The Muggle among Mages Chapter 23, a fairy tail fanfic

Etherion was a weapon designed to erase something not just physically, but also dimensionally. Comprised of many elemental magic, including temporal and spatial magic, there was a reason why such a weapon was to be used only in emergencies.

The idea of the Black Wizard Zeref reviving and terrorizing Ishgar once more counted for that emergency.

And so the Magic Council did fire the destructive weapon with the sole purpose of preventing that resurrection.

Unfortunately for them, they had no idea how much they just fell in to Jellal's plans… or how much damage they really did.

The Tower of Hell was now filled to the brim with crystals… no that was not right to say. The entire castle turned into a giant structure of nothing but lacrima that currently held energy of the Etherion Blast. It was filled to the brim with energy and every single corner of the tower was now filled or replaced with bright blue magic-absorbing crystals.

… Except in Jellal's room. Inside that area was a large golden sphere that slowly started to shrink into the shape of a shield held by a boy in red armor who was in front of three other men.

The red armored young man looked behind him, towards Natsu, Simon, and Wally who was being carried by Simon. "Are you guys alright?"

The dragon slayer and the rest nodded, before he looked back to his guild mate and pointed to the shield. "Hey, isn't that Horus' weapon?"

"Yeah, Erza must have left it with me for some reason. It's a good thing that the Omni Tool has its own magic to transform into any solid object. And it's also a good thing Erza let me try using it a few times in our practice sessions so I know how to use it." Kain made a mental note to remind himself to thank Erza—wait. AWW GOD DAMN IT!

How the hell did he forget about the reason why they were all still there?! "Erza! We need to get to her!"

Back in Era, the Magic Council was in panic. Not only did Etherion amazingly fail in annihilating their target, but it seemed like the Zeus Range seemed to be reacting as some mega sponge in absorbing the blast that had enough power to wipe out a kingdom off the map.

"What!? Since when can the Zeus Range do something like that!?" Some other people had varying levels of shock and horror at realization that not only was the R-System still there, but now it seemed to be powering up!

However, before anyone could move to organize everyone once more, the entire building was starting to collapse by the work of supposedly one of their own.

…

Just outside of the Magic Council building, a handsome man was watching, with the rest of the city, the magic council building start to collapse on itself as if it had suddenly started to rapidly accelerate in age.

Yet, unlike everyone watching in horror, this handsome man in a suit was casually drinking a soda in a foam cup and straw as he saw the long time building collapse.

As he did, he then turned into an alleyway and brought up a glowing, blue orb the size of a baseball. "Oshen, Fero, begin the operation. The Magic Council is incapacitated. You have six hours before they re-establish themselves, and 12 hours before the Custody Enforcement Units will resume border patrol duties."

"Roger, sir, Dagea and Bora will accompany us to the Principality of Veronica."

"Understood." Ryan turned off the device and hummed a tune while everyone around him whispered of horror and panic while watching The Magic Council crumble. A smile came across his face as a passing thought crossed his mind. "Hmmm I do believe that it's time I do some mountain climbing."

Natsu ran out so fast after hearing about Erza. Because of the sudden movement, Kain had no choice but to tell Simon to handle Wally while he went after the dragon slayer.

The two young men descended to the bottom of the tower, as they did they heard something that made them both run faster, the desperate cries of Erza.

When they arrived, the duo had spotted the red haired woman getting absorbed into one of the crystals. Natsu moved first and yanked her out. The move surprised the two who were there originally, which made it seem like neither her nor Jellal noticed the two coming their way.

"I got ya!" The pink haired dragon slayer told her after getting her out of the crystal. She was covered by some kind of curse that seemed to be restricting her movements. The fellow Fairy Tail mage set her down gently as Kain came up to them.

"Natsu… Kain…" The redhead weakly looked up to the two.

The dragon slayer gave a comforting and gentle smile down at his friend. "Geez, what are you doing hanging around with this loser? If we don't hurry and get back to work, Lucy's going to be mad at us about her not paying her rent! See Kain and I were planning to by one of those Lacrima Televisions for her room, and if she get's kicked out, we won't be able to watch movies there!"

"You told me that was for your house. Does Lucy even know you're thinking of making changes to her apartment?" The red rider looked over to Natsu accusingly.

Erza, while she was surprised, a piece of her did like how the familiar banter of her friends was calming her down somewhat. "I'm sorry, but I can't move."

"No way!" Natsu began before a devilish smile came across his face. Then he started to tickle her.

Kain, in plated armor, face palmed while he saw the childish action.

However, after a few seconds Erza turned back to a serious state. "Natsu, Kain, you both need to get out of here as fast as you can."

"I ain't leaving." The mage raised by a dragon firmly stated. "If you can't do the fighting yourself then I'll just have to do it for ya."

"You can't, he's too powerful." Erza began to warn them both about Jellal.

It was then that Kain spoke up. "Erza, this is Natsu we're talking about. That kind of talk makes him want to fight more when a strong opponent is involved."

Natsu threw a thumb at his friend. "See? And that's why you're our lawyer: you've got this logic thing down to like an art or something."

"Logic and I have this relationship where I expect one thing and then he drops me off in a completely alien universe with no way back home, leaving me to deal with bugger all." And there it was: Kain's natural sarcasm.

"I'm serious, you two, you don't even know him." The S-class mage tried to argue.

The lawyer of Fairy Tail was quick on the uptake. "I seem to recall that fact not stopping anyone when it came to Lullaby, The Isle of the Dead, and Phantom Lord."

However, even Kain's sarcasm met his match when Erza started to tear up in one of her eyes. "Please, just this once: do what I ask of you." It didn't take much to realize that she was mostly asking Natsu off that.

Both Kain and Natsu were silent. The dragon slayer started to pick her up and grunted as he did so.

Erza was confused about this action until Natsu started speaking again. "Honestly, I don't think I know you as well as I should, but I can still!" The dragon mage then punched Erza hard in the stomach, surprising both Kain and Jellal, the latter who was still watching the three talk. "Take you down!"

"Natsu!?" Kain cried out as he walked closer to the two. To his surprise, the dragon slayer was already trying to hand Erza over to him. "I can tell that you don't like seeing Erza like that, but was punching her in the gut really necessary!?" The spatially displaced young man complained as he gently tried to carry Erza.

The pink haired young man gave a sad smile. "Sorry. Can I ask you to take care of her for me? You should also get back to Simon and the others."

"Now this is where I stop this little show."

Kain looked towards Jellal while Natsu seemed to refuse to turn around, still looking over to Erza being supported up by their wyvern rider.

"As fun as it was watching you all prattle on, I can't let you leave with Erza. She's still an important part at resurrecting Zeref."

Kain flinched at the words of the Siegran look-alike. Even though he couldn't sense magic at all, he could feel the air similar to when Makarov and Jose were fighting, and those two were practically the closest things he could imagine as super saiyans!

"Oh go jump off into the void!" Natsu calmly insulted, which was different from the usual hot-tempered reactions the fire mage would usually show. "Erza was crying."

After he said those three words, he gripped his fist so tight that it started to tremble while his flames lit up and were very slowly gaining temperature and ferocity. "She looked so weak and fragile. Her voice was trembling with fear. I don't want to see Erza like that. I've always looked up to her as a strong warrior. And when she wakes up from this nightmare, I want her to feel like her old self again." He then turned, his eyes snapped open with ferocity like that of an angered dragon—and Natsu was far scarier than that at this point. "If you wanna get to her, you'll have to go through me!"

Jellal only smiled and lifted a hand up. "Is that a challenge? Consider my interest piqued. I'm actually curious about the ability of a Dragon Slayer." However, just as easily, he moved his hand down and his smile faded. "However, I can't neglect the lesser Wyvern Rider who has the potential to escape."

It seemed like Jellal opened up his own Re-equip space and pulled something out, revealing some kind of hoop that was styled as a black snake with a brown belly biting his own tail.

The blue haired wizard saint narrowed his eyes towards the boy in plated red armor. "I've been studying Team Valiant for months by your reports. That armor of yours has a high magical resistance, but it seems like it can't affect the magic inside magical items."

Fairy Tail's lawyer thought back to those words, he did remember being able to use his magical gadgets with great ease despite his armor supposedly having the power to weaken and disrupt conventional magic. It didn't occur to him that he was still vulnerable to item type magic!

Jellal, who was now cackling madly, then threw the ring above them, "Go, Snake Cage! "

The ring itself, which now separated into many pieces, shot past in all directions. The pieces that flew enlarged and blocked all windows and entrances. They also turned into large snake statues that watched the inside of the ring. Behind them, a large barrier surrounded the floor, encasing all around the sides of Fairy Tail and their captor.

"This is one of the lesser weapons the Magic Council confiscated. This artifact came from a Cobraum criminal around two hundred years ago. It's called the Snake Cage. I found that it was most helpful in preventing anyone in the ring from escaping until one side's defeat." The blue haired madman briefly explained.

"Like I care!" Natsu was far from a state of friendly conversation right now as he positioned himself in a fighting position. "Get ready for the beat down of your life, punk!"

And with that, the dragon slayer was off fighting with ferocity that Kain had never seen Natsu pull off before.

…

However, despite his best efforts, all he was capable of doing was running Jellal's coat.

Said coat was thrown off after a fierce assault from Natsu which would have knocked out any normal person out cold for months, but seemed to do no damage to his intended opponent. "Was that it? I was under the impression that Dragons, along with Elves, where the first two species of Earthland and that both races were considered closest to the gods! … And then here you are with a pitiful display of power."

