This is it people! The story's ending! This chapter's got 3,049 words.
Hope you enjoy!
There was an explosion that engulfed the whole castle into flames, shocking everyone who was outside.
"Wh-wha . . ?" Hibiki's eyes widened.
"Th-the castle!" Jenny cried out.
"N-no way! E-everyone . . !" Wendy was in shock and she felt like bursting to tears at that very moment.
"Oi! What's going on?" A soldier of Visna cried out.
"Th-the castle! H-his Majesty is still in there!"
"We have to save him?"
"But how? We can't even get in!"
"The Seven Sinful Souls must've done this!"
"Wha? What are we going to do? We can't possibly take them on!"
"These guys alone are too much to handle!
"Retreat! Get out of here!"
"To where? The castle's burning!"
"Anywhere! We just have to get out of here!"
All of the soldiers dispersed, stopping their attacks on Christina and running away until they disappeared from sight. But the mages of Fiore couldn't care less about this and only watched the castle, waiting for any sign of life.
"What happened to them?" Lisanna asked.
"C-could it be that they . . ?" Yuka trailed off
"No! That's impossible!" Wendy cried. "That would mean . . . that they failed."
"Th-there's no way that something like that could ever happen. I-I mean, Jura was with them!" Sherry said.
"Then, where are they?" Ren asked.
There was a silence as they all just stared at the burning castle while they continued to worry for their comrades. A few minutes have passed and nobody has still left the building and they all started to expect the worst.
"M-Maybe they got out before the explosion." Lisanna suggested.
"If they did, we would have heard of them by now." Hibiki said. "We're high up in the sky and we should be seen by anyone from miles away. If they were already out of that building, they would've tried to catch our attention."
"No way . . ." Tears started to fall from the young Sky Dragon Slayers eyes.
"B-but- ! There's no way that something bad could happen to them, right?" Lisanna tried to convince them along with herself. But deep down she coulnd't deny the facts and tears started to fill her eyes.
They remained silent for a couple more minutes, all of them were worried about their comrades that were inside the burning castle. The longer they stood there, the more their grip started to loosen on the hope that their friends were still alive and alright.
"Ah, guys! Look over there!" Toby cried out. When they turned to see what it was, they saw a shadow in one of the windows of the castle. Even though they were a great distance away, it was still visible through the burning flames. The longer they stared at it, the more they realized that it was a silhouette of a human being.
"Is someone there?" Eve asked.
"I can't see who it is." Yukino said.
"Perhaps we have a survivor!" Ichiya yelled.
"But who is it?" Hibiki asked. They all just stared at the shadow, waiting for it to move and reveal itself. But it just stood perfectly still.
"What the hell is with that guy?" Jenny scoffed.
"Maybe he still doesn't realize that we're here. He hasn't taken a peek outside after all." Lisanna said.
"Is there any chance that we can get a bit closer?" Yukino asked.
"Men~!" Ichiya cried out as the trimens went to steer Cristina. "Let's go save our comrades!"
"Yes, Aniki!" they said before Cristina headed over to the castle.
"H-hey! Is this alright?" Jenny asked.
"Do not worry." Ichiya told them. "The new Cristina is designed to be able to withstand flames."
"That's not what we should worry about!" Sherry yelled. "What about us? Will we be safe?"
"Hopefully."
"Hopefully?" she yelled in disbelief.
"Take cover everyone!" Ichiya yelled, causing everyone to scream in panic and tried to tell them to stop the ship. Unfortunately, the trimens were all determined to get as near to the castle as possible, thinking that everybody aboard would be fine.
But when they were about a few feet above the ground and a couple of yards away from the castle, the shadow suddenly moved and jumped towards the ship. Everyone was in a state of confusion and panic as to what was it.
"Wait a minute . . ." Lisanna said. "Could it be?"
The silhouette stood in the middle of the group for a while with its glowing and piercing green eyes staring at them.
"H-hey . . . isn't that . . ?"Hibiki trailed off.
