Mikoto and Natsu followed Hope through the magnificent halls of the palace. Mikoto kept tripping a little due to the dress she was currently wearing that she wasn't used to. (They couldn't find where the maids had taken her clothes.
"I'm awfully sorry about the trouble everyone here has been giving you..." said Hope. "Nobody was supposed to find out you were here until you came to the palace. I suspect Constantine must have been putting a watch out to observe me."
"So you're the princess?" said Natsu. "Weird.....your eyes kinda remind me of someone....."
Hope turned to look at Mikoto and Natsu. Immediately, Mikoto felt a little shocked. She had just looked well enough at her eyes to notice that it was almost like looking into a mirror. She and Hope had inherited the same eyes from Thundaarix.
"Are you alright Misaka?" said Hope with some slight worry in her eyes. "You look like you've seen a ghost...."
"Er....oh...it's nothing." said Mikoto. "It's just.....I have a lot of sisters...I never thought I'd have another one on my dragon mom's side..."
"Well actually we aren't sisters.....you're more like my great times a hundred aunt...." said Hope. "My first ancestor to take the throne, King Ellendiel, would be your brother if he were alive today. You see, one of the things about Dragon Born magic is that the blood of dragons can be passed down through the generations, since we technically are part dragon. So you can say Thundaarix is like my great times a hundred grandmother."
"That's kind of wacked out." said Mikoto.
"It's a bit to wrap your head around I know." said Hope with a smile. "But since you're a direct daughter of Thundaarix rather then a distant descendent like me, that means you're first in line for the throne now....."
"But I don't want to be royalty or anything!" said Mikoto. "I'm just here to take the job you sent out."
Hope nodded. "I get what you're saying.....it's why I tried to keep the job a secret in the first place. But Constantine has gotten so power hungry lately...I think he thinks he can control me better if he has you as another puppet."
"What is that guy's deal!?" said Natsu. "He just came out of the blue and tried to turn Mikoto into a....I don't know! Where does he get the right to try and remove Mikoto's guild mark anyways!!?"
"If I would have to guess." said Hope. "Having two heirs to the throne under his watch at all times does him quite a favor......and he can watch you better if everyone knows your bloodline. That way, he has the authority to attach gaurds to you and force you to attend different events. I used to have to go to so many different political stuff before I was forbidden from leaving the palace."
"Jeez...." said Mikoto. "This guy's a real jerk. Couldn't you do anything about it?"
"I cannot officially take the throne until I'm 18....." said Hope. "And neither can you. Until either of us actually turn 18, Constantine has full stewardship over the throne. And here's one of the reasons I asked your guilds here...it's that if these assasins who have been targeting me manage to kill me, unless you decide to take the throne of your own free will, Constantine will become king."
Mikoto and Natsu looked at each other.
"Don't you worry." said Natsu with a grin. "No one is going to kill you on our watch!"
"You can count on us!" said Mikoto. "As soon as find something to wear other then this weird dress."
"Thank you.." said Hope. "Please, allow me to help show you back to your rooms...."
As the threesome continued to walk through the magnificent halls (Mikoto still tripping somewhat over the dress), Near the cieling, hiding in the shadows was a ginormous Tarantula. It had spikes jutting out all over her back and blades on her leg tips. The top of her bottom body segment had the purple three headed oriboris of Hydra Head. Arachnis Widower hissed in interest.
"Hmmm....ssss...thiss.....seemss.. quite interesting. click click...." said Arachnis. "Click click. I shall continue to keep watch...ssss....click click..." (as you probably already figured out.....a great number of Hydra Head's members aren't even human.)1
Later that night Mikoto was in an absolute headache. She had searched throughout her entire suitcase which she had packed specifically for this trip, and found that somehow, her clothes had been replaced with a wide assortment of fancy dresses. Even the Gekota shirt which Kuroko had given her for her 15th birthday was missing.
Mikoto screamed in fury. "CRAP!!!!"
Elli, who was sitting on the fancy bed in the large bedroom and reading a Soul Eater manga looked up. "What's wrong Mikoto?"
"Has anyone else been in here since I went to the bathroom 2 hours ago?"
"Just some of those weird maids. They said they were cleaning. I don't know if they did anything else though...this Soul Eater thing is sooooo good. I just couldn't pay attention to anything else at the moment."
Mikoto's jaw dropped. "Those....stupid......urrgh....I can't go anywhere tomorrow dressed like some sort of.....I don't know!! And I'm not going down to dinner dressed like this!!"
