White Eclipse
Chapter 57

"Down here!" Jellal lead Aira and Wendy down the long hallway that lead to the castle's prison room. As they continued sprinting down the incredibly long hallway, Jellal was able to spot four bodies ahead of them. "Hm?"
"That's Kairi and Cygnus!" Aira yelled out, gaining their attention for a moment. Kairi waves back to them as she continued running with the group she was with.
"We'll catch up to them eventually." Wendy says as she brought up the rear of her own group with a flying Charla. "But where is everyone else? Are they still stuck in their rooms?"
"We'll just have to have faith that they can handle their own opponents." Wendy turns to her right to find who was speaking, now noticing Laxus just appearing as he ran beside her. "Laxus! You won your fight too!"
"Not exactly.. But that's not a worry right now. Lets keep moving."
"Hai!" The Sky Dragon Slayer nodded.
In front of the pack, Elfman lead as he, Mirajane, Kairi and Cygnus turned around the bend of the hallway, coming to the end off the long stretch. At the end was exactly what they were looking for; the prison room. Elfman saw it first, also spotting his sister Lisanna with her head lowered, placed in her palms. "Lisanna!"
The white haired mage quickly hops up from the sound of her brother's voice. "E-Elfman?"
Lisanna hops up to the bars of the prison cell. "Elfman!"
"Someone's coming!?" Skye asked as her and Meredy join Lisanna at the prison cell bars. "Hey! We're over here!" The White Eclipse member yelled. A few seconds later, Elfman reaches the cell, and opens it from the outside with a beast arm. Lisanna immediately jumps him, hugging her brother, and then her sister who joined them. "I'm glad you're alright!" Elfman exclaims as he continues to sob uncontrollably.
"Sheesh!" Cygnus says as he rubs the side of his head. "Stop your crying she's fine. You don't see us being such babies.
"KAIRI, AIRA!"
"SKYE!"
Cygnus turns to see Aira, Kairi and Skye hugging each other, crying in a comical fashion.
"You're not backing me up here!" Cygnus yells comically.
Jellal walks over to Meredy smiling as he gives her a small hug. "You okay, Meredy?"
She nods. "Mhm.. Lets just get out of here."
"You're gonna leave with these guys." Jellal replied. "This is my chance to take down Tartaros Castle, so I'm gonna take it.
"You're gonna take down this entire castle? Alone?" Cygnus asked, looking at Jellal as if he's lost his mind.
"I can't allow dark guilds to continue to exist. And if I take down the strongest guild of them all, things will become a lot easier."
"Yeah good luck with that then. We're out of here!" Cygnus turns to leave, but as he does so, he notices the wall of the castle begin to coat in a shiny blue color. "What is?"
"Lacrima..." Jellal answered.
"You don't think he's.." Meredy looked over at Jellal with worry.
"He's what!?" Kairi exclaimed in question.
"He wouldn't destroy his own castle would he?" Jellal asked himself as he watch the lacrima take over the room.
"Destroy his own castle!? A real Man would never destroy his own home!" Elfman shouts.
"Lets judge him later! Right now...
We need to get out of here!"

.

"Taurus! Aries! Gemini! Attack everyone but Loke and Ophiuchus! Give us some time to think of something!"
Ruika begins to laugh at Lucy's command to her spirits. "You think you can defeat my spirits, and hold off Loke and the snake charmer? This is why I can't wait for you to perish."
Yukino glares towards Ruika. "Pisces. Anyone but the lion and Ophiuchus."
Ruika laughs a bit louder. "This is too rich!" As she kept laughing, a bit of sweat was starting to become visible. Also, she still kept panting from her over exertion of magic. Lucy looks at Ruika carefully, and then smirks a little as she pointed at the dark celestial mage. "They're more than enough than your weak spirits! You better summon another to even out the fight!"
