April 19th, X524 (8 AM)
Rosemary village

"Our priority is to find the secret passage and bring the sword. Kill whoever interferes you," Geoffery ordered. One of the dark mages used his magic to attack the entrance and it exploded. Four giant birds, which were summoned by an animal mage, emerged and carried more than five mages on their backs before flying in different directions.

     People in the village heard a loud explosion sound from the southwest of the village, where the main entrance was located.

"FULL DEFENSE!" Master Rob ordered, the village mages joined forces with the city guards to attack Phantom Lord.

"They're heading to the west, south, central and east," Hibiki shouted, as soon as he saw four directions of the enemy's troops; N20°W, S55°E, N35°E, and N65°E on his archive screen.

"As we expected, they plan to go to the main sides of the mountain," Jellal, who was standing near Hibiki, said. Because of Hibiki's telepathy, their voices reached their friends who were now preoccupying the predicted battlezones in the village. They led their respective small squads of village mages; Laxus was in the south, Lucy, Sparky and Kagura were guiding the west, and Sherry and Ren were in the east. Jellal, Wendy, Carla, Hibiki and Eve were in the central area, with Master Rob, to block the enemies who would go to the north through the centre of the village.

"I'm counting you," Laxus said. "Take care, everyone," Lucy added. "Let's smash them," Eve said eagerly. "We can do it," Sherry replied. "Guys contact me when you faced danger," Hibiki said, "See you all later." Then he deactivated his mind communication.

• • • • •

Western battlezone

      Not more than three minutes, the group in the west saw the giant bird landing a distance away from them. Five dark mages, led by a slim tall man with an oval-shaped face, got down from the bird. The squad leader was Sol, an earth magic user and one of the elite mages from Phantom Lord . His green hair was pointed upward, and a monocle covered his right eye. He was wearing a brown suit.

"To tell the truth, I was expecting a strong mage, not two girls and a cat. Hahaha," Sol laughed as he oddly swayed his body back and forth. His underlings laughed along with him.

      The green-haired dark mage lowered his hands, and raised them as the ground underneath him was shattered into the multiple rocks. He threw them to his opponents. Sparky carried Lucy quickly, and Kagura avoided the rocks by swifting to the side. The flying rocks stopped in a mid-way, and dropped to the ground as an effect of Kagura's gravity change magic. Lucy jumped down and stood up at the same spot she was standing before, the yellow exceed was floating beside her. Other dark mages were battling with three Rosemary mages.

"Interesting," the green-haired man laughed, "It's a pity that your magic is still weak. Let's see if you can stop my next spell," He told Kagura, "Platre Sonata!" He extended both of his hands, and a giant fist made of plaster emerged from the brown magic circle, and it was directed to Lucy.

"Open the gate of the golden bull! Taurus!" Lucy shouted, and her loy bull spirit appeared in front of her as he stopped the giant fist with his enormous strength. Holding up his labrys with his left hand, he smashed the plaster fist into pieces.

"Sable Sword!" The earth mage cast his spell, creating a whirlwind of sand around the two girls. The sandstorm attacked the two girls who were withstanding the storm until the spell dispersed. The Phantom Lord mage also disappeared from their sight.

• • • • •

Southern battlezone

"Lightning Dragon's Roar!" a single beam of lightning roar hit three of the dark mages.

"How lucky I am," an extremely tall and giant man said, "To kill the Prince of Fairy Tail soon." He was Aria, another commander from Phantom Lord. His massive body was covered by a large, loose green coat, underneath it was a large brown shirt. His attire matched his extremely loose pair of dark pants and black shoes.

"Zetsu," he shouted with his right hand extended and his palm opened. Multiple small purple airblasts exploded around the lightning dragon slayer at the same time. Laxus quickly transformed into a lightning body as he flew out of the area, despite of a few injuries he received. As the yellow electricity body travelled in the air and directed towards Aria, the blond prince kicked him in a swift motion.

       The air mage became suddenly invisible and intangible to Laxus's lightning attack, much to the latter's dismay. Laxus stood on the ground, as Aria appeared from behind and punched him. The blond prince dodged in time, thanks to his dragon slayer's sense, and punched him back. Aria disappeared into a thin air again.

• • • • •

Eastern battlezone

"Aerial Shot." Ren used his air magic to shatter the ground, the rocks were picked up and shot at the chicken-like opponent named Kawazu. Kawazu was a large anthropomorphic white chicken, with human arms and chicken feet, wearing a large orange apron and black shoes.

