AN: Thanks Goku275, NinjaFang1331, AliceCullen3, and scoolharis.
I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
Rufus ran down a hallway in the Cube. After being freed from Plutogrim, most likely by his comrades, he found himself alone on the surface of the Cube. Kyôka had disappeared, so he decided to regroup with the rest of Fairy Tail.
"I'm in the base of an enemy that attacked us personally, so why can't I find them!" grumbled Rufus. Considering the scene his friends made all the time, they should've stood out like a clown performing at a funeral.
On the bright side, Tartaros's forces were definitely getting depleted because he hadn't run into a single Etherious since reentering the Cube.
This eventually ended when the Fairy turned a corner and saw another person, though it wasn't one of his guildmates. Instead, it was a young woman with pair hair.
"A demon!" exclaim Rufus, shifting into a fighting stance. "Memory-Make: Karma—"
"Wait!" shouted the woman, raising her hands defensively. "I'm not a member of Tartaros! I'm a member of Crime Sorcière, and I'm here to help!"
Rufus pausing for a moment, searching his memory. "I remember hearing about Crime Sorcière. They're the independent guild that hunts down Dark Guilds."
The Fairy lowered his guard, causing the woman to relax. It was clear that the woman was not lying, given that none of the Etherious would ever be able to swallow their pride long enough to pull off such a deception.
"I'm looking for my guildmates," spoke Rufus, a polite smile on his face. "Do you have any memory of seeing them, Miss…"
"Meredy," supplied the woman. "And, yes, I have. But we've got bigger problems."
As Meredy explained the situation with the Faces and how she was looking for the control room, Rufus's smile faded and was replaced with a frown. After she finished speaking, he came to a decision.
"Very well, then," spoke the Fairy, a serious look in his eye. "I will assist you. Stopping the Faces is more important than meeting up with my friends. Besides, they can handle anything Tartaros throws their way."
"What am I looking at?" asked Happy, baffled by the sight before him. The currently-humanoid Exceed had been wandering around when he heard the sounds of a large fight. At its source, he found the majority of his guildmates battling a very strange enemy.
"Fa fa fa!"
…Why the fuck did Tartaros have a battalion of short, annoying demon girls with rabbit ears? Was it some bizarre form of psychological warfare, or did Zeref just get blackout drunk one day and make a horrible mistake?
"Happy!" exclaimed Romeo, breaking away from the fight to speak to the Exceed. "Did you find Natsu or Frosch?"
"No, unfortunately," replied Happy, Romeo's words snapping him out of the state of shock he had entered upon coming across the present scene. "What's happening here?"
"She's called Lamy," explained Romeo., grimacing "Apparently Tartaros mass-produces her for some reason. She has an irritating Curse that lets her slip across anything, even certain attacks. Your sword won't be all that effective."
"Aye, sir," replied Happy, sheathing his Musica Sword and releasing his transformation. Against an Etherious like this, he would be better off providing support.
"Take this, mya!" yelled Blaze, punching a Lamy while in her Flame Form. Even though the strike slid off of the demon, it still burned her.
"Yowch!" exclaimed the Lamy. A moment later, she took an overly dramatic pose. "Looks like this demon's hunting a dragon."
The Lamy used to her to start spinning, then bowled into the dragon slayer. The Etherious laughed, mocking Blaze as she was knocked back.
"Fa fa fa! Nobody can match my Curse-enhanced spinning!"
Blaze glared at the Lamy for a few seconds, then coming up with an idea that gave her a devious smile.
The dragon slayer ran toward her spinning foe and jumped. However, rather than attack the frustrating Etherious, Blaze wrapped her arms around the Lamy.
"Huh?" uttered the Lamy, before the pain of her body burning shifted than confusion into anger. "You're too short for this ride, you brat! Now, GET OFF!"
For emphasis, the Lamy began to spin faster. However, this only made Blaze's grin wider.
"I'm a member of Fairy Tail, mya!" yelled Blaze as the flames surrounding her grew. "We don't care about the rules! Fire Spin!"
"Aaaaaah!" screamed the Lamy as she was cooked alive by Blaze's hellish flames.
