Author's Note:
Hello! Alright, so, I had hoped that I would post yesterday or the day before to make up for missing Wednesday, but, well...that didn't happen as you can see. Ack! . But hey, at least I got it up today. ;D Right?... Right? *hears crickets in the distance*
Okay, well, HUMONGOUS thanks to everyone who reviewed! Big kisses and hugs to my repeat reviewers: TheJSmooth, Lucinda, illeashya, agirl0ntheinternet, sakshishetty3003, stranger1999, Leomae2.0, Raven claw, valerioux, Firefly9917, quidditchChick6, and The Age of Awesomeness.
Now, let's get on with the show shall we! Stay tuned till the end for a sneak peek at next chapter. ;D
At the sudden vivid flash of bright gold, Lucy knew they had failed. A surge of familiar energy pulsed over her, bringing with it a wave of wind and light as the celestial gates opened, creating a massive portal into the celestial realm.
A colossal voice resounded from within the demon gate – one that was undoubtedly that of a dragon. Lucy had only ever heard three like it before…something so deeply resonating and enormously powerful… and that was Acnologia, Natsu, and Rogue when they were in their true dragon forms.
"My brethren and loyal subjects…the gates have been opened for us to the celestial realm at last. I want every last one of you to go to the gate chamber and make an all-out assault on the heavens…drag them down! Take their magic and power! Break them and leave them defenseless! We will conquer their realm and grow stronger than any other race in this universe! And with that power we will take Earthland next. Then we will go on to the next world, and the next, until we have conquered all realms!"
This speech and order was met with a mixture of cheers from the demons that seemed to support Acnologia and silence from those who didn't. Surprisingly, there was more of the later than Lucy had anticipated, and an unexpected pang of sympathy went through her as she remembered that most of the demons they were fighting against actually had no choice in the matter. They were slaves to Acnologia because he held their keys and was powerful enough to force them to obey without any kind of signed contract.
Gradually, the light emitting from the portal lessened, and then the glow suddenly dispersed in a brilliant flash that had Lucy staggering back. When she regained her sight and balance, she looked back up and stalled out at the sight that greeted her.
Apparently the celestial spirits had been able to discern the location of this gate before it was completed, because on the other side of the now fully open doors stood every celestial spirit Lucy knew…and quite a few she didn't.
She burst into tears as she met the eyes of all her previous spirits whose keys had been broken.
Really, she should have expected it, but somehow the idea of coming face to face with everyone she'd lost had never crossed her mind. As such, she was utterly unprepared for the rush of fresh grief and guilt that swamped and incapacitated her.
"I'm so sorry! I tried to stop them from melting your keys…it's all my fault…if I'd been able to stop them, this gate wouldn't have been built…and our contracts wouldn't have been broken…I'm…I'm so, so sorry…"
The verbal vomit and sobs were cut off harshly with a resounding slap. "Pull yourself together!"
That was Aquarius of course.
The war raged around them, but it seemed strangely dimmed somehow, as if they were in their own private bubble. Lucy's head stayed bowed and to the side where it had snapped upon being slapped. Her blubbering stopped, but the tears didn't.
"…I'm so sorry…" she whispered after a long period of silence.
Strong fingers pinched her chin and forced her head around, making her look Aquarius dead in the eye, and she was shocked by what she saw there. Inside the mermaid's gaze was no disdain, no anger for losing her key, nothing but fierce understanding and acceptance. It was sharp, clearly telling her that this was a battlefield and no place to break down, but it was also warm and compassionate and held a world of emotions that Lucy never imagined Aquarius might express. Of course none of that was said.
"You did everything you could. Now drop it! It's not time for goodbyes. It's time to fight!"
"Right."
With a stern nod, Aquarius dropped her fingers from Lucy's chin and simultaneously dropped the shell of water that she had erected around them to protect the distraught mage.
