Angel summoned Gemini to dismiss her transformation magic - and just to have the twins ready - as they walked up to the secret guild hall of Vampire Kiss. It was one of the Dark Guilds that until 3 days ago had been under the Oración Seis. It’d been up on its tribute, and not directly led by one of the six demon generals, so it hadn’t been called up for the forest fight.
It was also, according to Angel, the largest, illegal fight club in Ishgar. Oh, she said the time to hit them would be right before New Years. That’s when they had their big event, and the money really flowed. Still they were a guild she’d handled. She was confident that Arthur could handle them - at least outside of December - and that they could get some spending cash even as they left a dark guild’s main players in official custody.
Getting in was easy. Angel was their handler. Or at least Arthur thought it was as they were taken to a VIP booth, and brought trays of candied meats and fine wine for their pleasure and enjoyment.
“It’s poisoned,” Jellal said.
“What?” Arthur asked. “How do you know?”
“The server’s face. They know the Oración Seis got beat and rounded up. They’ve tried to hide it, but no one here’s been pleased to see Angel alive,” He explained.
“He’s right,” Angel said, pouring her drink on the ground where it began to sizzle and hiss as it melted holes through the floor. “They want me dead now. I expect you two to keep them from ruining my new dress.” She posed like she was trying to be in Sorcerer Magazine, a little pose to emphasize her feminine shape even as she looked up towards their faces with a playful expression. “It looks good on me, doesn’t it? Still Gemini,” She snapped her fingers, the twins transforming into one of the mages they met. “We might as well wait till some rounds of fights have taken place. Let people get nice and drunk, let their best fighters beat each other up, let…” She stopped. “Where’d Arthur go?”
“And we have a new challenger, entering the ring against Jiemma the Explosion,” The announcer said loudly.
“He teleported into the ring when they called for anyone to challenge the reigning champion,” Jellal said, pouring his wine onto the floor of the VIP booth.
“You can’t be serious,” Angel said. “Does he not understand undercover work?”
Wendy’s worst fears were confirmed. Angel had revealed her real identity, and gone into a dark guild to “talk business” and Jellal and Arthur had followed her. It crushed her heart to see it. She had thought she could trust them. That they were on the level. And already they were proving her wrong. She slumped down in the alley beginning to cry.
She sobbed for several minutes. “Carla. We’re going to get in there.”
“What? Wendy we shouldn’t. It’s too dangerous. Any one of those three is too dangerous,” the white cat said.
“We’ve got to do something. If they’re doing something bad there… I’m partially responsible if I don’t do anything,” Wendy said.
Carla looked worried. “We tell the authorities where Angel went.”
“Eh, mister, you haven’t registered as a fighter,” The fight announcer said, backing away from Arthur slightly. She was wearing hot pants and a tube top. “You have to register first.”
“Let him,” the reigning champion said. “If he wants to fight me, I’ll make this fight quick before the main event. Give the guests some extra entertainment.” Jiemma the Explosion was what the announcer had called him. The reigning champion was a massive man, a mountain of muscle, though his beard and hair had already begun to turn white. He was dressed in a pair of trousers, and a shirt that only covered one shoulder, moving down his body at an angle. Around his neck was a massive strand of prayer beads. Arthur knew him as Jiemma Orlando, Sabertooth’s ace, and future guild master of Sabertooth.
“Well alright,” The fight announcer said, “But I’m going to need a name from the challenger.”
“What? Lancelot,” Arthur said in a sudden panic, “Lancelot the Fairy Spear,” He spat out just giving the first thing that came to mind.
“However, our challenger seems to have not been informed of some of our rules,” The fight announcer said, strutting around him. “No weapons,” She bent down, pressing against Arthur’s legs as she removed his sword belt; he’d brought the black blade just in case, even after leaving his shield and armor behind to avoid being too recognizable. “And most certainly,” She grabbed his bag of keys. “No Holder Magic. If he wants to fight he needs to get rid of all of those or deal with the House,” She stated, grinning broadly. Her bleached blonde hair showed black at its roots, the guild mark of Vampire Kiss displayed right below her navel, the bottom of it disappearing into her hot pants.
Arthur raised his hand and snapped his fingers, and his sword, and keys moved to the VIP booth with Angel and Jellal. The fight girl swallowed hard. The wards were supposed to block magic from going in or out. Spatial Magic could mess it up a bit, but even so to get it out took an unusually powerful mage. Not necessarily more powerful than Jiemma, but, “Alright, we’ve got a challenge, and since the champion gets a bit rowdy, I’d like to request that every go back five rows for a minimum safety distance. If you were in the cheap seats, I’m sorry, but it’s time to watch from the bar instead. This fight looks like it could get nasty.”
A wave of boos and hisses and even cheers came from the crowd. They’d expected Jiemma the Explosion to crush tonight’s opponent, he had the last 4 times he’d taken to the ring, but it looked like they were getting a bonus fight, and one that promised to be exciting if it worried the host.
Even the fight girl was retreating back, and past the wards. “We’ve got ourselves the making of a fine fight,” She said, bouncing in place a little, before bending low as she pointed at Jiemma. “In the red corner we have our returning champion. The undefeated Jiemma the Explosion!” She swept her finger towards where Arthur was standing, wearing only his tattered under-armor garments, and a mask he had teleported from his pocket. Of course the dark haze of his personal ‘space’ which surrounded him made it hard to make out details except for his distinctive white and blue hair. “And in the blue corner we have our challenger. Lancelot the Fairy Spear has come to slay the unbeaten demon of the ring! Can he pierce them, or will he be blasted away like all others who have tried? I can’t tell you, but let me say I’ve never felt such sheer presence as in the ring today! Now, on the count of three, get ready and begin, one, twothree!” She sped up the last two words to give an, in this case unnecessary, edge to the returning champion who knew to expect it.
