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Gildarts

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Gildarts had boarded the large sky-boat with knots in his stomach, maybe it was better he didn’t know how it worked. He’d generally walked to his quests in his past life, or taken magical portals. The uniformed attendant had led him to his seat and offered him a beverage of his choice, as well as what she described to be a sedative for those who are uneasy fliers. She had noticed the battlemage’s hesitation the second his foot touched their ship, she’d flown with others her whole life and would never miss it.

His face was consumed with the same strained fear wrapping around his sharp jawline. At any sound, such as the engine revving into a whirling speed, his eyes would grow temporarily wider.

As everyone was getting settled, she walked over to the man, “I take it you’re a first time flier?”

“Fly?” Gildarts shuttered at the word. He couldn’t help but to blink, and worse, he couldn’t help but to think what would happen if his concentration blinked while they were hovering high-above land.

“Yeah, like you’ve never been on a space-ship before.” She said simply, she had a slight accent that made her feel a little like a family member, unlike the rigid professionalism her tailor uniform conveyed. Her name tag read ‘Sandra’ and she offered him a warm smile. “Don’t worry, we’re a smooth-flying vessel, it’ll take us to the next planet in no time.”

Gildarts was boggled. He’d be going into space on this thing? “Uh, maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” the mage swiveled his head around the constraining ship, as though evaluating the number of could-be casualties. “Is there any way to uh, travel another way?’

She saw his Adam's apple move dryly down his neck. “I’m afraid there are few ways off of this particular planet, sir. This one’s the simplest. But I assure you, unless we get into some trouble with a rival ship, we should be fine.”

Sandra offered him a wink of assurance, but for one last time held up her bottle of blue pills and a clear bottle of water. “You’re sure you wouldn’t benefit? I don’t want you screamin’ like a girl and working up the other customers.”

“I… uh, won’t be any trouble. The man who donated the ticket to me assured me I could find work at the next destination. Where are we going?” Gildarts asked, the small conversation was actually giving him a distraction, or reason for him to relax.

“Gosh you’d think you just woke up in the middle of the desert or somethin’ sugar,” Sandra said, a rise of concern causing a slight pout in her brows and lips. “You’re goin’ to Govermorne. And ya, you should be able to find some work there. Big place. Did the man who set you up for the ticket take your name for the flight itinerary?”

Gil nodded, and with a few more measures of reassurances the woman continued her rounds and introduced herself to the ship as their personal waitress. They were about to launch. Into space.

The mage who’s very essence was interwoven with destruction gripped his seat during take-off.

For Sandra, she cast a glance over to the man once they’d exited Meja’s last level of atmosphere. While it was, on some retail level, always amusing to see a big, dominant guy like Gildarts become shaken and glued to his seat, she always felt a little sorry for those with flight-fear. As everyone was seated and just before lift-off, Sandra dropped off a circular waste container, for the man, “Just in-case.” Most flights she always picked the most nervous-looking ones, not only to check on them, but to inspect them for bombs and detonation devices that could cause problems on their travel through space. There was always one who touched on dire fear.

Having landed, Gildarts couldn’t decide if he wanted to be the first or last one off the spaceship machine. He considered being the first, but his flesh limbs were still shivering. As the vessel became filled with just him and Sandra, Gil held up the unused bucket and said to the woman, “I can see why you gave me this, I felt that in my gut worse than when I lost my limbs to the dragon of death.”

Fear had its way of making a man like Gildarts lose his inhibitions, more than any ale he could sip. Or maybe he was crazy, Sandra considered who else would book a ticket to somewhere they didn’t know where they were going? The attendant took the bucket, helped him up as though he were a shaken old man and patted him on the back. “Ya did good. Wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Gildarts shook his head to object, “I’ll try and find other ways to travel next time. But I was glad to meet you.” Gil thanked her kindly for her special attention and accommodations. He then followed the stairs down and allowed his eyes to gaze upon this new world.
 

Gildarts

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The new world was… Dirty.

The mage found himself transported to a world where Hell’s soot floated in the air around him, smothered all surfaces… And people.

Children marched in troves and all seemed to follow their invisible sense of routine that carried them to their work stations. Gildarts couldn’t help but to notice the many blimps ported above, also coated in black smudges, and covering most of the sky above.

It was very… Abrasive. Gildarts didn’t like cities. He had a better handle of control on his power, but he couldn’t help but to recall his most recent outburst when mourning the child who had sacrificed his life for him. Gildarts ripped a piece of black fabric from his shabby cape and covered his nose. For him and those around him, coughing was dangerous.

