Chapter 49: La Venganza es Dulce

A/N: Sorry for the no update yesterday, but wow, no tomatoes, or anything at all actually. A quiet two days so I'm guessing you guys are ok with how it's going but might not after this piece of news. The story will be ending in ten chapters, maybe even less, could end in six chapters. I'm not really sure but I know the end is close now, so yeah get pumped for the end! Now onto the big battle, the big showdown, the first true arc climax! Enjoy chapter 49!

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(Esoj POV)

"Esoj, take point, I'll be right in after I finish up out here! Go!" I hear Natsu yell as I see Igneel being chased by a bunch of Zeref's dragon beasts, 'What the fuck? Are those real dragons or demons?' I wonder and nod my head and lead everyone inside, formulating a plan in my head to buy Natsu time. 'Damn, not only is our number two out but our number one is delayed now, what else could go wrong?'

The answer came as soon as everyone was inside, and we reached the bottom of the stairs, we heard a loud sound behind us. "What was that?" Rai asked and Juvia who was bringing up the rear went back up the stairs quickly and we heard a loud gasp.

She ran back down and looked pale, and said, "The door has closed. Juvia tried to open it with her magic but the door is protected by runes, there is no way out!"

Everyone cursed under their breaths as we knew that the plan had gone to shit without Natsu there to lead us and fight Zeref for us. "Ok, everyone listen up! Here's the new plan! Ok, Mern. You take care of your brother, you said you two are basically clones of each other and are at the same level in terms of power so you should be able to do it." I say and see Mern think about and nod, so I continued, "Ok, then Juvia, Rai, Rogue and Karr will find the rune mages and take them out. Meanwhile Gōsuto, Nena, and I will take care of Zeref." I couldn't help but smirk a bit, knowing my chance at revenge that I never thought I would get was now coming, 'Huh, we may not have Natsu and Lucy, but this works out for Nena and me too, we get our shot to kill the bastard who destroyed our home. La venganza is so close I can taste it! Que rico!'

"Alright everyone, go!" I yelled and everyone split into the two groups I had assigned them to and we ran in the opposite direction, guessing Zeref would be away from where the rune mages were. We kept running until we reached a small door, it looked insignificant and like there was no way it was important, until we got up close to it. The door was made of pure gold and silver, and was adorned with several different gems that were all rare and hard to find on any legal market. 'Yeah he's definitely in here, arrogant little bastard.'

I motion to Nena and she nods, she moves in front of the door putting her hand to it and prepared to melt it down. But then the door instead just opened ominously and we all look at each other slightly confused. A moment later I shrug and motion to Gōsuto to take point for a moment, and he goes in first followed by me, then Nena. What we find surprises us as we find a massive room, the ceiling high up and the room itself open and bigger than the arenas we created at Fairy Tail.

I look around and see the man I hate with every fiber of my body standing in the middle of the room, The Black Mage Zeref. "Tch, who are you three? I was expecting Natsu. How disappointing." He said and I felt my jaw tighten and I clench my fists as tightly as I can, "Oh, you seem to know me, but I don't recognize you. What are your names?"

"Esoj Anoren, El Padre Naturaleza from La Empieza." "Nena Anoren, La Madre Naturaleza from La Empieza." "Gōsuto, The Ghost of Naito." We all say and look at Zeref as he nods with understanding of just exactly who we are.

"Ah, the trio that have been traveling with Natsu and Lucy Dragneel. And yes, I know they are married, everyone does after your attack on Fairy Tail. But you two said you were from La Empieza? Hahahaha, perfect. Saves me the trouble of going back there and killing more people for the information I desire." He said and I had to restrain from attacking him then and there, I had to wait until we were all ready. "Now tell me, how did your country's founders create Lumen Historie or what is the owner change incantation? Just tell me and I promise to make your death quick and as painless as possible."

"Ha! Like hell we would tell you! Gōsuto get the link ready! The runes probably are stopping us from leaving but not bringing things here, so get to work!" I say and look at Nena and mouth 'A' and she nods, getting into position.

