Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 25: Darkness and Light Can Evolve, Too
While Lucy's clones of Water Magic and Wind Magic had won their battles to help Team Sabertooth defend their rank at first place in the survival tournament, the real Lucy had been walking down a quiet street in Crocus. She had seen what was going on in the battles against Gray and Lyon, making the blonde mage look a bit surprised at the fact that she had now beaten two mages and one girl who used Sky God Slayer Magic. Those fifteen points were certainly not going to go to waste in any way, and Lucy was still determined to win.
She smiled a bit while looking up at one of the Lacrima Vision screens in the sky, seeing Rogue Cheney take out Toby Horhorta and Yuka Suzuki from Team Lamia Scale with his Shadow Dragon's Roar before Yuka could try and seal away Rogue's magic, and the fact that he had defeated them would now bring ten more points to Team Sabertooth. Lucy was really glad that her comrades were not just relying on her to do everything, and she knew that Team Sabertooth was definitely not to be underestimated.
Speaking of comrades, Lucy had actually been looking for Sting. She had not seen him attack anyone, nor had he been attacked. Lucy was actually worried about her boyfriend, despite the fact that Sting could be arrogant at times, and she really hoped that he had not run into anybody who was really strong. After all, Jura and Laxus were both very strong men. They could probably defeat Sting with hardly any effort, and there were people like Gajeel who really would not waste their time to finish off Sting.
The survival tournament had been going on for half an hour now, and Team Sabertooth was not the only team that was gaining points. Ren Akatsuki from Team Blue Pegasus had managed to take out the four members of Karen's shadowy crew in Team Sweet Melancholy, having seen them fought earlier, but he looked a bit frustrated while not knowing where Karen had gone to. She wasn't the type of person who really valued pawns, especially since those girls were created from the shadows, and Karen really did not care about even winning the Grand Magic Games.
Ren had been looking pretty confident while standing alongside his four other teammates, since they now had 28 points, but the luck of Team Blue Pegasus had just run out. Before they could even react to it, Gajeel had struck them all from behind with his Iron Dragon's Roar. Natsu had also come on to the scene, looking for a pretty good fight, and he jumped into the air before using Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame to defeat Ichiya and Jenny with a large fireball. As the two explosions transpired, all five members of Team Blue Pegasus were sent flying into the air. Team Fairy Tail A now had 74 points, putting them ahead of Team Lamia Scale.
With Team Blue Pegasus now getting eliminated, as well as Team Sweet Melancholy now being down to its last member, Lucy didn't exactly look very pleased at the fact that the competition was really being narrowed down like this. She knew very well that Sting would not be able to hide forever, and someone would eventually find him. She had to get to Sting before anyone else did, especially Natsu. She knew how that dense jerk could hold grudges, and he would probably try to kill Sting when they crossed paths.
As her chances of finding Sting looked hopeless, Lucy immediately remembered a little trick. She sighed in frustration while facepalming herself, having not realized this before, and she technically had the all-seeing eye. This eye that she had was known as Dark Optica, a spell of Darkness Magic, but Lucy knew about the risks of using this type of magic. It truly was powerful, which was a proven fact, but it also made Lucy lose consciousness while it could cause something else to fight in her place. She still had no idea of Darcy's existence, you know.
Lucy did not want to use such a risky skill, but she also clenched her fists and narrowed her brown eyes while telling herself that she had to do it for Sting's sake. Even though the side effect of this spell could cause poisoning to people, Lucy knew that she had to take this chance. She opened up her spell book, which had now changed to a violet color, and she noticed that the violet text for the first spell was glowing with violet beams of light coming from the book. Had this spell changed as well?
"I call upon thee, the first spell, Dark Optica!" Lucy shouted fiercely with strong emotions, being loud enough for almost everyone in the city of Crocus to hear her and detect her location.
This spell made Lucy's eyes change from being cocoa brown, becoming amethyst purple to represent the fact that Darcy was now going to take over again, and the sky had also changed from being blue to being lavender. Everybody looked pretty curious at this change in the sky, having seen this happen once before, and they had heard Lucy's voice. They knew that she was the one causing this with her book of highly unorthodox spells that could even make someone intelligent like Hibiki Lates become confused, but where was she?
