Kidnapping Erza
By CrimsonStarbird
Chapter Twenty-Six: Final Dance
"Ah," said Erza.
"Umm," said Jellal.
Neither of them could quite bring themselves to look at the other. This was unfamiliar and unexpected territory for them both, and in the sudden awkwardness, neither had a clue how to break the silence.
Still, they would have put good money on the appropriate thing to say in this situation not being a shout of, "LOOK OUT BELOW!"
Yet that was exactly what freed them from the moment. Ten extended seconds of being serious was clearly too much for Fairy Tail, so it was reacting by transforming their street into an airport runway.
This guild… Jellal thought, despairingly. Remind me why I was helping them, again?
Fortunately, Erza took this new development in her stride. She seized his hand and pulled him out of the way as a biplane thundered along the street.
The plane's lowered wheels touched the cobblestones and bounced straight off; its pilot wrestled with the controls and the wheels skidded along the ground once more. Or, rather, one of the wheels did, as the plane listed alarmingly. The left wing scraped along the road, throwing up a shower of sparks. There was an almighty bang and the plane righted itself, tripped, skidded, spun a full ten-eighty degrees, and finally ground to a halt inches away from the house at the end of the street. The propeller spluttered and died.
The pilot removed her flight helmet and shook out her sky-blue hair. "And Mira made it look so easy," Levy lamented.
She vaulted out of the plane and trotted over to Jellal and Erza, both of whom were too stunned to speak – or, apparently, to let go of each other's hand. "Oh, I see you two made up, then," she remarked, with a wonderful smile.
"I… guess?" tried Jellal, who was still struggling to process what it meant that he and Erza had survived.
"We did," Erza agreed. "We were able to destroy the remaining lacrima together, and we're both unharmed. Thank you for mobilizing the guild, Levy. We couldn't have done it without your help."
Her words bore genuine gratitude, but Levy's buoyant mood seemed to sink at once. "Yeah… I'm sorry about that. The plane is a lot harder to fly than it looks. I'm not quite sure how Mira managed it. Aiming the main gun while moving wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, either… I should have known there was a reason why Mira left all the fighting on that raid to us. If I'd just been a little more competent, I could have destroyed all the lacrima, and you two wouldn't have been in any danger…"
Erza shook her head, smiling. "You did just enough, Levy. We're very grateful."
"Levy, thank you," Jellal spoke up suddenly, causing both the girls to look at him in surprise. "If you hadn't spoken to me like you did, then I… Erza…" Then Erza would have died, he thought, but even now that he knew it was over, he still couldn't bring himself to say those words out loud.
After a moment, she smiled up at him again. "That's alright. I know you're a good person really. You just need reminding of it every once in a while."
"True, that," Erza nodded.
"Don't agree with her!" Jellal protested, causing them to laugh.
"Oh, and I did a fly-by of the guild on my way here," Levy added. "Everyone's fine. No one came into any danger from the Organic Link curse, thanks to your suggestions. In fact, they're regrouping at the guildhall right now. Laxus has well and truly lost."
"Not yet." It was Erza who spoke, turning her solemn gaze towards Kardia Cathedral's closed doors. "The city may be safe, but the battle isn't over until Laxus himself has been defeated."
At that moment a ball of black and silver fury burst out of a back alley and into their street. It slowed to a stop, revealing itself as a humanoid figure, bent double and gasping for breath. "Where is that punk Laxus?" it snarled. "Let me at him!"
Levy blinked. "Gajeel? Where've you been? I let you and Natsu out of the guildhall ages ago!"
"It's not my fault!" the Iron Dragon Slayer roared back. "That damn ice mage roped me into setting off a load of fireworks… what the hell was that even for?"
"Setting the romantic mood," Levy volunteered helpfully.
"…Eh?"
"Levy!" Jellal protested, waving his hands hastily.
"Well, whatever." Gajeel cracked his knuckles. "Laxus is hiding in the cathedral, huh? It's payback time for that day in the park."
"Hang on a minute." Jellal's raised arm stopped him in his tracks. "If you're out here, does that mean Natsu has been fighting Laxus on his own this entire time?"
Silence followed this realization.
Silence, broken by a timely explosion from inside Kardia Cathedral. Something blasted through the cathedral doors, leaving a smoking Natsu-shaped hole in the wood. The poor boy landed face-first on the pavement and remained there: dazed, singed, and sporting enough bruises to make his body look like a palette for an experimental artist specializing in shades of yellow and purple.
"Natsu!" Erza cried out, running over to him.
But Jellal got there first. Rather than helping Natsu to his feet, he seized the boy by his scarf and dragged him upright, suspending him above the ground with one hand while pointing with the other to the interior of the cathedral. The ruined interior of the cathedral. With its smashed stained glass windows, wrecked pillars, and notable lack of roof.
"Natsu," he began, in a voice like ice. "Explain yourself."
"Umm…"
"Kardia Cathedral is a national heritage site! A Grade I listed building! How dare you just smash it up like that? This is far beyond the usual appalling standard I would expect from your guild – this is an utter lack of respect for Fiore's cultural heritage! You can't just fix a centuries-old cathedral! The workmanship, the craft knowledge, the sanctified texts, the irreplaceable relics, the history entrenched within the very stones – all lost, because of you!"
"It wasn't me!" Natsu objected wildly. "It was like that when I got there, I swear!"
Struggling to suppress her smile, Erza rested her hand on Jellal's arm. "He's telling the truth. It had already been destroyed when we arrived to face Laxus."
Reluctantly, Jellal set Natsu back on his feet, eyeing the boy suspiciously all the while.
Levy gave a weary sigh. "Once a councillor, always a councillor, I suppose…"
"Regardless, there's no point worrying about the cathedral now," Erza pointed out. "What's done is done, and besides – I have a feeling that its current state is nothing compared to how it will look by the time the fight is over."
"So, what are we waiting out here for?" Natsu interjected, no less excitable for the beating he had already taken. Nothing could keep him down for long when there were strong opponents to fight. "Let's go get him!"
The Dragon Slayer took three resolute steps towards the cathedral doors. His fourth step faltered. Rather than taking a fifth, he glanced quizzically over his shoulder, as if to ask why no one was stopping him – or, really, why a certain Wizard Saint wasn't stopping him.
"Isn't this the part where you say-" Natsu began, drawing himself up to his full height and assuming the most disdainful tone he could manage, "You fools should all just stay out here. I could take Laxus on my own, and you'd only get in the way… or something?"
"I could take Laxus on my own!" Jellal retorted. "But… that doesn't mean I should. It's your guild he declared war against. It ought to be you… to be Fairy Tail… that puts him in his place."
"That includes you too, doesn't it?" Natsu pointed out. "As long as this battle doesn't drag on past midnight, you have as much right to participate as the rest of us."
Levy added, "Even more so, in fact. Wasn't it you and Gajeel joining the guild – a member of the Council and a former enemy of ours – that pushed Laxus over the edge and triggered his takeover bid in the first place?"
Natsu nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, so stop trying to be considerate; it's weird. Being nice doesn't suit you."
