Gauging what was on the other side of the dimensional rift was difficult. Managing to force his conceptually controlled space through a hole between realities was hard enough, requiring fine-tuned manipulation of his magic almost on par with removing the safety locks that kept it from separating a solid object. Arthur was going in mostly blind.
He appeared in the air, but it was easy to break his inertia and his fall. He was rather glad the X-Ball he had eaten was still working - even if he wished he had something to put the canister in instead of having to carry the other 7 by hand - it seemed to have been a rather necessary purchase.
His improved magic technique was helpful as well. He could shape his territory armor into gliding wings, or simply shut down gravitational force in his space. Thankfully he didn’t let option paralysis shut him down, but chose one, and brought himself gliding down for a landing. He might still have magic in Edolas, but he was running hot with it even in Earthland before this. He needed to stop using quite so much, at least until he figured out how he was going to… what happened in Edolas arc. Wait hadn’t they abducted Fairy Tail? Had they stolen other cities too?
Arthur couldn’t remember. He just remembered something about turning people into lacrima, and dragon slayers being the special targets. Either they’d stolen several cities, or by taking too much time to bring Wendy to Fairy Tail he’d accidentally shifted the target to the other largest collection of magical energy in Fiore. He had a worry in his gut it was the latter; by bringing two of the Four Gods, himself, and Wendy together in one place, not to mentioned Minerva and Jiemma who both had very high magical power even by Fairy Tail’s standards, he’d shifted the balance of where the biggest magical concentration was. And now it was up to him to make sure things went ‘right’.
But what was right? Ensuring the magic went away in Edolas? One of his bounties was to prevent that. And while this was, in his mind, more of a moral quandary than a question of personal gain, Arthur wasn’t certain he should actively go against bounties. Even ignoring the benefits, he knew that boring the sponsors could see him sent home; and he didn’t have the power to say no to a true villain yet. Someone who rejoiced in the evil they could do. Besides removing its magic had always seemed an author cop out and a sort of a short sighted and immoral end.
Elentear already was coming to mind. But first he needed to change the tack he was taking with his magic. He ceased overclocking his mind, though given he was simply turning all of that computational power of Archive towards analyzing the world around him and its magic it didn’t do much to help his slowly draining magical reserves. To help with that he let his Territory Armor drop. He hated doing it. He was unarmored physically as well right now. But it was essential. Without his black blade to regain energy by killing enemies, even with his X-Ball he was feeling the reduced level of magic in Edolas. He’d have to conserve things for a bit.
Hopefully he could find a town quickly.
Serena was surprised when his magic had cut out mid flight. It hadn’t completely shut down. No, his lacrima hadn’t completely shut down. His own native magic was outside of his reach. It was puzzling and troublesome. And when he used his gale dragon slayer magic, he could feel the lacrima shrink inside of him. He would have to be careful about how much he used his magic.
First that damnable Lancelot had humiliated him. With his latest lacrima he was the most powerful mage in Ishgar, and this self-proclaimed true dragon slayer - as if he hadn’t made one of his lacrima from one of the dragons he had slain himself - had humiliated him. And now they’d teleported the whole capital into another dimension. Serena hated to admit it, but he actually would have to respect the balls that took, and the power. Maybe together his quest could end, and they could finally kill Acnologia.
Except judging from the white cat’s statements he hadn’t done it. The people of Edolas had. Still he set the girl and her cat on the ground; he’d caught them as the cat’s wings had given out.
“You, cat, you know about this world. Tell the great God about it,” He said in an imperious tone. He had to figure out how to get his magic back. And then he had to figure out what to do about this world. “And don’t lie to me. I will know if you do, and the result won’t be pleasant.” His hand moved to the black blade he’d taken from Lancelot in a threatening motion. The sword didn’t feel any different here than in Earthland, and his lacrima were still somewhat functional. Maybe it would still function as well… and he’d felt its cut. It ate at his being when it cut him. “In fact they’ll be most ungodly for you, and her.”
Arthur had expected trouble to come in the form of magical knights, or evil Erza, not giant animals. He wished he had his black blade. It’d have saved him magical energy, and difficulty. Still he swapped positions with it, sending it crashing past him, and then when it turned to charge him again, his magic spread out, his space opening throughout its body, and suddenly he had divided it up, teleporting the pieces apart in perfect, clean cuts. If he teleported them back together quickly enough, he wondered if it’d stick together and live. Still it’d be exhausting if those creatures kept attacking them.
