AN: As always, before we begin, Reviewer Replies:
Raidentensho: Star Dress is still quite a ways off for anybody.
Curveball: Yeah, the world building I felt was rather important to explain, really a lot of stuff from canon that doesn't make a damn lick of sense, especially the big with the parity of the Divine and Draconic Orders to explain why even though God magic ostensibly trumps Dragon we've still seen two out of three God Slayers get outdone by Dragon Slayers AT THEIR OWN ELEMENT and the third one stalemated. Actually I think the two major reasons Gajeel wasn't put up for S-Class in canon are pretty simple: 1) He was being Makarov's double-agent against Raven Tail at that point and 2) It would've denied us the first major Levy + Gajeel team up. Regarding Precht, why no! It is not in fact AT ALL safe to say anything like that.
mdhunter111: Glad you enjoyed! As for who he is, read on and find out! (^_^)
Bahiagmc: Glad you're still enjoying. Yes I answered that rather vaguely in the opening comments of Chapter 25, but I'll say it again here: No, Mira and Jerry are NOT breaking up, especially not for Mira to get back together with Laxus who burned any and all chance he might've ever had with her the instant he called her a whore and blamed her for Lisanna's death.
Ok, here we go!
Final chapter of The Road to Mattachu arc!
IT'S TIME FOR...
.
THE RETURN OF THE KING
…
==Five Minutes Later==
…
Lucy was in the midst of a 'breather', watching in horror and dread as Amzy neared completion of her horrible poison. The Jellyfish was a horrifically competent torturer, giving her little 'breather' moments to allow her nerves to try to reset and prevent her from passing out, while also letting the dread of the pain starting back up build in her mind until it did.
This was…maybe the fifth time it had paused? Lucy almost wished it hadn't because it let her focus on the fact that Amzy had just tossed a splash of her potion on some poor mind-controlled person. The poor test subject was in so much pain that the mind control shattered and their screams echoed around the plaza as they writhed on the ground, their flesh bubbling and burning as the poison spread.
"IT'S BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT! BRILLIANT! I TELL YOU, BRIIILLIANT I SA… Oh he died." Amzy's victorious crowing cut off as her most recent victim's body finally gave out. Amzy twirled her knife between her fingers, "Well, time to see what did this one in." She knelt down and just as she was about to begin her autopsy, a strange sound echoed through the now silent plaza.
Clop-sh-clop-sh-clop-sh-clop-sh…
Amzy, Lucy, the Immortals and even the mind controlled people looked in confusion as a red and black llama moonwalked into the plaza bopping its head to some imaginary beat. The llama continued all the way across the plaza until it was approaching Amzy as Amzy stared in complete confusion and asked of nobody in particular, "…a sun-walking llama?"
Then the llama kicked her in the face with both rear hooves, spun and turned into Miguel's friend Zoltan, aka Kusi the young king she'd tried to assassinate. Amzy picked herself up howling, "KUUUUUUSI, THE SUNWALKING LLAMA?! KIIIIIIIIIILL HIIIIIM!"
As the Immortals and mind controlled puppets began to move, they stopped short, distracted by an absolutely Tarzan style yell of 'AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWAWAWAAAAAAAAAAA!" as Miguel swung into the plaza on a rope draped over one of the branches of the Great Tree overhead, hanging on with one hand, strumming his guitar like crazy with the other and absolutely bellowing his head off.
This being the case, they missed the massive mirror ball swinging in on the other half of the line, and as the lines met in the middle, Miguel got the spinning of his life as the cords wrapped around each other before leaving him standing atop the mirror ball directly over the center of the plaza. Miguel, despite being undoubtedly dizzy, gave the immortals his very best (and unwittingly very most chuckle worthy) face as his guitar strumming intensified building up to the linchpin of the plan:
Happy seemed to materialize out of the dark as his wings, now fully healed after a dematerialization and regrowing, lit up like miniature suns. The blinding light coming off him let him blast straight through the dog shaped Immortal at Mach speeds before twisting in a move that would make any fighter jet, hummingbird or peregrine falcon jealous just before he hit the ground and rocket up to Lucy, a very familiar bit of jangling silver and gold clutched in his paws. In the instant he careened into her, his wings flared, forcing the jellyfish's tentacles to let go as he flew her down into the plaza, an imminently safer prospect now as the sunlight from his wings bounced off the mirror ball.
