...
This chapter is dedicated to my aunt, my mother's eldest sister. Even before the Corona Pandemic, she was fighting a losing battle to cancer with her failing body.
I never knew her well, but I know enough that my mother thought the world of her and beyond. For that, I feel like thank you doesn't even begin to describe how much you might have helped shaped how my mother became such a wonderful woman she is today.
But thank you.
I dedicate this chapter to you, and those lost in the pandemic and other tragedies. I hope that this chapter reminds people that even the worst moments pass and end. I may not have control over events in life, but I choose to try to be there for someone at their worst.
In the crimson night, the mark of a spider branded the moon. Around Earthland, many saw their skies turn red while their moon became marked.
It was fitting that in the city of Vilish, the place that began this quest, was where the world would end.
Arjuna's staff was completed. It shined with an unholy light as the Prophet of The Mahika lifted the staff while atop of the very temple that once sealed him away. He learned his lesson from before. This time he waved the staff. As he did, many of the centipede constructs started to swirl around the temple until it was swallowed up in a tornado of black sand.
The temple turned into a tower with many spikes. At the very top of the tower was a large arch that looked as if it contained the entire moon from any view from below. Beneath the arch was a cocoon cage where a silver peacock and an innocent soul were restrained and weakened. They felt their life forces being drained with each passing second.
"After 500 years, The Mahika will finally return." Arjuna gasped with three overlapping voices. He raised one of his many arms to lift his staff higher. "You who call yourselves the Matika! Will you fully submit yourselves to the Mahika and the new age he will bring!?"
Ravanas' personal guard, even the former Prime Minister himself, all shouted as one. Despite the ruins of their civilization, The Mataki looked determined. They cheered in response even as traces of the city transformed into something unexplainable.
"Bathe us in your blood! Let a new world be born from the ashes of our enemies!" Ravanas exclaimed.
Energy gathered into Arjuna's staff. "Then rise!" He slammed the staff down as a wave of power cast over the Matika. As the wave passed, the Mataki were consumed by the new energies. Their skin turned into sand, and some gained new limbs and new faces. Others grew in size while some gained insect-shaped wings. Yet what was hellish were the screams. They no longer sounded human.
All the while, Éclair watched the sight before her. She couldn't help but feel guilt. She wanted was to find her home, but instead, she found hell. The Amnesiac girl found herself doing something she didn't know she could do.
She prayed.
She wasn't expecting something—or someone to answer.
Meanwhile, Mard Geer looked up to the moon while inside an elegant office. He closed the book he was reading and wondered out loud, "Even if this is stopped, why do I have a suspicion that this is nothing but the first domino to something grander?"
In the grand continent of Alakitasia, the main kingdoms huddled in fear at the sudden change in the night sky. The Alvarez Empire's greatest generals were on high alert. However, as much as they could prepare, only their emperor could move them at his word.
An elderly man entered into an empty balcony and kneeled down.
"Rise, August," A voice surrounded the area. "This is only a projection. I have not returned."
"Yet, my liege," The one known as August began, "Your call only proves this event is no small matter."
The Emperor's silence was an answer in itself. Quietly the man remembered many different forms of culture and history he read. Nearly all of their creation stories described the return of their creator by the change in the sky. He calculated. He wondered if this might be related to a personal event a fair amount of time ago?
"Master," A mage with the ability to manipulate time looked to her right. "Era has been sending over a hundred calls all throughout stations in Fiore. Their border forts at the Veronica line have been overwhelmed by a swarm of giant black centipedes. They're strangling for any help they can get. One call was interesting as it talked about conscripting Fairy Tail in the frontlines."
The master of the time mage quietly stroked his beard. The movement was the only human activity out of the inhuman aura he gave off. "Set a course for the outskirts of Magnolia. Activate our cloaking field."
Everyone else quietly understood their master wanted to observe the situation close at hand. They also knew their master was not a patient man. (Perhaps a lifetime ago...)
"It will be done, Master Hades," The time mage pointed a hand outward. "Set a course for Magnolia!"
On the opposite side of Fiore and Magnolia, beneath the surface of Otwill City, a black-scaled amphithere growled and snarled upward.
"Be calm, my friend," A gloved hand patted the head of the creature. "Relax and enjoy the show."
Max unleashed a scream that he didn't know he was holding back. The moment played back on his head: the frozen fear and the way even a demon seemed to pity him. He hesitated! All he needed to do was rip out...no... could he? ...
"DAMN IT!" Max slammed his fists on the rocks as the sand around him started to move erratically.
"Ugh, and here I was pissed off." Max looked up to see Kage sitting on a ledge above him. "We let Éclair get captured, and no one's doing a thing about it! Yeah, everyone's injured, and we got our asses handed to us, but still." The shadow mage jumped down and sighed deeply.
"Okay, let's fight."
Max stared long and hard at Kageyama even while he rolled his sleeves. "What?"
"I suck at pep talks. So I'm gonna hope those stories about people punching their feelings out is legit. I think it works for the dragon slayers."
"I'm not going to fight you!" Max declared first and stepped back.
"We're not going to use magic. Besides, we got a healer." Kageyama started to take a stance.
"That's not the—" The 'point' was interrupted by a punch right between the eyes. Max grunted before rage came over him. The sand mage rushed for Kageyama. However, Kageyama avoided the punches. The shadow mage stepped back and decked Max in the right cheek. However, Max's footing prevented the punch from going through. Then he quickly landed a heavy blow onto Kage's stomach.
Then they went into a full-blown slugfest. After a few minutes, Levy and Jeremiah found the two outside the cave punching each other out.
"What are you two idiots doing!?" Levy had strong lungs despite her short size.
The two looked over to her in a somewhat awkward position: Kageyama grabbed on to Max's neck while Max froze a second before he was about to unleash a headbutt after grabbing Kage's shoulders.
"Wendy's already tired healing everyone, and the few somewhat decent people suddenly start beating each other up!?" The girl continued.
"H-He started it!" Max pointed over to Kage.
"To be fair, I do feel much better now." The shadow mage was a little more relaxed despite him losing feeling in one of his eyes.
"Ugh! Get in! We have one last shot at stopping the Mahika!" Levy groaned before motioning the two back into their impromptu base of operations.
As the sand and shadow mage started to walk, Max felt... well, he still felt like shit. But he felt more focused than before despite the throbbing headache. "Kage, thanks."
The shadow mage looked back up at the red night sky. "Don't thank me yet. We gotta live through this next part."
After being healed, and a few sharp complaints from Carla, Fairy Tail was now ready for one last briefing.
"Okay, so bad news: Arjuna now has his full staff. And by the sky, he's going to try and bring back the Mahika. And unlike 500 years ago, we don't have an army of elite soldiers, a god-like spirit, nor a legion of dragons to help us stop it." Kain inhaled deeply. "God, why does anime have to be so over-the-top?" He whispered that last part before shaking his head. "I do hope we have some good news, or else we might have to start worshipping centipedes."
"I guess I'll start us off." Jeremiah walked up and pulled something from a re-equip hammerspace. It was an elaborate silver lance. "When I was spending time with Horus during our re-animation, he once mentioned a city here in Veronica. It's the lead that I followed while all of you went to find the second piece. I assumed that was where the third piece was. Instead, I came across another secret faction."
Everyone started to groan.
"As I was saying," Jeremiah continued, "They were a faction that was created after the defeat of the first Mahika. They called themselves the Moon Phoenix Guild."
"A guild!?" Natsu gasped as everyone heard that new development.
"They're more of a mercenary guild because over the years they've been underfunded against their wishes. Now, we all found out Ravanas was doing that on purpose. The guild is only 100 people strong, but they have magic purely based on the manipulation of silver. As soon as the moon turned red, they knew their mission, and they're gathering whoever they can to face Arjuna. Annaprunda, their guild master, told me that they could handle the swarms and traitors as long as we could handle Carbuncle and Arjuna."
"100 people, I guess that's better than nothing," Nab muttered out loud.
"I wouldn't count them out, Nab. While you were fighting in the temple, Arjuna sent a contingency of those blasted centipedes after the guild. Even with me helping, we must have destroyed hundreds of those Centepedes before they finally let up. They've dedicated their lives to fight anything from the Mahika."
Fairy Tail welcomed these last-minute allies.
"When are we meeting with these guys?" Gajeel, who was leaning on a wall, asked.
Jeremiah held up a cube. "This will light up when they begin their attack. I can get us close enough for us to launch a flank on Arjuna. Just like before, we'll need to steal Arjuna's staff back."
"Why are we stealing Arjuna's staff?" Bisca asked before she slapped her head. "Duh! I forgot that Loke said Horus stole it and used it to seal the Mahika back the first time."
"That's right," Loke himself walked up to Jeremiah. "But Moon Phoenix isn't our only new help. The moment I found out Arjuna returned, The Celestial Spirit King created this," He took out an elaborate silver and golden orb that was the size of a football/soccer ball. "This container has a specialized piece of the Celestial King's magic. It can give an object a boost of celestial spirit magic."
"Ooh! That sounds like it'll pack a wallop! I've got a few guns in mind that could use the power boost!"
Loke gave a sad smile. "Sorry, Bisca, I can only give one object a boost."
Lucy pointed over to Kain. "How about using it on Kain's armor? It is the best weapon around."
"It won't work on Kain's armor. Its magical resistance might waste the blessing rather than get upgraded by it."
"So what do we use it on? Anyone else got a big idea?" As Kageyama asked this, Levy briefly wondered about Pierre's dagger.
However, Natsu perked up. "Ah! Loke that thing turns anything to a weapon, right?"
The Leader of the Celestial Spirits nodded. "Well, I wouldn't word it like that, but yes."
The fire dragon slayer turned over to Jeremiah. "Hey! Can ya teleport us back to the silver place!?"
