Kat and Chaos could only stand back as Zale was singlehandedly fighting Acnologia to a standstill at the moment. His brand of Dragon Slayer magic could somehow cause the Dragon King pain and probably kill him if it was a strong enough attack, Acnologia had all but released his full power but he still hadn't returned to his dragon form yet. The two onlookers didn't dare interfere in the fight as they knew they would probably only get in Zale's way, instead they quickly refocused on discovering what exactly the sarcophagus in the center of the room.
"How are we supposed to see what's in that grave if we can't even get close to it?" Kat asked
"Honestly…I got nothing" Chaos shrugged
"Aren't you a God of Ishval? Shouldn't you of all people be able to get close to it?" she asked
"First of all I'm dealing with several wounds right now and a poison that's slowly killing me; second of all I'm only a God because I killed the one God who was at a big disadvantage against me. If we're going strictly by amount of magic, I'm probably barely ahead of that Jura and even then I'm probably giving myself too much credit." Chaos answered
"You can't be serious" Kat sighed
"The only reason why I win battles is because I'm smarter than my opponents and can do really strange things. When it comes to pure power Zale probably is the strongest human alive, Hayate has his amazing speed to balance that out, and Jaster brings his annoying rune circles and that tome containing a whole variety of magics, and I have my brains…but brute force can trump brains when that brute force is named Acnologia" Chaos explained
"So what do we do then?"
"We either hope Zale wins or somebody comes to help, or I can try and use the Chrono Blade again" Chaos replied remembering that he still had possession of the heavy blade
"That might actually work, if you can freeze Acnologia you could kill him right?"
"Well two problems, Acnologia is strong enough to actually ignore the effects of the Chrono Blade especially since I'm not its rightful wielder. Also the few attacks of mine that would actually work while time stopped would be nowhere powerful enough to even hurt him"
"If you knew that, why did you even bring it up?"
"Hey I'm just throwing out ideas and hoping one of them is a good one"
"What happened to assume the worst so you can plan a way out of it?"
"A bad time to teach you that there's some situations you just can't plan for, so better hope you don't get caught in one of those…or pray that you're the beneficiary of some luck going your way" he explained before they both suddenly had to dive out of the way of an explosion caused by the two fighters in the room
"We're gonna get killed if we just keep standing here" Kat said pulling out both her pistols and aiming at Acnologia
"Well here goes nothing" Chaos muttered as he waited for the fight to move away from the center of the room before suddenly rushing towards the tomb before Kat could stop him
"Now what do you think you're doing?" Acnologia said disengaging from Zale and appearing next to Chaos
"Well I was hoping to investigate your tomb but I guess I'll have to kill you first" Chaos replied pulling out the mage slayer and taking a swing at Acnologia who smiled back at him
Harvey was playing a very dangerous game right now and Keji took every chance he got to give the tracker a death glare. While it was unlikely they would get killed by the three Fairy Tail members, they were likely to get zapped by Laxus and left alone in the Tomb which was a similar fate. Laxus was very suspicious of Harvey and was sure to question every decision Harvey made, to his credit the tracker was able to answer them all without ever contradicting any previous answers. However the more time they spent walking the more likely it seemed that they were truly lost in the tomb and be unable to find another Tartaros mage, let alone the entrance to the tomb.
"How much longer tracker?" Laxus asked getting tired of the long walk
"I can't give you a time estimate, but I can assure you we're heading the right way" Harvey answered getting a bit tired of being asked the same question
"That's what you said ten minutes ago" Natsu sighed
"I'm sorry, but the Hall is a very large place and I have to be careful when choosing what tracks to follow otherwise we'd fall victim to the Hall's traps" Harvey explained
"Like we were doing earlier?" Keji thought to himself wishing he could just abandon Harvey and fight the three on his own at this point
"Do you mind if I ask a question?" Wendy asked suddenly which startled Keji a bit
"Direct all tracking related questions to Harvey"
"Well it's not tracking based, it's more of a personal question for you" Wendy replied with a smile
"What is it?" Keji said not understanding why she was interested in him
"Where did you learn your wind magic?" Wendy asked
"Why do you want to know that?"
