Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail. Hiro Mashima does. This story was made for fun, and not for cash. (How unfortunate.)
Chapter 38: Light of Legends
Sting had used his White Dragon's Punch to make a white sphere of light surround his left hand, and he had been charging up his attack while running towards Thorn with it. He had a distraught look on his face, attempting to hold back the tears, as he hoped that his girlfriend hadn't died from Thorn's vicious attacks. He still could not believe that Thorn was capable of using spells that Lucy had not seen in the spell book, and the white dragon slayer had also activated White Drive while feeling anger from how this battle had been so unfair. Lucy didn't have Thorn's centuries of experience, and she didn't need malice to use her power to the full extent.
Rogue, Rufus, and Orga also knew that they had to help out in this battle as well, prompting the shadow dragon slayer to vanish into the shadows before trying to hit Thorn from behind with Shadow Dragon's Slash. She smirked evilly while quickly dodging his attack, having sensed it from the shadows, but Rogue's little attempt to strike the black-haired witch had actually made a way for Sting to hit her in the stomach with his White Dragon's Punch. The holy white light had been powerful enough to make Thorn scream in pain while she slid backwards from taking Sting's attack, and his feelings for Lucy were definitely giving him the strength to take on this demon.
While the twin dragon slayers of Sabertooth were going up against Thorn, Rufus had turned around to see that the flames from the burning buildings had spread to other places in Magnolia. He looked utterly shocked from seeing Thorn's strange flames jump while exploding when they made contact with other buildings, and Rufus used his forgetting ability of the Memory-Make Magic to try and erase the flames that were making some of the people in the town become scared. Not only would the flames be erased, but this ability also prevented Thorn from using anymore Fire Demon Magic in the battle.
Orga had used his Black Lightning Sphere to try and immobilize Karen, if she was going to try and help Thorn in this battle, but the woman with silvery-blue hair had quickly gone into the shadow of the green-haired male's move while taking Cana with her. As Orga's attack was absorbed by a large shadow that rose up out of the ground to make it ineffective, Karen and Cana reappeared in the same spot where they had originally been standing while both of the girls were smirking maliciously at the fact that the shadows could simply make an opponent's moves disappear into the darkness.
Sting and Rogue both sternly glared at Thorn for what she had done to Lucy, absolutely not going to let her get away with it, and the blonde male narrowed his blue eyes while preparing to use his Holy Ray attack. Rogue had quickly used his Shadow Dragon's Roar to attack Thorn, hoping to catch her off guard once again, but Thorn's blood red eyes were filled with arrogance while she simply inhaled the shadows to replenish her energy and heal herself. She had been wounded in the stomach from Sting's light, but eating the element of her specialty had made that wound become healed like it had never happened.
Upon feeling slightly bored with the two boys, Thorn had a devious look in her blood red eyes while she sunk down into a black shadowy puddle. Sting and Rogue had both tried to grab her, but Thorn moved through the darkness at high speeds. Rogue had to wonder where she was headed, hoping to track her down easily, but Sting's eyes widened in shock from knowing exactly where the black-haired mage was going. A black aura surrounded Lucy's lifeless body, making Sting watch in horror at the sight of her rising up, and her eyes had lost their pupils while she was starting to have the black aura spiraling around her body.
After it had faded away quickly, all four males from Sabertooth could only look shocked at what had happened to their friend. She now had Thorn's black hair down with red highlights, and her T-shirt was now intact while being black. Her miniskirt was now dark red, and she now had blood red eyes to match it. Her teeth had now become fanged, and Lucy giggled with malice while she had Thorn's voice of evil taking over her. This could only mean that Thorn had now taken over Lucy's body, now having the power all in her hands, and no one could stop her.
As Karen smirked evilly at the sight of her master now having a physical body, she turned to Cana to give the brown-haired girl a soft kiss on the lips to let her know that the dark would could finally begin. Karen could sense firestorms still happening in Magnolia, while earthquakes, lightning strikes, and heavenly meteors were bringing ruin to three other parts of the world. She could see that Cana was blushing while smiling with joy at the sight of the darkness over the world with its disasters, but Sting's angry glare of rage got everyone's attention while he ran towards Thorn to quickly slap her in the face while getting the book out of her hands.
