Guilty by Association, Part 2 [solo]

“Land ahoy!”

One of the sailors called, the boat’s crew bustling around to prepare for their landing.  The seas in the area were rough and monster-filled, but the land ahead of them was even more perilous.  All of the ship’s crew could now see the foreboding, scorched landscape of Sin right over the churning ocean.  Knowing that the land most commonly referred to as “Hell on Earthland” was right before they prompted nervous shivers from the fainter of heart.  Usually, the crew of the SSS Shayu only dared to do business far from the coast of Sin, but this time around they were sailing right up to it.  However, they trusted the promise of Captain Cody: that he wouldn’t let a single one of them die.

“Prepare to lower the anchors!  We don’t need to be right next to the shore, just close enough.”

The man in question commanded his men, standing confidently at the helm of the boat.  He was an elderly man dressed only in a black and gold coat, pants, and waterproof boots.  However, that sharp look in his eyes was the thing that allowed his men to place so much trust in him.  Cody was never one to take risks without weighing loss and gain, and he had told his crew this venture would lead only to “gain”.  They trusted his shrewd judgment, but you couldn’t blame them for still being nervous.  When fishing up stuff remotely close to Sin, you had to be an accomplished crew like those on the Shayu.  They weren’t even that close, yet all kinds of monstrosities emerged from the dark blue waters.

Well, everyone was nervous, except for one person.

“Woah, so that’s Sin, huh?  Pretty crazy that I’ve never been sent there earlier.”  A young girl was leaning on the railings of the Shayu, gazing leisurely at the dark silhouette of land.  She was dressed in a black cloak complete with a hood that served to obscure her face.  However, that didn’t prevent people from seeing the long locks of blonde hair overflowing from it, or a flash of her blue eyes.  The cloak itself was moderately decorated with reasonably intricate gold trimming, but that didn’t help any of the crew get an idea of who she was.  Apart from Captain Cody, no one knew why the youth was even trying to get to Sin.  Either way, it must’ve been a good deal if he agreed the moment the stranger approached him

“Listen ‘ere lassie, ye be headin’ to the Obsidian Volcano, right?”  The old captain walked up to the young girl, lifting his pipe to his mouth.  “Once ye the shore, it’ll be just over yonder.”  He gestured towards a particularly mountainous area in the far distance.

“Alright, thanks a lot, Old Cody!  Hmm, I think this is close enough, so I’ll be casting the spell now.”  A few of the shipmates working on deck could hardly hold themselves from retorting to the name “Old Cody”.  It was well known that before the Captain came to own his ship, he was just a minor fisherman, and that name was a remnant of his previous life.  However, the moment he entered the major leagues, he made such large tides with his success and daring personality, evolving into an important figure in the shipping community almost immediately.  Calling such a man by “Old Cody” would only be disrespectful, but the crewmates couldn’t allow themselves to get too mad at the stranger.  From the bright, naive tone of their voice, they were incredibly young.  Additionally, Captain Cody didn’t seem to mind it, so it wasn’t their right to get indignant in his place.

“Make sure ye get a nice chunk of that True Obsidion.  After all, my crew is one of the greatest in the seas, hence the smooth sailing even in Hell’s ocean.”

“Yeah yeah, alright.”  The young girl placed her hand on the floorboards, “Annnd, it’s done!  I won’t take more than a day to deal with my business, so I’ll send out the signal when I’m ready.”  She climbed ontop the ship’s railings, dangerously perched in front of the churning ocean.  But, the most stunning thing was the fact that her feet actually left the boat; she’d jumped right off it.

“!!?!”  The crewmember preparing to lower the anchor had borne witness to the stunt, watching with his mouth agape as the young girl rocketed through the sky towards the country of Sin.  Oddly enough, the ship hadn’t experienced any damage from her using it as a springboard for her ridiculous jump, but not as odd as the sight of a dot traveling across the wasteland at an incredible speed.  “What the-”

Cody turned his sharp gaze at the sailor, “Matey, what’re you waiting for?  Want the ship to wreck in the depths of hell?  Lower the damned anchor.”

“Y-Yessir!”  The man worked the crank, but he still couldn’t get over the shock of seeing the young girl flying through the air with nothing but what seemed like a slight jump.  It was reasonable to conclude she was a mage, but so were many of the members working on the SSS Shayu, yet they didn’t have that kind of power.  “Who in the world…?”

Captain Cody chuckled, blowing out a puff of smoke.  “She’s a wee little fortune magnet, that’s what.  Never thought I’d come across ‘er twice.”

“Again?”  The crewmember echoed.

“I’ll tell yee since I like yee, matey, but she was the one that allowed me to buy this here fine vessel.  The funds from cooperating with her to find treasure and turn in a bounty were incredible.”

“Wait was she the one who assisted you in finding the treasure of Divide Island?!” The crew member was flabbergasted.  Most people knew that the first instance of Captain Cody’s awe-inspiring tale began with Divide Island’s coveted treasure.  Back when he was still “Old Cody” and only owned a shanty rowboat, he had competed with a whole pirate crew and came out on top.  Additionally, the pirates were turned in to the authorities for a hefty sum.  Of course, everyone knew he hadn’t done it himself, after all a captain’s most coveted skill was networking.  You had to know many strong, influential people to make your way through Earthland’s seas.  The insight of a merchant, the heart of a fighter, and a stroke of luck was all necessary to ever make it big as Cody had.  But still, it was shocking to see the person who had helped in the Divide Island incident since the old Captain said himself he didn’t know who they were.

“She and two other lassies, but from what I understand it was mostly her.  Still, the lass seems stronger than she was before, also there’s no more of her previous seasickness.”  Cody laughed as he reminisced, but the crewmember found it difficult to believe such a person once had a harsh case of chronic seasickness.

“Captain, I heard you talking about Ture Obsidion but… is it true?!”

The gruff sea captain nodded, stroking his grayed mustache, “A highly coveted treasure, yet she offered to get me some the moment I brought it up.  Still, it isn’t like she’ll need to change her course to get any.”

At this point, the emotion the crewmember was overwhelmed with was beyond shock.  True Obsidion was said to have the capabilities to withstand even an H rank spell, but it was simply too difficult to have a lot of.  After all, the legions of demons sat right on top of the source were incredibly vicious.  They were even organized to some degree, with the Black Devil presiding as their commander.

