It had only been one day, but Lucy Heartifilia's neck was starting to get stiff by continuously looking up at the large buildings that surrounded them.
"I still can't get over how big this place is," Lucy began as she rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. "I think I finally know what it feels like to be one of my dolls."
Erza smiled at the comment before realizing something. "Ah? Careful, Lucy, Kain also made the mistake of being too distracted by the sights around him to notice the Minotauren in front of him."
The words of the responsible S-Class mage made the former heiress look in front of the path they were walking. Even though she was looking straight, she found the simple action rather hard as her eyes caught more groups or single individuals from exotic races such as the Cobraum, long-legged Trolls, the robotic magic species, Machias, the humanoid avian species, Icaruls, flying above them, and even some other humans as well, but with their clothes and skin tone, they seemed to be from other human kingdoms and/or countries.
It was then that a rather loud and young voice shouting out loud caught the attention of both women. While they both didn't know what to expect visiting the village of giants, neither imagined to spot a young preteen girl with vibrant red hair that gave the impression that it glowed like fire under the sun.
"Come visit Marita's Bakery!" The young girl was standing out in the sea of sentient races, holding a pack of fliers that seemed to promote a nearby giant's building that had the same name and picture as the artwork in the fliers she was giving out.
The girl looked over to Lucy and Erza and ran over to them excitedly. "Would you two like to enter into Marita's Bakery?"
The two couldn't help but smile at the energy of the girl. Erza turned over to Lucy. "How about it? I don't believe we've had breakfast yet."
Lucy nodded instantly before turning back to the younger girl with a smile. "We would love to go, miss?"
"M name is Flare Corona." She was more than happy to lead the two females towards the bakery in question.
The bakery itself seemed more like a café, but just giant sized. The girl Flare led both Fairy Tail mages inside where they had to climb up some stairs and walk past the view glass of the store. As they did walk, it was clever advertising to have customers walk through the viewing area to see either fake or real figures of what they had to offer. The pies and even muffins were large enough to satisfy the entire guild of Fairy Tail if not more than half at the very least.
"You know, instead of food maybe we could convince Kain to just buy giant's food and bring to the guild to feed." Erza half-joked as she looked at the bread-loaf larger than at least a dozen of their members.
"That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea." Lucy returned before Flare caught their attention and asked them to come around more.
The two allowed themselves to be led by the little girl and move closer to the window where there was a lovely view of the Sun Village seen and a sort of table area for the others to rest, a sort of miniature café area inside a café area.
"Let me get Marita over!" Flare said as he took a red hand bell and rang it. To Erza and Lucy, they didn't hear a thing. However, a few seconds later, they felt the presence loom over them to see a giant woman wearing a baker's hat and apron along with other baker like attire.
"Flare, sweetie?" The giant asked before noticing the small girl waving at her and smiled when she saw the two ladies next to her. "Ahh, welcome to Marita's! What can I interest you in? We have our hot selling Breakfast Cupcake guaranteed to feed four of your small ones for a day or two."
Erza looked to Lucy before looking back towards the baker. "Sounds good. What are the other options?"
"I'll let Flare show you the menu. I have some other orders to attend to," It was then the baker looked down fondly towards the girl named Flare. "I'll see ya again in a bit, luv."
The red haired girl practically beamed at the small goodbye and quickly tried to lead the two Fairy Tail ladies towards an empty table.
"And here we have the menu!" The young preteen happily said as she handed the normal sized items to the two ladies. "Have a great day!" The girl said as she quickly raced back down.
"Aww she's as cute as Romeo," Lucy smiled before she took the table nearby. "But I wonder why she's with the giants in the first place?"
Erza stared in the direction the little girl left. "Who knows with this place? But it does at least seem like they treat her nicely here."
With that, the two calmly began reading the menu they were given in high spirits. However, because of their positive encounter, neither woman noticed two figures heading right for them.
The two were too engrossed and curious about the menu and somewhat distracted by Flare's appearance that they were both shocked when someone had came up to their table and slammed a hand violently on their table.
Erza was first to react. "What is the—" And she was the first to suddenly freeze. Her subconscious instantly recognized the person in front of her, but her logical and conscious mind was firing thought after thought at what should have been impossible.
"Hello, big sis," A tan young man with blonde hair wearing a maroon tuxedo stood in front of a rather flabbergasted Erza.
Lucy got up as well, already picking up her keys and activating one of them by survival instinct. "What is your deal!?"
Unfortunately for the celestial mage, there was another person behind the young man. A girl with cat ears and face painting to resemble a cat had already fired magic of her own. The former heiress was already fast enough to activate the clothes of Taurus's Star Dress, but not fast enough to be able to act in them because she was instantly snared and fell to the ground, unable to break the binds and feeling disconnected from her own magic.
