Cynthia, the Omega Earth Flame dragon stood before Aiden within the Artificial Dragon. All fell silent as those trapped within the magic barrier (save for Knightwalker) prepared to watch how this was going to do down. Cynthia rolled her neck, staring at Aiden with an emotionless, yet at the same time determined expression. "I'll beat you."
"This…This little development wasn't supposed to be in the script…" Hyde said while furrowing his brows. Though he was upset that things weren't going accordingly, he was still interested himself in seeing how this was going to play out.
"You think that just because you got a little power up you can defeat me!?" Aiden shouted, drawing the arm of the dragon back, only to thrust it forward with incredible speed. "I'll teach you your place, little girl!" As the fist reached Cynthia, a dust cloud came out from the impact it left. "HA!" Aiden laughed, but his laugh of victory was cut short as Cynthia was quickly approaching on the extended arm of the dragon. "WHAT!?"
"No way!" Lucy exclaimed.
"I didn't even see her move!" Levy shouted with amazement.
"Certainly an improvement…" Ace said with a nod. For mages like him, Gildarts, Reve, and Sidney, keeping up with Cynthia only presented little challenge, but it was easy for all three of them to admit that she was a lot stronger than before.
Cynthia allowed red flames and earth to surround her feet. She leapt from the arm of the dragon and swung one leg up to the chin of the dragon. The hit was clearly effective as Aiden had trouble stopping the dragon from staggering back, but Cynthia wasn't done yet. "NOT DONE YET!" She exclaimed, using the momentum from her first kick to follow into a second, a powerful roundhouse kick that struck the dragons' face, causing it to stagger back even more.
"Gah!" Aiden shouted, his head moving violently within the small space in the dragon's chest. "Insolent child!" He then growled, placing the dragon's hand deep in the ground. The ground then erupted with multiple waves of lightning that traveled towards Cynthia.
"That won't work…" Cynthia stated bluntly in a monotonous tone, simply swiping her arm in front of her body. Multiple pillars of earth surrounded her; drawing in the lightning magic merely due to the fact Earth magic had the advantage over lightning. "For a scientist, it's pretty funny how you didn't know earth magic has the advantage over lightning magic…"
"You…!" Aiden grit his teeth in anger. Now he was on the other side of the table, and things weren't looking well for him so far. "Try this on for size, then!" Aiden brought to arms together, generating a sphere of fire, ice, shadow, lightning, sky, poison, and diamond dragon slayer magic, holding it over his head. "Let's see you try and stop this!" He then hurled the enourmous sphere forward, grinning with victorious anticipation.
"Very well…" Cynthia said with a nod, accepting Aiden's challenge. In one hand, a sphere of red fire formed, while in the other, bits and pieces of earth surrounded her hand. She brought these two spheres together over her head to form a dual sphere of omega flames and earth, her sphere much smaller than the one Aiden produced. "Radiant Blaze of the Omega Earth Flame Dragon!" She called out while hurling her sphere forward. The two spheres collided, attempting to overpower each other through a rough stalemate. In the end, Cynthia's blaze literally ate Aiden's and continued moving through, leaving the scientist wide eyed.
"No way…!?" Was the only thing Aiden could say before the sphere exploded on the Artificial Dragon, sending it skidding back across the ground, clearly damaged as marks began so show all over the machine. "Ngh…"
"What's the matter?" Cynthia asked while her aura intensified, taking slow, but intimidating steps forward towards Aiden. Though her face remained expressionless, her eyes showed no mercy. There was still that fire, but there was a different meaning behind it now. Her eyes showed the predator toying with its prey; she had the intent to kill in the end. "I thought you were going to put me in my place? What happened to that insane grin, did I wipe it off your face? Where's that laugh? I'm having a great time, how about you?!" While she spoke, she gained a somewhat insane grin, black locks creating a shadow over her eyes. "I'll roast you slowly; I want to savor each and every scream of yours, like you did to mine all those years ago. Things are coming back full circle, and it's not fun to be the one on the receiving end, huh?"
"W-Whoa…" Gray blinked a few times, taken aback by Cynthia's sudden monologue. "T-That was…"
"I've never seen this side of Cynthia before…" Chelia said with just the slightest whimper. She was honestly a little afraid of Cynthia at the moment.
"It's almost like she's a completely different person…" Aira said with a somewhat serious expression.
