Hey everyone, sorry for the wait. Hopefully this chapter is worth it. I will admit, it is shorter than my usual chapters, but only because I couldn't think of any other points to stop the chapter on. Anyway, not sure what else to say here so let's go straight to reviews then the story. Enjoy!

Theboblinator: Thanks, and yeah it's a little difficult trying to find ways to alter canon this early on. Hope what I have to show you is a surprise for what Sora was up to. Also, glad you seem to enjoy the interactions Sora has with Mira, especially since I keep thinking I want to pair them instead. (And yeah, I also ship Jerza anyway, haha.)

pokeheroeaadyn: Thanks, glad to hear it. And you are about to see how your guess works out.

Zoofan: Sorry this wasn't out sooner, hope you like it!

LoyalReader: Posting more now, and hope to keep you 'Loyal'!

Everything seemed to slow to a crawl, as Erza and Sho looked at Sora in horror, Ikaruga having just given him a fatal attack. Sora's face didn't move an inch, nor did it turn from Ikaruga's form, as his body stood still as if it didn't yet realize the damage done to it from the gaps created in it from the slashes. Ikaruga even opened her eyes in satisfaction, looking at her latest kill.

Only for them to flash with shock as a cyan blade was swung right at her face.

Unsheathing her blade again, she blocked the blade and the two swords clashed, Sora looking at her with a smirk as he swung a couple more times, Ikaruga blocking each attack and swiping her blade through his midsection, looking shocked as it passed through without drawing any blood or making him visibly react in any way. In fact, the opening the slash had created was quickly sealing like the previous ones had!

As she finished her attack, each mage jumped back, Ikaruga in surprise that his blade didn't shatter against hers, and Sora looking at her with a nervous smile. "Phew, that was close! For a brief moment there, I wasn't sure it would work…"

Erza and Sho were now looking at him with just as much shock as before, except this time was in disbelief that he survived! Erza blinked in shock in the remains of her Flame Empress Armor as she tried to ask him. "S-Sora… How…?!"

Ikaruga even narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "What did you do? How did you survive my sword? I can cut anything, and yet I couldn't cut you or that blade."

Sora wiped some sweat from his forehead as he answered. "Oh, you did cut me. I just put myself back together." Sora then backed up until he was beside Erza. "Tell me, milady. Have you ever tried to cut the wind and the air?"

Her eyes widened at that, before her face became a smile of understanding. "I see… You made your body like that of the very air." Sora smirked, confirming her suspicions. "So while I can cut you, you will simply flow back together. That sort of thing is a very advanced technique, and yet we have no information of you being able to do so. Why is this?"

"It's something new I literally tried for the first time just now. I wasn't even sure it would work considering this is also the first time I tried using that element since acquiring it earlier. Guess it does." He then shrugged. "Though I will be honest, I have no idea how long I can keep something like that up, or what state I'll be in afterwards. Or even if I will survive this…" He then raised his crystal blade. "As for this, also something new. This blade is now maybe about as sharp as your own, and so the two of them are probably having a hard time deciding which one should be destroyed."

"I see… You truly might offer a challenge then. That said…" She then turned her gaze back on Erza. "Surely it feels uncouth being dressed like that in the presence of a pair of men. Why don't you try donning the most powerful armor you have? You may even challenge me beside this interesting young man here."

Erza narrowed her eyes in dangerous fury, as Sho cursed Ikaruga, calling her a monster. A crimson magic circle then appeared beneath Erza, before she requipped into a suit of armor Sora had never seen before. The armor was black and gray, with intimidating black spikes jutting out from every conceivable spot, a series of spike-like protrusions circling her neck like a choker. Erza looked at her opponent with eyes that were red from fury when the armor appeared, slowly dimming. "You'll regret this! Purgatory Armor, requip!"

Sora looked at the state Erza was in, eyes wide as he nearly took a step back away from her and the sense of danger she practically exuded. "… Holy crap… I knew she could get scary, but I have never been more afraid of her than I am right now."

