A/N: Chapter 55 of Fairy Tail: Earth and Phantom. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except my own. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

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Chapter 55: Sky Labyrinth

Crocas...

The time has arrived, the Great Magic tournament was being held in the mountains to the west of the flower blooming capital named Crocas, in a place called the Domus Flau. In the middle of the town square a small group of Fairy Tail mages, exhausted from their training the other day.

"H...Hey..." Gray wheezed as he looked around. "I still don't feel so great about all this...We don't know for sure if that spell worked..."

"Yeah," Lucy agreed. "but I do feel like my magic power has increased. All my joints are still totally sore though..."

"Geez, don't you guys feel embarrassed for yourselves?" Erza shook her head as the expense of her teammates' sufferings.

"This is my first time being in a city this big." Natsu commented while Lexi and Wendy nodded their heads in agreement. All around them were little shops and vendors with merchandise available for mages to buy. Once a year, in the capital of Fiore, this festival for mages is held so the city is always bustling full with the mages and its citizens.

"So, you guys finally made it." They looked up to see Makarov arrive with Bisca's family, Asuka riding on his shoulders. "Let's get on with this even already! Kahahaha! We'll show 'em the power of Fairy Tail!"

"Did you hear that? Fairy Tail!"

"Where? Them?"

"The weak little guild forever claiming last place." Soon the square was full of gossip, teasing and bad-mouthing. Balling their fists in rage, the dragon slayers had to keep their inner rage in check because they knew that if they were attack then it would just hurt them in the end. Even Makarov told them to let their tormentors go.

"Give every last bit of your strength, we're aiming for the number one guild in Fiore!" He looked at them with a determined look on his face. "So we can face Mavis, who saved our lives!"

In the Great Magic tournament, each guild will elect 5 members to represent them as competitors. Before they set off, Makarov elected Natsu, Gray, Erza, Lucy and Wendy as the 5 representative members. Lexi was about to get into an argument with him but he told her that he had a plan.

"The matches will begin tomorrow...unfortunately, we don't know anything about the rules. Here Erza," He handed a huge book towards the red-head. "read this by tomorrow."

"Leave it to me Master. I brought my reading glasses." Levy smiled as she took the book and flipped through the pages. "If I were to summarize things, there are 3 really important points. First of all, each guild's master cannot participate. Anyone without the guild's insignia cannot participate either, and must simply observe. Each event will remain a secret up until right before they begin, at which point the rules will be explained. Ah!" She exclaimed, "There's a warning written at the end...all participants must return to the lodgings by 12:00."

"We still got plenty of time." They looked at the clock tower, "We've come all the way to this huge city, we might as well hit the town!" And so the group all split up to do their own touring of the city until it was time to return.


Natsu's group...

While Natsu, Lucy, Happy and Lexi wondered around the town, the sound of mages fighting caught their attention.

"Those are the dragons of Sabertooth."

"Sting and Rogue!"

"The strongest members of the strongest guild!"

"Sabertooth?" Breaking through the whispering crowd Natsu laid eyes on the two dragon slayers from Sabertooth as they grinned at the crowd while their opponents groveled underneath their shoes. Lucy and Lexi stood next to them before eying the beaten opponents with disgust. As it stands, anyone who would dare challenge Sabertooth would no longer live to see the light of another day...so to speak.

"Natsu...Dragneel..." The two of them stared at the sakura-head in shock.

"What's with that cat and its idiotic face?" Lector sneered, pointing at Happy with a paw.

"It spoke?!" Happy exclaimed.

"Should I be surprsied?!" Lucy muttered as she watched the Exceeds exchange words.

"Hahaa!" Sting laughed as he approached Natsu, "So those rumors about you entering the Great Magic tournament...those were true?!"

"You know about me?" Natsu asked as the distance between them closed up.

"Acnologia..." He leaned down to sneer at him, "You're the dragon slayer who couldn't defeat a dragon...right? Then...what's the point of being a dragon slayer?"

"Ah?" Natsu glared right back, his blood starting to boil.

"I used to look up to you, a long long time ago...By the way this is Rouge." Sting pointed to his companion. "So just like you, we wanted to become dragon slayers."

"Dragon slayers?!" Natsu gasped, "You two are?!"

"You should probably call us 'true' dragon slayers." Sting grinned with a glint in his eyes, "After all...we'd probably be able to defeat Acnologia."

"You're only able to say that because you haven't seen Acnologia!" Lucy shot back.

"Yeah, that's right!" Happy backed her up as he glared at Lector.

"What a stupid looking cat." was the response.

"You're so smart, Lector." Frosch said as he stood by his friend.

"It doesn't matter if we've seen it before." Rogue said calmly.

"This is the difference between the kind of dragon slayer you are and we are." Sting said.

"Let me explain things." Lector spoke up, "Natsu-kun, having gained his dragon slaying magic from an actual dragon, is known as First Generation. Laxus-kun and Cobra-kun, who are able to use dragon slaying magic from Dragon Lachryma being embedded in them are known as Second Generation. And then Sting-kun and Rogue-kun...are hybrids, having both a dragon parent like you, and also having Dragon Lachryma in their bodies, known as Third Generation!"

"Third Generation!?" Natsu and Lucy stated in wonder. Lexi stood there with her arms crossed as she took in the whole conversation, her mind cataloging the most important information.

"Did you lose your dragons in the year 777, too?" Natsu asked them.

"Ah...well not exactly..." Sting stammered.

"Let's tell them the truth." Rogue said. Suddenly their entire demeanor changed as they grinned at the small Fairy Tail mages. "The dragon that taught us dragon slaying magic...we destroyed it with our own hands...in order to become true dragon slayers."

