AN: Hey everybody! Welcome back, sorry it's a little bit of a short chapter this week, but I think it's epic enough to make up for it since I managed to get both the scenes that inspired this entire arc into it.
Before we get to that though, as always...Reviewer Replies!
Raidentensho: What makes you think there's only ONE trump card?
Well that was quick...ONWARD!
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Chapter 29: Paradise Lost
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"Hey! Gajeel! Wake up!" Gajeel came to with his head feeling full of cotton. He tried to blink away the unusually stubborn fog over his eyes and only after a good eye rub did the pink blob solidify into Natsu.
Then he looked around and had to ask, "Uh, Natsu, where are we?"
"It's a party Gajeel!" Natsu exclaimed happily as he bit a chunk of flames off one of the torches he was holding. "I don't know what they're saying but they're super happy to see us! All the fire I can eat! I told 'em you like iron so they went and got some!"
Gajeel looked down at the pile of iron tools, chains, plates, goblets and everything else he could think of, "I see that!"
Then a pretty girl with dusky brown skin and coal black hair whose hair made her look a bit like Levy popped up over the edge of the raised platform they were on, "Is their anything else their holiness requires?"
Gajeel sat up and noted her shockingly blue eyes, "Yeah, an explanation would be good. Where are we and what's this holiness business?"
She looked at him in surprise, "Didn't Lord Natsu tell you? You are in Mattachu my lord! It is only right and proper that we give our gods praise! Would you like more wine? Meat? Lord Natsu says you like iron? Me?" She blushed and covered her mouth, clearly surprised with herself that she let that last one slip.
Gajeel took a second to process that. He felt like there was something he should be remembering, but food was food, and he was hungry so… He laughed, "Sure! Bring the food and the wine, I got iron right here!"
The girl beamed, "Right away my lord!"
She disappeared and Gajeel pulled himself to his feet, walking over to the edge of the platform as Natsu declared, "Take a look bro, I've never seen anything like it!"
"Whoa…" Gajeel breathed as he took in the sight of the City of Gold. The name was no lie, every surface gleamed with gold reflecting moon and fire light in the city cradled between the mountains. The sky was clear overhead and the stars shone like diamonds as the moon smiled down. There were a dozen large buildings scattered around the city made of consecutively smaller layers as they went up, not quite pyramids, more like immense layered cakes. Smaller, blocky buildings in neat rows composed the rest of the city, all except for the city center, and shining electric blue garlands were draped over every edge.
In the center of the city was a massive gaping void, perfectly round with a dozen shimmering silver waterfalls pouring into it. Even at this distance, Gajeel could easily hear the steady roar of the falls. Floating in midair over the void was a large platform of glowing white stone, tethered to the earth surrounding it by immense golden chains. Unless Gajeel missed his guess, every single link of the chains was as thick as a hundred year old tree. Growing from the center of the stone and surrounded by a gleaming golden palace, grew a massive tree.
The tree was bigger than anything Gajeel had ever seen, and looked as though a fully grown dragon could easily roost in it. The whole thing seemed to glow with a light all its own, and its presence was such that Gajeel almost missed the immense crimson bird flying away in the distance.
Then Natsu spoke up, "So what did she say?"
Gajeel looked over his shoulder, "Huh? Weren't you listening? She said they think we're gods and they're throwin' a party for us."
Natsu froze and then started laughing, "US? GO-MMMPH?"
Gajeel had lunged across the platform to slap his hand over Natsu's mouth. He raised a finger to his lips, and then in a voice so quiet that none but a dragon slayer would hear, "Shut yer gob an' think fer a second. If they think we're gods then they'll give us good stuff. They might even give us enough o' this gold ta pay off yer debts!" Natsu's eyes went wide and a mischievous light entered them as Gajeel continued, "But if they find out we ain't, then they prob'ly ain't gonna take it too well are they?"
Natsu thought about it for a moment and then winced as Gajeel nodded, "That's right, so keep yer gob shut and help me sell this. If nothin' else, we gotta find out where Levy and Lucy are remember?"
