Chapter Eleven: Unison Raid
"Unison…" everyone said at the same time, "Raid!"
Surprisingly, and unpredictably, a roaring happened in the volcano behind us since we were standing on the edge of it. Then a huge burst of magma came through the volcano. It was long and gave off the biggest heat I have ever encountered in a long time. Then I recognised its shape as being a dragon.
As I was gaping at it, Infra said to me since she was standing behind me, "Sorry, I forgot to tell you I can manipulate magma too."
"EH?" I cried at the massive dragon that towered over us. He was easily fifty times the size of us with glowing magma eyes and glistening scales. I watched as more details from everyone else's magic appeared on it.
Just as Ladin predicted, large feather wings unfurled from his body. Between each feather, I was surprised to see, was a sword, courtesy of Erza. There were nearly hundreds of swords in his wings since they were so huge. Next, huge ice stakes appeared in a circle around the dragon just like Erza's Heaven's Wheel attack, except with ice stakes. I suppose that part was Gray's ice and Aquarius' water combined. His eyes were sharp which I suppose was Retina and he probably had her brilliant aim as well. I hadn't seen any part of Mira, Nero, Ladin or Aston yet.
"SUGEI!" yelled Natsu, his eyes nearly glowing more than the dragon's, "IT'S A DRAGON LIKE IGNEEL!"
"No!" said Gray sarcastically.
The dragon coiled itself a few times and finally fixed his eyes on Reiki, darting through the trees. I was right about the hawk's eyesight. The dragon, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on Reiki, moved around in a circle, going faster and faster until it was just a blur of crimson red. Then a circle began to appear, small details going into it.
"A magic circle?" I said in surprise, "Our dragon can have magic circles?"
"Why not?" said Nero, shrugging, "We just made history by doing Unison Raid with eleven people. Now anything can happen."
From the dragon's enormous magic circle, the biggest I'd ever seen, a huge blast of black burst out because of Mira, purple runes coating the outside- Aston and Nero. At the same time, the ice stakes and swords released and zoomed along on the side of the dark attack.
It was like a lightning strike. I could barely see it. Reiki couldn't possibly dodge it no matter what ability he might have had inside himself.
Sure enough, there was a huge explosion in the forest and a flash of green as Reiki used his Lost Magic obviously. I was confident in my theory however.
The demon attack hit the space which Reiki had activated his magic and pushed against it for a while, neither attack winning. The swords and ice stakes hit the space and pierced it, stuck in mid air.
"The spell works like a wall," said Makarov, speaking for the first time, "If you use magic outside of the space where the Lost Magic is activated, it hits a wall. Only the strongest magic can penetrate the wall. But even so, it has pretty much never happened. The only way the first person who had this Lost Magic was restrained was with special non-magic equipment which prevented magic."
"Not necessarily," I said, "Even basic magic could penetrate this wall depending on how the user is going."
"Nani?" said everyone.
"Watch," I said, nodding at the magic's' clash.
"What is this?" said Erza, "I feel the wall breaking. How?"
"This Lost Magic has two main vulnerabilities," I explained, "The first way to defeat it with non-magic which seems to be impossible at this rate. The second way is more complicated and what we are doing right now."
"We have to defeat it with Unison Raid? Teamwork?" asked Ladin.
"Possibilities," I said, "But mainly… The user of the Lost Magic must sacrifice his or her exact amount of magic to be able to prevent magic as not to waste any magic power. Reiki is already at his limit since he used up a considerable amount of magic power for 'Shadow Storm' and fighting Araluen. I suspected his magic levels would be low so we would defeat him with one strong magic- Unison Raid."
"How does it work again?" asked Natsu, dense as ever, scratching his head.
"I get it," said Erza, "Now Reiki's at his limit… he doesn't have enough magic power to sacrifice to prevent Unison Raid."
"Right," I nodded, "So, any second now, that wall should break."
"Sugoi, Lucy," smiled Happy, "I NEVER would have picked you for noticing that stuff."
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, frowning before remembering he had complimented me first, "And thanks… I guess." I gave a small smile, realising I'd gotten just that bit stronger.
Just then, there was an almighty roar and the sound of the smashing of glass like some invisible glass wall broke. I also heard Reiki's furious yell.
Everyone looked over as the combined attack sent up smoke and a huge explosion, shaking the whole earth.
"Ahhh!" I yelled, nearly falling into the volcano.
A hand grabbed my arm and I opened my eyes to see Gray. He smiled, "Don't worry. I won't let you fall."
I gave a nervous smile back, "A-Arigato…"
He helped me back up as the shaking of the earth ceased. We all peered through the thick cloud of smoke. Retina, of course, was the first to notice something, "There are a lot of blown up trees but it is clear Reiki is defeated."
"I hope so," said Erza, sinking to her knees, "I'm exhausted…"
"We should probably wait for the Council to get here," said the Master, "They will take care of this mess. I doubt the small town of Estonia will be able to jail these people on their own. Although, young mages, that was impressive," he grinned, "I'm glad the next generation of mages is going to be pure-hearted, caring people."
