Fairy Tail Bluemage (Chapter 11) (Patreon)

"So... Did I get anything new?" Levy questions. 

"uhm. One second... with you, it's a little hard to tell..." I admit.  

"Hard to tell?" She echoes. 

"Well, Yeah." I nod once. "I see spells. Not magic. So... for Lucy over there, I see her numerous contracted gates and Star Dress... for Natsu I'd see Fire Dragon's Iron Fist, Fire Dragon's Roar and so on... but with you..." 

"Oh... Right." She blinks down at her hands. 

"It's like I'm looking at a swarm of angry bees, honestly." I admit with a slight cringe. "It's a little hard to sort through considering you have magic ranging from 'Solid Script: Apple' to 'Solid Script: Castle'." 

"Castle?" The girl echoes. "I don't think I could do that before..." 

 "Let's see here... I'm sorting based on overall magical drain now... Apocalypse. Tsunami. Volcano. Earthquake. Blizzard... you can do practically any one-word natural disaster now. Maybe don't use any of those for now though, as even with your expanded magical capacity you'd likely get knocked out of the fight from using it." 

"Alright." She nods. 

"Uh... you've got Hyphens now it looks like." 

"Really?!" She gasps. 

Her finger darts through the air. 

"Apple-Pie" 

A steaming circular pie- made of the words 'Apple Pie' appears. 

A grin crosses her face. "YES!" 

"This- This changes everything, Merlin!" The girl exclaims. 

A small smile works its way onto my lips at her excitement.  

It sort of warms my heart to be the cause of that excited grin. 

"What can I do now?" She whispers, gazing down at her hands. "There's so much I want to try. So much I need to try!" 

"Can't you theoretically make four-word effects using Hyphens and that trick I showed you earlier?" 

"OH YEAH!" She beams. "This is incredible!" 

"Alright, I'm ready." Lucy calls out. 

Our attention is ensnared by Lucy as she stands next to a massive pink bird. 

Pink Chocobo was honestly the strongest thing I could get her at four thousand gold. 

It's better than a normal one. 

A normal Chocobo has no special traits. That one can cast Choco-thunder and Choco-cure once per day. Plus it can glide.  

Normal yellow Chocobo can't do that... despite having almost EXACTLY the same stat arrangement and CR as pink Chocobo. 

Honestly... 

Why would you ever pick a normal one when you could just grab a pink one? The pink one even has more health SOMEHOW despite legitimately having the exact same stats. 

"Open! Gate of the Paladin! Agrias!" She swings the key downwards. 

She lets out a quiet gasp, body stiffening slightly.  

This one seemed to take a lot of her magical energy. 

Suddenly... there is an armored blonde standing in the clearing. 

There's a slight seriousness to her expression as she looks around slowly. She eventually locks eyes with Lucy and kneels, her sword stabbing into the ground. "Are you my new master?" 

"U-Uh-uhm." Lucy balks. "Yes, but please don't call me master. I don't like that title very much." 

"Very well, what shall I call you, My Liege?" The bowing knight questions. 

"U-Uh... Liege is a bit much." 

"My Queen?" 

"Still a bit much." 

"Lady?" 

"That... is fine, actually." 

"Very well, my lady! My name is Agrias. I am your sworn sword and I shall place my life on the line to protect you from any potential threat you might have." 

"W-Well- uh... I don't want you to die! No dying! It is my first order as your summoner to value yourself!" 

The armored figure blinks up at Lucy in confusion. 

"Next. Ah... you see the way this summoning thing works, is you typically tell me days you don't want to be summoned... or... like... is there anything you want?" 

"A guardian blade cares not for its usage as long as it is to protect the one it is meant to. you may summon me whenever and use me for whatever." 

"She... honestly kind of looks like Erza." I whisper to Levy. 

"I- I can see it." The blue haired girl nods along. "It's the face and bangs, mostly, right?" 

"Mhm." I agree. "Plus the armor and sword... the only thing that could make them more similar is if she said something along the lines of 'I have made a mistake. Please hit me in retribution'." 

"Lucy just summoned her. She might. Give it time." Levy huffs. 

"Very well, Agrias. I'll call you in the future." Lucy declares. 

"I wish you well, my lady!" The knight replies. 

"Close! Gate of the Paladin." Lucy waves her hand clutching the key, causing the gate to snap shut. 

She lets out a long breath. "Well... that was tiring..." 

"I don't think that was her full power either." I note. 

"It wasn't." Lucy shakes her head. "I only put in enough magic to summon her... but this greedy key wanted to eat even more of my magic!" 

