Author's Notes:
Try number 2 at musical cues! No one said I did an absolutely awful job last chapter so... here we go again.
1. Dark Souls 3: The Nameless King - Extended
2. Dark Souls: Four Kings
3. Symphony No. 3: IV Passacaglia: Allegro Moderato
4. Venom Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Venom Rampage
5. Dark Souls 3: Epilogue, Ending Credits (Ringed City)
Chapter 72:
In a blinding flash of ravenous white, the world shook. Any man standing was strewn like the snapped-off heads of poppies beneath the whirlwind tempest, fierce red quaking in the wake of ruthless thunderstorm. The air clamored with the booming percussion of maddened drums splintering against the brick and scorched ground, tumbling and shattering as hundreds of bare-knuckled fists striking out to anything they could bruise. The atmosphere teemed and choked with raw energy that blazoned sharp fingers of yellow into eyelids and broke the backs of anyone attempting to stand in its wake. A resounding shockwave decimated apart gluttonous fire, drowning and pummeling even the vainest of sparks to nothing but tired vapors in the very way Pompeii had once been driven to its knees in screaming torment before Mount Vesuvius.
The lightning had come; cascaded from the roiling clouds in a waterfall of righteous vengeance and divine wrath, eviscerating the ground and stampeding across the courtyard in voracious tendrils that lashed out, scored, and seethed.
A wave of shuddering and stilting light corkscrewed in rampage over Gajeel as he knelt resigned and rigid, lungs heaving and body wracked with wretched frisson. The lightning-strike claws scourged towards him with threat and flesh-riving ire that suddenly, and purposefully, melted as it grazed his skin. Every hair on his body stood on end at the brutal power that rushed through vacant space like water invading a damaged vessel, unyielding and savage, and yet as gentle a caress washing over him as the soft ripples in a cool pond. Ears still ringing with thunder, he felt like a man trapped in the arena with lions when suddenly they turned to cubs, prancing and rolling onto their bellies as they got close, suddenly brought docile by strict training and the recognition of one of their own. And then he felt the power surge, converge, and swell as the tendrils of flaying lightning arced and tethered itself to the ground, seared up into the sky, and pulled, pulsed, solidified into a figure standing alone amidst a blanket of dust and bodies strewn like so many broken toy soldiers on the ground. There were cries and howls of confusion that dropped suddenly into utter, deafening silence. The form moved and he felt feet hitting sure and deep into the earth, heavy and resolute. Gajeel's throat closed, his fists clenched, and he couldn't move as each decisive crunch in the charcoal ground brought closer unbound wrath and barely-constrained dominance.
The voice, rumbling with thunder and not quite attached to the materializing man before him, vibrated the air and pulled a gasp from Gajeel's lips, "I thought I told you not to do anything stupid."
Gajeel's chest, heart, throat thrummed with something sinfully close to ecstasy and it made his voice thick, his breath short. His soul buzzed, "I told you not to keep me waiting."
Laxus's eyes were flushed with biting yellow and fingers of lightning scorched the air around him. He looked akin to some deity only barely managing to fit inside it's vassal. His body couldn't contain that swarming energy and so it slithered around him and into the ground, charged the skies above so they flashed in hungry anticipation for when the master would call them down. Gajeel's heart was pounding because he'd never seen Laxus like this before, so beside himself and chillingly composed at the same time.
"Who in the hell are you?"
Laxus reacted on impulse and lashed with all of him that existed in that open expanse of the courtyard. The sky cracked open and Hellebore was overcome by the strike. Gajeel winced at the scream that pierced the air. He knew that kind of pain and even though fairy specters of it danced around him in a gentle, soothing ring, the animosity Laxus couldn't control permeated each free atom of the air. He didn't blink, didn't move, and even his body didn't seem to breathe. Thunder snapped and shook above them.
Laxus was seeing in ways new and unfamiliar, this reckless act that had taken him across the country had him feeling scattered and not quite tethered to reality. The part of him that could wonder briefly stumbled upon the thought that possibly he'd left something of himself trapped inside some tree somewhere, or lightning rod, or sand-turned-glass, and he'd be left soulless wrath forever. But the other part of himself, the swirling black mass that had settled in his chest down in Bianca's caves, the mass that had grown and licked steadily a hole in his chest, and finally, finally had contaminated his brain when he'd seen those violet flames seek for the man he loved, cried out for vengeance still.
