A/N: Anyone wanna tell me where January went?! Seriously, I feel like I just put up my Christmas decorations!
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the action- and trust me, we are about to get some action. We've got Super Saiyans, we've got powered-up demons, and we've got rowdy wizards ready to dish out some serious hurt! Plus, there's a surprise at the end of the chapter that I'm very eager for you guys to see, so let's get to it!
OP Song: Adamas (cover by Amanda Lee)
P.S. The opening song that I chose ties in to Rachel, mostly. Have fun trying to figure her out!
P.P.S. There was a certain poll that I had you guys vote on a few months back, if some of you recall. I'm sure that you'll be pleased to know that we're finally getting to see her in action (hence the new cover art)!
War of the Underworld Arc: Chapter 3
Demons, Fairies, and Saiyans
The Saiyans, Exceeds, and Kinana all landed on the cube in the midst of a crater where no soldier of Tartaros had been able to survive. Those that escaped the blast radius had now gathered about, handling their weapons with uncertainty. Their masters had assured them that their new gear would make them all but impervious to the magics of any wizards that crossed them, but somehow…
The second that the wizards' feet touched the ground, Gorun shouted, "Bring 'em out, Cana!"
"All right!" She sounded like she was grinning from within her card. "Tartaros, meet Fairy Tail!" There was a blinding flash of light from the cards that Happy and his brethren were carrying, and suddenly the survivors of the Saiyans' attack found themselves confronted by an army of over one hundred wizards strong- and all of them looked angry.
"All right…" Gorun exhaled slowly, causing Azura to glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He appeared calm amidst his golden aura, but she knew that he was anything but. In those emerald of his she saw the oncoming storm, the wrath that only a Saiyan Warrior could know, building up to its full ferocity, soon to be unleashed on these transgressors.
"What's the plan, Gorun?" Kinana asked him as everyone formed a defensive perimeter around them.
"I saw something that looked like a castle on top of this cube before I met up with you guys," he answered. "I'll assume that's where all of these goons are coming from. So let's head up that way, and give 'em hell while we're at it." Raising his voice, he shouted, "Hear that, Fairy Tail?! Make them PAY!" As the bellow left his lips, his power level skyrocketed, matching the burning fury that had been building up inside him ever since he heard of the magic council's demise, and the whole of Fairy Tail roared with him.
Magic flew outward, smashing into the ranks of Tartaros, stunning the dark guild members with the ferocity of their retaliation. Even reinforced by the power of the Dragon Cry, they were taking heavy damage.
"Tremble, minions of Tartaros!" Azura laughed gleefully as blue light gathered in her hands. "The Saiyans are here!" Her Kamehameha tore through the ranks of the enemy, reducing many of them to atoms, and scattering the others in the wake of the brilliant light.
"Lucy!" Yukino shouted as she ran up to the other girl, Sorano right behind her.
"Yeah, let's do it!" the blond wizard nodded as they stood in a clear spot.
"What are you two doing?" Yukino's sister asked as they stood a few paces away from each other. "We should be getting ready for the fight of our lives!"
"We are," Lucy replied with a smug smile that Sorano found to be annoying. "Watch and learn- see what real teamwork looks like."
"Fu… sion! HA!"
The two girls danced and merged, Lucino stepping out of the light with a confident smile on her face as Sorano looked at her, completely bewildered. "All right, now this is a party I can dance at!" the fused wizard laughed. "Let's find Natsu so we can see which one of us takes down more Tartaros members!"
"Ha!" Azura laughed as she looked Lucino up and down. "I like her! She has the right attitude for a battle!"
"Thanks, but we've already met," Lucino reminded the ascended Super Saiyan. "I helped you fight against the phoenix, remember?"
"Vaguely," Azura shrugged. "Either way, I bet I can slay a hundred members for every one that you take down."
"Now you're talking!" Lucino laughed. Turning back to look at a squadron of Tartaros soldiers aiming to take down Team Shadowgear, she stretched out her hand and shouted, "Resonate, Gate of the Balance! Alter Gravity!" The dozen-odd soldiers cried out in surprise as their upward gravitational pull was negated, sending them falling down to the ground miles below them.
"Nice!" Azura grinned widely.
As she and Lucino began to demolish one soldier after another, Gorun found himself standing alongside the rest of his team and Rachel, both of them keeping their enemies at bay with precise etherion blasts. "You've been well-trained," he commented as he saw her snipe a spearman about to skewer Macao.
"I had a good teacher," she replied neutrally. Glancing up at him, she added, "I am sorry that I lied to you."
"It doesn't matter for right now," he told her. "I believe you, but we have more important things to concern ourselves with." He had begun to take notice of the fact that instead of decreasing, the enemy numbers were slowly growing around them. It seemed that for every two soldiers that they took out, three more would rise in their place.
"We need to carve a direct path through this bunch and get to the top," he muttered as he slammed two more men away with a Double Sunday. "Problem is, even if we get up the side, we have no idea how many soldiers still wait between us and their command cen-"
BOOM!
An explosion rocked the ground beneath them as a pillar of dust shot up toward the city, a familiar wizard with red hair and giant spear at its peak. Stuck on the spear was what appeared to be a woman with avian talons for feet and long, wicked claws. As soon as the dust stopped reaching up toward the ground, Erza and her apparent victim began to fall back upwards, toward the cube on which her guild mates walked.
Gorun wasn't really paying attention to that, though. He was more interested in the big hole that Erza had made upon her explosive exit. A giant, gaping flaw in the enemy's defenses was now right in front of them, and he'd been damned if he didn't see it put to good use.
"Get in there!" he shouted at his comrades. "We can cut straight through! Split into your teams, but don't let anybody go anywhere alone! We have no clue of what might be in there!"
"You heard him!" Gray shouted as he raced toward the opening.
"Don't forget that if you find the guy that uses bane particles, we need a sample of his blood to save the Thunder Legion!" he added as Gray led the charge into the pit.
"What about Erza?!" Kinana asked him. "I sense a lot of demonic energy from that woman up there! She might be more than Erza can handle!"
Gorun paused, then turned to Azura. "You're the only one I trust to get around safely on your own," he told her. "Help Erza, then come find us, please."
"That bird freak better be one of those Nine Gates, or else this is going to be a short errand," Azura smirked as she moved to assist the redhead. "You owe me for this, Kaidon!"
"Put it on my tab!" he called after her before turning around to join his friends.
Genora flew through the air, landing amid what looked like an unfinished building while the Titania wizard was engaging in a series of harsh blows with the demon that they had seen earlier. "Scarlet!" she called as she landed on a rafter above the two women. "Kaidon told me to come lend you aid! Do you want it, or shall I fly to seek my own opponents?"
"I need to get some information out of her, but she's proving rather uncooperative," Erza said thinly. Up close, Genora could see the markings of one that has been subjected to torture machines laid out on the S-class wizard's exposed skin, and she wondered at what the other woman must have endured at the hands of her jailers.