Jeremiah nodded with confusion. Kain felt a chill go down his spine for some unexplained reason. Whatever Natsu was planning, it couldn't be worse than the end of the world...
... Could it?
Fairy Tail moved with purpose and speeds they had only seen when riding atop of Ignis. Their destination? Vilish, the city that started this cross-country-adventure. Their goal? To ambush Arjuna and steal back the staff to re-seal the Mahika or preferably stop it from being summoned in the first place. Their plan?
...
Nab Lasaro was rather impressed with the recent turn of events. "I have to admit, Natsu, I never thought you'd come up with something so clever."
"Haha! Yeah—wait!? Ya wanna go, Nab!?" Perhaps it wasn't the wisest idea to provoke the most battle-excited mage within the country.
Then again, it was almost fitting that in the potential end of the world, Fairy Tail still found time to goof off.
"I don't get it!" Lucy screamed before pointing towards Gajeel and Natsu. "How are you two not affected by this?! Did Wendy use that motion-sickness spell!? We're in a vehicle!"
"No, we're not," Gajeel folded his arms. "The lion guy said that rob turned things into weapons. So this ain't a vehicle anymore, its a weapon."
Lucy gave an exasperated look before motioning to where they currently were. "How is a magic tour bus considered a weapon!?"
Previously, Natsu had everyone teleport back to the temple with silver land. When they returned, he told Loke to use the blessing on the ruined tour bus they stole. The blessing restored the stolen automobile and changed it to a far more celestial and heavenly design. It might have also given the inanimate machine a conscious as its headlights turned to eyes. However, it was not capable of speaking, yet could make sounds with its pistons and engines. As a blessed artifact, the bus now gained the ability to turn invisible... and fly.
Indeed, it was a magic tour bus.
"If I was in my world, I'd be one word away from the most embarrassing copyright lawsuit in the world." Kain, while sitting in the driver's seat, muttered all of that within one breath. It was at that point the Tour Bus started to 'talk' to them.
Natsu perked up. "Huh? Okay! Gogo is saying we're almost to our destination!"
"You named it Gogo? You can understand it!?" Kageyama rubbed his eyes after wrapping his mind at the possibility that Natsu could understand magic, sentient vehicles.
"Gogo!?" Wendy gasped and clapped her hands together with a smile. "That's a cute name!"
"Jeremiah, Loke," Kain spoke up to try to mitigate his rising headache. "The cloaking magic for this bus," He was interrupted by a very indignant-sounding piston noise. "Will... Gogo... why...," He inhaled. "Will Gogo's cloaking magic work on Arjuna? Or will he sense us as we get closer?" Kain's patience was being unreasonably tested.
I mean seriously, he's trying to save the world!? Why is it still giving him the middle finger!?
"Arjuna will no doubt sense us. But on the plus side, it'll be easier for me to teleport Fairy Tail in proper position from a shorter distance." Jeremiah responded.
"I can give a proper estimate. He'll sense us when we get within 5 miles of the city outskirts." Loke answered Kain's question.
Kain mused those facts. "To be honest, I'm still sore from the fight we had a while ago. This time, our opponents are beyond their full strength." He turned and shouted, "Everyone! As usual, the odds are stacked against us, but this time might be a bit more than even we can handle. That is why we'll be doing what I call a Smash-and-Grab tactic. Jeremiah will signal The Moon Phoenix guild to attack. While they're attracting the attention of Arjuna, we'll swoop in from the sky and flank them. We need to move fast and hard to catch them off guard, steal the staff away from Arjuna, and leave with Éclair. We're going to split off in groups: Kage, Levy, and Momon, you three are in charge of getting Éclair out of whatever prison she's in. Bisca, you'll stay atop of the bu...Gogo's roof; from there, you can give us air support and suppressive fire wherever you think needs it the most. Wendy, stay inside. When you think someone needs healing, you can drop down in a safer area and move to heal whoever you think needs it, but make sure Pla is supporting you wherever you are. As for everyone else, we're on the offensive. I want everyone to find anyone from Arjuna's inner circle and blindside them harder than the chairs and tables that fly around in our guild." As Kain glanced over to Max, he sighed. "And this may be a bit tasteless, but our enemies are incredibly powerful, and our time is short before they bring a fallen god back into the world. That is why I won't blame anyone if they use lethal force."
Everyone in Fairy Tail saw Kain looking very solemn. Then, everyone but Wendy and Carla realized that Kain did kill someone to save all of them. However, Max found this idea a little worse. Kain wasn't a mage at all, let alone a warrior! But when it came right down to it, Kain could do what needed to be done to save countless more lives when Max hesitated and got them into this mess in the first place!
There was a suffocating silence until Kain sighed. "The basics of this attack is simple. Move fast, hit hard, escape ASAP. We'll need to be quick and quiet. No, distractions."
A giant silver explosion disagreed with the lawyer.
The explosion collided with another power. The tremors of the clash caused Gogo to start shaking even though they were flying in the air. Kain quickly grabbed the wheel and tried to stabilize the flying machine.
"Please tell me that's the Moon Phoenix Guild." Kain asked as everyone crowded the front.
"No, they would have sent a signal if they were attacking now." Jeremiah held the inactive device in his palm.
The three dragon slayers perked up. "Whoa," Gajeel pointed forward. "I think there's a dragon up ahead."
"A Dragon? Here?" Bisca asked. "At this time and place?"
"This magical pressure feels a lot like Mr. Atlas Flames, but... the output is so strong..." Wendy added along. "I think I sense another familiar power in the air." Everyone but Kain felt Arjuna's aura spiking in the distance.
"Wait, this is perfect!" Kageyama screamed out. "If Arjuna himself is handling a dragon, we can save Éclair easier!"
Kain supposed this was good news.
Natsu's eyes widened. "The dragon's magic level! It's suddenly taking a nosedive! It's still amazingly strong, but there's no way that guy to last long against Arjuna! He might die!" He turned to Kain. "We gotta save him!"
"What!? No! This is our best chance to save Éclair! We can't waste this moment!"
Kageyama and Natsu stared at each other before looking back at the driver's seat.
"KAIN!?" They both yelled.
The lawyer was getting a headache. To be honest, the newcomer dragon gave them a new opportunity to finally make things easier for Fairy Tail to win without overwhelming odds stacked against them. The stakes this time were too high. They couldn't hope to waste time trying to save a dragon when they needed to stop the return of a Fallen God! They could barely fight a powerful dark wizard without power boosts! How on earth could they fight something even more than that!? Not to mention, if they did things right, they might be able to save everyone if the dragon takes the brunt of Arjuna's powered-up state.
There were so many reasons why they should continue their plan and ignore the dragon.
Wendy seemed to wonder something. She shyly asked, "D-Do you think this dragon knows where Grandeeney is?"
Kain closed his eyes and felt a migraine. The lawyer groaned before he stomped on the accelerator.
"Of all the blasted times for a moral choice to come up! Guys, change of plans!"
Arjuna battled with this stranger that came before them. Even with his power restored, this newcomer had power that could rival his own. In a way, it almost felt like it came from a god. It mattered little. The Mahika would return this night, and he would make sure that none would stop him this time.
He clashed with his opponent, blowing away several remaining buildings and some centipedes. As the dust settled, his many eyes focused on his opponent, a gorgeous woman with an elegant kimono. Her eyes were like moonlight but held as much power as the moon itself.
"I must admit, Prophet, you fight well." Arjuna's opponent spoke with an alluring and sultry voice. "Why serve a fallen god, when you can serve a new one?"
Ah.
Under the bloodied sky, Arjuna moved the hand that held his staff. "You claim yourself a god? I admit your power is vast," He stepped forward; his staff glowed with a darker light than his opponent. "Yet, my eyes witnessed what you have long disregarded." Arjuna watched the female stranger give the slightest of tenses that only the sharpest could have spotted. "You were once human. No amount of power will ever change that."
Arjuna's enemy scowled before the demon heard her scoff at him. "Ha! You were also once mortal."
Arjuna motioned around him: the endless centipedes, the rising power, the way the sky started to crack like falling glass, and the temple exuding energies time had not seen in ages. "I never denied my mortality. I loathed it to the point of damning all who has had and will ever have it."
He looked up to her and simply said, "Why do you think we're standing here now?"
The newcomer was silent for a second. "I am here because you are a threat to my plans. I did not wait nearly 4 centuries to have my plans usurped by the return of an old god!" At that moment, the newcomer unleashed a magic force capable of wiping out an entire city off the map.
A shame that firepower like that paled against Arjuna at the height of his power. The demon stabbed the ground in front of him with his staff. When he did, a river of blood erected and took the brunt of the attack. When the attack ended, Arjuna walked towards the blood wall, which parted away for him. He spotted sweat starting to fall on the face of his opponent.
"Your magic," Arjuna lowered the river of blood. "Is like that of a dragon's. Yet your element is that of the moon, isn't it?" When his opponent became silent once more, Arjuna went on. "You have come to the one place and time where moonlight is tainted. Your massive powers are being stinted and drained. I suspect this is the first time in a long time you're being weakened."
"I do not need all of my power to finish off you and your followers." The newcomer declared with finality.
Arjuna turned his middle face towards her. With a neutral but serious tone, he asked, "Can you say the same thing as my god, The Mahika, returns to the physical realm?"
The female grunted and blasted Arjuna as her answer. However, Arjuna did nothing to defend himself as he took the attack head-on.
...
"Your power is vast," Arjuna's echoing voice came through while the smoke disappeared. "But no human can match the power of an old god no matter how much they pretend to be one."
It was at that moment, the female with dragon magic heard that last word right behind her. She mentally cursed herself for letting her guard down before she was blindsided with a blow strong enough to create a shockwave. Because of the circumstances, she felt pain she had not felt in a long time. When she opened her eyes, she spotted Arjuna falling down on her with the intent to crush his heel down on her face. She hesitated too much, and wouldn't move in time to avo—
Something slammed into Arjuna's backside with enough force to crash him into a giant centipede and cause both of them to topple over.
