Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima
ACT V: Ragnarok – The Fateful Encounter
Approximately X793
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Chapter 25: Downhill
Acnologia felt frustrated and annoyed when the dark mage, for some bizarre reason pulled him away from his place in front of his filthy army, to a more isolated spot away from the war. It wasn't so far away that he couldn't see the fight, but it was evidently enough to make the two of them somewhat unnoticeable.
The mighty dragon barely got time to react against Zeref, before he found himself at this place which was annoying in itself, but the thing that really infuriated him was the fact that this puny creature had taken the liberty to remove HIM to a place HE didn't want to be.
"Tsch!" Acnologia snorted in anger before looking down on the dark mage "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right here and now"
"You couldn't kill me even if you wanted to" Zeref smirked playfully, making the humanised dragon clench his fist in anger.
"I don't have time to waste on this foolishness" Acnologia snarled impatiently "I'm here to see humanity die, no I want the ground drenched with their blood while they scream in agony"
"That's why I brought you this" Zeref reached inside his clothes and found a bottle filled with black liquid "This will give your army an advantage"
"What?"
"You just need to open this bottle and command it to go to your army" Zeref said as he gently stroked the bottle as if he was caressing it.
"As if I would fall for such an obvious trap" Acnologia growled "You puny insignificant insect"
"Ohhh but I'm not" Zeref smiled almost knowingly "You see your army over there and how they are so easily slaughtered, when the humans remove their heads?"
"What of it?" the humanised dragon narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"This is a little leftover I had from when I created my own army" the dark mage shook the bottle "It's an elixir that makes the things it touches harder to kill. Since my army is already a living thing it resulted in them having almost indestructible scales, all though they do have some minor flaws"
"And now you're offering it to me?" Acnologia eyed the bottle carefully "Why?"
"I'm curious what would happen, when it's used on creatures that has no soul, but are basically corpses walking around. Besides I want to make this war more interesting by adding more fuel to the fight"
"I see..." the humanised dragon licked his lips, knowing that if this worked it would earn him more of that delicious screaming, he was so fond of.
"Take it" Zeref offered the bottle to Acnologia who accepted it with a grunt.
"Just so you know, if this is a trap I will kill you without mercy" the humanised dragon said while staring intensely at the dark haired mage.
"Yeah, yeah I know..." Zeref said in a bored voice.
"Make sure you do..." Acnologia said and was about to leave the small mage when he suddenly heard a female cry in pain.
Ohh how absolutely delightful! Yes... a female scream combined with sweet scent of burnt flesh...
More... he needed more like that...
Taking a step forwards a sickening and slightly insane smile suddenly played on Acnologia's lips.
He would see humanity fall... HE the mighty dragon KING would eliminate them all and it would be so glorious.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Cana was throwing her cards, using them as projectiles at the approaching demons, momentarily knocking some of them backwards. Unfortunately it didn't seem to have any effect on them other than that, making the mage snort in annoyance.
"Mest, have any ideas how to deal with these things?" she asked the other mage, who turned his head to look at her.
"Unfortunately not" Mest said before he slammed a clenched fist against a growling demon and easily dodged another one, who was about to sink it's teeth into his leg.
"I'm so sorry for leaving you all of a sudden!" Wendy's voice called as she somehow managed to run in a somewhat straight line towards them, with Carla following close behind her in her human form.
"It's fine" Cana smiled at the girl while grabbing three cards from her deck, combining them in her hand "Summoning lightning!"
The woman called before green lightning shot towards the demon's making them snarl in what sounded like pain.
"I noticed something on the way here" Wendy said as she took a fighting stance besides the older mage.
"So did I" Carla nodded to herself before raising her tiny clenched fists.
"What?" Mest asked, his eyes shining with affection as he looked at the blue haired girl.
"The human... things" the healer said in a disgusted tone "and uhm... the demons... it looks like they are moving in groups"
"What do you mean? Hang on we need some space..." Cana asked as she picked two specific cards in her hand, before waving her free hand in the demons direction "Wind Edge!"
As a wave of wind shot from the brown haired woman's arm, Wendy sucked in her breath before calling.
"Sky Dragon's Roar!"
The combined wind attack escalated in power as it sent rocks flying as the attack raced towards their opponents, making them skid backwards a few feet, where they stood snarling and growling.
"So what did you mean Wendy?" Cana asked before looking at the tiny girl.
"Well it's like the demons and the... humans... doesn't mix with each other. It's like they are ignoring each other, as they fight their own opponents"
"I see..." the brown haired woman nodded "... that might be a good thing, since they aren't joining forces"
"Perhaps it's their instinct. I mean the demon's aren't really humans so maybe the corpses are going after the thing they can relate too somehow, based on their previous life. The demon's might think the same and wants to fight something that's alive" Mest voiced his opinion.
"Sounds plausible" Cana agreed "However I don't see how this knowledge can help us"
"Even if it isn't much it's still something" Carla shrugged as she looked at the demons who was fast approaching them again "It looks like our times up"
Cana didn't say anything to that because a second later, she was busy once more fighting the annoying opponent.
They had to figure out what their weakness was and soon, because right now they we're being more and more drained from continuously using magic to fight and evade the creatures.
If they didn't find a solution, the situation could easily turn out really, really bad.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
"Levy watch out!" Gajeel shouted as he watched a cackling corpse reach it's nasty hands towards the blue haired girl's shoulders.
"Ohh!" she gasped in surprise before bending her knees and jumping away from the enemy, before she stood up up straight, waving her finger in the air "Solid Script Guard!"
A huge wall summoned in front of the corpse, making it collide with it. For some reason the opponent seemed confused by this and kept walking into the wall, still making that weird inhuman sound as it continued with it's silly attempt to get to her.
