Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.


The Rainbow of Unity


Lucy and her friends watched the Rainbow Crystals go to seven different parts of Fiore, amazed by that sight, but their minds were still going to be focused on their battle against Samantha Kalos. It seemed like no spell could even damage her, since she managed to just endure everyone's attacks without even getting a single scratch on her body, and the famous fashion designer intended to kill her foes. She did not want them to expose her dark nature or her dark secrets to the world for her career to ultimately be ruined, and Samantha also felt like she needed to stop Sabertooth from having more fame than her.

As the black aura surrounded Samantha's body and made her feel invincible, Sting took a few steps towards her while his blue eyes were narrowed. There was something about this situation that really seemed unfair to him, and he began to clench his fists as he thought about all that Lucy went through to get those seven Rainbow Crystals. She managed to get all of those crystals, only to discover that someone had the eighth one that they could use for their own power to be far more elite than anyone else, and the light dragon slayer thought that Samantha was a lowly cheater instead of a powerful champion.

"Samantha, you don't deserve to call yourself a champion! In fact, you weren't even playing fair in the ancient challenge. Compared to what Lucy went through to get her own set of crystals, you're just a joke." Sting sternly stated to Samantha, making everyone widen their eyes in a pretty shocked manner.

The black-haired celebrity responded as she looked quite miffed, feeling like she'd have to charge up another attack, "I did not cheat, you idiot! Allow me to explain myself. I knew about the black Shadow Crystal, but I also knew that rumors of it would eventually spread if anyone else ever came across it. Therefore, I chose to spread rumors of the ancient challenge throughout Fiore while only mentioning that seven crystals were in existence. That kept everyone unaware of the Shadow Crystal, so I merely used my rumors to my advantage."

Sting retorted in a serious tone, not liking that answer, "For a supposedly smart celebrity, you don't listen very well! We're aware of how you've got photos of the crystals and their locations, but you probably had no trouble with obtaining them. You didn't have to go through the challenges that Lucy went through, so she should be the champion."

That merely caused Samantha to start laughing evilly, and she told him that Lucy's book was now useless. None of the spells she wielded would be able to damage Samantha in any way, and even powerful attacks from a dragon slayer would hardly even feel like they were threatening. She harshly told the group to just give up and die, since hope would never get them anywhere, and Samantha smirked as she began to tell Lucy that her quest to collect the seven Rainbow Crystals would now end in tragedy and darkness.

Sting decided to slide ten feet to the left and fire his White Dragon's Roar, intentionally missing Samantha, and he did not even care that she laughed at his aim. He wondered if it would be possible to destroy her Shadow Crystal, since that was the large source of the darkness, and Sting simply had a smile of hope on his face. He watched the attack strike the crystal, watching it shine brightly with its onyx black light, and the explosion made lots of light occur. Samantha quickly ran away from it as she griped about the light being so bright, and everyone else felt good to see some light in this dark fight.

The energy from Sting's attack got sent out of the Shadow Crystal to join Lucy's seven crystals, causing them to shine brighter in their respective colors as they descended down to certain places, and those seven lights were quite bright. The black crystal seemed like it could not absorb light, which was the opposite of its darkness, and Sting simply smirked at Samantha while feeling proud that he attacked her precious crystal. If there was one thing that a fashion designer really detested, it was the situation of someone attacking or criticizing their work or possessions.

She decided to fire three black balls of dark energy at him, watching them move at high speeds, but Sting was quick to evade the attacks. He watched their massive black blasts occur while hearing Samantha angrily tell him to never harm her precious Shadow Crystal, and Sting was obscured by the large black clouds of smoke. He decided to take a page from Minerva's book and tell Samantha Kalos that he saw better fashion sense from the worst designers in Fiore, and that prompted her to start running towards where he was located.

"You stupid mage! How dare you insult me!" Samantha exclaimed as she ran towards Sting, hoping to send him falling from the roof with a harsh punch.

Sting replied calmly as he saw her aggressively run towards him, "I'm not stupid, especially if I remember the basics of fighting."

As Samantha got close to Sting, he stuck out his left foot and tripped her. She fell to the ground while the black aura still protected her from getting hurt, but the light dragon slayer simply felt like chuckling at how a woman who wielded powerful spells of darkness could literally get tripped up by such a basic move. Samantha quickly got up and attempted to hit Sting with her left fist, only to see him bite down on it with his fanged teeth, and Sting unleashed another White Dragon's Roar attack! It was now at point-blank range, and Samantha's eyes were blinded by the white blast.

Sting hastily got his mouth off of her fist for the purpose of running to Lucy's side, wanting to see if she was able to stand up, and Sting's strategy was an interesting one. While Samantha had her attention on him, the male with blond hair was simply wasting time. Even if that black aura was giving Samantha tons of magical power, that power would still deplete from using spells or physical attacks. Sting hoped to make Samantha burn up some energy, and that would give his friends some time to recharge. Lucy couldn't use any powerful spells yet, however, so that was concerning.

Samantha screamed in pain as she felt like Sting's light was in her eyes, the brightness being painful like it was acid, and she hoped that the black aura engulfing her body would soon overshadow the light. Sting watched her scream in pain while telling Lucy that her seven crystals went off to provide light to certain places, doing something good as a reflection of Lucy's good nature, but Lucy looked tense as she told him that none of her seven types of magic would have enough strength to beat Samantha. That prompted Sting to wonder if the types of magic could all work in unison, but would that be possible?

After everything that she went through with Sting, Lucy was determined to not lose this fight. She thought about how she had hardly any magical power left, though, and breaking through Samantha's invulnerability seemed very impossible. She slammed her left fist down on the mint green book while seeing the seven Rainbow Crystals slowly descend to certain spots, really wanting the seven crystals to show their full power for her like when she used those special moves involving the awesome poses, and Lucy's immense determination made the Rainbow Crystals shine more. They were going to help her succeed, but how?


On Emblaze Island...