Serena had no idea if the cat-creature was lying or telling the truth. It’d not been obviously lying, but if it had held back or fabricated it’d done so too well for him to know. Not that he really would have cut up the little girl over it. She was far too cute of a child to harm that way.
And far too cute to let some oversized creature eat her. The hairy thing had come rushing out of the woods, and charged them. Being God Serena he had, even without his magic, dodged with the greatest of ease and finesse. The little child did not. The beast had thrown her with its snout, striking her hard, and tossing the blue haired girl back and now it was salivating as it charged towards her again, its teeth gleaming.
He screamed, as he charged towards it. Magic or not he still had some of his strength and that black sword. “Leave her alone!” The sword danced in his hand, sweeping and cutting through the air, slicing into the creature’s leg like it was made of soft gelatin. It howled out, and Serena felt its soul flowing into him and with it a portion of magical power.
The beast, injured, turned on him, forgetting the little girl for a moment. And for a moment Serena felt fear. His battle with Lancelot, and the loss of his magical power, had shaken him, but with this sword he could win.
It charged and he leapt, stabbing it straight between the eyes as he did so. The creature collapsed to the ground, its sheer momentum carrying it - and him - a fair way as he felt alive like he had never felt before. He liked this sword. He really liked this sword. Maybe this was where Lancelot had really got his power. How many people had he killed for their magical strength?
Arthur had found civilization. It looked like a large town by Earthland’s standards, though the quality of life was evidently poorer. Few people were on the streets, but there was litter and trash. It was like the people here just didn’t care any more; as if some special spark had gone out of their lives. Maybe it was the boarded up magic shops; some spark had gone out of their lives. Still there were some people, and Arthur couldn’t help but get the feeling that they were giving him the stink eye.
When he found a tavern, he turned and walked into it. A bar was a traditional place for gossip and news, and all great quests began in a tavern. If he ever retold his story of how he’d gotten isekai’d he’d definitely claim it was a mysterious meeting with an individual in a bar and not that he slipped in the shower and was going to hit his temple on the toilet.
There was a stir among the patrons when he entered, and Arthur began to worry they could sense his magic or his otherness, or that there was something wrong with him. Maybe it was what he was wearing?
Arthur swore internally. He was still wearing a prison jumpsuit. Even if it didn’t match a local prison or its norms, it was still obviously the clothes of some homeless vagrant on the run from something.
He turned and walked back out of the door only to see a group of armed townguards.
Arthur raised his hands. He didn’t want to fight them in the middle of town, and they’d not be expecting him to have internal magic. As long as they didn’t get violent he’d be fine, and maybe he could figure out what was going on. Or get escorted to the capital ‘under arrest’. It’d be a good chance to catalog things with his Archive as well. They couldn’t know it was running in the background, its interface collapsed into nothing more than a small set of symbols on his arm.
“Fairy Tail, isn’t that your guild?” Serena asked as they walked towards the building. He felt powerful; each monster he had killed with that sword made him feel that much stronger. And it had let him tap into his magic in this world.
“It is,” Wendy said nervously. She didn’t really know them. She’d joined because Arthur had said they were good people, and they seemed to be good people, and they had offered to help her, but she hadn’t had a chance to get to know them yet.
But walking into the building they weren’t the Fairy Tail that she had met before. They were all different. They were also startled turning towards them and beginning to murmur furtively. It was one of the mages Wendy had barely seen before… Droy? An overweight man who had been among Fairy Tail’s weakest mages whose voice rose above the crowd. “They’re not magic branch soldiers, one of them’s a child,” He said. “So what brings you two to Fairy Tail?”
“God you asked,” Serena said, taking a sweeping bow. “I am the legendary Six-Dragon God Serena, the most powerful mage in Ishgar, nay the world. And I am concerned as to who it was that kidnapped Ishgar’s most prosperous capital and had the foolish idea to abduct me in the process. Now could any of you tell me where I can find the source of the Anima magic?”
The murmuring began again, and it was a white haired woman who stepped forward this time. Wendy thought her name was Mirajane? She’d taken a kind interest in Wendy before, and had the same kind voice as before as well. A tall, curvy blue haired woman approached too. They began to answer Serena’s questions somewhat, but Wendy stopped really listening when they said the blue haired woman’s name: Wendy.
