White Eclipse
Chapter 63

"It's the generals!"
"They're the key to stopping the demons!"
"Lets go you mages! Finish off those generals!"
The uproar of random mages began once they noticed the disappearance of Amon of Prudence and the demons guarding the north side of the city. Word of mouth quickly reached the rest of the city, not that any more motive was needed for the mages facing off against the generals to win. Meanwhile, the demons that were still present once again began to undergo a change.

"What's happening now!?" Romeo asked as he watched the demons that surrounded him, Wendy, Skye and the exceeds. "They're changing again." Skye answered, holding her claymore sword in a defensive manner. As they waited for the demons reactions, wings began to sprout from the soulless ones' backs. Immediately, the demons take off into the air. Romeo gawks at the sight as they continue to ascend. "They keep improving.."
As he watched in amazement, a magic seal appeared in front of the lot of demons in the sky. Just like before, the demons now began shooting beams of magic from their mouths, aiming downward towards the mages. "Scatter!" Pantherlily yelled. Everyone quickly complied as they ran their separate ways. The beams touch down on random spots in the ground, exploding on contact and destroying the ground in a decent size radius. Romeo dives away from another blast, just making it out of it's radius. He lands face first with his hands over his head as the explosion from the demon's beam goes off. When he felt like the close was clear, he quickly made it to his feet, only for a demon to quickly swoop down and grab him. The demon quickly ascended into the sky again, holding on to Romeo. "Gah! Hey! Help me!" The young fire mage called out.
"Romeo!" Pantherlily called out. He then sprouts wings of his own, but before he could take off, Skye grabs his shoulder. "If you go up there, you'll be outnumbered."
"I'm not going to just let him be-"
Before Lily could finish his statement, Skye runs forward, requiping her claymore sword. "Biofrost!" Her sword turns to her circular blade. She then rears back, and launches it in the air towards the demon that held Romeo. The blade slices the back of the demon, causing it to yelp in pain and drop the fire mage. Romeo let out a yell as he fell towards the ground. Though Skye raced towards the falling mage, Happy took the lead using his max speed. "No! You cat, you're going to get shot down!"
"Gotcha!" Happy catches Romeo in mid air. "Thanks Happ- look out!"
Romeo points to the air, but Happy couldn't move out the way in time as a beam of dark magic slams into his back. "He cat!"
"Happy!"
Wendy and Charla begin to race towards the exceed who began descending out of control and too fast. Before Happy could hit the ground, Skye baseball slides, catching both Romeo and Happy to cushion their fall.
"S-Skye...thank you!" Romeo tries to stand, but Skye pulls him back down and cradles the mage along with the exceed as a rain of dark magic slams into them.
"Oh no, Romeo! Skye! Happy!" Wendy shouted as she, Charla and Lily ran over as fast as they could. As the smoke cleared from the barrage of beams, Skye laid on top of them both, heavily bruised and unresponsive. Romeo began to shake her. "Skye! Skye wake up! Skye we gotta move!" His cry went on deaf ears as Skye was yet to move an inch. "Skye...!? Skye!"

"I can't hold this forever!" Selene yells as she held up a dome made from her diamond magic. The rest of the mages stood inside as the demons continued to rain dark magic towards them, crashing into the diamond dome below, shaking the dome with every strike. "How much longer Levy!?"
"I'm working as fast as I can!" Levy huffed out.
"Work faster." Takeru added.
"Lay off her!" Gajeel replied.
"Now's not the time to fight amongst each other!" Lucy exclaims, halting any tension between the two. "You're right. It's time for action, or they'll break through eventually!" Gajeel says, pounding a fist into his open palm. "I'm with him." Takeru says. "Selene, give us an opening, and we'll direct their attention."
"Right!" Selene nods, and then creates a small opening to the side that Gajeel and Takeru quickly hop out of. The opening closes right behind them. Quickly, Takeru and Gajeel turn the heads upward and fire off a continuous roar each. Aiming their roars each way, they begin to greatly reduce the number of demons in the sky. As Takeru finishes, one of the surviving demons swoop down, looking to attack Takeru head on. He quickly moves out the way of the attack and grabs the demon by the neck as it flies by, allowing the demon to ascend back into the air with him riding. Takeru sinks his fingertips into the demons neck area. He then pulls hard to the right, causing the demon to turn around, now facing the hoard of survivors. He pulls his hand out, and leaps towards the hoard while pulling out his shadow katanas. In a flash, Takeru leaps past them all, and in the next instant, they all fall like dead birds shot out of the sky. Takeru plummets as well, turning to his shadow mode right before he hits the ground to null the contact. He reverts to his normal being and grins. "That's the end of that wave."
"Just in time for the next one." Gajeel says with a sarcastic tone as he nods towards the next group of demons flying towards them.
"...Hurry up Salamander!" Takeru yelled. "I didn't know you were such a wimp!"
"..."

