Chapter 64
Hell's Core
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
"Magic"
Flashback
Location / Date / Time Skip
Wendy stood in the center of a swirling storm, her hair flowing in the wind. "Where'd this power come from!?" Ezel asked in shock.
'I hear the voice of the wind, the pulse of the sky.' Wendy realized. 'For as long as this last, I rule this space!' A whirlwind blinded Ezel and she vanished from his sight
"Where'd she g-" A punch to the back cut him off as he turned for a back fist. Wendy vanished again and suddenly punched him in the ribs, sending him crashing onto the cave wall. Wendy landed on the ground as Ezel roared broke free pf the stone. "This might be fun after all!"
"Wendy! We're running out of time!" Carla shouted as she could only watch the clock count down.
"I'm ending this right now!" Wendy declared as fast moving wind started surrounding Ezel. "Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Shattering Light, Sky Drill!" A beam of green light shot forward, forcing Ezel to block.
"Nice try, but my Curses can cut through anything you throw at me!" Ezel declared before the attack was sliced in half, forcing Wendy back. "Slayer mode, activate!" The demon glowed and gained black armor on his arms, chest and head. "Nothing will save you now!"
Face started glowing Ezel slashed wildly at Wendy. 'This pocket of space is mine! Nothing can stop me!' Wind gathered around Ezel, forcing him to cut as fast as he could. 'This is the power of a Dragon Slayer!' She thrusted her hands forward, unleashing a sheer typhoon onto the demon. His armblades broke and he crashed into Face, causing it to crumble onto him.
Exhausted, Wendy collapsed to the ground as her hair and body returned to normal. "I did it…" Her smile faded as the clock continued to count down, shocking her. "I can't move… I'm sorry, everyone. Everything I had wasn't enough."
Cube
The entire base started shaking again, knocking Lucy into the wall. "What's going on?"
"That's the Cube letting you know you've lost!" Franmalth chuckled. "The age of magic is about to come to an end! In about three minutes all magic will be lost!"
Hell's Core
More books flew at Mirajane as was forced to block. "This is a real demon…" She mumbled.
"She can match Mirajane?" Lisanna was shocked as she stared at the battle. Something came up from behind and grabbed her.
"I'm your opponent…" Lamy chuckled, scaring Lisanna before she yanked back, pulling the younger sister away from the fight.
With Erza
Erza jumped away from the claws and swung her blade. "So it started…" Kyouka chuckled as she noticed Erza worrying about the sudden tremors. "It's the end, humans."
With Wendy
"I didn't make it…" Wendy mumbled with tears. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
"We can still… do something." Carla groaned as she pushed herself up, confusing Wendy. "Face is absorbing a lot of Ethernano. If we can transform that energy into something else, it will create an auto-destruction magic circle and Face will explode."
"How do you know that?" Wendy questioned.
"The future, my premonition." Her cat explained. "I looked into the future and found the code needed to shut Face down." Finally reaching the base of the bomb. "I activated a magic circle like this…" She worked on the bomb, much to Wendy's impress. "Now we can…"
"This is it…" Wendy smiled, only to find her friend frozen. "Carla?"
"There's nothing mire in the future. It's blank." The white cat replied, confusing Wendy even more. "If I press this button, Face will detonate. In other words, we won't survive either." Her words shocked and scared the girl stiff. "I think… even without magic, we can survive like in Edolas. But everyone fighting now, if they suddenly lose magic… Wendy, I cannot predict the size of this explosion. Run away as far as possible, I'll handle things here."
"What are you saying!? You can't Carla!" Wendy shouted as she pushed herself forward. "I won't leave you alone!"
"Wendy-" Carla was cut off when the Dragon Slayer suddenly tackled her in a hug.
"Our adventure ends here." Wendy replied as tears fell from her face. "But I had fun because you were always with me."
"Yes…" Tears fell from the cats eyes as the cave started crumbling around them.
"We have to press this, right?" Wendy asked, looking the button. "Let's do it together."
"We've always been together, after all." Carla chuckled with tears as the two shared a smile and pressed the button. The explosion rocked the landscape and shot upwards, kicking up so much dust and debris that it blocked out the sun momentarily. Far from the blast point, Doranbolt appeared in a blur, Carla and Wendy in his arms.