Erza then summoned a sword with similar spikes along the back, the whole thing looking like a demonic mix of club and cleaver, creating a powerful wind as it slammed into the bridge. "No one has ever seen this armor and endured my wrath!"

"So that's your most powerful armor?" Ikaruga looked calmly at her as Erza hefted the massive weapon with ease and had it ready behind her. "Come."

"Sora! Show her no mercy!" Erza commanded, the crystal mage standing straight at her call.

"Y-Yes ma'am!" Erza then charged at Ikaruga, Sora following right behind her before his mind even registered he was doing so.

Erza leapt straight up, letting Sora charge right at Ikaruga herself. The swordswoman blocked the attack and clashed blades with him for a few seconds, before Erza descended with a downward swing that Ikaruga barely dodged while Sora simply let the attack pass right through him, the shockwave of the blow causing the water to erupt in a path that ran right into a wall and sent dust flying.

Erza then swung her blade horizontally, creating a shockwave that Sora used as a boost to leap over and above Ikaruga as the attack itself forced her to leap back to avoid harm, trading more blows with Sora while airborne. His attacks kept getting blocked, while her attacks kept passing through harmlessly.

Before she landed, she kicked Sora up and away with her thick sandals. When she touched the ground, she leapt back with an excited and demented face while drawing her sword again, returning it to its sheath as the shockwave passed by her and destroying everything around her, not harming her one bit.

Erza then once more charged at her, Sora quickly recovering and doing the same, as he caused his blade to shine both purple and a cyan. Ikaruga met their challenge with a smirk, leaping about Erza's attack and letting the tip of her sheath drag across the weapon. When Sora leapt above Erza to attack her, she simply maneuvered her body in the air to go just beneath the attack, only a few strands of hair being cut away. When she was behind both mages, she turned to face them both and quickly drew her blade and swung.

Sho looked in fear as Ikaruga landed a short distance behind them, sword sheathed once more. Sora hit the ground hard as his blade shattered into pieces with air blowing around, along with his gauntlets and greaves, a strained look on his face. Erza stood still for a few moments, panting and trying to catch her breath, before her armor and weapon shattered, blood spraying off, and she fell to her knees in pain.

"Now do you understand?" Ikaruga asked, turning her head to look at them while her back was turned. "There is no suit of armor you can wear that can withstand my sword. And you, young lad, you cannot harm me within the amount of time you seem to have with that wind-body technique. Give it up."

Erza grit her teeth as she stood up, Sora pushing himself to lean against a pillar. Sho meanwhile was on his knees, weeping silently. 'Th-They can't beat her… Nee-san, even with help, can't beat her…!'

Erza then turned to Ikaruga, a calm look on her face, before she closed her eyes and let the light of her magic envelop her. When it died down, Erza was wearing red pants with a flame-pattern at the ends of the legs, and she wore nothing on her upper body but some bandages wrapped around her chest. Her hair was done up in a ponytail that hung up above the top of her head, and she had a longsword in each hand.

Sora looked at her in shock, never seeing her ready for battle in anything but armor. He'd never seen her wearing such simple clothes for a fight!

"What are you thinking?" Ikaruga questioned. "That outfit is nothing but ordinary cloth…"

"What?!" Sho looked at Erza with just as much disbelief as Sora was, both wondering what she was doing.

"You've really underestimated me." Ikaruga said in annoyance. "After all, you and Sora working together in your strongest armor couldn't defeat me. What can you do in regular clothes?"

"Nee-san, what are you doing?! You must have plenty of other strong armor! You're even stronger than that, right?!"

Erza stood still at Sho's questions, Sora waiting for how she would respond. "… I'm… I'm not strong at all… Not at all…" She then closed her eyes, recalling her past since joining the guild. "I lost many friends as I looked on. I wasn't able to protect those dear to me… And… I was always crying… To make myself… To make myself seem stronger… I sealed my heart inside armor… and cried…" She then looked at Ikaruga with fierce determination. "I always wore armor because I was weak. I was never able to take it off…"

Sho and Sora looked at her in awe, neither one having ever seen this side of her before, as she continued to confront Ikaruga. "I am prepared to cut down any opponent, clothed or not." Ikaruga stated, thinking she thought Erza would be trying to gain her sympathy.

