Happy new year! Here a new chapter to start 2020. Hope you enjoy it XD

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail nor Fate/Stay Night.

Arc 1

Chapter 7: Farewell 2

'Tsk.'

His right hand was shacking, something that had not happened for a long time. What was the cause for this sudden sensation he was currently having? Was it anxiety at work again, or maybe it was fear. No, how could he possibly feel fear in such situation? It was ridiculous.

Jellal grimaced, knowing fully well that he could not let his emotion take over. It was a part of him he had thought to have buried a long time ago. He had cast away his doubts and was fully set to come in that place once again, yet he was still being way too emotional and it was not good.

He gripped his fist as he kept proceeding from one room to another. No matter, he would not succumb under the pressure. As he kept running through alterations of light and dark, he quickly passed another hallway.

Once out, he ended up in a sort of small arena. The place stank strongly, bristled by a sickening smell of rotten flesh and smelling even worse than outside of the tower. Not counting the big, high wall that enveloped the entire circular area, there was really nothing that stood out much. Yet, for some reason, a dreadful sensation was slowly taking over him as he walked around.

'Damn it, why I am freaking out right now?!'

While carefully inspecting the surrounding, he bumped into a small group of children that were playing with each other. Were they perhaps prisoners? The mage was not sure, but if they were he needed to free them.

He went a little bit ahead to have a better look at them and shock caused him to waver for a moment at the sight of their faces.

A black haired boy extended him a hand.

"So you are the newcomer? Pleased to meet you. My name is Simon. Whats your name?"

Silence. He didn't answer nor move, just kept sitting there passively.

"Mhhh, what's the matter? Did the cat bit your tongue? Or maybe you can't speak at all?" said another black haired boy near Simon.

"Stop it Wally, can you show a bit more delicacy? Maybe he's just timid." followed the brown haired girl with a cat like hair style who was right behind Simon.

After scolding the other boy, she then she presented herself while showing a cheerful smile.

"Hello there. My name is Mirianna. Nice to meet you, meow."

"Hey I was just asking, that's all. Sigh, well you can call me mad dog Wally. That's what my friends call me, haha." replied Wally while scratching the back of his head.

"M-my name i-is Sho…"

That was the last one. A strange bunch of kids for sure. They didn't know him, it was their first meeting. Yet they were so welcoming and kind. That made him open up a little bit.

"...Jellal."

"Uh? Sorry I didn't hear you. Can you say it louder?"

"Jellal. Call me Jellal Fernandez."

"See, it wasn't so difficult. Let's be friends Jellal!"

"Yes, another friend. I'm so happy, meow."

"So what do you think, Jellal? We are all here as prisoners after all, and who knows what kind of cruelty will happen in the future. As such, we should help each other as much as possible, don't you think?"

Those faces, Jellal could have never forget them. But how? They were supposed to be dead, he had seen them die in front of his eyes. How could this be happening? Was it an illusion, the work of an enemy spell? No, he hadn't detected nothing of sort. Yet there could be no other explanation for that. It was a trap, he knew it. Yet he could not stop himself from moving toward them.

Fernandez could not express his happiness to see his old acquaintances, and instinctively reached for them. He stretched his hand and tried to touch the shoulder of the little girl, but that proved to be a big mistake.

As the group of children turned into mud, the earth under his feet suddenly liquefied and changed from solid rock to a pond of brown liquid that was quickly sucking him inside of it.

Jellal was falling, he felt like he was sinking in the ocean without knowing how to swim. Reckless movements would only worse his situation and making it more difficult to stay afloat.

A spell would have solved the problem simply, but the mud was blocking most of his body. Only his head was out, just enough to breath. Another solution was required, and quickly before becoming entirely a part of the floor.

'Meteor!'

The Heavenly Body Magic was a type of Magic based on celestian bodies. Imitating the behavior of astronomical objects, one could defy the physical laws to a certain extent and achieving some impossible feet.

Mystogan, cloaked by such Magic, leaped out of the pond in the blink of an eye. While still in mid air, he pulled out one of the staves on his back and channeled mana inside of it. As lines of Magic formed, it started to float.

Standing on top of the flying staff, the mage activated a detection spell and looked for the enemy. The perpetrator could still be around, ready for an ambush. He was not going to fall for the same trap twice.

From the soil, a strange shaped blob of earth emerged. In front of the Fairy Tail's mage, an imposing creature suddenly took form. What was exactly that thing? It was not a beast for sure. No living creature could compare to that abomination. Perhaps it could have been a demon. Indeed its body was emanating a sickening dark aura, but it seemed to lack even the smallest hint of mental activity.

