Business and response to reviews:
Apologies for the time it took to update. Rather than updating, playthroughs of Tales of Vesperia have been being watched and research done on Leon Magnus/Judas. Although both are wastes of time, they are amusing. Also, homework over spring break included memorizing Juliet's lines of Act 3 Scene 5 of Romeo and Juliet. All in all, wastes of time along with homework results in extended updates of fanfiction. The only relatively positive news is that this chapter is slightly longer than some of the most recent ones. If there are any questions or concerns, feel free to leave a review or a PM.
Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.
Chapter 36: Glistening Consciousness
"Meredy has now been defeated. That is my cue that I can finally fight," Bluenote thought to himself as he snuck out of the ship of Grimoire Heart. As far as Bluenote was concerned, he believed Hades put too much faith into the Seven Kin of Purgatory, for they were being defeated by the fairies. "Besides, Hades shouldn't be too cross with me as long as I eliminate all of the fairies. That's one of the reasons we're here anyway, although I came along to complete a different agenda." Having successfully made it onto the island, whether it was to Hades knowledge or not, Bluenote went to find the first fairies who could tell him where the grave of Mavis was.
"This… I… Everything was done for the sake of me finally getting what I wished for all this time. For, for me to gain the right…" Cana's hand hesitated from where it wavered in front of the grave, the grave of the first master of Fairy Tail, Vermillion Mavis. The person who created a guild where everybody supported each other through the good and the bad and were a family towards each other.
Taking the initiative of the battle, Azuma started to gather magic from the earth and trees around him and sent it in Erza's direction. After judging the situation, Erza equipped into her Flame Empress Armor and attacked the revolving torrent of magic head on with her duel blades. Having eliminated the current threat, Erza immediately followed her counter attack by equipping into her Black Wing Armor, wielding an axe in each hand. She charged towards Azuma, determined to land a critical hit, but Azuma catches one of her feet with a branch he had under control, preventing him from entering into a range that would harm him.
With Erza caught, he uses Belve. Seeing that there was no way she could have escaped the domain of the explosion, he anticipated what she would do next. Surely such a famed mage could not be done in so easily. His mind still alert, he observed the seconds in which Erza withstood his blast and was almost unscathed as she equipped into her Morning Star Armor, with two sabers within her grasp.
Holding both sabers out before her so that the tips touched, Erza fires Photon Slicer. The powerful magic energy accelerated at a rate that any barriers Azuma made would be vain, and so the attack triumphed in ramming into him. On contact with him, the photon energy itself exploded. Erza couldn't plan a definite course of action until the smoke and falling debris cleared, and so she waited while prepared to take an attack from any direction. Soon enough, she recognized the silhouette of Azuma, standing not a centimeter away from where he was preceding Erza's latest assault. Readying herself to evade or counter against anything he could decide to do next, she discerned a smile on his face. Becoming ever more so wary and slightly perplexed, she commanded to know, "What's so funny?"
Without any intentions of being mysterious or of lying, Azuma replied truthfully, "I've been waiting for someone strong such as you, and so I'll have fun. I fight in order to pursue those who are strong."
Erza reequipped into her Heart Kreuz Armor without taking much time to analyze his response and in turn stated, "I do not care much for strong people. All I need is the power to protect my comrades, and as long as I hold that strength, I don't care if I am weaker than everyone else."
After speaking from her heart, a slightly apologetic smile appeared on her face as she addressed Azuma, "But that is contradictory of me, isn't it?"
Slight magical power started to be exerted from something in her bag, so Cana pulled out what it was. It was the matching card out of the pair that was meant to respond when Charla activated it. Cana had instructed Charla to activate it when she needed help. "Charla is in danger?" With that question appearing in her mind, realization dawned upon Cana along with an intense sense of guilt. Up until then she herself was not aware of what she was doing, but now Cana saw how clear her true resolution was.
As Cana's hand reached the hollow section of the grave, golden magical energy streamed out, its brilliance blinding. However, Cana was determined to achieve power and in her struggle to keep her arm simply where it was, she shouted her newly founded intents, "I must save my friends, and for this I'll do anything!" Enveloped in golden light, Cana felt a placid voice fill her mind as if it were a gentle breeze tickling her ear.
"Use this power to save your friends," it commanded.
"What power?" Cana thought, when she noticed a brand being etched unto her arm. Knowledge of an ancient magic came into being within her mind. "Fairy… Glitter?" Turning so that her back faced the grave, Cana whispered, "Thank you," before taking off at a run in order to reach the location of Charla. No matter what she would reach her friend. Leaping off of steep cliff and sliding downhill from where the grave was located, the barren chasm in which Charla was located, along with Wendy, Natsu and Happy. Nobody else was there except for a man with a long braid and long white jacket trimmed with blue. He stood omnipotent over her guild mates, who looked moderately injured, although the mysterious man himself seemed to have none. Instead, he looked bored.
"Did he beat Natsu along with the Exceeds? Escaping that unscathed… I'll have to give it all I got from the beginning, not that I was planning on holding back from the beginning."
Taking one final leap to reach the ground where her comrades lied exhausted, while in midair she threw many cards at the man in blue while preparing her magical power to perform Fairy Glitter.
Recognizing the spell Cana was about to cast, Bluenote activated his gravity magic in order to stop her. "You… How come you have Fairy Glitter?" Bluenote was honestly surprised to see some inexperienced girl have possession of such a powerful magic.
Landing swiftly on the ground unharmed, seeing as Bluenote had not even used a small amount of his magical power yet, Cana turned her head so that her attention was focused on Charla and spoke, "I'm sorry, but now you don't have to worry anymore. Rest assured, I'll defeat this man."