"Lucy! What are you doing?" Yukino asked, but Lucy didn't answer her. Instead she kept her cocky expression ow Ruika, who now curled her lip towards Lucy. "If you insist on dying that much faster." Ruika lifted yet another key. "Gate of the Dragon, I open thee, Drago!" Out of his gate, now standing next to Loke along with the other five spirits already summoned, Drago forms. "Anymore request?" Ruika says as she holds up her keys. "I have plenty more...to go around."
"Is she that stubborn to be the better celestial wizard that she can't feel herself about to fall over?" Lucy asked herself in her head. She gave Ruika another look over, noticing her panting became heavier. Yukino also begins to pick up on it as well.
"Of course! This is good. Nice thinking Lucy." The white haired mage says to herself with a smile and a look towards Lucy herself.
"All we have to do is hold on now."
"Now!" Lucy and Gemini Lucy yell. "Lets take em out!"
"Don't stand there!" Ruika yells. "Get rid of them all!"
"Keep your guard up Taurus! Aries, watch his back!
Taurus rushes the group of spirits in attempt to get to Ruika. Orion cuts the bull off, swinging his sword towards Taurus. He counters with his axe for a quick stalemate, and then pushes Orion off. Drago then fires off a blaze of fire towards the bull, but it was quickly intercepted by a wool bomb from Aries. Aries then fires another one that both Drago and Loke leap away from untouched.
"Ophiuchus then charges in, charging right for Aries, until Pisces slams into the Snake Charmer, providing just enough strength to knock the giant snake of track of Aries until it simply shrugs the twin fish off, showing it's difference in strength. Ursa Major and Minor quickly leap towards the celestial bull, separating at the last second. Taurus turns his attention to Ursa Major first, swinging his powerful axe that ends up in a stalemate against the bigger bear's counter. Holding the axes against each other allowed Ursa Minor enough time to sneak behind Taurus. He rears back, prepared to stab Taurus right on the back until Gemini Lucy wraps a whip around the smaller bear's neck and slings him away.
"You're still doing that!?" Ruika asked in a rage, taking her eyes off of Ursa Minor. The real Lucy begins to wave frantically. "It wasn't me!"
"It's a bad habit that your stupid spirit picked up!" Ruika yells back as she now pays attention to the real Lucy. "Drago! Burn her into nothing!"
On command, Drago leaps to Lucy's right, and rears his head back in preparation to fire a funnel of flames towards Lucy. Aries quickly steps in front of Lucy, prepared to fire another wool bomb for protection until Loke also slides in, slamming a shining fist into the shoulder of the ram, sending her sliding away from her celestial mage. Loke then hops away as well, leaving Lucy wide open. Drago fires. The funnel of flames soars towards Lucy at incredible speeds, which only allowed Taurus time to dive in front of the flames instead of removing Lucy out of his line of fire. As Drago stops firing, the flames disperse, showing Taurus down on one knee with his arms crossed to cushion the attack. "Taurus!"
The celestial bull looks back at his owner with a smile, still wincing in pain. "We'll always protect you and your nice body, Lucy."
"Taurus..." The small yet grateful smile Lucy held on her face was quickly removed when...
"Regulas Impact!" Loke comes lunging in, finishing off Taurus with a point blank Regulas Impact to the abdomen. The blow immediately sends Taurus back into the celestial world. Lucy now stood wide open, Aries was down and Gemini was lost in the battle.
"Loke...why!?"
"Are you slow?" Ruika asked with a grin. "Because he's mine now. With this binding smile from the Book of Zeref itself, Loke, just like the Snake Charmer, is no longer yours. Like I told you! Your life ends here! Loke!"
Loke stands in front of Lucy as his right fist begins to glow. "Loke stop! It's me, Lucy! Loke please remember!" In a desperate attempt, Lucy wraps her arms around Loke, hugging him as tears ran down her eyes.
"That fool..." Ruika says as she watches on. "Nothing beats Zeref's magic.
