Fairy Tail - The World of Mages -

Chapter 23 - Loke Leo The Lion Arc

“This magic power… Loke?”

“Onee-chan?” Lucy asked again. She looked confused. Why did her sister suddenly talk about him?

Suddenly Gray ran into the guild in a rush and shouted, “Loke left the guild!”

“What?” Several person asked immediately, “What do you mean by left?”

“Nobody knows why, but he suddenly says he quits and nowhere to be found now. I'm going to look for him!” He said urgently and immediately went out again. All other members followed through.

“That idiot…” Vyera clutched her fist in anger, understood what had happened now, “Lucy! Come with me!” She ordered and ran towards the direction of where she felt the weakened magic power while dragging her sister along.

“Eh? Eh??” Lucy did not understand fully but she followed, “Where are we going??”

"To find that idiot Loke!”

“You know where he is?!” She asked.

“From my detection ability… It’ll take a bit of time explaining but he is-“ Vyera started but was cut off by Lucy.

“I know… I have realised it for a while now. He is a stellar spirit, isn’t he?” Lucy said.

Vyera was startled, “How do you…”

“I don’t know his reason for staying outside Spirit World but… he can't last in human world." Lucy said, "I will definitely force him back to the Spirit World."

Vyera looked at her in awe and finally grinned, “You are definitely my sister.”

Both of them headed towards the deserted area based what Vyera felt earlier. Along the way, she explained to Lucy what exactly happened to Loke and his summoner, Kalian. Kalian was not a good master for the Stellar Spirits and Loke rebelled to save Aries. He was one of the strongest spirit Kalian had at that time but he refused to obey her till she agreed to stop abusing the other spirits. Kalian went on to a mission without agreeing to that and got herself killed. Loke couldn't go back afterwards.

“So… it’s true. Kalian was his summoner. I have had my suspicion.” Lucy said, deeply thinking what Vye had just told her.

“I couldn’t help him. I’m not a stellar spirit mage.” Vye regretted, "No one was in the guild."

The source of magic was nearby. Vye finally realised where they were, "This place… It's Kalian’s grave.” It was surrounded by waterfall. Loke was standing in front of it. He then realized yours and Lucy’s presence.

“Lucy! Vye-chan!” He called, "Why are you here?"

“Never mind that. Lucy knows everything now… Let her help you Loke…” Vyera pleaded, "No... Leo."

“… One of the Ecliptic Zodiac Stellar Spirit, Leo the Lion.” Lucy continued.

“Then… you should know that I’ve killed my summoner and been exiled from the spirit world forever. I’ve only told Vye-chan so far… I can't go back there anymore.”

“Stop being so stubborn. Let her open the gate for you!” Vye persuaded. He just smiled bitterly without saying anything. But Vye could feel his magic power was weakened any second. As expected, he lost his strength and fell on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Loke!" Both of them approached him.

“I’m almost… out of time…” His hand was getting transparent, “This is the end… but I feel lucky to meet a great stellar spirit mage like you, Lucy. Thanks for everything, Vye-chan. I’ll always love you.”

“Stop joking around. Like hell I would let you die!” Vyera said angrily. His soul was slowly fading. He was in a lot of pain.

“You can recover your life force in the spirit world!” Lucy said, almost shouted. “Open! Door of the Lion!!” She said while hugging him, as if to stop him from disappearing.

“Stop! If you forced to open the gate, you’ll disappear with me! Please don’t add on to my sin!”

“What sin?!” both of then shouted at him together. Vyera kneeled beside him, holding him and transferring her power to him, “Is it a sin to save a friend? If that is the rule of the spirit world… I will crush that rule!”

All of the sudden, the water from waterfall flown up to the sky, gathered in a single point. The sky became dark. The water gathered formed a person.

“It can’t… be… Why does the Stellar Spirit King appear here?” Loke said in shocked.

“The King… You mean the most powerful stellar spirit of all!?” Lucy gasped and looked towards the giant old man who was formed from the water.

“… Old friend… We, who pledged oaths to humans, are forbidden from killing. Though not directly, you did cause this indirectly, Leo. It is forbidden for you to return to the spirit world…”

“Hold it! You are being unreasonable here!" Vyera said.

“He’s been suffering for 3 years for his comrade's sake, for Aries’ sake!!” Lucy continued.

“… My old friend’s wish pains my heart but-“

"This is not about old friend!" Vyera said, "Your friend is in front of you right here, right now. He’s nothing but innocent.” She said to the King, “Does caring for a comrade is a sin? Is helping a comrade from a violent master a sin? Answer me.” She demanded.