Jiemma was out of the gate in an instant, a blast propelling him forward before he brought a leg sweeping into Arthur’s head. It sent Arthur flying, impacting the wall, and the barrier magic, hitting it hard enough to make the barrier flash a bright red. Wrapped in a shielding layer of his personal territory, Arthur barely felt the blow.
“Weak,” Jiemma stated, as energy built in his hand. A flash of light exploded, firing towards Arthur. It wasn’t actually Jiemma’s usual fighting style in the arena. He toyed with opponents a lot more typically. Here, though, he was spooked. He recognized Territory Magic. He used some of it himself. That wasn’t something he could do with it, though.
Arthur’s hand rose, shaping his space into a wall before him, catching the blast. But he’d lost sight of Jiemma, who’d closed in close, and took the opportunity to strike him, landing a blow on his ribcage, and immediately releasing a point blank explosion of his blast magic. Arthur was launched up, and back just a bit, forced to fly against the barrier magic until hitting the ‘roof’ of the spell. It’d shattered his territory armor, even if it had taken most of the brunt of the attack. Unfortunately it was no longer there to take the next one as Jiemma raised a finger up and let energy focus in it, a beam shooting forth followed by an explosion which ran through the beam.
But Arthur had already landed. Or more teleported down and to the opposite side of the arena. This was what Angel was talking about. What Madmole had. He wasn’t a fighter.
He had (just over) 200 CP. He could become a fighter. Take the Knight and become a master of melee weapons. Or take Born to Bash for less, without spending one of his discounts, and learn unarmed combat.
He barely blocked a wave of pure destructive force from Jiemma, his barrier rising up with his hand, before he teleported into the air to buy himself time. He’d remembered Jiemma as a mostly passive fighter: Natsu wailing on him; Sting one shotting him; andis battle with the double slayers being off-panel and only showing him awkwardly blocking kicks and punches.
This felt… This felt like fighting an actual guild master. Maybe it was that Jiemma wasn’t one yet. Jiemma was still young and hungry, willing to put his effort in, instead of letting his guard down because he saw himself as on an unassailable peak.
Minerva watched from the back room. Her father had brought her to watch the fights and see how the strong actually battled. And what happened to the trash too weak to win. It wasn’t the first time he’d brought her either. Every 6 weeks for the last 6 months he’d made her come.
She didn’t like it here. The way people here looked at her made her feel like a sheep surrounded by wolves. And when they had gone beyond looking, her father had done nothing. Even when they’d talked about purchasing her to sell, he’d merely said she’d not shown herself to be that weak yet.
But she was good, and dutiful. She watched the fight as closely as she could, just like he had told her to. She was here to learn. Learn the truth of the world, and how the powerful dominated the weak.
Minerva was shocked to see her father going seriously from the beginning. It might be that Jiemma was furious that the mage was using one of the family battle arts. She didn’t know her relatives past her father, but he had told her that Territory was an old magical secret of the family. But Minerva felt there was more to it than that.
Jiemma raised a hand, and casually launched a blast towards Arthur. It never connected as Arthur passed through his own space to land, his armor back up, and a dozen pockets of his territory wrapping around Jiemma’s body before they all exploded in unison. The arena filled with the light and roar of the explosions, like thunder erupting throughout. Smoke rose around Jiemma’s body as he rolled his neck, cracked his shoulders, and spat on the ground.
He growled low and deep in his throat, raised a single finger and there was a massive explosion of light and sound. It was enough to disorient Arthur, blinding him for a few moments. He responded, though, raising a territory barrier around himself, and felt it as it was immediately hammered hard by a series of explosions, one after another.
Arthur teleported, even before his vision returned, and he saw Jiemma swerving towards him. The man’s magical power was immense. It wasn’t equal to Georg’s or Byaku’s, but it was equal to the dragon Arthur had slain, making his the strongest magical energy Arthur had seen on Ishgar.
Arthur was still distracted by the question… was it worth buying Born to Bash? Could he win without it? Before he could even begin to answer that he felt Jiemma’s knee impact his barrier and send him flying, Jiemma’s hands rising and coming together for another blast.
Arthur focused and suddenly they swapped positions, as easily as a thought, but he’d timed it wrong. Instead of teleporting a moment after the attack was launched so that it would hit Jiemma from behind, Jiemma’s blast shot up from his new airborne position, and through the barrier, striking the ceiling and erupting into the room above that was used as a front.
Wendy ran towards the area of town where the rune knights - still hunting Angel and Jellal who might have ran to here - were quartered. But she stopped as she saw a shop that she’d visited with Angel earlier that day. The ice cream stand where the criminal mage had bought her a bit of ice cream. It was where they’d been together earlier and she stopped for a moment.
“Carla, what if we’re wrong?” Wendy said as she stopped.
Carla’s ear twitched, her tail swishing. “What do you mean?”
“Angel and Jellal were supposed to make amends. What if they went in there to do something else?” She asked.
Carla looked down at the ground. Angel had talked about infiltration. If they were trying to eliminate the guild, getting in might be a good idea.
There was an explosion behind them, a flash of light erupting into the sky. “We tell them we think we saw Angel go in there. We don’t tell them we came here with her. But we tell that much. It will get the council’s forces to intervene, and if they were trying to take down the guild it shouldn’t hurt them too much,” Carla said, leaving off the thought ‘as long as they can get away’.
