AN: IT'S FINALLY TIME! THE EPIC CLIMAX HAS ARRIVED! THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER OF THE ROAD TO MATTACHU!

but before we get to that, Reviewer Replies because I was friggin' stoked to get so many after that dry spell.

RavenCarver: Yep, it made a lot of sense to me that Gajeel would be able to access a form like that sense iron is traditionally thought of as a celestial metal good for purging demons and cleansing evil due to the fact that one of the earliest sources of it was meteorites. Yes, Levy could generate Holy Steel but she'd have to generate steel first and then imbue it with a Holy enchantment, so it would take a minute. And yes, she can do rune magic like Freed, she just doesn't use it as much as he does because it's not her natural magic affinity.

Beruit: Ah, sorry yes it has been jumping around a bit, so at the end of Reviewer Replies I'm posting a quick recap of how it's all gone down since things started to go crazy back at the end of Chapter 27. There've been a lot of viewpoints juggled around across a couple of different locations, so I'm not surprised it might've been a bit difficult to keep track of. This chapter should be significantly easier to keep track of since it's all in one spot.

dxq987: Thank YOU for the comment! :D

Raidentensho: Fun fact the Nazca Lines are actually very real, Yugioh didn't make them up (I'm sure you knew that though), and yes I did indeed base the Guardians on them. The dragon is the unidentified 'hands' looking glyph, which if you turn it upside down looks like the head of an antlered dragon, and the High Priestess actually represents the Flower. Haven't seen 'Marksman and Vanadis' so no, no cameos or references to that. Did I hear something about an all powerful unstoppable dragon showing up this chapter? (cackles)

Zeak106: I'm delighted you're enjoying it enough to binge the whole thing in a day. Super glad you like my portrayals of these characters since I quite like all of them. There was originally supposed to be some Atlantis the Lost Empire in here as well, but things just didn't work out that way. This has been by far the most difficult arc to write even though it's also the one I was personally the most hyped for. Making something big enough to make up for butterflying away half of Galuna Island and the entire Phantom Lord arc was a lot harder than I'd expected. This arc alone has been as long as the entire rest of the story combined. There's been a lot of important stuff happen, and it was a great way to make it happen, but it has been very difficult. Thankfully though we've reached the final chapter of The Road to Mattachu, and so hopefully everything after this will come as easily as the first 16 chapters did. Sorry these last few chapters have been a bit short, this one is too, but there's only so much I can pump up a fight scene before it gets bloated and boring, and the last thing I want is to bore you, so for these last few chapters, short and sweet it's had to be. Don't worry though, I've got a LOT to cover in next week's chapter, and at least one more really big one coming right after that. Enjoy! :D

...


Before we get started, a quick recap for anyone who's been confused by the events of the last few chapters. I know it's been jumping around a lot so a quick reminder of what all's happened. Feel free to skip down past it if you don't need a recap.

-Base Camp is attacked by the Shadow Giant

-Jerry goes outside to fight it, summons Virgo. Virgo reverts to her Origin, curbstomps Shadow Giant

-While Virgo is fighting Shadow Giant, a sleep spell is cast on the townsfolk at the party

-Levy and Lucy are kidnapped by mysterious men with glowing blue eyes and immense speed, forcing Natsu, Gajeel, Erza, Miguel and Happy to give chase (Elric and Serena are nowhere to be seen)

-Natsu, Gajeel, Erza, Miguel and Happy are intercepted by a giant Shadow Monkey

-Erza stays behind to fight the Shadow Monkey, loses because Shadow Beasts are invulnerable to normal attacks, is then attacked by tentacles and has to flee

-Jerry is also fighting tentacles back at Base Camp and forced to retreat, opting instead to go find the others and get back up

-Natsu, Gajeel, Happy and Miguel follow the kidnappers to Mattachu where they are attacked by a giant Shadow Spider, which defeats Natsu and Gajeel while Happy flies Miguel to safety

-Jerry is attacked by three giant Shadow Birds (a Hummingbird, a Pelican and a Heron)

-Happy and Miguel are attacked by a fourth Shadow Bird

-Lucy and Levy are being tortured in the villain's lair, and Lucy's keys are fed to a giant Shadow Wolf

-Meanwhile Gajeel and Natsu wake up in an illusion. They decide to play along until they can find Lucy and Levy

