In the back of his mind, Zeref was well aware of what, he imagined, was an absolutely disgraceful turmoil at the palace. He paid it no mind. Having watched the actions of the Fairy Tail members and the guild master for weeks, now, he was quite confident he could slip in and out without detection. Right now, he was hidden in the shadows, the same way he had when he had been scouting. He could see people coming in and out of the guild hall, including several people he recognised. The most notable of these were the guild master, Makarov. Zeref was almost entirely certain that Makarov had been the sole perpetrator behind Ivan's betrayal, but that was, ultimately, of little concern to him.
Zeref had always assumed Ivan would have been little more than a distraction, and, more or less, a human sacrifice. What happened to him was, thus, immaterial. It didn't matter, not now. As Zeref reminded himself, this would be the end. Irene would deal with the royal family and that would be that. He, too, would be able to finally have his desires attained. He could feel Mavis' energy, and, as he forced his way into the guild hall, still a shadow. He knew exactly where he was going and how to get down there, focused exclusively on her energy. His own power was all he found himself relying on her, although he knew this would be much more difficult than it could have been if he had the princess' energy to sacrifice.
He had never been more annoyed.
This, however, was not the time for him to focus upon his annoyance. Furthermore, he knew that he could not waste any time in what he was doing, for it would raise enough suspicion and noise. It would have to be quick, and it would have to be something that he could leave in just an instant with her. Still, when he reached the bottom of the stairs into the basement, he stopped. Taking in a deep breath, Zeref assimilated to the environment, all of his senses tingling. He was so close. So damn close to setting things right. He closed his eyes, his hands lingering on the door, behind which he knew his lover laid. He could feel her, the warmth of everything about her, and he longed to touch her. Soon enough, he reminded himself, he would be able to.
Suddenly, he heard footsteps behind him. When he turned around, he saw the dark gaze of the guild master staring at him. Zeref could not hide his own shock. Had Ivan really told them anything of it? It had not crossed his mind that Ivan would say anything about these plans. Irene, he thought, was all the royal family cared about. Makarov was the last person he had expected to draw anything of these plans out of Ivan. To be staring him down was utterly unsettling. The man did not move towards him, made no attempts to fight him, and simply stared at him. Zeref barely could believe it. He himself felt frozen too, his hands still lingering on the door to the room where his lover was hidden away. Makarov seemed especially hardened, something that Zeref found himself stunned by.
When he finally came back to himself, Zeref slowly activated his magic and began to run his finger down the slit of the door. Makarov slowly began to approach him. Zeref paused and looked at him, waiting for the man to speak. He did not, however. It was eerie, the way Makarov simply stared at him, eyes narrow and arms crossed. It seemed almost as if time were standing still, and, briefly, Zeref could have sworn that it was. He had not felt this unnerved in so long. It was an emotion he had never thought he would feel again, yet here it was, right before him, reminding him of the absolute worst moments in his long life. He could suddenly hear the words in his ears that had dominated his life, his fear of falling in love for so long, and it left him deeply unnerved.
At what cost?
Was his devotion to this going to cost him everything once again?
"Her spirit remains," Makarov said shortly, his voice a deeply low rumble that cut into the silence. "But her body, I doubt, can be fully restored...not without harming her. What happened? All records suggest that you were involved in her death. It is, after all, one of the reasons you earned yourself the title as one of the most dangerous dark mages in history."
Zeref glanced towards the door but soon forced himself to look Makarov dead in the eye:
"The one person who could give the answer that is now beyond the jurisdiction of earthly courts."
And, with that, he opened the doors.
Seeing the youngest princess struggling on the floor, Irene began to approach her again, but, this time, Jellal was faster. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Erza, Freed, Mirajane, and Evergreen darting towards her. With a slash of one of her staffs, she successfully shielded herself from their attacks, pushing them all back and leaving them winded. Jellal, too, was thrown back, skidding against the floor, his head pounding. He swallowed hard when he saw his brother by Arcadios and Laxus, who was still holding Hisui tightly against himself, in far too much grievous shock to do much of anything at the moment. Jellal also saw his sister in law. Caity, finally able to move again, if through quite a bit of pain, had managed her way over to her goddaughter, who was shaking badly and trying to stop her little sister's bleeding. Bickslow, too, began to try and help the two princesses alongside their godmother, who seemed to be in just as much horrified shock as Fallon.
Back on his feet, however, Jellal was quick enough to prevent Irene from getting any closer to the princesses and prince. She glowered at him, flipping over him just before he could slash her with his sword. He quickly turned around, and met her attacks well before she could get a good hit against him. She was still bleeding from where she had been shot earlier, and Jellal, like Erza who was finally close to her mother again, could tell she was leaning heavier on her right side, the slowly ebbing of blood apparently beginning to get to her. Just as aware of this, Erza pushed in front of her husband to fight her mother fist to fist. Irene glowered, an unusual, sudden anger towards her daughter rising in her chest. She sidestepped her, and kicked her harshly in the side.
"You're a damned fool, mom," Erza coughed out, regaining her footing and ripping out a knife which she threw at her whilst re-quipping. "The hell do you even stand to gain anymore?"
