Bruises? Check. Cuts? Check. The feeling that she was thrown through several walls then beaten with a rusty metal bat? Check.
Mikoto had been feeling all of this ever since a week into the war. Not a day went by when she and her friends didn't run up against at least 3 Etherial Wyrms. And of course that's how it was today.
While Natsu, Gunha, Gray, and Accelerator were scouting the town up ahead, others had gone to scout the east and west of the company to ensure there weren't any enemies spying around nearby.
Mikoto thought it was a bit too obvious, of course there were enemies following them, the Etherial Wyrms weren't normal soldiers, they flew around EVERYWHERE. Laying their eggs wherever they felt like, usually laying them in areas they had taken over with help Mega Etherials, super intelligent Wyrms who acted as leaders to different large Wyrm groups. And the eggs hatched only after a few hours, sprouting out human sized baby wingless wyrms, all of them hungry to eat humans. They acted as foot soldiers for about 3 days before becoming full grown flying terrors.
And of course, while Mikoto had been scouting around with Gajeel that day, the had the misfortune to run into 10 full grown Wyrms along with about 50 baby ones. And after a hard fought battle and a few explosive moves, Mikoto and Gajeel had managed to take them down. Now they were on their way back, feeling battered enough to collapse.
"I swear.." muttered Mikoto as she walked in between the trees with Gajeel close behind. "I think those things are getting stronger every day."
"Those ones were larger then the ones we normally go against." said Gajeel. "Of course it would be harder."
"How's your arm feeling?"
Gajeel flexed his right arm which had been recently slammed against the ground by a large clawed foot. "Could be worse...it's not broken...gonna take more then that to get me down. Howabout you? You took on more of those things then I did.."
"I'll live.." Mikoto muttered as she eyed the multiple bite marks lining her arms. Luckilly, the babies weren't as venomous as their parents, but the beasts were so ferocious, it was like fighting a giant shredder. In the end, in order to take them down, Mikoto had to use electromagnetism to raise a large dustcloud of iron particles from the ground smash the creatures with a large wave of metal.
"Honestly." said Gajeel. "You look like you need a break or something...there hasn't been a single day where you haven't been fighting...even Salamander takes a break once in a while...you however, you fell down a hundred foot water fall, rode down a rough river, fought Jackal, then dragged yourself through 20 miles of forest, then fought that Slither guy and you're still going. That can't be healthy."
"I rested." said Mikoto.
"Yeah...for like 2 hours." said Gajeel. "That doesn't count in my opinion. You need a real moment to rest..you need some real sleep..you're not invincible."
"..."
Truth was, Mikoto wanted to keep in the field as much as possible. Her constant nightmares along with her episodes and freezing up. She felt like keeping in a state of constant action was a way to assure herself that she wasn't weak...it didn't do much to help, but it was better then remaining in her tent and staying awake in fear that she'd have another strange nightmare.
As much as she kept on trying to tell herself that they were just dreams, she knew they were more then that. It was Dravis trying to mess with her head...omens of the future provided by another unseen force. She had attempted to ask Elanis about these dreams...but for the longest while the Lord of Creation had remained silent for a long while...so long in fact, that Mikoto worried she might be dead or gone..however, as Mikoto still had the ability to sense Dravis's location (currently back at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, feeding on a combination of Zeref's magic and the strife of the world.) and she could still feel another warmth within her..as if there was another life within her...she guessed that Elanis definitely had not faded.
But her silence was unnerving.
Mikoto shook herself. Now wasn't the time to let her fears take over, there was only to do and fight...that was all. What would come would come..she would just have to face it when it came. She already had resolved to do that after she had read the second half of the prophecy in Fulmen and learned that there was a very high chance of her death at the end of all of this.
'looks like we're back, shorter walk then I imagined." said Gajeel as he and Mikoto suddenly came into the clearing among a large number of tents. "Ya gonna go look for a medic?"
"Naah. I'll do that later.." said Mikoto. "I'm going to go talk to Erza. You should find Levy..she's probably worried about you."
"Geh..when you put it that way you make it sound like we're lovers.." said Gajeel as he walked off.
Mikoto sighed. "You two are just like Natsu and Lucy.."
As Mikoto walked over to the large tent in the center of the camp, she heard a voice that made her heart jump slightly. It was Jellal...
Feeling cheerful all of a sudden, Mikoto made to open the tent flap and say hello...however, she stopped the moment she heard her name.
"I don't think Mikoto should know about this...she's got enough on her plate as it is.."
Mikoto felt terribly guilty for eavesdropping..but what would you have done if two of your friends were talking about you in secret about something that you definitely shouldn't know?
"What is it Jellal?" said Erza in a worried voice. "You've been out of contact for days...You came here telling us that you now know the location of the Gate of Entry..but there's something more isn't there?"
"During those days..I'm afraid for Crime Sorciere to contact the outside world at the moment would have been exceedingly dangerous.."
"Where were you travelling?"
"An abandoned country far to the north.." said Jellal. "Asgawrath's land.."
There was a shocked pause which was broken by Erza's hushed voice. "That place is cursed...there are legends that it was inhabited by.."
"Yes..the elder god Asgawrath..I thought the best place to investigate would be the land of Dravis's creator.."
