Through stone corridors they hurried, smashing relentless attacks into one another. Lily had no choice but to admit that this fool was rather strong. His monk garb gave away his strong martial background, spinning his stave to parry his sword again and again.
Both had enough strength to smash rock, missed or dodged blows shattering the walls. Lily grunted at that. As a Fairy Tail mage, he was used to property damage…but this ruin mattered to Gajeel. He had to be more careful. Almost as he thought the words, his sword swung and bounced off of a wall.
Huh? Why hadn't that wall broken? Lily noticed that it was different than the sandstone walls, instead hewn from solid bedrock.
"Hah! That's our bosses' handiwork! An impenetrable earth barrier. Your friends have no escape!"
"So…this wall is unbreakable…I want to get to the other side…and you can cancel magic." Lily grinned, Gajeel's trademark laugh rumbling from his feline mouth. Melk grimaced, stepping back. "I think I'm gonna have you open a path for me!"
===][===
Back with the girls, summoner Rakarth began to move, drawing magic into his hands. A series of gestures ensued, moulding the magic into the necessary shape to unleash his beast.
"Summoning Magic: Dal'yr Eagle!" A huge eagle emerged, wingtips brushing the walls. Its plumage was snowy white, set against the malicious yellow of its irises. It screeched as it came forward, talons swooping down to impale.
"I can do this! I've had my second origin unlocked too! Solid Script: Blitz!" The golden word was written in front of Levy, and then disappeared into a thunderbolt, impacting the eagle's chest. It screeched in pain, losing its grasp on the air and smashing into the floor.
"Not bad, Levy-chan!" The eagle screeched again, dragging itself onto its massive talons. Lucy took a key from her bag, the head shining with golden light. "I don't think so! I can't let Levy outdo me, so here's something new! Open gate of the Scale Bearer: Libra!"
The spirit appeared, floating above the ground. She swung her scales, summoning her magic to her. The eagle stopped and began to ascend, slamming into the ceiling with tremendous force. Another swing and it returned to the floor with great speed, shattering the stone work and disappearing as it was beaten.
"They defeated my eagle? Impressive," Rakarth noted passively. He didn't appear at all distressed by the loss of his beast.
"No great deal," Lyria responded with a crooked leer. In a heartbeat, tendrils of her hair erupted from the floor, snaring Libra. Lucy cried in surprise, but leapt back herself as more hair strands snatched at her and Levy. Tighter and tighter they constricted until Libra vanished back to the celestial world.
"Just like Flare, what a dirty move," Lucy hissed.
"What? Attacking from a blind spot is basic strategy!" Lyria's hair retracted, sliding out of the ground at her feet. An electrical discharge crackled around the tips. "If you remember, the red-headed whore you fought from Raven Tail had fire in her hair. But I'm blonde! Voltaire Cannon!"
Her hair pointed at the two Fairy Tail mages and a lightning blast shot across the room.
"Solid Script: Mirror!" The word emerged before Levy, reflective and shining as it absorbed the attack. Levy grunted under the strain, but realised that the attack was too strong for her to deflect. She jumped aside a moment before the spell exploded.
"Pathetic," Lyria stated. "What a tiny level of magical power."
"Summoning Magic: Telarian Mastodon!" A new beast emerged, a massive mammoth covered by onyx armoured plates. It got approximately halfway to the girls before the entire floor collapsed downwards. The beast's own weight killed it, slamming into the floor and breaking ribs. As it disappeared in a puff of magic, Virgo could be seen emerging from the floor.
"Is it time for my punishment?" She asked, before vanishing under an electrical discharge.
"Yes," Lyria hissed to the smoking crater where the spirit had been. "Consider yourself punished. Rakarth, this is taking too long! Bring it out already!"
"Fine, fine. I was just enjoying myself. Summoning Magic: Arachnarok Tarantula!" The summon appeared beneath Rakarth, bearing him upon its back as it reared up. Lucy and Levy quailed. It was horrific…eight blank eyes crowned the indistinct head where mandibles constantly worked. Its elephantine body was covered in fine hairs, eight legs like tree trunks supporting the bloated body.
"S…spider!" Levy shrieked. They were bad enough when they were tiny!
"Hey girl," Rakarth said affectionately, patting the spider's back. It practically purred; the noise bizarre on such a horrible creature. "Could you tie them up for me please?" In response, the spider vomited webs from its mouth down the corridor. Levy managed to write 'fire' just in time to burn the webs coming her way, but Lucy was snared, her arms bound to her side.
"Gah! I can't reach my keys!" She cried.