The shadow started to expand into a large circle, and inside it they could see more silhouettes that seemed very familiar. The shadow returned to its normal human sized and next to it were everyone who went into the castle earlier. They were all fine and alive, although some of them were unconscious and injured.
"Everyone!" Wendy cried out in relief.
"Thank goodness." Lisanna sighed in relief.
"Honestly, you had as worrying back there." Jenny scoffed.
"Shelia!" Sherry ran and embraced her cousin.
"Geez . . ." Lyon sighed.
"Damn that was close!" Artemis yelled.
"Thanks, Artemis." Aeschylus said.
"We owe you!" Mia added.
"You sure were fast." Addei said. "You even managed to save every one of us inside."
"Heh, you idiots shouldn't underestimate me, you know." Artemis scoffed.
"I-is everybody alive?" Hyosuke asked.
"Isn't it supposed to be 'is everybody alright'?" Charle asked.
"Are you kidding me? We just fought a fucking demon and barely escaped an explosion while everybody out here was dealing with hundreds of soldiers. There's no way anybody's alright." Hyosuke replied.
"I'm alive!" Kiyomi said. "And so is Lucy."
"I'm alive and so are Erza and the others." Mia said since her patients were all unconscious.
"Good. It looks like we all made it."Addei sighed as everyone stood up. "Well then, we should probably get the wounded some medical attention."
"Ah, leave it to me!" Wendy said.
"Oi, hold on a second." Gray said. "Just what happened?"
"Oh, you mean that?" Addei asked, looking at the burning castle. "The former prince of Visna, Hidenori did this."
"Ah, him?"
"What happened to him?" Minerva asked, stepping up in front of Gray.
"You can tell by the fact that we're alive that we managed to beat him." Addei stated simply. "But he was so stubborn that he wanted to take us to hell with him. Thank God that little stunt of his failed."
"Wait a minute, that means . . ." Gray trailed off.
Silence.
They soon started cheering at the news.
"Mission accomplish!" Shelia cheered.
"Finally, it's all over." Yukino sighed.
"It took a lot of hard work, but we finally succeeded." Rufus said.
"Oi! You barely did anything in there!" Gray complained.
"Now now, it's nothing to get all worked up about."
"You bastard . . !"
Meanwhile, Erza and the others, including Lucy, started to wake up.
"Ah, Lucy!" Kiyomi was filled with relief.
"Erza! The others!" Mia cheered.
"Oi! What the hell do you mean by 'the others'?" Laxus asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
"Is everyone alright?" Hibiki asked, followed by grunts of approval. "Well, that's good."
"Lucy-san . . ." Yukino knelt down beside the blonde. "Thank goodness you're alright."
"Yeah." she nodded.
"Your keys . . ." the Sabertooth mage took most of the keys she had on her belt and gave it to her.
"Ah, yeah. Thank you so much for taking care of them, Yukino."
"Don't mention it." she smiled back. "They really missed you."
Lucy giggled. "I bet they did."
The ones who had been under Hidenori's spell started groaning in pain, especially Natsu.
"Dammit, I thought that it was lifted." Natsu muttered.
"It's your fault, you know." Kiyomi scoffed. "Going on a fight like that and using such a powerful attack after you've just nearly faced death. What were you thinking?"
"I had to beat that bastard up!"
"We could've done it for you!"
"No you couldn't!"
"Yes we could!"
"Well, maybe. But it wouldn't be the same if I didn't do it myself!"
"You're an idiot!"
"Yeah . . . he sure is." all of the Fairy Tail mages, except for Wendy, said in unison.
"What did you say?" Natsu yelled in anger.
"Well, everyone in Fairy Tail is like that, no?" Lyon asked.
"They are known for causing a lot of trouble." Minerva added.
"Says the strongest mage of the second strongest guild in Fiore . . ." Erza muttered.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" Minerva asked in anger.
"You heard me. You have no right to insult our guild when you're just number two." the titania glared at her.
"Oh please. You're guild may be impressive, but you've got nothing to be proud of!"
"What?"