Darcy had now taken over, giggling a bit at the fact that she had now returned for another day of making her enemies suffer, and she proceeded to activate the Dark Optica spell. This move allowed Darcy to see almost everyone and everything in Crocus, acting like she had many cameras, and she also seemed to be able to see into the future. As a couple of swords came down in front of her, making her seem utterly surprised, Darcy would be even more surprised when Sting had used his White Dragon's Roar to propel himself into the air. He came down near her, however, and the white dragon slayer was accompanied by Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail.
She had wanted to finish their fight from the tag-team battle, the same battle where Thorn had defeated both Erza and Natsu with ease, and the scarlet-haired mage was also surprised to see that Lucy was here as well. She had heard the voice of the blonde mage, but Erza had not been able to pinpoint it to one direct spot. She now saw this as the opportunity to make up for what happened on the fourth day of the Grand Magic Games, even if a certain fire dragon slayer would not be there to help Erza even the score.
She requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor, one of her strongest armors, and Erza was quick enough to create at least ten swords. She sent them all towards Sting, smiling a bit while he looked like he would predictably use Holy Ray, but something strange happened. All of Erza's swords were now obliterated by violet blasts that transpired in midair, and it was all because of Darcy looking at all the swords before blinking her eyes. Her Darkness Magic had some similarities to Memory-Make Magic, but it had its differences.
Erza proceeded to requip into her Flame Empress Armor, having her Flame Sword to match, and Erza unleashed a powerful beam of flames from her sword. This beam of flames headed straight for Darcy, only to have her smirk evilly while dodging the attack. It struck a building behind Darcy, making it crumble to the ground, but she did not really seem to care. Darcy had a little plan to defeat Erza, now seeing what her battling style would presumably be, and she motioned for Sting to not get involved in this. The sky was also blue again, as Darcy quickly stopped the spell.
Darcy activated the second spell of Darkness Magic, and it was known as Dark Moonlight. This spell caused the clear blue sky to turn black like the nighttime, having the white moon replace the yellow sun, and a violet aura surrounded Lucy's body. She also lost consciousness for a few moments, not knowing that her eyes had turned amethyst purple to represent the appearance of Darcy, and she smirked deviously while a purple sphere of Darkness Magic formed in her right hand. She surprisingly shoved it in her mouth, swallowing it whole, and then Darcy began to levitate from the effects of Dark Moonlight.
As a side effect, she was able to make some gravity come down upon her brown-eyed opponent and cause massive purple blasts of energy to occur. She had great control over the gravity, manipulating it to strike many areas of Crocus, and the destructive nature of Darcy had certainly gotten everyone's attention. Even Jellal and Jura had stopped their fight, since a violet blast of energy obliterated a store behind them. Darcy was certainly not one to mess around, and she wanted to really have some fun.
"You're pretty strong, Lucy. Those spells of yours are pretty amazing, and I can't wait to see what else you can do. Let's see how powerful you truly are." Erza told Darcy while looking stern, narrowing her brown eyes at the woman who she thought was Lucy.
The amethyst-eyed girl responded while smirking a bit, giggling slightly at Erza's words, "You really should have taken me seriously from the very beginning of this battle, you know. I do not underestimate my opponents, no matter who they are, and I only care about beating them down. Also, you really should not make light of my dark abilities. The powers that I possess are really going to make you wish that we never even crossed paths today, so I suggest that you get ready for your painful defeat."
Erza really did not like the fact that Darcy had laughed at words like she was kidding around, and the scarlet-haired mage requipped into her Black Wing Armor. She was now flying through the air, ready to face her levitating opponent in aerial combat, and Erza had also requipped two long swords into her hands. These were Wind Swords, going perfectly with an armor that allowed her to fly into the skies, and Erza simply sliced the air to create massive air waves that were heading straight for Darcy.
