Laxus and the others emerged from the boundary of Worth Woodsea to what had to once be a fairly splendorous place. A window in the shape of a heart was cracked in half. Laxus almost laughed at the sight. The walls were faded pink, with splotches of dirt marring the walls that were stained from years of neglect and abandonment. Laxus folded his arms.
"You really think they're still here?" Laxus asked.
"If not then we may have an indication for where they've gone," Makarov said. "I highly doubt they are still at the Blue Pegasus guild hall, which means they will have fallen back here, to Bob's Palace."
"Doesn't look all that fortified," Laxus said.
"Looks can be deceiving," Makarov said. "Come. Any defenses here should recognize us as allies of Blue Pegasus, given we still have our guild marks."
Laxus nodded. Evergreen walked with them, as she was getting better about handling the Broken magic within her. She had the ability to at last close her eyes if she felt the onset of the urge to act on the Empire's will approaching. Just a day ago, that would have been a miracle.
The doors were still closed. Maybe there were still people here. Makarov opened the door.
Laxus took point, Fried just behind him. Bickslow walked side-by-side with Evergreen while Gramps inspected something on the door, maybe just something Guild Masters knew to look for.
The rest of the place looked like the outside: beaten up and abandoned. Wood creaked in the introduced breeze from the open door as rafters and banisters hung on strands from falling up above. Doors were blown open, walls were destroyed.
"Empire did this place over, that's for sure," Laxus said.
"It's a shame," Fried said. "That they would come to such a remote place and perform this."
"Gotta be thorough," Evergreen muttered.
"Want me to send the babies?" Bickslow asked. "They can scout things out."
"Hold on a moment, Bickslow," Makarov said, stepping up. "That may not be necessary."
Something skittered. Debris trickled down on Laxus. The rest of the wizards pretended not to notice. Laxus kept his arms folded but stirred his magic.
"It would be frugal to split up," Makarov said. "Our best plan is to stay together. From my few stays here, I can tell you that this is not a large place."
"Right," Laxus said. A flower drifted by his feet. From inside. More debris, this time from behind. Makarov put his hands together.
Evergreen raised a hand to her head and closed her eyes, groaning while she forced back the Broken urge. Biscklow rested a hand on her back.
"Lead the way, Gramps," Laxus said.
Makarov nodded. He moved a few steps, and when Laxus did, he heard the definitive sound of scabbard meeting steel from above.
Laxus spun and blasted lightning at the figure dropping on them: one who had two massive scythes already in a swinging arc down toward them. The lightning deflected off of one scythe while the other continued.
"Justu Shiki!" Fried shouted, and the rune wall shot between them to brace the assassin between the Thunder Tribe.
However, with the other scythe, he cut right through it. He landed and with incredible speed cut out toward Bickslow, but Fried, hand already on his rapier, deftly stepped in the way and parried the blow.
At once, Laxus was yanked away by some unseen force. He managed to turn his head to a bald... flagman. Laxus roared his lightning to life, two bolts almost striking the guy.
He was stopped, at once, by the arrival of vines coming out of the ground and the walls to snap around his legs and neck.
Bickslow's dolls ripped through the vines and zipped back to his side as a woman descended on him, appearing from a whirlwind of paper. Makarov remained precisely where he was as a hulking man stared him down, and a woman in pink and green stepped free of some shadows.
Laxus's foe waved nonchalantly at him.
"So," Laxus said. "Imperials?"
"We are the Garou Knights," the man in front of Laxus said. "The greatest execution squad the Empire has."
"Did you follow us?" Laxus asked.
The man shook his head. "You're our lucky catch of the day. We thought we'd be able to finish off the rest of Blue Pegasus, but here you all are instead. You defeated General Minerva and General Orga, didn't you? Hmm. Interesting. But then, there were more of you before, weren't there?"
He raised hands, ones that were quite large, as the battles behind Laxus intensified. Fried continued the fight with the scythe-wielding man, one who continually cut through Fried's magic, while Biskslow was chased around by that paper woman. Gramps was having a pretty decent chat, it seemed, with the other two assassins.