"They activated Face," the sword maiden said grimly. "Natsu and Lisanna escaped their cells, but Mira and Elfman are still trapped somewhere."
"Kaidon, did you get that?" Azura asked as she tapped her scouter.
"Loud and clear." He sounded like he was smiling, she thought. "You can let Erza know that Elfman is safe with us, right? Let us know when you're done with that demon so we can regroup. We'll probably need your help to deal with the Face."
"I don't know how you ever got anything done without me," she said with a smirk of her own as she turned to face their newest enemy. "Titania, the big meathead is fine, and the others are on the lookout for his sister." As she spoke, the scouter lens retracted into the piece attached to her ear, a function Rachel had mentioned would take effect if the user wanted their eyesight unobstructed.
"And who are you?" the demon woman asked before Erza could reply, looking at Genora with a curious gaze. She was dressed in a body-tight purple outfit that left her legs bared, topped with a metal helm that contoured perfectly with her face. "You don't seem entirely human."
"You're not wrong," Genora said with a creeping smile. She could sense an enormous amount of energy radiating from the demon, and the challenge it presented already had her warrior's blood singing. "I am Azura, formerly of Conton, now a warrior in the employ of Fairy Tail."
"Ah, you must be the same as that new Wizard Saint that Lord Silver spoke of," the avian-like demoness mused. "No matter. Even his might will crumble in the wake of the Etherious, enhanced as we are with the might of the dragons!"
Genora stared at her flatly before she asked, "What is your name, hell spawn?"
"I am Kyoka, one of the Nine Gates to Tartaros," she answered proudly, as if her name were a thing of grandeur. "I must admit, I'm eager to see what you will look like in our service, Azura."
"Come again?" Genora scoffed. "You think that I'll stoop low enough as to serve so fragile a master? You amuse me, which I find detrimental to my mission."
"Your perception of my strength and your standing in this situation are both horribly skewed, "Kyoka replied smugly, Erza all but forgotten. "Tell me, though. How is it that your amusement is counterproductive to your task?"
"People are not meant to keep insects as pets, even if the bug proves intriguing," Genora replied as she released Super Saiyan 2. "They squash them underfoot without a thought."
Kyoka reddened fiercely as she crouched, intent on rending this new enemy into a thousand bloody scraps for daring to assume superiority over the mightiest of all races. This was the moment that Erza made her move, smashing Kyoka high up into the air with a mighty war hammer, sending the demon screaming in pain as she flew above them.
"Thank you," the redhead said in a grateful tone to her guild mate. "I appreciate the reprieve you bought me."
"No problem," Genora said as she aimed her palm at Erza. "Duck."
Titania didn't even question the order- she hit the ground so fast that she would be picking rubble out of her chin for a week. The instant that she had dropped, Genora fired off a Big Bang Attack that collided with another figure, their form hidden by the resulting light and smoke.
"Now that's just rude," said a woman's voice as the owner stepped through the smoke. "Here I was, intending to pass by, and yet I find myself assaulted without provocation."
"Your convoluted energy signature is provocation enough," Genora quipped as she kept her eyes trained on the approaching figure. "I do have to admit that I'm intrigued by the fact that you took my blast without damage, though."
"A simple task, to displace matter around me so that your energy is unable to touch me," the other replied, even as Erza moved to stand beside Genora. As the speaker moved into the light, she added, "Titania Erza… I'd say it's a pleasure, but I'm not in the habit of lying."
"Minerva," the red-haired woman muttered, even as Kyoka sprang into view to land beside the former Sabertooth mage. "I knew you must have been dabbling in black magic, but I never imagined that you stoop so low as to join in with Tartaros."
The woman had been transformed so that she hardly resembled her old self. Black horns grew out of her equally dark hair, claws had replaced her fingers and toes, an onyx stone remained in place of her right eye, and her attire was minimal.
"Lower myself?" Minerva scoffed at Erza, a savage delight shining in her one eye. "I have ascended, thanks to Tartaros. They made me an Etherious, like them. A higher lifeform than the weak human I once was!"
"You're a walking cadaver," Genora said dryly. "You aren't even really alive. How does that make you superior to those that still draw breath with their own free will?"
"I died, and yet I walk," Minerva shot back. "That is all that matters. Death tried to assert its dominance over me, yet here I stand in defiance of it! No mere human could do what I have done!"
"Enough talk," Kyoka snapped, clearly irritated at the damage she had suffered. "Minerva, go, destroy the others. These two will pay dearly for drawing blood from me."
"I don't think so," Genora said with a cocky grin before Minerva could leave. "Neither of you leaves this place until I'm done with you."
"You're not worth my effort, as evidenced by your inability to strike me," Minerva sniffed as she spun on her heel and began to walk away. "There is only one that I seek to bloody my claws with- the one that ended my miserable human existence." She paused and added bitterly, "Son Gorun- and only he- is worthy of my new power. All others- ack!"
Minerva was now a full mile away from where she had started, and lying in a crater with blood spilling from her back where several stone walls had been broken by her skin, and wondering in a daze; What was that?
"I'm getting real sick of people passing me over for Kaidon," Genora snarled as she floated above Minerva, her hair swirling from the force of her mystic aura.
Kyoka was completely stunned. One moment, hers' and Keyes' latest experiment was standing tall and strong beside her, and the next, both the blue-haired warrior and the new demoness were gone, a hole in the wall the only sign that they had been there in the first place. "Where is Minerva?!" she demanded.
"She pushed the 'Gorun' button," Erza said with a cold smile as she requipped into her Black Wing Armor. "She shouldn't have done that."
"Natsu and Lisanna were safe, last Erza saw them," Gorun told his comrades as they continued to run through the massive base of Tartaros. "That means they at least escaped imprisonment." He was currently leading a group comprised of his team members, those of Team Natsu minus Gray and Natsu himself, in addition to Cana. He didn't know where his friend had got to, and but he and the other dozens of wizards had taken off in different directions in an attempt to divide the enemy forces- now he could only pray that they would all make it out safely.
Rachel had also taken off, claiming to have gotten a lock on where Mirajane was at. Gorun figured that she could handle herself all right, and they were able to stay in touch unlike most of the others, so he had let her go without much fuss.
"With the craziness going on around here, it's possible that your friends were recaptured," Sorano muttered as she ran alongside him, still put off by the sight of her sister and Lucy fused into one being.
Gorun was about to answer when his scouter beeped rapidly, along with Kinana's. "Hold up!" he told his group, causing everyone to slide to a stop just as they rounded a corner- to reveal a new hallway filled to the brim with Tartaros soldiers.
"Aw, dang!" Lucino groaned while everyone on both sides took up defensive positions.
"No, this is actually fantastic," Gorun said with a vicious smile as he walked forward, his body crackling with lightning. "I've been needing something to vent on all day, and this'll make for a good start to what I think is gonna be a long therapy session."
"Gorun?" Éclair asked worriedly while everyone else shrank away slightly from his presence.
