Chapter 31: Return of the Empire Part 1
Zeref stood by the edge. "To think the demons have fallen again." He would say that, however. "Though there are two demons left, Mard and Kay, I wonder how long they'll last."
Nienhart glanced at the Alvazrez emperor. "Ahem, Your Majesty, shall the new Historia join the battle."
Zeref chuckled lightly and looked at Invel's direction. "Yes, also, Invel, inform our soldiers to resume the battle."
Invel nodded his head. "Sire."
Natsu, Happy, and Fujika, who were riding on her snake proceeded to the direction of the guild.
"We're almost there!" Natsu spoke out.
Just then a loud noise of footsteps was coming from ahead.
Happy looked closely ahead and saw countless enemy soldiers. "Guys looks like the soldiers are back!"
Fujika narrowed her eyes. "This has gotten tough."
"Attack!" A soldier shouted pointing at the enemies with a sword.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu breathed out his breath attack scorching the soldiers.
Fujika tossed a potion. "Potion Magic: Explosion Bomb!" Once the potion shattered a strong explosive releasing shockwaves sent several soldiers falling away.
"Kaa, my darling, rapid air spin!" The snake took hold of its tail with its mouth and began to twirl around fast. Then it collided with one soldier sending him flying into another causing others to crash hard onto the ground.
"Whoa, I didn't know your snake could attack like that!" Happy exclaimed in surprise.
Natsu was impressed. "That's awesome!"
Fujika blushed shyly. "I'm flattered."
"Don't let up men, keep on attacking them!" A soldier commanded as others continued to charge with weapons.
"Coming through!" A figure rolled at the soldiers sending a lot of them flying.
"Pango!" Happy gleamed.
"Talk about a strike!" Natsu commented with a huge grin.
"Earth Magic: Tremor Fissure!" Tigress crashed her feet into the ground hard creating a strong tremor and sending ground shockwaves at the soldiers causing them to fall into craters.
"Forget about me!" Leone was in her Lunar Primal Beast form. "Gleaming Light!" She unleashed a strong white light that enveloped a group of enemy soldiers and they fell on their backs unconscious.
"Leone!" Happy and Natsu happily cried.
"Taurus!" Lucy was in her Taurus dress outfit. "Earth-Wave!" She cracked her whip at the ground and sent a powerful rolling earth attack at the group of soldiers.
"Lucy!" Natsu and Happy gleamed once again.
Fujika was a little jealous but regardless, she was happy to see the blonde girl was safe.
"Don't let leave me out!" Gray appeared and took his usual stance. "Ice-Make: Ice Impact!" His attack took out more soldiers.
"Juvia shall assist!" Juvia gathered water magic energy in her right hand. "Water Nebula!" Two large water columns twisting around each other were sent to another large group.
"Glad you two are alright!" Lucy waved with a happy expression, then she noticed Leone. "Leone, glad, you're alright too."
Leone grinned. "You bet."
"Where is Akame?" Lucy asked.
Leone was speechless for a moment. "Well...we were together for a moment, then we got a little separated...then I ran into Pango and Tigress...so, I figured she might've beat me here."
This caused some of them to worry until a familiar voice was heard. "Shadow Make!" Natsu and the others looked back to see Akame in the air and put her hands together. She separated and raised them above creating a colossal black warhammar. "Warhammer of Shadow!" She swung her hammer down at the Alvarez army and it struck a large portion of the army as they screamed while kicking up a large dust cloud.
Akame's Warhammer dissipated and joined Natsu and the others. Lucy and the others were overjoyed to see her again. "Akame!"
"You made it back!"
Gray smiled at Akame. "Did you finally make peace with your former team?"
Akame smiled back at the ice mage. "Yes, I also ran into some company while Leone and I were separated."
"Mucus Web!" A girl, rather Juliet Sun came and soaked a large group of Alvarez's soldiers in mucus. "Talk about slow, Juliet's silk stops you in your tracks."
