Chapter 14: Galuna Final Battle
Where Sakura, Latias, Lucy, Gray and Erza are
"Ul is still alive." Gray says.
"What do you mean?" Erza asks.
"Gray, you said that she died and now your saying she's alive?" Sakura asks.
"Ten years ago… The city where I lived was attacked by Deliora. It didn't even take a day for it to be destroyed." Gray begins as he tells them how he met Ul and Lyon, how Ul taught him Ice-Make magic, and how she got him into the habit of stripping. Also, tells them what happened to Ul who sacrificed herself to seal Deliora but alive in a form of ice.
When they see the temple, they can't help but stop in their tracks at what they see, this causes Lucy and Happy to tilt their heads as they see the temple before them, smoke coming from the bottom as the building itself was tipped to the left.
"Huh? The ruins are…" Lucy says.
"Tilted?" Sakura finishes.
"What happened?" Happy wonders.
"Natsu I bet." Gray says.
"Yeah." Erza agrees.
"Not sure how he did it, but only he would do something nuts like that. It doesn't really matter whether he did it on purpose or not. Now the light of the moon won't shine on Deliora."
"Who knew that his tendency for wanton destruction could actually come in handy?" Lucy says as she readjusts her head as Happy tries to do it but some reason appears to be having trouble.
"I knew. It was foreshadowed." Happy says as he then accidentally cracks his head all the way to the right, frightening and taking Lucy by surprise.
Just then, Erza turns her head sensing something as from the tree line, sharp boomerang like weapons are thrown through the bushes at the group.
"Watch out!" Erza yells as she punches Lucy and Happy away for safety as she, Gray, Sakura, and Latias jump/flies up to dodge the weapons. "Whose there?!" She questions as Lucy and Happy impact into two trees.
"We've found you, Fairy Tail!" A female follower says as in front of the group are now Lyon's followers in armed with large, curved swords.
"We won't allow you to interfere with Reitei-sama!" A male follower says.
"These guys…" Gray says,
"Lyon's followers?" Erza says.
"We're surrounded!" Lucy exclaims who recovered, stands back up, and finds more followers in front of her.
"Aye!" Happy says as his head still tilted.
"Leave them to me!" Erza says as she summons one of her swords.
"Erza…" Gray calls.
"Go, Gray. Finish things with Lyon."
"Don't worry! We're here too, so just go!" Lucy says as she readies her whip.
"Aye!" Happy agrees as he stands alongside Lucy, now his head is fixed while wields a boned fish in his paws.
"You guys…" Gray says, taken back.
"Gray, I'll go with you." Sakura says. "But I won't interfere between you and Lyon."
Gray looks at Sakura for the moment and smiles before running towards the temple with Sakura and Latias behind him.
"He doesn't know that Ul is still alive. The only one who can stop him… is me!" Gray thought. Soon after, Gray and Sakura enters the temple as they see a wall of ice is in front of them. Gray then breaks the wall with his magic and see Natsu facing Lyon.
"Gray? Sakura?" Natsu calls in surprise as he and Lyon are shock to see Gray.
"Natsu. Let me take this guy down myself." Gray says as he walks in between the two sides.
"You already lost to him once, remember?" Natsu says.
"I won't this time. I'll finish this."
"That's some confidence you have there." Lyon says.
"It was my fault that Ul died ten years ago. But… hurting my friends… hurting the village… trying to melt the ice… I can't forgive you for that. I'll punish you for all of them, Lyon." Gray says as he then takes a stance, bends down a little bit and crosses his arms in front of him making an X.
"That pose… Iced Shell!" Lyon exclaims.
"Iced Shell?" Natsu repeats.
"Don't tell me…!" Sakura says in shock.
"You bastard… have you gone mad?" Lyon questions.
"Return the villagers to the way they were, take your friends and leave this island immediately! This is the last chance I'm giving you." Gray warns as a blue magic circle appears on the group around him.
"I see… You thing you can bluff me with that magic? How pointless?" Lyon says but Gray is not bluffing.
The magic circle brightens up as a tornado of cold air blasts up around Gray. The loose clothes on Natsu, Lyon, and Sakura blowing back from the force of the wind.
"I'm serious." Gray says in a serious tone.
"Why you!" Lyon says as he attempts to attack Gray buy seems to be blasted back by the wind.
"Gray!" Natsu yells.
"Don't do it!" Sakura shouts.