-Lucy and Levy are given a break from being tortured to be subjected to a song and dance number organized by the villain using her hypnotic control over the city to feed a magic pool of blood which restores her youth and gives her counts of invulnerability equal to the number of people killed and thrown into the pool

-Gajeel and Natsu break free of the illusion just before they dance their way into the pool. Natsu frees Levy and Lucy but is caught and tossed into the blood pool while Gajeel carries the girls to safety

-Levy is outraged to discover that she'd lost part of an IQ point due to the torture and attempted mind rape

-Erza is caught by the tentacles after a long running battle, but saved at the last second by Serena, who electrocutes the Tentacles to oblivion and proceeds to also dispatch the Shadow Monkey when it shows up. Erza wakes up quickly and is being tended to by Elric. She proceeds to pull the magic and enchantments from her Black Wing Armor to speed her recovery and enchant her Purgatory Armor as well as dozens of her swords with Holy Element

-At the other end of the valley, Miguel and Happy take shelter from the Shadow Birds with Jerry. Jerry unravels part of his memory block and recovers some of his most cherished memories

-The door to the plaza where Levy, Gajeel and Lucy are confronting the villain is knocked down by the Shadow Dog that ate Lucy's keys getting hurled through it and immediately dying. Dimaria walks in with seven powerful lacrima on hand, one of which allows her to use Storm Dragon God magic, declares herself to be the reinforcements, and throws Lucy her keys

-The villain resummons the Shadow Giant and animates the army's worth of skeletons that are now all that's left of her victims

-Lucy summons Taurus, who immediately reverts to his Origin, which is Gugalanna the unstoppable Bull of Heaven. Taurus/Gugalanna proceeds to ram the Tree the Shadow Beasts are spawning from, crushing the Shadow Giant in the process. Lucy faints from the titanic drain on her magic from summoning Taurus/Gugalanna.

-Jerry manages to unravel the last of the memory block and recovers his training in how to access Holy Magic along with a great deal of forgotten personal growth. He proceeds to obliterate all four Shadow Birds in short order

-In the plaza, the skeletons are attacking the people of Mattachu who were freed from the villain's control when the Tentacles were obliterated. Gajeel and Dimaria use a combo attack to destroy the skeletons

-The villain accidentally reveals their weakness to Levy who explains it to the others, and in stopping Gajeel and Dimaria's combo attack, the villain accidentally wakes up Natsu who immediately begins trying to escape the Blood Pool which is powering the villain

-Taurus/Gugalanna makes visible headway in shoving the Shadow Beast spawning tree down. All the Shadow Beasts respawn and attempt to stop him, including two new ones: a flying whale and a shadow dragon

-Erza arrives just in time and shreds four of them before proceeding to keep the rest off Taurus/Gugalanna since she's now properly equipped to fight them. She also throws Levy and Gajeel holy magic imbued swords so they can fight

-Levy charges the villain and immediately starts whittling down their thousand plus lives. The villain tries to attack Lucy as a distraction since Lucy's unconscious and can't defend herself. Dimaria intervenes and defends Lucy so Levy can fight

-Gajeel eats his Holy sword and accesses Divine Steel Dragon Mode, which he then uses to beat down the Shadow Dragon

-The villain manages a sneak attack on Lucy and Dimaria which mortally injures both of them and dispels Taurus/Gugalanna.

-Natsu realizes somebody just sent Lucy to death's doorstep because of his dragon slayer senses and immediately blows his top

-Elric appears behind the villain and rams his hand through her chest, revealing himself to be much younger than he has thus far appeared as well as a Poison wizard with scaly forearms, claws and dark red hair

-Natsu finally gets loose and is in the middle of an utterly demonic looking berserk flaming fury

-Serena is revealed to be a Celestial wizard with white hair and is seen crouching over the fallen Lucy and Dimaria

...

And that brings us up to the present.

Now get ready,

EARTHLAND'S GREATEST HERO HAS ARRIVED!

...


...

Chapter 32: Return of the King


...

Elric picked up Levy, tossed her over his shoulder and bolted, knowing what was about to happen. With an almighty leap, he cleared the side of the plaza to land next to Serena, Dimaria and Lucy. He set Levy down and immediately knelt to begin examining Lucy and Dimaria, paying no heed to the ungodly blood red firestorm that suddenly filled the plaza and made it look like the gates of Hell.