Wendy stayed silent, though her hands were balled into tight fist unconsciously. "A completely different person…? Could she be losing herself within her power and not realize it yet…?"
"Aiden, don't take this! You must act!" Hyde demanded. "Here, allow me to offer some assistance!" Hyde drew his cape back, throwing it forward seconds later to release a high powered whirlwind of darkness magic towards Cynthia. "Phantom Slash!"
Cynthia glanced at the incoming Phantom Slash and just allowed it to hit her, as when it cleared she was shown with no marks whatsoever on her person. "…That tickled." She replied with an eerie chuckle.
"I-Impossible…!" Hyde grit his teeth, now pointing his chest forward. "Try this then! Phantom Claw!" And from Hyde's chest, a demonic claw show out, aiming to scratch Cynthia, but Cynthia merely caught the extended claw by the wrist, leaving Hyde in a precarious situation. "Oh…"
"Heh…" Cynthia grinned, quickly pivoting on her left foot, spinning Hyde around until releasing him, right into a pillar of earth she created. Hyde slumped down to the floor, half conscious. "Now then…" And before she could say anything else, Aiden crushed the large fist of the dragon on her, a crater forming on impact.
"Cynthia…!" Wendy gasped, covering her hands with her mouth in hopes Cynthia didn't hear her for the sake of her hypothesis.
"Since you seem to have taken an interest with the earth, how about you just sit tight and take a nice dirt nap!" Aiden said while trying to ground Cynthia into the earth, but for some reason his fist wasn't moving. "Huh…?"
"Honestly…" Cynthia said with a yawn, lifting up the large fist with one arm. "You should invest in better toys…" And with that, she ripped the arm of the Artificial Dragon right off, dropping it down after. "They break too easily…"
"N-NO!" Aiden's eyes widened as the machine he was in now only had one functioning arm. Out of desperation, he used the other one in attempt to grip Cynthia as he did before, and it worked. Her body was constrained, and it looked like she was feeling pain this time. "Ha, I got you now!"
"Don't…count on it!" Cynthia retorted before breaking free of Aiden's grip, covering her legs in earth and omega flames once again. "Twin Talons!" With an axe kick, she easily broke the second arm of the dragon, now leaving Aiden more or less defenseless. "Now then…" Cynthia said before beginning to inhale, fire swirling in a vortex around her mouth. But that wasn't all; bits and pieces of the earth began to funnel into the vortex, merging with the omega flames.
"Oh, here it comes…!" Gaia said with comical sparkles in her eyes.
"I love this part!" Alex said while clasping her hands together.
"Roar…" Cynthia began as her cheeks began to inflate to inhumane lengths. When she was ready, she threw her head forward, unleashing a massive funnel of omega flames and earth towards Aiden and the Artificial Dragon. "OF THE OMEGA EARTH FLAME DRAGON!"
"NO NO NO NO-" Aiden could only brace for impact as the dual roar came near. Once it hit, it ran through him and everything within a clear 30 mile radius, obliterating everything that happened to be in its path, which happened to be nothing but earth. When it all died down, Aiden was lying, stuck within the center of the now destroyed dragon, fading in and out of consciousness. "…"
"She won…!" Lucy grinned, clapping her hands together.
"We told you!" Natsu said, gloating to Sidney over the fact he was wrong, for a second time now. Though, Sidney just remained silent.
"Now how do we get out of here…?" Erza asked with a curious expression. She could see Knightwalker's method of just bashing mindlessly wasn't working because she was still stuck there, as well.
"Wait, she's going over to him…" Cana said while gathering everyone's attention.
Cynthia walked over to Aiden, now standing over him triumphantly. "Well, look how things have played out…How should I dispose of you…you're looking quite pathetic right now…"
"Yes…" Aiden coughed, a grin forming on his face once again. It seemed as though he accepted defeat, and nothing Cynthia said or did would instill even the tiniest hint of fear. "This…This is the beginning of Fiore's End…this is how you should be, Cynthia! Taking lives without remorse or mercy!" As Aiden spoke, Cynthia raised her hand, allowing a sharp, jagged blade of earth to form on it. "Take my life, and take the first step in becoming what you really are!"
"I'm just going to take your life and end it!" Cynthia screamed, moving her hand forward to impale Aiden's chest.
