Chapter 21
In a land far, far away lies the kingdom of Fiore, a small, peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic. Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace. For most magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some, however, magic is an art, and they've devoted their lives to its practice. These are the wizards. Banded together into magical guilds, they apply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore. But there is a certain guild in a certain town that soars high above the rest, one from which countless legends have been born. A guild that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. Its name... is Fairy Tail.
Last Time:
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit! Why is he here!? Why would Hades send him?!" Dakura exclaimed.
" Who are you talking about?" Abigail asked.
"Bluenote Stinger. He is the most powerful in Grimoire Heart right behind Hades, the master of Grimoire Heart." Dakura explained.
"Ah. I have finally found you Dakura Scar-." Azuma started, suddenly morphing out of a tree, but stopped when he looked at Dakura. "Lord Erebus what are you-" Azuma started but never finished because Kaito slammed a Beetle Sphere into Azuma's chest sending him back some.
"Go. Take care of Bluenote. The girls and I can take Azuma." Kaito stated with a serious face. Dakura nodded in thanks and formed his wings and took off in the direction of Bluenote.
Now:
Rushing forward, Kaito started to form his signature attack in his hands once more.
"Not so fast! Bleve" The dark mage shouted out, causing an explosion to occur at the Insect user's feet and send him launching back into a tree.
"So THAT's how we're going to play this, huh? Alright then, Bombardier Spray!" Kaito retaliated as a small swarm formed in front of himself before a cloud of noxious green gas was launched at Azuma, forcing the man to retreat into a tree momentarily. "Where are you, Tree-man?" The albino taunted while his own magic gathered in his hands momentarily.
"Tower Burst!" Came from behind Kaito before he was engulfed in a massive pillar of fire. Screaming out in pain, the scarab king fell to the ground seemingly in defeat, however, Riley managed to catch the sly grin that his face held for a moment before he seemed to fall unconscious. "Now, that's one problem taken care of. All that is left is you two. It's a shame my fun had to end early." Running forward, the Great Tree Arc user began to have various branches assault the two conscious light mages before running forward with his arms ready to strike. "Burts Claw." Azuma announced before lashing out, assisted by various roots which sprung out and inflicted further lacerations on the two.
"Why didn't we train further before this?" Abigail yelled to herself more than anyone, turning to Azuma with her hands in preparation for one of her own spells. "Velocity Boulder!" Shouting out the spell, a ball of stone formed in front of her before launching right into Azuma's chest knocking the wind out of him, but not much else. Turning to the two, he attempted to strike the duo once more.
"Bombling Rush!" Was heard from behind Azuma before an insect the size of his head latched onto his arm, followed by more attaching to the rest of his body. Walking forward, Kaito's eyes, despite the shadow of his hood, were clearly glowing a vibrant crimson behind his sunglasses as he gave off an oddly menacing chuckle. "You know Azuma, it's kind of funny how you thought that a single attack would be enough."
"What? I thought you were already down for the count." The tree mage stated as the Scarab King furthered his approach with his hand up as if he were going to snap his fingers.
"Tell me, Azuma, do you know what makes a Bombling special? I mean, it should be obvious considering its name, but humor me for a moment." The albino asked with his eyes still covered and shadowed.
"Well, they are able to explode, but that is about it." Azuma responded in a neutral tone, unable to move due to the large insects covering him.
"That they are. I'd say right now you're covered in about, oh I don't know, 15 to 20 of them. Considering one can rupture a cave wall, guess how much damage a small swarm of them can inflict." Kaito stated before kicking the covered Azuma to the ground.
"I thought that light mages didn't kill?" The tree mage asked with slight fear creeping into his voice.
"Only if we don't have to." With that, Kaito snapped his fingers as the Bomblings all went off, seeming to incinerate Azuma into nothing.
Meanwhile with Dakura:
Bluenote started closing his hand tighter around Cana's neck attempting to squeeze the information out of her, but let go of her throat when he felt a punch lined with Crash Magic meet his cheek sending him back a few feet. Bluenote looked up to identify his attacker and then smirked.
"Ah so you're the famous Gildarts Cli-" Bluenote was then cut-off as he found a black boot halfway into his cheek before he was once again sent flying, except this time he was sent flying into the wall of the crater he made. Bluenote was now a little mad.
"Alright who did th-." Bluenote stopped when he saw who kicked him. "Lord Erebus I did not know you returned." Bluenote humbly stated.
"I'm no Erebus." Dakura stated, catching the look from Gildarts that meant 'We're talking later', Dakura nodded to Gildarts before preparing himself for Bluenote who seemed to realize this was not the same person he thought it was.
