In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
Shattered Grimoires is the work of the mind(s) of Ardere & Shattered Grimoire's staff. All characters and content are copyright their creators, and may not be replicated without their creators' permission. Black Clover is owned by Yuki Tabata and published by Viz Shonen Jump. All images belong to their original owners. The theme you are currently viewing was made by Eliza of ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
How much shit should one pack for a personal expedition that lasted a few days? Probably not a lot. Could her body take sleeping in below zero temperatures for days though? [break][break] Rosalia pauses, stared at her small backpack. She’d already put in two bottles of Rhum and sweaters, some matches and the most basic wood pieces she could find to burn. And food, a few small wafers and two apples. She knew she’d eaten less in three days and that was more than enough to sustain the woman. As long as her Captain didn’t know the amount she was eating, that is. She hadn’t really mentioned going on an expedition yet…How would he react when she did? Surely he wouldn’t fight her on it. Not if she told him that this was to aid in her training for her challenge on the Vice Captain chair. Malcolm had already told her that he thought she’d do a good job, that he’d trusted her to keep the squad in check and take on the required workload of someone in that position and she really doubted his words. In her own eyes, she was a weak and inexperienced magic knight, who was very limited when it came to one-on-one fights. Her strength was in supporting her allies, giving them large shields and buffing their different specializations to the next level. In her upcoming fight with Malcolm, she needed to be able to do those things for herself, and Rosalia knew for a fact that her power was nothing compared to that man. Her Captain was a beast, no pun intended. [break][break] The red-haired female sighed as she slapped a coat over her black leather and latex combat one-piece. She wasn’t too bothered by heat. Her magical affinity always cooled it nothing anyways. She slinked her mantle over her feminine shoulders and threw her backpack on before taking the staircase up to the fifth floor of the Black Bulls. Her heels clicked away up the stairs and down the long hallway of the fifth floor, before stopping in front of one of the only two doors this level of the fort had.
Her hand knocked gently on the door of her Captain’s office, and she was promptly invited in. Her outfit, she could see, immediately made Malcolm cock an eyebrow. He was crouched over his desk reading papers again, a mug of tea on his side. That made a little smile cross her serious face, if only for a split second. He was indulging in one of her favourite drinks. [break][break] “I’m gonna go train for our fight, for a few days…so uh…I’m not gonna be around” the woman explained, a little lapse of awkwardness hitting her suddenly. This wasn’t a mission or anything, so she wasn’t quite sure how to explain her need for time off. Malcolm, fortunately nodded and didn’t ask too many questions. It made her give him a little bashful grin and a wink, telling him not to miss her too much while she was away, before she closed the door after herself and headed down to the teleportation mage that was assigned for the squad. [break][break] Frankly, she didn’t want to trouble Joey too much with her personal things but he was probably the only one who would be able to help her figure out where exactly she was supposed to go…She recalled the recurring dream quietly to herself… [break][break] …The top of a mountain covered in glaciers, where the snow never seemed to stop. Storms were as common there as air was, and the lightning was a unique color of Azure as Rosalia felt herself stepping onto the snow quietly. She was wearing her regular armor and only holding onto a small backpack, one she assumed to be filled with food. Movement was impossible to hear in the deadly blizzard that would render all but an ice mage freezing. Not even the sound of her boots crunching against the snow would be hearable. And then she paused. Stopped suddenly and gasped inaudibly as a giant blue eye opened right in front of her… [break][break] Stopping in front of Joey, she quietly sat down next to him and tried to describe the mountain in her dream as vividly as possible. She didn’t know the amount of peaks, and for a second the male seemed stumped, but when she mentioned the constantly storming blue lighting through a blizzard, the transportation mage shook his head and nodded. [break][break] “I’m pretty sure you’re talking about the Mountains of the Storm Jarl’s Tempest. They’re really far out though…” Rosalia laughed at Joey’s curious look. [break][break] “Well, their name is a mouthful.” The beauty felt herself grin bashfully at Joey before asking him to take her there, or to the edge of them at least. His eyes widened and after taking a swig of his morning coffee, the boy nodded. They had a rule where they didn’t ask each other questions. This wasn’t for a mission, but she hoped the squad wouldn’t mind if she borrowed their transportation mage for a few minutes. [break][break] Stepping through the portal her friend created, the woman stopped dead in her heels and gasped as she came face to face with two mountain peaks that seemed to break the sky and disappear into the clouds. She could see the blue lightning crackle through the clouds surrounding the snow-covered mountain tops from down where she was already, and gently whispered to Joey to come get her in three days. [break][break]
Quietly, the woman’s heels clicked up towards the mountain, following the visible snow, occasionally pausing to take a break after a particularly gnarly uphill section. She used some ice magic to reinforce her heels so as to make them more comfortable before continuing her ascent. It was taking her whole day to reach halfway up the damn mountain, and for a second she wondered if she should’ve used her transportation magic to move faster.
