Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima


ACT V: Ragnarok – The Faithful Encounter

Approximately X793

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

Chapter 24: Trouble

Lucy was chasing Natsu with the rest of her team following close behind her, trying to call out for him but it was no use. Of course she should have known from the start that he would start chasing the dark mage, instead of staying with the group but it was still pretty annoying, because that meant they had to dodge incoming attackers while chasing the pink haired kid.

Fortunately they eventually caught up with him, as he stood glaring around him with an annoyed expression on his face.

"God damn it!" the Dragon Slayer growled in anger "Where the heck did he go?"

"You know he's a professional when it comes to disappearing, so this shouldn't surprise you" Erza said in a neutral tone, as she slammed a clenched fist into the stomach of an approaching and snarling corpse, making it fly backwards into another group.

"Besides this isn't the time for you to go out on your own" Gray said as he summoned his demon slayers magic, that made black markings glide across his skin.

"Shut up! If I want to chase Zeref, then that's none of your business!" the Dragon Slayer snarled in annoyance.

"Stop it right now!" Lucy shouted in anger, making the two boys flinch in fright "We're in the middle of a bloody war for crying out loud!"

"Aye!" Happy agreed as he looked at the demons and corpses that was surrounding them.

"All right let's get this show on the road" Gray smirked as he flicked with his wrist and instantaneously froze a small group of growling corpses. The same moment that happened Erza let out a battle cry as she jumped into the air with her sword raised behind her. Once she was close enough she swung it downwards, making the ice containing the corpses crack. After that she started continuously slicing the ice, until it was more than cubes on the ground.

At the same time Natsu was busy taking care of another group of demons that was storming in their direction, making him take a deep breath before yelling "Fire Dragon's roar" which caused the demons to be drowned in the hot inferno.

"Yosh!" he smirked to himself obviously feeling triumphant. That was until the demons emerged from the fire, totally unharmed from the attack.

Seeing this Lucy quickly pressed one of her keys against her chest before saying "Star Dress Sagittarius from" before she started shooting arrows in the demons direction. Unfortunately it didn't seem to have any effect either, as the arrows just bounced off their scales.

A sigh escaped Gray as he flicked with his wrist towards the approaching demons, drowning them in a huge amount of ice.

"Now that was easy" the ice mage smiled, but regretted saying that statement when he saw the ice starting to steam. Evidently the attack from Natsu had made their scales so warm, that they were somehow capable of melting the ice and before they knew it they were fast approaching again, quickly closing the gap between them turning it into a hand to hand combat.

"Tsch!" Natsu snorted as fire spawned around his hand before he slammed it against one of the demons while yelling " Fire Dragon's Iron Fist"

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Long Sword" Gray called before a huge sword spawned in his hand, making him slash at his opponents, making spiky ice form where he cut the creatures.

Well it seemed like they could handle the situation, Lucy thought to herself as she turned her head to look in Erza's direction. Currently the scarlet haired woman was in her Wingblade Armor, therefore she was protected by the massive swords that was on her back. Furthermore Erza made some of the swords fly into the air, striking the cackling corpses that came close enough to her blades.

Analysing the fight, Lucy quickly figured out that the only way to kill these creatures was beheading them, because simply cutting them only made them snarl even louder. However they didn't even flinch when that happened, making it clear they felt no physical pain as they kept moving unaffected in their direction.

"Lucy watch out!" Happy shouted making her spin around on her heels where she spotted a huge demon who was way bigger than the small ones Gray and Natsu was currently fighting against. This one was incredibly tall, his skin looking like it was build out of multiple stones. Furthermore his eyes was glistening red while his mouth was open, revealing extremely long and sharp teeth that was dripping with saliva.

A roar escaped the demon as it raised a claw behind it's head, preparing to strike her, but since she had received the warning from Happy Lucy easily dodged the attack by sidestepping away, making the demon's claw hit thin air before it slammed the ground.

"Taurus form!" Lucy yelled as she pressed the key against her chest before finding another key and summoning Scorpio.

"Yeah!" the spirit shouted as he made his characteristic hand signs, before reading the situation and getting into serious mode.

