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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It hadn't taken even half a second for Lucy to lose her patience and attack. Luckily, the citizens of Magnolia had long since gotten used to explosions and fighting in their town and so knew to stay away.
Steel and energy clashed against each other, as the sword Lucy was holding met Altera's own, chromatic one. In this battle, Altera's physical strength was greater, as Lucy's was still being sapped by that poison. She could have cured it, but her dearest Saber's offer made her come to the rescue right away without dealing with the poison.
Added to this, was the fact that Altera was very powerful in her own right. While Lucy could tell that she was not using her full power, from what she could tell it seemed to be inaccessible to her, which made them somewhat even. Every time Altera tried pressing her in close combat Lucy would drive her back using the Gate of Babylon, which she could open virtually anywhere, including inches away from someone's face. However, when Lucy pressed this advantage, Altera would quickly and easily deflect the weapons sent at her and rush back into Close combat again.
It was a stalemate, in which neither could really gain a significant advantage. Hence the situation now with both combatant's blades locked against each other. It was then that Lucy decided to try something different, she opened a portal right up in Altera's face and then as she seemed distracted, swiftly lashed out, kicking her in the gut. But it seemed the white hero had a similar idea and at the same time kicked Lucy as well, causing them both to slide a fair distance away from each other.
"You said that Irene Belserion was destroyed. Why don't you elaborate on that?" Lucy inquired, "After all, why say destroy, why not just say that you killed her?"
Altera chuckled softly at the question. "To answer that, a bit of context is required!" The tanned woman rushed in, cause Lucy to defend and lock their blades again. "It begins four hundred years ago when dragons ruled over this world. You see at the time, the Ethernano levels in this world were low, and humanities hopes were dim. The dragons that ruled the world saw them as little more than food. Make no mistake, while there were dragons that wished to live in harmony with humans they were rare, while the remaining majority of dragons were evil, even those of the former factions weren't blameless, they weren't born thinking highly of humans. Acnoligia's existence is a natural reaction to the cruelty of the dragons."
"Is this going anywhere?" Lucy asked with a bored expression.
"Dragons were evil?" Natsu mumbled, "But that can't be right, Igneel wasn't…"
"Humans were despairing, their magic was not powerful enough to slay the dragons, and the gods they worshipped, simply sat on their thrones and did nothing. What could humanity do but pray for salvation? Pray for a miracle? Pray…."
"For a hero." Lucy finished. "But is something as simple as prayer enough for us to be incarnated into this world?"
"Who knows? but even so miracle of miracles a child was born, different from other humans. One who was stronger, faster, more durable and powerful enough to challenge to dragons."
"I take it their legend had something to do with slaying dragons correct?"
"Indeed," Altera confirmed pushing against Lucy only for her to push back. "But he was only one person and the dragons were many, by the time more heroes were reincarnated the dragon king festival was on the verge of beginning and mankind's numbers were dropping to levels of near extinction-"
Lucy had begun to get impatient and fired several weapons at Altera who deftly dodged them.
"Alright, moving along. When the dragon king festival started the outcome seemed clear, even with heroes thinning out their numbers the evil majority of dragons were going to win over those who chose co-existence. Add to this another problem, not all heroes awoke immediately."
"Can you speed this up?"
"Very well, some heroes like yourself were born with memories of their past lives and their powers, ready to be used. But others remained dormant for years even decades until powerful emotions trigger their awakening. As for me, I chose to remain dormant, I just wanted to watch Irene, to see what she would do with her life. I was curious and so I watched, watched her actions, her choices, her experiences. But then one day she and made a choice to get more power, she became the first Dragon Slayer. But as a side effect, she wound up beginning to transform into a dragon. She was pregnant at the time and used magic to slow down her child's development, but when the Dragon King festival ended she was about to be executed to due to fear of her becoming like Acnologia, to save her child she sped up the process and became a dragon, destroying the castle she was imprisoned in and killing hundreds before fleeing to a forest-covered mountain. She spent centuries trying to return to her human form, eventually four hundred years later, she met the black wizard who gave her, her human form back but in appearance only."
