Corona grinned as she looked out at the scenery in front of her. For some reason the overcast sky, the strongly blowing winds and the shade that covered the land just felt... Right.
Stretching, she giggled as she looked around. "Hmm..." Her eyes narrowed as she looked towards the North. "Something's there." What, she didn't know, but it was a long ways away, she could feel it. "Let's go... Balmung." No, Corona didn't know why she changed her golem's name from Goliath to Balmung, but it felt... Right.
Especially since he had black flames erupting around his body at all times.
(---)
As they walked away from the hut, Lyos, who was in the back of the group, looked at Nove with concern. "Hey, Nove, if you're tired, we can..."
"I'm fine." Nove shook her head as she looked around, her eyes on the lookout for any threats. "Let's just hurry up and get going."
Lyos frowned as she started to walk forward fast enough that she got ahead of the group and took point, forcing Nila to step back into the group. The Knight of the Aqualord could only shake his head and sigh as he followed the group.
"Hey..." He looked up at Pokota, who was resting on his head, "what's wrong with her?"
"Considering that she's been here less than a month, seen someone she thought of as a friend die in front of her face and had another friend kidnapped and that Ozel thing isn't coming with us..." Lyos shook his head. "Anyway, how have Vivio and Einhart's magic lessons been coming along."
Pokota's ear reached up to scratch his head. "It's kind of weird, but Vivio learns pretty quickly and Einhart's no slouch. I bet they'll have the Dragon Slave down pretty fast." He looked at the group and frowned to himself. "Something about this doesn't seem right, you know? They don't seem like the type to have to go through with this."
"Yeah." Lyos nodded, he knew exactly what Pokota was talking about. "Then again, it was about ten years ago when I met Nanoha, and she wasn't any older than they are." But that girl seemed to have a better idea of how to protect herself than this group did.
Lyos raised an eyebrow as Nila stepped back so that she was walking beside Arashi. '...What's that about?'
Arashi turned to look at the hooded lady, and even though he was looking up at her, the hood on her face was blocking a good look at her. "Yes?" Nila smiled at him softly and said nothing, as usual. Sighing, the young boy continued to walk, wondering if Corona was alright, and hoping that his family wasn't freaking out too badly.
After all, he was still okay.
"I can help you." Arashi nearly fell over as he heard Nila's soft voice. Turning to look at her, he wondered what she was talking about.
"Help me?" Nila nodded at his question. "With what?"
"Your magic." She whispered and stopped as he suddenly stiffened and stared at her in shock. Nila didn't say anything more as she pulled out a small book and opened it up and showed him the page in question.
"...Ragna... Blade?" Arashi stared at the book as he read the words over. "Where did you get this?"
"Found it." She shrugged and pushed him along so he wouldn't fall behind.
"Blade of the cold dark void?" Arashi frowned in confusion. Why did those words seem... Familiar? "Power that can..." He was startled as a hand gripped his shoulder, turning, he saw Lyos glaring at him. "...Did I do something wrong?"
"That spell you're reciting, just be careful. I've run across someone who could use that spell once before. Your mother is Lina Takamachi, right?" Arashi nodded and Lyos let go of his shoulder. "Just be careful, it's rare to run into someone who can use the Ragna Blade, but not impossible." Thankfully the only person he had met to use the Ragna Blade had been Lina herself, and he only knew that from what he had been told, since he hadn't been able to see it in person. 'Seriously, who uses that kind of spell with a Weapon of Light anyway?'
Nila walked slower so that she was behind most of the group. After a few minutes of walking, Lyos had Pokota rest on Arashi's head as he stepped back to talk to Nila. "Okay, seriously, I don't know that magic, but something about it terrifies me." He supposed that it had something to do with him being part Shinzoku, but he wasn't sure. "What's the idea of giving him your personal spellbook, Nila?"
All the hooded woman did was shrug at him.
"...You can't answer why you just gave your personal spellbook to a kid you've barely known?" Lyos felt like slapping his face in annoyance. "Urgh, I swear, sometimes I just can't understand you." Lyos felt his eye twitched as she smiled at him. "...Yes, I get it, considering you don't talk much, I'm surprised I can understand you at all."
Ahead of the two of them, Einhart turned around and waved at Pokota to fly up and join her and Vivio near the front. "So, can you explain what the difference between Astral magic and Black magic is?"
"The simplest answer is that Black magic draws upon Mazoku for power and can affect things physically while Astral magic strikes at creatures from the Astral plane and doesn't directly affect the real world too often outside of things like making weapons strike the Astral plane very often." A ear moved towards his face and he tapped his chin. "I dunno if that makes a lot of sense, you said that your style of magic is a lot different and..."
