Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 75: The Power of All Seven Rings! Lucy's Friends! Amazing Spells of A Queen! The Final Fight Against Kotomi Takeuchi!
Lucy's POV
I curiously looked at all of my teammates, wondering if we were all dead. Sting gently stretched out his left arm, wanting to help me stand up, and I lightly smiled as I used my right hand to touch his left hand. Seeing Sting and my other teammates stand around me in a circle caused me to have an apologetic frown on my face, since I felt that we were all dead because of my poor judgment. I had been so focused on my grudge against Kotomi to where I lost sight of the fact that my friends were willing to fight by my side.
This wasn't just my fight, as they all went to the town of Magnolia with me. How was that any different from when I joined my friends in following Risa to Parmanie Town? Risa may have respected that my fight against Kotomi wasn't necessarily her battle to handle, but the fact that Kotomi was strong enough to kill everyone in the kingdom of Fiore only gave Risa a reason to make this be another important fight where she would put her own life on the line to help people. Even though I shared that same resolve, Kusabue firmly tugged on my royal purple dress.
"Lucy-san, you're in your mind right now and seeing people from your memories. Get back into that fight, and beat Kotomi-san." Kusabue sternly told me, not wanting me to lose.
Risa added with a confident smile on her face, happiness being in her eyes, "You may not have much magical power remaining, but we'll think of something!"
Sorano told me in a calm manner, frowning a bit, "Don't get frazzled by the fact that she's using your Celestial Spirits like tools, Lucy. She's powerful, but taking down one major enemy should be easy."
I told everyone with a frown of defeat on my face, accepting what seemed like reality, "Even if I awaken the power of all my rings, there's nothing left that I can do."
"Lucy, are you saying that my overall survival is in the hands of a quitter?!" A man's familiar voice angrily asked from a different part of the void that had been behind me.
I turned around to surprisingly see Maruberiki Ōkami walking up to me, frowning in disapproval as he folded his arms. Maruberiki said nothing else, only making eye contact with me for one minute. His eyes displayed a sense of passion that was returning to him, showing me that he wouldn't have given up in this situation. He proceeded to touch my Amethyst Purple Ring with his right hand, before calmly looking at its purple shining beams of light. This ring may have made my hair and eyes become different hues of purple, but none of my spells could shatter Kotomi's invincibility.
As I had those feelings of negativity, I wondered why Maruberiki kept his hand on that purple ring. He simply glanced down at the ring, before glancing down at himself as if he was trying to make me realize something important. The Amethyst Purple Ring allowed me to use any shade of purple Darkness Magic, but I started to slowly widen my eyes in a calm manner from remembering that it allowed me to use any kind of dark magic. By that logic, I could have Maruberiki's powerful spells in my arsenal of Darkness Magic.
That wasn't the only assortment of dark magic, though. I soon saw Rairakku, Hatankyō, Koibito, Yūrei, Miko, and Mauveria all put their hands on the purple ring. They were followed by Tsuki, who gently put her hand on the Amethyst Purple Ring. Tsuki and the others gave me encouraging smiles, not wanting me to give up. Before I could even say anything to them, Emiria appeared in front of me to touch the Sapphire Blue Ring and make it have blue lights emanating from it. This ring shined brighter from Hiyasu, Samui, Aoiumi, Hisame, and Kaitōtīru placing their palms against it.
They were surprisingly accompanied by Juvia, who only smiled at me in a confident manner. The sight of Juvia being here as one of the people who believed in me only made me wipe away a few tears that appeared in my eyes, and I soon saw Gray appear in the white void to slam his left palm against the Sapphire Blue Ring. This ring was shining just as brightly as my Amethyst Purple Ring, but the Emerald Green Ring began to shine brightly from Sherria and Lyon touching it. They turned around for a moment to step aside for Haruna, who gently touched the green ring as if she was sending magical power into it. She merely smiled at me in a kind manner, before letting one of my teammates reappear in front of me with the head researcher by his side.
Kūkiatsu told me with a confident smile on his face, "Lucy-san, you can win. Take all of my Wind Magic, if you want. Use it all in many shades of green, Lucy-san."
Gardenia stated nicely, smiling happily, "Judging by what Kūkiatsu told me, you must remember that you also have Plant Magic."
Miru appeared behind me with Shizue by her side, before they both informed me in an arrogant manner, "Be more confident in this fight like you're queen Risa's tag-team partner! You have our spells of Psychic Magic, too!"
They proceeded to touch the Fuchsia Psychic Ring, making it once again shine brightly with pink lights emerging from it. That prompted Cordelia and Nazuna to gently touch the pink ring, and I widened my eyes in shock from seeing Sara Hoshiakari gently touch the Fuchsia Psychic Ring. She was surprisingly followed by Kyoko, and I felt that the goddesses within the rings were trying to tell me that even the souls of deceased mages didn't want Kotomi incorporating their energy with her magic as she desired to only cause destruction.
Everyone was starting to look at me with the facial expressions of believing in me, and that included the mayor of Yamabuki Town. She gently touched the Saffron Gold ring, causing it to shine with yellow beams of light coming from it. and Yamabuki Town's mayor smiled at me. As I smiled back, I suddenly felt Lightning Magic start to aggressively surge through my legs like I was gaining more speed. This happened in the same moment where a certain blonde-haired priestess slammed her left palm against the Saffron Gold Ring, lending me her strength from the spirit world.
Kanata was followed by Kirie, who gently touched the Saffron Gold Ring. It now shined much brighter like my other four rings, and I watched the Sherbet Ring start to have orange lights coming out of it. That happened right after Nozomi struck the ring with a karate chop, sending her magical power into it. That was followed up by Shinichi firmly placing his right hand on the Sherbet Ring, the ring's light growing n strength like the earth. As I admired the different hues of orange light that appeared, Erza kindly touched the Sherbet Ring as a way of wanting to pass her strength on to me.
"Lucy. Whether we're in the afterlife or still existing in Fiore, we all sensed your voice. We heard your desire to fight for all of us, and you didn't want any of us to get absorbed by Kotomi's lust for ultimate power." Erza explained to me with a caring smile on her face, looking like she was proud of me for getting so far on this adventure.
Natsu appeared near Erza to tell me in a friendly manner, before giving a high-five to the Crimson Ring, "Luce, make sure that you avenge me by kicking Kotomi's ass!"
He was followed by a certain pop idol appearing beside him with all of her band members, before Akai told me with a rude facial expression, "Listen to me, Lucy! Don't you dare lose to that fashion reject! Anyone who's ever defeated me is not allowed to lose! That doesn't flow with your life, which has been a song with notes of many impressive victories! Kotomi may think she's rocking out right now, but you're gonna change the key of the battle to suit you!"
Kaen and Ryuko nodded in agreement with Akai, before all of the band members placed their hands against the Crimson Ring. It started to shine with a luminous burst of red lights being emitted from it, and I could feel a high amount of Fire Magic existing within the Crimson Ring. I watched my hair cycle through different shades of red, which caused Akai to smile in a confident manner. She gently touched my hand for a moment for me to see the Crimson Ring still shining brightly in reality, followed by all of the other rings starting to have much more brightness.
At this point, I narrowed my eyes in a stern and determined manner at how only I could decide if I would die against Kotomi. She would not get away with stealing my body from me, and I quickly turned around to face Sting. He simply touched all of the rings on my right hand with his left palm, followed by all of my other teammates, and we could all sense that everyone who we met on our long journey was wanting us to win. I smiled at all of my current teammates, and the white void's light heavily engulfed us to take my mind back to reality as I believed that we could win this battle with everyone's spells accompanying my own.
Back in reality... (Narrator POV)
Lucy opened her eyes to discover that she was still in Magnolia Town, and she only lost consciousness for at least five minutes. As Lucy felt extremely determined to win this battle against Kotomi and thought about fighting hard for the sake of everyone that she met on her journey, all of the legendary rings began to shine brightly in their respective colors. The rings all proceeded to shine in different hues of their respective colors, before making auras in all of their main shades surround Lucy's body.
Lucy immediately saw a spell of Psychic Magic appearing in her mind while her hair and eyes cycled through shades of pink, and the spell was known as Magenta Psychic's Fuchsia Pink Soul. This spell made a magenta pink and fuchsia pink aura engulf Lucy's body, fully healing her wounds to where she looked like she never sustained any injuries. This spell made the auras lunge at her teammates, causing them to also be fully healed, and Risa stood up at the same time as Lucy to see Sara Hoshiakari's spirit gently emerge from the aura with a kind smile on her face.
"Stand firm once again, kid. You can win this, Lucy Heartfilia." Sara stated to Lucy with a proud smile on her face, glad to have healed the team.
Risa exclaimed with tears of happiness welling up in her eyes, feeling just as revitalized as Lucy, "Sara, my magical power is... fully being restored! You've still been watching over me, even now in this dangerous battle."
Sara turned around to tell Risa in a kind manner, before sounding snarky, "Risa, I'm so proud of how far you've come as a psychic mage. Although, your mind's thoughts are weird for wondering if I'm the only one who came to help you."
Lucy unleashed a new spell of Darkness Magic, and it was known as Dark Witch's Piercing Flowers. Lucy's hair and eyes shifted through multiple hues of purple while she shot out several dark purple roses from her hands, and those roses started to spin as they headed towards Kotomi. She watched the roses grow larger as if they had bloomed, before they shot out many wine purple orbs. This spell made Kotomi get engulfed in several massive wine purple blasts, before the roses themselves crashed into her for the purpose of making dark purple explosions occur.
Kotomi felt a tremendous amount of pain from these explosions, her body sustaining bruises and burns. She was sent flying up into the air for a few moments, before harshly falling down and wondering how Lucy managed to break through her Celestial Spirit Magic's invincibility. Kotomi's hair and eyes cycled through different hues of gold as she slowly stood up, looking enraged as she saw the spirits of Koibito and Tsuki standing in front of Lucy with confident smiles on their faces. Kotomi felt like she needed to eliminate the team's confidence by activating the Celestial Supernova Starfall spell, and she made several stars in different shades of gold start to appear around her body in a large circle.
