Chapter 25- Gray's Perspective

"I've had enough of you!"

Gray took Sherry by the throat and threw her into the ground. She was acting strange ever since Lyon had "blown up." Gray knew he wasn't dead though.

"It's your fault that Lyon died! You did this!" Sherry wailed.

"Wait, Lyon died?" Nyx asked, shocked.

As if on cue, a voice came from behind the bushes. "You haven't given up on me that easily now, have you?"

Lyon emerged from the shadows, looking pretty scraped up. He wore a smile, like it was no big deal.

"Lyon!" Sherry yelled. She rested her head on the ground, letting out a sigh of relief. Then, a black gas started emanating from her.

"What is that?" Natsu and Lucy yelled. Gray and Lyon just stared. "It's Nirvana's magic. It's leaving Sherry." Nyx said. She looked exhausted and a little beat up.

Nirvana's magic?

"Wait, Nirvana made her act all crazy? She nearly killed me!" Gray shouted. Natsu and Lyon looked just as confused.

"I'll tell you later. Right now, we have a more urgent problem," Nyx stated. "Nirvana is seconds away from entering its final stage."

"What?!" everyone yelled.

The ground started to shake back and forth, like an earthquake.

"What is that?" Lucy asked in fear.

"It's Nirvana! It's entering its final stage! We're too late!" Nyx yelled.

The ground continued to shake. In the distance, the ground started to rise. Huge pillar- like objects broke through the ground. The tremors continued to shake the ground.

One of the pillars rose extremely close to where they were standing. It continued to grow until it was over 5 stories high. The shaking stopped, and before them was something that Gray had never expected.

A huge, spider- looking structure towered over them, but it didn't seem to be alive. Gray couldn't see what was on top of it.

"What is that thing?" Natsu asked.

Nyx looked terrified, and because of that, Gray was terrified. He didn't know whether or not it was because Nyx wasn't controlling her powers, or if Gray was truly terrified of this thing. It was probably both.

Lucy, Lyon, Happy, and Natsu were all gaping at this huge structure. Nyx was looking at the ground. "Nirvana has entered its final stage. With this, The Oracion Seis will be able to turn light into darkness."

"What!?" Gray, Lyon, Happy, and Natsu yelled at the same time.

"Oh, right. You guys weren't there when I explained. In a nutshell, whoever control's Nirvana has the power to turn the good guys into bad guys and vise versa."

Not good.

"Well," Lyon started, "that gives us one more reason to stop this thing. Let's go!"

"What about Sherry?" Lucy asked. The moment she said that, Sherry stood up.

"I'm fine now. Lyon and I will try to find the others while the rest of you get to the top of this thing.

Everyone nodded in silent agreement.

Gray, Nyx, Natsu, and Lucy ran towards the spider leg closest to them while Happy flew along side. It was almost too steep to climb, but they could do it. They started to run as fast as they could up the side of Nirvana. The leg felt like it was made of stone.

Nyx was having a difficult time climbing up the side.

"Need any help?" Happy asked her.

"No, I'm fine. I'm just pretty low on magic power. I've never drained myself that much before."

"I can carry you if you'd like," Happy insisted.

"No, I assure you. I'm fine. Please don't carry me."

Gray felt like there was something off about Nyx right now. Gray knew that, if he were that tired, he would probably accept Happy's help.

The leg started shaking back and forth, almost to where it knocked Nyx and Lucy off. At the last second, both of them caught their balance.

Why is it shaking?

To answer his question, Nirvana started to move. The leg that they were climbing slowly moved forward.

"Oh no." Natsu said. Gray looked back to see him about to throw up. "This thing's a vehicle."

Nyx chuckled. "It's not a vehicle, Natsu. It's Nirvana."

That didn't seem to help his condition much. Lucy, who was behind Natsu, didn't seem to notice that he'd stopped. As a result, she ran right into him, causing both of them to start tumbling down Nirvana's leg. To make matters worse, Nyx was right behind Lucy, so she would have been caught in the mess if Happy hadn't gone in to rescue her. Gray was now the only one who could still climb.

"Hey!" he yelled. "Quit fooling around and get up here! We need to stop this thing as fast as we can!"

The two of them stopped rolling about halfway back down the leg. It looked like Lucy was talking to Natsu, but he couldn't make out what they were saying. Finally, Natsu started to slowly tank up the leg, only to stop again after twenty or so seconds.

This guy is hopeless.

Gray decided to let them work it out, so he continued up the leg. He looked around for Happy and Nyx and saw them flying just a little bit ahead of him. Something was off, though. Nyx was covering her eyes and didn't seem to be saying much. Happy looked like he was talking to her, but she wasn't saying anything back. Gray was wondering why she would be acting so strangely. First, she was reluctant to go with Happy, and now that she was flying with Happy, she looked to be scared. She was never scared around Happy before.

That's when a thought occurred to him.

Could Nyx be scared of heights?

Gray saw Happy set Nyx down about fifteen yards ahead of Gray. She just sat there for a moment. Gray was quickly approaching her.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked, sympathy in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks."

"You're afraid of heights, aren't you?"

"You can tell?"

"It wasn't that hard to figure out."

Nyx stood up and regained her composure. "I'm good now. Where's Natsu and Lucy?" Nyx asked.

"They slid down a ways. They shouldn't be too far back there. Happy, do you think you can get them?"

Happy put his hand to his brow in a salute. "Aye, Sir."

He flew down the leg to go pick up Natsu and Lucy. Gray and Nyx took off up the leg. They were nearly at the top when Gray heard a familiar voice come out of nowhere.

"I can hear you coming."

It was Cobra. That was the bastard that poisoned Erza.

Nyx and Gray made it to the top of the leg, and sure enough, cobra was there waiting for them. Gray felt anger welling up inside him. He wanted to beat the crab out of this jackass for hurting Erza.

"You want to beat me, huh? Well, I can tell you now, that's not going to happen.

What? Can he hear my thoughts?"

Cobra laughed. "I can hear everything. I can hear every muscle in your body move. I can hear every hair on your head as it moves. I can even hear our inner voice. Isn't that right, Cubellios." He started to scratch the giant snake that sat next to him under the chin.

Damn it. How am I going to win here? It was bad enough that Nyx beat me.

Cobra's laughed and then turned to Nyx. She cringed.

"So, this little girl beat you in a fight? How pitiful.

Cobra's smile suddenly vanished as he looked behind Gray. Nyx seemed to sense something as well and turned around.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Natsu rushed in, carried by Happy. He went straight for Cobra's face, but he dodged it easily. Natsu just laughed.

"I got this Guy. Gray, Nyx, you go help the other's. I want to personally beat this guy to a pulp for what he did to Erza."

Gray smiled. Count on Natsu to come and steal the fight.

"Alright, but you better win." Gray said.

"I'm staying here with you, Natsu. I don't know if I can be much help to the others right now."

Natsu growled, but then gave in. "Ugh, fine. But be sure to be careful."

Nyx smiled mischievously, exactly like her brother. It was eerie how much those two looked alike.

Lucy was climbing over to the top of Nirvana. Gray rushed to help her up. He told her what they were going to do, and about Natsu and Nyx fighting Cobra.

"Okay. I got it." Lucy said.

The two of them took off to look for a way to stop Nirvana from destroying everything.