Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
"A pleasure to have you with us. I am the Director of Atlas Intelligence, COMMAND ESR."
"I'll kill her."
So many months. So long waiting, building her strength and recuperating until her friends returned. So many nights seeing the faces of those she'd lost in her mind.
Klein.
"Please, take care of her."
Whitley.
"Weiss Schnee, you are under arrest."
Winter.
"I love you, little sister."
So many nights remembering her promise, falling asleep to the hum of her vow in her heart.
"I'll kill her. I'll kill her."
Now at last the time had come. The devil stood before her in all her dark glory, clutching her side as she scrambled into a combat stance. Now, it was time to put her down like the dog she was.
Weiss hefted her towering black ice sword, the enormous strength of her Arma Gigas surging through her as her aura in turn pulsed over and reinforced the mighty spirit and its frozen protection. Like Blake's Grimm Take-Over, huntress and prey were made mightier together than either could be alone.
With the calamitous power of her summon behind her, the White Fairy thrust her blade at Esper's head, aiming to murder the Eclipse Etherious in a single strike if she could. Alas, she had no illusions about the unlikelihood of that, and indeed, the Gate of the Maiden cartwheeled away across the ice-covered floor, just as the greatsword sheared off a few stray hairs. Weiss might have admired the monster's ability to remain expertly balanced even on such a slippery surface if she wasn't already charging forward to continue her assault and butcher her.
Her armor's physical dexterity combined with a line of her speed glyphs to allow the huntress to skate straight at Esper just as the Gate landed from her dodge. The older woman's eyes widened, the light of the Winter Maiden bursting to life around her gaze as she threw out her hands and just barely escaped Weiss's thrust by blowing herself back with a pair of cyclones from her palms.
At the same time, however, she'd managed to launch six of her trademark daggers from her sleeves, golden energy from the Spirit Slayer's eyes bleeding out and leaping from knife to knife, each weapon swiftly blossoming a blade clone. The squad of hollow killers soared over, under, and beside Weiss's titanic sword, their knives drawn and ready to bite as soon as they closed.
Except they never would.
"Ice God Storm Spiral Gram!"
The coating of black ice armoring the wizard's blade exploded outward, a conical blizzard of sharp ebony hail erupting to life around the giant saber. The maelstrom blindsided the blade clones, cutting them to ribbons before they had a chance to even realize what had happened. Each phantom received dozens more blows than the one needed to dissipate them, transforming back to daggers in mid-air. Along with the six golden blasts radiating out from their demise.
Weiss smirked, as the explosions sounded off, battering helplessly against her behemoth armor. She recalled how this parlor trick had given her and Gray so much trouble back at Amity, how it had driven them to unleash a Unison Raid to try to regain the upper hand. She'd heard the relentless claps of golden light in her dreams, the aftershock of the Schnee Manor bombing's thunderous crash. But now?
"I love you, little sister."
She'd kill her.
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She was going to kill her! Erza Scarlet was going to kill her!
The loathing vitriol in her voice, the firestorm of rage blazing in her eyes, the predator's aura of the leopard-print armor she donned in a brilliant flash of light.
"Cinder?" she barely heard Emerald cry, the younger woman's voice seeming so far away. "Cinder, move! You have to move!"
Of course she needed to move! She had to run, not get run down like some farm animal!
But her body wouldn't move. She stood completely paralyzed as Erza Scarlet leapt through the air, so swift, so terrible, her steel screeching for Cinder's neck. She was going to die.
"Fire Devil Emperor – Purging Inferno Fist!"
It happened in the space of seconds. Erza shifted around in midair, white light flashing over her body as her Flame Empress Armor frantically materializing over her body. Just as the red and orange metal appeared, End had blurred into the clearing from the surrounding rubble, his clawed arm pulled back and coated in raging blue flames. By the time Cinder had blinked, the two titans, the Fairy Queen and the Great Devil, were set to clash right in front of her.
