As the three Fairy Tail wizards were descending their elevated position, the giant beast that was to be their enemy in the fight to come noticed them and roared while slowly getting out of the rubble it had created.
Both Natsu and Wendy's ears were incredibly sensitive and Deliora's horrific and loud high-pitched scream would make even the most basic of ears hurt. Although the former had learned to control his senses and endure significant amounts of pain, this wasn't the case for his foster little sister who covered her ears to try to diminish the discomfort.
Seeing the little girl he cared about so much in such a state of pain made the pink-haired mage's heart ache. As a result, he placed his hand on the top of her head and used his latest-acquired magic on her.
When her pain subsided, the Sky Dragon Slayer took notice of the warm hand on her head and looked up. It didn't take long for her to figure out the pinkette was the reason for her relief but still looked at him curiously because of the fond smile he was giving her.
"This is about to be by far the hardest fight you've ever been in, Wendy. So, remember what I've taught you: trust your instincts." he told her. As soon as these words left his mouth, the young girl nodded in understanding and got a look of determination on her face.
However, the moment was interrupted by the third member of their group. "Is there anything more specific you can tell us about that demon?"
Her question made Natsu turn his gaze towards said opponent who was finishing stepping out of the ruins and onto the large plain they were on. "Deliora is very strong and durable. It also has a healing ability which means that most of the damage we do cause will likely disappear in a matter of seconds. But, it is extremely slow and…unimaginably stupid. These are the advantages we need to exploit."
"Very well. We shall follow this strategy then. Requip: Flight Armor!" Erza declared and changed into her cheetah-printed armor in a flash of light.
"Fast wind that run the heaven... Vernier!" the blue-haired girl joined in, casting her spell on the three of them.
"You too go right together, I'll go left. We'll attack simultaneously from both sides and overwhelm Deliora." the knight instructed and, without waiting for a reply, sprinted to her left at breakneck speed.
Understanding he wouldn't be able to warn the redhead in time, the other S-class mage grabbed his sister's hand and started running the other way at a comparable speed. 'You fool.' he thought.
When the two groups were on either side of the giant demon, the pink-haired wizard let go of Wendy's hand.
Thanks to their speed, coordination and positioning, the beast wasn't even able to comprehend what was happening before they were already charging their attacks.
Each of them had a different idea in mind. Erza, being the fine tactician that she was, opted to simply draw her sword back in preparation to stab a creature that was dozens of times her size. Wendy, being more cautious, decided to keep her distance and gathered magic and air in her mouth. Finally, Natsu, understanding how it was all going to work out, turned his arm into ice.
The two female mages then launched their attacks at the same time.
"Sky Dragon's Roar!" the bluenette shouted and unleashed her usual tornado on Deliora, just as her red-headed guildmate stuck her sword in the creature's ankle.
The sword did manage to penetrate the thick skin, but the wound it created closed and disappeared almost as soon as it was pulled back.
As for Wendy's spell, she had aimed it at the demon's head in the hope that it would be more effective this way. Unfortunately, all it did was make its mane-like hair wave in the wind it generated.
Zeref's large creation didn't even notice the knight's attack and focused solely on the smaller girl who froze on the spot and paled when she noticed those evil eyes looking down at her. Her terror only increased when Deliora raised one of its feet with the intention to stomp on her.
"Ice Dragon's Spike!" she heard from behind her and saw a long point made of ice pass by her and extend at tremendous speed towards Deliora's head. However, when it stopped, it wasn't on the behemoth's head but right next to it. Natsu then used his spike to hit Deliora on the side of the head. Because it had one leg lifted, the demon couldn't prevent itself from falling on the ground, making a loud thud as it did.
Before it even hit the ground, Wendy turned around towards her savior with a happy smile, which vanished when she saw him glaring fiercely at Erza. She then followed him silently as he walked towards the knight with his fists clenched.
"What the hell where you thinking?!" he all but yelled as soon as he reached her.
His tone made the red-haired girl match his glare with her own. "What do you mean? My strategy was perfectly valid?" she defended herself.
