Note: I do not own Fairy Tail, all rights go to Hiro Mashima. I only own the OC's that will appear.
Chapter 4: The Ill-fated Ones Meet
[First Person POV]
The smelly old man gave me an expression of abject horror and caution. It hadn't occurred to me the kind of creature I presented myself as earlier, and that made me pause.
Looking down at the man I brutally murdered, my mind struggled to wrap around the fact that this was the first time I killed a human, and it was an ungodly execution. It seems that I got carried away in my anger and… supposedly fear? It wasn't wrong to say that cornered beasts could be dangerous! I had survived a deadly encounter with the supposed Black Angus and was mutilated by the dragon-thing!
I was more than justified reacting violently to the next thing that tried killing me, and it just happened to be a person. I sniffled and regarded the old man who exuded a magical signature that I currently loathe still, but I held back from attacking him. The humanity inside of me abhorred my reckless intent. It pardoned me with the dead man below me, but not for the old man.
"Girl, I don't know what to say…" the old man spoke up with a despondent sigh.
"What do you mean?" I asked warily.
"That man you just brutalized to death was an elite A-rated mercenary. While they aren't strong in the grand scheme of things, almost no child like you could ever be strong enough to stand a chance," he continued, and I rolled my eyes.
"I can smell emotions. You probably think I'm some monster, do you not?" I raised my eyebrows, unfazed by that fact. "You might be correct, I'm hardly human. So don't judge me by your metrics."
We stood in silence for a short while, neither of us willing to broach another topic.
Well, it seems I'd be going first then.
"Like I said before: you stink. I wanted to kill you as soon as I laid eyes on you," I said bluntly.
"I knew that. Your intent was quite chilling," replied the old man stiffly. "What did I do to you?"
"You bear a foul presence, and I don't like it."
That statement apparently shocked the old man, for he coughed into his fist and instinctively rubbed at his eye that was covered by a black patch. I zeroed in on it, sniffing harshly and heightening my magical senses. Blackish-red particles of ethernano flaked off the old man's body in gentle flames, but the densest clumps originated from that eye.
"You're... mystifyingly unique," said the old man in a way that made me shiver. His unpatched eye was gleaming a faint crimson. "You're more than hardly human."
"What…?" I shivered again, and a reddish veil engulfed my range of vision, painting the world around me an ominous, baleful red. It was like I was in another world, and my connection to the moon seemed suppressed to a degree that I absolutely didn't like.
Swish!
"You're asking for it!"
Threatened, I summoned a sword of ice in my hand and lunged for him!
"W-woah! Wait!" he threw himself back before he lost his head and back rolled right as I stabbed at him. He's a nimble one; I'll give him that.
"Stop running!" I continued chasing after him in this red world. "What did you do?"
"Just calm down, damn it!" The old man was literally running from her, and he was quick.
"Dispel this corrupted film this instant!"
"That was an accident. Please, calm down and I'll do it right away!"
I huffed and halted.
They restarted, opening up at least fifteen yards of space between them.
The old man clenched at the sky and ripped down the red veil he accidentally summoned, and it collapsed. The red world fell away, and I felt relief when I saw the familiar midnight sky and felt the moon's presence. Glancing briefly down at my palms, they were sweating and trembling. The red veil tampered with my powers in that short duration.
I loathed that condition and glared coldly at him, "I grow bored of you. Do you have anything to say right now?"
"What do you want me to say?" he replied. "I do have a lot to say to you."
"Say it, and make it count."
"Like I said, you have special power, or so says my friendly little hidden eye," he tapped his eye patch and smiled wryly. "It's familiar-ish, but in a good way. What do you know of spiria?"
That word sent the second jolt through my body that I experienced today. It was like a lightning strike struck me, sending electrical currents surging across my body. So intense was the shock that I cried out and collapsed, knees first, onto the ground and keeled over.
Hendrickson reeled back as a tsunami of magical power gushed out from the girl and rushed toward him! He reflexively cast a barrier spell. A black wall rose before him, splitting the immense magical storm in half. When the storm fell away, he gaped at the girl who staggered on her feet and glowered at him.
"What do you know? That's from Elentear, my home world..."