This prompted Lucy to envision another spell in her mind, and she made her right hand be positioned as if she was holding a paintbrush. She unleashed a spell called Midnight's Masterful Mauve Madness. Lucy watched her body become coated in midnight purple and mauve purple auras, and she used her right hand to paint a swirl pattern in midair. The pattern that was formed from the auras soon consisted of midnight purple flames that became mauve purple, and Lucy thrusted her hands forward for all of the flames to fly towards Kotomi.
Kotomi watched her projectiles get struck by the flames, some of them even detonating from the fire that slightly spread on to them, and the fiery explosions also came with an intense amount of heat. They melted some of the flames that were produced from the explosions, allowing large puddles of midnight purple paint and mauve purple paint to form on the ground. The ground didn't seem like it would melt from the hot paint, and Lucy saw Maruberiki's spirit appearing beside her as this attack nullified Celestial Supernova Starfall.
"I'm turning the tide of this fight, Kotomi!" Lucy stated with a confident smile on her face, getting ready to use another spell.
That prompted Kotomi to sternly tell her, "You can't win against my level of power! Celestial Lion's Carnage!"
Kotomi simply shot out a rich gold lion from her left hand, the beast being gigantic as it became sunglow gold with a look of malice in its pure gold eyes. The beast proceeded to aggressively charge at Lucy, not minding the hot flames that were on the ground. This only caused Risa to narrow her eyes while activating the spell known as Magenta's Glittering Psychic Dark Flares, and Risa shot out a ring of dark magenta flames from her mouth. She interestingly aimed the attack down at a puddle of hot paint, watching it create dark magenta blasts of fire that were massive.
These flames fused with the paint to create more puddles, but the shadows of the puddles that were around Kotomi's lion soon had tall flames emerge from them! The dark magenta flames began to burn the lion, before Lucy aimed her hands at the fire to make it become plum purple. The plum purple flames that burnt through the lion interestingly couldn't be slammed off of it by the creature's paws or by being bitten, almost like Lucy made those flames be like a dark witch's vengeful flames that couldn't be killed.
As the fire incinerated the beast and made it explode in a massive burst of sunglow gold light, Lucy unleashed the spell known as Dark Witch's Autumn Purple Wrath. This spell simply made Lucy's spirit manifest itself in the form of an autumn purple clone, which looked ghostly as she confidently rushed towards the blast that spun outward. Lucy watched her ghostly self take the full amount of damage from the attack while Lucy herself felt no damage, and the sunglow gold clouds of smoke quickly cleared up.
Kotomi gasped in a stunned manner from seeing an autumn purple aura fade away, and seeing it look like Lucy made Kotomi be awestruck at how she essentially attacked Lucy's puppet that obeyed her commands while the actual ventriloquist just confidently stood in place. Lucy seemed like she was now using spells from her previous battles to make a fool out of Kotomi, and that only made the antagonist growl in an enraged manner. She quickly envisioned a spell called Celestial Brawl, and Kotomi made a sunglow gold aura heavily engulf her hands.
Kotomi aggressively ran towards Lucy with a vengeful look on her face, and she was going to swing her fists at Lucy. That only prompted Lucy to activate a spell called Witch's Mauve Hex, and a mauve purple aura surrounded Lucy's body right before it joined her hair and eyes in becoming eggplant purple. Lucy smiled confidently as she glanced to her left and right sides for a moment, seeing the spirits of Rairakku and Mauveria appearing beside her. Lucy watched a mauve purple flame appear in her right hand, and she aggressively swung that flame down towards Kotomi.
Kotomi slightly stepped back, smirking evilly as she thought that Lucy's attack missed. However, the sight of Lucy smiling in a confident manner as she glanced down at Kotomi's right foot made the antagonist look down at her right shoe to see a small mauve purple flame appearing on it. The flame instantly exploded in a massive burst of mauve purple fire, burning Kotomi with its hot flames, and the moment that the flame on the ground shifted to being eggplant purple was when several eggplant purple flames shaped like hands aggressively emerged from it.
They all rammed themselves into Kotomi, creating eggplant purple fiery blasts that were quite large. They were followed by the mauve purple blast of Darkness Magic being much more enormous, and Kotomi screamed in agonizing pain from taking so much damage. She ended up making her aura-covered fists harshly land on the ground, creating two massive sunglow gold explosions that spun outward as they became rich gold at the last second. Kotomi wasn't hurt by these attacks, but she scowled in a furious manner as she hoped that they would severely damage Lucy.
Lucy sternly narrowed her eyes at the rich gold explosions, before activating a spell called Neon Shimmering Moon. This spell caused Lucy to create a neon purple orb in her left hand, and she threw it up into the air. The orb ended up detonating to create a tremendous neon purple blast that didn't do any damage to Kotomi herself, but its light made Kotomi's explosions become neon purple. That only powered up the flames from Lucy's previous spells of Darkness Magic without harming her, and Lucy nicely smiled from seeing the spirit of Miko appear beside her.
"Lucy, this is my most powerful spell. It can damage enemies, but it also converts their current attacks into Darkness Magic for whatever purpose you desire." Miko told Lucy with a sweet smile on her face, the priestess proudly viewing Lucy to be like an amazing artist by revising the colors and properties of her enemy's attacks.
That caused Lucy to reply with a friendly smile on her face, as all of the purple smoke started to clear up, "Thanks, Miko. I'm grateful for your assistance."
Kotomi stated aloud, sounding very miffed, "You mouthy little bitch! I won't let you keep using spells from other mages! In fact, let me show you that water can burn away your chances of winning!"
As Kotomi slammed the gold Zodiac Gate Key pertinent to Aquarius against the gold ring, Yukino told Lucy in a stern manner, "Lucy-sama, please allow a Celestial Spirit Wizard to handle this next attack!"
Sorano added in a playful manner, winking at Lucy with her right eye, "I hope you'll also allow a former Celestial Spirit Wizard to show you how to easily defeat a moron, Lucy."
Since Sorano and Yukino had also been engulfed in the rainbow-colored aura, their own levels of magical power had also increased. Yukino wasted no time with summoning Pisces, and she watched the two giant fish appear in front of her. They proceeded to shoot out two giant bubbles from their mouths, and the plain blue bubbles ascended up into a cloud. They caused it to become plain blue, before Sorano fired a spell known as Angelic Harmony. She sent a high amount of magical power into four coins that were all marked with the number 100, and Sorano fired a large light blue beam from her right hand.
She aimed the attack up at the cloud, causing it to become light blue and much shinier. This not only enhanced the power of Yukino's attack, but the cloud grew much larger right before breaking off into five smaller clouds. The four clouds around the main one started to have large light blue rings appearing right above them, and the rings started to send their magical power into the main cloud. This caused a spiraling twister of light blue water to descend from the cloud while massive white rings stretched outward from five different parts of it, and the attack was aimed down at Kotomi.
The blonde-haired villain tried to counter this attack by unleashing a massive dandelion gold vortex of water from her right hand. This spell was known as Celestial Water Torrent, and Kotomi felt the attack was powerful enough to smash through Yukino's and Sorano's spell that was known as Aqua Purified Harmonic Twister. The Aguria sisters both had feelings of confidence in their hazel eyes, watching the water of their twister be dense while the rings around it brightly glowed to increase its overall level of magical power.
Upon seeing their spell start to produce an intense burst of blue light that started changing between different shades of blue, Kotomi asked Yukino and Sorano in an astounded manner, "What's with that light?!"
Sorano explained to her in a calm manner, smiling slyly, "My angelic light is just purifying that horrid-looking water of yours, that's all."
Kotomi briefly opened her eyes to see that her dandelion gold vortex was now becoming cerulean blue, the water having its Celestial Spirit Magic be filtered out. However, that wasn't the only effect of this fusion spell. Kotomi watched her attack get absorbed into the spiraling twister, which proceeded to grow much larger, and the attack hastily came down upon Kotomi to drench her with a high amount of dense water! The water slammed down on her as if a gigantic sea fell down from the sky, the water roaring as it landed on the entire street for the purpose of flooding it.
This also caused the paint from earlier to be converted into different hues of blue, due to the rainbow-colored aura affecting it, and Lucy smiled at her friends in a confident manner. She would gladly allow Kotomi to see the true strength of Water Magic in the hands of someone who wasn't corrupted by power, and Lucy unleashed a spell known as Neon Blue Scalding Hot Spring. This spell made six azure blue bubbles of water to aggressively bounce up from the flooded street, before coming back down with much more speed and power.
They interestingly became coated with neon blue flames while becoming neon blue themselves, moving so quickly to where they were gaining heat, and these neon blue bubbles crashed down into the water! They proceeded to make it become neon blue, before Lucy watched Kotomi painfully jump up from the water that felt as hot as magma. Lucy placed her hands in the water to see it all form several neon blue bubbles that had plain blue clouds of steam emerging from them, and Lucy threw them at Kotomi right before swinging her arms down at the water to make several waves of it splash towards Kotomi.
The waves of water quickly slammed into Kotomi, creating neon blue explosions that had high amounts of density. The heavy winds from these explosions interestingly went towards the bubbles for them to be powered up by the water that flew through the air, and they quickly struck Kotomi! She was immediately engulfed in neon blue blasts that were quite large while they made scalding hot water burst inward to burn Kotomi. As she screamed in pain from the high amount of power in Lucy's attack, Lucy watched the spirit of Hiyasu appear beside her.
Hiyasu simply smiled in a confident manner, glad that her powerful Water Magic could assist Lucy. That didn't stop Kotomi from feeling strong enough to activate another spell of Celestial Spirit Magic, and this spell was known as Celestial Waterfall. The spell made the blue urn belonging to Aquarius appear in Kotomi's hands, before the urn became light gold. Kotomi aimed the urn down at the neon blue water, absorbing a high amount of it right before shooting out the water in the form of several light gold drills!