"Strategy? What you did would be like an ant trying to kill you with a toothpick! This isn't a strategy, it's stupidity, plain and simple. And because of your stupidity, Wendy, my sister, almost got killed!"
Erza was about to rebut but the last sentence shut her up. She looked at the younger girl who was looking at her feet, feeling bad and somewhat a little happy for making Natsu worry about her.
The S-class woman then sighed before answering. "I apologize. That was quite reckless of me. Please hi-"
She didn't get enough time to finish her apology for she was interrupted by an angered roar from Deliora who was getting back up, bringing the mages' attention back to it.
"Alright, we'll talk about this later. Erza, you must change your armor if you wish to do any significant damage to Deliora. This one is too limited in terms of offensive capabilities and you don't need this much speed anyway. I'd suggest going for either its head or torso. Wendy, you and I will keep our distance and use long-ranged attacks." the pinkette instructed, taking command.
Both of the girls nodded in understanding and, seconds later, Erza changed her outfit in a flash of light.
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!" she called out and then took off at high speed towards the head of the demon. As she was flying, she summoned several swords around herself.
Meanwhile, both of the dragon siblings were gathering magic around their arms.
"Blumenblatt!" the red-haired knight yelled as she charged at Deliora's face and sliced it with the two swords she was holding. As she rushed past the giant head, all of the sword she had previously requipped followed her, stabbing it.
Since Deliora was so slow and heavy, not only did it not even have time to dodge a single sword, it only registered what was happening when all of the sharp weapons had already pierced its skin.
As it roared in pain and anger, the demon turned around in search of its attacker, which made it completely oblivious to the two new attacks that were coming towards it.
"Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"
"Water Dragon's Wing Attack!"
Both Natsu and Wendy called out their attack as they swung their arms and unleashed two long tendrils of their respective element each. Because they had taken their time to power up their attacks, said tendrils were extremely large, with the pink-haired mage's being almost as big as Deliora and his sister's being a bit smaller but was traveling faster. As a result, her spell was the first to hit the giant beast. However, even though it was caught off guard, the attack barely did any damage to it, causing a few small scratches and contusions. Then, it was Natsu's wing attack that reached its target and it was more successful. Indeed, his spell left two long and deep gashes on Deliora's chest and pushed it back significantly. As it dug its feet into the ground to slow down, the demon leaned forward and held its stomach to ease the pain and reduce the insane blood loss it was going through.
At the same time as it came to a halt, Erza landed next to her two guildmates. "That should do it." she stated confidently.
"We did nothing." the pinkette refuted.
Both girls briefly looked at him in confusion but returned their gazes to their foe who looked up and glared at them with its eyes shining in hatred. Deliora then stood up fully and the swords in its face were pushed out as all of its wounds began to heal on their own and, within seconds, even the ones inflicted by Natsu were gone.
'Wrong. You pissed it off.' Mavis countered teasingly.
'Oh, you're right. I'm so sorry.' her host sarcastically acknowledged.
It is at this moment that Deliora opened its mouth and a lime-colored light could be seen shining in the back of its throat.
Realizing what was going on, Natsu quickly turned his head towards Erza. "Get out of the way!" he yelled and then picked Wendy up bridal style and jumped away with his Sky Dragon Slayer Magic's help.
Heeding her teammate's warning, the red-haired knight used her armor to fly as far away as possible, which was fortunate because the spot where she was standing soon exploded.
The reason for this was a large, powerful lime-colored energy beam that the demon had shot from its mouth at the mages. Upon contact, this ray caused enormous amounts of flame to erupt.
The two S-class mage landed at the same distance and at the same time. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the pink-haired wizard he gently placed his passenger on the ground.
"Th-Thank you." she said while looking down at the grass with pink-tinted cheeks of embarrassment.
After nodding in response, Natsu turned around and promptly sucked the fire that the demon had caused in his mouth and ate it.
On the other side, Erza who was frustrated by the lack of damage from her last attack had used this time to change her outfit once again in favor of one that would increase her offense. "Requip: Black Wing Armor!"
