They were known as Umbral Typhoon, a pseudo dark guild that believed by bathing in the blood of their innocent, it would call upon their 'dark god' into this world.
As they stalked through the forests, the killed any animals they could see, collecting their corpses and tossing them into a cart.
"Each and everyone of you are disgusting, amoral filth that poison this land." The dark mages stopped their low chanting and looked ahead, seeing a black haired woman woman wearing Fiore's Kingdom armor.
Raina, leader of the White Tiger division took a stance with her blade pointing behind her. "By order of Field Commander, Tarsus Steelsoul, we are allowed to use lethal force."
Her eyes narrowed. "Be cleansed."
The two words had left her, and not even a full second after, the mage at the very front of the cult found a blade stabbed straight through his heart.
It took her a second to realize that the man she stabbed through was still moving. He raised his arms, and a magic circle went through them, turning his limbs into tentacles.
Raina grunted and twisted the blade before forcing it up—splitting the man's head in half before she followed it up in quick slashes and looking up to the rest of the dark guild, changing their hands to different colored tentacles that didn't move like any animal she saw before.
Instead she simply went back to her sword stance. "Looks like killing you all will be harder than I first thought."
If a tree crashed down, and no one was around hear it, could it be used as a weapon?
The man that could put the size of monster trucks to shame, grabbed the fallen tree with all the effort of a child picking up a stick. The criminal held the large trunk like bat before swinging it over a large arc, blowing away several trees like dust in the wind.
As he looked through the emptied field, he glared harder.
Another large man, not as big as him, wearing an owl helmet, specialized Rune Knight armor, and wielding two chakram blades, walked towards him unbothered from the previous feat of strength.
"Prisca Dorance!" Tarsus Steelsoul slowly walked forward despite the edge in his voice. "Will you come peacefully, or will I have to use lethal force?"
In a Spanish accent, Prisca responded while clenching his fists. "If you think death has any fear over me, you are poorly mistaken, officer."
There was a glow seen from both the owl eyes in the helm, and in Tarsus' eyes. An almost monstrous aura appeared behind him.
However, Prisca only laughed at something that would have obviously scared lesser men. "I have heard rumors of your Overpower magic that I paralyzes those who witness it. I must say, I am disappointed."
It seemed like the criminal had more magical resistance than he looked to have. "You won't be saying that in a second."
"Perhaps, but I may also be severely disappointed at how easy it is to defeat someone of you caliber." Prisca only lifted his hand and motioned the field commander to come at him. "I hope you're a gambling man."
Without another word, Tarsus ran right for Prisca, both men reclining their fists.
"GAAAH!" Some criminals fell as arrows hit their knee—I mean torsos.
William Tovar was on top of a tree branch as he viewed the now cleared area. "Well that's one area clear."
The man made a move to jump on the next tree branch before freezing pre-momentum. His ear twitched and he turned his head to what he thought he heard.
…
"Aaah!"
He wasn't imagining it as William raced towards the scream. There was a small blonde girl running away from around a dozen criminals.
The brown haired, blue eyed archer readied his bow and fired several arrows that instantly got the criminals chasing after the girl.
"T-Thank you mister!" The kid wearing a poncho, and a long hat managed to stammer out and look up to—an arrow?
The sound of a stab was heard as the body of the child flew with several arrows shot into the face.
"You actually fooled me there for a second, Diara Zidone." William said as he reached for another arrow and pointed towards the girl's body which could have been mistaken for a pin cushion.
There was no blood that fell from the girl's body, instead, plastic skin fell off… the body of the 'little girl' stood up and the face of the girl had an obvious crack split in middle of the face that seemed frozen with two pupils facing opposite directions.
"But I guess I need to thank Lahar for nagging on for hours about which criminals were in the prison. If any of the mages from the guild saw you first, they would have fallen for your puppet magic. So I gotta ask, will you surrender or..."
Something came out of the crack of the little girl's face, giggles that sounded more like a gasp of someone's dying breath.
"Wow mister," The voice was raspy, dry, and it almost sounded like it was coming from a dehydrated old woman, but even with the flames slowly growing nearby, William could feel goosebumps on his skin. "You're really fun to play with."
The 'criminals' chasing the little girl rose up like upside-down nails, sudden and forceful. William turned and fired arrows back at them, but as they all connected, he could hear the sound of his arrows hitting through wood.
Soon, more clacking noises were heard, and William found himself surrounded by puppets.
"Well, crap..." The Archer said as he pointed his bow around him. Being surrounded was never a good thing for an archer.
In the back, the cracked face of the little girl tilted her head, "Do you want to play tag, mister?"
"Well done, my students!" Ichiya posed after he and the Tri Men had defeated two dark guilds. "Another victory for Blue Pegasus!"
"Thank you, minister!" The three pretty man once more choose a different name for their teacher.
Ichiya made another sharp pose as he pointed behind a tree. "Hold it right there! I could smell your disgusting parfume a mile away!"
"Parfume?" The voice grunted, in a very, very low octave. "Pig-skins talk too much."
Blue Pegasus wasn't expecting a large, green skinned Orc carrying something like a dull, but massive knife on his back to walk from behind the giant tree.
"An Orc? The magic council captured an Orc?" Hibiki gasped as all of Blue Pegasus stared at the non-human.
"Man, they're even uglier than I've heard off." Ren commented off.
