The group known as PROJECT co was always successful, in advancing humanity to the era of technology, with its cybernetic technology, using the PROJECT initiative. However, this caused many people to be envious of their success. Among them was an unknown person known only as the 'starter'. This drove The starter created his own version of PROJECT using souls of the dead, as the basis, for an unknown reason.
Once the machines were in the public, they began slaughtering humans and transhumans alike. This caused a pause of their hate for one another, to unite and attack the coffins. Those who fought against the Coffins were on the verge of defeat, four former associates of the starter, began to reveal the secret of how the starter was able to use the souls of the deceased, and developed their own countermeasure, four generators which turned the tide of battle against the coffins, which granted humans and by extent the next generation of transhumans, a power known as Engine, a power which ability varies from human to human. In order for the four to be honored, and to keep the generators safe, the four were granted private cities on their own islands to keep the generators safe. These Islands were known as Fiore, Stella, Sin and Seven, and were ruled by the four, and were the only places known to be named, due to their importance.
Not all were defeated however, some still remain hidden amongst the population to this day. To hunt them down for good, a task force known as reapers were formed to find and exterminate them.
No one knows what happened to the starter, all anyone knows about the starter, was that he still continues to build the atrocities known as coffins for an unknown purpose.
But even then, who really knows the past or the future?
Erza Scarlet, had the dream again.
She was a little girl within a field of some kind, running towards a woman whose entire appearance was blurred, except for similar scarlet hair. Just when she was close, the entire field crashed around her, leaving her in darkness with only a female voice saying;
"The Time is coming."
Like Clockwork, she woke up from her bed in a cold sweat. Undergoing the mentality of "fuck it", she removed the sheets covering her naked body, before rising up and walking to the kitchen before reaching for her refrigerator, instead of going back to sleep. Her fingers effortlessly typed on the silver keypad the numbers 37111719, before the stainless steel door opened revealing within it's milky white interior, food. A majority of which was rows of slices of various strawberry cakes, all within clear boxes, with everything else being meat, vegetables, fruit and alcoholic cider. Erza then grabbed one of the clear boxes. Later on she went to a ivory white cabinet drawer that was above the fridge, and pulled out a fork, before going to a table which was facing the window. She then sat down, and looked out the window, seeing the heavy rain, fall from her window as a result.
'I didn't expect it to be this bad, better call the girls.' Erza thought to herself, thinking about what to do for her day off with her harem consisting of Mirajane, Minerva, Lisanna, Swan, Dimaria and Kagura before a knocking was heard at the door.
"Erza are you there?" an almost motherly soothing yet childlike female voice on the other side of the door.
"Come on in, I was going to call you." Erza said. The door then opened revealing a woman with long white hair which curled slightly at the ends with a distinctive short ponytail on the front of her hair, blue eyes, a jet black jacket with a red devil on the back of it worn over a matching sleeveless shirt, tiger patterned jeans and a pair of black high heeled sandals.
'Speak of the devil, Mirajane herself has arrived.' Erza thought to herself, smirking in amusement, before Mirajane walked into the apartment, and closed the door behind her.
"Eating breakfast are we?" the woman said.
"I was just about to get started with breakfast, when you came in Mira." Erza said.
"Oh and you leave nothing to the imagination I see." Mirajane said, while noting Erza's naked state.
"Does this bother you?" Erza replied, "Because you're not touching it, or you're still clothed and untouched at the moment, either way I could fix that."
"Tempting, but I'm afraid I come bearing bad news. The boss has requested that you come arrest a potential coffin."
"I thought it was my day off?" Erza said.
"Well the thing is, the anonymous caller who called it in requested that you be the one who would take it down."
"Alright I understand." Erza said, "but can I at least get ready?"
"Okay, darling." Mirajane said, before quickly pecking Erza on the lips. Erza then left the kitchen, before heading into the bathroom. She then stepped into the dull emerald green colored shower, turned on the water, and let it cascaded down her body.
'Wonder why me?' Erza thought to herself, before she began to wash herself as quickly as possible. When she was finished she then left to her room before dressing herself in a matching cream white bra and panty set, a red sleeveless shirt which revealed her tattoo of a lion's face, black pants, a belt with a hilt of a bladeless claymore with a red button attached to it and a pair of boots. She then walked out to meet Mirajane who was sitting there.
"Well I'm off to work, which subsection is the coffin in?" Erza asked Mirajane.
"Subsection 19." Mirajane said.