"Thanks, Gramps," grinned Natsu, "Demo, can't we have something to eat? I'm starving and Lucy looks even worse."
"Yeah, you're right about that," said the Master, raising an eyebrow at me, "All right, lunchtime!"
"Bento boxes for everybody!" said Mira happily, somehow already back in her usual dress and producing about fifteen bento boxes from somewhere.
"NANI?" I yelled, looking at the fifteen boxes, "How did you know we'd need fifteen boxes?"
"I didn't," said Mira cheerily, "I just thought some people would go back for seconds or thirds."
"So you made FIFTEEN?" said Nero.
"Why not? Now you don't have to hunt for lunch," said Mira, passing the boxes out. I received mine and opened it to see an adorable pattern of colourful hearts, stars and other shapes. It seemed delicious too.
"Let's eat!" I said, about to gobble up my lunch when I noticed Retina and Aston about to go down the volcano.
"Gomen ne," said Retina, "We'll eat later if that's OK?"
"Yeah, sure," said Mira.
I looked at their faces which were that of people in mourning. Then I remembered their friend had just died for them and felt a lot of sympathy for them. I placed down my bento and got up to slide down the volcano.
"Oi, Lucy!" called Infra. I looked over and saw her shaking her head. She said in a quieter voice, "Let them mourn for their friend in peace."
"She's right," said Erza, "I wanted privacy too when Jellal had to go with the Council."
"Don't we all have to mourn for him anyway?" I said, "He died to protect us."
"I'm not saying we shouldn't appreciate what he did for us," said Infra, "I'm just saying his two best friends should be able to cry and make a grave or whatever they're doing without us there staring at them. We'll mourn for him later."
"Let her come with us," said Aston suddenly, his head coming up, "Araluen considers her his friend as much as he does us." He looked over at me, "Come on."
I jumped silently to the rock just beneath the edge where Aston must have been sitting, listening.
"Actually, Retina wants to talk to you about something," said Aston, leading me down the volcano so I only stepped on the steady, flat rocks, "It's what we're going to be doing after this experience."
"She's not destroying Dark Guilds anymore?" I asked.
"Well, she and I will talk to you about it. You've already become a special friend to us. You're one-of-a-kind, Luce."
I smiled, "Thanks."
Retina was waiting at the bottom of the volcano, "Good, you're here. Come on, we'll go into the forest."
"Is that safe?" I asked, thinking about the unconscious Dark Guild leader in the forest.
"He's dead," said Aston bluntly, "There's no way in hell someone lives after that attack. Besides, we can't sense him anymore."
"OK," I said, going after them. We sat in a shady spot underneath one of the largest trees I'd ever seen. Three trees had their bases in the ground so it was like a triangle but as they grew, their tops connected. The branches intertwined each other and was the most unique and beautiful thing I'd ever seen. There was also a space in the middle of the three trees where we could sit.
"Araluen and I played here all the time when we were little," said Aston, "We called it our friendship tree," he laughed, "Then Retina joined our duo and the third tree grew and intertwined itself."
We went and sat in the space in the middle. It was nice and cool there after the heat of the volcano.
"So…" said Retina, "You remember I was really freaked out after that fight with the shadows, right?"
"Yes," I said, "Why were you?"
"Well, first we have to explain about the Shadow World," said Aston.
"Shadow World?" I said.
"Yeah," said Aston, "It's similar to your Spirit World. Reiki's fighting style is with the shadows. He can summon any shadows to fight for him, like your spirits."
"But, he had no keys, no contracts or anything," I said.
"People who summon shadows don't need keys or contracts," said Retina, "You just need a place with shadows and incredible magic power and control otherwise you could end up with wild shadows that kill you. Anyway," she went on, seeing my face, "like Spirits, Shadows have their own personalities and they can choose to not be summoned or not to fight. They're also the exact copies of their human form."
"Exact copies?" I said, "Also, everyone can summon shadows?"
"Right, they're shadows," said Aston, "They're made to be identical to whatever they're a shadow for. In this case, it's us. They have the exact same body shapes, abilities and personality. And, I suppose everyone could if they had the magic power and control. Also, whatever happens in the human world happens in their world."
"Really?" I said.
"Yep," said Retina, "Our worlds are exact copies. So, that means, when a human dies, their shadow also dies. If the human is alive, the shadow is also alive."
"OK," I said. It made sense. If their solid shape died, of course the shadow would also die since it wouldn't have anything to be a shadow of.
"Remember that shadow that came out and stopped shadow-Retina from fighting me?" said Retina.
"Yeah," I said, "The one that came out by force?"
Retina nodded, "That shadow… was Freya's."
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I love suspenseful ends, hehehe… Anyways, I've tried to put in some little moments of Gray and Lucy… The Gray-and-Natsu-battle-over-Lucy will come along soon after they return to Fairy Tail so don't worry~
As always, please review!