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CHAPTER START---
"So, would it have worked?" Laxus asks as he and Oberon are walking through the halls of the fortress. Behind them marches a squad of Rune Knights, ready to detain the few cultists that refused to peacefully surrender, hiding in these upper floors of the fortress.
"Would what have worked? You mean resurrecting Zeref?"
"Yeah. Well?"
"I only got a glance at the Altar in this place, I'll have to put all the clues together to know for sure, but I doubt it. Magic can't create sentient life with true permanence."
"Meaning?"
"At best they'd probably summon an echo of him, then it would quickly fade, just as fast as it appeared. And since he's 'The King of Evil Mages', it probably won't end well for the people who summoned him."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. But we—" Laxus raises a hand, and everyone immediately stops as they turn down a hallway. He closes his eyes, focusing his senses, then mutters under his breath. "Left."
Oberon floats himself and Laxus off the ground, making their approach silent and leaving the Rune Knights behind as they continue down the hallway, reaching the end and turning left to see a massive reinforced metal door.
The door has Rune carved into it, deactivated, but at a glance both boys can tell these are for reinforcement, defense.
"One person, scared, very scared," Laxus says.
"Then lets make this quick," Oberon raises a hand and closes it, crumpling the metal door down to the size of a beach ball. The act sends a deafening wave of metal cracking and crushing through the halls before he drops the object to the side.
They advance to find a single cultist, covered in a sheen of sweat, looking at them with fear in his eyes. And in his trembling hands, is a Book of Zeref.
"You don't have to do this," Oberon says, speaking the local language.
The man looks between him and Laxus, clutching the covers of the book, fingers slowly moving to open the pages. "Lord Zeref will be proud of m—"
Oberon dashes forward, faster than even Laxus's draconic senses could track, and punches the man in the face. At the same time, the book becomes immensely heavy, gravity rips it from the man's grasp as Oberon sends him rolling across the floor into the far wall.
"Seriously?" He uses Gravity Magic to seize the book, reading the cover. "How many of these stupid things did Zeref make? At this point I would resurrect him just to give him a piece of my mind…"
Laxus walks over to him, looking around at all the artifacts in cases around the room, most of which were non-magical memorabilia of Zeref. "Seems like the bad guys always find them before us. What's this one about?"
Oberon shrugs and opens the book, an act which would normally lead to the entity within possessing and consuming the user, instantly killing them. But thanks to his inability to connect with others, he is free to read the book, a feat only capable for himself and Zeref.
"Ezel," Oberon says. "Some kind of…primitive Transformation Magic. It looks like Zeref made this one in a crude attempt at molding living matter, its has a humanoid form."
"So he wanted monsters to look human?"
"Don't ask me what crazy people think, nobody can understand them," Oberon shuts the book and Requips it away. "I'll finish reading it before I hand it to the Magic Council."
Within the hour, Oberon and Laxus are done searching the fortress and seizing all dangerous items, walking outside to speak to the head of Sin's Rune Knights.
They see the man alongside a few high-ranking Rune Knights, taking notes and preparing to relocate the massive crowd of civilians rescued.
Walking through the crowd, Virgo and Aries are dispersing food, water, and helping out where they can, while Pegasus is circling above the valley, keeping an eye on the perimeter.
"The fortress is cleared," Oberon says. "We'll stay until the convoys with the last people reach the city. After that I need to head back."
"Did you find anything dangerous?" the Rune Knight asks.
"We did," Laxus says. "But Sin doesn't have the facilities to secure it, no offense."
"None taken," the man looks to Pegasus soaring in the midday sky. "Our country doesn't have many Wizard Guilds, so you're much better equipped to take whatever you've found to the Magic Council for storage."
"Now we just hope everyone else had it as easy as us," Laxus mutters…
---Fiore…
Rifling through the main office of this base, Makarov Dreyar quickly sorts documents into two piles before moving on to the other drawers and cupboards. It takes him only seconds to find a large leather-bound ledger, and he doesn't bother moving back to the desk with it.
He instead turns around and leans against the cupboards, flipping through the pages and meticulously searching for any source of funding for this Cult of Zeref.
"Master?" Reedus enters the room, seeing the piles of documents and books scattered about. "I finished copying the Altar Rune."
"Have Macao destroy it, melt it. We can't risk that thing being put back together."