Erza blinked in confusion as her swing connected with nothing but air, trying to figure out what just happened as I appeared with her next to them, "Well, this is about to be over very quickly. Sorry I'm late. Had to deal with some very large birds."

Erza looked over at me and then turned her gaze back to the utterly evil looking inferno that contained our howling, screaming and utterly berserk Dragon Slayer, "No, I'd say you arrived just in time." She wasn't wrong. If I had been a split second slower on the teleport, Erza would've been as charred over as most things Natsu got angry at.

Then she noticed Lucy and Dimaria, "OH MY GOD! ARE THEY OKAY?!"

Elric looked up at her and replied flatly, "Well, no. They've kinda just been stabbed." Erza twitched with narrowly restrained fury at the snark.

I blinked as I processed the sight in front of me, paying no heed to the shadow creatures getting flung out of the flames left and right while Gajeel used a Shadow Dragon as a punching bag. "Is that Mari? What's she doing here?"

Levy and Erza looked at me in surprise, "You know her?!"

I frowned as I felt something tugging faintly at my conscience and then I knelt down and reached into the pouch at her waist. A moment later I pulled out one of my Calling Cards, my eyes wide, "Yeah, this is the woman who saved Natsu from the Phosphor-Mites." I glanced up at Elric who was a lot younger than I'd gotten used to him being, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Elric nodded, "Yeah, help me pull the wounds back closed with your telekinesis so I can do some stitching. No matter what happens we have to keep these wounds closed as tightly as possible for the next ten minutes at bare minimum. The longer we can hold them together the better."

Erza nodded, "We'll keep you covered."

After that, there wasn't much talking as Elric and I hurried to patch up Mari and then Lucy. My hands quickly began to ache from holding them clenched so tightly to keep my telekinetic hold locking their wounds closed absolutely as tight as I could, but I held on as Elric stitched furiously. Thankfully the only sounds were Natsu and Gajeel going to town on their respective opponents, but even that sounded like a city getting torn down. (Probably because it was the sound of a city getting torn down.)

Full props to Elric, he knows his stuff. He finished the sutures on Mari's numerous and honestly gaping wounds and moved to Lucy in a matter of minutes. It's a good thing too since right about then half the city was blocked out by a massive wall of pitch black with a sound like the howl of a hurricane. The Shadow Beast rocketed into the clouds and then dipped back down a moment later at the other end of the city, glowing magic seals erupting all over its body as I asked worriedly, "Iiis that a flying whale with over a dozen magical artillery seals heading this way?"

Erza tightened her grip on her giant spiked club and her arsenal of flying swords aimed themselves, "Yep."

"Well how about don't draw it's attention over here?" Elric asked icily as he finished stitching Lucy up. Before anyone could answer, the Shadow Whale's magical artillery opened fire, and rivers of darkness erupted forth, sweeping back and forth across the city, pulverizing everything they hit like giant steamrollers.

Erza's eyes weren't the only ones going wide as she admitted, "I'll try to buy some time, but if those two can be moved, they really really need to be!"

"Better yet, Erza, swap with me." I declared, "I wanna try something."

Erza looked at me in surprise, "You've got something that can stop that thing?!"

"I think so but I can't concentrate on this and direct the Mesektet at the same time." Erza immediately knelt next to me, "What do I do?"

Elric and I quickly directed her and then as I felt her magic slide in to reinforce mine, I gently withdrew and then, when I was sure my friends weren't about to have gushing wounds if I stepped away for a minute, I rose to my feet. I raised my hands, closed my eyes and called out, "MESEKTET!"

Things became almost blindingly bright immediately as what looked like a solar flare suddenly burst down from the clouds, burning away the entire shroud covering the city in an instant. The heat was blistering even from across the city, and if I hadn't closed my eyes I would've been blinded for a few minutes. The reason it looked like a solar flare is because it basically was a solar flare.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Levy demanded as she furiously scrubbed her eyes.

I grinned before opening my eyes, "A little something I inherited from the King of Kings." Then I opened my eyes and felt my gut clench, "It's the boat of the sun which fires watered down solar flares as artillery from space. It can lay waste to entire countries in a matter of hours and that really begs the question of why is that damn whale looking at me like it's unimpressed when I just hit it with the wrath of a literal god?!"