Everything in a city was like clockwork, hasty, and interwoven. Despite his new ninja-themed mask, was a constant burnt smell in the air from the engines expressing their exhaustion. The grime added to the claustrophobia Gildarts felt and the air was suffocating.

Lazily, the mage followed the stream of unboarding passengers who were scattering into the congested streets. The noises around him were loud. The hiss of steam and heat from mechanisms he did not know, the chatter and scrub of brushes against the surfaces, and the whirling of many of the airboat engines echoing down to his level of this multi-leveled city.

It hadn’t been what he was expecting, but then again, travel never was. Gildarts had hoped for a place with a bit more nature, the soothing sound of songbirds and rustling trees. It reminded him of a certain forest and a town he had considered one of his homesteads. A town tangled in green, far away.

The placid thoughts were contaminated by people brushing up against his cape, so much so, the mage jostled around his eyes narrowed and one person body-checked his shoulder, hoping to pass with some leeway. Except Gildarts sinew was welded in more than magic and remained untouched.

The man who had nearly shoved him bowed his chin with apology and carried on. At that point, Gil noticed that most citizens were wearing trench coats probably to protect their underclothes from being stained with black ash. Gildarts with his cape, fit right in.

Their spaceship had ported in a cavernous, perhaps somewhat underground docking station. Something about the people of this place seemed grimy too, or maybe subdued was a better way to put it. Must’ve been the quality of the air. A small platoon of men in matching black uniforms walked around with their shoulders just as drooped as their faces. Their various shades of skin were tainted gray with gloom.

They seemed to be walking toward something and Gildarts opted to follow behind them. His walking soon led him to an elevator that at the very least seemed outdated and specifically shaky. Like one that had been built into the wall by an old miner. With the spaceship technology, he pondered why it wasn’t translated and integrated into this world which seemed to have designs and technology from a whole different era. Still, the mage boarded and followed. Baited by his curiosity.

...

His curiosity led him to a sooty bar.

Gildarts felt a little glimmer of optimism, despite the drab interior of the place. Taverns like this were good, often a lot like guilds, people of all sorts would gather and need help with things. Gildarts just wondered how he would help exactly, in this type of world. And just what jobs he would be required to fulfil.

The officers he’d followed had all lined up at the bar, where the bartender, something that appeared to be a bronze robot scanned their faces with a light beam that came out of his arm. Gildarts picked a few stools down and sat down and waited his turn.

“Hello, valued customer,” the robot was programmed to say, “My name is Rusty and this is our lovely establishment. You look new. May I please have some identification?”

“Oh uh, I don’t have any?” Gildarts said quizzically. He barely had any money at all. The only real valuables he had on him were the invaluable magical artifacts Gin had given him.

“Thank you, I will now scan you with my holographic device, if you have epilepsy or light-sensitivity issues, please inform me now.” The robot continued in the same tone. Cold and brassy. Far from Sandra’s kind nature.

“Uh, no I don’t.” Gildarts said.

“Excellent.” The scanning device printed his face on a hovering orb of light that turned into a hologram above the robot’s pipe arm. “Thank you sir. I see you were on the itinerary for our last flight aboard flight 890000-1 from Meja Rosa. Thank you for visiting, what brings you to our lovely city?”

“Uh, work. Do you know where I can find some tasks, maybe a guild-board for jobs?” Gildarts asked. However, things were not so much like a fairy tail here in this ashen world.

“I do not know what a guild-board is, but we have thousands of selections of jobs online at our computer hub. I will gladly direct you there. Take this pre-calibrated compass and it will lead you there. When you arrive, dispose of it in our predetermined bins so we can recycle the device and recalibrate it.” The robot handed the mage a small bronze sphere that seemed to blink. There was one single arrow on there. He’d never seen a compass glow before, but he took it as a good sign and thanked Rusty the robot.

“No, thank you- Gildarts Clive- and have a safe journey to -our computer hub-!” Rusty waved and Gildarts headed on his way. To what seemed like a place where he would use the internet, just as he had been taught to do in the past.

Upon walking the streets, someone called from above, “Look out below!” The voice bounced from the city’s veiny, metallic walls and Gil heard a clamoring ricochet from wall to wall. As though no one had heard the ambient voice from above, Gildarts cast some magic to stop whatever heavy object from falling on the packed city streets.