"I'm the strongest mage of my guild while you're just the strongest female. What's wrong? Can't even handle a bunch of idiots?"
"Hey!" Laxus, Natsu, Gray and Gajeel yelled.
"Now now, miss. We should be celebrating the success of our mission instead of looking for unnecessary fights." Rufus said as he and the other men of Sabertooth tried to calm her down.
"It's good to see that you're alright, Jura-san, Shelia." Lyon said, ignoring the Fairy Tail and Sabertooth mages.
"Is it just me or does it seem like we didn't just almost get killed?" Addei asked.
"Aye! That's how we are!" Happy replied, making the woman chuckle.
"Well then, since our missions is over, let's all go back home!" Ichiya said and they all cheered as the trimens stirred their way out of the kingdom of Visna.
"Ah, Addei-san. You're all coming with us, right?" Lucy asked.
"Eh? Well . . . now that I think about it, is that okay?"
"I mean, we're from the country that tried to take over your kingdom, right?" Hyosuke said.
"Don't worry about that." Jura said, stepping up. "We wouldn't have been able to complete our mission without your help, after all."
"That's right." Erza nodded. "If you ever face any problems with the government, we'll gladly help you out."
"Hmph. Well, I guess we do owe you for what that. And I don't really like being indebted to someone, so . . . we'll try to help out too." Minerva crossed her arms
"If Jura thinks that it's alright, then it'll be alright." Lyon said with the rest of his guild mates smiling next to him.
"Men~! From now on we are united by the parfume known as friendship!" Ichiya announced.
The former SSS stared at them in shock. They didn't really expect forgiveness and acceptance to be easily given. But they were glad.
"Well damn, thanks!" Hyosuke grinned.
"Hyosuke-kun! That's not the proper way to thank someone!" Kiyomi scolded him.
"Yay~! We can be with Adora-chan!" Mia cheered.
"Like I said, call me Lucy."
"In any case, thank you." Addei bowed.
"Ne, Lucy! Can we join your guild too?" Mia asked.
"Sure! It's okay, right?" Lucy said, turning to Erza.
"Yes. I'm sure Master won't have any problems with that."
"More importantly, they'll probably be too busy celebrating the fact that you're still alive." Lisanna said.
"Yeah!" Natsu cheered, swinging an arm around her shoulders.
"Even now I'm still kind of surprised . . ." Gray muttered.
"Other than Lucy, we're also going home with more nakama . . ." Erza sighed. "I'm sure everyone will be very happy.
"Yay! Isn't that great, Aeschy?" Mia cheered.
"Yeah . . ."
"You can work on your goal there." Artemis told him.
"And I can work on mine." Galan added.
"I told you, it's impossible! How can you achieve something without working for it?"
"It could happen . . ."
Everyone started celebrating the success of the mission and they were all excited to go home. They really looked like they were all having a good time, and what happened in the castle of Visna seemed like something that occurred a long time ago. Addei and Kazuki just watched everyone celebrate, not really feeling like they were in the mood for any festivities.
"Isn't that great?" Addei asked. "After years of darkness and grief, we just might have found the light that will bring us peace."
"Yeah . . ." Kazuki nodded, watching both Lucy and Natsu as they enjoyed themselves with their friends. His eyes narrowed a bit, but he was still happy for her. "Is it . . . really over?"
Addei paused for a moment while they felt the cold breeze of the night air. "Who knows . . ?"
The celebration continued until it was interrupted by Hibiki's announcement.
"Everyone! We're reaching the country's border! We're officially leaving this place!"
"Well, can't say that I'll miss this place." Minerva scoffed.
"It's nice to know that it's all finally over." Erza sighed.
The clouds were as dark as always and they've already gotten used to the dark, evil and terrifying atmosphere that always surrounded them. They have faced opponents that have done cruel and inhuman things, and yet there they were. They were all alive and the long battle was over. They had won.
But soon they'll be going home to their beloved country and all that's happened so far will be nothing more than a distant memory. They were leaving the place that made them feel like they were in a terrifying nightmare. They were going to return to all their friends who were waiting for them and are probably worried about their well-being. Who wouldn't be? Their opponents had been as powerful as the rumors say. It was a miracle that they succeeded the mission.
