Chapter 10 - Consideration

*Warning. Spoilers & Inappropriate Language Ahead*

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Cynthia's POV

"Erza!" Minerva grinned.

"Minerva!" Erza shouted as she was coming straight towards her.

"Now that's more like it!!!! Come and show me exactly what you're made of, my beloved!"

"Be careful Erza!" I shouted while I was still clutching onto my spear for support, as I watched the two strongest women, who have yet to battle with each other again.

"C-Cynthia?!" Erza said in shock as she made Minerva too fly from a powerful blow.

"Hey! It's been awhile... hasn't it?" I grinned sheepishly but later groaned in pain.

"Y-You're alive...and hurt." she smiled gently as tears were forming on her eyes.

"A-Ah... don't cry! Cry when this is all over." I laughed.

"Yeah. You have to tell me everything. I've missed you... along with everyone. Mostly Sting."

"It's a promise! I've missed you all too and... Sting." I said softly.

"Erza!" we heard Minerva to yell.

"Let me fight with you." I said, trying to straighten myself up with my spear.

"No. This is a battle only between me and Minerva... another round of the games and besides, in the condition that you are in right now, you need to be treated." she said sternly and I sighed in defeat

"F-Fine... I'll stand back and try to heal myself."

"Hide while you're at it."

"H-Hide?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Hide!" she shouted as she went towards Minerva.

"I am Neo Minerva.I have been reborn as the ultimate mage!" Minerva said who was clashing against Erza.

"Neo Minerva? Reborn? More like the one who drowned into darkness and isn't on the right path." I said in annoyance before hiding behind a huge boulder.

"Territory." Minerva said as she somehow kicked Erza up into the sky and soon kicked her once more, sending Erza to fly and slam onto a stone wall.

"Erza!" I shouted in worry.

"Let's have even more fun together... Er..." Minerva was cut off by Erza who was making a comeback who dashed towards her and punched Minerva in the gut, making the both of them to fly at the same time. But at this moment, Erza was in the lead and Minerva was getting beaten up.

"I am... I am... the ultimate!" Minerva shouted.

"What are you fighting with?!?!" Erza yelled before she landed a powerful punch on Minerva who seemed to be taken back. Suddenly she got back up on her feet and punched Erza back.

"If I... If I become strong..." Minerva started to say.

"Minervaaaaa! Wake up!!!!" Erza shouted, landing another punch on her.

"Oh my Mavis... this is getting intense..." I muttered in shock.

"That unjust path you were on at the Grand Magic Games... I couldn't accept it but at least I could understand it! That was all for the sake of Sabertooth, wasn't it?!" Erza said making me to go quiet and trying to understand of the situation, that Minerva has been doing for Sabertooth.

"This fist that just punched you is crying. It's crying because it has to be involved in such a meaningless fight..." Erza said as she brought up her fist.

"I know... I know...so... please, just take that fist and kill me..." Minerva said softly making me to go weak and in shock at her sudden words.

'Kill her? There would be no way that Erza could kill her. Even though Minerva wasn't the best or the fairest woman in the games... she is a human with a heart and feelings... she doesn't deserve this. Maybe she had a sad past that made her that way... everyone has a dark moment in their lives.'

"I'm weak. I'm so weak that I succumb to the darkness. I can't go on... living in this body anymore... I beg of you..." Minerva said softly.

"You are who you are. And I'm sure there are people waiting for you for you to come home. Don't ever lose sight of that." Erza said as she walked up to her. I noticed to see Minerva go in shock, making me to smile.

'Minerva.. you can have a second chance in life and it's not too late to change. Change for the better and you will get better when you fix your mistakes.' I thought as a smile came onto my face. But suddenly, it dropped to a scowl as I felt their presence once more. It was coming close to us by the second.

"So this is what it means to be a human...feeling such self-satisfaction rambling on and on about life and death. It's quite unsightly." the familiar deep masculine voice said slyly.

"Who's there!?" Erza shouted as I came out of my hiding spot to peek over to him.

"Mard Geer." I glared as I said his name in a cold tone.

"My, My... All the garbage should have been cleared away with that one clean sweep and yet here I find more trash laying around. That damned Celestial Spirit King went and did such a bothersome thing..." he said before pausing. "Ah well... I suppose I have a little bit of free time... At least enough to take care of the trash myself..."

"So, you're the Master?" Erza asked making his eyes to go wide but as a result his power was a sudden making Erza and Minerva to fall back.

"Even if that isn't his full power... he's still that strong?! So the Celestial King didn't manage to defeat him..." I said softly.

"What is this magic power?!" I heard Erza to say.

"I'll start with that one..." Mard smirked in a direction towards them.

