White Eclipse
Chapter 51

"Scorpio!"
"Sand Buster!"
Lucy points at her counterpart as Scorpio fires off a funnel of sand towards it. Consequently, their shadow counterparts do the same, at the same time. The two sand busters caused a collision in the middle, giving an explosion of sand before both attacks dispersed, leaving nothing but a stalemate. "This is getting no where!"
"Pisces!" Yukino points towards her counterpart, causing the paired fish to charge forward, only to be halted by their counterparts charging as well. They continued exchanging head butt after head butt as the paired fish continued ramming into their shadow lookalikes. "She's right.." Yukino says to herself. "They're just doing the same thing we are."
Lucy quickly pulls out another key as she holds it in the air.
"Gate of the Bull! Taurus!" Out of his shining gate, Taurus steps out wielding his axe. Yet, just like Lucy, her counterpart also summons Taurus, except this one a shadowy figure just like Scorpio.
Yukino looks over at Lucy, a bit annoyed. "What good did that do?"
Lucy merely smirks, ignoring Yukino's question. "Taurus! Scorpio! Unison raid time!"
"We are!"
"MOOOO! Lets go Scorpio!"
Taurus holds the axe down by his side. Scorpio then fires a Sand buster right into it, combining his funnel of sand into the axe. The sand now violently swirls around the sharp edge of Taurus's axe. Across from her, the same action was being performed by the shadow counterparts. Yukino continues looking on with the same look on her face, seeing Lucy's actions to be pointless.
"Now..." Lucy then aimed her finger towards the shadow figure of Pisces. "Taurus! Attack the fake Pisces!"
"MOOO!"
"Of course! They can't copy other spirits!" Yukino internally congratulated Lucy as Taurus ran towards the Pisces counterpart. As the celestial bull leaped towards the paired fish. Yukino noticed the counterpart to Taurus leaping towards the real thing. "I got it! Pisces! Take out that phony Taurus!" Pisces then turns it's attention to the shadowed bull and rushes it, the white of the paired fish ramming head first into the bull. The black fish follows, slamming it into the ground and causing it to vanish. All while that happened, the real Taurus swing his axe down, adding more momentum to the sand buster as he fires it towards the Pisces counterpart. The sand buster connects into them both and Taurus follows with a hard swing of his axe right between them both, causing them to go flailing about until the slam into the ground, disappearing. "Alright!" They both scream in unison, exchanging high fives. "Now." Lucy says with a grin as they turn their attention back to their own counterparts. "To get rid of these two frauds."
Before Lucy and Yukino could make a move, the two shadow figures raise another key on their own.
"What!? They're making decisions on their own!" Yukino says in a panic as she witnessed a shadow silhouette of the gate of the scales, Virgo, appear right before her eyes.
"I thought they just mirrored us!" Lucy took a step back in a bit of fear as her counterpart opened the gate of the ram, Aries. "I.."
Before Lucy could react, the shadow silhouette of Aries fires off a wool bomb. The wool now held the two female mages down along with their spirits. Afterwards, "Virgo" then used her gravity magic to shift the gravity around both Lucy Yukino and their spirits. The gravity now begins to push them towards the ground. The force was to strong to fight back cleanly as they all now begin to struggle for their lives.
"Yukino! We need your Virgo!"
Lucy yells for the white haired mage. Yukino struggles around, trying to multitask between not being crushed by the gravity and reaching for her key through the wool. "I...I can't reach! The wool is in the way!"
"Keep trying! It's our only hope!" Lucy begins to scream out in agony as the gravity continues to push them towards the ground. As their spirits begin to disappear, Lucy and Yukino now laid face first on the ground, desperately pushing up to fight the gravity.
"Come...on!"

