{Happy 2018, folks!}
How to potentially injure yourself by reading this chapter: take a drink every time the story mentions a wall getting destroyed!
"What's the status there?"
"I assume most of Phantom Lord's forces are in Magnolia because security is surprisingly light." Erza responded as she easily dispatched around a dozen Phantom Lord grunts in the hall. "We're en-route to Jupiter's main lacrima and destroy it before falling back to Magnolia."
"Careful Erza, only Voyu and Gajeel have been accounted for," Kain's voice spread to the link. "There is still no sign of the Element Four and the three other captains!"
"Huh? Kain, I'm sensing another power spike from the Cathedral!" Warren's voice sounded panicked through the link.
"What?" There was sudden explosion that quickly cut the rider's thoughts off.
"Kain!?" Erza cried out as she tried the link again but found nothing. "Kain!?"
"Is the link down!? What happened?!" Gray asked after taking down henchmen on his side.
"Should we go back!?" Alzack asked worriedly.
Erza shook her head quickly at the idea. "No! We have to stop the Jupiter Cannon. With Master now fighting Jose, the Thunder Palace won't activate without someone manually activating it. It's imperative to stop this weapon right now!"
Elfman pointed in the direction where several doorways lay ahead of the group. "This place is too big, I say we split up and whoever finds the Lacrima first has to destroy it!"
"Is that really wise? Those ghost freaks might still be lurking around."
In response to Laki's comment, Natsu pounded his fists together. "Then we'll just plow them down!"
"But what about the rest of Phantom Lord's top mages? Besides Jose, only two of them have been accounted for." Alzack pointed out.
"Didn't I just say we'll just plow them down?" It seemed like Natsu was counting them among the resistance when he first said his opinion.
"Alright, we'll all split up. Everyone, be safe if you find yourself meeting with any of Phantom Lord's top mages." Erza began before the six of them left the area in different directions.
…
…
If any of them stayed in that area a little longer, they would have noticed someone entering into the hallway.
"…?"
Gray was the first to find the large black Lacrima which no doubt was the source for firing the Jupiter Canon.
"Alright, let's break this thing." The ice mage didn't hesitate to start gathering energy with his fists as he looked at his giant target.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that."
The ice mage heard that different voice, but as he turned he quickly avoided a blast of fire before looking over to someone below the black lacrima.
"I am Totomaru of the Element Four, Fairy Scum." The man styled with heavy eastern appearance with black and white hair tied into a top knot stood with his arms folded and his chin held high as he said this.
"I don't got time for you. I'm here to break this thing before you guys can even finish destroying the Thunder Palace." Gray said as he got into a stance.
"I admit, Fairy Tail actually having a defense system to rival the Jupiter Cannon was a surprise to nearly all of us. But it matters very little. Unlike us, we've only got to protect one target while yours are laid bare to a ground assault courtesy of our North Captain." Totomaru relaxed his stance. "And with it currently decommissioned…"
A mechanical voice echoed into the room. "Jupiter Cannon now engaged. T-Minus 15 minutes until fully charged."
The ice mage looked at his opponent with utter shock. "What are you guys crazy!? Your own men are back in Magnolia!"
"Two words: Voyu Carliso." That name was all it took for Gray to realize what he was implying.
"You're kidding me? He has enough magic to get all of your people out of Magnolia before the attack?" However, as soon as Gray said it out loud, his mind did realize that if that man was efficient enough to open up portals nearly everywhere in Magnolia, how different would it be to open them up again for retreating?
"Captain Carliso is basically second in command of Phantom Lord in all but name! His mastery over Portal Magic is outstanding! You had no chance without the likes of Laxus or Mystogan in your team to fight him! Even if they were here, it would take them both to defeat him, but I'd bet they'd barely put a scratch on him!" Totomaru laughed arrogantly at the thought.
Gray grunted at the man's attitude. "Big talk! But my guild can take them all on without Mystogan and especially Laxus! Now get out of my way!"
He started the fight by firing Ice Make: Lance. Shards of Ice cut through the air to reach their opponent. However, a green magic circle appeared before him and as soon as the ice attacks made contact, they instantly evaporated into nothing.
"An ice mage? Oh this is too easy." Totomaru began as he walked forward.
Fairy Tail's ice mage looked in shock. Even Natsu never melted his ice that fast. "What the heck did you just do?!"
Totomaru opened up his right palm, revealing a small green flame. "Magic Green Fire is specially designed to instantly melt ice. As long as I have this in my arsenal, your attacks mean nothing."
"Oh yeah!?" Gray took that as a challenge rather than a fact as he quickly summoned one of his most powerful attacks: the ice make version of Bazooka.
Rather than look intimidated, Totomaru smirked tauntingly and turned his back on Gray… before patting his behind mockingly. "Come on, buddy, right here. I'll even wiggle it for you so it'll be easier to hit."
Needless to say, Gray was beyond ticked off at this point and didn't hesitate to fire an ice blast right for his opponent. However, a wall of green fire popped up to protect Totomaru and when the attack made contact with it, a large explosion of mist covered the room.
Gray covered himself from the impact of his attack, but as the mist settled down, he saw Totomaru without a single scratch on him.
The Fire mage of Element four smirked. "I guess you could say," He licked his finger and put it on his ass while at the same time making a sizzling sound. "I'm too hot for ya."
Great, Gray was now facing a complete douche bag who nullified most of his magic and was making stupid fire puns over his attacks.
The ice mage clicked his tongue as he put his hands together. However, instead of the usual fist on top of palm stance he always uses, he made his fingers inter lock with each other and pointed a combined fist at his opponent.
"T-Minus ten minutes till Jupiter Cannon fires." The announcement voice cried out.
"Haven't you learned? None of your ice magic can touch me!" Totomaru declared with pride.
"My normal one, yes," Gray admitted as light started shinning from inside his two hands. "But thanks to one of my more recent opponents," Flashes of Horus and Flora appeared in the ice mage's mind. "My magic is a lot more versatile than even I give it credit for."
Gray paused as he opened up his palms, revealing a small ice bird in his palm.
"Ice Make: Sparrow!" The raven haired mage declared as the small ice creature flew up. He had put a lot more extra magic in this one construct for a reason.
Totomaru suddenly laughed and pointed at the bird in Gray's hands. "All that build up for a stupid bird?!"
"He's a sparrow." Gray quickly corrected.
But at the answer, the Element Four member only laughed louder. "Like that matters, what's he going to do? Peck me to death?"
The ice mage smiled as the little sparrow started flying beside him. "Oh, the idea doesn't sound too bad actually."
Totomaru felt an odd tone in the air as he dropped his proud ego for a second and warily faced his opponent. "What's that kind of talk for?"
Gray's smile remained as he just pointed towards his opponent and said two simple words, "Sic him."
The flame mage stared at the bird and blinked.
Then the small ice bird was no longer there.
"Huh?" Totomaru's confusion was quickly replaced with pain as he screamed when he felt something sucker punch him in the right cheek—then in the left cheek—then uppercut his chin—and then hit the back of his knee, causing him to fall on his butt.
The flame mage quickly got back up, noticing the oh-so satisfied look on Gray's face to see him knocked down a peg.
"What was that!?" Totomaru cried out before he noticed something above him. It was the ice sparrow flying just over head of him.
The fire mage quickly fired a blast of green fire towards the bird. However, faster than the eye could catch, the bird sped away from the blast. Totomaru was about to attack again until…
He was hit in the face by an ice mallet.
Totomaru skipped the ground like a smooth pebble on the surface of water until he crashed into the other side of the wall.
Gray scoffed as he turned back to the giant black lacrima. "Idiot, even ash-for-brains knows that sparrows can reach a top speed of 50 MPH, a magical enhanced one can reach the speed of sound without wasting that much magic energy like it would for a human."
"T-minus seven minutes till—" The ice mage fired several dozen ice lances that pierced through the giant lacrima, the cracks quickly encompassed the entire black orb before shattering and dropping to the ground, instantly stopping the building energy.
"I had seven minutes left? I really thought I had less than that." Gray put his hands in his pockets before realization hit him and he grabbed his cloak. "Huh, I didn't even strip that entire fight."
He then noticed the Ice Sparrow flying closer towards him. "You did pretty well. I'll call you up again if I need you."
The bird seemed to nod before a flash of light surrounded it, causing it to turn into an ice shaped symbol of a sparrow and fall harmlessly into Gray's palm then faded into thin air.
