"A-And that's all 200 monsters defeated…!" Daigo said with a gulp. "Every single last one of them within the basement have been killed…I don't believe it…"
"I knew Erza could do it…!" Cana said with a wide grin. "And here you thought she'd die! That's what happens when you underestimate Erza!"
"If you don't…" Joker began in a threatening tone, but he was silenced by King.
"Joker, do not worry about it." King said while shuffling his deck. "It matters not in the end. We have a backup plan in the wings for her specfically, provided that woman can actually uphold her end of the operation. By the time they all get here…if they get here for that matter, they won't be able to progress much further. They can win all the little skirmishes they want in here, but they'll fall once reaching the throne room. I, as the King, will see to it that these lowly peasants are put in their place."
"Well said!" Daigo nodded, now taking it upon himself to leave the throne room. "I think I'll join in on the fun and take care of a few things. Adios." And with that Daigo left the room.
"A strange one…" Joker admitted with a slight shrug. Daigo always rubbed him the wrong way.
"Regardless…I've also hired some temporary mages to help out without cause. They believe they're getting a cut when the world in under my control. Oh, what greedy humans do when they think they'll be rewarded…" King chuckled quietly, finding the human mind to be a wonderous thing in an amusing way.
.
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"So you've finally arrived…" Heartless said to Lucy while crossing her arms. Behind her stood Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark; and before the trio was a pair of generators, both powered by fire and electricity respectively to the two spirits.
"Heartless…" Lucy narrowed her eyes at the S class wizard, her hands balling into tight fists. "I told you that I'd be getting my spirits back, and I never go back on my word!"
"Words mean nothing in the long run…" Heartless replied with a slight scoff. "I remember your words loud and clear, but now you're finally going to act on them, aren't you?"
"That's right!" Lucy shouted, placing a hand on her hip to get her whip ready.
"Lucy, wait!" Aira said while sliding to a stop behind the celestial blonde. "I know you want to save them but you can't just jump in there without a plan!"
"Aira-san is right!" Juvia exclaimed while stopping right next to Aira. "Juvia doesn't think this will be an easy task…"
"I have you guys behind me, right?" Lucy asked while getting her whip ready, holding it by her side. "As long as I can reach out to them, I should be able to get them back!"
"You're a fool if you think it's going to be that simple…" Heartless said whilst shaking her head.
"Huh?" Lucy blinked a few times. "But…"
"Don't you remember how long it's been since I've had them under my control?" Heartless asked. "It's true that you had a chance to get them back once, but that was because they weren't soaked in my control long enough. By the time I let you borrow them with your fight against Hollow, it was already too late. They've been under my influence for months now. You have no chance of getting them back."
"H-Huh…?" Lucy's expression changed a bit, but it then turned into a somewhat confident smirk, one that was worthy of Natsu himself. "Well…there's only one way to find out if that's really true, isn't it? We won't know unless we try!"
"Natsu-san is really rubbing off on her…" Juvia said with a slight chuckle, but she was ready to back Lucy up.
"Hopefully not too much…" Aira let out a nervous lab. Her attention was caught by the two generators, however. "What are those for…?"
"Oh, these?" Heartless pointed back to the generators behind her. "These generators were powered by these two spirits. We were just using them as another method to gather magic. We gathered a little bit from them, and since they're spirits they really can't die."
"You…!" Lucy's eyes widened at Heartless' statement. She then narrowed her eyes into a glare. "How dare you treat my spirits that way…!? You have no right!"
"Sweetie, they weren't yours the moment I took them from you," Heartless replied with a disapproving wag of her finger. "Isn't that right, Taurus Fire? Gemini Spark? How do you feel about this lady?"
"Mrrrrgh!" Taurus Fire mooed, a wild fire blazing around his body. "Such a nice body!"
"That…wasn't what I meant…" Heartless sighed, face palming.
"But Lady Heartless has an even nicer body!" Taurus Fire exclaimed, the fire growing even stronger. "So for her sake, I'll crush the other nice bodies!"
"I-I don't know how I feel about him saying it like that…" Aira said while taking a step back.
"And you, Gemini Spark?" Heartless asked while turning to face the Red and Blue twins.
"Piri Piri!" The electric twins exclaimed, pointing their fists forward. "We'll destroy them!" They gave no time for the ladies to react to their statement; Gemini Spark unleashed a powerful Gemini Thunder towards the trio of ladies, causing them all to dive out of the way from the powerful beam of lightning, causing a small explosion. The battle was now on.
.
.
