Chapter 19 : Training
She got an array of different reactions from the members of Fairy Tail after her tale under the willow tree. Anger, sadness, horror but most prominent was anger. Many marched away from the healing tree, venting their anger somewhere else at their helplessness, some stayed crying onto the shoulders of their loved ones, but a certain group gathered by the trunk of the tree, looking solemn as they discussed.
" Right, so what you're saying is that unless we find some way to separate this thing from Lucy's soul, she'll d-... perish?" Erza reconfirmed, speaking slowly as she reigned in the mass of emotions she felt at the moment.
" That's right."
" But how do you know all this, Tenebre," She said slowly but clearly, " where is the evidence?"
" We are the evidence." Shakal and Jackal said at the same time.
Makarov looked at the two of them uncertainly," And who exactly are the both of you?"
" These two troublemakers, are Jackal and Shakal, and they've been working undercover as Pheles underlings to gather information on my behalf," Tenebre covered for them, shooting them a glare that screamed ' say-something-wrong-and-i'll-incinerate-you-so-just-fucking-follow-on-with-my-story', the both of them gulped and simply nodded rather convincingly at the group.
" But judging by some of the things they've told me, we're left with very little time to rescue Lucy and to separate the eye from her soul." A shadowed look came upon Tenebre's face as she said this. " Along with the fact that they decided to attack us on the night of the Blood Moon."
" Night of the what moon?" Gray questioned, looking genuinely lost like the others.
" I've never heard of anything like that before." Levy looked troubled as she flipped through the book in her hands. " And there's nothing stated here about a Blood Moon."
" Its understandable for all of you not to know, that's because the night of the Blood Moon happens only once every millennia and information about it is tightly sealed up in the deepest, most highly secured facility of the Magic Council where they store other dangerous artifacts." Tenebre said, then added as a second thought, " I think..."
" Why's that?" Levy closed the book carefully and looked at Tenebre, " Why all the secrecy?"
" It would be absolutely catastrophous if the knowledge about this phenomenon were to be leaked, especially the dark guilds, for the Blood Moon enhances the effectiveness of all dark magic and rituals, one ritual in particular."
" The Reaping." The twins echoed.
Makarov, Levy and Freed paled visibly while the others just looked even more befuddled,
" Lu-chan..." Levy covered her mouth as the tears she's been holding back spilled forth, she leaned into Gajeel and sobbed into his chest as he hugged her with an arm.
" Freed, explain." Laxus barked, tired of not knowing what going on.
Freed gulped, and cleared his throat.
" The Reaping, a ritual that forcefully rips out the soul of the vassal, like a grim reaper's reaping, but that's all we know, both me and Levy could not decipher the rest of the text."
Tenebre nodded,
" The other thing the Reaping does, is that the caster is able to manipulate the soul into anything he or she wished to do with it, into a destructive spell with the pure unrestrained magic of a un-vesseled soul for example, but this is only possible when the Blood Moon is around, otherwise this would not be possible and only the splitting of the soul can be done."
" But then, why did you say Lucy would die?"Gray pointed out,
Tenebre just glared at her clenched, bleeding fist, and spat out,
" Cause once the soul has been reaped, the body is as good as dead, nothing but a soulless puppet with nothing but 7 hours left to live unless the soul is returned."
The entire room fell into a tense silence at this proclamation, when Natsu sliced through the silence with a single sentence.
" We will save her," He proclaimed, eyes firm, " even at the cost my life."
" Aye!" Happy said.
" I agree." Erza said just as firmly.
" Without a doubt." Gray nodded.
" If Gray-sama says so," Juvia muttered, " even if Lucy-san is Juvia's love rival..."
" I'll do my best!" Wendy said, smiling at Charla then at everyone else,
" I will save Lu-chan." Levy sniffed, looking back at Gajeel when he placed a hand on her shoulder,
" Gi hi." He said, " I'm just tagging along with Shrimp here."
Laxus and the Raijinshu simply nodded.
Tenebre looked at them, smiling slightly at their camaraderie, " As i expected of all of you, but before that-"
They all turned to look behind at where Tenebre was looking at and Kinana flinched back, feeling all their gazes on her,
" Ano, sorry to interrupt Master, but there are some people who wish to see you."
