Prologue: Nations, no matter how powerful, don't recover from wars quickly enough. And nations that had been weakened by war are easy prey. Fiore and Alvarez were those nations. Though Fiore had emerged victorious from the invasion of Zeref and his Spriggan army the war had been on its soil. The war ravaged the kingdom; its forces were exhausted, its guilds had been pushed to the brink of defeat, it had lost its greatest tactical mind. And what still stood had been destroyed by Acnologia.
The war had been far from Alvarez's shores, but it too paid a heavy price. Its leader had died, the empire's shields, the Spriggan 12, had either been killed or defeated. While the massive armies it had sent abroad had been crushed. The empire was left defenseless.
And when the enemy struck it did so hard, like a mighty hammer.
Chapter I: Alvarez Falls
A year had passed since the Fiore-Alvarez war, and while Alvarez and Fiore continued their slow recovery a nation far removed from both the Isghar and Alakitasia continents made its move against both nations. Zeref's former empire became the first victim.
The Alvarez capital of Vistarion was in a state of siege, encircled by thousands of enemy troops. They had swept aside all and any resistance Alvarez had been able to muster. The Spriggan that remained found themselves at the other end, powerless against a foe superior to them in terms of power and numbers.
"Hmm, I was expecting more from the mighty Alvarez Empire. This is boring," Mimi, the seventeen year old Drakkozyan Empire warrior, said as she skipped over the bodies of dozens of defeated Alvarez soldiers.
"They lost too many men during their previous war. You can't expect them to put much of a fight," Captain Clovis said. Clovis' tall and muscular body gave him an imposing look, and the massive ax/hammer hybrid he carried on his shoulder with a single hand only served to reinforce it. "Besides, it is better that way, I don't like fighting those that are weaker than me."
Cornered on the city square of Vistarion were Brandish μ and Ajeel Ramal. Both Spriggan breathed heavily with exhaustion, both of their bodies covered with cuts and bruises. They looked ready to drop at enemy moment while Clovis was unharmed and Mimi cheerfully walked behind him.
"What are you waiting for, Brandish? Turn this guy ant-size so I can squash him!" Ajeel demanded.
"I already tried but it doesn't work on this monster," Brandish replied.
Mimi laughed. "That's because your power is weak. Captain Clovis is the strongest warrior of the Drakkozyan Empire. The only reason why you two are still alive is because he's too kind so he's going easy on you."
"Mimi please, you know I am no good with flattering," Clovis said. "I am no good fighting women, also, don't like harming them. Especially one as sexy as her." Brandish looked away in disgust while Mimi gave him a frowned look. "If you two get on your knees I won't harm you anymore. We'll call it even."
The veins on Ajeel's forehead looked ready to explode. "Me, the Desert King, a living god, kneel? I'll make sure you have the most painful of deaths!"
Brandish knew what happened when Ajeel had his pride wounded. "Wait, Ajeel, there's still dozens of our people in here!"
Ajeel didn't care and attacked with a large wave of sand. "Sands of Death!"
Clovis sighed, disappointed that his words had been ignored. Nobody wanted this one sided battle to be over more than him. With a quick and true swing of his Moonbreaker weapon he slashed the sand wave in half.
Ajeel became speechless at the sight of his most dangerous spell cut like it had been nothing.
The captain looked behind his shoulder, the sun had began to set, half of it was gone. "I really wanted this to be over before nightfall. Sorry, but I won't be able to hold back anymore."
"Quick screwing with us—" Before the Sand Mage could finish his sentence Clovis had moved at a speed he couldn't follow.
The captain threw a jab at Ajeel with such force he easily smashed him into the ground. The entire city square ground shattered into oblivion, it left only a crater.
Brandish trembled in fear. How could a mage as powerful as Ajeel been defeated with a single punch? And why was this guy's power growing all of a sudden?
"Sorry, I did say I was not going to be able to hold back anymore."
"Oh Captain Clovis you are too awesome! This is why you are the strongest of His Majesty's Eight Sabers."