"How draining is she?" Levy questions. 

"About... as draining as a golden celestial spirit." She admits. "Which is a bit weird... she's not a constellation or anything, but to drain that much... she must be powerful, right?" 

"From what I saw, she has some pretty potent capabilities." I nod quietly. "Want to see if Erza would be up to fight her? It might be useful to know her true power in comparison to an S class." 

"Let... Let me rest for a bit first, then sure, maybe she'll be up for a spar." 

"If she's here, at least." Levy notes. 

"It hasn't been too long since fairy tail's guild hall was destroyed. She's still here." I hum, causing Lucy to glance down at the ground slightly, a guilty look appears on her face, as she tightly clutches the key. 

~~Linebreak~~

"S-sooo. Uh... Merlin." Levy begins. 

"Yeah?" I ask as I walk side by side with her and Lucy. 

"Would you... mmmmmaybe like to form a team?" 

"Hm?" I hum. "Didn't you just end your last team." 

"Y-You don't want to?" 

"No that's not what I mean. I'd love to be in a team with you, Levy. You're dependable, strong, fun to be around and have probably the most versatile magic that has ever existed. It's just... are you sure that you're ready to have a new team?" 

"W-Well." She stutters, her face growing red. "I'm ready..." 

"Alright, then I guess we could be a team." I shrug. "That's fine with me. It'll be nice to have someone to talk to on the long train rides, I guess." 

Lucy looks between me, then Levy, then back to me, an impish grin appears on her face. "Sooo-" 

"Oh hey." A voice calls out. "I've been looking for you three." 

"LOKE?!" Levy exclaims. "What are you doing here?! You should be resting!" 

"Well, yeah, probably." He shrugs. "Buuuuuut here's the thing. Here take this." 

He lazily tosses something. 

Lucy scrambles for a moment but eventually snags the object out of the air after fumbling around. 

"..." 

"Your key?" Lucy gasps. 

"Yep. Call me whenever." He winks with a charming smile. 

"Also." He turns to look at me, holding out his hand. "Here. You did me a solid, Merlin... and... I'll never forget that. You are a good friend... fucking stupid for what you did, but a good friend nonetheless." 

I look to the object he gave me, blinking down at two... tickets? 

"I was gonna go to this resort with some girls back before the guild hall was hit." He shrugs. "but, well, a lot has happened and these day-pass tickets are going to go out of date soon, soooo I thought they shouldn't go to waste while I'm resting up. Go have fun you three." 

He also gives a ticket to Lucy and Levy as well. 

"Huh..." I mutter, gazing down at the ticket. "Well, damn. Thanks Loke... or would you rather go by Leo now?" 

"Either's good. Just whichever you feel like at the moment." He shrugs. "I had five and I heard about Erza helping you go see your dad, Lucy so I gave one to her." 

"H-Huh?!" 

"Spirits love to gossip as long as it doesn't really effect their contractors in a life-threatening way." He shrugs with a small grin only for it to disappear. "Which is why I'd like to say one thing... Lucy... when I saw Aries in the spirit world and I'm sort of nearing the edge of the rules here, but... from what I could see... she wasn't happy with her new master." 

"I mean, Karen was killed... it's likely the killer took the keys." I note. "She's probably under the service of a Dark Wizard now." 

"Thats- That's horrible!" Lucy gasps. 

"From what I've heard- and technically speaking, this isn't any summoner threatening information at all, I just want to be clear on this as I've already cleared this up with the Celestial Spirit King... as long as I don't give you a name, face, location or any physical descriptors I'll be fine- she is contracted alongside Scorpio and Gemini." 

"She- She has three golden celestial spirits?!" 

"Yeah... it seems that way." He nods. 

"Lucy... if you see any of those three... please summon me. It'll mean a lot to me. It's a personal matter at that point." 

"I... I will!" Lucy declares, a resolute glint in her eye. "Now... you go rest!" 

"Alright, fine." Loke smiles. "Erza looked pretty eager to get there though... and with everything calming down and the guild hall beginning to get repaired she decided that her help wasn't really required at the moment." 

"Well, I mean, you gave me two tickets..." I blankly stare down at the ticket in my hand. "I guess I could give one to Natsu... but then I'd feel a bit shitty leaving Gray out. How much were these?" 

"About fifty thousand each." 

"Eh, I can afford a ticket for Gray." I shrug.  

"I could help you pay." Levy points out. "Gray and Natsu are my friends too." 

"Hmmm alright. Half and half?" 

She nods once causing the corners of my mouth to turn upwards.  

