The Rise of a Warrior: Fairy Tail

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

Luke Drako, S-class wizard of the Fairy Tail guild, the true Lightning Dragon Slayer, student and son of the Lightning dragon Kaminari. This is his story. The story of a Dragon Slayer trying to find his place in the world, and make one hell of a strong team along the way. And with any luck, he just might win the heart of a certain brunette card mage. OC x Cana. Read and review.

14. Tower of Heaven II

I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this story since I updated it, and I also want to thank you for getting this story up to 7,000 views.

Oi Teme: Call it what you will, I just saw an opportunity and I went for it. Besides, it's meant to set up a sort of brother-sister relationship between the two of them. By the way, I love your profile picture.

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"In a land far far away lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small and peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic. Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace. For most people, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some however, magic is an art, and they've devoted their lives to its practice. These are the wizards and mages, and banded together into magical guilds, they ply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore, but there is a certain guild in a certain town that stands high above the rest of them, one from which countless legends have been born, a guild that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. This guild is known as Fairy Tail."

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By this point, Natsu had reached Milliana's room while searching for Happy "For fuck's sake what's up with this room? There are cats all over the place- Holy crap there's a gigantic kitty head, it looks like some kind of mask!" he promptly stuck it on his head "Alright then, now let's get going Happy! Aye sir, hell yeah I would make an awesome cat." he tried to pull the mask off, only to find that it was stuck "FUUUUUUCK! Dammit, the thing is stuck on my giant head! It must be because of my gigantic brain. Perfect, now what the fuck am I gonna do? Oh well, it looks cool so as long as the others don't see it, I don't really give a damn. Okay new though as long as Lisanna doesn't see it."

What went unnoticed by him was that Wally was standing in the doorway with his gun locked and loaded "Well ain't that fucking dandy?"

"Oh man Happy is gonna freak the fuck out when he sees me, oh maybe I can scare Luke or Erza too while I'm at it! Oh wait a second, I bet Gray is gonna jump the hell out of his skin when he sees this! It's gonna be freaking hysterical!"

"This is the end of the road for you boy."

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Simon led Luke and the others along a path outside of the tower, only to quickly notice a certain problem "Something is interfering with my communication with Wally and Milliana, I can't even tell where they are now."

"So you're saying that there's something blocking your telepathy." Luke noted "So do you think that Jellal found you out?"

"I hope that's not the case but I wouldn't be surprised if he saw through me just like I saw through him."

Erza glanced back to check on Sho "Is something the matter Sho?"

"No it's nothing, I'm fine." Sho muttered "Everything is fine now that you're here."

Cana on the other hand, she studied Simon intently from behind him "Hey Juvia tell me something, are you absolutely certain that we can trust this guy? I mean I understand that he wasn't trying to kill us back at the resort but still."

"I have no intention of making excuses for my actions." Simon called back to him.

"I didn't think you could hear me."

"Any wizard who is incapable of surviving an attack like that would never have a prayer against the likes of Jellal. I never doubted that the likes of Luke or Natsu would be able to handle that attack, I was confident that they would survive."

"What about the rest of them?" asked Luke.

"All of those present have remarkable potential, however you and Natsu are exceptions for obvious reasons. You have awakened the true power of a dragon within, and once Natsu is able to do the same evil will fall in his wake as it does in yours."

"I guess I should be flattered that you think so highly of me."

"It's hard to admire one capable of defeating one of the Ten Wizard Saints."

"Damn, word travels fast doesn't it?"

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"ACHOO!" due to the superstition of sneezing when someone talks about you, Natsu promptly sneeded inside of the cat mask "Oh fuck I can't wipe my face, this is so gross! You know what, I should probably take this off for a second." he promptly tried to take the mask off, but failed miserably "Come on you stupid son of a- GET OFF!"

"Let me give you a hand with that pal." Wally promptly fired the shot, only for it to be slightly redirected just enough for it to miss Natsu, courtesy of a certain cat girl.

"What the hell?"

"Hey what the hell Milliana, would it kill you to cut it out?"

"It's the blockhead!"

"Seriously, what the hell is the big idea?"

Milliana just pouted at him "You big old meanie, you were trying to hurt the itty bitty kitty witty!"

"Hey hold up a second, that's not even a real cat you crazy broad!"

"What?"

"...Meow." was all Natsu said on the matter.

"He is just the cutest little kitty ever!"

"A wise guy huh? I'm telling you brought that this cat is a total rat! You feeling me?" Wally then proceeded to shove Milliana out of the way and fire off a barrage of blocks at him.

"Meow to the meow!" Natsu dodged and weaved his way around most of the blocks, but then he grabbed a nearby cat plushie and used it to shield himself "Cat Make: Barrier!"

"Dammit!"

"Oh no!" Milliana let out a horrified gasp "Don't hurt the poor little kitty!"

"For crying out loud dollface, this dirty rat is our enemy!"

"Dirty rat? It looks like a kitty to me."

"It's a guy in a cat costume you dimwit!"

"Meow to the meow! Cat Fire Iron Fist!" Natsu unleashed his Fire Dragon Iron Fist to pound away the blocks being hurled at him, destroying a few of the cat plushies in the process, much to the horror of Milliana.

"Dammit, I guess Jellal wasn't pulling my leg when he told me that this cat has some serious claws on him. Alright get ready toots, it's go time."

"Wait what?"

"Meow!" Milliana let out a pissed of meow "Pretending to be a cat when you're really just an ugly dude is a lousy thing to do!"

"Oh bullshit, like you have any room to talk!"

"Bad Kitty Restraint Tube!" Milliana promptly bound Natsu with her Bad Kitty Restraint Tube, binding his arm and disabling his ability to use magic "All bad men who impersonate kitties deserve to be punished!"

"Hells to the yeah!" Wally locked and loaded his gun "That's giving him the bracelets there dollface."

"It's time to put the bad little kitty to sleep!"

"Now he's in the bag!" Wally fired off some blocks.

"Cat Fire- Wait a second." Natsu tried to attack them with a blast of fire, only for nothing to happen, which led to him getting smacked across the face by one of the blocks and sent flying across the room "Why the hell can't I use any of my magic, is it because of this stupid rope thing?" then he noticed his leg was bound by the same restraints "Oh crap." he got pulled to the ground and his spine was crushed by Wally's block attack.

"Too easy."

"Fake kitties make me so mad!" Milliana finished tying up Natsu all the way.

Wally locked and loaded his gun "I hope you're hungry Salamander, because you're about to eat some hardcore lead."

Natsu tried to sneak away, but he only ended up slinking across the floor 'Son of a bitch, this isn't good.'

"Ears up Salamander, I've got a real dandy catchphrase that I've been dying to try out for awhile now. Too bad things had to end this way, but from the moment you met me-"

"You've had this coming!" that was when Happy and Bolt burst onto the scene and promptly decked Wally from behind.

Natsu glanced up from within his cat mask "Is that you Happy?"

"Aye sir, and Bolt is here too. I'm so glad you're safe, but what's up with the stupid cat costume?"

"Just get this thing the hell off me! Oh, and don't tell Lisanna about the whole cursing thing or she'll do that to me."

"Aye sir!"

"Listen up cats, no one interrupts Wally and lives to tell the tale!" Wally promptly started shooting at the two of them, forcing them to dodge.

"No no no!" Milliana promptly grabbed onto Wally and stopped him from firing a round of follow up shots "I won't let you hurt the little kitty widdies!"

"Cats aren't no flyers, and they ain't no goddamn gum flappers neither! You know what screw it, whatever they are these things die! Eat led cats!"

"No Wally don't do it!" she grabbed onto his scarf.

"What the hell, let me go you loony tune!"

Bolt tried untying the binds on Natsu, but he quicky ran into trouble "Dammit will you hold the hell still!"

"Just hurry the hell up and do it!" Natsu barked.

"I would if you would stop squirming all over the place! Besides this stupid thing is on so tight I can't get it out!"

"That's what she said."

"...Momentary grudging respect."

"So I guess I only have one other choice right now."

"And what's that?"

"To use my ultimate technique! Cat Mask Special Attack: Sad Kitty Face!" and so, as the name implied he started making a sad kitty face through the mask, which actually worked a lot better than it should've.

"...Meow." Milliana was actually so touched that she released Natsu's bonds.

"Holy crap, I actually can't believe that worked."

"Meow."

"What the hell?!" Wally promptly rounded on her "Why the hell did you let him go like that you dingbat?!"

"The poor little kitty just looked so sad!"

"Oh for crying out loud!"

"Oh hell yeah, I'm a free man with a cat mask and I've got that fire still burning in my belly and raging to get out! Fire Dragon Wing Attack!" Natsu promptly ripped through both of them with a two handed fire attack, knocking the two of them out cold "Yeah that's right assclowns, if you mess with the kitty then you get the claws!"

"So how long are you planning to wear that thing?" asked Bolt.

"Until I can get the thing off."

