Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or Fate Stay Night, any resemblance to any other Fairy Tail or Fate Stay Night fan fiction is coincidental and plagiarism is not intended. No flames please, constructive criticism only.
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Gray Fullbuster was not having fun, Far from it. He had been running all across town not finding anyone, he had taken to the rooftops to go faster but he had run into an invisible wall just as he was about to leap to another rooftop across the street.
Contrary to what he expected, however, he was not trapped, no he was being kept out. Closer inspection revealed Natsu, and basically everyone who had accepted that challenge from earlier.
"So this is where everyone was taken," Gray mumbled as he looked down at the scene.
To say things didn't look good was a major understatement. This Irene woman looked completely untouched, and not through lack of trying especially on Natsu's part. Gray had arrived just in time to see everyone attempt a combined attack on her, except for Gajeel who she'd swatted away like an annoying insect.
The was a large boom and smoke completely obscured the battlefield.
"Did they do it?" He asked. "What—b-but how?" The ice wizard got his answer rather quickly as the smoke cleared, revealing her just standing in the same position as before, completely unaffected. "She got hit with so much magic energy, and she looks like nothing happened at all."
Indeed, even the roar attack that Natsu let lose had no visible effect. Neither her skin nor clothing were burnt or charred in any way whatsoever. The large pieces of stone that Elfman had tossed at her lay broken and scattered along with the wood that Laki conjured using her magic.
"You all have no idea do you?" The woman stated shaking her head "You're comprehension begins and ends at the fact that 'I'm strong' I don't think you can truly comprehend just utterly outmatched you are, and that's why your still fighting me. Stupidity and Bravado do go so well hand in hand I suppose."
"Keep talking lady." Wakaba growled, "We'll take you down, and then you won't be so smug."
"IRON DRAGO-GAHH!" Gajeel had activated his Iron Dragon Scales, covering his body in them. But like before Irene treated the attack like a joke and simply gave him a slap to arm, the force of which was such that Gajeel's scales completely shattered and he was sent crashing into the ground gouging a large trail into the ground before stopping near a wall.
"Ah, my apologies, I truly do want this to last but I think I may have shattered quite a number of bones with that one." Irene said shaking her head with lament "Ah well, that's what he gets for trying a sneak attack."
She may have sounded like it and may have acted like it had been an accident but Gray was not fooled for a second. From the short time he'd been watching this 'battle', the boy definitely tell that nothing she did was ever an 'accident'. Every single move she made had a purpose, nothing was wasted.
Then she made her move, it happened in the blink of an eye. One moment she was still in front of them then the next she was gone. The wizards all looked around in confusion.
"Did she run away?" Laki asked hopefully.
"Where'd she go? COME BACK HERE AND FI-Oof" Natsu's yell was cut off as he suddenly gripped his stomach and fell to his knees.
"Natsu what's GA-ACK." Macao also stopped as he too fell to his knees also gripping his stomach, he spat up some bile as he did so.
Gray then realised what had happened, even as he spotted the woman standing behind them all, as everyone suddenly fell to their knees and held their stomachs. Some puking others managing just managing to hold it in.
This woman had struck them with such speed, that their brains were only just now realising that they had been attacked. It was ridiculous, like something out of a comic or a tv show, her power, her speed, it was all completely unreal. It was like someone had taken an overpowered fictional character and made them real.
But even, so Gray couldn't let this go on.
"Ice-Make: Lance!" Gray unable to hold himself back anymore sent a trio of icy spears at the woman, hoping to do, something.
He was to be disappointed as his ice magic smashed against a runic barrier and shattering into nothing.
"I'm sorry young man." She spoke suddenly looking up at Gray directly in his eyes, causing him to freeze up. "But I wrote the rules of this enchantment barrier myself, so you'll have to wait your turn."
With that she turned her attention back to the wizards she was 'fighting'. Gray then saw one of the rules floating before him and his heart sank.
Until the conclusion of the battle all outside interference including communications are forbidden.
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"Erza do you know what's going on right now?" Makarov asked the girl.
