Seems a lot of you guys like yourselves some Ultear, huh? Can't blame you. Her personal arc has been really fun to write. Maybe because I too relate to it in a way. Everyone has trouble finding what to fight for sometimes, you know? Especially these days. But there's always something, you just have to find it. And if you lose it, there's always something else. Don't give up. Hell, maybe you're someone's reason to fight. Don't give up, got that? Fallen's tip for the day.

By the way, new Homecoming of a Devil chapter went up! Check it out!

Enjoy!

As the battle At Magnolia began, outside the city was a different story. One could hear the blasts for miles away, and the sky lit up a fair distance away as well. Although, of course, these roads were empty after the city was blown away. After all, who needed to head towards a destroyed city except those needing to save their friends?

And yet, there was a person headed towards the city. This person, masculine in stature, was wearing a sandy cloak and occasionally looking up at some of the bigger explosions. His brown hair sometimes blew into his face from the wind blowing in different directions, and it only made him more confused.

"Looks like the parties already started," he said to himself and he continued to make his way for the ruins. "I hope I get there before I'm too late. I don't know why I even came out here anyway, but it's good that I did."

Ah yes. The reason he'd even come out here in the first place. It was odd, really. Six days ago he'd been about to cross into Bosco, but the night before he did so he had a dream. A dream of a man in a dark black suit, and hair even darker.

"Head back to Magnolia," The man had said in the dream. "They need you. Don't disappoint them."

"Maybe they'll know something about what the hell's going on," he said to himself as he got closer and closer. "For now, I need to hurry and get there. They really will need me if this is the battle I've been worried about."

And so, the tan man continued towards the city. He didn't know what exactly he'd find when we got there, but he knew that his friends needed him.

"So, it looks like that girl managed to get off her spell after all," Simon looked up as Ares said this, and found that he was telling the truth, Gone were both The Olympians and his friends, leaving just the two of them in the center of the city park. To his left Simon could see the Sola tree, scorched and snapped at the stump. That only made him angrier.

"She was supposed to send me some backup, but it looks like I was foolish to hope for too much." he said. "After all, Rocky almost killed you once. You're weakened, aren't you?" Ares only laughed at this, shouldering his blade.

"Do you truly understand what that Rocky boy did to hurt me and Demeter?" He asked. "He used one of the highest tiers of magic known to us. Sacrificing his body to summon magic from the core of the planet to power himself up. Do you think you can match up to that on your own?"

"Who said he was alone?" Simon smiled as this voice spoke up. Ares looked over his shoulder to find Nami standing there, sheathed blade already ready to go. "I got sent this way too, so let's do this."

"Ah, so that was the plan," Ares said. "Separate us based on who would be best to take us out, yes? Clever."

"We don't need your flattering," Simon replied. "Raise your blade, let's do this." Ares just laughed as he did so, keeping his eyes on Simon to start.

"And what will you do if I flee?" He asked. "Running after your friend Nashi?"

"Than I'll run you through from behind instead of in front!" Simon shouted.

And with this, the battle began.

Simon launched himself forward, as did Nami behind him. Ares dodged away from both of their strikes, but the pair did not let up. Simon requipped into his Renegade Armour and his scimitars, Attacking Ares with everything he had. No matter how much he spun and twirled his blades, Ares always managed to get his shield up in time. Every blow that struck off of the hardened steel made Simon's hands pulse with pain. God, he was so stupid. He knew he needed to let his hands heal like his mother asked him too, but he'd never gotten the chance. He was always in some sort of fight. He never had time to do that.

Backing off for a moment, Simon watched as Nami continued her own advance, attacking hard with the sheathed blade she always had at her side. Aiming his sword up, Simon used a new technique he'd developed while training with his father.

"Piercing Light!" He shouted. Heavenly Body Magic raced from his hand and up the blade, gathering at the point of the Scimitar. After a few seconds of gather the blast went off; A blast shaped like a blade's end. Simon fired off several more of these, watching as they raced towards his armoured opponent. Ares used his shield to bash Nami away before turning to block the blasts, again raising his shield to do so. The piercing light Struck the center of the boar emblazoned on his shield, and Simon wanted to cover his ears at the vicious screeching that became of the contact. After struggling for a few seconds, Ares smacked the light away, and it flew off into the distance without any problems.

"Was that supposed to pierce my armour?" Ares asked with a smirk. "Sorry kid, it's not going to be that easy. This shield saved me from your friends blast, do you really think-" Simon's eyes widened as the man turned and bashed at Nami, who had been trying to sneak up behind him. He grabbed her while she was dazed and lifted her over his head, throwing her at Simon. He braced to catch his friend, and slid a bit as he did so. "Do you really think it'll fall to some lowly light from you?"

"Are you okay?" Simon whispered to Nami as he helped her stand. The girl nodded, wavering a bit.

"I'm dizzy now," she said. "But otherwise I'm okay. We need to be careful Simon. This guys combat sense is way better than I expected it to be." Simon knew what she was talking about. The both of them had just gone after him together and he'd easily beaten them off. With the state of him Simon hoped maybe he'd been weakened a bit, but it seemed that wasn't the case. At least, not as much as he hoped it would be.