"Because I'm the Sky Dragon Slayer but I want to be more than just a healer, so when I see strong wind users I try to learn from them"
"Well you were doing a decent job earlier, it's not bad to be known as a complementary mage you know" Keji said
"I know that, but if I become stronger I protect my friends rather than have to be worried about during a fight" Wendy replied with determination causing Keji to give a small chuckle
"What's so funny about that?" Natsu asked
"An admirable goal, just wish my dad thought like you did" Keji advised
"What happened to him?" Wendy asked curiously
"I killed the old bastard"
"What?" Natsu and Wendy exclaimed in shock
"He had it coming, all he used to do was train and train, not go on jobs or anything just train to become stronger. My mom was working multiple jobs just to keep us alive, eventually all that work got to her and she died in a sick bed when I was twelve. Well I worked hard to train and when I got strong enough I killed my dad" Keji said with an even expression "Didn't even recognize me, just asked who I was" he continued sounding more disappointed than angry
This brought everyone to a silence as Harvey continued to lead them to what they presumed was the Tomb of the First Emperor. They walked for a few minutes before stumbling onto the remains of a large battle between Tartaros and the Fiore mages. There wasn't a single Tartaros member in sight but there were unconscious members of the Fiore group and Erza who was struggling to take care of everyone else.
"Erza!" Natsu and Wendy yelled out rushing to her aid
"You two don't even think about it" Laxus said threateningly
"We weren't going to" Harvey replied as he tried ignoring the look Keji was giving him, strangely enough the stare had a smug look to it like Keji was mocking Harvey. They watched as Wendy quickly began healing Erza who explained what had happened and directed Wendy to heal Bacchus as he had lost a lot of blood earlier and Erza could only stop the bleeding.
"Well this is unlucky for us isn't it?" Keji asked with a small laugh
"What does that mean?" Harvey asked with ire
"Your gambit failed…miserably"
"What gambit?" Laxus asked making Harvey turn around to look at him
"Harvey here thought that rather than losing to you guys and being left for dead, we'd surrender and hopefully run into some fellow Tartaros mages along the way" Keji explained just wishing he could see Harvey's face
"You little weasel" Laxus said charging his magic
"I led you to your friends didn't I, and it seems that we showed up just in time to make sure some of them didn't die" Harvey said quickly while ignoring the urge to punch Keji
"We all know that wasn't your intention" Laxus said angrily as he brought up his fist
"Intention doesn't matter; all that matters are results. Would it matter to a parent if their lost child was found only because the finder wanted the reward that was offered?"
"That's not…"
"Of course it's the same, I prevented one of your friends from dying, seems to me that it's worth at the very least being treated fairly"
Laxus couldn't think of a response because deep in his heart he knew Harvey was partially correct, but that didn't mean he had to agree with that view. Wendy had managed to get Bacchus into a stable condition but he would need rest to recover, everyone else was unconscious but she announced that they would live. Keji observed the efforts of Wendy and Natsu in taking care of their allies and couldn't help but smile at them and their loyalty to each other. He suddenly realized that perhaps he wasn't in a bad situation after all, with Natsu and Wendy taking care of a wounded Erza and the other mages only Laxus could keep him and Harvey in check.
"And I already beat him once the other two are too far away to immediately react, he'd probably react to my stronger attacks but I could do my weaker killing moves to take him by surprise. Keji thought quickly cycling through other ideas as to how to gain the upper hand, he soon realized that Harvey didn't fare too well in these scenarios "I could threaten the wounded and hold them hostage; these guys seem like the type who'd do anything I told them if I held their friends hostage…nah." he thought feeling oddly content to sit and watch
"Why isn't he doing anything? He couldn't possibly be this dense" Harvey thought as he had come to the same conclusion Keji had earlier, he waited for some indicator from Keji who seemed content to stand there with that smile on his face
"Oy what's wrong with you, you seem really angry at your friend there" Laxus pointed out
"He's not my friend" Harvey replied
"He's just mad that I haven't attacked you guys even though I've had the chance" Keji said
"Feeling guilty are we?" Laxus asked
"Not really I still think Tartaros is doing the right thing, but they've made it clear that Harvey and I have done our parts and are no longer needed" Keji sighed as he had figured out that they were most likely being abandoned
"What?" Harvey and Laxus asked
"I managed to keep you in my sights; you really think Silva would have that much trouble keeping track of us if she really wanted to?" Keji asked Harvey who didn't reply "We helped them get the Emperor in the beginning, then helped Silva investigate the old Council grounds, and helped them get here. I'm fairly sure that the magic in this place is going to the Master and maybe Silva or the gods…they don't need us anymore and what better way to make sure we don't come back to hurt them than leaving us here?"
