Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Shocks and Voltage, Part 2

After Lucy gave Hikari a large plate buttermilk sugar cookies to eat, since she didn't want her to be famished, the Celestial Spirit Wizard had asked the green-eyed girl about the location of Voltage Town. Hikari had let Lucy know that they could take a train to the town of Voltage, since the station there was not abandoned, and getting there quickly would allow Hikari to try handling some business that she wouldn't mention to Lucy. The evil priestess who used Lightning Magic may have done evil things to affect the town, but let's just say that Hikari's conflict with her was more personal.

Lucy had contacted Sting with the Lacrima Communications Crystal to ask about where they would meet up in Voltage Town, liking how he was kind enough to inform her that they could meet up near a stone statue that was in the shape of a lightning bolt, and that statue was actually close to the church. Lucy and Sting were currently in Voltage Town while Hikari and Kira were with them, but Lector wouldn't be accompanying his best friend on this mission. Sting made him go back to Sabertooth because of how this place was quite unsettling, and he didn't want to see his red Exceed get freaked out enough to anger the possessed mages.

Hikari looked around to see that her town was still in a depressed state, as hardly any of the surviving civilians would come out of their houses, and some of the store owners wasted no time with locking the doors to their businesses when they caught sight of Hikari. The sky was grey while it seemed like rain would fall at any moment, ironically giving a dark atmosphere to the town named Voltage, but nobody cared about that. In fact, Sting looked somewhat annoyed at the sight of seven mages in white robes simply standing in the streets with their frowns directed at him. They weren't possessed at the moment, but their hatred for mages from other guilds was quite clear.

Sting felt like the best thing to do would be to just run towards the church, preparing to bust down its front doors, but he also groaned at that idea because of the fact that a loud disturbance could make the cult followers unleash their Lightning Magic on him. He didn't want to get attacked by any lightning spells that could create explosions, and he also didn't want to get paralyzed by any electricity. Despite being afraid, though, Sting could only tell himself that facing up to his fear was better than the scenario of Lucy coming here without him.

"Let's just go into the church, and we'll fight this priestess. She didn't exactly command her servants to stop us from getting into this town, so she probably likes to fight." Sting told the group with some seriousness in his blue eyes, as he tried staying calm to quell his nerves.

Hikari replied in a somewhat worried tone, wanting to understand why these people would be eager to fight the priestess, "Don't be so reckless! She isn't making anyone attack us because she must've assumed I'd return with allies. She must be expecting us, so you better be prepared."

Her words caused Lucy to look down at her green flat shoes for a moment, before her cocoa brown eyes shifted to the orange spell book that she held in her right hand, and Lucy immediately thought about how she never tested out any of the spells that were involving Earth Magic. She planned on doing that outside of Magnolia because of how there would be rocks and mud on the ground, but Hikari collapsing at the Fairy Tail guild's entrance had certainly made that plan be changed. Either way, using these spells would be exciting.

Lucy thought about how she could use Earth Magic to send strength into her arms or legs, but taking a look into the orange book of spells had allowed Lucy to see that she could use some interesting techniques. She got to read about one spell that would allow her to break the ground apart with some harsh stomps, which would make her create a large hole in the ground, and that could be pretty useful for trapping enemies. If they weren't able to jump high or have expertise in climbing walls, then those enemies would certainly be in deep trouble.

There was even a move that required Lucy to consume some mud, which was quite weird, but she could spit it out to create some muddy projectiles that were loaded with power. Still, three good spells would seem mediocre against an insane priestess who supposedly had ten spells. Lucy may not have liked the idea of using up lots of magical power for just one fight, but this situation really called for that. Seeing the townspeople be afraid of the mages was quite saddening for Lucy, as mages were people who had the task of protecting innocent people, and she could agree with her friends about how the evil had to end in this town.

