White Eclipse
Chapter 58
"Brace yourself. We don't have long, so I won't take long to finish you." Arc says to Takeru as he begins to rotate his wrists to loosen up.
"Don't have long?" Takeru asked, but as soon as he does, he looks around as a faint shining light take over the room. Between each pulse of light he could see the walls and floor being coated with lacrima. "Hm.. This place is gonna go huh?"
"Seems like it." Arc
Replied.
"Do you believe me now?" Tak asked Arc, causing the Darkness Demon Slayer to look at him inquisitively. "Daityas planned to get rid of you all. All for a new world that doesn't exist."
"Oh it exists, and once Zeref is here, I'll deal with Daityas betrayal to his own family myself. Until then..."
Arc crouches a bit as his darkness aura begins to flare around him. Though invisible due to the near pitch blackness, Takeru could see it plain as day. As he continues to allow this, the room begins to shake from the force behind the magic. Takeru quickly joins Arc as he skips his White Shadow mode, jumping straight into his Darkness Shadow mode. The mixture of the two auras tangle as the room continues to rumble. Arc gives a small grin. "Your dual modes are no match for the real thing. Now, prepare yourself for a true example of the Darkness Demon slaying magic." Arcturus then rears his head back as he begins inhaling. It wasn't just the air that was being inhaled however. As seconds went on, the shaking became more and more violent as the pitch black room started to turn to a shade of grey. Takeru looked around frantically. "He...he's actually absorbing the darkness!?"
Arcturus didn't stop until the entire room turned into an obvious grey shade. With his cheeks puffed out as of they were about to burst from being overfilled, Arc took aim. "Howl..."
Still in shock, Takeru stares around the room, looking at the grey atmosphere. He then turns back to Arc as he snaps out of his trance. In a panicked frenzy, Takeru clasps his hands together. "Secret Dragon Slayer Art!"
"Of the Darkness Demon!"
From the outside of the castle, a massive funnel about half the size of the castle itself was seen shooting out from underground. The funnel was large enough to be seen from anywhere in Magnolia, catching more than the mages in the city's attention.
"I don't know what kind of training I gave you, but it's obvious that I held back when I was on your side, Takeru. I'd expect a pupil of mine, and I say that term loosely, to show some endurance. Then again, it's amazing you're alive. You don't deserve to die by my hands, so lay down here in the grey until the castle itself crashes with you in it." Arc walks to the staircase, stepping over the near lifeless Takeru whose fingers were just twitching; his only visible signal of life. Arc quickly leaps up the staircase, only taking two or three jumps to make it back to the first floor. "First things first." He says as he takes off towards the eight hallways that the mages were fighting in. "Get these guys out before they succumb to Daityas betrayal like actions."
.
"Ready?" Maggie asked, looking toward Kiora.
"Lets do it." Kiora responded as she slid behind Maggie, standing in her shadow make stance. Maggie then crouches down and places a palm against the ground. On the opposite side of the room, Taya and Erza stood in a defensive manner waiting on what was coming next. A magic seal appears on the ground below Maggie's palm and in Kiora's hands. Kiora's and Maggie's aura then begins to flare wildly, signifying their strength growing as they began concentrating nearly all of their magic into one single attack each. What they didn't notice while this was happening, was the lacrima that was quickly coating the entire room. Erza and Taya did notice however, and begin to speculate. "What's going on?" Taya asked as she continued to look around.
"Lacrima.." Erza responds. Her eyes then widen, and she turns back to the two dark mages. "Wait, stop!"
"Begging for your life won't help here! Although it does sound like music to my ears!" Kiora shouted as she gritted her teeth while smiling. "I'm ready Maggie!"
"Oi! Lets have at these blokes then!"
"Listen to me!" Erza yells. "You're going to kill us all, even yourself!"
"What are you saying Erza?" Taya asked.
"This place is now coated with lacrima, it feeds off of and expels magic. Their attacks will become like a bomb, and the lacrima are explosives. Stop your attack!"
"Calling your bluff you sissy! Now Maggie lets go! Shadow make: Meteor!"
