Chapter Twenty-Eight
Can You Outrun Lightning?
"Think again, Salamander! I'm not here to soak up some volts for you," Gajeel shook his head, looking the other way.
"When I break through the barrier it will close up again, and you'll still be stuck here unless you're with me. When we do break free, you cover the top of the guild in iron poles and we scatter, I'll try not to be flash-fried and then we go find Laxus, sound like a plan?" Natsu asked hopefully.
"It sounds like a terrible plan, you're just trying to get us both killed!" Gajeel shouted, glaring at the fellow Slayer.
"The only other option is to wait and hope that Titania can find this Frieza guy-" Natsu waved at the barrier.
"Fried," Makarov corrected him.
"-and pulverises the sorry sack so that he drops the barrier."
"D'ya really think Erza is up to taking down Laxus?" Gajeel grunted, staring at the information scrawled across the barrier.
"She took me down," Natsu shrugged, not having much more of an opinion on it than that.
They'd fallen into an awkward silence, all three of them unable to do anything to help. One by one the count of active combatants dropped until it was just three left.
"Looks like it's just Erza out there now, we're probably the other two in that count." Gajeel snorted.
"Honestly, I don't know why she doesn't just hit the brand and summon me," Natsu said with a slight yawn. Both Makarov and Gajeel slowly turned to look at him.
"What? She still hasn't used it yet." Natsu shrugged unhelpfully.
"Boy," Makarov had been engulfed by an ominous shadow, "Get out there and put a stop to this madness, I don't care if you have to level this building as well, stop this needless bloodshed. They're my children, and your family too!" Makarov ordered.
Natsu took a moment to observe. Such enormous power was brimming behind that usually relaxed and cheerful facade the old man held so well. This was a power reserved strictly for keeping everyone safe.
"As you wish," Natsu responded at last. He'd done nothing more than take a single step forward before the black of his eyes turned gold, irises narrowing as he approached the barrier.
He placed a palm flat against the spot that they'd been refused from. Magical energy cackled and buzzed around his hand, the barrier already straining against the physical pressure he was exerting.
Fire spewed erratically from his arm, splashing against the beams near the doors. Makarov watched as they slowly returned to their original undamaged state, albeit a lot slower than it had against the fire damage that Erza had done, but then, this wasn't simply Erza borrowing Natsu's flames, these were coming directly from the source, infinitely more potent.
There was a grunt of effort before Natsu reached back and grabbed Gajeel, pulling both of them. Towards the centre of the barrier where the Fire Dragon had been slowly but surely burning a hole.
The Dragons were free.
"Suck it Frieza," Natsu grinned to himself, feeling triumphant that even a sealing barrier hadn't been able to stop him for good.
His reverie was cut short by the sounds of lightning, cracking loudly against their eardrums.
Both Dragon Slayers looked skyward just in time to see everything turn black and several hundred giant lacrima crystals all light up at once.
"Go!" Natsu bellowed at Gajeel as the two began sprinting in different directions. Gajeel, for the most part, was trying to send iron poles in Natsu's wake, until they'd varied too far from each other and were out of his reach.
"Good luck, Salamander," Gajeel laughed darkly as the lightning lacrima all activated at once, spewing attacks that came crashing down several streets over.
Missed.
Missed.
Missed.
"I expected better, Lightning Boy!" Natsu shouted, unsure if anything he said would reach Laxus. He weaved through the streets, barely able to keep ahead of the lightning that struck the ground, scorching the stone path beneath his feet.
Natsu ducked under some market stalls before leaping up the side of a building, using momentum to take him to the rooftops.
Missed.
Missed.
Hit.
As Natsu had been mid-leap from the rooftops of one side of the street, aiming for the other, he'd been hit by a bolt that had changed direction mid-strike, slamming into his chest and sending him crashing through a window of someone's home.
"Ow." He wheezed, not feeling particularly great about it. "I'm flattered that he set up three hundred of those things for me," he muttered as he got to his feet and brushed himself off.
