IMPORTANT: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE FAIRY TAIL CHARACTERS/PLOT: ALL CREDIT GOES TO THEIR RIGHTFUL OWNERS!
PROFANITY WARNING!
Sorry that I didn't really update this week. I think I'm getting a cold, or something, and my first day of school is tomorrow. I cut some of the battles in this episode short because I felt like some scenes were unnecessary to write, but everything that happened is covered.
As always, hope you guys enjoy this chapter.
- Galuna Island : Inside the Temple of Moon -
Gray felt a surge of guilt swell inside of his heart as his magic continued to flare out around him, his brain going over the long list of friends he was about to loose. After casting the Iced Shell he wouldn't be able to see anybody from the guild ever again, and he would have no choice but to leave his entire family behind. Old friends like Cana and Erza who he'd known since first joining Fairy Tail, and new comrades like Lucy who he had made a few fond memories with, all flashed inside his head as his body got prepared to be forever turned into ice.
It hurt just to even think about leaving the guild behind, the place that had easily become his home, but for his mentor and the sake of keeping Lyon alive, Gray knew he had to make a big sacrifice to keep everyone safe from Deliora. It was a tragedy in itself that one of those sacrifices permanently meant saying goodbye to all of his friends, just like Ur was forced to do when he was still a child, but Fairy Tail's Ice Mage also understood that this was the only way to finally make sure Deliora's cycle of destruction could finally come to a complete stop.
"I'm sorry, but this is the end."
Feeling the last bit of magic energy needed to cast the Iced Shell swell up outside of his body, Gray closed his eyes and prepared himself for his last breath. Memories of being in the guild all played inside his head as his life literally flashed before his eyes, and a small wave of relief washed over his body when he considered all the grief he was going to save people in the long run. At least this way nobody would ever be hurt by Deliora again. Gray was fully content with dying for this cause.
This was the end.
"Iced Sh-"
"-Shut the hell up you wannabe drama queen!"
Gray's eyes shot open in shock when Natsu suddenly socked him in the face with a rough, hard swipe that sent him spiraling into the ground, causing all the magic energy he gathered to cast the Iced Shell to shrink back into his body. Furiously, the pink-haired Dragon Slayer glared at his rival and growled in frustration at the swarm of emotions that plagued his mind.
"Listen here you no good, slanty eyed bastard," Natsu yelled, "Don't think that just because you burst in here, spewing out all these fancy words, talking about things nobody knows about, that you automatically have the right to jump in line! You already lost to this Ice Queen once, which makes it my turn to fight him! I was here first so why don't you just sit over there and wait your turn!"
Gray's eye twitched as he jumped up from the ground, and he angrily grabbed a handful of the other boy's scarf. "I thought I specifically told you that I could handle him, idiot fire freak! That means back the hell off and let me deal with him!"
"So what? Yeah, you did say all of that, but did you ever hear me agree to it? Did you ever once hear me say, 'Oh yeah, go right ahead Gray'? No, you didn't! Like I said before: go to the back of the line and wait your turn! I have my own score to settle with this guy for threatening Lucy and hurting the villagers!" Natsu scoffed.
Gray growled under his breath. Of course, things had to turn out this way! Natsu never knew when he was supposed to back off, and in any other situation the Ice Mage would've knocked him out. Why couldn't his rival realize that this was something he just had to do?
"Do you really think that I care about whether or not you agreed with me?! This is something that's way bigger than you and the guild! I made a promise to my mentor that I will keep, no matter the cost!" He yelled as he gripped Natsu's scarf harder. "I'm willing to die to make sure Deliora isn't revived; to make sure Ur's sacrifice wasn't in vain! If that means that I have to fight you first then I'm more than willing to take things that far."
Natsu hissed, and without really thinking about it, grabbed his arm. "So that's it then? You're willing to give up your life at the drop of a hat, just like that? After everything, you've been through?! Huh?! Do you really think that this is what your mentor wanted for you?! To follow in the same footsteps that she did?!" He demanded with a nasty glare. "Even that idiot Cold Emperor guy was right about you! You're acting like a coward and running away from the real problem here instead of dealing with it yourself! Why don't you be a man for once?!"
When Gray opened his mouth to respond to his rival's claims, he and the other two wizards stumbled in different directions as the Temple suddenly started to shake again. Since the entire room was encased in a thick layer of ice, courtesy of Lyon's Maker Magic, no debris could fall from the ceiling and hit anybody this time. Though, it's not like any of the three wizards were concerned with the lack of rubbish, rather, they were wondering why the building was moving again in the first place.
Unbest to them at the time, Zalty was outside at the base of the building, where Natsu had done the majority of the damage to the building and was using his unique Lost Magic to rebuild the pillars that held the structure together. After a moment of consideration, Lyon almost realized this right away, and couldn't hold back a proud smirk.
