Arthur had to consider now that the last big bounty had been. Well he couldn’t even call it completed. The bounty was for killing Ignia. He had spared him. It hadn’t triggered the not-redeemed in canon bounty either. Maybe because Ignia hadn’t been not redeemed, and merely hadn’t been dealt with yet. Or maybe he would be redeemed in canon. Arthur didn’t know. Still he didn’t regret sparing him. Even if Igneel was having some trouble hammering him into a proper shape.
Ultimately the choice was easy. He’d fulfilled his promise to Diabolos. He’d fulfilled his promises to Selene. Now he had to fulfill his promise to Minerva. There were the medium arts that she’d been forced to learn in part due to her father - though he didn’t really deserve such a title - and the lost magic which Hades had imbued him with. And there was her connection to the Yakuma and their 18 Battle Gods magic. It wasn’t a bounty - and it might mean he couldn’t make his own super weapon - but he had promised her. And it’d hurt too badly not to keep his promise to her.
Besides, she was starting to really notice boys, and that made him uncomfortable. He knew by Earthland’s standards she was a full grown adult. By American standards she was old enough to vote and go to college. But he also knew that there were a lot of would-be wolves who just loved women at the age where they were societally an adult but were still naive and untested by the ways of the world. Best to give her something to keep her focused on something else than them.
It took them to Pergrand. Not to the damaged capital - a failure which haunted his dreams more even than the face of Brain and the bandits he had drunk with the black sword - but to small hillside settlements and villages. It was not really his field. This was anthropological research. He’d been working as a sales clerk. And now he was… He couldn’t even call himself a warrior. He’d never earned that title. He had power, and he had an instinctive knowledge of magic. He was ultimately a cheater. But a cheater who could help.
He had Seilah’s memories in his Archives, but he’d already given that information to Minerva, and she’d already been pursuing the research based on that since Acnologia had died. What he had which she didn’t was that instinctive knowledge of magic, and his Archive. It’d reached that level he’d initially hoped for in Diabolos. He merely had to be near the magical knowledge for it to start to incorporate it into the Archive. Coupling that with his ability to intuit gaps in the information and how to complete it, he was a fairly useful assistant in uncovering the secrets that Minerva sought.
Uncovering a dead culture, their religion, and the magic associated with it still wasn’t easy, but it was only gone for a few generations, and it wasn’t completely gone yet. The search led Arthur and Minerva east of Ishgar, into the eastern continent.
But in the end it was Minerva’s adventure. Arthur was merely in the role of scribe. And while Minerva’s search was the largest dominating goal it was not the only thing Arthur had left to do before leaving this world.
Selene shifted awkwardly in the dress. It was more restrictive than she was used to. Things with Arthur had been different since she had agreed to come with him on his journey. It wasn’t surprising when she thought of things as a human would. But it took effort to do that.
Yet it was effort she needed to put in. She had decided many decades ago that she would live as a human. That she would become a human in all ways but personal prowess. She had delayed it due to Acnologia and the Dragon Gods. She had continued to act with a dragon’s callous disregard for life, and nature as an embodiment of destruction, but that fear which had forced that was gone now.
So she was trying to think like a human. And for some reason or another humans mated for life. Even if they didn’t, Arthur had warned her that he didn’t know if this was a ride she could get off of if she wanted. The supracosmic beings which guided him might not let her go until they returned to his world and that could be centuries or millennia. He had no idea how long it would be.
It made today’s ceremony mostly moot. It’d not be legally valid in other worlds. And it was a far more binding agreement than a wedding. But Selene had been growing increasingly irate that it had taken so long to happen. Oh, when Arthur - finally - asked her to marry him, she’d played it off as some sort of quaint human tradition. But it was these sorts of pointless, quaint, human behaviors which made her so fascinated with humans.