But Erza didn't even seem to hear her, unless she was simply not bothering to respond to them. "I had believed my armor would protect me. But that was wrong. I had tried to plug up the cracks in my armor where my heart had connected with others'. Fairy Tail taught me that human relationships can feel so close and warm!"

"Nee-san…" Tears fell from Sho's eyes as he listened to Erza's words, while Sora himself began to feel inspired by her.

Erza then raised her swords to her sides as she looked right at Ikaruga. "I am free of hesitation now! I will strike you down with my all!"

As Ikaruga analyzed Erza's current level of threat, Sora looked down with a grin at her words. Looking back up with a determined look, he raised his fist and aimed it at Erza's swords, a pure white magic circle appearing before his magic shot off and hit her blades, much to her surprise. After her blades stopped glowing, everyone was treated to the sight of them glowing radiantly in the same color as Sora's eye, before small ribbons of energy reached up from the base of the blade and twisting around all the way to the tip.

Looking back at him in surprise, Sora answered the question on Erza's face with a tired smirk. "That right there… is the last of the magic… I can spare. I may be a bit too weak right now to help you fight her, but there's no way in hell I'm letting you fight all alone! You always have each and every one of us backing you up, Erza!"

He then grinned up at her as he leaned back against a pillar. "Now then… Kick her ass already…!"

Erza then nodded lightly, a small smile on her face. "You got it." She then turned to face Ikaruga, a fierce resolve burning in her eyes. "Now then. It's time for us to finish this." Ikaruga smiled at her, as the both of them took a battle stance, Sora's crystals causing Erza's blades to glow a series of colors, streams of similarly colored energy flowing around the blades like ethereal ribbons.

After staring each other down for a few moments, they leapt at each other, each swinging their blades faster than either Sora or Sho can see, before landing behind each other as wind blew around them briefly, yet fiercely. For a few moments, there was no movement, nor sound. Then, the crystals Sora gave Erza shattered, as well as one of her swords, while blood sprayed out from some new cuts on Erza's body.

Ikaruga then laughed lightly. "This battle is over." Then, a spider web of cracks appeared on her own blade, before it shattered, blood spraying from her front as it did! Ikaruga remained still for a few moments, before she fell down with a smile. "Impressively done…"

"Amazing!" everyone shifted their attention to Sho as he congratulated Erza. "You really are amazing, Nee-san!"

"Are you alright, Sho?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Erza nodded, before looking at Sora. "And you?"

Sora smiled lightly. "Pretty tired, but fine otherwise…"

Ikaruga laughed a bit more, eyes closed. "Me, losing… This is the first time… since I joined the guild… Even so… Both you and Jellal have lost…"

"What do you mean?!" Sho demanded of her, but calmed down as Sora raised a hand.

"Easy there. She's already talking. No sense in being rude to her as she's like this." He then turned to look at her. "Go on, please. What are you talking about?"

Ikaruga smiled at his kindness, before she slowly raised an arm up to the ceiling. "In fifteen minutes…" As her arm was straight up, she sang a new Haiku. "The light of Justice… shall come raining from the sky… massacre awaits…" She then dropped it as she looked up, a small chuckle coming out. "Such a terrible Haiku…"

"Is she talking about Etherion?!"

"Most likely." Sora answered Erza, while getting up and kneeling next to Ikaruga. "I don't approve of the life you lived, but I am sorry that things went this far…"

The swordswoman continued that soft smile. "Showing kindness to an enemy… you truly are a gentleman…"

"I'm just not fond of death, no matter who's on the receiving end."

