The world had fractured. Mortis's decay magic had ripped the allied mages apart, scattering them into purpose-built arenas of death.
For Gray Fullbuster and Lucy Heartfilia, their new battlefield was a vast, flat, glass-like plain. It was a massive, circular disc of polished obsidian, reflecting the sickly, dark sky above. There was no cover. No trees, no rocks, no place to hide. It was a perfect, beautiful, terrifying stage.
And on it, the star was already waiting.
"My, my," a voice, smooth as silk and cold as steel, echoed across the plain. "The stagehands have finally delivered the... talent."
In the center of the obsidian disc stood Scylla, 'The Vector.' She was, as the rumors suggested, inhumanly beautiful, with long, silver hair that moved like liquid, and a face so symmetrical it looked sculpted. She wasn't preparing for battle. She was kneeling, admiring her own flawless reflection in the mirror-like ground.
"Such a perfect canvas," she mused, tracing her own cheek in the reflection. "And then... you arrive." She stood, her gaze of utter disdain washing over Gray's torn clothes and Lucy's panicked expression. "Your very presence... It's disorderly. It's ugly. Please, remove yourselves from my stage."
"We're here to remove you, you hag!" Gray snapped, his hands already glowing with blue light.
"Hag?" Scylla's eye twitched. "Ugly words. They are not permitted."
Lucy, knowing the intel, acted first. She wouldn't attack directly. "Open, Gate of the Golden Bull! TAURUS!"
"MOOOOO!" Taurus appeared, his massive axe raised. "Lucy, your body is the most beautiful thing on this-MOOOOO?!"
Taurus was charging, but Scylla, with a bored sigh, simply touched the ground at her feet.
"Vector-Shift: Kinetic Reversal."
The instant Taurus's hoof hit the ground, his own forward momentum was reversed and amplified. He was sent flying backward, screaming, as if hit by an invisible force. He crashed into the unseen canyon wall and vanished in a puff of golden light.
"What?!" Lucy cried.
"She... she didn't even touch him!" Gray stammered.
"She didn't have to," Blake's voice echoed in their minds from the briefing. "She controls vectors. Kinetic energy, heat, magic. She just... flips a switch."
"If I can't attack her," Gray reasoned, "I'll attack her environment! Ice-Make: Floor!"
He slammed his hands down, sending a wave of jagged ice across the plain, aimed at her feet.
Scylla merely stomped.
"Reverse."
The vector of "cold" instantly reversed. The ice didn't just stop; it recoiled, shooting back at Gray at twice the speed.
"Gray, look out!"
"Ice-Make: Shield!"
He barely got the shield up before his own attack slammed into him, encasing him in a block of his own ice.
"GRAY!" Lucy shrieked.
"Ugly magic," Scylla said, examining her nails. "Is also not permitted."
Gray blasted himself free, his teeth chattering. "She's... she's a perfect fortress. We can't... touch her."
Gray and Lucy started fighting, but they couldn't get an opening. They tried everything. Lucy summoned Virgo, who tried to dig a pit. Scylla reversed the vector of the ground's "density," and the earth became as hard as diamond. Gray tried an "Ice-Make: Geyser" from below. Scylla reversed its vertical vector, sending the ice pillar shooting down into the earth's core.
They were being overwhelmed.
"Look at you," Scylla said, her voice dripping with contempt as she slowly stalked toward them. "You're sweating. You're panting. You're dirty. It's disgusting. I am a flawless, perfect equation. You are just... chaotic, ugly noise. Your very existence is an insult to my beauty."
"Shut up!" Lucy yelled, her magic flaring. This was it. Desperation.
"Open, Gate of the Archer! SAGITTARIUS!"
"Moshi-moshi! At your service!"
"Gray, now! Hit her with everything!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!"
This was the "Large-Scale" event. Gray slammed his hands together. "Ice-Make: UNLIMITED DANCE!"
A storm of hundreds of Ice Lances, Eagles, and Hammers formed in the air.
"Sagittarius, full volley!" Lucy commanded.
"Star Shot!"
The sky was blotted out. Hundreds of magical ice projectiles and an equal number of brilliant, stellar arrows rained down on Scylla from every conceivable angle. "You can't reflect all of this!" Lucy screamed.
