Chapter 5: The Tower of Heaven
I'm back my wonderful fans! And with a new friend who I call, Chapter 5! I hope that you all can get along with him, despite his rudeness for his lateness!
In all seriousness though, I am very pleased with how this story is turning out. The positivity that is coming from the reviews is making me very happy. Hopefully I can keep pumping out chapters that all of you will love.
I've decided to bring Review Time to this story as well, now lets go through the reviews for Chapter 4!
Wentsufan234 (Guest): Yeah, the romance will start after the timeskip. I know that this might be a long time, but good things come to those who wait. Elemental Skies? That sounds like an interesting name.
By the way, as I'm an avid FFXIV gamer, I get some Pharos Sirius vibes from this tower. Watch a play-through and you'll see what I mean.
Side note: I'm going by the manga as I can't find the episodes for this ark incase any of you get confused by the events here.
Now then, let's get this party started!
(Off The Coast of Akane Resort)
The group of mages quickly moved through the underwater passage towards the interior of the tower. They emerged in an underground cavern and climbed up onto a platform.
"So this is the bottom," Natsu noted.
"That took some more time than I thought it would," Neo noted.
"Yeah," Lucy agreed.
"Juvia is surprised you made it as Juvia purposely made your bubble smaller than everyone else's," Juvia muttered. Lucy looked at her in shock while Neo just shook his head at the woman's antics.
"Intruders!" a guard on a flying beast shouted. Almost instantly, there was a large battalion of guards on the walkways.
Neo sighed and said, "We should have just busted through the front door at this rate, probably would have taken less time as well."
"Oh well, no use complaining now! Elemental Soul: Earth!" Neo transformed into his earthen form and hefted up a large stone in his arms. Natsu and Gray were already at work taking out their share of the guards. Lucy had summoned Virgo and used their distraction to her bathing suit to easily finish them off. Juvia merely swept them away with her water as she couldn't be harmed by their weapons.
"Hey morons! Catch!" Neo shouted as he threw the rock at the guards, taking out a lot of them. He then slammed his arms onto the ground and generated a wave of rubble that took out the rest of them. Neo was then surrounded by guards, and he raised an eyebrow in amusement.
"Element Shift: Lighting!" Neo changed into his lightning form and crossed his arms.
"Discharge!" Neo cried as he threw his arms out, a shockwave of electricity emerging from his body and shocking all of the guards. About half of them fell, while the others were wobbling on their feet.
"You're still up? Guess I didn't put enough into that, let's try again," Neo said as he crossed his arms once more. "Dis...CHARGE!" Neo cried as he let out a larger burst of electricity, shocking the guards badly, and making sure that they fell. Neo then changed back to normal as everyone met up again.
"Well that was a good workout," Neo said as he cracked his neck. Then a large stone passageway came from the mouth of an ancient looking face.
"I think this is their way of saying 'come on in'," Gray said.
"They're obviously expecting us," Lucy told them.
Neo stepped forward and said, "Well, the best way to take care of a trap is to spring it while being prepared."
After heading though the tower and taking care of more guards, the group ended up in some kind of dining room with a large table full of food. Natsu and Gray instantly jumped over and began to eat while Juvia just took some soup.
"Now isn't the time!" Lucy shrieked. Neo just shrugged and grabbed some meat before beginning to eat.
"Why not? It would be a waste otherwise," Neo told her.
"By the way Princess, your outfit leaves little to the imagination," Virgo told her summoner.
"Really? You think I should change?" Lucy asked as she hugged herself. Virgo gained a glint in her eyes and advanced towards Lucy before pouncing on her, changing her right in front of everyone.
"Don't look at her my beloved!" Juvia wailed as Gray gawked at the scene before him. Neo choked on his meat at Virgo's actions and quickly wiped away a trickle of blood from his nose.
Natsu was still stuffing his face.
"So how do I look?" Lucy asked as she posed. She was wearing a green dress with a green hair-cover over her head.
"Look's great," Gray told her, much to Juvia's dismay.
"They're here!" Everyone turned to see several guards rushing towards them. As they prepared o fight, the guards were thrown aside by Erza.