"Don't think that you've won just because you took out Yuka and Sherry. Let's not forget that I have an ace of my very own up my sleeve." The Cold Emperor exclaimed condescendingly. "I have no doubt in my mind that he's the cause of this unexpected change in my favor."
Natsu and Gray jumped in surprise when Zalty's voice rang out from the hallway. "Oh, Cold Emperor you flatter me!" He teasingly cried as he revealed himself, seemingly coming out from nowhere. "But yes, I'm afraid I must take credit for the Temple's sudden shift; this time, that is. I knew that the moon would be coming out soon, and figured that I'd let the Faries have enough time thinking that they had the upper hand. Now that the Temple is standing in it's intended position the Moon Drip from the ceremony will hit Deliora straight on, and his revival will be resumed. As predicted I believe the ice will be completely melted by sometime later tonight. Though, I suppose I should start the ceremony soon if we want to stay on top of the game."
Wide-eyed, the Fire Dragon Slayer pointed at the mask-wearing wizard accusingly. "Hey! How did you manage to fix the Temple so easily? Do you even know how much magic energy it took to destroy in the first place?" Natsu demanded.
Zalty snickered and spun on his heel, flat out ignoring the pink-haired wizard's question as he scurried out of the room; his sick laughter bouncing off the walls as he ran. Natsu's animal instincts told him to chase after him, and as he ran toward the hole in the wall that Gray made, he glanced over his shoulder at said Ice Mage.
"I'll make sure the Moon Drip doesn't hit Deliora, so I'll leave you to deal with this Ice Queen and do you a solid just this once! But no matter what happens you can't forget about the friends that got you here in the present, and the life waiting for you in the future. You can't rewrite the past, and yeah, I agree with you, that really sucks. But this isn't something that's worth giving your whole life up for, because if it was your mentor wouldn't have done it for you already. She cast that spell to save you, don't forget about that. Otherwise, her sacrifice would've been completely meaningless."
As the pink-haired Slayer ran off in the same direction as Zalty, Lyon watched him with a critical eye. "He seems to act like an idiot, but I guess somewhere deep underneath all that ignorance there's some form of intelligence."
"No, he's an idiot most of the time, but I think I get what he's saying. Natsu is right, though, Ur cast the Iced Shell so that she could save the both of us." Gray responded as he looked at his 'brother' seriously. "Listen to me Lyon, there's something about Ur that you need to know that I never had the chance to tell you about."
Lyon's eyes narrowed despite his nonchalant, chill expression. "And what, I'm just supposed to stand here and listen to you? I've already proven to everyone here that I can easily beat you with my superior Maker Magic, and your only trump card, the Iced Shell, is completely useless here so long as the Moon Drip Ceremony is able to commence, so what good reason do you have that would make me want to hear anything you have say? You're the reason Ur is dead, what more is there to it that I need to know?"
"But that's just the thing," Gray clenched his fists, "Ur isn't dead, she's actually still alive! You didn't know this at the time, but when somebody casts the Iced Shell their body is turned into the ice used in the spell, and that's exactly what Ur did to seal Deliora away. What you've been doing, melting the ice with Moon Drip... You've been destroying all the remains of our master's life! I would have told you the truth all those years ago, but she swore me to secrecy because she knew you'd spend the rest of your life trying to reverse the spell. So there's no need for you to continue on with these ridiculous plans of reviving Deliora! We can finally leave the past behind!"
Gray imagined that Lyon would accept the truth behind Ur's 'death' without a second thought, and forget all of his plans of ever wanting to revive the destructive demon. He thought that his old friend would loose any remains of the all-consuming darkness that moved him toward Deliora's revival in the first place, and to start working toward bigger and better things in life. He had all of these great expectations for the person he considered to be his brother, which is why Lyon's real reaction came as such a shock to him when it happened.
The white-haired wizard shot forward at the end of his explanation and used his Maker Magic to force and ice creation straight through Gray's chest. Without remorse, he let the Fairy fall to the ground and looked down at him in disappointment.
"Who you think I am, Gray? Of course, I know how the Iced Shell works; I've been studying it for years. However, you're more pathetic than I thought if you really believed that, that giant chunk of ice was still our master. That would be completely impossible."
Shakily, Gray pulled himself back up to his feet, feeling rage bubble up in his chest. "All this time you knew what Ur did; knew what she gave her life away to do, and you still continued to use the Moon Drip to melt the ice away from Deliora?!"
"But of course! All I care about is finally surpassing Ur. This time, there's nothing you can do to stop-!"
Gray threw his fist forward, putting all of his anger and pain into one single attack, that hit Lyon so hard on the side of the face that he was sent flying across the room and into the wall. This wasn't how things were supposed to be, not by a long shot. Somehow something took a tragic turn for the worst, and now everything else was going to be doomed.