The white dragon slayer shouted fiercely at Karen, seeing her to be more responsible for all of this ever happening, "Since you're the one who had the intentions of bringing Thorn back to help her in the dark world, then just tell me why! Why do you find it so satisfying to treat all of our lives like some insane game of chess, and why did you intentionally target Lucy from the very beginning? How could you be so low to use her desire to get stronger for your own selfish gain? Her heartbreak from Natsu had nothing to do with you, so why give her a false sense of happiness while you planned this all along?!"
Karen explained with a sadistic smirk on her face, pleasure in her silvery-blue eyes while she ran her fingers through her own silvery-blue hair, "Well, I'll tell you everything like it's a gift before your death. I knew that Thorn's book could only be opened by a person with a kind heart and a pure soul, and I was the one who had stolen it from the guild of Fairy Tail in this time period. I had seen Lucy in the library with the books, and the shadows told me how sad she felt upon having her heart broken. When I decided to see if she could open the book, I was hoping to have found the girl who could be the pure maiden for Thorn to inhabit. It turns out that I did indeed find the right girl, and I simply guided her with a few jobs to help her find the auras or absorb types of magic to break the seven seals. When you can sense someone's emotions, you use them for your own gain to make them become your puppet. After all, that's how Thorn and I have played this great game up until now."
Upon hearing Karen talk about Lucy like she was nothing more than a puppet for Thorn's dark plans, Sting could only clench his fists tightly while more anger entered his blue eyes. He was furious with Karen for leading Lucy on, having led her right into a trap where her body would be taken over, and Sting was planning to try and end this in some way. However, what could he possibly do? His own spells had some effect on Thorn, but not enough to cause any fatal wounds, and the white dragon slayer could only glare at the demonic witch while she moved through the shadows to take back the book from his hands.
As she fully emerged while she took it back, however, Sting smirked in a cocky manner while using his spell known as White Dragon's Little Bombs. It was inspired by one of Lucy's attacks, most likely the Fiery Embers spell from her Fire Magic, and it made Sting shoot out eight small spheres of light from his mouth. They all landed near Thorn's feet, some even rolling under her, and many harmless blasts of white light transpired. Thorn was blinded by the intense light, and she couldn't even see what was going on while Sting shoved one sphere into her mouth and made it go down her throat. He then moved the pendant around the demonic woman's neck, swinging it back and forth, and the heart-shaped object emitted a white glow.
Thorn smirked evilly when she opened her eyes to see that the light had faded away, but Sting's small sphere of light had exploded in a harmless burst from inside her to make the demonic woman scream from feeling something pulsate inside of her because of Sting's holy light. Karen's eyes widened in shock from seeing that Lucy had still kept the pendant of purity around her neck, but she was even more shocked that the spell book formerly belonging to the blonde mage had begun to glow brightly in all the colors of the rainbow for a few moments. Neither Thorn or Karen had never seen this happen before, and they had to wonder what was going on.
The book's bright radiance really made Karen be at a loss for words, not even able to ask why this was happening, and she could not believe that the shadow of Thorn began to stretch outward from behind Lucy like she was being forced out of the blonde mage's body. How in the world could the book be defying its original creator? Could it have something to do with who the book had chosen to become its master in this time period, and was it trying to tell Thorn that only her copy made from shadows would be obedient to her?
In an instant, Thorn emerged from the shadow while screaming viciously from the fact that she could sense that the book Lucy wielded was now beginning to defy her commands. If that was the case, then the black-haired demon would need to use her spell book from the shadows. It had appeared in a black puddle nearby, the shadows having brought it to their mistress, and Sting could only looked shocked at the whole scene unfurling in front of him. The elements of purity had banished Thorn from Lucy's body, making Sting's girlfriend now have her blonde hair and cocoa brown eyes again while she stood up, prompting Sting to see if she was alive.
"Lucy, is it really you? Are you alive? Is that book seriously full of surprises...?" Sting asked her in a curious manner while some more tears from earlier had begun to fall from his charming blue eyes.
One of his tears landed on the page with the emerald green text with the spells for Wind Demon Magic, and the book suddenly began to turn emerald green! It began to radiate a viridescent emerald green glow as well, much to everyone's surprise. Even Thorn looked utterly astounded, especially since the demonic woman thought that she knew her book like the back of her hand. Thorn may have known how to use her book to cause despair in the past, but she did not know that the nature of her book had been altered to work differently for the wishes of its new master in this time period.
