White Eclipse
Chapter 48

[Flashback]
Inside Tartaros guild, which was really a castle underground. Inside the main room, a younger teenage Daityas sat around with a bunch of older figures.
"Not bad kid." One of the older mages said as he slapped Daityas on the back. "Taking down an entire city by yourself for an initiation mission is a big deal here."
The young Daityas smirked as he enjoyed the veterans of Tartaros surrounding him, complementing the mage on a job well done.
"No biggie." He replied, shrugging his shoulders as he comically buffed his nails against his chest. "I'm just glad to have one under my belt, or rather.." He lifts his right foot, to show a splatter of blood on the underside. "Under my boot."
The other dark mages laughed at the pun. The unison of laughs causing an uproar.
"You keep this up kid, and SS class won't be a dream, but just a pit stop. Your magic is one of a kind. Never even heard of a demon slayer, let alone a Hells flames one. Sounds like you were meant to be here."
Daityas grinned once more. "I was meant to be here. I've found my calling. And I'll make you guys proud. Not that your feelings matter to me."
They all laugh again. "I like this kid."
During the uproar, a petite girl in rags and barefoot walks in. Once spotted, she doesn't move as a large shadowy figure of a man walks in behind her, patting her on the shoulder.
"Everyone, this here, is Tayakata. Say bellow Tayakata."
The little Tayakata crosses her arms, not saying a word, causing the man behind her to laugh. "Isn't she a doll. She's a new member."
"Geez master, you're really recruiting them young now aren't you."
"Age doesn't matter here in Tartaros. This guild, the strongest dark guild in Fiore, is a guild for more than talented individuals, who've either turned their back on the world due to what it's done to them; or if the world has turned it's back on them. Tayakata here is the second reason. You see, Tayakata had someone really important taken from her."
Taya gasps a bit. "Please don't tell them"
The shadowy figure, now known as the guild master at the time, chuckles again. "Now now Tayakata, you're a member of this family now. Your story is our story. I'm sure some of the guild members would love to share their story with you as well. Now, Tayakata here lost some one very important to her. Her sister, Namiyaka. No one would help her,
So while I was out on a stroll I found poor little Tayakata over here, wrecking a city all on her own. I was quite impressed. So after hearing her story, I decided to let her join a real family. A family that would help her rid the world of the people who helped take her sister away from her. Can't you see it in her eyes? She's Tartaros material alright!"
"Tch.. Let me see if she's Tartaros material." Daityas hopped up from his seat and walked over to her, now standing across from Taya.
"...think fast!" As the guild master stepped away, Daityas fired out a powerful ball of Hells flames magic towards Taya. Impact happened, and then a cloud of dust. As the dust cloud disappeared, a dome of dark vectors appeared and then disappeared back into the ground as Taya stood unphased, but a bit annoyed that she was attacked.
"Oh, look at that. What are those?" A random in the guild asked.
The guild master then walked back over to Taya, putting his hand back on her shoulder. "Ladies and Gentlemen of Tartaros, meet the dark vector mage, Tayakata."
With a grin, Daityas walks over and drapes an arm around Taya's neck as he leaned on her. "Not bad, I like ya!"
"Like me?" She stood puzzled. "But you just attacked me.."
Daityas blinks, but then laughs. "Like someone told me the other day, 'You better get used to it, because that's how we get along.' It's all part of being in a dark guild. Everything we do makes us stronger."
"Look at Daityas, talking like he's been here for ages." The guild master laughs once again as Daityas and the others join in. Daityas pulls Taya in closer as he continues to laugh invading the uneasy girl's personal space.
"You're gonna love it here."
"I don't love anything ever, but I'm sure this place will be quite enjoyable."
[End Flashback.]
