The Muggle among Mages Chapter 22, a fairy tail fanfic

The ceiling exploded.

While Natsu did find out that his first instinct to stop himself from sliding did work, he was just as fast to realize that falling from the height he was dropped was not the result he was hoping for. Acting fast, and reminding himself to really thank Macao for the lesson in different fire properties, Natsu fired a flame hook shot on to an undisturbed part of the ceiling in order to slow his decent. With the threat of not falling to his death now gone, the fire dragon slayer noticed that the room he was in was surprisingly beautiful.

There was a long board walk that extended over a crystal blue lake with a large cherry blossom tree in the middle of the gigantic room. It was weird that such a place like this existed in a place that he heard nothing but horrible things about.

A muffled screamed caused Natsu to turn his head towards a wall as he saw one of Erza's old friends fall out of the slide and land nearby him from an opened wall in the ceiling.

"Oh hey… Shorty right?"
"It's Sho!" The tan blonde quickly responded before getting back up and looking around the area. "W-Where's big sis Erza?!" He said in a somewhat panicked manner.

There was a sound of rocks falling into the water which made both young men look up to the hole in the roof where Natsu fell from.

"I guess we're separated from her." Natsu nonchalantly sniffed the air to see if he could find anyone else nearby.

Sho seemed a bit ticked. "How could you be so calm?! Big Sis could be in danger!"

Natsu either ignored or didn't notice the look on Sho's face and instead gave a big smile. "Erza's the strongest mage I know! If you weren't her friends, I'm sure she would have handled being kidnapped all on her own!"

"Wha—" Sho seemed surprised and was about to say more until Natsu then turned around and kept talking.

"Where are we anyway?"

Sho seemed to be annoyed but the question did distract him enough to recognize where they were. "We're in the lake area of floor six?"

"Why do you have a lake in a floor?"

Sho continued to look around. There was calm but very reflective stare as the young man gazed the area. "It was one of the first rooms we needed to reconstruct completely because it was one of the worst torture rooms in this damn mountain. Rob once told stories of a country with beautiful pink trees and crystal blue waters. Hearing all of his stories of the outside world, made us want to tear down this room and plant that giant tree in his honor…"

"Rob?" Natsu tilted his head at the name. Wasn't that the guy Erza met before meeting master Makarov?

"An old man with magic who basically singlehandedly defeated a lot of the more powerful oppressors when we finally rebelled," Sho looked down to the water. "He gave his life so that we could win."

It was then that the blonde card mage seemed to realize something and turned to look at the symbol on Natsu's shoulder. "Now that I look back, he had the same symbol on his back that you do on your shoulder."

The dragon slayer was caught off guard by that. He did believe Erza, but to hear a specific detail like that just validated what the red head just said.

"The same as mine?"

"I mean, I was young, but my mind seems to be automatically connecting your symbol and his even though I haven't seen Rob in years." Sho started to turn towards the large cheery tree. "I still can't believe it, Jellal overlooked the design of this room himself, so how could he use… huh?"

The flame mage noticed Sho seemingly looking surprised as he glanced at the tree. The fire mage did so, only to see what had distracted Sho in the first place. Or rather, who.

There was a beautiful woman with pink hair wearing a white kimono standing nearby the cherry blossom tree with a serene smile on her face. However, this made Natsu tense into a fighting stance because of two major reasons.

Even though he could see her plainly, he couldn't even get a single sniff of her scent with his acute nose, nor sense any magical presence with her. And since Sho saw her too, it was more than likely she was skilled enough to hide her presence in plain sight from a Dragon Slayer.

"Hey!" Natsu said as he growled towards the woman.

The woman turned with all the grace of a dancer, not even the tiniest of movements seemed dull or the opposite of elegant. Yet both men felt tense when they noticed the very long and elaborate sword sheath attached to her hips.

"Forgive me, I was admiring the room. I was told this room exists and," Again the woman turned to look at the tree in the center of the room. "It's very, very beautiful." There was something in her voice, like a sense of nostalgia from the swordswoman before she looked back at the two men. "My name is Ikaruga Ōkami, the current leader of Death Head's Cacus and Trinity Raven, I was employed by Jellal Fernandes to defeat all those against him."

"Death Head's Cacus!?" Sho seemed horrified repeating the name of the guild the woman just said. "That famous Assassin Guild that ended the Cabria War!?"

There was a slight frown on Ikaruga's face when she heard the two words, Cabria War. However, it seemed like neither of her two opponents noticed. The loud one seemed too dazed and struck realization to notice while the pink haired one was looking at the former with confusion, obviously oblivious as to whom they were.

"That… is we."

"Assassins?" Natsu began before glaring towards Ikaruga with one of the most disgusted of snarls. "People who kill for money make me sick!"

Ikaruga blinked at the accusation of the Fairy Tail mage before seemingly answering in a strange manner. "How can one proudly claim to stand on shallow waters, while they avoid the vast ocean beyond them?"

Natsu reacted to the deep poetic response to his insult as one would expect him to. "Uuuuhhhhhh whaaaa?"

Thankfully, Sho was there to translate. "I think she's saying that you have no idea what you're saying."

Natsu, while thankful to Erza's friend, snapped his head back at the woman assassin. "Well why didn't you just say that!?"

"I tried to use a quote of a western writer, George Rattleblade," The pink haired mage perked up at the name since he recalled meeting that guy as a zombie briefly. "I am quite a fan of his works, so here I thought it would be familiar to you if I used his words."

The assassin readied a hand on the hilt of her blade and her eyes, for the briefest of seconds, had a flash of anger in them. "I digress, it seems my poems and lyrics are wasted on your ears, yet one could still see artful beauty within a fight…"

"Now you're talking!" That was a language that the fire mage could get behind as he rushed straight for the swordswoman, much to the horrified shock of Sho.

However, before Natsu could even get in range, his instincts screamed at him to back off and he did so. He noticed the air a millimeter in front of him cut by a slash so fast, which was amazing since the dragon slayer didn't even see his opponent make the motion of drawing her blade.

"You dodged that I see," Ikaruga had her eyes closed as she re-sheathed her blade and took another style of fighting. If Natsu recalled, Erza once mentioned a type of sword style called Iaiijutsu or something else that he was unable to pronounce. However, he did recall his S-class mage friend saying that it was all about lightning quick draws with a blade. Considering what he saw just now, it was more than likely this was the specialized sword fighting he heard about. "I do wonder how a dragon does battle?"

And then the assassin slashed.

Natsu avoided the quick strikes and backed off again. However, he felt something on his chin and as he traced a hand to the area he felt, he noticed he was bleeding.

The dragon slayer growled before firing a powerful Fire Dragon's roar right for the swordswoman. Yet with one brilliant stroke, like that of a pen, Ikaruga cut through the attack like it was nothing, causing a vacuum that suffocated the mighty flames of its oxygen almost instantaneously.

Yet Natsu actually expected that for once. When the flame was cut, he was already charging in with his boosted White Flame mode, with the intent to deck his opponent hard. However, Ikaruga sidestepped the punch and judo threw Natsu into the lake, causing steam to pour out on contact that was more than enough to cover the battle field.

The pink haired assassin closed her eyes again and put her hand on the hilt of her blade when the steam surrounded them. She spun, pulled her blade, and slammed the hilt onto Natsu's chest, causing him to stagger back in pain from the blow. She then swung her blade, but the Dragon Slayer quickly ducked his head backwards then afterward unleashed another roar of fire in front of her, causing her to jump and land some ways away.

"You fight well. A bit rudimentary, but well."

There was a low growl coming from the pink haired mage. "Don't take me lightly, I'm just getting started."

Sho could only stare in shock. What the heck was this guy doing fighting someone way stronger than him? Bah, his main focus was on Erza, but Sho had a bad feeling that if he tried to escape, Ikaruga would try and get him with his back turned.

Still, another part of his mind wondered how the others were doing?

Meanwhile…

"I can't believe we were separated like that! Why didn't you warn us about that trap floor?!" Gray screamed to Simon as they both found themselves in some room with many hanging cages.

"I apologize. It seems there were things Jellal hid from us. I had no idea that floor had such a trap to begin with." The metal jawed man began. "We need to find Erza and the others once more, especially Salamander if we hope to defeat Jellal."

"Hey, whatever scale-shedder can do, I can do better a million fold." Gray began before he and Simon heard the sound of chains creaking loudly in the distance.

There was a loud thud sound as the two looked up towards a cage hanging above them.

"It appears you two are my opponents!" A large, muscular man with an owl for a head dramatically shouted out loud.

Both Gray and Simon stared with various levels of hostility and confusion as the man stood in an intimidating pose towards them. "What the? Who's that guy?"

The ice mage started to regret asking that when he saw the muscular, shirtless behemoth with an owl face pose dramatically with flexed muscles. "I am Fukuro of Death Head Cacus!"

Simon at this point was horrified and did not know he repeated the same words as Sho when they faced Ikaruga.

To the surprise of all, Fukuro pointed dramatically towards the ice mage of Fairy Tail with eyes of a hawk rather than an owl. "I've seen your files, Gray Fullbuster! Your days of indecency meet its end right now!"

Gray felt a nerve get struck before he raised his fist at his enemy. "Hey! I don't do that on purpose!"

"You show of your lustful body to innocent maidens by your subconscious!? Have you no shame, sir!?"