Luke stopped, looking around while narrowing his eyes. "…"
Selene turned, raising a brow towards the copy mage. "What's the matter, Luke? Are you catching something we're not…?"
Luke shook his head in response. "No, it's not that…It's just…I feel like I'm missing something I should really be a part of…"
"We don't have time for that," Carla said with a stern tone. "Let's keep moving."
"Right…right…sorry." Luke nodded and continued walking, unable to shake this feeling away.
.
.
"Fire Breath!" Taurus Fire exclaimed, leaning his head forward and unleashing a huge funnel of fire in Lucy's direction.
"Water Beam!" Juvia shouted while throwing her hand forward, unleashing a beam of water that collided with the Fire Breath midway. The two attacks cancelled each other out and resulted in a massive steam cloud, covering the vision of nearly everyone.
"I can't see…!" Lucy said while looking around, trying to keep her guard up.
"Hold on…!" Aira waved her hands, creating a current of wind that blew the steam away. Unfortunately for her, the second she did so she saw Gemini Spark Blue in front of her with a fist extended.
"Electro Arm!" Spark B exclaimed, his fist rocketing right into Aira's face, resulting in an electrical explosion that blew Aira away with a yelp of pain.
"Aira!" Lucy looked over with wide eyes at the sight of Aira being blown back. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She turned, only to see Spark Red in front of her, his dominate arm charged with sharp electrical energy. "Ah…!" Lucy flailed in an almost comical manner, leaning back as Spark Red aimed a horizontal slash aimed at Lucy's chest. It didn't hit Lucy, but the shirt she was wearing was torn in half. The only thing now covering Lucy's upper body were the bandages (put on after the battle with Aiden and Hyde) and her bra. "Kyah…! Why does this always happen!"
"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Heartless asked Spark Red with a monotonous tone.
"No!" Spark Red replied, oddly defensively for claiming innocence.
"There are three of us and four of them…" Aira said while shaking off the hit she took. "We're slightly outnumbered, and I think they may be stronger than us…"
"I don't like these odds…" Juvia said while glancing at Gemini Spark. Those two were especially threatening to her. She was hoping she wouldn't have deal with them.
"Let me even them a bit, then!" Lucy shouted while pulling out a golden key from her key ring. "Loke I need you again! Gate of the Lion, I open thee!" A bell chime echoed throughout the room and out came….Virgo. "Virgo…? E-Eh?!" Lucy blinked a few times. "Where's Loke!?"
"Leo-sama is out on a date, Princess," Virgo replied with a nod. "He told me to fill in for him in case you called."
"It's only been a few hours since I last called him…!" Lucy flailed before taking a deep breath. "Oh, fine…its fine. I can use your abilities, too! Just do what you always do!"
"As you wish, Princess," Virgo nodded drilling her way into the ground with the hurry.
"Now that the numbers are finally even…" Lucy looked towards Heartless. "I'm coming right for you!" No time was wasted, the petite blonde rushed forward, whip at the ready.
"Taurus, show her a real charge," Heartless said while snapping her fingers.
"As you wish!" Taurus Fire nodded and got into position, suddenly charging head first at a near blinding speed. "MOOOOVE!"
"Lucy look out…!" Aira cried out, thinking that Lucy wasn't going to make it before whatever plan the celestial mage had worked.
Lucy kept running, and just before Taurus Fire reached her, she bent her knees and performed a high front flip, using all her leg strength to propel herself over Taurus Fire. She didn't stick the landing and landed on her stomach roughly, but it was worth it as the ground under Taurus collapsed, leaving his lower body stuck in the ground. "N-Nice timing Virgo…!"
Virgo drilled up from the ground and gave a salute. "Thank you, Princess. Is it punishment time now?"
"N-No!" Lucy replied while picking herself, continuing her dash to Heartless.
"Juvia will handle Taurus!" Juvia nodded to Aira, who went on ahead to support Lucy. Juvia then turned her attention to the stuck Taurus, wasting no time in sending multiple scythe's of water at the trapped cow. "Water Slicer!" Each blade of water struck its mark, heavily damaging Taurus Fire as a result.
"MRGGGG!" Juvia's actions only seemed to anger Taurus Fire even more. The flames of anger exploded the ground around him, freeing him rather quickly. Then, with blinding speed, he appeared in front of Juvia with a fist lit up in flames. He brought his fist down, but Juvia jumped back and avoided Taurus Fire's brunt physical force. But she wasn't expecting one thing. A column of fire erupted from below her, completely consuming her. A pained scream escaped Juvia's lips as her body began to boil from the intense heat.