This is not what he thought was going to happen.
"I'll agree that up until this point I've been nothing more than a coward. Even now, I've been avoiding fighting with you for that sole reason. But I think I've wasted enough time trying to get you to change your mind. It's pretty obvious to me now that you're beyond reasoning. For Ur, I'll end this here and now. I won't let you destroy her legacy!"
- Meanwhile, with Erza and Lucy -
Out of breath, Lucy grunted as she rolled to the left after narrowly avoiding one of the robed-attackers oddly shaped blades. Her foot quickly shot out to swipe the legs out from under her enemies as she took advantage of the low position, and she couldn't help but smirk at the sound of all of her friends fighting around her. Saiya and Happy flew by in a multi-colored blur, assisting in the battle by using anything they could find on the ground as a weapon, and used it to hit the mystery people in the backs of their heads. Erza, on the other hand, cut several of the robed bodies down with the two twin swords clutched tightly in each of her hands, and executed each attack with a swift ease.
The only problem, though, was that the swarm of attackers didn't seem to be coming anywhere close to an end, and it was starting to put the Faries in a touch position the longer they spent their magic energy and physical strength.
At this rate, they were never going to get anywhere.
In the midst of battle, Saiya's heart stopped dead in her chest as she noticed something troubling from the corner of her eyes. Without really thinking, she cried out: "H-hey! Look over there! The Temple is standing upright again!"
Happy, who was easily distracted at times, whipped around to see what all the trouble was about right away.
"Oh no! Now the moonlight will hit Deliora again and the ice will start to melt! What're we gonna do?" He gasped.
Growling, Lucy used her whip to yank somebody away from her scarlet haired friend before providing the two exceeds with some cover. "There's nothing that we can do about it right now. We have our own problems to deal with at the moment, so I'm not all that concerned with what's happening back at the Temple. Focus on what's going on right in front of you, and after we're done then we'll figure out what our next plan of action is."
"But it's almost sundown!"
"Yeah, the moon's gonna be coming out soon!"
Erza used her swords to knock a group of people out while she simultaneously nodded her head in agreement with her blonde friend. "She's right, you two. Natsu and Gray are depending on us to take care of all of these people, which means that we have to put out faith in them and trust that they'll come up with a solution themselves. What we can do right now, though, is stop playing around and get serious for once. I think we've wasted enough time getting ourselves warmed up, wouldn't you agree, Lucy?"
The Stellar Spirit Mage cracked a grin as she slid back on the tips of her toes, and she cracked her knuckles as she stood back up. "Are you sure that you're not a mind reader, Erza? Today you've been taking the words right out of my mouth. Let's do this!"
With a proud smirk, Lucy moved to grab at her Gold Gate Keys and brushed her fingers over where Cancers sat. In any normal situation, she would have summoned him without a second thought. He was the perfect Celestial Spirit to take out a large group of people without causing too much damage around him (most of the time), but an odd sensation settled in her gut when she touched his key. For some reason, the weirdest premonition occurred inside of her brain, of Cancer bowing down to Erza while offering her a bouquet of red roses that matched the color of her hair, and after that, she felt herself leaning more toward a Spirit of a different kind.
"This better not backfire on me," Lucy muttered under her breath as she yanked a blue and white Gate Key off her belt before swiping it through the air. "You three better watch out! Open, Gate of The Ice Dragon!"
For a second nothing happened which caused some of the robed-attackers to snicker in amusement. None of white and gold light that usually happened when summoning a Celestial Spirit occurred when Lucy tried to call out the Dragon, and the blonde scowled when she realized this. But then, almost immediately after she started to doubt calling on this Spirit in the first place, it felt like a surge of electricity shot through her right arm and the unique Gate Key started to glow.
Gasping, the Stellar Spirit Mage dropped to her knees as the Ice Dragon tore through his gate, and her vision significantly blurred as soon as a pair of feet landed directly in front of her. Shakily, she lifted her head to try and see who was standing just a few feet away from her, only to look around in confusion when she noticed practically everything was frozen.
All of the attackers, who were still alive and breathing, were encased completely in a thick block of ice, while Lucy and three other comrades were (surprisingly) untouched.
"So you're the little brat who brought me back into the Spirit World. I should've known that you were somehow involved with Draco. Only somebody raised by him would do something so stupid. Now, give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you on the spot."
- Back with Gray and Lyon -
Gray squinted at Lyon as he wiped a string of blood away from his mouth with the back of his hand. His stomach hurt from being hit so many times, along with the majority of the rest of his body, and tiny ice crystals clung to his skin as a result of facing the Cold Emperors terrifying Maker Magic.