"Dynamic Make magic sure has some fun properties to them. I wonder if I can make my own little pet from one?" Gray nonchalantly said before looking back at the destroyed lacrima. "Anyway… with Warren's link down, how am I going to tell the others we're good now?"
However, while Gray was looking at the destroyed orb, he then suddenly felt a presence right behind him along with a strange heat and killing intent.
"Take this!" Totomaru screamed as he swung his green flame blade at—
"Buzz off!" To the Element Four's surprise, he was hit again by a powerful blow but instead of crashing into a wall, he was kicked through a wall and ended up screaming as he fell off from the mobile guild hall.
Gray looked to his protector, but clicked his tongue in disappointment when he saw who it was.
"Really, Striperella? That's the third time I've had to save your sorry butt." Natsu folded his arms as Happy flew up to catch up with him.
"You wanna go, fire dweeb?!"
The two quickly went to butting heads with each other. However, it seemed like even though the Jupiter Cannon was stopped, Phantom Lord still wasn't done.
Soon, the entire castle started to transform, much to the dismay of Natsu whose motion sickness quickly kicked in.
"What the hell?" Gray looked up in confusion as to what that rumbling was.
Unfortunately for Fairy Tail, the Jupiter Cannon was only one weapon under Phantom Lord's arsenal. As soon as the cannon was destroyed, the mobile guild started to transform.
Everyone inside the Phantom Lord Guild noticed the walls turning and shifting mechanically as the loud sounds of gears and magic turning transformed the moving fortress into a giant robot.
On the outside, nearly everyone who was not the two guild masters noticed the giant robot in the distance.
"What the hell!? They have giant robots here?! AND IT'S WITH THE ENEMY!? Oh no! That makes total sense!" Kain complained as he ran with Lucy, Mirajane, Éclair, and Momon with Gajeel not to far from them.
Mira felt the need to agree, but seeing a group of mages she didn't recognize up ahead along with some phantom lord symbols, she pointed up ahead while looking back to the red rider. "Kain, less snark, more punching!"
The group of Phantom Lord mages looked to their right. "Oh hey lookie here, some Fairy babe—"
The man who spoke up was quickly shut up when it took him a quarter of a second after to realize that a fist was punching his cheek.
That mage flew into a wall that created a crack at the impact, the rest of the members looked over to see the red rider that had closed the distance between them without their notice.
They were quick to try to fire at him. However, half of them weren't fast enough as Kain unleashed a flurry of enhanced punches and kicks with his enhanced speed while the other half was blindsided by a flurry of arrows by Lucy.
Even though the two quickly dispatched the lower mages, there was a boom coming from behind them, revealing Gajeel had caught up.
"Get back here you cowards!" Gajeel then avoided several energy slashes and a few arrows that were shot his way. When they stopped, he looked back up to see the group already running away from him. "I will rip your heads and put it on a pike!"
Back inside the newly formed giant, Natsu was groaning in (stomach) pain.
"You're pathetic." Gray quickly said.
"Shut up!" Natsu retorted before he felt the giant finally come to a stop. He slowly got up and looked out the hole in the wall he made. "Oh crap! It's making a giant magic circle!"
"What!?" The ice mage cried out as he also stood by the opening to see the large hands of the giant slowly making a giant circle. "Those patterns… isn't that Abyss Break!? But one that size will…" Gray didn't say anymore as Natsu slammed his fist on the hole, making it much larger than before.
"Damn Phantom Lord! We gotta find out whatever is powering up this spell!"
"For once I agree with you. We should split up and meet with the others. They should know that we took care of the Jupiter Cannon if they haven't figured it out yet."
Natsu nodded for once at what his rival was saying. However, he stopped for a second as he put a hand on his chin. "Wait. If Kain were here, wouldn't he come up with something else instead of just randomly searching every nook and cranny of this place?"
"Unfortunately for us, Kain's back in Magnolia, and last time I checked: Phantom Lord is the team with a portal mage on their side." Gray folded his arms, yet remained curious. Was Natsu… thinking?
Suddenly, Natsu's face seemed to light up as he put his two hands together in realization. "Oh! I just remembered! Do you remember that machine that Kain bought for the guild that makes coffee?"
"That? It looked pretty intricate, but yeah, Kain even got me some hot coco from it before it was destroyed from the first attack." Gray mentally thought back. It was some good coco, but what did that have to do with anything?
Natsu seemed to go on. "I was there when he was first started putting it together. He said that machines usually need even small parts to work together or not at all. So isn't this thing one big machine? We don't gotta look for its power source… we just gotta break all the parts keeping this pile of junk standing!"
Gray smiled at the thought. "So what you're basically saying is… they trashed our guild, so let's do the same to them."
"You bet!" Natsu gave thumbs up before looking to Happy. "Happy, bring me to the head of this thing! I wanna see if machines get headaches!"
"Aye!" The blue cat saluted before lifting Natsu and flying out the hole.
The ice mage of Fairy Tail was honestly surprised. Maybe Kain was a better influence on Natsu rather than Natsu influencing Kain.
Meanwhile, Elfman was running down a corridor. "What the heck was that moving? Whatever it is can't be good."
As he kept running, he passed by some giant gears… but then he ran to a stop.
"Wait a sec…" A smile spread across his face as he looked back at the gear. "Well, it's not the Jupiter Cannon, but…" His right hand started to change into that of a muscle bound beast. "What man can't ignore the call to destroy things threatening their loved ones?"
The really was no need to answer that rhetorical question.
But there was a need to respond to it with a loud smashing sound.
Elfman went to work, breaking the gears and anything that looked like it was keeping this machine going. However, he failed to notice that while destroying anything that looked like it would support the machine, there was an eye peeking out of the wall behind him.
The younger Strauss sibling reared his fist back to punch another gear until to his surprise; the wall behind the gear shot out and punched him away.
Elfman got back up, and noticed a lanky man wearing a brown suit come out of the wall like a daisy.
"Oui? Salut." The man with green hair and a monocle greeted in mocking tone.
Elfman tensed as he got back up and then threw his jacket aside. "One of the Element Four…" He supposed he would have to meet with either of the remaining captains or the Elements.
In response to the large man's statement, the Element Four member started swaying his body like a long grass swaying in the wind "Comment ꞔa va? My name is Sol. Monsieur Sol." The Element of Earth introduced himself.
"Like I care! I'm here to stop this thing, so either tell me how, or I'll just wreck the entire place myself!" Elfman cried before raising his fist in the air and gathering large amounts of energy towards it. After it transformed into an enhanced arm, he was ready to fight.
Instead of being intimidated, Sol seemed to just flail around at a much faster pace. "My, my! Isn't Take Over magic supposed to be the whole body?"
Elfman gave a slight bristle at the mocking tone of how Sol said that. "You shut up!" He then charged right for the skinny man, only for his opponent to somehow sink into solid earth before popping up like a daisy a few feet behind him.
"You had a younger sister, n'est-ce pas?" The earth mage darkly sneered.
At the mention of that, Elfman was shocked to hear about that. When he did that, he let his guard down, which gave the bilingual mage a chance to get close and kick him with a surprising amount of power.
After getting back from the surprisingly powerful blow, Elfman screamed to his opponent. "Cheap bastard!" However, the insult did little to slow his opponent down as Sol disappeared into the ground once more.
Sol's smug smile didn't seem to fade as he started talking again. "Now don't be like that! I hear you once failed at a full-body Take Over and went all berserk on the poor mademoiselle?"
That hit far too close to home for the white haired mage. He quickly shook his head and reared his fist. "Shut up!" He roared with anger as he tried to punch the earth mage once more. However, without him noticing, a familiar face froze and stopped Elfman's attack from following through.
"Lisanna!" Elfman gasped in shock as he saw a rock form of his dead sister.
"Well isn't she pretty? I wonder what happened to her?" Sol mockingly mused before leaning a little too close to the face of the statue. "Oh right, she's—how you say? Six feet under."
"Y-You bastard!" Elfman gritted his teeth as he looked at the earth mage clearly playing on his insecurities.
Sol tilted his head downward in a creepy manner. "Moi? The bastard? Why monsieur, you were the one who put her there in the first place! How could you do that to someone who loved you so much!?"
Suddenly, the Lisanna statue started to move, her eyes slowly opened—until one of them snapped open with Sol's eye. "Well, big brother Elf?"