"Is that mucus?" Lucy asked completely weirded but confused at the same time.
Suddenly the enemy soldiers started to scream in agony. "Ahhh!"
"This burns!"
"Wait, is that girl one of Irene's squad members?"
"Did she turn against us!?"
With that, the soldiers collapsed lying on the ground unconscious.
"Who is she?" Gray asked.
"Is she a recruit?" Juvia added.
Natsu caught a whiff of her scent. "Wait, is that Chelsea?"
The others looked at him for a moment before looking at Juliet with a surprised look. "Juliet" turned around to look at the group and smiled at them before a puff of smoke appeared to reveal Chelsea. "Hey, guys! Sorry, we're late. We got held up for a bit."
Lucy was perplexed by what she saw Chelsea do. "Wait, I thought your magic was needles? When did you learn to copy other magic, but, more importantly, who was that girl?"
Chelsea smugly smiled at Lucy's question. "First of all, it's Mimic magic. Second of all, I always had it. The Needle magic is something to throw off my opponents. Combine Mimic magic with Gaea Foundation and you'll see my Imperial Arms magic, Gaea Foundation which means not only I can become all of you, I can use your magic too. Well, most of you. However, I have another magic power, but, that'll be another time."
"So, I guess this is what Leone meant by her Imperial Arms magic suiting her better." Gray thought.
"Still..." Chelsea turned back to see the remaining massive Alvarez army. "You guys are nuts if you're taking on an army this size by yourself."
Leone agreed but long ago accepted the crazy stuff the guild does, not to mention she had already seen another group of criminals do the same thing. "Don't be surprised, they're not the only people that do crazy stuff." She punched her fist into her other hand. "It just means it's going to be more fun plowing these pukes before we get to the first master."
Pango nodded. "Yeah, master Mavis needs us!"
Tigress narrowed her eyes at the remaining enemy soldiers. "Indeed, we shall kick their asses to next week."
Pango laughed. "Wow, despite your cool attitude, I never thought you'd say something like that!" Tigress felt utterly embarrassed as her face went red.
Soon an entire army was joined by more soldiers.
"They're like cockroaches!" Fujika cursed.
Suddenly a figure dashed past the Amazon. "Gum-Gum!" A leg stretched out high above. "Battle Ax!" The stretched-out leg slammed onto the ground taking out a large portion of soldiers.
"Luffy!"
"Hey, you guys long time no-" Before he could get another word in, Leone immediately went over to him and shoved his face into her breasts while giving her a joyful hug. Luffy flailed his arms wide while his screams were muffled. "Oh, you know how to make a grand entrance, Straw Hat!"
Chelsea stared at the rubber boy remembering what he said to her. "She was apologizing...probably not the best time to kill her." She couldn't understand how his words managed to get to her. "That Straw Hat is one strange one...but..."
F
Back when Chelsea fell on the Newkama Island and had a chat with Ivankov about the history of Monkey D. Luffy and his family.
"So, your leader is this Luffy's father?" Chelsea asked.
"Yee-yah!" Ivan cheered excitedly. "That's right, I didn't believe it at first, but, that boy was someone special. He is just as wild as Dragon is not to mention Monkey D. Garp is too. Luffy has a charm of gathering people around him, just like Dragon."
Chelsea was quite baffled at the history of these three men. "Sounds like this young man is quite crazy."
Ivankov laughed loudly. "That may be true, but, he doesn't give up when it comes to rescuing one of his own just like Dragon did when he rescued his son from danger." He sat down on a chair. "Anyway, I'm sure you observe Luffy, you'll know that he's not just any ordinary boy."
B
Chelsea was still conflicted about whether to kill Akame or not, though, she couldn't get Luffy's suggestion out of her head, more like how he was serious about it got to her. "That Luffy is a unique young man."
Leone eventually let him go and looked at the others again. "So, the whole gang is here, at least...some of you."