Then I blinked as I realized something was different about the whale. "And why does it look different?" The whale was still covered in shadow despite the sunlight now shining down on it, but as I watched, the shadows began to fade and reveal… "Yellow? Why is the whale yellow?!" and why did I feel a sudden urge to hug it?! Things the size and combat capacity of battleships should not be that absurdly cute!

It responded with what I can only describe as a happy whale noise as it shone faintly with golden light. Across the city, the Shadow Dragon was now shining silver and calmly batted Gajeel's latest attack aside with its tail. "Calm down, fight's over," it declared as Gajeel flipped midair and skidded a landing. Then it flapped its wings and for lack of a better word hopped over to the edge of the plaza. It landed next to a large green monkey and poked it with its tail, "Wake up."

The monkey sat up and rubbed its head with a questioning chitter before looking around. It spotted the tree and went almost mint green instead of the verdant emerald it had been when the shadows faded. I didn't have to speak monkey to understand the ensuing screech meant "OH SHIT!"

"Exactly," the dragon agreed, "Now help me wake up the others as that fire demon kicks them out of the plaza." The whale floated over and bugled an agreement.

"DOES SOMEONE WANNA TELL ME WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!" Gajeel demanded as he landed next to us, Happy and Miguel touching down a moment later (They'd been a little bit slower than me since I'd teleported the last mile to grab Erza before Natsu turned the plaza into a firepit). I had to stare for a moment at Gajeel's stark white hair and glowing aura of green tinged white magical energy, that was new.

The dragon turned to look at us, "We are the Guardians of The Sun God. We were enslaved by the seeping corruption that poisoned the Great Tree with the aid of the former High Priestess. When the darkness was burned away, the sunlight was able to free us. Now we just have to free the others and then we can purge the Great Tree of its corruption. Once the Tree has been restored, all will be well once more."

He promptly snatched the Shadow Giant in his talons and pinned him down, the Green Monkey snatching his feet to keep him from flailing. "LEEROY! WAKE UP!" the dragon thundered.

The sunlight quickly burned away the shadows enveloping the giant and he was revealed to be a vibrant shade of purple all over as he sat up, "What happened? Why do I feel like I threw down with Astraea and Gugalanna back to back?"

"You DID throw down with Astraea and ya got whooped!" I shouted, "And I'm still very upset that ya nearly got her killed!"

The giant called Leeroy looked utterly poleaxed by the revelation, but he didn't have time to respond because a giant shadow spider suddenly collided with his chest. I recoiled in horror as I saw the thing, and then Leeroy the Giant wrapped the spider in a full nelson and glowed so brightly that it obscured both of them for a moment. When the glow faded, the spider was a giant white ball of confused and inexcusably adorable fluff looking around with a very confused expression.

And so it went on. While the cauldron of hellish flames boiled and shook from the fight within it, Natsu punched out a massive dog and a glowing blue jellyfish that I recognized as the source of the tentacles I'd seen at Base Camp. The Jellyfish turned pink and the dog turned out to be reddish orange.

The four birds erupted out of the Corrupted Tree to try and swoop in and attack Natsu, but they were purified by the sun's rays the instant they took to the air. It looked like it was about to be a complete victory. The turn around was so quick that even as it was happening I was having a hard time understanding what was going on.

Yet still the flames roared on around the base of the Tree and the Silver Dragon looked at them, "What is he doing in there?" Then the Tree collapsed over sideways as Natsu unleashed a roar that rocked the city and the Guardians had just an instant to cry out in horror before they disappeared.

Everything was still for a brief instant and then everything went dark as a voice that shook the souls of everyone who heard it roared, "FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AAAAAT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST!"

The flames went out, and the sudden darkness became absolute until I started glowing with everything I had to try and force the oppressive darkness back as I felt the unnatural terror trying to force its way into my head. The dark was like an oppressive smothering weight, pushing in from all sides and seeping cold into every inch of my being. The light I could force out only narrowly kept it at bay at the edge of the very small circle, and I could still feel its effects as it sought to force its way in.

