{A New Path:} Cana's New Magic

Amell and Cana stood at the edge of the mountain, overlooking the deadlands where the guild had just arrived. She couldn't see the cliff because of the incredible distance, but Amell's gaze was lingering on Luna. He needed to field-test Luna, to make sure her wild and unorthodox personality wouldn't be a problem in the long run. If he after this felt he couldn't trust her he would replace her with another Overlord, someone he could rely on. He didn't need rebellious Overlords making things difficult while he was away, not that they were any threat to the island. But, to make Seba's workload a little less, he could at least make sure his Overlords were loyal to him.

"Grandpa, I'm being serious here, are you really human?" Cana got the full rundown from Alora about how he came here a long time ago and completely remodelled the entire island with his magic. This seemed even more otherwordly to her than a dragon a hundred times her size.

"I find myself standing on trial against that question very often. Is it really such a big deal whether I am or am not a human? I mean, does it change your view of me?"

"A little. If you were to say you are a god, do you expect people to behave normally around you, like you are just another nobody?" A valid concern in her mind turned insignificant in his. How to deal with Tartaros was more of a concern to him than his origin as a being.

"Plus, am I not your granddaughter? If you are something other than human, I think I have the right to know what kind of blood is running through me. Don't you?" This he couldn't find the strength to argue against. She was right and he knew it, he just didn't wanna have this talk so soon. But, like himself, when it's around very personal or specific issues, she was just as stubborn as him.

"I suppose that is a valid point. Well, since I've had this talk many, many times, I'll skip to the good bits and hope you can get a grip without losing sanity. Our family is not entirely human, not my side at least. Your grandmother, my wife is entirely human, but Gildarts is only half-human. He, like you, are half-immortals. Got it?" He looked down fearing her reaction, and there was no surprise on his face when he saw her expression.

"I'll just give you a minute to process that. Let me know when you've come to." He returned to watching his guild travel through the deadlands. Gildarts was explaining to them what the deadlands was, what Luna was and how strong the average monster here was. Amell chuckled a little as he saw Natsu's excited expression starting to slowly diminish and instead be replaced by slight concern.

"IMMORTALS!" Cana woke up in a screaming fit, she gripped his wrist which she couldn't reach around even with two hands, thus again, displaying the massive difference between their sizes. "What do you mean? So, you are a god?"

Amell shook his head gently. "No, not a god in the traditional sene. People don't pray to me, it's just that I possess a god-like level of power. I can split the world in two if I want. To be fair, that is only because this is one of the weakest worlds out there."

"T...This is quite something... So, am I that strong too? Why aren't I stronger, and why do I age if I am part immortal?"

"Part immortal. You aren't ageless. You will die of age eventually, it will just take a very long time until that happens. Depending on how you spend your life and how powerful you become, you could probably live a few million years. In our family, I am the only one truly ageless. I will never die of age, that is why I look the same as I did when Fairy Tail was founded." Amell realized he skipped some of her questions, so he summoned a card between his fingers. "The reason you aren't as strong as say, Gildarts, is because one, he has a way higher supply of magic than you. Second, his magic is stronger and he is older. Third, you use weird and complex magic. If you were using something more destructive you would be a lot stronger than you are."

"My magic is weird?"

"Weird because it's difficult to make card magic useful." Amell's card was blank, but suddenly a western-styled dragon started forming on its surface. "Watch this." He threw the card against the ground behind them and from a bright flash of light a dragon came out of the card, about half the size of Acnologia.

"WOW! What the hell, grandpa?! Is this card magic?" She watched the dragon behave like a puppy in front of Amell, it snuggled its nose into his bosom with its eyes closed.

"Okay, I'll try and explain this the best I can. Magic to normal people is restrictive because of various higher entities and laws of the universe and such. But, to me, as I control the very energy of existence, magic is nothing but freedom. I can do whatever I want, and such, useless magic to you, can become god-like to me because there is no restriction on me."

"TEACH ME! TEACH ME NOW!" She wasn't even listening, she stared at the dragon and waited for the mumbling noise to stop before yelling at him to teach her that. How to summon a dragon from a simple card. "I want my own dragon!"

"I was going to save it as a birthday present for you, but I suppose I could give it to you now." He reached into a small portal that appeared beside him, what he pulled out was a white book with golden linings along the back and spine. The front had a beautifully carved picture of the queen of hearts.

"I created this magic specially designed for you. I have no good name for it, and I'm horrible at naming things, so until you come up with a better one, I call it. Card-carving magic. There is a magical language specially made for this magic. You use the symbols that make up the language and carve them into the cards. Some symbols used together form summoning magic, for example, a dragon. It might not sound strong when explained, but through proper knowledge and application of certain symbols, you could summon world-destroying disasters. So, be a little careful when experimenting."

"Thankyou thankyou!" Cana tore the book from his hands and held it tight as if it was the greatest most beautiful treasure in the world. She caressed the spine of the beautiful book and slowly opened it up.

"That is very complex, so even though you already use card magic, don't mistake this for the same thing. They are worlds apart and knowing card magic won't help much in mastering that. So, allow it to take as long as it has to. Messing up in that will not end pretty." Amell expected her to be more hung up on the immortals part of her identity, but she looked to have forgotten all about that. She neither listened to his advice nor cared that he stood there anymore, she was engrossed in that book and if Levy saw her, a proud smile might have appropriately adorned her face.

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Amell had left Cana to her own devices and made his way back to Fiore. He was going to deal with Tartaros, and Alora had come with him just because he couldn't stand the constant nagging of wanting to leave and experience the world. After thousands of hours of annoyance, she had gotten her will and was now leaving Paradise Island with him.

"Lord, do you know how strong this Tartaros group is?"

"Too weak for me to bother calculating their exact strength. Too strong to completely ignore, so somewhere in the middle. Probably Makarov-tier. But, you could sneeze them to death."

"That's why I'm saying you should take me to a stronger world someday, I have nothing to do here. Nothing at all! SO BORING!" She was cruising upside-down way above the clouds as she was staring into space. The stars, which Amell explained were other worlds all so vibrant and pretty that she couldn't wait until she got to experience world-travel.

"If you don't pay attention while flying, you might collide with a bird, and let me tell you, bird guts is not a pleasant way to dress."

"I'm relaxing, leave me alone." She closed her eyes to feel that true freedom that comes with flying. Having the ability to choose between land and sky was a feeling so freeing that she might end her life should it ever be taken away from her. Ones you experience flying, you never wanna go back.

"Someday, sure. You are too irresponsible yet. After this many years, you still don't have enough control to make me trust you. Plus, you are too emotional. That will get you killed very quickly."

"I'm not emotional!" Her aura released in waves scattering the clouds around them.

"Yeah, no, you're calm as ever." He chuckled.

"I am NOT emotional! We normal people call that being a caring and kind person. You should try it sometimes, you robot!" Wondering how she had knowledge of what a robot was? Just because he didn't let her travel with him, doesn't mean he didn't share stories or events he experienced elsewhere. She knew a lot from worlds like The Elemental Nations and she even knew about Shanks and Whitebeard.

"Enough of that, Tartaros is just up ahead. Prepare for a fight, show no mercy." Amell saw the massive floating base of Tartaros and purposely hid his presence as they approached. The world would wake up tomorrow with one less dark guild in it.

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End