For those of you who didn't read the update two weeks ago when it came out, that chapter is the actual Chapter 48. I deleted the Author's Note that had been taking up Chapter 2 and the site was being irritating about it. So if you don't recognize where this chapter starts off, make sure you've read the chapter right before it.
Time restraints left no time for xenosaiyan to beta this one. Any mistakes are mine.
Erza recalled many times when Master Makarov had sworn vengeance for an attack on his children. From Phantom Lord to Tartaros, none survived once the giant learned they'd attacked his charges. She had joined in many of those rages herself, lending her strength to avenge her guildmates, filled to the brim with the blazing fire of retribution. She'd thought that meant she'd understood what her master was experiencing, shared his wrath.
Then she'd seen Cinder Fall point an arrow at Pyrrha's heart, her daughter, her little girl.
Her admiration for her father figure increased ever further. If the same festering, frozen killing intent had filled him whenever someone had tried to murder one of them, his restraint was truly saint like.
She did not share it. Cinder Fall had tried to kill her baby. She would not leave the vault alive. If fact, she was already dead. The remaining time she had to breathe was just a formality.
"Daughter?" the Gate of the Archer croaked, her golden eyes frantically scanning Erza and her Giant Armor. "Scarlet Nikos?"
"Requip!" Erza roared, light flashing over her. "Flame Empress Armor! Demon Blade Benizakura!"
In an instant, the heavy gold of her Giant Armor was replaced by the red and orange plate of her anti-fire armor. Pyrrha had talked often of Cinder Fall's preferred element and Erza had heard plenty of explosions when she was leaping down the elevator shaft. If necessary, she could switch to a more appropriate suit as the battle developed, but this seemed like a practical choice to start.
Especially because her foe's eyes widened the moment they latched onto her dark blue guildmark, revealed by her new armor's lack of pauldrons.
"Fairy Tail? Red hair?" Cinder murmured, realization tinging her voice. "Erza Scarlet?!"
The Queen of the Fairies charged across the half-bridge, not as fast as with her Flight Armor, but with aura boosting her muscles she was faster than she'd ever been on Earthland. And with magic dancing within her once more, she was more dangerous than she'd ever been in Argus's arena.
One would think that suddenly remembering such mysticism would make using it in combat disorienting, but Erza had kept her origin full all these years with the breathing exercises she had remembered without fully understanding and her body was as well-honed as ever. Being able to grasp whatever armor or weapon she needed was only a help and having just gotten a crash course of every time she'd ever won a battle allowed her to incorporate her two fighting styles seamlessly.
Cinder strung a trio of arrows across her bow with her flesh arms and loosed them downrange, her bone claws thrusting out and launching twin twisters of fire towards her approaching adversary. Erza darted past the projectiles, making sure to knock away any that flew towards Pyrrha behind her. The torrents of flame she took head-on to shield her daughter, her armor halving the blasts' strength so that her aura could tank the attacks without too much difficulty.
Bursting out the other side of the barrage, Erza leapt into the air, Cinder's eyes widening as the Fairy Tail wizard bore down on her with her sword held high.
Aside from the halberd of her Nakagami Armor, the Demon Blade Benizakura was the most dangerous weapon in Erza's arsenal. However, in order to utilize its full power, one needed to focus all their magical energy into the sword's offense. Even the relatively scant amount her various armors drew for their passive effects would interfere with the process, leaving its maximum capacity useless unless she wore her Clear Heart clothing. Of course, the saber's nature made it capable of withstanding large influxes of magic, which made it quite useful for another purpose, one that could shatter lesser steel if done wrong.
"High Enchant: Ice Devil's Cold Air!"
Her lessons from Wendy paid off and pink frost, its sorcery structure lifted from hours of studying Gray's ice, spread across the katana's steel. With a stream of frozen air following its slash, Erza brought the blade down on her foe.
Cinder raised one of her bone arms into the sword's path, only for the limb to be battered away with ease. The Fall Maiden scampered back, obviously not expecting her demonic defense to be so easily overwhelmed. The Eclipse Etherious's hybrid nature meant that Devil Slayer ice wasn't as effective as it was against a pure demon but, when the target wasn't expecting the extra bite, it still packed quite a punch.
Erza pressed her advantage, unleashing a vivid flurry of strikes and forcing her enemy back across the bridge. After her initial failure to deflect the frozen sword, Cinder split her bow into a pair of twin swords and used those to weather the Fairy Tail wizard's onslaught.
As much as the red-haired woman hated to admit it, the Fall Maiden was an impressive swordswoman. Erza could count on one hand the blade wielders who could match her in pure skill, Kagura first among them with Pantherlily and Pyrrha following not far behind. Yet, Cinder was dual wielding, a style notably more difficult to master than traditional swordsmanship. She was extremely well-trained, only on the backfoot because Erza had capitalized on her opening surprise. Yet, she still managed an orderly retreat from the Titania's relentless advance.
And that was clearly not a status quo that would need to be maintained much longer.
Cinder caught Benizakura between her swords, trapping it in an X-shaped block. Frost seeped over her molten blades, dimming the blazing weapons' glow but halting Erza's onslaught. The Gate's face finally recovered from its bewildered panic, settling into a veneer of cocky viciousness as emerald electricity crackled across her body.
"Enhance! 100%!"
Her bone arms thrusted forward to skewer the wizard, twin blurs of searing orange heat, faster than almost any combatant Erza had encountered.
But even if the Titania's reflexes would struggle to react in time, her casting abilities, renowned for their unnatural speed, were just barely able to beam in advance. Requip surged over her body, flashing her Flame Empress Armor away and replacing it with her Heaven's Wheel Armor. The change of plate structure led the molten bone spikes to strike Erza's aura at an awkward angle and crash into the silver armor's radiant sword wings. Or rather, punch straight through the sword wings.
