Hello readers, and before I start, sorry about uploads being less and less frequent, but I am getting pretty busy with school. Anyways, as always, let's start with the fun fact of the week. Fun fact of the week: One of my favorite music groups is Three Days Grace (Also, I added a small detail involving Nicholai's Birthday and Sam giving him a present in the last chap, so go read that section again so that you aren't a bit confused in parts of this chapter.)
Nicholai: They're pretty good
Me: Weren't you and Sayume drowning? Not to sound rude.
Sayume: I'm here and I wasn't even conscious when we fell out of the airship.
Me: I don't want a headache, so let's not read into that. Wait, where's Sam?
Sam: Here! You guys are taking way too long with Grimore Heart.
Me: Ok, well I really don't see this conversation of ours going anywhere, so let's just start the chapter.
I was floating weightlessly. I could tell I was unconscious, but I could feel everything around me. The wetness of the ocean, the push of the current, and the ocean floor brushing up against me. After what felt like minutes in my unconsciousness, I could feel myself hitting the dry sand of a shoreline, but I still couldn't regain my own consciousness. When I did wake, it was to the sound of what I could only describe as an earth-shattering roar. I felt sand under my torso, and waves brushing up on my back, and after several moments of coughing up saltwater, I opened my eyes, "Am… I on… Tenrou Island?" I was. It must have been the next day, because the sun was lower to the east than it had been when I dive-bombed into the Grimore Heart guildhall. It was on this same beach when I myself became S-class. I got up to my feet to see, on the opposite end of the island, a giant black dragon was destroying everything in its path, "No. It can't be. Dragons shouldn't even be around anymore, but still, that isn't just any dragon, that's Acnologia, the black dragon of the apocalypse. I remember. While I had been researching dark guilds, I happened to find an old text about dragons, Dragon Historia. This dragon, it managed to take out an entire country on it's own, and now, it's rampaging on my guild's sacred ground. Damnit!" I turned to my right to see Sayume, eyes wide and mouth hanging open in terror. It was almost as if he was a statue, he looked so paralyzed with fear. "Sayume. You need to get off of the island. Now." Sayume slowly got to his feet and walked over to me. "No, I'm not going to leave you here to die, that's the coward's way out," Despite how horrified he was not a few moments earlier, he smiled at me, "I will stay by your side until the end, that's a promise." I placed my arm around him, pulling him closer to me, "It's going to be ok Sayume, we're going to pull through this." I jumped to my feet still holding Sayume, when yet another scream pounded against my eardrums. This one wasn't the shriek of an animal, it was distorted, but I could recognize that voice anywhere, "THAT WAS MAKAROV! I'VE GOT TO GET TO HIM!" I was weak, out of magic power, and still trying to recover from my little 'swim', but I sprinted towards the alternate end of the island, hoping on my life that I got there in time. The island was several miles across, and the thick vegetation, rough terrain, and aggressive wildlife weren't helping any, "Please, hang in there just a little longer master." Sayume began to move, "Nicholai, your guild mates, the ones who are on this island. I sense them, they're all protecting each other, using everything they've got to defeat this dragon. They're all so incredible, so powerful, but… BUT IT'S NOT ENOUGH, THIS THING IS JUST TOYING WITH THEM!" His words didn't stop me; I kept running, trying to reach them before it was too late. I then heard a voice booming through the forest that I was all too familiar with, "FIRE DRAGON ROAR!" Natsu. He was out there, fighting. I needed to get there to help him, "MY FAMILY IS OUT THERE, I CAN'T LET MYSELF BE TOO LATE TO SAVE THEM! I CAN'T LET THEM DIE!" I began to see a speck of light peek through the trees, "COME ON LEGS, MOVE FASTER!" The clearing opened up to a cliff with a hundred-foot drop. Below it, an area I remembered as having lush greenery, reduced to a barren wasteland of dirt and sand. I saw them, my guild mates, some I knew and some I didn't recognize, joining hands. That dragon, that foul, unholy dragon, was flying straight above the island, preparing a breath attack. The creature almost appeared to be sucking the very ethernano from the air itself, focusing it into it's mouth Sayume saw this, and most likely felt it, but retained a surprisingly calm tone of voice, "Well, Nicholai, it looks like this may be it, our final moments," He escaped my grip and climbed up to sit on my shoulder, "let's show this monster how much stronger our bond is than him." I lifted my hand to pet the back of his head, "Yep. You know Sayume, It was quite the trip we went on together. We fought for each other, we protected each other, and we laughed with each other. Now it seems we are at the road's end. I had fun." Sayume stood up, "Yeah, me too. I guess if I have one regret, it's that we couldn't spend more time together." There were tears in his eyes. The dragon was finished charging its attack, and I felt a tear fall down my face. I grabbed a hold of my sister's necklace, and clicked it open, "I'm sorry Sam. I couldn't make it back to you. Please forgive me. And…" I paused for another moment, "I'm sorry I couldn't avenge you. Mom… Dad… I dishonored your memory. At least… I'll be able to see you two soon enough." The abomination lurched its head back and sent a massive amount of energy heading towards us. Its attack crashed into the island, and then everything went black.