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Jellal gave a devious smirk as he moved a piece on the chessboard in front of him "Well it would seem that Sho and Simon have chosen to betray me, or rather Simon was never loyal to me to begin with, whereas it would appear that Wally and Milliana have fallen at the hands of the one known as Salamander. This is how the game should be played, one sided matches are always so dreadfully boring."

"But keep in mind Jellal, we need to capture Erza if we want to begin the ceremony as soon as possible." Sanguine pointed out "I doubt you'll disagree when I say that the time for playing games is over."

"Prudent as always aren't you Sanguine? So be it then, summon the others."

"So you're allowing it?"

"It is our turn after all." he placed four more pieces onto the chess board "As I said, summon the others."

"Way ahead of you." Sanguine snapped his fingers and summoned forth three figures, one of them being a half-man, half-owl figure, a woman in a white kimono with a sword strapped to her side, and what looked like a rock and roll reject from the band KISS. Go ahead, change my mind or tell me I'm wrong about him looking like that "Fukuro, Ikaruga and Vidaldus Taka. All of them are here now."

"Excellent. Four assassins from the Death's Head Order guild. Sanguine the Bloodmaker, the most powerful mage of said guild, and the Trinity Raven consisting of Vidaldus Taka, Fukuro and their leader Ikaruga."

"The four of us are the best of the best that our guild has to offer, even if those three are quite questionable in, well pretty much everything."

"I'll take what I can get. Now then, the time has come for the four of you to enter the fray. You had best make haste as you do, Noah is already in his position."

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By this point, Natsu was having both Happy and Bolt try (and fail miserably) to get the cat mask off his head "Hey come on you guys, you're gonna have to pull a lot harder than that!"

"What the hell do you think we're trying to do!" Bolt tugged even harder "It's not my fault your skull is so thick!"

"God dammit it feels like you're gonna rip my head off!"

"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do!" but then Bolt finally succeeded in pulling the mask off of Natsu's head "Oh crap."

"Finally, my handsome face is free at last!" and then Natsu proceeded to stick it onto Wally's head for pretty much no reason "And how do you like that one, now the stupid thing is stuck on old boxy!"

"I'm kind of surprised that that stupid mask was able to fit over his gigantic square head so easily." Happy commented.

"Who cares, it looks hysterical!"

"God dammit!" Wally pulled the cat mask off his head "This dance isn't anywhere near over just yet Salamander." but then he hunched over in pain.

"Well I already got my payback, and since Erza and Happy and Bolt are all safe there's no reason for me to keep wasting my time with you pal."

"Aye you tell him!" Happy saluted him.

"I just did, but thanks for the support little buddy."

"You can talk as much as you want, but the lot of us are still gonna be able to get right up into Heaven." Wally told him "Jellal told us that we could finally have real freedom in a world where a bunch of palookas like us are calling the shots."

"I welcome you to the Tower of Heaven."

"And there he is now."

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"My name is Jellal, and I am the one ruling over this tower. I see now that the players have been arranged."

Luke shared a glance with Simon "So that means he knows we're here, for all we know he's probably anywhere in the Tower of Heaven right about now."

"I must say that I'm delighted that all of you have come this way to see me, so shall we play a round of Heaven's game?"

"Thanks but no thanks, we're not interested in playing any games."

"I'm so glad I have your cooperation."

"And I'm being ignored."

"I wish to use Erza as a sacrifice in the ceremony in intend to perform with the intention of resurrecting Lord Zeref."

"That's not going to happen."

"If I succeed, then the gates of Heaven will open, thus crowning my victory. However, if any of you manage to find a way to stop me then you will be the winners of the game. To make things a little bit more interesting, I've enlisted five knights to do battle on my behalf."

"Oh for crying out loud, everything this guy is saying makes me want to punch him. Maybe I'm spending too much time with Natsu."

"The only way you'll be able to get to me is you're able to defeat them. In other words, a five on ten battle royale, and I also have one more surprise. The Magic Council has the satellite square focused directly on this tower, and it's highly likely they will attack. At this very moment, they're in the midst of voting whether or not they should fire an Etherion blast."

"Hey that wasn't in the deal you hooded freak, if that thing hits us then we're all gonna be going to Hell!"

"Yes yes thank you Vidaldus, I think you know how much I value your opinion. Anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, there's no telling just how much time is left. Should the blast from the Etherion strike then complete annihilation is imminent, both for us and for a large number of the surrounding people. There will be no players left to win, it will be game over for all of us."

"Dammit, I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Luke muttered "I mean it's no secret the Magic Council isn't exactly fond of us. Still though it doesn't make sense, it doesn't seem like them to resort to measures as drastic as that."

"Dammit I can't take this anymore!" Sho suddenly used his Card Magic to trap Erza inside one of his cards.

"And apparently this is now happening, what the hell do you think you're doing Sho?"

"There's no way in hell I'm going to let him lay a finger on Erza, I'll beat Jellal all by myself if I have to!" and then Sho bolted in the opposite direction.

"Dammit he's gonna get himself killed."

"Sho you can't do it alone!" Simon quickly bolted off after him, and when the others attempted to follow they were blocked off by a wall of earth cutting them off.

Luke then found himself separated from the others by another wall of earth that suddenly appeared behind them "Why am I not surprised?"

"Now then, let the games begin."

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"Now then, let the games begin."

"Oh hell yeah." Natsu ignited the flames on his fist "Now I'm all fired up!"

"We're gonna have to go to the very top of the tower to track down this Jellal guy now aren't we?" Happy noted.

"You guys go ahead and kick his ass if you can, I'm gonna go track down Luke and then we'll meet you up there as soon as we can." and so Bolt promptly took off out the window.

"And then there were two."

"But I don't get it." Wally muttered "Why the hell would they wanna do this to us? If they really fire that thing then it's gonna be curtains for everybody. We were all just a bunch of stupid little kids looking for our own little taste of freedom."

"Eesh, sounds like that really sucks." Natsu gave a shrug "Look I don't have a clue as to just what kind of freedom you guys are looking for, but what we have going in Fairy Tail isn't too shabby all things considered. Hey Happy, I'm not really feeling this game so what the hell do you say we bend the rules."

"Aye sir!" with his signature catchphrase and a salute, Happy grabbed onto Natsu and the two of them rocketed out the window and burst upwards along the side of the tower.

"Now what the hell do you say we skip ahead and go straight to the finish line little buddy?"

"Aye sir!"

Wally watched both of them go with a small smile "He's one hell of a standup guy, and that is one hell of a dandy looking scarf."

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The earth wall in front of Luke lowered to reveal Noah standing on the other side "I told you I'd be waiting for you."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised." Luke let out a sigh "Look as much as I would love to finish what we started with you, I have other things to deal with."

"I know that all too well, if we're gonna fight it out then you'll need to be able and willing to give me 100% both physically and emotionally, and you can't do that with one of your friends in danger. I'd love to just let you go save Titania but my superiors would raise all sorts of hell if I just bailed on their orders like that, the annoying pains in my asses. For the time being, let's just give them a good show alright?"

"Sounds good to me." Luke glanced back at the wall behind them "You guys go on ahead and look for Erza, I'll take care of this guy and join you as soon as I can."

"Fine, but you'd better win and catch up with us fast!" Cana's voice sounded from the other side of the wall, followed by the sound of retreating footsteps.

"You know I enjoy a good fight once in awhile, but protecting the people I care about and my guild as a whole come first."

"You got your priorities, you keep it close to the vest." Noah noted "I like that about you, it's one of the reasons why I know you're the one I've been looking for."

"To give you a good fight?"

"And to beat the ever loving crap out of this one old guy that looks like if Santa was a demon from hell."

"I have no idea what that's supposed to mean, but if you really want to see my true power then I'll show you. Lightning Dragon ROAR!" Luke breathed out a powerful lightning enhanced roar.

"Mountain Dragon ROAR!" Noah breathed out a roar of his own, only with small rocks dispersed by the roar as well.

Luke blitzed behind Noah with his sword drawn and he quickly brought down the blade.

"Mountain Dragon Terra Scales!" Noah blocked the blade with his forearm, which was covered in brown colored dragon scales, forcing Luke to retreat back a few distance "You like the technique? I created it based on Gajeel's Iron Dragon Scales, not too shabby huh?"

"Pretty good for defense, but how's your offense."

"I think you'll find out soon enough. Mountain Dragon Molten Spikes!" Noah slammed his hands onto the ground, and several spikes appeared from the roof and the ground of the cave and shot towards Luke at high speeds.

Luke quickly blitzed his way around each one, forcing a few of them to crash into each other, and the others he quickly cut through with his sword "Not too shabby but attacks like those are too linear, they won't do you any good if they don't hit your opponent."

"Oh believe me I thought of that, it's actually a good part of the reason why I included this technique with a little failsafe."

"What failsafe is that?"

"It's simple, when they fail you're not safe-" Luke was cut off by the spike behind him exploding, throwing him into the next one that exploded, and the next one, but this one he was able to defend against "Lightning Dragon Iron Fist!" he matched the inevitable explosion with a quick one of his own, the force sending both him and Noah skidding backwards, though the former had a few burns across his body "Pretty good trick actually."

