Acnologia curled his hand into a fist then released the tension, the pressure around the area slightly relieving as well.
"It's not everyday you're treated to so much magic power at once," he said. "First the Dragon Queen, then a Dragon Slayer, and now this one."
"My name is Jellal." The man put his hands into a formation. "Maybe after today I'll be known as a Dragon Slayer, too."
"Don't even bother," Kai muttered, stepping up next to Jellal. "Throw as much magic as you want at him, he'll gobble it up."
"I absorb all magic," Acnologia said. "If you didn't catch me off-guard I'm sure those couple of attacks you performed on me would be quite the treat."
"We have to defeat him physically," Kai said.
"I can increase our speed," Jellal said.
Kai summoned his sword into his hand. "That's something, at least."
"Maybe you can increase your speed enough to match me when I'm putting in some effort," Acnologia said. "Perhaps that will present a challenge. And what was that I heard? One of the other Dragon Slayers is returning?"
"Wendy's Enchantments will help, we should wait for her," Jellal said.
"No time," Kai said. "We have to engage him now."
Jellal looked Kai up and down. "Like that? Kai, you can't stand for much longer in this fight."
"Hardly matters, as long as I'm between Acnologia and Erza."
Then, he sucked in more of the Ice Magic from the sword. Jellal grimaced and nodded.
Acnologia closed his fist and the entire area tightened in magic power again.
"Not for long," he said, and surged magic toward the two of them, who both dodged out of the way.
"Meteor!" Jellal cast, and a golden light bathed around him.
He shot at Acnologia, who still saw the attack coming. Kai sprinted toward Acnologia, who dodged Jellal's attack then swirled around to face Kai, who swung his sword down.
Acnologia blocked Kai's arm and almost blasted Kai point-blank with a Dragon Roar that Jellal forced him out of with a swift kick.
"Faster than I anticipated!" Acnologia jeered.
Kai grimaced, sliding to a halt. Jellal had massively increased his magic power in order to boost his speed, and it was already clear how much of a toll this would take on him.
Jellal whipped around and kicked Acnologia in the chest, but Acnologia caught his leg and absorbed some of the aura surrounding Jellal. Jellal panicked but couldn't break free as Acnologia grabbed on tight.
Kai made his move, hoping for something like this. He hated thinking of Jellal as some sort of bait, but also knew that Acnologia would be attracted to that high amount of magical output.
Kai stabbed down at Acnologia, shredding the blade against his ribs and spewing blood. Acnologia roared and slammed his head into Kai's sending him stumbling back with stars flooding his vision.
Jellal broke free and managed to punch Acnologia hard across the face and even send him flying across the field.
Kai dropped back on the ground, unable to keep to his feet. He stabbed his sword in the ground trying to maintain his balance.
"How dare you draw my blood?" Acnologia seethed, and a black aura burst around him, with blue bits of lightning crackling around him.
Kai smiled despite the throbbing in his head. Jellal blitzed over and helped him to his feet.
The ground crumbled beneath Acnologia as the skies also darkened and blue lightning crashed down around them. Jellal cast another Meteor spell and rejoined the battle against Acnologia, who easily outclassed him in terms of speed since he surged his magic power.
Kai grimaced, unsure of his own limits and what else he had left in the tank. He knew that the real threat wasn't the man but the dragon that Acnologia hid, even if he was drawing on similar amounts of power now. Acnologia just refused to dignify the fight in any way with his draconic form.
Kai flared his magic and powered up even more, with some flakes of ice dragon scales appearing on his arm. With a roar, he rejoined the battle.
Jellal struck Acnologia hard in the chest and Kai came swooping in with a sword thrust that nearly impaled his leg. Acnologia roared and the force of his magic alone shoved the two of them back, but they remained standing. Blood spilled down from Kai's head where he and Acnologia had collided and his body still ached from their skirmish earlier on.
Having Jellal was little more than a godsend, giving Kai several opportunities to seize the moment and take the dragon down. Unfortunately, Acnologia put up an impenetrable wall, making it hard to capitalize.
Kai summoned up more strength, igniting an aura around him, but not casting his Takeover spell. Not yet.
He needed Dragon Force. That level of power combined with the Takeover spell would surely—
The cliffside completely shattered and Kai moved from his spot, leaping to safety as Fairy Hills crumbled and fell into the ocean. Acnologia and Jellal collided several times in the air, with Jellal incapable of seriously defending himself but using old Darkness magic as a cover to create shadows around Acnologia and pull his focus.
