"Hah!" Minerva lurched forward, gasping and coughing. "Hah… Hah… Where are we?"
Sitting on the other side of a small campfire, Harry moved his wand through the air. Perfectly–cut branches of wood floated closer, adding themselves to the blaze. When the flames burned hotter, Kagura stretched her fingers to better heat them where she was kneeling, off to Minerva's left.
"At the bottom of the waterfall," Harry said. "It seems to be some kind of valley. Feels like a different world, doesn't it?"
Compared to the arid desert above, the terrain here was lush. The waterfall they'd fallen down roared a distance away, creating a constant stream of mist wafting off the deep pool at its base. A much calmer stream flowed out, curving through a foliage-dense forest. Footsteps were visible in the muddy bank, marking where Harry had dragged his teammates out of the water.
Wind blew through the canyon, swaying branches, and Minerval abruptly leaned closer to the fire, crossing her arms in front of herself.
"I could have warmed you with a spell, but that wouldn't have done anything for your wet clothes," Harry said. "Better to get dried out the old fashioned way."
Multicolored light flickered around Minerva's hands, but they were embers compared to the wild fire her magic usually was. As fast as they appeared, they were gone. Minerva buried her fist in the mud next to her.
"He took my magic!" she said.
"Mine as well." Kagura glanced at the Sabertooth mage, before her pupils flicked to Harry. "I train my body extensively. Through that, I was able to stay conscious. A normal mage's survival would be doubtful after such an attack. Our condition is far too good."
"Speak for yourself! We don't have magic!" Minerva said.
"We're breathing. We can move. We're conscious," Kagura said.
Minerva took a deep breath.
"He was invisible," she said. "It was an ambush. I recognized the man with the blindfold. He was Aria, the second strongest mage in Phantom Lord, Jose's old guild." With visible effort, she made herself look at Harry. "You were right."
Harry inclined his head, acknowledging it without seeing the need to speak on it further.
"The two of you feel alright?" he asked. "I healed you the best I could, but it's never been my specialty."
"So it was you." Kagura sounded as if she'd had suspicions confirmed. Lifting her sword arm, she curled her bicep, flexing her fingers. "I'm a bit stiff. Nothing more."
"I won't die," was Minerva's muttered answer.
"Good, good." Harry got up, stretched, and spun his wand in his hands, catching it in a duelist's grip. "It's about time we got back up there l, then."
Minerva actually laughed… until she saw that Kagura had stood, silently joining Harry.
"That's insane!" Minerva leaned forward, propped up on her knees and one hand as she threw her arm out, almost burning her palm in the campfire. "You're insane! We don't have magic. We're mages without magic! What on earth do you expect us to do?"
"I have my magic," Harry pointed out calmly.
"There is a Wizard Saint up there! With him are two S Class mages! You can't fight them alone! Not even a God of Ishgar could!"
Instead of taking offense, Harry turned to Kagura.
"Your sword isn't related to your magic, is it? Can you handle the swordswoman?"
Kagura gripped the hilt of her sheathed blade. She nodded.
Harry turned back to Minerva. "Well, it looks like I'm not alone. The question is, will you be there with us, or are you going to stay here?"
"You're both crazy…" Minerva said.
Harry looked at her. She was on her hands and knees, shaking despite the proximity of the fire. Sighing, Harry pocketed his wand. He walked to Minerva and knelt in front of her. It didn't escape him that she flinched.
"Look at me," he said, and she did.
"We have a job to do. Right now, people are relying on us. At the enemy's guild hall Jura is leading a team of our guildmates, fighting a battle just as important as the one here. If they're attacked by the people we were supposed to stop, some of them are going to die. Now, if we go up there, and fight in our current state, we could die. It's true! But that's what it means to be a mage."
He grabbed Minerva's shoulders, firm enough that she couldn't get free. In truth she didn't try. A strange, shell-shocked look had crossed her face.
"Our job is to do things no one else can do— it has to be us, because we're the ones with the power to pull it off! I'll face danger, because no one can face it for me. If we only do what's safe, despite the power we wield… If we're willing to stay down when it matters… Then we don't even deserve to be called mages!"
Harry thumped Minerva's shoulder twice, jolting her.
"I'm going to go back up there now, and I plan to be the big motherfucking mage who wins. The question is, will you hide down here, or will you be up there with me? Are you a real mage, Minerva?"
"How dare you?" Minerva said, but there was no heat in her voice. It sounded like a real question. How can you dare to do this?