The woman in a kimono looked up. She saw a knight in red armor wearing a helmet that had the design of a wyvern. The armored knight sighed and raised a hand to her.
"Lady, I have no idea who you are," The knight helped her up while she was still stupefied. She noticed he was much younger and smaller than she thought. "But, you have the worst timing in the blasted world."
A spike of power caused the woman to look back and spot Arjuna focusing all his eyes at the newcomer.
"Descendant of Horus!" "Aww, come on! I am not—" I will not make the same mistake years ago!" Arjuna raised his staff to slam it back down on the ground. When he did, the centipede he crashed into split into 13 pieces and formed into construct-clones of Arjuna. Behind Kain and the newcomer, a pillar of blood erupted and out jumped 13 more clones of Arjuna. This time they were blood constructs instead of black sand constructs.
The two, by instinct, took a battle stance with their back facing one another. The lawyer noticed this dragon slayer was drop-dead gorgeous, almost goddess-like. Then again, he reminded himself he was in an anime world. Everyone but himself was a supermodel.
"It seems we have a common enemy," The silver-haired beauty spoke with a voice as smooth and elegant as the Kimono she wore. "How would you like to partner up with me, Mr. Knight~?"
Kain sighed. "Well, if you take on Arjuna most of the time with your massive energy, then yes! Because last time, he kicked my ass."
The woman huffed. "For someone of Anhur's bloodline, you're far more vulgar than I imagined."
"Oh, for the love of! My name is Kain Reynolds!" The lawyer screamed as they were surrounded.
"You may call me Selene, Kain," The gorgeous woman introduced herself before the constructs of Arjuna let loose fearsome roars. Then they all rushed for the wyvern night and the dragon slayer. "Show me the strength from the lineage of Ishgar's first hero!"
The two broke off to meet their enemies.
Meanwhile, atop the temple/tower, Carbuncle, Ravanas, and his followers watched the battle unfold. They spotted the appearance of Fairy Tail's lawyer and knew this only meant one thing.
"If the descendant is here, so too are the others!" Ravanas' new distorted and echoing voice screamed. "Find them! They must not stop the draining process of the unbreaking!"
Soon everyone started to look around. A shame demons forgot the ability to look up. If one did, they would have seen a collection of long-range blasts raining down on them like carpet bombers. Fairy Tail, usually known for its chainsaw-like destruction, moved with the precision of a scalpel. They targeted areas that knocked the guards off the tower edges and forced Arjuna's main core to separate from Éclair's cocoon cell.
For Dyst and Ravanas, Natsu and Gajeel attacked fist-first. The former Prime Minister and the Leader of Carbuncle wouldn't have handled the surprise blows in their human forms, but they were no longer human.
"A rematch, chosen of the dragons!?" Dyst summoned the black sand to form six swords that each of his new hands picked up. Not only that, but the soldiers that were blasted away also started to climb back up. "You did not defeat us when we were weakened! Now, we have an army at our beck and call while you are all alone! What makes you think you can harm us now!?"
Dyst rushed for Natsu with all his left hands raised to bring down on the Fire Dragon Slayer. Wait, why did his opponent just stand there and smirk?
As Dyst closed the distance, a flash of silver appeared before him. The moment he was blinded, he felt pain and the fact he was being warded back again.
Jeremiah walked up out of his teleportation circle, bringing in a hundred warriors of the Moon Phoenix guild. All soldiers were dressed in silver robed hoods, which hid their faces. They all wielded spears with ornate bows slung across their body.
"The cavalry has arrived!" Jeremiah exclaimed as all of Moon Phoneix moved as one well-oiled machine. They pointed their lances down and met with Arjuna's forces.
Amidst the full-blown battle, Kage, Levy, and Momon landed near the cocoon-cell of their friend.
"Really!? Are you trying to go for some Earthland record where you get captured by ancient, magic lunatics!?" The shadow mage started to use his unsealing power on the seal. "At least don't choke my neck the next time I bring you out, okay?!"
"You gotta get her outta there!" Momon screamed.
"I'm working on it, duck!"
Coordinator saw what Kageyama was doing. She fought away several of the Moon Phoenix warriors. She looked up to the cage that held the reincarnation and attempted to...
"Regulus Impact!" A powerful light attack in the shape of a lion almost clamped its fangs down on the female demon.
"Ah?' Coordinator's voice dragged as the smoke of the attack faded. Loke walked forward with a glare that held the hatred of two lifetimes in them. However, the demoness continued, "Your form is different, but I recognize the magic. We never did meet in battle, did we, Lion King?"
"This battle is personal," Loke spoke low as his fists started to gather light. "I"m not making the same mistake as I did before."
"That means he's not fighting alone!" Lucy and Wan ran up from behind Loke.
Coordinator's many eyes fell on Lucy. "You think yourself entitled to revenge, Lion King? As long as a celestial mage lives, my shame shall never be erased!" She unleashed a layered scream before her arms tore through tears in the air then ripped out demonized version of her weapons. She rushed for Lucy with berserker rage while Lion and Wolf mage moved to intercept.
Chase moved through the warriors and raced towards the cocoon to stop Kageyama and Levy. However, he suddenly moved to the right to avoid a sniper shot that would have hit him even submerged in shadows. Then, more sniper fire rained down on the masked demon, forcing him back to the surface. Even reaching the surface proved to be unsafe as a bolt of lightning attempted to strike the masked demon where he stood. A being of electricity in the shape of a hawk cawed. It then flew to Nab and perched atop of his totem staff. "Tesla, iknulzura." "Nabi, ikunulzura."
"Hate. You. Kill. You." Chase's voice echoed, overlapped over himself, and was muffled by his mask. He looked up and spotted Bisca atop of a flying bus and shooting from a moving vantage point. Chase shot three of his arms that turned into shadows and reached for Bisca despite her speed and height. However, an English Sheepdog jumped in front of her and erected a barrier bubble that repelled the grab attempt.
Bisca quickly shot the hands, forcing it to recede back to Chase. "Good boy!" The sniper was starting to see why a bronze spirit was so renowned among the Celestial Spirits despite being lower than silver spirits.
Meanwhile, Cannon made his way, tearing through Moon Phoenix Soldiers to get to the cocoon. However, a giant centipede cried out and fell in his path. The construct faded, but some of its sand turned silver and gathered into a sphere. Max, holding the silver sand, glared towards the acolyte of the Mahika.
"You could have fled." There was a strange softness in the demon's voice. "Your eyes betray the steadiness of your stance."
Max's lip started to quiver. He grunted before making the silver sand attack Cannon. The demon unleashed a powerful roar before rushing at Max at the force of an army of charging rhinos.
In the meantime, Kageyama was having no luck with trying to disable the strange prison. "Alright, I'm pulling a dragon slayer!" His idea of pulling off a 'dragon slayer' was to take out Kain's Omni Tool, turn it into a silver spear, and stab into the magical prison. Basically, he was just going to use blunt force. In his defense, Gajeel and Natsu have used blunt force to a surprising amount of efficiency. Also, the loaned weapon seemed to be making more progress than what Kage did alone.
Momon looked behind them. "Kage, look out!"
Several of Ravanas' old men bypassed everyone and reached up to Kageyama. Until they ran face-first into an invisible barrier.
Levy took out Pierre's dagger and performed one twirl with it. "Kage, how long until Éclair is free!?"
"Well, thanks to the nerd lending me the superweapon, I think she'll be out soon!" As he said this, the sky started to shatter. Everyone looked up to see bits of the sky failing while they saw something moving in the darkness behind the sky.
"Damn it, Kain!" Leo cursed hard before avoiding a massive blade meant to cut him in half. "We're running out of time! It's all on you!"
As the sky started to fail, a spatially-dispaced young man avoided a dozen laser blasts that exploded and consumed entire blocks behind him. Kain landed with a slide before rolling under Arjuna's swipe and jump-slashing his back. Mid-air, Kain summoned his wings and flew away before a magic pillar exploded around Arjuna.
"Thank you, Legend Of Zelda! And they told me you don't learn things from video games!" Kain complained before he spotted his temporary ally smashing demons left and right despite her dainty appearance. He watched her summon purple light before forming into a katana then slashing the rest of the demons like ribbons. He flew towards her and assisted her flank.
"Why thank you, Mr. Knight," The two were back to back with their weapons drawn as their enemies regrouped to surround them. "I don't usually use this type of magic, but unfortunately, under these circumstances, I need to spare as much magic energy as I can."
The two looked up and saw pieces under the sky starting to fall like a cracked window. "It appears the sky might fail before even I. Time is most assuredly not on our side."
Kain started to think. "You're a dragon, right? Can you hear me whispering this softly even among the fight?" Unfortunately for him, enemy constructs rushed for them once more.
Selene stepped forward to counter-attack before she could respond. She slashed with her blade-construct, cleaving several Arjuna clones in half. However, amid the dance of blades and blasts, Kain spotted Selene nod once towards him.
"That staff Arjuna wields, it can also re-seal The Mahika back in it's exiled dimension. We need it to save Earthland." Kain whispered while cutting down demon clones.
Selene sidestepped and unleashed several blade slashes towards Arjuna after hearing that. Arjuna used his empowered arms to slam away the three blasts. However, Selene sent a slash-beam the size of a tower towards the apostle of the Mahika. Arjuna gathered power into his staff then swung it towards the powerful energy blast. When the moon blast faded, Kain appeared behind the attack and used his enhanced speed to cleave off the arm holding the staff. Kain reached for the item, only for him to forget that Arjuna had five other hands. His entire left side grabbed on to his cape, his upper right arm grabbed the staff faster than Kain could while his bottom right punched Kain in the gut at the same time.