"Stay back, everyone," Kinana warned them. She recognized the look in his eyes, having seen them twice before. The first time had been when she was nearly killed by a group of bandits, then again more recently when he dueled Minerva in the Grand Magic Games. It doesn't happen often, but this time… she shuddered as she watched the man she loved begin to advance on the unfortunate soldiers. He's genuinely out for blood.
"Stay back!" one of the larger soldiers commanded him. "Unless you wanna get blown to pieces with our tank!" He gestured behind him, and his comrades made way for a hulking, sinister-looking machine of war that had a massive gun aimed right at Gorun's head.
"So what if you got a tank and an army?!" Romeo shouted back at them. "We've got a Super Saiyan!"
"Enjoy your final breath, monsters!" Gorun snarled, his power flooding the hallway, nearly suffocating in its presence as he assumed a familiar stance. "KIKOHO!"
"This place looks important," Wendy said as she and Lucino led the way into a massive, well-lit room. The hallway behind them was filled with smoke and dust, so being able to breathe fresh air was a welcome development.
"This kinda reminds of the lachryma rooms back on Nirvana," Happy commented as the others began to file into the room. All around them were walls of white stone, and the flooring appeared to be made of the same surface. Above a series of stone tablets there were many holographic panels that contained even more information, though only a few members of the guild were able to make any sense of what it was.
"What's up with that giant globe?" Romeo asked as he pointed upward. Gorun- who had reverted back to his normal form to conserve energy- and everyone else followed his gaze to see a giant blue sphere in the likeness of Earthland, where they could see a single red blip, flashing on and off a few times each second.
"I'm gonna assume that our disgraced former Chairman had something to do with it," Cana said as she pointed to a big, fresh corpse dressed in fine white robes stained with blood. Most of the other girls recoiled in disgust, but Lucino walked over and kicked the body in the head, spitting on him once she had.
"Damn monster sold us out to these freaks," she said when everyone else looked at her with surprise. Gesturing at the globe, she asked, "What's up with all of this junk, anyway?"
"Whatever is on that map, it's way out in the middle of nowhere," Gorun muttered as he moved to examine some of the holograms that looked like controls. "What do we have here?" He was calmer now, having been able to vent some of his frustrations on the foot soldiers that made the mistake of getting in his way.
"I imagine that this could be the control room for Tartaros' base," Carla commented as she and Happy began to look over some of the other tablets. "Or perhaps…"
"From what I'm seeing, this is the interaction template for the Face Bomb," Lucino said as she stood beside Gorun. "And… Oh no."
"What's wrong?" Kinana asked her worriedly.
Éclair's eyes narrowed as she answered for her friend, "The Face has indeed been unsealed. But the good news is that it can only be activated on-site." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that- until a new panel flashed to life.
A panel with a countdown ticking back from just over forty minutes.
"Oh, Shenron," Gorun gulped.
"Don't tell me…" Sorano groaned.
"It's already been activated," Eclair confirmed. "And when that timer hits 'zero', all the magic on the continent gets erased."
Happy began to babble incoherently in a panic while the others began to mutter among themselves, trying to figure out a way to stop it. Romeo turned to Gorun with fear in his eyes as he asked, "Can't you use this stuff to shut it down?"
Gorun looked at his charge with a pained grimace as he answered, "I'm smart, but even I don't know how to work this kind of spell."
"This is advanced archive magic," Cana said as she glared at the corpse of the former Chairman. "With fatso here out of the picture, only Hibiki from Blue Pegasus knows how to use this kinda magic, and he's way out of reach right now."
"I hate that guy," Gorun muttered as he remembered how he and his comrades had tried to flirt with Kinana the first time that he had met them.
"Let it go, we've got more important things to worry about right now," his fiancée reminded him. "Do you think you could destroy it if you went yourself?"
"Hmm…" he mused as he peered at a panel that depicted the Face Bomb itself. "From what I can read about it here, that should be possible. The only problem is, I'd have to fly all the way out there, since there's no living energy signature for me to lock onto. And I really don't want to leave all of you alone to fight Tartaros, powered up as they are."
"Hold on," Éclair said as she walked up to the pair. "If the device has to be activated on-site, wouldn't a member of Tartaros be there right now? Teleport using his energy signature."
"The bane particles lining this place are making it impossible for me to sense energy the way I normally do," Gorun said with a frustrated shake of his head. Tapping his scouter, he waited for a few seconds before he added, "There is someone there, one of the Nine Gates by the looks of it. Problem is, even if my scouter can pick him out, I can't, so it's gonna be a long way, even for me. I estimate that he's at least twenty minutes away by flight."
"Then you haven't got any time to lose!" Carla scolded him. "You're the fastest one of us, not to mention the most capable of destroying that horrid device! Have faith that we will weather this storm without you, and go save our magic!"
"We'll hold down the fort while you go save the world," Lucino said with a snarky grin. Everyone else either gave him a thumbs-up or a smile to show their confidence in him.
Seeing it, he gave in. "All right," he nodded. "I'll-"
There was a sound of keys jangling, and the knock of brass on stone.
"These joyful prayers from the lips of these mortals clash with the knell of hell's bells," a gravelly voice said in accompaniment to the ominous sound that came from behind the assembled fairies. "The Demon Light shall shine with the radiance of a morning star, and breathe new life into the land."
The speaker was a tall, skeletal figure dressed in black, billowing robes. A hand made solely of bones gripped a demonic staff, which made the jangling, booming sound that had heralded its owner's arrival. His face was nothing but a skull, with lips stitched together by black thread. Yet despite his inability to move them, he laughed and said, "Lost fairy children who have wandered into the netherworld… May you wander the halls of Purgatory as corpses."
His appearance, allusions, and nature of his energy when examined at close range all led Gorun to one conclusion. "You," he snarled angrily. "You're the necromancer!" Memories of his battle against the undead raced through his mind, and the struggle it had been to eradicate them.
"And you are one of the humans responsible for destroying my marvelous battalion off the coast of Fiore," the demon chuckled. "I am Keyes, one of the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros. I must say, you're rather different from most humans I've encountered… I wonder what you would do, given the chance to return from the grave."
"Get out of here," Gorun ordered his team. "One of you needs to make it out and stop Face before magic is expunged from the world. I'll deal with Skeletor."
"But-"
"Kinana can fly just as fast as an exceed, and she packs quite a bit of power," Gorun said as he cut off Romeo. "Go! Face needs to be stopped, it doesn't matter who does it!
"He's right," Cana agreed. "He's more than capable of handling this freak- we need to get out and do our part."
"Hate to break it to you, but it's too late," a nasally, hoarse voice said, accompanied by a spiky yellow-and-red-striped ogre-like demon popping up from behind Keyes. His single eye gleamed with delight as he added, "Sorry, kiddies." There a wet sound coming from his mouth that they imagined was supposed to be laughter as he sneered at them.
"Kinana, like we practiced," Gorun said as he suddenly hurled a yellow ball up in front of the holographic globe. "Everyone else, get moving!" The energy ball swelled in size until it replaced the world map in their vision, much to the confusion of Keyes and his compatriot, Franmalth.