"Doll Attack: Mud Doll." Sherry created a giant monster from the liquified ground, as it released mud spouts toward the same opponent.

"Ah ya ya, how annoying humans," the chicken stated, before opening his mouth and launching several eggs which broke open quickly and merged to form an opaque egg wall around him.

"Levitate!" Ren raised his hand and the Phantom Lord mge floated in the air. However, Ren was surprised to hear a burst of laughter from the humanoid chicken. Not so long, Kawazu spread his wings and break Ren's levitate spell as he flew.

"He's a chicken. Of course, he can fly," Sherry narrowed her eyes to her new ally who was glarin at the chicken. "I forgot," Ren replied.

"Now, my turn. Heavy Egg Rain," the chicken stopped laughing, as he released a massive amount of eggs from mouth. The eggs rained down on Ren and Sherry. "Rock doll," Sherry said quickly, three giant rock monsters were created from the ground as they covered the two mages from the egg attack.

"So annoying. so annoying." The chicken moved up and down in the air with frustration.

• • • • •

Central battlezone

"Let's rock it," Vidaldus Taka laughed, as he played a song with his guitar. He was a mildly muscular man with extremely long and straight black hair. His outfit was a long-sleeved white shirt and a pair of blue pants.

       The black-haired man took control of three village guards, and ordered them attack Wendy, and two blond city guards. "Don't hurt them," Wendy said anxiously when the villagers started attacking them. "I've got an idea," Eve said before extending his hand frontwards, "White out!" he whispered. A snowstorm froze the three villagers and then buried them in the snow. "I got it," Hibiki smiled, as he created four archive walls around the frozen mages, as a result, they couldn't get out of the enclosed space.

"Now, let's stop him," Wendy said, "Sky Dragon's Claw," she jumped high, and danced in the air before swaying her leg and unleashing a wave of wind from her feet towards the dark mage. However, her attack was dispersed by the sound waves which were released from the guitar.

"White Fang," Eve manipulated snow as an offensive spell. The snow wave mixed with icy wind aimed at the sound mage.

      Vidaldus changed his appearance within a flash much to the young mages' surprise. His skin was now paler, and his hair swung freely and wildly. He was bare-chested, and his pants were now replaced by loose trousers. He expanded his hair to scatter the snowstorm.

"A cute boy with a bad temper," he called Eve, "I'll make you my loyal servant," He said before laughing uncontrollably.

"In your dream," Eve retorted angrily.

• • • • •

Central battlezone (second group)

"Magic Wind Palm," Erigor clapped his hands together, releasing a destructive tornado which had enough strength to knock eight village mages out. Erigor was an extremely tall and lean-built man, with his short spiky silver hair. He was shown bare-chested, and his lower body was covered by a long worn black hakama, and a light-brown belt. He was wearing a long black cloak, and he was carrying a long giant scythe on his shoulder.

"Orange fire!" a young man with half black and half white long hair shouted. A large reddish magic circle appeared above him, and a large flame of orange fire was released as it burnt six guards. He was Totomaru, the strongest fire mage of Phantom Lord. His outfit consisted of an orange-reddish cloth, which was held by a belt, red pants and a pair of black boots.

"Light shot," a man with a squared face and black hair shouted. A white beam hit five guards, who failed to manage to dodge. "It's easy hahaha!" the man said. He was Byard, a light magic user. He was wearing a simple outfit; a brown jacket over a white shirt, dark pants and simple shoes.

      Each of the Phantom Lord elite had defeated more than five guards with a single spell. Meanwhile, Jellal was facing eight dark mages alone. With his meteor mode at the highest speed, he beat them while travelling in the air.

      Erza who was hiding behind a nearby cottage stepped on a stone accidentally and she quickly touched the wall to maintain her balance as she let out a quiet gasp. Erigor heard it, he quickly moved his hands in several patterns before stretching his hand open, "Storm Bringer," he cast. A powerful storm wave was generated as it rotated towards the house.

"ERZA!" Jellal shouted as he flew to Erza faster than the storm. He carried her in bridal style and flew high again before the spell hit the house. He deactivated his meteor after standing a few distances away from the dark mages. He put Erza down who was now in shock and was staring at the empty space in front of her. He gently pat her head, "Don't worry. I'm here." He whispered.

"How heartbreaking to see the mighty Titania very powerless like this," Erigor mocked and laughed together with his guildmates. "She got a nice body. I want to keep her alive after this battle ended." Byard laughed as he stared at the red-haired beauty with lustful eyes.

