A/N: Okay, I had intended to release this on St. Patrick's Day, but I got held up by... let's say various factors. Whatever the case, since we're all pretty much stuck in our homes due to the lovely Corona Virus, I figured at least a few of you could do with some extra entertainment- here's to hoping that this lifts your spirits a little. It's a long chapter, and the most battle-heavy one that I've made to date, in any of my works.

There will be fusions, new and old, much ass-kickery, secrets revealed, character development, and of course, overpowered Kamehameha's.

Read, review, and most importantly, enjoy!

P.S. The new cover art is actually one of my earlier pieces, back from when I was first planning this story out. I think you'll like him.

OP Song: Odd Future (cover by Nathan Sharp)

War of the Underworld Arc: Chapter 6

Destroyers

Gorun stamped his foot on the edge of the crater that he had made, impatient for Mard Geer to recover, so that he might break him again and again. The stone beneath his foot cracked and sent a small cascade of rubble down into the pit where the Underworld King currently occupied. "Get out here!" he snarled, his blood-red tail swishing back and forth angrily as his impatience grew. "If I have to come down there, you'll lose a lot more than a hand!"

There was a blur of motion from within the pit that stopped when Mard Geer's fist collided with Gorun's open palm, the latter smiling devilishly as he noticed that the demon's hand had been completely restored. "What do you know about that?" he mused as Mard Geer yanked his hand away from the saiyan boy and leaped back to be across the hole from him. "I wasn't aware that any of you Etherious possessed regeneration capabilities."

"Our skills are many, unconfined by our small numbers," the demon replied, looking as unperturbed as ever, his body becoming covered in iridescent flames. Gorun's eyebrow quirked upward as he recognized a monstrous increase in power that had to be coming from the Dragon Cry. "Some might consider your talents to be vast as well, Wizard Saint, but there is one consistent weakness that you have shown, time and time again."

"Are you really lecturing me right now?" Gorun growled, taking up a fighting stance. "I'd be saving my breath to beg for mercy if I were in your shoes." With so much power rushing through every fiber of his existence, it was wonder that he wasn't still just attacking indiscriminately. As it was, he was barely holding onto his conscious self.

"And I'd be savoring the time that you have left in which I allow you to speak," Mard sneered back at him while his aura intensified. "Your power may have increased at an astounding rate, but from what we've seen of you and your partner, every stage of evolution costs you more and more energy to sustain it. With all your pointless thrashing around that you did earlier, I can't imagine that you have much energy left."

Gorun's left eye twitched a few times before he growled ominously, "Don't think for one second that you understand the potential of the Saiyan Warriors." A scarlet aura blazed to life around him as he began to power up, his vicious war cry accompanying his further ascension. He had achieved the primordial form- now it was time to put it through the paces and see how his ancestry had truly gifted him.

"For all of your posturing, you are useless without your magic," Mard Geer asserted calmly as he brushed some dust off of the tome that he still carried. "And in one hour, the magic that gives you confidence will be expunged from the world."

"I think you missed the memo," Gorun laughed harshly. "We destroyed Face. Your plan failed."

"You destroyed a Face," Mard Geer replied haughtily. When his enemy paused, looking perplexed, he laughed softly and added, "Did you really think that my plans would be so fragile, little boy? I suppose with that with your stunted intellect, it would be an easy enough of a conclusion to draw." A cruel smile split his face as he added, "There are thousands of the anti-magic bombs scattered across Ishgar. Even if you could destroy some, nothing in this world has the power to avert the demise of the magic you so rely on."

"You're bluffing," Gorun replied, his power still rising while a spark of madness burned in his violet eyes. "You couldn't detonate one Face bomb remotely, forget thousands of them."

"Au contraire," Mard Geer replied, raising his left hand to point two fingers at his enemy. "Have you forgotten the necromancer among our number? He has the late former chairman hard at work in the remnants of the control room, using his advanced archive magic to do our work." As Gorun once again paused, the smug demon asked, "Now tell me again, ape… How did my plans go awry?"

With another twitch of his fingers, Mard Geer unleashed his curse of thorns in an attempt to restrain Gorun once more, but he underestimated the Saiyan's speed and reflexes. The bestial warrior ducked and weaved around his enemy's attacks like they were slow-moving snakes just coming out of hibernation. When one did manage to grab him by the arm, he flexed the furry muscles in the limb and snapped the cursed appendage like it was wax paper.

"Is that the best you've got?" he sneered at Mard Geer.

"You seem rather unconcerned about the fact that in less than an hour, your magic will be completely gone," his enemy replied, ignoring the question. "I expected you to be rushing off in a panic, trying desperately to stop the bombs. Have you resigned yourself to your fate and merely seek to get in one last good shot before you enter the void?"

"Seems like you've forgotten something important that we humans possess in abundance," Gorun shot back while he conjured a Kienzan above his right hand. "I've got faith in my friends." With his left hand, he tapped the scouter on his head before asking, "Did you get that?"

"Loud and clear," Azura replied. "The kid already knew about it, said she sent Wendy and Erza to take care of the problem with the Chairman."

"And there you have it," Gorun said with a savage grin at Mard, who looked thoroughly irritated. "So, where were we?"

"Geez, some of you couldn't even handle a few of the grunts, and now you think you've got what it takes to throw down with their bosses?" Azura muttered as she floated into the midst of her allies squaring off against the majority of Tartaros' remaining Demon Gates. "Rescuing you people is gonna be my whole day, isn't it?" She mentally turned off her radio in preparation of the coming battle- with the amount of power wielded by this group of fairies and demons, one tiny distraction could lead to a mistake that might be fatal to either friend or foe.

She and several of Fairy Tail's elites were currently standing guard over Lucino while facing off against four of the nine Demon Gates of Tartaros. Juvia stood ready to fight while Rachel was currently in her goddess form, Kinana had her Kaioken going, and the dragon slayers had tapped into their Dragon Force. Now Cana had entered the fray, along with Romeo and Sorano, who were both hanging back. Gray had been present earlier, but now he and the Demon Gate named Silver had both disappeared.

"All right," Rachel muttered as the tension between the two parties continued to mount. "Who wants to fight who?"

"The big guy is mine," Azura grinned while facing Torafuzar, who nodded in a grim acknowledgement.

"I'll take pretty boy," Natsu declared as he turned toward Tempester.

"Not if I kill him first," Gajeel chuckled as he cracked his metallic knuckles.

"I'm taking the skinny one," Cana said to declare her challenge against Keyes.

"I'll back you up," Juvia added.

Before Cana could protest, Azura said, "Good idea- Ace Card over here won't last long with that poor control of her new power. She'll run out of energy soon unless she learns how to wield it with at least some degree of restraint."

"Pfft, I feel-"

Blam!

There was an explosion at Cana's feet, courtesy of an impatient Jackal, and for a moment, she was lost from sight. "Now that's more like it," the blond demon cackled.

"Hey, jackass," Azura smirked as she pointed upwards. "You missed." As the demon's eyes were inevitably drawn upward to see Rachel holding up a surprised-looking Cana by the shoulders, Fairy Tail made their move.

Natsu and Gajeel unleashed breath attacks to sweep away Tempester in a tornado of red-hot shrapnel, though he recovered by conjuring a torrent of water to divert their magic. While this was happening, Rachel set Cana down and immediately went to engage with Jackal, who had set his sights on Kinana, her face grim with determination.

Tartaros falls, she vowed silently.

Juvia was having no success with injuring Keyes, as his body seemed to be made up of some dark mist, though whether or not it was bane particles, she could not say. Even when Cana had recovered and began slinging tarot cards enhanced with raw etherion, the skeletal demon remained unaffected, merely laughing at the two of them for their futile efforts.

Azura was trading vicious blows with Torafuzar in her mystic form, both of them moving even faster than when they had first fought over the river in Alegria's belly.

It was all that Romeo and Sorano could do just to stand their ground as they grabbed up Lucino and started carrying her away from the battle zone- after all, it wasn't like they were going to be much help in this situation. The fire wizard was strong for his age, but he was nowhere near the level of a goddess like Rachel and Azura, and Sorano was still rusty from all of her seven years in prison.

"Hey, Angel," Romeo grunted as he stumbled while the ground beneath them shook from the force of one of Azura's punches. "If it comes down to it, and we run into somebody from Tartaros, it'll be up to you to take Lucino and get as far away as you can."

"That's real brave, kid," Sorano chuckled. "But I doubt that either of us could do much more than tickle one of those Demon Gates."

"It's the thought that counts," the fire mage replied with a strained smile.

As the three of them continued to move away, Rachel intercepted Jackal, who was trying to head off the trio. "Going somewhere?" she asked while Kinana floated behind him, placing the demon between the two of them. Apparently he had outed the purple-haired girl as the weak link in the party, and was trying to turn that to his advantage while making a beeline for Lucino.

"I've got a score to settle with that celestial chick," Jackal snarled. "If you get in my way, then I'll blast you to pieces."

"Your curses are going to have a very hard time penetrating the aura of a Super Saiyan goddess," Rachel replied grimly, her scarlet eyes flashing dangerously. "A demon fighting against a being of divine power… It's almost poetic, don't you think?"

"Blech, leave all the flowery stuff for Keyes, he's the one that's into that kinda boring crap," Jackal answered, his right hand reaching out toward Rachel. "Explosion." The girl's body lit up with a yellow light before being engulfed in a tremendous blast that was big enough to level a small town.