Gray grunted before turning into a fighting stance. "Oh that is it, bird brain! I'm beating you up, finding the others, and getting out of here!" The now half naked young man didn't hesitate to fire ice projectiles at his half avian enemy.

The assassin seemed to activate his jet pack and start flying with speed enough to avoid all of Gray's projectiles.

However, the ice mage smirked. One of his projectiles was cleverly hidden to be an Ice Sparrow shot like an Ice Lance. The speedy bird was already catching up to the jet pack user—

Then Fukuro spun and kicked the ice bird with enough force to shatter it.

"He saw through your attack," Simon said with rising panic. "We need to leave! Trinity Raven is infamous in their skill to take down anyone!"

As he gathered magic in his hand, Simon noticed Gray signaling him to stop what he was about to do. "If you're planning to make it dark for us to run away—don't. Our opponent is an Anthro* like your cat mage friend. You know people like that add animal features to their bodies, and this guy replaced his face with an owl. Those guys practically are hawks of the night sky."

"Ooooh?" After almost who-ing like an owl, Fukuro landed on one of the hanging cages with his arms crossed. "You must be the one I've heard with dark magic then. Considering Owls are nocturnal hunters as that stripper says, dark based cover has no affect on me. In fact, one of the reasons I changed my face into that of an owl was to perform night missions better."

Simon grunted. His magic was practically based on complete darkness. Someone who could see through it automatically cut his strength by half.

However, Gray something else out of that little exposition.

"Who are you calling a stripper!?" The half naked man said as he pointed to the half naked owl. "That's it! Prepare to have your feathers plucked, birdy!" He then jumped and gathered ice in his palms after saying that.

"A striper like you cannot hope to defeat Justice!" Fukuro proudly flexed before rushing to meet Gray.

However, while they were in a life and death battle, Simon had the strangest of thoughts come to him at the most random of times.

"Now that he mentions it, besides Erza and that young brown haired man, nearly everyone in Fairy Tail looks like a stripper."

Lucy did not understand why she felt irritated, but she was and very much so.

Perhaps it was because she found herself alone with Juvia, a former enemy, and Milliana, a former enemy.

… Maybe irritation might be better than fear or distrust.

"Are you two alright?" Lucy tried to start as the other two girls looked at each other with some level of unease.

"I'm fine, but where is my beloved Gray?" Juvia began before she paused a bit. "And the others?" She added that in like an afterthought.

It was then that Milliana spoke up. "We probably got separated. The others could be in different floors." Even though she said this, her body language and how she was a bit farther from the two showed that she hadn't fully trusted Erza's other friends yet.

"So," Lucy began trying to channel Erza in her leadership. "Where are we?"

The cat girl shrugged her shoulders. "I've never been in this area before."

The room itself looked like some kind of strange arena with an expansive roof that just felt ominous and unwelcoming.

Then there was a sound of a guitar being strung with heavy metal music.

"Wwwwwoooohoooo!" Someone jumped out from a high distance and landed in front of all three women. This man had pale white skin from the make up all over him that gave a heavy metal band member vibe. As he saw the three, he started playing music in his guitar in a rather impressive manner.

"Oooohhh Yeaahhh this is going to be wild!" The strange man continued with his guitar solo before doing an impressive finish.

"What?! Who is that creep!?" Lucy took a step back at how the mere presence of that person made her body shiver in both fear and disgust.

"The name's Vidaldus Taka and I'm here to send you to heaven, baby!~" The wild rocker then started strumming on his guitar.

Juvia, now completely annoyed that this man was in no way, shape, or form Gray Fullbuster, instantly locked their opponent in a Water Lock when she had first kidnapped Lucy.

"Can we go find Gray now?" Juvia unfortunately let pride get the best of her. Soon, the three had their attention brought back to the man as the water sphere around him suddenly started to shrink. It seemed like the water was seeping into his long hair before every trace of it was absorbed and the wild man could stand on his own two feet again.

"Wwwhhoooo weeeee! That's pretty good for the hair roots!" The rocker cried out before he smiled and started playing his guitar in an impressive manner. "But enough of that! I'm about to use music to soothe your souls! Yeaaahhhh!"

What the three didn't know was that this crazed fighter was going to be their toughest fight yet.

"Ignis, to your right!" Happy the Cat shrieked out before a Manticore was trying to pincer in the red wyvern while they flew inside the tower halls.

"Whenever we lose one, two more take its place!" Happy cried out on Ignis' head before the red wyvern turned to the right. However, there was one manticore pouncing right for the wyvern. Ignis unleashed a powerful flame breath on the mythological beast before its attack could connect. The fire exploded and warded of the creature. However, even while smoking, the Manticore got back up and tried to use its stinger to hit Ignis. The wyvern jumped back and started flying again, turning back from where it came and taking the other path in order to prevent being caught by the other manticores.

"How are we going to escape!?" Happy yelled out, he really was worried for Natsu and the others. But without Ignis, there was no way for either of them to get to any of their friends with all these starving manticore pursuing relentlessly after them.

"I don't care what you are! Let Erza go, you creep!" Wally didn't even hesitate to summon his blaster and fire right for the strange person standing right in front of them.

The figure tilted his head slightly, letting the blast miss him and hit the side of Erza's bubble before it dissipated on contact.

There was a flash of red as Kain had already sped past the strange being with a sword drawn out. It seemed like instead of attacking, the young lawyer was aiming to free his ally while their opponent was distracted.

*Clang!*

However, before his sword could hit the bubble trapping the S-Class mage, another barrier dome prevented the red blade from even touching Erza's cage. Kain looked back then backed off when several magic bullets where shot in his direction.

As Kain landed and looked back, he noticed the man—was now no longer a man. It was a beautiful blue haired woman wearing some kind of shiny armor he was unfamiliar with and she was holding up a glowing, blue heater shield and a sleek gold and white pistol.

"You have both shown me your skills, your tactics," The Wickerman now spoke with the voice of a beautiful woman, but there was that constant, eerie undertone of lifelessness in that new voice. "Yet I wish to see your character."

Then she started shooting at Kain. The red rider quickly backed off and then ran around to avoid getting hit. The Wickerman raised his/her shield to prevent Wally from blasting them again. Yet the gun they were holding started gathering light as the shield took in the blasts. The opponent of the two pointed the gun, but instead of firing the charged shot, over a dozen magical circles appeared surrounding the shift-shaper and fired laser beams all around the room. Kain acted fast and grabbed Wally before half a dozen beams pierced and melted through the floors and walls whenever they miss their intended target.

The shots kept firing, forcing Kain to continually move around to not to get hit. However, the wyvern rider didn't realize that all shoots were calculated and were strategically driving towards one area of the room. In one quick motion, the shape-shifter pointed the rifle in a direction Kain was about to move to. It fired a large laser at where Kain had no choice but to try and shield Wally before they were swallowed up by the attack.

"Wally! Kain!" Erza panicked as she saw the attack hit dead on. She quickly tried to force herself to move, but no matter how much she tried the spell held on to her tightly.

"Hmm," The Wicker Man began with interest as they looked at the gaping hole in the church wall. "It seems that armor is more durable than I thought."

That snapped Erza out of her stupor as she concentrated to find out she could still sense Wally's magic and hopefully by proxy, Kain was alright. "Please that's enough! Leave them alone and just bring me to Jellal!" She cried out.

The figure remained silent before turning towards her. When they turned, the face of the woman they were wearing was now scarred on the right side and the scar itself started moving, swallowing the beautiful woman's face whole.

"We will not. Our deal with Jellal states that we are to have any one of your friends." Soon the scar took over the whole body as the Wicker man turned into that of a bald monk with black robes and beads on top of one hand in half a prayer stance.

"What deal was it!? Money?!"

"Money?" The monk tilted his head. "We have no need for money. We want personalities." The way thier eyes glowed black the instant he said that word sent chills down the S-class mage's spine.

"P-Personalities? What do you mean?" The scarlet haired woman was soon about to regret asking that.

The monk shape momentarily dropped and out came this horrific, amalgamation of… of something like a black liquid tree filled with human faces across its branches.

" Very well," A conclave of hundreds of many voices speaking in unison with a monotone manner… this would no doubt even cause someone like Erza or Natsu to pale in horror at the sheer utter wrongness of it all. "We can afford to tell you…"

We… were once an 'I'.

This 'I', even we did not know who this I was. All the 'I' knew was pain, agony, and the many bloody corpses around us.

But being some survivor to an old war was not what broke us. Somehow, someway our singular being had lost all sense of self. That person didn't know who they were, but had nothing but magic.

The first of us, an old Veteran named Ziaga Sued, found us and with empathy took us in. He was vibrant, whatever room he walked into he was seen and heard instantly without saying a word. He was smart, he was funny, he was courageous….

While we were nothing, empty.

That emptiness drove us mad, so mad that our magic activated one random night while we were jealous of our caretaker.

Our magic, we did not understand it, but as we absorbed Ziaga into us, we understood what it was. We became him—memories, and personality and all.

Yet we were still so empty. Having him, knowing who he was… only when we absorbed him did we feel the sense of emptiness die. Eventually even his personality felt dull and we soon craved another vibrant soul.

Then another.

We have long lost track. We have kings, queens, tyrants, conquerors, peasants, conmen, warriors, scholars, beggars, handicapped, and madmen as a fraction of our collection.