End's fist slammed into Erza's center, her solid blocking with her armored elbows providing protection from the Etherious's colossal strength and churning flames. Still, Cinder had a front-row seat to the Fairy Tail wizard's eyes bulging and her teeth clenching as the full impact of the Ophiuchus's blow ran through her.
Through her, and into the sky.
Erza went flying into the air, soaring over the hills of rubble on a high trajectory that could take her all the way to the southern courtyard and its Grimm pools. Even still, The Gate of the Archer's pinpoint vision spotted another requip flashing over the red-haired warrior, a set of dark, winged armor replaced her previous suit.
Struck head-on by the Ophiuchus himself and still able to react and reorient herself in midair? Madness. Absolute, monstrous madness.
"Cinder!" End shouted, his booming voice finally rousing the trembling archer from her fear. "Get to the western tower!"
"Huh?" Cinder numbly replied.
"Wwyy?" Mercury squealed, his mouth still covered by ice.
"Why?" Emerald asked. At least one of them was still capable of eloquence.
End pointed to Erza's flying form. "Because if she somehow gets away from me and gets back here, which is hardly outside her capabilities, she might spare you two. But if the Gate of the Archer is still present, she will slaughter you all without hesitation. So get to Summer!"
Cinder gulped. She was finally realizing exactly why Salem had reamed her out so much about her near killings of Pyrrha Nikos.
"Gets away from you?" Emerald queried. "Are you saying she can beat you?"
"If I fight stupid? Sure," End answered. However, right after, his lips curled into an eager, almost hungry, grin. "Of course, I've been waiting for this fight for far too long to disrespect her like that."
Mercury cocked an eyebrow. "Duu yuu wahnt tuu fihght hir or fuhk hir?"
End leapt after the Titania before that disgusting question could be discussed further.
Emerald nervously turned to Cinder. "What are you going to—"
Cinder dashed off across the rubble, the green sparks of her Enhancement Curse slithering over her skin and boosting her muscles as far as they could safely go in a continuous stream.
It really wasn't a question that she was going to the western tower. Even putting aside her spine freezing terror of Erza Scarlet, she'd learned her lesson about disobeying orders at Haven. She had no interest in dying again, especially when there was no Neo-Hell's Core to bring her back. Add in the chance to reinforce Teacher and follow her lesson of being better? She wouldn't have stayed by Fullbuster's ice wall for anything. She was going to knuckle down and do her job.
Salem couldn't very well get mad at her for that.
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"Cinder," Salem growled. "You incompetent imbecile."
Lucy flinched at the sheer vitriol in The Queen's voice. Even if it was being directed at someone she herself had similar distaste for, it was never a comforting experience to hear such an enormously powerful being so angry.
She, Salem, and Loke had finally arrived at Neo-Hell's Core, the Lion Spirit burning through the giant dome of pink wool surrounding the laboratory. When they entered, they beheld the shattered ruins of metal and glass, the grand facility of science and sorcery they'd seen in Jinn's visions reduced to complete rubble.
And at the center where the Ascension Chamber had been in those visions, stood a shirtless young man with bright pink hair, golden horns, blazing red eyes, and skin of a familiar shade of dull yellow, crisscrossed with elaborate crimson tattoos. He gazed at a jagged spike stuck through his arm as if he was looking at a splinter, yanking the metal out without even a flinch, the hole quickly sealing itself up right after.
"Priceless…" the creature murmured, glancing down at a boil that was skittering under its skin. "Priceless… priceless…"
"What is that?" Lucy asked. "It looks like… Franmalth."
"Those horns," Loke said, his voice quivering. "Those are Aries's horns."
"Mr. Arc," Salem whispered, her anger taking a backseat as she gazed at the being before her with soft pity and sympathy. The Queen approached the young man as if he were a skittish horse, her arms outstretched and unthreatening. "I don't know what's happened to you, but I'm here to help."
"Be careful," Lucy warned, wondering if this was really Erza's daughter's boyfriend they'd come to save. "If he has Franmalth's curse, then aura won't protect you if he touches you."