I glanced around and saw that everyone else was out cold, expressions of pure terror on their face. No, Erza was awake, hanging on by a thread as she crouched protectively between Lucy and Mari. I ran to kneel over her, laid my hand on her shoulder and flooded her with Sense of Security, "Keep it together Erza. I'm right here, we're going to be okay. Everything's going to be alright. Can you hold on for a little while longer?"

Erza was ghostly pale in the faint light that was all I could muster against the oppressive darkness. Sense of Security was only just barely holding her back from a full on panic attack, but she nodded. I exhaled lightly as a faint smile crossed my face, "I know you can do it. Don't worry, I'll be back in just a moment. Keep them safe, alright?" Erza nodded again, her hands still firmly pressed down over Mari and Lucy's wounds as her magic held them tight. "Hurry…" she forced out.

I nodded and rose to my feet, turning to face the source of the darkness and terror, drawing my blade and stepping between the beast and my friends as best I could, "Hello Apophis."

The Serpent of Oblivion wasn't easy to spot. His form faded in and out of visibility and even at its clearest was only discernible by the absolute darkness that formed it. It was like trying to spot blotches of ink on charcoal in a dark room. The one thing that was constantly obvious about it was its size. Laid out in a straight line, I think it would've reached all the way back to Fiore easily. It was mostly coiled in the sky above us, but even wadded up and overlapping itself like a plate of spaghetti, its coils still reached well beyond the edges of the valley, and its head alone had to be as big as the entire city.

It hissed out a sound that brought to mind a million blades being drawn and lethal gas leaks and every poisonous snake in the world rearing their heads and a dozen other horrible things besides, "SSSSSSSSSUN KING…IT HASSS BEEN A LONG TIME. I THOUGHT SSSURELY YOUR LIGHT WOULD'VE FADED ENTIRELY AFTER SSSO MANY SSSCENTURIESSS… YET SSSTILL YOU SSSTAND BEFORE ME…" It hissed out what had to be its version of a laugh, "ARE YOU READY TO SSSUBMIT AND DIE?"

I raised my blade and spoke its true name, revealing the sword of my namesake for what it was, "I am not the Sun King you did battle with then. I am merely one of his descendants, but I will stand no less firmly in your way Serpent of the End."

Apophis laughed again, "SSSO BE IT. IT WOULDN'T BE NEARLY ASSSS SSSATISSSFYING TO CRUSSSH YOU OTHERWISSSE. COME ON, I'LL LET YOU HAVE THE FIRSSST SSSHOT."

I raised the massive sword and grinned as I tapped into its power and merged it with my own, "A lethal mistake, but one I'm happy to see you make…" then I began the incantation as a river of blinding light erupted skyward from the blade in my hands.

"Die böse Schlange wird vom Himmel getroffen und alles ist in Licht und Schatten sortiert.

Diese Welt erreicht die Dämmerung.

JETZT FALLEN.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALMUUUUUUUUNG!"

The river of blinding light, possessed of extremely potent Holy Magic by itself, and further amplified by my direct connection to Mesektet and the power of Ra with its full might flowing through the blade to strengthen its attack, was equal to nothing less than a full throttle solar flare. It was a blast strong enough to scour a planet's surface to down ash that even the Etherion paled in comparison to.

In the space of a minute, the sheer strain of executing the attack had driven me to my knee. It was far above and beyond Balmung's normal capabilities, but it handled the power quite well. The exhaustion wasn't quite as bad as what I'd felt when the Lullaby's curse hit me, but it wasn't far off. By my reckoning as sweat erupted all over my body, I was at less than half a percent of my magic capacity and I could feel my pulse thundering in my head. My limbs felt like rolls of wet felt and everything hurt, but if it had taken out Apophis, then the price of the attack was well worth it to ensure the Serpent didn't achieve its goal and bring about the end of the world.

It had to have worked. There was nobody else around who could even think of fighting that thing, and there was no way in hell I could pull off an attack like that again before Apophis struck back if it had survived. My breath came only in ragged heavy pants as I held onto Balmung with both hands and stuck its tip into the ground to try and force myself to remain upright. I'd normally never use such a legendary weapon as a walking stick, but the sun was going to burst through the clouds any second, and dammit I wanted to be on my feet when it did!

I shot a glance over my shoulder, "Erz…" I was cut off by a light coughing fit and then tried again, "Erza! Are you okay back there?!"