Kinana took advantage of this bewilderment to leap up high and place herself between the yellow ball and their enemies. "What is she-?"
"Solar Flare!" she shouted. Fortunately by that moment, Gorun had managed to get everyone else to turn their backs, else they would have been blinded- just like an unsuspecting Keyes and Franmalth.
"Nice work," the Saiyan-Kai hybrid said as they beat a hasty retreat past their enemies, Franmalth shouting profanities in vain as they quarries escaped. "With any luck, that buys us a few minutes."
"I think it's sweet that you still believe in our ability to attract good luck," Kinana replied as they ran.
"Hey, I attracted you, right?" he grinned while she blushed.
"Will you two stop flirting for five minutes?!" Carla shouted back at them. "We're in the midst of a battle for the survival of our way of life!"
"Is there a better time?!"
Begin Song: United States of Smash (by Yuki Hayashi)
Minerva cried out as bare rock bit into her flesh, tearing her skin and allowing the heated demon blood to drip down her side. She glared up at her new foe, who smiled down at her with all the grace of a snake. "This isn't real!" she shouted. "I was made powerful enough to eclipse Son Gorun's abilities! I can't be defeated by some copycat!" She had tried nearly all of her tricks and expended no small amount of her new powers trying to drive off this new enemy, but all to no effect.
"Copy-?!" Genora repeated, outraged before she vanished in a blur, reappearing to choke Minerva with her bare hands. "I'll have you know that my power is the only one that surpasses Kaidon's, you filthy demon skank!"
"He destroyed me!" Minerva croaked out before striking Genora in the elbows to loosen her grip, then teleporting just out of her reach. "As such, it is only right that I be the one to destroy him!"
"Sorry, witch, but that privilege belongs to me," Genora hissed as she began to charge a Kamehameha. "If memory serves, this attack served to end your life the last time you faced off against a Saiyan warrior. I see no reason why it shouldn't work a second time."
Minerva flinched involuntarily as she saw the blue light beginning to appear between her enemy's hands. She couldn't help it- as Genora had said, that very technique had killed her, and so the sight of it naturally instilled fear in what was left of her spirit.
However, she was more than prepared to deal with the attack this time. "I wanted to save this for Son Gorun, but you'll serve as a perfect test subject!" she screeched as she reached out with her claws, a dome of dark rainbow energy swirling around the Saiyan girl the instant that she commanded it. "No Man's Land!"
Genora froze in place, an old instinct telling her that she would be unwise to move. The dark power swirled around her body, but it did not constrict on her, so at least she was able to stand. "What is this stuff?" she was forced to ask, her mind racing.
"My magic once allowed me to bend the laws of space as I saw fit," Minerva cackled. "Reborn and enhanced with curses, I now shape the laws of reality as I see fit!" Smiling condescendingly at her prisoner, she added, "I'll give you a little context, since I'm enjoying being out of my regeneration pod. See, in a war, the no man's land is a place where both armies mutually agree to stay away from the area during the time between battles. Should one side violate that agreement, well… I assume you get the picture?"
"Is there a rest stop between here and the damn point?" Genora snapped, her patience already worn thin.
"The point, little girl, is that the energy surrounding you is the very land of which I speak," Minerva shot back. "Attempt to break it, and not only will it crush you for violating my edict, your own power would turn on you as well. Attempt to teleport out, and you'll find the dimensional backlash to be just as deadly."
Genora scowled fiercely at that- even if she wanted to warp out, she had never learned Instant Transmission. She glanced downward, seeing the floor beneath her as unbroken by the sphere, but she knew that this Minerva person wouldn't have left such an obvious escape route. She has me caught… she seethed, on the verge of losing her temper.
That is, until a new thought stole into her mind. How long can she keep that up? She wondered as she held her fully charged attack at the ready. Glancing at her opponent through the swirling colors, she could see that Minerva looked pretty battered, but the twisted energy was making it hard to get a feel for the other woman's power level. Good thing that kid gave me this, then, she thought as she mentally triggered her scouter, the lens popping back into place over her eye and lighting up with a series of numbers that began to rapidly tick downward.
Noticing them, she smiled, reassured by the fact that she now had an escape route, as long as she played all of her cards right. "Your spell would impress most- might have even scared Kaidon," she said as she took aim, much to the bewilderment of Minerva. "But not me."
"Are you so eager to die, human?" the demoness snapped. "I told you what would happen if you tried to attack me through that cursed magic!"
"But there was something you didn't say that was just as important," Genora answered, her vicious smile widening. "Like all amateurs, you've made a mistake that won't be overlooked by somebody who was bred and trained from birth to fight!"
"What mistake?" Minerva demanded, though she shifted uncomfortably in place. "My spell is the perfect trap!"
"So it is!" Genora laughed, pleased to see that her enemy was beginning to doubt herself. "But the jail is only as good as the jailer! And from what I can tell, you're not used to using your power over such long periods of time, especially with a technique like this one that saps your strength continuously- which means that the longer you keep this up, the weaker your power grows."
Minerva scowled, and Genora noticed her power level rise back up for a second, before it began to wane again. "And what makes you think you can outlast me, even if that is the case?!" the demoness shouted. "I'm an Etherious now! I am superior to a mere human like you!"
"You're only half-right," her enemy said softly as the dark rainbow dome began to flicker, ever so slightly. "Like I told you, I was bred for battle, a Saiyan-human hybrid. My kind have limitless potential, so I trained my entire life to hone my body so that it could become the ultimate fighting machine!" The Kamehameha in her hands flared in response to her welling anger, and Minerva took an involuntary half-pace back, a spark of fear registering in her eyes. "Where did you train, Minerva?! In a lab?!"
Minerva's energy dropped precipitously before the dome flickered and blinked out of existence, without a sign that it had ever been there to begin with. The demoness fell to her knees, utterly spent.
That was the instant that Genora appeared in front of her, blue eyes filled with malice, and reflecting the light of the oncoming Turtle Destruction Wave. As Minerva gazed into those implacable orbs, she realized that it was not the first time she had seen such eyes.
She looks like Son Gorun.
"First my cousin, now me," Genora said pithily. "When you get back to hell, tell the people in charge that I did it better. KamehameHA!"
Once again Minerva found herself enveloped in a pale blue light that burned and froze as it escorted her to the afterlife. When the glow faded, and the energy had made its way out of the planet's atmosphere, Genora muttered to herself, "The next fight had better make me sweat more than just a few seconds."
Yet as she walked away from the smoky spot that marked Minerva's final resting place, she couldn't help but think of the way that the woman looked- the insanity in her eyes, the twisted shape of her body, the corrupted energy that had pervaded her being. All of that, just to get revenge on Kaidon? She thought as she stopped in place, gazing down at her hands. Is that what I look like to him, and the rest of Fairy Tail?
