Oath to Order [End to Sins, Kirahunter]

Simon kicked back in his fancy nest office. The lofty lookout point was now a popular haunt for him since rebuilding the guild in its new image. It had been a while since he had done much of anything, Guild Master or mage related. He had taken to just spending his time sitting at the "summit of the world," guild master of his home and "God of Ishval," there didn't feel like much more to strive for some days. But today he would be taking action. For this otherwise peaceful afternoon was interrupted by a curious beeping noise. Simon recognized it and looked down at his bare chest where a faint light was shining through. "Guess it is time to get to work." Simon looked at his right hand "It seemed like a good idea at the time and it is really hard broiled to show off but..." Simon stabbed his index and pointer finger into his chest, "This is a pain in the ass!" He ripped out a small yellow glowing lacrima as his face grimaced in pain. He looked at the small wound on his chest where his phoenix flames were already begaining to heal "Hold up boys I'm going to need to put it back here in a second." As if in response his healing flames stopped working their magic and awaited their master's command.

Simon rolled the glowing and beeping lacrima in his mildly bloody hand before pressing it between his fingers "I'm listening. What's going on?" A voice came over the communication lacrima "Time to earn that godly title of yours Simon. We found the spider's web." Simon shot to his feet and practically yelled "Holy shit! About time. I'll be right there. Who am I working with?" The voice paused for a short but painful time then said "Just you this time kid. This is your trial. Besides we can't contact the others." Simon grit his teeth, he was getting a reasonably bad feeling about this, but he relaxed and accepted it anyway "Alright. I'm on my way." Before his retainer could say another word Simon shoved the lacrima back into his chest and allowed his regenerating flames to heal over it. He jumped from his office, through the branches of the guild tree and flew into the sky "White Walk!" Simon's feet hit the ground, or rather the air. The sheer force of each step compressed the air under his feet allowing him to stand on air. As such he sprinted across the sky in the direction of Era, it was time for the God of Ishval to show his worth.

The landscape of Fiore blurred around Simon as he made a bee-line over hill, town and rivers to get to Era. The Spider's Web was a code word to refer to an organization of dark mages involved in violent murders and black magic. They were suspected behind a number of murders that had recently began to occur in Era. The man on the other end of Simon's lacrima was his Era contact, a Magic Council official tasked with contacting him with anything happening in Era, these facts combined left him not needing a mission briefing. But he supposed he was going to be getting one anyway once he arrived. Simon tried to remember the first time he had heard of the Spider's Web. It was really hard, it had been a long time, but the earliest time he could remember was probably a time he overheard Leonard being called to do something about them.

That realization hit him like a wall. The Spider's Web had been at large since he was a fledgling mage. Hell the original Guild Master of Fairy Tail had been ordered to dispatch them. Then Simon felt an icy feeling creeping over him. He froze in his tracks, still standing on air, he looked around in a panic. He was in an open field, his visibility was completely unimpaired, there was nowhere to hide he should be able to see anyone within a couple miles. But there wasn't anyone. Just grass in every direction. "The hell?" Simon thought something had attacked him, some kind of ice magic, but that wasn't the case. He resumed his sprint as originally planned assuming it had been nothing. But that feeling had been something, something Simon hadn't felt in so long her forgot what it felt like. It was doubt. The devil may care master of Fairy Tail, the phoenix mage who cheated death every other day, the newly dubbed God of Ishval was suddenly aware of the scale of his enemy and for the briefest of moments he doubted that he could win. All that without even seeing his enemy's face. His role model of a mage had always been the First, Leonard Dragonbane, if he hadn't been able to finish the Spider's Web who was he to think he could? But that feeling had gone as soon as it appeared, going on alert thinking he was under attack had shaken it off him, it had been momentary and fleeting but soon he would have to face it head on.

Era came into sight after a few short minutes. The city was just slowly beginning to regain its dignity. It had been under going a great reconstruction for the last year or two since Acnologia attacked and was only now starting to look like a city again. But there was a shadow looming over it. Dark forces would see it's dignity destroyed for their own purposes. Simon at this time couldn't have possibly known the plans and mission of the enemy before him but even he could feel the scale of the battle he was about to walk into. He darted over the city to the reconstructed Magic Council Headquarters, ever on its little plateau over the city. His contact, a tall thin older gentleman awaited him. Looking very much like some kind of butler he came equipped with a sleek suit and monacle all tied together by an obnoxiously curly mustache. But the whole look was broken by the Rune Knight cape he wore over his shoulders.

