Fairy Tail: Swallow the Fire

45. The Dread Queen's Armada

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My bare feet slapped against the crashed train's metallic surface as I paced to and fro. My breath was short and strained, a mixture of anger and guilt choking the sense of calmness out of me.

Innocents.

I killed innocents.

And worse is that I was enjoying myself throughout it!

This was supposed to be a dangerous mission I could recklessly throw myself into without a thought for my safety, but instead...

"How is this even possible?!" I screamed to no one in particular.

"I don't know, but I have my suspicions."

"Oh do you now?" the blonde woman asked the captain.

"I do, and unfortunately I'm probably right," the captain, whose name we learned was Reece, raised one of the collars for us to see. "The construction, albeit larger, is nearly identical to that of a control collar. But the magic is notably different."

At the mention of his choice of words, Lyubov looked at him in genuine surprise.

"A control collar? Shit..." she said as she began to rub the bridge of her nose, "Not even Bosco looks at those fondly..."

"Are control collars exactly what they sound like?"

"Worse. While forms of mind control such as charm magic are common among the slave trade, control collars connect directly to the nervous system. Any independent thought is completely overridden, and removing the collar means you kill the person it's attached to. That's why they're frowned upon even in countries like Bosco, where they have an active and unstoppable slave trade. Too easy to kill the merchandise by accident."

"And these collars are heavily modified, and match an old case from a few years back I worked on..."

"Okay, so if these are all attached by magic, then all we need to remove them is magic, right? Because I know a spell that will work perfectly for thi-"

"No." Reece cut me off. "The collars need to be deactivated before that can happen, and without the control ring and code from whoever's wearing it, magic won't mean anything."

"Find the control ring, get the code from the wearer, deactivate the collars, and make whoever did this scream and rot from a cramped prison. Easy as paella. Give me an opening at the top!" I shouted as whirlwinds of purple flame wrapped around my feet.

"Wait, young miss! You shouldn't-"

"Oh hush it, captain. We were hired for a job, so shut up and let us do it!" Lyubov shouted as she held her hand out in front of her. "Mist-Make: Giant Swan."

"Are you ladies sure?"

"I can't get paid if I can't do my job, so open up," she said as she climbed up the swan.

"Alright...good luck. Give them an opening!"

The two of us flew towards the opening at the top of the magic barrier, a large hexagonal hole disappearing as we reached the roof. When we were out of the Rune Knight's protective dome, the sound of the angry beasts that were muffled inside the barrier hit us again with renewed vigour.