Absolute Despair

As the massive explosions of the battle between the dragon and the demon got the attention of the Whiteout, and the servants of the moon (the Moonlit Beauty Goddesses having since regained consciousness), the Fairy Tail mages (now clothed with garments bogarted from the Whiteout priestesses) couldn't pay attention. All they could watch was the image Irene was showing them of the last couple hours.

"Gray!" Wendy cried, "I'm so sorry! Nya!" She slammed her paws to her mouth as everyone looked at her.

"I swear!" Wendy protested, waving her paws in frustration, "That wasn't on purpose!" Erza clenched her fists, and slammed them on the ground.

"I should've fought harder," she said, "I should've been able to resist it."

"Do not blame yourself, Erza," Irene sides she waved her hand, causing the image to dissipate, "This was power you were unfamiliar with, and you had no experience fighting against."

"I'm such a failure," Happy said, slumping down, "I couldn't even help Natsu." Carla would've consoled him, but with her massive clawed paws, was worried she'd do more harm than good, so she just hung her head as well. Meanwhile, Lucy just covered her face, but that did little to stymie her tears.

"I'm so weak!" she whimpered, "First I got beat so easily, and then I let myself get turned into a monster." Gray moved to offer his friends support, but he was too slow.

"What's the Earthland saying?" the Great Priestess said, as she tried standing up without support from her warriors, "'Sob me a creek'? Something like that?"

"Hey, lighten up a little," Gray said, glaring at her.

"We don't have time for them to wallow in their self-pity," the Priestess continued, pointing towards the mountains, "Not while that creature is on the cusp of burning Elentir to the ground."

"Natsu's not a creature!" Happy protested.

"Is he though?" Irene asked cooly. To punctuate her point, there was another roar, as there was an explosion of fire.

"You saw what happened to him, what he saw you turned into. His heart was utterly broken, and all that's left in that poor boy now is a raging torrent of pain and despair." Lucy looked down in that, still crying; how could she be so cruel to him?

"My point exactly," the Priestess continued, as she looked up at the clash going on in the distance, "There's nothing left of your friend in that thing now. He won't stop, he won't ever stop, and we can only pray Selene will be able to beat him."

"Wait!" Happy said, boosting himself up, "You're rooting for Selene?"

"Better than the devil you know," the Priestess answered grimly.

"Either you shut up, or we all shut you up ourselves," Gray snapped, glaring at the Priestess. That glare wasn't very intimidating, but the five yokai looming behind Gray were also glaring, and the same couldn't be said for them. The Priestess just gritted her teeth, as she looked away.

"Enough!" Irene said, floating forward, "None of this is going to solve anyone's problem."

"We need to go to him!" Erza said, "We have to calm him down!"

"Apparently you inherited your father's listening skills," Irene said, frowning, "He's in a place of utter despair right now, and what little reason he has left is being quickly burnt away. In your state, he's liable to turn that rage against you."

"So we need to get you all back to normal ASAP," Gray said, before jerking his thumb in Youko's direction, "And she should be able to do that."

"I told you," Youko sneered, "The transformation is irreversible." Hearing that was like someone just soaked the yokai members of Team Natsu with ice water, as they stared at her for a time, unable

"Wait! Nya!" Wendy cried out, "We're going to be stuck like this forever!"

"I want my small, cute form back!" Carla protested, "This bestial form is abhorrent!"

"Can I still eat fish?" Happy asked.

"Why am I not surprised that's what you're most worried about?"

"Well," Erza pondered, clicking her mandibles with a thoughtful look on her face, "I suppose with a little training, I can incorporate this new form into my fighting style. And I could make extra money weaving fine silk." Lucy looked at her hands, and the scales on her arms, shaking slightly. No, that couldn't be… This couldn't be her life now. As she did, her hands curled into her fist, as her tears turned from sorrow to anger. Her anger steadily grew as she processed what she was told, and to her surprise, a new desire came over her: a desire to hurt Youko for doing this to her. A desire to wrap her in her coils around her and…

"I don't believe that, not for one second." Eyes once again turned to Irene, who was glaring at Youko, her arms folded.