Why the mirror ball you ask? Because the same way a coating of sunlight had allowed Happy to blow through the dog-shaped Immortal like it wasn't there, and blast it to pieces in the process, the mirror ball turned that same light into a volley of laser beams that was skewering and paralyzing Immortals left and right as it hit. They'd normally reform quickly, but they couldn't as long as the lights were on. The really fun bit was that we hadn't used just a mirror ball. Courtesy of some portal shenaniganry, we'd also positioned mirrors all around the plaza and throughout the city, so with Happy's wings blazing with a couple million lumens, we were able to carve the magical darkness Supai had laid over Mattachu to tiny hard to spot shreds in an instant.
From my spot atop the Great Tree as Mattachu lit up below me, bathing the tree in light and wrenching it free of the Immortals' control, I grinned and began Phase Two. Was it absolute madness to wade into the heart of the spring that spawned the river of primordial darkness that was flooding across the world and had already enveloped a full third of it? For anyone else? Definitely.
For me?
"O pitiful worms that writhe in the dark,
Do you not know that even in the blackest of nights,
The sky is still filled with countless lights?
The sun rules the day sure as a king leaves his mark,
But as daily it sets, the world reaches twilight.
The embattled vow of tomorrow they keep true with their might,
Suns of distant worlds sending their shining aid from afar,
The Sun's own siblings, the gods of foreign stars!
I open the gate, you who light the way to the dawn!
COME FORTH CELESTIAL SPIRITS AND HELP THIS WORLD LIVE ON!"
With the light from below, the magic circle invoked by my magic severed the river of darkness and blocked it, stymying the flood in an instant. As the spell took effect, eighty-eight pillars of light erupted around the city, most silver, but twelve golden and greater than the rest. With a unified battle cry, the Celestial Spirits charged the plaza. The Immortals turned to desperately face them but were to the last outmatched, outnumbered and completely outplayed as the darkness overhead began to dissipate in wake of the over seven dozen holes punched in it.
Normally it's impossible to call a Celestial Spirit without their respective key and contract, but we were in Mattachu. With directions from Kusi, while he, Miguel and Happy were getting Phase One set up, I went to the Temple of the Sun and broke open the vault containing the one thing that can override that. The cauldron from which the keys were poured. The cauldron still contained the magic resonance of that incredible paradigm altering spell that bound a small army of divinities, and with it held the authority to call them all.
I hadn't chosen my words idly either, with my memories had come the revelation of the authority and full power I held. Kusi hadn't been wrong when he called me the Sun King. Long story that I'll explain later short, I was the last direct descendant of the pharaoh Ozymandias and with a bit of help on that fateful trip to Fuyuki, I had inherited his magic and authority. As Ozymandias was a direct representative of Ra to the point of being basically his incarnation on Earth, I had a shadow of the authority of Ra. It was why Sekhmet had answered my prayer on the savannah: I was basically one of her honorary little brothers.
This also meant that I had a bit of a back door to any magic related to the sun, such as its metaphysical relationship to other celestial bodies and thus the Celestial Spirits. By acknowledging that stars were in fact distant suns, I'd acknowledged that the Celestial Spirits were each equal to multiple sun gods stepping in as guests to help out, and as that acknowledgement was made with the Authority of Ra, IT BECAME TRUE.
Any single Apostle of the Sun God could've absolutely manhandled one of the Immortals with less of Ra's authority than what I had. Now that the Celestial Spirits had each been elevated to the rank of "God of Multiple Foreign Suns" and thus on par with ACTUAL RA HIMSELF? To call the Immortals simply 'outclassed' would be the severest of understatements. Even against the weakest Celestial Spirit, they were now pebbles fighting a mountain. Any one of them would likely have been sufficient to clean house in Mattachu. All of them together? Even with half of them absolutely goofing around and making complete light of it (heh), it was a one-sided beat down of utterly biblical proportions.
I teleported down into the middle of the, well… it couldn't really be termed a 'melee' so much as a 'massacre' to check on everybody and was surprised to find Lucy butt naked, watching in awe along with Kusi and Happy while Miguel danced atop the mirror ball overhead and put the whole thing to utterly jaunty music. I will fully admit to being distracted by the boobies for a second before I noticed the angry red welts all over her body. The instant I noticed, I was understandably furious and ground out, "Lucy. What. Did they do. To you?"
Lucy looked at me in a bit of a daze and then looked down and remembered she was butt naked and tried to cover herself, "EEK!"