"Lucy, Merlin, Levy... I'm always going to have to live with what happened in the past..." Loke begins quietly. "But now, I guess I have the courage to start moving forwards... thanks to you, I'm not just a nameless member of fairy tail that comes and goes. Now that I'm your celestial spirit, Lucy, I promise to always be there for you and protect you." 

"But I'm not just going to be your wizard." Lucy grins, giving him a thumbs up. "I'm also your friend, too." 

"I'll see you all around." He waves, a smile working its way onto his face. "I'm going to go take a load off." 

"Bye Loke. Take care." I wave. 

"Get well soon." Levy agrees.  

"If your numerous trips to the human world make you sick, I'll never forgive you." Lucy frowns.  

He disappears in a flash of light. 

"Sorry Lucy, looks like that fight between Agrias and Erza will have to come another day." I shrug. 

"You seemed like the one who was most interested in the outcome." Levy observes with an amused huff. 

"What can I say? It sounds like an interesting fight." I shrug. 

~~Linebreak~~

My blood rushes through my ears as I stare down my opponents. 

Truly. This is the most danger I've been in the entire time I've been here... 

"SHE'S SPIKING!" I shout. 

"AAAAAHHHH!" Natsu shrieks as I fearfully gaze up towards a figure suspended in the air. 

Her entire body is shadowed, eyes almost glowing. Her hand is brought back. You can almost see a glint of evil in her smile as it's as if steam escapes her mouth. 

A ball is poised right in front of her hand. 

She swings her hand downwards causing the ball to ripple slightly under the sheer force of the blow. It rockets towards me. I narrowly manage to turn my body to the side, barely avoiding the attack. 

"EEP-" Natsu squeaks as he leaps slightly, the volleyball passing between his legs. 

It seems to spiral upwards, much like a curveball, then strikes Gray in the face. 

There's a bone-crunching impact as he falls flat, the ball rebounding upwards with a dull thud. 

"HE'S DEAAAAD!" I cry. 

"GRAY NO!" Happy agrees. 

"I'll avenge him!" Natsu declares as he leaps, following the ball upwards. 

"Get her Natsu!" Happy cheers. 

"HAAAAH!" He shouts as he spikes the ball. 

The red haired woman in a bikini bumps it with her clenched fists, causing it to get knocked upwards. 

A blue haired girl also in a bathing suit sets it up with two hands. 

Erza's eyes glints as she goes to spike again. 

"Haaah." I sigh as she sends the ball hurdling downwards. 

I tilt my head slightly to the side, the ball whizzing past my ear and slugging Natsu in the stomach. 

"GUUAH." 

"Natsu!" Happy cries. 

He collapses forwards onto the ball.  

"Yes!" Erza declares. "Another point!" 

"I'm done." I decide. 

The red haired woman pouts slightly. "What? Why?!" 

"Because I feel like if I let you spike the ball again I'll get decapitated." I drag my thumb across my throat with a half lidded stare. "I mean, really, don't you know any restraint?" 

"You must never show worthy opponents mercy!" She declares. 

I walk back to the two fairy tail wizards, flipping Natsu over with a lazy and soft kick, just so he isn't face-down in the sand. 

Yep. 

Unconscious. 

I walk over to Gray... whose nose looks pretty bad right now. He is also knocked out. 

"Healing Ruby. Magical Hygiene"  

I watch his nose mend; the blood being washed off in a shower of bubbles. 

"You... uh... did go a little hard there." Lucy points out. 

I reach down and check Gray's pulse. 

Oh good. He's still alive. 

Somehow. 

"So. What now?" I question. 

Natsu snaps awake. "I want to ride a roller coaster!" 

I give him a flat stare. "You... do?" 

"Yeah!"  

"Hey Levy, can we get some water to dump on Gray to wake him up?" 

Her finger swings through the air, the word 'water' made entirely out of, well, water appearing. 

It seems to condense into a large sphere and shoot forwards, arcing downwards and erupting over the black haired wizard. 

He sputters as he snaps awake, looking around. 

"So... you're finally awake." I hum, with a half-lidded stare. 

"I'm done!" He quickly exclaims. 

"Hm?" 

"I'm not playing murder ball with that monster anymore!" He points at Erza. 

"Hehehe Gray you're such a pussy!" Natsu cackles.  

"He got taken out like... six seconds later." I admit. 

"Oh yeah, Natsu?! I guess I'm just something you've never seen." 

"I've seen tons of idiot wizards before though." 

"Do you count a new one every time you look in the mirror?!" 

They begin having a comical dust-cloud fight. 

