-Hades, Grimoire Heart airship-
My plans are in flames. Everything that could go wrong, has gone wrong. I overestimated my kin of Purgatory and underestimated the strength, grit and will of the Fairies. They were all stronger than my intelligence suggested they were. But more than that, three Fairies in particular I couldn't even properly measure.
"I'll have to take them all by myself. Then.. Zeref." I mutter to nobody while looking out the large window.
Outside, Tenrou had taken some damage but nothing that truly mattered to the Island or its legacy. And no true damage was done to Fairy Tail.
"Are you here to kill me?" I ask, looking at the strange woman floating outside my window.
I felt nothing from her. No magic power, no overbearing aura, nothing. Yet I could see the Ethernano in the atmosphere harmoniously flowing around her. And in an instant, she passed through the reinforced glass of the window as if walking through wet tissue paper.
"That depends on you, Hades. Or, do you prefer Precht?" She asked, stepping onto the ship as glass fell off her in liquid form.
Even from here, her body temperature was intense but contained to just her skin. All that energy, in just one woman..
"I prefer Hades. It's who I am now, Child."
"Precht it is then~" She smirked annoyingly and looked around.
"So this is what you gained after cutting ties with your family. I'm not impressed." She followed those words up with a sigh and looked down, where the Devil's Heart was located.
"I now dance with magic freely.. It was all worth it. To gaze and seize the abyss of magic, I'll give up anything." I answered calmly watching the ethernano swirl around her slow.
"An obsession then. That's a shame. From what I remember, you were a good man once. A good Guild Master."
Her words made my stomach churn uncomfortably. I didn't 'want' to destroy Fairy Tail. Sacrifices had to be made. And I won't back down now, when the depths of magic are so close.
"You gave up everyone who cared about you for power. But power is a means to an end, not a goal. Seeking knowledge is okay, but what joy can be gained when you reach that knowledge and nobody around you cares to celebrate it with you?" She asked while taking a seat on my throne.
"Asinine.. I never needed anyone. Grimoire Heart was merely full of easily manipulated mages who could use Lost Magic. They were research materials. I left my attachmemts behind. Nothing you can say to me now holds any meaning to me. Now stand and fight. I'll show you the power and knowledge I've accumulated."
FLASH!
In an instant, a beam fired from her palm and bored straight through my ship. And within a second, I felt it. The source of my infinite magic had been destroyed. A white-hot feeling of rage overcame me and I unleashed my spells upon her. All of my darkest, most damaging spells obliterated the space that occupied my throne, transforming it into a sea of darkness and destruction that destroyed a good chunk of my ship.
"This world is beautiful. It's just a shame there are parasites such as you and Acnologia. Mindless self indulgence.. I envy how free you are. But I'm furious at the choices you've made.. and how they try to sully the beauty of this place." Behind me, I heard her voice, chilling and cold.
A forboding sense of danger overwhelmed me and I leapt back, quickly summoning my full power by removing my limiter over my Demon's eye.
But before I could even speak aloud, I saw her hand, hovering right in front of my face. And an otherworldly dark violet energy overcame me entirely.
-Equinox, Grimoire Heart ship-
Watching the second Guildmaster of Fairytail get erased was strangely cathardic for the fused woman. Both parts of her agreed, he was beyond redemption. Given what he did in the original story, so many atrocities could be linked back to Precht and his obsession with magic.
"It's too bad.. You could never really see magic for what it is. Alive.." She looked at the shadowed outline of Precht on the floor with a slightly melancholic expression before flying straight up, tearing through the ship as Ruin consumed it behind her, eliminating the ugly metal carcass from the Island's natural beauty.
Once she flew high enough, she held her hands out and utilized Creation to erect a golden barrier around the entire Island. She smiled, seeing her Guild look up at the sky in awe and confusion. Some like Natsu, Irene, Erza and Ultear had spotted her, floating in the cloudless sky.
As much as it filled her heart with warmth even just seeing them, she knew something else demanded her attention. The horizon rippled, Ethernano frantically stirred and a far away black dot was rapidly growing closer.
VRRRRRR!
With an accompanying shattering sound of a sonic boom, Acnologia had arrived. His towering, monstrous form no more than twenty meters away from her. Though he looked different than he had when Yin fought him, hundreds of years ago.
Now, half his face was scarred. A deep, corrosive gash had marred the right side of his face, from his jaw to the very back of his crested head. Equinox instantly made the connection. Ruin. It hadn't destroyed him but not even the Apocalypse Dragon came out unscathed from being hit with the concept of destruction.
"You... Who are you?" Acnologia asked, floating in the sky, looking down at the fusion.
It was jarring. Suddenly he was relentlessly chasing down the signature of the Dragon who had wounded him hundreds of years ago, now he was face to face with someone who carried that signature, yet felt so different. Acnologia could not understand what he was looking at.
"I am Equinox. A Dragon and a Human. I've come to face you, Acnologia." She declared, completely casually, as if she were saying she was going to do the laundry.
"Where is the one who I fought before?" He asked impatiently.
"Within me. I am a being composed of her and her sister. I'm the one you're looking for."
Acnologia looked down at her, then to the shielded Island, where he felt several Dragonslayers within, his maw widening into a grin.