Jellal shifted uncomfortably. "Well… Even so, we shouldn't all just rush in there without a plan. First, we need to-" He blinked, glanced left and right, and then frowned. "Where's Erza?"
Levy pointed to the cathedral doors, which were swinging back and forth about their place of rest. "I do believe she got bored and just rushed in there without a plan."
"…Oh, fine," Jellal sighed. "Let's all just charge in. It wouldn't be much of a Fairy Tail finale if we actually stopped and thought things through, now, would it?"
"It's over, Laxus," Erza declared, with a judge's solemnity. "Your allies have been defeated, and not a single member of Fairy Tail has fallen. The Master will not surrender. If you turn yourself in now, I am sure that he and the guild will be merciful."
Laxus stood at the heart of the ruined cathedral hall, a silent ghost amidst the sunbeams and the dust. A small, sad smile touched Erza's face, and she bowed her head. "Yet, I appreciate that that is not an option for you. You have come too far, and sacrificed too much, to back down now. The only way out for you is to be defeated."
Into her hands she Requipped one of her two hundred weapons: a greatsword, silver and gold, with a sparkling sapphire set into its pommel. She raised it as a knight of old might have raised Excalibur; a gesture of respect and of challenge.
"Have no fear," she told him. "I will grant you that defeat."
Her opponent laughed. "You have no right to speak so condescendingly to me." A mad, harsh sneer. "You've already lost to me once today."
"Yes." Erza accepted this with a sincere nod. "I was conflicted within myself. I believed I had been forced to choose between the guild I loved and the man I loved, and that made my blade unsteady. But… I was mistaken. He's here too, fighting for our guild alongside me." With a warm smile, she met Laxus's gaze once more. "By fighting you when I was not at my best, I showed you great disrespect, and I apologize for that. Now, I no longer have any doubts. I am ready to put everything I have up against you. So, come at me, Laxus!"
This final sentence rose to a shout, and Laxus did not need to hear it twice.
He hurtled through the ruins with a wordless roar. She parried his strike with the flat of her blade, stepping back to absorb the impact. Their eyes met above the deadlock, his desperate anger and her calm resolution, each seeking some sign of the other's next move, while the debris that their collision had thrown into the air rained down all around them.
Seizing the initiative, Laxus aimed a kick at her; she shifted her grip, Requipped a second blade – the glowing red steel of her Flame Empress Armour – and blocked the blow with that. In the wake of the shattered stalemate, her swords became a blur of silver and crimson. She was as comfortable dual-wielding those great blades as she was with a knife and fork. Despite Laxus's insane physical strength, she was his equal in hand-to-hand combat – and more, as she began to push him back.
His frustration took form as a bitter snarl. Erza's next strike cleaved through empty air as Laxus's physical body became a streak of lightning, breaking out of the melee in the blink of an eye. It was a smart move, but he had backed down nonetheless; the mental advantage was Erza's. Calmly, she cast aside her king's blade and grasped the Flame Empress's one in both hands, completing the Requip into that resplendent red armour.
Physical attacks could not hurt Laxus in that form, but elemental ones could, and Erza's strength was in her versatility. Fire and lightning met in an almighty explosion. It was a good job that there was little left within the cathedral's walls to destroy.
Erza's armour protected her from the worst of the explosion, and she sprung easily away. Laxus shot skywards, and for a moment, she thought she had managed to drive him off again – but he was merely gathering height. He flashed back down towards her, returning to his physical form to take full advantage of gravity's pull. His hands, clasped together high above his head, became the core of a blazing lightning hammer.
Too experienced to have lowered her guard in that moment of false victory, Erza was ready for him. Her Adamantine Armour materialized around her right before impact. Though it was still damaged from the beating it had taken during the airship raid, her power flowed strong within it, and Laxus's tremendous blow was absorbed entirely by its pair of shields.
Nor was this a sign that Erza had been forced onto the defensive. Before Laxus's feet had even hit the ground, she made a slight gesture with her fingers, and the blade she had discarded earlier shot towards Laxus from behind. Only his preternatural instincts saved him from being impaled; instead, the sword struck a glancing blow to his side as he jumped away.
Letting her shields vanish, Erza returned to her normal armour. The constant Requipping may have been an added drain on her magic, but that was something she had to spare, and it was worth it to keep her strategies hidden for that extra few seconds. She bent down to pick up her sword, resuming the same knight's stance she had adopted at the start of the battle.
It was a declaration: we've clashed, and I am still unharmed.
Laxus understood perfectly. Electricity began to crackle all over his body; an aura of energy hung around him like a thundercloud. Erza switched immediately to her Lightning Empress Armour. Up against that level of power, she couldn't risk using anything less than the armour designed to absorb lightning magic. No sooner had the transformation finished than she was upon him, driving the spearhead towards his lower abdomen.
Laxus slammed his fist down atop the spear's shaft, knocking it off course. Her armour absorbed the electricity that ran along the weapon from his fist without harm, however, and she had been anticipating such a reaction. With an extra burst of speed, she lunged forwards, spinning the low spear around and aiming to trip him instead.
The blow connected, but an impromptu strike could not shift Laxus's weight. Nor was it enough to stop him from kicking her in the stomach before her dive carried her out of range. Although the armour's enchantments neutralized the magic surging around his foot, the physical force sent her flying through the air.
She recovered with an ease that Happy would have envied, landing safely on her feet, but Laxus was already following up with a barrage of ball lightning. The first, she blocked with the spear's shaft. The second, she managed to reflect back at him, but he sidestepped it easily. The third, she absorbed into the spearhead and shot back towards him as a blue-tinged bolt he could not so readily avoid, but at the cost of being hit by the fourth, which carried enough power this time to pierce through her armour's magic and shock her nerves with pain.
Makarov always used to teach them that when two mages with the same type of magic clashed, the heart of each combatant would determine the victor. And while Erza had always accepted his wisdom, she had a sneaking suspicion that experience, volume of magic power, and sheer brute strength played more than a small role in breaking the stand-off. When it came to lightning magic, Laxus outclassed her in all three areas. Her magical attacks couldn't touch a master like him, whereas his strikes would break through her armour's resistance, given enough time.
Her biggest advantage lay in her close-quarters combat skill, so she rushed him again. Her spear struck like a viper, over and over, denying him any chance of invoking that dangerous level of power once more – though he hardly needed to, when he was capable of blocking her weapon with his forearms alone.
Even as she realized she wasn't making any progress, Laxus batted her spear aside and lunged in with his free hand. Abandoning her weapon, Erza spun around. Her long plait of hair whipped out, and the braid at the end – a heavy blue crystal, courtesy of her Lightning Empress Armour – smacked straight into Laxus's temple. There was a small explosion of sparks; he stumbled and she seized the chance to put some distance between them.
She exerted her will and the spear flew back into her hand, but it was a token gesture by this point. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but she could have sworn that the tip of her spear was having difficulty piercing Laxus's skin. No one should be that strong, or that resilient… not unless there was some hidden magic enhancing his physical body. If the rumours about him were true, this fight could be a lot harder than she'd thought.
This situation wasn't good. She didn't have enough offensive power to beat Laxus in this armour – and yet if she switched to anything else, it would leave her wide open to his devastating attacks.