"I'm asking whether you're a mage or not," Harry said. "If that question offends you, then prove me wrong."
And what do you know?
When he stood up, Minerva did too.
O-O-O
The dark mages were exiting a thin canyon when Harry launched his attack.
They had been maintaining a rapid pace with an unconventional method. All three were being carried by Jose's shadows, two to a person, letting them glide along the arid ground similarly to Harry on his broom. If it wasn't for Harry's ability to Apparate, catching up would've been nearly impossible.
But as fast as they were, he was faster. Harry was waiting for them, and when they reached the right spot, he swung his wand.
"Confringo. Bombarda Maxima. Expulso. Expulso. Expulso."
To go with the explosive rain, Harry sent boulders careening down the walls of the canyon.
He jumped off of his perch, still casting spells, while a charm removed all friction from the bottom of his feet. As he slid down the canyon wall, he watched one of his boulders get reduced to pebbles, sliced into a thousand pieces.
Ikaruga had abandoned the shadows that were carrying her. She bent her knees, launching herself at Harry.
Mid-flight she was intercepted and knocked off course. Kagura's scabbard-bound sword struck Ikaruga's blade, knocking her back. Kagura kicked off the canyon wall, her face a picture of seriousness, engaging Ikaruga in a trade of blows. Their swords soon traveled so fast that Harry could only see blurs.
He trusted Kagura and turned his back on them, focusing solely on Jose and the tall blindfolded man beside him. Harry's vigilance was for nothing. When Aria prepared to attack, Jose lifted a hand to stop him.
Harry was allowed to land just a few meters away. He was wary of traps, but none sprung.
"You're a ghost," Jose said.
He seemed to have calmed down significantly since his emotional outburst at Harry's guildmark. Harry reckoned it was because Jose considered him to be stuck in the palm of his hand.
"Funny. I feel alive and well. Though you do seem to be an expert on ghosts…"
Harry looked at the shadowy figures floating around Jose while the man laughed.
"Yes, you're very alive. Annoyingly so," Jose said. "But you wear the mark of a corpse. Fair Tail is dead. Their strongest members died futilely on an island in the middle of the sea, and the most worthwhile of the dregs have already left. Only stubborn, worthless stragglers remain. We fought once, you know? Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord's clash was one for the ages! Now, Aria alone could wipe out every member in an afternoon."
"Doest he want to start with me?" Harry asked.
"We'll get to that." Jose didn't sound upset. "I want to enjoy this moment. You're probably giving them hope, aren't you? Those worthless ones who never could've held a place in my guild, who can only cling to the strong— the leftovers. They are clinging to you, I imagine. Maybe they even think Fairy Tail will come back!"
Jose doubled forward, laughing. Harry considered cursing him, but chose to let him speak. The more he was allowed to talk the more arrogant Jose became.
In an instant, his humor vanished, leaving him straight-faced. "There was no place for me after what Fairy Tail's master did. He turned the Magic Council against me. I was banished. They wanted to lock me up! Me! They must regret that now. Aria and I found a new place, somewhere our talents would be appreciated properly. Ikaruga is even stronger than Phantom Lord's elites, and Death's Head Caucus has more mages of her caliber. Here, we can practice our magics without being held back by the law! Here, we've flourished."
Jose flicked his wrist. Immediately, Aria moved, activating a spell that caused him to fade from sight.
He was there one moment, gone the next. That would be pesky in a fight; it certainly explained how Aria got the drop on Kagura and Minerva. For Harry, he simply tilted his head to the side, activating another of the enchantments on his glasses.
All sources of heat in front of him were illuminated, including Jose's outline and that of the man himself, Aria, purposefully circling to Harry's right.
Harry shot a blasting curse with perfect precision, nailing Aria in the chest. He couldn't dodge but created some kind of wall of air at the last second. He was still thrown into the side of the canyon hard enough to dislodge rocks.
Jose scowled.
"You and your tricks," he muttered. "Just like the rest of your guild, always winning through tricks! But in the end, those fools all died, and I still live! Let me send you to join the rest of Fairy Tail, where you belong!"
Darkness swirled to life around Jose's clenched fists. When he raised them, the beams that shot out threatened to cut Harry in two.
Harry conjured balls of light all around himself. While none of them were strong enough to neutralize Jose's magic, they weakened every attack, and most importantly he could keep them active without thinking.
Shades swarmed out of Jose's shadow, forming an army that flew at Harry on all sides. Harry levitated grains of sand, weaving a mass-Transfiguration that combined globs of miniature rock and transformed them, creating bombs with wings. They looked almost cartoonish with their spherical black shapes and the white bird wings coming out the back— there was nothing goofy about their effects.