Natsu's eyes went wide and all the color drained out of his face. Gajeel scoffed lightly in mild disgust, "No wonder Blondie don' like ya. Are ya this careless on regular missions too? How did ya completely ferget yer partner's missin? We still dunno what that big damn spider out front was, and we still dunno where those guys with the freaky eyes went. Erza, Jerry, Miguel and that cat o' yers are still out there dealin' with who knows what. We gotta ham it up with these locals until we can find out where Levy and Lucy are and save 'em, then we gotta go find the others an' make sure they're okay too. Understand?" Natsu nodded, his face still clearly contorted with terror for his friends and shame at having so obviously completely forgotten them in face of the luxury and splendor around them.
Gajeel nodded, pulled his hand back and stuffed a torch into Natsu's mouth, "Good. Now eat this and get your God face on. Act like nothing's wrong and everything's great. We just gotta go along with whatever comes up until we can find the girls. If it helps, think of it as a giant prank to save our friends."
A few minutes later, the dark haired girl was back, still smiling broadly, "My lords?"
"Yeah what's up?" Natsu asked brightly, his previous cheerful demeanor seemingly returned as Gajeel breathed a sigh of relief in his head.
"The High Priestess is holding a great festival in the plaza at the foot of the Great Tree," the girl explained, "We would be deeply honored if you would attend!"
"Sure! I like parties!" Natsu exclaimed delightedly.
"Great!" the girl clapped her hands with her smile grown even bigger and brighter, "I'll go get the procession lined up!"
A few minutes later, Natsu and Gajeel strolled down the steps from the high altar they'd been seated on top of as music, cheers and smiling faces greeted them. Gajeel knew it was probably a trap, but as the cheerful music washed over him, he felt a familiar urge. He lifted a hand to his chin and grinned, "I hardly think I'm qualified, to come across all sanctified, I just don't cut it with the cherubiiim…"
Natsu laughed, "Gajeel bro what are you talking about?!"
Gajeel grinned as he knew Natsu had caught on, "There again, they're on their knees. Being worshipped is a breeze, which rather suits us in the interiiim…
"The interim, the interim, it's me and him! Oh my goood…." Natsu sang along before he and Gajeel threw their arms over each others shoulders…
"IT'S TOUGH TO BE A GOD!
Tread where mortals have not trod!
Be deified, when really, you're a sham…
Be an object of devotion, be the subject of psaaalms…
It's a rather touching notion, all those prayers and those salaams!
And who am I to bridle, if I'm forced to be an idol?
If they say that I'm a god, that's what I aaam!
And off they went through the city, singing and dancing along as the parade wound its way through the city, unwittingly leading them to the site of something truly horrific.
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TEN MINUTES EARLIER
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"WHY?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" Lucy screamed as her skin crawled and burned.
Almost immediately the stinging stopped and Lucy warily opened her eyes to see a look of absolute joy spread itself across the old crone's face. There is something profoundly weird about seeing someone who looks like they should be several hundred years old light up with excitement like a child on Christmas morning, Lucy thought.
"I'M! SO! GLAD! YOU! ASKED!" the hag squealed delightedly, actually bouncing in place a little before turning and sprinting off into the shadows with a speed and agility that someone in that shape should not have had. There was a fair bit of shuffling, the sound of something very heavy being shoved into place, and then the glowing jellyfish lifted itself high into the air, with a curtain wrapped around its tentacles to keep the light low. Lucy's eyes narrowly picked out the shape of two shadowy figures with faintly glowing eyes riding up on the jellyfish as the glow around her and Levy faded considerably.
Then, just as darkness was rushing into fill the room, a soft string of notes from a piano cut through the darkness and the Jellyfish's glow was allowed to shine down on the crone like a spotlight. With her clearly flower inspired headdress and dark green robes now easily visible, she spoke in a soft voice that carried easily through the silence. Lucy couldn't help but stare at how different the hag's voice suddenly was as she began…
"When a woman acquires a certain age,
And the men who adored you no longer swoon…
It pays to avoid the sunlit days,
And live by the light of the kindly moon.