Natsu and Erza were surprised to see the red Fire Crystal float down to where their red table was located, seeing the crystal shine its beautiful red light in the darkness, and Lisanna thought that it was really pretty. Four fire-wielding mages were curious enough to check out the sight of the Fire Crystal, getting close to it and feeling a warm amount of heat emanate from it, and Lisanna stood next to Natsu as she looked curious about this red crystal. It seemed like an ordinary Rainbow Crystal to her and Erza, but one large sniff from Natsu made his eyes widen in shock.

He wasted no time with telling Erza that this Fire Crystal smelled similar to Lucy, making him assume that it must've belonged to her, but Erza wondered why one of her crystals would choose to come here. Natsu and a male wizard with red hair proceeded to touch the Fire Crystal at the same time, causing the Fire Crystal to make them see a vision of Lucy's harsh fight against Samantha while they also saw the Shadow Crystal, and both boys widened their eyes in shock. It seemed like Lucy and her friends from Sabertooth were fighting hard against Samantha, but they would not prevail.

"If Lucy is so badly wounded and doesn't have enough magical power to stand, then let her take mine! Send our fire to Kira, too!" Natsu shouted fiercely to the Fire Crystal, as he did not want any of the protagonists to die.

The other male wizard who saw the vision added with confidence in his voice, discovering a little trick, "Fire Crystals absorb fire, so hit it with everything you've got!"

Despite the fact that he only hit it with a powerful fireball, the red-haired mage was surprised to see Natsu strike the Fire Crystal with his Fire Dragon's Flame Elbow attack. He then proceeded to use Fire Dragon's Roar and Fire Dragon's Sword Horn, powering up the red crystal even more, and the other mages who used Fire Magic began to hit the crystal with their spells as well. Lisanna even saw one of the wizards strike the ground to give people more fire to use, and she picked up some flames to quickly throw them at the crystal. She turned around quickly to see Erza looking guilty, however, and Lisanna simply narrowed her blue eyes.

"Lucy could use your help as well, Erza! You may not have mended your conflict with her, but don't just stand there!" Lisanna harshly told her while not wanting Erza to just loiter.

Erza responded with an apologetic look on her face, "You may not be able to hear the truth of my words, Lucy, but let my magic show you how sorry I am!"

She requipped into her Flame Empress Armor with the intent to use her Flame Sword, and she narrowed her eyes as she proceeded to shoot out a massive beam of red fire from her sword. The Fire Crystal accepted all of that energy, and it allowed everyone else to keep firing their hot flames at it. The amount of heat was tremendous, flames burning hot with everyone's desire to help Lucy and her friends win, but this red crystal also listened to Erza confidently telling Lucy that she could win this fight. Some of the other mages started to cheer Lucy's name, too.


Concurrently, in the center of Nichibotsu Town...

Moka and Kurami healed Shinji to the point where he could stand up while his wounds were healed, and the mages from Team Haina Ganseki were now standing around the orange Earth Crystal that floated down to the center of their town. Hyde touched the crystal to see an orange aura emerge from it, allowing everyone to see Lucy and her friends struggling against Samantha's dark abilities, and it even made them hear Lucy's voice begging them to lend her their magical power. Hyde didn't like the idea of giving his energy to a mage from another guild, but the sight of Samantha laughing evilly while having the eighth crystal behind her made him clench his fists at how the rumor of seven crystals to collect was merely a lie.

He decided to create some large brown stones that would be thrown at the Earth Crystal, watching it absorb them with ease, and Hyde kept doing that while Moka struck the crystal with brown blobs of explosive mud. The two mages briefly gave each other confident smiles at how they were now working great together, and Hyde even conjured up a large twister of sand. He made it touch the Earth Crystal while sensing the orange item gain more strength, and he didn't even have to give Kurami any orders to hit it continuously with her explosive clay.

Shinji stated to the Earth Crystal with a stern facial expression, wanting it to give Lucy this message, "Stand strong, Lucy! You've got the strength of Earth Magic, so slam that woman down with your best punches!"

Sutēki added calmly as an orange aura engulfed his palms, proceeding to hit the Earth Crystal with his strongest karate chops, "Fight as hard as you can, Lucy! In fact, the power of these karate chops should have enough force to snap that dark mage's neck.

The four mages continued to hit different parts of the Earth Crystal with their spells, allowing it to absorb their Earth Magic, and Shinji applied earthy energy to his feet while he leaped several feet away from the crystal. He made an orange aura largely engulf his hands while proceeding to run towards the crystal, and Shinji hit it with a fierce barrage of his strongest punches! Some of the townspeople made small sand twisters hit the Earth Crystal as well, helping their best wizards power it up to an extremely high level, and the crystal shined with its orange light.


Elsewhere, in Voltage Town...

Some mages healed up Hikari to the point where she was now fully healed, and the wizards in Voltage Town were now gathered around the yellow Electric Crystal. Ayame and Hikari both wondered why it came back here, since they thought Lucy had it, but one mage striking the crystal with a beam of lightning allowed everyone to see that Lucy was failing in her battle against Samantha Kalos. The skies above Voltage Town were darker than when Hikari's mother had taken over, and the town was not going to suffer from darkness ever again.

She ordered everyone to strike the crystal with their strongest lightning spells, and Hikari rapidly fired her own strongest spells in succession. The mages stood around the Electric Crystal in a large circle, and Hikari's section of the circle stood with their backs to the church. Hikari and her friends shot out their most powerful electric spells for the yellow crystal to absorb them, feeling its level of voltage rise, and Hikari even used the Lightning Hyper Rave spell to make a large ball of lightning shoot out numerous smaller beams for the Electric Crystal to take their power.

Ayame jumped high into the air to send slashing waves of lightning down at the Electric Crystal, liking how it easily absorbed her strong lightning blasts, but even using all of their strong spells rapidly would not seem good enough to Hikari. She had now used all seven of her strongest spells in rapid succession, even sending the large sphere of Lightning Hyper Rave down on the crystal, and she panted a bit while aiming her left hand at the crystal. The mages around her were also too occupied with this matter to hear the church's doors open for a quick moment, and a certain woman walked up to her daughter.

