Taste my Pain

The Lava and the Princess

Taste my Pain

Chapter 11

Slowly opening her eyes, Lucy found herself floating above a boiling pool of lava. Around her was just bubbling lava and nothing else, waiting to just erupt and harden. To become magma.

"My name is Lucy Heartfilia. I'm here to become a Fire Dragon Slayer." Hearing the voice sigh, Lucy turned to look over her shoulder to find nothing other than the boiling liquid below. "I know that, but what do you want with my lava?" the voice questioned again. Lucy raised her brows and looked down at her hands. "I don't want to obtain control over your lava for petty uses. I just want to become worthy. To become one with lava, your lava."

A large orb of lava began to float up from the pool below and levitated in front of the blonde. "Why do you people have the urge to gain more power? What can be accomplished once you obtain this power you seek? From all the millenniums that I've lived, I've seen nothing other than the corruption of power, and the obsession and greed that follows in which destroys those standing by the wielder, the obsessed."

While Lucy was speaking to the unknown being, Igneel was still raising the temperature with Capricorn beside him. "She's really handling the heat well," Igneel praised as he casually stood there, staring down to Lucy who was glowing brightly.

Capricorn nodded his head and went down on one knee to see the sizzling liquid bubble away. He knew better than to touch it without the magic of fire within him. "What temperature is it now?"

Igneel folded his arms and grinned. "Well, it's currently sixty-degrees Celsius," he answered as he focused on all his expectations on the blonde. "I believe that she'll last longer. The lava is responding to her and the only child I've seen that lasted this long was another Dragon Slayer who grew up to be an Elemental Dragon Slayer..."

Back to the blonde, she was still floating.

"Yes, I do have the urge to gain power, but I never thought about misusing it. I just want to prove myself to the world. To show them that I'm not some mage hiding behind her friends while they fought," Lucy answered, following the ball of lava which went around her as if it was judging her.

"You do know that proving yourself may result in more enemies, right? More enemies being those that are much stronger than you, and perhaps even godly... As in, you're going to be challenging not just other Dragon Slayers, but God Slayers as well," the woman said before the lava melted away to reveal a red-headed lady dressed in gradients of red and orange. "Let me ask you something, Lucy… Are you going to mistreat this power of ours for your own benefits?"

Lucy shook her head as she watched the woman fix her long red and orange dress which was dripping an endless amount of molten lava. Looking up, she saw the woman looking directly at her in uncertainty as her hair fluttered upwards like a fan was placed beneath her to have her hair flutter softly towards the sky like that.

"Lucy, accepting this... I just don't know if I can trust you to hold this power," the woman stated in all honesty. Slowly levitation around her, she examined Lucy from top to bottom and frowned with a shake of a head.

"I have protected Igneel's lava with my very life. Wherever he is, I am there for I am the lava and he is what holds me together. I am in sync with my carrier, and I will react to his emotions as I am his lava and what protects his domain. We have a mutual trust, and we have a mutual appreciation and love for this element. We are one, and we protect each other," she said before placing a hand on her heart with a soft smile on her face.

Her red lips smiling, she frowned where she removed a hand from her chest to point to the blonde. "But you..." The blonde gave her a horror-stricken expression where the woman sighed. "I feel no love. It's like, you don't have a loved one. How can you use this power without the will to use it correctly? There is no connection between you and me," the woman questioned.

She dropped her gaze from the woman to stare at the lava below her feet. "I may not have a specific person since I lost it all after a few months ago... But I do believe that I can use this power to protect the people around me. All I need is the trust that they'll give me, and the warmth that they'll embrace me with. If I still had him in my heart, then yes! I'll force my way through the darkness and use this power to help him and to protect him..." Lucy whispered as her voice gradually grew louder and bolder.

The woman floated a few paces back as she smiled warmly at Lucy. Perhaps the girl in front of her was indeed worthy enough to embrace the acceptance of the lava around her. Smiling, the woman went closer to place a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Magic is something that's supported by the user's emotions that's truly from the heart. When you have people dear to you, that magic builds up into something truly magical. You're exactly like your mother, but your hearts are completely different from one another - And I will support everything you do beyond this point... Princess Lucy, my name is Lavora, the spirit that determines the fate of Fire Elemental users," she said, introducing herself formally.