"The headcount for most of the people is complete, there were more of them underground. What do we do with this base after it's cleared out?"
"I'll demolish the entire thing. Bringing down the cave we're in should be enough. Any word from the others?"
"We won't know how things went for a while, but I'm sure they can handle it."
"This is strange," Makarov stops flipping through the pages, instead focusing on one particular line toward the middle of the book. "It says here they were funded through one source."
"For all the bases, is that even possible? Maybe it was a country from a different continent."
"The Alvarez nations have been a bit difficult lately, but I don't think they'd wipe out half our continent to accomplish their goals. They want to get our resources, and Wizards are part of that."
"But you mentioned that they only backed off least year because the Magic Council threatened them with Satellite Square: Etherion."
"That is true, and everyone who controls it would have been caught up in this ritual. But I still think it's too drastic of an act for them. And they have no desire to resurrect someone who would seek to dominate them and the rest of the world."
"So either they gave this cult funding and a fake resurrection ritual, or the ritual was real and someone else funded it."
"The latter. We'll learn more from the interrogations…"
---Seven…
Standing in the middle of the Resurrection Rune etched into this altar, Wizard Saint Jose Porla inspects a translucent golden ring in his palm.
A few steps away, the Ace of Phantom Lord, Aria of the Sky, is carefully copying the Rune on paper before they can destroy it. All around the room are the shredded and blasted corpses of the cultists who failed to stop this assault, but neither man spares them even the slightest sympathy.
"Master, the Rune Knights should be done rounding up the people by now."
"We won't be staying a second longer than needed, I need to go study this little trinket."
"Using that could be unwise, Master."
Jose turns around and glares at the man. "You think me a fool? Or that I'm too weak to handle this?"
"Caution should be exercised with Zeref's creations. Coral thought she could control one, and now she's dead."
Jose frowns. "She attempted to control a Book of Zeref. This ring is nothing more than a focus he made. It's function is the same as a wand or staff, but far more efficient, and it enhances Magic."
"That's a relief. And what of the Book of Zeref we found here?"
"That we'll hand to the Magic Council. It's not worth the trouble. Honestly it's a miracle the seal on it is too powerful for these moronic cultists to open, otherwise there could have been a real fight here…"
---Minstrel…
Sitting cross-legged atop a boulder amidst the desert in the middle of the country, Gildarts watches the sunrise on the horizon, while much closer to him, hundreds of people are pouring out of a cave that leads deep underground.
Rune Knights help them out, while at his back a horde of cultists remain restrained and mostly conscious. The Magic Bomber Christina is grounded nearby with members of Blue Pegasus constantly moving emergency supplies to the people and setting up a sea of tents to provide aid.
Gildarts silently watches as families cheer, praising these Rune Knights and foreign Wizards, thanking them for saving them. Children who had been separated down in the cultists' base under the desert now hold their parents, crying their hearts out.
And many children who lost their parents under the cultists' rule, or were stolen from their families, are lost, unsure of what to do. Especially those few who were taken so young that they'd never experienced freedom before.
The sight of this tragedy, and the thought that his daughter could have ended up like this, rouse his emotions, and by extension, his Magic Energy. The boulder below him cracks and rumbles, frightening the cultists behind him, as well as the rescued people hundreds of feet ahead.
The fearful expression cast toward him feels like cold water poured down his shirt, and instantly reigns in his Magic Energy. He smiles and waves to them, doing his best to show them that everything will be fine.
Gildarts takes out his waterskin and drinks from it, deciding to lay back on the boulder and look up at the clear sky while everyone else handles the logistics.
"It's a miracle you didn't destroy the airship on the trip here," Ichiya hops onto the boulder, sitting beside Gildarts.
"How is everything?"
"Worse than it looks. I got the Altar Rune memorized, and destroyed it and the documents they used to build it. Now all that's left is interrogation of the cultists, and relocation of the people we saved."
"How long until we're back home?"
Ichiya raises a brow at this, and Gildarts turns his head while still lying on the rock to look at the young man.
"What?"
"I assumed you'd want to see the sights a bit more."
"I'd love to, but I'm a dad now. So I should really be back in Fiore unless something like this pops up again."
"Ahh, Cana Alberon, Master Bob was very excited to hear about that one."
"Maybe he can convince her to get interested in Crash Magic. I swear all the girl cares about is silly Card Magic."