…
…
She also was tied up in a manner that accentuated her figure more especially wearing Taurus' choice for her star dress.
The blonde girl sighed. "Maybe Kain was on to something with that striper comment." She whispered to herself disappointingly.
"Sho!? Milliana?!" The red haired mage finally cried out after seemingly being snapped out of her stupor. "You're both alive?! And you're using magic!?"
The male addressed as Sho smiled darkly. "That's right. You're not the only one who can use it now."
"Meow!" The cat girl nearby Sho, assumingly Milliana, spoke up as the rope tightened around Lucy.
By now, some of the other species were looking towards their group. But it seemed like none of them were going to act and seemed more curious than worried.
"Milliana, stop that! Let her go!" Erza shouted in such a way that it almost seemed like she was begging. She was about to say more until a different voice spoke up.
"Hey! No magic allowed in the bakery!"
The owner of this voice was Flare Corona. Who was standing across from all of them in a proud but innocently oblivious manner and pointing to Sho accusingly.
"Beat it, kid, this doesn't concern you." Sho began as he started to glare.
This made Lucy of all people start to panic. Not wanting to involve Flare, let alone get her hurt from this, the celestial mage tried to use Taurus' strength to break free. Yet her struggles felt even worse than before, as if the rope was not only restraining her but limiting her magic.
"Sho, stop! Leave her out of this!" Erza raised her hand out towards the blond man but did nothing more. It briefly confused Lucy as to why Erza of all people was not already pulling out her blade to beat these people.
Flare pointed again, "If you don't drop whatever your doing right now, I'm calling Marita to kick you all out for disturbing the other customers!"
It was then that Milliana spoke up towards her ally after hearing the little girl. "Sho, we were warned not to catch the attention of the giants."
Sho seemed to understand that as he put his hand up and a card slid to his hands. The two Fairy Tail mages instantly noticed the spike of power.
Erza did not seemingly want to hurt her old friend and was obviously conflicted about trying to harm someone she had not seen in a while. However, Lucy was more than determined enough to not let that guy attack a young girl. While the rope seemed to be nullifying her magic, it didn't completely deplete it. The tied up young woman was able to access one magic left while still in that state.
Sho was about to use whatever magic on the girl until he felt a shadow above him. As he looked up, he was surprised and quickly got out of the way of a large battle axe appearing right above him and almost crushing him where he stood. The axe seemingly bounced from the first landing, then started flying towards Lucy. The celestial mage stood back up, and in a very impressive feat that shocked even Erza, jumped towards the spinning axe and tilted her body so slightly that the axe touched and cut the rope around her mid air which allowed her body to expand outward freely and catch the metal handle as the rope fell down and she landed back on her feet in one motion.
The celestial mage yelled as she ran up to Sho in surprise and swung the flat side of her axe at him, causing him to fly somewhat into a wall near the window.
"L-Lucy!" Erza cried out in shock that their resident celestial mage was able to pull of something like that. Yet she suppressed it in order to tell her something. "Stop attacking them, they're my friends!"
"What?!" Lucy was surprised at the sudden exclamation by her teammate, but before she could even question her, all lights disappeared from the room.
No one could see anything; this prompted the other bystanders to action as they felt themselves being attacked in utter darkness.
Among the chaos, Lucy didn't notice a tall figure right behind her…
I really, really was hoping this would also double as a simple vacation despite our major purpose for coming here. In hindsight, asking for that while I was with Fairy Tail's strongest and most trouble bound team was probably not the best idea.
Still though, "I can't believe we were attacked! It's usually the other way around with us instigating some douche bags in the first place that gets us in this kind of mess!" I said this as we continued to fly past the village, searching for any sign of Erza or Lucy and that we weren't too late.
"I don't think we always instigate things. Technically, Phantom Lord started the whole war against us," Gray pointed out before realizing our new companion. "No offense."
"Oh, Gray, my beloved! You already care for my feelings!" The way Juvia acted made me utterly baffled and strangely curious.
While ignoring how Gray was trying to ignore Juvia's attempt to glomp him, I asked our resident ice mage, "Gray, why is she like that towards you?"
Even though I asked him, the apparently former Phantom Lord mage didn't hesitate to answer for him with a dreamy look on her face and flushed cheeks. "Gray has given his heart to me! And we are promised to another!"
I felt my jaw slack when I heard that. "You mean to tell me while I and everyone else was fighting for our damn lives, you were seducing the enemy!?" I turned to Gray with a moderate glare. The hell!? Why did he suddenly decide to act like Loke in one of our toughest battles yet?!
"What no! It's not like, I swear!" Gray said to me while Juvia had another answer.