Three cloaked individuals walked into the clearing and the person in the middle flicked back his hood, followed by the two, revealing three very familiar looking faces.
" Jellal!" Erza being the first to react, unsurprisingly.
" Ultear." Gray acknowledged with a nod.
" and Meredy!" Juvia greeted happily.
" It's been a long time, Fairy Tail, Makarov" Jellal said, then looking at Erza, " and Erza."
" What brings you here?"
" We were just passing by the next town when we felt an enormous amount of magic from here." Jellal said,
" We though it was a normal occurrence and all, knowing you Fairies and your brawls." Meredy continued,
" Until we sensed that it was something similar to Zeref's presence." Ultear said.
All of their eyes widened.
" Shit, does this mean that Pheles fella has connections to Zeref?" Grey cursed, " Things are just getting worse and worse."
" Who?" Jellal asked, " and what exactly happened out there?"
" Let me fill you in on that, Jellal Fernandes, and company, Ultear Milkovich and Meredy."
"And you are?" Ultear asked.
.
.
.
" I see," Jellal said grimly after Tenebre's brief explanation.
" But we'll come along with you, just in case this Pheles person is indeed influenced by Zeref's magic, of course we'll fight when the need arises, we owe you guys that much." Ultear said. " is that fine with you, Akarusa-san?"
" I'm sure this is for the benefit of the both of us," Tenebre said.
" Now, let's head into the Void shall we?"
Lucy groaned, as she struggled against her bonds, cringing at the icky, slithering feeling of the chains against her exposed arms and through the thin fabric of her dress, looking down uneasily at the strange, softly glowing magic circle below her.
" Whose idea was it to change me into this horrid thing?" She cringed and grimaced at the sheerness of the long white one-shoulder dress she donned, far too thin for her liking, but lucky for her it wasn't too thin to be see through.
" That was my idea." She looked up at the short black haired man as he strode towards her, a platform forming beneath him with every step he took towards her, till he was close enough to reach out to touch her.
" I take it that you like it?" All she did was to glare at him, hard.
" Maybe not." He added.
They stayed that way for a couple few more minutes, with Lucy glaring at him and Pheles staring back at her with an unreadable expression.
It was then that the silence got too much for Lucy and she blurted out the first thing that popped into her mind,
" You don't look like the kind of person to do this kinda stuff."
As quickly as she blurted it out, she regretted it, and tried to cover her mouth, only to feel even more annoyed when she realised her entire body was still restrained.
" And what make you say that?" He asked after a while, taken aback by her comment.
" Just a hunch." She quipped, not wanting to say anymore to him.
Pheles felt conflicted, for this girl in front of him resembled her so much it's almost uncanny, but this girl, her eyes and her very being's like a flame, blazing brightly with life and energy, whereas she was like a calm stream of peace and harmony.
They were so very different but yet so similar, and it didn't help that she had a part of her magic within her.
" Well, you won't be feeling anything in a few hours." He said, feeling the urge to say something mean.
" What do you mean?" Lucy questioned him, eyes wide in apprehension,
" You don't need to know, so sleep."
He flicked his hand in front of his face, and immediately Lucy felt her eyes start to droop, her eyes suddenly feeling like lead, but she fought through the darkness that threatened to envelop her.
But to avail as she was swiftly dragged down into the darkness as the spell overpowered her and her body slumped forward, falling into troubled sleep.
Pheles spared her one last look, before striding out the door as it closed behind him with an ominous thud.
Madonna's malicious dull silver eyes opened, gleaming out from the shadows at the corner of the room as she hissed,
" Soon..."
" Come on, it's been ages since you've told us Tenebre's gonna bring their kids here." Draco groaned, sprawling lazily on one of the chaise lounges near by, tossing a leg over the top, " I'm booooored, i wanna meet the dragonslayers!"
" Oh hush Draco," Grandine frowned disapprovingly at his behavior, " It's only been half an hour since she left, and barely five since Marie passed the news to us, a little more waiting wouldn't hurt."
" Say the one cleaning the floor with her nervous wind walking thingy majigy." Draco eyed the almost sparkling clean marble floor.
" Hold up!" Marie hopped up and pushed a hand out, taking a moment to pause and look around for a dramatic flair, " I sense her approaching."
All the dragons present perked up and looked intently at the little purple haired girl,
" They should be here right about... now!" Marie predicted.