"Heather, I can't concentrate on this guy if the demons are shooting at me as well! You're supposed to be keeping them busy!" Reve yelled as he began running from the barrage of beams falling from the sky, all while keeping his precision eyes on Corson of Restraint.
"Yeah yeah we're on it!" Heather replied to Reve as she and Waiston leaped to the top of the tallest building in the area, still a bit ways away from the sky full of demons. "I got it." Waiston says as he raises his right foot. He then slams the same foot down, creating a giant glacier from the roof that begins to elevate quickly to the clouds. Heather and Waiston rode the glacier to the peak of it's ascension and then leaped towards the closest demon coming their way. Once Heather leaped on to hers, she gripped a hand around it's neck and began to emit poison from that same hand, suffocating the demon she rode on. Once the demon began to descend from choking from the toxins, Heather would then leap to the next one, repeating the process. Waiston leaped on to his and immediately froze the being solid. As they descended, Waiston grabbed the frozen demon, and spun it around a few times before launching it towards the hoard coming his way, knocking a few out in the process. Orga caught the descending Waiston and placed him down as Rufus stood on a building with both hands to his temples. "Memory-Make: a Night of Falling Stars!"
From where he stood, about ten beams of light appear and take off into the sky, chasing after and slamming into the airborne demons. Heather quickly leaped off the next demon she rode on since it was in Rufus' target sighting. She descends to the ground, but as she does, a beam of dark magic slams into her back. Two more follow, slamming into her spine as well as she lets out a quick scream of pain. "Heather's hit!" Waiston yelled.
"Dammit!" Reve sneered. He then turned around and began running towards the free falling poison dragon slayer. As he ran, Corson appeared in front of him in a beam of light, and slammed a hard right fist into Reve's stomach. The gunslinger was completely vulnerable, and was now on the ground folded over from the blow. As he looked up with a blurry vision, all he could see was Heather falling, and a rain of dark magic slamming into her on the way down. "H-Heather!"

.