They couldn't wait to go back to their peaceful and happy lives, away from the darkness of the past. And they've brought with them friends who couldn't wait to start a new life, hoping to forget all of the darkness they've had for most of their lives. And hopefully, they will. Because beyond the borders of the kingdom of nightmares and darkness was a kingdom of new beginnings and hope.
Lucy was excited and stared straight ahead where, although it was still cloudy, the sky still wasn't so dark. She just couldn't wait to go back home again. Her smile couldn't be wiped off of her face right now. She felt incredible happiness as she watched her friends mess around. How she missed them dearly.
"Aeschy, is anything wrong?" she heard Mia say so she turned around and saw Aeschylus trembling on the corner.
"M-Mia . . ."
"What's wrong?" Addei asked.
"If you're hungry, then you'll have to wait until we arrive to wherever we're going." Kazuki said. "There's no kitchen in this place, so I can't whip you up any grub."
"That's obviously not the issue here!" Mia said with a hint of annoyance.
"Let him be. He's probably just scared of what's going to happen." Hyosuke scoffed.
"That's so cruel, Hyosuke-kun." Kiyomi said as she, along with Mia and Galan, tried to give as much comfort to Aeschylus as possible. Lucy couldn't help but smile at them as well. It was nice to know that they were going to be together.
It's just so unfortunate . . .
"Seriously, Aeschylus. Pull yourself together!" Hyosuke yelled at him. Aeschylus was trembling at a corner with both of his hands cupping his ears while tears started to fill his eyes.
"Oi! Don't be so mean to him!" Mia yelled.
"That's right, Hyosuke-kun! You should apologize!"
"N-no!" Aeschylus suddenly blurted out. "It can't be . . . w-we can't leave . . !"
"Eh?" they asked.
Fate was always against them . . .
"What are you talking about, Aeschylus?" Hyosuke asked.
"Yeah! We were given the chance to start over after everything that's happened!" Mia said
"Did you leave something important behind or something like that?" Kiyomi asked.
"No! That's not what I meant!" Aeschylus yelled, shocking them.
"Oi, what's going on here?" Erza asked, approaching them.
Fate was always so cruel . . .
Lucy felt a sudden pressure from behind her, coming from the direction of Visna's border. It felt like something was pushing her away from it with great force, but she tried to stand her ground.
"Wh-wha . . ?" it seems like the SSS felt the same pressure.
"We can't leave!" Aeschylus cried out, gaining everyone's attention. "H-he . . ."
They had come so close to waking up.
"He won't let us leave!" he cried out.
That's when Lucy felt something from behind. It was as if she hit a wall, and upon impact, there was an explosion. Although it wasn't strong enough to harm anyone around her, it was enough to send her flying away from the ship.
"LUCY!"
But it looks like they just won't be able to escape this hellish nightmare so easily . . .
Soon, Addei and the rest one-by-one went through the same thing as Lucy did and were all sent tumbling all the way down to the ground.
"Oi! Stop the ship! We have to make an emergency landing!" Minerva cried out as they all started to panic.
"What happened?" Hibiki asked.
"I don't know . . . they just suddenly . . ."
"LUCY!" the celestial spirits closest friends started to cry out desperately. Although their cries reached their friend's ears, there was nothing she could do.
It was true that the battle was over, they have already overcome all obstacles. They defeated their enemy and even gained friends. But it wasn't the end yet. Only the battle was over. There's only one last obstacle they have to face.
Only one last challenge they have to accept. Only after that can they go home and achieve their happiness. But the price for their happiness was high. They would have to make sacrifices.
The world was against them. Fate was so cruel. And they were trapped in the darkness with no light to guide them.
What will they do?
Yeah, I said that the story was ending. But it's not ending NOW. There's only about three chapters to go before we wrap things up and say good bye to L&S. And until then, please continue your support! All questions will be answered in the next chapter but feel free to ask, anyway.
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