Chapter 68

The Walking City

Totomaru

I groaned from the weight of carrying my unconscious comrades. I was fortunate that they were still unconscious, but I was beginning to question if it was wise to head back alone. Never mind, it was definitely a mistake. Taking Fairy Tail or Juvia would have been a huge risk given their shift in personality, but the chances of them flipping out on Angel were significantly lower. I mentally berated myself for not speaking up.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here…" came a voice to my right.

I dropped the handles to the wagon and gripped my sword. Now was not the time for me to be getting into a fight. I turned to the speaker and found it was none other than Wendelyn, the owner of the Mansion where we had set up base! Behind her were Lucy, Siegrain, and Lahar.

"Looking for a fight, handsome?" She proceeded to bust out laughing at me.

The others seemed…uneasy, almost like they were walking on eggshells. The only person who looked comfortable in this group was Wendelyn.

"What's…going on?" I asked.

After everything that happened, I wasn't sure if they were all well. Siegrain casted a powerful spell earlier and the fallout of that had me concerned. Speaking of the blue haired wizard saint, he looked worse for wear. It was like he got into a fight and lost big time. After what I witnessed, I didn't doubt that was the case.

"We're going to destroy Nirvana." Wendelyn explained, "Poor little Siegrain here threw a tantrum and can't fight anymore, so mommy's gotta take his place."

She said the second part in a teasingly mocking way. Siegrain looked away in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Did you see that purple magic stuff?" Lucy asked.

I nodded my head.

"Well, that thing…did something to Siegrain. He lashed out at Wendelyn. Um…the two fought and…Siegrain lost."

"Don't worry, I fixed him." Wendelyn proceeded to pinch his cheek.

"Would you stop that!"

Wendelyn chuckled, "No, this is too much fun."

"I see…well, regarding that purple stuff, it's apparently a function of Nirvana. It forces people to the side of light or dark. Oracion Seis' Angel was affected by and turned to the side of light." I motioned to my two locked up comrades, "They seemed to be switched to the side of darkness."

"I was wondering why you had them locked up." Lahar replied.

"Alright, open it." Wendelyn ordered.

"I don't think that's a good idea. They've been hostile to Fairy Tail."

"Do what she says." Siegrain told me, "She can turn them back to normal."

"Okay, but… I can't open it." I informed him, "Gray sealed it shut."

Wendelyn proceeded to walk up to the wagon, place her hands on the bars, and whisper an enchantment. She then ripped the ice bars from their place, stepped into the wagon and placed a hand on each of them.

"Personality Enchant: Reset. There, they should be back to normal."

"So, we just have to wait for them to wake up then." Lahar stated.

"I've got a better idea."

Wendelyn proceeded to slap each of them across the face! I was appalled by her behavior, but to her credit, they woke up immediately.

"Ow, why did you strike me, Mademoiselle?"

"How sad, that hurt!"

She turned to us, "They're awake."

To my amazement, they seemed to be normal again. I was becoming more and more impressed by this woman. Casting enchantments is no easy feat. Very few mages can consider themselves skilled enough to cast even the simplest of enchantments. What she was doing was at least an expert level enchantment.

"Monsieur Totomaru!" Sol called out, "We must apologize for our actions! We don't know what came over us."

"How sad, we acted so inappropriately!"

"Don't worry about it, you were under the influence of Nirvana." I explained to them.

I went on to explain to them how Nirvana seemed to work.

"Well, I don't see any reason to let this go to waste." Wendelyn said as she plopped herself down in the wagon, "We've got some strong men here, don't we?"

"I am not pulling." Wendelyn didn't appear to appreciate my statement.

It was Siegrain's turn to speak up, "While I'm not one to suggest we force our own comrades to push this needlessly…I believe Lucy may have a solution to our problem."

"I do?"

"Taurus is a more physical oriented Spirit, right?"

"Ooh, yeah, Taurus would totally be able to pull this wagon!" Lucy replied.

Lucy proceeded to summon the large bull-man, Taurus. He was more than eager to serve Lucy's interests and pull the wagon, with all of us in it. We all piled into the wagon and took off in the direction of Nirvana.

Gray

"Man, this place is amazing!" Natsu exclaimed.

"It is pretty impressive," Angel noted, "Especially given its age."

"To think that an entire city was just sealed away…" Juvia mused.

We had just reached where we assumed Nirvana was released from. We were definitely onto something. There were no cities like this on any map out here. If what Angel said was true, this was supposed to be a canyon of some kind.

Something brushed up against, me, causing me to jump in alarm. Juvia followed my lead and also jumped. I quickly realized she was walking pretty close to me compared to Natsu, Happy, and Angel.

"Oh, Juvia's sorry!"

"Eh, it's fine."

Happy giggled behind us, "She liiiiikes him."

I caught a deep red blush form on Juvia's face as she turned away. The sudden urge to punt Happy overcame me, but before I could go through with this thought, the ground beneath us began to shake. It was only minor at first, but it quickly grew in severity before large chunks of buildings were falling on top of us!

I used my magic to try and deflect some debris away from us. The shifting ground made it extremely difficult to do this, so when I noticed a large section of a building falling right over Juvia, I was forced to jump in and shove her out of the way. She gave a cute yelp in surprise as we hit the ground.

I rolled over to catch the sight of AN ENTIRE BUILDING falling over on top of us. I slammed my hands together and poured as much magic as I could into my spell. Thick slabs of ice shot from the ground and attempted to hold up the buildings. Unfortunately, between the shifting earth and the weight of the building, they shattered. Darkness clouded my vision as Juvia and I were buried under the building.

Fortunately, my spells were enough to keep the building from totally crushing us. The shaking finally stopped, and we were able to get our bearings.

"Gray, are you okay?" asked Juvia's voice.

"Juvia's fine. Are you?"

Her hand grabbed my arm, "I'm fine."

"I'm okay too! She says." Came a voice I didn't recognize at all.

I pulled Juvia behind me, "Who's there?"

"It's me, Sorano! She says." The voice said, "He appeared when the earthquake started. She says."

I calmed down a bit. I didn't even notice the Celestial Spirit appearing, not that I was paying much attention to her. I eyed Juvia's waist and saw that the pouch containing Angel's keys was still on her person. She could have stolen the key, but I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Where's Natsu and Happy? She asks.

"That's a good," I was cut off by what was most certainly Fire Dragon Slayer Magic shooting through a crack in the debris hitting me, "Gah, watch it Flame Brain!"

"You hit Juvia too!"

"I'm okay, Horologium protected me. She says."

I looked in the direction of the grandfather clock. While it was still dark in here, Natsu's attack did shed some light to our situation. It looked like Horologium was stuck in place. I didn't know much about infrastructure, but I was somewhat afraid that he may be keeping the debris from crushing us.

"You guys still alive?" Natsu yelled down to us.

"Yeah, you and Happy okay?" I yelled back.

"Yeah, Happy flew me to safety once the Earthquake started. By the way, you're not going to believe this…but the city is moving."

"Moving?"

"That earthquake, it looks like the city was digging itself out of the ground. It's got six huge legs and it's walking now!"

Natsu was just sounding crazy now, but now wasn't the time to dwell on that. For now, we had to worry about getting out from under this rubble.

"We can worry about that later; help dig us out!"

"Already on it!"

Thank you for reading and please review!