Even at a distance, Lucy could pick out the mournful expression on the hag's face and a part of her knew beyond any shadow of a doubt: This woman had once been a great beauty. The old woman sighed regretfully and cast her gaze up at the cloud covered sky,
"But the moon grows old, just like us all,
And her beautiful years are done,
So now she praaays, through endless days…
The woman's expression twisted into something cold and sinister that sent shivers down Lucy's spine as her tone suddenly changed,
To take, her revenge, ON THE SUN.
The piano suddenly kicked up the pace as an unseen band began to play a surprisingly upbeat jazzy tune and the tentacles of the Jellyfish lit up to bathe the plaza in eerie blue light, revealing dozens of men with glowing eyes waiting in position around the hag as the lights came up to act out the scene as she sang.
When I was a girl at my daddy's side,
Papa the royal mortician,
Revealed to me in secret signs,
The mark of a magician!
And daddy was no dummy!
Did OUTRAGEOUS things with a mummyyy…
Lucy couldn't help but cringe and hold back an urge to vomit at the implications the dancers were making about just exactly what those outrageous things had been.
And often the stiffs that he would thrive,
Would look better dead than they did alive!
The hag didn't care though and kept on singing, obviously enjoying herself immensely as she began to dance and strut across the plaza like it was the grandest stage.
I studied well, I learned the trade,
I thought my looks would never fade!
Her dance brought her to a large stone table lined with vials and mixing implements which she began to pour and mix with a theatrical flair to the point that she was all but juggling the vials and beakers as she danced and sang.
If I could find that recipe,
To give eternal youth to me!
It was always my ambition,
To use Papa's tuition,
And gain some small remission
From the vagaries of time!
She slammed her fist down on the table and her face looked like she wanted to snarl,
But every little ray of sunshine…
Robbed me of my youth!
Who to blame, who the one,
Who to curse?
Her head snapped up with a maniacal glint evident in her eyes even from across the plaza,
You know the only one to blame would have to be my enemy
THE SUN.
The dancers suddenly began dancing towards a large stone pit full of dark liquid that Lucy hadn't noticed in the low light and the hag danced along with them, an ominously foaming vial in one hand and a stone knife in the other as several of the dancers drew what looked like massive jagged stone swords and formed a line at the raised end of the pool.
SNUUUFF OUT THE LIGHT!
Claim your right,
To a WORLD OF DARKNESS!
Snuuuff out the light!
Neophytes,
Of a WORLD OF DARKNESS!
Lucy's eyes went wide and she went to scream as the first of the dancers knelt before the line of swordsmen. The hag dumped the beaker into the pool and that was the signal for the swords to fall.
A tentacle shoved its way into Lucy's open mouth to gag her and silenced her scream as the first wave of brainwashed dancers was decapitated and shoved into the pool which suddenly took on a reddish hue. Lucy could only watch in horror as the dancers flowed across the plaza in droves to be slaughtered like sheep a dozen at a time. The pool glowed brighter with every fresh wave of bodies, but for all the corpses falling into it, the surface of the pool remained completely still and smooth like a piece of glass.
All the while the song played on and the hag sang at the edge of the pool dancing along with her puppets in a horrifically coordinated choreography…
Supai baby turn me on,
Every wrinkle soon be gone!
I could squeeeeze myself with glee,
The promises you've made to me!
I've really stopped at nothing,
Murder treachery and LYING!
WHATEVER IT TAKES TO KEEP MY LOOKS!
You really can't blame a girl for trying…
And it was evident even from across the plaza as the crone struck a pose that she truly believed the horrific slaughter she was conducting was indeed not only justified but perfectly understandable. Lucy silently swore to herself as she watched the sickening display that she would NEVER obsess or even worry overly much about her looks ever again. Meanwhile, the awful chorus just sang on.
SNUUUFF OUT THE LIGHT!
Claim your right,
To a WORLD OF DARKNESS!
Snuuuff out the light!
