I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this story since I updated it.
Guest: Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. Yep, cutting out Gray and Erza in order to make room for Elfman and Cana was a substantial sacrifice, but I think it was worth it.
Ragnas Bredvolts (ch 29): Thanks, I'm glad to see you liked it. You described Bolt perfectly, a gigantic proverbial middle finger. I'm also glad you share my appreciation for Edolas Gajeel. Although for the record, he's an anime-only character. That's all I have to say, and you have a nice day as well my friend.
Ragnas Bredvolts (ch 30): Yeah I'm going to be honest with you, I've never given any real thought to the birthing process of Exceeds, nor do I want to. But your disturbing specifics in regard to the Exceed birting process aside, I'm glad to see you liked the last chapter, so thank you for that. Yes, cutting out Gray and Erza to make room for Elfman and Cana was quite the substantial sacrifice, but worth it in my eyes. I'll see what I can do in regards to Elfman. I can't promise new types of Take Over, but I can show him having a few new abilities, one of which you'll see in this chapter. That's all I have to say for now, and I hope that you have a nice day as well my friend.
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There was a stunned silence hanging over the group following the revelation of what Faust was planning to do.
Mira was the one to finally break the silence "I don't know how many of you have actually noticed this before now, but Edolas has islands that float in the sky, and apparently the magic power coming from Extalia is what keeps them floating up there. What's more is that I've done my fair share of research on this world over the years, and I know that the magic power coming from Extalia is what maintains the magical balance of this entire world. And you guys think that the rest of your friends are stuck on that floating island they talked about?"
"Yes, the one they're on is very close to Extalia." Carla told her "Both Extalia and the lacrima that contains our friends are floating in the sky just above the Royal City, which is where we all are right now."
"Which is what those psychopaths are hoping for." Noah pointed out "The Royal assholes are planning on hitting the floating island with a metric fuckton of Dragon Slayer magic, and they're gonna speed it up so that it crashes into Extalia."
"And… what happens next?" Cana seemed almost afraid to ask.
"According to that troll doll, once their powers collide it's gonna create some kind of giant explosion in the sky and their magic is going to fuse together, and apparently that's gonna rain down magic power on the kingdom forever."
"But… If that happens then-"
"Then everyone in your guild is going to be lost forever." this was followed by the sound of screaming approaching them.
"Someone's coming, get ready you guys."
"Nope, false alarm. I caught the scent of the idiot hurtling back towards us."
Sure enough, that was when Natsu came flying into the room, barreling past the group and crashing into the wall in the back of the room "Ow… pain… so much pain…"
"You wanna elaborate on what the hell that was about?"
"Two of Luke… twice the lightning… twice the zapping… twice the pain…"
"So to sum up whatever the hell it was you were trying to say, I'm gonna go ahead and guess that you saw Thunderclap going up against his counterpart that's been trying to kill us up until now, you tried to interrupt their fight by slamming a fire fist into the Thunderer's face, and as a result both of them sent you flying back here with two simultaneous blasts of lightning?"
"Yep… ow…" then Natsu looked up at Cana and Elfman "Are you my guys or the fucked up guys?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but right now I'm very tempted to blast you with lightning just to shut you up." Cana told him flatly.
"And that answers that." Noah noted dryly "I think it's safe to say she's nothing like the version we saw here in Edolas, and apparently Thunderclap has a strange taste in women."
"Let me sum it up for you Natsu, a lot of stuff went down and now I'm here, and I'm not the only one. Elfman, Gajeel and Luke are all here too. Happy's off looking for Gajeel so they can stop the lacrima"
This was when Wendy noticed something "Wait a minute, you mean you're the real Cana? I don't understand, why didn't you say so?"
"...You mean that you didn't notice until just now? No no it's okay I get it, you didn't recognize me before because it's so dark down here right? I understand, it's not like I'm some pathetic sad sack that's practically invisible to you."
"Damn." Noah let out a low whistle "Sounds like one hell of a bruised ego."
"Wait a second." then Natsu noticed something else "Didn't you come down her and save us a few minutes ago? Oh and Earth Dragon dude, you're okay too."
"And apparently I'm one of the few exceptions to the rule of all Dragon Slayers being morons in some way, the other being Thunderclap."
"You kidding?" Cana let out a snort "Have you seen those red cowboy boots?"
"Oh christ don't even get me started, and I thought Naruto's orange jumpsuit made me want to gouge my eyes out."
"Tell me about it."
"I'm so sorry Cana, I swear I didn't mean to offend you! Thank you for coming her to save all of us!" Wendy nervously bowed to her, then turned to Carla and glomped her "I promise Carla, there's no way I would forget about you. You're the greatest!"
"Okay you know what, I think that's enough screwing around for one day."
"What are you kidding?" Elfman promptly held up a fist "A real man knows when to take some downtime, and besides this is normal for Fairy Tail."
"Something I'll never understand, and besides shouldn't a real man know when to take things seriously?"
"...You out-manned me with your mind."
"Not a word but good enough for me I guess. Let's go get the king and beat the ever loving shit out of him."
"And stop him from crashing that giant lacrima." Natsu pointed out.
"That too." they were about to head out, when…
"Wait a minute." this was when Mira stopped them and held out her hand "I think I'm going to need one of those X-balls too." she was met with confused looks from almost everyone present, the only exception being Noah.
"Why the hell would you need one?" asked Natsu.
"They said a wizard from Earth Land can't use their magic without one right? Well I'm not exactly an exception to that rule."
"...What?"
"I'm not actually from Edolas. I was born in Earth Land like all of you." she was met with several looks of stunned disbelief.
Lisanna was the first one to speak "You mean that… you're our Mira?"
"Yeah." she looked away "Yeah I am."
"Looks like my hunch was right about that." Noah commented offhandedly, earning several stunned looks of disbelief.
"You mean you knew?"
"I didn't know for certain, but I did have a hunch for the past few days. It wasn't that hard to figure out. You volunteered to help us and stick with us even after my counterpart bailed on us, but you didn't. You had every chance to back out and save your own skin, but you chose to stick with us. Plus there's the fact that every scent I've picked up here in Edolas so far has this sort of musky feeling to it, but yours didn't. I was going to confront you on that when I got the chance, but as shit got crazier that ended up at the bottom of the list of priorities."
"Oh. You're smarter than I gave you credit for."
"But… But that's not possible!" Elfman finally found his voice, which is a lot more than what could be said for the others "You can't be our Mira, she died that day! I saw it happen, hell I made it happen!"
"No, I didn't die on that day. I thought I was going to, but… You know what, that can wait until later. Time is against us and we've got a lot of work to do, so just give me one of those X-balls you guys took and I can help you."
"Yeah, as epic as this plot twist is, she's right when she said we've got a lot of work we have to get done." Noah pointed out dryly "Besides, if we want to hear her entire life story then we can do it after we get this shit over with and dethrone the Royal assclown."
"But it does sound suspicious though." Carla pointed out "The fact that she claims to have been your Mira all along and never said anything."
"Fine how about this, we'll put it to a test, one surefire way of knowing for certain if she's telling the truth. Salamander, get in there and do the dog thing."
"Way ahead of you." so Natsu slowly made his way over to Mira and started sniffing her, then looked back at the others "It's her alright, no doubt about it."
"You sure about that?"
"As sure as I can be, I don't forget the scents of my friends, or people who actually do beat the crap out of me."
"Good enough for me. Like I said, we can grill her on the details of whatever the fuck happened to her after this is over with. Sound good?"
"I can live with that." Mira was handed an X-ball, which she promptly swallowed, resulting in black magic energy surging around her body 'It's been a long time, about two years since I've been able to feel this kind of power.'
"I can't help but wonder though, what will Thunderclap say when he finds out about your little secret?"
"...You had to ruin the moment didn't you?"
"Someone had to. Anyway like we said, let's go find the king and beat the shit out of him, and if we have time, then stop the lacrima." he was met with a few looks "What? You know what fuck that, anyway let's get moving."
"But what about Luke?" asked Lucy "We can't just leave him."
"Blondie we're dealing with someone who can fight toe to toe with Thunderclap, do you really want to get involved with something like that?"
"...You know you make a good point."
"I know." this promptly the others to take off running, but Noah quickly glanced back and noticed that Wendy was still there "Hey kid you coming?"
"Sorry Noah, but I'm sure you and the others can save them." Wendy told him "In the meantime, I think Carla and I should head to Extalia."
"What? But that's foolish!" Carla protested.
"We need to warn everyone about the plan the Royal Army has and help everyone escape before it's too late!"
"I don't understand child, I thought we were going to stop the attack."
"There's no way we can let the king just do whatever he wants! I know Noah, Natsu and the others will stop him, but what if the king and his Royal Army have other weapons we don't know anything about? This is the only chance we have to warn them! They have the right to know their citizens could be in danger!"
"Forget it child, I'm not going back! I couldn't care less about what may happen to those horrible creaturers!"
"Carla, you know as well as I do that this has nothing to do with any of us being humans or being Exceeds. If there's something we can do as fellow living beings, then we owe it to them to at least try."
'But to save the Exceeds…'
"I promise you, I'm always going to be right by your side, so you don't have anything to be afraid of, okay?"
"...Alright fine, I'll go."
"Thank you."
"Yeah you do that." Noah put a hand on Wendy's head "I'm gonna go and catch up with the others, you guys do whatever you have to do." and so he promptly took off.
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Elsewhere, Happy had been quick to track down Gajeel fighting with some guards out in the open, and he quickly grabbed him and carried him up to the floating island where the giant lacrima was being kept.