Alright, that was a new one.
Erza didn't let her surprise slow her down however and took advantage of her new armor's abilities to summon a swarm of blades above her enemy. Cinder flinched, squeezing her swords even tighter around Benizakura and sweeping one of her bone arms towards the descending rain of steel, blossoming an inferno to force the deluge aside.
With the Fairy Tail wizard's barrage deflected, the Gate conjured a flash of lightning in her remaining demonic limb, unleashing a bolt of electricity towards her enemy, likely seeking to circumvent her observed flame resistance.
Erza smirked. Perfect.
Once more, her Requip flashed over her body and in the blink of an eye, both her armor and her sword disappeared, replaced by the flowing blue and gold gown of her Lightning Empress Armor and spear. Cinder's lightning bolt crashed into the side of her chest, its lethal power halved, but its impact no less forceful, just as the Titania had counted on.
She took advantage of the attack's momentum to pirouette around and stab towards her foe with her polearm, a crack of thunder slamming into the Gate at point blank range. Off balance as she'd been from Erza suddenly recalling Benizakura from their blade lock, the Eclipse Etherious was sent sprawling across the bridge, tumbling across the stone until she was just in front of Raven's bleeding body.
Erza blinked her lightning spear out of her grip and replaced it with her still enchanted Benizakura. One of her greatest advantages in battle was her versatility, being able to switch between armor and weapons at the drop of a hat. Against some enemies, that would only go so far, but if she used her skills wisely, she could disrupt her opponent's rhythm and control the flow of the battle.
Though, it seemed her current foe had something similar in mind. Thanks to Wendy's encounter with her at the memorial gardens, the Fairy Tail wizard had known Cinder possessed the Enhancement Curse going into the battle. However, she also knew from Ruby's stories that her aura would be able to shield her from it. She'd still have to contend with the curse empowering her enemy, but she wouldn't have to worry about her senses being removed or her pain receptors being augmented. Although, it didn't seem like the enemy was utilizing the same steady, continuous increase that Kyouka had, instead using it for controlled bursts of extra power. A lot of extra power.
If she wasn't careful, that technique could be the end of her. She needed to press her advantage and not give the Gate a chance to recover, keep her on the backfoot, keep fighting—
"Ah!"
Pyrrha's agonized cry filled the air, and Erza, running on sheer maternal instinct, immediately whipped around towards her daughter.
Viridescent sparks crackled over her child. Pyrrha ceased fumbling about towards the battle, instead reaching her hands up to her ears, only to screech in pain when she touched them. The curse had been modified, another of her senses stripped from her. But why? She was already out of the fight, what was the point in hurting her—
Distraction!
A roar of flames and a rush of heat burst out from in front of the vault. Erza whirled back around only to find that Cinder had used her lapse of concentration to conjure a massive conflagration and rocket herself into the air. Once she was a few stories high, she thrust out her arms to either side, a thunderous maelstrom of magic and power surrounding her in a tempestuous orange sphere. Her bone arms pressed together, a mass of pure heat igniting between her palms.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was readying an especially powerful attack. However, while her height advantage would be troublesome, it was nothing Erza hadn't dealt with before. She could dodge whatever blast her foe was preparing and ascend into the air to bring her back down to earth.
At least, that was the plan before Cinder didn't aim at her. Instead, the Gate peeled her aim far over the wizard's shoulder, narrowing in on another, far more vulnerable target.
Erza's eyes widened, breaking into a breakneck blur as she dashed back towards her daughter.
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Erza Scarlet. The Queen of the Fairies. The Titania.
Cinder had heard many, many stories about her current foe, Salem and End never hesitating to shower the requip wizard with praise in their retellings of her adventures. The S-Class Mage that even the Salamander feared, the strongest woman in Fairy Tail, the Knight that defeated countless ferocious monsters that threatened her guild. Including Kyouka, the Etherious from which the Gate of the Archer took her demonic side and curse.
Though, given how much of a bitch that wretch was during Cinder's ascension before her consciousness was subsumed into the Fall Maiden's own, she couldn't say she blamed the redhead for that. Sagittarius was far more agreeable about the whole thing, though then again he had participated voluntarily.
Regardless, she had just dealt with Pyrrha Nikos's substantial skill and Raven Branwen, a maiden and huntress that even Teacher spoke highly of, with incredible ease. Wendy had struggled against her when she'd only been a maiden. A Fairy Tail wizard was dangerous, no doubt, but no matter how she'd been initially caught off guard, no matter how much of her aura had been shaved away from the blows she took before she assumed her Eclipse Etherious form, she had nothing to fear. She had more than enough power to crush the guild's champion.
And then… she hadn't.
She'd drowned Scarlet in fire, and she'd just charged through the flames with a Devil Slayer sword. She'd stopped that sword and unleashed her curse boost, only to have her foe swap armors to tank the blow and drop an arsenal on her. She'd blown the rain of steel to pieces and shot her with a lightning bolt, only for the redhead to just spin around and blast her with one of her own! No matter what she tried, that bitch had an answer for it!
All the while, her presence, her fury, radiated off her in waves, beating itself into Cinder's skull, an imperious, unyielding presence that was determined to destroy her and everything she held dear. Just like someone else had.
'I'm so sorry, Benjamin.'
'Ella, run!'
'Father!'
NO! No, no, no! Never again! She would not be powerless! She would not be beaten!
Teacher had taught her to be strong, to circumvent a powerful opponent. If your foe was mighty, strike where they were vulnerable. And never mistake that a strength was solely a strength.
