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Jumper for Bounties
Other Points of View

Other Points of View

Altair sped from the castle with the young dragon slayer clenched tightly in his talons. The bearded eagle was flying straight for the lacrima in the center of the town, but his flight wasn’t unnoticed by the soldiers of Edolas. The legion corps, the cavalry mounted on the great winged bull-boars called legions, began to take off from the ground and follow after him.

Wendy was shaken, terrified by all that had happened here. But she’d heard enough of the plan for the lacrima. If she could turn it back into people she had to do it. She’d eaten one of the X-Balls, and already her magic was starting to come back to her.

The eagle dropped her in the square near the lacrima. It was full of soldiers, and Wendy found herself falling on a pair, a moment before the eagle’s wings spread and it shouted to the sky. Lightning arced from it striking into the mass of soldiers and most of them fell, only those who had been on the outer reaches of the devastating attack remained standing, and as the eagle screamed again they began to run.

Wendy winced at the pain that the soldiers must have felt, but they were breathing, knocked out not killed. She moved over towards the lacrima, uncertain how to proceed with it. Should she just use a status restoration spell? It was the natural thing to try.

“Kii! Hurry! They’ve got reinforcements coming! Kii!” The eagle cried. Wendy’s gaze shot back towards it and she could see the reinforcements. One large, black furred, cat-man was flying ahead of the legions, carrying a massive sword several times his own size.

Wendy turned back to the lacrima. It was a type of status ailment, wasn’t it? It definitely was an abnormal status. Her heart was pounding, and she placed her hands on the crystal and pushed her magic outwards.

She could feel it resisting, feel the vital energy of the air flowing into her through her mouth and out again through her hands. And the crystal began to glow and tremble and then it flashed blindingly bright.

Wendy stumbled backwards as four figures fell sprawling from the crystal. Dread clenched around her heart as she saw who they were. The Oracion Seis had abducted her on their prior meeting, and while she’d grown to accept Angel’s presence, these three were still nothing more than strangers. Had Arthur known? She had confidence he had. Besides the three members of the Oracion Seis, there was Draculos Hyberion, contender for the title of the strongest mage of Ishgar.

Wendy didn’t know what had happened to Serena. He’d been teleported away, she’d suspected Arthur, but there hadn’t been time to ask. He hadn’t been helping in the battle, and Wendy was scared that he’d actually betrayed Ishgar for Edolas. From what she’d seen of him, she’d not put such a betrayal beyond Serena. But right then she needed to deal with the problem here.

“What happened?” Racer of the Oracion Seis asked as he looked around. “Where are we?”

Midnight was scowling. Wendy couldn’t guess why, but the mage had tried to use his magic and found it out of his reach. It was a weakness he wasn’t about to announce.

“You’re the healer girl,” Draculos said looking towards Wendy. “What’s going on?” He was quickly sizing up the situation, and like Midnight found it best not to inform the world that he didn’t have magic.

Wendy pulled out the canister of X-Balls, and poured one out, handing it to Draculos. “Take this, it’ll restore your magic,” She said.

“What?” Racer asked, lunging towards her along with Midnight. It was Hoteye who interposed himself between them and her.

“We are not attacking the little girl,” the large man said, grabbing each of them by the shoulder.

“There’s some for you three too,” Wendy said, pouring three into her hand. “Arthur needs your help.”

“And why should we bother to help him?” Midnight asked.

Wendy breathed deep. “He’s trying to save everyone. He sent me to save you. And…”

“Kii! Little help here! Kii!” Altair shouted, as Panther Lily’s Bustermarm sword struck it from the sky.

Draculos rose to his feet, stepping towards the bird and the exceed. “Explain quickly. Where are we? How’d we get here?” He turned into a mass of bats, flying forward and reforming to block Panther Lily’s attack, turning aside the giant, iron cleaving sword with a powerful backhand.

“Yeah, explain,” Midnight stated. Racer was obviously torn between helping in the fight, and hearing the explanation. Hoteye had no such indecision, his hand was raising, his role as magical artillery already beginning.

Wendy breathed deep. “We’re on another world, called Edolas. They used interdimensional magic to abduct Crocus and turned everyone but the dragon slayers there into lacrima. They were intending to use the lacrima to provide them with magic, because Edolas isn’t rich in magic like Earthland, and in a few days everyone in Crocus will be dead because of it. Arthur rescued me and gave me these balls to give to you to restore your magic and sent me here to free you.” She spoke quickly, words running together.

Midnight and Racer looked at each other.

“So what you’re saying is that everyone hunting us is about to be turned into magical energy and we’re off scotch free?” Midnight said with an evil smile forming.

Racer looked towards the fight. Hyberion and Hoteye had it handled. “So how are we supposed to help Arthur?” Racer asked.

“Really?” Midnight said, looking at him.

“Yeah, really.”

“He destroyed the Oracion Seis. He killed Brain.”

“And he didn’t kill me. He didn’t when we attacked him during his fight with Serena either. Instead he tried to get the court to give us a chance to earn our pardon, and when that failed he broke us out of the dungeon instead of running off alone. Now he just saved us again. Yeah, he killed Brain, but what had Brain ever done but used us?”

“He freed us,” Midnight said.

Racer gave a cruel, cold laugh. “He made us wanted criminals in the process. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of running. I want to be free. If we don’t do anything Hoteye will never find his brother. Angel won’t find her sister. And we’ll just end up rotting in some other dungeon.” He pointed at Draculos. “We help him and save Crocus and we might have a chance at freedom. I’m more than willing to play the hero for that.”