She couldn't force the words out, but her expression and her screaming thoughts as she looked up at the sky said everything. I felt myself pale as I turned my gaze skyward, NONONONONONO… "SHIT!"

"ISSSS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?" Apophis rumbled as it loomed closer, apparently completely unscathed by my very most unprecedentedly best shot. Then I noticed the line of shadow leaking out the side of its face like an oil spill.

Oh, I thought, So I did hurt it. I managed to take out its eye.

Then it hit me, MY BEST SHOT ONLY GAVE IT A BLACK EYE?!

"THISSS WILL BE EASSSIER THAN I EXSSSSPECTED. DON'T WORRY, YOUR WORLD WILL SSSOON FOLLOW YOU."

My light started to sputter and fade as the existential terror started to force its way into my mind through the cracks in my confidence. I could barely keep myself upright, let alone fire off enough attacks of that scale to take this thing down! NONONONONONO…

Apophis opened its mouth and I saw Hell writhing within it, a seething hideous dark void from which there'd be no return, NONONONONONO…

Apophis pulled back to strike like a meteor that would end the world, NONONONONONONO!

Then, Apophis struck. I admit, I closed my eyes and fully believed, that we were all about to die. I couldn't even teleport my friends to safety, because there was no minimum safe distance from this. I'm sorry everybody…

The world shook like an earthquake passing through while a bomb went off and then…

I opened my eyes and in the dim flickering light, I saw a man in a dark cape with long tangled silver blue hair glaring at Apophis with his fists clenched at his side.

Apophis roared furiously as it yanked its head from the rubble of the mountain it had been knocked into and back up into the sky to demand, "HOW DARE YOU PUNCH ME IN THE FACE?!"

I blinked in shock at the Serpent's words and then realized what had happened. I stared at the man next to me, my jaw hitting the floor as I realized he had stopped Apophis's strike with a punch!

"HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT?!" Apophis ranted, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT I AM?! I AM THE SERPENT OF CHAOS! I AM THE END OF THIS ABHORRENT THING YOU CALL REALITY! I FIGHT THE ARMIES OF THE GODS ALONE EVERY NIGHT AND PUSH THEM TO THEIR LIMITS EVERY TIME!

I!

AM!

APOPHIS!

YOU ARE NOT A GOD! WHO ARE YOU TO DEFY ME?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"

I knew the answer. I'd never seen more than a picture of him, but I'd recognized the owner of the sword in my hand immediately as he glared up defiantly at the Serpent of Chaos, "Siegfried?!"

He glanced at me out the corner of his eye for just an instant, and then turned back to Apophis, "I am a Dragon Slayer, and this is over."

He crouched and as Apophis lunged to strike once more, he jumped, glowing like a mighty blue star, streaking through the sky like a comet to confront the monster threatening his world. With a battle cry that shook me to my core, the two titans collided in a sky blue supernova.

For just an instant, it looked like the darkness would overcome him, the edges of the supernova shrinking quickly as it looked like it was petering out while the darkness held strong. Then a roar that sounded like the end of the world thundered out and shook the city, and the darkness was suddenly pierced by a river of light that looked to be over twice the size of the attack I'd unleashed with Balmung.

For an instant, all was quiet and still.

Then the explosion hit.

In an instant the inky black ceiling of darkness was blown away and the sun streamed down unhindered, blindingly bright as it gleefully lit the world once more. The world shook like an earthquake rolling through as the decapitated corpse of Apophis began crashing to the earth. Then a shadow fell over us and I realized with horror that part of the damn snake was falling straight towards us!

It was too, which made Erza's magic defense seal all the more welcome a sight as she yelled, "ADAMANTINE BARRIER!" I shot a glance over my shoulder at her as I realized that she'd managed to cover the whole city and was visibly straining to hold the weight of the massive corpse.

"I could use some help over here!" she declared tensely as her arms and legs shook slightly. I immediately chomped down as much light as I quickly could and with a massive sweep of my arms, I shoved the corpse of Apophis with every scrap of power I had left. Apparently I shoved it enough, because as I staggered, Erza let her seal drop and the body crashed down around the city, but not one bit in it.