As Lucy was about to start walking with Sting and Kira, the trio was quite surprised to see Hikari start running towards the church. It was nearby, looking like a modern cathedral that was white while it was quite large, and the cathedral was also in the shape of a rectangle. There were four square towers attached to the church while the stained glass windows appeared to be in the regular shade of orange. The center of every window, however, was where the design of a yellow flower's petals could be seen. The priestess must've thought that yellow flowers were beautiful like her precious lightning, but they'd also probably represent how her ego made her think that their beauty matched her loveliness.

One of Hikari's pursuers who stood in front of the door on the left side had asked in a harsh manner, as the white hood covered his face to let Hikari just see his mouth, "What are you doing back here, Hikari? Did a guild of idiots decide to help you take down our town's wonderful leader? Are you proud to be Fiore's dumbest wizard?"

The girl with wavy blonde hair replied with her green eyes narrowed, as she heard the other pursuer on the right begin to chuckle at that last insult, "You can obviously sense the magical presences of my allies, but I'm here to see the priestess. If she's not ordering you to keep me out, then let me in."

The hooded mages simply frowned and sighed in a displeased manner, as Hikari had a point, and they simply pushed open the black wooden doors with their hands. Hikari didn't mind the sound of the doors creaking, as that loud creak was nothing compared to the screams that she heard in the past, and she tightly clenched her fists while proceeding to walk inside. As she could hear the footsteps of Lucy and the others, however, Hikari turned around with a stern look on her face to give them a gesture that informed them that she needed to handle something in here with the priestess. If she screamed, however, then they could come rushing in.

As Hikari took some steps into the church, she could see the priestess sitting in a gold regal chair that was located at the church's altar. She didn't mind that Lucy and her friends were blocked from coming in right now, since the doors were still open for them to just see the situation, but Hikari did clench her fists in anger at the sight of mages slumped over on the brown benches. Some of them even laid on the benches with their eyes open while they were dead, as the priestess had ordered them to feed her their Lightning Magic, and Hikari could tell that their charred bodies meant that the priestess electrocuted all of these followers who were deemed to be dispensable.

10 minutes later...

The priestess was a blonde-haired woman whose hair reached all the way down to her waist while she had eyes that were green, and she also wore golden high-heeled shoes that had glass bottoms. She kept sitting in her chair while narrowing her eyes at Hikari, simply miffed at her, and the silence between the two females was quite ominous. Hikari took one step forward while the priestess merely frowned at her, not even pleased to see her back here, and she didn't care for how Hikari began to give her a harsh glare for how some of the dead wizards on the benches were her childhood friends.

The name of the priestess was Akina Yūgure, and she used to be a mage who worked for the dark guild that occupied Voltage Town five years ago. Akina wasn't exactly the strongest mage back then, as every spell of her Lightning Magic could only create small sparks, but finding the Electric Crystal in a power plant had allowed her magic to become amplified. She trained with the Electric Crystal to strengthen her magic, until she found out that its powers could allow her magic to drain the life force of anyone else who wielded Lightning Magic, and boosting up her Lightning Magic had caused her to create terrifying jolts of electricity.

Hikari and Akina never forgot the day when the dark guild was attacked by massive lightning attacks, creating vicious explosions while electrocuting many of the mages who were inside, and Akina's Lightning Magic left Hikari somewhat scared of her for those five years. The dark guild's destruction was followed by Akina killing the survivors, before feeding on their Lightning Magic to make herself stronger, and she felt no remorse about taking the life of the guild master. Hikari was ordered to watch the destruction as a way of showing doubters that you can become powerful enough to instill fear into the hearts of others, and Akina loved to create that fear.

That was part of the reason why she manipulated mages from other guilds into joining forces with her, and she even gave Lightning Magic to Voltage Town's aspiring mages for them to respect her. She could even use her Lightning Magic to possess them, as well as giving it to mages from other guilds, and Akina's high level of power went well with how most of the town was involved in her evil cult. She desired to have fearsome power and eliminate the people who were weak, and the priestess felt like she could always recruit more people. As her green eyes looked down at Hikari, however, Akina growled angrily at how Voltage Town's cult had a traitor in their midst.