"I'm alive and fully healed, Sting. I was about to lose hope while I was dying, but the little ball of that huge burst of light had managed to heal me on the outside and on the inside. I could hear your magic calling out to me, telling me that there was still a way to win, and the light of the book gave me control of my own body again. You saved me again, and now I'm going to help you save the world because Thorn and Karen need to be punished for everything that they have done! Not just to me, but to everyone that they directly or indirectly hurt! The book is under the command of a sorceress of light, not one of darkness." Lucy explained with a happy smile on her face, as she looked into her boyfriend's blue eyes and blushed a light shade of pink.
Sting found himself to be nearly speechless, since he had nearly thought Lucy was dead, and all he could do was give her a confident smile that told her that they would keep the world from falling into darkness. He handed the emerald green spell book to his girlfriend, and she looked amazed to see some new spells that were ready to be used in this climactic battle. The book resonated with the hearts of Sting and Lucy, prompting new spells to temporarily appear for the remaining types of magic, and the second half of this battle was about to begin. (If you see everything in this chapter before Lucy's revival as a battle, you may say it's the third part.)
Thorn could not believe that Lucy had been revived, but that did not matter much to her. She was only going to kill the blonde girl this time, before taking over her body, and that would allow her to reanimate Lucy's corpse. The look of malice in Thorn's eyes could tell anyone that she would definitely be going against Lucy with full power this time, and she would be creating her most powerful techniques to efface all of the pests who wanted to try and get in her way to hinder the plans of a dark world. Thorn was not going to let Lucy stop her from throwing the world into darkness, and she would be using her best tricks.
The antagonist used a spell known as Wind Demon's Air Constrictor, and it made a green tornado of wind head towards Lucy. It would obviously constrict her, and do damage to her body, but Lucy was quick enough to call upon her emotions to assist in reading what seemed to be a new fusion spell for Wind Demon Magic. It was known as Wind Demon's Retribution, and it caused Lucy to exhale a great gust of green winds from her mouth! The large gust created four more large tornadoes of wind, being as tall as Thorn's tornado, and this spell caused Lucy to be able to command all five tornadoes with a simple movement of her left hand. She sent them all towards Thorn, and they all moved at high speeds with a highly destructive amount of force included.
The five green tornadoes of wind struck Thorn head on, creating massive emerald green blasts of Wind Magic in the process, and Lucy could hear Thorn scream in pain while she was taking damage from the attacks. She could've obviously eaten the winds to be rid of them, but Sting's little white sphere of magic from earlier had actually made the light burst from within Thorn. It had damaged the black-haired demon from within, nullifying her ability to consume almost anything for a while, and the green smoke had cleared up to reveal that Thorn was wincing in pain from having to endure such a powerful move.
Even though Thorn had made more green tornadoes destroy a different part of Fiore, making emerald green blasts of Wind Magic occur in the faraway city of Tokiwa, Lucy was mostly concerned with putting an end to this witch's reign. If Sting's light had truly opened a way for Lucy to win, then it looked like the tables had now begun to turn in this battle. With the round of Wind Magic now going to the blonde mage, confidence began to well up in Lucy's brown eyes while she knew that it was now time for her to begin the counterattack against her evil ancestor.
The blonde mage was very glad that the winds had now begun to shift in her favor, but that temporary spell had suddenly vanished from the book. This made Lucy be startled for a moment, but it was almost like the book was trying to tell her that the new spell for Wind Magic was only needed to be used in that one instance. After all, Thorn knew that the tables were starting to turn on her. She would have to be a fool to solely rely on Wind Magic, but the malicious demon with blood red eyes was certainly far from a fool.
Thorn was certainly not going to let her plans for a dark world be ruined by Lucy, and she used a powerful spell known as Water Demon's Assassinating Tsunami. This was her most powerful spell of Water Demon Magic, and it made an extremely large tsunami rose up from the waters between Magnolia and Castelia with its towering and intimidating presence. Lucy took a few steps back while she could see that 100,000-foot tsunami was not going to just slam her with a large amount of water. Knowing Thorn, that tsunami would be pretty explosive with malice included.
Lucy looked a bit scared by the size of this spell, trembling in fear while she did not want to get hit by it, but Sting took her shaky hands in his while grinning at her with a look of confidence on his face. Lucy felt better with Sting at her side, letting her know that she could counter this, and her strong feelings caused the book to turn sapphire blue while blue beams of light came from the section of the book for Water Magic. Lucy knew that fighting water with itself would be a good move, but she had a better idea while starting to smirk in a calm manner.
