Returning to the rooftop after classes were over for the day to try and locate Alexia's magical energy was the order of the evening as your search earlier in the day had yielded no results.
“This should work.” You mumbled to yourself, putting your chalk back into your coat pocket and plopping down in the large glyph you drew, holding your staff close to your chest while holding your fingers above each sigil to effect them with mana and activate them, one of Alexia's purple hair bows on the floor in front of you.
Closing your eyes to focus on reaching out your magic to find hers, you let your fingers lightly skim the hair bow, opening your eyes a few moments later after feeling nothing, your mind plagued by thoughts of Minoru, wondering how he was holding up during his interrogation.
“I just hope he's okay..... What's wrong with me even? I won't confess and I'm acting like-”
You spun around at the sudden sound of footsteps, simultaneously setting up a barrier around you, the bejeweled head of your staff pointed at whomever your adversary may have been, only to freeze at the sight of Zenon studying the glyph you were currently sitting on, azure orbs peering at you as if in shock that you had good senses.
'You're not catching me off guard. But what are you doing up here and how did you get here without making a single noise in the first place?' You thought to yourself, feigning surprise as you blinked numerous times before giving him a tight-lipped giggle.
“I didn't hear you. You startled me, Mister Griffey... Can I help you?” you muttered, making sure to enhance the barrier around yourself albeit very slightly so he wouldn't notice the increase in magical energy.
Smiling down at you, he flicked the barrier a few times with his gloved fingers, nodding as if he was impressed with the durability. “This is rather impressive, Miss Aria. I believe the barriers outside your home are even stronger, yes?”
Your eyes narrowed at that. Few people from the academy had been to your home and this man was not one of them and this led you to your final question...
How did he know you had magical barriers around your mansion?
Forcing yourself to appear relaxed, you continued facing forward as you responded “Not at all. Those are at least a hundred times stronger than this one.”
“Then I take it this can be broken easily?”
At his words, you felt the hairs on your body stand on end, flaring your magical energy to raise the barrier's durability while spinning simultaneously to point the bejeweled head of your staff at Zenon.
Unfortunately, he had punched the shield with just the right amount of magic infused into his fist, shattering it and sending you rolling across the rooftop, your staff clattering on the floor as you pushed yourself into a sitting position.
“Wh-what the hell are you doing...?” you asked, your eyes darting around the rooftop to find the staff as the blond man stalked over to you.
Zenon sighed, shaking his head in what seemed to be disappointment, his voice carrying a teasing lilt. “I keep hearing these rumors.... I keep hearing people say how you're the strongest person in Midgar. That you might be the strongest in this world, but you're weaker than even Alexia.”
You narrowed your eyes at him, anger making your blood pump faster. “Don't you dare call her weak. Alexia is noble and she's a great person who constantly works to better herself. What would you know about that?”
“I know that at the very least I don't want to be associated with some ‘Fencer ordinaire’ and I've made plans to ensure that never happens. Neither by mentorship nor by marriage. But like you said, what would I know~?”
At the sight of the grin on Zenon's face, your blood ran cold, your eyes widening as he grabbed and lifted you by the shirt front, holding your gaze with those cold, blue eyes of his.
“Don't tell me...... You had Alexia kidnapped??” You asked, your brain trying to make some sense of the situation as though you were solving some difficult math equation.
The way his grin widened had your jaw and fists clenching, your eyes turning the color of freshly mined rubies when he answered, his tone every bit as smug as the grin on his face. “Of course I did. The cult needed the blood of a royal, so I provided them with a living blood bag. I'd have preferred to hand Iris over to them since she has better control over her magic, but Alexia was much easier to handle.”
‘The cult? The one Minoru was talking about?’
You stared him dead in the eyes before asking your final questions. “Why? And why involve the other students in this? Do you honestly think you're going to get away with this?”
