One Month to the Grand Magic Games
said the receptionist, sitting on the sidelines. A small group of Frenzy Plant soldiers, the few left behind to literally hold the fort while their comrades were out performing jobs, lounged around ready to watch the proceedings. From their ranks, the Antimage's opponents would be selected.
"Round one will see you face off against our very own Vergil Marowit! Come on down." A lanky, ponytailed
man, clothed in a unique and free-spirited style, leaped down from his position on a windowsill and strolled toward Magni with an easy smile on his face. He took a position opposite the newcomer, gave an elegant bow, and in a silky baritone said
"'Ey there, champ. You've got a grim air about you. You gotta learn to loosen up! Either way, you'll have my air around you soon, heheh!" He flourished a strange tool in his left hand, a multi-headed lash made of lovely feathers.
Magni was intrigued by this concept, to get further into the guild was to fight the various opponents that had already made their way into such a place. This actually reminded him of something, but he quickly shook away the feeling as he didn't exactly like to relive such memories. He followed the woman, he wondered how much of a challenge the lower ranks would give him as he could seem powerful in his own eyes, but the weakest in the guild might be at his skill level. Magni knew he couldn't put any slack into this fight, he would just had to treat them as opponents he would face in the battlefield, excluding the fataly wounding part at the end.
As they stopped, it only took a few moments before she introduced his opponent and they seemed to be... relaxed. This was strange as he assumed that the nature of this guild would make everyone act like a solider. Obviously, he was wrong to assume such a thing, but it seemed that his impression on this guild was wrong. Magni stopped thinking as his opponent seemed to start talking, most of the words went right through him, but the last sentence garnered his attention. He gave away his magic, something that he could use to his advantage in this fight as his opponent would have to figure his own magic during the battle. The weapon he pulled out was quite decorated, but Magni's was more deadly than pretty. The Antimage pulled out his two warglavies, he didn't really have a safety mode for his weapon, so he would have to try not to dig into his flesh too hard with his blades.
Magni's quiet, solemn resolve didn't seem to faze Vergil much. The fancy man sighed.
"Nasty blades it is, then, but I'll make a beautiful fight nonetheless, and an equally beautiful poem afterward. Madam...?"Indigo produced a heavy book, and dropped it on the floor with a thundering
whoomp.
"Start!""Wind Make: Monsoon!" The air around Vergil took on a fluorescent, mint-green tinge as it quickly transformed. Rain clouds formed that spattered down drops of liquid wind, and the air itself became hostile to Magni's presence. Though indoors and about as far from the coast as one could get outside of the desert, a roaring rainy storm was forming that pushed against the Antimage, threatening to send him off-balance with every step he took. Immediately this much was obvious: Vergil was no ordinary Make user. Make wizards typically crafted objects or living things; it seemed that this wizard was Making other magic.
"Wind Make: Air Razor!" The sculpting winds subtley altered. Now, the raindrops wouldn't just splash--they would cut. The wind that Vergil was using was now condensed into tiny blades, by themselves little more than papercuts.
With a white-toothed smile, Vergil uttered one final incantation.
"Wind Make: Crashing Tide!" The greenish air spread out lengthways and swelled, and a large wave rolled straight toward Magni, a million air razors all at once, enough to shred his gear and lacerate his skin if left unchecked.
Magni tried to dig his feet into the ground as much as possible, as his opponent was dealing with wind, he knew that they would try to blow him away. He lowered himself as the book was about to be dropped, ready for mostly anything that this mage could throw at him.
Vergil took no time to start the fight, it seemed that everything around him was being controlled by this mage and he knew that this fight would be interesting at least. Magni braced himself as the wind continued to get stronger, his body standing strong against such harsh winds. As he was about to prepare to move, he felt a sting across his arm and then the stinging started to come at a greater rate. The water around him seemed to be cutting through his skin, although most of them were bouncing off his durable skin, but still some were getting through. He knew that if he continued to stand, this water would be the end of him and he would not let rain be the end of his quest. However, as he took his first step, the mage sent out one last move against him. It was an entire wave of those cutting rain drops, those would obviously tear right through him if he allowed such a move to hit him. Magni knew he had to do something, now.