"That is exactly how it happened!"
Before things could get any further, Natsu came up to grab my shoulder and then pointed ahead. "Kain, over there!"
I followed his finger towards a giant's bakery that was currently on fire in the distance. As we raced towards the place, the bakery itself seemed to be in worse condition than I imagined as the fire was spreading wildly and some giants were already trying to prevent the flames from spreading around. Other smaller races were running around. However, Kain seemed to pay more attention to a giant woman in a baker's uniform looking around frantically beneath her.
This had the attacker's work written all over it and I quickly had Ignis fly near that baker giant. "Miss!? What's wrong!?"
"My—There's a little human girl with red hair that I lost among the chaos! Please help me! She's just a child!" The giant then looked back, trying to get back of finding any sign of the girl she briefly described.
I wanted to help her even if Lucy and Erza were in danger, but before I could even tell the others, Natsu was apparently sniffing the air and pointed once more inside the burning giant's building. "Kain, Ignis! Get in the bakery, now!"
I decided to trust Natsu, since I was still conflicted on what we should have done. Ignis flew through a giant's window but I found it to be a rash move. The building was far worse inside with insane heat, horrible smoke filling the air, and instantly making the likes of everyone not Natsu and Ignis cough violently. However, Natsu then jumped off, landing on one of the tables, but not before eating some of the flames on it.
Instinctively, I activated my armor. This move was actually a good idea since I was able to breathe again as the magical armor did have some form of protection to filter the smoke around me or something. I was thankful for the little mercy, but I needed to act fast. "Gray, I'm following Natsu! Ignis and you get the rest out of here! We'll meet you when it's safe!" I then jumped of Ignis and followed Natsu's trail of eating fire to clear his path.
I was able to catch up to him, only for him to curse. "Damn it! I thought I caught Lucy's scent here, but the burning food around here makes it impossible for me to pinpoint where she is!"
A large cracking sound coming from above us caught our attention. Instantly, both Natsu and I fired our own long range attacks at a chunk of debris about to crush us. While it did blast the boulder into tiny pieces, the table beneath us started to crack and shake, meaning our time here was more limited than we imagined. But that was the problem, we had no idea where Lucy was in all this smoke and Natsu couldn't' eat the fire fast enough. Even if he could, there was still the smoke around this place, preventing us from seeing her if she was just a few feet away from us. We could be going the opposite direction with this limited sight.
"Natsu! Kain! Over here!"
Natsu and I turned towards the sound of that voice. "Loke?" I questioned before Natsu bolted towards the sound of the voice. We didn't have time to talk about it as we ran until we spotted a burnt up, giant's loaf bread and beside it was a noticeable mop of blonde hair.
"Lucy!" Natsu cried as we both ran to her, but to our momentary surprise we saw that Lucy was holding tightly to a red haired girl—it must have been the girl the giant baker was looking for.
*CRACK!*
"Natsu, pick them up! We're getting out of here!" As I said this the cracking noise came again, only this time it came from beneath us as the wooden table seemed to have finally snapped as was starting to give way.
Natsu carried Lucy while I handled to care for the little girl. We just ran as the table started collapsing and thankfully, both of us were able to spot another window in the distance as we both raced for it.
Unfortunately for us, a giant debris fell in front of us, barring our path and started making us fall.
"Kain, jump!" Natsu cried as he jumped on falling platforms, to get higher. I would have enjoyed knowing what it would have felt to be like Super Mario if my life and the life of another literally didn't depend on it.
However, as Natsu's leg reached the other side, the pressure of that corner cracked and Nastsu began to fall. Unfortunately for me, I was moving right towards him before he fell and we both ended up falling back down without any nearby debris for us to jump on.
However, to my surprise, Natsu threw both girls to me and fired a fire whip that looked similar to Macao's and tied the three of us together before using his other hand to shoot another fire whip to catch the edge of the window.
With a powerful scream, Natsu tugged on both opposite ends, launching all of us upward and landing near the window.
"Catch them!" I was acting before Natsu could say that and caught the little red head while Natsu got Lucy. The area was just about to collapse, which left us no choice as we both busted through the window and started falling from a height that only giants would see as small.
To my relief, Ignis had swooped in and caught all of us as we fell. No sooner than we landed, Gray motioned the flying wyvern to high tail it out of the collapsing building.
Sometime later, after returning the little girl to her surrogate mother and letting Lucy explain what had happened, we raced after the assailants who took Erza. Natsu could still pick up her scent fomr where we were and we followed by riding on Ignis' back.
However…
The more we chased, the more we found strong, heavy wind currents that forced us to land to the ground for our safety. Not only that, there was something horribly unnatural about a thunderstorm all around the mountain ranges we seemed to follow them towards.
