Shoot for the Stars...

Shoot for the Stars...

Despite the roudy nature of Fairy Tail, its lack-luster or grimy exterior of what it had become... a few gems still shined like diamonds in the ruff. One of them was the newly appointed S-class member Zachary Sirius. Having been a modest and studious Celestial Wizard, he had grown due to many trials and was now considered S class. He even learned new magic to aid him and allow him to support his spirits better...

... however, he still had issues with other members of the guild giving him a hard time. The rugged guys, drunk on ale and laughing as the mercenary image this guild had become, made Zachary stand out being a more studious and cleaner mage. His company of spirits and the new, cute Astral made him even more so. As he read up on magic from the "Cosmonomicon" he discovered from the wizard's tower, he listened to the racket going on in the guild and tried to drown it out. On the table with him was Astral, the Star Fairy, eating some biscuits from the guild kitchen. Beside Zachary on the other side, was his old friend and familiar-- Ruby Carbuncle, aka Ruby. The two little critters would play-fight with one another, but as of now, the two were getting along. Ruby was more of a beast-type spirit, not capable of communicating like Astral did or Zachary for that matter. But he was a long time companion to Zachary since long he became a Fairy Tail Wizard.

He had only shown the book to one wizard up till now, Aven, and now he was seriously studying up the other spells this book contained. It was among the most powerful, a branch of Lost Magic that related to "Heavenly Body" magic, and ones he was trying to learn carefully. The warning Aven gave him to not take any of the spells lightly was engraved into his mind, as he knew some spells and techniques come with hefty side effects and costs, some even the caster's life.

He was researching a special one-- how to 'transform' parts of his body with cosmic elements, he was interrupted by a call from one of the guild's upper members. "Hey Zach!" he called, causing Zachary to look up from his book. Astral dropped his biscuit and Ruby's fur went on end at the shout. "Guess what? The Guildmaster is calling for you." the brutish guy said.

Zachary closed the book as he looked to him. "Did he say what about?" he asked.

"Naw-- just to come up now to the second floor," he replied.

A rather immature series of 'oohs' and laughs began to float around the room. "Ooooh, you're in trouble now kid," a drunk fellow bellowed at the bar, causing his friends to laugh.

With a less than amused glare at him, Zachary refrained from sicing his cat spirit Amythest on him to claw him to ribbons. As he sat up from his chair, Ruby ran up to him and quickly hopped up onto his coat arm and onto his shoulder. Astral too floated up and landed on the boy's blue hair. In small fits of jealousy, Ruby would try to 'paw' or 'claw' at Astral's little ribbon ends from his back, making the star urge away and chirp annoyingly at the carbuncle. The cute-appearance of it all made the guild members laugh, and Zachary just marched away grumpily at their attitude.

He soon reached the stairs and walked up towards the second floor, where the guild's master was waiting for him...

WC: 594

Up on the second floor, the shaman was surprisingly not to be found in his office if that was where Zachary was trying to find him. Instead, one would have to approach the training rooms where all the equipment, dummies and conditioning machines were located in order to simulate almost any atmosphere and weather for the trainees to adapt to. Hell, even the size of its spacing could be altered, but only when the doors were locked.

Mura found himself in there, readying himself up for a session of exercise. He had cast aside the shirt of his Toad Sage Gi, and he was wearing a page tied to his left wrist right under his WristLac. Due to his torso being exposed, marks and tomes could be seen on him, having been there for years without him knowing. His hair was tied up with strings and a bamboo stick, and he didn’t wear any shoes to let his feet feel the atmosphere. Other than his training boxers flashing the Fairy Tail symbol, he felt as if his entire body was ready to feel different types of weathers and physics.

There was an administration room hidden behind a mirror window that allowed people to look into the training room, but not the opposite.

The entrance to the training room was still open right now, so Mura managed to spot Zachary walking by alongside his celestial pals. Mura’s own spiritual fellas, the blue samurai ghost Kyuken and the green dragon ghost Zirconis, eyed them with what started to feel like arrogance, but what later on turned to a sense of brotherhood. They would likely be able to understand each other and get along very quickly.