"She was unable to stand the consequences of her own actions, correct?" Lucy sighed.
Instead of a response, Lucy widened her eyes as a white light blinded her. When her vision cleared she saw that she was in a forest, with Altera nearby.
"Where have you taken us?" Lucy demanded
"I am projecting my memories on an enchantment barrier." Altera explained, "I thought you'd be interested, in the last few days of Irene Belserion's existence, for clarification's sake."
Truthfully, Lucy was curious. A reincarnate who willingly chose to remain dormant instead of awakening at birth as she had? The lesser beings that called themselves heroes tended to be unruly rabble. Plus she hated surprises that she herself was not at least in some way, aware of. So she needed what information she could get.
"Alright, let's see then."
Out of the bushes a young man with black hair wearing black and tan robes with gold a trim, along with a large, flowing white toga draped around his torso began approaching.
Opposite him was a dragon with light-coloured scales running all over her body. It had a dark-coloured fiery-man running down her back and arms, which appear to be connected to feathery wings. There were three pairs of extensions from the jaw, and a dark-coloured wing-like design over the eyes that's complemented by two oval designs right above it, the bigger one on the bottom and the smaller one on top. It also has them on its claws, four extending from the forearm and three on each finger. There's a noticeable border above the nostrils that divided the mouth from the face, extending near the back of the head. Finally, there were a pair of jagged horns extending from the base of the skull and feather-like scales extending from the back of its knees.
"Ah, this is a rare sight, to think a dragon still existed." The young man commented with what seemed to be relief in his voice.
"Who are you?" The dragon demanded clearly female.
"Is that?"
"Indeed, the black wizard revered and feared by the people of this world as Zeref," Altera confirmed.
"Ah pardon me, you are human are you not?" Zeref inquired before performed some magic.
In a swirl of magic power, the dragon became a human, Irene. A look of surprise on her face.
"I'm….human! I've regained my human form!" She yelled joyfully as she looked at her claws now human hands and fingers. "I've finally…."
"Only in appearance." Zeref interrupted. "It is regrettable, but you've long since-"
"NO NOT ALL I-…" Irene yelled before turning to look at her reflection in a pool of water "Returning to this form is more than enough, I'm happy beyond word."
"But of course, it wasn't long before those words rang hollow." Altera narrated, as they suddenly jumped from the forest to an inn, where Irene was sitting at a table, staring at a piece of food on her fork.
"I cannot taste anything." She sounded frightened, before rapidly shovelling food into her mouth. "I eat and eat but there's no flavour at all."
Suddenly they were in a stable, where Irene lay wide awake on a pile of hay.
"Ican'tsleepIcan'tsleepIcan'tsleepIcan'tsleepIcan'tsleepIcan'tsleep" She rapidly mumbled to herself, before sitting up. "It itches, it's cold, it hurts." Sweat began dripping down her face, it was clear that this was taking a toll on her sanity. "What is this I'm feeling? All I want is to become a normal human once more."
There was a pause before she broke it.
"I AM A HUMAN! HUMAN! I'M HUMAN" She screamed as if someone had said otherwise before settling down "All I want is to give birth to this child as a human. A human…"
A mere heartbeat later she put her hands on her belly.
"Human, there is a human inside me." She said as if having a revelation, a look Lucy did not like was now crossing the woman's face, the look of a desperate madwoman. "Life, human. A human body." The maddened look in her eyes became even more crazed. "If I could just enchant myself unto the unborn baby inside me. I could finally get my hands on an authentic human body."
The scene skipped again, back to the forested mountain. A newborn infant lay before Irene, another woman stood not far away looking at the scene clearly awaiting something.
"A new existence, a new body, a new life. I am you and you are me." Irene giggled as brought her hand closer to the infant, preparing to enchant herself. "Let us become on my child."