"CYNTHIA, STOP!" Wendy screamed out, causing Cynthia to hesitate, stopping just before Aiden's chest. "Don't do this, it isn't you! If you kill him, you're no better than he is! You know you're more than a machine to us, you're family! Come back to your senses, please!"
"Uh…" Cynthia blinked a few times, and just like that, she seemed to return to normal. She glanced down at Aiden, who still had a smirk on his face, waiting for Cynthia to do it anyway.
"That was close…" Juvia said while letting out a silent sigh of relief.
"Don't tell me you're not going to do it?" Aiden continued to pester Cynthia on, he really wanted to see if she was going to do it or not. "I'm right here, I'm defenseless. You can finally pay me back for all those miserable years I've tortured you. Don't you want to make me feel the same pain? I know you do!"
"…" Cynthia remained silently, staring more at her hand than anything else.
"Shut the hell up, dammit!" Cygnus shouted.
"You've tortured her enough," Selene said with a glare towards Aiden. "She never asked for any of this."
"Even if she doesn't kill you…that won't stop us." Luke said flat out, causing a few people to turn to him with wide eyes. "What? We don't have an obligation, do we?"
"Of course not…" Waiston said with a nod.
"We're not as soft as you Fairies." Reve stated.
"It's better to leave the law to come get people like him…" Jellal added his piece onto it.
"Well, Cynthia?" Aiden asked with his smirk growing ever so wider. Her decision was coming close.
"I…" Cynthia paused for a minute. She then shook her head, glaring right into Aiden's eyes. "As much as I want to kill you…I won't."
"You won't?!" Hyde gasped, having expected her to commit that act.
"Fairy Tail mages don't take lives…" Cynthia replied while withdrawing her hand. "I've made a vow to myself to protect my friends and family…no matter the cost."
"Well, if that's how you feel…" Aiden started, but Cynthia quickly cut him off.
"BUT!" She screamed, getting right in Aiden's face as red flames flared around her. "If you EVER even think about hurting my friends and family ever again I WILL TEAR YOU APART DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"
Aiden's eyes widened at Cynthia's sudden outburst. He felt something…his heart beating rapidly. What was this…he was afraid. If she wasn't going to kill him, what WAS she going to do…!? "….Y-Yes ma'am…"
"Now…release them." Cynthia snapped her fingers, pointing to her captured friends.
"A-As you wish!" Hyde nodded, snapping his fingers once again to release the magic barrier. And shortly after that, Cynthia proceeded to knock both Aiden and Hyde out cold, a victorious grin on her face.
"And that's all she wrote!" Cynthia said while dusting her hands off, a wide grin on her face.
"That was awesome!" Wendy exclaimed while rushing towards Cynthia, throwing her arms around the girl tightly. "You scared us a little bit though, Cynthia…"
"Sorry about that…I did tell you I wouldn't break my promise though, right?" Cynthia replied. She knew exactly what Wendy was talking about but purposely avoided that subject as she wasn't sure what happened to herself in that moment.
"I'll take these two," Ace said while dragging Aiden and Hyde back inside. "After that, we can finally get back."
"I guess we're finally done here," Laxus said with a soft shrug. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to go back early. There's really no point in staying here now that the fighting is over."
"We should check on Blue Pegasus first…" Lisanna said while pointing in the direction they crashed. "The crash didn't look bad, but still…"
"You can do that stuff without me…" Erza nodded firmly, not really wanting to deal with Ichiya and his antics. She then turned to check on Knightwalker, but her Edolas counterpart already left the scene. "…"
"Told you we'd be useful," Daryan said with a grin. "If it weren't for us, you'd all be goners!"
"Shadowlore the great and Daryan totally saved the day," Shadowlore said with a smug grin. "No need to thank us."
"Don't go getting a big head now…" Carla scoffed.
"Hiruka's gonna love this story!" Daryan nodded with his grin widening. "I wish he decided to join us instead of stay back, but hey…"
"So…are we going to go home now…?" Cynthia asked.
"Mhm…" Wendy nodded, giving Cynthia a smile. "It's all over now. You beat your darkness. I'm still proud of you, you know…?"
"Heheh…" Cynthia giggled slightly, a soft smile appearing on her face. "I had to keep fighting. I could hear your voice and everyone else's when I thought I lost…I couldn't give up knowing you still believed in me."