That was more than enough to provoke Natsu on to attack harder. However, Jellal now used a special spell of his own that was different from dark magic, something called Meteor that made him move faster than one expected to. Seeing the increased speed, Natsu tried to match it with his own White Flame mode. However, it seemed like Jellal was still faster than the boosted dragon slayer could match.

Despite Natsu's best attempts, the twisted wizard saint soundly beat up the dragon mage with lightning fast punches and speed that was too much for him. The blue haired mage then fired one of his most powerful spells at his weakened and dizzy opponent, "Seven Star Sword: Grand Chariot!"

Natsu looked back up as the attack went right for him—

There was a powerful explosion as the floor gave way, letting whatever was there fall into the void. It seemed like the Snake Cage didn't cover below them after all.

The dragon slayer found himself relatively fine and bamboozled at why he was fine until he looked back up to see Kain had intervened and swooped in.

"I guess it was too much to hope that he wasn't as strong as his brother." The red rider said as he formed the Omni Tool to that of a shield as he raised it and a copy of a red blade in his hands. It appears he wasn't there when he revealed that the 'twin brother' of Jellal never existed in the first place.

"Kain!" Natsu looked over to where the young man was originally to see Erza gently placed on the ground. "Hey, this is my fight! Stay out of it!"

However, it seemed like that it wasn't the time for one on one battles as something else caught the rider's attention.

"I had honestly forgotten you were there for a second." Jellal floated down as he looked towards the armored boy in red. "Since the Dragon Slayer was a letdown, how about you, Wyvern Rider? Even if you are a complete amateur, an old weapon from before the chronicle of history sounds just as interesting."

Kain remained in a fighting stance while in front of Natsu who was starting to get back up. Kain knew whatever chance he had at winning was slim, if there was any at all, but as he figured out some time ago, direct fights were never in his favor. "You know… a thought occurred to me just now after seeing that hole you made on the floor."

Jellal and Natsu were caught off guard by the strange declaration the spatially displaced boy made. "I found your room, Jellal, and I have to say you blue prints were really well thought out…" It was then that Kain tilted his helm upward, looking at the ceiling, "…except for one thing."

If one knew the lawyer well enough, they could feel him smirk smugly behind his visor when he said this next line, "There are no fail safes in case of a tower collapse."

Natsu pretty much blinked before noticing that Jellal's smug face was now replaced with one of horror and hatred. Why though?

"In other words, Natsu, he spent so much time building this place, he was never expecting it to be destroyed so quickly after its completion." It was then that Kain suddenly moved and fired a sword beam. Not at Jellal, but at the roof!

The slash quickly cut through upward, hitting like several floors up and causing an explosion. This made the ground they were on to tremble somewhat. However, as it did, Natsu felt a significant drop of magical energy from above.

Afterward, Kain spun his blade for it to lean on his shoulder as he stood back up. "So excuse me, if I steal your thing and end up breaking a building for the first time!"

Jellal looked furious as he saw the gaping hole in the roof and several roofs above. He then glared back at Kain with all the intensity of the wrathful spirit. "You dare!? I've spent years dreaming of this day, and I'm not letting two fools get in my w—!"

"Natsu, I'm only going to say this once! Let's bring down the tower!" The red rider ignored Jellal and fired again up above, breaking more walls and floors up above.

The fire dragon slayer smiled and then started launching his own spells upward and then punched the ground—

"Wait, Natsu! We're in the bottom floor—there is literally nothing beneath us!" After Kain said this, he was tackled into the ground by Jellal and was forced to drop both of his weapons in surprise. The blue haired psycho had his fist raised with blinding light.

"Now there's an excellent idea! Even I don't know if there's a bottom to this damn hollow mountain or not!" As he screamed this, the light of his fist suddenly expanded into the size of a disco ball.

"No, Kain!" Natsu cried out as he tried to stop Jellal.

However, the blue haired madman then punched Kain with every ounce of his strength. Not only did the attack hurt, but it was enough to send the red knight through the floor and start falling into the abyss.

"Kain!" The Fairy Tail mage cried out desperately as he saw his friend fall. All he could do was watch in stupefied horror as the spark of red became smaller and smaller too quickly… and was swallowed by darkness.

"K…Kain?" Natsu's sensitive hearing heard Erza's voice. Did she just wake up to witness Jellal getting rid of their friend?

"I can't believe it was that easy!" One could almost hear a blood vessel pop in Natsu's brain as he turned his head right towards a laughing Jellal. "That idiot was a bigger thorn in my side than I imagined, but that was all it took to get rid of him?! God I hate that piece of shit! I should have done that in the beginning!"

The dragon slayer found something wet on the back of his hands—they were tears. He also was starting to feel tired from his fight with Ikaruga and Jellal, but that feeling was getting replaced with another emotion rising higher than it did ever before his life. It was an emotion so strong that it wasn't even needed to be thought or explained, as if it ever did before.

The ground beneath Natsu started cracking as his hands curled up, cracking the floor beneath him. Jellal stopped his frustrated screams to look at Natsu who was taking chunks of the crystal… and eating it?

Erza cried out, telling Natsu that Etherion had more elements in it besides that of fire and that it was dangerous of him to do something like that. But it seemed like Natsu didn't even care at that point since he swallowed it whole.

That was when a sudden burst of magic exploded out of the Dragon Slayer. The power was so intense that it looked like Natsu's skin was now turning into scales and he had a presence like that of a real dragon like Gajeel during his battle with Kain... it seemed like Natsu had summoned his Dragon Force mode.

"What!?" Jellal screamed in surprise as he braced himself from the wind.

"JELLAL YOU FUCKING BASTARD!" At this point, Natsu wasn't like a dragon any more, but more like a force of nature as he instantly closed the distance between him and the twisted wizard saint and decked him hard in the face.

Jellal was taken aback by the sudden burst of strength shown by his previously near defeated and weak opponent. Where did this burst of power come from?

"Meteor!" He flipped mid air and regained his amazing speed and tried to zip back—how was Natsu already in front of him!?

"YOU'LL PAY!" Even words like wrath were too weak to describe this look of berserk rage of Natsu at the loss of a dear friend. He then punched the blue haired mad man with power enough for him to slam into one of the snake statues blocking his escape from the room.

Jellal was surprised that he actually hit one of the Snake Statues, but thankfully, the magical artifact did have another use. "Snake Gate! Cobra Shield!"

All the statues suddenly converged on the one Jellal was standing in front of. As Natsu came in, the statues formed a line behind Jellal and started to glow. When they did, a green, scaly barrier was erected that Natsu unleashed his attack on.

The barrier braced the attack, but Jellal could feel the shield trembling from that one blow.

"THIS WON'T STOP ME!" If possible, Natsu's fists exploded with more fire that started to turn white. He then started punching the force field with a flurry of punches with enough power to create a shockwave with each hit.

Despite how powerful the artifact was, it couldn't keep up with the power of a dragon as with each punch, the statues behind Jellal were starting to crack.

"Impossible!" The blue haired man stated as he watched more and more of the statues crack and even fail, causing the barrier to start to crack as well.

Forced to take a different approach, Jellal dropped the barrier and used Meteor to get away from Natsu by flying up the hole in the roof Kain had made. Natsu, pissed off like never before, ran after him breaking practically anything in his way to get to Jellal.

The blue haired wizard saint saw all the destruction and gritted his teeth. He landed in one of the lower floors and shouted over to Natsu. "Damn you! I did not come all this way to have my work destroyed and to be beaten by you!"

Natsu couldn't care less at for the monster in front of him. He hurt Erza—he killed Kain! He was going to make him feel pain like never before!

But… why was his smug smirk back?

Jellal placed a hand into his Re-euip space and smiled darkly. "I really should have used this sooner if I knew you were going to be troublesome, Natsu Dragneel."

And then, Jellal pulled out this strange scimitar that looked to be made of wood that had several spikes on its flat side. It was bizarre in the sense that within this odd wooden blade, there were cracks. Inside those cracks were not empty holes, but this strange glowing green energy that felt alive.

However, strangest of all was that Natsu's dragonic rage… it instantly died at the presence of the blade and he felt his body shiver despite being surrounded in powerful flames.

Jellal laughed darkly as he swung the wooden scimitar around. "Well that just proves this is the real deal! Guess what this is, Dragneel!?" He only pushed the blade forward, and Natsu could feel his body making him move back despite his emotions commanding him to deck him hard in the face until it could no longer be recognizable.

"W…What the hell is that thing!?" Natsu screamed in frustration. It was like his damn body was afraid of a stupid wooden object!

"This… this is an elvish weapon!" Jellal raised the blade high. The word he emphasized made Natsu look on in shock, yet that didn't stop Jellal from explaining what it meant. "Elves were considered the equal to Dragons, and even waged war with them for millennium! So of course, Elves created weapons specifically designed to kill dragons… like this one!"

A weapon designed to specifically kill a dragon? "You're lying!" Natsu cried out even though his body was sweating nervously against his wishes. "A stick is supposed to scare me!?"

Jellal was not at all fooled by Natsu's act. "It's made out the material of the oldest tree in Earthland that only Elves knew where to get. It's also laced with a magic so pure that it far surpasses even the entirety of lost spells before the Gathering War. Most traces of Elves were utterly destroyed by dragons, but this little beauty was kept deep within the vault of the Magic Council—even I could not believe what they kept in that damn place," He looked off in the distance, seemingly pointing towards the direction of the Magic Council. However, his look of interest stopped as he glanced back darkly at Natsu. "So it took quite a lot to sneak this toy out of its shelf."

Jellal smirked as he pointed the blade towards Natsu, "I will enjoy seeing how a true dragon slaying weapon works."

"That's not going to stop me from hurting you, you fucking bastard!" Natsu seemed to calm down somewhat over his body and launched himself right for his opponent.