A hiss escaped her lips at the tempestuous winds that swept her hair over her face again and she shook her head. No, that would make her life even more difficult. She could only tie her mane up and place it in the collar of her jacket, so it didn’t get in the way. With that done, the red-haired beauty paused and eyed the giant glaciers that seemed to have gotten so much closer to her already. She was moving at a decent speed then. But was it smart to spend nighttime in a place made of ice and snow, where the blizzards are constant and the lightning could fry ten ocean’s worth of fish?
[break][break] Rosalia paused about a hundred meters from the actual beginning of the glacier and huddled down for the night, finding a small subset of large rocks to provide some basic shelter from the wind and made a very basic fire, for appearances sake. Having an ice affinity worked in her favor when the temperatures were nearly zero, her body was already cooler than a regular person’s anyways. But could she survive an evening at temperatures that were this cold? Well, she was about to test it anyways, wasn’t she? Hopefully the fire and the mana shield were more than enough to keep her comfortable over the evening.
[break][break] Closing her eyes, the witch could still hear the rumbling thunder not so far above her when she lay her head on her backpack and nuzzled it. She was never really cold anymore. Not since she changed her magical affinity at the Witches’ Forest. But for some reason she had grown attracted to warmth. She had developed a subconscious searching for anyone whose body heat was extraordinarily warmer than the usual, and she would try to be closer to them. It was the weird reason why she was so cuddly in the morning. All of the blood was circulating faster around a sleeping person’s body, and they were thus heaters for her to enjoy.
[break][break] Her mind travelled to two men in particular and she bit her bottom lip. Ah yes…she could imagine she was with either one, but the initial thoughts of sharing a bed with them made her heart jump rather than slow for sleep. Rosalia had to bypass that, focus on what she needed right now…the warmth of one when dawn broke, and the scent of the other as she looked up into his eyes and felt something in her stomach turn...how could two people be so comforting and yet so…so…rousing at the same time? Damn, those weren’t helpful thoughts at all. She couldn’t burden either of her friends with her training regimen right now, especially considering…well, her fight for Vice Captain was soon. The beauty had to try her best. On her own.
[break][break] A huff escaped her as she snuggled closer to the fire and let her mind drift to wondering how they were doing. How was the base holding up? How many had they had to pay for repairs since she left? Had Malcolm trained with Chisana today or was he behind on paperwork? Was Charles still on his mission chain with Zaven?
[break][break] Somewhere along that line of thinking…the beauty drifted into a deep slumber. And another dream, that same one, recurring. Rosalia awoke at daybreak, panting, sweat covering her and looked around at the familiar surroundings before exhaling and falling back on the backpack. So her mana shield and make-do fire had indeed managed to keep her from getting frostbite…
[break][break] Being sweaty in this cold actually made her shiver for the first time since she’d gotten her new magical affinity, and she shuffled closer to the nearly dead fire, starting it up by adding some more wood. It flared up again and Rosalia did her best to dry off as much as possible while eating a little snack bar for breakfast. She needed her energy to make it safely up the glacier. Whatever awaited her up there was so close, she felt it in her bones as the blue lightning struck through the clouds, causing another wave of thunder to sound through the air.