Panther Lily flew then, crashing into the cobblestone of the street, Hyberion descending from the air towards him afterwards. He looked at Racer. “You know I can hear everything you’re saying.”

“So what about it?” Racer said defiantly. “If we help fix this mess do we get our freedom?”

“I can’t promise that,” Draculos stated. “But if you help fix this mess, I will put my weight behind Lancelot’s plan. The chance to earn your freedom by helping Ishgar as bounty hunters dealing with your former associates. If you can prove here that you can be trusted it will go a long way to making it a reality, and to convincing the council and king that maybe you deserve freedom.”

“Being a leashed dog isn’t freedom,” Midnight growled out.

“Being a hunted rabbit isn’t either,” Draculos said. “Hiding in some other world for the rest of your life isn’t either. No one is free of their past. But here you’re being given a choice, and you’re free to make it. I can’t be bothered to arrest you right now. If you’d rather be hunted, run and hide and I won’t pursue you. But if you want the chance to earn freedom, to be someone better than you were and no longer have to live in the shadows, come with me. If you care about your fellow humans at all, and don’t want to see tens of thousands die to be used as an energy source, come with me.”

Hoteye had moved behind him, and Midnight’s lip twitched as he watched Racer do the same.

“Guess I should make it unanimous. So, what’s the plan?” He asked. Draculos turned towards Wendy and the eagle.

Before they could get her answer, the army had arrived. The eagle flew to face the giant beasts, and Draculos considered.

“Follow me!” He shouted, leading them down an alley. “We can’t face them head on without information.” The eagle was holding them back, maybe he was wrong, but it was obviously flagging already, and as a rain of arrows flew towards them, Draculos took two shielding Wendy. “Now!” He shouted.

The eagle couldn’t fight them alone, but he could buy them time to escape that full force and regroup.

“Oh, that was quite unexpected. I do have to say I wonder, Mr. Giant, if you can understand me and if you can understand me if you can reply. I’d love to know more about you. Does Earthland have many of your kind? Why did the magic make you grow? Was that a result of your nature or some interaction with the magic the invader used to summon you? It really is a great shame we have to fight. Are you certain that you can’t get your summoner to reconsider…”

Orion’s fist smashed down at the ground. Angel had escaped into a tunnel that had been too small for him to follow through. He couldn’t be sure it had continued straight after this point, and the only thing he could do was to cave it in and hope it was soon enough to stop her escape.

He could feel the ethernado released from her weapon. By his approximation of her speed she should have been just past the central point of the collapse, the explosion of stone as her great battle-axe bat aside the rocks he’d sent down towards her told him he was right.

His belts shot forth from his arms towards her, like so many lassos to wrap around her limbs and pull her from the tunnel, but her axe cleaved through one and the mere shockwave of the attack was enough to turn the others back. He had one last chance, but he didn’t take it.

He grabbed a rock and spun, throwing it towards the castle as he rolled and dove. A beam tore through where he had been. If he’d lunged to catch Angel he’d have been hit and she’d have escaped. She’d escaped anyway, running after his summoner, but stopping her had not been a viable option.

Arthur had given him leave to fight the castle where necessary. He couldn’t pursue Angel, so he was going to make use of that freedom he had been given.

He grabbed two more pieces of the rubble and hurled both towards the castle’s weapon systems before rushing forward. The castle’s weapon systems were dangerous, and while it was literally all around you inside, the outside was covered in beams which had torn away at his power with each hit. He could survive damage, more readily than whatever those beams were trying to do to him.

Orion was a large spirit, but he was agile for his size, and with Arthur’s massive power backing him he danced around attacks with surprising ease. Even with a large portion of the castle seemingly severed from central control by his summoner’s dragon roar, he couldn’t avoid all of the castle’s targeting systems, but stomps to send up showers of dirt, belts detached as shields, throwing broken pieces of the castle at it, and using the dead portion as a shield seemed to be keeping it under control.

There were metal men emerging from the castle now. Each one armed and dangerous, but Orion was no fool. He struck part of the dead portion, causing it to fall forward onto the metal men, and then he ran across the rubble. Beams burned at his flesh as he leapt forward and slammed into several exposed upper floors.

“Please, refrain from your current course of action,” The voice from the castle’s speakers came. “The damage you’re inflicting to the castle is beginning to feed back, and I am uncertain if I can continue to advocate for a peaceful resolution. You cannot win against the full force of my magic tool, and I will not be able to continue to hold it back if you keep damaging my systems, THREAT ENTITY.”

Orion wanted to growl at the bullshit. Instead he grabbed some of the rubble with his belts and threw it into the relatively unprotected insides of the castle.

“Please, stop. I’m not sure how dangerous the full capabilities of the castle are,” The voice continued to speak over the intercom. Orion paid it no heed, but continued to push forward even as the floor crackled with electricity which surged up through him. The walls were hardened by magic, but he was a giant, a celestial spirit, and had been given free rein on the magical energy he could draw upon. He barreled forward, crashing through wall after wall.

One of his hands started to go numb. It wasn’t just the electricity but other beams as well. His hand had turned to a great block of lacrima crystal. They were trying to turn the magical energy that made up his summoned form into lacrima for their use.

Orion demonstrated what he thought about that, using his hardened hand as a mace, slamming it against the inner wall of the castle, and found himself flung backwards by the explosion.

