Disclaimer: Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima


ACT V: Ragnarok – The Fateful Encounter

Approximately X793

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

Chapter 30: Dragon Slayers, part 5

Why was it so darn hard to kill one fucking dragon? Sting thought to himself as he quickly scanned his surroundings and saw the wounds that was covering the other Dragon Slayer's.

It was bad, especially because most of them was running low on magical powers as well as being kicked around like they were Acnologia's favourite toys. Or well maybe that metaphor didn't work, because that would make the dragon one disturbed and really violent kid, who had successfully delivered a lot of harmful attacks to his team members, which restricted their movements. Heck, even though Natsu was in his Dragon Force mode it looked like he had taken a serious hit to his rips at some point, since he often flinched and unconsciously placed a hand on them, when he did certain movements.

"Tsch..." Sting spat because he wasn't doing much better, since the bones in his right arm was more like splinters than solid material.

The worst part was that they had been soooo close to victory at one point, but sensing this Acnologia had gone utterly berserk. The dragon simply lost all rationality and was like a bestial animal that fought only based on his basic instincts.

It was bad and they could all use some healing and fortunately it looked like Wendy was close to being done with healing the celestial mage. Of course he couldn't be certain about that, but from what he saw it looked like Lucy was getting better.

"Damn it!" he cursed when the huge tail with ease swatted Rogue and Cobra away, sending them flying. Both of them landed with a crash and it was evident from their struggles that it was becoming harder for them to get up.

"Watch out!" the blonde heard Laxus calling over from the healer, but it was too late for him to evade the elbow of the dragon that directly hit his stomach. The force behind the impact was so strong Sting felt some of his intestines being smashed to bits, making him spurt out blood before his body rocketed away from the enemy. Sting barely had time to blink before he felt someone catch him from behind, which caused a ripple of pain to rush through his body before even more blood spurted out of his mouth, leaving him breathless and vulnerable in the person's hands.

"You did well" a deep male voice said before Sting was placed on the ground, where he sat heaving for air. As he did a tall man entered his field of vision and all though his magical presence was extraordinary and massive, Sting didn't recollect ever encountering him.

"Who...?" he managed to say before a female woman with long brown hair was suddenly sitting in front of him.

"My old man, now come on, let's get you patched up" she smirked before hoisting his arm over her shoulders, before wrapping one of her arms around his waist in order to support his body as they walked in Wendy's direction.

"Wait... I know you" Sting crooked an eyebrow "Cana, right?"

"Yup, one and the same"

"I see..." the Dragon Slayer smirked suddenly feeling uncomfortable "... well uhm... you can let go of me now, I'm fine"

"Yeah right" Cana snorted and pushed his body closer to hers.

"Seriously woman, I'm fine!" he blushed suddenly having a really strong urge to go battle Acnologia again.

"Shush! Now be a good boy and come with me!" the anger in her voice was so strong it sent an unpleasant shiver down his spine because there was something potentially lethal about it.

So not daring to protest against the ferocious woman Sting let her guide him in the healers direction.

Scary, no terrifying. Cana was one terrifying woman...

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

After arriving at the battlefield it didn't take more than a few seconds for Gildarts to quickly scan and analyse the scenario, trying to figure out which approach was the best to take.

The Dragon Slayer's were all beaten up pretty badly and because of that it was nothing less than a miracle that he and Cana had stumbled upon Porlyusica and brought her along. Because of that it was fairly easy for him to reach a conclusion, about which actions was necessary to take, in order for them to at least have a chance in winning.

"Kids!" he shouted in a high demanding tone "You guys take five to recover, I'll keep him busy for long enough for Porlyusica to give you a quick fix"

"There's no way in hell I'm doing that" Gajeel roared back even though he looked so fatigued and battered, that if he took another hit it could be his downfall.

"Yeah!" Natsu agreed, even though he knew somewhere deep in his mind that the older mage was right.

"I've fought against him before and trust me, I'm not gonna make the same mistake as I did the last time!" Gildarts snapped as his magical aura started to become visible "Now go, I need space to do this or I might accidentally hit one of you in the process!"