“Hey, there you are!” Mura spoke to him from his bench, “Sorry to suddenly call you like this, but I want to try this new training system out.” Mura rose up and stretched, his Harusame and Futsu no Mitama sheathed to him tightly. “After I approved of your promotion to S-Rank, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to see your new spell - so now would be a great time to show me just how strong a wizard you’ve become,” he explained, “I figured that, if I want to be a great Guildmaster, then I’ll have to spend more time with my guildmates and get to learn of all their strengths and weaknesses and possibly help them overcome those lacks they possess. It’s important to be ready for anything that’ll happen in this world, but I guess you already know what I mean.” After having stretched his legs, Mura pointed towards the changing room and asked: “Go to the changing room and come out dressed like me. No armor, but you can keep your weapons on.”

“Oh my~”

Mura’s reflexes were sharp enough to cut down wires, and his hammer arm quickly splattered Kyuken like a jelly cake being sledgehammered. That hopeless swords-ghost just couldn’t help himself with making situations come out as embarrassing and depraved, could he?

Anyway, the reason for Mura’s attire was that most of their bodies needed to be trained up; the elements were going to grind on Zachary’s very being, and he would have to endure and be able to push through with whatever objective he was set to accomplish.

WC: 551

Zachary didn't know what to expect as he reached the second floor as it was only reserved for higher ranked members. He has only been there as far as the job board. He casually walked as Astral and Ruby on his shoulders-- till the call brought Zachary's attention to the lit room.

This was the first time Zachary got to see Mura faced to face-- and he was a bit surprised. He appeared to be very close to Zachary's own age if not maybe a year or so older. Though the scars and marks on his body spoke for itself he had seen a great deal of martial combat, unlike Zachary who was more of intellectual and used summoning magic. Even with his new Lost Magic, he was not a melee fighter and only used melee for absolute emergencies when needed. Not that he had zero experience in it.

As Mura explained the training room, the desire to interact more with his members, and to see Zachary's magic first hand, Zachary felt a bit nervous now as he stood before this Guildmaster of Fairy Tail. He certainly didn't become master for no reason. His intent to 'whip Zachary into shape' by his explanation of challenging his weaknesses was pretty clear. Zachary's greatest strength was that of the mind. Without even a chance to protest, Mura directed Zachary to the changing stalls and asked him to change.

Ruby and Astral on his shoulders looked on, oblivious to what was going on-- while Zachary had a dry, grumpy look on his face. "You gotta be kidding me..." he sighed, realizing he was backed into a corner. "In other words, you aren't giving me much choice in the matter. You KNOW I am a Celestial Wizard, and that my skills are not related to martial combat..." But still, he seemed to insist on it. "And I will dress APPROPRIATELY, so don't expect the same." He was not gonna dress the same way as he did.

A sigh escaped him as he approached the side of the training room. Reaching up, he put down Astral and the 'see-through' body of Ruby Carbuncle on a nearby bench and he went to be more appropriately dressed for a 'work out'. The Spirit and the Star Fairy would watch him go.. while lightly bickering at themselves.

After a few minutes, Zachary emerged from the changing area with a bit better dressing. In clear defiance, he wore a pair of blue sweatpants he liked to wear that was loose and comfortable for him. He had only socks suitable for the workout area. His jacket was gone and he wore a light blue T-shirt that revealed a lightly scrawny physique. As he walked back out into the mat of the training room, he faced Mura. "Is this alright?" he asked, clearly not thrilled about the demands to train.

WC: 480

Zachary sounded rather discomforted by the idea of sparring from hearing his words at first. And so what if his skills weren’t related to martial combat? He would just have to catch up, then. Martial capabilities were important to hone as well, even if you didn’t specialize in them… you know, it was also to keep the body fit and all. Nonetheless, Zachary went to change, so he was still in on the training session despite his words against it. That was fair enough to Mura as he wouldn’t really force his guildmate into doing something uncomfortable unless if it benefited them.

“Yeah, that’s fine,” the shaman responded to Zachary walking out in his own, specific attire, not a single sound of discomfort from Mura’s voice nor a feeling of having been betrayed in any kind. Lol, it was just attire.