Each one detonated with its own fierce blast. Jose's shades were blown back, retreating into his shadow. Jose roared, collecting the debris and combining it into a barrel in front of him.
"Shade Magic: Sunkiller!"
Harry knew it was time to move the moment he felt the power building up.
Instead of Apparating, Harry ran and jumped in the air, pulling his broom out of a pants pocket that was larger on the inside. As he mounted it and sped forward, Jose released his attack, slicing straight through the sandstone cliff.
The beam tracked Harry's path as he raced toward the end of the canyon. Just as he was about to escape into the open desert, where he could turn out of the way, his broom was knocked out from under him.
Still only visible thanks to Harry's glasses, Aria's outline could be seen flying beside him, hands raised from the blast of wind magic that disrupted Harry's flight.
Harry tumbled toward the ground. The beam came toward him from behind. His wand was still in his hand. He could Apparate, just as he could've done at the start…
His eyes flickered between the attack and Aria's position. Making the call, he decided that now was the time.
Harry conjured a shield. The incantation was just Protego, not Protego Maxima, and Jose's blast ate through it after only a brief hesitation. Harry was hurled away, following a trajectory that landed him next to a scraggly sagebrush bush. Thick tendrils of magic curled off his body from head to toe.
"Haha!" Jose threw his arms out, truly looking as dastardly as the dark magic he wielded would suggest. "Once again, Fairy Tail goes down!"
Aria reappeared beside Jose. He was crying, but only a little bit.
"Master," Aria said. "As sorrowful as this is, something feels wrong. His ally hasn't given up."
Kagura and Ikaruga had traveled a distance away, their blades clashing endlessly. Kagura was cut along one of her cheeks and the side of her arm, but Ikaruga's kimono was ripped along her stomach, with her skin sporting a huge bruise.
"It's desperation, no more," Jose said. "What can she do, fighting alone without magic? The one she followed into battle has fallen, and the third has already run away—"
Jose was interrupted by a glowing ball forming between him and Aria. A woman's hands reached out of the orb, grabbing him and Aria, slamming their faces into the ground hard enough to shatter the ground.
Aria ate the full impact, but Jose's shadow spun like a hand on a clock, positioning itself where he was about to land. Jose's body passed into the dark patch, reappearing twenty feet away, his body cloaked in shadowy magic.
"You! How?" Jose shouted.
Minerva emerged from the ball of space magic she had formed, landing deftly on the ground. She extended her hand lazily to the side, creating a glowing ball around Aria's head, detonating it. The wind mage didn't rise.
"I don't know how, but it worked, you crazy bastard!" Minerva shouted.
Jose twisted his head to see who she was talking to. What he spotted was Harry suspended in a blob of Minerva's Territory magic. The magic power from Jose's attack was being siphoned away from Harry, following a faint trail all the way to Minerva's body.
"Territory: Drain," Minerva said. "It allows me to absorb magic power. Enough to regain what was taken from me."
As she spoke, she conjured a second example of the same spell, drinking all the magic Aria had to offer, returning the favor for his attack earlier.
Glowing balls appeared around either one of Minerva's hands, though her usual smirk was absent. She bent her legs, facing Jose.
Phantom Lord's ex-master didn't stay stunned for long.
"So you gambled everything on your teammate, to the point of letting my attack strike you," Jose said. "How idiotic. How utterly Fairy Tail. Very well! Watch, I'll dispatch her first and send you after! Shade Magic: Unholy Kingdom!"
The spell's impact was so tremendous that it even interrupted Ikaruga and Kagura, throwing them to the ground. Thousands of shades streamed out of Jose. No— tens of thousands. His eyes glowed purple and his hands were sheathed in pure shadow. Above his head, a castle formed, smaller than Hogwarts in size but still larger than Fairy Tail's guild hall.
The gates of the shadowy castle flung open. Out marched knights, each made of ten shades or more, wielding swords taller than a man. Some were mounted on shadowy steeds. As one they charged, bearing down on Minerva, who desperately called on her magic.
"Watch, as your precious ally is crushed by my might!" Jose howled.
"You get more cliche when you think you're winning."
Jose froze, cackles dying in his throat. Before his magic soldiers reached Minerva, an arm had draped over his shoulder.
Harry's nose was bleeding and he had a split lip from the attack he'd eaten, but no amount of blood trailing off his chin was going to stop him from grinning.
