AN: Thank you Goku275, Guest, and MDM11.

Guest, I agree that there are (unfortunately) parents who do not love their kids. However, I do not regret writing that line as I felt that it was the type of thing that Natsu would say (and believe) to comfort a dying August. Of course, I can also imagine Natsu saying something along the lines of "parents who don't love their kids aren't real parents."

Neinhart ran across the battlefield, striking down anyone who got in his way — enemy and ally alike. He would mindlessly chase after anything he saw that was bright red, stop once he confirmed it wasn't Erza, then hunt down the next bit of scarlet that caught his attention.

This continued for a bit until a sudden, intense force pressed down on him. Caught by surprise, the Spriggan was pushed down onto his knees.

"We did it, Libra," said Yukino. In addition to having her Celestial Spirit present, Yukino had Star Dress: Libra active, doubling the gravity manipulation.

"This won't hold me for long!" shouted Neinhart. He started struggling to his feet, rising slowly as he fought against the gravity.

"It doesn't have to!" declared Sorano. She turned to a large, four-armed angel with bulging muscles and a massive golden hammer. "Now, smash him!"

"Libra, let's give my sister a hand," added Yukino. "Increase the gravity of her angel's hammer as it's getting swung downward!"

"As you command."

Despite the artificial confidence and rage that Irene's Berserker Enchantment was flooding Neinhart's mind with, the male Spriggan was still lucid enough to feel dread as the angel started to swing its hammer.

"Uh-oh…"

Thud!

Unfortunately for Neinhart, the strengthening to his body meant that it took three swings of the hammer before he finally passed out. By that point, the pain had completely overridden the emotions Irene had Enchanted into the Spriggan and he welcomed the release of unconsciousness.

Had Irene been present, she would not have been surprised. Neinhart was physically weak without his magic, and there was only so much that Enchantments could do. She only gave him those Enchantments to ensure that he would be knocked out instead of captured while still conscious. After all, a coward like Neinhart would spill his allies' secrets to save himself.

"It's cold!" cried Lucy, shivering. She had just used the power of Star Dress: Tauros to knock out a small group of Alvarez soldiers. Natsu, Gray, and Happy (human form) stopped fighting for a moment to give her an odd look.

"Probably because you aren't wearing much," stated the Exceed bluntly. "Even I cover up more skin than you do since I started using Transformation Magic."

A strong gust of cold wind blew, causing Happy and Natsu to shiver, too.

"Brrr," went the dragon, the temperature starting to bother him. "Let's heat this up!"

With those words, Natsu produced large flames around the four of them. The inferno both warmed them up and took out a number of nearby enemies.

"Is that better, Lu– Lucy!?" exclaimed the dragon, turning toward his friend only to see that she was now frozen solid. "What the heck happened!? Did you see what happened, Hap—you too!?"

"It must be Invel," observed Gray, recalling the name of the only Spriggan whose abilities they were unaware. "Natsu, do you think you can melt them free?"

"Of course!" replied the dragon with a grin, regaining his composure. As he created fires around Lucy and Happy, an unfamiliar voice spoke.

"That fire of yours truly is troublesome," spoke a well-dress man with his arms folded behind his back; Invel. "It's too hot for me freeze. Though it might not currently be capable of bringing death to His Majesty like Igneel's flames, it may have the potential to do so in the future."

The Spriggan sighed. "If only August had been to finish you off. Then, there would be nothing left to threaten His Majesty."

Natsu turned away to focus on defrosting Happy and Lucy, while Gray ran toward Invel and brought his hands together to perform an Ice-Make. But, before the devil slayer could, a burst of ice struck his side and knocked him down.

"Oh?" went the Spriggan, watching the Fairy get back up. "I see you have some resistance to cold. But not enough."

Invel then blasted Gray with several more bursts of ice. By the end of the Spriggan's assault, the Fairy was starting to feel cold for the first time in years.

"Gray!" exclaimed Natsu, Happy, and Lucy, the former having finished unfreezing the latter.

However, before they could join the fight, a giant hand grabbed Lucy.

"I'm taking her," stated Brandish, huge thanks to her Command T. The female Spriggan ran away before the male Fairies could get over their surprise.

"Seriously!? I just defrosted her!" complained Natsu. The dragon hesitated, his gaze switching between Invel and Brandish.

"Go," stated Gray, rising to his feet. "Now that I know what this guy can do, I've got this."

Natsu gave his friend a nod, then he and Happy chased after Brandish.

"How foolish," said Invel. "But I suppose I should thank you for sending His Majesty's younger brother away. Without him, you don't stand a chance."

"We'll see about that," retorted Gray, slamming his right fist down on the open palm of his left hand. "Ice-Make: Ice Impact!"

Natsu and Happy pursued Brandish, following her into an area with crumbling buildings and nobody else in sight. There, the Spriggan released Lucy.

"What're you doing!?" demanded Natsu, not understanding Brandish's behavior.

"Brandish, please!" cried Lucy. "I don't want to fight you!"

The female Spriggan shrank down to normal size and glanced away from the Fairies.

"Neither do I," admitted Brandish. Her eyes began to tear up. "August was like a grandfather to me, and now… and now he's dead! I don't blame you—" she looked at Natsu "—since I know you were just protecting the people you care about, but it hurt so much to lose him. I don't want to feel that pain again or make others feel it."

"However," continued the Spriggan, holding back her tears. "I am also a citizen of Alvarez, and I do not intend to betray them. This fight… will end in our victory. We have overwhelmingly superior numbers and Irene, whose strength is close to August's, and the emperor is already in the process of acquiring Fairy Heart. Your chances of victory are infinitesimal, so I will give you a chance to surrender now and avoid further bloodshed."