Lucy immediately turned and attacked the gate with everything she had, shifting once again into Taurus's star dress and kicking it so hard that any normal structure should have been blown apart. She was distracted though when a demon plowed into her from one side and she got knocked head over toes into the gate.
With an oof, she found herself on the other side of the gate, but that didn't matter to her, she still attacked the structure. When the same demon tried to come at her again, she backhanded him so hard with her forearm that he poofed back to his own world with just that one blow. He'd probably be back, but not until he had gotten through the jam-packed traffic that was backed up at the other gate. Not to mention he'd have to get through Jellal, Laxus, wolves, and Kurama…plus all the other Fairy Tail mages that were sure to be flooding in. Now that the demons had orders to come to the courtyard, they'd undoubtedly abandon the battle in front of the castle, and all the mages fighting them could simply follow them here.
On this side of the gate, Lucy found herself fighting shoulder to shoulder with all her spirits at once, which was an indescribable experience.
A glowing golden fist landed in the same spot her foot had just kicked, and she glanced to the side to see Leo. He was still cut up a bit from the ice tornado he'd been forced to endure earlier, but he had already healed a good deal, much to Lucy's relief.
After sharing a brief smile, she refocused on the gate and commenced pounding the same spot over and over with kicks, and on the upswing Leo hit it with a regulus punch. Her feet began to protest a little, even with Taurus's strength and durability, but she kept at it with dogged persistence.
To complicate matters though, they had to constantly fend off demons while they worked on the gate. Multitasking could prove tedious even under good circumstances, and in a situation like this it was only a matter of time before a demon managed to sneak through their defenses. The inevitable was announced by Leo grunting, and the pained sound immediately put Lucy on high alert. She was already turning towards him when he staggered sideways into her.
Instantly, she wrapped an arm around his middle to help steady him, and the sensation of warmth and wetness met her wrist as it pressed into his side. A stab of worry hit her hard, but she pushed it aside to focus on the immediate threat. Looking past him, she saw the demon who had managed to hurt her friend. He was some sort of furry demon with super long claws, which were now dripping red, and he flashed an evil grin at them with jagged fangs.
Lucy had just yanked her whip free and was aiming to pop him a new one right in the face – even with her hurt hand – when a massive wall of pink fluff plowed into the asshole…and every other demon to either side of him as it kept rolling forwards.
Lucy's eyes jerked to the side and she spotted Aries, who was looking pretty fierce for once and very determined. Looking back towards the gate, her eyes widened when she saw the pink wool ball fit snugly between the open doors, creating a really tough obstacle for the enemy to get through. The demons already in the celestial realm were still a concern, but the wool ball seriously slowed down new ones from showing up. They had to combat sleepy comfort and push through the thick wool to get through…and it resealed behind them.
Turning back to Leo, Lucy muttered, "You should go find a healer or rest until those wounds have closed. You're losing too much blood."
The lion spirit gritted his teeth and looked like he might protest, but eventually he nodded and fell to the back of the line where he could catch a breather for a moment. Celestial spirits might not be able to die in Earthland, but if they were attacked in the celestial realm and weren't given enough time to heal, they probably could get killed.
Lucy turned back to the post they had been battering, and when she noted a few tiny cracks she felt a spark of hope ignite in her gut and restarted with a vigor. When a spray of ocean water hit her cheek, she glanced to the left to see Aquarius fiercely attacking the other post of the gate with waves that acted like battering rams. Most other spirits had withdrawn to attacking the doors or the right post with Lucy – to avoid being swept away.
Virgo soon joined Lucy as well and started digging to the side of the post. When she disappeared into the ground and the entire structure began to vibrate, Lucy knew she was battering it from underneath – which was a great idea.
"Keep it up Virgo! I can feel the whole thing shaking!" she called, and the vibrations only seemed to increase in intensity as the spirit obviously heard her.
A moment later, warm fur caressed her side, and she looked to her left to see Amy standing beside her. Apparently she'd managed to follow Lucy through the gate, though they'd been temporarily separated.
