Chapter 4: Freedom
"did you think it would be s easy to escape?" A fat Dark Mage asked with a dark smile as he walked towards Nagat, Erza, and the other kids who were caught trying to escape from a hole which was behind them.
"you're all going to get punished big time for trying to pull one over on us." He continued with a cold smile, but the dark-skinned mage next to him stopped him. he looked over us before his eyes stopped on me.
"Normally I would agree with you, but we can't afford any more delay on the R system. so tell us who came up with this foolish plan and we will deal with him... Nagato, you are a troublemaker, but you are not the smartest tool in a box. so it's clear it wasn't you who came up with this. or was it?" He asked with narrowed eyes, I have put on an act like a dumb ass before these guards so they wouldn't think I was scheme stuff.
because of this, I went out of my way to easily fall for their words, act forgetful, and just outright dumb. on top of that, I worked hard, and I used my free time to work. someone who made the guards value me since I did the most work. outperforming pretty much everyone who had to be motivated by a beating
I was more than ready to escape long ago if I was by myself. people who tried to escape just up and disappeared, mostly killed. I couldn't risk it, so I have been looking for a chance, a moment of chaos to escape.
"Sigh... It was my plan... way are you not attacking them?" With I frown, I looked back toward Jellal and the others, confusing not only them but the guards as well.
"the only reason I brought you guys along was so you could buy time for me to go outside. why are you guys not doing it?" I asked with a deep frown, causing the guards to shake their heads at my foolishness. Kids were dumb, but they were not dumb to throw their life away. In their eyes, Jellal and them would have only joined me seeing a chance to escape.
they took me away, leaving Erza and the others watching me being taken away. Jellal held onto Erza's hand, stopping her from doing anything foolish. in the end, they returned to their cage,
"... I can't... I can't just sit here while they kill him." Erza said with tears running down her eyes, that was her twin brother who once again was going to be punished to protect her. Jellal looked at her for a moment, before nodding.
"I will go save him... we would need his strength to escape," Jellal said softly, causing Erza and everyone else to look towards him in shock. everyone knew about Nagato's strength, the guy used this hell as a place to get stronger. but everyone here was not weak, the work they had to do pushed them physically and mentally, and everyone who managed to survive to this point was strong, Jellal was a special one amongst them as well
Jellal was sure he could defeat a few of the mages, he was faster than them, and so long as he could avoid their spells, he could be able to defeat them. everyone was of course worried for him, but Erza stood up, stunning everyone
"I'm not going to sit back and do nothing... I want to save my brother." She said seriously, to which Jellal hesitated for a moment, before shaking his head. he didn't want to make as much noise as possible. plus, he didn't want her to get hurt, he was sure Nagato would not stand for that.
So, he left passing as many guards as he could, with Jellal defeating some of the guards to take their weapons or when he couldn't get past them otherwise. he was strong, stronger than most audit mages in the tower... after all, most of them were mostly cannon fodder.
With as little noise as possible, he made his way to a room, where Nagato was tired up. with emotionless eyes, Nagato looked up and saw Jellal who was horrified to see Nagato's condition. he was missing a right eye, his body was filled with injuries and his blood,
He rushed over to free Nagato while looking around the room, where there wasn't a guard to be found. just Nagato.
"what are you doing?" I asked calmly, while Jellal helped me to walk. I was tortured to the point I fainted, I only awakened just now when Jellal opened the door. Jellal forced a smile, before speaking.
"Erza was growing restless, it was either I came or risk her doing something foolish... but after doing this, we have no choice but to fight and escape... I heard about the deals you made with the grown-ups, how you have been secretly having them get ready for your large attacks against the tower of heaven." He said softly, to which I looked at him with narrowed eyes, indeed, these past few years I have been planning to have everyone fight.
All I had been doing was waiting for a chance, a moment where I and all of the adults would attack, catching the guards off guard and escaping. of course, the adults were cannon fodder, I would have used them to catch the attention of everyone and escape with Erza, I was no good guy. just a brother trying to escape with his sister.
"How much do you know?" I asked softly, to which Jellal spoke. he knew pretty much everything, one of the adults I have spoken to thought he was strong enough to help them. what worried me was that one of these adults could have spilled the beans to the guards, but I had picked the guards I saw to have the deepest-rooted rage towards the guards.