"Let's do this!" Lucy shouted as she clenched her fist and delivered a powerful hit to the demon's jaw and as she did Scorpio fired his Sand Spear, making a beam of sand fly in their opponents direction. Once the sand hit the demon, he was knocked backwards making him stagger on his feet.

The sight made Lucy feel somewhat hopeful, but that feeling soon vanished when she saw the sand that had hit the demon, started to melt turning into glistening droplets before falling to the ground.

"Shit!" she cursed instantly knowing her spirit wasn't a good opponent against this guy "Scorpio, please go back"

He didn't answer or reject her wish, but did what he was told and vanished into the spiritual world.

Which spirit did she have that could work against this guy? Something who could use cold things would be optimal, but who?

An image of Aquarius momentarily flashed inside her mind, making her bite her lip as she dodged another attack from the demon, as she bend down her knees, his claw flying inches above her head.

Come on Lucy think! Through the corner of her eye she spotted Erza who was clearly struggling with her own opponents. However as the scarlet haired woman killed the incoming creatures, she had started moving further away from her as she pursued the enemy.

Quickly she looked in Gray and Natsu's direction and it looked like they too had gotten much further away from her as they kept pushing their opponents. With that said it didn't look they had found the right strategy to kill the small demons. Besides that Happy had joined the two boys, making it painfully clear she was on her own at the moment.

Which was really bad because she could really use Gray's ice moulding magic at the moment.

"Tsch!" a droplet of sweat trailed down her forehead, as she spun around on her heels using that as a momentum to sucker punch the demon's belly, hoping the force behind it would move upwards thereby making her opponent lose the air in it's lungs. That didn't seem to happen though, in fact it probably hurt her more because all of a sudden the demon's skin was burning like it was solid fire.

"Ugh!" she groaned in pain while bouncing backwards, where the celestial mage took a second to look at her knuckles which was covered in some nasty burn marks.

Well no wonder why it hurt so fucking much, huh?

But what could she do against such an opponent? She didn't have a spirit that could use cold elements and a lot of her spirits used hand to hand attacks and she obviously couldn't summon those. Of course she could summon Sagittarius, but since his arrows was made of wood it was highly plausible they would catch on fire when they tried to pierce the demon.

Aries? No wool and fire was a really bad combo. Perhaps Virgo..?

Lucy was interrupted in her thought as the snarling demon once more tried hitting her, but fortunately she managed to dodge it by throwing herself down on the ground and roll around on her back.

Not wanting to be caught of guard Lucy quickly got back on her feet where she stood glaring at the demon who once again hit the ground with a clenched fist. This time however the earth turned into a red looking liquid, that was steaming with heat.

"Lava..." Lucy whispered feeling horror struck as she quickly scanned her surroundings hoping to find someone from her team to call out to, but apparently they were all out of hearing distance.

There was no other choice but for her to do this alone, until the others finished their own fights.

Growling the demon launched itself towards her but she once more managed to dodge, as she quickly sidestepped away. Unfortunately her opponent turned around once it was behind her and grabbed her arm with it's hot claws.

It hurt like nothing she had ever felt before, making her suck in her breath before biting down her lip. For some reason she didn't want to scream. Maybe it was because her instincts told her the creature would like it, or perhaps she didn't want to seem defenceless and weak. No matter what it was, her determination prevented her from opening her mouth to make the pain she felt audible.

The nasty smell of her skin getting burned suddenly reached her nostrils and instinctively she used her free arm to knock the demon with her elbow, burning that area as well once it collided with the hot scales. It wasn't a hard attack but it was apparently enough to make her opponent loosen his grip on her, which she used as an opportunity to squirm and get free from the hold. Once that was done she quickly jumped away from the demon, where she took a second to glare at her arm where markings of the demons claws was displayed with horrible burn marks.

It hurt like nothing she had ever felt before. Of course she had received a burn mark before, but this was on another level completely, because it was like her skin was constantly prickling and burning. Actually it somewhat made her feel nauseous, making a metallic tasting saliva spawn in her mouth.

Not that she had time to dwell on that because the demon was fast approaching again, making her grab the handle of her whip calling forth the magic she needed to turn it into Fleuve d'etoiles making light erupt all around it.

