Chapter 15
Yawn… uh? What? Disclaimer? What are you on about? Ugh screw you, go to chapter 1 or 10 they're over there, now go away, I'm trying to sleep… stupid lawyers…
As the perfect ball of solid ice collided with Erigor's head and sent him hurtling away from his group of underlings the light faded and a massive double headed axe collided with the hasty defence of a startled dark mage, colliding with it, him and the three behind him; knocking them all out instantly
At the other end of the axe was a large anthropomorphic bull, with a black hide and pupil less eyes. His large torso was covered by a silver chestplate that Lucy knew to be made of moonsteel; his head was adorned by a normandic esque helmet but with large curved horns and the hands he was using to swing his giant-fuck-off-axe with were covered by spiked gauntlets made of a black metal. The golden ring in his nose, the lack of pupils and the enraged look on his face were enough to send a few of the dark mages packing
Swinging the axe around again, taking out three more mages, the large spirit let out an enrage roar like "moo" that echoed across the group before continuing his assault
"And here I thought this would be difficult" Lucy said condescendingly as she watched her spirit tear through the opposing mages
A mere few paces away Gray was facing off against Erigor who was looking no worse for wear despite the large chunk of ice that would have given a normal man a decent concussion
"So the pathetic fairies will be the ones to stand in our way, tch no matter, you, like many before you, will fall to the scythe of the Death God!" The floating man exclaimed, twirling his weapon threateningly
"Not likely, ICE MAKE: COLD EXCALIBUR!" Gray yelled. A great sword easily as long as he was tall and then some formed in about half a second, appearing in his outstretched hands, the large ice blade was wicked sharp and a bright white/blue, with curved decals and a cluster of crystals along the hilt and pommel. Without hesitation the somehow now mostly naked ice mage swung his new weapon on the apathetic wind mage.
In retaliation Erigor simply spun the edge of his scythe around to block the overhead blow, all without moving from a floating lotus position he had assumed, with a bored look he "tch'd" again and with barely a flinch a gust of wind blew past him and directly into Gray, knocking him back but not over. Undeterred Gray rushed forward again and continued swinging.
But despite all his efforts, he couldn't land a hit, every swing was met with Erigor's parry and with every thrust Erigor summoned a gust of wind to redirect it away from his person
"What's the matter? Why aren't you fighting back? Oh I know! I've got you on the run don't I? You can't even get enough of a break to attack me can you?" Gray baited the dark mage, whose eyes narrowed in annoyance before he rushed forward at a speed that could have rivalled Lisanna or even Jet, and swung his scythe in a wide arc, with the sole intention of taking the cocky mage's head off
Surprised, but unflinching Gray brought up his icy blade to parry only to have it cleaved clean in two. Only after a short exclamation of surprise, a hasty duck and a large leap out of slicing range did Gray fully grasp how much trouble he was in
Crap. This guy's strong, I'm gunna have to pull out all the stops with this one. Falling again into his summoning stance Gray began collecting power as he mentally went through anything he could make that could help him in this situation.
With only the warning of a strong gust of wind to prepare him, Erigor was in his face, grinning like a madman and his scythe slicing through the air towards him, he was out of time to prepare.
Panicking, Gray placed his hands in front of him and unleashed a burst of raw ice magic, taking the form of basic crystalline structures the blast of blue energy and ice shards shoved Erigor back.
The wind mage, now looking a little worse for wear looked in disdain at the large ice shard still attached to his chest before spinning his weapon around and smashing it off with only the slightest of winces
"Oh man, Ur would've had my ass if she saw that one. I need to work on raw stylising." Gray muttered, already forming a plan
"Silence! You have tried my patience for long enough fly! I will destroy you and then the pathetic legal guilds you love so much!" Erigor screeched as he prepared to rush the shirtless man again
"ICE MAKE: RAZOR SPACE!" Gray called, using a large portion of his magic energy to create hundreds if not thousands of subtilely complex, razor sharp icicles that hung in the air around him, razor sharp ice bits that Erigor flew straight into.