"Hate to interrupt but, looks like the enemy is still coming at us!" Gray stated.
"Sorry, we're late," Up in the sky was Wendy and Carla.
"Wendy!" Natsu smirked.
"Carla!" Happy added.
"Sky Dragon's Roar!" Wendy released her breath attack blowing away a large portion of enemy soldiers.
A figure came twirling toward a group of Alvarez soldiers. "Take this!" It was Sanji twirling his feet around and kicking the soldier in the chin knocking them out.
"Sanji!" Lucy cried happily.
"Get him!" A soldier commanded three soldiers.
"Nueve Fleur!" Nine arms grew out of the soldier's backs and the hands grabbed their chins. "Clutch!" The arms twisted their bodies to the side knocking them out.
"Damn it, kill that devil woman!" Another soldier commanded as over twenty soldiers charged at the black-haired pirate.
Suddenly three black clouds appeared in a triangular formation while the soldiers passed through it and stopped looking puzzled. "Where did these clouds come from?"
"Thunder Tempo!" Thunderbolts electrocuted the enemy soldiers and were burned to a crisp falling to the ground unconscious. "For those still around the area, the weather is going to be dangerous so you might want to stay out of the way," Nami spoke holding her Clim-tact rod.
"Nami, my love, such beautiful weather you just inflicted on the enemies," Sanji swooned with hearts in his eyes and attempted to hug her.
"Knock it off perv!" Nami barked punching the cook in the face.
"Strong Right!" Franky appeared launching his right fist knocking a row of soldiers against each other.
"Who's that weird-o!?" A soldier asked completely perplexed at the man's appearance.
"Hey, that guy isn't wearing any pants!" A second soldier pointed out weirded out.
"Take them out!" An archer soldier united prepared their bows.
"Great, an archery unit!" Gray groaned.
"Special Attack: Exploding Smoke Star!" A green pop was fired at the archery unit creating a large black smoke which caused the archery soldiers to cough and be unable to fire their bows.
"Nice shot Usopp!"
Natsu and Wendy looked to see where the attack came from and the voice too. "Hey, the great Usopp is here!" The pirate sniper greeted with a cool expression on his face lifting his goggles while riding on Chooper, who was in his Walk Point form. "Brook, you're on."
In the black smoke, the soldiers heard a humming sound. "You guys reached the end of the rope." Brook was seen walking past the enemy soldiers, one of them caught a glimpse of him. "Where did that thing come from?"
"Solid Scratches: Blizzard Slice!" The slash attack unleashed a blizzard projectile which sent the archery unit flying away.
Brook looked at his friends' direction. "Did you miss me?"
"Brook, good to see ya!" Nami waved happily.
"Good to see me, huh?" Brook said quietly. "If that's the case, perhaps you can show me your-"
Bonk
"No way in hell!" Nami barked comically punching the perverted skeleton once more.
"She's scary!" Wendy, Gray, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy sweatdropped fearfully.
"Beast Soul Ape!" Elfman came running through a group of soldiers knocking them down.
"We're here to help!" Yukino appeared with Angel at her side.
"I suppose I can lend a hand or too."
"Yukino!" Lucy called out happily to see the other Celestial wizard.
Gray smirked. "Well, Elfman, you got a new form."
Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, and Franky were greatly amazed and starstruck. "He looks so cool!"
"Friendship is a beautiful thing!" Lector commented happily.
"I think so too." Frosch agreed.
"Knight squad formation...then charge!" A soldier wielding a sword and iron-like shields came charging them.
"Please, knights is that all you got?" Out of nowhere, Zoro came wielding three of his swords. "Three Sword Style: Black Dragon Twister!"
A dragon-like twister formed and swallowed the knight squad cutting their bodies, armor, and weapons.
"I ain't going to let you show me up!" Erza's armor appears. "Heaven's Wheel Armor!" Then summoned a mass of the amount of swords. "Blumenblatt!" The swords were sent directly at the enemy soldiers knocking them down.