As Maggie summons a giant spiral spinning funnel of molten lava, Kiora fires out a giant meteor made of her shadow magic. The funnel of lava swirls around the meteor as it heads for both Erza and Taya. "There's no where to go!" Taya shouts. Erza slides in front of Taya, quickly requiping into her Adamantine armor. She held the shield out as a giant magic circle appears before her as a defensive stance.
"That's not gonna be enough.." Taya says to herself as she creates a magic circle of her own. In the next instant, a dome of dark vectors surrounds both Tayakata and Erza in attempt to shield the two females from the unison raid. The raid slams into the dome, and in a matter of seconds, it breaks through. Next was the Adamantine armor, which continuously held up thanks to the dome weakening the attack before it was destroyed. Taya panted as she stood behind Erza who was wincing herself. The entire room shook violently as the meteor lava mix slowly began penetrating the armor's magic circle defense.
"This is a lot stronger than I remember..." Kiora says over the rumbling.
"All that training?" Maggie says in a skeptical voice of her own. As she finishes speaking, she notices the blue steaks of raw magic coming from the walls and adding on to their attack. "Hey that's..."
"They weren't lying!" Kiora yells as she grabs Maggie's arms. "We're out of here! Now!"
As Erza gave her full effort to hold up the unison raid, her armor quickly began to crack. But before it could fully break...the room rumbles for a few more seconds until the walls around them begin to explode one by one, starting with the wall that had the door Kiora and Maggie were running to, causing them too fall backwards. "Brace yourselves!" Maggie yells as she and Kiora shelter each other. At the same time, Taya uses the rest of her magic to create another dome of vectors over her and Erza; a seemingly futile effort as the rest of the room simultaneously explodes, swallowing the four mages completely. "..."
.
Heather stood in the middle of the main street of Magnolia with her arms folded, her right hand's index finger continuously tapping on her other arm impatiently. She stood with her eyes closed as she did so, becoming frustratingly impatient with each passing second until she finally snaps. "What's taking so long!?" The poison dragon slayer yelled in a miniature frenzy. "They should of been done by now!"
"Oi! Don't get too wild now."
Bacchus says as he sat on an a random barrel, waiting along with everyone else.
"Didn't ask you." Heather mumbled.
"We're all a little anxious." Jack says as he crouches down next to Bacchus. He turns to look behind him, noticing the guilds behind him, even a few he's never seen before. "We're just gonna have to wait, and have faith in our guild mates."
"Pretty wise for such a youthful drunk." Makarov says with a bit of laughter.
Jack looks over, squinting at first, but then gives a small smile towards the older male. "Yeah well, when you grow up with two of the widest people in the world," Jack replies as he smirks towards his guild master Calium. "You can't help but spew out words of intelligence."
"In the meantime, we're gonna sit here, patiently." Calium says as he looks over at the other guilds behind him. "Heather I'm sure Luke is fine, along with the others."
"Tch...I never said anything a just if Luke was okay or not.." Heather says, firing back in defense. "I just want them to hurry in case anything happens here. Wouldn't be fair if they missed any of the good action."
"Yeah right!" Waiston shouts as he stands up from the wall he was leaning on next to Jaxon. He then walks over to Heather with his hands in his pockets grinning. "You're probably sweating on the inside worrying about your boyfriend!" Waiston grins as he was near face to face with Heather making kissing noises. After having enough, a few seconds later Heather quickly turns her hand to her poison scales and rears her arm back.
"Heather.." Calium says without even watching the situation. His voice stopped the Poison Dragon Slayer cold. "Put it away. Waiston, you're too old for teasing."
As Heather drops her hand, Waiston walks back to where he was standing with a grin on his face.
"You know she was about to corrode your face off right?" Jaxon asked as Waiston repositioned himself on he wall.
"Yeah..but it was worth the tease!"
.