Cana felt the vibrations in the air, but she was too busy trying to figure out a way to damage Keyes alongside Juvia to make much sense of it. For all she knew, it might have been Natsu or Gajeel that caused it as they continued to grapple with Tempester.

"Gah, what's with this guy?!" she growled in frustration. "I've got the powers of a Saiyan like Gorun, and I still can't make a difference!"

"You operate under the assumption that the power you wield is truly yours," Keyes said while Juvia tried to cut him into pieces with a Water Slicer, to no effect. "The way in which you wield this ability tells me that it is a new chapter in your narrative, one that you have not pondered at length before scratching the parchment with your ink."

"Are you here for a reading club, or to fight?" Cana shot back while she readied a particular card that she hoped would give her and the water mage an advantage.

"I am here to exterminate you, but I can confess that I do not understand the reasoning for my brethren's hatred of your fairy tales," Keyes chuckled while his body misted, making him immune to Juvia's attacks yet again. "They are most amusing- and tragic."

"What are you talking about?" Juvia said as she stepped back to stand next to Cana. "Who says that our stories must be tragic?"

"Are your own lives not example enough?" Keyes laughed at the two of them, causing both girls to redden and clench their teeth. "Here we have the girl born of water, unloved for all her life, even by the man that she devoted herself to. Then there is the girl born without a father, without power, without recognition of any kind. She clawed her way into the notice of others, gaining a so very fragile sense of self-esteem that would only be crushed time and time again by the very father that left her in the care of her dead mother." His hollowed eyes seem to gleam with delight as he added, "And to make things worse, the both of you can attribute your greatest humiliations to the same man, an interloper that cares nothing for the people that he crushes underfoot as he walks the path to glory."

Another dry chuckle escaped Keyes' dead mouth as he asked, "Now, if you could explain to me why that is not so tragic?"

Neither of the women gave him a worded answer, but if looks alone could have killed him, the necromancer would have gone on to learn a few lessons about his field of choice in that moment.

Gorun and Mard Geer's battle had become so fast and fierce that any normal person within a half-mile of them would have been killed by the shockwaves that resulted from every collision of fists and feet. Etherion and cursed thorns flew in every direction in between the physical connections, turning the landscape around them into a devastated wasteland that looked like a garden in hell.

Gorun definitely had the advantage in speed and power, there was no questioning that. The primordial energies born of his Super Saiyan 4 transformation was on par with the finely honed energies of Super Saiyan Blue in terms of raw power, and it was far less taxing on the body than the advanced god form, though at the cost of having almost all of one's inhibitions removed. Admittedly, the last drawback wasn't a big concern for those engaged in a one-on-one battle, but there was still one issue that Gorun could not seem to get past. With Mard Geer's essence having been fused with the majority of the Dragon Cry's power, his defenses seemed as inexhaustible as the saiyan youth's wellspring of energy.

While the demon could not hope to match his enemy's offensive capabilities, the natural resistance to magic that the dragon magic gave him would see the boy's power depleted, and once that happened, the Underworld King looked forward to using his skull as a tankard. With that thought in mind, he conjured a ball of white-black curse power and aimed to shove it in Gorun's face as he came in for a right hook.

Begin Song: Super Saiyan Vegeta (by Bruce Falconer)

He wasn't entirely surprised when Gorun blocked the counterattack with his open hand, but when the boy gripped his arm like a vice through the energy field that had been protecting him thus far, his eyes widened with a bit of intrigue. Grunting with exertion, he tried to stab the boy with a thorny vine that obeyed his right arm, but Gorun gave him a vicious glare as he yanked the other arm toward himself, jerking the demon forward and throwing him a bit off-balance.

"You asked me earlier how your plans went awry, but I never gave you a direct answer," the bestial man snarled, his fangs bared. "You really wanna know what your biggest oversight was?"

"What oversight?" Mard Geer grunted as he tried to pull away, perplexed as to why the power of the Dragon Cry was not making it impossible for his enemy to touch him.

"It's that stolen power!" the boy roared as he jerked his hands backward, bringing Mard Geer's nose crashing into a raised knee. As the demon recoiled involuntarily, Gorun pressed his attack, laying into the Etherious with a series of punches and kicks that reduced the rubble around them to dust, all while he shouted, "Every magic, every memory that went into creating the Dragon Cry was born of a fierce war between the dragons and their slayers! All you did was steal it! The strength it grants you is secondhand!"

Mard Geer tried to physically block the blows that he was receiving now, but Gorun's attacks were only coming in faster and harder than ever. If he defended one part of his body, another five places would be getting battered simultaneously- it was impossible to tell where the next attack was going to come from. As his bones began to crack from the vicious blows, his enemy continued his rant, a mad light shining in his purple eyes as he saw his victory coming near.

"You might feel the power of the Dragon Cry, but you don't understand it!" Gorun bellowed as he drew back a fist that glowed with a fierce golden light. "Because you didn't create it, and you'll never know what goes into shaping YOUR OWN POWER!" A spectral dragon of gold bore down upon Mard Geer with the full force of Gorun's Saiyan heritage, tearing his body asunder and grinding his bones to powder, only to have his life preserved and body restored by the Dragon Cry yet again.

The fact that he was basically immortal did not make the process hurt Mard Geer any less, though. As he picked himself out of a mountain-sized crater, still clutching desperately to his tome, the Underworld King grunted under his breath, "How…? How could I have not known that this ape was capable of reaching such heights?" Glaring at his enemy, he added, "How could I be reduced to this by a lowly human?!"

Gorun glared at him coldly from a solid half-kilometer away before crossing the distance in the blink of an eye and delivering a kidney shot to the demon and growling over his enemy's bloodied coughing, "Because you're just a fraud, sitting on a throne that was handed to you by dear old Daddy Zeref." Another two punches saw Mard Geer lying on his back with a broken jaw that immediately began to repair itself while Gorun stamped on his chest and drove the air out of his lungs. With the rage of an Oozaru, the boy then declared, "And I'm a Fairy Tail wizard!"

Mard Geer gritted his teeth and willed a new series of thorns to burst out of the ground and grab Gorun by all four of his limbs, seeking to tear him asunder and provide their master with an opportunity to escape. As he managed to make his way out from beneath the Saiyan's boot, he summoned a thorny, immature flower from the depths of his underworld and put it between him and his enemy, who had yet again snapped the vines like little sapling branches. The plant was massive, more than three times the size of the Fairy Tail warrior, and it smelled like rotting flesh.

"I think it's time you met a little pet project of mine," Mard Geer said as he stood up straight, his hand that held the tome moving to deposit the book on what remained of a support column. "He surpasses each of the Nine Gates in their power, and I think that even you will have a difficult time defending against the both of us- especially since I've only been using-"

"A fraction of your true power, blah blah blah," Gorun interrupted with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Good for you, but in case you haven't noticed, I'm literally tearing you to pieces, and I haven't even broken a sweat in this new form- unlike you."

Mard Geer looked miffed at having been interrupted, but instead of responding with words, he clicked his fingers so that they pointed at the giant flower that he had conjured. "Behold my newest servant." As the petals of the disgusting plant began to blossom, the demon added, "I think you'll find him a familiar face." A massive, lumbering form emerged from the disgusting petals and glared down at Gorun, who blinked once in mild surprise.

"Jiemma," he muttered as he recognized the mountain of muscle, changed though he had been by demonic blood. "That's a good look for you- festive."

Sabertooth's former master glowered at him with gleaming red eyes set above a mouth full of dagger-like teeth, and a mane of shaggy white hair that reminded Gorun of a dried bone. His stature had grown with the infusion of demon blood running through his veins, and the magic power that he exerted was enough to give the Saiyan wizard pause.

Damn, he thought as he prepared himself for combat. I guess Mard wasn't kidding about how he was holding back- if this is the kind of power that he gave his pawn, he might just actually be my equal in power. In terms of raw strength, Jiemma could arm-wrestle Gorun in his Super Saiyan 3 form, and probably win.

"You're the runt that ruined my guild," the man rumbled as he took a heavy step toward Gorun. "My guild was the mightiest that had ever walked Fiore, until you and your friends filled their heads with fantasies about love and camaraderie, as if that made your path the right one to walk. Even worse, your rhetoric was mired in hypocrisy! You stand alone now, and you are stronger than I have ever expected you to be. So now you will pay for ruining the name of Sabertooth!"

"Ha! Like father like daughter," Gorun laughed at him. "Both so confident in their strength- both so stupid to believe that they actually possessed the ultimate power."

"I am power, boy," Jiemma growled menacingly. "And once I'm done snapping you like the toothpick you are, I'm going to make sure that Tartaros recognizes me as its proper master."

"Hmm," Mard Geer laughed softly. "I see that attitude of his still needs adjusting." Shrugging to himself, he added, "No matter. I can tend to that after we've dealt with you."

"So it's to be two on one, is it?" Gorun asked as he took a ready stance, his scouter beeping as it alerted him to a massive power level coming in hot. "I've gotta say, those are pretty bad odds."

"Yeah," a familiar voice said as a tall figure bounded into view. "They don't stand a chance."

"I was wondering if you even got our message," Gorun grinned as Fang came to stand alongside him. Before the battle with the demon guild had even begun, he had sent word to their allies in Sabertooth, requesting aid in the event of a catastrophe like the one that they had been forced to endure.

Sting and Rogue had apparently performed the fusion dance outside of the battle zone, as to avoid any chances of the technique going wrong. Now their Metamoran might was ready to assist Gorun in his battle against the forces of Tartaros.