Kai couldn't help feeling small, still trying to think of how he could fight Acnologia, how he could get in there. He gripped his sword tighter.
Wait…
"Jellal, catch!" Kai roared, and flung the sword at Jellal.
Acnologia moved to intercept the blade. Kai smiled right before Acnologia could touch it.
"Ice Dragon Twister!"
The sword flashed and Acnologia laughed, but, was once more caught up in the moment of finding magic that Jellal was able to swoop around and deliver a back-breaking kick to Acnologia.
The Apocalypse Dragon slammed and then bounced off the ground but Kai was already there, kicking him straight in the face then following it up with a hard punch in the chest, but caught the rags that Acnologia wore and slammed him into the ground.
Acnologia destroyed even more of the countryside, opening up a crater where he'd been, and used that magic power to push Kai away. Kai refused to let up, though, ripping away Acnologia's shirt and staying in the crater with him while he filled it with magic, ready to cause an explosion that Jellal quickly dissipated with his own magic, casting a spell to counteract it.
Acnologia started to absorb that as well but Kai didn't let him, punching him hard in the stomach. Acnologia hardly flinched but it did interrupt the flow of magic and allowed Kai the chance to try another attack that Acnologia blocked.
"Fool."
"Takes one to know one."
Kai's sword sliced through the debris of smoke that Jellal had created and if it weren't for Acnologia's heightened senses it would have certainly blinded him; instead, it made a hard cut across his face, almost slicing off his nose. He broke out of Kai's hold and blasted him back.
The blast sent Kai through the rubble and almost out into the ocean. Kai slammed his fist into the ground to stop himself.
The lightning around Acnologia turned from blue to black and he took but a few steps forward, wiping the blood from his face, before encompassing his hand around it.
"I wished to withhold this form until I could trend the countryside asunder, but that is no loner an option," Acnologia said through the symphony of destruction. "Now you shall face the Apocalypse!"
A strong, luminescent bolt of lightning struck him and in a flash the darkness took form, with two great wings spreading and blowing away the clouds that'd convened around the battle around.
A roar that still sent shivers through Kai broke through sound and with a single beat of his wings, Acnologia took to the skies, just as terrifying as ever, though with a few more scars and cuts along his body.
Jellal slid down next to Kai, who summoned his sword to him once more.
"That's our real enemy," Kai said.
Jellal nodded, though couldn't say anything.
"Still no magic?"
"At this point? What difference will it make?" Kai muttered. "We'll just have to throw everything we can at him and hope for the best.'
"That's the Fairy Tail spirit."
Acnologia landed on the broken cliffside as Kai clambered out of the crater. He'd almost forgotten how large the Apocalypse Dragon was. Acnologia glowered down at Kai and Jellal with more malice than Kai thought even possible.
"I shall destroy you both in a single attack and leave nothing of you," Acnologia said. "I hoped to spare you, Kai, to make you suffer, but I will not be able to control myself anymore!"
The dragon sucked in a mighty breath, the magic coalescing from his core into his mouth, but before it could be fired there came another flash and something struck Acnologia in his chest and then a massive structure flew in from over Kai and slammed into Acnologia.
He grunted and fell back, his leg contorting at a strange angle—since he'd been standing rather than flying as a means of grandstanding over Jellal and Kai—and he stepped back.
The structure, what Kai quickly realized was the battleship Christina, spun around.
"Hurry, both of you, get on board!"
Erza?
Kai glanced up and saw Erza standing there, at the front of the ship, with Iggy.
Jellal sprinted over to Kai, casting Meteror and grabbing Kai. As Acnologia got back up, Jellal shot them onto the ship and they took off.
Kai's stomach lurched and nausea immediately overcame him. Some other footsteps scrambled over to him and some strange smell wafted beneath his nose before the nausea went away and he got back to his feet.
Erza sprinted over and wrapped him a tight hug. Kai sent his sword away and wrapped an arm around her, the adrenaline still coursing through his body to make him numb to the pain he knew was brewing.
Wendy sprinted over as well. He fell into Iggy's arm when Erza let him go.
Wendy got to quick work with healing him, taking a bit more time than either of them cared to admit.