"Just in time!" He declared as he looked at the blast center. "I never thought that such little heroes could destroy Face."
Cube
"Face has been unleashed!" Franmalth chuckled in excitement. The three humans panicked before Natsu raised his hand, still ablaze.
"I still got my magic." He declared, confusing the demon.
"Wendy and Carla did it!" Happy cheered.
"How could this have happened?!" Franmalth shouted. "Do you know how much this mistake will cost you!?"
"Now let our friends go." Natsu demanded.
"It costs… it costs… it costs…" Franmalth suddenly snapped forward, forcing the Dragon Slayer to dodge. "It's worth about a thousand of your souls! Give me your soul! Give me your soul!" He swung his arms wildly, swiping at both him and the stone around him.
"We gotta do something…" Lucy mumbled.
"But he absorbs everything we throw at him." Happy reminded her.
"Don't forget that I also have all Hades' spells!?" The demon shouted before waving his hands, creating a magic seal around the trio. "You can't win. Amateratsu Formula 28!" An explosion shock the very base of the Cube, knocking them to the ground.
With Erza
Kyouka blocked a sword swing, her mind in a panic. 'Her magic didn't vanish? Impossible! Did the Face project fail!?' She jumped back from a swing and leaped up, running from the red head.
"Don't run you coward!" Erza shouted before gasping in shock.
"I leave them to you, exterminate the fairies." Kyouka ordered as she retreated.
"That's what I was born to do…" Minerva chuckled. "I told you we'd meet again, Erza Scarlet."
"Minerva!?"
"Call me Neo Minerva." She declared. "I've been reborn in the darkness as a demon."
"Why… did you…" Erza questioned, completely forgetting about Kyouka.
'I was certain our plan to use Face would succeed." Kyouka thought as she raced through the fortress. 'There's no other choice, we must revive Master E.N.D.'
With Natsu and Co.
Franmalth stood over the fallen trio and laughed triumphantly. "And now your souls are mine!" His arm stretched forward and split into seven hands, three grabbing the two humans and one for Happy. Instantly, they all screamed in pain as their souls were slowly ripped away. "You can become part of my collection You'll meet your friends soon enough!"
"Won't let you!" Natsu shouted as he shocked the demon and pushed himself up. "I won't… let you…" He fell face first to the ground, making the demon chuckle. "I won't let you have my soul! It stays here!"
"It's useless to struggle." Franmalth declared.
"Don't give up!" The Dragon Slayer shouted at his guildmates. "Our souls stay with us! Be strong! We're here!"
"My curse can't be broken just by thinking!" The cyclops declared.
"My soul is here!" Natsu declared, pushing himself up to his knees. "Until I meet Igneel again… Until I make Lisanna smile… I'll never give you my soul!"
"Stubborn little…" Franmalth grumbled.
"Feel it!" Natsu shouted. "The most important thing! The thing you can't let him have! That will keep your soul tied to you!"
'Something important to me…' Lucy thought to herself. 'The Spirits! Taurus and Aries were absorbed by that guy. I won't let this thing hurt them.' "Taurus! I close your Gate!"
"…Huh?" Franmalth blinked before his entire body was forced upwards. "W-what the hell is happening!?" Lucy blinked in surprise as he stretched wider. "What's going on!? My body!"
"Is he going back to the Celestial Spirit world with Taurus?" Lucy questioned.
"You can't do that, you bastard!" Franmalth growled. "Taurus, get out!" The spirit suddenly shot out of the demon before vanishing to his home.
"Aries, I close your Gate!" Lucy's second spirit was forced out of the demon before she left. "Natsu, I close your Gate!"
"This guy's a spirit!?" Franmalth let go of Natsu, who immediately sprinted forward. "You lying little-" A fist cut him off, sending him flying back and breaking his connection to Lucy and Happu. "Don't you learn!? Magic doesn't work on me!"
He looked up and blinked in a panic as Natsu held up a MASSIVE slab of stone. "Eat this!" He slammed it down on Franmalth before grabbing another one and doing it again. And again. And again.
Franmalth, now in his normal form, popped out of the stone in his body bubbled and souls left his body. "The souls he stole are finally free…" Lucy smiled as Franmalth was reduced to nothing.
