Published: January 16th 2025, 11:00:10 am
I gaze up to a genuine mountain of a man, his eyes are covered by a blindfold. He has a tophat upon his head.
"It is good to meet you, Aria." I greet, a small smile gracing my lips.
"I have heard about you from Guildmaster Jose." The giant of a man intones. "You have been in the guild two weeks... and yet. You are already an S Class Wizard."
"I suppose the master respects and rewards those who can get their jobs done." I admit.
"We should talk about the reward for this mission. Master told me how it will be me breaking the film. I want the majority of the reward."
"That's fine." I nod once. "Realistically I'm on here to pick up the celestial spirit key and whatever they are trying to unseal. You can have all the jewel from the reward."
"I see. It brings a tear to my eye to finally have such an agreeable S-Class!" Tears begin streaming from under his blindfold.
"Against the people performing the moon drip ritual... it's likely that I can handle myself. However. I'd still like for you to be around. Listen for words like 'oh shit, that guy has lost magic' I'm quite skilled, but there's a certain level I just cannot reach yet."
"Yes. It is wise to know your limitations."
"Shall we go?" I question. "I have already located a group that will take us to the island."
"Good." The giant of a man intones.
[Split]
"First... we should probably deal with the cult that is trying to break the seal on whatever it is they are doing." I begin quietly. Cupping my chin as I gaze out into the forest. Aria floats just behind me, he gazes upwards to the purple moon, a large stroke of purple light shooting downwards. "If we were to break the film now... they would know something is wrong... it would be best to press our advantage of stealth."
We begin slowly trudging through the jungle. The night sky illuminated by the purple beam of light.
A small smile graces my features-
A tremendous rat in a maid uniform lunges from the underbrush.
A dagger appears in my hand and stabs into its shoulder.
I casually duck under its large swipe as it lets out an angered shriek.
I step past it and continue walking as it turns around.
It takes a thudding step, then falls to a knee. It seems to sway slightly
It weakly peers around as I continue walking, then it falls prone, seemingly going to sleep.
"So. Aria. I have heard you can scatter magical power."
The air around me swishes. "If we come across a mage with a particularly interesting magic... do you think it'll be possible to scatter their magic, but keep it... like... contained? I could likely make use of it."
"I... will attempt it." The voice whispers. But the large mage is nowhere to be seen, already transforming into nothing but wind
"Thank you." I whisper. "I'll let you know with a code word... something like 'Nab' or hm... what's a word I won't use very often? Ah. Cattywampus. If I need you to utterly obliterate a guy's magic. I'll be saying something along the lines of 'Something Something, target, this has gone Cattywampus'."
After around ten more minutes we come to a truly massive Aztec-like temple.
I duck back as a sole orb shoots past my face.
It curves on a dime, causing me to duck past, sword in hand as I spin and slash the orb in two.
The halves reconnect.
"Hm?" I hum.
My eyes slide to an old man in a mask crouching up on the second level of the temple, a small grin on their exposed mouth.
"You magic is bothersome." I call out. "It's not a simple repair magic, correct... it's more like... you are rewinding the damage on your focus."
"Why have you come here, mage?"
"Well, obviously, to destroy the moon. I just wanted to take care of the group of whackos tinting it purple so I don't get called back out here."
"Hm... A Phantom Lord wizard..." The old man observes. "We are almost finished with our unsealing... it could be done in just mere weeks... might I be so arrogant as to ask you to bide your time for a bit? We can finish our matters and you can get paid without a true fight."
"Haah." I sigh as I rub my face. "I swear. All of my missions end up going Cattywampus."
A gigantic figure appears behind the mage. "Metsu."
"Wh- GYYAAAAAAAA!" A scream come out of the hold man, one that sounds strangely feminine.
The old man falls forwards, mask slipping from his face.
Aria stands there, holding an orb of churning energy in one hand... sort of like he created a Ki-blast from dragon ball z.
I leap forwards and catch the figure.
Her appearance is quite green right now.
She looks sick. A result of having her magic torn away so violently.
But. That means she's not able to defend herself.
"Aria... do... do you know who this is?!" I grin up at the wizard.
"Hm?" He hums.
"This is Ultear... the LEADER of the seven kin of purgatory... the strongest group of wizards in the dark guild Grimoire Heart!"