Jiemma didn’t stick his landing like he normally might. This mage had swapped positions with him through Territory Magic. His own mastery was incomplete, but he had thought he’d obtained enough skill and power that it should have been impossible to do so easily even for anyone in the world.
Still as the mage tried the explosion trick again, Jiemma almost scoffed. It was powerful, but he’d weathered it before. This time he focused his blast magic into the soles of his feet - he’d already destroyed his shoes the first time he’d rushed so - waves of energy from his shoulders blasting the spheres back and away a bit. He’d been planning to challenge the Guild Master for supremacy. If he could win this battle he felt certain he could defeat the old hag, and raise Sabertooth from the squalor of weakness it had fallen into.
He felt the territory magic explode against him, but the explosive force of his own attacks pushed back against it, turning it aside, before he struck at the challenger with a palm strike, and a point blank blast.
Only to scream out as his own blast magic struck him from behind. Arthur was smiling at him behind the mask. Teleporting the blast had taken more energy than he expected. The blast magic was wild and tore at his dominion of the space which armored him, but he’d managed it - if only because his back was braced against a wall to prevent Jiemma’s palm strike sending him flying back.
Arthur didn’t relent, opening his mouth and releasing a dragon’s roar. Darkness erupted from his lips like a beam weapon from a space opera battleship, the blast of shadow rushing towards the opposite barrier.
Jiemma’s blast magic erupted from one hand, and from his leg. It was poorly shaped - the unsteady magic wielded too hastily - but Jiemma had in a heartbeat realized it was better to blast his own leg to dodge that blast than to face it head on. The barrier magic blazed a bright red as the darkness magic shot out and into the audience still possessing power enough to knock out the watchers.
Jiemma felt the pain in his arm. It was still usable, but it was very possible that it was permanently damaged. He didn’t have time to care right now. He raised his good hand, focusing his power. He was going to use the most destructive power that his Blast Magic could call forth; the Grand Explosion. He wasn’t supposed to use this spell in Gazania, or any other human habitation. The audience behind the mage would die. The building next door might collapse. “Blast Magic - Grand…”
He didn’t finish the spell. Balls of the hazy black space of his enemy’s Territory appeared around him, exploding against his arm and chest, forcing him to vent the magic in an explosion of his own and meet force with force. In that moment the enemy teleported, and Jiemma spun, releasing a smaller blast with his backhand. Arthur felt it as the blow connected, and the blast magic pushed through his barrier. Without the barrier he’d be dead - headless as well - but even with it he’d flown hard into the barrier, his shoulder hitting with a painful crack.
Even so the attack from Jiemma had come a moment too slow. Arthur’s magic had exploded from his own palm, a black flare which had struck Jiemma in the gut, bringing him to his knees. He couldn’t make himself stand immediately. He’d not been this hurt in a long time. But he refused to be weak. He refused to yield. He wouldn’t lose.
Minerva Orlando watched the fight with baited breath. Her father was the strongest mage she knew; rejected from the Wizard Saints due to his age, track record of excessive force, and being only a few generations removed from his ethnic heritage in the Eastern Continent. The idea that he could lose was simply not there.
In pure magic she could admit the challenger surprised her. She kept trying to mentally downplay it, but whenever father weathered his attacks father was weakened, and he blocked father’s blows with relative ease from afar. But when they got close the difference was obvious. Father was stronger.
That idea was shattered when she heard her father start to invoke a spell aloud. He never did that in combat with his blast magic. He wasn’t talented at Territory Magic, so he spoke it, but this wasn’t Territory Magic. This was the spell the guild master had forbidden him to use. The most powerful blast magic. It’d destroy the barrier. It’d destroy a large portion of the building. If he missed it could kill her.
She found herself trembling. And then the explosions struck him. The challenger was down, but she’d never seen her father so wounded. One arm hung limp, and he was obviously avoiding putting weight on the leg on the same side. His face was twisted with pain.
And Lancelot was rising to his feet, blood running from his head. The fight wasn’t over yet. And she was torn. A part of her was terrified for her father. Losing in the arena often meant death. Especially against an unknown opponent; most lives that were spared was to keep a strong stable of warriors around, and the unaffiliated challengers had no reason to allow that.
Jiemma was panting now. Tired. Wounded. He couldn’t even feel his left arm. His right arm was a mass of pain. His left leg felt like he’d torn something bad. Even if he won this fight, he’d never be as strong as he was before it again. It reminded him of the time he’d stood against Wolfheim. But that had been a fight against a ‘fellow’ light mage in a public setting. He’d never been at real risk of death with that defeat; it had merely sealed away his dream of becoming one of the Wizard Saints.
He’d not left that battle with three mangled limbs and a hole in his guts. Still the arena fought to the death. And there was no way Jiemma was letting the challenger survive to kill him. He just needed to catch his breath for a few moments. He rose to his feet, turning slowly as his entire left side was nearly useless to him at the moment.
The Fairy Spear had risen to his own feet. He’d hoped the man would still be down. That barrier armor was stronger than Jiemma had given it credit for. And across the arena, Jiemma felt his eyes lock with Lancelot’s and then there was magic sweeping over him.
“Darkness Dragon Slayer Art - Light Loss,” Arthur whispered. Black swirled over Jiemma’s eyes, leaving them mere pools of darkness.
He could see nothing. Given time he could have ended the effect. Jiemma was absolutely terrified. These were blood sports. You used lethal force. And this man had just shown the ability to toy with him with magic. He panicked, leaping to the first and most destructive card left in his arsenal. It would most likely kill his daughter; but if she allowed herself to die here she would just prove that she had never grown out of the weakling she had always been. It’d destroy him as an official mage. He’d be wanted for life for the sheer scale of deaths he inflicted. But better to live as a wanted man than die as weakling trash.