The way Cinder saw it, even if Fairy Tail really did 'draw strength from their friends' as Salem and End professed, that same devotion was quite easy to turn into a weakness.
To that end, she'd increased the hold of her curse over Pyrrha, shutting down all five of her senses. She couldn't afford the chance that the prodigy might use her hearing to get herself out of danger. After that, she amped up her pain receptors even higher, counting on Scarlet's devotion to her daughter to distract her. Even if she was capable of somehow counterattacking someone so high in the air, she wouldn't sacrifice her child to do so.
In that brief moment, she propelled herself into the air and called out the full extent of her elemental powers to her bone arms, charging the same calamitous heat beam she'd used against Ozpin during their duel in the Beacon Vault. She'd aimed it at Pyrrha, and Scarlet dashed for her child.
Cinder smirked. Respectable. But oh, so predictable.
She fired.
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Raven had been hit by a truck before. It'd been back she and Qrow had first gotten their magic and they'd taken it for a joyride by racing through the skies of Vale, diving through the streets between columns of cars doing daredevil tricks. Unfortunately, her brother's semblance had kicked in and short-circuited a nearby traffic light from red to green just as she'd flown into its path. If not for the wonders of aura, she would have been splattered against a windshield.
Once she could feel again, her sight, hearing, and touch rushing back to her body, she felt ten times worse than back then. After her many minutes of pure darkness, without sound or surface, all her agony crashed back onto her exhausted nerves in a single rush.
"Ugh…" she groaned, her head hammering against her eardrums as a wet dribble of blood trickled down her forehead.
She was alive. She definitely had a concussion, likely a fractured skull too, but she was alive.
Why the hell was she alive?
Not that she wasn't grateful to still be among the living, but she'd seen what an Eclipse Etherious form could do back when Team STRQ had fought Hazel for the old Spring Maiden outside Argus. And Cinder's had shown itself to be no less powerful than the Gate of the Bull's. The psychotic Fall Maiden had made no secret of her desire for the Spring Maiden's magic, and Raven doubted Pyrrha could stall her for long, so why was she not only still breathing, but still the host of that surplus of power?
"Requip! Adamantine Armor!"
Oh. That was why.
She didn't know when Scarlet had shown up in the time she was out, but she must have gotten her memories back, because she was decked out in cumbersome chrome armor with massive half shields on either arm. She charged in front of her daughter at the edge of the broken bridge and slammed the two barriers together to form a single tower shield.
Just in time too, because the moment she leapt into position, Cinder unleashed a gargantuan heat beam from on high, the bitch floating in midair within a sphere crafted from a swirling vortex of elemental magic. Raven had experimented with her maiden powers enough to know few things could survive such an attack.
Yet, an elaborate magic circle flared to life in front of Scarlet's tower shield and when the defense was struck, the barrier held firm against the blast, scattered flecks of molten energy scattering across the edge of the bridge and into the chasm below.
Raven's breath caught in her throat. That… that was impossible. No shield could stalemate a maiden's power like that, magic or not, especially when that maiden was also an Eclipse Etherious. The sheer mystical force at her command… Scarlet should have been vaporized along with her daughter.
The former bandit's confoundment was echoed by Cinder, along with an extra helping of unyielding rage.
The Eclipse Etherious strung her bow with her flesh arms, notching three arrows on its string. The projectiles blazed downward, joining the heat beam in crashing against Scarlet's shield. Though they were shattered upon the mystical steel, the projectiles' fragments glowed orange and attempted to gather behind the redhead's defense.
Fortunately, while the arrows might have been able to bypass the tower shield itself, the enormous magic circle it conjured was a different matter. The fragments found their path blocked by the mystical barrier, unable to flank their mistress's foe.
Cinder growled at this new development but kept up both the heat beam and her relentless barrage of arrows. However, she also adjusted the aim of the latter so that they struck the bridge in front of the Nikos women. Blazing glyphs sprouted across the stone, the rocky surface erupting in a cacophony of explosions. The bombardment ate away at the overpass, not instantaneously like Pyrrha's Grand Chariot had to the other half but steadily enough that it wouldn't be long before she and her mother were plunged into the void.
They were doomed. Even if Scarlet's armor could somehow hold out against the Fall Maiden's raw power, between Cinder's magic, curse, mobility, and her extra limbs there no way the redhead would be able to keep her aura intact. And when that was broken, she'd be robbed of her senses and put down like a dog. Just like all of them.
Raven glanced towards the ground right in front of her, snatching up both Stalwart Stem and the Relic of Knowledge. Her aura had only regenerated a fraction since Cinder had broken it. Even with the sword, it wasn't enough for a human-sized portal. But with the enemy distracted pinning down Scarlet, she could take the time to craft a smaller one, a gateway to escape to Patch.
She'd come, made sure Yang had been freed from captivity, she'd fought with everything she'd had, and still, it wasn't enough, just like she'd known it wouldn't be. The golden-eyed Gate had overwhelmed both her and Pyrrha and forced open the Vault of the Spring Maiden. If she didn't take the Relic now, Salem would get it and make use of its two remaining questions to do… whatever it was she needed it for. But Raven knew it wouldn't be good!
She had to go. She had to flee. They could call her a coward if they wanted but escaping a battle that couldn't be won so as to not lose the war was the smart thing to do. It was the only way to survive. Even if those who weren't wise enough to keep living had to left behind-
'The trick isn't living. It's living with yourself.'
'Gave up any chance of any help you might have been able to offer.'
'I'll have hope for you, that you can be better. Like Fairy Tail always does.'
Raven hissed. She could barely form a coherent thought, and yet her concussion was letting all that crap dominate her mind. It didn't matter if she stayed or not! This band of fools couldn't handle Cinder! They wouldn't last five seconds against the Ophiuchus! They were all going to be killed or captured, so all she could do was make sure she wasn't there to go down with them—
"RRRRAAAAAAAHHHH!"