"Lu-chan!"
"How sad to be so helpless! Kyahaha!" Lyria fired another electrical discharge down the corridor, aiming right for Lucy. Levy jumped in the way, writing another 'mirror'. But she still couldn't hold it and the word shattered, cutting her with the backlash.
"Levy-chan!" Lucy screamed.
"I'm alright," Levy stated. This was a minor injury. Not like what Minerva had done to Lucy. Or what Bacchus had done to Elfman. Or Yomazu had done to Gajeel. She would not be so weak so as to fall to a few minor cuts. But she didn't notice the hair that wrapped around her ankle. She had enough time to make a noise of surprise before she was whipped sideways and slammed into the wall.
"Now, you're in my grasp, little girl," Lyria sneered, more and more strands of hair reaching out to wrap around Levy's ankles and thighs to drag her towards their owner. Levy managed to gather enough wits to reach down, generating the word 'cut' in an attempt to break her bonds. But her attempt stopped as lightning struck her.
"Levy-chan!" Lucy screamed again, struggling against the damned spider silk that bound her.
"Stay still, Lyria's always fun to watch work," Rakarth advised from his steed. "She knows how to torture."
A strand of hair formed a whip and cracked down on Levy's back, eliciting a scream of pain.
"Stop!" Lucy pleaded. Lyria ignored her, more strands of hair reaching down to bind Levy and channel more lightning. "I said stop!"
"You'll have your turn," Lyria promised, lifting Levy's sagging body into the air and slamming more whips into her as she hung helplessly. There weren't any screams this time. "Just enjoy the sho-wait, wha?!" Lyria's exclamation was due to the fact that Levy had simply disappeared into thin air. The two dark mages looked around, startled, before noticing the bizarre figure behind Lucy. The figure of a clock.
"Automatic danger response mode activated," the clock spirit, Horologium announced, saluting. The battered form of Levy rested cradled in his interior.
"I told you to stop," Lucy hissed, her face covered with rage unusual for her fair features. "You were hurting my nakama and I told you to stop."
"Who cares? You're still stuck in my web and-"
"LOKE! I know that you can hear me! Get your ass through your gate now!" Lucy bellowed. In a golden flash the celestial lion appeared, cutting through the silk bonds with his blazing fists. Freed, Lucy began taking multiple keys from her waist, three in total.
"I'm angry; more angry than I've ever been," she declared. "I've never been in a position where I was the stronger of a group, where I am the one who should protect the other. And you hurt her, my best friend. I'm going all out to crush you. Open gate of the twins: Gemini! Form into me at once!"
The siblings emerged, instantly fusing together into a perfect copy of Lucy. Lucy pressed a key into her doppelganger's hand and held another herself.
"Open gate of the archer: Sagittarius!"
"Open gate of the paired fish: Pisces!"
"W-wait!" Rakarth stammered, looking at the formidable line up. The horse-man, pulling an arrow from his quiver. The lion, glaring hate through his glasses, calmly readjusting his gloves. The mother and son, summoned in their ultimate form. "You can't have…five gates open at the same time! That's not possible!"
"Loke. Sagittarius. Pisces. Attack," Lucy ordered coldly.
===][===
Wreathed in flame, Natsu shoved his fists into the floor, remembering how he shattered Gray's ice at the beach. He'd need more power to break stone, but the strategy was the same.
"Fire Dragon's Super Flame!" He roared, sending titanic qualities of dragon fire – flame that can burn even iron – into the ground. It began to splinter and fracture until a ten metre section of the floor came apart as a fireball burst forth. In the middle was Erutan, arms curled up to shield against the fire.
"Didn't I warn you about collapsing the ceiling!?" He shouted, shocked. A moment later Natsu's fist drove into his face, sending him through chunks of debris and into the floor, carving a great channel into the stone. After a moment, Erutan managed to drag his upper body into an upright position.
"Had enough?" Natsu asked, advancing slowly towards his prone opponent. Erutan scowled and shoved his hand into the floor, breaking off a segment of stone. He shoved it into his mouth and began to chew. "H-hey, that's not fair!"
"I told you that I have the advantage here," the earth dragon stated, getting back to his feet. "If the worst comes to the worst, I'll purposefully collapse the ceiling and crush us both."
"What's the point in that? Don't you have nakama waiting for you?"
"If I lose, how can I return to my guild?" Erutan snarled.
Natsu frowned, as if trying to formulate a complicated concept. "There's no shame in losing, but particularly to someone of my level. Does your guild assume all of its members are the strongest people in the world? You're not as strong as old man Gildartz or Jura. It's only your pride that would stop you."