"Next time, have somebody other than Erza write it," Fang answered with a slight shudder. "Rufus just about died trying to decipher the thing, and it had Olga crying after he only glanced at it."

"Seriously?" Gorun laughed. "Your S-class wizards were defeated by a paper with poor penmanship? I can't believe my guild lost out to yours' for seven years."

"Hey, you were around for the one before this year, so why didn't you compete?! If you're so good, you shoulda been able to win the whole thing yourself!"

"Could've, but I had other things going on."

"All right, when this is over, we're getting a do-over, and we don't care what new power you got!" Fang declared. "Speaking of which, why do you look like the love child of a chimp and a gorilla?"

"Are you really just going to engage in banter while two of the deadliest forces to walk this earth are right in front of you?" Mard sneered at them, even as he conjured another orb of curse power.

Blam!

Gorun's fist sent him flying into the nearest mountain, a good ten miles away. Even though the demon couldn't hear him, the boy said with a vicious smile, "Shush- the grown-ups are talking."

Jiemma roared and moved to crush Gorun while his guard was lowered, but he was intercepted by a Twilight Dragon's Shining Slash. The battle began anew, and those that lived in Magnolia trembled at the storm threatening to break on their horizon.

Jackal raged with both his lungs and his curse powers as he tried again and again to obliterate Kinana and Rachel, to no effect. Kinana was slower than the other girl by leagues, but every time that he tried to target her, it left him open to attack from the Saiyan girl. And if he tried to attack the girl whose magic he couldn't sense, the purplette would hit him with one variation of a light blast or another.

The attacks themselves weren't really the problem, since his Dragon Cry shard saw to it that his defense was greater than any magical armor in the world. The problem was that he couldn't take down a pair of lowly wizard girls! Even worse, the last ones that he had fought didn't die by his hand, either!

"You humans are really pissing me off!" he shouted as he tried to make them both explode simultaneously, but was ultimately foiled by their etherion countermeasures. Before he could try again, something caught the corner of his eye, and it brought a wicked smile to his face as warned them, "Stay still before I make you regret it!"

"I think that we'll regret staying still more than not, so no," Rachel tossed back with a calm confidence. "Besides, what're you gonna do? Try for an even bigger blast? Spoiler alert- that won't work."

"Nah," the demon replied confidently, which worried Kinana. Before, he had been flying off the handle in a senseless rage, which was usually pretty bad for anyone that went up against the explosive creature. Now, though, he was making his threats calmly, which the young woman found infinitely more frightening.

"You know my powers work over a long range, right?" Jackal asked them with a faraway look in his eye as his right hand began to glow. "Basically, if I can see it, I can blow it up. Anything… and anyone."

Too late, the girls realized that he wasn't just looking off into the distance- he was looking at Sorano and Romeo as they were carrying Lucino up a hill, the younger boy stumbling on a loose piece of rubble as he tried to find firm footing. No sooner than he had found stable ground than did the mound of debris begin to glow with a demonic yellow light. Both he and Sorano froze in place, an unknown instinct telling them that disaster was about to befall them.

"No!" Kinana shouted as she blasted away at top speed, headed right for the trio.

Rachel saw this, and the malicious gleam in Jackal's eyes as his left hand began to glow as well, causing her heart to catch in her throat before she shouted, "Don't! It's a trap!" She bolted after the other young woman, but she was just nanoseconds too slow, even in her goddess form. "No!"

"Explosion."

Jackal's utterance concurred with the exact second that Kinana blasted her friends out of the danger zone with etherion, having no time for an actual rescue. Then her back was consumed by a blast that slammed her into the mound of rubble that the others had been struggling over, which in its own turn exploded with the force of a Jupiter Cannon. Kinana was swallowed up by the light, and the concussive force knocked everyone nearby off-balance, even the other Demon Gates.

Jackal was laughing himself silly by the time that the light died away and Rachel could hear again. His merriment formed a maddening background for her as she searched the area for signs of life, something to tell her that Kinana still breathed. It sounded as though the others were taking a few moments to recollect themselves, but she hardly cared about how they were doing right now. It took a few seconds, but she felt a weak power level respond to her senses, coming from beneath a pile of stone and dirt.

With a few quick movements, she cleared away a few tons of rock to reveal a bloodied Kinana, pale as a sheet, and breathing shallowly through her crushed ribs. Her eyes were closed, but she was muttering, "Gor… Gorun…?"

"No, he's fighting Mard Geer," Rachel said as she felt her divine power leave her, tears building in her eyes. "I'm here, though. I won't leave you alone, I promise." With so much blood and dirt mixed together, she was not confident of the older girl's ability to survive. "Just… please, hang on, Kinana. Gorun still needs you!"

"The others…" Kinana gasped as the pain began to register with her ruined body. "Are they safe? Did I…?"

"Yeah," Rachel said in a choked voice as silence descended upon the battleground. "Yeah, you saved them. They're all safe."

"Good…" Kinana said with a tiny smile. "That's all I wanted today… was to keep my friends… safe. To be like… Gorun… a hero."

"You are a hero!" Rachel cried, unable to stop the tears now. "Please, stay with us! Please!" Bowing her head to the other wizard's ruined frame, she added through her sobs, "You were… You were my hero… Please…" She felt her tears mixing in with the blood of the other woman, her heart tearing asunder as she sensed Kinana's life energy slipping away from her body.

The ghost of a smile touched Kinana's face as she whispered, "Rachel… I've always liked that name…" The black-haired Saiyan girl felt her breath catch again as a weak hand gripped hers', and Kinana breathed out, "I always wanted… If I had a daughter… I wanted to name her…" Gorun's fiancée fell quiet and still, her hand still covering Rachel's, who was shaking with helpless sorrow.

Begin Song: Endless Battle (by Takanashi Yusuharu)

"Ugh, do all human girls cry this much?" Jackal taunted her as he approached from behind the pair. "First that blond chick back at the village, now this. No wonder you never get anything done, mourning worthless things like one lowly wizard." Had he taken the time to examine his surroundings in that moment, he might have noticed that the rubble around them was beginning to rise in the air while cracks formed in the ground beneath his prey, but he was too busy savoring the moment of his first kill of the day. "I even did you the courtesy of burying her, which, if you ask me, is a lot more effort than I should have to have put in to killing her. And here you are, being ungrateful and undoing my work."

"How dare you…" Rachel heaved as her shoulders tensed, rising to her feet with her fists clenched. The air around them began to vibrate with the sensation of a terrible omen that made even Jackal's fur stand up on end. A royal purple magic circle glowed from beneath Rachel while she staggered slowly to her feet. As Jackal stopped a few paces away from the girl, who suddenly seemed taller and older as she turned to face him with tears streaming from violet eyes that matched the magic emblem, he felt an inexplicable sensation of dread settling in the pit of his stomach, instilling fear in him as no one, not even Mard Geer, had ever managed to make him feel before.

Rachel took in a deep, shuddering breath before she screamed loud enough to wake the dead; "That's my MOTHER!" Her hair became a rich violet as she launched herself at Jackal with a speed that the demon hadn't believed existed until that moment, punching him a thousand times in a second before kicking him skyward faster than a magic bullet. Next thing he knew, his head was bleeding profusely, and he was back on the ground- or rather, in a crater that had replaced the ground. "You demon BASTARD!" Rachel screamed at him from the sky.

While this was going on, both Fairies and demons were staring on in open-mouthed shock at what they were seeing, Azura being more stunned than anyone else present. "You gotta be kidding," she said to no one in particular. "That kid is the god of destruction we sensed before?!"

Ka-BOOM!

Rachel was then on Jackal in a flash, still crying as she proceeded to cover every inch of his body with bruises and broken bones, piercing through the aura that the Dragon Cry generated as if it weren't even there before grabbing him up by the throat, crushing his windpipe so that he couldn't scream before shouting, "Take this!" At the touch of a magic circle, Jackal and his Dragon Cry shard were erased from existence. "HAKAI!"

Gorun hesitated in the middle of an Orin Combo, which gave Mard Geer the opportunity he needed to kick at the Saiyan's jaw, sending him reeling. Gorun spat blood and glared at his enemy, angry with himself for making such a rookie mistake. Even so, he hadn't expected to feel the presence of a Destroyer so soon again, and especially not in such a close proximity. Just like the last time, though, they faded away as soon as they had come.

What in the name of the multiverse is going on? He thought as he brained Mard with a Savage Strike. Their fight had moved away from Jiemma's battle with Fang- which also placed them even further from the ruins of Tartaros itself- so the young man didn't feel the need to hold back as much as he had been. With his body now more adapted to handling the ferocious etherion coursing through him, the only pain that he felt was his battle wounds, and not from his body simply trying to contain his elevated powers like whenever he went Super Saiyan 3.

The demon responded by unleashing more of the power he had been holding in reserve, grabbing Gorun by the arm and twisting the limb behind his back. "Bow down to your superior, monkey," he hissed as he exerted a painful amount of pressure on the limb in an effort to subdue his enemy.

That doesn't even merit a comeback, Gorun thought as he conjured a magic circle in his mind. Out loud, he announced, "Tyrant Lance." Blue etherion shot out of the hand being pinned against his back to strike Mard Geer and send him stumbling backward. This was followed by a stomach kick that forced the demon to cough up blood while he was elbowed in the head, putting him down on the ground in front of Gorun's boots.