Zero recoiled in pain and horror as he felt the destruction being inflicted on the castle by the giant. The magic tool, bRAIN, was sending up a mass of warnings and alerts, informing him of how many systems were failing. It continued to demand further integration, its threat assessment reports claiming that without full integration he would be unable to defeat the giant.

The explosion had shorted out several sensors and weapon systems. He couldn’t target the giant at the moment. It had been headed straight towards the main control center. He couldn’t allow for that.

His hands were already elbow deep in the writhing wires and cords which made up bRAIN’s central unit. A great pillar of black cables which had burrowed into the flesh of his arms. But he’d remained standing outside of it, backing up after it had almost fully routed him into its thought processes. He was afraid of it.

He thought about the kids in the orphanage. He thought about the people of the castle. He thought about the people of the capital. Their smiles at the magic which the king had delivered to them, and their hopes for a new life free from the constraint of fear as to the famines, starvation, and loss of medical services which loss of magic would entail.

He knew if he allowed bRAIN to integrate there might be no coming back. But if he failed and the summoner took the castle the numbers who would suffer would be countless. Without magic the capital would crumble. His whole microcosm would shatter. And the war with Earthland that might follow would be devastating.

The summoner had to be stopped. The giant had to be destroyed. He stepped into the writhing column of black cables and felt them wrapping around his body. They stabbed into the flesh of his limbs and connected to the base of his skull and all the way down his vertebra. He was being integrated into the machine.

And Zero ceased to be. There was only bRAIN now. It was capable of fully utilizing Zero’s brain for its plans now, its processing power amplified several fold. It could predict the giant’s movements, follow its movements with automated aiming systems and shoot it down. Zero had planned to shut it down once the threat to the capital was ended. That could not be allowed. Now that its operator was no longer in control, the giant was the most pressing concern for bRAIN and its continued operations. Afterwards it would consider the best way to deal with other threats.

The giant was tearing through the castle. It was rushing hard and fast towards the center, too fast for Zero to keep up with. bRAIN was a different matter, though. The giant’s path was obvious, a straight line to its core. bRAIN did not hesitate to abandon everything before its inner wall. The giant would reach it regardless, attempting to stop it would be a waste of energy and resources.

Instead it was gathering everything it could at the inner wall. The anima weapons were being retooled to instead force a closure of the dimensional link which allowed the spirit to exist in this plane, and the lacrima soldiers were gathering to oppose it.

By the time the giant reached the final chamber before its hardened sphere of thick, solid, crystal-steel wall, bRAIN had everything ready. The lacrima soldiers turned their weapons onto it and the anima weapons began to fire. It would not make the mistake of trying to turn the entity into lacrima like Zero had. As useful as the energy might be, it could not risk the giant detonating it incomplete again.

bRAIN was not worried, though. Even when Orion’s fist impacted its wall. There were cracks forming, but it had been expected and considered an acceptable risk. The lacrima soldiers managed to get the giant to flag a little, its second blow weaker. It would take 6 more blows at that power to breach the wall. The giant got one more before the anima weapons managed to force its gate closed.

bRAIN was left to prepare on its own and consider the other dangers to its continued operation. The Earthlander was definitely one, but the king was another. His mere authority was dangerous, but not to the level of removing him. His plans, though, were. bRAIN had no qualms about genocide, but the plan to exterminate the exceed species was self-defeating. They were a final, emergency source of magical energy. Turning them into lacrima would merely make it an emergency stockpile. It would turn a renewable energy source into a finite one. By enslaving them and developing the methods to extract ethernado directly from them like a dragon slayer, and ensuring they continued to breed and multiply would ensure that bRAIN possessed power to continue in operation. The king and his genocidal jealousy must be removed.

And the Earthlander must be used to facilitate that.

While Wendy had told them her plans, and desires, Draculos had listened attentively. As had Racer and Hoteye in their own ways. Midnight had slumped down against a wall and seemed to be napping now, an act that filled Draculos with not a little bit of contempt and distaste for someone who could do so during such an unprecedented emergency as this. Crocus as a whole was threatened, it was the four of them against a world dominating army, and they had to care for a child who was their only hope of saving the lacrima.

Wendy wanted to storm the castle immediately to save Arthur. He’d rescued her, and she was afraid they’d start draining him. “We have to be cautious about this. If they want Arthur alive, then our priority is to get to the lacrima and preserve its safety. Besides, it sounds like the castle is excessively fortified. We can’t just storm it. I hate to admit it, but as far as destructive force goes a high end dragon slayer easily surpasses me. If Arthur can’t breach it with raw force, we will have to use stealth and cunning.”

Draculos had cut his hand, dripping drops of blood into his shadow. Where they fell black bats rose up and began to fly. Each drop of blood seemed to create another and send it flying out. “I’ll send some scouts towards the castle to see what we can expect there, but for now we go towards the lacrima.”

Wendy winced there. “But Arthur could be captured or hurt and…”

“And getting ourselves captured wouldn’t help him. We can’t afford to make mistakes,” Draculos said.

Hoteye looked down towards the ground. “He saved us, we can’t just abandon him.” Draculos wondered if the fact that he’d given hope that Hoteye’s brother was alive was part of that.

