Now, the long tournament is finally coming to a close! With only the aces of Fairy Tail and White Eclipse remaining, Gildarts and Sidney, who will be the one to claim victory in their guild, and earn the title as number one guild in Fiore!?
A large explosion rocked the entire stadium, the wind blowing harshly as it nearly sent the light weighted people flying away. "They're gonna destroy this entire place!" Cana screamed out.
"YOU CAN DO IT GILDARTS!" Natsu screamed, holding his ground from the intense tremors and roaring winds.
"SIDNEY, IT'S ALL YOU!" Luke shouted, almost blown back by the next shockwave.
Gildarts ducked Sidney's incoming punch, retaliating with an elbow to Sidney's injured chest, causing Sidney to flinch as he took a few steps back, opening his palms. "Tombstones…" From Sidney's palm, a multitude of tombs stones launched at Gildarts.
Gildarts held his hand out, firing off a magical white net that met the tombstones midway, disassembling them into nothing; Gildarts then threw his arm forward, clashing with Sidney's fist once again, causing another shockwave to boom through the arena, shaking the entire stadium.
"THIS IS SO COOOOOOOOLL!" Jason yelled, his eyes sparkling from the amazing fight he was witnessing.
"THIS IS HELLA WILD!" Bacchus screamed, grinning from the excitement.
"Gildarts don't give up!" Makarov put his hand into the air, sticking out his thumb and index finger, the rest of Fairy Tail soon following suit.
"Don't let them take it, Sidney!" Jaxon shouted as he winced when Gildarts took a hit, raising his three of his fingers into a W, the rest of White Eclipse following suit behind him.
Though the battle was lasting for a good thirty minutes, it was clearly starting to reach its climax as the damage the two Ace's took started to catch up to them; Sidney's injury from his fight with Cynthia, and Gildarts's leg injury from his battle with Reve. "For Fairy Tail's sake, I won't lose!" Gildarts landed a harsh blow to Sidney's cheek, causing Sidney to stumble back.
"I won't allow anyone to look down on White Eclipse, no matter how idiotic most of them are," Sidney replied with no emotion, landing a harsh punch to Gildarts's face, causing the might ace to stumble back a few feet, panting.
"You bastards are pretty tough," Gildarts said, shaking his head slightly, a smirk forming across his lips.
"You're not too bad yourself…" Sidney replied, shaking his head slightly as he placed his foot on the ground, causing a magic circle to appear under his foot. "Resurrection: Werewolf," after Sidney spoke, three cliché looking werewolves appeared from the magic circle, giving off a chilling howl as foam appeared on their mouths.
"That's a new one…" Luke commented.
Gildarts watched carefully as the cliché werewolves rushed towards him at high speeds. "Hn…" A werewolf lunged at the Fairy Tail ace with its mouth open, baring its large fangs as it went into bite Gildarts. "This could be a problem…" He admitted as he brought his prosthetic arm up, allowing the wolf to bite onto that, which didn't cause much damage. However, the other two wolves were right behind the first, and they were aiming themselves at Gildarts' legs to slow him down. "Tch…" Gildarts threw his arm harshly to the side, causing one werewolf to vanish. For the other two, he threw his hand forward, sending a white net of magical energy towards them, causing them to vanish. Sidney was on the offense after this, however, as he rushed Gildarts with a powerful right hook, but Gildarts was prepared, using his normal forearm to block the attack, an emotionless expression pained over his face.
Sidney quickly brought his free arm back, landing a harsh blow to Gildarts' chest, causing the mighty Crash mage to slide back once again, but he stopped after two seconds. Sidney cracked his fist after. "Are we done with the warm up?" Sidney asked with a monotonous voice.
"WARM UP?!" Happy shouted, his eyes wide.
"You mean they've just been sizing each other up this last half hour?!" Cana asked, spilling the mug of beer she was holding.
"No way...that's the most intense warm up I've ever seen..." Luke said with widened eyes.