“I didn't want the noble boy trying to find her, he would've complicated things if he found anything out, so I framed him. Perfectly done too, huh? And as for getting away with this, I already have. I just need to deliver a very..... specific power source to the cult and no one will be none the wiser. ”
You finally connected the dots and grabbed onto his wrist, digging your nails in as you glared at the blond, his eyes widening at the level of magical energy you were letting out. “You want to deliver me to the cult of Diabolos? And you think I'll go quietly?? I'd rather bring down this whole building and cause a ruckus than let you wreak havoc in a kingdom that's harder to rule than whatever you think the norm is.”
Snorting at his arrogance, you broke his wrist, floating several inches off the ground as a red aura began to tinge the edges of your clothes. “Even if you managed to kidnap me, you'd need a third person. Alexia for experiments, me for my unlimited mana and someone else as the key. A triquetra has three knots for a reason.”
Upon receiving no answer but a pained grunt and Zenon's wrist snapping into place, you sighed, throwing him across the rooftop with a flick of your wrist, your eyes darting over to your staff before focusing on the blond who angrily began stomping your way again, reaching into his coat for something.
Stretching your hand towards your staff, you hummed in satisfaction when it abruptly flew into your hand without wasting a single second. “You really think you can fight me and win, Zenon?”
“I thought we were about being all respectful to each other. You called me Mr Griffey this morning, what happened to that?” he smirked at you, pulling out a syringe that was nearly longer than your hand.
Examining the syringe from afar and feeling just how charged with mana it was, you floated a few paces back, deciding that keeping your distance wouldn't be too bad an idea. “You lost the privilege of being respected by me when you kidnapped my best friend and gave her to a cult for experiments, you freak!”
Shooting a glare at you, Zenon began trudging angrily towards you, his jaw clenched. “You think you're so strong, huh? Wait until someone burns your house down after I knock you out. We'll see how strong you are when you don't have any grimoires left.”
Throwing your staff at him, you let an expression of glee take over your facial features as the end managed to injure him, drawing only a little blood from his shoulder, but it drew blood at least.
You were practically floating at the edge of the roof when you noticed him throw your staff behind him.
‘Dunce. You make blondes look bad.’
Stretching a hand out, you chuckled when the staff whacked him upside the head on its way to you.
Grabbing onto it, you ran your fingers over the upturned side, making the jewels embedded in it light up as you let mana flow into the magus tattoo on your back.
“let me show you the difference in our power levels, Zenon. So you can have a taste of why they dubbed me Grand mage.” you sighed, dodging the syringe he hurled your way, the ridiculously sharp needle dragging a line across your cheek.
Effecting the surrounding air with magical energy, you focused it around him and let out a breath you didn't even know you were holding, temporarily locking his throat up and preventing him from breathing with just an outstretched hand.
“I could do this to the entirety of Midgar if I wanted to. I'd let them all asphyxiate and feel the life drain out of them one by one. Make no mistake, Zenon, You and I can never be on the same level unless I repress my magic like I've been doing. I bet you thought I'd drop my guard and let you inject me with that Nephrite serum, huh?”
You smiled sadly at him, dropping to your feet on the rooftop as you let up your hold on him, allowing him to greedily gasp in air as you walked by him, your tone full of warning as you spoke.
“I don't know where you took Alexia, but I expect to see her once school is over. Then we can discuss your moving to another Kingdom to continue living as a regular denizen. I'm not asking you, by the way, I could hardly care what kind of life you've built for yourself here, but for you to be walking around scot free while my....” you paused, feeling your face grow warm at the thought of Cid.
Grabbing the handle of the door that led to the roof, you made a mental note to confess to him the next time you saw him, however the sharp pain of something piercing into your back, a gasp leaving your mouth when Zenon gripped you by the neck, twisting whatever he stabbed you with to the side to knot it into your flesh.
Reaching behind you, you grabbed onto his hand, your mouth hung open at the intense pain of being stabbed, your limbs tense as Zenon yanked the blade out of your torso, blood spilling out of the stab wound as you winced, holding your weight up against the door before spinning around to get a good look at the weapon the blond used, fear painting across your facial features as you saw the jagged, green blade looking like it was freshly cut.