Jellal used Meteor and then tried to slash Natsu with the strange blade. The dragon slayer felt his own body move back away a large distance away that was more than necessary from the weapon, which was really starting to get on his nerves.

Mad laughter filled the air as Jellal was back on the offensive, swinging the blade wildly as he tried to strike Natsu.

There was one point where the blade made a small scratch on Natsu's arm as he tried to back off.

When he did, Natsu's magical power instantly vanished and he fell to his knees screaming in pain and holding that little scratch as if he had lost his left arm. Jellal could only stare as cracks of green started to shoot out of the small scratch and spread through the Dragon Slayer's arm. All the while as it grew, Natsu's screams were loud and painful as he trashed around the floor like a child in a tantrum. His pupils shrunk as his mind felt pain so horrible, but for some reason it was not even letting him even a sign of fainting to shut down the messages his brain was sending.

It was an existence of pain he had never felt before.

Along with Natsu's screams of agony, Jellal's laughter of madness was mixed in as he looked at the elvish scimitar. "That was just a scratch! The elves truly did create anti-dragon weapons! It's a wonder why they were defeated at all if that was all it took to kill a dragon."

It was then that Jellal's smile faded as it seemed like the green veins appearing on Natsu's arm started fading and his screams became calmer until he just gasped for breath weakly on the ground.

"Now then," Natsu coughed as he felt Jellal's foot stomping on his neck. He tried to move his body, but to his surprise, all the magic he had used was suddenly gone. Not only did it inflict great pain, but was an elvish weapon capable of nullifying dragon magic? Jellal continued to speak. "About you breaking my tower? I do believe I want something in return for causing such trouble."

"Go…t… hell!" The dragon slayer weakly coughed.

Jellal closed one of his eyes and wagged his finger as if he was talking to a child. "A bit redundant considering where we are, but I was focusing more on the fact that I want you to suffer for what you did," He glanced over towards the elvish blade and smiled. "I really should have used this thing sooner. It's just far more effective than even I imagined."

Jellal then made the blade near Natsu's forehead and made a scratch.

Screams of horrible pain could be heard throughout the tower. He wasn't a sadist, but damn did that not sound like the greatest of music coming to Jellal's ears.

The mad wizard saint practically felt like it was Christmas all over again as Natsu seemed to writhe in pain at the smallest of scratches from the blade. With a horrifying smile, Jellal went back in to make another scratch.

However, a fist made of darkness punched him in the cheek and caused him to fly a bit after he made another small scratch on Natsu.

The Wizard Saint looked back up and his eyes sharpened at who appeared. "You people are like cockroaches!" He then got up and swung his blade. "I get rid of one, and more of you pop up!"

"Jellal, this madness must stop!" Simon declared as he stood in front of his former friend between him and the weakened Natsu.

"You're right," Jellal started to glow with magic. "This does have to stop." Obviously activating Meteor again, Jellal started speeding around Simon and Natsu, he started making cuts on the Dragon Slayer, causing Natsu to cry out in pain again while Simon received a proper beating with kicks and the flat side of the elven blade. After just one round, Simon was back coughing on the ground and on his knees.

"You'll have to forgive me, Simon, it seems torturing Natsu there must have awakened some inner sadism I didn't know I had, so I beat you up instead of killing you outright." Jellal walked up and grabbed the head of Simon and lifted his face up while his other hand held the elf blade near his last good eye. "I had a feeling that you were loyal to Erza from the start. After all, you had feelings for her as much as I did. It's just too bad that you're going to lose another eye because you fought for her again."

The gleeful wizard saint raised his blade, but as he did there was some kind of sound that seemed to reverberate through the tower. It almost sounded like a sonicBOOM!

Simon could only stare after falling on his butt as something shoot out from the hole in the floor and decked Jellal with enough force to shoot him with enough force to send him flying out of the tower!

As the dust settled, the mage with a metal jaw could not believe what he was seeing with his remaining eye.

The young man opened his eyes as he started to fall and heard the sound of Natsu's desperate cries becoming softer. Kain looked back down, only to see and endless black.

Kain tried anything to get back up, but the Omni Tool was dropped back in the tower so that option was a no. "Oh shit. What I would give to have the power of flight right about now."

*Do you wish it, sire?*

There was a voice… Kain heard a voice speaking to him! The falling young man looked around, but no sign of anyone! Yet… the strangest thing was that he felt like he heard that voice before.

Instead of questioning it, his subconscious practically labeling it as weird magic stuff, the young boy asked. "I would rather not fall to my death or fall forever!"

*You are The Herald of Flesh. Will yourself wings, and wings you shall be given.*

Herald of the what? The brunette was hearing bullshit… but a piece of him believed it?

It was his armor. There was some kind of untapped power in it. If he wanted to live, he was going to have to tap more into it somehow. Think! How did the blades happen first? Wait, his mind was flashing thoughts of swords before he was able to summon them by will… if that was the trigger the first time….

Kain thought of every time he saw Ignis' wings, trying to somehow ignite flight of some kind. However, no matter how much he tried, nothing was happening and he was still falling.

That did not work.

Okay he was getting really, really pissed. His friends were getting slaughtered up there and here he was falling to his doom! There had to be some way to access that power! Think again! What caused him to activate the ability to summon blades?! What instinctual thing did he do to activate those abilities?!

He needed to fly damn it! God, was he really this useless even with an armor that was supposed to be powerful!?

No—calm down. Calm down, self deprecation will not solve problems at this time. Damn it though! How could he fly like Ignis? Or maybe even Igne…

{It was one of my absolute favorite things growing up with him, ridding on his back.}

…

Herald… Flesh…

Flesh?

Did that mean he had to feel the ability to fly? When he was fighting Gajeel, he didn't just see memories of the swords, he had felt them. He felt their handle, their weight, their movement… and when he was a child, after watching super powered people shoot beam blades from their magical blades… didn't he always pretend firing those when he was a kid, beating up the baddie and saving the day?

Kain breathe in and breathed out.

He had no idea how to fly, but he let his friends do it for him.

{ Every time I got on his back, I could feel his great warmth beneath me, his large heart pounding with great power, how the wind around us felt like it was lifting him further and further into the sky… and when he decided to start diving!}

Instead of just falling anymore, Kain started to dive. He let the wind flow past him as his speed built up, more and more. The speed, the rush… the adrenaline!

Then the flashes of Ignis suddenly unfolding his wingspan came into the mind of the diving man, and with an instant—

The speed going down went going up.

Kain opened his eyes and found himself—flying! By god, he was actually flying! And… his cape! His cape formed into two wyvern wings! He could almost feel them as they flapped like they would on Ignis.

He could fly! He could fly! … There was a probably a joke in there somewhere, but he'll regret not taking it later!

And then the spatially displaced boy smiled a smile that would make even the Grinch feel uncomfortable.

He was about to show a certain blue haired man what his idea of hell was.

Speed was built as Kain flew further and further back up. As he did, the sight of the tower came back to him… as well of the sounds of a familiar person crying out in pain.

He was flying fast but not fast enough.

Working with trying to feel, he felt all the times he used super speed, all the times he used strength… and combined it with his flight.

He focused everything on heading towards that sound and then his armor just blasted off.

The result was Kain momentarily becoming one of his favorite comic book characters and punching Jellal with a force of something beyond a locomotive while going faster than a speeding bullet.

The red rider turned towards Simon, who was in a bad state and in obvious shock at seeing the armored boy now flying in front of him. "You alright?"

Simon continued staring before he calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief before he pointed over to Natsu. "I'm better than him."

At the point, the boy from another dimension quickly turned to look behind Simon. "Natsu!" Kain cried out as he landed near him, his wings turning into his cape as he did. The displaced boy tried to help him up gently. "What the hell happened to you!?"

"K…Kain?" Natsu weakly gasped. "Y…You're alive?"

Kain depowered his armor for a moment, showing that it was really him. He looked worried, but he also tried to smile. "Yeah, I ended up unlocking a new power of the armor: flight. … While I am grateful as hell, I really wished I didn't have to be near death experience to gain new powers every damn time."

Natsu gave a weak smile at the complaint. It really was him. "Think maybe your armor has the power to heal? That asshole had a weapon that just fucking hurt like never before."

"I can see that. God, it's like he damaged your blood veins or something."

"It was an elvish blade." Kain looked back at Simon trying to get back up, but holding his chest in obvious pain that had this really ugly bruise on it he didn't see before. "I had no idea that Jellal actually stole confiscated weapons from the Magic Council and brought them here. The weapon wreaked havoc on Natsu here with just a few scratches. If there was even one direct wound…"

Natsu might have died.

Kain stood back up and powered up his armor. "Simon, take Natsu, get Wally again, go back to the last floor, and pick up Erza and the weapon I borrowed from her. I'll take on Jellal."

"Wait… you can't…" Even though he was practically unable to move on the floor right now, Natsu still tried to argue, even while Simon got back up and made some effort to pick up the downed dragon slayer. "Fighting… isn't your…"

The boy was painfully aware that Jellal had far better fighting experience over him. "I know. But out of everyone here, I have the best chance at distracting him. He needs Erza and the tower to win. And I intend to prevent that."

*Now, Herald, you must do me a favor. This time you will not hear my voice, but you shall be persuaded none-the-less. Say…*

"But I have one last plan." The boy holding an ancient artifact blurted out. It was odd, ideas usually came to him, but this one felt weird to him. Still, it was a really good plan.

The word plan made Natsu seemingly relax a little. "Kick his ass for me, won't you?"

Kain gave a thumbs-up to his weakened friend. "You did that for me with Erigor. I'll dedicate this one for you and Erza."

