Mavis stared the two down, her grip on her blades tightened; it seemed like hours have passed and still no movement. When suddenly a titanic knight burst into reality holding a massive sword. The knight swung its blade at the two but was stopped by two equally intimidating titanic knights; one demonic, the other angelic. The three knights clashed their blades and upon impact sent ripples of shockwaves across the entire city. Mavis jumped into action; hopping onto her knight's arm she climbed onto the shoulder giving her enough height to finally engage her targets. As Mavis swung her sword both her light and dark self summoned their own weapons and returned an attack with equal force; but unlike before, Mavis was able to stand her ground. Parrying both blades, Mavis slipped past them and jumped onto the demon knight's blade, her opponent's following close behind. Getting her footing, Mavis dodged a beam of light before jumping back avoiding a dark wave. She proceeded to lunge forward managing to nick the side of Vermillion's hair. The demon knight raised its sword throwing Mavis off balance; she leaped off, landing on the shoulder of the angelic knight. The three titans continued to clash their swords, all doing their best to defeat the other and instate their position as the dominating force for their master.
Mavis stepped away from Vermillion's attack, only for the dark being to be kicked away by Mavis' light self who then attempted to stab Mavis through the heart. Luckily Mavis was quick enough to raise her energy blade to block it, but in the process, caused her to trip; she fell off the titan's shoulder, landing onto the swinging blade of the angelic knight. She quickly got up and started running down the blade towards the handle and onto its hand.
Rita could feel the rumbling, the sound of explosions and the sound of swords clashing; she turned to Satori who was sitting in the corner keeping an eye on her sister Koishi; she didn't look at all worried.
"That is because there is nothing to worry about, Ms. Rita" Satori said startling her. "From what I am reading, Mavis has stated her resolve, I am confident that she will be able to overcome this obstacle" Rita stared at her confused.
"How did you understand what I was thinking?"
"I am capable of reading minds" she grinned. "You are skeptical; believe me when I say that I have no reason to lie; every thought, every memory you have ever had is within my reach" at this point Rita was doing her best to blank out her mind, a little afraid of the elder Komeiji sister; Satori giggled.
"Don't worry, as long as you do not give me a reason to do so, I won't dig deep" Rita let out a breath of relief but was still a little concerned.
"So I am assuming you can tell what Mavis is doing right now?" she asked, Satori nodded.
"She is currently battling two of her selves" Rita looked confused. "The purpose of this training is for Mavis to master herself, she needs to retake control of her own mind and body. In this scenario; her future is split between two possibilities, a future where she fights for humans and a future where she fights for demons. Right now, she has rejected both possibilities and hopes to create a third path, to do so she will need to defeat both futures"
"And what happens if she loses?" Satori looked grim.
"I'm afraid she will lose herself in a rampage" Rita gasped, clasping her hands together prayed for Mavis' safety. There was a loud banging noise on the cellar door. Rita backed away.
"It would seem that those creatures have found their way through the barrier" Satori stated, though she wasn't worried; she turned to Koishi, who jumped up and made her way to the door.
"Who is it?" she called; she got scratching and more banging in response. Crossing her arms, Koishi shook her head, displeased. "How rude" she patted down her dress and grabbed the door knob. Satori upon seeing what her sister was doing pulled Rita further back. Opening the door Koishi was greeted with a swarm of shadow creatures, all staring hungrily at her.
"When people ask you a question; it is only polite to answer back" of course the creatures didn't reply, instead they bared their fangs. "And it's only polite to let people finish talking" taking a step back into the guild hall, she glanced over the hundreds of creatures surrounding her. Before any of them could attack, they all exploded; black goop rained down, Koishi rushed back inside the basement, wiping away the stains on her clothes. She smiled at her sister who stared at her with an eyebrow raised. Koishi knew what her sister was thinking and answered.
"Flan-chan was showing me some of her powers the other day" Satori sighed rubbing her temples.
"As long as you two were careful; I guess I have no complaints" she turned to Rita who was shaken by the scene. "As you can see, our guild has some very colorful individuals" Rita didn't say anything. Satori turned back to her sister. "Koishi, could you go out there and make sure no more of those things come through?" Koishi gave her sister the thumbs up while dancing out the door.
The young Komeiji was prancing around rooftops while dodging the creatures attacks. She saw the three titans fight and couldn't help be awed by their size.
