Chapter 36: It Isn't Gone From The World 1/2

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Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail or Bleach. Shame, it would be great if I did.

Protector Of The Fairies

It Isn't Gone From The World

"Get back here!"

The three Mages ran, ignoring the cries of anger behind them. Hibiki quickly glanced backwards before suddenly ducking, a stream of fire shooting through the air where his head had been.

Without hesitating, Hibiki whipped his hand out, a screen rapidly appearing behind him and exploding. A cry of pain told him all he needed to know but not one of them slowly down. They couldn't afford getting caught out in the open and be delayed. Who knew how many people would have heard that man's shouts.

Wendy suddenly stumbled, falling towards the ground with a cry. Before she could hit the ground, Jura's hand shot out and grabbed her, holding on to her till she managed to get back onto her feet properly.

"Thank you," she said as she ran back along them, her breathing more even than their own due to her Sky Dragon Slayer Magic. Jura nodded in acknowledgement while Hibiki smiled encouragingly, and then they were all back to silence, nothing on their minds but running.

A cry of a horse sounds nearby and Hibiki smiled. "We're close. It's Christina!"

"Don't let them escape!"

Jura sighed as a group of Dark Mages jumped out of the trees, all kinds of Magic moving with them. Fire surrounded their group while lightning sparked and shot forward, followed closely by blasts of water and wind.

Jura pushed the other two back before raising his hands in front of him. A wall of earth shot from the ground, the Magic harmlessly impacting against the strength of the stone. Raising one foot upwards, Jura slammed it back against the ground, the rock wall shattered into small pieces. His hands slashed to the sides and the earth shot forward, taking down the group of Mages with minimum effort.

A large roar sounded close by, Jura glancing towards the origin of the sound. "Get to Christina."

"But-"

"Go! I'll be fine."

The other two Mages looked uncertainly at them before giving the Wizard Saint a single nod. They quickly ran off ahead, Jura bringing his staff to the ready.

He could sense them. They had to be close if he could feel the Magic they were releasing. And then they burst through, a group of them on bikes.

It took only a second for the group to realise he was alone, and some of them began splitting off to go after the others. Jura raised an arm, walls of earth blocking the path of the enemy Mages and even destroying some of their bikes. Spikes burst from the wall, impaling a few while causing another group to lose their bikes. From the explosions that occurred, he doubted they would be getting up soon. They could even be dead.

This wasn't time for remorse. There were more coming. He couldn't rest or afford to show mercy. He may have been a Wizard Saint but there were limits to his power, and even if a lot were lost he could still be taken down if he didn't go at them with his full might.

The remaining Mages struggled to their feet and surrounding him, a lot of them generating Fire Magic from their hands. In unison the flames shot forward, working together to form a large torrent of flames.

Jura watched the enclosing flames before slamming his staff into the ground, the earth rising rapidly below him to bring him above the flames. With one swift jump, he was over the flames, landing right in front of two of the Mages. His staff shot round, impacting against the two and sending them flying. Another three jumped at him but it only took a small shift of his hands and feet to launch pillars of earth at them. From each pillar, more pillars shot out from the sides of the others, forming a spider web like structure of stone. Jura glanced around, seeing the rest of the Mages had been disabled.

"Now where did that roar come from?"

His answer came from behind him above him as a green Wyvern swooped down from above. Jura rolled to the side at the last moment, dodging the claws of the creature before stabbing forward with his staff. Most wouldn't have suspected the staff's motion to do much. So when the beast shattered into pieces, Jura used the moment to identify the location of all the gasps and outcries that he heard.

He knew it. It was nothing more than a fake. He didn't believe a standard Dark Guild would have gotten a Wyvern, even less that they managed to train one well enough. Pict Magic was certainly useful with creativity, and it did make a great tool to frighten people. However they were never a match for the original creation. You could only take the art so far when making it reality.

Jura swiped out with his free hand, hearing the cries of pain as the earth exploded upwards and smashed against all the Mages in hiding. And then he listened. Silence. There was no one left.

Another cry sounded, but it was the sound of a horse once more. And it was closer. Looking upwards at the sky, Jura smiled as he saw the massive form of Christina. The earth shot him upwards, firing him towards the ship. The moment he was level, he rapidly stepped off, letting the earth fall back to the ground and crash into pieces.

"Jura!"

Jura smiled as he saw Wendy and Hibiki running towards him, Happy and Carla behind them. "So you both made it safely then. We're there any troubles?"

Wendy shook her head. "None. Happy and Carla got us out of there safely."

"Aye!" said Happy happily. "Carla spotted them and flew to get them. I ended up following."

"The he cat is right," stated Carla. "I couldn't risk leaving Wendy stranded down there, especially with all the ruckus and danger around her. Honestly, what were you thinking? Why didn't you send her back with Jellal? She can't fight very well."

"Carla, I'm fine. Look." Wendy made the cat look at her properly and Carla sighed, admitted her loss. "See."

