Chapter 51: Time's Turn Part 2: Another Way to Die.
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Boze was strumming his guitar, trying to fill up the silence with music. He'd always wanted some peace and quiet around to practice, but with Gajeel's grumbles and Juvia's verbally expressed fantasies… he rarely got the chance. Somehow, knowing they were out, likely fighting for their lives, made the place feel emptier than it did when they were just out on some errand. It made his music feel restless.
"So… someone apparently took down Goku." he said to the room at large, giving up his music when a string broke.
"Yeah. The guy who beat up José." Sue nodded. They were quiet for a few minutes, just looking at each other.
"I want to go."
Sue blinked and peered at Wendy, the girl was sitting between them on the couch. Her head was bowed, staring at her balled fists on her knees. "Excuse me, kiddo? I think Boze-head's awful music must have made my hearing go bad. What did you say?"
Wendy looked up at them. "I want to go," she repeated. "If they're in danger, then I should help."
"Absolutely not!" Carla shouted, wings sprouting and carrying her to eyelevel. She glared at Wendy, paws on her hips.
"Carla…" Wendy said imploringly.
"Don't you Carla me!" the cat hissed. "You mustn't throw yourself into danger. Just because this Goku fellow was foolish enough to get kidnapped."
"Carla, Fairy Tail is our family now." The girl shot back. "Aren't families supposed to stick up for each other?"
"I mean, yeah," said Boze. "But the cat's kinda got a point about the danger. Whoever these people are, if they brought down Goku, they aren't going to be messing around."
"I don't care!" Wendy stomped her foot and Boze blinked as a stiff breeze blew around the room. "If-if these people are so dangerous, then that means Juvia and the others will be in danger too. I don't have to fight them, I have support magic. I can help them fight and heal them if their hurt." She turned up her chin, pouting. "I'm going, and none of you can stop me."
Boze frowned and shared a look with Sue. Wendy hadn't been with them long, but she'd been a sweetheart since the moment she walked in. Neither of them really wanted to get involved in the fight that was no doubt about to go down, but at the same time they weren't really about to let her walk off into it.
"She is a dragon slayer." He pointed out. They'd both hung around Gajeel for years. Dragon slayers tended to be as tough as they were stubborn, and, despite her stature, he got the feeling Wendy was going to prove no different.
Sue crossed her arms and sighed. "Tell ya what, Wendy. I hear what you're saying, so we're not going to stop you. In fact, we'll come with you."
"You will?" Wendy beamed.
"We will?" Boze asked.
Sue shot him a flat look. "You wanna be the one to tell Juvia we let her go running off after them unsupervised?"
"I mean," he scratched the back of his head. "Technically, she asked you to look after her."
Sue raised an eyebrow at him. "And do you really think for one second that I won't drag you down with me?"
Boze considered this for half a second before climbing to his feet.
"Well when you put it that way, what are we waiting for? We've got some idiots to help."
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The first thing Goku noticed when he woke was the iron-y taste of blood. The second was that the forest floor that he vaguely remembered falling upon had been replaced by hard tiles.
"Ughhhh…" He moaned as he slowly forced his aching head off the ground. As his vision slowly returned to focus, Goku's brain tried to reboot enough to study his surroundings.
The room that he was trapped in was a perfect sphere made up of nothing but thousands of white ceramic tiles and two small windows. Each of every one of the tiles was covered with intricate runes, all glowing a faint purple light.
The first of the windows was directly over his head, a small opening that showed nothing but the sky outside, in the distance a lone cloud drifted across the horizon.
The other window was the size a chalkboard and right in its center stood Ultear. The woman had a sad smile on her face as she watched Goku make his way over towards her.
"The glass is enchanted to carry sound. You can speak freely." She said once he had almost reached her.
Goku looked her up and down for a moment. "Is this the part where you tell me your evil plan?"
Ultear pursed her lips for a moment. "I'd describe it more as offering you an explanation, but yes. This is that part."
Goku paused for a long moment, looking her dead in the eyes before he closed the remaining distance in a split second with a punch straight for her nose.
The attack bounced harmlessly off of the glass window without so much as a dent.