"Well, then I must I must remove this imposter." Bluenote said as he summoned a magic circle and increased the gravity around Gildarts and Dakura. Gildarts shrugged it off with a blast of his magic, and Dakura melted into his shadow. Gildarts burst forward and started trading blows with Bluenote, both enhancing their punches with their magic. Dakura quickly materialized behind Bluenote with his cheeks inflated, and Gildarts saw this and moved out of the way.
"Dark Dragon Roar!" Dakura exclaimed as he blasted Bluenote with the attack point blank. When the beam ended Bluenote had a few wounds, but not enough to put him down because he quickly grabbed Dakura by his face and slammed him into the ground. Dakura stayed there and started screaming into the ground, and while most were confused, Natsu quickly picked up on what was happening and also buried his head into the ground and started screaming. Bluenote was about to slam his foot on Dakura's back but was thrown off of his feet as the ground exploded in a wave of fire and darkness sending him flying into the air. As he started falling back down Gildarts came in the last moment and delivered another superpower punch to Bluenote. Bluenote quickly re-oriented himself and skidded to a stop.
"Enough! None of you will be able to escape this. Black Hole." Bluenote said as a small purple orb appeared between Bluenotes outstretched hands, and it started sucking everything into it. "This is a point of infinite gravity that will suck up everything. Now all of you will perish!" Bluenote exclaimed as everyone in the crater, except Bluenote, either held onto something or resisted the pull. Gildarts then rushed forwards with a magic circle in his left hand, and his right was a glowing fist.
"Escape this. Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Empyrean!" Gildarts stated as he destroyed the black hole with his left hand, and delivered a devastating uppercut to Bluenote's chin with his right sending him flying into the air and soon came crashing down unconscious with at least a broken jaw. Dakura was about to go over to Gildarts when he suddenly felt a dark presence nearby and immediately went towards it because it was in the same direction as his team. As he got closer to the presence he saw a large pulse of black energy coming at him, and Dakura prepared to eat it, but when it was almost a foot away from him he quickly threw up a dark shield with his maker magic to lessen the impact of the black magic. The black magic sent pain all throughout Dakura's body as it washed over him, and when it passed he fell to the ground in pain.
"What was that stuff? It was too dark for even me to consume. Could it have been? No, he couldn't be here." Dakura said to himself as he made wings and headed back to rejoin his team. Landing down, the dark dragon slayer had to repress a groan as Kaito stood facing off against a somewhat familiar electric mage.
"Oh, hello brother. It seems that you still refuse to keel over. LET ME FIX THAT FOR YOU!" Raiden shouted as he rushed at Kaito with Muramasa pulled back, aiming to bisect the beetle user. Steeling his gaze, Kaito jumped out of the way at the last second before punching the other Albino with a punch coated in metal.
"Soldier Ant Knuckles!" The cloaked man shouted as Raiden was sent back from the force of the strike, spitting out a tooth with a Cheshire grin.
"I see we're playing it that way, huh brother? Alright then, Electricity Make, False Darkness!" As the spell was called out, a dark purple magic circle formed in front of the purpled eyed man before a spear of near black lightning shot out at the Scarab King, piercing a hole through his chest around the same height as his heart, albeit on the wrong side. Coughing out a small glob of blood, Kaito began to form a small swarm of beetles between his hands, the group of insects glowing multiple colors.
"Elemental Beetle Storm!" The red-eyed man shouted out before the clearing erupted with a swarm of insects, flames raging inside with cracks of lightning and small chunks of ice radiating around the duo. "Now we can truly fight without risking hurting anyone else. I'm glad that my Beetle Storm can be used in this way." Chuckling a little before coughing out more blood, the insect user gave off a smile. "But I have to ask, what led you to want me dead, Raiden?"
"To think, you don't even KNOW what you did. It sickens me, especially because you are working with one of them." The purple-eyed man said as electricity began to build around his body, some of the still remaining grass being burned as a result. "After all, his subordinate killed our parents."
"What are you even talking about, Raiden? I don't even know how our parents died!" The albino yelled as some of the lightning began to get dangerously close to him. "From what I was told, Dad died while looking for medication for Mom."
"LIES! It was a demon that killed them both! I don't even know how you are still alive, considering you would have to be only a few months old at the time. The only reason I'm hunting you down is that you decided to hang out with the boss of the Demon that killed them! Did you even know that it was under his orders?!" The now furious swordsman shouted out, more lightning sparking from his body.
"Whose orders? Wait wait wait… are you talking about Dakura? I know about Erebus already, and anything he did as him was out of his control." The beetle mage said after a moment of clarification. "Now, I bet you're going to say something like 'He's lying to you' or 'That is absolute Bullshit', Right?"
