Chapter Eighty-One
Lucy snorted with laughter as Meredy's head whipped back and forth. Natsu's laughter joined hers and soon they heard laughter through all of the comms. But the laughter died out as the screen split and showed Gray's ice even more cracked, darkness swirling out of the cracks like smoke.
"Juvia behind you!" Flare shouted and sighed as the bluenette managed to turn into water and splash out of harms way when a new draconic appeared out of no where from behind her. She turned her eyes and saw that the hair wall that opened out to the main streets was down. When had it fallen? But it had, and now there were six new and fresh draconics ready to fight to the death not to mention the last original draconic, which was hers. Thinking of that one she turned and screamed as it's claws connected and the swipe of it claw sent her rolling over the ground.
Flare gasped, her hands flying to her hair and she sighed when she realized it was still intact. She slowly got to her knees and forced herself to look up. The draconic was eying her and slowly shuffling forward. She pushed up from her knees, weaving in the air as she struggled to stick her feet firmly into place. Her head felt light, her ribs hurt, and every inch of her skin burned like she had been set on fire.
"Come on. Let's finish this." She shouted but her hair tugged her out of the way as a second draconic tried to swipe her as it ran by and up to the other. She blinked in confusion. Her hair had never acted on its own before. She wondered if that was something that the Fire God Atlas had done without her knowing all these years? She had never been in such a dire position to be sure. No reason for her hair to have to protect her like this.
"Flare, are you okay?" Juvia asked as she reformed a few yards south of her companion.
"I'm alive." Flare answered, but wasn't sure how long that answer would ring true. She blinked, hating that there was a hazy gray edge to the world. That couldn't be a good sign.
"Your metrics are warning that you are on a downward trajectory." Alfie interjected and Juvia swore and threw her arm, drops of water flying at the draconics with unparallelled precision. It didn't kill any of the new draconics but none escaped unharmed. She ran towards Flare but was cut off by two of the new draconics. The last two were circling them in opposite directions. She swore.
She feinted right and used water geyser to leap over the draconic and land beside her companion. She wrapped an arm around Flare's shoulder and instantly felt the endless shaking. "Flare?"
"I'm fine." Flare bit out, the red hair popping up around the two of them and she started to weave a cage.
"You haven't stopped shaking since I grabbed you." Juvia objected and watched wearily as the draconics all circled them.
"It's nothing." Flare shook her head. "Listen, you are going to have a very brief window, so you can't waste it."
"What window? What do you mean not waste it?" Juvia asked looking down at the girl who was breathing harder and harder with each passing second.
"Just before this hair cage closes, you need to turn into water and get beyond the circle of draconics."
"Why?" Flare's shaking amped up a notch. Alfie's voice in their comms warned of internal damage starting to take place. "Flare? What are you…"
Flare turned and Juvia's words cut off. Despite the pain she was in, there was a lightness in her expression that Juvia hadn't seen in her, or really anyone, in a long time. The brightness in her eyes shone through and two solitary tears escaped from each eye, running down dirty cheeks before disappearing out of sight.
"I'm not able to keep up the hair magic much longer. I've never used it this long and this complex before. Even with the magic from the Fire God Atlas, I'm almost at my end. But I have enough left to take these draconics out."
"Juvia doesn't like the sound of this." Juvia whispered.
"Back home on Solarium, the giants had a saying they lived by, "One for All, from flint to ash, until resparked." I never understood it until now."
"What does it mean? Juvia also doesn't understand." The Bluenette sniffled as she feared she actually did. The draconics were breathing harder and hard and inching in closer and closer as well.
"That one life, sacrificed for all of the others around them; was the best life to live. Because even if you die, your memory will live on, re-sparking life into others. When I fall here," Flare's expression was wistful as turned to eye the draconic that she had been fighting the longest of the seven encircling them; "others will remember me. It will give hope to continue fighting. Today. Tomorrow. And my life spark will not have been nothing. I will return to the ultimate fire that Fire God Atlas has been protecting under Igneel's command for eons."