Scarlet's roar of defiance knocked Raven out of her inner protests, drawing her crimson eyes back to the battle.
Despite being pinned down by the unrelenting heat beam, the Nikos matriarch stomped forward, carefully expanding her shield's magic circle over the area Cinder's arrows were bombarding while maintaining the protection over her daughter. The Gate was forced to move the target of her barrage back even further, the molten projectiles started their lethal task anew.
Yet, Raven couldn't move her eyes off of Scarlet. The woman was trapped under a hail of hellfire, with no way to strike back without leaving her daughter vulnerable. There was nothing she could do. All her strength, all her spirit and ferocity, and it was useless in the war so long as she protected the person she loved. She could not defeat her enemy.
But… she still fought. She could not win alone, but she fought anyway. And Raven had a feeling that it wasn't just the concussion that was making her overlay the redheaded woman with a familiar white-cloaked figure, silver light surging out her eyes.
Ozpin and Wendy wanted her to try to do good, to act like the noble huntress who'd graduated Beacon all those years ago. But she hadn't gone to the academy to be good or noble, but to learn how to kill. Those other things, she'd learned them from her partner, a silver-eyed warrior who would face down Hazel Rainart to save a little girl she hardly knew. That kindness, that determination, that unbreakable will, had led her to charge into an immortal's den to save her family and the world. It was foolish, that blazing inferno of hope sparked by a simple soul.
And yet, looking upon this scarlet knight, this Fairy Tail wizard… Raven could not keep it from reigniting in her heart.
Scarlet Nikos had not wavered, despite the odds against her. So perhaps there was something more still to be done.
The bridge underneath Pyrrha began to crumble, the strain from Cinder's onslaught finally cracking the great structure's integrity. Neither the Fall Maiden nor Scarlet noticed what was happening, each far too engrossed in their duel of endless force against immovable object. The young champion herself must have still been affected by the Enhancement curse, as she made no move to escape from her disintegrating footing.
Raven slammed her palm into the ground, a surge of ice magic flowing from her hand into the ground. The frost blew across the bridge and connected a frozen platform to its edge, the crystalline structure catching Pyrrha just as she was about to plummet into the pit along with the rest of the rubble.
Scarlet couldn't defeat Cinder and protect her daughter alone. But if Raven gave her a helping hand, they all just might have a chance at coming out alive, no running required.
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Keep fighting.
The constant pressure of concentrated plasma beat down on her armor's shield, her Adamantine Barrier holding firm. She angled the top of it back, extending the bottom to block the arrows raining onto the bridge, breaking down the overpass that held her and her daughter, hammering off her defense like a downpour bombarding a house's roof.
Keep fighting!
Even still, she knew it couldn't last. She was holding firm for now, but her foe's power was quite literally without end. In terms of raw magical energy, she could not win a test of endurance.
KEEP FIGHT—
NO!
No… keep fighting… and keep thinking.
Erza was incredibly hot-blooded by nature, it was part of what allowed her to rein in Natsu's similar temperament. But while she had an abundance of natural talent and magic power, such traits were merely the foundation of an S-Class mage, not its totality. The trials of Tenrou Island tested her judgment, intuition, and tactics as well as her strength.
Like anyone else though, under immense pressure, she could break down, panic. Except while others were paralyzed in their terror, hers often led her to double down, fight harder than ever to claim a victory she needed to achieve. In some cases, like her duels with Azuma and Kyouka, or her battle against the hundred monsters during the Grand Magic Games, this was an advantage, the unstoppable will that overcame her opponent's finite power.
But other times? During the battle with the White Witch? Her need to protect Lucy from their brainwashed guildmates had pushed her to heights of endurance few could match, defeating some of Fairy Tail's heaviest hitters. And also compelled her into a battle of brute force with a foe she was in no condition to face, not even considering alternative hit and run strategies or taking advantage of the battlefield's frantic nature, until it was too late and she'd thrust a sword into Mira, her sister in every way that mattered.
She couldn't lose herself to that numbness again. She could not hide from pain. She had to accept it and move forward, protecting everyone she loved in the process. She had to keep fighting until the battle was won, but she had to keep an open mind for all her options to do so. After all, the crucial opening might not come often, but it could come from anywhere.
And so, it did.
Raven, who Erza had barely accounted for in her previous tunnel vision, had risen to her feet, the Relic of Knowledge and Stalwart Stem in hand. The Spring Maiden's eyes lit up with crimson fire, and with a single slash of her nodachi, she launched an arc of lightning at her hovering Fall counterpart.
The electric whip sliced through the sphere of crackling orange energy surrounding Cinder and smashed into the Gate's side. Sparks flashed over her body as she wavered, dropping several feet while her heat beam was cut off.
Erza made her move, instantly requipping her Adamantine Armor away and replacing it with her Flight Armor, bunching her legs beneath her, and bounding into the air. Once she had fully accelerated, she shifted to her Black Wing Armor and rocketed straight at her enemy, the still enchanted Benizakura flashing into her right hand while another curved blade appeared in her left.
Cinder's bone arms were still reeling back from Raven's attack, so the black-haired woman split her bow back into twin blades of molten glass and raised her sabers to block Erza's incoming strike. Just like before, her unnatural physical strength would be sufficient to hold back even the wizard's exceptional attack.
However, Erza had no intention of letting their clash be solely a contest of strength. Like she'd told the others before Ruby and Pyrrha's sparring match, there was more to power than mere raw ability.
Benizakura screeched forward and slashed into Cinder's blades, the mystical steel biting into the glass as the superheated surface was coated in a creeping layer of frost.