"I know right? Don't fix what isn't broken. Mountain Dragon Molten Spikes!" Noah promptly summoned another barrage of molten spikes.

Not willing to make the same mistake twice, Luke this time decided to take more evasive maneuvers 'So these things explode on impact, which means maybe I can use that to my advantage this time. That's right guys, come to papa!' he quickly blitzed throughout the cave with the molten spikes right on his tail, making sure that none of them rammed into each other this time, and he quickly bolted towards Noah 'Come on, come on! Now!' he quickly screeched to a halt at the last second, leaving the spikes to hurtle towards Noah.

"Oh son of a bitch." that was all Noah could say before the spikes slammed directly into him and detonated upon impact, resulting in a rather sizeable explosion that obliterated part of the cavern they had been fighting in.

Luke breathed a sigh of relief, but winced at the burn marks across his body "Okay that was a little bit too close for my liking."

When the smoke cleared, Noah was rather charred and received a few burn marks, but he was otherwise unharmed "I guess that marks an epic fail for the failsafe doesn't it?"

"So I guess I was right when I guessed that you couldn't move as long as you were powering that technique."

"Well it's still relatively new so it's got some kinks to work out. Anyway I give up, that is to say just for now. Go ahead and rescue Titania, and kick Jellal's ass while you're at it. But let me go ahead and say this, we're still on opposite sides and the next time we meet is when my guild is gonna be raising all sorts of hell, and you're gonna need to be at full strength if you want to protect your guild, and especially if you want to take him down. Now get moving already." and with that, Noah disappeared in a flash.

Luke wasted no time and promptly bolted through the tunnels at full speed 'I'm coming you guys, just hang on.'

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Natsu and Happy continued flying up the side of the tower, only to screech to halt when they noticed something "What the hell, there's something coming this way."

"Hoohoohoo!" that was when Fukuro, the owl man of the Trinity Raven, flew towards them at top speed.

Natsu barely pulled himself out of the way "Was that an owl with pecs? No you know what, fuck it. Go go go!"

"Aye sir!" Happy quickly bolted throughout the skies.

"Hoo hoo!" Fukuro blitzed behind them and dealt Natsu a sharp kick to the head, sending him flying and crashing straight into the tower, and the Fukuro burst forward after him.

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Natsu landed on top of what looked like a rusty bird cage in a room inside the tower "What the hell was that, did I just get decked by a buff owl guy?"

"Salamander it's you!"

Natsu glanced back to see Simon on the path below him "Oh great, who the hell is yelling at me now?"

"You'd better watch out for this guy." Happy told him "He's one of the buddies of that blockhead guy."

"Oh yeah, well that means he's with that bastard Jellal."

"I'm not with him, believe me when I tell you that I'm on your side." Simon told him "This whole time I've just been pretending to be under the spell of that lunatic. It was the only way I would be able to stop him."

"Hold on a second, are you really telling us the truth?"

"Yes I am."

"Fine. So who is this Jellal guy anyway, and why the hell is he making us play this stupid game in the first place?"

"He has quite the twisted sense of humor, he's the twin brother of Siegrain, a member of the Magic Council. I assume that's how he knows they're planning to fire the Etherion."

"So all of this bullshit is just a fight between two brothers?"

"That is a distinct possibility, I don't know the specifics of their relationship or whether they are at odds."

"Hoo hoo!" that was when a distinct hooting cut their conversation short as Fukuro dropped down onto the scene.

"No, it can't be!"

"I will not tolerate the breaking of the rules, now all three of you prepare yourselves to be punished in the name of justice! Fukuro the knight of true justice has arrived!"

"This is bad."

"What the hell am I looking at exactly?" asked Natsu "Seriously he's a bird dude with pecs bigger than my head!"

"Dark Moment!" Simon quickly cast his Dark Moment spell.

"God dammit now I can't even see! I knew we should never have trusted that guy!"

"Just be quiet! Now let's get out of here, we don't stand a chance against the owl!"

"Hoohoo! Even in the darkness, the light of justice shall always shine through!" Fukuro quickly dealt Simon an energy enhanced fist to the face, sending him crashing straight into the wall behind him "You see?"

"Dammit…"

"Hey man are you doing okay?" asked Natsu.

"These guys mean serious business, they're assassins from the Death's Head Order."

"Assassins have guilds too?"

"They belong to one of the dark guilds. They refuse to take on regular jobs, they make their living by accepting requests that involve using their magic to kill people for the sake of making a profit. The wizards we're up against are known as the Trinity Raven, they're responsible for killing every single officer in the Western Army during the Cabria War. Their power is thought to be legendary."

"So you're telling us that the bird with the pecs here is actually some kind of supposed super killer?"

"Yes."

"Hoohoohoo." Fukuro let out a chuckle "And if you're evil then we'll kill you."

"They're all professional assassins, you cannot defeat them!"

"Now then Salamander, the word back at our guild is that you're responsible for many evil deeds as of recently. It is my duty as a knight of justice to see that you are punished for your heinous crimes!"

"You wanna bet birdman?" Natsu ignited his fists with flames "Magic guilds are supposed to bring people with similar minds together so that they can share their dreams, they're not supposed to be places for scum like you to team up."

"No Salamander don't do it!" Simon protested "I'm telling you there's no way you'll be able to defeat him!"

"I hate it that there are people out there who will pay someone to kill others, I hate it that there are people out there who will kill for money, and I hate that you're talking like you're part of a real guild, so I'm gonna have to take your ass down a few notches, you hear me birdbrain? Now let's do some dancing!"

"Oh little Salamander you're still so naive, I'm doing this world a great service by ending the lives of those who commit evil deeds, and since you are an evil doer you must be destroyed like all of the others! Hoohoohoo!" so Fukuro blitzed across the room and caught Natsu with his fist as he rocketed forward at full speed.

"Oh please, you think you can fight fire with fire? There's no way in hell that's gonna happen you goddamn dodo bird!" Natsu hurled Fukuro upwards into one of the bird cages hanging around the room.

"I will do what I must for the sake of justice!" Fukuro blitzed towards Natsu, grabbed him by the leg, burst back upwards and promptly threw him to the ground.

"Okay, now that hurt."

"Impressive, your power is considerably greater than I had expected you to be. This job may actually prove to be a real challenge for once."

Simon was horrified by what he was seeing 'I knew their power was incredible but I had no idea they could be like this, and there are still four other wizards that we have to beat.'

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Jellal studied the chessboard in front of him with a sinister smirk "Shame on you Simon, how could you be defeated so easily at the start of the game. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the fact that Noah took a dive, he always did enjoy irritating me. That means the Thunderclap will advance to the next round. Our next match in this round however, that will feature a clash between Fukuro and Natsu Dragneel. I was very much forward to facing him myself but the odds don't exactly look promising in that regard. But then again, Luke Drako the Thunderclap does appear to be a much more promising opponent than the likes of Salamander. That battle feels as if it will be even more enticing than the likes of Salamander."

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By this point, Lucy and Juvia had split up to look for Natsu, while Gray and Cana had gone off after Sho and Erza, but then Vidaldus Taka appeared before them and attacked Lucy and Juvia using his hair, but found that he was unable to attack Juvia, due to the fact that her body was made of water.

Juvia attempted to attack Vidaldus using her Water Lock spell, but the spell was promptly absorbed by his hair, which also promptly Vidaldus to decide to make Juvia into a succubus of his, and by playing the Rock of Succubus song on his guitar he was able to corrupt Juvia with it, completely changing her personality and making her turn sides and attack Lucy.

Despite this, Lucy didn't try to fight Juvia, but instead try to snap her out of the spell that was controlling her, though this proved to be impossible since Juvia wasn't able to hear anything but the orders given to her by Vidaldus, and as such she tried to drown Lucy inside her body, completely covering her with water.

While she was stuck inside of Juvia's body, Lucy was able to hear Juvia's heart call out to her and tell her how much she loved Fairy Tail and how much warmth and joy the guild was able to give her, and she went on to apologize for her actions as she began shedding tears, claiming that she would never do what she was doing to one she considered to be a comrade.

Once Lucy was finally released from Juvia's body, Juvia was ordered to finish her off, but Lucy told her that one who cries for those they hold dear would never be rejected from the Fairy Tail guild. This was when an idea dawned upon Lucy, in which she stuck her hand into Juvia's body and used one of her Gate Keys to summon a Zodiac Spirit, Aquarius the Water Bearer.

Unfortunately, Aquarius proved that her temper was as bad as it always was, and she proceeded to attack everyone on the battlefield.

Vidaldus began absorbing the water unleashed by Aquarius using his hair, and as a result of this he ended up losing control of Juvia, which allowed her to gain enough control to reach out her hand and grab ahold of Lucy just as she did the same to Juvia, and as a result they were able to activate a Unison Raid.

The amount of water being released was greatly amplified, and because Vidaldus wasn't able to absorb all of the water present his hair ended up falling off while he himself was knocked out cold.

