Happy's wings spread out, and he was now on Natsu's back, giving the dragon slayer a temporary source of flight, allowing the two to move onto the outside of the train, spotting several burglars with various weapons on the top of the train, moving towards the cargo. "Hey guys, up here!" Natsu shouted down to the others, but he also caught the attention of the burglar's attention, causing them to turn around. Natsu only smirked, pounding his fist together as the burglars charged over towards him. "I'm all fired up! Let's go, Happy!"
"Aye, sir!" Happy grinned flying forward towards the burglars with Natsu firmly in his grip.
Lucy, Luke, Heather, Magnus, and Cynthia climbed onto the top of the train, while Carla flew up with Wendy. "Hm, they have numbers," Magnus said, stroking his chin while entering a trance of deep thought. "But, do they have strength...?"
"Big numbers like these usually don't have strength," Cynthia replied, allowing her signature dark red flames to cover her fist. "Save some fun for me!" She shouted towards Natsu as she ran over to deal with the burglars.
"That may be true, but what if they were only using these numbers as a guise…?" Magnus said, only to realize that none of the mages were within earshot of his voice anymore. "Fools…rushing in without a strategy…numbers don't mean anything…"
Natsu raised two hands into the air, generating two spheres of fire on his hands; Natsu then brought his hands together, forming a giant flaming sphere that he was now holding over his head. "Dazzling Blaze of the Fire Dragon!" Natsu hurled the sphere forward, grinning confidently as it struck a clump of bandits, knocking them off the train and into the abyss below.
"My turn!" Cynthia below Natsu, dark red fire trailing behind her arms. "Omega Fire Dragon's Wing Slash!" Cynthia threw her arms forward, aiming to slash the bandits with her fire. However, most of the bandits saw through this, and jumped back onto the roof of another car, unscathed by Cynthia's attack.
Wendy jumped into the air; her arms spread out, right above the bandits that just avoided Cynthia's attack. "Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!" Wendy sent sharp whirlwinds from her arms towards the bandits, knocking a few off the train, while the others just stood their ground.
Lucy pulled out one of her golden keys, a bright light shimmering from the tip of the key as she held it up, "Gate of the Golden Bull, I open thee! Taurus!" A magic circle appeared, and as if from nowhere, Taurus rose from the ground, roaring a mighty "MOOO!" As he did so.
"I'll do my best to serve Lucy-sama and her nice body!" Taurus said proudly.
"I'm not a fan of this one…" Heather whispered to Luke.
"Yeah, me neither…" Luke replied before snapping his fingers, causing a large red magic circle to appear in front of him. "Flame Dragon!" A large fire dragon shot out from the magic circle, slamming into the bandits nearby, sending them flying away from the train and down into the abyss.
"Can you not use that magic…?" Lucy asked, shivering slightly from the faint memory.
"What? It's good magic!" Luke replied, and right after he replied, a bandit managed to sneak up on his left, landing a right hook to Luke's jaw, causing him to stumble back, almost falling off the train. "GAH!"
"MOO!" Taurus swung his axe, landing a direct hit on the bandit that struck Luke, sending that one down into the abyss below.
Luke regained his balance, only to see Heather conjuring up a magenta colored magic circle in front of him. "Duck," Heather said in a demanding tone, and Luke complied, hitting the floor as Heather fired off a flurry of poisonous scales at the incoming bandits.
Magnus merely watched as the wizards fought the bandits, making mental notes of each wizard's abilities. "Interesting…"
"Hey, you gonna help or what!?" Natsu shouted.
"Yes, yes…give me a second…" Magnus placed his hand in the air, feeling the wind currents around his hand. "Hm…Lucy, was it? I recommend you shift your body approximately sixty seven degrees in about five seconds."
"W-What?" Lucy looked over at Magnus with confusion.
"Three…two…" Magnus counted down. "And…NOW!"
Lucy was confused, but she did as she was told, twisting her body about sixty seven degrees, and to her surprise, a beam of darkness passed right by her, and flew into the sky. "W-What?! You knew that was coming!?"
"Of course," Magnus replied. "Now then…" Without moving from his current spot, Magnus pivoted on his left foot, spinning around in a quarter circle, avoiding a blast of fire from a bandit all the way across the train.
"Whoa…!" Cynthia watched Magnus with widened eyes, amazed as his ability to predict with such accuracy.
"My magic, Foresight, allows me to see the future within a few minute time period." Magnus thought to himself, watching the fighting go on. "Being able to see the flow of battle means you can control it. I won't tell these wizards that, however..."
.
.
Chelia and Orga rolled across the ground, both heavily damaged, while Blake had minor damage, and Diana had no damage. It was clear who was stronger between Blake and Diana, and it was even clearer than Blake and Diana were both stronger than Chelia and Orga, perhaps in an entirely different league. "U-Ugh…" Orga picked himself up slowly, swaying from side to side as his body screamed out in pain.