"I am aware, Lucy. Fortunately, it is still no threat to me," Salem informed them, never taking her eyes off the newest Eclipse Etherious. "Jaune, can you understand me? I'm your friend—"
Jaune's head shot up at the word 'friend', his eyes desperately flickering around the ruined room, He scanned Salem, Lucy, and Loke, before his lips set into a feral snarl.
"Not friend," he hissed. "Not pRiCEleSs!"
The young man's boil warped into a grotesque facsimile of Ren's face, his hands lighting up with a blistering white glow. With a rancid shriek, he swung his arms forward, a gargantuan wave of Crash Magic blasting Salem to bits and screaming towards Lucy and Loke.
"Eep!" Lucy squeaked, yanking out one of her keys. "Star Dress: Virgo!"
The maid outfit flashed over the Celestial Spirit Wizard in an instant and she yanked Loke down into the ground in the next. Which was fortunate because the Crash Magic tore through where they'd been standing a moment later, going on to slam into the wool dome and disintegrate its eastern side.
"Oh… not good," Lucy whispered, suddenly very clear on exactly what had wrecked the castle. "Any ideas?"
"You've fought Franmalth before," Loke reminded, peering out over the ridge of their impromptu foxhole. "How'd you beat him then?"
"Natsu threw a rock at him!" Lucy shouted.
Loke fixed her with an incredulous stare.
"It was a big rock," Lucy defended. "And admittedly an oversimplification. Franmalth can't absorb non-magical objects." She pointed towards the newly-opened hole in the wool dome. "Which isn't so much of a threat anymore when he can do that!"
"He must have absorbed Ren," Loke worriedly deduced. "But why is he so confused? Did Franmalth's curse interfere with the Ascension somehow?"
Lucy glanced around the ruins of Neo-Hell's Core, a sinking feeling plummeting in her gut when she spotted sizable chunks of pink ice scattered among the twisted metal and broken glass.
"No," she whimpered. "Gray, you didn't—Loke, look out!"
The Lion Spirit's eyes widened, but it was too late. Jaune had seen them and in the blink of an eye, he'd blurred over to the Fairy Tail Wizards, already knelt down and reaching for their heads. Loke's eyes widened at Lucy's warning, Regulus flaring to life in his hand and blasting her out of the foxhole to safety. But he had no way to save himself, the Eclipse Etherious's finger closing around his hair, too close and too quick to duck away from.
Tears flew from Lucy's eyes, Sagistarius's Star Dress desperately forming around her far too slowly to possibly give her a long-range attack to save her guildmate. She had lost so much already, had watched her spirits, her friends, proudly let themselves be absorbed for the sake of the world. Loke was the last one left, and she could not let him be taken from her as well!
Fortunately, for once in so very long, the world heard her prayer.
Just, not with the answer she'd anticipated.
A long, spindly hand shot out from the mass of darkness at the center of the room. A gray claw stitched with dark veins bit down on Jaune's shoulder with deceptive strength, preventing him from reaching that final crucial inch to touch and absorb Loke.
Salem's body completed its reconstruction, The Queen looking down on the horned pinkette who'd just blown her to bits with the same sympathetic resignation one would have when told their child had gotten in trouble at school.
"I see we must do this the hard way," she remarked. "My apologies in advance for your discomfort."
Her outstretched arm snapped back like a released slingshot and tore Jaune back across the room. The Eclipse Etherious squealed as he was whipped through the air and thrown back through the remaining wall of the wool dome and out into the rubble plains.
Salem retracted her arm back to its normal size and turned towards the new hole, zipping out to continue the battle.
Lucy landed on the floor and didn't waste a second before running over to Loke and engulfing him in a bone-crushing hug. "Are you okay?!"
"I'm alright. I'm alright," the Lion Spirit assured her. "But we need to get out there."
"Why?" Lucy asked. "Do you think she might need backup?"
"No, but he's strong enough that she might have to try," Loke said. "And if she has to try, she might kill him by accident."