But upon realizing this, a swirl of anxiousness rose within crewmember.  “Erm, will that lass be alright?  After all, the Black Devil’s in that direction.”

“Hm?  What are ye talkin’ about?  She’s off to kill Diablos.”

But before the shipmate could even express any kind of disbelief, a dark shadow violently emerged from the dark ocean.  “A-A demon…!”  The shipmate’s voice was caught in his throat as the creature’s shadow was cast over the Shayu.  Even if there was a powerful mage there, they had already left, so the crew would have to deal with the monster themselves.

“Don’t panic.  Yee aren’t part of the combat squad, right?  Well, yee can stay put this time around.”  Captain Cody puffed a stream of smoke through his pipe.  “ALL MEN TO BATTLE POSITIONS.”  He cleanly announced, prompting his trained crew to start bustling around the deck.  There was a reason the SSS Shayu was considered the best ship in business around Sin, even though there was a horrible monster right in front of them everyone prioritized getting to their positions.  The crewmember would usually be below deck during these occurrences, but after sailing with the captain, his trust in Cody outweighed the sense of danger.

The demon was bombarded with harpoons and blasts of magic, but it wasn’t like it was going to take all of that sitting down.  It let out a deafening roar, releasing a haze of purple towards the ship.  However, it was odd, the seemingly poisonous breath never mage contact with the ship.  It was as if someone had erected a barrier between the sea demon and the Shayu.  But it didn’t seem to be the crewmember’s imagination, because even as the monster attempted to ram and batter the ship, nothing was able to exceed a certain area.  Eventually, the sea demon couldn’t take it anymore, yet was rendered unable to escape by the spears digging into its scaly flesh.  So, it eventually fell, the corpse spilling blood into the dark waters.

“That lass’s handiwork is better than I thought.  Maybe I’ll try buying more ships after this!”  Captain Cody laughed, his crew cheering along with him.  “Mateys, we’re goin’ to be rich after today!!”

The crewmember’s eyes lit up as he realized exactly what this meant for the crew.  Usually they had to be careful of the monsters in the area, but now they were the hunters.  The creatures in Sin all had some sort of value attached to their dead bodies.  The sea demon they just killed would attract something else, which the crew would then also kill, without even factoring the True Obsidion this venture would be incredibly lucrative.

“Defeat the Black Devil, huh?”  The shipmate was now wearing a grin, any doubt flying out the window once he realized the youth had set up some kind of ridiculous shield around the ship.

The Captain was a fairly serious man, but now his sharp eyes were accompanied by a deep chuckle.  “Aight, she’s doin’ her work, so let’s do ours.”


It had only been a few hours after she arrived in Minstrel that Althea came across Old Cody.  After having slain the White Witch and parting with the peanut gallery in Fiore, the youth’s next destination was the Obsidion Volcano in Sin.  According to the dirty botanist Lyra, it would be a similar kind of endeavor as her subjugation of Arianna.  However, from what she was able to gather, the Black Devil and his subordinates were marginally stronger than the opponents she fought in Icecrown Citadel.  The information the Magic Council could dig up was limited, just as it had been with the White Witch’s abode, but they did know that his Obsidion Palace was in the depths of the inactive volcano, which was a nice change of scenery for Althea.  She had lived on mountains for a large margin on her life, but she was excited to see their warmer counterparts.

However, trouble came when Althea needed transportation from Minstrel to the rather hellish Sin.  Very few boatmen were willing to make the treacherous journey, even when Althea assured them that they and their possessions were perfectly fine.  Despite the fact she was an officially recognized wizard in the country, no one wanted to risk their life on a young girl they hadn’t personally heard of.  Either way, Althea wasn’t someone who enjoyed any kind of boat ride.  But then again, she also wasn’t one to waste time when she had a job to do, so it was a necessary evil for this instance.  Running from Minstrel to Sin would’ve taken way too long, especially when the wasteland had so many mountains.

That was when she had come across an old acquaintance, now going by the name Captain Cody of the SSS Shayu.  Apparently, after the little venture at Divide Island, he had used his funds to better himself and become one of the best boatmen in the business.  It was pretty good luck on her end too since he was on his way to Sin anyways.  She just needed to pay a fare for her travel and making him sail so close to the shore, defend the ship from dangers on the journey, and put up a simple multilayered shield for when she was off completing the job.  Surprisingly, the ride was kind of pleasant now that she knew how to alleviate her seasickness, but it was about time she got down to business.

Althea usually did all her traveling on foot, and even as she whisked across the scorched earth of Sin, she ran past all sorts of monstrosities.  However, many couldn’t even react before the Fairy Tail mage dealt a flying dropkick to their face, leaving behind a corpse with a clean hole in their head in her wake.  It had already taken her longer than she had intended to arrive in Sin, so she wasn’t in the mood to waste much time before confronting the Black Devil.  Eventually, the looming black mountains in the distance became a sprawling landscape before her.

She took a rare moment to go ahead and admire the scenery, looking at the pitch-black rocks and swirling black clouds with great interest.  The youth had assumed Sin would be a much more depressing place, but it was much more comforting than she had originally anticipated.  The billowing smoke was kind of foreboding, sure, and she could see all sorts of demons littering the cliffs, but other than that it was rather tranquil.  It didn’t even seem all that hot to her, but then again, at the mage’s level it would be more surprising if she was bothered by the mild heat.  Still, when Althea heard of the Obsidian Volcano, she hadn’t expected several volcanos around it.  Well, it was supposed to be inactive, so she’d just have to find the mountain that wasn’t full of molten lava.

From Althea’s vantage point and with her eyesight, it didn’t take long to survey the area and find the black mountain that wasn’t spewing soot.  The blonde couldn’t help but grin, her black cloak flowing behind her as she sprinted to the location of the Obsidian Volcano.  After a surprisingly quick climb, she didn’t hesitate before leaping into the dark depths of the inactive volcano.  Althea held her hood over her face as she descended deep into the earth, and after what seemed like an eternity of freefalling, she laid eyes on the hole’s bottom.  Her land created intense fissures on the black rock, but she wasn’t affected at all from the fall.  The Fairy Tail mage was fairly confident in her ability to withstand falls, so as long as she landed properly there was no reason for her to be injured.