"Erza!" They all shouted in surprise. Erza looked at them with a shocked face.
"What are you all doing here?" Erza asked in a strained tone.
"We came to rescue you!" Lucy told her.
"You have to leave here now!" Erza demanded.
The group was shocked at her words. "What?!" Natsu and Gray shouted, anger visible in their eyes.
"This place is dangerous, you shouldn't be here! Leave now!" Erza demanded once again.
Natsu stepped forward and said, "I'm not leaving here until I pay back that blocky guy for shooting me in the mouth! And not until I get Happy back!"
"What? They have Happy?" Erza asked. "It must have been Milliana, don't worry, Milliana loves cats, so she wouldn't hurt Happy."
"I don't care! I'm going to get my little buddy back!" Natsu roared as he raced into the tower.
"Natsu!" Gray shouted as he began to move. That is, until Erza blocked his path with a sword.
"What the Hell Erza!?" Neo shouted.
"You have to leave this place now!" Erza yelled. "I won't allow you to get involved with this!"
"We were involved the moment you were taken!" Neo yelled back. "Did you just expect us to leave you on your own?! We're Fairy Tail Wizards for crying out loud! Now are you gonna tell us what's your deal with this place or what?!"
Erza was stunned for a moment before she sighed and looked back at the group with tears falling out of her left eye, socking everyone.
"I wasn't always the strong Titania that you all know now..."
So Erza told them her story, about how she and many children were captured by Dark Wizards to be used as slaves to construct the tower that they were standing in today. She told them of her friends, the ones who captured her, and about Jellal, the boy who gave her hope.
Eventually, they tried to escape, and Erza was taken to be punished as an example to the others, costing her her right eye. Jellal had rallied the other slaves to fight back, which had allowed him to rescue her, and she joined in the revolt. Jellal was captured by the Dark Wizards, and Erza had to watch her surrogate grandfather, Rob, be killed defending her.
When she had reached Jellal, he had changed, claiming that he would finish the tower in the name of Zeref, before banishing her to the mainland while destroying the other ships, claiming that Erza had destroyed them. He had convinced them to continue building the tower, in hopes that they would be freed.
"...and after that, I wandered around until I reached Fairy Tail. You should already know what happened then."
"So now that you're here, you want to face your past and finish what you started," Neo spoke. Erza nodded and Neo sighed. "Now that I know this, it'd leave a bad taste in my mouth if we left at this point.
"Hold on, you said that they wanted to revive Zeref," Lucy began, "wasn't he the one who created Lullaby?"
"And Deliora," Erza confirmed, much to Gray's shock. "Zeref was a Black Wizard who could create demons with ease. I don't know why Jellal would believe that reviving him would lead them to paradise, but I intend to put an end to that nightmare."
"Such a wonderful story Nee-chan."
Everyone turned to see the dark skinned male standing before them.
"Sho," Erza muttered.
"It's too bad that it's all a lie," Sho sneered. "Do you honestly think that anyone who was actually here at the beginning would ever believe your story? I know what really happened!"
"Jellal told us that you went mad with all of your magic power and destroyed the ships we were going to use to escape! You left us behind!" Sho screamed.
"Do you honestly believe that?" Neo asked. "If that were true, then there would be a lot of crazy people in the world."
Sho stepped back for a second before he glared at them and said, "Shut up! You fools don't understand anything about us! Jellal saved us so we've devoted our lives to building this tower for him for the past 8 years! For Jellal! Has all of this been a lie?!"
"Correct," a deep voice replied. Everyone turned to see the Mage with the metal mask at the doorway.
"Simon!" Erza gasped while Sho looked at him in shock.
"Jellal had lied to us, all to keep us here and build this tower for him," Simon said as he approached the group.
"You again!" Gray growled as he prepared to attack the Mage, but Juvia stopped him.
"Wait Gray-sama, Juvia saw that he knew that he defeated our fakes, but he never came after Juvia, who would not be able to move while protecting you," Juvia explained. Gray huffed but lowered his arms.