"Acero!" She yells and a giant block of steel appears above Zeref and falls down, he merely dodges and looks at us.

"Was that supposed to work on me or something?" He asks mockingly and laughs at us. He doesn't realize this part of the plan.

"No, but this will. Acero Balas!" I yell and parts of the steel chip off of the block and turn into bullets and fly at Zeref.

He simply put his hands together making some odd sign and says, "Repulsion!" The bullets stop flying towards him and instead turn around fly back at the block, lodging themselves inside of it. 'What? What kind of magic does he have…' Then I am flabbergasted as the block begins to decompose itself and slowly turns into nothing but dust. 'What the fuck?! What was that?! Do all his spells kill everything it touches?'

"Surprised? Hahaha, yes my magic can kill anything it touches, ANYTHING. Even something that is already dead, like you three." He said and began cackling at us. I looked at Nena who looked at me and we both knew this was going to be tough, tougher than anything we had ever done. But not impossible, we still had one ace in the hole.

"Gōsuto! How's the link going?" I ask and see him sitting cross-legged, focusing intently.

"I can't say, the link is harder to establish since there is no mental link and I have to actually find him now. I'd say hold out for at least five more minutes, but I'm not even sure if that will be enough. Just hold on tight for a bit please!" He says and I look to Nena who nods, knowing this wasn't looking good for us.

I sigh and look her in the eyes, and say, "Five minutes? Ok, we'll buy you ten. Come on Nena, let's do this! All we have to do is not get hit too much by his magic, a direct hit will definitely mean the end for us." I said and Nena nodded at me and we both turned to find Zeref looking at us mildly amused.

"What, you guys planning something? Hahaha, like it will even matter, I will kill you guys regardless of what you guys do. Now come and fight me!" He said and threw the coat he had on off and got into a fighting stance that I had never seen before and I had fought a lot of mages up to this point in my life. He was leaning forward with his hands together, his hands together like he would cast a spell at any moment.

I sigh and look to Nena and mouth 'L' and she smiles at the idea and we turn and charge at Zeref, going at him head on. He looks at us surprised by our boldness but he doesn't move, instead he just straightens up and waits.

"Pierdas Calientes!" Nena yells and lava flies from her hand and go directly towards Zeref, who simply blocks it with his magic and the lava turns to dust. However right when he was doing this I had used her attack as a distraction and got behind Zeref, and yelled, "Lanzallamas!" and fire spewed from my mouth. Zeref noticed this and cursed under his breath, and rolled out of the way surprising me. 'Why didn't he just use his magic and block it? He obviously saw me and could have but instead he dodged it. Does that mean there's like an interval he must have in between spells? Hmmmm, let's test this theory.'

I look at Nena and mouth 'Pistola' and she looks at me confused. I just give her a look that says trust me and she nods, as I charge at Zeref and yell, "Lanzallamas!" again. This time he does use his magic to turn my fire into nothingness, but Nena use that time to launch her attack as she yells, "Pistola de Fierro!" and balls of iron fly at Zeref. He barely has time to react and is forced to dodge, Nena realizes why I had her do that maneuver and attacks again yelling, "Pistola de Fuego!" and fire balls go towards Zeref, but this time he blocks it with his magic and looks at us, trying to see if we knew the flaw in his magic. 'So he can't use his magic immediately after casting a spell, there's at least a five second interval, but it may be shorter. We'll just have to find out, but this is important, we now know he isn't entirely invincible.'

"Three seconds." He said and I looked at him, wondering if he knew what I was thinking, "You have at least three seconds to strike me after I use a spell, that' it. Better time your attacks well, or else this will be a really short fight." 'Fuck, three seconds? That's it? Damn, our attacks will have to be extremely precise. Lucky me, I'm fighting with my partner in crime, we can make three seconds work.'

