Disclaimer: Hey guys! Firestorm40 here with a new chapter your all. I do not own any of the characters except my own Ocs. Fairy Tail belongs to Hiro Mashima.

Special thanks to the reviewers and to the readers who Fav/Alert this story, I really appreciate it. So without further ado, Enjoy!

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The Fairy Tail mages faced Franmalth as the demon's body shifted to take the form of Hades- though only the man's face was recognizable. The rest of the transformation was mostly comprised of Franmalth's original body and didn't look especially appealing.

Franmalth stuck his tongue out in a mocking impersonation of the dark mage, "Gehehehe!"

Lucy was disgusted, "He looks gross!"

"But this magic power..." Lucas shivered, "It's so intense..."

"Your body is completely disproportioned," Sora told Franmalth pointedly.

The demon was more annoyed than anything, "It doesn't matter what I look like! I've got Hades' power! The former Master of Grimoire Heart, the genius wizard who delved too deep into the darkness! When I was searching for Zeref seven years ago, I coincidentally found his body and took his soul! How much is his magic worth? How much?"

Sora sneered and rushed him, "You need an update, cyclops freak! Natsu and I were the ones who beat that old fart into his last decade!"

His words caught Franmalth off-guard for a moment, "Come again?!"

The Solar Dragon punched Franmalth with a mass of solar light energy, sending the demon flying through a wall. But the enemy's resistance was higher than they thought.

In fact, the damage was so minor that Franmalth grinned at him, "You claim you beat Hades, do you?"

Without missing a beat, the demon shot back at Sora with blinding speed and punched him in retaliation, forcing the Dragon Slayer backwards even farther. Franmalth stuck rapidly over and over, creating explosions through the corridor.

Lucy threw an arm over herself to protect her face from the debris, "Sora! Be careful!"

Sora came to a stop and lunged at Franmalth again, who cackled, "This is the magic of one who has gazed into the abyss!"

He hurled one of Hades' chains at the Dragon Slayer, who dodged at first, but left himself open to be grabbed by Franmalth's extended hands.

"Connection! I'll be taking your soul now!" Franmalth declared.

"Th hell you will!" Sora threw a orb of solar light at the demon and scored a clean hit in the face. He jumped back to focus his magic power, generating solar magic and white flares around his body, "Solar Angel Dragon Mode!"

He sucked in a deep breath, then let out a bellow, "Solar Angel Dragon's Roar!"

The mass of raging sunlight and white flares engulfed Franmalth, who shrieked in pain for a moment. When the blast sent the others flying, the demon began to grin insanely.

"What a wonderful soul!"

Franmalth held his hands out and started sucking all the magic into his body, "Absorption!"

Sora's jaw dropped, "What?!"

"No way!" Lucy gasped.

The demon was now encased in the golden light white flares, but they did not burn him. Rather, he had adopted Sora's power as his own. Now Franmalth faced them in the aura of gold and white, flickering while maintaining the semi-appearance of Hades.

"Gehehehe!" Franmalth laughed crazily, "Just because you beat down Jackal doesn't mean you should let that one victory get to your head! We're the demons of Zeref's books, biological weapons written by the Black Wizard Zeref; just a single one of us is enough to take on an entire country's armed forces. Do keep that in mind!"

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Back in the core of Tartaros, Natsu and Mira were still battling against Sayla. The two were keeping the demoness on her toes, but she was surprisingly nimble and kept defending with her collection of magic books.

Lisanna was stunned. They hadn't managed to hit their enemy once yet.'Even with Natsu and Mira fighting together, they haven't so much as touched her!'

Natsu clenched his fist and punched at Sayla, "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"

Sayla used her books as a defense while leaping back, avoiding the explosive attack. She caught sight of Mira trying to get in from the side, but flicked her fingers and sent another book into the Take Over Mage's face, stunning her long enough for Sayla to get away.

Mira glared at her, "Damn you!"

"Those are some tough books," Natsu growled in annoyance, "They aren't burning!"

Sayla watched them through narrowed, calculating eyes.