"Sorry, but you won't be able to leave the room until we've finished today." She said, not unsympathetically. "I've built this room carefully, not even I would be able to remove you until the runes have completed their task. You will not be able to leave, your friends, when they eventually come to free you, will not be able to break you free. I'm actually quite proud of this structure, you see. About a third of the runes you see are designed for containment. They take any force placed against them, whether it be physical, magical, or even your Ki, and they redirect it inwards to bolster their power. The more you try to break free, the stronger the walls shall become. I'm afraid that disables pretty much the entire repertoire of tools both you and your friends have for freeing you.
Ultear watched as Goku's gaze roamed around his prison before his eyes settled at the runes directly below his feet. His finger lit up in a little trickle of Ki as he leaned down and began to rub at the runes, perhaps his energy could scuff it up.
The light vanished unceremoniously into the tile. Goku looked at the light for a moment before he sent another trickle of power into his finger and tried the same thing with the next tile in the row. No luck.
"How's the shoulder?" He asked conversationally as he began to work his way down the line. When the fight had started, he'd immediately lost the ability to breath. He'd caught sight of that air mage, Bellos, in the crowd she'd brought to fight him. At least that explained why he'd started suffocating the last time he'd attacked her. He wondered how long the assassin had been working for her.
He'd tried to disrupt the air mage's assault like last time, but the others she'd brought with her had closed in on him. It had been an action-packed twenty seconds before his brain shut down. The faces and attacks had swum together with block spots in his vision, but he seemed to remember grabbing the time mage by the arm and swinging her around to bash a couple of his attackers.
"I have recovered." She said slowly, her hand rising to the shoulder and squeezing it gently. She shook her head. "Tell me…do you have any great regrets in your life? Things that you wish had gone differently, something that you would change if only you had the chance?"
Goku frowned. Ultear's sounded wistful, with underpinnings of desperation, resolution, and more than a little anger. He wasn't having much luck with the runes yet, so perhaps it would be best to humor her until he thought of something else.
"One."
"Oh?"
"My Grandfather died, and it was… my fault. I didn't listen to him and there was an accident."
Ultear nodded and Goku was surprised to see genuine sympathy in her eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry enough to let me go?"
Ultear shook her head.
"When I was growing up," she began. "I was one of the dozens upon dozens of children that are abducted from their families in this nation every year. My mother, she never even knew that I had been taken…my kidnappers faked my death so convincingly that she never once even suspected that I might still be alive. She was a great mage, one of the greatest ice mages to ever live. That's why they took me. They believed that I carried the same magical potential and that they could use it to recreate lost magics."
"There were hundreds of experiments," Ultear continued, Goku glanced up at the tremor in her voice. Her eyes were misted, and he could tell she wasn't looking at him anymore, but at a time long gone. "Day in and day out, trying to force ever greater amounts of magic from me. I was burned, electrocuted, stabbed, and beaten. They believed that the greater the stress forced onto a mage, the greater the surge in power they would go through…" she shuddered, an ugly look crossing her face. "and they were right. My magic, the Arc of Time, is well beyond the capabilities of most mages alive. Once my power had awakened, escaping from them was far easier than I ever would have suspected. Or, at least, it seemed that way." She shook her head, her eyes narrowing.
"I found my mother. I should have run down there and hugged her. But…she had two boys with her…everything suddenly seemed cold. I thought she had replaced me with those boys, and I hated them. I hated her. My own mother." She shuddered. "It was such a strong feeling, I actually went back to the scientists and let them keep working on me. It wasn't until years later that I realized that they had altered my mind as well as my body, that they had woven spells into my subconscious to ensure that I couldn't break free just by walking out the door. When I realized what they had done, I killed the entire group so that I wouldn't have a place to return to once I left and tried to go find my mother again. Instead a found a memorial."
"I'm sorry." Goku interrupted. Ultear blinked and looked at him. "I know how it feels, to wake up one day and find someone you cared about is just gone. I still miss Grandpa Gohan every single day." He crossed his arms. "But that doesn't explain what's happening here." he thrust his arm out to indicate the tiled prison. "Why do you need my help so badly?"