"Of course," Arjuna looked at his staff. "This is a test by the Mahika! As your Ancestor did over countless moons ago, you attempt to turn victory into defeat!"
A bright light appeared above the back of Arjuna. Selene gathered energy before diving at the apostle of the Mahika. Arjuna spun and raised the staff towards the incoming attack. However, Selene abruptly stopped her charge and reached for the staff. Arjuna noticed the movement and went for the attack—only to have one of his side faces smashed by Kain, who returned with a flying kick and the force of an entire wyvern. Arjuna flew and crashed through several houses before stopping. The blow allowed Selene to grab the staff.
"Now what, Wyvern Knight?" Selene asked. She handed the young man the staff, and Kain stared at it for a second.
"I... have no idea how to use this." Their entire plan revolved around him trying to steal back the staff. Now that it was in his hands, how were they supposed to use it!?
His question would have to wait as Selene snapped her neck towards where Arjuna was knocked out before a pillar of blood exploded like a geyser.
"Right! I need to get to the temple, can you hold him off for as long as possible?!" Kain asked Selene.
Selene gave a quick look on her face that showed her disdain for being ordered around, but as they heard an inhuman sound echoing in the sky, she sighed. "You're lucky that even I find your bloodline worth respect."
Kain groaned before reacting fast and flying out of there as Arjuna came rushing for him. Selene stepped in to intercept, and the two massive powers clashed once more.
"That Wyvern Boy better hurry, the more I use my powers, the more likely I'll be noticed by Acn..." She was interrupted when Arjuna got a sudden spike in his magical power.
Kain raced through the sky and spotted the hard battle going throughout the twisted tower. The lawyer spotted Natsu, Jeremiah, and Gajeel in battle with what looked like Ravanas and Dyst. Kain swooped in and slammed down atop of Dyst's head like Super Mario. As Ravanas turned to look, Gajeel and Jeremiah blasted the other follower with their combined magic.
With a moment to breathe, Kain shouted, "Jeremiah, tell Moon Phoenix to hold a position on the upper levels! Natsu, Gajeel split up and help anyone else fighting Carbuncle Members!" The lawyer didn't wait and flew towards the top of the tower. The three quickly separated and went on the move.
When Kain arrived, he told Levy, "Create a bigger barrier around the upper floors! We're going to need a safe zone from these demons!"
Levy left as Nab came up with Natsu. Bisca landed nearby with Gogo and the others. Nab asked, "Hey, where's the dragon you were trying to save?"
He got half an answer when they saw silver explosions go against rivers of blood in the distance.
"Our dragon slayer friend is buying us time! Kage, how's that barrier going!?" Kain screamed before turning to the shadow mage.
"Fine, I'm just going to do this all the way!" Kageyama brought his hands together. Over twelve shadow hands loomed over Kage and slammed into the Omni Tool, causing the prison to crack and break with the final force.
The cocoon cell broke, and Momon and Kage rushed for Éclair. The Peacock fell but still seemed alive. Kain rushed over with the staff.
"How do we undo the spell!?" Kain cried out to the peacock before the barrier was erected.
/Undo? It's too late. It's far too late./
As he said this, there was a sound that echoed throughout the overrun city. It was like thunder amplified over a hundred times. Whoever called it the Fabric of Time and Space was wise beyond theirs because the sky ripped open as if someone was tearing down that fabric. Beyond the tear was a massive, hulking titan with more than a hundred arms and color darker than black. Its head was like that of a spider that had over a hundred blood-red orbs for eyes.
The Mahika had awakened. And it looked far more fearsome in person than in any vision.
"Okay, we're on a time table!" Kain managed to scream out before Levy's barrier started to shake from the attacks of all the other demons.
"Kain, we gotta hurry!" Nab looked up and saw pieces of the sky starting to fall. They all heard the sound of giant magic chains snapping inside the tear.
At that moment, flew over to Fairy Tail.
It phased through the barrier and landed with a flashy entrance.
"Knight, you owe me big for abandoning me there." Selene, while more battered and dirty, still looked stunningly beautiful.
"Who is she?" Nab asked with a brow raised.
Natsu raised his brow before sniffing the air around Selene. "Huh, she smells weirdly familiar." Selene turned over to the Fire Dragon Slayer, and her eyes seemed to widen when she saw the Salamander.
"Do you not see the titanic freakshow starting to break free?!" Kain shouted back before turning back to the peacock. "Seriously, even last time, Horus and Igneel were able to close the seal! There needs to be a way to do the same!"
/Ah, perhaps there is. Priestess, take the staff once more./
As he said this, there was a roar in the air. It didn't come from the tear; it came from where Selene arrived.
"He broke out of that sooner than I thought." Selene turned around as Arjuna appeared at the lower floors of the temple. His many eyes were ablaze with dark fire as he looked up towards Fairy Tail and Moon Phoenix. The Mahika's demons allowed a path for their Apostle straight to Levy's barrier.
"Moon Phoenix, I need a battle line, and I need it yesterday!" Jeremiah exclaimed as Moon Phoenix got into formation. While their formation looked very practiced, it paled to the image of Arjuna multi-screaming and rushing towards Levy's barrier as if it was never there in the first place.
/Give the staff to the priestess. Fend the Apostle off for as long as you can! If he retrieves his staff all is lost!/
With one move, Arjuna punched Levy's barrier, and it shattered like cardboard to an explosion.
"Hold the line!" Kain screamed as his cape turned to wings. He tossed the staff to Kage before he rushed to meet Arjuna head-on. Arjuna caught the punch of the lawyer and used his other hand to grab the helm of the lawyer. However, this left Arjuna open to Selene pressing both her palms into his massive torso and using her magic to repel him back out of the temple. The same could not be said as Fairy Tail with Moon Phoenix resumed their battle. Silver and black crashed against each other like waves to the cliffs.
Fairy Tail re-ignited their fight with Carbuncle, well most. Kage stayed behind for another reason.
"Okay!" Kage went to the former amnesiac to hand her the staff. "So, here you go?"
"What's the point of all this!?" Éclair screamed.
/Priestess, you must/
"Shut up!" She yelled towards the peacock even as the fighting broke out. "I want out! I don't want this anymore!" Éclair held hands over her head. "I hate magic! I hate what it has done to me! I want to go home..."
As she said this, they heard sounds of more ancient chains breaking. Kage looked up, The Mahika was stirring, its seal was failing. It wouldn't be long before it brought its first foot back in Earthland.
It all fell on Kageyama to talk Éclair into doing a task that she was exhausted to do at this point. Yeesh, Kage hated being the voice of reason. He also didn't think that punching-thing would work on a girl.
Luckily for the thief, Momon flew over to her.
"Then let's go home!" The raven-haired girl looked to her bird friend as he continued. "We already have a home in Fairy Tail. Let's go back there! But we gotta help out here!"
"GAAAHH!?" They heard a scream of pain as Max landed nearby them. Kage stood up and looked at Éclair with a smile.
"The duck is right! Let's go back home where you can scorn me all ya want!" Kage moved fast, using his shadows to whisk Max away from Canon, who was attempting to punch a hole through him.
Canon turned his gaze over to Éclair and made a motion to rush for her. However, over a dozen shadow hands grabbed, lifted, and tossed the behemoth away from the amnesiac.
But despite the throw, Canon didn't travel far. He landed and saw Kage appearing from the shadows with Max beside him.
"How are we going to beat him!?" The sand mage asked.
"Well, the peacock did say you gotta rip out his heart to stop him," Although Kageyama said that nonchalantly, he spotted Max freeze up at the mention. "Ah. Right." No matter what, going for the kill is still going to make people hesitate even if it's necessary.
Canon charged again for the two. The Fairy Tail mages got out of the way, but Canon made a mad dash for the girl and the two birds. Max and Kage both unleashed a multitude of shadow hands and silver sand to constrict the massive demon warrior.
"Can I borrow some of that sand!?" Kageyama didn't really get an answer as he used one of his shadow arms to grab a fist full of sand and made the shadows form a pike around the sand. He sent it right for the heart of Cannon. However, the attack bounced off, shattered the shadows, and made the sand harmlessly fall. Canon roared and pulled with all of his strength. The restraints held, but some started to snap and break.
Kageyama and Max went to work on restraining him while Momon got Éclair and the peacock to leave the area.
"I must deal with you two before I hunt down the priestess." Canon's voice exclaimed as his head suddenly turned like an owl's. From the gaps of their restraints, tendrils started to grow from Canon's back and grabbed onto Kage and Max's hold. The tendrils snapped the restraints like twigs.
Some Moon Phoenix soldiers ran up to attack Cannon, but the behemoth grabbed two of their heads... and made a crushing motion.
Kage gritted his teeth. "Okay, direct attacks don't work on this..." He looked over to Max, who seemed stunned and horrified at what he just saw. Kage grunted as Canon made another charge at them. He used his shadow hands to 'spider' them away, dragging Max along with him. However, Canon seemed to copy the Shadow mage as his tendrils lifted him, and he gave chase after the shadow and sand mage.
"Come on, dang it! Get your head in the game!" Kage shouted before he looked up and spotted Canon had leaped after them. Instead of being crushed under something with the weight of ten monster trucks, Kage forced them to fall into the shadows.
In the shadows, Kage had a chance to grab on to Max's shoulders and shake him a little. "I need you to snap out of it! We're going to get killed at this rate, and you're the only one who can hurt him!"
Max struggled. In the ink world of shadows, he exploded all his doubts. "I can't do it! I... I just can't! Worst of all, it's my fault they even got this far in the first place! And now, I still can't bring myself to do what needs to be done!?"
