A/N: Hello lovelies! So this story has been kind of in the works for a short while, and basically, based on y'alls thoughts of this prologue, I may consider going full out with this story. It'll take a while. Got a bunch of scattered thoughts in my head, but I did manage to get this prologue down. Anyway, please enjoy and let me know what y'all think!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or any of its characters. If I did, GraLu would've been a thing.
• Rage of Acnologia •
Prologue
"It's the children the world almost breaks who grow up to save it."
Screams of anguish bounced off the temple walls, reverberating into the bones of the priestesses. The elderly High Priestess wiped the sickly woman's face before placing a fresh cold, wet towel on her forehead. A man, by the woman's side, gripped her hand in comfort. The woman in labor panted, squeezing her eyes shut as another contraction hit.
"Your little one wants to meet you, Layla," the High Priestess, Nova, encouraged gently. "You need to keep pushing."
"Come on, Layla," the man squeezed her hand. "Just a little more."
"This body…is too weak, Baraqiel," she sobbed.
Her screams once again filled the night air as she pushed.
"That's it, Layla," Baraqiel soothed. "Just hang in there."
A young priestess ran in, pale and sweaty. "High Priestess, the city is burning!"
Nova stood up abruptly. "What?!"
"The…" the young priestess panted. "The demons!"
"Satan?" Nova asked.
"No," another man answered, seeming to manifest from the shadows of the temple. "This is not Satan's doing."
"Kokabiel?" Baraqiel's brows furrowed in confusion. "What are you doing here?"
"Hello, brother," he greeted.
Nova unsheathed a golden knife from her sleeves. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't slit your throat right where you stand, traitor."
Kokabiel gave an amused smile. "I'm a fallen angel of the stars just like my good old brother over there. I'm forever a servant of the heavenly bodies."
"So what?" Nova spat. "You showed your allegiance long ago. Why are you here?"
"I'm here to buy time."
Layla forced herself up on her elbows, catching eyes with the fallen angel. She gave him a weak smile. "Good…to see you…again, Kokabiel."
A soft smile graced his lips. "You never lost faith in me, did you?"
"Never."
At that response, Nova reluctantly withdrew her golden blade. She kneeled back beside Layla's side and replaced the cloth on her forehead again. The High Priestess glared back up at Kokabiel.
"Well, what are you waiting for?!" She snapped. "Buy us time!"
"Good to see you again as always, Nova." The fallen angel disappeared into the night sky.
"All right, Layla. Again," Nova urged.
Another anguished scream filled the air.
"That great! I'm starting to see the head!"
Layla pushed again and again and again. She looked up to the night sky, the stars twinkling. The open ceiling allowed the moon to shine down on her, and she could see the clouds of smoke and bits of ash hanging in the sky. That's when she should smell the burning of flesh. She felt her eyes roll to the back of her head.
"Shit!" Baraqiel cursed.
Nova snapped her fingers repeatedly until another priestess finally handed her some herbs and a candle. She lit the herb on fire and wafted the scent under Layla's nose. The woman jolted awake, gasping and coughing.
"Layla! Layla!" Baraqiel shouted. "You need to stay awake or the baby won't make it either!"
She squeezed his hand wordlessly and gave another couple of long, hard pushes with the last ounce of her energy. She collapsed back into the pillows, breathless. There was a short silence before it was replaced with the cry of a newborn.
A young priestess washed the babe of blood and wrapped the little one in a warm blanket. She handed the babe to the High Priestess, but not without showing the back of the right hand of the babe. Nova paled, shakily rubbing the inked VII on the infant's hand.
"Layla," she whispered brokenly. "It's a beautiful baby girl."
Her eyes fluttered, fighting to stay open. "Let…Let me…hold…her, pl-please."
Nova gently placed the babe in her arms. Layla's eyes welled with tears, gently brushing the babe's forehead and weakly humming to calm her down.
"Lucy..." Layla choked on her words. "My little…Lucy. I'm…sorry mommy…has…to leave you."
"Layla, there's not much time," Baraqiel said sadly.
"When…when the w-world…falls down a-around you…and hope is…lost, when you find…find y-yourself alone amid…a light-lightless place, look…to the distance. Know…that I am there, always," Layla whispered with her final breath, falling limp, tears cascading down her pale cheeks.
The saddening silence was disrupted by the crescendo of demonic roars that had Nova and the priestesses urgently stand up.
"Baraqiel, you need to get the child out of here!" Nova yelled. She summoned her golden staff with a heavenly light, and her trusty golden blade was already in hand. "If Mard Geer is behind this, then when they see the mark, they will kill the child!"
The other priestesses followed suit in arming themselves as a last defense for the child.
"And where the hell would she be safe?!" Baraqiel growled. "She's a child of the prophecy! She'll be hunted down!"
Nova slammed her staff the ground, a golden wave of light bursting and throwing the incoming demons back. "Fiore! She'll be safest there! Find High Priestess Nysa! Tell her I sent you! She should be in the Holy Capital of Despina in the mountains by the Cloud Sea north of Oak Town!"
"And you?!"
"Don't worry about me! Now get out of here!"
Baraqiel took one last look at Nova before gritting his teeth. He unfurled his obsidian wings and flew through the opening in the ceiling of the temple into the night sky, not once daring to look back at the burning city.
"The Era of Peace is ending, Makarov."
The Fiore king warily glanced at the fairy. Her expression was blank, her eyes were blank, and her ethereal form shimmered in the moonlight. The ghostly appearance of his former mentor unnerved him, for it was unusual but not exactly uncommon for spirits to roam among the living.
He sighed. "It ended long ago, Mavis."
"Maybe," she hummed.
Makarov grunted. "What did you see?"
"The end of days in storm and fire."
The old king of Fiore felt the aged lines sink deeper into his face. "Mavis, it's been ten thousand years..."
The fairy spirit was grim. "The Great Prophecy has started."
Makarov choked on his spit. "I thought that prophecy was a myth!"
"I wish that were the case but the Apocalypse Dragon will soon reign the skies once again."
In all his years of living, the Apocalypse Dragon, Acnologia, was something Makarov thought he'd only hear from myths and tales. He's dealt with orks and roguish demons as well as government corruption and conspiracy. But a dragon...a dragon was a different story. Most dragonfolk, with the exception of the royal line, were wiped out eons ago in the Dragon Civil War, but the legend of Acnologia was one to be feared. He felt a slight tremor wrack through his body.
"The fate of humanity is lost," Makarov rasped out.
"The Great Prophecy was created for a reason," Mavis stated calmly. "The fate of humanity rests in their hands."
"We must find them!"
"They will come when the time is right."
"What do we do then, First?"
"We hope."
A/N: Welp, there's the prologue. Anyway, penny for your thoughts! Have a lovely day :)