Chapter 21

So, THIS TIME we should end the Oración Seis arc, I kind of promise!

I apologize for any grammar errors that I have made! Read and Review!
Disclaimer: Hiro and Tadatoshi, mah men (XD), are as stingy about their stories as Scrooge McDuck is about his special coin.

At Nirvana~

Gray looked back at the blonde girl crawling up what seemed like a spider's leg, except it was pure rocks, making sure she was keeping up. To his surprise, she was keeping up perfectly fine.

She looked up at him, seeing he had stopped. "What's going on, Gray? Why did you stop?" She asked him confusedly.

Gray shook his head and continued to crawl up. "Just wonderin' if you were keeping up." He grumbled, only barely audible for the blonde. "I see Gajeel's training has done its wonders on ya." He said, sending her a smirk over his shoulders.

Lucy smiled and nodded. "Yes, Princess' stamina has increased beautifully under the trash can's tutelage." Loke agreed. He'd decided to follow them and support himself magically, so as to not strain his Princess.

Said Princess glared halfheartedly at her Spirit over her shoulder. "Loke, be nice." She scolded him. "Gajeel's a very nice guy once you give him a chance." She said and would have crossed her arms if she could.

Loke rolled his eyes, but smiled at her everlasting kindness and forgiveness. "Yeah, I'm sure he is. Deep, deep inside." He said sarcastically.

The Ice Make mage tuned out of their conversation and looked to the leg on their right, seeing something desperately clinging on to it. He squinted is eyes, trying to see who was crawling over there. When he finally realized, a smirk born from amusement formed on his face. "Hey guys, look at the Fire Idiot over there. Can't even handle a little movement like this." He said, as their leg disconnected with the ground, moved forward, and stomped heavily at the ground, taking one large step forward, which sent small shockwaves throughout the whole thing.

Lucy and Loke's conversation was halted, and they followed the way Gray was pointing. "What? His motion-sickness even hits him here? But it isn't even a vehicle!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Must be the same for him." Loke said with a little shrug. "Wait.. What is he doing? Trying to crawl upside down?" Loke asked as he saw the blob that was the Fire Dragon Slayer just barely hanging on to the leg he was on.

The blonde shook her head, her brown eyes wide. "No! He's slipping off!" She told them. Just as she finished talking, Natsu seemed to release his grip and began falling down, unable to help himself. "NATSU!" She screamed in horror of what might happen to him.

Suddenly something shot out of the forest at lightning speed, going so fast none of them could see what it was. Whatever it was approached the pi- salmon-haired Dragon Slayer at the high speed, not even slowing down once it got closer.

Lucy worried for a moment that it would attack the weakened Dragon Slayer, but her hopes were quickly lifted, when the form caught Natsu. "It's Happy! He saved him!" She said, relief filling her voice.

Gray nodded, not sparing his rival another glance, as he knew he now would be all right. "Let's continue on, we're almost at the top." He said, to which the others agreed.

Not a moment later, Natsu and Happy zoomed past them and towards the center of Nirvana, not even seeing them as he passed by. If the way his fist were lit up on flames were anything to go by, he was probably all over his sickness already.

An explosion later, Loke, Gray and Lucy had almost reached the entrance, when Natsu and Happy, followed by Cobra and his giant, winged snake began battling in the air.

Loke, realizing they might be caught in the crossfire if they stayed, urged the other two to continue. "Come on, Gray, Princess. There's no time to waste." Besides, who knew where Nirvana was headed?

He got a nod in agreement from the other two, and only a moment later, they had reached the entrance to Nirvana. However that worked. The three shared a quick glance, before entering. However, once they did, they found they had to crawl upwards. So, continuing the order they had previously advanced in, Gray went up as the first, beginning to ascend upwards.

Fortunately, the road wasn't long, and as such it took no time before Gray broke through and pulled himself up to stand. He took a moment to look around, mainly for any enemies. And as there were none, he instead took a look at what he was surrounded by. "What the heck is this place?" He asked himself, not expecting an answer.

However, that was exactly what he got. "It looks like a town." Lucy commented behind him. The buildings of rock seemed to reach into the sky, never quite reaching it. Seeing her struggling to get up, he helped pulling her up from the more or less vertical ascension. Meanwhile, he knew Loke would have no problems getting up himself, and he would prefer it that way too.

