I have posted a poll on my profile page for the readership's favorite arc in this story so far! As we approach the big hiatus at the end of the Grimmlands Arc, I want to try and put up polls like this with each chapter as fun community events!
Beta-ed by xenosaiyan and MasterPrince713
Sienna had been gaping in awe at Salem's Eclipse Etherious form when the thunder had split her ears.
At least, thunder was the closest thing she could think of to the deafening crash that resonated down from the sky like the world's largest, deepest bass drum, its single resonant note like a stone wall that had smashed itself over the Gate of the Scales all at once, the baying and furious Grimm on the perimeter suddenly silent with reverence. The experienced terrorist lurched forward, her head whipping skyward even beyond her mistress's towering reptilian state. There, she saw a blinding golden meteor descend faster than an artillery shell, sending up a great wave of smoke and dust when it landed.
However, as Hazel conjured a tornado to blow away the obstruction near them, Sienna's jaw dropped at the sight before her.
The meteor was a man. An enormous, titan of a man, as tall as the castle had once stood and even now comparable to The Queen's gigantic hydra form. Yet, where Salem was darkness, a ravenous black hole dimming everything in her presence, this new colossus was light, a star descended from heaven to have mercy even upon the Grimmlands with his gentle shine, an angel of blessed nobility. However, with his full resplendent plate armor and grand longsword half the size of an Atlesien battleship, there was no denying this creature would be a force of nature on the battlefield. And that was without the vast ocean of magic power he was putting out just by standing menacingly before them all and baring a regretful gaze over Salem.
"Hazel…" Sienna murmured fearfully. "Is that…"
"According to Salem, there's only two beings like that in the universe. Since this one has a mustache and not a beard, it's not the end of the world yet," Hazel assured her, though his worry since darkened his features. "It's the Celestial Spirit King."
"Her father," Sienna breathed, her eyes flickering between the two giants. "Not to say you're off the hook for that stupidity you were pulling with Fullbuster, but any ideas on how we should play this?"
"Carefully," Hazel winced, glancing down at his arms, still coated in thick pink frostbite. "I'm not in much shape to provide support, but you might be."
Sienna cocked a disbelieving eyebrow. "How exactly do you think I, who haven't even mastered my Eclipse Etherious Form, am going to be any help in a brawl between those two?"
Hazel flashed a cocky smirk she liked to think he'd learned from her. "Scared?"
"Quite," Sienna playfully snipped back. "But not suicidal yet."
"Good, because this isn't suicidal," Hazel replied. "You're not going to try to take him head-on if it comes to a fight, but gravity magic is uniquely effective against one of his size. If we can time it right, it could give Salem a crucial opening in the fight."
"And in a fight between titans, that could be all she needs to turn the tide," Sienna nodded with a slowly growing smile. "Alright. Let it never be said I backed away from a difficult task. Will it work better if I float up to their level, or stay down here?"
"Probably best that you don't… split your… focus..." Hazel trailed off, his face suddenly paling with horror as he looked at his arms.
"What's wrong?" Sienna inquired.
She followed his gaze down to his frostbitten hands. Or at least, the ones that were frostbitten a moment ago. Now, the pink ice was steadily melting from his bulky fingers, dripping away bit by bit.
"What in the world?" Sienna whispered. "Does Devil Slayer ice normally do that-"
"We need to go," Hazel rumbled, his voice quivering.
"Huh?" Sienna queried. "What happened to staying close to wait for an opening?"
"There won't be one. Everything in this area other than those two is about to be incinerated."
"More than it would be by those two?"
Hazel whirled on her more terrified than she'd ever seen him. "You need to use a boulder to float at the moment, right?" He gestured to valleys of rocks and rubble walling them in from every side. "Soon, every last boulder here will be melted down!"
"Melted down?" Sienna repeated, only for her eyes to widen as she put the pieces together, the air suddenly quite a bit warmer. "You don't mean-"
"There's only one person here that can summon him," Hazel said, pointing up at the Celestial Spirit King. "And if he thinks she's attacking Salem…"
Sienna gulped. "The Grimm perimeter?"
"It's as far as we can get."
And in a few moments, it would be safer than where they were standing.
Wasn't that terrifying?
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"Sitara."
Her flare-up of Seram's Madness had already begun to recede when she'd been struck by Fairy Glitter. Whether that was due to the unique properties of a Grand Fairy Spell, her use of her Eclipse Etherious Form to fully restore her body once she reclaimed even a sliver of consciousness, or some other factor of her complete obliteration, it was no small wonder that hearing her original name spoken by that voice was able to boost her will enough to push the affliction back.
"Father," she responded from her humanoid lips, her twelve hydra heads protectively hovering around her main body. Off in the distance, the ancient Grimm of her perimeter had fallen silent from their decrement of her, their madness unable to keep them from the reverent awe of a Spirit King's presence. "My name is Salem now."
The king, his bushy mustache unable to hide his sorrowful frown, inclined his head in apology. "As you wish. I will endeavor not to slip up again, my daughter."
"Then I am still your daughter?" Salem replied, her hydra heads defensively hissing. "That's reassuring."
"No matter what name you choose, you will always be my beloved child."
Salem wished she could accept his words for the heartwarming gesture they were intended as. But unfortunately, his very presence on Remnant was a sign that reconciliation was not in the cards.
"Lucy and Leo would truly go so far to oppose me," Salem mused. "And you would side with them?"
"Do you hate me for it?"
Salem shook her head. "At one time, Weiss and Yang nearly convinced me I did. But they didn't understand the situation, and I knew that. By then, there was no way to challenge the Gods' decree… but now there is."
The Celestial Spirit King sighed. "Conquering the human world? Ruling it to keep them from stepping out of line?"
