Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 41 - Nature vs Nurture

The last known location of the Urdstatz Library was a village in a remote section of the mountains. It was a prominent exporter of snow-based lacrima, an incredible amount for ice and frost wizards, as well as those southerly cities and nations that needed coolant for the warmer seasons. The village totaled around ten huts and houses in all, and their village elder was a master when it came to wintry magic, able to make the skies turn dark with snow capable of freezing anyone over. It was said, in those mountains, that no fire would ever burn bright upon their homes.

But it's people? That was a different story.

Burning flesh crackled all across the village while men and women screamed, in search of a way out of a town locked in time and space. Infernos roiled upon the village huts, summoned forth from a great, burning hearth deep within the capital. Footsteps were hurried and rushed upon the snow. Most were filled with blood, bile, and excrement.

One set of footsteps remained entirely clean, well-trodden, and precise. It was the same that formed a spear through the line of soldiers doing their best to stand up to the threat that wiped their entire history away. The village would soon have no name or memory. It would burn in the skies for some time, and then, the ash would lay still while years of snow and debris buried it.

Such was the fate of any who dared defy the Twilight Empire.

The village elder awaited in his hut at the top of the hill. Unprotected citizens huddled together there. Died together there. Their final words had been of cowards willing to do whatever they could to survive. They would not be long for time in the Twilight Empire.

The hut door was blown open. More corpses lay burning at its threshold while the village elder was pinned above a mound of the sick and injured. A fire raged beneath him.

He was a feeble man, one certainly not befitting the title of a great wizard. His ice was melted. His friends were gone and dead. All that was left was the quivering sack of meat and magic held up to verify all the information his little villagers had so willingly given away, all with the hope they could be spared.

"But," Minerva, the Ethereal Witch, said, "when you eliminate an anthill, you must be merciless. Thoughtless, almost, lest any of them escape. The ants may be harmless on their own but they can spread things to other places."

The elder wept.

"The man within the Urdstatz library. You know he was headed west?"

"To the land of sunken hills, yes!"

Rufus was always the poetic one. He liked to hide his secrets in his little words, his memories. The land of sunken hills was a small patch of Fiore, begotten by most wizards save for those who had experienced the first full-powered attack of the Sabertooth guild. If Rufus was hiding, he was only doing so from those who did not know him.

And even then, the others of Sabertooth who'd become one with the Empire may not even know, or remember. But Minerva never could. She had to remain the best of all in Sabertooth. Her magic had to be stronger than Orga's, more brilliant than Yukino's, more modern than Sting and Rogues, and her strikes more deadly than Dobengal, her presence more imposing than her father, and her memory sharper than Rufus's.

The land of sunken hills it was, then.

"Why must you kill us? We gave you what you wanted."

"You did. But you still don't deserve to live," Minerva said. She coiled her fingers together. A magic orb formed around his head, slowly closing in around it. He struggled for air. "Is it a sin to eliminate ants?"

She crushed her fist as his head popped like a balloon. The village elder dropped to the flames. The last man of the village faded.

Minerva easily swung her hand out. There was no time to return to get backup or report what her status was. She wouldn't need it.