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Further down, towards the surface of Undercube, Erza and Kyouka continued their duel, slashing at each other with blades and long claws. Both women were incredibly fast and agile, making it difficult to land a blow on their enemy. They had taken the battle to a room with beams jutting from the ceiling and engaged each other in aerial combat. So far, it was even.

Erza landed after dodging a particularly swift series of blows and glared down at the demoness, "She's strong..."

Kyouka smirked back up at her prey, "Come on, Erza...don't leave me all alone down here!"

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Lexi, Kiki, Carla and Wendy all flew for Poison Jelly Valley, making record time with their arrival. After a few minutes, Wendy pointed at a gaping hole in the ground, "There! That's the Great Cave!"

"I see it!" Carla exclaimed, flying them down into the massive crevice.

They descended for another minutes longer, making the white exceed gulp.

 "It sure is deep." Kiki muttered

"Just keep going," Lexi encouraged her, "Face has got to be around here somewhere."

Carla wobbled in her flight, so she was grateful when the ground finally appeared. She set Wendy down immediately and dispelled her Aera wings, "Wendy, I have to rest. I've used up almost all of my magic..."

"Yeah me too..." Kiki said as she plopped on Lexi's head.

Wendy nodded and picked Carla up, hugging her friend close, "That's fine. Thank you, Carla."

"Yeah, you too Kiki." Lexi said before she  looked around, spotting a tunnel passage, "That looks promising. We'll head that way."

As they entered the tunnel, Wendy didn't question the spiky appearance of the ceiling- causing her to miss that it was attached to something much more dangerous than the rock surface over their head.

"Something wrong?" Lexi asked her.

Wendy frowned, "Now that I think of it, we don't know how big Face is or what it even looks like. What if it's something really small and we miss it? How do we even go about searching for it? Wandering the caves might take too long."

"Hmmm...you might have a point." Lexi muttered.

"Concentrate your senses, Wendy!" Carla scolded, "Try and feel for its magic power."

The Sky Sorceress sniffed the air, opening her mouth for a better taste, "The air down here is sweet..."

Kiki muttered, "It's because of the humidity and cool temperature."

Wendy suddenly felt a small insect crawling up her leg and swatted in a panic, "Kya!"

The second she knocked the bug off her leg, a massive swarm of them took flight around her. She let out a shriek, "EWWWWWW!"

Carla opened one eye, "And where it's cool and humid, you're bound to find insects..."

"Thanks for the heads up!" Wendy shuddered and whined.

Lexi laughed at that before her sniffed the area and narrowed her eyes as she looked around. "Who's there!?"

"The hell is this? A midget? Is this a fucking joke, Kyouka?"

Wendy froze. Someone was behind and...above her. She spun around instantly.

"WENDY, LOOK OUT!" Lexi screamed.

"I'M NOT BUILT FOR TRASH CLEANUP, YOU BITCH!" Ezel bellowed in fury and lunged down at Wendy from the ceiling. His fist flew forward, but Lexi grabbed the Sky Sorceress leaped away from him before the attacker could land the blow.

Lexi skidded to a halt and Wendy stared in alarm, "Tartaros?!"

"It's gotta be..." Kiki said.

Carla glared at the demon weakly, "Face had to be activated manually and guarded...meaning this guy is the one they dispatched for that job..."

Ezel rushed them again, using all four of his giant hands to try and crush his prey like a sickeningly realistic game of whack-a-mole. Wendy and Lexi scrambled to escape his wrath, leaping away every time the demon struck. They eventually turned tail and ran as fast as she could.

Now that Lexi had a good look at him, Ezel didn't appear to be especially mobile, at lest not to her. Wendy decided to attempt an escape with Carla's prompting, "We cannot spare a single second fighting this guy! Just worry about getting away for now!"

One of Ezel's fists crushed a portion of the wall, making Wendy flinch at how close it was. She glanced over her shoulder in alarm and realized he was actually keeping up with them on his tentacle legs, "This guy...he might not look like it, but he's fast! We can't shake him off, Lexi!"

"Then we got no choice but to fight!" Lexi yelled as she sat Kiki down in a safe spot.