“Niel Wielg Mion,” He began to speak, a loud, invocation ringing out through the air. An alarm klaxon was beginning to blare. Someone at least understood the danger when he got really serious. “Terse Elcantaeus.” He was gathering the magic to summon one of the 18 Battle Gods. A force of destruction several times stronger than his own magical power. If Vampire Kiss had strong enough mages maybe the spectators would survive. If not… Well sparing them death would be his own death. He was not so weak as to allow a lie like ‘compassion’ to end him. “Yagd Rigola!”
“Niel Wielg…” Minerva immediately recognized the invocation. It was the invocation to summon one of the Yakuma 18 Battle Gods. Yagd Rigola whose explosive force, fueled by all of her father’s remaining magic would certainly destroy this building. And her. And everyone in it.
She was still learning but she could teleport with her own territory magic, bringing her to the announcer’s shelter. She immediately pulled the emergency evacuation alarm. Maybe some people would escape alive.
She could see the arena turning into a stampede, even as she tried to teleport again. But she needed to be able to see where she was going. She only reached the most visible exit, and then a wave of humanity slammed into her, starting to knock her side to side, as dozens of people ran for their own lives.
The audience fled as the klaxon began, beginning to stream from Vampire Kiss in a stampede only to find that the doors had been sealed by the guild’s mages. Mages who were finding themselves assaulted by their own guild master, and a blue haired mage who seemed to mix elemental magics with an impossible ease.
The doors opened, allowing the crowd to flee the death trap the guild had become. But the expected explosion did not come. Angel rushed in, leaving Gemini - still in the form of the Vampire Kiss guild master, and Jellal outside to watch the unconscious prisoners.
Reaching the arena, she saw Jiemma, and Arthur. Jiemma stood panting heavily, but Arthur lay on the ground. “Open the gate of the house of the chisel! Caelum!” She called, summoning the silver sphere, only to watch Arthur rise to his feet.
Jiemma didn’t seem to notice that fact, though. And Arthur walked up towards him, body moving sluggishly before he swung an awkward punch into Jiemma’s gut. The muscled giant fell to the ground then, offering no resistance as a fist struck his face and he fell.
Arthur could barely see straight. His whole everything hurt. He’d unleashed his dimension black on Jiemma, pulling him into a space of Arthur’s own making before he could finish the spell. It had a chant. Not screaming its name for coolness like Natsu, but a legit chant. Chants were serious business and top tier magic.
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And then whatever Jiemma had done had blown the dimension apart. He wasn’t even sure he’d be able to use it again without building the dimension once more, and that had taken him weeks, he’d been working on it little by little since before he was done with his sick leave. And it’d hurt him too, he’d felt the explosion as Jiemma emerged from that dimension. He hurt all over, and now Jiemma was where he’d been before being pulled into the shadow realm of Arthur’s construction.
But Jiemma had exhausted himself. Arthur wasn’t sure how shielded the caster was from the blast, but at least in that dimension he wasn’t fully shielded. He’d hurt himself, and used up the rest of his power at the same time. One good blow is all that it’d still take to bring him down. So Arthur gave it to him just laying him out with a punch and letting the bearded slab of muscle fall with a resounding thud.
He turned to look at the arena, starting to walk away as he breathed heavily and panted. He still had magic energy, but he hurt. “I’m not that weak,” A voice sounded behind him. Jiemma was pulling his prayer beads from his neck, snapping the cord as he lashed out with them like a whip. It was a breach of the rules. But so too was attempting to blow up the entire establishment. It was a magical tool, meant to enhance his blast magic. He’d been saving it, stored up ethernado, for the battle against the guild master as a last resort. Now that would have to wait. As the whip struck it exploded, raining blasts down onto his enemy’s back.
Or it would have if he hadn’t missed. Arthur felt the explosion, his territory armor able to take the blast front without a direct hit. Jiemma was still blind. He’d come close, but he’d missed Arthur. Arthur was still thrown across the room, but with that barrier suit around him, he was unharmed, rising to his feet, and turning towards Jiemma. Arthur swung a left hook for Jiamm’s chest, darkness forming around his hand to lend his blow an extra measure of power. The blow sent Jiemma flying, a stream of darkness carrying him with it to slam across the arena, before coming to a stop in a heap at the wall.
“So you saw Angel of the Oración Seis walking into a secret dark guild in the middle of downtown?” The town watchmen spoke patronizingly to Wendy as he looked down at her. “Do you know how many false reports of Angel we’ve gotten today?”
“I’ll take her to check it out,” Another said. “We can’t just ignore it.” He was a rotund man, a happy smile on his face. “I’ll get a handpicked squad and we’ll go check it out.”
Wendy felt relieved at his presence, and glad he believed her - even if the other man’s wilful ignoring of the giant explosion which had come from the area was irritating.
Still it wasn’t long before they were marching towards the place she’d seen Angel and the others go.
Minerva had managed to escape the stampede of people. But only after being beaten and battered by the sheer press of them. She’d managed to teleport to one of the higher levels of the guild hall; a storage room for its above ground front. But she knew it was too late. She’d let people trample over her because she’d taken the time to warn them to flee. And now she was going to be blown up alongside them. She’d been weak. And now she was going to die for it.
But the explosion hadn’t happened, and she could hear people screaming and fighting outside. People were starting to run back inside, or to protest the criminality of keeping them there, and looking out a window she could see a wall of sand around the building. Could it be that Fiore’s government, or the Magic Council, had finally cracked down on Vampire’s Kiss? She knew it was possible. But she didn’t want to be found here.