"Yes, you're absolutely right." Someone with a much deeper voice than either Gray or Loke had said. The three looked up to see the approaching people. "The illusionary city Nirvana, is its name." They were reminded. "To have the both of you here is very reassuring." Jura told them with a sort of smile.

"The old man from Lyon's guild…" Gray said, his eyes bugging out of his head as he saw the person with him. "AND ORACIÓN SEIS?!" He blurted out, unable to stop himself.

Lucy also overreacted when she recognized the man with Jura. "Ehhhhh?!" She asked, recognizing the Oración Seis member to be Hoteye. The squared face kind of gave it away.

"Don't worry." Jura told them, gesturing to the bigger man next to him, however impossible it seemed. "He's now our ally." He reassured them.

Hoteye spread his arms out wide and smiled as brightly as the sun itself. "The world is lovely!" He announced happily.

Gray's eyes continued to bug out of his skull and sockets unnaturally. "No way! That old man can also use magic of Enlightenment?!" He asked.

Lucy shook her head. "No, I believe he is under the influence of Nirvana." Lucy told him in a low voice, not certain if Hoteye should know, as it had the possibility of pushing him over to the dark again.

"This is where the ancient people of Nirvit once lived." Hoteye explained suddenly, interrupting their conversation. "Around 400 years ago, many wars took place all over the world." He explained.

Loke sneaked his arms around his two friends' shoulders. "Can anyone explain to me, why he is explaining this to us?" He asked them in a whisper. They both replied with a shake of their heads.

"The people of Nirvit who remained neutral, lamented such world, and created a magic to maintain its balance." Hoteye continued unaffected. "An incredible magic that interchanged light and darkness. That magic was named after the country of peace, Nirvana." He explained dramatically.

Gray scowled. "How ironic. The country of peace known as Nirvana is now being used for evil purposes." He commented.

Lucy nodded. "But… Right from the start, it would be a good magic. If it didn't have the ability to turn light to dark." Lucy reminded them.

"It can't be helped." Jura replied firmly. "Perhaps the ancient people were also unable to foresee that far into the future."

Loke nodded. "Right. Strong magic comes with strong side effects every single time." He said, experience underlining his words. After all, he was maybe even older than Nirvana itself.

"At any rate." Hoteye said, regaining everyone's attention. "The city has started to move, and that's not good." He reminded them all. "We have to stop it as soon as possible." He explained.

Gray nodded firmly. "Obviously." He said as if it really was the most obvious thing in the world.

The priest-like dark-turned-light mage looked around at all of them. "Brain is controlling this city from the central master room." He explained. "While doing that, Brain can't use his magic. So it's the chance to attack him." Before now, Lucy hadn't realized just how important insider-knowledge could be on a mission. Without Hoteye here telling them about that one disadvantage of Brain's they wouldn't have guessed.

Loke crossed his arms, stepping up to stand next to Lucy. "You said Nirvana's 'moving' though. Is it heading somewhere?" He asked the - perhaps former - Oración Seis member.

Hoteye nodded. "Most likely…" He confirmed. "But I don't know where its destination is." He admitted.

"That's right." A voice agreed behind them. "Only I know what father is thinking." He added.

They all looked up to see the one of the Oración Seis members they probably expected the least standing on top of one of the taller buildings. "Midnight?!" Lucy blurted out before she could stop herself. That was the guy who had been sleeping throughout the whole battle last time they clashed.

"Hoteye." Midnight said, his voice cutting through the air as if it wasn't even there. "Have you betrayed father?" He asked his old teammate.

"No!" Hoteye exclaimed, raising his fist in determination. "I only realized that Brain is wrong!" He declared.

In a blur of sped, Midnight jumped down from the building, landing on the ground on both feet, steadied by one hand and his face hidden by his dark bangs. "Did you just say that my father is…" He slowly tipped his face upwards. "Wrong?" He asked, menace transparent in his voice.

"Father?" Gray asked with a surprised expression. "He said father… What was that…?" He asked, not even able to form a proper sentence.

Lucy just stared at the dark mage in front of her, eyes wide. "You mean they're father and son in the same, dark guild?" She asked hesitantly.

None of their questions were answered. Instead Hoteye just spoke to Midnight as if they hadn't even said a single word. "People's hearts shouldn't be manipulated by magic." He told him. "We can make weak hearts grow stronger." He suggested.

Midnight, now standing up with a straight back, looked at Hoteye with a quite… Crazed expression. Without saying a word, he swiped one arm forward. With that single movement, everything began to shake around them, the buildings, the ground, even the air seemed to shake. Everything went so fast none of them could really catch what was going on. At one moment, they were all facing the danger of being hit by a wall Midnight had torn down and hurled at them, and the next all of them, excluding Hoteye, were lying in a garbled mess in a hole in the ground, which hadn't been there before.

Loke pushed his glasses up. "Are you all right, Princess?" He asked.

Lucy nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine Loke." She reassured him, rubbing her forehead the best she could, where she was feeling a light ache.

"What the hell happened?!" Gray asked.

"Hoteye-dono made the ground cave in and saved us." Jura explained, not even caring that he was upside-down.

"ALL OF YOU!" Hoteye called, drawing their attention once again. "PLEASE GO TO THE MASTER ROOM!" He told them. "The power of every person in Oración Seis is equal!" He reassured them. "Leave Midnight to me!" He ordered them, charging forward. While skidding to a stop, he shot his hand out towards his former teammate, the area around him exploding, rubble and dust flying up in the air in a cloud of dirt.

"You?" Midnight's voice asked from within the cloud. "Against me?" He asked, the cloud dissipating enough to reveal his face.

"A match between the Oración Seis?" Gray asked.

"Wow…" Lucy said. "This turned out to be some development." Lucy agreed. Everyone had managed to crawl up to the edge of the pitfall which had been made for them to watch the match unfolding in front of them.

"Hoteye-dono…" Jura grumbled.

"NOW!" Hoteye yelled, not daring to move his gaze from his opponent. "Go quickly!" He ordered them. Or, well, Lucy had thought he wouldn't dare to look away. But she was proved wrong when he looked back at them, a smile on his face and a blush on his cheeks. "Also, my real name is Richard." He revealed.

Midnight glared at Hoteye, or Richard. "To reveal your true name to the enemy…" Midnight muttered. "You've really fallen, Hoteye." He said with a hint of anger in his voice, and not even using his real name even though it was revealed.

The four exchanged gazes, before pulling themselves up and running off and away, leaving Hoteye to deal with Midnight, although a little reluctantly, but believing that he could pull through.

They weren't certain how long they had been running, when they saw… No one had ever expected to see anything like it. Brain, the leader of Oración Seis walking off, dragging Natsu behind him. Who was once again fighting his motion sickness.

"There!" Gray blurted out, attracting Brain's attention.

"Natsu-dono! What's wrong with you?" He asked what seemed to be an unconscious Dragon Slayer.

"It's because…" They heard a strained voice barely moaning out. "This is a vehicle.." The voice added. Almost everyone turned as one towards the voice, seeing their favorite, blue cat lying on the ground. "Everyone… Help Natsu.." He begged them. "He was taken." He stated, saying what they all had seen right in front of them.

"Half of Oración Seis have lost." Brain said, once again drawing the four mages' attention back to him. "And fallen to the ground." He said. Lucy noticed he had much fewer lines on his face, it looked almost bare in comparison. "In order to create a new order of Oración Seis, I'm taking this boy." He stated blatantly.

Gray scowled at him. "I thought this might happen sometime, but to actually be scouted for a dark guild." He said. True, Dragon Slaying magic was a strong magic, and Lost too, so really it wouldn't be over the edge if he got invitations to join other guilds.

Brain's kind of 'invitation' was kind of unconventional though. "Natsu won't become your ally just because you say so!" At least… That's what she hoped.

The dark mage smirked at them, their words not affecting him in the least. "Nirvana will taint his heart dark and he will become my servant." He explained.

"The hell…" Natsu muttered "I will!" He growled, chomping down on the arm dragging him along with his sharp dragon-like teeth.

"Tch." Brain grunted swinging his arm holding Natsu around and slammed him down on the ground, which caused the Slayer to immediately release him, breathing out air as he crashed with the ground. "You still have that much strength left?"

No, he did not. Now, lying on the ground, he looked no different than he did on trains, about to puke and all green in the face. She could just imagine it, the sheen of sweat covering him right about now. "He doesn't seem to be in good shape…" Jura commented.

Loke sighed and shook his head. "No, I'm afraid Natsu is extremely sensitive to transportation." He said with a shrug. "If only he didn't take advantage of Princess because of it…!" He growled, glaring at the Slayer on the ground.

Said Dragon Slayer flipped over on his stomach. "Hurry… And… Defeat… This guy…" He somehow managed to breathe out. "Stop… This thing…" He said, before trembling as if he was about to barf.

Gray's scowl deepened. "Not doing this for you, but I'll stop it." He relented. Lucy and Loke nodded in agreement, they would stop it too.

A strange, dark aura erupted from Brain. "Stop? Nirvana? As if you can." He said patronizingly. "This city will soon reach its first target, arriving at Cait Shelter." He informed them, much to their surprise.

Lucy gasped. "That's Wendy and Carla's guild…" She trailed off. "Why would you do that?" She asked him, horrified.

Jura glared at the dark mage. "State your intentions as to why you are targeting Wendy-dono and Carla-dono's guild." He ordered the other guy.

Brain smirked again. "This extreme reversal magic will taint that light guild dark in an instant." He told them what they already knew. "I'm looking forward to it… Witnessing the depths of hell." He said.

Loke scoffed. "This bastard is sick." He almost growled.

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows in anger. "I'll never forgive him." She stated. Kidnapping a poor, little, defenseless girl and then planning on destroying her guild afterwards.

The Fairy Tail mages froze when they felt an immense, unyielding power behind them. "Didn't you hear me?" Jura's deep - and now also menacing - voice asked behind them. "State your intentions." He ordered.

The white haired guild master broke out laughing like a madman, not at all feeling the effect of the power the Wizard Saint was emanating the way the other three were. "I have nothing to say to weaklings like you! I AM THE JUDGE OF LIGHT AND DARK, AND RULE ALL!" He exclaimed loudly.

Jura bypassed the frozen Fairy Tail mages almost elegantly. "What a troublesome fellow." He said in a calm tone. Of course, it wasn't the nice kind of calm. "He can't even hold a proper conversation."

Brain's laugh went down to being an evil chuckle instead. "Get out of my sight, maggots." He said confidently.

Without a moment's hesitance, Jura whipped his hand up, two threatening fingers pointing at the opponent. Brain realized his grave mistake of underestimating the almost equally bulky man, when everything around him suddenly exploded, Jura standing unaffected as big boulders flew past him at dangerous speeds.

And then towards our three Fairy Tail mages. Loke, being the first to break out of the ice, jumped his two temporary teammates and pushed them down on the ground. "DOWN!" He yelled, and managed to push them down the moment before the boulder would've hit them, instead sailing over them at higher speeds than he thought a boulder could fly.

Meanwhile, Brain flew back and away from the huge crater, in which he had been standing a moment ago. He landed on the ground a little away, looking up at Jura with fear and a trembling body. "Wh… What is this magical power…?" He asked mostly himself.

Jura glared at him, a vein bulging out on his forehead. "Get up." He ordered the Oración Seis member. "I won't let you rest until you spit out the reason for attacking Cait Shelter." He said as close to growling one could come without actually doing it.

Loke pushed up a little from the two he was currently lying top of, 'unintentionally' leaning a little towards Lucy as he did so. "Well, doesn't surprise me." He said, pushing his glasses up on his head, a smirk on his face. "He is one of the 10 Great Wizard Saints after all." He said, before turning to his Princess, making sure she was okay.

Brain seemed to get over his shock, standing up as he wiped blood away from the corner of his mouth. "I see… I'm a little surprised though." He said. "It seems the title of the Wizard Saint is not only for decoration." He admitted.

Jura didn't take any notice of the kind-of-compliment Brain was giving him. "There are many guilds based closer to here than Cait Shelter." Jura reminded everyone. "You must have a reason to aim at that specific guild." He stated.

The enemy guild master lifted his staff into the air. "People who are about to die won't need to know." He told him, dark magic suddenly gathering around his staff. Lucy's eyes widened when she saw that inside the dark magic, faces twisted in horror. "Dark Rondo." He chanted, before winging the staff down, pointing directly at Jura. All the magic gathered in the staff, burst right out towards the Lamia Scale mage.

Jura quickly crossed his arms in front of him. "Iron Rock Wall!" He yelled as several pillars of ground rose up, defending him and the ones behind him against the magic Brain had cast.

Speaking of the devil, the dark mage more or less flashed from one side of the wall of ground to the other, standing behind Jura. "You fell for it." He said with glee in his voice. Once again, he pointed the staff at Jura. "Dark Capriccio!" He chanted as a beam of dark magic, twirling around itself, was thrown towards the Wizard Saint.

Jura swung around, his arm with him, followed by a pillar of rock bending and curving around to protect him, not caring a least bit about whether physics allowed it or not.

Brain laughed at his defense. "That's useless! Dark Capriccio is a penetration magic." He told him as his dark magic crashed with the rock pillar. "It'll easily go through simple rock like that!" He reassured Jura.

And true to Brain's word, the Dark Capriccio easily dug into the rock pillar. Without any hesitation, Jura bent down, the formerly outstretched hand almost touching the ground now. With this movement, the pillar of rock bended and twisted to his command, deflecting the Capriccio's direction to shooting almost vertically up in the air. Without giving the onlookers or Brain any time to recover from the shock of that actually being possible at all, Jura thrust his hand forward, palm facing the startled Brain. His rock pillar seemed to burst and the rubble flew forward, attacking the opponent relentlessly.

So relentlessly, actually, they didn't even leave him after they had hit. Instead, they simply stuck to him, trapping him in a coffin of rock-pieces. "Supreme King Rock Crush!" He said, the rocks pressing so hard together, they squashed Brain underneath and then exploded out to all sides.

Brain fell back, landing on his back on top of the now crumbled ground. Unable to fight any longer after that hit. Lucy smiled at Jura's win. "We won!" She said happily.

Gray grinned widely as well. "He did it!" He said just as happy as Lucy. "This guy is the boss of Oración Seis, right?" He asked rhetorically.

Jura disregarded their questions and instead went to the fallen opponent, kneeling next to him. "Now… Tell me why you aimed for Wendy-dono's guild." He demanded.

"Does that really matter now?" Loke asked, crossing his arms as he faced Jura. "If we just stop Nirvana before it reaches Cait Shelter, then the problem should be solved." He said with a half shrug. A 'Yes please' could be heard from the downed Dragon Slayer.

"No…" Brain muttered. "No way… I got defeated…" He muttered incredulously. "Midnight… Take care of the rest… The six demons can't go down…" He muttered, his voice losing power with every word. "When the six prayers disappear… That person will…" And that was when he passed out.

"That person?" Jura asked Brain, only to realize he wouldn't be getting any answers anytime soon. "One of the lines disappeared from his face just now… What could it mean?" He asked himself.

"Everybody! It's terrible!" A soft voice called, interrupting Jura's thought process. It was the little, blue haired Sky Dragon Slayer, Wendy and her cat, Carla, following her. "This city! It's heading towards my guild!" She warned them, tears already forming in her eyes.

Gray grinned at her with crossed arms. "It was, but it's all right now." He reassured her and gestured towards the downed Oración Seis guild master, making Wendy shriek in surprise. "Cobra is collapsed over there too." He said and gestured in his general direction with a nod of his head.

Wendy smiled, relief washing over her face. "Thank god…" She said, her tears withdrawing slowly again.

Lucy smiled and nodded. "I guess Brain was controlling Nirvana." She said, seeing as Natsu would be feeling a little better now. "Now that he has collapsed, Nirvana should stop too." She explained.

"I don't like it." Carla said, her small paws crossed in front of her chest. "In the end you couldn't find out why he was aiming for Cait Shelter, right?" She asked sternly.

Loke shrugged. "No, he passed out before he could tell us." He explained. "But there's not any point in finding out now, is there?" He asked her.

Jura stood up, stepping away from Brain. "There are a few things I'm still worried about. So l think we should end this as quickly as possible." He stated. "Besides, it would seem it was not Brain who controlled Nirvana." Jura added, pointing at Natsu, who was still battling with his motion sickness.

Gray frowned. "Right.." He said. "That big dude, said that the central master room controls Nirvana, didn't he?" He asked, remembering back to what Hoteye told them.

Lucy, a little embarrassed she had been mistaken like that, blushed and nodded quickly. "Oh yeah, Hot- Richard did say that, didn't he?" She asked rhetorically. "Well, let's go then!" She said.

Jura went to pick Natsu up and slung him over his shoulder, letting the Dragon Slayer breathe a little easier, although it wasn't by much. Likewise, Wendy picked up Happy, and with that settled, they all quickly ran to the central master room.

In a matter of a minute, all of them reached the central master room. Or what was left of it anyway. Once it had probably been a beautiful, circular room with that special grayish rock, which was everywhere on Nirvana, as floor tiles, high pillars reaching into the heavens and creating a roof over the room.

Only, all that beauty was gone. Left was no roof, broken pillars at very much different heights, cracked floor and rubble lying everywhere, tainting what had once probably been extraordinary.

But even more importantly than the empty room, was the fact that it was completely empty.

Gray threw his arms out from himself in an exasperated manner. "Where the hell are the damn controls?!" He asked in a yell.

Lucy furrowed her eyebrows. "Then how are we going to stop this thing?" She asked, figuring none of them would actually have the answer for it.

Gray's jaw clenched. "Damn…" He muttered. "I thought that as long as we defeated Brain, we could stop it." He said.

Loke shook his head and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You should know by now, it is never that easy, Gray." He said, gaining a frustrated sigh from the Ice Make mage.

"YOOOOOOSHH!" Natsu yelled, drawing everyone's attention to watching as the pink haired Dragon Slayer jumped around on Nirvana, a big grin on his face. It seemed Wendy had cured him of his motion sickness. "I'm perfectly fine!" He exclaimed, not at all reading the atmosphere going on. First he went to beg Wendy to teach him, but of course it was a Sky magic, so she couldn't. Next he practically skipped to Lucy, tears in his eyes. "Luce, I can't feel I'm on a vehicle!" He told her.

Lucy glared at him. "READ THE ATMOSPHERE!" She yelled at him. "We don't have time for this!" She told him, turning back to the ones she'd been talking with before. "But if there are no controls, and no one controlling them either, we beat Brain after all… Then why is Nirvana still moving?" She asked

Loke's eyes widened lightly as he connected the dots. "Princess, good observation." He told her with one of his dazzling smiles, before returning to the more serious mood. Although, he did spare some time to appreciate the blush dusting over his summoner's cheeks at the compliment. "I believe Nirvana's destination has been set, and that it is running on autopilot." He reasoned. He couldn't find any other explanation.

Wendy began trembling, her small hands rising to her mouth as fear and sadness reared their ugly heads. "Our… Our guild is…" She couldn't even finish the sentence.

"Don't worry!" Natsu said in what, at any other point in time, would have been cheery. However right now, it was not. "It won't get your guild. I'll pay back my debt." He promised her, his expression dead serious. "I'm gonna stop it for sure."

Carla raised her paw in order to gain their attention. "It's all very well saying you'll stop it, but how on Earthland do you plan on doing it?" She asked him.

"Uhh.." Natsu said. "Destroy it?" He deadpanned.

Lucy sighed exasperatedly. "Is that all you can think about?" She asked him, while her Lion Spirit literally face palmed next to her.

Gray scoffed. "How d'you plan on destroying something of this size?" He asked his friend and rival.

"I daresay asking Brain would be the quickest solution." Jura suggested.

Lucy looked down at Wendy, hearing her mutter something like 'Gerard' or the like. "Did you say something, Wendy?" She asked her.

Wendy shook her head. "N-no, it's nothing." She reassured her before running off and out of the broken room. "I… I might have an idea, so I'll just go and check it out!" She said, giving them no chance to stop her.

"Wendy!" Carla scolded, running after her friend. "Where do you think you're going?!" She asked her as the both of them disappeared from sight.

Before anyone could do anything, a distinctive voice sounded in their heads. "Everyone, can you hear me?" It asked. "It's me, Hoteye."

"Richard-dono?!" Jura asked, shocked by his sudden 'appearance'. "Are you all right?" He asked him, while Lucy wondered how it was possible to speak through telepathy with so many people at once.

Hoteye, or Richard, sighed in their heads. "I regret to inform you that I'm not, in fact, all right." He told them. "Alas, I was ultimately no match for Midnight." He informed them. "I beg you to work together and do all you can to defeat Midnight. If you defeat him, the flow of magic into Nirvana will cease… And this city should stop moving." He explained.

Gray crossed his arms, nodding. "So it's a kind of Living Link magic, huh?" He asked.

Hoteye skipped Gray's question. "You will find him directly beneath the central master room. Please do be careful. He truly is… Very powerful." He admitted.

Jura frowned. "Richard-dono…" He said almost doubtfully. Something was wrong, he was sure of it.

None of them paid him any attention though. "Right below us?!" Lucy almost panicked at the thought of such a strong mage so close to them already.

Gray, however, grinned. "Right! Looks like we have a ray of hope!" He exclaimed, eager to finally stop Nirvana in its tracks.

Natsu balled his fists and grinned, just like Gray. "Powerful, huh…?" He asked in a low voice. "Now I'm all fired up!" He then told them.

"Natsu…" Loke almost groaned. "It's for the sake of stopping Nirvana, not so you can satiate your hunger for fighting."

"Let's go!" They all agreed, before beginning to make their way down the tower.

"Only one of the six prayers remains…" They heard Richard's voice say, distinguishably weaker than before. "You must prevail… Nirvana must… Be stopped!" He said almost as if he was in pain before his presence disappeared from their minds.

They ran down the large flight of stairs, ending down at the big gate-like door. Natsu immediately charged the door, tearing it open. "Get out here you sleepy bastard!" He yelled, the door opening, to only show nothing but a bright, white, unnatural light. "Eh?" Was Natsu's only reaction.

"It's a trap!" Jura yelled, before all of their sights turned completely black and the ringing after a big explosion was the only thing they could hear as they laid on the ground.

"Ugh…" Natsu groaned somewhere close to Lucy, where she couldn't tell. "That hurts.." He admitted.

Gray, seeing nothing other than black only wondered one thing. "Are we even alive?" He asked the others confusedly, gaining an 'Aye' from Happy.

"Princess!" She heard Loke call out to her somewhere very close. "Are you all right?!" He asked her hurriedly.

Lucy tried to straighten from the awkward position she had landed it, somehow. "Yeah, I'm fine Loke." She reassured him. "What's going on though…? After that gigantic explosion, we…" She trailed off, pushing up from the ground. However, as she did, she hit her head on the low roof of whatever she was caught in. "Ow…" She mumbled, touching the roof. "This.. This is.."

Before she could actually say it out loud, Natsu sprung up like a spring, bursting through the roof of their cage making enough room for all of them. What they saw was the big, bulky man of Lamia standing with his arms spread out wide as his whole form trembled.

"He… He protected us!" She said, fingers flying up to cover her mouth as she began tearing up at the thought of the man sacrificing himself to protect them from the blast.

They all called out to him, when he began falling backwards. "You certainly are lively youngsters." He commented as Natsu burst a bigger hole in the shell he had made for them. "I'm glad.. You're… Safe…" He said and crashed to the ground.

"OLD GUY!" Gray yelled as he jumped out of their protective shell and ran to the fallen mage, followed by the other four. "You'd better not die on us, old guy!" He told him, not sure what to do

Lucy fell on her knees next to Jura's head. "What should we do…? These wounds are terrible!" She said. If only Wendy hadn't run away.

Their conversation was halted, when they felt and heard someone approaching. "Things certainly seem to have become interesting." A dark, unfamiliar voice commented. "Was even the mighty Midnight eliminated?" The same voice asked.

"Yes sir!" Another voice answered. "M-my deep apologies, Zero-sama!"

They all looked over to see nothing more than a silhouette, holding a staff. However, there's wasn't a second person anywhere in sight.