Before she left, Aquarius threatened Lucy with her life and told her not to summon her again for awhile, since she had a date with her boyfriend.

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Jellal observed the results of the battle and his frown deepened "Unbelievable, to think that they actually managed to perform a Unison Raid. Monks have spent their entire lives trying to achieve it, but even the most disciplined were never able to succeed. That did prove to be quite impressive, even if it was just dumb luck. Well I've learned my lesson, from here on out I have no intention of underestimating the power of Erza's allies again." he looked back down at the chessboard and his smirk widened "And it would seem that a new battle is about to begin in earnest. A battle of Maker Magic no less, now this should prove to be quite interesting if nothing else."

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The meeting of the Magic Council continued, and as it was there were 4 votes in favor and 5 votes against firing the Etherion.

Concerned by this, Siegrain saw that he had no choice but to reveal to the council just who it was that Jellal was trying to revive using the R-system, that being Zeref himself, the most powerful and most evil mage in history.

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Gray on the other hand, he was speeding through the halls of the Tower of Heaven as fast as he could, his mind racing 'Dammit Erza, where the hell are you?' his head snapped up and he leapt back a short distance as a barrage of red colored projectiles darted downwards from above "What the hell?"

From the roof of the hallway emerged none other than Sanguine himself "I see, so you're the user of Ice Make magic Jellal told me about. I am Sanguine, the most powerful assassin the Death's Head Order guild has at its disposal."

"I don't give a damn who you are, just tell me where Erza is."

"You know I can't do that, if you wish to rescue her then you'll have to keep searching for her and there's only one way to do that."

"By taking you down."

"Smart boy, I can see that Ur taught you well."

"Don't mention her name you son of a bitch!" Gray charged at Sanguine, and he nearly ended up getting skewered because of it.

"Blood Make: Sword!"

Gray found the left side of his vision being filled with a thin red line, and he instantly knew what it was as well as the fact that it was in motion, so he rolled and leaned at the same time, and he barely managed to position his body to spin and slammed his elbow into the back of his opponent's head 'So this guy uses blood based Maker Magic huh?'

The blood sword arced down from the stab and quickly swept to cut open Gray's stomach.

Gray clasped both hands around the blade and allowed the momentum of Sanguine's swing to throw him clear 'I don't have time to waste on this guy, I have to find Erza before that blonde idiot does something to get both of them killed!'

"You don't have time to be concerned about the safety of your comrades right now, your focus should be on me."

"It's not the others I'm worried about. Frankly right now, that would have to be me.'

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The battle between Natsu and Fukuro continued, but even with his immense levels of physical strength, Natsu was outmatched by Fukuro and his enhanced speed, and Fukuro played with that and took advantage of Natsu's motion sickness, in which he released a missile with hands that forced Natsu to travel in circles, and Fukuro took this chance to eat him, as he did with his opponents in order to consume their magic.

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"Ice Make: Lance!" Gray leapt backwards and quickly fired off a barrage of lances to cover his retreat.

"You think that will save you?" Sanguine quickly cut down the ice lances using his blood sword and sliced them clean in half.

Gray's eyes hardened with his mind racing 'Come on, there's gotta be a way to get around this guy's Blood Make magic. Ice Make: Arrows!" he fired a barrage of arrows.

Sanguine quickly cut through every arrow being shot at him, though one did manage to hit him in the chest, but it did nothing other than stick in his skin, not going in much further than a centimeter.

'Dammit, it didn't even draw blood. I'd have to get him with a way heavier hitter, but I'll need time for something like that and in a fight like this that's something I don't have. I would never have enough time to get through the motions and fire that thing off, so how the hell am I going to go about this?'

"Don't tell me this is all you're capable of, I expected more from a student of Ur." Sanguine just looked down on Gray with an expression of clear disdain "All you can do is run away and harass me with meaningless trinkets?"

The only reply given by Gray came in the form of another ice arrow taking Sanguine right in the center of his forehead.

Anyone else probably would've died then and there, but Sanguine clearly wasn't anyone else, and he was totally unharmed as the ice arrow dropped harmlessly to the ground without so much as a drop of blood on it "So be it, if you don't come to me then I suppose I'll just have to come to you. Blood Make: Bullets!" he fired off a barrage of bullets made of blood from his fingertips, almost faster than Gray was able to dodge. The key word in that sentence being almost.

Gray burst out of the way, counting on his perceptive abilities to keep him alive, and he didn't miss how the ground roiled when the attacks hit 'Great, one of those things hits me and I'm pretty much screwed.' his chest burst open as a result of a long red blade piercing him all the way through.

And who should be standing behind him but Sanguine himself "You grew careless."

"Not like I'm the only one." Gray suddenly shattered into ice.

"An ice clone."

"Gotcha!"

Sanguine was visibly shaken as he looked down at Gray's arm bursting up from within the ground to try and grab him by the ankle, so he slammed a palm down as a long thin red blade protruded from his hand, as well as other parts of his body "Blood Make: Lance."

The arm shattered into ice as it was skewered by the blood lance.

"Another ice clone. You're losing points for originality."

"Ice Make: Ice Geyser!" the ground shattered away as Gray burst upwards from below and hurled himself into the air, a geyser made of ice rising up at the same time.

"Blood Make: Shield!" Sanguine summoned a blood shield, clearly intending to block the attack.

Whatever it was that Sanguine was expecting, it wasn't for the shield to shatter like it didn't even exist, shattering into thousands of fragments as the ice geyser continued on unabated.

Sanguine quickly threw himself to dodge.

"Ice Make: Sword!" Gray summoned a sword of ice and struck Sanguine with it, leaving a gash across his chest 'Dammit, that didn't work. He dodged it at the last second. Looks like he finally decided to get serious, and that means this is gonna be a hell of a lot harder.' he then followed through as he landed and spun, and then he smoothy went from jumping to running.

In a moment Sanguine was right there with him, both of them sprinting throughout the hallway for all they were worth, their arms and legs pumping, both of them appearing to be mere blurs to the average eye "Blood Make: Bullets!" a barrage of red bullets flew from his fingertips in an instant, only to frown at the results.

Gray wasted no time as he flipped, rolled, dodged and contorted, slipping between the gaps between the bullets, none of them coming closer than an inch to him. The two of them slammed to a stop, each one of them breathing hard, though Gray felt like he was breathing a lot harder than he should've been 'Dammit this isn't right, I shouldn't be so out of breath. Maybe I wasted too much magic power on the guards back there. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that all things considered, getting back my magic energy takes some time so I guess I was only at about 80% to begin with. I'm probably at about 65% now, so I've gotta end this soon or there's no telling just how much longer I'm going to last.'

Sanguine had his own concerns 'Looks like he's trying to come up with a plan, not that it's going to do him any good. But all the same I had better not waste anymore time on him or the preparations for the ceremony might be disrupted.' crimson energy pulsated slightly around his body 'The boy doesn't look concerned. No, if anything he looks ready. Clearly he's not such a novice that he could be taken off guard by something like this.'

'Looks like he's going for full power now.'

But that was when the world pretty much exploded for both of them.

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Cana bolted through one of the hallways, her mind racing 'Erza…'

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(At the Fairy Tail guild hall, about 8 years ago…)

"Come on Cana, that sounds pretty stuck up." Gray pointed out "So what if today is your lucky day or whatever, you don't have to sound so stuck up when you say it."

Cana let out a sigh "Look I know what I'm doing, if it says that it's my lucky day then it's just my lucky day."

"Yeah well that makes one of us, I mean I fell into a ditch on my way this morning and now I can't find my wallet so today totally sucks for me!"

"And you're also naked."

"Dammit!"

"Hey don't get mad at me just because you like to get naked." this was when the so called lucky day started to kick in for Cana.

As in the doors to the guild hall creaked open, and a young girl with red hair and an eyepatch dressed in rags with a bag draped over her shoulder wandered into the place "This is it…"

'Who's this girl? She doesn't look like she just came off the street, whatever happened to her it looks like she had a really rough time of it lately.'

"This must be it, this must be the guild Grandpa Rob told me about."

(Flashback end)

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"What the hell is that thing?"

Simon glanced back to see Cana drop down onto the scene "So you're here."

"Nevermind that, what's up with the bird with pecs and what's it doing to Natsu?"

"Hoohoo!" didn't hesitate for a second in swallowing Natsu whole, which earned him some even bigger pecs and a patch of pink hair on top of his head "And that is how a true knight of justice takes the powers of evil and uses them for justice!"

"Ignoring whatever the hell you just said, did you seriously just swallow him whole?"

"Indeed I did, not only is my prey tasty but I gain their magic energy as well!"

"You give Natsu back to me right now!" Happy charged at Fukuro in a blind rage.

"Fire Hoohoohoo!" Fukuro dealt Happy his version of the Fire Dragon Iron Fist, sending him crashing into a nearby wall.

"Impossible." Simon muttered "When he devoured Salamander before he somehow gained his magic power."

"Hoohoo, you weren't expecting that were you?"