"I'll get this over with quick, then," Laxus said. "Lightning Dragon Breakdown Fist!"
Laxus reared back and sent the punch flying at the man, who raised his flag pole.
"Terrain Effect: Gravity Zone!"
At once, the fist was redirected right into the ground, causing an explosion but nothing more. The man giggled at Laxus before,
"Terrain Effect: Gale Force Wind Zone!"
Laxus flew back through two pillars of stone but caught himself as the man waved at him, and then lowered the flag pole toward Laxus. The Lightning Dragon Slayer was faster.
"Lightning Dragon Roar!"
But once again, the spell redirected into the ground. Whatever that gravity spell was had the strength to redirect lightning? Damn. Maybe these guys were worth their name.
"Look out!"
Laxus moved away, quickly, from the oncoming strike of the scythe guy. Fried had transformed, taking on his more demonic form, which seemed to even the fight quite a bit. Bickslow looked like he had an upper hand on the paper lady as he had his dolls firing off quick spells she could barely keep up with.
So, what was Laxus doing wasting time with this guy?
He bolted at his opponent, already feeling the effects from the fringe of the gravity area.
"Terrain Effect: Plus White Night Zone!"
His body glowed a brilliant color, and with a flash, he blinded Laxus, who veered off course into a wall.
This, Laxus thought as he picked himself up, was simply embarrassing.
"I'd give up now," the flag pole guy said. "Really. It'll be easier to kill you if you just sit—"
A lightning fist slammed into his chest, then the flag guy blasted away. Laxus stood up, finishing him off with a Lightning Dragon Jaw attack that eradicated the wall that the guy slammed into.
"You relied on your gravity," Laxus said. "But you didn't even have any real power to begin with."
He turned to help his grandfather, who was still unmoving. What the hell was the old man—
"Oh," Laxus said.
His two opponents were turned, completely, to stone. Evergreen was just behind Makarov, braced on one knee. Had she truly fought through her Broken magic to control it enough to help the rest of them?
The paper lady flew across the room, crumpling to the ground. Laxus glanced over his shoulder at the scythe guy, who missed Fried one more time with his scythe before Fried cast a powerful spell right in his gut that sent him flying into the air, and then he crashed to the ground.
"Well done, everyone," Makarov said.
A hand reached out of the ground and grasped the two stone people, then dragged them down under. Laxus rolled his eyes.
"Great," Laxus said. "Another one of these freaks."
"Not quite," Makarov said.
All the other Garou Knights were whisked away in a similar fashion, and once they were all gone, out from one of the walls emerged a man in a frilly pink dress. He was bald with a round, plump face. Two angel wings fluttered on his back, slow at first until his eyes descended on the Fairy Tail wizards.
"Ah," he said, and a tear formed in his eye. "There you are."
"Bob," Makarov said, a smile forming on his tired face. "Old friend. It is good to see you."
"You have no idea," Bob said and rushed to Makarov. The two old geezers embraced, Bob quivering as they let out some more tears. Makarov reached a hand around Bob's rather large back to pat it and try to calm the man down some.
Bob took a seat in front of Makarov, who joined him. The Thunder Tribe stood in a semi-circle behind Makarov.
"I can take you to the guild hall soon," Bob said. "We've, so far, been able to hold off the Empire's advances. Well…for the most part. Those Garou Knights have hounded my guild for years."
"They're done for now," Makarov said.
Laxus nodded. "And any other Imperials have to deal with us, now."
"Thank you, sweet boy," Bob said, a wane smile on his lips. "Oh, Makarov, I was so relieved when I heard from Hisui that you were still alive."
"You've been in communication with Hisui?"
"Scantly. The poor girl is so busy, always running around, always facing a crisis."
Makarov pursed his lips. "Speaking of such crises, Bob. We have a great favor to ask of you."
Evergreen stepped forward, who was looking away, eyes closed.
"Our dear Evergreen almost became a Broken wizard," Makarov said. "I overheard Hisui say you have a procedure for undoing this."
"I do," Bob said. "It's quite painful, dear."
"Anything to get the Empire out of my head," Evergreen said. "Please."