Seeing the image, Elfman roared and unleashed a large amount of magical power around his body in order to forget about how Sol was trying to get into his head.
"Non, non, non! Are you really trying to act brave and use the same power that killed your loved one?" With a dark chuckle, Sol summoned a multitude of fake Lissana statues, all screaming out horrible insults and such while Elfman tried to channel a full body take over.
In his mind, memories of what had happened on that day he lost his younger sister put such emotional stress on his psyche.
However, despite all the guilt, his subconscious seemed to be fighting just as hard as he was. Among all those memories, something else came up.
"Thanks a lot, Elfman. I really do appreciate you showing me around the mall." Kain said as he fixed the bag of gear he bought from Weasely's Wizard Weasers.
"No problem! Things like these are nothing to a man!" The white haired mage proudly declared. However, when he looked back at Kain, he seemed to have a very thoughtful look on his face. Curious, the large man asked, "What's up?"
The brunette from another dimension blinked before pausing for a second. He then asked, "I'm just curious but why do you boast so much about being a man?"
The takeover mage was not expecting such a forward question. However, one of the reasons why he boasts so proudly about being a man was because…
"Oh? If it's personal, you don't have to tell me. I was just curious." It seemed like Kain had read Elfman's emotions since he quickly redacted his question after it had come out.
"Sorry." For the first time since they had met, Kain had not seen Elfman so dour compared to his usually boisterous self.
"If it makes you feel any better," Kain began as he looked at the sunset in the distance. If Elfman liked talking about manly men, why not talk about that subject? "I've always liked the idea of a man overcoming his inner demons. It's not easy, but when they do it, it's hard not to see them in a respectable light for honoring their mistakes and realizing they can become more by making peace with it."
Elfman looked to Kain in surprise. The smaller boy laughed before explaining, "In other words, I've always found myself really respecting people who accept their faults and move on to be better people. That's my view of someone manly."
There was a small but honest smile on Kain's face as he said this. Elfman felt weird; it wasn't very masculine or tough…
"Huh? You don't say."
But his soul admitted that it was surprisingly manly.
Despite all the horrible insults coming his way, for the first time, Elfman smiled.
Sol noticed this even among all the statues firing insult after horrible insult. "Why are you smiling?"
Elfman, with the magic power around him, smirked at Sol. "Kain, you're right. A real—no a true man accepts his faults and rises above them!" In a burst of even greater magic, Elfman's body started to grow.
Sol shielded his arms at the energy massing in front of him. "What!? Do you not care—"
"I do care!" Eflman defiantly shouted as his body started to transform. "But I owe it to my family and my friends to surpass myself! You failed, dirt bag! Full Body Take Over: Beast Soul!"
"Sacré Bleu!" Sol cried out before firing several earth based blasts at his opponent. However, the attacks seemed to dissipate a second before a bright light covered the entire hall.
As the light died down, Sol felt something big looking down on him and quickly looked back up.
A massive and monstrous creature roared with a power that shook Phantom Lord's hideout. And then the creature looked down on Monsieur Sol.
"Ah? This is an interesting turn of events" Instead of being afraid of such a creature, Sol seemed oddly calm and put his hand on his face to support it up. "I was honestly doing you a favor, monsieur. I used your own memories against you so I would only have to defeat you mentally, not physically. Honestly, it would have been painless for you." He closed his eyes deep as he admitted this. "Well… physically painless."
Elfman in his beast form snarled as he raised his fist over the green haired earth mage.
However, Sol still didn't move. Instead he snapped open his eyes and narrowed them. "I suppose we will have to do this the hard way, non?"
Beast Soul roared as he punched down in an attempt to crush his opponent.
The blow of Elfman's punch was enough to crack the walls around the hallway the two were battling.
Yet… it was not strong enough to fully break a giant and nearly broken hand of rock catching Elfman's big fist.
"Fools who dare threaten ze land we thread upon," Sol's voice echoed with magical power. Elfman realize that his opponent was using a rhyming incantation: in other words, a lost spell! "Feel ze warth of the Earth God's Spawn!" With those last words, Sol threw his hand out and the nearly broken earth hand threw back the colossal beast.
Eflman staggered back but then noticed all the debris around the area and pieces of the wall swarming around Sol like a black hole. Soon the rocks all formed together to form a humanoid figure made of stone that was the same size and weight class as Elfman's Beast Soul.
The two giants stared at each other in silence, obviously eyeing one another with caution—well except the giant humanoid rock, it had no face to begin with.
Then the two reared back a fist each and let it rip—
Gray struggled to gain his balance as he felt the entire base shake. "What the heck? That doesn't feel like Natsu."
Erza supported herself on a nearby wall as the ground shook once more. "Something was different that time. It wasn't the building shifting; it felt more like two gigantic powers clashing."
"Will this stupid castle stop moving!?" Laki Olietta cried out while she was on the floor, waiting for this new movement to stop.
"And here I thought Magnolia was the worse place to be right now," Alzack thought as he held on to a nearby pillar to support himself.
"Aww man, don't tell me this place is moving again! I just beat up all these guys in a control panel looking place!" Natsu panicked as the place started to rumble. He wasn't too keen in the place moving like it did a while ago to activate his motion sickness.
After the strong clash of powers, the stone giant staggered back as his fist crumbled into dust. Elfman saw an opportunity and tried to punch the stone giant once more. Yet the opposing titan caught the punch with its other arm. To the surprise of Elfman, the broken arm quickly reformed and then threw a punch with enough force to launch Elfman's boosted form into the air and cause him to cause a large skid on the floor.
(Ow!) That impact was strong enough to put the mage's mind back in control. (This bastard is tough enough to still fight me with control over my powers again.)
The beast soul stood back up and roared as he rushed for the stone giant in a kung-fu stance. The fairy Tail mage threw a punch right for the face of the giant, only for his opponent to tilt his head, grab his fist, and perform a judo throw with enough force to destroy several walls in the process.
To Eflman's surprise, the ground around him started to pin his feet and arms, locking him into the ground.
(He can still manipulate the earth even in that form!? Gimme a break!) The takeover mage spotted the earth golem rushing for him with his fist reclined. With more exerted strength, Elfman broke through his restraints and rolled out of the way of Sol's punch. He followed it up with a burst of punched the head of the titan with enough force to blast him through several walls.
(A spell like that has to be draining his magic especially if it can regenerate! I gotta keep up my offensive!)
Elfman steered his powered up form to rush right for where he assumed the golem had fallen. He jumped up high in an effort to stomp his opponent down through the floor if he had to. However, as he started descending down, a fist shot up from the dust and decked him right in the neck.
Sol in his stone giant form leapt out of the smoke, grabbed Elfman by the face then slammed it into the wall. He then started to run, dragging the takeover mage while pushing his face into the wall as the stone giant ran.
Elfman quickly grabbed the hand holding on to his face and crushed the wrist with both of his hands before unleashing an uppercut on the stone form. The stone giant flew and hit the wall on the other side. As it bounced off, Elfman bolted up to Sol and connected another punch to the face and used more force to punch through three walls and several large gears.
However, even after all of that, it seemed like the damages that Elfman was putting up were already healing.
(This is getting me nowhere! His magic isn't draining fast enough!) Elfman thought to himself as he finally noticed even his beast form was starting to pant. In terms of raw power they were nearly the same, but Sol was obviously able to take more punishment than him. At the rate things would go, he would lose!
(Damn it! I am not losing to… huh?) Elfman, with his heightened senses, noticed something off. Behind the stone golem, the wall seemed to be giving way. This was strange because, Elfman was sure he hadn't hit the wall behind him, so why was it crumbling weirdly?
Elfman quickly noticed something else. The walls that were destroyed seemed to be decaying fast. However, the gears that Sol flew through didn't seem to move beyond being destroyed and bent.
(Wait a second. He's an earth mage.) The Take Over mage couldn't help but give a toothy grin as he bravely…
Ran away.
The stone giant actually seemed surprised before chasing right after his opponent. For some reason, Elfman was bashing through wall after wall and trying to get away from Sol.
However, he stopped in seemingly after a dozen or so wall breaking.
Sol had a bad feeling from inside the giant and quickly made two stone arms on each side, giving his stone giant six arms and quickly rushed for Elfman. With the extra arms, and therefore extra attack and defense, Sol was slowly but surely overpowering the Take Over mage.
However, Elfman just needed Sol to take one more—THERE!