But just as she brought her hand close it was stopped by a barrier. An enchantment barrier….clearly of her own magic.
"W-what?" Irene was confused, before suddenly screaming in agony out as her arm began trembling before she gripped her head as if it would explode. "W-WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"
'Enough.' These were not spoken words, but rather words in Irene's own mind. Lucy recognised the voice as Altera's own. She was speaking from within Irene.
The other woman who had been waiting nearby looked concerned but seemed frozen in place.
'You are nothing but a coward, a pitiful woman who cannot bear the burden of the consequences of your own choices.' There was another heartbeat, with it another wave of pain causing Irene to scream out again.
"Who-WHO ARE YOU?!" Irene screeched, trying to make the pain go away by scratching at her own head.
'I am, thou and thou art I' Altera's voice said dramatically 'In life, they called me the Scourge of God, Attila the Hun. I destroyed the Western Roman Empire and as I lay dying in a pool of my own blood I thought only of ways to destroy Rome. I remained dormant because I was curious, to see what kind of life Irene Belserion would lead, you were interesting, but now all I see is a pathetic worm.'
Another heartbeat and with it another wave of pain flowed through Irene's body causing her to fall onto her back and convulse.
'Saving this child and giving it life was your drive all these years was it not? And you seek to use the child for a quick escape from your choices? This I will not allow.' Altera's voice had a finality in the tone.
"No, I just wanted my human form back, is that so wrong!"
'When you abandon your motivation and sanity in the pursuit of such, then yes.' Altera replied, White magic energy in the form of flames erupted from Irene's right hand and began creeping up her arm and covering her body. The other woman took a step back in horror 'I will destroy you, Irene Belserion will cease to exist as a person. I will absorb your memories, your magic powers, and claim this body. The child will survive, I was the one who forced you to create a barrier to protect her after all.'
"Y-you-?" Irene was cut off as the pain became too much, the flames reshaped into the form of a dragon, she let out a loud scream before the white flames shrank back down to a more humanoid form before exploding outwards violently, incinerate the poor woman who had been there and the forest surrounding them.
When it all died away, Altera stood in Irene's place. She got to her feet and looked at her own hands, clenching them experimentally, before looking down at the sleeping child undisturbed by the display.
"At this point, I had destroyed Irene's consciousness, she no longer existed. I have her memories, her powers, her dragon slaying magic. But I am myself, she is gone forever."
Lucy was about to reply when suddenly she widened her eyes as she heard her name being called by….the Fairy Tail Wizards she had come to save. Then it came to her, she'd been tricked.
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The other wizards of Fairy Tail knew something was up when they saw Altera retreat a short distance away from Lucy, as she did so they saw an enchantment barrier seem to cage Lucy in.
"W-what the hell is she doing now?" Gray wondered.
"Hey, where the hell are you going?" Natsu yelled.
"The King of Heroes is a powerful opponent," Altera stated flipping her sword so the hilt was facing the sky. "If she were to draw her Noble Phantasm, I would be in trouble. So it's best for me to strike first. Flare Effect, Connecting with Mars." A red beam of light shot out of the hilt of the sword and into the sky which turned dark as black clouds began swirling around a point of light high in the sky. As this happened the wizards could make out several magic circles appearing, much the satellite square. "Firing in two seconds. Mars turn your rage upon me!"
"Shit this is bad." Gray gulped.
"That's a hell of a lot of magic energy," Macao stated in awe.
"That's enough to wipe out most of Magnolia." Alzack cried.
"Lucy you've gotta snap out of it!" Elfman shouted, but she didn't respond, it was if she could hear him.
"What are we gonna do?!" Laki yelled.
"I've got it!" They looked to see Natsu suddenly shoot up into the sky, small sputters of flame magic propelling him up, before stuttering out as his magic energy ran out.
"Nat…su." Macao groaned.
"If he had a death wish, he needed only wait a few seconds longer." Altera commented, "Pierce the heavens with your tears, red star!"