The light gold drills of water shifted to being harvest gold, and they went towards Lucy at high speeds. That prompted Lucy to unleash the spell known as Periwinkle Blue Aquatic Turret Torrent, and Lucy slammed her hands down on the water in front of her. This caused a high amount of water to be pushed up in front of Lucy, and several beams of the neon blue water went into her fingertips. She aimed them all at Kotomi's projectiles, before shooting out several thin beams of neon blue water that shifted to being periwinkle blue.
When the periwinkle blue beams of water made contact with the drills, they ended up bursting and coating the drills in their hue of blue. This not only caused the drills of water to become periwinkle blue, but they ended up detonating in periwinkle blue blasts that were massive. Lucy wasted no time with slamming her hands down on the water for waves of it to collide with the blasts, and the bursting waves of water acted as shields that would weaken the range of the blasts that spun outward. Upon seeing the closest one fade away right before it reached her feet, Lucy smiled at Kotomi in a very confident manner.
"If you think that you can nullify all of my spells, you're wrong!" Kotomi angrily stated to Lucy, not liking how she was continuing to shift the battle in her favor.
Lucy responded with a smile of determination on her face, as the spirit of Samui briefly appeared by her side after her recent spell, "Actually, I can handle whatever you throw at me! Try to hit me with some of your best shots, Kotomi!"
"That arrogance will be your demise, you stupid bitch!" Kotomi aggressively responded, before making three gold auras heavily engulf her body.
She proceeded to activate a spell called Celestial Rend of Horologium, and Kotomi fired a rich gold beam from the space in between her palms. This beam corresponded with the rich gold aura that engulfed her body, before a light gold beam broke off from it, and a celestial gold aura proceeded to also break off from the rich gold beam. They all headed towards Lucy, who watched the beams grow much larger as Kotomi sent her strong feelings of anger into them. Lucy wasted no time with activating a spell called Blue Shield of The Mermaid Princess, and she saw Aoiumi's spirit appear right beside her.
As Aoiumi stretched out her hands for them to be in front of her, Lucy confidently copied her actions and watched a cobalt blue aura heavily engulf her hands. Lucy instantly saw a giant cobalt blue bubble appear in front of her, and the bubble was surrounded by eight enormous discs that were cobalt blue. They all had cobalt blue wings while the bubble had a cobalt blue jewel levitating in its center, but the bubble and the shields accompanying it soon shifted to being cerulean blue right before they became aegean blue.
The aegean blue shields detached themselves from the bubble for the purpose of ramming themselves into the beams, which created massive gold explosions! As the explosions started to break through the shields, Kotomi drastically felt her levels of power and speed increase! She rushed towards Lucy, only to see water heavily pouring out of the broken shields like a vicious rainstorm coming down on to the street. Lucy suddenly found herself aiming her right hand at the rain, and she unleashed a spell called Teal Frigid Frost Immobilization.
"Miss Champion, you can't just have all this water around without applying some frost to it!" Kaitōtīru's spirit told Lucy with a confident facial expression, appearing on her right side before proudly smiling at her.
Emiria's spirit added, appearing on Lucy's left side as she moved Lucy's left hand downward, "In addition to all this water and frost, you'll need to defeat some of Kotomi's spells by using a strong amount of ice."
Lucy and Emiria fiercely shouted at the same time, "Ice Goddess' Frigid Snowy Winter Plume!"
As Lucy watched teal blue frost be fired from her right hand and coat the water with some teal blue ice, her left hand slammed down on the water for pale blue ice to be sent into the ground. This made icy cold winds be blown upward from beneath Magnolia's surface, and the pale blue aura took the form of a giant snowflake with a somewhat smaller snowflake appearing inside of it. The smaller snowflake began to have its aura become light blue, but both large hexagonal snowflakes had icy branches protruding from each corner. The ends of the branches had spiraling geysers of frigid snow shooting up from the ground in the different shades of blue that were pertinent to the two snowflakes, and any snow that fell from the geysers would immediately transform into ice to freeze the ground upon touching it. Any snow that touched the newly-transformed ice would only cause the ice to quickly expand outward, and the air was extremely cold.
This caused Kotomi to lose her balance on the ice that suddenly appeared, along with seeing her feet start to get frozen from how Kaitōtīru's frost made teal blue ice quickly engulf her legs. As Kotomi proceeded to clench her teeth and make five golden auras heavily engulf her body, Lucy applied Ice Magic to her feet in the auras of pale blue and light blue. She easily skated across the ice in one attempt as if she was a professional ice skater, and Lucy aggressively grabbed both of Kotomi's hands. She quickly spun around on the ice at extremely high speeds, before throwing Kotomi towards the nearest geyser of snow that shot up from beneath her feet.
Kotomi screamed in a somewhat worried manner from getting coated in the light blue vortex of snow, which detonated in a light blue blast as it struck her, and Lucy jumped up quite high to kick Kotomi in the chest! Lucy's harsh kick sent Kotomi flying towards a pale blue geyser of snow that just erupted, causing her to suffer damage from the geyser's pale blue blast that was massive, and Lucy wasted no time with rushing towards Kotomi. She kicked and punched her towards other geysers, wanting her to get damaged and hopefully be encased in ice.
Kotomi only ended up getting frozen in ice for a few seconds, as she activated a spell called Celestial Photon Burst. The five golden auras around Kotomi's body made the light around her detonate in massive blasts that were rich gold, light gold, pure gold, Aspen gold, and sunglow gold. The sunglow gold blast produced the most light while the light from the other blasts had their beams shining through it, and Kotomi made her hands form a fanged mouth as she fell in midair. She unleashed a spell called Celestial Lion's Brilliant Fangs, and the light from the blasts started to shine in Lucy's direction.
As all of the light surrounded Lucy, the bursts of light from above and below had beams coming from them. The beams resembled a lion's fangs while Lucy being in the light was like her being trapped in Kotomi's jaws, but the sound of some snow geysers colliding with the bursts of light allowed Lucy to envision a good friend's useful spell. She stretched out her hands while activating a spell called Sapphire Blue Water Cyclone, and aiming her hands down at one of the snow geysers caused Lucy to transform it into a gigantic sapphire blue cyclone of water!
The giant vortex of water intercepted Kotomi's attack, and every drop of water caused the beams of light to bend! They ended up striking several different parts of Magnolia Town while leaving behind massive blasts that were very bright, but the water from Lucy's attack allowed her to be unharmed. She used the icy winds from the snow geysers to simply float down to the ground while Kotomi looked appalled, and Lucy soon felt a certain blue-haired woman's spirit gently place her hands on her shoulders in a kind manner.
Lucy felt very pleased that she was able to use one of Juvia's spells, but Lucy soon felt herself look quite stern as she shared Gray's thoughts about never wanting to repeatedly lose to the same opponent. The spirit of Gray Fullbuster appeared beside Lucy as she put her hands into a light blue and a pale blue snow geyser at the same time, and Lucy got to see a spell called Ice-Make: Spiky Sphere take shape in her mind. That caused a pale blue and a light blue sphere of ice to respectively appear on Lucy's left and right hands while the spheres were covered in numerous spikes, and Lucy hastily ran towards Kotomi.
"This is payback for how you hurt Gray!" Lucy fiercely stated to Kotomi, before punching her body several times with her fists that were denser than titanium.
Upon seeing herself get surrounded by light blue and pale blue explosions of ice, Kotomi shouted in a pained manner, "You're not... stronger than me!"
As Lucy proceeded to run through several snow geysers and send magical power into the Emerald Green Ring, she responded in a confident manner, "I'm pretty strong with a dense body, but I'm also much faster than you! Kaze's Feather Dance!"
That caused Kotomi to ask aloud in a startled manner, before she angrily shouted with rage in her face, "What... What did you just say?! Isn't that.. one of my techniques?! KAZE'S FEATHER DANCE!"
After two mint green bird wings came down to lightly touch her feet, Kotomi ran towards Lucy at high speeds! Lucy had a mint green aura and a juniper green aura engulfing her body as she quickly made the dynamic shift from relying on the blue auras of the Sapphire Blue Ring to the green auras of the Emerald Green Ring, and Lucy felt her body have much more energy from doing that. She was able to move at rapid speeds, quadrupling her level of speed from when she awakened the full power of the Emerald Green Ring.
Moving at a quadrupled level of speed caused Lucy to create huge gales of wind that blew in whatever direction she went towards, the winds even being heavy enough to push Kotomi several feet back. Kotomi groaned in frustration from how Lucy was literally moving at insanely hyperactive speeds to where Kotomi could only attack her afterimages that appeared in the split-seconds before Lucy moved as if she was teleporting through the space in the wind itself, and moving incredibly fast also allowed Lucy to strike Kotomi with powerful punches that were coated with extremely dense winds.
That caused Kotomi to become more bruised and bloodied, especially with the wind seeming like it was able to internally damage the antagonist. Kotomi coughed up a high amount of blood while feeling several of her bones break, and the strong winds from Lucy's last punch sent her flying to the other end of this street. Kotomi ended up rolling across the ground, sustaining more bruises and bloody wounds. She still managed to slowly stand up, before unleashing a spell called Celestial Gemini Healing Burst.
"I am not... letting myself lose to a weakling like you!" Kotomi aggressively shouted to Lucy, before sending a high amount of Celestial Spirit Magic into the ring that she gained after absorbing Gemini.
That caused Lucy to reply in a stern manner, looking bored as Gemini appeared beside Kotomi, "After using this spell, I won't be such a weakling."
After sliding her feet backwards and going into a combat stance, Lucy stated fiercely, "Wind Temple's Hurricane of Green Skyward Clouds!"
As Lucy raised her hands high above her head and rapidly moved them around to form two large circles of wind, Kusabue had a surprised look on her face. Some tears started to fall from her eyes, seeing the spirit of Kūkiatsu appear right beside Lucy, and Kusabue watched the two large circles of wind be in different hues of green. The much larger circle was emerald green while the inner circle was mint green, and thrusting her hands upward allowed Lucy to create two sets of clouds that formed spiraling towers above Magnolia Town.
