Find the Lost Saint [Job; Elvira Arcade and Vincent Gauss]

job info:

It was the fourteenth day after Vincent's return from Pergrande Kingdom, a week after the latest he said that he and his new teammate would depart. She was, of course, ready to go the day that he told her of his plan, but he decided to take advantage of the time he had in Fiore to run a couple of "errands." One thing led to another and Vincent ended up postponing their adventure. Now, however, he was ready and stood in front of Rin's house after having knocked on the door a few times. The wizard looked up to be greeted by a well-lit clear blue sky, the perfect weather for traveling. His black pack on his back was not burdening him much and actually appeared to be relatively small in size compared to the journey the two would be taking. In light of his previous journey to Pergrande and Seven, Vincent decided that it would be best if he stored the majority of his materials alongside his weapons and robes inside his pocket dimension. While it wasn't exactly what that dimension was created for, it would serve just as well in storing supplies as it did armaments while allowing Vincent to travel in relative comfort.

The Crystal Swan mage put his right hand into a pocket to pull out two train tickets that would save them the trouble of walking to the border of Iceberg, but from there they would need to walk. Two weeks ago, Vincent had charted a path that led them between settlements that were within reasonable walking distance so the two wouldn't have to camp out in the eternal blizzard of Iceberg. His path would eventually lead them to the center of the nation with five settlements surrounding the location of the castle of ice. He and Elvira had no business with the Ice King, but he was considering finding the castle for future reference due to the shocking lack of cartographic information on the nation. He only barely managed to find a good path to the center of the nation and he doubted that there were so few places that people had established homes and places of business.  

Mental note: convince the guild master to create a job with the goal of fleshing out what little geographical information we have on Iceberg. Maybe it's not too surprising given the incredibly harsh environment and lack of any compelling reason to go there, but even so. I'll have to remember to ask the locals about their maps when I get the opportunity. The train was due to leave from Magnolia Town in about an hour; hopefully his partner would be able to drag herself out of bed in time to make the deadline. Once she did manage to maker her way outside and properly awaken on this fine morning, he would ask her what she had been doing in the fourteen days that he was running his "errands" and performing other such tasks that were better left done before a long trip.

WC: 507/7500

Vincent was completely taken by surprise when Elvira opened the door not minutes after he knocked. She greeted him with a "good morning," but it really didn't seem as though that accurately reflected her mood. It doesn't look like she got more than a few hours of sleep; I wonder what could have possibly kept her up. The white haired wizard wasn't suffering from the same nightmares that his team member was plagued by. Instead, Necropolis would occasionally come into his dreams to taunt him about the time he had left and how he had wasted so much of it with his trip to Pergrande and Seven. This taunting didn't bother him, for Vincent was certain that it would be both him and Elvira who got the last laugh - this mission they were on would make that certainty a reality. Elvira had mentioned that she had visited Hosenka to supposedly "pick up some things," though Vincent had also visited Hosenka and knew that there was nothing to do there but relax. He was glad that she had presumably taken a short little vacation, though it didn't seem to help much given her current tired state. "Traveling through Bosco is a pain in the ***." Ah... there's that trademark profanity I've come to miss he thought as the train pulled into the station and opened its doors to them. The wizard had gone on a few jobs in the two weeks that he was separate from his team mate and had come across all sorts of mages. Theo of the Sugar Squad was clumsy and scatterbrained unless treasure was being spoken about. The Saint of Sacrifice from Black Rose was formal and elegant much like himself and Lester Drynedi whom Vincent teamed up with to break a curse over the Haunted Village. So many jobs and so many magi and yet none had that same air of abrasive confidence that he had come to associate with Elvira.

The ticket taker on the Seven train was a short uniformed beaver who happily took the tickets from the Crystal Swan mages and directed them to where they would be staying for the duration of the ride. Vincent followed Elvira to the sleeper car and, once situated, began to speak at length of his most significant adventure which happened only a few days after he told her that he would at most take a week before he was ready. "...And that's when I fell into a powerful spider web which sapped magical power from whatever it touched! I didn't even have time to be surprised at that a natural and remote magical sapper existed on account of my fading life energy! I thought that the half lady spider would certainly be my end, but remember that talking bi-pedal cat I assisted earlier? Turns out he was a lot stronger than he first appeared! How's that for fortunate?" The scholar had been so wrapped up in his story that he didn't realize that Elvira had quite literally nodded off and was using him as a bed. Vincent felt as though she needed the sleep, but noticed the peculiar necklace around her chest which, at this angle, was easy to see. Deciding not to wake her, he moved his head slightly closer to her chest to see the glisten of what appeared to be a golden key. Is that a golden celestial summoning key!? Looks like Elvira was a lot busier these two weeks than I thought! Because there were only twelve of these keys in existence Vincent had never had the opportunity to see one up close. She's in such a deep sleep... I'm sure she won't mind if I take a closer look... As he thought this he carefully reached down for the key with his free hand so as to gently grab the golden key which was practically taunting him.

