It had been two years since that fateful day.
Two years and two days ago, Lucy's heart had been broken. She had heard the words one never wanted to hear from the one they held in their heart.
"I hate her."
It still rung in her mind, loud and clear, as if it happened yesterday. Yet now, she wasn't affected as much. Her heart had turned to stone, and it wasn't about to crack.
The first year had been grueling, tiresome year filled to the brim with intense training like there was no tomorrow.
The second had been a scavenge for any and all Lost Spells that they could find. It had been quite tough, but as all the spells were linked to one another -- except two -- once they found the first one, tracking down the others wasn't hard. Unfortunately, they had only managed to find half, or approximately half, according to Levy's estimations. Up to where the two spells weren't linked, Eternal Destiny had them all. They were unsure who had the other half, but could only hope for the best.
As she tied up her blonde hair into a high ponytail, Lucy grinned at her sisters. Two years had passed, and they had all gotten stronger. But it wasn't enough. They still had to master everything and polish it all to perfect before their return could be expected.
Okay, okay, let's slow down and cut the dramatics. Anyways, so far, Eternal Destiny -- and only Eternal Destiny -- has possession of 8000 Lost Spells. They think that there are approximately 16000 Lost Spells out there, as the two unlinked spells are said to be somewhere around the middle.
For the first year, they trained with dragons for the first half, and on their own for the second half.
Lucy had trained with Elementa, the Dragon Protector of the Elements. Originally, she was going to train with Elementa's male counterpart, Elementium, but he was busy so she trained with Elementa instead.
Levy had trained with Samon, the Dragon of Summoning. From portals to animals, from food to magical items, she could summon practically anything, as long as it was within her magic limit and she could clearly visualize it.
Mira had trained with Waruma, the Demon Dragon. While her soul still stayed perfectly pure, she was able to control, harness, summon, create -- and a bunch of other stuff -- demons at will, as long as she didn't exhaust her magic.
Kagura had trained with Yami, the Dragon of Darkness. It was similar to -- though she didn't want to admit it -- Rogue's shadow dragon slaying.
Yukino had trained with Hikari, the Dragon of Light. Surprise, surprise. Hikari was Yami's twin sister. Admittedly, her magic was also quite similar to Sting's which made two of them.
They had all mastered -- well, as well as someone could master something in six months -- Dragon Force and everything before that.
After they had bid the Dragons a tearful goodbye, they had set out to train on their own, but didn't get far before they were kidnapped. By some Goddesses...
Etena, Isaya, Faera, Kyria, and Skiea had seen the potential in the five girls, and had decided to take them as apprentices. They learnt from the five Goddesses at the Uymphaeium Academy, which was situated in a time bubble. It was invisible to all others, and was -- unfortunately -- floating above Crocus. Well, it would move around, always floating somewhere above Fiore. The occasional bird that came across the Academy always just flew right through it, something that still made Lucy feel disgusted even to this day.
Anyways, at the Academy, according to the Goddesses, there were two sections. A male section, and a female section. The girls were forbidden to go to the boys section, and vice versa. Dorms, classes, even meals were separated. Communication was prohibited. Obviously, everyone obeyed because no one wanted to face the wrath of the Headmaster/Headmistress. Oh yeah, did I mention? All the students at the Academy were gods and goddesses -- except for the five girls.
Even though they were human, the five quickly progressed in ranks and were known throughout the female section as 'the Eternalis'. The student council, to be more specific. Advanced teleportation, portal summoning, and other godly magics came naturally to them. Their magic level grew so rapidly that their human bodies could no longer contain it all, and thus, they were made goddesses. The fact that they were once human was never looked at twice, for they had been -- still were -- more powerful than any of the learning gods and goddesses could have been.
Though the boys section was completely cut off from the girls and vice versa, whispers of 'the Fateium' still reached the girls side. Supposedly, they were another group of humans who had become gods, and were the most powerful of the boys. Many goddesses gushed over them, and talk about wanting to meet the Fateium at the annual masked competition, known as the Annual Uymphaeium Academy Masked Whole-School Tournament, or A.U.A.M.W.T.
Every year, students would compete with each other in a variety of subjects throughout this 9-day tournament. Spectators could come watch -- alumni, teachers, parents, etc. Magic, academics, logic, athletics -- A.U.A.M.W.T. had it all.
That specific year, all eyes were turned to whom they thought would win. The Fateium and the Eternalis. While the girls all thought victory belonged to the Eternalis, all the boys seemed to think the championship would be the Fateium's to take.
Unfortunately, as they all were wearing masks, no one could tell who the other was. Disappointment was the first emotion in the air when all the Eternalis and all the Fateium showed up wearing hooded cloaks.
And in the end, A.U.A.M.W.T. ended in a draw. No one had won. The Eternalis and te Fateium had tied. And that was the last any of the gods and goddesses ever saw of the ten. They had disappeared, gone back to their world.
The final day of A.U.A.M.W.T. had landed on the day exactly 2 years after Lucy, Levy, Mira, Kagura, and Yukino's funeral. Though they, and the Fateium, hadn't aged, half a year had passed outside the time bubble while a year had inside.
Upon returning to Earthland, the five girls were greeted with a slightly worried Mavis. She too, had been training. But she had left when the girls had gone to train with the dragons, and had come back a few Earthland says before the girls came back.
When they reunited again, the six were all overjoyed. Mavis had gone to train with Peace, one of the beings who created the universe. Peace's counterpart, Chaos, also had an apprentice, but Mavis never got to meet him.
Anyways, two years were over, and...
They were almost ready for their revenge.