Everyone except Wally heard the sound of a mad scream… more than likely it was Jellal regaining himself from Kain's uppercut.

"Goddamit. I put a lot into that punch and he's still conscious?" Kain looked back and this time lifted Natsu up and handed him over to the large man with a metal jaw. "Get down stairs. I'll hold him off for as long as possible."

"Good luck, Kain."

"Thanks, I'll really be needing it." The young man nodded as his cape split and formed two wyvern shaped wings. With one mighty flap, he flew up and out of one of the holes and started flying up.

It was easy for Kain to spot Jellal. He was a bright yellow light in the darkness, funny enough that he had some light based magic. He spotted the light coming closer to him before stopping and glaring at the red rider with all the intensity of a vengeful spirit.

"I thought I killed you!" The mad man yelled with a look that was beyond livid right now.

Gripping his fist, Kain battled this horrible fear creeping up his back the only way he knew how, "Oh sorry, I didn't get the memo."

The boy from another world instantly noticed the scimitar his opponent was wielding. Before he was even ready, he found himself getting a closer look at it when Jellal came speeding right for him.

Alas, the blue haired mage's hopes were dashed when the red boy avoided the initial attack and dove right for one of the chains. When he landed on it, there was a vibrant red color coming from the chains but that was mostly ignored as Kain suddenly ran away from the tower.

Jellal, who currently had the emotional state of a volcano about to blow, flew after the red rider.

Kain could hear the Wizard Saint coming after him but this was where he would begin his plan. Here's to hoping it would work.

"That's right! Keep running! You're weak anyway!" Jellal cried out as he fired bolts of his magic at the red rider, Kain avoided each attack as they exploded behind him.

The rider made his wings summoned again and quickly flew to another chain. Jellal only followed suit, this time, attempting to use his power to land a heavy punch on the zippy person. "You don't even belong with Fairy Tail! You're just some punk who got lucky with an ancient weapon!"

It would be a lie to say that Kain didn't feel anything from those taunts. He kept trying to remember that powers or not, he was still friends with those guys. And they really did enjoy his company.

Jellal must have seen that bit where Kain admitted his flaws through one of his remaining cameras in the tower. It was stupidly annoying how much the boy from another dimension had to reveal to someone he hated.

Kain jumped again, moving from chain to chain as Jellal's attacks kept piling on and on.

"When I kill you, I'm going to kill Natsu and Erza and say how you did nothing to help them! How you were completely useless!"

The young boy gritted his teeth and tried to focus. He only hoped Simon had left with the others by now. If not, he would need just a little more time. Kain ran, flew, and ran, avoiding blasts and ignoring taunts from his enemy and running across everywhere that wasn't the tower.

However, Jellal was getting utterly tired of this game of cat and mouse and started gathering energy with a light that sucked in shadows rather than move them away. The brunette saw this and started to panic as this spell felt far deadlier than the one he tried to use to finish off Natsu in the beginning of their fight.

*They are gone. You are unburdened. Hurry up with the plan!*

Kain heard that strange voice again. There was something bizarre about how its tone was different from before, but he ignored it and saw his chance as he sped as fast as he could towards the very top of the Tower of Hell. Jellal saw this and noticed that and quickly went above him in case he tried to get back inside the mountain path.

"Oh no you don't! You're not escaping after all of this!" The wizard saint declared as a large amount of magic started pouring out. Anti-magical armor or not, the physical blow of this attack would surely knock the boy out of his armor and kill him.

However, Kain stood tall and drew his blade. "Jellal," He began. "Is there any chance that you can stop all this?"

"What? Is this some kind of trick you're planning? Distracting me for something?" The Wizard Saint smirked. He tried to sense around for any surprise attack by one of his allies, but he could sense no trace of opposing magic coming his way.

The red knight shook his head slowly. "It's not a distraction… it's just… when Erza was talking about you, I got the feeling that you were once a good person." He looked up towards the man who had put him and his friends through a horrible time and said with a voice that seemed filled with anticipation, "I'm asking if there's still one part of you that still cares for others."

That statement made Jellal pause for a second. However, he soon started to laugh again as if he had heard a stupid joke that was more stupid than funny. "That person was weak! And he didn't understand what the true glory of Zeref truly is!"

"And what is that glory exactly? To treat everyone the same exact way your enslavers treated you?"

There was a brief scorn that spread across the face of Jellal after Kain said that. "You really know how to get under people's skin, don't you?"

"I'm a lawyer, sometimes attacking people is what I have to do to win cases, even if it is practically a lie and is distasteful." He pointed a finger towards the man charging a spell at him. "But sometimes, when the threat of punishment comes, I can see how scared people really are… how afraid they are. How human they are."

"Human? Humans only serve as vessels of ignorance and hatred." Jellal darkly spat. "When Lord Zeref returns, he will purge this world with hellfire that they deserve."

Kain tilted his helm upward with a more confident movement. "What they deserve and what they need are two very different things, Jellal. Think back, before you met Zeref, what did you really want?"

That question… took Jellal by surprise. His memories, some were a little groggy, but he heard the sound of a voice he had long forgotten say,

{I want to be free! I want us all to get out of here!... And I don't want to see Erza cry anymore…}

Jellal removed one hand from his spell and put a hand near his marked eye. Why was his head throbbing now of all times!?

"Your…Your mind games have gone long enough!" The powerful wizard cried out angrily, even though a small part of his voice almost sounded… scared and regretful.

For a second, Kain's stance relaxed. Even though he was wearing a helmet that was covering his face, Jellal could still feel it soften.

"It's over, Jellal. You can stop now." The boy said softly but with firmness.

"Oh what!? Like someone as weak, powerless, and as useless as you stands a chance against me?!"

"I wasn't aiming for you."

"What the hell do you," As the wizard saint said this, he started to hear a large cracking noise echoing around them.

Wait…

Jellal's eyes slowly widened as he noticed something: all of the giant lacrima chains surrounding the tower had this large cracks on them. Some were still growing as seconds passed. It was then that he started to recall that Kain was running everywhere before he finally stopped and he remembered that all the time he was running, the brunette never went near the tower.

It was then that the magic-less Kain said, "I was aiming for the tower, or more specifically all the chains that helped suspend it in the air."

Jellal looked back to see the red knight already raising his fist and gripping it tightly. The boy was about to punch the tower so hard that the chains would no longer be able to support it and it would fall into the darkness below.

"NOOOOO!" The Wizard saint cried desperately and launched the attack to stop him.

But it was too late.

"I'm sorry." Kain was actually faking it out. He only had the strength of a wyvern, as powerful as that was, he couldn't punch a whole tower down into the abyss.

But a Wizard Saint like Jellal had more than enough power to do that for him.

Kain quickly activated his wings and sped out of the blast as it exploded on the top of the tower. The explosion was the straw that broke the camel's back, or in this case, the last powerful blow needed to break all the chains from all the strain they received from Jellal's reckless attacks.

*At last! We can begin!*

Kain tried to capitalize on the distracted Jellal and was going to unleash another powerful burst of speed and power to punch him back into the mountain. However, something happened that he did not expect in his plan.

The tower was floating.

The chains fell, their color started to fade, but the Tower of Hell was now floating mid air while all of its chains were now separated.

Now Kain could only look in shock at that before both he and Jellal heard a powerful humming noise as the tower started to glow with a blinding light that could even light up this dark void.

"Wh-What't going on!?" Kain asked as he shielded his light.

Instead of a quick answer, he heard the sound of maniacal laughter from Jellal. "I don't know how! But the resurrection has begun even without a sacrifice! Lord Zeref shall be reborn!"

Even though he didn't use it often, Kain had found out the word, 'Fuck' really couldn't encompass how much this situation has escalated beyond his understanding.

The tower then did something that made even Jellal stop his laughter as giant, white wings with red accents shot out of the glowing tower. Deafening cracking noises along with actual cracks on the tower showed that something giant was moving within the tower—or rather that the Tower of Hell was transforming into something.

It spoke volumes at how even the darkness around them seemed to be quaking under the pressure of sheer power that was starting to form.

As the cracks started to grow and as the light started to shine brightly, the entire tower burst open, causing both Jellal and Kain to avoid getting hit by the remaining crystals. The light faded, and the two turned towards where the Tower of Hell should have been.

Kain didn't realize that he swallowed his spit because of what he had seen. "I-I heard so much about Zeref, but I didn't know he was a dragon."

Right in front of him and Jellal was a gorgeous but obviously deadly dragon that was larger than even Atlas Flame in size. It was white all over with wings that almost looked like many spikes pieced together than actual wings and he had red runic markings all over his body that seemed like painted brush strokes.

It was unmistakable to the two that in front of them was a dragon from the early days of Earthland. However, it was just as unmistakable as Jellal's next response.

"Zeref isn't a dragon."

Kain really wished that his twisted opponent was still telling bad jokes as he glanced over to him. However, Jellal was sporting the same horrified, baffled, and utterly awed face that the wyvern rider had. That expression told the lawyer far too much about this situation: not a single one of them good.

"Then who the hell did you revive!?" Unfortunately, it seemed like even Jellal had the same exact question on his mind.

However, both men seemed to forget about their conversation when the reborn dragon roared.

"ΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦΦ!"

All throughout the Zeus Range, everyone heard the sound of something inhuman echoing and rumbling the mountains. It even attracted the attention of a certain someone in Sun Village.

In the air, which was clear because of Etherion stopping the constant thunderstorms, Ignis suddenly stopped flying after he, and everyone else heard the roar. "What was that?" The celestial mage and the others looked back towards the mountain.

Gray would have made Ignis flown back if the wyvern didn't suddenly do it himself.

