[This Collab is too damn long.]
White Knights/Black Stars
Journey's End
Mid December, X892
Gregory fiddled with his pocket as he directed the group of mages following him to take a detour through the forest. Ahead of them along the road was a thin, tall woman with white hair being escorted by three mages. He could tell they were guild mages just by how they walked, not to mention they were almost all mages he had written reports about during the games.
"Yo, why are we going this way?" Mark asked, his hands relaxed in his pockets.
"There are some mages up in front of us, two of them are Dragon Fang members," Gregory explained. Mark nodded.
"So the plan is...?""Avoid them if at all possible. In the event of a fight, disable, don't kill. I don't want them to have any other reason to be hostile towards us," Gregory knew that wouldn't help, but he continued to hope. There might still be a chance he could get at least one light guild not to treat them horribly.
"You're too soft. We should leave their heads on pikes," Grant would speak up from the back of the group.
"No," Luna said flatly, giving Grant a glare. There was a long moment of silence before anyone spoke up.
"Are we at least almost there? Or, can we at least rent a magic car or something? I'm getting a bit tired of walking," Mark said. Gregory shook his head no.
"Sorry, but Pomegrand isn't as open about magic as Fiore has become in recent years. There aren't a lot of mages here, and the ones that are stay in hiding as much as they can," Gregory explained, keeping his voice down.
"Alright, everyone, be quiet."They slowed down and kept their mouths shut as they began to pass by the group of four mages. One of them was talking to the others in a chipper, excited voice.
"I mean, it's only going to be another week or two of walking, but we should stop at least one day to celebrate the holidays! It'll be great, plus it'll be a great chance to see how they do it waaaay over here on the other side of Earthland!" The tall, white-haired woman was saying. Gregory stopped to listen to her, waving the others to go on ahead.
"Besides, it'll be a great chance for me to get used to being on two legs. Which, obviously, I need to practice a good bit if I'm at all planning to keep using this form, which I'm thinking of doing. It's rather pleasant to be able to relax my magic some, instead of constantly trying to re-arrange and fix any problems my other forms still have..." The woman kept talking, but Gregory had heard enough to know it was Mithera. She must have thought that he was trying to impress Melina back into his guild, which was not his goal in the least. Why did everyone insist it was so wrong to go and see one's daughter again?
Shaking his head, he started walking quickly to catch up with the rest of his guild. None of them had payed enough attention to tell it was Mithera with the other mages, but they were waiting a little ways ahead for him.
"So, figure out why they are here?" Mark asked as soon as he was sure they were out of earshot of the group of wizards.
"Same reason we are: Melina," Gregory answered.
"Huh, small world. Makes me wonder what Melina is up to way out here in Pomegrand. I know she's a bit of a troublemaker, but she isn't starting a rival guild to ours, and she doesn't seem like the kind to go on a journey way out here just to enrich her cultural understanding. Hmm..." Grant chuckled at Mark's musings.
"It doesn't matter what Melina's up to Mark, just where she is," the blood mage interjected.
"Yeah, I guess. But I can still wonder. I mean, I sure as hell wouldn't come here just for the fun of it. It's like... A Bazillion miles away from home to start with. Plus the whole, magic persecution thing is a problem. Also, they've got a totally different language you'd have to learn, though a lot of them seem to know Fiorian, which is nice. Which makes me think that Fiore is like, the place to be. Or Minstrel is, since we speak the same language... Oh hey, when we head back, can we not go through Bosco again? It was kind of... Depressing.""Yes, we can not go back through Bosco," Gregory responded.
"Cool, thanks Gregory," Mark gave the guild master a thumbs up. Luna rolled her eyes, despite agreeing with him.
Luna, thinking about what awaited her two weeks from now, moved away from the rest of the group so that they could keep talking without disturbing her too much. She wanted to tell Melina all about all the things that had happened in the guild in the past eight years, including how she, a sixteen year old, was already an S-Class member of a guild. She could also talk about how they had done in the grand magic games too, and some of the exciting adventures she had had recently...