WC: 1155/7500

@Elvira Arcade

Vincent was a bit taken aback by the sudden appearance of a magical entity as well as her appearance. "Baroness? Are you referring to this one?" he would say, pointing to Elvira with a surprised look on his face. "And as for that sort of activity, maybe she should be awake, but I thought it best to leave her sleeping on account of her clearly tired state." Clearly the magical pink haired being was referring to his inspection of the key around her neck, for he could think of no other possible 'activities' that he could be performing. The space wizard retracted his hand from around his partner's neck and waggled his index finger at the woman who had appeared out of nowhere. "You know, I've never heard of a mage summoning while they were incapacitated. May I assume that you are both a celestial summon and summoned yourself of your own accord?" This situation would be a lot more threatening if the wizard wasn't familiar with celestial summoning; his current theory for her sudden appearance was that she responded to the presumed threat to the one with whom she formed a contract. "And furthermore... that you're the spirit that belongs to the golden key?" It was too much of a coincidence for Vincent to consider other possibilities. Since he hadn't gotten a good look at the key, he didn't know to which zodiac that this chained maid corresponded, though due to the fact that he assumed Elvira to only contain one summoning contract he figured that this must be the one from the key.

"Oh my apologies, your sudden introduction made made me temporarily forget my manners. I am Vincent Gauss, the Baroness' teammate." After the short greeting Vincent would scan the pink haired girl from head to toe. I know that Elvira is more on the... crass side, but did she have to contract such a peculiar looking spirit? Assuming that this was indeed a summon of the Golden Zodiac variety, the scholar would continue. I suppose that she must have come across the key by pure chance and thus wouldn't have had the opportunity to choose given their rarity - so I suppose her appearance of a coincidence. Even so, I would like to see what this spirit is capable of given that she should be one of the most powerful celestial spirits. The white haired wizard was hoped that their trip wouldn't take too long, for he much preferred walking than fancy travel along the tracks or through the skies, though he suspected that Iceberg was still quite a ways still. Meanwhile, in an undisclosed village around the center of Iceberg, Zenshin would sit on the outskirts of his village. He felt a familiar power getting closer and closer to him, a power that he would prefer stayed outside of the village which he now led. The ex-saint didn't know why he could sense its approach all of the sudden, but he knew that he was ready for it this time.

WC: 1664/7500

@Elvira Arcade

"Me? Lecherous?" Vincent wasn't offended at all by this descriptor, rather he was confused. He hadn't once thought of Elvira in that way... but now that the topic was brought up he supposed that she was rather attractive. The wizard was a bit familiar with the associations that the constellations have, so he knew that Virgo was often represented by a woman of purity, though he failed to see the connection to the pink haired maid. Perhaps the golden keys are simply named after the zodiacs because they simply bear the symbols of the stars and don't actually have a connection to their other symbology outside of the superficial. Because the shackle wearing girl was silent on the subject of being summoned unconsciously, so he was left to speculate. Virgo stood after informing the white haired mage that it was time for her to "retire," presumably to a more fitting bed. He shrugged - it was probably for the best that she sleep somewhere more comfortable. As she tried to move her master, though, Elvira seemed dead set on hanging onto Vincent as if her life depended on it. He tried assisting the pink haired woman, in vain, to free himself from his partner's vice grip. How much training has she done while I've been running my errands!? Just when he thought he would be free of her grip, Elvira quickly latched onto his head with her arms and legs, causing him to bend over before quickly correcting himself by magically shifting his momentum backwards so that he was not leaning again the wall separating their room from the hallway. He tried once again to pry her limbs from his body, but to no avail. Virgo's second attempt was much more successful as she used her inhuman strength to pull her master from the wizard's head and essentially took on the burden of becoming Elvira's body pillow. Vincent's face as a lightly flushed, but thankfully Elvira was unable to see that on account of being completely knocked out - even after all of that commotion.