Erza requipped back to her normal armor and dropped to one knee, clearly badly winded by the effort. I gulped down some more of the much sweeter tasting than usual sunlight and staggered over to her, tugging Balmung out of the ground and sticking it back into its sheath which had appeared on my back beneath my cape. Dang sword was so long I had to use my telekinesis to sheathe it. I dropped to my knee and then sat down facing her as I started steadily chewing down light to maintain my power so I wouldn't pass out. I slid my magic in next Erza's to keep Mari and Lucy stable, "You okay Erza?"

Erza nodded as she released her telekinetic hold, "Yeah, I'll, I'll be fine. Do you know who that was that saved us?"

I looked over at the spot in the sky where the final clash had occurred, "Siegfried, or at least Earthland's counterpart to him. He's one of history's most famous dragonslayers. This sword, Balmung," I jerked my head towards it, "Once belonged to him. It was given to me by the King of Heroes a couple of years back. I guess he knew I'd need it some day." I smiled lightly as I imagined His Majesty's gleefully proud grin, "He and the others trained me to be a hero who could live up to that kind of legacy, but," I shook my head, "I've still got a long way to go."

I laughed lightly as I remembered the feel of the swat to the head Mordred would've given me for saying that. Dumbass, how many times have I gotta tell you to quit being so hard on yourself?

"King of Heroes?" Erza asked curiously.

I nodded, "I'll tell you about it sometime. For now though, can you stand? I can't see Natsu but we need to make sure he's alright too. I've got these two."

Erza nodded and got to her feet, "Yes, I see him. Hang on, I'll go get him."

As soon as she was gone, Elric let out a small sigh and grumbled, "I guess you two aren't going to conveniently pass out so we can slip away unnoticed anytime soon are you?"

My head snapped around, "You're awake?! How long have you been awake?!"

"About a minute," he replied as he sat up and pulled himself to his feet. He quickly stepped over to Serena and lifted her, tossing her over his shoulder easily before turning to me, "It's best if we never cross paths again. Tell Erza we said thank you. We owe her our lives."

"You're quite welcome even if I'm not sure what you mean," Erza declared as she sprang up to the terrace with Natsu under her arm.

Elric flinched and then stepped over to her, whispering something that I couldn't hear. Erza went ghostly pale and dropped Natsu in shock, "You…"

Elric nodded, "My name is Eric. This is Sorano. On behalf of our brothers, ourselves and everyone else there, thank you. Please, make sure we never cross paths again." He turned and walked to the edge of the terrace before raising a hand to his temple, "Oy, Midnight! Pick up!"

Reality seemed to twist for a second and then they were both gone. Erza and I stared at the spot where they'd been for a moment and then I looked at Erza, "Are you alright? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

Erza shook herself and then looked at me, "I'm sorry Jerry, I'm not at liberty to share that."

I raised an eyebrow but didn't press the matter, instead glancing at Natsu, "Is he okay?"

Erza nodded, "He's a lot better off than he was after the Phosphor-mites, but he'll still probably be unconscious for a while."

I breathed a small sigh of relief, "That's good."

Erza sat down behind me and leaned her back against mine, "Yeah, it really is."

Silence reigned for a few minutes and then, "Hey Erza?"

"Hmm?"

"We found the City of Gold."

"Yep," she agreed as we looked around at the unerring splendor around us.

"Helped save the world."

"Just a little," she mused with a smile.

"Made some friends."

"Definitely."

"Didn't lose anybody along the way…"

"We did have a few close calls though," she pointed out.

"And we didn't even knock down any buildings in a way that'll get us sued!"

"Seriously?!" Erza exclaimed as she lurched off me for a second. I could hear her racing through her memories of the entire trip and then she laughed as she leaned back against me again, "Hah, we sure didn't! I guess we can chalk this up as a total success!"

Then she threw her hands over her head and cheered, "WE FINISHED A DECADE QUEST!"

.

.

.


And that's a wrap folks!

There'll be a transition chapter next week, but as it overlaps with the start of the next arc, I consider this the final chapter of The Road to Mattachu.

I hope you all enjoyed my replacement for the Phantom Lord War arc, we'll be getting back to our regularly scheduled mayhem next week, along with Jerry's backstory now that he's remembered it, and the final sting in the end that makes this mission truly a punishment for Natsu, Happy and Lucy.

I hope you're ready. (pops umbrella open and grins evilly)

Things are about to get UGLY.