"It's not the magic, it's the mage, and Lucy is way stronger than you." Yukino says as she keeps her eyes on Pisces and Ophiuchus. "Pisces, return to your gate." On command, the twin fish returns to their gate. Yukino now stood in front of Ophiuchus with a small smile and her arms out. "And I am too. These are our spirits, and no amount of dark magic will change that."
"Loke! Try to remember! I know you're still in there, so remember me!" Lucy tightens her grip around Loke as she buried her head into his abdomen. "I know you can!"
"You're both idiots!" Ru shouts. "Loke! Ophiuchus! Finish them off!"
Though she gave the command, neither spirit moved; their faces showing internal struggle.
"What are you two waiting on!? I said finish them off!" Ruika yelled again as the rest of her spirits watched on.
"L-Lucy?"
She looks up, realizing the blackness in Loke's eyes beginning to fade. "Yes! It's me Loke! I'm so sorry for losing you! Please come back!"
"Lucy..." He blinks a few times, causing his eyes to revert back to their normal color. "Does this mean you'll let me take you on a date now?"
Sniffling, she looks up once again. "Yes, you idiot, whatever you want. I'm just glad to have you back."
On the other side of the room, Yukino stood off with Ophiuchus. She stayed standing with her arms spread and a small smile on her face. A few tears came down as she smiled at her spirit. "You know that I was never good at these things Ophiuchus. At least, not until Natsu taught me what it's like to be in a real family. So I know we don't have a lot, but I need you to remember the good times we shared together. And I promise we'll have many more. I may not show it enough, but I love you just like Libra and Pisces. You're no different from them. You can do whatever you want to me, but I'm not going to fight back, because that would make me a bad owner. So please, Ophiuchus, come home. We miss you."
As Yukino finished reasoning with the snake charmer, it's eyes revert from black, back to it's glowing purple. Yukino's smile widens as she hugs her spirit, still crying a bit. "I'm sorry for letting someone take you away from me. It won't happen again.
As Ruika watched in disgust, she saw the binding snake around the two keys disappear. "What a load. Zeref needs to strengthen his magic."
"Yukino told you, it's not the magic that's strong or weak. It's the mage, and we're stronger!"
"Oh really!? Just because you broke a spell doesn't mean anything! All of you, finish them off!"
As all of Ruika's spirits line up, she grabs her arm, panting heavily. Orion quickly turns around and rushes to her side as she fell to her knees. "Ruika! Are you okay!?"
Ruika pushes Orion away from her. "I'm fine you dolt! Go finish them off-" Ruika begins to wince even harder in pain as she tightened the grip on her arm.
"Ruika, there's too many of us out here, you're using too much magic."
"Shut up! I have unlimited magic! If you would go finish the damn job, maybe I wouldn't have to keep you out here!"
"I almost feel sorry for you..." Lucy says. As she and Loke stood side by side, just like the other rooms, lacrima began to fill the walls and floors.
"Huh?"
Ruika's eyes widen. "He isn't... Not the castle! Daityas!"
"What's going on?" Yukino asked as she looked the room over at the new shiny blue that coated it.
"Why didn't I hear about this part!? Was he planning on killing us!? Daityas!" Ruika tries to stand, but she failed from exhaustion. "I'll kill you..."
"We need to get out of here..." Lucy says. "I just have a hunch that we aren't safe."
"NO ONES LEAVING! Everyone, attack those two mages now!"
As Ruika points towards Lucy and Yukino, Loke begins to charge his Regulas Impact once more. This time, the lacrima from the room began to give off and swarm around the fist of Loke. "Regulas... Impact!" As Loke swings forward, the giant lion's head simultaneously slams into each spirit. Causing them to disappear as the attack rushes for Ruika. As she watched with wide eyes, Orion slid in at the last second, taking the full attack. Ruika does nothing but watch as Orion slowly falls to his back, beginning his return back to the celestial world. She stares at Orion in shock as the spirit smiles back her lovingly.