Laxus knew that too. It was why he was even now allowing her to catch her breath: the reprieve might strengthen her physically, but the blow to her morale as she came to understand what he had known intuitively more than compensated.
"Such tenacity," Laxus smirked. "But then, I'd expect no less from you, Erza. I acknowledge your potential as a mage, but you still have a long way to go before you can come close to me."
"This isn't over yet, Laxus!"
He laughed. "Yes, it is. You think your versatility is your strength, but it is also your greatest weakness. You can use many kinds of magic, but you have mastered none. I, however, have taken lightning magic to its ultimate level, and your borrowed lightning cannot hope to compete. For all your great range of armours, you do not have a single one in which you can surpass me. You cannot beat me, Erza."
Erza's grip on her spear tightened. If this was allowed to continue, he would become more and more confident, and her chance of landing a blow would shrink every second. Locked into this mindset, there could only be one outcome.
So she simply had to break out. She had to do something he wasn't expecting; something that would alter the fight enough to nullify her opponent's mental advantage.
"You're right about Requip, Laxus," Erza told him calmly. "I can't beat you if I rely on my armours alone. But, the thing is… I don't have to. I've never told anyone this before, but Requip isn't the natural form my magic takes."
He blinked in confusion. "Yes, it is."
"It isn't. You see, I didn't grow up surrounded by mages, like you did. I was never taught about magic. Long before I obtained my first magical armour, long before I had even heard of Requip, my magic awoke within me of its own accord, when my friend and mentor was murdered before my eyes. I picked up the weapons around me with my mind, and flung them at my oppressors."
"Your telekinesis?" Laxus frowned, curious despite himself.
She gave a slow nod. "But I hated using it," she confessed. "Every time I did, I was reminded of everything that happened on that day. If I'd just acquired it a minute earlier, Grandpa Rob wouldn't have had to die. And thus it became another manifestation of my fear towards the past… yet another shackle binding me to the Tower of Heaven.
"After I joined the guild, I sought out and learned Requip magic. I liked wearing armour, so that magic suited me far better, I thought. I trained with all manner of weapons until I could wield them just as well with my hands as with my innate magic. Even when I did use telekinesis in combat, it was always in conjunction with my Heaven's Wheel Armour, whose enchantments would bind the flow of the magic for me. I suppressed my natural power, along with my memories of that time."
Allowing herself a small smile, she continued, "But I'm not afraid any more. I haven't been for a while. I think that I was given this power so I wouldn't have to watch anyone else I cared about die. I didn't hesitate to use it against Thunder Palace – and it is all I need to beat you here and now."
The Lightning Empress Armour, her last line of defence against Laxus's overwhelming might, disappeared. It was replaced by her Heaven's Wheel Armour – the one whose magic was most suited to summoning and controlling a large number of swords at once. "I will not Requip my armour again until our fight is over, Laxus," Erza vowed. "I will defeat you with my blades alone."
Far more surprised than impressed, Laxus demanded, "You're losing, so you've decided to turn things around… by handicapping yourself?"
"I told you, Laxus," she said. Her move had thrown him; when it came to their mind games they were back on an even footing. "I am stronger now than you have ever seen me before."
One sword materialized in her left hand, and one in her right. "If you don't believe me, then come and see for yourself."
Fury danced in Laxus's eyes. It was her confidence that did it: that after all he had done, she did not fear him; that after how effortlessly he had fought her off so far, she still believed she could win. Electricity crackled along his arm-
But it wasn't lightning that shot towards Erza this time. It was fire. Friendly fire, one could call it, as Natsu appeared from nowhere and tried to flying-kick her from the side.
She dodged it easily, but Natsu landed and jumped straight back to his feet, satisfied that he had made his point. "Oi, Erza!" he demanded. "What do you think you're doing, rushing in here ahead of us and hogging Laxus all to yourself?"
Before she could answer, Natsu was suddenly gone as Gajeel shoved him aside and took his place. "You already had your chance," he grunted to Natsu. "Let me fight him. I've gotta get revenge for when he attacked me in the park."
"Get revenge in your own time!" Natsu yelled, right in Gajeel's face.
Erza heaved a sigh. She heard more footsteps and glanced over her shoulder to see Levy approaching, who seemed equally exasperated at the Dragon Slayers' bickering. "You too, Levy?"
"Well, I don't have any suicidal desire to go one-on-one with Laxus, like those two do," the letter mage responded, with a rueful smile. "But I think I can provide support from a safe distance."
"And what about Je- about Siegrain?"
"He said he'll join in if he has to, but he doesn't particularly want to fight alongside Natsu and Gajeel at the same time," she grinned, pointing at the Dragon Slayers, who were almost at blows without any interference from Laxus. "I can't blame him. Laxus is enough to handle without having unpredictable teammates to contend with too."
Before Erza could give voice to her agreement, an inhuman roar split the air. Laxus was not happy that his opponents weren't taking this seriously. He had invested so much in the Battle of Fairy Tail that he needed a proper conclusion. Erza understood this; it was why she had approached him as she did at the start of the fight.
And, despite Natsu's apparent disrespect, she knew that he understood it too. That was why he and Gajeel immediately broke off their mock battle and hurled themselves at Laxus.
For two people who argued so much, the Dragon Slayers were impressively in sync. Fists flying, feet pounding, they both engaged him in melee at the same time, fire and iron strengthening their blows without once striking each other. Laxus had his hands full just fending off both at once. And as soon as the melee had consumed his full attention-
A streak of silver burst from Erza's raised hand. The magic-propelled sword found the one tiny gap in Natsu's and Gajeel's barrage, slipped through, and cut a shallow gash in Laxus's side.
It was with something akin to amazement that Laxus looked down at the crimson streak darkening his shirt. He glanced at Erza, who Requipped another sword into her empty hand without speaking. I told you so, that gesture said.
Two against one Laxus could handle, but throwing a sniper into the mix as well just wasn't fair. Time for a new approach. Stepping back, his impressive magical presence suddenly swelled to twice its usual size. Sparking energy burst out from his body in all directions, making him appear momentarily monstrous. Natsu and Gajeel were flung back by it; they hit the floor hard and remained there, as paralyzing pulses of lightning seized up their muscles.
Erza dashed forwards to cover for them. She hurled both the swords she was holding at Laxus as a distraction, and had Requipped another two by the time she was upon him. The first, a greatsword into which she poured as much raw magic as possible, cut straight through his protective aura. The second, a much smaller blade, was too short to hit him from this distance – the last thing she wanted was to form a direct pathway of metal between Laxus's blazing body and her own. Instead, a silver arc of energy launched from its swing, striking him through the gap in his guard.
Laxus let out a bellow of rage. Insanity bubbled in the whites of his eyes. That was all the warning she got before that aura of power reshaped itself into a giant halberd of lightning, heading straight towards her.
It never made contact. At the last moment, it veered to hit the tip of a pole that had appeared beside Erza. Well, she thought it was a pole, but closer inspection revealed it to be a horizontal line of metallic letters connecting to the nearest ruined pillar, spelling out the word 'LIGHTNINGROD'. Levy, who was taking shelter behind the ruined masonry, gave Erza a determined nod.
