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Chapter 20
The Fairy Tail guild sat in their guild hall in shambles, now having had the iron bars removed and had the holes in the walls patched up as best as could be done. A gloomy atmosphere sat over the guild hall, as the members sat in the basement mending their wounds from the grievous battle that had previously taken place. The guild was at a loss as to what they should do, knowing that Makarov was currently out of commission at Polyusica's home healing, completely drained of his magic. Right now, all the guild could do was wait for the inevitability of being disbanded, after all, conflicts between guilds were forbidden.
Guild members stood around tables, debating how they should respond to this situation, most saying that they should just attempt a head-on assault a second time. Meanwhile however, Erza sat in a corner, restlessly bouncing her knee as she stared down at her trembling hands. She was supposed to be strong, and be able to protect the guild from anything, but that man… she felt completely powerless before him. She felt the same powerlessness before the iron dragon that she felt back then with him. She clenched her fist as she trembled, trying to hold back the tears that were brimming at the edges of her eyes.
Erza felt a hand on her shoulder as she looked up to see the sincere face of Mira, something that was rarely seen around the guild. Mira sighed as she sat down next to Erza, having her back slump over in a similar depressed position. Mira looked over at Erza and said, "You know tin can, it's pretty rare to see you in this kinda shape." Erza scoffed and turned her head away, to which Mira continued, "You don't have to blame yourself over this one. We could never have anticipated their plans or their overwhelming strength." Mira gained a scowl on her face, "And we have to be careful, and avenge master. I'm sure that everything will be alright."
Lucy sat over on top of a recently emptied bear keg by Cana. Lucy looked at the gloomy atmosphere of the guild as she reminisced about what had happened. Here she sat among the guild members that she herself had put in danger, once again, bringing misfortune with her. Lisanna sat down next to Lucy as she smiled kindly and said, "Don't worry Lucy, it's not your fault. We'll make sure that everyone makes it out here alive."
Wendy said cheerfully, "Remember Lucy, you don't have to go back. This is your home, you're Lucy of Fairy Tail." Wendy smiled to which Lucy displayed a fake smile back. It was impossible to conceal her overflowing amount of nervousness and anxiety that she felt at this moment.
The Fairy Tail guild was in utter distress right now. Due to their lacking power now with the absence of their master, as well as the utterly large demonstration of power that the Phantom Lord guild had, Fairy Tail felt essentially hopeless down to their very bones as they grasped for string of the stronger members. Cana flipped over a card as she attempted to track Mystogan, Gildarts, or Macao. Cana angrily slammed her fist back down into the wooden table as the card she just flipped fluttered to the ground. Canna yelled in frustration, "Dammit! I can't find any of those bastards! They are either out of range or are somehow concealing their magic."
Meanwhile, Mira pushed herself up from her position sitting next to Erza and walked over to a large communication lacrima sitting in the center of the guild hall's basement. She placed her hand on the surface of it, causing it to glow yellow briefly before revealing an image of a snarkily smirking Laxus staring back at her. Mira said solemnly, "Master is gravely injured and we cannot locate any of the other S-class mages, leaving it as just me and Erza. Ur can't do anything because she is taking care of Master with Porlyusica."
Laxus asked in annoyance, "Yeah, and? What does that have to do with me?" Mira grit her teeth as she glared at Laxus. She absolutely hated to ask for his help, but right now, it was their only option.
Mira yelled angrily, "just come back you bastard! It's an emergency!"
Laxus laughed heartily as he smirked, "Serves that old geezer right! He started this whole thing, and it's none of my business to help you guys out with your own problem! I think it's time that he just bit the dust already so that he could pass the guild over to me!"
"Why you-" Mira was interrupted however by Laxus saying, "Is that how you speak to someone you are asking a favor from?" Mira grit her teeth. Laxus continued, "Ya know, news travels pretty fast, and I heard that the new big-boobed bombshell that just joined the guild is the center of this whole fiesco." Laxus's grin grew as he saw a tick mark appear on Mira's forehead, "If you can make her my woman I'll consider helping you out!"
Mira yelled back, "Just shut up you lightning bastard! We don't need help from someone with the likes of you!"
Laxus said, "If you still need my help you could always strip right now! I'm pretty weak to sexy women." But however, before he could continue speaking, Mira slammed her fist into the lacrima, shattering it to pieces.