[break][break] Once she was done with breakfast, Rosalia fixed her crimson ponytail, remaking it once more before making her way up to the glacier and climbing it with mostly no issue. She used her ice magic to create little spikes at the bottom of her heeled boots in order to make sure she doesn’t slip down. The ascent was difficult, but it became horrific once she began nearing the dangerous fog-like clouds that had spread over the peak like a tsunami. Snow and ice blew at her, like a premonition of the powerful blizzard that she knew was there.
[break][break] She closed her eyes once she finally entered the cloud. The constant thundering sounded off right above her, making her feel the loud growl of the skies in her core. It was difficult to see the right path; the way up anymore. Her only indication of direction was the way the ground tilted under her feet and the rumbling of lightning and thunder ahead of her.
[break][break] The icy winds and snow, cold enough to give most other people frostbite if they were as lightly dressed as Rosalia was were a gripping worry that made most adventurers stray from these mountains. The red-headed woman’s magical affinity, however, was acting up, making her body temperature lower than that of an average person’s, while maintaining her mana shield.
[break][break] This mountain was the first time she had felt cold in a year. It wasn’t pleasant. Breathing was hard. Moving your feet and hands required great effort. The blood in her veins almost seemed to scream at her to just sit still for a while and relax…but the occasional spark of blue above her head and the loud crack of thunder made her pulse jump every few minutes or so. It steeled her nerves and caused a heat wave to sweep from her chest down to her body. The adrenaline surged and took over once more. This battle continued for an amount of time that the beauty couldn’t guess for the life of her.
[break][break] As she pushed through the seemingly unending storm of lightning and ice, covering her eyes as the blizzard got worse and worse the more she climbed, she felt something impact her from behind and send her flying forwards. Her ruby hues widened as she found herself face first in the snow, with something heavy holding her back down. She couldn’t breathe. Immediately, she pulled her head up to look around, but to no avail, whatever was pinning her was doing a very good job at doing so.
“Whoever is holding me down…please; I come in peace and seek only answers. I mean no harm.” The woman spoke up, watching as her breath flew in puffs and got swept away by the wind. There was a long silence, where Rosalia felt the cold hand of death almost looming over her. Her arms were pinned, and her grimoire was impossible to get to in such a way.
[break][break] “…Fine.” The word was uttered in a deep voice, shaking the land underneath Rosalia and the sky along with it. She felt herself tense further, having never heard something as powerful before. She froze in her spot, her entire body tensing under the gaze of whatever was holding her down. Then she felt the weight press her down against the ice more before suddenly lifting off of her back.
[break][break] “Hey hey, human! Are you okay?” A chirp came from besides the ice mage and she felt something wet connect with the side of her cheek. It made her come to her senses and turn around to look at the source of this weird feeling.
[break][break] A…lizard? With a furry mane and wings? And a tail…She moved slowly rubbing her ruby hues gently at the sight. Had she…hit her head really hard when she fell? What the heck was she looking at?
[break][break] “Answer my son…human.” A voice rumbled above her, shaking her core again as her head snapped up to its source. A large monster looked down at her with its yellow eyes as it bared its teeth at her, clearly threatening to eat her. It looked like the thing next to her, only ten times as large and absolutely terrifying.
“Y-yes I’m fine. Just surprised, excuse the shakiness of my voice…” Rosalia followed the instructions, actually nervous for her life for the first time in ages. What the fuck had she just willingly encountered up on the mountain?
[break][break] “Dad, she smells kind of like us, don’t you think?” The smaller look-alike asked, walking around the beauty and smelling her. This question, unfortunately for the Black Bull mage’s sanity, prompted the terrifying monster above her to close in and take a very strong whiff of the woman before making a very loud Hmmmm-ing sound that, again, made the ground shake. His yellow-slitted eyes watched her curiously.
[break][break] Rosalia took this time to realize that she could, from where she was lying, see the clear sky. There was no longer a blizzard hitting her cheeks, or that chill in the air that made her want to crawl into a ball and hide. Was this…the eye of the storm? Her ruby hues landing back on the little creature that was smiling at her as it sat down in front of her, its small tail wagging back and forth.
