Prime Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
July 6, x791.
*Boom!*
The light from Gildarts' attack eventually faded. When it did, half of the head of the dragon he punched was missing. On top of that, the dragon fell to the ground, its weight causing a localized tremor while collapsing the buildings around it. A moment later, Gildarts landed next to Ur, who was just looking at the dragon.
"That was a lot easier than I expected." Gildarts muttered while scratching his head. "I mean, after fighting Acnologia twice, I was kind of expecting a harder fight, you know?"
"Yeah, I know." Ur replied. "But then again, according to Irene, Acnologia is on a totally different level than most of the other dragons. I mean, he did kill quite a few of them over the centuries."
"I guess you're right." Gildarts replied. "By the way, how are the others doing?"
"It looks like they're still fighting." Ur replied. She then looked in a different direction. "More importantly, we've got some guests. And two of them have magic power signatures very similar to people we know."
"Very similar?" Gildarts said while rubbing his chin. "Then, I guess it's a counterpart from this world. I wonder who we'll meet."
"Well, they should be here in about fifteen minutes." Ur said with a smile. "So, you'll find out when they get here. For now, let's watch how Erza and Mira do against that dragon. It looks like it was about as strong as the one we just fought."
"Why not." Gildarts replied with a shrug as he turned to watch the aerial battle between Erza, Mirajane, and a dragon.
Shortly before Gildarts and Ur engaged their dragon opponent, Erza and Mirajane were flying through the sky towards their own opponent while still cloaked in the light of their magics. And by the time they were in front of their foe, they were both ready to fight.
While Mirajane was in her familiar [Satan Soul: Sitri Take Over], with her flaming legs, Erza was wearing a suit of armor that only Alfonzo and Ellicia, the two who designed it, had ever seen before.
This armor, the [Dragon Slayer Armor], consisted of a golden and red chest plate that revealed the tops of her breasts and some cleavage, worn over a long sleeved red jacket that reached her knees, a golden neck protector connected to a pair of golden shoulder pauldrons, a short white skirt, and a pair of thigh-high red boots with golden accents. On top of that, every piece of this ensemble was made from the remains of the dragons Alfonzo found under Crocus. Though, it was a mystery, even to Alfonzo, how Elicia managed to process the bones into the material used to make the jacket and the skirt.
"Well, this one is definitely no Acnologia." Mirajane said while staring down the dragon. "Do you think we'll have to go all out to beat it, Red?"
"It is better to fight it with all our strength." Erza replied sternly. "That way, we can reduce the amount of damage it can inflict upon the city."
"If we do that, something tells me we'll have to worry about how much damage you inflict on the city." Mirajane muttered under her breath.
"You!" The dragon bellowed while glaring at Erza. "That armor, is it made from the remains of my kin?"
"It is." Erza replied as she drew Astraia from the sheath on her left hip. "It was made by my husband just in case I ever had to face a dragon again."
"I see." The dragon replied sonorously. "Then, I'll make sure to kill him, as well, for desecrating the corpse of one of my kin."
With that, the dragon inhaled a large amount of air. At the same time, Erza and Mirajane could see a purple orb forming between its jaws while they could feel the concentration of magic power rising, as well.
"I guess we really will have to go all out." Mirajane said as she touched the tiara on her forehead. "[Show the World the Power of Destruction, Bael]."
"Just as I said." Erza replied as she raised her sword over her head. "[Deliver Justice as Swiftly as the Wind, Astraia]."
With that, both Erza's and Mirajane's [Soul Armaments] went through some changes. While Erza's sword, Astraia, went through its normal changes with the folded fairy wings that made up its hand guard unfolding to either side of the blade, Mirajane's changed in a way no one expected.
Instead of the tiara on her head expanding to cover her arms in a pair of elegant gloves, the expansion skipped her arms entirely, this time. Instead, it expanded down to her legs, which were lit ablaze in her [Satan Soul: Sitri] form, and fused with the flames, turning them from a red, orange, and yell color to a blackish-red color.
Then, just as the two's partial unsealing finished, the dragon fired its breath attack, a swirling mas of stone, in the two Fairy Tail wizards' direction.
"[Gale Step]." Erza chanted as she vanished from her spot in the air to avoid the breath attack.