I was sure that the attack had completely wiped out the island, killing everyone including me. For a long time, I was conscious, but I couldn't move, see, feel, or hear anything. Eventually, as if had entered a dream, I could suddenly see a fairly surreal place. It wasn't anywhere I recognized, but the only thing I could make out was that the area was a dark abyss going on infinitely in all directions. "Am I dead?" Something else then appeared, a single speck of light emanating from afar. There was something alluring about the golden light, and as I got closer, it seemed to grow larger and brighter, filling this area. I began to hear a soft, young, female voice, "Nicholai." I got closer to the light and the voice grew ever louder, "You need to wake up. You aren't dead." "Who are you?" The orb of light didn't answer my question, but instead grew duller and duller until it faded completely, and I once again fell into the motionless, senseless hell of a state of consciousness that I had been in before.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Knowing that this was all there was, this was the only thing I could fathom, the only thing keeping me on the edge of sanity. I seemed to be waiting for a near eternity for whatever that orb was to come back. When my senses returned once again, I found myself in the same abysmal, eternally dark place as before. This time however, I felt a horrid presence. In the darkness, it was difficult to see, but there was another, somehow darker, darkness subtly embedded within the abyss. No, it's almost as if its presence was the abyss, "Who is that?" No response, "Are you the one from before?" It seemed like a stupid question, but anything seemed possible after this long. I still received no answer, but instead, the underlying darkness shifted to almost face me. I ran, and the dark mass chased after me. As I sprinted, a sound emanated from the darkness, sounding almost like chuckling. A raspy, decomposed, and sadistic voice followed it, "People call you by my very name, and then when you are faced with me, you run. Hilarious." I knew who the voice was claiming to be, and I kept running. A dot of light appeared in the distance, and I mustered all of my strength to run towards it. The same voice from the light called out once more, "Hurry Nicholai. You don't have much longer." A hand extended from the light. The darkness screamed after me, "NO, YOU CAN'T LEAVE HERE!" dozens of hands erupted from it, reaching for me in a frantic act to prevent me from leaving. I was inches from the hand of light, but the hands were preventing me from making a single other move. They began to pull me back into the dark. I was thrashing around frantically, struggling to escape their grasp, and as I did so, my opened locket swung around my neck and in front of my face. I came into contact with the dark mass, but seeing that picture sparked something in me, "No, I can't die. I've got someone to live for, and I promised her that I would come back. So…" The darkness had me halfway covered, "I won't…" My head was the only part of me not consumed, "LET YOU KILL ME!" I forced myself out of the blackness, which was still clawing at me. I reached out towards the hand of light, which was quickly fading as it had last time. "DON"T YOU LEAVE JUST YET! I'VE GOT SOMEONE I NEED TO GO BACK TO!" The darkness bellowed, filling this endless chamber with its voice, "YOU CAN'T LEAVE! YOU'RE MINE! YOU BELONG IN THIS WORLD!" I tried to block out everything except for the light, it was all I needed to focus on, it was my only chance of living. I grabbed a hold of the light's hand, and the darkness all around me was obliterated, leaving me on my knees, in the middle of the Tenrou Island forest. The hand I was grasping was actually two, one of a young woman with long, wavy blonde hair, and the other, Sayume. The girl spoke, "Hello Nicholai. You've been asleep for a while."
Me: Well, is it safe to assume that what just happened actually did happen?
Nicholai: Of course
Me: Well, you literally escaped that person who I will not mention by name because I want the reader to figure out who it was. HINT: It's not a character in Fairy Tail.
Nicholai and Sayume: *Grins* It waaassssss...
Me: *Ties both of them up in a bundle of rope and duct tape* Nothing to see here.
Mavis: *giggles* You are all pretty funny.
Sam: *Whispers into mine and Mavis's ears* I don't know whether to help them, or to wait until Nicholai realizes he can burn the ropes and tape.
Me and Mavis: The latter is a better idea.
Me: Well, while we enjoy the show, I want to say thanks once again for reading.
Sam: Don't forget to leave a review, follow, and maybe even favorite the story.
Mavis: And we will see you, in the next chapter.
All three: Bye-bye!