She closed her eyes once more. "I see… Do try to keep that good heart of yours… It is truly rare in this ugly world…" She then spoke no more, and Sora gave her a short prayer, before going over to the others as they waited.

When he got to them, Erza looked at him quizzically. "How did you acquire a new element already?"

Sora's eyes widened at that, before he started nervously chuckling. "Uh… I… um…" His arm then reached to the back of his head as he averted his gaze from Erza. "S-So, apparently… the manager for the resort may or may not have possibly gotten their hands on a Prism to which they might have put up as a grand prize for one of their games, and I may have considered taking it before we came after you for a little extra advantage depending on what happened when we caught up with your kidnappers, so…" Sora's voice got quieter and quieter as Erza's face grew sterner and sterner throughout his explanation.

"Are you telling me, you stole what is still widely considered a priceless piece of art from a bygone age, mere minutes after I was captured?"

Sora seemed to shrink before her and looked everywhere but her. "U-Uh, I was thinking more like 'pickup-now-pay-back-later'…" She still looked furious, and he twiddled his thumbs out of fear. "Y-You w-wouldn't discipline an injured person, would you?"

"Injured; no." Sora let out a sigh at that, only to freeze when she continued. "After they've recovered; Most certainly."

Fear led to Sora losing the use of his legs and promptly fell to his knees. He then looked down at his legs that refused to listen, then slowly up at the guild disciplinarian. He then said nothing, only having enough control to gulp loudly.

"Still. If you hadn't, you might not have survived any of that." Sora was surprised as she gently placed a hand on his head, giving him a soft smile. "Thank you for your trust and support."

Sora blinked a couple times in shock, but then returned the smile. "Anytime."

"But we will continue this discussion later."

"Yeah, I thought so." Tears streamed out of his eyes comically at that.

Erza then turned to the card user. "Sho! Bring Sora with you, and take Simon and everyone from Fairy Tail and get away from this tower as fast as you can!"

"B-But…!"

Erza stopped him with a kind smile. "Can you do that for me, Sho?"

Unable to fight her words, he looked away in sorrow. "Yeah…" Erza then turned to Sora, and her expression stopped his argument before he could even start.

"… What about you?" Sora asked instead, neither one wanting to leave, but both accepting they don't have the strength right now to help her.

Erza turned and looked at the other end of the chamber, stating her intentions clearly. "I'm going to settle things… once and for all!"

Sora and Sho watched her go, before Sho helped Sora to walk. After a few minutes, Sho stopped and held a hand to his head. "Ah, Simon! Yeah, sorry for running off like that. I was a major idiot. But Sora caught up to me, Nee-san's fine, and they even managed to bring down one of the Trinity Raven… We were too weak, so Nee-san told us to meet up with you guys and get away while we can… Nee-san, went after Jellal… We tried to stop her, but she wouldn't take no for an answer… Okay, we'll head to the boat. You stay alive. The Etherion will be firing in less than 15 minutes." Sho then removed his hand and continued to support Sora out.

"So, what's the update?"

"Simon met up with Natsu and is taking him with to the top of the tower to help Nee-san. Wally and Milliana are bringing Lucy and Juvia to the boats, and the cat is supposed to be taking the other guy there as well. Seems like those three were able to take down the other members of the Trinity Raven, so there shouldn't be any more interference."

Sora nodded slowly. "Alright, makes sense. Hopefully they manage a victory…"

By the time the both of them got to the boat, Sora was nearly passed out from the adrenaline from earlier finally fading away, now sitting next to Happy near the back of the boat as everyone began to float away. While Juvia was the only one still passed out, Gray and Lucy were protesting that they shouldn't be leaving yet.

"Damn! Turn this boat back!"

"No can do!" Wally turned down Gray's demand yet again.

"She told us we had to get away from here!" Milliana reinforced.

"But Erza's still inside! And Natsu!" Lucy protested.

"Nee-san will be fine. We have to have faith in her…"

"And with Natsu's track record, Jellal will be begging for mercy the moment they meet." Sora said, trying to convince himself as much as the others.