“Alright, let’s start,” Mura then proceeded to speak up, “We’ll warm up first. So let’s start with four laps around the gym.” He would take initiative and begin running, and if Zachary dared to wait just a moment to see Mura strolling across the edge of the gym, he would notice that Mura’s knees bent quite a bit…

As Mura continued running, he decided to increase the gravity a little. Why? How? Well, the clone of his at the generator room was in control of that, of course. He kept it at 1.5xG, so a guy about the weight of 70 kilograms would feel like he weighted 105 kilograms. This would help them strengthen their strength in carry weight and advancement, and it would also heat up the leggings for later.

WC: 272

Laps? LAPS?! Zachary was starting to hate this guy. He tried to not show it but it was clear he didn't like this. IN school the worst thing he had to do in physical education was running the mile lap around the schoolyard. While true the gym was not as big as that, it still was an annoying thing because Zachary's sense of endurance at running was low. True he could do good sprints and in fact in dodgeball and capture the flag he was very good. But if he had to go for long strides , he wasn't gonna last long.

with a grunt and a glance to where his little spirits were, Zachary began to do what the guild master ordered.

However, he didn't anticipate the sudden gravity shift. It struck him like a brick as it slowed him down greatly. His lighter clothing felt like sandbags now as Zachary tried to just make it around the first lap, already starting to feel fatigued. Though Zachary wasn't the physical type of mage, his magical sensory was sharp as hell-- and he sensed the magic that was making the gravity stronger.

"The hell?! What are you trying to do," Zachary gasped, trying to glare at his guildmaster. "You sadistic or something making a studious type of wizard be crushed like this? " The exaggeration was clear, but it was clear he didn't expect the gravity shift. He was already short of breath on the end of the second lap, and clearly moving slower not due to weight but fatigue.

WC: 261

It was a surprise, alright. Zachary didn’t take the surprise very well, however, and began backlashing Mura for his choice, in which the shaman quickly replied: “Just trying to find out how many G’s we shall start with! Hang on…!” The clone of Mura inside the administration room lowered the amount of G’s put on them, and thus, the gravitational pull became lighter and lighter.

Mura took a glance back at Zachary and saw him relatively okay from the gravitational pull despite his complaints. “C’mon, these G’s shouldn’t be too bad,” he motivated him, having lowered the amount of G’s a lot to help them both with their previously strained shin muscles. After a round or two, Mura would speak up again, this time a little more exhausted: “*huff* I can’t help but feel that I might’ve exaggerated before. Sorry about that…!” In the end, if he ended up damaging Zachary’s legs, then… well fuck, he would be in trouble.

“Alright, after another round, we’ll take a five minute break…!” he spoke to Zachary. Mura simply ran ahead and finished the last round at his own pace before braking up and landing his butt on the floor so he could stretch his legs out. “N-Now, make sure you stretch your legs now, or you’ll end up cracking fibers all day…”

The rounds around the room made Zachary uncomfortable. Not only did he endure the gravity and the rounds, but he was already exhausted. If he could work out with just brain power alone, it would of done him better as he was a more intellectual mage. All the while as he did this, Ruby and Astral watched from the comfort of the corner, watching as Zachary slowly went around, giving encouraging chirps and cries as Zachary went past. Astral tried to fly and move up towards Zachary, till he felt the gravity and stopped.

By the time he called for a break and Zachary made the mark, he stopped and sat down on the matted ground. He huffed and puffed as he folded his legs. "Okay I get the need to value exercise, but seriously? I figure you wanted me to do something more practical?" Zachary said with a bit of a groucy tone as he looked to Mura. "Showing the new magic I learned, some pratical applications, and my summons are strong. Not everyone is a Requip mage like you," he suggested.

With the gravity now off, Astral finally felt it and fluttered over to Zachary. Eager to stay close to his caretaker, the star fairy gave a happy coo and flopped softly onto Zachary's head, looking like a cherubic creature who snuggled into his blue hair.

WC: 299

”Yeah, but this is also practical,” Mura responded to the audibly exhausted Celestial Mage. Maybe this had been more than enough for him to train for today, that poor guy… but he brought up a good point. Mura had yet to check out his new magic, so why not follow up with that? That would definitely spark him up again.

“I’m not really a Requip Mage, though,” Mura explained to him as he was called a Requip Mage for… well, he had a spell that could be classified as Requip, so Zachary was probably right, “But hey, yeah. You learned some new spell back at Tenroujima, right? Why don’t you show me that here?” The shaman stood up once again, stretched out finely and refreshed like never before.

