Fairy Tail Bluemage (Chapter 10) (Patreon)

"That was stupid and reckless, Merlin." Levy growls as we ride back towards Magnolia. 

"Well... Yeah..." I wilt slightly under her glare. "But it worked?" 

Lucy is sat nearby, staring at the black key clutched in her hands. She appears to be deep in thought. 

"Ugh." Levy scoffs, crossing her arms and looking away with an annoyed pout. "I swear... you're almost as stupid as Jet and Droy at times... I thought you were supposed to be the sane one in Fairy Tail! The one that does calm and reasonable things... like get the magic council involved instead of burning down Phantom Lord's guild building... Not punching up at things that could reasonably be considered gods." 

"I uh... am always willing to put my life on the line for my friends?" I try with a small shrug. 

"I'll punch you again." The girl pouts. "Don't ever scare me like that again." 

"I... don't know if I can promise that... the life of a Wizard is dangerous... but... I'll try." 

The girl opens her mouth to say something but lets out a long sigh. "That's about as good of an answer as I can expect, I guess." 

She rubs her forehead. "How did you even manage to defeat him?!" 

"Uh... well, I sort of cheated... you know how in dreams you can make things that like... don't make any sense at all? I basically dragged him into a dream battle I got a massive dragon to fight him." 

"Oh... and... your mind coule make something that powerful?" 

"Well, technically speaking... in a dream, couldn't you destroy an entire planet if you were a lucid dreamer?" 

Wait... 

Wasn't there a 'Lucid Dreamer' feat in pathfinder. 

"..." 

Huh... 

I'll be taking that soon enough to see how it works on Mr. Bahamut. 

"So it was luck?" She blinks. 

"I prefer to use the term. 'strategy'." I reply. 

A long breath leaves her lips. "Well, at least Loke is safe- er- rather... Leo..." 

"Yep." I nod slowly. "We did good today." 

She lets out a quiet yawn and wipes her eye. "Yeah... now all that's left is one more matter." 

"Hm?" 

"Books or spell." She declares suddenly. 

"Fuck. I thought you'd forget about that in all the chaos." 

"I rarely ever forget." She grins viciously. 

"Fine... come over tonight. I guess I can do it then." I let out an annoyed groan. "Levy, when you ask me to do stuff like this, you do know I feel like you did with what just happened, right?" 

"Hm. Maybe feeling it will make you not scare me half to death again, then." She shoots back. 

"Whatever. I'm too exhausted to argue." I sigh as I slump back in the train seat. 

As we fall into a comfortable silence, I begin to take stock of my changes. 

Bahamut is... 

He's terrifying. 

He dispatched a full-power Celestial Spirit king with relative ease. 

Now, the king himself didn't have that good of a showing in the anime. I mean, he was barely a match for Mard Geer... but that was merely because he was relying on Lucy herself. He was relying on her own magical power, thus, there's no way in hell that he was at full strength... 

Like he was inside my mind... battling Bahamut... 

At this point, I'm sort of convinced Bahamut could take Acnologia in a fight. 

Regardless, the gambit paid off. The king was doing good work against him... 

Until he Mega-flared... 

He bombarded the entire area with magic... heat seeking magic. That attack alone was what took the celestial spirit king out of the fight. With one final push against the Megaflare... a machinegun blast of magical attacks... the king lost his arm and leg and did one final blow to Bahamut. 

That... is when he called it quits and the dragon looked at me... then promptly set me on fire again. 

Regardless. The gambit worked well. I have claimed a bit more of Bahamut's power. 

But... I'm sort of 'capped' at what I can access. 

Eikon Status: Irked 
Dominant Level: 5 

Your Partial Prime form now grants you +4 Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom, and +2 Dexterity Intelligence and Charisma. Additionally it grants a further +40 Temporary Hitpoints on top of the amount it normally gives. 

That remained unchanged since level two. 

What I actually gained, was firstly... extra mana. I got a bit of that.  

Then... I gained the ability to summon an 'elemental' to do my bidding. I can do it thrice per day... plus my charisma modifier- which is currently one. 

These elements then, in turn, last a minute per level, have enhanced strength and constitution- from Augment Summoning which I got for free. 

Useful for my Dry Ice Dragon. 

Then I gained possibly the most important ability... 

I unlocked some of Bahamut's natural capabilities... 