However, Althea wasn’t even given the time to properly survey her surroundings before her surroundings lit up with an intense light, the room filled with the rustling of feet and loud cheers.  The teen found herself in the middle of a colosseum, demons of all shapes and sizes quickly rushing to grab the best seats in the house.  The walls of the arena were of an inordinate height, and they were as pitch black as the Obsidian Castle containing it.  Althea judged that she could probably manage to take care of all the demons serving as spectators if necessary, but there was one group that attracted her attention.  At the highest point in the stand was a podium, golden designs decorating the black rock.  There stood a deep black throne, and on top sat a handsome young man with short denim blue hair and vivid sapphire eyes.  He was dressed in a black military uniform and wore a luscious dark robe.

“Welcome to my Obsidian Palace, mage of Fiore.  I am the one you call the “Black Devil”, Diablos.”  His dark yet smooth voice easily echoed through the rowdy arena with nothing but his lungs.  “And welcome, my subjects, to yet another night of jubilation!”  After her experience at the Icecrown Citadel, Althea hadn’t expected for the Obsidian Volcano to house colosseum, but she wasn’t disappointed either.  If she were to pick between a castle and a place of combat, she’d choose combat any day.  She struggled to control the grin forming beneath her hood, the handsome devil continuing his speech towards the crowd.  “Please welcome the first challenger of our challenger, our Sin Lieutenant of Sloth.  My slothful follower, come forth.”

The crowd let out a wild cheer as from the crowd, a demon leaped into the arena along with Althea.  It was some sort of goat-like monster, demon wings sprouting from its back and scars decorating its chest.  The slayer didn’t wait for Diablos to announce the beginning of the match before charging straight for the demon.  However, it was ready for the attack, intercepting her with a swing of the chains wrapped around his wrists.  Althea ducked and leaped to dodge them until she got close enough to deal an uppercut to the bottom of the demon’s chin.  However, her opponent wasn’t stunned for long enough for her to do a follow-up, launching a heavy punch towards the blonde.  In response, she straddled over his thick, furry arm before twisting around her body to deal a kick to the side of his face.  Althea then landed neatly on the ground, her hood still obscuring her eyes.

The kick she had dealt should’ve been enough to make a regular demon’s head do a full one-eighty, but the Sin Lieutenant was only injured.  He coated his chains in dark flames, increasing the distance between him and Althea before whipping them around at high speeds.  Well, she would describe it more as desperate lashing than whipping.  As a fellow chain user, Althea was just a bit disappointed there was no hidden intent behind the erratic movements of the shackles.  They were simply trying to hit her, so it was simple to just avoid them, no matter how fast they were moving.  Typically, chains were really hard to control, but once you got the hang of them, you just decreased their effectiveness by a reasonable margin.  It was a lot harder to predict where a beginner would hit rather than a professional who reliably goes for the vitals.

So it was only time that she was able to navigate the maze of metal, aiming an axe kick at the top of the demon’s head that would serve to pound in their head like mochi.  However, the final attack never landed, because the Sin Lieutenant was promptly whisked away.

“Sorry, but no killing of my Lieutenants.  Only you’re permitted to die today.”  Diablos said from hit obsidian throne while wearing a charming smile.  At his side was Sloth, heaving with exhaustion.  After a few moments, a small group of demons emerged from behind the throne, escorting the injured demon out of the sight of the arena.

Althea’s displeasure from the fight being interrupted seemed to be present even with her hood obscuring most of her face, because the next time Diablos spoke, he addressed her directly.

“Mage of Fiore, you seem upset from having your prey stolen, no?”  He laughed, “Well, too bad!  I’m making the fights as fair as possible for you, so don’t complain.  Now, would you like to rest before continuing?”

The young girl paused, surprised by the gracious offer.  She expected that from the way he called her a “mage from Fiore” that the Black Devil was aware exactly what she was out to do, yet he gave her a window of time to rest.  Previous challengers had most likely also been given the option but none of them ever left the Obsidian Palace alive.  The blonde’s anticipation flared at the prospect of battling the enemies all the other forces of the Magic Council had failed to defeat in a fair fight, so she might as well maximize the enjoyment she got from the combat.

“Nah, I’m good.”

She said, prompting a wave of cheers from the onlooking demons.  It wasn’t like she ever planned on taking breaks, that just wasn’t her style.  The way Althea fought required a lot of magic power in specific instances, but otherwise it was built with the idea of quickly dispatching a chain of enemies as quickly as humanly possible.  A break might pull the Fairy Tail mage out of her mojo, which was unlikely but still possible.  The crowd seemed to like the fact there wasn't going to be any breaks, but Althea could care less about them.  After all, once she took care of the Black Devil, they were next.  It was helpful they were all bunched up so she could annihilate them all with just one spell.

Diablos’s cool smile didn’t twitch an instant from Althea’s response.  She got the impression that was the answer he expected from her, which only served as fuel for her desire to duke it out with him.  “Alright, the next opponent of the foreigner will be facing against our Sin Lieutenant of Envy.  My envious follower, come forth.”

The demons erupted with cheers as yet another demon leaped into the arena.  Althea couldn’t even be positive if her next opponent was even a demon at all.  His arms were monstrous like a demon, his legs seemed to be akin to a dragon's, but other than those facts he seemed human.  The Sn Lieutenant had short, ragged white hair, sickly-looking skin, and red tattoos on his chest, but if he wore really long boots and gloves, maybe he could pass as being a regular guy.  Well, not many people could be found walking down the street with two thin short swords, but still.

“Don’t expect me to be asss eassssy to defeat asss Ssssloth.  After all, he barely countssss as a Ssssin Lieutenant.”  The dragon-demon-human hybrid thing said, bearing his two blades with confidence.  “From your height and voice, you sssseem to only be a little girl.  Ssssince when did Fiore ssssend minorsss to do their sssubjigationssss?”  Althea frowned as she listened to Envy speak, quickly tiring of how he held out his s’s that caused him to take even more time talking than it usually would.  What in the world caused someone to talk like that in the first place?  The youth would want to know as long as the answer wasn’t as needlessly as long as Envy’s speaking time.

“I’m not a little girl.  I’m fifteen.”  Althea corrected the demon before taking a fighting stance, “Anyways, let's get to the fight already.”

Envy scoffed, “I’ve lived for many decadesss, even your father would be nothing but a baby before me.  But let’s not keep the crowd waiting much longer, come at me, foreigner.”