However, just as Gajeel prepared to use his Iron Dragon Slayer magic to turn everyone back to normal, they were prevented from doing so as Panther Lily arrived on the scene and promptly attacked them.
Happy was left surprised by the fact that Panther Lily had wings similar to those of an Exceed, but Gajeel simply ignored this and made sure that Happy stayed out of the way, while he dealt with Panther Lily himself, and he promptly attacked using his Iron Dragon Sword, only to find that Panther Lily was able to dodge the attack with ease and revealed his Bustermarm, a sword that was ridiculously huge even considering how big he was, and he promptly used it to cut off a piece of the lacrima, taking Gajeel by surprise.
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By this point, Noah had managed to catch up with the others "So do we have any idea where this mother fucker of a king is hiding himself?"
"No idea, but considering we're dealing with a corrupt and power hungry king, I'm guessing he'll probably somewhere highy and mighty, and manly." Elfman told him "You can't forget about manliness."
"Speak for yourself you idiot, not everything is about testosterone. Forget it, we don't have time to argue about how much you're clearly compensating, we're on a time limit as it is."
"I don't get the layout of this place though." Lucy commented "The cells are located up really high and the courtyard seems really complex. I've heard about concentric castles before, but this isn't quite like those. It's just so different from anything in Earth Land that it's going to be tough to figure out."
"Be realistic for a minute Lucy, I get that the layout of this castle seems pretty weird, but it's not that crazy when you think about it. I mean this entire world is batshit crazy compared to what we're used to." Cana pointed out.
"Yeah you've got me there, this place is nothing like Earth Land. In fact, this place is so crazy that I wouldn't be surprised if they were hiding an amusement park in here or something."
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About 5 minutes of running later…
Natsu bolted into a certain room and screeched to a halt, his jaw literally dropping at what he was seeing in front of him "Oh my shit, I didn't think he would actually have one!"
"What the hell are you stalling for?" Noah caught up to them and looked up, and his expression dulled at what he was seeing: a literal amusement park "Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me right now."
Lucy's jaw dropped along with everyone else "I was just kidding!"
"And yet here we are."
"This is… I have no idea whether or not this is manly." Elfman muttered.
"Let's go with not, I'd personally say that this is more psychotic than manly."
"I'm pretty sure you don't have room to call anyone else psychotic." Bolt pointed out.
"I can, it's my guild mates you have to worry about, cause a good chunk of them are the literal living definition of being fucking insane." this was followed by the carousel starting up.
This was when Sugarboy decided to reveal his presence "You know something, I've always loved these things. They truly are a great deal of fun, so would you like to give them a try for yourselve?"
"I would, but I can't and won't for two reasons. One, I get motion sickness. Two, every single thing you say and do creeps me the fuck out. Also, everyone get down. Mountain Dragon Terra Shield!" Noah blitzed behind the group and slammed his hands into the ground, causing a massive wall of earth to rise from the ground beneath them and stop the movement of a giant pirate ship.
This was when Hughes revealed himself from his place atop the pirate ship "Who would've thought that unlimited magic power could turn out to be one hell of a blast? It really sucks to know we're so close to running out of the stuff for good. Just the thought of something like that happening pisses me off, and I mean a lot. Too bad for you guys."
"You have no idea my friend." Sugarboy let out a chuckle "Our kingdom is on the verge of obtaining everlasting magic power, and we're willing to do whatever it takes in order to make that dream into a reality."
"I hate to admit it, but we're pretty desperate right now, so if anyone gets in our way then we have to cut them down!"
"So I must ask, will you behave like good animals and go back to your cages where you belong without fighting back?"
"You don't give a bunch of animals a choice, you just do whatever it takes to make them do what you want. And besides, we already took all the magic power they've got, so we don't have to worry about handling with care. Besides, if Code ETD pans out like the old man is hoping for them that means these eyesores will just turn out to be a major waste of space, and if there's one thing we excel at, it's taking out the trash. I hope you guys are ready, because you're about to meet your maker!" the pirate ship started glowing with magic energy as it surged forward, breaking through Noah's Terra Shield.
"Get down! Mountain Dragon Terra Dome!" Noah pushed the group out of the way before the ship could crush them, leaving the ship to crash into the carousel. When the dust settled, it was revealed that he had managed to shield the group with a dome made of earth.
'Where the hell did that earth come from? So these freaks from Earth Land use magic in the same way the Exceeds do?'
"How strange?" Sugarboy muttered "I thought their abilities to use magic without any sort of items were nothing but rumors, but such a thing is truly breathtaking to behold."
"That's one way to describe it, just take a look at the sucker that's combusting."
"Give me a minute and you'll be too! Fire Dragon Talon!" Natsu burst upwards and promptly attacked Hughes with a fire enhanced kick, sending him crashing to the ground "How do you like that assclown, are you ready to give us back our friends yet?!"
"Sorry man." Hughes pulled himself back to his feet "Hate to break it to you, but that's not my call to make, and even if it was it would take a lot more than that to make me give up on the prospect of ulimited magic power, so you'll just have to accept the fact that your friends are ancient history!" he held up his wand as it started glowing with magic energy "Hell Coaster!"
"If you haven't learned yet about how relentless we can be then fine, I'll just have to beat that lesson into you until it takes effect!" he failed to notice what looked like a rollercoaster coming at him from behind.
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"Natsu look out!" Lisanna tried to warn him, only for her to realize that the ground beneath them was sinking "What the- What are we standing in?"
"I'm pretty sure we won't like the answer." Mira told her flatly.
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Fortunately, Natsu was able to hear Lisanna's warning and leapt out of the way in time to avoid being hit by the rollercoaster "Hate to break it to you assclown, but you'll have to do a lot better than that!"
"I could say the same about you. Hell Tornado!" Hughes cast another spell.
"Hell whatnow?" Natsu looked up at the roller coaster, and his eyes nearly bulged out of his head at what he was seeing "Holy crap that's totally awesome, that coaster is making its own track as it goes, how cool is that?!"
"You're not supposed to be happy about it you moron! You know what forget it, just feast your eyes on my command baton, which allows me to control everything in this amusement park, from the roller coasters to the creepy clowns."
"I don't give a damn if your wand can make a castle to a conga line, all I have to do is wreck that coaster and you're out of puppets! Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" Natsu hit the coaster with a fire enhanced fist.
"Hate to break it to you dumbass, but that's one strategy you might want to rethink."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"You'd have to be a major fool to think that I only had one, I have a whole symphony of Hell Coasters just waiting for me to guide them to their next victim."
"What?" before Natsu knew it, he found himself forced into the seat of one of the Hell Coasters in question "I'm telling you now, when I get out of this thing you're gonna pay for this you son of a bitch!"
"We take the safety of our guests seriously, so please keep your head and limbs intact until the ride comes to a complete stop. You see what I did there?" he received no reply from Natsu, due to his motion sickness "You know the Hell Coasters go 10 times faster when I boost their magic power, and their crushing speed defeats even the toughest opponents within 5 minutes." he was met only with the sounds of wretching "For fuck's sake man, it hasn't even been a full 10 seconds yet! Seriously, how in the hell have you survived this long when a joy ride can make you hurl?"
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Lucy was panicking at their current situation "Crap this is bad, this is really bad, we're getting deeper by the second!"
"And on top of that, Salamander isn't looking so hot right now." Noah pointed out.
"In case you didn't notice yet, we've got our own problems right now!"
"Forget about it, someone's gotta get him out of the coaster or else he's gonna be as good as dead in the next few minutes."
"But how can we do that?" asked Lisanna.
"I doubt you're going to like the answer to that."
"Why?"
"Because it involves me doing this. Mountain Dragon Tectonic Uprising!" Noah slammed his hands into the ground, causing two earth pillars to burst up from beneath the ground underneath both Lucy and Lisanna.
"Take Over: Animal Soul: Hawk!" Lisanna summoned a pair of hawk wings on both of her arms and grabbed Lucy using her newly summoned talons "Natsu are you okay?"
"Please… get me off this thing…" Natsu tried to suppress the urge to vomit.
"Lucy?"
"I'm way ahead of you, let me go." Lucy was promptly released, and with quick reflexes she grabbed onto the coaster that Natsu was trapped on.
Hughes let out a low whistle "Well I've gotta give both of them this, those two are as busty as they are gutsy."
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Back on the ground…
"Okay, now that that's done I'd better get you guys out of there." Bolt grabbed onto Cana and prepared her off the ground first "Sorry guys but let's face it, she and Luke are gonna hook up at some point."
"Don't bother, get the others first. I've got more than a few tricks up my sleeve. Magic Card: Summoning: Grapple hook!" and so in order to prove her point, Cana used her Card Magic to summon two grappling hooks and pulled herself, Elfman and Mira out of the sinking ground.
"Not too shabby, busty and has brains too, looks like Thunderclap has decent taste. Mountain Dragon Tectonic Pillar!" Noah summoned an earth pillar to push himself above ground along with the others "You guys need any backup?"
"Go help Natsu and the others, we've got this."
"Suit yourself, hey Bolt let's move." so Noah was picked up by Bolt as they soared off to join the fight with Hughes.
"Alright pretty boy, it's just us now."
"It's Sugarboy actually." Sugarboy told her "And if you were capable of something like that, couldn't you have just freed the other Dragon Slayer in the first place?"
"Yeah of course I could've, but someone has to do something about that face of yours, and now you've got three people willing to do the job for you."
"You seem quite sure of yourself don't you?"