"Okay Natsu, where are you?" Gildarts asked aloud as he continued walking down the hallway after the eight room hallways where he ran into Sidney. He continues to look around as he kept his nonchalant pace until he came across the giant spiral staircase. "I feel like this is the obvious answer." With still no change of pace, Gildarts begins to walk upstairs as the castle continues to shake. As he ascends he observes the lacrima all against the stairs, walls and floors. "Hm.. Not much longer to it goes it seems." He then smiles to himself while rubbing the back of his head. "I should really pick up the pace then huh!?"
.
Sting goes sliding on one knee, away from a fresh Cobra. Sting on the other hand was panting heavily. It's been a couple of minutes, yet he has yet to deal a single blow to the Poison Dragon Slayer. "Fighting me is useless."
Cobra says as he folds his arms. "I can hear your thoughts and your movements. I know what you're going to do. So just step aside and let me catch up to The Salamander."
"I'm...just starting actually!" Sting says as he makes his was to his feet fully. He teeters a bit, but then rushes Cobra once more. "Right hook." Cobra mutters as he sways away from an incoming right fist from Sting. "High kick, leg sweep, white magic infused punch."
As he spoke, all of the actions from Sting occurred, and he evaded them all accordingly.
"Stop predicting and fight back!" Sting yelled, and he got his wish as he threw another punch that Cobra catches. As Cobra caught the punch, his hand begins to grow a bit in size as purple scales from around it. Quickly, Sting pulls away from Cobra as he felt his hand begin to burn from the poison sensation, right through the glove he was wearing. Cobra gives a wicked grin as he held out his poison scaled hand. "Since you won't move and I'm running out of time, I'll just have to suffocate you with my poison."
The grin on Cobra's face quickly declines to a stale look as Sting begins to chuckle a bit. "So that's second generation huh? I don't even remember Laxus doing that when we fought at the games. But you're still not a match."
"Did I hit you harder than I remember? Or are you just as thick headed as The Salamander?" Cobra asked as he stared at the White Dragon Slayer with a confused expression. Sting ignored the question as the grin on his face widens a bit. "I'll show you, why the third generation is considered leagues ahead of the other two, Cobra. White Drive."
With a grinning look on his face, a white aura forms around Sting as white scales also appear around his face. This wasn't what concerned Cobra. As he looked up, Cobra noticed the room being coated with lacrima just like every other room in the castle. His eyes widen a bit more as he puts two and two together, realizing now what all the shaking in the castle was about. He then turns back to Sting as the third generation dragon slayer cups his hands behind his hip. "Wait!" Cobra yelled. Sting merely widened his grin, taking Cobra's tone as a plea for surrender. "Too late for that!" Sting yells as he continues to charge his Holy Ray attack. As he did, the room began to shake vigorously. Sting ignored it, taking it as the effects of his White Drive. Without him noticing, the lacrima began to fume off from the walls and floor, gathering it's raw properties around the core of the potential Holy Ray.
Cobra looked on with a disdained expression. "So be it. If you want to die here." The Poison Dragon Slayer says as he repeatedly eyes the door from which he came. "Holy...Ray!"
The second Sting throws his hands forward, Cobra dashes towards the door. A good portion of the attack still slams into his back, causing him to violently tumble out of the room, landing face first on the hallway ground. Inside the room however, the excess Holy Ray that slammed against the wall began to cause a chain reaction within the room, setting off well sized explosions of raw magic with Sting trapped inside. The last thing heard was Sting giving an agonizing yell before cutting off into silence.
.
"Zalen! What is that woman doing!?" Juvia asked in a shrill voice. Zalen and Juvia stood across the room, away from the exit they needed to take as Myou stood guarding the door. The smoke she produced that was giving her a boost was now absorbing the lacrima that had taken over the room. Myou began to violently scream as her eyes turn a glowing shiny blue just like the lacrima that began infusing with her. "I don't know Juvia...but I think it's best we count our losses and let the others rescue our friends. We're outmatched now more than ever. I can feel her magic pressure building from her, and it's rising rapidly.." Zalen fixed his glasses, never taking his eyes off the now enraged Myou. Without waiting on her opponents this time, in a blur , Myou appeared in front of Zalen throwing a right fist right for his head. In a stroke of luck, Zalen dodged it by ducking his head, and the punch left a small crater in the wall that then began to spread as cracks began to spread out from the crater. As Juvia watched in near horror from her strength, Zalen's eye caught a few chips of the lacrima falling right beside him. He quickly grabs what he can and flings it into Myou's eyes, causing the enraged mage to become temporarily blinded.