Althea’s eyes narrowed underneath her hood.  She felt like the demon was trying to rile her up or something, but small stuff like that wouldn’t ever make the youth upset.  In the first place, Althea didn’t have parents, so there was no “father” for him to be older than.  The closest thing to family figures she’s had are Fairy Tail, her older sister, and her older brother, and the last two were way older than the Sin Lieutenant even before they died.  Wait, there was her Father, but the mage had no relationship with them whatsoever.  in fact, just thinking about it made her annoyed, so she might as well let Mr. “I draw out all my s’s” become a punching bag for her venting.

Althea shot forwards at the demon at a rapid speed, aiming a jab from her left side.  But instead of having her fist meet his face as she had intended, it was intercepted by his blades.  The youth pulled back her hand before spinning around to deal a barrage of kicks from her right, all of which were also intercepted.  She was moving at a pretty darn fast speed, yet none of her attacks were left unblocked.  But in her exchange with the Sin Lieutenant, she quickly realized that all of Envy’s moves were reactionary.  Althea would throw out a punch, he’d block it.  She’d throw out a kick, he’d block it.  It seemed like he didn’t have the slightest of intentions to go on the offensive, which kind of annoyed the water mage.

Just a bit.

Combat to her was trading blows, so if her opponent was only defending it felt as if he was saying her ability wasn’t adequate.  But the remedy to this was simple, she’d just deal an attack that was too powerful for him to completely block.  Pure white plasma danced across Althea’s fingertips as she thrust forwards her hand and tapped one of the demon’s pair of blades.  It should’ve served as a nice conductor to then hit Envy, but the spell seemed to be absorbed by the swords instead of passing through them.  However, he finally shifted from defensive to offensive, swinging the short sword Althea had tapped, intending to sever her neck.  To dodge, the young girl performed a back handspring, avoiding the magic charged sword.

It wasn’t charged with just any magic, it was charged with her magic.  Today’s Forecast had a very unique kind of reading, and what was the chance that dark green lightning was just something Envy had and chose not to use until now?

Envy smirked as the energy faded from his sword.  “What, ssshocked to sssee you own magic usssed againssst you?”  Oh look, he went ahead and confirmed Althea’s suspicions for her.

“Mmm, I’m okay.  It’s just that I’ve figured out your whole shtick is all.”  The blonde offered lightly, putting her fists up once more.  The demon seemed a bit miffed from her nonchalant response in the face of his ultimate move but soon resumed his battle position.  Throughout the battle, she noticed that Envy wasn’t really “following along with her actions”, but instead just blocked attacks when he saw them.  How exactly he was able to keep up with Althea just by “reacting” was beyond her, but she already had an idea of how to deal with him.  He was completely in the defensive until she threw out a spell, so the only thing she needed to do for a win to keep attacking while not using magic.

If the youth hadn’t bothered with her spell earlier, she probably could’ve beaten him eventually without trying to figure out the demon’s gameplan.  However, she wanted him to attack her, he did, and Althea wasn’t all that impressed.  And so the mage rushed forwards, the demon attempting to swing at her with his swords which she promptly ducked under.  What followed was an absolute beatdown.  The slayer abandoned trying to be thoughtful with her attacks, instead just wailing on Envy.  The first few were blocked, but soon her barrage finally met his mismatched body.  By the time Diablos called off the fight, the youth’s opponent had been reduced to a bloody pulp, and Althea had been kicking his beaten body.

“Alright, that was round two.”  The Black Devil announced, teleporting his subordinate away from the relentless attacks.  The onlookers let out a cry of dismay, apparently having enjoyed the one-sided beatdown.  For some reason, they only wanted to see blood and guts, and who was winning wasn’t of concern to them.  It made Althea question if the Black Devil could even call them “his people” when they were only there for the spectacle.  “Would you like to take a break?”

Oh, this again?  The water mage assumed he would only ask once before assuming she wouldn’t ever want to rest.  “I’m good.”

The demonic ruler leaned back into his black throne, resting his chin in his hand.  “The next fighter to face the foreigner will be a crowd favorite: Sin Lieutenant of Lust.  My lustful follower, come forth.”  Once prompted, yet another demon entered the ring along with Althea.  However, unlike the past two, instead of leaping in she more so climbed down the colosseum's tall black walls.  Her opponent seemed to be some kind of arachnid, the upper body being that of a beautiful woman while the bottom was a horrific spider.  Good thing that the youth didn’t harbor any negative feelings towards bugs because the woman’s giant spider legs would be enough to trigger any phobia.  In stark contrast, her more human upper body was stunning, rivaling the beauty of even the White Angel Arianna.  Of course, she had blue skin, but that probably wasn’t a problem for people who weren’t picky.

And the moment Lust showed herself on the stage, a roar of applause unlike anything else erupted from the crowd.  She seemed to be intensely popular among the demons she helped rule over, but such things meant nothing to Althea.  She drew her hood farther down her face before raising her fists.  “Alright, let’s get this on the roll.”

“Wait a moment.”  This demon was a chatty type, just as Envy before her had been.  “You are fifteen, correct?  Do you have a preference for boys are girls?”

“What?  Preference?”  The slayer murmured, echoing the words of the spider-like demon.  Did she mean preference as in which she preferred to eat or something?  That seemed like a very demonlike question, but it had nothing to do with the fight.

“Would you prefer to embrace a woman or a man?  Or do you not care?  You’re at the age where you should be starting to get an idea.”

If the spider lady’s objective was to distract her, she’s already achieved her goal.  Althea was deep in thought while pondering over her opponent’s query for a solid half minute.  Usually, she would’ve completely disregarded conversation and chosen to attack immediately, but stuff like your preference was pretty important, right?  It was the thing with the hugs and kisses, yet Althea had only done something like that once, and she still wasn’t sure.  “Hmmm, I’ve kissed a girl before… but does that count as a preference?”  She asked lightly.

However, the Sin Lieutenant only frowned in response, turning away from Althea and towards Diablos.  “This is a child, so nothing I do works.  I already used my ability but nothing happened, so I have no will to fight.”  The crowd wailed in disappointment, but their ruler simply nodded, teleporting the spider demon to another location.