The girl cried and took a single step toward Hendrickson, and the latter took a step back and threw his hands forward, "I have no idea what Elentear is! But I do know spiria! Calm down, and let's talk!"
This has to be the millionth time he told the girl to cool it. Where are her parents at?
"What do you know of spiria?"
Hendrickson quickly collected his memories and replied, "In all of Earthland, spiria is an incredibly rare type of magical essence. Like the negative power wielded by demonic entities, it's far rarer and powerful than ethernano. Unlike negative power, though, spiria is the power of soul. It's a spiritual power that is completely unaffected by physical attacks, even ethernano-charged magical attacks can't do anything."
The girl visibly calmed down, her gaze lidded, "Rare?"
Hendrickson nodded, "Rare enough that very few mages could stumble upon it, let alone harness it. Only select few humans could ever wield it. However, certain non-human races can utilize it more often."
"Are yokai in this world?" the girl suddenly asked, and Hendrickson was confused.
"Is that some creature from this... Elentear?"
"Yes, their entire existence is made of spiria. They are immune to all magical attacks charged by ethernano. Only when spiria is harnessed can they be challenged. It doesn't seem like yokai exist in this world..."
"Are they spirits?"
"Yes."
"There are some creatures in this world that have that feature, but they aren't completely immune to magical attacks. In fact, they aren't comprised of pure spiria."
All negativity on the girl's face faded away, replaced by confusion, "Pure spiria? It's just spiria. What, is the spiria in this world tainted or something? Wow..."
Hendrickson frowned at the slight mockery in her tone toward the end, "I'll let that comment slide. Did you forget about the negative power I talked about earlier?"
"No, I didn't."
"Well, negative power and spiria are polar opposites. Whereas spiria is power that can be commanded by the purest of hearts and intents, negative power is commanded by the darkest of hearts."
"Ridiculous. Since when was spiria so restrictive? In Elentear, there is no such condition. What's wrong with this world?" The girl was horrified and threw her hand in the direction of a thick, bulging tree. Hendrickson watched silently as the atmosphere shifted in the wake of a chilling presence filling the surroundings. The temperature fell, and extremely bright light manifested in the form of an icy blue magic circle.
He noticed that the girl was deeply unsatisfied, "Something wrong?"
"I can't sense... I can't sense my spiria..." the girl mumbled, but Hendrickson heard it. "I... I always had spiria. I've- why can't I use it? This is just an ethernano magic circle."
The magic circle suddenly collapsed, followed by the vanishing of the light.
She gazed in a dazed manner at Hendrickson, "I had... forgotten about spiria until you mentioned it. I never realized I couldn't use it. If I could use it, how would I have barely beaten that stupid bovine? Argh!"
The girl stormed off, leaving Hendrickson alone.
"Wa-" Hendrickson began but decided to say nothing. What was he supposed to do, stop her? They're complete strangers.
She was an otherworldly inhuman creature in the form of a teenage girl. But her behavior was totally akin to an angsty teenager. Whiny, bratty, and overconfident.
Well, she is strong enough to be overconfident, for now.
"What should I do, what should I do?" Hendrickson murmured, feeling a dilemma. Should he try to form a truce with the girl and join her, or just leave her alone and just vanish?
With the death of Thorin and the embarrassing defeat of the Braveheart Mercenaries, the whole group might as well be nothing but name. Its reputation will be shot once the truth is revealed.
"Those fools deserve it. Can't believe I joined them," Hendrickson scoffed, but then he thought about the masked man. He fumed. "I would have taken you up on your offer, but you just had to flee like a fucking coward. If you show your ugly face again, I hope the girl tears you apart!"
But even if the bastard didn't flee, the girl was magnitudes more interesting to figure out. She's an alien that hails from another world, a world with spiria in spades! Elentear, what a world. A world full of spirits!
That begged the question, how did this girl stumble on Earthland?
Spiria... Elentear...
How much have I lost since I came to this world? It feels like I lost everything.
Returning to the cave, I let myself fall against the wall, sliding down and hitting the ground. I sulked, staring at the trickling runoff of water that gathered outside in streams and merged into the river down the hill. I stared, in a daze, and reflected on the mental attack the old man triggered.