Standing there staring at him in wide-eyed awe was a woman in nothing but a bathrobe.
"Hi, Natsu Dragneel, Fairy Tail mage, sorry for dropping by unannounced," he said, dusting his shoulders off before glancing back out to the street, knowing that the moment he went back outside the lacrima would fire up again.
'Natsu, Erza has defeated Evergreen, and the girls have been released from stone.' Makarov's thought had reached him.
"Tell 'em I said hey, and also that any help here would be utterly fabulous because I've just experienced one of those delightful outbursts from the thunder palace. And it really stings." Natsu responded out loud, unsure and uncaring if Makarov heard him.
"Get out of my home!" The woman screamed at him, pointing at the door.
"What, the easy way? No chance. Hope to see you under better circumstances," he winked at her before stepping backwards out of the body-sized hole in the face of the house, plummeting to the ground just as the lightning began flaring to life once more.
His heels hit the ground first, his body falling into instinctive movement before the lightning struck. Once again he was trailblazing through the streets of Magnolia, this time being aggressively followed by lightning strikes.
A huge black cloud was slowly swirling above a large structure in the middle of the city. Once he was back on the rooftops, he realized that it was a cathedral.
Where was Gajeel? He'd need some iron to defend against the plasma burns he was currently being subjected to.
He couldn't stop and sense him, there was too much going on at once, and he couldn't pick up Gajeel's scent.
"A really big sign," Natsu mused, still eyeing up the hundreds of Lacrima circling above.
Forcing himself not to think about it for too long, he gathered as much magic as he currently could and jet high into the sky, the flames following him like a brilliant blaze against the darkened clouds above. Using his mastery of the element he shaped the flames into the best representation of an arrow that he could, pointing straight at the cathedral, hoping desperately that Gajeel would know what he meant.
Natsu never got the chance to think about his descent, his climb had slowed down just enough that every single lacrima in the thunder palace all activated at once, hitting their mark with unyielding accuracy and unrelenting power.
Natsu's body sailed down in an arc that made him look like a blur. He violently crashed through the closed half of the cathedral doors, coming to a halt in a pile of rubble that used to be the floor, his body smoking and charred, his eyes closed.
"Natsu?" Erza's voice echoed softly in his ears, but that was all he could do to remain conscious. All the power of the thunder palace bearing down on a single body had nearly torn him asunder.
"How could you do this to one of your own!?" Erza demanded, being the first to face off against the Lightning Dragon.
"He was the one who destroyed our guildhall, he's the reason that the magic council want to shut Fairy Tail down. It's poor decision-making like this that made me finally realize that Gramp's time has come and gone. It's time to hand down the reigns, and now that the thunder palace has done its job, you're the only one left to stand in my-" Laxus' monologue had been cut short by the slam of a wooden staff hitting the cold floor of the cathedral.
Mystogan strode past, his footsteps slow and steady, the power he held radiating around.
"And then there were three, welcome to the battle of the Fairies, Mystogan, or should I say-" Again, Laxus had been cut off, this time by Natsu who had risen to his feet impossibly fast, yet still unconscious.
"Jellal," they heard his snarl. His body had spun in their general direction but his head was still facing the ground, his ears pointed where they needed to be.
"Natsu, you have to wake up, Jellal isn't here, but Laxus is!" Erza shouted, slapping him hard across the face, though it did nothing. His body was acting on instinct alone.
"I'm amazed that he's even still alive, he was hit with the full power of the thunder palace. That would have turned anyone else into a cinder." Laxus tutted, mild annoyance seeping through.
"Take down the thunder palace, Laxus, perhaps we can play this off as something else," Mystogan said, not expecting words to do much, as was evident by the fact that with a swish of the hand, all of his staves had fallen into place in front of him.
"Haven't you ever wondered who the strongest Fairy is? We three are the contenders, now is the chance to find out." Laxus' grin had grown impossibly wide, the purple shine in his eyes growing stronger.