"The Arc of Time isn't complete." She answered promptly. "It has a final form, one that I could never even hope to obtain through normal means. It's called Last Ages, the pinnacle of all time magic. With it, I can send my mind hurtling backwards in time and take the body of my younger self as she stood on that snowy hillside and stared down on my mother. I'll be able to use my knowledge of the future to influence the past. With it I can save everyone! My mother, everyone in the tower of heaven, every person who has suffered at the hands of the dark guilds and everyone else. I've played a part in all the major dark guilds, I know their members, their strengths and weaknesses, my knowledge will bring them all tumbling down."
"It's… certainly a nice idea." Goku said slowly. "Helping all of those people, that doesn't sound so bad. But once things start changing, you won't know what's going to happen anymore right? And even if you did, if what everyone goes through is different, are they really the same people anymore? Experiences make people, right? I don't think I'd be the same as I am now if I had met up with Fairy Tail. And you probably wouldn't have been the same person if you hadn't made all the choices you just said."
Ultear gave him a wane smile. "I have already had that debate with myself enough times in the past. I concluded that as long as I help more people in doing this than I hurt, that it wouldn't matter. People might end up differently, but if I do more help than harm, I will have no qualms. At this point, my hands are so red that a few more are not going to cause me grief."
The words 'a few more' sent warning bells off in Goku's head. He started pouring more energy into the tiles he was testing. No point conserving his strength if he couldn't get loose anyways. "You're about to do something unpleasant to me, aren't you?"
Ultear flinched but met his gaze. She nodded. "I give you my word that I shall ensure that you remain happy within the new timeline."
"That's nice." He commented, shaping his Ki into a spike and attempting to drill it into one of the runes. "But you haven't told the me right here what you need me for."
"I suppose I haven't, have I? I've been dancing around the topic so far, I admit. Would you like me to be blunt?"
"Please."
"Using this spell would kill me. I need you to power it."
Goku stared at her.
"It draws from life energy, not just magic," Ultear went on. "No living person has enough to even use a fraction of what the spell is capable of. That was part of why I joined the dark guilds that I did throughout my life, I was hoping that they would eventually lead me to Zeref. With his abilities, nullifying the cost would be child's play. But in the meantime, I sought his demons and the dragons. I was sure their power could fuel the spell just as well." She took a moment to look a little sheepish. "If I am being honest, releasing Zeref upon the world so I could make it a better place seemed somewhat counterproductive."
"But the demons keep dying." Goku said, keenly aware that he was one of the ones responsible for breaking them. "And who knows where the dragons went. So that leaves me? What makes me so special?"
"Your Ki," Ultear said. "It is pure, concentrated life energy. The concentration is far beyond any mage that I have ever encountered throughout the land. Mages do not harness it, so our life forces tend to be weak. But you, you exercise your own life force like it is a muscle, and you grow more powerful for it. It's really quite fascinating." Ultear shook her head. "But you, and that giant monster form of yours, can provide all the power I need. I intend to drain it down to an empty husk and propel myself through history on it's dying breath." Ultear gestured up to the window over his head.
"In three hours, the full moons will rise. This glass is enchanted, not only to resist your attempts to break it, but also to magnify the light of the moon. You don't need to look up and closing your eyes won't save you. The second the light begins to shine, everything will finally be set right!" The look of absolute relief on her face as she spoke that word…Goku's brow knitted as he thought. Ultear clearly believed everything she was saying. Heck, she might even be completely right in how her plan would work. But still…
"I'd rather fight for my friends and my life my own way. Anyone that wants to fight me, or comes after me, I want to be able to meet them head on and battle it out when we are both at our best."
"Is that arrogance or honor?" she asked. "Regardless, comparing our methods thus far leaves you in a cage, and me on the cusp of victory." Ultear brushed his statement off. The two sat in silence for several minutes after that, Goku testing each and every tile on the floor before moving on to the walls, while Ultear remained content simply watching him to pass the time.
A familiar feeling tickled the edge of Goku's senses and a smile grew across his face. Ultear took notice.
"As I assume you haven't just decided that you approve of my plan, would I be right to guess that your friends have just arrived?" She asked.
"Feels like it." Goku grinned. "Looks like they found me a bit sooner than you thought. I'll be out of here in plenty of time before the moon comes up."
"If clinging to that hope makes your final hours more bearable, that's perfectly fine. But I already told you that you cannot escape from this cage." She paused. "Of course, I have been observing you and your guild, and I understand just how foolish it is to say there is something the Fairies can't do. So, contingencies have already been put in effect. I could tell you about them, but it will be far easier to show you."
