The woman was petite with silvery white hair with prominent cheekbones and grey eyes, she seemed youthful but pain and torment hid behind her icy stare. The man had an extremely bulky build in contrast to his partner, he was at least a foot taller than the woman, his eyes were dark with hair to match. The man positioned himself, creating a brown seal, the woman positioned herself creating a white seal. Only the woman chanted, "Dimension Magic: Astral Plane Manipulation!" Their unison effect created an eerie resonance that filled the cave. The seals began spewing color beams of color bouncing to and fro along the walls and ceiling.
Lisanna and Lucy scrambled to dodge but it was to no avail, the color extended long ahead of them filling the cavern. The two casting the spell both yelled "Focus!" and their blurry surroundings began to focus into beautiful meadow at sunset. It took Lucy's breath away, for the air itself was far cleaner than that of the cave.
The man smirked at Lucy and sending a chill down her spine as though his grin desired to rip her spirit from her body. The scenery that at first seemed bright and cheery, in reality had much darker tones to it than the girls realized at first. Dead animals laid strewn about with detached limbs. Pouring down a tree in the center of the meadow was thick coagulated blood the color of the blackest night.
Lucy, who still held the fiery whip in her hand, tightened her grip preparing for the oncoming battle. Lisanna took a battle stance and began regulating her breathing, she planted her feet firmly into the loamy soil at her feet.
"I don't want to have to kill you, I was only told to keep you here." The white haired woman preached.
"By who? Told by who?!" Lucy shouted in return.
She responded with a scoff "Why Master Zeref of course," The man who had remained mostly silent up until this point started tapping his foot. His impatience with the situation seemed to grow and grow. The woman took notice of his change in mood. Her face grew bitter and her blank expression warped into a grimace. "So. Are we going to have to kill you or will you stay here by choice?"
"I would never allow myself to sit idly by while my friends fight for their life!" Lucy countered with fierce emotion.
The woman turned to Lisanna and asked "And as for you?" Raising her brow in anticipation of Lisanna's awnser.
"I'll stand by my comrades until I die, even then in death, I'll keep on fighting!"
"I thought as much... Mertigor why don't you take care of the loud mouth," the female opponent sneered with semi indifference.
Mertigor looked confused, due to the fact he thought of most everyone as a loud mouth.
"The fat blonde one," Narika clarified with a cruel chuckle.
"Whaaa? How dare you!" Lucy shouted taking great offense in her enemy's taunting words.
Mertigor began to unbutton his shirt with a growing smile. "Pervert!" Lucy shouted. Fully removing his shirt, he reveal a large gash extending horizontally from one side of his stomach to the other. It seemed as though it had been recently sewn up by a thin rope. Almost vomiting at the sight of the gruesome wound, Lisanna turned away. Lucy on the other hand, had a very different reaction. Her face turned a deep green and her legs became weak under her.
Thier nauseated state seemed to please their male opponent for a wide smile spread across his face.
"Well if you can handle 'that' I'll take care of lamb chop over there," Narika groweled with a great deal of self confidence, "Dimension Magic: Devil's Cove!" A beam of white light pierced through Lisanna so quickly that by the time Lucy blinked, Lisanna started to fade away until she was gone completely.
"No!" Lucy screamed in terror.
"Shut up Oinker, she isn't dead... I've just moved her to a place more suitable for a one on one battle, but don't worry you'll meet her in death, if I'm kind enough to kill her!" the villainess guffawed, she started to fade away in a manor identical to how Lisanna had.
"You'll pay for this you flat-chested twig bitch!" Lucy shouted in response to the cruel remark, "And as for you 'Botch Job', let's do this!"
A smile worthy of nightmare struck his face, he grabbed the rope at his stomach viscously. With one hard tug he ripped the rope straight out of his mid-section causing I meanest heavy bleeding that stopped shortly after it started.
The wound alone was enough to turn Lucy ill, but this, at the sight of the immense gore Lucy lost her lunch. Regaling her balance, her stomach and her form grip on the fiery whip, she was now ready for battle. Reaching for her keys with her non-occupied hand, she picked I Scorpio.
"Here we go! Scorpio: Gate of the Scorpion!" Lucy shouted building her magic for the summon. She made the summoning gesture yet nothing happened. "What the hell? Why isn't my magic working!?" Lucy shouted angrily at the mute, who still had a smile plastered to his face. The from inside the open gash out reached a hand, extending quickly across the battlefield, in he direction of the stunned blonde.
Right before the hand mad contact Lucy rolled under it in the form of a somersault. The arm retracted into the wound, but the hand remained outside.