"I didn't know that Asgawrath created Dravis.." said Erza. "I guess it makes sense... for something so powerful and evil to exist..."
"Asgawrath appears in the myths of Mikoto's world as well." said Jellal. "In those myths he is revealed to have been one of the most powerful angels of heaven...fallen to mortal dimensions after he began experimenting with the forces of darkness. Dravis was supposed to be his final creation before he fell into a deep eternal sleep."
"So during your research..what information did you find that Mikoto must not know?"
"I found..." said Jellal pausing for a moment. "There's no easy way to say this...but I found out more about the piece of Dravis's heart...it was actually augmented with an ancient spell by one of the first mages to ever emerge in this world. The spell was designed that should the heart piece ever be placed back in where it came...it would destroy Dravis."
"Well that's good.."
"But it works two ways..the spell requires that the person placing the heart be present...so that the person's life energy could be consumed...and when enough is consumed...the heart detonates...destroying all withing Dravis's body...there will be nothing left....."
Mikoto clutched her chest as she fell to her knees in shock. She thought she was ready for this...she had resolved that she would go on no matter the cost. Perhaps it had been because she had thought for the longest time that her fate was her own...that she herself could change it...Natsu had always told her that..so had Touma...but..any choice she made, meant either her death...or the death of her friends..
Mikoto already knew her choice. She would rather suffer a thousand years torture then watch all her precious friends and family get torn apart by the cruelty that was Dravis...but there was also one other thing she must do...something that felt more painful to her then anything she could imagine.
"I'm going to have to go this alone.." Mikoto murmured. She knew that Elli, Natsu, Lucy, and everyone else would wish to follow her to the end...they would want to die with her rather then lose her...she couldn't let that happen..she wanted them all to live...and continue living for each other...it would be her legacy to the world..the thing she would leave behind and be content knowning that at least was achieved.
"Where is Mikoto now?" Mikoto heard Jellal ask.
"She went off scouting with Gajeel." said Erza in a slightly shaky voice. "Jellal...what are we going to do? There has to be another way."
"We'll figure something out.." said Jellal. "I've sent Twilight Prankster to look into it...his methods may be...strange...but he's always managed to come through since he joined us. Until then...we shouldn't mention this to Mikoto...we don't want her doing anything rash..in the meantime..we should gather a meeting and show the map to the others..."1
Mikoto quickly snuck over to the other side of the tent as the flap opened and Jellal and Erza walked out. Mikoto could see that Jellal looked much more battle weary then before. She could even see a scar on his right cheek that didn't look like it was going to go away any time soon.
When she was sure they were out of sight, Mikoto whipped around over to the tent and pulled open the flap quickly. When she was inside she immediately noticed the large round table in the middle of the tent, and on it was a old looking piece of parchment which showed two images divided by one large black line. On one side was a map of Fiore....to the far north of the aged map near a peninsula looking area, in the ocean not far off the coast was an intricately drawn gateway. Underneath it were words written in what she could tell was probably ancient Greek. saying: Πύλη Εισόδου. On the other side of the dividing line was a world map of her own world...a very old one...as she could see that places such as Athens and certain tribes were marked rather then your current modern countries. There were now three smaller gates marked on the map.
The first one...seeming marked on what appeared to be the Big Island of Hawaii in the Pacific ocean was the image of a gate in a volcano...the inscription under it read: πυρπολώ (Meaning to ignite..this was Igneel's name back during the ancient times. The Greeks believed he was a servant of Hephaestus, the god of fire and the forge)
Another one was marked in Taiwan...where present day Taipei city was supposed to be. It showed a gate surrounded by a ghostly fog. Underneath it was the word: φάντασμα (meaning phantasm...this was Phasmaticana's ancient greek name...it was believed by the ancients that she was monster summoned from the pits of Tartarus.)
Finally, in what appeared to be present day Britian, there was another gate surrounded in lightning patterns. The label underneath said: βροντή θεά (Meaning Thunder Goddess.. that was Thundaarix's name to the anicients, she was believed to have guarded Zeus's Master Bolt.)1
Mikoto looked at all of this for a second, then quickly made up her mind..the first gate she saw...she definitely knew that was the Gate of Entry. The problem was, the gate was right off the coast of where Hydra Head's base was reported to be...but she would have to manage somehow. Because she wasn't going to let her friends die because of her.
Mikoto quickly rolled up the map and took it, walking outside the tent. Mikoto nearly jumped back in shock when she came very close to knocking over the beautiful black haired Nicole Mavros.
"Oh! Hey Mikoto!" said Nicole. "What were you doing in Erza's tent just now?"
"Ahh..." said Mikoto sweating a little nervously as she hit the map behind her back. "You know...stuff...just looking for Erza you know."
"I'm looking for Erza as well." said Nicole. "I need to report that the south western side is clear. Then I'm going to go check on Maverick to see how things are going with him."
"Well th-that's good I guess.." said Mikoto.
"Mikoto.." sad Nicole. "Are you alright? You look a little pale.
" I;m alright..."said Mikoto..." I gotta go find..erm..yeah..Wendy!! That's right."
As Mikoto left the scene and Nicole shrugged with a bit of confusion, Mikoto quickly picked up a small rucksack full of some of the few things she brought with her... and with that...she traveresed into the woods alone...looking back just once to wish her friends the greatest safety.