Just outside the cave entrance, four people looked over towards the entrance, after just hearing that inhuman sound.

"Kain?"

After the white dragon roared, it slowly turned its head towards Jellal and Kain.

His eyes glowed red and he opened his mouth—then it was like a black hole was trying to suck the two in. The armor of the displaced boy started to glow, and Kain found it infinitely easier to move out of the way of the vacuum of the dragon that was trying to eat them. However, he looked over toward Jellal who seemed to be screaming in pain. It was then that his magic stopped, and Kain noticed something coming out of Jellal's body! It-It almost looked like another Jellal, but his body was more see through, and as this phantom Jellal was being sucked by the dragon, the physical body looked lifeless and limp.

It was at that moment that Kain remembered something from what he heard from Atlas Flame: A Soul Dragon.

Kain didn't know how, why, or what, but he found himself racing back towards Jellal and rescuing his body, and by proxy, interrupting the magic trying to devour his soul.

Jellal's phantom quickly shot back into his body with a gasp of breath that sounded like a new born breathing in for the very first time. "W-What was that!?" He then looked to Kain in surprise. "Did you… save me?"

The displaced boy was also surprised that he did that as well. The man was a madman, yet…

{The powerful wizard cried out angrily, even though a small part of his voice almost sounded… scared and regretful.}

Kain said nothing to the question.

"You," A voice of utter power echoed through the void. Kain and Jellal looked back at the floating dragon with its glowing blood-colored eyes staring right at them. "red one, I'm surprised you were immune to my magic."

Kain let go of Jellal as he started to fly again.

"No matter," The dragon spread his wings further as a devlish smile appeared on his face. "I suppose I must thank you both for my second chance in life. As such, you shall both be devoured by me, Logos the Soul Dragon!"

Kain instantly recalled the name. That was the name of the dragon that betrayed Igneel according to Atlas. The lawyer remembered that Logos had died… but the R-system… it resurrected him!?

Unfortunately for the boy, the dragon then started inhaling a massive amount of energy.

"MOVE!" Kain didn't just shout that, the two fliers practically forgot everything except that one word before—

"ṤṒṲḼ ḜṚḀṢḔṜ!"

Everyone from outside panicked when they saw something around the same level of Etherion shoot out from inside the mountain.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the planet… there was a man wearing a cloak who simply sat in a cave brooding and waiting…

Then, he looked up. In the first time in centuries, his emotions of surprise and confusion came up as a word escaped Acnologia's lips,

"Rabbi?"

Of all the things he thought about in his life, Kain Obadiah Reynolds was starting to think eternal damnation in hell was actually tamer than what he was currently going through, which was dealing with a newly resurrected dragon with power he could easily see as totaling an entire country with little effort.

And said dragon was now trying to kill him. How grand.

"Jellal, what do we—" Kain paused as he realized something: Jellal was gone from where he was. He felt a shadow cast above him and looked through the hole that Logos blasted through and spotted Jellal escaping as fast as he could away from the dragon. "That son of a bitch! Why didn't I think of that!?"

The boy then snapped his head back and saw Logos trying to eat him whole. With his wings he quickly avoided being swallowed by fangs and raced up as well.

"Strange," Even as he flew away, Kain could still hear the voice of the white and red dragon. "You smell like a wyvern." And then he felt the air around him felt thick as if there was another gathering magic coming right after him. That was the young man's clue to speed out there faster.

Outside, everyone saw something fly out of the hole where the previous blast came from. No sooner than something flew out, the mountain around the new exit started to shake and crack. Out of the hole, something flew out with another, clearer deafening roar: a white dragon.

Everyone who was previously in the tower clamped their hands on their ears to protect them from the sound piercing the air around them then after the roar. They all looked in shock as a white dragon started to chase after a speck of glowing red.

"What is that!?" Simon gasped while still holding Wally's unconscious body over his shoulder.

Natsu and Erza were feeling much better as both of them were able to get back on both of their feet. However, they both knew what had just come out, and who it was chasing.

"Is that a dragon!?" Erza cried before glancing over to Natsu. "But why is it there? Why is it after Kain?"

"And where's Jellal?" The dragon slayer asked a more important question before they looked up on above with terror.

Logos was able to pin down the armored boy down his claw. Kain screamed as he felt his body being crushed. Even his armor seemed to be struggling to push a single claw off himself.

"You seem just as strong as a wyvern. I suppose that is somewhat of an improvement compared to most of the lesser races. However, wyverns are still lesser creatures." Logos unhinged his maw, revealing sharpened and old fangs ready to swallow the red rider whole.

The white dragon wasn't expecting blasts of fire, water, ice, and arrows to hit him at his back. Instead of injured, the now annoyed dragon turned behind him, still pinning down Kain. "An actual wyvern, hmm?"

Logos swatted his tail at Ignis, who dove towards the ground and tilted his body, signaling everyone on to jump off. Ignis sped towards Kain while Team Valiant and Juvia started blasting the dragon.

Trinity Raven in the mean time watched this from a distance. "So captain, what should we do?" Vidaldus asked carefully as he eyed the dragon easily swat Milliana and Lucy away while Gray, Juvia, and Sho tried to blast out more magic to have the dragon let go of their friend or acquaintance. Unfortunately, it did very little.

Ikaruga glanced over to Fukuro.

The owl man folded his arms as he watched. "The wise thing to do would be to not get involved and escape while we are ahead."

The captain of Trinity Raven sighed. "Fukuro, I am aware of your wording. Just because you said it was wise, doesn't mean we're doing it."

"I seem to recall us owing our previous opponents since our employer lied about us about the cause and what we were really fighting for and that we almost died for a madman." The man who had this face replaced with an owl gave out his reasoning. "And a Hero of Justice always helps those who are wronged."

"Hey, Fukuro, the kids aren't watching us all the way here in Fiore," Vidaldus pointed out. "You can drop that shtick now."

The owl man gave a small smirk. "Ahh, Vidaldus, I can't 'drop' the cross I have to bear." Suddenly, a magic circle appeared on Fukuro's back as his jet pack was re summoned, or he brought out a new one. It powered up, and with a burst of speed, Fukuro sped in and kicked the dragon in the eye, causing it to actually stagger and allow Igins to get Kain out of his grasp.

Ikargua looked to the guitarist. "Come on, Vidaldus, I order you to help out." She then ran towards the dragon as well with her blade in her hand.

The guitarist sighed before he then started screaming wildly and charged right for the dragon by using his hair to catapult forward and landing on its head. As he screamed wildly about heavy metal, his hair expanded and tied up around the dragon's face like a full muzzle.

Kain watched as even Natsu, Erza, and Simon came back up to help in subduing the dragon.

There was something kind of inspiring about having former enemies fighting together against a common threat. It was too bad the threat was far above all of them combined.

Logos easily dispatched everyone with not even a spell, but pure raw power, pushing everyone off of him.

"This scent," Logos seemed to sniff the air before looking towards Natsu. "Is that you, Igneel?"

That name made the dragon slayer pause briefly as he looked up to the dragon. "Who the heck are you!?"

Logos seemed confused as it asked. "What's the matter, Igneel? Don't you remember your old friend, Logos?"

Kain panicked as he saw Natsu's pupils shrink at the name. The panic became even worse when he saw the dragon slayer trembling and gripping his fists harder. "You're… you're Logos!?" He screamed out to the white dragon in anger.

"I admit even I didn't expect to meet you once again, but I do admit, fate has a very twisted sense of humor to bring us together once more."

A burst of magic exploded from Natsu as he started to exert a large amount of flames despite his injuries from a while ago. Thankfully it seemed like the effects of the elvish weapon had worn off. "You bastard! You'll pay for betraying, Igneel!"

"Igneel?" Logos tilted his head. "Aren't you going to say something?" Kain noticed how weird that was. The dragon, it was like he was talking at Natsu, not to him. Why was Logos so convinced that Natsu was Igneel?

The fired dragon slayer was not as observant as he then jumped off with a proud scream, "My name is Natsu, you bastard! I'm Igneel's son!"

"Bah! Your silence doesn't matter Igneel!" The dragon raised his claw and curled it into a fist.

The son of Igneel suddenly exploded with powerful white flames as he reclined his fist back. "White Flame Mode: Fire Dragon's…"

Unfortunately for the human, Logos was also wrapping his fist in magic of his own.

"ḹṂṔḀḈṮ!"
"Fist!"

The two attacks clashed—but just as quickly, Logos overpowered Natsu and slammed him into the ground with enough force to create a large crater into the mountain where everyone was battling on.

Even though the blow was powerful, Natsu was still awake somehow. Logos loomed over the dragon slayer.

"Devouring a simple human for my first meal was at best a snack. You, on the other hand shall truly fill me up for my first meal, Igneel. It's a shame my student absorbed most of your soul, but one can never be too picky on food."

It was then that instead of chomping on Natsu, Logos bite on nothing but air.

"Oi, red brat," Logos lifted his head to see Kain carrying Natsu again, signaling he performed another last minute save. "That is getting very annoying."

Logos then whipped his tail at a much faster speed than before. Caught off guard by the sudden speed, Kain threw away Natsu before he was smacked by something with the ton of a building and sent flying into the forest.

"Kain!" Some of Team Valiant shouted before they were interrupted with Logos making a move again.

"Oh my. That was fun," The giggle of the massive dragon only chilled the bones of people even like the likes of Gray. "Come on little ones, I wanna play before I eat."

Kain felt his head ringing as he tried to open his eyes. However, he seemed to be seeing three skies instead of one.

*Stab!*

It took a few more seconds, but as the young armored person's senses came back and he noticed a familiar wooden and green blade near his helmet.