"Minerva!" Erza yelled making my eyes to widen as the sudden blast that was coming towards her. 'This is so frustrating! I won't make it in time! Not too mention I'm slightly low on magic and these wounds won't seem to heal as fast. Please... someone....' I thought hardly.

"Run, Erza..." Minerva managed to say, making my breathing to get heavy.

"Someone please help!" I yelled up to the sky as I shut my eyes tightly to hear an explosion. Hoping that Minerva didn't die.

"Just in time..." I heard a new voice that sounded familiar said within the dust after the explosion.

"Sorry, punctuality was never our strong suit." another very familiar voice said, making my ears to ring. My heart was fluttering just by hearing that voice. I felt my body to tingle to hear it and butterflies jumping in my stomach. I looked down to see the dust slowly clearing to reveal two new figures... no scratch that... four.

"We've come for you, Princess." I heard the voice that made me to feel that way. I stared to see a guy who held Minerva in his arms with blonde spiky hair and dazzling blue eyes that made me to melt and flutter seeing him. I had no idea but felt jealous to see this sight in front of me, well... actually near me since I went back into hiding.

Beside him was another male with messy black hair that was tied in a high ponytail but with his bangs covering his red right eye. Not to mention there were two exceed that were similar to Happy, Carla and Lily.

'Sabertooth...'

"We haven't seen you in a while!" the red furred exceed exclaimed, whom I've known since I was a child whose name was Lector.

"You guys... why are you..." Erza said in confusion.

"You sent us a letter, didn't you?" the blonde said as he gently placed Minerva down on the ground for her to lean onto the destroyed tree for support.

"Huh?" Erza answered.

"Erza-kun, the way you wrote that letter, it was, erm, how should I put this..." Lector managed to say nervously.

"Crap." the little green exceed in a frog-like suit completed his sentence, which I remember that their name was Frosch. It was Frosch... right?

Then I later noticed to see Erza with a pissed look on her face making me to sweat drop.

"Thanks to that, we managed to get here. Although it did take a bit of time." I heard the black haired male to say which was Rogue.

"Princess, let's return to the guild together." the blonde said to Minerva, making my insides to churn, as I clenched my teeth and felt my heart to sink. 'What the hell is happening.'

"Return you your guild? This world of magic is coming to an end. You cannot stop it." Mard said.

"Face has already been destroyed." Erza said confidently.

'That's right... Face needed to be destroyed but now I heard that it's been destroyed already? By who?' I thought to myself before listening in on their conversation.

"Only one of them." Mard said.

"O-One of them?!" I squeaked.

"Erza-san, on the way here, we saw quite a number of statues with strange faces." I heard the blonde to say. 'How come I cannot remember his name but the others... I can?'

"If those are Face, then a pretty crazy amount of them have appeared from underground." Rogue added.

"What?" Erza said.

"One hour. In one hour all of those Faces will activate. Approximately 3000 Magic Pulse Bombs will simultaneously.... extinguish all magic on this continent." Mard said bluntly.

'3-3000 Faces to activate?! This has got to be some kind of joke right?! Cobra... Jellal... I won't let you down. But 3000 is way too many for me to stop.' I thought in fear.

"No way..." I heard Erza to say in shock.

"What the hell..." the blonde said worriedly.

"All magic on this continent is going to disappear..." Lector muttered.

"Will Fro not be able to fly either?" Frosch asked. 'Aw Frosch... you're still so cute.' I smiled in my thoughts but later went back into serious mode about Face.

"Kuku. He's bluffing. Face cannot be remotely controlled. Activating all 3000 of them simultaneously is impossible." Minerva chuckled.

"Quite true. The ability to control them remotely was possessed solely by the human call Chairman... or so I remember." Mard admitted.

"That Chairman has died." Minerva stated, making my eyes go wide.

"Fortunately we have a Necromancer in our guild." Mard assured making me to shook in fear. "With the dead chairman revived. We are using him to activate Face in the control room as we speak..."

"You can't be serious..." Erza growled.

"Erza-san. Go. You have to stop Face." the blonde said as he punched his fist into his hand.

"Leave this one to us." Rogue clarified.

"But..."

"Take care of the Princess, Lector and Fro. They'll be safe with you." the blonde added making me to go weak and upset at the word Princess towards Minerva.

"We'll knock some sense into this guy." Rogue added.

"Humans really do sat the most fascinating things. Defeat me, the Dark King? A mere human?" Mard exasperated.

"You're damn right!" Blondie said who dashed towards Mard, aiming for a punch with Rogue behind him.

"Dear, Dear." Mard scolded as he dodged Blondie's punches making me feel uneasy. Then I saw Rogue to sneak up behind Mard with the technique of converting himself into a shadow.