She darted for the nearest closet, opening the door to dive inside and hide And she found a woman bound and gagged, magic sealing stone manacles around her arms. She recognized the woman. Vampire Kiss’s guild master, Lilith Estarossa, a dark haired, fair skinned, red lipped woman who had a penchant for dressing like Dracula.
She pulled the gag free, and the woman glared at her. “Free me,” She said, struggling against the bonds.
Minerva hesitated. She hated this place. She hated her father forcing her here. She didn’t like Lilith.
“Get me out of here, you stupid brat, or you and your father are going down with my guild. You think either of you will survive being caught here?” Lilith hissed.
Minerva swallowed hard, and began to open the manacles. She’d only half got them off when a wave of soft, pink wool washed into the room, and she felt a sudden sense of peace and content relaxation, almost immediately drifting off into sleep.
“A fair bit of the clientele escaped,” Jellal stated as he walked in.
“But we should have all the mages,” Gemini - still in the form of the Vampire Kiss guildmaster - said. “Save for one. She got away.”
Angel grinned. Things hadn’t gone too bad, despite Arthur having gone completely off script. They’d got the guild cash box, which ought to buy her a few good dresses, and help ensure that even if the Guild’s connections got them off of legal charges, they’d be unable to afford to maintain those connections. If Arthur had stuck to the script and they’d been able to catch the full audience, or at least most of it, they might have been able to cut a hole out of the stinking heart of Fiore. It’d be easy to put off the guild as harmless due to mostly simply providing less than legal entertainment, and the spectators as more so since they were simply enjoying it. Except that some of their blood games were fueled by abduction and kidnapping, and they used their illegal wizard blood fights to fund other dark guilds; with the Oración Seis gone who knew where they’d channel their revenue sources. And those spectators by becoming complicit and accomplices then ended up blackmailed into hiding the guild’s activities. Angel was fairly certain it was something she could count in her karmic favor.
But there was a problem.
“Arthur, what do you think you were doing jumping into the ring?” She said, her tone furious, as she walked over to him and slapped him hard against the face. The plan had been to identify any mages who could break the perimeter, bring them down, and then let Aries wool bomb the entire guild into sleep while Scorpio contained them. With his little stunt she’d barely had time to get the guild mistress, and use Gemini to steal the hidden cash boxes, before getting out at the front of the crowd and containing the building. If Jellal hadn’t managed to get her out of there at double time - and single handedly take down the first 7 people to escape the sand barrier - the entire mission would have been a bust.
“I had a bounty to beat that guy one on one,” Arthur answered.
“Doesn’t matter. You went off plan and put all of us at risk. You can’t do that,” Angel glared.
“He was a bastard who I really wanted to hit for what he did… Will… would have done,” Arthur said.
“Does not matter,” Angel repeated.
“He killed his guild member’s exceed because it had a guild mark on it.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Angel had no idea what an exceed was. But it still didn’t matter.
“He stripped a guild member and publicly humiliated her while actively enjoying her suffering before kicking her out of the guild in disgrace because she lost a battle to Fairy Tail’s celestial spirit mage.”
“Does not matter. You can’t throw off the mission for personal emotions. You do that and we all might die.”
Arthur looked at Angel. “The guild member in question would have been Yukino.”
Angel’s hands clenched shut. “Is he still breathing?” She asked starting to walk from the guild master’s private sanctum which they had been sort of pilfering and looting. “I’m just going to check on him. See if he’s ok.”
Jellal grabbed her as she tried to leave the room. “No killing,” He stated. “We’re trying to redeem ourselves.” He wasn’t sure exactly what sort of foreknowledge Arthur had, not having been informed about the manga and such. “We need to get a message to the authorities, and get out of here.”
“But,” Angel squirmed and struggled against his grasp on her wrist. “He was going to hurt my sister. He needs to pay for that.” She sighed and looked at Arthur. “This still doesn’t actually make it alright to have gone off-script like that. Should have at least given us warning, and let us work together and plan. You’ve never really been a team before have you?”
Arthur looked down at the ground. “I…” He didn’t really have a defense.
“You can’t think with your fists if you want to bring down people like Grimoire Heart or Tartaros,” She said. “Now, we probably should get going and surreptitiously inform the authorities,” Angel said.
“Too late, they’re already outside,” Jellal said.
Angel gave a seething hiss. “I had hoped we could specifically avoid any corrupt officials leading the party making the initial arrest, but I don’t think we can stay here now,” She said. “Unless you want to fight law enforcement.”
“No,” Arthur and Jellal said as one before Arthur teleported them all back to their rooms.
“This is where I was talking about,” Wendy said, pointing towards the building with its sea of unconscious individuals.
“That doesn’t mean this is a dark guild, though,” The leader of the rune knights here said. Still it was hard to deny it. Several of the individuals had the guild mark of the Vampire Kiss guild. “We’ll need to do some investigation, right men?” He said. Still it looked like Vampire Kiss had been defeated. This had only been supposed to be a recon mission, but he could make a big arrest. “Stay close to Roberto,” He said. “Roberto, keep an eye on the girl. Whoever did this to these people might still be here.”
“I’m a mage, I can handle myself,” Wendy said. She was feeling more certain that maybe she had jumped to a conclusion and they’d been here to take down a dark guild. But if so why hadn’t they told her?
