Chapter 34: Destiny
Simon stares at Gray who is breathing heavily from the battle.
"Gray Fullbuster… You are far stronger than the information I gathered would imply…" He thought and suddenly, Gray grunts catching Happy's and Takeru's attention as they look to notice him collapse onto a hand and knee.
"Gray!" Happy yells out worried for him.
"I have to hurry and… find Erza!" Gray says as he pushes himself back up, only to collapse onto the cage.
"Gray, hand in there!" Happy yells out.
"Or perhaps his feelings for his friends strengthened his magical powers?" Simon continues.
Happy begins to panic and spins back around, shaking Natsu to try to wake him up. "Natsu, wake up!"
"The world is spinning…" Natsu unconsciously says.
Takeru watches Happy trying to wake Natsu up and sighs out of exhaustion.
Simon looks at the four from where he stands, lowering his head with a smile as he closes his eyes. "You joined a splendid guild, Erza…" Simon mutters.
Elsewhere on the Tower
Latias looks at her trainer who is knocked out from the fight along with Lucy and Juvia to recover their strength before they move on. Lucy manages to open her eyes but doesn't move.
"It's no use… I can't move a finger… I guess I used up too much of my magical power." Lucy thought and looks at Juvia and Sakura. "It doesn't look like Juvia and Sakura can move either. And I don't think Latias has the strength to carry the three of us." She moves her head to stare at the high ceiling. "What should we do?"
"Nya. We got beaten up pretty bad…" A familiar voice echoes out from the hallway behind the group.
From the hallway, Millianna and Wally appear both of them have fully recovered from their fight against Natsu and Takeru.
"Oh, someone is lying over there," Wally says noticing Lucy, Juvia, Sakura, and Latias.
"That voice…" Lucy pales at the thought of the voices.
"Found ya." Wally says.
Latias immediately gets in front of the Millianna and Wally protecting the three.
"Wait a second! We're not going to hurt them anymore!" Wally tells the Pokémon but Latias refuse to move and gets ready to use Dragon Breath.
"Wait." Latias stops causing her, Millianna and Wally to look at Sakura who is sitting upright. "What do you mean by that?"
"Nya. Simon contacted us just a few minutes ago explaining to us what's going on. That's why we're not here to hurt you or your friends anymore." Millianna says.
Sakura stares at the two as Latias goes to Sakura's side.
Elsewhere in the Tower
"JELLA―L!" Sho angrily cries out, running down a long hallway as fast as he could run so that he could reach Jellal and make him pay for lying to him and the others all these years and making them betray Erza. "Damn you! Damn you! Damn you! How dare you tricked us!"
"Sho!" Erza calls out, still trapped inside her card.
"You hurt nee-san!" Sho says ignoring her as tears begin to form in his eyes.
"Enough! Calm down! Let me out of here!" Erza yells as she pounds against the protective barrier of the card.
"It's okay! I will protect nee-san! For sure!"
"Sho!"
Sho then runs out of the hallway into a massive room. The walkway before him covers with Torii, Japanese gates that hang over him leading down the walkway, on either side separated by the torii each are small statues of Komainu (lion-dogs) on the tall stop pedestals, pink cherry blossom petals floats around amidst the air, on either side of the walkway is water filled with the petals and lining the wall are massive rocks. Off to Sho's right on the lone rock with a fully bloomed cherry blossom tree.
Running farther down the walkway, Sho then stops his tracks when he notices someone slowly approaching him, turning out to be none other than the final member of Trinity Raven, Ikaruga as she slowly takes one step at a time towards Sho who readies four cards in his right hand between his fingers and thumb.
"The name is Ikaruga. And who might you be?" Ikaruga asks with her eyes closed before opening them up and staring calmly towards Sho.
"Get out of my way! Who is this crazy broad?" Sho says.
"Oh dear. A bit lacking in etiquette, aren't you?" Ikaruga calmly says.
"This doesn't concern you!" Sho yells out in anger as he throws his cards, a green magic circle appearing a few feet in front of him as the cards go through it and a few more appear, all of them covered in golden light as they fly towards Ikaruga. Ikaruga, however, seems to remain calm as she slowly lifts up her sheath, and then suddenly in a blink of an eye, she is able to bring her katana out making a crossing X slash in the air and sheath it away almost like she never brought it out in the first place.