"How sad..." He sobs. "For a strong opponent to be taken out before our might without so much of a whimper."
"Master will surely praise her if we arrest her. I mean, she's one of the heaviest hitters in grimoire heart! We'd surely get a massive bonus as well."
"How sorrowful! To profit over the imprisonment of such a young woman." The man sobs
"Said young woman went across all of Fiore burning towns to the ground and slaughtering everyone within. Why shouldn't we profit off such a fucking monster."
"That is fair!" He continues. "What do you wish for me to do with this magic?"
"Can you come down here for a second."
He floats down as I look over the orb. "Holy shit- she... does have lost magic..."
"One second let me secure this." I begin as I hold out my hands, an orb appearing on both sides of the churning orb of magical power.
It is surrounded in a globe of sealing magic.
I bow my head slightly. "Thank you, Aria... that will certainly help me in the future... I will not forget about your assistance today. I know I wouldn't have been able to beat her had she gone all out."
"Hm." The man hums.
I look up to the top of the building.
[Split]
I stand above a large group of hooded figures. Bodies crumpled, weakly struggling.
At the forefront are five figures.
The first, a dog man. That's the best I can describe him as.
The next, some blue haired guy with large bushy eyebrows.
The next, a woman with pink pigtails.
The fourth, some white haired guy.
And the final one, is the pale woman who is still struggling from having her magical power zapped.
It was quite easy to take these guys down.
'hey dog man. You've got something here on your face'
He touched his face with his nails that are covered in paralyzing powder.
Eyebrow mage's anti-magic can only block one element at once. I just dual wielded.
Control mage was more difficult, but she was quite undefended when I managed to get past her golem.
Lyon was taken care of by Aria. He quite enjoyed the fight apparently. He's a bit of a fighting nut it appears. Like Goku. I can work with that. It should be easy to curb his tendencies with a few of my future schemes.
"So." I begin, crossing my arms. "Unsealing Deliora? You all are fucking stupid. Hm?"
The white haired teen glares up at me as Aria floats close by.
"It- You don't understand! It'll break out eventually!" The pink haired girl shouts. "It- It'll break out and kill again! Lyon is going to kill it."
"No... It will not be breaking out again." I shake my head. "You see. You are working on a lot of misinformation here. The Iced Shell isn't JUST a sealing spell... it takes the life of the caster to cast it. Their body being turned into the prison for their target. Something that you should know, Lyon Vastia, being the student of the woman who sealed it..."
"How sorrowful." Aria cries, tears streaming from under his blindfold.
"That's- That's why we need to unseal it before it breaks free!" The girl declares. "L-Leon can kill it!"
"No. He can't. He got defeated by an S-Class mage. He's too weak. His master was a mage comparable to the ten wizard saints and she still had to sacrifice her own life to do any real damage to it..." I shake my head. "Well, I mean, Leon could likely kill it now, but that's beside the point... did he not tell you what's happening to Deliora inside the iced shell?"
"H-Huh?" The wizards excluding Lyon look up, said white haired wizard grits his teeth and looks away.
"Deliora is being constantly weakened by the iced shell. If you fucking idiots had just left it alone... Deliora would die with one hundred percent certainty. But by breaking it out... if you had failed to kill it, all you are letting it do is potentially recover."
"W-What?" The eyebrow mage whispers.
"Thats- That's not true!" The girl exclaims.
"It IS true. Did you truly think that a spell that takes the life of the caster to use would JUST imprison something for a long time?! No!" I exclaim. "Your... selfish 'Sub-Zero Emperor' here merely wanted to feel like a god. You have seen it haven't you? How he thinks he's above you? How he treats you? I mean it's in his fucking TITLE! He forces you to call him 'Sub Zero Emperor'. He was squandering his master's sacrifice all because he wanted to be popular! To go down in legend! Stealing Ur's sacrifice and becoming the 'hero' who slayed Deliora!"
"You're lying!" The girl screams, looking to Leon. "R-Right my love?"
"Come on..." I scoff. "Seriously? Your love? Look how coldly he is treating you... look at his reaction. He knows he's caught. That's why he's refusing to say anything! Miss, you can do far better than him. In fact, you all can do better than this man."
"I take it he also didn't tell you that you were working with a mage from the dark guild Grimoire Heart?"
"What?!" Eyebrow mage gasps. "Grimoire Heart?!"