"Enough of the sappy stuff…" Reve said with an eye roll. "It's making me sick…"
"Reve, don't be rude!" Aira scolded the gunslinger. "Let them have their moment!"
"He wouldn't know what a moment was if it slapped him across the face," Taya said with a sly grin.
"Oh yeah?" Reve asked with a raised brow, and just like that, Taya slapped him across the face, though not enough to leave that much of a sting.
"Yup." Was all Taya had to say in reply.
"Alright, alright…! Let's go ho-" Cynthia began, but was cut off by a beam striking right into her chest. Her eyes widened and her dual mode wore off, scales vanishing, eyes and hair returning to normal. "…GAH!"
"Cynthia?!" Wendy's eyes widened and she looked behind Cynthia to see where the beam was coming from. Not too far off in the distance stood two familiar figures: Joker and Heartless.
Joker held out some sort of magic extraction machine, glancing at the gauge as he stole Cynthia's magic. "So this is the power of Fiore's End? My, my…it's quite a bit, if I do say so myself, and I can see why King was after it. I knew this plan would work; just waiting for the scientist to make his move and take advantage of the winner afterwards."
"It was an excellent plan, I do admit…" Heartless nodded in agreement. While Joker stole Cynthia's magic, Heartless raised her own device in the air, sucking in the leftover magic floating around from all the fighting inside the laboratory inside and out. The gauge filled rather quickly, much to her surprise.
"That's…!" Lisanna gasped, the memory of almost dying to Joker flashing in her mind.
"Heartless…" Erza's gaze narrowed towards the female wizard. When she looked to see where Natsu was, he was already off, flames covering his fist.
"JOOOOOOKER!" Natsu screamed, leaping over Cynthia and Wendy while gunning right for Joker.
"Hm…?" Joker looked up, noticing the incoming Salamander. With an emotionless expression, he stopped draining Cynthia's magic and brought up his arm to block Natsu's attack, doing so easily. He pushed his forearm forward to push Natsu away, but Natsu merely flipped and continued his assault, determined to get a hit on Joker.
"It's about damn time you showed yourself again!" Natsu screamed, throwing punch after punch at Joker, who just blocked them all easily. Natsu let out a grunt of frustration, then attempted a fiery roundhouse at Joker's skull, but the Dealer ace easily avoided the blow by leaning back. "DAMMIT!"
"Enough…" Joker spoke in a monotonous voice, smacking Natsu down to the ground with a single blow, immediately stepping on his face with his boot after. "There we go…you're voice irritates me…"
"NATSU!" Lucy shouted, quickly running over in attempt to stop Joker.
"Sorry, but I cannot allow you to intervene…" Heartless said to Lucy while swiping her hand forward. "Taurus Fire, Gemini Spark, it's time to play." And on that cue, Taurus Fire appeared in a pillar of flame while Gemini Spark Blue and Red both appeared in a flash of lightning, standing in Lucy's way.
Lucy skidded to a halt, eyes wide at her two spirits. "T-Taurus…! Gemini!"
"They look so different…" Levy blinked a few times, unable to believe it. "Wait, Lu-chan, watch out…!"
"Gemini Spark, if you would…" Heartless said while pointing at Lucy.
"Gemini!" The two twins started, connecting their arms together while a large surge of electricity gathered on their conjoined arms. "Thunder!" They both exclaimed, unleashing a large beam of lightning towards Lucy.
"Why is it always lightning!?" Lucy questioned before diving down to the ground, an explosion of lightning blowing her away only slightly.
"Taurus Fire," Heartless continued.
"MRRRGH!" Taurus mooed, exhaling a large column of fire from his mouth to incinerate Lucy.
"Not so fast!" Gray shouted, throwing his hands forward. "Ice Make: Freeze Lancer!" And from a blue magic seal, multiple lances of ice shot out.
"Ice Dragon's Roar!" Waiston shouted while blowing out a funnel of sharp, cold ice to assist Gray.
"Ice God's Bellow!" Yakuza shouted, mixing in his funnel of black ice with Gray and Waiston's attack. The ice unison raid collided with Taurus Fire's Fire Breath, only to result in a large explosion of ice and ice that blew everyone (save for Joker, Heartless, Gildarts, and Sidney) away.