"I think so, even though I was stone I was still able to hear most of what was said," Erza replied reequipping her armoured battle dress.
"Alright we don't have time to waste, I need to you to hurry to save those kids from Irene fast," Makarov ordered.
"Hold on gramps, don't get ahead yourself." Gray's voice suddenly echoed through telepathy.
"Gray?" Makarov said as he remembered that he'd left a telepathic link of his own open. "What do you mean?"
"Look, Gramps, I wanna help too, but this woman she's created a rule on this barrier that prevents all outside interference until the battle is over," Gray informed them. "She seems intent on dragging this out though."
"Did she specifically say that SHE created the rule?" Makarov asked impatiently. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yeah, Gramps she said it me herself after I tried attacking from outside," Gray answered very sure of his answer.
"Damn it, then it's hopeless," Makarov said sinking to his knees.
"Master?" Erza looked surprised at the old man seeming to give up.
"Erza, Irene Belserion is not only a master of Enchantment magic far beyond Freed, but she's the strongest woman on the continent of Alvarez, her power is even beyond mine," Makarov replied unable to look up. "Even if you could crack through that barrier she'd probably just kill them all. We'd need a way to get through that barrier and save everyone quickly enough before she can act, but even you wouldn't be able to break the rules of the enchantment in time."
"Maybe I can't, but I bet she can," Erza said looking at the statue of Lucy.
"I dunno Erza, even if you got her back to normal again she'd probably be super mad and just try to go after Laxus instead." Happy pointed out.
Indeed the cat was correct, Lucy's statue was definitely giving off an aura of hatred and malice, one that vowed revenge the moment she was set free.
"We don't have any way to control her Erza." Makarov protested, even the threat of expulsion would likely not stop the golden girl from going to kill Laxus.
Erza let out a sigh and walked up to Lucy's statue. She leant her head and began whispering into the right ear. Almost instant the aura vanished, and Erza pulled away.
"She'll do it." Erza said ignoring the aura which had now been replaced with one of glee, excitement and a bit of contemplation "Now I just need to find Evergreen and force her to remove the spell."
"Erza, just what did you do?" Makarov asked with shock.
"Yeah, how'd you get her to help out?" Happy asked also curious.
"I made a promise she'd never refuse," Erza replied shortly, clearly having no wish to elaborate.
"Look there's forty-four now!" Happy pointed out. "But there was only forty-two earlier. We have someone else joining in."
"But who could it be?" Makarov wondered.
"Aren't you guys forgetting about someone?" Erza smirked, "A member whose frequently out of town."
"Of course, he's back just when we need him the most." Makarov cried joyfully.
"Hey Gramps, I'll talk to you later, looks like I've got company," Gray said before the connection cut out.
A beep from the status board got their attention.
"Bickslow Vs Gray. In progress." Happy read off the board.
"I'll go find Evergreen!" Erza yelled as she began running out of the guild, albeit noticeably slower than she had been able to move since the Tower of Heaven.
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"So Erza has recovered and now Mystogan will be joining us." Laxus chuckled as he looked upon his own version of the status report which floated before him. "Including me, that's three of Fairy Tails elite coming head to head."
He clenched his fist and lightning rapidly danced and crackled over his arm. However it was not yellow as usual, but rather a white colour.
"You can't have a proper festival without the main event, and what a main event it'll be. Thanks to my new friend giving me this gift, Mystogan isn't going to have the easy he expects, reincarnate or not this won't be a fight that he'll win so easily."
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Erza had been running through the streets near the guild which, surprisingly were emptier than she expected, especially considering the festival was so close.
'I have to find Evergreen fast." Erza thought looking around for any sign of the woman. 'There's no telling when that woman will grow bored of Natsu and the others and decide to just finish them.'
The Knight suddenly skidded to a stop when she noticed a golden powdery substance floating around her.
"Fairy Bomb: Gremlin." Erza had less than half a second to react, using the invisible air she was able to blow the fairy dust away, where it exploded, harmlessly destroying a few deserted shops around her.