The blonde girl narrowed her cocoa brown eyes while she looked down at the new spell that temporarily appeared for the Water Demon Magic, and she called upon her emotions to activate it. This spell was known as Water Demon's Frosty Strike, and it caused Lucy to shoot out a light blue sphere of energy from her left hand. The sphere had ten tiny white icicles floating around it, and Lucy's attack headed straight for the tsunami. Both Lucy and Thorn wondered how such a small attack would stand up against a giant tsunami, but big things tended to come in small packages.
When the tsunami was about to slam down on the icy sphere with tons of water pressure being involved while tremendous blue blasts of Water Demon Magic would transpire, the large move had suddenly been frozen solid! The icy sphere had been giving an extremely cold amount of air, and that chilly air could freeze anything in its path. However, this was only the assisting part of Lucy's attack. The icy sphere suddenly exploded in a light blue blast of energy, its shock waves being powerful enough to now break the iced tsunami, and Thorn could only gasp in shock at the sight of her powerful attack falling to pieces. Every time a chunk of ice fell into the water, a large light blue blast of energy would occur! The seas were now roaring with power, having been stirred up by blasts from even the smallest pieces of ice, and the seven seas of Earthland were all raging with rough waters.
"Damn you, Lucy! Don't think that little smirk on your face will last for much longer, since I am the woman who once made darkness go across the earth while the powers of the night made gravity crush anything in my path! The moon was on my side while the skies were purple with my resentment towards the heavens, and the ghostly powers of death were always at my command! Even the poison was powerful enough to wipe out several towns of opposition, and this dark power is all mine!" Thorn told her in a deadly tone of voice, anger in her blood red eyes while she could not believe that one of her most powerful moves had been torn through.
A familiar feminine voice replied evilly in place of how Lucy talked, sounding harsh while her eyes became purple like the spell book, "That's pretty funny, Thorn. Before I stole back the other portion of the Darkness Magic, your acts of evil were only at ten percent with my spells. You don't remember how you and Karen were pretty scared to go into the ghostly tower to face me, utterly cowering in fear of the phantasms that could haunt the minds of anyone, and it looks like I'll have to make you remember those feelings of fear and despair."
Thorn gasped in shock from seeing the sinister look in Lucy's eyes, noticing that they were now purple, and this could only mean that Darcy had taken over her mind once again. Karen also looked stunned to see that Darcy would appear right now, but what else was to be expected from the demon of darkness who only found poison to be just as tasty as moonlight energy? A purple aura surrounded the body of Darcy while began to look up at the black sky, absorbing the darkness that Thorn had created, but the demonic woman with black hair would not let her use any fatal spells.
The malicious woman now decided to use a spell known as Poison Demon's Acidic Sludge, and it caused her to shoot out ten large blobs of amethyst purple poisonous gunk into the air. They went high into the skies, before coming down towards Darcy and Sting. The white dragon slayer smirked a bit while preparing to finish off those toxic blobs with Holy Ray, but Darcy motioned for him to not do anything. She knew that Thorn's spell may have been powerful, but Darcy believed that Darkness Demon Magic and Poison Demon Magic would only have real power in the hands of a true master.
She countered Thorn's attack with a new spell known as Darkness Demon's Gravity Impact, and this spell caused Darcy's amethyst purple eyes to glow like she was using the Dark Optica spell. She quickly looked at each of the blobs of poison, before making gravity levitate them all in midair. She moved her ten fingers in a psychic manner, sending Thorn's attack right back at her, and the gravity had made the blobs become violet. Darcy smirked evilly while seeing Thorn's projectiles strike her directly, and ten enormous violet blasts of Darkness Magic had transpired! Thorn could be heard screaming in pain, since she could not eat what was still magic from her own spell instead of Darcy's.
There were no bad effects of anything being done to the world from the Darkness Magic, and Darcy smirked a bit before turning back into a purple aura that entered the spell book. Lucy had regained consciousness immediately, seeing the purple smoke cover Thorn's side of the street, and she could really sense that Darcy had used that spell at full power to beat down on Thorn. It looked like the dark spirit within the book was sensing that Thorn would not be one to share power with her, and Darcy simply had to let Thorn know that her ties to the plan for the dark world were now severed.
