Guilty by Association, Part 1 [solo]

Althea yawned, leaning back against the bench as she gazed at the cloudless sky of Iceberg.  It was yet again time for her to fulfill one of those many requests from the Magic Council, this time with several people accompanying her.  It was only expected, this was the highest level request available, and despite the fact, Althea had already gone on ventures of similar difficulty the Magic Council wasn’t aware of the details.  And so, as an S-rank mage and ace of Fairy Tail, they probably wanted to look at her abilities up close.  That led Althea to where she was now, waiting on the bench next to the sole bus stop in Iceberg.  The personnel the Council sent would probably be arriving soon, but for now, all the youth had to do was wait.  As usual, she skipped over reading the mission briefing and responded to the summons immediately.  It wasn’t like she was lacking firepower, she had Psi with her on the bench waiting as well.  It just so happened the magical message arrived at Althea while she was still at Tethys’s place, so the NEET dragon insisted the stoic ghost accompany her.  Apparently, she needed time to adjust to society after being sealed for so long.

Honestly, she probably just wanted some time to corrupt Velos with her weird cartoons without Psi stopping her.

Althea was dressed in a variation of her usual school uniform, the sailor suit, the only real addition being a green letterman jacket.  Despite her frozen surroundings, that was all the youth felt like was necessary to combat the cold of Iceberg.  The one sitting next to Althea shared the same sentiment, Psi the komainu and fellow apprentice of Tethys.  Well, she technically wasn’t an apprentice anymore seeing as she was very much without a body, instead just being a ghostly projection of her body.  Well, in that sense she had an excuse for wearing her usual frilly maid uniform with the addition of some measly leggings.  Her soul was bound to the katana on her hip, and there was no way a ghost possessing a sword could be chilly.  Speaking of which, seeing as it would be annoying to move around with Psi spirit bound to Althea, Velos whipped out one of the several swords she’d grown out of using as a substitute.  It was probably decent enough for the komainu to use in a fairly serious fight, so there were no problems there.

And as the two of them stood there in silence, a cloud of snow was seen over the distance, slowly increasing in size as it came closer to the two girls.  Psi was being quiet, but not in her usual way.  She had a dark aura around her that betrayed her whirlwind of emotions.  After all, she probably guessed Althea’s true identity from the magic emitted from her when she finished relearning Prisma Chaotica.  As the one who saved her, she was too prideful to ask directly but disliked the nature of Althea’s existence to the degree she couldn’t really speak to her.  Then suddenly, Psi’s dog ears perked up as she slowly turned her nutmeg gaze towards the disturbance.  The identity of the one causing the cloud of snow was a figure wearing a cat-eared hoodie.  However, the main cause for concern was the 3-meter tall frog they were riding.  It was moving fast enough that there was practically no space between hops, leading to its unparalleled speed.

“Noisy, cease.”  The komainu said in her usual monotone voice.  However, the ethernano that surged around her suggested it was actually a spell of sorts.  And lo and behold, the hooded figure and their frog thing crashed into an invisible screen before they had the chance to barrel into the bus stop.  Psi shot a confused glance at Athea, the young girl simply shrugging.  If this person really was from the Magic Council, this was a vastly different impression than they usually gave her.

The hooded figure, shakily recovering their position on the frog thing’s head, stood up while crossing her arms.  “A-Althea!  What a coincidence we ran into each other!  What are you doing in Iceberg?”  Ah, the reason this person looked so little like a lackey of the Magic Council was that they weren’t.  Pale green hair braided into twintails, dark brown eyes, a stature that mirrored Althea’s own, if not a bit taller.  She outwardly appeared thirteen but was probably some degree older.  She had wide eyes and soft cheeks that suggested they’d become more mature with age along with long, pointy ears.  The features of the girl that were unfamiliar to Althea were the clothes she was wearing which had transformed from rags to noble-like clothing in the span of a few months.

“Oh, it’s you Elodea,”  Althea said plainly, raising her bandaged hand in greetings to the nymph.  Psi gazed from Elodea to Althea and then back, attempting to piece what kind of prior relationship they had purely from the small exchange.  “I’m sitting on this bench, how about you?”  Honestly, she still didn't understand how the green-haired girl felt anymore.  First, they were fellow captives on a pirate ship (although, in that case, she was the only real captive), then Elodea wanted revenge, then they went into a cave together that one time.  At some point, she had legit tried to kill her and Althea sent her to jail, but now she was greeting her with a friendly vigor?  During the whole cave fiasco, Althea was on vacation, so she put aside thinking about it more for later.  However, Elodea was seriously the suspicious individual, huh?

“Thea-sama, I suggest you discontinue your relationship with this suspicious individual,”  Psi said, echoing the blonde’s own thoughts.  As usual, both her voice was monotone and her expression was… well, expressionless.  Back when Althea found her soul bound to that komainu statue, she had assumed it was a result of her soul fragmenting.  But according to Tethys, Psi was always like that.  So, it was obvious that when she stood up with her deadpan face and rose her hand, anyone could only guess what her next move would be.  After all, she was one of the Signs, so some degree of strength was expected.

Elodea’s expression sank as she saw Psi’s movement, remembering her crash and tumble on the komainu’s part.  “N-No!  I don’t have anything bad in mind this time- I mean, I never had the intent to harm anyone!”  Wow, she was really digging herself into a hole.  Althea felt pretty bad for her.

“So, do you wish to be pulverized or minced?”  Psi said coldly, the ethernano in the area beginning to swirl around her.

“Eh, I’m pretty sure she’s harmless.”  The blonde said dismissively, casting her gaze towards the horizon.  “I doubt she’d be able to do much to harm us.”  Elodea’s face reddened a tinge from Althea’s comment, but it isn’t like it was a lie.  There wasn’t a hint of ill intent behind any of the blonde’s words or actions, so if she chose to see that as an insult she could.

“A-Anyways!”  Elodea said, stepping off the frog’s head, “Who even is this Terminator-like person?”  The nymph said, pointing towards Psi.

“A gho-”

“Greetings, I am Psi, currently acting accompanying Althea at the request of her master.”  The komainu said with a crisp bow, quickly interrupting what the youth had to say.  For some reason, she didn’t feel like bringing up the ghost bit, but it was probably a bother to explain anyways.  Suddenly, as if she read Althea’s mind, Psi gave her a hardened glance that said “I’m not a ghost”.  Wait, she probably could read her mind to some extent.  Or not.  Who knows?

“Okay, I’m Elodea, a nymph.  I’ve run into Althea a few times in the past.”  The girl said simply, holding her hands behind her back.  Throughout being taken from her homeland from pirates, the girl had apparently lost the weird accent she had, but enough money to get to Iceberg in the first place.  Also, there was that frog thing with her, and from the magical reading it gave out its identity was that of a summoned being.  Good for her, breaking out of jail and building up a life for herself.

“So, what are you sitting there for?”  Elodea said, canceling the summoning of her oversized frog.  Even though the same could be wondered about why the nymph was here, one could make a good guess.  After all, it wasn’t the first time she had coincidentally run across Althea.

“Uh, waiting for someone.”  The slayer replied with a statement equally unhelpful as her previous one.

“Althea, I can’t just infer, y’know.  Please, at least give me details.”  Elodea said, her voice laced with both desperateness and exhaustion.

Not one for being overly stubborn, the blonde decided to elaborate.  However, being long-winded wasn’t really natural for Althea so she thought for a bit before speaking.  “Someone from the Magic Council is meant to be coming here to watch me complete a 100-year.”

“Oh?”  Elodea’s eyes widened in mild surprise.  “You’ve gotten that strong already?  Wait, nevermind.  I should’ve expected it.  Anyways, someone’s coming to help you out?  Is it so hard you need two people assisting you?”

Althea rose her eyebrows questioningly for a moment, “Huh?  People helping me?  I’m doing it by myself.  That person will just be there to watch.”  The Magic Council never deployed personnel to actually assist with missions, only to help support their system.  It was just that they didn’t have a very good grasp of her strength from how off the radar she had been, thus the dispatched.  As a representative of Fairy Tail tasked with maintaining public relationships, she really wasn’t in the position to refuse anyways.  All it meant was that she wouldn’t use things she didn’t want them to see.  Simple really.