The clock on Danjal's chest continues to tick, slowly reclining to it's end. With now one usable arm, Bacchus charges once again, but as he does, Danjal snaps his fingers, creating a magic seal on the ground in front of Bacchus. He steps on it due to his momentum and the circle immediately explodes with him on it, sending Bacchus into the air once again. Danjal then quickly appears above Bacchus, holding his sword over his head. He swings down, but Bacchus quickly sways away from the stab. He then slams a magic palm into Danjal's chest. His now exposed chest took the brunt of Bacchus' magic palm as he winced in pain. Bacchus then flips into recovery, landing on his feet once he reached the ground. Danjal lands as well, holding his chest as he panted a bit from the last attack. "Why is that attack so strong!? It's just a palm strike!" The general asked himself, cursing aloud. He continued until Bacchus now rushed him once again. Danjal holds his sword steady until Bacchus was in range. He then swung his sword downward, but the drunken mage quickly slid away to the left to avoid the strike. Bacchus then fired in a few more palm strikes, all missing as Danjal begins to dance around them. He then leaps away, snapping his fingers in the process. Once again, a circle appeared under Bacchus quickly and once again, with another snap of the fingers, it exploded, catching Bacchus within the blast. Letting out an agonizing yell, the mage somehow remains on his feet as the smoke cleared, yet, his armor on his arms and back completely break apart. Bacchus starts another heavy pant, holding his ground as he glared towards the demon general. Danjal glared back as well, baring his teeth as he did so. Danjal then looked down towards the magic seal on his person. "Heh...you're running out of time."
Bacchus then returns with a grin plastered on his face. "Nah, this has been wild, but I've already won." "What was that!?" Danjal sneered. "I'll show you who's won!" He then began running towards Bacchus at full speed. As he did so, the drunken mage reared his only palm back as a slight rumble began to take place. His magic aura began to fluctuate as he held a stance. "You're going to die here!" Danjal yelled as he leaped towards Bacchus with his sword behind his ear. Bacchus didn't say a word, just waited. As Danjal neared him, Bacchus let out a loud yell as he thrusted his palm forward with all his might, the same time Danjal thrusted his sword forward with the same effort. The sword stabs Bacchus right in the shoulder; the same time that Bacchus' palm slams right in between the general's eyes. No one moves for a couple of seconds. After the what seemed like a stalemate, Bacchus drops to his knee. "Bacchus!" Kuro Chi yells out, taking his eyes off the now flying demons. One of them aimed right for Kuro and fired a piercing beam towards the mage's heart. Rocker pushes Kuro out of the way, taking the beam right through the stomach. "Shit! Rocker!" Kuro, who fell, crawls over to Rocker who was now on the ground holding his stomach.
As Bacchus stayed on his right knee, holding his shoulder, Danjal has yet to move. Bacchus begins taking slow, deep breathes as he winces in pain. He then looks up to see the expression on Danjal's face. His eyes were pure white, his jaw hanging open. Bacchus blinked a few times as he marveled at the fact...that Danjal was dead, yet standing. "Wild..."
Bacchus then looked at the magic seal on Danjal's torso, and saw that it was still ticking. "Damn!" He quickly struggles to his feet, painfully pulling the sword out of his shoulder. "Blues, Yaeger, Kuro, grab Rocker and run!"
"What's going on!?" Yaegar asked.
"Don't question it! Blues says as Kuro lifts Rocker onto his back. As the demons around them disperse into nothing, the ticking noise becomes louder. Bacchus grabs his disembodied arm and books it behind his fellow mages. Seconds later, the entire southern area of Magnolia say upon a magic seal. "It's going to blow!" Yaegar yelled. "Make it out!" Bbacchus yelled as they continued running.
"What's he doing?" Kuro thought to himself. "Bacchus is faster than all of us, he could of been out of the seal seconds ago.. Is he that hurt?"
"Look! The seal stops there!" Blues yells as he points to the middle of Magnolia. "Book it!"
As Blues yells, from behind them, where they left Danjal, an explosion occurs. The explosive clouds grow and spread out, quickly catching up to the mages as they ran away from the seal's radius. Everyone picks up speed, sprinting as fast as they could. First was Blues and Yaeger. As Kuro exits the seal, the shaking inside the magic circle violently picks up, tripping the S class mage of Quatro Cerberus. Bacchus fell, and tumbles a bit as the explosions quickly catch up to him.
"Bacchus, my hand!" Blues reaches out for his S class mage, and Bacchus extends his hand as well the second they connect, Blues yanks Bacchus out of the circle, just before the explosive magic takes him.
Panting heavily, the drunken mage smiles. "Thanks Blues! I thought I was a goner for a second."
Blues gives a heavy grin back. "We can't let you die like that. That wouldn't of been wild!"

"Look! To the south! That magic seal is gone!" A random mage shouted.
"Yeah but so is that part of the city!"
"They can rebuild later, this is about staying alive! And that's two generals down!"
An uproar of hope and faith was heard from the voices of the mages as the south side of Magnolia. Near the group of mages, Correll and Ultear look towards the sky where the south of Magnolia used to be. "Are they really doing it?" Correll asked.
"Don't get too caught up Correll." Ultear said. "They would still have to kill Zeref and the cannon is set to go off any minute now.."