As the purple smoke cleared, Thorn was still able to stand up while she looked bruised from taking all of Darcy's attacks. She now had anger in her blood red eyes, pissed off that Lucy had beaten her with Wind Demon Magic, Water Demon Magic, and Darkness Demon Magic. However, Thorn giggled evilly while knowing that the black spells of her Shadow Demon Magic were a set of dark moves that Lucy could not possibly handle. However, they were the specialty of the black-haired demon. She would not let Lucy turn this battle around forever, and her little win streak would end here.
Lucy could only watch in shock, as Thorn made the ominous aura from the black spells spiral around her body whilst having the intention to kill in her blood red eyes. Remembering how cold and dark that power felt while Thorn had taken over her body in the fight against Natsu and Erza, Lucy knew what was coming next. Thorn wasn't the type of girl to fool around, and she was planning to end this fight here and now. Her black hair with red highlights obscured the maliciousness in her eyes, as she built up an extremely tremendous amount of magical power from her amethyst purple spell book.
"This next attack is what nearly caused the complete ruin of the world, and nearly brought about my hellish age of darkness! Say your last prayer, Lucy! The world of darkness is going to begin, and my game of chess will finally have come to a close! This ultimate attack is what would be checkmate, and you have lost!" Thorn exclaimed viciously, as the black aura spiraling around her began to become much larger until she was cloaked in a sphere of it.
The upcoming attack was known as Shadow Demon's Hellish Wave, and it simply released black pulsating waves that created destruction and black blasts of hellish shadow energy when they came into contact with any person or object. Nothing could really shield against this devastating attack, either, since Mavis had nearly been killed when she had faced Thorn in their showdown all those centuries ago. Its power was much greater than a Death Wave from Zeref, and this last attack was actually Thorn's main technique.
Upon sensing the major amount of magical power that Thorn was charging into what would presumably be her finishing move, Lucy looked somewhat nervous. She never had to battle the black spells before, and she didn't know if Shadow Demon Magic even had a weakness. Her body began to shake with slight amounts of nervousness and anxiety, which didn't go unnoticed by Sting. He had to find some way to comfort her, especially in a situation that would decide the fate of everyone on Earthland.
Sting looked over her shoulder, and began to turn some of the pages in the spell book. He arrived at the spells colored in black text, and then widened his eyes in amazement to see that there was still one blank page at the very end of the book. (Each type of magic has its own set of pages, thus meaning they can't cross over into each other or fill up blank pages with more of their own spells.) Feeling like it was a risk that had to be taken, since Thorn was now using her ultimate darkness, Sting charged up Holy Nova in his left hand and used it the strike the blank page in Lucy's spell book!
A large white light blinded everyone's eyes for a split second, and Lucy looked completely surprised when she opened them. Some brand new spells had been written in white text, and they appeared to be Light Angel Magic. Sting's risk had really paid off, and he had a feeling that Lucy could spare the world from a fate of unrelenting darkness. The book also began to turn white, with white lights shining from the spells in the book. What would come from these new spells, however? Could Lucy beat Thorn with these new moves?
Lucy exclaimed with a confident facial expression, as a white aura swirled around her body and began to surround her, "It may be the way of the vengeful sorceress to use spells for evil, but it's not mine! It's true that I used to be the weakest mage in Fairy Tail, but I joined Sabertooth and became stronger! I can see from that first explosion that you harbor a deep hatred for Fairy Tail, but I'll change darkness into light because my confidence, love, determination, and combatant heart are what got me this far in my life!"
Thorn replied while evilly smirking and then maliciously looking at Lucy, as she spoke in a vicious and evil tone, "Screw your vacuous sentimentality and feelings of compassion, you fucking idiot! My darkness will remake this pathetic world into a land where I will rule as the hellish queen! No matter if you have obtained new powers, you can't erase me or the sadistic feeling of hatred! Fiore and the other lands shall burn under my reign, and the dark world will be a nightmarish paradise where I rule as a deity! Let's see how you like the two strongest black spells fused together to create Shadow Demon's Malicious Vengeance!"
The black sphere surrounding her body began to turn into two black swords of shadows, and she infused them with all of the energy from shadows and hellish power alike. Thorn grinned evilly, feeling her malicious power grow stronger with each passing second. She jumped high into the air, still surrounded by her dark energy while heading towards Lucy to deliver her final strikes, and the demonic woman with black hair was planning to end this now. Her blood red eyes showed the immense hatred that she had for Lucy, so how much power would Thorn have?