"No matter how many years pass. It won't change the fact that it's my fault Ul is dead! I have to take my responsibility sometime… So now's the time. I'm prepared to die. I've been for the past ten years!" Gray yells as the intensity of the magic circle and cold air around him seems to continue to pick up.
"You're serious!" Lyon yells back.
"Answer me, Lyon! Do we die together, or live together?!" Gray questions as cracks begin to form on his body.
"Do it. You don't have the guts to die. There's no way you do!" Lyon says still not believing it.
"Too bad." Gray says as he begins to cry out and prepares to cast Iced Shell to stop Lyon even it means to lose his physical body.
"Gray!" Natsu and Sakura yell.
"Natsu, Erza, everyone at Fairy Tail… It's up to you now… Sorry, but I'm making my exit. This is… the end!" Gray thought.
"Iced…"
"You idiot!" Natsu yells as he comes in and punches Gray right across his face, stopping him from casting the spell as Lyon and Sakura are taken a back from this. Natsu breathes heavily as Gray is crouching on the ground trying to comprehend what just happened.
"Natsu!" Gray yells in anger.
"You break into my fight spouting 'responsibility'? Give me a break! Don't be takin' my kill!" Natsu says.
"Your kill?" Sakura and Gray repeat.
"I'm the one that's gonna beat him!" Natsu continues in a smug tone and the look on his face while pointing at himself with his right thumb.
"Didn't I tell you that I'd take him down?" Gray questions.
"And did I ever say, 'Yes. Roger that, Sir'?"
"You two… is it time to fight each other?" Sakura asks with a sweatdrop.
"Why you little…" Gray begins but cuts off by Natsu chuckling.
"You wanna go?"
Gray grabs Natsu's scarf. "I have to be the one that finishes him off! I'm prepared to die!" Gray yells in anger into Natsu's face and Natsu grabs Gray's wrist tightly.
"Since when dying finishing a battle? Well? Ain't that just running away, huh?!" Natsu questions with a serious look on his face shocking Gray at how serious he is now and the question.
Just then, the entire building begins to shake, catching everyone in the room's attention as they look up as pieces of ice falling around them from the rumpling.
"W-what's that?" Natsu questions.
Outside of the temple
Erza slashes through several Lyon's followers, Lucy whips away a few of them.
"Take that!" Happy yells as he throws a bunch of sea stuff into one of the follower's mouth while holding a watermelon above his head.
"Do not falter! We must not allow anyone to get in the way of Reitei-sama!" A follower yells out, the rest of them yells in agreement.
All of a sudden, the ground around the Fairy Tail wizards and the followers shaking catching their attention.
"What's that sound?" Erza questions as Lucy turns her head trying to find the source of where it's coming from.
"Oh no!" Lucy yells as the other two turn to see the temple has fixed itself.
"The ruins un-tilted themselves!" Happy yells.
Inside the temple
Natsu pounds the floor with his feet and fists as Gray, Sakura, and Latias look around wondering how the temple fixed itself.
"What the heck?!" Natsu yells in anger as he jumping all over the place.
"Now the light of the moon will land on Deliora again!" Gray exclaims.
"Sorry for the interruption." A man says as he runs into the room towards Lyon.
"Zalty, is this your doing?" Lyon asks.
"Hahaha, the moon will be out soon so I returned the temple to normal." The man, Zalty says.
"Who the heck is he?" Gray questions.
"After all my hard work tilting it! How'd you fix it back up?" Natsu questions in anger.
Zalty looks towards at Natsu and says "Oh" before laughing at him which angers Natsu.
"How did you fix it back up?!" Natsu yells out as his head enlarges and his teeth sharpen and tongue turns snake-like.
"I suppose we should begin the Moon Drip Ceremony." Zalty says as he runs away.
"Ignored?!" Natsu questions in shock as his arms drops down. "Oh, it's on, masked-man!" He yells out as flames explodes from the side of his head. Natsu quickly runs after the man who is still laughing. "Hold it, bub!"
"Ah! Natsu!" Sakura shouts.
"Natsu!" Gray yells as Natsu stops and turns to him.
"I'm gonna wallop that bastard a million times. You handle things here!" Natsu yells as he turns around, surprising Gray that he is allowing him to fight Lyon. "You lost last time, and it's a disgrace."
"Yeah…" Gray agrees.
"Not for you." Natsu adds.
"I know."