Jellal was looking alright, nothing one of Ichiya's healing Perfumes couldn't help.
Kai glanced behind Christina, where Acnologia continued his pursuit. The Trimens were above, working their literal magic to increase the speed of the ship, and keep Acnologia out on the water, away from everyone else.
"Thanks for the save," Kai said to Ichiya.
"We needed more of a plan than just defeating him like that," Ichiya said. "Christina has quite a bit of formidable firepower to fight him."
"Forget it if it's magic-based," Kai said.
"Acnologia is not an elemental Dragon Slayer," Jellal said. "He'll absorb any magic thrown his way."
"There has to be some way to beat him, though," Kai said. "I just…I haven't figured it out yet."
Erza grimaced and rested a hand on Kai's shoulder. He sighed, relieved to feel back to his full strength once again.
"There is one way, and it must work. An over calculation on my part has put us in this situation. It's also put quite a dreadful burden on you Dragon Slayers."
That voice came near the entrance to the main hold of the ship, and a long blonde-haired woman stood in the doorway. Her clothes appeared wildly out of fashion, though similar to what Ichigo or Zeref would wear, and her face seemed worn and tired.
The most striking thing about her voice, though, was how much it resembled Lucy's.
When the group stepped forward to go into the hold, the resemblance to Lucy only heightened.
But that wasn't how Kai recognized her.
Wendy noticed the expression on Kai's face, too.
"I had the same thought," Wendy said.
Something deep in Kai's memory tried to claw its way out. He squinted at her, taking a few careful steps forward.
The ship swerved away from one of Acnologia's attacks but Kai hardly took notice.
"I know you," Kai muttered.
The woman smiled and nodded. She held out a hand and he clasped it.
"I am Anna," she said. "Anna Heartfilia."
"Heartfilia?" Jellal echoed.
"Your friend Lucy is my descendant," she said, and sighed. "I come to you from four hundred years in the past. When Acnologia is rising to power, when Zeref is preparing to execute his first master stroke, and when your father became immortal, Kai. And when your parents, the dragons, disappeared into your bodies."
"Four hundred years ago?" Kai asked.
Anna nodded. "You must have guessed by now that there is something about the Dragon Slayers that is…not correct. That is not right. I know you've both felt it."
Kai nodded. Nerves overcame him but he held them in check.
"You are not children of this time," Anna said. "All of you were born somewhere around four hundred years ago, shortly after Natsu Dragneel's death and around the time of E.N.D.'s death."
A shiver ran through Kai. Carla stood near Wendy while she absorbed the information.
Anna's face slowly returned to Kai's memory, and he could see her more vividly standing near Kairi at times.
"I helped your dragons teach you all," Anna said. "I taught you to be human, to read, to write, to understand the basics you would need to survive. The Dragons taught you to survive, to use your magic so that when the time came…you would be ready."
"For what?" Kai asked, even though he had a good guess at the answer.
Anna remained unflinching, despite some of the pain and remorse in her voice.
"There came a night just right for us to execute this plan," she said, not able to look Kai or Wendy in the eye. "Zeref and I had toiled at it for years."
"Zeref?" Jellal asked.
"He was not always the Black Wizard," Anna said, with a bit of a snap. "He too sought to defeat Acnologia, and we thought we had the ultimate plan to defeat him: to send our six natural-born Dragon Slayers forward in time when there would be a greater abundance of Ethernano and magical power to defeat him.
"The Dragons hid themselves away in your souls to prevent you from becoming corrupted as he did, and when the time came, we used the Eclipse gate to user you all through to Fiore." Anna grimaced. "But it came at a heavy price. My other descendant, Layla, perished as a result of pushing herself too far with the Eclipse Gate."
"Lucy's mother…" Erza muttered.
"Lucy's family has been in on all of this?" Iggy wondered aloud. "Did her father know?"
"We all returned in 777, and all went our separate ways." Anna then met Kai's eyes. "How do you think you managed to get from Iceberg to the shores of Fiore, Kai?"
"Why don't we remember any of this?" Kai asked.
"The travel through time must have traumatized you in some way, timed with the loss of your dragons," Anna said.
Erza leaned against Kai, who tried his best to take it all in.
"All of this…to stop Acnologia," Kai muttered. He glanced out the back window. Acnologia still pursued.