"Besides, we're we supposed to have some backup?" That was also true. When they'd been trying to figure out who was going to fight who, they'd been told that they'd be the best to handle Ares. That made sense, but they were supposed to have Mami was backup. Where the girl was now, or if she was even close at all, wasn't something that Simon knew.

He just hoped things went well enough.

"Good work Juno, it looks like you did it!" Michael said as he smiled down at the exhausted girl. after she'd finished casting her spell, Michael found himself in the forest near the city, along with Kyoko as well as Apollo. There was just one problem though.

"Uh, I think this is the wrong fight." Keita said from beside Michael, looking confused. Juno just spat onto the ground, looking irritated.

"I've never moved that many people with Territory before," she said with a huff. "I did my best to match everybody up correctly, but obviously I struggled with all the chaos around me." It wasn't like Michael could blame her. With the utter chaos surrounding her back when she'd cast the spell, he wasn't surprised that she didn't do exactly what was expected of her. Hell, he wouldn't have been able to either.

"Do you think it screwed up anybody else?" Rina asked, also not supposed to be with them. She was supposed to lie in wait for Zeus, but now she was here.

"I really hope not, but I can't be sure," Juno replied as she climbed to her feet and took a deep breath. "For now, let's just focus on our enemy." At this Michael turned his gaze back to Apollo, who'd just been waiting for them to finish talking.

"Oh, are we all ready?" He asked, smiling brilliantly at them. "I'd really think to finish this before the sun sets."

"So would we," Michael replied as he readied himself. "So, why don't we stop wasting him?" Apollo sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"If you all wish to involve yourselves in Fairy Tail's problems, be my guest," he replied. "You could have just walked away and pretended not to notice, but instead you made a problem of yourselves."

At this, Apollo raised his hand, bright light shining from it. Michael's eyes burned at the sight, but he smiled. Apollo didn't know about his secret move.

"See, that's where you've messed up, Apollo." He said through the shining. Opening his mouth, Michael began to inhale. It was an odd experience, eating light itself. It was hot and burned the back of his throat, but he could tell he was absorbing the attack. Soon, the light died down, which allowed them all to open their eyes again. Apollo, however, looked stunned.

"You," he said. "You just ate my-"

Michael didn't give him a chance to speak, rushing towards him as his body began to glow with power.

"We didn't involve ourselves in this fight!" He shouted as he watched a shadow creep up behind Apollo. "You involved us!"

"Stop speaking nonsense!" Apollo replied as he readied his fists, also coated in light. "You don't need to be here! We're not after you!"

"What's your point?!" Michael demanded as the two engaged in hand to hand combat. "The second you went after her, the second you made her a target, you involved us! All of us! Because we're her friends too!" Michael pushed Apollo back, and Keita took this time to strike. He jumped from the shadows and blasted the man in the back with darkness, which clung to Apollo like a goo. He attempted to shake it off, but to no avail at first. This gave Rina and Kyoko the perfect amount of time required to blast him with both dark lightning and a combination of magic Kyoko threw together, which struck the man dead on. Michael waited with baited breath as the smoke attempted to clear.

"So you're going to play the moral high ground?" Apollo asked. As the smoke cleared the man was standing exactly where he had been, a smile on his face. He had a few cuts and scrapes on him, but he still looked relatively unharmed. "I should have prepared myself for this. The typical you hurt my friends speech you people tend to give."

"I get the feeling you didn't really listen to what I said," Michael replied.

"You're right, I didn't." Apollo said with a smirk. "Mostly because I don't care. If you lot of children insists on wasting my time, then I suppose I'll have to humour you. Hephaestus should be on the girls tail by now. And if not him, then at least his robots." Michael didn't like the sound of that at all, but he knew he couldn't just run off and attempt to go help. He'd been tasked with taking down Apollo, so that's what he was going to do.

"You guys ready to do this?" He asked. Keita hummed from his side.

"I'll be right behind you," he said.

"I'll provide support where I can," Juno said.

"Let's kick this guys ass already!" Rina said, electricity crackling around her body.

"I've already committed his light to memory," Kyoko said. "Let's see how he handles it." Michael smirked at this. He was worried, gut with his friends right behind him, what could realistically stop them?

He just hoped the others weren't in a bad spot with Juno not being able to send everyone the right way.

"Hey! Wasn't I supposed to get some help with the short guy?! Where is everyone?!"

No matter how much she screamed or shouted, no one seemed to hear her. Looks like Juno had messed up after all, she was all alone against whoever was closest to her. Not only that, but she still had to cart around Luna because she hadn't woken up yet. All in all, this fight was going fantastic.

Elise stopped wallowing in self pity and perked up her ears at the sound of gears cranking. Looking to the sight of the sound, she was barely able to move out of the way before a group of automatons opened fire on her. She dipped and dodged as much as she could, but she knew she'd have to harden up her body if they managed to clip her. But something did seem off to her.