"Thanks." Erza said, before running out of her apartment, and into the parking lot, where she then proceeded to board her white motorcycle. She then put on her black visor that hung from her motorbike, with the red line glowing and began plotting the course towards Subsection 19. Then Erza flew away into the rainy sky on her bike, making her way towards Subsection 19.
'I wonder why I've been having that dream for so long.' Erza thought to herself, while the rain poured on her. She didn't know why her mind had turned to her dream in the first place, and she didn't care, all she knew now was that it was about time to ask herself some questions about the dream. Mainly what it was about. It was one of the few things about herself that she even remembered about her own past, other than she was found by a couple while she was naked, bruised and in critical condition brought to an island from the waves of the ocean.
Her thoughts on the matter had consumed her so much, that Erza failed to realize that she had already arrived at Subsection 19, and was only aware of this when the program in her visor had said;
"You have arrived at your destination."
With that, Erza removed her visor and looked around the various steel gray warehouses that composed Subsection 19, for any sign of the coffin in the area.
"Don't bother, there was no coffin." a very calm male robotic voice said, which caused Erza to turn around only to face a male robot with a black mask that covered his whole face with a sinister red light gleaming out of it, a sleeveless coat with a high collar that had fur surrounding it and two holsters for his guns.
"You're the infamous Khada Jhin!" Erza said.
"Oh, how nice of you to recognize me, engineless reaper." Jhin said, before pulling out one of his guns, which then fired at her, causing Erza to quickly dodge the shot, before she then pulled out her sword and activated it, causing the red laser blade of her claymore to form.
'I can't risk backup, I've got to deal with Jhin myself.' Erza thought to herself, before lunging at Jhin, holding the sword tip outwards. Jhin then jumped out of the way, and attempted to pistol whip Erza, with the gun in his hand, before she blocked it with her sword.
"Impressive." Jhin noted, as he was briefly impressed by Erza's actions, before Jhin pulled out his other gun and aimed it at point-blank range. But before Jhin had the chance to pull the trigger on the gun, Erza grabbed the gun she was blocking with her sword, using her free hand and reaimed the gun at Jhin firing a shot, which caused him to drop the other gun. Erza quickly slashed at Jhin knocking him back.
"Heh, I do suppose I might as well use my engine." Jhin said, before a seal of a rose like human face with the roman numeral for 4, appeared behind him before four different colored blasts of energy in groups of four were fired from the seal in question, before it quickly disappeared.
'Better do something.' Erza thought to herself, before slashing at the shots with her sword, which distracted her long enough to not notice that Jhin had snuck off to reclaim his guns. Once he did so, he focused his sights on Erza, which was evident by the laser mark on Erza, who had finished destroying the .
"Say goodbye Erza, it was fun while it lasted." Jhin said, before he pulled the trigger causing a charged version of the shot fired from his gun, to come flying towards Erza, before she could realize what was going on.
"Is that the best you got?" Erza said, while trying in vain not to cry out in pain in front of Jhin, knowing that showing weakness towards this bastard was not an option. Not for his countless victims and not to get anyone else killed. So Erza then ran towards Jhin, preparing to attack him , when suddenly she felt a bit slower than usual.
'Crap.' Erza thought to herself, as she looked down confirming her suspicion, Jhin had placed a gravity weight mine, which surrounded Erza with a dark purple field. Erza quickly stabbed the bomb before it could activate but this distracted her long enough for her not to notice that Jhin had caused his guns to merge into a sniper riffle and had fired the first shot at Erza in her stomach, causing it to bleed.
"One." Jhin said, before Erza tried to lunge at him again, only for Jhin to fire at Erza again, which caused Erza to slash at that shot, despite the slowdown she was experiencing from her wound.
"You interrupted my art," Jhin said, before unmerging his sniper, back into a pair of guns before firing them both at Erza, causing her to be on her knees in pain, with the blood seeping from her stomach increasing. Jhin simply walked up to Erza and was about to pull the trigger when suddenly he was knocked back by a slash from a sword.
"You should know your place Jhin." said a female voice said, causing Jhin to turn around only to face a buxom woman with cropped short blonde hair that was swept back and slightly spikey, a metallic right arm that was colored aquatic blue, a necklace of two crosses, carrying with her a giant laser sword that was almost her height, a coat that was similar to Jhin's only it was steel gray in addition to the fur being having a tiger patern to it which was open to reveal her aquatic blue bikini top, the tattoo of aquarius on the right side of her chest, a pair of black pants and wore black high heeled sandals with wings on them.