"Ahhh!" she shouted while bringing down the whip to the ground making it rupture into a wave that was sent flying towards her opponent. As it did the demon was momentarily occupied as the rocks hit him. He didn't move though but stood completely still, as the rocks turned into liquid from the heat radiating from the demon. She didn't know this but since rock was the demon's element, it was easy for him to turn it into liquid.

An idea formed in Lucy's head as she used her whip and in a quick movement brought it downwards, before it wrapped around the demon's arm, hoping inside that it wouldn't damage her whip.

At first look it didn't seem so, encouraging the blonde to start turning around on her feet making the demon airborne and fly in a circle above her head. After a few seconds of doing this she motioned the whip downwards, making her opponent crash loudly against the ground.

"I can do this!" Lucy said in determination before she saw a glistening light beside her, indicating a certain spirit was summoning himself and was about to crash the party.

"Princess" Loke winked at her "Why didn't you call me sooner?"

"This isn't the sort of fight I wanted you to join" she answered but kinda felt glad he was there.

"He's coming" the celestial spirit said in a serious tone, the demon running at a high pace before he closed the distance between them making both of them jump to the side, thereby dodging the incoming attack.

Loke clenched his fist and was seconds away from delivering his attack, when Lucy slammed a hand against his chest.

"You can't touch him, his body is like solid fire" she warned making the spirit eye her up and down, before they had to once more avoid another attack.

"I see..." Loke said a hint of darkness shining in his eyes "I understand..."

"Loke..." Lucy whispered noticing the fury that was radiating from her spirit.

"And he dared harm your beautiful skin like that. It's unforgivable!" he growled as light started to surround him, before jumping high into the air his clenched fist behind him.

"Don't!" she tried once more, but it was too late, her spirit was already using all of his physical strength combined with his regulus, to smash the demon multiple times.

For some reason the demon didn't do anything, but stood like it was confident that the attacks wouldn't do anything.

What to do, what to do?! Lucy thought to herself as she watched Loke's hands becoming more and more burned to the point they were dripping with blood.

"Stop it!" using her whip she caught the demon's arm again, this time she motioned to the side making the opponent follow the motion and fly sideways.

"You idiot!" she screamed before running over to the spirit who looked slightly guilty.

"I'm sorry..." he smirked "Guess I got carried away there, huh?"

"Yeah d'uuuh" Lucy raised her eyebrow before looking at his hands, taking in the damage on them.

"Don't look at me like that" Loke chuckled in a warm tone "All it does is confirm why you're gonna be my future wife"

"This is serious!" she stomped with her foot clearly angry at her spirit.

"Yeah I know" he sighed before pointing in the demon's direction "However it looks like my attack had an effect on him"

"What?" Lucy looked too and was surprised to see the stone looking skin was shattered in multiple places. Which could only mean that all though his body was extremely hot and strong, being hit multiple times in the same place was his weakness. The problem was it would do too much damage on either of them to do such a thing.

A ferocious growl escaped the demon's mouth and for some reason his movement speed had increased a lot, making him rush at them at such a fast pace they didn't get time to react before it was too late and the demon had smashed his claw against Loke, making him skid backwards. After that the claw wrapped around Lucy's leg, making her scream in pain before she was smashed against the ground, knocking the air out of her lungs.

"Lucy!" the spirit shouted but before he got a chance to get to her the demon was in front of him, slashing with his sharp claws.

"Loke!" the celestial mage shouted in horror when she gained enough oxygen to speak, making her try desperately to get back on her feet, which was rather hard because of the huge burn mark on her leg.

"Stop worrying I'll be fine" the spirit said in a confident tone, even though he was far from doing good, because he was having a really hard time trying to dodge the attacks.

"Please stop..." Lucy narrowed her eyes feeling sad as she kept trying to stagger back on her feet "... you need to go back, I'll handle this somehow"

"No" Loke said in determination as he continued fighting.

"Please!" she shook her head as the demon delivered more and more wounds to her spirit.

"What kind of spirit would I be if I left you alone?" he smiled towards her.

It was only for a second his attention was distracted, but it was enough for the demon to use his claw to slash it downwards leaving a huge wound that immediately started spattering blood all over the place.

"LOKE!" she shouted and watched in horror as he started to disappear and vanish into the spirit world.