She looked at Carla in shocked surprise. Wendy had thought they were Fairy Tail, somehow transported here, but now she wasn’t so certain. “It is another world, it’s possible it has other versions of the same people in it,” Carla muttered.
And then someone screamed. “It’s the Fairy Hunter!”
“The Fairy Hunter?” Serena asked. “Is she affiliated with this royal government that has seized all magic?”
“Yes,” Mirajane said. “But we can’t fight her, we’ve got to transport the guild…” She stopped, Serena had already left.
Wendy choked a bit as he pulled her by her dress behind him. “We’ll make them tell me about anima one way or another,” Serena stated. “And then we’ll save the day like I always do, and I will reclaim my place as the world’s most powerful mage.”
“You let go of her, she doesn’t have her magic like you do,” Carla said, chasing after and slapping his leg. “Let go of her this instant.”
“Oi, you’re the Fairy Hunter, right?” Serena asked, looking towards the red-haired woman at the front of the army. Wendy recognized her immediately. It was Erza Scarlet, or Edolas’s version of her. The woman was riding a massive, black, semi-porcine bull horned, winged creature, and carrying a spear, armor covering her arms and legs from just above the elbows and knees respectively down, and then wearing what amounted to a bikini. “You’re a big deal, right?” Serena continued. “Well, tell your king there’s a new power in this world. Either he makes it worth my time to work for him, or I’ll become king of this new world.”
Wendy’s eyes went wide. “What about Crocus?” She asked, struggling against his hand.
“Men, seize this fool,” The red-haired woman stated and Serena raised his hand. “Purgatory Dragon’s Eight Hells Fire!” It wasn’t as concentrated - or as powerful - as he’d used against Arthur, but his sweeping hand sent waves of flames through the army. The red-haired knight’s spear slashing through it.
Wendy wailed at the sight of the devastation. The sheer scale and scope of the wounded or worse. The red-haired knight looked shocked and aghast. Their magic blocking shields had overloaded and scores of men were badly wounded or worse. “Men!”
“I’d not keep fighting if I were you,” Serena said. “Take me to your leader.”
Arthur sat in processing for hours, before he decided that this would take too long. Whatever was going to be done with the giant lacrima - which the guards were talking about cheerfully - would be done before he reached the capital this way.
He turned his eyes up inside of his jail cell and immediately he and the guard assigned to watch the cells had switched places. The other prisoners gasped in amazement and astonishment. He hadn’t used a magic tool as far as they could tell. And when he then teleported the guard’s uniform and weapons onto himself they started hooting and hollering, screaming to plead that he help release them.
Arthur considered, even as his archive identified the signatures of Aries’s key and his X-Balls, and teleported them into his hands. At least now he’d not have to keep the key awkwardly in the X-Balls. And then he raised his hand and snapped his fingers, balls of his space formed and exploded against the locks of the jail cell. Even if this wasn’t some large scale prison break, it might provide some chaos to cover his tracks as he got to the capital.
The guards were rushing towards him, ready to put an end to the little revolt. They were far from numerous enough to actually stop him, even the two dozen criminals he’d just freed from the cells in the local jail outnumbered them. But still it wouldn’t do to have a full-blown fight, either his little fugitive mob would be beaten up, or the guards would be hurt.
Why allow either when with a wave of his hand he could teleport all the guards out of the town? And then it was time to find a vehicle. The capital was more than a week from here on foot. He could probably make it there a good deal faster with his territory magic, teleporting tens of miles at a time, but he was recovering magic more slowly in Edolas, and he didn’t know what he’d have to face. He might still have to fight Knightwalker.
Thankfully there was a vehicle attached to the police station. Unfortunately Arthur had almost zero clue how to drive it.
He turned to the escapees who hadn’t already split off and ran their separate ways. “Any of you know how to drive this thing? I need to reach the capital for a little… high treason.”
The 5 remaining criminals looked at each other. “You wanna go up against the imperial army? You’re nuts,” One woman said.
“Count me out. Suicide isn’t my way,” A man stated.
As four of them walked away, only the last remained. A white haired, large, muscular man. One who Arthur recognized from Earthland. He knew that there had been Edolas versions of the inhabitants of Earthland, so presumably this was his Edolas version. “I’m in,” Jiemma said. “I was going to be executed for publicly protesting the king, and it’ll happen again any way, might as well do a little good in the world first.”