"Well, that is what it seems like, yes." Raiden said, having begun to calm down after the reveal of Kaito's knowledge of Erebus. "You don't know what I think, Brother."
"Well, let me lay it down straight for you: Erebus is gone. Dakura repressed most, if not all, of his memories of being him as he feels that bad about what he was forced to do. Though if I did know that one of his demons was responsible for our parent's death, I would probably be having a very different conversation with you." Kaito said as he began to walk towards the electric mage, most of the lightning having calmed down into little to nothing. "So, why don't we start over, as brothers rather than enemies?"
"That… that would be nice. I guess I kind of blew my stack over a misunderstanding, huh?" The older Murabba said with a laugh, rubbing the back of his head at the same time.
"Going after your own brother to kill him is probably more than just 'blowing your stack', but it's fine now. I mean, I did technically kill another universe's version of myself that was similar to you." Kaito stated as he willed the beetle storm to disperse, the rest of team DARK staring at Kaito supporting Raiden rather than either side being unconscious. It was at this moment that Enkaar showed up, a small smirk on his face.
"I was hoping that you two would make amends, it seems I wasn't misplacing my hopes."The illusionist said, walking up to the duo of brothers.
"So you two good now because I really don't want to fight right now." Dakura stated earning nods from the two brothers.
"So how did you two get here? Are you with Grimoire Heart?" Abigail asked of the two former enemies. The two mages had a sheepish expression with some nervous expression.
"No we're not with Grimoire Heart, but we did 'catch a ride' on their ship, or at least Enkaar was inside while I was clinging to the outside with my magic the entire flight to Tenrou Island." Raiden explained gaining some chuckles from team DARK. Suddenly they heard a large explosion from where the Grimoire Heart airship crashed and all six of them quickly made their way towards the destroyed ship. When they arrived they saw Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Erza, Wendy, and Laxus all drained of magic energy facing off against a similarly exhausted Hades of Grimoire Heart, but Hades somehow managed to summon one last spell and was preparing to attack the six, but Dakura was having none of it seeing as one of the six fighting Hades was his sister. Dakura dropped down from the cliff they were on and landed between Hades and the Fairy Tail mages with darkness rolling off of his body. Hades suddenly lost all color in his face and his spell fizzled out.
"L-Lord Erebus. I didn't know you were coming. I thought the inspection wasn't until next month." Hades stated fearfully as he fell to the ground. Dakura flinched at being called that again and in front of his guildmates but decided this was the best way to stop Hades. Dakura let up the hold on Erebus enough to change his vocal cords and then quickly stopped it from spreading.
"I'm very disappointed in you Hades. To be defeated by these pitiful fairies is a shame on the Balam Alliance. Also, you should have remembered that I am allowed to 'inspect' your guild whenever I want because remember while you may be one of the power three, your guild is nothing compared to me or Tartaros." Dakura said in a deep calm voice full of darkness. Dakura then flicked his hand upwards and caused the shadows around Hades constrict the old man until he passed out. Dakura dispelled the darkness around him and Hades and changed his vocal cords back to his own. When he turned around he was met with the entire Tenrou team along with Makarov having faces of shock.
"I heard about how members of Tartaros checked in on the other dark guilds so I tried to sound like one of them." Dakura lied. Luckily most of his guildmates took the lie, but Erza, Makarov, Gildarts, and Laxus were all looking at him with suspicious glares. The members of Fairy Tail all headed back to the main camp to heal and hopefully continue the trials. When they arrived back Wendy was healing people, but Erza requipped into a nurse uniform and was wrapping the injured in bandages, but ended up tying them up like mummies. Dakura walked over to Erza and took the bandages out of her hands and let the injured go while attending to his sister's wounds, and reprimanding her for going overboard again. Once everyone was bandaged they all took the time to relax and talk about the events that occurred. Off in a small clearing Gildarts is having a moment with Cana, who he just realized is his daughter, and when Cana left to talk to Lucy Gildarts sighed before looking straight at the shadows.
"Come on out Dakura. We need to have a talk." Gildarts stated and Dakura then stepped out of the shadows with a dead serious expression.
"I feared for the day I would have this encounter, and I even made sure to not be present when you came back. Just let it out, I know you need to." Dakura stated while physically preparing himself. Gildarts gained an angry expression, but it also contained some understanding.
"While I'm angry at who you used to be, I can tell that you have changed and you even seem to be physically different from Erebus. So I want a full explanation." Gildarts ordered leaving no room for argument. Dakura sighed and formed a stool out of darkness and sat down.