"Remember that time you guys were afraid of Erza and acted like the closest of friends nearly constantly around her?" I question suddenly. 

They freeze abruptly. Gray has a hard around Natsu's throat, fist reared back while Natsu has an arm raised, preparing to block the punch and has his other arm drawn back, looking like he's about to karate-punch Gray in the chest. 

"..." 

Their eyes flick to Erza who is stood beside me, looking unimpressed, hand on her hip. A single eyebrow raised. Then back to me. 

"Believe me when I say this... if you guys ruin my vacation... Erza will be the least of your worries." My smile grows as my eyes narrow. "I'll show you both a smidgen of the power I used to defeat the Celestial Spirit King. If I hear tales of a Fairy Tail Wizard causing property damage while we are here I will beat you both within an inch of your lives, heal you, then do it again. Understand?" 

They both repeatedly nod. 

"Merlin's almost as scary as Erza." Happy chimes in. 

"Wonderful!" I beam. "So, Natsu. You wanted to ride a Roller Coaster? Why don't we go to the amusement park itself, hm?" 

"Uh... should he really be riding one of those with his motion-" Lucy begins. 

"No No." I wave off. "Let him figure it out on his own." 

Erza takes the volleyball with a fairy tail emblem on it, then requips it away, then does the same to the fairy-tail branded volleyball net. She had brought both, of course. 

"Let us go to the park itself!" She declares proudly. 

~~Linebreak~~

I walk through the expansive park, a small smile on my lips, drink in hand. 

At my side is Levy who quietly eats a parfait. 

There's a scream above us as a red head, a blonde, a black haired guy, and a pink haired wizard swoop by. 

The pink haired wizard in particular looks like he's about to throw up, body limp like he just got knocked unconscious. 

"SOMEBODY GET ME OFF THIS THIIIIIINNnnnngggg-" and suddenly he's out of earshot. 

"So... we're in agreement, we don't know him, right?" I hum, glancing to the blue haired girl walking alongside me. 

We are still in our beach clothes, Levy in a red and white striped bikini and myself being in just swim-trunks. 

She lets out a quiet snort. "Merlin! That's mean!" 

The reason we aren't up there is because, well, we knew this would happen and I didn't want to get Natsu's puke on me. Levy seemed to be in agreement, so we went and got something to eat. 

"What?" I ask, a small grin on her face. "Don't tell me you weren't thinking the same thing! I heard that snort!" 

"I... just don't know what he expected." The girl huffs. "He went on that stingray pulled surf thing back at the beach and the same thing happened. You'd think he'd learn..." 

"Maybe he's just looking for the one thing that doesn't make him sick?" I shrug. 

"I just wish there was something I could do to make him stop being sick." The girl sighs. 

"Honestly, same... but I'm not sure if that's within my capabilities." I agree. 

~~Linebreak~~

"Are you ready?" A voice calls out as I adjust the cufflinks of my suit. 

"Yeah." I reply as I walk to the door and open it, revealing a blue haired girl in a fairly luxurious looking red dress. 

"I still don't think this is a good idea." I sigh. 

"Aww come on, Merlin! Live a little!" She beams. "Natsu and Gray are already downstairs, and I think Lucy is convincing Erza to come out of her room." 

"Wait wait wait... you left Natsu... Unattended?!" 

"He's not that bad." She frowns. 

I give her a half-lidded stare. 

"..." 

"..." 

"Maybe we should hurry." She decides. "N-Not because Natsu might break anything, but just so we can get to the good machines before anyone else takes them! R-Right? Right." 

I let out an amused huff as we both walk down the hall towards the casino below. 

A quest has been received: 

My eyes lazily scan the screen as I continue walking. 

A Hellish Heaven: 
Erza's past is haunted by intense trauma and fear. Now it appears that said trauma is finally catching up with her. 

Objective:  
Protect Erza: [ ] 

"Something wrong." I frown suddenly. 

"H-Huh?" Levy mutters. 

There's some quiet screams from up ahead. 

Then... 

The lights go out. 

My eyes narrow slightly as I peer around. 

A low breath leaves my lips as I grasp Levy's hand and begin running forwards. 

"Wh- What's happening?" 

"That is what I'm about to find out." I decide. 

The lights flicker back on and we see Natsu stood in a slight crater, standing above a dude that looked like he climbed right out of some Minecraft rip off. 

He looks up. "Oh! Merlin!" 

He pales rapidly, seemingly remembering what I said earlier in the day. "T-This guy started it!" 

"Aye Sir! He's telling the truth! Natsu didn't do anything!" Happy declares. 