However, this message seemed to be lost on Elodea, “Wha?  Then why is the dog Terminator over here-”  Elodea was stopped midsentence by a sudden breeze.  Apparently, Psi saw it fit to deploy one of her spells to just narrowly miss Elodea’s head, one which had enough power to blow it clean off.  Apparently, she really didn’t appreciate the dog Terminator comment, probably because she was a komainu.  There was really no notable difference though… “I’ll stop talking now,”  Elodea said simply, leaning silently against the bus stop sign.

However, she didn’t have to stay that way for a long time, because within a minute yet another disturbance was coming over the horizon.  It was a small white van, and from the blank license plate, Althea guessed it was the Magic Council.  Smoothly halting to a stop, the vehicle was far less bothersome than Elodea’s frog, dropping off the passenger before going right back to where it came from.  She had messy dark brunette hair that reached to her shoulders, oversized glasses, and wore a white and navy battledress.  On her hands were a pair of silver gauntlets, and by her hip was a black saber, but overall she gave the impression of a reasonable woman in her early 20’s.  “Sorry if I arrived a bit late, I’m-”

“Beanstalk botanist...!”  Althea exclaimed, the sight of the librarian-like woman triggering her PTSD.  It was the worst job she ever had to go on, and the person who posted it was this botanist.

“Eh?”  The woman seemed a bit confused by the name for a moment before making some kind of connection.  “Oh, right.  You never did come for the follow-up.”  Yeah, who in their right mind would?  After two horrifyingly boring jobs, you’d need to be crazy to want more.  It wasn’t easy to travel all the way to Beanstalk village only to be greeted with a mundane task.  “Anyways, I’m your observer for this mission, Lyra Simmons.  Please treat me well.”  She had on one of those horrible smiles that people who worked for the Council tended to have, so it was no question she was one of their people.  From what Althea could tell, the lady possessed no magic power, but would probably be using the magical artifacts in the form of her gauntlets and sword.  Both Elodea and Psi couldn’t guess what kind of history was between the two but didn’t really want to ask.  “So, do you have any idea where you’d be finding the White Witch?”

“Huh?  Is that the name of what I’m going to be subjugating?”

“You didn’t-”  Lyra let out a sigh of exasperation, “Alright, you’ll be hunting down and killing the White Witch, a powerful being we don’t have much information on.  But what we do know is that around her cathedral a storm is constantly brewing no matter what.  I could try and ask HQ, but-”

“If that’s the case, then Thea can find it using her magic,”  Psi said flatly, allowing Lyra to notice for the first time there were people other than Althea present.

“Oh, are you here to take the job as well?”  The Councilwoman said, adjusting her glasses, “If so, there are some procedures we need to go through-”

“W-What?!  Isn’t this a 100-year job?!  No way am I fighting against scary stuff!”  Elodea exclaimed, drawing her hood farther over her face.

“Then… you’re watching?”  Lydia said plainly, the suspicion in her eyes not fading an ounce.

“Indeed, just as you are.  We are equipped for our own self-defense, so don’t be concerned.”  Psi voiced in her usual monotone manner.

After glancing at the two of them for a moment more, Lydia nodded.  “Alight, but it will be on the S-rank mage Althea to ensure there are no injuries between all of us.  Anyways, do you have a way to find the White Witch?  Is there a way to use your Slayer magic like that?”  Lydia said, her eyes critically assessing the situation.

Althea had half-hoped that the woman would conveniently forget Psi’s comment, but apparently not.  Truthfully, using Today’s Forecast to detect the weather anomalies in the area would be simple, but the komainu was probably referring to a factor of Prisma Chaotica.  Either way, the Magic Council wasn’t aware she used either of them, and she had wanted to keep it like that.  However, now her hand was being pushed to put forth some sort of explanation.  And it wasn’t like the Council would just accept anything she said, they’d go through the records to see if it was within the realms of possibility for the magic she allegedly had.  A blank yet childish expression was still present on Althea’s face as she contemplated this and finally answered.  “Yeah, I forgot to mention it but I learned this magic ages ago that had to do with the weather, so I should be able to detect when someone else is using similar magic.”

Technically, this wasn’t true at all, but with the impression she had given the Magic Council, they couldn’t possibly find a reason she’d lie.  So, that disgusting councilperson smile returned as Lydia accepted the explanation.  “Alright then, if you can pinpoint the location of the White Witch, we should get going, correct?”  The brunette said easily, casting her gaze around the tundra.  “I hope you have a means of transportation because I brought no such thing.”  The councilmember said easily, her impenetrable smile still present on her face.


“Wow, you are quick, Ms. Eventide.”  Althea almost barfed in her mouth from shock, never in her life had someone addressed her in such a manner.  Even people using her full name “Althea” made her double guess if she was the party in question, but a “Ms. Eventide” was something completely new.  However, that wasn’t the only reason the current situation was so unfavorable.  “Oh, could that be the cathedral over there?  Or perhaps there?”  The constantly moving Lydia mounted on Althea’s back served to make the slayer’s life harder as she pointed ahead.

After all, she was running across the desolate lands of Iceberg while giving a grown woman a piggyback ride.  Psi was doing the same with Elodea, but that situation wasn’t nearly as saddening.  Having to carry a woman several feet taller than herself made Althea disappointed in how scatterbrained the councilperson could be.  I mean, she came in a car, yet didn’t have transportation to move around Iceberg?  Did the Magic Council just assume Althea had some means of moving around that Lyra could also use?  Well, to be fair the rate at which Althea moved from one side of Fiore to the other suggested that, but she just traveled by foot everywhere.  And even Elodea had a way to move through Iceberg despite her mediocre magical prowess.  Maybe it was the blonde who was an oddball for not having something more normal?  “Hmm, according to the Council’s analysis of S-ranked mages, the average speed of them on foot is 400m/s, but isn’t this much more?  I wonder, would you permit me to run a few tests?”  Lyra continued to drone on, not minding at all that Althea would rather just run in silence.

“Thea-dono.”  Psi’s voice was audible to Althea despite the speed the two were traveling at.  The reason for this sudden vocalization was soon clear to the blonde as she detected five hastily approaching beings.  She skidded to a stop, kicking up snow in the process, the komainu following suit.

“E-Eh!?  Why are we stopping?!  Is it the witch!?  You guys better protect me, you’re being evaluated by the Magic Council right now!”  Elodea exclaimed, her face filling with panic as she glanced around the white sheets of ice and snow.  The sight of the green-haired nymph slowly falling into panic alleviated her mood a bit, but she couldn’t allow herself to revel in the girl’s pain for too long.  Instead, some perfect stress relievers were coming right now.

A group of white-furred ape-like creatures came galloping over the distance, their dark eyes locked on the mages and councilperson.  Lyra silently slid off Althea’s back, her eyes narrowing in focus as she stepped back towards Psi and Elodea.  “Vulcans?  But something about them is off…”

Whether or not the vulcans were normal or not didn’t matter to Althea in the slightest.  She just needed some outlet for her annoyance that she couldn’t express any other way.  The largest of the odd-looking vulcans stepped forwards, drawing himself upwards to further emphasize his size.  “Human!  You are currently encroaching on the territory of the White Angel Arianna, surrender and we may spare your lives.”

“Eh?  White Angel?”  Elodea’s panic-stricken face turned into one of confusion as she glanced at the large vulcans from over Psi’s shoulder.  “Hmm, maybe she’s connected to the White Witch somehow?”

“Wait,”  Lyra adjusted her glasses as she cast her brown gaze towards the young nymph.  “I don’t think this person is friendly.  They gave us no options for peaceful negotiation or anything like that.  And what kind of angel sets up camp in a place like Iceberg?”  Her eyes narrowed, the cold air around her as far removed from Althea’s image of the botanist in Beanstalk village.  “Arianna is probably the target of this subjugation, the White Witch.”

Welp, Althea’s already bad mood just worsened.  She had a sneaking suspicion this “White Witch” person wasn’t your typical mage, but this was the worst possible outcome.  If there was one thing the blonde disliked, it was interacting with others of her race.  Psi seemed to share the same feelings, but Elodea and Lyra most likely hadn’t ever interacted with a divine being.  Well, there were many different types of angels, so maybe it would be the variety that closely just resembled humans with wings and lots of magic power.  But from the magic emanating from the direction of the White Witch, that was just an empty hope.  The terrified expression of Elodea did little to cheer her up, but maybe beating up the White Angel’s pets would?