"After Tartaros captured me and filled me with darkness full of evil I changed into Erebus and he quickly became very powerful and climbed the ranks of Tartaros and became second only to the Master, and I was forced to watch everything he did like I was trapped in my own body. After years of service, Erebus heard word of the Fairy Tail guild and the mighty Titania Erza. When I heard Erza's name I started to fight back for control so I could see my sister again. I spent two years fighting Erebus' control over my body eventually locking his consciousness and magic deep inside of me, never to be free again. From there I escaped from the Tartaros guild, and they have been looking for me ever since." Dakura explained. Gildarts became slightly less angry but still kept the stone cold expression.
"How do I know that Erebus won't break out and kill everyone, or that he isn't spying on us." Gildarts interrogated as he slightly flared his magic.
"I put a seal around his consciousness and power that is connected to my life force. It blocks him for my being, so he can't see or hear what I am doing and thinking. If I die my body will be sent to the Void so Erebus will have no way of returning even with the resources Tartaros has. I can control the seal to give me access to his physical enhancements and differences, but his mind will forever be locked." Dakura explained. With this explanation, Gildarts visibly relaxed and lost his edge.
"Good, I didn't want to have to fight that monster again." Gildarts stated with much relief. Gildarts then motioned for Dakura to follow him. "Come on we better meet back up with the group." He stated as the two leisurely walked back to the main camp chatting about different things along the way. When they got back to camp they noticed that everyone was lounging around relaxing and trying to heal from their injuries. Everything was going well until…
"RRRRAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRR" Something roared out freezing everyone of the Fairy Tail Mages as they felt the immense power overwhelm them.
"No. It can't be." Guildarst got out through his fear of the origin of the roar. Dakura was the first to break out.
"We all need to move and get in the caves NOW!" Dakura shouted with evident fear in his voice as he started corralling everyone towards the path to the cave systems.
"What was that?!" Erza exclaimed while helping the more hurt to move. Dakura was about to answer but was cut off when a large shadow passed over them, and all the mages stared at the giant black feathery dragon that was looping back around to come right at them.
"Shit! He got here a lot sooner than expected we'll never make it!" Gildarts exclaimed. The black dragon landed in front of the group and was about to attack them, but was stopped by an enlarged Makarov grappling it out of the way giving the rest of them the space to get to safety.
"GO NOW! GET TO SAFETY! I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!" Makarov shouted.
"We're not leaving you behind, Gramps!" Natsu shouted at the Fairy Tail master.
"THAT WAS AN ORDER NOW GO YOU BRATS!" Makarov shouted as all the mages were too stunned by his words to go against him and they all ran towards the tunnels. Makarov continued to fight off the black dragon for some time but was forced back into his base form from lack of energy and injuries sustained from before and new. Makarov closed his eyes knowing that this was the end for him and prayed that his children had gotten to safety. Makarov heard a roar, but not the one he was expecting.
"Fire Dragon ROAR!" Natsu shouted shooting fire straight at the dragon's head surprising it, causing it to become unbalanced allowing a sphere of beetles slamming into its side to knock it over onto its back.
"Not your time yet, old man." Gildarts stated as he ran past Makarov and delivered a crash powered fist into the dragon's side sending it sliding a few feet away. All of the Fairy Tail wizards started to pelt the dragon with attacks. Eventually, the dragon managed to get back onto its feet and sent out a piercing roar that canceled out the spells being thrown at it.
"Come on, let's show this overgrown lizard why we're called dragon slayers," Dakura stated with a smirk receiving similar smirks and nods.
"Fire Dragon-"
"Sky Dragon-"
"Iron Dragon-"
"Lightning Dragon-"
"Dark Dragon-"
"ROAR!" The five dragon slayers collectively shouted sending their attacks straight at the black dragon with the five attacks merging into one before slamming into the monster causing a giant smoke cloud to form blocking everyone's view. After a few tense moments, the smoke was cleared by a scuffed up and pissed off black dragon.
"We barely scratched it! How strong is his thing!?" Gajeel shouted.
"Acnologia, the dragon of the Apocalypse. We don't have a chance of stopping him." Gildarts stated, slightly downcast. Dakura growled then turned to Gildarts.
"Keep it distracted. I have an idea. When I give the signal have everyone throw up a magic circle below mine." Dakura stated with Gildarts nodding before relaying to the rest of Fairy Tail to keep it distracted. Dakura then turned to his team. "Come on I need you five with me." Dakura stated as he lead his team away from the main battle area to a cliff that overlooked Acnologia.