Irene ignored her words. They meant so very little to her, she, the last of her kind. Erza was so much like her, she believed, but she had her father in her too. She would never be what her mother was, and Irene was certain that meant Erza would never be able to harness the kind of power she did. Barely evading the knife, and very much irritated at the second attempt to stab her, she threw her own shots out at Erza, two of which hit her and slammed her upwards and over several feet, hitting a chandelier. It was then Erza, unusually afraid and doubting her own ability, re-quipped again to the only armor she thought could give her reliable swiftness to evade her mother as much as possible. Irene, well aware that her daughter's new armor would dramatically increase her speed, summoned a powerful shield in front of herself just seconds before Erza ran towards her again, but, to her shock, her daughter pulled out a sword and began to focus, trying to cut through it.
Seeing Freed and Evergreen tearing towards her again, Irene extended her shield to all around herself, but they remained undeterred. Jellal, too, was very much of the same mindset. He, like his wife and Freed, began to attempt to cut through Irene's shield and expose any weakness, truly anything to put an end to her and restore things to the way they were. Almost everyone else apart from Freed had expressed an uncertainty about killing her, if to varying to degrees. Jellal saw no issue with it and believed it was necessary. Even if they could compel her to remove any and all curses she had laid, a notion to which he held considerable doubt, it would not put an end to the torment she could continue to cause and, he believed, would. Ultrear had said years before about Wendy that she was born of the darkness but brought into light. He saw very much the opposite in his mother in law.
"Interesting that you seem so fixated on me," Irene cocked her head towards Jellal, a dark look in her eyes. "I cannot help but wonder if it's because we are one and the same, you and I. Did you not attempt to kill nearly everyone in this room at one time or another?"
"I do not claim moral purity," Jellal shortly replied, his eyes narrow as he refocused his strength into cutting down her shield. "But the damage you have done is far worse than anything I have done, even if I know I will spend the rest of my life atoning for it."
"Is that so? Hmm...if that's the case, then you should know better than anyone what our worst passions can demand of a person," Irene hissed, pushing back against his own strength. "You've played with the darkness yourself, now haven't you? You just admitted as much."
"Yes, I have," Jellal gritted his teeth, still shocked by the power of her own magic and struggling to resist. "But you've never turned your back on it...I have."
Irene whipped around, one of her staffs smacking out against his sword and effectively protecting her. Freed, however, had moved in on her and briefly been able to break through her shield, cracking it with several of his runes and effectively restraining her for just a moment. In that time, Evergreen attempted to turn her to stone again but, to her horror, this would prove quite ineffective. With just barely enough time to prevent herself from being turned, Irene reflected Evergreen's magic back onto her in a curse. Though the entire Thunder Legion and Laxus and the others were horrified, it was Elfman who snapped, taking on his full demon form, quite ready to seize retribution for what had just been done to his wife. In tandem with Freed, Jellal, and Erza, he attacked Irene, this time her shield finally breaking under the weight of their concurrent attacks.
The force behind this, however, was not enough to stop her although even she silently acknowledged that she was expending a great deal of magic energy, far more than she had ever planned on. Under her breath, Irene blamed her daughter, whom she had not expected to have to fight, and the others, all of whom made it difficult for her to focus her targets. As she flurried miasmas and even more simple pulses of sharp, violent magic energy, the room itself became more and more of a blur. She could see their general figures, of course, and she knew who was trying to get to her or restrain her based on this, but it was not clear in the way one would ordinarily want in a fight. Realising that she still meant to kill the queen, now, Irene started towards Laxus, who was standing now, and, by the looks of it as she focused, holding Hisui quite protectively in one hand. His free hand was clenched into a fist, and there was nothing short of contempt in his eyes when he met Irene's haughty gaze, his lightning sparking around him.
Before she could get close enough to harm them, however, Mirajane, who, like her brother, had taken on her demonic form, swooped in, snagging her and pinning her against the wall, seething. Irene dropped her staffs and immediately tried to reach for one of the knives she had on her. She was struggling, however, and there was something about this woman's raw power that sent a cold wave down her spine. This was the woman she had seen for years as so little a threat she had not kept tabs on her. This woman, whom Irene had always assumed was simply a restrained, calm, and traditional; never making any sort of waves or having much to say and instead keeping to herself after years of being a sex icon in the magazines. The monster restraining her now, the monster who was breathing so heavily and seemed so ready for the kill was somehow also that woman.
How the fuck was that possible?
Refusing to acknowledge her own fears, Irene finally managed to grasp one of her knives and stab it deep into the woman's thigh, distracting her long enough to use her own magic to pry the bitch off of her. Though Mira did slam into the wall across the ballroom, her form dissipating as she felt what, she was sure, was at least two of her ribs cracking, she found the will to force herself out and rip the knife out of her thigh, casting the bloodied thing aside. Before she could move in on Irene again, however, she saw Siegrain whispering something to Laxus, who, based on the way his eyes narrowed, only strengthened his resolve. Mira did not have time to dwell on this, however, and barely got out of the way as Irene moved to attack her in retribution.
It was Fallon, however, who ultimately gave Mira enough time to get out of the way. Finally giving in, Caity temporarily transferred the rune of power which she had taken on to her goddaughter, who, her entire body shaking, stood up and opened one of the elemental spirit gates she had inherited from her grandmother. The energy in the air suddenly stood on end and caused a violent blur in Irene's vision as it was unleashed upon her. When she whipped around to see what had happened, the princess closed the gate and accessed her lesser used lightning magic, firing a doubly powerful, dark purple lightning strike at Irene, only just hitting her before the force of it reverberated against her.
"Haven't you done enough?"
The young princess prepared a second strike but could not complete it, instead missing Irene entirely and fainting from the overwhelming force around her, just barely caught by her godmother, with Erza and Bickslow immediately running in front of them when they saw the glassy, murderous look come through in Irene's eyes.