"And now for the final blow in the name of justice!" Fukuro unleashed another blast of fire from his fist aimed at Happy, resulting in an explosion.

When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that Cana had managed to save Happy at the very last second "Let's see, stupid pink hair, ridiculously hot fire with zero control over it. Yep that seems about right for Natsu."

"Hoohoo, and who might you be?"

"Hey Simon what the hell gives, I thought you were gonna go track down Sho and save Erza before he did something stupid."

"That was where I was headed when this thing showed up." Simon told her.

"You know what screw it, we don't have time to mess with this guy. We have to find Erza before it's too late, if we don't then there's a pretty good chance she's gonna end up being sacrificed by that Jellal guy. Normally I'm sure she would have no problem taking them down on her own, but the problem is that she's helpless as long as that mentally unstable friend of yours has her trapped inside that card."

"I'm sorry, I thought Sho would be able to handle the truth. I never imagined he would go berserk like that."

"Yeah well how does that saying go, you can't handle the truth?"

"Cana… please…" Happy murmured "Please save him… he needs you…"

"Don't worry Happy, I'll pull his flaming butt out of there one way or another." Cana stood back up and shot a glare at Fukuro "When the heck are you gonna learn to stay out of trouble? I mean come on, letting yourself get eaten by a bird with pecs is just too stupid even for you." she was ment with muffled yelling from inside Fukuro's stomach.

"The digestion process has begun." Fukuro noted "In only 10 minutes time the body of the evil that is Salamander will be fully dissolved within my own, and once that happens I'll be able to use his magic powers to bring you to justice!" his body started radiating with flames.

"I wouldn't count on that one anytime ever Big Bird."

"Then I shall vanquish you as well in the name of justice!"

"You can try. Magic Card: Fate of Lightning!" Cana pulled out a magic card and summoned a barrage of lightning.

"Fire Dragon Roar!" Fukuro breathed out a powerful blast of fire, the blast powering clear through the lightning barrage and shooting forward at full speed.

Cana was forced to brace herself as she was engulfed in the flames 'This is bad, absorbing Natsu and his powers made him more powerful than I thought he would be.'

"Even the likes of lightning is no match for the fires of justice! It's no use, your companion was capable of even greater power than you realize! You don't stand a chance against the likes of his flames!"

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(Another flashback- 8 years ago)

Cana looked over to where Erza was eating at a table in the corner of the guild hall building by herself "You know I feel kind of bad for her, I mean she's always alone."

"So what of it then?" asked Gray "If you feel bad then don't just sit there feeling sorry for her, go over and say hi to her already."

"Didn't you do that before?"

"Yeah but she totally ignored me, she's not gonna get anywhere in the guild if she doesn't wanna talk to the Gray."

"Hey speaking of which "The Gray", where are your clothes?"

"Dammit!"

"But in all seriousness streaker, you're getting way too big for your britches." Cana rolled her eyes at the sight of Gray desperately looking for his clothes, and then she went over to Erza "Hey there, what's up?"

Erza glanced over at Cana and let out a sigh "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Trying to be a solo act in a guild like this is gonna amount to about the same as trying to stop that idiot from stripping." she pointed a thumb over towards Gray "Why don't you just come over and eat with the rest of us?"

"You mean the perv wearing only his underwear and all of the other loud mouths? Thanks for the offer but I think I'll pass."

"You're not doing any favors just isolating yourself, and it won't kill you to cut loose and make a few new friends."

"I'm not here to make friends, and if you're smart you'll leave me alone." and that pretty much ended any attempts at conversing with Erza, at least for the time being.

(Flashback end)

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"Magic Card: Hydro Wave!" Cana pulled out a card and summoned a powerful wave of water, extinguishing the flames in an instant.

"Hoohoo?!" needless to say, Fukuro was taken aback by this "How were you able to extinguish my flames of justice?!"

"Natsu's flames are way hotter than that, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering you're just some bird brained poser."

"Hoohoo! That's some quite impressive power you have there, maybe I should capture your power as well!" Fukuro burst forward, grabbed Cana and attempted to swallow her for the sake of her power, until…

"Magic Card: Cryo Wave!" Cana pulled out another card and summoned a layer of ice directly inside Fukuro's mouth, causing him to cry out in pain from how cold it was, while Cana was able to break away "I don't have any time to waste playing these stupid games with you, I have more important things to deal with like finding my friends and saving Erza! I don't care if I have to take you out to do it, no matter what happens I'm going to save her!"

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(Another flashback- I swear this is the last one)

The sun was setting over the skies of Magnolia.

Cana glanced down the hillside and found Erza huddled up by herself sitting in front of the riverside 'There she is, she just up and left so suddenly. Hey what are you doing down here, for all you know you might get swept away." she made her way down the hillside, only to freeze in her tracks at what she saw.

Erza turned to face her, revealing tears streaming down her face from the one good eye she still had left "It's you again. What is it with you, haven't you figured it out yet? You know what fine, just give me your best shot."

"I'm not here to fight you."

"You could've fooled me, everyone else in the guild is just like that."

"But that's not… Okay fine you've got me there. But tell me something, what are you doing sitting on your own all the time?"

"Well… It's just that I prefer to be alone because I get nervous around other people."

"Well yeah, but you're alone right now so why are you crying?"

"...At least there's one person who doesn't like to fight all the time."

"It wouldn't be right to fight someone who's crying."

"I see." a small smile found its way onto Erza's face.

(Flashback end)

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Cana took a full on fist to the face from Fukuro and was sent tumbling back, but she shot him a smirk filled with triumph as she wiped the blood from her lip "Game over birdbrain, now get the hell out of my way."

"Hoohoo?" Fukuro glanced around and noticed a number of cards scattered around him "Hoo hoo?"

"Magic Card: Lightning Perimeter!" Cana held up one arm, electricity charging in the palm of her hand and in the cards surrounding Fukuro, and she guided it down towards him, engulfing him in the explosion that followed.

When the smoke cleared, Fukuro was little more than a charred husk that spat out Natsu before falling off the birdcage and out of sight.

'Even as a member of the guild Erza always felt alone, she kept her heart shielded in armor because she thought that was the only way to keep it from getting broken again. But it didn't get rid of the pain she was feeling.'

Simon glanced over to where Happy was tending to Natsu, then glanced back at Cana with a look of pure awe "That was incredible."

'I hope she understands that her friends and family in Fairy Tail are able to protect her ten times better than any armor ever could, with us around to protect her she'll never cry again, not if we have anything to say about it.'

'Cana Alberona, she's more powerful of a wizard than I was led to believe by my investigations, but that works out quite well for us.'

Cana promptly fell to one knee "Dammit."

"Are you alright?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. We're running out of time though, we have to save Erza before this Jellal guy uses her as a sacrifice."

'Remarkable, her sheer force of will was able to increase the strength of her magic to overcome the assassin?'

Natsu on the other hand, well he was still dealing with his motion sickness "Okay, why the heck is everything spinning?"

'It seems to me that you couldn't have chosen a better guild Erza, I can see now that you've been in good hands.'

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The battle between two Maker Magic users had been rudely interrupted.

'Dammit, what the hell?!' Gray felt himself being deafened by the explosion roaring in his ears, the shockwave blowing him right off his feet, the energy searing his skin almost to the point of burning it, and the ground beneath him bucked and kicked like it was alive, slamming him over and over again. Gray didn't know when he fell but he did, on his shoulder and in a very painful manner, and while the explosion didn't abate, it did continue on for several seconds.

Finally, after what felt like hours, silence fell over the battlefield. Sanguine had vanished from sight, and in his place was a pockmarked and tortured Earth. Dust was hanging over the blasted landscape like smoke, with small rocks and pebbles still raining down.

Gray staggered his way back to his feet, his mind racing 'Okay, first of all that hurt like a bitch big time. Second of all, what the hell was that?' then he looked back and his expression dulled considerably 'Oh, so that's what happened. Why shouldn't I be surprised anymore?'

"So this is what you were up to." Luke was standing at the end of the hallway, with Bolt riding on top of his shoulder carrying what looked like a magic cannon of some sort.

"What the hell is that thing?"

"An explosion cannon." was Bolt's simple answer.

"Of course it is. Look as much as I appreciate the fact that you almost made me go deaf I'm kind of in the middle of something- Shit hold that thought!" he leapt forward just as the earth beneat him burst apart.

The thin red blade of a sword filled the space where his head had just been, and Sanguine shot over the tip of him, not expecting him to dodge.

'Thank god, there wasn't a follow up attack.'

"Eat hod magic mother fucker!" Bolt promptly fired off another explosion from the cannon he was carrying, the explosion hammering down a second later and throwing Gray clean off his feet again.

This time Gray was ready and landed on all fours like a cat, no pun intended 'Well that's just fucking perfect, first I have this guy to deal with and a sadist of a talking cat with wings!'

Luke promptly blitzed next to Gray and shot him a glance "Taking cats with wings, sometimes you love them and sometimes you hate them."

