Zale and Kat soon found themselves on their own somehow having lost track of the rest of group, Kat tried to look for their magic trails but the magic of the Hall was overpowering anyone else's aura.
"This isn't good" Kat sighed
"Don't worry we should be fine" Zale said as he waited for Kat to catch up to him
"What if we encounter any Tartaros mages?"
"Well that would mean they're just as lost as we are meaning there's a good chance to catch them off guard"
"I wish I could be as optimistic as you" Kat said as she moved next to him
"It's easy, just think happy thoughts"
"That's harder than you think, especially when you've been trained to constantly assume the worst has happened and plan accordingly" Kat replied
"That's a bit dark" Zale said wondering what kind of master would teach that
They grew silent as they walked onwards wary of any lingering traps or Tartaros mages. Zale began to notice the scenery was growing eerily similar to something he had seen earlier in his life although he couldn't remember what it was exactly.
"Do you notice anything odd going on?" he asked
"Besides my dead parents smiling at me? Not at all" Kat replied evenly causing Zale to give her a strange look
"I see, it looks we're seeing different things then"
"The Hall?"
"Indeed it is, this is the final trap" Zale said silently glad that Kat couldn't see what he knew he was about to witness
Erza looked around her and realized that she was on her own; how that was possible she couldn't be sure. One moment she was walking next to Laxus and could hear Natsu and Gray fighting over whether they were right to take a left instead of a right, but now they were gone. She prayed that they would be alright, but she knew that she needed to find her way back to them before it was too late.
"Looks like staying in a group where we shared a powerful bond wasn't enough" she commented as she looked at the walls for any sign of what direction to go "Who goes there?" she called out when she heard footsteps running towards her
"Erza!" the voice called out with relief, Erza squinted her eyes and could see the form of Lucy approaching her
"Lucy! It's good to see a friendly face here" Erza said with a sigh of relief as she lowered her sword
"Thank goodness, I was worried when I got separated from everyone" Lucy said
"You got lost too?" Erza asked
"Yeah I thought everything was fine but then I realized nobody was around and I got worried"
"That's what happened to me, this must be the trap Zale warned us of"
"So what do we do now?" Lucy asked
"Well staying here will probably mean we stay stuck in this tomb forever, we need to keep moving and hope we're either going the right way or we find someone we know" Erza said, Lucy quickly agreed and they walked onwards looking for any signs of other people
They noticed that memories from their past began to manifest in front of them. Lucy nearly cried when she saw her younger self crying over her mother who had passed away and again when she first heard the news of her father's death. In the end though she was able to take a deep breath and remember that she had to keep moving on, and that Fairy Tail had become her new family. Erza having already confronted the tragedies of her past was easily able to overcome the hallucinations, but it was the sight of another girl with scarlet hair that startled her.
"Is that me?" Erza wondered almost hopefully, but she knew that the girl was too young to be her.
She watched as the girl was taken by somebody and out of sight. Erza tried to shake it off but she couldn't help coming back to it in her head, was the girl simply conjured up by the Hall or had she been real but somehow forgotten by Erza and her scarlet hair…was she related to this girl? She was shaken from her deep thinking by the clash of metal in the distance; she gave a quick look at Lucy who was already deciding which Celestial Spirit to summon.
"So I'm not hearing things?" Erza thought to herself
"Who do you think is fighting?" Lucy asked finally settling on a key
"I don't know but let's find out" Erza said while running towards the source
She came to the scene and was immediately forced to block the thrust of a blue lance that had come from a distance away. She requipped to her Flight armor and took a quick look at the scene around her. Kagura was in the process of destroying several golems while Bacchus was locked in a fierce battle with their maker. Lyon was badly wounded and was being tended to by Chelia. The blue lance that had tried to stab her retracted to its regular length, she recognized its wielder as the former guardian of the Emperor who had nearly killed Hayate and Lucy earlier.
"Other redhead!" Erika cried out excitedly when she saw Erza, she ducked a punch from Bacchus and flipped backwards hitting him in the chin and knocking him into the air, she rushed forward and sent him flying back with a powerful punch
"Focus" the Guardian ordered
"Ease up old man, come on switch with me I've been waiting to see how this one does" Erika said already charging at Erza before the Guardian could even respond
"So undisciplined" he sighed as he switched to Kagura who had finished off the golems
Erza charged at Erika and with blinding speed was already behind her before Erika realized it; however like in their previous fight a stone lance shot from the ground at Erza. However Erza had expected that and quickly moved left to avoid the lance and brought her sword down on Erika, to her surprise though Erika grabbed the sword and used it to throw Erza at the wall.
