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CHAPTER START---
---June X771, Northern Fiore…
Flying below the clouds, Oberon keeps his focus on the train tracks running through the cliffs below. For hundreds of miles, he follows the private railroad tracks while the morning sun beats down on him.
'There,' he sees smoke in the distance and activates Telescopic Lens over his left eye, zooming in on the burning, overturned train and its many cargo cars. 'Doesn't look like an accident.'
He sees Rune Knights scattered about the area, most bloodied and broken, some in pieces, and a few a fair distance from the train cars. A quick scan of the area has him frowning at the sight, not a living person in view.
He descends to the scene and is assaulted by the scent of burning flesh and ash.
With a wave of his hand, Oberon uses his newly acquired Requip Magic, summoning three Celestial Spirit Keys from his personal pocket dimension into his hand.
Flowing Magic Energy into the keys, he summons Virgo and Aries first, not using the silver key yet. "Check for survivors. You'll be staying here. The Rune Knights will be here within the hour. We'll use our telepathic link to keep in touch."
"As you wish, Sir Oberon," Virgo politely nods and gets to work, while Aries shyly turns and walks toward the other bodies.
Oberon floats over to the cargo cars and steps past the destroyed steel door, seeing broken crates inside. Within them are Rune Knight uniforms and equipment, but they appear untouched.
'They broke open the crates but didn't take this stuff. So they must have either known what they were looking for, or not needed simple weapons.'
He releases the three keys to float beside him while moving onto the next train car, seeing more broken crates, but these are empty.
"So they took what was in here," he moves closer and inspects the crates, not seeing anything in them beyond splintered wood. With a thought, he commands Aries to search the train for a ledger while he checks the other train cars.
Minutes later, Oberon finishes searching the train and meets Aries at the front, taking the ledger from her. He flips through it while she helps Virgo with the bodies, noticing only one item missing.
"Gold. They took all the gold," he mutters while dropping the ledger back into the engine car. "They can't sell anything else since it's official Rune Knight equipment. But you melt gold down and nobody knows where it came from."
'Sir Oberon, I've found something interesting,' Virgo says telepathically, and Oberon flies over to here, just beyond the treeline.
Hidden by the thick forest canopy, this smaller battlefield went unnoticed from above. Only now, while moving through the trees, does Oberon see nearly a dozen Rune Knight corpses scattered around, with a charred corpse in the middle of the clearing.
The charred corpse has a sword piercing its chest, and Oberon has to push through the scent of burnt meat while moving closer.
"Any survivors?" He asks Virgo, who is standing beside the body.
"I'm afraid not. It seems like the survivors were killed. I found bodies that were likely knocked out but killed before the criminals fled."
Oberon walks around the corpse, carefully observing it. "No armor, and surrounded like this. Definitely not a Rune Knight."
"And there is a Rune Knight's sword through their chest."
"Some of the Rune Knights near the tracks have that same feature, people get disarmed all the time. But yeah. From the looks of it…" he looks back to the traintracks, through the trees, then points at the clear path of the fight to their current location. "Yeah, this person got separated."
He crouches over the body, taking a closer look at the burnt flesh, holding his hand above the corpse to feel the heat from it.
"Very recent too, and these Rune Knights don't have Fire Magic or items," Oberon sighs. "Looks like we had at least two attackers. They got split up, and the Rune Knights killed this one. The other one won their fight and came here to dispose of the corpse, hoping to destroy the evidence."
Oberon reaches out and taps the corpse with one finger, flowing his Magic Energy into it, an uncomfortable sensation that would cause pain and discomfort in a living person. But here, he simply uses his custom Super Archive Spell to collect data from the corpse.
"Gross," he uses Water Magic and soap to wash his hands while processing the information. Then, with a wave of his hand, a screen appears in mid-air with the information collected.
"The Ethernano in this corpse says the oldest is from thirty years ago. So they took their first breath thirty years ago, and had a high level affinity for Wind Magic. I also lifted a Magic Emblem from their back."
With a thought, the screen shifts to show a Guild Emblem, and Oberon recognizes it.
"You should go help Aries with the rest of the scene. I'll go on ahead from here."