"For all of Fairy Tail!" Natsu and Gray say looking back at each other and smirk before Natsu runs off after Zalty.
"Wait, Natsu!" Sakura calls out and gets on Latias before she takes off after him.
"Hold it right there, you masked bastard! How did you fix the ruins?!" Natsu yells in anger as he continues chasing after Zalty.
Ahead of Natsu, Zalty stops in his tracks and raises his right hand to the ceiling. A massive white magic circle appears above him as the ceiling above is cut out in a circle and begins to fall towards Natsu who then sees it coming.
"You thing that'd work on me?" Natsu questions as he jumps up and throws a fire coat kick into the debris, destroying it.
Sakura and Latias come behind Natsu just to see Zalty grins and slowly waves his hand in front of him, the rubble around Natsu suddenly fly up into the air and form back together into the circle rock and then re-fixes itself into the ceiling like it had never broke off in the first place. This shocks Natsu, Sakura and Latias on what just happened.
"As you can see, that is how I returned the ruins back to how they were." Zalty says,
"What kind of magic was that?" Natsu questions as sweat flies from his face.
"One of the Lost Magics. Magic so powerful and with such grave side-effects that they have been erase from history itself." Zalty says.
"From history?" Sakura says.
"Your Dragon Slayer magic is also so." Zalty says referring to Natsu.
"Mine?" Natsu questions with a sweat drop and two question marks appearing on both sides of his head.
"And as for you, young lady, your magic is strange. It seems you do use elemental magic, yet you can change with those strange plates of yours. Not only that, you can use one element at a time and the power that comes from them are likes of which even I have never seen before. Whether you're use Lost Magic I have never heard before or some kind of power letting you use them." Zalty says directly at Sakura who has her hand on the glove and Zalty disappears.
"He disappeared!" Natsu yells in shock as he, Sakura, and Latias look around but don't see him anywhere. "Where'd he go? Damn it!"
Outside of the Temple
Even after fighting for a while, the group still found themselves surrounded by large number of followers.
"Lucy, have you noticed?" Erza asks.
"There may be a lot of them, but their magical power is weak." Lucy points out.
"Exactly. They only have five real wizards among them." Erza says.
"Well, just great… I can't get serious with these guys." Happy says.
"Should you be saying that?" Lucy questions.
"So, can you handle it?" Erza asks.
"Leave it to me!" Lucy yells as she about to take one of her keys, they hear voices of surprise and sees the five mages floating in the air as their bodies becomes outlined in pale red.
"What's going on!" One of the followers questions.
"Lucy?" Happy asks.
"Don't look at me, I didn't do anything!" Lucy exclaims and shortly a pink crescent-like blade of energy shoot towards the five mages, knocking them out, subsequently, most of the followers disappear due to being clones and leaving the real ones who don't have magic.
"What just happened?" Happy questions.
"Lucy!" Erza calls.
"Okay!" Lucy replies and swings her key. "Gate of the Giant Crab, I open thee! Cancer!" She yells as she summons Cancer in front of her.
"Hm? Aren't you…" Erza says remembering the spirit.
Cancer then pulls out a bouquet of roses from nowhere, bend down on one knee and presents the bouquet to her as sparkles flash around him and a spotlight shines on him.
"Erza-sama, for what might I have this pleasure-snip?" Cancer asks.
"'Sama'? Say what?! And what's with the -snip?! And I'm the one who summon you!" Lucy yells in shock and annoyance with her eyes bulging out.
"It's a triple-take!" Happy says.
"Anyways, finish off with these remaining guys!" Lucy says as she points towards the remaining followers.
"Okay-ebi… -snip." Cancer corrects himself as he snips his scissors and then a lough explosion and cries of pain echoes throughout the forest.
Below the temple
Zalty arrives back in the underground cavern and looks up as the Moon Drip Ceremony soon begins.
"Finally." Zalty says.
"Found you!" Zalty hears the familiar voice yelling behind him and turns around, surprise to see Natsu as he launches himself towards him with a fire coating fist. "Let's start by burning you to a crisp!" Natsu yells as he slams his fist down but Zalty dodges the attack as he jumps away and lands on a higher rock from Natsu. However, the rock begins to shake beneath him and Zalty quickly jumps away again as Sakura with a brown glove erupts through the ground to try to attack him from below as Latias follows her.
"Hoho! Those are some fighting words! But… how did you know I was here?" Zalty questions.