"Juvia…!" Lucy couldn't help but turn along with Aira at Juvia's scream. Just then, Gemini Spark B and R lunged in, both attempting to cut the blondes with their electrical swords, but Virgo managed to stop both twins with her extended handcuffs. "V-Virgo…!"
"I can handle these two, Princess," Virgo said with a stern expression.
"Thank you!" Aira gave a smile to Virgo. "I'll go help Juvia! Don't get to reckless with Heartless, okay…?" After that, Aira ran off to help Juvia while Lucy ran off ahead to face Heartless.
"Gemini-san, the punishment for betraying Lucy-sama like this…" Virgo told the twins with a serious expression, tugging tightly on the chains around their arms to hold them still.
"It doesn't matter!" Spark R said with a grin.
"Because in the end Lady Heartless and Dealer are all that matter!" Spark B continued. Then, the two twins let loose a powerful current of electricity that traveled up the handcuffs and began to shock Virgo. She would not let such pain deter her from helping Lucy in any way she could She also wanted to see her fellow spirits return safe and sound.
"Now it's just you and me…!" Lucy exclaimed while rushing Heartless. She used her whips excellent long range capabilities to attack from a distance, attempting several lashes at Heartless while she steadily grew closer.
"Took you long enough…" Heartless replied while resting a hand on her hip. She easily avoided Lucy's lashes, leaning her body left and right, much to Lucy's annoyance. Heartless then raised her arm, allowing the whip to wrap around her hand.
"W-What…!?" Lucy instinctively tried to pull Heartless off her feet before she could try anything, but Heartless wasn't moving an inch.
"What's the matter?" Heartless asked while pulling her arm back to slowly tug Lucy forward. "I thought you wanted to get in a little closer. Like this…" Heartless then tugged her arm back, causing Lucy to fly forward. The demon then reared her free arm back and struck Lucy's stomach, causing a grunt of pain to escape Lucy's lips. The blonde hit the ground winded from the attack and could hardly muster the strength to move. Heartless placed her heel on Lucy's temple, applying some pressure. "Is that all…?" Everyone stopped what they were doing. Aira and Juvia were too occupied with Taurus Fire to help, and Virgo was too busy keeping Gemini Spark in place to help.
"This isn't good…" Aira bit her lip while looking from Taurus Fire to Lucy.
"You tried; I can give you that…" Heartless said while resting a hand on her hip once more, looking down at Lucy. "The heart is the easiest thing to destroy, you know? That's why no matter how strong a bond is, it can always be broken. Didn't you know that? No bond can last forever. Don't worry, I'll take good care of your spirits…" Heartless then raised her foot to finish Lucy, but a fist struck her cheek before she could, causing her to stagger away. "Who…!?"
"Sorry I'm late…" Loke said while holding his light covered wrist, grinning slightly.
"Loke!" Lucy and Juvia exclaimed with large grins.
"Leo-sama…!" Virgo seemed surprised that Loke arrived just in the nick of time. "I thought you were on a date for the rest of the evening…?"
"It went sour, honestly," Loke said with a shrug. "But I could tell Lucy needed me by your absence, so I summoned myself to not take away from anymore of her magic." He then looked at Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark, eyes narrowing. "So…that's what she's done to them, huh…?"
"We can handle them!" Aira exclaimed. "Take out Heartless and maybe her control over them will vanish!"
"Right…" Lucy stood up, smiling towards Loke. "I don't know what I'd do without you, Loke…"
"I can just take you out on a nice starlit night for dinner one day, I think that'll make things even," Loke said with his signature suave smile.
"Oh, whatever…" Lucy giggled before facing Heartless with a glare. "Let's take her down!"
"Right!" Loke grinned, allowing the light of Regulas to appear on both of his fists. He dashed towards Heartless and began swinging, "Regulas Impact!" He exclaimed, but every single time he swung he missed. "Tch…!"
"I got you…!" Lucy shouted while throwing her whip forward once again, wrapping it around Heartless' waist. With this, Loke was able to land a direct hit, causing Heartless to stagger back. "Ah ha!"
"Hey, enough of you!" Spark R shouted, suddenly combining strength with Spark B to begin swinging Virgo around despite the ones being caught by her chains.
"We want some action!" Spark B exclaimed.
"W-Whoa…" Virgo began to get swirls in her eyes from being swung around. Eventually she was forced to release, flipping to catch herself on the ground. She didn't have much time to get her bearings straight, as the two twins unleashed an Electro Fists at her in point blank range, the electric explosion sending the maid rolling across the floor, heavily damaged. "Ugh…I'm sorry, Princess, but I must return…" Virgo tried to return to the Spirit World, but found that she was unable to. "H-Huh…?"
