CH25: Storm the Battlefront
Within the hour, the Fairy Tail guild was well within the borders of the sacred shrine. With Cana's Card Dimension ability, it was a simple task to get the guild from their hall to Ankhseram's location. Once the Exceeds finished transporting the cards, Cana unbound them from her magic and a full-fledged wizard army was at beckons call.
Zancrow's eyes widened as he saw the fortifications amassed for the sole purpose of ensuring that Ankhseram's ritual was uninterrupted. As far as the eye could see, there were iron pillars each with a black flame at the helm surrounding the dark battle field. Within their light were Iron Golems, hundreds of them. No doubt they were the creations of Ferrous. Each one had spikes that were razor sharp on their backs, shoulders, forearms, and knees. Their eyes glowed a blood red, sending chills down the Flame God Slayer's spine. They all seemed to be guarding the only obvious entrance. Above them airborne were Iron Sentries. They looked like the Iron Golems only with thinner, lighter frames and they had two sets of iron wings resembling that of a dragon.
Once the situation was assessed, Makarov gave the "OK" for team one to deploy. All at once, Zancrow, Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Lucy, and Cana were turned into cards. The Exceeds divided their comrades amongst them and began to soar towards the shrine's northwestern tower which seemed to lack the most security. Happy touched down onto enemy territory, followed closely by Carla, and Pantherlily. Within seconds, Team One was reverted to their original human state. Cana gave the signal to their guildmates down below to start their "distracting tactics."
Fairy Tail was smart. They didn't just start beating up everything that was in their line of sight. Instead they began to do acts of sabotage. Laki used her wood make magic to drag several of the Iron Golems below ground. Max used his magic to shift the earth beneath several other golems causing the same effect as Laki. About twenty seven golems went "missing" when finally their position was spotted by an Iron Sentry. And then all hell broke loose. Erza dawned her Blackwing Armor taking to the skies along with Mirajane in her Sitri form and Evergreen. The trio annihilated the air forces with ease as the ground wizards handled the ground troops. They needed to keep the enemy busy lest they find out about their scheme.
…
Within walls of the shrine was Team One. They ventured down multiple corridors trying to pin down where Laxus was being kept. They saw multiple Iron Golems along the way and took them out as they came along. According to Cana, the more golems they encountered, the closer they were getting to Laxus. After all, a wizard of his caliber must certainly be under heavy guard.
The team managed to make it up several flights of stairs until they entered a massive room. The walls and pillars were carved with ancient markings and at center of the room was a massive throne. It looked as if it could seat a giant. The tallest amongst the wizards only came up to the armrest and that was once they climbed the marble steps leading up to it.
"This god seems to be a little egotistical don't you think?" Cana said.
"No joke." Lucy criticized.
"Impressive, isn't it?"
The Fairy Tail wizards turned their attention to the direction of the thundering voice and saw the Iron God Slayer himself, Ferrous.
"A shrine dedicated solely to the gods. And once my master walks the earth, he will rule humanity from this very throne room and erase all traces of resistance."
"Ferrous! Where is Laxus?" Natsu shouted.
"You want Laxus? You'll have to get by me first." From the ground sprung up several Iron Golems. But these were different from the ones Team Two were fighting. They were bigger and each had four arms that could morph into different weapons. Some had maces for hands. Others generated longswords that looked like they could cut through adamantium.
"Take them down." Upon request, Ferrous' golems attacked the wizards. There were five golems total, leaving one very ticked off Zancrow free to tend to his Iron rival while the others were preoccupied.
"I've been looking forward to this." Zancrow cracked his knuckles and assaulted Ferrous who had morphed his arms into clubs. He swung at the Flame God Slayer, but Zancrow was able to nimbly dodge it whilst counterattacking with an uppercut. Ferrous looked annoyed as he blocked the amateurish attack and sent Zancrow flying back with a hit from his club. Zancrow was far from done as he summoned forth his Explosive Flame. He detonated it a few feet in front of Ferrous as to create a distraction of smoke and ash.
"Iron God Lance! Demon Flog." Ferrous launched a bombardment of Iron barbs into the smoke hoping to nail his target. Zancrow instead emerged topside and landed a blow directly onto the Iron God Slayer's face knocking him back.
"Hahaha. Looks like all that iron is just for show. That will teach you to mess with the best you punk." The Flame God Slayer's smile soon faded as he saw Ferrous' smirk.
"Do you honestly think that after one lucky hit, you have won? You haven't even given this battle the least bit of thought have you?"
Everyone analyzed the situation but came up with nothing.
"Don't you fools get it? The longer you try to take me down, the more time it provides for Ankhseram's ritual to be completed."
"He's right. This battle is just a distraction. Who knows what they are doing to Laxus right now." Natsu shouted as he knocked his golem into the stone wall.
"The pink haired one is right. This is a waste of my time nonetheless. Why should I have to fight, when I can get you to do it for me?" Ferrous said smugly.
"I'm afraid I don't follow." Zancrow said.
"You think you are unmatched with your God Slaying magic don't you?"
"Well yea, kinda."
"Do not think for a second that just because Ankhseram cannot possess you, that you are immune to his influence."
"Come again?"
Ferrous extended his arm towards Zancrow, almost as if he was offering friendship. What followed after shocked everybody. A bolt of what appeared to be purple lightning shot out from Ferrous' hand and hit Zancrow full force knocking him down. The battles paused as everyone was looking at the Flame God Slayer wither in pain on the floor. The purple lightning enveloped him occasionally giving the group a flash of his skeleton, much like an X-Ray.
"What did you do to him?" Gajeel asked.
"While God Slayers are immune to being possessed by gods, they can very well be controlled as loyal subordinates. I have turned your comrade into a mind slave of Ankhseram. He will no longer be your ally, but rather the instrument of your destruction."
Zancrow's screaming ceased and for a moment he was dormant. He lay still face down on the ground, motionless.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Destroy your former comrades."
With Ferrous' order, Zancrow got up from the ground and turned to face his friends. They were shocked to see a horrific "A" embedded into Zancrow's forehead, very similar to that of Ferrous'. The "A" looked like that of a healing scar and veins were popping out from the God Slayer's forhead.
"With this seal, I bestow upon you, a lifetime of serving the gods. Now, tear them apart."
Zancrow powered up and with his malicious grin he began to stride towards his comrades, eager to destroy them.