“Wendy, maybe it’s best if we don’t interfere,” Carla said, the exceed obviously worried. She felt like there was something a bit fishy about this all. They didn’t have enough men with them to realistically be expected to deal with Angel. Which could just be that he’d not really believed them, but now they were finding a mass of people obviously affected by magic, and several showing guild marks, and he wasn’t calling for reinforcements or informing the council’s rune knights.
And then a woman emerged from the doorway of the guild. A dark haired girl was behind her, about Wendy’s age, somewhere from 12 to 14. The woman herself had dark hair, pale skin, and very red lips. She was dressed in a black suit, a white undershirt and black tie under it, and a heavy, black and red cape. It was fitted, though, for a woman.
The constable sergeant stiffened. And she looked at him. “Get me a carriage,” She stated. “The rune knights will be here soon, and if I go down I’m taking you with me.”
“Lilith…” The man swallowed dryly. This was a terrible situation.
“Look, Roberto, you think I won’t spill every little bit of our connection if you don’t help me now? You think you’ll escape any better than I do?” Lilith said walking towards him, the dark haired girl behind her moving almost like she was sleep walking, an odd lack of awareness about her.
The men were looking around nervously. “You heard her, go get her carriage,” Roberto said. The rune knights might be there soon. Obviously Lilith believed they would be. And if she brought him down with her. He had a family to care for.
Carla was pulling on Wendy’s hand, trying to tug her away. This was bad. Corrupt constables helping a dark mage escape before the rune knights proper could arrive. If they interfered, though, Wendy could get hurt.
“You can’t help her escape!” Wendy shouted. Carla might be practical. But Wendy was idealistic. She wasn’t about to let dark mages get away.
Roberto cursed loudly.
Lilith laughed. “Your daughter?” She asked. “Little girl, if you know what’s good for you… You know, I could use a bit of a starter fund. This one is nice,” She reached down, stroking the face of the young girl behind her. The girl didn’t so much as flinch. “But I could do with another piece of merchandise for when we reach Bosco.”
The men flinched a little. She had enough evidence to condemn them all if she chose to sell them out. Maybe they could kill her. But there were several members of Vampire Kiss starting to emerge now. Lilith had freed them from their restraints after Minerva had - unwisely - freed her moments before that pink wool had tried to wash away all her worries.
The guards turned towards Wendy. “Sorry about this,” One said as he lunged for her. Wendy kicked and screamed, trying to get him to let go of her, but he was not at all above using his size to pin her arms to her side.
Wendy didn’t want to do it to a person, but she wasn’t about to let him kidnap her. She opened her mouth and cried out, “Sky dragon’s roar!” A whirling vortex of air shot from her mouth, hitting the man and knocking them away from each other, sending Wendy flying back and the man tumbling into the Vampire Kiss mages that had emerged.
“A mage?” Lilith said with a smile. “That’s better than I hoped. Minerva,” She patted the dark haired girl on her head. “Take her out.”
Wendy looked at Lilith, breathing deep, and roaring again, sending the dark guild master flying into a wall with a loud, resounding thud. But even as she did the dark haired girl disappeared.
Wendy was too slow to avoid the kick to the back of her head. Carla’s wings sprouted, flying to grab Wendy and pull her out of there, moving up into the air, only to find her position switched with Minerva’s own as the dark haired girl struck Wendy hard towards the ground before landing herself. Carla flew towards her, only to find her position switched with the barely conscious Wendy’s, and a kick aimed straight for her face.
“Carla!” Wendy screamed, breathing deep, and suddenly being grabbed from behind by Lilith.
“Let me show you why the guild is called Vampire’s Kiss,” She whispered, planting her lips on Wendy’s throat. Wendy felt sleep magic washing out across her mind, sending her into a deep slumber.
“Wendy’s missing.” Arthur had just returned from alerting the Rune Knights anonymously to the dark guild in need of collecting, and as soon as he did he found himself accosted by a very unhappy Angel.
“Missing?” He asked.
“Yes, missing!” She answered. “I don’t know if she decided to run away, or what, but we need to find her.”
Arthur sighed. “I’ll go find her.” He pulled out a silver key. Nikora weren’t useful in battle, but they had a wonderful nose. He’d track down Wendy.
“I’m coming with you,” Angel said. “Gemini, change my face.”
“The Rune Knights are going to be out in force. Stay here. I’ll find her, I promise,” Arthur said.
Jellal’s hand planted on Angel’s shoulder. “He’s right, we can’t go out right now. Let him do it.”
“I’ll keep Archive up and stay in contact,” Arthur promised.
When Wendy woke up she was in the back of a carriage heading east. She didn’t exactly know that, though. She was tied up, but she wasn’t gagged, and there was another girl barely visible there in the dark. The other girl had obviously been crying. And she didn’t see Carla anywhere.
She could feel her magic, but when she tried to reach for it. To use some of it to try and escape she felt a sudden pain in her throat where that woman had bit it earlier.
“It’s no use,” the other girl said, apparently having heard Wendy struggling.
“What do you mean it’s no use,” Wendy said, straining a bit more.
“She uses a type of charm magic,” Minerva said. “It’s magic to control minds. I… I was weak. She controlled me. Even now I can’t use my magic at all. I’m nothing but trash.” Tears were forming in her eyes again.
“If we’re both weak, then we’ll just have to work together to be strong,” Wendy said, her own hope undiminished. She was worried about Carla, though. If her best friend had gotten hurt because she tried to stand up to those people instead of running away she wasn’t sure what she’d do.
The dark haired girl scoffed a little. “No matter how many weaklings you have together they’re still weak.”
“No they’re not,” Wendy said. “Friends make each other stronger.” She thought that was how it was supposed to work. Her and Carla were better together than either were apart at least.