But no matter how many take, we can never get rid of the emptiness of the first.

So we welcome more and more into our fold. One day we believe that there shall be a person that ends this emptiness.

"And Jellal has promised that he shall help me find this one person." The conclave of voices decreed. "Yet…"

When they turned back towards the hole in the wall, Erza had this horrible feeling rising from her gut. The amalgamation of face all turned back with a hundred disappointed frowns.

"So far, we have already collected people with similar surface attitudes and characteristics. Should they continue to disappoint us, we shall assimilate their powers but none of their personality."

Whatever Wally and Kain were facing, it was something far above their levels.

"Don't you dare!" Erza cried out in horrible realization. This—monster—thing! Whatever it was, it wasn't trying to kill Wally and Kain. It was far worse than she could imagine! The amalgamation was going to absorb them both into its conscious like the many deathless beings inside it! If there was a fate worse than death, Erza had just witnessed it and Wally and Kain were about to face it!

The Wicker Man turned back into a monk and seemingly ignored Erza as they started flying out the wall after the two younger men.

Erza trashed with every ounce of her might, trying her absolute desperation to free herself of whatever ancient seal was keeping her in place.

Yet, she couldn't even budge.

The S-Class mage screamed at the top of her lungs and started crying. Even now, after all this time? Was she still so weak?

"C…n! C…m…n! Ake… p! WAKE UP!"

The young boy gasped as he stood back up and found himself bumping heads with Wally. Kain noticed that they were currently on one of the giant chains that supported the tower, but he didn't know why.

A few seconds later, Kain had realized that he had tried to shield Wally from a high powered blast from that shift shaper.

"W-Where are we?" The young boy asked before he noticed that he was no longer in his armor.

"One of the chains. We're lucky we didn't just fall straight to into the void below." Wally soon got back up on his feet. "What the hell were you thinking dragging me along like that!? We could have taken him!"

The brunette paused as he recalled how easily their opponent fended them both off with relative ease. The young man did not like how the block guy was insinuating that everything was his fault, but there was far more at stake to play the blame game here of all times.

Kain looked back up to notice the hole they were blown, from what he could guess? They fell some ways down.

"Did the attacker follow after us?" Is what the young man asked instead of even acknowledging the implied insult.

"Huh, no? It must have lost us. We gotta go back in there and get Erza back!" Wally pointed up.

The two were in agreement for once. However, the fact that their opponent didn't chase them was strange. Was it doing something like bringing Erza to Jellal already? In that case they had to get back up there.

"Alright, how do we—" The young man's eyes widened when he noticed something fly out of the hole. Considering it wasn't Erza, he had to guess it was their enemy. "Crap, move!"

The young brunette stated as he ran a bit to the right where their view would be obscured by a higher chain between them and the shift shaper.

Kain looked back to his gauntlet and quickly hit item to activate his armor.

Yet…

To the surprise of Kain and Wally, the chain they were on started glowing red at the presence of the activated armor.

The blocky person pointed to the ground where the red seemed to be pulsing out into the single chain link they were standing on. "W-What the!? The chains have never done that before!"

On one hand, it did mean that this place was connected to the morpher somehow, but on the more important side, this meant that they had just given away their location.

"Wally, run!" Kain took out his blade and fired a Slash Wave towards a huge gust of wind fired their way.

"Why run!?" The dandy bock head cried out as his arm turned into a gun and started shooting blasts at the monk. However, each blast was easily avoided.

"Fine, here's the technical reason why we should: he can fly and we can't! One good hit and there's a less likely chance for us to fall on to another chain!" The plated knight pointed back towards the tower. "Keep firing at him to slow them down and head back inside!"

Now that time Wally couldn't argue and both he and Kain fired blast after sword wave to ward back their opponent while they ran for inside. The Wicker Man shape-shifted again into a colossal ten foot man with bulging muscles and war paint styled across his face and landed on the chain with a giant shock wave.

Kain saw this and knew that Wally could not out run that. "Sorry!" He said as he then activated his enhanced speed to grab on to the blocky person again and speed into the opening in the Tower of Hell before the shockwave could get them.

The two landed in a hallway and then they both started running.

"Ugh, I'm tired of running!" The dandy man complained. "All I need is one good shot and we can beat that guy and get Erza back!"

The wyvern rider sincerely doubted that, but at the same time, he was out of ideas already. "Alright, you really think you can get him? How long will it take?"

A little later, Kain found himself in a hard fought battle between him and his urge to sigh and slap his forehead for being a complete idiot in accepting someone else's plan.

"Oh sure, I'll be the one who fights him off while he charges his best attack. It's not like I saw how Piccolo and Goku versus Raditz went." The wyvern rider was really hating himself right now as he stood in the middle of the hallway with two blades drawn and had his senses feel a strong presence coming his way while Wally was some distance in the back.

In the distance, he saw the shift shaper coming in. They were now taking a new form of some knight with an elaborate crusader shield and a large broadsword that was easily lifted by one hand.

Kain tensed while also feeling sweat down his back inside the armor. He really, really wished he'd stop finding himself in situations where he had no choice but to face opponents stronger than him and fight them one on one.

In one instant, the Wicker Man closed the gap between the two faster than Kain expected. This made the spatially displaced boy hate his life significantly more than usual.

Wally charged his attack, watching the two go head to head, or rather, the wyvern rider avoiding a whole bunch of attacks that easily decimated whichever area he left.

There were times where Kain was hit—hit rather hard. And now he was just becoming somewhat of a ragdoll.

In one move, Kain tried to circle back, only to be kicked hard in the torso and be sent flying back near Wally's feet.

"I got it ready!" Wally said as he pointed a fully charged blaster arm right towards The Wicker Man.

"Hasta la vista, ba—"
"You do not get to finish that sentence in front of me."

While momentarily distracted by Kain's dry comment, Wally fired off the attack of concentrated magic. The blast was so fast that it actually melted The Wicker Man's head off its shoulders, leaving a body with a smoldering and smoking top.

Seeing their enemy's head cleaned right off, Wally wooped for joy. "You see that? That's the dandy way!"

Kain may have been wearing a face plate, but he was looking in deadpan down on the floor. He was about to complain about how he had his ass handed to him for something so anti-climatic, but then he realized something.

The body didn't fall.

"Wally, wait. Something isn't right." The red rider cried out then quickly got back up.

"What? That guy is definitely dead." The black man stopped speaking when he heard the sound of a footstep walk towards them.

The body moved towards them without a head. Soon, a black like substance started forming around where the head was. It stretched out high and transformed into something large and encompassing before trying to crush the two. The armored rider whisked Wally away before the attack could make contact.

Afterward, the two looked back to see that it seemed like the shift-shaper had forsook all attempts of playing around. Instead of the body of one person, it had like a dozen different arms glowing with different magic and had unseen weapons of before. Two large spikes burst out of the back of the torso and turned into large, black, torn butterfly wings. And then a head reformed on the knight's shoulders, instead of a face, it was an amalgamation of a hundred eyes all focused towards the two.

"We have judged. We have already had a 'dandy' man among us. Wally Buchanan, you are not welcome among The Wickerman." A conclave of a hundred voices declared with disinterest.

The sheer view of something so much more powerful and something so horrific finally hit Wally as he fell to his knees gapping horror. He could only gasp as their opponent brought a powerful spike of magical power that was felt all throughout the tower.

"M-Monster," Wally weakly gasped as the creature stalked towards him with the intent to make it as if he had never existed.

Yet…

To the block man's surprise, something stood in front of him like a shield. Kain, despite looking worse for wear, stood between Wally and The Wicker Man.

"Wally," Kain's voice began softly. "Get back to Erza and free her. I'll hold it off for as long as I can."

Those words sprung the block man into action, just not the one the red rider was hoping for. "W-What!? Didn't you see that-that monster!? It's impossible to beat! You barely lasted any time alone with that thing!" Wally pointed at the thing with obvious fear. What was Kain thinking? There was no chance of both of them winning whatsoever!

"I know." The young man still looked at their opponent heading towards them with another spike of magic. Kain may not have been able to sense magic, but he could tell that a brighter light meant that he was about to attack.

Wally didn't have a chance to respond to that as Kain then rushed blades first towards the monster.

The red rider was able to say two words before getting back into the fight, "JUST GO!"

The block mage didn't hesitate when the fighting restarted and ran for it as fast as he could.

Wally knew what floor they were in after seeing where he fell from, so it didn't long before he figured and found the room they had left Erza in.

"Wally?!" The S-Class mage seemed shocked to see that one of her friends had escaped.

"Erza, let's break you out of there!" The blocky mage cried out as he prepared his gun and fired on the sphere trap multiple times. However, it didn't seem to show any signs of breaking.

"Where's Kain?!" Erza cried out as she realized that it was only Wally who was here.

Instead of answering, there was a sudden quake that caused the tower to shake. A second later, a streak of red was seen shooting out of the floor and crashing into the ceiling. As the dust settled, the object fell from the ceiling, revealing it to be a rather beaten up Kain that fell into the floor like a thrown toy.

Before Erza could scream in horror, a giant black, liquid like hand shot out of the ground where Kain came from and slammed again into the floor as it motioned whatever it was attached with to move up. The wyvern knight weakly tried to stand once more, and in front of him the floor was practically split open in half as fire lit from below the gaping hole.