"You can have the throne if you think you'd do a better job of it. Leo's key will respawn in time, and with him, Lucy, and my technology, you could very well be fused into an Eclipse Etherious or given a body of your own. Look at how the Celestial Spirit World has prospered under your reign for countless eons! Would not the humans know the same bliss?" Salem earnestly offered, anxious to avoid having to run the world after the war was won. "Would not we? Being able to be together again after so long… be a family again."
Her father was tempted by that last point especially, she could see it. The upside of him being as close to an eternal being as he was, a firstborn of the Brother Gods, was that his ticks didn't really change, even after all the millennia it had been since she last saw him. The same tired eyes, the same slump in normally majestic shoulders, she could see the signs of his fraying will. It was not so easy to watch a world of your friends die a slow death and be unable to do anything to help. And if there had to be someone to rule over mankind while they adjusted to their new Eclipse Etherious powers, who better than the strongest and wisest being left in the cosmos?
Yet, she could see just as easily when his features steeled and his royal gaze met her own.
"I am here to answer my old friend's contract. Just as I have held my contract with my fellow Celestial Spirits for all these years, given them no reason to seek another as their ruler," the Celestial Spirit King answered. "No such contract exists between myself and humanity, and I cannot force it upon them."
"You can," Salem despairingly sighed. "But you won't."
"Perhaps an even more important distinction," her father answered, a tear slipping down his enormous face. "But if you stop this, if you seek another way with your friends by your side, I will gladly help you, my dearest daughter, however I can."
"There is no other way, father. Not that can be accomplished in the swift expedience needed to outpace your counterpart's schemes," Salem said. "And I do have friends by my side. Can't you feel the heat rising in the air?"
"Can you not see Ruby and Lucy fleeing from you?" the king countered. "Can you not feel the emptiness of Virgo's loss?"
"Meteor Metria!"
At the mention of Virgo, images of both her beloved maid and Summer flashing through her mind, Salem's will cracked, Seram's Madness rushing through her veins once more. Six of her hydra heads opened their jaws and unleashed a barrage of golden comets against her father, the air rippling as each asteroid hurtled towards the towering king.
Despite the short range and his beguiling size, her father was easily able to raise the flat of his longsword into the storm of starshots. However, though his defense held back the barrage, his enormous arms strained to resist the sheer force of the salvo, his resplendent blade twitched as it held the shining orbs at bay. Lucy may have been stronger than she was back when she fought Tartaros, but there wasn't a wizard alive capable of manifesting the Celestial Spirit King with the full strength of a physical body.
"Meteor Blade!"
Of course, that hardly meant he was weak.
Her father's blade erupted with a dazzling nebula and annihilated the Metria attack, swinging through the celestial dust and sending a titanic slash of cosmic energy searing straight for Salem.
Three more of her hydra heads swept forward in a triangle formation, crackling tempests of darkness sparking from their maws. The purple lightning zipped between their mouths, scorching trails of intricate arcane runes through the air.
"Absorb the light! Amaterasu Negative Fifty!"
The runes ignited and a sheet of violet energy materialized before Salem, her own modification to turn the vaunted Amaterasu dark magic into a near-unmatched defensive spell. Granted, she was perhaps the only person in the world with energy reserves to fuel it and the skill to craft the runes fast enough to use in combat, but it did its job and held back her father's assault.
Still, the king's strength was such that the near-impregnable defense shattered in the aftermath of his Meteor Blade. Salem knew she could not afford to give up the advantage for even a moment, her three remaining heads spreading out to either side and blasting her father with typhoons of fire, ice, and lightning from both flanks.
"Do not speak of her as if I do not feel her loss!" Salem cried, the dark web of corrupted veins unable to disguise the tears dripping down her cheeks. "Do not accuse me of not honoring her sacrifice! For Virgo! For Summer! For all who have believed in me, I will see this world saved!"
It was difficult to say for sure through the blinding glare of her elemental onslaught, but she thought she glimpsed her father's eyes close as his sword parried her assault.
"For the friends I have sworn to honor, so shall I."
The Celestial Spirit King's pure red eyes snapped open, resolved with iron even as the gleam of tears was still visible beneath them. His sword blazed once more with multicolored cosmic energy, maelstroms of blue, green, and every color in-between forming a mighty cross over his majestic blade.
Salem's teeth ground against each other, her elemental attack cut to ribbons. Still, it bought time for her nine other heads to sculpt more lines of Amaterasu runes, modified and fused with her specialty for enormous offensive power this time. She fought off the madness threatening to blind her, knowing that this was a fight she didn't stand a chance in without her mind. Her father wasn't able to kill her any more than anyone else, but he was more than capable of utilizing the magic gifted to him by Ankh and Seram to turn her to stone, the same magic that was gifted to Silver Spirit Slayers. Only unlike Summer, the Celestial Spirit King and his counterpart would have enough raw power to actually make sure she remained a powerless statue for quite a while.
Of course, if that were to happen, she had no doubt her dearest friend would rescue her. Just as she was sure that even though she was well aware of the attack The Celestial Spirit King was planning, he would ensure that Ruby and the others would gain no openings to escape even if he was able to slip through her guard.
At war yet as one, father and daughter chanted. At war yet as one, father and daughter wept.
"Meteor Blade - Shower!"
"Amaterasu Metria!"
At war yet as one, father and daughter made hell quake.
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"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," Gray muttered, shielding his eyes from the armageddon unfolding far too close for comfort. He hadn't been conscious for the Celestial Spirit King's duel with Mard Geer or Salem's clash with the White Witch, but he couldn't imagine it was any more devastating than the supernova of light and darkness emanating through the heavens. The mere cast off shockwaves of the titans' clash battered away entire levels of the still-standing towers, hurricane-force winds lifting hailstorms of boulders into the air.
Retreating back from his skirmish with End, he hopped back over Erza and threw up a great wall of ice, the airborne rubble pelting it from the other side. Fortunately, his handiwork was solid enough that none that would have landed on him or his sister made it through.
The same could not be said for those that struck End. Or rather, should have struck End.