As the demon's shrieking and the young dragon slayer's fire faded, Blaze lost her grip on the Lamy's still-spinning corpse and went flying. This time, she was the one screaming. At least, until she was caught from behind.
"Are you alright?" asked a familiar voice from her back.
"Happy, mya!" cheered Blaze. The dragon slayer broke into a grin. "Of course I'm good! I could fight all day!"
"Aye," replied Happy as an idea occurred to him. "Say… why don't we fight together, like how your dad and I always do?"
"Awesome!" squealed Blaze at the Exceed's suggestion. Fighting alongside a cat against strong enemies was a dream come true. "I'm all fired up, mya! Hell Flame Dragon's Roar!"
In that moment, a new partnership was both. A few moments later, another Lamy was incinerated.
"I found the control room," Meredy told Rufus, gesturing to a doorway. Through it, the two of them could see the dead Crawford's body controlling Face remotely.
"It seems that killing Keyes did not stop him," noted Rufus, him and Meredy walking toward the reanimated corpse. "I suppose the Etherious must have prepared for the possibility that he was defeated. His efforts were in vain, though. Memory-Make: Karma—?"
The two mages froze, no longer in control of their bodies or able to use magic. Their hands rose to their necks and, despite attempting to resist, the two started strangling themselves.
"What's… going… on?" gasped out Meredy, although she didn't truly expect a response.
"It is Macro, my Curse Power," spoke a voice. Rufus and Meredy found their heads turning right to the source of the voice, a demon that Rufus recognized.
"Seilah of… the Nine… Demon Gates!" exclaimed the Fairy. "You're… controlling Crawford… aren't you?"
"Indeed I am," replied Seilah smugly. "Though I lack Keyes' finesse, my Macro grants me some measure of control over the deceased. Thanks to that, I have activated all the remaining Face units directly from this location."
Seilah walked up to the two humans, drinking in their suffering. "Your tale has come to a clo—"
"Lightning God's Charged Particle Cannon!"
Suddenly, a beam of black lightning shot from the left of Seilah, tearing through her upper body and killing her instantly.
Rufus and Meredy, now free of Seilah's Macro, turned right and saw Orga.
"I finally found her," said Orga triumphantly. "She thought she could just run away from our fight, but she was wrong!"
After saying that, the god slayer turned to Rufus and continued speaking. "So, who's your new friend and what are you two doing here?"
"Meredy's an ally," answered Rufus while Meredy examined the terminal that the now-inanimate Crawford laid before. "We're here because Tartaros manipulated Crawford's Curse to activate all of the remaining Faces remotely. Hopefully Seilah's death has ended that."
"No such luck," interjected Meredy, a grim look on her face. "The former chairman completed his task. All remaining Faces will detonate in 32 minutes unless we can find a way to stop them."
"Prison Flower!" shouted Mard, attempting to trap his opponent. A monstrous flower grew, its bulb shooting at Natsu and swallowing him whole. The Etherious wanted to relax, but he knew that he had only bought himself a brief reprieve.
Not even a full minute later, the dragon slayer's flames tore open Mard's Prison Flower. "Fire Dragon King's Roar!"
In addition to the Dragon Force, Natsu had now activated Fire Dragon King Mode. Wreathed in draconic flames reminiscent of Igneel's, he leaped toward Mard. The demon conjured a wall of thorny vines to protect himself.
"Fire Dragon King's Destruction Fist!" yelled Natsu, incinerating the wall with his fist only to not find Mard on the other side. Instead, there was a rose composed of Curse Power. The rose began to glow, before erupting into a massive explosion.
However, when the smoke cleared, Natsu remained only moderately injured. The dragon slayer was definitely pissed, though.
"What the fuck!?" shouted Natsu, scanning his surroundings for Mard. "I thought you bastards wanted me alive!"
"You are very powerful, even by Etherious standards," echoed Mard's voice. "It's clear that, even without holding back, Master E.N.D.'s body will remain intact."