"The Zeus Range, an inhospitable area in Fiore that has mountains and mountains that are covered in endless thunderstorms," Juvia explained as we were forced to land or else get shocked by the many thunderbolts around. "I know about it because sometimes Master Carliso uses his portals to catch the random thunderbolts of this land and uses it against his enemies."
That was interesting to know, but at the same time it didn't really help our situation by that much. I looked to our resident dragon slayer, "Natsu, any sign of Erza's scent?"
The pink haired mage grunted after sniffing the air several times. "No! Damn it we lost her!" It seemed like the strong gales had mixed up her scent with the forest. Even Dragon senses couldn't get through with these conditions.
That obviously made everyone upset. However, I started to think. Whoever our enemies were, they were very confident they could pick up Erza from wherever she was and bring them along with her. If that really was the case, why would they bring her in this direction?
"Before we lost them, they were heading here. Juvia, is there anything significant around this area besides Sun Village being some distance away?"
The Ex-Phantom Lord mage seemed to think. "I don't believe so. The weather surrounding the Zeus Range is so bad, only Sun Village remains mostly untouched by the bad thunder storms because of their Eternal Flame."
"That explains why the weather seemed to get worse when we left the village. Their flame somehow stabilized their weather." Gray added into the conversation, realizing their home was more important to the area than he or any one of us originally thought.
However, I started to think about something. Even with the cold chilly winds around us, and the fact I was in a magical world, there was something tickling my subconscious just like when Natsu and I tried to find Bora the second time. Whatever it was there was just something about this place that didn't sit well with me.
I looked to Natsu and the others. "You guys can sense magical pressure right? Since we can't track Erza by smell, is it possible for anyone here to sense her magic?"
"Not unless she's fighting." Natsu quickly began before Happy agreed with him with his trade mark catch phrase.
It went unsaid how it seemed like Erza was unwilling to fight those assailants who she claimed where her friends as well. The forest area was also far too large and giant sized to try and find any tracks.
Wait, I'm going about this wrong: I'm trying to put sense in a world where people can perform super human feats on a near day to day basis. I have to stop trying to think in my world terms and start thinking…
In terms of a story…
I looked up towards the highest mountain in the range and stepped closer towards us. I felt everyone looking at me before I turned towards them.
"Juvia, that mountain over there, the one with heavy thunder storms stronger than the rest of the area, does that have a specific name?"
"I don't know. If Master Voyu was here, he'd probably know the names of each mountain."
I heard Lucy's voice out to voice what everyone else seemed to be thinking. "Kain, why that mountain?"
I turned towards all of them. "It's just a guess, but wouldn't the best place to hide be the one place no normal person dares check?"
Everyone looked at each other, as if trying to find someone who would refute my strange, yet simple sounding idea.
"We should go! It's better than just waiting out here." Natsu was quick to pound his fists together.
Lucy then looked towards the mountain in and the heavy thunder storms in the distance. "But even from where we are, it's far."
"I can have Ignis fly just above the trees. As long as we don't go any higher, we should be safe." After I said that, everyone got back on to the Wyvern as we flew towards the mountain.
However… as we came closer, I noticed everyone but me and Happy tense.
"Guys?"
"We just sensed a spike of magic we haven't felt before." Gray said as he looked ahead. "Kain, it looks like you were right on your hunch after all. They might have gone here."
"No, they did go here," Natsu affirmed as he sniffed the air. "It's faint, but I think I have Erza's scent again." He quickly went towards the right edge of Ignis' saddle and pointed over down towards the base of the largest mountain. "There! I see a cave!"
It didn't take us long to get there, but to our surprise, it wasn't just a cave, there were obvious signs that the cave used to be a large, ancient entrance—ruins. The traces of chipped and half buried stairs descending downward only proved it.
Natsu sniffed the air again. "Yeah, Erza's definitely in there." Of course, and seeing how the entrance led downward, it meant that we might be going inside this dangerous looking place.
I looked around, only then did I notice that I was in front of everyone, including the likes of Natsu, Gray, and Ignis. Instantly, I realized with Erza gone, leadership of the team instantly fell to me.
So now, I—someone not even of this world and has less fighting experience than Happy—now has to lead far more capable, but somewhat insane people down a scary and very hypothetical road to the unknown where literally bugger all could do us in.
"I drowned in the river and am in hell," I murmured to myself and inhaled and exhaled with much exerted effort.
Pushing those thoughts aside, I opened my eyes and felt more determined. "Alright, let's go save our knight in shining armor."
I took the first step forward into the abyss.
Even with Natsu lighting our way, it was dark to say the least. The thundering booms in the distance and the roaring winds from a while ago seemed like a dream as the more we descended the more silent our walk became.
