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"Freezing…" muttered Midnight. "Rate of freezing, speed of freezing, amount that can be frozen. You can't create massive amounts of ice so you freeze the ground to get the extra you may want. But why not reveal this earlier?"

"It's not perfect yet. Or at least not in the way I want it. It's deadly to everyone. I can't stop that yet. I'd likely end up killing him by accident if he stayed here."

Midnight smirked, slashing a hand at Gray as distorted air flew through the air. Gray swung a hand as a large wall of ice shot up from the ground, using the ice already available to both increase its speed of creation and to decrease the energy needed. The air hit the wall and managed to break half way through it before it stopped, Midnight smiling wilder than before. "Excellent. I take back what I said before. You are more than certainly the greater of Ur's disciples."

"Enough talk," said Gray, his eyes cold as he stared at Midnight. "Besides, I'm glad Lyon isn't here anymore. I'm a Fairy Tail Mage, someone who should be very pure in terms of light and dark. I don't want him to see what I'm going to do to you."

"Oh really?" Midnight couldn't help but feel excited at the prospect. "And what are you going to do to me?"

"I'm going to kill you."

Bringing his hands together, ice gathered between the two palms, molding into a giant spinning disk. Gray took a step forward before throwing the disk at Midnight, twisting his body as he threw. "Ice Make: Saucer!"

Midnight glanced at the attack and smirked, allowing it to reach him and slide right past. In that moment Gray had used the opportunity to get closer, determined to not all Midnight to use any long range attacks by forcing him to block the ones close to him.

"Ice Make: Lance!"

Gray slammed his hands against the ground and spears of ice shot out below Midnight's feet, intending to impale him. The spears just bent around the man's body once more and Midnight raised an arm once the spears had passed him.

Gray jumped backwards as the attack happened, spreading his arms out to the sides as a large shield came forth from the ground. Midnight's attack didn't break through completely but it did shatter the shield. As the pieces of ice fell, Gray's hands shot out and grabbed two of the largest pieces, swinging them around towards other falling pieces and letting his Magic manipulate the ice and fuse them all together.

The end result was a large bow of ice, Gray already bringing it to bear against Midnight. "Ice Make: Arrows!" Hundreds of small tiny arrows flew from the bow, Midnight's eyes actually widening as they all flew at him. For once he actually moved his hands for controlling the distorted area around him, even going so far as to dodge some of the arrows instead of standing still. He could distort a large number of objects easily, but this amount was far too great for him to control subconsciously.

The barrage finally let up as the last pieces of the bow Gray was holding disappeared, most of the ice having come from the bow itself. Gray smirked as he watched Midnight try to regain his composure. "So there is a limit of how much you can control, or at least without doing anything. I wonder how far it is till the next limit you have."

His composure regained, Midnight glanced along the ground between the two, noticing some areas of the ice looked thinner than before. "How interesting. You spread your Magic through the ice when it was formed. That's how you can still manipulate it so quickly right now. But there is only so much." Midnight gestured at the area around Gray, noticing the small circle around him that wasn't covered in ice. "That attack just used up all the ice in that area. Are you sure you can keep up something like that?"

"It served its purpose." Midnight's eyes widened as twenty spears of ice stabbed past him, only his Magic saving him. He swung his head round, seeing how the remains of the arrows had joined with the ice on the ground and formed spears at that moment.

But that wouldn't have worked. The Ice Mage must have known that. Unless…

Midnight's head shot back round, desperately trying to spot Gray before it was too late. He had been tricked, and he could already see Gray closing the distance. He swung his hand at the Mage, large distorted amounts of air flying at Gray.

At the last second, a wall of ice jumped forth from the ground, Gray's feet colliding against it as he jumped and used it to push himself away from the attack. As his feet hit the icy ground, ice spread along his feet, raising him slightly as small skates formed below on the soles of his feet. Another attack from Midnight came but he was ready this time, using the skates to help dodge the attacks in combination with the frozen ground he was using to travel along.

Midnight had enough time to swing his hand one more time before Gray finished closing the distance between them, an ice sword jumping forth from the ground for him to grab. He swung the sword but Midnight's Magic reacted on instinct, the sword bending around the Mage instead of slashing against him.