"You talked a lot of shit, Jose old buddy old pal, but you overlooked one thing." Harry leaned close to the man, whispering to him. "You gravely underestimated my desire to fuck you up."
Jose's glowing eyes flashed with fear. Ironically, the moment of his grandest attack was also when he was the least defended. Every one of his shades had been called out to attack Minerva, leaving none to protect him. They tried to reach their master now.
Too late.
Harry leaned back, yanking Jose with him, and the two sank straight through the ground.
Harry transfigured dry dirt into soapy bubbles underneath their backs, allowing them to fall twenty meters underground. Spinning his wand, Harry created their final destination.
He formed a room out of bedrock, with white walls and absolutely no windows. It would've been pitch black, but he made lights— a thin, stretched version of Lumos covered all the walls, lighting every direction in equal amounts. Standing across from each other, neither Harry nor Jose cast a shadow.
"As much as you gloat, from the sound of it, Fairy Tail beat you," Harry said. "They fought for what was right until the day they finally met their match. Compared to them, you stooped to evil the second things didn't go your way. From that moment on, it was already over. Even if all of Fairy Tail died the day after you joined a Dark Guild, they still would've had you beat a hundred times over."
"Shut up!"
Jose threw his arms out. But here, in the room Harry had crafted, his shades were cut off. He didn't even have a shadow to wield. He was trapped amidst light, his natural weakness, with no chance to escape or retreat. Jose was at Harry's mercy.
Harry's first act was to drop his wand.
"Let's see…" Harry rolled his shoulders, squeezing his wrist until it popped. He wiped away the blood on his face with the back of a hand. "What was it Seamus always going on about? Power comes from the lower body, keep the spacing in mind… Alright, I think I've got it!"
"What are you doing?" Jose demanded. He had started to back up, his eyes darting as he looked for a way out that didn't exist.
Harry came toward him, his arms raised.
"I have a friend back home whose favorite thing in the world is a good fight. On his nights off he'd go out, get drunk, and find someone equally hammered who wanted a scrap as badly as he did. When they were done, they'd often go for a drink together… But that's beside the point." Harry squeezed his fists, popping the knuckles. "You said that Fairy Tail wins through tricks. We all know that's crap, so I'm going to prove it."
Jose was horrified. "You can't mean…"
"What's more straightforward than a fistfight? Put 'em up!"
Harry stepped forward, threw a jab, and caught Jose with the very first punch. The Ex-Wizard Saint's head rocked back. His lip split the same way as Harry's. Bellowing, Jose lashed out with a wild swing. Harry easily leaned out of the way.
"You're open!" he shouted, smiling.
Harry's right hook knocked a tooth straight out of Jose's mouth.
O-O-O
Minerva stood with her hands raised, bubbles of Territory Magic surrounding them, prepared to defend herself.
Jose's shades had charged her, but after their master was dragged underground they'd frozen. Minerva wasn't ready to relax, hence her ready stance, but she really wished Harry would come back already.
Not because she was worried about him! She was worried about herself…
Kagura and that pink haired swordswoman were still dueling. It seemed like they could've fought for hours, from what Minerva could see. The match was perfectly even. Aria was in an awful state behind her. It all came down to Harry and Jose.
"How did he take them underground, anyway? What is his magic? Nothing about him makes sense!" Minerva complained. "And where does he get off saying I am not a mage!"
"You're a mage alright! You proved it the moment you got off your arse and followed me!"
As the voice called out to Minerva, the day brightened, the shades filling the sky disappearing and letting the sun shine down. Mid-duel, Ikaruga raised her hands. "I surrender!"
Kagura's sheathed sword stopped right next to her head, in position to knock her out at the slightest movement.
Minerva didn't care. She spun toward the hole that had formed. "Harry!"
She wasn't happy to see him, specifically. Really, any teammate placed in that position would've gotten her worked up. And surely, another mage's words would've gotten stuck in her head the way that his had, right? Rattling around, stuck between her ears, making her question everything she thought she'd known…
She had to shake her head vigorously to clear away all her useless thoughts.
Minerva watched as Harry floated out of the hole on that ridiculous flying broom of his.
Dangling by one ankle from his hand was an unresponsive Jose Porla. Jose had lost a third of his front teeth, with two swollen-shut black eyes to go with his holey mouth.
"I won!" Harry announced.
He threw Jose forward, where the man landed awkwardly, groaning with past swollen lips, his appearance absolutely brutalized.
Just when Minerva thought Harry couldn't get more attractive.
Wait, she didn't mean that!