Erza grinned, her strategy playing out exactly as she'd planned. After she'd identified that her enemy's weapons weren't made of metal, it made far more sense how Pyrrha was defeated so easily even with her increased mastery of her semblance. Ms. Fall's preferred arsenal made her a far better match for her daughter than most any other fighter who made use of traditional weaponry.
However, there was a reason weapons were not so often made from glass. Though perfectly capable of cutting a person apart, the material was far more fragile than steel, even when hardened and tempered for combat. And when something as hot as Cinder's molten blades were supercooled in so short a timeframe, that structural fragility was only intensified.
And immediately raising its temperature back would triple that weakness.
"High Enchant: Fire Dragon's Flame!"
Natsu's blaze blossomed over Erza's second blade. The Titania brought her curved saber around and slammed into Cinder's swords, consuming their brittle frozen forms in a raging inferno and shattering the glass weapons to pieces.
The Eclipse Etherious barely had time to pale before both elemental swords continued past her demolished defense and carved into her crackling aura. Erza pivoted over her enemy's swift loss of altitude with her armor's flight and rained down a flurry of strikes from her twin blades. Her second weapon would need to be tended to later, the strain of being infused with Dragon Slayer flames harmful to its unprepared integrity.
But in the present, it and Benizakura were more than sufficient, battering aside Cinder's flailing bone arms and delivering an onslaught of vicious blows. The momentum had shifted to Erza's favor along with the high ground, an advantage that the Queen of the Fairies spared no expense in exploiting.
And the Gate knew it. Erza could see it in her face. Cinder knew her enemy was too close and too fast, within her guard and punishing her for that oversight. Without wings of her own, she required a moment to use her maiden magic and she wasn't going to get that before her aura shattered and Benizakura cleaved her head from her shoulders.
Erza knew it was strictly proper, but she couldn't help but relish the sheer titanic terror that filled the Fall Maiden's wide golden eyes.
Of course, then those eyes lit up with golden light, and the Titania found herself momentarily sharing that panic.
"Spirit Slayer Magic?!" she exclaimed.
How? Even when Ruby had no idea what magic was, Erza had still been able to sense the simmering reservoir of power within her silver eyes. Had Cinder's been repressed somehow to keep that passive pressure from radiating out?
Whatever it was, it had been deactivated. Cinder's face twisted in confusion as the raw magical energy erupted from her face, not in any focused beam like a proper breath attack, but just exploding out in a massive uncontrolled pulse.
The force of the blast rocked both women, tearing them out of the sky. The force of the eruption was so great that Erza's armor's wings couldn't gain enough purchase to keep her airborne. The Knight plummeted from the heavens and crashed into the bridge below, a small crater forming from her impact.
And, more importantly, breaking her aura.
Erza pushed through the disorientation and ringing in her spine to leap back to her feet, her blades raised in a combat stance in an instant. She glanced across the bridge, closer to the open vault, and spotted Cinder in a similarly sized crater, though the Gate was still struggling to stagger up from her knees, the orange energy field of her aura crumbling to nothing.
She stumbled back the second she caught sight of Erza, desperately tossing out all four of her arms, the emerald lightning of her curse zapping over to the Titania.
Everything disappeared after that. Her sight went dark. Her hearing went dead quiet. Her nose brought in no scents and her tongue could not even taste the air. Though she knew intellectually that her hands still held her swords, her palms gave no feeling that their smooth leather hilts remained in her grip.
Erza had hoped to avoid this situation. She'd been able to counter Kyouka's use of her curse because of the demon had made a crucial mistake in its use, one that owed to her primary aptitude being that of a sadistic torturer than a warrior. If Cinder was smart about it, she could kill her quite easily.
However, she didn't think that would happen. She remembered hearing Pyrrha's agonized screams as she'd fallen down the elevator shaft. She remembered the fear that dominated her foe's face when the twin blades of her brothers came for her head, and she believed that sudden burst of Spirit Slayer energy was not an intentional move, merely an instinctual reaction. Cinder may have been intelligent, but she was quite similar to Kyouka. And in her terror, she would fall back on those similarities.
Erza knew better than to interrupt her opponent when they were making a mistake. She settled into her combat stance, raised an image of her last view of the battlefield in her mind, and instinctively shifting her armor to her Clear Heart clothing. She'd need as much bare skin exposed as possible.
She'd be awaiting an old friend to win this fight.
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Wendy had told Pyrrha that Cinder's curse could take away her senses, but though the young champion had understood in theory how horrible such a fate would be, it was a different thing altogether to experience.
Sight and hearing were simple. Everyone had closed their eyes or worn earplugs before. But the little things, the tiny sensations that let you know what you were experiencing was real life and not a dream, fewer conceived of those. The scent of smoke dancing through your nostrils, the taste of your own saliva on your tongue, the ambient feel of air seared by a dozen firestorms against your skin.
Losing those and being trapped in complete soundless darkness, being made utterly alone… even when she'd panicked in the face of Cinder, she'd never felt so scared.
Thus, when it all rushed back to her, even if the sudden flood of sensation was disorienting to the extreme, the young wizard could have sung with euphoria. At least, before the resulting nausea caused her to flop across the ice she knelt upon (where had that come from?), a puddle of vomit hurling over the side of the bridge.
"So glad I flew up on the other side."
Pyrrha staggered onto her hands and knees, her blurry sight focusing behind her on a familiar black-haired figure. "Raven?"
"On your feet, Nikos," the Spring Maiden commanded, the Relic of Knowledge dangling on her hip as she yanked Pyrrha up. "We may be free, but your mom isn't so lucky."