Ultear walked back to the wall behind her, and with a wave of her hand it lit up. Images from all around them compound burst into full color, showing in real time what has happening in every room. At the uppermost camera, Goku saw his friends burning away an entire town of ancient looking ruins to reveal a metal studded door beneath one of the buildings. Erza annihilated the steel in an instant and the team stormed inside. Ultear turned back to look at Goku with a grim smile.
"Which one do you think will be the first to fall?"
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Erza's magic itched.
There was no better way to describe it. The moment after she had found the four-star ball, a harsh buzzing had been ringing throughout her head, and her entire body felt scratchy.
Even her anger didn't feel like normal, like her emotions were two steps to her left and she was just feeling everything in the peripheral. Something…something was wrong. But she couldn't stop, couldn't take a moment to try and figure out what was happening to her. It took her longer than it should have to realize that she had begun channeling the Titania's magic. As much as she didn't like the feeling of the alien power coursing through her, she couldn't deny that it was helping her. The detachment from her emotions had dispensed with the panic and fear that had threatened to overwhelm her and left her with a focus sharpened to a razors edge and driven by a chilly fury.
Goku was hers. Whoever had tried to take him from her would pay.
It was a matter of minutes before Erza and the other Fairies razed the ruins to the ground and discovered the trap door beneath the rubble of a dilapidated mansion. She tore through it like tissue paper as she stormed her way into the tunnel.
Vaguely, she was aware of the rest of the group scrambling after her. She paid them little mind. She had to find whoever took Goku. She had to make sure that they were punished.
In no time, she reached a large chamber with eight barred doorways leading out of it. Erza didn't break stride, immediately heading for the path directly across from the one that they had entered from, even as she barked out orders.
"We explore each and every one of those paths. Split up and get it done, we don't have any time to waste!" She didn't stop to see if they would obey or even agree with her, instead blasting the door off its hinges without breaking her stride and marched into the darkness.
The new hallway was exactly the same height and width as the one she had just walked through, and the entrance to the next chamber was the exact same distance away as it had been to the first room.
A door slammed shut behind her and suddenly the chamber was filled with light. Even as her eyes adjusted, a sword appeared in her hand and she placed herself into a defensive stance. She braced herself to face…
Nothing.
She was in a simple stone cylinder shaped room. There was an open door on the far side, and absolutely nothing else of note. Scowling, Erza began stomping her way towards the exit when she felt something tap her on the back. The redhead spun around, her sword slashing at…nothing.
"Invisibility?" Erza narrowed her eyes, twirled around and searching the ground for any sign of misplaced dust, her ears straining for any hint of movement.
There was a sound like giant hand flicking the air.
Another shot, this time off of her shoulder. Erza looked down to see a small spot of black goo marking where the attack had landed.
There was a sound like a giant cork popping out of a bottle and Erza twirled around at the noise. She slashed outward, but the gooey substance merely split on her sword and splattered against her armor.
Growling, Erza reached up to wipe it away. Right before she could touch it though, the blot withered and began to grow. The goop wrapped around her elbow, locking it in place like super glue. Erza strained against the substance, even as she felt the ones on her back and shoulder begin to spread as well. There were more of those popping noises.
She thrust out her other hand and summoned several dozen swords, spinning and slicing the air around her in a wall of lethal steel. The goo struck the blades and splattered her in droplets. They immediately began to bubble, sticking her legs to the ground.
Erza's nostrils flared as she tried to force her neck to turn, tried to spot her opponent. The next shot was fired from directly in front of her, and Erza realized what was happening far too late. The walls, which she had dismissed just seconds ago, were littered with tiny holes, the tips of weapon barrels from which the substance was being fired. Then the shot hit her square between the eyes.
Panicked now, Erza forced her hands up to her face to try to scrap the goo off, but instead they stuck fast, trapping her gauntlets directly in her line of sight. She could feel her swords slowing town as the goo weighed them down and stuck them together. She attempted to requip her armor, to shed the entrapping goo but the moment her armor disappeared, the goo expanded even further, sticking to her skin and trapping her completely.
With an anguished, scream of rage, Erza Scarlet was helpless as she was slowly made into a statue of slime.