I look at Nena and motion with my eyes, making a dome shape and she understands, and yells, "Acero!" And another block of steel appears. This time before anyone can react I jump back along with Nena and yell, "Acero Carcel: Cien Paredes! " The block morphs into a dome and has one hundred walls in it, and it traps him inside.

We land a good distance away, and look at each other, and Nena says, "Cabron, we are thoroughly fucked. Three seconds is barely any time and if we don't get the timing just right, we won't last very long. He's already proven he's strong, maybe even stronger than the two of us combined. We should us the forbidden technique here." She says, doubt in her eyes, and my eyes feel like they're ready to pop out of my head.

"No way! That technique was forbidden for a reason! Just using it successfully shorten one's lifespan by thirty years! And if we mess up the timing, we will die! We can't use that technique, ever! We have too much to live for, we have a kid now! We can beat him conventionally, we can time our attacks perfectly, and we are Los Padres de la Naturaleza! We are called that because we can do anything if we do it together now come on! Stand and fight with me!" I said and immediately the doubt left her eyes and she stood with me, her hopes swelling like a balloon. I look over to Gōsuto and see him sweating a bit, the concentration he has amazing. "Gōsuto, how are we looking? Any closer?"

"Yes, I found my way to Naito via the shadows and I'm looking for the base, but I still need another few minutes, I know I'm asking a lot here since it's already been ten minutes, but still I need more time!" He replied opening his eyes and closing them immediately after, pouring all his concentration and effort back into his job.

I nodded and said, "We'll buy you another ten then. Let's go Nena!" She nodded and we both turned to find Zeref making his way out of the dome prison, the final wall turning into dust, looking none too pleased.

"Alright that's it! I'm killing you slowly now! Annoying little bastards!" He yelled and charged at us, obviously very angry.

He ran at us and I made a gun with my hands and saw Nena nod, she ran at him and yelled, "Pistola de Aceite!" Oil shoots out of her hand at Zeref who blocks it before she yells, "Pistola de Aceite!" again and this time it hits him in the face. He is forced to close his eyes and I make my move, yelling, "Lanzallamas!" and fire hits him in the face as he can't see that I'm right in front of him. He howls in pain and uses his magic to put out the fire and I see that he didn't take any damage from that attack. 'Fuck! I hit him dead on with my fire with oil on his face and he isn't even hurt! What the fuck… wait. He's almost immortal right now. I guess we'll have to stall a bit longer then.'

I make a stabbing motion and Nena nods and yells, "Acero!". Yet another block appears and I yell out, "Acero Espada: Doble! Acero Cuchillo!" And two swords and a small knife come from the block, the swords come to me and the knife goes to Nena. I charge at Zeref, as does Nena but from the opposite side and I attack him with one sword which he blocks and turns to dust, but Nena comes from behind and tries to stab him. He saw it coming though and kick behind himself, hitting Nena right in the gut. She staggers back a bit and I bring the sword in my other hand down on him hoping I'm not too slow. But it didn't even matter as Zeref side steps me and punches me in the kidney, which causes me to howl in pain and back up from him so he doesn't hit me with his magic.

Nena this time makes the first move and charges at him and swings her knife at him, but he merely dodges all the slashes ease. I come up behind him and swing my remaining sword diagonally at his back, but he dodges my swing too flipping over me. I grab my sword by the hilt and throw it up at him, hoping that he would be too preoccupied to stop it. I was wrong as, mid flip, he blocks the sword and it turns to dust. But what neither of us saw was that Nena had gotten behind us and was waiting for Zeref to land. When he did and turned around, she stabbed him right in the gut, jumping back as soon as she did so he couldn't touch her.

He howled in pain for a moment, then pulled the knife out of his gut and made it turn to dust. I looked at his feet, hoping to see a pool of blood beginning to form but I saw nothing of the sorts. The floor beneath his feet was dry as a bone, his face told us how he felt, and his face mirrored his attitude of pure annoyance. "You know, I gave you guys a chance to give up, have a slightly less painful death, but yet you ignored me. Now you guys have drawn my ire, and like I hear Natsu is, drawing my ire is not wise." Zeref said and began to move his hands, beginning to cast his spell.