Arthur had hoped it’d be any of them but Jiemma. He knew the Edolas counterparts tended to be quite different than normal - if he remembered correctly Edolas Lucy was a dominatrix, and Edolas Natsu was obsessed with driving - but he still couldn’t look at Jiemma without wanting to punch him. Still, he needed someone who knew how to drive one of Edolas’s magical cars. “Alright,” He said, “Let’s go.”
Wendy rode behind Serena on the legion. She’d never ridden an animal before, much less a massive winged thing, but Serena rode astride it like a seasoned professional. His eyes remained fixed on the beast before theirs. It was Edolas Erza’s mount. They were following her back to the capital. Her mission to hunt down the last Mages’ Guild had failed, but she had captured something perhaps more valuable.
“You don’t really mean to help them do you?” She asked as they rode.
Serena glared at her. “You realized the red haired one can probably hear us, don’t you? She survived my attack, she’s not stupid. She’s not so far ahead as to not be listening to us. And why couldn’t I? Here I have no equal, no rival, here my power is absolute.”
“But what about the people of Crocus? What about everyone else? What’s to stop them from doing it again?” Wendy asked.
“You’re rather slow aren’t you.” He raised his hand and pointed towards the legion in front twice in quick succession. “If they’ll make me their highest general I’m quite happy to let them do as they please. You will realize someday, child, that adults do what is best for themselves no matter what terms they crouch it under.”
Wendy swallowed hard. She wondered if it was the truth or just something he was saying because the Edolas Erza was listening.
Driving was a lot faster than walking. Jiemma drove steadfastly, with only minor breaks for the entire hours long trip. Still the two had plenty of time to talk about why Arthur was here, and what his goal was. And it gave him a chance to learn Jiemma’s own goals and why he was imprisoned.
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Arthur didn’t tell Jiemma about his nature of having come from yet another, wildly different world. But just of his time in Earthland and why he had been under arrest there. He didn’t even tell Jiemma about the details involving Jiemma or Minerva.
Jiemma for his part informed Arthur of how he had been arrested for protesting the king. And not for the first time. The first had been after the death of his wife in one of the wars that unified the world under the king. The second had been when mage’s guilds were banned. And now he had protested the creation of the giant lacrima, and given it was the third time, and once the bureaucracy realized that his sentence was almost certainly going to be death. Still as he told it to Arthur: “I just can’t stand and watch the king use his power to bully those weaker than himself. He bullied the world into uniting. He bullied the world into giving him all the magic left. Now he’s bullying other worlds, and what's next from there? Invasion? More war.”
The man side eyed Arthur. “I’d ask how you intend to stop this whole lacrima and anima business, but… I think I’d rather not know.”
“Why’s that?” Arthur asked insensitively.
“You wear that armor too easily. You move in it like a man of war,” He said.
This shocked Arthur a bit. He was used to not having the reflexes and nature to keep up in a fight, but he still had years of sword and sorcery combat that had been pushed into his mind. It just didn’t function the same as anime. It was more grounded. Even Edolas - the world without magic - had floating islands, several moons, kaiju, and plants that didn’t make physical sense. In Sword and Sorcery that’d be a sign of high magic not no magic.
“I don’t intend to fight any more than I absolutely have to,” Arthur said.
“Good,” Jiemma stated. “I’ll help you reach the capital because something needs to change, but I won’t fight alongside you.”
Arthur nodded. “The ride is enough.” And then they were silent again for some time. Eventually conversation resumed comparing and contrasting the differences between the two worlds.
“Knightwalker! What’s that giant lacrima on the island up ahead, it’s huge. Is that the anima device?” Serena called out. The capital was still a fair ways away, visible at the horizon, but the lacrima mountain had drawn Serena’s eye and attention.
“If the king sees fit for you to find out, then you’ll fi-” Knightwalker began.
“It’s Crocus isn’t it?” Serena said.
“What?” Knightwalker asked, turning her head back and pulling her legion up short.
“It really is,” Serena said. “You turned a whole city into lacrima.” He’d seen her stiffen when he first mentioned the lacrima. Fairy Tail hadn’t known about the anima device, and given the size of the mountain they’d have known about it. The deflection from Knightwalker told him it was dangerous for him to know it. The fact that it was so obvious made him guess it was new. He’d been making an assumption really with it being Crocus, but her reaction confirmed it. “There were some people I liked in Crocus, can you turn them back?”
