The wannabe demons and creations that charged her didn't stand a chance. Verani was pissed, fighting half with anger and the other half with just pure adrenaline. She didn't have the slightest clue where Kia was at. There was no way she could find the Phoenix Slayer without the pink-haired girl giving her an answer.
"Buzz off!" She growled, zapping something that looked like a porcupine with spider-eyes into a puddle of ooze.
She also didn't have a clue where the asshole who had the Bane Particles was. Between Freed's description and what Kia had told her on the way back from Era, Verani had a pretty good idea what this "Tempester" looked like, but she had the same problem she had with Kia: she didn't have a clue where he might have been.
That was when she rounded another corner, finding a small girl standing in the center of the hall. She looked about ten with dull coal-like eyes. Her hair was black, cut at her shoulders with straight bangs. A pale rosy dress hung loosely around her petite frame, a round ornate mirror in her hands. But what caught Verani's attention first was the mark that rested under the girl's right cheek: the Tartaros guild mark.
The blonde fell back but she still threw her hand forward, electricity crackling, "Flash Bolt!"
The little girl, Chrystelle, didn't blink at the incoming spell. She only shifted the mirror in her hands, lining it up with the attack. And then it was gone.
The streak of lightning collided with the mirror, but it didn't shatter. The spell didn't even stop, rather continued into the reflective surface until it was out of sight.
"What the hell?!" V slid to a stop, suddenly aware that this girl might not just be one of the demons' lackeys.
A golden glow suddenly shone from the mirror before a burst of lightning magic shot back down the hallway toward Verani. The blonde quickly cloaked herself before zipping to the side, the reflected magic skimming her Lightning Body. Though her returned magic sent a small jolt through her, Verani didn't miss a step. She zigzagged toward the girl, closing the distance with a fist raised.
But she didn't connect with Chrystelle's cheek.
The mirror was omitting a faint white glow as an ethereal circular shape appeared, stopping her punch. V hissed as she felt her knuckles sink back in her hand, nearly far enough for the bones to break.
The blonde cursed in her head as she pushed back off the reflective shield to get some distance. There was still no telling what else this girl could do and Verani didn't have time to be messing around. With the lightning still crackling around her body, she ran along the wall. In seconds, she was leaving the dark-haired girl in her dust.
But she only got past her.
The ethereal mirror materialized again, blocking the entire corridor. Verani hit it hard enough that she shot backwards, her feet digging into the stone as she held her aching face.
"This is getting really old," she growled, peering through her fingers.
A soft, monotone voice responded, "No one is allowed past this point. Lady Kyoka would be very upset."
"Well, I really don't care about this Lady Kyoka or what she thinks."
The girl's face and tone still portrayed no emotion as her mirror began shining again, "You should care."
||~x~||
The air in the room felt so heavy on Kia's shoulders. The Underworld King just sat on his throne, amusement painted across his features. The pink-haired girl wanted to turn around and keep walking, but something else stopped her. Nestled in the crook of Mard Geer's arm was the reddish tome that had been alluding her since she woke up from coming through the Eclipse Gate.
"What an unexpected visitor." Mard Geer leaned onto his free arm, his fist resting against his cheek. "Though I didn't think you would come to see me first."
Kia clenched her fists, "Why bother with your puppets when I know you're the one pulling their strings?"
He smirked, "I see no strings."
"Sorry, you prefer the natural approach, so vines."
Mard Geer's expression still read as though this was all a game to him, "But that doesn't explain why you have walked into this chamber under your own power."
Kia knew there was little chance of this working right away, but at the very least, it could be the segway to learning what Tartaros was truly planning. "Because I'm only going to say this nicely once: Stand down."
"And why would I do that?" His smirk widened, "There is nothing you can do about the situation. Even with the full forces of the Fairy Tail guild, you will not be able to stop our plans."
"And what would that be?" She tried to suppress the growl in the base of her throat, "What are you hoping to gain by using this Face?"
The Underworld King knew exactly what the Phoenix Slayer was trying to accomplish, but that didn't deter him. "Once the magic on this continent has been dealt with, Master E.N.D. will be among us again."
Her heart skipped.
"Then we'll be able to return to Lord Zeref to complete our purpose together." He sat up, his hand resting lazily on the arm of his throne, "And I believe it will relieve you of that seal you had placed on yourself, little phoenix."