Mikoto looked at the dress she was wearing with a bit of disdain.
"I think you look so pretty though!" said Elli.
"Yeah...but it's just not me..." Muttered Mikoto. "Every time I look in the mirror....it's like I'm looking at completely different person. Like I'm not Mikoto the Railgun anymore.....I'm Mikoto the pretty little ornament that's there for show."
Mikoto turned to look at the fancy mirror that was in front of the bed and then had a large urge to break it into a billion pieces, a large spark jumped out of her bangs, this time it was black instead of white.
A little frightened, Mikoto shook her head in an attempt to clear it. Ever since that moment when she temporarily went Level 6 during the Daihaseisai, the esper aspect of Mikoto's powers had been acting rather strange. Whenever she became stressed enough to the breaking point, some of her old level 6 abilites would return.
She had found out about it a week ago when she woke up when sleeping over at Lucy's place during a nightmare, and nearly blasted apart the roof with a massive blast of black lightning. It had scared her deeply...sometimes she wondered if her mind would ever be the same again.....Everyday when she woke up since then, she would wonder if there was something wrong with her...something broken that could never be put right.
Mikoto took a deep breath and calmed herself. No...she was being stupid. She shouldn't let this bother her. And neither should she let something as day wear bother her either. If Constantine wanted to play this little princess game with her....fine. She was Mikoto Misaka of Fairy Tail and nobody was going to change that.
"Alright Elli....you ready to go down?"
"Eh?" said Elli with a little surprise. "Are you sure?"
"Well there's nothin I can do about this." said Mikoto waving a hand at her attire. "And if I don't go down, the others will get worried."
"Okay then..."
Mikoto walked out of the bedroom with Elli sitting on top of her head as usual. As she left, a blur moved like a shadow and followed her out the door without being seen. As Mikoto walked through the halls, she stopped, sniffing for second, her Dragon Slayer senses picking up something strange.
"Hmmm.." Mikoto turned to look behind her just as the shadowy blur receded into a dark corner and concealed itself. "Whose there?"
No answer. Elli fidgeted a little nervously on Mikoto's head as she also looked around for anybody who might be following them.
Mikoto sighed. "Great, now I'm going crazy."
As she continued to walk through the halls, the shadows shifted and Oblitesco demerged from the shadows and stood up. "That was close, I almost forgot about those Dragon Slayer's annoying sense of smell."
"Forgetting is no excuse." said Aeros dropping down from the cieling quietly. "You should have remembered to conceal your scent sooner....."
"How idiotic that we now have two targets...." said Oblitesco. "In any case.....That Railgun girl is way too observant for my liking...I'll take her the old fashioned way.......you go and make sure our little special dish doesn't go uneaten."
Aeros nodded. "Don't take too long...."
Oblitesco turned into a shadow again and slithered quickly along the floor and onto the wall. The shadow quickly slipped through the halls until it came right next to where Mikoto and Elli were.
"Death slice...." whispered the shadow. Immediately several black shurikan completely comprised of darkness shot out of the shadow and sliced silently through the air at Mikoto, deadly and quick.
Suddenly a ginormous set of wings made completely out of lightning burst out of Mikoto's back and swatted the dark shurikan aside. Mikoto turned towards the shadow on the wall with her cheeks puffed up.
"ROAR OF THE THUNDER DRAGON!!!!!"
Oblitesco rematierialized and leapt from the wall as a massive twister of lightning blasted against where he had been moments before.
"What!?" said Oblitesco absolutely shocked. "How did you know!?"
Mikoto reached towards her neck and held out a necklace she was wearing. On it was a cross with a ghost design in the center. "Nicole gave this to me, it detects an ethereal presence within 50 feet. I activated it the moment I picked up your scent...."
"So you've been on gaurd all this time..." said Oblitesco with a grin. "I was right, you are the most dangerous one to this job....even if you are a primary target as well. I guess I will have to be a little less obscure now...."
Oblitesco ran at Mikoto with amazingly silent and deadly speed.
"Elli!" Mikoto shouted as she engulfed her fist in lightning. Elli took the cue and flew into the air as Mikoto thrusted her fist out.
"Demolition Fist of The Thunder Dragon!!!!" A massive fist made out of electricity shot out towards as Oblitesco came close.
However there was slicing blur of blackness and Oblitesco dissapeared and reappeared just as quickly behind Mikoto. In his hand was a kunai knife comprised completely of black energy.