"Run!" The building mage yelled. Juvia quickly complied as she made her way to the doorway from which she came, Zalen right behind her. Juvia runs out, but as Zalen closes the gap between him and the doorway, Myou cuts him off, showing that she recovered from his underhanded yet desperate tactic. "Shit!" As Myou threw another punch, Zalen conjured up another iron wall. Though successful, the mage punched right through it. This was something the wily building mage expected as he then clenched his fist, causing the iron wall to wrap around Myou tightly. He then gives her a hard shove, causing her to roll a few feet away from him as Zalen made his way to the doorway. Myou quickly came to a stop and began powering out of the iron wrap she was trapped in. She did this quickly, and hopped up on her feet. She then lunged for Zalen, wrapping red smoke around her arms; the same red smoke that causes explosions. Myou was quickly catching up, but as she threw her smoke forward, Zalen dove threw the doorway and quickly raised another iron wall. The wall was big enough to cover the entire doorway. Trapped inside, the lacrima began to infuse with the explosive smoke as Myou leaped to the door. With one punch, she opened a hole in the iron wall, causing the smoke to leak through. It was as far as she had gotten until the lacrima itself sparked the red smoke, causing a massive explosion with Myou trapped inside.
"Get down!" Zalen tackles Juvia, now cradling her as he summons a steel dome over them both. The explosion swallows the dome as it makes it way ways down the hallway until finally subsiding.
.
Outside of the castle, as the castle itself continues to shake off of the foundation, a puddle of molte liquid forms from the ground. It slowly forms into two females. Maggie and Kiora now lay there on the outside grounds panting uncontrollably as they thanked whoever that they were still alive. "Thank you Zeref." Kiora breathes out. "And thank you Maggie."
"I'm so lost for words mate." Maggie responds, trying to catch her breath. "Why? This wasn't part of the plan... We weren't told this."
"It doesn't look like anyone was. I don't see anyone. Not Rugal, Sora..Arc... Mirhril's over there fighting that other dragon but I'm sure he didn't know either. Ruika's missing... And...and..."
"...Tobias , Kiora."
Kiora snaps her fingers. "Tobias! I knew I forgot someone."
"Don't forget them Silent Sanctum blokes too. They're in there."
"Screw them!" Kiora exclaimed. "They aren't Tartaros family...but then again, according to the shit Daityas pulled, neither are we."
"I'm going to give that bastard a piece of my mind!" Maggie yells.
"Just us two? I don't think so." Kiora says, bringing Maggie back to reality.
"Oi...you're right. If only we still had the others..."
On cue, Arc appears in a blur carrying four mages. Three of them, Tobias, Sora and Rugal, were still out cold. Ruika hopped out of Arc'a arms, feeling better from her fight with Lucy and Yukino. "You two thinking the same thing huh?" The celestial mage asked.
"Ruika! And everyone else!" Kiora and Maggie shouted.
"Lets save the thank Zeref you're alive hugs for later." Ruika says as she looks back at the castle. "We messed up."
"Huh?" Kiora asked as she cocked a brow towards Ruika.
Ruika stared back at the castle a bit before she began talking again. "You miss it already don't you? The castle. We called it home. That bastard that's blowing it up, we called him family. I'm a dark mage forever don't confuse my words. But ray had the right idea leaving here. I picked the wrong guild. I like you guys, but that's our problem..." As Ruika talked, Kiora and Maggie stood. They walked over to stand next to Ruika and Arc who watched random acts of explosions and fire burst from the castle. "Look, there goes Sora's room." Ruika says as she points. "I'm glad she's sleeping right now. But as I was saying, we became to attached emotionally. Arcturus, you once said that a family that kills together stays together. But it seems not all of us knew what a family was, and since Daityas wanted to be the leader of this family and the black sheep, it seems we've crumbled just like our /home/ is doing now."
