Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?
Beta Reader: volfwildman
The inside of the ruins was in better condition than the outside but it still had an ancient feel to it. If I remember right this used to be the vault of an old kingdom that was here about 300 years ago. Only the king of the kingdom could get to riches inside but the royal line died in a civil war and the vault was lost to the new nation that emerged from said war. Over the years people have tried to get the treasure inside but all failed and eventually a ban was put in place to keep the ruins from being destroyed.
As we walked down the ancient tunnel, I told my companions. "So, the people coming in and out must be after the treasure this place has then," Cana said as she looked at the walls while walking.
"Greed is like old jelly. More trouble than it's worth." Came from Bo. Why he was comparing old jelly to greed I don't know but I did agree that a desire for money was far too much hassle. Shame it was the most common of the deadly sins.
"I doubt they'll be able to get to it. Hundreds have tried and all have failed to get past the first gate in this place." I told them as I mentally went through all the illusion I had created and made a list of which I should be prepared to use at a moment's notice. I was kinda hoping for a bit of a challenge here if only to field test some of my Greater Illusions.
"Maybe you're right Bish but can you imagine all the gold and riches hidden in this place. All the gambling I could do with that." As Cana said this, I swear she drooled a little. She liked money but she gambled for the thrill, not the money. Still not sure if that made it better or worse.
"It doesn't matter. We're here to kick some bootie and maybe get some soft serve ice cream afterwards." And of course, that came from Bo. Starting to think that their only more afro in that head rather than brain.
"I prefer frozen yogurt but I gue-" I stopped my small talk as we came to an open room. It was small and not much decoration other than just being a room but the thing that really stood out was the door on the other side of the room. The first gate that had kept hundreds of people out and had stayed closed for centuries.
It was open.
"I think," I began, "That this is going to be a bit more complicated than we thought." From the sides, I show Cana and Bo nod their heads I agreement.
We had quickly gone through the open door and made our way down a much better condition but still ancient hallway. I had put a "Vanish" on us after I realized that we were probably dealing with more confident criminal then we had thought.
It wasn't too long before the hall leads to some stairs that seems to spiral down into the earth that we made our way down. After a few minutes, the stairs lead to a large cylinder room. A spiral stone staircase made its way around the room to the bottom as several side pillars helped support the stairs. About 50 feet down was the floor of the cylinder and from the top of the stairs, we could see several people down there.
Most of them were dressed up as common thugs, dirty and somewhat messed up clothes but two did stand out. Both were by what looks like another door just like the one that we had passed. The first of them was a woman with a purple frilly dress that ended around her knee. She had black hair that was done up into a ponytail and from what I could see looked rather attractive, she also had an air of nobility about here too. She stood before the door with a book floating in front of her, it was open with dark energy flowing out of it and into the door. I recognized it as a grimoire which probably meant she was a Grimoire mage.
The other one was a male and he looked just like a stereotypical biker. A black leather jacket and pants with a white undershirt. He had insanely spiky dark green hair, in fact, it seemed like spikes were a theme for him considering the absurd amount of small metal spikes littered all over his clothing. He was pacing behind the women and looked to have an annoyed and hostile air about him.
"Come on Julia! How much longer is this going to take!" The biker yelled at the now named Julia with a deep voice and mad tone.
I just barely heard Julia give a scoff at her company, "Shut up Devin. Your voice is giving me a headache like usual." She had a very sophisticated tone to her voice like she had been raised up among nobles.
The now named Devin seemed to get madder at this response as when he talked next, he had and even angrier tone to his voice. "You said that it would be much more quickly than that first gate! What gives!?"
While I couldn't see her face much, I could tell her face seemed to crunch up into a scowl at her annoying partner. "It took a week to get that first door open and I've only been at this for about two hours now! I'm close so If you could just shut up and sit down like a good boy, I can get this done!"
Devin's face was so red from this that even from so far away I could see the red very clearly but before he did anything someone spoke. "My you two truly are like an old married couple, don't you? Could you two finally fuck and end this annoyance for all of us."
I couldn't see who spoke but from the direction of the noise it seemed like the one who spoke was right under us, probably by the end of the stairs. I found his voice oldy familiar and for some reason, I felt goosebumps on my arm as I heard it. I soon found out why a few seconds later when the person walked from his position and towards the pair as the rest of the people in the room gave him a wide berth.
He had on very simple black monk clothes and had a bald head. He held a katana in his right hand as he leaned the back of the blade on his right shoulder. I quickly realized why I thought his voice was familiar as a cold shiver went down my back and fear spurn up in my head.