"You little wretch. My actions made us look strong, after all those years of how we were berated for being weak, and you repay me by stealing the yellow book and the Electric Crystal from me?! After all these years, you oppose the ways of my lovely cult and betray me?! Have you returned to beg for mercy, or shall I punish you now?" Akina asked Hikari in a very displeased tone of voice, clenching her teeth while she looked quite angry.

Hikari responded as she clenched her fists, tears starting to fall from her eyes, "I'm putting an end to your cult's darkness today! My friends.. these are my friends that you've killed for your own selfish gain! Your rituals of having mages kill each other were so sickening to watch, and having the cult members take jobs that involve killing outlaws in other towns to spread fear of us... The power has corrupted you and it's made my life be filled with fear, Mother!"

Lucy and Sting were quite surprised to hear that the evil priestess was Hikari's mother, as they never expected a twist like that to be involved with this cult, but it wasn't shocking to see Akina get up from her chair to harshly tell Hikari that she had no friends left in this world. Akina brought up how those pieces of garbage were just far too weak to be of any use to her, as they would even pass out from using just one high-level spell of Lightning Magic, and a deity such as herself didn't need followers who were fragile pawns.

She started to smirk in a very mean way while reminding Hikari of how she had such weak Lightning Magic, as she couldn't even do a good amount of damage to her own mother during their training sessions, and Akina even had the audacity to bring up how it was very fun to hear how Ayame harmed a useless traitor. Hikari wiped some of her tears away while she looked frustrated at her mother's words about how she no longer had a daughter, as a good daughter would've enjoyed how the cult brought harm to those who opposed it, and it was pretty harsh for the green-eyed girl to also hear the priestess talk about how a deity would never give birth to traitorous trash.

As Lucy was listening to the conversation, she really felt like rushing in there to shut Akina up. Even though Hikari would possibly attempt to reason with her some more, Lucy couldn't stand hearing someone be so vile to their own child. Akina may have been driven mad by the Lightning Magic from the Electric Crystal, but that was no excuse for how she was speaking to Hikari right now. It may have been a wonderful feeling to have some power, as Lucy remembered how good it felt to see the power of the red book's Fire Magic, but it was never good for a person to let their desire for power consume them.

Lucy and Sting obeyed Hikari's request to not come in while they listened to her calmly tell Akina that weak people existed in the world for a reason. Hikari stated how a person with tons of strength needed to acknowledge that they had weaknesses, and weak people could gain strength by having the good goal of becoming stronger. Sting was quite surprised to hear Hikari tell her own mother that a continuous need for Lightning Magic meant that she was still trying to get stronger, making her be seen as a weakling in Hikari's eyes, and a weak priestess could never be a deity.

"You worthless piece of trash... You dare speak to me like that?! I can kill you with a single strike, Hikari!" Akina angrily told while a yellow aura began to surround her body, signifying that she was going to unleash a powerful spell.

Hikari replied in a somewhat worried manner while she began to hear the sound of some pages turning in a certain orange book, thinking that Lucy couldn't possibly defeat the evil priestess, "Mother, please don't aim that lightning straight at me... It's so traumatizing..."

Akina stretched out her left hand and aimed straight at Hikari, before firing a large yellow beam of electricity straight at her daughter, and she completely ignored the fact that Lucy called out her first spell of Earth Magic. It was known as Rocky Spikes, and Lucy placed her right hand on the ground while she focused on the area in front of Hikari. The beam was quickly spinning towards Hikari, as Akina was going to strike her right in the heart, but the sight of large brown spikes rising up from the ground to stop the beam had made Akina and her daughter look quite surprised.

Lucy's wall of spikes began to break apart from having to defend against the electricity's high level of power, and it fell to the ground in the form of large chunks. Lucy didn't mind that, since it managed to stop Akina's weakest spell that was known as Lightning's Prayer, and she simply ran past the guards while feeling ready to take down the evil priestess. Dealing with someone other than Hikari wouldn't be a problem for Akina, perceiving Lucy to just be a minor annoyance, but she would certainly order her followers in Voltage Town to keep Kira and Sting from intruding on this little battle.

Five minutes later...