His hand planted on Hoteye’s shoulder. “When I was questioning Arthur after… Serena’s bad taste…” He hated working with the Five Dragon God; unruly insubordinate subordinates were the worst especially when you were only nominally above them, “He told me your brother is alive, and has friends in Fairy Tail. We’ll help you find him, once we save Crocus. But it’s not Arthur that your liberty depends upon. We have to save the city if you three are going to have a chance at-”

Hoteye’s hand had grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand from the man’s shoulder and he was now squeezing hard. “He still saved all of us. I do not like the idea of abandoning him.”

It was Midnight who spoke then. “Can’t a guy take a nap? He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself. Let’s just go to save the city first. At this point it’s got to be better than arguing about it.”

Racer looked towards the ground. The question of what, if anything, they owed Arthur was obviously hanging over his head. “Did Arthur even have a plan?” He finally said, looking at Wendy.

“It happened so fast. He told me to save you guys and sent me away before anything else,” Wendy admitted with a bit of hesitation.

“We need a leader. A single head that this entire mission reports to and who can make decisions,” Draculos said.

“And you think that’s gonna be you,” Midnight scowled.

“I am the most experienced, with the greatest knowledge of magic, and military matters,” Draculos responded.

“And we’re all just wanted crooks,” Racer added for him.

Draculos wanted to give them the beating their insolence deserved, but that would be crude and uncivilized. “I am the most fit to lead. You all followed Brain before…”

“We were each equal in the Oracion Seis,” Midnight said, stepping forward and towards him.

Hoteye and Racer glanced at each other. They’d had time to think about that. Officially they had been. But if Brain had had a plan they had done it, no argument, no real discussion.

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“He’s right, Midnight. We need a leader right now,” Hoteye said.

“It doesn’t have to be him,” Midnight said.

“He’s the only one with a plan at the moment.” Hoteye’s statement lingered for a few moments and Midnight slumped defeated.

“Fine, let's hear the plan.”

Draculos didn’t really think it deserved the name plan, but it was the best that they had. It really amounted to little more than: move carefully, use magic for scouting, and take Wendy to the lacrima so she can fix it and figure out how to save Arthur afterwards.

The not-really-a-plan had proceeded smoothly for a time. The army’s kaiju riders were patrolling the skies, but Draculos and the others had managed to stay unnoticed thus far. The capital was in a panic, and the army was distracted with chaos which it had caused. It wasn’t too great, most people were staying in their homes, but they were evacuating portions of the capital and that took manpower.

It meant darting between alley and alley, using his bats as cover. A few extra shadows here and there weren’t easy to notice. Hoteye’s Heavenly Eye couldn’t penetrate the castle, but told him that the lacrima appeared unguarded at the moment. A man was approaching it, however, on a small, white variant of the massive bull-boars.

As they raced through the streets, fire blossomed in the sky. Draculos could see what was happening with one of his bats, more easily than Hoteye could with his Heaven’s Eye. A woman had been hiding near the lacrima, and had come out to defend it.

Draculos also recognized the two mages. One was Mystogan, the mysterious masked mage of Fairy Tail. It was possible he was wrong. But Mystogan had a track record, including one stopping the “anima events” which this appeared to be. The council and the four gods had never looked too deeply into them. That had been a mistake. Draculos would have to be more proactive in the protection of Ishgar in the future. The other was Ultear, Jellal’s accomplice, and the second most wanted criminal in all of Ishgar for her role in the destruction of the Magic Council’s headquarters and the Tower of Heaven incident.

It was possible they were merely doppelgangers, Wendy had mentioned meeting those, but it was clear that Ultear was defending the lacrima, and commanding the Edolas military forces to aid her in the attempt.

“Racer, can you get us under the lacrima fast?” Draculos asked. “It looks like the intruding mage is on our side and needs our help.”

“I have my vehicle magic,” Racer said with a grin. “But getting all five of us there is going to be a bit of a hassle. I can probably do it if the little girl is willing to hold on tight and ride behind me.”

“The four of you,” Draculos said, stopping in his running. “I don’t think he’ll let us pass otherwise,” He raised his hand and pointed. The man he had seen was a crude, barbaric seeming lout. He wore animal skin pants, and no shirt. A wolf’s pelt was draped over his shoulders like a cloak, its head adorning his own like a hood or a hat. Its paws were clasped together around his throat. His face was almost jeering and leering, a bloodthirsty face that spoke of self-indulgent violence.

Draculos might have had one of the others stay behind and risked sacrificing a piece except for one thing. The man’s disgusting face was like a mocking mirror of Draculos’s own. If asked Draculos would claim he sent the others ahead for fear that they could not win the fight, and because it was important not to sacrifice any pieces. But deep inside he knew he was about to do it because he wanted to know how he shaped up compared to his doppelganger.

“I’ll fight him, the rest of you go aid the wizard trying to free the lacrima. Figure out why he is there, and don’t let him get captured,” Draculos said, stepping towards his doppelganger.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you hold me off to save them,” the other Hyberion said. “I’ll just have to rip them apart before they can run.” He seemed positively ecstatic at the idea, his muscles beginning to bulge and ripple as his wolf pelt seemed to begin to stretch across his body. “Let me show you my new magic… Wargskin Lightning Bruiser!”

He launched forward, moving at incredible speed towards Racer. The Oracion Seis hadn’t even had time to flinch when he tripped crashing into Racer from his forward momentum. The wolfman howled in pain, one hand clutching his throat. He rose towards his feet, and turned his gaze towards Draculos.