"So?" Max's eyes widened as he turned to Kage's silhouette in the shadows. "I mean, you don't have to force yourself. It's not all that great as some tough guys want to say." Kage wiped a hand through his hair. "As you know, I was in a Dark Guild, and I did a few illegal missions. That includes assassination. The first time I killed a guy... I didn't really care... but before I could leave the earshot-distance of his house, I heard the scream of an old lady."
Kage broked eye contact with Max. "It was his mom. I could tell by the sound of her scream. It wasn't the sound of fear that I've heard people scream most of my life... it was like a scream of a heart breaking. She sobbed and screamed about her baby and begged him not to leave her... I didn't sleep a month after that job."
The shadow mage looked back to Max. "The killing part was easy. The part realizing you broke a decent family is the real shitty facts. Ya could argue these are demons, but the fact remains that these guys were once human, they just gave up on their humanity... likely cause it betrayed them more often than not."
Max stared at Kage. "Why are you telling me this?"
The shadow mage started speaking with a soft kindness the sand mage never expected to hear. "We all make mistakes, Max. We're not going to stop making mistakes. I wish I got something profound to say that will make things all better, but all I got is that we just gotta do whatever we think is right and hope for the best."
After he said this, the shadow world around them started to shake.
"You've got to be kidding me!" Kage looked up as a white tear appeared that was pushed apart by familiar tendrils.
"Kage, get us back out! I left more silver sand back up there!" Max called out, his voice was now more determined than before.
The shadow mage gave a brief smile before jumping out. He brought them back in the fight as Canon looked up from them.
"Stand or run, it makes little difference." Canon declared as he locked eyes on his target.
Max inhaled and stepped forward. "You were right." He told Canon. "I didn't have any fighting spirit. Thank you for telling me that." Max got into a stance. "But this battle is too important to shrink now!" He blasted off with help from the sand catapulting him forward.
Canon rushed to meet Max head-on, but the sand mage used the silver sand beneath him to slide around and try to aim a concentrated form of silver sand into the neck of Canon. However, the attack was taken by a tendril and allowed the beefy beast to avoid the blow. Yet, Canon's other tendril and arm swatted the sand mage away. Max rolled like a thrown doll before slamming into the wall. He was starting to bleed, but the fire in his eyes did not die.
Canon's other eyes noticed Kageyama creating two large shadow hands and attempted to crush the demonic behemoth. However, Canon raised his many hands and tendrils and caught the two giant hands despite the 'floor' beneath him cracking. Canon powered through with his limbs and broke the shadow construct, but Kageyama summoned a copy of Canon's shadow to hold him in place. The shadow mage went and stood beside Max. Both of them were getting desperate and started gathering magic at this moment. Canon fought of the shadow clone, but not fast enough for Max and Kage to unleash their attacks at him. Canon shielded himself from the attacks. Despite heavy firepower, Canon stepped forward. Then again. Then again. Slowly, he was gaining ground.
"This isn't working!" Max screamed as even the silver sand was slowing him down but not stopping him despite the damage it was doing to his form. "... Kage, let's use our magic together!"
"How will that work!?" Kage screamed over his shadow magic blasts.
"I don't know!"
Well, he supposed it was either that or die and lose their soul to a fallen god. "Fine! Let's do it!" Kage and Max briefly stopped their barrage before both reclining their hands as silver and shadow gathered. They forced their magic together before unleashing right at Canon. The result was a single shot of silver moving faster than a speeding bullet... piercing right through Canon's thick torso.
A silver shadow hand appeared, holding Canon's beating and powerful heart. Kage acted fast and made a crushing motion with his fist, crushing the heart of the demon. Like so, the almost unstoppable Canon... dropped to his knees. The sand faded around him until he returned to human form, with a gaping hole in his torso. Even with a bleeding wound, Canon looked over to Max.
"You have stronger eyes now..." With a horse voice, Canon gave his last breath and fell for the last time.
Max and Kage gasped for breath.
"Did," Max took in some air, realized he just killed a man, but then turned to Kage. "Did we just do a Union Raid?" The supposedly legendary duo magic. Max never expected himself to perform one, let alone with Kageyama, a former criminal off all people.
"If we did, it wasn't as big and explosive as I thought it would be." Sadly for the two mages, this was their only reprieve before they heard another roar.
This one came from the sky.
Chase avoided shot after thunderbolt. Or rather, he moved like water. He avoided a volley of ranged attacks by moving into the smallest gaps between them.
"He's moving too fast!" Nab cried out before Chase closed the distance between them. Nab could jump out of the way of one giant shadow hand, but three!? He attempted to do so anyway, but the highest hand would reach his head! Luckily for him, a sniper round threaded the needle and shot the hand before it could grab his head. At the same time, a word: springboard, flew in and activated beneath Chase's legs. This caused the demon to get tossed away from the Fairy Tail mage.
"Thanks, Levy. I'll tell Bisca thanks later." Nab gasped as he regrouped with the blue-haired mage. "But how are we going to stop Chase? We don't have silver. And if we did, he could just turn intangible."
Levy started to think. "Hold him off for a few seconds, I need to get to Bisca." She spoke as Chase landed back and started rushing for him.
"W-Wait! LeVVVY!?" Nab held on to his totem staff as Chase rushed for the mage.
Levy ran before she waved her hands up to Bisca. The gunman looked down as Levy wrote out words for her to read with her scope. "Concentrate fire on Chase. I need time to create a cage for him!" Bisca turned her scope and rained magical lead down on the shadow demon.
Levy acted fast as she slit a piece of her palm to activate Pierre's dagger. As she started writing, she heard something.
"Levy, look out!" It was Nab's voice, and it sounded frantic. By instinct, Levy front flipped to avoid Chase attacking from below her. Mentally, she started to remember something about Chase during their escape from the capital.
"Nab, bring out your light spirit!" Levy yelled before writing the word, smokescreen. As soon as she did, smoke covered the area, blinding everyone.
Nab didn't see his target, but he trusted Levy and summoned his light spirit. The dove-shaped spirit flew in towards Nab's right and exploded with light, blinding Chase. Levy worked fast, attempting to trap Chase in a Jutsu Shiki prison, only for the shadow demon to slip and escape before the cage could be completed. However, as Chase escaped, Bisca fired a concentrated sniper shot that hit through all three of Chase's right arms.
Chase looked at the side that was shot and saw the wounds burning through his arms. He dodged more fire before dropping into the shadows. Up above, Bisca saw Adolf starting to bark hard towards a random area on the opposite side of the temple.
"What? What's wrong, boy?" Bisca asked the dog before suddenly, Gogo started to shake. The magic tour bus started to swerve erratically while it gave off sounds that made it sound scared.
Inside the bus, Wendy, Carla, Pla, and Sonny, the rat, tried to stabilize themselves. Pla started to beep, and the doors to the bus stretched out wide open. Pla flew out before looking under the belly of the bus. The robot spotted Chase hanging from the sole of the flying vehicle. Without wasting a second, the ancient machine unleashed a laser beam at the demon. Chase's body split open to avoid the laser beam before he shot three arms to catch and grip the head of the old machine.
"Let him go!" Wendy, being carried by Carla cried out before she unleashed her own Elemental Dragon's Roar. The wind was able to blast Chase off. However, one shadow hand held on to the bus, and instead, allowed Chase to swing himself atop of the roof with Bisca and Adolf.
The sniper and dog turned, only for Chase to quickly pin down both of them.
From below, Levy's eyes widened. "Nab, bring your light spirit to me!"
"Biarebrularik das naviak!" The light spirit seemed to hotly snap at the Script mage. Nab said a few words before they argued a few lines. The bird huffed and flew over to Levy.
"Sorry, but we're going to need to try something new!" Levy brought out Pierre's dagger.
Meanwhile, up in the sky, Gogo seemed to fly around erratically. This was due to the stress that Chase was performing on the newly sentient machine. Because of his sudden, erratic movements, Wendy, Carla, and Pla were having trouble keeping up with the flying bus as Chase slowly started to strangle Bisca and Adolf.
Bisca was able to free an arm and changed her rifle into a pistol pointed right at Chase's head. However, he swatted the weapon away from her. He moved to kill her right then and there—
Bang!
A bullet grazed Chase's face. His side face looked over to where he knocked the gun. Sonny had climbed up to the roof and just so happened to be near where Bisca's hand pistol was knocked away. The pet mouse used the gun to save Bisca's life.
The bullet did nothing but graze Chase. However, it distracted him to loosen his grip on Audolf. The sheepdog didn't hesitate to erect a dome barrier that pushed Chase off Gogo. As before, Chase used his shadow arms to grab on to the bumper of Gogo.
Bisca got back up and readied her scope at Chase. At the same time, Pla's targeting systems locked on to the shadow demon. Chase started to fade as if he was going to escape, but something flew in front of his face.
Nab's light spirit looked different. Was it... silver?!
"Illyakamatrzax!" The spirit screamed before unleashing silver light right in front of Chase's many faces. While normal light distracted and waded away Chase. Silver light burned Chase like a vampire to sunlight. The ghostly demon gave off an inhuman wail of pain as it fell from the sky.
Chase crashed to the worn-out concrete. As the smoke went away, Chase looked down and saw runes surrounding him. Unlike before, he was too slow before a silver-colored barrier erected around him. The shadow demon screamed an attempted to break free.
"Guys! Now! Hit him with everything you've got!" Levy shouted as everyone unleashed all their attacks down on the demon. The attacks melded with the barrier while it closed down and compacted against Chase. In a bright flash and explosion, there was nothing left of the Carbuncle But a chunk of his deformed mask.
Nab blinked for a second before whispering to Levy. "I know he was a demon, but did we just technically kill a guy with Wendy as an accessory to murder?"
Luckily or unluckily, Levy was interrupted by a literal sky-shattering roar.
Lucy backflipped over the spear that was a little too close to making her a kabob.