"I think I'm in the latter category right about now."

"As am I." Sanguine on the other hand, he was on his knees and one hand, a blood dome above him sprouting from one of his hands raised high above his head, the dome covering his shoulders all the way down his spine, the back of his skull and his pelvis. The actual dome itself had been reduced to a shattered and broken mess, falling apart in chunks, and it fell away altogether when the dome dematerialized and Sanguine pulled himself back to his feet.

"Yeah he uses Maker Magic like I do, only his is something called Blood Make magic."

"So what are you doing out here on your own?" asked Luke "What about Cana and the others, what happened to them?"

"Cana and I split up from the others to look for Sho and Erza, I got cut off by this guy and I was fighting him until you and that little bastard showed up."

"Looks like you're holding your own pretty well."

"And I'm gonna win, I want to finish this on my own."

"That was the plan anyway, I just came to make sure you didn't get yourself killed."

"I can beat this guy no problem, but even after I do we still have three other assassins to deal with, not to mention Jellal himself."

"Well I already took care of the Dragon Slayer he had with him, and I wouldn't be surprised if the others have already dealt with the rest of the assassins, which leaves only Jellal that we'll have to deal with. As much as I hate to leave you on your own Erza is the one in need right about now."

"You don't have to say anything else, just get moving already."

"Way ahead of you, just make sure you don't get yourself killed." and so Luke and Bolt promptly took off in a flash.

'At least I know Erza is in good hands, so that's promising I guess. Still though, it's gonna take me everything I've got left in me to beat this guy. I doubt I'll be in any shape to help the others out by the time I reach him once this guy is dealt with, not like Natsu is ever gonna let me live it down anyway.'

"Blood Make: Spears!" Sanguine fired off a barrage of blood spears from his hands.

"Ice Make: Sword!" Gray was onto him before that and summoned an ice sword, punching, kicking and slashing away at the blood spears like a madman, managing to drive Sanguine back through sheer ferocity alone.

"Blood Make: Hammer!" Sanguine summoned a hammer made of blood and promptly aimed it at him.

Gray was already predicting the attack just as Sanguine prepared to move, and he managed to dodge by the time the blood hammer was where it should've been.

"Your skills is as impressive as you are irritating." Sanguine sounded like he was growing increasingly aggravated.

'The sad thing is that's probably the closest I'm going to get to a compliment from this guy. I'm a member of Fairy Tail, people from our guild have a habit of that, now where were we?"

The two of them charged at each other all over again.

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The meeting of the Magic Council had at last concluded, and thanks to the new information that was revealed by Siegrain, the votes had shifted from 4 in favor and 5 against him to 8 in favor and 1 against him, and as such the Etherion was scheduled to be fired in one hour to strike down the Tower of Heaven.

Yajima, the only member of the Council who was still opposed to the use of Etherion, promptly entered Siegrain's chambers and asked to know whether or not Siegrain would be willing to take responsibility for the event, to which Siegrain confirmed that he would willingly take on full responsibility.

Unsatisfied with this, Yajima then furiously reminded Siegrain that the blast from Etherion could and most likely would kill thousands of innocent people, as well as Jellal himself, and their deaths would sit squarely on his shoulders, to which Siegrain responded that he was willing to bear it.

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Jellal was already aware of the decision of the council, and he gave a sinister smirk "So it's your move now, but you had better hurry. Soon the light is going to rain down upon our heads."

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The battle between Maker mages raged on.

"Ice Make: Lance!" Gray flipped over Sanguine's head, showering him with a barrage of ice lances, only for them to bound off of a blood domed formed over him in an instant 'Dammit, the more I throw at this guy the more it just bounces off of him like it's nothing. My usual tactics don't work against him, I've gotta stay ahead of him somehow!' he landed, ducked under the blood sword being slashed at him, swept Sanguine's feet out from under him and prepared to use another spell "Ice Make-"

"Blood Make: Bullets!" Sanguine interrupted him with a barrage of blood bullets, forcing him to roll out of the way.

"I swear to the fucking First Master herself, I will break every bone in your body when I get my hands on you!" needless to say, by now Gray was starting to give into the frustration, which wasn't really surprising considering it was the umpteenth time he'd missed a blow on him during their battle.

Sanguine retreated a short distance away and put some distance between them, and he promptly stared at Gray, earning a glare back in return "Rather poetic is it not? Two fellow users of Maker magic facing off in a duel to the death."

'Okay Gray, what the hell do we do now? He's fast, really fast, he can make blood weapons that can pierce through steel, and he's pretty good at hand to hand combat to boot. This guy isn't gonna go down easily.'

Sanguine suddenly staggered and began coughing violently.

'He's coughing up blood, is he sick or wounded from another battle? I can't see any visible wounds on him. Maybe I can turn this into a battle of attrition, sure I'm kind of tired but I'm not coughing up gallons of blood like this guy. I'd better not give him a chance to pull out anything new though, that would be bad.'

Sanguine promptly bent over and, as the skin on the base of his neck began rippling, a red colored weapon popped right out of his skin.

'I had to open my fucking mouth even inside my head, didn't I?' Gray was promptly left dumbfounded by what happened next.

The red weapon Sanguine pulled out of his body morphed until it looked like a whip of some sort, with the end of it being sharp like the tip of a sword "Blood Make: Lasso."

"Okay, I've been kind of caught off guard by your abilities up until now but there's no way in hell that one can be good for you."

"You won't live long enough to find out." Sanguine dashed forward with his new weapon raised high.

Gray sprinted forward at full speed, waiting until the right second "Ice Make: Floor!" and then he dropped into a slide on the now frozen floor, breezing right in between Sanguine's legs 'I wonder if I should punch him in the crotch? No, tempting as that is chances are he'd be prepared for that. Well whatever something like that can't be helped, so I guess it's time for me to go to plan B.' so he hooked Sanguine's knees and took them out from under him, causing Sanguine to smash down as Gray himself vaulted into the air "Ice Make: Cannon!" he formed an ice cannon and promptly fired from it a barrage of ice cannonballs.

Sanguine promptly got to his feet and slashed the ice cannonballs in half using his blood lasso, shattering the ice covering the ground in the process.

Gray fired another barrage cannon balls.

Sanguine somersaulted over the cannonballs and flicked his blood lasso, which promptly shot out like a whip.

Gray was forced to abandon the spell in order to dodge the attack 'What the hell?' he was quick to dodge another swipe of the blood lasso 'Okay there's gotta be a limit to how much bullshit a spell can be, and I should know.'

"It would seem to be that I underestimated you." Sanguine retracted his blood lasso "I should've expected as much from a student of Ur. Tell me your name."

"Only if you tell me yours."

"I am Sanguine."

"Gray Fullbuster."

"I must commend you then Gray Fullbuster, no one has ever lasted this long in single combat with me before. However, my time is growing short." he gagged and coughed up some blood, which only further emphasized his point "I must end this quickly." the blood lasso in his hand began to row until it had covered his arm, and it was still expanding, and soon in place of his entire arm was a massive spiralling spike made of blood that stood almost as tall as him "Blood Make: Drill!"

Gray was rather startled by the size of the weapon, but he didn't show it.

'Why isn't he preparing another Ice Make spell? Another sword, a hammer, a cannon? I've already seen all of them, and this technique can outlast whatever his next spell is long enough to impale him. Prepare to die Gray Fullbuster!"

"Not today, not to you! Ice Make: Super Freeze Arrow!" Gray promptly fired an ice arrow into the tip of the blood spike, the impact shattering the ground underneath them, wind peeling everywhere in great sheets, ripping gouges into the brickwork around them.

Another blood sword appeared in Sanguine's free hand "Die!"

"Dammit!" Gray could only watch as the second blade came down on him, cutting him in half and killing him instantly. Or rather it would've if he hadn't shattered into ice when the blade made contact.

'Another ice clone?!' Sanguine suddenly froze up and began coughing up blood, rendering him unable to protect himself from what came next.

'He's helpless, now's my chance!' a cold chill filled the air "Ice Make: Ice Bringer!" the last of the ice fell away to reveal Gray, having protected himself with an ice clone at the last second, now holding one large ice sword in each hand, ready to deal the final blow.

"I see… Well done…" those were Sanguine's last words.

Gray's Ice Bringer quickly cut clear through Sanguine's chest, cutting him wide open and sending him spinning like a pinwheel before he finally stopped and hit the ground with a very loud thud. With the battle over, Gray limped his way over to where Sanguine lay with blood pouring out of his wounds, and the realization dawned upon him "So that's it, he was using his own blood as a basis to power his magic. If it wasn't for that then he could've avoided my last attack no problem, but it finally caught up to him." he promptly fell to one knee 'Well that took a lot more out of me than I thought it would.'

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The preparations for firing the Etherion were nearly completed, with bystanders looking on with looks of amazement as the technicians continued working on it.

The members of the Magic Council were arguing over the ethics of the decision that they had made, and even though it was justified by the law they still felt unsure.