"Hey, why can't Virgo go back..?!" Lucy asked.
"Because I'm no fool," Heartless replied. "I'm sure you thought closing gates of Celestial Spirits would save them, but in this room, any celestial spirit that comes in here is here to stay until I say so."
"You..!" Lucy could feel rage building up within her. How Heartless so carelessly treated her spirits, she'd had enough.
"All this fighting really has me in the moooood!" Taurus Fire exclaimed while exhaling fire from his snout, grinning towards Aira and Juvia. "Fire Breath…!" The cow exclaimed, unleashing a funnel of fire towards the two mages.
"Ha…!" Aira shouted while throwing her hands forward, a green magic seal appearing in front of her. From the seal, a tornado shot out, clashing with the Fire Breath. Her and Taurus Fire were in a deadlock, unable to overpower each other with their attacks.
Juvia turned to Gemini Spark, gulping silently at the two twins. "I'll do my best…" She murmured to herself before drawing her arm back, allowing it to extend into a watery whip. "Water Cane!" She swung her watery whip at the two twins, but they both jumped in different direction and dodged.
"Gemini…" Spark R started while pointing his arm at Juvia.
"Thunder!" Spark B finished. Both twins unleashed a powerful burst of thunder that converged on Juvia.
The lightning was especially painful for Juvia, but she grit her teeth and fought through the pain. She remembered something Blues did against Erza during the Black Phoenix tournament. Juvia dug her heel into the floor, allowing her watery body to use this as an outlet for the lightning, making it nearly ineffective. The twins were surprised she managed to get out of this and stopped, leaving Juvia to take a breath. "Whew…Thank you for being so clever, Blues-san…" (Cue a short scene where Blues sneezes off screen)
Lucy and Loke jumped back, as did Heartless. Nothing was getting done and both sides were getting aggravated. "Hmph…" Heartless snapped her fingers, calling Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark to her side. The two sides were now a few yards apart. "I grow tired of this back and forth…"
"Give me back my spirits, then…so we can make this quick!" Lucy replied while taking a step forward.
"You want them so bad?" Heartless shrugged. "Come and get them. I won't move a muscle. If you can reach me I'll give them back to you."
"That's a trap if I've ever heard one…" Aira warned Lucy, but it looked like she was going to do it anyway. "Wait…!" Aira stopped Lucy and placed a hand on her shoulder. A white light appeared around Lucy as Aira increased her stats. "I don't know what's about to happen but we have your back!"
"Thank you…" Lucy smiled and nodded to Aira before taking another step forward, breaking into a sprint towards Heartless.
"Now," Heartless snapped her fingers. On command, Taurus Fire unleashed an immensely powerful Fire Breath while Gemini Spark unleashed a Gemini Thunder, the two attacks merging together midway and raced towards Lucy to eradicate her on the spot.
"Juvia…!" Aira quickly shouted, unleashing another massive tornado to go around Lucy, fighting against the unison raid.
"Right…!" Juvia threw her hands forward, unleashing a Water Nebula that protected Lucy from the unison raid, but both females were having trouble keeping their attacks going. "H-Hurry…!"
"I'm trying…!" Lucy said while trudging forward; there wasn't much she could do with such a powerful attack pushing against her.
"I'll…" Loke started, but he could see that this was something Lucy had to do alone. But he was worried because he knew where the extreme would go.
"Princess…" Virgo mumbled.
"Ngh…" Lucy continued to trudge forward, slowly making her way close and closer to Heartless. "I'm almost there…"
"Increase the intensity," Heartless ordered. After her order, the two spirits increased the output of their attacks, pushing back heavily against Juvia and Aira's attempts.
"Gah…!" Juvia yelped, feeling herself slide across the floor. "Juvia isn't sure how much longer she can hold this…!"
"Y-You might need to retreat, Lucy…!" Aira grunted. "If we can't protect you from that attack who knows what could happen to you…!"
"But…I'm almost there…!" Lucy argued. "If I don't do anything now they'll never come back…!"
"But…!" Aira tried to argue for Lucy's safety, but it was useless. She already made her decision to save them. "You could die…!" It wasn't much longer before Aira and Juvia couldn't hold out any longer. They were both blown back by the overwhelming power of Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark, leaving Lucy to deal with the entirety of the unison raid.
"Ngh…" Lucy grunted, almost wanting to retreat right then and there. The power was too much but she was almost there. She was so close to Heartless. She reached her hands out, but that's when Heartless had the intensity rise even more. An explosion took place and Lucy was blown into the opposite wall, heavily damaged. She fell on her stomach and laid there, nearly motionless.