...wait, did that demon say she was using magic on her?  Her voice did sound a bit weird to Althea, but the youth simply assumed it was some kind of quirky speech style like Envy had.  Still, she guessed it didn’t matter because it didn’t work, but it was still disappointing that Lust wasn’t even willing to fight after it was proven inefficient.  The Fairy Tail mage hadn’t ever fought a large insect, so it could’ve been a unique experience.  But from the sound of things, the Sin Lietenant’s ability had something to do with emotional manipulation, hence why it did not affect Althea.  And if that was the case, fighting against her without the whole gimmick would probably be annoying, so maybe the young girl should be thankful the demon simply bowed out of the fight?

“Well, my subjects, that was the third round.  Foreigner, would you like to rest?”

“Nope.”

“Alright then, the foreigner’s next opponent will be out Sin Lieutenant of Greed.  Come forth, my greedy follower.”  On cue, the next challenger leaped out from the crowd, but the identity of her next opponent wasn’t anything Althea had expected.  The crowd went crazy as the smartly dressed human man approached the coaked slayer.  He seemed more fit to be a corporate leader or something rather than a leader amongst demons, and that idea was further reinforced by the suitcase he carried.  However, Althea of all people wasn’t one to judge an opponent’s strength purely by their appearance, so she immediately assumed a fighting position.  Truthfully, she could detect much magic power from the Sin Leitenent himself, but that suitcase he was carrying was seriously foreboding.  If the demons allowed a human to rule them, then it was only expected for there to be substantial strength behind that.

And Althea’s suspicions were soon affirmed, because with a flash of light the properties of the mystery suitcase were finally exposed.  In an instant, the businessman became equipped in a set of black armor the same shade as the surrounding obsidian, and he wielded a wicked-looking onyx sword.  “Let’s get this over with.”  A cold voice uttered from beneath the black helm, prompting a wide grin from Althea.  If her eyes had been visible, all the demons would’ve been free to see the bone-chilling fervour burning in the youth’s gaze.

But the mage was never one to dilly dally, so immediately moved to approach Greed the moment she was prompted to.  Her overhand blow was easily intercepted by the menacing black sword, and so was the underhanded one that followed.  Only when she aimed a front kick at his chests before teleporting to instead aim it at his back that she finally landed a hit.  However, the moment her foot connected with the Sin Lieutenant’s armor, she felt as if something was amiss.  He skidded forwards from the blow but didn’t seem hindered by the blow at all.  It wasn’t as if Althea was holding back or anything, so it must just be the suit’s incredible defensive abilities.

“Your fighting style doesn’t align with my idea of a wizard.”  The black knight muttered, cricking his neck, “I haven’t even gotten the chance to show off my long-distance stuff.”

“Your idea of defense doesn’t align with what I’ve seen from the Sin Lieutenants thus far.”  The blonde retorted.  For some reason, they had perceived being “defensive” as being “passive”, but in the world of magic that wasn’t a correct approach to have.  As long as you can multi-task, it's perfectly reasonable to be defending yourself all while attacking your opponent.  Either way, the young girl decided to increase the distance between herself and Greed.  She wanted to see this little move of his, and it seemed like she was operating too much in close range for him to show it off.

Recognizing Althea’s invitation, the Sin Leitenant raised his inordinately large sword before swinging with intense power.  This generated a sort of shockwave that violently traveled through the air to the young girl’s location.  However, the girl simply smiled, pulling back her bandaged fist before doing the same thing with her punch.  But that wasn’t the only blast of wind sent from Greed, but the blonde simply met each one with her own.  The onlooking demons let out frenzied cheers as the pressurized wind whirled around the colosseum, a few people struggling to just stay in their seats.  However, it wasn’t soon until Althea let loose an extra powerful blast that bulldozed over Greed’s, knocking over the black knight.  Then, in an instant, the Fairy Tail mage closed the distance, repeatedly driving her heel into his head and gut.  Nothing she did leave the slightest of scratches on the armor’s surface, but it wasn’t like the suit could absorb force.  Looking from how Greed had skidded across the ground from one of Althea’s previous attacks, the force had to travel somewhere; and the only path was through the Sin Lieutenant’s body.  It was only until the Sin Lieutenant began making pained groans with each impact that Diablos finally ended the match, whisking Greed out of the arena.

“Mage of Fiore, would you like a break?”

“Nope.”

The Black Devil ran his hands through his silky navy hair.  “That marks the end of the fourth match.  The foreigner’s next opponent will be our Sin Lieutenant of Gluttony.  Come forth my gluttonous follower.”  This time around, Althea’s opponent didn’t seem to be remotely human.  It was a despicable lump of flesh that oozed green bile and seemed to half drag itself onto the stage with its strange stumpy legs.  It was comparable to the typical idea of “demon” in Althea’s mind, and it looked like it was some sort of freak of nature that crawled out of a laboratory.  Fundamentally, it was gross, but the youth wasn’t one to discriminate when it came to touching nasty stuff.  She was literally a water mage, so she could cleanse herself immediately if necessary.

So, she quickly closed the distance between herself and the meaty lump, dishing out a barrage of punches.  It attempted to hit her with the bile from its mouth, but the attack was way too obvious for the slayer to allow herself to be touched by it.  And so, the demon was more like a walking punching bag to Althea than an actual opponent, that is until her fist was able to drive deep into the hunk of flesh.  It was similar to the sensation of popping a balloon of finally cracking open a pinata, but the candy is replaced by blood and guts.

The onlooking demons seemed to enjoy the graphic display, but for someone with enhanced senses like Althea’s, it was rather unpleasant.  She was glad she’d decided to wear a black cloak, that way her clothing hadn’t been dyed red by the Sin Lieutenant.  However, that itself was a red flag for the youth, since diablos had explicitly said that his followers wouldn’t be allowed to die.  It wasn’t like the dragon slayer had killed the flesh lump too quickly for a reaction, so the blonde decided to exercise caution and increase the distance between herself and the rotting corpse.

But although Althea hadn’t expected “something”, she hadn’t expected a whole new entity to emerge from the lump of flesh. Leather and silver metal covered every inch of their skin, and their style of dressing gave a sort of biker impression with the jacket and red bandana tied around their arm. But they were undoubtedly a demon, seeing as they had a long metallic tail emerging from their back, and they bore a double-barreled handgun in each of their silvery hands.