"A real man needs confidence to get anywhere in life! Beast Arm: Iron Bull!" Elfman promptly summoned some iron onto his arm and attempted to land a smash attack.
Sugarboy stopped the attack using his sword, causing the iron on his arm to turn into liquid and melt away "So you enhance your physical attacks by coating your arms in metal? Quite an impressive style of fighting, it seems magic from Earth Land really is quite unique and versatile isn't it?"
'How the hell did he stop my attack?'
"But now the three of you should behold the power of my gloarious magic weapon, I call it the Rosa Espada. It doesn't matter what it is you throw at me, the magic power of this sword will turn it as soft as the fur on the backside of an Exceed."
"I think we'll see about that." Cana and Elfman promptly braced themselves for a fight.
However, what neither of them or Sugarboy noticed was that Mira was slipping away from the battlefield and heading off in another direction 'I'm sorry guys, I know that I shouldn't be bailing on you during a time like this, but this is something that I have to do. Luke's been burdened with guilt since that mission two years ago, and even in another world, the burden he bears hasn't changed, only it's so much darker. I may not be able to free my world's Luke from the burden he carries, but I'll be damned if I can't do it for the one here. Besides, if there's anyone in this world or ours that can beat the crap out of those two, it's them.'
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By now, Lisanna and Lucy were trying to free Natsu from the Hell Coaster, though they weren't having much luck "Come on Natsu we need your help, these things are hard to move!" she was met with groaning.
"How about we speed things up a little bit." Hughes promptly increased the speed of his Hell Coaster, sending them rolling along the coaster at full speed, two of them screaming in pure unholy terror, only for him to be met with a kick to the back that sent him tumbling across the room "Ow…"
"Mountain Dragon Terra Shield!" as it turns out, that surprise attack came from Noah, which was followed by him summoning an earth wall in front of the coaster, which promptly crashed into it, sending it crashing into a nearby water dock.
Lucy rose up from beneath the water first and rounded on Noah in a rage "Are you out of your freaking mind?!"
"You're welcome for saving your lives from that idiot by the way, and don't miss the best part either." he jerked a thumb over at the screen that showed an image of Lucy screaming in comical terror.
"Are you sure that this is the time to mess around?" Lisanna rose up and promptly pulled the sluggish form of Natsu of the water 'Wait a second, water?'
"To be completely honest, you people are exhausting as fuck, so this is more of a coping mechanism for me than anything else right now. Still though, this is what magic from Edolas is capable of."
"Yeah yeah I know, you guys think it's awesome." Hughes pulled himself out of the water and gave a smirk "Just imagine it, if we hadn't turned your friends into a giant lacrima then one day it would've all vanished. That's something none of us even want to think about."
"So that's it…" Natsu pulled himself back to his feet, his eyes blazing with rage "That's the reason why you took all of our friends away… You're gonna sacrifice our friends and destroy all the Exceeds just so you can keep your little toys around?"
"That about sums it up yeah, their demise is going to be what brings our salvation in the form of everlasting magic power."
"Shut up, I've heard enough of your bullshit!" Natsu's body started radiating flames "All of our friends are still alive inside that thing. You bastards had no right to take them! You care so much about losing your precious power so what, that means you're willing to kill innocent people just to get what you want? We're talking about lives here dammit!"
"Dial it back Salamander." Noah told him dryly "I think we both know damn well that trying to talk some sense into them isn't going to work."
"Does it look like I care?"
"Hold it you guys, get out of the way!" Lucy motioned for them to move as she pulled out a golden Zodiac key "Now open, Gate of the Water Bearer: Aquarius!" she opened the gate and promptly summoned Aquarius "Now do your thing!"
"Yeah yeah, I got it!" Aquarius promptly started summoning as much water as she was able to into her urn.
"Yeah sorry about this, but I wouldn't be too sure about that." Hughes started manipulating the water himself so it surrounded the group.
"What the hell is this, why the hell can't I control the water?"
"Have none of you been listening until now? There isn't a single damn thing in this entire amusement park I can't use to utterly destroy all of you!" and he promptly started to launch an attack with the water.
"Lucy you idiot, get out of the way!"
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Meanwhile in the Royal City, Faust was informed by Byro that they had reached the final stage of Code ETD, and upon hearing this, he took a moment to bid farewell to the Exceeds, or as he referred to them, the false Gods.
Byro took the opportunity to narrate the process of Code ETD as they began to ram the giant lacrima from Earth Land into Extalia, which would cause magic power to rain down upon the kingdom. The two of them stood in front of the Dragon Chain Cannon, the weapon that was supposed to be used for the operation.
However, as Byro prepared to hand over the key, Coco burst into the room and informed both of them that Panther Lily was on the island in the middle of a battle against Gajeel, begging them to stop. Unfortunately, they just ignored this and decided to proceed regardless.
In response to this, Coco promptly stole the key to the Dragon Chain Cannon in an effort on her part to save Panther Lily, and despite being injured by Faust, she continued to run away with the key in tow.
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Meanwhile, with a certain Salamander…
Natsu slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a strange setting, that being what looked like a classroom full of monster characters "Holy crap… Did I somehow get sucked into the world of Assassination Classroom while I was unconscious? No wait, it just looks like some high school haunted house sort of thing." and then priorities kicked in "Oh crap! Lisanna! Lucy! You're not dead are you, tell me you're dead!"
This was followed by a banging sound coming from the coffin on the ground, along with a certain familiar voice "Natsu is that you? Help us, we're trapped in this thing!"
"Lisanna! How the hell did you end up in there?"
"I don't know, we just came to and we were already in here! It's dark in here and we're running out of air! Help us!"
"Alright alright, just hang on." Natsu opened the coffin, and what he saw made some blood trickle down from his nose.
"Um, why are you looking at us like that?"
"Um…" he pointed down at them "Why are you two dressed like some kind of genie chick straight out of Aladdin?"
"What do you-" Lucy looked down at her considerably revealing genie outfit, and she promptly let out a shriek of terror "Who the hell put us in these?"
"Check this out guys." Lisanna pointed to a label on the side of the coffin "The Complete Actor's Transformation Box, come with us and enjoy the land of fairy tales with fun and exciting transformations that everyone will enjoy."
"Fun and exciting? You've gotta be freaking kidding me."
"Tell me about it, this is really embarassing. I just hope there's something on there that can change us back into our normal clothes."
"Tell me about it, there's no way I'm fighting in this."
"Hey check this out." Natsu gestured to a dial on the side of the coffin "I think this thing is what controls the costume changes."
"Yeah well, our real clothes better in here!" Lucy promptly shut herself and Lisanna back inside the coffin "There isn't a chance in hell that I'm fighting like this!"
"Alright alright, chill out a little why don't you. I'm only turninng a little nob, this won't even take a minute." so Natsu turned the nob, causing the coffin to glow purple, and when it opened again, it revealed Lucy and Lisanna in bunny girl outfits, then skin tight devil suits, fancy kimonos, and even matching swimsuits, which promptly caused him to burst out laughing at the sight.
"Oh is that how you wanna do it? Well fine!" Lucy promptly shoved Natsu into the coffin and turned the nob, sticking him in the various outfits in question, ending with him in the swimsuit outfit.
"Hey, what the hell was that about not screwing around anymore?!"
"Come out come out wherever you are, Earth Land trash!" the voice of Hughes echoed from outside the classroom.
"Looks like he found us."
"You can't make that sound cool when you're dressed like a pervert." Lucy pointed out "And why the hell am I still in this stupid swimsuit?!"
"You tell me, you're the one who's dressed like you're in a porno."
"Whatever, just change me back before that creep gets a peek!"
"Yeah yeah… wait a second." Natsu looked between Lucy and Lisanna a few times, and then he gave an unnerving grin "Oh yeah."
"Um Natsu, why are you looking at us like that?"
"I just figured out how we're gonna beat this guy. And for the record, if Elfman or Mira ask, this never happened."
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5 minutes later…
Hughes finally made his way into the room and looked around a little bit "I must be weaker than I thought if I made them fly this far away, either that or they're trying to lure me into some kind of lame ambush. Either way, I'm not wasting another second of my time looking for-"
"Hey there." this was when two seductive voices got his attention, courtesy of Lucy and Lisanna, the two of them dressed in revealing swimsuits and posing for him "Hey there, how you doing stud muffin? What do you say you come up here, and the two of us can help you to relax a little bit."
"...Get them." Hughes dryly held up his wand and sent the various monsters in the room hurtling towards them, sending them running away screaming.
"That is so not what I was going for, I knew this was a bad idea!"
"Oh come on!" Natsu poked his head out of his hiding space with his jaw dropped "I would've figured that they would think Lisanna was cute, and Lucy… well maybe the monsters would've at least."
"HEY! I can't believe you talked both of us into this, and what the hell is the deal with all of those cheesy monsters in uniform?!"
"I don't know, I thought we were in the setting of Assassination Classroom!"
Hughes let out a chuckle "These are the students of the Monster Academy, in this attraction you're able to get a peek in the academic lives of every demon, goblin and bloodsucker that's ever existed up until now. A lot of inspiration from this came from-"
"Assassination Classroom?"
"My Hero Academia actually."
"Oh. Yeah that actually makes a lot more sense."
"Why the hell does this always happen to me?!" Lucy and Lisanna were still running for their lives in a comical fashion "The least you could do is let us change back into our normal clothes you know!"
"What are you two doing?!"
"Running for our lives in bikinis, now help us!"
'Dammit this is the complete opposite of cuteness! Okay it's almost the complete opposite of cuteness, I mean I thought those guys always went for the damsel in distress! Well too bad, I guess I'll just have to deal with this the old fashioned way."