'Fuck! Gotta get away from him now!' I jump back as far as I can from Zeref and keep jumping back until I'm next to Gōsuto and look at him. He's sweating like he's in a sauna and his face is scrunched up like he's constipated. I hesitate before asking him, "Hey Gōsuto, how are we looking.."

His eyes shoot open and he smiles at me, saying, "Link established! It should take me another minute to bring Lumen Historie here to where we are, but we should be able to do it now." I look at Zeref and he's still preparing his spell, not having moved just yet and I look back to Gōsuto who touches his head and worry replaces his grin. "Umm, Esoj you might wanna seal us in here, Lumen is being a tad bit restless. It will take me longer to bring her here. Call Nena over here, I might need her real quick."

I knew he wasn't telling me everything but I had no choice but to do as he said, "Nena! Come here!" I yell and Nena looks at me and nods, running over to me and I tell her, "We need to seal the room, now." She nods and shrugs, asking what to use.

"Tierra. Natsu won't be able to burn through it and Juvia cant just wash it all away. It will keep this room secure." I say and she nods, then turns to the door's direction and yells, "Tierra Firma!" And hard dirt, almost bedrock hard, shoots out from hands and goes everywhere in the room where there is a wall, and I finish the combination yelling, "Tierra Carcel!" The dirt surrounds the entire room, adding another barrier to the room and securing us inside.

I look at Gōsuto and he nods and opens a shadow dimension right in front of us, saying, "Ok, Nena I need you to pour as much water as you can into this dimension, apparently Lumen is somewhat overheating right now. Now hurry, my dad is about to send it to us!" Nena nodded and put her hands out and yells, "Agua Lluvia!" and rain clouds came into his dimension and poured down rain, quickly flooding the dimension. "Good, now get ready because here comes Lumen. Oh shit! Here comes Zeref!" He said and quickly begin muttering the incantations necessary to fully link the dimensions and I turn to see Zeref running to us and putting his hands together.

'Fuck! We need to stall him for a minute!' "Nena! Give me some steel! Make that a lot of steel!" I yell at her and she nods, then yells, "Acero!" "Acero Carcel: Cien Millones Paredes!" I yell after her block of steel appears and it morphs into a prison similar to the last one, but now has one hundred million walls to help us stall him. I hunch over a bit, catching my breath as this spell was a big one and Nena is tired from creating a block that was big enough to create the prison.

"Gōsuto, ETA. That won't hold him for very long and I want Lumen here when he does get out." I look and can hear the walls falling very quickly now and I look back to Gōsuto and say, "Like I said, hurry!"

"Thirty seconds!" He said and I looked back to hear that he was already close to getting out. "Twenty Seconds!" I look and see that the last wall is disappearing and Zeref is now visible to everyone, he looks very angry. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five…" Zeref sees us and forms hand signs and casts a spell yelling very angrily, "Rejection!" and a black wave comes towards us at a high speed. "Four!" The wave gets even closer and I'm not sure we're going to make it. "Three!" The wave is almost halfway to us and I begin to see my life flash before my eyes. "Two!" I see the wave three fourths of the way here and I see the memories of meeting Nena when we were younger, I see the memory of meeting Warrod and his care of us, the memory of seeing him leave, the memory of seeing La Empieza after Zeref had destroyed it, and lastly of finding out Nena was pregnant, and I closed my eyes knowing this was the end. "ONE!" I begin to apologize to everyone as the wave is within spitting distance and I see E.J.'s face in front of me, and a single tear drops down my cheek and I say my final apology for being a shitty father and never truly getting to know him and teach him magic like I promised. I wait fro death to embrace me but I feel nothing of the sort, instead I feel this eerie feeling that I always feel when I am around Lumen Historie. I open my eyes and see a bright light in front of me and is making its way to where Zeref was when he cast the spell.

