Rise of new dark guild

Chapter 11: Binding Pages, Broken Chains

The wind dragged ash across the stonework streets of eastern Magnolia. The stormy dusk set the clouds alight in burnt oranges and somber purples, casting long, broken shadows over the merchant stalls and shuttered windows. A faint haze clung to the lanternlight as the town, ever wary in recent weeks, locked itself down early. Whispers filled alleys, shutters creaked like murmurs, and the tension was thick enough to choke.

Tovis Blayne, pale and thin-framed, walked with a slight limp and a heavy coat pulled tight around his chest. His silver hair, tied behind his ears, shimmered like mercury under the lamps. A leather satchel hung at his side, thick with dog-eared tomes, each one humming faintly with the pulse of old magic.

He moved past the baker's alley—once filled with warmth, now cold and closed—and turned toward the narrow steps that led to the sloped quarter where he lived with his wife, Elina, and daughter, Maeryn. The buildings here leaned into each other, the cobblestones cracked with age, but it was home.

Inside, Elina hummed quietly by the hearth while Maeryn played with a stuffed fox on the floor. Tovis paused at the door, watching them in silence. Guilt gnawed at the edges of his chest.

Obsidian Fang had found him three weeks ago. Threats first. Promises second. He tried to resist, but their reach was long and his family vulnerable. Now, he was tangled in their schemes, feeding them fragments—routes, schedules, faces. He had done his best to give them nothing critical. But it wouldn't last.

Precht was set to leave in two days. The strongest mage in the guild, gone. Timing too perfect. The attack would come soon.

He had no faith in escaping their net.

But he could try.

---

Two nights before the attack.

Tovis moved quickly, Elina and Maeryn cloaked and holding hands as they darted through the narrow backstreets. He had spent all day arranging a safe route out. A carriage waited beyond the eastern watchbridge. If they reached it—

A blast of heat tore through a building to their left. Flames curled into the sky.

Four Obsidian Fang mages dropped from the rooftops like carrion birds. One of them, a tall woman with blood-red robes and a whip made of sizzling light, sneered.

"Going somewhere, traitor?"

Tovis pushed his family behind him.

"Elina, take Maeryn. When I move, you run."

She opened her mouth to argue.

"Please."

He opened the satchel.

A book snapped open mid-air, pages flipping on their own. Symbols bled from the parchment, glowing with sickly gold.

"Bestiary Rite: Chapter Four. Manifest — Gravebeast."

A monstrous creature formed in front of him—a loping, shadow-furred hound with ribs exposed and teeth like ivory spears. It lunged at the attackers, tearing into two before they could react.

The others retaliated. Fire, lightning, stone.

Tovis was hit square in the ribs, thrown into a wall. Blood sprayed across the cobbles. But he stood.

Another book.

"Bestiary Rite: Chapter Eleven. Manifest — Script Swarm."

A cloud of paper monsters burst forth, each page folding into sharp origami wings and fangs. They flooded the alley, disorienting and slashing the remaining mages.

Elina screamed. One had gotten too close.

Tovis surged forward, stabbing a summoned glyph into the ground.

"Compilation: Unbound Chapter. ALL MAGIC, ALL COST."

The book ignited.

A tidal wave of spectral beasts tore through the alley. Roars shook the air. Arcane beasts—dragons of ink, lions of scripture, serpents made from cursed words—all surged forward. Tovis screamed as his body tore from the recoil.

When the light cleared, only one enemy remained, half-burned and stunned.

The mage staggered forward. "Why...? You could've lived like a king..."

Tovis coughed blood, collapsing beside Elina and Maeryn, who clung to him in terror.

He laughed—short, ragged.

"A Fairy Tail member... always a Fairy Tail member."

The surviving mage raised a hand.

Then a flash.

A whisper in the dark.

The sound of a throat sliced open.

The mage fell, gurgling.

Behind him stood Akatsuki, her eyes narrowed, her blade dripping.

She looked down at Tovis, then to Elina and Maeryn.

Sheathing her blade, she knelt.

"You fought well. My Master will want you alive."

She lifted him gently into the shadows.

And they vanished.

---

End of Chapter 11