Zoro smirked. "Not bad, but, I ain't going to let the great Titania outshine me." Erza glanced at the pirate swordsman with a small grin. "I'd be insulted if you did."
"Fishman Karate Shark Brick Fist!" A strong shockwave sent a large group of soldiers, though, it wasn't Jimbei's move.
Aquapad was standing pulled back his arm. "This is getting good." He said with a smirk.
Lisanna was in her cat form kicking and punching several soldiers knocking them out. "Did ya miss us?"
Natsu was happy to see his childhood friend. "Lisanna!"
Thorn came soaring through the air with water coming beneath his tail. "Seahorse Merman Style: Water Jet!" His attack blew away several soldiers.
Angela appeared then took a deep breathe and unleashed a shriek. "Sound Magic: Hyper Sound Boom!" The shriek unleashed strong sound waves reaching the enemy soldiers causing them to cover their ears in pain.
"Aah!"
"That hurt!"
"My ears!"
"Angela!" Lucy happily cried.
"Wow that was loud," Gray commented with a slight smirk.
"Eight Sword Squid Style: Water Sword Twister!" A water-like twister appeared and swallowed a large number of enemy soldiers.
Zoro smirked. "Not bad." Hearing the comment, Jula glanced with a smirk. "You haven't seen anything! Requip!" She changed into a Samurai outfit. "Flame Samurai Cloth!" She then slammed her eight swords and slammed them on the ground and came eight flaming slashes burning across toward another group of enemy soldiers.
The slash flame projectiles engulfed the soldiers burning their bodies and falling unconscious.
Rena appeared with human legs. "Mermaid Water Magic: Marine Slicer!" A single wave of multiple blades that resembled scythes went flying toward several soldiers slashing down unconscious.
"Alright, we're kicking ass!" Usopp cheered excitedly.
"Yeah, we kick butt! SUPER!" Franky added pumping his arms in his usual stance.
The cheery routine was cut short when eight giant dragons suddenly burst out of the ground which surprised Natsu and the others. Out from one of the dragons, a person leaped out while spinning and landed on the ground before posing. "Curse you!" He pointed at his enemies. "This is far you fools will go, then the undead version of God Serena has made his godly descent!"
Akame sensed something was wrong with their enemy standing before them. "He doesn't have an aura, which means he's the same as Cora and the others from before." It also must've meant the enemy died earlier ago during the war.
Leone had similar thoughts. "This must be the work of one of the Spriggan Twelve that brought Bulat and Sheele to life."
God Serena thrust his left hand forward. "PURGATORY DRAGON'S BLAZING INFERNO!" He sent a massive column of fire at the group.
Gray was surprised by the magic the God Serena was using. "Is that Fire Dragon Slayer magic?"
Leone shared Gray's reaction. "Crap, this bastard is a dragon slayer too!"
"Look out for the fire!" Usopp, Nami, and Chopper panicked.
Natsu smirked with a chuckle as he ran toward the fire dragon slayer magic. "Time to chow down!" He caught the attack and immediately started to swallow it happily. A notion that surprised God Serena but he wasn't worried. "Well, if that's the case..." He thrust his right hand forward next. "SEA KING DRAGON'S WATER VORTEX!" He unleashed a powerful stream of water right next to his previous attack. The combined attacks overwhelmed Natsu and the others, it was the first for some of the Straw Hats.
"Not water..." Luffy groaned feeling his energy being drained.
"Oh no...I feel so dizzy..." Chopper muttered like he was in his Walk-Point form and began to revert.
Robin began to get passed out. "This guy can use...water dragon slayer magic..."
Brook started to move his arms around in a dizzy motion. "Ahh...not good...water...draining me..."
"This is bad, the water is draining their powers!" Sanji exclaimed.
Zoro struggled a bit to get through the water. "This guy is tougher than the water Luffy and I cut down during the storm Aqua Laguna!"
