it been since we left?" He asked again.
Misato spoke up before Gendo could say something else.
"It's been a week!" She reveals to him. "You all went missing a week ago!"
"It's only been a week here?" He responds. "That's quite a relief. Hey, wait a minute… You're Misato Katsuragi, aren't you? You were looking after Shinji when he arrived in Tokyo-3."
Misato nodded in the positive.
"You really need to show more restraint when expressing yourself. Yeah, you're attractive and all, but we don't need to see everything."
"Is this about the photo I sent Shinji?" She asked him.
"More or less," he replied.
Gendo pulled the trigger and fired a bullet near Tenshi's right leg.
"What the…" The masked man expressed.
"Really, Gendo?" Tenshi questioned. "You tried to shoot me?"
"Where is he?" He demanded once more.
"I don't know where he is right now. We're not scheduled for another dinner date with my mother for another week. Even if I did know where he was, what's it to you?"
"I need him here, with the Eva…and my wife."
Tenshi inhaled a new breath and uttered, "Screw you. You're not exactly in any position to be making demands, gun or no gun."
"Tenshi Ikari," went Fuyutsuki. "Forget this man. You need to stop Yui!"
"What are you talking about?"
Before Fuyutsuki could say anything more, Gendo hit him in his face with his gun, knocking him to the ground.
"Aah! She's the one that attacked the kingdom!" He yelled to Tenshi. "She unleashed that monster! She's…"
Bang! Gendo fired at Tenshi again, this time hitting him in his right shoulder.
"Aarugh!" He gasped, staggering backwards. "We gotta go! Gendo's not the friendliest person here right now! This ain't over! You better pray I don't find you alone, Gendo."
The tear closed up around the three, leaving them alone in the office.
"What was that?" Misato asked Gendo. "What was that?!"
"He had information," he responded.
"And you shot him! You shot Shinji's uncle! You do realize that he could inform him of your act against him, and he might not want to come back at all!"
"And he told him something that may not be true," he stated his opinion, pointing to Fuyutsuki as he held his bloody face.
"You know perfectly well that what we saw was fact," Fuyutsuki told Gendo. "We saw Yui unleash Harbinger on those people! She didn't even hesitate. She just let that thing kill them! He had a right to know!"
"And you really weren't in any position to be making demands toward him," Ritsuko tells him. "And shooting a man that was probably the only person that could make sure the boy could return to this world would not ensure that he would want to return once he became aware of the issue that stemmed from it."
-x-
"Aaaaurgh!" Tenshi groaned, digging into the bullet wound and extracting the lead from his body. "Aaaurgh!"
"I don't want to sound out of line, Tenshi Ikari," said Zora to the patriarch as they were all atop the volcano that ceased erupting as it transformed into a spring, "but your brother-in-law was a real jerk."
"You ain't out of line, and you are absolutely right about that. He is a jerk. He wouldn't even address his son by his name, just that lame-ass designation he gave Shinji when he first arrived in that city.
Seeing him hold the extracted lead from his shoulder, Mereoleona had to praise the man for his self-medical expertise before applying Healing Magic to his injury.
"Is it true, then?" She questioned him. "What I heard was spoken during the entrance exam. Your nephew went up against former Purple Orca Rades Spirito…and expressed how it was likely a bad thing to happen if his own father would be viewed as a problem if he ever came to possess magic if he were ever to come here."
"Yeah," he replied, now using a water-based recovery spell to mend his bullet wound. "Gendo is…unpleasant, no matter what my sister says about him."
"I can't imagine anyone wanting anything to do with someone like him," Zora expressed.
Tenshi sighs as he moves his arm to get the circulation going again.
"I've met some bad men in my younger years, most of them just wanting to prove themselves men to those that thought they were just children that thought they knew more than the adults at the time did, but Gendo is not someone that I consider a man at all. Not even an animal. Just a jerk that pushes everyone away because he can't admit that he's wrong in the way that he treats others. He demonstrates no respect for others and demands respect from those around him. And if he can't get that, he'll settle for obedience and loyalty, which he doesn't deserve and can never truly earn."
"Sounds like a demon if you ask me," Mereoleona admits.
"That gray-haired guy," Zora uttered. "He said that…your sister is responsible for something that happened here?"
"Memory Communication Magic," Tenshi uttered as his grimoire flipped through pages again. "Replay the Moment."
An illusion of the man, pulled from Tenshi's mind, appeared in front of the three, and it expressed what he heard him say to Tenshi.
"You need to stop Yui!" He replayed, and then his face shifted to show the injuries that Gendo inflicted with his gun. "She's the one that attacked the kingdom! She unleashed that monster!"
"You think he was referring to the Spade Kingdom?" Mereoleona questions as the memory ceased replaying in front of them.
"Spade was the only kingdom that was attacked by a monster," Tenshi responds. "Harbinger, according to Guardian, like any other magical being, can't cross over into this one unless he's entered into a pact with someone on this side. Someone arrogant and desperate to do whatever it is that they want to make happen, regardless of whoever or whatever stands in their way."