"Ren, isn't that racist?" Eve looked towards his taller friend.
"I thought other races called us ugly?" The taller man shot back.
"Pig-skin sounds worse than squealing pig." The Orc unhinged the large machete off his shoulder and it dug into the ground by it's own weight. "Butcher going to kill you now."
Hibiki's eyes narrowed. "Guys, Narcissus Formation. Something tells me that's not just his name!" In that sentence alone, his voice rose when the Orc ran at them with speeds no one expected off a massive green lug.
Thunder struck, Kara struck. To those that knew her, those were sometimes the same thing with more often than not Kara Geirdriful being considered worse.
The pink armored Valkyrie smiled, she turned around from a pile of groaning, broken, and unconscious criminals that 'attacked' her and looked towards her pink haired monk friend. "Yes! I have defeated a hundred men in a single blow!"
"That was twenty men, and you beat them under a minute."
"Our battle was legendary!"
"They started getting scared after you knocked out their vanguard."
"And to think this is only the beginning!"
Genji remained silent after that, putting a hand on his chin. "You do have a point."
Jason, who was seen gasping for breath, walked up to the two. "H-Hey guys! I-I beat one!"
"Way to go fearless leader!" Kara raced up to the knight and slapped his back. Genji wasn't quick enough to stop the girl before causing Jason to kiss the ground like a long lost lover.
"Ooo fome on!?" The blue haired knight cried out as he was breaking even Kain's previous record of trysts with mother earth.
Alexandra could only give a small smile as she watched her teammates. However, a clang of metal caught her attention and made Team Jupiter turn towards the opposite end, where another group of people were appearing.
"Well this be an interesting sight! If it ain't the metal bender and her sorry crew."
The gladiator's red eyes narrowed as the leader of this new group revealed themselves.
"To think you were in that prison, you must be Brown Beard, aren't you?" Genji spoke out as the rest of Team Jupiter moved towards Alexandra.
The pirate took out a flint pistol and fired it towards the green haired gladiator. Alexandra raised her hand—then moved out of the way before the bullet passed through a tree, and ignited it into flames.
"I learned my lesson! Not a single one of my men have metallic equipment with them anymore! This time, It's payback for defeating me, bitch!"
The Southern Captain narrowed her eyes, but the rest of her friends stepped beside her. "We're with you on this, Alex!" Jason cried out even though he was sweating somewhat.
"Then you die with her, brat! Get them all!"
"GAA!" A man fell as he was attacked by an Ice Bear.
Lyon scoffed and undid his spell. "This was the best they could do?"
"Do not let your guard down." Jura spoke up as he undid some of the fires. "There are still more of those criminals."
"With love, Lamia Scale shall win!" Sherry added in while throwing her hair in a flourish.
There was a low laughter in the air. "Jura Neekis? A Wizard Saint all the way over here?"
The Trio of Lamia Scale went back into a fighting stance as they heard the voice, but felt no sign of magic anywhere near them or the downed criminals they already beat. However, they could tell by the voice that the owner was a woman.
"I feel like I've seen ice like that before, what was her name? Us? Ul? Urie?" The voice added in, making Leon's eyes widen. "She was quite a bitch really. How is the old hag?"
The air around Lamia Scale lowered and the other two looked towards their ice user who was trembling with fury. "WHO ARE YOU!? SHOW YOURSELF!"
In response to his fear some shout, mocking laughter echoed around them. "What are you talking about, boy? I've been right in front of you this entire time."
Jura's eyes widened and he pointed a hand towards Leon. "Duck!" He screamed as He fired a rock towards the Ice Mage. Lyon obeyed the Wizard Saint and as he did, the air in front of his twisted and distorted to avoid the boulder.
Lyon jumped back and the distortion unveiled, revealing a woman clothed in all black, wearing a crow mask with a long beak and barred eye holes.
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Beliere Val Belbala." The plague doctor spoke in an older accent and made an exaggerated bow towards Lamia Scale.
"I don't have a lot of love for her."
"There is something uncanny about her more than the others."
Shelly and Jura commented, but they had forgotten about something in the presence of this newcomer.
"How dare you speak ill of Ur, you pathetic crow!" Lyon didn't hesitate to fire a powerful ice lion right for the plague doctor.
Jura instantly noticed the distinct lack of movement coming from their opponent and his instincts flared when she motioned to pick up something from her cloak.
It was a green glass container that contained green liquid. The Plague doctor threw it at the giant Ice Lion and as soon as the glass shattered, the liquid ate through every ounce of ice like super termites.
"Hmm it seems like that new salt-acid works even faster on ice than other substances." The figure put a hand under their mask where there chin would be.
"Cease and desist!" Jura cried out as he gathered magic. However, Beliere, in one movement, brought up eight more multicolored potions held in the gaps between her fingers.
There was a dark shine coming from behind the barred eye sockets of her mask. "Lamia Scale, how would you like to conduct an experiment with me?"
Even with the flames in the distance slowly devouring this forrest, even with the fact that there are around six, powerful-doesn't-begin-to-describe dark mages lurking around, I found out that the most dangerous thing in front of me was the dark mage whose name I completely forgot.
"What did you just say!?" Wow the fire behind him doesn't make this any easier at all, he looks like a demon out of hell—that wears mascara-I really don't know why I'm focusing so much on that.