"Oh that's fucking rich." Hughes let out a chuckle "Oh get real Earth Land sucker, you really want to throw down with me inside of my Monster Academy? If you're that ready to take your final breath, then I'm more than happy to oblige you."
"How kind of you. But you don't want to get too cocky, I'm nowhere near ready to check out of life yet. Mummy Bandage!" Hughes summoned a mummy student and had it shoot its bandages forward, trapping Natsu with them "Every single monster inside this academy is like a perfect soldier that will follow any order I give them, pretty sweet isn't it?"
"You'll have to do a lot better than that!" Natsu's body started surging with flames, which was enough to burn the mummy to a crisp.
"What the hell how is your entire body on fire?"
"Like this asshole! Fire Dragon Talon!" Natsu blitzed forward and dealt Hughes a fire enhanced kick that sent him tumbling backwards.
"Franken Knuckle!" as he was sent flying, Hughes controlled his Frankenstein monster and had it deal Natsu a smash attack barrage from its fists.
With considerable strain, Natsu was able to stop the assault and threw the monster straight to the ground, leaving Hughes stunned at the sight.
"You've gotta be kidding me, he's strong enough to beat Frank?! No, it doesn't matter. Come to me now my monster army, defend your master with your lives!"
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Lisanna looked back and screeched to a halt when she noticed the monster army stop chasing them and turn back "That's weird. Hey Lucy, they're not-" she was ignored as Lucy kept running away screaming "Uh… okay… But why would they turn back?'
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By this point, Hughes had summoned all of his monsters back to his side "How about we see how you handle yourself when the entire student body wants to see you in a coffin!"
"Yeah well bring it on, I say it's my turn!" Natsu's body started radiating a massive amount of flames, the look on his face and the tone of his voice leaving the monsters all petrified.
"Why the hell are you all just standing around?! Destroy this piece of trash, do it now!" he looked forward and was left as stunned as the monsters he commanded "What?"
As it turns out, what they were seeing was Natsu radiating so much fire and malice, that he gave the silhouette of a dragon.
"I'm freaking out here, I'm freaking the fuck out! He's a monster, a real monster!"
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Meanwhile, with a certain demon and Dragon Slayer…
Mira was bolting through the halls of the castle, her mind racing 'He keeps saying that he's more powerful than the king himself… that can only mean…' she screeched to a halt when a wall of earth suddenly burst up in front of her.
"You wanna elaborate on where the hell you're going?"
Mira looked back to see Noah standing a fair distance away from her, with Bolt hanging onto his shoulder "I know that what I'm doing right now comes off as ridiculously hypocritical, but believe me when I tell you that what I'm doing is gonna make the fight a hell of a lot easier."
"Like I said, elaborate."
"Don't you remember what the Thunderer said to us? Each time we've encountered him, he's said to us the exact same phrase."
"That he's more powerful than even the king of Edolas himself."
"That can and does only mean one thing. Noah was it? There's something that myself and your counterpart haven't mentioned yet, because if we did, it would've resulted in her life being forfeited in an instant."
"Who?"
"I'll explain on the way, but for now I have to get moving."
"...You mean we."
"You're coming with me?"
"I won't pretend I'm doing this for purely altruistic reasons. Thunderclap is going to owe me big time for this."
"...Fair enough. Let's move."
"Right." and so the three of them took off.
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Meanwhile, with Lucy and Lisanna…
"No no no no no!" Lucy was still running for her life, unaware of the lack of danger actually following her "Leave me alone you stupid monsters, go back to your awkward as hell lives of homework and boyfriends!"
"Lucy stop it!" Lisanna finally got her attention "Lucy it's okay, they all stopped chasing us like 20 minutes ago."
"Wait what?" she wipped around and saw confirmation of that statement "Oh wow you're right, but where did they go?"
"I don't know, maybe we just got lucky."
"Finally, at least now we can catch a break." less than a second went by before she was promptly met with Coco tripping over her and knocking her over "Ow, that really hurt!"
"I think she's hurt too." Lisanna knelt down beside Coco "Hey are you okay? You look pretty badly hurt, what happened?"
"Please help me, I can't run anymore." Coco pleaded with them.
"What happened?"
"Coco come back here you little brat!" this was when Byro came charging onto the scene in a clear rage "You give me that key back this instant if you value your life!"
"Please I need you two to help me, take this." Coco held up the key to Lisanna and Lucy, but then she froze when she recognized them 'Wait a minute, these two are some of the Earth Land wizards that we captured! This is bad, I can't give it to them, but I can't let Byro get the key back either, so what do I do?'
"I shall warn you only one more time child, hand over the key or I'm going to make sure you regret it for what little life you have left!"
"What you mean my keys?" Lucy misinterpreted the situation and rounded on Byro in a clear rage "You bastards want to steal my keys and enslave my spirits don't you? Like there's any chance in hell I'd let you lay a finger on them!"
"Lucy I don't think you understand what's going on." Lisanna told her "But I think that key the girl is holding is part of the king's plan, and I'll be the old man knows something about it."
"...Oh. Well that makes more sense."
"Yeah." the two of them stepped forward and prepared to fight "I'm not sure I get what's going on, but there's no way either of us are going to let you lay a finger on this girl!"
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In the Royal City, Edolas Gajeel himself out of the view of the soldiers guarding the massive cat lacrima, and took notes on the details of Code ETD.
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Gajeel continued his battle with Panther Lily, and it was at this moment that he finally decided to get serious.
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"Great people of Edolas, hello and welcome to E-Land! We hope all of you are going to have the time of your lives! Whether you've dared to ride the death-defying Hell Coaster or you're brave enough to enter the Monster Academy, we know your stay here will be an experience you're not likely to forget anytime soon! King Faust himself designed this park to give you thrills, and to showcase the limitless possibilities of unlimited magic power!"
Byro stared down Lucy and Lisanna, his eyes blazing with rage "What is the meaning of this, and what has become of Hughes, Sugarboy and the Thunderer?"
Lucy and Lisanna glanced between each other "I know Natsu and the others will be able to handle themselves, but this girl needs our help."
"And I get bad feeling from this guy." Lisanna told her "But what about the giant key she has with her? Do you think that's part of the king's plan for the lacrima?"
"Maybe, but what is that plan exactly?"
"Enough of your chatter!" Byro spat out at them "I demand you hand over that key to me immediately!"
"Forget it you creepy old geezer, if you want to lay a hand on this girl then you're going to have to go through us!" Lucy whipped out a Zodiac key "Open gate of the Golden Bull: Taurus!"
The gate opened, and Taurus came forth in all of his glory "Moo to the moo! Loving the outfit you've got on Miss Lucy, I've gotta say that I approove!"
"...You can't come through without coming on even once can you?"
"Is he always like this?" asked Lisanna.
"Yes, yes he is, and it's irritating as hell."
Needless to say, Byro was taken aback by what he was seeing "What in blazes is that, a magic cow at her beck and call? It seems magic from Earth Land is far more capable and versatile than I had anticipated."
"It's got its ups and downs to be honest."
Taurus promptly whipped out his axe "Tell me something Miss Lucy, if I do this for you then will you finally give me that smooch?"
"Make him see stars and I promise I'll think about it, now get to it!"
"Yes ma'am, stars coming right up!" Taurus slammed his axe into the ground, resulting in a tremor that blew Byro clean off his feet.
"Hell yeah, that's my Taurus!"
"Well this ain't my first rodeo."
"Now it's my turn. Animal Soul: Rabbit!" Lisanna activated her rabbit soul, giving her the appearance of a bunny girl, then blitzed forward and dealt Byro a kick to the face that sent him tumbling backwards "It's not my first rodeo either."
"Alright, you go girl!" Lucy dealt her a high five.
"I try my best, spend enough time with Natsu and you get some good training in."
Byro pulled himself back to his feet, his mind racing 'One of them was able to produce a bovine from thin air, and the other one can change her appearanc to resemble animals. How could this be possible?'
"Now I say it's lights out!" Taurus pounced at Byro with his axe in hand.
"Actually it's more like lights on! Flame Liquid!" Byro splashed Taurus with some orange liquid that suddenly set him ablaze.
Lisanna was forced to leap back a short distance "I don't get it, how could make fire from liquid that quickly?"
"You need to be careful." Coco told her "He's really dangerous, and he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. Don't let him drink his Demon Control liquid, when he uses that0
"He's not the only one with a few surprises! Animal Soul: Cat!" Lisanna summoned her cat form and promptly charged towards Byro with her claws ready.
"Storm Liquid!" Byro unleashed a blue liquid that attacked Lisanna with a quick barrage of small cyclones, sending her tumbling backwards.
"Okay that's it!" Lucy whipped out another key "Open, Gate of the Maiden: Virgo!" she promptly summoned Virgo, which prompted her to burst out from beneath the ground and quickly deal Byro an uppercut to the jaw that sent him flying.
"Another creature appearing out of nowhere, is it possible that she's using a spell similar to the Anima?"
This was when Virgo's arms started glowing "It's punishment time!"
"Wait what?"
"Spica Hole!" Virgo used her magic to create a hole in the ground and sent Byro falling down it before he was able to react.
"Oh yeah!" Lucy dealt Lisanna a high five "Now that's how we do it in Earth Land!"
"So will you punish me now princess?"
"You are way too weird!"
"Is that a yes or a no?"
'Oh wow, they're so cool!' Coco had hearts in her eyes from her place on the ground 'And to think one of them is a princess too? Maybe I should give them the key after all, I mean I would love to have all of that magic power, but I know that if the king gets it then he's going to end up hurting Lily.' this was followed by the ground beneath them starting to shake violently.