"As expected of one of Phantom's Four," Simon said before turning to Sho. "I was originally going to knock you out, but your clone made things easier."
"You...tricked us?" Sho gasped.
"You, Wally, Milliana, and everyone else have been fooled by Jelal," Simon explained. "I pretended to go along all these years."
"Simon...you..." Erza whispered.
"I never lost faith in you," Simon told her.
"How? How can you just trust her like that?" Sho asked as he fell to his knees. "Who am I supposed to believe!?"
Erza approached him and knelt down. "I know it's hard to accept everything right now, but just know that I never stopped thinking about you guys."
"Are you ready to go?" Simon asked. "I've been waiting for this moment for 8 years, when powerful mages would gather here."
"You want us to fight Jelal, right?" Neo asked, to which Simon nodded.
"But first we need to stop Salamander and Wally from fighting, we need everyone at full strength," Simon told them.
"Then let's go!" Neo shouted as he raced towards the hallway, everyone following his lead. "So which way?"
"One moment," Simon told him as he put two fingers to his head. "Damnit! My link with Wally and Milliana is being blocked!"
"Link?" Lucy echoed.
"Thought Transmission Magic," Juvia told her.
"Are you sure we can trust this guy?" Gray asked. "I mean, I accept that he didn't try to kill us, and that's all good. But in that situation, Natsu and Lucy could have died."
"I won't try to make excuses, but I will say that you're underestimating Natsu's power," Simon told him.
"And what about me?" Lucy asked shakily, only to be ignored.
"You still haven't reaized Natsu's true power, the power of a Dragon Slayer," Simon continued.
Suddenly, there was a large rumbling through the tower. All the Fairy Tail mages looked at one another and nodded in agreement.
"Natsu," They all said.
"So he must have defeated Wally and Milliana then," Simon sighed. "While not having theit help is regrettable, there is no avoiding what was bound to happen."
"Welcome everybody," a voice rang throughout the tower. "Welcome to the Tower of Heaven."
"What's going on?" Neo asked.
"Jellal is using the transmission system to speak with us," Simon explained.
"I am Jellal, the one who controls this tower," he continued. "All the pieces on both sides has been placed, it's time to begin The Paradise Game."
"A game? What game?" Lucy asked.
"The rules are simple, I will use Erza as a sacrifice in a ceemony to revive Zeref. Needless to say, if I open the gates to Paradise, then I win."
"Does he honestly think that we'll let him use Erza as a sacrifice?" Neo growled.
"If you can prevent this, then you win. But to make the game more interesting, I have four players on my side, and you have to beat them to get me. Thus, a seven on four battle."
"'Four players'?" Simon echoed. "Who could they be?"
"Lastly, there's a time limit. The Magic Council plans to attack this place using Etherion."
"They're using WHAT!?" Neo cried, voicing everyone's thoughts.
"I don't think I need to explain what happens when it fires, but it will be Game Over for everyone. So enjoy."
"Etherion? From the Council?" Erza whispered. "They couldn't be so reckless as to do so, could-"
She was cut off as Sho turned her into a card.
"What are you doing?!" Simon shouted.
"I won't let anyone lay a hand on Nee-san. I'll kill Jellal myself!" Sho declared as he began running down a corridor.
"I'll go after him!" Neo shouted as he ran after the dark skinned boy. "You guys go find Natsu!"
Neo took off after the former subordinate of Jellal. He would have caught up to him by now, but the young man had a good set of leg muscles on him.
"Damnit! Just slow down already!" Neo yelled as he raced after Sho.
"No! I'm going to kill Jellal and keep Nee-san safe!" Sho yelled back.
The chase continued on for a few more minutes until they heard the sound of ringing bells and saw cherry blossoms floating around.
"The Hell?" Sho asked as he came to a stop, Neo just behind him.
A pink haired woman wearing a white kimono with red accents slowly walked towards them while singing. She had large platform sandals on her feet, and a long katana in her hands.
"I am Ikaruga. Greetings," The woman introduced herself.
"Move it," Sho demanded.
"Oi, calm down," Neo told him. "Can't you tell she's not someone to take lightly?"