"I can't wait to tell Re-chan and Flan-chan about this!"
Mavis was running alongside the angelic knight's blade while avoiding lasers fired by her light self. She knew her two futures were still hostile against each other; she needed to find a way to exploit that hatred. With all the attacks she was dodging, a thought did came to mind; she vaulted in the direction of her dark self, in the process the lasers hit Vermillion. Mavis recovered safely by landing on the shoulder of her own knight; turning around she watched her two selves fight. Her knight ducked under the angelic knights attack and sliced the angelic knight in half. With the two occupied Mavis summoned forth a lightning bolt from the sky, striking the two down. Mavis hopped onto the fallen angel knight and ran up its crumbling arm; once close enough she stabbed her light self through the chest.
"You fool" her clone gasped out. "You have doomed yourself..." Mavis however narrowed her eyes.
"No; I am freeing myself" she responded. Her light self burst into particles of light, which Mavis absorbed into her body. She could feel a powerful energy swirl within and an unusual emptiness of emotion. Without a second thought she turned around deflecting Vermillion's dark beam; the powerful attack instead struck the demonic knight in the head, blowing a hole on the side of its face.
"Fascinating; you absorb the power of the ones you've defeated" a curious grin forming on Vermillion's lips. "I wonder, what would happen if I were to absorb your essence" Mavis grinned back and challenged her.
"Why don't you try and find out" Vermillion burst into laughter.
"Oh, I'm starting to like you now". Mavis ran away while Vermillion gave chase, she could see the bloodlust, the hatred and the cruelty. Mavis now understood why she disagreed with both light and dark sides; neither held any emotion of love, compassion, joy or hope. They were nothing more than an empty shell, void of anything positive; they were the ones she had always dreaded to become. Parrying Vermillion's sword, Mavis stepped to the side dodging a follow up attack. In the distance she watched her own knight approach. The demonic knight conjured up a shield, using it to bash away Mavis' knight before cutting the knights arm off. With Vermillion being so aggressive, Mavis allowed herself to be pushed back; before their swords locked.
"Despite that power up, you are still lacking in strength" Vermillion said with a large amount of smugness that Mavis couldn't help but scoff to.
"You've become so reliant on power that you have forgotten the most important thing to combat" she responded; Vermillion looked amused.
"Oh? And what is that?"
"Outsmarting the enemy!" Mavis called as she swept her leg knocking Vermillion off her feet before jumping away; at the same time her knight swung its sword cutting right into the arm of the opposing titan and right on top of Vermillion.
Stumbling onto safe territory, Mavis perched on her knights shoulder, she didn't let her guard down; the two titans continued to struggle against each other which caused her eyes to narrow with concern; she stepped closer to the edge looking down at the rubble where Vermillion fell. With the opposing knight still active she knew Vermillion was still alive. There was a sudden chill as the entire city went cold; Vermillion burst out and appeared right in front of Mavis; she grabbed the Fairy Tail mage by the collar and flung her straight into the demon knight's arm. Mavis skid across the surface; eyes widening as she rolled to the side; Vermillion had sent a breath of fire at her, managing to graze Mavis' sides. But Vermillion wasn't letting up, launching another wave of attacks, she forced Mavis to conjure up a magic shield as waves and waves of magic bullets impacted against it.
The demonic knight shoulder charged into its opponent; the impact caused Mavis to lose her footing; she fell and Vermillion's magic bolts hit her in the stomach and left arm. Crashing through a roof she screamed in pain, a piece of wood piercing her leg. She grabbed her bleeding stomach and took deep breaths before grabbing the shrapnel; with one swift stroke, she yanked it out; she muffled her screams while her body started to heal itself.
"She's gone on a rampage..." Mavis whispered.
"You got that right" Natsu responded. "Be wary of a rampaging demon; they are quite difficult to tame" Mavis took note of his words and was already formulating a plan. Her thoughts interrupted when the wall behind her collapsed, Mavis swerved around ready to face whatever was coming but only to find Koishi run towards her.
"Yoohoo!" the young Komeiji greeted. She grabbed Mavis' hand and pulled her into a sprint.
"What's going on?" Mavis asked, Koishi giggled.
"I may have attracted some unwanted attention" Mavis peered behind her and saw a horde of shadow creatures chasing them.
