The following morning, the GMG opened with duels. The first ones to be called were a fight all had been looking forward to, the fight following up from the previous event, which was still lacking a winner; Nox and Erza.

Erza entered the arena, cheered on by her peers. Natsu was one of the loudest, screaming for the woman to kick ass. Nox smirked. Oh, she thought. Erza was only the starters.

When the duel began, Erza hurriedly reequipped to her fairy wheel armour. The swords turned toward Nox whom did not move.

"_forward, my fairies!" shouted the redhead.

They were travelling at full speed, hurrying toward their target who, to Sting and Rogue's dismay did not move. The spears were only a meter away, when the light dragon slayer gripped the banister and tensed. They however never landed, as Nox held her arm up. The swords halted, before turning around and attacking Erza. She quickly sent them back to their dimension. Erza then grabbed a sword that had appeared out of nowhere and charged at the hooded woman. Rogue joined Sting at the banister when Nox, not giving a damn in the whole world simply yawned when the weapon attempted to strike her. Erza, dumbfounded to find her sword not able to touch her opponent, tried a stab. Her own sword pierced her back, it having been deflected.

"_so you use THAT kind of magic?!" said the redhead.

Nox did not answer. Instead, she moved her fingers slightly and Erza's armour squeezed and pierced through her skin. The reequip mage threw the sword she was holding in her direction, and she ducked by moving her head to the side. Erza got a disturbing feeling of déjà-vu. Reequipping into her Yume armour, which was elastic, she said:

"_your magic, like Midnight's has three weak points. The first one is that you cannot use your magic for both attack and defence. The second is that you cannot distort the human body, or you would have directly attacked me, and not distorted my clothes. Lastly, this elastic armour is your third weak point."

Nox was furious. That woman, that fairy had dared to utter his name in her presence! Responding to the burning hate in her, Nox took a step forward. Erza saw her skin suddenly start to rip, burn and burst. She let a scream out as a gash appeared on her stomach.

"_huh huh. Seems you were wrong, fairy."

Her pain was unbearable. Her blood was boiling in her veins, her skin was ripping itself apart and her own organs were churning on themselves. She saw her body move of its own accord, unable to control her actions. She was floating in the air, for all to see. After a last burst of pain, during which she could feel her own skin rip off the mark she had obtained from her being in the light team. She dropped to the ground in a heap of pain.

.

"_can you feel it?" she head Nox ask. "Can you feel the pain of losing your family? Can you feel the pain of being an outcast? Can you feel the god damned pain of wanting to die? Wanting it all to end?"

Erza shook as she tried to stand on her own two legs.

"_I have to ... fight... fight... for my nakamas." She said in a shaky voice.

"_funny enough," replied the hooded form "I also fight for mine. Do you remember him? Do you remember his tears? Their tears? Do you remember them?!"

She had shouted the last part, and the sudden quietness of her voice in the amphitheatre only accentuated the eerie of her following statement.

"_no you wouldn't. You weren't here when they died. When he died. Right here, right in my arms. You and your so called nakama, who got praised for killing my family. My nakamas. Who are you to say his name again? Who are you to even dare not feel the guilt?!"

Nox was out of control. She lifted Erza off the sandy ground and held her in the air as she ordered;

"_pain."

.

The torture lasted five minutes. Five minutes in the crunching of the bones, of the gurgling of the blood. The screams and the pleas for help from the scarlet fairy only teased the burning hate that consumed Nox's body and mind. Finally, as the bell was about to ring to announce the end of the match, Nox dropped her useless body to the ground and left the unconscious fairy there. There was silence in the arena. Most spectators had turned away, and she could see Fairy Tail glaring at her hooded form. People stared, wide eyed at what had happened.

Wasn't Erza meant to be the strongest female mage of Fairy Tail?

Sting and Rogue had turned away from the fight. She could not see anything in their eyes, which they kept away from her. So, feeling a constricting pain in her chest, Nox turned to the fairies.

"_this is only the beginning."

Her promise was left hanging in the air as she departed.

.

The arena was still silenced by shock when the pumpkin man shouted again;

"_and for the first duels of the day, Semmes from Quatro Puppy against... against Nox of Midnight Fear."

The applause that had started when hearing the first contestant died out at the announcement of Nox's name. It was in the dead silence of the arena that Nox stepped out of the dark opening to face Semmes. The mage was unsure of himself, and Nox immediately picked up on his fear of her. She smirked under her hood. As soon as the fight started, Semmes spun on himself. Nox looked at him, eyebrows raised as she waited for an attack. She saw him gain in speed and start rampaging toward her. She smirked. He was only a few metres away when her voice coursed through the arena.

"_stop." The man froze in mid spin.

"_fall." His body hit the ground.

"_sleep."

He was unconscious.