“…” The King kept his silence.

“Stop it, Vye-chan... I want to atone for this... Disappearing into oblivion is fine with me.” Loke said in desperation, "Please don't do this just for my sake... I am not worth your lifes."

“We will never let you die.” Lucy replied while summoning all of the stellar spirits at once, which was very rare for a mage to be able to summon 5 of the spirits at once, “It is definitely not a sin to help a comrade!”

The spirits all disappeared almost at once and Lucy collapsed of using too much power. Vyera ran over to her to heal her, “Have you ever thought of their feelings or even understand their feelings? We would go as far as sacrifice ourselves to save our comrades. So…if needed, I will use force to send my comrade back to the Spirit World.” Vyera said to the King and stood up after healing Lucy to safety.

“No! Vye-chan! You won’t stand a chance!” Loke shouted desperately but Vye ignored it.

“So, what will you do, my King?” Vyera asked with sarcasm.

“… If you would go this far for my old friend, I guess the rule is the one at fault after all. I’ll take this case as an exception. You are allowed to return, Leo.”

Vyera grinned, “Looks like you’ve got a good side after all, old man.”

He returned the smile, “It has been a while though, Vye, since the birth of Ophiuchus.”

Vyera replid him with a satisfied smile then returned to attending Lucy who was out of magic power.

“Leo, I command you to become a pillar for your comrade and live on. Protect them. Never ever betray them.”

The King disappeared and the surroundings become normal again. However, a door appeared and was opened to welcome Leo back to the spirit world.

While crying tears of happiness, Loke was absorbed back to the spirit world and his golden key was entrusted to Lucy, “Thank you both of you… I look forward on being your backbone.” He said before disappearing.

“… Likewise.” Lucy replied while holding the golden key on her hand.

Vyera put her palm on Lucy’s forehead, “Ne-Nee-chan?” Vye's hand glowed in light green.

“Who told you to be so reckless and summon 5 spirits at once? You could die.” She said with bit anger, “Don't complain. Let me heal you.”

When Lucy felt a bit better, both of them went back to the guild to find it was quite in a mess. Everyone panic but didn’t do anything useful, just running around. After explaining to everyone, the mess caused by Loke’s disappearance finally was finally settled. The usual team took a seat at the counter and Lucy called upon Loke again. Since Loke was not out of power anymore, his pervert behavior came back as well. It was definitely not a good thing. Natsu and Happy also made a fuss over Loke being Leo the Lion.

“Okay, it’s time to go back to the spirit world. Ah, before that,” He searched his pocket and took out a few tickets, “Here, some tickets for hotel at the beach. Since I won’t use it, I’ll give them to you. Take it as part of my thanks. I owed you guys after all.”

Vyera took one when the tickets were given out, “Wow… I haven’t gone to a beach for a long time.”

“I’ve given one to Erza too. Enjoy yourself.” Loke disappeared back to the spirit world.

As expected, Erza had already gotten ready with her usually unusual lots of luggage, while wearing beach clothes. The very next day, the gang headed to the beach to get their rare holiday. It was fun, seeing how rarely they had relaxing days like that, with all those stuffs happening in the guild, in the council and also the demon Xrytos. All of sudden, water was splashed directly to Vye's face while she was lying on the beach chair under the tent.

“Hey! What the hell?!” She shouted angrily and got up, “Who did that?!”

“Nee-chan! Come and join us!” Lucy shouted back, waving to her from the beach, playing with Natsu, Gray and Happy. Her anger subdued. She couldn’t angry at her, seeing how she smiled after the whole Heartphilia incident. She given in and went to join them. Half through the beach volley game, where Vyera teamed up with Gray versus Natsu, Lucy and Happy, a bird came flying towards her. It’s the letter messenger bird.

A bad feeling when she saw the stamp of the letter from the Council, again.

“Freaks… when they will give me a time to rest?” She tore open the letter in annoyance after excusing herself from the game and read what they wanted.

“Hey, Vye!”

“Yikes!” She jumped in surprise, “Oh man… Don’t scare me like that, Gray…”

“You are the one who left in the middle of the game… Another letter from there?” he spotted the letter on her hand.

“Yeah… didn’t mention anything but an urgent matter. All members must present on the spot…” She sighed, “When I will get my holiday again…” She said in frustration.

“So… you’ve got to go now?” he asked, clearly showing signs of disappointment.

“Sorry, Gray… Tell them for me. Make sure you stay alive when telling Erza. I’m going back first. See you later.” She kissed him softly and quickly ran back to the hotel to change clothes and packed up. Vyera, as usual, used her wind magic to fly back home, putting things down and headed towards Era immediately. It was quite a distance but it can be reached within a day. She finally arrived. The guard was already informed of her arrival.