They melted. Boulders the size of cars and Manta Flyers fell down on him and they melted as soon as they struck his skin, splashing the demon with a spray of lava. A spray he didn't even notice, his eyes wide and frightened, locked on his mistress and her father's clash.
"She brought him down. She brought him here to destroy her," he murmured, rage slowly seeping into his voice. "She brought him here. Always her."
Gray gulped with worry. His brief skirmish with End to keep the latter from Erza had been one filled with hesitance from both sides. The Ophiuchus had seemed almost ashamed of what he'd done to the Titania, his timid battle style inhibiting him more than his lost arm. Gray himself had consciously answered that tentative assault by measuring his own response. The important thing wasn't to escalate the fight but to keep Erza from any more harm. He wouldn't make the same mistake he had in Neo-Hell's Core, no matter how much his Devil Slayer side was screaming at him to unleash everything he had on the greatest demon of Zeref.
Alas, though that discipline had served him well, it seemed its time had passed. He didn't fancy his chances against a fully enraged End, even if he was down an arm, but if his opponent was about to turn up the heat, he couldn't take the risk that the auraless Erza would get caught in the blast, or even that he'd be distracted from protecting her from the runoff of Salem's fight.
It was a stupid risk that would more than likely backfire, but without any other immediate options, he didn't have any other choice but to give in to his worst instincts. He didn't have any backup-
"GGGRRRRAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!"
Gray blinked numbly, sharing a confused glance with End of all people before looking back at Erza to do the same, the agonized Titania suddenly breaking through her pain with sheer befuddlement.
"That voice…" Erza muttered. "Was that…"
"It couldn't have been," Gray wondered. "Could it?"
He whirled towards the source of the distant shout, finding a sleek black airship passing the western tower, a giant pink Fairy Tail emblem shining above it. The craft was too far away for him to see any specific details, but he was able to vaguely see a few figures chasing it. One was a blonde with fire wings trailing behind the airship, while another golden-haired person and one with a flowing red cloak (which could only be Ruby) were carried onto the machine's loading ramp by a tornado.
For a moment, Gray was disappointed by the lack of the person that he'd thought that voice had belonged to, even though he recognized that it was impossible for her to be there. However, then he'd been confused by the maiden power that had emanated from Ruby and her passenger, that had likely conjured the tornado they were riding.
Of course, then his attention was drawn to the drop of water that splashed onto his nose. Gray blinked at the offending liquid for a second before he backtracked the only place it could have come from. Looking up, he beheld his protective wall of Devil Slayer Ice dripping. Melting.
And there was only one thing in the world that could cause that.
He turned to End, the Ophiuchus's far superior eyesight locked on the airship and those closing on it as his claws spasmed open and closed. The ice that coated the stump of his right arm boiled away, his flesh bubbling a new limb as his flesh glowed like rising embers.
"Ruby has the Winter Maiden powers. But that would mean that Summer… that Summer…" he muttered, his features darkening with fury. "She will not escape."
Well, if that wasn't a cue to pull a strategic retreat, Gray didn't know what was.
The Devil Slayer told his instincts of rage and hatred to piss off, scooped Erza up into his arms (he winced at her cries of pain as he touched her ravaged skin), and conjured a triangular prism of ice with its primary face angle towards the approaching airship.
"Please be able to bounce more than just me, please be able to bounce more than just me, please be able to bounce more than just me…"
"You're not inspiring confidence!" Erza panickedly scolded him.
Gray grit his teeth, stopped his yammering, and prayed that his near-untested semblance would work as he leapt onto the reflective face of the ice prism.
Good news! It did work!
Bad news! He hit the shuttle's windshield and bounced off it! Turned out his Mirror Bounce would keep bouncing him off reflective surfaces until it stopped.
Other good news! Turned out the farther he bounced, the more aura he used. Given the day he'd had, he ran out before the windshield bounce could send him and Erza ten thousand feet into the air.
Other bad news! That just meant they were both stranded in midair without any aura!
"Water Lock!"
Best good news! He hadn't been imagining things when he'd heard that voice the first time!
A massive sphere of water blossomed around Gray and Erza, suspending the pair in midair long enough for the airship to alter its course, a figure flying out a Meteor and snagging the two Fairy Tail wizards into the cabin. Only it wasn't Pyrrha who did so, though she immediately rushed over in a panic at the sight of the Titania.
"Mom!" she shouted, Ruby and Nora following by her side and gasping at Erza's horrific burns.
"Hi, sweetie. It's not as bad as it looks," Erza weakly comforted, her eyes, dim with endurance, slipping over their rescuer. "Gray? Am I hallucinating or is that Jellal?"
Gray gazed in shock at the miraculous Wizard Saint went pale at the sight of Erza's wounds, nervously trying to find a patch of skin that wasn't scorched to give a reassuring touch. Eventually, the ice wizard just handed her to him.
"I don't know how you're here, but we need to get her to Wendy," he said urgently. "She's the only one that might be able to save her arms and legs."
Ruby flinched. "Wendy's not here."
"What?" Gray gasped. "Where is she?"
"She's not coming back with us," Ruby replied.
"Not coming back with us?" Carla piped up from the other end of the hold, looking as if her greatest nightmare had just played out in front of her.
Gray kept his focus on Ruby however, looking at her quizzically. "What do you mean? For that matter, where's Oscar-"
"Neither of them are coming back with us! I will explain later, but right now we need to go!" Ruby ordered, the surety in her voice reminding Gray of the many times Erza had silenced one of his and Natsu's feuds. The ice wizard knew better than to argue with such command in a still volatile situation.
When he gave her his nod of confirmation, the Silver Spirit Slayer turned to Jellal. "You're the closest thing to a healer we've got. Do everything you can for her."
"Always," Jellal answered, ushering Erza up near the cockpit as Pyrrha and Nora trailed behind him. Carla, her face despondent, flew over their heads to take the co-pilot's seat next to Penny.