He didn't see as much as he felt Hellebore's presence, movement, intent. He felt the energy, frenetic and unhinged and Laxus replied tenfold. He was deafened to the scream and didn't feel the fire that trickled past his feet, curling and parting around the area of his influence, his electric field. Hellebore moved and Laxus responded with the same swiftness as each lightning strike, body scattered to mist, and then suddenly he was before a broken face and arresting heat. He didn't know where the words came from, if they were his or the product of whatever was left of him, but he spoke them with purpose.
"You hurt someone dear to me," his body charged and fire shuddered, "I won't be merciful."
He flexed his power and Hellebore was slipping back, arms up to cover his face from the magic that ravaged the air around them. Violet flames spiraled around, searching for his skin to burn but it couldn't touch him, repelled by forces unseen. His eyes widened and he retreated back, raging and searching for a chink in his armor. If Laxus had one, he wasn't even sure. The aching in his chest screamed for action and he obeyed it. The sky cracked with the echoes of his will and Hellebore was dancing away on swift feet, chest swelling with the effort it took to be faster than the blink of an eye. He was balletic with fire surging beneath his feet and he whirled away, back, around, always moving to try to avoid Laxus's relentless attacks. He was screeching in his retreat and the words Laxus could hear hardly made any sense.
"I am the strongest force in Fiore! No one can stand in my way!"
Laxus stopped his ruthless surge as a wall of fire blanketed him, singeing the air but never touching him. The fire arched around him as if scared to try and burn him, fleeing even as he stepped towards their commander. Laxus clenched his teeth.
"Only weak mages attack those that can't defend themselves," his reaction was furious. Electricity chewed through the ground and seized into Hellebore's chest like the fangs of vipers. The fire mage's forward momentum faltered and he tumbled into the ground, taking a brutal hit to his shoulder as he fell. Purple sparks darted from him at the impact and he was pushing himself upright, forcing his feet beneath him and stumbling forward to avoid another strike of lightning.
"I was born to raze this country to the ground! To rebuild from ashes! To rule!" Hellebore's body trembled and the fire swirling up the side of his face flickered with newfound vigor, "No one will come between me and my destiny! Not Kurogane, not you, not an army, no one!"
He huffed, pulling tendrils of flame around him, culminating branches of hungry fire that seared into rings around his hips, waist, and chest. Those tendrils twisted faster and suddenly unfurled. One whip curled around Laxus's arm and he felt fire race up his shoulder just as another latched onto his calf, staggering him. Pain lanced up and through his leg. He could smell his skin burning and his throat clenched into a hard knot. He didn't have the time to wrench free as the third came for him, aiming for his chest. He grimaced, teeth clenched as he awaited the stabbing pain that never came. He heard a grunt and Gajeel was there, only his arm covered in metal as he caught the fiery blow. The cord of it wrapped around his arm, smoldering grey scales to vivid red. His growl was feral in his throat. Silvery talons flashed and each whip was sliced apart, the flames detached fizzling to nothing. Laxus let a breath slither through his teeth at freedom.
(x)
He hardly recognized the sudden flash of emotion that passed across Hellebore's face. Puzzlement turned to realization and suddenly his fury returned anew. Again, he lashed out with his whips but this time he didn't aim for Laxus. The cords wrapped around Gajeel's ankles and whisked his feet out from under him, dragging him through the ground even as he dug his nails helplessly into loose dirt. Lightning struck Laxus's spine and he sped for Hellebore but it was too late. Hands doused in avaricious fire held Gajeel with one by the throat as the other pressed into his chest. Gajeel's body was rigid, fists clasped at his sides and Laxus couldn't understand why he wasn't summoning his shield, why the scales on his arm shimmered and faded quietly. Laxus stopped his fierce pursuit at the threat in Hellebore's eyes, at the red that was dotting where fiery fingertips dug into Gajeel's skin, at the thinly veiled trepidation in ruby eyes.
"Oh, I think I understand who you are now," Hellebore purred, smoke ghosting across Gajeel's cheek chased by sparks, "He is one of those jealous types, isn't he, darling?"