Simon dropped to the ground before him "Alright old man. Give me the details." The gentleman adjusted his monocle "Old man indeed. I am hardly in my fifties." The phoenix shrugged "Bigger fish to fry pops." "I suppose you are right." He pulled a rolled up piece of paper from the folds of his cape before presenting it to Simon who unrolled it to look at it. The paper was a map of Era with a number of X's on it. The contact explained "This here is a map of Era as you can see. We believe the Spider's Web is operating under the sewers of Era. These X's mark all the entrances to the sewers nearby their suspected activity." Simon's eyes went wide "Every one of these spots is suspected for their activity? Are you serious Alfred?" Alfred sighed "I am sorry but that is correct."

Simon stared at Alfred with fire in his eyes "And you only tell me now!? What the hell! How many killings must they commit before you call for help?" Alfred uncomfortably looked to the ground "I apologize. We have made our own efforts to apprehend them but they were in vain. We have been taking action but we just wanted to be sure you were needed before we called for you." Simon curled his hands into fists, bunching the map up in his right hand, "Damn it dude! These are people's lives! Who cares if I am really needed or not, if there are people to save I'm going to save them!" The phoenix turned his back to his contact and jumped into the sky above Era. His hunt had begun.

Simon didn't really mean to snap at Alfred, but he sure as hell didn't regret it. It didn't help that the council hadn't actually acquired any evidence that it was the Spider's Web other than that the killings seemed to fit their pattern. But at the end of the day, there were killers and he was going to put them down. Descending from the air he landed on the streets of Era. Some nearby were startled but most were too busy being too self-important to acknowledge the person who had fallen from the sky. Simon tried to not pay too much attention to the upper class masses. The elite of Fiore always set him on edge, he had more than his share of those snobs. But he didn't have time to do soul searching right now or flash backs either. So he darted down a street heading towards a X on the map, but first he had somewhere he had to go.

Okay so maybe he would do a little soul searching and flash backs.

Within a minute he found himself on the fringe of Era where the ruins of a mansion still stood from the Acnologia incident. To say it still stood was a real stretch, it had been all but completely annihilated when Acnologia attacked, someone who hadn't lived in Era before wouldn't be able to identify what it used to be. All that remained a couple of crumbling rooms on the far side of the building that had just been outside the range of Acnologia's Roar. Simon had been standing in one such room at that time. Simon stared at the burnt wreakage. There was less left of it then when he was last here, ashes and pieces having been blown away by wind and rain. The only reason it hadn't been torn down for reconstruction was because technically it was owned by Simon and he refused to allow its destruction. So the pile of crumbling building remained where it was.

Simon shoved his hands in his pockets "Sup Old Man. Just came in to say hi. I guess I felt I should because I'm about to face down the Spider. I remember you used to complain about them messing with your business. So I guess rest easy, they are about to get theirs. Alfred is doing fine by the way. Do you remember Alfred? Probably not, he was just one of a million servants for you. But he's the one who survived so there is that. Only by luck of course but hey, that's also what kept me breathing." Simon's eyes dropped to the ground, this was the poorest excuse for a grave visit ever.

Simon kicked the ground in front of him "So yeah. That's that. Don't stop being dead, I don't want to deal with a zombie. Cya." The phoenix turned his back to the rubble and walked back into Era. He never was too terribly attached to his "dad," mostly because he had a solid 6 father figures and that one in particular wasn't a favorite. But that is a story for another time. He shook off the sentiment without too much trouble and resumed his route to the sewer entrance he had chosen, "I shouldn't have come by. I just got needlessly emotional." Simon picked up his pace again and quickly got to the sewer entrance in question. It looked like just a normal, inconspicuous sewer cap, well of course it did it was the entrance to a sewer.

Simon forced open the cap and jumped down into the dark, dangerous world of sewage.

In all honesty it was rather boring. He landed on a cement walkway on one side of a river of sewage water. It was a pretty nice sewer, it looked like this section pre-dated the Acnologia attack, but at the end of the day it was still just a freaking sewer. Simon manifested a ball of fire in his hand to enhance his visibility and quickly found... nothing. He should have figured it wouldn't be so easy to find the lair of an evil organization of dark wizards who had been in hiding for years. So he put his shoulder to the plow, chose a direction and started walking. His hawklike eyes scanned the stone brick walls and the floor on either side looking for any openings or oddities that indicated a secret passage. With that, time passed. He wasn't sure how long he did this but he had found a number of suspicious things but upon further investigation none had turned out to be really anything.