Virgo nods and returns to her friend, while Oberon runs a hand through his head.
'What are the chances of this?' he wonders while looking at the Guild Emblem. 'Jet Stream, dead in a forest. And since she and her boyfriend defected together after the laws changed, he burned her body to cover his tracks. I guess the love wasn't that strong between them if this is how he treated her in death. But he isn't known for Fire Magic…'
Holding the third key he summoned, his newly acquired silver Celestial Spirit Gate Key, he flows Magic Energy into it. "Open, Gate of the Great Hunting Dogs, Canes Venatici!"
The clearing around him is enveloped by bright silver light as thirty bloodhounds appear, each appearing like a normal hunting dog, but boasting the Fairy Tail Emblem hanging from their collars.
Oberon groans as a chorus of barking erupts around him. "I really need to learn to hold back. Summoning all of you every time is too much."
After a few seconds, they calm down and silently look to him for instructions.
"Alright, follow the scents from this clearing. I'm looking for one that leaves the crime scene and heads into the forest nearby. Then you're leading me to it."
All the dogs howl in unison, causing Oberon to cover his ears, then immediately get to work sniffing out his target.
Minutes later, Oberon is standing near the destroyed train, watching the dogs rush in and out of the forest, searching for a scent trail that leads beyond this crime scene. "Is there any Celestial Spirit that I should be looking out for in particular?"
Beside him, Virgo and Aries share a knowing look, which he notices.
"What? Am I not allowed to ask that?"
"No, the question is fine," Virgo says. "But with your Magic Energy, most Celestial Spirits would be useful, even the ones that are meant to be more like…pets, or friends to keep people company."
"Like that," Aries points to the pack of dogs. "To summon the entire pack of thirty dogs, it's unheard of. Scary…"
"Yeah, well, I don't have much else going for me, so I might as well have a lot of Magic Energy. But I meant for utility. I don't even use you two for combat, only crowd control."
"No good," Aries mutters.
"I'm afraid I must agree, Sir Oberon," Virgo says. "The only Celestial Spirit worth pursuing who adds to your arsenal would be Gemini. The twins can transform into a person, copying their Magic and memories. But I'm unsure how that would work, considering the limitations of your Magic's interactions with others."
"Maybe, um, Crux?" Aries asks. "He knows a lot, especially about Celestial Spirits."
"That would be useful. I've heard there are Celestial Spirit Magic Spells. Do I need to find him to learn those, or can you two teach me?"
"Those Magics require a higher affinity than you have," Virgo sighs. "You could learn them now, since holding open a Gold and Silver gate simultaneously is the minimum requirement. But not only would they be inefficient, your destructive ability already far surpasses them."
"It's not just about destroying things. Celestial Spirit Magic has unique properties. It's cross-dimensional time-space Magic, that's interesting enough."
"Then Urano Metria would be worth learning. It requires a high affinity to use, but you may be able to overcome that with your boundless Magic Energy. Assuming you want to use it for research and not in combat."
"What about the others?"
"No," Aries says. "Only Urano Metria has the property you requested. The others simply act as mediums to use the Magic of a Celestial Spirit within yourself. Your affinity isn't high enough for that. You only barely qualify to use Celestial Spirit Magic at all…sorry."
Oberon frowns. "Well, thanks for being honest, I guess. They got a scent trail, so I'm going to head out. You two brief the Rune Knights when they get here."
Aries and Virgo watch Oberon walk into the treeline, following his pack of dogs to the target.
"Do you really think he can learn Urano Metria?" Virgo asks, not looking away from Oberon's fading figure. "Even with his amount of Magic Energy, the conversion is terrible with anything less than the highest affinity."
"Well, I don't know. The Celestial Spirit King could reject his Magic Energy and refuse to convert it into Celestial Spirit Magic because of his neutral affinity. But, he hasn't met a challenge in Magic that could stop him. He's exactly the kind of person we were once gathered to help, don't you think?"
Virgo frowns, a bitter taste forming in her mouth as memories from centuries ago rise to the surface. "Hopefully he doesn't lose his way like Zeref did…"
CHAPTER END---
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