She glared at him silently, and turned her head. “Talk to the king,” She said.
Serena smiled. He’d enjoy breaking her in the end until she told him how to save Fiore’s capital. And if there wasn’t a way. If this podunk, magic-starved dimension had stained his record in that way. Well he’d just burn its capital to ashes and all the magic it had hoarded with it. He’d make sure she survived his interrogation. The king too. They could watch the results of screwing with God.
Sneaking into the capital was easy. They weren’t prepared for a mage who could use magic freely. Jiemma dropped him off within a few miles of the city and Territory did the rest. The city was abuzz with talk about the grand lacrima, and how part of it was being given to the city itself for use in powering its recreation.
Compared to the town he’d visited previously the capital was alive. It didn’t seem to be half-abandoned with a broken down infrastructure. There was public transportation, artificial light. It felt like a city in Earthland, almost like Crocus itself.
And no one took notice of just another soldier of the royal army walking around it. Even when he approached the giant lacrima, and began actively fiddling with his Archive, opening a visible screen, and working on it no one seemed to take notice. He needed to figure out how to return the lacrima to normal. And all he was getting from the Archive’s analysis of the magical energy was that it was related to dragon slayer magic big time. Still the analysis, even assisted by Archive - effectively a magical supercomputer made for this purpose - was taking longer than Arthur would have liked.
“You there, what magical tool is that?” An aged man asked. “I don’t remember seeing it before.” He was the same man who had been announcing about the lacrima, and he was not alone; the guards were with him, their spears pointing towards Arthur, shooting forth as sticky, slimy, entangling masses to wrap him tightly. “It’s definitely not standard issue. Where’d you get it?” The man blinked looking around at the suddenly very different scenery.
Arthur wasn’t risking the man calling for reinforcements. He’d teleported the man, and himself, straight out of the city. Pointing his spear towards the man, he looked at him. “Actually, I think I have some questions for you, instead.”
“And if I refuse to answer?” The man asked and then he stopped.
Arthur was yanking his beard through a portal he’d made with his territory, pulling his face towards the swirling vortex which formed the entrance and exit of the temporary portal. And then he let the portal snap shut, shearing the man’s long, well maintained beard, to a pathetic short stump. “I will get rid of you, and move my way up the ladder until I find someone who will answer my questions, or remove the king’s blasted head.”
“You impertinent hooligan! I am the king!” The man bellowed.
Arthur was dumbstruck. He had thought it was just some guy proclaiming things in the king’s own name. He hadn’t for a moment thought it was the king himself.
“Erm… checkmate?” Arthur said, an awkward smile on his face. His hand moved in front of his chest index and middle fingers out, thumb pressing down on the others. It was his chuuni thinking pose; he still wasn’t sure if it was a placebo or not, but he’d been told it’d help him think and even if it was just a magic feather he could use it right now. “You want to live, king? If you want to live you’re going to cooperate with me, and each time you don’t I will make you suffer for it.”
“You’re bluffi-” The king stopped howling out in pain. In Arthur’s hand was the tip of his pinky, teleported from his hand.
“Nah, I’m quite willing to hurt you,” Arthur said. “I don’t even need you alive. I’m sure there are others in your government who could work the Anima, and I doubt they’ll be loyal to your ghost in the face of clear and present danger to their lives.”
The old man blanched and began to tremble, still clutching his bleeding hand. “What do you want to know?” He asked, his eyes darting to behind Arthur.
“I want you to think about the anima project, everything you know about it,” Arthur said as the yellow, hardlight projection of his Archive appeared around them, and especially around the king’s head. “Where is it? How does it work? Where’s the bathroom? Your bedroom? The map of the castle?”
“It’s… well… what? How are those about the anima project?” The old man asked.
“Stop resisting the mind probe, and think about your castle and the anima project,” Arthur demanded, another slice of pinky being teleported away.
“You’re insane!” The king demanded, and then in a shimmer of discoloration and the shadowy distortion of Territory Magic he was gone.
Arthur turned the Archive back to its insubstantial form as it switched modes to overclocking. His sword and keys were coming, and he needed to be ready for a fight. Except it was passing him by, a group of legions flying in towards the capital itself.
“Your king is missing?” Serena laughed raucously. “The high and mighty king of all that is, is missing? Well it doesn’t sound like you’re much of a functional government after all.”