'Gōsuto did it! Lumen is here!' the bright light stops suddenly and shines even brighter, blinding me for a moment before I hear a loud howl of pain. I can finally open my eyes and see that Lumen has engulfed Zeref and is doing something, then the light bursts one last time and goes throughout the room. I look back at Zeref after having had to cover my eyes and see that he is on the ground panting heavily, and I knew the plan had worked. Zeref was mortal again.

"Gōsuto, Nena! He's mortal again! Let's finish this, Nena come here! Gōsuto create an opening!" I yell and Nena runs over to me and I whisper to her, "Let's combine. This way we can attack even faster than before." I see Gōsuto concentrate for a moment and turn into a demon, then he roared and charged at Zeref, who was standing now, and he unleashed a flurry of attacks. Nena sees this too and nods, noticing like I did that Zeref was just dodging everything.

I take her hand and we yell in unison, "Fusión de Cuerpo: Naturaleza!" and then we became one. Literally and physically one as our bodies became one being made entirely of all the elements known to man, capable of doing both of our magic at once. We looked to Gōsuto and saw that he had Zeref dodging and not countering, so we entered their fray. We got in close and thought together, "Acero! Acero Espada!" and our hand became a sword of steel and we sliced at his side. We made contact and drew blood. He howled in pain and looked at his side, and then let out a blood-curling screech at the sight of his own blood. He had probably never seen his own blood in a very long time and was horrified by it.

He jumped away and we could tell he was nowhere near as strong as before as his jump was weak and a short one. We looked at him and then charged at him again, he put his hands up and yelled, "Rejection!" The black came at us again and this time we put out our hand that didn't have the sword and thought, "Tierra Escudo!" A shield appeared in place of our hand and blocked the wave from hitting us, but destroyed the shield and we quickly formed a new hand of element, getting rid of the last one. We looked and saw the surprise on his face, he hadn't thought it possible to have his attacks blocked and then he realized just how weakened he was now. We thought, "Acero Escudo!" and a new shield of iron formed, when it did we did not make it our hand instead using it like a regular shield. We charged at him and rammed into his shield and pushed him back a bit at the cost of the shield that he destroyed using his magic. 'According to plan then.' We thought as we had him in the interval between his spells and we swung the sword up, and it hit the mark.

It cut off the hand he had used to destroy the shield and was followed by a very loud howl of pain. He grabbed his wrists and blood was shooting out where there should have been a hand. He must have never thought this would have happened as he just stood there screaming in pain. We used his shock to close the distance and reached him a moment later. We stomped on the inside of his knee cap, breaking it which caused him to buckle at the knees and fall to the floor in a praying position.

He looked at us as we towered over him and he tried to grab us with his only hand, his right one, but we just thought, "Acero Cuchillo!" and a knife popped out from our thigh and hit his hand, using the spell up and allowing us to permanently handicap him. We swung down with the sword and cut the other hand off and got part of his arm as well, his arm now starting at the bend of where his elbow was. He yelled again and began to mumble somewhat coherently, "No no no no no! Wait! Please wait! I know I said I would kill you but if you let me leave here alive I'll let you live and never bother you again! I promise! PLEASE!"

He began to whimper and we had never felt more sadistic in our lives, we did not feel sorry for him but instead had to fight back the urge to laugh. We looked at him and said in a voice that sounded like a god's, "You destroyed our home, you killed our friends, you ruined our lives, and you want us to spare you? HA! We wouldn't even had considered it, you deserve to die. And die you shall. Right now in fact." And with those words we swung the sword horizontally and cut his head clean off, the head landing a few feet away. We backed away as his body slumped forwards and we thought, "Termina."

Our two bodies defused and we went back to being two separate beings, though two very tired beings. The spell we had just used fused our bodies together and was the second strongest spell we knew, just beneath the forbidden one. I was breathing heavily and sat down, my legs bent with my arms resting on them, and Nena fell face first on the ground, completely exhausted as we had gone all out for the first time in years.