"Even if we all use our lightning, Lucy might need more! We can't let her lose to that woman!" Hikari said to herself as she panted slightly, seeing the Electric Crystal shine with its yellow color.

Akina told Hikari in a determined tone, her green eyes narrowed as her right hand was placed on her daughter's left hand, "Anyone who's beaten me is forbidden from losing! If Lucy feels like she's on the verge of defeat, then let's see how she'll feel after receiving this nice move!"

Akina's hand and Hikari's hand were both engulfed in a yellow aura while the blonde-haired priestess commanded a move called Lightning's Holy Goddess to come down upon the crystal with its holiness of a deity, and a massive thunderbolt of lightning immediately came down from the sky! Its electrical energy also gave magical power to every user of Lightning Magic in its wide range, and Hikari was able to fire powerful spells from her right hand again. All of the electric blasts were incredibly powerful, and Lucy would definitely get a good amount of electricity.

Hikari even smiled at her mother from seeing her fire off five more powerful spells, even using Lightning's Holy Goddess again to restore the strength of anyone who became tired again, and Akina even ordered the mages to cheer Lucy on. Several people began telling Lucy to believe in herself while others happily told her to give Samantha quite a dangerous jolt, and Akina ordered her to fight with the strength of a lightning goddess. All of that lightning was not only giving Lucy power, but it would also help her get a great boost in speed.


Elsewhere, in the town of Kazehana...

The green Verdant Crystal floated down to the street while it was in front of the cafe, and Takuya had gotten on his skateboard to fly up high. He saw other lights of the Rainbow Crystals in the distance, and he struck the crystal with four mint green tornadoes to see them create powerful blasts. Their energy was quickly absorbed by the crystal that proceeded to show him that Lucy was in trouble, and the mint green aura also showed him that Samantha Kalos was bragging about her black Shadow Crystal. Takuya wasn't even fazed by that woman's dark power because he thought Wind Magic was the best type, but he didn't want Lucy to lose against Samantha.

He fired several spells of Wind Magic at the Verdant Crystal while smiling confidently at how the energy got absorbed, and the sight of Hizuki coming out of the cafe with Chelia was good for him. The Verdant Crystal allowed them to hear that Lucy was in deep trouble while she was fighting to save Fiore from Samantha's darkness, and that prompted Hizuki to place her hands on the ground. She made several flowers and gigantic green plant roots rise up from the ground, making them all slam into the crystal, and it gladly absorbed her Plant Magic. Hizuki fired a dark green ball at it while Chelia used her Sky God's Bellow to hit it with black wind, and Takuya made his wing-shaped projectiles come down from the sky to strike the crystal.

Wendy came out of the cafe to see Takuya telling Hizuki that they needed to give Lucy more power, and that prompted the blue-haired girl who wore a blue T-shirt with a white skirt to use her Sky Dragon's Roar. It hit the Verdant Crystal, giving it much more of a power boost, and Hizuki fired some jungle green bullet seeds from her mouth to make the Verdant Crystal start glowing. Takuya and his friends were all quite confident as their attacks kept touching the crystal, increasing its Wind Magic and Plant Magic to very high levels, but they weren't as clever as a certain elderly woman.

"Time for this next attack, and it'll be Zephyr Hurricane!" Takuya shouted confidently as he adjusted his glasses, pretty proud to use this spell again.

The elder shouted with a serious facial expression as she sat on a nearby tree branch, gently pointing her brown wooden staff straight at Takuya, "Accelerated Wind Boost!"

That caused Takuya's spell to be created at a much faster rate, the clouds swirling at rapid speeds, and eight mint green tornadoes emerged from the center of the clouds. They all went down towards the Verdant Crystal, only to double in size from the elder aiming her staff at them while her spell sent high winds towards them, and the eight tornadoes went into the green crystal. It now shined with mint green and dark green lights, and Hizuki even created some flower petals that were sent flying towards the crystal by Takuya using his left hand to direct the wind to push them from behind. All of the Wind Magic and Plant Magic would greatly enhance Lucy's energy, and Takuya simply smiled from Hizuki choosing to proudly call him Captain Takuya.


Far up north, in Eisetsu Town...

Five mages from the Winter Snowflake guild now stood around the Cerulean Crystal with Clair and Hayato, glad to have healed the town's top mages, and everyone was firing their strongest attacks of Water Magic at the crystal. Clair even made scalding hot water melt the snow to turn it into water for the purpose of making the blue crystal absorb large blue bubbles that she created, and she made them go towards the crystal at high speeds. The other mages were firing large vortexes of water at the crystal while Hayato fired large shards of ice from his right hand, and Clair certainly taught her fellow mages how to have immense power.

Clair even made seven large drills of water rise up from the puddles, and they all exploded upon touching the crystal. It was now absorbing high levels of power, even taking in a large wolf that Hayato made out of ice, and the other mages were instructed to cheer for Lucy. Hearing the Cerulean Crystal speak in her voice about how Samantha was such a tough enemy only made Clair shoot out her strongest spells in sheer frustration, not wanting powerful Water Magic to lose against someone who used dark magic with cowardice to make themselves invulnerable, and she even planned on unleashing a tidal wave while the mages in the background would tell Lucy not to give up.

"Go, Lucy! You can win!" One young boy said happily, hoping the crystal would pass on those words of encouragement.

A young girl stated nicely as she softly smiled, "Miss Lucy, the tides have not shifted against you. We believe that you can make a tidal wave of pain go down on that evil lady!"

Clair shouted in a frustrated manner, sternly looking at those young guild members, "Is that all you've got, Winter Snowflake?! Shout with confidence to cause some avalanches!"