"My my, such a boorish young man," Ikaruga chided.
"Out of the way!" Sho yelled as he threw a storm of cards at her. She calmly gripped her katana and quickly unsheathed it, slicing all of the cards down the middle in an instant.
"There is nothing I cannot slice through," Ikaruga calmly said as she took action again, this time cutting up Sho along the chest.
"Sho!" Erza and Neo shouted out.
"Oh?" Ikaruga noted Erza's card as she floated down to the ground. "So you were there all along."
"Let Erza out! That woman's not your average swordsman!" Neo shouted.
"Don't worry, that card's a separate dimension, it's impossible to hurt Nee-chan while she's in-" Sho was cut off by a flash of light as Ikaruga slashed again. Sho looked on in shock as the woman's slashed actually went into the card after Erza, who was blocking them furiously.
"She cut into a different dimension!?" Sho exclaimed. Ikaruga kept on slashing, increasing her speed and unleashing more attacks. Neo tightened his fists and began to channel magic into his arms to attack, but Erza suddenly appeared and the card she was trapped in was reduced to ribbons.
"Thanks to you, there was a distortion on space that allowed me to make my escape," Erza explained as she faced the pink haired woman. "Now stand down or else."
"Erza, I highly doubt that she'll leave just because you asked," Neo told her.
"Fufufu..." Ikaruga chuckled.
"What?" Erza gasped as her armor was destroyed.
"That was a greeting," Ikaruga told her. "Oh? Don't tell me you didn't see that?"
'That sword style, it seems like an enhanced version of Iaido,' Neo thought. 'I hope Erza can handle this.'
"You were so focused on rushing towards Jellal, that you never noticed the flurry of slices that rushed towards you," Iakruga told Erza. "I am no mere passerby on the road."
"So it would seem," Erza agreed as she Re-quiped into her Heavens Wheel armor. Both of the swordswomen prepared themselves to attack.
In an instant, they leapt towards one another and unleashed a flurry of strikes from their swords. Erza then leapt up into the air and summoned more swords.
"Circle Sword!" Erza cried as she sent a spinning ring of swords at her opponent.
Ikaruga merely smirked and gripped the handle of her sword. "Mugetsu-Ryuu. Yahsa Senkuu!" She cried as she unleashed a slash from her sword that sliced apart all of Erza's swords her armor.
"Erza!" Neo cried out in shock.
"Nee-san!" Sho shouted.
"Mugetsu-Ryuu. Karura-En!" Ikaruga unleashed a wave of fire from her sword.
"Elemental Soul: Fire!" Neo cried as he transformed.
"Re-quip: Flame Empress Armor!" Erza shouted as she summoned red themed armor that was flame resistant. Both of them absorbed the flames and came out unharmed. However, Erza was sent flying into the wall.
"Flame resistant armor? Impressive that you managed to Re-quip and defend yourself in an instant," Ikaruga praised.
"Aaagh!" Erza cried as he armor fell apart once more.
"But I suggest that you use your strongest armor if you want to have a fighting chance."
"None have seen this armor and lived to tell the tale! Re-quip: Purgatory Armor!" Erza cried as she changed into black demonic armor, the mere sight of it displaying great power...but it was easily cut to pieces like the armors from before.
"So that was your strongest armor?" Ikaruga questioned. Erza said nothing as she fell backwards. "You see now, yes? No matter what armor you wear, it means nothing against my blade. Just surrender."
Erza said nothing as she slowly stood up, a defiant glare on her face. She Re-quiped into red hakama pants with flame designs on the bottom, and white wrappings around her chest. Her red hair was tied up into a high ponytail and she held two swords in her hands.
"What are you doing Erza!?" Neo yelled. "I know you have more armor than that! Why are you just wearing regular clothes?!"
"Are you underestimating me?" Ikaruga asked calmly.
"Nee-san what's wrong with you!? You have tons of strong armor left right!? You're stronger than this!" Sho cried.
"No, I'm not strong," Erza told him. "I failed to protect my family, I wasn't strong enough to save the people I cared about. And...I was always crying, I locked my own heart in a suit of armor because of my weakness."