The look in Mard Geer's eyes pulled Kia back. She instantly felt like she was five again, dressed in tattered clothes as she waited to know which of the demons she would be shadowing right then, which of them would get to use her to test out their curse powers for that day.
"I might say that you could stand a chance if you weren't hiding behind that facade."
Before she could do anything to stop it, the growl finally escaped from Kia's throat. "I'm not wearing any facade." Rage burned in her onyx eyes, "You don't know a thing about me."
"If that is what you believe."
"You also don't know a thing about what you are doing. You will fail."
Mard Geer raised a brow, "And why is that?"
"Because Face won't lead you to E.N.D.," Kia wanted to bite her tongue, but she knew she had his attention now. "Face will actually take you further from your goal. It won't make that book give you a single thing."
An old emotion sparked in the Underworld King, but he pushed it back. It would do nothing but prolong this conversation.
"Lord Mard Geer."
The voice behind Kia brought a new wave of tension, causing her to turn and peer over her shoulder. The female Etherious stepped into the room, pausing when she noticed their guest. The two stared each other in the eyes, neither wavering.
But that gave Mard Geer the perfect opportunity to move things along.
Vines emerged from the ceiling above them, pinning Kia's arms to her sides as she was unceremoniously yanked into the air. Another growl escaped her, frustrated that she had let her guard down at all. Flames licked up her arms and legs, biting at the thorns that gripped her tightly.
"Be a good little phoenix." At his words, the vines coiled tighter, triggering a gasp from the pink-haired female. Her flames shrank out of existence as she was forced to concentrate on getting air to and from her lungs.
Kyoka forced her gaze from Kia back down to the individual in the throne, settling down on one knee, "Lord Mard Geer, I come bearing bad news. It seemed we underestimated our enemy. The Face plan has failed, and Ezel and Franmalth have been wiped out."
'I told you that you would fail.' Relief sung in her core alongside the burning in her lungs.
But Mard Geer seemed unfazed by the information, "Add Seilah and Hell's Core to that list."
"Really?" Kyoka looked up at him in wonder for a moment before declaring, "We must summon our master now."
"I'm afraid that we cannot." His response caught her off guard, but he continued, "There is a considerable obstruction to that goal currently existing in this world. I'm talking about magic power. In order to revive him, it must be eradicated."
"That's what we were trying to achieve with our plan to detonate Face, but it failed."
"How I pity you, Kyoka." The green-haired Etherious looked confused. "You've never been able to see the big picture, have you? Face was just a speck."
"Was what?"
'Damn it,' Kia cursed in her mind. 'I knew there was more to it.'
"It was a miniscule point in a much larger tapestry. The range of which a strategist such as I can see clearly. In the grand scheme of things, Face's failure is another small point among many." The smirk on his features shifted ever so slightly, but it did not go unnoticed by the female hanging from above. A fear started up at her core.
'He can't mean....there's more than one....?'
Kia ignored the protests from her body, her flames flickering around her as she burned away at the vines. She couldn't afford to just sit here. She needed to get the others out of here or take care of Mard Geer herself.
But then the Underworld King did something he hadn't gotten the pleasure of doing for over four hundred years. A strangled scream escaped Kia before she could stop it as more plantlife shot out, pulling her to one of the walls. The thorns dug into her skin as they gripped her tightly, but that wasn't what made her scream. It was the sharped vines that pierced through her flesh, some pinning her to the wall directly as others slithered between her tendons and muscles.
The invading curse power prodded at the similar energy that was locked away deep in her chest, making every part of her body burn.
Mard Geer returned his hand so that he could lean against it again, continuing his explanation to Kyoka, "It's nothing worth our worry. I'm confident in time, the world's magic power shall cease to exist."
||~x~||
Verani was more than done with this little girl. The blonde was panting from her numerous attempts at getting past her and that damned mirror, but the girl hadn't so much as blinked. She had just remained stoic in the same spot, dull eyes following the lightning cloaked fairy trying to get away.
"Hey guys, can you hear me?"
Verani blinked a few times as others in the guild commented on the familiar male's voice in their heads.
"We've found Mira! She's safe and sound!"
"I'm sorry to worry you." The others sighed at the sound of her voice, "I'm fine now."