"Okay let's hope this works," Dakura stated as he threw up three of his biggest magic circles with the Dark Maker magic circle on to. "Now!" Dakura shouted giving his signal prompting everyone to throw up an equally sized magic circle below Dakura's.
"Here we go. FAIRY TAIL ETHERION!" Dakura shouted sending a large beam from his top magic circle down through all of the other magic circles, and when it reached the bottom it had become a golden beam of energy that went shooting down and engulfed in the beam of golden magic. After the beam had died down a large cloud of smoke covered Acnologia only causing to build more suspense. Suddenly the smoke was blown away from Acnologia flapping his wings showing that it only sustained small wounds, and the attack also seemed to piss it off even more. Acnologia then swept it's tail towards team DARKER and sent them flying off the island into the water. They all stayed suspended in the water until Abigail formed a platform that brought all of them out of the water. The five quickly composed themselves in time to see Acnologia fire a massive beam at the island blinding them all. When their vision cleared, Acnologia was still hovering in the air and Tenrou Island was nowhere to be seen. They all looked on in disbelief until their attention was drawn to Dakura who was shaking.
"ACNOLOGIA!" Dakura shouted as his magical aura flared and his hair started to spike in some areas, his hands started to become claw-like, horns started to form below his hairline on his forehead, his teeth became sharper, and his skin started to become a blackish-pale.
"DARK DEMON HOWL!" Dakura shouted as he let out the large beam that seemed to have no light at all and was even starting to turn purple on the edges. Acnologia turned its head just in time for the beam to hit it directly in the right side of its face. The beam carried Acnologia into the sky until it could no longer be seen. Dakura then collapsed to his knees while reverting back to his original form and started crying his eyes out at the loss of his sister…
Rage and Blueghast can be seen hiding behind a concrete wall while having terrified expressions until they notice the camera pointing at them.
Rage: Oh hey guys, guess what we're alive!
Blueghast: Author Secret Art: Trans-Universal Summoning! *As those words rang out, a man cloaked in mostly black attire wielding a great axe popped into existence and just gave Blueghast a quick glance.* Get them, Papa Guac!
Rage: So our OC's went rouge because of the lack of story output we've been doing so now we are hiding for our lives.
Colys: Stop hiding and fight us, you cowards!
Dakura: AND YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!
A few varieties of attacks flew around hitting everything trying to find the two authors.
Blueghast: Want me to use a『STAND』Rage?
Rage: Don't you remember? They somehow got rid of most of our specialty abilities, like the ones that stop them from going rogue like this!
Blueghast: But I can call in backup with the 『STANDS』 . I know I have access to that one.
Rage: They didn't get rid of it! Good, use it quickly once I get us somewhere safe. *Grasps Blueghast's shoulder and puts two fingers to his forehead and then they are suddenly in a different location entirely.*
Blueghast: Alright! 『D4C』! *As this is said, two copies of the Author Duo appear and glance around in confusion.*
Blueghast 2: Ok, what happened this time?
Rage 1: We neglected our stories and now the OC's are after us. *As he says this a boulder goes flying past his head, and the origin of said boulder is none other than a Petra Gigas Grull.* See I told you.
Blueghast 1: Alright then, me's, either of you know Author Secret Arts?
Blueghast 2: I know enough for what I am guessing you are suggesting, especially since I see Gascoigne already out there.
Blueghast 3: Same thing here.
Blueghast 1: Alright, on three then?
Blueghast 2 and 3: Yep.
Blueghast 1: Ok, 1, 2, 3!
Blueghast 1, 2, and 3: Author Secret Art: Mass Trans-universal Summoning! *As the three cry this out, a plume of steam covers the area directly in front of them, before promptly being swept away in a quick gust of wind. Standing in a crater of its own making is a beast similar to a fusion between man and horse, though not like a centaur. In one of its many arms, it is holding a massive, luminescent blade.*
Blueghast 1: Attack now, Ludwig!
Rage 1: How about you guys what do you got.
Rage 2: Got me some energy powers.
Rage 3: Same.
Rage 1: Are you all able to transform. I got a power variation
Rage 2: Got me a speed variation
Rage 3: I have an energy power heavy variation
Rage 1: Ok let's do this. *Red auras surround all three of them as they all gain deep red spikey hair. The first is incredibly bulky, the second appears incredibly sleek, and the third looks the most normal. Suddenly, the feed gains a gray, fuzzy texture as the picture freezes with Blueghast 1 atop Ludwig while the three Rages run forward alongside him.*
Rage 1: We'll leave you off here. We will see you all again in the "Sequel", Remnant's DARKEST Team.
Blueghast 1: It will be fun. See y'all!
*All three Blueghasts have signed off.*
*All Rages have signed off.*