As expected Zirconis wasn't letting himself be frightened easily. Given that he was a dragon, albeit a spirit dragon, it stood to reason that a display of another dragon's power would make him wary and suspicious rather than startled. Of course Akeya was confident that even among dragons she was a powerful specimen, but the difference wasn't so great that she expected the rest of her kin to bow down and worship her. No self-respecting dragon would, anyway. She knew that throughout history there were those who would declare themselves the rulers of dragonkind. Gods, kings and queens. Acnologia was one such entity.
However such ideas were for lesser beings. Dragons were highly independent and solitary, not to mention territorial and proud. They didn't form societies or groups like mortals did. For there to be a single ruler of dragons was a preposterous notion: at best a particularly powerful entity might be able to force a handful of dragons to obey their command, and even then only for as long as it took for the dragons to either lose their patience or find a weakness to exploit.
But that wasn't the main topic here. The other spirit, some humanoid swordsman, looked like he was still likely to wet himself. The natural response for a lesser being, even though Akeya could tell that this spirit was powerful, fearful attitude aside. If he resolved himself and stood steadfast he could actually pose a challenge in his own right, even if she found it doubtful that he would actually be able to beat her. Maybe she should calm him down? No, doing so would reveal more cards than she wished to reveal. It was already bad enough that she'd have to make the guild master aware of her true nature: anything more than that was unnecessary and detrimental to someone like her, who preferred to keep things under wraps when possible. At least Mura was finally seeing the need of some secrecy himself.
"Good. It'd be better if we get this out of the way quickly." She glanced back towards the spirits, nodding as Mura confirmed that they would have to stay behind.
"I'm going to trust that you will listen to the guild master when he tells you to stay. If you don't..." She left the threat open-ended even as she walked forward to follow Mura, watching him use the elevator before stepping inside next to him.
When they reached the bottom level, the hidden basement, Akeya's eyes were drawn to the crystallized figure. Her golden eyes actually widened as she recognized him, ignoring Mura for a moment as she instead approached the statue and studied it with genuine surprise.
"So that's where he ended up..." After several seconds she scoffed and placed a hand on her hip.
"It figures that a man like him wouldn't die the normal way." Heero had been flamboyant, self-absorbed, boastful and noisy. However for quite some time he had been one of the most renowned, if not
the most renowned, mage of Fiore. Akeya had never really liked him on a personal level but she could respect his power, and only a fool would deny that he was an unusual man. She wondered if he was stuck like this permanently, a crystalline headstone for his own grave, or if one day he'd return.
Shaking her head she left the statue behind and followed Mura through the portal. The truth was that this was long enough ago that she was probably one of the few people left who'd met Heero in person. Most sapient beings living in this realm had a significantly shorter lifespan, and because of that shorter memories and attention spans as well.
Stepping through the portal (with some caution, mind you) she wasn't sure what would happen next. It was clear that this was meant to relocate her, but not every portal worked the same. In the case of this portal she found the world around her fading away, replaced by a thick, cold grey mist that swirled around her. It was so dense that she couldn't even see the ground beneath her claws. More importantly, she couldn't sense Mura either. A trap?
Seeing something moving up ahead Akeya lowered her centre of mass and walked forward warily, ready to unleash hell upon any would-be assassin. Instead she found a gravestone rising up from the fog, ominous and solitary amidst the desolation of perpetual fog. She still couldn't see the ground, but she presumed that the headstone marked a grave.
Her golden eyes narrowed when she saw what was written on the grave. It was her name. Not the fake name Akemi, but her actual full name. There was no date on the tombstone, but the fact that whoever made it knew her real name and had apparently caught her going through the portal was already problematic enough. Was the gravestone a warning? Or had the portal simply sent her to the wrong location?
Regardless, she quickly responded to the taunt by ripping the carefully sculpted stone apart with one swipe from her monstrous dark claw, sending small fragments flying off into the distance. Once she did that the fog rapidly faded away, leaving her standing on Tenrou Island next to Mura, as if she had appeared out of thin air. She quickly glanced around, but there was nobody around other than the guild master and various mythical creatures which were quickly categorized to belonging on the island.
"...Maybe it's because of the time of the year..." She muttered to herself. Halloween was close by after all, and while most people treated it as nothing more than an opportunity to celebrate the truth was that during All Hallow's Eve otherworldly forces could easily reach into this realm and cause strange phenomena to occur.
"You might want to be careful going back through that portal. For now, however..." with one wave of her arm a cloak of darkness poured forth and surrounded the two of them, forming a dome which would hide them from the outside world. She was willing to believe that nobody else was in this mythical place, but it didn't hurt to add another layer of security.
That said, this place was making her feel... tranquillity. Contentedness, perhaps? There was something strange in the air here. She could feel a certain resonance between herself and the atmosphere. She couldn't immediately pinpoint it, but she could already guess that this place was special for members of Fairy Tail, which included her now that she'd received the stamp.
At first the dark dome obscured all vision, but slowly stars would form throughout. An individual spark of light here and there, followed by entire constellations until it was like the dome was shaped out of a piece of night sky itself. This would allow Mura to see that Akeya's form had changed: aside from becoming taller her pale skin had turned olive, her golden eyes had turned emerald, and her clothes had changed into something more suited for her new appearance. An appearance that included a powerful tail, scales on her arms, legs, back and sides, horns on her head, and large wings folded on her back.
Planting a claw on her hip like before Akeya looked at Mura, studying him to see how he would react.
"I am the Twilight Dragon Akeya. I hope it's obvious why I would rather as few people knew about this as possible." The truth was that thanks to Akeya's secretive nature she was simultaneously renowned and a mystery to the world. The average person probably had never heard of her, but those who were more deeply entangled with the more... interesting parts of reality should be aware of her. The assassin who started out in the old guild of Blue Pegasus, remaining there until the guild's eventual demise, and then appearing to act as an independent mage but at the same time having some connection to Onyx Moon until recently that guild disappeared as well.
"Given that Fairy Tail was in an alliance with Onyx Moon you might have been informed as guild master that I was also part of that guild. As such you shouldn't have any complaints about me joining Fairy Tail, given that I was already an ally beforehand." The problem of course that her reputation was that she was a cold and pragmatic assassin, showing little real emotion and always focusing on completing her missions efficiently and furthering her own goals. Mura seemed like the kind of guild master who wouldn't mind too much as long as she showed no intentions of bringing harm to the guild, but it was always possible for her expectations to be mistaken.
- Appearance:
WC: 1,454
PWC: 5,168
TWC: 8,404