Yet Coordinator had five other armed arms. One arm, she brought down a giant axe down on the Celestial Mage. However, Loke unleashed a powerful punch on the flat side of the weapon with enough force to knock the weapon out of the hands of the demon.
Wan jumped from behind. His hands turned into silver dogs that stretched his arms and clamped down on the neck of the Carbuncle Demon. The demoness shrieked before her two middle hands reached for the silent Fairy Tail mage.
Lucy saw her chance and quickly grabbed Leo's Key. She pointed it over to Coordinator. "Loke, Wan, get out of the way!" The two mages did so as a spark of light ignited from the end of Lucy's key. She shot a laser out of it that slammed into Coordinator and dragged her a good distance away before exploding with light.
As the light died down, Lucy looked at her key with more confusion than anything else. "...Kain was right, I do need to start using that spell as an attack."
It was at that point that they all heard an inhuman roar coming from the sky above.
The Mahika was free. A giant hand ripped out of the sky and grabbed on to the outskirts of the city. As it did, the ground started to turn: it looked like a tower of twists and thorns that could come from stories that only Lovecraft could describe.
But hope was not lost, a light from above descended down on top of the tower.
"Is that? Moon Drip again? Is Éclair alright?" Lucy asked before the ground started to rumble. The inhuman sound echoed through the sky before the giant hand raced over to where the source of the light was.
Over a dozen mages from Moon Phoenix gathered around and then created a silver dome that protected the area from the arm. However, this didn't stop the giant-sky hand from hammering its full weight and power down on the dome. The shield held, but two more arms opened out of tears.
Fairy Tail watched as the hands also added along in attempting to smash the shield dome. The Temple and ground shook with each blow.
"Lucy!" The three looked over to see Levy, Nab, and the others heading towards her. "Do you see that?"
"This is bad! This is very bad! The Mahika is starting to gain a foothold in the physical world! If he stops that channeling, there might be no way to seal him back in there!" Loke cried out.
"Alright, we'll try to slow those hands down then!" Nab spoke up.
"No!" Loke suddenly snapped. "Touching one of the arms can turn a dragon into a servant of the Mahika. It's too risky!" Their friend turned to Lucy. "The only choice we have now is to summon the Celestial Spirit King."
Silence spread over Fairy Tail before a spike of magic forced everyone to spot Coordinator rushing for them with a new set of magical weapons. Everyone sprang into action to fight, but Loke held Lucy's hand to stop her from entering the fray. Nab, seeing this, stayed behind as the others began fighting off Coordinator.
"Lucy..." Loke swallowed his spit. "I cannot even begin to thank you for everything you've done for me."
The blonde's eyes widened as she recognized what Loke was trying to do. "No! I am not breaking anyone's key to summon him!"
"Better the key than the dagger! My previous reincarnation couldn't handle that pain! I nor anyone else could handle losing you!"
"That's the same for you, Loke! You're our precious friend, we can't lose you either!" Lucy fired back.
At that moment, something strange happened. One of the totems in Nab's staff started to glow. But the location of the glow made everyone curious: it came from Nab's lowest totem.
"What!?" Nab shouted, horror filling his eyes as the glowing stopped. "Why did you come out!?"
Before Loke and Lucy could ask what Nab was talking about, they noticed a bony hand had just grabbed onto Nab's right shoulder.
"Bia-nocolari~ Diyanariktaka, Naaabbbiii~?" The voice was cold despite the sing-songy tone. This spirit looked nothing like the elemental spirits Nab made a pact with. It was a being made of bones: bones that looked human, but half the size of an adult male. It had a visible and see-through outline. Its entire existence seemed to be wrong, yet there it was, climbing the back of Nab like a sloth.
Loke's eyes widened, and he quickly stepped between Lucy and the new Elemental Spirit. "Nab!? What is that!?"
"Diagorikamitkriiingg, Lion.~" The being seemed to shrink a few centimeters shorter. His skeleton turned into that of a monkey, and he perched himself atop of Nab's shoulder.
"What do you want, Guan?" Nab's tone was sharp as his narrowed eyes, and Lucy noticed that Nab didn't respond in the same language as his elemental spirits.
Lucy didn't like how the monkey skeleton pointed to her. It sang in the words of the elemental spirits. However, Lucy could tell there were hidden tones of something mischievous and dark in its playful voice.
"What?" Nab looked at him in disbelief. He looked back at the two. "He says he can summon the Celestial King Spirit for you without either being sacrificed."
Loke raised his brow. "Nab, there are no other ways to summon the Celestial Spirit King. I don't think an Elemental Spirit can summon the..."
"He's not a normal Elemental Spirit," Nab interrupted fast before glaring at the monkey skeleton that laughed. At that moment, they heard the sound of cracking and saw more of the pieces of the sky fall.
At that point, the skeleton started to sing again. Instead of a glare, Nab raised his brow. He sighed deeply before turning again to Lucy. "Lucy, there's no time. I need to borrow a stand of your hair and Loke's key."
Lucy looked to the skeleton. She detested how its empty eye sockets felt like they were staring at her. "Nab, do you trust that... thing?" She noticed Nab winced at the question. The mage of Fairy Tail picked a bad time to hesitate as he usually did in front of the job board when the world was ending.
"I... just now. I don't want to lose either of you."
Lucy didn't trust whatever this strange Elemental Spirit was.
But she trusted Nab.
She took a hair and gave it and Loke's key to Nab. The monkey snatched the items from Nab's hand. Lucy and Loke were understandably alarmed by the action from the uncanny spirit. However, they were surprised that the monkey skeleton made the strand of hair make the form of a heart. The monkey tossed Loke's key, and as it landed back to his palm it turned into a knife, the same knife that revealed a second way to call the Celestial Spirit King. Before anyone could react, the monkey stabbed the center of the heart. Although it was supposed to be nothing but air, the blade seemed to slow down as if it was tabbing an actual heart. Loke's key started to glow, and a giant magic circle appeared above them.
"That's impossible!" Loke gasped. "He's able to summon the Celestial Spirit King?!"
Something beyond the sky opened. A giant bright light descended with all the power and splendor of a falling star. As the light exploded, some demons and centipedes were blown away. Then, several slashes flew with enough speed and power to cut several of the Mahika's hands.
As the dust settled, a giant clad in celestial armor that wielded a blade the size of a tower stood over the temple.
"OLD FRIENDS," The Celestial Spirit King's voice echoed through the city. "HOW DID YOU SUMMON ME WITHOUT SACRIFICE?" However, his attention towards his friends shifted when more hands of the Mahika busted through the sky. "YOU. I HAVE COME TO STAND BEFORE YOU ONCE MORE." He brandished his blade and started to attack the incoming hands of a fallen god.
The monkey skeleton gave a laugh before patting Nab's head. His tail grabbed the knife and tossed it in the air as the spirit vanished in a puff of smoke. Nab reached out, and the knife turned back to a key as it landed in his palm.
"Nab, what was that spirit?" Lucy asked. That looked nothing like the elemental spirits that Nab used before. And the way it acted and moved behaved differently than all of his past spirits.
"No!" The three looked to see Coordinator slamming away both Pla and Wan before eyeing Lucy with rage. "I will not fail again!"
Loke stepped forward. "That's what I should be saying."
Coordinator gathered a large amount of magic. Suddenly, tears in the air around her ripped open with many weapons. Fairy Tail's heart skipped a beat. Ezra had done something similar, and since Coordinator was also an Equip-Space master...
"Get down!" Nab shouted too late as a wave of magical weapons were shot like bullets at them. Luckily for them, their shadows quickly swallowed them whole and allowed the weapons to fly into the distance.
Silver sand snaked and restrained Coordinator from all sides.
Some distance away, Kage lifted up the shadows, saving Nab, Loke, and Lucy. The shadow mage turned to Max. "How long can you hold her?!"
Max already seemed to be training, but gripped his fists tighter while his magic circles seemed to glitch in and out. "She's breaking them fast! You guys gotta counter-attack now!"
Kageyama motioned to all the other Fairy Tail members. "You heard him guys, let her have it!" Fairy Tail unleashed a torrent of blasts on Coordinator. However, the demon seemed to scream in desperation a second before the attacks flew. Instead, one of her hands broke free, it grabbed a summoned weapon and threw it with enough force to create a sonic boom. The problem was that it headed right for... "Lucy!?"
Loke pushed the blonde Celestial Spirit out of the way. However, the spear stabbed deep into Loke's shoulder, causing the mighty leader to cry out in pain.
The brunt of the attacks connected on Coordinator. However, as the dust settled, Coordinator slowly started to move. Kageyama acted first; he closed the distance and kicked her head. The blow caused the demoness to lurch backward until her head fell into a shadow portal created by Kageyama.
Kageyama then closed the shadow portal on her neck.
"Loke! Loke!" Lucy cried out as she held her friend in her arms. Please tell me you're alright!" Fairy Tail thankfully rushed over to Loke to pay attention to Kage's brutal way of finishing off their enemy.
The handsome celestial spirit groaned in pain even when Wendy came in. Nab went to grab the weapon until the little girl cried out, "Don't pull it out yet! Just raise the wound higher than his heart, keep him warm, and lift his legs!"
"Yeesh, look at you, so small yet so advance in medical knowledge. Of course, having a physical body does have its downsides..." Loke grunted as the earth beneath them shook.
However, it was not because of the usual fighting of the Celestial Spirit King and the Mahika. Instead, Ravanas grew to the size of the king using his body manipulation magic and captured the Celestial King in a multi-choke hold. They watched as one the hands of the Mahika seized the head of the Celestial Spirit King. Luckily for them, not a second later, a bright flash of white exploded and slammed into the head of Ravanas. This caused the titan demon to let go and allowed the Celestial Spirit King to pick up his sword and slash the hand that grabbed his head. However, when it let go, traces of sand started to burn the powerful spirit.