"Yes. But now I believe we have a solution that may supersede our plan." Anna stepped forward, and an image displayed from one of the main lacrima screens. Anna pointed to a small tear in the middle of it. "For years I tried to search for this magic. It seemed like Eclipse to me, but, not artificial as we'd made it.
"This is the Space Between Time, essentially a force that Eclipse draws on. It is an interdimensional tear in the fabric of reality. I believe if we can trap Acnologia in it then we will defeat him."
"We can't attack him?" Kai asked.
"Remind us how that went," Iggy muttered.
Anna nodded. "Unfortunately, there is a steep price to be paid with this."
The ship violently swerved onto of the way of something. Acnologia continued his pursuit until he slammed into something invisible, disappearing for just a moment until he could blast forward again. The ship whirled around, staying in this central area while avoiding Acnologia.
"It is closed," Anna said. "And will only be opened by Zeref."
"How do we get him to open it?" Erza asked.
"It's conditional," Anna said. "He must obtain enough magic power to reopen it to do so. Zeref likely has his own places for the Space Between time and Fairy Heart. I imagine he won't do anything with it until he receives that power."
"He cannot get the power of Fairy Heart, if he does then it's all over," Iggy said.
Kai stepped forward. "Natsu and Gray are still on the ground. They won't let us down and they'll stop Zeref, even if he gets the Fairy Heart. We're up here, and we have to stop Acnologia."
"Even if we can get the thing open, how are we going to manage to get Acnologia in?" Carla asked.
Kai sighed and silence befell them. Only one thought passed through his mind, but he didn't like it. He liked it even less when he glanced at Erza.
Iggy, though, let out a small chuckle.
"We're all thinking it, aren't we?" Iggy asked.
"We are," Jellal said, his voice soft. "And I'll do it."
"Not on your life," Iggy said. "He'll eat up whatever magic you even think about using. I need to do it."
"Do what?" Wendy asked.
Kai sighed, glancing right at Erza, who locked eyes with him in response.
"Hold off Acnologia until the tear is open," Kai muttered. "And none of you can do it. You'll just be prey to him. He won't want to toy with you. I'll go."
"You're exactly what he wants!" Iggy exclaimed.
"That's why I need to do it," Kai said. "It'll keep the rest of you safe and out of the way and I'll be a perfect distraction for him!"
"Kai, do you even hear what you're saying?" Erza asked.
"I do," Kai said, and grabbed her hands. "Erza, lead everyone else to safety. I believe in Natsu and Gray but what if there are other Spriggans, what if Spriggans start coming back somehow? We need you down there."
Erza squeezed his hands in return. "Absolutely not, I won't have you throw away your life as bait."
"I'm not throwing away my life, I'm saving the world!"
"And he's not going alone," Iggy said, stepping forward. She clasped a hand on Kai's shoulder. "Think I'd let you take the skies without me, partner? Not on your life."
"I owe this to Kai," Jellal said, nodding.
Erza pursed her lips, not for a second taking her eyes off of Kai. His welled up before Erza's.
"I'll be right back," he said, his voice soft and, to his ears, that of a liar.
"Don't do this," Erza said. "We can stay in the Christina."
"If he catches up we're done for," Kai said. He checked out the window. They were readying to make another pass near the tear. It was do or…die.
Anna stepped forward. "I dislike this plan, but it will buy us time for Zeref to hopefully execute his plan."
"I can't believe we're relying on Zeref claiming victory to do this," Carla muttered.
"Zeref won't win," Kai said. "And neither will Acnologia."
Ichiya glanced at the three and nodded. "Meeeen. Follow me then, brave souls."
Erza clasped Kai's hand and spun him around, kissing him hard and with passion. It almost made him stay, to ensure that she would be safe.
But that was it…doing this would ensure her safety.
The three wizards followed Ichiya to a platform that raised them up to the top of the Christina. Erza and Wendy sprinted out after them, their hair whipping in the wind.
Iggy tied her hair up and spread her wings. Kai cast his Takeover magic and Jellal cast Meteor over himself.
Acnologia pursued them, then let out a howling laugh.
"So you come again, this time with bolstered numbers? It means nothing!"
His voice filled the skies, but soon, so did the magic of the Fiore mages.
Iggy moved first and fastest, followed by Jellal, and then Kai, who blasted after his friends toward the dragon to the end the world, hoping their magic would be just enough to seclude him away forever.