“Heh, I didn’t think you’d defeat my puppet so quickly! I was pretty tired, y’know, so I thought I could get away with sleeping a bit before having to fight you.” It seemed that the creature Althea had just fought wasn’t the true “Gluttony”, for that was the demon that now stood before her. The crowd’s cheering intensified, and the youth grinned before assuming her usual battle stance. “Ah, you’re not surprised? I went out of my way to do something random, but I didn’t get much of a reaction… well, whatever.”

And with that, the battle commenced, both parties rapidly closing the distance between each other. Althea had expected a guy using a gun would want to distance himself from her, but the moment the pair started trading blows she realized why he wouldn’t. The youth’s attacks were parried with the handguns, and at times he even tried to bash her with them. But amongst the exchange, the Sin Lieutenant's handguns began to consolidate black energy, and from the magic readings it wasn’t something she wanted to be hit with. So when Gluttony finally pulled the triggers, she had leaped into the air. And it was a good thing the youth hadn’t tried simply tilting her head as she would’ve to avoid a bullet because the handguns shot out a thick beam of scorching hot black energy. However, Althea landed safely behind the demon and dealt a roundhouse kick to his side before he could even turn around.

Gluttony took a moment to recover, once more raising his handguns and holding down the triggers. Althea was prompted to wonder what exactly happened to “ammunition” when the demon began spraying beam after beam at her. It wasn’t like she could just jump over it as she had before, so this time around the youth opted to instead form a shield around herself and dive right into the fray. She would likely be taking less damage then if she ever attempted dodging, and soon the young girl was close enough to deal an uppercut to the Sin Lieutenant’s gut.

But it seemed like Gluttony wasn’t done yet, because he quickly produced four odd violet crystals that pulsated with dark energy. Before Althea could get close enough, he had already loaded them into his weapon and pulled the triggers. The young girl was battered by the streams of dark energy, the force being enough to launch her to the other side of the arena. Oddly enough, her hitting the wall didn’t seem to damage it at all. Could that be the effect of the True Obsidian Old Cody had mentioned? However, something that had broken was Althea’s shields, and although she was uninjured it would be a while until she was able to reform them. Either way, it seemed like this was the limit of her melee range endeavors because she was able to dodge Gluttony’s attacks as long as she was far away enough from the source. But that didn’t serve as much of a minus, it wasn’t like Water Dragon Slayer magic was originally built around melee attacks anyways.

The slayer’s cloaked whipped around fiercely as she weaved between the attacks, several fist-sized orbs of water forming around herself. Then, they shot out at a dazzling speed towards Gluttony, immediately rendering the arena silent. The young girl cast her gaze up at the Black Devil, next to him being his Sin Lieutenant. Luckily for him, the demon was able to evade immediate death, and Diablos ended the match before Althea’s spells could find any of his vitals.

“And that concludes the fifth match. Would you like to rest, foreigner?” The demonic ruler uttered as his other subordinates escorted Gluttony away from the Obsidian Palace.

“No thanks.” Her magic power had been depleted, but it still wasn’t to the degree that Althea would take the courtesy.

“Then let’s proceed to stage two. Obsidian Palace, Er Ci Huo.” As the handsome devil uttered those words, the arena expanded exponentially, and even more demons filled in to occupy the extra space on the stands. “Now, the mage of Fiore will face out Sin Lieutenant of Wrath. Come forth, my wrathful follower.” Once prompted to do so, a blood-red demon descended on the extra-big arena. He had a merciless kind of air around him and had wings and horns as well. Wrath wore a minimal amount of armor and was over twice Althea’s size. Well, the size thing didn’t matter in the youth’s line of work, but it didn’t prevent the air of ferocity from being eliminated from his form.

The fight began, and the dragon slayer launched herself at the demon, aiming a jab at his muscular chest from her right. However, instead of simply dodging, Wrath caught her hand with his clawed hand. “Ooh, that stung!” The demon said, laughing as he increased his grip around the girl’s arm. Before the water mage could recede, it was already too late. Even though she hadn’t been able to reform her shields, the jubilant demon laughed and thrashed her body around. But even after a solid minute of Wrath walloped her into every surface available, he never released her. Additionally, the crowd seemed to love the cruel display of seeing the cloaked being reduced to a ragdoll.

“Stop Wrath, this isn’t working.” Diablos’s clear voice cut through the insistent cheers.

Wrath stopped his thrashing for the first time in several minutes, casting a confused gaze at the Black Devil. “But, my Lord-”

It was then, in that small window of time, Althea finally acted. In an instant, she ripped off the arm Wrath was so insistent on not letting go of, lunging at the red demon’s side.

“ARGHK!!?”

The Sin Lieutenant was teleported away, but not before Althea had savagely ripped off his right arm. Wrath was hastily moved out of the Castle, and the Black Devil once again addressed the blonde.

“Foreigner, would you like-”

“Nah, I’m good.”  She insisted, attempting to flick the blood off her remaining hand to no avail.  Sure, her other arm had teleported away along with Wrath, but it wasn’t like it would hinder her.  Despite all the blood from having taken off her right arm for the second time for this job, it was no longer bleeding due to the slayer’s healing spells.  Sure, getting the arm to regrow would take a while, but combatting with a limb missing seemed rather interesting at the moment.

“...Well that concludes the sixth match.  The foreigner’s next challenger will be our Sin Lieutenant of Pride.  Come forth, my prideful slave.”  Diablos changed his usual speech a bit, but that wasn’t Althea’s main focus.  Instead, it was the human-like figure that rose into the sky, complete with three pairs of wings.  The audience was rendered stunned for a moment but soon erupted with the loudest applause yet.  Pride’s right set of wings were those of an angel’s, while his left’s were a devil’s.  For all Althea knew, he was probably a mix of both, which struck her as being pretty darn weird.  After all, the angels she was familiar with would rather disintegrate demons rather than interact with them any day, but if this subjugation had taught her anything it was that the term “angel” was rather broad.

“Let’s not delay your eventual defeat, foreigner.”  The demon angel thing said, letting his hand run absentmindedly through his blonde hair.  “Come at me.”  His gloved hands formed into fists, and dark energy seemed to tear through the very air.  “You’ll regret not choosing to rest the moment you’ve tasted my chaos magic.”

Althea was rendered even more confused than she already was at the mention of chaos because her idea of “chaos” wasn’t that weird aura the Sin Lieutenant had.  For her, chaos was law, chaos was ordered.  She was chaos, and everything was chaos.  Well, she guessed that the definition of the word was just as flexible as the one for angel.