"No, that's fine, I understand that it's not meant to attack a person physically, which is good, because these Mazoku things can't be hit physically anyway." She looked at Vivio, who was in thought about something. "Vivio, what is it?"
"Well, I was thinking of the Dragon Slave, and I remembered something mama told me about the Nemesis Breaker and suddenly," she snapped her fingers and her eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh yeah! Mama said that grandma made the Nemesis Breaker similar to the Dragon Slave and even used some phrases from the Dragon Slave to help craft it!"
"So what does that mean for us?" Nove looked back at Vivio for a moment. "Just because you know that doesn't mean a damn thing for us right now. Doesn't that Black magic spell need Chaotic Blue to work?" Nove blinked as the girls stared at her. "...What? I've done research into Black magic. I didn't learn how to draw upon its power, but I know the source at least."
"That's public knowledge." Vivio nodded, well, public to anyone who was in the Bureau or the Church, anyone who used magic and wasn't part of the Bureau most likely didn't know, since the only person who could teach them was Lina and she wouldn't teach a bunch of random people how to cast Black magic anyway. "But maybe I can't use the Nemesis Breaker, but now that I think about it, if grandma based the Nemesis Breaker off of the Dragon Slave, I should be able to use the Dragon Slave..." She trailed off as Nove, Pokota and Einhart stared at her. "Um... I know how to cast the Nemesis Breaker, but, you know, it destroys cities, so I can't use it back home at all... So..."
"You could have done the Dragon Slave at any time?! And you didn't tell us?!"
"No!" Vivio shook her head at Nove's accusation. "No! I couldn't do it at any time, there's no videos of that spell, and Raising Heart never showed me anything, so I didn't know and it's been so..."
"Nove!" Lyos called out to the redhead. "Calm down, I know it's been stressful, but yelling doesn't help anything." Sighing and seeing that it did nothing to calm anyone down, Lyos pointed ahead of them. "There's a town in that direction, about an hour or so from here. How about we get there and try to recover before we do something stupid, okay?" He couldn't believe that he was the one to try and calm them down. "Besides, I need to send some messages out." He grinned at the confused looks he was getting. "With any luck, we'll have back-up when we meet up with the one who sent Duclis and those Mazoku after us."
(---)
Corona sighed as Balmung continued to walk across the land. Sure, it was awesome to ride on a giant golem, but it was... Slow, and boring. "Urgh, can't you go faster?" She still had this Zannafar Armor and she wasn't sure what to do with it. "If only you could fly and..." The white haired girl's red eyes widened in glee as she said that. "...Why not?" A magic circle formed under her as she stood up on her Golem's shoulders. "Come forth!" Corona raised her right hand and snapped her fingers, "Dark Scrander!"
The ground shook as a pair of giant, devil-like wings seemed to flap once before flying upwards and attaching itself to Balmung's back. Corona grinned as she saw just how shiny the black rock was. "Oooh! That'll cut someone up good." She put her hand over her mouth and giggled as more material formed on the back of the Golem, becoming the shape of a rocket thruster. Corona didn't know too much about mechanics, but using her new-found abilities to give her golem both levitation and flight wasn't too hard.
Corona let loose a triumphant yell of glee as she rocketed towards the mountains in the distance. She didn't know what was there, but it felt very similar to the Zannafar Armor in her hands. 'Still...' Her thoughts trailed off as she looked at the armor and grinned as an idea came to her. "Balmung! Set down right there!" She pointed at a field where some animals were grazing. "Let's see now..." Corona threw the armor forward and watched in delight as it rushed towards the nearest animal. "Yes! Consume the animals until you take form!"
"MOOOO!" The cows screamed as their bodies were broken down and absorbed by the armor.
(---)
Back on Mid-Childa, Dieci suddenly shivered and looked around fearfully.
"...What's wrong?" Wendi looked at her sister in worry. "Is Sein trying to grope your butt again?"
"COWS!" Dieci suddenly yelled out before running away screaming.
"...What?"
(---)
"Fufufufufufufufuf.... Hahahahahahahahahaha!" Corona put her hand on her head as the armor continued to absorb the cattle. Eventually it started to take form. "A silver... Wolf... Dragon..." Her face lit up in malicious glee as she stared at the form of Zannafar. "Yes! This is what I was feeling from it!"
The legendary Demon Beast could only stare at Corona silently as his body seemed to ripple like water under the wind.