"Well well she was correct, you did escape on your own." Erza looked up to see Evergreen standing above her on a rooftop, a quartet of wings extending from her back. "On another note, your movements seem rather sluggish, I guess that poison must still be coursing through your system. How fortunate for me, no magic resistance for you I'm afraid and no superhuman speed either."
"I haven't needed it in the past Evergreen, just because I don't have it now doesn't mean you should think it makes any less of a fighter."
"You really annoy me, calling yourself Titania, I am the only queen of the fairies." Evergreen sneered. "Seeing as that heinous artificial eye stops me from turning you back to stone, I'll have to use a different tactic. Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!"
A great number of small light bullets shot rapidly at Erza, who roared and used the invisible air a booster to launcher herself up to slash at Evergreen.
"Try again!" Evergreen taunted, easily dodging the attack and flying away.
"Coward!" Erza yelled giving chase, using Prana Burst to try and keep up, she was forced to slash away at the needles which came her way which Evergreen was leaving in her wake.
"You're quite adept at deflecting my needles aren't you? I wonder could you handle twice as many?" Just like that Evergreens needles doubled in both speed and quantity, Erza tried to keep up using two swords but even so, it was enough and a needle tore through her sleeve and another damaged her leg.
It was then that Erza realised something. She could feel the magical needles hitting her, but they didn't hurt. The pain they should be causing was insignificant that it did not register. This meant had more ability to focus was not being robbed by pain, and so coming up with a strategy to end this she prepared her counter attack.
"What's going on?" Evergreen cried confused. "With this many needles impacting you, even you should on the ground in pain."
"That's something I should thank Lucy for actually," Erza replied with a grin.
"What do you mean?"
"In the Tower of Heaven, she hit my limbs with weapons from her Gate of Babylon over and over again. Compared to that pain, I can't even feel an attack this weak." Erza replied with a smirk.
Suddenly Erza switched back to using a single sword and sheathed it in the invisible air. But she wasn't done, she used this to extend its reach and using her Prana Burst on her arms she began deflected the needles at a much faster rate, but the reach was just short of Evergreen herself.
"Extending the reach of your sword, that won't work," Evergreen growled flying back further to keep away from the sword.
Erza kept up the pursuit, boosting towards Evergreen and slashing at her. But her swings were far from random, every time Evergreen dodged she did so exactly as Erza expected. When Erza came at her from the right she moved to the left, when she attacked from the left she moved right, an attack at her head caused her to descend and attack to her feet caused her to ascend.
With all these predictable reactions in mind, it wasn't long before Erza had manoeuvred Evergreen to the exact place she wanted the, would be Fairy Queen, to be. A pair of reequipped swords later and Evergreen was pinned by her sleeves to a wall.
"Personal character aside you're still a member of Fairy Tail, the same as anybody else," Erza said, minding what she said, she couldn't let Evergreen know just how desperate she was for Lucy to be released, no need to give her any advantage. "If you want to call yourself Titania, then feel free. I don't even know who gave me that name in the first place." Her dismissal of the name seemed to get to Evergreen who glared at Erza. "If you cease this nonsense and turn the girls back to normal then I promise that I will not harm you," Erza vowed as she dismissed the invisible air.
"You're being a bit naïve aren't you?" Evergreen said with a smirk. "I'll have you know that my stone eyes grant me another ability as well. Remote control."
Erza's stare at Evergreen hardened upon hearing this.
"Drop to your knees and bow before me. If you refuse then I'll my power to topple your precious little statues and shatter them." She yelled gleefully.
She looked smug as light enveloped Erza, but her looked quickly turn to one of fearful surprise as now the Knight was wearing her Heavens Wheel armour and about twenty swords and other weapons were hovering just behind her.
"I'm impressed Evergreen I never thought you were the kind who would sacrifice her life for her ideals. If they must be shattered, then I will have no other choice but to collect your soul in retribution for their demise." Erza spoke coldly a deadly serious look in her eyes.