"You counted 167 guards, plus 62 of those magical beasts. there are more than 100 slaves... right now, it's the best chance we have to escape, it's either now or ever," he said softly, to which I went quiet for some time, before sighing and nodding. once they see me in this condition, they hope might drop. so it was best we do this now before any more unforeseen events take place. I trusted in the plan Erza and her friends had, but in the end, it was created by a bunch of kids... I was a fool.
we didn't make it far until we were suddenly surrounded by 4 magic circles, and from these magic circles, magic circles came out. these were far stronger than those mages Jellal defeated, to say the least, he was defeated. it was foolish to face these magic soldiers, the best choice should have been to find the caster and defeat him.
"So you were the mastermind." the skinny dark mage said with a cold smile, like hell, he would have believed Nagato to be the mastermind. he had reason to believe that Nagato was just being tricked, a fool like Nagato couldn't think of anything. Nagato was only a bet, to draw out Jellal who he had believed to be the leader of that small group. breaking Jella would lead to those other kids behaving. simply having people disappear wouldn't cut it anymore, if the slaves were pushed too far back, they would push back. so breaking their leader was the best option
Sure they lost a few people... more like a few people were knocked out, do you think it was so easy for someone to move around the tower of heaven without getting caught? this was all just a trap, they saw Jellal coming from a mile away. then again, how did he know Jellal would act?
Erza cared deeply for her twin brother, even though her twin brother ignored her, giving her the cold shoulder pretty much all the time. already Erza was about to act to save Nagato, would she remain sitting knowing that her twin brother might disappear like the others? Erza would have done something foolish, which in return pushed Jellal to do something foolish since he had feelings for Erza.
'...' Nagato was taken away, while Jellal was taken into the room Nagato was in. Nagato wasn't thrown in his dark cell like all of those other times. no, this time he was thrown before Erza and the others, so they could see the fate that awaited them if they tried to escape once more.
"... Nagato," Erza said in tears, she looked at Nagato who was lying right in front of her, seemly dead, with an eye patch over one eye. her body shook, something inside her snapping. her eyes landed on the two guards who had brought Nagato in, and before everyone's shocked eyes, she took the spear out of the guard's hands, with a shock wave, the two were sent flying out of the cell.
While breathing heavily, she turned towards everyone, telling all of them to take a weapon and fight. if they wanted freedom, they needed to fight for it. there was something Nagato was lacking throughout the years, and that was courage. he couldn't watch his sister get hurt, so he waited until he was sure that she could escape safely. but Nagato was not the only one with good genetics.
Erza was strong, but Nagato could never see that. all he saw was his little sister, someone who had to protect since she was the brother. Sure none of them knew who was older, but Nagato always saw Erza as his little sister.
So, everyone moved by Erza's strength began to fight back. with Nagato in her hands, Erza and the others fought, but Erza had her flaws. She couldn't leave Jellal behind, so she tried to push the prisoners to go save Jellal, but something like this pushed the guards who just wanted to escape to be willing, how could they defeat the guards if even so many times cast their spells?
It was against who Erza was as a person, she couldn't just turn her back against her friend, even more so someone who went to save her brother. yes, Erza knew Nagato was alive, he was just out cold.
While she tried to pull everyone to fight, she noticed flames shooting towards her. but before the spell could hit, Rob appeared in the way of the attack, reflecting it with such force it destroyed everything in its path, a power which awakened Nagato... no, it was not the only thing that awakened him. some dark power that came from the room where he was being tortured, it also awakened him.
I looked around and found myself in Erza's friend, Simon, who was watching Rob use the last bit of life force to protect Erza. I watched this scene as well, causing me to grit my teeth, slightly, but before I could do anything, I noticed a magic circle appear under Erza. to my shock, she awakened her magic power, and with it, she took control of all the weapons and launched them at the guards taking those who were taken out by Rob to be easily defeated.
with her strength, everyone was motivated to fight back once more, following behind her to defeat all of the guards,
"Erza is something..." Simon said softly while placing me down, I sat there for some time, before frowning. looking at everyone celebrating, I got back up and headed inside, going to go see Erza, a sight which shocked Simon as I shouldn't have been able to move in the condition was within.
I held my head, images of the scene of Jellal warning everyone to get off the boats before they exploded. I knew this was a memory from the anime, but what could have caused it? with how much I have fainted lately, the memories from the anime were coming back to me, but the memories were confusing. some of the memory was a memory of a woman who looked a lot like Erza fighting against the gods, this one was through my own eyes as if I lived through it. and the others seemed as if I had seen through them through a TV or phone.
I didn't get far before I heard Jellal yelling, telling everyone to get off the boats, just in time as they all exploded. As chaos went on, more and more of my memories hit me, making me stand there for some time. before from under my head, a dark magic circle grew, and with it came the aura of nothingness...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone