I don't think Acnologia's going to go out in such a big way. Chapter 539 was basically "Surprise, surprise, he's back and stronger than ever." Chapter 540 was the other Dragon Slayers coming to, and teaming up to fight him. Also, Anna and Ichiya are alive...again…-_- But with only 6 chapters left, I don't anticipate it to be that long of a fight, just because Mashima doesn't have the comfort of length. He basically did what I've been trying to avoid: bring a character back just for them to die again. The only reason I did it with my own Acnologia fight was to display a sense of tension when Isabella revived him, and then for a small show in difference between his and Natsu's strength. But, besides this, Mashima has effectively done this with Makarov too. The act of bringing him back to life after such an impactful death scene is infuriating, but he is already 89 years old, and so he doesn't have that much longer to live anyways. Especially since most shonen manga have a timeskip epilogue, i.e. Naruto, Bleach, and probably One Piece when it actually ends. It's usually about 10 years or so into the future, and shows the characters as adults, usually married, and maybe even with kids. So if Fairy Tail follows suit, it stands to reason that Makarov would have passed away from old age, and thus you defeated the purpose of his death scene by bringing him back, and having him die of natural causes. Granted, Mashima has stated multiple times that he wants Fairy Tail to have happy endings, but I feel like another happy ending that would have worked better is a new guild master, and moving on by honoring his memory, like what I'm going to do. In any case, enjoy. This chapter might not be quite as long as the next 4. Speaking of which, there's probably only going to be 5 chapters left of this story as well.
Songs
Vs. Uranus: Dancer of the Boreal Valley (Dark Souls 3 OST)
Uranus Spirit Weapon: Champion's Gravetender & Greatwolf (Dark Souls 3 OST)
Double Bladed Lance: Champion's Gravetender & Greatwolf part 2 (Dark Souls 3 OST)
Uranus God Soul: Pontiff Sulyvahn (Dark Souls 3 OST)
Victoria's God Soul: Ornstein & Smough (Dark Souls OST)
Everyone stood there in silence, looking up at the god, who was looking down at them. He wore a light blue toga, had long gray hair, a gray mustache, and a long gray beard. He had a stern face, but didn't seem entirely evil. He shrunk himself and his throne down to human sized, standing at 6'2".
"How interesting…" he spoke with a deep voice, and walked with an air of authority, holding his hands behind his back as he went towards Juvia.
"What, you're not even going to acknowledge me?" Silver joked. Uranus glanced at him for a brief moment before looking back at her.
"I already know everything about you. Why would I need to study you?" Juvia looked at him curiously.
"Tell me something, girl."
"Y-Yes?" she felt her heart rate drop as soon as he addressed her.
"What is it that you find so appealing in these two?"
"In Gray-sama and Silver-sama? Their passion…"
"I see…" He walked back and sat on his throne again. "I find you intriguing. Ever since you met Gray, you've been constantly disproving my family's prophecy. The Fullbuster Prophecy states that a member of my family will end up alone because of their indifference. They tend to put a constant barricade on themselves, not trusting their friends, and wanting to do everything alone." Gray lowered his gaze to the ground.
"You think that Gray-sama and Silver-sama do everything alone? You clearly don't know them as much as you think you do!" Juvia protested.
"Juvia. It's alright." Gray put his hand in front of her, and stepped forward. Uranus arched an eyebrow in interest.
"I'm starting to believe that there's truth to these prophecies, as silly as they sound. It's true that I haven't been the most open person...especially when I left to join Avatar...but I believe that even if the prophecies become true, that they can be amended as well. I've been trying to change throughout this war, and by the time we're done here, these prophecies won't mean shit!"
"You think so? Perhaps your generation might be fine, but in 100 years, when the next 5 envoys are chosen, they will fall victim to the same foretelling. Ice Magic is a staple of ours, and as long as you wield it, your heart will become frozen in solitude. Especially if you're a Devil Slayer or Envoy. In fact, you've followed the prophecy more closely than your father, Gray. He's lucky that he has Layla, who will always remain by his side. But you, on the other hand...Juvia keeps trying to get closer to you and all you do is push her away. How sad." Gray, in a fit of rage, manifested his devil slayer marks and made a path of purple ice towards his god. But, he stomped on the ground, causing a shockwave that shattered the attack.
"How ridiculous. Using Ice Magic against me is pointless. You should know that." Gray gritted his teeth and ran towards him.
"Stop." Silver grabbed him and threw him back. "You're going to get yourself killed. Leave this to me." He stepped forward.
"You believe you'll fare any better? I don't see how, you use the same magic that he does, just to a larger extent."
"It's that larger extent that counts." The air started dropping in temperature quickly, so much so that the walls in the room began to freeze.
"Hey, Natsu, Zeref." he looked over his shoulder at the two. "Create a force field and light a fire inside. Any of you who can't stand the cold should go in there and join them. You should leave this to us." Silver, Gray, and Juvia stepped forward.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. Our magics are the same type, which means that I should be able to eat anything that he throws at me." he grinned.
"...Alright then. Everyone, come over here! Darkness God's Wall!" He created a dark force field around everyone, and Natsu lit a fire within.
"It's only going to get colder from here on out, so try and stay warm." he advised, everyone huddling close together.
"Very well…let's begin." Uranus flexed his hand, a cold wind blowing through the room, right into the faces of the three.
"Gray-sama...Water Magic won't do anything to him…"
"Then help me out. We'll combine our powers, and use them against him." She nodded at him, and began to form Water Nebula, while he charged up Ice Devil Slayer Magic on his hand.
"I'll go first." Silver jumped towards him, creating an icicle spear.
"You poor fool." Uranus raised his leg up, intending to block the attack with his foot. As soon as Silver's icicle connected with his sandal, it shattered, surprising him. He kicked him back, making him land on the floor.
"Curious as to why that happened? It's fairly simple. I hardened my foot with ice, and made it stronger and sturdier than yours."
"So...that's it then?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're so overconfident, Isabella." He narrowed his eyes. "You always talk about how superior you are, how your victims are nothing. You just explained how you were able to stop my attack."
"I explain my abilities because I know that you can do nothing to stop them."
"It doesn't matter, because explaining how you did something just lets us come up with a way to stop it. You see, the difference between us is that you don't try. You haven't really used any strategies in years, have you? It's because you don't have to. Your mind isn't as sharp as ours. We may not be quite as smart as you, but we sure as hell are not stupid. We're able to adapt to our situations, and think ahead. We can become smarter. And the same thing goes for your powers. You have reached the peak of your abilities, you can't get any better than you are right now. But getting to you, these fights that we're in. They're helping us grow, they're preparing us for you."
"It really doesn't matter. Because there will always be a huge gap between us. I may not be able to become any stronger than I am right now, but it's not that big of a deal when no one else can ever reach my level, is it? You can't stop the gods, how do you plan to stop me?"
"We are stopping the gods. We're freeing them from your control."
"That's not what I meant." Uranus created an icicle that he flung towards Silver, but was then stopped by Gray and Juvia's attack.
"Unison Raid: Shotgun!" They yelled, launching a frozen vortex that spit out multiple ice spears. A large gust of wind blew around the god, dispersing the attack. Silver stabbed him through the back with another icicle, but it didn't do anything. He kicked him back, took the weapon out of him, and healed his wound.
'That won't work at all. In order to truly get him, I'll have to use my spirit weapons.'
"Heaven God's Renditional Blades!" He created two pink ice swords, covered in a whirlwind.
"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Fists!" Gray formed his ice gauntlets over his hands, and ran towards the god, punching him across the face. He still remained unaffected, grabbing his weaponized gloves and tossing him aside.
"How unfortunate. Your strongest magic is Ice Devil's, but that can't do a thing to me."
"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!" Gray formed his bow and arrow, but fired them with his gauntlets still on, adding some extra power to the arrow.
Uranus held his hand out to catch the arrow, but this time it went through it and sent him flying after hitting him in the chest.
"You were saying?" he smirked.
"I was saying that it can't harm me." He stood back up, removing the arrow from his chest and snapping it in half. Silver went and slashed him across his back multiple times, staggering him before falling onto the floor. Silver wasted no time rushing over and combining his swords into one greatsword, before slashing him across his back twice.
"Done yet?"
"No...not by a longshot." He flipped up and kicked Silver away before holding his hand out behind him.
"Heaven God's Lance." A powerful blue ice lance surrounded in wind materialized into his hand before twirling it around to his side and then behind him before extending it to his front, pointing it at them.
"Bastard." Silver ran up and swung his greatsword at him again, but Uranus blocked the strike with his weapon before disarming him by swinging it upward.
"So you still think that you can win? It would be laughable if you said yes."
"I can still hurt you. I just have to hit you hard enough to knock you out of him!" He jumped up and swung his blade in a circle once, before it transformed into his huge blade, bigger than his body. He swung it over his head before smashing it down towards the god. But, he simply grew in size, making his weapon bigger, and strong enough to block it.
"Are you two going to just stand around and watch?" he asked Gray and Juvia without looking at them.
"Ice Devil's Rage!" Gray fired a beam of purple ice towards his ancestor, who simply formed a second lance and blocked it by spinning it.
"It's like I told you. Useless."
"You have such a problem. Telling me to stop standing there and then as soon as I do something, you brush it off." Gray said through gritted teeth.
"It's part of my charm." Just then, he lost his balance as Juvia slid her leg under his foot, tripping him. Both of his weapons disappeared as Silver continued down and sliced him in half.
"Silver-sama!" Juvia screamed, her hands covering her mouth.
"Don't worry, he's not dead." he reassured. After a few seconds, icy wind surrounded his body, moving the two halves together, before the wounds stitched themselves together, and he stood back up again.
"What part of god don't you understand? They cannot die, no matter what. Even if our head is cut in half, or our heart is stabbed, we do not perish. Now let's get this over with. I've become bored." Wind blasted around him, blowing them back against the walls of the room.
"Ow….Gray-sama…" Juvia landed against Gray, the two of them sitting up slowly. Uranus once again formed his two lances, a blue-gray aura beginning to surround him.
"So, let's see just how cold we can make this room." His eyes flashed blue.
"Silver-sama...how in the world are we supposed to defeat him?!"
"I don't know…we need Natsu and Yury."
"Juvia will get them." She ran over to the sphere of darkness before tapping on it. Zeref opened it up to let her in.
"What's wrong?"
"We need Natsu-san and Yury-sama!"
"Fire?" they asked at the same time.
"Yes."
"Yury, you go. We need someone here to keep us warm, otherwise we'll freeze to death."
"Of course." He stood up, walking out.
"I'm going too." Victoria followed him.
"Are you sure you don't want me to go?" Natsu asked, tending to the flames on his hands.
"Yes. Yury's more experienced dealing with gods, and we need someone to keep us alive. Don't worry." Juvia ran back out as Zeref closed his sphere again.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Yury yelled, coming out to wind whirling around everywhere.
"What's going on is that he's insane!" Silver yelled back, using his giant sword as a shield against the wind.
"Silver, we're not going to get anywhere unless you use your God Soul!"
"No! Not yet!" He ran towards him, swinging his sword again. Uranus once again enlarged, now standing at 9 feet tall, his lances growing with him. Once again, the sword was blocked, and Silver was sent flying backwards.
"Take Over: God Soul!" Yury activated his own, as Gray and Juvia decided to stay back, protecting each other.
"And why not?!" Victoria yelled at him this time, as he got slammed back again, this time merely by the god's arm.
"Light God's Belisama!" Yury created his greatsword, flying towards him, and clashing back and forth, evenly matched.
"Because then I'll be outmatched!" he yelled, running towards him again, slashing with his own greatsword, but getting blocked by Uranus' strikes again. He knocked both of them away before slamming the ends of his lances together, making a double spear.
"Light God's Horus!" Yury's greatsword absorbed black light as he flew towards him again, swinging against his new weapon.
"You know, those weapons are larger and deal more damage, but they'll never land a hit on me with how slow they are." He twirled his double spear around before thrusting, breaking through his sword.
"Light God's Hyperion!" He created his strongest and largest sword, going against him again. This time, he had trouble fending off the attack, before Silver ran up with his own again and finally overpowered him, slicing him back through his throne and against the doors in the back of the room.
"Explain to me how you'd be outmatched." Yury walked up to him.
"If I used my God Soul now, he'd just use his and become stronger than me. So what would be the point? It would just put us in danger more quickly."
"The point is that it would get us closer to victory quicker!"
"If we had the opportunity to take him down before he transformed, wouldn't you want to take it?!"
"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Victoria screamed, coming between the two. "Who was right and wrong doesn't matter right now! What does is trying to stop him before he-"
"God Soul!"
"...Shit."
Uranus stood up and began to transfer them into his own dimension. However, he decided to leave Zeref's sphere and those inside of it outside of his selection. Only Silver, Yury, and Victoria were brought to his world: a frozen tundra, with only snow and ice everywhere. A strong wind was blowing around, yet the night sky was clear, filled with stars. As expected, he grew exponentially, while his eyes remained glowing blue. His skin remained normal, and didn't change color like Gaia's did.
"Take Over: God Soul." Silver activated his own transformation before summoning his giant sword again, as Yury used Light God's Hyperion. Golden Magic Power began to surge around Victoria.
"Heaven God's Frozen Lances." 5 giant frozen lances started circling around his body, seemingly having wills of their own. [A/N: At this point, be exactly 1 minute into Pontiff's theme for added effect. And yes, this move is homage to Xaldin from Kingdom Hearts.]
"Heaven God's Frozen Double Spear." Blue and Pink lightning started flashing everywhere as Uranus held his hand up to the sky and his frosted double pointed weapon appeared in his hand before he looked down on the others like insects. He quickly propelled the object downwards towards the three, who narrowly dodged it by jumping out of the way, a huge impact spreading across the ground as they connected, lightning continuing to spark around the weapon.
"This is just ridiculous. Holy God's Binding Chains." Victoria cast powerful restraining gold chains from her hand that wrapped themselves around Uranus and binded him.
"You think...these can hold me…?!" He tried to break out, but actually had some trouble.
"Hurry up!" She looked at Silver.
"Heaven God's Renditional Blades!" He formed his twin rapiers and jumped up towards the god, beginning to spin around and slash him over and over again. Uranus broke one of his arms out, reaching for his weapon on the ground.
"I don't think so! Light God's Hyperion!" Yury created his biggest sword and cut the arm, making him pull it back.
"Light God's Amaterasu!" He fired a beam of light from his sword towards the god, stopping him from moving. Silver combined the swords into his greatsword, and began slashing him again, slower but stronger.
'This is the end!' He enlarged his blade to maximum, preparing to slice him again, but Uranus narrowed his eyes angrily, causing the other lances to impale Silver, preventing his attack. The others went down into Yury, stopping both of them.
'Tch...they've been cutting him, they need to hit him.'
"One left." He grabbed his double spear and aimed it at Victoria, who sighed.
"Let's see, which one to use…" she tapped her finger against her chin.
"So long."
"Take Over: God Soul." Victoria became surrounded in a white and golden aura, and floating up so that she was level with his face.
"I was hoping to save this for later, but I guess with the fighting styles of those two, I have to take charge. Holy God's Expulsion." She created a sphere of gold energy in her hand before flying over to his chest and slamming both of her palms against it. His form began to glow the same color before a purple mass of energy left him, and his personality returned to normal.
"Victoria? What...happened?"
"How about a thank you?"
"...Thanks." Their dimensions switched back to normal, and she released her transformation, as did he. She healed both Yury and Silver, and Zeref released his spell, sensing that the fight was now over.
Uranus sat down in his throne and formed some water in his hands before washing his face.
"Feel better?" she asked.
"Yes...again, thank you." He looked at Silver, Gray, and Juvia. "I must apologize. Isabella did not have complete control of me. Some of that fight was of my own accord, mainly the latter half."
"So you mean you were fighting us because you wanted to?" Gray asked angrily.
"Yes. Take it however you wish, but the way I see it, you don't stand a chance against Isabella if you can't defeat us first."
"Well? How did we do?"
"Not well. As of right now, the only one qualified is Victoria. The rest of you have a ways to go."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that there were two things that you did wrong. I understand that not all of you are fighting because only my own magic can injure me. But, you've given up." He pointed at Juvia and Gray. "You two in particular. You couldn't land a hit, so you stopped fighting. When you face Isabella, you will not get any openings whatsoever. So, you must create one. All of you must participate, no matter who gets hurt and who dies. You cannot be afraid, and you cannot hesitate. Especially since…"
"Since what?" Victoria asked, after a pause.
"...Since your magic may not work on her."
"That's impossible."
"It's not." he countered back immediately. "Earlier, you said that you were able to adapt to situations, yet as far as I can see, you're going about this as if it's a straight path. One fight leads to the next, and you need merely to defeat your opponent to get further. Things can change easily. Do you realize that Isabella can easily rewrite the timeline so that Holy Magic doesn't work against her? Or that she can make it so that you never learned it at all?"
"...So why hasn't she?"
"That's what you need to find out. If she really didn't care about any of you, then she could simply erase you all instantly. But she hasn't yet. Clearly, she needs you around for some reason."
"...That's all you have to say?"
"Yes. What more would you like me to say? How I met my lover on Earth? It's not as touching as Gaia or Nyx. I've never been much of a family man. I'm not about to have an epiphany and become a doting forefather. After all, you've never really cared about me, right?" he looked over at Silver. "I barely talked to you so why should you talk to me?"
Silver stared at him for a few moments.
"Sorry if I'm not the man you want me to be. But this is who I am. And I'm not going to change. You'll be even more disappointed when you get to Erebus."
"...Let's go. We have nothing more to do here." Silver closed his eyes and began walking towards the back doors.
"Are you sure, Silver-sama?" Juvia asked.
"Yes. We'll just be wasting time if we stay here. Let's get going." He opened them, and after a moment, the others followed him, leaving the Sky God by himself.
'A frozen heart, huh?' Silver thought to himself.
End.