Everyone kept fighting. Everyone kept shooting and killing each other for their side of the war. Gray and Jellal have consulted with Natsu about taking Achnologia to an abandoned warehouse instead of the chambers. He agreed, and currently, Dragneel is taking Lucy to the hospital.
Lucy is losing too much blood, and she can potentially die. Gajeel left the fields, and took Levy's corpse inside a bedroom to let her rest and he can mourn for her without shooting others.
This war isn't close to finishing. And there's still more blood to be spilled.
"Stay with me, Lucy. You can't leave your kids! Salvador and Nashi need you alive." Natsu says, as he steps on the pedal.
Lucy doesn't say anything, but continues to add pressure to her wound. Since Sting had taken off the knife that impaled her, without the proper treatment to remove it, she can die from blood loss.
"Erza! We have to go! Achnologia has way too much men! We cannot risk more of our people to die!" Brandish shouts out, bleeding out from her own injury.
"Dammit! Where the Hell is Lucy and Natsu!? Where's Jellal and Gray!? I need them here pronto." Erza replies back, taking cover after firing.
Achnologia's men surround the two, having their guns aimed directly at them. Brandish alerts Erza, and she turns around, seeing the amount of men they're facing.
"Drop your gun." A man says, and Erza grits her teeth.
Erza slowly drops her weapon on the ground, and raises her hands up in surrender. Brandish grits her teeth as well, but tosses her gun towards them.
"Get up! You're now Achnologia's territory." He says, having two men tie Erza and Brandish's hands together.
"You're not going to get away with this. Making an enemy or starting a war with us is your biggest mistake." Erza taunts.
"Ha, you think I'm scared? Look at you now. You're surrounded, and you can't do anything about it." He says, smirking.
Brandish gets forced to get up, and the two of them walk towards the front of the house. Suddenly, Cana goes in front of them with a bottle in hand, aiming her gun at the people holding Erza and Brandish hostage.
"Let them go, cunts." Cana states, evidently drunk.
"Cana, you're drinking a liquor that gets you drunk quickly. Now is not the time. Get out of the way." Brandish announces, concerned.
"Nah! I'm not drunk, Brandish! These bastards aren't taking you guys anywhere. Hand them over to me or else."
"Or else what, you slut? Do you really think we'll listen to some scum like you? You're totally wrong." The man holding Erza says, chuckling.
Suddenly, Cana drops her bottle, and charges her gun. This alerts the rest of the men, bringing their guards up. Cana glares at the men holding onto Brandish and Erza, and she aims her weapon directly at the man gripping onto Erza.
She fires, and throws a bullet at the man's head. Cana later shoots at Brandish's man, and successfully kills them. But with that, there's always a consequence.
"Fire!"
Brandish and Erza's eyes widen as they see their ally get shot multiple times everywhere by automatic guns. Cana spits out blood, and lastly gets shot in the head. This time, she slowly falls down on her back, and Brandish screams in terror.
"Cana!!"
Erza's lips shake, and tears run down from her eyes. Brandish sobs, and the men continue to take them away. The two struggle against their hold, and get forced to go inside a vehicle.
"You can't just leave Cana here! She deserves a proper funeral! Let me go, you bastard!" Brandish shouts, yanking her arm away from the man's grasp.
"She deserved it! She killed two of our men!"
"To Hell with your fucking men! I swear to Mavis, you won't get away with this! You'll pay for what you have done to Cana and the rest of our friends! You and your fucking cartel can go rot in Hell." Erza snaps, sending a death glare at the man.
He closes the car door, and goes to the driver's seat. He starts the engine, and leaves while the rest of his allies kill off the rest of the members of the FairyTail cartel.
Meanwhile, Gajeel cries as he holds onto Levy's hand.
"You had to leave me. You just had to, Levy. It was supposed to be me, not you." He says, sniffling.
He gulps, trying to swallow down the lump in his throat. It didn't work at all. All he could think about is Levy and the future they had planned.
"We didn't even see each other for so many years except when it was the twins' birthday. You wanted to experience the same pain Lucy had to go through, that way you could understand her. You're so sweet, Levy. You didn't want Lucy to go through this alone. And I agreed to it, because Natsu is my friend too. I wanted him to know that there's someone out there that understands not seeing the love of your life. But look how this shit turned out. I rather only see you for one day, than have you next to me right now not even breathing, dammit!"
Gajeel sniffles, and wipes away his tears. He breathes, and breathes, and finally gets up from his knees. He kisses Levy's hand, and cleans off the blood from her forehead.
"I can't be here right now. There's a reason why I'm still alive. With my own bare hands, I'll kill that son of a bitch that did all of this. And that's Achnologia. You wanted him dead from the start, and I'll complete that wish for you. Our friends will. This isn't goodbye, Levy. I'll see you later up there, okay? Say hi to Larcade and Juvia up there, baby."
He kisses her lips, and grabs his gun while wiping away his tears.
"I'll come back for you. You deserve nothing but a proper funeral, beautiful."
Gajeel leaves the room, and suddenly encounters himself with Mira.
"Gajeel? Hey, what happened? What's going on? Were you crying?!" She questions.
"It's...Levy. She died."
"What? No, that can't be! Where is she!? I need to see her!"
"She's inside her room but listen to me, Mira. We cannot waste time! We have to get out of here! You and I will come back for Levy once all of this is over, I promise you. If we stay here for much longer, we'll be dead!" Gajeel states, trying to calm Mira.
"But Levy...she's gone! You couldn't protect her!? What even happened!?"
"I'll explain to you what happened on our way when we're inside the car. Let's go!"
Meanwhile, after Natsu finally arrives at the hospital, he gets off the driver's seat and opens up the door to the back. He sees Lucy laying down with her hands all bloody and unconscious.
"Sh-She's unconscious, Natsu. Don't think that she left. C'mon, Lucy. You'll be alright, I promise you." Natsu says, grabbing Lucy and holding her bridal style.
But something was off, and Natsu was doubting that something was off. He's denying the truth, and he's keeping himself away from the fact that she isn't breathing in his arms.
"Help!! Someone, help me! My wife is losing too much bleed and she needs medical treatment now!"
The nurses quickly brings a stretcher, and Natsu lays her down on it. The doctor rushes quickly to her aid, and checks up on her pulse.
"Sir, there's nothing we could do. Your wife passed away possibly a few minutes away before your arrival to the hospital." The doctor says, and Natsu's eyes widened.
"What? No, she's not dead! She can't be dead! She's a mother, and she can't possibly leave her kids alone with me! I can't do it without her! Please, doc, bring her back to life or something!"
"I'm sorry."
He caresses Lucy's cheeks, and his hands shake. A lump crawls in his throat, and more tears run down his face.
His hands are bloody, and he felt like the whole world stopped or something. Without Lucy, without the mother of his own kids, he won't be able to survive this war alone.
"Why did you leave me!? I'm suppose to die first! Not you! Men are supposed to die first than their wives or their partners. That's how it was supposed to be.."
This curse, the death curse, doesn't seem to fade away. The only thing that can stop the mourning, is death.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 19:
Three Funerals