The people in the background proceeded to loudly send cheers to Lucy, not caring that the nearby snowy mountain rumbled from their loudness, and Clair created a scalding hot tidal wave to go slam against the Cerulean Crystal. As it absorbed all the water, Gray calmly observed the situation and decided to make large snowballs. He grinned as he coated them with circular shells of ice, and Gray threw one up into the air. He watched it land on the blue crystal to get absorbed, causing the Cerulean Crystal to glow with regular blue and light blue beams of light, but would that be enough?

Clair fired an extremely large blue ball of water from her right hand while Hayato quickly made three icicles appear in his left hand, and their attacks simultaneously struck the Cerulean Crystal. It had now absorbed enough magic that would help Lucy have a chilling amount of density, even possibly having the sheer power to drill right through Samantha's attacks, and Clair sternly looked at the blue crystal as she hoped that Lucy would have that fierce look in her eyes that was seen when they first crossed paths. To Clair, fierceness could boost Water Magic to where it could kill.


In Mumargi Town...

The darkness of Samantha's Shadow Crystal hardly even bothered the dark mages in the carnival area of Mumargi Town, but they followed Kenji's orders to strike the purple Requiem Crystal with their spells. They gladly healed him as soon as they saw him come back with Kikuko, glad to have a good leader to give them great commands, and seeing the violet aura show them that Lucy was struggling against Samantha only strengthened their resolve to help the girl who defeated Kyouji. From also seeing Lucy use Darkness Magic quite well in the Grand Magic Games, they thought she was an awesome dark mage.

Kikuko unleashed a purple stream of dark flames from her mouth to give more power to the Requiem Crystal, even purposely weakening it to a very low level for the purpose of hitting it with an orchid purple ball from her left hand to make it be immensely stronger, and her attack went well with the other dark mages who were firing their flames at the violet crystal. Some wizards shot out large purple spheres of dark energy that had the ghostly effects of passing through any solid objects that were in the way of their actual target, and their spheres only became solid upon hitting the crystal.

Kenji struck the crystal with several blobs of poison that he fired from his mouth, watching the crystal absorb them, and he even fired a massive vortex of amethyst purple poison as well. The crystal absorbed the energy, and some kids even fired small streams of flames from their mouths to strengthen the Requiem Crystal's power. Kenji felt like unleashing a barrage of poisonous spells, but the sight of six purple crescent moons starting to surround the violet crystal in a hexagonal formation took him by surprise. The crescent moons exploded around the Requiem Crystal in massive blasts that were quickly absorbed, and Kenji's eyes widened in amazement.

"That spell belongs to..." Kenji stated aloud, before turning around to see his older brother smile calmly at him.

"Hey, Kenji. Whoever made this dark magic really didn't think it through to have it only help themselves." Kyouji told him in a calm manner while aiming his left hand at the violet crystal.

He unleashed a purple crescent moon from his left hand, only to see the shadowy energy in the sky boost its power by six times as much, and Kyouji made his projectile strike the crystal. It created a blast that was extremely massive with the Darkness Magic being sucked into the Requiem Crystal, and Kyouji soon watched the Requiem Crystal shine with a purple glow while violet beams of light shined from it. The crystal also gained more power from Samantha's darkness, so she was quite cocky to overlook the thought of it backfiring like this.

Several mages fired more attacks at the Requiem Crystal, giving it a pretty terrifying amount of power, and Kyouji simply thought about how he only came back here because he heard some dark mages in Tsukiari Town say that Kikuko accompanied Kenji of the Elite Seven to Nurie Town. He could see his younger brother start to smile like a confident leader, not even sad that he lost to Lucy, and Kyouji calmly smiled at how that girl from Sabertooth became so strong to where the purple crystal seemed to show that she was fighting the very last person in the ancient challenge.


Elsewhere, in Hyakkoku Town...

Chisato fully healed Minami, and the girls now stood in front of a pink tower where some psychics would strengthen their skills with Heavenly Body Magic. The two girls were joined by five female psychics while they all stood around the pink Starry Crystal, and the seven women struck it with their most powerful spells. The high amount of heavenly energy quickly increased the power of the crystal, and the psychics all decided to use a nice spell that was known as Heavenly Psi Future. Minami and Chisato both heard about that move, but they hadn't mastered it yet.

Minami hit the Starry Crystal with the pink ball that had five small pink stars of Heavenly Body Magic circling around it, and a massive pink blast transpired. Chisato could see the pink crystal's power increasing even more to where she felt like not even doing anything, and she even looked up at one of the tower's windows to see Yukata remove a nice painting of psychic orbs from a wall. She was glad that the psychics weren't focusing their minds on any art thieves right now, and she'd certainly be amazed to see one of their neatest spells.

"Heavenly Psi Future, come back to the present!" The five women all shouted simultaneously as they looked quite confident.

Chisato told Minami while their eyes were pink, gently smiling, "I foresaw immediately that we should get back."

The girls leaped away from the Starry Crystal to see five large beams of cosmic energy come down from the sky, precisely from the cosmos, and the pink beams struck the Starry Crystal directly! The blasts were layered on top of each other while all of their incredible power was concentrated into one point, and the pink crystal began to glow quite brightly. Minami could sense that its power was at quite a high level, as well as sensing that other people in Fiore made strong vibrations of magical power occur, and she was actually glad that Chisato came to Hyakkoku Town today.

Minami started to cheer Lucy's name while picking up her pink electric guitar that Chisato placed on the ground, and she only wished that her band members weren't so quick to run away when the sky got eerily dark. Minami played an epic guitar solo as she told Lucy to just rock out like this was the biggest battle of her life, and she told the crystal that everyone who was lending her their power was like the crowd that wanted to see her give a great performance that could surpass the darkness of her opponent. Chisato merely told the crystal that she couldn't entirely foresee victory in Lucy's future, so she wanted Lucy to make it happen.

The pink Starry Crystal accumulated enough energy to where it could now float upward at a fast pace and leave behind a pink streak, and it flew all the way back to Nurie Town. Minami could see the six other crystals flying across the black sky to go back to their owner, also having enough energy to help Lucy in this battle, and she smiled along with Lucy's other allies in Fiore who had no doubts about her being able to become the true champion. In fact, she would get to see the coolest reason about why those gems were called the Rainbow Crystals.