"Come on you gotta be more creative than that" Erika chided as she shattered the sword in her hand
"Perhaps I need brute force" Erza wondered, she requipped to her Purgatory Armor and resumed the fight with Erika
The Guardian was impressed with Kagura as a fighter: her form was well thought out with very few flaws to exploit, her swings were controlled and she never overcommitted, she moved quickly, and her attacks were powerful enough to shatter the walls even though her blade was still sheathed. He remained calm though and simply bided his time until an opening appeared; he switched to a defensive style and was conservative with his counters. He saw his chance as Kagura aimed a quick slash at his throat, however he left it exposed on purpose and parried her strike away with his blue lance while simultaneously stabbing at her midsection with his green lance. Kagura quickly brought her sword down trying to push the green lance downwards, but was shocked when the lance ripped through Archenemy's sheath easily and stabbed her abdomen. He quickly retracted his lance and spun to finish her off with a slash to her throat with his blue lance. He was surprised when his blue lance was stopped by the glowing hand of a man dressed in a suit.
"Just in time huh Lucy?"
"Thank goodness Loke I knew I could count on you" Lucy said quickly rushing to Kagura's side and taking her to Chelia for healing
"So you return young Celestial mage" the Guardian said quickly moving away from the spirit he knew was the strongest of the Zodiac
"Don't worry Kagura, Chelia will take care of that wound" Lucy said as she laid Kagura down as gently as she could next to Chelia who quickly began working on Kagura
"Just sit still" Chelia told Kagura as she focused on closing up the wound
"Can you tell me what happened?" Lucy asked Lyon who was doing much better
"We came here when we heard people arguing about which direction to go, when we realized it was Tartaros Bacchus charged at them and was met by that redhead while Kagura and I began fighting that other guy" Lyon explained
"Was Jura with you guys?" Lucy asked
"Well when that Jaster left presumably to look for the entrance to the tomb of the First, Jura quickly went after him while we were fighting the other two" Lyon continued
"How'd you get this wound?"
"Courtesy of that man's green lance, I thought my ice shield would protect me but it went through it easily…luckily Chelia was here otherwise I'd be a goner"
"Look out!" Kagura called out bringing her sword up to parry away the Guardian's blue lance
"Forgive me Lucy, I got distracted" Loke said as he managed to force the Guardian back
"Hmm I had remembered you being much stronger than this Leo, but perhaps your current master isn't as strong as your previous ones" The Guardian commented
"Don't you dare insult her" Loke said angrily charging at the Guardian who gave a smile as he easily dodged Loke's attacks before slashing Loke with his green lance and forcing Lucy to close the gate to allow Loke to recover
She quickly summoned both Taurus and Capricorn to fight the Guardian who sighed at what he perceived was simply a distraction. He dealt with Taurus easily as he knew the spirit was only known for its brute strength, he sidestepped the axe swing by Taurus and stabbed him with his green lance. However Taurus grabbed the green lance preventing the Guardian from retracting it, the Guardian tried to pull it back but it broke leaving him only with the handle. Before he could try and make a new one Capricorn was already behind him and elbowed him in the back of the head sending him rolling away, he got up quickly but Capricorn was waiting for him and hit him with a hard kick to the face that removed his helmet from his face.
"Enough of this!" the Guardian said quietly
He finally cloned a new green lance for him and used it to block Capricorn's follow up punch; he brought his blue lance and stabbed Capricorn in the midsection making Lucy once again close the gate. The Guardian took a second to shake off the pain he was feeling and walked over to Taurus who had picked up his axe again and charged at him, the blue lance flew and stabbed Taurus in the chest causing him to drop to a knee as Lucy was forced to close the gate.