She glanced up at Lucy and snorted, before turning to the post and rising up on hind paws to claw at it like a cat with a scratching post. More wolves poured in from seemingly nowhere until Lucy was surrounded by them as they dug, bit, and scratched at the gate. Some peeled off to take care of the demons that continued to push through the wool, and even more stepped into the sky to attack the top of the archway. Some even landed on it and started digging down into the structure.
A few thin cracks began to radiate from various places…but they also seemed to heal if left alone too long. However, when a small chip suddenly dropped off from an edge of the arch and fell in front of Lucy, she watched as it dissolved to nothing, and when she glanced up, a tiny indent was left behind. So chunks that were taken out didn't regenerate – a fact which she loudly and excitedly shared with everyone in her general vicinity.
A blast of flame from somewhere on the battlefield behind the wool made Lucy aware that Natsu was out in the courtyard, which explained why she hadn't seen him since being kicked through the gate. A knot of worry that she hadn't even been aware of eased somewhat.
The slight distraction was enough that Lucy didn't even see the demon lord that managed to get through the wool. However, she certainly heard the series of pained yips that sounded shortly afterwards, and when she worriedly glanced over to see what was going on, she immediately noticed that several of the wolves had gone down. One thrashed in seeming agony at every tap – of which there were many since the poor pup was being run over by demons and accidentally tripped on by other spirits. Another ran around bumping into things like it was suddenly blind, and the third was limping and hopping around as if it couldn't stand to put its paws down. Like the one on the ground, it cringed away from any contact with another, as if the slightest brush was enough to cause intense pain.
Lucy determined the source of these unpleasant happenings when she saw a new avian-looking demon female cast a magic circle at another wolf, which made it go utterly limp… either from loss of muscle control or because it was knocked out. Looking at the evidence, it looked like this demon's curses could affect the body in any way she wished, possibly causing loss of senses, oversensitivity, and/or loss of other body functions. From what Lucy could tell, the demoness had to physically touch the victim though, so that meant…
She discarded Taurus's star dress and donned Leo's. She barely needed a second to aim before blasting a beam of light from her hand, hitting the demon in her heart. The bird-woman staggered back, gasping and wincing before turning to glare at Lucy. Then, an arrow planted in her thigh, and both Lucy and the demoness looked over to see a still pretty ragged-looking Sagittarius standing at the very back of the battle. He'd parked himself on a little hill and was currently aiming his bow right at the demon.
While she was distracted by the centaur's arrow, Lucy launched another beam of light, and this time aimed for the woman's throat. Her head whipped around and she managed to dodge the projectile made of light, but not the arrow that hit her other thigh – since it was one of five all sent to various positions that she could have put her leg. The other four fell harmlessly to the ground.
As the demoness winced and yanked that arrow out, Lucy took aim and shot several zaps at her in quick succession. She managed to dodge those, and the next volley from Sagittarius, but finally got hit again with Lucy's following attack. She started towards Lucy, taking down a few wolves as she went, until Lucy begged for the wolves to stand back out of the way. Sagittarius continued to shoot at her, as did Lucy, but she kept coming despite her increasing resemblance to a burnt pincushion.
Eventually Lucy had to start backing up, still shooting as she went. When she tripped and fell, she panicked momentarily, especially as the demon dashed forwards the last few steps and reached out to grab her. Lucy flinched back, shifting to her Cancer gear to use the extra speed for escape purposes, but she fumbled the process of getting up.
A bare inch from touching Lucy, the demoness fell back and screamed, holding her hand in pain and grimacing at her in shock.
Lucy quaked with the same sentiment as her body was suddenly coated with fire – which had burned the bird-lady. Acting on instinct, Lucy clothed herself with her fire dragon star dress and then kicked herself for not thinking of that a moment ago. When she looked towards the gate, she saw that the wool ball had disappeared, and apparently its dispersal had allowed Natsu to see what was going on and he'd hustled to help. He was now making a beeline for the still-smoking demoness that had accosted her.