Ten minutes later, at Samantha's fashion company...

Everyone was surprised to see the seven Rainbow Crystals return to Lucy, circling around her while they shined brightly with their high amounts of power, and their many voices could be heard encouraging her to not give up. The crystals even made voices be heard from far away, such as Natsu telling Sting to show that evil woman how a dragon slayer could kick some serious butt, and Kira even heard Erza's voice telling her to show off the fierce strength from her fight with Kagura. Samantha was incredibly puzzled about what was going on, and she also wondered how Lucy could start standing up.

The seven crystals sent everyone's magical power into her body to revitalize her, as well as making a rainbow-colored wave of their power fully heal her friends, and the seven auras soon changed from color to color while they engulfed Lucy's body. Some tears actually fell from her eyes while hearing everyone cheer for her to achieve victory, liking how Sabertooth was not fighting alone, and even Kira thought it was incredibly sweet for everyone to be wishing for their victory. Really, an adventure of seven different crystals was now displaying ultimate unity.

The seven Rainbow Crystals all touched Lucy's spell book at the same time to make it change colors as well, shining with seven beams of light in the colors of the rainbow, but she opened up the book to only see that her special moves were getting replaced. That was something odd to see in this fight, and it was very perplexing. No matter what though, Lucy was planning to win. She would not only defeat Samantha to become the true champion of the ancient challenge, but she would be sure to free the fashion designer from a life of darkness.

Lucy continued to sense everyone's magical power while getting to see her opponent angrily run up to the Shadow Crystal and stand in front of it, letting her foes know that they would not be able to touch it ever again, and Samantha was hoping to take down Lucy with her last seven attacks. She decided to reference the seven crystals from her rumor while thinking that seven attacks would be perfect for destroying someone who was really lucky to be facing her right now, but Samantha would probably have to worry about her own luck.

"Silence those wretched voices! No matter how strong you are now, I'll crush your power into the ground! You cannot wound me, little girl" The black-haired woman viciously told Lucy while the black aura surrounded her body.

Lucy replied with a confident facial expression as the spell book became red, looking at her newest move, "This new attack needs to be read by me, but it has the power of the people who hold this spell!"

She added confidently while turning to Kira, "The book being red really does show me how far we've all come together, and I'll need your help!"

Lucy unleashed the move known as Flame Sorceress' Roar, and it caused her to shoot out an extremely massive beam of red fire from her mouth! This spell was accompanied by Kira using Flame Chandelier again, directing it straight at Lucy's spell for it to get stronger, and the red Fire Crystal glowed brightly while Kira got to see the spirit of Matsurika stand beside her. She unleashed her own Flame Chandelier attack to greatly increase the strength of Kira's flames, and the red-haired merchant's attack headed straight for Lucy's new move!

It boosted her spell's power even more, possibly by three times the amount, and Flame Sorceress' Roar struck Samantha directly! It created an extremely massive fiery blast that caused her to scream in agonizing pain, and the power of Lucy's Rainbow Crystals was strong enough to break through her invulnerability! She was experiencing the powerful flames of a dragon slayer, the strong flames of Erza, Kira's immensely powerful flames, Matsurika's powerful flames from hell, and Lucy's own Fire Magic. Lucy got to see a vision of Natsu and Lisanna smiling confidently as they both gave her a thumbs-up from Emblaze Island, and Matsurika evilly smiled at Kira before disappearing.

Samantha's skin was now charred while the blast faded away, fire being around her, but she fired a large black ball of her magic at Lucy. The blonde-haired girl quickly dodged it while seeing its blast be massive, only to place her left hand on the ground with the wish of the ground being dense enough to withstand that, and Lucy's desire caused her red book to become orange. The aura of Earth Magic engulfed her left hand while Lucy sent her power into the ground, and she increased its strength to where Samantha's spell only made tiny cracks appear.

As Lucy had stepped back, she realized that Samantha was purposely leaping back to get far from her. As the fashion designer used Nightmarish Speed again, however, that made Lucy turn several pages to see her next new spell. It was known as Earthy Sorceress' Terra Barrage, and this move made Lucy's feet be engulfed in an orange aura. She aggressively stomped on the ground to create a large earthquake, making Samantha be stopped in her tracks, and Lucy went up to her for the purpose of striking her with an uppercut to her chin. Samantha was sent soaring high into the air, but Lucy was far from finished.

"Get back here!" Lucy shouted fiercely while the Earth Magic gave her enough strength to jump incredibly high.

Samantha shouted in a shocked manner as she was sent up into the air, "My chin hurts so much! She could've busted my jaw!"

Lucy got above Samantha to slam her down with a harsh kick that was followed by six more powerful kicks, sending her crashing into the ground while those kicks felt dense like rocks, and the moment Samantha touched the ground was the moment that seven orange massive blasts occurred! She screamed in pain from feeling the earthy energy, even seeing some rocks rise up to strike her in the face, and Lucy landed in front of the blasts while hearing the ground around Samantha begin to crack. She saw some rocks gently roll towards her while they turned into sand, and the Earth Crystal let the mage from Sabertooth got to see a vision of Shinji nodding as he gave her a stern look.

The spirit of Sunahama stood on the sand while Lucy was startled by his sudden appearance, but the robber only faded away with a smile of respect. The blasts also faded away while Samantha stood up, seeing the gravel on the ground turn to sand, and she did not plan on losing to Lucy. She raised her hands up high to make black clouds appear in the sky, seeing them spin around in a circle, and Samantha informed Lucy that being underneath any of the clouds' shadows would just make black beams of energy come down upon her with immense ferocity.

Lucy's spell book changed from being orange to being yellow, as she thought some serious speed would be needed for her to strike Samantha without getting hit, but she got to watch Sting try to hit the shadows with his White Dragon's Holy Ray. He fired several beams of light at the shadows, causing them to release their explosive black beams of energy, and the black clouds vanished one by one. Anything being under those clouds was the equivalent of stepping on landmines, but those dark clouds had the weakness of falling for Sting's fake-out tactic.