The cards stop in the air and stop glowing, they begin to slowly float down to the floor when suddenly the upper parts of the cards cut down, right the middle in between the back and front sides.
"I-Impossible!" Sho exclaims in absolute shock at what he has just seen.
The cards disappear around Ikaruga as she stares back at Sho, once again, a calm, and cold stare in her eyes. "There is nothing which I cannot cut." She says.
"What are you, some street performer?" Sho questions as he ready to throw more cards when suddenly, the ground beneath him is also cut in an X and depresses downwards a bit. Sho gasps in pain as his cards disappear from his hands. "What is this… My body…" Sho says as he collapses to his knees, his eyes widen as he doesn't move an inch while down.
"Your tendons were severed without a single cut to your clothes or flesh. Such is the essence of the Mugetsu-Ryu sword style (Mugetsu-Ryu = Form of the Moonless Sky)." Ikaruga says when she then notices something.
Sho falls back onto the ground and above him in the air is the card holding Erza as she pounds against it even more aggressively to get out since he is in danger.
"Sho!" Erza calls out.
"Nee-san…" Sho weakly calls.
"Oh, so that is where you were, Erza-han." Ikaruga says.
"Let me out of here this instant! She is not an opponent you can defeat!" Erza yells out.
"Don't worry… That card is protected. There is no way anything from the outside could harm you." Sho says.
"He–h." Ikaruga hums turning her body a bit to the left as she holds back her sheath and slowly begins to pull out her katana. "Sound interesting."
"Sho! Get me out of here! That is not a normal sword she has!" Erza calls out, but Sho still sees otherwise.
"Don't worry… Believe in me…" Sho says, when once again in just a second Ikaruga brings out her sword, sends an air slash towards the card Erza is in and then sheaths it away again.
"See?" Sho says a weaken smile on his face as he sees that nothing happened to the card. Though, that all changes when he notices something causing his eyes to widen as he gasps. In the card, Erza summoned a sword and holds it downwards, blocking the air slash that actually penetrated into the card. "She sliced through the spatial divide?" Sho questions in shock.
Ikaruga takes a step forward and puts her right hand on her sword's hilt again, both Erza and Sho stare with worried looks on their faces. As then Ikaruga begins to unleash an endless barrage of air slashes, some of which hit Sho causing him to cry out in pain while the majority of them are targeted at the card – at Erza as inside she manages to block each and every slash that enters the card. She is blasted back against one of the pedestals to the side.
"Nee-san…" Sho says when suddenly a bright light erupts from in front of him, making him close his eyes.
From the golden light, Erza appears crouching down, her right leg forward with her sword holds up behind her as Sho opens his eyes and is shocked to see her there.
"Thanks to you, the dimension surrounding the card was distorted, which allowed me to force my way out." Erza explains as she looks at Ikaruga.
"A sword that can cut through the spatial divide is amazing enough, but to use the enemy's slices in that split second… This is Titania's power…" Sho thoughts an overjoys look on his face with tears in his eyes as Erza stands back up.
"You call yourself Ikaruga, yes? I have no use for you. Begone." Erza says.
"In lieu of an introduction…" Ikaruga trails off narrowing her eyes a bit towards Erza, making her eyes widen in wonder of what she is talking about. When suddenly, cracks appear on her Heart Kreuz Armor before it shatters to pieces, leaving her in her normal clothing as she looks down in complete shock. Abruptly, the pain from the attack appears in her body as she crumples onto her right knee and puts her right hand on the upper part of her left arm, grunting out in pain as she closes her eyes.
"No way!" Sho exclaims in disbelief.
"Oh? Did you perhaps not see it?" Ikaruga says with a glaring, cocky look in her eyes as Erza stands back up and Ikaruga then giggles. "That at which you gaze… beyond the mist, could it be… a momonoke?" She sings out. "Trying so hard to find Jellal-han, you no longer see the flash of swords all around you." She says causing an angry look on Erza's face as some shadow falls onto it.
"Yes, yes… Those are the eyes…" Ikaruga says unfazed.
"Nee-san is getting serious!" Sho thought now standing up beside Erza a few feet behind to her right.
"I am no mere passerby."
"That is how it seems." Erza says then requips into her Heaven's Wheel Armor. "You are an enemy."
"Come at me." Ikaruga challenges as she readies herself again, placing her hand on her sword and pulling it out a bit.
