"Kill a dragon!" Lucy didn't know what to say, just what exactly did Natsu have planned for them? According to her mother the magic she intended to teach her was a form of lost magic, it consisted of tapping deeper into the spirit realm and bringing forth the ancient beings that reside within, this was the first time Lucy had heard about this and was absolutely fascinated by it. Apparently there were humanoid beings that resided within the spirit realm longer than the Spirit King himself, beings that were considered to be so powerful that they had to be sealed away to prevent them from devastating the world, this was knowledge that was known to only a few wizards, and those who did know of them have either once controlled them or have fought them in combat. Layla and Lucy made their way through some thick woods, looking up these were some of the largest tree's Lucy has ever seen; stopping in her tracks Layla turned and faced Lucy,
"yes, by contracting the power of Ancient Spirits you have the potential to take on dragons" she explained,
"but what exactly is the difference between Ancient Spirits and regular Spirits" Lucy asked, her mother grinned, though it wasn't the kind that she remembered when she was a child, no, this expression was foreign to her, it was dark and sinister and it frightened Lucy this was not the woman she came to know as her mother;
"Ancient Spirits are beings of war, their only purpose is for battle" runes appeared around Layla's hands, raising she pointed her hand away from them,
"Summon, Excalibur" and once more the spirit that her mother summoned during their fight appeared before them, the warrior bowed before them,
"I will explain more later but in the mean time and for the first few months we will be training your body"
"my body?" Lucy asked, Layla nodded,
"yes, as I noticed during our fight, you struggle when you are forced into hand to hand combat" what Layla said held merit, even if Lucy had her whip as a self defense weapon, without her spirits Lucy was pretty much defenseless, she lacked any sort of fighting ability but Layla was determined to change that,
"with that in mind, Excalibur here will be assisting me in your training, we will be training your speed, endurance and strength; once you have gotten that down, then we will begin training you in combat"
"but I thought you were going to teach me to summon ancient spirits?" Lucy asked,
"yes, and you will, but in the mean time I want to fix your weaknesses" her mother explained, she turned to Excalibur, nodding as if giving him a signal, "to begin you will be running laps around the forest, Excalibur will be your guide while I find a place to set up camp"
"we're starting now?"
"of course, the sooner we start, the sooner I can start teaching you how to summon Ancient Spirits"
"well, I don't think I'm dressed correctly" Layla looked at her daughters attire, which consisted of a white blue blouse and a blue skirt,
"it'll do, consider it as part of your training; you must learn to move freely in any sort of clothing" Lucy's face faulted before turning to face the ancient spirit who was staring at her; Lucy honestly didn't know what to think, but Excalibur definitely creeped her out, it almost felt like the spirits was staring right into her soul, maybe because it was as her mother said, these spirits were beings of war, they were nothing like her celestial spirits, these spirits were just terrifying to her; pushing aside all those thoughts she motioned the spirit to lead the way while she followed, looking back to her mother just smiled and waved at her before walking away.
A couple minutes of jogging and Lucy realized just how ridiculously fast Excalibur was, looking at the spirit; he was dashing through the trees and hopping past the branches, his speed was fast but he would occasionally stop to allow Lucy to catch up to him, this went on for another thirty minutes before Lucy had to stop to catch her breath. Looking up she realized just how beautiful the sight before her was, walking closer to the edge her eyes gazed before a beautiful landscape of green, trees that lay far beyond her eyes could see, a river of water that snaked its way through the forest; it was nothing like what she saw upon entering Limbo. Suddenly the ground beneath her collapsed causing Lucy to plummet down, everything seemed to slowdown for her when suddenly a hand grabbed hold of her, looking up it was Excalibur she then looked down at the drop, some vertigo kicking in shivers were sent through her body; pulling up Lucy Excalibur dropped her next to a tree away from the ledge,