"They wouldn't, not after what I've done for them" Harvey said in disbelief
"Don't lie to yourself Harvey, we're not that important" Keji said
"So I'm assuming you're going to be fine being under our custody for the time being then?" Laxus asked somewhat mockingly, although he did feel bad for the abandoned mages
"Pretty much yeah" Keji said with a bright smile
"I still think you're full of shit" Harvey muttered not willing to believe he would be abandoned by Tartaros
Gajeel felt like they were walking in a giant circle at this point, he still had no idea how he, Gray, and Mirajane had been separated from the rest of Fairy Tail. He swore he could hear Gray and Natsu arguing about something but when he turned around Natsu was gone.
"I swear I've seen that cracked wall three times now" he said pointing at the wall where there was a noticeable crack
"I'm pretty sure that's a different wall" Gray replied going closer to examine it
"No I'm pretty sure it's the same one" Mirajane said
"Well either way we're still lost" Gray sighed wondering how it came to this
"Well we can't just stand here and do nothing it's not like Tartaros has stopped" Gajeel said
"That's true but we'd certainly have a better chance of fighting Tartaros if we could link up with the rest of the guild or any of our allies" Mirajane replied
"Can't really argue with that, but I feel like we should first figure out how far we are to the tomb or the way back" Gray replied
"I have an idea" Mirajane said after a few moments
"What is it?" Gajeel and Gray asked
"Gajeel how many nails do you think you can make?" Mirajane asked which confused both Gajeel and Gray
"I'm not sure…I guess a lot since they don't use up much iron, but why do you want to know?" he replied
"Every time we hit an intersection you can place a nail on the path we take so if we come by it again we'll know which way we went" she explained
"That's…a great idea actually" Gray said
"Makes sense, better than using this stupid wall as a reference point" Gajeel said as he formed a nail in his hand
They used this method to keep track of their progress and several times were able to avoid taking paths they had already taken. The Hall was a large place though and it took a while before they were walking on a path that didn't have any branching paths on it, they were finally confident that they were heading the right direction. As they moved forward they could sense the magic in the air growing and concluded that that tomb was very close.
"Is it just me or is it getting harder to move?" Gray asked as every step he took felt like he was trudging through snow
"It's not you something's blocking us" Mirajane replied
"There must be one hell of a battle going on in there, can't wait to get in there!" Gajeel said excitedly
"I wouldn't be so excited if I were you" a voice called out
"Who's there!?" Gray commanded assuming his ice make form
"Easy Ice mage, I'm in no mood to fight right now" Karmic said appearing from nowhere
"Wait you're that girl from the Chrono Temple!" Mirajane realized
"Karmic's my name, nice to meet you" Karmic said before sitting down against the wall and dropping her head between her knees
"Um is this some sort of trap?" Gray asked unsure of what to do
"Well she's not charging her magic like she was earlier so I'd say no" Mirajane replied
"So you're not going to stop us from going into the Tomb?" Gajeel asked
"If you want to die that's your problem, besides if you're having trouble just trying to enter the damn tomb how're you supposed to be of any help?" Karmic replied quietly
"Don't you underestimate us" Gray replied confidently
"Even if I overestimate you there's nothing you could do, you've got probably the strongest God of Ishval fighting at full power against our Master who just might be the only person stronger than him. Even the other people in there can't do much, and they're both stronger than me"
"Is that why you're not going in?" Mirajane asked feeling a bit sorry for the girl
"I have my own reasons…and I'd rather not talk about it" Karmic replied still keeping her face hidden
Gajeel was still a bit suspicious of whether Karmic would stop them, but eventually they made their way past the young dreamer who didn't even respond to them moving past her. Mirajane looked back and couldn't help but feel sorry for Karmic, but she remembered how important the mission was and walked into the tomb. They were confronted by a furious fight going on in the tomb; Zale, Kat, and a man they didn't recognize were locked in a fight against a fourth person who they presumed was the master of Tartaros. Like Karmic had said this man seemed stronger than all three of the fighters combined and now it seemed like he was toying with the three combatants. He blocked several bullets from Kat and sent the unknown man flying into the wall next to the three Fairy Tail mages.
