Things had gotten interesting across all fronts of the war, though not all of them were in Fiore's favor. With the help of the Southern reinforcements, Lamia Scale and Mermaid Heel had been able to take back Hargeon. In the process, Laxus had avenged the Thunder Legion; Erza, Kagura, and Jellal had pummeled Neinhart; and Dimaria had been captured thanks to the combined effort of Wendy, Carla, Shelia, and Ultear.
There had been some issues on the Eastern front where the Wizard Saints had been stationed, but it still looked like one of the Spriggan 13 had been dealt with. The Northern reinforcement group was set to meet up with Sabertooth and Blue Pegasus in the early hours of the morning, if not by late that night. Even the guild hall had gotten to have its own excitement later in the afternoon when another of the Spriggan had made his own appearance. Luckily for everyone in the hall, Horologium had saved Lucy, Natsu, and Happy from Jacob's Transport magic and said Dragon Slayer had finally managed to wake up.
And though everyone was alright and the only real damage was to the back wall of the guild hall from Master's oversized fist, there were a few in the guild who weren't exactly in the greatest of moods.
Their resident Fire Dragon Slayer was not happy when he found out what state Kia had been in when Amber had found her. He wanted to stay at the guild to keep an eye on her, but he knew that he couldn't just sit around while many of their friends were out on the front lines. That was why he still went with Lucy and Mest to take Brandish in an effort to talk down this so-called Wizard King. He also knew that he was leaving his sister in good hands with her team.
The person who was in the worst mood was a certain female Dreyar, who had been pacing up and down the hall outside the infirmary for what was nearly an hour. And she would have likely continued to walk back and forth, but someone popped their head out of the room to get her attention.
Freed sighed at her demeanor, "I thought you might want to know that she's awake."
||~x~||
"So let me get this straight," Kia blinked as she looked between her best friends, "Natsu willingly went on a mission to be diplomatic?"
"I know what it sounds like, but it's true." Amber sighed. Her body had finally relaxed after the excitement of the day to the point she was almost radiating a calming aura. "I think it's been about two hours since they left."
Verani nodded her head in agreement, "It's kinda weird seeing him act all grown up. It almost feels like he's being super responsible."
Kia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She knew that her brother was actually fairly responsible, but his usual tendency to look for a friendly brawl or the opportunity to test his strength generally overshadowed it.
"Is there anything else I missed since my impromptu trip across Fiore?"
Amber peeked over her shoulder to make sure that Bixlow, Evergreen, and Ichiya were all still fast asleep. Verani slid back toward the door, checking for footsteps in case Freed was returning from having a late dinner. Once they were both sure that they had the most privacy that the infirmary could provide, they moved back to the Phoenix Slayer.
"Warren did report something to Grandpa after Master Mavis disappeared to heal," V leaned against the wall near the head of the bed. "There was a large concentration of magic to the East when one of the Spriggan fell and it has since begun rapidly heading in the direction of the northern war front."
She ran through the information she had gotten from the girls as well as what she already knew. Between her adventure after Natsu, the reports from the South, and the initial invasion, she was aware of the locations of most of the Spriggan. From what was gathered from what Brandish said about August coming from the East and that Jacob guy seemed to have come with him, their teammate was the one who had fallen. She could easily narrow that fallen Spriggan to one of four: two unknowns, the Scarlet Despair, or God Serena.
Kia gripped the sheets that still covered her legs, "I think we know what that mass of magic energy was."
The other two looked at her questioningly.
"I'm not sure, but it's possible that the Spriggan who fell was Serena." Kia held up a hand with three fingers raised, "And there are the most Dragon Slayers gathered in the north. Gajeel was in the team headed to back up Sabertooth."
Verani and Amber both paled a little.
"He's joined the fighting already?" V asked, immediately worried about her brother if the Black Dragon decided to change course and head south.
Kia nodded, "That's what I believe it is."
She pushed the sheets to the side, swinging her feet to the floor, "We're going to have to start moving."
Verani pushed off the wall, "I guess I should go let Grandpa know what's up."
Amber kept a close eye on Kia as she got to her feet. She was still a little shaky from being that frigid for so long, but they both knew it wasn't anything she wouldn't workout from just moving around some. "Before we do anything, I want to redo our communication runes."
The blonde turned back around, "That's probably a good idea."
They all held out their arms as the Blood mage made quick work of the runes. Nothing was said as she worked, the three were all inside their own heads. There was an anxiousness welling up inside each of them. Two were worried about the outcome of the fight while one was wondering if this would be when she finally went all out.
As Amber finished, her arms slowly fell to her sides, "Are you really ready for this, Kia?"
Neither of her friends moved as they watched the Phoenix Slayer start for the door, "I don't really have a choice." She stopped when her hand hit the knob, "Zeref opened his big mouth and he knows now." Her grip tightened, "So as much as I want to protect him from all of that, he has a say in it now."
The pair traded glances between each other and the pinkette's back. They had assumed that Natsu had learned the truth, but hearing that confirmation was different. Things were only going to get more and more complicated now.
"So what's your plan?" V took a few steps forward. "How do you want to go forward with Acnologia and the book problem?"
Amber nodded even if they didn't see it, "Do you want us to handle one of those for you?"
Kia's heart dropped a little, "No. I'll figure something out."
A quiet growl rolled in the blonde's throat, "And here you go trying to carry the weight of everything on your own. Newsflash: we're here to help. We know what needs to be done, Kia. Just say the word."
"I know that." Her shoulders sagged, "But that doesn't mean I like it."
V huffed, "Well there's a lot of things that you do that I don't like either."