"Ugh…" Lucy rubbed her head. "My spirits…what have you done to them…!?"
"Making better use of them, obviously…" Heartless replied with a scoff. When she looked up, she noticed Erza coming down with a sword, so she jumped out of the way, the two exchanging glares in the meantime. Erza went for another swing, but...it was then that Minerva appeared in front of Erza, her hand clad in Territory, easily fending her sword off.
"What...!?" Erza's eyes widened at the sight of her old foe. "Minerva?!" The two slid back. "Why are you here?!"
"I'm here with Dealer." Minerva responded with a sinister grin. "When I heard that Dealer was fighting against Fairy Tail, I thought this would be my chance for revenge against you. I have eyes for you, and only you, Scarlet!" Erza sucked her teeth in response. It was already a mess with Joker and Heartless here; Minerva was quite literally the last person they needed to deal with right now.
"MMMF!" Natsu screamed, though it was all muffled since he was being crushed under Joker's boot.
"What's that?" Joker said while increasing the pressure on Natsu's face. "I can't hear you over the sound of my foot crushing your skull."
"Mmm…." Natsu said as his cheeks began to inflate, though Joker caught onto it a second too late. "OF THE FIRE DRAGON!" Natsu unleashed his roar upon Joker's foot, causing Joker to pull away with his boot now burned. "HA!" Natsu sprang up immediately, aiming a fist at Joker's face, but Joker just knocked Natsu away. Natsu was stunned from that impact, and wasn't going to have the time to recover. Joker was about to pursue, but Lisanna stood between Joker and Natsu.
"JOKER!" Lisanna said, shifting into her Tigress takeover.
Joker lifted a brow. "You live? I was certain I wiped your existence from Earthland. How pitiable. Was it Ace?"
"..." Lisanna didn't respond.
"You stand before me now, despite knowing the gap in our power?" Joker tilted his head. "You are still weak. I will remind you of the pecking order of this world." He pointed his arm forward, releasing a barrage of missiles upon Lisanna.
Lisanna darted forward without fear, weaving through the missiles easily. "You said that the strong eat the weak in this world, but that's not why the strong exist! The strong exist...so they can protect the weak! And I'm not going to let you hurt anyone that I care about anymore!" She lunged forward, spinning around while slashing at Joker's chest for a direct hit. "Wild Tiger Claw!"
Joker, however, was unfazed from the impact. In fact, he was disgusted that Lisanna had the audacity to charge at him. Before Lisanna had the chance to finish her attack, Joker's fist struck her stomach and he punched her away. He knocked the wind out of her and she was sprawled on the ground, heavily damaged from just that one attack. "I don't have time to play with you." But he noticed that despite her pain, she was...smiling? "Why are you..."
"I told you...you wouldn't hurt anyone else..." Lisanna had one eye clenched shut.
"...!" Joker realized that Natsu was no longer down. He turned, clashing fists with Natsu at the last second.
"Thanks, Lisanna! I'll make sure to pay him back for everything he's done to you!" Natsu roared. He tried to overpower Joker, but the two of them just ended up rebounding off of each other.
"So this is Dealer's top forces." Meredy said while chewing on her lip. She could feel the power emanating from Joker once again, and she got that strange feeling.
"This isn't good." Ultear said with a sweat drop. Joker already caused them plenty of problems, but Heartless and now Minerva?
"So, that's Joker, huh…?" Gildarts asked while cracking his knuckles.
"He's mine," Sidney told Gildarts.
"Sorry, but we're on tight time…" Heartless told the two aces, snapping her fingers once again. "Spark B, do your work."
"Of course!" Spark B nodded vigorously and pointed his hands towards the large group of mages. "Don't get mad now, though, I doubt you'll be able to help it!" And with that, a red wave shot out of his hands, covering all the mages. Suddenly, they all began to feel extremely irritable and angry.
"Why am I so mad…!?" Lisanna said while placing both her hands on her head.
"I just…" Gildarts said while crash magic began to build on his fist. "Have the urge to punch something!"
"No wait…!" Zalen shouted angrily, but it was too late. Gildarts punched the ground and his incredible power blew everyone away, all sprawled across the ground. Gildarts let out so much power he ended up on the ground himself, feeling like he was on a hangover now.
"Heh…" Spark B cut off his wave, grinning cockily. "All done, Lady Heartless!"