Powering through the pain, Elfman punched with enough force to break one arm coming his way and once more grab Sol's stone head. With amazing power, he threw Sol out the wall again.
Yet something was different this time.
Instead of there being another hallway, or gears… Elfman had thrown Sol outside of the guild giant.
The earth mage panicked until he realized that he was closing in to one of the titanic metal arms of the guild giant and landed there.
Elfman landed on the arm as well and rushed straight for Sol. In retaliation, Sol threw his left three arms at his opponent, only for Elfman to smash all three fists with an upward punch.
Sol remained calm as he tried to fix his broken arms…
…
…
!?
"I finally figured it out." Sol from inside the golem looked towards Elfman. "Your spell is pretty tough, but it needs earth and stones to keep regenerating itself. As long as we fought inside the guild, you had a near indefinite healing factor." Elfman's beastly form gave another toothy grin. "But we're not in the guild anymore, are we?"
Realization hit Sol as it all came to his head: that was why Elfman ran a while ago, to find an area to isolate him away from the many earth that originally surrounded them! However, if he could just get back to the inside of the gui—
However, Elfman was quick to grab Sol's head and slam him back on the metal arm where there was no earth or stone nearby. After a mighty flex, Elfman unleashed his own rush of fast punches on the stone giant that was no longer capable of regenerating.
After Elfman was done, he had finally broken through the stone giant… and he might have gone overboard with how Sol was now bruised all over and looked deeply unconscious from several… or dozen punches Elfman gave.
Soon, Elfman let go of his magic, gasping for breath as he fell on his knees and hands.
"I won…" He panted but then looked at his fist and gripped it tightly. "But is this really as far as I can go? Damn it!"
"Elfman!"
The white haired mage looked up to see something that gave him a needed smile: Erza flying over to him.
"Erza, man am I glad to see you!"
The red haired mage turned back to her casual get up before running up to the injured take over mage and slinging his arm over her other shoulder to carry him. "I noticed the tremors were close by, but imagine my surprise when I saw a monster fighting a stone giant." She then looked over to Sol. "Since he was using earth based spells, I assumed he was one of the Element Four?"
"Yep, he was a dirty but super tough bastard. I almost didn't win…" Elfman gripped his fist tighter.
"Be proud Elfman. You did win." Erza said with a smile. "I'm sure you did Lisanna and Mira proud if they were both to see you now."
"Thanks."
Soon the two Fairy Tail mages heard large sounds of creaking. As they looked over, the Abyss Break spell seemed to be slowing down significantly.
"Either, I've finally damaged enough gears, or The Element Four was one of the power sources for this thing."
"I believe it's more of the later than the former. It seems the gears don't slow down the giant as much as the…" Erza stopped speaking as she narrowed her eyes at the other mechanical arm casting the Abyss Break.
"Elfman, go back inside." The armor mage spoke with deadly seriousness.
"What?" Elfman started before looking at the hand where Erza was looking at.
His eyes widened as he saw a figure standing right on the other hand creating the spell. It looked like someone wearing all gladiator-looking bronze armor… wait a second… was that figure a female with a shiny bronze sword and circular bronze shield?
Erza spoke up again while looking to Eflman this time. "I can sense their magical power all the way from here. According to Master's descriptions of the Captains, she must be Alexandra Raphael."
The white haired mage was surprised when Erza gently let go of him and pointed towards back into the guild. "Elfman, you did well, but retreat back to the escape zone."
The male Strauss sibling wanted to argue. However, his body wasn't willing to listen. Begrudgingly, he decided to leave this battle to the S-class mage. "Erza, you better win!" he said as he started to make his way back to the Phantom Lord base and bring Sol along just in case.
As he did leave, Erza summoned a blade and looked to her opponent in the distance. "I intend to."
When Elfman and sol were out of the way, Alexendra picked up her bronze broad sword, which was originally planted on the ground and then pointed over to Erza with it. The S-Class mage of Fairy Tail returned the gesture.
Then the two jumped with their blades poised to strike…
Natsu finally noticed the Guild Giant stopped in his tracks and sighed in relief. "Finally the shaking stopped."
"We are in agreement with that notion."
Natsu didn't recognize anyone with that foreign accent before and turned towards the doors. There was a seven foot tall man with dark skin wearing a wide black bolero hat. He was a dark skinned man wearing a white mask, a black bandit costume and a red sash tied around his waist and a white spider symbol on his chest.
The extraordinary man was leaning on the archway where the doors were blasted open in a casual manner that made Natsu feel annoyed.
"Who are you? One of the Captains, or the Element Four?"
The man tipped his hat upward with a smile and responded, "East Captain, Zolon Mercer. I was looking for Ms. Peaks with Ms. Lockser, but it appears I've found you instead."
Natsu smiled as he pounded his fists together with flames. "Well I've been itching for something that can actually fight back for a while. But I gotta beat you jerks up and get back to my friends."
Mr. Mercer stood up, wrapped his cape around him but stretched his hand out in a palm and motioned his hand to signal, 'come on'
"Wait, Natsu!" Happy cried out to his friend too late as the salmon haired fire mage rushed with fists blazing towards the masked stranger.
Zolon dodged each punch easily. Annoyed, Natsu jumped and attempted to round house kick the Eastern Captain. However, the dragon slayer had an all too familiar sense of déjà vu when Zolon stopped and caught his kick with just two fingers.
"Aww come oNNN!?" Natsu screamed before his foot was grabbed and he ended up being thrown out of the command room.
Zolon then looked over to Happy, which made the blue cat look with fear. However, the opponent just tipped his hat and went after his opponent.
…
Natsu growled after being thrown before noticing Zolon running up to him with a fist reclined back. The dragonslayer ducked before unleashing an uppercut on the masked figure. However, with uncanny speed, Zolon tilted his head and spun his body to sweep Natsu off his feet then push with an open palm that had the force of a truck causing Natsu to be slammed through the cracked wall.
"You can slay dragons, but it seems you can't even harm a spider, much like a certain metal head I know…" Zolon began as he started walking through the hole he made through Natsu.
The salmon haired mage wiped his mouth as he looked up to his opponent before standing back up. Natsu inhaled before unleashing a powerful dragon roar right for Zolon. It seemed like the masked warrior didn't seem fast enough to dodge the attack.
After the attack, Natsu looked in bewildered surprise as Zolon, despite the scorched area around him and some remains of his flames, looked unscathed from the power of a dragon's roar.
"My! This tickles." Zolon laughed as he then clenched his fist and punched the dumbfounded Natsu causing him to slide in the hallway somewhat.
Happy, watching this fight, stared in awe at how Natsu's most powerful flame was made completely useless. "W-What!? How's he immune to fire?!"
Zolon turned back to Happy after hearing the extra voice. "Now why would I tell you the secret of my magic?"
Between that little exchange, Natsu got back up. But something was off: the second punch Zolon threw felt much weaker than the first time. What was this guy's magic? Natsu enflamed his fist and tried to punch Zolon Mercer. However, the East Captain suddenly leapt high to the ceiling of their hallway. To the surprise of Happy and Natsu, Zolon was sticking to the ceiling like a spider!
Zolon smiled before ripping up a piece of the ceiling and literally brining it down on Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer had to jump out of the way to avoid being crushed between a ceiling and a floor.
It was then that Natsu felt the ground he was standing on shake again. He jumped back again before something came popping up through the floor with a powerful spin. As the object slowed down, it revealed Zolon somehow drilled back into the floor they were fighting and landed in front of Natsu with a confidant smirk.
"I don't get it, what's his magic?" Happy stared on carefully at the battle.
Natsu on the other hand stared at his opponent with laser focus.
Zolon reacted to the glare with amusement. "Aah! A sharp look you have on you, sir. I take it you've already deduced my magic then?"
"Yeah," Happy was surprised to hear that from Natsu. How'd he figure it out? It was then that Natsu pointed to the Eastern Captain, or more specifically, the spider symbol on his chest. "That symbol threw me off for a second, but then I realized what magic you have: it's Take Over Magic!"
Happy looked on with surprise. Their opponent had the same magic as the Strauss Siblings? "Take Over Magic? But he never transformed once!" Happy thought out loud to himself.
"Take Over magic?" Zolon repeated with confusion.