Chelia's body started to glow, signifying that she was healing her injuries. After a few seconds, she stood up, panting heavily. She may have healed her injuries, but her body was still exhausted. "I-I won't lose…"
"Still standing?" Blake raised an eyebrow.
"Perhaps we should give them credit where credit is due…not many people last this long against us…" Diana said, rolling her neck. "It's a shame though…"
"W-What's a shame?" Orga asked through heavy breaths.
"I don't know about Blake, but I'm only getting warmed up," Diana said with a yawn.
"She's bluffing…!" Chelia responded immediately.
"Am I really?" Diana asked, taking a step forward. "Try me then."
"I will!" Chelia winced before rearing her head back, gathering a large amount of black wind in her mouth. Orga followed suit, gathering a large amount of black lightning in his mouth along with Chelia. "Sky God's Bellow!" Chelia threw her head forward, unleashing a cyclone of black wind towards Diana.
"Lightning God's Bellow!" Orga threw his head forward, sending an electric beam of lightning forward, his bellow merging with Chelia's midway, creating a unison raid that utterly destroyed the ground it traveled through.
"Hmph…" Diana extended her arm in front of her, opening her palm as a tiny black sphere appeared in her open palm, growing in size within seconds, reaching the size of a soccer-ball. "Black God's Bomb…" The sphere launched itself forward, clashing with the unison bellow for a few seconds; after the few seconds passed, the black sphere cut through the bellow, and exploded on Chelia and Orga, causing a large black explosion to tower into the sky, shaking the entire town and everything within a mile radius of it, resulting in a large dust cloud.
"Don't you think that was a bit much?" Blake asked, crossing his arms.
"Oh please…" Diana yawned, looking into the smoke as it cleared. To her surprise, Chelia was still standing; her body as covered in cuts, bruises, and blood was trailing down the entire left side of her body, but still standing. Orga, however, was KO'ed. "What?"
"She's still standing? Impressive…" Blake shrugged slightly.
"Secret God Slayer Art…" Chelia started, extending her arms outwards with their palms open, having currents of black air spiral around them. She then lifts her hands into the sky, gathering more, thinner streams of air around her. Black air then generated from her very arms, appearing in a stylized feathered from, which rapidly grew in numbers until Chelia condensed them into an elongated mass before her hands, creating a final current that grew larger and larger, as one of the ending parts wrapped around her body, while the other part launched towards Blake and Diana. Four heavenly winds composed of Chelia's signature black wind protruded from the part around Chelia's body, leaving the rest surrounded by thin, spiraling currents of the very same wind, scatting the feathers as the dark, serpentine mass raced towards her opponents. "Heavenly Gathering of Clouds!"
The massive power of the incoming black hurricane surprised Blake, and even Diana to a small extent. "That's a powerful attack," Diana said in a nonchalant tone.
"That could kill someone…" Blake said, obviously taken aback by the little girl's power. The two opposing God Slayer's were consumed by the attack and not a sound escaped their lips as the hurricane consumed them.
"G-Got them…" Chelia fell to her knees, using her hands to keep herself up, panting heavily. Chelia looked up just to make sure, and her eyes widened at what she saw. Blake was the one who took the brunt of the damage, his body covered in cuts and bruises, moderately damaged by the attack, yet he was still standing. Diana, on the other hand, had less cuts and less bruises than Blake, and she was only slightly injured by the attack. "W-WHAT!?" Chelia couldn't believe what she was witnessing; that was her strongest attack!
"Not bad, Sky God Slayer…That one actually stung…" Diana smirked, walking over to Chelia slowly, and kicked her in the side, forcing the girl to fall over, lying on her stomach, and a cry of pain escaping her lips. Chelia attempted to get up, but she was quickly stopped by Diana slamming the heel of her shoe into Chelia's head, causing the girl to stop, letting out a pained shriek as she felt the blood gushing down her head. Diana placed her heel on the wound, pressing down on it slightly. "Don't move, and don't think about using any of that healing magic of yours just yet, unless you want a little more pain, that is…"
"Well, this was interesting…" Blake said, crossing his arms as he watched Diana do her thing.
"What do you think I should do with her?" Diana asked, tapping the foot that wasn't on Chelia's head a few times.
"I saw we rough them both up a bit more; messing with them was fun," Blake nodded.
"She's the stronger one out of the two, no doubt...perhaps we should show her guild what happened to her...Yes, I like that idea..." Diana chuckled to herself before scanning Chelia's body, searching for the precious guild mark.
"What about the bulky one?" Blake asked.