The redhead was about to ask what she meant by that when she gazed out at the rest of the bridge, her emerald eyes widening in horror at the sight of her mother, dressed in nothing but wrappings and flame-patterned pants, frozen in a combat stance with two swords in her hands. A little way away from her, right in front of the open vault door, a panting Cinder was staggering back to her feet.
"Mother!" Pyrrha shouted. She made to charge into the fray only to stumble to the ground, still off-balance.
"Control yourself," Raven hissed, grabbing her shoulder.
"But Cinder—"
"Is just going to kill us all if you jump in without thinking," the Spring Maiden growled. "I have a plan to save your mother and keep us all from dying a horrible, painful death. So, do you want to hear it, or do you want to keep fighting until she aims another arrow at your heart? Because I'm pretty sure there's no one left to bail you out."
Bail her out? If there was any statement that could make her feel even more hopeless than she already did, it was Raven Branwen, of all people, pointing out how useless her efforts against Cinder had been, how powerless she was. It didn't matter how much she kept fighting when she ended up at the same place, on her knees, about to die.
The only reason she was still alive was because Wendy had apparently succeeded at restoring her mother's memories of being Erza, and she'd rushed in to save her. At least that had been what it had sounded like before Cinder had cut off her hearing.
Now, Scarlet was just as paralyzed as she had been, the Gate still not beaten. And it wasn't just her life on the line. If she kept fighting how she had been, her mother would die with her.
Everything she'd done had failed so far. She didn't know what else to do. If Raven had a plan…
She'd do it. She'd adapt however she could in order to never go through the pain of powerlessness again.
"What do you need me to do?"
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What… what had she… her eyes… and Erza—
Cinder's quartet of arms slowly lowered from the air, the Queen of the Fairies truly paralyzed, her senses stripped by her curse. The Gate of the Archer managed to calm her rabid panting, but she couldn't keep her claw from brushing past her eyes.
Her eyes… what had she done?
She'd sworn! She'd sworn! Even if Teacher had trained her in their use, she vowed to never use her cursed energy ever again. Even during her duel with Wendy, she'd not stooped to unleashing them.
And she hadn't really meant to this time either. She never would have dared. But Erza… her ferocity… her strength… her power… the fear that had seeped through her…
Cinder snarled, staggering back her feet and glaring at the redheaded warrior. No, no, she wasn't afraid. She'd won! She'd won! She'd taken away the power of the great and terrible Erza Scarlet! She could end her at her leisure!
But… to have it ended quickly, while quite literally feeling nothing? No, that was too kind, too easy for someone who had made Cinder feel such… such…
Regardless, even if Pyrrha and Branwen's auras had slightly recharged, they were hardly a threat to the Gate with their injuries. Her own aura would return before long, and if she kept Erza alive but screaming, she'd be able to use their care for her to keep them off her until then the same way she'd used the Titania's love for her daughter to control her position. That idea might have seemed flawed at first glance, who would have thought that Raven Branwen gave a damn about Erza Scarlet, but the Spring Maiden had abandoned her own daughter to Lord End. Yet, with the vault opened and Salem's reason for seeking her complete, survival within her grasp, she had not fled through a portal.
Perhaps it was a moment of weakness. It only took one to destroy a person after all.
Cinder cracked her neck, the minor aches in her body fading in an instant. The Scarab within her performed its purpose well, soothing the same power it had boosted, keeping her natural magic from harming her Celestial Spirit half and working to heal her other injuries. Aura or not, she still had plenty of magic and curse power. There was no need to rush.
She flicked out her hand, emerald sparks dancing over Erza, amplifying her pain receptors to their maximum. The Eclipse Etherious grinned as she caught the slight tightening of the wizard's muscles, the clench of defiant will standing against more agony than any human being could possibly endure, the very air transformed into an arsenal of prickling daggers.
"I see your reputation is well-earned, 'Queen of the Fairies'," Cinder mocked, more for her own sake seeing how her foe couldn't hear her. "Anyone else would have collapsed just from that. But you endure, for that fiery spit of hope. It's no wonder the Queen and the Ophiuchus tell such stories of you."
The Gate of the Archer raised both her bone arms, their fingers curled and ready to flick, twin marbles of fire loaded on their nails.
"But I suppose, in the end, no one can really live up to their legend."
She flicked both blazing bullets downrange, screaming through the air. Once they impacted Erza's vulnerable flesh, they'd blast the great wizard into the dirt, her amplified pain receptors leaving her to howl in agony. The Titania, broken before her.
Except… that didn't happen.
The fireballs smashed into Erza's shoulders, the wizard's foot raising up in a flinch, her balance only an inch away from crumbling to pieces… and then she planted that foot back down.
No screams either. Just a single low snarl. Then, without sight, without hearing, without smell or taste or touch, Erza charged.
Cinder stumbled back, utter shock flooring her back, helpless as the mass of red hair and fury closed in. Before she could even comprehend what was happening, her enemy's blades of frost and fire had both impaled her through the gut.
"Gaaaah!" The Eclipse Etherious screamed, pain searing through her stomach as her foe lifted her into the air, still racing forward. Cinder called upon her maiden magic, freezing both her cloven hoofs and Erza's feet to the bridge, but the other woman just shattered both and kept charging, barely slowed.
She wouldn't stop. She just wouldn't stop! Why wouldn't she just—
"Die!" Cinder wailed, shrill terror dominating her voice. Lightning crackled over her flesh palms, surging through the Titania as she pushed against her wrapped chest. Her bone arms, awkward as such close range, clawed and scraped at her back, lines of blood tearing across the redhead's skin.