"I'm going to help too!" Wendy dove behind a boulder as Ezel struck again and set Carla down despite the exceed's protests. She spun and stood beside Lexi as they faced the demon with her hands held out, "Elemental Resistances Rise!Deus Corona! Physical Resistances Rise! Deus Equus!"

Lexi felt her magic her magic gain a huge boost with the support.

Ezel paused his frenzy and glared at them, "Ah? What's this?"

Wendy kept boosting up thier powers, "Ile Arms! Ile Armor! Ile Vernier! Enchant!"

The demon understood and sneered in anticipation, "So, you're an enchanter, eh?!"

"Let go Wendy!" Lexi said as she sucked in a deep breath and unleashed a blast of sliver flames. "Sliver Dragon's Roar!"

"Right! Sky Dragon's..." Wendy sucked in a deep breath also, then unleashed a tornado from her jaws, "Roar!" The two attacks merged into one at launched at Erzel.

An explosion of twisting wind and sliver flames ripped through the tunnels, slicing and destroying even the rocks with ease. But Ezel erupted from the attack with his fangs bared in a grin of dark delight, "Baha! You sure you should be pushing yourselves that hard, princesses?! You might break a nail!"

"Screw you!" Lexi said as she shot him, engulfing her arm in sliver flames before slamming it into his face. "Sliver Dragon's Raging Fist!"

Wendy leaped up too and delivered a kick enhanced with her wind, "Sky Dragon's Talons!"

Ezel appeared unfazed and continued to grin as the two dragon slayers continued their assault, "Heh!"

"He doesn't even seem affected!" Kiki exclaimed.

Erzel folded his arms over his chest, "Five Devil Swords, Tenga Gouken!"

Carla paled. Whatever was coming, Lexi and Wendy was too close. She let out a shriek, "Wendy, Lexi, dodge it!"

All four of Ezel's arms slashed out, "Onimaru!"

The girls just barely managed to dodge, but the rock around them were sliced deep and far, as though Ezel had just cut clean through them with giant swords.

The demon gave her no time to analyze his attacks further. He started slashing his four huge arms wildly, laughing like a maniac, "Gahahahahaha!"

Every single slash ripped through the rock like it was paper  and left the duo with more close calls than they'd ever wish for in their lifetime. One attack was so close, it sliced off half of Wendy's left pigtail and part of Lexi's arm. Lexi winched in pain from the power of the attack, giving Ezel an opening he took advantage of.

Ezel crashed one of his tentacles into Wendy's stomach, knocking the breath out of the young girl and sending her flying into the cavern wall.

"Wendy!" Lexi yelled, but before she could do anything, one of Ezel's tentacles slammed into her back harshly.

"Ahh!" Lexi yelped as she slammed into the wall as well, kicking up a huge dust cloud.

While they were stunned, Ezel assumed the same earlier pose and folded his arms over his chest again before lashing out once more, "Juzumaru!"

Wendy and Lexi threw their arms up in an effort to defend themselves, but the sheer force of the attack crushed them as they burst through the cave to the other side. Their clothes were shredded and their flesh torn. Wendy gasped in pain, "My defenses aren't...why...ahhhh!"

The side of the tunnel was ripped apart by Ezel's attack in a massive X-shape, blowing the duo clean through another wall and onto the ground. They was left stunned and immobile, helpless as Ezel came leaping down onto them. Four of his tentacles pinned Wendy's arms and legs down, while he had his foot pressed down on Lexi's stomach, leaving the two completely trapped by the demon.

Ezel sneered at something in front of them, "Take a look."

Wendy weakly tilted her head back and stared. Protruding from the ground was an enormous white pillar with the shape of a human face at the top. 'No way...!'

"Behold, Face," Ezel declared, "There's just five minutes until it activates. When you get this close...the air gets so thick with ethernano you can feel it rolling off that thing in waves. Stuff fucking sticks."

"That's...Face...?" Lexi said in shock.

The demon sneered down at them, "But that very same ethernano is gonna wipe out all the magic power on the continent- with that out of the way, our Curses will be left unchallenged. Not that you'll be there to see it..."