"Right. Let's go."
They dashed towards the hole in the wool dome, only to be met by Wendy and Happy carrying a very bloody Oscar between them.
"Oz!" Loke yelled, his voice full of concern as he dashed to Oscar's side.
"What happened to you guys?" Lucy fervently inquired.
"Hazel," Wendy answered. "Oscar used a spell he shouldn't have to give us some breathing room and well…"
"An Accel spell?!" Loke squeaked, horrified. "Like-minded souls indeed. I didn't think anyone but Ozma was stupid enough to use that crazy spell."
Oscar managed an almost mischievous smile through his blood-stained teeth. "Aren't we a pair?"
"Yeah, you'd fit right in at Fairy Tail," Happy said. "Now, as much as I'd like to catch up, I'm guessing you guys have to make sure Salem doesn't accidentally kill Jaune and we have to get Natsu's new body ready."
Lucy's eyes widened, a happy flutter pattering through her heart. Only for that flutter to fade when she took another look around the ruined laboratory.
"Happy," she muttered. "I'm sorry, but the Core—"
"It's fine, Lucy," Happy interrupted. He passed off his half of supporting Oscar to Loke and glided over to the center of the lab in his natural form, right up to the ruins of the Ascension Chamber. "You know, Watts really is a genius. Salem spent centuries trying to perfect the chamber and only he was able to do it."
"Why are you talking about this now?!"
Happy knelt down and slid his palm along the floor, a set of glyphs lighting up over the obsidian. The central tile popped up, the Exceed smirking as he gripped it with his paws. "Because he didn't trust the Scarabs and Seers to do the wiring and I was the only one small enough to get below."
He tugged the tile away and revealed a long tube of wiring and piping. Lucy, Wendy, Loke, and Oscar looked down the tight, cramped space in shock before gazing back at their friend, equally stunned.
Happy grinned, cheeky and hopeful. "You have no idea how long it took to dig out enough room for a growth tube down there."
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Summer had hoped her clones exploding would stop the fight. She'd hoped that the golden blasts would blow apart Weiss's strange Arma Gigas armor and stagger the poor girl in her tracks, give her an opening to talk to her, to make her see sense.
But the blasts came and went, and the God Slayer wasn't even slowed down, a dark champion charging through the sun.
"What?!" Summer squawked.
Weiss's enormous sword lunged forward through the firestorm and stabbed the Gate of the Maiden straight in the gut. Summer gasped, spittle flying from her lips as she felt the strike even through her aura, flying back through the air.
"Spirit Slayer Magic, Esper? Really? Against an armored Grimm?" Weiss mocked, parroting Summer's own words from back at Amity.
Summer gnashed her teeth together. This was bad. She didn't know anything about this new technique of Weiss's and if she had to engage with her full power, she could kill the young huntress. She had to escape and regroup.
Her eyes lit up with the maiden's powers, her hands coming forward to unleash a pair of cyclones to propel her back even further than her momentum. If she could get outside the perimeter of Ice God Jotunheim, she could use Virgo's Earth Magic to escape the encounter, deescalate the situation—
"Ice God Gleipnir!"
Weiss detached a gauntlet from her sword, a magic circle flashing over her outstretched palm as giant black chains launched from her armored fingertips. The dark bindings caught Summer before she could summon her cyclones, wrapping around the Gate and trapping her arms against her body.
The chains snapped tautly, and Weiss pulled. "Get over here, you bitch!"
Summer gasped as she was yanked back towards the towering Grimm armor, its greatsword rising to crush her. Why wouldn't she just let her get away? Why wouldn't they just let her solve the damn problem!?
Her eyes lit up with their natural power, magic rising in the back of her throat as she let loose all her boiling frustration.
"Golden Spirit Wail!"
The wall of luminous power poured out of her lips, crashing into Weiss with all the force of a tidal wave. A breath attack was the go-to move of most Slayer-type wizards for good reason. Efficient, simple, and packing enough force to level houses at significant range. Unleashed point-blank? It should have shredded any Grimm to pieces, crushed any huntsman who attempted to take the blast.