"What about your sister and Rita?"
"They are still inside the guild basement" she started running towards the knights "But these creatures were barging in so I had to redirect them" she smiled happily. "How have you been?" Mavis couldn't help but envy her carefree nature.
"I've been dealing with that thing" she pointed to the demonic knight. "Do you think you can help me?" Koishi nodded eagerly.
"Sounds fun" Mavis raised a brow, fun was the last thing she would describe the situation, she adjusted her plan; with Koishi's involvement, the probability of success increased. But first they needed to get rid of the shadow creatures chasing them.
"Did you round them all up?" she asked, Koishi nodded.
"Yep" Mavis stopped and turned. Gathering light magic into her hands, she slammed it onto the ground; a fissure of light erupted from beneath all the shadow creatures vaporizing them all.
"Fascinating" she whispered to herself; the power she absorbed, opened up new possibilities to her abilities; but something felt off, like she only held one half of her potential power. She turned back to the knights before facing Koishi.
"Stay hidden and when I give you the signal, I want you to do your best to destroy the ground beneath the demon looking knight" Koishi saluted.
"Roger" the young demon ran off leaving Mavis to run back towards Vermillion.
Standing on the shoulder of her knight, Mavis started her counterattack; locating the whereabouts of Vermillion, the dark being was standing on top of the head of the demon knight. Mavis sent a disk of light flying at her, it was blocked by a shield.
"She set up the energy shield around her again" but luckily, Mavis knew the extent of its capabilities, she fired up her energy blade. When the two knights reengaged; the two mages did the same, leaping at each other in the air. Vermillion punched Mavis with an empowered fist, but missed; Mavis was able to predict its trajectory and moved to the side allowing Vermillion to fly right by her. The two landed on the demon knight's sword; Vermillion continued throwing out many powerful but sluggish punches, making it easy for Mavis to dodge them; by the fifth attack; Mavis tripped Vermillion and stabbed into the barrier, immediately shattering it. Vermillion kicked Mavis away, following up by raining magic bolts; Mavis was quick, meeting the attack with her own magic bullets. As they continued their onslaught, Vermillion threw out a whip catching Mavis' ankle and pulled her closer; however this was a mistake; it brought Mavis close enough to knock Vermillion across the jaw. Both now on the ground, Mavis rolled over, avoiding the knights massive sword. Once the blades parted Mavis prepared herself, anticipating an attack; she grabbed Vermillion's punch and started swinging her around before slamming her into the ground; there was a crack.
Vermillion started radiating power; Mavis backed away, create as much distance as possible when suddenly, out of nowhere two demonic hands grabbed hold of her. Mavis struggled against the grip and could feel herself get torn apart. Vermillion started laughing maniacally.
"I'm going to enjoy tearing you to pieces, bit by bit"
"Don't think I will make it easy for you" Vermillion snorted.
"You are trapped, you have nowhere to go and you're still trying to act tough" but it was Mavis' turn to laugh, shaking her head she stared at her other self with pity.
"All that power has truly caused you to forget all about tactics and strategy" Vermillion narrowed her eyes trying to figure out what Mavis was saying.
"Koishi, do it Now!" Mavis screamed. The ground collapsed as an explosion blew off the demonic knight's legs at the very same time Mavis' knight swung its sword in an uppercut, completely shattering the demonic knight's sword. Vermillion staggered, in the process releasing Mavis from her grasp; the Fairy Tail mage used this chance to tackle Vermillion down, free falling in the air.
Falling Mavis created a grappling hook, tossing it she attached it to one of the large shrapnel's of the broken sword and with a yank launched it at Vermillion; it plunged straight through her chest. They crashed, Mavis feeling sore all over was trying to get her bearings; she stumbled out of the rubble, searching for her dark self; she heard a cough and moved to the source.
"You... certainly proved to be... more capable than I anticipated" Vermillion gasped out, she was drowning in her own blood. It was a horrific sight but Mavis stayed silent. "But it looks like you win" Vermillion breathed out her last words before disappearing; dark magic swirled around being absorbed into Mavis.
The girl let out a sigh of relief; it was finally over. However before she could do anything else, a powerful surge of magic flowed through her, the sudden jolt was too much and she started to lose consciousness; the last thing she heard was Rita screaming her name.
"Mavis!"