"You're reaching your limit" the guardian noted as Lucy was quickly thinking of which spirit to summon, she began summoning her next spirit but he used his blue lance to knock her keys away from her "Give up, you can't beat me"
"I'll never give up, not while I can still fight" Lucy replied definitely pulling out her Fleuve d'etoiles, she aimed her strike at the Guardian's legs, he brought his blue lance in front of him and the whip wrapped around it he gave a sudden tug on the lance bringing Lucy towards him who he sent back with a hard punch to her face
"Like I said, you can't beat me" the Guardian said walking towards Lucy who was struggling to get up
"Stay away from her!" Chelia yelled out aiming a powerful bellow at the Guardian, he slashed at the black torrent of wind with his green lance and suddenly the entire bellow was done "What?" Chelia exclaimed in shock as the Guardian advanced on her
"Just give up, there's no need to make me kill you. Just surrender and I'll let you live" the Guardian said with a sigh
"You seem way more honorable than that one" Lyon said pointing at Erika who was laughing almost manically as she was locked in a fierce duel with Erza
"That one has issues I don't care to find out about, I'm only here to make this world a better place" he explained
"How is joining a dark guild a way to help the world, especially one that kidnapped the Emperor and killed many guards to do it?" Lyon asked
"What are a few more deaths to someone like me? Do you have any idea how many I killed in defense of the Emperor, or when I helped govern the magical world?" the Guardian replied
"What?" Lyon asked with shock
"Sleep now, your friends will be able to find you soon enough" the Guardian said as he quickly knocked out the group with quick blows to their heads, he checked on Erika and Erza who were in a virtual draw at this point "Erika we need to leave now"
"Aww but I'm having fun!" Erika called back after Erza jumped back to avoid Erika's rock covered punch
"Don't forget our mission, that comes before all else" the Guardian replied
"Jeez could you be a bigger buzz kill right now?" Erika asked as she charged at Erza once again
"Fine you stay here and fight; I'll go do what we're supposed to do" the Guardian said exasperatedly, he began walking to leave the room to join up with Jaster who he assumed would have taken care of that other mage when he noticed that Bacchus wasn't lying where he had fallen earlier "Did he leave?"
"I'm right here" Bacchus said with as he appeared next to the Guardian who quickly slashed at him with both his lances, to his surprise Bacchus grabbed both of the blades with this hand.
"What are you doing?" the Guardian asked as he noticed blood running down Bacchus' hand
"This? This barely tickles right now" Bacchus said as he broke both the lances and hit the Guardian with several quick punches knocking him back
"How are you hitting harder, you should be bleeding out right about now" the guardian said making a new pair of lances
"I drank that weird black stuff Kat gave me earlier, it tasted like shit but suddenly I feel great!" Bacchus said laughing
"Black stuff?" The guardian thought trying to figure out its identity so he'd know how to deal with it, he noticed that Bacchus' body seemed to be shaking as he took his stance "Hmm it might just be temporary"
Bacchus suddenly rushed forward and in a second was readying a punch at the Guardian who hadn't moved yet, Bacchus aimed the punch at his face but the Guardian quickly ducked it and countered with a hard spin kick to Bacchus' ribs. However Bacchus acted like nothing had happened and sent the Guardian back with three quick punches, the Guardian barely had time to look up before Bacchus was on him continuing his furious offensive. He was even faster than he had been before when he had drank his wine, somehow whatever he had drank and fully restored his strength and then some. It seemed like Bacchus could continue his offensive as long as he felt, but the Guardian noticed that as time wore on the strikes became far more disoriented and lost the flow he had seen earlier he saw his chance and began his counter. He waited until Bacchus tried a kick that put the mage off balance and the Guardian immediately capitalized landing a quick combination of slashes finished off by stabbing Bacchus with his blue lance which picked up Bacchus and pinned him to the wall.
"What in the world?" the Guardian muttered in surprise, for some reason Bacchus had started laughing insanely before punching the lance to break it
"This is great I'm having so much fun!" he shouted with insane joy
"You're a fool, drinking that brew will be the death of you" the Guardian commented not bothering to make a new blue lance for himself
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bacchus asked giggling as he staggered to the Guardian
"You probably drank a Berserker's Brew, it grants amazing strength but what the user thinks is resistance to attacks is actually blocking pain receptors"
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Even though I've slashed you multiple times you didn't feel anything, but you're still suffering the effects of the injuries. You're having trouble walking because you're about to faint from blood loss, unless you staunch those wounds you're going to die. Go see if the Sky God slayer will wake up and heal you, otherwise try to relax and let death take you" the Guardian said leaving Bacchus who didn't understand a single word the Guardian had said, all Bacchus could feel was an overwhelming desire to fight no matter what the cost. He tried pursuing the Guardian but fell flat on the ground and could only laugh as everything turned black.