"Don't touch her! She can curse you if you touch her!" Lucy yelled.
He just grinned and then filled his cheeks with air before spitting fire at the lady, who finally poofed back to the demon realm with a yell.
As soon as the threat was gone, Lucy looked over to where Aries had been and saw her being carried off by Gemini. Hopefully she had just passed out from exhaustion and hadn't been hurt.
She was distracted though by a pair of heated arms wrapping tightly around her in a very quick, but very intense, hug.
They didn't have much time of course, because the battle was still ongoing and only seemed to be getting more intense. So, they quickly separated, and after a brilliant smile Natsu immediately went for the nearest demon while Lucy scanned the fight for an overview of how it was going – and where she could be best used.
Cancer was in his battle gear wielding his huge claws with devastating effect. Aquarius was still battering away at her section of the archway… and swept away any demon stupid enough to get near her. Taurus had now taken over slamming his ax into the right side of the gate where Lucy had previously been. Amy and her wolves were now all on top of the arch, digging and chipping away at it with their claws. And then Bartolomeo came forwards and took Aries's place creating a barrier in front of the gate and blocking it off. That left him vulnerable though, and suddenly all the demons that had just come through the gate – and there were a lot – all went for him. Libra, Pisces, and a beautiful woman that Lucy had never seen before all rushed to protect him. The white-haired spirit who Lucy was unfamiliar with wielded light like Sting's, and Lucy eventually realized that she must be Rogue's mother.
Strangely, the Celestial King wasn't doing much fighting. Lucy would have thought that he would be at the front lines taking down demons and the gate with little to no trouble. However, she soon found out – by asking a nearby spirit – that he was stymied by his excessively large stature and powerful magic and risked taking out all his loyal subjects along with the demons if he wasn't careful.
From time to time though, he did shoot devastating beams of celestial light from the tip of his sword, and whatever unlucky demon happened to be on the other end of it instantly poofed, no matter their level.
He was also steadily making his way towards the gate, and as soon as Lucy noted that little fact, she realized that bashing on the magical structure was pretty pointless. The best use of her time would be to clear out the demons and prevent them from doing too much damage, because as soon as the Celestial King got to the gate, it would all be over.
She wasn't the only one to notice it either, because the closer he got to the gate, the more spirits left it alone. In fact, most vacated that particular area entirely and focused on eliminating the demons who had gotten through. It was only a matter of time now.
Within a handful of minutes, the Celestial King had managed to wade through the battle and made it to the gate. At that point, Bart dropped his shield and he – along with everyone else – fell back to give the enormous celestial spirit enough room to work. Nobody wanted to get caught up in his magical attacks.
Brilliant light cloaked him, emitting especially strong from his enormous sword, and he stood a little ways back from the glowing archway, taking a stance. The light and magic power grew stronger and stronger, to the point where any demons coming through the gate were almost instantly fried and sent back. All the celestial spirits were also pushed back as magical energy started buffeting them like a hurricane was blowing in their faces, and everyone retreated even further – or were thrown, if they didn't move of their own accord. There was a mad scramble as everyone took cover, and Lucy soon found herself cloaked in a red leathery wing that shielded her from the worst of it.
With a crash that sounded like lightning had struck right on top of them, or the world itself had cracked, the Celestial King shot forwards, running his sword through the gate and landing on the other side – faster than the eye could follow in a blinding flash that looked like a comet.
There was a long pause, and then finally, with a thunderous grinding rock-against-metal sound, a huge crack started at the bottom and began to travel up the archway, branching out into a fine network of fissures as it went. With an echoing bang, the entire thing broke apart into pieces. Magic snapped the air and crackled as the gateway shut, and a vortex formed, sucking any and every being that wasn't supposed to be in this world out harshly like a whirlpool.
Lucy didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to any of the spirits she had lost contracts to before she was whisked away.