Laxus scowled, tendrils of lightning snapping at his fingertips as he made to rush them but Gajeel's lips pulled back in a snarl of pain. Laxus full stopped. Fire was licking its way up his throat, dancing around Hellebore's hand as he pressed it to his chest. His eyes were alight and swirling with life. A manic, Cheshire cat grin nearly tore his face apart as Gajeel shook in his arms. Laxus's gaze was fighting to focus as red swarmed his peripheral vision. Gajeel was shaking, barely able to stand, and the skin at his throat was beginning to blister under the intense heat. His shirt caught fire.
"Not a breath closer, dear boy," his veins pulsed, his voice sank to a threatening growl. He lilted his face over, letting his cheek rest gently against Gajeel's ebony hair, "You've hit your limit, haven't you love? Been through so much together, haven't we?"
Laxus could feel Gajeel's gaze digging into him, his pupils slitted and hardly focused. His breathing was ragged and Laxus could see him wavering on his feet. The violet flames surged and his eyes tightened, his jaw clenched. He didn't cry out even as fingers pierced deeper into his chest and skin turned from rose to scarlet.
The clouds above were fissured by blinding white but Hellebore didn't flinch. His smile only widened.
"Oh no… if only you'd come sooner, darling," he cooed and Gajeel's lips pulled back as he bit through the pain, the fire that was slinking across his chest now. A nauseatingly sweet smell made Laxus feel sick, "He wouldn't be so tired, so weak. Maybe then you'd actually be able to save him."
"Let himgo," every particle in Laxus's body was shivering. He thought he could choke on the blackness in his chest, flooding his throat, making him want to vomit. Lightning struck one of the ramparts. A laugh tumbled from Hellebore's lips, hyper and senseless.
"Or… what? What will you do?" the veins beneath his skin beat faster, hotter. Smoke was curling up from his hands, "Are you going to strike me with lightning? Are you going to strike him? What's with the hesitation, hmm?"
Laxus took a step forward and Gajeel's back arched, his eyes widened and his hands snapped to try and wrench Hellebore's grip off of him only to have his hands burned. Laxus felt like he couldn't breathe. His fists were shaking. Dying. Gajeel was dying right in front of him.
"He can't survive it like this, can he? How tragic! You came all this way and you'retoo powerful to save him! What a laugh!" his smile was somehow wider, his eyes devoid of anything aside from insanity. Tears were collecting in the corners of Gajeel's eyes from the pain. Blood shivered down his neck.
"I said, Let. Him. Go!"
Helpless… helpless. He was so utterly, patheticallyhelpless.Stand there? Was he just going to Stand. There? He could smell Gajeel burning alive, see the pain on his face even if he didn't scream. What could he do? The lightning would kill him in an instant. He could barely stand, only remaining on his feet because Hellebore forced him. Black veins still fighting off the poison of the collar stood out stark against tanned skin. Bruises, he was covered in bruises, in burns, in blistersand yet he refused to scream, to cry, to even groan from the pain. His jaw was rigid and he glared into Laxus like he was waiting for something, waiting for him to do somethingbut what was he supposed to-?
"I ain't afraid of you!" his voice was gruff. A whine, choked its way up through his throat as he spoke. Hellebore was suddenly rigid, "Ya hear me, Sparky?"
Laxu's throat was tight, "Gaj…"
"Ya told me you'd talk chemistry with me, Hellebore, but ye never did it," his voice was a twisted growled and he leaned into Hellebore's arms, pressed his back to him, dug his feet into the dirt, "When I was a kid, ya know, used ta play with fire. Burned things just for the hell of it."
Hellebore for just a moment took his eyes off of Laxus. He glared into Gajeel's black hair.
"Ya ever held a magnet to a lit candle?"
Laxus's heart stuttered, not because he had any idea what Gajeel was talking about, but because he knew what he was asking. Metal wasn't his specialty, but lightning and electricity, was. He opened his mouth to protest but Gajeel was still glaring into him, his teeth bared, and his hands gripping to Hellebore's wrists to try and stem some of the fire. He was exhausted and he was in pain and he looked like any moment he'd just allow himself to fall to dust.
Laxus's eye throbbed.