"You're getting annoying," he growled at the prone figure before punting him into the air and sending a Big Bang Attack after him, lighting up the dark sky with a fireworks display worthy of a coronation in Crocus.

Vines shot out of the ground and wrapped him up, squeezing tightly enough to actually cut his flesh this time, causing him to wince as he felt his power seeping out of him with his blood. Just managing to yank his right hand free, he put his fingers on his forehead and engaged instant transmission to appear in front of Mard Geer, mid-air. "Try again for a jewel?" he smirked before he head-butted his enemy, sending him plummeting down toward the earth with another thunderous crash that left the ground with a gaping hole in it.

As he landed in front of the hole, Gorun added, "Sheesh, when you put that tome down, I thought that you might be getting serious for a second there. But if this is all you've got, then I think I'll just call it quits."

"Excuse you?" Mard Geer snarled, his eyes narrowing at his enemy's impudence.

"How to put this in a way that you'll understand, hmm…" Gorun tapped his chin while he pretended to think. Then his expression brightened and he said, "I'm bored. You're boring. You're boring me." He shrugged in a gesture that seemed to say, 'What are you gonna do?'

"Ah…" Mard Geer mused, before he began to laugh at the Saiyan, who regarded him silently, his tail flicking back and forth behind his body as he waited for the demon to finish. "You're afraid, aren't you?" the Underworld King asked him, his confidence growing once again. "You know that you have only thirty minutes left until your magic runs out, and you'll be helpless before me. Since you haven't been able to overwhelm the regenerative properties that have been applied to me with the power of the Dragon Cry, you now begin to realize that your prospect is a futile one- just as I told you from the very beginning." A cruel smile curled his lips as he added, "It's truly as shame… Had you given in when I offered, I'd have made your death quick. Now I think I'll bleed you dry over the course of weeks, both body and soul!"

"Question," Gorun said, catching the demon slightly off-guard. "Are you trying to convince me with that little speech of yours, or you? I hope it's the latter, because I'm not buying it."

"You fear me as you fear the dark, human, as do all those of your kind," Mard answered. "You fight so ferociously out of a fear for what I will do to you when your magic is gone. You fight out of a necessity for self-preservation. You fear the afterlife, and rightly so, for I am its ruler."

"You're wrong," Gorun replied, baring his fangs as he brought his hands to his sides. "I've never fought to preserve my own life- I've got a better reason than that."

"Hmm?" Mard Geer cocked his head as a crimson light began to pool between Gorun's palms.

"For my friends- to protect them!" the Saiyan declared. "That's why I'm alive! That's why I fight! And why I'm gonna kill you!"

"I am become death, human!" Mard shouted back, holding out a hand that bore raw curse power. "And death cannot die!"

"Let's put that theory to the test; ten-layer magic circle!" Gorun snarled, a column of red magic circles appearing in front of his body. "KAMEHAMEHA!" The ball in his hands flew outward to pass through the first magic circle, growing in strength as it did so, and repeating the process with every layer that the energy passed through, until finally, it bore down on Mard Geer with the force of a comet.

"Now let the wrath and sorrow of every dragon flow through me to strike down the allies of their slayers," Mard intoned before the etherion struck him. "Dea Yggdrasil." A mixture of curse power and thorns sprang from his hand to collide with the crimson Kamehameha, holding the attack at a standstill, somewhat to Gorun's surprise. All around them, the land roiled, the vibrations reaching all the way across the country as they pitted their raw strength against one another in a bid for dominance.

Windows in Magnolia shattered, and buildings crumbled. In Port Hargeon, waves raced away from the coastline, carrying many boats away on the new currents, and destroying others. Crocus' museums and fine estates began to crack, and even the castle shook from the force of their power. All across Fiore, panic gripped the hearts of the people that could only cower in fear of whatever terrible powers were at work to create such a catastrophe.

"Man, he's overdoing it!" Fang yelped as the tremors nearly knocked him off his feet. Unlike Gorun, or his fusion with Natsu, he was not capable of flight, so keeping his balance was proving difficult.

"Take note, boy," Jiemma growled as he lumbered toward Fang, his own bulk keeping him rooted on the shifting earth. "That is what real power looks like- obtained and wielded by one's own hands, without the assistance of 'friends'. As he stands alone, he is able to wield all of his power, unfettered by the shackles of your pathetic camaraderie."

"We're not here for a lecture," Fang retorted. "Besides, there's no way that Gorun would've gotten that far on his own. If it wasn't for his friends, he'd still be at the same level as when he showed up two years ago. And Fang certainly wouldn't exist without the efforts of Sting and Rogue."

"Your efforts mean nothing unless they are achieved without the assistance of others!" Jiemma bellowed, unleashing his Blast Magic on Fang, who transformed into a shadow to evade the attack. Appearing behind his former guild master, he lashed out with a White Dragon Talon in an attempt to paralyze the reborn demon. Unfortunately, all it seemed to do was annoy the brute, because after pausing momentarily in place, he spun all the way around and swung his oak-sized fist at the fused warrior, who did not react in time to avoid the blow.

Blood filled his mouth as he went flying back into a rocky pile, which he spat out as he got to his feet. "All right, the kid gloves are coming off," he declared as a white-black magic circle appeared under his feet. "Let's see how you stand up to our Dragon Force!" Black and white markings immediately covered his body, and his power skyrocketed. "You might have gotten stronger cos of your demon blood and the Dragon Cry, but we were made to cut through dragon magic! You're toast, Jiemma!"

So the battle began anew.

"Holy crap…" Gajeel muttered as they watched Rachel collapse in front of where Jackal had once stood, her hair returning to a raven color and her body reverting back to that of a child. "What kinda crazy magic was that?" In the background, Gorun and Mard Geer's power struggle was visible, and the rumbling in the dirt beneath their feet made it difficult to even stand up straight.

"That was a god of destruction's power," Azura told him as the other Demon Gates eyed them cautiously, almost with fear. "They are recognized for their strength over all other beings in existence, save for the ones that they themselves serve. Nothing mortal can stand against them and live." So how in the multiverse did a little girl like her learn how to use magic that advanced?

"Forget all of that, what happened to Kinana?!" Juvia reminded them as she bolted for the rubble where the girl had last been seen. The ground was rumbling violently beneath them, so the water mage didn't want to lose sight of the dying wizard in the shifting earth.

"Our battle is not yet concluded, and I would advise against you turning your backs on us," Tempester said threateningly when Natsu and Gajeel looked torn between their desire to check on their friend, and their need to defend against the Demon Gates. Torafuzar and Keyes looked on silently, but it was clear that if they saw an advantage, they would press it.

"Salamander, Black Steel, let's do this," Azura asserted as she ascended to her goddess form. "Ace Card, you're up, too. You dragon slayers have got a pretty solid handle on your Dragon Force, but it's gonna take even more than that from you to beat these guys."

"Whaddya mean?" Natsu demanded. "This is the final form of dragon slaying magic! We're as strong as we can be right now!" It frustrated him to no end that, despite giving it everything he had as both a Fairy Tail wizard and a dragon slayer, he had been unable to make any real headway in this fight against Tartaros, even with his friends standing by his side.

"Is that what you believe?" Azura scoffed at them, while she noticed Juvia enveloping Kinana in a water field, though why that was, she couldn't exactly tell, nor did she have the luxury of pondering it for any length of time. "Is that what somebody told you? Or did you put that limit on yourselves?"

"It's what our dragons told us, and I think they'd know more about our magic than you do!" Gajeel shot back. Like Natsu, he was extremely frustrated by their lack of progress in the fight, even though Rachel had obliterated one of the Gates for them.

"No!" Azura shouted as she suddenly fired off a Masenko at Keyes, who shouted in pain as the beam caused him physical damage, much to the surprise of him and his comrades. "You know more about your magic than anyone else! Only you decide where the limit is! So if any part of you feels like you can go even further, then do it now! We're Fairy Tail wizards, aren't we?! Let's teach these freaks to fear our names!"

If the wizards present thought that they couldn't be surprised any more than they already had been that day, they found themselves proven quite wrong by Azura's declaration that preceded her crashing into Torafuzar with renewed vigor, ducking under his bladed arm and springing into a back kick that sent Tempester stumbling backwards, off-balance. Her surprise attacks had the desired effect, but even with her divine power, it was clear that if their enemies managed to coordinate themselves, she would soon be overwhelmed.

"Come on!" Azura encouraged her guild mates. "Rachel gave us the opening that we needed, so let's take advantage of it! You don't wanna get shown up by a kid, do you?!" As she continued to evade and strike back, she began to hope that she was right, both about the spirit of cooperation that the dragon slayers could display, and their untapped potential. There's something inside the both of them that could change this battle from a stalemate into a defeat for these monsters. I know it, and I'm certain that Kaidon does, too- it's probably part of the reason that he encouraged to tap into this 'dragon force' sooner rather than later. Let's hope that they awaken it in time for us to avenge Kinana without further loss.

Begin Song: Vegeta's New Form (by Norihito Sumitomo)

"Hehe…" Gajeel grinned as he watched Azura in action. "Well, there's no doubt about it- she's definitely cut from the same cloth as Gorun. Whaddya say we take a leaf from the Saiyans' book and pummel these demons together, eh Salamander?"

"If they can work it out, then I guess we dragon slayers can follow the trend," Natsu agreed. "What was it that Gorun told us when we fought the dragons back then?"