“Lies the weak tell themselves,” the dark haired girl said.
“Weak or not, we have to at least try to get out of here. I don’t know what this woman intends to do with us, but it can’t be good,” Wendy argued.
“She’s fleeing east into Bosco. She intends to sell us as slaves there. Two young girls with high magical aptitude, and rare magic…” The dark haired girl shuddered and began to cry again. Her father would disown her if she kept this up. But her father might be dead. Probably was. It was almost certainly what it meant when the guild hadn’t exploded. She was only alive because he was dead.
“Then we really have to escape. I can’t use my magic, but I can move. Maybe if we can get close enough to each other we can work off the bonds?” Wendy suggested. It didn’t feel good trying to inch closer to the dark haired girl, the mark on her throat throbbing as she did so, but it wasn’t the total block like when she tried to use magic.
The dark haired girl struggled. She felt weak. Like she couldn’t do anything at all. Even thinking about trying to move made her neck ache. But there was this other girl who was doing it. She thought about what father would do to her if she didn’t do anything. If he was even alive. She would be trash and a slave. She hated the idea and forced herself to move. Forcing herself to slide closer towards Wendy was hard, but she kept at it, moving until she was beside the other girl.
“Earlier she took control of me fully,” the dark haired girl confided. “I couldn’t stop myself. I’m sorry I attacked you.”
“I thought that might have been you,” Wendy said. It was sort of hard to tell in the dark carriage. “But it wasn’t really your fault.”
It took a few minutes but they managed to free each other’s hands, and then a little longer to free their arms to the point of being able to free somewhere else. The dark haired girl had just managed to free something important on herself, the binding rope starting to fall loose, when the carriage stopped, and two men opened the door.
“Oi, boss, the little brats are trying to escape, your magic isn’t working well enough!” One of the men shouted as the dark haired girl dove forward. She kicked one of the men hard in the side of the knee, causing a horrid wet snapping sound and making him fall. Then she struck the other in the spine with an open palm strike. She couldn’t use her magic, but she could still let it fill her body to give it strength enough to knock him into the carriage’s door.
Suddenly Wendy felt a tightness in her throat until she couldn’t breathe. It loosened a little afterwards, but when she even thought about working to untie herself it tightened up again. The dark haired girl seemed to be similarly affected, gasping out and starting to make sounds as if she was gagging.
“Stupid kids,” Lilith hissed. “Who’d have thought they’d have so much magical power. Still if we’re going to rebuild the guild in Bosco we’ll need the funds they’ll net us.” Slavery was legal in Bosco, and Vampire’s Kiss had always made a fair deal of its money in the slave trade. “They should be stopped now.”
Lilith was emerging from the carriage, even as the tightness loosened somewhat on the two girls. “Run!” Wendy shouted. “Get away!”
“But, I can’t,” The dark haired girl said.
“Go! Get help!” Wendy screamed, before the air was cut off completely again. The dark haired girl still hesitated for a moment, and then gasping and sobbing turned and began to run.
One of the men tried to rise and failed, but the other was quickly chasing after the dark haired child. And Lilith was moving to Wendy, yanking her to her feet by her hair. “You little brat,” She said. Her magic was already in full force. But it was hard to stop everything. It stopped magic most, and things like moving were easier to overcome. She couldn’t stop Minerva from fleeing with it, and if she relented to try something else Wendy might manage to escape as well.
So instead she began to take out her frustrations on Wendy, striking her hard and repeatedly. Minerva could hear it even as she ran, her throat tight from more than just the magic. She turned around, and looked at Wendy and Lilith.
She couldn’t breathe, her throat felt like it was being crushed, but she felt herself slide from the world into her personal space, the absolute dominion which was her Territory. And then she had swapped places with Wendy, her hand rising up into Lilith’s arm holding her, and hitting her elbow hard. She couldn’t breathe. She could feel her vision starting to go red and soon black.
She’d been weak. She’d not made the practical choice, but acted on emotion. She was going to die or worse. But the tightness was releasing a bit on her throat now that she wasn’t using magic. Or maybe it was that she’d hurt Lilith?
“You little brat, I’m going to make you pay for that,” Lilith said, and then looked at the man who had stopped chasing Minerva when she’d swapped positions with Wendy. “Go get the other one!” She shouted.
Wendy didn’t even know the other girl’s name to call it out. “My friends would have rescued me,” She said tearfully, certain that Arthur, Angel, and Jellal would have come for her. “Get out of there! Please!” She screamed. In a practical world it shouldn’t have an effect. But in a world where magic and emotion were forever intertwined, where fear, love, and friendship could all be sources of magical power?
She felt the constriction on her throat tighten, even as the one around Minerva’s loosened. Lilith was picking a target. Instead of trying to suppress two mages - both honestly more powerful than her even at their young ages - she would just control one of them and make them take the other out.
Wendy could feel the mark on her throat where the woman had bit it begin to throb. It was like a darkness was flowing over her mind, and she found herself struggling against it.
Minerva just felt the tightness leave her throat, and saw the man trying to grab Wendy. And she’d still be in the carriage if Wendy hadn’t helped her. If either of them should escape it should be Wendy. If she hadn’t let Lilith out none of this would have happened anyway. She swapped positions with the man grabbing for Wendy. It was only then that she saw the dazed and glazed over expression on Wendy’s face.
“Show her that magic you used on me. Let the little brat taste a dragon slayer’s roar,” Lilith cackled.
Minerva found herself facing the dragon slayer. She didn’t want to hit Wendy, though. She didn’t think to swap positions with Lilith, trembling, paralyzed by her own belief in her weakness.