Before I could try to calm her down to ask if she was alright, a grandfather clock with cartoony little arms and legs ran up and enveloped her. Before Kusi, Happy or I could question it, the clock started relaying her reaction in the most utterly hilarious and monotone British dapper deadpan, "'Eek,' she exclaims in surprise. 'What are you doing Horologium?' she asks in confusion. 'Oh, these are actually really comfy,' she notices as I bandage her wounds and provide fresh clothes."
A moment later the clock ejected Lucy, fully cleaned with her wounds expertly bandaged and treated, her hair in pigtails and now wearing an extremely fetching blue and white outfit with a short skirt, stockings and ruffled sleeves that covered up the majority of her now expertly bandaged wounds. She hugged the clock with a smile, "Thank you Horologium!"
Then I was treated to the frankly most horrific yowl I've ever heard, "LUUUUUCYYYYYYY!" A moment later, Kusi, Happy and I were bowled out of the way by a very big but admittedly not unattractive levitating mermaid with blue hair who I briefly considered I might need to explode a bit because she looked like she was moving into choke Lucy. I decided against it when I heard what the mermaid was saying, "HOW DARE YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT?! WHAT WOULD YOUR MOTHER SAY?! LETTING YOURSELF GET CAPTURED, SUMMONING THAT IDIOT BULL INSTEAD OF ME AGAINST SERVANTS OF APOPHIS!"
Taurus looked up from where he had the Monkey Immortal in a headlock gleefully pounding its head in with his other hand, "HEY!"
The mermaid who I later learned to be Aquarius either didn't hear him or didn't care. Probably both. "YOU NEARLY DIED! WE NEARLY LOST YOU! HOW COULD YOU GET YOURSELF TAKEN WITH THAT PINK HAIRED MONSTER YOU CARRY AROUND WITH YOU?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS?! IF YOUR FRIEND HADN'T ALTERED THE VERY NATURE OF OUR CONTRACTS AND INVOKED THE END OF DAYS PREVENTION CLAUSE, WE WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN ABLE TO COME! I SHOULD DRESS YOU IN A BUBBLE WRAP STRAITJACKET AND PUT YOU UNDER HOUSE ARREST, BUT YOU'D STILL FIND SOME WAY TO PUT YOURSELF IN DANGER WOULDN'T YOU?!"
I snapped my fingers and teleported Miguel down from the mirror ball. He looked surprised and actually stopped dancing for a second to look at me in confusion. I shrugged with a smile, "Not as great a view to be sure, but still better than risking you falling." Then I turned to the madcap beatdown surrounding us and threw my voice directly into the minds of my partners with my telepathy, "Leo, Virgo, Sagittarius, can I leave things here in your hands for a moment while I step out to retrieve our friends?"
"Way ahead of you Jerry!" Leo replied gleefully as he threw open a portal behind me, "Can you believe they found an actual dragon to fight in this day and age? A big one too! Maybe not as big as Aldoron was, but man he had to be close! If you hadn't elevated our status in the Divine Order and supercharged us, there's no way I'd have been able to save them!"
I took one look at them and my breath caught in my chest, "Sagittarius, Virgo, I believe we have immediate need of your medical expertise."
To say they looked rough is an understatement. Erza and the new girl I'd later learn to be Dimaria were supporting each other to stay up right, Levy was clinging to Gajeel's back, and despite looking like he'd had the shit kicked out of him to the point where he could barely stand, Gajeel was carrying… "What happened to Natsu?"
"The flamin' dumbass took an attack meant for us head on," Gajeel declared quietly, "He tried to force it back with his breath attack, but…"
I threw out one of my cards and turned it into a mattress big enough for all five of them to lay down on, "That was very noble of him."
"It was fuckin' stupid!" Gajeel snapped with tears in his eyes as he set Natsu down and Sagittarius and Virgo immediately set about trying to save him, "That dragon was usin' a Darkness Magic breath attack containin' all the hate and vengeance he had for the Dragon King Festival! It'll be a damn miracle if he survives!"
I moved to help Erza and the new girl down gently onto the card mattress, "Be that as it may, it does show he still cares about his friends more than his own life."
"Isn't that why you were all out here to begin with?" the new girl muttered tiredly as she laid down on the mattress next to Natsu. She wasn't in bad shape, her armor had protected her from what looked like nearly all of it, but she was definitely exhausted. I couldn't help but note curiously the hovering circle of Lacrima that moved to stay close to her at all times spinning until the black one with the green glow was at the top. Curiously her white and gold armor changed to match it when it reached the point nearest her head.
"…It is, but just how much have you eavesdropped on us?" Erza asked wearily as she sat down on the edge of the mattress, unwilling to let herself drop until she was certain everyone was okay.