"The greatest power comes in response to a need, not a desire!" Azura shouted back at them as she blasted the trio of Zeref's creations back with a Spirit Explosion. "That's what he told you, right?!"

"Yeah!" the dragon slayers answered. Gajeel added, "Give us a few seconds, and we'll send these guys packing!"

"I've got her back," Cana told them as she began slinging etherion-powered tarot cards at their foes, aiming for the one that was furthest away from Azura at any given moment. "You guys do what you need to do."

"Thanks, Cana," Natsu grinned as he and Gajeel began to internalize their powers, trying to force them to build up even higher than before, their expressions growing hard. Addressing Tartaros with a fiery anger, Natsu added, "You freaks are gonna pay for what you did to Elfman and Kinana! You hear me?!"

Gajeel let out a roar as he tapped into his second origin, Natsu quickly following suit. Although Urtear had not unlocked it for him like the others, the Iron Dragon Slayer had worked hard during the months of training leading up to the Grand Magic Games, and even though he hadn't realized it at the time, he too now wielded the fullest potential of his magic. Now to show these bozos that the Saiyans aren't the only power to be feared in our world…

"I'm gonna…" Natsu grunted as he felt something in the fire that burned in his belly begin to change, yearning to break through his limits and show him heights that the likes of Gildarts could only dream of. "I've gotta win this battle!" he declared. "I'm gonna keep my promise to Lucy, and make a better future for all of us!" As he focused on his last memories of the girl that had journeyed through time to come save them, he felt that fire that Igneel had given him continue to grow and change, burning his soul until he could do nothing but unleash it. "I'm shattering through my limits the way that only I can! And when I do, I'm gonna burn Tartaros to ash!"

Even as that power awoke within Natsu, Gajeel felt his spirit harden beyond the resolve of iron, and his magic followed his soul's new path. "I've come a long way…" he said in an undertone, almost to himself. "And I ain't even close to the end of my journey!" If Salamander can keep growing, then so can I! Hell, I'm gonna surpass this hothead and be the greatest dragon slayer that Fairy Tail's ever seen!

"Dragon Slayer: Limit Break!" Natsu bellowed as his scales grew to encompass his entire body, until his feet were replaced with the muscular talons of a dragon, and his hands twisted into claws. Fangs grew in the stead of his teeth, and wings the size of the boy himself sprouted out of his back, menacing in the moon and firelight. "Raging Dragon Force!" Fire spotted across his body, but instead of the usual orange-red colors, they had shifted to become an even more intense yellow and blue theme. The air around him shimmered with the heat, and the stone beneath his feet began to melt and soften from his mere presence.

"Not bad kid, but let's see how you compare to me when I'm done!" Gajeel crowed as his black scales began to merge together and form a more heavy set of armor that broadened his shoulders and legs, and his hair becoming razor-sharp while his brow thickened to the point where it almost looked like he was wearing a helm. "How d'ya like my Resolved Dragon Force?!"

"How about you two stop talking and start fighting!" Cana shouted at them. "Azura's not gonna last long in that form; she's barely getting the hang of it!"

"Who's barely getting the hang of it?!" Azura shouted indignantly.

"We're on it!" the two boys shouted, Natsu's wings flaring as he took to the air, and leaving Gajeel behind in a small cloud of debris, which led to him yelling angrily at his rival, though he quickly put it aside in order to start bounding toward Torafuzar, excited to try out his new transformation.

However, even with the excitement and tension of the moment, both dragon slayers were aware that they were burning through a lot more magic power than they had been with their traditional Dragon Force. If they didn't end this quickly, they'd be easy prey for Tartaros.

"Juvia!" Romeo grunted as he limped toward the water mage, Sorano helping him along on account of a wrenched left leg. Kinana had certainly saved their lives, but the landing had been pretty rough, especially once Jackal's explosion had been thrown in the mix. Still, this wasn't going to stop them from getting back to help their friend.

"How is she?" Sorano grunted with exertion.

"Not good," Juvia said worriedly as she maintained a water sphere around Kinana, which had been polluted with a dark crimson that streamed from the lacerations all over her body. "She's lost a lot of blood, and it's all I can do keep more of it from spilling out of her. I was actually…" Her voice trailed off, seemingly distracted by another thought. Before they could ask about it, however, the rain woman looked at them both sharply and asked, "Where is Lucino? I thought you were supposed to be protecting her."

"Wow, didn't know that you cared that much," the celestial wizard said as she dragged herself into their midst, looking utterly spent, but otherwise healthy. "Especially since half of me is dating Gray."

"I don't like Yukino, but that doesn't mean that I want her to die, either," the bluenette shot back, annoyed. "I don't want anyone in Fairy Tail to die…"

"At the risk of sounding like a jerk, I don't think that Kinana is gonna die," Romeo said as he peered closely at the comatose girl. "She's in bad shape, but I'm certain that she'll pull through."

"What makes you say that?" Sorano asked as she, the boy, and Lucino all collapsed to their haunches around Kinana and Juvia, even as the battle behind them raged anew.

"Is she wearing her engagement ring?" Romeo asked. The question bewildered everyone else, so he sighed and moved to check her left hand, smiling slightly when he found what he was looking for. "Bingo."

"She's wearing it, so what?" Lucino demanded.

"See the ruby on it?" the boy answered, holding the girl's limp hand up for everyone else to see. "It's actually a lachryma made with the tears of the phoenix. Which means that as long as she wears it, she's pretty much immortal."

"Wait, Gorun made that for her?" Juvia asked, sounding almost impressed. "Then why-?"

"As far as I know, Éclair's body used to work the same way," Romeo interrupted her. "She could get really close to dying, but she can't actually pass on. As long as no one removes the ring from her finger, she'll recover, though how long that'll take, I have no idea."

"Speaking of whom, where did she get off to?" Juvia inquired. "I thought she was with your team."

"She went off with the Strauss siblings after we all got separated with that weird curse," Romeo answered. "I was worried for a bit because we couldn't find her, but Warren contacted us with his telepathy to let us know what was going on."

"I think we need to be worrying about ourselves right now," Sorano said as the earth shook yet again.

"We gotta get Kinana out of the danger zone," Lucino muttered before she slumped her shoulders and added, "That's gonna be a real feat. I can barely walk, and you two don't look much better. Far as I can tell, Juvia is the only one that might be able to get her outta here, and even that'd be dicey." Gesturing at the prone form of Rachel, she added, "By the way, how'd she end up like that?"

"She went ballistic after that explosion demon hurt Kinana, and the power-up she used knocked her out- I think," Sorano explained. "If we have to carry her and this one, then I dunno how far we'd make it. Not that there's really one place that's any safer than the others." While she spoke, Romeo tried to sense for a place nearby that wasn't a battleground for high power levels, and quickly failed.

"She's right," he said glumly while a stray yellow-blue Fire Dragon's Roar flew overhead, causing them all to wince at the heat and light until it had passed. "We're toast pretty much no matter where we go."

"And here I thought this day couldn't get any better," Lucino grumbled. "Where's Erza when we need her?!"

"The countdown to Face's detonation is inevitable!" Kyoka declared to an exhausted Erza, Wendy heaving for breath beside the older girl as she clutched at a deep claw wound in her side. "So long as we are armed with the Dragon Cry, your magic has no effect on me, Titania Erza! Even your little dragon slayer friend is too inept to handle the defenses that Lord Mard Geer has conjured!"

The two women had managed to find their way to the remnants of the control room after Rachel had appeared to Erza and left a recharged Wendy and Carla with instructions on how to get to where the corpse of the former Chairman was working to set off all the Face bombs scattered across Ishgar. Unfortunately for them, he had not been left unguarded, and to make matters worse, the demoness guarding him had a grudge to settle with Erza. Thus far, they had been unable to get past Kyoka to disable to the cadaver that was set to bring about their doom, even with Wendy's Dragon Force.

Carla, knowing that she would be little to no help in the fight, found herself hiding in a corner of the ruins next to Happy and Pantherlily, who had more or less stumbled into the room on accident. Now it was all they could do not to get blown away by the fierce clash occurring in front of them.

Gritting their teeth, Erza and Wendy resumed their attacks on the she-devil, ignoring the pain of their injuries, even as they were intensified tenfold by Kyoka's curse power. The evil woman, amused by their struggles, laughed at them and said, "Why bother struggling? It'll all be over soon."

"Because…" Wendy grunted as she evaded a stab from Kyoka's extendable claws. "We've got friends counting on us to do this." Heaving in a deep breath, she spat a cyclone at Kyoka, who tore the winds apart with her claws so that they would not hit the traitorous Chairman.

"And what difference does that make?" the demoness scoffed as she traded blows with Erza once more, sparks flying as their respective blades clashed. "Having friends makes no difference if they are not here to assist you."

"It makes all the difference!" Erza shouted back as she requipped into her Black Wing Armor and tried to fly past her enemy, only to be put down by a brutal kick to her backside. "We… won't die when our friends are counting on us…" she wheezed as Wendy shot at their opponent at breakneck speed. "We live… for our friends."

"Sky Dragon's Talon!" The younger girl's foot smashed into Kyoka's shoulder, and everyone was surprised when she scored a shallow wound on her skin.

Kyoka leaped back, away from the both of them, her expression a guarded one. Even so, it was clear to the Fairy Tail girls that she was now uncertain about how guaranteed her invulnerability really was.

Heaving herself off the ground and raising her sword into a fighting position, Erza grunted, "Looks like your Dragon Cry power is wearing out."