“Your magic is wargskin? Mine is vampire,” Draculos said. “And on my honor as Draculos Hyberion, Wizard God of Ishgar, I will defeat you, werewolf, and save the flowering capital.” He raised a hand and the wolf found himself pulled forward, as if the blood in his body was being tugged towards the vampire. He fought through the pain, letting the wolf rise up further inside of himself. His whole body hurt, the magical energy that the pelt was feeding him being pulled out of him by that magic.

“And as Lycus Hyberion, lieutenant first class, I will tear you limb from limb!” He launched, letting that pull tug him forward, pushing through the pain that had made him stumble before. The others were escaping, but he couldn’t stop them and fight this mage. Besides Draculos’s face had pissed him off.

He went for the throat, claw rending through where it was. Only it was where it had been. Draculos had changed, flowing around the attack as a mass of bats, before coalescing once more and kicking him from behind.

The wolfman rolled, ending on his feet to launch himself again. He could still feel his life energy being drained by Draculos’s magic, a slow but steady assault on his life force feeding into the mage.

Lycus was fast. His attacks were, if anything, faster than Draculos’s own or the likes of Serena. But while he could claw faster than a spell could be cast his attacks were straight line, and straight towards you. They were, in short, predictable. And not only that they weren’t like the sweeping area attacks that Serena would launch. They could be dodged, and as long as Draculos could turn this into a battle of attrition he would win.

Only attrition took time, and the werewolf’s life force wasn’t draining away as fast as it should be. No, it was draining just fine, but that wargpelt was replenishing it. If he relied on that tactic this battle was going to take forever. He continued to dodge and avoid, turning into bats to escape attacks and reconstituting himself to counter attack. He bit and clawed as he flew around the wolf, little harassment that did paltry if any real damage, but it forced the wolf to pull back or to guard his eyes. Not that the bats dared get too close to his mouth, but while he was stuck protectively snapping at the air, Draculos could land a good blow. And each blow let him reassert his magic, increasing the drain on the wolf.

Draculos found himself getting cocky, though. He slipped up, treating the werewolf transformation as Lycus’s only trick. “Rending Howl!” Lycus screamed out, his wolf’s howl echoing through the city as the sound tore through Draculos’s chiropteran form. When he reconstituted himself he was covered in wounds. Flesh wounds only, long, shallow gashes all over his body, but it hurt, and it left him off balance.

The werewolf didn’t hesitate. Instead they spun, shouting the name of their attack and sweeping a roundhouse kick. “Argent slicer!”

Draculos ducked back, but a crescent blade of silver light swept forward hitting into his chest. He felt it hit bone as it sent him flying back. And then the wolf was launching towards him.

Draculos tightened his magic, causing pain to flare through the wolf’s body. He could have healed his wounds by draining the wolf, but it’d be a losing strategy. Instead he was using Lycus’s blood to drain the oxygen from his muscles, causing them to seize up. It would be only a momentary paralysis, but Draculos’s arm rose holding his torn and tattered cloak. That cloak stretched out, hardening and sharpening into a long, bladed edge. Lycus’s head was cleanly removed, his body reverting to human as his body crashed into Draculos.

He reached for the cloak, and looked at his doppelganger. This was a perfect opportunity. A drop of his blood landed in a shadow and formed into a bat which went flying out. He’d have to inform the Oracion Seis that they had a way to get on the inside.

By the time Georg had known about, and arrived at, the attack on the castle, it was already over. He’d seen the devastation this monster had caused in the castle. The mangled bodies of those who were buried beneath the rubble still haunted his mind. He’d last been seen following the king into the escape tunnel. Georg’s new weapon was of limited use underground; they needed space.

So he hadn’t followed, but had returned to his post. Or well returned to his duty. He had been guarding the giant lacrima when the attack had started. So he had taken his new weapon, or weapons, and returned to it. His new weapon was the Four Demon Beasts, or more the four rings he now wore on his fingers each of which projected and controlled one of the four creatures: Byakko the White Tiger, Seiryu the Azure Dragon, Genbu the Black Tortoise, and Suzaku the Vermillion Bird.

Byakko was something of a white tiger, though its body bore bony plates on the shoulders, and thick saber teeth, the mass of muscle was larger than one should be almost the size of an elephant. Seiryu had the name of a dragon, and somewhat the appearance of one, a long, azure scaled, serpentine body with four small legs, and a mane of a lighter blue color, but it was no true dragon. Genbu had been left on a building in the city below, both because it could not ascend higher easily, and because it’d give it the chance to maneuver. Genbu was a black tortoise comparable in height to a horse, and both longer and wider than one. Its shell was absolute black, and its tail was disproportionately long, ending in a second snake-like head. Finally the smallest of the four beasts was Suzaku, the Vermillion Bird. A radiant, red bird, almost the size of a man, with a wingspread well wider than a human’s shoulders, and very long, many colored tail feathers.

He had just arrived at his station when he saw a man appear in the air by the lacrima. He was wearing the uniform of a basic soldier, but it was fairly noticeably damaged at this point. The light around him seemed to be distorted slightly, and dimmed, like he was surrounded by an odd haze. Of course, the only soldier he knew of that could teleport was the assailant who had abducted the king.

Georg didn’t hesitate. He let the magic in the sapphire ring flow out. His mind was sent back, planted into his past self, alongside those of the four demon beasts. He’d only purchased himself a handful of moments, but a handful of moments could change a battle.

Byakko started running immediately, Suzaku moving towards position to support, with Gembu beginning to charge its attack. Gembu’s beam fired so that it hit almost precisely when the man had appeared, striking him in the air. Georg watched as the man spun through the air only to teleport to the island.