But what if she doesn't care about all that? The thought invaded Luna's mind, and stuck like a burr in her mind.
What if she isn't excited to see me? It continued, and Luna shivered slightly. Melina had left the guild rather suddenly eight years ago, and she probably had good reason for it. A few members blamed Mithera, the adorable little dragon that Melina had brought home one day, but Luna never believed that. Melina must've wanted to leave already. Luna began to worry that it was really because of her.
What if--"Hey Luna!" Mark's voice interrupted her thoughts, causing her to snap up and look at him.
"We're going this way, not towards the city," he continued. Luna looked forward, and saw that she was heading down the wrong branch in the road. Her cheeks felt hot, and she jogged to get back over to the rest of her guild. Mark smiled.
"A little distracted eh?""Y-yeah," Luna admitted, blushing slightly.
"Well that makes sense, it had been a long time since you've seen Melina, and here we are tracking her down to see her after eight years. I wonder what she looks like by now...""Remember you're dating Laynette, please," Gregory added. Mark's cheeks turned red, as did Luna's as she remembered her and Arie stumbling on the two of them making out back in Crocus.
"H-hey, that's not what I meant. Besides, how did you find out?" Mark said, a little flustered.
"I run a guild that makes money on getting information, you think I don't find out when two of my members start going out?" Mark bit his lip.
"Y-yeah, but like, we aren't really, uhm, official yet or anything-""So going out on a long, romantic dinner on our last night in Crocus doesn't mean you're officially dating? My, how things have changed since I was still in the dating game," Gregory teased. Mark blushed more, and wrung his hands.
"Well, uh, you do have a good point, but I didn't want to tell everyone quite yet.""Why not? I bet you two would be cute," Delilah chimed in, smiling.
"Y-yeah, but l-like... uhm... We've only been going out for a very short time, and we want to announce it when we're ready to announce it, I guess?" Mark said, trying to explain it.
"Oh I see, afraid to tell everyone in case it breaks down early," Grant suggested.
"N-no! Well, yes, b-but it seems like it's going good and that's not a problem. Look, guys, is all that we have to talk about? My love life?" Mark asked, trying to deflect.
"Pretty much," Delilah answered. Mark sighed.
"What about the games? I hear they got cut short," he tried.
"Yes, as you've said several times now. The games are done and over.""U-uhm, what about why Mithera is here? Or what we're going to do when we inevitably end up confronting her?""We do the same as I suggested before. If it comes to a fight, try to disable, not kill. We're not quite a guild of murderers yet," Gregory replied.
"Not to mention if there is a fight, we'll probably lose. It would be unusually lax of Jamie to leave one of his members without a way to get backup if they need it, and all of Phoenix Wing's best bearing down on us would not end well for us," Gregory said.
"Right, yeah," Mark said, not having thought of that.
"Jeez those guys are jerks," everyone nodded in agreement, before falling into silent anticipation of what was yet to come.
((Collaboratively worked on by @Burthstone, @Caits, @Crimson Raven, and@Zarkun))Mithera yawned and stretched. After weeks of traveling by train, and the past couple on foot in the Pomegrand Kingdom, she was exhausted. The town they expected Melina to be in was not far now, and they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Iron Enigma. She contemplated the idea that she had freaked out over nothing, but, then again, they had directly asked her where Melina was going. She glanced at her companions, and offered them a smile. Mithera had mastered many a normal human function on the trip, which she knew would help her in the future if she continued to use her human form.
Mithera, Valak, Zen, and Joslyn had only recently set off from camp, leaving plenty of time to finally catch up with Melina, talk with her, and find a map to the nearest train station. Mithera would turn around and face her companions, walking backwards now, and give them a big smile.
"We're almost there! Hopefully our luck will hold and nothing will go wrong at the last minute," she assured them all for the thirtieth or fortieth time in the past three days.
Valak glanced at his happy-go-lucky companion, then rolled his eyes.
"Now you've done it," he said. Over the course of the trip, he had opened up and relaxed a bit, maybe an effect of Mithera's upbeat attitude, maybe just because he was more familiar with them. He was still as terse and quiet as ever, but he begun to speak and express a little more.