… As silent as Natsu and Gray butting heads along with Juvia seemingly glaring at Lucy would be, but all things considered, their inability to be fazed by this was sort of welcoming. I wasn't really like them, able to shrug of things of lesser men, because I was a lesser man among super humans.
Still, even with The Morpher, it's really hard not to feel… unwelcome among all those other things and what the Minotauren said really stuck with me.
{Do not go home.}
Not only was I feeling unwelcome here, but now I can't go home? … How did I get here in the first place, and why? Was it just random chance? Some stories have described people being summoned in a world's time of need or just as having more control of their second chance in life, but mine? I don't know why but it feels like…
It was then, I froze.
My sudden stop silenced everyone walking behind me and also made them stop in their tracks. "What's wrong?" Natsu's voice reached my ear as I stared deeper into the darkness.
I took a step forward, as I did I reached my hand out. My depth perception seemed to pick up something right in front of me as I ended up touching something just outside of Natsu's light.
I heard everyone else step forward and when Natsu's flame was in range, we all saw my hand was touching some kind of demonic tiki statue with large, wild eyes and fangs that grew out so long that they bent in different directions.
Lucy and Happy's scream made me turn back towards everyone else. However, when I turned back towards the tiki statue, I noticed something weird about it.
For a tiki statue in a supposedly old and abandoned ruin, it was unusually kept clean and in good condition.
"Natsu, please put more power to your flame." My dragon slayer friend did as he was told as he exerted more magic to the flame he was holding out.
As the light extended, I didn't even notice everyone else gasping as in front of us was a giant gate was in the shape of a strange dragon and lion like creature's huge maw with fangs all around the entrance and strange unknown symbols on all the many fangs around it.
I change my former statement. I didn't die and went to hell: I died and went into a different hell.
Gathering what little remained of my courage, I put on my sarcasm mode. "Well, at least it doesn't have a sign saying, 'abandon all hope ye who enter here'." I tried to joke about an obscure Dante's Inferno reference before stepping into the maw of the beast.
No sooner than I did, I instantly notice the cave around us was no longer cave walls, but rather a large wall that seemed to depict pictures of some kind. However, most of them were faded and not at all recognizable.
"What was that, Gray!?" Natsu suddenly yelled towards the ice mage even though I was sure the ice mage said nothing.
"I didn't say anything, scaly!" Gray quickly butted heads with his elemental opposite.
"You guys, quit it!" Lucy sighed before she made a small squeak when Juvia was glaring harshly at her and muttering what seemed like… love rival?
Happy seemed to get back to normal as he was on top of Ignis' head and wondering if there was an pictures of fish.
It seemed like everyone was going back to normal in search of Erza.
*Welcome back, my lord.*
There was a chill in my spine as I felt a horrible need to turn to the ceiling above me. As I looked up, my eyes widened. I saw what seemed to look like a figure of some kind of god with how there was a bright yellow circle surrounding a humanoid figure with five eyes, pitch white and four arms sitting like the stance of the Buddha with elegant green clothes. Each of the eyes was the following colors: black, blue, yellow, pink, and red.
"Huh what's that?" It took me a second to remember I actually had the ability to think when Natsu's voice seemingly snapped me out of whatever trance I was in.
"Oh wow! I think that's a picture of Ankhseram, the great Mildian God of Knowledge and Death!" Lucy's over explanation caught my attention as I looked back at the strangely familiar picture. I was looking at a god?
"Isn't Ankhseram considered an evil god though?" Gray asked out loud.
Juvia seemed quick to answer. "To most of Ishgar, he is considered evil. However to nearly every other continent, he is seen as the creator of Earthland and of all things."
*You must remember my lord, remember who you are.*
I shook my head; there was this odd headache I felt like I was starting to get. "This is all really interesting, but seriously, we need to save Erza. I'll try to stop getting distracted by everything I see."
Everyone seemed to get back on focus as we moved along. However, despite my own vocal ideas, I found my eyes following the pictures around us.
I saw what seemed to be how the old people of these runes depicted how Ankhseram created Earthland.
*It began so long ago, amongst the endless sea. You were a pilgrim of a land so grand and beyond that of mortal comprehension.
You spotted something while on your boat, which was later known as the moon by mortals: you picked up the Sun from the endless black along with all the planets of this solar system. One you picked up was so beautiful to your five eyes, Earthland—with it's beautiful blue and green color standing out amongst the endless black.
You decided to add more to it: you created the dragons to shape the land, the elves to create the spirit, to manifest emotions, and grant the mind.
However, when you did this… you gave your own life force in giving life to the world.
And so you slept, separating in to five while you fell upon the world you created.