The man screamed in pain and fell from the air as his concentration was broken, thousands of tiny cuts peppered his body and even his scythe seemed to be chipped in places, before he could get over the sudden pain of both the attack and thudding to the ground Gray called out
"ICE MAKE: RESTRAINTS", thick pillars of ice materialised either side of the fallen dark mage and quickly wrapped around his body, forcing his arms to his sides and allowing no movement from his legs, the pillars then burrowed into the ground and anchored themselves there
Shocked back into awareness by the cold of his opponent's magic Erigor thrashed and writhed against his restraints that looked like they were carved out of marble.
"One of you idiots get me out of here!" He screamed after struggling fruitlessly for a couple of minutes, he raised his head to glare at his guild mates who had as of yet not come to help him, only to find them all unconscious, severely injured or both as three women approaching his captor
"Good work Gray" Erza called, having switched back into her regular attire, she was tailed by Lucy and Lisanna; who was still in her tigress takeover and was talking animatedly to Lucy about a pair of dark purple combat boots she had in her hands, as they approached Gray managed to make out what they were saying
"I dunno Lis, that colour really wouldn't look good on you" Lucy said eyeing the boots sceptically
"The colour doesn't matter, I can change that, I just wanted to know if you thought these would look good on this takeover?" The white haired woman reiterated
"Oh, well I don't know, why don't you try them on" Lucy recommended, Lisanna nodded and began to study the soles of the boots closely, moments later a white sparkly light enveloped her feet, leaving them bare, then the light seemed to materialise a layer of rubber that slowly formed into the tread of the boots
As Lisanna examined the boots they slowly appeared on her legs as she created them from her rudimentary understanding of how they acted, I'll fine tune them later she thought, soon a pair of dirty-white combat boots clad her lower legs rather than the foot wraps, she smiled in appreciation; liking how they looked
"Oh! They look amazing!" Lucy squealed while Erza nodded in agreement
"I must agree" a voice that, for lack of a better word, sounded extremely camp called, drawing the attention of the four assembled mages, their gazes fell on a fat bald man wearing an unfortunately unflattering pink dress and sparkly fairy wings, standing at his side was the familiar moustached dwarf of Makarov, behind the two was a sunglassed man with long sandy blonde hair under a black pointed hat, both the hat and his neck had a red spiked collar on them
"Masters" Erza greeted respectfully with a nod
"Good work you four" Makarov praised them
"I see you captured Erigor, Gray how long do you think that will restrain him for?" Makarov asked
"I'm not sure, but at least an hour and besides with you hear now it hardly matters" the ice wizard responded
"Oohhh. So you're the one who captured the big bad Erigor, mmm handsome and strong…" The bald cross dresser exclaimed as he clamped himself around one of Gray's arms
"I. Uhh… Thanks?... Could you, uhh let go please." Gray stuttered, decidedly uncomfortable
"Let go of my child Bob, you're upsetting him" Makarov said sternly, causing the dolled up man to release him, he gave a grateful look to his master before hearing stifled laughter from his gold and platinum haired companions, Gray then turned to glare at them, only causing them to laugh harder
"Aww Makarov you're no fun…" Bob pouted at his fellow master before turning to direct a 'seductive' look at Gray
"Feel free to call me anytime handsome" he invited and Gray shuddered, Erza put a hand on his shoulder in consolidation, he saw in her eyes a gaze of understanding.
"Anyway master, I take it the rune knights are on their way?" Erza asked professionally
Makarov opened his mouth to answer but he was cut off by maniacal laughter courtesy of Erigor
"FOOLS! Not even the rune knights can save you now!" He yelled with a positively evil grin on his face
"What are you yelling about Erigor?" The collared man retorted in exasperation, only to Erigor to laugh all the harder
"Calm yourself Goldmine, I fear we will find out what our captive means sooner rather than later" Makarov reasoned ominously
As the trapped man simply continued to laugh a large dark purple magic circle appeared on the ground beneath him and began to expand, Lisanna gasped in surprise
"Everyone! Get away!" She screamed as she leapt away, the others following suit
"What's the problem child?" Makarov asked concerned by Lisanna's drastic action
"I recognised the magic wavelength, its demon transformation magic!" She explained and returned her full attention to the still cackling Erigor
"What!? That can't be right, Erigor isn't a takeover mage and your sister is the only instance of demon soul magic I've ever heard of!" Goldmine exclaimed beginning to sweat nervously, he had heard the tales of the oldest Strauss sister and a mage with the reputation of Erigor with magic like hers could be catastrophic
"No. It's not takeover magic, hell, it's not even Erigor's, I think he released the seal on the flute and now it's taking its original form" Lisanna theorised
As she completed the thought, her fears were proven right as the circle shone with a purple light and a gigantic creature quickly grew, forming an enormous wooden monster with twisted limbs and three glowing red eyes, it let out a screech to the heavens that temporarily deafened them all
"HAHAHA YES! LULLABY! HEAR MY COMMAND! DESTROY THESE FLIES THAT…" Erigor screamed in demented euphoria but was cut off by the five story demon slamming its fist down on top of him, bringing its head down to the level of the collected fairy tail mages and masters, the giant beast let out another scream, this one filled with dark energy that rocketed towards them at a frightening speed
"ICE MAKE: GLACIAL SHEILD!"
