AN: Thank you Wadeparker, NinjaFang1331, AliceCullen3, QueerEpileptic, Goku275, and scoolharis.
I don't really have anything to say, so enjoy!
"I might as well accept the inevitable," Torafuzar said to Rogue during a lull in their fight. "You have inhuman, draconic powers. I won't be able to destroy you unless I use my—" the Etherious's body began to glow "—true power as a demon of the Book of Zeref!"
Torafuzar began to transform, taking on a more aquatic appearance. "Time for me to get serious!"
"Then I'll do the same!" shouted Rogue, activating his Shadow Drive and Dragon Force. "Shadow Dragon's Slash!"
Rogue threw a punch at the demon, only for Torafuzar to dodge and counter with a strike of his own. Before the dragon slayer could recover from the hit, the Etherious unleashed a barrage of punch on him, ultimately knocking the Fairy into a how.
"Ugh," groaned Rogue as his magical enhancements faded. "How are you able to overpower the Dragon Force like that?"
"I would hardly call that the Dragon Force" retorted Torafuzar, confusing Rogue. The demon's next words brought clarity, though. "You must have exhausted yourself fighting my guildmates earlier, because your power barely increased when you activated your abilities."
Rogue winced. "It's because I've been rushing around this whole time, looking for Frosch. I wasted too much power defeating weaker enemies quickly so my search wouldn't slow down, and now I don't have enough to defeat him."
"Hmph," snorted Torafuzar, walking up to Rogue. It was clear that the dragon slayer had given up, knowing the fight was over. "I didn't even need my Curse Power to defeat you."
"I'm sorry, Frosch," thought Rogue, beginning to cry. "I couldn't save you. I can't defeat this demon."
"But I can," uttered a strange voice, directly into Rogue's mind.
The Fairy frown, confused. Who was talking?
"Look right before you!" spoke the voice. "Your enemy is still before your eyes! I can give you the power to kill him!"
"Who are you!?" demanded Rogue, growing suspicious. "Are you an Etherious, using your Curse Power to try and control me!?"
"Fool…" insulted the voice. "I am your shadow! Take my power! Kill the demon!"
Maybe it was his draconic instincts, but Rogue could tell that the voice… that his shadow was telling the truth. For a moment, his mind flickered back to a story Skiadrum had told the dragon slayer when he was little.
The tale was of a young Shadow Dragon whose parents had been killed. The dragon's grief influenced his magic, bringing his own shadow to life. The shadow offered to help the dragon get revenge, only to take over his body instead. The shadow went on a rampage, killing many innocent people, human and dragon alike, before he himself was killed.
As he grew older, Rogue came to assume that the story was a metaphor for not letting your anger control you. Apparently, it was far more literal than that. Yet…
"…If it means I can save Frosch, then no price is too high! I accept!"
Torafuzar raised his arm, ready to kill his foe. However, before he could strike, the Etherious felt a darkness start to emanate from the Fairy. Torafuzar leaped back, just in time to avoid getting slashed by a shadow.
"Heh heh heh," chuckled the dragon slayer, dark patterns spreading across his body. "I am Shadow… the shadow that rules over fate!"
"Let's see how your new power hold up…" went Torafuzar, irritated but still confident he would win. "…in the watery depths of Hell! Tenchi Kaimei!"
Large tides of black water began to flood the room as two monsters, both fueled by the darkness of humanity, prepared for the final round of their fight.
"Thunderbolt," said Tempester, already in his Etherious form. The Curse surrounding Minerva with lightning, which then shot toward her. Before she got electrocuted, however, the Fairy teleported away.
"Territory Nihility!" yelled Minerva as she appeared in front of the Etherious, swinging a fist encased in her magic. Tempester stopped her attack with an open hand, then sent the Fairy flying with an Impact.
"Cyclone," murmured the demon, a whirlwind forming at his feet. He blasted toward his opponent, throwing a punch as he got close. Minerva teleported away again, then fired a Territory Explosion at Tempester as his gaze swept the area, looking for her.