Seeing the impressive and intimidating magic swipe violently around the older mage, it didn't take long for the Dragon Slayer's to agree with him as Acnologia's eyes was suddenly transfixed by the huge magical power that was flaring in front of him, which gave the boys the opportunity to flee. Of course Natsu still didn't want to do that, so Gajeel had to forcefully drag him away, giving Gildarts the opportunity he needed to take on the dragon.

"So you and me huh?" Gildarts smirked as he scanned his opponent and noticed the multiple and deep wounds on the dragon, that was oozing with blood, making the scales shine in a crimson color "Looks like the kids did a good job in keeping you occupied"

A deep and devastating roar pierced the air, as Acnologia turned his head upwards making his roar boom loudly all across the battlefield.

"You're not gonna answer me?" the older mage sighed as he cracked his shoulder, preparing himself for his attack "Well no matter, I didn't come to chat anyway"

Oblivious to his words Acnologia stopped roaring in order to fire a huge amount of fire in his direction. The flames immediately seemed to cover the mage in a shower of blue, making him vanish inside of it.

"Tsch!" Gildarts snorted impatiently "As if that would be enough to kill me"

With his hand raised above his head, he had successfully used his crash attack and was dissolving the fire turning it into tiny cubes that landed almost lazily beside him. Eventually all the flames was transformed and this seemed to confuse the dragon as he stopped the attack.

"Seriously my beloved daughter can burn me worse when she scolds me... or accidentally drops a kettle of hot coffee..." his eyebrow twitched when he remembered that incident.

"Oy, don't make it sound like it was my fault!" Cana interrupted "You should have seen I was carrying that kettle before violently hugging me! You old senile fart!"

Gildarts couldn't help smiling at her harsh words, as he launched himself into the air ready to strike the dragon.

"Disassembly Magic!" he roared which caused a huge net to spawn from his hand, before it rocketed towards the dragon. The pattern was shining brightly as it seemed to go through the dragon, before the light intensified and caused a huge explosion, momentarily making Acnologia vanish from their sight.

Once the light was gone multiple tiny versions of Acnologia started to rain down before landing on the ground with low thuds, all of them having eyes that had an x like form.

"Now this will be easy" Gildarts chuckled as the tiny dragons seemed to snap back to reality and started growling and running towards their target as an army of almost cute looking versions of Acnologia.

"Bah, you ain't nearly as annoying as the last person I used this attack on" Gildarts smirked earning a burst of outrage from a certain Dragon Slayer who felt insulted by that remark. He paid him no attention because Gildarts was soon busy trying to dodge the miniature dragons while simultaneously using his raw muscle power to smash the small things into mush underneath him.

Knowing time was of the essence the older mage wasted no time in getting as many of the small creatures as he could, before they would eventually turn into it's original shape.

Or whatever would happen, Gildarts honestly couldn't say for sure.

As time passed it didn't take long before the multiple versions of Acnologia that was alive started to shimmer and vibrate, before in the blink of an eye, reverted into the dragon's original form.

Needing to catch his breath Gildarts bounced backwards and stood panting as he tried to get a perspective on his opponent's health.

The wounds that had already been there had become even bigger, almost as if someone had ripped them bigger before pulling off huge chunks of meat, that had vanished. It looked incredibly painful, but since the dragon was still in berserk mode it didn't seem to have any affect on him, all though he did start roaring like he was in pain.

It was in all honesty a rather horrific sight, making Gildarts flinch before he had to dodge sideways as the dragon launched himself in his direction. Unfortunately he wasn't quick enough as the tail suddenly swiped down on him, hitting his head directly before he was sent flying from the force behind the target.

"Ugh!" he exclaimed in pain as body crashed against the ground that sent rocks flying.

Feeling dizzy Gildarts staggered onto his feet where he suddenly heard someone calling his name. It was too blurry to make out who it was, because the entire world was twisting in a weird way signifying his brain had taken some sort of damage.

"Damn it!" the older mage cursed when he suddenly felt something hit him from behind. The feeling was so strange that Gildarts had to look down to confirm that he had indeed been hit by something. Which was also rather evident by the claw that was suddenly piercing through his chest.

This is bad... he thought to himself before a river of blood spouted out of his mouth, splashing down on the ground.

"Dad..." a single female and gentle voice seemed to stand out, as the air was filled with his comrades and friends who was roaring and screaming. He couldn't hear them though, all his attention was focused on that female who seemed to be so close she was whispering directly into his ear.