His tentacles started crushing her limbs, making Wendy whimper in pain. Ezel grinned with sharp fangs at her, "I'm gonna turn you into a stain long before that happens."

He looked over at Lexi. "And you..." He pressed down on her stomach, driving her deeper into the ground. Lexi gagged, as she spit up blood.

"Leave Lexi alone!" Kiki shouted as she launched at Erzel with what little magic she had. Erzel just swung his arm at her, knocking the poor Exceed into the wall.

"Kiki...no!" Lexi said as she watched her friend hit the ground.

"YOU!"

Carla somehow managed to climb up Ezel's huge body and started to scratch at his face and eyes, "Unhand them this instant you fiend! You brute!"

Wendy paled in terror, "Carla, get away!"

"Let go of them now!" Carla demanded.

Ezel was unaffected by her claws and seemed more curious than anything. He grabbed the exceed in his huge hand and inspected her, "What a weird cat. Is it edible?"

"Leaver her alone!" Lexi yelled out.

He grinned and shrugged, "Ah well. One way to find out!"

Ezel lifted Carla up to his mouth, making Wendy scream, "STOP IT!NOOOOO!"

As the demon's fangs started sinking into Carla's flesh, the white exceed gasped, "Wendy! The air!"

Kiki struggled to her knees. "Lexi...there's sliver coming from in too...!"

Wendy froze. Air?! This air so thick with ethernano...Wait! If there's this much ethernano, and I take it into myself...Maybe I could do it!

Lexi looked over at Face 'Sliver...ethernanno....that's it!" 

With every ounce of her strength, Lexi engulfed her arm in sliver flames and pointed it at Face, causing sliver particles to be absorbed into her hand and into her body as her magic power increased.

Wendy then started sucking down the air for all she was worth, feeling her magic levels surge. And still she inhaled further, going beyond any air feast she'd ever devoured before. The oxygen content in the room actually started to drop noticeably.

Ezel paused with Carla halfway in his maw, suddenly finding it harder to breathe, "Huh?"

"AHHHHHHH!"

An explosion of intense, pressurized air and sliver flames blasted Ezel straight up, blowing Carla out of his mouth. The demon spluttered in shock as he was crushed into the ceiling, "What the hell?!"

Kiki smiled at what she saw. "They did it.." she muttered.

Wendy felt her body changing. The sensation was familiar, but different from the one she'd experienced in Edolas. Now she felt more at ease with the ability, fully capable of unleashing it's fury in her human form. Pure white feathers spiked out from her wrists and ankles, and two wing-like formations flared out from her shoulder blades.

For Lexi, she felt more powerful than ever before. She was also had sliver cloaked in an aura of sliver light even more brilliant than what was shown before, and with pure sliver scales appearing to cover the outer edges of her face and extending down from the side of her neck to the rest of her body. Finally, her purple hair turned into a startling sliver as well and became more wavy.

Carla was bleeding and near-unconscious, but she smiled at Wendy. 'Look at you...after being a crybaby for so long...'

As her blue hair intensified and shifted into a light red, Wendy bared her now very large fangs in a snarl at Ezel.

"Now we have the Dragon Force!" The two Dragon Slayer declared.

Ezel was at a loss. He definitely hadn't expected such a predatory force to come from these girls. The demon was so stunned, he fell from the cavern ceiling without noticing and merely hovered in midair for a moment.

Lexi looked down at her hands in awe. "So this the power of Dragon Force...the same power that Sting and Rogue used."

Wendy felt magic surging through her veins, growling like an animal now that she was truly angry and in her element. 'The wind's voice is in my ears...I can feel the atmosphere pulsing...this is my air, now!'

Wind surged around her for a moment, then Wendy vanished entirely.

So did Lexi, in a sliver wisp.

The demon's jaw dropped, "What the fuck?! Where'd they go?!"

The duo was moving with such blinding speed, even Ezel's demonic eyes couldn't track them at all. Wendy leaped up after bouncing off the cavern wall and brought her fist back, charging it with furious wind, "Sky Dragon's..."