Jellal was not sure what he was looking at. Such monstrosity was beyond anything he had ever faced. A three meter tall giant with dozens of arms coming out from all over its slimy body, each pair embracing a head that was engraved on its 'skin'. Said heads all had their mouths open, as if they were about to scream, and their eyes were hollow and lifeless. Veins poped out from its many limbs, giving it an imposing and threatening aura.

Without prior notice, the monster's higher part changed form and shifted into a crocodile shaped cannon that kept firing hundreds of mud shots nonstop toward Jellal.

It was like a machine gun with the fire power of a cannon. Each hit was quite dangerous if not lethal, and having to defend against a storm of them was not easy. But this time he was prepared.

Stretching his right arm with index and middle finger out, he casted a spell. Three of his other staves immediately hovered before him in a triangular formation and a magical circle materialized.

'Water Mirror!'

By forcefully gathering the nearby atoms of hydrogen and oxygen in the air and making them react, he created the water needed to craft the shield. The bubbles swirled in the middle of the cercle and a round mirror now stood between Jellal and his opponent.

While it may had been a barrier, its main function was not that of defending but rather countering. By analyzing the nature of the enemy attack, it faithfully replicated it with a copy made of water. Despite not being of much use against foes that were more powerful than himself, in this kind of situation it proved to be very effective.

Not only each shot got countered, but Jellal easly overwhelmed the monster's barrage with his own one. The creature got run over by a huge number of water projectiles and his body got shred up as a result. But it didn't last long as the many holes closed up once again pretty much immediately, and a powerful mud jet followed.

Once again mana enlightened the circle, and the spell was ready to be activated once more. But this time things didn't go as intended. Jellal got ambushed from behind as hundreds of arms suddenly came out from the wall and tried to immobilize him. He was attacked in two fronts and did not have the luxury of focusing his Magic to cast a new spell.

Powering up the stave on which he was standing, he quickly dodged the assault. Riding it like a surfboard, he rapidly moved through the sea of hands that were coming for him. But it was not enough.

At one point, cornered by both sides, he decided to ditch his ride and, by using 'Meteor' once more, soared through the enemy attack on his own while ordering all his staves to anchor themselves somewhere in the wall.

Unfortunately he could not stay in air for too long as the net of arms kept becoming thicker and thicker for every second that passed. If it kept its pace, sooner he would run out of space to move and that would have meant the end. Luckily enough, the creature lacked the intellect to use effectively the field at his advantage and only attacked on instinct. This bought enough time for Jellal to perform his next attack.

He landed on the ground and the mud immediately surrounded his feet, making it difficult to move. But he didn't need to.

"Altairis!"

He crossed his arms above his head and released the mana he accumulated previously. All nearby shadows suddenly got drawn towards him, forming a small black orb which rapidly grew in size. With its tremendous amount of gravity, said orb started to attract everything around toward it. Upon release, it crushed everything in front of Jellal.

Not a single trace of the monster was left, compressed to nothingness by the incredible high density of the sphere, and the never ending assault of limbs ceased immediately after.

It was over. Or at least it should have. Yet things were far from ending.

Not even a second later and the ground shacked. From the depths of the rocky soil a big jaw came out, right under Jellal's feet, its size nearly big as the entire diameter of the arena. It was impossible to evade. No way out. Darkness surrounded him as he got ate alive by an eldrich demonic being formed of countless headless bodies that hanged out from each corner of its humongous body.

He looked at Simon, tears dropping from his eyes at the sight of his friends being eaten by the beasts. It was not supposed to end up like this, they were supposed to escape together. And now they all died except for him.

"S-Simon!"

"What are you doing, dumbass!? Run away, now!" ordered Simon, his hands and legs already taken away by those ferocious creatures.

"B-But y-"

"There is no but, keep running and don't look behind! Escape out of here and live in our stead, you freaking idiot!"

And he did so. He run away, leaving everyone else behind. Instead of trying to help them, he thought only of himself. Such a coward, and he dared to call himself their friends?

He was flung in the depths of the abyss, unable to sense anything.

His eyes were wide open, yet the only sight he could see was a world of darkness. Immersed in a strange purple liquid, his body was burning under the effect of many curses. Yet it didn't hurt at all. Maybe his sense of touch was so numb that he could not feel pain anymore.