She wanted to see if it would change anything. She found herself somewhat… worried… about that. She’d been reading books that Misaki had lent her. They seemed to imply it destroyed the love in a relationship, if there was any beforehand, and that men cared far more for the chase than anything that came later.
She was not so stupid as to trust those books implicitly. They were works of fiction, and what she had gathered were called “trashy romances” but they were one of the few windows into humanity she had. The fiction humans made revealed so much about them. She didn’t know any dragon which bothered to make such elaborate stories to entertain other dragons. But dragons were not naturally social creatures.
It was time for her to come out. She could hear the music playing. She hesitated, though. She’d called this a meaningless, quaint, human ceremony, but there was an odd knot in her guts. She’d already agreed to come with him to future worlds, but a public ceremony confirming it as a vow made it more real. She already got annoyed when Arthur clung too tightly around her, hovering and just trying to spend time with her. She could only spend so much time with him at once. Could she handle being with him for possibly the rest of her life?
Igneel had come up beside her. He looked awkward in the suit they’d forced him into. Her own family was dead. Georg had killed the last parts of it. She never would fully forgive that. There was a reason that while he was here, that he wasn’t attending the ceremony. He was here because of a final bounty her husband-to-be had been given. She had come to terms with letting him live, though. He wasn’t a threat to her. And his power had been broken. What he had recovered since was but a shadow of what it once had been.
Igneel, though, was the closest thing she had to a father. Not that he was particularly close. He was an older dragon. All of his faction were. But he was the closest thing to a leader of dragons though neither she nor Mercphobia respected his authority. Well that wasn’t true. She respected it. She just didn’t accept that he had any over her. Still he was a friend. His attempts to find humanity made her feel better about her own. She had grown not to mind his company or existence. It was pleasant to have a dragon around who was neither feared liege, fearful subordinate, child, enemy, or prospective mate, but just someone in her life. And it was tradition to have someone give the bride away, and he was the best stand-in she could find.
She knew everyone outside was waiting, but in that moment her feet felt leaden and heavy. She was safe here. There was nothing in this world that was a threat to her. Or there would be once Arthur left. But it was a different sort of safety than what she felt with Arthur.
She looked out into the room of people, and she breathed in slowly, thinking of the books that Taberius had lent her. The exceed’s taste ran to romances as well, though they were knightly and courtly ones. Marriages still typically ended badly. People were always drinking love potions to lead them into affairs, or getting amnesia from witch potions, or simply getting married for politics and then finding love later which tore them all asunder.
Love was supposed to be an all-consuming, fiery feeling that would lead a man to do anything, to fight against any odds, for their woman. Did she love Arthur?
She was walking forward under the weight of expectation, but she was considering this question as well. Arthur fought Acnologia and the Dragon Gods because he was trying to set right what he felt his presence here had made wrong. He’d confessed that was part of it.
Because he didn’t want her to be misled. Because he loved her. Or at least that was what he said.
And how close he’d come to killing Ignia hadn’t been that. Her eyes flickered to the fire dragon god. He’d come to attend. She had a feeling Igneel had made him. Selene still did not like him. He’d been a bogeyman for too long. But she’d asked Arthur to spare him. And if he gave the smallest sign of being a threat to her wellbeing, Arthur was ready to kill him. Arthur had already been ready to execute him when he was defeated because he’d promised to remove such threats to her. Even if they were going to be separated. Even when he’d been willing to roll the dice with the world.
Selene had to wonder about her own feelings. Would she be happy beside Arthur?
She didn’t want him to leave her behind. It always hurt her pride when they left first. But this wasn’t that. She could have accepted the blow to her pride, even assuaged it with the fact that it was her ultimatum which had broken things off, or her choice to stay behind. She’d have been the one growing tired of him, not the other way around.
Except she’d watched his battle with Acnologia with an ache in her chest, worried he’d die. Even once it was obvious that Acnologia was defeated whether he killed some of his hunters or not. Even as she’d hoped that Igneel and his faction might suffer some lasting and permanent loss, she’d been afraid Arthur wouldn’t come back. She’d almost broken off her watch to go and help. She’d watched his fight with Ignia for the same reason.