She struck into the back of Ezel's skull with a devastating blow, "Imperial Fist!"

Ezel was blown away by the force of the attack with a screech of pain, "Gwoaaahhh!"

Lexi's appeared in front of him and kicked him with her leg coated in sliver flames. "Sliver Dragon's Chaos Fang!" The attack was so powerful that it launched him into the wall.

He swiped his arm around in an effort to slash at Lexi as she dodged, "That fucking hurt, you goddamn bitch!"

However, when Ezel tried to attack, Lexi had already vanished again. He stared in disbelief, unable to comprehend how quickly the tides had turned.

Wendy appeared behind him not a moment later and delivered a body blow, crushing Ezel's tough hide and dealing internal damage to the demon. Ezel let out a shriek and slashed at her again, now falling towards the ground rapidly.

After dodging he latest attack, Lexi amd Wendy both appeared once again directly beneath him and lashed out with sliver flames and tornadoes, respectively on both arms.

"Sliver Dragon's...."

"Sky Dragon's...."

"Wing Attack!"

The combined twister blew Ezel back into open air and crashed him against the cavern wall, obliterating rock and dealing real damage to the demon. Wendy landed lightly on the ground, glaring at where her enemy had been crushed.

Ezel exploded from the debris with a maddened grin of battle lust, "How interesting!"

Wendy faced him down and prepared herself for another attack with Lexi doing the same.

Kiki watched with awe. "They can win...!"

Nearby, Carla was staring at the clock by Face, "Wendy...Lexi....there's only..four minutes..."

"We know!" Wendy shouted back, summoning her wind in a vortex around Ezel, 

"This is going to be the finishing blow!" Lexi declared as she surrounded her arms in sliver flames

Ezel froze, suddenly trapped in the eye of a tornado, "What the..what's with this power?!"

"Unison Raid: Dragon Slayer Secret Art!" Lexi and Wendy launched at him, arms flowed gracefully in a circle, "Ventus Cannon of Skyress Flames!"

They fired the massive cannon of sliver wind/flames off at Ezel, devastating the surrounding area and the demon for a moment, but Ezel folded his arms again. A second later, he started slashing madly with his arms, ripping the spell to pieces, "Five Devil Swords, Mikazuki!"

Wendy and Lexi's spell was dissolved from the intense slashes, negating the majority of its damaging effects. The slashes rippled all the way back up to the source of the air blast, connecting with the two and sending them flying backwards with a cries of pain.

"Lexi!" Kiki shouted in alarm/

Carla screeched in panic, "Wendy!"

The duo came to a halt and stared as Ezel's form suddenly changed, producing a mask on his face and more importantly, actual swords in place of his arms. The demon looked positively terrifying, swinging those huge blades around as a part of his body.

"He's changing..." Lexi muttered.

"Slash Attack Mode!" Ezel cackled, "This is my Etherias Form! My true demon appearance! When we demons of the Books of Zeref return to our Etherias Form, our power increases!"

He brought all four bladed arms up and held them in preparation for a single, mighty stroke, "Ohdenta!"

Ezel slashed down, forcing Lexi and Wendy to scramble away as all four arms came down as one and delivered a massive, devastating blow. The sheer slashing power was such that it vaporized rock and debris as though it didn't exist. When the dust cleared, Wendy stared in horrified amazement.

"Whoa!" Lexi breathed out.

Poison Jelly Valley had been extended a good two miles further, just from that one strike.

"Oh, my god..." Carla has tears of terror in her eyes.

"He did all that...!?" Kiki said.

Ezel snickered, "Get it now?! This is the fury of the demons of Zeref's Books! Humans can't even hope to match us!"

He separated his four arms and brought all of them back, bent at the elbows in preparation for a jabbing attack, "This move is why I'm called 'Child Slicer' Ezel! The demon who shreds even children without mercy! I'm gonna cut you up and eat whatever's left, little girls!"

Wendy didn't let him finish. After seeing the devastation this demon could cause, she decided to start pouring her power into containing him. She began to summon masses of wind, curling it around Ezel and then curling more around that.