She saw tears form in Wendy’s eyes. And then a voice sounded out from the sky. “Wendy!” It was Carla, Wendy’s oldest and first friend.
At that noise Wendy stopped resisting the magic on her, and instead started overcoming it. Her head turned and her sky dragon’s roar shattered the carriage and knocked Lilith flying back to fall in a crumpled heap.
Wendy looked to see Carla dropping Jellal onto the ground. The blue haired mage quickly disposed of the remaining man, even as Carla embraced Wendy and began to tearfully ask if she was alright.
By the time Arthur arrived things had begun to calm down a bit. He had been out, following the nikora spirit of canis minor and its sensitive nose, when Carla had returned to the inn and told Angel and Jellal what had happened.
Carla could only carry one, and Jellal had been the obvious choice. His memory might still be lost and with it the lion’s share of his magical skills, but even so he was still probably better in a fight, especially if the fight happened before Angel could summon Scorpio again.
Arthur had been staying in contact with Archive, but Wendy hadn’t been responding - due to being asleep - and there was no point in detouring Carla to pick him up.
He was fairly exhausted by this point. Fighting Jiemma had been tiring and since then he’d summoned Aries to take out a whole guild building with who knew how many mages. He needed to eat and sleep and recover. But first there was an abducted child to save.
Still it’d taken him a few minutes to teleport in. Working the map from his Archive together with his Territory magic to expand the teleportation range. In that time Carla, and to a lesser extent Jellal, had managed to calm Minerva and tell her that they’d get her back to town and keep her safe until she could go home.
Minerva wasn’t sure there would be a home for her to go to. Doubly so when Arthur appeared.
It was Lancelot the Fairy Spear. The man who had fought, and probably killed her father. She took one look at him and began to cry.
“I’ve really reached the point where my face causes small children to cry,” Arthur said. “Is something wrong, miss?”
“You killed my father,” She answered. Wendy jerked away pulling Carla off the ground. Carla shot him with the evil eye, and Jellal turned towards him furiously.
“What? Who? When?” Arthur asked.
“In the guild. He was the champion,” Minerva said.
“Jiemma? I didn’t kill Jiemma. I might have gotten him arrested. But I didn’t kill him.” Arthur was hurt at the relieved looks on everyone’s faces. Except Minerva’s, hers was a puzzling expression.
Minerva was relieved to know that her father was alive. But another part had honestly been relieved to think he was dead. He had always been a man who was ‘harsh’ to put it mildly. The bruises under her dress were there from this morning not this evening. She’d been kidnapped because he’d forced her there. And in 6 weeks she was going to ‘debut’ in one of their fights.
“If you want away from him, I’ll take you away,” Arthur said suddenly out of the blue as if reading her mind, and she fell to her knees crying.
“Really?” She asked, looking up at him.
Arthur nodded. “If that’s what you want.”
Minerva looked at the ground and shook a bit. “Why didn’t the building explode?” If he stopped the attack. If it had just been a bluff. If he controlled it and focused it to make sure it didn’t kill her. Minerva was trying to think of ways her father might not have just been willing to kill her.
“I sucked him into a pocket dimension and he blew it up. I’m pretty sure I’m actually internally bleeding a bit from that. Like my stomach hurts and has a huge bruise and actually feels sort of swollen.”
Wendy’s eyes bulged, and she started moving over towards him. Healing magic was her specialty.
He’d really been willing to kill her. Because she was weak. “I’m too weak to be his blood,” She said.
“That ol’ bastard was weaker than anything,” Arthur scoffed. “Nothing mattered to him but his own strength, which meant he wasn’t strong enough to do anything that mattered.”
“What do you mean?” Minerva asked.
Arthur was trying to remember what Jiemma actually had done in the manga. Disowned a guild member. Turned into a demon. Killed one of the annoying exceeds. It was hard to remember to be honest. He felt there was an argument to be made for him being weak, regardless of his magical power, though.
“I mean obsessing over power doesn’t make you strong. Doing things to improve the world. Taking care of your friends. The connections you make are what makes you strong.”
“Friend is a word made up by the weak,” Minerva said.
“If we’d been alone we’d never have escaped,” Wendy said. “It was only the fact that we had each other, and friends watching out for us that saved us.”
Minerva turned away. “Father said that a friend is a weakness. To care about someone who is weak will only make you weak, and your enemies will use them against you.”
“Bullshit,” Arthur sighed. “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Humans are social creatures. Friend is a word made up because one stick is easily broken, but if you take a bundle of them it’s difficult. No matter how powerful someone is they can’t do everything alone. If you’re afraid of emotional connections because they can be used against you, you weren’t strong in the first place.” Arthur soapboxed a bit.
“Just look at Fairy Tail, they’re supposed to be the strongest guild in the country, and they’re founded on the bonds of friendship,” Wendy said. “Maybe you can join them with me, you’d be safe there from whatever comes your way. I just… Arthur, do you think they’d accept her?”
Arthur winced a bit. That was not a question which he liked. The timeskip was coming. If Jiemma wanted to take his daughter back, there’d be no one to stop him. “We’ll have to see,” He said. “And if they won’t, I’ll take you to Guiltina with me.” If Jellal and Wendy hadn’t been watching, he’d have offered to kill her dad (there was a bonus on the bounty for that), “I doubt your father would care to try and follow me there.”
Minerva breathed a bit. “I… I don’t know.”
Arthur sighed. “It’s been a long night. How about we all get back to the inn, and everyone gets a good night's sleep and then we’ll discuss what’s to be done after breakfast?”