The largest vulcan grinned, his expression resembling a glutton looking down at their current meal.  “Yes, out master, the White Angel, is also known by you humans as the White Witch.  Her magic power is great and terrible, you people have no chances of subjugating her!  After all, we Primal Vulcans stand in your path, a race engineered by the great White Ang-!”  Before the ape could finish his sentence, a gaping hole appeared in his right leg, allowing someone to cleanly look through the hole to the scenery behind him.  “Wh- What…?”  His voice wavered along with his balance, the vulcan’s lackeys quickly moving to support him.

“Hey hey, you guys are the gatekeepers, huh?”  Althea chirped, a childlike grin on her face.  However, her outstretched hand identified her as the one who shot the magic that gruesomely injured the lead vulcan.  “It’s boring to talk, so let’s just evaluate each other’s skills!”  She said simply, pulling back the jacket sleeve on her right arm.

“D-Dammit!  Get the small one first!”  The lead vulcan commanded, his subordinates hastily moving to confront Althea.  But as the huge creatures moved to grab the young girl, she simply moved between their trunklike arms to deal one a punch to his gut.  The vulcan was immediately winded, and Althea then shot one of the water droplets used earlier directly through the vulcan’s forehead, the corpse falling uselessly into the snow.  The other vulcans seemed shocked by the loss of their comrade, anger boiling in their dark eyes.  By now, the lead primal vulcan had recovered to some degree from his leg injury and joined in on the fray.  They threw punches, reached for Althea’s neck, sought to grab and pull apart her limbs, but they couldn’t even touch a single hair.  The youth ducked and weaved between the ferocious attacks, vaulting and somersaulting away from outstretched hands easily.

And then, she found an opening, thrusting her elbow into a vulcan’s face while in midair.  He recoiled from the blow, and Althea twisted her body to use the vulcan as a springboard.  As she sprang away, she left behind a flurry of large hands that sought to find her but only met air.  In the split second the vulcans spent relocating her, Althea leaped up and over them.  But the location she was heading towards already had a vulcan waiting for her to come close for him to grab.  However, the youth twisted her body midair to evade the thrusting hand, allowing her to end up right in front of the vulcan’s face.  Whipping around, she dealt a roundhouse kick that blew the creature’s head clean of his shoulders.  Althea could barely restrain a wave of glee at seeing the shocked yet fearful expression on the disembodied head, but she couldn’t get distracted.  The youth strafed backward right before a fist crashed into her from above, and yet another one of her water droplets found their way to the creature’s skull.  Anticipating the looming shadow behind her, she turned around and swept her feet at the vulcan’s.  As that ape fell into the dense snow, she turned her attention to the lead vulcan, the same one who had tried crushing her just moments before.  He bore his fangs at her before charging, the desperateness in his movements apparent.  However, there was an undeniable difference between him and Althea.  A geyser of water exploded from below the vulcan, leaving the bloodied husk of the primal vulcan leader.

The final vulcan left, who was cowering in the snow, rapidly backed away.  The fact he was in no state to fight back was apparent, but before Althea could fire one more spell she was interrupted.  “You, primal vulcan.”  Lyra stepped forwards, looking down coldly at the creature.  “Where is the White Witch?  Who is she?  Tell us everything you know.”

“I-I-”  The final vulcan hesitated, but a glance at Althea standing behind the brunette soon got him talking.  “Arianna lives in the Icecrown Citadel… the area is surrounded by an eternal blizzard.  I-I don’t know how to undo it, but even the vulcans aren’t permitted to go past the storm…”

“Hurry up.  We’re a subjugation team, not a bunch of tourists.”  Lyra was smiling, but the air she emitted was cold despite her lack of magic.  “You know what I want to hear.”

The vulcan held back a sob, his hands trembling, “There are… knights and elite guards in the citadel. The most common ones are everywhere and move in groups, but there are also stronger ones.  The Virtue Knights.  I don’t even know if I should compare them and the regular knights seeing as they hold the keys to ascend in the citadel.  To get to Arianna, you’ll need to go through the Knights of Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Patience, Kindness, and Humility.  K-Kindness and Humility share a floor, but the other ones each have their floor to guard.”

“Good,”  Lyra said, turning her back to the primal vulcan.  “Now guide us-”  A small squelching sound echoed through the silent tundra, and the councilwoman turned around to find the primal vulcan dead.  “Althea?”  She said, turning her gaze towards the ribbon wearing mage.

“Erm, well,”  Althea squirmed under Lyra’s piercing gaze, “I’m pretty sure I have a better idea about the whereabouts of the citadel than he did, so…”

“That may be true, but how about entering the palace?  Additionally, that was a special species of vulcan.  Who knows if Arianna made any more?”

“I don’t think the White Witch would care about a vulcan enough seeing as she doesn’t even let them into her house!  They’re probably others lurking around somewhere too, and I don’t feel like carrying around dead weight other than Elodea.”

“Wh-What!?  I’m the only dead weight?  How about Lyra?  Even Psi didn’t do a thing!”  Elodea exclaimed, shocked over the sudden scathing comment.

“I mean, Lyra’s my overseer, and Psi is strong enough that she can take care of herself.  I never even asked you to come, but you are.”  Elodea opened her mouth as if she wanted to rebuke, but stopped herself when she realized she had nothing to say.

“Still,”  Lyra held her chin in her hand, “I wonder what the identity of these knights is?  After all, the request for subjugating the White Witch has been around for over one hundred years.”


Althea gazed upwards, comparing the clear yet gray sky to her left to the violent winds on her right.  She sighed, feeling that nature was once again being overridden by magic without a thought.  And indeed, the person who set up this blizzard over their territory probably cared a lot more about themself than any potential effects she could be having on Earthland, so she didn’t bother looking for another way to put up the natural defense.  Unlike, Rho, who had put years into crafting Today’s Forecast in a way that angels with designation wouldn’t have a problem with it, the being who just decided to throw caution to the wind had attracted Althea to her front gate.

“Wow, the blizzard stays here year-round?”  Elodea asked, her eyes wide at the sight of the freak of nature.

“Indeed, over the years the Magic Council has compiled a lot of data about this strange weather.  It seems to be magic, yet the nature of it seems a bit odd.  Either way, I’ll be curious to see how you all traverse the harsh winds of-”

Said harsh winds swiftly disappeared in an instant, and Lyra could only stand there in shock as the reports over several millennia were just proven wrong.  “...How?”  She said simply, although the tone of her voice suggested she didn’t really expect an answer.

“Welp, we’d better get going!”  Althea chirped, trudging through the deep snow towards the glorious citadel in the distance.  “I only dispelled the blizzard, so we’ll be in trouble if the Witch recasts it while we’re in the middle of it.

Lyra hadn’t expected much of an explanation from Althea, and she didn’t get one.  The blonde really didn’t feel like going into detail about how she could circumvent the spell, cutting off the mana supply to the caster.  Actually, it was pretty basic stuff, and more ore less every mage could do so.  It was just that the spell was a bit complicated, so one might just assume there was no practical way to dispel it.  But with Althea’s consumption of the monstrous Angel of Dreams, such a thing was rather simple.  The only issue that came from the blizzard was all the snow left behind by it, but that was simple to deal with when Althea simply picked up Lyra and leaped over the biggest piles.  And so, the group arrived safely to the front entrance of the citadel.

“W-Wait, are we really just going through the front door?!”  Elodea yelped, gazing upwards at the intimidating set of doors.

“I mean, the White Witch has probably already noticed us approaching?”  Althea said dismissively.

“Additionally, this castle is made with metal and encased in ice to hard to break.  So I think it’d be futile to attempt making our own entrance.”  Psi concluded, adding onto the dragon slayer’s claim.

“I’m simply here to observe, and my obligations have already been met.  The moment you found the citadel, my duty to supply information ended and I won’t offer any kind of advice from here on.”  Lyra too consented with the front door approach, meaning no kind of democracy could change the group’s route.

“Uwahh, you guys are the worse!  Why am I even here, it’s a 100-year job~~”  As someone who was still latched onto Psi’s back, she sure was concerned about her safety.  If anything bad happened to the komainu inside the citadel, then Althea doubted her own livelihood.  After all, her power was comparable to that of Rho, and she had only shown a small fragment of it during her time in Iceberg.