"Yes. You see that woman prone next to you... that is Ultear. One of the strongest mages in Grimoire Heart. A woman who led her team, the seven kin of purgatory across Fiore and beyond, destroying town after town in an attempt to collect items to revive the black wizard Zeref."
Lyon glares right at me. Not that he can say anything. I have made... sure... of that.
"Realistically... she's just as bad as Deliora... if not worse, as she made the conscious decision to slaughter all those innocent people. Deliora is more of just an unintelligent animal or force of nature."
There's a series of murmurs from the numerous cloaked figures.
They were no problem to take care of. None of them even knew any attacking magics. Having to rely on shitty holder magic staves that shoot magical balls.
"I give you all an invitation... join phantom lord..." I begin quietly. "You three in particular. Control mage... you are squandering your talent."
"Wh-Huh?!" She seems a little offended.
"You can control ANYTHING." I point out. "Just not humans. Do you even realize the sheer ramifications of that?! You turned a bunch of simple rocks into a golem for you to control. You can command animals, beats, celestial spirits, what's stopping you from controlling demons like Deliora! Dragons! LITERAL GODS!"
I crouch down before her, giving her a charming smile. "I promise, if you join Phantom Lord, we will give you the resources you need to reach your full potential... be it controlling demons, or controlling magic itself. After all... magic isn't human."
"There was no reason for you to follow Leon so devotedly... you should have been the one leading this. After all. His magic cannot touch you, correct? Yet he spent all of his time putting you down. Making you subservient to him." I extend a hand to her, a small reserved smile on my face as I let out a low breath. "It's... sad... you should not have had to suffer such a toxic relationship... someone as beautiful and as powerful as you has all the tools at her fingertips to become truly happy. You shouldn't let someone who doesn't understand your true value dictate your happiness... live for your sake."
Her eyes widen slightly a scarlet blush growing across her face.
"And you two. You also deserve better. Anti-mage. Your magic would make you an invaluable asset to any guild. You have issues, sure, like your inability to block more than one element at a time, but realistically you could overcome such a limitation through hard work. And you, Nail Mage..."
"..."
"..."
"I will admit, your magic is a little tamer than these two." I begin, causing the wizard to sulk. "However. You are tenacious. Recovering from your own attack far faster than I believe I could. In addition, you are strong and shockingly fast. I could see you becoming a fairly solid mage in any guild. In phantom lord I would place you in the top... fifty percent or so? It's not bad, certainly. But you could be doing better for yourself."
He seems pleased by the praise.
I rise to my feet.
"Now." I huff. "I am going to go re-seal Deliora."
My gaze swipes over all of the mages. "After that... we shall be completing the request... and then we will be leaving. If any of you wish to follow us and join Phantom Lord. Be my guest. If you wish to go off on your own, by all means. However. Her."
I point to Ultear.
"And him." Then to Leon. "Shall be taken the the magic council to answer for their crimes... trying to unleash Deliora again could probably be seen as some form of magical terrorism, right Aria?"
"So sorrowful! The master's sacrifice... squandered by an ungrateful student." He sobs. "Indeed. Such an act should be punishable!"
[Split]
I clench a golden key in hand, staring out towards a bustling port town.
A large number of people sit on the pirate ship alongside us.
A small smile appears on my face, hoisting an unconscious woman over my shoulder as I lead a white haired mage in magic sealing cuffs off the boat.
"I shall return to the guild to inform Master Jose of our success." Aria intones.
"Also tell him to replace that lazy piece of shit at the front desk. If he turns away any of these people I swear I'll make him regret it."
"Yes..." The man whispers, then... he's gone.
I walk forwards towards the rune knight outpost, people whisper and mutter at my appearance, but they seem to relatively calm down once I near the rune knight building.
"Halt!" A man in armor calls out. "What are you doing there?!"
"I am here to turn over two violent criminals." I call out.
He pauses briefly before gesturing to the building. "Quickly now. We do not have all day."
I follow him inside, glancing around the room.
It's quite barren.
"What's going on?" An older man questions, stepping through double doors on the other side of the room.
He locks eyes with me, eyes flicking to the two around me.
"Who are you and why are you here?"
"I am Arthur Pendragon of Phantom Lord. Here to turn over two criminals that Aria of the Great Sky defeated."
"Criminals?"