Natsu put down his arm. "Don't try to play dumb! I had a good friend who was a Take Over mage, and she explained to me that Take Over mages had the ability to get any super power from a creature they wanted! Thing is though, they can only use a creature's power one at a time, which explains why sometimes your punches hurt and sometimes they were weak!"
Happy and Zolon looked to Natsu with varying degrees of shock. However, the black themed mage started laughing.
"Well, you have the concept correct. Perhaps Take Over magic has a similar ancestor, but my magic is not that. It's called, Kingdom Access Magic. It is much like Take Over magic but instead of transforming into the creature to access their power, a creature's attributes are put in the body of a user." Zolon tapped his chest. "That was why I accessed the power of a Lava Python, a snake that is completely immune to fire because of how it's species swim in magma, and a normal spider, which can leap and lift things beyond its relative size and weight."
Natsu stomped down with his foot. "It doesn't matter what power you bring out! All I gotta do is beat you up!" The dragon slayer started yelling as flames started to surround him. However, the red and orange flames started to grow more solid and turn to white. "White Flame Mode!"
Before Zolon could even blink, Natsu decked him in the face, causing him to fly like a bullet down the hall.
Natsu, with the power boost of his new spell, was able to jettison himself past the flying Zolon and get ready to punch him heading his way. The dragon slayer threw the punch, yet Zolon had twisted his body mid air to avoid the blow and ended up spinning his person to upward kick Natsu's chin.
The hit made Natsu fly up until he motioned his body to land on the ceiling with his feet and bounce back right for Zolon. However, Zolon was prepared this time and must have copied the power of a speed animal because he avoided Natsu's counter blow and started running away with as much speed as Natsu was putting off a while ago.
"Get back here!" Natsu yelled as he blazed like a rocket after his opponent.
The two practically zipped across much of Phantom Lord's giant that wasn't destroyed by the attack or battles. The key word being: wasn't. Whenever Natsu caught up with Zolon, the Captain would then turn their fight into a battle between two using super speeds. To anyone in normal time it would appear the walls were suddenly being melted or destroyed. To other people who could reach fasts speeds, they would notice that Zolon and Natsu were now fighting, throwing punches, or throwing their opponent at whatever they could.
However, Natsu's stamina fell much faster due to prolonged use of the White Flame mode and was forced to drop the magic somewhere in the giant. Zolon used this opportunity to unleash a flurry of punches and kicks from so fast, it felt like Natsu was getting hit from everywhere at once.
With one powerful hook kick from the Phantom Lord Mage, Natsu fell to the ground.
"Unfortunately for you, I have enough practicing sparing with our own Dragon Slayer to know how to handle you, even if you had a few surprises of your own." Zolon rubbed his chin before he grabbed Natsu's sprawled body and punched him hard in the stomach with what he assumed was the strength of a spider again. Natsu coughed out spit and started coughing as his lungs started contracting.
Zolon quickly then raced away, signaling he was using a speed creature again before going on the opposite side of their new battle field and starting in running position. In an instant, he was off, gaining speed and momentum and using the distance to catapult himself so fast, he could change his powers mid-movement into his spider and used the combine speed and strength to put down Natsu for the rest of the war.
However, Natsu had one last trick up his sleeve. He stood back up, albeit a bit weakly then slammed his two palms together almost like a prayer stance.
"Pyromancy: Burning Ward!" Natsu shouted the instant Zolon had switched to his spider access and tried to punch Natsu with the combined strength and velocity of how fast he was going.
Before the punch could connect to Natsu, a see through orange orb appeared around the Dragon Slayer. When Zolon's fist made impact with the sphere instead of his opponent…
BOOM!
Zolon flew back even faster than he came in, with flames across his body and crashing through another stone wall. However, with how the rocks from above fell on top of him, he sure wasn't getting up from that.
Natsu smiled as he wiped his mouth. Burning Ward was of all things, a Defensive Fire Spell he learned from the book he got. It was a ten second shield that would reflect all attacks back at the user's opponent. He could even move after it got cast like a temporary buff.
Still, it kind of irked the Dragon Slayer that he had to use a defensive spell to beat his opponent and he never really used those spells until now.
"Now I gotta get to Happy…."
"Hey mister?" Natsu turned around and looked on with surprise. Why was there a little girl around the same age as Romeo here? Why didn't he hear her until that moment? Was he too distracted fighting Zolon? Why was she holding a creepy looking teddy bear? And why was she dressed in white gothic styled clothing with long red hair and amber colored eyes? "Have you seen my big sister, Juvia?"
"Your sister?" The Dragon Slayer turned towards her with confusion.
"Oh!" The girl pointed to Natsu's shoulder with the Fairy Tail symbol on it. "A Fairy Tail symbol! Big Brother Zolon and Mister Carliso told me what to do when I saw someone with that symbol!" The little girl happily said as he eyes suddenly changed into the color of deep blue.
Alzack Connell continued to run around the area, searching for… well…
"What the heck am I even looking for!? Is this a darn maze or a guild?!" The cowboy themed mage cried out as he looked around the area.
"Natsu! Natsu!" The sound of a second voice made the gunslinger of Fairy Tail tilt this head in the direction it came from. To his surprise, he saw a familiar blue cat flying around with obvious worry.
The gunslinger raised his hand and shouted, "Happy! Over here!"
The blue cat turned to the voice in surprise before a look of relief came over to his face. "Alzack! Have you seen Natsu?"
"No, what happened?"
Happy then explained that Natsu was fighting against Zolon Mercer until the two of them bolted out with speeds that Jet could run. Happy lost track of them even though he thought he was following their left over trail of destruction.
"Well don't worry; we're bound to meet up with him sooner or later. It's hard not to miss him sometimes. In the meantime, stick with me. I'll help you find him." The gun mage saw Happy agree to what he had just said and the two were off.
However, a little into them teaming up, Alzack suddenly stopped Happy and kneeled to the ground.
"What's wrong?" The flying blue cat asked the cowboy.
The raven haired mage put his hand onto a scorched floor. "There was a fire magic used here recently. … I think it might be Natsu." While it is true fire magic was fairly common, no other fire mage he knew could cause so much destruction around the area like the Dragon Slayer could.
The gun mage looked around before noticing something turn at the opposite end of the hallway. "Hey wait!" Alzack yelled as he brought out his guns and ran after the thing he saw.
When he did catch up, he couldn't quite believe what his eyes were telling him. "Huh? A little girl?" Out of everything he was preparing himself for, Alzack did not expect to see a little girl around Romeo's age.
The girl spun to face the two of them after the comment. She huffed and pouted. "I am not little! I'm Amanda Peaks!"
Alzack couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was the western captain!? Master Makarov did say she was young, but he wasn't expecting her to be this young! But wait, if she was a Captain this early on, didn't that mean her magic…
"Aah! Natsu!" Happy cried as he pointed towards the girl. Instantly, Alzack was confused until he saw what the flying cat was referring to.
Or rather, a very familiar looking human doll with salmon hair, and wearing the same exact clothes as Fairy Tail's resident slayer.
The two stared in confusion and felt a creeping feeling of horror before the girl held the patched up doll with a smile. "Isn't he cute? Mister Jose and the others said that if I see anyone with this symbol," She pointed to Natsu's Fairy Tail symbol on his shoulder, "I'm allowed to turn them into my dollies!"
"You turned him into a doll!?" Happy cried out.
It was then the girl pointed to Happy with wide eyes of wonder. "Are you a talking cat? I want one!"
"No way! Back away girlie!" The blue, flying pet backed away in fear. "And turn my friend back to normal!"
"Friend?" The girl suddenly tilted her head, which sent warning signals all throughout Alzack's body. "Does that mean you're part of Fairy Tail too?"
Alzack worryingly looked at Happy who was now pointing to himself with pride. "Yeah!"
The cowboy mentally cursed when the girl hugged the Natsu doll tighter. While being proud of their guild was one thing, Happy failed to realize that Amanda obviously took the order to only attack Fairy Tail mages, and that she originally didn't know they were part of that guild!
Amanda giggled sweetly, but only made the two members feel a cold chill in the air. "I never had a cowboy or cat doll before!"
Alzack acted fast and grabbed Happy and ducked behind the corner they ran from. No sooner than he did, a bright blue light shined where the two previously were in.
The cowboy instantly realized what had happened, feeling a familiar spike of magic around the little girl's eyes before he got Happy and himself out of there.
"She has eye magic! So that's why the other Phantom Lord mages let her roam around." Alzack said before looking to Happy. "And don't taunt her!"