Sting looked pretty worried about his girlfriend, thinking that it was Lucy, but then he looked pretty amazed to see Darcy smirking while she activated the fifth spell of Darkness Magic. It was known as Darkness Scale, and this spell could be used to alter a target's gravity, making it lighter for them to float high into the air, but then they would come down and cause a violet blast of energy to transpire. This spell also evolved to the point where gravity could immobilize the target while they were sent high into the air, and that's exactly what Darcy did to her opponent.
She made gravity put Erza's movements to a complete halt, rendering her immobile, and the scarlet-haired mage groaned in frustration while she could not even lift a single finger. She felt herself being carried up into the air, getting closer towards the clouds, and Erza also did not have any armors that allowed her to defy gravity. Sting had wanted to hit her with Holy Ray, but Darcy knew that any attack that hit the target before Darkness Scale was completed would end up stopping her spell. She still did not want him getting involved in this, and the fight was almost over.
With Erza high in the air, Darcy simply moved her left index finger downward to send Erza crashing down into the ground while her movements were still restricted. She screamed in pain when she hit the ground, but that probably was not as painful as the massive blast of Darkness Magic that occurred afterwards. It shook many buildings in the process, and even the judges looked shocked at the power of Darcy. The spectators also wanted to see who would end up emerging victorious in a battle like this.
When the violet smoke cleared up, it revealed to everyone that the mighty Erza Scarlet had now been defeated. She was now unconscious while her armor went away for her to automatically requip back into her Heart Kreuz Armor, and the strong woman known as Titania was now eliminated from the survival tournament. Team Sabertooth had now earned five more points, bringing them to a score of 110 now, and they still held the lead. Darcy was definitely satisfied with her performance, and she let Lucy regain control of her body.
The blonde mage regained consciousness quickly, her eyes changing from being amethyst purple to being cocoa brown, and she looked directly in front of her to see that Erza was unconscious. She had not appeared to have suffered any fatal injuries, something that made Lucy have a happy smile on her face, and the blonde mage could now technically say that she had defeated Erza once again. Lucy felt like she had definitely gotten stronger, even though her spells were only evolving to the next level, and she felt someone softly tap her on the left shoulder.
Sting told Lucy in a calm manner while she turned around to face him, being really pleased with how she battled against Erza, "Man, that battle was awesome! Lucy, you just keep getting better and better! You even embraced the power of your Darkness Magic, just like how you did in your battle against Yuka from Team Lamia Scale on the second day of the Grand Magic Games! Lucy, this is totally great! If things keep going good for us, we will be the best guild in Fiore."
Lucy responded nicely while looking into Sting's charming blue eyes, blushing a light shade of pink while she hugged him, "Sting, I've been looking everywhere for you. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, and not defeated by anybody. I get all my courage from thinking of you and being around you, so being there for you is what I'll always do. After all, we're a pretty good team. With you at my side, I feel like there's nothing that I cannot do. Anyway, I'm just so very happy to see you right now."
The two blondes looked into each other's eyes, and they shared a kiss while feeling that being apart from each other was a bad strategy. Lucy and Sting would now take on enemies together, and their bond would definitely not be defeated by anyone. The chemistry that they had could be enough to make a Unison Raid, but both mages also knew that combining two different types of magic was something that Lucy had not been able to do yet. Could she be able to do it, if the spell book allowed it?
Meanwhile...
In a different part of Crocus, in front of a few fancy boutique shops, Laxus Dreyar from Team Fairy Tail A was going up against Orga Nanagear from Team Sabertooth. The lightning dragon slayer was getting ready to go up against the lightning god slayer once again, and both men were ready for this rematch. Laxus and Orga were also respectively cloaked in yellow lightning and black lightning, which would probably make this become a really shocking match for anyone to witness. Who would emerge victorious?
Orga smirked arrogantly while staring down his blond rival, and the green-haired male decided to start things off by trying to attack Laxus with his Black Lightning Sphere. This sphere was formed almost instantaneously, completely engulfing Laxus inside of it before he could even react, but the lightning dragon slayer simply broke through the Black Lightning Sphere with his Lightning Dragon's Roar. The collision of the two attacks created a black blast of lightning, which was subsequently followed by a yellow blast of lightning, but neither of the males were harmed.
The smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that the attacks had been on equal level with each other, much to Orga's surprise, and he looked a bit frustrated while charging up his Lightning God's Charged Particle Cannon to quickly end this. The black lightning in this attack could vaporize almost anything when it came into contact with solid objects, and it also had a high amount of destructive power. As Orga was building up an immense amount of power for his finishing move, Laxus smiled confidently while knowing that he was probably fast enough to evade it.
However, as Orga was finished charging up his Lightning God's Charged Particle Cannon and fired it straight at Laxus, something strange would soon give them both a shock. Orga's attack had hit something immediately, not even hitting Laxus, and the smoke quickly cleared up to reveal that one of Lucy's clones had arrived on the scene. She was carrying the yellow spell book, clearly representing the Lightning Magic that had been gained from fighting against Hikari in the amusement park, and her sudden appearance really surprised Orga.
Laxus had also seen Lucy and Sting kiss on one of the Lacrima Vision screens in the sky, right after she had defeated Erza, and he also wondered how she had gotten from one distant area to another in such a short period of time. He had not really looked at the color of her spell book, but the non-spell ability of Lightning Magic could make Lucy move at lightning speed. This clone had come all the way over here to fight against Laxus, but could she possibly win? Even with evolved spells, Lightning Magic probably would not do much to a Lightning Dragon Slayer.
"What are you doing here, Lucy? I can definitely handle this, you know. This time, Laxus is going to go down." Orga asked and told her in a rather confident manner, smirking while he saw Laxus grin at both him and Lucy.
Lucy responded in a kind manner, having a smile of courage on her face while strength had made its way into her cocoa brown eyes, "Don't worry about me interrupting your battle, Orga. I never said that I would come here to fight Laxus. I'm actually going to use my spells here, mainly because of the architecture in this part of the city. I'm not going to get myself involved in the battle that you have with Laxus, and it truly would just end up being a waste of my time to take five points from Fairy Tail."
Her unorthodox motive for being here in the survival tournament certainly made Laxus look pretty curious, and he even wondered what she was going to do while she had pulled out the Celestial Spirit Key of Loke. She opened the Gate of The Lion, summoning the orange-haired spirit, and he smiled confidently while being happy enough to assist the owner of his key with whatever task needed to be done. Loke could tell that Lucy's main focus was not directed at Laxus or Orga, so there was no need to fight.
Lucy started things off by using the Electric Curve spell, causing her to shoot a beam of lightning out of her left hand, and it headed straight for a building. When the attack hit the side of the building, it immediately made a sharp left curve to hit another building. The beam curved once again, hitting a potted plant, and it kept curving around while it hit four more objects in a perfect zigzag pattern to look like a bolt of lightning. A yellow aura also began to surround everything that had been hit, and the chain power of Electric Curve made the spell become bigger and faster. It was also stronger, too.
The large and fast lightning beam for the Electric Curve spell had propelled itself high into the air, right before it could hit the ground to make a massive blast of electricity occur, and this part of Lucy's plan is where Loke had a role. He had an important task to do, and he smiled proudly while using his Regulus Beam attack. This move made Loke release a beam of light from his ring, and he shot it straight up into the sky. He actually shot it at the Electric Curve spell, and his light was spiraling around Lucy's lightning to give it some extra power.
With that step out of the way, Lucy felt more confidence entering her heart while she began to think of Sting. She was going to win this tournament for him, definitely planning to see him smile when Sabertooth would be announced as the best guild in Fiore, and Lucy was definitely not going to lose to anyone. She planned to put an end to this, and the final spell known as Electric Vortex would definitely assist her in reaching the fine goal of achieving success. How would this electrified plan of hers work, though?
She called upon the power of the Electric Vortex spell, putting all of her emotions into it while the yellow spell book began to glow, and this move caused a massive vortex of yellow lightning to be fired straight from her mouth. It began to follow the zigzag pattern that had been created by Electric Curve, destroying every single building or object that had a yellow aura surrounding it, and every link in the chain caused Electric Vortex to grow much bigger. It also became much stronger and faster, and the attack flew upward into the air to join forces with Electric Curve and Regulus Beam.