“Nephrite, huh? Smart choice. But-”
“This time, the cult decided Jadeites would be more effective since you've been exposed to Nephrites more, over time you must've built a resistance of some form to them and they were right, you barely flinched when that syringe scraped you, even though the needle was laced with potent Nephrite dust. You played right into my hands, Grand mage of Midgar.”
Trying to close the wound with magic, you were left with a gut wrenching sensation, the taste of copper flooding your mouth as you retched, coughing up a ridiculous amount of blood that had your eyes wide, your knees giving out under you as you fell forward onto the ground, desperately trying to keep yourself upright.
“Y-you...... You fucking bastard-”
Grabbing your chin and lifting your head, Zenon tutted at you, his eyes holding some form of amusement. “Such uncouth language for someone so beautiful. I don't think speaking like that is proper, lady Aria.”
“I think you should go to hell and dance around because of how hot the coals are underneath your feet. You think this is over? Far from it.” you snarked at him, scribbling on the floor with your blood and beginning to infuse them with magic when the blond let go of you and reached into his coat once more, pulling out a syringe with a silvery liquid that was practically shimmering and tilting around with every movement of Zenon's hand as he prattled on about his plans.
However, the strange yet familiar motion of the liquid caught your eye, making you tune out the annoying blond's voice.
‘Is that..... Oh fuck me sideways and call me a whore. Is that fucking Mercury?!’
Your eyes widened slightly as you looked around for your staff, stretching your hand out to it but letting out a scream of pain when Zenon stepped on your fingers, flattening them to the floor and leaning his weight on them before attempting to squash them beneath his boot, the sickening sound of a crack following his actions.
“What do you think you're doing, Lady Aria? I thought we were bonding.~ You don't want that anymore? Huh-”
You immediately let out a laugh, blinking away the tears that had settled in your eyes from the pain of your fingers breaking.
Seemingly taken aback by your laughter, Zenon stared at you in annoyance, wondering what exactly was so funny for you to be laughing in the middle of a fight that you were clearly losing. “Is something funny....?”
“No, it's nothing really. I just feel really bad for you. You could've had such a happy, long life if you turned the cult of Diabolos down, but..... It's a real shame.”
You lifted your head to stare him dead in the eyes, a smug grin on your face when he stepped back from you, startled. “You're definitely going to be dead this week. It might be today or tomorrow, but it'll eventually happen and not even the cult will be able to save you from your imminent doom.”
Scoffing at you, Zenon asked “And who's going to kill me? You?”
Chuckling, you placed your head on the ground, resigning yourself to fate as your vision blurred due to the amount of blood you had lost.
“No.... Someone who's ten times more terrifying than I am and you're even more fucked cause he has an army. Your hours are numbered, Zenon.”
The blond immediately burst out laughing, convinced that you were bluffing as he twirled the syringe around his fingers, taking care not to drop it.
“I think the Jadeite has made you delirious, girl. I'm not dying before I become a Knight of rounds. Best of luck to whoever this scary man you know is because I won't be holding back.”
You rolled your eyes and sighed, looking over at your hat that had flown off your head in the midst of the fight. “I feel like you're going to need it a lot more because he'll definitely be pulling his punches until he sees me like this- ah!”
Yelping at the sudden pain of being stabbed in the back with the syringe, you felt your body tense up, your eyes fluttering shut as the mercury pumped through your veins, knocking you out.
“That's enough out of you.” the man exhaled, picking you up in a bridal hold and making his way down the stairs, happy that he'd finally be recognized enough to be a Knight of rounds.
If he ever did become one even.
--
It had been nearly a week since you were kidnapped by Zenon and the whole Kingdom was in an uproar. Both the Princess and Grand mage going missing around the same time was enough for Iris to issue a curfew and increase the number of knights out on patrol every day.
However, Cid had just gotten free from his interrogation and decided to go to your house, wanting to pay you a visit as he wondered why you never came to visit him, even if he was undergoing an interrogation.
Upon leaving his dorm room, Cid felt a chill in the air but brushed it off, a smile on his face as he hurried through the forest to your mansion, blinking when he noticed there were no barriers around it.