Staring down Lucy for a few minutes had made Akina grin in a vicious manner at the thought of making Hikari's little helpers be sorry that they were dragged into a matter that didn't concern them, and she decided to give Lucy quite a shock with a spell known as Thunder's Volt. She fired a yellow orb of electricity from her mouth while watching it fly towards Lucy at high speeds, enhanced by the Lightning Magic that she had absorbed, and a yellow explosion of lightning occurred! Lucy screamed in pain from taking that attack, feeling her body start to get electrocuted, and Akina began to evilly laugh at the situation.

Lucy used her Earth Magic to have enough strength to quickly run out of the smoke, before seeing a spell in the orange book that would allow her to punch quite hard, and the Celestial Spirit Wizard chose to use this new spell. It was known as Earthy Bombardment, and Lucy's fists were soon engulfed by an orange aura. She threw the book on to a bench, before charging towards Akina, and Lucy was somewhat glad that the blonde-haired priestess was refusing to dodge this attack. She continued to run, before getting close enough, and Lucy simply struck Akina in the face many times with a barrage of harsh punches.

Her last punch was filled with enough strength to send Akina crashing against the back wall of the church, nearly creating a hole in the wall, but not before the villain used a spell called Thunder Fang. Her glistening white teeth temporarily turned into yellow fangs that looked quite sharp, and Akina harshly crunched her teeth into Lucy's right arm while not caring that her left fist had struck her. Electricity began to surround Lucy's body while she winced in pain, looking at how Akina's teeth tore through some of her arm's skin, and she was paralyzed by Thunder Fang's secondary effect that caused paralysis.

Lucy fell to her knees while the electricity was keeping her from lifting a finger, and she thought about summoning a Celestial Spirit to assist her in this battle. It would probably be a risky move, but it had to be done. Besides, having another ally in this fight would be good. Sting and Kira were currently dealing with the sight of Akina's loyal followers walking towards the church to defend their leader, and the Sabertooth mages would need to keep them busy. As Lucy fought through the electric shocks to make her right hand pull out one of the golden keys, she could hear Akina dust herself off while starting to snicker in an amused manner.

"After taking all those punches, I might need an aspirin. Still, I am the goddess of Lightning Magic. This powerful electricity has helped me become a beautiful deity, and no one can defeat me. No matter what you do, Voltage Town will stay under my rule." Akina told Lucy in a relaxed tone of voice, really feeling that she'd have the entire fight in her hands.

Lucy replied sternly while glaring at the evil priestess, still wincing from the pain in her right arm, "You may be great at using Lightning Magic, but anyone who manipulates others for evil purposes is far from a deity. You're not a good mother, either. You made Hikari go through so much pain, and the way you've treated her just sickens me."

She didn't even bother to look at the key that was pulled out, feeling like there were too many precious seconds for her to make a different Celestial Spirit appear, and Lucy managed to open the Gate of The Maiden. This caused her pink-haired spirit known as Virgo to be summoned, bowing politely at her mistress for needing her services, and Lucy commanded Virgo to dig a hole. Lucy, Hikari, and Akina were all quite surprised to see the spirit jump up into the air, before spinning around rapidly to look like she'd drill through this section of the white tiled floor that was covered by a yellow carpet leading up to the altar.

Virgo managed to create a large hole in the ground, making Akina comically upset at how she ripped through her precious carpet, and the pink-haired woman emerged from another spot in the floor while she still spun like a drill. Lucy had clearly gotten stronger, as boosting her own level of power would help the Celestial Spirits grow stronger as well, and she simply watched Virgo drill back into the ground for the sake of creating more holes. Was Lucy wanting to make the church fall into a giant hole, or was she aiming for something else to happen?

Akina frowned in annoyance at the sight of Virgo being a nuisance, watching her emerge from the ground after creating a seventh hole in the floor, and that's when the antagonist unleashed a powerful spell known as Electric Delight. She put her hands together while aiming them straight at Virgo, before a spiraling twister of lightning emerged from her fingertips, and this spell was quite fast. It wasted no time with propelling itself from Akina's hands, before striking Virgo in the chest with sheer ferocity, and its high voltage caused her to let out pained screams.