When all three attacks had made contact with each other, fusing together to create something totally new and possibly amazing, all of the clouds in the sky became dark while they proceeded to swirl over the city of Crocus. This sudden darkness over the flowery capital of Fiore even made Jellal wonder what was going on, since he hadn't even cast Sema yet. Even Rufus looked surprised by what was happening, thinking that the battle between Laxus and Orga must've been intense, but he did not know that Lucy's clone was with them. What would be the result of her unorthodox ways?
In a few moments, at the snap of Lucy's fingers, many Electric Vortexes emerged from the sky! They were half the size of the original one, and Loke's light had caused them all to have more of a golden color instead of being yellow. Laxus and Orga could sense the tremendous amount of magical power coming from this spell, and Orga had even given it a new name. As he saw one of the vortexes hit a nearby building while causing a massive golden blast of Lightning Magic to transpire, the intense thunder waves temporarily paralyzed him and Laxus. He called this move Electrically Explosive Paralyzing Light, since it was also extremely bright.
The vortexes of electricity landed in many places throughout Crocus, creating massive blasts that obliterated whatever they came down upon, and the city was really being destroyed. None of them hit the Domus Flau where all the spectators were located, though, much to the relief of Chapati, Yajima, and Mato. Hikari had also been watching from the stands, smirking a bit while being really impressed to see the evolved lightning from the girl who had defeated her, and she unknowingly stood next to Suna. The green-haired woman folded her arms while grinning a bit, and the earth dragon slayer now knew that Lucy was truly elite to pull off a spell like this.
Some of the electric vortexes had even struck the competitors, such as Mirajane and Elfman. The white-haired woman and her brother were being painfully electrocuted by the power of this spell, and they really could not endure the ferocity of the electric vortexes. After those two golden blasts had faded away, Mira and Elfman were both unconscious. Lucy received ten more points for Team Sabertooth, bringing her team's score to 120 points now, but that was not all. Some other electric vortexes struck Cana and Juvia, nearly destroying them with the enormous power, and both girls had been knocked out. With another ten points to add to the score of Team Sabertooth, could they be stopped?
Gajeel was also hit by several vortexes of the powerful electricity, and the iron dragon slayer had been like a lightning rod for Lucy's projectiles since his abilities focused around metal. He was badly beaten down by the intense power of those three vortexes, giving five more points to Team Sabertooth. Natsu had ran into Lucy's clone who wielded the red book, but Karen had secretly dragged him down into the shadows before either side could make a move. Since the judges did not see Karen take Natsu out of the event for a moment, they gave five more points to Lucy.
Karen had used the shadows from the large blasts of light to move around quickly, and she was about to attack Laxus from behind. However, he looked stern while quickly turning around to defeat her with a Lightning Dragon's Roar. She had actually used the large shadow of some rubble to shield herself from the attack, but Karen feigned her defeat by laying down on the ground and sinking into the shadows. Her supposed defeat gave ten points to Team Fairy Tail A, and Team Sweet Melancholy was also eliminated from the event. They received second place, along with Team Fairy Tail A since both teams had 84 points, and Team Lamia Scale came in 3rd place.
After all of the electric vortexes had descended upon the city of Crocus, leaving it utterly in ruins, Lucy's clone with the Lightning Magic had closed her yellow spell book while smiling happily at what she had done. She had taken out most of her opponents with this combination of moves, and Team Sabertooth now had 140 points. The margin between first place and second place could not be narrowed down to a tie, due to not having enough competitors remaining in the survival tournament, a clear winner had been decided. The real Lucy was still with Sting, and she had dispelled her clones to officially bring the event to an end.