.
"Dazzling Blaze of the Lightning Flame Dragon!" Natsu fires off a giant orb of lightning and fire fused with each other, hurling it towards Rugal. The same thing happens with his first roar as Rugal opens a portal, consuming the attack. This time, he elects to hold on to it for a bit as Takeru swiftly charges from his left, throwing a heavy uppercut that barely misses Rugal due to him swaying away from the blow. "Hmph...they've gotten faster. I'm sure their strength has also improved..." As he scouts his opponents in his head, Natsu comes flying in with an upside down kick aimed at the top of Rugal's head. Rugal puts up both arms to block, yet the fire behind Natsu's kick begins to scorch his sleeve the longer he holds the block. Takeru follows with a leg sweep that Rugal hops over. In the midst of the hop, Rugal pushes Natsu off and then opens a palm towards Takeru. First a magic seal, and then a portal opens, shooting out the dazzling blaze Natsu fired earlier directly towards Takeru. Tak barely managed to roll out of the way, but was still caught by the explosion from the attack as
He crashes forward into the ground. He fathers himself after rolling a bit and then lunges back towards Rugal. Takeru then swings a right hook that Rugal blocks with his opposite arm. Takeru follows with a hard left kick aimed for his jaw, but in a flash, Rugal opens another portal that sucks Takeru's foot in. As Natsu was about to re enter the action, another portal opens beside him, and Tak's foot appears, kicking him right in the jaw.
"Gah!" The dragon slayer grunts out as he slides backwards from the blow. "Watch what you're doing!"
"Oh yeah, because I knew that would happen!" Takeru responds as he slides away from a downward punch from the dimensional mage. Rugal quickly follows by turning his fist into an open palm, and then planting it against the ground. He then turns on his palm and swings a kick with both legs, slamming into Takeru's sternum. As Takeru goes flying backwards from the blow, Natsu uses the Shadow Dragon's momentum by jumping on him, crouching, and lunging full speed towards Rugal. The lightning and flame aura surrounded him as he slammed a roaring head butt into Rugal's abdomen. Landing on all fours, Natsu watches as Rugal goes roaring into the building behind him. The building collapses around him, bringing up a plethora of smoke and debris in the process. With a smirk etched upon his face, Natsu stands and begins dusting himself off. That grin was quickly wiped away with a disgruntled Takeru now in his face. "Who said you could use me as a springboard Salamander!?" The shadow dragon yelled at the top of his lungs, obviously upset at Natsu's recent actions. Natsu just gives a smile and a dismissive wave. "Oi! Relax, we got him and that's all that matters." Natsu then holds a hand out, waiting for Takeru to shake it. "Great teamwork."
Confused for a bit, Takeru blinked, and then looked at Natsu's extended hand. He slowly reached for it, and then slapped it away.
"Nothing's changed.. We aren't friends, and we'll never be friends. We only seem like allies Because the council called on both of our guilds."
Natsu gives out a sigh, and then a shoulder shrug, but before he could speak, Rugal quickly pushes his way out of the rubble, a bit upset. He began dusting himself off as he stood up completely. "Okay, I didn't see that coming. But now, I'm going to literally pummel you both to death."
Takeru and Natsu both stood in a readied position as they waited on Rugal's next move. What happened next they weren't ready for. Rugal opened a portal right in front of himself. Then, with a wide grin on his face, he began punching rapidly through the open gate. Confused by his actions, Natsu and Tak didn't have the wherewithal to see the two portals above them open in time. From the two open portals, two different sets of fist came raining down upon the two dragon slayers. It was as if there was another Rugal joining in on the fray. Pinned down, Takeru and Natsu can't do anything but cover up as the fist continue to slam into them repeatedly. The punches were coming in too fast and too painful for either one to make a move.
"Natsu!" Happy calls out as he helplessly watches his best friend and Takeru be continuously pummeled into the ground.
"Yes.. I can do this all day. I don't know if your bodies can though." Rugal begins to laugh as he continues the onslaught, hearing the cries of pain from the two dragon slayers. "G-gotta...move!" Takeru plants his palms against the ground with force as he tries to push up, but it was to no avail as Rugal's fists continue to slam into him repeatedly. "It's useless. You'll die here." Rugal laughs once again, and continues laughing until a right fist from no where slams into his jaw. His eyes widen and after a delayed reaction, Rugal goes soaring towards another builidng. He opens a portal behind him however, and flies through it. Another dimensional gate opens as he softly lands on his feet, now holding his throbbing jaw.
"Who..?" Natsu looks up, wincing in pain from the onslaught he took.
"H-heh.." Takeru grinned as he could just make out the mage through his temporary blurred vision. Standing tall was the ghost mage, Sidney Castle.
"I wasn't here for the last attack on Magnolia. So I wasn't going to miss this one."
Rugal continues rubbing his jaw as he looks at Sidney in annoyance. "Who is he? He wasn't here when Kiora and Maggie attacked..."
"Takeru, if you can stand, why are you still on the ground?"
"...Tch." Tak begins making his way to his feet. "Everything doesn't have to be a lesson, Sidney."
"You do things to learn, Takeru. If you don't learn from the things you do, then you've wasted a lesson."
Already annoyed with his preachings, Takeru huffed out in annoyance as he stood next to a hunched over Natsu and a flying Happy. "Just beat this guy already."
Sidney nods. "Just leave it to me."
Rugal begins to chuckle at the mage in front of him. "You? You're going to beat me? When these two didn't stand a chance? How humorous." Rugal slides into a fighting position. "Come on, show me what you have."
Sidney doesn't move an inch; not even readying himself. "Actually, it's White Eclipse tradition to allow the weaker mage to have the first move. So please, if you will."
"Excuse me!?" Sidney's comment really got to Rugal. Not just the comment alone, but the way he said it, without a smile or different tone, signifying that the ghost mage was completely serious. Even Natsu stood with wide eyes, more than impressed by Sidney's nature.
"Is he serious!?" Natsu asked as he kept watching.
Takeru grins, letting out a single chuckle. "He's always serious. No one is stronger than Sidney, so he always sets limits to himself. Right now, Sidney is probably still lowering himself to Rugal's level. He's a dangerous man."
"Aye..." Happy floats on, watching in awe though the ghost mage has yet to even make a move.
"Yup.. No one ever dares challenge Sidney to a full on fight."
Natsu blinks. "...I wanna fight him!"
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Takeru and Happy both yell simultaneously in an animated fashion as Natsu just smiles at the thought.