"Then of course we can help," Bob said. He helped Makarov get up as he stood. "Just as you helped us at last deal with these wretches. It's good to have their stain at last removed from the world after what they've done."
Laxus understood just what Bob was saying. Makarov was the one to ask, to break the damn. Sometimes, though hard, one had to admit just what they'd lost to understand the weight of their relief.
"How many did they take?" Makarov asked.
"Most of the guild," Bob said, softly. "My dear Jenny escaped their wrath but was eradicated by their Ethereal Witch. My special unit, the Trimens…of them, only Ichiya is the survivor."
"He's always been pretty strong," Makarov said. "That doesn't surprise me. They can rest easy, now, Bob."
"I wish," Bob said, a haunted look descending on him. "They didn't have to rest at all."
Unlike that weird first day, the wizards competing in the initial battle Royale didn't have to show up hours and hours before the event. Natsu rolled up to the arena with only about ten minutes to spare, even though Wendy, Juvia, and Gajeel went along way ahead of him.
Very few wizards looked nervous at all. Most were teeming to get going by the time Natsu arrived in the room. Juvia was antsy, hardly able to stay still.
"That vile woman Lucy is probably in there just…just…all over my darling Gray," Juvia muttered. "I must pass. I must get to the next round so I may thoroughly defeat her in combat."
"Would you relax?" Gajeel asked, bonking her on the head. "Focus on what we have to do here."
"This'll be a piece of cake, what're you talking about?" Natsu asked.
"If we had access to all of our magic, maybe," Gajeel muttered. "These two have it easy."
Wendy beamed. "It's true. But I can help you guys out."
"This is rich," Gajeel said. "The pipsqueak is gonna help us again. Hear that, Salamander?"
"Thanks, Wendy, but I think I'll be fine on my own," Natsu said. "Not like I can't ruffle a few feathers with my own fire."
"Then you better watch out," Gajeel said.
He and Natsu slammed heads, sneering at one another.
"Why, looking to pick a fight already? I'll meet you in the middle, big guy," Natsu said.
"You better be running for your life, Salamander," Gajeel said.
Juvia slipped between the two and shoved them apart.
"It'll be better for our sake if we're all able to advance together," Juvia said. "Not that I'm suggesting we work together, but we can keep an eye out for one another."
"Just one eye," Natsu said, leering at Gajeel, who did the same in return.
The other eye, Natsu and hopefully the others knew, would be watching out for that Dragon Slayer. Axel.
The doors opened unceremoniously, and the clump of wizards filed into the tunnel. It was different from the other one, as this room was smaller, and the tunnel thinner. Still, the crowd roared at their arrival.
Everyone still maintained their disguises. Natsu missed having his scarf. Wendy was taking great care of it. He adjusted the hat on his head. The thing was a tad small, but, it protected his hair from standing out. He opened and closed his fists as everyone stepped into the arena.
The MC appeared with dozens of lacrima screens over everyone's head. The arena was massive, quite large enough for a good fight.
He explained the rules of the match, which were incredibly straightforward: the fighting would go on until there were only eight people conscious. All magic was allowed. All manner of fighting was allowed. Simply put, the stands were off-limits, meaning nobody could manipulate the audience into the fighting, and there was no running or hiding in the stands. Falling into them was off-limits and would lead to an immediate disqualification.
The MC snapped, and ethereal hands randomly grabbed the wizards and yanked them to different places in the arena, so not everyone was clumped together. Natsu did not stand far away from Juvia, and Wendy had been flung all the way across the arena. Axel was nowhere to be seen, though Natsu still maintained his scent.
The countdown began overhead. Natsu ignited his fists. Other wizards brandished weapons and wands to prepare their magic.
"Come on, then," Natsu said. "Let's see what seven years did to you all."
BUZZ! BANG!
Everyone moved. Natsu braced himself, then dodged beneath the swing of a sword that arced lightning. Natsu almost absorbed it out of instinct, then kicked away that wizard and launched a fireball at an oncoming crowd, that really, was just one wizard having used cloning magic.