“You’re a Celestial Wizard, right? Usually, you summon your Celestial Spirits to fight, but everyone is special. Show me what makes you special, Zachary…”

Finally having enough with the exercise, Zachary recovered and regained his composure to the situation at hand. Between Ruby and Astral who observed, Astral decided it was time to rejoin his partner. The little star fairy floated in the air and loomed closer now that the gravity was gone. He plopped on Zachary's head and snoozed on his head dreamily.

As Zachary felt the presence of his companion on top of his head, he rose up and faced Mura. "Well, truth is I have two things that set me apart, 'Mura'," Zachary said, his tone a matter-of-fact to try and explain his talents in magic.. "ONe, if your trying to know what was the magic I used to pass the exam, it was a brand form of Lost magic called the Arc of Cosmos, which some call an evolved form of Heavenly Body magic or Astromancy," he explained.

Zachawy's magic is weally pwetty! Astral chirped in his telepathic way of talking to Mura and his owner. Staws swooshing and pwetty lights.

Zachary rolled his eyes at Astral's overly simplified description of his Lost magic. "It's a bit more hands-on effective than my friend described. The other thing is my special signature trait in summoning, is Stellar Evolution. It's a method where I open a spirit's gate again while the spirit is here, allowing me to channel more of its power to the summon. When I do that, the spirit transforms into a new form with new abilities. I may not look it, but I been experimenting and practicing different types of magic a mere 'summoner' wouldn't of done with that art alone." Zachary said, a hint of pride in his tone . "So, which one do you prefer to see?"

It was clear Zachary had a lot more up his sleeve than one could guess. While young, he had the keen mind of a true wizard.

WC: 317

So while the tone of his flew right past Mura’s head simply because Mura wanted to focus on the important things in life, the shaman brightened up by learning that his guildmate had been learning a Lost Magic during his exam. From what Mura had read about the synonym or connection to ‘Heavenly Body Magic’, it allowed the user to manifest astronomic objects for combat. And now, Zachary had an evolved, perhaps unknown version of that famous magic…

“I bet it’s pretty,” he replied while looking up in the air, realizing that Zachary’s fairy friend was talking to them telepathically. He was used to this, since Sorano-imouto used to talk to him telepathically during their missions too. “And useful, too. Then again, all kinds of Magic can be useful - it depends on the situation, mostly.”

Zachary explained that he also gained something called ‘Stellar Evolution’. The explanation got Mura on his toes, for not was it only a creative, new way of powering Summoning Magic, but it sounded - as Arcadia would describe it, most likely - hella schway too. Mura’s face looked like a young child’s eager to see the magician perform a trick.

“Show me the Stellar Evolution,” he replied to Zachary, his eyes about to sparkle, “I’m not really a good Summoner myself, but I’d like to see your invention…!”

WC: 224

Despite the grumpy start to this meeting, Zachary felt a bit more confident now as he shared his magic abilities to Mura. Even Astral was kind enough to share his enthusiasm over it. Mura even humored Astral as the star fluttered around playfully. But What Zachary didn't expect was how enthusiastic his guild Master was at the topic of Stellar Evolution. It seemed while his form of magic was not seen by him, he could still impress him. If hearing about it was intriguing, then seeing it would be an interesting turn to see his reaction.

With a smile, Zachary dug into his pocket and took out his keys. He could have easily wowed Mura with Leo, but that wasn't the point of this one. The primary purpose behind Stellar Evolution was to make a spirit stronger than their natural powers. It would speak more volume if he used a regular spirit to evolve. Finding the key, he took out the one belonging to Tama, the Fox Spirit. "I'll try to keep the technical short, but this work by using the source of a spirit's magic and your own together to make them stronger. I originally made this technique a long time ago to boost the power to 'weaker' spirits," Zachary explained, his sarcasm over the term of weaker-- making it clear he didn't believe they were weak. Holding the key out away from Mura, he focused. "Open, Gate of the Fox! Tama!" He cried, causing a chime of a gong and a flash of light.