"Dark wizards." I clarify. "She. Is part of Grimoire Heart. The leader of their strongest team of mages, the seven kin of purgatory. She has previously, under orders of her master, led that group in razing numerous towns all over Fiore and the surrounding regions."
"G-Grimoire heart?!"
I turn slightly, showing them the woman's back which has a large symbol upon it.
"That- Someone call headquarters! Now!"
The armored figures begin wildly rushing around the room.
The door slams shut behind me, locking.
The rune knights surround me in a circle carefully pointing their halberds at me.
"I apologize if this might seem like we are threatening you." The old man continues. "However. Grimoire Heart should not be underestimated."
"Oh. That is fine. This other wizard doesn't seem to be a true part of grimoire heart though... but he was working for her. Trying to unseal Deliora. The demon from the book of zeref which brought ruin to large portions of Ishgar."
"That- I see." The man glares. "Please, sir. Wait here for a moment so our containment knights can arrive. It shouldn't be more than an hour."
[Split]
"Master. You wished to see me."
"Ah. Arthur. Good good. I have heard tales of your mission from Aria. In addition... you have brought a few interesting mages to our side. In particular... that command mage and the anti-mage."
"Anything to make the guild prosper." I smile. "It does greatly please me that they chose to join us. I seek to bring them to their full potential."
"The rest... are sort of unimportant." The wizard saint continue. "But those two? Ohohoho."
"Yes. I thought it would be better to portray a kinder outer appearance to them. The moon drip ritual mages are... sort of useless as they only know how to do the moon drip. I have heard that you can condense the moon drip into a liquid form, however, if we can figure out how to do that, we could likely have a new source of income."
"I will look into it." The mage declares. "Regardless, the new additions will truly help us in our next ambition!"
"And, might I be so bold as to ask what that is?"
"We... are going to utterly destroy fairy tail and claim our rightful position as the greatest guild in Fiore." The man informs.
"Hm." I hum, lips tugging downwards.
"We have recently been contracted by Jude Heartfilia to reclaim his daughter, Lucy Heartfilia which has joined the fairy tail guild. Using this... we shall goad fairy tail into making the first true blow. At which point, we should be able to reasonably strike back at the guild, crushing it."
"Sir. This is a poor idea." I cut in.
"..."
"Speak carefully Arthur. But continue."
"The magic council will not accept us attacking Fairy Tail regardless of our reasons. They might not like their destructiveness, but they are reliable and kindhearted. A go-to for suppressing any dark guilds... fighting against them..."
I pause for a moment.
"We could win." I nod once. "If we play it carefully, that is. I've heard the fairy spells are incredibly potent... army destroyers I've heard them be called. If we go for a full frontal assault... our chances will be pyrrhic victory at best, and a crippling loss at worst. But. Even if we do have the full advantage... we will take losses. We will be weakened. I take it that Aria has told you of us defeating Ultear of Grimiore Heart?"
"..."
"It is likely that the dark guild may seek to take advantage of our weakness." I continue. "it makes sense. We take out fairy tail. That's one of the largest shields against any dark guilds... if we are also weakened, we will be sought out and taken out. In one swift motion both the number one and two guilds are out of the picture, leaving only the likes of Lamia scale to pick up the pieces. The dark guilds will surge forth. Taking advantage of our guilds crumbling and turning Fiore into a lawless hellscape that the remaining light guilds can't keep up with."
"Then there's the fact that some of our wizards may quit. In particular the new ones. They likely would not like immediately being thrust into a war."
"I may not like fairy tail, but they are needed as meat shields- and an extremely obvious target- for dark guilds... you see, master. Most dark guilds will seek out the number one position in an attempt to show their strength. They think 'if I can kill these guys, it'll scare the rest of Fiore'. In our position, we do not have to deal with that. Now, I'm not saying we have to play second fiddle to the friendship fuckers forever... but we should take advantage of our situation. Build support. Fortify ourselves to take the burden of being the greatest guild in Fiore."
"Besides, master... Fairy Tail is going to die. We don't even have to do anything."
"Explain?" The man mutters.
"I take it you have heard about Makarov's grandson?" I ask.
"Yes. That arrogant brat. What of him?"