Both sets of clouds started to cycle through different shades of green, before shining in their hues of green with genuine brightness, and Lucy herself started to rapidly spin around on one foot. The winds that Lucy generated from her rapid spinning went up into the sky, creating an upward draft with the winds adding much more power to her clouds. The clouds all started to move around in the clockwise direction at extremely high speeds, before they all sent down tornadoes in varying shades of green!
All of the tornadoes combined their magic to form an enormous hurricane, which shifted through varying shades of green. That contrasted with how Gemini immediately exploded in a celestial gold burst of light that was all around Kotomi, beginning to make her injuries be healed. However, Kotomi couldn't heal quickly enough to prevent herself from getting sucked into the hurricane that was coming down towards her. The hurricane ended up detonating in several enormous blasts that were in varying shades of green while the winds aggressively slashed against Kotomi's body, and the sight of a matcha green blast occurring right after a moss green blast made Lucy have the sudden urge to act as if she was pushing up her glasses with her middle finger like an intelligent researcher who calculated the damage of her aerial attacks.
Kusabue analyzed that as the spirit of Yaeko putting her own survival in the spirit world before anything else, along with putting her own Wind Magic into Lucy's attack. She smiled in a calm manner from seeing Lucy's next attack be unleashed, and it was known as Wind Goddess' Sky Storm. Lucy envisioned this spell in her mind while the spirit of Sherria Blendy appeared behind her, and Lucy proceeded to inhale a high amount of air. She proceeded to fire all of the air in the form a cannon shot, and the dark green vortex that had four dark green bird wings on the front of it was aimed at Kotomi.
The vortex became celestial green at the very last second, causing Kotomi to be engulfed in a celestial green explosion that was massive. Kotomi screamed in pain while she was slammed around different parts of the explosion by the air itself, and Lucy watched Kotomi harshly fall to the ground. Kotomi slowly got up with several bloody wounds and slash marks on her body that were starting to bleed, and the recent explosions made her skin be charred and brown. She angrily glared at Lucy, who was standing tall like a champion.
Kotomi refused to let Lucy stop her from causing destruction, and she activated a spell called Celestial Gold Planetary Burst. Kotomi envisioned this spell in her mind, and the sky above Magnolia soon became a rich shade of gold. It changed to being sunglow gold, before energy from the heavens above Earthland came down towards Kotomi. The celestial energy took the form of sunglow gold planets while they all entered Kotomi's body, and the sunglow gold aura that surrounded her body immediately became celestial gold.
Kotomi chose to aggressively spin towards Lucy, which was followed by a massive celestial gold blast spinning outward. As Lucy saw her next spell appear within her mind, she made the interesting choice of slamming her right hand down on the ground. Lucy sent a pale green aura down into the cracked ground, and she watched this part of Magnolia's street start to have pale green grass quickly growing on it. This was followed by Lucy activating a spell known as Botanical Meadow Shield, and the moment that the aura became dark green was the moment that Haruna's spirit appeared beside Lucy.
"It seems like Kotomi forgot that some plant-based spells can repel attacks." Haruna stated in a calm manner, looking confident as she copied Lucy's action of aiming her right hand at Kotomi.
Upon seeing several dark green tulips suddenly bloom in a circle around Lucy, Kotomi asked aloud, "What's going on?!"
"Aroma of the green tulips, I call upon thee! Botanical Meadow Shield!" Lucy and Haruna fiercely stated in unison, causing the dark green tulips to release a ring of sweet-scented dark green perfume.
The ring of perfume rapidly spun around in the winds that pertained to Lucy's previous spell, and the perfume spun outward to make contact with the light of Kotomi's blast. This interestingly caused the celestial energy to be repelled and spin inwards, almost like perfume that was being sprayed with enough pressure to repel a putrid aroma towards the person who sent it into the air. Kotomi could only scream in pain from feeling her own spell implode on her, the celestial gold blast making its light have a tremendous amount of pressure.
As the light started to crush Kotomi, the sound of her body being crushed caused Kusabue to stretch out her hands. They became engulfed in a shamrock green aura while she also wanted to help Lucy, and Kusabue heard Kotomi run out of the back of the blasts right before the blonde-haired girl unleashed a spell called Celestial Seven Falling Stars. Kusabue heard the sound of seven large beams being fired high into the air. They quickly cycled through seven varying shades of gold before they became shimmer gold, and all of the beams were aimed down at Lucy.
Before Lucy could counterattack, Kusabue activated the spell known as Sound Soul Wave of Amplitude. She aimed her hands up at the sky to send massive shamrock green sound waves into the sky, making it become shamrock green right before they exploded to send down high-pitched winds. The presence of the winds made Kusabue feel like Kūkiatsu was standing right beside her, and she unleashed a new spell called Symphonic Musical Snipe Shot. Kusabue imagined the sound of herself going up into the air, which caused her to actually float up to a high altitude, and she pulled her left palm backwards while singing the eight notes of a musical scale.
"What?!" Kotomi asked in a slightly startled manner, seeing eight celestial green beams shaped like musical notes come all the way from the area where Tokiwa Town was located.
As the beams followed Kusabue's imagination of moving in curved trajectories, Kusabue stated aloud during this moment of closing her eyes, "Yes, my sound waves. Lock on to the winds, and use their air currents to enhance your power. Based on my strength, I can calculate that there is no such thing as air resistance right now!"
Upon seeing the celestial green beams be surrounded by mint green rings of wind that coated them, Kotomi asked Kusabue in a stern manner as she frustrated, "You... You used the wind currents from that earlier explosion in Tokiwa as part of your calculations for that sniping spell?!"
Kusabue didn't respond to her, and she simply opened her eyes to see seven of her beams slam into Kotomi's attacks. The massive celestial green explosions became mint green for a moment, before they shifted to being emerald green, and the noise from each explosion corresponded with a note on the musical scale. This attack also had the aftereffect of absorbing the light from the enormous shimmer gold blasts, due to those beams having their waves of sound be absorbed into Kusabue's hands as soon as she heard them explode.
Kotomi could only watch her spell's energy decrease to where its remaining light left several tiny scorch marks on the ground that stood between herself and Lucy, causing the thief to ignore the sound of the eighth celestial green beam getting much louder as it flew on an air current. She was instantly struck by the attack, causing her to scream in agonizing pain, and the intense sound waves of his attack drilled through her body. Kotomi felt as if giant loudspeakers sent blasts of sound into her ears numerous times, causing her to now feel like she was unable to keep her balance.
Even looking at Kusabue caused Kotomi to start seeing her vision get distorted, almost like she was feeling dizzy. However, she decided to boldly take the chance of using Celestial Supernova Starfall. Kotomi kept her hands aimed at all seven groups of star-shaped projectiles that appeared around her in a circle, sending more magical power into the spell. This only caused Lucy to send some magical power into the Fuchsia Pink Ring again, letting her hair and eyes cycle through different shades of the color pink.
Lucy saw two spells appear in her mind at the same time, and the first one that she unleashed was known as Psychic Mind's Pink Distortion. This spell caused the sky to become hot pink, and Lucy soon had a hot pink ring of psychic energy forming in between her hands. Lucy foresaw how this attack worked, and she held the ring with her right hand. She used her left hand to lower her left eyelid while sticking her tongue out like a certain fashionable mage in Parmanie Town, and Lucy casually threw the ring at Kotomi.
The ring ended up hitting Kotomi in the chest for her to be surrounded by a hot pink aura, and she soon saw a hot pink orb rapidly descend from the sky to fall down on her! The hot pink orb had several spiraling light pink beams surrounding it while a small rose pink orb was in the center of this attack, and Kotomi angrily glared at Lucy. She ran towards the Sabertooth mage, only to see the hot pink aura around her body grow larger as it warped her back to where she initially stood! This not only prevented Kotomi from evading the orb, which gained more power from the Psychic Magic in the skies, but it also allowed Lucy to activate her next spell.
She unleashed the other spell that had appeared in her mind, and this spell was called Psychic's Pink Sorcery of Future Delusions. Lucy made a high amount of Psychic Magic engulf her hands, seeing it change from being magenta pink to become fuchsia pink. She immediately placed her left hand behind her right hand, before rapidly moving her left hand in a clockwise direction while her right hand moved counterclockwise. This caused four massive fuchsia pink rings to appear in midair, before they became celestial pink.
The rings soon became a celestial pink vortex with jagged edges while shooting out a celestial pink aura, but this aura didn't surround Kotomi. It simply teleported to the area behind Kotomi when Lucy glanced in that direction, prompting the vortex to also warp to that specific part of the street. Lucy started to have a scheming grin on her face from making a celestial pink aura and a hot pink aura heavily engulf her body, and she playfully let her eyes glance at several areas of the space near Kotomi for the celestial pink aura and the vortex in midair to move around at rapid speeds.
"Are you too afraid to just attack me, you cocky little bitch?!" Kotomi asked in a frustrated manner, wondering if Lucy was deceiving her with spells that wouldn't actually be dealing any damage.
That caused Lucy to reply with a confident smile on her face, as her left eye became hot pink during the same moment where her right eye became fuchsia pink, "I'm just making my spells be part an amazing tag-team, Kotomi! Kotomi, Lu-chan hates losers like you!"
Kotomi growled loudly with feelings of anger in her voice, trying to keep track of the vortex that would eventually hit her. She unfortunately took her attention off of the hot pink orb that had been coming down towards her, and Kotomi started to feel the space around her body begin to get distorted. She felt her arms and legs get contorted in multiple directions, before the hot pink orb struck her! It landed on the street to create an enormous blast of hot pink Psychic Magic, but looking at the blast when it first occurred also caused Lucy's celestial pink vortex and the accompanying aura to enter it.