"Ah, great," Cana grumbled as the group slid to a stop. "Didn't we just leave this party?"
Keyes and Franmalth stood before them in the hall, looking none the worse for the flash-bang spell that they had just been subjected to. The smaller demon was cackling to himself in anticipation of the battle at hand, while the necromancer simply gazed at them with dead eyes.
"Once wasn't enough?" Romeo quipped, orange flames dancing in his hands. "Word to the wise- Team Golden Tail only gives one warning shot. Keep getting in our way, and it's gonna be the last thing you do."
"Kid's right," Gorun said as he stood beside his younger teammate, the Saiyan Soul magic circle hovering over his head. To his comrades, he added, "Wendy, Kinana, go to the Poison Jelly Valley. Destroy that bomb, then get back here as soon as you can."
"There's a hole in the wall up that way," Happy told them as Carla and Kinana prepared for flight. "That's how Natsu and I got in last time."
"Sorry, kiddies, but you're not going anywhere," Franmalth giggled.
Keyes banged his staff on the floor and chanted, "Behold, the light of the star of misfortune-"
"Shut it!"
Franmalth let out a shout of surprise as nearly half of Keyes' body turned into dark mist, courtesy of a shoulder-check by Gray, who had come charging up behind them. The next thing he knew, he was being smothered with blasts of fire and etherion, unable to see or move.
"Perfect timing, Gray!" Lucino cheered, even as she readied her Regulus abilities.
"Go!" Gorun ordered, and without any arguments on their part, the three girls he had chosen for the job shot past the two demons, streaking down the hall to make a break for the exit.
As they flew away, the sounds of a ferocious battle began to echo after them, which set Kinana's face to a grim mood. Seeing it, Wendy asked, "Are you gonna be okay?"
"I know we all have to do our part, but I hate to leave him back there," the young woman answered. "I got a look at those demons' power levels- and they're nothing to take lightly. Even Gorun may have a hard time."
"Can't he use that Super Saiyan god form?" Carla inquired. "I've never seen anything so powerful as that before."
"He can, but it puts a huge drain on his stamina," Kinana answered, taking note of the light coming through the hole in the wall up ahead. "It doesn't hurt him like Super Saiyan 3, but it's way more exhausting, so he doesn't use it unless he feels like he can end a fight quickly. And seeing as we've got an entire army to fight…"
"He's trying to conserve his stamina by sticking to more basic transformations," Carla mused. "Smart."
"I'm still worried about him," Kinana admitted. She looked as though she were about to say more, but she was forced to abandon her words when a slim figure suddenly appeared between them and the window of escape. "Huh?!"
"Go back," Rachel said as she lowered her fingers from her forehead. "Fairy Tail will need you for the fight ahead."
"How did you get here?!" Carla demanded as they all floated to a stop.
"Gorun hasn't been able to use his Instant Transmission since we got here," Kinana said with a frown. "How did you manage it? And weren't you supposed to be helping Mirajane?"
"I'll explain later, but right now, there is a Face Bomb less than an hour away from destroying your way of life," the younger girl replied, her face grim. "Wendy and I can stop it, but you need to go back and help your fiancé."
Kinana hesitated, torn between her desire to with Gorun, and the growing certainty that there was something off about Rachel. Glancing over at their exceed friend, she finally asked, "Carla, what do you think? You've usually got a hunch about what we should do in times like this."
The white exceed gazed at Rachel, who met her stare with unwavering eyes, before she answered, "She will not harm Wendy or myself. I don't know what her real goal is here, but she can be trusted to the extent of assisting us in battle."
Kinana nodded reluctantly before she turned back to Rachel and said, "Bring them back safely."
"I will," the girl said firmly. "On my word as a Saiyan, I'll bring them back, alive and well. And I'll be sure to contact you on the scouter when we've disabled the bomb, and whichever Tartaros member is guarding it."
"Then go," Kinana urged the trio. "Save the world."
"No pressure," Wendy laughed nervously as she and Rachel flew out the hole in the wall.
"Somebody wanna tell me what the hell is goin' on?!" Gray demanded. "Why did Wendy and Kinana just fly off?"
"Found Face's location, Tartaros turned it on, they're gonna go shut it off," Gorun replied quickly as he willed his body to ascend. "Now we gotta put these guys down- they're two of the Nine Gates."
"Shouldn't be too hard," Lucino said confidently.
"Hold," Gorun ordered her and the others. Scowling as the lens over his eye retracted, he added, "There's something weird going on with their power levels- something is adding to their strength."
"Probably the Dragon Cry," Éclair noted. "Their foot soldiers were given extra protection with its energy, but there's no telling what they used it for on themselves."
"Oh, so you know about the Dragon Cry, huh?" Franmalth chortled as he emerged from a cloud of smoke, looking mostly unharmed, much to Gorun and Romeo's irritation. "Well, since you're so good at doing your homework, here's a little tip as a reward." His little mouth stretched into an ugly smile as he said, "While we may have shared some little specks of energy with our guards to wear down any intruders, each of the Nine Gates was given a shard from the staff itself, allowing us access to the reservoirs of energy from dozens of dragons, each!"
"They can do that?!" Sorano asked, horrified.
"We couldn't even kill one dragon, let alone match the power of dozens," Gray said, his voice and expression grim. "If they're telling the truth, we're all in big trouble." As he spoke, Keyes stared at him, silent and immovable as a grave. His body had repaired itself in seconds, much to the frustration of the Fairy Tail wizards.
"Not yet, we're not," Gorun asserted, much to everyone's surprise. Normally he was the first one to assess just how bleak a situation really was- now he was standing tall, unflinching in the face of enemies beyond anything that the others had ever seen. "I'm stronger than I was when I fought Zirconis. And if memory serves, enchantments wrought by the power of dragons are susceptible to the might of the dragon slayers, right?"
"Too bad we just sent off the only one we had in our group," Cana muttered, reaching for the cards at her waist.
"You…" Keyes suddenly said, drawing everyone's attention to him. He was still looking at Gray when he said, "You are Silver's…"
"I'm what?" Gray asked, his brow knitting together. "What's this guy's deal?"
"He's a necromancer," Sorano said bluntly.
"Great…"
"Hey, hey!" Franmalth shouted. "He's not the one you need to worry about right now! After you're dead, he can have his way with you! But while you're alive, you're mine to play with!"
"Try it, bucko!" Lucino shouted back. "What're you gonna do? Hit us with your stupid-looking porcupine spikes?"
"Nah, I'll just put those tasty souls I've been collecting to good use," the monster replied. "Like this, see?" Suddenly in his hands, there were a half-dozen bolts of etherion and fire, exactly like the ones that Gorun and Romeo had used on him moments ago. "Get a taste of your own medicine!"
"Wait, did he absorb our techniques?" Romeo asked his leader, who had gone very pale.
"It would seem so," he replied thinly. "Which means he might have-"
"Fire Dragon TALON!" Franmalth was smashed into the ground hard enough to crack it while his attacker leaped over his body to stand among his friends. "What the heck are all you guys doin' up here?" Natsu demanded.