"Guess so," Gildarts replied, a thick white aura surrounding his body, darkening it considerably as the only thing that visible was his red eyes. Sidney followed suit, a black aura escaping his body as the entire arena started to shake, followed by the entire city of Crocus, and the area surrounding Crocus with at least a 40 mile radius.
Cynthia stirred in the infirmary, the powerful tremor starting to wake her up. "Hnnnn..."
Wendy sat up, her injuries from her fight with Reve stinging. "Ouch..." Her attention quickly shifted from her injuries to the trembling earth as things from atop the shelves started to collapse, shattering when they hit the ground. "W-What's going on...?!"
Carla, who fell asleep watching over Wendy and Cynthia, woke up from the sounds of Wendy's voice, letting out a yelp of surprise when she noticed the shaking. "W-What is this?!" She then remembered hearing that Gildarts defeated Reve, meaning it was down to Gildarts and Sidney. "Are they about to go all out?!"
"These two are not ordinary Wizards..." Jura said quietly as the shaking slowly started to die down.
"They're monsters..." Lyon said with wide eyes and a shocked expression.
"Holy hell..." Blues was shaking, not from excitement, but from fear. The two mages facing off against each other weren't normal, just as Jura said. They were monsters...
Natsu's jaw dropped just as the shaking died down completely, his entire body shaking. "H-He wasn't even trying against me and..." He thought back to how Sidney defeated him with one punch, and how Cynthia was able to injure Sidney. "He's just like Gildarts..."
"But stronger!" Hanako yelled out innocently from the other side.
"Are you ready?" Gildarts asked, his cape blowing slightly in the wind.
"I am ready," Sidney replied with a stern nod. His chest was crying out in pain from Cynthia's attack earlier, but it wasn't bothering him, thus leading him to ignore it. "Don't hold back on me, Clive. Otherwise you'll live to regret it."
Gildarts smirked cockily, one side of his lip raising. "I'm not too good at holding back, now. And even if I was, I don't hold back, no matter the situation."
"Excellent," Sidney nodded, tugging at his scarf with two of his fingers to show a sign of respect for Gildarts. Sidney then placed his foot in the ground, causing a magic circle to appear. "Resurrections: Vampire, Frankenstein." Using quite a bit of magic power, Sidney created a giant 50 foot cliche Frankenstein looking monster from the magic circle, and a cliche looking vampire as well. The Vampire opened its wings, sending a wave of bats towards Gildarts as the Frankenstein raised its fist, bringing it down on Gildarts.
"Here we go..." Gildarts wasn't sure what was the bigger threat; Frankenstein, or the Vampire. He knew the Frankenstein was powerful, but he remembered how Cynthia was able to throw it back. The vampire was new, so he decided to focus himself on that. He stuck his arm out, shooting a white net towards the incoming bats; but the bats dodged the net, causing his eyes to widen. "They learn..." Gildarts thought to himself, obviously impressed with Sidney's ghost magic. The bats flew at Gildarts, but they didn't cause damage; they only caused him to cover him as they acted as more of a distraction and annoyance. "Annoying little turds!" Gildarts groaned as he attempted to shoo the bats away, but then the Frankenstein's fist landed on Gildarts, shattering the ground it hit on impact.
"Gildarts!" Natsu shouted, leaning over the railing.
About thirty seconds passed before the fist of the Frankenstein slowly lifted up, but not on its own. Gildarts was holding the giant fist up with one hand, and the ground shattering beneath him was just him utilizing his Crash Magic, breaking the ground under his feet to soften the impact as much as possible. "Heh,". Gildarts smirked, using his other hand to grab the Frakenstein's fist. "My turn," Gildarts hurled the Frankenstein into the air, forcing Sidney to cause it to vanish.
"Vampire, go," Sidney ordered, pointing forward. The vampire nodded slowly, moving across the ground without taking a step, moving almost like a shadow.