"I am Erigor!" Right! I was close; there was an 'i' in his name! "The rightful ace of Eisenwald, the one who mastered Lullaby!"
"You do realize Lullaby was using you right? Heck, the dude is way better off without you and he's in a much better evil relationship with Deliora." Ahh natural sarcasm. How I both love and loathe thee.
My mind started to send bad signals when I realized that Erigor stopped his flaunting and a look of recognition fell over his face. "That damned mouth… I know you! The magic-less fly that hangs around with fairies!" After he screamed, his mouth curled upward as a sinister smile replaced his scowl. "Oooooh, I've been waiting to see you again, brat."
Despite the obvious venom in his voice, and ignoring how he was brandishing his scythe to reap an unsuspecting idiot, it occurred to me that out of all the prisons this guy was sent too, it was the damn one Oracion Seis destroyed.
Because of course my luck is like that.
I jumped out of the way as a blast of wind was shot my way, and I landed on my foot—and ran like hell in the opposite direction. I could faintly hear the sound of a dozen criminals running towards me after a not so subtle scream of an emo man copying a line of a very famous pre-kill video game quote meant for an ice ninja.
That only made me run away faster, and because of my increased senses, I could feel over a dozen, varying magical hums and sounds coming my way—dam it! Does super speed mean nothing in this world?!
Exerting my cape to turn to wings before flying through the forest, as I turned behind a large oak tree—
"Fire Dragon's Talon!" It took me an instant to almost not dodge the enflamed fist coming my way. However, it took another instant to realize that I dodged the fist, but my forward momentum was still heading straight into a confused and surprised Natsu.
My world fumbled and it was easy to understand that I crashed into my Dragon Slayer friend and may have looked more like an idiot than I usually did.
"Dang it, Kain!" After getting off each other, Natsu yelled at me. "I could have hit you! What's the big idea!?"
The tree I was turning suddenly exploded, forcing the two of us to quickly get back up. "I was trying to get away from them while looking for you!"
"You were looking for me?" The pink haired mage looked over towards me before his attention was taken away by the guy who almost killed me.
"Well, well, well, isn't that a familiar fly? Luckily for me, I get to swat both of you once and for all."
"No way!" Natsu's eyes widened when seeing mascara man then he… raised out his hand and smiled? "Hey! What's going on Cool Breeze!? Long time no see!"
… It took everything I had to not face palm at that moment. Of course Natsu wouldn't be threatened by this guy. From the boasts after that adventure, he practically one-shotted Mascara dude a while back and Natsu has definitely gotten stronger over the last time they met.
"Natsu, he's the guy who tried to use Lullaby, but was actually being used by Lullaby?" I spoke out, wishing I could pinch the bridge of my nose but my helmet prevented me from doing so.
"Oh wait that Mascara guy?" The other villains laughed again as Natsu pointed back to the wind mage with his thumb while looking at me.
"That's it! I'm killing you both!" Erigor unleashed a burst of wind around him as he flew towards the both of us.
Natsu smirked and jumped to meet him head on while I jumped back—only to find myself landing on body of some dark mage. I turned behind me while Natsu and Erigor clashed and I noticed there were over thirty unconscious thugs already on the ground with singed earth all around them.
Dang, Natsu already beat this many guys?
My attention was cut short when Natsu's scream echoed through the forrest and he ended up punching Erigor back into the criminals that were following him.
Some of the other criminals passed by Natsu and went directly for me. I acted fast, threw my Cracker Spheres and shielded myself as they exploded, blinding my incoming attacker and allowed me to knock them down in quick succession.
As I turned back to the fight—or the beat down now that Natsu was almost untouched while Erigor already seemed to be standing on his last legs.
But something was wrong, why was it too easy? Things never work out this well for us.
Mascara dude seemed to be seething in rage despite barely being able to stand. "You think you're hot shit!?"
"He is a Fire Mage!" It took me a second to realize I was still blathering out loud in sarcasm mode. Maybe I shouldn't be goading the crazed looking assassin.
Laughter seemed to explode from Erigor. I noticed al the other baddies that our resident dragon slayer beat up slowly get back up. Seeing that incoming madness, I ended up jumping towards Natsu and ended up being back to back like those cool kung-fu movies.
"Well then flies, the Oracion Seis said that they would promise us power beyond that of a Wizard Saint, and boy did they deliver!" The criminals all reached for a pouch, revealing some kind of small, circular—
"It's a magic increasing drug, isn't it?" My mind jumped ahead and my mouth was all too unrefined to blurt it out.
"Well you're obviously the brains of the group, though seeing flame boy over there, it's not too hard to do." I could feel Natsu growl at the insult before Erigor went on. "This handy drug is called Rhodonite and it will increasEEERRRK!?"
"LIKE HELL I'LL LET YOU USE THAT!?" I moved fast and decked the emo man in the face, knocking him through another tree.
"Kain, what the hell!? He was going to power up and I would beaten him down again!"
I looked back towards Natsu, "Are you kidding me!? Natsu, I don't like fighting! And we really, really need to find the others!"
Natsu was about to argue, obviously about to say something along the lines that he could take them all on or something, but then his eyes widened. I may not have been a mage, but I realized that both he and I were distracted in our arguments, essentially giving the other mages time to eat their drugs.
As I saw all our enemies essentially going super saiyan, hulking-out, and other veins popping out around their eyes, my worst fears were realized.