That was quick thinking, Erza thought, nodding gratefully back. There was a time when Levy would have shied away from the craziest, most dangerous events that ever afflicted the guild – and now she was not merely watching the battle against Laxus, but providing invaluable support for their team. Ever since her concern for Erza had led her to become Jellal's most vocal opponent in the guild, she had grown so much, and proven herself to be both fearless and far more capable than she herself had imagined.
And as Levy's word dissolved into sparks of magic, Erza wondered if the letter mage's creative insight could be what she was looking for. She knew that the words Levy made with Solid Script were more than mere letters given form – the concept and associations behind each word imbued it with abilities far beyond its physical properties – but the basic principle of using a conductor to redirect lightning was surely something she could use. After all, she thought of her blades as weapons, but if she viewed them instead as perfectly conducting shards… shards she could move without touching… well, such a change in perspective might just give her the edge she needed against Laxus's overwhelming power.
"Erza, get back!" Natsu howled. He and Gajeel charged Laxus from either side with simultaneous breath attacks. Not wanting to be left out, Erza summoned five swords above Laxus, which she sent into the heart of the firestorm with a flick of her wrist.
"Did we get him?" Gajeel grunted. He took a step forward, but Erza's hand held him back.
A silhouette appeared amongst the flames: a man hunched over, with five blades protruding from his back. As they watched, Laxus seemed to sway on his feet. Lightning picked up in a way that no natural lightning had ever moved, racing in rings around the base of the inferno and ploughing through the half-melted debris on the floor. Then, before their eyes, the five swords impaling him disintegrated.
"No…" Levy whispered. She stared in wide-eyed horror as the inferno suddenly vanished, revealing that Laxus was completely unharmed.
No, he wasn't just unharmed – he had changed. He had always been a large man, but now his upper body muscles had swollen to abnormal proportions. Black lines traced a pattern of scales upon his skin. His canine teeth were elongated and as sharp as Erza's spears; even more pronounced than those of the Dragon Slayers. Lightning danced freely around his body, flowing through the ridges between his scales and bursting like skeletal wings from his back, constantly breaking down and reforming from electrical arcs.
"It can't be!" Natsu exclaimed. "Laxus, you're a Dragon Slayer too?"
"So the rumours are true," Erza reflected. Unlike Natsu, however, it was dread, and not excitement, that weighed down her words. The sight confirmed her earlier suspicions – that Laxus had been using a hidden power to strengthen his body's defences – although this was one of the few instances where she would have given anything to be wrong. Now, he had abandoned all secrecy for the sake of victory. This was Laxus's pseudo-Dragon Force, a state which pushed his physical strength beyond what should have been humanly possible and raised his endurance to unsurmountable levels.
Erza yelled, "Scatter!"
She and Gajeel dived aside as Laxus unleashed an almighty breath attack towards them. Natsu, who had been hoping that Laxus would explain himself, was a moment too slow, and he found himself facing down that vortex of lightning alone.
"Natsu!" Levy shouted. The word 'BOUNCY' appeared on the floor in front of him. He jumped onto it without hesitation, and the letters propelled him up and over the energy beam as if he'd hit a trampoline at full speed. In fact, he would probably have gone right through the hole where the ceiling used to be if Levy hadn't created another identical word up there for him to bounce off. Natsu launched himself back towards Laxus like a blazing meteorite; the impact bashed yet another crater into the floor.
When the smokescreen cleared, both Natsu and his target were lying on the ground. One of Erza's spears shot down from the heavens, pinning Laxus's hand to the floor as he tried to reach for Natsu. His howl of pain rose over the rumble of settling debris – and then even that was drowned out by the crack of thunder as he switched to his lightning form. He was fast, faster than the eye could see; he crossed the room in a heartbeat and shot straight through Erza's body. She cried out in agony and dropped to one knee as the aftershocks flooded her body with paralyzing pain.
Gajeel launched a breath attack straight into the lightning stream. Though it couldn't damage Laxus in that state, it had the desired effect: Laxus's target switched to him immediately. Gajeel rolled out of the way of the initial strike, leaving the lightning mage to reduce what remained of the altar to dust.
Iron scales gleamed upon Gajeel's skin as he prepared himself for the fistfight. He dodged Laxus's first punch and retaliated with a rapid-fire pummelling from the iron sword which his arm had become. Laxus met him in kind. The victor was decided after the longest three seconds of Gajeel's life, when he finally broke through and buried his sword deep into Laxus's upper arm. Blood and sparks bubbled up around the blade.
To Gajeel's dismay, however, Laxus was grinning. Electricity surged from the wound, through the perfectly conducting blade, and across the metallic scales covering his entire body: Laxus had found a way to turn Gajeel's impenetrable defence against him. Pain blazed inside the Iron Dragon Slayer's body; a searing heat trapped beneath his skin. His scales reverted back to normal, but it was already too late. By the time Laxus kicked him away triumphantly, Gajeel could no longer stand – unable to run or block as his opponent raised his hands above his hand and summoned an almighty lightning lance.
Then Natsu was there, forcing Laxus back onto the defensive. While their team had the advantage of numbers, Laxus had no chance of getting in a free hit.
Watching them, Erza felt a surge of pride. This was what their teamwork was all about. All four of them couldn't attack Laxus at once – they would simply get in each other's way. But while one or two of them continued to put pressure on their opponent, the others were watching their backs; stepping in when they were needed; offering support magic at just the right time.
And she thought it was a good thing for Laxus to see: former enemies working together to protect their guild.
Then again, she reflected, Laxus wasn't interested in learning life lessons. At the start of their fight, he had at least been sincere, but now there was very little rationality in his eyes – combat instinct, rage, and overwhelming might dominated his every action. Even worse, though they were landing solid hits on him, he simply wasn't taking any damage. The pseudo-scales upon his arms negated most of the attacks which hit, and even the cut from Gajeel's sword had already stopped bleeding.
At this rate, they might wear him down eventually, but he was throwing around advanced Lightning Dragon Slayer arts like they were nothing – a single hit would take one of them out of the fight for good. It might even kill them. Laxus, as he was now, with madness as dark as thunderclouds in his eyes, could kill his former allies; she was sure of it.
She wondered if Natsu was aware of the danger. She thought it wouldn't make a difference to his actions, even if he was. He hit Laxus with everything he had: chaining together Dragon Slayer attacks so quickly he was a red-gold streak of fire, striking with elbows and feet and head and hands, magic designed to crush scales and clip wings and overcome even a dragon's terrifying might.
And it seemed for a moment that even Laxus must succumb. The large man staggered backwards, swayed, and almost fell – but it was a feint. The moment the barrage that not even he could block eased up, his fist smashed the boy down into the floor. A vast, untamed, furious magic swirled around the two of them.
Laxus snarled, "How many times must I hit you before you stay down?"
"Laxus, NO!" Erza screamed. She was running flat-out, but it wouldn't be enough. An enormous white-gold orb of lightning crashed down upon Natsu – and then there was nothing but white.