The word "spiria" ignited a memory, one containing the image of three girls that were roughly my age. One was muscular, another was refined and graceful, while the other had a cheshire grin and striking eyes.
Their names. They were...
"Mimi... Hakune... Yoko... all dead, all dead..." I mumbled. "Dead, burned to ashes. Burned to ashes. Ashes... fire!"
"My home... must be dead too..."
That fire dragon, that thing is responsible. It killed my sisters!
"It wasn't from Elentear. It was never a native! It-" I stiffened and slowly gazed at the entrance of the cave.
The old man was standing there, staring at me.
He was grimacing severely, "Uh... did I intrude?"
I glared at him, the scent of the corruption oozing from him adding another layer of anger on my spirit. Standing up, my hands clenched tight, "You intruded."
"You're clearly troubled..."
"Leave, or you'll be the second..."
The old man put his hands up for the umpteenth time, "Oh gods. How many times do I have to tell you to cool it? I hope this doesn't become a routine."
Routine? Does he think I'll let him travel with me?
"We will never be buddies," I sniffled. "Had I been a real human, that man might have killed me. It's probably your fault."
"Well..." he appeared guilty.
Hot anger hit me, "So it was!"
"Come on! You already got your revenge on those guys and scared me straight!"
"You led them to me; I haven't gotten my revenge yet. My injured leg is hurting because of you! That bovine was strong, you know that?"
"Yeah, an S-rated monster that virtually no kid your age could have even threatened. Yet you mauled that thing and killed it," the old man replied with barely concealed awe and dread.
"I didn't kill it, something else did."
This apparently stunned the old man, "Then what did?"
"Some not-dragon-creature. Burned the landscape to ashes. It ambushed me and bit my right thigh," I gestured to my right thigh that had screaming wounds. Clearly, exerting myself again made them agitated.
"Some dragon, but not a dragon?" the old man was wary now. "That didn't appear in my visions."
"Now, get out of my cave or I'll throw you out."
The old man rolled his eyes and sighed, "Can we restart and at least exchange some vital information?"
I narrowed my eyes at him, "I suppose you've been useful so far. What kind of information do you want?"
"Just an exchange of names and personal goals, that's all."
A brief silence later...
"Olivia Vespertine."
Though insanely brief, I noticed a look of surprise on his face, "My name is Hendrickson, and I'm a freelance mercenary that was just a member of the group you crushed earlier. Their captain was quite the brash person, but he was strong and had many connections."
"Will they be a problem?" I crossed my arms and pinned the old man now known to me as Hendrickson with my gaze.
"Eventually. You left seventeen of his men alive. They will snitch on you."
"Cowards, and so is that masked one."
I noticed Hendrickson snicker. "He's a coward all right. A member of the Dawnclaw Mercenaries; running from a teenage girl. Hahaha...!"
"You're pathetic yourself, so stop laughing." I shut him down and sat down again, looking at the ground. "Tell me absolutely everything about this cursed world."
"How long have you been on Earthland?" Hendrickson inquired of me.
"A month and some days."
"How much do you know of your own world?"
"Fractured memories. My mind is basically a ransacked library, ruined," I pointed at him. "But you can help organize it and find the correct books that I need to recall everything about my home. I'll let you travel with me if you can do that much at least."
For the first time, Hendrickson gave me a look of sympathy and understanding. This made me uncomfortable as my heart warmed up. I grunted as an effort to suppress the emotions and regarded him stiffly, "I'm just lost. But I have a mission."
"Does it have something to do with Tahlia's Tablet?"
In an instant, Hendrickson was blasted by a wave of ice magic and thrown against the wall. He cried out and collapsed to the ground.
I was on my feet, glowering at him with ice magic surging around me and thrumming at my fingertips, "How do you know that? Creep!"
Hendrickson was aggrieved. When was the last time he dealt with such a difficult person?
Ah, he remembered. His church had a whole bunch of unreasonable people. However, the girl known as Olivia Vespertine was justified to a certain extent. But, by the gods! She is so hostile! One moment, she's calm and docile, and in the next, she's a spring-loaded tiger rearing to tear out his throat.