Warren took over again, "Elfman and Lisanna are with us too!"
"That's a relief! Oh, Warren, hey!" Lucy asked, "Can you make it so everybody can hear me through your telepathy?"
"Yeah, sure. Just hang on a second." He shifted his magic, "Okay."
"Wendy and Carla pulled it off! I don't know how they did it, but they stopped Face!" The guild began cheering both inside and outside of the fortress. All of their kidnapped members were accounted for and the anti-pulse bomb had been stopped. But the Celestial Spirit mage continued, "There's something else we need to tell you about."
"Can Master hear me? I have a message."
"Sure Happy. I'll put you right through."
Happy waited a few seconds for Warren to change the connection before speaking, "We talked to the soul of Master Hades."
"What?!" Makarov's eyes widened in confusion as the Exceed explained the situation. He mulled it over in his head as he listened.
"He said that even though we stopped Face, it's not over. He gave us a message for Master. I don't understand what it all means, but he told us that Master has to "unleash the light"."
"To do what?" Then it clicked, causing the old man to shout, "He's talking about the Lumen Histoire! He can't be serious!"
"Ah!" Warren rubbed his temple, "Please don't shout like that!"
"Hey Warren?" Verani took the momentary lull as her chance to get his attention. "Is Kia on this link?"
The male blinked, confused by the question, but he reached out to scan the link for the Phoenix Slayer. He had connected it to everyone in Fairy Tail, so she should have been included. A startled expression crossed Warren's face.
Jet leaned over, "What is it?"
Warren ignored him, "There's something blocking me from connecting to her fully, but I can tell that she's still on Tarta-" but he froze up.
"Hey!" Verani yelled back, "What do you mean blocking you?"
Across the Cube, the members of Fairy Tail listened to the static as the connection waivered. They were concerned that something had happened to the group that was with the Strauss siblings, unaware of the full situation until that unfamiliar voice slipped into all of their minds.
"Please pardon the interruption. I wish to speak with the Wizard Guild, Fairy Tail."
Jet leaned down, looking over Warren with Lisanna as Elfman asked the big question, "Who the hell are you?!"
"The Underworld King, Mard Geer." A smirk played on his lips, "And you needn't worry, the little birdie is fine...for now."
A mixture of angry voices jumbled together, but two rang out louder than the rest.
"Let go of my sister!" Natsu screamed, but the rage in his words was nothing compared to the ones that crackled through the Storm. Verani knew the history that his place held, she had heard that name from Kia when she had finally opened up about what had happened in her past, when she had admitted to what her nightmares were about.
"Get away from her, you son of a bitch!" Lightning coiled off of the blonde as her emotions caused her magic to rampage, "If you so much as touch her, I will rip your head off!"
But the Underworld King paid no mind to a word that was said. Taking his pause for dramatic effect before continuing over the tailend of the shouting, "But knowing any of that will not save you. For none of you shall live to see tomorrow."
Kia's heart skipped as she watched the Underworld King begin moving his free hand and arm. They had to run. They had to get away before he could activate it.
"Alegria."
The entire Cube trembled as the walls shifted. Gravity began to distort, the field keeping those not upright anchored, releasing them to fall toward the ground below, left to use their magic to either catch themselves or break the fall. The walls turned to a fleshy red color as they began folding in around the wizards throughout Tartaros.
'Damn it!' Kia struggled against the vines that were around her and underneath her skin, trying to stay away from the growing tissue as Mard Geer stood to his feet.
"But Lord Mard Geer...the Alegria..." Kyoka's words came out in pieces as she still struggled to breathe in her own restraints. "It will kill our own soldiers."
He didn't hesitate.
"Consume everything. Sacrifice." His gaze shifted to the Phoenix Slayer, who was trying her hardest not to become a part of the creature that was being unleashed. "We are bearing witness to the endless cycle of death and rebirth."
"Those foolish humans were doomed once they set foot in here. This cube is a prison, from which escape is impossible." He turned and resumed his exit as the curse began to settle around him, finally encasing the intruders for their crime of being in his home. "They're forever sealed inside the Plutogrim."
||~x~||
So sorry for missing the update yesterday. My work schedule was weird this week and I got my days mixed up. But things are starting to heat up on Tartaros.
Hope you guys are enjoying!
See ya soon,
Kiki