Neophytes,
Of a WORLD OF DARKNESS!
Oh god, is she…she's NOT… Lucy thought as the hag began to shimmy in a very distinct way. Then she scrunched her eyes tight as the hag's robe fell away, She is.
SNUUUFF OUT THE LIGHT!
Claim your right,
To a WORLD OF DARKNESS!
SNUUUUUFF OUT THE LIGHT,
HERE TONIIIIIGHT!
Lucy opened her eyes as she heard a splash and the glowing eyed backup singers and executioners took the final verse, the hag disappeared except for the ripples in the otherwise eerily still and now glowing crimson lake,
Apparitions of eternal darkness
Spiraling in circles through the night
Creatures of beguiling blackness
No more squinting in the light!
Bats and owls and coiled dark dragons,
Crocodiiile and carrion beast!
Swirling in the growing darkness,
JOIN US IN THE COMING FEAST!
SPECTRE WRAITH AND APPARITION,
SPIRIT, DEMON, PHANTOM, SHADE!
SALAMANDER, SERPENT, DOG FACED DEVIL!
Lucy's eyes went wide as she suddenly spotted Natsu and Gajeel dancing towards the pool and she began to scream their names as best she could around the tentacle in her mouth. Then a figure erupted out of the pool and Lucy saw that the hag had been transformed by the glowing red liquid. When she entered, she had been a vile wreck of time ravaged flesh. Now as she emerged, wearing the glowing crimson liquid like a long evening gown and conducting the final verse of the song with a huge grin, she was young and limber once more. Her frazzled white hair was now dark and silky as it cascaded down around her glowing red eyes and gorgeous face, and her limbs and figure were as full and healthy as Lucy or even Mirajane's.
DANCE AND WATCH THE DYING SUNLIGHT FADE!
Then, just before Natsu and Gajeel could make it to the line of executioners, in desperation, Lucy bit off the tentacle gagging her, spat it out and screamed with every ounce of air she had, "NAAAAAATSUUUUUUUU!"
Natsu suddenly jerked like he had been slapped as the illusion shattered around him, and then he looked around frantically until his eyes lit on Lucy. For an instant, Natsu looked afraid. Then he smacked Gajeel with a flaming fist, "FOUND 'EM!" and dove into action, charging the tentacles holding Lucy and Levy in the air, igniting his entire body as he went.
In a blazing flash, he reached the base of the tentacles and wrapped them in a massive bear hug. Lucy felt the heat immediately begin to scorch her even from thirty feet in the air as no matter how horribly the tentacles stung him, Natsu burned white hot and his roar filled her ears, "LET! THEM! GOOOOO!"
Lucy felt the tentacles go slack and just as she was starting to fall, what felt like a massive iron bar slammed into her gut and snatched her backwards.
It drove the wind out of her, but then she caught her breath and realized it had been Gajeel snatching her and Levy clear before the tentacles could recover their grip as they landed on a terrace and Gajeel turned and yelled, "NATSU! COME ON! WE NEED TO REGROUP!"
Even as Lucy turned her gaze back to where she knew Natsu was, a massive serpent made of the bloody substance in the pool shot into the air and slammed down on the howling fireball. Steam filled the area and then the serpent shot back, dragging its flaming mouthful with it as Natsu tried to beat his way loose. Before Lucy could even cry out, Natsu had been dragged under.
The witch laughed as she strode across the surface of the blood pool, her eyes locked on the three wizards atop the terrace, "A valiant effort Iron Dragon, but too little, too late. Soon your friend will dissolve and become fuel for my power. Don't worry though, soon you'll be…"
"I KNEW IT!" Levy shrieked in pure unbridled fury. Everyone turned and Gajeel and Lucy blinked as they saw her holding a multicolored puzzle cube, her eyes locked on it as she trembled with absolute fury. Levy's face was ghostly pale with rage and as she looked up, Lucy was suddenly one hundred percent certain that Levy did indeed not have a single mean bone in her body. She had murderous ones.