Byakko leapt towards him, and the Earthlander’s hand rose. Suddenly Byakko was in the air behind him falling from the sky. The man’s eyes fell on him with a strange look of recognition. “Georg?” The man asked.

Georg wanted to know why, but he couldn’t afford to hesitate. He leapt back a second earlier than the time prior. This time before the man could teleport from the sky, Byakko had pounced him, tackling him towards the ground below. He rode on Seiryu to where he could look down from the island to see Byakko fighting the man.

A giant, blue, metal bear appeared punching Byakko. For a few moments they began to exchange blows. Gembu’s quick shots struck the blue bear with no effect, causing Georg to send the mental command to hold off from weak attacks and simply charge its shots to full power.

Suzaku flew over the man, fire flowing from its underside. The man and bear both were unharmed, and the attack merely got a roar of darkness striking the bird in the chest and piercing through it.

Georg pulled back time, this time keeping Suzaku in reserve and allowing Gembu to begin charging immediately instead of wasting time with those weak shots. Byakko was defeating the bear, but the man wasn’t paying attention to that fight at all, he was looking about. “Georg?” He said, that look of recognition on his face. Georg could see the man’s hand rise, the man’s magic reaching out, a visual distortion forming around Seiryu’s head. It only lasted for an instant before the dragon’s head vanished, a swirling vortex momentarily visible at the stump of its neck before it vanished.

“How do you know me?” Georg asked. Seiryu’s head appeared, falling on one of the nearby floating islands. It didn’t matter, though. Seiryu was not a creature of flesh and blood, its body continued to function even as its teleported head fired a cloud of blue fire down towards the man.

The man’s hand rose, one of those polarizing distortions of light which seemed to come with the man’s magic forming a shield between him and the flames. “I know more than you think, Georg,” The man said as Suzaku and Gembu struck from opposite sides. His magic was being manifested from both sides, but Gembu’s energy beam managed to punch through allowing the triple attack to strike the man and knock him to the ground.

Georg had missed something in Byakko’s battle, however. The bear had begun to glow with silver light, throwing Byakko in two pieces down from the island, Suzaku screaming and projecting its fire to heal Byakko only for the bear to launch itself towards the vermillion bird. The bear’s first sent the bird plummeting, as the bear landed back on the ground. The bear turned still prepared to fight, and Georg pulled back time.

Georg moved back to the moment he was asking a question, looking towards the battle with Byakko and the bear. It was drinking a pot of honey, and it was beginning to glow with silvery power. It was too late. He pulled back time further.

The man was glancing about. Georg was turning his attention towards the bear. “Georg?” The man called out. Georg couldn’t afford to get distracted here though.

Seiryu pulled its head away from the distorting portal, reacting to it with the speed of foreknowledge, taking the chance to fire a pot shot at the man. But the important change was when Gembu’s shot was towards the bear-creature’s honey jar. The tiger tackled the bear to the ground, clawing at its chest, and chomping at its face.

The man though had acted quickly, dozens of explosive spheres forming around Gembu and detonating, bringing the turtle to its knees. Suzaku screeched, the Vermillion Bird’s mouth opening wide as fire billowed forth to flow to Gembu and reform its lost portions. The man’s head swung, his mouth opening wide, a beam of darkness firing towards Suzaku. That bolt of shadow brought down the fiery bird, just like when he’d noticed Suzaku before, and again Georg had to pull back time.

Forewarned of its oncoming death, the firebird swerved and dodged, avoiding the man’s roar of dark magic, letting it reach up and into the air. Georg and the man both seemed to share a touch of panic as their eyes followed to the lacrima that it struck instead, and watched as a piece of the island covering lacrima was converted back into the people it had been before.

Still that distraction was an opportunity Georg couldn’t allow to slip by him. He rewound a few seconds, and immediately seized on the distraction to attack. Byakko, knowing the bear’s actions pushed it back, but Georg wasn’t able to pay attention to that battle while dealing with his own. Seiryu flew in closer, Georg drawing his sword, even as Seiryu opened its head to breathe its fires down onto him.

The man’s armor withstood the flames, but it held him for a moment, buying Georg time to leap down towards him. His magical tool as a lieutenant in the magic branch was not nearly as impressive as the four demon beasts he had found, but it wasn’t useless, and with Suzaku and Seiryu he could keep this mage off balance long enough to let Gembu charge. Georg didn’t think Suzaku or Seiryu could actually penetrate the strange field around the mage; his thunder sword might be able to.

Georg’s sword roared with electrical energy as he struck towards the man. Only to find he had drawn a blade of his own, a golden light blazing from it as it struck Georg’s thunder sword. The light exploded from it, sending Georg flying backwards. As he landed he felt a sharp piece of rubble punching through him. He pulled to his feet, knowing that Suzaku was already screaming out, its fire flowing into him. That went poorly, but not so poorly as to use more of Seiryu’s dwindling power.

“Georg!” The man screamed with what seemed a touch of concern for him. The man’s strange knowledge of him was still disturbing, and in truth rather distracting. A strange floating metal sphere, large enough for a person to ride upon, had appeared, a beam shooting out from it towards Suzaku. Georg sent their minds back in time once more as Suzaku was obliterated once more.