Mirajane, on the other hand, raised her hands in front of her chest. Then, a reddish-black orb appeared between her hands, growing to the size of a volleyball.
"[Extinction Burst]." Mirajane chanted as the orb quickly reached a critical point.
A moment later, Mirajane tossed the orb over her head. She then performed a somersault kick, her right heel slamming into the orb and sending it rocketing towards the breath attack that was clearly of the earth or stone element.
"Foolish." The dragon said when he saw the size of the attack Mirajane used to combat his mighty breath attack.
*Pssh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
Yet, before the dragon's voice even stopped echoing around the area, the two attacks collided. And when they did, the orb Mirajane launched forward quickly expanded to a size that could contend with the area the breath attack covered. And when it did, every piece of stone that was swirling in the attack was disintegrated on contact.
When the dragon saw the result of the clash, its eyes widened to a frankly comical degree. Unfortunately for it, however, Erza made her move just when it was caught off guard.
"[Cyclone Cutter]." Erza chanted.
*Roar~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!*
As Erza's chant sounded out, a cyclone was formed around the dragon. And if one were to look closely enough, a gold and red blur could be seen flashing among the winds. And with every flash, one of the dragon's stone-like scales would be cut through, blood spurting from each new wound.
A moment later, Erza appeared next to Mirajane, accompanied by a gust of wind.
"I didn't think I'd be able to cut through those scales so easily." Erza said in a somewhat dumbfounded tone just as Mirajane's attack fizzled out. "Even if it's not as strong as Acnologia, I thought it would be tougher."
"Well, let me give it a try, then." Mirajane said as she raised her hands over her head and once again began condensing a large amount of the black-red aura above her. "[Extinguished Star]."
A few seconds passed while Mirajane gathered her aura. In that time, the dragon began regaining its wits, stopping the descent caused by the shock of its injuries. Flying back up to its former height, it was glaring at Erza with hatred burning in its eyes. Until it saw the large attack Mirajane was preparing.
"What is that?" The dragon asked rhetorically.
At the same time, Mirajane swung her arms in the dragon's direction. And with that motion, the large accumulation of reddish-black aura was sent hurdling in the dragon's direction, as well. Though, its speed was nothing to write home about.
"Hmph! Do you really think you could possibly hit a dragon with such a slow attack?" The dragon asked as it flapped its wings and shifted out of the path of Mirajane's attack.
In response, Mirajane only smiled while making eye contact with the dragon.
At the same time, the dragon widened its eyes when it realized that the swirling orb of reddish-black aura was changing direction. On top of that, it could feel a weak attraction force acting on it. Even so, it knew that it had nothing to worry about as long as it did not allow the attack to get too close. And although it was a stone dragon, not known for its speed in flight, it was still faster than the approaching attack.
"[Candelia Thrust]." Erza chanted just as the dragon began flapping its wings again.
In the next instant, Erza vanished in a gust of piercing cold wind.
*Roar~~~~~~~!*
A moment later, the dragon roared in pain and Erza could be seen flying through a large hole she created by thrusting Astraia through its left wing.
Meanwhile, though still in pain, the dragon continued to flap its wings, trying its best to get away from Mirajane's attack, which was nearly half the size of its body. Unfortunately, with the wound in its wing and the attraction force of the orb, the dragon was finding it more than difficult to get away from what it could tell would lead to its demise.
"Accursed humans!" The dragon bellowed as it turned its neck and unleashed the strongest breath attack it could muster towards the incoming reddish-black sphere.
Unfortunately, thanks to the properties of the orb, the breath attack did little to stop it. Though, it did reduce in size the longer the two attacks stayed in contact. But in the end, the dragon's breath ended first. Then, the sphere, which had shrunken down to a third of its size slammed into the dragon's head and neck.
*Pssh~~~~~~~~!*
Not long later, Mirajane's attack dissipated. When it did, the dragon was still in the sky. However, its wings were no longer flapping. On top of that, its head and most of its long neck were nowhere to be seen. As a result, it fell out of the sky.
*Boom!*
Erza and Mirajane just watched as the dragon fell. So, they naturally saw the destruction something of its size caused when it hit the ground. But as Fairy Tail wizards, they were more or less used to scenes of destruction like that. So, instead of dwelling on it, they looked around to see if they were needed anywhere else.