"Lucy…!" Loke, Aira, and Juvia ran over to Lucy while Heartless just shook her head.
"I guess you couldn't do it after all," Heartless shrugged.
"H-Heh…" Lucy let out a pained chuckle, causing everyone to look at her.
"What's so funny…?!" Heartless demanded to know.
"My target…was never you…" Lucy explained while lifting her head up, nudging to Taurus Fire and Gemini Spark.
"What…?" Heartless glanced at the two spirits, only for her eyes to widen. Lucy had placed the respective key in the chest of both spirits. She did so just before she was blown away. "How did you-!?"
Lucy brought herself to her feet, placing on hand in the air. "Taurus, Gemini! It's finally time to come back to me!" The keys within the two spirits began to shimmer brightly, becoming spheres of light that traveled to Lucy's side. "Gate of the Golden Bull, I open thee! Taurus!" From the sphere on Lucy's right, the celestial Spirit Taurus emerged in his full glory, wielding his axe.
"MOOOOOOOO!" Taurus exclaimed.
"Gate of the Twins, I open thee! Gemini!" A bell chime rang out, and out came the Celestial Spirit Gemini in their full glory.
"Piri piri!" The twins exclaimed with a grin.
"How did she pull that off…!?" Aira asked with wide eyes, completely impressed with Lucy's maneuver.
"Now's no time for gawking!" Loke shouted, though he was grinning like an idiot himself.
"Oh, I'm not done yet!" Lucy exclaimed, not done yet with her counter. "Gemini, transform!" Gemini rose into the air before a puff of smoke surrounded it; when the smoke faded, it was Gemini Spark R and B, but now they were on Lucy's side.
"No way!" Aira's eyes sparkled in admiration at Lucy's continue to her counter. "That's amazing!"
"She used Gemini's transformation to her advantage!" Juvia clapped her hands together.
"This is where we finish you!" Lucy said while throwing her hand forward. "Taurus, Gemini!"
"Take this!" Gemini exclaimed while unleashing a Gemini Thunder towards Taurus' ace, supercharging the weapon with powerful electricity.
"This is for making me attack Lucy-sama!" Taurus brought his axe up, then slammed it into the ground, sending a floor ripping electric shockwave in Heartless' location.
"Regulas…" Loke brought his fists together, gathering Regulas magic within his hands before unleashing a sphere of light alongside the shockwave.
"Wings of Love!" Juvia threw her hands forward, unleashing an incredibly powerful vortex of water that ripped through the floor it traveled over, right beside the already travelling attacks.
"Tempest!" Aira followed suit, unleashing a ripping tornado of lightning and wind magic alongside all of the attacks that threatened to converge on Heartless.
"You've got to be joking…" Heartless grumbled before throwing her hands up with a card in them, creating a Heart Barrier in front of her. All of the attacks clashed against her barrier, which slowly began to crack just seconds after the impact. "…!"
"This is for all the bonds you've broken…!" Lucy shouted.
"This one is for Heather…!" Aira shouted at the top of her lungs, pushing more magic into her attack for her fallen guild member. "And for Luke, too!"
"G-Gnk…" Heartless grunted, obviously having trouble in keeping her barrier up. Of course, it was too late, the barrier shattered and she was consumed by all of the attacks, letting out a pained scream in the process. The two generators behind her were destroyed, resulting in a massive explosion that just about blew everyone away.
"Did we get her…?" Aira asked while peering into the smoke.
"That should've taken her down…" Lucy replied. When the smoke cleared, Heartless was seen still standing, but the injuries on her body were evident. "No way…!"
"Agh…!" Juvia grit her teeth.
"Tough one ain't she…" Loke grunted.
"Hmph…" Heartless turned and merely began walking off. "Not bad…I'll let you have this round…"
"Wait…huh!?" Lucy asked, but Heartless was already gone.
"You helped us a lot…" Aira said while healing Virgo, a smile on her lips.
"Thank you…" Virgo gave a slow nod, and mustered enough strength to return to the Spirit World now.
Without a second thought, Lucy jumped on Taurus and Gemini (who was back to normal) bringing them into a tight hug. "I'm so glad I got you back…"
.
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Levy: "I don't like this place…it's scary and gives me the creeps!"
Royal: "You should lighten up a bit! C'mon, take a drink, it'll relax you!"
Levy: "Eh…no thanks…!"
Daigo: "Oh, ho, look at you two. Would you like to play a little game with me?"
Next time: Wheel of Misfortune!