Zen glanced at Mithera and sighed, shaking his head.
"Now you've gone and jinxed it. A giant chicken monster is going to attack just before we get to town," Joslyn elbowed him and grinned, twirling her way around the group a little and stopping next to their guide and leader.
"Don't mind my guild mate, he's always a bit of a pessimist. I bet everything will be fine," she assured her.
Mithera giggled softly at everyone, her smile remaining.
"If I were going to jinx it, that happened about ten minutes into our train ride. But, a giant chicken monster sounds super tasty, so I'm not sure running into one of those would be a bad thing. 'Specially since you guys could handle something like that, easy peazy," she looked over at Joslyn beside her, clearly having a good time traveling with everyone. Though her smile weakened a bit, as while she was sure they could handle a giant chicken monster, she wasn't sure they could handle Iron Enigma if they caught up. They might not be the strongest dark guild, but their top members were still something to be reckoned with. If the stories were to be believed, that was. There was also the worry of what people would think about Melina, her being a blood mage and all. Mithera scrunched her nose as they kept getting closer to the town, Melina didn't seem to be there so far. Maybe the lack of use of their link shortened its range...?
It wasn't long until the group was upon the town, and Mithera's face turned more and more worried as they neared it. Valak, being ever vigilant, kept an eye out for anything unusual while she focused on finding Melina. He regarded every bush, tree, shadow, and building as a possible cover for any enemies. He also made a habit of checking behind them for anyone following. His paranoia was at a level beyond what most would be able to handle without going mad, but he had practiced it so much it was almost second nature to him. Once they started passing the outlying houses, Mithera's face grew even more worried. She sped up some, walking quickly to the first street vendor.
"Hello would yo-" As the vendor began trying to peddle his wares to the group, Mithera waved him off. Valak rested his hand on his sword as a quiet threat to the merchant, if he happened to glance his way.
"Look, I need to know if you've seen someone with blonde hair, light skin, a Fiorian accent like mine, and a kind of... Weird tattoo on their shoulder pass through here today," she was dead serious, and if she was any more sure of herself she would be holding the vendor by the shirt. The vendor gave her a very odd look before pointing down the road.
"Yeah, there was this tall guy came through here with an odd group. I believe one was wearing some kind of... Sun robe, another was a bit shorter than he was and looked like the leader, there was also another woman who fits that description. She had these odd tattoos all over her. The fourth guy looked kinda normal though. They went off that way," the vendor explained to them.
"Shit!" Mithera cursed, before quickly starting off in the direction the Vendor had pointed. Valak frowned slightly at her recklessness, but made sure to keep up with her pace. He hadn't been able to entirely keep up with the conversation, but he figured that it wasn't the time to ask. Zen and Joslyn followed after only a moment of being caught off guard. Zen began creating a few of his wind torpedoes, which hung in the air like hummingbirds, just in case.
"Hey Mithera, maybe we should call Phoenix Wing for some back up. Cause it sounds like Iron Enigma's group is larger than ours," Zen would suggest. Mithera would look back at Zen, and take a deep breath before nodding.
"Y-yeah, it sounds like they've got all their S-Class mages with them," she reached into her pants pocket and pulled out the Lacrima as she kept walking.
"Hey, Master Jamie? Jarvis? Iron Enigma got here before us somehow... Th-they've got, uhm, Luna, Grant, Delilah, Gregory, and Mark that I know of. We may need assistance if we can't get out of this without conflict," her voice was anything but in control, cracking midway through what she was saying.
"That would, uhm, b-be soon by the way. I f-figure we're hot on M-melina's heels at this point," she looked up, trying to estimate how far the other edge of town was. She cursed herself for not getting how long ago the merchant had seen Iron Enigma.
Jarvis quickly answered Mithera.
"Did you not take any teleportation lacrima? I can change the communication lacrima to a teleportation one, but that will mean you will lose contact with us," he said. Mithera shook her head, though she knew that Jarvis couldn't see her through the lacrima, and she glanced over at the people that had come with before answering.