On cue, a rifted opened right above where the dragons stood and spat out the gang onto them.
Kori was the first to react, shoving off whoever that landed on top of her, she snarled warning at them, baring her claws as scales appeared on various parts of her body, looking a lot more like her original form as her reptilian eyes scrutinized the newcomers.
" At ease Kori!" Tenebre scrambled upright, waving her hands in front of her, " They're allies!"
Kori simply lowed her claws, her scales fading back into her skin, but her narrowed blue eyes never left the group.
" What the hell?!" Gajeel cussed, tossing an accusing look in Tenebre's position," Oi Chessboard! Must you open up the portal like that?!"
" Chessboard?" Tenebre looked scandalously at him, grasping at each end of her black and white hair.
" Gajeel!" Levy gasped, somehow managing to cover Wendy's ears in her upside down position, " Wendy's here!"
" It's okay, Levy-san, i've heard Gajeel-san curse more than once already." Wendy pried the blueette's hand from her ears and admitted shyly.
That caught the attention of a certain red head, her glowing red eyes coming to look at him sharply after she flicked Natsu off her," What?"
" Oh shit." The metal-studded man simply said.
" Oi Erza, what was that for!" Natsu shouted from his spot.
The dragon stared on in awe and bewilderment, and some in shock and longing, as the group of fifteen mages and three exceeds unleashed a small scale war amongst themselves.
" Oh just get going already." Draco sighed exasperatedly, shoving a booted foot at Igneel's back, who in turn bumped into Metallica which jolted Grandine into a sprint toward her little girl, scooping her right out of the mass of people and bringing her into a bone crushing hug.
" Wendy!" She sobbed, crying silently as she whispered her name lovingly over and over again, Wendy doing the same, except she was brawling out loudly into Grandine's shoulder.
" Your face looks as ugly as i remembered it to be." Metallica said gruffly, and in a single stride, he slapped an arm over Gajeel's, and pulled him roughly to his chest.
" Gi hee." Gajeel grunted back, his arm round Metallica's shoulders, " You too."
Both seemingly indifferent to each other's presence, but the tight grip the both of them had round each other's shoulders told a different story.
Just when Igneel was about to do whatever he wanted to do, Natsu barreled straight into him, driving all the air out of his lungs with a " Oooff!",
" Igneel!" He half sobbed, his voice shaky with emotion, Igneel looked down in the boy - no, man, in his arms, and smiled tenderly at him as he stroked his salmon hair.
" It's been a long time Natsu." He said gruffly, tears threatening to fall.
" I missed you old man."
Igneel punched him on his pink haired head and grumbled," Who ya calling old man, me, the great Igneel?!"
Natsu rubbed the growing bump on his head as grinned, " Who else?"
" Ahem." Nero interrupted the three, painfully aware of the fact that his own foster child was not amongst them, " I don't suppose you summoned all of us back here just to reunite them."
" Nope, you guys as well."
Right on cue, a rift opened up beside Tenebre, and something blue shot out and into Nero and Kori, tackling them to the ground,
" Papa! Momma!" The dark blue haired girl squealed, hugging both of them by their waists,
" Stilla!" The both of them said, eyes wide in surprise and delight.
" That took you guys long enough."
The human ice and water dragon look astonishingly at the black exceed floating lazily beside their little girl, exclaiming, " Purtri!"
" Look like you made it just in time, Dante."
He walked out the rift, with two others behind him, before the rift closed behind them.
" You gave me quite the job there, Master, especially with bringing these two here." Dante grunted as he yanked the collars of the two behind him forward.
The two hooded dragons stiffened when they saw the two, and so did the two, when they caught the scent of each other.
" Our brother's children." The two echoed together, movements mirroring each other as they strode towards the two newcomers.
" Who the hell are you guys?" The blond one questioned, blue eyes narrowed apprehensively as his body tensed to retaliate if anything were to happen, he then sneered out," And why are there faeries here?"
" Their scents are similar to our dragons." Was all black haired one said, his crimson red eyes looking cautiously at the two hooded figures walking towards them.
" Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney, sons of the deceased Weisslogia and Skiadrum," Lumiere flick back her hood with a toss of her head, her the expression on her face the very epitome of fury as her hard pale yellow eyes stared down at the two, easy for her to do seeing that she was a head taller than them.