By the time the other two Fairy Tail mages' sensitive ears picked up what she had said and they turned around, she had already taken off towards their enemy. Reacting first, Natsu looked back at his little sister and nodded at her. "Together."
Catching on quickly, the blue-haired girl nodded and the two of them began to take a deep breath.
In the meantime, the red-haired knight stopped herself further away from the giant this time. She raised her sword above her head end its blade shone with a clear blue. "Moon Flash!" she called out and made a slashing motion with her weapon towards the beast twice. Each of those swipes generated a wave of blue energy in the shape of an arc which grew as it advanced towards Deliora.
The demon instinctively raised its arms to protect its face. But, that proved to be a mistake as the attacks weren't aimed at its head, but at its torso. As a result, it could only roar in pain when the two arcs hit it square in the chest and left two serious burns, one that went from its right shoulder to its left hip and the other from its neck to its right ribs.
Erza smiled proudly at her accomplishment. That smirk and the feeling associated to it disappeared and were replaced by an expression of shock and panic when her enemy lowered its arms, revealing its large maw opened and emitting the same light as before. Since her armor was too slow and she was too close to dodge, the knight did the only thing she could: she placed her sword in front of her to protect herself, even if she knew it would do next to nothing.
"Sky Dragon's Roar!" In the end though, it didn't need to as both of her guildmates recited the same spell in perfect harmony, saving her. Indeed, Natsu and Wendy had simultaneously unleashed the attack they had been preparing in the form of hurricane-like blasts, although Natsu's was significantly bigger. On the way to their target, the two tornadoes merged into a larger one.
Because of its current disposition, the behemoth wasn't able to withstand the attack and stumbled backwards. It did fire the beam from its mouth but only when it was already falling and so didn't hit anything, least of all Erza.
"Great job, Wendy." Natsu congratulated her with a proud smile which made the young girl blush in embarrassment but smile as well.
"Thank you, big brother." At the same time as she was thanking him, the third member of their group landed next to them.
"Well done. But there's no way this was enough. We need to-" she started saying, not mentioning they had probably just saved her life, but was interrupted when Deliora's body began to glow with a blinding lime light.
'O-Oh. I didn't know it could do that too. Oh shit. That's bad.' the pinkette internally cursed.
'Do what? What's that?' his blonde friend asked.
Before he could answer, the light started to died down. And when it did, it revealed that, not only had the demon healed itself again and gotten back up, but it had also undergone some changes. Most notably, its thick skin had turned into an equally dark kind of crystal. Additionally, all of its spikes, teeth and horns had gotten longer and sharper, his hair had become wilder and his eyes were now producing a kind of red smoke.
'Its Etherious Form.' the pink-haired mage answered.
"Natsu, what is this? More to the point, what do we do about it?" Erza questioned, a little confused by what had just occurred.
"Let's just say things just got a whole lot harder for us." her teammate simply responded.
As if to emphasize the mage's point, Deliora launched its next attack. This one resembled the usual beam in the way the demon opened its mouth and a light appeared in it. However, it was slightly different as its eyes turned the same lime color and they too emitted destructive rays at the same time. The three beams merged as soon as they were emitted, creating a much more powerful and faster attack than the original.
Understanding dodging wasn't an option, Natsu quickly took a single step forward and gathered fire around each of his arms and then swiped them in a circular motion. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!" he called out and unleashed a torrent of flames to meet his opponent's attack.
When the two spells collided, they struggled against each other for a few seconds before canceling each other out. This surprised slightly the pink-haired wizard who seemed to have underestimated his fellow demon. Granted, he had only put about a third of his power in the move, but he thought it would have been enough to obliterate it. As for said giant, it took these results much less well, which was demonstrated by its piercing roar of sheer anger and the way it started running at full speed towards the three Fairy Tail mages.
'Wow. You've pissed it off even more. I'm impressed.' the First Master mocked.
This time, Natsu didn't even bother to acknowledge her. He had more pressing issues anyway. "Split up." he instructed and ran towards the approaching beast.
Following his instructions, Erza and Wendy started running too to position themselves to the right and the left of Deliora respectively.