"Erza..." Neo whispered.
"But I now know that the armor wasn't keeping me safe, it was blocking the bonds between peoples hearts, preventing me from really connecting to them," Erza continued. "But Fairy Tail taught me the truth, that it's so much better to be close to people than be alone."
"Prepare yourself!" Ikaruga cried as she dashed forward. "This is the end!"
"I no longer have any doubts! I'm fighting not for myself, but for my family!," Erza shouted as she dashed forward as well. They both sliced and rested across from each other, their backs facing each other. Neo and Sho held their breath as they waited to see who won.
"Ungh!" Erza grunted as she gained a cut on her shoulder, much to the boys horror. Ikaruga smiled as she turned around, but that smile quickly faded to shock as she coughed up blood. Sho and Neo cheered at Erza's victory.
"I have never been defeated...not since the guild was founded...until today..." Ikaruga lamented. "However...your victory...will be in vain. Fifteen minutes."
"What?!" Neo shouted.
"See it plummet down...shining light of justice...bringing death to all..." Ikaruga sang. "Such a beastly poem."
"Sho! Are you alright?" Erza asked.
"Y-yeah," he replied.
"I need you to go to Simon and get everyone out of the tower! We don't have much time until Etherion fires!" Erza shouted.
"What about you?!" Neo yelled.
"I'm going to finish this," Erza declared. "I'm going to face Jellal and end this."
"Now now, we can't have you doing that, you haven't beaten all of the players yet," a voice echoed.
"Who's there?!" Erza demanded. She was answered as the shadows around her warped and merged to create the shape of a man. He was wearing a purple ninja outfit, he had a headband with the same skull image that Ikaruga wore on her kimono.
"Greetings insects, I am Doware, and I am the last player for Jellal's side," he said, taking a mock bow.
"Out of my way!" Erza shouted as she raced towards him with her swords raised. The Dark Mage merely raised his hand and a wall of shadows raised up to block Erza's strike.
"How weak," he laughed as a fist shot out of the wall and sent Erza flying back. Neo jumped up into the air and caught her, setting her down as he landed.
"Erza, go on ahead and face Jellal, I'll take care of this guy," Neo said. Erza went to say something, but closed her mouth when she saw the determination in his eyes.
"Alright, but be careful, we've got less than fifteen minutes until the Etherion fires," Erza reminded him.
Neo shot her a grin and told her, "Relax, I'll be done with this clown in no time."
Erza nodded and raced forward again. Doware sighed and held out his hands again.
"Didn't you learn the first time?" he asked. He was about to block the Titania again, but jumped away as a bolt of lightning struck where he was. He kept moving around to avoid getting struck, and when Neo finished his assault, Erza was already gone, and Sho had left to get the others out of the tower.
"Do you really think you can take me boy?" Doware asked as he pulled out a pair of knives from his belt.
"I think I'm more than a match for you old man," Neo taunted, knowing that he would get a rise out of his opponent.
True enough, Doware gained a tick mark on his forehead and tightened his grip on his knives. "You're about to learn what it means to suffer, prepare yourself!" He dashed forward, ready to stab Neo.
"And you're about to learn what it means to get crushed! Elemental Soul: Earth!" Neo quickly transformed into his earthen form and blocked Doware's attack. He shoved the Dark Wizard back and slammed his fist into the ground. Stone stalagmites rose from the ground and the Dark Wizard leapt back, lest he be impalled by them.
"And I'm about to teach you not to mess with Fairy Tail!"
That's it! I'm finally done!
I'm so sorry! I've just been real slow lately, but I'm trying to get myself back on track! So please accept my deepest apologies!
Next chapter will be Neo vs. Doware. Originally, I wanted him to fight Ikaruga, but shut down that idea as Erza needed to fight her in order for her to grow in character.
So the ToH arc will be 2 more chapters at the most. Not that long I know, but I honestly want to speed things up a bit and get Neo to meeting Wendy sooner. Also to get to some of my better story ideas that I have for this.
Please Review! Ciao!