As Gajeel pulled his arm back ready to land a hit, the island started to tremble.
"What the...?!" Gajeel shouted as he braced himself.
"Hm, the dragon chain has connected," Pantherlily said rather smugly.
"We didn't make it," Gajeel muttered out.
"You put up a valiant effort, however, we have won this battle," Pantherlily said.
Gajeel clenched his teeth, "You haven't won shit. Those idiots down there never give up when it comes to protecting their friends."
"Shall we continue this fight then?"
Gajeel was about to respond when they started to move.
"Are we moving?" Gajeel asked.
"We will ram this lacrima into Extalia, and they will annihilate each other," Pantherlily confessed and smirked as he saw them growing closer.
"That's nuts," Gajeel said as he looked at the lacrima, his guildmates were still alive in there. "This is messed up," Gajeel muttered.
He had to break them out.
"How-how can you do something so horrible?" Happy asked through tears. Pantherlily let out a huff as he looked away, "I don't need to explain anything to you."
"Gajeel!" Happy cried out. "Hurry and destroy the lacrima and turn everyone back to normal!" Happy shouted as they picked up speed.
"I won't make it, it's accelerating!" Gajeel muttered as he stared at Extalia getting bigger by the second.
The lacrima was too big - if it took as much time as it did to turn Erza and Gray back then the others would become their old forms as they crashed into the island. With his limited magic energy, he had to choose to turn the others back or do what he can to stop the islands from crashing.
What should he do?
He had to decide quickly!
Each second was needed.
Should he risk them turning back as they collide? Risk getting crushed and failing to stop the islands from crashing?
What should he-
"Natsu!!"
Suddenly the blue cat started to shout out the Salamander's name. Gajeel sensed their magic energy and smirked.
They sure did like to arrive right in the nick of time.
He had decided what to do.
Gajeel smirked as he began to run off, "We'll finish this later, cat!"
"Running for it?" Pantherlily shouted in shock.
"I ain't runnin' or hidin'! I'm going to stop this and finish this!"
"Stop it? You're going to 'stop' it? The entire floating island connected to the Dragon Chain? That's a fool's errand! There is no tomorrow for us, we have nothing left!"
"Oi!" Gajeel shouted as he turned back on the ledge and pointed at the cat.
"After this, I'm taking you back to my guild one way or the other! And then I'm making you my cat. Gihi."
Gajeel jumped off the island and started to freefall. He had kicked off the side so he landed on Extalia. He dug his spades into the ground to make sure he stayed.
Gajeel squinted as he looked around to see who he could have out and saw familiar scarlet hair.
"Gajeel? Why haven't you returned everyone else to normal like us? You have to hurry!" Erza shouted as they both pushed against the island.
"That black cat got in my way!" Gajeel shouted referring to Pantherlily.
Gray and Lucy backed him up and continued to push against the island. Gajeels arms burned as the force of the island pushed back on him. He scowled, he had to train more. If he had trained more he could have held
his own!
If he had been stronger he could have beaten Pantherlily and turned everyone back by now. Maybe then this would not have happened.
Gajeel grunted as his arms went back slightly more, there was no way they could push the island away by themselves. They needed a whole army or a few more of himself.
Maybe if he had some iron...
"Gah!" Gajeel shouted as the island pushed forward slightly more, his muscles were burning.
"Hold on!" Erza shouted. "We have to keep the islands from crashing!"
Suddenly, a bunch of flying cats appeared. They flocked to the sides and pushed against the island to help.
Gajeel was in awe at the sight and among them, he noticed a cat with one wing. He watched as her one wing disappeared and she started to fall. He smirked when he saw his cat catch her.
That idiot had finally opened his mind.
He would fit in nicely at Fairy Tail.
Suddenly, the island was engulfed by a strong white light and everyone was pushed away. Gajeel shielding his eyes and felt a pair of cat paws holding him.
When the light left, he looked at the island and saw the lacrima was gone.