Gajeel took a heavy breath, "I ain't afraid…"
(x)
Laxus clicked his teeth, everything in him screaming for him to stop even as the atmosphere screamed with his power. Lightning struck courtyard. Both Gajeel and Hellebore screamed and Hellebore was tossed violently away from him, falling to the ground and rolling in soot as flakes of his skin turned to ash. Laxus wasn't even aware he'd put forth the effort to blaze in a ball of electricity for Gajeel, arms materializing and catch him as he staggered and fell. His fingers dug into his biceps and Laxus fumbled to keep him standing but his legs had given out. He pressed his face into Laxus's chest, his body trembling with the effort it took to hang onto him.
"Fuck…" Gajeel's breathing was heavy and his hands quickly began to lose their grip, "See? That was… wasn't…"
Laxus couldn't speak. He was beyond words, beyond worry, beyond anger. Everything in his mind scrambled as the last of Gajeel's strength left him and he slipped from his grasp, his hands going suddenly still and limp. Laxus took care not to drop him, to let him fall gently to the ground. For an unbearably long moment, he knelt over him with wide eyes, desperate to catch him still breathing, to see the pulse of his throat leap. Electricity still slithered over parts of him, snapping up at Laxus's touch, returning to him.
Gajeel was deathly still.
Laxus felt like he was suffocating in his waiting, his watching, his attentive glaring and frazzled mind thinking over and over again breathe, just breathe, just breathe, just breathe. Close now he could see the damage, the second-degree burns covering his arms and smudges of blacks and purple. Gods alive he was so many unnatural colors. Red smeared just below his nose, tinged some of his teeth. He stared wide-eyed into Gajeel's chest, desperately trying to feel his pulse, the energy that was so weak getting weaker.
The light in his arms was fading and in its dimness, he couldn't see. Throbbing turned to sharp pain that threatened to make tears escape from his scarred eye. His heart was pounding in his ears and there was something beyond it, something feverish and open-mouthed but he couldn't place it. Very suddenly he couldn't pull enough air into his lungs. The red that had vignetted his sight boiled and oozed into everything, tinging the world in the color that collected in the corner of Gajeel's slacked lips, that turned his skin to blisters, that dwelled beneath closed eyelids. The black in Laxus's chest was burned away by the red. It flushed like acid into his veins and scorched the marrow of his bones. He felt it in the way his heart swelled and roasted deep in his ribcage. White-hot fire scored down his arms and pooled in his fingertips.
Something in his chest was overflowing, something he'd never felt before. It was seeing a knife glittering in the darkness when there was none. It was bloodstains in a cold cement floor. It was darkness abundant and ghosts watching from the shadows. It was blood riddles and massive beasts hiding in plain sight. It was bodies buried in cave dirt and the desperation to find answers. It was Bianca enshrined as a saint and Kahli rotting alone in the darkness, killed by his own father. It was pristinely white tables and memories tainted by a shadow where there shouldn't be. It was the steely promise in Gajeel's eyes when he was strapped to the table with pallid skin and nothing holding him back. It was rage and it was fire, lightning and destruction. It was the pain stabbing into his eye. It was painful and it was hungry and so, so ugly...
Laxus snapped.
Like the massive limb of a tree made heavy with snow, there was a creak and a groan, a resounding crack, and then the fall. The sound, the open-mouthed-madness sound, had been laughter. Quite suddenly, Laxus wanted its maker silenced in a way he'd never wanted something silenced before. He felt the fervid current in his body surge, tumult, rage. He threw himself at the noise, at the body that still hadn't been able to recover from his blast. There was sweltering scarlet in his veins, in his head, blinding his eyes and he was burning alive, choking in it, suffocating and drowning all at once and so, so desperate to make it end, to find release. It was heavy and pervasive and his skin was too tight with it, bulging and splitting with it, and it was everywhere and it was him and he needed to let it out, to splinter, to break skin and bleed it out. His fist connected with something and the tide eased its surge for seconds, milliseconds, and a newer, fresher surge overtook him. Now that he'd glimpsed what release was like he was impassioned and wild with his need for violence, for vengeance.
(x)
All he could hear was thunder. It roared in his throat and his ears, the skies and all surrounding him. His molecules shook or the thunder was rolling or the world was ending. He didn't know. He didn't care. He wanted that laughter to stop. The wanted that fire to stop. Every cell in his body charged as he struck down, as he sent wave after wave of lightning and electricity. He clawed for the laughing man and missed him, missed him, missed him. He struck again and again and again and flecks were sifting away from the form and drifting into the air each time eyes rolled backwards from the pain. Yellow teeth exposed themselves. A spine twisted to an unnatural angle. Still Laxus broke the heavens, shattered the earth, branded and sliced and flayed himself alive searching for an end to the red haze he sprinted through.