"It shouldn't be so hard to establish common ground with this girl and maintain it! My god!" He would have kept dwelling on the absurdity of the fact that, despite his infamy in a certain region of Guiltena, he's currently being bullied by a teenage girl.
If his enemies learned of this, they'd be having a riot!
"Get up, creep!"
"Alright, alright! Chill out!" Hendrickson palmed his face. "Stop making me tell you to calm down! It's getting annoying!"
"Stop surprising me with how unsettled you make me feel, then!" Olivia sneered, her grip on the ice sword tightening. "I don't like surprises from strangers!"
"I have a magical eye, alright?! It gives me all kinds of information about the world that normal mages couldn't hope to acquire!"
"You can look into the past? That's the only way you could have known."
"Very astute of you, young Olivia. That's correct!"
"Sounds about right. That's how you figured out it was me. Yeah, I can't let you go," Olivia's gaze was cold. "If you can do that, you'd be a nightmare for me. It's either I kill you, or you travel with me. Fuck it all-"
Hendrickson had his arms up when he blinked at the girl. She was palming her mouth in horror.
"Are you sick?"
Olivia shook her head, dropping her hand, "I said a curse word..."
Hendrickson blinked a few more times before shuddering. His face twisted, and a rasp seeped through his gaping mouth, "...Haaah... hahahahahaha...! A girl who brutally executed a man is afraid of curse words! What a riot! At least you were raised right!"
"Screw you, Hendrickson! I will skewer you! Ugh!" Olivia stormed back to the other side of the wall and sat down, closing her eyes.
"What a riot! What an absolute ridiculous riot!" Hendrickson was still howling with laughter, uncaring of the heated glare he was getting when the girl opened her eyes again. At least it wasn't a cold gaze of murderous intent anymore.
"That's a good thing. Honestly, it's great!" Hendrickson sniggered at the girl. "No matter how alien your behavior is compared to the average teenage kid, you're still a child in the end. I thought I was talking to a demon or something."
"What's a demon?"
Hendrickson halted, staring at her.
"Demons don't exist in Elentear?"
"No, the only monsters are yokai."
Hendrickson grinned; he's going to have a very fun time educating this girl from another world.
Far across the river and perched within a mass of branches was a raven. It was normal in appearance, a normal size. But there was something about it that was off. It was staring, transfixed, at the cave. Its eyes gleamed a thick violet, streams of magic seeping from its gaze. In the reflection on its beady black eyes was Olivia's figure.
It suddenly burst into feathers, and glistening violet particles filled the space before gathering into a streak of light, tearing through the forest. The streak passed through the trail of destruction wrought by Olivia's final fight with Black Angus, and it passed over the location in which the lake once sat.
On the peak of a tall hill with outcropping rocks and gushing water that flew over the cliff's edge was the skull-masked man. He was standing against the wall, silent.
Caw!
He looked up right as the violet streak of light came before him and retook shape, forming the same raven from before. It perched on his outstretched wrist and spoke to him, "Bad news! Evil Eye Hendrickson is now associating with the new anomaly."
"...!" The masked man cursed indecipherably, clenching his fist.
"Tell me more!" he rasped.
"She's apparently from the mystical realm the Master speaks so highly of."
"What? How could that be possible?" the masked man cried out. "That means... she could either be a threat to Lord Tennyson's plans, or a possible ally. I think I made a mistake associating with those goons... I shouldn't have given Thorin a favor!"
He roared and slammed his right fist against the stone wall, leaving behind a dent and some cracks. He winced at the pain that shot through his arm, though.
"Take me to Lord Tennyson, this news must be reported immediately!"
"As you wish, master Thrasher."
Dozens of miles away from the location of the masked man known as Thrasher, located closer to the interior of Maul's Gorge, was a deep and vast depression in the earth. It was miles in diameter, and extremely dense with towering trees and vinery. Vegetation was thick, luscious, and mind-bogglingly repetitive. The humidity here was potent enough to condense into liquid, and so the soil was slick with water.
In such an environment, there was no shortage of insects and amphibious creatures. In a place such a Maul's Gorge, these creatures were far different than what could be found elsewhere. However, despite the dangers, one distinct group of men and women trudged through the humid area with a glaring dismissiveness.