"We can't leave it up to Natsu!" Gray persisted.

"It's out of our hands now." Wally leaned his back on the edge of the boat. "Simon is with them. Things will work out somehow."

""Somehow"?! You can't be serious!" Lucy snapped at him, making Milliana upset.

"Nya! You don't have to yell!"

"Calm down, everyone!" Sho tried to get everyone to settle down, but they apparently weren't having it.

"Shut up!" Gray shouted. "Just take us back! I'm gonna save Erza…!"

"We have to hurry!" Lucy supported. "There's no time!"

"I said no!" Wally once again stated.

"SHUT UP!" Before anyone else could bring anything else up, Happy became louder and angrier than any other time Sora could remember, scaring everyone into silence. "Gimme a break! I wanna go back too, but there's nothing we can do! The Etherion is gonna come raining down any time now!"

Happy had tears in his eyes at that point, but he kept going, keeping everyone's attention. "But I'm sure Natsu will get Erza out of there! Simon told me so! Once the true power of the Salamander awakens in him, not even Jellal can…" Happy was outright crying at this point, no one able to argue his words, Milliana crying along with him. "Not even Jellal can…"

Happy flinched when a hand touched down on the top of his head, and looked over to Sora, who was giving him a kind smile. "Thanks for that, Happy." He then turned a serious look over to Gray and Lucy. "I know the both of you want to stay and help. Hell, everyone on this boat wants to help her! But look at the state we're in." Gray and Lucy looked down at the floor of the boat, remembering the fights they were in and how far they were already pushed.

"As we are right now, we'd only be a burden for the others, who already will have enough trouble without trying to keep us alive. All we can do is have faith that Erza and Natsu can defeat Jellal, and find a way to survive the Etherion…" Sora then turned to look at the tower, which was slowly getting further away. From the distance, Sora could make out a part of the top having a hole busted through. "Because it seems the fight has already started."

A short while later, light shone through the clouds above the tower, everyone staring at it in shock, all feeling the massive amount of magic energy being used. Lucy's eyes widened in shock. "That light…!

"It's the Etherion!" Wally confirmed their fears, each of them looking at it in fear.

Sora gulped as he shielded his left eye as best he could, the sheer amount of magic energy nearly blinding it. "If that thing comes down… well, best case scenario? I hope all of you are strong swimmers!" Milliana let out a whine of fear at the thought, apparently hating water as much as an actual cat.

Happy however kept his eyes trained on the top of the tower. "Natsu… Erza… Hurry and get out of there…"

After a few more minutes, the light shone even more, the energies disrupting the waters and causing gales of wind to blow around them. "It's happening!" Happy cried out.

"Natsu!" "Erza!" As Gray and Sora called out for their friends, the Satellite Square above released the power on the other side, raining pure, destructive power from the heavens, and completely consuming the tower itself. As the blast took hold, the shockwave caused a massive wave that blasted away from the tower and struck their boat, sending it and them into the air before they fell out into the water.

Fortunately, Juvia had chosen that time to reawaken, and used her magic to gather up everyone inside a protective dome of water, something she struggled to hold together as the sea surged around them in a fury, everyone still feeling the shockwaves caused by the Etherion. As the waters slowly started to calm, Juvia kept her magic around them and held them above the water, everyone looking in silence at the impact site, smoke and steam still rising.

Sorrow and shock filled the eyes of everyone, none of them wanting to accept what they just saw. "No way…!" "Natsu… Erza…" Lucy and Happy looked at the rising pillar of smoke, trying not to believe what they just saw, while Sora decided to forsake whatever headache he might get later and used his eye to try and see through the smoke to try and see if they somehow survived the blast.

But what he saw made his heart skip a beat in shock. "What… the hell…?!"

The others look at him questioningly, but as he simply stares at the column in silence, they try to get a look for themselves, noticing that it was slowly starting to clear. Then they realized his shock as they saw a large crystal taking the place that the Tower of Heaven once occupied, looking like a colossal tree of crystal, pieces of the original structure crumbling off of it.