“How did this happen?” Erza Knightwalker, as this world’s Erza was named, demanded looking at Hughes. Hughes was the chief of defense of the castle, and another captain of the magic branch of the royal army.
“Reports say a soldier just gestured at them and they both disappeared in a hazy distortion, something like a heat haze through smog,” Hughes answered.
“Did he have white and blue hair?” Serena asked.
“He was wearing a helmet, so people didn’t have much of a look at it, though I believe they noted it was white.”
“Lancelot. So his magic is working here too.” It had to be some bond with the sword. Did it feed them both at the same time? Or was it just that he was still running on consumed souls? How many people had Lancelot murdered for his power? Serena swore inwardly to show him what real power was.
Serena found himself torn for a moment. Lancelot was a dangerous criminal, sheltering another criminal almost as dangerous. He could be a threat to all of Ishgar. He had humiliated him. Had stained his record. Some unknown, no name, two bit mage from Guiltina had dared claim to be a true dragon slayer while he was only a false one. Some unknown, no name, two bit mage from Guiltina, fought him to a draw. It wasn’t like Draculos. They’d never had a real drag out, full blown fight. Besides they’d been the God of Ishgar for as long as Serena could remember. He had idolized them as a child.
Lancelot was some punk who thought he was better. But if he could throw around his magic there were only a few possibilities. He was an idiot; Serena had realized that in the first fight. The fact that he had not actually tried a long distance teleportation - which given his movement unnoticed from Hargeon to Crocus overnight when no transport vehicles had passed that way he almost certainly had - in the fight was a bit of a show of that. That he had tried to rescue his girlfriend then and there during the fight, instead of abandoning the girl and coming back later, doubled down on it. He was a fool.
Serena hated fighting idiots. You could predict an intelligent adversary. They were rational. A fool was dangerously random. And the fact that this was a fool who was dangerously good with magic, and dangerously strong in it made things worse. He could be drawing energy from the sword like Serena himself was. It could be that he still had a store of power from it which he was wasting. Or given his unpredictability - he’d escaped a magic sealing stone cell after all, and demonstrated that body dismemberment magic - he could just have his magic in this world.
Serena was scared. Lancelot had come the closest to killing him since the day his family died. Nothing else he’d faced in his life had gotten that close to ending him. He couldn’t fight him here and now. There were simply too many unknown factors. His odds of victory were too close to zero.
Serena considered. Lancelot had rushed to save the girl. If her testimony was true, and knowing his old sparring partner it was, then he wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer, but some individual who believed he was helping people with his personal quest to ‘save’ these poor society disrupting elements. In that case he likely was honest when he said he believed the criminal mastermind and the femme fatale assassin had turned over a new leaf. Probably got seduced. Still assuming he was the naive idiot he seemed to be, it was probable he was trying to figure out what happened to Crocus. The idea turned his stomach but Serena realized he only had one option. He would work together with Lancelot. Offer to use his influence and position to get the pardon he needed, and save Crocus. The sword bothered him though. It drank the life of others. A naive fool didn’t carry that. Which meant he was a hardened killer. Maybe he just had a thing for the little girl. Still he hadn’t killed anyone at Vampire Kiss. His behavior didn’t make sense. Still Lancelot had power he needed. The idea that he needed help galled him, but if he had his usual power he’d never have done this fake defection. He’d have come in with his magic, and made them grovel. As it was if he was going to save Crocus and his position, influence, and reputation, he needed help.
Lancelot was his lucky break.
“You know this man?” Knightwalker asked.
“Most dangerous murderer I’ve ever met,” Serena said off the cuff. Given the sword he carried he’d probably murdered many. How much of his power had come from wanton slaughter? Serena couldn’t guess it. Maybe he’d spared those at Vampire Kiss because he’d reached a level of power where they no longer were noticeable? He’d find out someday. If the sword could increase your power permanently he’d keep it. There were always some people who society was glad to have you kill.
“You’re saying a murderer from your world has abducted the king?” Knightwalker asked.
“No, I’m saying the second strongest mage from my world has abducted your king,” Serena said. “And I’m sorry miss, but you can’t handle him with all of your armies. He wounded me, and you’re no m-” His words cut off as a dark distortion wrapped around him and he vanished.