She and all the demons who had come through the gate were deposited without ceremony into the courtyard and were dropped on the ground hard enough that several of the lowest powered demons poofed upon impact. As for Lucy, she was thrown a good distance, and landed with an oof as her back hit the hard pavement.
The quickness of it all left her breathless, and for a long moment she was stunned. Somewhat numbly, she propped herself up and saw all the demons staggering to their feet and fights starting to resume. It seemed that the magical disturbance of the gate closing had temporarily distracted everyone who was currently fighting in the courtyard, because when she'd first landed it was echoingly quiet.
When she glanced back, it was to see that the celestial gate had completely disappeared, leaving no rubble or any trace at all of its existence.
Her staring was broken when a commotion barreled down on her, and she just barely managed to heave herself to her feet and stumble out of the way as Jet, Droy, and several demons blew past in a flurry of claws, limbs, and plants. Staggering back a few steps, her eyes returned unbidden to the spot she had just been thrown from, and the gaping emptiness where the gate once stood. It echoed like the emptiness she could now feel in her own heart and the light clinking at her waist. The sound was all wrong, as was the weight, and the loss of her keys and spirits hit her hard once again.
Tears poured down her face and blurred her vision, even as she squared up against more than one demon who were targeting her now as a weak link. She roughly wiped her eyes and donned her dragon star dress, knowing she didn't have time to wallow in her own sorrow, but the tears simply wouldn't abate. Losing them all over again had made it much more difficult to push to the back of her mind and try to ignore.
Still, she had to fight, so she managed to pull herself together enough to lash fire in her opponents' faces, driving them away from her. Sadness channeled into anger, which strengthened the violent movements as she fended off demons coming at her from all sides.
A cheerful and extremely relieved voice from above helped to lighten her mood significantly.
"Lucy! You're back!" Happy shouted, hovering in the air high enough that her flames didn't roast him.
"Happy!" she called back, feeling her heart lift at the sight of her feline companion.
He quickly divebombed her and she snuffed out her flames so he could latch on and whisk her safely into the air, where she could get a good look at the tide of battle.
"How's it going on this side of the gate?" she quickly asked after returning the nuzzle his blue nose had given her cheek.
"Okay I guess. Gray, Sting, Juvia, and Lector finally caught up with us. And a lot of other people have shown up too."
"Yeah, I can see that…" she murmured, eyeballing the fight splayed out beneath her.
Two hammers were currently battering the demon gate, one was wielded by Erza, and the one made of ice was obviously Gray's doing. They each took a post and smashed at them like a pair of highly determined miners or demolition workers doing their job. The ice hammer blew apart at every impact, which meant Gray had to construct a new one for each blow, but he thankfully still seemed to possess plenty of vim, vigor, and vitality.
As for the battle against the demons…Kurama continued to smack them left and right with his tails, which added to the chaos as bodies flew through the air. But those were merely canon fodder, which kept pouring in from the gate and the rest of the castle. The real fights were between the mages of Fairy Tail and the stronger demons.
Unfortunately, quite a few queens, kings, and lords had managed to find their way to the courtyard and were making things highly unpleasant for the Fairy Tail mages. One that seemed to specialize in sand was facing off with Master Makarov and Laxus just outside the courtyard and they'd already taken out what seemed like a whole chunk of the castle on that side. It was pretty much a hill of rubble that they now fought on. Laxus and Gramps were holding their own, but the demon was putting up a shockingly good fight against them.
Meanwhile, a whole other section of the castle had been flooded with black poisonous water, and Juvia, Gajeel, and Levy were currently dealing with the demon that had created the new waterscape. How they were doing it without drowning, Lucy didn't know since they seemed to be fighting mostly underwater.
She couldn't see Wendy anywhere, so assumed that the sky dragon slayer had probably set up a medical station outside somewhere. She might have even gone to check on the outer courtyard, if her attention hadn't been diverted by an explosion down below. Someone went flying, and Lucy immediately gestured for Happy to swoop closer and investigate.