From the light and a swirl of cherry blossoms, appeared a golden-colored fox. The elegant fox was humanoid in shape, standing on two legs but still had many fox features from claws, face, fur with purple markings that indicated her of the sacred beast-- and also the big fluffy tail she had. She landed and knelt immediately before Zachary.

"Hello, Master. How might I be of service," she said properly, being subservient to Zachary.

This made Zachary feel a bit silly as he always encouraged his spirits to be casual and see him as a friend over a master. Still, Tama never broke that role and choose to be faithful to him. "Tama, how many times do I need to tell you, you don't have to act like that." he said, a little embarrassed she was doing this with Mura there. "Anyway, I like to demonstrate Stellar Evolution to my Guild Master here. Do you mind?" he asked.

Tama slowly rose up and nodded politely to Zachary. "Of course not, Master Zachary. It would be my pleasure to help you demonstrate your technique." she said gracefully.

With a hand, Zachary urged Mura to step back-- and Astral too landed upon Zachary's head once more, to watch from his perch. Holding the key, he held it up again towards Tama where she stood. Zachary focused, closing his eyes for a moment and magic energy swelling around him and caused the air to swish around him. "O-Gate of the Fox, I call upon you. Open your threshold once more!" he chanted, casting a powerful incantation. "Fill this champion with your light, shine and transcend the spirit within! Tamamohime-- STELLAR EVOLUTION!!"

WIth his cry and a strike of Tama's Key-- a new light flashed around her, causing a whirlwind of magic and power to envelop the fox. She arched briefly in the new rush of magic and her form was consumed by the light, transforming her into something else. The light show illuminated the entire training room and into the hall as the fox became something else.

After a few seconds, the white light faded-- but revealed another brilliant white. Tama was replaced by something else-- a far larger creature. Yellow fur was replaced by a glistening white that was bright to look out, adorned with golden and red clothes and adornments along its body and tails-- as in more than one. Tama while she was on all fours now, was more regal and sported 9 beautiful tails that stretched out with majestic beauty. More important, the sheer magic power she gave off was at least twice as least three times the amount she had before. She stood there elegantly, displayed for her summoner and the Guild Master to see.

Proud of what he did, Zachary approached Tama and gave her a gentle pat on her head in her new form. "THIS is my original technique. I am the only summoner I known who been able to apply a temporary evolution to a Summon," he said with pride. "On a normal silver or bronze key-- the spirit gets a major power boost. On a Zodiac Spirit, well they could even surpass the Celestial Spirit King if they wanted. "

He hoped to see how Mura would react to see the technique he worked so hard to master. "And this isn't even the art I used on Tenrou Island." he added.

WC:824

Meshing one’s own magic with a spirit’s… since the spirit that Mura mostly used - that being Kyuken - didn’t exactly possess magic, this never crossed his mind. Yeah, sure, Zirconis was a magical dragon, but it would cause many side effects if Mura tried to fuse his magic with Zirconis’ all at once, since his body wasn’t that compatible with that of a dragon. Zachary was able to do it with external spirits that weren’t even fused inside of him, which was a huge step forward ahead of Mura in that field. It was to be respected, such a technique…

His first gate that he opened was that of the Fox. Mura instinctively took a step back and raised his arms a little… but it was quite regal in nature, just as he had expected. A kitsune, eh? And its name… Zachary made a contract with that kitsune? Oh, uh, y’know what, that was to be a question for another day…

The fox spirit was gentle and polite in executing Zachary’s command, having his mana surge through his Key to power up and, likely, cause a Stellar Evolution. Mura made space and readied his eyes for a wonderful transformation, wondering just how much stronger the spirit would get from this new technique. A blinding light and Zachary’s exclamation triggered the change, and after Mura lowered his arms to see as the blitz settled, the fox spirit now stood on all four, had white fur and was donning elegant robes and nine, powerful tails propped with magic.

“… Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…” Mura let out in a long sequence of awe, “S-She’s gotten 3 times stronger… or more… I can only make my spirits about 50% stronger…” While his method was different from Zachary’s, when fusing a spirit into Mura’s body, it combined with him and thus dealt a boost to his magic power and fighting capabilities by around that percentage. Technically, as he was letting the spirit aid him in battle, it could be interpreted as a power-up to the spirit itself, but it was more complicated than that.