"I just lost a tenth of an IQ point…" Levy declared quietly, but in the surprised silence that had fallen in wake of her furious shriek, she might as well have shouted it. Then her gaze snapped up, her hand snapped back and in a blaze of blinding white light, "SOLID SCRIPT SHINE!" formed and became a javelin in her hand. A flash of movement later, the shining spear shot across the plaza and slammed into the Jellyfish where it hung overhead.
The Jellyfish promptly exploded.
Everyone gawked for a second, then the witch turned back to her and started laughing, "Blow up the center as many times as you like, as long as even a shred of the Mind Reaver's tentacles remain, it will always regener-ATE?!" She was cut off by the tentacles suddenly exploding as well.
Levy's grin right then was something truly frightening as her hands started to glow, "I'm sorry, were you saying something? I couldn't hear you over the sound of…" BOOM! "Oh come on!" Levy snapped, "Let me have my badass moment!"
The gate to the plaza on the right, which nobody had really been paying attention to, had just been knocked off its hinges by the giant Shadow Wolf that had devoured Lucy's keys. Said wolf had just been thrown through the gate. The Shadow Wolf landed in a heap with a whimper as people with their eyes now clear of the blue glow that had indicated their enslavement to the Jellyfish scattered clear of it. The Shadow Wolf skidded right to the edge of the pool, suddenly dissolving into a flurry of fleeing shadows as a heavily armored blonde figure strode through the gate, seven glowing lacrima circling behind her and a massive sword in hand.
"I believe these are yours Ms. Heartfilia!" Her free hand snapped out and something whizzed through the air towards Lucy.
Lucy only narrowly managed to catch, "MY KEYS!" she exclaimed delightedly.
"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" the witch demanded, a twinge of fear starting to show on her face.
The blonde lifted her sword and pointed it at the witch, "I am Dimaria Yesta, last Paladin of Mildian and Caretaker of the Seven Great Gods who watch over it. More importantly though," she grinned viciously, "I'm the reinforcements."
A moment passed and then the witch's face split in a fearsome grin, "Well then, as High Priestess of Mattachu, let me formally welcome you Final Paladin of Mildian. Here, allow me to bequeath you a parting gift in the form of an opponent you will never defeat!" She suddenly leapt into the air and hung there over the pool of blood, "Now that I have the power of over a thousand souls, I can resummon the Guardians of Apollo at will! Even if you could defeat them now, no matter how many times you defeat them, they will always return anew, and on top of that…" She thrust her hand towards the blood pool, "RISE! RISE YOU FALLEN BONES OF MATTACHU! DEFEND YOUR MISTRESS!"
The bloody pool suddenly erupted, hundreds of blood drenched skeletons flying into the air to land on their feet around the plaza and start shambling forward at alarming speeds with their hands outstretched. Gajeel, Levy and Dimaria immediately began fighting and Lucy's summoning was drowned out by the suddenly thunderous voice of the witch as she began to invoke her summoning…
"I call upon thee O Champion of Apollo
Charge in headlong and fearless against all my foes!
Heed my call now for the battle begins,
Your power tonight the battle shall win,
Carve into history so they will never forget,
Glory is waiting! The stage is now set!
Heed my call now for the battle begins,
I call now thy name!
LEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOY…"
JEN! KINS!
Thundered the massive shadow giant that had assaulted Base Camp as it ripped its way free of the shadows surrounding the Tree, now almost twice the size and bulk it had been at Base Camp.
Lucy didn't hear it though, she had fainted from the sudden and titannic drain on her magic to summon…
"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" with an earth shaking sound like mountains being ripped in half, a mighty wind began to roar…
The Bull of Heaven Gugalanna walked the earth once more.
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NEXT TIME! on Mad Little Slice of Heaven...
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"My parents?" Erza asked curiously, "Absolutely nothing, I'm an orphan." Then her eyes went wide with shock, "Wait! Are you saying you know something?!"
Master Precht nodded and patted the bench he had just conjured, "I believe so. Sit down child."
Her heart in her throat, Erza sat, wondering what secrets the Second Guild Master might be about to reveal.