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"Ah, so it was Erza." Ultear said in suprise. "I thought she'd be a bit more cautious." Her shoulders drooped. "She must be truly worried about you…" the time mage glanced back at him, biting her lip. "She'll be fine, by the way. That trap isn't lethal. She will, however, not be going anywhere for a day or so. It doesn't matter how powerful one is if they can't do anything." her lips quirked. "Infinitely powerless, as the case may be."
Goku stared in disbelief at the image of the black statue that was his friend. That trap had been…terrifyingly effective. He wasn't even sure if he would have escaped himself. And now Erza was…
Ultear wasn't messing around. Bringing him down so easily hadn't been a fluke. Not if she'd done it to Erza too. He had a chilly feeling that his friends… might not actually be able to reach him in time.
Ultear turned to another screen.
The magic window showed Juvia storming into a similar room, only to be confronted by a pair of turrets that burst from the ceiling. The first fired an iron cannonball, which splashed through Juvia harmlessly.
The second shot look much like the first, but before it hit Juvia the projectile disintegrated into a fine powder and coated the water mage.
"Magic-empowered instant cement." Ultear commented. "Just add water."
A second statue, this one of stone, fell backwards onto the floor a moment later. Juvia hadn't had the chance to struggle or even realize what had happened. There was just a faint look of puzzlement on her face, now permanently etched there.
"That one," Ultear said sadly. "I'm afraid may be a bit more permeant. But she will be back to normal when I reset the timeline. I'll make sure she ends up in Fairy Tail even sooner to make up for it. I may be able to have her skip Phantom Lord all together."
On another screen, Cana and Lucy were facing off against a pair of giant lions with the faces of women. The two fairies were huddled together, locked in what looked to be a frantic argument as the enormous cats stared at them.
"Another thing I intend to do when my spell is complete is locate that red key and dispose of it." Ultear said. "If Lucy Heartfillia never receives it, she cannot accidently open the door for Flute." She glanced back at Goku. "Surely you can agree that would be for the best?"
Goku said nothing, too busy devoting his energy on escaping his unpleasant end to debate what-ifs. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ultear shake her head sadly and turn back to the magic windows.
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Mira, already wearing the Satan Soul, flew into the chamber at the end of her hallway. Squaring off against her was a shirtless, overly muscled man leaning against the far door with a bored expression. When he saw her a vicious grin lit up his face.
That's when she blasted him with an explosion of satanic magic.
She was sick of this, sick of mages, demons, or monsters crawling out of the woodwork to cause trouble for her and her friends. She was worried about Goku, but even more for Erza. She wasn't sure if any of the others had noticed Erza channeling the Titania's magic. But Mira was a takeover mage, she knew what it was like to have an alien power inside you, and she knew that such a situation had only two possible outcomes:
Either you took over the power or the power overtook you.
The demon souls Mira had consumed always put up a fight, some of which went on quietly inside her head for years before she managed to bring them to heel. But Mira had started small, taming minor imps and devils before moving on to the more serious demons and archdemons. But Erza…
Well, she could understand her desire for greater strength. After the disasters of the Phantom War and Flute's near apocalypse, who wouldn't want more power to defend themselves and those she cared about—but Erza was doing the soul magic equivalent or learning to swim in the middle of the ocean with hundred-pound weights strapped to her legs.
She believed in Erza, she truly did. But Mira could see how badly the fight between her and Goku had shaken her. If they failed and Goku got hurt because they couldn't save him, would Erza give herself over to the power even more. If it truly took away her emotions, it would probably wipe away the guilt and regret as well. She could understand completely how seductive something like that could be.
Which meant they had to make sure they saved Goku. That was all. No big deal. Fairy Tail specialized in dramatic rescues. They'd be fine.
"It must be my lucky day."
The drawl echoed around the chamber as the smoke parted, revealing the man leaning against the wall in exactly the same position. The walls around him where charred and cracked, but his body was covered in gleaming scales that didn't seem to have so much as a scratch. "It's not every day I get to destroy another takeover mage," he continued. Mira's memory threw up a card, something Elfman had told her about one of his adventures.
"Are you Red?"
The unkempt man leered at her as the scales vanished. "You know me. That saves time." He cracked his knuckles. Mira snorted. She did not have time to deal with some wannabe takeover mage. She put her hands together and thrust them at the grinning man.