[break][break] “Um…Hi?” The woman said as she raised a hand to wave at the petite mana-beast. Its mana was unlike anything she’d felt before. She’d never really seen fully sentient ones either, ones capable of thinking and speaking. “I erm…come here because I had a recurring dream about this mountain…and meeting something very powerful on it.” Rosalia glanced up at the big creature as it stared down at her quietly. “I think it might’ve been you two…” She explained, realizing how stupid she was sounding with every next word that left her lips. The little beast tilted its head at her curiously, before looking back up at its larger look-alike. It’s father…
“I’m…also not a human…I’m technically considered a witch, erm, sirs? My name is Rosalia.”
[break][break] “Why do you carry a similar scent to us, witch?” The older monster’s voice shook the ground with his question, making Rosalia gape at him openly. How he hadn’t caused an avalanche, she didn’t know. Thunder cracked as he spoke in the sky behind him, rendering her almost mute.
[break][break] “I…I don’t know…I use Ice Magic…perhaps that is why?”
[break][break] That was the only answer she could come up with under pressure. Fuck. Her brain didn’t want to work, but her words seemed to satisfy the older monster, as it went quiet.
[break][break] “I don’t mean to be rude…but it’s my first time encountering sentient mana-beasts, what exactly…are you?” The beauty asked, careful not to say anything that may sound offensive considering the large monster seemed to be ready and fully capable of just snapping her neck in half.
[break][break] “We’re dragons of course! Is this your first time seeing a dragon?” The energetic voice came from besides her, as the petite blue creature barked eagerly at her. Making her visibly freeze and take the two beasts in a new light.
[break][break] “Y-yes.”
[break][break] She had read about dragons; Creatures of high intelligence that lived for thousands of years and had magical abilities that a human could never reach, creatures about as rare as finding two snowflakes with the same design. And yet two stood right in front of her, conversing with her casually. They were supposed to be fairy tales, weren’t they?
[break][break] “Well, it’s nice to meet you miss witch!”
[break][break] “Y-yeah, the feeling is mutual.”
[break][break] “Is there a particular thing you came here looking for, witch?” The thundering low rumble of the older dragon came through in a questioning bellow. She almost wanted to kneel to the magnificent creature before her as she looked for her words. But she didn’t, she slowly and carefully found her footing again, making sure there was feeling in her legs and the blood was still pumping. It wasn’t as cold anymore.
[break][break] “I was hoping to train here for a few days, actually.” Rosalia saw the older dragon raise an eyebrow at her, letting her continue her explanation. “I’m a Magic Knight and I want to become Vice Captain in order to help my Captain with his workload legally. It’s like a position in the hierarchy of wizards.” The silent stare continued. “But to do so, I have to fight my Captain…and I don’t feel like I’m good enough right now. So I came here to train this new type of magic called Trap Magic.” She explained softly, before leaning down and drawing a magical circle in the snow. It was simple, but as she added more ends and symbols, the potential grew.
[break][break] “Your rune for “Pulse” is off. The like needs to be more like a crescent, not an oval.”
[break][break] “Yeah, and I’m pretty sure this line needs to be straight!”
[break][break] The beauty’s head snapped up towards the large dragon, and then down to the younger one, who was now fixing her mistakes with a claw. Right…sentient magical creatures with wisdom and knowledge beyond what humans could ever imagine. She watched them help her, quietly as her mind went completely blank. Was she actually dreaming? As the little dragon’s tail slapped her arm gently, the answer was obvious.
[break][break] “I see, that makes more sense!” Rosalia hyped up as she moved over and redrew the same magical circle in the snow with her fingers. She was almost done, when a large tail swept over her drawing, completely wiping away any proof of its attempt. Her eyes widened as she froze for a second.
[break][break] “I understand the idea of the spell, but your order is completely wrong. Traps magic only works to trap and hurt, not to keep safe…What is it that you are going for?” The loud rumble of the larger magical creature tore through the air. It wasn’t angry this time, or trying to scare her, rather it seemed to be properly asking for her intentions.
[break][break] “I can cast the spell for you if you’d like?” Rosalia offered quickly, her pulse jumping at the opportunity. She was getting help from ACTUAL FUCKING DRAGONS! Her inner nerd was freaking out, but she could keep calm. This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Once she didn’t receive a response, Rosalia brought out her grimoire and poured her mana into it, pausing when she realized that she could actually create a shield around both dragons if she focused on them.