"She must get the brains from her mom," Ichiya mutters.
Gildarts chuckles. "Yeah, I thank the gods every day for that…"
---Desierto…
"That's the last of them," Jura says to his mentor, Wizard Saint Aven Etis, as the final cart of rescued slaves is loaded.
He turns to the man, and sees him staring at the cave in the side of the mountain, which holds the cultists' base. "Do we have everything from that heinous place?"
"Yes, and I have the Altar Rune for Oberon to study."
"Jura. I foresee that many of the people saved here will be without a place to return to. I spoke to them while you searched the base, our monastery will have a swarm of newcomers."
"That's always good new, though I wish the cause was more cheerful."
"I would like you to stay in Bosco for a few weeks. We will need to perform some, renovations."
"Consider it done," Jura looks around, seeing the Rune Knights are a distance away preparing the cart for them to leave. "And as you requested, I didn't let any Rune Knights see the Altar Rune."
"Good. That temptation is far too much for most. Now, seal up this horrific sight and let's leave this place."
Jura nods and places both palms on the ground, flowing Magic Energy into the mountain and making a massive volume of earth at the entrance to seal it.
---Bellum…
Under the midday sun, Gran Doma watches the large tower in the distance. There is a rocky wasteland all around it with a single road leading out of this valley. Hundreds of rescued slaves are moved out of the valley on horse-drawn carts by Rune Knight.
All while many more Rune Knightsbreak down the temporary tents, pack their own carts. Standing on this hilltop, he's approached by a man wearing a full-face mask.
The mask is angular and metallic, appearing like dark grey iron with two large red Lacrima Lenses built into it. The man's entire outfit is dark blue, and covers every part of him, leaving no skin vulnerable to the elements.
All across him are belts and pouches, hosting speed reloaders for the twin revolvers at his sides, along with Storage Cards hosting many, many more.
"Looks like that's the end of it," his deep voice pours through the mask, carefully observing the people as they funnel out of the valley. He removes his hat to reveal a head of black hair atop his head, the only part of his body not covered by this suit. "Does the Magic Council want that tower, or can we get rid of the eyesore?"
"That is entirely your choice, your majesty. It's already been scouted from top to bottom, now it's a just a building," Gran Doma's gaze rises to the top of the tower, extending 200m -600ft- above the valley floor.
"I understand," the man turns away from Gran Doma and walks off to a nearby tent. He doesn't bother to announce himself, instead entering to see an older man sitting at a small desk, carefully writing the last of a few dozen letters. "We're all done here, we can get rid of it now."
The man smiles, finishing his letter before standing. He wears a dark grey set of robes with a red belt, chest and forearms exposed, but the traditional attire is broken but the heavy boots on his feet. His hair is long and black, tied in a ponytail, and the fair skin of his body is covered in tattoos, each a flame or sun in black ink.
"Then let's end this. There are more people who need us," the man says as he seals the last letter, placing all of them neatly into a leather pouch and holding it as he gets up. He walks over to his Katana, a blade with a black hilt and sheath, complete with white flames on the outside.
The men step out of the tents, and they both walk over to Gran Doma. The swordsman hands him the bag of letters.
"Please, get these to the people I've addressed them too. One is also for Chairman Seam."
"Your majesty, the Magic Council has already made their stance on that matter clear."
"I will go regardless, I only ask that they get these letters to my friends, hopefully they will help me."
Gran Doma slings the bag over his shoulder and nods, understanding that this man cannot be swayed to stop helping people.
The man draws his blade and turns to the tower in the distance, stepping away from for others and activating his Magic. White flames envelop the blade as his tattoos glow to match its color. Blistering heat radiates outward, and Gran Doma notices the grass at the mans' feet quickly become ash and blow away.
He takes a combat stance, holding the sword with both hands and raising it above his head. "Let this be the end of this heinous group…"
He brings the blade down, and a narrow line of white flames shoots out from the sword. It disintegrates everything it its path and sunders all, splitting the tower perfect down the middle. The path it carved in the earth is blackened and charred, consumed so quickly by heat that it falls apart at a molecular level rather than melting into sludge.
The man steps back and sheathes his blade, and moments later the tower collapses inward, falling to the valley floor.
"Purified," the man says, turning to the others. "Now, onto the next spot of evil…"
CHAPTER END---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]