Weiss's armored form walked through the surge without even pausing.
"What!?"
The God Slayer's sword cut through the golden light and cleaved into Summer's side. The Spirit Slayer tasted blood in the back of her mouth as her head smashed into the wall. Only for her opponent to yank her back by the chains binding her and deliver a brutal punch to her face with all her summon's strength.
Summer coughed as she slammed into the wall again, her aura crackling from the blow. "Weiss. Stop. Listen to me—"
"No!" Weiss roared, pulling the Eclipse Etherious and punching her again. CRASH! "You listen, you sanctimonious witch!"
CRASH!
"I've been waiting for this since Amity! Since the manor really!" she shouted. "Thinking about you! Taking everything from me! You enslaved my body to stab my brother! You murdered my mother and so many others, poisoned my teacher! You took my sister from me!"
"Weiss…" Summer murmured, trying to gather air as the God Slayer's blows continued. "You can take your justice after the world is—"
SMASH!
"Ever since then, I've been training for you!" Weiss snarled, completely ignoring the Gate's pleas. "It was tough, you know. There's no 'Godforce', no easy powerup for me. No maiden to suck dry or pawns to manipulate like you. I had to work myself to the bone to get strong enough! But I'm no stranger to that. I got creative. And now, you're going to know what it's like to have your world crumble around you before you die!"
Know what it's like to have her world… had she not been listening to a word she'd said?! She knew exactly what it was like! Everything she had done was to keep everyone else on Remnant from having to find out like she had?!
SMASH!
"Weiss," Summer whimpered, shoving down her instinctive anger to try to reach out again, to help this child who she'd hurt so horridly. "There is a Godforce, but you don't want it—gah!"
"I didn't come here for a whisper," Weiss growled, feral and furious, her blazing blue eyes searing through her dark helm. "I wanna hear you scream!"
She hauled the chains back and heaved Summer over her head, slamming the Eclipse Etherious into the floor. Her greatsword soared overhead and came crashing down on the Gate's chest. Only her aura kept her from being cleaved in two, and even its cushioning wasn't enough to keep her uniform from being sliced in half and blood flying from her lips.
Summer's head cracked back as she bounced atop the ground, her eyes spying her reflection in the icy black surface. Bruised, beaten, and so bloody that even her pristine white hood was stained with dots of red, it had been a long time since she'd seen herself so physically battered. The last time she could recall… was when she'd died. When she'd laid in the throne room, bleeding out, knowing that she'd failed completely and utterly, that those she loved, that her children, were doomed to die against an unkillable darkness.
Few moments of her life could compare to the despair of that moment, but each one stuck out like a molten knife in her heart.
Erasing Ruby and Yang's memories to save the timeline.
Arriving at the Autumn residence to find Benjamin dead and Eleanor in tears and talking about murdering an innocent child.
Learning just how broken that child had become when she'd turned her eyes to other crucial matters.
Qrow asking her to kill him…
There was only one thing to do with all that despair. Hold it tight, until it burned her heart, and tell herself the same thing she'd told herself since the day she'd first taken an innocent life and driven a knife into her own flesh. As long as it was in her power, she would make sure no one else would have to feel such rage, such helplessness.
Too often she'd floundered in that vow, chained herself with compassion, shackled herself from doing what needed to be done. She should have killed Ironwood as soon as it became necessary. Now, Weiss stood before her, the girl she'd taken so much from, and she couldn't wait for her justice any more than the general could have waited for Ozpin. Her rage was justified, her hatred was justified… and her perspective so narrow it would burn the world down. She had no plan to save the world, just bloodlust that could not keep in check.
Summer could not allow that. She would not allow that. No one being was so important that their justice came before the safety of the world.
She had set out to make a world where her daughters did not have to be strong. So long as that world was not yet reality, she would not allow her compassion to kill her or anyone else! She would do what needed to be done.