That resulted in a massive celestial pink blast occurring, along with the aura expanding within the blast, and the immense level of psychic energy in this combination attack caused Kotomi to be unable to move. She was fully paralyzed by the celestial pink aura, along with feeling her body contort in several painful ways, and Kotomi kept clenching her teeth as she didn't want to let out screams of excruciating pain. She soon fell to the ground while her wounds looked quite fatal, but Kotomi was now struggling to stand up.
As the spirits of Miru and Shizue appeared on the left and right sides of Lucy during her moment of watching Kotomi try to stand up, Lucy's eyes took notice of Kotomi having an enraged look in her eyes as she sent some magical power into the gold ring associated with Gemini. The shimmer gold aura that was sent into the ring started to make the ring shine in that color, before Kotomi's blood that fell on to it also became shimmer gold, and Gemini was summoned. She simply wore a shimmer gold coronation dress this time while creating a giant shimmer gold orb of Celestial Spirit Magic in her hands, and this orb shined brightly as Gemini smirked as maliciously as Kotomi.
Upon feeling Gemini slam the orb against her chest, Kotomi stated aloud with a shimmer gold aura heavily engulfing her body, "Yes, give me the power of stars and heal my wounds. Gemini, get me more celestial energy and help me be a powerful queen who can destroy as many spirits and absorb their strength!"
Lucy and Risa both simultaneously gasped in shock from hearing a former princess aggressively say in response, "I WON'T ALLOW THAT!"
The spirit of Kyoko Kamizuru appeared beside Lucy, likely repaying her for the moment where she stopped Risa from harming her dying body. Kyoko gently placed her right hand on Lucy's forehead for the green-haired girl to see a powerful spell appear in her mind, and Lucy unleashed the spell known as Psychic Cerise Bursts of Wondrous Burning Fire. Lucy instantly looked up at the sky, before feeling a high amount of cerise pink goop form within her mouth, and she shot it all up into the air like she had been firing cerise pink gumballs of scorching-hot wax.
The projectiles instantly became engulfed in cerise pink flames, which were soon accompanied by celestial pink rings of flames that appeared from the extremely hot areas of space around the projectiles. Lucy thrusted her hands towards Kotomi, who suddenly felt Gemini's Celestial Spirit Magic immediately be slowed down as the sky shifted between the celestial and cerise hues of pink. Kotomi felt the space around herself become slowed to a near halt, the Psychic Magic from above making it impossible for her to dodge the projectiles that were ironically gaining higher levels of speed.
Kotomi and Gemini both screamed in tremendous pain from Lucy's flame-covered projectiles crashing into them, before the rings of mystical fire produced celestial pink maelstroms. The enormous maelstroms of fire burned Kotomi to where Gemini was sent back into the ring while the Celestial Shimmer Gold spell stopped healing Kotomi, and the antagonist also experienced much more pain from the cerise pink explosions that consisted of fire constantly detonating around her body. Kotomi was badly burnt by this powerful spell of Psychic Magic, and she had to make four golden auras of Celestial Spirit Magic lightly surround her body as a way of surviving the aggressive power of the maelstroms that ended up bursting in celestial pink blasts!
As Lucy made the wise choice of slightly stepping back to avoid being burned by the celestial pink flames that resulted from the blasts, she watched Kotomi send a celestial gold aura of Celestial Spirit Magic down into her feet. Although, Lucy soon saw Kotomi run to the other end of the street as fast as she could. Kotomi started to smirk deviously at how she still had enough magical power left for a few fusion spells while making herself be physically distant from Lucy, and she arrogantly chuckled at the idea of firing long-range attacks in a rapid manner to where Lucy wouldn't be able to attack her anymore.
Lucy watched Kotomi activate a spell called Star Impact. Kotomi simply moved her right fist around in a circle while it went around in the counterclockwise direction, and her quick moment of building up magical power caused a light gold aura to heavily coat her right fist. The aura tore itself off of her fist to form a circle in midair, and the high amount of magical power within this aura allowed five light gold orbs to form around it. They formed the shape of a star, and Kotomi had viciousness in her eyes as she almost made her right fist touch the aura.
She watched Lucy fall for her feint, seeing the green-haired girl send her magical power into the Saffron Gold Ring for her hair and eyes to start cycling through different shades of yellow. Kotomi hoped that Lucy would counterattack in the same moment where she fired the Celestial Berserker Beam spell from her right hand, and Kotomi watched her beam of celestial energy shift from being light gold to being shimmer gold in the few seconds before it became dandelion gold. The dandelion gold beam shined brightly as it hit the circular aura, causing this fusion spell to be known as Crazed Celestial Light's Starry Impact. When Kotomi's right hand hit the aura that had been strengthened by the beam, the five orbs that formed a star became dandelion gold.
They immediately fired several dandelion gold orbs at Lucy, firing them rapidly to where some orbs exploded in massive dandelion gold blasts upon touching each other, and the blasts soon joined the orbs in becoming sunglow gold. Lucy could now see dense sunglow gold beams of light occurring within the blasts, along with seeing them rapidly bounce around within the orbs, and she wondered about how it would even be possible to reach Kotomi in this situation. As Lucy ignored Kotomi to see the orbs that were about to strike her, she and the other Sabertooth mages heard a certain Fairy Tail wizard's stern voice.
"Well, those orbs are certainly an annoyance. Although, I should still make you experience the true anger of an enraged Fairy Tail Wizard. Luminous Electrical Zap Staff!" Erza aggressively stated with a displeased facial expression, before touching Lucy's left hand for her to now wield a long staff that cycled through multiple shades of yellow with a celestial yellow orb on top of it.
Upon seeing the orb have a tremendous amount of electricity flowing inside of it and outside of it as the orbs became draw to its magnetic force, Lucy stated with a confident smile on her face, "Thank you, Erza! This staff will help me get over there!"
Lucy and Risa soon heard a familiar girl's voice say in a kind tone, "I can... be the one who protects you this time. Luminous Electric Shield!"
Lucy glanced at the spirit that appeared on her left side as Erza disappeared, noticing that this girl was Kirie Luster. Kirie aimed her hands at Lucy to simply make her be placed in a celestial yellow orb of Lightning Magic, and the orbs of celestial energy that had been converted into Lightning Magic by Erza's staff had their power be transferred to Lucy. This resulted in Lucy be able to run at extremely high speeds, her body becoming surrounded by celestial yellow lightning itself, and Lucy had confidence in her eyes.
She not only saw the rest of Kotomi's orbs get absorbed into the staff, but increasing her extremely rapid level of speed allowed Lucy to smash through the fusion spell that Kotomi was trying to hide behind. Kotomi watched Lucy ram into her fusion spell, seeing an enormous celestial yellow explosion of Lightning Magic occur, but Lucy quickly ran through it with the orb of the staff now shining with several thin beams in varying shades of yellow emerging from it. Lucy aggressively aimed the staff at Kotomi, which caused the lightning from the blast to go up into the clouds.
Several of the clouds became electrified while they shifted through different hues of yellow, and Lucy watched them immediately discharge tremendous amounts of electricity down on Kotomi! Kotomi screamed in agonizing pain from being violently electrocuted, before all of the Lightning Magic created a seven-layered massive blast! The dandelion yellow, celestial yellow, shortbread yellow, and biscotti yellow blasts had their tremendous amounts of electricity spinning outward so that Kotomi couldn't move without getting electrocuted. The blasts that were sunshine yellow, lemon yellow, and light yellow contrasted that by spinning inward to electrocute Kotomi while they absorbed most of her Celestial Spirit Magic to where the additional rings instantly shattered.
Upon faintly seeing those rings be converted back into golden Zodiac Gate Keys, Lucy stated with a stern facial expression, "Well, that should prevent you from using anymore overly strong attacks."
She soon heard Shinichi's voice tell her in an encouraging tone as his spirit appeared by her side, "Shake up this weakling and show her why you're the big boss of Vermilion Sunset, Princess Lucy!"
Nozomi told Kotomi in a stern tone, appearing by Lucy's right side as they saw the blasts fade away and reveal that Kotomi was trying to stand up, "I won't let you hurt my friend ever again!"
Nozomi watched Lucy send magical power into the Sherbet Ring, which caused her hair and eyes to start dynamically shifting through varying hues of orange. Lucy quickly unleashed the spell known as Ground's Muddy Earthquake, and her hands became engulfed in a pastel orange aura that quickly became pumpkin orange. She aggressively slammed her aura-covered hands on the part of the ground that Kotomi stood on, causing the ground to become pumpkin orange right before it viciously cracked in several places.
The cracking earth immediately resulted in several pumpkin orange explosions occurring right beneath Kotomi's feet, the explosions being massive as several chunks of earth rose up to detonate against her body, and the small rocks that resulted from the explosion melted down into pumpkin orange oil that resembled mud. As Kotomi tried to wipe most of the oil and dirt off of her body, she gasped in shock from seeing the aura around Lucy's body become celestial orange. Lucy immediately activated a powerful spell that belonged to Nozomi, and the spell was known as Strengthened Stone Tremor.
Lucy mimicked Nozomi's action of picking up many pieces of the broken ground, infusing them with her magic for them to become celestial orange. The celestial orange pieces of earth grew much larger to resemble giant boulders, which were all thrown up into the air by Lucy. She quickly used her physical strength to jump up quite high off of the ground, before fiercely punching, slapping, and kicking each boulder down towards Kotomi as if she was a master of martial arts. When Kotomi was struck by the boulders, she also felt the intense power of Lucy's punches, palm strikes, and kicks viciously slamming into her body right before the boulders detonated in celestial orange blasts!
The celestial orange blasts left behind several hot flames that were in that specific shade of orange while they would explode in a few seconds, but Lucy hastily sent some magical power into the Crimson Ring. This caused her hair and eyes to start shifting between different shades of red, and Lucy was now able to use any kind of Fire Magic. She was also now capable of making any kind of fire be manipulated to suit her current desires, and aiming her hands at the celestial orange flames caused them to become celestial red.