What they saw instantly made them intervene before a particularly strong demon could kill Max. As they landed in between the two combatants, Max nearly collapsed with relief, and Lucy took the time to size up her new opponent. He was male, with sharp teeth, pointy ears, a yellow and black tail, black tattooed arms, and a nasty attitude.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the mage who defeated Zero…" he chuckled, his attention utterly diverted to her. "I can't wait to blow up your ass and gloat. He'll be so pissed."
"Thanks for letting me know what your power is, that's awfully helpful." she snarked right back, and carefully edged away from the downed Fairy Tail mage so he could escape.
As soon as they had put enough distance between them and their downed comrade, she took a battle stance and geared up for the conflict about to take place. If this demon exploded things, something told her she should probably keep her distance, so she readied her fire whip. Snapping it in his face, he winced back just a hair and grabbed for it but his hand passed right through the stream of fire. It might act like a physical whip, but only at her will. Nobody else could handle the fire.
"What the fuck is this?" he spat, looking consternated.
His reaction suggested to Lucy that he needed to touch something to explode it, and she became even more resolved to keep her distance. That became a little difficult though, because he was pretty damn fast. He quickly got up in her business, zipping past her fire whip and getting too close for her to properly wield the stream of fire. So, she let the whip fizzle into nothing, and - as his fist lashed out towards her solar plexus - she put up both hands and blasted fire right into his face. It also had the added benefit of propelling her backwards like a rocket, and she shifted her weight to the balls of her feet so she could skid without falling over. It was a good thing that she was wearing a star dress, because any normal shoes probably would have lost their soles from that little stunt.
The demon fell back with a yell, his eyes scrunched closed thanks to the blast of flames, and then he shook his head like a wet dog. To Lucy's dismay, he didn't seem overly affected by her attack…. If anything, when his eyes opened they were glittering even more fiercely.
"Well now, you are a feisty one, aren't ya? This is gonna be fun."
That shark-toothed grin he sent her didn't make her feel any better about the situation, but she still readied herself for battle nonetheless. This time though, he went with a different approach and managed to take her by surprise. He took one step forwards, planted that foot with a stomp that cracked the ground, and then a huge magic circle formed under it.
There was a brief second, just long enough for Lucy to think, 'oh shit,' and then the ground exploded, breaking apart in a wave that came at her like a tsunami. Before she could either dodge or figure out how to counter it with flames, something long and dark wrapped around her and yanked her out of the earthquake's path. She landed on her butt at her savior's feet.
Looking up, she was shocked to see Yukino.
"Are you alright Lucy?"
"Yeah, thanks to you!" she gasped as she quickly got back to her feet.
She didn't notice that the dark thing was still wrapped around her, at least not until it unwrapped and skittered off her. At the creepy sensation, she glanced down to see what looked like an enormous centipede-like thing releasing her and immediately yelped, flinching violently at the disturbing sight.
"Sorry about that, I know it's kind of unpleasant to look at." her companion apologized with a chagrined tone of voice.
Glancing over, Lucy had a hard time keeping her jaw from dropping when she saw that the long black…thing, was coming out of Yukino's back. And it wasn't the only one, there were three other long segmented, legged, centipede-like protrusions snaking around in the air like they had a mind of their own.
"Um…I guess you got the possession demon under control, huh?"
"Yes."
At that point, their little chat was interrupted by the demon Lucy had been fighting.
"You know…I really don't like being ignored."
"Oh, I'm sorry, did we hurt your tender feelings?" Yukino shot back, startling Lucy with the sarcastic biting comment. Apparently, using demon magic was affecting her personality – much like it did with Mira.
All of those black things snapped to attention and arched like four scorpion tails, poised to strike at the enemy.
"Huh…I see you picked up Rize somewhere. I'm surprised she hasn't eaten you whole by now." their opponent mused as he eyeballed the black things.
"We came to an understanding." Yukino replied.
"Huh, well whatever. Enough chit-chat, I'm getting bored."