"No, that shouldn't be possible!" Kyoka seethed. "I've been endowed with the power of a dozen dragons! There's no way that a little dragon slayer alone could get past those defenses!"

"Not on her own, no," Erza grinned. "But I think that you're forgetting a little something about that power that you've stolen."

"What nonsense are you spouting now, you simpleton?!" Kyoka demanded furiously.

"Dragons don't die the same way that humans do," Wendy replied as she stood beside her comrade. "Even after their spirits have departed this world, there's always an echo of their mind that remains tied to their magic power. And I seriously doubt that the ones that were condensed into the Dragon Cry are very happy about being used by a demon like you." As they were speaking, a crystal imbedded in Kyoka's helmet began to sparkle, shedding an eerie blue-and-red light that startled the demoness.

"What is this…?" she asked as she began to claw at the crystal, trying to pry it out of her helm, without success. "This power was tamed by Lord Mard Geer! It should obey my commands!"

"You underestimate humans, but you underestimated the dragons even more, and that's gonna cost you," Wendy declared as she conjured a big magic circle under her feet, the green light washing over her and Erza. "Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Shattering Light, Milky Way!"

That's just a conjuring spell, Erza thought as she glanced at her friend from the corner of her eye. What does she hope to accomplish by summoning the remains of dead… dragons… Oh. As she watched the little girl beside her with a face set in a fierce, grim determination, Erza realized that Wendy had somehow changed since she had last seen her, and not in a small way. What happened during her battle with that demon in Poison Jelly Valley?

"Now let the power of the Dragon Cry flow through me, heiress to the Sky Dragon, Grandeeney," the little girl declared, the eerie light that was pouring from Kyoka's helm immediately swirling around her body, forcing Erza to take a few paces back as she and Kyoka both watched the girl in awe and fear. "Lend me your aid, O dragons of old, that I may exact your revenge on your captors!"

As she spoke, a dozen ghostly behemoths appeared in the air above them, all of them looking down hungrily at Kyoka, who was now pale as a sheet.

"What…?" she gasped as she looked back down at the fierce-eyed dragon slayer, who was looking at her with nothing less than total contempt. "Where did this power come from?!"

"I owe it to you, actually," Wendy said calmly, even as the dragons above them began to take on solid shapes, all of them chuckling menacingly at the frightened creation of Zeref. "I had all but forgotten about the Dragon Cry being the source of your unnatural power, until you started bragging about it. Ever since then, I've been trying to establish a link with the dragons' essence in that shard, and with the help of the Milky Way spell, I've finally done it." She looked up to see dragons of several shapes and sizes, and smiled at them quite charmingly, a stark contrast to the look that she had been giving Kyoka just a second ago.

"Hello, everyone," she said cheerily. "I know you normally don't care for humans, but I'll bet that you hate demons even more than us, right?"

"You are nothing less than lucky, Wendy Marvell, daughter of Grandeeney," said a male dragon, his bulky white-and-gray form reminding the girls of a thundercloud. The use of Wendy's adoptive mother's name surprised everyone present, even Wendy and some of the other materializing dragons. "We twelve had no issue with humans, until Acnologia slaughtered our kind simply for being dragons. Even so, my hatch-mate, my sister, felt a compassion for your kind that I do not understand, even to this day. I remember her speaking of you shortly before the last time that we met…"

"I am the Storm Dragon, Titan," he rumbled, lightning crackling in his maw. "Out of a respect for my departed sister, I and my brethren will aid you with the last of our existence, for you spoke truthfully, girl. As much as even some here still loathe humans because of Acnologia, we hate Zeref's kind even more, the unnatural abominations that they are. Left to run loose, they will annihilate even the legacy of our ancient magic and glorious reign."

"We feel our old strength return to our limbs thanks to your manifestations of your mother's magic, but it will be only for a few moments," said another dragon, this one green and purple in color. "After that, the last traces of our existence will leave this world."

"We will tend to the Face bombs scattered across Ishgar, for the sole reason that if there is no magic, then the last dragon slayers will have no chance against Acnologia," a ghostly she-dragon hissed. "We may have lost the battle to the dragon of the apocalypse, but through you vile slayers, we may just yet win the war." The other dragons nodded their agreements, and then shot off in a dozen different directions, roars of triumph echoing above the skies of Ishgar for the first time in centuries.

As they departed, the last of the magic power from the Dragon Cry shard left Kyoka's helm and swirled about Wendy before vanishing into the sky, trailing after the remains of the dragons that had created the power.

"No, no…" Kyoka gasped as the crystal fell from her helm, now dark and black, and devoid of any power whatsoever. "You… How could you do this?!" She glared at Wendy with a furious gaze before turning it on the slow-moving Chairman and screaming, "Hurry up, you old fool! If those dragons reach the Faces, they won't be able to detonate!"

"Sorry, didn't you say that he was under the control of a necromancer?" Erza asked with an evil grin as she stood over Kyoka, her Purgatory mace in hand. "I don't think that he'll listen to your instructions, even if you wanted him to."

"Hey, Carla!" Wendy called out as she began to stalk toward Kyoka, wind stirring in her hands.

"Y-Yes child?" the white exceed asked nervously as she and her kinsmen popped their heads above some rubble.

"See if you guys can find a map in that whole mess that tells us where the Faces are hidden," Wendy told her. "If it's anything like that first one that they tried to set off, there'll be a timer and an indicator of where they'll be." As she spoke, she pushed a button on the scouter that Rachel had lent her. "I need to make a call."

"Uh… Since when was Wendy super scary like Erza?" Happy asked as they began to move around the rubble.

"Something happened while she was fused with Rachel," Carla replied gravely. "I think that some of the other girl's memories may have mixed up with Wendy's, which might explain the personality change that she's undergoing."

"B-But she's still the same Wendy that we all know, right?" Happy squawked.

"Of course she is," Pantherlily said as he swatted his friend on the head. "Now let's worry about more pressing matters, like finding out if the Face bombs are being disabled by the dragons."

Meanwhile, Kyoka's fear was turning back into murderous fury. "You think that I'll just let you interfere with my lord's plans, you- hurk!"

She doubled over in agony, spitting up blood as Erza slammed her spiked mace into her navel with a slightly crazed look in her eyes. "I still have yet to repay your hospitality," the redhead said threateningly. "Now seems as good a time as any, with your extra defenses all gone."

It was then that Kyoka came understand the true meaning of the word 'terror'.

Gorun and Mard Geer both were cut off in their attacks against one another as a huge blur rushed above them at close to the speed of sound, the shockwaves of its passage buffeting them both so that their concentrations broke, and their spells ceased to struggle against each other. Neither of them got a clear look at the behemoth, but they did manage to get a glimpse of purple wings and a tail. Pairing that with the massive amounts of magic power that the creature was radiating, and it wasn't too hard for the two of them to figure out what had just passed them by.

"What are dragons doing here?" Mard Geer asked with a bent brow. "There should be none left, save for Acnologia." Yet despite his utterance, the dragon that had flown overhead was not black in color, meaning that it was not the dragon of the apocalypse that had come through.

"Looks like the so-called 'king of the dragons' missed a spot," Gorun laughed harshly. As he cast he senses outward, he uttered another chuckle before adding, "And it looks like he's got friends- another ten or so."

"I don't see why you're laughing," Mard Geer snarled, infuriated as he had not been for centuries. "This bodes poorly for you, too."

"Oh yeah?" the primal Saiyan asked. "How's that?"

"Dragons were not, as a whole, fond of humans," the demon replied through gritted teeth. "And though that hatred extends toward us Etherious, their presence brings another issue entirely into this game; Acnologia himself."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Gorun laughed. "Are you admitting to fearing another lifeform? Here I thought that you Etherious were supposed to be superior to all others in existence."

Mard Geer gritted his teeth, his fury mounting. Even if another power had arrived to disrupt his plans, how dare this human, this lowly bag of bones and meat with a stunted intellect mock him, the King of the Underworld?! "I still have my mission to fulfill," he seethed. "I will return to Lord Zeref, even if it means that I have to personally sully my claws with your blood!"

"Get on my level, hell spawn," Gorun laughed again. He suddenly stopped, his scouter alerting him to an incoming call. Holding up a hand to indicate that he wanted a moment, he said, "Sorry, excuse me. I need to take this."

"You dare ignore-?!"

"Yeah, hey Azura, what's up?" Gorun asked as he tapped the com button on the device. "Yeah… Oh no, I'm not busy… How the hell would I have missed that? Who do you think I am, Yamcha? …That was rhetorical!"

"Don't ignore me!" Mard shouted as he launched himself at Gorun, only to have the boy teleport right behind him and axe kick him into the ground for the fourth time that day.

"No, that was just the demon king getting rowdy," he heard the Saiyan youth sigh from down in the crater that was partially buried in. "As I was saying, no, I have no idea how those dragons just showed up outta nowhere. Wait, that was Wendy?! What about-? …Oh, so they reached a new level? Good for them. How's Cana handling the new powers I gave her?" There was a pause as Mard Geer forced himself out from underneath a half-ton of dirt and rocks. "Well, better than nothing, I guess. I'll have to teach her how to use that magic proper- No, I don't want you to teach her! You'd be a terrible teacher! …Gah, I don't have to take this! I'm going back to kicking Mard's butt to the underworld!" There was the sound of his scouter being turned off, then his face appeared back over the rim of the hole as he looked down at Mard Geer with an unsettling smile. "Your plan is a total wash," he chuckled. "Guess who woke the dragons?"