"Don't forget about Alexis. If she were here she would have finished them faster."
"That's because My Lady doesn't believe in mercy, Captain," Mimi said.
Massive spikes of pure ice dashed toward Clovis, ready to impale the warrior. But with his right arm he blocked the attack, then smiled. "I presume you are the one called the 'Winter General' is that right?" Clovis asked.
Invel looked down on both Clovis and Mimi with an icy look on his face. "For the crime of invading our country, destroying our capital city, and attacking the members of our late Majesty's Spriggan, I sentence you to death." He fired a mighty blizzard that froze everything in its path at the captain.
Clovis dodged to his left. "I was born in the warmest part of the Drakkozyan Empire, don't really like the cold." Wearing only a muscle shirt had been a bad idea.
Invel didn't care about what his enemy liked or not, the only thing he cared to see was Clovis frozen solid, together with the girl that accompanied him.
While Brandish still stood there, paralyzed by what she had experienced, Mimi grabbed her from behind. The young girl fondled her breasts as she spoke in her ear. "Such massive and lewd breasts. Trying to seduce Captain Clovis with these? Well he belongs to my lady."
"What are you talking about?" Brandish asked. She tried to counter attack but she couldn't move. She looked down to see ropes made of earth and stone crawl up her legs, they wrapped themselves around her body. And then her neck. "What's...happening?"
"I can control all non-living matter around me. Shape it however I want. Don't bother trying to change their size as I can change it back," Mimi laughed, "if I want to I can control the ground beneath this city, open it up to swallow the whole place and everyone in it. Or I can create an earthquake to level the whole country. Would you like to see Miss Country Demolisher?"
"Mimi, don't joke around, we have thousands of soldiers around the city," Clovis said as he continued to dodge all of Invel's attack with little effort over the roof of a building.
Invel focused his magic on one point and unleashed a wide beam of ice that froze and shattered everything that it touched.
This time the Drakkozyan captain didn't dodge, he stood there, his ax resting on the shoulder. "You are late, Glaze."
A young man with sky blue hair that wore white clothes and a white ushanka hat appeared in front of Clovis, he cut Invel's ice beam with a sword made of ice of a blood red color. He spoke with a low, emotionless tone. "A thousand apologies, Captain Clovis, I know it is inexcusable to be late as a member of your squad."
"I-It's okay, Glaze. I know that something big must have kept you busy to make a punctuality freak like you late."
"The Spriggan known as Neinhart proved a nuisance because of his Historia of the Dead ability. I was forced to fight a few of the people I had assassinated in the past," Glaze said.
Clovis knew the answer but he still felt the need to ask. "Did you kill him?"
"I am an assassin, it is my job," the ice user said, his face devoid of any feelings. "To amend for my tardiness allow me to eliminate this fool who dares challenge your might, captain."
"Knock yourself out." The captain jumped to the ground.
"You are an ice user as well?" Invel asked. "I hope you are prepared to fall against he who has mastered Ice Magic to its purest form." The Winter General waved his hand in a horizontal fashion and sent a heavy wave of pure ice at the invader. Before the attack could reach Glaze it shattered into a million pieces. He looked down to see the right side of his chest impaled by an ice blade. Ice began to spread over his body, inside and out.
"When did…?" Invel turned around to see a tall and thick ice pillar and the hand that held an ice blade coming out of it.
"My Shinigami Cold Mirror allows me to create an ice clone of me on any large piece of ice, or clone a limb on a small one. Thanks to your magic my victory was assured," Glaze said. As he walked towards Invel he formed an ice scythe on his right hand. "You said you have mastered Ice Magic? So what? Do not put my power and your magic in the same category. My Shinimagi's Ice has only one purpose…"
"Shinimagi's Ice?" First a Demon Slayer, now an ice reaper? Why did his Ice Magic had to be bested by such foul forms of ice? Invel thought to himself.
With a single swing of his ice scythe Glaze decapitated the Winter General. The head and body fell on opposite directions. The was no blood as the neck wound froze in an instant.