"No matter what you throw at me," Gray panted as he widened his stance, "No matter what you throw at me, I won't loose! Not when so many of my friends are depending on me! Not when Ur sacrificed her life for us!"
Lyon scoffed and threw his heavy, white coat to the ground. "Please, this battle was over before it could even start. We both know I'm physically stronger than you are, and your Maker Magic is practically useless compared to mine, so what in the world would ever make you think that you even have a chance at winning? Nobody's going to stop me now that I have Deliora in my clutches! Not you, not your stupid pink-haired friend, and not even that girl he seems so infatuated with! Nothing will keep me from achieving my dream!"
"I won't let you do it! No matter what it takes, I won't let anyone make Ur's sacrifice meaningless! Nothing will stop me from making sure Deliora isn't revived!"
What did he know of his suffering? What gave Gray the right to act like his beliefs were more important than Lyon's? For ten whole years, he built on his plan of ensuring that Deliora was revived while Gray wasted his time, fooling around with some wizards from the western part of the world. Lyon had struggled and fought to make sure his dream would someday come true, and now his 'brother' had waltzed in and acted like that dream was worthless; like he hadn't spent ten years of his life working toward the revenge so many people wanted -the revenge that Gray himself wanted some years ago! What gave him such a right?!
"How dare you speak to me like this?! What do you know anyway?! You're just some foolish little boy who wastes his time fooling around with some stupid guild!"
Gray narrowed his eyes at his old friend. Lyon wasn't fooling him.
"What is this really about, huh?! Are you mad that I worked toward a better life? That I actually listened to Ur's advice? You need to open your eyes and look at what's standing in front of you right now! You need to see the life Ur wanted for you, not some illusion that you've so foolishly thought up!"
The Cold Emperor screamed causing his magic to flare out around him. Nothing had ever made him angrier than his old friend's know-it-all attitude. "Killing Deliora has been my destiny since the day I was born! My suffering has given me strength; it is this hatred for you and that vile demon that fuels my dreams on! But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?! Because you left me behind, just like Ur did! Both of you abandoned me!"
Gray lunged to the left as Lyon conjured up a flurry of ice arrows and narrowly avoided being hit by using his Maker Magic to form a shield of ice. "I didn't leave you behind, and it's time that you see that! You were afraid of living a life without Ur, and you took that fear and used it to fuel your revenge for Deliora! But deep down you know that what you're doing is wrong, and if that means that you have to hate me for the rest of your life for stopping you, then so be it!"
"If anyone is living in an illusion it's you! I will surpass our master, Ur!"
Gray shook his head. How could his 'brother' still not get it?
"I know that this isn't the life Ur wanted you to live. She didn't want me to tell you the truth behind the repercussions of casting the Iced Shell because she was worried you would devote the rest of your life to trying to find a way to undo the spell, yet you did it anyway without knowing the truth at the beginning of your journey," Fairy Tail's Ice Mage said as he dodged another one of Lyon's ice creations, "You were sad because when you woke up on that day, ten years ago, Ur wasn't there to say 'hello' anymore. You lost someone special to you, so it's reasonable for you to mourn our mentor's sacrifice, but you're going about this all wrong. This has nothing to do with surpassing Ur anymore, yet you're so blinded by the path of revenge that you can't even see the life standing right in front of you!"
Lyon snarled. "What in god's name are you talking about?! Killing Deliora is the only life I was ever meant to live!"
"You have all of these friends around you who are willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you're happy. Yuka, Sherry, and Toby are all of your closest companions! What do you think that they would do if you suddenly died, huh? Why are you allowed to so blatantly reject the life that they're trying to give you?"
"Those fools aren't my friends! I have no need for something so useless! Insignificant bonds mean nothing in the eyes of true strength!"
Gray sighed and smashed his fist into the palm of his hand. "All of my friends in Fairy Tail give me the strength to stand and fight each and every day. Erza, Natsu, and Lucy are the only reason that I'm able to stand here and face you. I can't betray their trust like that. They're putting their faith in me, and someday you'll be able to see that the friends that stand next to you are where real strength comes from! And until that day comes, you will never be strong enough to surpass Ur!"
A/N: Just one more chapter until we're finished with the Galuna Island Arc guys! I'm so excited! For the sake of not jumping around for the entire chapter, I didn't cover the Natsu v.s. Zalty battle in this chapter, but I plan on putting it into the next update (which will be the last one for this story arc).
Again, I'm really sorry if this story arc has been kinda bland, but I promise that the next one will be so much better.
I'll never be able to stress how much I appreciate the support you guys give me, so really, thank you guys so much!
My first day of school is tomorrow, which also means my Marching Band practices are back and running. Updates will probably be slow Tuesdays,Wednesdays, and Thursdays since I have practice then, but whenever I have time I promise I'll try and update!
-xxTheNightmareBeforexx