Even words like demon or monster paled at what had appeared before them. A behemoth being around twenty feet tall, a half dozen arms covered in black ooze but sticking out of all six arms like goosebumps was an array of powerful magical weapons, and most horrifyingly of all, a 'head' filled with pupil-less faces across its 'face'.

It was like facing a horror before the birth of a universe.

The unspeakable monstrosity spoke with a conclave of uncanny and emotionless voices. "Your armor interests us, Kain Reynolds. Never have we felt pain from any other item crafted from yore that has forced us into this form before. Part with it now, and we shall leave you be."

Kain looked back to Erza and Wally before he summoned another blade and took another fighting stance.

The scarlet haired woman shouted again at the top of her lungs when she saw her clearly non-warrior friend face off against something that was clearly the scariest being in the entire tower. "Are you crazy!? Kain, stop fighting and run! You heard the thing awhile ago, it won't hurt me! Just run!"

"I," The red knight fixed his stance with all the strength of a newborn trashing its limbs around weakly before he took a step forward. "won't." It seemed like he was saying that to both his ally and enemy.

"Why?" The beast asked with a speck of curiosity. "Why do you fight against us so desperately?"

…

The red rider lowered his stance and stared back at the powerful opponent. "You really want to know? … I am not a really brave person. I'm really nothing without this armor, and I'm definitely not one of those people who can stare death in the face without a trace of fear." The young boy softly began even though he was heard by everyone. "But I do know what it's like to be scared; what it's like to feel as if nothing good is ever going to happen. I… I'm not standing in front of you because I'm brave. I'm more afraid of running away in fear and never looking back, I'm more afraid of my guilt haunting me for the rest of my life in saying that I let people I cared for down so badly."

Kain then raised his head once more. "I'm fighting you so desperately, because I fear living with failure and regret once again as I did before, and I did so hate it. However, if I keep fighting; if I find a way to beat you and do defeat you then—for the most miniscule of moments of my life—I might be able to trick myself in feeling like I belong with all of my friends here who are so much better than me."

"Kain…" Erza found herself whispering in surprise. She recalled how bad Kain felt before he could even activate the armor, and saw a glimpse of how self-loathing he was in his childhood. She always thought that the young man had pretty much overcome his past. How could she have been so blind? Kain had never overcome all those years of self loathing. He has always been fighting those thoughts of him never being good enough all his life and was still fighting it even now.

But Kain was always fighting, always trying his best to prove to himself that he did belong to stand with his friends. There were days that were easier than others, but whenever he was forced to fight for Fairy Tail? Those were the days that were so obvious to show how out of place he was, and it must have bothered him so much since he already had low-self esteem.

"That… that is why I fight so hard. I am afraid of you, but I promised myself, my family, and my new friends here in Fairy Tail, I can't give up! No matter what else you throw at me!" With rising determination, Kain shouted out more and more. His courage seemed to be rising as he said that as he took a blade stance, ready for whatever attack to come his way.

However, what came his way was not some unseen or unblockable attack, but a hundred pupil-less faces smiling twistedly.

"Kain Reynolds, you have shown us a strong and vibrant character! We have judged: we welcome you as a future collective of The Wicker Man." In other words, the creature was going to turn Kain into one of the many faceless bodies it took over.

Even though he was wearing a helmet, everyone could tell the boy was narrowing his eyes at his enemy. "I decline."

In a burst of red, Kain moved in, slashing one of the arms before bouncing off in the air. The many faces screamed in pain while the rest of its body started firing multiple magical blasts right for the red rider mid air. However, to the surprise of the watchers, Kain was holding something blue when he usually had all red items.

Wally and Erza instantly recognized it as the shield The Wicker Man first used to prevent Kain from getting close to Erza and to block most of Wally's shots. Instantly, Erza wondered if Kain noticed the weapon from all the other weapons sticking out of its arms and then purposely attacked the arm first in order to pick up that shield? If so, she had to admit it was a well thought off plan to plan his offense and immediate defense.

The blue shield started to glow and summon a force field that instantly dissipated many of the attacks that hit it. The Wicker Man shot out a golden lance that instantly broke through the force field bubble and shattered the shield that Kain stole. However, the shield did buy the young man enough time to move mid air and catch the lance, then throw it back right into one of the faces of The Wicker Man, causing it to scream again.

The young adolescent landed and with another burst of speed, tunneled right for another arm and slashed it. This time, while the monster screamed, Kain had stolen a magical rifle and fired several times, unleashing a hail of bullets on the thing.

Yet this time, over a dozen magical circles appeared and blacked all attacks. A black goop tentacle had shot out and stuck itself on Kain's right foot and slammed the armored warrior into the ground.

"Kain!" Erza shouted while Wally looked on with horror.

The red warrior summoned a blade and cut off the liquid trying to get to him before backing off. However, as he did, he felt himself get punched from behind. The amateur warrior tried to roll and looked behind him to see a liquid figure holding an elaborate pole axe.

There was a humming noise that made the displaced young man jump before being cut in half by another figure holding a blade.

Soon, Kain realized there were a dozen or more liquid like figures with powerful weapons and all of them soon gained the face of someone he didn't recognize.

Then they all attacked.

The red rider put up a fight, but he was overwhelmed and out skilled by the many humanoid puppets that swarmed him.

"Aaah! Aaaahh!?" Wally panted for air as he saw The Wicker Man's clones stopped attacking and blasting their opponent when a flash of red light appeared, revealing that Kain was powered down and knocked down cold. Slowly, all the faces turned towards him, the horrific sight, the memory of The Wicker Man trying to kill him, and the fact that the one possible person who could fight that monster was now defeated, made Wally pant in fear. "AAAAHHH!?" The block man cried as he ran for his dear life.

"Wally?!" Erza yelled before she saw the man run away. However, the voice of The Wicker Man brought her attention back to her guild's lawyer.

"Kain Reynolds…. welcome home." Black liquid slowly oozed towards the now unconscious and bleeding young man. Slowly but surely, he was being swallowed into the monstrosity.

"No! Kain! Wake up! Kain!? KAIN!?" Erza desperately cried out. Inside her mind, she was begging anyone, anything—save her friend.

And then… a blast came from behind her and exploded on the Wicker Man's face. The direct attack forced the black liquid off of Kain and a purple block came in and swiped the unconscious adolescent out of there and back near the captured Fairy Tail member.

Erza turned her head to see Wally had returned. His lower half was gone and turned into magical blocks flying around and his arm was in blaster mode. Despite him gasping for breath and how his blaster arm was twitching uncontrollably, he had returned.

The amalgamation slowly turned back towards its attacker. "You?"

"Yeah me! I'm back, and ready to kick you to the curb!" Wally declared before pounding his chest. "I was scared of yous, see? But that kid over there… he was right. It's worse to high tail it outta here when I still got friends that need helping! And this time? I ain't stopping till you're beneath my feet!"

"What caused this change?" The many voices pointed over towards the blocky man.

Erza was also curious as to why her old friend had returned. In actuality, she was half glad that Wally ran because it meant that he would be safe. Being here now meant that Wally was in danger again.

To her surprise, the man inhaled deeply.

"That kid," He made a motion to the unconscious Kain. "I thought of him as just some rather normal guy—like you would not believe how plain he is. Yet…"

{I promised myself, my family, and my new friends here in Fairy Tail that I can't give up! No matter what else you throw at me!}

At the memory of such a bold declaration, Wally seemed to relax and no longer show a trace of fear against the overwhelming opponent. "That kid was dandy. And there's no way I'm letting him outshine me!"

"Curious." The amalgamation spoke before summoning a large amount of magic circles with the intent to fire. Wally panicked briefly but then steeled himself as he broke his body into blocks to avoid the blasts and whisk Kain's unconscious body away from the attacks.

"Wally!" Erza shouted from within as some blasts bounced off her trapped bubble. "You need to run! You can't beat that thing!"

While all the blocks were whizzing around, the young man's voice spoke out. "I can't do that, Erza. This thing, it's powerful, but it's not unbeatable. Kain here showed me an idea to stop it!"

Erza was surprised. She recalled Wally being much like Sho in that when they were kids, he always seemed to stay in the background. Where did this burst of courage come from? Or… was it always there just waiting for someone like her or Kain to bring it out of him?

Then to the surprise of the S-class mage, some of the blocks flew right for The Wicker Man beast. Instead of piercing through it, some of the blocks were getting absorbed into the creature, and soon more and more were done as well.

The Wicker Man increased the intensity of their assault, pressing even the remaining blocks to get blasted or even cut. The stress had caused Wally to reform back without most of both his legs and fall to the floor.

"What is this grand offensive that you planned? In fact, the previous one had done more damage to us in one move."

However, Wally, even though he had like two three inch stubs as legs left, started chuckling as he started floating up with his magic. "Yeah see? Here's the thing. Before our first attack on ya, the kid briefly told me his armor is made out of something that disrupts magic, so of course it's gotta be the best weapon to hurt ya. But the more he and I attacked, the more we realized that direct attacks are impossible on you. Yet when Kain made his last stand, and after I settled down, I realized you had one major weakness!"

The room was silent as Wally gave another confident smirk. "How about I just show ya?"