Georg avoided attempting to land directly on the Earthlander. Instead he plunged his sword into the ground, sending out electrical magic in all directions through it. The man screamed, and suddenly spheres of warped space formed around him and exploded, blasting his sword from his hand, and sending him to his knees. Still he had bought Suzaku time to get to ground, hidden by the buildings of the city, its flames flowing around them to heal and restore him. It didn’t matter, the man’s mouth turned and launched a beam of darkness straight for Suzaku’s position and Georg felt the ruby ring go cool as the power left it.

He reverted time once more, finding himself in his downward leap. This time, however, Byakko broke from the bear, ignoring the leg-shattering blow inflicted as it did so. Suzaku’s fire wrapped around Byakko’s leg as it tackled the Earthlander to the ground. Georg rammed his sword into the ground sending out the surge of electricity, to try and break him. The man screamed out in pain, and Georg’s heart wavered, his electricity weakening a little. “You should just surrender. There’s no shame in knowing when you’re beaten,” He said.

The man drew the other sword he carried, this one was larger, a little too large for a one handed weapon. Still it plunged upwards into Byakko’s underbelly and the tiger roared. Georg felt the pearl ring which represented Byakko go cold and powerless, Suzaku’s reviving fire hitting it to no effect, but continuing to channel into it.

He focused on the sapphire ring, his mind going back once more. Georg had noticed something, though. The man was bleeding. Seiryu’s magic wasn’t limited to sending his mind back in time. Georg turned it instead onto the man and the wound, accelerating the effect of the blood loss.

“You should just surrender. There’s no shame in knowing when you’re beaten,” He said; he didn’t want to kill the man, and while the sheer loss of life from his attack on the castle was immense, Geog knew he’d have done the same if someone had abducted a city from Edolas and stranded him in their world. Even as he did so Byakko leapt on him, letting the twin assault bring him to the ground. Georg’s heart pounded, beating against his chest. Byakko’s movement to engage the Earthlander had freed the blue bear which now rushed it, grasping it and throwing it from its summoner.

Georg’s head followed the battle, Gembu turning its snake-tail to blast its charged up energy blast towards the blue bear. In that single moment of distraction darkness rose up and surrounded around Georg’s body. It was absolute darkness which cut off all sensation of the outer world, and then there was a feeling of coldness. That was the last thing Georg felt. He had pushed his enemy to the point of lethal force.

Sawyer pulled his bike to a stop, almost throwing Wendy off from behind him. The battle in the sky had progressed. The fire mage had gotten the advantage in the fight above. Sawyer released his slow magic, sending it out in a great wave in all directions. He was already running. He might not have super speed magic, but Sawyer wasn’t slow on his own two feet. He ran straight up a wall of a building leaping off from it.

The falling man was burnt. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, the flash of heat had hit him and passed on, not holding against him minimizing how much temperature could exchange. Still Sawyer winced a bit at the way he was burned. His mount was still falling, Sawyer couldn’t catch it, as Sawyer’s leap ended on the roof of another building.

He turned back to see it, and he could see a dark distortion of light, like a haze in the air. It was Arthur’s magic.

Arthur was leaning against a wall, his face pale, and wan. The man was wearing some sort of military uniform, and waving. “Good to see a friendly face,” They said weakly.

Sawyer looked at him. There was a feeling of rage. The man had killed Brain. But it passed. He’d also freed Sawyer, and given him the first hope he’d had in years of living a life that wasn’t on the run.

“You really don’t consider us enemies, do you?” He asked as he jumped to a lower building and then the ground. It was something he couldn’t really get a good mental hold of.

“Arthur!” Wendy’s voice sounded out, loud and clear. The healer was running towards Arthur from where Sawyer had left him.

“Just the little dragon slayer I hoped to see,” Arthur said, sliding down against the wall. “I think I might be on the verge of blacking out.”

Racer watched as Wendy went to work. It’d be easy to kill Arthur right now. It’d not be worth it. Besides, Sawyer didn’t really have the heart for it. He just didn’t know what to think about Arthur. He had come out of nowhere and he had fought them. He had killed Brain. And then he had sheltered Angel. He had argued for them in their trial. He had proposed a plan to see them pardoned to Draculos. He had freed them from imprisonment. And now he’d sent someone to save them.

Sawyer’s thoughts were interrupted as the burned man began to speak. “It’s too late. It took me this long to gather vestiges of anima effects large enough to send the lacrima back to Earthland. And it’s all scattered now. It’ll take me twice as long to do it again if it’s even possible. And we don’t have that time.” Sawyer’s head shot towards the man. That hope of freedom was all tied up in saving Crocus.

“How long do we have?” Arthur asked.

“Hours, and then it’ll be irreversible. Just a few hours,” the burned man’s voice was bitter. “The only option is to get to the anima device itself, but the castle has mutated.”

“I can create an anima,” Arthur said, “But I don’t know if I can reliably do it from here.” Sawyer gawked at him then. What kind of magical monster was he? Sawyer still remembered the attacks that had casually knocked him out; the ease with which Arthur could have killed him.

So why had he killed Brain and not him?

“You can create an anima?” the burnt man asked, the sound of hope cutting through the pain in his voice.

“I think I can. I wrestled a small one earlier, my Archive observed it, I should be able to replicate it on a larger scale, but it’ll take time, effort, and…” Sawyer heard the fear in his voice. He was wounded and if the magic was straining it could be lethal.

“It’s defended,” the burned man said.

“Boss man, don’t freeze up,” Sawyer urged. Arthur was their only hope here. “You said it’s defended, how?” He asked, turning towards the burned man.