"But that's okay!" Maggie says as she turns to Ruika. "Daityas or not, once Zeref arrives and fixes everything, we can start over!"
"It's not the same." Ruika interjected. "But it's the only choice we have now." She turns back as another loud explosion was heard. "Oh...that's my room. All the heads I collected. Each unique and had their own shape. Gone."
"We should find cover before we run into Mithril's fight." Arc says as he turns to walk away from Tartaros Castle.
"Aren't we gonna wait on Daityas?" Kiora asked as she began walking with him.
"Oh, we'll wait on him alright. We aren't going far."
.
He clenched his fists and teeth as he stood across the two people he couldn't stand the most. Diana and Blake, the two god slayers of Silent Sanctum, and also..his parents. He continued to clench his fist as he lowered his head. Diana begins to grin a bit. "What's wrong little amigo? I know it's like nostalgia for you, but is that anyway to address your parents?"
Blake begins to chuckle a bit. "After how we've done for you?"
"Done for me!?" Luke re lifts his head seething. "You abandoned me!"
"And look at you now." Diana says sarcastically. "You're still the failure we knew you were gonna become. It's sickening to even know that you're breathing. We gave you such great magic. Copy magic. But here you are, what, a fire dragon slayer, a lightning dragon slayer and ice make? Is that the best you can do when you're surrounded by magic everyday? Ugh, just looking at you-"
"Shut up!" Luke yelled, actually silencing his mother from her talking. She was taken back a bit from her son's anger. "You can't leave me for dead and expect me to fear you just because you randomly show up again."
"Oh this isn't random." Blake says. "We chose Silent Sanctum because we knew you would-"
"I said SHUT UP!"
This time it was his father that was silenced quickly. Luke fixes his gloves and throws off his brown jacket he always wears, allowing it to hit the ground. "You left me, because you thought I was worthless. You aren't family. My guild is family. They respect me and my strengths. There's no such thing as weak or worthless when you're a White Eclipse mage. So for them.." Luke then points to the two god slayers, giving them a low glare. "I vow, right here right now, on my affiliation with White Eclipse, that I'll finish you both with one move!"
The two god slayers' eyes widen at his his word. Diana then goes to a smirk, still shocked from his statement. "Heh...frightening."
"Lets see you back up that talk you runt!" Blake yells as he charges Luke.
"Blake wait!" Diana yells, but it was too late. Blake swings a White infused punch towards Luke. He quickly sways away from the blow and grabs Blake by the wrist. As Luke grabbed him. A small magic appears and then disappears. "Shit! How dare you!?" Blake exclaims as he saw what happened. Luke turns his head towards Blake as he pushes him away nonchalantly. "White God Slaying Magic huh? You know what would go well with this?" He then turns back to Diana, who now backs up on the defensive. Luke quickly lunges towards her in a blur. Diana throws a wild kick that Luke ducks under. He then grabs her left wrist, just like he did his father. A magic circle appears and then disappears once again. By this time, with their magic infused around their limbs, Blake and Diana charge Luke at the same time, but the Copy Cat merely avoids each hit, spinning away from Blake's last kick to now stand across from the two mages once again. As he did, a magic circle appears under his feet. Standing on top of the circle, Luke clenches his fists once again as he begins to cause an uproar. The left side of his body begins to glow a bright white as the right side of his body was nearly a pitch black. "You left me alone, nearly dead because of my lack of strength. Now it's my turn to return the favor. One shot." Luke raises his hands. If they were a clock, one hand would be pointed at twelve while the other at six. He then began to spin his arms counterclockwise, creating a black and white magic seal. Once completed, the seal begins to spin, picking up speed with each rotation.
"What's he doing!?" Blake asked as he looked on in shock.
"I don't know, but the lacrima around him isn't helping us either!" Diana yells as she watches in paralytic shock.