"Soul Extinction."
The black orb of malevolent energy shot towards the man, crackling with a promise of doom. Red pushed himself off the wall and braced his shoulders as his body began to glow. The spell struck, and the energy raged for a moment as Red's glow rose to blinding levels before the blackness winked out. The harsh brightness faded into a golden glow. Two pairs of ivory white wings parted, filling the air with golden feathers.
"Takeover Magic: Seraphim Soul."
The wings spread wide, scattering golden feathers through the chamber as Red began to float above the ground. He spread his arms wide and two swords of white fire materialized in his hands. His face relaxed became an imperious scowl as a glowing circle of light floated above his head.
"Come, Mirajane the demon." He intoned, his words ringing with a righteous serenity as he stared down at her. "Come and be crucified."
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This was bullshit.
Gajeel growled to himself as he stomped along through the dim corridor.
Why did he have to go out of his way for Goku? He'd had a busy night planned… okay. No, he hadn't. Sitting on his ass all night, munching on some abandoned railroad tracks was getting boring. He really needed to find himself a hobby. Maybe construction? That had been kind of fun, and it proved that iron powers were way more useful than something stupid like fire powers. Maybe he could rent a book on it… wait, shit. That would involve going into the library and risk encountering that midget of a word mage. If that happened, he'd probably have to… apologize to her.
Screw that noise.
So okay. Truth be told, this situation actually gave him the chance to crack some skulls and not have anyone tell him off for it. That was kind of nice. But it was still bullshit that Goku had been kidnapped. Why did these things keep happening to Fairy Tail? He'd never had to deal with this crap in Phantom Lord.
Damn, this piece of shit tunnel was long. But… he sniffed the air. He could smell a wider chamber farther beyond. He broke into a run, surely there would be someone he could pummel there.
He burst out into a wide room that was as big as it was completely boring. Which is to say, it was big, and there was nobody to punch in sight.
He'd made it halfway across the room, when magic circles lit up across the ceiling.
Oh boy. Traps.
Beams of energy began to rain down around him, filling the air with a crackling sizzle that irritated his nose.
Gajeel summoned his iron scales and watched as the beams struck his skin and fractured against his armor. He waited for a few moments to see if anything would happen, but nope. It was just a bunch of shitty magic blasts. Sure, they could scorch the ground and fry someone pretty easily. But next to the scales of an iron dragon? They amounted to a whole load of jack squat.
Gajeel stomped across the room ignoring the rain of magic pelting him and grumbling to himself about the stupidity of idiots who wasted their time with traps when they should just come out and fight him. He almost didn't notice when a second, room-wide magic circle lit up the ceiling behind the existing circles.
The next moment, his face was planted into the rock floor as an immense weight slammed down on him.
The fuck?
The iron dragon slayer grit his teeth and tried to rise, put every inch of him was being pressed down as though someone had balanced a mountain on top. With great effort, he turned his head enough to get a look at the second magic circle. His eyes traced the runes and felt himself fill with righteous indignation.
A fucking magnet? Someone was using a fucking magnet on him? he tried to rise, to shoot an iron pole at the ceiling to break the spell, but the pole screeched as it bent under the force of repulsion and slammed into the ground beside him. He needed to dismiss the scales and… aw fuck. The magical blasts were still pelting him across the back, in fact, they seemed to be concentrating on him. If he turned off the scales he'd get fried.
Gajeel snarled.
This was bullshit.
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Mira was starting to get frustrated. No matter how much power she poured into her attacks, her opponent just seemed to shrug them off. It wasn't that he was taking the blows and plowing through them, it was that the spells seemed to shy away from him.
To make matters worse, every movement he made filled the chamber with more of those floating golden feathers. Whenever she brushed against them, they scalded her; making more and more difficult to maneuver around the room.
"Idiot demon mage," Red laughed, flying in close and taking a swipe at her with those fiery blades. "Have you never faced a foe who wielded divine power? Darkness always gives way to light, and demons are no different. Your magic cannot hurt me."
She believed him. Which meant it was time for a different approach.