"This isn't good," thought Minerva, grimacing as her foe brushed off the explosion and caught sight of her. She was still tired from earlier, and this Etherious had clearly learned his lesson after underestimating the Dragneels earlier. Although the two were currently locked in a stalemate, it was clear who would win if this became a battle of endurance.
"Inferno," spoke Tempester, setting fire to the terrain as he approached Minerva.
"Damn," cursed Minerva quietly, realizing the demon's intent as she teleported to a non-burning area. "He's trying to limit the places I can escape to! Could things get any worse!?"
An odd noise caused the two to pause their fight, turning toward the source of the sound. A river of black water came rushing toward them, forcing the two to higher ground.
"I just had to jinx myself," grumbled Minerva. The water may have extinguished Tempester's flames, but it was definitely worse. Not only was it clearly the result of a Curse and, therefore, highly dangerous, the dark water had shrunk Minerva's footholds much faster than Tempester's flames could have.
Minerva sighed. Twice now, she had gotten stuck in a losing fight with an Etherious, been saved by an ally, then gotten separated from her ally and ended up in another losing fight with an Etherious. "Hopefully, the third time's the charm and I'll get out of this dangerous cycle alive."
"Take this!" shouted Torafuzar, punching Shadow Rogue while swimming at a high speed. "And this!"
The Etherious attempted to strike the dragon slayer again, only for his foe to turn into a shadow, wrapping around Torafuzar as he passed by.
"Shadow Dragon's Waxwing Flash," thought Shadow Rogue as he materialized and the darkness surrounding Torafuzar buffeted the demon. The dragon slayer smirked, which pissed off the Etherious.
"You shouldn't get cocky," said Torafuzar arrogantly. "The waters of my Tenchi Kaimei are poisonous; a small sip and you'll die within five minutes. Not that a human could last that long underwater."
"I have to kill this demon quickly," decided Shadow Rogue with a frown, stitching his mouth shut with his magic. "Shadow Dragon's Blade!"
The dragon slayer shot a blade of darkness at his opponent, only for Torafuzar to swim around it and slam into him. The Etherious then swam upward, before shooting back down at Shadow Rogue.
"Deep Impact!" yelled Torafuzar, punching the dragon slayer into the floor. As the demon moved to strike again, Shadow Rogue started preparing an attack of his own.
"Shadow Dragon's Eruption!"
Darkness burst forth from the ground, enveloping the two of them. Unharmed by his own spell, Shadow Rogue grinned cruelly as he imaged the look on Torafuzar face before the attack hit the demon.
Unfortunately for the dragon slayer, his spell was not as damaging as he believed. As the darkness faded, Shadow Rogue only had a moment to be shocked before Torafuzar delivered a right hook to his face. Worse, the punch snapped part of the stitching on his mouth, allowing the air out of it.
"Fuck!" shouted Shadow Rogue as his strength started to fade. His grip on the body faded, leaving the true Rogue back in control.
Torafuzar, seeing the bubble emerge from his foe's mouth, realized what had happened. The Etherious gave a nasty smile of his own, content to watch his opponent die slowly.
"I've… really been messing up today, haven't I," thought Rogue, his imminent death providing a moment of clarity. "I let Frosch get captured, the guild hall was destroyed because of me, and now this. Even if my shadow won, I still would've lost. I would've been nothing but a mass of darkness and evil. That isn't a version of me that belongs with my friends in Fairy Tail."
As the dragon slayer's vision started fading, he noticed a light above him. Rogue brushed it off after a second, having accepted his demise. He closed his eyes, mentally wishing that he could repent for his sins in his next life.
*Glub*
Air rushed into Rogue's lungs, causing his eyes to shoot open. Before him, he saw a familiar Exceed giving his mouth-to-mouth!
"Frosch!" exclaimed Rogue mentally, overjoyed and confused in equal measures.
"Rogue!" the Exceed's eyes seemed to say. "I don't know what's going on here, but I believe it you! Now win your race against that fish guy!"
