Amber was slowly edging from worried to scared. Not only could she still not reach Kia, but Verani still had yet to respond to her calls. Gajeel had just left with Levy to get Laxus and Juvia to Porlyusica, leaving her and Lucy to follow the Master's orders. He wanted everyone to gather at the guild quickly in order to use something called the Lumen Histoire.
But the Blood mage couldn't get her feet to move.
"Amber?"
She raised her chocolate gaze to meet Lucy's matching orbs. Amber shook her head, "I can't go."
The blonde was confused, "Why not?"
"I need to find Kia." Amber answered, "I have a feeling that she'll need me."
"But you need to rest!" Though she was two years younger than the dark-haired mage, that didn't stop Lucy from immediately becoming protective. "Your arm needs to be looked at and you haven't had enough time to recover from your fight."
She gave her a weary smile, "I'll be fine, Lucy."
"But Amber-"
But Lucy found herself pausing. Even though the Blood mage was clearly at her limit, Lucy could see the drive in her eyes. There was a determination that she had never gotten to witness before, but something else was making her hesitate. The concern underneath is what pushed the sigh through the blonde's lips.
"Well then, let's go."
Amber blinked once, "Huh?"
"Can't let you go on your own hurt like this." Lucy stepped over to offer her shoulder to help the Blood mage move easier.
She smiled faintly, "Thank you, Lucy."
||~x~||
Kia couldn't help the smile that graced her lips as she watched Natsu shift into his Dragon Force. His entire being glowed as he prepared to hit Mard Geer with everything he had.
"Igneel-Style Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Hidden Fire Form," he launched himself through the air, "Flame Lotus Phoenix Sword!"
It was a direct hit, but it wasn't enough to take the Underworld King down. A feral growl escaped the Etherious as he gripped the falling Dragon Slayer by the back of his scarf. "Once I've vented all my rage, you won't have a corpse to bury!"
Even though he was defenseless and at the mercy of his enemy in the air, Natsu had a light grin, "That was all the magic I had. And you beat it. Not too bad...for a demon."
"Be gone!"
"Thing is...I have faith, too." Natsu took in a breath to shout, "Gray, now!"
Everyone's attention was pulled to the Ice wizard who was standing to his feet, half his body still darkened by the Memento Mori curse he had absorbed only minutes earlier. His hands glowed as a purple ice bow formed while he aimed it, "Ice Demon...Zero Destruction Bow!"
Her proud smile grew wider as Kia watched Gray's arrow strike Mard Geer out of his Etherious form. He crashed to the ground with Natsu doing the same not too far away.
Natsu sighed as he let his body relax into the dirt, "We did it."
"No. Not yet we haven't." Gray spoke, not turning to look at his comrade, "This ain't over until I've destroyed E.N.D."
Kia's heart skipped a beat as Natsu began pushing himself up to look around.
"Right, I forgot." He explained, "Listen Gray, I was actually supposed to get ahold of that book for Igneel."
"Sorry, but you're not getting it."
Natsu pushed himself up, pulling at his strength to get to his feet, "Stop screwing around. Hand it over."
"I'm serious, Natsu. I'm not letting go." Gray held the red tome as they all looked at it. "I've got Tartaros' master in this thing. From what they say, he's the most powerful demon out of any of Zeref's books. This might be the only chance we'll ever get to erase him."
"All I know is I made Igneel a promise." Natsu stood up straight, staring his friend down, "Now give me the book."
"I don't think so."
Their staring match was disrupted when a hand wrapped around Gray's wrist. The tingling sensation ran through his Slayer tattoo as he turned to meet the onyx eyes of the Phoenix Slayer. Kia was panting lightly from the effort of getting up and moving as quickly as she could.
"Wait a minute." She didn't break her eye contact, "You don't understand what you're holding."
He raised a brow at her, wondering what she could really mean. He was holding the book that contained the most powerful creation that Zeref had ever made. It held the demon that he had told his father he would destroy. He opened his mouth to respond with any of this, but paused as the ground began to tremble.
"What is it now?" Natsu looked around, trying to find a source.
Gray did the same, "Wait."