Gildarts reared his normal arm back, infusing it with Crash Magic as he slammed his fist into the incoming vampire's face, immediately causing the Vampire to explode. "Heh!" Gildarts said with a cocky smirk, but, that smirk quickly faded as Sidney rushed in after his vampire was destroyed, and landed a powerful blow to Gildarts' face, causing Gildarts to stumble back, his guard down. Sidney took advantage of this and begun to unleash a brutal combination of punches and kicks at Gildarts. Sidney landed a kick to Gildarts' side, a knee to his chest, and finished it off with an elbow to Gildarts' face...but the ace regained himself by that point, and he blocked the elbow with his metal forearm. He then reared his normal arm back, slamming it into Sidney's stomach.
"!" The impact caused Sidney's eyes to widen, obviously winded from the blow to his stomach, taking a few steps back as he attempted to regain his breath.
"My turn!" Gildarts reared his fist back, but as he did, a magic circle appeared in front of Sidney, running through him quickly as he turned transparent, like a ghost. Just as the magic circle turned Sidney transparent, Gildsrts threw all of his weight into one fist, hoping to end the fight right there, but he missed, stumbling forward and through Sidney.
Sidney turned, regaining his physical form, grabbing Gildarts by this cape just as he passed through, using it to hold him in place. "..." Sidney then reared his fist back, tugging harshly on Gildarts' cape, pulling him back. Sidney threw his fist forward at a violent velocity, slamming it into the back of Gildarts' head. The blow was so powerful Sidney was forced to release his grip on Gildarts, and the mighty Fairy Tail ace fell to the ground, not moving for a good five seconds before standing up again, rubbing the back of his head.
"I'm gonna feel that one in the morning..." Gildarts said to himself as he turned around, just in time to block Sidney's kick with his hand. "Too slow!" Gildarts used his strength to push Sidney away, causing the Ghost mage to lose his footing for a few seconds. Gildarts then used this time to sending a powerful beam towards Sidney.
"Sidney, look out!" Zalen shouted.
Sidney quickly regained his footing, clapping his hands together as four tombstones appeared in front of Sidney in a domino like fashion. Sidney knew this wasn't going to be enough to stop the beam, so he crossed his arms I've his body. The beam tore through the first two tombstones with ease, then took several seconds to tear through the other two and slam into Sidney, causing the White Eclipse ace to skid back across the ground a good several yards before coming to a stop. Sidney and Gildarts were panting now, feeling the injuries of their prior battles and from this battle starting to catch up to them, but they weren't going to give up until the other had fallen. Sidney clapped his hands together, causing a purple fog to appear.
"There we go!" Zalen shouted, grinning widely.
"It's that fog...!" Lucy gasped.
"Gildarts, it's a trick, don't fall for it!" Natsu shouted, but it was too late. Gildarts closer his eyes, and the fog started to take effect, blocking Gildarts from reality as he looked around.
"What the...?" Gildarts raised an eyebrow and looked around, his eyes wide as he was standing in the middle of a burning wasteland. Fairy Tail was burnt down to the ground, the famous Fairy Tail symbol slowly burning away. That wasn't all, when Gildarts looked down, he saw the one thing he never wanted to. Cana; dead, on the ground. "C-Cana...!" Gildarts froze, unsure on what to do. Before he could say or do anything else, Sidney landed a devestating punch to Gildarts' face, shocking the Crash Mage back into reality as he flew into the nearby wall, causing a large dust cloud to kick up.
"GILDARTS!" Natsu's eyes widened tremendously as Gildarts flew into the wall. The dust cloud dispersed after a few minutes and Gildarts was hunched over, the haymaker causing serious damage since he took the hit unprepared.