"Oh my."
"What the heck is that?" asked Lucy.
"It seems something is coming at us from underground Princess."
"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious Virgo."
This was when a massive tentacle suddenly burst up from beneath the ground and quickly grabbed onto Coco "You'll never be able to run now Coco!"
"What the hell is that thing?!"
"It looks like a giant octopus." Lisanna commented.
"Yeah I can see that, thanks for the commentary!"
"You are correct!" this was when a giant octopus burst up from beneath the ground with a very familiar face "I have ingested my octopus liquid! Go ahead and scream in terror and agony to your heart's desire, no amount of strange magic from another world will be able to save you now!"
"Um… so he's wrong about that isn't he?"
"Sorry Princess, but I'm afraid I can't help you." Virgo told her.
"Wait, you mean you're seriously just going to give up like that?!" this was when the three of them were forced to go on the run from the massive hulking form of Byro-pus (Byro in his octopus form).
"It doesn't matter even if I do have Coco now, because I won't be truly satisfied until I dispose of the three of you once and for all!"
"Isn't that a little bit much?!"
"You always seem to have such bad luck with men." Virgo pointed out.
"How the hell can you call that a man?!"
"Animal Soul: Harpy!" Lisanna used her Animal Soul to summon a pair of wings and used them to catch Lucy while she was still in mid air.
"Thanks for the save, but what do we do now?"
"Princess catch, perhaps this may help." Virgo threw something to Lucy, which looked like a red rod, which she caught.
"What the heck is this?"
"It's a gift from the Celestial Spirit King himself, a versatile weapon you can use should you find yourself unable to summon any of us Celestial Spirits, or if we cannot help you at any certain point in time. It's known as the Fleuve D'etoiles, and it comes from the River of the Stars."
"From the River of the Stars you said?"
"Simply imagine the type of weapon you wish for it to make, then transfer your magic power into it and let it do the rest. You can use it if you like princess, but I doubt it's going to be very much help."
"You're not really much for looking on the bright side are you? Well whatever, right now it's the only hope I've got."
"Goodbye and best of luck to you princess." and so Virgo promptly disappeared.
"Lisanna get me in closer, and then I'll put this thing to work."
"Right." Lisanna started flying her in closer "You sure you know how to make it work?"
"Yeah I think so, and I think in this case, the best weapon choice would be… a giant magical whip!" she promptly summoned a blue and gold magic whip "Now I'll take care of you!"
"More strange magic to demonstrate? I'm afraid it's not going to help you against the likes of me."
"We'll see about that!" Lucy leapt forward from Lisanna's grip towards Byro, slashing him across his body repeatedly using the whip.
"As I thougt, you're completely useless, but if you would like to trade lashes then I'd be happy to oblige you!" he promptly swatted her towards the ground using one of his tentacles, sending both her and Lisanna crashing into separate towers "I must admit that I'm rather confused Earth Land wizard, I heard you say before that you were going to take care of me, so is this how you intend to make good on your word?"
"God dammit Virgo was right, this weapon isn't doing anything!"
"What's the matter, has your bizarre magic from your world failed you?"
'My magic?' and then Lucy felt the realization hit her 'Yeah that's right, whenver I summon multiple spirits it totally drains my magic power. That's why she gave this to me, so that I wouldn't run into this problem.' she promptly pulled herself to her feet, her eyes blazing with newfound determination "I love knowing that my spirits care for me, and knowing that they believe in me gives me the strength I need, not physically, but mentally."
"I hope you've made your peace with yourself!"
"I could say the same to you! Now then, I just have to channel my magic power and let it do the rest. Now let's see, what would Luke do? I know!" she summoned the blue and gold colored blade of a sword from the rod, and in one swift movement she cut off one of his tentacles with ease "Now you get your grubby tentacles off of her!"
"Why should I? She's part of the Edolas Royal Army, and as such that makes her one of your enemies! Her fate should not be of any concern to Earth Land scum like you!"
"Can't you see that she's in pain?"
"What I'm giving her now is just a taste of what's to come!" he promptly squeezed harder, causing Coco to cry out in pain.
"That does it!" Lucy promptly cut through another tentacle as she leapt across one of them after another.
"Stop jumping around on me like some kind of parasite!"
"Somebody has to care about her, because it's obvious that you don't!"
"She's right, because if someone like you feels that way about your own comrades, then you can't be allowed to win!" Lisanna took this opportunity to fly Lucy closer as she summoned a whip from the rod, binding Byro and his remaining tentacles together "That's one thing we have in common, we're both members of Fairy Tail!"
"And one thing that Fairy Tail wizards know all too well, aside from destroying everything and anything they can, as sad and true as that might be, is to show compassion to people who truly need it."
"And to put our friends above all else!"
"Be silent wenches, how dare you lecture me!" and before Byro knew it, he suddenly found himself on fire "What- What's happening? What is this?!"
Lisanna let out a sigh "That would be my husband." she was met with a raised eyebrown courtesy of Lucy "What, they don't need to know the details."
Sure enough, it actually was Natsu, slamming his fiery fist into Hughes's face, sending him flying into Byro as a result "So you assclowns think I'm a monster do ya?! Well let me go ahead and tell you now, you haven't seen a damn thing yet!" and it turns out, the flames he had been generating were enough to leave at least one of them in an unconscious heaps "Oh and by the way, what the hell was that huge octopus?"
"Well you alwasy know how to make an entrance Natsu."
"It's part of the Dragon Slayer charm. But in all seriousness, what's up with the giant squid monster? Are we in Toriko now?"
With his strength fading, Byro was forced to regress back to his normal form, and he let out a snarl 'With this many enemies, not to mention my wounds I suppose a tactical retreat would be the best option for now. Don't think this is over, I'm far from being finished as of yet. Flame Liquid!" he consumed some of his orange liquid and summoned a torrent of flames, and when they were gone, so was he.
"Damn coward, but he can't hide forever."
Coco was left in awe by what she had seen in the battle 'They were able to take down Hughes, and they forced Byro to retreat? These Earth Land wizards are just amazing!'
"So who's the kid on the ground?"
"I don't know, but I hope she's okay." Lisanna told him.
"You know this kid?"
"I can't say that I really know her, we literally bumped into her awhile ago." she knelt down in front of Coco "But in all seriousness, are you okay?"
"Y-Yes, I'll be fine." Coco looked up at them somewhat nervously "Thank you, thank you so much for saving me."
"You're welcome, but why was that guy after you anyway?"
"Because of this." she held up the key to them "This key is what he wanted, it's what they'll use to turn on a machine that's going to kill all of your friends!"
"Wait a minute, are you talking about the thing that's going to make the giant lacrima crash into the city of Extalia? But why were you running around the castle with it?"
"They told us that we would be able to get everlasting magic power, but I decided that I wanted everlasting peace for Edolas a lot more. So please, I'm begging you, please help me to destroy this instead!"
"Tell me something." Natsu knelt down in front of Coco "So you're telling me that all we have to do to stop them from destroying our friends is destroy this key? No problem, just hand it over and I'll turn that thing into a pile of ash." he reached for the key, but in a flash he found himself holding a pink frog "What the-?!"
"Where did it-?"
"Hmm hmm!" as it turns out, it was Sugarboy who had the key, sliding acrpss the floor away from the group "Stop right there Coco, even you should have better sense than to hand something as important as this to an enemy of the kingdom! The fact is that this key belongs to his majesty, hmm hmm!" and he slid away.
"Sugarboy, he took the key! Give it back!"
"I think not!"
"Stop right there assclown!" this was when a magic motorcycle suddenly roared onto the scene, with none other than Cana and Elfman riding it "I said stop, you hear me?!"
"Of course I hear you, I just don't care."
"You're only gonna end up making this worse for yourself!" Cana looked down at Natsu and the others "Listen up you guys, you don't need to worry about dealing with pretty boy over there because Elfman and I can handle it, everything else is up to you!" and so they roared off into the distance.
"Come on you guys, we've gotta try and catch up to him too, whatever it takes for us to get that key back!" Natsu promptly tried to bolt off, with Lucy and Lisanna following not too far behind him, only to stop when they felt the ground beneath them liquifying and pulling the three of them in again.
"This stuff again?" Lucy let out a groan "I'm sick of getting stuck in this crap."
"This sucks, I can't move my legs!"
"Just hang on you two, I know what we have to do! Animal Soul: Wings!" Lisanna sprouted a pair of wings and prepared to grab onto them, only for her expression to dull at the sight of a nearby wall about to collapse in on them "Oh no."
"What's the matter?" Natsu looked up and his expression grew deadpanned "Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding me."
"I would get mad at you for your bad language, but Happy's not here and we're about to be crushed." and then it caved in on them.
"Attention guests, all of the attractions in E-Land are now closed. We are truly grateful you came, and we do hope to see you again soon."
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Sugarboy looked back to see Cana and Elfman still gaining on him "You Earth Land wizards are like a persistent rash, you just keep coming back over and over again don't you?"
"Come over here and say that to my face like a real man!" Elfman barked at him.
"I'd rather not if it's all the same to you, I need to deal with the two of you quickly, and I shall do so with my Rosa Espada." he dragged his blade along the ground, liquifying a portion of it and forcing them to veer to the right.
"Dammit man, how in the hell are you still sliding on the floor like that?" asked Cana "I know friction should've either stopped you by now or ripped you apart."
"What can I say?" Sugarboy promptly winked at them "I just do it."