He looked back up—to see Jellal over him. This wasn't good, his senses were back but pain was numbing his body still. He was a sitting duck at this rate!

However, to the surprise of the boy, it seemed like Jellal was saying something he couldn't quite hear—maybe his head was hit harder than he thought.

Seconds passed, and Kain realized that Jellal… he was gone and he left the Elvish blade near his head.

He tried to think back at What Jellal said, but he was distracted when, in the distance, he heard another roar from the mountain.

The young man wearing ancient armor forced himself back up, but even though he struggled to do so he found himself staring thoughtfully at the elf blade left near him.

Things were not looking good for Team Valiant and company. As soon as Kain was knocked away, the battle got even worse. Ignis was blasted and knocked out cold, Gray was swatted into rocks, Sho and Milliana fainted from a high pitched roar that would have busted their ear drums, all the fatigue from all his fights finally caught up on Natsu, Vidaldus was unfortunate to get caught by Logos' tail, which left everyone else tired and injured.

"Are you done yet? I am getting quite hungry." The white soul dragon yawned. It was painfully obvious that this was more off an annoyance rather than an actual fight.

It seemed like he was already bored. He picked up the person closest to him, both Sho and Milliana, and wrapped them around his tail.

"Don't you dare!" Erza huffed out as she used whatever magic she had left to summon another blade and strike the dragon before he could eat her old friends. She wasn't expecting the dragon to fold his wing and shot out it like a limb, smacking her back into the ground with relative ease.

Logos laughed with all the life of someone witnessing a hilarious joke for the first time. "I find it funny," He played with the two's unconscious bodies a bit in his tail as he looked back at those who were still trying to fight. "That look in your eyes suggest that you think you can harm me? Me? I have fought in two of the greatest wars this entire world has ever known. And in each war I faced the greatest of both of Earthland's greatest races: Elves and Dragons! The only reason why I died was because I became distracted, which I can assure you, will not happen a second time."

The white and red dragon then seemed to have his ears twitch then he tilted his head up towards the night sky. "I see you've returned. I don't know why, but I swear your scent feels horribly familiar. Yet I can't place why though."

Kain was silent before he shouted out to everyone still able to fight, "Move out of the way! I have another plan!" It really wasn't a plan and he just was praying his hardest this would work, unlike his last plan that brought this dragon out in the first place.

Logos only laughed. This little play of heroism seemed to amuse the far more powerful creature. Kain could only hope that ego of his would let him do this.

When it was clear, Kain dove down into the ground with a large amount of the armor's power he could muster. The result caused a shockwave that scattered dirt around the battlefield.

Kain acted fast, seeing glimpses of white and red in front of him and took out the elvish blade Jellal left behind.

He sped as fast as he could before taking out the elvish blade from his back and trying to—

Where did that tail come from!?

As the dust settled, Kain found himself snagged in the foot and lifted up in front of a now rather angry looking Logos.

Kain acted fast, trying to bring the blade—Logos then slammed Kain into the dirt with his tail motioned like a whip. It may have been a simple move, but Kain as well was too fatigued from the fighting and let go of the special blade. The only reason why his armor didn't power down was because he was struggling to stay awake.

However, Logos was no longer interested in the displaced boy and threw him nearby a weakened Natsu. "… An elvish weapon." Logos stated impassionately before he inhaled and blasted the weapon with his magic, leaving a smoking crater where the weapon once was. "That brings… memories."

Logos turned over towards Natsu and Kain. "It seems your rants about the lesser races were right after all, Igneel." He started walking over towards them. "I find it somewhat fitting that you are willing to die a second time for them."

Erza saw this and quickly tried to move again. "Kain, Natsu!" Simon reached out and grabbed her. At first, he was going to stop her and say it was too dangerous, but his attempt to grab her to stop her turned into him trying to catch her as she started to fall one she only moved her leg. Erza seemed to be having trouble even moving her body from all the fighting from the Tower of Hell.

The white dragon opened his maw towards the two with the intent to eat them whole—LogosSnappedHisHeadInARandomDirectionAndQuicklyTriedToShieldHimself—

And then the mountain exploded.

Everyone slowly woke up and realized that the entire mountain was set aflame. Natsu, seeing some of this, tried his best to inhale the flames around them. He felt his energy coming back, but at the same time, his brain recognized this great tasting flame…

"Logos," A very, very restrained voice spoke out from the flames surrounding everyone. "You're alive." The flames around them all started to gather and form in front of Natsu and Kain in the form of another dragon…

Atlas Flame was there.

"Two dragons!? To think, they were thought to be extinct." Ikaruga gasped at the sight of watching two natural forces facing each other.

However, Fukuro seemed to get a different idea and quickly glanced over towards the area the wyvern was knocked out. "We need to leave."

"What?" Erza looked over to the assassin.

"No," Simon spoke out. "He's right. One dragon was far too much for us, how much more would it be if two dragons fought at full power? We need to get the others and get out of here." Unfortunately for Erza, she didn't even have the strength to argue against him.

Natsu in the meantime, could only stare at the back of Atlas Flame. Even though it was a clear night, the fire dragon seemed to shine like the sun. "Atlas?"

Without looking away from Logos, who was getting back up and wiping away the soothe form his wing, Atlas talked to Igneel's son. "Natsu, take your friend and leave this place."

"What!? I can take him!" Leave it to Natsu to hate anyone butting in to his fights, especially when he's spent all his energy in one day alone. By this point, he's been fighting longer and harder than he did in the Phantom-Fairy Tail war.

"This has been my battle for a very, very long time." The dragon made of flames stated with a finality that made Natsu stop in his tracks. "Now, help your friend and leave."

The pink haired mage could only look at Atlas Flame before picking Kain up and heading towards where everyone else was gathered.

Atlas Flame felt Natsu leave towards a safer area. The next step he took towards the white dragon was one without any of the kindness and empathy he showed the young man.

"Who the heck are you?" Unlike before, all levity from the White Dragon was gone, and replaced with a rather dark and wrathful glare towards the presence of another dragon. Despite the obvious contempt, his voice still tried to remain calm and restrained. "I was sort of hopping my student would keep his promise and kill all dragons." For the first time since his resurrection, the white and red dragon seemed to be gathering a dangerous amount of energy that was obviously meant for someone he saw as a threat than a nuisance. "Daft dastard that he is, he probably had a harder time hunting the shrewd ones."

"This isn't about your student, Logos. This is about you and what actions you performed before you died." Atlas Flame returned an equally intimidating glare at the white dragon while gathering his own magic.

Logos laughed again, but this time there was a more mocking tone into his voice. "Oh what? Are you one of those survivors from the… what did the humans call it? Dragon King Festival?," The white and red dragon briefly commented on how humans were very good at naming things before continuing his point, "So is this about vengeance for a friend or two that my student or I killed? Maybe all of them?"

Atlas Flame could hear the sound of the wyvern getting up and carrying Natsu and all of his friends out of there. He was now in the clear to go all out.

"Yes."

In the days of the future, everyone would come to realize how words like 'wrath' or 'fury' were far too weak to describe the way Atlas Flame assaulted Logos as if he was the sun incarnate.

Even while in the sky, everyone on the wyvern could feel the earth shake as the two dragons did battle, destroying smaller mountains with missed attacks and tearing apart the eco system surrounding the mountain range.

"Damn," Vidaldus of all people seemed to be the first to speak up. "They always said dragons had the power to shape our world. Never thought I would see it firsthand."

There was something poignant about a heavy metal guitarist saying a line like that. It also led to similar line said by Simon next. "I don't think we were meant to see it again."

"ḢẎḊṜḀ ḞḀṄḠṢ!" Atlas Flame shot out a flame breath that split in to twelve different fanged heads with the intent to rip apart and burn the target.

"ṜḔṖṲḼṢḜ!" An orb of green energy surrounded the soul dragon to prevent the attack from reaching. As soon as the fire head attacked the shield, they were all absorbed into the field and then reflected right back at the flame dragon who only easily avoided his own attack.

Logos was panting for air. His hunger was an annoyance at first, but now he was feeling famished and weaker as the battle went on. He was not expecting to face another dragon so soon. And his opponent was unrelenting.

"ḨḘḼḸ ṠṔḘẢṜ!" Fire consumed Atlas' body before his speed dramatically increased, able to fly around like a swallow to a human and ram into Logos several times with the propulsion of his flames.

However, Logos smiled as when around the tenth time Atlas Flame came diving in, the soul dragon made a fast move of his own and was able to catch the fire dragon with his tail constricted around his neck.

Even though his tail was starting to burn, Logos gripped his tail tightly around the neck of the flame dragon. "I'll just eat you instead!" Logos cried out as he started to inhale with great force. Some of the flames and bits of Atlas Flame was starting to get sucked into Logos' power.

Those that Atlas had saved could only watch with baited breath as they saw the fire dragon slowly losing his power.

However, Logos wasn't expecting something. He wasn't expecting Atlas to laugh in this position.

"Oh, don't mind me," Atlas began as he stopped laughing for a moment. "It's just that I have dreamed of this day for centuries, and after all this time… you're far weaker than I thought you would be."

Suddenly, Atlas Flame unleashed a large amount of smoke coming from his body that covered the sky. This sudden burst of smoke made the white dragon loose track of his captive fire dragon and made him confused as to where his opponent went. However, Logos saw this skill awhile ago made by the human, this trick will not work on him a second time even if it didn't work the first—odd. Why couldn't he sense Atlas Flame at all?

The white dragon didn't realize that Atlas Flame didn't just exert smoke and ash… he transformed into it. A cloud in the shape of a dragon revealed its talons and stabbed them into the back of the soul dragon, causing it to shriek in pain.