But there was no more time to waste, so the ribbon wearing mage went ahead and pushed open the double doors only to find her first opponents.  They were probably the knights that the vulcan mentioned, all donning silver sets of armor.  However, there sure were a lot of them.  This Witch was really wary of them, wasn’t she?  Well, no matter how much Althea enjoyed to battle, she wanted to hurry up and have a taste of something more than an appetizer.

“Okay, we’re skipping these guys, Psi.”  The blonde said simply before taking Lyra into a princess carry.  Psi nodded silently and the already pale color of Elodea’s face became white.  But before the nymph could voice her concern, both mages had already entered the air.  Some knights anticipated Althea landing on their spears, but contrary to their expectations she simply used their spear tips as a point for making yet another leap.  The next group caught on quickly, making attempted to slash at the youth as she traveled through the air.  However, in those cases, she just needed to retract her legs and land her feet on their blades before once again leaping away.  And if she really needed to, Althea could make a gravity-defying mid-air maneuver to avoid any injury.  Psi was doing a similar technique to traverse the crowd of knights, her emotionless expression vastly contrasting Elodea’s panic.

“Ah, that seems like the room we’re aiming for.”  The blonde said lightheartedly as she gazed at the set of large ornate doors the knights seemed to be centered around.  Without a hint of hesitation, the young girl aimed a leaping kick at the door and flew into the room.  “Ah, so we aren’t going to fight the Witch first.”  The blonde remarked as she gazed upon the single occupant of the room.  They were extremely tall, wore a suit of purple and gold armor, and bore a large shield.  The moment Psi entered the room along with Elodea, the doors abruptly shut, most likely prompted by magic.  Grinning, Althea put down the councilwoman and the spectators all began to back up.  Even Lyra and Elodea could recognize the vast difference between this knight and the ones they met at the entrance.

“M’kay, let’s not drag this out!”  The young girl exclaimed before launching herself at the knight and aiming a straight right punch.  As expected, instead of the knight’s armor she was met by its shield.  The result was the same for when Althea performed a roundhouse kick and axe kick consecutively.  And from the feeling of her foot hitting the shield, it wasn’t something she’d be able to easily breakthrough.  However, she was still testing out her opponent, so she unleashed a volley of punches on the knight.  But the moment she was about to transition into another set of attacks, the knight bashed his shield into Althea, sending her skidding across the room.  But the blonde quickly recovered, once more executing a multitude of melee attacks to overwhelm the knight.

“E-Eh?  Her attacks can’t get through?”  Elodea remarked, her dark eyes wide.  Now that Thea thought about it, she wasn’t sure if the nymph had even ever seen an encounter where the opponent touches her.

“Well, of course.  The person who made the exterior of the castle made that shield as well.”  Psi said easily, “But I think you can stop riding on my back, that knight only targets those who seek to fight.”

“How are you so sure?”  The green-haired girl sulked, tightening her grasp on Psi.  “He might distract Thea by trying to come after us.”

“No, it only responds to aggressive intent like Thea-dono’s.  As long as we don’t plan on fighting that thing, we won’t fight it.”

“Oh?  Do you know something about the knights in this place, Psi?”  Lyra chipped in, adjusting her glasses as she cast her gaze towards the maid.

Psi was silent for a moment before turning towards the fight.  “That isn’t a person, it’s just a soul attached to a set of armor.  The knights outside weren’t nearly as bad, but this thing might as well be a magic item.  The White Witch has surely been doing things fit for her title.”  She said, attempting to explain what she needed to in as little words as possible.

Lyra’s eyes widened as she turned to face the knight.  “What?!  Is that even possible…?”

However, Psi simply shrugged, casting her indifferent gaze back to the battle.  “Believe what you want to.”  She said plainly.

But no matter how much was known about the knight, that didn’t change the fact Althea wasn’t in an advantageous position.  It seemed to be aiming to shave away at her endurance by continuing to block her attacks, but it wasn’t as if Althea had played all of her cards yet.  If he was using his shield to block attacks, all the youth had to do was deal with an attack it couldn’t foresee.  And thus, the next time she rushed towards the Knight, she cast a spell that placed her directly between her opponent and his shield.  And before they could react, she dealt an uppercut to the bottom of their armored chin, sending them flying into the air.  They landed with a loud, resounding twang, but soon got to their feet.  Meanwhile, the water mage was inspecting her fist, feeling slightly puzzled over how weird the sensation of her hand hitting the knight felt.  However, when the knight suddenly pulled out a sword, she disregarded it and reengaged in combat.

Previously, it had probably only wanted a passive victory, but now that the blonde proved she could attack in ways it wasn’t prepared for, the knight decided to get a bit more proactive in the fight.  It was the first one to attempt a blow, swinging its short sword to cleave the youth in half.  However, the girl simply shifted to the side before delving in closer to deal an uppercut to its gut, the knight ricocheting off the ceiling and crashing to the ground.

Honestly, the youth found that the short sword and shield combination was a tad bit odd.  The knight used a hefty shield and bore even heavier armor, so it wasn’t all that great at quick movements.  So it’s reasonable that the moment Althea goes from mid-close range to melee range, it doesn’t have much leeway to avoid her attacks.  Hence, the shield serving as a wall between her and her opponent.  But if they need to deal with damage with a shortsword, that shortens their range to the area behind its shield.  And so, the moment it switches from a defensive to an offensive position, it makes it incredibly obvious by moving away from their shield and slightly closing the distance.  And then when it wanted to use its shield again, it’d have to once more move away from its opponent.  It probably wasn’t their fault, seeing as they weren’t even in control of their body, but it still left a bad taste in Althea’s mouth.

The lumbering knight used its sword to prop itself back on its feet, the ethernano around it beginning to swirl about.

“Uwahhh!  It-It’s casting magic that effects a large area!”  Elodea cried, flailing around in panic.  Psi seemed to have shifted from a regular piggyback to shoulders.  I mean, there wasn’t any problem since the nymph was wearing pants nothing was revealed.  Meanwhile, Lyra raised her hand, a clear sphere-forming around herself… and herself only.  Well, it was probably an ability of the gauntlets she was wearing, and there was a chance that it simply wasn’t made with other people in mind.  Either way, it didn’t matter all that much.

“That’s unnecessary,”  Psi said stoically the moment dark clouds began forming over the ceiling of the room.  It was different from the blizzard that was outside, but it was probably a similar kind of magic.  Althea had been waiting politely for the knight to set up its spell, but it was about time the fight resumed prop[erly.  But the moment she began moving across the room towards the large knight, a bolt of lightning descended from above.  Light engulfed the room, and the place Althea once stood had nothing but a dark scar on the floor.

Elodea trembled, her mouth agape after witnessing the speed of the magic.  “Oh my god, she-”

But before the green-haired girl could say anything else, the slayer suddenly landed on the spot right next to where the lightning struck.  She had put in the effort to move into the air while dodging just for the sake of seeing the girl panic, and it was worth it.  Now the slayer was fully prepared to go on ahead and wrap up the fight.  The knight’s defense was sturdy, but not study enough that Althea couldn’t just brute force her way through it.  She sprinted at her opponent, a barrage of lightning descending from the swirling clouds above.  But the fact that the knight was required to aim for Althea instead of just release the magic from its location meant that simple tricks like zigzagging were effective in her approach.  Finally, she was face to face with the towering knight, leaping up and drawing back her fist to punch it right in the face.  Preemptively, it had brought down a lightning bolt with itself as the target, serving as a sure-fire way t finally hit the blonde.  Unfortunately, giving the nature of the knight, that was something the youth prepared for.

She maneuvered herself in a way that was physically impossible while midair, shifting herself horizontally so that she flew right over the knight’s shoulder.  She landed behind him, the lightning striking the knight the moment her feet made contact with the floor.  Before the knight even had the chance to recover from their self inflicted attack, the Fairy Tail mage already had her hand at the back of their helmet.  Without even having her feet planted on the ground, Althea pushed the knight’s head into the floor.  The thud resounded through the room just as much as the thunder had, but she wasn’t quite finished.  The youth continued to drive her heel into the back of the knight’s head until it finally stopped moving, and as the helmet’s chape collapsed a large dent formed.

Finally, Althea stepped back,  “Phew, welp that’s that guy sorted.”  She turned towards her peanut gallery, flashing a bright smile.  “I’m gonna go ahead and create a shortcut to the next floor if you don’t mind.”

