The Shattering Return to Reality, Simon VERSUS The Past? [Kirahunter Job]

On the distant island name of Ca-Elum a storm brewed over its large central volcano. The weather wasn't abnormal for the tropical climate but the size and scale of the rumbling clouds had citizens hiding in their homes. In one case it had a young man hiding inside a volcano, which was a bit of a redundancy because the volcano was his home. It had been for some of the earliest years of his life and now for the last five. Deep within the volcano where the heat should've killed any person who dared enter was a humble home carved in to the volcanic rock on a small stone ridge above a pool of bubbling magma. Inside, sitting atop a rock shelf fashioned into a rough couch was a man clad only in a black towel wrapped around his waist. It would certainly be all but impossible for anyone to recognize him, it had been five years since he had shown his face to the public, five years that is from his perspective.

Months ago but arguably years ago...

"Renaissance Flame!" A body broken and beaten and terribly wounded suddenly exploded in a blast of massive blue flames. However this was not his death, rather it was his trump card, the power of the phoenix flame which allowed the master of those flames to cheat death time and time again. The explosion would damage his foes, heal his allies and revive himself. But it didn't work that was this time. His foe the Dragon Knight Lancelot descended from the sky, crashing through the fire pushing it back with a single hand. His touch warped and corrupted the flames shoving it back into the boy's body. The flame's no longer recognizing their master began to burn him instead of healing him, for the first time making him taste his own fire. He surely would have died if Shuhei hadn't arrived on the scene. The white wizard swept in repelled the dragon knight and ultimately defeated Lancelot.

He survived the day but when he regained consciousness he learned his magic was lost. Lancelot's corrupting hand had stolen away his powers. The great wizard saint was now a powerless child. It was a humbling experience, or rather an incredibly embarrassing one. Fearing ridicule for being stripped of his magic, the boy ran. He never stopped, not ever, he could not.

He wandered the world for weeks seeking out an old magic he had heard stories of. The boy wanted his powers back, needed them back and fast. Learning magic took time, despite his prodigious ability it’d take years to return to his full strength, but he couldn’t afford to vanish that long. The world would move on without him, and that was something he was not willing to permit. So he’d make time, by going back in it. His search would eventually bring him to an artifact that would permit him to do just that, it was a one way trip but he was ready to take the long way back. So into the past he traveled five years.

Spoiler alert: turns out his old magic was one of a kind. There was no getting it back, The Phoenix was done. With that he was stranded in time, unable to reclaim his old magic, and so he did the only reasonable thing to do: make a brand new one.

Back to the present...

The young man had apparently been sleeping on this stone slab, in the middle of an active volcano, without clothes on. Then a most curious thing occurred a yellow light started pulsing under his left pec accompanied by an annoying beeping. It persisted for a few seconds before the young man woke up with a groan. He looked down at his glowing skin and his face contorted in frustration "Oh shit. I left that in there. That's going to hurt to get removed." The beeping originated from a communication lacrima that the young man had embedded in his own skin back when he had magical healing powers. Back then his body made an excellent bag of holding, especially since his pain senses were numbed, he could just cut himself open to store and remove things as he needed. Now those were powers he lacked and that lacrima had not been removed in advanced, retrieving it did not seem like an activity he wanted any part in. He figured he could answer it just by pressing on his skin, it was touch activated anyway. Hoping for the best he pressed hard on the glowing spot with his right hand and surprisingly enough the beeping and glowing stopped and a voice emitted from what could only be assumed was the lacrima. "Simon?! Simon is that you?"

Simon grumbled, "What'd you need agent?"

A relieved sigh played over the lacrima, a bit awkwardly muffled having been buried under a bit of skin but clearly a sigh non the less, "Oh thank heavens you answered! I knew you'd still have this lacrima on you!" Simon squinted at the lacrima, "You said you wouldn't contact me anymore. What's going on?" The voice replied quickly, "Right of course sorry. I am contacting you know because we need you out of retirement, there is a matter only you are truly qualified to handle. Simon you surely remember we first came in contact when I assigned you, while you were a Rising Star, to handle the issue with the Wizard Saint's vault. Well the problem is something happened down there, the team we had down their securing the vault has been attacked by an unknown force." Simon raised an eyebrow, "Only after all this time? Er well I guess it hasn't been as long from your perspective but uh... Anyway how come only I can handle this? There are tons of people who can help you." The voice raised its volume when it replied, "Simple. As the person who found the vault you know the terrain best. Further more the assailants appear similar in nature to the forces you dealt with back in the Spooky Forest early in your career. The ghosts as you described them. Additionally as a former Wizard Saint, you have a certain obligation to preserve your order's history. You are uniquely qualified to recover the vault. Anyway we only really need your knowledge. We're preparing a team to escort you as we speak." Simon stood up and yelled, "Like hell I need an escort! I'll do this job and do it myself. I don't know about that Wizard Saint obligation business, but if I really am the only guy I really am the only guy." The voice protested, "Now hold on boy! Your enthusiasm is appreciated but your magic is well... gone." Simon stomped his foot on the ground, the volcano shook in response, "Now how about you hold on! You may not believe me, but I'll have you know my plan worked old man. I succeeded. I went back, I'm older now stronger now. I've got magic again."