"That was rude!" Franmalth growled as he bounced to his feet, furiously spitting out rubble. "Now I'm gonna make you all suffer before you die!"
"Perfect timing!" Gorun shouted as he wove around Natsu and blasted the ground beneath Franmalth and Keyes to dust, sending them tumbling down through several floors. Over his shoulder, he added, "We may have a very big problem on our hands."
"Bigger than two supercharged demons that wanna kill us?" Cana asked dryly.
"Yeah, if that spiky one can absorb techniques after he gets hit with them, he might just have my Saiyan Soul ability now," he shot back.
"What?!" everyone cried in shock.
"Gorun!" The leader of Golden Tail looked up to see Kinana, now returned, and hovering above the massive hole in the ground. "Rachel and Wendy went ahead to destroy Face. I figured a Super Saiyan was a better fit for this job than a human with the Kaioken."
"Great, now take everyone that isn't fused or has dragon slaying magic, and get them the hell outta here!" he said as he powered back up to Super Saiyan 2. "Things are about to get really rough."
"What did I miss?" she asked.
"Kinana, I love you, but please don't ask questions right now, and just do it!"
"I'm not leaving Yukino!" Sorano said stubbornly. "That was the deal!"
"You being here is not gonna do us any good when you get killed in the crossfire!" Lucino shouted at the white-haired woman. "We're a big girl, we can take care of ourselves! Right now, you and the others need to-"
"Hey, hey, this power is amazing!" Franmalth cackled as he flew out of the hole to be level with Kinana. He was surrounded by a raging aura of gold, and his spikes seemed to be standing up a little straighter than they were before. "I bet I could wipe you all out in one shot like this! Who knew a human had such a potent spell on hand?"
As he spoke, Keyes rose out of the hole like a specter emerging from the depths of a haunted hollow.
"Crap, I was right," Gorun growled. "He's using Saiyan Soul!"
"He's a Super Saiyan?!"
"Be glad Azura didn't hear that, or she'd tear you a new one," the young man told Happy. "Lucino, Natsu, Gray, with me! Everyone else, scram!"
"I came back to-"
"Look out!" Gorun blasted across the hole to tackle Kinana out of the way of an etherion burst from Franmalth, who had apparently grown tired of all the talking. The bolt smashed through the side of the fortress, tearing out an entire section of the wall from the casual spell. Despite the opening that this provided, Keyes made no moves to assist his comrade. Maybe he thinks his partner is enough to get the job done?
Setting his fiancée down as gently as he could, Gorun asked, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," she said shakily. "I'll get everyone else out of here, but then I'm coming back for you. I'm gonna fight your battles with you."
"I love you," he told her. "Now get going!"
"Love you too." With those words, they shot back toward Franmalth, who was now levelling his energy blasts at Romeo and the others. Kinana went underneath the two demons while Gorun slammed Franmalth on the head with a double-fist, sending him back down the hole that he had risen out of.
"Are you kidding me?!" the demon could be heard yelling.
"Natsu, Gray!" Gorun shouted as he aimed a palm at Keyes, who simply turned to fix his vacant gaze on him.
"You got it!" they shouted as the others beat a hasty retreat, with the exception of Lucino and Sorano, who refused to budge.
"Fire Dragon…!"
"Ice make…!"
"Kamehameha!"
"Freezing Gallick Gun!"
Twin beams of fire and ice struck Keyes simultaneously, followed swiftly by a massive green etherion blast that obscured him entirely from view. "Final Shine ATTACK!" Gorun roared.
Deep inside Tartaros' Base…
"Are you sure about this, sis?" Lisanna asked nervously as she and Mirajane stared down the demoness Seilah. They were in a place called 'Hell's Core', a lab meant to bring the Nine Gates back to life after their defeat, as well as turn potential candidates into new demons. All around them were vats filled to the brim with a glowing blue substance akin to water, yet somehow seemed evil.
"No, but given our options, I think we'd better just hope that Rachel knows what she's doing," the older Strauss sister answered.
"The failure of Elfman will be paid for by the blood of his sisters," the horned woman said, her eyes gleaming with hatred despite her calm tone. She was the demoness that had attempted to blackmail Elfman into destroying the guild hall, but had failed due to the interventions of Rachel and Gorun.
Ignoring her, Mirajane and Lisanna began to move their bodies as Rachel had shown them…
"Why can't you stay to help us?" Lisanna asked nervously as she glanced at the remains of Lummy, Tartaros' bio-engineer responsible for the reconstruction of demons that had been defeated in combat. Her sister was standing beside her, a hard look on her face as she gazed at their rescuer.
The girl calling herself Rachel had appeared in time to destroy Mirajane's captor with unbelievable speed and precision, even to those that had seen a Super Saiyan in action before. However, she had also warned them of an approaching danger, one that she claimed she could not assist them with.
"I am only allowed to interfere in events so much," Rachel replied. "That, and there is another event approaching rapidly that I must handle. Seilah will come soon, but you two must be the one to defeat her. And while she will have gained an advantage that makes her all but invincible to normal magics, there is a way for you to surpass it."
"What do we do?" Mirajane asked quickly.
"Have you seen the Metamoran fusion technique?"
"Yeah, Natsu and Gorun have used it," Lisanna nodded. "There's also Lucy and Yukino."
Rachel nodded as she stepped closer and held out a hand to each sister. "Then this makes my job easier," she said. "Give me your hands- I'm not great at telepathy, so I need to have direct contact to make this work…"
With Rachel's memories fresh in their minds, the two Strauss' chanted while moving in the necessary pattern, "Fu…sion… ha!"
Light flowed from their fingertips as they met, luminance so bright that Seilah could not stand to look at it. She held up her hand to block the light until it faded away, revealing a sight that she did not completely understand at first. "Where are those other humans?" she asked of the solitary figure standing before her.
The newcomer was dressed in typical Metamoran garb, a purple vest with white trim complimented by a white sash and black pants. Her boots were also black with white bindings at the ankles. The shoulder-length hair atop her head was pure white, whiter than any of the Strauss siblings, and her eyes shone like polished sapphires.
"Amazing…" the woman replied as she gazed down at herself, ignoring Seilah entirely. "Gorun always seemed powerful beyond belief, but now it seems like his realm might not be so far out of reach." Her blue eyes flicked over to Seilah, who was chafing over being ignored by this newcomer.
"I asked you a question, human," she said with a bent brow. "Where are the other two?"
"Use your eyes, Etherious," the newly-born fusion replied. "We're right in front of you- Lisanna and Mirajane both. We heard that you and your friends had a power-up that stacked the deck in your favor, so we just evened the playing field."
"You're… both of them?" Seilah asked with clear disbelief. "What kind of a fool do you take me for?" She had heard Silver's tales alongside the other Demon Gates, but she had never actually believed them.
"A really big fool," the fused wizard smirked. "We're are a merged wizard, the combination of the Strauss sisters. If you need to know our name, call us Mina."