Leone was trying her best to endure the two attacks. "Damn it, he's stronger than I thought!"
Yukino was covering her face feeling the damage. "All of these elements, he's so strong!"
God Serena took in a deep breath. "TEMPEST DRAGON'S..."
"Don't tell me he's doing another one?!" Elfman shouted.
Gray turned to Natsu. "Start swallowing everything!"
Natsu begged to differ. "I can't eat it all!"
Erza narrowed her eyes. "The strongest of Ishgar..."
God Serene opened his mouth and his eyes changed color once again. "SONG OF MOON AND WIND!" His breath attack struck everyone and left a massive explosion after its wake, or so, God Seren thought. Just before the attack could hit everyone, it was destroyed. Something about it didn't seem right to him. "What just happened, who did that?"
Out of the smoke, Natsu saw a large shadowy figure and when it cleared, it was revealed who it was. "Yo."
Fairy Tail's Strongest member: Gildarts Clive
"GILDARTS!" Natsu and everyone else cheered at the arrival of their strongest wizard.
Chelsea was relieved to see the S-Class wizard. "About time he showed up."
Even Leone was happy to see Cana's old man. "He's got more power than we thought."
"This old geezer is strong," Sanji commented.
Zoro smirked slightly. "That's for sure, I wonder how strong he would be Haki."
Luffy imagined him as Shanks, though, he knew he wasn't but regardless, he was glad to see him. "Shishishi...glad you showed up Shank's brother."
"He's not Shanks' brother," Nami and Usopp corrected with a sweatdrop.
"That may be true, but, I'm sure Shanks and Gildarts would be friends," Luffy said with a huge grin.
The other Straw Hats had to admit that could happen.
"You show up at the last minute, old man..." Cana said with a smile.
Gildarts looks at his daughter. "Cana..." He then immediately hugged her while rubbing against Cana's face and being overjoyed seeing her again. "Cana, you're so adorable!"
Cana didn't share her father's feelings. "Hey, there are enemies in front you old geezer!"
"This is awkward," Zoro commented with a sweatdrop.
Cana's reminder got Gildart to have a serious expression. "Oh yeah, this guy...his magic power feels weird...like it's coming from a corpse or something."
"Say what?" God Serena spat feeling insulted.
"Too bad, if he were alive he'd be a hell of a wizard but in this, you're nothing but a punch line."
God Serena laughed as he went into a battle stance while smiling at Gildarts. "You like to run your mouth, don't ya? Well, in minutes you'll be wishing you didn't face the God Serena of of the Eight Dragons!"
Everyone prepared themselves for battle when a cold, harsh, stinging wind suddenly blew in through all of them. Lucy put her arms up to the block wind while closing her eyes. "What's with this wind?! It's so cold!"
"I-i-i-it...came out...o-o-of...no...where..." Usopp said his teeth chattering.
Robin couldn't help but find the icy wind uncomfortable. "Why does this ice give off a sense of danger?"
Gray couldn't help but feel something familiar. "This icy wind, why does it feel so familiar...?"
"D-d-damn, it's like...like...icy hell!" Sanji shivered in a stuttering tone.
"Guys, look ahead!" Franky pointed out countless pillars of ice erupting from the ground with each pointing in a different direction from behind toward Fairy Tail and their allies. The pillars stopped appearing and everyone saw these towering pillars of ice made a wall, a clear path was set in the center of the two walls with an icy mist covering it.
"Are those ice pillars?" Leone questioned.
"Where did they come?" Chelsea asked.
"I think the better question is, who summoned them?" Wendy added.
Juvia couldn't help but suspect that an enemy was approaching. "I don't know, but, I think an enemy is about to make an appearance."
Zoro pointed his swords in the direction of the clear path between the ice walls. "Prepare yourselves."
Luffy pumped his arms narrowing his eyes. "Whoever is there, come out and face us!"