Elodea, apparently having recovered from her shock from earlier, spoke first.  “Erm… that guys’ dead, right?  A-Anyways, do whatever!  I don’t have a reason to want to make this job go on any longer!”

“Just pretend that I’m not here,”  Lyra said, crossing her arms.  “Operate during this subjugation as you would when you’re alone.”

“By the way lady, I don't appreciate how you didn’t bother forming a shield around us too.”

“Oh?  I didn’t realize that I was responsible for your safety.  Either way, this artifact only creates a shield for its user.”

“What?!  I can tell that it’s range is adjustable just by looking at it, you-”

“It’ll revive soon.”  Psi droned, her expressionless eyes gazing at the unmoving knight on the floor.

Both Lyra and Elodea turned surprised gazes towards the knight as well, but it wasn’t like the komainu was going to elaborate.  Althea wanted to sigh, this was why she tended to just go on quests by herself.  “Yeah, uh, if it’s like a magical thing like Psi said, it should just come back later.  So I’ll be creating the shortcut now, ‘kay?”

Being able to appraise items wasn’t within Althea’s skillset, so she wasn’t able to tell if Lyra was sincerely lying.  Well, if it’s that dirty weed botanist, she would expect stuff like that.  But to be honest, shield probably wouldn’t be able to guard against the lightning bolts if it was spread out to include three people.  And being on Psi’s shoulders was way safer than being behind Lyra’s shield anyways.  If Althea were to fight against the Sign at that very moment, she probably wouldn’t be able to defeat her.  Well, if she resorted to directly attacking the soul, maybe, but stuff like that honestly wasn't worth the sacrifice on her end.

Elodea’s eyes darted between the knight at the Councilwoman, but she eventually let out a sigh.  “Okay, fine, but I still don’t appreciate how she lied to my face.  By the way, how are you planning to-?”

Before the nymph could finish her sentence, Althea had already entered the air.  Her body, in a deafening crash, broke straight through the ceiling.  She had already picked the key up that should allow her to enter the next floor, allowing the rest of the group to follow suit.  Additionally, each floor guardian was in the very center of their level, so you could just save time by going directly up.

“AAAHhh! What the heck?!!”  Sadly, Elodea didn’t seem to realize all these advantages.  But Psi-- as usual-- wasn’t phased in the slightest, following Althea through the hole she had made.  Even Lyra didn’t seem all confused, using one of her items through the ceiling as well.  Seriously, Elodea of all people had known Althea personally for the longest period, she should expect stuff like this.

Well anyways, what Althea found on the second floor was nothing out of her expectations, another knight decked out in flashy armor with a Midian character on their chest.  But in contrast to the massive knight from before, this one wasn’t holding a shield or a sword.  In fact, it wasn’t holding anything at all!  The blonde couldn’t help but grin as she watched the knight assume a combat stance, sliding back its right foot and raising its left fist.  If this thing that could barely be considered a living being through it could compete with Althea in hand to hand combat, the youth could tell from a glance that it was sorely mistaken.  If the knight from before was a bad match against Althea, this one was even more so.  But despite that, the dragon slayer was excited to combat someone with a similar combat range as her.  The last time she had was back when… well, she couldn’t remember.  But there wasn’t leeway to keep thinking, it was about time she and the knight traded blows.

Without a hint of hesitation, the blonde closed the distance between herself and her opponent.  She threw a punch, the knight reacted.  The knight threw a kick, she reacted.  It was an exchange in every sense of the word, but it wasn’t as if the two parties were on equal playing fields.  Unlike the mage, her opponent was decked out in a full suit of armor, and although it allowed for much more movement it wouldn’t lose out to the previous knight’s.  Additionally, it was much taller than the young Althea.  Despite the fact they were both barehanded, it had more range to attack due to the difference between the length of their arms and legs.  And at the end of those legs were green spikes, built to be more effective at dealing injuries than any normal blunt attack could.  But that was all it had.

Althea’s fist found its way to the knight’s gut, creating a delay in its actions and giving the blonde another opening to act.  In no time at all, the fight turning into a one-sided pummeling as the youth mercilessly attacked the knight.  Even if the thing had armor, even if it was taller, it didn’t matter in the slightest.  Logically speaking, there as no way a barehanded fighter could win against a human equipped with a weapon.  After all, that’s why they were created, to increase the power one could have with the average human physique.  Even a stick was better than literally nothing, you had more power, more range, and even if you specialized in strength and speed there was nothing stopping you from using a weapon.  Despite that, many chose to abandon weapons and to fight only with their body.  Why?

Well, because it was easier for Althea.  She didn’t have to precisely calculate the distance between her and her opponent, it wasn’t necessary to think about the time it’d take for her weapon to reach her opponent.  She just had to be close enough, and her speed could do the rest of the work.  Instead, she could be thinking about what her opponent was thinking, their next move, their next spell.  Their whens, wheres, whys, hows, that was how Althea fought.  And yet this knight came at her without the necessary reaction time to match the blonde for an extended period.  Basically, they were slow, she was fast, it was a basic difference in stats.

Without bothering to talk to the peanut gallery, Althea reached down to scoop up the key that had fallen from the knight’s armor.  Honestly, she found it to be a pretty weird mechanism.  It moved straight through the metal the moment the knight was considered defeated, and it unlocked the next floor the moment it was picked up.  It was kinda un-angel-like, but there were all kinds of angels.  Heck, maybe Althea’s initial assumption was wrong, and this angel wasn’t the operative one.

“He-Hey Althea, I know you’re in a hurry and all, but mind if you didn’t go through the ceiling like before?”  Elodea said from the shoulders from Psi, her eyes filled with apprehension.

“Eh?”  The girl’s blue eyes traveled to the nymph, “Why not?”

“Well… erm… I think that the Witch might be alerted if we just go in break her castle and stuff.”

“Aww, but she already knows we’re here though.  After all, the reason why these knights drop keys isn’t for the Witch’s convenience, right?  Anyways, the blizzard came back, so she must know we bust into here already.”

“Huh?”  Elodea closed her eyes, probably to try sensing the spell around the castle.  Soon her fark green eyes opened, her expression dyed with surprise.  “Wow, it’s super subtle but you already noticed?  You’ve been pretty preoccupied with fighting through…”  Her eyes narrowed as she gazed at Althea, trying to guess what kind of monster she could be.

It’s only reasonable given her previous excursions with the mage.  None of them ended very well, Althea slaughtered a bunch of pirates, she impaled Elodea through the palm with scissors (for a good reason), and most recently she had… well, in actuality the blonde didn’t do anything strange.  However, that was the moment Elodea realized she was neither a devil nor an angel, nor something in between.  And that same incomprehensible existence was going through these mind-boggling fights that the nymph had trouble following at all.  And it wasn’t like she wasn’t capable, after all, she had broken out of prison and reached B-rank by her efforts.  Elodea was a pretty solid summoner, and if a party and ruffian tried to mess with her she could quickly execute them all.  And yet she could barely even see Althea and the knight’s blurred figures as they exchanged blows.

But Althea simply grinned, shaking her head, “Nope, after all it’s my job to notice these kinds of things.  Don’t want to brag, but I’m a pretty important person in my guild.”

“What?!  You’re in a guild?!  Althea, you seem way to wishy-washy to be apart of any kind of group though…”

“I agree.  Additionally, Thea-dono doesn’t seem to be the kind of person you’d want to entrust something to.” Psi concurred, her voice remaining monotone despite her harsh words.

“Huh?  What kind of weird impression do you two have of me?”  Althea remarked, her eyes betraying her surprise over how low their evaluation was.

Other than the slayer, Lyra too seemed to be surprised.  “Do you two not know about Ms. Eventide’s position?  She isn’t a household name, but if you know something about the wizarding world you should’ve at least heard of her.”  Althea felt physical pain from that “Ms. Eventide”.  The horrible botanist’s words hurt her way more than anything they’ve come across throughout this job...

“Oh, haha, I don’t live in Fiore if that’s what you mean.”  If Elodea stuck around there, there was no doubt she’d be caught by the Rune Knights one day.

“I too have my own… circumstances.”  After all, Psi’s soul was fragmented and affixed to a statue until recently.  Unless that is, you could get a Sorcerer’s Magazine subscription from within a magical Shinto Shrine.