"Tha lacrima," Gajeel whispered.
That was when he noticed Mystogan, and Gajeel smiled.
Even before Mystogan started his little speech, he knew the others were back where they were meant to be and safe.
All he had left was to get his cat and go back-
"Ugh!" Pantherlily shouted in pain as he got pierced by a purple beam.
"Black cat!" Gajeel shouted as he watched his cat start to fall.
He looked down to see another Erza holding a magic weapon aimed at where his cat was. Gajeel clenched his fist and scowled.
Before he could react, things started to escalate rather quickly. He watched as a ball-like object emerged from the ground.
He watched as it uncurled to reveal a fake dragon.
Things got even weirder when blue shots were fired and the cats were made into lacrima if hit.
"We have to go!" The cat carrying him shouted as he dodged the beams while dragging Gajeel along.
"Oi, take me down there to that heap of junk," Gajeel muttered.
"W-what?! But that's-!
"I know, but that's nothin' compared to me, cat."
"I'm an exceed..."
"Are we going or not, cat?!" Gajeel shouted and the cat jumped slightly before flying down with Gajeel and setting him down on the ground.
"I'm leaving now, take care and beat that thing!" The cat shouted as he flew away.
"Tch," Gajeel muttered as he jumped up and hit it with an iron club.
He jumped away and landed near where Natsu had. Then Wendy landed after hitting the beat with a sky roar.
"Hey, not bad, Wendy," Natsu complimented.
"No...the attackers from the two of you did more damage," Wendy said.
"Let's do it...how dare they do that to my cat," Gajeel grumbled out.
The old man realized who they were and Natsu sent the others away to take care of the cats.
"Oi, Wendy," Gajeel called out as he and Natsu popped their knuckles.
"Y-yes?" Wendy asked as she looked at him.
"I trust you to take care of us," Gajeel said and Wendy smiled as she clenched her fist and nodded. "Let's do this, Salamander," Gajeel said.
"Teaming up with you, again?" Natsu chided.
"You and I can settle things after we give this thing the bustin' up it deserves," Gajeel said with a smirk.
"I'm all fired up," Natsu said.
"Foolish children..."
"I'll provide support!" Wendy shouted as she began to mutter her spell.
Suddenly Gajeel felt light as a feather, "My body...it's as light as a feather!"
He began to fly around the dragon and as he flew by he hit it with an iron club. Natsu hit him with his flame attacks but they did not seem to be causing any damage.
"Damn this thing! just how is it?" Gajeel shouted.
"We're barely denting it!" Natsu pointed out.
"If that's the case!" Wendy shouted then she started another spell.
"What is it this time?' Gajeel asked as he looked down at himself to see if he saw what was happening.
"It feels like the power is welding up in me," Natsu said.
Gajeel knew exactly what he was talking about as well, it was similar to when he ate iron after losing tons of magic energy but yet it was different.
"It's magic that increases your attack power!" Wendy shouted.
"You ain't bad," Gajeel complimented.
With that, they both took off and started their relentless attack. Then the old man decided to attack Wendy, Gajeel clenched his teeth but turned back to figure out where to attack next.
That girl, she might be little but she could hold her own.
However, when he looked up she was being followed by the attack, "They're homing?"
She could still outrun them-
Wendy suddenly tripped.
Gajeel was about to rush over when he saw Natsu was already there. He then smirked, that old man was probably distracted so it was his time to attack.
"There's more where that came from!" The old man shouted.
"Geehee! I ain't gonna let ya!" Gajeel shouted as he slammed his iron-hammer arms on the scrap beast.
"So annoying!"
Gajeel let out a grunt of pain as he was hit and sent flying out of the way.
"Tch, that kinda hurt," Gajeel muttered as he looked around and found the tail of the beast nearby.
He could smell the low-quality iron.
He was a kind of crying out loud! Why did he not build that junk with some good iron?
Gajeel frowned as he leaned down, desperate times called for desperate measures.