.
Sliding back from another failed attempt to battle their counterparts, Aira continues to hold her side in pain as she, Sting and Rogue stand together, wincing in pain. Their shadows stood across from them raring to go, waiting on their next move.
"This is no good." The blonde haired wind mage began to huff out to herself. "They do the exact same thing we do, and more. They're our mirrors. We can fight ourselves." She perks up from her own closing words. "That's it! Sting! Get ready, my shadow is about to attack you."
"Huh?" Sting looks over at Aira in confusion, and before he could ask what she meant, Aira brings forth a magic seal and then fires four sharp blades made of air directly towards Sting's shadow.
"I see.." Sting noticed what Aira was doing. He then quickly snapped back to reality as he rolled hard to his left to dodge the incoming wind blades fired from Aira's shadow. Sting's shadow was caught off guard however, as it barely had enough time to cover up from the blades. Aira's attack slams into the shadow consecutively, sliding the White Dragon counterpart backwards as deep cuts were now visible on the shadow. "In that case, I got you Rogue! You take Aira!"
"Of course." Rogue switches places with Sting and immediately charges the shadowed version of the wind mage. Aiming an uppercut that she blocks, yet the force behind it causes the shadow to stumble backwards. "Shadow Dragon's Claw!" Catching shadow Aira off guard, Rogue slams a heavy shadow infused fist into the clone. The blow sends the clone crashing into the ground until it disperses into nothing. Aira sweat drops as she witnessed the quick defeat. "That's encouraging...Wah!" Taking her eyes off of Sting's clone almost costs her as she desperately ducks under a White Dragon's roar. Sting's shadow then rushes towards Aira behind the roar, swinging a left hook. Aira sways away from the attack and then performs a leg sweep. After lifting the shadow off it's feet, Aira quickly summons a magic seal from under it, and just like the puppets she previously fought, the black winds sling the Sting counterpart into the air violently until it finally disappears.
All that was left was Sting and Shadow Rogue. They continuously exchange blows until Sting slams a hard, light infused punch to the shadow's sternum. Upon landing the punch, a white stigma appears on the shadow's chest, causing it to be unable to move. Sting then grins as he cups his hands behind his right hip. A ball of light forms between his hands. He then thrusts his hands forward firing off his attack. "Holy Ray!" Upon yelling, a multitude of white beams of magic fire upon Rogue's shadow, slamming into the clone one by one rapidly. As the smoke clears from the onslaught, Rogue's shadow disperses. A few seconds later the shadows appear again, harmless and connected to their feet like normal shadows. Aira stares at her's for a bit. "...I don't trust it."
"Relax." Sting replies. I think the worst is over. At least for us it is. Lets try to find the others."
"Right!"