"You..." Gildarts' tone was no longer confident. "You may be a stronger mage then I..." Gildarts threw off his cape, revealing his bandaged body. "But there are two things I won't allow. My fears to be exploited, and shaking Fairy Tail." Gildarts looked up at Sidney with a serious expression, scowling as he ran towards Sidney, infusing his fist with Crash magic as he engaged the Ghost in close combat once again. The two were even, Sidney and Gildarts either dodged each other hits, clashed, causing shockwaves to boom throughout the entire city, breaking any and all class within a 10 mile radius, or hit each other, letting out loudened grunts as spit flew from their mouths with every blow to the face. "All of them are counting me! The master, my daughter, Natsu, Lisanna!" Gildarts exclaimed as he took a forceful hit to the face, returning Sidney's punch with his own. "I won't let Fairy Tail down!"
"I already told you, Clive!" Sidney exclaimed, avoiding Gildarts punch, ducking quickly as he landed a roaring uppercut to Gildarts' chin, causing the mighty Gildarts to stumble back one step, but he held his ground as he continued to assault Sidney. "I won't allow the name of White Eclipse to shamed. I was brought into this, and I will finish it to the end,". Sidney infused his fist with raw magic energy to match Gildarts' Crash. The two continued to clash for several minutes before sliding back a few yards respectively, both panting heavily. "Hmph," Sidney realized that he was almost out of magical energy, so he had to make his last attack count. "It's been fun, Gildarts Clive," Sidney said, rushing forward with his fist pulled back.
"Same to you, Sidney Castle," Gildarts held his arm back, throwing it at the same time Sidney threw his, the collision of the two fists causing a powerful shockwave that literally destroyed the arena floor, blowing the two aces back as a large cloud of smoke covered the arena.
"W-Who won!?" Natsu asked as the smoke lingered in the air.
"It had to be Sidney, right!?" Selene shouted. All went silent as the smoke started clear…the one standing was…Both. Sidney and Gildarts were still standing. Their fists struck each other in the fact, but they were frozen in that position. They were both unconscious after that amazing impact.
"THEY TIED!?" Lisanna's eyes widened.
"N-NO WAY!" Zalen's glasses fell off his face, and he didn't even bother to pick them up.
"They didn't beat us...…THAT MEANS WE'RE STILL NUMBER ONE!" Natsu grinned widely, throwing the Fairy Tail hand sign into the air. "TOLD YOU!"
"Tch…!" Luke turned his head. "Bull…we're even…"
"Doesn't matter." Laxus said with smirk. "You came to us under the notion that if you beat us, you would be proving that you're the number one guild. Now, this result ain't exactly desirable for either of us...but you can't go saying you beat us, now can you?" That was the important part. Fairy Tail may not have entirely triumphed over White Eclipse, but White Eclipse failed to beat them after all that gusto. So, despite it being a tie...this was more White Eclipse's loss than anything else. They failed to accomplish what they set out to do.
"THAT. WAS. SO. COOOOOOOOOL!" Jason jumped for joy yet again, grinning widely. "THAT WAS AWESOME! WHITE ECLIPSE AND FAIRY TAIL TIED! COOOOOL!"
"Huh..." Sting wasn't sure how to feel. While he was certain Fairy Tail had it in the bad, White Eclipse showed some impressive resilience the whole time.
"Sting-sama...I think we need to work harder too." Yukino said quietly.
"Yeah." Sting nodded in agreement. "We can't fall behind either of them."
"That was amazing…" Mavis let out an exasperated breath before smiling sweetly to Fairy Tail. "It was close too…But I had faith Fairy Tail would show their true power..."
"All in a day's work, First Master!" Makarov gave a grin.
"You've done a great job with your children, Third," Mavis replied, nodding a few times. "The Third Generation of Fairy Tail really is something!"
"I see..." Calium nodded slowly as the spectators cheered for Fairy Tail. "Let's go home..."
Cynthia walked out of the infirmary along with Wendy, looking over at all the other injured members who fought proudly for Fairy Tail. "We won...?"
"That's right," Laxus nodded. "Fairy Tail is still number one."
"That's great!" Cynthia grinned. "I helped...right?"
"Of course you did!" Lucy gave a thumbs up to Cynthia, grinning.