The new girl reached over to set her gauntleted hand on Natsu's shoulder, "A lot. Sorry Natsu, this is probably gonna suck. HEAL."
You know that smell of a stormfront rolling in? The air suddenly stank of it and whirled like we were in the heart of a thunderstorm. I saw little flickers of lightning race along the new girl's arm and into Natsu as what looked like a storm cloud raced down her arm to envelop him. Scarcely a minute later, the disturbance in the air was gone and Natsu popped up like a jack in the box, good as new.
Before anyone could comment on it though, everything went very sideways, very quickly.
In all the excitement of the plan going off without a hitch and the Celestial Spirits arriving to save the day, we'd all completely forgotten about the witch who'd started this whole mess. Said witch had previously been the High Priestess… a woman quite devoutly sworn to chastity until she'd grown so old nobody would even look at her that way anymore. In simple terms? An eligible virgin sacrifice.
While we were focused on the Celestial Spirits ripping the Immortals apart, actually killing them in the process, Amzy had slunk over to the blood pit and thrown herself in as the final sacrifice.
Normally this wouldn't have worked, but with the Immortals dying left and right, the seal had been drastically weakened. There were three components to unlock the seal: The Immortals had to die as they were the anchor points for the 'bars' of the prison, the Great Tree had to fall as it was the linchpin, and the blood of a beautiful and chaste maiden was required to grease the 'gears' to where the lock could open. Any two could do it. The bars would break without the linchpin, the linchpin was worthless without the bars, and if bars and linchpin were gone then there was no lock.
Long story short, when Amzy threw herself in, this time rather than being restored, she met the same awful end she'd intended for Lucy, and in doing so released the linchpin. We didn't hear her screams of agony though, we had bigger problems… namely that the entire plaza the Great Tree sat upon, was being knocked aside like a glass off a bar with us standing on it. Remember when I mentioned that the Great Tree was hanging suspended by giant golden chains over a massive and unfathomably deep dark hole big enough to drop a small city down?
We just found out what was in the hole.
If there hadn't been a world class levitation enchantment on the plaza that kept it upright, we'd have all been crushed in seconds and been unable to do anything about it. Yes, really, not a thing we could've done about in face of the tsunami of instant, absolute darkness and mind numbing FEAR that had erupted out of that hole in wake of its sole prisoner breaking free. The last thing I heard before I hit my head and blacked out was a voice that set bones and souls alike shuddering with a world shaking roar,
"FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AAAAAT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSST!"
…
==Meanwhile, Magnolia==
…
Everyone had thought it was over, that we'd won, when the Celestial Spirits arrived and punched nearly a hundred holes into the darkness that cloaked the world, forcing it to start dissipating. A great cheer had gone up. The celebrations had begun.
Then, five minutes later, the entire world shook.
Even in Fiore, the Serpent of Oblivion was easily visible as he erupted into the sky, his triumphant cry deafening even across the sea in Alvarez. The darkness that had cloaked the world before was nothing compared to the pitch blackness that now blotted out the sky. The entire hemisphere if they dared look outside watched in horror as the Celestial Spirits took to the sky in streaks of light to try and force the Serpent back into his hole.
The entire world saw, all but a few for the first and last time, the Celestial Spirit King in all his might and majesty, appear in the sky. His sword seemed to stretch to the horizon as his head brushed the elevation where the stars would be shining had they not been whirling around him, trying to help. They saw him hack and thrust furiously at the Serpent of Oblivion as his subjects sought to aid him in his fight for the sake of the world. It was a lightshow beyond any other.
Then… they saw him fall, and as the stars were rapidly snuffed out one after another, the darkness became absolute as an instinctual, existential terror filled every heart.
The End of Days had begun.
…
==Mattachu==
…
DON DON!
When I came to, the darkness was absolute until I started glowing with everything I had to try and force the oppressive darkness back as I felt the unnatural terror trying to force its way into my head. The dark was like an oppressive smothering weight, pushing in from all sides and seeping cold into every inch of my being. The light I could force out only narrowly kept it at bay at the edge of the very small circle, and I could still feel its effects as it sought to force its way in.
DON DON!
On top of that, it looked like everyone else was out cold, expressions of pure terror on their face. No, Erza was awake too, hanging on by a thread as she crouched protectively over our friends. I forced myself to my feet, and stepped over to lay my hand on her shoulder and flooded her with the Sense of Security I needed so badly for someone to give me, "Keep it together Erza. I'm right here, we're going to be okay. Everything's going to be alright. Can you hold on for a little while longer?"