"He is under the assumption that Makarov is going to make him the next guild master. The thing is. He isn't exactly... pleased... with the way fairy tail is at the moment. He thinks... in a way similarly to us. Valuing strength. He seeks to kick out the mages he deems 'weak'. But he is impatient. The more fairy tail has paltry showings that paints the guild as 'weak'. The more impatient he gets. And, well, the more impatient he gets... he may do something drastic."
A small smile appears on Jose's face.
"And... even if he fails in doing something drastic." I continue. "Well, he did something drastic... he'll likely be kicked out of the guild... bye bye one of their strongest S-Class wizards."
"There are dozens of things we can do to inconvenience Fairy Tail, Master." I smirk. "There's no need to jump the shark and fire the Etherion at them. After all, which guild has defeated one of the most powerful wizards in arguably one of the strongest dark guilds in Fiore? Which guild stopped some fool from freeing Deliora? Which guild COMPLETED Galuna island? A mission which everyone else refused to?!"
"It's Phantom Lord... and people are going to start remembering that fact. There's no need to get us branded as a dark guild by the magic council for killing so many useful wizards with potential. We just need to... tip the scales in our favor."
"What should we do about this mission?" Jose frowns suddenly. "Phantom lord does not fail such requests."
"I am aware." I nod slowly, I let out a low hum. "Oooh... here's an idea... Perhaps we could put in a request to Fairy Tail... one that is as tedious as physically possible. One that will result in Lucy Heartfilia, a celestial spirit mage disappearing for days at a time. The entire goal being that she is either alone- and relatively close by to her home- or just away from any form of news for a while."
"Then, we have the option of taking her while she's close to Jude Heartfilia's residence and bringing her back home... or we could perhaps give the news some anonymous tips that a certain light guild has perhaps kidnapped a certain Heartfilia? The entire goal being that dear Lucy is out of the picture for days or perhaps weeks at a time so she is unable to comment. We just have to ensure that such rumors don't make it back to us as the source, of course."
"But what could we possibly offer to cause the foolish girl to go through so much effort- ahhhh." The man grins.
A golden key is lifted into view. "I sadly couldn't make use of this. To be expected. My affinity just isn't right for it, having practiced shade magic all my life. It makes sense that trying to use light or celestial magic wouldn't work."
"Master. Why waste Virgo on such a task. I have a man in a horse suit right here that we could give her instead." I smile, lifting the key of the archer.
"Oh? Weren't you going to use that as a core for you magic?"
"As it turns out, upon closer inspection, the keys themselves aren't really suited for sacred gears. It's sad, but oh well." I shrug. "Maybe that'll change if I actually summon the spirits themselves, but I'd imagine the celestial spirit king might get a little pissed off at me sealing his people into magic items and come to earth land to kill me."
"Very well." The man shrugs. "It was your actions that retrieved Virgo's key. I will trade for the horse."
We swap the keys, causing him to look over the archer for a moment. "Hrn... do you have any ideas what might be a good mission that would take some time?"
"I've heard she's friends with the dragon slayer. So preferably something monotonous that would bore the hot-blooded dragon... and something that requires a lot of traveling by vehicle. Maybe some sort of scavenger hunt of some sort with riddles and all that nonsense? Oooh that'd be funny she goes through this massive quest to get some sort of apparently rare artifact. Solving riddles, and elaborate puzzles and figuring out codes... then it just so happens to lead right to her own father's front door and someone puts a bag over her head and shoves her inside!"
"of course. We could also try Diplomacy in this. The mission is to return her home. Not keep her there. How much is he paying us? For this. Reasonably I could walk over to her with the key and just tell her that I'll give it to her if she returns home."
"Fifty Million." Jose states.
"Damn." I whistle. "Okay, I can sort of see why you were so keen on starting a war over this. That pays more than five times the Galuna job."
"You have a good head on your shoulder, brat." The man begins quietly. "First. Create my sacred gear then, take this archer and convince her to return home."
"If you keep this up... perhaps I might even grant you the position of Vice-Guildmaster... I can see now that my plan was... a bit fool hearty thank you for allowing me to see my error.
"If you want ideas on how to mess with fairy tail... believe me... i've got a bunch." I grin visciously. "But first, perhaps I should work on the sacred gears. Have the supplies come in?"
"Yes." The man nods once. "I picked the ones you needed for Lullaby up personally. The remainder will arrive over the next month or so."
"Thank you sir. I will begin right away!"