His blaster arm turned normal as he then pointed it right for the Wicker Man. As he did, lights started shinning from inside the Wicker Man.

The Wicker Man made sounds of panic as it noticed it was starting to glow everywhere. Even Erza could sense the spike of magic and instantly her eyes widened. "Wally, what are you doing!?"

"There's no way to win in direct fights against this thing!" Wally cried out before he noticed the beast trying to attack him. He circled back to behind Erza's sphere as cover. "But that's the same weakness! It's only invulnerable on the outside! And I just made him absorb all of my blocks which were charged to explode from the inside!"

Erza look in shock while the light around the Wicker Man started to glow brighter. "But those are your legs, Wally!? The amount of magic you're putting, it's enough to completely drain you! When it goes off, your magic will stop stabilizing you and it will be as if you're legs really are ripped from your body!"

If that was supposed to stop her friend, it didn't. Wally removed his glasses and gave Erza a proud and accomplished smile. "I promised not to lose another older sibling. A true dandy keeps his word no matter what."

Then he put his glasses back on and threw his hand out again, pouring out more and more energy. Wally ignored Erza's desperate pleas to stop before—

The entire Tower of Hell—the entire mountain shook and rumbled from a powerful explosion.

"Well I'll be damned. Wally Bunchanan was the one to defeat that monster. Wally? I can surely say that I never expected that to happen in a million years." Jellal said as he moved over to the table and knocked out the question mark piece and Wally's piece over. He then started a slow applause. "Well done, Wally, I was wondering how to get rid of that monster, and you did my work quite nicely. I might even forgive you even after all this is done because of how much you impressed me!"

Jellal laughed and laughed before deciding to see how the others were doing.

Erza instantly felt herself freed from the magical trap after the explosion went off. There was dust everywhere, along with pieces of black goop, but she didn't care about that. She needed to find Wally and Kain!

"Aaauuuh!" There was a painful half groan, half shout that came from in front of her. Erza quickly transformed into her Wind Empress armor and blew away all the smoke. Her heart sank as she saw Wally, lying down on the floor screaming in pain.

At the very end of where his legs used to be, the two stumps of what remained of Wally's legs were soaking red. His magic really was completely depleted and now he was bleeding internally since there was no open wound to exit from.

"Wally!? Wally, stay with me!" Erza cried out as she kneeled to her friend and tried to spot Kain. To her relief, Kain was dirty and unconscious, but still in one piece.

"Auuugghhh!" Wally groaned before trying to push out a weak laughter. "I-Is that thing gone?"

Erza looked around, thankfully, it seemed like there was no longer any sign of that massive presence. "Yes, yes it's gone Wally, you did it. You beat it."

"Ha… so I'm just going to… sleep for a bit… really hurts to stay…" Wally tilted his head to the side, falling unconscious as he did.

Quickly, Erza turned equipped her Flame Empress Armor. With tears in her eyes she lit up her sword, "I am truly sorry, Wally."

…

In order to stop the internal bleeding, Erza had to cut off what was left of Wally's legs and essentially cauterize him to save him from bleeding out. She wasn't proud of it, but she had one small mercy that Wally was too out cold to feel it.

However, she did set both Wally and Kain in a safe zone outside back in the hall. She opened up her space, and brought out something from it.

It was the Omni Tool she had received from Horus back in the Isle of the Dead. "Kain, when I first received this weapon, I felt completely unworthy of it. Even though I was given it, I felt as though I wasn't right to carry the First Wizard Saint's wish of wielding the blade for hope rather than war. It's why I didn't use it, even when Phantom Lord attacked, with all that I was I still felt as if I could not use it."

"Now?" She said before gently placing it in Kain's arms. "I know I am not worthy of it. You are. I only hope that you can wake up in time and escape before Etherion fires. I must go and meet with Jellal now. Please be safe and live well enough to go back home, Kain."

Erza said solemnly as she left the two in the hallway, now more than ever determined to stop Jellal.

Fukuro, with uncanny speed coming from the massive man, got behind Gray and then pile-drove the ice mage into one of the cages. The move made the stripper flinch in pain before Fukuro got back up, used his jet packs, and then elbowed into the downed Gray with enough force to break the hanging chain they were on.

The bird assassin flew back up while Simon dove in and picked up Gray before the cage could crash down below.

As he tried to set him down, Gray got back up, more angry than hurt. "Okay, he's tougher than he looks." However, it didn't mean that the damage he received over the fight was easy to ignore.

"I told you, he's infamously powerful! We don't stand a chance against him in direct combat!" Simon cried out.

"Then you go. I'll handle this guy. There's no way I'm running away from a fight like this!" Gray cried out as he placed his hands together. "Ice Make: Swords! Ice Make: Octopus!"

Six blades were created as an Ice Octopus grabbed them and then started using the area around him as a form of jungle gym with its last two remaining limbs. Fukuro watched the ice animal move before he heard a humming noise coming back in front of him. He turned around to see Gray holding a construct Bazooka a few feet in the air in front of him.

Fukuro tried to move but there was a sudden stab he felt at his jet packs—making him instantly realize this was a two pronged attack where both where designed to distract and attack right after each other.

It was then that Gray unleashed the blast, firing the half naked wrestler with an owl head in the distance before the Octopus swung in and grabbed Gray's hand before he could fall and tossed him to a safe area.

"Ha! You talk about my stripping habit when you're the one without a shirt to begin with!"

From the distance, there was a loud owl noise before Fukuro landed again on one of the cages and then flexed dramatically. "How dare you! This is my uniform! Regardless, it's time I defeated you with my finishing move!"

Gray took another stance as he gathered magic. "Finally, something we can agree on." His constructs that included the Octopus dissipated, signaling that Gray was using a large chunk of his magic to finish this fight.

Simon was impressed; the two had been fighting even though the tower had started shaking uncontrollably for some time. However, even though that Gray showed he was indeed stronger than he looked, it seemed their opponent was just as tenacious.

Fukuro stood with both hands out in a grapple stance. "Paragons of yore! Knights of war! This prodigal warrior asks for more!"

"That's a lost spell chant!" Simon cried out as Gray also recognized the rhyming incantation.

However, what the two weren't expecting was the entire room to fill with lights, images of Fukuro attacking previous areas that started to glow and create unique magic marks on wherever his attacks made their mark. And considering where they were fighting and for how long? There were a lot of them surrounding the entire area.

Gray wouldn't let a spell this powerful get unleashed. He fired an assault of ice attacks towards the assassin before he could pull off a spell of that magnitude.

"There is an enemy before me I must smite! With the marks of our battle, I call forth—" The barrage of ice attacks hit Fukuro dead on as he raised his fist into the sky.

Gray did not relent, firing ice blast after ice blast right for where his opponent stood. After unloading a large chunk of his magic energy into blasting his opponent, Gray gasped for breath and stopped his attack.

"Justice Might!"

Fukuro's voice pierced through the smoke with a proud and victorious voice.

The assassin shot out of the smoke with speed that far surpassed when he was using a jet pack. He was wrapped in golden aura and instantly punched Gray with enough force to launch him into the wall on the very opposite side of the room.

Simon could only gape as the assassin closed the distance on Gray and then dragged him upward while pushing his face on the wall while he moved. At the height of that jump, Fukuro started spinning with Gray's body above him. They moved so fast that they formed a circle and started falling fast towards a platform magic circle in the middle of the room.

When they made contact, the entire room shook in a way that forced Simon to take cover.

After the attack, Simon opened his good eye and instantly moved—to catch Gray's unconscious body thrown to him.

As he looked up ahead, he noticed Fukuro still wrapped in golden aura walking towards him, stepping on the air as if it was a floor.

"He should be honored I used my most powerful spell on him. Justice Might, it's a very unique lost spell. It grants its user temporary invulnerability against all magic, physical, and mental damage. However, it only lasts for ten seconds for every successful bare hit you land on your opponent."

Simon looked around to the areas he once saw magical marks. That was why the place started glowing when Fukuro activated the spell: it was tallying all the marks! But wait, Fukuro and Gray had been fighting toe to toe for practically minutes! Which meant—

"As you can see, I am currently invincible for I'd say three minutes at the least, five at the most. Which is more than enough needed to defeat you now."

Simon didn't even have a chance to blink before he felt his body be hit by a speeding truck. The man with a metal Jaw found himself clinging on to a chained cage by instinct before the cage actually snapped and he still went flying.

When he landed, he noticed he wasn't carrying Gray anymore and quickly tried to find him. To his relief, Gray was on a lower platform, but seemingly fine.

The same couldn't be said for him however.

Without any choice left, Simon covered the entire room in complete darkness, leaving only Fukuro like a beacon amongst the deep darkness.

"I can still see you in the darkness; did we not make that clear?" Fukuro's owl eyes tracked Simon and tried to unleash another punch. However, Simon was able to barely dodge the attack and land on another platform.

The man with a metal jaw started to hate himself while doing his best to stall out the time.

(No one, not even Jellal, noticed the chains around the tower started to glow black.)

Perhaps he might have had a chance after all had he actually entered into the fight with Gray instead of gawking in fear like some bystander.

*This is all your fault, Simon.*

It irked him so much that even though he had finally gotten the rest to believe in Erza, they were so easily split up and were now under attack by far more powerful warriors—perhaps it was worse of him to drag the others like Milliana and Sho into the fight in the first place and he should have been the only one to approach Erza and Fairy Tail.