And with that dismissive comment, he came at them with glowing palms. Yukino vaulted out of the way, her tails – for lack of a better word – spearing into the ground and launching her into the air. Meanwhile, Lucy blasted him off her with more dragon fire, and when he got a little too close for comfort she was yanked out of the way yet again, this time by Happy. He set her back down but stayed on her shoulders just in case she needed another emergency lift.
All attacks came to a grinding halt however, when a loud booming voice echoed from the gateway.
"How dare you destroy the celestial gate?! Very well! If you want so badly for us to take over Earthland before the celestial realm, I am more than happy to oblige!"
"He's a little behind don't you think?" Lucy started to say to Happy, but she was interrupted by something infinitely more concerning.
A massive power surge emitted from the gate, blowing everyone in the vicinity back as deep pulsing magic spilled out in waves. Every single demon cowered, some more than others, and even Kurama cringed back a bit. The magic grew stronger and stronger, as if something was coming closer, until finally, someone stepped through the gateway and into the courtyard.
It was a man with a long wild mane of hair, dark skin, and stripes streaking his skin like a tiger. His hair, eyes, and stripes were all various shades of blue, from silvery sky blue to deep azure. He wore all black, from his long cape to his boots, pants, and sleeveless shirt. The only hint of color in his outfit were gold wrist cuffs and a gold crescent neck plate that draped over his collarbones and held up his cape.
He also wore a deep scowl, and from the waves of anger Lucy could feel shivering off him, it was obvious he was beyond pissed.
His eyes shifted over the crowd, before solidly landing on Lucy and Yukino. A disturbing smile curled his lips, and Lucy couldn't prevent her feet from backing up as a deep shiver crawled up and down her spine.
"So…you're the celestial mages. And one of you still has some keys. Excellent…take them!"
Instantly, every demon close to them turned and headed right for them.
Erza – who had been thrown in their direction – leaped to the defense, taking out every demon that headed their way. However, soon one of the demon kings came up against her, one with multiple limbs and even some tentacles.
"Keep that one busy Ezel…she's a powerful mage." Acnologia ordered.
The octopus fellow – Ezel apparently – nodded and drove Erza further and further away from Lucy and Yukino. His limbs moved at lightning speed and each seemed able to turn into a sword. Even Erza seemed hard pressed to keep up with him. Luckily, Lucy caught sight of Jellal already heading to lend his girlfriend backup.
Most other Fairy Tail members had abandoned the demon gate, where Acnologia was firmly planted, and were now heading to try and protect Lucy and Yukino. However, it seemed that the demon emperor had brought some more kings and queens along for the ride – probably his generals – and they were now entering the fray and gunking up the works for everyone.
Lucy just had to trust that her comrades were capable of handling their own fights, because she and Yukino were too busy dealing with their opponent to help anyone else.
Another order boomed through the courtyard. "Jackal! Take them!"
The demon they'd been fighting answered with a somewhat exasperated eyeroll. "Yeah, yeah… I'm obviously already on it."
He didn't seem overly enthused with his boss, but he was still obviously interested in capturing Lucy and Yukino for his own reasons. With a loud growl, he suddenly began to expand, at least doubling in size. His body morphed into something like a werewolf standing on its hind paws, with yellow and black fur, lengthy claws, and a dog-like head full of razor-sharp fangs.
"There's no way you can take me on in this form!" he boasted, and then charged.
Both Yukino and Lucy took a step back, but then readied for a fight, even as they muttered curses under their breath. Right as the big canine creature got to them though, there was a blast of heat, quickly followed by an all-encompassing darkness that cut off all light in the room for a second. In that darkness, the only thing that could be seen was a blaze of red fire, which would have made the scene more than a little hellish and frightening if Lucy hadn't recognized it.
As soon as light returned and they could see again, neither mage was surprised to see two dragons in front of them – both in their draconic human forms. Jackal had been completely stunned by the explosion not of his own making, and he was looking a little charred. He was also completely immobilized by a coil of black shadow… which was apparently Rogue's tail, given that it disappeared into the ground.