Yet we knew that one day the five eyes you separated into would…*
I blinked. I could no longer see any of the pictures. All of them were faded and unreadable and most of the major pieces seemed… destroyed? It was weird, even though they were just pictures… it felt like someone was telling me some kind of story, but…
"Kain, are you alright? You've been distracted for a while now." I turned towards the ice mage of our group. Not only him, but it seemed like everyone seemed worried for me—well except Juvia, she seemed curious.
I didn't really want to lie to Gray or the others so I just spoke out what was bothering me. "Sorry, it's just… what that Minotauren said the other day. I can't stop thinking about it."
"What, that you can't go home? You shouldn't believe him; Shaman are so vague in their messages that they can literally mean anything. I bet it's just saying you shouldn't head back to the guild because the paper work has been piling up recently."
"Yeah! Gray is right, Kain!" Lucy added into that fact.
Natsu raised his fist higher. "We'll definitely get you back home safe and sound, we promise! And Fairy Tail keeps promises!"
I ended up smiling at how far they were willing to go for me. "Oh really?" I gave a coy smile. "Like how you promised to behave when we all took that mission to Kalo-ni City and completely lost yourself to rage when the first guy spit in the path we were about to walk in?"
"That asshole had it coming!" Natsu quipped back, causing Lucy to laugh at our Dragon Slayer's outburst.
These guys… they really are like heroes in a story. Never giving up and being as brave as can be comes so naturally for them, yet for me? I always have to struggle with my fears.
I pushed those thoughts aside and said, "Thanks guys."
"No problem, buddy! We've got your back!" No sooner after Natsu gave a confident grin, we all heard a sound coming from the distance.
It sounded like metal cranking and soon we followed the sound deeper down the stairs until we finally reached some kind of end to the stairs. Natsu sniffed the air, mentioning something about oil before noticing a torch on a nearby wall. As soon as he lit one of the, the area seemed to light up other torches, revealing a grand, but old room with signs of constructed catwalks surrounding the area along with some suspicious looking equipment. In the center of the room there was some kind of metal chains that had this odd magical glow and they seemed to be reeling in a large platform elevator.
Natsu instantly sniffed the air. "I smell Erza's scent with some others. It's more recent." He said as he looked to me.
"I don't like this," Gray leered towards the platform. "It feels like a trap."
"How smart of you, Gray my beloved!"
Seeing as how Juvia's quirk was seemingly to be obsessed over Gray, I ignored her outburst and started thinking.
With how everything was left here, it was obvious there were a lot of people involved in whatever was here. With the light in the room, I noticed something on the floor and bent to my knees.
There were signs of foot prints and cart trails overlapping each other on the dust and showed they all came from that rather wide elevator. The most recent steps seemed to show a lot of people going to the elevator instead of from it.
"Who cares!? Those bastards took Erza, and we're getting her back!" Natsu pounded his fists together.
As he took a step forward, I grabbed on to his shoulder.
"Wait, Natsu, before we begin," I looked around the room before back to him. "I need you to sniff the area, see if you can smell any special recording lacrima that could be watching us right now."
I recalled from the Daybreak mission, Natsu was indeed able to sniff out hidden spying Lacrima that we avoided while nearby the mansion.
Natsu tried to sniff the air. Soon, we found and destroyed a dozen spying Lacrima around the room.
As we all dumped them to one group, and Natsu saying those were the last of them, I began again, "This means for sure they know we're coming."
"Like I said, it doesn't matter! We're kicking these guy's asses for taking Erza!" Natsu pumped up as he said this.
"Natsu," I spoke up again, gaining everyone's attention. "If I may? I would like to try something before we do a Plan T and take them by storm."
The salmon-haired fire mage grunted in annoyance, but to my surprise he folded his arms and looked to me expectantly. "What do you have in mind?"
I was surprised he didn't try to argue with me, but I shook my head and began by looking to our newcomer, one of the Element Four.
"Juvia, you're a powerful water mage correct? How versatile is your control over water?"
"Oh? So he knew right away that he was being watched?" In a dark room, there was a cloaked figure sitting on a throne. He was smiling in amusement while seeing several hologram screens that only showed static. There was a bit of soft laughter in him before he said this next, "That was well done. Salamander may have found those Spying Lacrimas, but he didn't even acknowledge they existed before the lawyer brought it up."
A figure standing next to the man in the throne asked, "Should we have more guards ready in the entrance to intercept them, milord?"
"No, no. I sincerely doubt any one of our foot soldiers can even slow down Fairy Tail… and surprisingly one of the Element Four." With a wave of his hand, the holo screens vanished and half a dozen more appeared with what looked to be a large platform where an elevator was to end.