Lyra shot a beseeching gaze at Althea, but the youth simply shrugged.  So, the Councilwoman went ahead and elaborated a bit, “Ms. Eventide is currently a member of Fairy Tail, one of the largest guilds in the country.  Additionally, she is in charge of the group’s public image and relationship with the Magic Council, so you could say she’s one of the main managers of the guild.  Why else would I be tagging along with her?”

Lyra once more referring to her as Ms. Eventide hurt Althea, but the stunned silence of Psi and Elodea did as well.  Sure, she knew she wasn’t the managing type, but Fairy Tail was a special case.  “Yo-You two only know how I act when I’m trying to complete a task for someone!  What do you think I’m doing when I’m not fighting stuff?!”

“Thea.”  Psi’s seemingly emotionless eyes bore into the teen.  “I always assumed you were always doing a task for someone.  You give off the impression of a migratory bird that never stays in one place for too long.”

Althea winced, turning her back towards the peanut gallery so that her distress couldn’t be too obvious.  Psi had dropped the honorifics and had also strung together the longest sentence she had ever heard from her.  It couldn’t be that surprising, sure Althea spent a lot of time messing around, but there were points when she had to deal with business!  It wasn’t like she just lived by taking a job, doing it, and taking another job immediately.  Where was the time for silently enjoying blending into a crowd?  The people?  The juice!

“Ms. Eventide,”  This dirty botanist wanted to get hit, huh… “I recommend we get going.”

“Oh, right,”  Elodea exclaimed.  “Remember not to- uhGYAH!  You’re already doing it?!”

Too late, Althea was already up in the air, off to create yet another hold in another ceiling.  The peanut gallery had hurt her feelings, so the youth wasn’t willing to compromise.

Soon, the blonde found herself on the third floor of the Witch’s castle, faced with yet another knight.  As soon as the teen entered the floor, it was already wielding its two-handed broadsword.  Before the peanut gallery even had time to catch up with her, Althea had already begun engaging it in combat.

“Thea.  Don’t feel embarrassed.”  Psi said as she emerged from the hole.

“Yeah, you usually have your stuff together… to some degree.”

Elodea’s remark that followed didn’t help her feel better at all, but there was an outlet for her emotions standing right in front of her.  Unlike the first two knights, who were geared towards defense and speed respectively, this one was purely out for the damage.  It aggressively met Althea’s equally aggressive approach with hefty swings of its sword.  But the movement required to move the hefty blade was much less of a slash than it was a sweep, so it was only about time the mage found a gap in their assault.  And as the sword came swinging to separate her legs from the rest of her body, she found it.  Jumping into the air, Althea was able to immediately close the distance between her and the knight, punching the knight right in the face.

However, the opponent wasn’t quite defeated just yet, leaping back in temporary retreat.  And suddenly, from the knight’s back burst forth two pairs of angelic wings, and two horns simultaneously emerged from its head.  Althea couldn’t help but be annoyed that the knight hadn’t initially assessed her as big enough of a threat before busting them out, but that would be solved after a bit of venting with the knight’s help.  However, the peanut gallery seemed to have much more of a reaction then Althea had.

“What the heck?!  It’s an angel!”  Elodea cried, her eyes wide.

“Hm, does that mean this one with different from the previous knights?” Lyra asked, adjusting her glasses as she did.

“...no, it’s still a walking tool.  The only difference is the inherent abilities, so the only difference is that it’s stronger than the other two.  The horns are new too.”  Psi said concisely, her narrowed eyes on the winged knight.  Althea had no idea what kind of angels she had come across in the past, but she sure did have a bad impression of them.

As the peanut gallery conversed amongst each other, the knight was momentarily wrapped with a warm golden glow before once more bearing its sword.  It didn’t seem to have strengthened it, so maybe it was a heal?  Either way, that wouldn’t prevent Althea from defeating it.  This time, the knight approached first, executing a slash that the youth promptly sucked under.  From the fact its movements hadn’t changed, it seemed that her initial guess was correct, meaning that the fight would be all the more simple.  However, that wasn’t the only trick the knight had, as it soon took a step backward to shoot out beams of light from its hand.  Althea smoothly weaved between them but didn’t use to opportunity to close the distance again.  Instead she shot a few bursts of water of her own that the knight quickly leaped out of the way of.

However, that put them right where the girl wanted-- in midair.  A geyser of water promptly burst forth from the ground, dealing notable damage to the knight and its armor.  But the moment it released itself from the fierce flow of water, the golden glow returned, a tell that it was haling itself.  And this was the very thing that served as "checkmate" for the knight, which was currently gazing around the room for any signs Althea.  Unfortunately, the moment her opponent’s gaze was obscured by her attack, she had moved out of its line of sight.  And now, she was right behind the night, swiftly dealing a roundhouse kick to its neck.  It clearly couldn’t use both its healing ability and beam ability at the same time, so she reckoned she’d take advantage of the gap created by the knight trying to heal itself.

As someone who used healing spells herself, she was aware of how carefully you needed to time healing mid-battle.  That’s why she just didn’t bother doing stuff like that.  Additionally, the fact the knight hadn’t bothered aiding his retreat from close quarters with his ranged ability meant either it hadn’t thought of it at all, or it simply couldn’t.  And the moment the knight believed it was safe could easily be discerned by whether it was using its healing ability or not, which Althea used to get the element of surprise on her side.  After all, one of the main weaknesses of healing spells was that it couldn’t restore your armor.  And now that Althea was able to properly chain together attack after attack after getting the drop on the guy, it was only time until it fell apart.  And when that happened, it’d be simple to deal a mortal blow.  And that was exactly what happened.  The knight’s red and gold armor couldn’t bear Althea’s assault forever, and the figure of the one underneath the armor was revealed.

“Urk, that’s-!”

“What the-?!”

Neither Elodea not Lydia could hold back their surprise upon seeing the black, featureless shell of a person that was inhabiting the armor.  They could only assume all the knights from before were of similar features, hence the whole reviving thing.  However, Althea couldn’t care less, and she crushed the knight’s head underfoot.  It would’ve been a lot more graphic if the thing had blood or guts, but only a black liquid poured from the smashed in the head.

“Phew, well I’m refreshed!”  Althea remarked, leaving behind the body of the knight.

“Please don’t break through the ceiling this time, okay?”  Elodea pleaded.

“Thea, I’m regretful to find that you were impacted so much from my poor assessment of you,”  Psi uttered.

“Yep, I feel much better now!”

“Seriously, it’s super loud!  Every time you do it I’m scared that the Witch will burst out of nowhere because you’re buying up her house!”

“I find that the fact you broke down a hatch that was already unlocked contributed to my first impression, but now I’m properly revising it.”

“Okay, I’m going to go ahead and make the next shortcut!”

The peanut gallery didn’t know how to mince words.  Psi feeling bad about it only made Althea feel worse, and Elodea’s over-cautious attitude was making her nervous too!  But it didn’t make sense if they were going to face the White Witch anyways, it would only serve to save the group time!  Choosing not to reply to the nymph or komainu, Althea retrieved the floor key and burst through the ceiling to the next floor.

The rest of the girls followed easily behind Althea, and the only one who seemed displeased with the situation was Elodea.  What they found was no different from the scenes of the previous three floors: a knight waiting to engage in battle.  However, this one had a slightly different appearance and arsenal compared to the previous three.  Its armor was much more streamlined than any of the other knights, and instead of wielding one weapon (or none at all) it had both a short sword and a dagger.  Those kinds of things were complicated to get used to the alternating distances, especially so for the dagger.  Previously, Althea had often taken advantage of the opponent attacking and not being able to defend themselves, moving towards them to deal a hefty blow.  However, that wasn’t possible when there was a blade waiting to stab her there.  Either way, she hadn’t felt any agency in the whole situation just yet.

That is, until the brown knight moved, suddenly going from 10 feet away to right in Althea’s face.  She held out her hand, unleashing a watery vortex that once again established space between her and her opponent, but not consciously.  Somehow, the guy had moved so fast that Althea hadn’t put any thought into her attack, simply acting on instinct.  But there was no relying on that being the case next time as well.

But still, it was unreasonable to expect the brown knight to be so damn fast, right?  I mean, the previous knights were only at a passing grade in speed, strength, and magic, so what's with the sudden difficulty spike?  Perhaps, was there some sort of gimmick behind the fourth floor?  Could it be that her opponent wasn’t fast, she was just being slowed down.  After all, the moment the fight started, she did sense something wonky happening, but it wasn’t like her movements were slowed down.  So what-?