Scylla, for the first time, looked annoyed. Her arrogant smirk faded.
"ENOUGH!" she shrieked, her voice losing its calm. "ENOUGH UGLINESS! Vector-Shift: Spherical Rejection!"
She clapped her hands together. A visible, shimmering dome of energy exploded outward from her body.
Every single ice lance, every single arrow, stopped in mid-air.
And then, reversed.
The entire volley shot back at Gray and Lucy.
"TAKE COVER!"
Gray created a massive "Ice-Make: Dome," but it wasn't enough. Their own combined attack, amplified by Scylla's magic, slammed into them. The explosion was catastrophic. Gray and Lucy were blasted apart, sent tumbling like rags, their bodies broken and bleeding.
Scylla stood in the center of the clearing, her hair not even out of place. She panted, just once, a flicker of exertion. And then she smiled.
Meanwhile, on a high, rocky ridge a mile away, Lyon Vastia lay prone, his "Ice-Make: Eagle Eyes" giving him a perfect, telescopic view of the battle. He was part of the reserve team, his orders to "hold the line." But he'd been watching Gray.
"Fool," he muttered, watching his rival get pummeled. "You're all brawn, no brain. You can't... wait."
His analytical mind, the mind that had once tried to unfreeze Deliora, was processing. He saw the "Spherical Rejection." He saw the entire battlefield reverse. But he also saw Scylla.
"She stumbled," he whispered, his eyes narrowing. "After that massive blast... she stumbled. Her stance was weak for... one... two... three... four..."
His eyes widened. He saw the time delay in each of her reflects. She could reflect simple, single-target attacks all day. But a large-scale deflect? A total, spherical rejection? It cost her. "She cannot use it again for 5 seconds."
He looked back at the battlefield. Gray and Lucy were down. Scylla was about to finish them.
"You've made me work," Scylla hissed, stalking toward the two injured mages. "You've tried to mar my perfection with your filthy blood. For that, you must be erased."
She raised her hand, her palm glowing. "I will reverse the vector of the air pressure inside your lungs. A silent, clean death. It's what you deserve. Goodbye, ugliness."
Lyon didn't hesitate.
"ICE-MAKE: EAGLE!"
A massive, dynamic ice eagle, far larger and more detailed than any Gray had ever made, shot from the ridge. It swooped into the glass plain at blinding speed.
Scylla, her attack just about to unleash, heard the sound. She turned. "More ugly birds—"
The eagle didn't attack her. It snatched Gray and Lucy from the ground, its talons gently (for ice) gripping their clothes, and rocketed back, rescuing them just as Scylla's "implosion" attack hit the space they had just occupied. The obsidian ground cratered inward, shattering.
Lyon landed in a hidden cleft in the rocks, dropping the two wounded mages.
"Lyon!" Gray gasped, clutching his ribs. "What the hell...?"
"Shut up, Gray. I'm saving you," Lyon said, his voice clipped. "You're a disgrace."
"You... you were watching?!" Lucy panted.
"I'm the reserve. I'm doing my job," Lyon said. He peeked over the rock. Scylla was furious, scanning the plain, looking for her prey.
"Now, listen to me, you two, because we only get one chance," he told them his plan. "I saw her weakness. She has a 5-second cooldown after a massive, multi-vector deflection. She can handle one or two attacks, but not a hundred."
"So what?" Gray spat, coughing up blood. "We hit her with a hundred! She just sent it right back at us! We can't... do that... again..."
"You're an idiot, Gray," Lyon snapped, echoing his thoughts. "You attacked her. That's what she wants. We don't attack her. We attack everything at once to force the large-scale deflection. We bait the cooldown. We force her to use the 'Spherical Rejection.'"
"And then what?" Lucy asked, her mind racing.
"And then," Lyon said, a cold, predatory grin on his face, "one of us hits her in that 5-second window. A single, perfect shot."
Gray's eyes widened. "But... she'll just reflect that shot, too! Even on cooldown, she can handle a single attack!"
"Not if the attack isn't an attack," Lyon said. "Not if it's something she can't... 'reverse.' We need a distraction. The biggest, most overwhelming, most obnoxious one you can think of. Something to force her hand."
Gray and Lucy looked at each other. They both had the same, terrible idea.
"Aquarius," Lucy breathed.