"Cana..." he whispered in a fragile voice, when something suddenly seemed to click inside of his mind "... no..."

Gulping loudly Gildarts slowly turned his head to the side and his heart immediately sank when he saw that his intuition was correct.

"No..." his eyes widened in horror when he saw his beloved daughter stand right behind him, her body being pressed against his.

"Don't... look at me like that old man" Cana smirked teasingly and looked rather cocky, in spite of the fact her face looked extremely pale and weak, as blood trailed down her chin from her mouth.

Gildarts honestly had no idea what to say, as the dragon in a quick motion removed the claw, making both of them fall forwards before hitting the ground. Cana hit his back but her body quickly rolled over his before she landed right next to him.

"Cana..." Gildarts called as they laid next to each other, staring into each other's eyes. Both of them had lost a lethal amount of blood and none of them seemed to have any strength to get up.

"I'm fine..." the woman said in a caring voice, before she very slowly and with great effort placed a hand between them.

"... you..." the older mage started even though he still had no idea what he should say to her. The situation made him feel sad, frustrated but also frightened, but for some weird reason it was like his emotions was somehow being locked away deep inside his mind.

Gildarts was slowly dying and it was starting to effect his rationality and thought control. Actually all of his body was starting to grow cold and numb, but before that happened he managed to summon enough strength to gently place his hand above his daughter's.

"You..." a small smile played on his lips as he gave her hand a weak squeeze "... called me dad"

"Better late than never..." she said in a barely audible tone, but smiled nonetheless towards him.

It all happened so quickly and honestly Gildarts couldn't tell who of them died first. Maybe they did at the same time, but who cared about stuff like that. The after life was waiting for them and soon they would be reunited with Cana's mother and the love of his life Cornelia for the first time in what felt like forever. It had been ages but soon the little family of three would be together again.

And that couldn't be so tragic now could it?

~ o ~ O ~ o ~

The outrage and horror was evident in the people watching as the majority of them started shouting portraying a variety of feelings at the sight of the two mage's getting attacked and ultimately dying from it. All the Dragon Slayers rushed in at the same time after that and even Wendy joined them this time as they ran as fast as they could. Not being that affected by the situation nor having their minds devoted on revenge, Cobra, Sting and Rogue quickly ran over to the two corpses and snatched them, before running back and leaving them with Porlyusica, Lucy and the Exceeds.

It was all too much for Lucy, who sat staring blankly in front of her, not seeing anything. She was too shocked to react, so her body was left completely motionless and stiff.

The sounds from the fight, her comrades yelling, Acnologia roaring, attacks colliding. She heard none of it, because it was like her mind was frozen in time, while all other stuff escalated in front of her making it sound like waves was rushing through her skull, deafening and leaving her even more isolated within her mind.

Lucy was so lost inside herself that she barely noticed the sudden commotion coming from the old healer and the Exceeds. She couldn't even sense the dark magic that had approached them, nor did she seem to acknowledge at first that someone was suddenly sitting right in front of her.

Black... everything she could see was black and blurry.

It was weird because she somehow knew that it was a person despite being so lost inside herself.

Whoever it was, it seemed possible that he or she was talking but the words was wasted on her, because she couldn't hear it. However she did feel a prickling sensation when something warm was placed on her cheek.

A tiny amount of confusion seemed to spark in her hollow and empty mind, when she felt something rub against her cheek.

It kinda felt like... a thumb? What?

The confusion in her started to become more overwhelming and the feeling soon became the dominant part of her brain alongside surprise, when she suddenly felt something warm being pressed against her lips and of course she knew right away what that implied.

What the heck?!

It was like lightning suddenly struck her, as shock completely overwhelmed her body thereby forcing her to immediately snap back into reality. Once she did Lucy quickly confirmed what was going on, which caused her whole body to stiffen in horror, because honest to god the last thing she had ever expected to happen was the dark mage kissing her.

Smiling and looking somewhat satisfied Zeref leaned backwards and glared at her. There was something in his eyes that seemed to look like affection, but she couldn't know for sure.

"I..." her jaw dropped visibly as she momentarily forgot where she was and what was going on.