"Fine then, but you shouldn't have been exposed to so much danger. And it must have been tiring having to heal both Ichigo and Natsu."

"It wasn't that bad." Wendy smiled. "I told you I'm better than before. You're just worried because of that time I tried to heal the Master."

"Of course I would be worried. You fainted after a few moments of trying. It's why he told you never to heal him again."

"That was years ago. I'm much better now."

"You should be proud of her," added Jura. "She saved two lives today, and with such ease too."

Wendy blushed, looking down at her feet. "It was nothing. I'm just glad I can do stuff like this."

A cough sounded behind them, the group turning to see Ichiya waiting off at the side. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I'm afraid I will need to borrow Jura and Hibiki. Wendy, if you wouldn't mind, could you keep an eye of Ichigo?"

"Sure." Wendy ran off quickly, the cats following after her to keep her company. Jura watched as she vanished inside before turning his attention towards Ichiya.

"So Natsu is already up?"

"He's down in the hold with Ichigo but he's awake mostly. He'll likely run out the moment we give him a target, something that will likely happen sooner rather than later, men."

"And the others?"

"The ladies are down in the hold too, resting for the time being. Erza is still out in the field somewhere, and so are Gray and Lyon. I'd recommend extraction for them as quickly as possible. Gray and Lyon are tough but numbers can still win, and I'm especially worried about Erza. She isn't at her best after all."

"Jellal?"

"He… He left. He muttered something after he got a sudden headache. A single name. Erza."

"You think he regained his memories?"

"No." Ichiya sighed. "I think it was something that just broke through. A remnant of something he can't remember and so he's seeking out the source to find some answers."

"We'll have to let him be then. At least for now. What about the other members of your guild?"

Ichiya glanced forward towards the black light in the distance. "Ren and Eve are downstairs at the weapons. This is also why I asked Wendy to go downstairs along with the others. They don't need to see or know about what we're about to do if possible."

"Sir!" An Archive screen appeared in front of them all. "We've got twenty Mages incoming. They'll likely try and target us soon."

"Good job Hibiki," Ichiya muttered, gesturing for the two Mages to follow to the ship's helm. Ichiya grabbed the controls of the ship as Hibiki took a place in the centre of the room, multiple Archive screens forming around him.

"Accessing…" Hibiki's voice was oddly cold, all expressions the man showed gone from his face. His eyes were even dull. "Five targets to the north. Firing solution being transferred to weapon systems. Cannons three through seven are primed, ready for launch. Seven targets approaching in a scatter formation from a bearing of two hundred and one degrees. Cannons eleven through nineteen have been selected and are being prepped. Recommend use of explosive rounds for maximum effectiveness."

Jura frowned, looking towards Ichiya questioningly. "Why is wrong with him? Why is he so…"

"Dead? Christina is our guild's pride and joy, but why did they send a ship like this with so few people who knew how to use it? And how to you accurately track and target the systems? Hibiki is the answer. He's connected to the ship's core, using his own mind to process all the available data he has and to control the ship's systems in response to that."

"But why does he seem so dead?"

"Because he has to be. Emotions get in the way here. How do you classify an emotion in a world of data? He pushes them to one side and dives into the systems, becoming one with them. You could say that, at this moment in time, Hibiki is Christina."

Ichiya glanced forward, pressing a control. An Archive screen appeared in front of him in response to the action. "These controls help contact him, asking for quick things we may need. I've called up a map here so we can see what is happening."

Jura joined Ichiya by the controls, watching the map. Twelve of the twenty red dots near them had been circled, and the other eight had circles slowly forming around them at varying speeds. The last one finished drawing before Hibiki finally spoke again.

"All targets located. Requesting firing permission."

Ichiya reached towards another set of controls, looking once at Jura. "Don't think badly of me for these actions now. I don't like senseless slaughter like this, but we're at war right now. We have to reach Nirvana soon, and we can't let these Dark Guilds stop us."

Jura's eyes didn't leave the map, instead nodding slowly. "Do it."

Ichiya pressed the button and nothing happened for a moment. And then blasts of Magic shot towards the ground ahead of them, smashing into the terrain with ease. Five red dots vanished instantly, and another seven did when explosions sounded from behind them. Cannons fired again and again, until finally the few that avoided the first wave were no longer showing up on the Archive map.

"How many have we taken out so far?"

Ichiya was silent for a moment, his eyes closed as his mouth muttering a few words almost in pray. "We've taken out about three guilds I think, and there are fourteen left. Some are bigger than others, and likely stronger too. But from my calculations, I'd say that there are about two or three missing from their actually numbers here. I don't know where they are."

Jura sighed, looking out the window, noticing how very little light was still about. "It's getting dark out there. A black night as an ancient weapon rises."

"Indeed. It feels more like an omen rather than a natural cycle of time."