Mira growled out, "We don't need that bastards help. We can finish this ourselves." As she turned around to leave the guild hall, she suddenly felt a magic presence surpassing Laxus's. It was Macao, he had returned.
Macao was a slim, mildly muscular, 36 year-old man with short, slightly spiky, slicked back dark blue hair. He stood at about average height, surveying the guild intensively with his sharp, dark blue, almost glowing, eyes. Macao wore a long white jacket with a large collar that had an intricately designed trim made of spiraling purple and crimson celtic knots. The jacket had thick intricate braided cuffs at its ends, with a purple and red flame pattern running from the cuffs half way up his arm. The jacket also had the same flame like patterns running up from the bottom of it to mid way up his back. Under his jacket he had a dark maroon button up shirt with the top two buttons undone, which was tucking into a pair of dark blue pants held up by a brown belt with a square silver buckle. Lastly, around Macao's neck is a large, serpentine necklace, which is held up by a chain.
Macao stepped down into the basement before he felt Romeo crash into him, who he patted on the head as he looked around the shabby state of the guild hall and said, "I came as soon as I could. I heard the news and knew you guys needed help, but I didn't envision it being this bad."
Macao was a truly exceptional mage, being one of the strongest S-class mages, being on par with Ur and Mystogan. His original magic was purple flare, but he couldn't get enough power from it, so he invented his own, more powerful magic. The magic that he wielded one of the most powerful forms of fire magic, which he dubbed Hell Blaze, which created flames capable of devouring anything in their path, and even burning magic itself.
Cana yelled angrily at him, "I have been trying to find and contact you for the past 2 days! Mira has been trying to call you on lacrima communication as well!" Cana and Mira glared angrily at him.
Macao scratched the back of his head nervously as he said, "Yeah, sorry about that. I just managed to get back to Fiore as I was out of the kingdom for some time. I just got back from my job in Iceberg, and I had to be careful while traveling through the almost lawless kingdom of Seven." Macao had just gotten back from a 10 year quest in the kingdom of Iceberg, which he was allowed to do with his power being equivalent to that of a lower ranked Wizard Saint.
Suddenly, the entire guild hall began to shake as they all turned towards the sound, which was coming from outside of the guild. Everyone quickly rushed out of the guild hall, and when they got behind it, looking out at the lake, they saw the massive walking legs of the main Phantom Lord headquarters stepping towards the guild hall, causing massive explosions and sending shockwaves through the ground, shaking the Magnolia town.
The guild members gasped as they froze up, looking at the imposing guild hall standing before them, with steam coming out of the massive legs supporting the guild hall. They saw the front of the Phantom Lord guild hall open up as a long metallic completely rusted cannon barrel emerged from front of the guild hall.
Jose stood above the cannon as he looked at Fairy Tail with veins bulging in anger on his forehead as he seethed out through his teeth, "I shall obliterate you here and now, once and for all, Fairy Tail!" Jose turned to one of the Phantom Lord members standing next to him, "Prepare the magical convergence cannon, 'Jupiter'."
Erza turned to everyone behind her as a swirl of dark magic power started to gather at the end of the gun barrel. Erza yelled out urgently, "This is bad! Everyone get down!" The guild members could not break out of their shock however and stood frozen in their position, as if they were encased in cement. Erza noticed their lack of movement and rushed forwards as people yelled out in concern to her, but she didn't respond as she yelled, "Requip: Adamantine Armor!" Her body was covered in a yellow light before revealing her to be covered in blue, navy, and silver colored armor. The armor is covered in a series of different segmented blue and navy plates with large silver spikes protruding from in between them. She has massive shoulder plates that, as well two massive shields on the end of either arm, completed with a helmet that covers most of her face as well as a silver spiked skirt.
Erza stood in front of everyone as she prepared to press the two massive shields together to block the massive beam of magic fired by the Jupiter cannon. However, before the blast struck her she heard Macao say urgently, "Hell Blaze Infernal Wall!" A massive amount of blood red and dark purple flames erupted in front of Erza, forming a large wall, blocking the guild members from the colossal power of the Jupiter cannon.