"It would seem my strategy worked" Zeref smirked and looked rather smug.

"You..." Lucy sank before placing a shaking finger against her lip.

"Indeed" he nodded to himself, before getting into a standing position "I'm sorry for surprising you like that, but I need you to witness this"

"Huh?"

"I need Layla's daughter to see this coming to an end" Zeref added in a low and more menacing sounding tone as he almost gracefully made his way over to the fight between Acnologia and the Dragon Slayers.

"Time's up, you had your chance" Zeref said in a demanding tone, while throwing his arm dismissively to the side as he placed himself in front of Acnologia and the fighting humans.

"No..." Lucy shook her head as she watched the dark mage raise his hand very slowly in front of him "Watch out you guys!"

Nothing seemed to happen at first. Like literally it was like Zeref hadn't done anything, nor did her comrades react. However after blinking a few times she noticed that all of them had changed color like it had been altered turning into a inverted version, making them look black and white as they floated like they were somehow frozen in time.

"What?" perplexed and frightened by the sight, Lucy shakily got on her feet, her back aching a bit from the wound that was almost gone from her back "What have you done to them?!"

Not sure what else to do she ran in Zeref's direction while grabbing the hilt of her whip ready to strike him at any moment.

"Silly girl, I did nothing that would harm them" the dark mage smirked almost playfully at her "I simply stopped time for them, so they don't get in my way, I can assure you of that"

As he said that Zeref motioned with his hands making the bodies of the immobile Dragon Slayer's float away from Acnologia.

"What are you doing?" Lucy asked from beside him, still holding onto her weapon while debating what she should do about the situation.

"For safety... all though people consider me a cold hearted and evil mage, I am not so cruel as some might think"

"Eh?"

"You'll see" Zeref stopped his hands from moving, before a dark and ominous aura started to spawn around him. As it did he placed both hands in front of him on top of each other, with some of the fingers pointing in opposite directions and away from where the hands connected.

"Death Pillar" the dark mage said almost nonchalantly before a huge vertical pillar instantly exploded on top of the unmoving Acnologia.

The sight and feeling of the wicked power made Lucy gulp as her primal fears was evoked inside of her. But in spite of that she still had control of herself, because she was determined to make sure the others survived this, even if she had to save them herself. Fortunately their bodies seemed to be in a somewhat safe distance from Zeref's attack.

"Death Predation" the dark mage called as a huge dark wave was sent flying in an incredible speed towards the black pillar that started to crumble before combining with his latest attack. It was an impressive amount of magic, Lucy would not deny that fact, nor was she that surprise when it vanished and it became evident that there was nothing left, in the trajectory the blast had gone.

The ground was seared and withered but that wasn't the only thing.

Acnologia was gone, he had completely vanished from existence, Lucy thought to herself as she very slowly turned to look at the tiny man who was smiling to himself.

"Finally... I finally got my revenge" he chuckled and sounded almost insane for a second "Thank you Lucy" smiling a toothy grin that actually resembled Natsu's he engulfed her in a tight hug.

"I uhm..." her body froze because his physical reaction caught her off guard "... uhm..."

It was really awkward especially because the immobile Dragon Slayers was still floating in the air while being in a alternative color, while the war between humans, demons and zombies raged in the background. Besides he had kissed her, what gave him the right to violate her again with a hug?

After a while though Lucy couldn't prevent herself from letting out a sigh, before she returned his gesture and placed her arms around his waist, because why would she deny him at least some payback for taking out Acnologia.

They didn't stand like that for long before Zeref released her and took a few steps back and away from her.

"Uhm... so... can you please release them?" the celestial mage nodded towards the floating bodies hoping he would do what she asked.

"Yes" he nodded his eyes flashing red momentarily "This is not the end, not yet"

A unnatural and cruel laughter escaped from Zeref's mouth, making a unpleasant shiver run down Lucy's spine.

She didn't like the sound of that, not by a long shoot.


A/N: Okay about the controversial curse and Zeref: Let me remind you I started on this story way before that was revealed, so I'm not gonna use it in my story (just like I'll use my own interpretation of Lumen Heart to some degree).

I hope you had a nice holiday and had an amazing time :D And uhm... sorry about the killing thing (no not really I kinda liked it to be honest).

Hugs and plushies,

/H