" Our brothers, the ones you killed." Noir almost ripped his hood off in his haste to remove it, revealing pitch black hair cut in a severe crew cut and furious deep amethyst eyes.
" Brothers? You people related to the scaly bastard?" Sting said in an interrogative manner, only to be silenced by a literally smoldering glare that set a part of Sting's coat on fire, a white fire, from Lumiere,
" Who are you to question me, fiend." She spat venomously, " And how dare you address my brother in such a degrading manner!"
" We would like nothing more than to rip you two into shreds for the fact that you didn't even protest when they told you to kill them, just for the sake of becoming true dragonslayers. " Noir continued after her, his comment only seemed to be more terrifying with the way the words just came out of his mouth as if he were making a declaration to go to the loo.
An awkward yet tense silence came upon them as the twins quieted, for their eyes spoke more than words could carry.
" But regardless," Lumiere sighed, finally breaking the silence," you helped end their painful lives plagued with sickness and the agony without their mates."
" So for that, we thank you, Sting and Rogue, White and Shadow Dragon Slayers, on behalf of our beloved brothers." They said in unison.
Stunned into silence, not sure for Rogue though, that guy can be mute for all they know, the two stared at the two humanfied dragons, not knowing what to say, or rather, afraid of saying something wrong.
" Right, while you four deal with the shadows of your pasts, no pun intended." Tenebre said, walking past them briskly, she addressed them as a whole, " I would like to go straight to the point on why i brought all of you here."
" Seeing that we're charging straight into the heart of the enemy's base, in which Marie and a few of my spirits and familiars are working on finding a way past the fortress's barriers, i figured that in the time they are doing that, it will be good for us to do some preparation beforehand, like training."
She hurried to add on, " Not like i'm doubting any of you, but rather than just lazing around while we are still searching, we can be more productive this way."
" What?!" Natsu immediately protested, " just a while ago-"
A swift punch drove into Natsu's stomach and knocked himout, his limp body falling straight into Igneel's waiting arms as he threw him over his shoulder with an exasperated sigh,
" Tenebre, open one of your personal dimension things, i need to have a few words with my idiot son here." He then gestured to Happy, " Let's go, blue Exceed."
" Aye..."
Tenebre snapped her fingers and the trio faded into the pale blue magic circle that appeared beneath them.
" So like i was saying," Tenebre continued," since time passes differently from here and Earthland, and even more so in my personal dimension, we would have plenty of time to prepare ourselves for the fight ahead, that is if you guys would like to in the first place."
The Fairy Tail members looked at each other left and right, and Erza spoke first,
" I'm sure it's for the best, Tenebre."
" Right, so i'm pretty sure you guys would not mind if i organised your training regimes as well?" Tenebre said.
Mirajane spoke this time, smiling as she said, " You already have something in mind for us don't you?"
Tenebre grinned at this, despite the seriousness of the situation, as she listed out,
" The Dragon Slayers will obviously be with their dragons, Natsu with Igneel, Wendy with Grandine, Gajeel with Metallica, Sting and Rogue with Lumiere and Noir-"
" Whoa whoa whoa, hold up! Training? Fight? We don't even know you people!" Sting half-shouted, " And why should we help you Fairies?"
" Alright, go home then." Tenebre didn't even hesitate saying, " Dante."
" Hai, hai."
Dante pulled the both of them into the rift behind him by their collars, and they disappeared as swiftly as they appeared.
" Pfft, and i thought it'll be nice to have them around." Tenebre grumbled.
" I doubt that, they're from Sabertooth after all." Cana slurred, swaying unsteadily, " Back to what cha sayin'?"
" Oh right, and it'll be good for Grey and Juvia to train with Nero and Kori, along with their little Dragonslayer, Stilla. "
" Erza, Laxus and Evergreen will train with the folks from the Faerie Kingdom. Levy, Freed, Bixlow, Lisanna, Elfman will be with the four from then Otherworld. Mirajane will be with Mephisto from Gehenna and Cana and Charla will be with Seraphim from Arcadia."
They stared dumbfounded at her,
" What? Something on my face?" Tenebre quipped,
" Who are these people you're sending us to train with?" Levy asked wide eyed, " And why different trainers for different people? "
" Oh you'll know why when you meet them." Tenebre said coyly, snapping her fingers, pale blue magic circles appeared below all of them and they too disappeared.