Erza immediately zooms in and slashes at Ikaruga, but she uses her katana to block gracefully as Erza flies into the air and summons a wheel of swords.
"Heaven's Wheel: Circle Sword!" Erza sends the swords at Ikaruga as she stays calm and opens her eyes.
"Mugetsu-Ryu…" She then slashes in the blink of an eye at the speed of sound and every single sword that is coming towards her are completely shatter and breaks into pieces and misses her, piercing the ground around her. "Yasha-senku." The swords then disappear.
"All the swords were…" Sho says shocked that many swords were slashed in less than two seconds. Erza then descends a fair distance from Ikaruga and she slashes across, not moving her spot. After three seconds, Erza's armor begins to break into pieces as Erza screams out in pain.
"Mugetsu-Ryu…" Ikaruga begins to heat up and yellowish-orange light surges about.
"Nee-san!" Sho calls out after Erza grunts in pain.
Ikaruga creates a ring of fire and launches it at Erza. "Karuda-en!" The blast wave from her sword then launches at Erza, however, at the last second, she transforms into her Flame Empress Armor. The armor is mostly dark red and black parts resembling dragon limbs. The breastplate has dragon-like wings attached to it. Her gauntlets are orange and are dragon claw based as her hair is also in pigtails.
"Flame Empress Armor." Ikaruga says. "That armor has the ability to defend against flames, yes? You did well to requip in such an instant." The wings and gauntlets are then shattered causing Erza to wince. "You mustn't let his lordship see you like that, yes? What will you do? Will you don your strongest armor soon?"
"Damn monster…" Sho mutters with disgust.
Erza then requips with such rage as she now wearing a black armor with spikes everywhere. Her hair is now styled with spikes in every directing with her eyes are glowing red.
"You'd best repent! Purgatory Armor, Requip!" She then summons forth a mighty spiked mace with long sharp spikes along the side as it unleashes strong winds when it hits the ground. "There is no one that can stand when faced with this visage!"
"So that's your strongest armor?" Ikaruga asks. "Come at me."
Erza jumps into the air and comes down only to be dodged as the mace hits the bridge and sends a straight shockwave through the water and smashes a very large rock. Erza then swings again sending a devastating wind at Ikaruga as it about to hit her, Ikaruga smiles with glee as she slashes again, cutting straight through the massive winds and shattering even more wood on the bridge. Now with monstrous rage enveloping her, Erza jumps and roars as she comes down with her mace with Ikaruga back steps, leaps, and watches the mace sends another shockwave rippling from the attack. Ikaruga then lunges forward and her sword runs along the edge as she jumps by the use of the spiky edge and spiraled in the air, slashing Erza heading on. Sho watches with wide eyes as Erza is hit. Ikaruga spirals in the air and poses behind Erza. Erza stumbles after being still for a bit and her armor shatters with her screaming in pain as Ikaruga peeks back with her right eye while her left eye closed.
"Do you not yet understand? No matter what armor you don, you cannot win against my sword. Give up now." Ikaruga says as Erza collapses to the ground on her knees, dropping the remains of her massive mace to the ground and falling forward a bit.
Erza grits her teeth in anger and pain as she begins to force herself back up albeit slowly.
"S-She can't win… Even nee-san can't win!" Sho thought, some distance away from the battlefield on his knees as he looks at the ground, tears in his eyes that Erza is losing.
Erza turns back towards Ikaruga, now having a serious look again as she is once again enveloped in golden light, her hair blowing upwards as she is requipping again. This time, however, as the light dies down, she wears a different kind of outfit. The outfit is primarily red with some gold, black and white, it consisted of a white shirashi around the upper chest and a red hakama with a gold flame-like pattern at the bottom with black highlights, tied by white strings. Erza's hair is tied up in a high tail at the back by a green headband as in her hands are two golden-hilted katanas.
"Wait, what's that armor? Or wait, it's some outfit?" Sho questions.
"What are you trying? That outfit is nothing but cloth." Ikaruga says now facing back towards Erza.
"What?" She says in shock hearing this.
"Do you think so little of me?"
"Nee-san, what are you thinking?! You've got to have a lot of strong armor left, right?! You're stronger than this, right?!" Sho yells out.
"I am… I am not strong. Strength is…" Erza begins but stops as then certain memories of her past begin replaying in her head.