"And me," Gray said, a new, determined fire in his eyes.
"No," Lyon said, stopping them. "Not just you. This has to be perfect. It has to be something she can't just... swat away." He looked at Gray, his rival, his brother. "It has to be us. A fused attack."
Gray's eyes widened. "You... you'd do that?"
"To win, yes. Now stop blubbering. Lucy! Get your key!"
"FOUND YOU, YOU UGLY RATS!"
Scylla had spotted them. She was floating across the plain, her silver hair streaming behind her, her face a mask of cold fury.
"You ruined my stage! You ruined my reflection! I will flay you!"
"Hey, Vector-Freak!" Gray yelled, stepping out onto the plain, his body bruised but his stance solid. "Over here!"
"Ready to die, little ice-boy?" she smiled.
"LUCY! NOW!" Gray roared.
Lucy, hiding behind the rock, took a deep breath. She raised a golden key. "Spirits of the cosmos, heed my call! Open, Gate of the Water-Bearer! AQUARIUS!"
A massive, swirling vortex of water erupted in the center of the plain. Aquarius appeared, her arms crossed, her expression furious.
"YOU!" she shrieked, pointing at Lucy. "YOU DROPPED MY KEY IN A PUDDLE! AND YOU SUMMONED ME ON A DATE WITH YOUR UGLY BOYFRIEND?! AND NOW YOU INTERRUPT MY NEW DATE WITH SCORPIO?! I WILL KILL YOU!"
"JUST... JUST TRUST ME!" Lucy screamed. "HIT EVERYTHING! AS HARD AS YOU CAN!"
"FINE! I'LL WASH YOU ALL AWAY, YOU INSOLENT BRATS!"
Aquarius raised her urn. She summoned a colossal, mountain-sized tidal wave. It was the ultimate, large-scale, 360-degree attack, aimed at everyone in the canyon.
Scylla's arrogant expression turned to one of genuine, raw panic. This was too big. Too chaotic. It was an ocean, not an attack. She had to use her ultimate defense.
"INSOLENT WENCH!" she screamed, her voice cracking. She clapped her hands. "Vector-Shift: Spherical Rejection!"
The massive, shimmering dome of energy appeared, just as the tidal wave hit. The water reversed, flying back and crashing into the canyon walls, flooding the entire battlefield... except for the perfect, dry dome where Scylla stood.
She had deflected it. She was panting, her hair for once slightly mussed. The 5-second window was open.
"GRAY, NOW!" Lyon roared.
The two ice mages, standing side-by-side, slammed their hands together in a perfect, two-person Ice-Make stance. They hadn't practiced this. They didn't need to. They were Ur's students. They moved as one.
"ICE-MAKE..." (Gray)
"...DYNAMIC..." (Lyon)
"...ZERO-DEGREE DRAGON!" (Both)
They didn't create a dragon of solid ice. They created a dragon of pure cold, an invisible, howling, ethereal vortex of absolute-zero energy.
Scylla was still in her 3rd second of cooldown. She saw the distortion in the air. She saw the two ice-mages. She raised her hand, her reflection-magic coming back online but slowly...
The Zero-Degree Dragon hit her.
There was no explosion. Just a hiss.
The cold didn't hit her; it became her. The moisture in the air, the fluid in her eyes, the blood in her veins—it all flash-froze.
She was frozen solid. A perfect, beautiful, flawless statue of ice, her expression of pure, unadulterated panic and disbelief forever etched onto her "perfect" face.
The statue stood for a moment, and then, with a high-pitched shattering sound, it toppled over and broke into a thousand pieces on the obsidian plain.
They had taken her down.
Gray and Lyon stood, panting, their magic exhausted.
"You... you still favor that right leg, Gray," Lyon panted. "Your form is sloppy."
"Shut up, Lyon," Gray shot back, a grin on his face. "You're the one who was late."
Lucy, her magic completely drained from summoning Aquarius, just collapsed onto the rock. "Did... did we get her?"
Gray walked over to the shattered ice remains, picking up a single, silver strand of frozen hair.
"Looks like it."
"GRAY-SAMA! YOU SAID SHE WAS BEAUTIFUL!" a voice shrieked from another canyon, miles away.
Gray just sighed. "Two down. Four to go. Let's go find the others."