" I really do hope you're not trying to kill yourself by opening so many personal dimensions at once, Tenebre." Marie said, crossing her arms" Or are you just doing it as part of your endurance, ahem suicidal training for yourself?"
" Training." Tenebre said simply, requiping into a simple white tunic and black tights, with some rather heavy looking weights on her wrists and ankles, " Let's see how well i can focus on keeping those dimensions open while sparring at the same time. "
" Right, while you go doing that, i'll just start putting up some runes that would help keep my sanity in check by keeping this entire place intact while you attempt to wreck everything..." Maria muttered darkly to herself, her glowing green hands spilling protective runes in excess everywhere she touched, as all the screens on her desk flickered at insane speeds in search of a way past the fortress's barriers.
" Now now my little puppets, hold them a little steadier!"
The humanoid humans held down the raving Antonio with a vice-like grip as he trashed violently in their clacking wooden hands for their green eyed master to study.
" Interesting interesting, he's like the other one!" The yellowed-green haired man jumped back when Antonio lunged towards him, snarling and clawing at him as the man grinned when the mad man was pulled back by the humanoids, " But but a tad more... hmm... wild."
" Doctor, please control yourself, " The man looked at his black haired assistant, and she merely looked back at him with dull purple eyes as she eyed his twitching fingers inching towards his tools, " You know all too well that you can't conduct your experiments on them, Master Pheles came to you himself and told you that."
" You you are too uptight, my dear Adonis, i knew i should've modified that part of you when i saved you from... that."
He waved his hands in emphasis, then pulled her close to him by her shoulder, " But but of course, you won't remember anything about it."
She just stared blankly back at him, expressionless and just as unfeeling as the rest of the white coat clad puppets around them.
" After after all," He came up behind her and pulled her towards him by her waist, his spiny hands feeling up her inner thigh and coming up to grope at her clothed breasts, " you're my favorite pet project."
" I thought your best project was the Diablo, Doctor." Adonis looked back at him with blank eyes, unfazed by his lingering hands on her chest.
His hands stilled and twisted her head sharply to face him, studying her, " And and when did i program you to think, Adonis?"
" Figure of speech, Doctor."
His eyes narrowed, " Is is it time for your checkup, my dear?"
" In exactly 3 hours, 48 minutes and 22 seconds, Doctor."
" Well well in that time," He chirped, picking up a big bulky bag of medical equipment with growing syringes, mini chainsaws, screwdrivers and other peculiar objects poking out of it, " it's time for Diablo's daily maintenance, let's go Adonis."
Skipping down the empty hallways of the Diablo with a dark scowl on his face, Adonis followed her maker as soon as she closed the door behind her, carrying his heavy duffle bag behind her with ease.
" Have have you brought the rest of the serums, mi'dear?" He turned his sharp gaze to her.
" And all your other tools required for the maintenance."
" Good good job, my honey!" He chirped, hopping happily, " Talking talking about maintenance, is your body performing well?"
" Yes, Doctor, it is performing as expected." She flexed her free arm.
" Good good, cause i need you to be especially fit for today's maintenance, Pheles is expecting some guests and my dear Diablo needs to be prepared for it." Larga intoned with a solemn expression on his face.
" I understand, Doctor."
" But but also take note not to overwork your body hmm?" He grinned.
Adonis nodded in response.
Walking down several long corridors and down some spiral stone staircases, they soon reached the heart of the fortress in the dripping, wet high ceiling-ed caverns deep below the fortress.
Unpacking his equipment, he unearthed a console from the ground with a stomp of his foot on the correct foothold in the pebble covered gravel, waving at Adonis with a hand.
" Adonis Adonis, anytime you're ready."
Adonis nodded and shrugged out of her labcoat, the white fabric pooling at her feet and revealing a pale pink oversized shirt beneath with a pair of black shorts.
She walked towards the dark lake before her, slowly submerging herself under the dark waters and disappearing from the Larga's view.
She swam deeper into the lake, swimming towards the orb of light in the depths, slowly approaching it, and soon a figure of a man came into sight gradually from within the orb.
The man's eyes slowly creaked opened as she approached, revealing a pair of startling orange eyes, like the color molten lava, and his face came aglow with a blinding smile.
