"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?" Luke shouted at the dispersing explosion.
"Those flames..." Aira started.
"I'll tell you what that was," Cygnus started. "NOT GOOD, THAT'S WHAT!"
"How the hell did he draw THAT much power from a little girl!?" Luke flailed his arms around, looking around for an answer.
"How are we suppose to know!?" Zalen shouted back at Luke, unable to find any explanation.
"That thing was REALLY close to destroying us!" Waiston said through a loud groan, holding his stomach. "Can we just get off this stupid ship already!?" After he spoke, a large fire ball flew past the right wing of the ship. "What the hell...?!" Waiston slowly looked down, and saw the flaming spider attempting to attack the ship once again.
"It's back...MEN!" Ichiya looked down, a bad decision as a fire ball nearly burnt the entirety of his face off.
"SOMEONE GET RID OF THIS DAMN SPIDER!" Reve shouted, changing his assault rifles for his six chambered magnum, unleashing a round on the spider. The spider hopped to the side, avoiding the bullet and the explosion it caused.
"What's up with this thing!?" Luke placed his hand into his fist, sending off a multitude of ice lances towards the Spider, but its heated body melted the lances before it could reach.
"Stubborn bastard!" Reve snarled just as the cannons fired off again, simultaneously like last time, but the spider avoided each and every shot.
"It's getting closer...!" Aira shrieked.
"Welp, guess I gotta deal with it," Cygnus shrugged and stood on the side of the ship. "You guys better take care of things!" Cygnus jumped off the side, manipulating the gravity around him to make himself heavier as he slammed right into the agile spider.
"Cyg!" Zalen shouted.
"Don't worry, he can handle it," Luke replied, turning around as they neared the large tower.
"...Well, after a show like that, our goal becomes clearer..." Reve said while taking a deep breath. He lost his composure for a moment, but it was back now.
"Your goal?" Jenny looked at Reve.
"Do you really think it's wise to let that kind of power out freely? If push comes to shove...we're gonna have to kill Cynthia ourselves."
"You can't be serious!" Eve objected to this immediately. "None of this is her fault!"
"But it's becoming our problem." Reve looked at Eve, his expression unwavering.
"You can't seriously except anyone to be okay with that option." Ren also objected. He could not abide by the loss of a life, especially of someone so innocent such as Cynthia.
"Men. It is alright. There is nothing to worry about." Ichiya said calmly. "We will do everything we can to ensure that Fairy Tail smells the parfume of success and victory All we need to do is make sure that the worst case does not happen!"
"I guess he has a point." Jenny didn't like Reve's idea. It was, ultimately, the very last ditch effort. Nobody wanted to admit that. "Luckily you have us on your side."
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"H-How much power was that!?" Natsu asked, turning back around to look at the group.
"I-I don't know..." Lucy asked, dumbstruck by the cannon's power. "I hope that was everything that cannon could muster...!"
"If it wasn't, we're in some serious trouble..." Laxus said in a serious tone. No one really wanted to hear that, but he knew it had to be said.
"So, what's the plan?" Mirajane asked.
"Do we split up, or go together?" Cana asked, sneaking a quick sip from her beer.
"If we split up, we'll have to be extra careful about those Tartaros and Silent Sanctum mages..." Erza replied.
"Juvia would like to ask where we should begin looking..." Juvia said, looking around the first floor of the tower, unsure on where to go due to the many passage ways.
"It would take too long to check each passage way..." Lucy frowned a bit, crossing her arms as she leaned on her left leg. "We don't have time either...not a lot of it..."
"Hold on..." Elfman said, eyeing one of the passages suspiciously. "Someone unmanly is coming..."
"How can you tell..." Lucy gave Elfman an odd look, but she trusted his instincts. A few seconds later a large, round male with no hair, a large coat, and black boots walked in, his eyes closed. "Who...?"
Erza's eyes widened at the sight of this male before she glared at him. "You're..."
The male opened his eyes, a blue color to them, as he looked at Titania, laughing. "Oh, look who it is! It's the almighty Titania!"
"Who's this guy!?" Natsu asked, glaring at the large individual in front of the group.
"He's the one...the leader of those dark mages from a while back...the one who caught me off guard..." Erza replied.
"WHAT!? That was this guy!?" Natsu engulfed his body in flames and then pounded his knuckles together, causing a red magic circle to appear. "You're gonna pay!" Natsu lunged forward.