"Hmph," Seilah scoffed. "If you're really both of those wenches combined, then I suppose it will be twice as easy to manipulate those fragile emotions of yours." A slow smile worked its way across her face as she added, "I think we'll start by working up that petty anger of yours… Would you like to know how long it took for me to convince your dear brother to destroy your beloved guild hall?"
Blam!
Seilah suddenly went flying backward, Mina's fist the last thing she saw before her body was smashed through a regeneration tank.
"We see why Lucy and Yukino do this so often," Mina grinned viciously as she stalked toward her opponent, a dark magic circle appearing over her head. "You can mock the emotions of humans all you like, Seilah, but it won't save you from what's coming. This is gonna be fun."
Miles away from Tartaros' Base…
"Okay, we should be far away enough," Rachel said as she drew closer to Wendy and Carla. The three of them were flying at high speed toward the valley where they would find the bomb capable of destroying all magic in the world.
"Far away enough for what?" the white exceed asked their new ally suspiciously.
"Grab onto me," Rachel replied. "I can use Instant Transmission properly now that we're away from all those Bane Particles. I even already got a lock on the demon guarding Face, so I can go straight there."
"What do you mean, use it properly?" Carla demanded, pulling Wendy back from touching Rachel's outstretched hand. "I saw you use it to appear in front of us earlier."
"…I was able to sense Kinana's presence, despite the bane particles," Rachel replied after a moment of no sound but that of the rushing wind. "There are factors, which I won't disclose right now, that allow me to perceive the energy signatures of certain individuals, even when my senses are hampered. That's why I could teleport to you earlier."
"And is there anyone else in Fairy Tail that you could find in those circumstances?" Carla asked stubbornly. "I think I'm beginning to understand why you have such a vested interest in our guild, Miss Rachel."
"Carla, we really don't have time for this," Rachel said tightly. "Once the war with Tartaros is over, I can explain myself, but for right now, you need to take my word for it. So please, grab my hand so we can get to Face sooner rather than later."
Wendy glanced back at Carla, who nodded once. "We'll follow her lead for now," the little exceed asserted.
With the decision made, Wendy reached out and grasped Rachel's hand, the three of them vanishing out of the sky immediately after.
On the exterior of Tartaros' Base…
Erza grunted as she exchanged yet another one of countless blows with Kyoka. Her limbs felt like they were turning to liquid, while her opponent seemed as fresh as ever. She wasn't this strong back in the chamber, she thought as she leaped back to give herself some distance, requipping into her Clear Heart outfit, twin katana appearing in her hands simultaneously. What's changed?
Trying to stall for a reprieve, she put on her best glare and demanded of Kyoka, "What is all of this for? What does Tartaros hope to achieve?"
"We seek to return to Zeref, as I've said before," Kyoka replied with a smug smile, her claws extending slightly in preparation to attack.
"But what does that mean?!"
"Don't concern yourself with our plans, when yours' are just as fragile!" the demoness snarled. Her speed suddenly went through the roof as a crystal shard affixed to her helm flared with light.
Erza gasped at the sudden increase in power, but there was no time to dwell on it. Where she had been trading blows evenly with her enemy, she was now scrambling to hold off a series of swipes and stabs that seemed to get heavier with each attack, until both of her swords snapped into pieces, and she was left with two handles and little fragments of metal.
Kyoka gave her no time to recover, though. Letting out a pleasured laugh, the demoness went to lay open her opponent's innards with one last full-powered swipe of her claws. "Farewell, Erza!" she shouted.
There was a sound of flesh striking flesh, and Kyoka went flying into an unfinished support column. Erza, breathing heavily as sweat poured down her body, turned to see Azura dusting off her hands with a smug expression on her face. "I thought that Fairy Tail wizards never lost to the same person more than once," she said. "What's the deal, Titania?"
"She has something that greatly enhanced her power," Erza gasped. "I've never seen anything like it." By now, Kyoka was clawing her way out of the rubble, a look of utter fury on her face.
"Well then, lucky for you, I have seen this kind of thing before," Azura told her. "What do you say to a team-up?"
"Do you even need me?" Erza laughed wearily. "And why the sudden spirit of cooperation?"
For once, Azura did not have an immediate answer, and when she did speak, it was in a strangely subdued manner. "I was given a look at what others see in me," she finally said. "Got me to thinking that Kaidon might be right about some things, much as it infuriates me."
"Where is Minerva?!" Kyoka demanded as she leaped up onto the rafters of the incomplete building, landing just a few yards from where the two wizards stood.
"She's over there, over there, and up there," Azura replied as she pointed in three random directions.
"Impossible," Kyoka spat. "I enhanced her myself. No mere human could have defeated her."
"Then I suppose you'll find it unfortunate that you're not dealing with the average human wizard anymore," Azura replied, powering up to Super Saiyan as her scouter alerted her to Kyoka's rising power level.
Poison Jelly Valley…
Wendy, Carla and Rachel appeared in the depths of a dark cave, where a soft light shone from a few yards away, and a fresh breeze stirred the air around them. "Are we near Face?" Carla asked in a hushed voice.
"Yeah," Rachel nodded as she tapped a button on her scouter. Striding with purpose toward the light, she added, "Come on. We don't have much time, and that demon is around here somewhere. I'd rather deactivate Face before he gets to us if at all possible."
"Doesn't Instant Transmission always put you within a few feet of your target?" Wendy asked as she jogged over to catch up to Rachel, Carla cradled in her arms.
"Yes, but with the network of caves running through this place, we more than likely put a wall between us and him," Rachel answered. Pausing for a second, she then added, "The demon guarding this place is called 'Ezel', and he's probably the one most prone to wanton acts of destruction, other than Jackal. His curses let him cut through just about anything, and if he's enhanced with the Dragon Cry, one wrong move on our part will see us in pieces."
"B-But you're a Super Saiyan like Gorun," Wendy said nervously. "Are you saying that he's still strong enough to beat you?"
"I have a trump card if all else fails, but I'd rather save it for Face, should we prove unable to deactivate it with the controls," Rachel answered. "If I have to use it on Ezel, we might be in worse trouble after we finish him."
"What could be worse than getting killed by a demon?" Carla demanded as they drew closer to a cavern entrance where the light was coming from.
"If Ezel kills us, it'll be quick," Rachel said dryly. "Death by the forced removal of our magic energy is a lot more painful." Wendy blanched and Carla glared at the girl, so she shrugged and said, "What? She asked."
By now they were passing through the cave entrance and into a brightly lit room. "Oh dear," Carla said as they all looked upward. "This may prove more challenging than I had anticipated."
The Face device was huge, a thick column reaching up to rival Fairy Tail's guild hall in height, and made of a pure white stone, maybe marble. The air around it was positively thrumming with magic power in preparation of the detonation that would destroy all ethernano on the continent.
"Are you kiddin' me?!"