Before anyone could say or do anything, the black dragon acted. His entire body turned to shadow and he zipped along the ground at Jackal, then coiled up across his body. The demon shuddered and started to snap out of his dazed state, but not before Rogue had entered his mouth. His entire shadow form disappeared into the demon's body, and then their opponent started howling in pain. It didn't last long. Less than a minute after invading, Rogue took physical form – and apparently partially shifted into his dragon size. The huge werewolf-like creature bloated up and then popped, dispersing back to Asphodel in a shower of black ashes.
Rogue was left behind, and quickly shrank back down to human-size. Everyone stared at him in shock and horror, never having considered that particular technique – aside from Natsu, who just crinkled his nose a little in mild disgust. It was obvious that he was familiar with the move, but wasn't a particular fan of it.
"I apologize, that's not a method I use very often." Rogue said quietly, looking somewhat perturbed himself.
"I, uh, could see why. It must not be very pleasant." Lucy managed to choke, somewhat getting over her shock.
"No." Rogue agreed with her assessment and then turned to look at Yukino.
Striding forwards, he held out something – silently offering it to her. When she lifted her hand curiously, he dropped several gleaming keys into it. She stared down at them in shock, her eyes widening more and more in disbelief, and then tears began to stream down her face.
"What…how…where…I don't…" she stammered.
The demon currently attached to her started to writhe in a menacing way, as if it was excited by her torment and confusion. Lucy was just about to warn Yukino that it seemed to be getting out of control, especially when the centipedal tail things started coiling close to the white-haired mage in a very aggressive sort of way. However, they shivered to a stop and backed off when Rogue sent them a sharp glare.
"I told you I had an errand to run. I'm sorry it took so long to gather them all, I should have been back sooner." Rogue intoned, still keeping his eyes on her tails while he answered her. And then after an empathetic pause, he gently cautioned, "Rize is excited by your confusion and the weakness she senses from you right now. If you want to continue using her, you'll need to try and grasp control of your emotions I'm afraid."
Yukino sniffled, and then wiped her face quickly. "Right, of course."
Lucy's attention was pulled from her friend when Natsu bounced up to her and grabbed her hands. When he released her, she was also holding all the keys she lost, and suddenly experienced first-hand the shock and amazement that Yukino had a moment ago. It was literally like being in a dream, nothing seemed real for a long moment and she practically went numb. Then a wave of emotion crashed into her, nearly bringing her to her knees with the intensity of it, and she crumpled into her hands and pressed her forehead to the keys. The warm metal bit into her skin, but she didn't care, nor did she care about the tears running down her face yet again.
She might have gone into a catatonic state simply from being overwhelmed with relief, happiness, guilt that she'd lost them in the first place, and built-up stress. However, Natsu put a stop to it by slapping his palm down on the top of her head rather roughly, nearly causing some of the keys to break skin as her forehead was pressed into them. She pulled her palms and the keys away from her face quickly and looked up into his beaming face. He patted her head a few more times, like he was petting her almost.
"Pull yourself together Luce! We've gotta fight now!"
His words were said cheerfully, but with a hint of sternness that helped to snap her out of it.
Just like Yukino, she nodded and wiped the snot off her face. "Right."
Sneak Peek
"But even maiming him won't return all the keys he's stolen. Destroying the gate will return all the keys that were used to make it, but he's got control of a lot more keys than that. If we don't kill him, we need to at least remove those keys from his possession. If he doesn't have those keys, then he will be dethroned by the demons themselves."
"True…I might have an idea of how to do that. But we'll need Kurama. So, first things first, we need to help him finish off Tempester."
"Right, and then?"
"I'll tell Kurama my plan. Then we need to keep Acnologia busy while he takes care of the keys. Once they've been swiped, we can take Acnologia out, and hopefully inflict enough damage to make him think twice about messing with us again."