They are less powerful than his, sure. 

Or rather, they are limited by my body. 

They are still those all-powerful abilities he himself uses, just... I am not magically strong enough to draw out their full potential... they also have cooldowns, apparently. 

Eiconic Spell: Impulse 
Spell Level: 2 
Casting Time: 1 Swift Action 
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level) 
Target: One or more enemies up to a maximum of 4 
Duration: 1 round/Level 
Saving throw: None 
Spell Resistance: None 

You conjure an orb of energy and fire it at an enemy as a Ranged Touch Attack. This attack deals 2d6 points of non-element damage. This attack, regardless of hitting or missing will bend around and attempt to attack again on the next round. Every time an orb successfully strikes its mark, it deals a further 1d6 damage on the next round to a maximum of 2d6+1d6 for every 2 Caster Levels you have. On the final round, this orb detonates, dealing its damage in a 5 foot radius. 

Note: You may conjure one additional orb for every 2 extra MP you spend to a maximum of 4. 

Cooldown: 3 Minutes. 

This spell is quite good. I can slap an extend on it and I'll be doing seven d-six per round with four orbs. 

Eiconic Spell: Megaflare 
Spell Level: 5 
Casting Time: 1 Full Round Action 
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level) 
Target: Any Number of enemies 
Duration: 1 round/Level 
Saving throw: Reflex Half 
Spell Resistance: None 

You create a torrent of destructive magic to assail your foes. You fire three missiles of magical power plus one for every four levels beyond 10th. Each missile requires a ranged touch attack to hit and deals 6d6 damage in a 10 foot radius. Should these beams miss their targets and not strike anything they will circle around and attempt to strike again in 1d4+1 rounds. 

Note: there is no maximum amount of MP you can spend on this spell. For each additional increment of 5 Mp you spend, you shoot an additional 3 Missiles. However, with greater power and more missiles comes a greater loss in accuracy. For every 5 Mp you spend, you take a cumulative –1 on your Ranged Touch Attacks. 

Cooldown: 60 Minutes. 

I have an 'ultimate spell' now, at least. 

With my current magical power I could probably obliterate an entire town with it quite easily. 

Especially. If I toss in some fun metamagic effects. 

The only issue with these spells is that I have to be in Partial Prime to make use of them. 

Oh... I'm also level seven now. 

Lion's Last Roar: 
Loke is a celestial spirit. That's news to me! Oh... wait... he should have been chumming up to Lucy right about now. Protecting her from the likes of Gajeel... yeah. That didn't happen so Lucy has no real need to follow him around after he quits the guild. And at this point? He's considering quitting. 

Objectives: 
Make Leo Survive: [x] 

Bonus Objectives: 
Do it without Lucy's help: [-] 

Reward: 10,000 Experience, items worth up to 4000 GP/Gil 

Yep, that gave me more than enough experience to level up. Thus. Fourth level spells. 

That means more Mp. Oh... and Levy won't be forced to suffer a full ten hours now. 

But. There was one final thing I got for my gambit... 

An Achievement Has Been Completed: 

True King: 
You have challenged the Celestial Spirit King... and you have won. You are one crazy bastard, aren't you. Does this make you the Celestial Spirit King? Ah well. this'll let you bend the rules just a bit, hm? 
Reward: Specialized 'Summoner Key's added to the shop which uses celestial spirit magic to summon monsters from the bestiary or a person from the 'Iconics' list, Any One sole 'Summoner Key' of your choice of CR 15 or lower. 

I'm mainly trying to figure out what spells I should get and what key I should get. 

Most of the normal 'Dominant' eikons are CR fifteen exactly. 

Like, Ifrit. Leviathan. Phoenix. Titan. Shiva. 

I could even theoretically get Tifa... she's an 'iconic'. 

Eh. I'll probably give this Lucy. It says it uses celestial spirit magic. I can't really copy Lucy's magic. 

Her spells are basically just 'Summon Virgo' or 'Summon Aquarius'. 

I'll totally nab Gottfried or Urano Metria when she gets either of those, but for now, her magic requires items. Items I don't have nor have any real interest in grabbing. 

I tap my chin, deep in thought. 

For Lucy... I'd want at least something powerful. But not too powerful. 