She wanted him with her. It’d be ideal if he could stop and stay. But she wanted him with her.
He looked awkward now. Though the way he was looking at her made her feel beautiful. Selene could hear the officiator going through the conditions of the wedding vow. They were a traditional set. That had been her demand; Arthur had wanted to add something about stepping forth into the unknown to face the future together. It wasn’t really necessary to add.
She only needed to wait, till her proper time, and say two words. And then there was the kiss. There was something magic about it. Not a mage’s work of ethernano, but a simpler, more basic magic. She’d been a mate. She’d been a mother. She’d experienced romantic love the way a dragon might. But dragons didn’t mate for life. They didn’t form tight pair bonds. Being a wife was not something she’d expected to happen to her.
It’d be an interesting, and human, experience. If not quite standard given how Arthur was expected to live his life.
The ceremony went off without a hitch. Arthur was relieved. With Diabolos, Fairy Tail, the Thunderbolts, and the Edolas Royal Court in one place he’d expected someone to do something stupid.
And then there’d been the long, awkward wait for Selene to come out when it was time for her to walk down the aisle. That had scared him. He’d say more than anything other than staring down Acnologia, but it was comparing apples to oranges. Acnologia he’d been afraid would consume him. The pause had made him feel like his heart was cracking.
And then she’d been breathtaking. She was always beautiful. She always had an element of refined elegance to her. But this had been on an entirely different level.
The reception was going well. He’d have to thank Edolas Jellal for that. Though given the wedding doubled as Selene officially stepping down as Queen of Edolas and passing the full reins of government over to him, he suspected Edolas Jellal was happier than anyone else here except maybe himself.
Arthur didn’t really want to be at the reception. It wasn’t that he minded his friends. Diabolos was family of a sort to him. Fairy Tail were friends. The original Thunderbolts being regathered was a refreshing sight. They were doing well, and moving forward with their lives away from their criminal past. Jellal’s, Earthland Jellal’s, wedding to Erza had spurred Arthur to ask Selene to marry him, and to argue for it being important even if it was just some pointless ceremony. Sorano had married and was expecting her second child. Erik and Kinana were growing closer too. Richard was still single, and still running an orphanage in Ishgar to make sure other children didn’t end up like them. MacBeth was living free, with no one to boss him around. Sawyer was moping after a rather rough break up. Still they were free. Not just under the law, but they seemed to have escaped their past.
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Maybe it still haunted them. But they were free. The bounty for reforming the Ishgar legal system had a bonus mission which was ready to collect, except it was locked behind actually reforming the legal system. Jellal was working on it. Arthur had helped him and started the ball rolling. But legal reform took time, and it didn’t look like it’d be finished by the time Arthur left.
Maybe Arthur could have ramrodded reforms through himself, but he wasn’t good at court politics. He’d have to just throw around weight and force as the World’s Most Powerful Wizard, and introducing that sort of personal threat into a political system did not leave a stable system behind. Maybe he could have found people to help… but it would have required his time and dedication which he had had to put elsewhere. Still Jellal told him it was going well. Reforms were in progress.
Looking over his bounties there were some he regretted failing at. Some which he wasn’t sure how he could have completed if he hadn’t. Some he had meant to chase after but never had the chance. Some he’d never even started on. And some he was surprised had finished and completed themselves. Like the one about ensuring God Serena went down in history as a traitor. The increasing mercantile contact with Edolas, and Selene’s decision to put a bit of a propaganda push in that direction, had done it. Serena had fought Arthur at the behest of the Edolas Imperial Forces as a self-avowed traitor to Ishgar. It was a matter of public record. Conquering motion sickness had happened without him even consciously realizing it. He’d not stopped working on improving his takeover magic, after all Selene’s fears about the lacrima inside of him taking him over weren’t unfounded. But as he worked on ensuring he didn’t become a dragon, he learned to harmonize his body more and more. Through takeover he was properly adapting to the dragon senses and motion sickness was no longer a threat to him. The Sword of Promised Victory, requiring him to complete a super weapon, had been completed as well. The Dragon Staff had not quite qualified. But when he had made a new version from Acnologia’s lacrima it had ticked itself right off. He’d be able to leave the original with Diabolos, granting them the ability to go dragon and back again with proper time, training, and experience, and he’d be able to take the new staff along with him; something to help make sure Selene and Minerva were safe. Along with the matching armor set.