It didn't stop there however. Midnight took control, forcing the ice to bend back round and slash at its wielder. Gray tried to dodge but the ice blade still managed to cut into his side as it flew past. He grabbed onto the ice before it could attack him anymore, stealing some of it back to freeze his wound shut before breaking the rest off from the sword and reshaping it into a large axe. He swung it round but it missed Midnight still, Midnight actually sighing at the attempt, and for that moment he dropped his guard.

And Gray smirked at it. The axe fell apart, its purpose used up as a new blade sprung forth from the ground for Gray to grab. Then, with his free hand, he grabbed Midnight's arm.

Midnight's eyes shot open at the sudden contact, looking between Gray's grip and the sword held in the Mage's other hand. Ice rapidly spread from Gray's grip, and he could feel his arm freezing solid and time passed. At the same moment, Gray swung his sword down at his arm. He could easily dodge the blade, he knew that. But he could feel his arm freezing, and how long would it be before it spread to the rest of his body if he was already freezing this quickly. It had almost reached his shoulder in a few seconds.

So he pushed himself as far away from Gray as he could, letting the sword slice through some of the ice of his arm and separating him from the Ice Mage. He used the chance to put as much distance as he could between the two, glancing at his lost arm still held in Gray's hand.

He glanced towards where he had lost it from. He still had half the area between his shoulder and his elbow but the lower half of it was frozen still from the ice. And it was good too. He had ensured Gray would have only chopped off a frozen area. Otherwise he could have bled to death without some way to stop the bleeding. His Magic wouldn't help him there.

One thing bothered him as he turned back towards Gray, the Mage looking happy as he held the arm in his hands. "Why?"

Gray looked at Midnight in amusement. "Why what?"

"Why didn't you just freeze me solid? Why did you give me a chance to escape?"

Gray shrugged. "I wanted to see if you would actually do it. Besides, I wanted to cut your arm off too." Gray's grip on the arm tightened as he glanced at it before chucking it away. "It's because of you lot that Erza lost her arm today. So I'm going to make you experience the same pain she had to have felt. I'm going to pay you back one hundred fold."

"Big words. You had your chance to kill me. I won't make the same mistake again." Midnight glanced upwards at the sky, noticing the position of the rising moon. "Such a shame. I won't be at full power you see but it's close enough to midnight now. I think I might be able to get away with it just this once."

Before Gray's eyes, Midnight changed, his body bulging in multiple areas as his body begun to distort itself. Midnight grew taller and taller till he towered above Gray, his form becoming more muscular and claws appearing on the ends of his hands as his body form changed. His hair became longer and shaggier while his eyes began to glow a bright sinister red. Even the environment around them seemed to change, the ice melting rapidly with steam being formed from the intense heat. The light got darker, hints of red in the sky. Midnight opened his mouth and laughed at Gray below, revealing a long line of sharp teeth.

Gray wiped some sweat from his forehead, trying to ignore the feeling of his body shaking. It was almost overwhelming. The fear he was feeling was too much. The creation Midnight had transformed into. It was a Demon.

Midnight raised his clawed hands above his head, a dark orb of energy forming between the two. Gray rushed backwards, realising what the Demon was about to do. He threw his hands in front of him, mustering as much ice and Magic as he could and created a large group of shields between him and Midnight.

It didn't stop the orb when Midnight threw it. It shattered all the shields with unnatural ease, throwing him away as the blast detonated right in front of him. He flew backwards through the air, burns covering his whole body as he forced himself to land somewhat safely. He barely had time to rest as Midnight had already rushed at him, bringing one massive clawed hand down on him.

He rolled to the side, using some quick Ice Make Magic to slow the arm down as it crashed at where he had been. As quickly as he could, a large axe of ice formed and he swung it down at the arm, the ice harmlessly breaking against the skin. Gray's eyes widened and Midnight smirked, swatting Gray away with a glancing blow.

Gray crashed against the trees, coughing up blood as he felt the impact. Something must have broken, and he could feel himself getting weaker. Damn it. Was this it? He couldn't win. Not against a Demon.