"When things touch the lava, it burns a shimmering flame and your determination has that feature, a burning determination that's willing to burn those that dare to touch it. I grant you our blessings into using the power of lava. As you can see, magic isn't that hard to expand in capabilities, it is all to the heart to decide its fate."

Lucy smiled back to Lavora and thanked her for her blessings. Watching the woman submerge herself back into the lava, she couldn't help but feel a burning sensation in her heart.

"That is your determination, Lucy. Don't lose sight of your dreams, or you'll fall into the deep abyss. I may have blessed you with the lava of ours, but it doesn't mean you have the acceptance of every single spirit that controls the element. A clear mind and a strong resolve are what they'll look for within your heart, so stay true to your beliefs and passions," Lavora's last words were as she slowly closed her eyes.

Lucy found herself back to where she first started off, and that was in the boiling crevasse.

Feeling a new type of power surging throughout her body, she felt two soft hands rest on her shoulders. "Now release the power of the volcano. Use the lava that I have guarded for only Igneel," Lavora whispered into her ear with a smirk on her face.

Snapping her eyes open, Lucy slowly spun in her spot as she controlled the lava to separate itself from her body. Floating in the middle of the pit hole, the lava floated smoothly around her as she glowed brightly in red.

Suddenly noticing what she'd done, she looked over to Igneel and Capricorn and waited for their praises. Both men clapping their hands, Lucy couldn't help but feel more accomplished than before.

"I see that you've gained the trust of the volcano," Igneel smiled as he watched the girl call out her wings to land in front of them. The blonde nodding, she couldn't help but ask the fire dragon what temperature she's gotten to.

He patted her head and grinned. "You got up to the original temperature of the volcanoes. Congratulations my princess."

As weeks went by, Igneel taught the blonde many things as well as Capricorn being there as much as possible with Lavora often visiting to see Lucy's progress in controlling their lava. 

Lucy wasn't just a plain Celestial Summoning mage anymore, as she was now a privileged Celestial and Fire Dragon Slayer as well!

By looking at how Lucy easily learnt the spells, Igneel could say that she's reached higher levels than what Natsu was able to learn due to her determination of the royal blood flowing within her veins. From his time of watching her control her Fire Dragon Modes, he knew that she could become much more powerful than expected and control the powers that represent more of a Dragon Queen rather than just a Fire Dragon Slayer.

Lucy just recently learnt how to use the Celestial Fire Dragon Mode easily; which consisted of combining both flames and stars together into one, creating a powerful magic combination. If she uses these modes with respect to many others, then heck, she may as well surpass her mother by the time she proves herself worthy to her so-called friends.

Right now, she was learning how to use Dragon Force without the help of an Etherion Crystal which proved to be a bit of a struggle. He would often persuade the blonde to have a little bit, but he was always left with the same reply. No.

It was hard for Lucy to control her Fire Dragon Slaying magic. Igneel said that it was because of her mother since she was the one who sealed off many of her capabilities into mastering all of these different types of elements. Lavora, however, would say that it's because she was rushing through everything to completely connect with her lava.

For Lucy to be this stubborn, Igneel couldn't refuse the determination brimming through her eyes and for Lavora, it was hard to say no whenever Lucy would ask her how to control certain thicknesses of her lava.

As much as Igneel knew from when he had met her, Lucy was far beyond what he'd expected. Each expectation made would always be done by Lucy without knowing.

"Fire Dragon's... Dragon Force!"

Finally, Lucy was able to accomplish her final spell!

Jumping up and down, Lucy looked over to Igneel and Capricorn who signalled her to smash the boulders in front of her. Nodding her head, she used all her techniques taught by the man behind her with a big smile on her face.

One by one, each boulder shattered like glass as her attacks made contact with them. As she watched each of them crumble and break, she couldn't feel how pleasing it was to be this powerful.

Standing tall as she watched the last boulder fall, she felt enlightened for coming so far through her journey. Panting madly, she stopped her Dragon Force and soon her appearance, consisting of sharp fangs, patches of scales, and steaks of red in her hair, all went back to normal. 

As she turned on her heel to walk back to the two, she engraved the proud looks that they gave her in her mind. "You did well Lucy, I'm so proud of you," Igneel praised to which she grinned.