"I've heard that Mirajane has her power back, and of course there's Gildarts," Mystogan replied.
"Please, Mira's too kindhearted, the she-devil in her died along with Lisanna, and Gildarts? Don't make me laugh, he's never coming back, not on our lifetime. It's down to one of us, the last Fairy standing." Cracks of lightning energy began shooting across Laxus' body.
"And what about him?" Mystogan nodded at Natsu who was still standing facing them, his mind absent.
"He's a prime example of what happens when you give an idiot too much power. All that strength and what has he done with it? Nothing so far, his potential is squandered by the fact that he's unwilling to move when it doesn't suit him. I have… Friends who are interested in seeing his downfall, friends that will put Fairy Tail back on top with that idiot out of the picture." Laxus explained, swiping a hand across the air.
Lightning came crashing through the air at them. Mystogan swiped it away with a staff, Erza requipped into her Lightning Empress garb, and Natsu stood there impassively, somehow not being hit by anything.
"Natsu, what are you waiting for, wake up!" Erza screamed, trying to defend his body while the battle unfolded.
"Heavenly Body!" Mystogan had begun his chant but got no further, his entire body had been slammed against the wall, Natsu holding him by the head.
"Jellal," Natsu said as his eyes had finally opened. Mystogan's face wrap had come off from the unexpected attack. "Mystogan, Siegrain, I don't care. I hated every second that I was in your world so believe me when I say that I have less than zero patience for this conversation. Answer me clearly; are you the Jellal that made Erza cry?"
The magical pressure that surrounded them was crushing.
"You know where I'm from, you know that wasn't me." Mystogan shot back, breaking free of Natsu's grasp, and trying to pull the scarf up, but it wasn't there. His face was on show for all.
"Jellal?" Erza's voice had turned into nothing short of a whisper.
"I'm sorry you had to see this, but I'm not Jellal, despite what your pet Dragon believes." He responded before leaving in a flash, all traces of him completely gone.
"Pet?" Natsu asked, mildly offended by the Jellal lookalike.
"Against all odds, you still managed to darken my doorstep, Salamander." Laxus sucked his teeth, the possession magic growing stronger with each passing moment.
"I've had to repurpose the thunder palace seeing as though even that hasn't been able to kill you. Five minutes, after that the thunder palace will reign down death upon Magnolia indiscriminately unless Gramps hands over the guild to me." Laxus snarled, readying himself to attack.
Natsu held the stare of malice and madness that Laxus had. "Erza," he said after a tense moment of silence, "Those lacrima need to be destroyed all at once, I destroy the thunder palace without harming the people in the city." He told her slowly, making sure that she understood his words.
"But I can," she answered, turning her back on Laxus, "Requip: Heaven's Wheel!" The light faded, once again leaving Natsu with a stupid grin on his face, the blinding light not having such an effect on eyes like his.
"Stay alive," Erza told him.
"A promise is a promise," he said, reminding her about the moment they'd shared at the tower. She'd been meaning to speak to him about it but whenever she tried, he'd mysteriously vanished.
She couldn't help herself from looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Kiss for good luck?" He asked with a raised brow.
"You avoid me whenever I intend to talk to you about the tower but you have the cheek to ask for another one?" She shook her head at him, but there was a large smile and cheeks that flushed beet red before she'd run off to take on the thunder palace, armed to the teeth with several hundred swords.
'Lucy Vs. Bickslow. Winner: Lucy.' Scriptwork shot across the side of the cathedral.
"That's my Heartfilia," Natsu mused quietly, enjoying the seething look of rage that crossed Laxus' face.
'My Heartfilia. You sentimental fool.' E.N.D. voiced.
"So then, let's have ourselves a thunder battle, artificial Dragon Slayer against a Dragon King," Natsu's eyes lit up with excitement, his strength that had been snapped by the thunder palace now returning.
"Time to die, Salamander!"
A/N: Couple more chapters left of this arc before things get hilarious.