[break][break] “Ice Creation Magic: Sheer Cold!” The mage spoke as she cast, a pulse of ice cold energy sweeping through the area, shielding the two mana beasts, but dealing damage to nothing. Once she was done, she glanced up at the large dragon.
[break][break] “Your ice…it is not pure…why?” He asked as he lowered his head down to look at her and her grimoire again. For a second there, Rosalia wasn’t sure what to answer.
“I can make it pure, it just takes an effort. I have a shadow oddity, erm sir, which means that it turns black automatically. I acquired it with my Witch grimoire, perhaps something from my heritage…I’m honestly not sure.”
[break][break] Silence. It made Rosalia tilt her head a bit to look at the giant breathing hunk of danger in front of her. Its large lizard-like eye closed for a second and it observed her.
“Azordesmon.”
[break][break] The word made her blink. She didn’t know what it meant.
[break][break] “And my son, Azisorius.”
[break][break] NAMES! Those were their fucking NAMES! For the second time today, Rosalia found herself gaping wordlessly at the mana beasts.
[break][break] “O-okay.” The woman leaned down and wrote those in the snow quietly. Azordesmon and Azisorius, and what fucking glorious names they were too. She’d never heard anything quite like them.
[break][break] “Your rune order is wrong. You need to place the offensive at the same level as the Pulse rune. The effects go off at the same time.” Azordesmon explained, before telling her to try again. And she did. And again after he erased that one. And again afterwards when Azisorius thought her outer circle line wasn’t circle-like and more like an oval.
[break][break] Several hours went past in the same manner. She couldn’t count the amount of magic circles she had drawn on the ground. Over forty, surely, and they had all been wiped away by Azordesmon’s large tail the moment she’d made a mistake. Her cold fingers scratched the surface of the snow again, drawing quietly with Azisorius right beside her. The petite dragon watched her slowly with its large blue eyes, as she finished, before wagging its tail and walking around the circle. Rosalia was ready to turn and start drawing another magic circle when she realized that the large tail hadn’t actually swept the one she just drew away.
[break][break] Slowly, her ruby eyes looked between the two dragons as one of them wagged its tail at her and the other one stayed silent.
[break][break] “This will do, Red.”
[break][break] “Oh!” Excitement swept through her like a wave and she sat back down on her ass, staring at her magical circle work, completely surprised.
She received silence, which she had grown used to accept as a form of agreement from the older dragon. The beauty wanted to try pouring her mana into the rune, understanding how it would work, but she was worried she would hit young Azisorius, who was just bouncing happily around her form.
[break][break]
“Erm, I would like to try working the circle, but I’m nervous you both would get harmed…” Rosalia voiced her concern nervously as she looked up as Azordesmon. His voice rumbled over her again, this time, however it sounded strange, and as she met his eyes she noticed that he was laughing.
[break][break]
“Do not worry about us, witch, do your magic.”
[break][break]
Rosalia nodded gently and put her hand over the magic circle, pouring her mana into the spell slowly. It took a few minutes for her to be certain that she had control of it. And she stared at it quietly as she pulled her hand away from the living drawing.
[break][break]
Until Azordesmon decided to straight up slam his giant paw on top of the 8 meter large mana circle, activating the trap, making a pulse of ice magic fire off and Rosalia gasp at the recklessness of the action.
[break][break]
“W-what-“ “It works…good.”
[break][break]
The red-haired mage instantly eyes the giant dragon for any proof of scarring, but he seemed fine.
[break][break]
“Now to actually try drawing a circle with different offensive runes.”
[break][break]
“Yeah! Maybe you can make a giant blizzard!”
[break][break]
Good god, and she had another few days of this?
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[Exit]
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Combat summary
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Post by Pángǔ Shēngxiào | 生肖盤古 on May 31, 2020 2:36:53 GMT -5
Approved! You may add Trap Magic [Attack Creation] to your list of Magic Specializations. You will also gain one Advanced Specialization Perk for Trap Magic.
Theme by ElizaCodes exclusively for Shattered Grimoires.
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