As soon as that happened, the smoke ignited once more, allowing Atlas Flame to return to his flame and speed the pinned Logos into the largest mountain of the Zeus range once more with a powerful crash. As the smoke cleared, Atlas Flame's right talon was firmly clamped on Logo's head, piercing and burning it by the touch. Flame Hydras came from the flame dragon's wings that pinned down all the other limbs of Logos and were biting down hard on all of them.

"This one is for Igneel, you bastard! For all our kind that you and your student killed!" Atlas Flame cried out in vengeance as he raised his arm that started to take the form of a fire blade.

However, the word, 'Igneel', made Logos confused. However, that confusion was quickly replaced with a cunning smile. The Soul Dragon struggled a lot but opened his mouth and quickly fired a blast of his magic… in a random direction? Odd, it was slow to Atlas Falme too, so what was the point off—

Atlas Flame heard the faint sounds of screams and noticed the attack was heading right for Natsu and his friends! The wyvern was too injured to maneuver properly, which meant it would be hit dead on for sure! Forsaking his vengeance, Atlas Flame dropped his hold and sped fast enough to shield the human dragon slayer and his allies.

However, even though Atlas Flame easily evaded the attack, as the dust settled, Logos had made his escape and was no longer seen anywhere.

The fire dragon could only unleash a powerful, angry roar that reverberated into the night. He had lost his chance at vengeance.

It was very unlikely he would be so fortunate next time.

Man, my muscles feel like they're screaming at me to stop moving. I mean, it's only been like two hours since that stupid fight in The Tower of Hell, but seriously, why is going to the rest room at this late at night like another battle? I keep barely living through all those darn fights!

But soon, despite my sluggish pace towards the restroom, I was able to spot Erza looking out one of the giant windows of Ithca's house. Suddenly, my pain seemed to lessen a bit when I saw this wistful look on Erza's face that just looked to darn sad.

I sighed deeply before walking over to her watching the moon in her armor.

"Ithca was sure kind to let us stay in his house after we returned with Atlas Flame," I said, catching the red head's attention. "I was half convinced he would be angry at us too even though it was Atlas Flame who melted off the roof of the Eternal Flame. But I'm glad I was wrong."

I kept walking before looking out the window as well. Even for a place where buildings were as tall as skyscrapers, maybe bigger, Ithca's house was placed in a higher area than most, allowing him a beautiful view of the currently roofless Eternal Flame and Sun Village.

"This world has some amazing views. Makes me wish I saw the great views of my world, but I was always too busy to travel." I kept talking even as Erza was silent.

Seeing as how she wasn't going to say anything from that, I sighed. "I'm sorry, Erza." I felt her turn to me before I continued. "I… look… I thought that maybe, just maybe the old Jellal was in there somewhere still. So I tried to… forget it. I'm sorry."

"No, don't be." I heard Erza's voice and I turned to her, her eyes were that of someone unsure. "You truly are kind, Kain. I had resolved myself that my old friend was long dead, but when he fooled my with his ploy of returning back to himself I…" She trailed off, not needed to say anymore. "Yet from what you told me, there were flashes of the real him that I couldn't bring out that you did."

I really didn't feel like I did that or anything. "You're blowing out of proportion. All I did was make him question himself. He really was too far gone."

"Yet… he had the chance to kill you… but didn't." I still don't know what Jellal was doing when he left that blade near me. Why would he do that when it contradicted everything he was doing a while ago?

Still, I was skeptical. "Maybe he just did to return the favor of me saving him?"

"The fact he even considered, let alone did it, speaks volumes, Kain." Erza said as she looked out in the distance. "… do you think…"

Do I think Jellal is still out there, trying to make another Tower of Hell? "I don't know. A piece of me wants to believe that when Logos tried to eat his soul, something that made him evil went away… but at the same time… it's never that easy or simple."

The S-Class mage gave a hollow laugh at my response. I had no idea if it was at herself or the situation… maybe both? "Would the universe die if it gave us a freebie every now and then? Things get… very hard to bear."

I felt for her, I really did. I turned towards her and gave her my best kind smile despite my body pretty much dying in the inside. "Look on the bright side. You're finally free of the Tower, and you've got your old and new friends safe and sound."

A smile came across her lips. "I suppose you're right. Along with victories, there are losses. … Kain?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. I cannot even begin to thank you and the others for coming after me."

"You're welcome," I responded. "I feel like I should respond with something like, 'we're friends, of course we will!' … but excuse me for being more of a coward when having to actually think before leaping into literal hell for someone."

"I don't think that's as bad as you make it to be," I looked up to Erza as she walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "It's because of someone like you we're all kept straight and remain humble instead of egotistic and stubborn."

Leave it to Erza to still say something profound. I ended up nodding my head. "Erza, don't forget you've done great things too. … And don't think I didn't realize you were actually planning to die with Jellal originally." The red head flinched when I said that. I folded my hands and channeled my father when he was disappointed in three year old me. "You hid it well, but I figured it out after I woke up! Really!? You were the most no-nonsense person I knew here and you were trying to become a martyr?"

She was about to speak until I actually interrupted her. "Oh no, you do not get to defend yourself from that! Erza, you're gonna sit down in under this beautiful view and listen to my rant on how much of a bad idea that was and you are going to listen to every single word I've been bubbling in ever since we've come back!"

I could tell by the look of Erza's face that she knew I had a lot of complaints and rants about to explode from this entire journey.

My smirk then started to turn into another kind smile. "And when I'm done, I will do the same and listen to every single one of your complaints and rants. I promise under no circumstances will I question or judge any of them unless you ask me to."

That seemed to make Erza look at me in surprise. "I may not be able to storm the gates of hell for someone, but I swear to whatever beings that sent me here that I will be there when someone is at their worst, patiently waiting with them until they feel better about themselves no matter how long."

I just spoke from the heart. It seemed like my words had an effect on the scarlet haired woman as I finally saw her smile after this hectic day. It was a small, but pure smile and I was glad I could bring it out of her.

Ah well. Like I said, the most I can do is just be there for someone when they need it. I do hope that was enough.

I inhaled. "First of all, I really, really hate how everyone keeps throwing desks around inside the damn guild. We literally have an empty field outside, yet no one can take the fight outside?!"

The day started with fires, destruction, long time sins resurfacing… the day finally ended with two friends complaining how much they both hated and loved their lives.

Things finally settled down after that.

Trinity Raven left as soon as they were dropped off in Sun City, saying a few goodbyes and apologizes before leaving. Fairy Tail found it somewhat odd that they found allies in assassins of all people, yet Kain was quick to remind everyone that Kageyama was a former criminal and current remember of Fairy Tail.

After their long battle, it seemed like everyone else could finally have their vacation. And boy did they enjoy it.

Team Valiant and Erza's old friends spent more time in Sun Village. It seemed like that while they were working for Jellal, they did ruin a few buildings and cause some disturbance with the different races. Ithca was able to tide down most of it by making Erza's old friends take blame and pretend they were drunk. It seemed like they were all off the hook from something really politically nasty thanks to Ithca's quick thinking.

Seeing as how they did cause a lot of trouble, Simon was easily able to convince the others to help around for attacking and causing trouble in the first place. But it really wasn't that big of a deal for them, even if everything else was much bigger than them.

Erza never looked happier, spending time with her long lost friends. Wally lost his legs, but thanks to his specific magic, he could simply float around easily. Erza apologized profusely for having to cauterize him then and there, but Wally claimed nothing was wrong and he was glad they all came out mostly unscathed.

She wasn't really the only one playing catch up though.

Natsu seemed to gather courage to talk to Atlas Flame again. This time, instead of questioning about where his dad was, he started asking about what his dad was like when they were young.

Oh boy did Atlas have stories! Some about the volcano they both grew up in, the time that Igneel got them and two other fire dragons lost because he had no sense of direction, and some rather embarrassing and stupid stories that Natsu would have never known about his adoptive father. The fire dragon expressed his own joy about finally being able to talk to someone and exercising his social skills in decades.

The human dragon slayer realized that while he might not have found a clue to where his dad was, finding something like an uncle was really the next best thing for him. There was something uplifting about finding things about his father that he never knew. Some of them weren't good, but he was glad to learn them none the less.

Gray and Kain had a talk with Juvia about joining Fairy Tail. The water mage expressed excitement and offered to go ahead back to the guild to be put in. There was some warning about their new guild master, but the lawyer of Fairy Tail believed he could get her in for sure.

Lucy found herself spending more time with that little girl she saved, Flare Corona—Kain found her name a little redundant, but even he had to admit it was cool how the human among giants seemed to idolize Lucy.

The rest of their vacation was surprisingly relaxing and fun like most vacations should have been.

... But things must always come to an end.

"Are you sure you guys have to go?" To say Erza was sad would actually be somewhat wrong and right at the same time. However, all her emotions went over the place as she and the rest of Team Valiant were seeing Simon and the others off and helping pack some things in a caravan at night, at the very outskirts of Sun Village.

"You can all join Fairy Tail of you want. I'm sure everyone would love to know about Erza's old friends." Kain added in as the rest also agreed, eager to have the four join them on their way back to the guild.

"I admit, the offer is very tempting." Simon looked to Wally, Sho, and Milliana before turning back to Team Valiant. "However, we've spent a lot of time inside that tower. I barely recall anything form the outside world, and that's less so for the others. So we've all agreed to go travel the world that we were once forced to hate, learn more about all what could have been and who knows? Maybe find some people we thought were long gone."

Erza looked over to Wally who just gave a smile and a cool salute to both her and Kain. The brunette ended up laughing at the action.