Clovis looked away. He could have told Glaze not to kill him, but it would have been pointless. It was in his veins to kill. He had been raised to be an assassin since five. And the ice shinigami he and his people worshipped demanded the blood. It was an insatiable ice.
Brandish wailed without restraint. She felt weak and powerless. Ajeel had been beaten, Neinhart was dead, and now the most capable person to lead a possible counterattack with what remained of the Alvarez forces had been brutally killed.
"That's an ugly face you are making," Mimi said. "I know, I'll kill you know. I'll strangle you until your body is purple and bloated and bruised, no man will ever want to see you again." When Mimi finished blinking she noticed Brandish no longer stood there. "Huh?"
Clovis looked up to the building behind him to see Brandish had been rescued by another woman.
Brandish opened her eyes and saw Dimaria. She smiled. She wanted to say something but her throat hurt.
Dimaria began to cry in anger. "Don't worry, Bradish, I'll finish these guys." She rested her friend on a wall before she gave Clovis a look that could have burned a hole through his chest. "You hurt my Brandish, now you will die." She pulled out her scimitar then clicked her teeth together.
In the span of a fraction of a second Clovis' muscle shirt had been torn to shreds. The imperial coat of arms tattoo on his right chest, a sky blue dragon's head inside a sun with eight triangles around the sun. He turned around and met Dimaria's gaze. "Hey girl, if you wanted to see me without a shirt on you could have asked."
That turned Mimi's face red like a cherry. Could he go one minute without hitting on a girl?
But Dimaria looked aghast. "I tried to cut you to shreds." She looked at her blade, the entire edge had cracks in it. "Impossible."
"At this point blades are useless against me. No matter how much muscle you put into it, no matter how sharp, they won't scratch my body," Clovis said.
Not deterred she clicked her teeth again to active her Age Seal to stop time. This time she would aim for a more sensitive area. She thrusted her scimitar toward his eye.
With his left hand Clovis took hold of her weapon. "Yeah, can't let you do that. Women don't like guys with just one eye. And I don't feel like looking like a pirate."
"How can you move within my Age Seal? Only I can move inside this world without time!"
"I figured after your first try that your magic wouldn't work on someone with a much greater power than you."
Impossible! Only that fire monster from Fairy Tail has been able to bypass my Age Seal. "Are you telling me your power surpasses that of the God of Time, Chronos?" She asked him.
"I don't know anything about a god, but I know, and I am sure you do, that my strength is much greater than yours." Once again he looked at the sky, the sun had set and now the moon took its place. Again he sighed. "Like I told your friend before at this point I can't hold back, even if I want to. I'll try not to kill you, but if I do please don't hold it against me." Clovis lifted his massive axe and pointed it straight at the moon. The weapon absorbed moonlight, gathered it on the flat side of the axeblade to form a massive orb of white light. It grew to the size of a house. He threw the orb at Damaria. "Moonlight Blast!"
Damaria wasted no time and activated her God Soul: Chronos. She fired a powerful beam of time magic against the orb but it did nothing, not even slow it down. The Time Mage took the blast head on. It was too powerful, too much for her to resist. The force of the attack sent her flying away, out of the city, out of view.
It made the warrior feel a little guilty. "Damn, that was too much. I really hope I didn't kill her." This is why Clovis didn't like to fight during the night, his power grew to a point that any battle became too one-sided.
"What do we do with the surviving Spriggan girl, Captain?" Glaze asked.
Mimi offered an idea. "I say we kill her too! Send her to her friends."
"I agree with her," Glaze said.
"Enough with the killing. Vistarion has fallen. Alvarez is ours. There is no need for any more fighting." Clovis said. "It's time I talked to the minister in charge of the country."
"Hmm, are you gonna go like that, showing your goods?" Mimi asked.
Clovis looked at his bare chest, he had forgotten about that. "Crap!"
He and Mimi laughed together while Glaze stood there with his usual aloof look.