"Bacchus!" Erza called out realizing she needed to act quickly otherwise he would die soon
"Focus, I'm your opponent!" Erika called out barely missing taking away Erza's head
"I need to end this somehow" Erza thought while trying to think of what armor she could requip into, she feinted as if to attack and got Erika to switch to a defensive posture giving Erza enough space to requip into the Nakagami Armor
"What the hell is that?" Erika asked aware that there was something wrong with the way the magic around them was acting
"Nakagami Starlight!" Erza shouted as she swung her halberd at Erika who brought her rock covered arms to defend herself, to her shock the rock covering her arms began to disappear before the halberd had even hit them
"Impossible!" Erika thought as she soon had no defenses for the halberd which was about to pierce through Erika, suddenly an object hit the halberd and a large explosion detonated in the space between the two opponents sending each one flying. Erika was somehow alive but she was aching all over, she tried looking up to see what happened to Erza but was in too much pain
"I told you to be more careful" the Guardian said as he checked over Erika "You'll live though, come on I'll help you up" he said as he put one of Erika's arms around his shoulder and supported her as she stood up
"What happened?" Erika asked feeling groggy
"I threw my lance at it, must have done something to it but I'm not too sure. We need to leave and get to the tomb" he said as they walked away from the scene to find Jaster
"Hmph you're good" Jaster commented as he and Jura had come to a standstill in their fight
"Coming from someone as strong as yourself that means a lot" Jura replied with respect
Jaster had hoped that his initial rune trap he set for any pursuers would have worked but unfortunately Jura was looking for traps and was able to avoid it. Since then the fight had been relatively even despite the power difference between Jura and the god. Jura had figured out how to avoid the rune traps by simply using his rock magic to mess up the runes that Jaster formed, he quickly made their arena uneven to make sure Jaster couldn't form any large rune circles. Jaster tried drawing Jura to areas that hadn't been affected but the rock mage refused to take the bait and simply resorted to long range attacks. Of course Jaster didn't have any problems with defending himself, but still he wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible.
"Hmm should I?" he wondered looking at the tome he held in his right hand, he always tried to limit the usage of the book but getting to the tomb of the First Emperor was his top priority right now
"What is he doing?" Jura wondered cautious about the surge of power coming from Jaster's tome
Suddenly a burst of light similar to the one at Old Kadessa shot from the book forcing Jura to shield his eyes. When he looked again Jaster had disappeared, he looked around but there was no sign of the Lawmaker although for some reason he could feel a trace of magic still around him. He wasn't sure if that was left over magic or if it was a sign of Jaster who still could have been in the room.
"Now where did you go?" Jura asked softly as he slowly walked forward looking for any sign of his opponent, suddenly he could feel a surge of magic behind him. He noticed the runic circle under him too late to be able to disrupt it in time, but he slid his right foot backward causing a small pillar behind him to rise up and it pierced into Jaster who was standing behind him.
"You really are deserving of being a Wizard Saint" Jaster said ignoring the rock pillar currently stuck in his abdomen. He activated the runes underneath Jura which sent a massive torrent of electricity into Jura's body, after a few seconds it stopped and Jura collapsed on the ground. Jaster put a rune circle around him to remove the pillar and heal the wound, stepped over Jura and began the process of finding where the Tomb of the First Emperor was.
For all intents and purposes Keji was fighting a battle where he was outnumbered three to one, he and Harvey had lost track of Silva somehow despite her warning to make sure they knew where the others were. He wasn't concerned for Silva since he knew she could handle herself, he was only worried that he'd be stuck in the Hall forever as he had no idea where he was going, and for all of Harvey's tracking abilities none were proving any useful. They had stumbled into three of the mages from Fairy Tail, all of whom happened to be dragon slayers including Laxus whom he had fought earlier at the Palace.