"A crystal…?" Happy asked quietly, tears still in his eyes.

"No, it's a magic crystal…" Gray clarified. "A lacrima!"

"They're alright, right?!" Lucy pleaded. "Natsu and Erza and that Simon guy…?!"

Everyone was silent, trying to process what was going on, before Gray asked the big question.

"This is the R-system?!"

"Yeah. It's the true form of the R-system we built. You know?"

"It's active!" Wally and Milliana responded.

"Active?!" Lucy looked at the rest in shock. "Does this mean Zeref is going to be revived?!"

"We don't know. This is the first time we've ever seen it active ourselves…" Sho answered.

"Natsu and Erza are inside there?!" Gray demanded.

"Simon, too… And Jellal."

Sora just looked at it in shock, never having conceived of a lacrima of that size, and wondering how in the hell it was created. After a few moments of thought, his blood stopped cold. "That son of a bitch…" Everyone turned to him again, as he voiced his fears. "He planned on it… No, he intended for it to happen from the start…"

Everyone looked at him in confusion, Sho being the one to ask him. "Sora, what's going on?"

"Sho… Tell me… Did you ever ask… how Jellal was going to power this thing?" Sho looked at him in confusion, before he elaborated. "No matter how many people are sacrificed to bring back the dead, actually doing so would require a massive, if not astronomical amount of magic… Something no one person would be able to supply, maybe not even a nation…" He then looked up at the clouds. "But, there is something with that level of power…"

Everyone's eyes widened as they connected the dots, fear and horror stretching across their faces as Sora continued. "He planned on this from the beginning, intending for the Etherion to rain down on the tower, so he could soak up every ounce of power it had with this lacrima, and using that energy to power the tower! This really was just a game to him… and he played us from the start…!"

Gray practically growled, staring at the tower in fury. "That bastard! He lied to us about the Etherion destroying the place just so we would be out of the way and unable to help Erza!"

"But there's nothing we can do anyway!" Sho walked to the front, just as angry as he looked at the top. "None of us have the energy or ability to help Erza defeat Jellal. If he's just been stalling for time until the Etherion fired, then he has no more need to hold anything back. None of us would stand a chance as we are…"

Everyone tried to think of something, anything they could do, just to find a way to deny Jellal of what he desires. But none of them could come up with any ideas, so they simply watched and waited, some of them either on their knees or sitting down.

"I hope Natsu and Erza are okay!" Lucy said after a few minutes of silence.

"They're fine!" Happy insisted, looking at the tower with a determined look on his face. "They're both Fairy Tail wizards after all!"

"Yeah." Gray agreed. "All we can do now is have faith in them!"

"Still sucks we can't do anything ourselves, but you're right." Sora stared at it from his knees, hating the fact that even though he has a new gem-type, he can't do anything with it right now!

At that moment, Lucy's eyes lit up with a crazy idea. She then turned to the person she thought might be able to do something. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

A/N: Alright, that wraps up this chapter, and hopefully the next one won't take me a month to post. Haha, seriously though, I hope everyone who read this enjoyed what I had here. I rewrote parts of this chapter several times until I got it to something I was alright with. Now I can't remember if I said this before, so just to clarify this story will employ elements from both the anime and Manga, such as the part where in the original canon of the manga each member of Trinity Raven wound up dying by the end of the arc, despite the anime showing them surviving in the end.

Next, as for Sora's new element, there will be a few issues caused by his rushed means of acquiring it to be revealed in the next few chapters, including with how he used it to replicate a power similar to Juvia's Water Body spell. That said, I will also mention that I've reached the point where he has all the element types I wanted to give him up until the next few arcs are finished, any more going to him no earlier than the S-class exams.

So with that, I hope to see you all again and that I don't need a month to update this. Haha, anyway, please PM or Review me with your thoughts and leave a fav/follow for this story if you haven't already to let me know how I'm doing. Later guys!