"Shadow make: Lance!" From Kiora's replica of Gray Fullbuster's stance, out of a black seal came four fast paced shadow lances. They head towards Taya, but the dark vector mage sends up a wall of vectors, blocking the incoming shadow lances. Without moving an inch from her spot, hands by her side as her hair blew in the slight wind, Taya summoned more and more dark vectors towards the two dark mages. Usually, they would quietly appear from the ground, but this time they violently uprooted the earth as the charged and attack Maggie and Kiora. They both charged toward Taya from each side, splitting the attention of the dark mages. They continuously dodge the vectors without losing momentum, making their way towards Taya. Maggie arrived first, and from both of her hands, she fires off a whip made completely of her molten liquid. Matching her strength, Taya summons two more dark vectors that slam into the lava whips. Behind that, another one comes towards Maggie at a high speed, scraping her shoulder.
"You bloody-" Maggie winces as she holds her shoulder from the sharp vector that pierced a bit of her shoulder. Though she held her shoulder, when she let go, the deep cut at the edge of her shoulder disappears as lava runs over it like a platelet, covering the wound and slowly hardening into molten rock. Taya had already turned her attention towards Kiora, keeping her peripherals on Maggie. Kiora gives a nonchalant grin as she takes her shadow make stance.
Once again, the tiny ball hovers over Kiora's hand. The second Taya sees it, she charges Kiora. The death scythe reforms and Kiora quickly gives a diagonal swing, Taya stops running quickly as she shielded herself with her own dark vectors. The death scythe cuts right through them, yet stops short because of them. Taya could feel the wind from the attack against her nose, and a small drop of blood drips from the very tip of her nose. Kiora continues her smug look as she rears back once more. Taya charges her once again, this time surfing on a few of her vectors. Kiora slings her scythe horizontally, but Taya dodged by raising herself higher in the air. The slice from her scythe cuts her vectors in half as Taya was now suspended in air.
"I've got you now you piece of-"
Before Kiora could finish, a grayish-black magic seal formed under her and violently firing out, was a multitude of dark vectors, harmfully pushing Kiora into the air.
"No, I got you." Taya twists her body into a front flip, leading with her right foot as she uses the momentum to aim a devastating axe kick at the top of Kiora's head; but as she was about to make contact, two lava whips wrap around her legs and pull Taya down with force. Maggie then drags her around through the ground until she flung her towards the tsunami, Taya just now stopping short. "And we're the predictable ones!? Honey we remember that tired ol combination of yours."

"We need to help her!" Aira yelled as she set to run after the three fighting mages. Jack grabbed Aira by the arm, and as Aira looked back at the drunken mage, Jack merely shook his head no. "It's too late, that thing is about to hit any minute now. Taya's fight is over soon, whether she likes it or not and she knows it."
Aira, listening to Jack's words, lowers her head as she takes a few steps behind Jack who now stood with his arms crossed, waiting. Everyone waited along with him.
"Taya..." Nami watched with worry, waiting for her sister to get back before Jack went on with his plan.
"Hurry up Taya... You're cutting it close." Jack thought to himself. He then looked at Zalen. "Get ready...we have the city to think about, so in the next minute, we'll begin."
"What!?" Nami turned to Jack. "We can't start without Taya hear! She'll get trapped!"
"I know that. And so does she. It's her choice out there."
"Who do you think you are!? We aren't gonna leave Taya!"
"It's her choice Nami! If she wants to survive she'll get here!" Jack's over powering voice caused Nami to stop arguing, even though she still was completely against the decision. "Taya! Hurry up!"
"That's harsh." Natsu says as he crosses his arms, feeling bad for Taya.
"It is.." Lucy replied. She held her arm, feeling the results of her own thinking, of watching Nami cry if Taya didn't make it to the city in time.
"Leave it alone." Gajeel says as he walks up behind the two, crossing his arms as well.
Natsu looked back at Gajeel, and then clenched a fist. "It's not fair though... There's gotta be another way."
"If anyone knew of one without actually knowing, it'd be you Salamander."

Taya struggled to her feet, feeling the effects of her badly burned ankles, and also being violently dragged into the ground. He eyes widen as she could feel the heat against her back and without turning around, she takes off running forward, directly at both Kiora and Maggie, the only place she could run to. Her ankles were in too much pain so she took to riding on her vectors.