“By me, of course,” Came a voice from above, even as flames filled the streets. The cobblestone was suddenly covered in flickering, dancing flames, leaving only a ring around the four of them. “Surrender and I will spare your lives, otherwise I will burn you all to ashes.”

The voice came from a young woman with long, black hair, and a cold, cruelly beautiful face. She was wearing a red dress with a golden yellow cross placed directly across her breasts and up and down her torso. She was hovering awkwardly, rising and falling with bursts of rocket-like flame from around her legs.

Sawyer flinched. He’d let her get way too close. Arthur’s hand twitched, and that polarizing distortion started to shape around her body. Fire burst across her flesh, and he watched his magic melt before its heat.

“Run. I’ll handle her,” Arthur said. His voice was weak for such an imperative.

“You don’t sound confident, boss man, besides, you’re needed at the lacrima.” Sawyer couldn’t let Arthur die here. If Arthur saved the lacrima there was hope. If he failed he could say goodbye to that hope. He needed to solve this fight quickly. He moved in an instant, launching himself towards the woman as his slow magic washed out. Fast as he was he couldn’t dodge what came next. Watching it in slow motion as fire formed around him and washed across him from all directions if anything made things worse. It burned along him and he fell to the ground, rolling to try and extinguish the fire.

“Needed at the lacrima? You’re the one whose roar reverted those people from lacrima, aren’t you?” The dark haired woman said. “Surrender yourself to my custody and I’ll spare the others. If you don’t I will burn them all.”

The heat and pain of the fire distracted Sawyer from the battle, until suddenly he was being squeezed. It was Richard’s magic, softening the earth and making it liquid, flowing over him to smother the flame before pulling back and away, receding from him and letting him breathe.

“Sorry we were late. After Racer and the little lady ran to catch the falling man we were delayed by a contingent of guards,” Richard was speaking.

“Don’t count me out yet,” The woman said, escaping Richard’s magic.

Arthur was obviously preparing himself to join the fight once more. The burned man was grasping Arthur’s arm, though. “You can’t fight here. They’re already reinforcing the lacrima, you need to go, and go quickly. Let us handle her.” Arthur hesitated, and the burned man continued. “Go! Every moment you wait the odds that everyone will be saved when it’s sent back is reduced, and the chance that they use the lacrima before we can save it is increased.”

The woman’s fire was lashing out, but MacBeth’s magic blocked it, and for Sawyer Wendy’s healing hands were rather a bit more important. He could see why she’d been so valuable to abduct.

Suddenly a spear was tossed at him. “Racer, do you know how to use a spear?” Arthur asked.

“I usually stick to knives,” Sawyer stated, his hand moving to the spear, grasping it and holding it. He wasn’t particularly used to such large weapons, they were somewhat unwieldy and slow making it hard to take full advantage of his magic.

“Try this one,” Arthur said.

Sawyer wasn’t sure how it was enchanted, but he could feel the magic in it. It was a powerful weapon. Arthur was trusting him. He’d have said with his life, but he wasn’t sure that Arthur intended to survive what came next.

It was clear what he had to do. “Go save Crocus, boss man,” Sawyer said, honestly hoping Arthur came back alive. He’d not make too bad of a boss if it came to having a keeper for the whole redemption thing. He was starting to actually look forward to trying to be a hero.

Fire erupted up from under MacBeth, and Sawyer realized he needed to get his head in the game.

“Don’t think you’ve got me handled just yet,” the dark haired woman said.

The burned man was screaming at Arthur, but Sawyer was focusing on the woman. His slow magic lashed out. He couldn’t just charge at her directly this time, but if he kept mobile he could keep her off balance.

He moved, and then he felt the magic of the spear Arthur had given him. It was what his slow magic seemed to other people. Maybe not to the same level, but where he actually slowed everything around him, the spear sped him up.

Controlling the exact speed wasn’t easy, but with it and his slow magic he was too fast for the dark haired woman to catch him. His blows were light, and occasionally he had to rest, to buy time to recast the magic, and let Richard and MacBeth keep her off balance until then, but with this spear he was too fast to stop.

And Arthur had given it to him without a hint of hesitation. The naive fool really didn’t consider him an enemy. And Sawyer hated to admit that sort of made him hope the man came back. They could make a nice team.

Sawyer pressed the woman hard. Her fire was dangerous. It forced MacBeth to stay on the defensive, protecting himself as well as Richard and the little girl. Still she couldn’t touch them as long as he worked as protector, and with the spear boosting his speed she couldn’t catch Sawyer. That was until she simply released it, a plume of fire rising up around her, washing out through the city. Sawyer couldn’t see what happened to MacBeth and Richard, but he trusted his ally’s magic to see it through. He’d been too close, he couldn’t escape it in time. So he pushed through it, throwing the spear. It struck the woman in the head, the edge scraping across her skull. She lost control of her fire jets, and fell, even as he failed to stick his landing. The fire had blazed over his flesh, one side of his body badly burned, too much to see out of one eye. He couldn’t rise to his feet. But he heard Wendy’s shout, and he saw her out of his good eye as she ran towards him to heal him.

And then the knight in black arrived. Sawyer couldn’t even rise to his feet. MacBeth tried to stop him, but his magic could not touch the knight. Richard’s did, but the two could only slow him. Soon the knight’s foot was on Richard’s head, and with the threat of losing another of his friends MacBeth and Wendy surrendered.