The Side Where No Stars Shine

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Lior's POV

After checking every single book on the shelves, we still hadn't found any clues to anything.

"The safe definitely isn't hidden anywhere in here." Gray mentions.

Erza, Natsu, and I all agree.

"So it must be in the basement, right?" Natsu asks, looking at me.

"That's the only place I can think of that's left."

We look back into Lilith's office before heading back out to the corridor.

I was surprised at the fact we hadn't found any documents.

We make our way back down to the middle floor before going further down into the basement.

"It's dark..." Erza notes.

I use my illusion magic to illuminate the room.

"Wow, that magic never ceases to amaze me." She adds.

We begin to walk around the dark floor as a group.

It was fairly obvious the basement hadn't been used in quite a while, a layer of dust covering the furniture around us, as well as vines growing down the walls.

Natsu also used his fire to investigate.

At the moment, there was no sign of a safe.

"Come on, it has to be here somewhere." I heard Gray mumble.

We were all on edge.

What if Black Rose's safe wasn't even at Black Rose?

Then I'd have no clue what to do.

I hope it's here.

I don't want to let them down...

"Are we sure it's going to be in here? This place is just full of junk..." Natsu complained.

"Do we really have any other options, Flame Brain? Just shut up and keep looking." Gray argues with him.

I notice Erza roll her eyes at them, clearly tired of their disagreements.

As we walked around, I couldn't help but think of how weird the layout of this floor was.

If the safe was down here, it was definitely hidden behind many twists and turns.

"Hey, someone shine a light over here." Gray mentions.

Both Natsu and I move over to him.

He was feeling along a stone wall covered in vines.

At a closer glance, you could easily notice there was some kind of magic-scanning lock there, though a bit worn out.

"That's..." Erza starts.

I move my hand over a little.

"This is the safe... we found it."

I tried to pull on the handle, but it was obviously locked.

"Let's just use magic to open it then." Gray says.

Natsu tries to use his fire on it, his attempt in vain.

"Let me try... I was a member of Black Rose after all."

I put my hand on the magic scanner, letting some of the black magic resided in me drain into the lock, since it was registered to me in this guild.

Still, it wouldn't open.

"What are we supposed to do to get it open?" Erza asks me.

I think for a moment.

The only one who really opened this was Lilith, and her magic power was beyond that of everyone else.

The lock must've gotten use to her dose.

"At this rate, one of us will have to sacrifice our magic..." I mumble to myself.

My eyes widen.

This was the perfect chance to get rid of that brutal magic.

"Step back!" I tell them.

I give it my all, draining every single bit of my black magic I could muster into the scanner.

I hear a click as the safe unlocks.

I pull my hand off the scanner, panting.

"Lior, what did you do?!" Erza yells at me.

"I drained out all my black magic to get us in."

"Why would you do that? We could've figured out something else!"

"Stop." I tell her.

"I... I wanted this. Ever since I gained my memories back, I wanted riddance of that stupid magic, and now it's finally out of my system."

I take a deep breath, controlling my panting.

That magic drainage had really tired me out.

"Let's go..." I say, beginning to step inside the large safe.