Arthur was spending more power than he’d like, but it was necessary. Even with the X-Ball he wasn’t recovering ethernado at full efficiency in this place, and he’d not be at his peak power to fight Serena. But unless Mystogan had helped him, Serena should be in a worse situation. If he was going to kill him this was the time. Unless Mystogan helped him. Even then, Serena was scary in a way Georg never had been. Georg was like a wild animal, a bull prone to rage at being disturbed, but he’d never gone out of his way to cause pain or suffering in Arthur’s experience. Serena was a sadistic monster, who had hurt him more for pleasure than purpose. Arthur couldn’t pretend he hadn’t gone for the kill in the fight himself, but Serena had first, and…
He cut off that line of thought. He needed to focus; overclocking this much was energy intensive and he couldn’t afford to waste that energy in navel gazing. Still even while overclocking to this level his Archive could detect the sword and keys. They were together, and near Wendy. He didn’t have a recording of Serena’s energy in his Archive well enough to ascertain if he was the one with them, but he would have to make the bet. Serena had them last he knew. Unless Mystogan took them from him then it was Serena. And it had passed in a group of flying beasts which seemed to have paused at the castle, and at least one of which was carrying troops, Arthur doubted it was Mystogan.
He raised his and snapped his fingers, and teleported the person who was carrying his things in front of him. Serena appeared, and almost immediately he screamed. Arthur had, after all, teleported him directly into a death trap formed from his territory magic. The instant Arthur was sure it was Serena, and with his mind fully overclocked it was a quick recognition, Serena was being crushed. It was a simple cube of space squeezing and slamming tight around him. Territory magic squeezing and slamming tight around him. He had been warped into Arthur’ own space, abducted into a block of solid force which continually squeezed tighter and tighter around him.
Serena was startled. It was assassination magic. Coldly applied and with deadly efficiency. And in that moment Serena realized he was going to be killed. He wasn’t truly at his full power here. He could shatter these walls, but he couldn’t see Lancelot; and he needed to take him out before he could expect it. A single blast that was too powerful for him to handle, and too sudden for him to dodge. It was his only hope.
“Lancelot! Wait-” He cried out in pain. The territory magic had just squeezed and twisted, his right hand being shattered till shards of bone jut from it. As the pressure moved to his leg, he realized he couldn’t wait to try and bait Lancelot in front of him, and that Lancelot wasn’t going to give him the option of alliance.
“Dragon God’s Fatal Eruption!” He screamed even as hammer blow after hammer blow on his knee. It was a mixture of purgatory, gale, and cavern dragon slayer magic, a pyroclastic explosion of superheated gas and ash, carried on the winds of his magic. It melted the earth beneath him. It left the air a wave of molten heat. It shattered Lancelot’s Territory in its wake, and obliterated everything in its way. It left him standing in the middle of a crater, the toxic fumes of molten earth blown out in a heated assault by the winds he had released.
His right leg couldn’t take full weight. And he didn’t have Lancelot in sight, the smoke of his own assault obscuring everything. “Lancelot, we should talk,” He said.
A portal formed around his neck, and he felt it cut. His diamond scales formed only barely in time to prevent it cutting fully, but his throat was bleeding, a single, circular cut. And even with the scale it had required him pouring in his magical power to keep it from cutting all the way; disrupting the spell with his own energy as much or more than the scales themselves.
“Be that way,” He released a heavy blast of winds to knock away the smoke, and he found himself alone in the wasteland. He loosed his mind’s eye, sending it into the sky with his Gale Dragon Slayer Magic to get a dragon’s eye view of the area and immediately he spotted Lancelot. They were lying on the ground. Pathetic. Well if they weren’t looking at him.
He raised his hand and invoked his power. A serpent of fire burst from beneath Lancelot. The mage dodged, teleporting behind him, but it didn’t matter, he could see 360 degrees with his dragon’s eye. Wind came next.
Lancelot came in close, hand slamming towards him, and Serena grinned. He drew his black sword to cut the enemy down in a single sweep.
The hilt twisted in his hand, the blade catching in the scabbard. It was like it was fighting him and at a time he couldn’t afford it. An explosion caught his chin and sent him flying. There was no fire, though, it was like a solid object, an expanding sphere of force.
He rolled as he landed, the third and fourth draconic serpents of his Dragon God’s Fang rising upward as he stood in the molten crater. The fumes and heat should keep Lancelot from him for a moment. But a wave of twisted space like a solid wall hit him in the back sending him face first into the molten dirt. He rose, drawing the sword at last and his aerial eye caught Lancelot.