Natsu was out of magic power but was high enough to the magic circles to see the point of light, it slammed down onto the circles and the boy knew he didn't have much time, and so open his mouth and began inhaling, and like the fire he consumed so often the great white light began flowing into his mouth, it wasn't much though, the pillar was far larger than Natsu himself and it took only a few seconds for him to be unable to eat any more.
"Tear Drop…."
"LUCY!" the other wizards all yelled as one.
"Photon Ray!"
Lucy's eyes widened and mere seconds before the pillar of light could devour Natsu a shield, that seemed like glass appeared inches away from him. It cracked as the light slammed into it but held fast, soon the light seemed to be absorbed by the shield before it let out a massive shockwave, completely shattering all the enchantment barriers around town.
Natsu then began shining like a large white orb before falling back to the ground, like a falling star. He crashed into the remains of the building Gray had come down from. His whole body was wracked with pain and he screamed as shafts of light began to flicker over his form.
"While I appreciate the information, I do not appreciate sneak attacks, especially when I am not the one doing the attacking!" Lucy growled opening the Gate of Babylon and firing a barrage of weapons at Altera.
The white coloured woman began to dodge rapidly as weapons flew at her. She could scarcely find time to stop as more flew at her from different angles and directions. Those she could not dodge she attempted to deflect with her sword. Suddenly more portals opened and close closer to her, forcing her to be quicker and more agile. Even through this, she saw Lucy turning to Natsu.
"What happened to the idiot this time?" Lucy asked looking down at Natsu who was crying out in pain as the white energy kept trying to break free from within him.
"He tried eating that white beam, thing that came from the sky," Gray replied as he glanced at Natsu who was still crying out in pain.
"Imbecile, it looks like he tried eating divine power," Lucy stated as examined Natsu.
"Divine, like a god?" Macao asked.
"Exactly, like a god." Lucy grumbled resentfully.
"Behind you!" Gray yelled in warning, causing Lucy to whip around and raise the sword still in her hands and lock blades with Altera again who'd gotten in close.
"What have you done?" Lucy asked locking eyes with Altera
"You'll have to elaborate."
"To Laxus, of course."
"Laxus?" Laki said the name as she began standing up while leaning on Nab, the others doing much the same with each other as they began shakily getting to their feet.
"Your magic energy is mixed in with his, and it's fluctuating wildly. Too wildly to be healthy, so what have you done to him exactly?"
"He wanted power, so I gave to him," Altera replied simply, a small smile crossing her lips, as she tried pushing against Lucy who pushed back. "You see, back in Alvarez, by chance I discovered that by infusing the wizards of this world with our magic energy, we reincarnate can amplify their powers. They even become strong enough to fight low, and sometimes mid class reincarnates. But there are several side effects, if you give too much energy too quickly then the person will experience, things like, cellular damage, high blood pressure, mental instability, to name a few. But most prominent is the fact that because of the high speed the body doesn't have time to adapt to the power and so there is a high risk of it ripping itself apart, also potential psychotic episodes and death. However, if the infusion is too slow then the benefits don't show themselves quick enough, it was tricky finding the right speed and balance of energy, honestly I'm still not sure if I've got it right, either way, it's not my problem."
"Laxus…could die?" Wakaba breathed.
"No way." The crowd of wizard broke into worried mumbles.
Natsu's screamed out loudly again, accompanied by a flare of white light trying to break free from him.
"You know I am surprised that he hasn't exploded yet," Altera commented glancing at Natsu.
"And you can't use your full power," Lucy stated.
"Oh?"
"Yes, you are only fighting at the level of mid-tier heroic spirit, you have far more power than this, but you can't access it. Could it be that you are incomplete? You're searching for a way to get your power back."
"You are one to talk, that seal on you. It restrains your prized Ea and the Gate of Babylon. considering your personality, you should have removed it instantly, you have the power to do so, so why don't you?"
"Tch." Lucy let out an annoyed sound.