Lucy turned to the page of the next spell, and it was called Voltage's Lightning Deity. This spell made Lucy run at extremely high speeds while leaving a flash of yellow lightning where she initially stood, and the spell instructed Lucy to get close to Samantha. She got behind her while giggling, before disappearing again, and Lucy got in front of her. She appeared on the left and right sides of Samantha while each appearance was followed by a flash of lightning, and Lucy went back to where she initially stood for the purpose of getting a great electrical charge from that first thunderbolt.

"All of that flashiness, and you didn't even touch me." Samantha arrogantly told her while starting to smirk, thinking her move was stupid.

Lucy asked her in a rather calm manner, imitating her first tough enemy, "Was that a dumb mistake or my holy and divine move with electricity?"

She gently snapped her fingers for for massive thunderbolts to come down from the sky, striking Samantha from the four directions where Lucy's flashes of lightning occurred, and they were as large as the lightning that Akina recently used to heal others in Voltage Town. The thunderbolts made four massive yellow blasts of yellow lightning transpire, giving Samantha quite a tremendous shock as she felt electrocuted, and the Electric Crystal allowed Lucy to see Akina smiling with Hikari and Ayame while she angrily told Samantha that she now got an electrifying of what Lucy went through to get the third crystal.

The smoke cleared up to reveal that Samantha was still standing, the black aura around her body getting fiercer with the more hate she felt towards Lucy, and the fashion designer used a new move that made her shadow stretch out towards Lucy. It attempted to grab her shadow, but she quickly ran off while the yellow book answered her desire for it to be mint green. She used a move known as Kazehana's Grassy Butterfly, and this move oddly made seven green butterflies come from Lucy's mouth. Samantha felt like laughing at how they fluttered down to the ground, bursting to cover it with green grass that dripped with dark green goop, and even Sting thought that move was bad.

The spell instructed Lucy to stick out the index finger and middle finger of her left hand, however, and she did. A mint green aura engulfed her index finger while a dark green aura surrounded her middle finger, and four mint green twisters of wind appeared on the left side of Samantha. Four dark green vortexes of dense leaves appeared on the right side of Samantha, and Lucy separated her fingers to make the peace sign while grinning excitedly like Takuya would. That caused all her projectiles to slam into Samantha, creating four massive mint green blasts that were followed by four massive dark green blasts, and Lucy comically dropped her jaw in sheer amazement.

Takuya's group certainly put high amounts of energy into their spells while the winds formed a wide circle around Samantha to prevent her from escaping, and Lucy could guess that the green-haired skateboarder and Hizuki would want that move replicated for them to use it for themselves later on. Even so, she was quite glad to be dealing all this damage to Samantha. It was a very nice way of getting payback for getting kicked around earlier, and the Verdant Crystal allowed Lucy to see Takuya and Hizuki confidently smiling as they stood on both sides of the town's elder.

"If you're going to keep attacking me, I just have to make a nice defense!" Samantha harshly told Lucy while she was badly bruised, still thinking she could win.

Lucy asked in a shocked manner, not assuming that dark magic had shield spells, "What?!"

Samantha giggled as her black aura made a black sphere of the Shadow Crystal's energy surround her, telling Lucy that any explosive attack wouldn't even be able to pierce through her sphere of protection, and Lucy hoped that her blue-haired rival had recovered by now to lend a helping hand. The lightning from earlier had slightly touched some clouds, causing rain to plummet through the shadows, and the ground became more wet while the fiery flames from earlier began to weaken in power. Lucy went to the fifth section of her book to find the newest spell of Water Magic, and it was quite awesome.

The spell was known as Eisetsu's Briny Blue, and it caused a large blue drill of water to surround Lucy's left hand. The large and long drill began to rapidly spin in a clockwise manner, before propelling itself off of Lucy's hand, and it headed straight for Samantha's sphere! The rain touching the drill only boosted its power and speed, making it immediately touch the sphere for the purpose of piercing through it, and Samantha soon frowned in a worried manner from seeing her defensive barrier have several cracks while the piercing projectile broke through. It merely stayed suspended in the hole, however.

The second half of this attack required Lucy to put her left hand into a cold puddle, which she did, and the water soon turned to ice while it formed a long light blue drill on her hand. This one spun in a counterclockwise manner while frosty air came off of it, and it quickly headed straight for the first drill. Upon making contact with the first drill, the icy one pushed the watery one towards Samantha with tremendous force! It pierced into her stomach, causing the evil villain to be wounded, and the icy drill detonated in a chilling explosion to smash down her barrier! Samantha coughed up some blood while the blue drill soon became normal water, but the black aura around her made that lost skin be regenerated. The Cerulean Crystal allowed Lucy to see Clair and Hayato giving her looks of fierceness that were reflected in the spell, and the rain stopped.

Samantha angrily thought that Lucy wasn't trying hard at all out of cockiness, thinking that not immediately destroying the shield was Lucy's way of mocking her, and the black-haired antagonist unleashed numerous black spheres of energy from her hands. She aimed them all up at the sky while these projectiles stayed suspended in midair, and Samantha planned to throw them all at Lucy. By this point, the darkness kept Samantha from even thinking that this move could literally destroy her company and make her fall from her high point of success.

"This move will definitely annihilate you, Lucy! No matter what you do, this magic is dark enough to wipe you out!" Samantha stated as she laughed evilly in a demonic tone of voice, the pupils still not in her eyes.

Lucy replied with a confident facial expression as her words made the book become purple, "Your magic is pretty dark, but my Darkness Magic will show you what true dark power is. In fact, seeing a girl's head rise up from my shoulder was darker and creepier than your attacks."