Meanwhile, two mysterious figures cloaked in black clothing from head to toes had observed the events from afar. It had been a massive and unexpected shock to both young men.
"Did you see what I saw?" One of the young men, Zane, asked his partner.
"Are you talking about the guy that crushed two Spriggan without breaking a sweat? Or how his power keeps growing by the minute?" His friend Terran asked back.
"Okay, I wanted to make sure I wasn't seeing things and going crazy," Zane said.
"Nah, you are going crazy. You have to be in order to think going through the capital was a good idea," the friend said.
"I wanted to see for myself. Study their strengths and try to find a weakness."
"So, did you find any?"
That voice sent a cold shiver down Zane and Terran's spine. What was this monstrous pressure that felt ready to crush their bones to dust? How could someone with power like this be human?
Both of them turned around to see Clovis standing behind them.
How could he have gotten pass their sharp senses?
Zane became paralyzed due to the shock, while Terran, as if by instinct, punched Clovis with a stone-covered fist. But it broke as soon as it made contact with his face.
"Not a bad punch. Anybody else would have gotten a nasty bruise," Clovis said. For some odd reason he smiled at them. It wasn't a sarcastic or cruel smile but an honest one. The kind someone gives a friend.
Terran didn't wait to find out. Instead he grabbed Zane by the wrist and pulled him away, then jumped down from the roof. "This isn't the time to be in awe, idiot, let's get the hell out of...here…"
Clovis blocked their way. It was obvious to Terran that this man's speed was too great for his powerful ears or Zane's sharp eyes.
"Hmm, what should I do with you two?" Clovis asked himself. "I know you two were observing us but the poor way you two hid, and the way you reacted, tells me you are far from being spies. And if you are then you should change careers." He observed them, studied every detail about them. Their faces. The cloaks they wore, how dirty and torn they were, how tired they looked. Refugees leaving the war torn country?
If I take them as refugees Glaze will kill them to put them out of their misery, he's callous like that. I can't treat them as prisoners of war because they are civilians, even if they know magic.
An alarm sound released Clovis from his thoughts. He took a rectangular item from the pocket of his pants. It was an audio device, similar to the compact communication lacrima created by Warron. It had a touch screen on it.
Clovis pressed a button and an image appeared out of nowhere, it floated over the screen. It showed the crystal clear image of a young man with raven black hair and glasses. "What is it, Luscious?"
"Captain-General—"
"Captain, Luscious, just captain."
"Yes, Captain Clovis, your assistance is needed. Ren has gone berserk again," the young man said. "You are the closest one to him, and the only one capable of stopping Ren without taking any serious injuries to yourself."
"Again? Damn it. I don't like babysitting him. What was His Majesty thinking sending his brother to the battlefield?" Well, Clovis couldn't expect an actual answer about the emperor's motivation to send his kid brother. It could be a drag to deal with the kid. "Send me the coordinates to his location, I'll stop him...again."
"Thank you, Captain Clovis. May the blessings of our emperor guide you." The image of Luscious disappeared.
"Count your blessings. I'll let you get out of here to your destination unmolested. Not everyone in the Drakkozyan Imperial Army is as kind as I am, so consider yourselves lucky. And welcome to the newest province of the Drakkozyan Empire." Clovis rushed back to Glaze and Mimi. They had more work to do.
Both Zane and Terran dropped to their knees as Clovis left them. It felt as if massive weight had been removed from their shoulders.
After taking a deep breath Zane stood, his hands still trembled but he regained some composure. "We need to go."
"So we are doing this, then? We are serious?" Terran asked.
"We are. We have to tell them before it is too late," Zane said.
"Look at you, breaking out of that lonely shell. You are growing up, edgelord."
"Let's go to Fiore and warn the only people capable of stopping these monsters. We need to find the Fairy Tail guild."
Welcome to my newest Fairy Tail fanfiction. I hope you enjoy my latest series. If you do please leave a review. If you don't leave a review anyways, I am always in need of improving.