As the pinkette neared Zeref's creation, it tried to grab him with its large hand, but Natsu was just too fast for it and dodged effortlessly and then ran between its legs, getting behind it.
Because of its failed attempt to capture the S-class wizard, the demon slightly lost its balance and fell forward but managed to stop itself thanks to its long arms. Once it recovered, it found itself surrounded by the three Fairy Tail members positioned equidistant around it. Each of them was preparing an attack and, because of its very low IQ, couldn't decide which to focus on. However, this time, it had a trick up its sleeve. Indeed, it promptly lifted its right talon-like foot and the crystal that composed it lit up with a bright lime light.
Because they were focused on the move they were preparing, Natsu was the only one to clock what was happening before the behemoth slammed his foot on the ground, thus creating an intense shockwave that spread over the ground in a circular fashion. Because of the way they had placed themselves, the attack hit them all simultaneously. Although, it did not have the same impact on each of them.
Since he had seen it coming, the Triple Hybrid was the one who fared best and was only pushed a few steps back with his feet dug in the grass.
Erza, being the S-class mage she was, was able to resist, even though she had been caught off guard, by sticking her sword in the earth instinctively. Still, she was pushed back a considerable distance.
As for the Sky Dragon Slayer, she was arguably the one who suffered the most from the shockwave. Her complete lack of awareness combined with her characteristic clumsiness meant that, instead of being pushed away like her two companions, she fell over completely and landed on her side, not hurting herself badly but ending up in a really vulnerable position.
And that is precisely what her attacker noticed and decided to take advantage of. It ran at full speed towards her to finish her off, its weight shaking the earth.
This same phenomenon made brought the bluenette's attention towards its source. Her mind was filled with terror and panic when she realized what was going on. She managed to scramble to her feet but was now frozen. She could clearly see she wouldn't be fast enough to dodge the charge nor strong enough to take it. Her enchantments had worn out and she didn't have the time necessary to recast any of them. Usually, this is the moment when her brother would come in and save her. As her thoughts turned to him, his words of a few moments ago echoed in her mind. 'Trust your instincts.' he had said, so that's what she did. Closing her eyes, she tried to concentrate and instantly a spell came to her mind. A spell that Natsu had only told her about once before and one that she had never even attempted. But she ignored all of that and cast it anyway. "Sky Drive." she pronounced and her entire body was cloaked in an aura of light blue and pink lights.
The speed boost that the technique provided was enough to allow her to get away just in time to avoid being crushed by the beast as it ran.
Upon realizing its failure, Deliora skidded to a halt and span around to try to correct the situation. However, something caught its eye that made it freeze and forget everything that was on its mind. And that thing was Natsu's two glowing, piercing red eyes glaring at him. The light they were emitting was so strong that it made it impossible to see his other facial features. Unlike every other living being who had ever been confronted with these eyes, Deliora wasn't scared. In fact, it was literally incapable of feeling fear. A little experiment of Zeref's. Nevertheless, as it stared into those endless crimson orbs, it felt a sense of…familiarity.
As for the aforementioned pink-haired mage, family just so happened to also be what he was thinking about. Although, in his case, it wasn't directed towards the crystal beast but towards the very person it had just tried to kill. As one might expect, seeing someone he cared about so much being attacked like this filled him with rage and hatred he could not control. His magics responded to his emotions by flaring up. Soon, he was coated with a dark aura and the ground began to shake.
Natsu then took a single step forward before seemingly disappearing into thin air. In reality, he was simply running. But he was running so fast that a normal eye could only see a blur. In a split second, that blur had reached Deliora's stomach and had his right fist drawn back and surrounded by purple energy.
"Gravity Dragon's Crushing Fist!" he called out and punched his enemy's belly as hard as he could. The attack sent the giant far backwards and made it bend forward. When it stopped and straightened up, it revealed that the crystal where Natsu had struck had significant cracks.
Deliora's eyes and mouth lit up in their usual color as it was getting ready to strike back, only to find an empty space where its attacker was. It started looking around in search of him but couldn't find him for after punching it, the pinkette started to run after it and then jumped above it as it was getting back up. He was now behind the behemoth. More specifically, behind its head. Moreover, he had his cheeks puffed out.