They were a group of merely ten, but they radiated a collective aura that elicited fear in the minds of innumerable creatures both large and small. The figure in the lead was male and clad in a simple purple cloak. Specks of purple ethernano hugged the edge, outlining his figure. Clearly, his cloak was enchanted. His face was hidden by a black, raven-shaped mask, and atop his head was a fancy top hat with a single purple feather.
Behind him were his people and were dressed in a similar fashion aside from the hat and mask. They had their own masks, but none of which depicted a normal creature. Like Thrasher's, they were unwelcoming and creepy.
"Well, my friends. It appears that time is nigh!" the leader of the group spoke with an eloquence that depicted some noble upbringing. When he said this, he looked up at the sky, noticing the faint rumbles reverberating throughout the immense expanse of cloud cover. For the past month, the sun had gradually been less and less apparent. Clouds were prominent, and the climate above Maul's Gorge had changed.
Well, the climate of Maul's Gorge was always horrible, but a new anomaly had appeared roughly a month ago. On the day of the 18th of February, X774, the ethernano levels had suddenly increased drastically. The clouds on that very day were roaring, violent. Like a tempest, lightning streaked across the sky, singed the peaks of mountains, and stirred fierce gales.
The elements of Maul's Gorge were amplified by the sudden influx of ethernano. There existed many ethernano rich zones that people reaped rewards from, but the new anomaly had turned these zones into fatal areas. In fact, because Maul's Gorge was the region with the densest concentration, there weren't many areas in the gorge that weren't full of fatal amounts of ethernano.
Thousands of creatures and innumerable people had died as a result.
But to Lord Tennyson, there was far more to think about. "It hasn't yet been a full month, but according to the visions my goddess gives me, that magical source will flood the world soon!"
Someone perked up at that, "Brother Tennyson, is it true? The prophecy..."
"It's all true, very much true! The collapse of the great world of spirits is nigh! What a tragedy, but so good for Earthland! For us!" Tennyson cooed, throwing his hands to the sky in a dramatic fashion. "In a time when all three worlds were one, the supreme gods walked the land, directly governing the lives of mortals like us! After that great shattering countless eons ago, the world multiplied into three! Elentear, the world of the gods will collapse, and an aspect of their divinity will flood Earthland once again! From then... She shall be revived! Our goddess! Hail the Raven Goddess!"
"Thank the Raven Goddess! Hail the Raven Goddess!"
"Yes, hail our mother goddess! For she shall herald the storm that is to come in the future!" Tennyson crowed, his black, leather-gloved hands clenching as power thrummed at the tip of his fingers, creating a dense mass of magic in his fists that made the atmosphere tremble.
"Spiria will grace this world en-masse and fuel Her awakening! The gods shall grace our world once again!"
"Hail!"
"Hail!"
"Hail!"
Their overbearing cries and praises were haunting to the creatures of the gorge, ringing like death knells. The sky flashed with lightning, briefly throwing a film of white light over the gorge, reflecting off countless fearful gazes of lesser minds. A rumble of thunder followed soon after. In the midst of this display came a streak of purple light, shooting from afar, it descended upon the group of ten.
Thrasher came before Lord Tennyson and gave him the good news!
"Ah, an inhabitant from Elentear? How curious! And she supposedly lost the ability to control Spirit Arts? What a tragedy!" Tennyson lamented. "But she shan't worry any longer! For her weakness will be erased soon enough!"
"What about Evil Eye?" Thrasher inquired.
Lord Tennyson's jubilant bearing suddenly stiffened, and a cold gleam passed through the sockets of his raven mask, "He will taint the girl from Elentear. He must die before she is corrupted. Alas, it's too early to make any personal moves. Set out and get some help. I would like that heretic dead as soon as possible."
"With pleasure, my lord," Thrasher was about to leave, but a hand on his shoulder halted him.
"Did you get her name by any chance?" Tennyson asked lightly.
"Er- no. I didn't," Thrasher replied, and he winced when the hand squeezed his shoulder.
"Get her name," Tennyson said pryingly. "It wouldn't do to not have a name to attach to the girl."
"I will, my lord."
"Alright then. Everyone, let's set off to the Green Castle!"
- End of Chapter -