"If that is really the case, I have complete faith all you will be doing well." The S-Class mage spoke out.

"Uhh, Simon?" Milliana spoke up, there was look on her face that screamed to the man with a metal jaw to keep talking.

Simon seemed unusually silent before he turned to Erza and put a hand on her shoulder. "Erza, I would like you to know something: I believe you have found great friends. Cherish them greatly."

Kain could have sworn there was the slightest bit of hesitation in Simon's voice before he said believe. Sho and Milliana had this look on their face that seemed like they were both annoyed and frustrated for some reason.

Adding into these facts, and recalling how Simon never lost faith in Erza, Kain's eyes widened as he did a mental 'Oh.' sound in his thoughts.

Natsu looked at Kain in confusion. "Hey Kain, why are you glancing so quickly between Erza and Simon?"

"No reason." Kain quickly dismissed with a tone that signaled he was not going to talk anymore than that.

Erza ended up smiling and hugging Simon. The taller man was a bit taken back but returned the warm hug. "It's the same for all of you too." Erza told Simon, "Don't forget that."

There was a little laughter coming from Simon after yea heard that. "Not even a memory manipulating spell made me forget. I don't think I ever will." Simon spoke with kindness before he left towards the caravan.

"Simon!"

"Get inside the caravan, Milliana, the next city isn't going to be for the next three days." Simon easily ignored her.

The large man was surprised when he felt his hand grabbed by Erza and the man with one eye left looked over towards Erza in surprise.

In a bright flash of light, Erza transformed into a beautiful ornate armor and Kain noticed the rest of Team Valiant, even Happy and Ignis, stand up straighter than usual. "Before you leave, there are three rules that any member who chooses to leave the Fairy Tail guild must abide by."

"But we didn't join..." Wally looked over to to the rest of Team Valiant as if they could correct some misunderstanding. Yet by looking at even Kain's smiling face, he had a feeling she was doing this on purpose for a reason.

Erza still continued to speak. "Number one: never share sensitive information about the guild with anyone so long as you live. Number two: never contact any clients you worked for while in the guild for your own personal gain."

At this point, Erza stood proudly before declaring, "And number three: although our paths must stray, promise to live the rest of your lives to the fullest. That means you must treat every day as if it were your last in this world!"

Everyone of Erza's old friends were surprised by that last rule and even more so when Erza started to cry... with both of her eyes. "Never forget your Fairy Tail Friends. Treasure them for as long as you live!" Her voice was starting to crack as she said this. It wasn't hard to figure out she was speaking from her heart this time.

Erza threw the flag she was carrying to the sky and declared, "Let the Fairy Tail Farewell Begin now!"

And that was Team Valiant's cue. "Yes mam!" They all cried before Natsu fired his own fireworks into the sky.

"Wait a damn second, you can shoot fire works? Where the hell was a spell like that when I told you to break Jellal's tower?!"
"Kain, shut up!"

Lucy was quick to stop Kain's complaints from running the moment too much. Erza didn't seem to mind as she continued on even then. "May all your journeys bring you joy!"

Everyone of Erza's friends started to cry except Simon who could only smile fondly as Team Valiant continued to make Fireworks with their own magic, Natsu, Gray, and even Lucy-

"YOU HAD THE ABILITY TO SHOOT A CONDENSED LASER THAT EXPLODES AND YOU DIDN'T USE IT ON VOYU OR ANY ENEMIES WE PREVIOUSLY FOUGHT!?" Kain's complaining seemed to have a much more lasting impact than the fireworks.

"Kain, it's not meant for battle!"
"Do you think that stopped Voyu from turning something a simple as portals into the most broken form of combat magic ever!? How is a FREAKING LASER THAT EXPLODES not considered a proper battle spell!?"

It was at this moment, both tears and laughter were coming out of Simon and the others as they saw such friends arguing like fools while also giving a rather impressive and beautiful farewell.

...

Time passed as Simon, Sho, Milliana, and Wally were on the road and far away from Sun Village.

"Simon!" Millinana pouted hard. "Why didn't you tell Erza your feelings for her!?"

Simon could even feel Sho and Wally staring at him with eagle-eyes at the interrogation. "I just felt like it wasn't right. ... And I have a feeling she already knows."

Sho sighed. "Simon, you are such a coward."

The man with a metal jaw could only laugh sadly at that. "I can't really argue with that."

However, it was then that Milliana turned to Wally. "Hey Wally? You alright? You've been awfully silent."

"Never better, toots! Just still getting used to the fact I have to use magic to move now. And don't give me that look, I'd do it again to save Erza or any of yous." Wally cheerfully said.

"That is very brave of you, Wally. Perhaps I should learn a thing or too form you." Simon said as he continued to drive the horses down the path.

Wally smiled and looked back towards Sun Village. "Hey, I only learned this from that dandy kid they have, Kain." However, there was something off about his tone when he spoke about Kain.

{No one noticed that after Erza had left both Wally and Kain, there was a splotch of black liquid forming into the shape of a person. The humanoid figure stood over Kain and raised a hand that slowly started to extend and seemingly start to absorb the unconscious young man, yet after a while the figure stopped the attempt at absorbing and simply stared at the sleeping brunette.}

{"… Kain Reynolds. You have not only shown a strong character, but you inspired a direct change in others, as shown in this dandy man's spark of bravery. We will not accept you into the Wicker Man as of now. We shall wait until you meet more people and changed them for ill or for better with your actions. Until then…" The Wicker Man then raised and turned their extending hand towards the unconscious Wally.}

{"We will watch you and wait patiently for you to change others into more vibrant people, Kain Obadiah Reynolds."}

To the surprise of the other three, Wally started singing a song that none of them heard before. "The stars are blind my love…~"

By the time Ignis flew over to Magnolia, everyone in Team Valiant was glad to be back home.

"Finally, it feels great to come back here after another fiasco of almost dying again!" The spatially displaced boy exclaimed while feeling the familiar skies around him.

"This wouldn't have happened if you let us go to Akane Resort!" Lucy huffed in disappointment.

Natsu and Happy looked on with confusion before Natsu asked, "Huh? But it seemed like you made good friends with that Flare girl back at Sun Village."

"W-Well I enjoyed it there! But I'm still ticked about not going to the resort!" Lucy huffed and crossed her arms.

"Hey guys, check it out!" Gray pointed over to the guild. It was finally finished in it's reconstruction and it looked much grander yet sleeker than it did before.

"It seems as if the renovations are done," Erza spoke up with interest. "I wonder how it is inside?"

"Well let's find out! Ignis, drop us off at the entrance!" Kain asked off the red pseudo dragon as it descended into the entrance.

Lucy raised her hands up with a cheer after feeling the air of the new guild. It seemed like despite the obvious change, there was still something welcoming about the old guild. "It's great to be back!"

It was then that the large doors of the new guild started banging.

"They're fighting already?" Kain sighed as he put a hand on his head.

"What!? I want in!" Natsu, seemingly pumped up, started to make one step forward.

However, the doors then busted open and then three familiar faces were seen being thrown out of the guild.

"Reedus!? Nab!? Vijeeter!?" No sooner than Kain cried this, the rest of Team Valiant ran up to the three with worry. It was one thing to get rough as usual in Fairy Tail, but these guys looked worse for wear!

"G-Guys," Nab began as he looked at Team Valiant with surprise. "You came back."

"What are you talking about? Who did this to you guys!?" Kain asked before he noticed something, or rather, a severe lack of something, "Where are your Fairy Tail brands?"

Team Valiant quickly noticed that the three men didn't have their brands where they usually are. But at the mention of Kain's question, all three men grunted in pain and shame.

"And stay out!" A cocky voice cried out from inside the guild.

Natsu was the first to get back up as he and the rest of Team Valiant saw a group of mages they had never seen before with a Fairy Tail symbol on each and every one of them. "Who the hell are you guys!?"

One from the group of strangers, who stood out of all of them, gave a cruel smile as he pointed to his Fairy Tail brand on the right side of his neck.

"Why, we're Fairy Tail members of course!"

While Team Valiant was shocked, Kain had a much more different reaction when he found himself whispering, "God damn it, Laxus."

{Author Notes}

And this Arc is freaking done! I cannot tell you how hard this damn arc was. When I first planned this part, it looked simple as heck. When writing the damn thing, it was harder than all the other arcs before it combined!

So yeah. First little note, I found the R-System to be kinda a letdown. Sure, Zeref was actually alive the whole time which mean that the tower was practically useless, but I kinda saw some really interesting potential with one question:

What if the tower actually worked?

That little question made me smile at the thought of the tower actually working, albeit in very different circumstances.

I also thought it would be a good idea to start sprinkling hints about a very, very deep plot of this story. You guys should have seen it. It was very hard to miss.

There is something I almost must address, I was looking back on the episode where Erza says goodbye, and I kid you not: Lucy shoots a powerful laser in to the sky for a firework.

My reaction was the same as Kain's. Tell me straight to my face that a laser that explodes on contact or will of user is NOT meant for a battle. It can't be made using harmful energy? Natsu can change the properties of fire magic-heck any fire mage can! Why hasn't Lucy figured a way to weaponize something that F-ing USEFUL!?

But by now, chronologically, you guys KNOW what arc is supposed to happen next. By this story's standards, you're probably wondering how that will go because of previous circumstances in this story.

My answer?

... Yep.

Thank you all for taking your time to read this. See you soon.

Omake (?)

Deep beneath the largest mountain of the Zeus Range, where there were traces of many hard fought battles, and many broken ancient chains…

There was something inside that unending darkness.

*It is done. The last of the Dragons have entered the stage. Soon this cycle will end and the next cycle shall begin anew.*