The three girls all whirled around to see a blue demon with sharp teeth and bulging muscles standing on a half-dozen tentacles and glaring down at them with his four arms folded. Wendy paled while Carla's jaw dropped in terror. Rachel simply glared back at the monster, looking no more frightened by Ezel than a warrior confronted by an angry toddler.
"Kyoka played me for a fool," the blue demon snarled. "I'm hungry enough to eat a city, and you three won't even make a decent appetizer!"
"Damn," Rachel cursed under her breath as she reached for her ear, underneath her thick hair. "I shoulda known he'd find us sooner instead of later." From out under her hair, she pulled something small and shiny- an earring, Carla thought.
Ezel let out a bestial snarl and shot forward, his speed rivalling that of a Super Saiyan as he aimed to crash into Rachel, who leaped up high in the air to dodge before hurling a Kienzan at the demon. In the same movement, she tossed something to Wendy, shouting, "Put that on your right ear!"
"Huh?" Wendy nearly missed the item, but fortunately, Carla caught it in time. Looking down at her paws, she found that it was a small earring with a purple orb dangling on the end of it.
"What is this?" she asked of the girl while Ezel slashed through the destructo-disc like it was made of butter. "I've seen this before!"
"It's called a potara earring!" Rachel answered with a grunt as Ezel aimed a punch at her midsection and just managing to block, but also getting a pair of deep cuts on her arms in the process. "It's what we need to beat this guy!"
"Nothing can beat me now that I'm powered by the remnants of dragon magic!" Ezel laughed while he and Rachel traded blows at a vicious rate. "And once all the magic in the world has been wiped out, demon curses will reign supreme!"
"Ironic that a race who claims magic is useless is relying on it to defeat powers beyond their capabilities!" Rachel shot back as she dodged another cutting blow from her enemy. "Maybe your curses aren't so powerful as your leader makes them out to be! After all, doesn't your creator use magic, himself?!"
"Shut up and die, I'm hungry!" Ezel snarled.
"How does an earring help us defeat this beast?" Carla demanded, still clutching at the purple jewel.
"I have the strength to fight Ezel, but my magic isn't suited for getting past dragon enchantments!" the saiyan girl answered as she back-kicked Ezel into a wall. "No matter how many times I flatten him, he's gonna keep coming back unless we destroy his Dragon Cry shard!"
Begin Song: Kimi no Chikara (by Yuki Hayashi)
"Carla, we don't have time to be asking questions!" Wendy said as she grabbed the earring from her friend. "We said we would trust her for this fight, and we need to keep our promise!" Looking up at the battered girl, she asked, "The right ear, yeah?"
"Yes!" Rachel nodded, looking relieved. The rubble burying Ezel began to stir, so she added, "Hurry, before he comes back!"
"Okay!" Wendy said as she put the silver part of the decoration into her right earlobe, flinching as the warm metal pierced her flesh. "It's on!"
"Great!" Rachel grinned, even as Wendy became aware of a light shining from the left side of her ally's head. As it did, a glow began to obscure her vision on the right, causing her to shut her eye against it.
"What is this?" she asked, just before an invisible force yanked her towards Rachel, a startled cry coming from her panicked lips.
"Thank you, Wendy," Rachel replied, even as the same force sent her on a collision course with the sky mage.
"Wendy!" Carla cried out.
There was a blinding light from where the two girls crashed into each other- a light that somehow seemed familiar to the watching exceed. Ezel growled as he burst through the rubble that had been piled on top of him, averting his eyes and wondering just what these annoying wizards could be up to now.
Carla was about to call out for Wendy again when she felt a surge in magic power beyond anything that she had ever experienced before. Nirvana may as well have been a candlestick compared to the energy surging from within the light. Even the energy gathering around Face seemed insignificant next to the shining light threatening to blind the exceed and demon.
After what seemed like an eternity, the light finally faded, allowing Carla to see clearly again- and she gasped in surprise when she did.
"This should do it," a lone figure said as she gazed down at herself, her voice a mix of Rachel and Wendy's.
Carla blinked a few times, but there was no mistake- the two girls had performed a fusion, and without the dance technique that Gorun had demonstrated. And this combination seems far stronger than what even he and Natsu have accomplished together, never mind Lucy and Yukino, the white cat thought in astonishment.
Instead of the open, flowing pants and vest that came about as a result of the Metamoran fusion technique, the newly-born wizard wore a blend of Rachel and Wendy's clothes, creating red slacks and a shirt with green trim on both, with Rachel's tail wrapped around her waist, and the scouter resting over her left eye. Her hair fell into twin pigtails that fell behind her shoulders, black streaks woven through the blue locks. Her sapphire eyes flashed open as she looked at her enemy, who flinched in spite of himself.
"Wendy, are you in there?" Carla asked nervously, unsure if this fusion would recognize her.
The girl looked over at her before she smiled slightly and answered, "Hang on, Carla. This won't take long."
Gorun: Okay, first of all, two new fusions in one chapter? That's pretty ambitious, even for you. Second, what's the name of this new Saiyan/Dragon Slayer fusion?
Mataras: First off, Mina was the result of the readers' votes. And second, you will be made well aware of the other's name in due time.
Saiki: 'Due time' being...?
Nataras: The next chapter comes out in the beginning of March, if that's what you're asking.
Gorun: What?! No Valentine's Day chapter?
Mataras: Come on, mate. This is hardly the time in the story for a fluff chapter. The next chapter comes out in a few weeks, it's not that bad.
Azura: I thought that you made a point to release extra installments on holidays.
Mataras: Yeah, but I'm gonna be busy this year, so... Come on, I've kept a pretty consistent upload schedule with this story. Haven't I earned a break?
Saiki: Always excuses with you.
Mataras: Next time- Beyond the Limits of Endurance
Next time on Saiyan Tail...
"I'm sorry!" Sorano cried, tears streaming down her face. "I just wanted to protect Yukino! And now I…" She collapsed to her knees, clutching at Natsu's feet as sobs wracked her body. "This wasn't… supposed to happen… Now I'll never find forgiveness…"
"This isn't about forgiveness," Gorun said heavily as he felt Cana's life energy continue to drain away. "This was all about survival. Now Cana won't…" He thought back on his interactions with the young woman, and found himself wishing that they could have had the chance to become better friends, knowing that it was largely his fault that it would never happen now. I was too much in a hurry to see Tartaros pay that I didn't bother to make a real plan… he thought as he berated himself savagely.
As his arms began to grow slick with her blood, his grip slipped a little, and he wound up having to grab her up by a different part of her back, where he could feel that part of her spine was badly mangled. One vertebrae seemed as though it was entirely misplaced- even if she could survive this, she might never be able to walk again, unless he could somehow fit her spine back together.
Wait…
His breath caught as he came upon a plan. It was a stupid, desperate plan, one that would almost certainly kill his guildmate even faster. On the other hand, if he did nothing at all, she would definitely die. I have to take the chance, he thought as he looked back up at his friends. She'd do the same if our positions were reversed- if there's any chance to save her, I have to do it.