He bit off a few pieces when the old guy finally noticed. He heard the Salamander complaining about the crappy fire he had to eat.
Maybe it was this world, maybe they did not compare to where he came from.
"Now that I've eaten, I'm all revved up!" Gajeel shouted alongside Natsu.
"What do you think you're doing?" Natsu asked as he shot him a side-glance.
"Yer one annoying pest," Gajeel spat out.
He smirked as the old man was in shock on how powerful they were. With the way the fight was going so far, he doubted it was going to take much longer. Heck, maybe even Levy's lackeys could beat it.
"Sure is strong. It ain't called a "dragon" for nothing," Natsu said as he looked up at the beast.
"Give me a break, this ain't even close to a dragon!"
He was confident he could beat the beast when something started to happen.
"What's this?" Gajeel asked as he watched a black aura start to form around the beast.
"It's collecting magic energy from the air," Wendy whispered.
Suddenly, a loud screeching sound erupted from the thing. Gajeel and the other two dragonslayers covered their ears and trembled at the pain it sent to their ears. Then the thing attacked the area they stood, the power of the hit sent Natsu flying.
Gajeel dug his spades into the ground, "Wendy!" He shouted as he extended his hand.
She took his hand and he brought her close, he did his best to protect Wendy from the wind sent by the force of the hit.
"Oi, are you okay?" Gajeel asked as he let go of her once the wind died out.
"Yes, thank you. What about Natsu-san?" Wendy asked.
Gajeel looked up as did Wendy as they heard Natsu shouting an attack. They both watched as he was swatted away like a fly.
"Natsu-san!" Wendy shouted in panic.
"Even with the power of Arms, our attacks won't work!" Gajeel shouted.
The only man started to ramble on, Gajeel paid no mind to him. He had to figure out where to strike to send him down for good, he was starting to get annoying.
Maybe if he took down the legs, the thing would collapse. Though, if he did that old man would hit him with his arms as he had done before. Perhaps he should go for the arms instead? That would be tough too since he would hit him with the other arm or shake him off...
"Be afraid, Dragon Wizards!" The old man shouted.
Gajeel could not react in time as a white beam expanded quickly and sent him and Wendy up and flying. They both shouted out in pain as they were attacked.
He should have been paying attention!
Gajeel let out a grunt as he landed on the ground, he needed more power...
"You have no chance of winning," The old man sneered.
"Everyone's suffering from lack of magic power...but their King sure has plenty all for himself," Natsu muttered as he stood tall.
"It's only natural for a king to tax his people. Drom Anim is constantly observing magic power from the entire world the ultimate magical weapon! That's also the reason it is a forbidden weapon once activated, I have a duty to win for the sake of the world!"
"For the world?!" Wendy exclaimed.
"Yer just stealing magic for yourself! How can you say that with a straight face?!" Gajeel shouted in disgust.
"Hehehe," The old man laughed.
"See, we joined a guild so that we could live," Natsu said. "I might not know much about this world, but for the sake of all the living things of this world, I will defeat you!" Natsu shouted.
"No matter how many times you stand you will never be able to beat me! Those with magic power will rule the world! That's something this world requires!"
"Stop twistin' logic to justify your actions! You dolt!" Gajeel shouted as he charged forward.
He was going to beat that old man senseless if he did not stop yapping away. Gajeel let out a shout after he attacked only to be sent down.
If he had to rate landing on top of rubble from the top of a fake dragon, he had to rate it a one out of ten. Not an ideal place to fall but better than the time he fell into a pit full of spikes.
As the fight continues, Gajeel could feel their magic energies going down more and more. Soon enough, they were on the ground only to be shot through the air after yet another attack.
The old man started to collect magic energy once again...they had to end it now.
"Salamander, use your roar. You too, brat," Gajeel said to the other two.
"All three at the same time?" Wendy asked softly.