"You guys better watch where you're aiming!" She shouted loud and proud, brandishing Luna to them. "Or else you might hit who you're after!" It wasn't her proudest moment, brandishing Luna as a technical human shield from gunfire, but she had been right. the automatons stopped shooting at the sight of her.

"Target sighted," one of them said. "Sighting being reported to Hephaestus."

And of course it had to backfire on her just as quickly.

"Just my luck, huh?" She asked as she put Luna down, propping her up against a tree. "I just had to go and try to be flashy." Hardening up her entire body and turning her arms into swords, Elise turned back to the robots. Even though they opened fire on her, that didn't stop her. Bullets bounced off of her harmlessly as she rushed towards the group, hacking ans slashing her way through them like paper. Opening up one of the robot's chests, Elise grabbed the core that powered them. Turning, she tossed it as hard as she could as the closest three. It seemed they weren't smart enough to avoid shooting something so concentrated with magic, and the core detonated right in their faces. With three left Elise rushed to then, grabbing ones gun. Forcing it to bend, she smirked as she watched the robots lifeless eyes not care in the slightest as she twisted the barrel towards his fellow AI, shredding them to pieces as they attempted to do the same to her. Left with just the one, she broke off the bent barrel and drove it into it's face. As it stumbled backwards she punched through it's chest with a club, forcing the core out the back and killing it immediately.

"Jeez, you guys really weren't crafted with much care, were you?" She asked as she kicked one of the heaps of metal. "Like that wasn't very hard at all."

"I'd rally appreciate it if you didn't talk down to me creations." Jumping, Elise whirled to find the stumpy Olympian watching her, with that same weird mechanism over his eye. She smirked as she saw him.

"About time you showed up," she said. "What was your name again? Hepburn or something?"

"Hephaestus," he corrected.

"Right," Elise said as she turned to face him fully. "I don't really care what your name is, because I won't have to know it after today."

"And I could say the same." Hephaestus replied. "After all, your carelessness has already given me what I wanted." At first Elise was confused, but soon her eyes widened.

A floating carrier of some kind came up behind Hephaestus, loaded with more robots.

And Luna, resting on her side on the floor of it.

"Shit..." She hissed under her breath. She hadn't expected to be caught up to so quickly after being spotted, so she'd put Luna down so she could fight. Now she'd just given her up without a fight.

"I really would like to stay and fight," Hephaestus said as he raised his right arm. A robotic arm sprung from the pack on his back, giving him a small iron ball that glowed bright red. "But I really don't have time to spend around here with you. I must return with my prize."

"Bastard!" Elise shouted. "Get over here! I'm not through with you!" Hephaestus ignored her, tossing the iron ball over his shoulder at her as he mounted the transport. Before Elise could move the device detonated at her feet, sending shrapnel up at her.

Ha! Moron. I'm at Iron Dragon Slayer, his pitiful iron won't-

Elise's triumphant train of thought was cut off as her pain receptors told her she'd been cut all up and down her legs. Crying out in pain Elise dropped down, staring down in shock. Despite the layers of iron over her skin, Hephaestus' attack had shredded right through it.

"Did you think I wasn't told you're an Iron Dragon Slayer?" Hephaestus asked as he watched her. "I went out of my way to create a bomb you couldn't block. Good luck chasing me with your legs all torn up." No matter how annoying he was, he had a point. Elise's lower boy was in a lot of pain, she couldn't very well give chase. And if he had more of those, covering up her wounds with iron wouldn't do much good.

"Give her back!" Elise shouted as she struggled to her feet. "She's not your property, she's a person!"

"Debatable," Hephaestus replied, confusing Elise significantly. "Besides, I don't need to do anything you tell me. I don't answer to you, girl." With this the transport fired up it's engine, reared up and began to speed away. Gritting her teeth Elise coating her legs with iron, preparing to give chase.

"By the way," Hephaestus called, making her look up. Her eyes widened as she watched another shrapnel bomb fly towards her. "Here's one for good measure."

"Shit!" Elise shouted, preparing to dodge. Coating her wounds in another layer of iron, Elise ran for the transport as it began to fly off. Sprinting as hard as she could, she ignored the robots firing on her and prepared her legs for a jump, the last attempt she had before the transport would be too far away. Using iron that sprung from her shins, Elise sprung into the air towards the ship. Landing on top of one of the robots, Elise swept her sword arms in a circle around her, which cleaved some of the bots in half. She lifted one of them up and threw it at Hephaestus, who had no room to dodge and got caught on it. The transport began to speed up, and Elise used her chance to kick off the remaining bots, leaving them in the dust as they sped away. Finally she turned to Hephaestus, who was still standing between her and Luna.

"Give her back," Elise hissed, ignoring the searing pain in her legs. Hephaestus huffed as he threw the robots severed top off of himself, getting to his feet.

"I intend to do no such thing." Elise gritted her teeth at this, readying herself.

"I wasn't asking."

You know I had to do it too you guys. Anyways, here's my question for the day. What unanswered question in this story do you want answered the most? It could be anything you want, as long as you're sure I haven't answered it! I hope you all enjoyed, leave a review! Let's try and get five!

Chapter 318: One By One