As they evacuated, Gray finally got a chance to gain his bearings on the rest of the cabin. Lucy stood supporting herself against the right wall with Blake sitting beside her, both of them gasping for breath (though the Celestial Spirit Wizard held a hand to her forehead as if she was listening to something). Ruby, Raven, and Tai (when did he get here?) stepped back towards the entrance ramp, looking out to their fiery-winged pursuer that Gray could now recognize as Yang of all people.
Slumped down against the left wall, was Weiss, staring blankly down at the floor of the airship and clutching at her left eye-
Gray stopped in his tracks, his heart freezing in his chest. Weiss wasn't clutching at her left eye. Her left eye wasn't even there.
"Gray! My darling!"
Going from absolute horror to euphoric joy was a gut-punch of emotional whiplash, to say the least, but Gray was still able to turn around just as he was engulfed in a familiar loving embrace. A dark blue felt hat pressed into his face, shimmering sapphire locks flowing down below it.
"Ju… Juvia?" The Ice Devil Slayer stammered, fearful to be so hopeful even with her signature spellcasting and Jellal's impossible presence.
The Water Wizard pulled away and flashed a bright smile up at him to confirm that she was real. "It's me, my love! I have journeyed across time and space to be by your… side? Darling, are you alright?"
The damn broke then, tears pooling in Gray's eyes and streaming down his face even as he tried to keep them in. He wrapped his arms around Juvia and clutched her close in a desperate yet loving hug.
"You're here," he sniffled. "You're actually here."
"Gray, they're going to be alright," Juvia softly assured him. "Erza, Weiss, and Wendy… they're going to be alright."
He prayed she was right. After everything that had gone down, all the pain his loved ones were in, with so much of it being his fault, he didn't know what he'd do if he lost any more of them, if he failed them any further.
However, with Juvia's presence, even as he worried about the danger she was now in by being on Remnant, he could feel a small spark of happiness flickering to life in his soul. Whatever conversations they and Weiss would need to have once they were out of immediate trouble, at this moment, he was immeasurably happy to have her by his side.
"Juvia!" Jellal called back. "I need you up here! Erza needs to be cooled down!"
"Right!" Juvia affirmatively answered, already moving out of the embrace.
"I'll come with you," Gray immediately said. "I'm a specialist at making things cold."
"Cooled, darling. Ice is too cold while the burns are still fresh," Juvia informed him. She flashed him a soft smile. "I'm thrilled you want to help, but you've done so much getting her here! How did you turn yourself and Erza into that beam of light?"
"Um… my semblance," Gray nervously replied. "Still figuring it out."
"That's wonderful!" Juvia cheered. "I can't wait to hear all about everything you've done here, darling. But, I think someone else may need you more right now than me."
She stealthily inclined her head towards Weiss before rushing off towards the cockpit, her hands already filling with cool water to put on Erza's burns.
Meanwhile, Gray could only gulp in awkwardness as he made his way over to Weiss, giving into his muscles exhaustion and sliding down beside her.
"I made a horrible mistake," she whispered. "I made a horrible, horrible, mistake."
Weren't they a pair, teacher and student?
Gray could do nothing but wrap his arms around her, the white-haired girl gratefully returning the supportive embrace. Outside, hell was erupting into armageddon, but at least in that moment, they both knew love.
Whatever it might bring in the future was anyone's guess.
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'Everyone who's coming is onboard,' Lucy thought as she leaned against the airship's wall. 'Is there any chance that you might be able to… do to her what you did to Mard Geer?'
"Unlikely. The Underworld King was caught off-guard by my not going for the kill. Salem knows me too well to fall for such a feint," The Celestial Spirit King telepathically replied, a thunderous explosion ringing through the link. "I am sorry I cannot make your burden any easier, my old friend."
Lucy gulped with shame. 'I sacrificed Loke to call you down to fight your own daughter. I'm the one who should be apologizing.'
"Ha! I have watched humanity for eons since we last saw each other, old friend. Your compassion and care is a gift I have long missed," the King declared. "I will do my best to give you all some openings to the south and west. But if I fail, you will have the means to do so yourself."
'What do you mean?' Lucy queried. The wall of ancient Grimm surrounding the castle could take shots from Ruby's eyes and come back for more. What could a weakling like her possibly do to it?
She could practically see the Celestial Spirit King's cheeky mustached grin in response to her confusion. "Leo did tell you I have a new trick for you, did he not? Last time, I granted you Aquarius's magic power and you used that experience to become so much stronger, learning the Star Dress technique. Now, with the fortitude your body has gained since, you are ready to receive an even greater boon-oh no!"
Lucy's eyes widened with terror. 'Mustache Man!'
"I'm alright! But telepathy during a fight like this is a bad idea. Head for the south or the west! Quickly!"
The link was cut off then, Lucy left with nothing but curl her fist in frustration, smacking it against the wall.
"So, I'm guessing the kaiju fight out there isn't going to solve all our problems?" Blake tried to joke from below.
Lucy sighed. "Really not in the mood right now, Blake."
"Sorry," Blake replied, her head listing as if nauseous. "Just… trying to process. Taking on Seram's Madness… not my best idea."
Lucy glanced around the cabin, concurring with the cat faunus that processing recent events was a trial in and of itself. Erza burned to a crisp, Weiss down an eye, Wendy, Oscar, and Loke gone, and Yang… she still wasn't sure what was happening with Yang, but she didn't think she'd be of any help. With how useless she'd been so far, it was probably best that she let Ruby and Taiyang handle it. She'd probably just unknowingly make things worse like she had with End.
But maybe she could help Blake? Seram's Madness was primarily an Umbral Spirit affliction, right? Maybe absorbing some Celestial Spirit Magic would help her recover from it… maybe?
She knelt down beside the cat faunus and offered her arm. "Sorry. Here. Loke's magic is fading from my Star Dress, but it might help."