“Okay, I’ll get started then.”  The slayer replied, pulling her hood farther down her face before raising her only remaining hand.  Then, she closed the distance between herself and her opponent, her fist meeting with his own.  Pride let loose a volley of punches, and Althea skillfully used her inner arm to block all incoming blows.  It was only until he whipped around to batter her with his several wings that she messed up.  When she had narrowly curved her body backward, letting the wings pass over her, she had misjudged her new weight with the absence of her right arm.  Hence, her feet soon left the ground and she fell on her butt.  Sure, she dodged the attack, but in the least graceful way possible.  Additionally, now Pride was making a follow-up, meaning that she had to roll out of the way of his deadly fists.  But when Althea finally got to her feet, she had lost sight of her opponent.

“Stop underestimating me.”  Uttered a deep voice from the youth’s back.  Before the mage had the opportunity to move away, she already felt a bone-cracking blow connect to her lower back.  She was launched into the sky, briefly enjoying the feeling of the rushing air as she repaired her bones with magic.  However, Pride wasn’t finished and flew on up towards her at an incredible speed.  It seemed like he was anticipating some kind of recovery ability from her, but he sadly wasn’t able to anticipate that moving Althea into the air wouldn’t decrease her maneuverability at all.

“What the-?!”

As Pride led with a straight from his right, Althea had been able to spin out of the way before raising her left fist above the SIn Lieutenant's head.

“That’s an “A” for effort.”  She chirped before violently driving her fist into Pride’s skull.  She watched from above as the hybrid’s body rocketed towards the obsidian floor, only to be teleported elsewhere by Diablos.

“And with that, the seventh match is over.”  Surprisingly, the Black Devil had risen from his black throne, his vivid gaze bearing into the cloaked Althea.  “We will adjourn this meeting for a few hours for our combatant to rest for the final match.”  And with a flick of his robe, he was gone.  Additionally, the blonde was experiencing an odd pull, like someone was slowly nudging her towards a door.  It seemed like Diablos’s teleportation skill he had been using required the target’s consent if they crossed a certain threshold, but it wasn’t like she had any reason to refuse.  It seemed the Black Devil refused to continue the battle if the mage hadn’t rested first, so she might as well take the time to restore her right arm.

The demonic onlookers let out a cry of disbelief as Althea suddenly disappeared, having been teleported to the challenger’s resting quarters.


The Obsidian Castle was packed with wicked-looking demons, their eyes trained at the arena below.  After hearing that a challenger had made it to the “final fight”, there wasn’t a single demon on the Obsidian Volcano who would refuse to watch.  And soon, the two competitors emerged, a short, blonde girl wearing a cloak from the right and their beloved leader from the right: the Black Devil Diablos.

“Hahh, I meant to meet someone later today… too bad my clothes are going to be disorderly.”  The handsome devil said lightly, discarding his black robe on the ground.  “You’ll regret ever having step foot in my palace.”  A swirl of lava erupted from beneath the man’s feet, and Althea was shown why exactly Diablos was referred to as the “Black Devil”.  Previously, he was almost identical to a human, but now he sported an appearance complete with black horns, red eyes, and even wings.  He drew his black blade, handling it confidently with only one hand.  The Black Devil's expression bore a cruel smile, his eyes alight with murderous intent.

For the first time since landing in Sin, the ribbon wearing made pulled back her hood, putting her wild grin on full display.  “Yeah, come forth, or whatever.”

The exchange began in an instant, Diablos wielding his sword against Althea’s fists.  The demons onlooking probably found it a bit difficult to follow the pair as their limbs blurred from the intense speed they were moving at.  The slayer would say he moved slower than Arianna, but in contrast to her he knew how to use his strengths and advantages.  But soon, the blonde’s speed outstripped the devil’s allowing her to land a hefty blow on her opponent’s chest.  Except, it didn’t seem like Diablos found it “hefty” whatsoever.  The blonde had put her back into it and everything, yet he simply laughed, swinging his sword to bisect her torso.  However, Althea was able to instantaneously move herself to the devil’s back, dodging the sword while also dealing with a roundhouse kick to his neck.

“Is that it?”  The Black Devil jeered, driving his sword’s handle into the mage’s gut.  Abruptly, the youth found herself winded, and Diablos didn’t simply allow her to get sent flying from the blow.  Instead, he entangled his fingers in her hair before repeatedly hammering his knee into the youth’s gut.  She spat blood as the demonic ruler relentlessly attacked, eventually throwing her limp body at the other side of the arena.  “I hate people like you, going and acting as a puppet for a country that doesn’t even understand what we’re doing.  And yet, you have that crazed smile while you're standing before me.  Why those people have tools like you, I couldn’t imagine.”  The devil monologue as he approached Althea, his sword dragging against the obsidian floor.  “We’re sitting on a volcano, my magic is that of a Volcano God Slayer, you can never hope to defeat me.”

Meanwhile, the young mage rigidly got back on her feet, tearing off the ragged remnants of her cloak.  “First off,”  Her lighthearted grin resurfaced,  “I’m not Fiore or the Magic Council’s puppet.  I’m doing a favor for them right now for the sake of my guild, get it?”  Her wounds began to visibly close as she healed herself.  “Secondly, I’m perfectly normal.  What’s the problem with smiling?”  The youth brushed the blonde locks hanging in front of her face, revealing her newly crimson eyes.  “Thirdly, who said this’ll be an endurance match?”

A massive magic circle emerged from beneath Althea’s feet, but before it did anything it immediately dissipated.  But it wasn’t like the youth had misfired one of her strongest spells, it's just that it had no noticeable effect on her surroundings.  Instead, it served to reinforce the aspects of her magic she’d already been using.

The young girl launched herself right back at the Black Devil, her opponent frowning in disappointment as he realized she was just going for the same strategy again.  However, when he intercepted her incoming fist with his sword, Diablos was surprised to find that the force had far exceeded its previous level.  However, it seemed like it still wasn’t anything he wasn’t equipped to deal with.  The demonic ruler coated his pitch-black blade with unholy energy that seemed to engulf any light that made contact with it.  Then, with a single swing of his sword a blade of darkness formed, the youth being forced to deal with both the initial attack and the follow-up.  However, Diablos wasn’t finished attacking, moving to stab the youth between the eyes.  But the slayer fluidly moved around the sword, diving towards the demon to deal an overhanded punch to the face.