*They might all have had a chance if you didn't distract everyone into one giant area for Jellal to finish you off.*

He thought if he could have been patient and quiet this past decade, he could have his chance to save everyone and Erza, but he was a fool! Jellal had been building his plan far more elaborately than him, even if Jellal kept an eye on them the entire time, he should have been able to know about the Death Head Caucus elite and warn everyone properly.

*They will now all die, just because you let your emotions get the better of you. Just because you wanted to see her again.*

Dang it! Dang it!

*Don't worry, Simon Mikazuchi, all you need to do to fix this is to use a simple spell. Don't you remember? When you were first learning dark based magic? The one with the harmless and untrue label that said, "Forbidden Spell". After all, if it was forbidden, why did they put it down in that book you found in a random crack in these ruins?*

He had no choice.

Fukuro momentarily stopped when he noticed something off about the darkness around him. "… What was that cold chill?" The assassin looked over to Gray, but noticed he was still out cold. "No, it's not ice… it's something… dark."

The Assassin instantly noticed the darkness get lifted. Yet when he turned his head around, he seemed to be surprised.

"Wait, you didn't!?" For the first time in the fight, the assassin with a bird face seemed to lose his calmness.

There was a wild roar as Simon screamed out like a pained beast. As he faced back to Fukuro, his eyes with glowing black, his eyes were dripping blood.

"Dark Sacrifice!" Simon screamed with a voice that sounded nothing like his own. And like six black spider like tendrils shot out of the large man's shadow and quickly moved towards the man's broad back.

Fukuro's owl eyes sharpened as he prepared for battle. "You damn fool!" Even before the last syllable left his mouth, Simon with his new found power had closed the distance between them and he threw his fist—and a three tendrils right for the assassin.

The assassin instinctively blocked and while he didn't feel any form of pain, he found himself rocketing across the room.

Flashes of memories started to come to Fukuro as he got back up.

("Watch over Ika-chan for me, please Kuro-nii?")

"Of all the times to remember that damn war…" Fukuro jumped to avoid Simon smashing the cage he was standing on that instantly shot down and bounced through every opposite wall like a pin ball as it made its descent down.

As Fukuro jumped to safer ground, he noticed his glow was starting to flicker and wane. His momentary invulnerability time was running out.

"I've got at least a minute left." The Assassin said as he gripped his fist and looked back at Simon wildly charging for him. "For the sake of Justice, I must defeat you! … And more importantly,"

The enraged Simon fired all his tendrils and empowered fist right for the glowing assassin. The man with an owl for a head charged forward. But as he did the glow around him instantly faded and he was decked right in the face by a sting of dark magic.

"… For them!"

However, Fukuro was still holding on and while his body may have lost his glow, his fist was shinning like the sun. It seemed he moved what was left of his invulnerable state into this attack and launched his fist right for Simon's stomach.

"Redemption Punch!" The assassin cried out as the light exploded, covering the darkness and knocking Simon away right through a dozen cages and being forced through the thick wall that surrounded the room. It seemed he was fine afterward, seeing as Simon was now unconscious and laying inside a hallway with some rubble on him.

"You never surrender yourself to magic completely, my opponent, especially in front of me of all people." Fukuro sighed as he found himself looking upward. "Though, if one was that desperate to defeat me…"

The owl assassin flinched as the pain from the attack and the injuries he sustained from Gray finally kicked in.

"No, a Hero of Justice never shows weakness. The kids can't see me like this." Fukuro told himself as he got back up. However, he then sighed and scratched his head. "But… a Hero of Justice would also spot a large lie when they see one, and I do believe we've been bamboozled."

Glass shattered as Ignis flew through it without hesitation. Both he and Happy were now out of the tower, still flying with a herd of hungry Manticores pursuing after them.

"Why can't we shake them off!?" Happy cried out as the creatures flew after them, one of them getting dangerously close to biting, Ignis' tail before the red wyvern descended to avoid being caught.

It was then with Ignis, and only Ignis, the wyvern spotted something on one of the chains. A humanoid figure seemingly motioned to the wyvern with a wave of their hand. Instantly, Ignis flew towards the being in the distance.

However, Happy seemed surprised at the new burst of speed. "Huh? Where are you going!?"

The red wyvern only flew faster towards the chain before suddenly shifting his legs and his weight forward then stopped flying his wings. This led the red dragonic creature to fall and slide on the giant chains, but then Ignis started running on its hind legs after sliding somewhat.

Behind the dragonic cousin, the pack of manticores also observed their prey's movements, some chose to chase with land while some continued to fly. Yet, while in flight, some of the manticores were able to overtake Ignis while he ran.

Happy the flying cat expressed worry when one of the creatures in the front came diving right for them. The pseudo dragon's eyes sharpened as he slid to a stop again. As the first manticore came in close, Ignis threw his head back, causing Happy to fall backward and allowed Ignis to dodge the claw of the creature. However, Ignis then quickly snapped his mouth open and stabbed his fangs deep into the neck of the first manticore as it roared in pain.

At the same time, another manticore was closing in on behind Ignis and more importantly, zeroing in on the falling Happy. Ignis' tail moved like a snake about to strike and wrapped around Happy to take him away while Ignis' talon shot out and latched on to the second manticore's face.

Then the wyvern crushed and twisted with his talon.

"Ahh! That was brutal and kinda cool!" Happy half gasped and looked away after the move before he found out that Ignis was now already turning and threw both dead manticores in the opposite direction.

The remaining ten didn't even seem to care as they all tunneled hard for the red wyvern. Ignis now had his mouth glowing with flame as he then enflamed a circle of fire around himself to slow down the swarm. Three manticores flew through the fires, one with their stinger poised to strike, one with their fangs raised, and another with their claws gleaming. Ignis ran towards the one with a stinger face first before unleashing a blast of fire on it as it was launched at him. The burst of flame made the Manticore cringe in pain and slow down the stinger enough for Ignis to avoid it and chomp down hard on tail part of the stinger.

With great wyvern strength, the red beast swung his capture manticore over head to slam down the next hungry predator that was trying to bite him. Happy swore he could even feel their pain with how Ignis threw both bodies with such force to make both their bones crack loudly from the crushing impact.

The last one was coming in fast, but Ignis let go off Happy and tail whipped the two bodies right for the claw using manticore. The combined weight of the two bodies caused the attacking manticore to get pinned down by the combined weight. The wyvern didn't hesitate to burn all three while they were down.

Happy, while momentarily distracted at how hardcore Ignis really was in a fight, heard something and looked up. "Ignis, look out!"

The wyvern looked up before he was tackled down by two manticores that flew over his wall of fire.

The two manticores pinned the wings down of Ignis and dug their own claws into the wyvern's scales. They both lifted their stingers up, but then were distracted as Happy flew in and tried to tackle one of them in the face.

While he didn't do much, the manticores were distracted by the cat's action. Ignis didn't hesitate to unleash flame right in the face of the manticore to his right while his tail snaked around the other and crushed its neck before it could even act.

This allowed him to push both of them off and quickly take a few flaps to get himself right side up. Seeing the burned manticore still alive, Ignis shot out his talon to grab on to its face and slam the creature comprised of other animals into the strange chain and twist his talon hard.

Happy gave a thumbs up despite being still a little disturbed by the rather violent move by the wyvern. "We Fairy Tail animals gotta stick together!"

The red wyvern appreciated this, but then a large gust of wind completely sapped away the oxygen of ring of fire. The last five manticores roared and once more ran right for the Wyvern with no time to defend himself.

Ignis and Happy both flew in the air, prompting the other five to chase after them. The two Fairy Tail members separated; four went after Ignis while the last one went after Happy.

The flying cat started flying through the inside of the chains, causing a half zig-zag chase. The manticore was not all that smart as it continued to follow Happy. During one of its turns, the manticore suddenly lost sight of the blue cat but didn't notice the tail of Ignis snaking around his neck.

SNAP!

Happy and Ignis flew as the manticore body fell while the last four gave chase to the red wyvern and blue cat.

Ignis spun back, unleashing a wide spread flame that caused the others to split up to avoid more damage by flames.

For one of them, Happy appeared right in front of them and suddenly rode and blinded the creature with his wings.

This caused the blind manticore to trash around while trying to throw off Happy. Another manticore saw Happy and instantly tried to eat the small cat whole. At the same time, the blinded manticore was getting furious and by using his sense of feeling, reclined his stinger. However, Happy smiled and in the last second jumped off the manticore, allowing the other to accidentally bite his ally and for the first to launch his stinger and poison into the biter.

One of the Manticores saw that and dove for the flying cat. However, it suddenly found itself unable to move by something yanking its tail. When it turned around, it was greeted with wyvern flames.

The stream of fire was seen turning the head of the second to last manticore into ashes before it was dropped into the abyss.

The last manticore roared angrily as it charged for Ignis. The red wyvern continued flying place before suddenly spinning forward, whipping his tail right into the head of the last manticore.

The half lion monster landed on the chain, but as it tried to look back up, it only noticed a shadow off a talon.

Ignis roared proudly before it did its signature crush and twist, which was followed by a loud sound of something snapping like twig, but having a far more disturbing sound.

"That'll teach you to mess with Happy! The strongest Fairy Tail Animal!" The proud bleu cat declared as soon as all twelve manticores were dead and no longer pursuing them.