"Thanks-ah!" Blake reached out for Lucy's forearm only to recoil immediately, her hand steaming from the touch.
"Blake!" Lucy worried, nearly reaching out for her friend until she realized that touch had been the issue in the first place. "I'm so sorry! I didn't know-"
"That's not Loke's magic," Blake revealed, staring at her palm in shock. "It's… so powerful. I only got a fraction of a fraction and it…" She gazed at Lucy with awe. "How are you keeping so much inside you?"
"I… I don't know," Lucy stammered, looking down at her hands as she slowly felt the warmth grow in her veins. Could this be the 'trick' that Loke and the King had mentioned?
"Mira couldn't absorb the Etherious while they were alive, right? They were too powerful for Take-Over," Blake noted. "I nearly absorbed Loke by accident when we first met. What Celestial Spirit could be more powerful than him?"
Lucy knew of only two that were still around. And since she knew this kind of gift required a powerful bond to facilitate it, and she didn't really know Ophiuchus well, that left only…
No way.
"Raven!" Nora called back from the cockpit. "Can't you just portal us out now?! You obviously left to bring Tai here!"
"I was the only one who went through that portal when it was going out!" Raven shouted, leaning in from the loading ramp. "We were lucky that Tai and I weren't separated when we came back in. This many people, with an aircraft? If I try it inside the perimeter, half the ship could end up in a different place than the other half and one of those places could be in the side of a mountain!"
"Then we will have to get outside the Grimm perimeter as planned!" Penny announced. "That said, I don't like our chances of getting through!"
Lucy glanced out the back of the airship, past Ruby and Taiyang standing on the ramp and out towards The Celestial Spirit King's all-out magic slugfest with Salem. Riposting a swarm of meteors that looked like they were laced with Amaterasu formula with a barrage of multicolored flares, the monarch of the heavens lifted his majestic sword to the sky as every side and flank erupted in a symphony of explosions.
"Meteor Blade- Shooting Galaxy!"
A sparkling nebula surged over the titanic length of his weapons and then burst out across the sky as a swarm of asteroids, each with enough power to flatten mountains. Salem conjured a glowing shield with three of her heads, adding another trio when that defense began to buckle. Her other six heads made to fire on the comets that were sweeping overhead, but her father's sword came down and lobbed off those maws in the brief moment they were exposed.
As such, the rain of meteors stretched over the southwest, some striking the ground and forming gigantic craters with their impact, while others soared further onward.
Soared towards the perimeter of Grimm.
"Penny!" Lucy shouted. "South! Head south! Follow those meteors! They'll punch a hole right through those Grimm!"
"If they don't kill us in the process!" Raven frantically pointed out, the ship barely swerving out of one of the comets' paths.
Lucy's face steeled, her hand once more closing into a fist and filling with power. "I think I can take care of that if they come close."
"You think?!"
"Shut up, Raven!" Penny yelled, banking the shuttle on a hard turn. "Heading south!"
Lucy nodded and dashed over to Pyrrha, huddled with Nora, Jellal, and Juvia around Erza, the Queen of the Fairies unconscious in a Water Lock that covered all but her face.
"Keep it colder, Juvia," Jellal frantically ordered, his hands glowing with healing magic.
"Juvia's trying," the water wizard expressed, equally worried. "Something's wrong. The air… it shouldn't be heating up this quickly."
Well, that wasn't good, but at the moment, Lucy couldn't do anything about it, so she just tugged on Pyrrha's arm to get the girl's attention.
"Pyrrha, sweetie," Lucy spoke softly, somehow compelled to speak to this full-grown woman as if she was her young niece. Honorary aunt or not, the Celestial Spirit Wizard shook her head to throw that attitude off. "Has your aura recovered enough to use your semblance?"
"What? Maybe? A bit?" the redhead noted, her terrified eyes continually drawn to her ravaged mother. "But she… I need to stay with her."
"You can't do anything for her by staying with her right now," Lucy argued as gently as she could. While she doubted the young huntress would appreciate being talked down to, she also knew just how distressing it was to see someone as normally strong and unshakeable as Erza in such a broken state, doubly so given Pyrrha's relationship with her if this was her first time seeing her mother so injured. "What you can do for her is make sure she gets back to Vale for proper treatment and the best way to do that is to help make sure I don't fall off the roof if I have to keep meteors off us."
Pyrrha cocked an eyebrow. "The roof?"
Lucy flashed her best attempt at one of Natsu's reassuring grins. After all, even if she was right about the temporary power-up she'd gained, her plan was quite audacious.
Perfect for Fairy Tail.
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If Mercury never saw another Fairy Tail Wizard again, it would be too soon.
"What the fucking hell?!" he screeched, the three Gates all gaping in terrified wonder at the new warrior that had arrived to battle Salem's Eclipse Etherious Form. "Since when do they have a fucking kaiju?!"
"Not… a kaiju," Cinder panted, still recovering from nearly dying and then breaking down in front of them (Mercury was still trying to look anywhere but at her after that) a few moments ago. "It's the Celestial Spirit King."
That made him pale.
"Spirit King?" Emerald said fearfully, looking up as the heavenly knight began to battle with the giant hydra. "You mean… her father?"
"Looks like it's going about as well as any meeting between me and my old man," Mercury wryly observed, though he was mostly trying to keep from shitting himself with fear. "So, all in favor of running as far away from this insanity as possible?"
"I…" Emerald murmured before looking to Cinder. When the other woman didn't show any signs of responding, the young thief hopped over and started helping her to her feet. "Cinder, what do you think?"
"You've got to be kidding me," Mercury muttered under his breath.
After Emerald had made that wonderful speech calling Cinder out as the pretentious git she was, he'd really had hope that she'd finally realize what a selfish, uncaring bitch the Gate of the Archer would always be. He'd even been able to convince her not to get involved in her brawl with Nikos until after that blue-haired guy had flown off, giving him hope that she'd see that not taking the Fall Maiden powers back from her and killing them both when she'd had the chance must have been part of some larger scheme.