Whatever that was.
"Macro. Release restraint."
Weiss's gargantuan blade came screeching down for a final blow… and Summer's furious voice rang through the halls of hell.
"Eclipse Etherious Form!"
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Ruby froze in her tracks as the tower shuddered around her, flecks of obsidian crumbling from the roof and shimmering off the walls. The wave of magic power and curse energy emanated out from the closest maiden signature, only a few floors below.
"Mom," she whispered, unsure if she should have been concerned or terrified.
She doubled her speed all the same.
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"Pyrrha! Nora! You're alright!" Yang cheered, rushing over to her friends as they arrived in their group's clearing, only to falter when she saw the looks of despair on usually bubbly Nora of all people. "Are you… alright?"
"No," the valkyrie dejectedly said, tears dribbling down her cheeks. "We made a mistake, Yang. Jaune and Ren—"
"We had a run-in with Cinder," Pyrrha interjected, a frown marring her face. "It didn't go well."
Yang cocked an eyebrow. "Cinder? She was in Neo-Hell's Core. What happened? Did you guys see what caused the explosion—"
Her line of questioning halted when a shockwave of mystical force suddenly tore through the room. Aside from the unconscious Raven, everyone found themselves straightening into a combat position, their instincts screaming that an apex predator had arrived.
"Okay, I can't sense magic, and I can feel that," Yang's father nervously observed. "What does that mean?"
"The Gate of the Maiden," Penny murmured. "She's going all-out."
"What?" Yang said, incredulous. "What could possibly force mom to get that desperate?"
"Mom?" Pyrrha queried.
"Long story short, she's actually Summer Rose, and she's Cinder's mom as well as me and Ruby's."
"What?!"
"It's complicated," Yang said, taking a deep breath as she doused her own instinctual worries. "But she's on our side. As long as she's here, whatever destroyed the castle won't win, and Carly's already checked the future. Doesn't matter that this thing's pressing her, she'll be alright."
"Um… Yang…"
Yang turned towards Carla, the white Exceed's voice, normally so noble and elegant, now quivering and fearful as she bit her lower lip.
"There's something I have to tell you."
Yang listened. She heard the lie. Her heart shattered.
And her fear ignited.
"Yang," her dad spoke, soft but firm as always. "Yang, don't—Yang!"
She barely heard him, flames blazing from her feet as she ran out of the room as fast as she could.
"Yang!" Pyrrha called, trailing behind on Meteor, only her obvious exhaustion keeping her from catching up. "Wait! We need to stick together!"
They did. Yang didn't know why Carla had lied to her, but she couldn't allow the mistakes she'd made operating under that misconception to grow out of control. Her mother was fighting a foe that had forced her into her Eclipse Etherious Form, a task Yang had experienced firsthand the difficulty of. While that higher state meant that she was more powerful than ever, it did not mean she was invincible, another fact the Devil Slayer had borne witness to.
And when she could be facing the person responsible for the destruction of the central towers, that wasn't a chance Yang was willing to take.
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Erza shuddered as she felt the wave of magic and curse power, gliding down to the banks of the bubbling Grimm pools as her eyes whipped towards the western tower.
"Oh no," she muttered, the blaring beacon of the Winter Maiden letting her know exactly who had just thrown down the gauntlet. If she was attacking one of her friends, as her wretched child had attacked Gray if that ice wall was any indication, then Erza had to get to her, had to stop her. Before she took any more lives.
Unfortunately, she had her own problem to deal with before she could even begin to solve her guildmates'.
End plummeted down from the sky, an eager grin on his face as a crater formed around him, sapphire flames lashing molten licks into the courtyard's black ground. He glanced back at the western tower and chuckled.
"Looks like someone's managed to piss Summer off," he joked. "Poor soul."
"She's going to kill them!" Erza protested.
"You mean like you were going to kill Cinder? Believe me, I understand the urge, but there's no evidence that she's done anything wrong in this case," End countered. "Don't worry. Summer doesn't start fights, but she knows how to end them. Unless her opponent makes her, they'll survive just fine."