Erza was ghostly pale in the faint light that was all I could muster against the oppressive darkness. Sense of Security was only just barely holding her back from a full-blown panic attack, but she nodded. It was a sentiment I shared in full, I wanted nothing more than to curl up in a hole, hide and wait for the danger to pass. I couldn't though, this danger would not pass unless forced.
I exhaled lightly as a faint forced smile crossed my face as I told her with the most utterly bullshit of confidence and bravado, "I know you can do it. Don't worry, I'll be back in just a moment. Keep them safe, alright?"
Erza nodded again, her armor shaking faintly. "Hurry…" she forced out.
DON DON!
I nodded and rose to my feet, turning to face the source of the darkness and terror, drawing from my pocket the knife I'd been carrying since I arrived in this world for a reason I hadn't until today been able to remember. Stepping between the beast and my friends as best I could, I glared up at the End of Days made flesh, "Hello Apophis."
DON DON!
The Serpent of Oblivion wasn't easy to spot. His form faded in and out of visibility and even at its clearest was only discernible by the absolute darkness that formed it. It was like trying to spot blotches of ink on charcoal in a dark room. The one thing that was constantly obvious about it was its size. Laid out in a straight line, I think it would've reached all the way back to Fiore easily. It was mostly coiled in the sky above us, but even wadded up and overlapping itself like a plate of spaghetti, its coils still reached well beyond the edges of the valley, and its head alone had to be as big as the entire city.
DON-D-DON!
Must be my heartbeat making drum noises from the abject terror because holy shit this is an all or nothing moment I was not ready for!
DOON-DOON!
It hissed out a sound that brought to mind a million blades being drawn and lethal gas leaks and every poisonous snake in the world rearing their heads and a dozen other horrible things besides, "SSSSSSSSSUN KING…IT HASSS BEEN A LONG TIME. I THOUGHT SSSURELY YOUR LIGHT WOULD'VE FADED ENTIRELY AFTER SSSO MANY SSSCENTURIESSS… YET SSSTILL YOU SSSTAND BEFORE ME…" It hissed out what had to be its version of a laugh, "ARE YOU READY TO SSSUBMIT AND DIE?"
DUN-D-DUN!
I raised my blade and spoke its true name, revealing the sword of my namesake for what it was, "I am not the Sun King you did battle with then. I am merely one of his descendants, but I will stand no less firmly in your way Serpent of the End."
DOON!DOON!
Apophis laughed again, "SSSO BE IT. IT WOULDN'T BE NEARLY ASSSS SSSATISSSFYING TO CRUSSSH YOU OTHERWISSSE. COME ON, I'LL LET YOU HAVE THE FIRSSST SSSHOT."
I raised the massive sword and grinned as I tapped into its power and merged it with my own, "A lethal mistake, but one I'm happy to see you make…" then as the drum beat started to kick up into an entirely new and wild tempo, I began the incantation as a river of blinding light erupted skyward from the blade in my hands.
"Die böse Schlange wird vom Himmel getroffen und alles ist in Licht und Schatten sortiert.
Diese Welt erreicht die Dämmerung.
JETZT FALLEN.
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALMUUUUUUUUNG!"
The river of blinding light, possessed of extremely potent Holy Magic by itself, and further amplified by my direct connection to Mesektet and the power of Ra with its full might flowing through the blade to strengthen its attack, was equal to nothing less than a full throttle solar flare. It was a blast strong enough to scour an entire country to down ash in seconds on par with the Etherion if one wants to use the modest estimate.
In the space of a minute, the sheer strain of executing the attack had driven me to my knee. It was far above and beyond Balmung's normal capabilities, but it handled the power quite well. The exhaustion wasn't quite as bad as what I'd felt when the Lullaby's curse hit me, but it wasn't far off. By my reckoning as sweat erupted all over my body, I was at less than half a percent of my magic capacity and I could feel my pulse thundering in my head. My limbs felt like rolls of wet felt and everything hurt, but if it had taken out Apophis, even if it had killed me, then the price of the attack would be well worth it to ensure the Serpent didn't achieve its goal and bring about the end of the world.
All the while, the drums beat on.
It had to have worked. There was nobody else around who could even think of fighting that thing, and there was no way in hell I could pull off an attack like that again before Apophis struck back if it had survived. My breath came only in ragged heavy pants as I held onto Balmung with both hands and stuck its tip into the ground to try and force myself to remain upright. I'd normally never use such a legendary weapon as a walking stick, but the sun was going to burst through that darkness any second, and dammit I wanted to be on my feet when it did!