"No," rejected Natsu without hesitation. "Even if we surrendered, we would still die. Zeref doesn't value life anymore, so he wouldn't give a rat's ass about collateral damage as he fights Acnologia. The odds might be low, but I won't just let anyone I care about die!"

"That's right!" agreed Lucy. "Even if there's a chance that we could all die, I would rather take it than just sit by and do nothing! I mean, can you honestly say that, if given the opportunity, you wouldn't face almost-certain death to save August's life!"

Brandish winced, unable to refute the female Fairy's claim. She wasn't done yet, though. "No matter what you do, you can't kill Emperor Spriggan! He's immortal!"

"I almost did when I used Igneel's residual power," responded Natsu, shocking the Spriggan. "And then, at the end of my fight with August, the flames of my final attack reached my dad's level. The next time I fight Zeref, I know I'll be able to finish him off for good."

"…I see," replied Brandish. She wanted to argue, to say that it was impossible. But Natsu was strong enough that her Command T wouldn't work on him. He was strong enough to defeat August, the most powerful mage short of Zeref himself. "I won't stop you. I won't fight against my country, but I won't fight against yours either."

The Fairies smiled at the female Spriggan.

"Thank you," said Lucy as Natsu and Happy ran off to rejoin the fight.

"…If you really want to thank me, you could give me some high-quality parfait once everything is over," muttered Brandish.

"It's a promise!" declared Lucy as she left.

Brandish gave a cautious smile. There was still a chance that her new friends would die, but she knew for a fact that they wouldn't go down easily!

"Brandish…" murmured Dimaria. She watched from the shadow of a ruined building as her comrade simply let the enemy walk away, grinding her teeth and clenching her fist. "I trusted you…"

Words could not describe the sense of betrayal that Dimaria felt. Fiore mages had violated her world, imprisoned her, and threatened to parade her naked (ignoring that only one did the latter and was stopped by the rest), yet Brandish was treating them like friends!

"…"

She would pay for this.

"What a blowhard," thought Gray as Invel boasted about how his 'true' Ice Magic was superior to Ice-Make. "If Molding Magic won't work, though…" "…then how about this? A power I inherited from my father through Ultear — Ice Devil Slayer Magic."

Blackness spread across the Fairy's right arm as he formed a blade of purple ice. Gray rushed at the Spriggan, slashing him before he could counter the devil slaying magic.

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Long Sword!"

"Gaah!" screamed Invel, clutching the new wound on his side. "This… power is… devil slaying magic!?"

The Spriggan frowned. "If only Zeref's brother was still a demon. This Fairy could have been useful… possibly even filled one of the Spriggan 12's vacancies. It is truly a waste, but all that awaits him now is death."

Gray swung his sword of purple ice at Invel again. However, this time the Spriggan caught the blade with his hand and used his Ice Magic to combat the Ice Devil Slaying Magic. As a result of the two magics clashing, an intense blizzard exploded outward and covered the entire battlefield within seconds.

"It's cold!" thought Gray. His eyes were locked on Invel, who wasn't shivering despite the temperature. "Cold enough to freeze me… yet he doesn't seem affected at all…"

"It is a shame that your comrades had to leave," commented the Spriggan. The Fairy gave him a confused but suspicious look. "Were they still here, I would have been able to kill you all without exposing my trump card. True-Ice…"

"Ice-Make: Eagle!" shouted Lyon as he arrived on the scene. A flock of birds made of ice shot toward Invel. The Spriggan stopped the spell he was beginning to cast, instead freezing and breaking the Lamia's Dynamic Ice-Make.

"What are you doing here!?" exclaimed Gray, giving Lyon a look of incredulity.

"I'm here to take down this Spriggan, obviously!" retorted the Lamia. "These Alvarez punks invaded all of Fiore, yet only one of their elites was taken down by people outside of your guild. Even then, it was a join effort that involved two Fairies and Sherria — all three of them kids! There's no way I'd be content to sit on the sidelines while you beat another Spriggan!"

Gray started to reply, wanting to say that the enemy was after Fairy Tail specifically. That Lyon was a bad matchup against Invel. That this Spriggan just admitted to having a technique that only worked when there were multiple people to target.

Unfortunately, before the Fairy could say any of that, Invel proved Gray's third reason right.

"Ice Lock," spoke the Spriggan. Collars formed around the two Fiore mages' necks, followed by a chain that linked them together. Gray and Lyon's minds started to grow hazy, and their bodies stopped listening to them.

"This magic locks away the mind and makes the body into my puppet," explained the Spriggan. "Soon, you will both attempt to kill each other. You will have no say in the matter, and the chain will not come off until one of you is dead."

While the Fiore mages reacted with horror and tried in vain to resist the spell, Invel chuckled darkly within his mind. "Gray is the obvious winner. His devil slayer magic will render his opponent's Ice-Make useless. Then, when he is in shock from killing his comrade, I will finish off the defenseless Fairy!"

Omake

"Water Slicer!" yelled Juvia, firing a cutting wave of water at some Alvarez soldiers. Not all of them were knocked out, but the Fairy didn't spare a moment for those remaining.

Instead, she ran past them and toward the origin of the massive snowstorm that had erupted a few minutes prior.

"Gray, I can't stand for us to be apart even a moment longer!" she shouted. "Your beloved Juvia is coming for you!"

AN: I'd originally intended for the Neinhart fight to be longer. Then I wrote him bound by gravity and realized he wouldn't have any way to escape.

The Brandish part was a bit different due to August's death. Her confidence in the Alvarez Empire's victory and will to fight were shaken, leading to her not noticing Dimaria or fighting the Fairies.

MDM11, I had considered putting Lyon into the Invel fight, but I was on the fence about it. It was your comment back in chapter 76 that made me ultimately decide to include him.

That's all for now. Bye!