He wished that he could activate his blink move, however, he needs to drain some of the magic from the mage. His reserves were too low to support such a powerful spell, and would end up breathless if he tried without another source. So, he would go for the alternative. Magni raised his blade and cut into one of the tubes on his belt. His armor suddenly started to glow a magnificent blue inside of the storm. Thank goodness for lacrimas, basically portable energy packets for him. Magni smiled underneath his mask, ready to do some damage now. As the wave was merely inches away from hitting him, the blue aura with Magni suddenly vanished.
The stylish man narrowed his eyes as his wave washed harmlessly through the spot where his foe had been. His opponent had either gone invisible or teleported, but which? With just a split second to act, he raised his fan to cast a spell.
It took only another blink before Magni was only a couple feet away from Vergil,
"Surprise." The Antimage sprinted at the mage, each step stomped hard onto the floor, his balance being kept in check by those foot steps. The rain drops were still hurting him, but his blades would hurt more. The warglaives slashed at Vergil, each aiming for his arms so it would be hard for the wind maker to hold onto his little weapon.
"Wind Make: Bluster!" he yelped, not expecting his foe to appear so close by so quickly. Jumping, he created a cushion of air in front of him, and when Magni's warglaives cut into it, it burst, throwing the lighter man back a few feet and out of range. With his prior concentration broken, the rainfall began to lessen, but it had been necessary to avoid being cut. If his brother was any indication, the warriors most serious about fighting were the least likely to care about removing an enemy's limb. Vergil was not about to let a single blade touch him, no matter how gloriously azure the Antimage's lacrimas shone.
"Let's try somethin' else. Wind Make: Ifrit Font!" The floor between the two combatants adopting an increasing glow, and the green airrazors adopted a consistency much like fire. The area exploded upward in a geyser of wind that suggested flame, threatening to spatter Magni with air that might as well burn as cut.
Magni sliced, sliced into something rather than flesh. They slashed into the air, but it felt like it was compressed into one area. As the air seemed to burst from the strike, Magni's feet dragged along the surface for only a meter or two away. However, it seemed that Vergil had been blasted further away than him, making the same situation once again.
Magni started to feel less pain as the cutting seemed to lessen, he was glad that opening his lacarima did something at least. Magni was prepared to blink once again, well, before the distance between the two started to burst in a glorious geyser of fire. The Antimage was impressed, but it wasn't enough to fool him. He had dealt with fire countless times, sometimes he dodged them, sometimes he was burned alive while fighting. Magni could tell that it wasn't real fire, but it would still hurt if he entered. So, he would go another direction.
The Antimage started to glow even brighter, the shining light around him seeming to charge with magic. It was going to take the entire lacrima to reach that distance and couldn't deal with any mistakes. The bright light soon vanished once again, and Magni not reappearing on the ground. Where was he? The Antimage had actually blinked right beyond the edge of the geyser, the make shift fire barley glancing his backside.
The light was gone from his armor, but Magni still had his own reserve of magic. As he was descending, his warglaives was suddenly enveloped in lightning, crackling upon the metal. Six feet in the air, Magni clashed his weapons together causing a bolt of lightning to shoot straight towards Vergil. The force of the lightning was amazing, it almost threw him off balance from the force, but all was well. He landed on his feet as the lightning bolt slammed into Vergil.
Even mostly diverted, the lightning blast was mightily damaging. The force of it blasted Vergil almost instantly onto his back, and colorful stars flashes painfully across his vision. It was a moment before he could struggle back to his feet, breathing heavily.
"Son of a...what beauty is there in ruin? If ya want it that badly, I'll give in and you can see how well the higher-ups treatcha. Goodness." He composed himself irritably, and fluffed out his fan.
"I can do ya one last favor, though...a beauteous memory. Wind Make: Cherry Blossom Rhumba!"The wind whipped around the two contestants, assembling itself onto a grove of tall, spindly trees. The leaves glowed more brightly than the trunks, and they detached as if caught in a wandering breeze. From all sides Magni found himself assailed by a wondrous and deadly blizzard of petals, nearly real enough to be fragrant.