Although she closed her eyes reflexively against the light, the sheer brilliance of it drove like needles through her eyelids. Heat washed over her; she could have sworn she heard the stone beneath her feet bubbling.
But when the explosion died away, it did not bring with it relief. No: it only made her worst fears real. Natsu was nowhere to be seen.
Laxus was laughing – a horrible sound, maniacal and cruel, like nothing Erza had ever heard from him before. "Gone!" he gloated. "Gone, with nothing left! How many more of you must I destroy before the old man gives in?"
"Honestly," Jellal reprimanded him. He landed in the centre of the room as the dust cleared, gentle golden light playing along his skin, with a perfectly unharmed Natsu held bridal-style in his arms. "I wanted no part in this fight, but if you're going to throw magic like that around, I don't really have a choice. Someone's going to die if you're allowed to keep that up."
He dumped Natsu unceremoniously onto the ground. Not that that stopped the boy from immediately jumping to his feet and glomping Jellal, crying tears of joy. "I knew you didn't hate me really!"
"…If you don't get off me this instant, you are going to wish I'd let Laxus murder you."
"Right-o."
Laxus scrutinized the newcomer through narrowed eyes as Natsu hastily backed away. "Right, then," he grunted. "Which one are you?"
"Which… one?" Jellal echoed.
"Are you the other one, this time? Or is it that, unable to accept your resounding defeat in our previous battle, you thought you'd switch your clothes and have another go?"
"Our first battle ended in a tie," Jellal pointed out. "After Makarov and Erza interrupted us before we could really get going."
"Oh, already forgotten our little fight of a few minutes ago, have you? Or were you just not wanting to bring it up in front of your friends?"
"What are you talking about? A few minutes ago, I was outside with Erza, and before that I was in the guildhall with Levy."
Both girls nodded in confirmation. The two men stared at each other, Laxus suspicious and Jellal just really confused.
"You're not the one who destroyed the cathedral roof, then?"
"I most certainly am not." Jellal sounded rather affronted by the accusation. "And I must say, there are a few choice words I would like to say to whoever did."
Impatient, Natsu interrupted, "Siegrain, what's going on?"
"I have no idea. He seems to be under the impression that we've fought already today, even though I've been nowhere near the cathedral."
"Huh. That's odd. Do you have an identical twin or something?"
Jellal considered that for a moment. "…You know, that's a really difficult question to answer."
Erza laughed. Laxus, unfortunately, did not look the least bit amused. "Well, whatever," he scowled. "I don't care who I have to destroy in order to win."
"So I've seen." With his hands in his pockets, Jellal began to pace back and forth. Laxus's eyes followed every step he took; the newcomer's confidence had knocked him down a peg. Erza remembered the battle against Jose, and couldn't help smiling. While Laxus's attention was focussed on Jellal, Levy was encouraging the injured Gajeel and Natsu to back away from the battlefield.
"Say, can I ask you something?" Jellal continued, perfectly at ease. He decided to take the hostile silence as consent. "Why are you doing all this?"
Laxus's glare intensified.
"No, I'm serious," Jellal insisted. "I missed how this whole Battle of Fairy Tail thing started, since I was…" Trying to kidnap Erza, he finished in his head. Story of my life. "…busy doing other things. Next thing I know, you've taken hostages, attempted a massacre, and are presently taking on the guild's strongest mages in what appears to be a battle to the death. It's fairly safe to say you hate this guild more than I do, so I'm curious to know why."
Concluding that his opponent's intentions were sincere, Laxus growled an answer. "This guild used to be respected. But now? Because of that old man's leadership, Fairy Tail is a laughing stock. Other towns, other guilds – they all consider us weak and foolish, good only for destroying things. I'm going to change all that by becoming Master." His cold stare sharpened, as if challenging Jellal to pick holes in his reasoning.
To his surprise, Jellal just shrugged. "You don't like how something is being run, so you're going to take control of it and change it for the better. I can understand that. But… don't you think that ship has already sailed?"
"…What?"
"Well, I mean… you've lost all your advantages, and Makarov obviously isn't going to let you become Master after what you've done, so why are you fighting to kill? That won't get you what you want. Even if you slaughter everyone in the guild, it won't make you Master of Fairy Tail… it'll make you Master of a guild of corpses. For all of about ten minutes, before you're arrested and thrown in jail. There is no way you can win any more. Don't you think it would be better to give up while you still can?"
"You don't understand anything!" Laxus snarled. "I'm not backing down! I'm not wrong! I WILL NOT LOSE!"
The damaged cathedral walls trembled at that shout, but Jellal did not. "Now, fighting for the sake of your pride, I can understand," he frowned. "But there's nothing to be gained by striking an already-defeated opponent with enough magic to kill them. I don't think you're fighting for victory any more, or for pride. I think you're fighting because you just can't stop."
He could sense the puzzlement of the others in the room, but his gaze did not leave Laxus's, and he was satisfied to see that the lightning mage did not look confused at all. "I'm right, aren't I? This magic you're using… it's like Dragon Force, but it isn't. You're not a true Dragon Slayer, are you? There are reports on the theoretical Second Generation in the Archives, but I wasn't aware that anyone had actually managed to create one."
"What are you talking about?" Natsu demanded. "Is he a Dragon Slayer, or isn't he?"
"He doesn't use Dragon Slayer magic in the same way you and Gajeel do," Jellal answered. "He wasn't taught it. He borrows it… steals it, even, from a lacrima inside his body."
Natsu felt as though that had raised more questions than it answered, but Jellal, who didn't particularly care, had already moved on, addressing Laxus once more. "You can't control it properly, can you? In your desperation, you called forth too much of its power, and its rage is consuming you. It shouldn't be mutating your body that much, but you can't make it stop. Even now, you're shaking with the effort of holding yourself back for long enough to hear me out. Its madness has you now. It will not let you stop fighting."
"SHUT UP!" Laxus roared, but it was just the confirmation Jellal had been looking for.
"It's alright," Jellal said softly. "I don't blame you. I know that madness. I spent eight years there. And, the thing is… it's something you can only see when you're looking at it from the outside. Tomorrow, when this is all over, you'll look back and understand. But not right now. Now, we have to beat you."
Natsu interjected, "Though, we were gonna do that anyway."
"Well, I wasn't," Jellal pointed out. "I had no reason to participate in this battle. I still think it would be best if the true members of Fairy Tail could defeat you without my interference. But now that I know your reason for fighting, I have my own. The first time we met in the park… to be honest, I hated you, but fighting you was really rather fun. Not this borrowed power you haven't yet learned to control, or some mad draconic rage, but you; fighting just for the hell of it. I think that was the first time I understood why Natsu kept pestering me all this time. So we're going to beat you now and put an end to this – and then one day, when it's all over, let's fight again for real, you and I."
Laxus laughed; a vicious, inhuman taunt. "I don't think so. You're not going to survive this-!" And he pounced towards Jellal like a tiger, fist blazing with energy.
Jellal did not run. He simply reached up and caught Laxus's fist in his palm. A vortex of light wrapped around his hand like a celestial gauntlet; not one of the thousand sparks bursting from the Dragon Slayer's arm touched his skin.