Natsu leaped into the air, shooting a plume of fire down at another wizard who was also using water magic, but this guy did it out of a wand. He evaded Natsu, having on some sort of shoes that increased his speed. He blitzed Natsu, realizing his elemental superiority, and whipped the wand around. Magic circles formed over Natsu, who unleashed a massive wave of heat to evaporate the water at once.
"Gonna need to try better than that!" Natsu shouted, and punched the wizard straight in the face, sending him into a wall.
He jumped over the low-kick of a martial arts wizard, whose speedy legs did manage to clock Natsu twice before he could put up a guard. Natsu grabbed this one by the chest and flung him away, chasing it with a fireball that Gajeel, of all people, knocked away so he could slam the wizard with an iron boot.
"Hey!" Natsu shouted. "That was mine!"
"Not if you didn't finish it!"
Natsu snarled. "Jerk."
The fighting found him. He did make it easy to do so and found that this was a great way to spar. More than a couple of wizards gave him pause, as they had either unique or hidden magic that Natsu had to figure out for a second before he barreled right through it.
The initial wave thinned out, giving the stronger fighters much more room to come to blows. Natsu charged one wizard who was using the stone of the arena walls to his advantage. Natsu slammed into them, but the stone was so compactly collected that he couldn't break through it. Natsu bounced off.
"Oh, that's good," Natsu said. "Now, try this! Fire Drag—!"
A wave of cold water slammed over him as Juvia soared by on a wave of her own water magic, pouring over the stone wizard. Wendy swooped in from behind his stone, where he was defenseless, and used a powerful gust of wind to knock him into the wall.
"Hey!" Natsu exclaimed.
"No signature magic!" Juvia hissed at Natsu.
Even Wendy waggled her finger at Natsu. He stepped through a puddle and huffed.
Twice more Juvia had to give Natsu a bath to put out his flames, even if it lasted for a second. He couldn't help getting caught in the heat of the moment.
Only once did he and Gajeel come to blows, as the two bumped into one another, accused each other of almost tripping and breaking up their momentum, and then punched one another hard in the face. Wendy managed to break them up with her spell.
She was the real winner of the whole event, moving with grace and speed across the arena as she used the wind to her advantage by knocking people over into other attacks or drawing them toward Natsu or Gajeel.
Natsu's arms ached and his legs throbbed from the running around but he didn't think he was tired at all.
Ten remained. Natsu opened and closed his fists again, summoning more fire. Axel stood among a slew of bodies. He leaned back on them with a dirty smile on his face, as if the rest of the Royale would come down to who could face him.
None of the Fairy Tail wizards bothered. Natsu didn't want this to be their arena if they did have to fight. They would need the entire arena for that.
A hulking man stomped down on another wizard, taking him out of the fight. Nine left. Natsu geared up to take that guy on as one of Wendy's spells impacted him but it was as if he felt nothing. Gajeel noticed the same thing.
No. Natsu wouldn't lose a race to that guy.
He blitzed the big guy. Gajeel did the same. Natsu ushered in a teeny tiny bit of lightning magic. The man noticed him, summoning up a crap ton of magic into just a single palm.
Once more, Natsu couldn't help himself.
"Fire Dragon!"
BUZZ.
Natsu slid to a halt just as the big man was about to swing down at Natsu. The last competitor dropped to the ground, knocked out by Juvia. All of Fairy Tail and Axel remained, plus whoever this big guy was and two others.
Natsu lowered his fist. The big man did the same only after Natsu did.
"That's a lot of magic you've got there," Natsu said.
"I would not expect you to hold back on me as you had that entire time," the man said. "Do not make that mistake again. It will cost you your life."
Man, everyone just had such a bad attitude at this tournament. Well, everyone except Fairy Tail.
Natsu met with the others on their way out of the tunnel while guards came to help pickup the bodies. Natsu and Wendy checked on a few on their way out. Natsu gravely didn't tell Wendy that one that he passed was dead with a diamond lodged in the side of his chest.
He stole a final look at Axel, who hadn't broken a sweat that entire time. Axel locked eyes with Natsu, made nothing of it, and spoke with the approaching guards. Natsu shook it off, adjusted the hat on his head, and followed his friends.