I shot a glance over my shoulder, "Erz…" I was cut off by a light coughing fit and then tried again, "Erza! Are you okay back there?!"
She couldn't force the words out, but her expression and her screaming thoughts as she looked up at the sky said everything. I felt myself pale as I turned my gaze skyward, NONONONONONO… "SHIT!"
"ISSSS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?" Apophis rumbled as it loomed closer, apparently completely unscathed by my very most unprecedentedly best shot. Then I noticed the line of shadow leaking out the side of its face like an oil spill.
Oh, I thought, So I did hurt it. I managed to take out its eye.
Then it hit me, MY BEST SHOT ONLY TOOK OUT ITS EYE?!
"THISSS WILL BE EASSSIER THAN I EXSSSSPECTED. DON'T WORRY, YOUR WORLD WILL SSSOON FOLLOW YOU."
My light started to sputter and fade as the existential terror started to force its way into my mind through the cracks in my confidence. I could barely keep myself upright, let alone fire off enough attacks of that scale to take this thing down! NONONONONONO…
Apophis opened its mouth and I saw Hell writhing within it, a seething hideous dark void from which there'd be no return, NONONONONONO…
Then Apophis snapped his mouth shut in surprise as a voice shouted out, tinged mad with fear as I finally realized who had been beating the drums in defiance, that had woken me and given me the chance to fight back. "I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU!" King Kusi bellowed out, his hands and arms flailing like mad, pummeling the drums like his life depended on it. A more absolute falsehood I've never heard, Kusi was shaking even as his terror drove his frenzied drum beating.
"OUR PEOPLE DO NOT FEAR YOU!" Kusi shouted in defense of his city who were laid out in a dead faint from the sheer overwhelming instinctual certainty that The End had arrived.
"THIS WORLD! DOES! NOT! FEAR! YOU!" The bravest man I've ever met screamed out in defiance of the soul crushing existential terror Apophis had leveled against the entire world.
Apophis, I think he must've been stunned by the sheer audacity and indomitable fire of the human heart. Then his rumbling chuckle shook the blackened heavens as he pulled back to strike like a meteor that would end the world, NONONONONONONO!
Then, Apophis struck. I admit, I closed my eyes and fully believed that we were all about to die. I couldn't even teleport my friends to safety, because there was no minimum safe distance from this and I'd already given it everything I had to give. I'm sorry everybody…
The world shook like a meteor had struck and then…
The end hadn't come?
I opened my eyes and in the dim flickering light I was still just barely able to produce, I saw a man in a dark cape with long tangled silver blue hair glaring at Apophis with his fists clenched at his side.
Apophis roared furiously as it yanked its head from the rubble of the mountain it had been knocked into and back up into the sky to demand, "HOW DARE YOU PUNCH ME IN THE FACE?!"
I blinked in shock at the Serpent's words and then realized what had happened. I stared at the man next to me, my jaw hitting the floor as I realized he had not only stopped Apophis's strike but completely redirected it with a punch!
"HOW DID YOU EVEN DO THAT?!" Apophis ranted, "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM?! I AM THE SERPENT OF CHAOS! I AM THE END OF THIS ABHORRENT THING YOU CALL REALITY! I AM THE DRAGON GOD OF DARKNESS! I BATTLED THE ARMIES OF THE GODS ALONE EVERY NIGHT FOR OVER A THOUSAND YEARS AND PUSHED THEM TO THEIR LIMITS EVERY TIME!
I!
AM!
APOPHIS!
YOU ARE NOT A GOD! WHO ARE YOU TO DEFY ME?! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!"
I knew the answer. I'd never seen more than a picture of him, but I'd recognized the owner of the sword in my hand immediately as he glared up defiantly at the Serpent of Oblivion, "Siegfried?!"
He glanced at me out the corner of his eye for just an instant, and then turned back to Apophis before declaring in a cold matter of fact voice that made me shiver almost more than realizing how outclassed I was against Apophis had...
"I am a Dragon Slayer, and this is over."
He crouched and as Apophis lunged to strike once more, he jumped. Glowing like a mighty blue star, he shot through the sky like a comet to confront the monster threatening his world. With a battle cry that shook me to my core, the two titans collided in a sky blue supernova.