"ADAMANTINE ARMOUR!"
A large stained glass window looking ice sculpture appeared before the collected mages but only briefly held off the demon's attack, the black beam punched through and directly into Erza
The red head was now clad in a full dark blue and silver-white armour suit, with a menacing crown esque helmet and bulky shoulder guards, on each of her arms was a large black semi-oval of metal with more silver-white ridges and spines, they were both as tall as she herself was and as she put them together they resembled a large turtle shell
In her new garb Erza had no trouble holding off the beam and with barely a grunt of effort she reflected and redirected it off into the horizon where it levelled the hill she and the others had camped when they first arrived
Before she could make any form of command to her teammates they were already on the move, Lisanna had switched into her arctic fox takeover and was speeding towards the now risen demon, Lucy summoned Taurus in his battle form and Gray was in his stance; a solid, wide stance with one hand in a fist, placed in the palm of his other and was collecting magic
She smiled and quickly changed into an armour set she had that had been specifically created to counter Mira when she was in her prime: her saint's spirit armour and blessed blade, the armour was not dissimilar to her standard heart kreuz with the exception being it was made of white form fitting metal plates, inlaid with gold and various gemstones and the standard blue skirt and boots were replaced with full leg plating and a short red skirt that reached down to the upper-middle of her thighs, clasped over her left shoulder was a long red cape with gold embroidery with the symbols of both fairy tail and the church of zentopia printed apon it in black and white respectively. Her hair stayed down but seemed straighter and more disciplined, it was no longer in her face or over her shoulders, her head was left unarmoured but the golden collar of the chest piece did rise and curl in two long strips behind her head that formed a circle that her hair fell through.
Like its accompanying armour, the sword was anything but ordinary: it's blade was golden with a wide surface at its end that curved in slightly before widening out again as you went down the blade, two points pointed towards the silver guard, the design of which looked remarkably like the intricate horns of a demon, before the blade thinned down to a regular width as it connected with its guard and handle, the connecting point was accentuated with a large sapphire that seemed to swirl with magic energy. Erza clasped the leather handle itself with her gauntleted right hand and a magic mirage of a pair of white feathered wings appeared, originating at the sapphire in the guard, they spread and wrapped themselves around the entire of Erza's arm before fading away
While the mirage appeared and faded Lisanna had already reached the giant demon and with a mighty leap reached its eye level, before quickly changing herself into her heavy hitting polar bear soul and spinning in midair she delivered a ground shaking kick to the area between the beast's three eyes
"ICE MAKE: TRIPWIRES!"
The demon attempted to take a step back to rebalance itself from the kick that had, briefly, put cracks in its face only to find it couldn't move its legs further back due to a veritable web of ice cables that were easily as thick and strong as steel, and as the laws of gravity entail, lullaby fell. The colossal dust cloud kicked up by its unceremonious fall and the ensuing shockwave both blinded the present mages and temporarily knocked them off balance
"ICE MAKE: RESTRAINTS!"
As the dust began to settle the mages saw the beast slowly getting back to its feet and as a counter measure Gray, using a larger version of the restraints he used on Erigor, tied the demon's legs together and tethered them to the ground, once again causing the monster to topple into its back, before falling to his knees himself due to magic exhaustion.