"Ice Water Dragon's Roar!" he yelled out and expelled a huge torrent of swirling water surrounded by hundreds of tiny ice particles. Deliora didn't get enough time to turn around before the attack hit it in the back of the head, thus causing it to fall forward and freezing its hair.
As Natsu landed on the ground, he didn't waste any time and gathered magic around both of his forearms which began to glow purple. As his target was getting back on its feet yet again, he joined his hands together and brought them down towards the ground. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Armageddon!"
For a few seconds, nothing seemed to be happening. But just as Deliora started to turn back to face him, the sky darkened and the ground shook uncontrollably. A loud explosion noise resounded through the air and the sky turned blood red as the tremors intensified. It was then possible to discern a round black shape in the sky which grew as if it were approaching. Once the shadow reached and pierced through the clouds, it was replaced by a rock about two times the size of the creature which it was falling down towards. As said monster completed its turn on itself, it was finally able to see the meteor coming down on it, but it was far too late for Deliora to do anything about it. The asteroid hit it head-on, creating a blinding light and a deafening sound.
When the light faded and the noise stopped, they gave way to a scene of horror. The floor was littered with pieces of crystal of various sizes. The earth was turned over all around the impact zone, which was now nothing more than a huge crater. In this ditch was Deliora, or at least what was left of it. The crystal of all its limbs had been completely shattered and the one of its torso and head had countless cracks with pieces fallen off and half of its face missing. Its regeneration ability was trying its best to heal the damage, but it was so severe it would take it some time. Its vocal cords had probably been rendered inoperative because it was trying to scream in pain but no sound was coming out of its mouth.
As Natsu slowly made his way to where his enemy was laying to finish it off, he walked right past his two female teammates who had both just been staring in utter shock the whole time, though for different reasons. Wendy had pretty much exhausted all of her magic power and Erza had estimated that taking part in the fight would only be getting in Natsu's way and possibly even endanger herself. As for their common states of shock, they too had different reasons behind them. The Requip mage was surprised by her pink-haired guildmate's strength. She had always known he was powerful, but even in her wildest dreams she had never imagined him to be this powerful. While the Sky Sorceress was more troubled by his behavior than anything else. In a way, she was happy to see his reaction because it showed how much she meant to him. On the other hand, she had never thought her older brother could be so violent and aggressive.
The pinkette when he found himself between the two pectorals of the beast. He silently ignited his hand in a dark red and purple fire and raised it. He then brought it down on Deliora's left pectoral, right where a human heart would be, shattering the crystal around the point of impact. The behemoth threw its head back with its mouth open as if to scream but yet again no sound was emitted. Moments later, that same fire shot out of its eyes and the spot where Natsu had lodged his fist like flamethrowers and the demon frantically writhed in pain. At the same time, the crystal that composed its body progressively lost its dark taint and turned white. After a little while, Deliora stopped moving altogether and fell limply as its regeneration came to a complete halt. Finally, Natsu withdrew his hand and began to walk away and descend from the now dead demon. His eyes turned back to normal and the now pure white crystal gradually turned to dust.
By the time the S-class mage got out of the hole, Deliora was nothing more than a pile of dust that was being scattered by the wind. As he was walking back to his teammates, he suddenly stopped and turned around. His gaze landed on a bruised and battered Lyon crawling his way out of the ruins. When said ice mage saw the crater and understood what had happened, tears formed in the corners of his eyes and he began to bang his fist furiously on the floor.
"N-No. How could this be? My dream is dead…" he said in a defeated tone.
"…Don't you ever pay attention to anything other than yourself?" Natsu sarcastically asked in frustration. When he saw his comment had gotten the light-haired mage's attention, he continued. "Didn't you hear? Ur is back with us. I guess you'll just have to surpass her the old fashioned way. Then again, that also means you'll have to explain yourself to her."
At this point, Lyon's eyes were about as wide as they could get. "Y-You r-really did it?" he stuttered in disbelief.