"In the centuries I have practiced magic, there has never been a spell, enchantment, or curse that couldn't be lifted," she continued as she floated over to Youko, "I think there is a way, you just don't want to share it, because you find it crueler not to." Youko looked up at her, before looking away.

"Youko," Mimi said sternly.

"Why would I do that?" Youko hissed.

"Because if you don't…" This time, it was Irene who was interrupted, as there was a blonde flash, and before anyone knew it, Lucy was constricting Youko in her coils.

"Because if you don't," she hissed, a hungry look in her eyes "I will crush you like a bug in my grasp." Youko grunted in pain as Lucy constricted her tighter. As she did so, a strange sensation came over Lucy. She was suddenly somewhat… hungry?

"Lucy!" Lucy blinked at the sound of Gray's voice, snapped out of. Irene gestured for Lucy to moved back, which the blonde gladly did, rubbing her head, as she moved forward.

"You could never know our loyalty to our mistress," Mimi then declared, "We will never betray her, even if it costs us our lives."

"Is that so? Then what about your mistresses life?" Irene asked, jerking her thumb back, "Is it not worth trying for?"

"Lady Selene will triumph," Hakune insisted, "She's the most powerful being in all the realms." As if to punctuate her point, there was another roar, as everyone looked back up at the sight of the the titan fighting the devil.

"Clearly you've never met Acnologia," Erza muttered.

(I)

END inhaled deeply as he released a huge cloud of flames at the dragon. Selene waved her tail, scattering the flames, before she followed up with her own breath attack. END generated his stone shell, but the force of the attack still sent him careening back. His eyes literally burning with rage, he drew both hands along his arms, generating a javelin of fire, which he then hurled at Selene. The Moon Dragon avoided the attack, as the javelin crashed into the mountain.

"At this rate, we'll level the entire the mountain range," Selene said sarcastically, to which END just growled again, before jetting towards her, which Selene answered in kind.

The dragon and the demon then crashed together, creating a shockwave that blew down and across the mountain. The force also repelled the two away from each other and Selene was the first to recover, as she swooped back, arming her moon claws again. This time, END was too stunned to block or deflect them, and he got head on. The force sent him him tumbling away, and to the peak of a mountain

Unfortunately for the dragon, he recovered quickly, as he clapped his hands together, creating a massive blade of fire, as big as Selene herself, before bring it down on the Moon Dragon. Selene generated her shield again, but it broke against the flames like a children's ball knocked through a window. It slammed into Selene, causing the dragon to fall to the ground. With a growl, Selene rubbed her head, looking up just in time to see END making his way down.

END then dove down towards her, as he folded in his wings and started spinning, creating a practical missile of fire. Selene responded with a similar thought, as she flew up, spinning in the process. The two torrents of magic energy collided, creating a massive explosion that consumed both the dragon, and the demon.

(I)

"Natsu!" Lucy called out from their position watching, as the shockwave traveled all the way down to the forest.

"Lady Selene!" the Goddesses said in their own right. They saw the serpentine shape of their mistress tumbling out of the smoke, while the Fairy Tail members saw the fiery ball that was supposedly their friend plummet the other way, the two crashing into opposite mountains.

(I)

Selene coughed a puddle worth of blood, as she breathed weakly, noticing on the other peak, END looked completely mangled. However, that certainly didn't last, as his body quickly reformed. There could be now denying now as well, that his body was continuing to transform, as it got progressively bigger, as his skull seemed to be getting longer, and the red starting to overcome the black on his body; Selene did not want see what the end result was at this point, as she watched END ascend back into the sky.

"No! Not like this!" the dragon thundered, as she took back to the air, "I won't be defeated by the likes of you!" With that she put all her remaining energy into one final move. She started flying hard and fast in circles around END, too fast for even the demon's eyes to keep up.

"I am Selene of the Moon and Stars!" Selene declared, as she did so, "The Moon Dragon God! The ruler of Elentir! The dragon who crosses dimensions! And I will not lose to a lowly demon of Earthland!" As she circled him, END noticed energy starting to gather around him, and before he knew it, he was entirely encased in a white orb. But that wasn't all….