Kia's grip on his wrist tightened for a moment as she folded in on herself, her other hand clutching at her chest. The center of her being felt as though it were being pulled in on itself, getting pulled into a smaller and smaller space, knowing that at one point it would burst. Her hand slipped from Gray's wrist as she went to her knees, that hand pressed into the dirt with her forehead.
The others of Fairy Tail and Sabertooth could feel the effects right after Kia had reacted. Sting and Rogue had no strength to get to their feet and the other pair weren't sure how long they could stay on theirs.
"You do realize...that this is only the beginning."
Their attention was turned to the long-haired man that hadn't moved from his crater, because he didn't have the strength.
"Once all of your beloved magic has been rendered obsolete, the seal that binds my master will finally break. The moment when the mightiest of the Etherious has been restored, your species will find itself devoid of both magic and any means of opposing us."
"You're wrong." Kia's shaky voice was muffled by the folded over position she was still in, but they heard her all the same. "That isn't how that seal works."
Mard Geer squinted at the mop of pink hair that was covering her face, "What do you mean?"
"I told you, your plan won't work. You don't understand what you're really dealing with." She turned her head, locking her dark eyes with his, "You don't even know what E.N.D. looks like."
A hiss escaped her as another pulse ripped through the seal that rested deep in her chest. It was starting to crack more, but she tried to contain it. Even if she had no control of it, she would use every ounce of power she had left to keep it from completely breaking. She tried to focus on the task and not the pain as a loud crash sounded on the other side of the clearing.
Everyone stared at the apparently weak and unconscious form of the Black Dragon himself.
"It's Acnologia." Gray muttered as another large form appeared to place his talon on the fallen dragon's chest.
"We haven't lost yet, humans." Igneel's deep voice rang out, "Do not despair!"
And the Fire Dragon King was right. Four other dragons soared through the skies of Ishgar, destroying all of the Faces at an alarming speed. The other wizards around Fiore stared in wonder and gratitude as the great beasts saved all of them. And with each crumbling structure, the wizards felt their magic power returning to them in small splashes and waves.
Igneel roared, "We've done it. The Revival of Etherious has been stopped. Victory is ours."
Mard Geer was in disbelief. "We were defeated."
The pain in Kia faded further and further, her breaths coming out ragged as she tried to pull herself back together. All she could do was listen to the questions and conversation around her.
"I don't understand." Sting asked, "He was actually alive?"
"We all were. Skiadrum, Metalicana, and Grandeeney. We lived within all of you, the Dragon Slayers. We used a very sacred art, to allow our spirits, and our powers to lie dormant within each one of you."
'I think you skipped over a few things there, Dad.' But Kia didn't interrupt.
"Wait a minute," A thought occurred to Rogue, "is that what those heart palpitations were? Your powers were awakening?"
"Yeah!" Natsu jumped in, "You never gave me a straight answer on that! How exactly did you get inside me anyway? I think I'd remember eating a dragon."
Kia rolled her eyes at her brother's comment while their father continued, "We chose this course of action for two reasons. First of all, we wanted to keep you Dragon Slayers from ever physically transforming into a dragon, and therefore, suffering the same fate as Acnologia."
'Though that didn't entirely follow the original plan.' She grumbled in her mind, plagued with flashes of the first time she ever saw the Black Dragon. Her eyes widened as she realized something, they weren't the only ones getting their strength back.
"Oh yeah. I remember Zirconis telling us about that." Natsu said, "He mentioned something about Acnologia being human once."
"Yes," Igneel nodded, "And now for the second-"
"Dad! Stop messing around!"
They were all taken aback by the sudden outburst from the downed Phoenix Slayer, turning to find her onyx eyes burning with concern as they locked with the dragon she called her father.
He glared at her gently, "Don't interrup-"
But she wasn't listening, "Finish him before he gets back up!"
But it was already too late. Acnologia roared, pushing his body from the ground to soar back into the skies. Igneel did not pause in chasing after his enemy.
"Hey!" Natsu cried after him, "Wait!"
"We'll finish this discussion later. You two just worry about getting that book."
"Dad," he continued to yell, "come back!"
The Twin Dragons questioned what he had meant by book as Kia struggled to get back on her feet.
Gray held up his hand again, "This is what he wants, isn't it? The Book of E.N.D."
"Hand it over," Natsu demanded.