" You're back." He said, is voiced muffled by the mask on his face, gazing lovingly at Adonis from within his orb.
" Yes, Hexare-san." She replied monotonously, talking and breathing as naturally as she does on land as she flitted around the orb, adjusting the various tubes and contraptions attached to it.
" When was the last time you visited me...? A month? A year?" He asked himself uncertainly, sifting through his foggy memories.
She twisted hard on a valve, " It's only been 2 weeks, Hexare-san."
Diablo chuckled, " I still don't know why you call me that now, haven't you always called me Diablo since we were kids? Why the change?"
" As far as i'm concerned, i've never met you before Doctor Larga saved me." Adonis gazed passively at him, sending the signal to the said person to start the maintenance.
" Larga...?" He frowned, orange eyes turning an ominous shade darker, " Now where did i hear that name before..."
Just then, a flushing sound was heard and Diablo landed with a wet slosh at the bottom of the glass orb as the slightly murky blue liquid gushed out into the tube below. As suddenly as the water gushed out, clear green water gushed back into the orb, filling it up rapidly, just as the managed to remember something.
" The Dollmaster!" He gasped sharply as the fog momentarily cleared form his mind, " Adonis, run! You're being controlled! He's-"
At that moment, above the surface, Larga grinned maniacally and slammed his palm onto the console.
Immediately, the action filled Diablo's gas mask with something other than oxygen. Diablo's eyes bugged out, trashing against his bonds as he gasped, his fiery orange eyes turning a neon green just like Larga's, his veins looking as if it might burst out of his skin, its vivid blue color clearly showing from his suddenly translucent skin.
He slumped down limply, as if all energy has been sucked from his being, and stared wide eyed into blank space, his long unruly black hair drifting around him like a wraith.
" Adonis Adonis~" Larga called out to her telepathically in a singsong voice, " Hurry hurry out of the waters, the process will be starting soon."
She started swimming upwards, but she then paused, sparing an uncertain glance back at Diablo, her head tilting to the side as an unfamiliar feeling made her chest clench up in what she vaguely recognized as the feeling of pain, and of something else she did not, have not, feel before.
She stilled, since when did she start to... feel?
The hollow feeling in her chest grew the more she though about it, but with one last look at the man's anguished eyes, she tore herself away from the spot, swimming hurriedly away.
" There there you are, just in time for the show to start!" Larga brightened the moment Adonis's head popped out of the water, wasting no time hoisting her up from the water by her arm and throwing a towel over her body.
The doctor peered closely at her face, " You you look odd dear, did he say anything to you?"
She shook her head quickly, " Nothing than the usual babble, Doctor."
Larga seemed convinced, " Good, let's start then."
As if on cue, the entire cave started rumbling violently and rubble and rock spikes came raining from the ceiling, crashing everywhere just as a deafening roar emerged from the waters.
" RAGGGGGHHHHHHH!"
Streams of light burst forth from the waters, reflecting off the walls of the cave and into the entire fortress.
The same green light seeped into the walls, crawling up into the dripping ceilings and through the rest of the fortress, making the entire stone castle pulse with a neon green light.
" Pheles Pheles has quite the sense of humor eh? " Larga said, his face a mixture of amusement and pride, " Naming naming this fortress of his after my power source."
" And and of course, it's all thanks to my efforts that this was made possible! Who who else can keep both an enormous fortress seeping with energy while still keeping the person providing that energy alive? "
" You, Doctor." Adonis replied immediately, " No one else but you."
" That's that's my girl!" He said happily, then his expression changed completely from happiness to something else.
Lust.
" Head head back to my room." He commanded with a dominating aura around his being, " You you know what to do."
" Yes, Doctor."
As the both of them strode out the room, Larga's leering eyes following Adonis's every step, the bulge in his pants so obviously showing what he was planning for her, the entire fortress seem to darken, as if expressing the sorrow and anger of its vessel.
" Stop crying ya cat!" Igneel groaned, yanking at his spiky maroon hair.
" How can you do this to your own son! You killed him!" Happy wailed, slapping Natsu's drooling face with his half eaten fish, " Look! He's not waking up!"
Igneel rolled his eyes, " Looks like this idiot son of mine is still quite the deep sleeper."
Clearing his throat, he shouted, loud, straight into his sensitive ears.
" WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!"
Natsu shot upright, knocking Happy off his chest as he looked around wildly,
" WhoWhereWhat! Is it that Pheles fella?! IMMA KILL HIM-!"
Happy rushed into Natsu arms as he was glaring at his foster father,
" Natsu, you're alive!"
" Of course i am, what made you think i was dead?" Natsu looked at the blue furball incredulously.
Igneel took this chance to crank back his arm and bringing it down with a meaty smack on Natsu's head.
" Gah!" He turned his accusing eyes to glare at Igneel, " What the hell that for?!"
" Listen up and listen well to me Natsu." Igneel's grave expression shut Natsu up immediately, both his hands slapped down and grabbed both Natsu's shoulders, addressing him severely,
" Time's of the essence. I've only got one month, one month to train you the things i did not had the time to do so before-"
" A month?!" Natsu blurted, " I don't have a month to save Lucy! She's just there in that floating-"
The maroon haired man snapped back sharply, " Or if you'd actually paid attention to what Tenebre said earlier, you'd know that they're still working on a way past the fortress's barriers."
Natsu stayed silent.
" And since time passes differently in here, one month here is an hour outside in the Void, and one hour in the void is one minute on Earthland. But we also have to be prepared for the fact that time also passes differently in wherever Pheles is at. So we can't risk more than a month."
Natsu nodded slowly, but his face remained in a hard grimace, and Igneel sighed, ruffling his son's hair, " I know all you want to do now is to charge through that gate to Pheles and bash his head in till your fists are raw, but until we find a way past that barrier, i say we train."
Igneel crackled, cracking his knuckles with a frighteningly happy expression " I'll teach you ways to beat people in ways you've never even heard of before.'
He then glared pointedly at him and smacked him so hard on his pinked haired head that he smashed into the ground, " But even after i've painstakingly grinding those mating rituals into that empty brain of yours, how dare you forget my words, the words of the great Igneel?!"
" And now you've allowed yourself to make the same mistake that i've made, the mistake i desperately prayed never would happen to you." Igneel's pained voice said through a hushed whisper, " You've lost your mate."
" But." He said after a long silence, " But unlike me, you still have a chance to get her back, and i swear on my pride as a dragon, and as your father, i will not allow you to suffer the fate of an unmated dragon."
" We will get her back, you hear me Natsu? We will get her back, i swear on it."
Natsu tackled Igneel and wrapped his arms around his broad waist, burying his face into the rough fabric of his black top and said, his voice hoarse with emotion,
" Thank you, old man, and... I've really missed you, Dad."
The maroon haired man held back tears as he patted his son's head fondly, the fire dragn slayer then pushed himself away and wiped his nose with the back his sleeves and grinned his signature smile, throwing his fists in the air as fire spewed from his mouth,
" Yosh!" He pumped his fist up in the air, " I'm all fired up! Let's do this thing!"
Igneel's chest puffed up with pride and he pounded Natsu's back, grinning widely," That's my boy."
" Well, she's gonna die." The Chinese Zodiac of the Rabbit said dismissively, her black tipped bunny ears twitching with every movement she made. " If she continues on like that."
" Always the pessimist, Lapin." Marie rolled her eyes, before scowling back at her numerous lacrima screens in distaste, jabbing at the keys when her search came out empty yet again, " But she ain't gonna to die that easily just from opening too many personal dimensions , if she were that easy to kill, i would've done so already."
The ground beneath them quaked violently as if in response, and Marie's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.
" I mean just look at them, look at what they're doing to my amphitheater?!"
" Horyah!"
The shrill war cry came from the mouth of the female warrior dressed in a similar sparring uniform, consisting of a white tunic held together with a black leather belt and a pair of spartan sandals, as the six others sparring against her.
A cloud of dust blew up where her attack hit the ground, and a mixture of dust, black feathers, several ripped pieces of cloth blew up, along with a long lock of long blue hair.
" MY HAIR!" Anguis shrieked in a rather girl like voice, staring incredulously at his hacked off lock.
Serpe put a hand to his mouth in false shock, " Opps! My hand slipped!"
His gleaming black eyes glared back at Serpe as he summoned his spear, screeching as he charged at him,
" REVENGE FOR MY HAIR!"