"My everything" he groaned in pain
"Are you okay?" Mirajane asked pulling him from the rubble
"You all look familiar…that's creepy" he replied as he struggled to get up
"Who are you?" Mirajane asked unsure of whether to help him
"Just call me Chaos for the time being" he said as he checked himself for wounds
"What's going on?" Gray asked
"Well Zale, my young apprentice, and I are trying to prevent what may be the strongest person in the world from getting even stronger"
"Even stronger than Zeref and Acnologia?" Gajeel asked remembering his last meeting with the Dragon King
"That is Acnologia" Chaos said as Zale's shield was shattered by a large energy blast which sent the God through a wall
"A little help would be nice" Kat called out as every shot she fired was being deflected by the Dragon King
"Don't worry Kat help's on the way!" Gray called out sending out a series of ice lances at Acnologia who extended his hand out to block it
"What can you kids do?" Chaos asked somewhat condescendingly watching Gajeel send out a powerful roar at the Dragon King
"You say that like you weren't getting thrown around just a few seconds ago" Mirajane replied calmly while transforming into her Satan Soul
"That's just how powerful he is" Chaos sighed as he watched her fly at Acnologia
While he appreciated the help he still had no confidence that they could stop Acnologia who looked like he wasn't even being hurt by the attacks of the newcomers. He still hadn't been able to investigate the tomb to see what Acnologia was looking for, and despite his and Zale's best efforts Acnologia at full power was something that no human or God could stop. Even when Kat joined and actually landed a few bullets and several magical attacks that seemed to hurt him, the Dragon King was able to adjust and since then hadn't been hit once. It was a losing battle and Chaos knew it, but he knew that stopping Acnologia right now was their best chance at beating him for good, once he recovered his old magic he'd be unbeatable. Chaos suddenly felt terrible pain throughout his body and remembered the poison Acnologia had injected him with, all his fighting and magic usage had most likely sped up the infection and now he could barely stay conscious.
"Pushed my luck a bit, didn't think it would spread this fast" he sighed as he extended his hand out to his right, a dark pool appeared underneath his hand and a sword emerged from the ground into his hand. It glowed at once and its magic spread through Chaos and he could feel it pushing the poison back, but like Acnologia told him it didn't remove it completely he realized he'd have to find a healer who could help him
"Why did you wait this long to ask for my help" the sword asked him
"Because I'm stupid sometimes?" he asked
"Fair enough, so it seems like we're dealing with the King of Dragons and you've got no plan…you're going to lose you know?"
"I figured, it was a great run but this is how I go it seems, I hope you find a master who is almost as good as me"
"I knew you were crazy but not talk to your sword crazy" Silva said suddenly appearing from a portal next to him
"I was wondering when you were going to show up" he replied not looking at her, he watched as the Fairy Tail mages were now being tossed aside by Acnologia like they were nothing
"There's no more help coming you know" Silva said calmly
"That's great, where's the rest of Tartaros?" he asked
"Well Jaster, Erika, and the Guardian are on the way as we speak. Keji and Harvey have been captured by the enemy and I have no intention of going to rescue them" she replied
"What about Karmic?"
"She's right outside, she doesn't look too good. You should go and talk to her; she'd probably tell you what's wrong"
"Why bother when you or your master are going to kill me soon?"
"There's no good reason for me to do that"
"So you're not going to serve him then?"
"On the contrary he's just what we need to get rid of Zeref"
"You're trying to control the Dragon King? That's not going to work you know"
"Anyone can be manipulated; you of all people should know that. All you need to do is trust in my abilities" Silva said which caused Chaos to start laughing "What's so funny?"
"It's great how we were both ready to kill each other, but now I'm suddenly supposed to trust you"
"That's when we didn't know who the Master was, and when I didn't know who you were under that mask"
"So will you tell me how or am I supposed to just hope you know what you're doing?"