The platform was filled with soldiers and dangerous looking beasts without eyes all lined up with magic enhanced guns to fire up at whatever came down from the elevator above.
The chains of the elevator started to crank, signaling that it was activated and indeed going down. As soon as it was, the platoon of gunmen readied their weapons and their magic to blast anyone within range if they came down.
Yet, to their surprise and to the surprise of those watching through a screen, there was a large amount of mist coming out of the elevator that soon spread out more as the elevator went down.
The soldiers seemed especially surprised, but some of the tongued beasts they had started barking furiously towards the elevator.
"Men," One who was assumed to be the commander of this group shouted out. "Fairy Tail might be using the mist as the cover! Fire!"
However, it wasn't just the mist surrounding the area that blinded that man.
Back in the dark room, the man on the throne fought the urge to face palm and instead stood up and screamed, "Imbecile!"
The reason for this was that while it was a good idea to assume the enemy was using a smoke screen of some kind, the commander obviously forgot that they surrounded the only elevator in the mountain. Therefore, instead of hitting their intended targets, they were literally shooting at each other.
Someone inside the throne room seemed to notice something in one of the many screens. " What's above them?"
The commander who made a hasty mistake, noticed a shadow descending on top of him and looked up—only to see the bottom of a Wyvern Claw coming down at an alarming speed—
*BOOM!*
Ignis roared powerfully as he flapped his wings to clear a majority of the surrounding mist. With the wind faced, the forces were surprised to see already half of their men down, injured, and all of Team Valiant scattered around the area.
One of the soldiers, who was shot in the shoulder by his own teammates, started gaping in fear and tried to back up, only for him to hit something behind him. Though it was weird: he was sure he wasn't near a wall or barricade while backing up.
As he looked up, he saw that he had bumped into a man wearing red armor and a cape with a theme like a wyvern.
There was a gleam in the helmet's visor before the figure brought up his hand with his fingers pressed together. "Guys, clean up!"
As soon as he snapped his fingers, chaos resumed.
Those in the throne room watched as Team Valiant seemed to decimate what remained of the forces stationed near the elevator.
The one who originally sat on the throne started to laugh manically. "Hahaha! That was actually well played! The lawyer must have taken advantage of the fact Juvia of the Element Four was with them and asked her if she could control water and form into a mist as a smoke screen. Then must have activated the elevator but did not ride it, instead letting mist fly down and cover their area. Following that, they must have actually rode on their wyvern to dive down and start taking down the soldiers since they have at least one person capable of smelling where everyone was."
As he listed off what he had seen, the man relaxed into his chair and looked towards a board with pieces in front of him.
"I do believe that this is going to be a rather fun game. But that was just level 1, lawyer. How well will you do with the lower levels of the Tower of Hell!?"
He then cackled a mad laugh, it was one of elation, excitement, but of how futile this would all be for his opponents.
Erza, stopped in her tracks as she looked out a window, inwardly cursing herself for seeing nothing but darkness.
"Even though I escaped from Sho… to think I would be back to this damned place…"
No one knew that beneath the biggest mountain in the Zeus Range was far hollow than it seemed, especially at the bottom where it seemed to go down and down with no sign of an end.
Instead of nothing but thick stone and dirt, the bottom of the mountain held a giant, upside-down tower held together by ancient, large chain lacrima from an era long lost that seemed to hold the giant mountain together. No one knew where these giant lacrima chains came from, or who made them and how were they made, only that it seemed to hold together the tower like it was in a spider web, preventing it from falling into the abyss.
At the very top of the tower was Team Vailant and Juvia, fighting what was left of the welcoming party.
On the third floor to the highest, Erza Scarlet was seen making her way lower.
And at the very bottom of the tower, laughing away as if it was the end of the world, there was the supposed 'king' of (the Tower of) Hell along with his generals.
What was in between; however?
Well… that is where it was stationed.
{Author Notes}
Hey dudes, welcome to the Tower of Heaven (Hell in this case) arc!
Just like before, I have plans for this Arc besides the immediate changes you see. The physical changes you see weren't because I disliked anything—this arc is pretty decent to me honestly—I just thought I would mix a few things up for the sake of being unpredictable, but at the same time give them reason for them being there.
I hope you all enjoy it.
But really, I don't actually have much to say this chapter. I think I'll take a break from the long rants I usually do for this time.
Thank you all for reading, see you soon!
Deleted Scene #2: Gods, Mortals, Demons, and Liars.
(Context: I was originally trying to completely flip the script when it came to the Tower Of Heaven Arc. In the end, I decided to scrap it all together and keep most of the main plot points intact for the sake of it being easy and for the sake of consistency. Also, I thought of something I wanted to implant on the arc, and putting this now deleted scene just messed with everything, which is why I abandoned this idea completely.)