Chapati announced while looking completely excited and thrilled at the stunning result, "With the eliminations of Team Quatro Cerberus, Team Mermaid Heel, Team Blue Pegasus, and Team Sweet Melancholy, it looks like the winners of this year's Grand Magic Games have been decided! Team Sabertooth has won the Grand Magic Games of X792, everybody! They are the champions, and Sabertooth is now the best guild in Fiore again! What a stunning turn of events, folks! It looks like Sabertooth came back for redemption, after all! This is history to be made!"
Lucy couldn't believe it. She nearly wanted to cry from seeing the scoreboard. Her guild of the present had defeated the guild of her past, and her hard work had finally paid off. She had fulfilled her resolve to become stronger, even if her book had a few evil effects to it, and her new guild got first place in the Grand Magic Games. Words couldn't describe how she felt right now, knowing that Sabertooth had won. She had not been to the Grand Fiore League, but the equivalent of a winning guild was known as the League Champion Wizard. Had Lucy become a champion?
30 minutes later…
After the entire city of Crocus had been repaired with magical power to look as perfect as it always did, all of the teams were back in their respective booths. Well, one team wasn't. They were out on the sandy battlefield being congratulated by Mato and all of the judges for the five-day tournament. Sting had been smiling triumphantly while he held the golden trophy in his hands, something that made Natsu become angry at seeing, but he was silenced by Erza hitting him on the head and reminding him how he kept throwing challenges.
Sting asked Lucy while she was still looking pretty happy about the fact that they had just won the Grand Magic Games, " "So… Since Sabertooth won, I was thinking of having a party in the guild to celebrate. Would you like to be my date, Lucy? I love how you're so kind, sweet, awesome, mature, smart, and maybe you're just as strong as me. Whenever you go through darkness, can I be your light?"
She replied happily with her violet eyes twinkling as she blushed cherry red, "Of course we can have a party in the guild, Sting! I love how you compliment me so much, but don't act like I gained all this strength on my own. It was only thanks to your ways of encouragement, you know. You wanted me to believe in myself, and I did. When I use my spells or my keys, I think of you and my confidence starts to swell up like my love for you. Sting, you just continue to make me happy. I know that Thorn is my ancestor, so I would love for you to be the light to my darkness."
The two blondes shared a kiss of victory, something that made Cana and Lisanna cheer for them, and even Gray was applauding for his friend. He knew that Lucy had definitely moved on to a guy who was much better than Natsu, and the ice mage also knew that Lucy had gotten much stronger. She had only officially beaten Natsu once without any technicalities getting involved, and Gray even felt like teasing Natsu about. He planned to say one of his witty remarks to the fire dragon slayer, but Gray was shocked at what happened next.
Natsu's hands gripped the railing tightly while being engulfed in flames, and he looked pretty angry from seeing that Team Sabertooth had won because of Lucy. He was also angry that Sting was holding the trophy while kissing the blonde girl, and Natsu hated to see his blond rival breaking the kiss while caressing Lucy's cheek with his left hand. Natsu knew that he had been taken out of the survival tournament unfairly, and he thought that Lucy had done it to make him look like more of a fool than he already was.
Without even listening to the objections of Gray, as Erza and Lisanna both looked shocked at what was about to happen, Natsu jumped down on to the battlefield while flames engulfed his body. He looked pretty angry at Sting and Lucy, making the whole crowd gasp in shock while they wondered what he was going to do. Even Makarov looked annoyed by the fact that Natsu was presumably acting like a sore loser, and Gray wanted to jump down there to stop this. However, Erza grabbed his arm and gave him a stern look to let him know that they would only intervene if Lucy couldn't handle Natsu's true power.
He shouted fiercely while looking extremely volatile, as he ran towards Lucy with the flames on his fists turning fiery red, "You're going down, you stupid book-wielding bitch!"
How was the 25th chapter? Did you like it? Sorry for not making the battle with Erza last a little bit longer, and I apologize if you wanted to see Lucy fight Laxus. However, the fighting is not over in this story and the StiCy is also not over. Anyway, what will happen when one arc ends and another one begins? What will the antagonistic Natsu do in the next chapter? Will Lucy and Sting tell him to move on? What happens when he sneaks over to Sabertooth while they're having their party? Standby for the update!