"You really think you're about to just surf right past us doll?" Maggie cackles a bit as she summons another magic circle. Ten more appear behind that as Taya surfs overt them. Small, inactive volcanoes fire upward from under Taya violently, trying to knock her off her ride. Kiora slams her first back into her open palm after dispersing her scythe. "Shadow make: Wall!" Upon her summoning, a wall of shadow magic appears right in front of the dark vector mage. Taya tries to sharply turn to the right, causing her to slow down enough for another volcanic formation to slam into her, knocking her off of her vectors and on the her back on the ground. Kiora quickly goes into her shadow make stance and without an incantation, four restraints made of shadows sprout from the ground and wrap around her wrists and ankles tightly, keeping the mage pinned to the ground. Kiora and Maggie now stood over Taya as the wave of lava was feet away from contact with Taya and yards away from Magnolia.
"Bloody hell, Taya. Seems like you still got it. And by still got it I mean you never had it. The old guild master failed in recruiting when it came to you huh?"
"Now now Maggie. You know better than to talk to.." Kiora punts Taya right in the temple, causing her to pass out instantly. "..Trash! Have fun melting though."
Kiora and Maggie turn to each other as Kiora turns them into shadowy figures. "No use staying here! We won!" Kiora says as she high fives Maggie.
"Who bad?"
"We bad!"
"The greatest team! Lets head back and rub it in everyone's faces."
"I swear Maggie, if Zeref didn't know Daityas personally, we'd be his favorites from hearing this story."
They both disappear, leaving Taya stranded as the wave continued moving forward, less than feet away.
"Taya!" Nami called out as she began to sprint towards her. Adamantine quickly grabs her. "Taya! Adam let me go!"
He refused, and held her as tears began to stream down Nami's eyes.
Natsu began running off.
"Don't you dare!" Jack yelled at Natsu, causing him to look back, upset at the decision.
"We never asked for your help, and we don't need it now! Back up Salamander."
"So you're just gonna let her die!? Can you not think of another way to save-"
As Natsu began yelling back at Jack, Takeru took off in a full sprint.
"Takeru!" Jack yelled for his guild mate, but Tak refused to stop as he kept running to the dark vector mage who was just less than a hundred yards away.
"Dammit! Okay Zalen!"
"B-but Jack.."
"Dammit Zalen don't do this to me now, we have a city of homes and people to save! Do it now!"
Hesitant at first, Zalen steps up to the edge of the city, and widened his stance. He removes his glasses and tucked them away as the building mage then spreads his arms out as he bares his teeth. A huge, green magic circle appears and out of it, a thick and massive iron wall raises upward, the length of the city. Zalen closes his eyes as he quickly felt his magic deplete from such a heavy task. After finishing, Zalen drops to his rear, gasping for air from being worn out. The second he was done, Adamantine puts Nami down and walks over to the iron wall. Jack and Selene run to him and jump towards him. Adamantine then slings them both into the air as they reach the top of the massive iron wall. Now standing on the ledge, Jack went first as he summoned a giant earth colored magic seal. Rising from it was a giant wall made from the earth. Summoning it right in front of the iron wall and with the same length, Jack falls to a knee himself as he finished. Selene was up. Diamond scales flooded her skin as her hair waved in the wind. "Hang in there Tak.."
As the diamond scales cover just under her eyes, a diamond colored magic circle appears under her. Selene then grips the wall of iron and earth, coating them both in diamonds, putting strenuous pressure on herself as she did so, just like Zalen and Jack. She didn't stop until both walls were completely coated. Once done, she too was exhausted and fell to her rear as
Jack
Grabbed her and jumped down, with Adamantine catching them both.
Takeru was running as fast as he could, making his way towards Taya who was less than a foot away from being incinerated. He trips, but rolls and bounces right back up, barely losing any momentum. Taya continued to struggle, trying to break her way out of the restraints.
"Stupid...spoiled little shadow... I'll kill them both once I-" Taya looked directly up, the shock just now hitting her as she saw the top of the tsunami of molten lava. The heat began to make her sweat as she watched helplessly.
"Taya!"