"Well," Jellal remarked. "You're going to have to do better than that."
He knew how Laxus was going to retaliate even before he did. The moment Laxus shifted his weight, Jellal dropped low, applied a lock to his wrist with his free hand, and rotated through a sharp half-turn – the net effect of which was to fling the larger man effortlessly over his head. Nor did he stop there. He immediately took off in pursuit, striking Laxus feet-first and driving him into the floor. They hurtled across the cathedral's nave, their erratic slide carving a path through the wreckage.
Jellal had one advantage that Erza and the others didn't. He had been observing their entire fight from one of the few intact rafters before he had been forced to intervene, and he had a good measure of Laxus's strength and the style he was likely to fall back on. He knew, for instance, that if he tried to pin Laxus, or strike him while he was down, he would automatically switch to his lightning form to escape, and then their battle would return to the stalemate that had dominated their clash in the park.
So he backed off, and sure enough, his opponent clambered back to his feet and charged him again. Jellal disliked fighting without the full speed granted to him by his magic, but it was the only way a winner would be decided. Their heated skirmish entered another purely physical round.
After the first exchange, Jellal concluded that watching such impossible strength from afar was not a good way of telling what it would be like to fight against it.
After the second exchange, Jellal was regretting how much his usual combat style focussed on mobility, and wished he had spent longer developing a contingency plan for when that mobility was compromised.
After the third exchange, Jellal was prepared to concede that engaging Laxus in a purely physical fight had been a mistake.
But that was okay. His magic was with him, if he had a little time to shape it properly. And this wasn't like the fight against Jose, where he had been handicapped from the start. He was still at almost full strength, and that meant he had the ability to take risks.
He let his guard slip, just a little, and Laxus broke through at once to send him flying. Someone cried out – but it was Erza, not him, and his concentration held. Even though the world was spinning and he couldn't breathe through the pain, he still managed to extend one hand towards the heavens. That second or two of Laxus's complacency after landing a hit would be long enough.
The resulting blaze rendered the bright blue sky invisible. Somewhere far above, something unimaginably vast was stirring in response to his call. Jellal flipped over in mid-air and brought his hand cutting down as he landed, and then that celestial fire was no longer in the sky, but everywhere – above and below, inside and out, terrifying and somehow warm. From the heart of that light, Laxus was screaming.
There came the sound of something tearing – a ceremonial curtain still hanging in the cathedral, perhaps, or maybe it was space itself. An enormous thunderbolt tore through that intangible force as easily as it would a wall. The light flickered and vanished; the wrecked cathedral was once again visible around them. A second thunderbolt headed straight for Jellal.
Yet it did not hit him. Instead, it hit the swords that had appeared in front of him: a whole host of them, tip to hilt, forming a jagged ring of metal around him like the halo of some distant planet. The lightning hit the ring and raced around it, furious and burning but unable to break out of that conductive circuit. Erza gestured and the ring broke apart, each sword burying itself point-first into the churned-up floor and dispersing the energy into the ground.
She ran over to Jellal, helping to support him as he gasped for breath. His left hand was pressed to the spot where Laxus had hit him; he had, perhaps, underestimated how much his gamble would cost him.
"Are you alright?" she asked him.
He ignored the question. "I can see why you were having so much trouble against him," Jellal remarked, eyeing Laxus unhappily. "He just won't stay down, will he? That level of endurance just isn't fair. Damn dragons."
"Do you think, if you could hit him with Abyss Break…?"
"Give me some credit, Erza." He gave a weary smile. "I'm not the kind of person who would hold out on my strongest magic until the very end of a battle just for dramatic purposes. If I thought it would work, I'd have opened with it, after what he nearly did to Natsu. But there's simply no way I can hit him with it. He's too fast. The moment he senses me gathering that amount of energy, he'll jump into that lightning form of his and tear me apart long before I can complete it."
For the first time since the battle had begun, dismay entered Erza's eyes. "Then… is there no way we can win?"
"Quite the opposite," he said, and she looked at him, startled. He explained, "There's no way we're going to lose. Laxus's defeat was assured from the moment the four of you pushed him into that state. It's draining his magic unsustainably quickly, and he can't leave it voluntarily; if we draw the battle out by running around without attacking, he'll pass out from magical exhaustion on his own before long. But…"
"But it won't mean anything," Erza confirmed, understanding what he was getting at right away. "If Laxus loses because he overstretched himself, it's simply a mistake that he can rectify next time. For him to learn anything from this, he needs to lose not because of his weakness, but because of our strength. That's the only way for the guild to prove to him that he will never succeed."
"Precisely. His defeat has no meaning unless it comes when he is at his strongest. Which means…"
"We're stuck doing this the hard way," Erza finished.
"You two have some nerve," Laxus interrupted, harsh and cold. "Stood there talking as though you have a choice of ways to fight. Shall I show you just how misplaced your confidence is?"
Erza's response was lost as a great weight pressed down upon them, as though the atmospheric pressure had suddenly doubled. Light filled the room: not the pure light of the heavens, but a cruel light, radiating out from between Laxus's palms. It did not erase the shadows, but lengthened them; an abhorrent existence made all the worse by its similarity to magic they knew well.
"Fairy Law!" Erza exclaimed.
It was – but not as they knew it. There was nothing of the warm comfort they had felt when Makarov had wielded it against Jose to save their lives. There was only despair: a hollow light, corrupted and cold, wrenched from its true purpose and bound to the will of another.
She glanced at Jellal; he answered her unspoken question with wide eyes. "There's only one thing anyone can do when faced with the ultimate judgement magic: run."
And that wasn't a real option. Gajeel couldn't move and Natsu wasn't much better. Levy was nowhere to be seen; she, at least, seemed to have taken Jellal's advice, although it would do no good against a magic that could encompass most of Magnolia. There was no time to think – only to act.
"Laxus!" Erza shouted. Letting all her swords vanish, she walked towards him, her empty palms upturned in a gesture of peace. "Laxus, stop. If you use that magic, it's not just us you will destroy – you'll wipe out the entire city too!"
"I'm going to win!" he howled. "Right now!"
"Erza, get back!" Jellal hissed, his desire to grab her and run like hell suppressed only by the knowledge that she would never forgive him for it.
Taking a deep breath, Erza ignored him and stared straight into that terrible light. "Laxus, you can't win like this. The people of Magnolia aren't your enemies! There's no need for you to drag them into this!"
"Wrong," Laxus corrected her. "There would be no need for this if only that old man would step down. Then no one would have to get hurt!"
"Well, he can't, can he?" Jellal interjected. "How is he supposed to step down when he's unconscious in hospital?"
"…What?" Laxus asked. The blinding light grew no brighter.
Jellal glanced at Erza. "You didn't tell him?"
"There wasn't really a good time," she mumbled.
Unhappy at being ignored, Laxus snapped again, "What happened?"
"Your grandfather collapsed," Erza informed him. "Porlyusica doesn't think he'll live through this day. Please, Laxus. It was your willingness to indiscriminately harm the citizens that caused him to collapse in the first place. Don't let that be Fairy Tail's – your grandfather's – legacy."