Jose looked on in shock at the massive wall of endless flames. The cannon that he had most precisely constructed, and worked so hard to gather an adequate power source for the cannon, something so powerful that it could even turn the Phantom Lord guild hall into a massive robot, was stopped by a wizard. Jose grit his teeth as he seethed out at Fairy Tail through a microphone, "Fairy Tail! That was just a taste of the power that I possess! Hand over Lucy Heartfilia, I won't ask a second time!" The Fairy Tail mages yelled back in refusal to Jose's demands, to which Jose responded, "Fine! I'll fire an even stronger and more powerful blast from the Jupiter Canon! Struggle for the 15 minutes you have left!" Large waves of purple ghosts started descending towards the Fairy Tail mages off of the Phantom Lord guild hall. Jose yelled as he saw the expressions of the panicking Fairy Tail wizards, "Die by my soldiers, or die by Jupiter!"
The Fairy Tail mages froze up when they realized what he was going to do. They grit their teeth as they tried to think of a plan, but to no avail. Sure, Macao had been able to block it, but not without difficulty. They noticed his exhausted expression, showing how much power he used.
Erza said loudly, "Wendy, Gray, Elfman, Macao, and…" She grit her teeth in annoyance at what she was asking, "Mira…" She continued with a booming voice as the aforementioned people turned towards her, "While the guild defends against Jose's soldiers here, we need to go destroy the Jupiter Cannon!"
Erza head from behind her, "I want to fight too!" She turned around to see Lucy standing there with a determined expression on her face as she said to Erza, "This war… It's all my fault, and if I can do something to end it, I will!"
Erza was about to scold her for wanting to come along but Mira walked up to Lucy and said, "Ya know, I thought you were all about looks, but you seem to have some fight in you. Sure, come along."
Macao said from behind her, "Just make sure not to get captured. Remember, they're after you, and we're walking right into their base."
They heard from gray as they talked to Lucy, "Guys, we have to go! There's only 14 minutes left until the Jupiter Cannon fires!" The Fairy Tail mages urgently turned around as Gray pressed his hand to the ground, creating a bridge of ice that went across the water all the way to the Phantom Lord guild hall.
Jose looked down at them as they crossed the bridge and smirked, "You are walking right into my guild hall. How stupid can you Fairy Tail wizards be?!" He laughed maniacally as he turned to Gajeel as well as Aria, Totomaru, Juvia, and Sol standing behind him, "Why don't we have some fun." Gajeel smirked as the 5 wizards soon disappeared to different areas of the guild hall.
With Erza, Wendy, Mira, Gray, Elfman, Macao, and Lucy…
As the 7 wizards dashed across Gray's ice bridge, they quickly approached the front of the Phantom Lord guild hall. The mages stared up at the imposing barrel of the massive Jupiter cannon. Erza turned towards Macao and said, "You take out the Jupiter cannon! Me and the others will take on Gajeel, the Element 4, and Jose!"
Mira asked annoyed, "Who made you the boss?!" She looked Erza with a glare. Sure they were in the middle of a battle, but she sure as hell wasn't going to get bossed around by a tin can.
Erza glared back at Mira as she prepared to fight with Erza, but Wendy said, "Now is not the time to be fighting!" Wendy looked up at the Jupiter cannon, "We have to finish this quickly or Fairy Tail will be annihilated!" Everyone gained an expression of determination as they all went their respective ways.
Macao blasted off the ground with a pulse of purple and red flames, launching him into the air. He quickly rose to hover in front of the imposing barrel of the Jupiter cannon, which was many times bigger than him. He scoffed however as he remembered the power that the Guiltina Magic Council possessed in the form of the Magical Convergence Cannon Uranus, which far outmatched the Jupiter Cannon.
Macao looked down the barrel as he flew through it, knowing very well that the barrel of the Jupiter Cannon was almost indestructible. Macao came into a bright room and looked around, seeing 4 lacrimas each a different color, with magic power flowing out of them into a black and white lacrima in the center that was charging with power. Macao thought, 'If that thing fires it's game over for Fairy Tail. The magic power it is drawing in seems to be coming from external sources. Maybe…' Before he could finish his thought however, he quickly shielded his face as a blast of fire came rushing towards him. Macao however noticed something strange about the fire, which was that it was… cold?