Finding no hint of mercy in her opponents eyes it really didn't take long for Evergreen to scream out in fear, only to be silence as Erza punched her squarely in the face.
"If you're going to bluff then do it right." Erza lectured her.
"Alright, you win." Evergreen conceded with the fist still in her face.
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Back at the cathedral, Laxus wasn't happy.
"I should have known, even with the poison in her Scarlet is still strong." Laxus growled punching a pillar "No matter, I still have a couple of cards left to play."
So he activated the runes and began broadcasting to the guild. Except for the poor scrubs stuck in the barrier with his new friend.
"Can you hear me old man? The rest of you had better listen up too. Looks like one of the rules has gone out the window. That's fine, I'll just add a new one. In other words, since I would hate to end the Battle of Fairy Tail early, I've decided to activate the Thunder Palace."
"Are you out of your mind Laxus?" His grandfather yelled through the connection.
"You have one hour and ten minutes. If you think you can win you'd better get moving. Unless you're ready to hand the Guild over to me now, Master."
He let out a laugh as he closed the connection, letting the old man stew with that threat hanging over his head. Suddenly he turned at the sound of the doors to the cathedral opening. Walking through them was an armoured knight shrouded in an aura that made it very difficult to discern anything that was under that armour.
"Oh, hey Mystogan. You actually showed up," Laxus grinned at the man's presence. "I'm surprised you're here. I didn't think this game would be of any interest to you."
"If you bring the Thunder Palace down right now, we may be able to convince the citizens that it was part of the festival," Mystogan tried reasoning with him.
"Is that really why you came back? Give me a break. You're looking for a piece of the action; you want to know who the strongest wizard in Fairy Tail is. Is it you or me?" Laxus stated.
"Laxus, you and I both know how a battle between us would end," Mystogan stated.
"That's a bit arrogant don't you think?" Laxus chuckled "Counting your chickens before they've hatched."
"Perhaps, but even so there is no need to drag innocent people into this." Mystogan tried reasoning again. "If you want to do battle, then I will indulge you."
"It's clear one of us is Fairy Tail's top wizard. The question is which one of us is it?"
"If you see the world in such simple terms as the strong and the weak, then you are truly blind."
"I'm sick of talking about it! Let's settle this here and now, Mystogan! Or should I say-" Mystogan cut Laxus off by quickly tearing out a large slab of stone, which suddenly turned black and was covered in red veins. He tossed it at Laxus who simply grinned and met the attack with a blast of white coloured lightning.
To Mystogans surprise instead of the slab ignoring Laxus attack as it should have, it exploded, releasing enough magic energy that the shockwave shattered all the glass windows in the cathedral.
"Tell me: how do you know about that?" Mystogan demanded.
"Oops, did I strike a nerve? It's a rare treat to see you lose your cool like that. I got a deal for ya: beat me and I swear I'll tell you everything I know," Laxus smirked.
"Alright, how about this, just how did you do that?"
"Do what?" Laxus asked in a false confused tone.
"You know very well what I mean." Mystogan accused. "Reincarnates like myself have speed, strength, agility and power far beyond normal wizards. In the time I made that attack just now you should have no time to dodge much less attack. Even if you did your magic isn't strong enough to overpower that attack. So how?"
"Oh, you mean this?" White coloured lightning began arcing over Laxus body. It did so with increasing intensity, he let his jacket drop to the ground revealing his uncovered torso.
It was then that Mystogan could sense it, Laxus magic energy was all wrong. There was a bright flash and before Mystogan knew it Laxus was behind him, as he instinctively turned to look a fist ploughed into his helmet, the strength caught Mystogan off guard and he was sent flying through five pillars before crashing into the back wall.
"That….speed." Mystogan tried to regain his composure.
Just where was this strength and speed coming from? Normal wizards should have great difficulty keeping up with a reincarnate never mind being able to fight on their level like this.
"Don't tell me you're done already, I'm just getting started" Laxus cackled, as his body seemed to gain a decent amount of muscle mass and flesh coloured scales began appearing on his arms. The white lightning was arcing across him even more rapidly than before.