"NATSU NO!" Erza grabbed Natsu by his muffler and pulled him back. "Don't touch him! He'll drain your magic if you make contact with him!"
"What?" Natsu looked over his shoulder to Erza.
"I see you've recovered quite nicely from our last encounter..." The rounded male smirked over at Erza. Before anyone could response, Wendy immediately unleashed a Omega Flame Sky Dragon's roar upon the male, knocking him out instantly.
"Get out of our way!" Wendy yelled at the male before sniffing the air. "Cynthia...I can't smell her...!" Wendy wasn't thinking too clearly, which wasn't too surprise because her best friend was in danger, so without thinking she just ran into a random passage, hoping to catch the faintest scent of Cynthia.
"W-Wendy, come back!" Carla immediately flew after Wendy.
"Dammit...!" Natsu and Happy ran after Wendy and Carla.
"N-Natsu! Wendy! Wait!" Lucy held a hand forward as she ran after the two dragon slayers.
"Guess we're splitting up?" Gajeel asked.
"Looks like it..." Laxus replied, walking into a passage. "Stay safe everyone..."
"Warren, Cana stay here just in case..." Erza said, taking a different passage than Laxus.
Warren and Cana nodded, keeping an eye on the front door in case someone else decided to arrive. "Alright." Gajeel and Patherlily, Juvia, Mirajane and Elfman, took separate passages from the others, unsure on which one would lead them to Cynthia, but they knew they had to find out.
.
.
"I wonder if I should raise the percentage to 40% now..." Aiden walked back and forth as he tapped his chin, unsure if he should show more power from Fiore's End immediately after or if he should wait.
"Please...don't..." Cynthia replied, her dark red flames flowing around her body uncontrollably.
"Oh, I have an idea!" Aiden grinned slightly, completely ignoring Cynthia before turning on the broadcasting lacrima to project another announcement to all of Fiore.
.
.
"I see the tower...!" Luke pointed forward towards the tower.
Heather's eyes widened slightly at the tower, a sick feeling in her stomach, and it wasn't from the motion sickness. "That..."
"Heather, are you okay...?" Luke looked over at Heather.
"I-I'm fine..." Heather nodded slowly.
"Hey, look...!" Waiston pointed down to Gray and Maggie down below.
"Looks like Gray is having a hard time..." Zalen pointed out.
"Heh...Let me down here," Waiston said, a smirk appearing on his lips as he started to get over the motion sickness.
"Waiston, you wanna go down there?" Reve asked.
"Yeah, he looks like he could use some help, right?" Waiston nodded slowly, standing on the side of the ship, wobbling slightly. "Don't worry, we'll be able to handle it!" Waiston smirked and then jumped off the ship, feeling instant relief since he was no longer on the moving ship.
"Heh...that's right, Waiston," Reve smirked slightly before turning to Ichiya. "Hey, you! See if you can swing us around to the back so we can get in that way!"
"Men! It shall be done!" Ichiya nodded. "Trimens!"
.
.
"Damn..." Gray panted somewhat heavily, Maggie's lava making easy work of his ice. Gray was damaged quite a bit, and Maggie was also damaged, but not as much as Gray.
"What's the matter, Popsicle?" Maggle asked with a smirk, taking a few steps towards Gray. "Too hot for you?"
"I'm just getting warmed up..." Gray replied, standing up straight as he placed his fist into his palm again.
Maggie let out a giggle before holding her hands out, allowing them to glow bright red. "This was fun, but I have some plonky Fairies inside to exterminate, so..."
"Ice Dragon's Roar!" Waiston opened his mouth, unleashing a cold blast down at Maggie; the sudden attack caused the Lava Mage to take a few steps back.
"Bloody hell?!" Maggie looked up, spotting Waiston land next to Gray.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Gray asked, looking towards Waiston.
"I saw you were having a little trouble with the heat, so I came down to lower the temperature a bit," Waiston smirked and then looked over at Maggie.
"I don't need your help," Gray scoffed.
"Oi, let's put things aside for once..." Waiston said in a serious tone. "This is more important than some guild rivalry."
Gray stayed silent for a second before allowing two blades of ice to appear on his arm and his elbow on his other arm. "Let's show this girl the meaning of cold..."
"That's what I like to hear..." Waiston smirked, stomping on the ground, causing a trail of glacial ice spikes to travel towards Maggie as Gray leapt forward, pulling his bladed arm back.
.
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Emeraude and Koryuji were in Fiore, still. They witnessed that first shot of the Omega Fire Cannon. Koryujis eyes were wide. "Whoa! Hey, Em? Isn't that bad?"