"...Tch...! You cut it kind of close you idiot."
"Are you serious!?" Lucy yells. "He just saved your life!"
"...He better have. It's his job..."
"Why you-"
"Lucy! Let her be, she's defeated, see?" Yukino points to the door behind them, watching as the runes drop.
"Right..." Lucy nods as she pats Loke on the shoulder. "Lets leave."
"I wouldn't go that way if I were you." The two mages turn back to Ruika who leaned up against the wall sitting. "If that two timer Daityas is doing what I /know/ he's doing, then this entire place is going to blow in a matter of minutes. I'd leave if I were you."
"What about you?" Lucy asked.
Ruika grins and flips off the blonde. "I'm not your concern you cretin.
Lucy puffs her cheeks in anger in frustration. "Lets go!" She then angrily walks past Ruika back the way she came.
Yukino blinks and then follows her out. "Well then..."

.
The gravity magic from Byron's hammer continuously punished the two mages by adding the pressure of gravity against them. Luke was being pushed against the unforgiving ceiling while Gray the wall. Running out of time, Gray began to let out an yell of desperation and effort as he fought against the gravity in an attempt to combine his hand and fist for an ice make technique.
"It's no use, you'll crush your body even faster trying to fight against such gravity." Byron says as he watches on with a smile.
"Then so be it!" Gray yells, causing Byron to raise a brow in a bit of astonishment at Gray's tenacity. He continued I struggle, but the ice make mage let out one more cry as he finally planted his fist against his palm. "Ice make: Geyser!" Throwing his hands down, just barely touching the floor, a geyser of ice shoots up into the ceiling, blocking the trail of gravity that was pushing against Gray temporarily. He quickly rolls out of the way before the geyser breaks, freeing him from the struggle as he then charges Byron with his hands in formation once again. Byron rears his hammer back, ready to attack Gray, but the wizard stops short, and slams his hands into the ground. "Ice make: Floor!" The floor quickly covers in ice, blocking the gravity shift that held Luke against the ceiling. Being freed, he quickly drops to the ground next to Gray.
"You're still gonna die!" Byron yelled, but as he tried to move, the ice kept him from making any clean steps.
"No amigo. Your time is up." The Copy Mage smirks as he rears his head back, inhaling the air around him. "Roar..of the Lightning Dragon!"
Gray joins him as he takes his ice make stance one last time. "Ice make: Super Freeze Arrow!"
The two attacks combine into one unison raid of lightning and of ice. With no where to go, the unison raid slams right into Byron, knocking him backwards in K.O.
As the runes doors drop, at the same time the lacrima that was shown in the other rooms begin to cover the floor and walls.
"Lacrima?" Gray asked as he looked around.
"No time to speculate amigo!" Luke says as he entered the door. Before he could take too many steps, he spots Cygnus and the others running their way with Lisanna, Skye and Meredy. "Oh look, they beat us to them!"
"Good, now we can get out of here!" Gray says as he turns...right into a right hook that sends him soaring towards Luke who catches him.
"What now!?" Gray says as he rubs his jaw. Luke looks inside with a glare as the two people from the Inn attack earlier, the two people who claimed to be the parents of the Copy mage himself, stood in the room.
"Well look who it is Diana." The male says as he crosses his arms. "It's our little amigo, Luke. It's been so many years hasn't it?"
"Besides the recent run in at your little hotel of course. Blake, I think we need to properly introduce ourselves to our little Luke don't you think?"
"I do."
Luke drops Gray, and begins walking back into the room. Gray attempts to reach out for him. "Wait! You can't take them alone!"
"Find another way out. I have to do this." Luke says as he walks back inside. A wall of runes appears as he steps in, blocking Gray and any other mage to get in.
"Tch! Idiot!" Gray quickly runs to meet Elfman and the others halfway.
"Gray!" Wendy yelled as they met in the middle of the hallway.