"Shut up. I will not bring shame to my guild!" The earth dragon surged forward and punched Natsu in the face causing him to stumble back a great distance.
"That's fine. I won't step on your feelings." Natsu held out a hand, generating a ball of fire. "But I ain't gonna give up on mine! I'll fight for my nakama that you are threatening. I'll show you the true power of a guild and the true power of a slayer!"
"This is the power that breaks all bonds?" Erutan asked. "Fine. Crush me if you must, Natsu Dragneel, but do it with all your might! Don't hold back!" The slayer stooped and began shovelling rocks into his mouth, preparing for an almighty roar.
"As you wish!" Natsu twitched as the new power began to flow, nerves alight with the power of Laxus' lightning, filling his body and fusing with his flame. "Thunder-Flame Dragon's Roar!"
"Earth Dragon's Roar!" The clash was brief and one-sided. The twin element roar eclipsed the other in seconds, also engulfing the unfortunate slayer beyond and destroying most of the corridor. Natsu staggered and fell to his haunches, panting with exertion. He'd picked up more cuts and bruises than he'd thought, and fusing the lightning was always tiring.
"Not bad. You certainly wore me out," he said quietly. Erutan coughed, a little blood coming out. He was completely flat to the ground and battered to the point where he couldn't possibly move.
"I don't want your pity," he croaked, tears in his eyes. "I have defiled my holy place with failure."
Natsu looked up at the ruin's ceiling. "This place belongs to your dad, doesn't it? It's underground, which is odd, but your dad is an earth dragon, so I guess that it makes sense."
"Shut up. You won; I don't need to talk more."
"Can you read the writing here?"
"No. Dad never taught me."
"Okay. When this is over, I'll make sure that I can get Levy to make a copy of everything here. I'll send it to you somehow."
"What? Why?"
"You need better nakama. I'll be the first, since I'm your brother dragon. I'm sure Gajeel'll join me if you give him a fight like that! Lucy's always looking for new friends and Levy…she'll forgive anything. Don't worry; I'm sure she'd demand that I give you the transcript! Hihi!"
"I…I don't understand you."
"No problem. Nakama don't need to understand one another."
===][===
Lily had subdued Melk by this time, and had been planning to slam his head repeatedly into the curtain wall until he removed it, but the wall had collapsed by itself. Had Natsu or Gajeel defeated the person who made it? Happy, he knocked the monk out and returned to his chibi form, since he needed to conserve magic.
"Lily!" He slammed sideways as a little ball of blue fur hugged him. "I was so scared and lost! I'm so glad to find you!"
"Happy! Get off of me! Have you seen Natsu or Gajeel?"
"Aye! There was this guy who wanted to fight them!"
"Who?"
"I dunno, Natsu threw me away before I could really see. But he had dragon slaying magic!"
"A dragon slayer? Happy, I'm going to go and find Gajeel. Can you go down that way and check on the girls for me?"
"Aye sir!" Happy chirped, glad to have a direction to go in. Lily watched the blue exceed disappear down the corridor before heading onwards himself. He needed to find his partner. Lord knows what that big lummox was up to without his guidance.
===][===
Gajeel dropped to one knee, screaming in pain. That last blow had dislocated his left shoulder. Without hesitating he wrenched it right back into place, eliciting a whistle of approval from the god slayer.
"Impressive tolerance to pain and damage."
"I'm made of Iron, baby!" Gajeel replied with a fierce grin. It was all for show, though. He was beginning to realise the difference in level here. The simple, horrible fact of the matter was that god slaying magic was superior to dragon slaying magic. He'd watched the bastard reenergise by eating iron shards that Gajeel had created. But Gajeel's teeth could not break the black iron.
Gajeel was sure that Salamander had said that there was some trick to eating god-elements, but he couldn't remember what it was. Salamander was a moron who spouted a lot of bullshit, most of which Gajeel tuned out.
But even beyond the magic, this arsehole was a fine physical specimen. Tall and built like a rhino. If he was stronger than Gajeel and with superior magic, what was left to do?
"Hmm, you clearly need a moment to recover. Fine, for such an impressive display of machismo, I'll let you in on a secret. I am no more a god slayer than the young Dreyar is a dragon slayer."
Gajeel sat there panting for a moment, trying to make sense of those words. Did he mean Laxus? If so…
"You've been implanted with a god slaying lacryma? How fucking rare is that supposed to be?"
"My understanding is that it may be one of a kind. Still, I cannot take credit for finding it. It was given to me. By Metalicana."