Lucy decided to send Virgo back to the Celestial Spirit World, not wanting her to get badly wounded from the electric explosion that quickly occurred, and she still felt paralyzed while looking up at Akina. She wanted to wipe that smug grin off of the villain's face, but what could Lucy do? She took notice of how a yellow aura was surrounding her body, clearly meaning that this spell could be the start of her actually getting serious, and it seemed like Lucy wouldn't even be able to move. This really frustrated Hikari, who groaned in anger at how she couldn't save the town, and she turned towards Lucy.

"You guys should just take a mission where you play in the mud. The way you use your spells is sure to leave you buried in the ground." Hikari told Lucy with a displeased facial expression, before looking surprised at how Lucy began to smile.

Lucy responded with a small smile on her face, as she managed to grab the orange book and open it to a certain page, "Hikari, you really shouldn't look down on me. In fact, you probably just helped me figure out which spell I need to use."

She activated a move known as Mud Puddle, which simply created a brown puddle of mud in front of her, but this mud had healing purposes while it also came with an added effect. Lucy moved towards the mud while struggling through being paralyzed, but she wasn't fast enough to dodge Akina's fifth spell that was known as Electric Slicer. That spell appeared from Akina's right hand, as it looked just like a buzz-saw blade, and Akina threw it like a boomerang. It headed straight towards Lucy, before curving around to show off its trickiness, and Akina laughed at the sight of Lucy being struck from behind!

The mage from Fairy Tail was hit by the electrical explosion, causing her to scream in pain while she quickly placed her hands into the puddle of mud, but an orange aura began to engulf Lucy's body. Steam rose out of her wounds while they began to heal from the effects of this hot mud, and Lucy's paralysis was starting to wear off. The harsh wound from the Thunder Fang began to heal as well while Lucy regained that lost skin, and this spell was surprisingly going to be a smart lead into Lucy's next attack. After all the damage she took from Akina, it was time to retaliate.

Lucy looked at the next page in the orange book to see that the mud could allow her to create a spell called Muddy Bomb, and she watched the hot mud in her hands take the shape of a mud ball. She was impressed by how it felt dense, not soft like normal mud, and Lucy threw it straight at Akina before she chose to stand up. The green-eyed priestess arrogantly let it strike her in the stomach, before the sight of an orange explosion certainly gave her quite a shock, and Akina became wounded from Lucy's spell. The Earth Magic certainly shook up how the battle was going, but it still wasn't over.

Akina said aloud in a somewhat annoyed manner while she created a spinning ball of lightning in her hand, giving it enough power to set off waves of electricity, "Attention, my loyal followers in Voltage Town. An intruder thinks that she can kill me, so eliminate her precious friends."

Outside of the church...

The guards had been beaten down by Kira, who defeated them with fiery punches that were filled with the heat, and the mages walking towards the church had simply stayed away from her and Sting while Lucy was fighting Akina. The red-haired merchant and Sting hadn't forgotten that mages in this town were not permitted to attack outsiders, unless the leader gave them permission to do so, and the duo from Sabertooth simply stood in front of the church to block Akina's followers from getting in. Lucy's fight with Akina had gone on for twenty minutes now, and Sting felt like he would soon be able to go inside and help her. After all, he never liked hearing Lucy scream in pain.

Unfortunately, however, the seven mages who stared down Sting and Kira began to glare at them in an unsettling manner while some of them removed their hoods. Kira and her friend clearly heard Akina give an order to her followers, watching their eyes turn yellow while they began to charge up Lightning Magic in their hands, but Kira was clever enough to not let those freaky mages fire any attacks that would go in the church to possibly kill Lucy. She grabbed Sting's hand while running towards the statue, wanting to hide behind it for the sake of forming a quick plan, but she saw Sting's face change from a confident expression to one that showed pure fear.