And then they were surpassed.
Something exploded behind us, and Erigor was seen, floating back up with wind surrounding him and despite all the pain Natsu easily inflicted on him, he was smiling like a curved, bloody knife.
"I don't know what that armor does, brat." Erigor spoke up. "But as I was saying, this drug will right all the wrongs that has ever been done to me!"
"So what?! You still aren't all that!" Natsu blasted off to attack Erigor, who erected a much more potent wind barrier around him. However, Natsu's flames turned white, signaling he was using his more powerful flames and once more powered through and made the assassin look like a fallen Meteor.
But even with an attack strong enough to dig a deep crater, Ergior flew back up, laughing even louder than before, making me realize what Erigor said previously. He wasn't just referencing a power boost, did it somehow make him immune to pain?
"I didn't even feel that! This drug is amazing! It doesn't even matter how strong you two have gotten, because my attacks will actually stick!"
Well Happy crap. But this also means the other criminals have these things as well. Looks like I was right after all about this being not easy.
The other criminals raced for me, as Erigor and Natsu began their rematch. Several blasts of magic came at me that were much harder to dodge, and those that I knocked back down, didn't stay down.
I doubted that the drug's effect would wear off as fast as it activated, but yeesh! Oracion Seis really is pulling out all the stops to find Nirvana…
Hold on, where exactly are The Oracion Seis?
Back in the base, Bella Solaris, a Colonel of the Rune Knights, was watching over a dozen images of the alliance fighting criminals.
She pressed on her communication link. "Lahar, you and Doranbolt are three clicks northwest of Lamia Scale's group. You can regroup with them when you two are finished there."
"Understood, any sign of Fairy Tail's Lawyer and Dragon Slayer?"
"None of the active scanners can pick them up. But they should still be in the vicinity. I'll try to keep track of the groups of criminals." The blonde haired, brown-eyed woman looked up and noticed a rather dejected looking little girl sitting in one corner of the room.
Bella sighed and walked over towards the little girl, she kneeled a little and gave an honest smile. "Hey, mind if I sit next to you?"
The little girl stammered before inching to the side, Bella sat down with her while Carla, the white cat eyed her suspiciously.
"Did you know, when I was your age, I wanted to be a musician?"
The blue haired girl looked back up. "A musician?"
"Yep, a musician. My father just had this talent that whenever he would touch an instrument, it would be like he played it his entire life despite holding it in his hands for the first time in his life. I wanted to be just like him, but there was one huge problem..."
Bella looked over towards a focused Wendy and gave a laugh that seemed more pitiful than funny. "I couldn't even play kid's music for the life of another. Whenever I would have an instrument, somehow, someway, I would make sounds that would make nails to the chalk board sound like works of arts."
"R-Really?" The blue haired girl seemed surprised to hear such a thing from the beautiful woman.
"Yes, so you could imagine how heart broken I was, not living up to any of my first dreams." Bella had a look of nostalgia on her face. "And you could imagine, me moping and brooding so much that I know when others are doing it."
Wendy seemed to blush as she realized the implications of Bella's words.
However, soon she felt something warm on her head and found out the Rune Knight was patting her head. "Don't worry, sweetie. We all feel bad when we don't meet our expectations. But trust me when I say, you're going to prove yourself in the future. Just work hard and safely, alright?"
The blue haired girl slowly smiled more confidently, "Thank you, Ms. Solaris."
"No problem, sweetie," The Rune Knight looked over to the cat that was still eying her cautiously, but a little less than before. "Now come on, help me manage the screens on everyone else. I'll tell you the story of how I came to be a Rune Knight as well."
"THIS IS A #3 ALERT!" The voice on the com link, from William Tovar of the Rune Knights, put Bella and the others on edge. "The criminals have access to Rhodonite Drugs! Everyone, it doubles their magical power and nullifies theirs sense of pain, do not let your opponents use them!"
Bella ran back towards the holo table and instantly switched the cameras.
Before, everyone was handling their battles with little to no trouble, but now? Despite Willaim's warning, the Rune Knights and Guild members were starting to have trouble with those who had their magic doubled and were basically immune to pain.
"Hey, Bella!" Doranbolt's voice hit the com link. "Lahar and I are getting overrun here! Can you send someone else over?!"
"I heard it, sonny, I'll be there in a moment." Goldmine of Quarto Cerberus was the one who answered that. "Just point me to where they are."
Bella looked at the closet screen showing Goldmine had already defeated all his attackers. She, Wendy, and Carla were impressed at how fast the guild master handled it, but the Rune Knight quickly gave out the instructions. "Yes, they are northwest of you by half a mile! Please hurry!"
"Always in such a rush you young ones are. Damn, I'm getting old." At least one of them was obviously having fun.
"D-Do they need help?" Bella couldn't help at smile how adorable Wendy was at trying to be brave.
"They can obviously handle it! There's no need for you to go out there!" Wendy's cat friend, Carla if she heard once, chastised the young girl.
"She is right, we're safer here."
Those words rung true for only two seconds.
Alarms reactivated, the room turned back to red, and Bella hurried back towards the controls, only for the lights all shut off and darkness prevailed in the room.
In the midsts of the silence, the girls in the room looked towards the main corridor. They couldn't even see anything beyond the deep blackness because of the lack of light, but they knew something or someone was coming.