She lifted her head, seeing Takeru run towards her. "Tak, it's too late.."
Ignoring her negativity, Takeru dove for the mage. Everything slowed down as Takeru raced against the base of the wave. Less than inches away... The lava failed to reach Taya in time as Takeru turned into his shadow mode, grabbing Taya in the process and pushes them both through the ground.
Back inside the city, everyone waited behind the reinforced wall quietly, some internally mourning prematurely for Takeru and Taya. A few seconds later, in the middle of the crowd of mages, Takeru appears, cradling Taya until she got down on her own will.
"Taya!" Nami runs over, hugging her sister as she continued crying.
"Sheesh.. Come on Nami. I'm fine. Thanks Takeru."
"Eh... Don't thank me yet. Lets see what happens with the lava flow."
Luke looks up as the rumbling of the earth picks up. "Here it comes."
Cygnus and Waiston stood next to each other, waiting as Kairi took flight to get a good look. The angelic mage gave an estimated count down.
"It's coming in three...two...one...!" Kairi stays speechless as her eyes widen. Somehow, the tsunami of the molten liquid reaches new heights, now towering over the wall and flying mage. "Run for it!"Jack yells as Kairi quickly swoops back down, taking off running with everyone else, but before they could get far, appearing from behind the crowd was Lahar, Doranbolt, Correll, Odin, another familiar face that had Luke, Heather, Selene, Taya, Takeru,
Gajeel, Natsu and Lucy in shock, and finally Ultear. The time arc mage smirks as she steps to the wave of lava. "I'll take it from here." She holds out her right hand as she concentrates for a bit.
"What's she gonna do?" Jack asked as Bacchus came running in, then the rest of the mages that were at the council headquarters followed in behind. Erza quickly caught glimpse of the familiar face, but doesn't say anything yet as she turned her attention to Ultear.
The wave comes crashing forward...
"Go forth, into the future."
As if time itself stopped, the wave of lava freezes in mid air. A hardening sound was then heard as the lava began to turn into it's hardened state. After a minute of this, she was finished. The once threatening tsunami sized lava wave was now a giant harmless chunk of rock. Everyone stood in shock except the captains, who just stood impressed. "Just like I remember, Ultear-senpai." Correll bowed as Ultear began walking back to the other side of the city. Ultear gives a dismissive wave as she walks by the four captains and Doranbolt. "At ease Correll, you're embarrassing me and yourself. Just call me Ultear now, you're old enough."
"Hai! Duly noted, Ultear!"
"She just...stopped it...like it was nothing..." Luke continued to stare at the now mountain of rock that was once the threat of Magnolia. He gulped to himself as he turned to Ultear who was walking away. "Phenomenal..!"
The familiar face stepped into view. "We thank you for your service in holding off the two mages responsible, though capture would of been a lot more convenient to us all."
Erza quickly unsheathed her sword, holding it against his neck.
"Who do you think you're fooling? We remember you all too well, Aloy!"
"That's right! You belong to Silent Sanctum!" Natsu barked out.
Aloy, with a calm manner, slaps Erza's sword away. "That's first captain Aloysis to you. And I /was/ a member of Silent Sanctum, but instead of rotting in prison, Siegrian offered me a job. So I took it."
"Well we don't trust either one of you." Erza fired back. "I've been fooled by people like you too many times.
"Oh is that so? Well, I give you permission to attempt to strike me down. But let me warn you, Titania. If I win this fight, you'll be marked as a criminal for attempting to strike down a council captain."
"And if I win?" The scarlet haired mage asked, still gripping her sword in case Aloysis tried anything prematurely.
Aloysis then pulls his badge from his pocket, flashes it and then tossed it to Odin who catches it, a bit surprised at the action. "I'll go back to prison, and rot for the rest of my life."
Everyone goes in silence, waiting for Erza's answer.
"Well, Erza Scarlet? Do you accept this challenge? Since you're still sour over a past encounter?"
"...I accept."

.