It did nothing! With her curse active, the Titania should have felt like her spine was getting ripped out while her lungs were getting flash fried in the sun, why was she still standing?! How was she still standing!? Why wouldn't she just—
"Die! Die! Die! DIE!" Cinder shrieked, tears flooding down from her eyes. "Why won't you die?! Why won't you die!?"
Erza responded with a feral roar, wrenching her swords back by slashing through the Eclipse Etherious's stomach from the inside out. Blood tore out of Cinder's sides, coughing up garbled retch as she was eviscerated. If she was still human, those wounds would have been more than enough to kill her, and the Titania, relentless monster she was, already had her weapons ready for another strike. One more attack like that, and she'd be a goner.
She'd be beaten again.
She'd lose again.
No. No, never again! Never again! She would not be weak! She would not lose!
The impotent rage managed to overshadow the other emotion that had been poisoning her, clouding her judgment. Her mind focused into that of the lethal warrior her teacher had trained, evaluating her moves, analyzing her errors, and formulating a new strategy to bring her victory.
It was apparent that Erza had some previously unknown magic that enabled her to circumvent the deafening of her senses. But the curse was still working, which meant her aura was still down. And if she was committing everything to her charge, then her head was unguarded.
She was fairly sure even the legendary Titania couldn't survive without a skull.
The Gate of the Archer formed a spearhead of ice around her fist and jabbed for the redhead's left eye.
Only for golden light to flare behind Erza's back, a pair of armored arms wrapping around her stomach. Cinder's eyes widened, Pyrrha Nikos appearing behind her mother and dragging her away in a burst of that Meteor of hers just as the Eclipse Etherious's fist passed through the air her head had just occupied.
And in her line of sight, that place was taken by Raven Branwen, the Spring Maiden's crimson glow filling her gaze as she thrust her sword forward.
A cataclysmic typhoon erupted from her blade and blitzed across the bridge, ramming into Cinder and blasting her over the threshold of the vault Erza had forced her back against. The Gate of the Archer tumbled through the desert dimension, her blood tainting the sands a dark red as she tumbled across the dunes.
"Ergh," Cinder growled, forcing herself up to her knees. What the hell was the point of that? Branwen knew how durable a Gate was, but she couldn't have thought her little windstorm would do more damage than a lightning bolt or a fire blast.
But neither of those attacks would have forced her back as far. And unfortunately, as Raven appeared at the Vault's threshold and pressed her palm against the bronze doorframe, Cinder realized that had been exactly what she'd been after.
The glowing azure vine pattern lit up over the vault door, the orange plates of the barrier unfurling back down, bit by bit resealing the bastion at the Spring Maiden's command.
Cinder thrust her hands out behind her, a massive blaze erupting from her palms and rocketing her across the desert. However, as soon as the torque rocked her body, tearing her wounds from Erza open even wider as she hacked up a clot of blood. Her spasming body upset the crucial balance her flight, sending her crashing into the dunes.
With that crucial time to escape lost, the Eclipse Etherious could only desperately reach out her hand and the Vault of the Spring Maiden fell shut. The moment it closed, the gateway dissipated into particles of dust and scattered into the desert wind.
"No!" Cinder screamed. "NO!"
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"Pyrrha? Are you alright?"
"Am I alright?" Pyrrha replied. She was holding her mother's bleeding and battered form, having just watched her do the impossible and push through the same sensory deprivation that had paralyzed the young champion and manhandle the woman who had haunted her nightmares for months. And now, was she checking over the Heavenly Body Wizard like she'd scraped her knee at the park. "Are you alright? Her curse, it… it…"
"Removes the target's senses. I know, I've encountered it before," she waved off, continuing to look Pyrrha over while ignoring her own still bleeding wounds. "Hardly the worst beating I've ever taken, though it seems to have worn off."
"Worn off?" Pyrrha repeated, incredulously. "Do curses do that?"
"No," Raven declared, marching over from the vault gate. "But it seems sealing the source of it away in a pocket dimension cancels the connection. Go figure."
Pyrrha glanced back at the bronze doorway, ancient magic gently floating off its sheen. When it had held the relic, she hadn't given it much thought, only registering it as an objective to be defended. Now knowing that Cinder was sealed inside, that monster trapped where she couldn't hurt anyone, couldn't hurt her…
Well… good. Let her feel what it's like to be powerless for once.
Scarlet finally released Pyrrha, slowly rising to her feet and staring face-to-face with Raven. Fairy Tail wizard and bandit queen stood across from each other, steely gazes both.
"You could have run," Scarlet remarked.
Raven nodded. "I could have."
"You didn't."
"I didn't."
The redheaded woman glanced back at the bridge's ice extension. "You saved my daughter's life."
"I did."
"Thank you," Pyrrha injected, both older women turning to look down at her. "Thank you for saving me."
Raven scowled. The former huntress plucked the Relic of Knowledge from her belt, holding the blue and gold lamp up as it twinkled in the cavern's light. "So, what do we do with this? Can't exactly put it back in the vault."
"For now, we need to get it out of here," Scarlet proclaimed. "This is our enemy's primary objective. If it stays here, there is a chance they can still get it."
Raven raised an eyebrow. "Get it out of here? Do you mean what I think you mean?"
"Getting this to Patch is the best way to deny our enemy victory," Scarlet replied. "You can still open a portal in the shape you're in?"
"Easily," Raven assured her. "I could take off as soon as I get there. You do know that?"
"You could," Scarlet acknowledged. "But you won't. Not without the rest of us."
For a moment, Raven narrowed her eyes at the redheaded woman. But only a moment, her stoic façade deflating with an exhausted sigh.
"Get everyone to Qrow," she advised. "With the Relic safe and Yang rescued, there's no reason to stay here. I'll open a portal for everyone to evacuate through in a few minutes."