.
Gray found himself near the edge of the roof as he stood across from his and Waiston's shadow counterpart. He looks down at the unconscious Waiston, then quickly turns back to the shadows. "Anytime now Waiston. Wake up..!" Gray grits his teeth as he slowly places a fist into his open palm. He took note, yet disregarded that his shadow was doing the exact same action. "Ice make:...Hammer!" Simultaneously, Gray and his counterpart create a giant hammer made from ice. Throwing it, the two hammers meet in the middle for a head on collision, the ice breaking into pieces right before Gray. Gray begins sliding the ice around with his foot against the roof as Waiston's shadow lunges toward him. With ice wrapped around it's fist. The shadow begins swinging punch after punch in hopes to land one against the ice make mage. Gray continued dodging the attacks, until he was caught by one right into his left jaw. As he stumbles backwards he catches his shadow in the corner of his eye, performing another ice make technique. Without a sound, from the shadow, five ice lances fire towards Gray. He barely leaps out of the way as he keeps an eye on both his and Waiston's shadow. Landing, he finds himself near an edge again; the same spot where Waiston fell. The two clones charge once again. Gray braces himself and then ducks a punch from the Ice Dragon's shadow. He returns with an uppercut to it's jaw, lifting the shadow off it's feet as it lands on it's back, laying there for the time being. His own shadow came sliding in and Gray lifts a knee, only to be met by the same knee from his shadow. The shadow then slams two different punches against Gray's jaw. Out of desperation, Gray ducks the next punch and literally tackles his shadow to the ground. Now mounted on top, Gray unloads a variety of punches to his shadow nonstop until Waiston's shadow lunges in and slams a kick to the head of the unsuspecting ice mage. Gray tumbles across the roof from the kick and now lays on his stomach dazed. With blurry vision he looks up to see the two shadows towering over him. Both of them rearing their fist back at the same time to deal Gray with the final blow.

.