"Ah Dimaria Yesta, have you come to claim the bounty on my head?" Jhin said.
"Well I was gonna," Dimaria said, before aimed her sword at Jhin, "Then I see you messing with my girlfriend, so I don't mind killing you for free."
"I-" Jhin started to say but before he could do so Dimaria was suddenly behind him slashing at him with her heavy sword, decapitating Jhin, which caused his head to roll off his body. Dimaria then headed over to Erza and touched her stomach wound, causing a seal of a clock with two crosses sticking out from the clock to appear on the wound in question causing it to heal quickly.
"Are you okay Erza?" Dimaria asked.
"Yeah, thanks for saving me." Erza said, before she got up, and proceeded to walk to her bike, "Are you busy later today by chance?"
"Yes, we all are going to be busy Erza." Dimaria said to Erza.
"What do you mean?" Erza asked Dimaria.
"Minerva got invited as a guest for King Vladimir's Party, with the invitation coming with a plus 6." Dimaria explained.
"Would they even let Swan in?" Erza said.
"It's Vladimir, the King of Seven, I think he wouldn't mind a stripper." Dimaria said, before she got into her own car and said, "Meet you at Minerva's place."
Then Dimaria rose into her car, before flying off into the sky. Erza then headed onto her own bike, and flew off. After the two had left, a man had decloaked himself and pulled a black umbrella over himself. This man had pink hair that was spiky, abnormal canines, a white scarf, a steel gray overcoat and a black fedora. He then walked over to Jhin, with the rain on his bare feet.
"You did well, Jhin, even with the upgrades Zeref was happy to provide to you, now let's get you fixed up." the man said, as he stood over the person that had once been Jhin. The man then used a seal to reattach Jhin's head back to his body and restored him back.
"E.N.D, have you been watching me, carry out my work?" Jhin asked.
"Maybe." the man childishly replied, "Anyway I think it's about time my brother gets you some better upgrades, we still need you to take down Erza, before things go to shit."
"What else can the starter himself do in the first place, but create?" Jhin said, before E.N.D smiled a toothy grin, before he said;
"Well ya better get going then."
Erza had managed to make her way back to her apartment faster than she had coming to the sector. She quickly parked her bike, and left her stuff, before walking into the doorway of her appartment to find Mirajane kissing a half undressed woman, very deeply. This woman had tan skin, green eyes, long silver hair that formed down, she had her shirt open to reveal black lace bra and was sitting on Mirajane's lap with nothing covering her lower half.
"Hi Swan." Erza said, which caused the half naked woman to look up from Erza.
"Did you take care of the coffin that quickly?" The woman said, "You deserve quite the reward, now lets get you undressed."
"I'm afraid now would not be the time Swan," Erza said, "There is a party we gotta go to."
"Oh yeah, got the message and the dress," Swan said, "I suppose you two have dresses of your own?"
"Yeah I do." Mirajane said, "I called my sister to bring that number, along with her finest. Can't speak for Erza though."
"Yeah I have a dress, but where is yours Swan?" Erza asked. Swan replied by gesturing with her eyes, toward a white paper shopping bag which was near the door to Erza's room, along with a discarded pair of pants with the seat of them cut out and a black thong.
"Alright, Swan I'm gonna get dressed in my dress. Then the three of us could play video games or something else to pass the time, for Lisana." Erza said, which caused Swan to feel disappointed. Erza noticing this said;
"Maybe after the party, we can do something more naughty."
"Okay." Swan said, before she got off of Mirajane, walked over to where the bag was and put her thong back on. Erza then walked into her own room and looked into her closet until she found a dark blue dress, with white roses at the waist with one on the left cup of the dress.
'Alright this shall suffice.' Erza said, before fishing it out of the closet, quickly undressing and putting the dress on her.
'Fits like a glove.' Erza thought to herself before digging out some white pumps, putting the shoes on her feet, and turning outside to find Swan wearing a black qi pao along with black flats.
"You look good." Erza said to Swan.
"Thanks so do you." Swan replied to Erza, before a knock was heard at the door. Mirajane then got out of her seat and opened the door, which revealed to be Dimaria wearing a aqua blue strapless dress with sea green heels, along with another woman. This woman had long jet black hair that reached down to her mid back, pale skin, a storm gray ao dai that hugged every curve of her curvaceous figure, black flat shoes and was holding a white bag.
"Hello Erza." the woman said.