Multiple people looked up as they saw a glitter of white dust floating above them. They’d immediately pinpointed that it had come from him. Many heads seemed to turn, watching ominously. Gildarts felt something behind him but he turned his head and saw nothing but the same: A crowd of people with their faces turned to him.

It had initially been creepy, but all of a sudden the children who had been on the job, sweeping began to chant something and gather around him. It was a word he didn’t know. All of them ranged in age from eight to fourteen. Their eyes were vacant, hollow, and their faces caked in soot.

The chanting continued, as though they had been programmed like the robot. Their cold human voices were all monotone and synchronized, as though their childhood and lives had been sucked out.

Gildarts decided it was a little too odd for him. The kids had more or less simply ended up surrounding him. The mage’s eyes gazed at a platform on the other side of a docked zeppelin and easily, with a gust of magic below his feet, he’d launched and landed on the other side with ease. From the other side, the kids still lined up, gazing at him expressionless, mouthing the same unearthly chime without tone.
 

Gildarts

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After such a creepy and frankly, inhumane scene, Gildarts was eager to get to his destination and hopefully leave this place altogether. He held onto his compass, as he foresaw after doing a few very small, low-paying tasks, he found he kept popping back up in the computer port location.


The new job took him on a blimp out of town and into a new city. As he stepped off, things felt more natural to him. No longer was the air clouded with black. No longer were zeppelins looming overhead, and children working as laborers around him. Gildarts let his haunches, tense with stress, resign. The air was open. The sky was clear.


Gildarts began to walk along. He stopped for a picnic, then continued until he reached a small village. This had to have been the place. Along the moderately sized Gildarts kept hearing the same cracks of twig. Each time he’d look back and find no one watching. But this was not the veteran’s first time around the block. He tested the waters a few more times, retracing his steps, pretending to become lost.


The village was not desolate, but in this particular branch, there were no citizens roaming the streets. Finally, after feeling like he’d been followed for some time Gildarts stopped in the middle of the street and decided to just wait.


He didn’t bother to turn around. If they had wanted to attack him they would’ve by then. He continued to wait as the street cleared and became silent. Finally he heard the soft click of a revolver and a mature woman’s voice confidently say, “Gildarts Clive.”


Gil now turned around, holding in a sigh as their eyes met, as expected, he met those of a woman. Hers were large and brown, just as his, and she had long locks of curled, dark hair. Her attire was black and form fitting. Her face, though beautiful, was entirely unfamiliar.


“Hello.” He said with a smirk forming. She was making quite an introduction, he observed eyeing the barrel of the tiny weapon aimed at the center of his forehead. “To what do I owe the...” He paused for a single moment and appraised her stunning appearance, “Pleasure?”


“So you are him.” Her eyes took in his palpable masculinity. “You’re more handsome than your picture, and your hologram.”


Gildarts allowed his smile to deepen, bringing light to the dimples gently pressing his skin. He noted she hadn’t yet lowered her gun and the battle mage expected she must have had exciting intentions. “Thank you.”


She continued, enjoying his succinct words and ever-perked ears, it wasn’t often she met a gentleman. “A friend of mine wants you dead.” She paused, “But I think it would be such a shame to waste your life and well, your… Special skills. So, I’m offering you a choice. Work for me and I’ll handle your bounty, or don’t and I deliver your rotting corpse to my friend.”


“Interesting proposition,” His smile had yet to waver, “I’ve only just arrived to this land, who exactly wants me dead?”


“Hm. You’ll find out if you choose the first option.” She tilted her head, her smirk lay coyly on her velvet-polished lips. “Because our first job will be to pay him a visit.”


“Hmm, I don’t know if it’s the eight inches of iron in your hand but you do make a compelling case. However, just what do I have a bounty on my head for?” Perhaps she was bluffing, Gil considered, this fierce woman was certainly capable of extortion. “Just which of my skills are you referring to?”


“Well, here people don’t have to give a reason to want someone dead, money in my hand is reason enough. But since I know the man who put out your bounty, he’s a bit of a kook. Thinks he’s not from this universe. Real crazy guy like that. He thinks that a place called Camelot exists and that you blew it up.” Her eyes, bright and glossy, remained on him, expecting a response. She sized him up, her eyes teased him with a challenge, “Yet somehow I don’t doubt that you’re capable of it.”


Gildarts, for the first time in a long time, found himself holding his breath. What did the man mean? Different dimensions? How did this guy know about Camelot? Gil saw no other option, other than to agree to the woman’s terms and allow her to lead the way. So she could question the man.