Eventually, the two wizards saw that Gildarts and Ur were also done with their fight. In fact, they were standing next to the corpse of the dragon they killed while waving at them.
"It looks like they want us to come over." Erza pointed out.
"Well then, let's go." Mirajane replied. "Besides, if we work together, we should be able to help more wounded people we come across."
Nodding in response, Erza, closely followed by Mirajane, flew towards Gildarts and Ur. Then, when they landed in front of the couple, they both reverted to their base forms.
"Not bad, girls." Ur said with a smile. "I can still remember when the two of you first joined the guild. Erza was too weakened from her ordeal to even swing her sword properly and Mira was so prickly that she never wanted to train with anyone other than Elfman and Lisanna. But now look at you, you're fighting dragons. I bet either one of you could have taken it on alone, too."
Hearing Ur's honest praise, both Erza and Mirajane smiled brightly. For a long time, Ur was the strongest woman in Fairy Tail. And although Irene, and probably, Elicia had surpassed her at this point, it still made them feel good.
"By the way, Ur said we should have some guests soon." Gildarts added casually. "Probably someone's counterpart from this world. So, be ready to answer some questions, okay?"
"We'll be ready." Mirajane replied with a nod while she wore her usual pleasant smile as she spread her [Magic Power Detection] to see if she could gleam any information about the guests. And immediately, she recognized the magic power signatures of two of the three approaching their location.
"Understood." Erza said solemnly as she, too, expanded her Magic Power Detection]. "I won't do anything that could dis... grace... the... guild..."
Unlike Ur and Mirajane, Erza was able to recognize all three magic power signatures. However, when she recognized the one that neither Ur nor Mirajane could recognize, her words started to trail off.
"Erza, is everything alright?" Ur asked in a concerned tone after hearing the way Erza trailed off.
Quickly shaking her head after hearing Ur's question, Erza put on her usual expression.
"Don't worry, I'm fine." Erza replied. "I just wasn't expecting to see him any time soon. *Sigh* I wonder if he had to break out of prison in this timeline, too. Then again, this might give me an idea of where to look for him in our world. He hasn't really been heard from since then."
Immediately, Gildarts, Ur, and Mirajane knew who Erza was talking about. Though none of them had been around during the tower of heaven incident, they knew who she meant. ON top of that, after Ur heard what Erza said, she also recognized the third magic power signature. She had met its owner during the Oración Seis subjugation, after all.
A few minutes later, the three wizards, Prime Jellal, Prime Ultear, and Prime Meredy arrived close enough for visual confirmation. And when they did, both Prime Jellal and Prime Ultear were thoroughly dumbfounded.
"Erza?" Prime Jellal muttered while turning his head back and forth between the Erza standing in front of him and the battle taking place in the distance. "But I just saw you fighting over there."
"Mother...?" Ultear said in a disbelieving tone. "I thought it might be you when I saw the ice roses. But how is this possible? You should be dead."
"Dead, huh?" Ur said in an awkward tone. She then turned to Gildarts and continued. "I guess you didn't save me from Deliora in this timeline."
"I guess I didn't." Gildarts said with a frown. "Does that mean I didn't find Ultear in the snow. Or maybe, I never even took the Deliora subjugation quest. But that would mean that my baby girl never asked me to. Hmm... I wonder how deep this rabbit hole goes. *Sigh* I guess I need to find the me of this world to get the answers to those questions."
Ur, Erza, and Mirajane nodded in agreement with Gildarts' assessment. Meanwhile, Prime Jellal, Prime Ultear, and Prime Meredy were looking at him as if he started speaking in a completely foreign language. They then spread that look to the rest of the group by association.
"I can see you three are quite confused." Ur said in a gentle tone. "But can we talk about that after this mess is taken care of? I doubt we'll actually need to fight any other dragons. But there are a lot of people that could use our help right now.'
Nodding dumbly, Prime Jellal and Prime Ultear agreed with that while Prime Meredy turned to look at Prime Ultear with concern in her gaze. However, a reassuring smile put her concerns to rest for now. Then, the group of seven began moving to help as many people as they could throughout the city.