Gathering her power, she formed another Soul Extinction and began to stalk towards him. Red rolled his eyes and raised his blades. Mira leapt at him and fired the spell… behind her. The explosion of magic sent her hurtling forward faster than the winged man had expected. He had just enough time to widen his eyes before she performed a Natsu—which is to say, she punched him in the face with all the force her magic could give her.
There was a loud crack as Red shot backward, slamming into the wall as Mira flew with him. One hand squeezing the man's throat, she hauled back her fist for blow and froze.
She couldn't move, her body felt full of lead as her eyes swiveled helplessly. Then she saw the sword. One of Red's fire swords was sticking out of her stomach. She looked at him and he spat out some blood and grinned.
"Seraphim Soul: Blade of Demon's Chain."
He put one had against her face and pushed her off. She fell to the floor, one hand still curled as though grasping his throat with the other a drawn back fist. Red stood over her, his nose clearly broken, and his wings disheveled. He stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, then sneered and drove his other blade through her chest.
It was like being turned to stone. She could feel the blade inside her, burning like ice.
"Whenever anyone talks about takeover mages, everyone always talks about the Strauss siblings." Red sneered. "I always knew you'd never match up. It doesn't matter what you do, how much you power up, or what soul you take on. A demon is still a demon and these blades will not let you go." His body lit up and his wings disappeared as he released the Seraphim Soul. "And with that, I think I'm done with you." He stepped over her and she tried to shout at him, but her jaw and tongue wouldn't move, all that came out was a wet grunt.
Red paused. "Oh, wait." He turned back, drew back his leg and kicked her, sending her rolling away painfully, her body still stuck in the awkward pose. "That was for my nose, bitch." The takeover mage turned away and strode of the chamber. "Enjoy your new home."
Mira listened as his footsteps faded away, alone and frozen as the blades flickered in the dim lighting of the chamber.
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Gray was choking.
His hands were scrabbling at his throat as his lungs tried to draw in air and failed.
When he had come into this room, he had barely had time to spot the man standing at the far end of the room when the other mage had gestured and sucked the air from his lungs.
"There's no need to look so desperate." The man commented, floating lazily in the air above the ice mage's head. "I'm not gonna kill you, just put you to sleep until it's all over." Gray gestured and shot an icicle into the man's chest. It passed through and shattered against the ceiling.
The man yawned, spinning upright and sitting cross-legged in midair. "Seriously, calm down. If you just let it happen it won't hurt so much."
The amiable dismissal in the man's voice infuriated Gray. Was this seriously all he was worth?
Gray thrust out both hands and called forth a glacier, sending a huge mountain of ice crashing toward the mage. The mage seemed to pop as the ice struck him, air swirled around the room and reformed back into the frowning face.
"A for effort, man. Really."
Black spots began to swam before Gray's eyes and he felt himself falling.
This wasn't even a fight, there was just…nothing he could do…
Around Gray's neck, Ur's necklace began to glow.
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Natsu was drowning in darkness. Enormous hands of black shadow were wrapping around his body, snuffing out his fires and leaving nothing but freezing chill in its place.
What. The hell. Was Jose doing here?
The man was standing in the middle of the room and staring at Natsu's struggles hungrily. He looked a bit different, more demented and gaunter—as though he hadn't been eating for weeks.
And he was winning.
It had taken the former wizard saint less than two minutes to pin him down and smother him in shadows. The man hadn't even moved, hadn't so much as twitched since Natsu had stepped into the room, but the shadows had moved for him. Natsu could see a black jewel around the mage's neck, blacker than night that seemed to suck in all the light around it. The jewel seemed to grow darker whenever the shadows moved, blocking his attacks, cutting off his advances, swallowing up all the rage and fire he could muster, and now… they were killing him.
This wasn't even a fight, there was just…nothing he could do…
Deep inside Natsu's heart, thunder began to rumble.
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Don't be sad…I will live as ice, forever…
Gray's eyes snapped open. The chamber was gone, and in its place was an empty void, filled with a chilling mist. And in its center…
"Ur?" Gray gasped. His old teacher smiled. She looked exactly as she had the day she…even her leg was…the ice…
"Ur…I'm so sorry, for everything! I was a terrible student, if I had just listened to you, if I had just agreed to learn from you, you wouldn't have had to run after me. You wouldn't have died. You wouldn't-"
Ur darted over and pulled him into a hug. She didn't speak, but her words from that night, they echoed all around them.