She turned several pages again to find the new spell of Darkness Magic, and it was simply called Witch's Dark Lunar Mire. This spell required Lucy to spin around rapidly like the moon going around Earthland, and several purple crescent moons appeared around her. They slowly went around her in a circle while she kept spinning, but all of Lucy's projectiles soon went towards Samantha's spheres. When one of them touched a sphere, it created a purple explosion that was quite massive while sending its poison down upon the rooftop.

The explosions had wide ranges that could destroy multiple spheres at the same time, even hitting other crescent moons, and the copious amount of explosions got the attention of many people in Nurie Town. The last crescent moon to explode left behind a really foul odor while amethyst purple clouds of smoke came down around Samantha, and she started coughing while feeling her magical power drop. This attack had the side effect of leaving behind poison, and the dark mages also had their sweet or destructive specialties for nullifying magic. The Requiem Crystal shined as it let Lucy see a vision of Kenji and Kyouji sharing a high-five while they smiled at her, prompting her to feel glad that they learned to work together.

Even though Samantha was now low on magical power, she attempted to charge up her black aura again. Nothing seemed to happen, and she ending up shooting out a spiraling black beam that landed at Lucy's feet. It created a miniature black blast, causing Samantha to slowly back away, and she saw her attack leave behind a scorch mark in front of Lucy's feet. The blonde-haired girl demanded that she have the power to send her foe to heaven, causing her spell book to now become pink, and Lucy went to the last section of her spell book.

As she was about to recite the final spell, Lucy thought about how this adventure began with the Rainbow Crystals being in seven different parts of Fiore. The fact that they now allowed everyone to work together with their types of magic being in unison was certainly amazing, and Lucy would definitely be sure to go around Fiore for the purpose of thanking them later. She looked down at the final new spell in her book, and it was certainly as beautiful as the artwork that Chisato liked to steal while Minami could foresee this spell making Lucy be quite a star.

"Heavenly Body Magic, guide my hands! Cosmic Supernova's Psychic Ascent!" Lucy recited with determination in her voice, looking confident as she proceeded to set the book down on the ground.

Samantha exclaimed in a fearful tone while she began to tremble, "No... NO!"

Sting added with a look of realization on his face, recalling what happened earlier, "Hey, Samantha. Your invincibility never let me make you feel the power of Fiore's best dragon slayer. It's time for me to make you pay for what you did to those models."

Lucy raised her hands up high to fire seven pink beams that were massive, three from her left hand and four from her right hand, and her beams went high into the sky. Sting's White Drive allowed him to jump up quite high and fire his White Dragon's Holy Breath into the air, creating a massive beam of white light, but it didn't go as high as Lucy's final attack. Her projectiles went up into space for a moment, before coming back down to gain an extreme amount of power and speed, and Lucy's attack passed right through Sting's light to absorb its strength!

This heavenly spell could absorb any bright type of magic it came into contact it, causing it to get a greater boost of power, and the seven beams began to rotate around in a small circle. They were all aimed down at Samantha's company while the white light from Sting's attack surrounded them, and Samantha could only scream as they came down upon her. The attacks created seven pink blasts that were quite massive as they occurred in succession, having enough brightness as the other attacks for everyone in Fiore to see them, and Samantha screamed in immense agony from the painful blasts.

They left behind pink clouds of smoke that filled the rooftop, but Lucy gave the ground enough density earlier for the attack to only create some cracks in the ground that would not be very dangerous. Lucy watched Rogue and Sting walk up to the smoke and blow it away, revealing that Samantha's white pants and black T-shirt were badly bruised, and she was quite bloody while not even being able to stand up. She attempted to raise her head up at Lucy while looking displeased, remembering her arrogance about defeating her with seven spells, but she fell back down to the ground while barely being able to move.

Lucy, Kira, and Rogue were very surprised to see Samantha's hair slowly become blonde again while her grey eyes returned, and the protagonists watched the antagonist have tears start welling up in her eyes. Lucy calmly asked Sting about why he enhanced a spell that was already quite powerful, and the light dragon slayer happily told her that he just wanted to help Lucy's spell have much more power for the final blow. Sting smiled happily at the sight of Lucy giving him a triumphant grin, and he gave her a small kiss on the lips.

They turned to Samantha to see her whisper about how her company had now fallen out of her hands, the shadowy sky disappearing to reveal sunlight that shined down on the rooftop of the fashion company, and the Shadow Crystal made a circular dark void spread outward from where it stood to release Mayumi from the darkness. Everything was now out of Samantha's control, feeling like she lost to a girl who became the new winner of the ancient challenge, and it was so frustrating for her to be defeated by a well-known wizard who was standing firm like an awesome queen.


Ten minutes later...

When the situation settled down, Minerva went through the black doors to see that her friends were okay. The seven-colored aura around Lucy's body had faded away while her spell book was still pink, and her seven Rainbow Crystals surrounded the Shadow Crystal while they formed a heptagon. They were using their high amounts of energy to permanently neutralize its dark effects, which would create something nice, but Minerva hardly cared about that. Her green eyes went around the rooftop to see that her friends were not injured, but the sight of Samantha on the ground had gotten her attention.

She wasted no time with walking up to Samantha Kalos and opening up the brown diary that was in her hands, making Lucy wonder if Levy passed it on to her, and Minerva merely frowned at Samantha while she heard her say that the loss of her fame was an absolute nightmare. On the contrary, Minerva felt like the blonde-haired fashion designer could now open up her eyes to a world of light. Samantha's dark magic was still nullified as well, so there was nothing bounding her to the malice of the black crystal right now.

"I can't lose my company... You'll expose my dark ways, and I'll be nothing.. What a nightmare.." Samantha whispered to Minerva as she trembled, looking up at her green eyes.

Minerva replied with a stern frown on her face, proceeding to open the diary and flip to a certain page, "You're wrong about that last part, fashion reject. You're just starting to wake up from the nightmare you've been in for the past several years of your life, and I hope one of my friends gave you a nice kick to the head."

Minerva read aloud for everyone to hear, her eyes shifting to Samantha, "October 7th, X790. It is Lumina's 15th birthday, and we decided to have the ceremony in front of the black crystal. She was so excited to see it, and actually placed her hands on it before even touching the chocolate cake."