"Wendy," Bella's tone was emotionless, but even in the dark the small girl could see her gaze narrowing. "Go to the back exit. Keep running and when you're safe, call the others."
"M-Ms. Solaris?"
"I said go!" Bella walked forward towards the main entrance, standing guard and facing an invisible enemy.
"Come on, Wendy!" Carla grabbed the girl's hand and ran through the back doors. Wendy Marvel could only stare back with horror and hope that Ms. Solaris would make it.
As soon as the two left through the door, something came in and slammed Bella into the floor.
"Huh, you're definitely not her." Racer spoke as he pushed his palm down on the head of Bella. "But guessing with how the Rune Knights recruited everyone, you must know where she is."
"Racer, go check the other rooms." Another voice came from the darkness before a green, pale light was seen.
"Brain!" Bella harshly gasped as Racer got off her and ran towards the back room. The Rune Knight got back up and a golden color accumulated in her hands. However, she soon realized something: why was he alone?
"Too late." A voice came from beside her before her world was sent reeling.
To her credit, rolled into a kneel and fired a blast at her attacker. Cobra of Ocracion Seis jinked to the side with his snake. "You're pretty sturdy. I heard some of the Rune Knights had special magic-resitant items."
Bella felt the air turn dry and jumped back to see a strike of sand where she once was. As she looked up, the rest of Oracion Seis were coming in.
"Seeing all this technology… it makes me feel nostalgic." Brain began as he walked towards the cracked table.
Bella knew the situation was getting worse with each second, but she had to hope that—
A girlish scream was heard behind the doors, and Bella's heart sank.
Before a blink, Racer came in, holding an unconscious girl hanging on his arms. "I found her, Brain." The speedster called out.
A smile appeared on the face of Brain as he saw the little girl. "Perfect. Now we can begin."
"I won't let you!" Bella screamed out loud as she gathered energy.
A flash of light was seen then Bella's energy died instantly. The woman looked down and saw a hole where her heart used to be.
Brain, whose hand was smoking, slowly put it down and scoffed. "I am very aware that some Rune Knights have special anti-magical clothes, but I know which energies they aren't immune to. Goodbye, Ms. Solaris, know that others will follow you."
The woman's eyes fell to Wendy before the light of her eyes faded and she fell to the ground, soon into a pool of her own blood.
Brain turned to everyone else. "Now then, let's show our attackers who exactly we're dealing with."
Kain was getting sick and tired of these guys. Their magic power might have risen, but what was really annoying was that they weren't staying down no matter how hard they were beaten down.
If that wasn't worse, Natsu's stamina was draining fast. Every fight with Erigor was draining him despite all the time he beat him. Now? The dragon slayer was gasping for breath as he looked up towards the wind reaper who smiled with all the intensity of Lucifer.
"This time, it'll be you who loses your life, fly!" Erigor cried out as a burst of wind exploded from him. Natsu made a move—but his aching muscles caused him to stop and kneel to the ground.
The attack hit—a golden orb before exploding. As the dust settled, Kain removed Horus' transforming weapon as it turned from a wall back into a normal shield.
"You alright, Natsu?" Kain tried to hide the growing fear in his voice, but at the last second his voice might have cracked and stammered.
"I can totally take him!" The Dragon Slayer stood up before noticing the mages Kain was fighting slowly encircling the two Fairy Tail members. The two stood back to back once more as the thugs slowly surrounded them.
Kain really, really wanted to run away, but he also knew Natsu would rather not do that. A conflict between him and once of his new best friends wouldn't help them at all. Luckily, years of studying have taught him there are always more than a few options. "Well what you're doing isn't working, so we need to try a different approach."
Even through the armor, Kain could feel Natsu's body relax in a good way. "Well, buddy, what kinda cool plan do you have to get out of this situation?"
"You two flies aren't going anywhere!" Erigor yelled as he flew over them. "We're going to kill you and make you feel every single ounce of pain and agony that makes mine look absolutely minuscule!"
And then Kain's eyes widened. "Wait! Say that again!'
That seemed to confuse everyone around them, including Natsu. Erigor only laughed—which got old far too fast—in response. "What? Are you too gripped with fear?"
Better fear than instantly like you. It took a lot for Kain not to accidentally blurt that. "You said you'd make us feel pain?"
"Of course! I want you both to suffer for ruining my life!" The wind mage cried out.
Anyone would have been afraid of Erigor after making that threat, and unleashing a powerful burst of magic, showing that he would not only be true to it, but even his words couldn't capture what he was about to do.
However, Kain was smiling behind his helm. Natsu could tell this as he tilted his visor to him.
"Natsu, I have a plan."
The Dragon Slayer gave a huge, grin. The sound of those words were like music to his heightened senses, and he wasn't usually into that. "About time!"
Kain turned back and sighed. "Really? You have no idea how stressful it is to always be the plan guy-dammit!" The crimson rider screamed as he put away his blade and reached for inside his cape.
Erigor screamed as he saw that, he rushed in but Kain raised up several spheres in his hand and threw them hard into the ground, causing a bright flash of light that blinded the attackers. As the light faded, the two Fairy Tail mages were gone.
"Did those flies, run!?" One of them cried out.
"Right here, punks!" They all looked over to see Natsu and Kain a few feet away from them. "There's no way we're running from you guys! We were just reposting!"