He heard an arrogant voice say, "You know, that was sadly too easy. I heard the great Macao Conbolt was able to take out hundreds of wizards by himself and was even on par with some of the Wizard Saints, but maybe people were just exaggerating your power." He is a young man with long, black and white hair that is tied up on the back of his head with a red band, with his messy black hair overlaying two thirds of his face, with the smaller white portion being combed straight down. On his face, he sports a simple marking in the form of a black ribbon passing across the ridge of his nose and across both of his cheeks. He is garbed in a ninja-like attire consisting of a long, orange reddish Karate gi-like cloth with red fur around the collar, and held closed by a black belt. The sides were made of thick silver and black fishnet, with other fishnet appearing on his forearms. His attire is completed by a pair of loose black pants tucked inside simple black boots. He also carries around a katana strapped to his left hip. This is Totomaru, one of Phantom Lord's Element 4.
Totomaru's face contorted in surprise as he heard from inside the flames as they were quickly turned from their light blue color into a deep crimson and purple color, "You know, your flames are really weak as far as it goes. They're barely enough to quench my Hell Flames' raging appetite." The flames slowly cleared away revealing Macao, standing unharmed in front of Totomaru. Totomaru had thought he knew every type of fire magic, but never had he seen a type of fire that could absorb other flames to fuel itself!
Totomaru grit his teeth as he jumped back and yelled, "Why you! Just because you stopped one of my attacks doesn't mean you can beat me!" Totomaru attempted to manipulate Macao's flames but he suddenly felt a crushing pain in his chest as he fell to his knees and quickly felt his magic power leaving him.
Totomaru looked up at Macao who walked over to him and looked down and said, "You tried to use pyrokinesis to manipulate my flames. I'll give you credit, that is a hard skill to learn, and even I don't know it, but you gave my flames a pathway to reach you, and they hungered for magic, and yours happened to be the perfect meal."
Totomaru yelled out angrily in an effort to surprise Macao, "Rainbow fire!" Fire of every different color surrounded Totomaru as they fired out towards Macao, creating a large explosion upon impact. He however saw a silhouette from inside the fire before a hand emerged from it and grabbed Totomaru by the neck, lifting him into the air as he struggled for breath in the strong grip.
He looked into the fire as Macao emerged from it, unharmed with small purple and red flames flickering across the surface of his body, quickly absorbing the fire from the explosion. Macao said to Totomaru, "You certainly are strong, but you made one fatal flaw… attacking Fairy Tail!" Macao hurled Totomaru forwards as he sent out a blast of purple and crimson flames, sending Totomaru crashing through the Jupiter cannon's lacrima, shattering it in an instant, causing a chain reaction and destroying the barrel of the cannon.
Macao was about to continue forward into the Phantom Lord guild hall as he walked over the heavily wounded by not dead body of Totomaru, but he then heard the pained cries of the Fairy Tail wizards. Without any of the S-class mages who had come with him into the guild hall, Fairy Tail would soon fall to Jose's Shades. Macao said to himself, "I'm sorry, but I have to help out the rest of them. I trust you guys to finish this fight." He looked back at the magic signatures of Mira, Erza, Wendy, Lucy, Gray, and Elfman before blasting off back towards the Fairy Tail guild hall.
Hey guys! So there's chapter 20. I'm sorry if this was a bit boring but I needed to set up the rest of what is going to be happening in this arc. If people are confused about Macao's power, he is a power house, probably stronger than Laxus. His magic is called Hell Blaze and his fire destroys other types of magic to consume their magic power, but Macao himself doesn't eat the magic. Macao is not a dragon slayer, and is not even remotely close to one, his fire just uses other magic as fuel. If you guys think I made Macao too powerful, feel free to let me know if I should do a re-write of this chapter and how I should change him. if You guys think I did a bad job on other parts of this chapter, let me know because I had a hard time writing this one. Also, before you guys say that I need to include Natsu more, keep in mind that he scales to Acnologia, someone who was able to one-shot God Serena, so if I include Natsu, he will finish ever fight in one hit. I hope you guys liked the mention I made to the Uranus Cannon that was just shown in chapter 51 of the "100 Year Quest". Now onto the questions!
Questions
1. I am thinking of getting rid of the exceeds because of how I have changed the power scaling of all of the characters, the exceeds are basically pointless. Should I keep them or get rid of them? It is really hard for me to find a use for them.
2. Should I have Gajeel know dragon force? I'm worried that if I have him know it right off the bat I will never be able to show him improving accross the course of the story so I'm not sure about it.
3. I keep getting comments about how I need to include Natsu more. Do you guys have any suggestions for how I can incorporate him into the story without having him be essentially one punch man?
Ok guys, thats it! if you have any suggestions or comments I am always willing to take advice. See you guys next time!