"Minerva, I thought that we were meeting at-" Erza said before the woman said,
"We were going to meet at my place, until I heard you got into a scuffle with Khada Jhin, of all people, from Dimaria."
This revelation caused Mirajane and Swan's jaws to drop and looked at Erza, as if it she had done something impossible. Minerva on the other hand, simply looked annoyed at the situation and faked a cough causing the two women to put their jaws back where they belonged before she said;
"Well she was nearly on the verge of death if Dimaria hadn't arrived for back up, which is why I brought her this."
Before Erza could react Minerva reached into her bag and pulled out a Zanbato hilt with a cord on the bottom of the hilt and gave it to Erza.
"What's this?" Erza asked Minerva.
"It's the latest laser blade in the katana series, The i9cX+ Zanbato. A Blade that can slice more effectively and is bigger than that police issued claymore model of laser sword, in addition it comes with a psudeo engine of it's own. Should be of very good use for you," Minerva answered before adding, "and before you ask, I highly advise you bring it with you for the party."
"Why is that?" Erza said.
"I do not want to take any precautions regarding my father or his influence." Minerva said, "Even if it risks a disaster on his part."
"I see." Erza said, just as a woman that looked like a younger version of Mirajane only with her white hair being short and a more innocent expression on her face, poked her head into the open door.
"Is this a bad time?" the woman said.
"No, come in Lisanna." Mirajane said to the woman, causing her to step in with a black bag and reveal her outfit to be a sea green strapless dress and white open toed high heeled shoes
"How is everyone doing?" Lisanna asked everyone.
"Good." Mirajane said, "Do you have my dress?"
"Yeah." Lisanna said, before she handed the bag to Mirajane.
"Thank you." Mirajane said, before she got up and walked to Erza's room.
"Be quick, the limo should be coming soon." Minerva shouted in Mirajane's direction.
"Limo?" Erza asked Minerva.
"Yeah how do you think we are going to go to Seven?" Minerva replied, which caused Erza to open her mouth to reply but before she did so honking was heard from outside the apartment.
"Oh look at the time, the limo is here." Minerva said, "I'd better get Mira."
"What about Kagura?" Lisanna asked.
"Oh I arranged the Limo to pick her up first." Minerva said, before she ran to Erza's room. Shortly after she did so the rest of the girls ran outside to where the elegantly black limo awaited them. Then the driver of the limo then stepped out of the car and opened the door for the girls to get in, which they did, only to find another woman in the limo. She was a woman with dark purple almost black hair, dressed in a elegant red A-line dress with a mermaid skirt and white high heels.
"Kagura, how are you doing?" Erza said.
"Good, I heard you have been dealing with a coffin lately Erza, is that right?" Kagura said.
"Actually it was Khada Jhin." Erza explained, which Kagura replied by giving Erza a sheepish look before saying;
"The Serial Killer who killed god knows how many people, that Khada Jhin?"
Erza was about to say something but then Dimaria then said;
"Yeah that's the one, but Erza nearly died because of him, but then I stepped in and cut his head off."
"Well He will come back, he always does, if the stories are to be believed." Kagura said.
"Then I'll just kill him again." Dimaria proudly stated, before the door opened again with Minerva and Mirajane, who was wearing a black evening gown, stepped into the car.
"Okay, that should be all of us." Minerva said, now we should get moving. Thus the car began to take flight and soar down into the rainy skies into a path eastbound, going smoothly, until it got into a traffic jam. Noticing the sudden stop Kagura said;
"I Hope we are not late to this party."
"Don't worry we won't be." Minerva replied.
'Might as well, go to sleep.' Erza thought to herself, before she closed her eyes and relaxed, slowly shutting down her mind to the world around her, and drifted into sleep.
She then found herself dreaming again, but this time it was not the dream she had all throughout her life. Even though she was a little girl, she found herself in the middle of a moonlight forest which she wandered through with the feeling of wonder, all throughout her head, until she stumbled upon stars that shone brightly than Erza could ever remember. Then they began to fall one by one, destroying the forest that surrounded Erza, causing her to flee, until one of the falling stars began to hit her, sending her down a multicolored abyss. Erza had stopped feeling herself falling, but rather felt like she was floating in the vast abyss. Going on a gut feeling she made her way towards a silver light that appeared, but as she made her way towards the silver light, she felt herself get older and older, until she reached her current age. It was there was when she saw the silver light being a statue of herself.