"It's not over yet." A voice from behind scared the trip. "Tartaros's real goal was never Face. Tell Makarov it is time unleash the light…" Natsu and Lucy turned around only to find nothing.
"Okay… what was that?" The male asked.
"Pretty sure that was Master Hades' ghost." Lucy mumbled in a panic. "Unleash the light… what does that even mean?"
"We should tell Master. He'll understand." Happy declared before flying off.
"The good news is Wendy and Carla stopped Face." Lucy added. "But we still need to find Mirajane and Nicholas."
"Then let's get to work kicking demon butt!" Natsu declared, slamming a fist into his open palm.
Behind them, Franmalth chuckled as he stared up at the sky. "What a bunch of idiots. They still don't understand that they will never win against us. We possess the power of immortality. As we have that lab, we can keep coming back. Speaking of, I should probably head there now."
Hell's Core
Mirajane and Sayla were exhausted at this point, both panting heavily. "Get off me!" Lisanna shouted as she slammed back first into a vat.
"What are you!?" Sayla growled in annoyance. "No mere human could be immune to my Macro power!"
"Macro?" Mira repeated in confusion.
"That must be what she used to control Elfman!" Lisanna shouted as she grappled with Lamy.
"Why would it work on her brother but have no effect on you?" The horned demon questioned. "Macro is rather unique. It stays with the victim forever, making them bound to me. If it pleases me, I could have him slit his own throat tight now."
The vat next to her bubbled before a destroyed Ezel partially formed in the tank. "THAT RUNT!" He roared in anger. "HURRY UP AND REVIVE ME! I WANNA SEVER THAT STUPID GIRL INTO BITESIZE PIECES AND MAKE HER ANNOYING CAT INTO A HAT!"
"What's going on…" Mirajane mumbled. "If they beat him, how did he end up here?"
"Duh, we're in our respawn center." Lamy bragged. "Even if we die, we can always come back to life."
"Once again, your mouth has outpaced your brain." Sayla cursed the smaller demon.
"Thanks. Now I know I need to destroy this place." Mirajane said, returning to her normal body.
"And what makes you think you can do that?" The horned demon questioned.
"This." A vat exploded next to Mirajane, shocking Sayla. All around the lab, the giant tubes exploded, killing both Ezel and Franmalth.
"How did you-?"
"I used my Take over magic on those tentacle demons." The model chuckled. "I was hoping to do the same to you, but it's just not happening. Guess we seem to be having the exact same problem. Looks like we'll settle this with hand to hand combat." Mirjane transformed into her Sitri form while Sayla hung her head.
"Obey my order…" She mumbled as her body began glowing. "Release my limiter!" A blue glow covered her before it quickly died, show how much she had changed.
Her skin had darkened and her horns became noticeably larger than before. Her hair became much wilder, and the clothes around her torso disappeared, revealing her bare chest to be covered in an intricate, symmetrical tattoo that begins at the choker around her neck, and ends at her stomach and hips.
The Tartaros guild mark is printed onto her stomach, underneath a heart-shaped design in her tattoo. Her lower body significantly changed, with her legs changing into narrowed stilts that gradually widen up to her hips that now flare out into two wing-like protrusions and her feet changed into those of sharp blades.
With a roar she charged Mirajane and punched her in the gut, sending her flying into the other two females. An eye opened on her palm before she blasted the model, destroying even more of the lab. Coughing, Mirajane noticed she was blasted back into her normal form. "What… is she…?"
"The demons of Zeref's books, also called Etherious." A man sitting on a throne, holding a book. "A human demon cannot compete with them. Master… It's about to start. Darkness will flow out of hades' door. The darkness of the underworld will cover the light of the world."
The world lost a great man the other day. The creator of Yu-Gi-Oh! passed away, and it still hurts. We lost the childhood friend we never knew we had. I'm sure all of us have our memories of it and how it influenced us. I don't feel qualified to continue this, so decks up and out for the TRUE King of Games.
Wow, I never imagined Wendy of all people could kick ass. And the freaking transformation of her Dragon Force was the beat of the series, hands down. And now we get the first tease of E.N.D, probably the most influential bit of FT lore… at least in terms of Fanfiction. Seriously, there are a lot of dark fics that emerged from this moment. And I'm all for it, I love dark stuff.
Not much left to say. See ya next time.
Beta read by General Feng Xiang