"That's so unmanly it hurts." Elfman commented dryly "How about you come clean like a real man would, and tell us what that key is for instead."
"This key is used to activate the Dragon Chain Cannon."
"And what the hell is that?" asked Cana.
"Sorry, but the rest is highly classified."
"Of course it is." Cana shared a look with Elfman "Judging by the name, I'm guessing it has something to do with the Dragon Slayer magic they sucked out of the others before we saved them. When we saw her earlier, she did say something about the Royal Army planning to hit that giant lacrima somehow, and that would force it into colliding with Extalia, destroying both of them in one go."
Sugarboy looked back and shot them a smirk "Well well my dear, it seems you have quite the impressive intuition. But the fact remains that I can't let you have this key, it belongs to the kingdom of Edolas."
"And what you're saying is that the two of us can't let you get away with it either. Beast Arm: Iron Bull: Projectile Form!" Elfman summoned some iron onto his arm and promptly pounced
forward towards Sugarboy, and even after the initial pounced missed, he fired a barrage of iron spikes from his arm.
"Are some metal projectiles truly the best you can come up with? I can make anything softer, you can thank my Rosa Espada for that." he promptly used his sword to liquify each of the projectiles, causing them to melt onto the floor, but then it backfired when he started sliding across the floor as a result, ending with him crashing into the wall.
"Melt it to your heart's content, it doesn't make it any less slippery!" Elfman was quick to take action as he threw Cana through the air and leapt off the magic motorcycle, hurling it straight forward at Sugarboy.
"Just watch and I'll show you again." Sugarboy rebounded and promptly used his Rosa Espada to to liquify the magic motorcycle "A valiant effort, but far from being enough."
"You wanna bet?" Cana suddenly pounced at him from behind.
"Wait, the key!"
"Magic Card: Freeze & Shatter!" Cana slapped a magic card onto the surface of the key, encasing it in ice, only for nothing to happen beyond that "Uh… okay, what the hell gives with this?"
"I will admit this is cold, a fair attempt but ultimately fruitless."
"No seriously what the hell gives, why isn't this thing even cracking?"
"Be realistic my dear, this key is far from your typical run of the mill piece of junk that can be broken so easily, though this is very cold. But in all seriousness, you're not my type so would you mind letting go of me before we end up frozen together?"
"Speaking of hands, I don't think you've realized that the two of us have the upper one right about now." Elfman told him, leaving Cana looking rather confused.
"I don't believe I follow, would you care to elaborae Beast Boy?"
"So many copyright issues there. Listen up pretty boy, the way I see this, as much as your people need this key, myself and the rest of the men and women from my guild actually don't."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that if we can't break it then we'll just make it unusable. Cana freeze it all the way, I know what I'm doing so trust me!"
"Wait what?"
"Elfman you'd better be right about this, now freeze!" Cana slapped the key with another freeze card, freezing it further, but this didn't take away Sugarboy's confidence.
"Don't forget my dear, it may in fact freeze, but the fact is that my Rosa Espada can soften and liquify anything it touches."
"Don't be so sure about that, one wrong move and this key of hours is going to end up being turned into a pretzel."
"...I see. Well finely tuned is my middle name."
"Are we supposed to know what the hell that means?"
"Precision, it means that I'll simply have to cut you away." and on that note, he stared trying to hack away at the ice like a lunatic "Your Earth Land magic isn't going to help you now!"
"So it's a fight you want, like a real man am I right?" this was when Elfman got his attention back as he caught Sugarboy in a full nelson "She could probably just freeze you along with it, but she'd never let it go, the same for anyone from our guild."
"Not if I just cut you both down instead, now both of you let go!"
"I'm thinking no, now freeze!" Cana slapped on another Freeze card, and this one proved to be enough to make a crack in the key.
"What the- There's no way, you actually cracked the key!"
"Yeah you bet I did, now give me a minute and this thing will shatter faster than Spongebob's reputation did with the later seasons. Elfman, hold him still while I take care of this."
"No no no no, stop it right now! You're really gonna break the thing!"
"And you call yourself a man?" Elfman held him still as Cana poured more magic into the key, causing it to cack further.
"Wait no, you don't understand! You and your comrades need this key, you need it just as much as we do! Why don't the three of us call a quick truce for now, before it's too late!"
"And why the hell would we do that?" Cana took the opportunity to pin Sugarboy to the wall behind her.
"Because you need it too, it's the only way you'll ever be able to turn your friends back to their normal selves!"
"You really expect me to believe that? You're just full of it aren't you?"
"It's the truth, the Dragon Chain Cannon is used for firing condensed Dragon Slayer Magic upon activation. If you knew what that kind of magic could do in our world, then you would see why you needed that key?"
"You mean…"
"The way that Luke and Gajeel saved us before." Elfman muttered.
"They used their Dragon Slayer magic to turn us back to normal. So then…"
"That is the case my dear." Sugarboy shot them a smirk "You blast that lacrima with the Dragon Chain Cannon, and you'll turn all of your little friends back to how they were. So now do you finally understand? That's why none of us can afford to let this key break, the fact is that you may need it even more than I do."
"You don't know anything dude, we have four Dragon Slayers in our guild, and we have five already here in Edolas. Why would we need to use your weapon that stole their magic when we have the real thing? So sorry about your key, but the way both of us see it, that thing is as good as gone."
"Oh please, by the time it would take for them to shatter that lacrima, it would already be far too late. As early as tomorrow the lacrima will begin transforming into pure magic power, our plan was to drive it into Extalia before that happened. With five Dragon Slayers at your disposal, you could probably save a few more of your friends, but there's no way you're going to be able to save all of them. In fact most of them are not going to survive, and what's more is neither will those scores of innocent civilians that were absorbed by the Anima along with your precious guild mates. What are you going to do about them? Now let go of the key."
"...So that's it." Elfman shared a look with Cana and gave her a subtle nod.
"So you finally get it do you?" but then Sugarboy felt his blood run cold at the sight of the key cracking even further.
"Yeah, you just told us everything we need to know." and so Cana gave her cards one final surge of magic power, causing it to shatter into pieces "And that's done."
"You… You actually broke the key!" Sugarboy was left to desperately try and scrounge the pieces back together "Are you out of your minds?! I wasn't bluffing you know, do you realize that you just doomed your friends to be lost forever?!"
"...Hey Elfman you wanna do the honors?"
"I thought you'd never ask, I was hoping to put my training to good use eventually. Full Body Takeover: Beast Soul!" with a massive surge of magic power, Elfman activated his Full Body Takeover, then grabbed Sugarboy by the leg and repeatedly slammed him into the ground before finally leaving him embedded in a nearby wall "Puny Knight."
"Nice." Cana dealt him a simple fist bump "Not on the same tier as Hulk beating the ever loving crap out of Loki, but still not bad."
" Thanks. And you're wrong, because we're taking all of our friends back with us, and then we're going back to our world." Elfman promptly transformed back "All of us."
"You…" Sugarboy barely had the strength to lift his head and look at them "You've made a horrible mistake… both of you have… One that you'll surely regret… for as long as you both live… That key was the only way… you could've saved them… and like a pack of fools… you went and demolished it anyway…"
"That's where you're wrong, a real man always has a backup plan." Elfman activated his stone arm, only for it to crumble away, and when it stopped he held up the end result: a stone copy of the key to the Dragon Chain Cannon "You know why I'm not fond exactly of being called Beast Boy? Well aside from the copyright issues, this beast actually has brains."
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Meanwhile, in Extalia…
Wendy and Carla made their way into Extalia, surprising the Exceeds, and they asked to see the Queen because Extalia was in grave danger.
Nabi arrived on the scene and asked about what happened to Nichiya and the rest of the Royal Guard, and was informed about them being turned into a giant lacrima by the Edolas Royal Army, and Nabi was the only one who didn't laugh at such a proclomation.
The Exceeds didn't believe a word they were hearing from Wendy and Carla, and claimed that the humans couldn't harm them as long as they had the Queen, and then they started throwing stones at Wendy and Carla and yelled for them to get out of Extalia.
Wendy continued trying to plead with them to listen to Carla, but they continued to refuse to do so and only continued throwing stones at them, with Nabi being the only one to obstain from doing this, looking speechless and horrified.
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Meanwhile, the battle between Gajeel and Panther Lily on the lacrima island raged on, and when asked by Gajeel about being an Exceed, Panther Lily informed him that he had foresaken his own homeland, a fake country as he put it, and continued his assault.
Gajeel found himself recalling how he was an outcast like Panther Lily, which led him to decide that he liked his style, and then he proceeded to destroy Panther Lily's Bustermarm sword, swear that he would make Lily his cat, and then proceeded to overwhelm him with a barrage of Iron Dragon Slayer magic.
Panther Lily took a moment to recover, then took off his cloak as he decided to start fighting seriously, which led to him and Gajeel switching to hand to hand combat.
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Meanwhile, in the castle…
Elfman handed the stone key to Cana and shot a look down towards the unconscious and mostly naked form of Sugarboy "Now you see, this beast actually has brains going for him, like any real man."
"HEY GUYS!"
Cana glanced back to see Natsu charging at them in a rage "And there goes the ability to hear myself think."
"You assclowns can't run from me forever can you?"
"We weren't running you idiot, we were busy taking out this guy."
"...Oh. Well in that case…" Natsu yanked Sugarboy to his feet and started shaking him like a ragdoll "Alright you ugly creep, give me the stupid key! Come on blondie, I'm so not taking any more of this Edolas shit, now come on!"