"I won't let you get closer to my pupils! This is it, Monster!"

That voice. He remembered it. Why was he remembering her now? Ur was dead. To defeat a Demon, she had frozen it solid alongside herself. And there was no way he could use Iced Shell in his condition.

"Step into the future. I'll seal your darkness."

Was he really going to just lie there and die? After everything Ur did for him? He refused to. He wanted to make Midnight pay. He wanted to protect his friends. He had to win, even if he would lose his life in the process.

He could feel his blood boiling in anticipation. He struggled to his feet, seeing Midnight smirking somehow in amusement. He glared at the Demon, a strange sensation in his chest. The fear he had felt was vanishing. Something was feeling off. Why had he been so scared? Deliora had been so much more frightening from the moment he had laid eyes on it, and he had felt something else too. Neither of those emotions was present right now. Why weren't they?

"Hey," Gray called. "Are you really a Demon?"

Midnight laughed. "You already know the answer to that. Now say goodbye."

Midnight raised a fist and flung it down at Gray, the Ice Mage standing his ground as the attack came. He closed his eyes instead, ice gathering around his hands and stopped trying to dodge.

He felt the pain when the fist hit him but he ignored it as best as he could, still waiting. And then he felt it. He spun round, his hands grasping the air. There was nothing there, but Gray didn't trust that feeling anymore. Ice spread along from where his hands were, freezing nothing.

And then it all vanished. The world returned to normal, the ice floors back in place and the sky returned to its normal colour. And in his hands was Midnight, half his body already frozen and the eye spreading even further. He could see the blade of ice he had held before no longer in his grip, instead plunged part way into his chest. He didn't bother trying to remove it just let. It could do more harm than good right now.

Midnight slowly stopped struggling, his body growing weaker as the cold seeped further and further into his bones. Only his head wasn't frozen yet, and the ice extending towards it would soon fix that.

"My prayer…" Midnight muttered, his eyes growing heavy. "I… I just… wanted… to be able… to sleep… in a quiet place…"

Gray released his grip on Midnight as the ice finally encased the Dark Mage completely. "Go to sleep then. For eternity." He left Midnight like that, shattering the parts of the ice blade that weren't inside him and froze the remaining parts of the wound shut for the time being.

He had gotten his revenge for Erza, so why did he not feel any better?

Protector Of The Fairies

"Message received." Hibiki turned his head round towards Jura and Ichiya, still as expressionless as before. "Lamia Scale's Lyon Vastia has returned to receiving range. Message is as follows: The barrier will fall. Brain knows about it and has already prepared for it. Send assistance. Message end."

"Men…" Ichiya glanced at the barrier they had all been trapped in with a frown. "Nirvana is trapped with us but we can't get out. This is a problem, men."

Jura nodded. "The barrier cannot fall, under any circumstances. It worries me though on how Brain already knew about the barrier. Did anyone else know of our plans?"

"The Masters? Not many others outside of them. This was all planned out at the meeting, and then the guilds learned too. I remember my guild's reaction, men."

"Our guild was told too. Nothing specific however. I doubt Master Bob said anymore than that with your guild too."

"He didn't. I do not believe Makarov would have told anyone either. And the Master of Cait Shelter has more than enough reason to keep things secret."

Jura scratched his chin in thought. "Then who was it? Unless… There's a chance…"

"What is it?"

Jura glanced out the window towards the forest below. "There was someone close to us before. I didn't see him, but Wendy knew he was there. If he was with Oración Seis then we would have known it. He would have attacked."

"Are you sure."

Jura nodded. "I'm positive. It can't be any of the defeated members of Oración Seis, and it won't be an underlying. They were able to hide so easily, to the point where Wendy was the only who could detect them. And that's only because of her Magic. The skill to hide that easily, and not even appear on Hibiki's scans means they aren't a normal opponent."

"They didn't attack you," argued Ichiya. "They could always be an ally."

"Or they could be an enemy. The point is that they are an unknown. And is strikes me as odd that there is someone like that here right now when all this stuff is happening, especially when Oración Seis seems to be prepared for quite a few of our strategies."