The two watched as the last rays of light disappeared, the only sounds being from when cannons burst to life from stopping new contacts. And as the last light disappeared, so did the pillar of black light, a massive stone city construct rising as the light vanished.

Protector Of The Fairies

Toushirou watched the sight in front of him from a distance, his eyes cold as he observed the stone fortress rising.

Was this Nirvana? He had heard nothing, but he had still stood there waiting, prepared for the moment he would be needed.

When Ichigo rushed off, and then Shinji followed afterwards, he had wanted to abandon his post, rushing into battle to help them. Was that wrong to want to do such a thing? To help and fight beside those he cared for?

But he had resisted, knowing exactly why he couldn't do just that. Out of all of them, he had the greatest skill with Kidou. Sure Ichigo and Shinji could cast high levels spells, and he hadn't yet learned how to do some of the strong ones they could use, but he had one thing that made him essential. Control.

A barrier Kidou was a powerful Spell, capable of holding and sealing things away that would break many other methods. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to hold it at bay forever. He only had so much Magic, and those types of Spells required massive amounts of Magic, far more than even Ichigo had at his disposal on his own.

Control however was essential. You could have all the Magical Power in the world but it meant nothing if you didn't understand how to shape it. He had the most experience out of all of them, and it was about to count.

At the very least, if he didn't have to worry about anything, he could hold the Spell he wanted to use up for a day. That should last long enough for help to arrive as Ichigo said it would.

In the distance he could see Christina, and he had already calculated the area it was in. It would be trapped inside too, but that was hardly an issue. The barrier was going to be a very large one after all. He couldn't spare time to shrink the size of it.

Looking back at what had to be Nirvana, Toushirou couldn't help but be in awe of the sight. There was literally a massive city resting on the top of the Nirvana, eight legs sprouting from the stone towards the ground. He closed his eyes and let his senses spread out towards the Magic, feeling shock when he felt a trail of Magic from the earth spreading upwards into the city. He hadn't ever seen or felt anything like it before. It almost seemed like it wasn't a dangerous weapon for a moment. Almost.

Toushirou clapped his hands together once and brought them apart, a rectangle of green light appearing between the two. As he brought his palms further apart, more appeared. With just a slight alteration of his posture, he sent the light flying forward in front of him, the green light changing to solid white wood while rapidly increasing in size to massive proportions.

Toushirou looked at the first stage of his job. It was far easier to cast the Spell like this and then reinforce it. It was far too hard and energy consuming to cast the Spell in one go, and he had the time to spare by using a trailing incantation with the Spell anyway. Another useful trick with barrier Kidou.

Bringing his hands together in a pray form, he muttered the chant. "Brethren-in-arms withdrawing for the distance of eight sun and standing still; blue bolt, white bolt, black bolt, red bolt; sinking into the ocean together seeking redemption."

His hands shot forward, the sides together and the palms facing the white wood ahead of him. "Ryubi no Joumon!"

White wood appeared behind the originals, stacking up behind them and increasing the layers of the Spell till it was a width of six of the giant planks. Blue tiles appeared about the wood and small sections dropped down a bit onto the wood itself to secure itself to it.

Toushirou brought one arm back before swiping, a large blue beam of wood shooting across the back of the wall and securing itself in place. The moment it was done, Toushirou collapsed to his knees, taking in deep breathes.

That was far harder than he had expected. Keeping the Spell going wasn't too bad but the amount of Magic it took to make the Spell in the first place was massive, and he never channelled so much at once before. He guessed the size of it had increased the Magic required exponentially as he didn't remember it being so hard when they had tested it before.

Then again, their test had been a very small area with all of them working together. No wonder it was easy back then.

He couldn't rest any longer. The moment the Spell appeared, he would have painted a giant bull's-eye on his head. He had to get the rest of the barrier up and trap all the enemy forces inside it.

His hands slowly started swiping to the sides, following the patterns he had learned for this moment. At least the hard part was done. This Spell, occurring to Shinji at least, had been developed by a man called Hacchi. The man had been a genius, and he would have loved to have met the man. From the notes he had read on the Spell, it had been developed and completed by Hacchi himself and had been the solution on how to generate large barriers without excessive consumption of Magic. The first Gate would consume the most, and then the next Gates would borrow power from the first for rapid generation.

Picturing the cube he wanted, a small circle of energy appeared far away in the distance on what would be the side at the right, quickly expanding outwards as it grew to the same size of the first Gate. It reminded him a lot of the wheel of a watermill except with the brown being exchanged for a black centre with white surrounding it on the edges. Out of all the Gates, this was the easier to allow others through.

"Kokou no Joumon!"

Moving to the left side, small hexagons of green light appeared, multiplying and fusing together to form larger and larger hexagons in a honeycomb like structure. When all the hexagons had combined to a form a Gate equivalent in size to the others, the green energy became solid, changing to brown colour instead.

"Kigai no Joumon!"