"Natsu, the word you're looking for is repositioning, reposting is basically you writing another flier and putting it up on the board again." The weapon of Horus turned into a staff that Kain twirled into a fighting stance. "But that's for later, you know the plan this time, right?"
Flames lit up in Natsu's fist. "Oh yeah. Definitely."
Erigor snarled when he saw the confident look on Natsu's face again. "Haven't you learned anything?! We can't feel pain and our magic is doubled!"
"Thank you for that, Captain Obvious, would you like a gold star for being such a good boy?" Now Kain had no reason to reign in his sarcasm.
Erigor screamed with anger as he rushed right for the two. The two young men rushed in as well with Kain throwing something that exploded and caused a pink, gooey substance to get caught into Erigor's face.
Due to his lack of sight, he failed to see the foot using his face as a jumping off point with Kain reaching the climax of his jump and throwing a sword beam blast that exploded and threw a dust cloud right in front of the other criminals.
Natsu rushed in, knowing where everyone else was with his senses.
Natsu, listen to me because their senses will come back soon, aim for their joints. They may not feel pain, but breaking these will stop them from moving.
That was all Kain said before they moved away to get a better position to attack. Natsu rushed in for the first guy and kicked the guy's knee with enough force for it to break. The guy didn't feel the blow, but he instantly dropped to the ground due to his lack of balance.
Natsu then worked on the others while the cloud was still up.
Erigor finally removed the goo off his face and blew away the dust, to his surprise, there was only one of his allies left—that both Natsu and Kain closed in and punched/smashed his kneecaps, causing the sound of bones breaking to be heard in stereo and the man to fall into the ground like a worm dropped into dry land.
Erigor looked at his back up, all who while not groaning in pain, were struggling to move as some of their limbs were bent and broken in ways that should not have been broken and all were doing their best impressions of turtles that fell on their shell.
Natsu and Kain looked over to Erigor. As the flames soon came up to them, Natsu inhaled, gathering all the flames into his mouth and unleashing a heavy breath after eating. "Alright then, round three, mascara man!"
A vein could be popping beneath the skin of Erigor, not that he noticed as he was consumed with thoughts of leaving both young men in a pile of liquid as red as the boy's armor.
He exploded—something else exploded in the distance. It wasn't like the blasts and fighting like before, this was a massive explosion that created a mushroom cloud in the distance.
As the remaining people looked on, Kain seemed to remember that direction. "That's where the base was!"
"Our friends!" Natsu yelled out as he ran back. Kain was surprised but followed after him as well, speeding after his dragon slayer friend once more.
Erigor could only stare as the two ran off. "What?"
The air suddenly got worse and those still struggling to move suddenly found it hard to breathe as the winds around Ergior started to escalate.
"My time for revenge, my time to win… and you two get so EASILY DISTRACTED!?" In a blast of wind that scattered everything around Erigor, ally and trees alike, leaving an empty field with Erigor breathing erratically with his eyes looking bloodshot.
"Fairy Tail," His tone sounded different, not a single octave sounded unstrained and he could have been confused as a demon. "I will crush you with my own hands!"
Natsu and Kain reached the HQ, which by now was just a smoldering pile of ash and debris.
"Natsu, eat the flames!" The dragon slayer heard the wyvern rider's voice and made a move to inhale the fire among the debris.
"Can you smell anyone?"
Natsu sniffed the air and then jumped some distance before starting to dig. Kain did so as well, and after a bit, they had spotted a familiar white cat under some stones.
"Hey, it's that white Happy!" Kain said nothing at how racist that sounded.
"Natsu, anyone else?"
He pointed towards beneath an ashen debris that Kain removed, no sooner than he did through, his eyes widened. "It's one of the rune knights, the lady one. ... She's dead." The boy felt for a pulse on the neck, but as he suspected there wasn't any.
The sound of a snarl caused Kain to look at his friend who was clenching his fist tightly. "Who did this?!"
The two young men heard the sound of laughter and looked up, seeing Cobra, Racer and Hot Eye. Three of the Oracion Seis were right in front of them!
"That would be us!" Racer taunted as he folded his arms and looked down on us. "Brain was right on the money: there would be some mages to check on their debris."
Cobra cackled while petting his pet snake. "I'm kinda disappointed, only the Salamander is here? Not even one of the S-class mages came here yet." He shrugged his shoulders. "Oh well, I wanna see how a Dragon Slayer fights anyway."
"You." Kain blinked as he was handed the cat and saw steam coming out of Natsu's mouth. "Which one of you killed her?"
"Brain, but it's not like it mattered, she was too weak anyway! But I do wonder how much Rune Knights are paid." The blocky-faced Hot Eye declared. However, Kain didn't know why but that member of the Oracion Seis looked familiar.
"Bastards!" Natsu blasted off before Kain could warn him not to. Natsu, with a flaming fist akin to wild fire tried to punch Cobra, only for the snake and his mage to easily avoid the attack.
"I can hear everything!" Cobra cockily declared as he sidestepped another punch and Sparta kicked Natsu the instant he dodged. The force of the attack
Kain noticed something off: that dodge looked almost—he didn't get to finish as he jumped back from Racer who came in faster than he expected and tried to kick his face.
"Huh, not bad kid!" The speedster almost sounded impressed. "But I'm the fastest man alive!"