For a moment, the light seemed to dim. "The old man's… dying?" Laxus murmured.
"Don't do this, Laxus. It's okay for you to stop; to go and see him. He's your family."
But the hope they had so briefly dared to entertain was crushed by merciless laughter. He was far beyond reason now. "This is perfect! If he dies, I can still become Master!"
"Laxus!" Erza yelled, but the crashing of magic drowned out her voice. She summoned her blade and flung herself at him, desperate to disrupt the invocation of that almighty magic, and she sensed Jellal doing the same at her side – for all the good it would do. The sheer energy radiating out from Laxus's palms repelled their magic more effectively than any armour.
Cracks appeared in what remained of the cathedral walls. The rubble began to lift up into the air, moved by an unearthly wind. It was difficult to breathe, so saturated was the air with magic power. This was the apocalypse, unleashed.
And above the creaking of ancient stone and the lament of the earth and the screaming cacophony of magic, there came something else: the sound of a propeller.
"LAXUS!" Levy was bellowing. They glanced left and right but could not see her anywhere; she must have been outside the cathedral. Her disembodied voice continued, "Fairy Law is our guild's magic! It's supposed to protect our family; our city; our home!"
Through the hole in the ceiling the combatants could see the sky, and in that sky, there was a biplane. A little wooden one, a prototype, still in the experimental stage, with two pairs of wings, a single propeller, and a lacrima to fuel it with magic. Having already landed once atop a moving airship, the biplane was used to touching down in odd places. It barely protested at all as its pilot turned the nose down and it plunged towards the hole in the cathedral ceiling.
The closer it got, the more the wood warped under the pressure of the magic. One wingtip caught fire. It was vibrating so much that several bolts and supports, including the landing gear, were shaken loose. Yet the power Laxus held in his hands, which would have overwhelmed and erased any other magic at once, could not stop a physical plane diving towards him at full speed – or overcome the resolve of the girl at its controls.
"Levy, NO!" Jellal was screaming. "DON'T DO THIS-!"
But Levy had spent the past thirty days deliberately doing the opposite of what he wanted. She was not about to break the habit now. With a faint smile, she gripped the controls a little tighter.
"Laxus!" she yelled again. "I won't let the last thing the Master ever sees be you using his magic to destroy the very thing you're supposed to be protecting!" And she brought the plane crashing down on top of Laxus.
By the moment of impact, it wasn't a plane but a fireball, and it struck like a meteorite. The flames ignited the magic around them, detonating Fairy Law before it had fully formed and ripping the world apart.
There was nothing but light and heat. The plane's lacrima overloaded: a second explosion; a second wave of devastation. Scorching air seared their lungs as the ground disappeared from beneath them. There was no sky, only hell; and no future but the path that led through fire and brimstone.
In the madness, Jellal reached for Erza, no thought in his mind other than to try and shield her somehow, but he could see nothing, hear nothing, and he could not find her.
He was alone, they were all alone, as crimson faded to black and the world ended in fire.
Jellal could not have been out for long, because when he came to, the stone he lay upon was still burning hot and his ears were ringing with the sound of the explosion. With great effort, he raised his head, and found to his horror that he wasn't in the cathedral any more.
No, that wasn't right – he hadn't moved; of course he hadn't moved. It was the cathedral that had gone. The walls, stained glass windows, pillars, statues, even the great organ – they were no more, and all that remained was an enormous pile of rubble, on top of which he lay. All traces of that irreplaceable piece of cultural heritage had been erased. Looking around at the destruction, which topped anything Fairy Tail had managed to date, including crash-landing a state-of-the-art airship in a lake, he was struck by the overwhelming desire to rest his head back down on the baked stone and hope it was all just a bad dream.
Then he remembered the battle. Before he knew it, he was back on his feet, scanning the brand new wasteland in the heart of the city for any sign of Erza or Levy. At first he could see nothing but wreckage, and fear gripped him, because he had not been fast enough or strong enough to save anyone.
But while he was still learning that strength, it came as naturally as breathing to Erza. Jellal had thought only of her when the world had exploded, but she had thought not of the man she loved, who she trusted to take care of himself, but of the friend who was in far more danger. He already knew that she was prepared to risk a life where she was safe with him in order to save those she cared about, and that was no less true just because Thunder Palace had been overcome.
The biplane's impact had forced Fairy Law to activate before it was complete, so rather than taking its proper form and sweeping across the entire city, its energy had been released in an unformed state, appearing as a sphere of destruction large enough to encompass the cathedral but too small to touch any of the other buildings in the town. At the edge of the circle of devastation stood Erza and Levy.
As Jellal sprinted over to them, he could see that they weren't in a good way. Exhausted and burned, Levy was barely clinging to consciousness, upright only because of Erza's support.
And as for Erza herself… she had dived into the heart of the inferno to pull Levy out before impact, and though she had survived intact, her armour had not. To be fair, there hadn't been much of her Heaven's Wheel Armour in the first place, especially not on the top half of her body. Now there was even less, and what did remain was blackened, singed, and presently crumbling to pieces. One of her wings had disappeared completely, and nothing remained of the other but a handful of semi-melted feather-like blades.
"Erza! Levy! Are you alright?" he shouted.
Erza glanced at him and smiled. "We'll be fine."
Levy, by contrast, seemed to come alive again as he approached – and for all the wrong reasons. Her first response was to seize a lump of what might once have been cathedral ceiling and throw it at his head. "Don't look!" she shouted, planting herself firmly in front of Erza.
"What-?"
"Levy, it's fine, I don't mind," Erza assured her.
"It's not fine, and you should mind!" Levy retorted. "We already know he's a creepy pervert!"
"Seriously, you're still going on about that?" Jellal groaned.
Unimpressed, she ordered him, "You – turn around!"
"But what if-"
"Do it!"
It was probably best not to argue with her when she got like this. Besides, if Levy could still shout at him then it meant she was going to be okay, and that was so much better than the outcome he had foreseen that there was a slight smile on his face as he submitted to her silly whims, just this once.
When he was safely looking in the other direction, keeping a careful eye out for Laxus, Levy continued, "Erza, can't you just Requip some clothes, or something?"
"I cannot," came the solemn, and wonderfully tactless, response. "I promised Laxus I would not Requip my armour again until I had defeated him."
Levy's drawn-out sigh echoed over the wasteland. "I think Laxus would understand that you meant you wouldn't Requip for combat purposes. Requipping to cover a wardrobe malfunction is completely fine."
"I gave him my word, Levy."
Jellal gave a pointed cough. Trying his hardest not to look, he held out his overcoat. Erza took it, snapped off the remaining fragments of her wings, and shrugged into it, testing out her manoeuvrability. It wasn't in a great way, given that Jellal hadn't escaped the explosion entirely unscathed either, but it was enough of an improvement on her previous state for Levy to allow it.
"Natsu and Gajeel were at the edge of the blast, so they're fine," Erza informed Jellal, now that Levy had permitted the conversation to continue. "Do you think Laxus…?"