"I'm sorry... Lucy..." he said in a sad tone before the last pieces of his existence vanished into the other world.

Horror struck Lucy everything seemed to freeze for a second. As it did the pain in her body seemed to vanish before she clumsily got up on her feet. All though she knew Loke would be fine, it was still terrible to see her friend getting beat up like that and because of that something inside of her started to burn. It was nothing like she had ever felt before, not to this extend. All of her other senses seemed to vanish, making everything even her rationality vanish. The only thing that was rummaging in her head was a sense of vengeance and anger.

Blood rush...

A scream filled with pain and anger escaped her lips as Lucy ran as fast as she could towards her opponent, where she started continuously hitting the demon.

High on adrenaline Lucy didn't even bother to dodge the demons burning claws, but just kept hitting her opponent. While she did that, she didn't notice how the rock looking skin started to splinter and fall off slowly making the demon's body start to crumble. Nope, she was too busy hitting him with her blood soaked and burned fists to notice anything but the rush of unrestricted fury that was rummaging through her body.

Growling, the celestial mage delivered a hard punch to the demon's stomach which send a massive shock wave through him making the stones crack loudly, before they started to grumble and fall apart landing in a huge pile on the ground.

Lucy had won the fight but it still wasn't enough. No, it was not nearly enough!

Not thinking straight she kept hitting the leftovers until it started turning into a bunch of pebbles, that got mixed with her blood as she kept crunching it.

"You did well" a deep and hoarse voice spoke from behind her "It's time you stop"

"Unforgivable..." Lucy whispered with a hint of madness in her voice "... unforgivable"

"Girl you need to stop" the man said and even though she knew deep down he was right, she couldn't do that. The energy was still rushing through her system preventing her from being rational.

The man stopped saying anything or maybe he left her alone to do whatever she wanted. It didn't matter really to her what he did, because her main priority was smashing those god damn rocks.

"Lucy, you need to stop" a different voice said all of a sudden.

"Unforgivable..." the celestial mage smirked her eyes widening and looking slightly insane.

"Please stop" a pair of hands caught her wrists, thereby forcefully stopping her from hitting the rocks.

Panting Lucy sat completely motionless as the anger started to vanish, making her more aware of the situation she was in.

What was she doing? The blonde thought as she took in the blurry vision of the bloody rocks on the ground. What... what happened?

"Are you okay? You back with us yet?" the person spoke in a gentle tone.

"Ye-yeah..." Lucy blinked as the world started to become more focused, but as it did she also became more aware of the pain from her multiple wounds.

"You sure?"

Slowly she turned her head and was surprised to see Natsu looking at her with a mixture of emotions on his face. Anger, sorrow and fear... it was all there, making her feel guilty all of a sudden.

"I..." she sucked in her breath as the pain in her body started to become more dominant, pulsating through her body like she was being torn apart. As it did a layer of sweat started spawning on her body, making her shake uncontrollably.

Everything around her started to blur again, as she tried her best to focus on her breathing and try her best to fight against the agony that was reaching higher and higher levels.

Her skin was prickling and burning in the most sickening way, that it made her feel nauseas and dizzy. The wounds from the claws wasn't that bad, actually she could barely notice it compared to the burn marks.

"It hurts... it hurts so much..." she whispered as tears started streaming down her face "I'm sorry..."

Not answering or saying anything the Dragon Slayer quickly scooped her into his arms and started running.

"I... I can't..." Lucy said in a voice that was barely audible, because she was struggling to breathe and starting to hyperventilate.

"You need to stay with me you hear?!" Natsu shouted down to her "You need to stay conscious and fight it"

"It hurts..."

"I know but if you don't fight it your body might go into shock" he sounded almost desperate but didn't slow down, as he kept rushing through the fighting groups.

"I did it..." she whispered and smirked.

"Yeah you did, you were amazing" he answered sounding somewhat proud "Now try to focus on your breathing and stay with me okay?"

Nodding Lucy did as she was told trying her best to fight her own body and the devastating pain she was feeling.

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

The Dragon Slayer watched in horror as Lucy and Loke fought against and it was painfully clear that they were struggling.

Fuck! Natsu thought as he simultaneously delivered a roundhouse kick to an approaching demon.