"Ah I see, examining it closer, it's not that you cannot remove the seal but because you don't want to. My my, what a cruel person she must have be-" Alera was cut off by lucy suddenly pushing against her hard, cause her to stumble quickly regain her composure.
"Silence mongrel or I will rip that tongue from your head, get going, Gray take that pink haired dimwit," Lucy ordered. "If he doesn't get help fast he really will explode, I'd help but I'm a bit busy right now."
"Right" Gray nodded and knelt next to Natsu as everyone else began limping away from the battle "Come on you pink haired mouth breath-OW Damn it!" Gray recoiled his hands having been burnt upon trying to touch Natsu, burns now adorning his hands. "What the hell? I knew this flaming pyromaniac was hot, but never this hot."
Hear the clashing of steel again Gray looked up instinctively, only to be momentarily blinded by blood splattered which across his face.
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The others were doing as told and began aiding each other in retreating. Slowly but surely making their way back to the guild hall. Eventually, they reached a street that lead to their destination but stopped at the sound of a pair of familiar voices.
"Where are you guys goin?" Bickslow asked his totem-like dolls floating just behind him.
"The game has not finished yet," Freed stated.
"Get out of the way you guys," Macao grumbled.
"Yeah we got injured here, we need to get them back to the guild." Wakaba cried.
"Well, all you gotta do is get past us first." Bickslow chuckled "Us first." His dolls echoed.
"Well well, Lucy figured that you two chuckleheads would be skulking about somewhere." A familiar voice stated,
"Loke," Laki said as the Celestial Spirit walked to put himself between, Freed and Bickslow and the other wizards.
"She summoned me to keep an eye out on these guys, looks like she was right on the money," Loke stated cracking his knuckles.
"Do you seriously think you can take the two of us on at the same time?" Bickslow laughed.
"He won't be alone," Elfman said walking forward to stand next to Loke. "I can still fight."
"Elfman…." Loke sighed before accepting the aid "Can you hold off Freed? Trust me Bickslow won't take long. Then I'll help you take with him."
"No problem I got this."
"You two are seriously overestimating yourselves." Bickslow chuckled, getting ready to fight.
"Indeed, it is the height of folly to challenge someone far stronger than oneself." Freed agreed drawing his sword.
"You'll see that I'm different than I was before," Loke stated getting ready to battle.
"I can still fight." Elfman bellow assuming his beast form.
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"Come on Mystogan, don't tell me this is all you've got!" Laxus taunted as he sent more lightning at the other man who deftly dodged and began using Knight of Honour to empower some stone slabs to use as weapons against Laxus.
Honestly, the battle wasn't going well. Mystogan was having trouble figuring out the exact amount of power to use against Laxus, he needed to do enough damage without agitating Laxus and causing him to exert more power and thus do more damage to his body with this power. If he used too little power then Mystogan wouldn't do enough to gain ground and win the battle fast enough, too much power and he risked killing Laxus outright which was he was refraining from using Arondight.
He kicked three stone frisbees at Laxus, who swiftly smashed them. However, when he made to counter attack Mystogan was gone, he was caught off guard by a kick to the back of the head. However, as Laxus flew forward he grabbed hold of one of the Knights feet and gave him a zap while tossing him at towards the doors of the Cathedral.
Mystogan skidded across the ground before rolling and recovering, standing back up.
"You're holding back Mystogan, I know you're better than this," Laxus growled, lightning arcing across his body.
Any further battle was interrupted by the doors suddenly opened, revealing Erza. In her blue armoured battle dress, an invisible sword in her hands.
"Here you are Laxus." She growled
"You're wide open!" Laxus took advantage of Mystogan's momentary distraction to hit his head with a large bolt of white lightning.
The bolt exploded upon impact creating a cloud of smoke, from which fell the pieces of a black helmet. Eventually, the smoke cleared, revealing a man Erza didn't think she'd be seeing again for a long time.
"No, but how?" Erza she gasped "Jellal?"
Indeed, where Mystogan was stood the blue haired man now looked back at her.