The Antimage smiled under his mask, it seemed he had won this battle as the mage seemed to still be slightly stunned by his power. If this wasn't a spar, Magni would have added another slicing move to chop his enemy into pieces, however, that wasn't the case. He was going to move towards Vergil to end this fight, but it seemed that the mage still had a little fight left in him. Well, not a little fight, there was still a lot of fight in him as the ground around him started to develop trees!? The wind grew strong once again, the water still trying to cut into him and now the petals were just making things worse.
Magni couldn't see anything, everything was blindingly pink and smelled actually pretty nice on the other hand. He knew that they were going to pelt and cut him just like the water surrounding him, so he had to react now before things got worse. The Antimage was pissed and his weapons sparked once again in electricity, he discharged the lightning from his weapons in the surrounding area, hoping that would push away all of the constructs away from him so he could fight once more.
With so many constructs in the air, Magni's voltaic discharge cleared his surrounding area, but did not conduct any further. Behind the wind-trees and petals, the air had turned a mint-green so light as to be almost white. It was almost as if Vergil had created his own little world. Now, as the air stilled slightly and the petals were as harmless and real ones, the fancy man came walking through the strange air toward Magni.
"Isn't it wonderful?" he asked, cupping one of the petals in his hand before blowing it away with his own breath.
"My favorite spell by far, though only my second strongest. Listen to me for a sec. You've won the fight, yeah, but we've got a mo before the Rhuma fades. You strike me as a real determined kinda guy, a man on a mission. A purpose is all well and good, just like a sword, but until you've finished it won't fill ya. By beatin' me, you're a part of this guild now, and that means you're my ally. So as your ally, let me tell ya this: learn to stop and smell the cherry blossoms. Find something you enjoy, something totally different from whatever your mission is...a single, most beautiful thing, or a perfectly unique someone. FInd it, and enjoy yourself, comrade." He gave a smooth salute, and stepped back as the Wind Make faded. The duo stood in the training hall once again.
Indigo smiled from her seat. Was she always courteous and nice, or did she know that a special event had just taken place?
"Looks like Magni wins. Congrats, mister, you're a soldier now. Ready for your next challenge?"Magni did it, it seemed like the discharge had pushed everything away! Now, it was time for the finishing... What? He seemed to tense up, the area he was being enveloped was unfamiliar to him, everything seemed to be missing. It was just... nothingness. Well, it wasn't nothingness as a petal floated onto his head, he flicked it off, they seemed to not even try to attack him anymore... What is this guy's plan? Petals continued to fall around him, Magni searching around for Vergil to attack once more, but it seemed he had disappeared within this strange place.
He spoke a little too soon as the mage seemed to re-materialize out of nowhere, casually strolling towards him like they haven't just been through such a fight. Magni was about to charge at him again until he started to speak. He was slightly confused, he had thought that the fight was going to be continuing until one of them were knocked out. Magni began to straighten out himself, putting his warglaives back into his sheaths wondering just what was happening at the moment.
The Antimage glanced down onto the floor as Vergil was speaking, the words seeming to not spark a reaction out of him. Well, with the mask on anyway. Stop and smell the cherry blossoms? He bent down and snatched one off the floor, Magni started to twist it around as if he was trying to find something on that flower. So... another mission? Magni had already realized that he was looking only on one goal, however he had actually just figured that he had forgotten that there were more things than just that one goal. Magni balled up his fist, the cheery blossom in the center. Magni breathed deeply, and soon the world around him started to reappear.
He opened his fist to find the cheery blossom gone, he continued to stare at his hand, his mind clouded. Magni was soon broken out of his trance by someone announcing his victory, it was the receptionist. When he was questioned about if he wanted to continue, his body seemed to relax at that point. He had gotten inside of the guild, and that was his goal for the day. He had also come to realize that this guild was stronger than he had originally thought, if this C-ranked spar proved slightly challenging, he didn't really want to figure how strong the higher tiers were going to be.
So, the Antimage balled up his fist again and stared back at Indigo, with his gruff voice he said one word,
"No."With that, Magni started to walk towards some place where he could get a drink.
Indigo nodded.
"Mess hall is on the second floor. Not the room with the cannons, mind you. Make yourself at home, soldier." Though her smile had faded, she felt acutely satisfied. At first glance Magni had appeared to be a mindless brute, but perhaps there was far more to the man than met the eye.