"Well beat her up and get Natsu back to normal then!" Happy shouted back at the gun mage. He might have been still annoyed at the girl for wanting him turned into a plaything.
"Happy, I'm not hurting a little girl! Even if she is part of Phantom Lord's top ten!" The gunslinger responded before noticing the blue light die down around the corner.
"Hey, don't run away from me!" The little girl cried out in a annoyed manner. Even though the two were away, they could hear the girl pouting from behind the other corner. "Fine, Mr. Cuddles, bring them back to me!"
"Mr. Cuddles?" "Mr. Cuddles?" The blue cat and cowboy mage looked at each other and said the name at the same time before they heard a rather powerful thud that shook the floor they were on.
A large, rag paw grabbed on to the corner before a giant teddy bear reared its head around. It had one sewn button eye that was big as exercise ball. It was half black, half brown with stitches down the middle and as it dragged its other paw out, which had claws that looked as sharp as jagged, rusty saws.
"Can you shoot that?!" Happy cried out in horror at the scary, giant teddy bear of doom.
Alzack drew both his pistols out towards 'Mr. Cuddles'. "Now that?! I can hit!"
He fired several elemental themed shots at the bear, yet despite how impressive some of the shots Alzack fired on to Mr. Cuddles, the large bear didn't even seem to flinch after the first assault.
The large teddy bear roared, revealing its mouth was also sewn shut, but showing that its mouth could still move. The image scared both Happy and Alzack, causing the gunslinger mage to look at Natsu's best friend. "Happy, I need air support—now!"
The blue cat quickly summoned his wings and lifted Alzack off the ground before the giant bear could crush them both with his stubby yet deadly paw.
While mid air, Alzack tried another round of magical bullets—but just like before they still didn't work. In fact, the bear just looked even angrier than before! Mr. Cuddles leapt with amazing force that frightened the two Fairy Tail members, but Happy dodged out of the way of a swipe from the bear before the doll golem caused the area to shake when it landed on the ground.
"Happy, get us out!"
"But Natsu!?"
"We'll come back for him I promise, neither of us can hurt that thing, and I don't want to hit a little girl with bullet magic!" Alzack explained as he saw the stubby bear struggle to catch up with them. However, Amanda turned the corner and seemed to pout again as she looked at the two escaping in their direction.
"Are we playing tag then? Okie dokie!" She seemed to pull something out of a hammer space.
Since Alzack was a great tracker, most of his senses were honed much sharper. He might not be a good sniper like Bisca was, but he was easily Fairy Tail's second best sniper if given a rifle. Because of his trained senses, he was able to spot Amanda pulling out two more dolls. Instantly, he knew exactly what that meant for him and Happy.
Especially since the dolls in question were ragdoll pterodactyls.
"Mrs. And Mr. Skywalker!" The little girl threw both hand crafted dolls into the sky where they suddenly grew and turned into monstrous looking creatures that roared to life and started chasing down Happy and Alzack.
"Alzack!?" Happy shrieked as the two doll golems started racing for him.
"Right!" Alzack switched back to his pistols and fired one bullet each. He didn't aim just directly at the creatures, but at their wings which prevented them from flying properly and eventually were hit enough to make them both fall to the ground.
However, the Fairy Tail members were not expecting them to be caught by Mr. Cuddles before they could reach the ground. The couple flying dolls quickly got back up and roared, showing that their jaws were also sewn shut.
"I am so not looking forward to my nightmares for the next week…" Alzack commented before noticing something.
Mr. Cuddles was in a pitching position—
"Happy, dive!" The cowboy cried out fast, causing Happy to panic for a second. The reason why Alzack called that out was because the giant, teddy bear had thrown one of the Skywalker dolls at the two of them with amazing force.
One of them bodied the two of them as the doll was thrown at them. This caused the two to fall down at an alarming rate.
Alzack positioned his pistols in a certain angle before firing two wind shots. The impact allowed him to move and catch the falling Happy. This also allowed him momentum to land somewhat horizontally, letting him roll to the floor mostly unscathed.
The cowboy looked back—then bolted before Mr. Cuddles could grab him and Happy.
"Okay, I can't hurt her and I can't look into her eyes. There's gotta be a way…" Alzack mentally paused for a second while still running before he freed one of his hands from carrying Happy and face palmed. "She's a kid."
Alzack turned on his heel mid run to face the monstrous teddy bear. He placed Happy near some debris as cover and noticed Amanda at the opposite end of the hallway.
The little girl in question tilted her head before Alzack made a mad dash towards her. Mid run, the cowboy removed his poncho around him, to Happy, it confused him as to why their friend would act like Gray at that moment, but it seemed like Alzack had a plan. Whatever plan he had, he had to do it quick as Mr. Cuddles roared and tried to punch the Fairy Tail cowboy where he ran. The gunslinger was able to counter this by firing a powerful bullet that unleash a strong shock wave that slowed down the punch enough for him to slide out of the way of the adorably deadly paw from slicing him.
Mr. and Mrs. Skywalker screeched as they both dove right for the gunslinger. However, Alzack shot both his pistols down in the floor in the path of both prehistoric birds which marked two light blue magic circles. Soon, two ice pillar shot up in the path of the creatures, making the flying rag dolls crash into them instead of Alzack.
"G-Get away!" Amanda cried out as he eyes started shinning blue. However, Alzack just raised his poncho over his face to cover himself from the light of the eyes. He remembered from the Thunder Legion that most eye magic requires direct eye contact, so all he had to do was just not look into her eyes when he did this!
When Alzack got close enough, he threw his poncho over the small girl. The blue light stopped and she struggled to remove the brown cloth over her. However, she wasn't fast enough as Alzack used his hand to karate chop a pressure point on the girl's neck and make her instantly fall down. The gunslinger was merciful enough to catch her before she fell, remove his poncho, and place her carefully near the wall. As soon as he did this, all three monstrous ragdolls turned back into harmless toys since they were no longer supplied magic by their mage.
Alzack didn't want to hurt the girl with magic, but a pressure point hit would cause an ache at best that would heal much easier than trauma from a magical attack.
"Why didn't you do that earlier!?" Happy cried out from where he was originally all the way to where Alzack was.
"Cut me some slack, Happy," The gunsman replied as he took the Natsu doll away from Amanda carefully. "Pressure point hits aren't always the first move to come in my mind in a fight."
However, Alzack did have the decency to return Amanda's dolls back to her before pulling out one of his pistols and pointing it to Natsu.
The blue cat pointed worryingly at the image. "What are you doing?!"
"Relax, the night before Phantom Lord attack, I thought it would be a good idea to craft a bullet that disrupts magic—a dispelling bullet if needed. I only had enough resources and time for one, but this is a good enough time to use it. I can just fire this bullet in a way that might sting but nothing more." With that, Alzack fired his gun into the doll after tossing it in the air. When it made contact with the bullet, the doll magically expanded in the air and Natsu falling on his butt while holding his stomach.
"Oww! What hit me!?" Natsu cried out before noticing his two allies. "Alzack? When did you get here?"
The cowboy sighed and rubbed his head. "Long story. Let's find the others first, who knows where—"
Alzack was interrupted by an explosion seemingly coming from the upper floors of the Guild Giant.
Natsu nonchalantly folded his arms. "I guess Erza's up there."
However, Natsu, and understandably a large amount of people were wrong. That explosion was not Erza and Alexandra, the two mentioned actually stopped their sword duel to glance in the direction of that explosion before continuing their fight.
Would it be Gray then? No. He was currently fighting with one of the Element Four's Juvia Lockser on the right shoulder of the giant.
So who was it that caused it then?
The answer lies some time ago… when a certain purple haired wood mage was running down one of the many halls of the Phantom Lord Giant.
"This is not what I had in mind to one day be running down the halls of a castle," Laki complained after knocking down some guards left over for Phantom Lord. "I always imagined a prince charming racing after me as I did, not towards a group of thugs."
Great, she was now complaining like heck.
It was then that Laki came across some rather elaborate looking doors. After channeling her magic, she then fired to blast down the doors to a fancy looking area with grandiose stairs.
"How sad," A voice cried out that made Laki look up to see a green man cloaked in green. "You came here all alone! It's so sad! A lone, nameless mage has met with me: Aria, strongest of the Element Four!"