The flames that had been touching the oil around Kotomi also became celestial red, along with the oil changing to be in that specific shade of red, but the flames soon shifted to being scarlet red right before they became candy red. Lucy envisioned a new spell in her mind, and it was known as Fire Dragon's Candied Red Detonating Flames. Natsu's spirit confidently smiled as he appeared beside Lucy, and she made the candy red aura heavily appear in her mouth. This caused several of the nearby candy red flames to jump into her mouth, before their extremely hot temperatures resulted in candy red flames engulfing her entire body.
Lucy shot out all of those flames in the form of fiery streams that headed straight for Kotomi, and Lucy took notice of how the streams of flames left behind trails of fire that heavily melted down into candy red magma. The magma was just as hot as the flames that struck Kotomi, and she screamed in tremendous pain from the fiery explosions! The candy red explosions became raspberry red at the last moment while their flames grew much larger from all of the oil that was combustible, and the heightened temperature made the flames make Kotomi feel like she was being incinerated in hellish fire.
Those raspberry red flames also left behind large pools of raspberry red magma, which had raspberry red clouds of hot steam emerging from them as they violently bubbled. The pools of magma soon shifted to being crimson red, before becoming celestial red. All of the fire around them caused Kotomi to feel like she was now inside of an erupting volcano, even seeing her celestial gold orb start to melt down when she attempted to use Celestial Radiance, and weakly making her foot touch a puddle of magma made Kotomi be engulfed in a vicious burst of celestial red flames!
"It looks like she's almost defeated!" Lucy stated aloud, looking very confident about winning.
She soon heard the voice of Aka Hinotama rudely say, as the pop idol's spirit appeared to the right of her, "That previous spell of Fire Magic was just the opening act, so show this fashion reject that your strongest spell of Fire Magic is truly a hit!"
"Seven Red Pinwheels of the Fiery Sun!" Lucy and Akai fiercely shouted in unison, as Lucy became engulfed in seven red auras of Fire Magic.
This spell required Lucy to pick up the hot magma with both of her hands, and Lucy was able to knead the magma into seven spheres. By touching each sphere, Lucy was able to make each of them be in different hues of red. Lucy picked up the raspberry red sphere of magma that had extremely hot clouds of steam in that specific hue of red emerging from it, and throwing the sphere high into the hot air caused it to massively grow and ignite with raspberry red fire heavily surrounding it. The fire expanded outward to where four enormous raspberry red beams of fire emerged from it, and the four beams rotated around the fireball to make it resemble a pinwheel.
The fiery pinwheel was followed by Lucy throwing a ruby red sphere of magma into the air, watching it repeat the process by massively growing and having ruby red flames emerge as it resembled a pinwheel. Lucy threw a cherry red sphere of magma high into the air, watching it grow at a quicker pace than the first two attacks from all of the heat waves that they were generated, and the sight of the cherry red fiery pinwheel appearing high in the air prompted Lucy to throw a carmine red sphere of magma up into the sky.
This sphere grew quite quickly while the high amount of heat also increased this attack's own level of power, and the fire that filled the air was now making the heat flow upward for the sky to start shifting through different shades of red. Lucy's next sphere of magma was rose red, and she made the interesting move of throwing it up into the path of some carmine red fire. This massively powered up the rose red sphere while its own fire be created instantly, and Lucy threw a candy red orb of magma up at the sky. This orb interestingly starting absorbing some flames that had been on the ground, and this effect of the spell only occurred when five fiery pinwheels were in the air.
As these six pinwheels of fire were now spinning clockwise during their moments of being in the sky above Magnolia, Kotomi stated aloud in a frustrated and somewhat scared manner, "I can't possibly lose to this weakling! I can't lose, especially with all the power of this golden ring that gives me Celestial Spirit Magic!"
Lucy asked Kotomi with a curious look on her face, taking notice of the rings that Kotomi had been wearing, "Are you talking about your main ring, Kotomi? If it wasn't a pseudo-legendary ring, then were you just too distracted to feel it breaking apart?"
Upon glancing at her right hand to see the main ring be breaking apart from the flames and magma that had burnt it in the same moment where the rings of the Celestial Spirits began to shatter, Kotomi told everyone with a shocked facial, "This... can't be! I'm... the superior mage! I'm not going to die here!"
"If you won't die, then this may make you give me my body back! Celestial red magma, I call upon thee! Let your seventh pinwheel of fire be the one that ends this madness!" Lucy replied to Kotomi with a fierce facial expression, before aggressively throwing the celestial red sphere of magma up into the air.
When the seventh orb of volcanic magma quickly gained a tremendous amount of Fire Magic for it to become a gigantic celestial red fireball with celestial red beams of fire emerging from it, this fiery pinwheel positioned itself in the middle of the previous six fiery pinwheels. In the formation of circle, the celestial red fiery pinwheel had the raspberry red, ruby red, and cherry red pinwheels positioned in the top half of the circle while the carmine red, candy red, and rose red pinwheels of fire were beneath the celestial red flaming pinwheel.
Lucy wasted no time with spinning around in the clockwise direction, before she stopped to look straight at Kotomi like a ball stopping at a number on a roulette wheel, and Lucy's projectiles all headed down towards Kotomi. The blonde-haired antagonist trembled in fear, unable to defend herself, and she watched the pinwheels that weren't celestial red briefly become the celestial shades of the other colors pertinent to the other six legendary rings. This brief rainbow of fiery attacks didn't mean that their types of magic shifted, but the goddesses from the legendary rings were lending their magical power to Lucy.
As she saw Yukishimou appear in this little moment before the pinwheels shifted back to their varying shades of red, Lucy slightly smiled at the spirits of Minerva and Suzuna briefly appearing in front of her to signify that everyone was lending her their magical power to stop Kotomi. The antagonist was soon struck by the seven fiery pinwheels, resulted in a seven-layered blast of red fire with each massive explosion spinning outward, and the intense amount of fire was strong enough to make Kotomi scream in excruciating pain! The fiery energy felt so incredibly hot to where Kotomi felt her entire body be damaged as if she was being burnt down into ashes, and she faintly saw her gold ring shatter into pieces as the Celestial Spirits were reverted back into being confined to the gold keys.
Before Lucy could even get near the flames to make some fire engulf her fists, the immense force of this attack and its powerful heat waves blew her back towards the Sabertooth mages. As Lucy roughly rolled towards Sting, he gently walked up to her with a calm smile on his face. Sting knelt down by her side in a comforting manner, and he lightly grabbed Lucy's hands as he helped her stand back up. As he helped her stand back up, Sting soon took notice of Lucy panting heavily in the moment where the auras around her body began to wane.
"Sting, I... I don't feel like the ancient spell that Kotomi used is going to wear off. I'm still.. in Kotomi's body, even after giving her... such a beating." Lucy told Sting in a calm manner, panting as she began to look exhausted.
As Sting saw the different beams of the legendary rings' light not be anywhere near as intense as they initially were, he responded to Lucy with a confident smile on his face, "If Kotomi wants to act like a shadow of your awesome self, I'll help you be able to slam your actual dense light down on her."
Sting added in a calm manner, starting to look stern as he glanced at a certain black-haired male, "Rogue, add more shadows to the ones that those lights are creating."
That prompted Rogue to calmly reply, looking quite stoic, "Yeah, that'll be an interesting combination."
Before Lucy could ask Rogue about what he was going to do, the red-eyed dragon slayer immediately activated Shadow Drive. This spell amplified his Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic, and it also made the auras around his body be in seven different shades of black. Rogue wasted no time with running towards Lucy at high speeds, and he unleashed the spell known as Shadow Dragon's Slash. He made shadows in seven vaying shades of black surround his right hand, before striking Lucy's right hand for all of the shadowy energy to be absorbed by the rings.
Upon seeing the rings themselves start to shine in darker hues of their respective colors with more lights emanating from them, Sting activated the spell called White Drive. This spell made seven white auras of White Dragon Slayer Magic engulf his body, and he quickly activated the spell known as White Dragon's Holy Breath. Sting bit down on all of the legendary rings with his fangs, before shooting out a large white sphere that cycled through seven different hues of white. The attack combined with Rogue's spell for the light and shadows to instantly explode against all of the legendary rings, and the massive burst of light engulfed everyone for a small amount of time.
After a few seconds had passed, Sting no longer clamped his fangs down on the rings. Sting, Rogue, and Lucy looked down at the rings to see them all shining with intense amounts of brightness, almost like Sting hoped that they could absorb all of the magical power that he and Rogue sent into even saw the shadows of the rings shining brightly on Lucy's hand, and he looked at her to see the seven auras of the rings surrounding Lucy in the celestial shades of their respective colors.
Lucy felt that she now had enough magical power left for one attack without needing to carry out her original plan of absorbing her previous spell's flames, and she watched all of the red smoke clear up to reveal that Kotomi was heavily wounded. Despite being heavily injured and bleeding in several places, Kotomi refused to give up. She angrily glared at Lucy while sending a meager amount of magical power into her feet, and Kotomi panted just as heavily as Lucy. Lucy proceeded to take some steps forward, followed by Kotomi walking towards the center of the street.
Both women did their best to remain standing, not wanting to lose, and they both stopped moving for a moment while the sound of a window cracking on the other side of the street was the only sound that could be heard. Sting glanced at that rectangular glass window belonging to a nearly destroyed building on the other side of the canal, seeing that the force of the unleashed spells on both sides finally made it crack right down the middle. The left side of the crack displayed the blonde-haired Kotomi Takeuchi, and the right side displayed the green-haired Lucy Heartfilia.
This was different for the street that Lucy was on with Kotomi, however. Kotomi was standing right in front of the rightmost window of Lucy's apartment while Lucy stood in front of the leftmost window, both women sharing the look of being determined to win as they were ready to end this battle. Kotomi and Lucy viewed the sound of that window's glass finally shattering as the signal for them to run towards each other, and Kotomi looked angry as the meager mint green aura of Wind Magic surrounded her left fist.