"They could have always predicted there being a barrier."

"Not one of this size. I didn't even know that they were planning to create one this big, or even this elaborate."

A sound caught their attention as all the Archive screens vanished, Hibiki collapsed to his knees and breathing heavily. Ichiya rushed over to his student, holding the Mage carefully. "Take it easy, men."

"I'm… I'm… I'm alright," Hibiki slowly managed to say. "Just… tired… So very tired…"

"It's okay," said Ichiya, placing a reassuring hand around his student. "You've done well today. Go ahead and rest. We'll take it from here."

"Gate… Top… Opening…"

Hibiki's eyes closed and his body went limp in Ichiya's arms, the man picking the boy up and placing him against a wall as comfortably as he could. He looked back up at Jura to see the man looked at him questioningly.

"Hibiki is very talented, and Archive isn't the most draining of Magic out there, but it still takes his toll. And he's been at it almost constantly for a few hours now, checking threats, scanning patients, managing the camp and organising assaults. It's tough on him. And connecting to Christina isn't exactly an easy thing to do. It's extremely taxing on his mental energies. I should have stopped him earlier."

"He would have likely argued against it and continued no matter what you said." Jura took another look at Hibiki before heading for the door. "But he gave us a message at the end."

"Yes…" Ichiya glanced at Hibiki in confusion before rushing after Jura. "That's not normal. He must have found the details in the data he was receiving and had abandoned everything else to get it to us. Of course he wouldn't have processed it correctly if he hadn't left that mode he was in. Which can only mean-"

"Someone is opening the barrier," finished Jura, glancing up at the sky as he went onto the ship's main deck. Above them was the large red Gate, and he could see the centre of the Gate slowly opening, provided a small exit point in the barrier.

"Christina won't fit through there," muttered Ichiya. "And I don't know if we can get there in time. And without Hibiki's Magic, we've lost any form of contact with everyone else."

"I might be able to make it to the top," stated Jura, observing the distance. "But I can't guarantee I can find Brain before it is too late. There isn't any earth on the top of the barrier that I can use, and I'll be pressed thin just getting up there anyway."

"I'll do it." Ichiya and Jura glanced at one another, realising that it wasn't one of them who had spoken just then. They turned to the source of the voice to see Natsu climbing the stairs, Happy and Carla following after him. "I'll take down Brain."

Protector Of The Fairies

And the entire Gray and Lyon battle with Midnight in one nice long chapter. I didn't want to risk splitting it up, though I didn't expect it to go on as long as it did. I took the whole explain your power thing and actually gave it an efficient use apart from providing explanations for you lot. Ice Make: Ice Age isn't something he could use without a bit of setup.

On that point, what did you think of the solution to this fight? Some predicted frozen blood, but the answer came from the freezing of Midnight's own body. The way I see Reflector is having a safe zone within the barrier. And the moment Gray touched him he began freezing him internally as well. It wasn't just a layering of ice here. He truly froze the man inside and out. It's why he can't risk fighting with allies with this power. Ice Age would have killed Lyon because he can't tell it not to target his friend.

I have to say that this was one of my favourite battles to write of this arc. We're getting further and further into it as things pick up, and we can see that Natsu is back up and ready to fight. We'll see how effective he is soon enough.

Did anyone read the new Bleach stuff? That Quincy's insane sight seemed to have been awoken by Kenpachi. And it still won't be enough. As for Fairy Tail, thank you Master Hades for reappearing, even for a moment. I'm kind of liking him at the moment. And it looks like we may learn what Lumen Histoire is soon enough. Whether I will actually keep it as what it is will be debateable so I'll have to see on that.

On a side note as well, who here has heard of Fairy Tail Zero? A spin off story about Mavis and the creation of Fairy Tail? YES! Mavis, Hades, Walrod, and the random guy we don't know yet. I want to see that. And I can easily twist some things to be canon and others to not be. I'm always adapting things as I learn them. And with the new anime out, I'm really happy. I want to see more of this alternate history that only got referenced and never seen.

Anyway, till the next time. I've been Takei. Thanks for reading.