"I like being myself. I feel uncomfortable around other people." A young Erza Scarlet says.
"Then why are you crying all by yourself?" A young Gray asks when he found her crying along by a river.
Other memories of her past begin to come to her mind, such as the day of the rebellion in the tower. "Before my eyes, countless numbers of my friends have become sacrifices. I wasn't able to protect those dear to me. And then… I was always crying." A memory of a young Erza knocking Gray and Natsu out with a single punch to their heads at the park is seen after the two try to attack her, failing to hit her as she just turns and walks away. A few memories from the day Fairy Tail attacked Phantom Lord is seen as well. "To be seen as strong… I shut by out crying heart… inside of my armor."
"I always wear armor because I am weak! I would never take it off…" Erza continues saying to Ikaruga, Sho meanwhile continues to watch and listen to what Erza says in complete awe, tears in his eyes as he could the sincerity in her words.
"I will cut my opponents, even if they are naked." Ikaruga says.
"I believed that the armor would protect me. But I was mistaken. That armor blocked the space that separates people's heart from one another." More memories appear, the day her, Natsu, Happy, Plue, Sakura, and Gray are in Lucy's room after the attack by Phantom on their guild, the front of the ruined guild where all of Fairy Tail protested to Jose that they would never give Lucy up to him making her cry. "Fairy Tail taught me this…"
The day when her, Natsu, Gray, Happy, and Sakura chased after Lucy back to her old home as they were prepared to head back to the guild together, Sakura having a Pokémon battle against her father, and not even a few hours ago back in the dining room where her friends were plus Juvia, who were already to be there to fight beside and for her. "It taught me how close people are to one another… How warm they are…"
"Nee-san…" Sho says in sadness as the tears in his left eye begin to go down.
"I am lost no longer! I will turn my entirely to strength and have at you!" Erza declares.
A few moments pass by, silence is now in the air as them both Erza and Ikaruga prepare their blades and stand ready to attack. Without warning, both launches themselves at each other, Sho gasps out in shock as the Ikaruga brings out her sword while twisting around and Erza swings both of hers forward. In the blink of an eye, both strike and fly pass each other, landing back on the ground with their backs towards each other a few feet apart with their swords held out. The attack sends out a strong gust of wind that blows outwards as then once again, for a few seconds, everything is silent and then breaks.
The katana Erza holds out in front of her cracks and then shatters, however, Erza remains unfazed by this as behind her Ikaruga quietly chuckles. "The battle is over." She says just as her sword then cracks and shatters to pieces. A second later, she collapses and mutters out, "Impressive…" as she hits the ground.
Erza turns around and looks at her fallen opponent while breathing heavily from the fatigue the battle brought to her.
"Wow! You really are amazing, nee-san!" Sho says in awe.
"Are you unharmed, Sho?" Erza asks.
"Yes, somehow…"
Ikaruga giggles while on the ground, her eyes still closed. "This is the first time I've lost since I entered the guild… But you and Jellal-han will all lose…" Ikaruga says.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sho questions as he is now back on his feet, holding his left arm in pain still.
"15 minutes…" Ikaruga says as she begins to slowly lift her right hand up into the air. "The light of justice… will rain down from the heavens… and kill everyone." Ikaruga sings out. "That poem is dreadful…" She says before passing out.
"Is she talking about Etherion? Sho, take Simon and the others plus all the people from Fairy Tail, and get away from this tower!" Erza says looking at him.
"B-But…" Sho says.
"Will you do as I ask, Sho?" Erza asks smiling sadly at him.
Sho takes back by this, turning his head slightly away as he hums, Yeah… What about you?"
Erza turns around and takes a few steps forward, a serious look on her face. "I will finish this."
The sun begins to set, casting one side of the tower into the shadow.
"Huh?" Natsu hums as he finally wakes up. On one of the stairways circling around outside of the tower, Simon carries the formerly unconscious Natsu on his back up the stairs.
"Are you awake, Natsu?" Simon asks.
"I remember I was caught by some weird moving vehicle and…" Before Natsu can finish, his eyes go blank, his face turns blue and bloats up. It seems just thinking about what happened involving vehicles makes him sick.
This angers/annoys Simon as two sweat drops appear on the side of his head and his right eye widens, goes blank, and narrows in anger as he yells, "Stop! You can't get nausea from memories!"