Lucy made a high amount of the seven auras engulf her right fist while running towards Kotomi, and she had an immense amount of determination in her eyes without feeling any anger. Lucy pulled back her right fist for a few seconds, before aggressively pushing it forward in the mere seconds before Kotomi could stretch out her left fist to hit Lucy. Lucy ended up striking Kotomi in the forehead with her spell, pushing the legendary rings forward to where they could all harshly be slammed against Kotomi's forehead.
"Seven legendary rings, I call upon thee! Reverse the curse that this witch placed upon me!" Lucy fiercely stated, putting all of her magical power into this attack.
Kotomi weakly thought to herself, harshly getting struck by this attack, "Ancient Aero Wind Cyclone... will get nullified by them."
Upon seeing all of the legendary rings shine much more brightly, Risa asked aloud with a concerned facial expression, "Did Lucy manage to win?"
Risa soon saw the auras that were celestial red, celestial orange, celestial yellow, celestial pink, celestial green, celestial blue, and celestial purple propel themselves high up into the air. They aggressively came back to strike Kotomi Takeuchi, before forcing out a mint green aura that went into Lucy's chest. When the mint green aura went into her chest, Lucy passed out as a golden aura instantly left her current body to go into the body that her impostor had stolen. Kotomi slowly closed her eyes, falling forward and passing out right before Lucy fell down and lost consciousness.
Sting immediately ran up to the girl who he perceived to be still Lucy, only to see the seven legendary rings float off of her right hand to now be on the right hand of the girl who had initially been the real Lucy Heartfilia before ever going to Tokiwa Town. That prompted Sting to go over to her, before quietly motioning with his other hand for the other Sabertooth mages to walk over to him. Risa and the others quickly reached Sting, who proceeded to just gently hold Lucy in his arms. Lucy was having all of her wounds be healed by the seven auras while she was quietly breathing, and Sting watched steam emerge from her healing wounds in the seven different colors of the rainbow.
As the wounds on Lucy's head had pink clouds of steam emerge from them in this healing process, Risa softly smiled upon finally recognizing Lucy. She was indirectly responsible for Risa being able to escape from Magnolia Town on that day where Koji mistook Lucy for actually Risa to the point where Fairy Tail's guild members beat him up while also giving Risa the necessary amount of time to flee, and Risa started to proudly smile at how she indirectly helped Lucy evade being killed in Tokiwa Town after thinking she had actually been a criminal. Despite technically paying the favor back to her, Risa couldn't stay quiet.
"Listen, everyone. Lucy just saved the entire kingdom of Fiore, so we should all be thanking her when she wakes up." Risa explained to everyone with a polite smile on her face, before being unable to hide her extremely proud facial expression.
That prompted Sting to respond nicely, smiling in a very confident manner, "Yeah, we'll definitely have to celebrate this achievement! The best mages in Fiore are part of Sabertooth's guild, after all!"
Kusabue spoke aloud, thinking about this journey, "Kūkiatsu-onii-chan, you would've probably loved to see this moment of Lucy-san getting her original body back. I know we didn't meet her until a little more than halfway through her quest, but I'm glad that you contributed to her success."
Kusabue's slight smile of happiness trying to overshadow her thoughts of sadness got the attention of Sorano, who leaned down to kindly tell her with a nice smile on her face, "Kusabue, Kūkiatsu's spirit will always be with you. In fact, I hope he can hear me on the wind when I say that his intelligence was certainly passed on to you. You managed to precisely hit an extremely powerful enemy like Kotomi with sniper shots multiple times on all of those unpredictable air currents, and Kūkiatsu's role in this adventure will certainly be alongside yours in famous stories of Fiore's history."
Speaking of past history pertaining to Fiore, Sorano frowned a bit from glancing around to see that Magnolia was extremely damaged. There hadn't been a single survivor of Kotomi's previous rampage who could at least tell the story of what had happened here today, meaning that Magnolia was a desolate town while also doubling as the battlefield for this important event. As Sorano thought that the town was now like a wasteland, she took notice of the fragments from Kotomi's gold ring suddenly glowing brightly on the ground.
They all glowed brightly in different shades of gold at the same time where Lucy's seven legendary rings all began to glow brightly in the celestial shades of their colors, and Kotomi's gold ring made several gold bursts of light be fired into the air. They all quickly came down upon the town, but the beams did no damage. Instead, they restored the town of Magnolia to its original state before Kotomi had caused any destruction. That also applied to the destruction of people's lives, and the beams that came down upon the streets left behind all of Fairy Tail mages who had been killed by Kotomi throughout this adventure.
Risa asked aloud, looking very curious, "Since Kotomi's ring broke, did all of that Celestial Spirit Magic get released and also break free from her desire to kill everyone?"
Rogue replied to Risa with a kind smile on his face, seeing Natsu and the others currently being unconscious throughout Magnolia, "It looks that way to me, Risa."
Risa responded to Rogue in a sweet manner, remembering a nice promise, "Well, Lucy has her body back and she can probably use Celestial Spirit Magic again. Lucy also has those legendary rings, but I think it's just as great that I'll have one more amazing story to tell Sara."
Sting told Risa with a caring smile on his face, speaking in a respectful tone as he watched the seven legendary rings shine brightly again, "You may want to tell Sara about all these adventures after the party is over, Risa. We don't want anyone to feel emotional before the huge party."
Risa nodded in an obedient manner as the seven legendary rings sent large beams of light in their respective colors up towards the sky, which now became light blue with the sun shining as if the current time was around 9 o'clock in the morning. Sting watched each of the beams bend towards the respective towns where Lucy specifically acquired each one of them, and the different types of magic would be potent enough for everyone to sense them. Sting watched Lucy quietly groan as if she was sleeping right now, and he gently kissed her on the lips to show appreciation for his sleeping princess.
Five hours later, in Magnolia Town... (Lucy's POV)
I slowly opened my eyes to see Sting's happy face smiling down at me, and I gently smiled back at him. He was probably accepting that I was stuck in Kotomi's body forever, as I caught a glimpse of my right hand still having all of the legendary rings on it. My right hand gently touched Sting's face in a kind manner, glad that he was still by my side after that harsh fight where I had to win against Kotomi. I raised my head up from Sting's lap and proceeded to look at the interesting sight of the green-haired girl who was currently unconscious, wondering if Kotomi killed us both to where I'd be in some form of the afterlife with my boyfriend.
As Sting stood up and helped me stand up, I soon heard Risa giggle from behind me. Before I could react, she gently covered my eyes and assisted me with turning to where I'd be facing a certain direction. Risa walked behind me while her elbows calmly pushed me forward, prompting me to walk in that direction. I soon stopped walking when I felt Risa stop pushing her elbows against my back, and I was able to stand on my own. I took two steps forward, before stopping as my right hand reached out to touch something that felt like a wall of glass.
Upon opening my eyes to see the glass, I could only gasp in shock as I nearly felt like crying. I wasn't just looking at the gold-framed rectangular mirror that had its dark green price tag on it as if it had been bought from Tokiwa's fashion store, but I was closely looking at the blonde hair and cocoa brown eyes that pertained to my actual body. I proceeded to gently rub my face, before touching the torn clothes. This wasn't just a beautiful dream. This was my reality! I was finally back in my own body, feeling happy enough to cheer softly with my hands over my mouth.
Turning around to see Risa and Sting caused me to no longer be able to hold back my tears of happiness, however. The tears streamed down from my eyes while thinking about how they were the first friends who had been there for me after Kotomi stole my body, and they helped me reach this point of finally getting it back. I could only run towards Risa and hug her tightly, trying to not knock her down like when I ran into her. Although, I did hug Risa too tightly to where she ended the hug after a minute and she let me hug Sting as tightly as possible right before I happily sobbed.
"It's okay to cry when you're happy, Lucy. In fact, you should be happy at how awesome you were in that fight!" Sting told me with kindness and confidence in his voice, returning the hug before gently using one hand to wipe away some of my tears.
Sting's kind words were followed by a certain pop idol asking from behind our group of Sabertooth mages, "Wow, who knew that my most powerful opponent was such a crybaby? Does she mind if I make an album based on her accomplishments?"
That caused Nozomi to reply in a kind manner, "Even a strong-willed and courageous warrior like Princess Lucy Heartfilia will feel the need to cry tears of happiness."
The mayor from Yamabuki Town added nicely, "Well, I hope she won't be photographed crying after she saved the lives of Yamabuki's people again."
I turned around to see that all of us mages from Sabertooth were now surrounded by all of the wizards who had been part of our long journey, and two of those wizards were Miru and Shizue. Those two psychic mages gave me proud smiles of respect, before Miru simply walked towards me and proudly stretched out her right hand. I stretched out my left hand in response, allowing Miru and I to shake hands as friendly rivals who had respect for each other. She seemed very glad that I didn't die in that battle against Kotomi, especially with Psychic Magic in my arsenal.
Speaking of Kotomi, Haruna walked away from the crowd for the purpose of using her feet to wake Kotomi up by kicking her sides. This caused Kotomi to quickly wake up with an aggravated look on her face, and she hastily got up while looking startled at Haruna being here. Kotomi angrily glared at me, before looking down at her hair to see that she was back in her own body. She tried to build up some magical power while clenching her fists, only for us all to see that she was incapable of building up any Wind Magic to where even a breeze of air couldn't be conjured.
Upon hearing her scream in fury at her lack of magical power, I looked at Kotomi in a curious manner right before wondering about something. Since the Emerald Green Ring was associated with Wind Magic and had been pressed against Kotomi's forehead, did it absorb all of the Wind Magic in her body without absorbing her soul? That felt like the most logical explanation, and she couldn't even use Kaze's Feather Dance to quickly run away from the crowd. As Kotomi stupidly tried to run past Miru and Shizue, I watched Risa apply Psychic Magic to her feet and quickly get in front of the antagonist.
"This time, a criminal like you should collide with my fist!" Risa fiercely told Kotomi with her eyes narrowed in a stern manner, before making the magenta pink aura of Psychic Magic surround her right fist.