Hands finally gripped onto something and it thrashed in his grasp but he didn't let it s s slip a w ay …
He clung to it.
Hands s ssç ćrr ë eewęêd dd d into tight fists... .. .
he wrestled it still; filled his vision with enough - - -,.. .
bb bł liî n ndi ńng gg g- .,. - w wh hiīì ît ee light that he couldn't ss s ëe ęė e..- ;,/-..
The c ccraä âsś hi íìng- -.. . ...
-..-/;'-.. of thunder was, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -
, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..;/ - -Unending ggg gg . , ,';../';.. -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.-
He rained his magic down, pulled and dragged it from the atmosphere, let it churn into a tempest in his soul and force it into the beast he held in his hands.
He couldn't s s stom ach the rr reddd d ,.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - - - ., - - -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. - - ,,.
.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';tthe churning rr rush,. ..,.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; .
... - -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- -.; ;, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -.`, - - -;; . , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - -;; . , , …tthe ff feeling of his b blood boiling.,
He forced it through his hands, into the thrashing.
M MMore ee e e .. - - '',.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;-, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- -. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - -
''- - ;' .,.. .f f f łl e éę êe çc čks śs s. ..,. '; - -''
.. - - ,,..; ;., ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - -;;, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - ;- - -;; . , ,';.. , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -`;; . , ,';' , - .. , įî iin nnttt t he áaaìiïrr r r rr
Purple fire... - - ,,..; , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -
.. - - ,, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - , ,';Sss sm o oo k eee.. - - ,,., ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -, ,';
, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - . , ,';Lightning.
Thunder. Thunder. Thunder.
Except…
…No.
Not thunder.
.. , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -,';…S s sscreaming gg g….. - , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -,
Make it stop... - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -.. - - ,,..; , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';
.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/ -;; . , ,';.. - ,,..; ;., ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - -;; . , ,';.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - - -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - - - ., - - -;; . , ,';Make it end.
.. - - ,,..; ;. ;, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - - , .. . M ore tt than the ll laugh ter. .., - -.. - -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - - - ., - - -;; . , ,';..
The ffi ii ir r e
.. - - ,,..; ;. ;- - - ., - -, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - - -;; . , ,';,..- - MMak eė i tt t stop- -..,.. - - ,,, ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -. ;- - - ., - - -;; . , ,';.. ,
M MMake i tt t
.. - - ,,.., ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - -; . , ,';.. - - ,,.- -SS Stop pp . .- -.. - - ,,..; , ,';../';.. - - ,,..;#;.- -` ,/^,..; ;. ;- - - .,/ - - , ,';.. - -
M
A
K
E
I
T
S
T
O
P
.
.
.
(x)
Noise. A new noise.
Different.
It was different.
Rhythmic.
Voices.
Men's voices.
Laxus's couldn't hear past the blood rushing through his ears.
Yelling.
Thump
Chanting.
He blinked and his eyes were unfocused.
"Kill…
Thump
…Him!"
The atmosphere teemed with rage.
Thump
"…Kill…"
Thump
His heart was beating in his throat.
"…Him!"
The redness shifted, trickled downward, faded slowly from his head as if he were losing water, as if somewhere he'd sprung a leak. It was slithering out slowly and it was beneath his ears now, his eardrums, ear canals, were no longer flooded. His eyes could focus.
"Kill him! Kill him!"
Prisoners. There were prisoners lining the walls. And white… Rune Knights as well. The Knights stood in shocked silence and the prisoners were cheering, yelling, chanting.
Laxus blinked slowly. The crimson tide flooding out of him faster now and he felt cold. His mind was clearing with the ice that persisted southward. His heart raced, pushing the frigid chill through his veins, freezing him, holding him in place. There was something floating in the air in front of him and he focused on it, on grey and white pieces flittering up with the convection his magic caused, snow falling in reverse.
"Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!"