"Is everyone okay?" Wendy asked. "I'll heal anyone who's still hurt..."
"Don't worry about that, Wendy," Erza replied, suddenly in a busty nurse outfit. "I'll help anyone who's injured!" And with that, the injured males, and even the males uninjured (But now nose bleeding like no one's business) rushed towards Erza.
"I love this outfit!" Macao cheered.
"Go Erza!" Wakaba added. These two old men would never frown at the chance to see nurse Erza.
"Oh..." Wendy turned her head, looking down with at saddened expression, her dark blue hair covering her eyes.
"Why did they just...?" Cynthia blinked a few times, unable to understand why all the males were around Erza.
"It's because my breasts are too small..." Wendy mumbled to herself poking her fingers together.
"Oh, don't be silly, Wendy!" Cynthia said with a reassuring tone. "Erza's breasts aren't-" Cynthia turned to Erza as she spoke, stopping in mid sentence when she looked at Erza's breasts. "Uh..."
"Yours are bigger than mine too..." Wendy continued.
"They are no-" Cynthia took a look at her chest realizing that hers was indeed slightly larger than Wendy's, then back at Wendy's flat chest. "MOVING ON!" Cynthia dragged Wendy over Erza, which she learned was a bad idea because the bandages Erza placed on everyone were WAY too tight. "MMMPH!" Was the only sound Cynthia, and everyone else could make with the casts over their mouths.
"I assume that means everyone's feeling better, right?" Erza asked with a smile. "All in a day's work!"
"NOT OKAY. NOT OKAY!" Cynthia screamed through the bandages over her mouth, but it came out muffled despite how much she raised her voice. "I can't feel my everything now...That's not supposed to happen AFTER you get bandaged up..."
"What was that, Cynthia?" Erza asked, smiling innocently as she held out more bandages. "Do you need more bandages? I know that Eclipse Tower must have hurt...so I understand."
"NONONONO!" Cynthia shook her head frantically, waving her arms in front of her frantically. Though her voice couldn't be heard because it was muffled from the bandages, so Erza assumed for some reason she was saying yes.
"Alright!" Erza moved in with the bandages, grinning.
.
.
"Your report, Heartless?" A voice came through on a pink haired woman's lacrima device.
"It's just as I thought, King." Heartless replied. Her body was partially obscured by the shadows. "Compared to the other countries, Fiore's magic power really is quite weak. However...they like to use it a lot more. It makes up for the difference in spades, especially when they hosts ridiculous contest of strength like this. If we remain close to Fiore, I believe we will collect enough magic power to make things work." Heartless held up a tube with a red substance inside. "I've collected a number of samples from the past two days alone."
"Ho ho ho! This is a surprising turn of events! But a welcomed one!" The man known as King laughed. "Continue observing them. We're still a ways off until we can complete the server."
"As you wish, King." Heartless said with a nod.
Fiore was the key to everything.
.
.
While Fairy Tail celebrated in taking out White Eclipse's ego, Jellal and Meredy were electing to make their exit as well. "...I'm happy that Fairy Tail managed to hold out. That said, I am upset we weren't able to find Aiden." Jellal sighed.
"Yeah, bummer. But he can't hide forever." Meredy said while placing her hands behind her back. "Mm...by the way, you were staring an awful lot at that Heather girl. Do you know her...?"
"...I think so." Jellal responded, but he couldn't put his finger on where. "I just couldn't remember where. But we have more important things to worry about. If Aiden were here, we missed him. Whatever he was observing was in front of us and we didn't notice..."
"It's okay, Jellal, We'll figure it out. I know things are harder without UI here, but...we'll manage." Meredy gave Jellal a warm smile. Jellal was able to smile in response.
"Yes. We will." Jellal replied.
With the battle between Fairy Tail and White Eclipse over, the wheels of history would begin to turn from this point onward. However, the events that were to follow...were completely unexpected to everyone...