"He didn't last five hits against me," Diana replied, her eyes sparkling with sick joy as she spotted Chelia's green Lamia scale mark on her leg, covered by the blood running down her leg.
Chelia was tempted to heal herself, but in her current situation, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do, so she just opened her mouth, letting her weak voice out. "S-Stop..."
"Oh, hush, girly. If if makes you feel better, I'll do the same thing to your unconscious friend over there," Diana replied, lifting her finger as a dark aura surrounded it. "This shouldn't hurt...too much..."
.
.
Jellal slid back across the ground, conjuring a golden magic circle with a star in the middle. "Heavenly Arrows!" From the magic circle, multiple arrows of holy light shot out, crashing into the no name members of Silent Sanctum, causing them to fly back.
"Wow, you guys really ARE useless…" Byron sighed before swinging his Explosive Hammer at Meredy, who narrowly dodged the attack itself, but the explosion sent her to the side, hitting a tree.
"Meredy!" Jellal went over to help Meredy, but he was cut off by Byron jumping in his way, swinging the explosive hammer once again, but thanks to Jellal's Meteor, he was able to avoid the attack, and the miniature explosion.
"I won't let you hurt Jellal…!" Meredy created several sensory blades in front of her, and she swiped her hand to the side, sending the blades hurtling towards Byron.
"Hm?" Byron turned just as Meredy fired off the sensory blades, his hammer fading, and in turn, his Gravity hammer and suit appeared in his hands, allowing himself to manipulate gravity at will, and he did so, changing his own gravity so the swords would miss; now floating upside down in the air with a smirk.
"Meteor!" Jellal used this chance to allow the familiar heavenly light to coat his body, using it to now fly towards the upside down Byron, unleashing flurry of punches, almost invisible to the naked eye, at Byron, backing off after a few seconds; within a few seconds, Jellal managed to land at least twenty punches all around Byron's body.
"Wha?" Byron was caught off guard by the flurry of punches, letting out grunts as each one hit, but after a while, he had enough, and swung his gravity hammer, changing the gravy around Jellal to push him back, then swung it again to draw him in, raising it up, and slammed it down on the heavenly mage, creating a crater upon Jellal's impact to the ground. Byron shifted quickly, but he noticed that the no name members actually got a hold of Meredy as he landed on the ground, placing his foot on Jellal's chest to keep him from moving. "Well, looks like you guys aren't useless after all! Now then!" Byron raised his gravity hammer, and brought it down on Jellal.
.
.
The inside of the castle was even more worn down than the outside. The walls were falling apart, the carpets were torn, the floor was unstable at points; it was an unsafe environment all together. "Yeesh…what's up with this place…?" Blues said quietly.
"I dunno, but it kinda gives me the chills...I love it…!" Daryan said with a nod.
"I could fix this place up…" Zalen said to himself, gazing around at the worn down walls. "It would take some work, but there's no way it wouldn't be worth it…"
"Maybe when we finish this," Reve said to Zalen.
"What are we even looking for again?" Gray asked, rubbing the back of his head.
"And how are we going to find it in a place like this?" Blues continued.
"I think we'll know when we see it!" Daryan nodded.
"Oh, yeah, because that helps…" Reve groaned slightly, rolling his eyes. He stopped when a noise from behind a door caught his attention. "Hm…?"
"Anyone else hear that?" Bacchus asked.
"I heard it…" Erza replied.
"Tch, I got this…" Reve walked over to the side of the door, waiting for it to open. Within a few minutes, the door swung open, and a male that looked similar to Reve walked out; the only difference was this male looked a little classier than the gunslingers. "I got…you?" Reve blinked at the male standing in front of him, and so did everyone else.
"What?" The male turned, raising a brow at Reve. The two then began to mirror each other's actions, leaning to the left, the right, forward and back. After a few seconds, Reve used his quick draw ability to pull out his pistol, holding it to the male's forehead.
"Okay, who are you, what are you doing here, and why do you look just like me," Reve asked.
"First of all…" The male calmly used his finger to move the pistol away from his head. "I'm here on a job; you look like ME…as for the name? Rylo Yutaka, Ry for short, S class mage for Twilight Zone!"
"Twilight what now?" Blues blinked a few times.
"What's with people and guilds I've never heard about?" Reve lowered the gun, but he kept his eyes trained on Rylo in case the lookalike happened to try something.
"Are you SURE you're an S class mage?" Daryan asked, raising a brow.
"I don't think you can say that when everyone here doubts you…" Zalen coughed.
"Lemme guess," Rylo said, looking around at the group of wizards. "You're here looking for that thing that old person wants too, right?"
"Seems he got the job description right," Gray said over to Erza.
"That's right," Bacchus nodded.
Rylo gave a nod, then a smile, pointing in a direction. "Oh, well, follow me; I think I know exactly where it is!"
