PREQUEL
The skies were gray, melted under the growing, dark clouds. The Kingdom of Fiore stood in silence, as everyone hid inside, anticipating the rain.
The self-proclaimed greatest guild in the world, Fairy Tail, was not as silent though; as many times before, Natsu and Grey were going over their daily routine. Grey, wearing only his underpants, was yelling at Natsu because he destroyed the house of a man that asked them to do a job. Natsu, on the other hand, kept saying he saw a bug and that is why he burned the house.
Lucy was sitting with Cana, sighing and wondering if they'll ever stop. Makarov was drinking beer, scrolling through the Weekly Sorceress Magazine, without a care in the world. Elfman was doing push ups outside, in the coldness of the winter, like a true man should. Erza sat silently in the corner, dreaming about Jellal and wondering where is he.
As in the most joyous occasions, Fairy Tail remained a lively place – everlastingly loud and laughable. After all, they were the greatest guild that had ever existed – and solely because of that they had the privilege to act in an otherwise unforgivable way. Still, with the dark skies approached even darker dread – one no-one had ever anticipated.
At the doorstep of the guild, a young man was standing silently, carefully observing. He had dark-black hair and the same eyes, wearing black robes. He lightly smiled, taking a step forward. With each step he took, the day grew darker, quickly shifting into the night.
The yelling within the guild stopped as the doors of their house were blown away; from within a dust, a silhouette appeared, slowly entering. Makarov stopped reading, Erza stopped dreaming and Natsu and Grey stopped fighting. All of the eyes were focused towards the silhouette. A silhouette shaped itself into a young man, standing still, with eyes as dark as the night itself. Natsu recognized him immediately; a man who once turned his scarf black was standing before him.
"You -" Natsu muttered, stepping forward "You're going to pay for that door!" he yelled out.
Still, the young man ignored him and faced towards Makarov; in the distance, his old body was trembling and shaking – for he knew.
Zeref smiled lightly and moved forward. Makarov jumped off the table, clenching his teeth and gripping his fists.
"What devil brings you here?" Makarov asked.
"A world which I left crawling and begging has changed, Makarov" the young man spoke; he had an oddly deep voice considering his face, as if he was far older than he appeared to be "And the dead souls summoned me yet again, to cleanse this world of its arrogance."
Instantly, Makarov grew larger, with his fist pushing towards Zeref. Still, before it reached him, Makarov's arm burned out, and a dark array of light pierced through his heart. Blood covered the bar behind him, and he fell on his knees, coughing blood. He had no chance to utter his last words before falling face-first onto the ground – Guild Master Makarov died.
Natsu instantly engulfed himself in flames and blazed forward; a dark sphere of shadows encircled Zeref, and Natsu was sent flying backwards, into a wall, falling unconscious.
Others followed Natsu; Erza quickly re-equiqed her armor, Lucy summoned Loki, Elfman used his Beast Soul and Gray created two swords out of ice. They all marched forward, but were repelled, one by one, with the dark sphere of shadows dancing around Zeref.
First one to fall was Lucy; a terrifyingly large sword of shadows manifested itself above Zeref and was sent flying towards Lucy, pounding her through the chest. A sore, dark blood began dripping onto the wooden floor of the Guild House. Others screamed and yelled and kept attacking, but it made no difference. They all began falling, one by one; the wizard corpses began piling up, until it became a tomb.
In the end, only Erza was still standing, barely holding onto her sword.
"Why …" she cried out "Why would you do such thing?"
"Erza Scarlet" Zeref muttered, smiling "Your legend was not a lie."
"My friends … family … everyone I had ever cared for …" she fell on her knees and began crying "You fucker!" she leapt forward, thrusting her sword through Zeref.
A faint smile appeared on her face, but quickly vanished as Zeref did. The shadows dissolved and he reappeared a few meters away from her, still smiling wryly. The sword that was helping Erza stand disappeared, and she fell onto the ground. She was crying loudly, with pain crippling her soul.
"Those who had seen themselves as gods shall perish" Zeref muttered, turning around "And life this world sought will become a faint dream in the distance. This world is yet to learn the fear of death … and I shall be its prophet, to enlighten this forsaken world."
The glimpse of his black cloak was the last thing Erza saw before the world turned dark.
The guild – the home that grew for ages, was vanquished in the matter of minutes. The stench of rotting corpses quickly spread, as the sun finally broke the darkening clouds. The Legend of Fairy Tail met its end – and only six of the Faries still knew the life of this world.