Ignis fought the urge to roll his eyes and just snorted and gave a few growls. If one was there, they could swear that his grunts sounded sarcastic.

The blue cat pointed to the red wyvern angrily. "MOMON IS NOT THE STRONGEST ANIMAL IN FAIRY TAIL!"

It seemed like one would be right to assume that Ignis was simply being witty.

Happy was not quite happy with the reference of the other animal sidekick in Fairy Tail besides him and Ignis.

At that moment, Ignis smiled and nodded emptily before petting Happy with his tail and motioned a wing back over to the tower.

"Grr! Fine! I'll prove that I am the strongest! I'll go find Natsu and the others and save them from whatever problem they're facing, you'll see!" Happy cried out as he flew back towards the Tower of Hell. "Momon can suck on my tail!"

The pseudo dragon shook his head but then tensed and turned his head around.

The figure that called him over was now standing right behind him.

*… I see. You are the Eye of the Flesh.*

Ignis growled softly in response.

The figure bowed in front of the wyvern.

*I am honored you know who I am.*

The red wyvern seemed to narrow his eyes before he gave a few soft roars after the strange phantom like being.

*If you are asking that question, it simply means you were not given that part.*

Ignis gave a powerful angry roar followed by snarling after that.

*I can also see which parts you were given. It seems you've been given the short end of the stick, my lord.*

It seemed like the crimson pseudo dragon was now tired of this conversation and quickly flew away, chasing after Happy.

The phantom figure continued to watch before he slowly started to fade.

*Hmm, this cycle seems most interesting.*

Lucy was starting to wonder what life would have been like for her if she wasn't a Celestial Mage and had a different magic instead. Perhaps is she had been this super powerful person, everything would go better and things would have gone well for her and everyone around her.

… Okay, maybe Juvia hit her too hard in the head with a water blast that time if she was now having weird thoughts like that.

"Ahahahaha!"

"Oh right, brainwashing magic." Lucy groggily muttered as she got out of the puddle she was currently laying on. Vidaldus—the total creep—activated his magic to ensure he could momentarily capture and mind control Juvia and turned her against both her and Milliana.

"I'm not done, blonde bimbo!" That half crazed shout caused Lucy to get back up and avoid a spike of water from hitting her again.

Lucy looked to her right to see Milliana, looking dizzy, wet, and a bit upset, but alright. It seemed Juvia seemed more inclined to attack her because of some nonsense about being a rival in love.

"OOOOOhhhhhh YEEAAAHHHH!?" Vidalvus cried out as he continued to play his guitar and cried out more and more to make their cat fight really hot.

Lucy was still starting to panic. How could she even defeat Juvia? During the Phantom Lord attack, it was Kain who actually defeated Gajeel, but even more so than that, Kain actually had to fight and protect her that entire fight! She was nothing more than a bother at that point, which was really annoying to her.

Wait a second! Kain defeated Gajeel with out of the box thinking, not overpowering him! Lucy may not have stood a chance against Juvia, but that might not what she needed to do!

While doing her best to dodge Juvia's attacks, the former heiress tried to think hard. Kain used Gajeel's own power against him. What could she do to turn this situation around?

Lucy looked around again, trying to list everything as she could. If only that idiot could stop playing his—

"That's it!"

The blonde celestial mage took out her key and in a bright flash of light, turned to her Sagittarius Dress.

"OOOOH BABY WHAT A FINE DRESS!" Vidaldus whooped in joy before playing his guitar louder.

Milliana turned her head in shame. "I can't believe my awesome big sis is friends with such a shameful striper!"

"I AM NOT A STRIPER!" Lucy yelled to the skies above and making a heavy mental note to demand her spirits to give her less revealing clothes after this was done.

"You'd probably be a great one though!" The assassin gave a thumbs up; though that was the opposite of what she wanted to hear.

"Shut it!" The celestial mage quickly snapped before aiming her bow at Juvia. "Sorry, Juvia, but I'm going to have to stop you!"

For some reason, Juvia seemed to get even angrier. "You will never have my beloved Gray!"

Before Lucy could argue that she wasn't aiming for that, Juvia started firing water blasts at her. The celestial mage ran and fired several arrows at the water woman, only for her to allow the arrows to pass through her liquid form.

"Ha! Your attacks are useless!" Juvia cried out, but Milliana noticed that Lucy was still deadly serious as she fired more and more arrows at her, each one passing through her body and showing no sign of slowing down.

The cat girl noticed Lucy smile before drawing one bow, dodging a water blast by sliding underneath it, the twirling back to stand up and fire another arrow at Juvia.

"Come on, bimbo!" Juvia laughed as that arrow phased through her. "Those attacks don't—"

Plunk!
"GAH!?"

Juvia turned back to see that the last arrow she let phase through her had stabbed into the guitar of Vidaldus and was causing the musical instrument to crack, glow, and suddenly explode. The member of Trinity Raven cried out in horror as he beloved instrument turned to dust in his arms.

"I know," Lucy answered Juvia's taunt. "But I wasn't aiming for you from the start! I just need to make everyone think I was aiming for you from the beginning!" The blonde threw her hand out. "That last arrow was laced with a special spell that should disrupt the magic within another holder type item! Which means!"

The air around the guitar turned into a bright gold color and raced towards Juvia, after a bright light enveloped her, it seemed like she was back to her usual self.

"L-Lucy! You freed me!" Juvia turned in shock.

The member of Fairy Tail gave a thumbs up with the hand that had a Fairy Tail symbol on it. "What are friends for?"

The former Element Four seemed to smile at how her potential love rival still considered her friends.

"Noooo! My precious! My baby!" Vidaldus cried out as he started crying at the loss of his beloved instrument. He then turned towards the two ladies with anger in his eyes. "That's it! Babes or not, you're not getting away witWhy can't I feel anything?"

The assassin found himself tied up with a specialized rope that seemed to nullify his magic. The more he struggled, the more it tightened. It even made him lose balance and fall harmlessly on to the floor.

Juvia and Lucy looked over to a rather ticked off Milliana with her arms out. "Stupid jerk! Let's hurry and find big sis and the others!"

"What hey!? Come on, let me go!" Vidaldus began as he struggled somewhat to get free.

There was a loud stomp as the guitar assassin noticed a large red talon stepping hard on the ground near his face that seemed to have dried blood on it. As the rocker assassin looked up, he noticed a rather angry looking wyvern that then roared right in front of his face.

The sheer intensity of the roar made the assassin faint. The three girls looked over towards the wyvern with varying levels of surprise.

Happy, climbing on top of Ignis' head, waved at the three. "Lucy! Ignis and I found you!" No sooner than he said that, there was sudden blur of yellow.

It took Lucy a second or two to process how Milliana seemed to move faster than Jet and Kain combined to grab on to Happy and start cuddling the creature and repeatedly calling it the cutest thing in existence.

Ignis tilted his head and seemed to wonder how the cat girl snatched the cat of his head without his notice, but Lucy ran up to the red wyvern. "Ignis, did you take care of the Manticores?" She asked this a second too early before she noticed how bloody the wyvern's sharp talons were.

"I helped!" Happy managed to scream out before Milliana continued her onslaught of cuddles.

Lucy practically ignored that and turned back to the red wyvern. "You gotta help us find Erza and the others!" If anyone could find the others among their group, Ignis did have senses as sharp as Natsu's.

The red wyvern seemed to tilt his head up before turning his back and saddle towards most of them.

Lucy smiled before motioning to everyone. "We gotta go!"

Sho could only watch as the battle continued between Ikaruga and Natsu. Their fight had gone on for a while and most of the board walk was now destroyed because of Natsu's reckless use of power. Instead, Ikaruga and the dragon slayer were now standing on whatever was left of the board walk like miniature platforms. The swordswoman seemed to be the only one not bothered by the change of their battle field.

Natsu was seen standing on an uneven board, gasping for breath with cuts along his skin and clothes. He was gasping for breath while Ikaruga was still as clean and untouched as she first introduced herself.

"You are indeed strong and tenacious, dragon slayer," Ikaruga explained. "However, it seems my style of fighting completely counters yours."

"I'm not done yet!" Natsu cried out as he activated his white flame mode and quickly tried to round house kick Ikaruga in the face.

The move was fast, but the graceful swordswoman brought up her sword in her sheath to block the attack. While the attack was evaded, she was knocked back quite some distance. Even through that Ikaruga showed no signs of being bothered by the hit. Natsu followed after her again, but this time the swordswoman did something different, she unsheathed her blade to early.

Natsu fired a flame fist right for where she was, but his punch phased through her, revealing it to be an after image. One second passed, and then Natsu felt pain back in his stomach as it seemed like Ikaruga had slammed the tip of her sheath into the dragon slayer's stomach and pinned him down to the ground.

The dragon slayer was about to get up, but then Ikaruga motioned her blade close to his neck.

"The reason why I haven't killed you this instant is that I would like to say some words about being an assassin." She began coldly before he eyes narrowed dangerously.

"People who kill for money are scum; or something along those lines? Those are the words of someone truly oblivious." She dug her scabbard harder into Natsu's stomach. "I despise those words you just said, not because they insulted me, but rather the one who saved me."