Once again, the knight had already moved close enough to Althea for them to attack, leaving the youth to narrowly avoid the swings of their sword and thrusts of their dagger.  It as kinda rough, so she was entirely focused on dodging instead of finishing up the fight.  But soon, the water mage found the pattern in the swipes of the knight.  There were small signs of its actions before they happened, so if Althea simply moved preemptively, she had much more time to work with.  Finally, she launched an attack of her own, sweeping her feet underneath the knight’s feet.  It was toppled over easily, and from there the slayer easily disarmed it and drove its short sword into its heart.

“Thea-dono, it’s not nice to just trample over the opponent’s gimmick without bothering to try figuring it out.”  Psi’s nutmeg eyes shifted from the broken knight to the youth standing over its body.  Both Lyra and Elodea, as expected, hadn’t noticed anything amiss during the fight, but the Sign was able to easily pick up on it.

However the slayer simply shrugged, “Oh, well, it was annoying so I couldn’t bother.”

Psi simply stared at Althea for a moment before speaking, “...your reactions were delayed.”

The Fairy Tail mage’s eyes narrowed, her gaze moving back to the fallen knight.  She probably could’ve figured out that the knight had magic that delayed her reaction, but that would’ve been too difficult to narrow down.  Either way, she could simply remedy the effect by increasing her speed with magic, so it would still result in the blonde brute-forcing her way through the situation.  Still, there wasn’t any need to respect an opponent's unique abilities anyways.  Combat wasn’t meant for a conversation, it was meant for execution of violence through whatever means possible.  But aside from that, magic that delayed your opponents’ reactions was pretty nasty.  Being able to respond in a fight was pretty darn important, and depending on the person, the magic would spell out an instant fatality.

Lyra, not bothered by the coldness of Psi’s words, approached the knight’s carcass.  Behind her glasses, the woman’s eyes shone with curiosity.  “Well, this knight was able to delay the reactions of others?  How curious, what a unique magic.  It must be a kind of special phenomenon.”

Elodea nodded, apparently having forgotten about her little disagreement with the botanist on the prior floor.  “Yeah, it’s pretty weird.  I’ve never heard of anyone using that kind of ability.”  Althea found it slightly ironic that Elodea of all people would make that observation.  After all, the green-haired girl had once delved into the blonde’s memories with her magic which she had refrained from using ever since.

But before the said girl had the chance to voice any complaints about Althea’s shortcut, the youth quickly grabbed the key before launching herself into the next floor.  Once again, the group was faced with a knight, this time one decked out in armor heavier than any of the others.  Additionally, while the others had been standing and battle-ready, the guardian of the fifth floor was sitting in a meditative position.  Even when Althea began approaching it with the intention of combat, it didn’t react.  Perhaps it was confident in its hefty defense because it didn’t show signs of moving even when the mage dealt out a jab from her left.  However, instead of the knight reacting to the attack, the slayer was the one who was thrown across the room.

“Huh!?  Althea hasn’t gotten hit at all, and I didn’t even see that guy attack.”  Elodea remarked, her eyes brewing with anxiety, “C-Could it is that this guy can just move that fast, even with that armor on him?”

However, Psi shook her head, “No, it didn’t move.”

“Eh?  Then what did happen?”

The komainu shrugged, “Ask Thea.”

The slayer had already recovered from the damage, brushing her clothes off as she walked towards the knight.  The impact of her hitting the wall had left notable damage to both the room and the slayer's clothes.  “Yeah yeah, I’ve got it already.  I’m gonna do something kinda graphic, so you may want to look away, Elodea.”

And as the Sign expected, Althea could immediately understand this knight’s whole shtick.  After a ridiculous amount of training, she of all people would know every aspect of every kind of attack she dealt out.  And the impact that sent her flying was identical to the one that she hit the knight with.  She grinned, her eyes alight with a mysterious kind of excitement.  It was always exhilarating to be hit by a strong attack out of nowhere, and she even had to heal herself to some degree after receiving her attack.  However, the knight was by no means invincible, the youth just needed to deal out some damage that couldn’t be reflected.  Unfortunately, the knight didn’t seem like it intended to move an inch, so it was simple to execute her plan.  Walking up to the armored figure leisurely, the girl held its right hand with both of her left hand.  Then, she pulled.

She anticipated that it wouldn’t come off cleanly, but her expectations were exceeded in that respect.  Althea’s smile widened as she felt the strenuous tug of the socket keeping her right arm in its socket.  After a few seconds it evolved from painful to almost unbearable until the youth felt an odd lightness from her body.

“It… reflected the damage?!”  Lyra couldn’t help but yell at the sight of the shower of red and black.  On the floor laid two arms: the knight’s and Althea’s own.  The armored being collapsed out of its meditating position as black liquid gushed from the place its right arm had previously been.

However, Althea simply picked back up her arm and stuck it right back on.  “Man, I can’t even remember the last time I lost a limb.  Was it… oh yeah, Hargeon!  That was ages ago.”  The key was dropped from the knight’s fallen corpse, the blonde deftly scooping it right up.  “Hey Psi, how many more of these are there left?”

“Two, counting the final floor.  Also, that was unsightly.”

“But I took it off neatly and healed it neatly.  What’s the problem?”  Althea said, crossing her arms in a pouting kind of manner.

“We had to watch your flesh slowly being torn apart by yourself.  It was gross.”  Psi declared.

The nymph on her shoulders held a similar opinion because her complexion was deathly pale.  “I thought… oh man, I thought that was trouble.”

“What kind of advanced healer would I be if I couldn’t reattach my arm though?”  The girl flexed her bandaged right arm.  “Okay, time for the next floor.”

Elodea didn’t voice any complaints as Althea busted open yet another ceiling, entering into the next site of combat.  This time around, there were two knights instead of just the usual one.  One seemed female and fought with the same combination as the first knight while the second one was male and bore a staff with a blade at its end.  The moment the peanut gallery entered the floor and Althea raised her firsts, the male knight manifested a halo, and two pairs of angel wings emerged from his back.  And the moment she engaged in battle with the two, she immediately noticed something: the female knight was way too weak.

Even her skill in dealing with her shield and short sword could barely be compared to that of the first floor’s knight.  In stark contrast, the male knight was able to skillfully blend jabs with their staff with enhancement and even blasts of magic.  During the initial stages of the fight, the blonde was more or less in a defensive position to properly analyze all his moves.  But soon, she found the presence of the subpar knight to be nothing more than an annoyance, and immediately moved to focus her attacks on them.  For some odd reason, the male knight put themself in extremely compromising positions for the sake of preventing harm to the female knight.  So when Althea was about to deal a lethal overhand to the weaker knight’s head, the other dove between the two and took on the blow instead.  After that, it was rather trivial to dispatch of the female, and Althea was left with a bad taste in her mouth.

“...I thought they weren’t sentient?”  Lyra’s gaze stayed on the two defeated knights as she addressed Psi.

“I never said that.  They’re not living, but they can think.”

“Isn’t that contradictory?”

“...that’s just the work of whoever made them this way.”

“Won’t they just revive after they die?”

Psi shook her head, “You don’t understand.”  The maid’s response was only to be expected.  After all, the Signs were of a similar existence.  Living only for the sake of their eventual, inevitable deaths.

“The Witch is right above us,”  Althea interjected before any more bad memories were dug up.  “Also, you can figure this stuff out later.  I’m going to complete the subjugation.”

Lyra masked any annoyance with a diplomatic smile, “I’ll be watching, so try your hardest.”

“Urghhh, we’re finally getting this over with?”  Elodea sighed, softly stroking Psi’s ears.  “This was pretty tough y’know.”

“You didn’t do anything,”  Psi replied scathingly.

But it wasn’t time for banter, there was a witch to take care of! Althea quickly retrieved the key from the male knight before breaking into the seventh and final floor.

The throneroom was made of clear, crystalline ice.  But despite its fragile, elegant appearance, Althea could tell immediately this was the most reinforced room in the citadel.  And decorating the sophisticated room was lavish decor fit for the highest of royalty.  And directly in front of Althea and the peanut gallery was a wonderous silver throne adorned in a variety of precious blue gems.  And atop that luxurious seat was a beautiful woman with ocean blue eyes and soft blonde hair that reached past her waist.  She was dressed in a sensual white and dress that accentuated all her curves, giving her an air of regal maturity.