For just an instant, it looked like the darkness would overcome him, the edges of the supernova shrinking quickly as it looked like it was petering out while the darkness held strong. Then a roar that sounded like the end of the world thundered out and shook the city, and the darkness was suddenly pierced by a river of light that looked to be over twice the size of the attack I'd unleashed with Balmung.
For an instant, all was quiet and still.
Then the explosion hit.
In an instant the inky black ceiling of darkness was blown away and the sun streamed down unhindered, blindingly bright as it gleefully lit the world once more. The world shook in what I later learned would be counted as a major earthquake across all of Minstrel as the decapitated corpse of Apophis began crashing to the earth. Then a shadow fell over us and I realized with horror that most of the damn snake was falling straight towards us!
It was too, which made Erza's magic defense seal all the more welcome a sight as she yelled, "ADAMANTINE BARRIER!" I shot a glance over my shoulder at her as I realized that she'd managed to cover the whole city and was visibly straining to hold the weight of the massive corpse as it pressed down on the massive shield over her head. I didn't know she could cast that spell without her armor!
"I could use some help over here!" she declared tensely as her arms and legs shook slightly. Before I could do anything, the new girl in armor spun up into a handstand with her feet spread wide, threw herself into the air and spun, "DANCE OF THE STORM GOD!" A whirlwind erupted up from her and blasted the corpse of Apophis outward away from over the city. A moment later, Erza let her seal drop and the body crashed down around the city, but not one bit in it.
Erza requipped back to her normal armor and dropped to one knee, clearly badly winded by the effort. I gulped down some more of the much sweeter tasting than usual sunlight and staggered over to her, tugging Balmung out of the ground and sticking it back into its sheath which had appeared on my back beneath my cape. Dang sword was still so long I had to use my telekinesis to sheathe it. I dropped to my knee and then sat down facing her as I started steadily chewing down light to maintain my power so I wouldn't pass out. I looked from her to the new girl, "You two okay?"
Erza nodded, "Yeah, I'll, I'll be fine. Do you know who that was that saved us?"
I looked over at the spot in the sky where the final clash had occurred, "Siegfried, or at least Earthland's counterpart to him. He's one of history's most famous dragonslayers. This sword, Balmung," I jerked my head towards it, "Once belonged to him. It was given to me by the King of Heroes a couple of years back. I guess he knew I'd need it some day." I smiled lightly as I imagined His Majesty's gleefully proud grin, "He and the others trained me to be a hero who could live up to that kind of legacy, but," I shook my head, "I've still got a long way to go."
I laughed lightly as I imagined the feel of the swat to the head Mordred would've given me for saying that. Dumbass, how many times have I gotta tell you to quit being so hard on yourself?
"King of Heroes?" Erza asked curiously.
I nodded, "I'll tell you about it sometime. For now though, can you stand? I'm about to be… not standing. That took a lot out of me."
I felt cold, damp metal touch my cheek and then energy surged through me. I looked over in shock at the instant second wind, and saw the new girl whose name I had yet to learn smiling at me as she retracted her gauntleted finger. I'm not gonna lie, my jaw dropped and my heart did a little skippy thing. She has a gorgeous smile… more importantly, "Who are you?" That's impossible…
She blinked as confusion flashed over her face for a second and then that stunning smile came back, "I'm Dimaria Yesta, Last Paladin of Mildian and Keeper of the Seven Great Gods' Legacy."
I gulped, hardly daring to ask the question burning in my mind, "Yesta huh? Any relationship to the Pendragons?"
Cutest damn blush too, and only reinforcing my suspicions as she stammered in shock and confusion, "Wh-The Pendragons? As in like, THE PENDRAGONS?!"
Then she flinched and I saw Erza had poked her through a chink in her armor with… what was that? Erza poked her own hand with it and then raised an eyebrow before standing up and tugging Dimaria into a hug before smiling at me over a now extra flustered Dimaria's shoulder, "This is my cousin. Yes, we're descendants of the Pendragons."
I sat down to keep from falling down in surprise, and then I started laughing, "Everything about you just made perfect sense Erza!" I laughed for what was probably a few minutes as Dimaria confirmed what she'd just heard Erza say and then broke down crying over finally having a family. Erza for her part had silent tears leaking out of her eyes too, I decided to give them a few minutes and went to retrieve the rest of our friends.
Lucy was out cold with an equally unconscious Happy clutched to her chest. More importantly, she was about as okay as she'd been when Horologium finished patching her up, so I was very relieved as I picked her up and carried her back over to the card mattress and laid her down between Levy and Natsu.