"Listen!" Gray huffs out as catches himself. "We have to get out, the lacrima-"
"We know." Cygnus says cutting him off. "Where's Luke!?"
Gray points back to the room he came from. "Fighting his parents! He wouldn't come with."
"Shit! We don't have much time!" Kairi then runs to the door and bangs on the runes. "I don't have the magic to break this right now. Hey! Stupid! This isn't the time for personal grudges, so hurry up in there, this place is gonna blow!"
Hearing, but now acknowledging her, Luke glared at his parents.
"What's wrong, amigo?" Blake asked. "You stand before your god slaying parents and you can't give us a smile? We had so much hope for you Luke, but you ruined it by becoming some goody two shoes. We taught you the perfect magic and you haven't used it to it's full capabilities at all. So, we're just gonna have to...start from scratch is a good way to put it I guess."
"I've been doing just fine with hm magic, and my actual family. You two wanted me so bad. Well I'm right here.."
The copy mage stares down his parents once again, feeling the soreness in his body from his fight with Byron. Still, he kept a serious expression as he took a step forward, preparing to attack.

.
Standing across form the giant fork Hokori was in, Gajeel and Selene finally lunge for the takeover mage. Gajeel lunges first, aiming a punch that Hokori easily blocks with the side of his axe. He then quickly yet with brute strength, kicks Gajeel away into the opposite wall and just like that, Gajeel was on his back, not unconscious but severely hurt. "Gajeel!" Pantherlily turns his back for a quick second to check on his comrade, only to have a similar kick slammed into his back, causing him to go soaring as well, hitting the same wall as Gajeel did. The powerful kick caused Lily to revert back to his miniature form. He laid on the ground with eyes closed, slightly twitching.
"Shit!" Selene watched the carnage, and turned back in time to roll away from a heavy axe swing, just barely dodging Hokori's attack. The axe hit the ground, and the power behind the attack caused the earth under Selene's feet to elevate. She was now eye level with the warrior takeover. She then leaped towards him with a diamond scaled fist, only to be quickly subdued as the surprising quick giant slammed the handle of his axe against Selene's skull, causing her to fall to the ground unresponsive. "The bigger they are the harder they fall huh!?" Hokori let out a laugh as he raised his axe and swung it down towards Selene. Before it could land, Gajeel, against the will of his own body blocks the swing with both of his forearms as he stood in his iron scales. "Hm!? Man you're a nuisance!" Hokori says while laughing, pushing down on the axe and slowly gaining the advantage on a weakened Gajeel. Gajeel let out a yell of pain yet determination as Hokori continuously pushed down. Hokori then raised his second axe. "I'm gonna slice you in half!"
Before he could swing, a funnel of shadow magic slams into his side, pushing him away from both Selene and Gajeel. Gajeel looks over to see Rogue in the doorway. "Shadow Drive." Before Hokori could recover from the roar, Rogue was in his face, and slammed a shadow infused fist into Hokori's jaw. As the giant tumbles again, he reverts back to his normal form, signifying that he couldn't take much more. "Anytime, Gajeel."
"Shut up, I got it!" Gajeel grins as he inhales the air around him. Selene make her way to her feet slowly with the same motive. Simultaneously, they both fire off their roars; basically everything they had left. The unison raid slams into Hokori, knocking him into an immediate K.O. as the smoke from the attack cleared. Gajeel and Selene both fall back to their rears as Pantherlily makes his way up to his stubby legs.
"There's no time to rest." Rogue says as he points to the doorway he came through, pointing to the lacrima that was coming through.
"What's going on?" Selene asked.
"No time to explain, lets just go."

.
{A few minutes before.}
Lucy and Yukino sprint down the hallway, looking to escape the castle. Lucy looks back as the lacrima floods the walls and floors behind them. As a result, she runs into a figure and falls to her seat. "Ah! Huh?" Looking up, she sees Gildarts looking down at her, rubbing his chest from where Lucy basically head-butted him. "Lucy? Where are you headed?" Gildarts looks up as the lacrima answers his question. "Oh, I see. Then yeah, you two should get out quickly."