Just because Cinder had thanked them for saving her from that meteor, genuinely thanked them (Mercury had spent enough time around liars to know the difference), didn't mean she'd put her life on the line for them. When push came to shove, she'd let them die for her own power. People like that didn't grow to care about others.
He tried to ignore the fact that Emerald's earlier speech, and the fact that he was thinking about this at all, had forced him to confront the fact that he, a self-proclaimed person like that, had grown to care for her. Whatever the hell that meant.
"I'm… I'm not sure if we can do anything," Cinder confessed. She nodded to Emerald as she got back to her feet, stretching bit by bit as if her limbs were sore. "But with the maiden's power, it is possible that we could provide a crucial advantage at an opportune moment. Salem protects us, so we can't abandon-"
"Protects us? Oh, please!" Mercury scoffed, throwing his hands towards the ruined castle. "She wants to protect 'her friends'. So much so that she had us fighting with one hand tied behind our backs."
"Mercury, this isn't helping," Emerald scolded.
"Why not? Because it's true?" Mercury demanded. "Face it, where were we when all this madness went down while the big dogs were up in their planning session?"
"It was a punishment," Cinder softly replied, though she looked away as if thinking of something else. "I went too far at Beacon and disobeyed orders at Haven-"
"So why were we there?" Mercury asked, pointing to himself and Emerald. "Why weren't we important enough to be in the room when things were going down?"
"We're the low men on the ladder," Emerald argued. "We're the newest-"
"Sienna Khan was there!" Mercury roared. "Face it! We're not Salem's friends, we're her pieces on the chessboard! Salem protects us if we're useful, and if she wants Fairy Tail on her side, it's pretty clear that the ones that Scarlet and Fullbuster tried to murder on sight aren't useful!"
"So what do you suggest?!" Emerald yelled back. "There's always someone at the top, Mercury! We all know that, and we all know it's never one of us! So we can either play the hand we're dealt and live, or do nothing and die!"
"Well, I'm not dying for her," Mercury spat, stomping away. "You guys wanna stay and get roasted, that's your problem!"
"Mercury!" Emerald called after him. "Mercury, stop!"
Don't listen, don't listen, don't even think! Don't think about how you don't actually have any way to get past the Grimm perimeter and leave. Don't think about how you don't actually have any sort of plan for what to do if you did somehow find a way to desert Salem. Don't think about how you don't actually think you have the will to go through with leaving when your life isn't in immediate danger. Don't think about how this is basically a temper tantrum.
And most of all, don't think about how just hearing her cries makes you want to turn back and stay with her. That way lies actually admitting that you consider her a friend. That way lies… caring.
To Mercury, caring was not the simple, easy, and supposedly wonderful thing that Team RWBY and their friends espoused. Caring was getting thrown into a gorge full of Grimm to 'toughen him up'. Caring was excitedly asking dad if he'd seen you fly only to have him kick you to the ground and smash your face into the mud while his semblance flared. Caring was having a part of your soul ripped away so it wouldn't be a crutch.
Caring was dangerous, a rope waiting to be tied into a noose around your neck. And he refused to hang-
"Mercury, look out!"
Emerald's shriek was more frantic than the others, more terrified. And the shadow falling over his body explained why.
Mercury whirled around and up, a colossal meteor of sublime blues, greens, and golds plummeting towards him, a cast-off from Salem's battle with the Celestial Spirit King. It was massive, its mere shadow stretching from him at its center to Emerald and Cinder at its border. The green-haired girl was already doing the smart thing and dashing to escape the blast zone.
He couldn't do that. He knew how fast he was, how far he'd have to fun, and he couldn't make it. If the dueling titans were as powerful as they were said to be, he couldn't block or survive it if it hit.
Wouldn't you know it? Killed by his own temper tantrum. Wasn't that embarrassing?
"Enhance! 150%!"
Huh?
Mercury barely had time to turn before Cinder slammed into him from the side, her entire body coated in emerald lightning. She wrenched him into her arms and made a mad dash for the edge of meteor, desperately trying to get them both to safety as the approaching shadow grew larger.
Get them both to safety. She could have just gone with Emerald and easily made it away in time with her speed. But she came to save him? Why?! She had nothing to gain and they both knew only the void awaited them if they died!
And they were going to die. Cinder may have been pushing her body as far as it would go, but the meteor was too big and too close. They couldn't escape its impact area in time and a quick glance he caught of the Gate of the Archer's face full of panic confirmed that she'd realized her mistake as well.
Only for Cinder to throw him down, turn to the shining comet obscuring their view of the sky and… open her mouth?
Had she gone insane upon realizing she'd thrown her life away for no reason?
The meteor plummeted the last bit of space above them, easily the size of the one he and Emerald had destroyed if not bigger, and smashed into Cinder's face. The Eclipse Etherious screamed, the force of the satellite's gravity buckling her to her knees.
And then… she ate it?
She ate it! All of a sudden the thrashing winds of the multicolored comet vanished, the meteor suddenly shifting into ethereal golden magic that funneled into Cinder's mouth as if she was slurping up a milkshake.
Mercury gaped in befuddled awe as the black-haired woman spent a solid ten seconds just devouring the comet's essence. Once she'd slurped up the last bits, she fell back from her knees and plopped down beside the Gate of the Twin Fish on the ground, her body caked in sweat as she panted with exhaustion.
"Wasn't… sure… that would work," she confessed, her face twisting into an expression of contemplation and interest. "I can... Spirit King magic…"
"You didn't know that would work," Mercury accused, knowing that not even Cinder could fake fear like he'd seen on her face. "Why?"
"I haven't used my Spirit Slayer powers intentionally in near a decade, and even then I'd only had Salem's training blasts to eat before-"
"Not that!" Mercury snapped. "Why did you risk your life to save me? And don't try to sell me some bullshit about caring about me."