I watched my two students grow a lot…every day a new adventure. It was all the happiness I wanted.
If that monster is your darkness, I need to confront him.
It's just a little effort to be able to be happy again.
Ur looked down and smiled at him.
"Are you happy Gray? This life that you've been living, has it made you happy?"
"I…yes. Ur, yes, I'm happy!"
"Good. Then it's your turn then, okay? I'll point you in the right direction, you won't be alone. But this time, you're going to have to be the one that puts in that effort, okay?"
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Natsu stood in the middle of a thunder storm. At its heart, floating up above him was the lightning Lacrima that Laxus had forced down his throat earlier that same day.
And you…follow whatever path you want Natsu. Just make sure that you're strong enough that you can live by your choice, no matter what.
Natsu whirled around, searching for the source of Laxus voice, but there was nothing. Nothing but the crystal.
Keep that thing or spit it up, I don't care. But I'm sure that you'll figure out how to use it eventually…probably. When I get back, we can have that fight that you've been dying for, and we can see just how strong you've become.
When he got back. Laxus…if he wanted to fight Laxus again, he'd need to be there when he got back.
A roar filled the air, though this wasn't the roar of the storm. It was something far more familiar…
"Igneel?!" Natsu cried out into the clouds. For a second he swore he could see, him, his wings outlined in the clouds with a flash of lightning, but in the next moment he was gone.
Then, bursting out of the clouds came a massive fireball, crashing down into the lacrima, and turning the thunderstorm into a whirling tornado of lightning and fire.
Natsu gapped at the spectacle in disbelief. Igneel…was that…?
The dragon slayers eyes hardened and with a running start he leapt up into the air and brought his fangs to close around the red and yellow crystal.
Good luck Natsu. Get strong.
I, Igneel, am with you!
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MUSIC: FAIRY TAIL MAIN THEME
Far above the complex, the air began to churn as a point of incredible heat ignited a football field's length from near glacial temperatures. In their respective rooms, a storm of fire and electricity cut through the shadows like tissue paper, burning it away to reveal a young, pink haired man with scales growing down out of his face. His eyes had turned hard and reptilian, and there was a fire in his belly as the demented grin on Jose's face froze.
Elsewhere, the necklace that had long lay dormant around Gray's neck began to spread, firing off waves off cold that changed the air pressure and pushed what little oxygen was left in the area directly towards Gray's head. His magic reacted in synch with that of his teacher's trapping the air in a canister that he formed around his back, and connected it to a full-face mask that left only his hair exposed. Hair that was slowly turning white as frost began to spread out across his body, slowing coating the floor. The floating man cocked his head curiously, looking interested.
Unknown to either, the two Fairies moved in perfect unison as they rose to their feet and pointed confidently at their opponents.
"DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT COUNTING ME OUT OF THIS JUST YET!" Two voices roared. "THERE ARE PEOPLE COUNTING ON ME TO WIN, AND I'M NOT ABOUT TO LET SOME LACKEY STAND IN MY WAY!"
All around them, the world sang a song of ice and fire.
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DRAGON BALL Z EPIC ANNOUNCER MAN VOICE MAN: THE FIGHT ISN'T OVER YET. NATSU AND GRAY ARE STILL LEFT STANDING, EVEN AGAINST FOES FAR BEYOND ANY THEY HAD FACED ALONE BEFORE. AND AS REINFORCEMENTS RUSH IN, HOPE IS NOT YET EXTINGUISHED. NEXT TIME ON ESCALATION! TIME'S TURN PART 3: INDESTRUCTIBLE.
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Okay folks, here are the current standings for the poll to see who is going to Edolas.
1st-Erza with 25 votes.
2nd- Gray with 21 votes
3rd- Mira with 14 votes.
4th- Kagura with 13 votes.
5th-Levy with 12 votes.
6th-Juvia with 8 votes.
7th-Elfman and Cana tie with 6 votes apiece.
And that leaves the joke option of Sue and Boze with 0 votes. Sounds about right.
This current arc is looking like it is going to be around 4 chapters in total folks, and the poll is going to go down the day after I post part 4. Right now it appears that we have a close battle for 3rd place, so if you want to see one of the characters you like in the next arc, make sure that you vote.