"You know this would be a lot easier if you just looked over here." Cana gestured to the stone key she was holding "Well things are starting to go our way, but don't think we're totally in the clear just yet."
"Oh. Nice work then."
"You got two people working together when they can actually use their brains and you get the job done a lot faster, like a real man. So what happened to Lucy and Lisanna?" asked Elfman.
"Oh yeah, they're kind of stuck under a crapload of rubble right now, but they said they'll catch up soon. They're mostly stuck cause they can't get Lucy's cleavage out from under some of the debris. In all honesty I figured it would happen at some point, Gray did too, we just figured that it would happen to Erza.
"...Okay then. But putting your weird and very unusually manly problems, we can use this key to save the others." Elfman told him "We still have a shot at saving our friends."
"What are you talking about?"
"The king of Edolas wants to fire his Dragon Chain Cannon at the floating island with the giant lacrima so it will crash into Extalia. That's bad, because it will kill all our friends." Cana told him "But if we can use the Dragon Chain Cannon to hit the lacrima directly with the Dragon Slayer magic it fires, then we'll be able to turn everyone back to normal."
"I don't really get it, but it sounds like a plan to me. So where's this cannon thing supposed to be at anyway?"
"I think it's just up ahead of us."
"Alright then, so let's get to it."
"Hold that thought, there's still one problem. We can't get inside the chamber where we're keeping the thing."
"What's the big deal, all we have to do is use our magic to blow the door down and barge right in, they did it in Avatar: the Last Airbender, so why not here?"
"That's not going to work, from what I can tell it's made of some kind of wizard cancelling anti-magic lacrima, so it's not going to be that easy."
"Well I think we should give it a try anyway."
"And if it doesn't work then what do we do?"
"Well we could- Hold that thought, someone's coming."
Sure enough, the one approaching them from the shadowy hallway appeared to be none other than Luke Tempesta, covered in minor wounds "So it looks like my initial hunch was correct after all, not only are all of you here, but you defeated the others and you have the key to the Dragon Chain Cannon."
"Holy crap, it's Luke!"
"Hold on a second, something isn't right." Elfman let out a low growl "He's the version from Edolas! No way, that's not possible!"
"You've gotta be kidding me… our version of Luke lost?" and that was all Natsu could say before everything went black.
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About 10 minutes later…
Tempesta slowly and calmly made his way to the chamber where the Dragon Chain Cannon was located, with the tied up forms of Natsu and Elfman, with Cana slung over his shoulder "At ease soldiers."
The soldiers promptly dropped their salutes "I'm so glad to see that you've returned from the battlefield unharmed Captain Tempesta."
"Being completely realistic here, do I look unharmed to you?"
"O-Of course sir, my deepest apologies? Do you require assistance captain?"
"Not at the moment, so don't trouble yourselves."
"Very well sir, may we ask who these men are?"
"These men and the woman are keys to the Dragon Chain Cannon."
"I don't understand."
"You will soon enough. I take it his Majesty is inside?"
"Of course captain." the soldiers promptly opened the door to the chamber.
"Brace yourselves men, we're very close to our ultimate goal. Everylasting magic power is very nearly within our grasp."
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Meanwhile, in some random desert area…
Edo-Noah stood atop a large cliffside, staring out at the desert in the distance 'I can sense it, there's a great change on the horizon. You guys know I know you're back there, whatever you want just come out and say it."
Sure enough, Edo-Lucy was suddenly shoved out into the open from behind some rocks a short distance away, with Edo-Cana standing right behind her "Look I'm gonna make this blunt, the others are getting angsty and they want to know what we're doing out here in the middle of nowhere like this."
"It's not that complicated, I'm waiting for someone."
"I take it you have a plan in the works."
"I do, but if I want to get the others to go along with it then I have to get all of the credible info that I can."
"Convince them of what exactly?"
"Well for starters, you know of our man on the inside against his will."
"Yeah of course I do."
"With any luck, we might finally have an opportunity to bring him back over." he was looking directly at Edo-Cana when he said this "So what's the deal with the others right now?"
"I told them you wanted to talk about some kind of plan, but right now they're coming off as pretty angsty."
"Probably because you're the one that told them about it, it's no secret you scare the shit out of them."
"Yeah well you're not very far off, you've been brooding and irritable since you and Mira went to help those freaks from that other world."
"They might have their quirks, but I can't deny that they know how to get someone thinking about what's important. Now look sharp, we've got incoming."
Sure enough, at that moment a large rock came flying at them from the distance, and as it got closer it revealed the forms of Noah, Bolt and Mira, who promptly leapt off and landed right in front of them "I never got to punch you in the dick for bailing on us like that."
"Punch me in the dick later, we have other things to worry about. We're getting a so-called traitor back in our ranks, but we need to know how to go about it. If things go awry, we'll end up losing not only him, but another one of our own."
"I have my magic power back now." Mira told him "Just tell me what I can do and I'll go from there."
"We have to wait until either we can go to him or he can come to us."
"Any idea when that will be?"
"Sometime tonight would be my guess." Edo-Noah turned to his counterpart "In the meantime I think the rest of us can handle this, go help your comrades out."
"All I need to hear, someone has to stop them from doing something stupid until Thunderclap can take up the reigns of them again." Noah shot a glance over at Mira, but said nothing more, and and Bolt promptly disappeared in a flash.
"Some kind of teleportation magic? Huh, looks like Earth Land does have some interesting stuff going for it after all."
While this discussion was going on, Edo-Cana stepped back a short distance and stared at a golden-colored locket hanging around her neck 'I know that we'll be reunited soon, regardless of this outcome… Please, just don't give up on yourself, my beloved.'
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Meanwhile, in the Royal City…
Faust was waiting in the chambers of the Dragon Chain Cannon when he saw Tempesta enter the chamber with the bound forms of Natsu and the others "I heard that you were successful in retrieving the key. Is this true?"
"Unfortunately that's not the case your majesty." Tempesta told him "The key was destroyed before I could retrieve it."
"Explain yourself, now!"
"Gladly." he threw them to the floor and pushed Elfman to the front "This one has the magic necessary to fabricate an identical copy of the key."
"Like hell I will!" Elfman spat out "A real man never turns against his friends to help out bastards like you!"
"Spare me the morality lessons."
"Who is this one?" asked Faust.
"He's one of the wizards from Earth Land, and one of the comrades of the Dragon Slayers."
"Is that so? Tell me, is he connected to the lacrima that vanished from the plaza?"
"He is, as is the woman I captured as well."
"I see. Free him now, and have him produce this key immediately."
"Understood." Tempesta cut Elfman's bonds and held a blade to Natsu's throat "Alright get up Earth Land wizard, and don't do anything rash."
Elfman pulled himself to his feet and looked up at what stood in front of them "Is that the Dragon Chain Cannon?"
"It is, and you're going to activate it."
'So this is it huh? It's not quite what I imagined it was going to look like. Looks like this is going to be a lot more complicated than we thought.'
"Stop stalling, we both know that the lives of your comrades hang in the balance."
"Yeah I know, you're holding a blade at their throats. I guess I don't have a choice in the matter, so fine. Beast Arm: Stone Bull!" he activated his stone arm, and the stone crumbled away until he was left with an identical copy of the key, earning looks of awe from the various soldiers in the room "Yeah yeah I got it, a real man, the power of Earth Land magic, yada yada."
"Stop staring at him, he's not some sideshow attraction and you have work to do. Now stay on task." that made the men stop whispering right away "Now do it."
"I know." Elfman stepped forward and pushed the key into the keyhole, and he slowly turned it all the way 'This is going to be the only chance I have. I have to use this thing to score a direct hit on the lacrima, because if I don't then it's going to be over for everyone in Fairy Tail, not to mention the rest of the people of Magnolia.' this was followed by the Dragon Chain Cannon glowing a bright crimson color.
Faust was quick to rejoice at the sight of this "Yes, this is a glorious day for our kingdom of Edolas!"
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By this point, Lisanna and Lucy were running alongside Coco through the castle, when they noticed the magic energy surging as the entire Royal City began to shift "Oh man, everything is moving! That's crazy! What the heck is going on?"
"This is bad, this is really really bad." Coco told her "This means they're preparing to fire the Dragon Chain Cannon."
"That's definitely bad, we have to hurry!"
"You know now that I think about, this reminds me of the Gilardts Shift that Magnolia did beforehand." Lucy pointed out "Is this because of some destructive moron too?"
"I wouldn't say the king is a moron, more like a lunatic with a superiority complex."
"...Yeah okay, that makes more sense."
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Elfman looked around at the controls of the Dragon Chain Cannon, his mind racing 'I don't get it, how the hell do I aim this thing? Where the hell are the controls?!'
"YES!" Faust screamed at the top of his lungs with joy "At long last, the Dragon Chain Cannon is being activated! The event we've spent so many years preparing for is finally about to come to pass! Unlimited magic power is within our grasp! Prepare to fire!"
"Yes, the moment is here." Tempesta slowly stepped forward towards the Dragon Chain Cannon as he drew his sword and pushed Elfman aside "Now is our time. Now Natsu, start wrecking their shit!"
"As if you had to ask! Fire Dragon WING ATTACK!" in a split second, Natsu burned through his ropes and unleashed a two handed fire-based attack, burning through a number of soldiers in a single move.
"Gotta give it to you Natsu, when you put on a show, you kick it into high gear."
"What is going on here?!" Faust rounded on them in a rage "What is the meaning of this? I demand an explanation this instant!" he suddenly found himself beind held with a blame aimed at his throat.