At the same time, Siegrain and Ultear were also discussing Siegrain's dream, with Siegrain actually appearing to be rather nervous, and all the while Yajima was listening in on their conversation from afar.

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Meanwhile, in the Tower of Heaven throne room…

Jellal knocked over another piece on his chessboard "There's only 25 minutes left, it would seem that the time has come for us to say our farewells Siegrain."

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Still resting from their battle with Vidaldus Taka of the Trinity Raven, Lucy and Juvia were soon found by Wally and Milliana, but Lucy was too tired to stand up to them and just pretended to be unconscious.

Fortunately, the case was that Simon had actually contacted his comrades through his telepathy magic, and he had told them to protect Lucy and Juvia and get them out of the tower.

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In another hallway…

"HOW COULD YOU?!" Sho raced down the halls of the tower in a frantic blind rage "You lied to me Jellal, you lied to all of us for so many years! I won't let you get away with it, I swear I'll make you pay for what you've done!"

"Calm down Sho, you need to get control of yourself!"

"He has to pay for what he did!"

"You're going to need my help in order to fight him, I need you to release me from this card at once!"

"I can't do that, I'm sorry but it's for your own good! You're safe in there!"

"Don't be stupid!"

"I'm not being stupid, I'm keeping you safe!" this was when he entered a room with a long narrow bridge surrounded by a few cherry blossom trees.

Standing before them was none other than Ikaruga of the Trinity Raven "Konichiwa, I am the one they call Ikaruga. Who might you be?"

"Get the hell out of my way lady, don't make me hurt you!"

"Dear me, why must I be burdened by such a boorish young man?"

"I WARNED YOU!" Sho fired off a barrage of magic card projectiles.

With a few simple strikes of her sword and remarkable precision, Ikaruga cut every single card in half.

"What the- How did you do that?!"

"With my katana I am able to cut through anything with extreme precision."

"Well that sword of yours won't scare me!" Sho prepared to fire off more cards, only to find that he couldn't move and that the path beneath him had been cut down "No… I can't move…" he fell to his knees.

"Of course you can't, I've just severed your nerves without cutting your clothing or flesh. You should've known better than to challenge my Mugetsu style."

"But…"

"Let me out of here Sho!"

"I can't…"

"Well well, what do we have here?" Ikaruga let out a chuckle "I was wondering where you had been hiding Erza."

"You won't get her…"

"You have to release me Sho, she's too powerful for you to take on by yourself!"

"Don't worry about me, all that matters is that you're safe! I cast a shielding spell on that card, she can't harm you from the outside!"

"No!"

"Is that so?" Ikaruga gripped her sword "Let's put that theory to the test then, shall we?"

"Your spell won't hold up against her! That's no ordinary sword she's wielding, it's radiating magic power!"

"You're safe, I promise! Trust me-" Sho cut himself short when he saw Erza having to defend herself from Ikaruga's attack "She can cut across the dimensional rift?"

"I can do much more than that." Ikaruga promptly fired off a large barrage of slashes from her sword, forcing Erza to defend herself from inside the card and sending him slamming into a nearby bridge post.

"Sister!"

"Don't worry about me." with a brilliant golden light, Erza, emerged from within the card, ready to fight "I suspected that your attacks would weaken Sho's sealing spell, and that would allow me to cut right through it to freedom."

'A sword that can cut through dimensions is amazing enough, but her ability to use that power to her advantage is what makes her even more amazing.'

"You said your name was Ikaruga? Well I didn't come all this way for you, so begone."

Ikaruga let out a chuckle "My apologies, but I do believe that I'll stay."

Whatever retort Erza was going to use was cut off when the armor she was wearing suddenly shattered, and she gripped her left arm in pain 'How did she-?!'

"You seem quite surprised, a warrior with as much skill as yourself should've seen that attack coming." and then she started singing "Can you feel its gaze, from the depths of the night mist? The mononoke… Your single minded focus on Jellal has rendered you a fledgling novice, completely unaware to my katana flashing about you."

Erza's gaze darkened considerably.

"Yes that's right, there's the I've been waiting for."

Sho was frozen in terror at what he was seeing 'I've never seen her like this.'

"You may be skilled, but you don't stand a chance against me."

"We'll see about that." Erza promptly requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor "You're my enemy and as such I will defeat you, I always do."

"I'd like to see you try."

"And so you shall." Erza charged forward with two swords in hand.

Ikaruga blocked both swords with her own.

"Heaven's Wheel, Circle Sword!" Erza summoned a number of swords circled around her and fired them forward.

"Mugetsu Style…" faster than the eye was able to see, Ikaruga cut through all of Erza's swords with ease "That was my Yasha Senku."

'She cut through all of my swords?'

Ikaruga let another slash of her sword loose, which was enough to shatter Erza's Heaven's Wheel Armor in an instant, causing her to cry out in pain "Mugetsu Style…"

'This is bad!'

"Karura-en!" she summoned a circle of flames around her body, which generated a powerful torrent of flames that hurtled down the bridge.

"Requip!" Erza requipped into her Flame Empress Armor right before the blast struck her, but she was still sent skidding backwards.

"Ah, so that would be your Flame Empress Armor. It's highly resistant to flame based attacks is it not? I'm impressed that you were able to requip into it as quickly as you did." this was followed by the armor promptly shattering "And how embarrassing to be dressed in a fashion that is so inappropriate in the presence of that young man, I suggest you adorn yourself with the most powerful armor you possess."

"If that's what you wish then so be it. Requip!" and so with a flash of light and a powerful shockwave, Erza flashed into a new suit of black spike covered armor "Purgatory Armor requip complete, you're going to regret your arrogance when I'm through with you!" she summoned the armor's spiked mace "No one who's seen this armor has lived to tell the tale!"

"This is the most powerful armor you have in your arsenal? Well then we might as well test its limitations then, shall we?"

With a mighty roar, Erza charged at Ikaruga and unleashed several powerful shockwave attacks with her spiked mace in her rage.

Ikaruga danced her way around Erza's attacks with ease, and with one clean stroke she managed to shatter Erza's Purgatory Armor, causing her to cry out in pain "I'm sorry but you can't say I didn't warn you, you made quite the valiant effort but there's no armor in existence my katana cannot cut through. Admit your defeat."

"Never…" Erza struggled just to stay on her feet.

Sho was filled with dread over what he was seeing 'No, this can't be happening… It's just not possible… She can't lose… She just can't lose…'

"I've been such a fool this entire time, the answer to defeating you has been right in front of my eyes but I was too blind to see it. Requip!" with a flash Erza requipped into one final new outfit, that being her Clear Heart Clothing, a pair of long red pants with orange flames at the bottoms, and a white strip of cloth wrapped around her chest, as well as having two matching swords that came with it.

'What the heck is she thinking, she must be out of her mind!'

"Is this some kind of joke?" Ikaruga let out a scoff "Why would you trade out your armor for an outfit made of regular clothing?"

"Just Requip already!"

"Is this particular form of dress intended to be some form of mockery?"

"What the heck are you doing? You don't stand a chance against her like that! I'm sure you've got all kinds of heavy duty armor right?! You've gotta stay strong or you won't be able to win against her!"

Erza slowly shook her head "No you're wrong Sho, I can't do that because the truth is that I've never been strong. It's all a lie, all of it has been a lie. As a child I could only watch as those I held close to me suffered, I lost people that I cared about because I didn't have the strength I needed to protect them. I tried to be strong, but when I was all alone I wasn't able to hide my emotions. I decided that in order to convince everyone that I was strong I would hide my heart away inside a suit of armor, and there no one could see that it was broken. I wear armor to conceal my weakness from the rest of the world, without I've been to afraid to fight up until now."

"It matters not." Ikaruga let out a scoff "Whether you wear it or not doesn't make any difference to me, I'll strike you down just the same."

"All this time I thought my armor was protecting me, but the truth is that it did more harm for me than good. It shielded me from the pain I was feeling, but at the same time it kept me distanced from others. My heart was too guarded to form proper connections with anyone. That is to say until I joined Fairy Tail, everyone was so warm and caring that my cold shell began to crack and I began to truly feel emotions again. I can't rely on my armor to protect me from the world or the people around me, my armor was nothing more than a cocoon and I know that now I'm strong enough to defeat you without it."

"I do believe we'll see about that." and so the two of them charged at each other, resulting in a brief clash. When it was over, one of Erza's two swords had been destroyed.

"It would see… that our battle… is over…" but then Ikaruga's sword shattered as well "Most impressive…"

Erza breathed a sigh as she dematerialized her swords "It's over… No matter how powerful the armor I possess, it means nothing if it lacks the necessary speed to avoid her precision based attacks. What my Clear Heart Clothing lacks in attack power, it makes up for in movement speed and precision. That's all I need to end this."

Sho was pretty much in awe over that "Sister… what you did was amazing!"

"Tell me Sho, are you alright?"

"I think so."

"I see, that's good."

Ikaruga lay sprawled out on the floor with her eyes closed "Defeat is quite bitter indeed, in all my years I've only known the sweet taste of victory. It doesn't matter that you defeated me because you and Jellal are both doomed to fail."