Some keys have different levels of power... think of it like my Dry Ice Dragon. A little MP has it appear as a hatchling, but the more mana I put it, the stronger it'll become. Some of these summons are the same way. However. The price for the keys are based on its 'highest tier'. Thus, hypothetically, I'd need to buy a Great Wyrm dragon to even get a hatchling. 

I'd totally give her a dragon if I could, as she could control how much magical power she uses on this key, but... the oldest form of dragons are on average about CR twenty two. About seven over my limit. 

There's another thing to consider... 

Boss template. 

Some creatures are naturally like... video game boss enemies. 

ALL the eikons are, some are even 'Minibosses' and 'Superbosses'. 

A boss enemy is stronger than a non-boss one... thus... the keys are more expensive... and I'll bet, more magically expensive as well. 

I doubt Lucy could summon an Eikon, so I'm looking for something with multiple levels.  

Fuck. 

Flan Princess would be perfect, honestly... but its strongest form is a sixteen. 

It... honestly looks like I'll be forced to choose an 'Iconic', but the real question is 'which one'. 

~~Linebreak~~

I look to Levy who is sat on my bed, she gazes over the runes I have surrounded her general area with, then looks up to me.  

She seems to says something, but I don't hear her. 

I lean through the vertical wall of glowing runes. "Pardon?" 

"I'm ready." She declares. 

"..." 

I let out a long sigh. "Fine... Levy... I- I'm sorry about this." 

"I know. It's my fault for making you do this. I won't hate you. Just. Just hurry up. I'm getting nervous." 

"Do you want me to make you a sandwich for later?" I question. 

"U-Uh... Yes? If you wouldn't mind?" She replies. 

"Alright. I'll do this. Make you a sandwich. Then I'm going to sleep on the couch." 

Wait... you could just put me on the floor, I don't mind! I-I doubt I'll be caring about my position much soon." 

"No. It's eight and a half hours. I want you to be as comfortable as possible during that time." I frown. "Now... I am going to start now... Once more, I am so so so sorry, Levy." 

Red lines appear on her face, it seems to creep down her neck, over her collar bone, down her arms and disappearing into her dress. 

It reappears later, coiling around her legs. 

She clenches her teeth, hands shaking slightly. 

I step back. Out of the runes... merely because I don't have the heart to hear her screaming. 

I turn around, not wanting to even look at her in pain, then make my way to the kitchen. 

My eyes widen slightly as I return after a brief moment. Surprised to see the girl lying there, body twitching. Teeth grit. 

She shoots the ceiling a hardened glare. 

She's not screaming. 

She... is so determined to get stronger. 

God. That's sort of hot. 

I place her food on the bedside table then quickly walk away, leaving her to her focusing. 

I rub my forehead as I lay on the couch, gazing up at the ceiling. 

The battles of today are starting to get to me... 

It has been a really long day. 

We still need to find a place to sell our Wyvern materials. 

Luckily things don't seem to age inside the requip space... or, if they do, it's at a reduced rate. 

~~Linebreak~~

Pov: Nearby. 

A gasp leaves a blue haired girl's lips as her body falls slack. The white hot pain that was lancing throughout her very being abruptly vanishes. 

She blearily looks around in a tired haze. 

"..." 

A long breath leaves her lips as she shakily sits up. 

She is exhausted. 

It has been a long day. 

Numerous train rides. Wyverns. 

Then there was that whole thing with the celestial spirit king and Loke- Leo. 

A shudder of excitement seems to bud in the girl's chest. 

She can feel it. 

Her magical power. 

It worked. 

In just eight hours... she more than doubled her magical capacity! 

According to Merlin, she should even be able to access new levels of power now! Not just be able to use more magic. 

She shakily gets to her feet, passing through the soundproof barrier that is still around the bed. 

She looks around, spying two sandwiches sat on a plate upon the bedside table. 

They're cut diagonally once each. 

Her stomach rumbles slightly as she reaches over and takes one of the sandwiches. 

She slowly walks forwards as she takes a bite, looking around the house. 

Its...  similar to what she has in Fairy Hills, actually... or, at least, it WAS similar. 

The blue haired girl herself has had dozens of bookcases installed. Her room is more like a library than an actual room at this point. 

She pauses as she sees the one who did all of this asleep on the couch. 

He must have been even more exhausted than she herself is. Having apparently defeated the celestial spirit king in a duel. 