But right now he was happy even with the failed bounties. Selene and Minerva would be joining him. He’d be entering the next world with friends. Taberius had the option, but Tabby had no desire to go. He’d be alone as the only exceed. The fact that there’d potentially be other dragons was a downside if anything to Selene, but Taberius wanted to find a wife, have a family, and make a life for himself. If Arthur had pressed Taberius would have come out of a sense of obligation, but Arthur wouldn’t do that. It was the same reason Diabolos and the Thunderbolts were being left behind. Arthur had no right to drag them into war and danger with him. Selene and Minerva he could assuage his feelings of guilt with the fact that they both came without… Well Selene had hesitated, but other than ‘I can’t not go so if you want to be with me you’ll have to come’ he’d not pressured either. Both of them had chosen it despite the knowledge that it meant braving unknown dangers.
It was those dangers which were probably most tempting to Taberius. But Edolas had gotten a lot more dangerous. Altaface had been moved back to Elentear, and the giant magical tool Arthur had constructed to facilitate that movement should allow Altaface to be moved between the two worlds as needed as long as it was maintained. And Edolas seemed to be producing ethernano on its own even without Altaface now. But that had come with other effects. The creatures and beasts of Edolas had been getting a lot more dangerous, like creatures that had only existed in old folktales and legends in Edolas before. Taberius didn’t need to come along to have his monsters to slay, and his adventures to face, and the exceeds did need some strong protectors to keep them safe.
Still, there was one last bounty he intended to pursue in his time in this world. And while he’d rather spend the rest of the week alone with Selene… well this might be the last time he managed to gather all of Diabolos together in one place. It was the last bounty he’d been given. One he’d only been given months ago.
A final all out brawl with Diabolos. A sparring match of one against a guild. And for full points he had to avoid using any magic but Darkness Dragon Slayer magic.
He hoped he didn’t accidentally slip into non-dragon slayer darkness magic. He wasn’t actually sure where the line was other than that there was a twist to the magic to imbue it with dragon slaying properties. It was harder on some spells than others - and pointless on many - but he’d have to make sure to put it into everything. He was confident he could win; part of his initial set of cheats was the power of a Kinslayer. The closer the friend the better he was at fighting and killing them. A close enough friend couldn’t defeat him without overwhelming odds in their favor; and even Minerva and Taberius didn’t have overwhelming odds in their favor. He’d have to change out of his suit first.
The brawl started well. An overwhelming wave of darkness took out most of the guild. Only 7 remained standing. Arthur hadn’t caught how each of them had overcome it - his Archive link was off right now - but Kirin, Georg, Minerva, Tabby, Suzaku, Madmole, and Kiria had managed to resist it. He could make a decent guess for each. Kirin had the power to blast his way through such a dispersed wave of magic, even from someone on Arthur’s level. Suzaku had almost certainly cut it with his sword; Selene had helped him get a fair bit better at his magic, not that that was strictly necessary. Georg had Black Tortoise Dragon Slayer Magic to block it, and Madmole had his Armor Dragon Slayer Magic. Minerva had enough options that Arthur couldn’t even guess which she had used. Kiria was behind Madmole, which probably explained why he wasn’t as harmed as Arthur would have expected; he’d blocked for her with his body, and she’d cut the power of the attack with her magic before it could hit him. And Tabby’s method was immediately obvious; the cat looked more like a hulking, winged, lizard man than an exceed: Takeover Darkness Dragon Soul.