"Spare me your fawning. I won't let her hurt them," Erza spat. "Fight me or get out of my way."
End grinned like a kid in a candy store, stepping back away from the mud pools' banks. "You don't need to sweet-talk me, Titania. I've been hoping to trade blows with you for a long time. Though, you may wish to step away from the mud. Your life is in enough danger facing me. It would be a tragedy for you to be done in because you lost track of your footing in battle."
Erza glanced over at the dark pools, her stomach curdling with disgust at the half-formed Grimm limbs bubbling and cloying within. "This… is the portal to the Umbral Spirit World?"
"One of the largest. Perhaps the largest," End replied. "There are others all over the world. No guarantee we've found them all. Or that more haven't popped up since our last search."
"Popped up?" Erza queried.
End sighed. He threw out his arm and unleashed a stream of scorching blue fire. Erza hunkered down and requipped her Flame Empress Armor back on, but the blast was never aimed at her.
The blaze shot out and smashed into the Grimm pools, the acidic mud splashing against the shore. However, unlike everything else that seemed to encounter the Ophiuchus's fire, the dark swamp remained, the flames burning atop the liquid like oil in water.
"We've tried destroying them. We've tried nullifying them. It can't be done. The gods built them into the very fabric of the world when they first crafted the universe. Based on Salem's calculations, we'd need to crack open the planet to even have a shot at removing them. Of course, there would be even less of a remnant left if we did that, so you know, not exactly a worthwhile trade-off," End revealed, his face looking so tired for a brief moment. "Are you sure you want to pick this fight? Against an opponent of your caliber, I can't hold back. I can't guarantee your safety on any level."
Erza glanced at the elbow vambraces of her armor, her Flame Empress Armor, specifically designed to resist and rebuff hostile fire. The red and orange metal was cracked and charred from the blow that had sent her flying from the castle ruins. Not even Natsu had ever managed something like that.
This battle was not in her favor by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed, it would not be inaccurate to say it was an impossible fight. Perhaps the only way she could survive unscathed, perhaps survive at all, was to surrender.
But she couldn't. Her friends were in danger from Summer, from Cinder. She had to get back into the castle, to help them. It was as simple as that. And to do that, she needed to get past End. One way or another.
"Requip," she announced, her voice stalwart, stern, and ready for battle. "Armadura Fairy Armor. Demon Blade Benizakura."
Her body flashed white and when it faded, she was clothed in her mighty pink armor, her long curved sword in her grip.
"Big guns right from the start? Good," End smirked, sapphire flames flowing over his clawed hands. "Come on, Titania. I'm all fired up."
Erza snarled at his mockery of her guildmate and charged, blade and claw clashing amidst the scorching maelstrom.
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Weiss growled as she staggered to one knee, her scarred eye defiantly glaring up through her dark ice helmet. In her hands, she held the broken casing of her greatsword, the black armoring snapped open midway and the Grimm blade within completely disintegrated.
So close. She was so close! If she'd been just a few seconds faster, she would have had her! She would have split the bitch in two before the Eclipse Etherious had any chance to recover.
But when she'd brought down her blade for the final blow, the chains binding the Gate had been shattered by her sudden transformation, her two new giant hands shooting up and clamping down on the black sword. The palms glowed brightly with sapphire curse energy and the black ice casing was snapped in two. One blast of golden spirit energy later and the spectral sword itself was annihilated.
Weiss had been shoved off, driven to one knee, and forced to behold as her enemy rose to her feet and rose into the air, all masks finally torn away.
Esper's Eclipse Etherious Form was even more ghastly up close than when she'd seen it at a distance at Amity Colosseum. Her torn Atlas Intelligence had been disintegrated entirely, leaving only her blood-stained cloak, intricate black tattoos, and a truly wretched collection of scars to cover her dark craggy skin. Her lower set of arms, adorned with broken shackles, fired streams of white-hot flame into the black ice covering the flooring, melting the barrier between her and the stone she could utilize. Her upper arms, the ones that had destroyed Weiss's sword, reached forward, a demonic eye flicking open on each of their palms, radiating turquoise light.
