I'm back with another chapter. I figure I try to update this story more often since there's so much to do in the story.
By the way… I just realized that I forgot to put in something about Brandish from seeing Aquarius, since the Spriggan knew her and all of that. Hopefully I can do something about that in the future, but feel free to call me an idiot for forgetting that.
Anyway, let's see what's happening in Era right now.
Enjoy, or not, I don't care you all have your opinions.
Everything belongs to their respective owners.
Chapter Thirty Seven: A Spirit's Burden
In the other side of the Magic Council building, a group of fel demons were blasted by large beam of fel fire. A bunch of Imps attempted to charge at the person responsible, but they too were no match for the attacker. The red haired male responsible for this currently was fighting his way to find his parents.
"Darn it… where are they?" Sans questioned as he moved on, fighting off the demons that filled the hallway.
The future son of Natsu and Irene entered the Magic Building a different way, so he didn't know where his parents were. One might question why Sans was so worried for them, as he knows how powerful his parents were. However the red haired male couldn't help but be concern for them. He always had been overprotective of his family, which includes all of his parents. Sans couldn't help but feared that more of the stronger demons may have found a way to the world as well. His dad and all of his moms were strong, but they weren't no where near as powerful as they are in the future. So if the Burning Legion manages to bring more of their stronger demons to the world… he couldn't risk any chances.
After fending off more demons, Sans broke down the wall that was in his way and found himself arriving in a large room, where there were many different paths. There were about five hallways that lead to different direction. All of them lead deeper underground. The red haired male tried to think of his options.
"Which way?" Sans wondered, and then did what anyone in this situation would do.
Guess.
"I'll go…," Sans closed his eyes and point in a random direction. He opened his eyes and found his finger pointing at the second hallway entrance to the right next to the middle one, "This way!"
Sans then entered the hallway he chose. Corpses of the Magic Council guards littered the corridor, but even he was used to seeing such a sight after all his years of fighting the Legion.
'Dad, mom, hang on I'm coming!' Sans thought as he made his way through the passage way.
'WITH LAYLA AND ANGELICA'
"Taste my hammer!" Reinhardt shouted as he slammed his hammer down onto a group of fel guards in front of him.
As the titan celestial spirit fended off the demons in the room, the others were busy fighting the fel corrupted Aquarius. The water spirit unleashed a Torrent from her urn toward Angelica, who couldn't dodge it as it sent her flying into the wall. Layla then unleashed a fel fire roar at Aquarius. The corrupted celestial spirit simply dodges the attack, though this allowed Judgement to dash in and slash her with his sword. Angered by the attack, the water spirit was about to release a Bubble Shot at the light warrior spirit. However before she could, Angelica reappeared right behind her in her Havoc demon form before slamming her fist into the water bearer spirit. This caused the corrupted Aquarius to cry in pain as she slammed into the wall.
"She won't last long," Judgment pointed out as they watched Aquarius get back up from the demonic punch by Angelica, "The fel energy is destroying her body from within. If we don't finish her now she will be consumed by it." The spirit finished as he got his sword ready.
"We understand." Layla spoke as she too entered her Havoc demon form.
Angelica, still in her Havoc demon form, charged once again at the corrupted spirit, who was angered by the surprised attack from the future daughter of Natsu and Yukino. Aquarius fired off another Torrent at the silver haired woman, who simply dodged the attack as Angelica managed to get close enough to deal another blow to the blue haired spirit. Not letting up the assault, Layla ran in and delivered a fel fire powered fist into the back of the corrupted spirit's back. This caused Aquarius to be sent down to the ground. The spirit managed to get back up as she let out a shout of fury as she was about to attack once again.
However Judgment then appeared right in front of the fel corrupted Aquarius, which caught her off guard by the sudden appearance of the light warrior spirit.
"Aquarius! If you can hear me…," He began to speak as he began to swing his sword from underneath himself, "You will be tormented no longer!"
And with one swing and one shout from Judgment, Aquarius let out a scream of pain as she found herself split in two vertically as both celestial energy and fel energy poured from the two halves of the water bearer spirit. Layla, Angelica, Judgment, and Reinhardt, who finished off the other demons in the room, could only watch as the two halves of Aquarius began to simply disintegrate in celestial particles.
And then, nothing was left.
Judgement collapse on his knees, as the action he just did took a toll on him. Angelica and Layla exited their Havoc demon forms and ran to the spirit to make sure that he was alright.
"Judgment… are you alright?" Layla asked her spirit in concern as Reinhardt made his way to them.