"What are you talking about?" Mard snarled as he leaped out of the hole, slightly surprised when Gorun didn't immediately rush him like he had the last couple of times. What is this monkey planning now?

"You made the mistake of letting our sky dragon slayer near one of your underlings," Gorun smirked. "She has the ability to communicate with the essence of dragons long dead, and when she was able to speak to them, they lent her the power contained within shard of the Dragon Cry so that they could take on physical form again."

"What-?!" the demon said in a strangled voice. "That kind of magic doesn't exist!"

"Normally, no, it doesn't," Gorun nodded as if in agreement. "But let the spirits of angry dragons stew for a few centuries, and apparently you can pull of some pretty amazing stuff, provided they see a reason to help you." Clicking his fingers as if he had just remembered something, Gorun added, "By the way, you know how I said your plan was a total wash?"

"The face bombs are set to detonate any-"

"The dragons are going to wreck them," his enemy said with a dark smile. "If two little girls can break one of those things, how do you think the entire arsenal will hold up to a dozen of the strongest magical forces this world has ever seen?"

So it was that Mard Geer finally remembered what bitter fury felt like.

"Those were…" Jiemma looked up at the sky, seemingly in awe of the dragons that soared above them, and taking his eyes off of Fang for just a moment.

That was all that the fused wizard needed to secure the win. "You seem to like those guys," he said as he held his hands out in front of him, a black-white magic circle flashing to life. "Thing is, you also despise people that rely on one another to grow strong."

"What's your point, boy?" the demon growled, his attention returned to the two of them. "Those creatures were the finest example of raw, unrelenting strength in this world! They are what the two of you strove to be, until you caved in to your own weaknesses!"

"We strove to be like them, only because our parents told us that we could!" Fang roared back. "The dragons that raised Sting and Rogue are the reason that we became as strong as we did! We relied on their guidance- without them, there would be no Twin Dragon Slayers, no Fang at all!"

"You say that you surpassed them, but now you speak of them as though they were a crutch, the dragons that you killed!" Jiemma bellowed, his crash magic radiating from him like a dark mist that threatened to disintegrate everything in the immediate vicinity. "Despite learning from the best, you're weaker than ever!"

"All right, we've had enough of this," Fang said sourly as his magic circle finished its construction. "Advanced Dragon Slayer Secret Art! Twilight Dragon's DEMON PUNISHER!"

Jiemma smote the fused wizard with his Crash Magic, blowing away the very ground that he stood on. Or so it looked like at first.

"Boo!" Fang's voice echoed a few-dozen yards behind Jiemma before two balls of energy, one shadow and one light, slammed into his back, sending him staggering a few paces. While he was off-balance, Fang let out another raw-throated yell as he fired off a barrage of even more dragon-slaying magic bolts, each one of them piercing through the defenses of the Dragon Cry like a hot knife through butter, wounding his old guild master again and again, until he was finally forced to his knees, bleeding and broken.

"You think… that this makes you-"

"Shaddup!" Fang cut him off. "Twilight Dragon's Flash FANG!" A typhoon of magic power blasted out of Fang's hands and swallowed up Jiemma, drowning out his death cry.

When the light and shadows finally dissipated, there was another, brief burst of energy that saw to Rogue and Sting falling on their rears, panting for breath.

"We cut that a little close," Sting groaned.

"I'm fairly certain that it was your flair for the melodramatics that caused us to hold ourselves back for so long," Rogue grumbled.

"Hey, when we've got that much power, it's kinda hard not to flaunt it just a little," his partner complained. "Besides, we got the bastard, in the end. Isn't that what counts?"

"No, because now Gorun has to fight Mard Geer without any backup," Rogue said pointedly. "Now we're out of power, and we can't do anything to help him."

"Not even if we hold onto this thing for him?" the White Dragon Slayer asked as he held up a battered-looking tome. "That Mard guy seemed pretty attached to it, so I'm willing to bet that it means something to him."

"Where did you find-"

"I kinda sat on it," Sting laughed. "Musta been knocked down during all the fighting." As he turned the book on its side to read the spine, he muttered, "E.N.D… Huh. Wonder if this is one of those demon-summoning books that Zeref uses?"

"If so, we'd better not mess with it until we find someone who does know what to do with it," Rogue said as he held out his hand for the tome. "I'll hold on to it for now, seeing as I'm better at evasion than you are."

"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in."

"What's the verdict, Carla?" Pantherlily asked from atop the former chairman, which he had bowled over with his muscular form, and was now keeping pinned down. In the remains of another room nearby, Erza was killing the demoness in a manner that the cats decided they'd rather not watch directly, and Wendy was standing guard at the control room entrance with a stony expression, just in case any remaining Tartaros forces decided to cause them trouble.

"One moment, please…" the white exceed muttered as she typed in a few commands. "This is hard, even with Clairvoyance." A few more seconds passed, the exceeds' ears twitching every time that Kyoka screamed in the background.

At last, Carla stepped back, and a large map depicting Ishgar showed itself above them, with hundreds of red dots swarming across it. Seeing it, Happy shouted, "There's that many of 'em?! How're the dragons gonna-?!"

Bleep.

"Huh?"

One of the red dots was replaced by an 'x'. Before any of the exceeds could voice their guess about what was happening, five more dots, each in a different directions, were also crossed out. Then eleven. Then twenty-three. On and on it continued, the red dots representing the Face bombs being replaced with crosses, leading the exceeds' faces to light up with joy.

"Aw, yeah!" Happy shouted gleefully. "That means that those Face things are history, right?"

"So it would seem," Carla laughed as she gazed down at the control panel.

"Well done, everybody," Pantherlily rumbled as Carla and Happy exchanged a hi-five.

Wendy looked over her shoulder, smiled, then hit the com button to send a one-way message. "Fairy Tail, the bombs are disabled. We win."

"Your plans are finished, your castle's a wreck, and your friends are just about done in," Gorun laughed at the enraged Mard Geer. "How the tables have turned."

"This changes nothing of the outcome for your kind, you filthy ape," Mard snarled, veins bulging on his forehead. "You've simply bought yourselves a few more decades, perhaps a century at best! When you die and the next generation comes to take up your mantle, they will make mistakes that I can exploit! I will not concede until I have returned to Zeref!"

"You want to meet Zeref?" Gorun laughed. "That's what his was all about? What, did daddy not pay enough attention to you while you were growing up? Got something you need to prove to him?"

"Return to Zeref' is just a phrase, you simpleton!" Mard screamed at him, his self-control all but gone. "Zeref made the Etherious for one purpose, and it wasn't to subjugate you pathetic creatures! It was to kill him!"

"…I'm sorry, I think I must have given you a concussion with how many times that I cracked your skull," Gorun laughed again. "Your goal is to what Zeref?"

"Our master was made immortal by the god Ankhseram as a punishment for trying to find a way to revive the dead," Mard Geer spat. "He longs to die, and so after many attempts at making a creature powerful enough to kill him, he managed to succeed- giving birth to my master, E.N.D." Gritting his teeth furiously, the demon went on to say, "However, before the true lord of the underworld could carry out his mission, he was trapped within the pages of the tome that I carry with me. The magic seal on it is absolute- nothing can break it, not other magics, not even curse power."

"So you wanted to obliterate the essence of magic itself in order to nullify that seal," Gorun surmised. "Release E.N.D., and the two of you can kill Zeref. Once the greatest magician that this world has ever seen fell by your hand, you could rule Earthland however you wanted."

"The last part will be a fringe benefit, but yes," Mard hissed. "With the Face bombs destroyed by the dragons, it will take another lifetime to destroy my master's seal. And while I'm certain that you could accomplish much in your time, I will ensure that your lifespan will be brief!"

The earth rocked once more as Mard Geer finally underwent a physical evolution that he had not tapped into for centuries. Even Gorun was having a hard time standing up against the raw output of power that his enemy was now emanating. Just how much power was he storing away?! He thought as he head-butted a rock into dust as it came flying at him.

The situation was worse than he could have imagined. He had been thrashing the demon as a Super Saiyan 4, but he could tell that even with his altered body allowing for a less painful and longer period of ascension, he was getting close to running on empty. Unfortunately, Mard had been right about one thing- he had lost a lot more power than he should have while he had been struggling against the cursed thorns in his Golden Oozaru form. Just when I thought I had this in the bag! He seethed bitterly, resigning himself to what was sure to be a brutal fight. If all else fails, I still have one more trick that'll at least cripple this bastard.

By now, Mard's transformation was done, and the energy dissipated to reveal a creature that looked very little like the King of the Underworld that the saiyan had been fighting so far. In place of the slender, level-headed, dark-haired man stood an armored gargoyle with sharp claws, fangs, maddened eyes, and huge wings that looked to be made of a red-blue crystalline material.

"Now…" the demon snarled. "Do you understand the futility of your struggle, monkey?!"

"The only thing I understand is that you're about to get a crash course in the definition of the word 'suicide'," Gorun smirked, his purple eyes narrowing while his heart raced in anticipation. "Come on, bring your best. This'll be fun since I've finished warming up."

Mard let out another enraged scream before beating his wings to shoot towards Gorun, even as thorns erupted from the earth to ensnare him and hold him tight. Uh-oh.

Shrrk!

The air around the two fighters suddenly plunged into arctic temperatures, and rose-colored ice swarmed across the ground to coat the thorns and stop them in their tracks. A spike made of the same material nearly impaled Mard Geer, but he shot up into the air in order to avoid it.