"Laser..." As Luke prepares to fire his attack, the steams of lacrima, just like every other room, begin to form around the magic circle. Luke was too focused on his targets to care. The lacrima gave the yet to be fired attack a more than unnecessary boost as the room began to shake so violently that both Blake and Diana trip over their own wobbling. "Of The Black and White God!"
From the magic seal, a giant black and white laser comes spiraling out, taking up the entire room and then some. Diana and Blake both let out screams of agony as the laser rushes toward them...and then through them as the giant beam fires through the hallway and out of the castle, blowing off a hugs chunk just like Arc's attack did except a bit smaller. As the smoke cleared, Luke stood, panting with a small smile on his face. "Heh..."
Before he could celebrate any further, the room he was in began to collapse and explode. The force caused the exhausted Luke Cloud to stumble over. He catches himself, now laying on his hands and knees as he breathes heavily, his blurry vision looking at the way out. With the room nearing it's downfall, he makes a dead sprint for the door...
.
"Kid, you're wasting my time." Daityas and Natsu stood off. Natsu held a fiery right fist as he grinned towards the Hells Flames Demon Slayer. "I have plans that you're holding back."
"That's too bad!" Natsu says as he begins walking toward Daityas. He then covers his entire body in flames. Once the flames around him were lit, lightning quickly followed after, swarming around the Salamander's body. Just like any other room, the process continues. The lacrima begins to seep from the walls and wrap around Natsu as he continues powering up. This was nothing new to Natsu since the same thing happened to him against Jellal at the Tower of Heaven. He let out a loud roar as the lacrima wraps around him, giving his power an immense boost of energy. He then looks back towards an unphased Daityas, who only raised a brow to admire the lacrima at work. "This is why I need to hurry." Daityas thinks to himself. "They're draining the lacrima."
Natsu then points to the Demon Slayer. "Daityas! It's time for you to pay one hundred fold for what you've done! You attacked my guild and hurt my friends and family!"
"Natsu!" Happy randomly yells as he hovers behind the Dragon Slayer.
"I'm going to show you what happens when you mess with a Fairy Tail wizard!" Natsu then lunged towards Daityas full speed with his right fist reared back. All of his magic and even the lacrima boost itself swarms and wraps around his fist as he nears Daityas. "Iron Fist, of the Lightning Flame Dragon! Putting everything into it, Natsu swings forward, aiming his punch right for Daityas' temple.
The punch lands, connecting against his head. And just like that, he laid on the ground K.O'ed. Natsu...was face down and unresponsive. Blood dripped from Daityas knuckles as he held his follow through. Happy covered his mouth, looking on in complete silence and shock.
"...Nakama bullshit. Makes me sick. All that magic...all that lacrima backing you up, and you still don't hold a candle to me. I don't have time for you, so I'll let the castle finish you." And with that, Daityas stands up straight, then turns and walks to the stairwell. Instead of taking the stairs, he jumps down between the spiral staircase. On the way down, in one slow motion, he and an ascending Gildarts exchange glances. "...who is..." Gildarts shook his thoughts as he realized that he was just where Natsu is supposed be. "Natsu!" The older male begins to sprint up the stairs. He comes to the study to see the back of Natsu's head, bleeding profusely and Happy beside him, tears flowing. Happy continuously shook Natsu as he cried out his name. "N-Natsu! Gildarts help Natsu he won't move!"
Gildarts quickly slid to a kneeling position next to Natsu and tore a piece of his long cape off. He then wrapped it around Natsu's head and cradled him. "Come on Happy, this place is about to blow. In fact, fly out the closest window. We'll meet you in the front."
"I'm not leaving Natsu!"
"Go!" The SS class mage yelled in his most stern voice possible. Happy hesitates. He then looks at Natsu one last time before turning to the window to his right, flying out of it to safety.
"Alright, lets get you out of here." And on cue, a sound was heard near the broken desk behind Gildarts.
"I almost forgot." Daityas says as he snaps his finger, activating the bomb that was inside his thought projection. "One minute is plenty of time to escape."