As Arthur formed a sword out of shadows, he assessed the threat each represented. The moment he did so he began to flow with the battle which had begun. Perhaps it was his status as Kinslayer, but he found it easy to predict Georg’s rush. His speed was no match for White Tiger Dragon Slayer Magic, but he knew the limits of its maneuverability, and Georg crashed against the blade of darkness, hardening his body with Black Tortoise Dragon Slayer Magic.
Arthur could have finished Georg right then if this was one on one. It wasn’t though. Minerva’s territory magic exploded around him. It was only a quickly conjured armor of darkness which kept Arthur standing as space around him was pressurized into a myriad of explosions.
His foot struck the ground, and a dragon of darkness rose up in Suzaku’s path. He knew better than to try it against Minerva. She was already teleporting herself to avoid such an attack. She knew how he fought in sparring matches too well. And Tabby would just eat it for strength. But Suzaku was the next greatest threat. Arthur’s cheat of the Knight had given him anime-grade armed combat skill. But Suzaku could eat his weapons, and Arthur lost a lot of battle skill when he didn’t have a sword in hand.
Fortunately Suzaku had drunk a fair bit too much at the reception. Normally the swordsman would have dodged with ease. But half-way to blacking out he was caught unaware. Arthur didn’t have time to follow up.
Minerva’s palm strike nearly hit his face. Her movements weren’t her movements. She was channeling one of the spirits of the Yakuma people. It was an unwanted complication in Arthur’s eyes, but one not entirely unexpected. She’d been working on mastering this magic since she’d first been brought back to Diabolos. The faces of ghosts passed back and forth through hers, and the words of their spells could be heard.
Arthur roared, a blast of darkness to blow Minerva away. He knew she’d escape it, her territory magic already carrying her away, but it would force her back. She knew he could project the same magic from his back in the form of wings. So he didn’t. He stomped his foot, guessing at the range she’d warp out to and making a dozen dragons of dark energy rise up to strike.
He was burning power at a rate he’d not done even when fighting God Serena, but if he was to get the bonus he’d have to. He’d trained Minerva and Taberius himself. He knew their powers and just how dangerous they were. He needed to bring Minerva down fast.
His blade of darkness swept outwards even as he tried to take out his surrogate daughter. Taberius might not be able to match the speed of the White Tiger in his Darkness Dragon Soul form, but the exceed wasn’t slow. He’d closed the distance already.
Taberius caught the sword in his mouth, chomping through the darkness. Arthur’s leg struck his head though, the mage’s foot hitting the exceed right in the temple with a brain rattling blow. Arthur formed a push dagger of darkness and thrust for Taberius’s gut. It was a concentrated magical blade, more force in it than what he’d struck at Minerva with.
Its tip hit Taberius’s black scaled belly and Arthur was ready to find out if his magic was more irresistible, than Taberius’s darkness dragon slayer magic could remain unmovable against. Only a four armed creature struck him with a series of blades. They were fast. One of the 18 battle gods summoned by Minerva, and she’d called in more than one.
Minerva knew she’d be done for if this was a one on one fight. She couldn’t summon all 18 battle gods. Several of them had special conditions, or refused to come for sparring matches. Even if she could, there wasn’t one of them Arthur couldn’t bring down. Channeling spirits she could beat him in sheer rate of magic released, but she’d need more than 2 spells to his one to beat Arthur, and even with a pair of spirits doing the summoning, and another guiding her body so she could focus purely on her territory magic she wasn’t sending out two for every one Arthur did.
But it was a group fight. Whenever he got close to taking her out with some saturating assault, there was someone to hit him and force him back into close ranged combat. But that could only last so long, and they couldn’t win just by attriting Arthur’s magical power. Minerva knew what sort of reserves Arthur had, and the efficiency at which he used them even without using the magic he was best at. In a stamina fight he would win.