"So then you're hiding because you know I'd beat you!" retorted Natsu. He tried locating the demon by scent, only to find that he couldn't smell anything due to the smoke from Mard's explosion. "What happened to you Etherious being better than humans, you coward!?"
Mard remained quiet for a bit, before replying in a smug tone. "You are able to match me because your body is that of a demon and your magic is that of a dragon. The only 'human' part of you in this battle is your mind, and, while it is indeed resilient to withstand E.N.D.'s awakening, you are severely outmatched in terms of intelligence."
"Who are you calling an idiot!?" roared Natsu, angrier than he was a moment ago. "You're the one who's sticking around despite knowing you can't beat me! If you're so smart, then why are you still here talking to me!?"
"To buy time for my backup plan," answered Mard. "Kyôka, begin the Organic Link."
Unbeknownst to Natsu, Mard had telepathically contacted Kyôka shortly after entering his true form. He had ordered her to come to him, then proceeded to stall the dragon slayer until she arrived. Now, she would form an Organic Link with the Book of E.N.D.
Kyôka had initially flinched at Mard's plan. Between the amount of power within Zeref's book and the fact that it already contained the incredibly strong will of E.N.D., it was unlikely that anything would remain of her afterward. But, as a loyal member of Tartaros and one of Zeref's Etherious, the last remaining member of the Nine Demon Gates accepted her final mission.
"…Hey!" yelled Natsu after a few seconds of silence. "Are you going to tell me what your backup plan is, or were you just spouting some cryptic bullshit to confu— Aaaaaah!"
The pain Natsu was feeling from E.N.D.'s awakening increased a thousand-fold as Kyôka forcibly accelerated the process, and he soon blacked out from the new level of agony. Within fifteen minutes, the dragon slayer's body transformed into a truly demonic appearance.
The horn on the left side of his head grew to full size, along with another one on the right side. Leathery wings sprouted from his back, somewhat similar to those of a dragon. The skin on his arms, legs, and face started turning dark red, except for the area around his right eye and the bright red scale below it.
As this happened, Mard walked out from his hiding place to admire the metamorphosis. Finally, after all the setbacks and complications produced by Fairy Tail and their allies, Master E.N.D. would awaken!
Natsu opened his eyes, pain wracking his head. Before him was an endless white expanse, empty aside from two plants. Instinctively, the dragon slayer knew that there should be more here, but something was preventing that from happening.
One of the plants was pitch black apart from a white symbol on its base. The plant was growing rapidly, its roots and branches spreading through the area around it. This plant gave Natsu a bad feeling, like its tendrils were invading the space he was in and sucking the life out of it.
The other plant was bright red and smaller, barely more than a seed. Natsu felt better about this plant, like it was more natural. Sadly, it did not appear to be growing.
Distantly, Natsu hear a voice. It whispered the same phrase over again, so quiet that he could barely hear it even with his enhanced hearing.
"… dragon or demon… dragon or demon… dragon or demon…"
As time passed, the voice grew louder and, concerningly, began to only repeat a single word.
"… demon… demon… demon…"
Omake
Romeo sighed as he watched the team of Blaze and Happy defeat another Lamy. It was disheartening to watch a girl roughly half his age fighting better than him in battle.
Granted part of that was because his magic was poorly suited for the enemy. His Purple Flares, being solid, merely slid off due to the Slippery Curse. And, while his Rainbow Fire was versatile, only the eponymous color of flame had the strength to finish off a Lamy, which drained a sizable amount of his Magic Power.
Bad situation or not, though, Romeo's current fire magic definitely lacked in firepower (ironically). In that moment, the young Fairy made a decision.
"After we beat Tartaros, I'm definitely going to add a stronger fire to my arsenal."
Unnoticed by Romeo, his father overheard this declaration and began to cry.
AN: In case you are wondering, the reason Natsu only sees a white space and the Demon/Dragon Seeds is because of Kyôka accelerating the E.N.D. awakening process. There is no time for any people or places to manifest, especially with the choice already having been made for him.
On a side note, I feel like I might be getting a bit callous toward the Etherious, given how easily I can kill them off. I mean, I don't even spend more than a sentence or two saying that they died.
That is all. Bye!