"Sting, get a grip. I know that you're afraid of how evil those people can be when they're possessed, but I'm sure that you don't want them to lay a hand on Lucy." Kira told him in a stern tone, not wanting the entire team to end up dying in this town.

The blue-eyed male replied in a fearful tone while remembering the electricity that killed anyone who opposed Akina, "I also don't want to get shocked to death."

As Kira went out from behind the statue for the sake of trying to defeat those mages with some of her powerful fireballs, Sting became frustrated while he thought about how this situation was similar to what happened in last year's Grand Magic Games. When Sting stood in front of the five people who represented Fairy Tail's team, he could see that they were strong mages who weren't afraid to go against him. They were planning to strike him down with all of their strength, which would've probably knocked him out, and Sting ended up surrendering because of how winning wouldn't allow him to reunite with Lector.

This situation also involved powerful mages who would attack Sting with no hesitation, possessed by Akina's desire to have him and Kira be killed, but Sting groaned at the thought of running away. He couldn't just leave Lucy and Kira here to fight against these manipulated freaks. If he did that, then he'd just be a guild master who didn't care about his friends. That would certainly be bad for his reputation, and Sting didn't want Lucy to think of him as a selfish jerk. That would be bad for their friendship, and she probably wouldn't want to be in a relationship with him.

She liked how Sting was such a cool guy who enjoyed how his White Dragon Slayer Magic could supposedly purify all things, and Sting's confident personality was really appealing to Lucy. He wanted to be the caring boyfriend who would be able to pick Lucy up when she felt down, being there for her when she needed him, and he did initially come here solely to protect her. It would be a complete slap in the face to Lucy if Sting couldn't even save her from getting hurt, and he began to clench his fists. Not only was Lucy's life at stake, but the lives of Voltage Town's mages were important as well.

Sting came out from behind the statue to get a glimpse of a girl removing her hood to show her messy purple hair and yellow eyes that looked emotionless, seeing her charge towards Kira in an angry manner, and Sting felt like the anger and viciousness that these mages felt came from how they let themselves be overtaken by the dreadful fear of not wanting to be killed by Akina. Sting actually saw one of the dead mages in the church be dead with a strange smile of happiness on her face, almost like her heart was showing how she could finally be free from Akina's evil, and these possessed mages just had to see the light.

A guy with blue hair in a bowl-cut hairstyle arrogantly told Sting while catching sight of him, preparing to use the Electric Delight spell that Akina activated earlier, "My bright lightning will make you turn into pure ashes, so get shocked and meet your death!"

Sting responded with a stern look on his face while he gathered white light into his hand for the sake of using White Dragon's Claw, "Look here, buddy. The light of the white dragon purifies all things, and your spell has no brightness to it. Those lightning spells are flashy, but your lightning has no shine to it when the darkness of your leader's will is infused with it."

He actually said that loud enough for Lucy and Hikari to hear those words, wanting the worrisome girl with green eyes to realize that her insane mother's Lightning Magic wasn't all that strong, and Lucy turned around to simply smile at Sting while feeling like she could think of this evil priestess as a dark mage. Akina may have believed that she was a priestess who could rule Voltage Town with her lightning that was supposedly holy, but she had still been a dark wizard who lost her mind from letting Lightning Magic corrupt her. She merely frowned at Sting's words, and felt ready to end this battle.

Hikari was surprised at the sight of Lucy using the Earth Magic's orange aura to remove the mud from her arms while a smile of confidence was on her face, not losing faith in her ability to win, and she turned to see Kira unleash a beam of fire from her mouth. She set some of the possessed mages on fire, burning them while panting heavily, but Kira still smiled at the sight of Sting tackling down two mages who tried running towards the church. Even though Voltage Town seemed creepy and dark, Hikari began to see some light. She had really wondered how Lucy could still want to fight against the cult leader, especially after dealing with five painful spells, but then Hikari began to slightly smile from understanding that Lucy wasn't concerned with the odds of winning. In fact, she was focused on how she felt determined to beat Akina.

How was Chapter 10? Feel free to give me feedback on it. I know this chapter was pretty tense, but the next chapter won't have as much tension.