"Lord Gram! Lord Gram!" A Mazoku that looked like a blue skinned, humanoid creature, though he had what looked like weasel's head in place of a human one appeared in front of the Mazoku General with Corona dangling from his outstretched arm. "Isn't it great?"
"Calm yourself, Sneavel." Gram rolled his eyes as he looked the young girl over. "Well, well, it looks like I have an interesting specimen now, don't I?" He raised an eyebrow at what he was feeling from the girl. "Interesting, normally I don't get this reaction from people just from being in their presence." Some fear was common, but sheer, shark terror? That was new.
Corona couldn't bring herself to answer, she could only remember this monster holding Rio before killing her in cold blood in front of all of them. "R...Rio... You..."
Gram chuckled as he walked around the girl, who found herself dropped to the floor as Sneavel quickly stepped back from her. "Tell me something, girl, how have you enjoyed your time here?" He smirked as she whimpered and tried to curl up on herself. "You were there when I killed that other girl, huh?" Corona could only tremble as Gram slipped up next to her and knelt down. "Tell me something, girl, that Golem you created, what did you use to make it?"
"J...Just what was around me." Corona shivered as the Mazoku ran a finger down her backside.
"Just what was around you?" Gram looked at her with some shock as he thought about that. "To be able to do something like that though..."
"I just... Want to go home." Corona whimpered, finally losing her nerve as tears fell down her face.
"Oh?" Gram smirked at her as he stood up and started to walk away. "Why should I let you go home? What could you possibly offer me?"
Corona's eyes snapped open as a memory came to her. "You said you were looking for two people, right?" She looked up at him with hope in her eyes. "If I tell you, will you let me go?"
"Provided that you can give me everything I want about those two..." Gram trailed off, but nodded. "Now, where are they?"
"C...Cranagan, on Mid-Childa!" Corona shivered, she hated this, but she wanted to get out of this alive.
Gram frowned in confusion. He had never heard of Mid-Childa before. "So they did escape our world..." But he had done scouting of this staff with minions before and there was very limited life other than this one planet. "And since we still can't access the Dark Staff..."
Many of the Mazoku looked at each other in confusion when Gram suddenly threw his head back and laughed a chilling, heart-stopping laugh. Well, if any of them had hearts that is.
"So much suddenly makes sense. How those two got away from our master, why we could never find them, and this!" He gestured to Corona. "Even those who have the ability to create Golems from raw materials like you do can't do it the way you do."
"I still feel that punch!" A Mazoku in the group yelled at Corona.
"Now, now..." Gram waved that Mazoku down and looked at Corona with an intrigued expression on his face. "Tell me, girl, how about that Golem? Could you make it right now?"
"Lord Gram! You can't possibly..." One of the Mazoku began but was silenced when Gram looked its way.
Corona gulped and closed her eyes and a golden circle formed around her on the floor. Unnoticed to her, Gram raised an eyebrow, both at the color and at what he was feeling from her. 'Interesting.' He snorted as he saw the large black golem stand there motionlessly. "I thought maybe something interesting would happen," he closed his eyes and started to walk away. "Put her in it."
"Yes!"
Corona started scooting away as she saw several Mazoku walk towards her, one of which had a silver-colored breast plate in his hands. She may have not known what it was, but the instant she saw it, all her mind could do was scream at her how dangerous that thing was. "Get... Get away from me! No!" Her arms and legs were quickly grabbed and she was lifted up as the Mazoku with the breastplate got closer. "NO!"
Gram suddenly turned around as he heard the breastplate hit the ground. "...Interesting." The Golem had struck the Mazoku in the side, sending it flying and was turning on the others that held its creator down. "I was wrong, but..." His eyes narrowed and the Golem suddenly shattered into tiny pieces. "I never told you to attack." Corona shook her head and he merely raised an eyebrow. "...Are you telling me that your Golem attacked to protect you without you giving it an order?"
"I was just scared and..." Corona was lifted to a standing position as Gram turned away from her, thinking about it.
"Get her into that thing!" One of the Mazoku grabbed the breastplate and lifted it up. "Don't worry, this is the Zannafar Armor, you'll be safe when you're in it." The armor split apart and one Mazoku put the back against Corona and just before the front was touching her, Gram ordered the Mazoku to stop, causing it to turn to the General in confusion.
"I just realized something..." Gram pulled the breastplate away from Corona and looked at her with glowing eyes. "Yes, I only just realized it, you have an extra organ in you." Corona blinked in confusion as he reached out and tapped her on the upper chest. Her eyes widened and she paled horribly when a glowing ball formed in front of her. "I see... Interesting. An organ that harnesses your magic directly. No need to draw it from a power source and form it into what you want." The Mazoku General suddenly smirked and chuckled as the final pieces fell into place.
"Lord Gram?"
"You can't see it, can you? She's from the Blue staff, Chaotic Blue's staff." The name alone had several of the Mazoku in the room murmuring amongst themselves. "Even if she can't hurt us directly, the fact is, her Golem was made up of common materials. If she had even a little talent in Astral, Black or Holy magic..." Gram trailed off and a gleam came to his eyes. "I wonder..."
Corona felt faint as she saw a bubbling black mass of energy form in his hands. Whatever it was, it felt dark, deep and pure evil.