"Gildarts? What are you going to do?" The blonde haired mage asked.
"Find Natsu first I guess, and we'll be out shortly."
Yukino then objects. "This place can go any minute depending on the trigger, and if Daityas is behind the lacrima, then I'm sure he's got enough strength in him to take this whole castle down in one blow. Especially with the lacrima."
Basically ignoring everything that Yukino says, Gildarts thwacks himself against the head. "Of course, Natsu would go after the strongest one here. Thanks." Gildarts waves as he walks past the girls.
"Did he just disregard everything I just said?" Yukino asked with slumped shoulders as he continued walking away.

{Now}
Sidney looked towards both Aloysis and Jikan as they both grinned towards the Ghost mage. "Well? I'm waiting on you two. Are you going to attack or not?"
"Well if your in such a hurry to die." Aloysis says as he conjures a magic circle in front of Sidney. "Seventh Rapture!" A massive explosion happens right in front of Sidney, but as the smoke clears, Sidney stood with his arms crossed and few scratches yet really unphased by the attack.
"A tough guy huh?" Aloy says as he begins walking toward the SS class. After a few more steps, Aloysis turns to his heavenly body magic and rushes towards Sidney. With his quick senses, Sidney hops to the side away from Aloy, causing the rapture mage to run right into a fist. The fist slams right into his jaw and in one slow motion the knuckles mush against his cheek. Aloy the goes flying the opposite direction. Hitting the wall, the well endured mage quickly hops out, holding his jaw. "How dare you!"
Sidney turns around to see Gildarts right behind him. "You're Clive Gildarts."
The SS class for Fairy Tail gives a small wave and a whole hearted smile. "That's me. Your reputation is no drop of water either, Sidney Castle."
"I've been around."
"Enough!" Jikan yells. "Aloysis, enough playing around! It's time to end-" Jikan stops in mid sentence as the lacrima begins to fill the room. Jikan and Aloy's eyes widen a bit as the process happens. "Daityas, dammit! We can't stay. We'll let the castle destroy them!"
"Who says you were leaving?" Gildarts asked.
As he spoke, Jikan pulled out his watch, causing a magic circle to appear and rotate. In the next second, both he and Aloysis were gone.
"Oh.." Gildarts looks around a bit and then laughs.
"Your reputation is spot on." Sidney says as he begins walking back out the castle.
"Where are you going?" Gildarts asked the Ghost mage.
"Leaving. I know my guild mates will make it out safely. So there's no more of a reason in being inside a soon to be demolished castle." Sidney says as he continues walking, and then disappears in a puff of white smoke.
"Weird guy." Gildarts says as he shrugs and continues walking forward.

.

"Time to go."
With the book of Zeref and the vase in hand, Daityas makes his way to the door.
"It's been real Tartaros Castle. We'll build a better one once Zeref takes over this world. The new age is upon us." Daityas chuckles to himself as he nears the door. His walk was halted by a loud yell.
"Daityas!"
Out from the spiral staircase, Natsu and Happy fly towards the Demon Slayer. Happy lets go of Natsu as he quickly dives towards Daityas, firing a Fire Dragon's Roar in the process. Annoyed, Daityas turns his body to the side to shield the book and vase from the attack. Since it was fire, he inhales the flames that Natsu quickly expelled, but as soon as he cleared his view of the Dragon Slayer, Natsu was in his fist, firing a right haymaker forward. "You little annoyance!" Daityas grabs Natsu by his fist and slings him across the room into the desk behind him, smashing it to pieces.
"I don't have time to kill this pest. I need to leave now." He thought to himself as Natsu quickly made his way up to his feet, still grinning in excitement, yet not even noticing the inactive thought projection beside him. His grin caused Daityas to snarl a bit.
"Alright you pest.

Give me your best shot."