And match three thousand or so started yet again, with the rest trying to pry the two apart while Tenebre, being Tenebre, took the chance to continue training, destroying numerous things in their wake, despite Marie's many barriers set up all around the place to prevent them from doing exactly that.
The said person flinching and cringing every time something crashes, breaks, cracks or shatters into pieces.
" So how's the training going for the faeries and their affiliates?" Lapin quickly changed the subject, seeing the murderous look on Marie's face and her fingers itching toward the handle of the frying pan at her side.
At the mention of the members of Fairy Tail as well as the three from Crime Sorciere, Marie shifted from kill mode to instructor mode, whipping out a pair of purple glasses from out of nowhere and pushing it up the bridge of her nose.
" Everything is going as planned," She gestured to one of her screen, Lapin catching glimpses of the humans her master brought in the middle of some rather strenuous training.
" It's good to see Queen Titania back in business, sword and all, she looks like her old self again, training that red head Titania and the brown haired so called Fairy Queen." Marie scoffed at that.
" I really do hope King Oberon get along well with that blond scar face, i don't like the vibe the both of them gave off when they first met." Marie's face then softened with pity, " I kinda pity the two Tenebre dragged back to the Vampire Empire, man, their sister is scary, "
She pointed at another screen at the rampaging Beledonna wielding her war fan, bashing the life out of Jackal and Shakal.
" On a lighter note, those two white haired takeover siblings are learning other takeovers with Fengari and Vidian."
" The short blue haired solid script mage and that gay green haired guy are learning more script writing from Nezhirt, afterall, he created that style of magic." Marie then cringed, " oh, and not forgetting that freaky tongue dude."
" Their elder sister's with Mephisto, which i was rather surprised to hear that he allowed her into Gehenna, even more so that even volunteered to train her, i look forward to seeing what other demon takeover she's going to have under her sleeves after her training is done. " Marie's eyes sparkled for some unknown reason.
" Anyway, all the dragonslayers are undergoing training as planned with their respective dragons, that ice dude is training with Kori as well as with Tenebre's memory lacrima of her training with Ur."
Lapin squinted at the screen, and pointed at the blue haired figure beside Gray, " I see his stalker followed him?"
Marie cringed, " She almost drowned the Faerie Kingdom just because she wasn't with her beloved ' Gray-sama~', so i sent her to train with Nero instead."
" What about Seraphim? What's she doing?"
" She with the white cat, something about helping her with her sight."
Lapin nodded as she continued pounding the herbs with her mortar and pestle " I see."
Marie looked sideways at the short pink nurse uniform clad bunny-girl, and at the mysterious purple substance she's pounding at, her nose wrinkling at the smell of it " Say, you've been pounding at that thing for quite some time now, what is that stuff?"
" Oh this?" Lapin lifted the pestle, the purple slime slipping from it and back into the mortar, " This is my special energy drink! I'm making lots of it for them, i'm sure they don't have the time to rest during their fight against Pheles, so this will help them get their physical and magical energy replenished! "
Lapin put her hands beside her hips, puffing out her chest in pride, deep blue eyes sparkling, " I'm not called the Royal Physician of the Jade Emperor for nothing!"
" As well as Tenebre's best healer." Marie reminded,
" But let's just hope all that effort is going to pay off." Lapin said, flicking back her cream white side ponytail as she continued crating more of her concoction.
" And that they all come back safely-" Marie finished.
Just then, a loud beeping sound interrupted her, and Marie's head swiveled to look at the blaring red screen and her hands flew across her keyboards.
When her fingers pressed down on the final key, she crimson shades zeroed in and minimized into one small dot on the map on her screen, she grinned widely and folded her arms triumphantly.
" I've found it!"
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Time Left : 6 hours 30 minutes
AN : Whoever created olives and capers.
I love ya. I LOVE YA YER HEAR ME! Bless ya creator! They're the third best thing that've ever happened to me, coffee's second.
But caramel, my darling readers, is the best thing on earth and beyond.
Of course, ya all come close to being first, maybe somewhere slightly below caramel, just slightly.
Really, just a teensy bit lower.
Cause ya all's as sweet as the thick, rich, oh so sinful creation, The Caramel.
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Wait, am i ranting too much? Or is this a sign or addiction?
Uh oh.
Ja Ne!
~KanaeHitomi~