The phoenix was quickly frustrated by the futility of his search but he kept cool by reminding himself that the magic council had been hounding these guys for weeks to no end. He wasn't going to catch them in ten minutes. A 3 way intersection in the sewer tunnel came into view and it was then that Simon realized he had been walking in a straight line this whole time "Shit just how big is this place?"

"Day 145. I don't know how I've lasted this long. I don't know how it is possible that these sewers extend so far in so many directions. It seems impossible and that impossibility is slowly swallowing my sanity. The others in their disturbed states have all long since collapsed and stopped moving. I would go back to help them, try to get them out of here, but not since the last one attacked me. I worry this may be the work of the Spider's Web, some zombie madness curse set upon these sewers. I dread when the same fate shall befall me.

"Day 674. I have given up on surviving this ordeal. Surely by now the Spider's Web has already enacted their plan. The world above is likely destroyed. All is lost. I live only because my miraculous anatomy allows me protection from death. For now. But it is only a matter of time before death takes me."

Simon heard a beeping that shocked him our of his self narration. He froze in surprise, his eyes darting around taking in every detail of the space he was in. Then he became aware that the beeping was his communication lacrima. "Holy shit! Have they remembered I'm down here? Might this be salvation?" With hope in his heart Simon eagerly removed the lacrima from its fleshy storage space and he answered it without even bothering to clean off the blood "Alfred?! Is that you?!" The old butler mage's voice calmly replied "Yes it is me. Has something happened?"

The eye's of the phoenix lit up like bon fires, there was still hope for the surface world. "Thank whatever divine you choose to believe in. After all this time I feared it was too late. I thought the world above was destroyed. Oh man but if you're here then things are okay up there. But down here... oh Alfred its terrible, everyone's dead. They went mad from the time in the tunnels. The entire search team save me is gone. All the food is gone. I've been running on fumes for the last two years. I can't find the Web or an exit. You've got to help me!"

Alfred sat back in his chair blinking furiously. He looked between the lacrima and Simon's psychological analysis report. Every Wizard Saint was screened for their mental health or other quirks so that their handlers could more easily guide them. Generally by the time someone obtained the power to be called a Wizard Saint they had acquired quite a number of personality quirks.

Alfred's eyes fell on a line of Simon's report that he had become quite familiar with and everything became clear. The old man sighed with relief and he calmly replied to Simon, "It has been one hour Simon. Everything is fine. You didn't have a search party. We sent you in alone." Simon was appalled, what Alfred was saying was impossible "No way! That isn't true! You can't tell me Johnathon, Dimitry, Sarah, Clyde and Meldia didn't exist! They were my friends and they gave their lives for this search! How dare you insult their sacrifice!?" Simon was fuming. What was Alfred thinking? 1 hour? That was absurd. He continued yelling into the lacrima, "I know I'm probably off a couple days, maybe even a few weeks. Just because it is hard to gauge time without the sun. But I have a very acute sense of time. I've felt the days, weeks, months, years pass, I've felt the hunger of a life time Alfred. I can't believe what you are saying."

But Alfred remained his composure and calmly addressed The Phoenix "Simon. Your God Leg magic allows you to move insanely fast yes?" Simon couldn't grasp what that had to do with anything, he was tempted to throw down the lacrima as Alfred was seeming quiet insane, but he replied anyway, "Yeah but I don't see how that is important. Sure I could have ran through the sewers much faster then walking but then I wouldn't have been able to scan it in such detail. I would have missed a hidden entrance or secret passage, like the one I needed to find." Alfred kicked back in his chair and explained "Your God Leg magic allows you to travel at mind boggling speed. But it comes with a hefty cost. Your perception of time is speed up astronomically. The world around you seems to move at a crawl whenever you are alert or under pressure. This allows you to see without motion blurring your sight, even when traveling at absurd speeds. Additionally you have a highspeed metabolism that requires you to eat constantly to maintain your God Leg abilities. When you become hungry your perception of time speeds up even more so that reality becomes an essentially freeze frame to you." Alfred let that sink in before continuing "We're going to bring you up. Get some food in you, prove that only an hour has passed and go from there. Alright Simon?"