Eve - Dragon Fang Guild Hall
The Necromancer had quite the swell time living within the Dragon Fang, it seemed that her sighting didn't seem surprise anyone anymore and they seemed to accept her as she is. Well, maybe not that boy Micheal, she always tried to avoid him due to the little incident two months ago. She also put that memory into the vault, she didn't exactly like memories that didn't make her happy. However, within those two months Eve had experienced so much! First, the little trip to her village with Nero and Joslyn was really fun! She showed them around the destroyed town and showed them all the neat sights and even her old house! They even got to meet her parents! So didn't really notice their reactions, so she assumed that they were happy to see that she was happy. In the end, she grabbed a picture of them before leaving to live in Dragon Fang.
Living inside that place was strange, people were so lively compared to her old village. People always coming and going with antics here and there by the strange people. However, the strangest person she had met in this place was Nero. He was the strangest as she found him really enjoyable to be around with, she felt some sort of fast friendship forming between them. Like, sure, her guild mates seemed to accept her, but not actually getting to know her. Nero on the other hand seemed to always have a good time talking to her, he actually seemed to be enjoying her presence rather than others and she felt glad for that. Now, in the mean time of those two months, she had been doing all sorts of things with her powers. She made people happy! They always tried to give her money, which always seemed weird as making people happy was really the only thing she wanted, but she couldn't really turn down a gift. Eve just stockpiled the stuff in her room, not really knowing what to do with the stuff.
Now, it was a new day! People have been talking about something about games being played somewhere, they seemed rather excited about these games which made her excited! Games were always fun, she always played them with her parents when she was little, ah, the good memories. Eve was sitting on some random table eating her breakfast bagel, kicking her legs into the air waiting for someone to come along through the doors. And there he was! Nero looking rather spiffy than usual, she giggled at the new style of clothing and hair. When finished her breakfast and was about to head towards her friend. However, the Master suddenly yelled something out, making everyone march to the train station. Eve knew this was her time to move and she quickly weaved through the crowd to get to Nero. It took a lot of her 'excuse me' to get to her friend and when they arrived at the train station, she grabbed his arm giving him her same old smile,
"Hello!" Sin & Virtue - Phoenix Wing Guild Hall
Sin felt terrible, constant training for the last two months had taken a rather big toll on him from Virtue. It was like she had infinite energy when it came to training and she was rather unforgiving when he came to it. She kept on saying something about for protecting him, but he felt like that she was enjoying beating him up the entire time. His swords could never seem to pierce the hovering shields and always seemed to predict every single one of his movements. It was like Virtue knew all of his moves, which she actually did. He had managed to beat her, but it was like at some kind of one out of four spars that he would actually win. Sin wished that he could activate the others of his powers, however, they would never budge, even if he tried to forcefully try to activate it, which always resulted in him being knocked out cold for a few minutes. At the moment, he was lying on the coach, trying to feel better about himself, but currently his muscles and his egos seemed to be injured.
Virtue on the other hand felt rather great. She always had some kind of spirit that would never quit, like some kind of determination to control her powers had overtaken her. This new emotion within her didn't seem to please Sin, but it was at least helping him out. He had discovered new things such as creating different things with his aura, empowering other weapons, and even using his aura to boost himself into the air, which really surprised Virtue the first time he did it... After he slammed right into her and both fell out of the sky. Herself included, she also was getting stronger. She needed to protect her brother and use her powers to teach others about the virtues of life. Sin on the other hand was rather selfish with his power, using it mainly for his own well being, but his powers are based off the seven humanly desires. Just like last time, she was sitting on the floor, reading something she always managed to conjure from her clothes while Sin was moping around. She flipped a page before someone startled her making her book fly into the air.
Sin also felt rather surprised by the sudden yelling, also the flying book managed to hit him straight on the noggin, making him glare at his sister, her hands covering her smile. He growled at her before looking towards the weird thing that yelled at them... Who was that again? He was pretty sure he had seen or heard of this person before, but their image didn't really ring any bells. Both Sin and Virtue started to stand up, both stretching their bodies, wondering what this thing had to say to them.
