Distant Worlds ~ A Black Clover Story (Fuegoleon Vermillion X OC)

Chapter 30 - The Edge of Death

                  "What are you doing?!" I can hear Noelle yell at me from behind Fuegoleon as I swing my leg around to fully sit on the lion while we make our way to destination. However because of the current sitting arrangements I wasn't behind Fuegoleon but in front of him so to prevent me from kicking anyone while I got situated I had to ride the lion backwards.

                  "It's fine Black Bulls girl. She does this all the time. Just don't fall." Fuegoleon says as I finalize my position. We're flying low enough that my fear of flying is only manifesting as a small hum instead of the usual sirens of death. I look around Fuegoleon to the silver haired mage before giving her a small wave.

                  "Hello there! I'm Ember Avest I'll be your attending medic for today. But please try not to get yourself seriously maimed or killed. You're Noelle Silva right? I should tell you, your siblings are real ass holes!" I tell the young girl. Her tense posture remains for a brief moment before comprehending my words.

                  "Wait a minute. Ember Avest? Aren't you Captain Fuegoleon's betrothed?" If I had a drink I would have choked on it right then and there. I'm surprised that this is the first thing people know about me, not all my ground breaking work as the formulations lead at the royal hospital. But I suppose it is better than being known as the mana-less medic in the royal hospital. Besides people love gossip and we did announce our relationship some time ago.

                  "Bespoken not betrothed yet. But there are other pressing matters at hand you two. Focus!"

                  "Sorry!" We both apologize to the captain. It's pretty easy to realize why he's calling our attention though. We've come upon the main plaza in the northern district. Fires rage all around us and there's an abhorrent horde of gross looking people attacking innocent civilians. But these enemies aren't moving like normal people. They're fairly sluggish, their skin tinted a heavy gray and all they do is groan. Quite frankly it reminds me of a scene from the zombie horror movies Thalia used to watch. I notice a lone castle mage or two shoot off a mana bullet at one of the enemies. It blasts a hole through their chest but they just keep moving forward. Totally zombie material here. I try to focus what I can on the enemies. I feel magic coursing through them, but I don't feel a soul keeping them tethered to this earth. It's a low level form of necromancy, using magic to manipulate human flesh as puppets.

                  "What are they?"  Noelle asks.

                  "A strange army? I've never seen anything like them." Fuegoleon says peering down at the scene.

                  "I have. They're wraiths. It's a low level form of necromancy. They're using magic to manipulate human flesh as puppets. They may look human but make no mistake they aren't alive." I tell the two.

                  "Interesting. So if we find the caster we can wipe out their forces." Fuegoleon says still intensely watching the group. He's no doubt analyzing the situation, looking for a weakness.

                  "Where's Asta?" Noelle asks, worry in her voice. She's looking all over the plaza but it's hard to make out a ton of details as the chaos from the fire and smoke cloud our vision. We take our place in the middle of the plaza's chaos, which grabs all of the wraiths' attention. I quickly look around, there has to be at least 150 of them in this plaza. For a low level form of necromancy this caster sure has a lot mana to be able to control this amount of puppets.  Slowly they all start to come our way. I squeak as I feel someone back into me. It's Leo, he must have found us when we landed.

                  "Big brother what are these things?" he asks.

                  "These things... there's magic in them but they're not living beings. So we'll just crush them until they can't get back up!" The swell of mana I feel from both brothers tells me to take a step back. I pull Noelle with me. She turns to scold me for touching her but she doesn't have the time to get the words out. "Flame Creation Magic: Leo Rugiens! Burn to ashes!" The lion becomes several sizes bigger than the one we just rode in on before it blasts through a large group of the corpses. If I didn't pull Noelle out of the way she may have gotten singed on the attack.