Ezel sneered, "That's futile! Here's the 'Child Slicer'! Dojigiri!"

He started a stabbing frenzy, slashing at the wind curls and ripping it apart. The demon snickered, "See? What'd I tell ya?! There's nothing my blades can't...?"

To his surprise, he'd only cut through the first layer of wind, for there were many more layers and it was only building further at Wendy's command.

The Sky Sorceress' hair was whipping from the deluge of wind surging about, but she continued to build it up. More and more and more, until the very cave began to tremble. Ezel continued his maddened efforts to escape, but he was quickly getting exasperated. And still, Wendy summoned more wind.

She was summoning all her power for one specific moment. 'Not yet...not yet...'

"I'll help you out Wendy!" Lexi called as she began to gather sliver flames into her hands.

"Agghhh!" Ezel screeched in fury, "You both are damn annoying! I'll rip you to pieces!"

He brought his four swords up above his head once again to repeat that deadly stroke, and that was when Wendy struck.

In one moment, she coiled the wind into a single, furiously condensed burst and drilled it into Ezel, "Sky Dragon's Gashing Breeze!"

"Sliver Dragon's Shimmering Sphere!" Lexi shouted as she hurled the shining orb into the wind vortex, causing it to merged together into one powerful attack.

Caught off-guard, the combined spell caught Ezel clean in the chest and lifted him up off the ground. With its condensed sharpness, the spell bore entirely through the demon and into the Face Bomb behind him, resulting in both Ezel and Face being completely obliterated.

Ezel fell from the sky with his face contorted in shock agony, blood spewing from his jaws and the gaping hole in his chest as he dissolved into nothing.

Wendy saw the clock pause for a moment and smiled in relief, her Dragon Force fading away, "We did it..."

"Yeah..." Lexi sighed, her Dragon Force fading as well.

The clock ticked down a second.

The four of them all froze.

As they watched in growing horror, the clock continued counting down, despite Face being a pile of rubble. Carle whispered, "Face has been destroyed, but...the countdown hasn't stopped?!"

"What's going on!?" Kiki asked in shock.

Wendy took a step forward and collapsed, feeling all the strength she had leave her at once, "Eh? M-my body is..."

Lexi knelt by Wendy to help her out. "That took a lot out of me too..."

Carla stared at the clock with an intense focus for a precious minute. She started struggling towards the countdown, bracing herself against the rising intensity of ethernano. At this point, Face was exuding massive rays of light in preparation to detonate.

"This can't be...." Kiki whispered.

With the whole situation quickly turning hopeless, Wendy sobbed, "I'm sorry..."

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Back at Tartaros, the Fairy Tail mages were getting tense. Around them, Cube was starting to tremor and shudder, knocking many of them off-balance.

Sora readjusted his footing and growled with unease, "What's going on now?"

Franmalth cackled at the Dragon Slayer, Celestial Mage, and Exceed facing him, "The island is reacting to Face. That means its activation time is near...there can't be more than what, three minutes left?"

"No way..." Lucy gasped.

Lucas stumbled and ended up leaning against the wall to keep her balance, "What about Wendy and Lexi? They should be there by now!"

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"Not if Ezel has anything to say about it!" The demon sneered, "Magic across the continent will disappear! And then you little mages are going to be very, very dead!"

Not far off, Gray's battle with Keith wasn't going well. The demon managed to evade taking any real damage from his attacks, frustrating the Ice Mage. On the other hand, Gray was being hit by Keith's crafty, sneak-attack battle style.

Gray struck again with his ice, and again Keith transformed into black mist. He rushed at Gray, curling around him and striking at the Ice Mage's back. As Gray stumbled from the attack, Keith flew a few meters away before returning to his usual form.

Wincing in pain, Gray cast a tense glare at the demon, "This bastard...why can't I hit him?!"

"Soon," Keith murmured softly, "Very soon...the end of magic..."

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In the core of Tartaros, Sayla thrust her hand out, sending books flying at Natsu and Mira. The attack did a surprising amount of damage, leaving both Fairy Tail mages temporarily stunned.