"They killed...a dragon!?" Lucy gasped in horror as Lexi bared her teeth in anger.

"Humans...killed a dragon..." Happy muttered, not believing his ears.

"You killed...your own parents..." Natsu's eyes dilated as an angry vein throbbed on his forehead. Laughing Sting and Rogue bid them farewell and disappeared back towards their own guild. Hearing the jeering from the other observers at how weak their own guild was, Natsu and Lexi both had urges to go all out and destroy the entire city right then and there. Unfortunately they were late and with Lucy's persistent tugging on their scarves, they trudged back to the inn.


The inn where Fairy Tail was staying...

"You guys!" Erza glared at them in anger; she was already dressed in her pajamas and getting ready for bed. "Just how long were you intending to be out there?!" Gray, Natsu, Happy and Lucy were sitting in front of her, different expressions on their faces. Because she was still angry at the confrontations between Sting and Rogue, Lexi excused herself and didn't come back with them. She probably went off to let out some hot air.

"Just another boring dinner..." Gray sighed.

"Well...it's complicated..." Lucy hesitantly said as she looked over at Natsu, who was shaking furiously after that encounter with the Sabertooth duo. "Well...I mean...err..."

"I'm gonna get those guys back no matter what!" Natsu and Happy simultaneously roared, venting their frustrations.

"Anyway, where's Wendy?" Erza asked and the others looked around for the said Sky Dragon slayer.

"She should be with Charla so I don't think they're lost." Happy said but he was still concerned.

"It's almost 12, though...she is out there all alone..." In an instant Lucy started to imagine horrible things that Wendy and Charla could be doing, like hanging out with shady characters or getting drunk in a bar.

"Yo! We brought snacks." The door swung open and Elfman and Lisanna walked in with food items in their hands.

"Are you back from your mountain stay?" Natsu grinned as they helped the siblings in.

"We planned on it increasing our strength a lot..." Elfman told him before stretching out his muscles. "But we made a bad choice...I just wanna show off for Lisanna!" Soon the clock struck 12 and the bell rang throughout the entire city loud enough for everyone to hear.

"To all the guilds here for the Great Magic tournament!" A voice spoke and a giant hologram of a person wearing a pumpkin head appeared in the middle of the square. "Good morning! In order to reduce the participating teams from 113 down to 8...we will now begin a 'Preliminary event'."

"Preliminary!? Gray exclaimed as they looked outside the window. "No one said anything about that!"

113...!? Huh? That sounds like way too many guilds for Fiore...Lucy thought before swallowing nervously.

If they were going to have a preliminary event, they should have told us...This whole setup is mysterious. Erza was puzzled by the entire process as well but something in the back of her head told her that this entire event smells fishy. And too many guilds...a mysterious magical presence...maybe its the even organizers we should be suspicious of?

"Every year more and more guilds come, that's a sign this even was starting to be taken too lightly." The pumpkin announcer continued, "This year, we've brought the number of final competing teams down to 8. The preliminary rules are simple!" Snapping his fingers the entire buildings in the area started to shift and move as they constructed themselves into a giant "You will all now compete with each other. The goal is the event grounds, Domus Flau. The first 8 teams to make it will participate in the event. Your lodgings will be the starting line for this preliminary event."

"A path...are we supposed to follow that?" The Fairy Tail mages watched as wooden planks started to create a stairwell towards their destination.

"Feel free to use any magic you like. There are no restrictions. As long as you're one of the first 8 teams to make it. But be warned, if all 5 of your members don't make it there, you still lose. Also, we take no responsibility for anyone who loses their life in the labyrinth..."

"Labyrinth?!" Natsu gritted his teeth in suprise as a giant ball floated in the sky, connected by the stairs to each lodgings.

"The Great Magic tournament's preliminary event! Sky Labyrinth has begun!"

"If this is a competition, we'd better hurry." Gray said.

"Wait. The rules are that 'five members' need to be at the goal. Wendy is still missing." Erza replied.

"If Wendy's not here...you've got a man!" Immediately Elfman all four of them and flew up the steps with haste. "Let's switch members!"

"We don't have a choice...there's no time to wait for Wendy." Gray said even though he was gloomy at the thought.

"Thanks, Elfman!" Natsu grinned.

"Lisanna! Happy!" Erza craned her neck as she looked at the two left behind. "Go look for Wendy! And try to stay out of trouble!"

"Okay!" Lisanna shouted back. "We'll go see who all the guild members are here."

"Good luck everybody!" Happy jumped up and down. Racing towards the entrance they entered to find that it was really, a legit maze. Lucy helped out by summoning one of her silver key spirits and pointed them in the direction where the goal was. They ran into Twilight Ogre and realized that they had drawn a map of the place. Getting an idea they ran into some more rogue guilds members and swiped their own maps to follow. Once they had finished, with the glowing neon sign hanging over their heads, they stood there with goofy grins on their faces. The pumpkin-head announcer, in his regular size, anticipated their arrival and was already clapping his hands with approval.

"Congratulations on completing the preliminary event." He told them.

"Of course!" Natsu replied, "It totally worked out for us..."

"So, I'll bet we got first place, right?" Lucy asked.

"Nope. You just barely made 8th place."

"Ehh!?" They looked at him with shocked faces, not believing what he had just told them. Of course it was to be expected since they have been gone for seven years so they were bound to be out of practice. Whatever the cause they were a part of the 8 teams so Fairy Tail will be participating in the upcoming events.


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