"Because… I want to."
"Bullshit!"
"It's not," Cinder insisted, tears welling in her eyes. "Teacher is dead. My mother is dead."
Mercury recoiled in shock. After everything he'd heard about the Gate of the Maiden, to hear that Fairy Tail had actually managed to get her was… terrifying.
"Sorry," he said, unsure if he meant it or not before his scowl returned. "But what does that have to do with this?"
Cinder's eyes hardened into miniature golden suns, facing Mercury with more will than he'd ever seen in the terrifying demon woman even in her most ambitious moments.
"It means I will not die before Weiss Schnee lies dead at my feet. And the only way I am going to do that is if I use every power at my disposal," she declared. "I don't get the power of friendship if the friendship isn't real. I don't know how to care about you and Emerald as friends, but I will risk everything to learn and get that power!"
"... well… I can believe that," Mercury cautiously replied. "I'm not sure if I'm more horrified or terrified by it, but I'm some combination of the two."
Cinder flopped back against the ground and groaned. At the moment, she looked less like an evil overload or a crazed psychopath and more like a college student who'd just spent all night on a single homework problem.
"Hey!"
Mercury flashed a smile over at an approaching Emerald, only to raise an eyebrow when she looked panicked even though the danger had passed.
Of course, then he looked a little further behind her and saw that she was running away from a field of lava, consuming the entire courtyard and spreading. Even the two remaining halves of the castle towers were beginning to glow and melt into slag.
"Why?!" Mercury demanded, at about his limit for life-threatening disasters for the moment.
"Why what-oh shit!" Cinder shouted, picking her head up and turning white as a sheet when she saw the lava. "He's gone Etherious! We need to run!"
"Huh?!"
Mercury didn't get a chance to ask any more questions before Emerald arrived, grabbed them both by the arms, and booked it away as fast as she could. Which honestly, was a plan he could get behind.
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Yang had planned for dodging Jellal and maybe Juvia's flak fire while she was flying for the airship. She had not planned for the fucking Celestial Spirit King!
Both the Devil Slayer and the sleek black shuttle she was chasing juked and weaved through the rain of meteors, forced to dodge the multicolored starstuff unless they wanted to be completely obliterated. Even still, it was easy to tell where her quarry was headed: straight for the perimeter of Grimm surrounding the castle.
And given that no airship stood a chance getting through that menagerie of ancient hell beasts on its own power, they must have been counting on the Celestial Spirit King's firestorm to clear them a path. From what Yang could see amidst the meteor shower, there were over half a dozen comets that would reach the perimeter, so they would follow one of those to their exit. She just had to catch up to them before they reached it.
"Yang!"
The wind was too loud for her to identify exactly whose voice called to her, but given the two people on the airship's ramp, it wasn't that had to narrow it down to one of them.
"Dad," she whispered longingly. "Ruby."
Two of the people she loved most in the world. Each of them clutched the inside of the ship with one hand while reaching out towards her with the other. Reaching out their hands. If only on instinct, her rage flickered for a moment, her own arm reaching out as she flew.
Only for that arm's demonic visage to enter her sight and remind her what she was now. A demon. And while that meant nothing to her, it seemed to mean everything to those she'd called 'friend'.
Her dad had said he'd never stop loving her no matter what. Ruby was her sister. But they stood on the same airship with Weiss and yet they were doing nothing! Why were they holding out their hands if they didn't want to help her?
However, in her hesitance, her decrease of speed, she received her answer in the appearance of another person she loved… and one that she loathed with every fiber of her being.
Lucy and Raven, of all combinations of people, hurried onto the ramp, the bandit leader giving the Celestial Spirit Wizard a boost onto the roof of the airship. Yang immediately began altering her course to catch her fellow blonde if she fell, but somehow, she wasn't blown off the vehicle. In fact, it looked like she was wearing Pyrrha's metal boots, a sheen of black Polarity shimmering over them and securing the Fairy Tail mage to the top.
It was clever, but it also made Yang realize how she was thought of, why her family reached out their hands to a demon like her even though they thought her a monster. The same reason they permitted Raven, a woman they all despised, to be in their company.
She was useful to them.
Her fury no longer flickered, but it didn't blaze as it had before. It just smoldered, hot as ever, but with nowhere to go.
It was… sobering, to watch her demon arm fall away, to watch Ruby and her dad's brief expressions of hope fade, the hands they had outstretched lowering in confusion.
At least, before a sonic boom rocked them all, a streak of blinding white sunlight rocketing past them all.
Yang's flame wings flickered for a second, the Devil Slayer panicking in freefall for a second before reestablishing her flight-enabling spell. Meanwhile, her dad was nearly blown out of the airship, Raven reaching out to catch him and show them both back into the cabin with a burst of wind from her maiden powers. Ruby used her semblance to weather the shockwave, joining Lucy on the roof in a burst of rose petals before steadying herself with the Winter Maiden's glow, the shuttle's landing ramp nearly closing to improve its wind resistance in the hectic gale.
The streak of white sunlight continued its course and smashed right through the nearest meteor of the Celestial Spirit King.
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"No," Ruby whispered, watching as the nearest attack that was going to hit the Grimm perimeter was incinerated. "We needed that."
"Don't panic," Lucy advised, Pyrrha's assistance below enabling her to stand atop the airship just as Ruby's maiden powers did. "Just because that one was closest doesn't mean we had to use it. We can use any of the others that are gonna hit the perimeter-"
She didn't even finish the sentence before the white streak that had annihilated the first comet turned sharply and crashed into the next closest one, ramming through and blowing the celestial attack away.
"You were saying?" Ruby mumbled fretfully. That white streak, whatever it was, was clearly going after the meteor shower to keep them from gaining a way through the Grimm perimeter and fast enough and powerful enough to take out the comets before Fairy Tail even got close to them. And when it was done sealing off their escape, it'd likely come back for them.