Gildarts looks to see the thought projection that was giving off the sound. He then squints to see the magic seal planted on his chest. His eyes widen as he noticed the timer on the seal. "A bomb!" Without hesitation, Gildarts hoists Natsu over his shoulders and begins sprinting down the stairs. "It's gonna take me an entire minute to get down these stairs! No, keep focus Clive!"
.
In front of the castle, Yukino and Lucy stood, waiting on their comrades. "They're cutting it close!" Lucy says with worry in her voice.
"Have faith Lucy, they'll make it out." Yukino says, assuring the blonde. Lucy nods, but doesn't take her eyes off the castle. A few moments pass till they finally see a group of people running out of the castle. "Look!" Lucy yells as she waves the group down. "Mira! Wendy! Laxus! Elfman! Lisanna!" The animal take over mage waves back until she meets Lucy half way, now hugging her. "I'm glad you're okay Lisanna."
"Mhm..Thanks to everyone I'm fine."
"Are we the only ones out so far?" Skye asked as she now stood next to a panting Kairi, Aira, Cygnus and Meredy.
"We're the only ones we've seen." Lucy replies. "But this is a good sign! Maybe the others will join us soon!"
"Speaking of others." Kairi says as she waves down Selene, who was limping out with Gajeel, Rogue and Pantherlily.
"Glad to see everyone here alive." Selene says with a smile. Her smile slowly comes to a fade as she realized that Takeru wasn't outside yet. Behind them, Juvia carried Zalen out, who was barely conscious. "Lucy, everyone!" The water mage shouted as she made their way towards the other wizards.
"Juvia!" Lucy shouted with glee.
"Zalen!" Kairi shouts as she runs to him, taking him from Juvia's tired arms. "Man you look rough."
"Zalen saved Juvia's life. Juvia is most grateful."
Kairi did nothing but nod with a smile as Cygnus then took Zalen and carried him away from the castle.
"We're still missing a good bit..." Lucy says as she takes a head count. "Hey!" Out from the castle, Gray comes running. "There's Gray!"
Wendy says as she waves him down.
"So that means, we're missing... Natsu, Gildarts, and Erza." Lucy says as she counts the bodies in her head.
Kairi then does the same. "Sidney, Tak, Luke, and Adam is in full dragon mode over there..."
"Sting..." Yukino says softly, yet loud enough that Rogue heard.
"Sting is still in there?" Rogue asked, even though the answer was plain as day.
"Nah I'm right here." Sting says, sitting on a lone stone to everyone's right."
"...How long have you been sitting there Sting?" Rogue asked.
"The entire time." He replied with a smile, until Yukino shoved him off the stone. "Everything isn't a joke Sting!"
"Ahehe...glad to see you're okay to Yukino..."
"Idiot..."
As Sting laughs, he quickly stops as he sees two more bodies hover out of the castle. It was Taya and Erza, both badly damaged as Taya's dark vectors carried them both out of the castle and towards the crowd of mages.
"It's Erza! Of course a man like Erza would be okay!" Elfman shouted.
"Taya too." Aira says with a soft smile. "That's almost everyone."
"Natsu...please be okay.." Lucy murmurs as she stares at the castle, waiting for the others.
"Any day now, Takeru.." Selene whispers, doing the same as Lucy.
.
He began jogging to the back of the castle. "I know they're all waiting at the front, so I'll go around. Hang on Master Zeref. You'll be fully free soon." Daityas begins to pick up the pace, going from a jog to a light sprint. With merely thirty seconds left before the bomb activates, he grins as he saw the exit, but before he could reach the exit, a golden blur appears in front of him. He quickly sways away from it. "Jellal!? You just don't quit huh!?"
Jellal quickly makes a U-turn and heads for Daityas again. This time, the Demon Slayer holds his ground and slams a head butt into the high speed bluenette, causing him to fall right in front of Daityas. Holding his head, Jellal quickly rolls away from an impending stomp. The power behind the boot, brought up some of the now lacrima laced floor. Jellal then held out a palm as he fired off a beam of magic that Daityas easily slapped away. Jellal charged Daityas right after however, and caught the mage off guard as he quickly wraps his arms around him in a bear hug. Though "stuck," Daityas grins. "And what are you gonna do from here? Let us both burn with the castle? You're a fool, Jellal."