There was a long pause over the line.

Eventually the voice spoke up again, "Well then Master Simon. It's a pleasure to be working with you again."

Simon stood up dropping his towel, "Yeah yeah. Good to work with you too I guess. I more or less remember where it is. I'll go in, clean the place of whatever ghastly goonies are haunting it and report back to you. Sound good?" The voice asserted itself, "Hold on its not that simple!" Simon walked over to a closet carved into the stone and picked up a pair of pants, "Sorry agent. I believe it is in fact that simple. Now excuse me I am getting dressed."


A few minutes later Simon was standing on the mouth of the volcano, now fully clothed in his standard garb, he was looking out towards the world around him. The island, the ocean, and the world beyond it. He popped his neck, stretched his arms briefly and thoroughly stretched his legs, he knew this was going to be a real long trip. More specifically a long run, some mages took trains, some mages took boats, Simon personally chose to run everywhere. Even if everywhere included across an ocean. He took a few steps back, putting his heels to the lip of the volcanic crater and took a deep breath. A five year break was about to come to an end with a mission of paramount importance. Simon couldn’t help but smile a little, sure it seemed like it was going to be a drag, but he was going to be back in the game. Saving people, fighting monsters, being a hero. His journey was not over. He put his right foot first, leaned forward on it and took a minute to appreciate the landscape of the island below. Ca-Elum was his childhood home and more recently his hideaway for five years. The island nation meant a lot to him, it was his beginning, his present, and maybe more important his salvation. It was the fires of its great volcano, that one which he now stood on, which had rekindled his magic and gave him his second chance. As he stood there he hesitated for half a second. Butterflies filled his chest, he was anxious about leaving. No rather he was anxious to escape.

The warm gushy flowery happy feelings of his home and and “salvation,” aside the volcano had been one more thing to him; his prison. Time travel was dangerous, the slightest distortion in the past could have unprecedented consequences on the present. The only way Simon could have been sure that the same present he left would be waiting for him, was to live as a recluse. Upon reaching the volcano he had never left. This was the first time he had been outside of it in years. Sure he had stood in the light of its crater fairly often to stop himself from becoming a gross pale cave dwelling thing, but had still been within its walls, walls that no normal man could get through. If his lacrima communicator had picked up a message from this time, that meant it was the alpha version again. The past version had gone back in time, Simon wasn’t living in the past anymore. An infectious grin grew on his face as he again set his sights on the ocean before him, out towards the continent of Fiore. He was free.

He took a step forward, then another, gaining dramatic speed with each, still speeding up he reached the edge of the volcano’s rim and just continued running. Not over the rim and down the side, but out into the sky, onward and upward. Simon whooped and laughed hysterically, he was running again, full tilt, truly sprinting, for years his legs had been cramped within the volcano. There was room to run there plenty, Simon ran lots, but there was never enough room to sprint. When you’re a world class speedster, it isn’t worth doing if it isn’t at top speed. Lost in the euphoria of taking to the air, Simon however failed to notice that not using this ability in years had taken a toll. He was rapidly descending. There wasn’t even time to cuss before he ran right into the beaches sand. The sound of crash muted out Simon’s yells of frustration as what looked like a mushroom cloud of sand shot into the air. Simon found himself face down in a massive crater, its edge inches from the water line, he was lucky if he’d gone any farther he’d have crashed into the sea and for a lava mage that would have been real bad. He rolled over, his face caked in sand, and wiped off his face with his jacket sleeve.

Finally able to force open his eyes he found his vision spinning, distorted forward by the descending clouds of sand. Naturally his everything hurt and he really didn’t feel like moving.