Was he still breathing? Barely, but it didn't matter at all since he was slowly being plunged into that purple mass of hatred and chaos that reign sovereign inside that behemoth. Soon he would be no longer himself.

Hatehatehatehatehate.

That was all he could hear inside his head. A voice, a whisper from countless ghosts that kept echoing in his soul.

A meaningless wish to live despite being already a distant memory of the past, a hopeless desire to cling to this world despite having lost everything, a sinful existence that should not be possible yet was there.

They sought for companionship, they asked for help, they carved for more like gluttonous beasts eager for life.

'Join us.'

'Become one of us.'

'Lets be together forever.'

An unnatural and malevolent amalgamation of souls that refused to pass away, full of sadness and despair. Resentment toward the livings who could still enjoy the taste of life, anger toward this world for having abandoned them, and hate toward everything.

They kept screaming, screaming and screaming. Their rage was unstoppable and chaotic emotions filled them as they cried out pleas of help.

Amidst all of this, Jellal could see them. He was not sure how, but he could clearly see their faces despite the darkness. The hollow eyes of his friends looked at him with anger and resentment, their faces carved on what seemed like a dome among thousands of others.

Was this the punishment for his sins? Was this really the end? Maybe he deserved this...

"Mh, whats the matter kid? Something worries you?" asked Dantés.

"..."

"...Hmph. If you don't feel comfortable talking about it, I'll not force you." and with that the silver haired youngster returned to mine.

"H-how do you keep the will to live? I-I just can't bring myself to. Many people had died because of me. My survival up till now have been built on their deaths. I just can't keep living knowing that it is because of other people lives that I'm here. Their ghosts keep hunting my dreams and their voices keep ring out in my head. Every night I have nightmares in which I see their corpses cling on me and curse my existence. What do I do?"

A sudden question to which Dantés had no answer. He was caught at surprise by the sudden outburst and did not know what to say, but still tried to come up with something as to answer the boy's concerns.

"...I don't know. Maybe it's because you feel guilty, but that's normal. It would be strange if you don't feel guilty. It is right to remember those who died, cherish the memories about them so that they can keep living in our heart and not be forgotten. But don't let them dictate your future. It's wrong to stop pushing forward. No, it would only be a disrespect to them if you just give up striving for the future. As a survival, it is your duty to live in their stead."

Dantés then smirked at him, and turned to look in the direction of Rob and Erza.

"Let me ask you this, brat. You said you can't bring yourself to continue living, but is it really true? Don't you have at least a reason for which you want to keep fighting for, something dear that you wish to protect with all your will?"

No, it was not the time to die yet. Perhaps one day he will face the judgment for the many deaths he was partly responsible for, but it was not today. He had a promise to keep and a family waiting for him.

'Heavenly Dragon Assault!'

Five elemental dragon snakes made of light came out from the staves as a result of the spell's activation. They tangled around the giant worm, devouring its cursed flesh and strangled it like a balloon.

Being made of darkness, the creature could do nothing to oppose the attack and was forced to open its huge mouth.

Using 'Meteor', Jellal flew outside in a flash. His garments were all torn and his skin was slightly burnt. But that was the extent of the damage he took. While still in air, he placed both arms on top of each other, with the top hand having only the index and middle fingers spread out, and fired one last attack.

"Be judged by the seven stars. Grand Chariot!"

Seven Magic Seals were summoned above him. A line then connected the circles, creating a constellation of sorts, and from each of them a powerful light blast was released down on the same pattern was projected on the ground and a powerful explosion followed. The power of a meteor descended from Heaven and fell upon that abomination, making it disappear forever.

At last the curse broke. At last all the souls were free.

As the light slowly dimmed down, he saw a bunch of them taking shape. Simon, Wally, Mirianna and Shion all smiled at him.

"Goodbye, Jellal."

Jellal couldn't hear it, there was no voice coming from them since they were immaterial beings, yet he could understand their feelings. He took of his mask and smiled at them in return. His heart was now lighter, a burden had finally been lifted. Even after so much time, even after everything happened, they still considered him as their friends.

Author's note:

For those that wondered, the current arc should end in about 4 more chapters. Don't think I'll drag it for longer since I have no time to write more. We are reaching the climax soon. After that I'll have a one chapter interlude that should lead to the start of arc 2.

Now for this chapter there isn't much to say. I tried to give Jellal a little bit more of character development and included some flashbacks to explain some of the stuff that were mentioned in the prologue.

Well, if you want to say anything to me just write a review. See you next week.