"Guys, get to Gogo! Help Natsu takedown Ravanas!" Levy cried out before looking back. "Nab, Kage! Stay with Lucy, Wendy, and Loke!" With that, the rest hopped atop of Gogo and flew towards the titan.
Yet, on the other side of the tower platform, one of the Moon Phoenix Mages fell after being stabbed by a levitating sand-blade.
"You will hinder the Mahika no longer!" Dyst cried out while summoning more of the sand-blades nearby. His side-eyes spotted something incoming at a fast pace. He jumped back as a silver pike stabbed the ground he was previously standing in.
Gajeel jumped between Dyst and the Moon Phoenix mages. The Steel Dragon slayer gave a soft scoff as he stretched his right arm. "Yeesh, not even a year, and here I am protecting people from dying. Still, the lawyer brat was right: we're going to have to use lethal force," His smile turned to a frown as he saw Dyst focusing all eyes on him. "Well, it was nice being a hero while it lasted." Gajeel rushed for Dyst as the telekinetic demon unleashed a slew of blades at him with bullet-like speeds. Gajeel gathered magic, turning his skin not only to steel but silver as well. Dyst stopped firing and concentrated the black sand into one blade instead. He moved with speeds that Gajeel wasn't expecting and body-checked the Dragon Slayer into the wall.
Luckily for the dragon slayer, some of the Moon Phoenix Guild that wasn't creating the barrier jumped atop of Dyst and stabbed their silver weapons into his back. Dyst screamed before he motioned his blades to stab them in the back in retaliation. Unfortunately for them, Dyst had more resistance to their weapons than they to his. Luckily for them, his counter attack allowed Gajeel to counterattack and punch the demon in one of his faces. Gajeel pressed his advantage and shoulder bashed the torso of Dyst. The two continued to battle. However, Gajeel soon found out that he was getting overwhelmed by around a dozen or so sand blades attacking from all sides one after the other. Inwardly, he was starting to see why the lawyer brat and Salamander fought Dyst. You need some level of high mobility like super speed, or Natsu's fire boosts to really keep up with his telekinetic attacks.
Luckily for him, several blades made of dark-light clashed and defended the steel dragon slayer, especially when one was close to impaling his neck.
"Sorry," Jeremiah blinked beside him. "I had to get Natsu on top of Ravanas before coming back here."
"I can take this guy without ya!" Although Gajeel said that, he couldn't find himself even saying that half-heartedly. "Still, who knew telekinesis could be so damn annoying?"
Jeremiah looked forward. "Leave the blades to me, you focus on getting close to Dyst."
"I can hear you!" Dyst shouted as he suddenly pushed two of his hands forward. An intense telekinetic pressure slammed both Gajeel and Jeremiah back to the temple walls. Jeremiah teleported to escape. He blinked above Dyst and closed the distance to cross magical blades against each other. However, during their combat, Dyst kept cycling one hand to pin down Gajeel to the wall.
"Damn it! I can't just stand here and take this!" Gajeel then realized something, with each switch of Dyst's hand, he could move very slightly. Not his body, but if he could just aim his...
"Iron Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel was able to move enough of his face to be able to unleash a torrent of steel towards the leader of Carbuncle. Dyst saw the incoming attack and used all his telekinetic force to stop the incoming blast. However, the demon made a mistake of losing focus on a teleporter with over two lifetimes worth battle experience.
Dyst heard the sound of energy piercing through his body. He looked down at where his heart was supposed to be and saw three blades crossing outward from his torso.
"Fall monster, in the void forever you will wander." Jeremiah snapped his fingers and his energy blades flew in and decapitated Dyst.
With his fall, Gajeel was free from the telekinetic hold. "I could have won without your help."
Jeremiah smiled. "I will take that as a compliment."
Two things suddenly happened after the fall of the last Carbuncle Mage: the barrier for Moon Drip shattered. And the tear in the sky enlarged enough for everyone to see a beast with a thousand limbs slowly making its way to Earthland.
Kain loved shonen anime. He just never expected to be fighting in one. Briefly, he wondered how cool it looked to have his ass handed to him.
He pushed the debris off him. He wasn't looking, but he noticed the DBZ-like battle between Selene and Arjuna.
Quietly, he was really starting to hate anime power escalation. It wasn't even a year and already they were fighting world-ending threats. Bah, he complained enough. Time to Natsu it.
Kain spread his wings and less than a second later punched Arjuna's face. or at least that's what he wanted to happen. Arjuna had become far too used to Kain's return strikes and once more caught the wyvern rider's hand.
Luckily, Kain also had a sword. His other hand slashed down, but Arjuna jumped back. He looked back up at the sky and saw the Celestial Spirit king fighting off the hands of the Mahika. Then, his eye narrowed at the dome that held another Moon Drip spell.
Arjuna's hatred multiplied. He blasted both Selene and Kain. The attacks weren't to do much damage. They were focused on disorienting. With one leap, Arjuna crashed through Moon Phoenix's barrier and spotted the Priestess holding the staff.
The peacock and the tiny bird attempted to stop him. Arjuna ignored them and shattered his own staff by punching it.
/W-What did you do!?/ The peacock cried out.
Arjuna turned as both the barrier and the sky failed. "We won."
It was finished. Over 500 years in the making, The Mahika returned to Earthland.
Its spider head touched the air of the physical world, its centipedes screamed in forgotten and mad songs, and the moon lost all traces of silver.
As Kain and Selene caught up with Arjuna, Selene suddenly gasped, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head before she lost balance. Kain quickly caught her but noticed his surroundings: or rather the signs pointing to their defeat. The staff was broken, The Mahika Returned, The Celestial King trying but being slowly overwhelmed by the Centipedes and Ravanas despite help from Fairy Tail. Now? Their new dragon ally seemed to be having some kind of stroke. Said ally was the only reason he could even fight Arjuna at the height of his power.
Okay, Kain could come up with something, right? Although he liked to joke and complain, Kain needed to come up with something to help out. ... He was doing a bad job of it.
"Please... anyone... help..." Kain was not a religious person, yet even then, he found himself praying.
Arjuna turned to Kain. "And with this, my sins are been absolved." His many voices were akin to the last nails hammered to a coffin. "And at last, my justice has been achieved! You will all suffer and deserve every moment till eternity!"
"Is that all you are? Hate?" They all turned to Éclair as she stood up from the attack. She looked down and started slowly walking in a strange direction. "Hearing you, over hundreds of years with nothing but hate... It sounds so familiar." She gave a sad smile and looked up before glancing over to Kain. "Was I really like that? Was I holding so hard on to my own hatred that the thought of actually letting go of it scared me? Did I really hold on to my hate for mages for centuries when all memories of my loved ones flowed like sand in this desert land?"
Éclair took out her necklace, the one marked by the lich before she met Fairy Tail. She stopped as she stood in front of the reincarnation of the protector god. The priestess turned to Arjuna with a glare, her eyes full of light like stars behind the dark clouds.
"No. I reject these centuries of hatred!" She grabbed her necklace and held it high above her head. The Peacock realized her necklace was shinning and had absorbed the magic of both Moon Drip spells beforehand. "I'm going home!" Éclair cried out enough that even the Mahika turned to her shout of courage. "With my friends!"
(Oh, a friendship power up. Okay, I'll take it!) Kain thought to himself as he started to move.
Arjuna's eyes set ablaze. He made a move to blast the girl and reincarnation off the new world. However, something cut off the arm he pointed at them. That something was Kain using his blade to catch Arjuna off guard again.
"Okay, power of friendship, please work!" With a quick gasp, Kain tackled Arjuna out of the area. With Arjuna gone, Éclair's necklace started to glow. The peacock looked to her and asked,
/You realize without the staff there's only one way to channel that energy?/
The amnesiac gave a small smile as she recalled talking to someone who disgusted her less over time. "A criminal showed more heroism than me. It's time to stop moping. Time to start doing."
His pep-talks did get to her after all, despite how bad they were.
A burst of light appeared from the tower, momentarily changing the moon back to sliver. The Mahika roared as the light faded, and a being of pure silver energy appeared where both Éclair and the peacock once stood.
/क्रिमसन नाइट द सिल्वर डॉन को रास्ता देता है!/ All of Éclair's(?) hands flowed and formed together. As it did, the staff was reformed and changed to that of a silver spear.
The Mahika roared. It motioned all of its free arms towards the tower where silver light shined.
Everyone watched as Éclair(?) threw all six of her hands back. The spear split into six, and she threw them at The Mahika. The spears sailed faster than the arms, passing and skinning the face of the destructive spider-god.
"She missed!?" Natsu shouted out loud while atop of The Celestial King's head.
"No!" The King of Spirits smiled. "She hit what she needed too."
The spears flew past the body and hit the tear to the prison dimension. The Prison dimension started to shine with silver light. A second later, a powerful vacuum came from the tear in the sky. The centipedes were taken in. Soon, the soldiers of the Mataki flew in as well, then the bodies of the fallen Carbuncle mages. Even the magic that created the twisted tower was slowly being absorbed by the tear, returning it to the old ancient temple. Moon Phoneix and those that remained did their best to help their injured and dead escape.
"NO!" Ravanas screamed as he too felt a pull he could not resist. However, he created more arms each catching a Fairy Tail Member and the shoulders of the Celestial Spirit King. "I am taking you down with me!"
"Foolish, boy," The Celestial Spirit King did not realize that he said a word that Ravanas hated because of his father. "You let your hatred for others blind you from the love of your land." His sword started to glow with Celestial Energy. "May you find peace this life could not give."
The sword moved out of the King's hands as if it was alive. With one precise cleave, All of Ravanas' hands were cut and Fairy Tail and The Celestial King Spirit were freed. Natsu jumped off, empowering his Fire Dragon Fist with enough force to send the imbalanced Ravanas to topple over and get sucked into the Prison Dimension.