"…I had to strike her down once more," Judgment began to speak as he look up to see his owner, "I remember clearly when the first Legion invasion happened. A while after the destruction of Old Crocus, Lady Lucy just found Aquarius and her key once again after so many years after the events of the Ishgar-Alvarez war. She found her again only for the Legion to take Aquarius from her," Judgement then grit his teeth in anger as he went on, though no one could tell due to his helmet, "I was still under her ownership before she gave me to you Layla when that day happened. There was so much happening that none of you parents could do anything to save her. I had no choice but to destroy her as the fel magic tore her soul apart from the inside."
Layla and Angelica were surprised to hear that. While they were told by their parents about the event, they didn't know Judgment himself was the one who dealt the finishing blow. Reinhardt put his hand on Judgment's shoulder, which got the light warrior's attention as he was now looking at his fellow spirit.
"You did what you had to do. Lucy and Brandish knew there was no other way to save her from the Legion's influence. So don't blame yourself Judgment. If anyone's at fault, it's the Legion." Reinhardt told him.
"Reinhardt's right Judgment," Angelica spoke, which caused the spirit to look at the future daughter of Natsu and Yukino, "It's because of the Burning Legion that all of this happened. You did what you had to do. The only thing we can do is avenge Aquarius for what the Legion did to her." She told him with a confident smile.
Judgment looked at her, before looking at Layla once again who also smiled at him. The light warrior spirit then let out a small chuckled.
"I can't just forget what I've done like that… but you are right. I can't just stay in pity like this while the Legion runs amok. Aquarius wouldn't want it either," Judgment then stood back up as he looked back at Layla, "If I may, I would like to stay out and help finish off the demons."
"Of course you can Judgemnt." Layla told him with a smile.
"Reinhardt, do you want to stay out as well?" Angelica asked her spirit, who gave her a thumb up.
"I would, you and the others need all the help you can get when it comes to these monsters." The titan spirit answered back.
"Alright, now let's go. We need to catch up to the others." Layla told them.
They nodded as they all headed to the direction where their parents and the others went. However, Judgment still didn't know how he would break this to Lucy and Brandish about Aquarius's death.
'WITH EVERYONE ELSE'
"What happened here?" Sting questioned as there were corpses of demons simply lying on the ground as they entered a rather large room with had multiple passages.
"Did the guards in the building managed to take them down?" Lisanna questioned as she looked around the room.
"I doubt it. There's no way the Magic Council's guards could do anything like this to the Legion." Daron spoke as he was inspecting a demon corpse.
Everyone was confused as to what happened. They didn't been this way yet, so if the Magic Council guards didn't clear this area then who did? However now that were stopping, Irene then noticed a lack of someone in the group.
"Wait a minute… wheres Sans?" The red haired woman questioned, which got the others attention. Those who weren't with the group that Sans was in when they went to fight off the Pit Lord. This of course made Hara remembered how he just up and vanished.
"I don't know, he just left during the battle against the Pit Lord." The future daughter of Natsu and Mirajane explained with a tick mark. She was still rather angered by the fact that Sans left them to fight the Pit Lord without helping.
"Well…," Rebecca began to speak, getting them to look at the light green haired woman, "Maybe Sans did this then? I mean where else would he go?" The future daughter of Natsu and Brandish suggested.
They all pondered her words. It would make sense if Sans found another way in the Magic Council Building. Though it still annoyed the future siblings that Sans was with to fight the Pit Lord that the red haired male would just go off and not wait for them.
"Question," Natsu spoke up which got all of their attention toward the pink haired demon, "Which way do we go?" He questioned, as there were five passages that lead to the underground of the Magic Council Headquarters. It didn't take long for Tiron to come up with a solution for that.
"We must split up, "The future son of Natsu and Hisui started to say as he turned to everyone else, "There are five passages, so all of us need to see where they all lead." He explained to them.
"He's right," Erza agreed with Tiron's plan, "Kagura, Millianna, Tom, Nagura, Juvia, Yuge, you all go to the first hallway on the far left. Tiron, Mira, Hara, Lisanna, Daron, Rogue, your group will go through the second hallway to the left of the middle one. Kamika, Marcel, Rose, Lucy, Cana, Garad, you all head to the path in the middle. Natsu, Irene, Maria, Brandish, Rebecca, and I will head in the one on the right next to the middle. Sting, Meredy, Ruby, Jellal, Yukino, you all will take the passage on the far right." The red haired woman told them all.
None of them seemed to have a problem with that, as they all simply agreed to what the S-Class mage of Fairy Tail told them.
"Alright! Let's go everyone!" Natsu exclaimed with a grin.
The five groups then went to their respective hallways in order to find and stop Zeraful from whatever the Inquisitor demon is planning.
So… what did you think? Good? Bad? Want me to punch myself repeatedly in the face? Let me know.
See you all next time, whenever that will be.
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The fish know all the secrets. They know the cold. They know the dark.