Which meant they had until then to come up with something else. But what? The Celestial Spirit King? He had his hands full keeping Salem occupied and she wouldn't fall for another meteor shower trick now that they'd played their hand. Take a run at the Grimm perimeter? Fight their way through the most dangerous Umbral Spirits on the planet when most of their group was exhausted already? They'd have to bet everything on Penny's piloting skills, and the Atlas girl herself wasn't confident that that would be enough-
"Star Dress! Celestial Spirit King Form!"
Ruby's head whipped to the side, only for her hands to have to instantly fly up and shield her eyes from a shining, beautiful golden glow.
When it lessened enough for her to look, her jaw dropped in awe.
Lucy stood before her in resplendent turquoise plate armor, stalwart and firm without any sign of the turbulence that had forced her to rely on Pyrrha's Polarity only moments ago. Her blonde hair billowed behind her in a glittering mane of starlight, crowned with a teal helm with a golden star at its center. Soft, soothing light and more magic power than Ruby had ever felt from any member of Fairy Tail radiated out from the wizard like the rays of a distant sun.
Also…
"Pht! Pht! Mustache!" Lucy indignantly complained, rapidly blowing at the big, bushy white mustache covering her top lip. Fortunately, the majesty white facial hair obeyed her complaints and dissipated into glittering sparks right afterward.
"When… How…" Ruby stammered, before violently shaking her head. "You know what, it doesn't matter! Can you bust a hole through those Grimm?"
Lucy's hard brown eyes narrowed towards the towering, rabid hordes of hell. "Let's find out."
She marched forward and reached out her hand to the side, a beautiful bejeweled longsword materializing from stardust into her grip. When she reached the edge of the airship's cabin, she took a deep breath and gazed at her reflection in the flat of the blade.
She closed her eyes and lifted the sword above her head, a nebula of blue and green energy slowly curling and compressing around the weapon's edge.
The coalescing energy turned to gold. And the greatest Celestial Spirit Wizard in millennia opened her eyes, the stars themselves shining from their depths.
"Lucy Meteor Saber!"
The gathering nebula erupted upward, transforming into a titanic tower of dazzling light, a new dawn risen within the darkness of the Grimmlands. With a great heave, Lucy brought down her shining pillar and slashed through the ancient Grimm, the Umbral Spirits shrieking with agony as the golden pillar tore them apart molecule by molecule, the stars themselves come to war.
When the glow finally had the mercy to fade, there was a full quarter-mile stretch of the border completely free of Grimm.
"Woah nelly," Ruby gaped, an enormous grin breaking out over her face. "That was totally wicked!"
"It was?" Lucy numbly said, staring in utter shock and bewilderment at the scene of destruction she'd left behind. However, as soon as she saw Ruby's sparkling eyes and adoring eyes, she immediately began to preen like a prized swan. "I mean, of course it was! I'm a Fairy Tail wizard! We excel in property damage!"
She cocked an eyebrow, suddenly unsettled. "Huh. Never thought I'd get to say that with pride."
"New experiences are wonderful," Ruby concurred. "Penny! Gun it!"
"Will do!" Penny cheerily called up from the shuttle.
The airship darted forward, flying full speed for the gap in the border. As fast as they were rocketing forward and how disoriented the surrounding ancient Grimm were from the Meteor Saber, there was no way the hole in the perimeter could be filled before they shot through.
Except… the Grimm weren't even trying to fill the hole. The towering monstrosities of darkness, the nightmares that ace huntsmen dreamt in their most dire hours, were cowering, trembling away from the gap.
In the face of Salem, they had been enraged. In the presence of the Celestial Spirit King, they were awed. But now, they were afraid.
And there was only one person there who could possibly have earned that.
The ground that Lucy had just wiped clean suddenly broke out into geysers of molten lava, the white streak abandoning its attack on the meteor rain and circling back to blaze into the center of the gap. Fairy Tail's airship swung a hard right and screeched to a stop, engaging its helicopter blades to remain airborne as it hung stationary in the face of this new threat. The blinding glow of the streak faded ever so slightly, revealing itself as a second sun of pure white fire.
And at the center of that sun emerged a draconic humanoid form, dull red scales covering the entity's entire body, veins of vivid magma circulating through the gaps while a pair of slight skeletal appendages on his back constantly emitted steady streams of sterling fire as wings. He was a bit shorter than before, but no less muscular, his strength compressed and streamlined into a compact, reptilian form, his formerly wild salmon hair slicked back with a pair of devil horns laid over to keep it down.
Ruby gulped, the sheer unfathomable density of curse energy confirming exactly who it was that stood alone between them and escape.
"Heartfilia," End spoke, the voice of his Etherious Form low and rumbling like a volcano about to erupt. "You are mine."
And so it comes to this. One last Gate to get through to escape hell. If they can.
End's Etherious Form was a lot of fun to come up with, though NOT easy. When Salem is a giant hydra and the dragons and Spirit Kings are things, how does one equal that in bombast? I struggled with that question for a while before turning to one of the great masters of character design: Akira Toriyama, and his aesthetic philosophy of 'Less is More'. Freeza's final form design provided a lot of inspiration for End's Etherious Form, with sleek, streamlined, and utterly bursting with power being the order of the day.
Still, despite it and the thrill and scale of the Salem vs. Celestial Spirit King fight, I think my favorite stuff to write this chapter was the Lucy stuff. The protagonist of Fairy Tail has been somewhat in the background since the parley, serving crucially emotional but lowkey roles. Starting with the last chapter and continuing here, we get to examine the growing toll of such limited action on her, which feeds into Lucy's preexisting self-worth issues. Here, however, through her bonds with her friends and her emotional intelligence, she gets to shine bright even next to wondrous figures already present.
Remember to vote in the poll on my profile page for your favorite arc in this story so far!
Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!
Go Forth and Conquer!