"Jeez your friends are annoying" Keji told Laxus as he jumped away from Natsu's roar
"Annoying is a bit strong, but no matter what they are they're more useful than your friend standing behind you" Laxus replied pointing out Harvey
"That's just because he forgot to get his mage slayer from Nameless" Keji replied for Harvey "But yeah you're pretty useless right now, how about you backtrack a bit and find yourself a path" he suggested
"Why should I leave on my own?" Harvey asked a bit annoyed
"Because you're making things harder for me since I'm obligated to keep you sort of alive" Keji answered as he threw several wind blades at Natsu who dodged them with ease
"I still don't like the idea of wandering around this Hall on my own, especially since I don't have any protection" Harvey said as he avoided one of Laxus' lightning balls
"Fine stay here and make me lose, what do I care" Keji replied sarcastically
He couldn't blame Harvey though for wanting to stay here, it was probably better to be taken a prisoner rather than wander through the Hall aimlessly especially if you weren't a mage. Still unless Harvey could find a way to help out or get to safety then Keji was sure of a loss. While Laxus did most of the attacking, Natsu and Wendy having experience fighting together were picking their spots carefully keeping Keji on the defensive. Keji couldn't risk activating the full extent of his wind magic for fear of hurting Harvey; he also risked bringing down the whole place around them and possibly shutting them in forever.
"Hmm what to do?" he wondered narrowly avoiding a roar from Wendy "Perhaps I could target that child first, but she's furthest away from me meaning I probably would be forced to deal with those two. Shit, what the hell do I do?" he said angrily sending a Gale force wind at his opponents forcing them back giving him a brief respite.
"That's not going to keep them for long" Harvey noted
"Of course it's not you idiot!" Keji yelled back angrily
"Easy, I have a plan" Harvey replied quietly
"Is it a good plan?" Keji asked
"We should surrender to them" Harvey said causing Keji to give a strange look before he smiled
"Oh I get it, we surrender then when they're not looking I kill them?"
"No"
"Then what?"
"We surrender and offer to lead them to the entrance to the Emperor's tomb" Harvey explained
"But we don't know how to get there"
"They don't know that, for all they know we were going the right way before running into them. Besides two things can happen, either we run into a friendly or we actually do make it to the entrance in which case we can wait for help" Harvey explained
"You forget that we could wander around forever like we were actually doing" Keji replied
"Oy what are you two talking about there!" Natsu called out annoyed that they were being ignored
"We surrender!" Harvey replied walking towards them with his hands up
"Wha-?" Keji started before sighing and putting his hands up, he hoped that Harvey knew what he was doing
"Are you serious?" Laxus asked as Harvey stopped a few feet away from him
"What can I do? I don't have any means of fighting right now and you were inevitably going to beat Keji over there, it'd be stupid of us to fight to the death. Besides I think we can make this worth your while" Harvey explained
"What do you mean?" Laxus asked careful not to let his guard down for a second
"I used to be one of the best trackers Ishval had, even after Keji and I got separated from our group I was getting us to the tomb. If you want I can guide you there as long as you promise not to harm Keji or myself"
"I don't trust them" Natsu said flatly
"I know you don't, I don't either" Laxus nodded
"But we can't deny we were lost" Wendy pointed out
"That's true, but how do we make sure that they do what they're offering?" Laxus asked
"You can tie us up, keep us in front of you at all times" Harvey suggested
"Stop giving them suggestions!" Keji yelled out already feeling doubtful of the plan
"Tick tock, time's running out before somebody else makes it to the Tomb" Harvey said trying to force a decision out of the three
"Fine but like you said, you stay in front of us with your hands tied up. If you try and make a move I'll make sure to fry you good" Laxus said threateningly
"Not like it'd be easy for us to betray you" Harvey said while getting tied up by Laxus while Natsu was tying up Keji.
Harvey allowed himself to breathe easy as the first part of the plan was successful, but there was still a lot of risk to the plan. There were definitely more of the enemy in the Hall than friendly mages, and there was the risk that he led them to the tomb before anybody else got there which could complicate things a bit, but he had to take the risk. Once Laxus checked to make sure the bindings were secure on Keji and Harvey he gave Harvey a small push to begin leading them to the tomb.
"Here goes nothing" Harvey thought to himself
Zale wasn't sure how he managed to keep his composure despite seeing the painful memories of his past being replayed over and over in his head, it was bad enough seeing his dead wife and his child whom he hadn't seen in years but seeing them over and over again was what was killing him; he was pretty sure that the only reason he kept his composure was that being calm on the outside had become his default appearance. He envied Kat's ability to be able to react to her dead loved ones as if nothing had happened; he wanted to tear down the Hall so he would never be subjected to this torture ever again. As he was walking he was suddenly held back by Kat who seemed to be looking at an object lying on the floor a few feet away from them.