"Interesting. This is turning out even better than I hoped. Before I relieve my boredom though.. Tell me one thing. What are you?"
Equinox furrowed her brow in confusion, "I told you already. A Dragon and a Human."
"Heh... Is that what you think? Guess it doesn't really matter now."
"Because I'm going to destroy you, Dragon."
"Heh.. Come get me then."
With those final words, the battle begun.
"ARCANE DRAGON'S ROAR!"/"BALANCE DRAGON'S ROAR!"
▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▆▇█▉
Colossal beams of energy lit up the sky above Tenrou like a second sun. One beam was bright, colorless annihilation, the other, a twist of gold and purple. The beams clashed, mid air, splitting the sea even a thousand meters below them. The sky burned, the shockwaves produced by the extremely potent energy shaking not just the Island, but the entire Country of Fiore, but Ishgar itself.
Just when it seemed like the clash would split the very Earth open, it stopped. Both cutting their power off at the same time. Then, another deafening 'BOOM' as sound broke with their next movements.
[Burning Ignition: Active]
'I really should thank Precht for that magic he blasted at me earlier.' Equinox smirked coldly as her and Acnologia's fists met mid-air, resounding like a thunderclap.
They said nothing, but the feeling of Acnologia's sheer, insane joy was evident. He swung and magic obeyed his command. She swung and magic rushed to help.
CRA-CRAAACK!
Soon, over a hundred punches had been exchanged, both flying around each other as dark clouds stretched over the skies above them. The ethernano within the atmosphere around them was practically vibrating from the intensity as each punch was met with flesh and scale.
Yet Equinox was becoming faster and stronger with every second. Her hair and eyes ignited in golden/blue flames. And despite his enormous resistance, even Acnologia was starting to feel the heat emanating from those fists.
So, feeling pressured for the first time in hundreds of years, Acnologia spun his body and dropkicked Equinox while flaring the full might of his Arcane Dragon magic.
WHAM!
Once again, the sky screamed as Equinox's body flew away from the sheer strength and speed of the impact, splitting the sea open as she reoriented herself and wiped her bloody nose as her feet skid across the suddenly dry ocean floor.
▂▂▃▃▄▄▅▆▇█▉
She had no time to really observe the splitting ocean, as Acnologia had flown right after her and launched another Arcane Dragon's Roar at her. And facing the beam of annihilation, she leapt straight out of the now closing ocean and saw the beam pulverize a country-sized stretch of the ocean, including several smaller islands nearby.
"You.." Equinox's eyes narrowed, watching the sea of magic destroy everything behind her.
She already knew the scale of this fight would be enormous. So she needed to end it quickly, or there won't be anything for her Guild to return to.
CRACK!
If Acnologia heard her or saw her quietly furious expression, he never showed it. He flew down and swung his fist at her, making the very space quake from his sheer physical and magical might. His fist met Equinox's, and he was the one who lurched back from the impact. Only a dozen feet, but it wasn't inconsequential. Acnologia felt his fist burning like his face had so long ago.
"This is it... THIS..!! I hope you're prepared, 'Equinox'!!" He screamed gleefully as he spread his wings.
"ETERNAL FLARE!!"
Like a cosmic event, small blue stars formed behind Acnologia, growing ever larger in size and number before he launched them at Equinox in the form of high speed beams of annihilation.
Facing such a massive attack, Equinox raised her hand out. A cold light radiated from her heterochromatic eyes as she took a deep breath.
"Unison Raid: Star of Creation and Ruin."
RUUUUUMBLE!!
Multiple magics swirled through her body as a gravity core floated from her hand and expanded. The dark purple of Ruin and the light Gold of Creation swirled around the expanding spell that pulled a huge amount of the Ocean and the very oxygen around them. Its sheer size growing as Equinox raised it above her head as it grew to the size of a mountain and shone with a paradoxical light and darkness.
It should never have come into being, yet it had. And as it grew to reach such a massive size, it was shot straight at Acnologia. Even over two dozen shot flares that had gotten too close to the hyper dense orb had either been sucked in, thrown far off course or begun to orbit it like a true star.
For the first time in a long time, Acnologia felt mortal danger. Thus, he flooded his wings with his magic and flew up, past the clouds as his flares chased Equinox below and annihilated much of the ocean near Fiore and an archipelago. And though she wasn't unscathed, he saw Equinox come out of several titanic explosions with merely a few burn marks and a bloody lip.
While he was facing one of the strongest attacks he had ever seen. The star had followed him even past the clouds, devouring them as it passed, locked in on Acnologia himself. But even despite the danger...
His ego raged at his actions.
"Fine. I'll face your strongest attack. And I'll crush it beneath my claws." He snarled, body flooding with a nigh infinite amount of magical energy.
Acnologia spread his wings and arms out, the markings on his scales glowing ominously as he attacked the star, head on.
....
The sky screamed as an explosion so bright and deafening, it sent tremors even to Alakitasia, detonated in the upper atmosphere of Fiore. It held the sheer destructive impact of a nuclear warhead. And from the paradoxically bright/dark explosion, Acnologia could be seen plummeting back down to the Earth.