Ugh. That stupid idiot. She can't believe he'd risk his life like that! 

She reaches down and brushes a strand of hair out of his face, the corners of her mouth turning upwards. 

She pauses as she stares at her face, her lips twitching downwards slightly. 

"..." 

She leans down and plants a small kiss on his lips. 

That. Was for unlocking her second origin. 

Her face is nearly beet red at this point. Why did she do that?! 

It... just seemed like a good idea for her tired brain. 

That- that was nonconsenting! She- She's going to get arrested! Oh god! 

~~Linebreak~~

I let out a tired yawn as I slowly trudge through the street, tiredly wiping an eye. 

"Merlin!"  

I glance over my shoulder to see Levy quickly rush down the street with a wave. 

"Hey Levy." I greet. 

"W-Why'd you leave without me." She pouts slightly, her face lightly flushed. 

"Oh... well, I assumed that you wanted to get a little more sleep, honestly. I know after my experience with that all I wanted to do was just not move for a day or two... plus, I really didn't want to bore you with the sale of the wyvern parts." 

"Speaking of which." I continue as I bring out a stack of bills. "Here's your half. Three hundred and seventy nine thousand. 

"T-Three hundred thousand?!" 

If you combine it with the earlier reward we got from the village, that's a good half a million each. 

"That- That's more than I normally make in a month!" She gasps. 

"Higher ranked missions are worth far more." I shrug. 

"But- But I just made five months worth of rent in just one day?!" 

She seems to hardly be able to believe it. 

"Hey, that's also around five months for me as well. That's pretty unbelievable for me as well." I shrug. "Er, well, four at least." 

She seems to be struggling not to say something... 

"M-Merlin, can... can I use any new s-spells?" She asks suddenly, seemingly losing the mental battle against herself. 

"Uh... I'll check later." I decide. "When we're not in the middle of town." 

"O-Oh! Right!" She smiles. "Soooo uh... w-what are you doing today?" 

"I was thinking about finding Lucy again... something strange happened after I allowed the Celestial Spirit King into my mind and promptly defeated him." 

"Huh? What do you mean?! Are you alright?! Are you hurt? Should I take you to Porlyusica?!" 

"I'm fine. I'm fine, Levy, calm down. Nothing dangerous, just weird." I placate with raised hands. 

She seems to let out a long sigh of relief. "Alright... what's different, then?" 

"Well, uh..." With a flash I pull out two keys, the first is comprised of a greenish silvery metal with what looks like an angular kite shield on handle. The 'teeth' of the key, or where it originally would be, looks to be the blade of a sword. The next is a deep shiney brown with what looks like a picture of a bird head on the key handle. Its 'teeth' are relatively normal as far as keys go. Not specialized like the silvery one. 

"Huh?" The girl blinks. 

"These are key magic items... I'm not exactly sure if they're celestial spirit magic. But... I can sort of... make them?" 

She blinks slowly. 

Then lets out a long sigh, rubbing the bridge of her nose. 

"You can make them?" 

"Uh... Unintentionally? I guess?" I nod once. "They sort of just started appearing in my requip space at random. The reason why I think that I'm making them is, well, this is bronze... and this is Mythril. Both are not keys you'd typically find in in Celestial Spirit Magic." 

"Alright. Now you've sort of got me curious... CAN Lucy summon these? Let's go find her!" 

~~Linebreak~~

"Lucy... do you have any idea how hard you are to find in this city?" I question as Levy and I slip into the booth across from the girl in question. 

"H-Huh? What is it?" She asks. "I was just eating lunch! Do you two need something." 

"Not really. Here." I state blandly as I hold out my fist. 

She blinks owlishly down at her hand as I drop the two keys into it. 

"What- what are these?!" 

"Keys. I wanted to know if you could use them." 

"Wh- I- I don't know... first I'd need to learn their names." 

"Oh, Well, I mean, I confirmed my suspicions that you can use them just by looking at you with them. You've now got the spells 'Gate of the Rosen Bird, Chokobo' and 'Gate of the Paladin, Agrias'." 

"Those- those aren't constellations!" She mutters under her breath. "This- this doesn't make any sense... where did you even find them?!" 

"Around." I shrug. "Maybe it's a gift from the celestial spirit king? I did sort of defeat him in a duel and he seemed like the honorable type." 