'Clever.'

"Erza, Now!" Rogue shouted.

"He's quite powerful! Be careful!" she shouted back.

"Huuuh?! You must have confused me with Natsu-san!" Blondie corrected her with a cocky grin on his face, making me to melt.

"We are entrusting Face to you." Rogue added in.

"Sting. Rogue." Minerva said sadly.

"Fro wants to fight too!" Frosch cheered but was pulled back by Lector on his tail.

"And then you woke up, we're tagging along with Erza-kun!" Lector sweat dropped. "Besides, I believe in Sting-kun."

"Fro does, too!"

'H-Hey wait a second... Erza left me... now I need to find a way to escape once more before getting caught and find a way to end all of the Faces. But somehow... within my heart, I feel like I should stay in and help these two... but they seem strong enough... Ah! Dammit.' I gave out an inaudible sigh before peeking out to continue watching the battle.

"White Dragon's Roar!" I heard the blonde, whose name is... Sting... to say as a white light beam shot out from his mouth and towards Mard, who somehow deflected his attack. So that's Sting that Minerva was talking about...and Erza mentioned to me. I gave out a sigh and noticed Sting to smirk. Confused as to why he was smirking, I noticed Rogue coming up behind Mard once more from his shadows before slashing him. 'Go Rogue!'

But what shocked me and the other two Dragon Slayers was that we were hoping that it would work but somehow Mard used only two fingers to slash Rogue, making him to fly. Followed by a huge explosion that was directly towards the two of them creating dust to swivel around them, making it hard to see them.

'W-What the... he's a freaking monster!' I thought, before putting  on my hood over my head. Sadly, most of my cloak was shredded and were ripped in a few places. 

"It has to be my biggest pet peeve... when lowly humans try to use Dragon Slayer Magic." Mard smirked as the dust was starting to clear, revealing the two Dragon Slayers standing.

"Funny, my biggest pet peeve... is when assholes try and hurt our friends." Sting snarled.

I could see that he had blood veins popping from his face, his eyes dilated and intensified his stare. Part of me was feeling sad for him but as well cheering him on. Was there something missing that I did not understand? I bit the inside of my cheek, just thinking about this. In a matter of seconds, I noticed to see both Rogue and Sting to sprint towards Mard landing a punch on him.

"I see..." Mard started, my chest feeling heavier by the minute of the suspense that was rising. "Now I can understand why Kyouka... wanted to play with you humans..." Mard chuckled.

"Quit playing around and bring it on assohle." Sting said sternly.

"Unable to see your own deaths in your futures... actions motivated purely by your emotions. Not in the least bit aware of your own weakness.... oblivious to how totally overwhelmed you truly are. How preciously ignorant." Mard smirked.

'You're wrong Mard... you're the ignorant one here.'

"Wrong. You're the one who's ignorant here." I heard a voice in front of me to say, making me to freeze. I looked behind me to see none other than Mard who was smirking down at me, making me go uneasy. How on earthland did he get here so fast?! 'Shit.'

"Trying to escape from me when I fought the Celestial King and here you are, eavesdropping in me once more. You must be really attached to me, Cynthia."

'Tsk.'

"Oi! Come out and fight!" I heard Sting to shout.

"Hmph. He seems to be very impatient and unaware." Mard snickered as he grabbed my arm, making me to wince at his strong grip.

"Let go of me you demon..." I hissed.

"You need a punishment first my pet." he chuckled and literally dragged me behind him towards the two Dragon Slayers who were preparing an attack.

"Finally came out of your hiding spot?" I heard Sting to snicker.

"..." was all from Rogue.

"Actually... I just went to grab my pet that was hiding." Mard chuckled, tightening his grasp on me as he walked closer towards them. Luckily I put on my hood to cover my face.

"T-T-This... scent..." Sting stammered in shock, making me to inhale sharply.

"N-No way... it can't be." Rogue added.

"Hm? Seems like you know this person? How wonderful." Mard widened his smirk, as he shoved me in front of him to the two Dragon Slayers, making me to grunt in pain. I felt my hood to go loose and the wind to pick up my cloak, letting it to fly into the sky, revealing my figure.

'Crap.'

I hesitantly stared up to see those dazzling blue eyes that were full of shock, love, and relief. Whereas the other one with red eyes were shocked as well, making me to feel nervous.

"S-Sting... R-Rogue...?" I softly whispered.

"C-Cee-chan?!", "C-Cynthia-chan?!" I heard both of them to stammer and in awe.

"..."

"Cynthia. Kill them... or it'll cost you your life." Mard threatened.

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