The Blade Mage. The one that had almost killed me all those years ago. He was right down there! How?! He should be in prison!
The worst part of all this though was one single thing. Something I had nearly forgotten about after not hearing it for a few years. The Whispers. The second I saw the Blade Mage I heard them start-up in the back of my mind. Quiet and gentle but still there, still urging me to give into them. Luckily before they got louder, I pushed them back down. I guess now that I was more emotional now, I could better fight off those damned Whispers. Still left me shaken though.
Cana seemed to notice this as she spoke to me, "Bish you ok? You look like your about to pass out or something." She had a very concerned tone to her voice and it also looked like Bo was looking at me in concern although those sunglasses made it hard to tell.
I steadied myself before I spoke, "The bald monk looking guy there. That's the guy that almost killed me all about ten years ago. The one that gave me these scars." Both seemed shocked, Bo ended up giving me a serious nod before turning to look down again. Cana though just stared at me in shock for a few more seconds before what looked like anger flashed in her expression before she turned to look down but this time, she seemed to stare at the Blade Mage.
"Shut you Psycho! Why the boss let you join I have no idea. You've already killed like five of our mooks dude." Derek paused for a second and looked like he was going to start speaking again but was cut off by a sharp sound that filled the air as there was a flash of blue in the middle of the room.
The flash and noise only lasted a second or two before disappearing and revealing a new man in the place where the flash had come from. It seemed that someone had teleported here from somewhere else. He was tall and wore a very nice and fancy looking purple trench coat that covers most of his body with what I think was a black shirt and pants under it. He was very pale with short pitch-black hair that was gelled back and neatly ordered with a nice black goatee on his face.
"Hello all," he spoke in a very smooth and sophisticated tone, "How goes the second door Julia, my dear?"
Julia responds with a very nervous and high-pitched tone, like a girl talking to her crush. "Very close my Lord! Just a little more and it'll be open. I also think that any remaining doors it should only take me a minute or two to open." The man gave a pleased hum at this which seemed to cause Julia to giggle a little.
Devin and the Blade Mage seemed to back up from each other and start acting like they hadn't been about to kill each other while the rest of the grunts gave the man a wide berth. Well, all besides one.
One of them, a very standard looking thug with roughed up clothes, steps towards the guy. "Hey, boss man! I got something to say to ya!" As the minion said those words every other person down there reacted. Julia didn't take her eyes off her work, Devin shook his head and facepalmed the Blade mage grinned so wildly that I could see it from up here and every other thug looked at the one who had spoken in shock. As for the man the thug had been addressing?
A very audible sigh escaped the man's lips as he turned to face the one who had addressed him, "Yes?" Short and simple, still smooth but held a certain edge that made me feel uneasy. Apparently, the thug didn't detect said edge as he spoke once more to his boss.
"I want more then what you're giving those other mooks. I'm a lot better than them and It's only fair I get more jewels than them." There was a pause as the other minions looked towards their fellow thug with what looked like horror.
"Is that so?" The man's voice sounded amused but it still had that edge that creeped me out. It sounded like how one would address an animal.
"Ya! I've been around much longer than those idiots and I-" The thug's voice cut off as the man's left arm swiftly shoot out and grab the thug's throat before easily lifting him up into the air.
"You know," Said the man in a nonchalant tone, "I hate it when something feels like it's worth more than it really is. Well then let's see how much you're really worth shall we."
What happened next, I would never forget.
"Hand of the Destroyer" The thug's body light up in a yellow glow before said glow started flowing into the man's left hand and went to his right. As more of this glow was taken from the thug, he…was well...dying
Well, dying was not a strong enough word. The thug looked like he was rapidly aging and turning into dust at the same time. His once muscular body was turning more and more skinny as dust fell from him. Everything on him was seemingly becoming frailer. The thug looked like he wanted to scream but his body seemed to refuse him as his flesh, muscle, bones and everything else turned into dust.
The rapidly increasing dust that once was a human spread throughout the chamber as the rest of the mooks were looking on in horror. Soon there was little more than a skeleton left with paper-thin skin barely clinging on to brittle bones, life somehow barely shining through his eyes that at this point were very rapidly turning into raisins. That only lasted a second though as soon what remained of the thug shattered and dispersed into dust, leaving only a skull that the man held in his hand for a second before nonchalantly throwing it behind him where it too turned to dust as it hit the ground.
Nothing was left of the thug but some dust that was rapidly disappearing. All the yellow glow was now in the man's right hand as he held it up in front of him. It was now a glowing ball of yellow that was centered in the man's hand.
"Hand of the Creator" The glow brightened for a second before retracting into the man's palm where it condescends and turned into a red gem. The man brought the gem to his face and examined it before a second before letting out a slight chuckle.
"Just as I thought. You really weren't worth a lot. Just a very small and messy ruby. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter too much." And with those words, he put the ruby into a pocket before turning to address the rest of his men.
I didn't pay much attention to his words as I looked on in horror at what had just happened. Both Cana and Bo also had looks of horror as we stared at the man who had just sucked the life out of someone and turn it into a ruby without batting an eye.
"What...the hell," Cana said as she continued to look down in horror, "Bish please tell me you know what that was?"
At Cana's desperate voice I snapped myself out of the fear trance I was in and went through a list of magic in my mind, hoping to find something that would explain this. I ended up finding one that fight the crime, well almost fit it.
"Alchemical Exchange," I said, I knew a lot about the magic considering it had been the first one I had tried to learn back when I was five, "It basically a magic that let's one take an item and absorb the value out of it with one hand and then use that value to create something of equal value in the other hand."
I paused as I glance down at the man, he was given a little speech to his minions that were trying their best to not look at him in fear, they were failing. "But there's one problem. One of the Inbuilt Rules of that magic is that you can't use it on anything living."
Cana seemed to contemplate my words, "Maybe he found a way to break the rule?" Before I could speak Bo started talking in a very out of place serious tone.
"No. Inbuilt Rules are the foundation of all the styles of magic. If someone can break a rule then their magic fumbles in on itself like a house that lost a really important support. People have done it before and most die because of it and even if they don't then they're magically crippled for the rest of their life." The fact that Bo wasn't using any of his usual oddities was a sign of how serious this was.
We stood there for a moment as we all contemplated what was said and what we should do now. After a few seconds, Bo took a step forward. "It doesn't matter how he did it. What matters is that we show those no-good baddies the old one-two and throw them in the slammer!"
Before either me or Cana could stop him, he jumped from the stairs down to the floor, out of range of my Vanish. Cana let out a sigh before ultimately following the insane afro man. I cursed mentally as I disregarded the Vanish and jumped down with them.
50 feet was a good amount to jump from but for mages with magic enhanced bodies, it was easy. Each of us landed on our feet as we faced the criminals. The mooks looked towards us in shock, Devin was tilting his head in confusing, Julia still wasn't turning her attention from the door, The Blade Mage looked on in interest until he saw me at which point a very eager grin split his face and finally the purple man was looking at us in mild amusement before looking at his minions.
"Well," The man said, "What are you all waiting for? I pay you to take care of people who get in our way so why aren't you not doing your jobs?" The man's smooth voice seemed to snap the minions out of their shock as they rushed us.
"Fear" A wave a red hit the ones going for me as they fell to the ground, their mouths lightly foaming. "Nose Hair Festival" Several strands of thick nose hair erupted from Bo's nostrils before easily knocking out his mooks with a few quick swipes. "High Card-Earth" Cana sent out a single earth infused card toward her own group which hit the ground and exploded into a shockwave that knocked the mooks out.
As we took out the minions a soft gold clap filled the air. The purple trench coat man was giving us a little applause. "Well, that was entertaining. Very good show you three." I really did not like the way he talked to us. Like he wasn't talking to us but rather to us like he was talking to an object.
"Oh," The man snapped his fingers, "I should probably introduce myself." With those words, he lightly mock bowed to us.
"Mammon Amon at your service." As he stood back up to his full height my eyes widened at hearing his name.
"Mammon Amon? As in the Minister of Stella that was found to be corrupt and was left to a rebellion before he and said rebellion disappeared?" At my words the now named Mammon tilted his head in surprise.
"You heard of me? Well, what a pleasant surprise! After those peasants caused me to lose my minister status not many have remembered me. Those peasants truly were annoying, oh well I suppose they ended up giving me money in the end." It didn't take much guesswork to figure out what had happened to the people in the rebellion.
"Well," Said Mammon as he spread out his hands, "Since you're truly just made my day, I suppose I'll take care of you lot myself. Consider this a-" His words were cut off as a large clunk sound filled the room as the doors behind Mammon opened themselves.
"Well, well, well," Said Mammon as he spun around and started to walk to the door, "I stand corrected! I believe I'll be moving on with Julia and Devin to the next room. My monk will take care of you lot, tootles." And with that, he started to walk into the newly opened hallway as Juila and Devin followed, barley even giving us a glance as they did so.
Cana tried to run after then but was cut off by the Blade Mage who jumped in her way and forced her back with a swipe from his blade. Once Cana was back with us the Blade Mage turned his head to me with a wide grin, "If it isn't the little Illusionist. Well not so little anymore."
I lightly glared at the psycho, "Why aren't you in prison right now?" The Blade Mage chuckled at my question before speaking.
"Well let's just say that the rune knights need to increase their standards for their recruits. Especially in terms of intelligence." With that said he spread his arms as he gave me a murderously happy look.
"But enough of that! I have been looking very much forward to seeing you again. Now, why don't you disappear or use another one of you little illusions so we can finally settle things." I grimace as he spoke, I had planned to put on a Vanish and have me and the others sneak by him but from the sound of it, he seemed to have a counter for that. Just as I was contemplating what to do Cana spoke up.
"Bish," She began her voice strangely serious, "You and Bo get by him and go after the others. I'll distract him so you can get by and I'll catch up after I take care of him." Before I could speak up in objection, she cut me off.
"We need to stop those guys from getting further into the vault. It sounds like this guy has something for your illusion so one either Bo or I need to stay here and fight him while you and the other one move on ahead. Now both of you hurry up and get going because I'm fighting him. Got It!" She said that last part rather determinedly.
I stared at her for a few seconds before sighing. She was determined to fight this guy for some reason and I knew I couldn't convince her otherwise. "Just be careful ok? Don't let your guard down around him." And with that, I turned to Bo and nodded to him.
He nodded back and said, "Let's do this daddy yo! You go left I go right." With that, we both ran to the sides of the Blade Mage. I thought he would do something to prevent us from moving forward but he didn't. What he did do though was turned towards me and give me a wink as I passed by him. It almost made me want to stop but I ended up continuing with Bo has we passed the gate.
'Good luck Cana,' I thought as I ran down the hall, 'If he's improved over the years, then he's going to be very dangerous. Don't die on me.' And with that thought, I put my focus on the task in front of me. I ignore the Whispers which had come back when I saw the wink.
(Cana's POV)
I stared at the bald man in front of me. He stared back with a far too happy grin on his face. After a few seconds I decided to speak, "Why did you just let them get by?"
The Blade Mage chuckled in response to my question just like he did with Bish's. "I was going to stop them so I could fight that little illusionist but I couldn't help but notice how concerned he was for you. So, what are you to him? A girlfriend maybe?"
"Sister." was my short reply, I was a maelstrom of emotions were swirling inside me right now and didn't want to let them leak out right now. My response seemed to make the psycho happier if the even larger grin then before was any indication.
"Well! That makes things far more fun for me! I can't wait to see the look on your big brother's face when he sees what I've done with you." His grin gained a more murderous quality to it as I strained to keep a calm face.
"Oh, before I begin why don't I introduce myself. Never did it your precious big brother but better late than never. I'm-" I cut him off.
"Stop," My voice was so cold and angry that it seemed to surprise the Blade Mage, "You're the one who almost took my Big Brother from me. One of if not the most important person in my life! The person who helped me when I didn't want it. The person that gave me a family. And you almost took him from me!"
I stepped forward as I pulled out some of my cards and gave the man in front of me and hateful glare. "I couldn't fuck care less what your name is! All I know is that every single word you speak makes me want to kill you more and more and if you keep talking, I'm afraid that it'll get to the point where I will kill you."
I stand ready as I finish up shouting at him, "So do me a favor and SHUT UP and fight me!"
The Blade mage stood in surprise for a few seconds before a crazy smile found its way onto his face as he started to chuckle. That chuckle turned into full-blown laughter as he threw his head back. Eventually, he stopped as he looked at me once more, now with a demented smile on his face.
"Well Said!" As he spoke there was a flash as a second katana appeared in his other hand, "Then let's have some fun and fight!" And with that, he rushed towards me
The Battle had begun.
AN: And so the board is set up. While it probably would have been more interesting to watch Bishop fight the Blade mage, I felt it would be more impactful for Cana to do it. And yes there is a reason why I'm keeping his name in the dark. Other than that yes Bo is a reference to another anime, one of my favorites, not saying what it is but some of the people in the reviews have already said it. I hope people have noticed all the hints I've left in the past for this arc start to pop up now.
Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. And this week's review shoutout goes to fanfic-addict91 for his review and messages. Thanks for pointing out a really important detail man, I'll put in a fix for that later in the story.
So I was just sitting here for a few minutes trying to come up with a review joke when my cat just jump in my lap and just sits down. I guess I'll take this a divine inspiration. So with her feline power, she demands you to review! Also, she demands me to pet her if her 'i'm better then you but I will still allow you to touch me' look she's giving me is anything to go by.
Have a great day.
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