He slowly began to register that he was feeling pain. His knuckles were sore, his hands burning. He felt lightheaded as he looked at what he was holding on to so tightly. At first, he didn't understand what he was seeing. Hellebore was on his knees, his forearms limp in Laxus's fists. The side of his face that had been inflamed was now gone, in its place was smoldering charcoal, cracked with violet, and an eye that was dim and pale. Where his flesh met with the burned-out remains of his fire, the skin was burning away and turning to ash. The black was eating across his face, ringed his wrists where Laxus gripped him so tightly, slowly consuming him as his fire died. His chest was shaking, smoke slipping from his nostrils and parted, chapped lips. His lungs rattled. Belated, Laxus realized the only thing keeping him from falling to the ground was his own tight hold.
He was dying. Before his eyes. In his hands. His breaths were more and more labored, his flesh skittering with residual electricity. For a long, quiet moment, Laxus could do nothing but stare. Stare and realize… realize that he was killing Hellebore.
Laxus… Laxus had lost control.
He felt he couldn't release Hellebore fast enough. The man fell unconscious to the ground, violet hair fanning around him. As he struck the dirt the crown on his head shifted off of him so that the horns were digging into the dirt. Laxus's hands started shaking and terror began bubbling up through his chest. His eye… his eye hurt. He dug his fingertips into his scar, the shaking maddening.
He was killing Hellebore.
The cheers turned to mockery, jeers, boos. His throat closed. His jaw locked in place.
"Finish him off!"
"Kill him!"
"Pussy!"
"What are you waiting for?!"
"Where's your spine?!"
His eye burned. He screwed his eyes shut and snarled, sending out a pulse of lightning surged out from him in a shockwave that tore through the courtyard. Everyone stumbled and the prisoners shrieked and fell into fearful silence.
"Weak mages should learn to mind their own business."
Thunder cracked overhead and he was the open-aired nerve-ending of a tooth that had been chipped; raw and exposed as skin that had been peeled back layer by layer. The air crackled with magic and tendrils of his lightning hissed around him and up into the air. He was horrified, his stomach welling up into his throat. He felt feverish, his palms starting to sweat. He saw Kahli, bloated, swelling, eyes gouged out, staring at him. In Hellebore's open mouth he saw that gaping maw, those sharpened teeth… bugs… his skin was crawling with bugs and-
A hand pressed to his arm and immediately his mind began to calm. He didn't need to glance to the side to know Davian was there, but he did anyway. Rune Knights stood behind him, carrying stretchers. Yellow eyes were quiet and stern, fighting to stem the thoughts that were whirling around in Laxus's mind. He took in a shaky breath and something close to a sob shivered out of his throat.
"You… you were just going to let me… weren't you?"
Davian's jaw tightened, "I think we should rest… don't you?"
Laxus didn't have the wherewithal to fight him, "G-Gajeel…?"
"He's fine," Davian said firmly, "He's fine… rest."
Laxus fell to his knees, his exhaustion gripping him even more fiercely than Davian's nails. He looked over his shoulder to where Gajeel lay, unmoved from where Laxus had left him. White capes were fluttering around him, muttering in hushed tones although Laxus couldn't hear what they were saying. A whine slipped through the knot in his throat as he watched them move him to the stretcher, burned hands brushing the ground, dipping them in soot.
"I need to make sure he's..."
"I'll watch him," he felt Davian's voice as much as he heard it, "Rest."
And, quite suddenly, Laxus did.
Author's Notes:
Ah, we finally got to see Laxus be badass! It's about time, eh?
So, some interesting things that I found out while doing research for this chapter:
Magnetic fields effect fire. I found a very informative YouTube video on it while I was looking things up, but I've misplaced the link and don't remember who it was by. Basically, the chemical makeup of the flame itself consists of elements that are repelled by magnets while oxygen is attracted and both of these forces combined make fire bend away from a strong magnet. So, with as charged as Laxus was, Hellebore couldn't hit him with walls of flame simply because his magic made him inherently repellant to the fire.
Also, soil, rocks and metal materials become magnetized when struck by lightning. Essentially, when Laxus struck Gajeel with lightning, he turned him into an extremely powerful electromagnet which repelled Hellebore.
And, honestly, if I'd never read that fire was repelled by magnets I never would have come up with that scene. So you can thank Google for Gajeel being struck by lightning.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter, lovely beans! My mother is getting married next weekend so pray I don't lose my mind in between now and the next update :') (my mom is literally driving me nuts haha I know she's stressed out but yeezus) Until next update!