"Don't provoke the enemy!" Nami and Usopp barked with shark teeth as they punched the rubber boy on the head.
God Serena was wondering about the ice pillars too. "Is Winter General Invel coming here...no...this is someone else's doing..."
Everything was silent until they heard footsteps coming from the mist. More specifically, the clicking of heels. A sense of dread was overcoming Gray, he began to recall something oddly familiar and the feeling he was getting was growing more and more heavier. "It...can't...is this...no...it can't be her..." He saw a shadowy figure from within the mist as his eyes widened with horror and disbelief. He was getting a chilling feeling and it wasn't because of the cold.
Leone felt a certain familiar sense of fear, the same fear she felt when she tried to pounce on Esdeath and sense her aura. "Damn...this can't be good."
Akame saw her best friend's reaction and a cold sweat dripped from her forehead. "The fact Leone is acting like that and these pillars of ice appearing can only mean..." She felt her heart drop to her stomach with a horrifying realization.
The sound of the footsteps became louder and louder as they came closer. Soon, the shadowy figure came into view from the mist with one last step echoing throughout the air. Gray let out a horrified gasp and took a few steps back. "Damn...it can't...be..." Everyone saw none other than Esdeath standing before them and as soon as she saw Gray, she gave him a loving smile. "Hello there, Gray. I can describe how I missed you so much."
Back at the edge of the cliff, Neinhart stood to the edge observing the battle was soon to come. More specifically, the ice pillars Esdeath had created in a short time. He was trying to figure out how one of the undead Historia was able to attack without his command. "Something on your mind, Nienhart?"
Neinhart looked back to see Brandish standing behind him. "Oh, Brandish. Well..." He looked back at the battlefield. "I can't understand that Esdeath woman ever since she attacked his Majesty. I've summoned countless Historia and yet she was able to attack without my command. Yet, I only theorize that acted the desire within her heart."
Brandish knew Neinhart's magic was absolute and the Historia he summoned in the past never acted on their own. She was just as perplexed as the others were. "If you can't control her, then, make her disappear? There is no use of a Historia that won't obey."
Brandish brought up a good point and Nienhart was to reply to her suggestion when someone else spoke. "The woman has the air of death around her. She'll leave a field of corpses in her wake as well as the rest of her comrades."
Neinhart and Brandish both looked to see Bloodman of all people speaking to them. "It's rare to see Bloodman talking to us." Brandish thought.
Dimaria decided to have her say. "I must say she's not like any woman or person I've ever seen." She had another thought to share. "On top of that, Neinhart, did you get rid of those pirates?"
Neinhart shook his head. "No, his Majesty ordered me to keep them around."
August overheard this conversation. "I must say, his majesty has unusual passing acquaintances." The Wizard King approached the other Twelve Shields. "All this time, he went to three worlds and never shared his experiences."
Dimaria was quite perplexed by August's words. "Where is this coming from?"
"I must admit...August has a point." The Twelve saw Irene walking toward them and stopped beside August. "All this time, Zeref went to other worlds and saw things that we had never seen before. When I think about it, perhaps once we win this war, we should pay a visit to these worlds and see what we can learn, rather conqueror."
Dimaria suddenly smiled devilshly. "Hey, that sounds like fun."
Jacob kinda liked that idea. "Yes, fighting new enemies does sound like a treat, ain't it?"
August smirked sinisterly. "For once, I agree with Irene."
Neinhart had to admit it would be good to gather more undead. "As much as I want to make sure I can control other Historia properly, I think that idea sounds quite interesting."
Bloodman cackled evilly. "Yes, we can bring more deaths in these worlds."
Brandish seemingly didn't like that idea, but didn't say a word, she then looked back at the battlefield, rather than where the ice pillars were. "Lucy..." She was slightly worried about Layla's daughter.
A short chapter, but, the next one will be having the undead empire and Demons Tartaros facing their old enemies, who will be facing whom, find out next time.
End of chapter