"I doubt that was enough to finish him," came the glum response. "If we're still standing, he will be too. You may have stopped Fairy Law, Levy, but all the magic he had drawn up to execute it with would have shielded him from the damage. If that isn't enough to make him give up…"
"Then we revert to our previous plan," Erza finished matter-of-factly. "You're going to hit him with Abyss Break."
"We didn't have a plan for that," Jellal pointed out, exasperated. "It's not possible. I told you, I only learnt Abyss Break to show off to other Wizard Saints with; it's impossible to use in a real fight. It's utterly useless magic."
Just as calmly as before, she countered, "It's useless magic if you're fighting on your own. But you're not alone – and I promise, you'll never have to be alone again. I will trap Laxus for you."
"How? And even if you could, he can get out of anything just by turning himself into lightning-"
"Trust me." Then, with a faint smile, Erza teased, "Or is it just that you're so bad with Abyss Break, you can't even hit a stationary target with it…?"
"Of course I can hit a stationary target," he scowled. "If you can pin him, I'll finish it."
The rubble shifted; a spray of rocks and broken glass burst into the air as Laxus made his reappearance. He wasn't in a good way, but watching him fall wasn't the point – it was to beat him definitively. That was the only way to end the dragon's madness. He had got up again, so they had to knock him back down, and this time, ensure that he stayed there.
The time for polite invitation was long gone. Erza was already running towards him. As she had promised, she was not wearing armour, but she was fearless, absolutely fearless.
Five swords appeared, floating, above her; she sent them soaring towards Laxus with a wave of her hand. A burst of lightning knocked them out of the air, and a second headed straight for her, but she rolled beneath it, launching another three weapons towards him as she did so.
She was much faster than he was. While he was drawing upon greatly depleted reserves of energy to produce deadly lightning bolts, she was merely pulling weapons from her personal dimension, just as she had been doing for eight years now. It was as effortless as breathing, and as quick. Before long, Laxus was not able to retaliate at all, forced to defend over and over as she closed the gap between them. His fists repeatedly struck telekinetic blades away from him, yet for every one he deflected, there were another two soaring towards him.
There were ten, twenty, thirty swords scattered all around him; some lying dead, some buried up to their hilt in rubble, some defying gravity to stand on end and point towards him; and still there were another forty in the sky waiting to strike. Fierce, intense; Erza's storm of two hundred weapons raged against his inhuman endurance.
Yet two hundred blades were not infinite. They were enough to save the guild, perhaps, but not enough to win. The steel storm came to an end with Laxus standing victorious upon broken rock and lifeless blades. "Not enough, Erza," he hissed.
But she simply smiled. "I told you, Laxus. No Requipping; no borrowing the magic of my armours as my own. Just my blades and my will."
As he lunged for her, she brought her hand sweeping upwards. All the discarded swords came alive at once. They drew together to form a steel cage around Laxus: a prison of razor-sharp bars and Erza's willpower. Growling, he threw himself at the closest cluster of blades, but they did not budge, and the sharpest edges drew faint lines of blood from his skin. Greater even than his physical strength, her will would never be broken again.
Laxus knew he was trapped. He also knew, from the power he could sense building up at the other side of the ruins, that if he stayed here, he was going to lose. The magic within him screamed its fury at his weakness. Drawing upon the remnants of his power, he struck the walls of the cage again, but the metal structure rerouted the lightning harmlessly into the earth and did not move an inch.
Panic rose up within him. He hated running, but he was not going to sit here and wait for Jellal's ultimate magic to finish him. Cursing, he switched to his lightning form and slipped through the cage of weapons.
That was the intention, anyway. What actually happened was a great bang, as lightning poured like water down the bars of the cage, and then Laxus was thrown backwards, forced back into physical form. Horrified, he stared up at his prison, but he could not sense any special magic upon it other than Erza's telekinesis. "Impossible," he growled, and he shifted to lightning form again, only for the same thing to happen.
"Not impossible," she smiled. "An improvised Faraday cage. Levy gave me the idea. Laxus, you were right to say that because of the different kinds of magic my armours offer me, I will never be as strong with any one type of magic as you are. But, that doesn't matter. Every kind of magic has a weakness, and every mage has flaws in their strategy. As long as I can use competently the one type of magic to which you are vulnerable, I can still beat you, no matter how much time you put into perfecting your lightning magic. And, I'm fighting as part of a team. If I can use your weakness to trap you, there will always be someone else to strike the finishing blow."
Laxus glared at her, but had nothing to say. Even the lacrima pulsing like a second heart in his chest knew that he had lost.
Erza frowned. "Yeah, whenever you're ready, Jellal…"
"Sorry!" he called back. "I didn't want to interrupt you while you were explaining, or gloating, or whatever it was you were doing…"
"Oh, shush," she retorted, but they were both grinning, because victory was theirs. She stepped aside, and Laxus could see for the first time what he was up against.
A silver-gold magic circle hovered in front of Jellal, intricate and beautiful, and flickering with power. They all knew it: it was the same great magic that Phantom Lord had come so close to inflicting upon Magnolia during the guild war, but in miniature, for he was trying to cut down the power as much as possible to reduce the collateral damage.
The magic circle collapsed in on itself, and a tiny streak of silver light, so small it was almost invisible, flashed from Jellal's outstretched hand across to Laxus.
There was a thunderous crack and space itself split in two along that little silver fracture. For the briefest of moments, the halves of the world on either side of it didn't quite match up, and then the disorienting moment was lost as the environment reacted violently to the change. Cataclysmic pressure cut a deep swathe through the cathedral ruins, hurling up a curtain of rubble on either side. The earth shook to its very core. A furious surge of wind flung the wreckage out across the city.
Although it perhaps wasn't as visually impressive as the explosion which had torn down the cathedral in the first place, the enormous concentration of magic power focussed into that single destructive blast could not be denied. It was impossible to imagine how Laxus must have felt as that power tore straight through his prison, and then through him – and not even he could take a hit like that. The peace of unconsciousness claimed him at last.
Jellal let out the breath he had been holding, and his arms fell back to his sides. Erza turned to him and smiled. "It's over," she said.
"It is," he agreed.
Because it was. Not just the Battle of Fairy Tail, but also the conflict between Jellal and his guild, for in defending his friends there with everything he had, he had finally accepted that he was firmly on their side.
And as Erza embraced him, and he held her tightly, he concluded that there was another thing that had come to an end: his attempt to kidnap Erza. That was something he had well and truly failed at, and he had no intention whatsoever of giving it another go.
A/N: Me, writing this chapter: "Okay, so I'm definitely not going to go overboard with this one. It may be a final battle, but the story's more about the relationships and the daily life stuff than the action really, so I'll try to keep it down to a reasonable length. Also, it's going to be a multi-stage fight featuring no fewer than six combatants, including a long enough solo fight to focus on Erza, enough pseudoscience to make up for the disappointing lack of it in the rest of the story, Jellal finally getting to use his Useless Magic, and Fairy Law vs Kamikaze Pilot Levy."
...
I give up. One day I will master the ability to keep scenes to their intended lengths, but evidently today is not that day. What little restraint I have tends to disappear anyway the closer I get to the end of a story.
On which note, one chapter to go, folks! ~CS