The pinkette lowered his head as he sighed before taking a few steps towards the Cold Emperor. "I'll be honest with you, Lyon. I really don't give a shit about you. But Gray does and so does Ur. I think they both would like you to be here when she wakes up, but it's your choice. We'll be in the makeshift village that replaces the one you ordered to be destroyed." He then started walking away and back to where he was originally going, leaving a guilt-ridden ice mage to look down in thought.
Some time later, inside one of the tents of the replacement village, Ur, still unconscious, was laying on a bed of straw. She was surrounded by the members of Fairy Tail with her former student sitting next to her with a worried look. Well, they all had a worried look. Except for Natsu who was looking down thoughtfully instead. He was drawn from these thoughts and when he heard a groan from the woman he had saved. A few seconds later, the same sound came out of her mouth again, but this time it was loud enough for all of them to hear it.
"Ur!" Gray screamed in happiness while standing up.
"Urgh. Do you have to be so loud, you annoying brat?" his teacher complained as she sat up while rubbing her head. She stopped this movement and her eyes went wide as realization hit her. "Wait! What's going on?! How am I here?! I should be an Iced Shell!" Her panic was only reduced by her confusion when her eyes landed on her student and she noticed how much he had changed.
Said pupil was moving his hands to indicate her to settle down. "You did cast that spell. You saved both Lyon and I from Deliora. Ten years ago."
His explanation only made her even more surprised and confused. "Ten years? Then, how can I be here?"
"We managed to revert the spell." Gray supplied which nearly made the older woman's eyes pop out of their sockets.
"What?! But, how?! I thought that was impossible." she exclaimed in utter shock.
"Natsu Dragneel. Nice to meet you." the pink-haired member of the group half-heatedly joked with a small smile.
Ur's gaze momentarily turned towards him before returning to her student. "What about Deliora? If you did revert the spell, then…"
"It's dead. We killed it." Erza reassured before her dark-haired guildmate could reply.
At the mention of the demon he had just killed, Natsu lost his smile and quietly made his way out of the tent, going unnoticed by all but one person.
"Ur…You don't have any memory of your time in the ice?" the other ice mage in the tent asked her. Upon receiving a shake of the head as an answer, he started explaining what had happened to each of them over the past decade.
Back with Natsu, he had gone out of the village and back into the forest. He was now leaning his shoulder against a tree with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
'Can we talk now?' Mavis asked.
He opened his eyes before giving her his simple answer. 'Sure.'
'Good. Thank you. I would just like to know…what the heck was that?' the blonde ghost questioned.
'You know what that was. I already told you. I created the curse power. A power that uses negative emotions as an energy source. Therefore, every living being who uses this power is affected by the emotions that feed it.'
'And since you're its creator, you feel it all, don't you?' the Fairy Tactician deducted.
'Exactly. All of the fear, pain, suffering, anger, hatred in the world. I feel it all. Constantly. This is what almost made me a monster, all those centuries ago. Today, I can control it pretty well. But when I had my own anger to the mix…things don't usually turn out so well. Sometimes, I wonder if I might be the essence of evil.' Natsu confessed.
'Oh, how I wish I could slap you right now.'
'What? Why?' the pinkette asked, honestly surprised Mavis would ever say something like that.
But before she could answer, two small arms wrapped around her host's waist and a head buried itself in the middle of his back. The aforementioned pink-haired mage smiled a bit; knowing who it was. "Are you alright, Wendy?"
His little sister nodded while humming. "Thanks to you. But what about you? You've been looking upset since the fight with Deliora."
"I'm fine. Thank you." he reassured her.
'You see? This is why. After all of the good you've done, don't you go calling yourself "the essence of evil" ever again or I'll make you regret it.' Mavis threatened.
'Got it, boss.' her friend jokingly confirmed before bringing his attention back to the blue-haired girl who was still hugging him. "Now, we should probably go back. Before Ur decides to tear apart either of her former students…or both of them." he stated, which made her giggle. After that, the bluenette finally let go of him and they both began to walk back towards the camp from where loud angry screams could be heard.