"I can second that thought." Amber added.
Kia took in a shaky breath as she tried to come to terms with dragging her best friends into this giant mess - her giant mess - again. But she didn't get any further in that thought process because a warm red glow began seeping through the floorboards under their feet.
"What the hell?!"
And they were no longer in the guild hall.
||~x~||
Verani was pissed. They didn't have a clue where they were and she couldn't find Amber or Kia anywhere. If Kia's suspensions were correct, they needed to be headed off to deal with Acnologia, but instead she was remembering how much she hated running on sand and dealing with these low-level idiots who weren't even making her break a sweat.
She kept scanning over everyone there. There was also no sight of anyone else from the infirmary and not only had Mirajane and Lisanna somehow magically appeared, her idiot big brother was passed out on the ground nearby. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that he had gone overboard while fighting one of the Spriggan on his own.
"This sucks!" she growled as she rapidly fired off a set of her Quick Bolt spell. The few that were able to get closer were rewarded with a Striking Knuckle to the face. There wasn't any chance in hell these pee-ons were getting anywhere near Laxus.
And with all of this craziness going on, she hadn't even gotten the chance to tell her grandfather what the Mythics had been discussing before the world had decided to start glowing.
||~x~||
Okay, Amber was confused. She was almost certain that the red glow had been some kind of enchantment based magic, but that in no way explained how she ended up standing in the middle of nowhere.
She turned around and her eyes widened, "What in the world....?"
Two looming structures were peeking through the treetops and it wasn't possible to see them at the same time.
"How are Kardia Cathedral and Mercurius next to each other?"
She immediately put her guard up, heading in that direction. Looking around as she went, there weren't any more structures or landmarks that were standing out to her. Growing, the faint sound of voices could be heard.
As she began to recognize them, she let her mind wonder back to what had caused them to move in the first place. She could understand the basics if it looked like she had just been teleported somewhere, but the movement of both the church and the castle were making her believe that her first assumption of enchantment based magic was right. Someone had enchanted the land itself.
"But why?"
Stepping out of the treeline, she stopped in her tracks when she found the small group looking up toward the large anomaly that had appeared in the sky.
"An eye?" Lucy questioned.
But Gray was just in shock, "A huge one!"
Amber wasted no time, running straight up to them. She grabbed Juvia's wrist, dragging her toward another section of trees before any of them could really register her sudden arrival, "Don't just stand there. Get out of its line of sight!"
||~x~||
Kia was peeved. Of all the places, why did she have to land in a creek? The water hadn't been that deep, but that didn't stop it from splashing up into her boots. From the looks of the trees around her, she had a small idea where she might have been, but not any clue as to how she could have gotten there.
"Was I knocked out or something?"
Sniffing the air, she was surprised when the wind helped carry a familiar scent to her nose. Dealing with the uncomfortable sloshing as she stepped, she headed in that direction just as an unfamiliar voice sounded in her head.
"Listen up! To get to the guild hall, start heading north, now!"
Kia blinked a few times as the person continued.
"You need to assemble at the guild hall before it's too late! The enemy may have separated you, but you have to come together now!"
"- together now!"
That time, Kia was certain she was hearing an echo from the message. Ignoring the faint mutterings that were trying to come through from what she assumed was the rest of the guild, she zeroed in on that voice. As she grew closer and closer to that familiar smell, she began hearing the message not only in her head, but with her ears as well.
"Mavis is in trouble! Go and help her! I know she's like a mother to all of you, so don't waste any time and get over there! It's your duty to protect her!" Finally catching sight of the two individuals, the telepathy cut off as she grew closer, so that the message was no longer transmitting into her mind.
Gajeel stood behind the semi-glowing brunette, his arms crossed. "Came off pretty bossy, ya know? I think you could've sounded a little sweeter, maybe even said please."
Kia rolled her eyes as she continued toward him.
"You sure you're friends with our First Master?"
The rest of the guild found motivation and trust in hearing the Iron Dragon Slayer's voice over the mind link. But they were momentarily confused when they heard him again.
"Ow."
He turned around to find the culprit, rubbing the back of his head. Kia was lowering her fist back to her side.
"Like you have room to talk, Mr. Attitude."
"How did that lead to you punching me in the head?" He leaned to get in her face a little, very reminiscent of how he acted with her little brother.
Zera had dropped the link she had used to connect everyone in the Fairy Tail guild in order to turn around and see who had joined her and the dark-haired male.
Kia sighed, "Also thought I would save you from saying something you didn't want the whole guild to hear."
He blinked, "Oh."
She didn't really pay attention to his reaction as she started moving around to gather up the fallen branches around them.
"What are you doing?"
"Going to make a fire for us to camp at for the night."
"But we have to get to the guild hall!"
Kia stood back up, one hand on her hip as the other held the sticks she had already grabbed, "That sounds lovely, Gajeel, but I don't know if you've checked, but you look terrible."
"And your point? We're in the middle of a war."
She put the sticks down as she moved closer to him again, "My point is that you need to rest some before going back out and fighting. You won't help anyone if they have to worry about you." She flicked him in the nose, "And that is all there is to it."
He rubbed the end of his nose as he watched her turn back to use her magic to start the fire. He grumbled, "You haven't done that to me in a long time." He huffed a little as he moved to sit down next to the fire, "It makes me feel like a kid."
"Well don't act like one and I won't have to treat you like one."
||~x~||
Sorry for the sudden absence last week guys. After dodging the virus for the past few years, the Covid finally caught me. But that week off from everything was exactly what I needed and I am back and ready to go. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and the ones to come!
See you soon,
Kiki