Samantha said nothing as her grey eyes widened in shock from hearing that name, only hearing Minerva rhetorically ask her who was the girl named Lumina, and Minerva read more of the words on the page. Everyone was amazed to hear the revelation of Lumina's mother changing her daughter's name to Samantha on that day as one of her birthday presents, the other being the Shadow Crystal, and her mom did it against her husband's wishes to keep her original name. Samantha Kalos used to be Lumina Kalos, the girl who the Shadow Crystal accepted as a vessel for its dark feelings of hatred and malice, and she said nothing as she thought back to those past memories.

Minerva went to the pages where Lumina's mother spoke of how she could no longer save her daughter from the darkness of the Shadow Crystal, realizing that she made the terrible mistake of even exposing her to the Shadow Crystal, and the cold darkness of the crystal's nightmarish power gave Lumina quite an evil personality. Lucy was surprised to find out that Lumina was only fifteen, but Lumina frowned as she reminded her that dark magic at any level had its side effects. Getting power from the Shadow Crystal was great, but its side effect aged the fashion designer to where she became twenty-two years old. In that sense, the dark power worked in an opposite manner to the Fairy Sphere that Mavis could create.

Lumina rudely asked Minerva if her mother sent her here, but the black-haired woman had no trouble with informing the villain that her mother got herself killed to ease her own pain of letting her own selfish desires affect Lumina's life in such a dark way. She only hoped that someone could save Lumina from the darkness that consumed her to make her be so evil and corrupt, and Lucy was the person who fulfilled that request. Tears welled up in Lumina's eyes, but they were not tears of defeat. She began to cry from being so lost in the darkness to where she couldn't see that her parents only wanted to save her while models were happy to work for her with no ulterior motives, but she had simply rejected them or used them as tools to make them tragically perish in nightmares that were undeserved.

Rogue calmly told Kira to heal Lumina with some Fire Magic, as they couldn't stay up here forever, and the red-haired merchant threw a large red flame at Lumina. It engulfed her for several seconds to heal her wounds with its warmth, and Lumina was soon capable of standing up by herself. She saw Minerva get behind her, however, and the tough woman pushed her hand against Lumina's back as she pushed her towards the black doors with ease. Minerva would take her back to the Sabertooth guild for interrogation, before letting the other members of Team Sabertooth take Lumina to the Magic Council for possible imprisonment for the crimes she committed, but Lumina softly smiled as she felt like saying something.

"Lucy Heartfilia, you are free to take over this company as its next president and have all my money. With my reputation soon to be tarnished, you rightfully deserve to change the fashion world. You showed me the cleverness, strength, and beauty of your spells." Lumina told her in a calm manner with her back turned to the mage from Sabertooth.

Lucy responded in a shocked manner, feeling like she wasn't exactly the best person for that position or the most persuasive salesperson, "Are you crazy, Miss Kalos?! I can't do that! Don't give such a great honor to me! I'd just like to keep being a wizard in Sabertooth!"

Lumina replied sternly as Minerva allowed her to stop and face Lucy to say one last thing, "Earlier today, you were just another person trying to complete the ancient challenge. Lucy Heartfilia, you now stand before me as the newest champion! The decision of who runs to company and how it's managed is now in your hands. By the way, don't lose your title as champion."

As Lumina turned back around to walk through the black doors with Minerva following her, she did not even care about her own set of Rainbow Crystals. She no longer had the power to keep them floating on the ground floor, causing them to fall while they'd be there for anyone to find them, and whoever got them would be able to freely challenge Lucy. Of course, just having the crystals didn't mean that any challengers would be strong enough to take on Lucy. She was certainly quite a champion, and her level of power was amazing.

Sting hugged Lucy while feeling like they needed to celebrate this joyous occasion, particularly with a grand feast back at the Sabertooth guild, and they could even throw another awesome party with everyone being invited. They would certainly deserve that for helping Fiore be saved, and Sting told Lucy that she was so awesome in that final fight. It was great for him to see how she looked so brave and happy, really liking how her determination helped them succeed, but the light dragon slayer and Lucy smiled as they also had someone else to thank.

Lucy gladly thanked Kira for being in Magnolia on the fateful day where she literally ran into her, but Kira grinned joyfully as she felt like she really needed to thank Lucy for keeping her from going out to the harbor where those men from Hell's Blaze had been waiting for her. If Kira had been taken hostage and killed, then she would've never gotten the chance to have so many great adventures with Lucy. They may not have fought together for each Rainbow Crystal, but traveling to different places for simple jobs or to sell different items as a merchant was always so thrilling. In fact, Kira hoped they could all go out on a fun job tomorrow.

She turned to Rogue and curiously asked him why he didn't help much in the fight, thinking he just let everyone else do the work, but the shadow dragon slayer told Kira that he just wanted to see if Frosch would show up. The green Exceed actually ran off when the black aura initially surrounded Lumina and made her have no eyes, making Frosch be freaked out, and he was probably chatting in a carefree manner with some models who thought he was the cutest cat that they had ever seen. The protagonists merely chuckled at his words, and they all decided to go look for him while leaving the rooftop mere seconds before something really nice occurred.

The seven Rainbow Crystals used their power to make the black Shadow Crystal become the white Luminous Crystal, making it no longer have any darkness, and the white crystal shined with its beautiful light that went well with the shining sun. It shined quite brightly at the top of the fashion company, looking really nice to the people of Nurie Town, and its large amount of magical power radiated in large waves that even made Jenny Realight wake up from being unconscious in the highlands. The ancient challenge was now finished, and the protagonists would soon have many days of fun with feelings of love included.


How was Chapter 49? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy and her friends have saved Fiore, and they defeated the darkness of the Shadow Crystal! However, the adventures aren't over yet! The final chapter will conclude "The Feeling of Rejection"! Wow. I really can't thank you all enough for encouraging me to get this far in my very first fanfic, and the ending will be awesome!