He needed to fight smart. Fire and wind bursting from his feet and back to launch him towards Lancelot. It was the same thing that Lancelot had tried to kill him with, sword point first, rocket charge.
Only the sword turned in his hand, twisting from place as he flew. He lost his balance as he wrestled with the blade to keep it from cutting off his own arm, crashing into the dirt, the blade biting lightly into his flesh before he threw it away. Another of those cursed portals formed around his throat and his energy surged again, shattering it, but not fast enough to stop his throat from bleeding.
“Wait!” He screamed. “I can help your friends!” The second portal formed around his waist, forcing him to flare magic further across his body. “I have influence!”
He screamed as his right arm suddenly was no longer attached to his body, blood pouring out. He clamped his left hand to the stump, fire magic burning on his palm, but his supply was running out. He only half cauterized the stump before he could do no more.
And Lancelot was approaching with that cursed sword in hand.
“I can get you and them both pardoned! Your little redemption scheme, I can make it work.” The white haired man continued to come forward, his lips drawn thin, his thick eyebrows looking like a single mass on his furious, hate filled face.
Magic grasped his left arm and twisted it, making him howl out as bone ripped through flesh.
He was going to die. This man wanted to kill him more than he wanted anything that he could offer. Tears ran down his face as all hope left him. “We must save Fiore,” He said as the blade plunged into his chest barely missing the lacrima implanted in his heart.
His last thoughts were that he hoped his last words weighed on the soul of the man who killed him.
Arthur had feared Serena. Throughout the trial. During the escape. Even now. He had been afraid. Afraid that Serena would come after him. Even when he was laying there beaten and broken, crying and begging for his life, Arthur had been afraid. It wasn’t the fight against Serena before. He’d won, though it had taken everything he possessed, and even then if it hadn’t been for the element of surprise he’d likely have lost; he knew what Serena’s powers were, and what the weaknesses of it was, Serena though hadn’t known any of his tricks beforehand. He was more skilled now. More skilled than Serena. But he wasn’t sure he’d have won a fair rematch.
And after the trial, Arthur was certain there would be one. Even if he had spared Serena here and now, the rematch would have come. Or maybe Serena would have stabbed him in the back. Maybe it’s because he had managed to terrify Serena as well. He had hurt him, wounded him, nearly killed him. But Serena had tried to kill him first. And you didn’t try to kill without being prepared to die; Arthur couldn’t remember where he’d heard that, probably an anime.
Now, though, that pall of death wasn’t hanging over him any longer. He in fact felt euphoric. There was a nagging sense of guilt. He had killed in cold blood again. No. For the first time he’d resolved to kill someone and sought them out for that reason.
And with the sword feeding him their soul it felt good. Dangerously, soul corrupting-ly good. He wasn’t recharging his magic at full speed on Edolas, even with X-Balls. But he hadn’t absorbed this much power through his sword since, well even the dragon had been less than this. His reserves and supply of magical energy were overflowing, and for the moment he felt absolutely invincible.
He turned down the overclocking of his brain, so that his Archive magic could be put to a new task. In life Serena had been a viper, laying in wait to strike. In death he was a grotesque object. His face was twisted, his eyes dull, his blood pooling beneath him. Arthur hated the look of it, but it didn’t stop him from opening his Archive’s physical manifestation. Wendy was still detectable at the castle. Good. But that wasn’t what he was looking for right now. He turned his Archive’s sensors to the task of finding Serena’s lacrima. It only took moments with him still, the magic in his own living form already drunk in its entirety by his sword.
He teleported the cluster of lacrima which had replaced his heart out and looked at the chunk of flesh and internal organs which had come with it. It reeked. Opening his territory portal he dropped it into the dimensional space he had created with his Territory Magic. He was reinventing Requip Magic; he was pretty certain, and in an inferior fashion. He’d have to see if he could find a book on it.
But for now it was time to collect his bounty. Killing Serena had been one. And his mental HUD came down, the alert message flashing. But when he tried to collect, the world jerked and twisted. Everything seemed to stop; including his archive magic, which pulled his thoughts to a crashing halt, his head suddenly pounding in headache.
And then he was in the classroom again, the smiley faced entity looking at him. “We have been given a special bounty.”