"By any chance are you named Barry Allen?" Said the fastest and dumbest mouth alive, but the rest of Kain's mind was at least smart enough to start avoiding the speedster as he started to attack. However, Kain noticed right away that he was far faster than him or anyone he met. The wyvern rider raised one of his arms from protecting the white, injured, and talking cat and Horus' Weapon transformed into a shield to block a kick that had the weight of a monster truck that sent him flying back.
Kain looked back up, only to feel the ground beneath turned liquid. The young man fell until his legs were buried before the ground re-solidified. While still protecting the cat, he looked towards his right to spot Hot Eye pointing at him. "Oh ho! Yes! Killing you and taking that armor would sell for a king's ransom!"
The red rider didn't have time as he noticed Racer heading right for him. Using Horus' weapon he changed the form into that off a bubble surrounding him and the cat of the girl—Kain's eyes widened when that thought finally came to him and as Racer started pounding on the bubble. "Where's Wendy!?"
The girl from Caitshelter was with the other two in the tower! Kain had forgotten due to the memory of Erigor coming back to him, but he forgot about the little girl that was originally here! They saw the cat, the rune knight, but not her!
"Huh? Wendy?" Racer stopped for a second and looked down on Kain. Then his cocky smile returned. "Oh? You mean the little girl? Brain has special plans for her."
Natsu, hearing this as he got back up from Cobra knocking him back down for like the third time heard this and looked towards Kain.
Cobra himself stopped and turned towards the red rider. His eyes widened as his ears twitched. "Hey, Racer! Look out!"
The speedster was confused at his ally's tone, but that proved to be a bad mistake. Out of the ground Kain's cape busted out like the undead with all of it's unholy presence. Racer was caught off guard for half a moment, which was fatal in a battle of speedsters as Kain slammed into him, pinned him down with his free hand clamping like a vice grip around Racer's neck. "WHERE DID YOU TAKE HER!?" For an instant, with the power of his volume, the rage, and his read armor, Racer swore he saw a demon straight out of hell in Kain.
Natsu actually froze and stared at his best friend from another world. Kain never showed this side of himself before, what had caused him to be so… the Dragon Slayer realized something. When Wendy first appeared, Kain was also focusing so much on her, but it felt different as to why he felt a familiar connection to her.
"Racer!" Hot Eye and Cobra cried out. Hot Eye began gathering magic, only to use it to defend himself as a fast, sword beam came his way.
Cobra rushed for his ally and used his ears. However, like a hundred words overlapping each other, all of them thinking solely on the safety of the girl that they had captured.
However, Racer managed to slam his fist into the side. This caused a motor bike to rush in and slam right into the red rider. However, while it got him off, with one swipe of Horus' weapon turned into a blade, the red motor bike was cut in half with both pieces flying off and exploding behind the rider who only had eyes on rider.
"WHERE IS SHE!?" Kain gave inhuman scream.
"Damn, what the hell? There was nothing to suggest he was like this!" Racer cried out.
Kain felt a shadow cast over him and saw a large wave of Earth swallow him whole. Racer looked toward Hot Eye. "Thanks, I wasn't expecting him to make me use my bikes."
"Kain!" Natsu shouted while trying to attack Cobra. But the snake wizard sighed and avoided the blow and tried to kick—Cobra's eyes widened with alarm as he stopped his attack and jumped back, avoiding a sudden punch with a burst of speed and white flame encased around the Dragon Slayer's fist. Natsu was on the offensive this time, Cobra was barely dodging the attacks even though he knew where they were coming.
Cobra was once on the defensive, but his snake, Cubellios, saw an opening and tried to bite on the Dragon Slayer. However, this move proved to be bad as Natsu moved faster and kicked the snake away.
"Cubellios!" Cobra yelled before glaring at Natsu. A second later, Racer slammed his fist into Natsu's cheek and sent him flying.
"Cobra, these two are stronger than we thought!" Both Racer and Cobra felt the earth rumble before Kain punched out of the ground, imitating his unholy rise like before.
"TELL ME WHERE SHE IS YOU BASTARDS!" Kain screamed before the ground behind him rose and slammed him back down.
The two looked to Hot Eye. "If any of the others are this strong, we're going to need to regroup. The plan to close them all in isn't going to work now without reinforcements!"
"How long until reinforcements do come in our end?" Racer turned to Cobra as Natsu got back up again, angrier than before.
Cobra's ears twitched. "They're coming, but here comes some of their side! Hot Eye, 65 degrees to your right!"
The blocky member acted fast and summoned a pillar of softened earth. Two smaller objects flew and hit the tidal wave of earth, the instant it did, specialized symbols appeared and made the wave harmlessly appear.
Cobra and Racer felt shadows descend over them. If it was anyone else, if it was anyone else but a mind reader and a speedster, the attackers from above would have been successful, but Cobra jumped to the side as Racer sped away from bullets hitting the ground they were and runes appearing where they hit the ground.
The two attackers landed, revealing Doranbolt and Lahar. "Fairy Tail, where is Bella Solaris?" Lahar was now wielding two pistols, but each pistol had multiple glowing symbols across it.
Natsu wasn't expecting those two to be the ones to save them.
"Hey, wait..." Doranbolt looked past the fire dragon slayer, towards a corpse not to far from him that had a hole in her chest. "D-Damn it! She's dead?!"