"Erza Scarlet, you will learn the truth about yourself." the voice from the statue said, in a voice that was a distorted version of hers, "Once that happens, you will carry this world on your shoulders, for that is the price of your existence."
Erza didn't know what to say to that one, but then she suddenly felt herself sinking, looking down, she saw a suddenly appearing darkness, drag her down, as if though it was clawing at her. Erza tried to fight her way to remain on the surface, only for the darkness to drag her down twice as hard. This cycle repeated until Erza gave up the fight, and sunk into the darkness, where everything was peacefully black. Erza drifted in this darkness, until she could hear Minerva's voice say;
"Erza, wake up, come on we are almost there."
This caused Erza to wake up and return to reality, only for them to find themselves in a city in nighttime.
"Huh?" Erza said, while rubbing her left eye to make sure she was not seeing things.
"Don't worry you didn't sleep that long." Dimaria said.
"It's a cosmetic effect Vladimir has in his kingdom." Minerva added.
"I see." Erza said.
"Also who is Irene?" Swan asked Erza.
"Where did you get that name from?" Erza said.
"You were muttering it in your sleep." Swan explained.
"Oh." Erza said, " To be honest I think I might need to see someone about my sleeping habbits to be honest."
"I see." Minerva said, "Some of my clients happen to be good psychiatrists and sleep doctors, maybe they might be able to help."
"I'll keep that in mind." Erza said, before the limo came to a stop. The driver then opened the door causing the girls to exit the car one by one, until Erza was the last one to exit, her eyes later were interested in the tall midnight black colored glass tower, where Erza was able to make out the amount of the guests through.
"Let's enter." Minerva said, before she walked towards a man in a black suit, who was standing by a locked door and held out her invitation, which was a black sheet of paper with a blood-red seal on the lower left corner of it, with the words on the paper written in white.
"Okay and these are your plus 6?" the man asked.
"Yes sir." Minerva said to the man.
"Come on in." the man said, as he opened the door, causing the girls to enter the building, with Erza being the last in order for her to hide her weapon in the back of her dress. It was there where the girls began to split up, with Swan, Lisanna and Mirajane not even bothering to climb the stairs, and enjoying the bar, while Kagura stopped at the first floor of the tower to talk with the guests, Minerva and Dimaria then went off on the second floor to find the restroom, leaving Erza to climb the stairs all the way to the top, where she found a few ammount of guests. She then noticed a painting of a nun with a spear pointed directly at a scarlet dragon amist a blazing city.
"You know that piece has mythology based in it right?" a male voice said. This caused Erza to turn her head only to find a man with blue hair, a red tattoo under his right eye, wearing a black suit jacket with a pair of matching elegant pants, a white collared shirt, a night blue tie and brown loafers.
"Oh Is that so?" Erza replied to the man while looking at him, as if though she knew him in some manor, but couldn't place where.
"Yes, but this is not my favorite painting you know, I have one which I like the best." the man said.
"Can I see this painting?" Erza said, before the man walked towards the side of the building making his way through the sea of partygoers with Erza following behind him, until the two reached the painting of a corpse of a pregant pale woman who had long white hair, golden eyes and wore a shawl that covered her entire body, floating through a river in the night sky while crying blood.
"Why do you like this particular painting?" Erza asked the man.
"Simple, it tells the story of the mother goddess floating down the river, carrying the souls beyond life and creating the afterlife, from her own burdens. I find this relevant to the fact that coffins are a threat to this world, even though we have the advantages." the man said.
"I see." Erza said, "I'm Erza Scarlet, who are you?"
"My name is Jellal." the man said, "I hope you remember it."
"Are you a reaper?" Erza asked Jellal, who answered;
"Kind of."
Before Erza could ask another question Jellal walked away from the painting, leaving Erza to attempt to chase him, but he was lost in the crowd.
'I wonder where he went.' Erza thought to herself, when all of a sudden, she heard the window break behind her, causing a mass panic. Erza quickly turned around to find an army of black colored robots, with their faces painted blood red and their right hands being cannons. Seeing them caused Erza to draw her sword from her dress, and pull the cord from the sword, activating the laser blade, revealing it to be taller than Erza herself and the blade to be katana like.
'Just why are an army of coffins here?' Erza thought to herself, as she prepared herself to fight the coffins that appeared before her.
(A/N: This is one of my stories that took a life of its own. I just hope I did a good job with this story, also apologies for the long ass chapter, I wanted this chapter to end during the party, for reasons you might find out later. Anyway have a good one, readers.)