Earth began to be stripped off the sides of the mountains, and gathering around the orb. More and more gathered around it, getting larger and larger with each passing moment. Eventually, it grew into a sphere so large it was maybe even larger than the mountains themselves.

"Now know my power!" Selene said, as her eyes glowed fiercely, "Judgement of the Moon!" With that, two massive beams of magical energy pierced through the center of the moon, forming a cross, which in turn caused the entire sphere to explode.

(I)

"NATSU!" The members of Fairy Tail cried as their friend was consumed in Selene's most powerful attack. The air was still for a time, as the rubble collapsed to the ground, Selene apparently the victorious one, as she landed in front of the rubble, to savor her victory. Her handmaidens all cheered for their mistress' victory, while Whiteout could only stare in shock.

"I knew he couldn't do it," Hakune finally said, a satisfied smirk on her face. Mimi just sighed in visible relief, while Youko chuckled.

"You know, since I'm in a merciful mood," she said, to the Fairy Tail mages, "I think I'll convince Lady Selene to spare you all, and let you go back down to the caves. You can even have the boy as your treat."

"Natsu," Happy said softly, tears dripping out of his monstrous eyes. Seeing that, Gray would've been encouraged to see the Exceed in that monster, but now wasn't the time.

"This is my fault," Lucy said softly, as she stared at her hands, "If I had been stronger, if I'd been able to resist the magic, I could've stopped him before this happened." That was when her sadness turned back to anger, as her gaze drifted back to a laughing Youko, and her eyes turned to just slits. Now… Lucy had to get back at them, she had to…

That was there was the sound of the rubble exploding, getting everyone's attention back to the mountain, as a colossal claw exploded out of the rock… and released a massive burst of fire right into Selene's face.

The pained scream of the Moon Dragon echoed across the mountains, as she plummeted to the ground; even from all the way here, people could tell her face was now badly burned. But that wasn't all, as a massive pair of blazing wings burst out of the rubble, followed by a glowing form pulling itself out. What she saw rendered Lucy speechless, as a chill traveled all the way to the tip of her tail, and her tears went from anger, to tears of horror.

"Look, everyone," Irene said grimly, raising her voice so everyone could hear her, "And behold despair…"

(I)

"..given tangible form."

END's appearance had changed yet again. Not only was he much larger than he was before, easily Selene's size, if not bigger, but his body changed as well. Now on all fours, his body was now lizard-like in shape, and his skin was now glowing red, like magma (though his hands and feet were still black). The flaming skull that was his head was also now lizard-like, with three horns growing out of it. A line of fire ran the length of his spine, down to his tail, which now had a long, flaming blade at the end. In all, he almost resembled a demonic salamander.

Selene held the burnt side of her face as she looked up at the creature before her. The only sounds coming out of him were a light hissing, probably from the steam that was being created by his very presence. The demon then opened his mouth...

This time, however, there were no words, not even simple ones; rather, there was only a roar. It was so loud, that it shook all of Elentir, as even people living thousands of miles away had to pause to wonder what that distant sound was.

And for the first time in 400 years, Selene truly felt fear…

Note: It seems END has entered his final form, and it's about as far from the Dragon Slayer we all know and love as you can get. I considered having another "inner world" scene, but we already had one where Natsu surrenders control, so I thought having one here would be redundant.

Like I said earlier, a point of inspiration for END in this was Naruto. In particular, the idea of an Natsu having a sort of "ascending transformation", rather than an instantaneous one, into END appealed to me. I consider the form he took to be END's true true form. The design was basically me mulling just what kind of creature would Acnologia fear. While I mentioned I wanted it not to be too flashy, I also wanted the final form to be something truly monstrous; this is the crowning achievement of Zeref's Etherious project, the ultimate aspect of destruction. I based the roar on a video I say about the "colossal dragon", which you can find on YouTube.

Please leave a comment.

I strongly encourage my fellow writers to write about yokai-Lucy.