The melee was hectic and confusing. Georg, Madmole, and Taberius worked together to press Arthur hard, and when Skullion had revealed he’d not actually gone down, but had just been positioning his ash to attack with surprise it had almost looked like Arthur would go down.
The blast of darkness which followed was both unsurprising and devastating. Madmole barely rose to his feet afterwards, and Georg didn’t rise immediately. Skullion had reformed and lay unconscious. But it was now or never to strike.
Minerva’s territory formed around Arthur, working to siphon off his magical energy and hold him in place. Arthur broke it in less than a second. But it gave Taberius time to bite onto Arthur’s armoring darkness and begin to consume it. Kiria’s magic cut then, and Minerva couldn’t tell from this distance if it cut Arthur or not. She didn’t wait to find out. Just like Kirin she poured what she could into an attack. She called forth her territory around him to constrain his movements. It didn’t work. She hadn’t really expected it to. Arthur dove into his own shadow, sliding away as a blotch of darkness. But she’d expected this and reacted, invoking the Yakuma god of archery to create a hundred arrows of mystic force to rain down on him.
Arthur’s magic blasted them from the sky, and Minerva watched Georg take a blow that brought him down. Still the pace couldn’t be let up. She fired off territory explosion after explosion. Portals to form around Arthur’s limbs. Everything she could to hold him still enough for the others to strike.
As Kiria and Madmole went down one after another, Suzaku, who she’d thought was down for the count, struck. Even drunk, his blows were powerful and precise. And it bought her the chance to summon Yagd Rigola, the explosive battle god of the Yakuma people.
The blast blew away Suzaku, but it gave Taberius the chance to strike. A space dragon’s roar hammering Arthur from behind.
Minerva felt a bit of pride as she watched her teacher fall. She knew that the best result was that he won cleanly and efficiently, using only his Darkness Dragon Slayer Magic. But she also knew letting him win would probably disqualify the entire brawl.
Then she realized that Taberius had fallen too. And that she couldn’t see Arthur anymore. Suspecting another shadow dive, she teleported, moving to avoid the attack from below. Kirin fell instead.
She reprimanded herself as a fool. Arthur had just been waiting for the moment that Taberius swapped from Darkness Dragon takeover to something else to counter-attack. And with it just being the two of them left, the battle was not long.
Arthur had never been completely certain what day he’d first arrived in this world was. He had an idea of the range, but he’d arrived in the Celestial Spirit Realm where time flowed significantly slower. Or faster. A day there was three months in normal time. And he had never been precisely certain of how long he’d been there. So he had come back from his honeymoon from Selene a week earlier than he had to.
He only learned it was the day when an alert came up in his mental HUD for displaying bounties. There was just a little mental button reading: End Jump. It had a countdown of 6 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and a continually decreasing number of seconds.
He hadn’t been certain how it would end. The information hadn’t been accessible till now. By focusing on the idea of the button he could access it though. At the end of the jump he had a week. A week to set any affairs into order and finish anything he intended to finish in the world. Then he had to gather anything he wanted to take with him, because he’d only carry that which was his by bounty or purchase or what he was personally carrying.
He had a week to gather gold and precious metals. He had a week to say good-bye. And he didn’t actually need to be right there with Minerva and Selene. It was information that would have been useful to have earlier.
Still he’d already said his goodbyes. He’d already gathered his belongings. And now he had a week.
It was time for one last job as a mage of diabolos. Just a quest with team Skullion, and Minerva. And then he went from Guiltina to Edolas to Ishgar to Alvarez and said his final good-byes for real this time.
Minerva and Selene were with him when he pressed the mental button. He’d used requip and his spatial magic to store as many supplies as he could. And when he pressed it he was transported to a dark space, where a floating smiley face waited.
“Congratulations, on completing your first world. Not everyone did,” it said.