Darker themes this chapter- if you can't handle the mention of blood, sacrifice and you know... bad bitch energy then don't read. It'll take longer for you to piece together what happened to the empire but skip it if you must.
ALSO FIRST SONG LYRIC SEGMENT THIS CHAPTER WOOOOO
Freed laid in bed. His own bed. Him and Laxus decided to sleep separately, Freed was not pleased with his behavior earlier and wanted to make sure Laxus knew it clear as day. Moonlight seeped through the curtains, the wind blowing roughly outside against the house. It was an unusually windy summer night, especially for Magnolia, but Freed welcomed it. The wind calmed his nerves and helped him sleep, and soon enough Freed slipped into his dreams once more.
Freed's head had brought him this time to a city, buildings made from stone and a castle with contrasting purples, whites and golds on the highest peak of floating isles. Several people ran past and through him into homes locking their doors in fear of something... or someone. "Is this...Magvel?" flags flying the golden dragon flew everywhere along with flags bearing a harp symbol. "Apollo's fury marks..." Freed looked up at the castle and saw white runes surrounding it, his eyes widened as he quickly ran towards the castle. He formed his runic wings and flew to the castle, he stepped through the front doors of the large structure and there sat in the center was a giant golden dragon, it's aura was powerful... almost scary.
"Zephiel what's his location?" The dragon asked loudly, almost commanding.
"Underneath of us, I believe." A familiar voice spoke up, Zephyr was there... granted his hair was shorter and his aura felt weaker but it was definitely him. Freed was smart enough this was a dream of the events that occurred 4 centuries ago... but how? It couldn't have been his imagination it felt too real... and accurate.
"Hmm. Lana is in position I hope?" The dragon replied.
"She is. Rune bomb one is ready to go." Zephyr said nodding in confirmation.
"Cia is where?" The dragon asked.
"Uhhhhhh I don't fully know, she's hard to track, her aura tends to screw up the machine." Zephiel sighs.
The dragon growls, "We can only hope she's doing something productive to help the situation."
Zephyr nods looking back down at his tablet, Warrens tools for communication... do they date back to this era?
"Bomb one launched, it sent the subject away a few days walk away." Zephyr looks up to the dragon.
The dragon growls again, "Not far enough... he'll reach us again and then what? Do we repeat the same cycle over and over again? We need to exterminate this pest Zeph, not coddle him!"
Zephyr sighed, "I'll locate the two sorceress's and bring them here I guess we need a better game plan."
"Good idea, daddy's boy." The dragon snickered.
"Shut it scaly playboy wanna be" Zephyr smirked leaving.
Freed followed Zephyr/Zephiel down the stairs of the castle into the garden, in the center of the garden sat a light blue haired girl with a side pony tail, she was cute, but attractive in a different way compared to Laxus, Freed blushed to himself looking at her, her magic power was through the rough, much stronger than Zephyr's... even current day Zephyr.
They were talking to each other... but none of it was audible to Freed, but before he could try to find a solution a loud explosion was heard from the castle, the blue haired woman ran to the source leaving the tan skinned tiger man in the garden to look upon the castle.
"Do you really want what's here, Freed?"
Freeds eyes widened looking at Zephyr who was staring into the starry sky, "I cannot explain and show you everything. But I can show you enough for you to make a good enough decision."
"W-who are you?!" Freed stumbled back incredibly unnerved.
"Simply a man. Nothing more. Nothing less." Zephyr smiled to himself.
"W-why change your name!?" Freed asked loudly.
"I have my reasons. You have a catastrophe you need to witness. So now go. I'll end the dream when I've shown you what I can."
Freed looked in the direction of the explosion and nodded, "You better explain yourself!", he ran off.
"In due time my friend. In due time." Zephyr said continuing his stargazing.
Freed ran back into the main hall, his eyes widening to see a tall, busty, curvaceous and masked woman standing before the dragon the blue haired girl on the ground contorting in pain, purple runes around her neck and all down her body.
"Cia what is the meaning of this?!" The dragon roared.
Freed's eyes widened, as he turned his attention back to the woman.
"I'm done sitting on the sidelines. That's all. I'm ending this once and for all." the masked woman smirked.
The dragon narrowed its eyes at her, "You plan on destroying everything? Including yourself? To kill a man who is deemed by all as unkillable? That's incredibly moronic.".
The woman winced, "No! You take me as some uneducated fool! One simple spell of mine is enough to end this all. It won't harm me, don't worry! I'm not THAT dumb." she smirked.
The dragon huffed, "Your magic kills mass amounts of living creatures on impact, why do you think I kept you in the castle?!"
Tears streamed down the woman's face from beneath the mask covering her eyes, "No! No! They don't! You don't understand it! You fool! You old fool! Dark runes aren't... that bad...". she shouted her voice breaking at the end.
The dragon sighed again, "Cia please stop this. You're being immature."
"I'm being immature? I'M BEING IMMATURE?! You constantly keep me inside hidden from all and paint me as the bad half to the public! You gave me title of empress when I first came to be with Lana. We are two sides of the same coin. We are the runic sorceresses, we are nothing without the other, what part of that do you not get? You call us your greatest weapon... yet you... you..." Cia was visibly shaking.
"As the ruler, I am allowed to do as I please with those I see too dangerous, your existence and magic is a blessing and curse-"
Cia cut the dragon off, "I am NOT a curse!" the dragon screamed the room going dark for about half a minute.
When the room lit up again Cia was gone... the blue haired girl recovering but awake rubbing her head the dragon shuddering in fear.
"Apollo? What's going on?" The blue haired girl asked getting up incredibly concerned.
"C-cia... she's... she's going to kill us all... everyone..." The dragon shuddered tears streaming down its face.
The blue haired girls face saddened, "I figured as much... she expressed displeasure with this arrangement for years now... it was only a matter of time before-"
"No." The dragon interrupted, "She's a menace... a curse on all of Fiore... it couldn't be avoided!".
The blue haired girl looked down sadly, "You're wrong, all she wanted was to be heard and received what she was promised... dark and light magic cannot exist without the other. One shouldn't be automatically presumed awful by it's effects... my magic could kill masses if i tried hard enough! Cia's just quicker and-" she paused. "I can't talk any longer... but I promise, whatever happens... you'll live, my mistress, wait for me, I promise I'll come back!" she gave a final smile before running away from the room leaving the dragon alone in the room.
Freed stepped outside the castle again, shaking from what he just witnessed "... Cia... she..." suddenly purple ruins filled the air, the towns people letting out shrill screams of pain and despair, he slowly approached the source and standing by a now broken statue of the dragon in the castle was Cia, runes flying from her hands and staff respectively, people falling down screaming everywhere blood staining the cobblestone pathways. Be it women, men, children... Freed couldn't even look at it all. But then... he heard something he never thought he would hear...
Come now my children, please gather and lay
The light will soon burn
Out of the fires that brought us the day
Your queen has returned
I'll bring you your prize, a death that is blessed
Here at the sunset it's now you must rest
And dream of the night I broke all the rules
And finally usher this new era
Little children, do not fear
Little children, I am here
My sweet children do not weep
All my children go to sleep
She was singing to her victims... the corpses of her people she just killed. Freed collapsed to his knees, they let this monster into Fairy Tail?! And what the fuck even was Zephyr?!
Then everything went white.
All that was left was Freed and Zephyr sitting in a white, empty, blank void.