"Beautiful," Heartless said with a nod. "Now, let's get going back."
"Pitiful Wizards…" Joker scoffed. "If that's all the power you have, then you have no chance of stopping Dealer's Grand Scheme."
"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING, JOKER?!" Ace shouted from above, blade at the ready. He slashed his blade down, but Joker blocked it with his forearm, the resulting collision producing a minor shockwave.
"About time…" Cynthia said with a small groan.
"Hmph…" Sidney scoffed, standing up like nothing happened, and just crossed his arms, watching Ace vs. Joker.
"Ace, I was wondering when you'd show up…" Joker said with a slight smirk. "I can see you've grown stronger." The two pulled apart, only to enter a fierce close combat. Ace kept swinging his blade at Joker, but Joker only played defense, evading each and every slash. "But even still you should know that you cannot surpass me! I've always been the strongest out of us both."
"Maybe that was true back then!" Ace said while jumping back, allowing both of his arms to cover with Vulcan cannons. "But this is now, and I've learned some new tricks! Mad Vulcan x2!" The Vulcans began to spin before unleashing a rapid mass of bullets towards Joker's location.
"Tch…" Joker scoffed, stepping on the ground shortly after, creating three large giga pillars that easily defending him from the Vulcan bullets. He dispersed the pillars shortly after, changing his arm into a type of cannon. "Missile Barrage!" Joker exclaimed, unleashing missiles that were twice as fast as the bullets Ace sent towards him.
"Barrier!" Ace called out quickly, creating a barrier around him. The missiles repeatedly slammed into the barrier, cracking it with each it.
"Even Ace is having trouble…" "Wendy said while lifting herself up slowly.
"Joker, we're running out of time," Heartless commented.
"That's right…" Joker stopped his assault on Ace's ready to break shield and sighed. "We'll have to finish this another time, Ace. Or perhaps, we'll never get the chance to do this again…who knows?"
"We're not done yet!" Ace shouted while deactivating his shield, rushing towards Joker with his wings spread out. "I'll finish this right here; WING BLADE!"
"You'll never learn…" Joker sighed and stuck his hand out, causing Ace to stop suddenly, leaving just about everyone wide eyed.
"…!" Ace gasped, finding his body completely out of his control. "W-What the…!?"
"I see you haven't used "that" form of yours in a long time…" As Joker spoke, a red orb appeared on his palm. Sparks began to form on Ace's body and he screamed out in agony.
"What do you think you're doing?" Minerva glared at Joker. "Things were just getting exciting!"
"There is no time to play with your food." Joker replied, cutting Minerva's fun short.
"This is the second time..." Minerva scowled. "You really don't know how to savor a meal..."
"A-Ace?!" Lisanna called out to Ace, but it looked like there was no effect.
"Y-You guys…have to…get out of here…!" Ace pleaded before being consumed within a flash of light, blinding just about everyone. When the light faded, Ace's armor had a completely different appearance. The colors were two shades of green, one dark green and the other just slightly lighter. Red lines adorned parts of his armor, and his eyes were blazing red. "Acid Ace: Black Battalion online."
"W-What is that?!" Happy asked.
"I-I don't know…" Lisanna gulped. "I've never seen that before…"
"Now then…Ace, how about you deal with your friends?" Joker asked with a sly grin. Ace growled, and then suddenly lunged at Joker with a powerful swipe, nearly catching Joker off guard. "…!" Joker grunted and managed to dodge the attack just in the nick of time, scoffing afterwards. "He's still managing to resist me…?"
"Joker," Said Heartless, tapping her foot on the ground.
"Oh, right…" Joker nodded, waving a hand dismissively towards the group of wizards. "Oh, how he'll feel when he comes to and finds that he's taken out the only people he could trust to try and defeat us…"
"DAMN YOU, JOKER, WAIT!" Natsu screamed at the top of his lungs, rushing towards Joker. "GET BACK HERE!" Natsu swung, but by the time his fist reached Joker, he, Heartless, Minerva, and the two spirits already teleported away. "Dammit!"
With Joker gone, Ace turned to the group of wizards, keeping his wings spread out. "Wing Blade." He spoke in a monotonous tone, suddenly rushing forward with literal blinding speed. On his charge, he didn't actually hit anyone, but flew past them. A second after that, the ground shattered and a powerful shockwave exploded from the path his wings traveled, knocking everyone away.