"Slicing Smoke....." Oblitesco's knife moved in a quick blur at Mikoto.
Mikoto tried to jump out of the way, but thanks to the dress, her feet got caught. And instead of dodging the blow, she cried out in pain as a bloody cut appeared on her side as she stumbled to the ground.
"Stupid darn dress!!" Mikoto growled.
Oblitesco moved in on Mikoto, thrusting his knife at her, aiming for her vital point. Mikoto's wings closed inand blocked the knife, causing massive arcs of lighting to start coursing through Oblitesco's body.
Oblitesco leapt back grittinig his teeth from the intense damage he just recieved. "You're good....but I'm not ready to give up on a kill yet...." Oblitesco put too fingers up in a shushing motion to his scarf. "Recoil...Shadow of The Wolf..."
Immediately a huge shadow blasted up in fronto of Oblitesco and a wolf the size of a tank and made completely out of shadows emerged. It growled ferrally at Mikoto as it drooled liquid darkness from it's snout, determined to tear apart living flesh.
Mikoto quickly stumbled to her feet and spread her wings magnificently. "Shut up fido!!"
Mikoto's wings formed into multiple electrical tendrils and shot at the wolf like spears. However the electrical energy phased through the wolf like a mirage, and the wolf rammed itself into Mikoto and pinned her to the ground with a heavy paw.
The wolf opened it jaws and attempted to bite Mikoto's head off. But Mikoto engulfed her hands in electricity and grabbed the wolf's jaws, pushing back on it as hard as she could.
"Leave Mikoto alone you stupid monster!!" Elli flew at Oblitesco. Oblitesco swatted Elli aside easily with one hand.
"Out of my way you pathetic feline." said Oblitesco.
"ELLI!!" Mikoto shouted. "THAT'S IT!! You've toed the line ninja boy!!!"
Mikoto concentrated her power, and a large suit of armor that was standing in the hall for decoration rose into the air from electromagnetism and rammed into the the shadowy wolf, causing it to slam into the wall nearby, cracking it.
Mikoto slammed her fist against the ground, and a massive stream of electricity traveled along the ground at Oblitesco who leapt quickly from the ground, dodging the move.
The wolf snarled and charged Mikoto, ramming her straight into the opposite wall. Stars swirled in Mikoto's eyes as she fell on her bottom dizzily, her dress torn at the bottom. "Urrghh....oww..."
Oblitesco suddenly appeared in front of Mikoto his shadowy knife pointed right under her throat. "Good night.....little dragon."
Suddenly, Elli tackled straight into Oblitesco's hand and bit it. Oblitesco jumped back, yelling and dropping the knife which dissipated into nothingness the moment it hit the ground.
"I told you to stay out of the way cat!!" shouted Oblitesco swatting Elli aside again. But the damage had been done, Mikoto's vision cleared and she ran forward, clutching Oblitesco's face with her hand.
"Keep your filthy mitts off my friend you freak!!" shouted Mikoto.
Oblitesco yelled out while a massive stream of lightning burst throughout his entire body and lit up the entire hall. When the dust settled, Oblitesco was kneeling in fron of Mikoto, panting.
Dang this guy is tough.... Mikoto thought. I can't believe he's still conscious after that...
Oblitesco stood up and then grabbed a surprised Mikoto by the throat, lifting her into the air and choking her. "Every job I've ever done...I've never failed once....and I won't lose to you like some amateur. Not even if you do happen to be Fairy Tail's strongest Dragon Slayer."
"I.....cant.....summon.....my....urgh." Mikoto gasped as sparks jumped feebly from her body.
"We've done our homework on you Mikoto Misaka." said Oblitesco. "Not only are these specialized gloves designed to negate magic.. but they also contain the same technology your Academy City uses for Anti-skill and Judgement to restrain rogue espers. But don't worry......the way things are gooing, Hope Ellendiel will join you in the void soon enough."
Mikoto choked and gasped as her vision began to darken. "N-no..........."
Suddenly, as if by some sort of miracle, a blast of bright purple energy exploded into Oblitesco, causing him to let go of Mikoto and fly into the hallway head over heels.
Mikoto clutched her neck, heaving and gasping as she knelt on the floor. That had been too close.
The wolf backed up snarling, as if unsure what had just happened. Suddenly, another blast of purple energy tore the wolf appart and shredded it into smoke.
"What the hell....!?" Oblitesco got up and looked around. "Who did that!?"