"..." Emeraude narrowed her eyes. It took her a second before she actually heard her companion speak and turned to her. "...That is an impressive amount of firepower. The Heracles Cannon isn't even finished yet, but it could match it. Still, the power source is what bothers me the most. That is a little girl..."
"Yeah, that's messed up." Koryuji frowned. "...Uh. Should we get involved? This does seem like a really serious issue..."
"No." Emeraude shook her head. "I see no reason for us to get involved at the moment. At present, this is a Fiore issue. If Fiore fails to quell its own threat, then we may have to step in. But for the time being...it is in our best interests to merely watch. I am sure King Ashnard is greatly enjoying this situation play out..."
.
.
Hisui and Toma were witnessing the aftermath of the Omega Fire Cannon as well. Their jaws dropped from the horrific display of power they were shown. "W-What in the world..." Hisui covered her mouth with her hands.
"How did he amass that much power? All from that one girl!?" Toma was just as shocked as the rest of the country. To think that something like this could happen under his nose. A mad man such as Aiden should never have been allowed to get away with something like this in the first place. "And the Council has their hands tied..."
"It will be alright, Father..." Hisui shook her head, trying to regain her composure. "Fairy Tail will be there. We can rely on them." They managed to come through before...so surely they would again. That little girl was depending on them...
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Things at the Magic Council were tense; all of the members of the Council just witnessed the cannon's power, and now they were panicking on what they should do about it. "H-How much power can he get from a little girl?!" Lahar asked in a state of shock as the explosion from the cannon started to vanish.
"T-That's too much power for such a small child..." Correll replied, looking over to the chairman of the Magic Council, Gran Doma, for any words on what to do.
"That power is devastating...and to think the other test subjects we caught were dangerous..." Gran Doma said, sighing heavily. "There's only one thing we can do...we have to evacuate-..."
"Evacuate to where, if I may ask?" Aloy said, not even caring that he just interrupted the Magic Council Chairman.
"A-Aloy...!" Doranbolt looked over at Aloy with a surprised face.
Gran Doma minded the sudden interruption, but he started to speak once again anyway, "Until this fisaco is over with...I suggest we try and see if we can move everyone to Bosco..."
"You didn't understand my question," Aloy replied once again. "Think about this...this IS Fiore's End, is it not? The power from that cannon destroyed a small portion of the country, what makes you think that escaping will help?" Aloy's pessimistic speech was something nobody wanted to hear, but at the same time there was truth in what he was saying. "I'm fairly certain that Fiore is only a small step before Bosco, and then perhaps the world."
"The world?!" Odin's eyes widened as he turned to Aloy. "That's crazy! This is just one man, we cannot allow him to run all over us."
"Is it really now?" Aloy turned to Odin. "Do we place our faith in some rag tag group of wizards, or do we accept our fate?"
"You know full well the other countries would intervene if things escaped our control." Gran Doma replied. "But we cannot allow it to get out of our control in the first place."
"Hold on a second!" Lahar interjected. "We've sent him, and my guess is that he's close to the area right now!"
"Him?" Aloy raised an eyebrow.
Before anyone could say anything to Aloy, the lacrima screen showing Aiden popped up once again. "Oh, I hope you all saw the amazing creation of what I like to call the Omega Fire Cannon! In case your curious on how much power that was using, that was only 30% of the cannon's power. I did that just to show you just how hopeless your situation really is." Aiden's last comment was more for Cynthia than anyone else. "I hope you didn't place all of your faith in Fairy Tail, because I can assure you that they WILL fall...So, " The lacrima screen split off, showing the progress of the Fairy Tail members that split up, running in the tower as they attempted to reach the top. The screen eventually vanished after a few seconds, leaving the Council members to mutter among themselves nervously about the fate of Fiore.
"It was my idea to speedruun the process." Kemuri said while dragging a huff from his cigarette. "I know it skipped some official procedures, but time is short. I'll deal with the fallout later...but for now, I think it's better this way. Aiden thinks we won't send anyone, but that's where we have the element of surprise."
.
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Cobra stood on some high ground, looking up at the tower in the distance, the wind blowing his coat back slightly. Cobra closed his eyes, listening to all the thoughts and sounds of the people around or in the tower. "I hear you all..." He placed his hands out, opening his palms as a poisonous mist started to flow from his hands. "I can hear it...the sound of the one you call Cynthia...I can hear her suffering..."