"I've got a good nose. And you smell like woman's perfume for some reason…" Natsu says.
"Women's perfume?" Sakura repeats.
"You see, I must ensure Deliora is resurrected no matter what." Zalty says ignoring Natsu's comment.
"Just give it up already! It's not going to happen." Natsu tells him.
"Oh yeah? And why is that?" Zalty wonders.
"Gray will blow that guy away, and me, Sakura and Latias will blow you away. One million times. And that'll be that." Natsu says as he points towards Zalty and glares at him.
"You're not going to bring back Deliora back." Sakura says.
Zalty then looks away towards Deliora. "We'll see…"
Natsu, Sakura, and Latias wonder what he is looking at and looks towards Deliora. Their eyes widen in shock at what they see, the purple light of the Moon Drip ceremony hitting down on the Iced Shell of Deliora.
"L-light?!" Natsu says in shock.
"Who is above doing the ceremony?" Sakura questions.
The top of the temple
Toby is the only one performing the ceremony due to the followers fighting against, Erza, Lucy and Happy as his friends are still knocked out.
Below the temple
"With just a single person, the moon drip effect is quite weak… But we've already gathered plenty of moonlight. Just a tiny bit more, and… see?" Zalty says as then a massive chunk of the ice on top turns to water. This causes Natsu to cry out in shock as the upper part of his face goes pale and his eyes go blank with sweat flying from his face.
"Oh crap! The ice is melting off Deliora!" Natsu exclaims.
"Natsu! Stay here and take care of that guy! I'll go for the person up top!" Sakura says as she jumps onto Latias and she begins to fly towards the entrance of the cave. Zalty grins as he holds up his left hand as Latias flies towards the entrance, she and Sakura hear something above them and see a large chunk of rock falling towards them. "Latias!" Sakura yells as Latias quickly flies away from where the rock would land.
"Sakura!" Natsu yells out.
"We're all right, Natsu!" Sakura yells.
"I will not let you three escape. Chasing after me was a mistake, you see. 'Salamander'-kun and the tamer." Zalty says.
Outside the temple
Lyon's followers all lie on the ground defeated, heavily bruised up and unable to stands back up.
"Excellent work. Let us hurry along." Erza says.
"Right." Lucy says.
"W-wait!" A voice from behind them says, turning around to the voice, they see one of Lyon's followers to be an old woman who is being help to stand by a younger man also Lyon's follower. "We can't let you interfere with Reitei-sama!" The woman says.
"Those hair ornaments… You are citizens of Brago, aren't you? Have a scare to settle?" Erza questions causing the old woman to grit her teeth in anger
Below the temple
Zalty laughs maniacally as Natsu launches himself towards Zalty and finally manages to hit him. Zalty recovers in the air and lands another rock higher than Natsu.
"You sure about that? If you use fire magic here it will accelerate the ice melting off Deliora!" Zalty says and Natsu throws a fire-coated kick which destroys the edge of the rock.
"If you could use fire magic to melt the ice, then you wouldn't have had to go through all this trouble!" Natsu points out. "It'll be fastest to beat you here, then smash the guy up on top."
"Hoho, I'm surprised at how quickly you can thing on your feet in the midst of a battle." Zalty says.
Sakura looks towards Deliora as the ice gets smaller and smaller around it as the moon drip continues to hit it.
"I have to stop it." Sakura says and switches plates from the brown to ice-blue before pointing her gloved hand towards Deliora. "Ice Beam!" Sakura shouts as she forms a light blue ball of energy in front of her hand. It then fires multiple light blue beams from the ball at the demon to add more ice onto it.
Zalty sees this and become intrigue by it. "Impressive, but you're already too late. Not even all that ice you're adding will be able to hold back Deliora, after all, it's not Iced Shell ice."
Just then, an ear-piercing roar resonates through the air through the cavern and the outside. Lucy and happy cover their ears while Erza looks around.
"My ears are ringing!" Happy yells out.
"What the heck is that sound?" Erza questions.
"It's too loud!" Natsu yells in pain as he and Latias hold their ears in pain due to how much louder it was in the cavern. Sakura stops the move as she forces to cover her ears as well.
Then Deliora's eyes turns red and the ice cracks around its upper body before it breaks off as Deliora raises its head.
"Here it comes!" Zalty yells in joy as Deliora lets out another massive, piercing roar reverberating the temple.