"Heh, sorry Daityas. I know all about demon slayers. Your own magic doesn't harm you, so you'll go down by a different bomb."
Jellal smiled and chuckled a bit as a magic seal appeared on his chest.
"What!? You insane bastard!"
"Why Daityas, I've never seen you so distraught before. I'll do whatever it takes to protect this land from people like you. If that includes taking my own life, then fine."
"Bastard.."
"You're the bastard! How can you cause a collapse on your own castle, with your own guild mates inside!?"
Daityas begins laughing. "Easy. You see this vase on my hip Jellal? It belongs to Zeref. Do you know what it does? It revives people. No strings attached either. Just a tad bit of memory loss. That's why Arc is on my side, because he doesn't remember White Eclipse, because I didn't want him to. That's how powerful this item is, I can control his last memory. I'm going to use this vase to revive my guild after this place came down. And we will walk EarthLand as the strongest guild once again. And there's nothing you can do to stop me!"
"In that case, I need to borrow that."
"Who was that!?"
Daityas looked down. His eyes widen as he saw Takeru diving for the vase.
"Don't touch that you little-"
Daityas easily powers out of Jellal's bear hug, causing him to stumble backwards and drop the self destruct spell, but it was too late. Takeru grabbed the vase and quickly dove back into the ground in his shadow form. Daityas punches through the ground in desperation to grab Takeru, but the shadow dragon slayer was already gone. "Dammit!..." He shrugs. "Oh well, they're replaceable. I'm sure Zeref will easily grant me new lackeys. Even stronger ones. Till then, kill ya later Jellal." Daityas continues to sprint out. The second he steps outside, a loud rumble begins to happen. From the top floor, the thought projection explodes into Hells Flames, and quickly begins to cover the entire castle, hallway by hallway.
Gildarts just makes it to the bottom of the stairs. He looks up to see the Hells Flames already half way down.
"Shit!" He hightails it, running full speed as he tried to make it out before swallowed by the flames. He turns the corner, the Hells Flames smashing against the wall right behind him as he runs for the castle entrance. Right in front of him was Luke. He could feel the flames on his cape and with a last ditch effort, the older mage lunged for the exit, cradling Natsu as the Hells Flames violently fires out of the mouth of the castle. Luke was still running, even though out of the castle. The flames continue to reach out, just about to swallow Luke whole until the mage disappeared in a puff of white smoke.
"Luke!" Everyone yelled. After a few moments of silence, Sidney appeared in front of everyone, holding Luke by his belt until he dropped him. "Gah! Thanks Sidney!"
"Natsu!" Lucy yells as he runs over to Gildarts and Natsu. "Natsu!" Happy quickly flew over with Lucy. Gildarts makes his way to his feet. Multiple burns covered him as he held the unconscious mage in his arms. Natsu then began to slowly wake up. "Huh...? G-Gildarts...fight me."
Clive begins to laugh. "He knocked you pretty hard huh Natsu?"
.
"Anyone seen Takeru?"
The cheering stopped completely as everyone looked around. Selene and the others stared at the castle which quickly crumbled into nothing. What was once a mountain of Hells Flames was now a mound of ash. Nothing was left.
"Takeru..." Tears start to form in the Diamond Dragon Slayer's eyes.
"No don't. I'm fine."
Selene turns to see a semi charred Takeru appearing out of his shadow form, holding the vase.
"Takeru!" Selene shouted as she jumped on him, wrapping her arms around his neck, smothering him.
"Heh, I'm fine. I also got this!" Takeru exclaims as he holds up the vase.
"What is it?" Taya asked as she looked it over. Instead of explaining, Takeru ran over to the area where Kuro and Daityas had their fight. He placed the vase down after saying the mage's name quietly to himself. Seconds later the vase began to shake. Seconds after that, a bright light shot from the vase. Out from that light, the red with orange tip haired mage steps out with his regular ear to ear smile.
"Kuro."