"N-nope on the teleportation lacrima, but I have an extra lacrima for communicating with Dragon Fang. If you send some people to help I'm sure one of them can bring a lacrima I can use for communication anyway. Uhm, I believe Gregory is here too, so, uh... Do we even have anyone we're sure can take him? Other than Master Jamie of course," Mithera was more nervous than a dog in a bear-bating pit, and in her distraction she tripped on a rock in the dirt. She yelped in pain as she hit the ground, and the communication lacrima skittered off a few feet on the road. Blood rushed to her face as she quickly stood up and snatched up the lacrima, brushing herself and the magic stone off. Biting her lip, she looked up and tried to make out anything down the road, but the hills hid everything far off from view. After taking a few more steps she stopped again, and spoke softly into the lacrima.
"U-uhm, yeah, s-soon would be good.""Alright. I'll see who I can round up. We probably have a few who could withstand Gregory," he said,
"Hold out and they'll be there soon.""Okay, I'll wait for them then... Or, well, as much as I can wait," she'd take a deep breath before stuffing the lacrima back in her bra as she kept walking.
"Uhm, guys, so, for those of you who know their strengths, anyone want to call a particular opponent? I'd, uhm, suggest not Grant or Gregory however."Valak had been listening to the brief conversation, and frowned at the mention of more backup. The had enough people here already. Wizards, in general, tended to be a headstrong bunch, and more would only make teamwork more difficult. He wondered just how dangerous could these people be that they would require so many wizards? A viscous grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
He couldn't wait to find out.
Valak finally turned to Mithera to answer her question. Bloodthirst echoed in his contained smile.
"All of them," he said.
Mithera would blink, looking at Valak with and his odd expression.
"You, uhm, know that they're more p-powerful than any of the ones that were at the hotel right? Well, other than Delilah," she'd say quietly, before glancing up the road. A few figures would be in sight now. A man of average height and brown hair, a short figure in a white robe, and two blonde-haired figures walking just ahead of them. One much larger than the other. The third blonde was nowhere to be seen.
Zen and Joslyn looked at each other than at Mithera.
"We'll stick with you, keep anyone who comes after you from getting close."The backup Jarvis had promised, consisting of Jane and Demian, then arrived via teleportation lacrima. Damian was already holding his Ares Blades. Jane's right hand held the ignited hilt of her energy blade, and her left held several energy throwing stars. Damian walked up and gave Mithera a quick hug, a smile on his face while Jane watched the cloaked people in front of them.
"Glad to see you again, Mithera. Doing well enough I hope?"Mithera smiled, and barely hesitated to hug Damian back when he appeared. She smiled at him and nodded, glad to have him there.
"Yeah, I'm good for now. Though, uh, as you might be able to see we have a bit of a problem. I have no idea how Iron Enigma got here before us, and, uh, I think we should stop them before they catch up with Melina," it felt kind of lame putting it like that, but that was the situation, plain and simple.
"So, uh, I'll go with you, Damian, I guess. Or should I try to go around and catch up with Melina?" She looked at Damian, deferring to his seniority in the guild.
After this exchange, Damian looked at Jane and followed her gaze up to the cloaked members of Iron Enigma. He narrowed his eyes.
"Guess that explains why they skipped out on the last day of the Games, but I couldn't tell you how they beat you here. As for where you can go, circle around, warn Melina and get her out of here. Once you're safe, contact us and we'll come to you."Valak, who had been silently studying the newcomers, spoke up.
"Introductions?""Jane Addeson and that's Damian Gerard, Phoenix Wing S-Class. You are?" Jane spoke up for both her and Damian, facing Valak for only as long as she spoke.
Zen and Joslyn stepped up next to Mithera.
"We'll go with Mithera, keep her safe," Joslyn said. Damian nodded and looked ahead.
"Guess all that's left to do is get their attention. Mithera, Zen, and Joslyn, get out of sight so they don't try and cut you off when you go to get around them."Mithera has just been watching while everyone figured out what the plan was around her. She was honestly glad she didn't need to keep trying to figure this out herself, and nodded once it was clear to her what was going down.