Diablos staggered backward as Althea landed cleanly on the floor, surprised to find fresh blood trailing down his face.  “You…”  The murderous look in his red eyes intensified, and soon the Black Devil increased the difference between himself and the water mage.  “It’ll be over with this attack, puppet!”  Then, lava emerged from between the cracks of the obsidian floor, forming into a vast wave seeking to collapse onto her.

However, a lance of light soon formed in her hands, the girl “stabbing” the devil’s spell.  Although lava had wildly engulfed the arena, the lance served to cut through the magic.  Althea let out an impassioned cry as she ran forwards, cleaving her way towards the lava’s source before she thrust her weapon through the caster’s heart.  The lava spell soon reverted into magic energy, leaving a stunned looking devil and the blonde with her spear.  Althea jerked her lance out of the Black Devil’s corpse, letting the body fall to the obsidian floor.

The crowd was rendered speechless at the sight of the young girl standing over the corpse of their fallen leader.  As per demon rules, that probably made Althea the new top dog, but if any of the riff-raff attacked while she was exhausted, they might believe they’d have a chance at defeating her and taking the spot.  But before anyone could get any ideas she simply cast a wide range spell using Prisma Chaotica: Soiree of Fallen Angels.  And with that, those in the colosseum found that their bodies were rapidly decaying, letting out screams of horror as all sensations abandoned them.  Then, silence.

Althea let out a sigh, using her lance as a support while she healed her injuries.  Sure, the magic power she expended while casting big spells back-to-back was enormous, but at least she could still move.  The fight had been the hardest since her start of being a mage, but she was alive and Diablos was dead.  Why he had to die was none of her business, Fairy Tail operated as mercenaries, so it wasn’t necessary to ponder “right” and “wrong”.  Diablos was killing people, so, therefore, he wasn’t entitled to an exception simply because Althea enjoyed the fight.  Either way, it was her duty as the Marketing Manager to take care of relations between the guild and the Council, so the life of Diablos and all nearby demons was a prerequisite.  Just from looking at the Castle’s ruins, she could tell that her spell had destroyed any trace of corpses.  Some people wanted to be reduced to ashes upon death, but to bad she never bothered asking any of the demons.

As her eyes were most likely still crimson, the young girl briefly searched the ruins for some kind of article of clothing to obscure them.  After all, the last thing she needed after an exhausting subjugation was a wave of questions.  Soon she found a cloak that served the same purpose as her first one, the only difference being it was more akin to a rag than clothes.

“Oh, right, can’t forget the boat fare.”  She sighed, wrapping a sizable chunk of True Obsidian in fabric before carrying it like she would a satchel.  And with that, the cloaked stranger rapidly climbed back out of the volcano, receding from what remained of the Obsidian Palace.

“What the HELL… is this supposed to be?”  The feminine, almost girly voice struggled to contain its rage.  The owner was a young woman, her dark navy blue hair and vivid blue eyes the same shade as the fallen Diablos’s.  One would likely call her a beauty, if not for the fierce expression she had while surveying what was left of the Obsidian Castle.  She wore a monarch’s crown atop her long, silky hair that managed to reach just past her knees.  Other than that, she had a bikini top, miniskirt, long silk gloves, stockings, and boots, all of which were pure white and extremely inappropriate for being around molten lava.  However, the moment any of the local demons (or what was left of them) laid eyes on the flame-like tattoos peeking out from beneath her gloves and stockings, they wouldn’t dare to approach her, let alone comment on her choice in clothing.  For she was what one would call the true heir of the Obsidian Palace, the Silver Empress.

“Well, Fan Feng Guo, you would know better than me.”  A cool voice retorted, its owner emerging smoothly from the shadows.  From the sound of it, they were male, but one wouldn’t be able to tell from the suit of black armor they wore.  The color seemed to be even darker than the one Greed had worn.  Additionally, it featured golden trimmings, giving it a simple yet sophisticated impression.  “This is the Obsidian Volcano, right?  Odd there’s not even corpses, did you take us to the wrong volcano?”

The harsh tone of the armored man’s voice made the devil called Feng Guo, “N-No way!  I know Hei’s scent better than anyone!”  She insisted, “And yet… there’s no way my gege could lose to anyone!”  She roared, driving her fist into one of the obsidian walls of the ruined arena.

“Watch out, that’s True Obsidian, so-”  The black knight began, but soon was rendered silent by the thin fissure created from Feng Guo’s blow.  “Nevermind.  Either way, I only came for the sake of meeting with the Black Devil Diablos--or as you call him, Fan Hei.  If he’s dead, it’s our responsibility of Directory members to inform the Director.”

“N-No way…”  The beautiful devil sand to her knees, her gloved hands forming into fists.  “Who did this… who DARED to do this!!”  Feng Guo trembled in fury, her tearful eyes full of hatred.

“There are many possibilities, how could I possibly-”

“Know your place, Leogan.”  The Empress cast her malicious gaze at the armored man, “I know you, you do your research, right?  Hurry up and give me a name before I drive you and that stupid set of armor on stakes.”  She demanded, her voice chilled with fury.

However, in the face of the intense anger, the man called Leogan simply sighed, retaining his cold atmosphere.  “It’s discouraged for two members of the Directory to fight if it has nothing to do with the prosperity of the Emperor's Country.  Either way, many countries have put out requests to subjugate Diablos-”

“His NAME is HEI.”

The black knight shrugged, “Sure, fine, Hei.  If I peg your brother around the same level of strength as you, I’d say only Deseitro or Enca have enough agency to launch a full-fledged invasion.  But if it was only one person or a small group, then any of the countries that take foreign requests are candidates.  Those would be… Bosco, Fiore, Minstrel, and Midi.  It could be anyone.”

Feng Guo got to her feet, her murderous gaze bearing into Leogan, “I’m sure you have a few more hints, right?”

The black knight crossed his arms, nonchalantly leaning against a wall.  “Don’t assume you can just threaten me.  I’m here on direct orders from the Director, you’re just here visiting.  Do your own research.”

The demon empress clicked her tongue, her bloodlust subsiding just a bit as she stepped away from her fellow Directory member.  “Whatever, I guess I wouldn’t want to kill Wysteria’s dog.  But mark my words,”  She picked up a small chunk of obsidian, reducing it to gravel in an instant.  “I will find who’s responsible.”