"I'm getting really tired..." Natsu snarled and condensed a mass of flames between his hands, "Of these damn books!"

Recognizing the attack, Mira leaped back just as the Salamander unleashed a fireball in every direction, "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"

Sayla did not expect the wide-ranging assault and though her books came up as a defense, the mass of fire surged around her guard and managed to make contact with her. The demoness leapt back with narrowed eyes, her left arm and leg sizzling from the heat.

Natsu sneered with a fanged grin, "How're those books working for ya now?!"

"Don't get cocky, Natsu!" Mira scolded, "Wounds like that aren't going to slow her down."

As if confirming Mira's warning, Sayla launched a positive storm of books at Natsu, who raised his arms to guard from the barrage.

Lisanna winced as Sayla's retaliation made impact with Natsu. She was starting to get a little worried. 'Even with Natsu and Mira working together, she isn't tiring!'

Suddenly, a small body latched onto Lisanna from behind in a tight grip. Peering over her shoulder with a snickering grin was Lamy, "You sure you should be just standing around in the demon's lair?! Fafafafa!"

Her appearance startled Lisanna, "Who are you?"

"I'm your opponent, dearie!" Lamy chuckled.

-----------------------

Lexi, Wendy, Kiki and Carla were near collapse, exhausted from the battle and the despair of Face's continued countdown.

"We were too late..." Lexi mumbled.

 "I'm so sorry, everyone." Wendy whimpered.

"Not yet, we aren't," Carla replied, having closed her eyes briefly before blinking them back open. She fixed the countdown clock with a stern look, "If we convert that energy Face is gathering into another form, we can cease its ability to erase magic power."

Lexi stared at her in awe, "But how could we do that? We don't even..."

"Unless you saw it in..." Kiki began to say.

"The future," answered Carla, "My powers of foresight. I've gained enough control over it recently to search for certain futures. I've found one that can stop Face. If I adjust the characters here on the countdown clock..."

She pressed a few runes on the activation sequence until a new option appeared: an auto-destruct launch.

Wendy was amazed, "Carla that's-"

"-that's all," Carla sighed, "Time's almost up. This is our only option. Wendy...if I press this button, I can't see any further into the future. It's pure white. So...it likely means we won't survive this self-destruct sequence."

"H-huh?" Wendy stared at her in stunned disbelief.

The white exceed glanced back at her partner with a hesitant smile, "I-I've been thinking...maybe we can survive without magic. You know, like in Edolas..."

"No..." Wendy struggled to rise to her feet, but failed, "If the magic power gets wiped out while the others are all fighting Tartaros..."

"You're right..." Carla sighed and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and gave Wendy a sad look, "You know we can't escape, don't you?"

The girl nodded slowly as she crawled up beside Carla with the last of her strength, "Yeah...you can't fly and...I'm completely spent..."

"Mmhm..." Carla's paw took Wendy's hand firmly, a gesture of comfort for both of them, "Let's press it together...okay?"

Wendy smiled at Carla and pressed her forehead to her friend's, "Of course. Together, as we've always been..."

The two reached out with their hands and paused a fraction away from the self-destruct sequence.

"I had a blast, Carla," Wendy couldn't stop the tears spilling down her cheeks, "I love you."

"I love you too, Wendy," Carla managed a smile as she cried with her friend, "We'll always be friends. Forever."

Lexi and Kiki looked at each other and held on to one another, no words needed.

And they pressed the rune, sealing the fate of the future they had chosen. Upon its completion, the Magic Circle created a huge explosion. The release of energy was so enormous that everything within a 5 mile radius was obliterated to nothing. Not too far away from the epicenter of the explosion, Doranbolt appeared, holding both girls and Exceeds in his arms.

"Phew! Just in time!" The council member gasped, looking at the Fairy Tail mages and their Exceeds in his arms. "You overdid it..." He glanced back at the destroyed area and released a sigh. "I never thought such such girl power...could destroy Face."

That's a wrap for this chapter! Hope you all enjoyed it. Be sure to review. Comment on your favorite parts and don't forget to vote!

Be sure to review. Until then, see ya!!!