He probably stayed there for about two minutes berating himself for not checking if he could still fly before launching himself at the ocean. Eventually he pulled himself off the ground and climbed out of the crater. He looked out at the ocean, "My white walk ability is out. But I could blue walk long before I would white walk, so that probably still works. Guess I'll give that a shot, hopefully the trans-oceania run will warm up my legs enough to use white walk again. I don't know why I'd need it in the vault, but I do want that power back." He shook himself down, tried to remove what sand he could from himself and prepared for another shot at crossing the ocean. He backed up to the edge of the beach, again facing the ocean and spent a minute just breathing. Convinced he was ready to go he took off at a full sprint. In less then a second Simon was at the water's edge and without hesitation he put his foot on top of the water. His foot stayed on top. Of course this was for less than an instant. When using blue walk Simon's feat didn't remain in contact with the water for hardly any time at all he was almost hovering really. Now paying much more attention to maintaining his altitude, Simon flew across the ocean like a bullet, throwing up massive sprays of water behind him. Like the world's smallest motorboat with the world's largest engine. His disappointment about being unable to white walk faded and was quickly replaced by the thrill of running fast, the thrill of running very very fast.

It was fortunate his speed generated a wind funnel around him, otherwise his wide toothy grin would've been plastered with bugs. With every step he felt empowered, his legs remembered their full strength. Every breath was mandatory, a rhythm perfected for this level of running, each inhale completely filled him and every exhale left nothing. Technique he hadn’t practiced in years returned to him as though he had been running nonstop for all five of those years. It was a symphony of foot falls, he refused to miss a beat.

In mere minutes he reached the coast of Fiore slowing to a stop onto a busy beach. All the civilians had frozen, looking at the newly arrived speedster. Simon whooped with excitement and looked around at all the people looking at him, "That felt great! I haven't run that fast in years!" He couldn't help but laugh with excitement, "I'm back ladies and gentleman! Simon the Phoenix has risen again!" In all reality he probably looked pretty silly just standing there shouting to no one in particular. A fact that he pretty quickly picked up on almost immediately and quickly decided to bolt, his face only a little red. Moving like a blur he rushed past the onlookers and set a course for mainland Fiore. He couldn’t help but wonder how the public would react to his sudden appearance, if anyone would react at all. He got a little excited, he was eager to find out what newspaper would land him in their headline first.

Eventually his course would take him by Magnolia Town, he slowed considerably as he passed. He came to the top of a hill outside of town and stopped there he considered stopping by Fairy Tail it was decision that had been weighing on him a while. He had just up and disappeared on them last he saw him, and it was a much longer time from his perspective. How would they react? Would they be happy? Excited? Elated? Or rather angry, they could be right livid about his disappearance. Sure he had written a letter, but that wasn’t a proper good bye. He didn't know what he would even say to them, sure there was always the truth but he was worried what they'd think if they found out he ever became magicless. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there, but it probably wasn’t half as long as he thought it was. Time perception altering magic does that, time has to move at a crawl if you want to run on water and not have the world turn into a blur. It made waiting in line killer.

Ultimately he just ran by. So in little time at all he reached the edges of the ancient ruins. He stopped on a hill not far away and looked at the expanse of collapsed civilization, "Alright Simon. Mission start."

The member 'Kirahunter' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

A quick survey of the ruins indicated that things were fairly normal, at least at first glance. He ran like a blur around the perimeter of the ruins and confirmed that to the naked eye nothing was off. But as a mage equipped with the ability to sense magic, he could tell there was some messed up stuff going down. From one of the central ruins the one Simon knew to be connected to the vault there emanated an aura of solid "Hey don't come any closer." Simon understood why the agent compared it to his mission in the Spooky Forest from years ago, there was definitely some crazy supernatural who do voodoo stuff going on in there. Simon rolled his neck circled his arms prepping for what was likely going to be a crazy fight. The last time he had fought anything with an aura that sinister tree had started flying, and lots of them. Considering the nature of the Wizard Saint's vault and the powerful magic artifacts contained within it was likely way worse.

He took a deep breath and defaulted to his most basic battle tactic. He charged in head first. At full sprint he could hardly see what was going on around him, but he remembered the lay out of the ruins enough, the idea was to run so fast that whatever was guarding the vault wouldn't even notice he was there. Ideally he could rush all the way through the ruins, reach the vault, find the source and smash it before anything even registered that he was there. However there was one thing that Simon had failed to account for, for despite rather clearly remembering the lay out of the ruins he had managed to forget that very early on he himself had collapsed a tunnel behind himself. Thankfully something was kind enough to remind him of this fact before he go too far. That something being the collapsed tunnel; and it had opted to inform Simon of its presence there by sitting there until Simon ran right into it.

His wind funnel hit it first, compressing before shattering blasting Simon with a wave of pressure as he himself approached the wall. Realizing what was happening Simon tried to slow down which combined with the pressure of his wind funnel pushing back on him actually slowed him down a lot. But at the same time all of this happened in less then a tenth of a second and Simon still crashed into the wall, still going very fast.