Natsu manages to return to normal, letting out a groan as Simon continues walking up the stairs, carrying him. "After that you were eaten by Fukuro, and Gray and Takeru have saved you." Simon explains.
"Gray?" Natsu says shock and confused about where he came from.
At that moment, an unconscious Gray is carried by Takeru as he jumps down the tower swiftly with Happy flying with him.
"But Gray took a lot of damage. Takeru also took a lot of damage since continued fighting alongside Gray but is at least able to hold Gray as they head back to the boat." Simon continues.
"Erza…" Gray painfully says while still knocked out.
Meanwhile on some escape boats…
"Satellite Square? Don't joke about that!" One of the tower guards questions in shock aloud. All of the tower guards have awoken and quickly board the boats to get away from the tower, having of heard about what is going to happen to the tower soon.
"We have to evacuate!"
Takeru stops at one of the rocks that protrudes jutting from the tower as Happy stops in midair next to him. They can hear the retreating tower guards on their boat.
"But we'll be caught by the Fiore army!"
"That'd be better than getting hit by Etherion!"
"Huh? The ships are leaving!" Happy cries out.
"Look down." Gray tells them and the two spots a small boat that the group had originally arrived on.
"I found a ship!" Happy cheers.
"That's the one we came in on." He tells the cat.
Back on the stairs
"Dah! I can't believe this! I lost and Gray won?" Natsu angrily shouts with blank, widen and narrow eyes.
"You didn't really lose… You were eaten." Simon points out.
"I don't care about Takeru, but Gray is a different story! He'll hold this over me for a month! He's really petty like that… damn i-t!" Natsu ruffles his hair.
"Come one now…" Simon says with a blank eye and dark purple lines coming out from the side of his body.
"There's only one thing to do! Revenge! I'll fight that birdbrain again and get my revenge!" The Fire Dragon Slayer angrily declares, now standing up with fire erupting from beneath him, his fists raised up on his sides and his eyes black out.
Simon then grabs his scarf and pulls him along, dragging him up the stairs as Natsu is confused by this. "We don't have time for that!" He states.
"Oh yeah, who are you?" Natsu suddenly asks, his head enlarges behind Simon who stops as his eyes go dark blank and narrow towards him questionably.
"Simon. An old friends of Erza."
"Oh, okay. Nice to meetcha." Natsu says placing his hands behind his head as Simon places his right hand on the wall as they stop walking. Simon grunts out in pain and places his left hand on his stomach. "You're injured?"
Taking his hand off the wall, Simon leans forward a bit. "Don't worry about me. Listen carefully, Natsu. Wally sent me a message before. He said he found Sakura alongside Lucy and Juvia who were both collapsed from exhaustion, along with a defeated member of Trinity Raven."
"Lucy?" Natsu says.
"Sakura explained to them that the Trinity Raven member appeared before then, turning Juvia into his slave to attack Lucy and Sakura. Those two managed to turn the tides however back into their favor, freeing Juvia as the three then took down the Trinity Raven member. Anyway, they're going to take your friends outside the tower while Sakura and her Pokémon will join with us immediately." Simon informs the dragon slayer. "And I've already been contacted by Sho that Trinity Raven have been all defeated."
"I didn't do a thing?!" Natsu questions in absolute shock with widen, blank eyes.
Just then something flies upwards, passing Natsu and Simon causing them to look up to see Sakura riding on Latias.
"Sorry for the wait!" Sakura shouts.
"Sakura!" Natsu calls out as Latias floats down to their eyesight.
"Since she's here, there's something I need to tell you." Simon says. "Since the Trinity Raven have been defeated, all that's left is Jellal. Erza is heading towards them now."
"Erza?" Natsu questions.
"She is trying to end this all by herself. Her and Jellal have been connected by fate for 8 years. Their destiny may be to do battle. However, Jellal is too powerful." Simon then turns around and looks at Natsu and Sakura. "Please… Save Erza." He asks.
"Simon…" Sakura says.
"Hell no." Natsu bluntly says with an uninterested look on his face with his eyes widen a bit and his right eyebrow raises a bit.
"Eh?!" Simon cries out in shock with blank, circled eye.
Meanwhile in the Throne Room
Jellal places Erza's knight piece in front of the King's piece representing him as all of the other pieces are down, except for Natsu, Sakura, and Latias'.