The violet-eyed girl easily propelled herself high into the air with the white aura surrounding her body whilst making white angelic wings grow out from her back, and a white sphere of light formed in her left hand. She stretched her left arm out in front of her with her palm open, as she was heading towards Thorn. This final collision of spells would probably break any Magic Power Finder, honestly. Even Karen widened her silvery-blue eyes again, utterly at a loss for words from seeing a battle like this, and not even Thorn's battle with Mavis seemed so shocking.
Thorn slashed the air multiple times with her swords of darkness, and many thin black shadows headed straight for Lucy! However, she wasn't wavering at all. She threw the white sphere of energy at the shadows lunging towards her, and a large white blast of energy occurred when the two spells collided! The intense light blinded Thorn's eyes, and her shadows created large black blasts of energy when even the slightest rays of light had reached them! Her pulsating waves of darkness caused enormous black explosions to occur all throughout Fiore, but she had missed her intended target.
The intense white light had an added effect, too. Its powerful holy energy of light caused thin beams of light to touch Thorn's swords, and she tried slashing shadows at them, but Lucy's white rays of light broke through the shadows with ease while they also made Thorn's swords have cracks in them. Those cracks in her swords were spreading fast like the poisonous virus that she had put in Juvia back at the Fuchsia Swamp, and Thorn even tried to go down into the shadows below for some safety. However, no matter how far she had stretched to reach the ground, the demon of malice could only scream in pain because of the holy light. She began to tremble from seeing Lucy coming towards her while a large ring of white holy light formed in front of her, prompting Thorn to let out a fearful scream.
"If you're so scared of light, then you can find eternal darkness in the netherworld! You killed all those demons, and nearly killed everyone in Fiore, so go down to hell! This is the light of a truly powerful sorceress, Thorn, and your mad game of chess will finally be over! This magic is not coming from the power of me, but the holy light speaks to me with everyone's wishes of taking you down! This spell is known as Holy Angel's Sacred Ring, and it's the eighth spell of this type of magic! If you know the game of chess so well, then know that this is where you're out of moves!" Lucy exclaimed with a fierce look on her face, as she commanded the ring to attack Thorn.
The blonde mage's white ring of light had begun to unleash several enormous white beams of light towards Thorn, this attack obviously having Sting's Holy Ray used as an idea for it, and the light struck Thorn head on while using all of the power from Lucy's emotions to show how strong her resolve was about having to save the world. An extremely large explosion could be heard by everyone in Fiore, and a large white blast of energy filled the skies over Earthland. Thorn's scream of extreme pain could be heard by Sting and the other Sabertooth mages, and Lucy kept looking fierce as she saw Thorn's body being obliterated and turning into black smoke. Her black book also turned into black smoke, and the antagonist began to fade away.
Her final words were, as she shouted in a harsh tone, "Damn you, Lucy Heartfilia! My plan for a dark world is destroyed yet again, you bitch! I can't believe a master sorceress like me lost to the newest master of my own book, for hell's sake! I'm a supreme high-level demon, and I can't believe that I lost for the first time as my murderous game of chess!"
The light had also made Cana and Karen scream in pain, since they were also demons like how Thorn was, but Karen was actually feeling herself die from the pain of the holy light. She could see Lucy still glaring at her fiercely, letting the angry look in her cocoa brown eyes tell the woman with silvery-blue hair that this was payback for using her from the very beginning. Karen fell to the ground slowly while the beams of light burned through her skin, causing an intense amount of blood loss, and she could only watch Cana trying to endure the pain. Needing to put her lover's survival before her own, Karen used her last seconds of life to make the shadows send Cana down into the darkness. She also released the brown-haired girl from the Shadow Charm spell, but that wouldn't erase the memories of it.
The white light quickly ceased, and the white aura surrounded Lucy while she slowly floated down to the ground and lost consciousness.
Two hours later...
Lucy slowly opened her eyes to see Sting and the other Sabertooth mages looking concerned while they stood over her body under a clear blue sky. She sat up and looked around to see that all the buildings had been restored to how they originally were before the cataclysm, and no one had died. The Fairy Tail guild was perfectly intact like how it was before Cana destroyed it, and the brown-eyed girl slowly stood up to receive loud cheers and a large applause from everyone in Magnolia for saving the entire world. Even Natsu and the others had taken a boat from Castelia to see what happened, since the fierce battle had now concluded.