"At any rate." The voice said, a smirk in his voice. "This certainly is a refreshing feeling. This body… This voice… This nostalgic power… It's all so nostalgic." He said.

Natsu, the stupid one of all of them. "Oi! Who are you?!" He asked the silhouette of a person.

His grin only widened as he finally revealed his identity. "I will take care of the rest, stand back Klodoa." He said as he released the staff, which obediently jumped down and away, having a life of its own.

Everyone's eyes widened as they saw Brain, who out of the blue summoned new clothes to get rid of the old, tattered ones. Except… It seemed his skin-tone had gotten lighter, his white hair was now messier then it had been before and the sclera of his eyes had turned completely black, giving him a demonic appearance. And, all the lines on his face were all gone, as if they had never been there in the first place. Just like all the wounds he had gotten in the battle against Jura

He turned to the Fairy Tail mages, all standing around the fallen Wizard Saint. "Young brats…" He started off slowly and darkly. His voice had changed to a much darker tone than his previous voice. What had happened? "You would appear to have done quite some damage to my guild. As Master, I will have to take the proper retaliatory action."

Lucy gasped as she suddenly put two and two together. "He has a split personality!" She blurted out without thinking.

When his gaze came to rest on her, she flinched back. His lips turned upwards to a smirk. "Ohh, the blonde one's smart." He said patronizingly. "Well, what do you know, I haven't even introduced myself." He said with amusement clear on his face. "I'm Zero, master of Oración Seis." He said and tipped his head back, a creepy expression on his face. "And I will be bringing you to hell." He told them, before glancing down on the unconscious Earth mage. "Starting with the one who took my other self down."

With a whip of his hand, dark magic burst out of it, quickly travelling towards Jura. Gray instantly reacted, bringing his hands together in the usual Ice Make stance. "SHIELD!" He quickly yelled, a wall of ice rising between Jura and Zero.

However, as soon as the dark magic hit the shield, it was clear to everyone it would not be holding out.

Therefore, Natsu quickly sprang into action, charging into action, his fists on fire as he more or less teleported to end up ready to attack right under Zero's defenses.

Right at that moment though, his dark magic overwhelmed Gray's shield and knocked him back effortlessly and Zero swiped the hand he had been holding out around in a wide arc, ending up with hitting Natsu's head and sending him flying into and through a wall with amazing speed and strength.

Lucy stood, shaking like a leaf, as she had watched both of the strongest people she knew getting beaten so easily by a single person. And knew she had absolutely no chances of anything in this match. She was, for the first time, truly, sincerely and genuinely afraid. Afraid of Zero. Afraid for her teammates. Afraid of what might happen to her.

She only barely registered Loke stepping in front of her, vowing to protect her with his life, before Zero's magic erupted from the ground underneath them. In the last moment, Loke managed to push Lucy out at the edge of Zero's attack, taking the brunt of it himself as he screamed in pain, disappearing back to his own world.

Lucy flew back, landing on her back on the ruble, although still conscious and decided that for now, it would be in her best interest to just play unconscious, like her teammates.

With a last malicious cackle, Zero left the scene with Klodoa, his staff, though not before breaking the wall and roof above and behind them, leaving only the sound of everything crashing above and around her and the last cackle of his, before everything became completely silent.

Jesus effing Christ! How in the world do these chapters get so long?!

Yes, I said I would finish the Oración Seis arc in this chapter, and yes, I know I haven't. Completely.
See, this was always the plan. With the next chapter, I will briefly round up what will happen from here on out, which will easily be explained, so actually, I kept up to my promise. At least the one I had in mind. For this chapter.
From now on I will promise not to promise to finish a whole arc in one chapter ._."

Some of you, who nerd Fairy Tail a bit more than others, might realize I completely left out Fairy Tail and the fallen Jura's confrontation with Klodoa, the staff with the skull, but honestly… If I had to add that too, what kind of monster chapter wouldn't this be?!
I was desperate to finish this thing at the end!
So yea, it might seem a bit rushed, and please forgive me for that.

As always, thank you, you wonderful people who take off some time to read, follow, favorite and review to my story! Many, MANY thanks!

~Line464d