"Cana, that magic… I see, you found the grave," Charla murmured, not angry but proud of what Cana had done. Cana had found the answer to what she had been looking for, and more importantly, she came back.
Upon hearing the word grave, Natsu slightly perked up, remembering the S-class exam taking place, which he forgot about while facing Bluenote. It also reminded him of why he and Lucy got separated. He wanted to look for the grave as he helped his guild mates, thinking that the exam itself must be one of the reasons the invasion occurred. Lucy responded by saying that participating in events organized by Fairy Tail was not a responsibility of hers and that she herself had better things to do than trifle with an affair that would surely waste her time. Angered by her response, Natsu ended up agreeing with her by saying that there was no way a girl that had been kicked out of Fairy Tail could participate. After hearing that, Lucy actually laughed and told him that she had already wasted too much of his time by helping him and his pathetic guild. She then spread her wings and took off without anther word.
"Natsu!" Cana's voice reached Natsu's ears and broke him from his daze. "To use Fairy Glitter I need time to store up my magical power. Can you get me that time?"
Smashing his fist into the ground in order to raise himself up, Natsu responded, "No problem. Count on me." Fists covered in flames, Natsu barreled towards Bluenote as the air around Cana became highly concentrated with magic. However, neither of them were able to reach their target destination before Bluenote released an expanding wave of his gravity magic, halting all of their actions and causing them to be blown several feet away.
Without having a chance to get up, Bluenote appears before Cana and announces, "Did you know that magic can be extracted from a person even once they are dead?"
Understanding what Bluenote was implying, in desperation Natsu cast, "Roar of the Fire Dragon!" into the ground, where it traveled and it emerged at Bluenote's feet. Annoyed by the impudent act, Bluenote sent Natsu flying even further away. Hoping this was the distraction she was waiting for, Cana began to cast Fairy Glitter. Although she was able to cast it accordingly, despair filled Cana as Bluenote's Gravity magic overcame her own and forced both her and her attack into the ground, both now harmless. With their being no other distractions, Bluenote faced Cana and informs her, "Even the most powerful spells are useless in the hands of a worthless mage with no magic power."
He raised his hand in order to deliver the final blow while Cana stared blankly ahead bleakly, awaiting hopelessly her death. As Bluenote released his power, a figure appeared before Cana and did the same, negating Bluenote's power with a more prevailing magic, causing Bluenote to skid backwards several feet from where he once stood. Tears absconded from Cana's eyes as she stared up at the ruggedly clad figure of Gildarts.
Once Erza's words had reached Azuma, the branches of the trees around them started to move in a strange, unnatural manner. The branches seemed to be snaking their way around Azuma as he declared, "We're out of time. It wouldn't be fair if I were not to tell you of nature of my brand of magic, being as it is a Lost Magic, that of Great Tree Arc. The true power of this magic is rooted in the earth. And now, I will inform you of the reason I have arrived at this island first; it was to control the island's magic powers by orders of Master Hades.
Immediately following his revealing of intents, the Tenrou Tree that stood at the center of the island initiated to collapse. Even after hearing Azuma's warning of sorts, this scale of desecration upon Fairy Tail's holy land shocked Erza.
All over the island the mages of Fairy Tail began to lose their magic power until they collapsed from the deprivation. It was only Erza that stood at full strength as a member of Fairy Tail.
Azuma continued his explanation based off of what Hades had told him. "The power of the Tenrou Tree was to grant protection to everyone bearing the crest of Fairy Tail while on this island. With the fall of the great tree, the protection of the lives it afforded Fairy Tail has been lost and from this point on it will instead continue to drain their magic energy. With their magic being drained, the members of Fairy Tail are now easy pickings for those of my guild aside from the fact that magic energy is the life force of a mage. And so, with your comrades' lives on the line, does the almighty Titania have the power to save them?" Fierceness was the one attribute that flooded from Erza, and to that extent Azuma was prominently pleased.
Ultear's explanation to Gray began with, "This is the doing of one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory; he is called Azuma and he holds one of the Lost Magics. He possesses Great Tree Arc, admitting him the ability to manipulate the power of the earth. With his power, he has caused the great Tenrou Tree to collapse. Are you are aware of what power the Tenrou tree held?"
To this Gray couldn't respond due to his heavy panting, but he managed to express his obliviousness of the power of the Tenrou Tree held. Ultear proceeded with her account by centering on the Tenrou tree.
"The Tenrou Tree is what makes this island so holy for those bearing the mark of membership of Fairy Tail. As long as it stood upright, nobody sustaining that mark could die while on this island and regularly had their magic power renewed by the holy magic of the tree. But, with the slaying down of this tree, it becomes a hollowed necropolis for Fairy Tail mages. As you are experiencing, their magical power, their life force, is being drained to the point where you can't even sit up or breath without pain, nevertheless use any of your magic."
Alarm filled Gray as he thought, "So this isn't just happening to me, but to everybody else on the island? We're reduced to this state when confronted with such a threat?" Now knowing how much danger his comrades were in, Gray ignored the intense pain as best he could as he tried to push himself up. Before he could stand, however, Ultear pulled him back down and Gray could put forth no resistance against her.
"Gray, you are in no condition to be going to help your guild mates when it takes all of your strength to stand! The only way for the tree to be returned to its full glory is only if Azuma decides to do so, and that can only be done by defeating him in a fight. From what is said about him, Azuma is a man eager to fight so he probably left one mage with their magic in order to give him a chance against him. All you can do is trust that this is the case."
Not being able to summon anymore strength in order to attempt to stand again, Gray started to think, "A strong mage who a man eager to fight would wish to challenge… a strong mage that fights for the sake of helping their comrades of Fairy Tail no matter the cost… Erza."