"Levy should be more careful" Juvia said while spawning some water, she used to slice a few heads off, that fell to the ground with a low thud. Being separated from their life support the rest of the bodies fell down as well, making blood spatter all around them.
"You're so violent Juvia" Gajeel smirked towards the water mage.
"Juvia just wants to go to Gray as soon as possible" she sulked as tears suddenly streamed down her face,
"Yeah, yeah whatever..." Gajeel said in a somewhat grumpy voice "Iron Dragon's Sword" he said, thereby turning his right arm into a huge and spiky sword that he used to slice the corpses.
"Is it just me, or does this seem to easy?" Lily said as he swiped his sword downwards to remove the blood on it, before he chopped another head off.
"You're right.." the iron Dragon Slayer agreed "... for some reason I've got this feeling in my gut, that the idiotic dragon and Zeref has something up their sleeves and I ain't liking it"
Gajeel couldn't explain why, but ever since they started fighting against the corpses, he had this weird feeling in the back of his mind that something wasn't right.
Hopefully it was just his imagination, because even though Zeref and Acnologia hadn't joined the battle yet, it was quite evident that everyone was struggling.
Things weren't going so well and if things continued like this, the situation could easily become rather dire for them.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Elfman was roaring in anger as he used his bestial arm to slam against a demon, that made it growl in fury but otherwise didn't take any damage.
Turning his head he noticed that Mirajane and Lisanna was also struggling with their fights, trying their best to be offensive against the incoming attacks. However they couldn't keep just dodging the creatures, they had to figure out how to destroy them.
It was odd really, because Mirajane shouldn't be struggling so much against a demonic race and heck these were only minions compared to the bigger ones. They needed a battle plan and soon, because if this was getting them nowhere way too fast.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
In contradiction to the teams fighting demons, Laxus, Evergreen, Freed and Bickslow was almost having it too easy in their fight against the corpses. It was just off with their heads and then the enemy was dead.
"Ewww, this is soooo gross!" Evergreen complained earning a stern look from the lightning mage.
"Ever, this isn't the time to worry about your clothes getting dirty" Laxus said in a somewhat annoyed tone.
Of course the woman was right about it being a mess, because when they separated the two body parts on the corpses, it would send a vast amount of blood spouting all over the area and on themselves.
Not that it disgusted Laxus or anything, but the ground was slowly starting to get more slippery as they kept fighting and the pool on the ground grew.
What an annoying situation...
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
"Oy! Erza!" Natsu shouted as they got back to her and joined her fight against the corpses.
"Welcome back" Erza smiled but immediately froze when she saw the Dragon Slayer was carrying Lucy.
"What's wrong with you?" Natsu asked as he placed Lucy on the ground in order to slam his leg against a corpse, that was seconds away from biting Erza.
"Ohh I'm sorry" the scarlet haired mage shook her head, a small blush on her cheeks "I was just unaware and surprised that you finally reached a step further in your relationship"
"The heck are you on about?" Natsu growled impatiently, clearly not understanding the hint.
"It's not like that at all!" Lucy interrupted as she waved her hands frantically in front of her.
"If you say so" Erza smirked knowingly before engaging in the battle again.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Gray Gildarts and Happy was actually doing pretty well against the demons, especially because the older mage could use his magic to dissolve the enemy into cubes. They didn't know this, but at the moment they were the only team that was succeeding in dealing with them.
"We can do this!" Gray roared as he flicked with his wrist, freezing a bunch of demons to the ground, Gildarts a second later took care of with his attack.
"I like your spirit kid" the older mage smiled to himself when he suddenly felt a viscous aura not that far away from them and of course it didn't take long for him to recognise it as Acnologia
"Where is he?" Gildarts wondered while he searched the battlefield with his eyes. It didn't take long before he found the dragon in humanised form standing alone in what could easily be the centre of the entire fight.
"Humans!" the man raised a bottle that contained something black "The time has come for you to die, so let me hear more of those delicious screams as your pathetic lives comes to an end!"
"What is he doing?" Happy wondered, because for some reason all the fighting had stopped when Acnologia's voice was carried across the battlefield.
"I have a bad feeling about this..." Gildarts said in a low voice as he watched the humanised dragon smash the bottle against the ground.
"Go! Go to my filthy army at once!" Acnologia laughed hysterically before transforming into his dragon form only to fly above them all, ready to deliver his powerful attacks.
A terrified scream from Lucy made Gildarts turn his head to see what was going on and honest to good his heart felt like it stopped for a second, as he watched in horror how the dark material from the bottle seemed to enter all the corpses, even the ones that Erza had already taken care of.
As it did the heads on the ground started to grow, until they had a fully functional body again. It was the same with the headless bodies, that suddenly had a fresh mug on the top.
And with that simple gesture from Acnologia the dead army was suddenly an even stronger force.
"Damn..." Gildarts sank as an image of Cana entered his mind "Gray, Happy I'm sorry but I gotta make sure my daughter is alright"
Not waiting for their response the older mage sprinted out of there, his head filled with concern for his offspring.
A/N: Hi there, long time no see ;)
Anyhow this chapter sort of functioned as an introduction chapter to reveal some of the teams and where they are at the moment. With that said, I know there are a lot of people I haven't included yet, but it'll come later on.
So yeah... I'm gonna introduce some people, but I can't promise I'll return to all of them because that would consume all my energy and passion for this story (like seriously there are sooooo many characters, lol).
Other than that I haven't really felt like typing lately. I don't know why, maybe it's because I just want to get on with the fun stuff instead of this... introduction stuff... it's boring to type -.-'
Anyway I'm gonna go eat some ice cream, my throat hurts like... ngh...
Take care! :)
/Hejmdal