"He is way too strong right now…!" Cygnus said with a grunt.
"We have to take him down…" Daryan said while standing up.
"Wait!" Lisanna pleaded. "Who knows what could happen to him in his current condition! If we fight him…"
"She's right…" Aira nodded. "Ace has a condition similar to Master Calium…if he pushes himself too hard, the results for him won't be pretty…"
"So what do you suggest we do?!" Gajeel asked with an annoyed tone. "I don't know about you guys, but I sure as hell ain't gonna stand around and be a punching bag!"
"Remember, Ace can't fight for very long!" Lisanna reminded Gajeel. "If we can just hold out until he changes back…!"
"While you guys are thinking of a plan, he's coming back!" Shadowlore flailed.
Ace was coming back with another Wing Blade, but this time he was stopped by Gildarts who blocked Ace's pathway with his elbow. The two collided caused another shockwave to boom out, causing everyone to stagger back. "We'll take care of this!" Gildarts grunted.
"We…?" Chelia asked. She then saw Sidney behind Ace, preparing a high kick.
"Don't make it sound like I'm working with you," Sidney replied before swinging his leg at the back of Ace's head. Ace was incredibly responsive in his BB form, so he vanished before the kick even connected. "His strength has improved with this armor, but it's clear he won't be able to sustain this for longer than a few minutes."
"With this power, a few minutes may just be enough to get almost any job done," Gildarts commented.
"Give the Aces some space, people!" Reve barked orders, ushering everyone away from Gildarts and Sidney. "Knowing Sidney, this is gonna be…"
"Above," Gildarts said to Sidney.
"I know." Sidney replied shortly to Gildarts. Both wizards looked up, spotting Ace above with two Vulcan guns for arms once again. He fired these rapid launching bullets towards the two aces, focusing on both of them with one arm respectively.
"Heh…" Gildarts grinned, bringing up his cape to defend himself from the bullets, which managed to tear holes in his already beat up cape. "Ace ain't half bad."
Sidney vanished in a puff of smoke, appearing in front of Ace this time. He swung both hands down for a hammer fist atop Ace's head, but the crazed male managed to dodge this as well, vanishing within a blur invisible to the naked and even trained eye. "…" Sidney stayed silent and just fell down to the ground, where Ace attempted to sneak up on Sidney and impale him with his blade. Sidney's body went transparent, allowing Ace's sword to just phase right through him.
That's when Gildarts came in, pointing his hand at the back of Ace's head, unleashing a quick beam of Crash Magic towards Ace. Ace stumbled forward through Sidney and rolled across the ground, but caught himself, looking rather unaffected by the Crash Beam. "Oh…?"
"Super Armor…" Erza mumbled.
"What's that…?" Cynthia asked while wincing.
"A legendary type of armor that grants immunity to just about any attack, no matter how strong…it's immune to just about everything with magic…at least, that's what the rumors say. There aren't many armor types like that in Earthland, so it amazes me how Ace managed to get his hands on a pair…"
"He is a former member of Dealer, right…?" Levy asked. "If that's the case…I'm not so sure I want to know where he got that armor…or rather how…"
Ace thought it was time to finish this. He raised his hand above his head, creating a small black hole on the tip of his finger. The black hole kicked up raging winds that nearly drew everyone in, and this wasn't even the start. "Black…" Ace began, but he then stopped, finally beginning to come to his senses. "Ngh…" He dropped his hand, his body flashing from his armor to normal. After a few seconds, he returned to normal, and dropped to the ground shortly after, losing consciousness.
"There it is…" Gildarts said with a heavy exhale.
"Ace!" Lisanna, Wendy, Aira, and Chelia rushed over to the unconscious Ace.
"Is he alright…?" Zalen asked.
"He's still breathing, though it's a bit light…" Aira said with a serious facial expression, "Let's get him inside, he needs to rest."
"I second that idea…" Cynthia said with a dizzy wave. "I think we could all use a little rest, too…"
.
.
Natsu: "Those Dealer bastards! I swear I'll make them pay!"
Lucy: "Natsu, I understand you're angry, but we can't do anything when we don't even know where they are…"
King: "And now, finally, the operation can begin! Behold, as Fiore will be the first place to fall!"
Next Time: Operation: Endgame!