"What are you talking about?"

"In 15 minutes time… the light of justice… shall come raining from the sky… It shall kill us all… Honestly, what a wretched haiku."

"You mean the Etherion Blast." Erza glanced back "Sho listen to me, I need you to hurry and find Simon and my friends from Fairy Tail and get everyone from as far away from the tower as possible."

"What? But sister…" Sho's protests were cut off by a small smile.

"I know it's hard, but will you please just do this for me?"

"I… Alright, but what about you?"

"I'm going to settle things once and for all."

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The sun was setting in the skies over the Tower of Heaven.

Natsu's eyes snapped open and he found himself being carried by Simon up the path along the outside of the Tower of Heaven "What the hell…?"

"So you've finally come to, that's good." Simon noted "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."

"The last thing I remember is flying around in circles…" and then his cheeks bulged.

"Are you serious, just the memory of it is enough to make you sick? Well anyway you were eaten by the owl after that, but luckily for all of us Cana was able to save you."

"Oh…"

"She was able to defeat the owl, but she suffered some wounds during the fight so your cat friend with the wings is taking her somewhere safe-"

"Wait hold on a second."

"What is it?"

"You mean I lost to that owl freak, but Cana was able to beat it?"

"I wouldn't exactly say that you lost, it's more like you were swallowed and Cana took over the battle for you."

"...Fuck! Well better her than Gray I guess, at least she won't hold the fact that I got swallowed by that thing over my head for the next month."

"You realize that's not the point here."

"I don't care, Cana or Gray be damned I want a rematch with that bird! I say we go track down that birdbrain so I can show him what I've got!" he was promptly dragged back up the path by the scarf by Simon.

"We don't have time for any of that nonsense right now."

"...Hey I don't wanna be rude man, but who the hell are you?"

"My name is Simon, I was friends with Erza back when we were kids before she joined your guild."

"Oh, well in that case it's nice to meet you."

"You as well Salamander." Simon suddenly hunched over and clutched his chest in pain.

"Eesh, are you okay big guy?"

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. I just got word from Wally, he and Milliana have already succeeded in locating Lucy and Juvia but they're in bad shape. He told me that it looked like they took down one of the Trinity Raven all by themselves."

"The two of them pulled off something like that?"

"They hadn't heard that we're not enemies anymore so they were confused when I asked them to take the girls to safety, and Sho contacted me and informed me that the last member of the Trinity Raven had been defeated by Erza."

"Bullshit, I didn't get to do anything!"

"But that still leaves Sanguine, and we're still trying to locate Gray and Luke, but aside from that the only thing left to do is stop Jellal, and Erza went to find him by herself."

"What the hell do you mean by herself?"

"She has a score to settle with Jellal, and whether we like it or not she wants to settle it on her own."

"I'm sure you're aware she and Jellal have quite the history, it's as if the two of them are destined to fight each other. I'm worried about her because Jellal is more powerful than she realizes. I'm begging you Salamander, you have to help her fight him."

"...Yeah there's no way in hell that's going to happen."

"What the hell did you say?!"

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Meanwhile, in the tower throne room…

Jellal let out a sigh of what sounded like disappointment "Don't tell me the game has come to an end already."

Erza's gaze hardened as she entered the room, her grip on her swords tightening "Do you really find that much pleasure in toying with the lives of others?"

"Between the moment in which we are born and the moment in which we die, there is only that game of emotions that we refer to as life. What could be more dreary than simply existing one day after another. It's been a long time hasn't it Erza?"

"It certainly has Jellal. You should know that Sho and the others are no longer under your influence."

"That's fine with me, now that the Tower of Heaven has been completed they've outlived their usefulness to me."

"You don't seem to concerned that it's going to be destroyed soon."

"You mean by the Etherion?" Jellal let out a chuckle.

"You're acting so carefree, I can only assume you were bluffing."

"Quite the opposite in fact, the Etherion will rain down on us."

"I must say that's a relief to hear, that means I just need to keep you occupied for the next 10 minutes and this nightmare will be over at last."

"Far from it, when the beam strikes your life will be sacrificed to Zeref. This has always been certain. You cannot avoid fate Erza, this is your destiny!"

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Now thoroughly enraged, Simon slammed Natsu against the wall of the tower "What the hell is the matter with you, you claim to be Erza's friend but you refuse to help her?"

"This is her fight, she wants to handle it on her own." Natsu told him "If I butted in on the action like that then she would never forgive me."

"There's no way that she could ever hope to win against Jellal."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? She's stronger than you give her credit for, so watch what the hell you're saying about her!"

"You've got it wrong, I'm not saying that I doubt the power of her magic."

"Then what?"

"Despite everything that's happened I know Erza still wants to try and save Jellal. I have no doubt in my mind, in her heart she could never truly hate the boy she remembers from her childhood. Jellal is as cunning as he is vicious, he knows exactly how to manipulate her emotions and use them to his advantage, but that's not the only thing working against her. As you know the Magic Council is preparing to fire a blast from the Etherion, and when that happens the tower and anyone inside it will be wiped out in an instant. If what Sho told me is correct then we only have 10 minutes left."

"What?!"

"She ordered everyone else to leave the tower and went to face Jellal alone, if you know her as well as you say then you know what she's up to. She's giving up her life, and when the blast comes it will take both of them down together."

"You should've said that to begin with!" the outside of Natsu's body started radiating with flames of pure rage "TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK I CAN FIND ERZA!"

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In the throne room…

By now, Jellal had dark energy radiating from his hand "There are only 7 minutes left, when the blast from the Etherion strikes the tower we'll take our final breaths. Why don't we simply enjoy these last moments together while we can."

Erza promptly dropped into a stance with one sword in hand "You should know that I've cast off all my fears, even of my own death. I'll relish in my death because it means I'll be taking you down with me."

"Oh really, is that what you believe? Well we'll just see about that! Dark Mass!" Jellal promptly fired off a barrage of dark energy tentacles from his hand.

Erza wasted no time in cutting down the energy tentacles and charged at Jellal with her sword raised.

Jellal caught her wrist and attacked Erza with a blast of energy from one hand, blowing a large hole through the wall of the tower.

Erza rebounded off of some of the rubble and leapt back onto solid ground within the tower "If you would destroy the very tower you worked so hard and so long to complete then what's the point?!" she dodged an energy blast and slashed at him with his sword.

Jellal leapt out of the way of the slash, leaving his chess board to be cut down in his place "Why should I care about a pillar or two? After all they're nothing but decorations."

"Maybe so, but the reason they're here is because the others spent all those years building them for you!"

"How is it that you manage to find fault in everything I say? I never forced them to work on the tower, they made the choice to do so of their own free will. They knew how important the tower was to me, and now at long last the tower has been completed! Darkness Cage!" Jellal clenched his fist as it glowed with dark colored energy.

In an instant Erza found herself trapped in a sphere made of dark energy "What in the-?!"

"While it's impossible to deny that you've honed your skills over the years, you're still no match for me."

"No, you're wrong. I'm not the same weak child I was all those years ago!" with a quick roar and a flash Erza cut herself free of the Darkness Cage "I told you before, I've cast off all of my fears and that includes you!" she blitzed forward and slashed Jellal across the chest, sending him crashing to the ground.

'This… This is not the same weak girl I remember from back then!' Jellal suddenly found himself with a blade pointed at his throat, a furious Erza looming over him.

A/N:

And thus we finish the second act of the Tower of Heaven arc, with the inevitable showdown against Jellal looming ever closer. The fights against Jellal's so called elites are over and done with, and now all that's left is Jellal himself, along with the ever looming threat of the Magic Council preparing to fire Etherion obviously.

Luke vs Noah, the Lightning Dragon Slayer vs the Mountain Dragon Slayer. I know that the fight was a little bit on the short side, but believe me when I tell you that the next time these guys go at it, it will be part of a much bigger conflict and it will be a real showdown between two Dragon Slayers, no holding back and no holds barred, and it will be glorious.

I normally don't like to write out flashbacks, but I did in this chapter for the sake of showing how in this fic, Cana was the one who reached out to Erza in place of Gray, mainly because I want to give her more spotlight.

The fights in this are as follows:

Natsu & Simon vs Fukuro, later followed by Cana vs Fukuro, meant to give some much needed spotlight to Cana, which I believe to be sorely needed.

Lucy & Juvia vs Vidaldus Taka, I sort of just glossed over this fight because I wasn't a huge fan of it, and there really wasn't any noteworthy differences from canon that were worth writing out.

Erza vs Ikaruga, easily the best out of the fights against the Trinity Raven, aside from the clear mental breakdown Sho is having throughout this arc.

Gray vs Sanguine, an OC pitched to me by TheCarlosInferno and a user of Blood Make magic. I was originally going to give this fight to Cana for the sake of giving her more spotlight, but in the end, considering he uses a form of Maker Magic, I decided that Gray would be a better fit to fight against him, and in all honestly this was my favorite fight scene to write out this chapter.