He had occasionally followed her fight from the distance and wanted nothing more than to go to her side. However that was impossible right now since the demons was attacking them without mercy, nor did they reveal what their weakness could be. They had tried everything on them, force, magic, tactic but nothing worked. It was like they were indestructible somehow and it honestly pissed him off.

Stupid retarded Zeref and his creations!

If only they could figure it out so he could go help Lucy fight the big demon. His eyes darted to Erza who looked like she was feeling the same way, but couldn't do anything as the numbers of corpses didn't lessen but seemed to increase with each she took down.

"Tsch!" he spat in annoyance not liking the burn marks that was already visible on the celestial mage.

"Come on focus!" Gray shouted to him "We can't find their weakness if you keep getting distracted"

"I know but..."

"I'm concerned as well" the ice mage said as he slashed against a demon, making it snarl back at him "However we can't do anything for her right now, other than have faith she'll manage somehow"

"Yeah..." Natsu said in a grumpy voice as he rushed against a demon, slamming one of his hands against the enemy while supporting his arm with his other hand "Fire Dragon's Grip Strike!"

Fire shot out of his hand, making the opponent stumble backwards and away from him.

"Happy!" Gray said to the cat as he came back from dropping another demon from a high altitude, hoping that would do the trick and harm them.

"Aye?!" the cat answered.

"I know this is sudden, but can you go search for Wendy?" the ice mage said as he wiped his forehead.

"Why? You guys look fine?" Happy asked.

"Because the idiot over there can't focus when he's fucking worried" Gray sighed as he spun around and slammed his sword against yet another demon.

"Shut the hell up!" Natsu snarled feeling somewhat insulted.

"Aye sir!" Happy saluted before flying away on his mission.

Taking a deep breath the Dragon Slayer fought more eagerly against the enemy somewhere feeling relieved that they would soon have a healer on their side.

He didn't know how much time passed by before an intense scream filled with pain and anger suddenly emerged from the celestial mage. Horror struck Natsu glanced in her direction and was surprised to see her go all out against her opponent. Actually it looked like she was ignoring the wounds that was being inflicted on her.

Ohhh... Natsu thought as he realised what was going on. Ohhh yeah he knew that feeling all too well... But there was nothing he could do about it, nothing at all! Fucking useless son of a bitch.

Because of his contradicting feelings he didn't manage to dodge a demon in time, before it sank large teeth into the meat of his arm, making him growl in pain, as blood started streaming down his arm.

"Like heck I ain't your lunch!" thoroughly annoyed he made fire engulf his free hand "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

The force behind the hit was enough to send the demon flying off into the air, where it vanished in the distance.

"If any of you want a snack then bring it on! I'll deliver you so many punches, you'll wish you didn't have seconds!" he spat in anger and once more engaged in the fight.

Natsu was about to deliver a kick to a demon when it suddenly turned into a million pieces. It only took a second for him to realise what was going on making him spin around on his feet to great the person who had arrived.

"Gildarts!" he shouted with a smile.

"Yo!" the older mage said "I'm here to save your bacon"

"... what...?" the Dragon Slayer asked in a confused tone, not understanding why the other mage was talking about food all of a sudden.

"You need to go to her" Gildarts said in a serious tone "I couldn't stop her, but maybe you can"

Natsu didn't need to know who he was referring to as his eyes darted over to the celestial mage who was continuously hitting the ground underneath her, clearly out of her own mind and not capable to stop the blood rush that was still controlling her actions.

"Thanks" Natsu said before darting over to the girl and stopped her from hurting herself more.

The sight of her being so messed up physically and mentally was utterly painful, but hopefully Happy was successful and had found a healer. Not that he would patiently wait for him to come back, nope he had to do anything he could to find someone who could heal the blonde. After all the hyperventilation along with her pale and damp body clearly indicated that the burn marks was pretty serious, and because of that Lucy was dehydrated and needed both water but also something to take the agonising pain she was feeling.

"Shit!" Natsu cursed while running and jumping over the enemies as he continued his pursuit.

Come on, someone, anyone! Thinking that he spotted two things flying above the crowd and he immediately recognised Carla in her human form carrying, Wendy while Happy flew beside them.