Internally, Rogue chuckled. "'Repent in my next life'? What was I thinking? Leaving behind everyone I care about would be the worst sin I could commit! No, I'll redeem myself here and now by defeating this Etherious!"
His resolve cemented, Rogue swam toward Torafuzar, shaking the demon out of a state of confusion (after all, the Etherious had seen a green cat in a pink frog suit show up out of nowhere and kiss a human).
"It's all or nothing!" thought Rogue, reactivating Shadow Drive and the Dragon Force for a single strike.
Realizing his foe's intent, Torafuzar attempted to flee and wait out Rogue's limited oxygen supply. Before he could get far, however, a magical rope wrapped around him, pinning his arms and legs together and holding him in place.
Rogue waited on casting his spell until he was a few feet away the Etherious, staring him directly in the eye. "SHADOW DRAGON'S ROAR!"
The dragon slayer screamed these words as he obliterated Torafuzar's head and upper body. With its source dead, the dark water rapidly began disappearing. Within moments, all of it had dried up.
"You won!" cheered Frosch, still not fully understanding the situation.
"Thanks *huff* to you," replied Rogue while panting heavily, giving a small smile before turning to his other ally in the fight. "And you. Thank you both."
"Well, we're not out of the woods yet," said Millianna, rubbing her head sheepishly. "Crime Sorcière and I learned something terrible from Silver."
"How could this be?" questioned Tempester, gawking as the dark water that was previously flooding the area vanished within seconds. "Torafuzar's been defeated?"
"It's because we're Fairy Tail!" declared Minerva. "When our friends are on the line, nobody can stop us! Territory Explosion!"
The Etherious raised his arms in defense as her spell blasted him, minimizing the damage. "Hmph. You don't have enough strength left to defeat me. Fw—"
A spiky vine of purple ice shot through Tempester's chest, cutting off his pre-Cyclone 'fwirl.' The demon went limp, held up by the ice impaling his body.
"Ice Devil Slayer Magic. How convenient."
Minerva turned toward Ultear, the person who spoke and (apparently) killed Tempester. The S-Class Fairy gaped at her benefactor (who had dark marking across her body), questions racing through her mind.
"…Why didn't you do that to Torafuzar earlier?" Minerva finally asked.
"Because I couldn't," replied Ultear. "Even now, I'm only holding onto this magic temporarily."
"But that isn't important right now," continued Ultear, cutting off Minerva before she could ask what the ex-Dark Mage meant. "It turns out that Face is actually a collection of 3,000 bombs rather than a single one. Worse, Keyes was able to reanimate Crawford's corpse and had it activate the remaining 2,999 Faces. Millianna, Meredy, and I split up to find the control room and shut them down, but we're going to need all the help we can get. Do you think you have enough strength left to help us?"
Minerva's body was a collection of burns, cuts, and bruises. Mentally, she was worn out from battle after battle. Her stamina, both physical and magical, was reaching its limit. Despite this, she could only think of one possible answer to give Ultear.
"Of course I do! You can count on me!"
Omake
"I don't understand how Happy used to do it," spoke Frosch, locked in a Tartaros cell. "Being naked feels cold and weird."
The Exceed had woken up in that cell, sans clothing. Their signature frog suit sat outside the cell, left there by Seilah. They could not leave, so they were waiting there for Rogue. He was their friend, so he would rescue Frosch.
Suddenly, the ground began to rumble, and the floor, walls, and ceiling transformed into a gooey substance. Frosch used their Aera to try and avoid the goop, but it ended up swallowing the Exceed regardless.
…
"Huh?" went Frosch, waking up to find themselves on solid ground. They looked around, and everything was normal. "It must have been a dream. Brrr…"
Shivering, the Exceed walked over to their frog suit, put in on, and then continued waiting for Rogue.
Five minutes later, Frosch noticed they were now outside of the jail cell and decided to look for their partner.
AN: …And two more Etherious bite the dust. Now, only Kyôka, Seilah, Mard, and 2,999 Faces remain (excluding the Natsu/E.N.D. situation and Tartaros's grunts). This story arc is definitely nearing its end.
Bye for now!