"Evacuate?" Pyrrha inquired. "But if we do that, won't they destroy Haven?"
"We can't let another huntsman academy be wiped out," Scarlet concurred.
"We're dealing with the Ophiuchus," Raven insisted. "Even if all together you could beat him, which I really don't think you could, the battle would force him to go all out. And if that happened, Haven would be destroyed anyway."
"So we just give up?" Pyrrha said. "We can't do that. We have to keep fighting—"
"No."
"What?"
Scarlet's face was marred by a frown but set in stone. "We have the Relic and we have Yang. We gain nothing by staying here."
"Precisely," Raven replied, though she cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "I… honestly didn't expect you to be so sensible."
"Shut up, Raven."
"Eh. That's fair," the Spring Maiden said. She turned back to the Vault and started slashing her sword through the air, a riving portal of red and black slowly manifesting in its wake.
Pyrrha gulped and looked up her mother, her head tilted in confusion. She understood the logic of their retreat, fighting a battle that couldn't be won just risked her friends for no reason. But running away, accepting defeat, it all just felt too much like giving up. Like surrendering to the enemy, to her own weakness.
And even with Cinder locked away, she could not forget how useless she was. How powerless she'd been, imprisoned in that senseless darkness.
The same darkness her mother had seemingly ignored without effect.
"How?"
Scarlet sighed. "Pyrrha, I understand your concerns, but a strategic retreat is our best option at the moment. Your friend Blake arrived with my friend Lucy and they have some important information to tell us—"
"No, not that," Pyrrha corrected her. "How do you push through Cinder's curse? I couldn't move and when I did, it felt like my tendons and muscles were pulling each other apart. But you? You just… you just ignored it. Did it not work?"
"Oh, it most certainly worked," her mother remarked. She knelt down and flashed her daughter a reassuring smile. "But I was the one who defeated the member of Tartaros who originally wielded it. Despite her strength, Kyouka was more a torturer than a warrior. She cared so much about causing agony that she didn't consider how it affected her previous actions. After all, how do we experience pain?"
"We… feel it," Pyrrha murmured. "But even if she inadvertently reactivated our sense of touch, even if you used the direction the most agony was coming from to locate your target, it was still dominated by that… hell. How could you move with that affecting you, let alone fight?"
"Pain's an old friend," Scarlet whispered, flashing her a weary smile. "It cannot be run from. It cannot be hidden from. It can only be accepted. We can only move forward from it."
Pyrrha's mouth listed open, caught between utter shock and rapturous wonder. At least, until she recalled her mother's last encounter with an abundance of agony.
"Your memories, they're back aren't they," she said. "Wendy's ritual worked."
Scarlet nodded. "It did."
Pyrrha swallowed nervously. "So, who are you now? Erza Scarlet? Or Scarlet Nikos?"
The redheaded woman chuckled. She wrapped her arms around the young champion and pulled her into her soft bountiful chest.
"I am your mother. Always."
That was the final straw. All the terror, all the pain, the entire cavalcade of turmoil that had been battering Pyrrha since she'd first heard Cinder was back came crashing down all at once. The young huntress, the young child, collapsed in her mother's arms, allowed herself to be nurtured and shielded in that warm, secure embrace as tears flooded down her cheeks.
Erza Scarlet Nikos held her there, gently petting her hair as she let everything out.
"Um, this is touching and all, but you do remember there's still a battle going on upstairs, right?"
"Shut up, Raven."
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"Cinder, you stupid moron..."
End started worrying when he felt the Fall Maiden's power disappear. That worry exploded into full blown fury when he felt the Spring Maiden and, more importantly, The Relic of Knowledge, vanish as well.
Damn Cinder's stupidity! Damn her recklessness! This mess would already be over if she hadn't charged in and ruined his plan!
Now, they'd failed. Erza had killed the imbecilic Gate of the Archer and Raven had either resealed the lamp back in the vault or taken it with her when she portaled away. The one Relic that they needed to acquire to locate the remaining spheres, and their Fall Maiden had let it slip through their fingers!
Well, technically, Heartfilia would also allow them to locate what they needed, but End personally preferred to reduce the reasons Salem had to keep her alive.
Regardless, he had to adjust to this defeat. Summer would be arriving soon, and they had to play out their little bit of theatre. Which meant he and his remaining allies had to be ready to run.
Fairy Tail had won this battle.
"Sky Dragon's Talon!"
End dropped back, ducking the rush of wind from Wendy's kick while thrusting a bale of blue fire to incinerate a shield that Jaune tried to use as a battering ram against him.
Fairy Tail had won the Battle of Haven. It was up to him to make sure they didn't take the war as well.
Ah, this is a battle I've been waiting to write for so long! So many moving pieces, so much character development! Erza's grand return!
Erza was one of my favorite parts of this fight, by showing off the immense combat skill she displayed throughout the series, to the High Enchant she's used in 100 Year Quest, to really diving into the sheer impact of her presence on the battlefield. A lot of focus throughout Fairy Tail is put on the sheer intimidation the rest of the guild feels for Erza, but also what she means to them when she fights on their side, their hope leading the charge, with Levy, in particular, noting the hope she inspires in them when she begins her fight with Ajeel in the Alvarez Arc. It's one of my favorite moments, as is her and Natsu's mutual thumbs up after that battle, as while Erza brings hope to the guild in their darkest hours, as seen during the Hades battle, Natsu brings hope to Erza, the Gildarts to her Makarov.
And of course, there is the intimidation of her presence and the legend surrounding her, backed up by her implacable will. Which to someone with Cinder's psychological trauma is a powerful force.
Plus, I get to put forth my explanation for how Erza was able to beat Kyouka! Huzzah! (Still would have preferred one being spelled out in the story itself).
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!