"If I can't summon my or celestial spirits I'll have to get creative," Lucy thought aloud. The hand made another attempt at grabbing Lucy, this time she was much more prepared than before. Still on the ground, she rolled onto her back. The hand was a few yards away, she sprung up from her back and leaped into the air. Casting her whip down towards the extended limb, it mad contact wrapping around multiple times giving the blonde a firm grip. The hand began to retract once more but she tugged on the limb as hard as she could. The smoldering flames seemed to do no more than bore Mertigor and the blue flesh touched by the whip was largely undamaged.
A faint clicking sound became audible to Lucy, the sound seemed to be gradually increasing in volume. The gash on her opponent's chest seemed to widen and a head stuck it's way out of the gaping wound. It shared the pigment of the arm but the head was far more gruesome. Wrinkled skin was patched around the skull of the figure, where there was no skin there was muscle and brain tissue oozing black puss. The rest of the monster's limbs followed. First the leg opposite his extended arm, then his other leg and lastly his left arm.
Slowly he rose from his position in the dirt, standing with minimal difficulty, he un arched his back to reveal his true height. Somewhere around nine to ten feet was Lucy's best guess. Mertigor sighed in relief, for he was a fraction of his former size. The creature beckoned to him, Mertigor's expression quickly turned from relief to unhappiness. Ultimately he complied with the creature's orders. He dissapear end for a short second reappearing by the creature's side. Quickly making a brown seal he jumped through it turning into an excessive claymore, with a blade made out of obsidian and a hilt of bone.
"Gah!" Lucy remarked and removed her hold from the monstrous being for it looked as though it were preparing to attack. Jumping backward she put a little extra distance between herself and the creature.
Now the real battle was going to begin.
Lucy ducked as her opponent swing his sword with the intent of decapitation. She scramble through her opponent's legs as he regained his balance. Raising to her full height she scrambled to get into a less vulnerable position. The demon, who up until this point had no facial features besides sunken eye sockets and a raised bump where his nose would be, took his hand and ripped off a patch of skin covering a cavity where a mouth would be.
Lucy who was now on her feet prepared to attack the demon, who up until this point had obviously been toying with her. It saddened her at the thought of how useless she was without her spirits but her perseverance knocked out all thought of losing and replaced them with ideas. Taking a deep breath, she took a firm stance and a serious face to go along with it.
The monstrous being she faced seemed to alter it's manner as well, it's joints grew rigid and the air turned cold. The plants slowly began to die and the once colorful meadow slowly lost the vibrance it once had.
"Survey the Heavens, open the Heavens," Lucy chanted. The demon shot a dark blast of energy straight at Lucy, she turned to the side dodging with relative ease. "All the stars, far and wide" she continued, he attempted again, this time with a much larger blast preventing the celestial mage to dodge in the same manner. Getting hit by the brunt of the attack sent Lucy spiraling backwards across the battlefield. For a moment she lay there, but the images of Natsu's determination flooded into her mind. She rose slowly, crying and gritting her teeth she coughed hard and blood sprayed from her mouth. Making eye contact with the demon, words flew with eloquent passion "I will not run, not from you or from anyone, be it you as my opponent or Zeref himself, I, will take you down!"
She began running furiously at her opponent, dodging the volley of energy spheres it sent her way. "Survey the Heavens, open the Heavens. All the stars far and wide. Show me thy appearance. With such shine. Oh Tetrabiblos! I am the ruler of the stars." Lucy began to shine with a bright golden aura, the demon sent another huge blast that was impossible to doge. This time Lucy merely slapped it to the side. "Aspect become complete!" The setting changed completely to that of a colorful astral plane. "Open thy malevolent gate. Oh 88 stars of the Heavens. Shine!" Lucy's eyes glazed over with gold sparkles that seemed to carry the universe. At the same time floating orbs of varying sizes and colors appeared behind Lucy. "Urano Ultimetria!"
At once heavenly chaos descended upon the demon enveloping him in the light of the stars, purging his soul of existence. The astral place gradually disappeared and Lucy staggered toward Mertigor's body that on the ground not far from Lucy. She reached him and fell to her knees. His breath was subtle but still there. Near the underside of his wrist she noticed another stitch and inside the break in the flesh was a key, a granite key. Looking away Lucy yanked the thick wire like thread, open inning the gash, her hands became even more drenched with blood than they already a swift motion she entered his wrist with her thumb and two fingers, with clumsy precision she grabbed the key and pulled it out. Her vision blurred out of sheer exhaustion but in one final effort she jammed the key into Mertigor's chest and turned it hard. The bright light glowing from the key was the last thing she saw before her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep from sheer exhaustion.
*Author's Note* Hey readers, I'm back, for now. This is an unpublished chapter that I've written and rewritten, I've tried to make this one longer than the usual. Chapters from now on should be similar in length. Please like, follow, favorite and review. PS reviews are amazeballs .