"Any minute now." Siegrain says as he stood in front of an exhausted Zalen Castle. "In fact, one minute and thirty seconds to be exact. You've tried every trick Zalen Castle, so you might as well just call it a day. The future is just a bit more than a minute away."
"I said I won't let you!" Zalen yelled as he pulled himself up to a correct stance. He would then hold out an open palm that caused two magic seals to appear under Siegrain's feet. Two small plates of iron would then quickly wrap around his ankles while staying attached to the floor, not allowing Siegrain to move temporarily.
"I told you it's no use!" The council leader yells as Zalen runs by him. Siegrain turns his body just enough to face the mage, and then fires a raw beam of heavenly body magic into Zalen's back. It connects, and Zalen falls forward, hitting the ground as Siegrain begins to free himself from the iron wrapped around his ankles. Once free, he walks over to the struggling Zalen and grabs him by his left leg. With immense strength, he tosses the mage away from the cannon. He turns, facing Zalen with a sinister grin. "One minute. One minute and counting kid."
Zalen was perched on his hands and knees, staring at the ground as he panted. "I can't... I can't...I can't let him..."
"Can't let me win? Is that what you were about to say?" The Bluenette says in a mocking tone as he crosses his arms. Behind him, the cannon begins to hum, signifying the start of the Etherion Cannon. This caused the council leader to laugh. "It's over, kid. Behind me is the beginning of a new era. The era of Siegrain begins in less than thirty seconds!"
"No...it doesn't!"
Zalen shoots up into a stance as a magic seal appears under his feet. The rising power from the seal causes Siegrain to take a step back. "What now!? Give it up it's useless!"
Zalen glared towards the blue haired councilmen as he would clench both of his fist. He would then lower his hands and then quickly lift them into the air. "Twelve pillars of the Architect! Release!"
All at once, twelve pillars made of diamond, steel, marble, wood, and brick, shoot up from under Siegrain's feet, one slamming into his sternum as the other eleven target the limbs of his body. Slamming the Bluenette each and every way, the caught off guard councilman fell to the ground, shaking in silence and pain but unable to stand. "I can still make it..." Zalen looked over at Siegrain, and then ran his way over to the cannon, panting heavily as he barely had anything left in him to do so.
"Etherion Cannon firing in five...four...three...two...one..."
As the cannon reaches one, Zalen creates a long sharp pointed as he fell towards the cannon's core. Before the cannon could engage, Zalen slammed the iron into the eye of the cannon, causing it to malfunction and spark wildly. Zalen hits the ground, and hears a snap in his right leg as he fell. Shouting in pain, Zalen rolls to the middle of the cannon eye, right next to his iron dagger as he holds his leg in pain. After a few seconds, his screams of pain switch to a laughter of relief. "I did it... We're saved."
"Dammit!" Siegrain yells as he leans over the railing, also using it to hold himself up. He then turns on a lacrima screen, not worrying which one as he contacts Ultear.

Back at the battlefield, a giant lacrima screen hovers over Magnolia with the face of a beaten Siegrain. "Ultear! Ultear! The cannon has failed! White Eclipse has destroyed it!"
"What!?" The time mage exclaimed in pure shock.

"Alright Zalen!" Kuro yelled from his position. As he did, he noticed someone running his way. His eyes immediately narrow at the familiar face.

"What now!?" Ultear asked.
"I...I don't know," Siegrain said as he grabbed his ribs. "but try to escape if you can. We'll think of another way.."

"White Eclipse." Correll clenches a fist and slams it into a random demon, creating a hole through it's gut as it disperses. "If we make it out of this, your blood will be on my hands!"

"Almost out the city!" Daityas says as he continues his run towards an opening of Magnolia. He keeps running as he sees someone standing in his path. "Who is..?" As he gets closer, he realizes that Kuro Crane was standing there, waiting on him to arrive. "Shit...Kuro. After that blow from Zeref I don't think I have anything in me for another of that attack he did last time. But would he really sacrifice himself twice? No... Or maybe..." He perks up. "That's right! That kid stole the vase from me. Kuro can be revived easily!"
Daityas comes to a jog, and then a stop. The once teacher and student combination now stand across from each other. No one has yet to move. After a long stare down, Kuro gives Daityas an innocent smile. Daityas was more than confused by this action. "I knew you would leave, so I decided to wait on you here."
"What do you want, Kuro? If you want to die again..."
Kuro shook his head. "I know you're not going to change. I know your guild mates aren't dead either just like you know. I know what death feels like. I just wanted to remind you, that no matter what you do, there will be enough of us to stop you in the end."
Daityas sneered a bit at Kuro's last comment. "You think so?" He then began walking past the fire make mage, stopping right beside him as he spoke again. "Only time will tell. That is, if you survive this."
Without looking back, Kuro and Daityas both walk in opposite directions, Kuro to rejoin the war going on in the city.
"We'll see each other again Daityas." Kuro says to himself. "But one of us won't be saved next time."

.