“Not even one? It's this late and she hasn't put up her barriers? Or did she fall asleep already? Maybe I'll have a chance to use her grimoire to put the barrier up this time~”
Rubbing his hands together, Cid dashed up the stairs and knocked at the door, his eyebrows furrowed when he noticed the door was ajar.
Taking a step back, the boy frowned because there was no way you would leave your door open. If your barriers were down, then you'd most likely barricade the door. However, the door was not only unlocked but it was cracked open.
Reassuring himself you were fine with a deep breath, he reminded himself to not be negative because you were strong. Maybe you thought you shut the door but you didn't. Things like that happen all the time.
Pushing the door open, Cid stared blankly into the house as he went in, his blood running cold at the sight of the ransacked house.
Rushing up the stairs to get to your room, Cid tripped on the rug but managed to stay upright as he yelled for you, shouting your name at the top of his lungs.
“(Name)!! Aria!!! (Name)!! Where are you?! (Name), this isn't funny! (Name).....?”
Upon reaching your room, he stared in disbelief at your ripped up grimoires and dropped to a knee, scooping up a handful before looking around the room, clothes flung around and your bed upturned as drawers were left empty.
“(Name)......” clenching his jaw in anger, he tried finding clues of some form as to what happened in the house because there was no way you would rip your grimoires up and turn your house upside down.
It hurt that he knew what had happened, he just didn't want to believe it.
It just made him sick to his stomach to think about it, especially since he had gotten so carried away with putting on a show for his interrogators that he forgot about keeping you safe or even letting Epsilon or Zeta keep watch over you.
The cult of Diabolos had gotten to you.
Leaning back against the wall of your room, he slid to the floor and covered his face with both hands, feeling like an absolute failure.
Deciding that he had done enough feeling sorry for himself, he got to his feet, letting slime cover him and change him into Shadow, his eyes narrowed as he flared his magical energy and began making his way out of your mansion, shutting the door firmly behind him.
“The bastard that touched her is going to get something special from me, I can guarantee that.”
Glancing to the side and seeing four of the seven, he sighed, realizing the three that were absent had reason to be.
“Eta and Beta are still asleep?” Shadow asked, looking over to Alpha before nodding at her affirmative response.
Walking ahead of the four, he dismissed Zeta and Epsilon, asking them to check the school for traces of your mana. “Alpha, Delta. I have jobs for you both. Alpha, how long till the operation?”
“Four days, Lord Shadow” tutting at her, he shook his head, unsure if he could stand waiting four days to rescue you. “Make it two days and once you get back to the base, wake Beta so you can both strategize and work things out. You're dismissed.”
Vanishing in less than five seconds, Alpha went to complete her end of the job, noticing how he kept clenching his fists and the stiffness in his frame.
She'd have to warn the others to steer clear of him until he was back to normal...
“Delta. How well can you track scent?”
“What...?” the wolf girl tilted her head in confusion.
Shaking his head as they made their way into the forest, Shadow pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing as he gave Delta one of your nightgowns that he swiped from your bedroom. “Sorry. That was a stupid question, wasn't it? Well, I want you to use this to see if you can track (Name) with it”
“If it's too much to do alone, you can ask Zeta once she's back with Epsilon. Two good noses are better than one.” The boy mumbled, his mind seemingly elsewhere as he stopped walking to cross his arms.
“Of course, Lord Shadow.” she stood staring at him, wagging her tail to and fro.
Turning his gaze to the wolf hybrid, he stared back at her for the briefest of moments before smirking at her, realizing why she was still standing there. “You can go.”
Letting his slime suit vanish, Cid began the tedious walk to his dorm room.
Waiting two days wasn't going to be a problem.
The problem was Cid worrying if you were safe or not.
Two days without thinking or worrying about you was an intense challenge that Cid wasn't sure he was ready for.
How could he survive two whole days without you???
The two days hadn't even begun and he had already started feeling the effects.
This was going to make his life a living hell....