"My, oh my… The game is already over?" Jellal calmly says as he stands up from his seat as Erza enters the room with her remaining katana in hand. She still wears the clothing from her fight against Ikaruga.
"Is playing with people's lives so fun for you?" Erza questions angrily.
"It is fun. Birth and death, after all, are the origin and focus of all emotions. Or put it the other way around, nothing is more boring than living on its own." Jellal replies as he turns to his right and walks a few feet in the direction. Stopping as he turns and looks back at Erza in his right side. "It has been a while, Erza…"
"Jellal…" Erza says in a hateful tone as the two stares at each other. "I will liberate my past friends."
"Do as you please. I no longer need them. The Tower of Heaven has been completed." Jellal says.
"Even though it will be destroyed in less than 10 minutes?" Titania questions, raising her sword, pointing at him.
"You speak of Etherion?" Jellal asks sarcastically as he chuckles.
"Such confidence… So it was a bluff?"
"No." Jellal says, throwing his hood off, revealing a crazed look in his eyes. "Etherion will rain down."
"Hearing that makes me feel relieved. If I can delay you by 10 minutes, then this will be all over!" Erza states as she raises her sword and puts both hands on its hilt.
No. You will be annihilated as Zeref's sacrifice. It has already been decided!" That is your fate." The blue-haired teen says holding his right hand out as dark red mist begins to seep out from the palm into the air around him. Jellal then closes his eyes ."Your destiny!" He says as he opens them, the inside of his right eye now glowing purple with the strange eye symbol replacing his pupil.
On the boat, everyone except Natsu, Sakura, Latias, Erza and Simon are now on the boat, casting off from the dock as the boat slowly drifts away.
"Damn it! Turn the ship around!" Gray yells.
"I can't do that okay?" Wally says.
"We were told to get away from here." Millianna says.
"But Erza is still inside… and Sakura, Latias, and Natsu too!" Lucy says.
"I'm sure she will be fine. I have to trust her." Sho says looking back at the tower.
"I can't leave her to Natsu and Sakura!" Gray says as he tries to get up.
"There's nothing to be done. Simon is also with him. They'll handle it somehow." Wally says.
"Somehow? What's that supposed to mean?! Lucky questions.
"Nya! Don't yell!" Millianna yells.
"Everyone, calm down!" Sho yells as the others continue to argue, Happy sits at the end of the boat facing the tower as Lucario sits next to him with his eyes closed and arms crossed.
"Shut up! Turn the boat around now! I've got to save Erza!" Gray yells angrily.
"Hurry, there's no time!" Lucy yells.
"I said its no use!" Wally yells.
SHUT UP!" Happy suddenly yells out, his head enlarged, eyes go wide and blank as he narrows his eyebrows at everyone. His tone anger and annoy at everyone who all turn into chibis, except Takeru and Millianna whose hair fly upwards, and fly into the air with blank eyes, crying out in surprise at his sudden outburst as they flail their arms around.
"What's with you?! I want to go back too! But there's no point… Etherion will fire any moment! I just know that Natsu will bring Erza back! That's what Simon told me! And I believe in Sakura and Latias as well!" Happy says with tears in his eyes.
Closing them as tears begin to stream down his face and lower his head. "If Salamander's true power awakens, even Jellal wouldn't…" Happy says, unable to continue anymore and sniffles as everyone looks at him with sad looks on their faces and even makes Millianna sniffle at his crying.
Takeru opens his eyes and looks at the tower where his trainer still there, believes that she and the others will come back to them.
On the stairs
Simon grabs Natsu by his scarf and slams him into the wall looking at him angrily. "Damn you! Are you saying you aren't going to save Erza, your comrade?" He questions.
"Erza needs to defeat her own enemies. It's not something I should butt into." Natsu says.
Simon releases his hold on Natsu and turns away. "No. Erza cannot win against Jellal." He says.
"Oh yeah?!" Natsu questions glaring at Simon at the statement. "Don't put her down!" He exclaims with his right fist raised.
Simon turns back to him with a worried look on his face. "That's not it! I'm not talking about power or magic here…"
"Huh?" Natsu asks.
"What are you talking about?" Sakura asks,
"Erza is still trying to save Jellal. I know. I know that she could never truly hate Jellal. Jellal is clever, he will use those emotions of hers. And that's not the worst of it. You know that the Council is trying to fire Etherion on this location, right? If that happens, every person in the other will be destroyed. According to Sho's message, we only have 10 more minutes." Simon explains.