The wood make mage was a little peeved about the whole 'nameless' part and pointed towards Aria. "What's sad is that I'm about to kick our butt so hard, you'll be crying… more than usual!" Laki added that last part as she realized that her opponent was indeed already crying for some reason.
Whether he reacted to that retort, Laki couldn't tell. He was still crying before he somehow vanished into thin air.
"Invisibility? How the heck does that even work for wind?" Unfortunately, it seemed like Laki was unaware that specialized wind can be used to bend light in such a way it could hide someone has large as Aria.
It was then that a blast of wind came out that blindsided the purple haired mage and made her crash into the wall.
However, that was just the beginning as Laki was thrown around the fancy room like a ragdoll by invisible wind blasts.
Eventually, Laki was able to finally compose herself and land in the middle of the room on her own two feet. "Wood Make: Closed Off Heart!" She cried out as she slammed her hands on the ground and created a circular shield of wood surrounding her.
This was mostly to give herself more time to think of a plan of attack. Aria was able to get past even master Makarov's ability to sense magic in others. If not for Kain and Kageyama, he would have been able to cripple their guild master in this fight.
Unfortunately for the purple haired girl, she lacked any of those advantages in this fight.
There was one advantage she did have…
"It's so sorrowful! All you can do his hide behind such a weak shield!" Aria's voice echoed around Laki, giving her the impression he was all around her.
There was a rumble from her shield, which caused Laki to move quickly.
In a few seconds, the wood barrier the purple haired mage had created exploded into pieces by a strong blast of wind, scattering everything all over the place.
Despite wearing a blindfold, Aria motioned his head around to view the area. It was then he noticed one of the chunks was larger than the others.
"Wood Make:" Aria then started to gather energy in his hand. However, it was too late as he realized the spike in magical power was actually behind him.
As he turned around, he was quickly blindsided by a large, wooden "Gryphon!" that slammed him into the ground and roared with its beak. The mythical creature raised its talon with intention to rend the opponent before Aria pushed his palm out and blasted the mythical creature with enough force to blast it out of the room and reveal a hole in the wall.
"Wood Make: Thorn Wall!" Laki cried out as she then slammed her palms to the ground. No sooner than she did, a giant wooden spike shot out from the ground in an attempt to impale Aria. The large floating mage jinked to the right as the spike kept growing and destroyed another piece of the ceiling. However, Laki only poured more spikes to come out of the ground to strike her opponent followed by several more, then a dozen, then so on and so forth.
(I really hope he doesn't notice what I'm doing! Why was the only Lost Spell I was able to learn had to have a charge time in it!?) The purple haired mage gritted her teeth while pouring more wood spikes to hit her unsuspectingly nimble opponent.
"It's just so sorrowful to see how hard you're trying to just harm me!" Aria cried out, much to the annoyance of the wood make mage. If she could stall him just a little longer…
"Instead, I will just put you out of your misery." Aria's voice started as he suddenly vanished into thin air. Laki looked around, trying to find any sign of how she could spot him. However, she noticed him appearing right in the very center of the room… gathering a lot of magic energy!
The green clad mage then whispered. "Zero."
There was a large gust of wind that exploded outward, destroying the walls, stairs, wood spikes, and knocking Laki off her feet and slamming her through the doors at the top of the stairs.
The blast went off like an explosion as it took much of the strength of the wood make mage to even stay awake. However, all she could hear was white noise. Had the shock hit her head more than she thought? Even though her senses were struggling to get together, she was still coherent enough to realize there was a large shadow over her.
She looked up to see Aria standing over her with tears flowing from his face.
"It's just so despairing! I've never seen something so futile before!" Of course, everything else felt like white noise but she had to hear Aria's annoying voice nearly perfect.
However, Laki smiled as she reached for her…
"Hey!? W-Where are my glasses!?" The girl realized that she wasn't seeing clearly not just because of the explosion, but she had lost her precious glasses during the blast.
Aria started to cry louder and gather magic in his palm as he pointed over to Laki.
"Dammit, I was totally going to do this really cool glasses thing when I did this…" Laki sighed before turning her head towards who she really hoped was Aria and not a giant rock she was mistaking him for. "But at least I'm not as blind as you."
Even though he was wearing a blindfold, Aria felt Laki smirk by the tone of her voice. Instantly, he realized something off with the ceiling was blown up: why was the sun shining brighter than awhile ago? Aria looked up by instinct even though he was still using a blindfold. If he wasn't wearing a blindfold, he would have noticed that obscuring the sun was Laki's Wood Gryphon that was still in the air. But the reason why it felt like the sun was brighter even with Laki's creation was because on the beast's back was a multitude of brightly glowing sun flowers… aimed right at him.
Laki used the distraction to quickly ensnare Aria for getting so close to her and quickly escape herself. Her snare wouldn't last, but it would be there long enough for her to get a safe distance and declare, "Flora Majesty: Solar Beam!"
This was one of the spells Laki took time to practice when she first received the book. It was one of the easier and powerful spells despite its drawback of requiring prep time.
All the combined flowers on the back of the gryphon glowed even brighter then shot out multiple large beams of sunlight that transformed into a giant sun laser right for Aria. The spell was so powerful it actually pierced through the Phantom Lord Giant from the top to the bottom. Everyone in the guild and even some from Magnolia could see the large beam of light piercing through the guild giant like a spear.
As the attack died down, Laki fell back to her knees and gasped for breath. "I…I solemnly swear… to never… make fun of Droy's spells… ever again…." She panted for air since she realized magic plants seem far less stupid with their ability to turn photosynthesis into a mega sun laser.
"I'm actually impressed."
Laki's heart stopped beating for a second as she felt all her skin suddenly pop up goose bumps. With disbelief she looked up to see the smoking crater where her spell was unleashed.
"You pushed me to use one of my most powerful spells and even then I did not fully escape unharmed…"
Much to Laki's horror, Aria was still standing! His clothes were singed, and most of his clothes were signed, but he was standing tall as he did a while ago, and worse? His magic power had suddenly spiked up.
"I had a spell that allowed me to be intangible to physical attacks. Even though I used it, I felt my entire being burned alive by the power of your spell. It took me my full power to brace for that attack—well done!" Aria actually complimented the girl before gales started to form around him. "However, now it's just pitiable to see that was your first and last chance of defeating me."
The strongest of the Element Four raised his hands. However, Laki froze completely. She couldn't even breathe. After trying everything, even being handed a new powerful spell… she still couldn't win?
Aria paused for a second, before snapping his hand to the side and blasting a force of wind to prevent shards of ice from hitting him.
While this happened, several wolves of ice came to Laki and whisked her away, taking her to a safe zone near someone who had just entered into the room. The wood mage looked up and gasped. Even though things looked blurry, she recognized the silhouette. "Gray!?"
It was then that she felt something flying beside her and noticed a shine. It was her glasses albeit it was cracked somewhat. She took it to realize that a small ice sparrow was previously carrying them and quickly looked back up to confirm if she really did see Gray.
It was indeed him and he was shirtless again, but this time he was injured and… wet?
"I just beat one of the Element Four, Juvia Lockser, and then I saw the large beam of light." He stated this as he continued to lock sights with the green clad and smoking mage. "I've beaten two of your friends so far, freak. You're going to be my third."
Aria smiled as he tilted his head darkly at Gray's statement. "Oh? Bold words, in that case I'll even it out by taking both of you out!"
"Hey you!"
Everyone turned one of the ruined walls to see Natsu, Alzack, and Happy at the entrance. "You're that jerk who was causing all of that a while ago? We're going to kick your ass!" Natsu roared despite the injuries he'd taken in his battle with Zolon.
"Laki! Gray!" Alzack pointed over to the two. "I think Abyss Break is powered up by the Captains and Element Four, the more we defeat the slower they become! If we defeat them all, we can stop it!"
"I already figured that out when I beat Juvia. But thanks for telling me anyway." Gray began before looking to Aria. "We just gotta beat him since he's the last of the Element Four then worry about the Captains."
Happy flew up and shouted out loud, "Natsu and Alzack already beat two of them, Gray! Besides Aria, there's only one more mage powering up Abyss Break!"
That was good news to hear. The three capable Fairy Tail mages, Natsu, Gray, and Alzack stared down Aria.
"Oh? You think you three stand a chance against me? The only mages above me are Sir Voyu and Master Jose!" Aria cried out.
However, before more fighting could begin, something fell from the sky and landed in between Aria with the rest of the Fairy Tail.