When asked about Elvira's title, Virgo responded with something so unexpected that it caused Vincent to burst out laughing. "Lady Arcade?! The Baroness of Corso?! Ahahaha!" He couldn't control himself and simply laughed until he had to intake a burst of oxygen to compensate for the reduced amount his lungs were getting. Hearing of Elvira's royal origins was so perfectly ironic that he couldn't help but tear up at the thought of her trying to share a meal with other royals. Of course the crassest, most abrasive person he knew also had to be the most noble in blood. Vincent was also titled in a foreign land, though this was something he kept to himself or anyone with whom he wasn't too familiar like Theo. He was relatively certain that he would interact very little with Theo and thus was fine telling him more personal details, but with those closer to him like Elvira he needed to keep his distance. After a nice venison dinner which was ironically delivered by foxes, he went to sleep against the wall. When he awoke, he saw Elvira staring out the window at the new scenery. "Has anyone told you that you sleep like a rock, Elvira? Also, you're quite an active sleeper. Virgo had to pry you off of me to put you in a proper bed." Eventually, the train would pull into the last stop it would be making before returning up the line. Vincent and Elvira had made it to the edge of Seven and could see where the needles and cones on which pines grew met the vast lifeless and snowy wastes of Iceberg. "The plan now? Of course, right away Lady Corso-" Vincent chucked a bit to himself after this. "-We will travel about three miles north-east and rest a bit at the town. We keep going that way for another fives miles and then we head east. There should be plenty of towns that are about five to ten miles away from each other towards the center of Iceberg. We just keep going through and keep asking locals until we find Zenshin."

Before they could even reach the first village Vincent had mapped out, a figure dressed in nothing but a t-shirt and slacks could be seen standing directly in their way. From him Vincent felt a powerful magical energy - even stronger than his own. No way... could we really be this lucky? "Are you Zenshin?" "I would like you three to identify yourselves first. As far as I know you're currently posing a threat to my land and its people." "Yes of course. I am Vincent, this is Elvira, and the strangely dressed one is Virgo. We're from Crystal Swan and have been asked by the Magic Council to retrieve you and bring you back to Fiore. Barring our official duty, though, we're here to request your assistance. You see, we-" "Yeah yeah you're cursed, is that right? You two are absolutely steeped in that wretched magic of Necropolis. And I've never heard of that guild, so call me skeptical. I'm sorry, but I'm not knowledgeable nor powerful enough to break that curse, nor am I returning to Fiore - you wasted your time." Vincent would reach into his bag and pull out the old Saint's notebook before tossing it to him. Zenshin would catch it and... nothing would happen. "How odd. We are cursed and Necropolis asked us to deliver this to you in order to break it, though it doesn't seem like anything happened." "That's because you two essentially agreed to carry the curse to me. If I wasn't so familiar with that wretched being's tricks, it probably would have worked, but as it stands you two are still destined to be pulled back to him." "It's a good thing I didn't rely on satisfying my side of the bargain I made with him in order to free us from this hex, then."

This caught Zenshin's curiosity. He knew the severity of the hex and for someone to have found a way to actually break it spoke volumes of their ability. "I found a kind of basin in Sevenwood that should be able to break our curse. I've never used it, but it seemed to be legitimate. The only problem is that Elvira and I are not strong enough to get it to open. We need you to essentially be our key to open the locked basin, for it requires the presence of a powerful mage. I figured what better candidate could their be for strength?" "You found such a place? Are you some kind of explorer?" Vincent nodded and responded that he was primarily a scholar, though. It felt like they waited in silence for five minutes before Zenshin told them two wait and disappeared into a disgusting hole in the ground that he had summoned. It looked like the mouth of some kind of worm. The hole was reminiscent of the kind of magic exuding from the realm that had nearly consumed him and his teammate. About ten minutes passed before he returned from the same vile hole in the ground and proposed a deal. "I'll help you and I will return to Fiore under the condition that, once you two are curse free, you return with me to Necropolis' realm and we destroy him and deal with his master. I wasn't strong enough to do this on my own, and I'm truthfully still not, but with the help of two promising and presumably legal mages from Fiore I feel like we might just be able to pull it off."

"It's a deal. However, would you mind satisfying my curiosity as to why the slight change of heart?" "You seem to be knowledgeable enough if you didn't come here expecting me to fix your problems. You two are also strong, I can feel that much. My village here in Iceberg has outgrown me and I've been dying for a chance to take my revenge on Necropolis. He and his master took nearly everything from me, but instead of recklessly trying to fight a losing battle immediately I've been training and waiting to get strong enough to take their heads. I was going to go back there anyway, but you two just sped up the time table." This wasn't the first time Vincent had accepted a deal without really consulting his partner, but he was sure she'd be fine with it. "Alright Baroness, back to the train station. It's time for part two of the plan. I wish I hadn't spent so much time mapping out our course, but I didn't expect us to get so lucky...." Their next destination would be the center of Sevenwood where a statue could be found in a clearing which opened the way to the basin. He had found it earlier at night with the help of a helpful navigator, but he had the area marked on his map now and it was daytime, so finding it was most likely not going to be an issue.

WC: 3189/7500

Continues in Seven: https://www.fairytail-rp.com/t34302-break-the-curse-job-elvira-arcade-and-vincent-gauss#339652