"What is that?" Kat asked getting a few steps closer to get a better look at it
"It looks like Nameless' mask" Zale said going over to pick it up
"It is indeed my mask, although I don't go by Nameless anymore…ever since my employer told me it was a stupid name" a voice answered causing both Zale and Kat to get into battle positions
"Show yourself!" Zale commanded
"Don't worry I will" Chaos said coming forward with both hands up
"Master?" Kat asked too surprised to say anything else
"Hey kid, you're looking well" Chaos replied with a smile
"You're the one who trained her?" Zale asked curiously
"Yep, she's actually one of my better apprentices…then again I've only had two over the years" Chaos answered
"So what are you doing over here?" Kat asked trying to hold back the anger she could feel rising up
"That's a long story kid, but trust me I have my reasons for doing everything I did. But you've got big-"Chaos began before quickly ducking to avoid getting shot by Kat
"You bastard! How could you abandon me, fight me knowing full well who I am and then do everything you did!" She asked angrily firing more bullets at Chaos who did something to his body to make all the bullets go through him although it appeared to be causing him discomfort
"Seriously dude even what you've done to me is nothing in comparison to what you've done to her" Kaizus said briefly taking over in an attempt to keep Kat calm
"Because you did such great things in life" Chaos replied sarcastically
"Perhaps we should listen to what he has to say" Zale said as he tried to calm Kat down
"The master of this guild happens to be the one guy who might be the only being alive capable of fighting Zeref, but at the same time he's also the guy we don't want getting into the tomb to regain his old magic" Chaos explained after making sure Kat wouldn't shoot at him anymore
"Wait what?" Zale asked
"The master of this guild was the first Emperor of Ishval, long ago when dragons used to rule this land he was one of the few humans powerful enough to fight off dragons on his own. So people gradually gathered under his protection and eventually he would become emperor of this place, Ishval is after all one of the oldest civilizations in existence. However after the dragon's civil war started he was one of the humans trained in dragon slayer magic, he combined this with his other magic and went on a killing spree the world hadn't seen, he just started killing every dragon he saw and then Zeref got a hold of him…you see where I'm going with this right?"
"Acnologia" Zale said softly
"That's impossible" Kat said having finally calmed down
"You have a hundred and fifty year old spirit who's inside your body and the person who trained you is also a hundred and fifty years old, is it really impossible?" Kaizus asked her
"Fair enough"
"But why does he have his own tomb and what could it possibly have that he'd want so badly?" Zale asked
"I'm not so sure myself but all I know is that he left me for dead, under the well reasoned assumption that you two would try and murder me the minute you saw me" Chaos replied
"Why wouldn't he just kill you if he wanted you gone?" Kat asked still suspicious
"I don't know, probably because he's a sadist and wanted me to die by your hand"
"What's so special about me?"
"You're one of the few people I like"
"Hard to tell what with you putting random people in my body without my permission"
"Look we'll discuss this later; Acnologia is most likely already in the tomb getting his hands on whatever magic he's looking for. I'll take you there but you have to trust me" Chaos said
"Should we?" Zale asked unsure himself of whether to trust this strange person, the idea of Acnologia becoming stronger worried Zale immensely especially as he had witnessed the effects of the Dragon King first-hand.
"Not like we have a choice" Kat sighed
"If it makes you feel better, I'm sorry for not having told you earlier" Chaos said feeling genuinely bad at his actions for once in his life
They made sure to have him walk ahead of them although Kat remembered the strange teleportation ability he used earlier at the Chrono Temple and was ready to kill him if he tricked them. She was still feeling hurt inside that the one person whom she cared for would put her through so much, and all he offered was an apology. Still she could sense that he had been weakened by somebody, so perhaps Acnologia or whoever the master of Tartaros was did wound him. She flooded her eyes with magic to see what trail he was following, they were following a trail of someone powerful who left a trail like a slug. It was a winding path but there weren't any turns and eventually they came up a set of large doors that had been left open.
"Is this the place?" Zale asked Chaos
"I imagine it is, seeing as the crown is right there" Chaos said pointing out the crown that had been tossed away after opening the door
"There's something really strong in there" Kat said wearily as she pulled out both her guns
"Yeah and it's named Acnologia, also whatever magic might be in his tomb that's he getting reacquainted with" Chaos said annoyed that they didn't believe him
They went in with Chaos still leading the way although it didn't take long to find Acnologia who was standing in the center of the large tomb. He was staring intently at the sarcophagus that supposedly held the body of the first Emperor. He seemed in some sort of trance and didn't notice the three mages enter the room and continued to look at the tomb.