"I believe you." I state as I slowly walk forwards, gazing down at the unconscious cube wizard. 

"Damn... maybe I need to purchase some Anti-magic cuffs." I sigh, gazing over his spells. 

"When this guy wakes up, he's getting away. There's literally nothing we can do to stop his teleportation." 

"That isn't important!" Natsu declares. "He's looking for Erza!" 

"Erza?" Levy mutters. "Why?" 

"I don't know." Natsu shakes his head. "He just used this weird cube magic to pin me to the wall asked me where Erza was, then the lights went out and I broke free and punched him." 

I gaze at a broken magical gambling machine. 

Yeesh. That's going to probably be a little expensive. 

If we get stuck with the bill, I'll come back and try to fix it with Make Whole. 

"Alright, maybe she's got answers... and if you got attacked, well, Gray and Lucy probably did as well." I frown. "let's go." 

"Right!" The two wizards beside me nod. 

"Aye!" Happy agrees. 

We rush forwards at high speed, passing by a large guy with an eyepatch. He's crumpled on the floor with a little ice around him. 

Gray's handiwork. 

We eventually make it to what can only be described as a clusterfuck. 

Lucy is tied up, in some sort of rubber-like rope, there's girl with some cat features at on a nearby table, hands raised in surrender as the blonde form of Agrias holds a blade to her throat. 

Gray locked in place, an angry look on his face as he stands across from some tan blonde dude who is holding a card above a lighter. Erza just looks shell-shocked. 

My eyes scan the surroundings. 

"These people did nothing to you! Let them go!" Gray shouts. 

"I don't feel inclined to do that. Let Millianna go and give us Erza." 

"Invoke." I sigh. "Natsu. Give that guy a punch. Non-magical if you would." 

With a flash, dozens of cards across the floor begin to glow. 

People appear with flashes, replacing the cards as they create a tangled pile of confused people. 

"Huh?!" The tanned wizard blinks as he is now holding someone by the throat. 

But that blink was a large mistake as in under a second Natsu clears the distance between them and smashes a crushing punch to his jaw that nearly causing the man to do a full flip. 

There's a flash of movement as Agrias abruptly slashes Lucy's bindings, causing the blonde to quickly hop away. 

She disappears abruptly as Lucy grabs her keys and resummons her. 

It appears... Agrias came here under her own power. 

She levels her sword at the cat girl. 

"W-Wait!" Erza shouts. "Please don't hurt them!" 

"..." 

A long sigh escapes my lips as I grab the bridge of my nose, giving Erza a flat stare.  

"Explain. I've already been forced to deal with one tragic backstory this week. Looks like it's time for a second." 

"Merlin!" Levy frowns, giving me a light shove. 

"What?" I ask. "Oh, wait that came off as pretty aggressive. I didn't mean it like that I mean it as 'what do I have to deal with- as in shatter into a million pieces- to make you feel better?'." 

"This... is my own fault..." Erza sighs. "I alone should deal with it." 

"Erza. No. That's dumb." I deadpan as people begin to quickly get up and run away. "Stop being dumb." 

"Merlin's right!" Natsu declares, clenching his fist. "Who do I gotta beat up to make you feel better!" 

The red haired woman stares at the floor, her fists clinched and eyes narrowed. Her hands shake slightly but she doesn't say anything. 

"..." 

"Alright. New Strategy." I decide. "Cat girl. Explain. Why are you and your friends ruining my Thursday?" 

"Nyaa~" the girl smirks. "Well, its quite simple... Erza betrayed us." 

"Pull the other leg." I deadpan. 

"Hey! I'm not lying!" The girl with red markings on her cheeks sort of like whiskers growls. "She ABANDONED us!" 

"Yeah. There's literally no way she would have done that." I deadpan. 

"I did..." Erza whispers. 

I look over my shoulder, gazing at the woman. 

My eyes flick over her form. "Hm. But it wasn't your choice, was it?" 

"..." 

My eyes narrow slightly, noticing how she stiffens. "Someone forced you to leave, didn't they?" 

"Nya?" The girl tilts her head. "What are you talking about?" 

"Use your brain, cat girl. Do you really think Erza would willingly abandon anyone? If you actually knew her, you'd know that wouldn't be the case." 

"This isn't your problem, Merlin!" Erza snaps suddenly. 

"Of course it is." I smirk. "You're in Fairy Tail, right? That makes it our problem" 

"he's right." Levy declares.  

"I already fought something that could be considered a god for my friends this week. So. What do I have to defeat?" A slightly savage grin crosses my face.