IdleMuse's Snippet

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The One Who Tamed Mereoleona: Chapter 9

Grand Magical Zone

–Yami Sukehiro–

"Oi, Oi! Where are you taking me?" He asked the Wizard King as he smoked his favourite cigar, the cheapest one available. For some ungodly reason, the Wizard King had burst into his base right as he was about to "Surpass his limits" and had pestered him to accompany the Wizard King on a trip. A trip that led them across the Kingdom since his base was on one side, and now they were in the Fire Grand Magical Zone on the other end of the Kingdom.

"TO meet a very special person," Was all the Wizard King would say about that, even as they ventured deep into the zone, even past the middle layer where Mereoleona trained, that beast of a woman always spending most of her time in this zone to train and reach new heights, thankfully.

For some reason, she had returned to the Kingdom and had yet to show her face to him or Fuegoleon, which was odd because the moment she returned, which was always forced by her parent since he had never seen her return to her home of her own volition, she sought out any and all the captains that would entertain her, only to turn to him once all the others rejected her request.

Damn noble, getting advantage of her status, forcing him to fight her. Though he had to admit, she was one hell of a beast, stronger than him and even the other captains, not by a lot, but still stronger. Hell, she had the Mana Zone down by the time she was 20, and he was only just getting strong enough to enter Julius' squad back then. Man, Mereoleona was old.

"There," His attention was drawn to the front of the Time Bubble they were in as they reached what could only be described as a flaming place from hell.

"Oi, what is this?" He asked the Wizard King as they landed on the ground, and the Bubble burst, forcing him to immediately use Mana Skin to ward off the heat, the one second delay gave him burns as the surrounding temperature was very high, high even for a Grand Magical Zone.

The Wizard King just smiled, not even needing Mana Skin to ward off the fire. And sure enough, the ring of fire in front of them parted a bit to reveal another wall, this time of stone with a giant entrance in the middle.

Through the door, he could see a tail, that too of fire? "Shit! Did you bring me here to fight the Fire Dragon of the end?" He couldn't help but hiss at the Wizard King and drew his sword, Darkness element overflowing through the sword in an instant.

He would only be a fool to underestimate something that did in two of their previous Wizard Kings. Though, with Julius here, he had no fear for his life, so he could go all out. With a grin, he was about to step in when Julius put a hand on his shoulder with a feather light touch, but he knew that feather light touch could put him in a crushing position within an instant.

"We are not here to fight, Yami. Let's go," Then the Wizard King floated through the entrance made in the fire ring.

"Must be nice," He grumbled as he had to trudge through half molten sand and rock instead of just flying through the air, as he had struggled to match pace with the Wizard King. He suppressed a yelp as the ring of fire closed behind him at the same moment his leg crossed over.

Soon, they find themselves in a large open clearing, with spikes of stone jutting out towards the sky to ward out the sun, though it must be plenty hot without it. Not only that, he could see the tail end of the Fire Dragon of the End, and it made him tense a bit because that thing was no joke.

Legend was that it had more firepower than the Fire Spirit itself and didn't even need any host to unleash that. Also, it was sentient and had learned advanced Mana Manipulation techniques somehow, but that was probably hogshit just to cover up the fact that the people challenging it were weak. Though, it did kill two Wizard Kings, and they were certainly not weak.

So, who knows?

As soon as he was inside the stone doors, he saw him. The Fire Mage who defeated him with ease all those years ago. For some ungodly reason, he had gone out to the forsaken realm to get some peace and quiet after being challenged by Jack for the last time and had ended up encountering this Fire Mage who was in the process of cooking some bandits who had targeted him.

Not wanting the bandits to die, he tried to use his Magic Captain authority to stop the Mage, only for the Mage to wave his hands and just disable his magic completely. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't even lift his sword, let alone use Magic with it. It was very horrifying to know that his life was in the hands of some unknown monster who had chosen to stay in the Forsaken realm. 

He'd thought he was a goner since he had stumbled upon someone going to very deep lengths to keep his existence secret, only for the man to finish burning the men and then…disappear. His magic was unlocked after that, and he did end up searching for the man, even writing in a report, but it was never investigated after that.

The man standing in front of him was the exact same person from back then. 

"What can I do for you people?" The monster in human skin said, and before he could warn Julius about who the person was, they were drowned in fire. He sighed in relief as the magic was stopped by Julius' barrier, but the entire scenery in front of them was covered by orange and red fire, which was making the floor, which was made up of stone, red hot from heat.

The fire was dispersed a moment back as the man was glaring at the Fire Dragon, who snorted and nuzzled its head deeper into the lair.

The man sighed, "Sorry for that. Homura has not been in a nice mood today. Here, let me clear that out for you," THe man waved his hand, and suddenly red fires were extracted from the stones, returning them to their normal colour while the wizard now held a small ball of fire that he then dispersed with a wave of his hand.

All of that. Without Grimoire.

"No worries. Ignis-san, I would like you to meet one of our esteemed captains, Yami Sukehiro." He gave a weird look to Julius, who pushed him a bit, as if encouraging a child to introduce himself.

"Hello! I am Yami Sukehiro, Captain of the Black Bulls. Nice to meet ya!" In his usual crude fashion, of course. He didn't have the time or the inclination to play the stupidly complex word games that the nobles did.

"I see. You are the user of Dark Magic that I met that day. Nice to meet you, I am Ignis." He gave the man a deep look as he realised that he was unable to feel the man's magic, even now. That was the thing that bugged him the most back then, and even now, there was not even a speck of magic coming from the guy but Ki?

Ki was a whole different thing, and he had to suppress a shiver as the ocean of Ki he could sense from the man told him one thing and one thing only.

The man was a monster, be it from a physical perspective or even from a magical perspective.

"Yeah, you really scared Yami back then. He requested two Captain level people to help track you down, not that it would have helped anyway." He gave the Wizard King a side eye, which was completely ignored.

"Anyway, I am here to continue our talks on fate. You gave me more than enough to research on my own, but no matter how hard I try, I seem unable to understand the mana of the world, as you called it."

Yami groaned at that. Great, why was he called here if they were only here for a magical lecture? Anyone else would have sufficed. Why bring him, he was only just getting started on surpassing his limits in the bathroom.

The man waved his hands, clearing the distance between them as he floated cross legged. His pupils dilated at the unexpected movement, forcing his body to relax as he stared at the man. Just who in the fuck was he?

"Don't bother then. Your attainments in Mana control should have at least given you a hint about something far greater than us, so if the Mana of the World wishes to stay hidden, there is nothing that can be done to force it out."

"I see. I hoped it was something else, but I realise now. Thank you for that."

"No worries. I am still waiting for the answers. Though, the one you have brought here, he has a large role to play, fated by the Mana of the World."

His eyes widened as he released why Julius had brought him here. That sly bastard.

"After all, it is to be expected for the only Dark Magic user in the world to have a role to play in the fate of the world. It is practically destiny."

"Oh, really? Do tell…"

He grumbled as he fumbled with yet another cigar as the two geeks in front of him geeked out about magic, boring the hell out of him. Though it did bother him a bit about the fate part.

Hmm, what was he worried about? Fate? It's only something to be cut with his sword later on.

He chuckled at that thought. He might have to stop spending so much time together with Jack.

If you guys would like to support me or read more of where these snippets came from, you can head on to my P*treon. 

I run weekly polls on P*treon to decide which snippet series will get updated (2-3 ch/wk) and ofcourse, I write what my muse brings me as well.

Do note that the 5 extra snippets will be in order of when they were written & uploaded, not necessarily 5 chapters of any given story.