Reve came to due to a kick to his face from the demon general Corson of Restraint. As he slid across the ground on his back, he quickly backflipped to his feet as he regained his poise. That poise quickly disappeared as his eyes left the general once again to see if his fellow guild mate was still alive. Waiston and the two Sabertooth mages stood around the crater that Heather laid in, looking for signs of movement. Reve then turned his attention back to Corson, who vanished from his original spot. Reve quickly spotted him to his left, and began firing off rounds of his current celestial gun. Corson quickly disappeared though, leaving him unharmed once again as the beam of light quickly made it's way to the opposite side of Reve. "I'm not playing this game again!" The gunslinger yelled. "He then let go of the gun in his right hand, but instead of dropping, the gun levitated at it's exact location. As that happened, Reve's eyes change. As if he were wearing contacts, Reve's pupils now took on the look of targets, just like the tactic he used during the Grand Magic Games. He then would let go of the gun in his left hand, causing the same effect as the gun that was once in his right hand. Reve would then widen his stance, spreading his arms as well. "Devil's wheel."
As seconds go by, about thirty guns appear around the battlefield, surrounding him and Corson. As Corson continued to zoom around in his beam of light, Reve would fire, just missing each time. He was one second too slow, and now in his target eyes, he couldn't do anything without canceling the Devil's wheel. Still, he continued to fire, barely missing each time he fired. He could see the general plain as day, and even though he missed each time, he wasn't giving Corson anytime to set up an attack of his own.
At this time, Heather was making her way up from the crater, rubbing her head. "Shit man..!"
"You're alright! Good." Waiston says, sighing in relief.
"Of course I'm okay. I'm not the others." The snippy mage replied. Her welcome back to consciousness was quickly cut off as she ran out of the crater, evading the incoming beams fired by the airborne demons. Everyone else scatters as well. As Heather ran, she hustled towards Reve and Corson, watching the beam of light carefully. "Beat the general, and the portal to the demons close." As she ran, a trail of beams followed her. She ignored it as she out ran the flying soldiers. "What is she doing?" Orga questioned.
"Have to time this right." She said as she was nearing Reve and his opponent. "And...Now!"
All of a sudden, as Heather stopped on a dime, Corson was zooming by in his light beam, only to have his face take a hard right poisonous fist. Corson was hit, and Heather grinned. That grin faded as Corson turned his head right back to Heather. "..." Corson's eyes began to glow white as he stared towards the Poison Dragon Slayer. That also stopped as he felt something against his head. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Reve stood right beside Corson as he pointed his magnum against the general's temple. "Step back Heather." Reve said with his raven colored hair covering his eyes. Heather quickly obliged, back pedaling away with a smirk. Corson didn't move. "...Bang."
Corson quickly tried to turn, and aim a punch to Reve, but before he could turn an inch, Reve pulled the trigger, blowing Corson into nothing from the overpowering magnum bullet. Once the blast from the magnum cleared, the magic seal above them disappeared, cutting off the demons' gate. "Heh...Seems like training has really paid off."

"Look!" The voice from another random mage caused everyone to look up to the sky. They all witnessed the disappearance of yet another magic seal. "Our future is looking great! That White Eclipse kid destroyed the cannon, and there's only one general left!"
Another random then shouted. "Lets all go jump the last general!" His words created an uproar as everyone was on board with the idea.
"Don't get ahead of yourself." Zeref himself states. He then swings an arm forward, firing a wave of death magic that slams into a plethora of random mages. The masters watched, and stood speechless as they watched some of the mages literally rot. "Such a monster!" Master Bob yelled.
"He did that with one swing of the arm..." Calium says as he looked on in horror.
"No time to be afraid.." Makarov shakily replied. "Stay strong, it's almost time. Come on Erza.."

.

Zalen stayed on the cannon's eye, resting. Siegrain finally looks away, slamming a fist on the rail, and limping away from the cannon and out the building.
"I'm a hero. This is how a hero feels." Zalen says as the lacrima screen focuses on him. As he laid there, they reappeared out of the shadows, yet still away from Zalen's sight.
"Now, Master Jikan?" Aloysis asked.
"Now." Jikan replied as he dangled a watch from his right hand.
As Zalen rested with that accomplished smile on his face, a small undetectable white magic circle appeared under him.
"One minute will do. It's all focused on the cannon so nothing else will revert. Watch closely Aloysis. You're about to see the true power of time. Watch as the reversion of one minute can end the life of one who tried so hard, as well as that Zeref."

Jikan began to swing his watch like a pendulum. The magic seal beneath Zalen began to spin. The spinning is what started the time reversion. Beside Zalen, his iron dagger began to shake, as if it was about to pull out on it's own as the cracks in the eye began to disappear, like a puzzle being put together perfectly; all without the building mage noticing.

"This is the power.

Of reversion."