“Woah, wait, even the Celestial Spirit King? … Does this spell work on him too?” Mura asked genuinely in curiosity with a raised eyebrow towards Zachary, “And if it’s that effective… what’d you learn on Tenrou Island, then? C’mon, don’t tell me it’s something more amazing than this!”

WC: 395

Zachary was pleased to see Mura thou rally surprised by the display of transformation his summon had displayed. He chooses Tama for the spirit to prove the concept as her's was a more flashy transformation over the others without expending too much magic power to summon her. He was pleased and explained things. He did make the mistake to mention the Celestial Spirit King. When asked, Zachary turned a bit red and looked to Tama.

He soon let out a soft chuckle and rubbed the back of his head modestly. "Ahaha... Okay maybe that was a bit too boastful to compare to the Celestial Spirit King, but you get the point. Point is, even a low-rank Spirit could rise in power naturally to rival the 12 Zodiac on their own. " he explained as he showed off Tama in her 'nine-tails' form.

It was then that Mura wanted now to see the magic that he used in Tenrou Island. He suspected that would come up so he would honor the request. He turned to Tama. "You good sticking around, or do you want to go back?" he asked the fox.

"I am perfectly content to stay around, so long as I am not taxing your magic to stay idle here, Master," the white fox replied politely, once again calling Zachary 'master'.

A sigh escaped Zachary as the fox once again referred to him so formally. He never required such a thing. Moving on all fours and swishing her lovely nine tails, the fox spirit sat herself at the edge of the matted area and sat down like a patient dog awaiting its owner. With the fox to the side, Astral, sensing the upcoming display-- found a perch to sit on. The star fairy fluttered through the air and plopped down upon Tama's head. Hehe! Fluffy Fowxy! Fluffy Fowxy! he cheered, urging the fox to tilt her head up to catch the star in the corner of her eyes.

With both spirit and fairy out of the way, Zachary faced Mura to explain the magic he used in Tenrou Island. "Okay. The magic I used in Tenrou Island is called 'The Arc of Cosmos'. It's a lost magic I recently learned how to use in greater detail that is in fact, a related art akin to the Celestial Spirit summons. To be more exact, at first glance, it is extremely relatable to "Heavenly Body Magic". However, this is more like a far more evolved method of it." Zachary explained. He had the spellbook to show as well, but for now, it was more important to show the spells, not where he learned it from. "It's complicated to explain, but I draw magic directly from the constellations and stars, allowing me to borrow certain traits form Celestial Spirits and other cosmic powers via incantations. While some spells are dangerous, I been keeping mind how I pratice them. Anyway-- to get to the point, the one I used on Tenrou Island, is a special spell that I been practicing and been working hard on."

Taking a place in the center of the matted part of the room, he got ready as if he was going to fight Mura. He took a deep breath as he focused, and with that-- a star-shaped magic circle appeared below him as he crossed his arms, similar to the stance one imagined for "Iced Shell". "Arc of Cosmos Secret Art---" he spoke, gathering magic power into his immediate surrounding area. "-- Macro COSMOS!!" he cried, spreading his arms outward wide.

From the magic circle, light poured outward-- and became a spiral of points of light. The lights jumped from all areas, darting in multiple directions like how constellations would be seen in t he night's sky. It went far and wide above their heads, filling the room. Astral and Tama watched as the lights scattered around-- till they soon stopped in place. As the balls of light stopped in place, they faded-- to reveal several physical star-shaped objects that now levitated in the air above. Each radiated a celestial glow of magic, along with a red gem-stone in the center of each one. There were dozens of them, even limited for the room. Slowly, they began to orbit around the place Zachary stood, him being their focal point.

YAY! PWETTY SPELL! Astral chirped again, seeming to love this spell.

With the spell cast, Zachary lowered his arms and smiled at Mura. "THIS, is my strongest spell. The Macro Cosmos. It's a complicated spell that responds to my will and responds in very interesting ways. It has some drawbacks but makes up for it for its versatility. " he explained as the stars continued to slowly rotate around the ceiling in their elliptical orbits. It was then that Zachary smirked as he looked to Mura. "You want to try your luck against this spell? I hate to brag... but I am willing to bet even this would surprise you, Master." he offered, seeing he wanted to test this spell's combat abilities.

WC: 843