However, The Mahika resisted even as all his followers were sucked in. Despite its resistance, Éclair pushed all six of her hands out. A strong force started to push back the fallen god. As it flew back, its many hands caught the edges of the tear and held on to it. The Mahika gave off another inhuman roar as it struggled between Earthland and its prison dimension.
"NO!" Arjuna jumped back. His eyes now blazing towards Éclair while his entire right side was used to trap Kain. "You will not deny the justice this damned world deserves!"
He was about to move until a blast of moonlight nailed him from behind.
"Need help?" Éclair(?) looked to her right as she saw Selene walking back to help up Kain. Their positions now switching from when they first met. "Allow me to help you in ridding the old gods once and for all." She stepped beside the silver being and the two females unleashed a massive force of power that sent Arjuna flying into one of the eyes of the Mahika.
The Mahika could not handle the second push and fell into the Prison Dimension once more. For those with sharpened hearing, they heard Arjuna cursing Fairy Tail's name before he was swallowed by the darkness. The two moon goddesses pushed their hands forward and the tears and broken sky started to heal and fix itself.
Kain looked around. The temple was returned, there was no sign of a single grain of black sand, and the sky returned normal. Fairy Tail and the Celestial Spirit King gathered around the center.
"D-Did we win?" Max asked.
"Éclair?" Everyone turned to Momon as he flew over to the silver being. She stared at Momon before she lifted a hand to caress the face of the flying bird.
/Thank you, Momon, for everything.../ Something was wrong. That almost sounded like a final goodbye.
The light faded and the former amnesiac's body fell to the floor like a rag doll. Everyone rushed over to their friend but they instantly noticed something: her body was age very quickly. Her hair started to turn gray and her skin started to wrinkle.
"She used all of the remaining magic that made her immortal in the first place," Everyone quickly turned to Selene as she folded her arms. "Time is catching up with her."
"Wendy, can you slow it down!?" Lucy quickly asked.
The small dragon slayer tried, but as her magic shined, Wendy's eyes widened with horror. "N-No! Her body is naturally aging! My healing magic can't detect something's wrong with her!" That caused everyone to panic. After everything they did, they were going to lose their friend just like that?
Kageyama looked over to Selene. He quickly ran to her and prostrated himself before her. "Please, do something to save her life!"
Selene looked over to Fairy Tail. She seemed to mull it over before walking towards the aging girl.
"Consider us even for helping the moon this night." She raised a hand over the aging girl. "Everyone, stand back."
Fairy Tail did so, and they watched as a piece of moonlight shone down on Éclair. They saw that their friend's aging stopped and started to reverse. However, her hair remained the color gray. After a few seconds of bathing in moonlight, Éclair gasped for air.
All of the current female Fairy Tail members and Momon screamed and hugged the girl in relief.
Selene walked away before eyeing Natsu curiously. "You, which dragon raised you?"
Natsu answered very easily. "Igneel, my dad! Why, do you know him, lady?!"
Selene's eyes widened for the briefest of moments before a smirk came across her lips. "Igneel's... son? My, my, my! What a curious coincidence! But why do I smell two dragon scents in you, Son of Igneel?" Kain noticed the weird way she called Natsu The Son of Igneel. It was mocking, but it didn't feel like she was mocking Natsu specifically.
"Are you smelling Atlas Flame? You know him too? Do you know where Igneel is!?" Natsu pumped his hands up. Kain noticed that Selene's eyes widened in surprise when Natsu spoke of Atlas Flame.
Selene continued to smirk. "Alas, I have spent far too much time in Ishgar. The more time I spend here, the more I'm at risk away from my home." She turned away from Fairy Tail.
"Hey! Stop ignoring me and tell me what I need to know!" Natsu barked and looked ready to tussle with the rather powerful dragon slayer.
Selene gave a beautiful laugh before turning back to Kain specifically. "You will learn things when you need to. I must take my leave for now! But do not worry, I have a feeling we will meet each other again one day." With a flash of light, she vanished. Despite Natsu's attempt, he couldn't smell or sense any sign of that strange dragon slayer.
"What the hell was with her? And how'd she get so strong?!" Gajeel folded his arms in frustration. It didn't help his pride that he wasn't the strongest Dragon Slayer in the guild as it's never been determined between him, Natsu, and even Laxus. Now there was this unbelievably strong woman who just came and left in their time of need. Fine, he would just train harder!
"Is Ms. Éclair alright?" Jeremiah asked, making everyone look back to the girl. She looked fine, but her hair was still colored gray.
"I thought I used up all the magic that kept me immortal..." The girl gasped. She took out her necklace which started to crumble and turn to dust.
Bisca realized something and looked around. "Hey! Where's that Peacock thing?"
"I believe that he is going through his reincarnation process." Everyone turned to the Celestial King Spirit, who stroked his beard. He then smiled and turned to everyone beneath him. "There is no need to worry about that old coot."
"It sounds like you know him," Loke spoke up as he started to walk to the male Fairy Tail members.
"That is a story for another day," The Celestial Spirit King looked up to the sky. However, he looked back down specifically at Nab. "You there, shaman. You play a dangerous game making a pact with their kind."
Nab sighed deeply before putting a hand on his head. "It wasn't my choice to begin with."
"Then all I ask is that you be cautious. Death Spirits are dangerous for their long memory." And with that, the Celestial Spirit King vanished into the stars. Everyone looked to Nab in confusion.
Loke raised his brow. "Death Spirit? I've never heard of those."
Nab looked away from everyone. "It's been a long week. It's not a story I want to share."
Silence filled the area until Jeremiah stepped up. "Why so glum, friends? We did it! We saved the world!"
Everyone started to look at each other as they remembered that fact.
"It has been an extremely long week," Kain stood up and powered down his armor. "Who's all in favor of going home?"
Fairy Tail raised their hand. Even Momon and Éclair did so with smiles on their faces.
"I'll stay here and help out Moon Phoenix," Jeremiah spoke up as Adolf came up to him. "Some of their soldiers need to be buried after helping us this night. I might stick around with the rebuilding as we technically did overthrow their prime minister."
"SNAP!" Kain shouted with his eyes widened. "I was so focused on the fight, I forgot that The Principality of Veronica declared War!"
"I-I mean, with Ravanas gone, isn't the war canceled?" Levy asked with some nervousness.
"That's not the point! The backlog of paperwork that's going to come up will make me want to fight The Mahika all over again! NOOOOOOOO!" Kain fell to his knees and screamed into the night. However, his friends relaxed if that was the reason for their lawyer's despair. In fact, some started to laugh at their lawyer's plight, which only made some others join in on the laughter.
Éclair watched with a genuine smile on her face.
Finally, she was home.
{Author Notes: Special}
PG-13: ...
(Kain and Natsu walk up to him.)
PG-13: 3 years. This story is hitting its 3rd birthday. And in one year, I did less than ten chapters, all of them still in the same dang arc!
Kain: Dude, we know you've been having a rough time these past years even before COVID hit. Not only that, but you've also had other projects that you've been just as passionate that you worked on over this story.
Natsu: At least you haven't abandoned this story.
PG-13: You should be thanking Warmachine375 for that. His connection and support is probably the only reason I didn't give up on this story.
Natsu: See! You've got great friends too!
PG-13: There's also a weird amount of haters, though? For some reason, many of them appeared?
Kain: That comes with the territory. We all know people will hate you and trying to stop that is like trying to stop the sun from shinning. But take their insults with grains of salt. They are still entitled to their opinions.
Natsu: If anything, you should wear them like a badge of honor! You gotta live well to truly show them! This is still your dream too! Who cares if your passion is 'wrong'?
PG-13: ... While that does sound nice, but I'd be hypocritical not to admit that there were times where I thought I was giving advice, but may have sounded more snobbish than not. I might have destroyed some dreams even though I didn't mean too.
Natsu: No one's perfect. It's the reason why we keep trying. I mean, sure you were a jerk, and you'll probably slip up again, but you've been fighting to do right all this time still. That's gotta count for something! Just keep fighting! You might not win, but you'll finish the fight win or lose!
PG-13: (Sighs) it must be nice being so pure and filled with no BS. (Stretches hands) Welp. Time to start world-crafting.
Kain: Hey, uh, while you're here. Could you like... tone down the bloody stupid stakes? I mean seriously? Endangering the entire planet before the 7-year skip? Aren't you jumping the shark?
Pg-13: (Smiles)
Kain: (Realization) ... No. There's no way you can escalate things further without things being too imbalanced or stupid!
PG-13: Jumping the shark? Oh dear, Kain, I haven't even gotten to the fun parts yet. It's cute you think a fallen god is the top of my escalation list.
Natsu: (Smiles) OH YEAH! THAT TOTALLY MEANS I GET TO BEAT UP PEOPLE STRONGER THAN GODS!
Kain: (Mortified) I hate that Natsu is so pure and filled with no BS.
...
PG-13: (To readers) Before I forget. I'd like to explain a few more notes. As you can see, I put a cameo of Selene from the 100-year quest in this chapter. She is pretty much OOC since we don't know much about her as of this chapter being posted/written. Still, I thought it was a good idea to have a potential big bad as an ally since I raised the stakes a lot in this action-packed adventure.
My next point has to do with Gogo. Yes, he kinda does come from left field, but like I said I did set the stakes stupidly hard for Fairy Tail, so I tried to even it out by a lot. Still, as I said before, this is only the beginning of the madness that's coming along. And I am very excited about the upcoming Edolas Arc!
Thank you all for your support. I know things are hard, and I can't promise that they will be better. But as they say in boxing, "Go the Distance". You don't have to win or lose, just see it through to the end.
Peace out, guys.