She continued, as she noticed the man’s expression remained stone. “But I’m not asking for your guilt, or confession. The bounty is out there, and it’s mine to handle.” She asked him one last time, “Are you gonna be my prize princess?”
 

Gildarts

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The mage walked with both his hands in handcuffs, despite only one being composed of flesh. He couldn’t help but to feel just a little childish being held captive in such a way. However, there was a simple, blase part of him that didn’t wholly care. He could explode anything around him at any time. It left him feeling out of touch in high stakes situations.

“So uh, I didn’t get your name.” Gildarts was subtle with his interest. This woman was appealing to the mage. Perhaps because a part of her was blase too. Not with power, as he experienced. Perhaps, it was with numbness. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“Oh sure. You can call me Charlie.” She said. She slipped a phone into his little magical pouch and winked, “That’s for emergencies.”

“Oh, thanks.” He didn’t get a good look of what it was. Their eyes hung in the silence, as a light breeze swayed one another’s hair. Neither allowed their gaze to waver. A smoulder burned between them. She pulled her gaze forward and her steps slowed.

“Looks like we’re here.” She announced. “So, you’re still part of my crew?” Gil nodded, and held up his cuffs. “I don’t think so, buddy. I been double crossed a million times. I ain’t trying to do that drama all over again.”

“But aren’t you double crossing the bounty holder?” Gildarts stated plainly.

“He can take it.” The brunette stated with certainty. There was a twinkle in her eye and added in a vengeful tone, “Plus, he knows exactly what he did to deserve this.”

Gil paused as she opened the metal door. It was a house made from entire metal, scrap metal, fused together with heat. His metal foot screeched and clamored as he walked through the entrance, and into yet another elevator. As of now, this moment, Gildarts hated them.

It took a moment for the device to rise, with a soft ding, they’d arrived on their floor. When the doors opened, a man sat behind a desk, with a black computer obstructing their view.

Charlie lead the burly mage forward and into the room. “Alright, I brought him here. But I won’t kill him. I’m gonna pay for his rate. Then leave. With him. He’s my insurance so you won’t play anything funny. I know just how afraid you are of him.” She was aggressive, still she had yet to draw her weapon.

“Charlie, is that you?” The aged man peered out from his screen to see the auburn haired mage, the image from his past was now standing before him, in the flesh. “By Gods! What have you done! That man’s a monster! Why ever would you bring him here?”

“Veron, this is the last time you treat me like trash, I demand to be paid the rate owed to me. The rate you pay everyone else. Ever other man around here gets their fair share. Except me. I’m a woman. I kill better than the other mercenaries. This job is personal for you. I’ve been waiting years to finally stick your face in it!” Charlie sneered. She was vicious. Her expression was scorned and unyielding.

“How dare you Charlie? After all I’ve done for you!” Veron rose from his chair. “You’re not the best. And you were wrong, because I’ll always have more insurance than you. Because I’m willing to do more, sacrifice more, be a monster, to get what I want.”

Veron pressed a few things on his computer, emergency keys. Gil however, took this time amid the pause to ask, “Just who exactly are you? How do you even know me? Why do you want me dead?”

“Oh just shut up, old man.” Veron said with remorseless fatigue as Gildarts felt a sting in his neck and felt his body paralyze, and then his vision blacken. The mage was out, stuck by a powerful tranquilizer from two guards who had appeared beside Gildarts and Charlie.

Now, Veron strode up to the woman. Their eyes waged war of bitterness and anger, a feud encapsulated by her hatred for him. Veron growled, “How could you? You knew I wanted him dead. I never thought he’d come here, and I certainly never thought it would come to this. That man is a fiend. A villain! Someone who would massacre any city you ever saw with power you can’t fathom. I wanted him more than dead. I want him in hell. There’s only one way to do that. There’s a place that keeps people away. I’m sending him there. Feel free to collect him when it is done. For now, you'll run along.”

“Tch.” Charlie glanced down at her insurance, now incapacitated. Her plan hadn’t gone perfectly. She tossed the money on the ground between the two outlaws. “I own him. He’s mine now. And he’s a member of my team.”

“In handcuffs?” Veron cackled. The aged man, shrouded in mystery, gathered a punch in his hand and delivered it straight to the disobedient woman. She fell straight down. When she was on the ground, Gildarts was dragged away. Veron loomed over her, an evil smile warped on his face. “Oh don’t worry, you’ll pay too.”
 
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