"You'll know what I'm doing when you see it" she said as she walked towards the battle
"Don't kill them, they're still useful" Chaos said, although he was unsure of why he included the Fairy Tail mages along with Kat and Zale
"Whatever you say" she shrugged not caring why he wanted the Fairy Tail mages alive
She looked like she was pulling out a gun that was strapped to her back, to Chaos' surprise a rifle appeared in her hand. She aimed the weapon first at Kat and fired a small beam at her back which knocked Kat out instantly; she did the same to the other Fairy Tail mages which knocked them out as well. Chaos flooded his eyes with magic to verify that all of them were still alive and he also found Zale who was also unconscious but still alive under a heap of rubble.
"Ah Silva thank you for that, those pests were annoying me" Acnologia said with a smile
"Of course Master, now shouldn't you get what you came here for?" Silva replied respectfully
"You're right, I can't be forgetting that" he said as if he had forgotten what he was supposed to be doing here
He went to the tomb and extended his hand over it and once again he fell into a trance. Silva watched curiously wondering what exactly he was doing; suddenly she could feel the magic from the tomb fading away quite quickly.
"He's absorbing the magic in this tomb" she thought to herself in amazement, soon she could feel no trace of the hall's magic around her
"Reunited once more" he said taking a deep breath
"What do you mean?" Silva asked
"This used to be my primary magic in fact it was how I gathered everybody here, but when I was trained in dragon slayer magic and when Zeref would later turn me into my dragon form I was told to give it up. Now though, there is nobody who can challenge me and I'll get my freedom soon enough" he replied to Silva "Oh and let's keep this secret between us" he continued putting his hood back on
"As you wish" Silva said not able to believe that his magic had survived for centuries protecting the entire Hall, she could hear footsteps and saw Jaster leading the Guardian who was supporting Erika into the hall
"Are we finished here?" Jaster asked
"It seems like it" Silva said
"What about Keji, Harvey, and Karmic?" the Guardian asked
"Keji and Harvey have been captured by the enemy and there's not much we can do for them" Silva replied
"What about Karmic, she looked terrible when I saw her?" Jaster asked
"I'm afraid the tomb took too much of a toll on the poor girl" Acnologia replied
"So we're leaving her here?" the Guardian asked in shock
"She'll weigh us down I'm afraid, I fear it'd be better to let her be captured by the enemy. They're not going to harm her and will most likely pity her and do their best to take care of her, besides the rest of our mission will rely mostly on me" Acnologia explained
"Where did Nameless go?" Jaster asked
"He's right there, barely holding onto life after he dared to betray us" Silva said pointing at Chaos who had slumped over to act nearly dead
"I was working with him!" the Guardian realized angrily
"Do you know him?" Silva asked
"He's one of the worst criminals this world has ever seen, and I'm glad he's going to die soon" the Guardian said turning away from Chaos
"So where are we off to now?" Erika asked ignoring the Guardian
"Well we'll take a few days to recuperate and plan our next move" he replied as he pressed a spot on the tomb that opened a section of the wall leading outside
"Which is?" Jaster asked as they began walking outside
"We'll find Zeref and put an end to him"
"And after him we go after Acnologia?" the Guardian asked
"Of course" Silva said before Acnologia suddenly stopped at the entrance out "Is there something wrong Master?"
"It'd probably be a good idea if we just get rid of these people now" Acnologia said turning around and charging up his magic
"Wait there are still Tartaros mages in there, you can't just kill them!" the Guardian said in horror
"Don't worry; I can make my magic selective. I'll simply target the mages from Fiore, Zale and Nameless, then we can continue our plans in peace" Acnologia lied as he formed a large ball of energy that he tossed casually into the room before turning around to walk away
"But then why can't we just wait for them to come out an-"the guardian started before realizing that the Master was going to kill off the Tartaros mages to make sure they couldn't help the Fiore mages. He felt great anger welling up inside him before he could only sigh and follow the remaining Tartaros mages while hoping that he was still on the right side
"That's not good" Chaos said observing the ball of energy that was ready to kill everyone and most likely destroy the entire Hall of Kings
"Isn't there anything you can do?" his sword asked him
"Of course I could, I could save everyone here if I wanted to" Chaos replied with mock bravado
"What are you waiting for?"
"It's just probably going to kill me if I use that much magic while this poison is still inside me"
"It's that or everyone dies"
"You're right…as usual" Chaos sighed as he took a deep breath and began mustering up a large amount of magic and forming a large magic circle "Fairy Sphere" he said quietly as the ball exploded