"I didn't want to suggest it 'cause I'm not sure what'll happen but we got no choice!" Gajeel said. The other two agreed and they all send their respective dragon roar at the beast.
"Did that do it?" Gajeel asked.
All three started to smile when the old man started to laugh. Gajeel was sick of his laugh already.
"It could jump that high?" Gajeel asked as they all stared up at the old man.
Before they could try again, he sent an attack raining down hitting all of them and sending them back to the ground. Gajeel clenched his teeth, he was getting sick of landing on the ground.
"This is bad...my magic power is...running out," Gajeel muttered as he stared up at the sky.
He wondered if it was the end...? He had basically no magic now so what now? He had not been able to beat it when he had had more magic so why?
"Don't give up!" Natsu shouted.
Gajeel groaned as he turned to look at Natsu, the fool was standing and getting stepped on by the beat.
"Fool...what can you do without any magic power?" Gajeel asked as he tried to push himself up.
"I squeeze it out! I'll squeeze it out from tomorrow if I have to!" Natsu shouted.
'From tomorrow?' Gajeel wondered. He then remembered what he had told Pantherlily earlier when he said they had no tomorrow. Yeah, there was no way he was going to die.
Not then!
Gajeel jumped up and turned to Wendy, "Can you send me up there?" Gajeel asked.
Wendy nodded and soon enough Gajeel was flying down to the beast with an iron club ready to smash into it.
"We don't need to combine our powers! All we need is our power, our wishes, to be as one!" Gajeel shouted as he slammed down on the foot of the beast.
"Locked down! Now you can't escape into the air!" Gajeel shouted. "Go Salamander! It's gotta be you! You do it!" Gajeel shouted.
"Let go of me, you brat!' The old man shouted.
"Never, you piece of crap!" Gajeel shouted.
He looked up at Natsu as he prepared to make his attack. He was going to use Wendy's roar to shoot through the damn beast.
Gajeel smirked when he saw Natsu flying out of the beast with the old man in his grasp. His job was done, Gajeel let out a huff as he sat up. Natsu started to cheer and brought in the connection to chess, Wendy had to point out that checkmate was called before one takes out the kind.
"Gihi, idiot," Gajeel said.
Suddenly the area they were in started to tremble.
"W-what's that?" Natsu asked.
"Reinforcements? You've gotta be kiddin' me...I'm really out of magic power now," Gajeel said as he looked down at his hands.
"T-that's not it!!" Wendy shouted.
Gajeel looked up to see the islands in the sky as they began to fall.
"What is that coming out of the land?" Wendy whispered in horror.
"That old man doomed his people even quicker or something," Gajeel muttered.
"Hey! Old man! Do something about this! Your world is falling apart!" Natsu shouted as he grabbed the King's robs and shook his back and forth even though he was unconscious.
"Natsu-san, you shouldn't do that," Wendy said softly.
"Let him, maybe he'll wake up a brain cell or two," Gajeel said.
Wendy let out a gasp, "That's magic power!"
"Magic power?" Natsu asked as he stepped away from the old man.
"Won't losing all magic power be a big problem?" Gajeel asked.
"Yes, we have to help! Let's head back to the city around the castle!" Wendy exclaimed.
"What do you plan to do?" Natsu asked.
"I'm worried about the people in the city! There might be something we can do!" Wendy
shouted.
"Yeah...I think I understand what you mean," Gajeel said.
The three of them ran towards the city despite their battered state. Gajeel looked up at the sky ask another piece of a floating island came crashing down.
'Is this world finished?' Gajeel wondered.
He knew that Wendy was still a child so she did not understand the full capacity of what was going on, on the other hand, Natsu was the same age as him but...he was Natsu.
He wondered if he was the only one who understood what was going to happen to this world.
~~~
"Should we get disguises?" Natsu asked as they entered the very edge of the city.
"For what, Natsu-san?" Wendy asked.
"Well, Mystogan said he was this world's prince, and knowing him, he was the one who did something to get rid of the magic power here in Edolas, right?" Natsu asked.