Unlike everyone else fighting against their shadows, Skye was alone against her's. She stood across from her shadow in a standoff, both of them gripping their claymore sword as they watched each other carefully. Skye began to slowly wave her sword around in different directions, just to confirm what she believed as her shadow does the same in a perfect mirror like movement. Skye squints her eyes and crouches just slightly. She then lunges at her counterpart, and it does the same, meeting Skye in the middle as swords collide. Every strike that Skye threw, her shadow quickly parried in a mirror like movement. "Requiem!" Quickly, Skye requipped her Claymore into a straight wide sword with a sturdy thick blade and an accentuated broad edge at the end that appeared to be as tall as Skye. Her shadow didn't fail into doing the same thing, now holding the requiem as well. This time, the shadow charged first, and swung a low strike that Skye leaped over. And the midst of her jump, she swung down a vertical strike that her shadow quickly parried by holding it's requiem over it's head. With a quick spin, the shadow swings a horizontal slice, but it was a Skye with the imitation this time as the two swords meet for another draw. She bared her teeth, realizing she wasn't getting anywhere, basically fighting herself. Still, she had no choice. "Necrosis.." In her hands, her sword disappears as a scythe takes it's place. From the tip of the scythe, a purple liquid continuously dripped slowly. Once again, Skye's shadow held the same weapon. Still, she charged in. Meeting her shadow halfway she swung a horizontal strike with her scythe. The shadow ducks and then swings one of it's own that Skye front flips over. As she continues her flip, Skye begins to twirl the scythe in her hands. As the scythe spins, the poison liquid from the tip begins to form a visible purple circle. As she lands, Skye swings her scythe forward, releasing the circle of poison towards her shadow. The circle now spinning like a wheel against the ground as it travels towards her opponent. Her shadow leaps off to the right, dodging it completely. It then charges her again, dancing with it's scythe as he throw a different combination of vertical and horizontal slices towards Skye. This put Skye on the defensive as she began to take steps backwards as she continued to dodge and parry. "Tch... I have an idea. But it'll be risky. Claymore!" Skye backflips away from her shadow as she requips her normal sword in mid flip. Landing, and to no surprise, she sees that her shadow had the same weapon held. Yet, Skye gives a small grin as she holds the sword with one hand and charges the shadow. With her free hand, a light blue magic circle appears and Skye comes to a sliding stop after the two close the distance. They both then fire off a steam a blue lightning towards each other. Both streams of lightning connect as Skye and her shadow now stood paralyzed temporarily. "This is it!" Skye yelled as she slowly raised her sword, struggling against the paralysis. She forces her arms up to a stabbing stance as her shadow does the same, seemingly a second behind. With a loud yell, Skye thrusts her sword forward as her shadow does the same. Stabbing right into the abdomen, blood streams from Skye's stomach as she stood still. She looked down to see the sword from her shadow inside her. She couldn't help but laugh a bit, as
She was counting her lucky stars. Skye's sword was through the other side of her shadow, and after a few more seconds, the shadow dispersed and returned to Skye's feet. With a joyous smile, Skye held her palm against her wound as she fell over backwards, breathing heavily with a smile.

.