Out of nowhere, 5 wooden staffs stuck themselves in the ground around Oblitesco. Each staff had an odd design on it's tip, the most noticable one having a large seashell like fin on it's top.1
A voice echoed out. "5 Layered Magic Circle: Sacred Song..."
Magic circles of differing design and colors appeared over Oblitesco, and a tremendous blast of purple magic energy surrounded the assasin and blasted into the cieling like a large bright skyscraper.
Oblitesco stumbled out of the dust and coughed a little. "Darn it.........I have no choice....."
Oblitesco clasped his hands together. "Remember nothing........Assasin's Retreat!!!"
A massive burst light lit up the entire area. Mikoto's vision went white, then it went black again.
When Mikoto opened her eyes, she was standing in the hallway, only all the damage that had been done during the battle had dissapeared completely. Mikoto's cuts and bruises were gone, and even her dress was completely unscathed (though Mikoto personally preferred it when it was torn..at least then she wasn't tripping over herself.)
Elli, who was sitting on her head, and also looking completely unscathed, looked at Mikoto with a concerned expression. "Hey Mikoto, why are you stopping, is their something wrong?"
"Heck yeah something's wrong." said Mikoto. "Where did that ninja guy go!?"
"Ninja guy?"
"Uh....yeah, you were there, did you hit your head a moment ago?"
"Mikoto, all that's happened is that we were going down to dinner, and now you just stopped for a moment..."
Mikoto's jaw dropped. Impossible, the assassin had somehow rewrote everthing that had happened....even rewriting Elli's memory. But then why could she remember?
Mikoto felt her forehead for a moment, trying to check if she had a fever or something. Was she really going crazy?
Suddenly Mikoto remembered something the assasin had said.....somthing about Hope joining her in the afterlife soon enough....
"Oh no!! No no no no no no!!" Mikoto ran as fast as her dress would allow until she came to a large door she knew must be the dining hall.
"Mikoto calm down!" said Elli clutching Mikoto's head. "What's wrong!?"
Mikoto rammed the door open. Everyone else had already arrived and were about to dig into soup which was probably the appetizer or something. The only ones at the table, were Lamia Scale, Blue Pegasus, and Fairy Tail. At the head of the table was Hope Ellendiel.
Man, thought Mikoto. If we're the only ones who're here, then Hope must be pretty lonely when she usually eats dinner.
"Mikoto!" said Erza, looking bewildered at the panicked expression on her friend's face. "Are you alright!?"
Mikoto didn't answer and scanned the entire room, looking at least for some sort of deadly blood thirsty assasin hiding under the table. For one frightening second she even thought she saw Gore Beastwalker on the cieling before she realized it was just a chandelier.
It was then, that in her adrenalined state, she saw a miniscule fly land on the edge of Hope's bowl and take a sip of soup. Mikoto's wide eyes watched as the fly fell off the bowl, buzzing in apparent agony before finally curling up and dying.
Mikoto then noticed that Hope's spoon was just a slight distance from her lips.......
"NOOO!!!" Mikoto jumped onto the table, knocking off several of the shocked guild members's food and silver ware and stumbled to Hope where she swatted the spoon out of Hope's hand.
There was a sudden hissing sound, and the soup that had spilled suddenly melted a hole in the floor like acid as a putrid smoke began to eminate from it.
Everyone stared at the smoking hole for a minute.
Hope gulped. "I don't think I'm hungry anymore......"
Outside the palace, Oblitesco and Aeros hid in the lush palace gardens. The place was full of tropical birds and beautiful rainforest trees.
"Someone interfered..." growled Oblitesco. "And to top it off, our assasination of Princess Ellendiel failed because my Assasin's Retreat didn't affect her...."
"Our information did say that she was an Electromaster Esper." said Aeros. "Her mind is constantly surrounded by a strange electromagnetic field...that's probably what caused our final failure. However, I think we can both agree that it was whoever interfered that cause the demise of our plan's success."
"What was the spell....?" Grimmix walked out of the shadows and into the moonlight. "What spell did you hear him use..?"
"5 Layered Magic Circle: Sacred Song..." said Oblitesco. "I never forget a spell that powerful..."
Grimmix paused for a minute, his blind eyes staring out. "So it is true......Edolas is changing..."2
"Edolas?" said Aeros. "What is Edolas?"
"That is not important..." said Grimmix. "I know who it is who is interfering...he's an old....aquaintance...of mine. Continue the mission, and don't worry about the unseen one...I will deal with him personally."