"What would happen if the raw essence of our Lord Death Fog bonded itself to this organ that processes your magical power?" Gram's smile was cold as the energy shot out with tendrils and wrapped around Corona's Linker Core before merging completely.
The screams of pure pain and suffering was music to all the Mazoku present. Especially as they got louder and more high pitched while black flames started to surround and consume the young girl.
Gram wondered if she could handle it, before mentally shrugging. What did he care if a human lived or died?
(---)
Vivio's eyes suddenly widened as a cold chill ran down her spine. Clutching her chest, she fell to her knees. "No..." She wasn't sure what was going on, but for some reason, she felt that something really, really bad had happened. "Corona..."
"Vivio!" Einhart and Arashi yelled at the same time and grabbed her as she trembled. "Vivio, what's..."
"Corona." Nove said, a disgusted look on her face. "Something happened to her." Growling, the redhead turned to a nearby tree and blasted it to kindling. "DAMMIT!"
"The worst part is, we have no idea where to start looking for her." Ixpellia spoke up, looking at the group sadly. "If we just had a clue..."
"We do!" Ixpellia turned to see Pokota flying towards them. "The Ruvinagald kingdom."
"You sure?" Lyos looked at Pokota, who nodded as he landed on Ixpellia's head. "Fine. That's pretty close to Seiryuun, we can drop..."
"No!" Vivio shot to her feet and glared at Lyos. "Something happened to Corona and we're going to save her!"
Lyos saw the look in her eyes and sighed heavily. "You remind me so much of that little girl that I knew a long time ago... Nanoha, I think..."
"You knew mama?!" Vivio fell over in shock, and Lyos could only stare at her, stupefied. "You knew my mama, Nanoha Takamachi?!"
"...Wow, I know you can get older, but still... How old was she when she had you?" Lyos scratched the back of his head. "And, yeah, I fought alongside her a few times when I was younger."
"I'm adopted." Vivio pointed out to him. "But, wow, I didn't know that. Mama said that she had a lot of things happen in her life."
Lyos nodded. "Well," he looked at Vivio, then at Ixpellia and Pokota, then at Nila before finally settling on Einhart and Arashi, "if we're going, we better get going now. Even at our best speed, it'll take us awhile to get across the continent." He sighed at the questioning looks he was getting. "We're currently near the edge of the countries Lyzeille and Dils, Ruvinagald is closer to Elmekia and Zefielia, so at the very least, we have to travel through either Dils into Kalmaart to get there, or through Ralteague and Saillune, and personally, I prefer to go through Kalmaart."
"Why?" Nove looked at him curiously as he shrugged.
"Less of a hassle, that's all." Either way, it would take them a good length of time to walk that far.
"Ah!" Masha spoke up as he looked at the Blessed Blade. "Before you go, I'll put that sword into a sheath for you." Ixpellia smiled and nodded at him. "And you can keep it. Anyone who can do that with that sword deserves to keep it."
"I would like that." Ixpellia nodded at him.
(---)
Gram raised an eyebrow as the black flames started to die down, as did the girl's screams. He had lost count of how long the girl had been consumed by the darkness, but he had to reason it had been a couple of hours. "So, you did survive." He smirked at the girl who was floating there with a dark aura surrounding her. He found it interesting that her clothes had dissolved, leaving her in just her undergarments.
"Brunzel." Corona's voice whispered as she held out her hand. Her dagger suddenly appeared in her hand and she grinned. "Set UP!"
There was a surge of Black magic from the girl as energy raced along her skin, from her feet upwards, changing her skin's color got paler, her hair turned white while her eyes became red in color. Black shoes covered her feet as did stockings that went up past her knees, a black dress with white frills covered her lower body and a black top with matching white frills covered her torso. The top had a very low-cut back, stopping just centimeters above her waist while poofy black shoulders held the top up. White gloves that went up past her elbows appeared on her hands.
Corona suddenly grinned and a black circle appeared under her feet. "Goliath." She whispered as her Golem came forth once again, however, much to even Gram's surprise, the Golem was covered in spiraling black flames. The Golem knelt down and held out its hand, letting Corona climb onto it. "I do believe our business is done, Mazoku." The grin on Corona's face was one of barely held in maliciousness. "Yes... I feel... So free..." She looked at the breastplate on the ground and snapped her fingers, causing it to fly towards her. "I could use this. Now, if you'll excuse me."
"Lord Gram!" One of the Mazoku ran up to the General. "Shouldn't we stop her?"
"Why?" Gram raised an eyebrow at the Mazoku. "I said I'd let her go after she gave me the information I wanted, so, why shouldn't I live up to my end of the deal?"
"Oh yes..." Corona spoke up just before she and Goliath left the room. "You brought me here, didn't you?" She giggled at Sneavel next to Gram. "Yes, well... Goodbye." Black energy surrounded Corona for a moment as she pointed her finger at the Mazoku. The next thing any of the Mazoku in the room knew, a huge blast of pure Black magic tore into the Mazoku, utterly vaporizing the body. "Hee hee hee. Yes... This will do nicely."
Gram merely smirked at the maliciousness he was feeling from the girl. 'Yes, she will do nicely.'