"No…You won't…"
"It's okay Juvia. I get to protect the people who protected those I love. I get to help bring us one day closer to the end of Mard Geer and his reign of darkness. There is no better way to go." Flare looked back at Juvia. "You aren't in as bad of shape as me. So when I tell you, transform and get away. Okay?"
Juvia wanted to protest. She wanted to stand firm next to her, but the way Flare's lip trembled, the worry in her dark eyes, she nodded and agreed. She turned and looked around. The cage was nearly complete. She slowly unwrapped her arm from Flare and took a breath.
"Grlllkkkk." The strained growl released and the draconics froze and unfurled their wings, ready to project the shuriken even as their mouths dropped open and prepared to fire.
"Now!" Flare cried and Juvia felt herself go weightless and she floated for a split second beside Flare and then leapt out of the cage and past the draconics and resolidified outside of their ring. They didn't pay her any mind because Flare's hair had erupted into flames. She was now inside a cage of hair that was on fire. But the cage didn't shrink. It started to rush out, flying towards the draconics. Surprised by the attack, they struggled to close their wings and move without running into one another. The one who had been fighting the longest broke rank and charged the engulfed cage of hair, and to Juvia's surprise; the hair and flame fell away. The draconic was injured though and fell to the ground, in too much pain to continue standing. The closest one of its kind to it, struck fast, ripping out it's throat. It died there, while the rest stared at the barely upright Flare.
She was breathing hard. Her hair in a ragged asymmetrical bob over her shoulders, charred from the flames. The hair walls also fell, all of the hair turning to ash before it hit the ground. She fell to one knee and groaned, blood erupted from her mouth and she coughed. Juvia stood crying, unsure of what to do. She felt a hand touch her wrist and turned, and saw that Erza was beside her, her expression grim and tearful as well.
"Come on Mard Geer! I am still…standing!" Flare screamed, her voice hoarse and barely audible but somehow it carried on the wind to be heard by all. "By the flames of Igneel…I will not…give…up."
A shifting sound was the only response as the six draconics charged her in unison. She gritted her teeth as she pushed up to both feet, weaving unsteadily as she closed her hands into fists. Again, her hair burst into flames, even though it hadn't grown. Her enflamed hair rippled in the wind, and she looked like a lone candle, a beacon of resistance. The draconics opened their mouths as they ran, the acidic spit dripping as they prepared to attack.
"No!" Lucy cried and Natsu ground his fangs together as he watched Flare refuse to run or back down.
"Fool! Don't stand there!" Laxus snarled worry wafting off of him. He felt fear and unease gripping his chest as he watched the female, alight, barely able to stand.
"I don't think I can watch." Levy whispered and Gajeel bit his lip, hating that he had left her behind during this mess. He was kicking his own scales at his thoughtlessness. He should have stayed behind and helped her, not running off with Bixlow to try and handle things.
"Watch or don't, but she's doing what she believes she has to do. And her bravery ain't nothin' to disregard." He muttered and watched as her flame flickered, she pitched forward before steeling herself and righting herself as much as she was able; and the flames regrew.
"Why is she making her hair into flame? It's too short to do anything." Romeo's voice was small over the Comms.
"If I'm right," Jellal whispered, coming to a stop behind Erza and Juvia. "It's to catch the acid on fire and potentially blow up the draconics."
"But that would kill her too." Meredy objected and shook her head.
"Her life…for the greater good." Juvia murmured and shook her head, a tear rolling down her soot stained face. The ash, the last remnants of Flare's hair was blowing everywhere in the wind.
"Oh no!" Wendy gasped as three of the draconics leapt forward, their acid spit flying towards their target. Flare's hair suddenly sprang forward, the fireball connecting, and the fire racing up the acid and back to the draconics. The fire got into their mouths and throats and their bodies flailed in the air before they exploded.