Then I went to find Miguel, but found that Kusi had already beat me to it. Kusi was gently shaking Miguel, "Miguel, Miguel! Miguel! My friend! Dr. Whistler!"
I knelt and checked Miguel's pulse, a faint tingle of alarm shooting through me until I felt the steady throbbing of his carotid artery. I touched the back of my fingers to his head and grimaced at the nightmares I could feel still rattling around in there. I snapped my fingers and pulsed Sense of Security, "None of that Miguel, the day is saved. Now is not the time for nightmares. Rest easy Doctor."
Then I turned to an immensely relieved Kusi and stuck out my hand to shake, "Your Highness, I want you to know that you are the single bravest man I've ever met. Come on, let's get him over to the others."
Kusi wanted to, I could tell he did, but he rose to his feet and shook his head, "Thank you, but I must check on my people. So many are still so still…"
I nodded, "I understand." I rose to my feet as well, Miguel's arm draped over my shoulders as I dragged him mostly upright. I closed my eyes and cast about with my telepathy before confirming, "Everyone who wasn't thrown into Amzy's blood pool is fine. Amazingly the battle between the Immortals and the Celestials didn't have do collateral damage. They're all still asleep, but they should be fine when they wake up, and they should wake up soon."
Kusi nodded, "Thank you. Still, I must go to check on them."
I smiled, "You're a fine king, Kusi. I'm sure Zoltan is proud of you."
Kusi teared up a little bit and nodded jerkily, "Yes. I, hope so." Then he turned and walked away to go start checking on his people.
I smiled faintly and looked over at Miguel, "Doc, you've really made an incredible friend there. I wonder if he'll ever let himself believe just how great." I could see it in his eyes now that my memories were back, the look of someone who'd screwed up and made the resolution to dedicate their entire being to making it right. I was sure there was quite a story there, but that's his to tell.
I hauled Miguel over to where Dimaria and Erza were sitting with our friends and after setting Miguel on the large card mattress, I laughed lightly, "Hey Erza."
"Hmm?"
"We found the City of Gold."
"Yep," she agreed as we looked around at the unerring splendor around us.
"Helped save the world."
"Just a little," she mused with a smile.
"Made some friends."
"Definitely," Dimaria agreed with a smile.
"Didn't lose anybody along the way…"
"We did have a few close calls though," Erza pointed out.
"And we didn't even knock down any buildings in a way that'll get us sued!"
"Seriously?!" Erza exclaimed as she lurched in surprise. I could hear her racing through her memories of the entire trip and then she laughed as she leaned back against me again, "Hah, we sure didn't! I guess we can chalk this up as a total success!"
Then she threw her hands over her head and cheered, "WE FINISHED A DECADE QUEST!"
.
.
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AN: And that's it for the Road to Mattachu! I hope everyone enjoyed this arc which I made to make up for butterflying away the Phantom Lord War. I don't mind admitting that it was an absolute SLOG, even having written all this once already since this edition had so much more packed into it and went the way I originally intended it to.
We'll have a chapter of the aftermath next week to transition us into the next arc as we start getting back to our regularly scheduled mayhem. Yep, that's right! We're back to a canon arc next. I won't torment you by making you try to remember what comes next, here's a preview:
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NEXT TIME, ON Mad Little Slice of Heaven...
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Superstition, fear, and jealousy…
"You really threw my plans for quite a loop leaving the country like that Erza…"
THE WOUNDS OF THE PAST SCREAM INTO THE PRESENT…
…
Dead I am the one, exterminating son!
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
HEARTS BLAZE AS THE NIGHT TURNS WHITE…
…
Slippin' through the trees, stranglin' the breeze…
"I'M NOT LOSING ANYONE ELSE!"
WISHES AND REGRETS COLLIDE ON THIS CURSED ISLAND…
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Dead I am the sky, watchin' angels cry…
"There's a magic that can revive the dead?!"
ONE LAST CHANCE TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT…
…
As they slowly turn, conquering the worm…
"If you could go back in time, with the power you have now, what would you do?"
IT'S A RACE TO THE TOP BEFORE THE GLASS RUNS OUT OF SAND…
…
DIG THROUGH THE DITCHES AND BURN THROUGH THE WITCHES, I SLAM IN THE BACK OF MY DRAGULA!
The shadowy figure's eyes glowed with hatred and rage as it reached for its mask, "Allow me to introduce myself…"
UNSTOPPABLE FURY TAKES THE STAGE AS FAIRY TAIL RACES TO STOP…
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THE TOWER OF HEAVEN
See you in Hell.