"What?" Natsu says as he and Sakura are shocked from hearing this.
"She headed to face him alone after telling everyone to evacuate. You know Erza well, yes?" He turns away and looks up at the top as Natsu grits his teeth while Sakura looks down. "I don't want to believe it, but she may be trying to use Etherion to take Jellal with her…"
"Why didn't you tell me that first?" Natsu questions as suddenly the win around his body pick up, kicking the dirt into the air around him. "Where is Erza?!"
At the Throne Room
Seven more minutes." Jellal says. "Seven more minutes and Etherion will rain down here. Let's have fun for the next seven minutes, Erza."
"Right now, I fear nothing. Even if Etherion comes, I will be satisfied to take you with me!" Erza exclaims.
"Oh? Take me with you?" He asks as a blob of purple energy with red markings all over it begins to form out from his hand. "Go ahead and try!" Jellal yells as he sends the blob towards Erza, separating it into tentacles as they fly at her. She then cuts them into pieces as they fly pass her and impacts into the ground destroying it and sending the debris flying all over.
Erza launches herself at Jellal and brings her sword back, but Jellal manages to push on the hilt as she gets in front of him preventing her from swinging her sword as he brings his right hand back and opens it. The blue-haired teen throws his hand forward as Erza jumps back, avoiding the magic blast that comes out from his hand that blows a hole through the floor as the red-haired knight falls through it with the debris. However, Erza leaps back into the room and charges towards Jellal once again.
"You finally finished the tower, and now you're destroying it? Don't you care, Jellal?" Erza questions, swinging her katana down at him as he simply jumps to his left and attempts to blast her again with his magic. She dodges it as she jumps back into the air and lands on top of the crystals in the middle of the room before launching herself back at him and swinging her sword upwards.
Jellal jumps away to his left once again causing Erza to instead cut up the chessboard of his as the halves of it and the pieces go flying into the air. "A pillar or two are nothing but decoration." he says.
"Sho and the others believed in your for eight tears to make those decorations!" Erza angrily states.
"Stop complaining about every little thing I say." Jellal retorts, lifting his right hand up and creating a purple orb with red marks above his palm with his left hand in his pocket. "The important thing is the R-system. These eight years were for that. And that… is complete!" He closes his hand as the orb disappears.
Erza grunts as she feels something below her and looks down to see some of the purple and red marked tentacles coming out from the floor around her legs before more sprout out and all shooting upwards around her. Engulfing her into a giant ball, trapping her within.
"It does seem you have improved a bit, but I guess that's your limit." Jellal says as he walks pass the ball.
Inside of it, Erza struggles in an attempt to break out of it but finds herself unable to move.
"This isn't like you, Erza-san…" Erza opens her eyes as she hears Gray's voice. "We'll lend you a hand. Even you get scared sometimes, right?" Gray says as in her eyes, Erza sees a bright light appears off to her right.
Erza could see everyone on the boat as all of them look back at the tower with worried looks.
"We're on your side, no matter what Erza!" Lucy says.
"Aye! We're the strongest team!" Happy says.
"I believed in you, Erza. I always did for these past 8 years." Simon says.
"Nee-san…" Sho says.
Erza then remembers her past friends from 8 years ago including Rob. "Everyone…" She thought.
"When we get back, fight me!" Natsu yells.
Inside the sphere, she closes her eyes and smiles at their voices.
Outside the sphere, Jellal's back facing towards it when all of a sudden two slash marks appear on Jellal's magic sphere in an X, The light from the slash catches his attention as he stops his tracks with a shocked look on his face as he turns around. The sphere dissipates into red mists and floats away, revealing Erza crouching down with her sword swung outwards to her left, her green hair tie is gone letting her scarlet long hair blows in the wind before she stands back up.
"I thought I told you… Right now, I fear nothing!" Erza states as she launches herself at Jellal, finally landing a hit on him across his stomach as he grunts out in pain as is sent flying back.
His face is full of complete shock. "Is this really the same Erza?!" He thought.
Erza walks over to the downed Jellal with a serious look on her face as she kneels down above him and brings her sword down just a few inches away from his neck. Meanwhile, large blue eyes peek into the window, witnessing the fight and giggles the thought of joining in.