"Doranbolt," Lahar raised his hand with one of his guns in front of his ally. "Casualties are part of the mission, take down the Oracion Seis!"
"What!? How could you say that about your own friend!?" Natsu yelled out towards Lahar, who glared in response.
"She died because you couldn't wait and listen to orders! I should have kicked you out of this mission if I knew you would be such a maverick!" Lahar stepped towards Natsu, meeting up his gaze.
The broke out again, revealing Kain cradling the white cat in his arms. "Okay! As cool as it is to be strong enough to do that three times straight, I'm getting sick and tired of being treated like buried treasure!" He looked over towards the others and flew towards them.
"Lahar, Doranbolt, you need to help us! The Oracion Seis captured Wendy!" The armored person began.
"And you!" Lahar screamed and pointed towards the rider. "If it wasn't for you, none of the others would have left!"
Doranbolt could only step back as Natsu butted in and started screaming at Lahar, who screamed back at him, and then Kain came in to defend his friend, causing a three way argument between them. Doranbolt paled as he realized that this wasn't looking good at all.
"Great more of them. At least they seem to be arguing with each other." Racer regrouped with Cobra and Hot Eye. "Just two of them proved to be annoying."
"It seems we underestimated them. Using even half of our power at the start wouldn't have put us in this state." Hot Eye spoke out.
Cobra turned behind them and sighed. "Don't worry, our back up is just about to arrive."
Doranbolt looked towards the Oracion Seis and his eyes widened in alarm. "Guys!?"
The three who were argue stopped and turned to see a massive amount of reinforcements race behind the three Oracion Seis members.
Doranbolt and Lahar had their ear devices start to glow. The one who with a crew cut seemed to be talking on the other end. "Retreat? The enemies are having reinforcements?! Darn, the base is destroyed… and Bella is..."
"Yes sir." The Doranbolt looked towards the other two. "Hold on to my hand, we're retreating."
"What!?" Natsu and Kain both yelled out.
"Stop them!" Cobra's voice shouted and Lahar shot the ground between the four of them and the now over 100 group of mages. The runes on the ground beneath started to glow and soon a barrier was erected that rose in time to even stop Racer from reaching them. However, it didn't stop the others from using multiple magical blasts on the barrier and it soon started to crack easily as the many attacks piled on.
"That won't hold them for long! This time, listen to us, and retreat!" Lahar yelled as Kain and Natsu finally shut up and grabbed on to Doranbolt's hand. The mage concentrated and teleported the four of them out of the area before the barrier could break under the barrage of attacks.
Racer placed his hands in his pockets and turned towards Cobra. "Hey, where'd they go?"
"… I hear a cracking in the air because of that gunman's runes. It's interfering with my ability to hear the area properly. I can't find them anymore but that should change when things quiet down." The snake mage spoke out while petting his snake.
Racer sighed. "Well, Brain did warn us not to underestimate them. I'm not going to be the one to tell him we screwed up though."
"Not it!" Cobra spoke after Racer.
"Huh?" Hot Eye blinked and pointed to himself. "Wait, you want me to tell him we failed!?"
"You were the slow one!" Cobra chuckled before he seemed to get distracted by something. He looked behind him, towards the criminals they freed. "You all, get back to searching for Nirvana!"
With his order, the criminals all did as they were told. Cobra looked back to Hot Eye and his cocky smile returned. "Hey, don't feel bad, I'll give you twenty Jewels for it."
Hot Eye let loose a sigh and buried his hand into his face. "The things I do for money."
"… Char-Carla?" Wendy opened her eyes only to find a darkly lit room. She found herself in the middle of a magic circle and slowly rose up, clutching her hands near her chest.
"Ahh, you're awake." The blue haired girl gasped and turned behind her, seeing Brain with a glowing staff, Angel on his right and a hooded figure on his left that refused to look in her direction.
"W-Who—"
"Unfortunately, my dear, time is of the essence, and I am a very busy man. You're going to help me find Nirvana."
The small girl from Cait Shelter started to shiver. "Ni-Nirvana?"
"Your guild doesn't call it that. I believe it's other name is called," He made a flourish with his free hand. "Lakuya?"
The young girl's eyes widened and even in the darkness, everyone could feel Brain's smile grow.
"Now then, I would like to hear you sing, Wendy Marvel." Brain didn't even give Wendy a chance to move as he slammed his staff on the edge of the circle. As the magical symbol glowed with power, the hooded figure of Jellal turned away from the sight.
Unfortunately for him, he could still hear the shrieks of pain coming form the innocent girl.
~Lakuya, Lakuya~
Where shall we play?
On the field of sky flowers not seen by the day?
~Lakuya, Lakuya~
Let us dance with the snake of the pond,
and listen to her story of young.
Follow her path to the mouth of winds,
And rest on the lap of the Guardian King.
~Lakuya, Lakuya~
Do not wake him up,
Sleep with him, Lakuya, down below not above.
{Author Notes?}
Ye who stand at the maw, turn back now. This place is not for thine eyes. Change is coming, it is not one of hope and glory, but of tragedy and forgotten secrets.
Soon, a grand awakening shall encompass the land, and not even the Black Wizard or the False Dragon Gods can stop it with all their superficial might.
Does thou hear it? The blanket of stars shudder for a glimpse of what is to come has appeared.
Blood has been spilt and no longer shall it cease.