"Okay," She turned towards everyone that wasn't sneaking off with her.
"Try not to get hurt for my sake, if you start losing your fight, please pull back," she offered one last worried smile before heading off the edge of the road to the right and keeping her head down, Zen and Joslyn following. This whole time, someone from the Iron Enigma group had spotted them, and was now watching.
Damian glanced at Jane, who nodded and then at Valak.
"Suppose proper introductions can wait for another time," Valak nodded. The enemy was at hand, this was no time for chit-chat. However, a thought held him back from just charging forward. They had obviously been seen, and if Iron Enigma's target was Mithera, it would be a simple matter for one of them to slip away, circle back and catch Mithera. She had those two mages with her, but Valak has no idea of haw strong or reliable they were. After a moment of thinking it over, Valak moved to follow Mithera and her companions. He knew that it was probably the less logical choice, as it would leave them outnumbered, but he felt an irrational urge to protect Mithera.
Well, he knew why. He just refused to think about it. Too much pain, and sorrow there.
There was still the matter of what to do. Something to avoid dwelling on what has past.
"Always assume the enemy is stronger and more clever then you, that way, you will never be surpised."Valak pushed that voice out of his mind too. He didn't want to think about that psychopath either. But still. The advice was sound.
Damian turned his attention to Iron Enigma and noted that one of them was already watching. He was glad, as that just made this easier. Slashing horizontally, Damian sent a flurry of Piercing Blades flying at the group in front of them as Jane unleashed wave after wave of energy shuriken towards them.
"Turn around, you Games drop outs!"Mithera shot the group one last glance before disappearing into the forested foothills, muttering under her breath.
"Good luck guys."The Iron Enigma member watching the group had only just enough time to warn the party about the attacks coming their way. As the first set of attacks neared them, a large ice wall formed between them and the group. Most of the attacks sink a short way into the ice before stopping. Behind the wall, the Iron Enigma guild members moves out to the sides, into the woods, and the wall fell once they were all clear. The Iron Enigma members all were watching the Phoenix Wingers now, except for Mark, who would've disappeared with his Ice wall. It wouldn't be hard to guess where he was probably going, however, as at least one of the group had seen the others sneak off into the forest.
Valak, having quickly made up his mind as to what to do, brought his sword up. It sat front of his face in a fencer's salute before raising it to the sky, his magic power gathering to cast a spell. He reached out to a familiar spirit, calling him from the unknown. Guided by instinct rather than reason, he gave the magic that lent it form and guided the soul to the vessel. The temperature around him dropped, frost formed on his clothes and the grass, while ice took shape around his sword. Wind swirled around him in a weak cyclone, and when the spell was ready, Valak chanted,
"Come forth, Blizzard God Karl!"
There was a rush of power, and suddenly, there was a presence before him. No sound, flash of light, or burst of smoke; one moment there was nothing, the next he was there.
He looked young, and was of average height. He wielded a halberd which currently rested casually on his shoulder. There was a faint apparition behind him, but its presence faded quickly.
"Its about time," he said with a smile.
"What do you need?" Valak pointed toward the Iron Enigma wizards.
"Fight them. Don't kill. Those two are allies," Valak said to Karl, who look at him sideways.
You haven't changed a bit, I see. Laconic as ever," Valak shrugged, and Karl sighed.
"Alright, but you owe me a full explanation, after this." With that, he charged into battle, his steps freezing where they touched, and an aura of cold gathered around him.
Valak spared Karl a last glance, before he turned and ran after Mithera and the two Dragon Fang wizards.
Damian flourished his blades as he began to rush forwards, the twin Ares Blades in his hands catching the sunlight of the morning. He had picked his opponent when the Iron Engima mages had turned around; the one who was also likely the most sensible. He lept into the air, coming down in a wicked spin towards Luna, clashing against whatever defense she came up with before pivoting on his left heel and swapping to his Hercules Blades, bringing the twin greatswords to bear against the mage.
"You ever consider that Melina didn't want to come back?" He cut straight to the point.
