Chapter 97: Battle for Fairy Tail IX - The Lightning Falls
The cathedral had become a tomb. Stone and ash and the smell of blood. Natsu stood over Laxus with his fist raised, the flames around it condensing into a sphere of white hot energy. Laxus knelt on the cracked floor, his body broken, his magic spent, his eyes closed. He was waiting for the end.
The blow never came.
Natsu lowered his fist. The flames around him dimmed, flickered, faded. He stepped back, breathing hard, his golden eyes fixed on the man who had tried to destroy everything he loved. "Get up," he said. "This is not how it ends."
Laxus opened his eyes. Something in them had changed. The defeat was gone, replaced by something older, something darker, something that had been sleeping in his blood since the day his father planted that lacrima in his chest. He pushed himself up. His arms were shaking. His legs were shaking. His whole body was shaking. But he stood.
"You should have finished it," Laxus said. His voice was different now, raw and wild, the voice of a man who had crossed a line and was not coming back. "You should have killed me when you had the chance."
Lightning erupted from his body. Not the controlled bolts he had used before, not the calculated strikes of a man who knew his own power. This was something else. This was a storm. Yellow energy exploded from his skin in every direction, tearing through the cathedral walls, shattering the remaining pillars, carving trenches in the stone floor. He rose into the air, his body crackling with power, his eyes glowing with madness.
"Now you will see," Laxus said. "Now you will see what happens when you push a dragon too far."
He moved.
The space between them vanished. Laxus's fist connected with Natsu's chest before Natsu could react, the impact sending him flying across the nave. He crashed through a pillar, then another, then hit the far wall with a force that cracked the stone. He slid to the floor, gasping, his vision blurred.
Laxus was already there. His knee drove into Natsu's stomach. His elbow smashed into Natsu's back. His fist, crackling with lightning, slammed into Natsu's face again and again and again. Natsu tried to block, tried to dodge, tried to fight back. He could not keep up.
The lightning was everywhere. It arced from Laxus's hands, his feet, his chest, his eyes. It filled the cathedral with light and sound and the smell of ozone. The walls were scorched. The floor was cracked. The air was thick with smoke and dust and the screams of dying stone.
Natsu raised his hand. Flames gathered around his fingers, weak and flickering. He swung at Laxus's face. Laxus caught his wrist. The lightning around his hand flared, burning Natsu's skin, and he twisted. Bone cracked. Natsu screamed.
"Fire Dragon's Roar," Natsu gasped.
A stream of orange flame shot from his mouth, aimed at Laxus's chest. Laxus did not dodge. He took the fire and laughed. The flames washed over him, scorched his skin, burned his clothes. He did not stop. He did not even slow down.
"Is that all you have?" Laxus said. "Is that all the great Dragon Force can do?"
He grabbed Natsu by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Lightning poured from his hand into Natsu's neck, his chest, his arms. Natsu convulsed, his body jerking, his teeth clenched against the pain. He could not breathe. He could not think. He could only hold on.
The fire inside him flickered. Dimmed. Died.
Natsu's golden eyes faded to brown. The scales on his skin receded. The heat around him cooled. He was still Natsu. He was still fighting. But the Dragon Force was gone, burned out by the storm, and he had nothing left.
Laxus threw him across the cathedral. Natsu hit the ground and did not move.
Gajeel pushed himself up from the rubble. His iron scales were cracked. His arm was broken. His leg was bleeding. He had been watching the fight from the edge of the destruction, waiting for an opening, waiting for a chance. He did not have one. He had never had one.
He charged anyway.
His iron fist slammed into Laxus's back. The impact was solid, a clean hit that would have felled any normal man. Laxus did not move. He turned, slowly, and looked at Gajeel with eyes that were not quite human.
"You," Laxus said. "I almost forgot about you."
He backhanded Gajeel across the face. The force of the blow sent Gajeel spinning through the air, crashing through a pillar, landing in a heap of broken stone and broken bones. He tried to push himself up. His arms would not obey.
Laxus stood at the center of the cathedral, his body crackling with lightning, his eyes blazing with madness. He raised his hands above his head and the lightning gathered between them, building and building, a sphere of yellow energy that hummed with the power to end a city.
"Fairy Law," he said.
Natsu's eyes went wide. Gajeel's blood ran cold. They had heard of this spell. They had never seen it used. It was the ultimate magic of Fairy Tail, a spell that could destroy anything, anyone, anywhere, depending on the will of the caster.
"You are insane," Gajeel said. "That spell will kill everyone. Not just us. Everyone in Magnolia."
Laxus smiled. It was not a sane smile. It was the smile of a man who had lost everything and did not care what happened next.
"Then let them die," he said. "If they are too weak to survive, they do not deserve to live."
The light in his hands grew brighter, hotter, more terrible. The cathedral shook. The sky darkened. The air itself seemed to tremble.
Natsu tried to push himself up. His arms would not obey. His legs would not obey. He had nothing left.
Gajeel tried to push himself up. His body was broken. His magic was spent. He had nothing left.
They watched the light grow, and they waited for the end.
"Laxus."
The voice was small, barely a whisper, but it cut through the storm like a blade. Levy McGarden stood at the edge of the cathedral, her face pale, her hands shaking, her eyes fixed on the man who was about to destroy her home.
"Levy," Laxus said. "Get out of here. This does not concern you."
She did not move. She walked toward him, her footsteps echoing on the cracked stone, her voice steady despite her fear.
"Makarov is on the verge of death."
The light in Laxus's hands flickered. His eyes widened. His jaw tightened.
"What did you say?"
Levy stopped a few feet away from him. She looked up at the man who had been her guild mate, her enemy, her family. She did not flinch.
"Your grandfather. Master Makarov. He is dying. The strain of the barrier, the stress of watching his children tear each other apart, the illness he has been hiding for months. It is all catching up to him." She paused. "If you cast that spell, you will kill him. You will be the one who kills your own grandfather."
The light died.
Laxus stood in the center of the cathedral, his hands still raised, his body still crackling with residual lightning. But the spell was gone. The power was gone. All that remained was a man, broken and bleeding, staring at the woman who had just told him that he was about to lose everything.
"You are lying," he said. His voice was small, uncertain, the voice of a child who had been told something he did not want to hear.
Levy shook her head. "I am not. Go see for yourself. The barrier is still up. He cannot leave. But you can. Go see him. See what you have done."
Laxus did not move. He stood in the ruins of the cathedral, surrounded by the destruction he had caused, and he did not know what to do.
Levy waited. Natsu waited. Gajeel waited.
The storm outside began to fade.
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Next Time: Battle for Fairy Tail X - The Dragon's Tears