She was obviously referencing the moment where I crashed into her while running away from the vicious mob that chased after me in Tokiwa Town, and Risa aggressively punched Kotomi in the face! The punch was strong enough to give her a black eye while making her be knocked unconscious again, and Haruna quickly ran over to her. She proceeded to pick Kotomi up, before carrying her over one shoulder. Haruna started to give me a smile of assurance, wanting to punish Kotomi in Ryokufū Town for her crimes that occurred throughout Fiore.
Rairakku came out of the crowd to tell Haruna with a stern facial expression, "Hold on, princess of Ryokufū Town! Kotomi should face punishment in Gunjou, due to the fact that she stole treasures from Gunjou Cave!"
That prompted Hiyasu to intervene by boldly claiming on Emiria's behalf, "Actually, the mages of Cerulean Frost and Seigan Town should arrest Kotomi for stealing the Azure Stone from the Seigan Temple. On top of that, she made us waste an invitation letter that could've gone to someone else for the Grand Reverie Icy Frigid Tour!"
Upon seeing these women all look like they were about to fight over who had the authority of arresting Kotomi, I asked aloud with a calm look on his face, "Even though this question might seem stupid, am I cleared of all the charges related to Kotomi's crimes?"
I got to hear Kyasurin nicely reply as she stepped out from the crowd of dark mages and smiled with Matsuba standing beside her, "Ara, ara. You can relax, Lucy Heartfilia. You will not be charged for any of Kotomi Takeuchi's crimes, and you are officially free to live without fear of imprisonment."
Upon hearing that great news, I politely bowed forward for a moment to express my feelings of appreciation. I would be able to go back to Sabertooth with my friends, and I could happily live my life. Living life now meant that I could be perceived as a noble mage without anyone mistaking me for a criminal, and seeing Rairakku give me a thumbs-up gesture with her hands meant that the mages of Hexing Enchantress would help Kyasurin and Matsuba spread the word about how the real culprit for many heinous crimes was Kotomi Takeuchi while she maliciously utilized a body-switching spell.
As I looked at that unconscious culprit and started to firmly glare at her in a displeased manner, I soon heard the familiar footsteps of three certain mages walking towards me. Natsu, Gray, and Erza had all been revived by the Celestial Spirit Magic of that gold ring while they all had apologetic frowns on their faces. Erza gently held the grey ring of golden keys with one hand while looking very remorseful, possibly thinking that she was mostly at fault for not realizing that something was wrong when Sting and I first contacted Natsu.
Erza was about to step forward, only for Gray to apologetically say as he took more steps forward and got on his hands and knees, "Lucy, I'm so sorry for picking out that job in Tokiwa Town! I never should've made you be in a dangerous situation with someone as powerful as Kotomi, and I'm truly sorry! If you want to beat me mercilessly, I'll accept that!"
Natsu intervened to tell me in a more apologetic tone as he was right beside Gray, getting on his hands and knees in front of me and Sting, "Luce, I deserve to be beaten more mercilessly! If I didn't help Kotomi get that stupid ring, then she wouldn't have become so overly powerful! That ring probably revived everyone who was harmed by her magic at any point throughout this adventure, but I made the mistake of not listening to you when you first contacted me!"
Natsu continued, shifting his attention to Sting, "Sting, you can also beat the hell out of me for this! Lucy went through so many rough adventures because of my stupidity, and those seven legendary rings probably weren't earned in any easy ways! As the team's leader, I feel that I'm truly responsible for putting Lucy through such a mess!"
Seeing Natsu and Gray be so apologetic to where they were even crying so much made me frown at them in a concerned manner. My right fist clenched tightly, as a part of me had felt upset that they were careless enough to make our entire team get heavily injured by Kotomi in Tokiwa Town. However, my mind and heart experienced more thoughts about how I never would've met Sting or Risa if Kotomi didn't put everyone through so much trouble. If Kotomi and I never crossed paths, then I never would've encountered great friends like Rogue, Yukino, Kūkiatsu, Kusabue, and Sorano.
On top of that, what would've happened if I never had any reason to put myself on this quest for obtaining all seven of the legendary rings? Akai would've probably remained as an arrogant pop idol with no humility, Shinichi would still be a scummy guild master running a dangerous amusement park while he'd be an outlaw, and Kanata Luster would've likely killed all of the Sabertooth wizards who aided Kirie and tried to rescue Yukino in Yamabuki Town. Without Sabertooth being around, Kyoko would've still been a tyrant over Parmanie Town with Miru and Shizue working under her as disrespectful and powerful bounty hunters..
In addition to Parmanie Town's problems, Ryokufū Town would've still been a place filled with perfumes making people very sick while the researchers would've kept using people as test subjects for dangerous experiments. This would've also led to Suzuna still funneling in money from those perfume sales, and both Emiria and Hiyasu would've been killed by Suzuna without me there. Speaking of being killed, I felt that Maruberiki and Miko truly would've ended their lives and let Minerva fall into believing the most evil philosophies that could lead all those dark mages to experiencing their deaths if I hadn't been a Sabertooth mage. Therefore, obtaining all seven legendary rings was more necessary than Natsu perceived it to be. I looked at him, before glancing back at Risa to see her mercifully frown like a mature queen silently advising me in this moments.
"Natsu and Gray, both of you should please raise your heads and stand up. My comprehensive list of experiences related to this long quest have made me decide that I don't want to return to Fairy Tail ever again, but I also won't harm you. As the princess of Kuchiba Town, it is my job to always be mentally, emotionally, and physically strong. I'd be happy to just live my life without being a vengeful queen, and I hope you all understand that." I stated to Natsu and Gray in a calm manner, before giving Erza a stern look that expressed my feelings of authority.
After Erza nodded in an agreeing manner and gave a smile of respect towards my decision, she asked in a curious manner as she glanced at Emiria's section of the large crowd, "Hey, is Juvia Lockser ever going to get here? Did any tourists with blue hair show up in Seigan Town?"
That prompted me to tell Erza with a serious look on my face, as my eyes shifted to Master Makarov and the other Fairy Tail mages, "Juvia sacrificed herself to save me from an icy goddess named Yukishimou and a powerful mage named Suzuna in Seigan Town, Erza. I will always view Juvia as the true hero of that battle."
Emiria told Erza with a slightly stern facial expression, "If Fairy Tail wants to hold a funeral for Juvia, then her grave is in a deep part of the ice garden."
Upon seeing Gray tightly clench his fists and look very frustrated at the news of Juvia being dead, I gently grabbed my friend's hands and shook my head in a refusing manner. I was not going to let Gray think that he had any reason to blame himself for that tragedy, since he probably wouldn't have been able to stop Emiria and Hiyasu from choosing which mages would accompany them to the icy cavern. Even if he had been the very first person to have seen Suzuna being behind anyone with her plan of literally backstabbing Emiria, I doubt that Suzuna would've prevented Gray from perishing alongside Juvia.
Besides, Juvia had been in the icy cavern when Suzuna revealed her evil intentions to everyone. Juvia was one of the mages who chose to stay and fight, not even thinking of running away to save herself. In that sense, Juvia probably wanted to end her life if it would lead to my own life continuing. She knew the risk of standing against such powerful enemies, but at least she felt that dying in my arms was a way for her to have a peaceful end. At least she didn't die in a manner where she had to torturously suffer pain or die with the thought that I was still a liar, and Juvia's sacrifice was a debt that I'd have to repay by living life happily like a strong queen.
I turned around to hear Risa put her hands together in a praying stance, quietly praying that Juvia's soul would be okay in the afterlife. I softly smiled from realizing that she would also probably pray for Kirie to have peace in the afterlife, as Risa exprienced that moment of someone who was nearly a stranger wanting my pink-haired teammate to live a life where she coul be free from her feelings of guilt and trauma. Sara was probably still watching over Risa, too, and I'm glad that she contributed to Sabertooth's victory today.
"Well, it's time for us to go back to the Sabertooth guild. Now that I'm back in my own body, I'll need to get my guild mark again." I told everyone with a polite smile on my face, as I started walking away from the crowd with Sting.
Sting asked Rairakku and Emiria with a curious look on his face, "How did you all suddenly get here, anyway?"
Rairakku simply answered his question by applying the eggplant purple aura of Darkness Magic to her feet, and she ran away to Gunjou Town at extremely high speeds. When Rairakku made contact with the purple beam of light that came from the ring to shine down on Gunjou, she was warped back to this street in Magnolia where I had been standing. Therefore, the seven legendary rings allowed many of the people from my seven important quests to teleport here through the seven beams of light and make sure that I was okay.
Now that I felt fine, I smiled joyfully at Sting for how we finally accomplished the task of getting my original body back. He smiled back at me, his blue eyes displaying genuine love for me. Sting started to smile more confidently, gently touching my hair as he liked my outside appearance. However, the act of him firmly pressing his hand against my chest made me blush and smile cutely as he was signifying that he loved my heart, soul, and personality more than how I currently looked. As I felt my heart beat rapidly in these moments where my cheeks blushed more pink, I felt that I had to express my romantic feelings to Sting.
I proceeded to kiss Sting on the lips, kissing him passionately as my hands gently touched his face. As I felt my gentle lips press against his soft lips, I closed my eyes in the moments where Sting held my waist with one hand and returned the kiss. and my hands could feel his face get warmer as he also blushed. We both ended the soft kiss for the purpose of gently gazing into each other's eyes, seeing the feelings of love and admiration that were shared between us. We were both experiencing another day of happiness while being in a relationship, and Sting held my right hand with his left hand as we walked away from Magnolia. Our friends from Sabertooth walked behind us, and we would all let everyone else tell the stories regarding my quests for each of the seven legendary rings. Rairakku, Emiria, Haruna, and the others would all be able to tell those tales of the past and I smiled happily while feeling like this current beautiful day was where I could let myself move on to having a much brighter future.
How was Chapter 75? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy Heartfilia fought hard with her friends from Sabertooth, along many people beside her in spirit during the battle to regain her body from Kotomi Takeuchi. Lucy regained her body from Kotomi, but that does not mean that this story is over! In fact, this is just the second chapter of the Final Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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