A bulky shadow loomed over Mirajane as she approached the far west hangar with a tray of water bowls in hand. Incredible power radiated from them, as well as something more. Something foul.
"What are you doing?" Torafuzar asked, voice unfurling from the underworld. "Get back to your station."
"The work at that station is complete," Mirajane said, her voice calm. "I was released from there. My friends have moved onto the next, and I noticed that some of the other workers did not look well."
"They work until they cannot," Torafuzar said. "As should you."
"This will make them more productive."
Torafuzar didn't leer, didn't growl, didn't do anything. He simply stared at her. He stood a good foot taller than her, and several times wider. His hard scales gave way to no sunlight as if there were any there. A perpetual storm seemed ready to roll in over the coast at any moment.
"You have jobs to do. The Emperor does not tolerate slow work."
He slapped the bowls of water away out of Mirajane's hands. She flinched only at the speed of the movement, not the power. Then, with one hand, he grabbed her face and began to squeeze. She grunted against it but didn't fight back to betray her strength.
"I will not catch you acting out again," Torafuzar said. "Or I shall squash you like the bug you are, woman."
He released her. Mira stumbled back.
"Clean that up, first," Torafuzar said. "Get rid of it. And then, you're to work at Hangar Five until dawn."
It was just past midday.
"Of course," Mirajane said.
"Then, I expect your typical work detail."
That often started at dawn and lasted until mid-morning.
"Of course," Mirajane said.
Torafuzar huffed. "I will not see you take a single break. Not a morsel of food or drink. Engage in conversation that hinders your work and I will rip out your tongue and feed it to you. I hope the picture is quite clear."
"Of course," Mirajane said one final time.
Another official called Torafuzar away. Mira stooped, gathering the tray and some broken pieces of bowl, and strode back to where she found them. Without a word, she discarded them.
Maybe she was supposed to be afraid of him. He certainly wished to make that impression. Yet, all Mirajane could summon were feelings of pity and remorse for those around her who suffered beneath his heel. They were hungry, parched, and most of all, defenseless against Torafuzar and his threats. Mirajane could only shudder at what the soldiers were trying to push on all of them.
She arrived at Hangar Five, where Lahar greeted her. Lisanna and Levy were hard at work at the back of the hangar trying to fix a broken bit of the wall after one of the airships, because the pilot was new, crashed into the wall. Said airship received a bit of extensive damage and Lahar was leading efforts to repair it.
Mira hoisted the wing up by herself. Lahar blinked at her.
"I often forget your strength."
"My true strengths aren't here."
Lahar grimly nodded. "I saw that little display. It's unwise to act out against Torafuzar so brazenly when he's been watching us. I overheard that they are suspicious of you three for willingly enlisting."
"Hopefully our good work can belay those concerns," Mira said.
She lowered the wing as Lahar requested. He stepped closer to her, both for the next procedure in the repair and to speak quietly,
"It has to be you, Mirajane, that defeats him. Nobody here has the strength to do so, not even Levy. The Tartaros Division has always been close to Zeref, and he only keeps the strongest near to him. Acting out, getting yourself noticed? It'll be impossible to get the drop on him." Lahar sighed.
Mirajane interrupted him as he started to speak, "I can't let these people suffer, though, Lahar. Look at them. Even a simple bowl of water would help them. How can I help myself?"
"Because," Lahar said, his words cutting across Mira's, "we are going to have much bigger issues than that in a few days. The Empire is coming."
"The Empire is here, Lahar."
He shook his head, trying to find the right words. Mirajane picked up a few parts for him and he set them in place. Mira used her strength to secure them.
"Two Generals of the Twilight Division, Sorano and Neinhart, are going to Alikistasia soon. They'll need the airfield for that. Mirajane, they're going to work us to death to make sure the place is ready."
Mirajane nodded. She would not let these people suffer but with that pressure? What was she to do?
Well, she knew what to do.
Free them.
But how long until they Imperials arrived? How long until she could figure out a plan, with Lahar, Levy, and Lisanna, to defeat Torafuzar and get everyone away? Would they need to steal an airship, or just make a run for it?
"So we'll survive," Mirajane said. "Like we always do."