Back inside the underground castle of Tartaros, Ruika was walking down the hallway whistling. She swung her key ring that held her keys. All of her keys and two more were visible. The two extra keys had a small black binding spell around them, visible, showing that they were now possessed. Loke and Ophiuchus were now under the dark celestial mage's control. Without a care in the world she kept whistling with her eyes closed, not knowing she was approaching an incoming Kiora and Maggie.
"Ruika, please stop whistling love. These hallways echo and it's quite annoying."
"Huh?" Ruika smirks. "I didn't think you two would be back so soon. After what happened."
"Oh you were watching? Weren't we awesome?" Kiora smiles proudly as she fist bumps Maggie. "Perfect team."
Ruika chuckles a bit. "Right, perfect team. Lets see what Daityas has to say about the perfect team." Ruika spins on her heels and begins walking back towards the main room where everyone else was.
Kiora and Maggie look at each other and shrug, then following the whistling Ruika. A couple of minutes later, Ruika skips inside and stands with everyone else, behind Daityas who smiled at the duo.
"Ah there they are! The best tag team in Tartaros!" The demon slayer gives them an inviting gesture, causing them to grin, feeling that they've done a job well done. They begin walking inside.
"Don't take another step."
The once smiling demon slayer now dawns a serious face. "Are you two trying to make me upset!? Did you do this on purpose!?"
Kiora blinks. "But you just said-"
"You two...miscreants, failed miserably!"
"That can't be..we succeeded in destroying Magnolia. Isn't that what you wanted!?" Maggie scratched her head in confusion.
"Oh, you did!? And tell me, in your own words, what did the destruction look like Hm?"
"Well... We kind of left before it actually happened. There was no reason to stick around, we had won, right?"
Daityas grabs the floating lacrima screen that he was watching from. He then turns it and pushes it towards Kiora, keeping it inches away from her face. Kiora's eyes widen as she saw Magnolia, still standing and untouched.
"I...I... I don't..."
"You don't... I'll tell you what you don't. You don't listen! What did I tell you cocky little asses before you went to do this!? Have a full proof plan right? But no. You two swore you were ready. Dammit I never been so annoyed. One job! One job was all you had!"
"Aye, well we killed Tayakata for ya! So if you wanna take that vase of yours and revive the wanker-"
Daityas then takes the screen away from Kiora, zooms in on Taya and shoves it towards Maggie.
"...oh come on!"
"You two failed me, miserably. I'm disgusted."
"..Well shit. I don't have any words." Kiora began laughing nervously. She quickly stopped as Daityas turned to her.
"So. Anyone here believe that they can actually get the job done, and ACTUALLY do it!?"
"I'll do it." The light green haired mage stepped forward. Rugal nods, keeping his arms crossed.
"Ah, the dimensional mage, Rugal. That shouldn't take long at all." Daityas grinned as he walked to him, patting Rugal on the shoulder. "This time, take a few days, for Magnolia to go back to ease, and to come up with your own full proof plan."
Rugal nods again. "Not a problem. I'll be back in a couple of days." Rugal bows a bit and then walks out, walking past Kiora and Maggie.
"Now, the rest of you, out. Especially you two."

.
"Aloysis you're probably wasting your time. Not like Seigrain would really arrest Erza for something petty as a wager." Ultear had stopped to deliver her message, yet she now kept walking. "I'm leaving either way."
"Wait for me Ultear-Senpai!" Correll runs after her to catch up.
"I told you it's just Ultear."
"Yes mam!"
"Geez, what pompous captains." Selene places her hands on her hips, watching Correll leave until she heard heavy breathing beside her. She looked over to see Kairi and Skye with hearts in their eyes, fawning over the blonde haired captain. "...You two aren't serious right now..."
"Shhh Selene. Correll is leaving..."
"I'm leaving too." Lahar and Doranbolt both turn and walk off behind Ultear and Correll.
Second captain Odin nods, crossing his arms. "I'll stay. Just in case."
"We should leave too..." Taya looks at White Eclipse.
"No way." Takeru replied. "I want to see this fight."
Taya grabs Takeru by the shoulder with a single tear falling down her cheek. "Please lets go back to the hotel...

...I have to tell you all something."