“Miss Vyera, please head to the conference room immediately. The Council members are waiting for you.” The guards informed.

“Okay, thanks.”

She headed towards the direction. This was the first time she will meet them after the interrogation before the Eisenwald incident. She opened the door towards it. The discussion stopped immediately.

“… Looks like I’m late. I apologize for that.” Vyera said and took her seat. “Where’s Jii- ah… I mean, the Head?” She let it out accidentally but took no effort to apologize again.

“He’s attending to another matter.” Urtear answered.

“Hmm…?” She wasn’t not so sure if that was true, as they were always concealing things from her, even so, she was too lazy to argue.”So… what is the urgent matter?”

“… You should know the R system… which is also called Tower of Paradise.”

Vyera was taken aback by that name, “… The taboo magic system that ignore the law of life and death… …What about it? I thought all 7 towers have been destroyed?”

“The 8th tower survived, off the coast of Kaelum. It is under a man called Jellal. Do you know anything about it?”

“… No… never even heard of him.” Vyera replied.

“That’s what we thought… Nothing is known about this man…” said one of the member.

“We should mobilize the army to-“

“Weaklings.” Sieg interrupted.

“What did you say!?” Someone replied angrily, offended.

“You don’t understand anything! To destroy that dangerous thing, there is only one option!”

Vyera could sense his impatience in this. The Sieg she knew would never get panic for something like this. This was definitely weird.

“… Satellite Square’s Etherion.” Sieglein answered.

“No way! That ultimate weapon is even more dangerous than the R system!”

A heated debate began between Sieg and the council members. Somehow, it bothered Vyera a lot on Sieg’s reaction. It was too weird, totally out of his character. While she was thinking on that, some of the members had already started to believe in Sieg’s choice of using Etherion, even if it would mean to sacrifice all the innocent lives in that tower. However…

“The result is four in favor, six against. The Etherion will not be fired.”

“You guys… just don’t know how serious this matter is… The person this R-system will revive… is the Black Mage Zeref.”

“What?!”

“I know Jellal. I will tell you everything I know.” Sieg answered.

And thus, he told the members about Jellal, who was once possessed by Zeref and now was planning to revive him again. Yet, she paid little attention to that. Sieg was definitely planning something but what? His behaviour was just too suspicious.

At the end of another voting, “The result… is two against, eight in favor. Prepare the Etherion! It will be fired within one hour!”

Shitou Jii-san and Vyera were the only ones who were against it. However, there was nothing she could do to stop it now. The meeting was over and all the members were heading to the Etherion system. Vyera decided to confront Sieg immediately. Many things were wrong, definitely wrong.

“Sieg, we need to talk.”

“At this time?” He replied.

“… Just what are you plotting now? You can deceive the elders but not me. Just what is your purpose on firing Etherion?” Vyera asked straightforward.

“… We can’t talk here. Come.” He walked towards a room near there, and Vyera followed without suspecting anything.

Once both of them were inside, he locked the door and looked at her. The usual arrogant and high-and-mighty face of him was back, “… So? What am I planning?” he asked with his evil grin.

“Don’t waste my time. You are this Jellal’s accomplice, aren’t you?”

“… That’s not a bad guess, Vyera… But if I say I’m Jellal, what will you do?”

“… Then isn’t it easy? I’ll kill you right here, right now.” Vyera took her stand, reading to attack him. However, he didn't do anything. He was still smiling, “Are you sure you can? By the way, just additional information for my lovely Vyera… the Fairy Tail gang is in that tower.”

“… What?” Vyera did not expect this. What the hell were they doing there? She knew the beach was nearby the Tower of Paradise but there was no reason why they should be there. They did not even know about this.

He giggled, “Looks like Erza never told you but I, Jellal, was her childhood comrade. Many things happened… but that doesn’t matter now. She will be a good sacrifice in reviving Zeref.”

“Don’t tell me… you are using Etherion to…”

“It’s too late, my dear Gaia… Even if you go now, it will be all too late…”

He slowly disappeared from the locked room. It was only his imaginary body. Vyera was cursing herself for falling into his trick and was now trapped in the room. The door was locked with magic. “Damn it, Sieg!! I’ll never forgive you… if you hurt them… I’ll kill you with my own hands.”

She looked around. Everything was blocked by the magic. She could not get out no matter what she did. Everything bounced back to her. Suddenly, a voice whispered to her.

… Use my power…

“… Ice?”