"Well?" Sidney stood in front of Rugal emotionless. His arms stayed by his side, swaying slowly as if they were unusable limbs.
Rugal gave a disgruntled growl. "I'm not succumbing to your stupid traditions..! I'm far superior to you. Don't you ever disrespect a Tartaros mage you annoying little two bit wanna be."
"All I said was the White Eclipse tradition and already you're flustered and angered. Does Tartaros not teach discipline?"
Rugal clenches a fist at Sidney as he begins to raise his voice. "What did I just say!? Fine, you're so quick to die! Here I come!" Rugal then charges Sidney. The ghost mage as yet to make a move. Rugal rears a fist back, and swings a fist forward, except when he swung, a portal appears infront of him, causing his fist to go right through. Rugal grinned as in the next second, a portal appeared behind Sidney and Rugal's fist flew out, aiming for the back of Sidney's head. Right before contact, Sidney quickly swayed only his head to the side, causing the fist to slam right into Rugal's nose. Rugal grabs his face as he stumbles backwards, now groaning in pain, but more of annoyance.
"Whoa..how did he see that coming!?" Natsu asked as he watched in awe. Takeru declines to answer as he too watches. "I hate to admit it, but it never gets old to me. The way he dominates."
Once he recovered, Rugal charged once again, and this time threw a normal left hook at Sidney's jaw. Sidney once again dodges by leaning his head backwards. He then counters by using his momentum to slam a head butt against Rugal's head. Immediately on impact, Rugal slams hard into the ground, creating a outline shaped crater. Growling, Rugal pushes himself up and quickly goes for a leg sweep. Sidney hops over it and Rugal backflips away to gain distance. In mid air from his jump, Sidney opens his right palm, and from it he fires off a round of tombstones directly at Rugal, in the same style Ultear would use her time ark orbs. Rugal grins as he quickly opens a portal, absorbing the incoming tombstones.
"Yeah, projectiles won't work here Sidney!" Tak yelled out.
"Anything works with the right innovation."
"Stop lecturing me!" Takeru says, stomping his right foot repeatedly like a spoiled kid.
Rugal kept a grin on his face as he reopened a portal directly above Sidney, ready to fire the tombstones back at the ghost mage, but the second he did this, a light purple magic seal ran through both Sidney and Rugal. Once the run through was complete, it showed that Sidney and Rugal had switched places. Confused, Rugal had no time to cover up as he now stood over the open portal. The tombstones came crashing down on top of the dimensional mage in rapid succession, burying him in stone. A few seconds after the smoke clears, Rugal powers out of the small mound of broken stones he was under. He grabs his shoulder and pants heavily while looking at Sidney.
"Okay..this was a game at first. Now everyone dies."
Rugal jumps to the highest peak in the area, now standing on the tip of a building roof as he raised his right arm. "Everything is going to the abyss!" A giant, light green magic seal appears above the mage's head. It then forms into a giant black hole. The black hole then begins to inhale everything in it's radius. Slowly, small buildings and everything lighter began to lift off the ground and into the abyss. "I hope you've had fun! Because this is your last stop! The abyss!" As Rugal spoke, more and more buildings began to uproot along with anything lighter. The abyss swallows them whole. Takeru holds on to one of the buildings still intact as Natsu digs his fingers into the street to hold on. Happy held onto Natsu as well. Sidney calmly stood his ground. On the outside he seemed un phased by the black hole, on the inside however...
"Such a predicament, if I lift a single foot, I'll be absorbed by the black hole. Still, the only way to stop it is to beat him." Sidney nods to himself as he slowly crouches to the ground. He then plants his right palm to the ground as a magic seal appears. "Resurrection: Frankenstein." Appearing from the magic seal, was a giant, cliche looking Frankenstein. The monster stood about ten feet tall and took up a lot of space. Sidney stood on the monster's right shoulder, holding onto the bolt sticking out of the right side of it's neck for support.
"What's this!?" Rugal looked on in shock, but his surprised expression soon faded as he saw the Frankenstein being slowly lifted as well. "It doesn't matter! I'll absorb all!"
As the buildings started to go, Natsu noticed something under the streets that were now being lifted as well. He saw it, a patch of blue crystal like substances where the stone street used to be. "Lacrima!"
"Hey idiot!" Taker yelled out as he reached his hand out. "You see the street coming undone!? Give me your hand!"
Natsu reached out for Takeru and as the piece of road he was holding onto uprooted...he grabs it. Holding on for dear life, Takeru had to balance his grip between his left holding onto the building, and his right holding onto Natsu. Happy however..
"Natsu! I'm losing my grip!" The blue feline called out to his partner as he slowly started to slip away.
"Happy! Don't let go!" Natsu reached back for his partner. "Grab my hand!"
With one paw hanging on to the edge of Natsu's scarf, Happy reaches out with his other paw to his partner. Inches away, Happy's grip finally slips as he lets go off Natsu's scarf. "Happy!"
Being drawn towards the black hole, Happy quickly sprouts his wings. "Max speed!" The exceed yelled as he gave it all he had to stay out of the black hole, yet the abyss was too strong, and continuously pulled Happy towards the hole.
Sidney's Frankenstein began walking towards Rugal, having to stop occasionally to hold it's ground and not be absorbed by the black hole. Four giant steps later, the Frankenstein rears a right fist back, but the second it does so, it begins to become lodged off the ground. "HA! You can't hit me if you can't even hold your ground!" Rugal began to laugh in victory as the monster was now holding onto the building Rugal was perched on. Consequently, due to it's size and weight, the Frankenstein was only bringing the building up with him. Holding on for dear life with one hand, the monster stared Rugal in the eyes. Rugal kept laughing as the monster's left foot was already in the abyss. Sidney continued to hold on to the bolt as he finally spoke. "I'll take it that this is your strongest attack. White Eclipse has another tradition saying that it's out of respect and only fair that I use my strongest technique as well."
As he finished his statement, a magic seal appears under him as he balanced on the Frankenstein. Sidney places his palms together and then separates them by inches. As he concentrates, from the ground, four beams of magic sprout up around Rugal. Two were light and two were dark magic beams.
"Hurry up!" Takeru yelled as his grip from the building began to slip.
"Happy hang on!" Natsu yelled as he watched his friend slowly inch towards the abyss.
"What are you doing!?" Rugal looked around at the beams that surrounded him. "Just die already!"
"Eclipse tower." Sidney slaps his palms back together. In reaction to this, the four beams slam into Rugal as he gives out a scream of agonizing pain. The four beams swirl around each other and up into the endless sky. They then stop...and then reverse direction. The swirling, pushes down violently into the ground, crushing Rugal under it as well. Halfway through this performance, the black holes stop and the portals disappear.