Escaping from the wall Mystogan focused on Laxus and was stunned at what he could see and feel. The man's magic energy was fluctuating wildly, in addition, his veins and arteries had come to the surface across his body, glowing with a faintly visible white light. This was not the sign of any healthy magic. When magic was used to boost one's power, their cardiovascular system becoming visible was a telltale sign that it was very dangerous to the user. Whatever was giving Laxus this incredible power was putting a great strain on him physically, and perhaps mentally too.
"Laxus, what in God's name have you done to yourself?" Mystogan asked with worry for the man opposite him.
"It's a gift from my new friend." Laxus cackled lightning arcing all across his body. "With this power, I'll be able to crush You, Erza, Heartfillia AND THE OLD MAN!" the bellow caused the white bolts of lightning to lash out violently turning pillars and sections of the wall to dust instantly.
As he prepared himself for battle Mystogan knew this would not be an easy fight. He could not treat Laxus like any other opponent. If he went all out he would kill the other man, and that was not the Fairy Tail way. But holding back risked Laxus doing serious damage to him. Plus he was on a time limit, Mystogan knew that he needed to incapacitate Laxus quickly, before whatever this 'gift' was, tore his body and perhaps his mind, apart, and before the Thunder Palace activated.
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Bickslow had given Gray a beat down. So now he lay on the rooftop looking down. The various wizards were all scattered about, bruised, bloodied, beaten and all out of magic energy. Calling what had just happened a battle was grossly incorrect. A battle was a situation where both sides had an equal chance winning. This conflict had been completely one-sided from the very beginning.
Irene hadn't even been threatened throughout the entire battle. Caught off guard by Natsu once or twice, perhaps. But threatened? No. To her, this entire thing had been a bit of entertainment, a distraction purely for her own amusement, even though every single wizard had fought with all their strength and will. But despite all that, there nothing to show for their efforts. No burn marks, no bruises, no broken skin, not even a single hair was out of place on this woman.
In return, the challengers all lay scattered before her, lying next to remnants of broken weapons, wood and other bits of magic which remained after the fact. Elfman lay beaten against a wall, with Laki and Mickey strewn across his legs. Macao, Wakaba and Nab were sharing a pile of table shards. Natsu was on the ground still trying and failing to stand up again. While Gajeel was quite thoroughly unconscious, lying face down in a rather deep crater with both arms crushed after Irene had gotten irritated with his constant attempts at attacking her. You might think that that broken was meant, but no, Irene had grabbed both of Gajeels arms, which were covered in his iron dragon scales, and had simply crushed them both, with the same ease as an elephant would have as it stepped on a soda can.
"I believe I'm done," Irene said grabbing Natsu by his hair and lifting him up to her face, dangling him above the ground. "As entertaining punching bags, you and your friends have made I find there is no more enjoyment to be had here."
She then covered his entire head with her hand and held him in the air.
"But I will commend you, every time I went to end one of your friends lives you kept butting in, saving them and keeping this somewhat interesting. So as a reward, I'm going to destroy you first, but worry not, your friends will be joining you shortly."
Irene began to squeeze Natsu's head, the pressure increasing slowly but this did nothing to dull the great strength behind each finger. Just as the dragon slayer thought that his had might crack like an egg, he heard something. Like a sword going through the air?
"Gah!" The woman holding him let out a cry of pain and in surprise tossed him back away from her, where landed near Macao on his back. "What-"
She grabbed her staff made to use it to defend herself but was shocked as another sword crashed through it turning to splinters before slamming into her. Irene tried to regain her balance but was forced to rapidly dodge as more weapons flew at her exploding upon impact with the ground as the just barely missed her.
Looking up to see her attacker, Irene saw that the enchantment barrier was now clearly visible, all the runes which made it up blinking rapidly in warning. Most congregated over a golden crack in the barrier. Just visible were a pair of golden armoured hands were pulling the crack clearly widening it. They resistance for just a fraction of a second before they simply pushed as though opening a pair of curtains, this let out a golden light as the entire barrier shattered apart like glass.