As the smoke died down, everyone was surprised to see none other than Erza Scarlet in the crater! Erza was seen with a nearly broken Heaven's Wheel armor, struggling to stand back up as she bitterly snarled above.
"Erza!?" Natsu cried out with shock. Erza was one of their best mages in the team, so she of all people was being pushed back!?
There was another crash this time from behind Aria. As the smoke died down, a tall woman wearing beaten up bronze armor was seen kneeling on the ground before rising with a dirty bronze shield and bronze sword. Her helmet was long gone, revealing a gorgeous woman with long, flowing green hair, fair skin, and ruby red eyes.
"Ahh, Alexandra. It's good to see you," Aria began before pausing for a bit. "Now that I think of it, your magic would counter the famed Tatiana." As he said this, Alexandra stepped forward with her sword drawn.
"Erza!" Gray cried out as the rest of Fairy Tail ran up towards her. "What happened?!"
The mage named after her hair color stood up and re-equipped her broken armor with one that she once called the Robe of Yūen. "I was careless… my opponent was using Magnetic Magic. Most of my weapons were used against me and her skill with it was truly remarkable."
It was then that the ground started to shake once more. Everyone tried to brace themselves until they saw a large rock orb appear right beside Aria and Alexandra.
As the rock opened up, Fairy Tail could only stare in horror.
All of the previously defeated top mages, Zolon, Totomaru, Juvia, Amanda, and Sol stood tall. They seemed all greatly injured but they were all seemed prepared to go through another heavy round.
"Big brother Aria, Big sis Alex!" Amanda smiled and waved to the two.
For the first time, Aria's expression softened when he saw the small girl. "Amy? Are you alright little one?" Unlike before there was a genuine kindness in his voice that Fairy Tail wasn't expecting to hear from the wind mage. Even in Alexandra, her stern and stoic look was replaced by a small smile.
However, this was not the time as Erza pointed her spear towards Sol in anger. "What have you done to Elfman!?"
"Guys!" Fairy Tail turned around to see Elfman running up to them. "S-Sorry! I lost sight of Sol during one of the times this blasted place kept shaking!" That pretty much answered her question and made everyone in Fairy Tail sigh in relief. At least he was still safe.
"But how the heck are they all up!? We beat most of them!" Natsu roared with anger as he clenched his fists. "Screw it! We'll just beat you all back down again!"
However, there was a sudden large hum and a flash of bright light coming from the front of the giant along with a large boost of magical energy.
Aria bellowed a powerful laughter at the spiking magic levels. "Haha! Fools! You're too late! Abyss Break is about to—"
However, he was interrupted when there was another explosion, followed by the sudden snuffing of the bright light and the sound of metal crashing very loudly.
"What the heck!? What happened to Abyss Break!?" Totomaru cried out as everyone in the area felt the sudden drop of energy.
There was a powerful roar as everyone looked back up, only to see a red wyvern land in front of Fairy Tail and roar towards the Phantom Lord mages. Instinctively, both Totomaru and Juvia quickly stood in front of Amanda as if to protect her.
"Ignis!" Natsu cried out before noticing the two on top of the red wyvern. "Kageyama! Vijeeter!" He equally shouted out with joy and surprise at both the shadow mage and the dancing mage as they both hopped down.
Kageyama smiled and pointed a thumb at their unlikely group. "Seeing that giant magic circle of doom, Vijeeter and Ignis here went to work on destroying the mechanizations making the arms move, while I went to work sealing all magic from the gathering energy. It was tricky, but I was able to do it in a way that no matter what, the magic would fail the moment it tried to start." The shadow mage smiled. "I can't let the town I'm doing my patrol in get erased off the map."
"Well done you three!" Erza smiled as the other Fairy Tail members were glad to finally hear some good news.
"It matterz not if you stopped ze Abyss Break!" Sol cried out. "We shall still win zis fight with Master Jose!"
"I don't think so!" Elfman cried out as he stepped forward with gathering magic energy. "Your master is going to get his butt handed to him by Master Makarov just like you!"
At that, everyone suddenly became silent.
On one side, a group of seven mages consisting of Phantom Lord's best albeit injured and fatigued. On the other side, a just as fatigued Fairy Tail consisting of eight mages, a wyvern, and Happy the flying cat. Both sides had a majority of their members face down enemies of their choice with a glare except Happy and Amanda.
Their combined magical pressure for all of them was enough to shatter small rocks into dust at their presence alone. What was about to happen was an all out, mass chaotic brawl erupting between powerful two groups of mages that would no doubt be one of the most vicious fights of this war.
…
Fairy Tail made the first move.
"For Fairy Tail!" Erza cried out with her lance pointed as she led the charge with her guild members who were all gathering a large amount of magic energy.
"For Phantom Lord!" Aria cried out as Phantom Lord returned the action with one of their own, with Amanda left behind summoning a bunch of rag dolls and tossing them into the air.
The two teams engaged in a battle filled with skill, teamwork, near perfect counters, and feats that would be described as impossible from both sides.
Their hard fought battle consisting of over a dozen powerful magic could have lasted the entire day.
However, the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord was to be decided in Magnolia… by the very men who started it all.
{Author Notes}
Yeesh. This was different. (Also I was having document trouble with FanFiction. Took me a bit to get around it.)
So welcome all to my take on the Phantom Lord Versus Fairy Tail story.
Now again, I'm going to explain some context since I believe that there are some things I'm sure that not many can get on their first read or like their ten read through.
From the main series, Fairy Tail defeats Phantom Lord, it's no surprise really, but they way they did it just feels… it feels shallow to me. Before the fight, Phantom Lord was hyped up to be equal to Fairy Tail in quality. In actuality, only Juvia, Gajeel, and maybe Aria seemed like decent mages.
Aria's fight was especially disappointing to me since I think that was the first time Erza defeated overwhelming odds against her. Everyone complains about her battle with Irene, but I think her battle with Aria might have played a role in building that fight considering she still one shot him at his best while she was injured.
… Huh.
So here, I basically buffed everyone to actually deserve the title of being one of the two best guilds in Fiore.
Sol actually puts up a damn fight against Elfman powered up, Aria is actually a beast like he's supposed to be, and Totomaru… oh. I did forget something.
I could go on about my OCs, the Captains, but that would take up more than half of this chapter. (Which reminds me, I completely skipped Erza versus Alexandra because I was having trouble trying to write their fight both technical wise and story wise. I'll try to make that up later in the future.)
Instead, I want to say this: sometimes, villain OCs irk me due to them just appearing as obstacles and nearly nothing more, or just serving as future allies. It's been done to death a lot.
But if you want my opinion on how to make them actually likeable and more than just their gimmicks, here's a tip:
"Establish a Relationship with Cannon Main Cast."
What I mean by the mentioned above IS NOT A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP.
I repeat: NOT A ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP.
The new OCs I made are meant to "compliment" already existing characters. What I mean by this is that they are meant to bring out the sides of villain characters that you don't see.
Voyu Carliso was an absolute must in this story to further flesh out or arguably create a proper back story for Jose Porla. Voyu brings out a side of Jose that doesn't exist in the mains series: Jose's humanity. Their relationship shows more layers to their personalities that no one else sees.
It doesn't just have to be friends, there are many more types of relationships like boss and worker, teacher student, rivals, and etc. (Romance could work, but that's another can of worms I'm not opening.)
The point is that they have to have a proper relationship with any character. Do not just state Person X is related to Person Y and leave it at that. That's just lazy and almost always poorly written. At least have the decency to add more to each character because of this different relationship! As siblings at least do they have a good or bad relationship? Do they understand their quirks, their ticks more or less than others? My sibling and I don't always get along, but sometimes we end up sharing things we would never tell our parents or best friends.
"Long Story Short" : don't be afraid to add more to people's character rather than power. I'd rather read a story with a character with too much personality than one with too little.
*Looks at rant*
Great, I'm turning into Svane Vulfbad/Lorgar Aurelian and Minipa. Watch me take all these author notes and make my own writing tips mini blog because of how bitter I am at reading all the disappointing fics. (JOKE! JOKE! I'm kidding guys; I still love your works… Minipa and Lorgar Aurelian, I mean. I still stand by the fact a large majority of stories here makes me feel sad.)
Anyway, we're finally at the last stretch of the Phantom Lord VS Fairy Tail arc! Trust me when I say there are surprises in store.
Thank you all for reading!