Flare was knocked off of her feet, sent flying into the air, but from the falling bits of their comrades, the rest of the draconics emerged, prepared to attack while she floundered. Her hair, no long bob length, was a burnt pixie cut, and she closed her eyes and waited.
"What the hell is that?" Laxus snarled as something black and gray streaked across the screen.
Everyone gasped as the draconics hit the gray and black wall that appeared from nowhere, but at the same time, they saw as something large and black caught Flare's body mid-air and helped settle her on the ground. The black form straightened and turned.
"Gray?" Juvia's voice was soft, barely a whisper, but this was not the Gray she knew. His scales, which usually reminded her of ice, were now dark as if polluted. And he had black and silver tattoos that marred his arms, shoulders, pecs, neck and parts of his face.
The wall fell and he walked slowly towards the confused draconics that were just staring at him in confusion. One leapt forward and he slashed his left arm out quickly in a diagonal motion and a dark mist appeared in the air and then moved quickly; and without a sound the draconic stilled and a heartbeat later, its upper body started to slide off of its lower body on an steep angle.
The other two draconics shared a look and then stared at him. He was about to raise his arm when there was a scratching sound and he turned his head. More draconics were at the mouth of the cul-da-sac and he rolled his eyes. There were four more, making six once again. They charged, and as they did, the other two started to charge as well. One was a bit faster and bit down on his shoulder. But when it did, his body turned to ice and the draconic tried to spit the ice out, but the ice started to encapsulate its body instead.
Gray was now walking towards the newcomers even as the last of the closer draconics got behind him and started to charge him from a short distance.
"Behind you!" Juvia cried out, and a dark wall shot up and the draconic was sent into the air. Gray didn't even look behind himself as he flicked a hand backwards and up. Ice, surrounded by black lightning running its length exploded from thin air and pierced the draconic through the skull. Everyone watched in awe.
"What is he?" Meredy asked, unsure of what he was looking at.
"An Ice Demon Dragis." Wendy breathed, pinching her arm to check that she wasn't making up what she was looking at. But she wasn't.
"A what now?" Erza asked and looked down at the younger Dragis. She didn't get a response though, because Wendy had moved and was halfway to Flare's side. Jellal not far behind her.
"Ice Demon Dragis." Alfie's voice came over the Comms. "A curse placed on the Ice Dragis clans, where demons of ice and snow are forced to enter into a contract with a Dragis. In exchange, the demons are not destroyed and the Ice Dragis uses their powers to magnify their own. It was a response to the lack of Dragon Force Dragis in existence. But the practice of committing to a possession was prohibited by the council sometime…"
"We don't need a full history lesson." Bixlow muttered and there was a humming sound.
"Some of us are ignorant and would appreciate being educated." Cara muttered and the Comms popped as multiple individuals started to speak and then decided not to.
"How does he know how to do this? I thought this was passed down only from father to sons and mothers to daughters?" Natsu asked, surprised to see his best friend looking less and less like himself as he stalked toward the Dragis that were trying to get past him and towards the baited shuttle.
"At this point, I think the better question, is what do we think he is going to do?" Meredy murmured and leaned against Ultear and Erza as they watched him move with bored grace across the debris filled street.
"Destroy all of them, with extreme malice." Ultear whispered. Pride welling up inside her. Her mother had tried to explain to both Gray and Leon that there were more forms of Dragis than they knew, but that to reach them all required different levels of sacrifice and concentration. She had never figured either would have the ability to reach the different forms, but she had obviously been proven wrong—and she did enjoy that deep down where she buried most of her truest emotions.
The draconics shifted, calculating what they needed to do. Behind them quite a ways, Wendy had reached Flare and was quickly focusing on identifying her worst injuries and started attaching tools to the female's body and closed her eyes. There was something about her body, her energy, that Wendy couldn't put her finger on, and it was making it hard to concentrate. Almost as if there were too many voices in Flare's mind to allow Wendy to understand what she was saying or needing from her and the others.