"It seems your armor is unsuited to Seilah's curse blasts," the monster angrily taunted, her voice oozing with frustration, veins bulging atop her forehead. "How unfortunate."
The eye hands fired off another pair of blasts, precise, efficient, and deadly. Weiss conjured a glyph under her, rocketing backward as fast as he could, but she wasn't quite fast enough. The bolts of curse energy crossed over each other, one of them clipping the left side of her helmet and shattering the ice coating, even the phantasmal Grimm underneath cracking from impact as the God Slayer tumbled across the floor.
A patter of fear shot through Weiss's heart. The point where both curse blasts had crossed over had been the exact center of her face. When facing an enemy as precise as Esper, that could only mean one thing.
"I see the gloves are off," Weiss hissed, struggling up. "I haven't made you 'angry', have I—grgh!"
The young huntress brought up her arms to shield her face as Esper finished melting the ice of the floor, ripping up a giant chunk of obsidian with Virgo's magic, and chucking it at the former heiress. The boulder shattered against the black coating, the dust of its remains clouding Weiss's vision.
At least until the shine of a Golden Spirit Wail sheared through the smoke.
Weiss's eyes widened, her hand frantically rising to try to seal the gap in her helmet, but not nearly fast enough to beat the closing burning beam. Her aura would cushion the impact, but a breath attack at such close range would put her at a near irrecoverable disadvantage. The momentum would be against her, and she might even have a concussion. She'd be doomed.
Which was why she was relieved, if utterly befuddled, when she was suddenly transported to the other side of the hallway, the golden beam ricocheting between the ice coating the floor and ceiling until it reached the end of the corridor, at which point it blew straight through the tower's wall.
"Wha… what…" Weiss stammered. "What just happen—"
Then she saw the petals, red likes roses. Her voice halted, and a vicious, gleeful grin split the White Fairy's face as she spied a red-cloaked huntress standing between her and the golden-eyed demon bearing down her.
"What are you two doing?!"
Weiss poured all the aura she could into supercharging her semblance, her Arma Gigas regenerating beneath its armor before she coated the formerly broken sections with a new layer of ice armor. She rose back to her feet, bloodlust and wrath radiating from her towering form as she glared at Esper.
Ruby would keep her promise. And Weiss would keep hers.
I'll kill her.
Fair warning everyone! It is entirely plausible and even likely that the next chapter will be late. This is due to both my real-life responsibilities growing and because next chapter is BIG in terms of content, containing a lot of point-of-views with a lot of stuff happening, including Erza vs. End and the encounter between Ruby, Weiss, and Summer. Suffice to say, shit be hitting the fan.
However, I also must give another announcement. Due to both said real-life work responsibilities and the growingly apparent need for me to devote serious time to the creation and punching-up my original screenplays to advance my career, Fairies of the Shattered Moon will be going on indefinite hiatus AFTER the conclusion of the Grimmlands Arc.
I'm not happy to have to do this. I love this story, I love hearing you guys' thoughts on every new chapter, and I am super-duper excited for the storylines of the second half, but it needs to be done if I am going to get my screenwriting career off the ground and this and, as the halfway point of the story, this seems like the best possible place to end it for now. Keep in mind, there are still a fair few chapters left in the Grimmlands Arc before this happens and they are set to be some of the best the story has seen thus far. This is just fair warning. Thank you all so much for the love and support you've given to this and all my other stories over the years!
And side note to fans of those other stories, once I do have my career in a more stable place and have the time to return to fanfiction, I will likely finish up The Third Faction and get One to Find All to the end of Volume 1 first thing. I will return to Fairies of the Shattered Moon after that is complete and it and One to Find All will likely switch off every other arc so that both can maintain pace.
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!