But the Ice mage wasn't budging, "I made a promise, too. That I would do whatever it took to defeat E.N.D."
"This ain't about you."
Kia stepped between them, "Both of you...stop it."
She looked back and forth at them as they both refused to move. Sting and Rogue joined Kia's effort in trying to get the two friends to stop arguing over something they could simply talk rationally over even though they weren't fully aware of the situation that was unfolding before them. The only person who fully understood between the five was Kia, but soon another person who knew the truth approached.
The Book of E.N.D. vanished.
Gray held up his hand in confusion, "Where'd it go?"
"You gotta be kidding!"
"It wasn't my fault!"
But Kia had immediately scanned the area around them, painfully aware that there was only one person with the ability to summon a Book of Zeref.
"Thank you for taking care of my book."
Five sets of eyes widened as the six pairs turned directly toward the voice. They saw the dark-haired man standing there calmly, the red book now resting in his hand.
"But I think it's best that I keep it. It's rather important, you see."
Natsu recovered first, squinting his eyes, "I should've known."
Sting had an opposite reaction, finding curiosity and fear, "Wait, is that Zeref?"
The dark wizard took a step forward, but not toward the Slayers. "Well, Mard Geer. That was a valiant effort. You came so very close to reviving E.N.D."
The Underworld King was still in shock from seeing the one person he had spent the last few centuries trying to get back to.
"You've earned the time to rest in peace."
"Master...Please, I..." he reached toward Zeref as he begged, "I only wanted to fulfill the promise I made to you."
"It saddens me, but you failed." And Zeref snapped his fingers.
Mard Geer's body glowed for only a moment before it turned into an ethereal fog that was pulled into the pages of a closed book that hovered above the ground where he had just been laying. The boys hardly had time to process what was happening when the emerald-colored tome caught fire, tumbling back to the ground as nothing but ash.
Gray snapped out of the shock, "What the hell?! Didn't you create him?!"
Zeref turned to face the question, no care in his tone. "I did, but you see...what I create, I destroy." He paused, his dark eyes lifting to meet with Kia's, an unspoken conversation passing between the two that no one else seemed to notice.
And her mind was whirling. She had been so close to getting the book and now things were about as bad as they could have turned out. The only thing that could make this worse would be if Zeref decided to blurt out the truth about what E.N.D. stood for. Kia knew that learning that would likely cause Natsu's demon seed to start reacting. She needed to get that book, but she needed Zeref to leave more.
"When this all began, I was only interested in dealing with you." Zeref turned his gaze toward Natsu, making Kia's fear grow. "But then, Acnologia had to come along and ruin my plan. I can't help but wonder," his head tilted back as he looked off in the distance where the flashes appeared behind the clouds, signalling where the two dragons continued to battle one another. "Will he change history once again? Or will there be a miracle? Not even I know the answer to that."
"What are you trying to say?" Natsu asked.
"I'm just interested to see how you survive this new era of darkness." He paused as he responded to the question, his eyes resting on the pink-haired Dragon Slayer. "If you can, that is." Zeref was toying with them now, "I'll show you despair unlike anything you've ever imagined."
And that was when Kia had had enough. Even though her body had slowly begun to recover, it still protested the movement as she stepped in front of Natsu. She stood with her shoulders squared as she narrowed her eyes.
"Keep dreaming, Zeref."
The Black Wizard's eyes flickered red at the sight of the challenge. "I was expecting you to stay quiet."
"I got tired of listening to you talk." A protective growl lingered in her throat, "You got what you came for, so why don't you buzz off?"
An evil smirk crossed Zeref's lips, "Don't think I don't know where the other one is."
"You think that will scare me?" The image of a deep orange book flashed before her eyes. The letters KIA written on the cover in a slanted writing. "By all means, waste your time."
"Kia..." Natsu mumbled her name as he watched his sister challenging the most powerful being in the world. She was protecting him, but there was something else that he couldn't place.
Zeref's eyes narrowed at the pink-haired woman before him. He already had her book. It would be nothing to summon it right here and now. He would ruin her in front of four of the people she saw as younger brothers that she needed to protect.
So he summoned it, keeping the title pointed toward him.
Kia's heart skipped. He really had it. This would be the moment of truth that she had been dreading. Was her test run a success? Did her changes actually work?