For the first time, Ikaruga's hands slightly trembled as Natsu noticed in both blade and scabbard. "Since you showed signs of not knowing the Cabria War, allow me to tell you the truth as someone who participated in it. It was never a war, it was a revolution. Cabria was a cesspool of corrupt politicians and martial law, no one could stand against the tyrants in a direct fight… but my former master sought a different path. That's right: assassination."

She continued on, her calm façade now fading as her eyes no longer had the look of a composed assassin… just a bitter and angry person who lost someone dear unfairly. "My master was slandered, called a villain, had propaganda against them at every turn, but they were the true hero of Cabria! So how dare you call the person who saved millions of people including my own a scumbag!" Ikaruga lifted up her scabbard and pressed launched it hard.

The impact caused the platform they were standing on to crack and break through, forcing them both on the water. It was a lot shallower than they thought, but not shallow enough for Natsu to pant for air while still being pinned down. Ikaruga was not letting him out of there though.

"I demand you apologize!" The assassin barked viciously.

Natsu glared back at her, but it seemed like he was gritting his teeth. As he tried to gasp back for air, he answered her.

"Fine, your master doesn't sound like that bad a person." That still didn't change his opinion on assassins though.

Ikagaruga raised her blade at him. "Now apologize to them in the afterlife."

She then sta—

"Captain!" A loud voice cried out, causing her, Natsu, and Sho to look up to see Fukuro carrying both Simon and Gray on his shoulders.

"Fukuro?" Ikaruga and the rest were all equal amounts of surprised. However, then a piece of the wall broke down as Ignis with most of the girls on his back flew in.

"Natsu!"
"Gray!?"
"Simon!" The girls cried out different names while Vidaldus cried out for captain.

Ikaruga looked at all three parties and once more focused back at Fukuro. The assassin with an owl head nodded his head once before Ikaruga sheathed her blade and let go of Natsu.

"It seems my members would like a word."

"I can honestly say that I never expected this outcome." Jellal Fernandes stated as he watched from his throne. "To think Fukuro would be the first to see through my lie. Granted he wasn't the last or first person I would expect. I did really hope that the two teams would defeat each other before the Trinity Raven could realize they were being tricked, but what plan does go exactly as prepared, right Erza?"

In the other side of the room, Erza, who looked more pissed than usual was slowly walking towards Jellal with a blade in hand.

The blue haired mage stood up. "Your friends are much too fast, Erza. Etherion has only just begun being fired."

"That means my friends can get out of here fast enough." Erza said as she took a stance. "However, it's going to be a different story between you and me."

Jellal held a dark orb in his—

The blue haired mage's instincts screamed at him to duck before the air just above him was cut. He backed off as fast, finding a smile on his face. "My! That was faster than usual? And you had not changed into your armor yet." He then noticed a dozen special marks on the weapon that looked very different from the design of the blade. He then moved his thumb to his chin in an impressed manner. "So those are the rumored weapon runes? I heard reports that those are spells that prevented you from being completely overwhelmed by Alexandra Raphael during the Phantom-Fairy war. If memory serves, Rune Enhancements had the special ability to increase or give one special attribute to a weapon. Let me guess, is that one speed?"

Erza said nothing before turning into her speed armor with the normal blade. In less than a flash, Erza unleashed around a dozen slashes within one second after closing the gap between them. However, Jellal's body seemed to turn into black energy as soon as he was cut and some of that darkness was floating around the blade with a rune enhancement.

The S-Class mage turned around to see Jellal with his palms out. Erza quickly threw away her runed blade before it exploded, creating a giant hole in the room.

"You'd destroy the very thing you worked so hard to complete? What's the point?" The swords woman asked before rushing up to him and trying to cut him down where he stood. Her speed was slower now so Jellal could easily avoid her slash while it broke apart the board game near his throne.

As her opponent landed, he gave a callous laugh. "Why should I care about a pillar or two? They're just decorations."

"Maybe so, but the only reason why they're there is because our friends spent the last years building them for you!"

Jellal gave a sad smile towards his former friend. "How is it that you seem to find fault with everything I say? Though in retrospect, it is only fair that you direct your hatred towards someone other than yourself." The mage's eye started to change as he snapped his fingers.

Erza panicked and looked down, unable to notice that there was some kind of strange dark traces of magic beneath her. As soon as the fingers snapped, the darkness below her swallowed up and overwhelmed her.

"Is that it? I was under the impression that you had grown stronger. I even had to delay my plans to bolster my strength against you and just in case for Team Valiant." Jellal started walking around the orb.

Erza in the mean time was struggling against the magic of the orb. But as she did, a voice from her mind called out to her. It was the voice of her friends. Soon, memories flooded in about all the kind and caring people she had met and she believed that she truly was going to miss each and every one of them.

Jellal stepped back as he saw the orb being cut from the inside several times. As soon as it exploded, he gave a soft chuckle as now both of his eyes were starting show some odd runic symbol. "There we go. It wouldn't be fun otherwise!"

Fairy Tail, Erza's old friends, and Trinity Raven had agreed to a ceasefire and to get out of the tower before things got worse. Simon woke up early, and after exchanging a few words with Fukuro, volunteered to stay behind and get Erza, Wally, and Kain. Against all arguments, Simon only allowed Natsu to come with him while the rest would get out on Ignis before it was too late.

Now, both Simon and Natsu were hurrying towards the bottom of the Tower of Hell.

The fire dragon slayer smelled something in the air and soon led the two to some strange area in the second to the last floor.

There was an elaborate door that Natsu kicked down. Inside, both he and Simon found Kain standing over a table filled with papers while Wally was on a couch.

"Wally!?" "Kain!" Simon and Natsu respectively cried out to the friend they were closer to. Wally was out cold, but leg-less. While Kain was holding on to a golden staff that looked familiar to Natsu.

"Natsu… and Simon?" The young brunette asked with levels of surprise before he noticed the worried look on Simon's face. "Wally is alive, just out cold." Kain briefly mentioned how they fought a horrible monster, but when he woke up, Erza was gone and Wally was legless and out cold.

"Erza was with you two?" Simon was quick to notice the young boy say that.

"Yeah, but she probably went to go against Jellal. I tried to go after her, but I stumbled on to this room. I think it's Jellal's quarters." Kain then looked back at what he was holding: it looked to be blue prints of some kind.

"You two need to get back out. I was told you had some level of super speed. Take Wally out of here before the Etherion blast—"

The young wyvern rider blurted out, "It's actually safer here in the tower than outside the blast radius." He stated with dead seriousness.

Both Natsu and Simon paused at the sudden declaration.

Kain looked at Simon's surprised face. "You really didn't know what you were building, did you?"

Simon seemed actually unsure with how the young man phrased that. "We built the R System, a device meant to resurrect the dead black wizard, Zeref."

The young man showed both Simon and Natsu the blue prints he was holding. Neither of them seemed to understand though, so the young man elaborated. "These blue prints only show the structure, never the amount of power needed to activate it. However, instead of that, this entire tower and the chains are made of a unique absorbing lacrima."

"What does that mean?" Natsu asked in confusion.

The lawyer looked back to Simon. "You didn't just build an R- System, you created a specialized lightning rod that isn't designed to take electricity—but an Etherion Blast."

The sheer weight of his words just hit them both as if they were blasted with Etherion itself. Jellal actually planned to get hit by Etherion from the start!? The Tower of Hell actually was desgined to do something that amazing!? … Though… those eerie chains inside this mountain… if they weren't there, this statement would have sounded more unbelievable.

Simon could only gape at what he said. "Y-You can't be serious!"

Kain was about to say more until they heard a very large magical hum that came from all around them.

No sooner than that, Etherion came down like god's furry on the mountain, with Ignis and everyone in the distance watching in horror as the space/time nuke covered the area where Natsu and the others still were.

{Author Notes}

I cannot even begin to tell you how hard it was to write this chapter. I don't know why, but it really, really was.

*Before I begin ranting, there's a small note I would like to make on the whole, Anthro, comment I made. As most fans of Fairy Tail know, there are certain people with animal like features in the Anime. None of them seem to be species, and no one really seems to mind them. Since there are walking, talking frogs, this story just addresses them as people that use special magic to grant them animal traits and such. I think it's like that mostly because Michello, or that old Magic Council man who was old, small, and a cat, had a granddaughter who looked super human. So I'm guessing their animal traits are just added for aesthetics and personal choice. Heck Fukuro has an owl for a head and no one seems to mind that. So, with how everyone in-universe seems to be not bothered by these animal traits in humans, I'm just going to assume that there is magic that allows people to gain certain animal features.

Now for my rant.

It was really hard to do certain things I wanted. Well, the easier part was to make Trinity Raven a bit OOC, just adding a twist to their personalities and characters. You know like giving them a back story? … I'm starting to remember why most of Fairy Tail's villains were so forgettable.

Anyway, I actually wanted Lucy to lose as well since I was told by Warmachine375 that Fairy Tail does have a nasty winning streak that I intend to completely ignore in favor of the story. But I thought about it and Lucy does actually lose a lot.

I mean remember that time in the anime when Lucy lost her potential to be something more than a fan service character?

*Air horns blare in the distance*

So I gave her one win where she wins by herself. (I also notice that a lot of her victories are almost always because she had someone else help her out. Huh.)

Anywho, thanks for reading this far. I do hope you're all enjoying the story.