"The explanation is simple, we're calling off the launch."
"You traitorous wretch, how dare you do this!"
"Spare me you Royal Nutcase, in this world or any other, there's no way I'd be loyal to a power mad monster like you."
"You're playing with fire Luke."
"I do on a daily basis, but I'm not the Luke you know." he gestured to his sword Raiden "My name is Luke Drako, a wizard from Earth Land, the Thunderclap of the Fairy Tail guild."
"And thank god for it." Cana used one of her cards to cut herself free and shot a smirk in his direction "Nice work, things got pretty hairy there, but it looks like we're gonna be able to save them after all."
"Tell me about it, but all things considered I'm kind of surprised they fell for this. Now listen up guys, I want you to aim the cannon directly at the lacrima."
"And I want you to fire it at the original target now!" Faust barked at his soldiers, leaving them cleary confused about what to do.
"Which one do you guys value more, the prospect of unlimited power or the life of your so-called great ruler?"
One soldier had the nerve to speak up against him "You guys have a lot of nerve pulling a low move like that, taking hostages."
"Yeah well, desperate times call for desperate measures. I'm doing whatever it takes to protect those I hold dear, now enough wasting time. So what's it going to be, unlimited power or the life of the king?"
"Don't listen to him, fire it now!" Faust barked at them "Forget about saving me, just eliminate the Exceeds!"
"...Change the target, aim for the giant lacrima." the soldiers finally saw sense and decided to give in to Luke's demands.
"You cowardly fools, you're throwing away our chances at everlasting magic power! What are you thinking?"
"They're thinking they value life more than power." Luke told him flatly "Something that you clearly don't understand."
"I wouldn't be so arrogant if I were you." a voice told him, followed by a disgusting sounding chuckle.
Luke glanced back to see Byro approaching the group looking as cocky and disgusting as he ever did "Arrogance isn't very becoming of me as I've been told, but that's a piece of advice you should take upon yourself."
"Of far from it my friend, I believe my confidence is very well justified, considering we still have one knight more than capable of defeating you in the name of the kingdom."
"I already know damn well what you mean, so he might as well show himself."
"STORM FORCE!" this was when Tempesta burst onto the scene and attacked Luke with a massive blast of wind from Shatterstorm in its trident form.
"Dragon Sword Style: Thunderclap Strike!" Luke released Faust from his hold and unleashed a blast of lightning to counter the blast of wind.
"Captain Tempesta!" Faust broke away from Luke's grip and rounded on his soldiers "There now I'm free from him, now change the course back to the original target!"
"I thought I left you behind Tempesta."
"You're not the only one who has things to protect, and as long as I do I can't afford to fall by your hand!" Tempesta charged forward as he turned shatterstrom back into an axe and started clashing against Luke and his sword.
"FIRE!" Faust finally gave the order, laughing maniacally as he did so, which prompted a massive dragon-skull projectile to be shot out of the cannon on the outside.
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Meanwhile, on the lacrima island…
Gajeel was forced to halt his next attack on Panther Lily as he felt the lacrima island shaking violently for a moment "Okay, what the hell was that?"
"It's quite simple actually." Panther Lily told him "That was the Dragon Chain Cannon attaching to the island."
"So they didn't make it in time. Dammit!"
Happy flew down to get a closer look, but he didn't like what he found "Oh man he's right, there's some big thing stuck to it!" this was followed by the cannon digging further into the rock of the island.
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Faust waited eagerly for the results of the activation "Status report, now!"
"The attachment is complete your majesty." one soldier reported.
"Excellent, now smash it into the kingdom of the Exceeds at once!"
"We can't let this happen!" Natsu tried to make a mad dash forward, only to be cut off by a massive crashing in the wall in front of them.
"Hey you guys!" that was when Lisanna and Lucy revealed themselves on the back of a massive flying creature "You'd better get on, we need to get moving!"
"Lisanna, Lucy, is that you guys? Holy crap, they turned you into a monster!"
"We're on top of the monster Natsu, now we need to get moving!"
Faust's scowl deepened at the sight before him "That's one of the Legions, what would it be doing here? I don't understand, how could they be in control of it!"
"It's actually pretty simple your majesty!" Coco called out to him from her place atop the creature with the others "This one happens to be mine!"
"Coco…" his scowl deepened even further.
"Come on guys, get moving!" Luke threw Natsu and the others onto to the back of the beast before he climbed on himself "So be real with me, are we gonna be able to stop them with this thing?"
"We'll never know until we try." Lucy told him flatly.
"Good enough for me." this was followed by the beast letting out a roar loud enough to scare a good number of the soldiers, and Luke locked eyes with Tempesta as they left 'He has that same look in his eyes… a look of shame and guilt, mixed with the resolve to do whatever it takes to protect the one he loves. You're not doing this of your own free will are you? I'll have to find out more.'
Tempesta watched him go, his expression unreadable 'He has that same look in his eyes… a look of shame and guilt, mixed with the resolve to do whatever it takes to protect the one he loves.'
"Don't just stand there you fool!" Byro rounded on him in a rage "You know all too well what will happen if you don't act in service of the kingdom! Remember that her life depends on your actions."
"...I know that, even after three years you haven't let me forget it." Tempesta promptly removed his glasses, threw them on the ground, and then crushed them underneath his boodt, before turning to the various soldiers present "Time is of the essence, prepare the Seconc Magic Warfare Unit Legion Platoon at once."
"Yes sir!" was the simultaneous chorus.
"If you'll excuse me your majesty, I must make sure to uphold our insurance policy." and on that cryptic note, Byro promptly took his leave.
"Do what you must Byro, but I will be going as well." Faust was met with various looks of shock and disbelief "All of you prepare to deploy the Dorma Anim."
One soldier had the courage to speak against him "With all due respect your majesty, that's a forbidden spell. Article 23 of the Royal Charter claims that the Dorma Anim isn't supposed to be used under any circumstances."
"SILENCE! I gave you an order, and you will do what I say!"
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Meanwhile, on the lacrima island…
Gajeel was quick to notice something very wrong with the island "Okay what the fuck is going on, is this thing moving?"
"As a matter of fact, it is." Panther Lily told him "This is in accordance to the plan of our military, this is the final phase of Code ETD."
"Which is what exactly?"
"Code ETD stands for Code Exceed Total Destruction, we will crash into Extalia, which will eliminate the entire kingdom and harvest unlimited magic power."
"You've gotta be kidding me, you're out of your fucking gourd!"
"You're lying… you have to be…" Happy had tears streaming down his face "You're going to use our friends to kill innocent people… Why would you ever want to do something as horrible as this?"
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Meanwhile, with our heroes…
Luke stood at the head of the Legion, his sword raised high into the air "This is it guys, if we're going to save our friends then we need to do it now. But it's not just about saving our friends anymore, it's about standing up and fighting for what's right. I for one am not just going to let go of everyone I hold dear. There's no way I'm backing down, and I don't think you oughta back down either. Today we fight, we fight for our guild! Now are you with me?"
"Every step of the way." Cana stood and took her hand in his, and the two of them shared a small smile, which was mirrored by everyone else.
"Now let's go, we've got work to do."
The final stand to save Fairy Tail, not to mention all of Magnolia and Extalia, was about to begin at last.
A/N:
And with this chapter, we move into Act V of the Edolas arc out of, well in all honestly, I don't know how many. It was originally going to be a total of 7 chapters, but that was before I realized how ridiculously high the word count was going to be and now I have no idea. This is the 31st chapter of this fic (counting the prologue), and if all goes to my new plan, it should be over by the time we reach chapter 35 in the next few weeks or so. With any luck, we'll be done with this arc before we get halfway through May.
Now we've seen the efforts to stop the king and save everyone go into overdrive, and we see a semi-shocking revelation: the Mira that was travelling with the group was really the Mira from Earth Land all along. Let's face it, we all knew that was going to happen the moment I had Mira get "killed" in place of Lisanna, but if I were to just copy and paste that plotline exactly how it was in canon, we'd have a super boring, cliche and predictable story on our hands, and I can assure you that's not the case with this one, nor do I have any intention of it becoming that.
One thing worth noting is that this chapter marks the debut of Lucy's own signature weapon, the Fleuve D'etoiles. Looking back, I'm pretty sure this weapon is the only ability that Lucy has that doesn't require her to use her keys, and yes I'm including her Star Dresses. Also, I think this weapon has a lot of unused potential
So just to sum up, here's how the fights are going to be:
Luke Drako vs Luke Tempesta
Cana and Elfman vs Sugarboy. Side note: I know Elfman can't really manipulate stone to create a key like that, but I had to come up with a substitute for that ice key Gray created in canon.
Natsu, Lucy and Lisanna vs Hughes and Byro
Noah and Mira break away during the battle, the former following the latter to complete a different objective to be revealed later on. It'll make sense in the next few chapters or so, so bear with it until then. But remember that phrase: "I am now more powerful than the king of Edoals himself." If there's anyone out there that gets what he's referencing, or at least if they think they do, sound off in the reviews. I want to see if you get it. Also, it's partly to do with one thing I realized when I went back to watch this arc again: I fucking hate that creepy old guy Byro.
Anyway, I won't try to drag this on for too long. I just want to let you guys know that this story is going to be going on hiatus again after I finish the Edolas arc. I'll say what I said the last time I made this decision: No, I haven't lost my drive for this story and I'm not burnt out. I just want to take some time and work on a few of my other stories, but if you want to check them out, you're more than welcome to. The one that comes to mind first right now would be a DBGT fic I've been working on since February titled Piccolo's Counterattack.