"SHUT UP!" Jellal shouted, anger burning through him. He jumped into the air, extended his left-hand open, and stretched his right hand back, nine bright yellow swords were created behind him. The yellow swords were directed the light mage to strike him.

"It's useless against my light magic," Byard smirked. Since his magic was the light magic, his over-confidence overwhelmed him, he extended his hand to control the swords instead of dodging. His wrong move made a fatal mistake, as he was hit by the swords made from heavenly body magic spell, he was defeated easily.

"Stupid," Totomaru shouted, as he saw his fellow member, who lost his consciousness, lay on the ground. "Blue Fire," The same magic circle appeared in front of him as a blue cold flame directed to Jellal, who performed a water cyclone spell to counterattack the blue flame. "Red fire!" this time, the red fire beam was launched to Jellal. The prince dashed to the side, he manipulated air and created several air slashes before sending them to the fire mage. Totomaru jumped high before the air slashes hit him.

      As he focused his attention on Totomaru, Jellal failed to notice Erigor who was behind him. The wind mage swayed his scythes to cut Jellal, however, before he did, a flash of swift bluish lightning came to him rapidly, so he could only protect himself with his weapon.

     Jellal was surprised to see the blue thunderbolt, at the same time, he was glad. He looked at his long-time crush who was standing a distance away from him. He gave her a proud smile. 'Welcome back, Erza.'

• • • • •

(Minutes ago)

      Erza looked at the blue-haired crown prince with wide eyes who was fighting against three strong dark mages. The unwavering feeling caused her eyes to teary as she witnessed that he was fighting alone. 'His Highness is extremely powerful but he looked tired at this moment.' she thought.

'You're my best friend, and the strongest female warrior of Magnolia.. You still are.' His voice echoed in her mind, and she could see his sadness while they were talking yesterday because she lost her memory.

      She wanted to help him at this moment.. but.. she didn't know how to fight.

'Don't worry, I'm here.' His words earlier.. sounded familiar. She closed her eyes, as she tried to recall her past. Headache greeted hello to her, and the pain forced her tears to kneel on the ground.

      Despite of her severe pain, she continued thinking, hoping to find a very small piece of her memory. In her mind, everything was black.. black as darkness.. until

'Don't worry, I'm here.' She heard his voice again.

      Blackness faded away, and blurred images came into her mind. A forest.. something red.. and something blue. The blur vision was soon replaced by clearer memories.. Erza saw the small version of herself sitting on the ground crying, and a very young crown prince was facing a giant bear, with his single sword.

      Memories continued, and she heard his kind voice saying 'I'm Jellal.' She saw the little he give a bright smile to the little her while he helped her get on her feet. 'I'm Erza. Nice to meet you.' Little Erza did greet him back shyly.

       Her memories appeared one after another like a flash. They met again in the palace. She saw her younger self persuading her mother to train her hard so that the next time when she met him again, she wouldn't be that weak.

     From her memories, Erza saw the immature children Gray and Lyon fighting each other, and she punched them hard. They started crying aloud while shouting that she was bullying them.

      She remembered Wendy and Charla.. Bisca and Meredy.. and the kind blonde princess consort.. Then the fight on the bridge.. the screams of her fellows.. the moment she fell down the bridge.. and she fell into the water.. then she was saved by Master Rob and Kagura.

       Tears continued falling, not because she was weak, but because she had been too strong for so long. She realized that he got hurt when he faced Phantom Lord's second master. Her juniors, Hibiki and Eve, also got severe injuries. What about now? The village was under attack, and she couldn't help her friends.. She felt like she was a useless person. It was her duty to protect everyone but they were fighting without her.

      Erza wiped her tears, as she stood up quickly. 'It's time to fight.' She felt her magic running through her body, her kimono was changed into a golden and light bluish armour dress.

      The upper part of her armour contained the breastplate and thin plates around her neck. The armoured gloves covered her arms, and other armour plates were also attached to her thigh-high boots. Her hair was styled in a long braid, and two ribbons which were connected by a yellow band were attached to her sides. She was holding a long spear with a very large blade and a circular shield at the shaft.

     Using her spear, Erza fired a bolt of blue lightning toward Erigor who approached Jellal to attack from behind. The wind mage noticed the blue bolt in time as he quickly put his scythes in front to bounce the blue strike back.

       She saw his smile on his handsome face. She smiled back, "I'm back.. Jellal-kun."

^_^

Sol

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Aria

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Kawazu

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Vidaldus Taka

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Erigor

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Totomaru

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Byard

^_^