"Why the fuck would he give something like that to some random stranger?" Gajeel puffed. But he'd had time to rest and drew back to his full height, wringing out his shoulders and cracking his neck.
"Ready to continue?" Garren asked with a mocking tone.
"I'm not the sort to give up, fuckface. You gonna tell me why you're testing me?"
"Hmm? A little smarter than you appear."
"You could've pressed your attack. Instead you wait. You set this trap and seem to have a weird interest in me and you've met my pops. It doesn't take a fucking genius to figure out that you're testing my strength. I wanna know why."
"It's nothing complicated, really."
"Then tell me!" Gajeel shouted angrily. "Just cut this fucking bullshit!"
"Ah, ah, ah. We've just established that I'm testing you. I want you to impress me. The more you hurt me, the more I'll tell you."
"You're a fucking weirdo." Gajeel reached down and picked up one of the many black iron spearheads that had been fired off earlier. He closed his eyes and focused. Garren moved slightly, curious as to what the dragon slayer was doing. His magical power was decreasing? Gajeel swallowed the spearhead.
"What!?"
"Gihi! Pretty fucking delicious! Took me a while, but I remembered what moron said. You gotta reduce your magical power to zero in order to eat god metal!" It had only been a small amount, but Gajeel felt new power flow through his weary limbs. He dropped into an attacking pose, his body being covered by black scales. "Black's a good colour for me!"
"Yes! Yes! This is what I wanted! Show me what you've got!" Garren spluttered as Gajeel drove a fist into his chest so hard that the air rushed away from the pair by the concussive force. The god slayer hurtled into the far wall, disappearing in a cloud of stone debris and dust.
Gajeel's magic collapsed all at once and he fell prostrate onto the floor. Damn it, but he didn't think that he'd ever been so exhausted. He really felt like he needed to throw up. He turned his head slightly as he heard someone call his name. Lily was rushing up.
"Hey, Lil. Missed all the fun," he said feebly, making a small grin.
"I leave you alone for five minutes," the exceed replied teasingly.
Lily screamed in pain as a black pillar slammed him into the wall. In his small form his body had no defence and he fell unconscious. Eyes wide, Gajeel turned back to where Garren was advancing from where he'd fallen. It wasn't like he wasn't hurt; his jacket was gone and he was bleeding from numerous wounds.
"H-how?" Gajeel croaked.
"If I had been a normal human, that might have beaten me. Unfortunately for you, I am not exactly a normal human. The reason that Metalicana gave me a lacryma was that I am not some random stranger. Let me give you a clue; I have no magical power at all. All of my magic comes from my lacryma."
"All humans have some magic," Gajeel stated, trying and failing to stand. "Even though ninety percent of humanity never develop it."
"Think harder, Gajeel. I am not in the ninety percent of magic-less humans or the ten percent of mages."
"I'm no maths whizz, but I think you gotta be in there somewhere."
"No, I came from outside."
"Outside of humanity?"
"For fucks…I guess Metalicana didn't choose you for brains. I am from outside of your world. There is someone in your guild like me. An old woman."
"Porylusica?" Gajeel gasped with dawning realisation. "You mean…"
"Yes, Gajeel. I am Edolas Metalicana."
"T-that's not-," Gajeel stammered incoherently.
"It's pretty simple. Just like Grandine, Metalicana sought me out to make sure that his son developed properly. Porylusica is a healer. I am not. Grandine is kind. Metalicana is not. My duty was to make sure that you became strong. To that order, Metalicana granted me power greater than yours. And my body, though human, bears some of the dragon's power, making me stronger and sturdier than normal."
"This is bullshit!" Gajeel shouted, lifting his upper body on his arms. "I haven't seen my dad for over ten years and the only thing I know is that he's orchestrated an impossible test for me!? I have no chance of beating you! A fucking edo-dragon with god slaying magic! Damn you to hell!"
"If you can't beat me, I will kill you," Garren stated.
"What!? Why!?"
"I told you, and you know this. Metalicana is not a kind dragon. He is pragmatic and authoritarian. If you cannot live up to his ideals, then you are a waste of time."
"No, pops was an asshole, but he loves me!"
"Love. They say that love allows mages to transcend barriers. Fine, if you cannot beat me alone, I will tap into that." Garren marched over to Gajeel and dragged him away by his hair. Gajeel glanced over at the fallen form of his cat. Lily was clearly breathing, but wasn't getting up.
"Where are you taking me?"
"The blue-haired girl. If I hurt her, will you get stronger?"