"Happy!" shouting his name he hoped to catch the cat's attention as he sprinted in their direction.

It didn't take long before they heard him calling and soon they united with each other.

"Wendy thank god you're here" Natsu said as they found a somewhat secluded place where it was possible for the girl to heal Lucy without being disturbed by the fighting groups. When they did the Dragon Slayer gently placed the girl on the ground, Wendy quickly starting to heal the blonde.

"She's gonna be fine right?" he asked with a hint of concern.

"Yeah, it might take a while though" her glistening hands hovered over Lucy's body scanning how severe the wounds was "Carla can you give her some water?"

The Exceed nodded and found a bottle in her bag, she gently pushed against the celestial mage's mouth encouraging her to drink.

Wanting to go back to the fight but also wanting to make sure Lucy was healed, Natsu stood up and took a protective stance ready to strike if anyone was foolish enough to interrupt the healer while she was doing her job.

Happy did the same thing as he found a huge piece of would and stood beside the Dragon Slayer, ready to smack anything or anyone that got too close.

Unfortunately for the Dragon Slayer no one came close to them, which was rather frustrating because he really wanted to blow off some steam. It did help though when he could hear Lucy's breathing was starting to become more regular behind him.

Not sure how much time passed by, he just watched impatiently at the fights kept raging right in front of him. Well that was until he heard the blonde moan behind him, making him spin around on the spot.

"Lucy?" Wendy said in a caring tone "Can you hear me?"

"Mmm..." she nodded before opening her eyes "... yes"

"Good!" Wendy smiled brightly "I healed most of your wounds, but they might still be a bit sore"

"Ohh... thank you" Lucy smiled as she sluggishly got into a sitting position.

"You good?" Natsu asked as he kneeled down next to her where he eyed her carefully to make sure she was indeed okay.

"Yeah... thanks" she smiled towards him "Sorry for worrying you"

"Tsch as if..." he pouted a small blush on his cheeks "Anyhow Wendy, is Lucy good to go?"

"I believe so, yes" the healer nodded "She just needs a moment to rest, then she should be perfectly fine"

"Excellent!" he smiled wickedly revealing his teeth while staring at Lucy.

"Uhm... what?" she said sounding uncomfortable.

"It'll take about five minutes to get back to our group" a dark chuckle escaped his lips as he in a swift movement placed his arms underneath the blonde and lifted her body.

"I can walk on my own you know" Lucy said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Nope!" he shook his head "Wendy's orders, this way you can rest while we travel"

"That's brilliant" the healer giggled.

"It's puu~uurfect" Happy sang teasingly.

"You guys are enjoying this waaay to much" Natsu's eyebrows twitched in annoyance "Anyhow

thanks for healing her"

"You're welcome, I'll see you later" Wendy said and waved with her hand before taking off with Carla.

"Yeah later" he said in return before taking off towards their own destination.

None of them said anything, but there was something that was starting to bother the Dragon Slayer as he kept running.

"Hey Luce?"

"Yeah?"

"When you fought that demon, you noticed that something cold would probably be good against him right?"

"I did" she confirmed.

"Then... why didn't you summon Aquarius?"

He noticed that her body stiffened for a second, before she let out a huge sigh.

"I... couldn't" Lucy answered in a low voice.

"Why not?" Natsu enquired feeling curious "I mean I know there isn't that much water around but I'm sure you could find something somewhere"

"That wasn't the problem..."

"Then why not? She would be the perfect spirit to use in that situation"

"I... I just couldn't okay?" her voice was quivering indicating Lucy was really emotional for some reason.

"Okay..." he reluctantly said, knowing there was more to the story than she wanted to share at the moment. Whatever it was it was something deep and painful, which he didn't want to force upon her especially not during the circumstances they were in right now.

Natsu would get the story eventually though, even if he had to force it out of her.


A/N: It takes forever to create them fiiiighting scenes, but it's fun to make them. I mean it's like I'm playing a videogame in my head and then describing it on paper. It's kinda neat but also hard work so it's gonna take some time creating the chapters. Also there will be other person's POV because I want to play with other characters and see their potential in battle.

Anyhow, hope you guys have a nice day :)

/Hejmdal