"What is he doing?" Zale asked sensing no magic being used
"There's magic in that sarcophagus, but he's not doing anything to it" Kat said also confused at the sight, she looked at Chaos questioningly but he shrugged at her suddenly Acnologia noticed them and smiled
"Well looks like I underestimated you assassin" Acnologia said showing off his sharp teeth
"It really is you" Zale said softly
"Hmm? Why do you look familiar to me?" Acnologia asked looking at Zale intently trying to remember something from his long life
"Of course you don't remember me you only saw a child and for some reason decided not to kill me, but you had no problem killing my mother. You and those other damn dragons!" Zale said almost screaming, he released the full extent of his magic power and immediately rushed at Acnologia who was still deep in thought
"That's right you're Zanya's kid!" Acnologia said snapping his fingers as Zale extended both his hands and a large mass of flowers and vines shot out at the Dragon King who responded by firing a large beam from his hands that clashed with the plants creating a large explosion
"How did that make an explosion?" Chaos wondered
"That's what you're concerned about!" Kat said in shock
"Listen kid I'm still trying to figure out what's going on here, and you know how distracted I get when things don't make sense" he replied
"Haha you've even got a good chunk of her power" Acnologia said smiling as Zale stared him down "But remember who you're fighting human"
"You don't scare me" Zale said angrily as he began a furious offensive,
Acnologia though was dodging most of the attacks and letting the weaker ones hit him as they had very little effect. Even another God of Ishval would have already fallen under the fury of the attack, but he was the Dragon King and there wasn't a human alive couldn't beat him let alone harm him. He opened his mouth and let out a mighty roar that ripped through most of the area, Zale summoned a large mass of flowers and vines to protect him but the force of the roar sent him hurtling through the thick walls of the tomb.
"Well that was fun while it lasted" Acnologia said before turning his attention to Chaos and Kat
"So what's the point of coming back here?" Chaos asked
"Why should I tell you?" Acnologia asked taking a few steps towards them
"Because you owe me that much"
"I don't owe you anything, I'm the one who freed you remember"
"Yeah but I helped thwart one of the attempts on your life and helped you out a bunch on this attempt…which isn't really an attempt on your life rather it's you trying to kill your master" Chaos said
"He's not my master!" Acnologia said angrily releasing some of his magic power causing the area to tremble around them
"How about you don't piss him off?" Kat offered sarcastically
"But seriously, you should be powerful enough on your own to fight him why do you need to come back here?" Chaos asked hoping to buy some time for Zale or somebody else to come
"He didn't make me like this for free you know, I had to give up the magic I used to use…the magic of that enabled me to kill dragons without the use of dragon slayer magic." Acnologia replied
"And now you need it because he could take away your power if he felt threatened enough" Chaos realized
"Unfortunately yes, but thanks to you and Tartaros I can gain my freedom"
"So you tricked them then?" Kat asked
"I didn't trick them, I told them that the magic in this tomb would be used to end Zeref and that's what I'm going to do"
"You told them you'd get rid of Acnologia while you're at it" Chaos pointed out
"I'll change my name, there problem solved" Acnologia said before he started laughing at his own joke
"You're an idiot for doing this" Kat said suddenly causing Acnologia to stop laughing
"Now what do you mean by that little one?" he asked
"If my master is right and the only reason you freed him is because you foresaw needing his help, then you're only speeding up your demise" Kat explained
"Huh?" Chaos and Acnologia said together
"You know the myths of old where mortals would learn of their fates from the gods it was supposedly unavoidable, but they would try to change their fate and it was them doing that that would lead to events happening just like the gods told them. That's what you're doing, maybe if you had done nothing you would have been able to live out happily but now you're sealing you're on your fate"
"There are several things wrong with that" Kaizus told her
"Interesting little one" Acnologia said before pointing his hand at them "But it's not like last minute monologues ever stopped people from doing what they had planned on" he continued as he activated his magic, suddenly a large rose dragon came charging into him and before he could react took him and smashed him into the wall, causing him to spit out some blood
"Don't ever count me out" Zale said walking back into the tomb and getting ready for battle
"Filthy human you'll pay for that!" Acnologia roared out angrily as he turned to face Zale