"Taurus! Grab its arm and hold it in place!" Lucy commanded her spirit so it couldn't break the ice holding it down, rushing over to its right arm Taurus dispelled his axe and grabbed the monster's wrist and using all his strength held it in place, Lisanna caught on quickly and did the same to the wooden behemoth's other arm using the enhanced strength of both her polar bear soul and a minor dragon slaying technique she had been mastering. Seeing that the beast was restrained, at least for now, Erza literally jumped into action
"LIGHT OF ZENTOPIA!"
Erza leapt into the air high above the prone lullaby, time seems to slow as her golden blade glowed a holy white and she did a half flip so her body was perpendicular to the earth, straight as an arrow she appeared to be diving towards the earth in the instant her attack finished charging, with the blade above her head and her body now glowing the with the same white light as her sword, time restarted.
In a flash, all the energy she had amassed in her armour and weapon was released and she shot towards the prone monster's chest like a bullet, a great explosion of light and wood ensued, Taurus was dispelled by the intense shockwave and Lisanna was violently thrown back only to be caught by Makarov's giant palm, courtesy of his Titan magic.
As the sawdust began to settle all that was left of lullaby was its forearms and the top half of its head, the damaged ends of which were slowly going black and drifting away on the breeze, debris from the defeated demon continued to rain down on the fairy tail mages and the present masters. Seeing an opportunity, Lisanna, who was now back in her regular form quickly snatched a twig of the demon's carcass and pushed a little preserving magic into it, to stop it dissolving, then quickly hid it within the inner pockets of her dress. Only Makarov saw her do this and knew it was for her sister; Lisanna still held onto the hope that Mira would regain her takeover: demon soul magic and so collected artefacts with demon essence for her sister to use as base points for new takeovers should she want to (it also had a little to do with a dragon slayer's natural tendency to hoard things)
"Oh my! That was explosive" Bob exclaimed with an impressed air about him, they had all thought the giant monster would be harder to defeat but four of Makarov's brats had done it with seemingly very little problem. Well, both Gray and Lucy were magically exhausted and Lisanna's vision was blurry and her steps uneven due to shock.
From the direction of the conference hall an entire regiment of Rune Knights, all armed to the teeth, only to see nothing but two impressed guild masters, one indifferent one, two exhausted mages and two standing, albeit one a little shakily.
"What the hell happened here!" The commander of the regiment demanded from behind the visor of his helmet as he gestured with heavy armoured arms towards the crater Erza calmly stood in, now back in her typical heart kreuz armour
"Well you see…" Makarov started
"Flint" the commander imputed
"Well you see Flint, this convict…" Makarov began again, gesturing towards the battered Erigor who, despite being crushed under a demon was spasmodically twitching the one limb that wasn't hideously broken
"Released a demon in an attempt to kill myself and my fellow guild masters, but my four children here managed to defeat it before it could do any damage" the short man explained politely
"Huh, well that's good and all but the damages here are extensive so I'm going to need you three to act as witnesses and write a report on what happened here" Flint explained causing the three guild masters to groan and the extensive paper work they were going to be subjected to
"And you lot! Collect anyone with a dark guild mark and get them locked up, and lose the armour, it apparently isn't necessary" Flint commanded before walking off to take off the frankly annoyingly heavy armour he had hastily put on after being told he would be fighting a FUCKING DEMON!
Lisanna laughed at the crest fallen faces of the guild masters before walking over to the passed out Lucy and discreetly giving her enough energy to wake up, at least enough to walk with assistance
"Ugh, what!?" The blonde complained at being woken up
"Come on, you can sleep when we get back to the hotel, Happy get Gray, we're going" Lisanna called to her blue companion
"Aye Ma'am!"
Not as many words this time. Ah well. Hopefully the next chapter won't be so far away (although I wouldn't count on it, sorry). Anywho, I recently got a beta and she told me to make the format like it is in this chapter (each person talking is a new line) I've got to say I kinda like it, so if you agree, tell me and I'll go back through the other chapters and make them the same (it would be a good excuse to fix any errors as well)
Since I've basically realised I'm rubbish at romance I've changed the tags to the ever ambiguous action/adventure since the action is the thing I enjoy doing most about this fic and Colourscape just kinda died, I'll think of some way to finish it eventually, probably.
As always tell me what you think and what I can do to improve, as well as ideas for new things, like takeovers, armours, spirits, honestly anything I don't care, if it's cool; I write it. But ideas for Virgo's new battle form would be appreciated since I only have a rough idea for her atm.