She was about to hug Sting for greatly helping her out back in the battle, but Lucy felt someone softly tap her left shoulder. She turned around to see Lisanna with a Lacrima Video Crystal in her hands, and the white-haired mage handed the orb to Natsu before she proceeded to give her new friend a big hug for what she did. Lucy had just saved the entire world from a fate of darkness, so how could Lisanna not be grateful? She was so happy to now officially be friends with Lucy, and no one would get in the way of that.
"Lucy, we watched the whole battle through the crystal! You are definitely tough, but that would really be a big understatement!" Lisanna exclaimed in a happy manner while smiling at her new friend, so glad that Lucy saved everyone.
"That was a thrilling battle to see, Lucy! You and that girl fought like real men out there, seriously!" Elfman added with a happy grin on his face, looking excited as well to see her.
Lucy looked happy to get all this praise, but looked somewhat intimidated when she saw Makarov, Mavis, and Laxus walking towards her with stern looks on their faces. She knew they would be upset with her for using the forbidden book that Thorn had created, especially since it almost caused the end of the world. Feeling the need to do the right thing, since Karen had stolen it for her in the first place, Lucy gulped and closed her eyes while looking scared and holding out her hands to give the white spell book back to Makarov.
"What are you doing, Lucy?" He asked with a small smile on his face.
"Don't you want the book back? I'm so sorry that I trusted Karen when she had come to me as a traveling merchant, and I never would've accepted it if I had known that she was the one who stole it when I wasn't paying attention in the library! Even though I saved the world, it's still my fault!" She replied in a somewhat shocked tone, upon opening her eyes and hearing his reaction to her gesture.
"That's not our book, and it's not controlled by Thorn's evil anymore. She is now in the netherworld, and so is Karen. Those spells can only be handled by a master sorceress, my child. I'd say that book belongs to you now, Lucy." Makarov explained kindly, extending his right arm to gently pet her head.
Speaking of Thorn and Karen, Lucy gasped in shock while she had now remembered the fact that Cana had joined up with them for evil purposes. If the light had killed Thorn and Karen, had Cana been killed by it as well? Lucy looked around in the crowd to try and find the brown-haired card mage, but there was no sign of her at all. The blonde mage almost came to regret that she had to use those spells of Light Angel Magic to defeat a demon who was wielding Shadow Demon Magic, and Lucy never would've used that final spell if she had not known that its full effects came at the price of losing a friend.
Lucy could see that Karen's body had indeed faded away, not allowing her to ask the woman with silvery-blue hair about what had happened to Cana, but she did not know that the card mage was actually down in her shadow. In the shadow world, in what appeared to be a graveyard with barren gray dirt under the shadowy black sky, Cana had actually made a grave for Karen to be in while laying a bouquet of red roses on it. Tears ran down her face while she knew that her first lover was now gone from her, and Cana got out of the shadow world before she would become fully human again because of Karen's effects beginning to wear off on her. She was happy that Lucy saved the world, but losing a lover made this be a bittersweet day. While everyone else cheered, Cana simply wept quietly in a back alley.
Speaking of things that needed to faded away, Gray nudged Natsu while giving him a stern look that let the fire dragon slayer know that he needed to apologize to Lucy for everything that he had done to her in the past. He had acted like such a jerk to her, and now he needed to make up for that.
"Lucy, I'm so sorry for treating you so badly for the past ten months. I acted like you were so much weaker than me, and yet Thorn managed to beat me to a bloody pulp in the fight that we had. I'm so sorry for what I did to you on that day, too. Provoking you was wrong of me, and I guess that I need to accept that you're with Sting now." Natsu told Lucy with an ashamed look on his face, before bowing his head as a sign of showing respect to someone who had pretty much been his female rival as well as the person who saved his life.
Makarov spoke for them, as he changed to a more stern facial expression and turned his attention to Lucy, "Do not think of Natsu as having been evil towards you, Lucy. My guess is that he didn't even know how harsh he acted towards you, and that was because of Karen having a dark influence over him to use every confrontation with you as bait to break the book's seals. Having him indirectly release Thorn from the book was not part of her plans, I assume, and Karen simply used the discord between you two to her advantage."