The bewitching woman smiled, her expression gentle.  “Welcome to the throne room of the Icecrown Citadel.  May I ask what your business here is?”

The woman on top of the crystal throne was an absolute beauty that exuded great elegance, but there was no doubt she was the one referred to as the “White Witch”.  After all, who else would be out in the middle of the wilds of Iceberg?  However, her gentle demeanor suggested anything but that fact.

That didn’t deter Althea though.  “Hiya!  You’re the White Witch, right?  I’m here to kill you.”  She said plainly, stepping forwards with her hands on her hips.

The gorgeous woman’s smile widened, a dark emotion swirling behind her warm blue eyes.  “Now now, I prefer to be called Arianna the White Angel.  Whatever label of “White Witch” is very much incorrect.”  Standing up from the throne, four pairs of pure white wings extended from her back.  They were much larger than that of the knights on the previous floors, and Althea would say her wingspan was about twenty-four feet long.  Additionally, she reached out her hand, sending a wave of healing holy energy towards the group.  “See?  I’m being hospitable.”

However, Althea was visibly unhappy with the gesture. Sure, she wasn’t the brightest crayon in the box, but she wasn’t that gullible.  Additionally, she was going to complete the subjugation whether the Witch was “good” or not.  Stuff like that held no meaning to her.  “Yeah, I’m still fighting you, sorry.”

Arianna began to walk towards the group in a dignified manner, her smile not faltering a bit.  “I’m sorry to hear that, it must be those knights of mine that created such intense suspicion.  I set them to just defend their floor keys from intruders,”  Her eyes strayed to the blood staining the area around Althea’s right shoulder.  “But it seems like they caused you a bit of trouble, correct?  Let me take a closer look at that…”

Lyra stepped forward along with Althea, her sword drawn, “Actually, I have a few questions for you, White Wi- Angel.”

“Oh? Go ahead.”

“What exactly are those knights or yours?  I’d like to know for the sake of my research.”

“They’re just little toys I picked up.  Nothing special.”

Psi frowned, showing a hint of emotion for the first time since Althea had met her. “You’re lying.  Those were created with souls.”

“Oh yes, but they had no other options you see.”

“That’s a lie.  You must’ve been the one to murder them.”

“I do admit that I killed them, but it was in self-defense.  They attacked first, so I simply recycled them.  It’s harmless really.”

“You can’t call that harmless.”

The White Witch laughed, stopping a few paces away from the group.  “Oh, you don’t have to think about the moral concerns of my knights.  After all…”  In an instant, the woman shot a dagger of ice, aimed directly for Elodea’s throat.  But in that same instant Althea was right between the attack and the nymph, swatting it out of the air with nothing but her hand.  “Unfortunate, but that changes nothing.”  The Witch laughed, holy energy surrounding her as she ascended into the air.  “You all are going to die for daring to enter my Citadel!  As long as we’re in my castle, I functionally have infinite mana!”  The Witch formed a plethora of ice daggers around herself, launching them at the group.  Lydia attempted to create a shield, but Psi whisked her out of the attack’s range before the daggers could connect.  Meanwhile, Althea stood unmoving, choosing to simply tank all the damage with her shields.

The youth didn’t appreciate the witch being so backhanded and sneaky about getting the first attack and lulling them into a false sense of security.  Additionally, she had targetted the one that seemed the weakest in the group, most likely attributed to Elodea’s age and position on Psi’s shoulders.  In reality, the magicless Lydia would’ve been a better target than the B-ranked Elodea, but Althea would’ve blocked the attack either way.  It was already clear to her that the Angel before her wasn’t the “ruling” type that she was.  If Arianna was, her wings would’ve been black purely because she attacked a living being.

...Additionally, the White Angel was way too weak.

“I’m rather confident in my speed, so just try catching me!  I appraise your physical type, so I can simply outlast you before I sever your pretty little neck!”  Any sense of warmness was replaced by pure malice.  But it wasn’t nearly as bad at the murderous gaze of the Angel of Dreams who was driven only by its gluttony, Arianna was very human personality-wise.  Just your regular old manipulative monster who only looked out for their well being.

“Hahh, after the two knights from the previous floor, I’m not in much of the mood to enjoy fighting you.”  Althea monologued, swerving between the barrage of ice and holy attacks launched from the flying Arianna.  The young girl dashed about the room, the previously lavish room becoming charred and scarred by the White Witch’s endless rounds of spells.  “I won’t even play your game, instead…”  She was going to test out a little spell she had been working on.

“Tch, you sure are slippery, aren’t you…!”  Arianna screamed, beginning to indiscriminately launch spell after spell.  The magic energy in the area began shifting even more than it already was, layers upon layers of magic circles appearing above Althea as she continued to dodge the onslaught of spells.

“Ars…”

The youth’s gaze was set on the winged figure above, making a gun gesture with her bandaged right hand.  Her finger kept trained on the angel even as she continued to move, a crimson swirl forming at its tip.

“Caedis!!”

A violent beam of blood-red water was launched at the White Angel, but Arianna narrowly dodged out of its murderous path.  “Heh… HAHA!  That was your trump card?  You should put in a bit more effor-”  She didn’t notice the writing ball the water was in behind her, nor the fact it was about to explode.  Psi made her premature exit from the throne room, carrying Lydia under her arm as she leaped out of a hole caused by Arianna’s persistent attacks.

Finally, the crimson liquid exploded into a savage wave, seeking to engulf anything in its wake.  Arianna couldn’t even let out a voice of shock as the bloody waters consumed her in their savage torrents.  Despite it being her spell, Althea wasn’t left untouched either, being battered by her spell before the brutal stream launched her straight through the walls of the citadel.

The slayer wasn’t completely sure how far she was blasted, but it was far enough that the deafening creaks and crashes of the icy castle being toppled seemed distant.  She got to her feet, finding that she was drenched in the blood-red water from her spell.  Similarly, all the snow in the Citadel’s general vicinity had gone from pure white to deep crimson.  Typically, the last thing you’d want to do in a cold environment was be covered with water, but that served as no problem for Althea who was already using water to regulate her body temperature.

Soon, a wet thud sounded out, the source being the unmoving body of Arianna who was colored a similar color as the slayer.  Her wet wings looked rather pathetic, but the water mage had a responsibility to make sure she’s dead.  So, the young girl moved on over to her, neatly stomped directly on the White Angel’s neck with a spine chilling crack.

“Seems like she’s dead.  Still, you went too far.”  Psi’s monotone voice sounded from the Fairy Tail mage’s back.

Althea let out a sigh, turning away from what remained of Icecrown Citadel and its owner.  “Well, I’ve completed the subjugation!”

Elodea, still riding of Psi’s shoulders, let out a breath of relief, “I seriously thought we were going to die at that last bit.  Yikes, try exercising a bit of self-restraint, alright?  It’s almost like the snow’s dyed with blood.”  Well, technically it was, it just didn’t have the signature irony blood scent.

“That was fairly simple,”  Psi commented, casting her gaze around the red and white landscape.

Lyra, seemingly unfazed by the mass destruction brought upon by Althea’s spell, smiled, “Oh, so it’s time for part two?”

The rest of the party was silent, and for a moment the only sound was of the freezing wind blowing over the snow.  Althea was the one who finally broke the silence.  “Hey… I never heard about anything like that though?”

“It’s supposed to be a difficult request, so you have to be prepared for a second act.  You’ll be headed to Sin, so I hope you're prepared for the demons.  Although, from the looks of this spell, you’ll be fine.”

“D-Demons?!”  The young nymph was shocked, “Erm, I think I’m good!  A-Actually, I have a bit of business to attend to, so no Sin for me!”

Lyra glanced at the sun before adjusting her glasses, “I have to make my report to HQ, so once you escort me back to a safe location I’ll give you a briefing of the next part of the subjugation.  Then you’ll be going off on your own.”

Psi let Elodea off her back, making a courteous bow to Althea.  “I doubt I can leave shishou and Zelus-sama alone for too long, so I’m going back.  Apologies.”

“Wha-?  You guys stick around me doing nothing, but then you leave all at once?”  She couldn’t help but feel betrayed.  “Geez, you guys only do what’s convenient for yourself!”

No one had the heart to point out a big reason why the Citadel collapsed was due to how Althea insisted on making shortcuts for the sake of convenience.