.
"Huh?" Aira looks around as as the portals blocking their routes vanished.
"Does that mean..." Sting looked on in confusion.

Gray and Waiston'a shadows lunged towards the helpless ice mage. But before they could strike, they vanished. Appearing back connected to their respective mage's feet. "What happened...?" Gray forced himself up to a seated position as he panted heavily. Waiston finally awakes as well, staying on one knee as he noticed the portals disappearing.

.
Holding her wound, Skye walked down the street as she saw the Eclipse tower for the first time. She often had it explained to her but never saw it herself. She smiled as she continued walking towards the inn that was now in sight. "So that's Sidney huh?" Her smile turned into a few blinks as she reached the inn, seeing her guild mates, battered and bruised.
"Shadows?" Skye asked, as if she was already expecting a yes.
"Shadows." Kairi replied as she stayed leaning against Adamantine. The rest of the guild laughs along with Skye, happy that the chaos was over.

Cygnus sat against a wall as the puppets he was fighting disappeared. Feeling relieved, yet beaten up at the same time, he looked up at the Eclipse tower as it began to die down. "That poor soul. Didn't stand a chance against Sidney. Heh."

.
As the tower completely disperses. Rugal laid on the ground unconscious. His eyes were pure white as he lingered between life and death.
"That's one down." Sidney says as his Frankenstein disappears. Natsu looked on in shock at what he saw. "I... That attack."
"Natsu!" Happy that he was still alive, Happy flew directly into his partner's chest. Now embraced by the dragon slayer. "It's okay Happy. You're okay."
Takeru walks out to the street where Sidney was. "...Thanks."
"Don't mention it. We're all in this together."
"Yeah, I-" before Takeru could finish, he spots Rugal's body being pulled away by his own shadow. Takeru runs to him and reaches down into the shadow himself, but it was too late, Rugal had disappeared.
"Shit! Where did he..."
"It must of been whoever was controlling the shadows." Sidney says as he begins walking back to the Inn. "Come on, lets catch up with the others."

.

Minutes pass as Maggie and Kiora wait eagerly at the entrance of Daityas's study.
"OOOO they're gonna get it!" Kiora says as she fidgets around like a little girl anxiously waiting for trouble.
"I know!" Maggie replies. Mimicking her actions. "Rugal got his ass kicked did you see love!?"
"Of course I saw! I was watching with you, Maggie! Oh Sh! Sh! Here they come!"
"I hope he doesn't yell at Sora though.."
On cue, an awake Rugal and a sad Sora walk past the snickering Kiora and Maggie as they enter the study. Maggie and Kiora quickly walk in behind as they join the others inside.
"Sora, go to your room."
Sora doesn't hesitate to turn around and obey Daityas's orders as she quickly shuffles out of the study.
Daityas then stands from his desk as he begins walking around Rugal, examining him. "You seem pretty beat up there Rugal."
Rugal didn't know how to react, so he boldy spoke. "...nothing a good nights rest won't fix... Sir."
"Oh? You need to lay down? Did that Ace really hurt you that bad? Here, let me help you go to sleep." Daityas then grabs Rugal by the collar, and slams him through his own desk, breaking it in half. Everyone in the room winced from the slam, even Kiora me Maggie who were smiling through their wincing.
"That's two fails from the strongest dark guild! Two! Maybe I should those Silent Sanctum bastards to do the job!"
"That won't be necessary." Tobias steps forward with a smirk.
"I believe it's my turn."
"...Tobias shut the hell up."
"But I..."
"Ruika, you're up."
Ruika's eyes widen a bit. "But...I don't wanna. Let Tobias go.."
"Okay, Ruika, it's your go, and Tobias is your partner."
"I! But!" Ruika then throws a mini tantrum as she storms out the room. Tobias follows behind as he mumbles curses under his breath.
"I swear you guys are really letting me down. I don't want to have to step out of this castle!

Because if I do...

There will be hell to pay. I promise."