When the light faded away, everyone could see her striding through the defeat bodies of the fairy tail wizards before coming to a stop before Irene. Clad in her golden armour was Lucy, her arms folded across her chest, looking down at Irene who was on one knee gasping.
"This is impossible, I created this enchantment barrier and wrote the rules myself. Even the Wizards Saints shouldn't have been able to violate the rules I set, So how? How did you break the rules of my all-powerful enchantment!"
"To have such great overconfidence in your own pitiful magic, how arrogant." Lucy sighed clicking her tongue, even as the still conscious wizards behind her all thought as one 'Hypocrite' "The rules of any situation do not apply to me ever, for the simple reason that I am the rules."
"That's our Lucy." Natsu chuckled weakly opening an eye to look at the scene.
"Now then, before I get down to the business of crushing you, why don't you take off that disguise and drop this ridiculous act. Every word you speak has feelings forced into them, you're not good at this so show your true self."
"Dis-guise?" Natsu asked.
"Indeed, have you not wondered?" Lucy asked "I cut her quite clearly on her arm and yet she's not bleeding, even a small cut like that should bleed." Lucy motioned to the arm which Irene was cradling, indeed it was not bleed, the skin look more like stone which had been cut into.
It was then that Natsu saw a change in Irene's demeanour. She stood up, quickly and easily, dropped the arm which she had been cradling, even letting her hat fall from her head. Looking at her now it was like all emotion had just been drained from her body. There was no sign of the sadistic glee she had while giving them a beat down. No amusement from Natsu attacking her again and again, no intimidating aura, nothing. It was like she had just become dead inside.
"Hmph, so you could tell, it's no wonder you are considered a top class heroic spirit. King of Heroes." Irene's voice was far different now, not quite monotone but close, there was a hint of an unidentifiable emotion in her voice. "Very well, I shall oblige you."
Suddenly out of the cut on her arm a geyser of white magic energy started coming out. The cut began widening and into cracks which started spiderwebbing, spreading down across her hand and up her arm across her whole body, the white magical power following the trail.
"Gray, come down here now." Lucy urge the Ice wizard, who obliged, despite his injures landing next to Natsu. As he did so a transparent golden curtain surrounded the injured wizards.
Looking at the woman now the energy was still leaking from the cracks in her skin, but also now it seemed to pulse from her body, which got faster with each passing second. Without warning, the magic power erupted from her as bright white light and releasing an earth-shattering boom which Gray and Natsu could feel even through the veil Lucy had used to afford them protection, they had little doubt that all of Magnolia could feel and most like see it as well. When the shaking and the light finally died down. When their sight was clear, Gray and Natsu were shocked, absolutely nothing remained of the buildings which had formed the square around them were gone, not even rubble remained. They had been totally destroyed, causing Gray to shake at the thought of what might have happened had he not come down from the rooftop.
"Ah, my apologies." There was that voice again, the emotion within seemed to be amusement, but only slightly. "My magic energy shares my nature."
"And what nature is that?" Lucy asked clearly not interested.
"Destruction." The woman replied, the trace of amusement gone from her voice.
She had white hair and tanned skin with tribal like lines of pale skin across her body. Black sharpened nails like claws were on each of her hands and her eyes were a shade crimson rivalling Lucy's own. The largest piece of clothing was the bridal like veil atop her head which went down to her waist, an extremely short miniskirt adorned her waist, with a black undergarment clearly visible. In her right hand a was sword with a blade formed of tri-coloured bands of light which were coloured pink, blue and green.
"Name yourself, mongrel I don't have all day." Lucy demanded annoyed at being kept waiting.
"Name, Irene Belserion is a name I do not wish to be known by, I destroyed that woman out of disgust and played the role of her out of curiosity but now that veil is lifted and Irene Belserion is gone forever, now nothing of her remains, not even her body. It is mine now." The woman spoke of Irene with disgust as if she was envisioning a horribly ugly slug. "I am…. Altera!"
She introduced herself grandly, swishing the blade through the air for emphasis.