"But is your sister like that?" Zora questions.
Tenshi had to take into consideration that Yui, despite having been, more or less, forced to accept living in a place where magic was everything and how people lived within it and how it was part of their family's heritage and legacy…was not as adjusted as Suki and Shinji were. While Suki, whose life started here for just a few short hours after her birth, had felt a connection with the Clover Kingdom that didn't leave her, even after being away for so long, and Shinji, who had only heard about this country ever since he met his maternal grandmother and uncle, had come to accept it without question and become versed in what he had learned from either them, Guardian of the Void, or others affiliated with the Clover Kingdom, even managing to obtain ownership of a pole arm that one of his late aunts had tried to master. And quite the surprise, his nephew had made a significant rise up the ranks to where he currently was, showing his sense of conviction and faith in what most would've accepted as a fairytale. But Yui…was someone he had to consider…wasn't as accepting of her new normal as the rest of them were.
But then again, he thought as he wanted to soak in the spring and rejuvenate, Yui has never been the type to just take anything sitting down. Actually, Yui's too much like her father; neither could admit to accepting anything that was sitting down…and neither could admit to ever being wrong about anything they did, whether they were in the wrong or not. I'm beginning to think that the only thing Yui ever truly got from our family has always been our sense of tenacity and unwillingness to back down. But when you combine those traits with the ones she more than likely got from her father, it all becomes an unhealthy and lethal horde of bad acts that get worse over time. Much worse.
He looked to Zora and simply nodded his head after giving it much thought.
"Then, we need to inform the Magic Knights," Zora replied. "Inform the Wizard King, the Magic Parliament, your family."
Tenshi's eyes twitched, but not from what Zora said. He just got a bad vibe going down his spine, like someone just trespassed on his personal space.
"What is that?" Mereoleona pointed to the other side of the spring, at some sort of…creature. "What in the name of… Is that thing looking at us?"
Tenshi had only seen this creature once due to Guardian showing it to better explain its reasons for having been locked in the Void long ago. There was no denying it. Standing in front of them, emanating with a darkness they couldn't comprehend…was none other than Harbinger. This was the Harbinger of Death and Destruction.
"It's Harbinger," he expressed, getting up to his feet and pulling his katana out of his grimoire.
"What does it want?" Zora asked.
"If I had to guess… He wants to kill us."
"Can we take him?" Mereoleona wanted to know.
"He killed three devils of the highest ranking. I dare not risk putting you two at risk."
Harbinger then took a step forward, walking onto the spring water.
"You three," it uttered, raising its elongated claws up, "were just in the wrong place at the wrong time…and encountered the wrong creature."
It was one thing to be in the presence of a creature that could speak like a human could, but to be in the presence of one that demonstrated hostility and lethal intentions, it was a sign that any encountered at an inopportune moment by it had to do the most logical action they understood: Flee to live…and face it at another time when the advantage was theirs to have.
"When I give the word," Tenshi told them, flipping through the pages of his grimoire, "charge towards it."
"What?" Mereoleona reacted. "You said you didn't want to risk facing it!"
"Whoever said anything about facing it?"
Harbinger cracked its neck to the right and its boa unfurled around it to wrap around its arms.
"I will kill…any that stand between me and my objective," it told them. "All that live must die to ensure order and balance. Your deaths will be swift."
Mereoleona made her fists burn while Zora had a handful of ash generating around his hands.
Tenshi held his sword in front of him, glaring at Harbinger.
"Go!" He yelled, and they dashed towards Harbinger.
Harbinger was about to eliminate the three when a glowing tear in between them appeared, obscuring their bodies, and then it vanished, leaving the creature the only one in the Grand Magic Zone.
"You can run!" It yelled. "But you can't hide forever! I'll find you! I'll kill you! All that live must die! All that live…must die."
-x-
Thud! Tenshi, Zora and Mereoleona fell onto the floor of a living room area; Tenshi had used Spatial Magic to send them elsewhere, away from Harbinger.
"What is this place?" Zora asked.
"My home," Tenshi explained. "We're in Hage in the Forsaken Region."
"You sent us miles away from a Grand Magic Zone to a low-class village?" Mereoleona questions him.
"I wasn't expecting you to show up here tonight, Tenshi," they heard a woman's voice and turned to a couch, seeing Rika Ikari, dressed in a blue yukata, a large, open book on her lap. "And you have guests?"
"Mother," went Tenshi as they got up, "meet Zora Ideale and Mereoleona Vermillion. Zora, Mereoleona, this is my mother, Rika Ikari."
Zora and Mereoleona bowed their heads to Rika, who responded in turn with a bow.
"What brings you here at this time of the night?" Rika asked them.
"Nothing good," her son replies. "We may have a serious problem."
To be continued…
A/N: I expect to have Harbinger go through a change and look more hideous so as to make him less and less like Guardian in terms of appearance. And as for Yui, the escalation will begin in due time. Looking forward to hearing your reviews about this chapter. Peace!