Gōsuto was standing there, amazed by what we had just done and then we heard something odd: clapping. We all looked and saw everyone else standing there where the door was and Natsu said, "WELL DONE GUYS! YOU DID IT!" and led everyone in a cheer of us and they ran to where we were. The first one to arrive was Rai who quickly went to the man he called brother and helped him stand. Gōsuto must have been exhausted after having to create a shadow dimension link without telepathy and having to distract Zeref. Without him, we would have died for sure.

Then Natsu and surprisingly enough Lucy, who I assumed stayed since there was no danger to her anymore, reached us next and ran by us to look at Zeref. Then Juvia and Rogue arrived with Karr and Mern close behind and they began to help us up and congratulated us. I looked at Nena and smiled at her, and she reciprocated the smile and I knew we were both thinking the same thing, 'La Venganza si es muy dulce.' We both then fell asleep completely exhausted, but successful none the less.

(POV Change to Natsu)

I looked and saw the others carry the others away, off to get them medical attention and some much needed rest. I looked at Lucy and smiled at her, and said, "Well they did it. I can't believe it but they did it. The job is done now. Only one more thing to do and then we are scot free, but it will take some time." I said and she nodded and looked from Zeref to something farther away, something I couldn't even recognize. "Holy shit. That's Lumen Historie huh?"

Lucy nods and we walk over to it and examine it, I look away a moment later as it creeps me out. I can't even describe what it looks like, as it is something so alien that I can't even comprehend it. I look at Lucy who is busy puking and manage to look at it again, I notice it's still alive and I remember what the old scrolls Esoj showed me said. 'One thousand years for it to recharge huh? I will never have to worry about it again, but someone will. I wonder if I can just burn it up?' I stand up and point a finger that quickly catches on fire and shoots a ball of at Lumen. It hits Lumen and the thing lights on fire and burns up, but does not burn away and is now just slightly charred. 'Nope, it's truly immortal. Guess I'll have to hide it somewhere, or find a way to kill it. Or I could keep it and keep it locked away… Hmm, I guess for now that is the best option.'

I looked around and saw Gōsuto and Rai watching us and I motioned them over to us, they made their way slowly. "Hey Gōsuto, put Lumen back in you shadow dimensions for a bit. We're gonna keep it so no one else can use it ever again." I said and Gōsuto nodded, he opened a portal to his dimensions and put it inside one of them, immediately closing it so he didn't have to think about it anymore. I nodded to him and said, "Now do the same for Zeref's body, especially his head. The hands too, we'll just burn those later, but the head has a special final resting place. Luce, stop vomiting and get ready to leave, I need a very long nap." Lucy glared at me but did as I said and got up. Gōsuto had already placed the head and the body inside of his dimensions, and Rai had collected the hands and threw them inside of the dimensions. With their task complete they nodded to me and left the room, with Lucy behind them and me behind her.

I sighed and walked beside Lucy, throwing my arm around her shoulder and she let her head fall on my shoulder as we left the cave and looked around, seeing that Igneel was still there, waiting for us. We walked over to him and everyone was there, waiting for us to go home, Esoj and Nena unconscious but smiling in their sleep. I smiled as well and looked to Rai, the only person capable of teleportation who was not too tired and said, "Rai, teleport us home."

He nodded and in a blink of an eye we were gone, leaving the place where the world was saved and where The Black Mage had been killed. Good had won today, but we still had one more job to do: earn our freedom.

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A/N: WHEW! I'm done! That was the longest chapter in the whole story and was the most fun to write! The end is near now, and here's how the week will most likely go, two or so chapters that will act as build up for the next five or so where we will the rematch between Fairy Tail and Ronin, and then one maybe two conclusion chapters. Then we are done. This story will most likely be done next week barring any setbacks. I hope you guys are excited, or sad, or mad, I don't really care as long as you feel some sort of emotion! Hahahah, well that is all my dear readers. Remember! READ AND REVIEW, OR FAVORITE OR FOLLOW EVEN IF YOU SO PLEASE! ADIOS!