(However, I'm putting it here as to show the 'beta' of which direction I wanted to go with the arc at the time but scrapped completely. Maybe there's a small hint of what this was supposed to mean for the long run in this story? Who knows? [I do])
A long time ago, in an isolated tower where there were no heroes and hope was dead…
There was a boy, chained to a pillar of a dark room for attempting to rebel against cultists worshipping a dark wizard.
The young boy screamed in pain as his captors tormented him, but in an act of arrogance, his captors left him to rot.
This was where… something amiss happened.
"God…" The weakened child muttered angrily. "I don't believe there is such a thing. If there was then we wouldn't have to suffer like this."
"Ăŕę ŷōů ɘʌḙṉ ăŵảṝḗ ṍḟ ṯḣḛ ḉṑṇƈēṗṫ ṑḟ ḝṽḭḻ ḡṏḓṩ? Ṏṋề ẅọứḽḑ ḇḗ ɋṷḯṱḝ ṥḩọḉḱḝḍ ḁṯ ḫốẘ ṃảṅỿ ẚḉṫṳạḽḹẙ ẻẍḭṣṫ…" There was a distorted voice that echoed around the dark room, which instantly caught the attention of the small boy.
The boy snapped his head back up and tried to look around. "W-What!? Wh-Who's there?! Show yourself!"
"Ṁỿ ḋḗḁṝ ḉḫḭḷḋ!" The blue haired child froze when he heard the voice coming from his shoulder. He slowly turned his head to see a golden spider he had not seen before—which should have been impossible to miss with how bright it was amongst the dark room. "Ḯ ằḿ, Ankhseram, ṯḧḙ ḡṝẽậṯ ḡṏḏ ṏḟ ḹḭḟḗ ạṇḑ ḋḗảṯḧ!"
"A-Ankhseram?" The blue haired child looked at shock on the elaborate, gold spider. "You mean, the primary god of the old Midian Pantheon—that same one!?"
"Ḯ'ḋ ṳṩṵạḻḹẙ ḡḯṽḛ ả ẁḭṱṫẏ ṝḛṫọṝṯ ṭọ ṡṳḉḣ ẚṋ ọḇṽḭỏụṡ ǫȗȇȚȋȏȵ, ɓụᴛ ṡẽếịṉḡ ẏȏṻ ḭṇ ṭḫấṯ ṩṯḁṱḛ, Ḭ'ḽḹ ḷḗṭ ḭṱ ṧḽḯḋḙ." The spider jumped off his shoulder and towards the top of a bunch of crystals found in the room.
"Now, as much as I like using my real voice, I have the most peculiar of feelings that I'd be confusing you more than answering questions." The strange voice toned down into someone… with a posh accent?
"Wait… you're really Ankhseram?" The young boy asked.
"Yes and no. But I won't bore you with the cosmic details on that. I'm not here to tell you my life story—you'd die long before I'd even get to the juicy parts—no-no-no-no-no! I'm here because I was currently the only god willing to actually do something about your predicament right here, Mr. Fernandez." Throughout that semi-monologue, the golden spider danced around the crystals in a very animated manner.
"You're going to help me?" The young boy repeated in confusion.
"Correction: I'm here to help you… help yourself. Direct Intervention is frowned upon by the gods, and it usually has some heavy backlashes—it's why you almost never see gods directly among mortals. So I'm here to give you magic: everything else is up to you."
The young boy was strangely silent before he narrowed his eyes at the spider. "Will this magic power help free us at last?"
"Yes and no," The golden spider began again as he jumped to the floor and started making his way towards the blue haired boy. "The magic I'm giving you isn't exactly the same as your tormentors. In fact: there's someone else that's about to give you powers—albeit you're going to turn into their brain puppy and do their bidding for a while."
The chained boy could not make heads or tails of this very whimsical talking spider. Was he more injured and tired than he thought?
"Rude, Mr. Fernandez! You are injured, but I assure you are perfectly sane. And before you ask, I can read your mind. It's not all that hard really." The spider jumped on top of the boy's hair, much to the prisoner's unease. "Now… listen very carefully in this next part. Someone is going to summon themselves before you in the guise of Zeref. Pretend that he is and that I didn't tell you she was fake."
The prisoner wondered what that meant, especially when he said that the person coming was female. However, no sooner did Ankhersam said this the room around them grew darker that even the gold spider's sheen seemed dim.
(Context: Yeah, so there. I feel like it's important repeating but this has no relation to the main story anymore. Only I know which themes or ideas I'm keeping from this. This was a hint of what direction I wanted this story to go. What did you guys get from this? Anyway, thanks for reading, see you all soon.)