"Maybe..." Lucy whispers. 

"So, have you tried summoning The Flag yet?" 

"I did last night... I... honestly don't know what I expected. It was a flag. That's sort of all she was." 

"Like... was there any sentience?" I question. 

"Well, it was a celestial spirit. Of course there was sentience." She notes. "She sort of just bounced around through. Bending like a noodle at times. The only issue was communication... I ended up being forced to summon a second celestial spirit to translate." 

She wilts slightly. "Even summoning a non-combative spirit like Crux nearly knocked me unconscious... black key spirits seem to drain far more magic than even gold. I could barely keep both gates open for five minutes before I was completely exhausted... though... at least I managed to form the contract and figure out some things." 

"Oh?" Levy smiles. "What'd you figure out?" 

"Well, firstly, I summoned Vexillum in a weakened state... apparently all 'Black Key' celestial spirits and up have two forms. The first, a sort of 'power saving' form, then their 'true' form. The way Crux explained it is that... it's... well... say for instance you get 'The Dragon'. It'd appear in its power saving form and that could be anything from maybe just a human-like appearance like Leo, Virgo, Cancer, or Sagittarius or it could be just a small dragon. His TRUE form, however, would be a real actual dragon." 

"Oh." I note. "So his 'true form' would have a mouth to speak, then?" 

"She." Lucy corrects at my slow blink she elaborates. "She was very clear that she wanted to be referred to as a girl." 

"Ah. I see. Alright." I mutter. 

"But yes, supposedly her 'true form' does have a mouth to speak." 

"What does she do?" Levy questions. "If it's a Black Key, surely it must be powerful right?" 

"It is." Lucy nods slowly. "It's really good for a mage guild, actually." 

"What she does, is basically a bunch of 'faction boosting' effects. So, like, if I summon her, and wave her around, then most importantly give her enough magical power, she'll make it so all people on my 'team' or in my 'faction' gain a physical and magical boost while they're in a certain radius." 

"That's- That's incredible!" Levy gasps causing me to nod along. 

"That is really impressive, actually." I agree. "I wonder what their 'true' form will be like... surely it'll increase their power, right? Would that unlock any additional effects?" 

"I don't know." Lucy shakes her head, gazing down at the two keys I gave her. "You said the Rosen Bird and Paladin, right?" 

I nod once. 

I eventually decided on an 'Iconic' character from Final Fantasy... mainly because I could slap the boss template on any of them. 

Turns out, the Boss template can be put on any creature. It just increases the cost of the key in question... also probably makes them harder to summon. 

The thing is, it doesn't necessarily increase CR. 

My reward specified any key of Cr fifteen or below. 

It didn't specify non-boss... 

Or non superboss. 

That key in Lucy's hands... 

Agrias the Paladin. 

She... 

She's going to be an absolute monster once Lucy is able to power her up a bit. 

Luckily the Iconics have multiple levels. They have a level one stat block. A level five. A level ten. And finally a level fifteen. 

Reasonably, even with the superboss template, Lucy should be able to summon her at level one. 

A level one superboss is still a level one. I doubt she'd really compare to even a gold Celestial Spirit. 

I chose the paladin for one reason. 

Lay on Hands. 

A potent melee fighter with some spells who is perfect at guarding their allies, having an ability to take attacks for nearby allies. Lay on Hands is just an added benefit. Then she gains access to legitimate spell casting later. 

She will be versatile. 

Plus, Lucy should be able to star-dress into her if she ever needs any additional protection... plus it should theoretically allow her to heal. 

Healing is extremely rare here in Fairy Tail. Mainly because it's hard to learn, not necessarily rarity. To even start learning, you need to know the ins and out of the human body like a surgeon or professional doctor. Giving lucy a 'it just works' way to heal would be quite the boon. 

"Well, Levy and I are probably going out into the forest to see if she's learned any new spells. Care to join us?" 

"uh... sure." The blonde nods. "Let me just finish my lunch and we can go! Thank you so much for all the Keys, Merlin." 

"You're the only one who can really use them." I shrug. "I could have tried my hand at it, but eh. I feel you'd be able to give them the attention they deserve more than I can." 

"Thank you." The girl whispers. "I-I'll make sure to pay you back for this!" 

"Don't bother." I wave off. "You're my friend. It's the least I could do."