"Now what?!" he snarled.

"Hey, Gorun," a familiar voice said as the owner walked up, unhurried, as if he were on a morning stroll without a care in the world. Slinging his arm toward his friend, Gray muttered, "Catch."

Catching the item with one hand, Gorun allowed the primordial power of Super Saiyan 4 to fade away as he turned to face his guild mate. "Where'd you get this?" he asked as he ate a small green bean, feeling his power returning to full capacity.

He frowned when his wounds remained fresh, which led to Gray saying, "Your cousin is pretty smart, as it turns out. She gave Droy a bean a few days back to see if he could replicate it with his plant magic. I passed him by on the way here, so he gave me a couple of those. Did mention that he could get them to restore your magic or heal your wounds completely, but not both."

"Damn," Gorun muttered, wishing that he'd thought of it first. "She really is the smarter one." Even if his body still ached, his power was back to its full capacity. Not to mention that with the moon high overhead, he could go right back to Super Saiyan 4 nearly instantaneously if he wanted. But would that even be enough?

"Hey!" Mard Geer roared. "I'm not done with you, yet!"

"Whaddya say we rip the wings off this overgrown moth?" Gray asked as he held up his right arm, which now bore an arcane marking that Gorun did not recognize, but Mard Geer seemed wary of.

"Ice Demon Slayer…" the Etherious muttered. "That's Silver's power… Finally betray us, did he? Can't say I'm surprised."

"My old man and I had a heart-to-heart, and now I'm all set to do what he couldn't," Gray said, his voice as sharp as an icicle. Up above, Mard Geer was now hurtling down toward them at breakneck speeds.

"Wait, wasn't your dad dead?" Gorun asked incredulously, ignoring the profanities that Mard was hurling at them both.

"Necromancer turned him into Tartaros' ninth Demon Gate," Gray said shortly. "He's finally at peace, though."

"Damn," Gorun muttered as he tugged at his ear. "Then I hate to be rude when you're having a tough day, but do you think you could keep that loudmouth off of us for a minute so that we can come up with a game plan?"

Gray shrugged and conjured a dome of rose-colored ice to shield them from Mard. "That won't hold long," he said as they heard the demon crash into the barrier with a loud curse, cracking it. "Why do we need a plan? My dad gave me magic to deal with this freak- I've even got some traces of his energy from the Dragon Cry stored up in my arm."

"Even so, Mard Geer has the majority of that staff powering him up," Gorun said as he pulled one of his earrings off and held it out to Gray. "My raw strength would be enough to handle him, but my magic doesn't do well against dragon enchantments. Your magic, on the other hand, while not as strong as mine, no offense-"

"Some taken."

"-is something that he clearly doesn't want near him, if he can help it." As Gorun finished speaking, they heard something large wrap around the dome and begin to squeeze it mightily, cracking their shield even more.

"And accessorizing is gonna help us, how?" Gray asked him flatly as he stared at the blue gem being offered to him.

"This is a potara earring," Gorun said hurriedly. "If we use this, we can fuse without the Metamoran dance technique, and the resulting fusion will be way stronger than anything we've seen so far. Plus, we get one hour instead of thirty minutes." A few shards of ice chipped and fell on the two of them, but they did their best to ignore the vines trying to destroy their shelter.

"Why is that?" Gray asked as took the item and inspected it closely. "Is there a drawback to doing it this way?"

"Er, maybe one?" Gorun confessed. When Gray gave him a frown, he explained, "Okay, normally when two people use fusion, it comes undone after an hour. When a kai uses them, it's permanent."

Gray froze faster than any ice that he had conjured as he stared at the earring with alarm. "You're saying that if we do this, there's a chance that we may never come apart?"

"Slim, but yes," Gorun admitted as more ice chips struck their heads, which he brushed out of his hair with an annoyed glare at the ceiling. "Look, my mother- who is more kai than I am- used these, and she was able to split after an hour. So I really doubt that it's gonna affect us."

"But what if it did?" Gray asked stubbornly. "What if we can never separate? What about Kinana, and the rest of your team?"

Gorun gave him a hard look that matched his resolve before he answered, "If we don't do this, it probably won't matter, because we'll all be dead. I would rather live alongside them, having sacrificed my individuality, than see us all in graves. What about you?"

Gray surprised him by smiling and saying, "I was hoping you'd say that. Tell me how we make this work."

"Now, die!" Mard Geer screamed as he unleashed even more vines on top of the mass that had already been frozen in trying to break the cursed ice dome, having heard the cracks forming in the humans' futile barrier.

At the same instant that the ice and frozen vines shattered, there was a blinding pillar of light that erupted from the mass of thorns, from which an unfamiliar figure leaped out. What now?!

"All right!" a pair of voices crowed as the solitary figure landed between the mass of vines and their owner. He was tall with fair skin and chiseled muscles that would put the likes of Gohan during his prime years to shame. His eyes were dark gray and his spiky black hair sported midnight blue highlights. Unlike the Metamoran fusions, his clothing was actually a blend of the two wizards' wardrobe, meaning that he wore no shirt, which in turn exposed a teal-colored Fairy Tail emblem on his right pectoral muscle, and the mark of a demon slayer on his right forearm.

This must be that fusion technique that Silver spoke of, Mard thought furiously. If I remember correctly, their powers are not just added together- they are multiplied many times over. Even so, the magic power that he sensed was still not enough to defeat him and the Dragon Cry combined. "You really believe that a last-ditch effort like that will save you from me?!" he shouted. "Who do you think you are?!"

"Heh," the fusion replied mockingly as he looked up at the floating demon. "You bound a bunch of dragons to yourself, so we figured it should be okay for us to tag-team, too. I guess you already know about a couple of our guild's combos, like Narun and Lucino. But put Son Kaidon and Gray Fullbuster together, and we get… Raykai." Grinning up at Mard Geer, he added, "And I think that it's a good day for you to die."

"With that pathetic speck of magic as an excuse for your def-?"

BOOM!

Mard Geer went flying into a mountain for the umpteenth time that day, leaving behind a still-smiling Raykai, who lowered his fist as he shouted, "Sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of your bones being crushed into powder!"

Gorun: I knew it!

Saiki: What, that Rachel was your daughter from the future? I think it's safe to say that we all saw that one coming.

Gorun: Was it actually that obvious?

Azura: Kind of, yeah.

Mataras: Saiyan hybrid with a tail, harnesses god ki, suspicious circumstances of her arrival, foreknowledge of the conflict at hand... How did you not see that coming?

Gorun: You wouldn't let me!

Mataras: Fair enough.

Azura: So what happens next? You threw a lot of stuff at the readers with this chapter.

Mataras: Now, I make them sit on the edge of their seats until the next chapter comes out, on the anniversary of this story's release.

Gorun: Wait, seriously? We're almost at the two-year mark?

Mataras: Come April 1st, that will be the case. And it marks the end of this battle with Tartaros, but not before we get to see just what Raykai is capable of- and the last of Rachel's secrets will be unveiled, revealing your destiny in the process.

Azura: Good destiny, or bad?

Mataras: Why?

Saiki: She's hoping for bad.

Gorun: Shocker.

Mataras: Next time- Answers

Rachel: Don't miss it.

Gorun: Gah! When'd you get here?!

Next time on Saiyan Tail...

His enemy grit his teeth, the whites of his eyes tinged with red from hate while the floating wizard gazed upon him condescendingly while he assumed a defensive stance. Before Tartaros' leader could say anything, Raykai preempted him by shouting, "Let's go!"

Mard Geer let out a furious howl and unleashed his curse of thorns from his hand, prickly vines shooting out by the hundreds to try and ensnare Raykai in a crushing grip that would rend him in half. The fusion smirked before blasting off at the speed of sound, his demonic enemy in hot pursuit as he tried to catch up to his quarry.

As soon as he noticed the vines beginning to actually come close enough to grab him, he decided that it was time to change gears. Laughing while he slapped away a few vines and putting on an extra burst of speed to put some distance between him and his enemy, Raykai turned back to face the winged menace with a confident smile. "Now it's my turn," he declared. "Takeover: Golden Demon Soul!" Flexing his muscles, he channeled the power that he had hidden away throughout his body, chilling the air around him while turning his hair, guild mark, and demon slayer emblem bright gold, even as his eyes changed to an emerald shade that spelled trouble for the Underworld King.

His enemy grit his teeth, the whites of his eyes tinged with red from hate while the floating wizard gazed upon him condescendingly while he assumed a defensive stance. Before Tartaros' leader could say anything, Raykai preempted him by shouting, "Let's go!"

Mard Geer let out a furious howl and unleashed his curse of thorns from his hand, prickly vines shooting out by the hundreds to try and ensnare Raykai in a crushing grip that would rend him in half. The fusion smirked before blasting off at the speed of sound, his demonic enemy in hot pursuit as he tried to catch up to his quarry.

As soon as he noticed the vines beginning to actually come close enough to grab him, he decided that it was time to change gears. Laughing while he slapped away a few vines and putting on an extra burst of speed to put some distance between him and his enemy, Raykai turned back to face the winged menace with a confident smile. "Now it's my turn," he declared. "Takeover: Golden Demon Soul!" Flexing his muscles, he channeled the power that he had hidden away throughout his body, chilling the air around him while turning his hair, guild mark, and demon slayer emblem bright gold, even as his eyes changed to an emerald shade that spelled trouble for the Underworld King.