Mavis added calmly, as she looked down at the ground and frowned in sadness while she saw her own shadow as a way of remembering Thorn, "It's no surprise that Thorn wanted to take over your body, Lucy. You are of the Heartfilia family like she was, and I see why Karen would target Natsu. The shadow of a person is everything that they are not, and Karen used the darkness to make Natsu act differently from his normal self. Even if Karen had not given it to you, saying if you had somehow found the book on your own, Thorn left one key for the book to be unlocked. A kind heart of gold and a pure soul of silver are needed, Lucy, and I think you know that your emotional state at the time was what made Karen seek you out. Even the shadows can sense discomfort and heartbreak, you know."
Gray told Natsu in a stern tone, giving the fire dragon slayer a scolding look while having remembered a pretty important fact about this whole thing, "Flame-brain, you stupid idiot! It's pretty much all your fault that Lucy had to save the world! If you hadn't knocked the book out of her hands, along with the perfume, then Thorn never would have been released! On top of that, Karen targeted Lucy after you kicked her off of the team! In simple terms, to help you understand, you inadvertently and indirectly helped an ancient demon and her sexy assistant almost bring the world to its complete ruin!"
Upon realizing that as well, Erza hit Natsu on the head to comically make a large bump rise up while she looked angry about having been frozen in ice because of him. Juvia even decided to give Natsu a kick to the crotch because of how she had been poisoned, but it was pretty surprising to see that Lisanna did nothing to him. She just watched the rest of guild begin to tackle him in a large brawl for everything that had happened, and the white-haired mage giggled a bit could tell that the shadows would not be saving Natsu from karma.
While that was going on, Lucy turned to her teammates to see them giving her some happy smiles for saving the world. Well, it had actually been a team effort. After Thorn had almost killed Lucy, Sting and the others had to take charge. Lucy actually wanted to use all of the spells for Light Angel Magic, but Sting smirked a bit while letting her know that this language was in English. She could easily read it, and Lucy's eyes widened in shock to see that the other ten spells would have been catastrophic enough if they got used in succession with the other two. (I know Sting's new moves did not get showcased much, but there is still one little battle left.)
Rufus added with a happy smile on his face while looking at Lucy, "Your entire battle with Thorn was splendid, Lucy. That's another one of you achievements that I won't be forgetting, you know."
Orga commented with a calm smirk, before looking eager to fight her, "That fight was one of the best, Lucy! If your book helped you become even stronger, after beating that girl, your lightning must be really strong now! Let's have a battle someday!"
Sting said to her, as he looked into her beautiful cocoa brown eyes, "It looks like all of our training paid off, Lucy. You were so great out there. I never doubted you for a second, and you don't even have to ask about staying in Sabertooth! I still have to ask what you mouthed to me after the tag battle in the Grand Magic Games, though. I forgot, sadly."
Lucy replied with a cheerful smile on her face, as she blushed cherry red and looked into his charming blue eyes, "I love you, Sting Eucliffe, and I want us to spend the rest of our lives together. You saved me from the darkness once, and you helped me out of it once again."
Lector told her with a confident smirk on his face, as he flew on to her head, "It was a great sign that Sting-kun helped you out, Lucy. He is the best charmer in Fiore. However, you both now use spells of white light. I guess that you two shall soon have a battle, and it will be great. Just remember that those spells came from Sting-kun's Holy Nova. Whatever they are, he can use them as well. You two have only battled twice, and the third time is always the charm."
"Frosch thinks so, too!" Frosch added, as it stood on Rogue's left shoulder and smiled at Lucy.
Sting grabbed his girlfriend by the waist, and kissed her on the lips once again to show how much he loved her. He probably was Fiore's best dragon slayer, since he helped her unlock a spell that saved the whole world. Sting blushed, as he could feel Lucy returning the kiss and wrapping her arms around his neck. He didn't get flustered by his romantic feelings this time, and instead he just let them resonate to Lucy's heart through the wonderful kiss that they were sharing. The book began to turn red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink like a rainbow to symbolize the warm love that it could sense from its master's heart right now. It also turned black and white like shadows and light to show that a little piece of Thorn's presence was in the book, and she may come back, but love had triumphed over hatred and created a great balance of power for a great sorceress like Lucy.
How was Chapter 38? Did you like it? Quite the battle, was it not? Thorn is gone, but her black spells are always with Lucy! She has saved the world, forgiven Natsu for being a jerk, and she is now a great sorceress! However, there's still a little more StiCy left to go while another conflict also needs resolution. The story is not over yet, folks! Will Cana get a surprise? Can Natsu and Lisanna make up? Will Sting and Lucy finally get to have a battle of light with a few surprises? Standby for the next romantic update!