"Yeah, seems about right, he was the only one to know about this entire thing," Gajeel said.
"Knowing Mystogan, he's going to try and take the blame and be charged for this. He'll be the enemy who took magic power from them, and he'll appoint a leader for the citizens to follow that defeats him. With the enemy gone, the people will praise the new leader and follow him or her to fix their world instead of being left in a panic," Natsu said.
"That makes sense, are you saying we should play that role?" Wendy asked.
"Yes, and I have the perfect plan!" Natsu said way too happy.
'I don't trust that smile,' Gajeel said as Natsu smiled at him.
~~~
"Yer an idiot," Gajeel muttered as he looked at Natsu with the fake horns.
"Oh come on! It's ingenious!" Natsu shouted as Wendy touched the ends of the makeshift cloak.
They had ripped apart a fabric from some abandoned little shop and fashioned them into cloaks. Natsu had found fake horns as well.
"Come on, all we have to do is rough the city up a bit and get Mystogan to fight us and beat us. After that, we can go home!" Natsu said as they walked toward the city.
"I don't know if I can hurt people," Wendy said softly.
"Come on Gajeel, you're on board, right?"
"Well, considering this is your first and probably last semi-decent plan, I'll do it," Gajeel said.
The two of them started to riot and Wendy hesitantly joined in. As Gajeel bit through a dull - and pretty gross tasting - sword causing several people to run off, Natsu had climbed to the top of a building. Gajeel watched as Natsu began his little speech.
"I am the Great Demon King, Dragneel! I've taken all this world's magic power!" Natsu shouted as he laughed 'evily'. He laughed a bit more as people got scared, "I'm the one...who beat your king!" Natsu shouted as he pointed to the king that had been tied up. "Maybe I'll let him live just as a special favor!" Natsu said with yet another laugh. "Redfox! Marvel! Destroy the city, my loyal servants!"
Gajeel and Natsu dragged the old man along.
Gajeel cringed at being called his loyal servant but he decided to make a big scene. He sliced through a crumbling building - that would have fallen anyway - and sent it crashing behind him.
"Gihi!" Gajeel laughed.
He spotted Edolas him playing along and smirked, he was going to miss that guy.
He then noted Wendy trying to scare a boy and failing, if she did that to Macao or Wakaba, they would probably coo at her. Gajeel sighed as he went over and gave that boy a scary look.
"I'm sorry," Wendy whispered as she looked down.
"Yer tryin' yer best," Gajeel said before glancing over to the other him and smirking.
"Destroy more of the city! My servants!" Natsu shouted.
"Shut up with the "servant" thing already, you jerk!" Gajeel shouted.
"Whatever, just do it!" Natsu shouted.
"Tch, he's talking like he's hot stuff..." Gajeel grumbled.
He continued to mess with people when Natsu suddenly addressed what he had been waiting for. Now that he was telling Jellal to fight him, he would get to go back soon.
'He might be tryin' to give the prince some heroics by doing this stupid act but when it comes to light that he's just faking being beaten, there'll be no turning back,' Gajeel though as he crossed his arms as he stood next to Wendy.
As he watched, he saw Natsu was going to give the people a show. The prince was going to be a magic-user with no magic.
"I wish he would hurry up, I wanna go eat," Gajeel grumbled.
"Do you want some iron? I can find some around here," Wendy said as he pointed to a nearby shop.
"Little Miss Marvel, stealing? Oh my, gihi," Gajeel said as Wendy flushed and tried to explain
herself. "Oh, it looks like the fight is over," Gajeel said as they looked at them.
Gajeel then looked at the other him who was leaving, he raised his hand to Gajeel as a farewell, "Gihi."
"It's started," Wendy pointed out as they started to glow.
"Okay...let's put on a real show as we kick the bucket!" Gajeel said loudly.
As he floated in the air, he closed his eyes.
He was going back to where everything was right.