Chapitre 234: Nirvana; Stage 2

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Worth Woodsea.

November, x784.

At the same time, the battle between Jura and Hoteye came to an end. Though, there was no victor in this battle. Instead, like Hibiki and Sherry, Hoteye also had a change of heart due to the first stage of Nirvana's awakening.

"So, you were one of those who were taken away from the Tower of Heaven?" Jura asked with his palms pressed against each other.

"That's right." Hoteye replied with a nod and a smile. "Brain told me that if I followed him, I would be able to make enough money to free my brother from the tower, too."

"I see." Jura replied with a nod. "That's as good a reason as any to work with him."

"Yes, but along the way, I lost sight of my goal." Hoteye said with a frown while letting his shoulders sag. "Somehow, making money to buy my brother's freedom turned into just making money for the sake of it. I eventually gained the belief that money could solve any problem. So, I always wanted to make more."

"Hoteye, I…" Jura began to say.

"Richard." Hoteye, or Richard, said, interrupting Jura's sentence. "My real name is Richard."

"Well then, Richard." Jura said with a smile. "Please allow me to help you in the search for your brother."

"Would you really?" Richard asked with anticipation swirling in his eyes.

"Of course." Jura said with a nod. "Helping you to reunite with your family would be my honor."

Hearing that, the smile on Richard's face was quite dazzling.

"But first, we have to stop Brain." Jura continued in a solemn tone. "I don't know exactly what he wants to do with Nirvana, but I'm sure he will bring untold suffering onto the Kingdom if his plans succeed."

"Yes, you're right." Richard replied with a solemn nod. "We have to stop him."

Around the same time, while making his way to the base of the pillar of dark light, Yet another one of the [Six Prayers Seals] on Brain's face vanished.

"It seems Hoteye has been defeated as well." Brain said, his expression not changing in the slightest. "No matter, I'm close to attaining my goal. And there is nothing those fools can do to stop me."

Meanwhile, back at the altar that activated Nirvana, Natsu, engulfed in his magic flames, charged forward at Cobra with his right fist reeled back ready to strike. Cobra, on the other hand, stood leisurely with his hands in his pockets. Then, once Natsu was close enough, he casually evaded the incoming punch.

Exchanges like that replayed several times before Cobra, getting bored with the same song and dance, counterattacked after another one of Natsu's failed attempts.

"[Poison Dragon's Twin Fangs]." Cobra chanted as he lashed his arms at Natsu in the shape of across.

Following the movement of Cobra's arms, a large amount of poison formed into a pair of fang-shaped waves. Reacting quickly, both of Natsu's arms were covered in flames as he swung them in cobra's direction to counter.

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack]." Natsu chanted as he lashed his arms at the incoming attack.

As a result of Natsu' swinging his arms, the flames coating them elongated before they whipped forward to meet the approaching fang-shaped masses of poison.

*Boom!*

Exploding on contact, the two wizards were forced apart. As soon as Natsu's feet touched the ground, however, he dashed forward once again. And like that, the clash continued with Cobra effortlessly avoiding all of Natsu's attacks while having his own counterattacks cancelled out by Natsu's magic.

Naturally, Natsu, with his short temper, grew more frustrated as time went by. Then, after a few more minutes of this exchange, his frustration finally morphed into anger.

"Argh!" Natsu screamed angrily after another failed attack. "Why can't I hit you?"

"Ha!" You should have realized it sooner." Cobra said mockingly. "Of course you can't hit me. I can hear all your thoughts."

'Even so, it's getting harder to dodge and counterattack as time goes on.' Cobra thought to himself, keeping his thoughts from showing on his face. 'What is going on? It's like he's getting stronger the longer the fight lasts.'

Although he had no way of knowing, Cobra's thoughts were correct. As Natsu's frustration and Anger grew at his inability to land a hit, he really was getting stronger.

And that was thanks to an incredibly rare form of [Fire Magic], that Natsu seemed to be unaware of, called the [Flames of Emotion]. This particular type of magic seemingly manifests a living flame that incorporates the mental and magical aspects of the user's emotions into their other kinds of [Fire Magic].

"You can hear my thoughts, huh?" Natsu shouted in response. "Then, how does this sound?"

With that, Natsu concentrated extremely hard. And while he was doing so, Cobra's eyebrows started to twitch violently.

"Seriously, what kinda potty mouth do you have?" Cobra asked in annoyance. "And how did you even come up with such colorful curses?"

"[Fire Dragon's Roar]." Natsu chanted while Cobra was reacting to his insults.

Unfortunately, Cobra was still listening to all of Natsu's thoughts. So, he was able to evade rather easily.

Seeing that his sneak attack did not work, Natsu continued spewing flames from his mouth as he moved his head to follow cobra's movements.

Meanwhile, Cobra continued to move away from Natsu's breath attack with a grin on his face. At the same time, he noticed a small row of trees that were too close to each other to slip between and too high to jump over in front of him.

"Not a bad plan." Cobra said. "but you really shouldn't have thought it would be that easy.

A moment before Cobra would be cornered by Natsu's [Fire Dragon's Roar], he jumped. Then, just as he reached the peak of his jump, a large purple cobra swooped down from the sky and caught him before flying up again.

"Seriously?" Natsu shouted as he stopped his spell. "That's gotta be cheating!"

Sneering at Natsu from up in the air, Cobra watched as his companion, Cubellios, opened its mouth and sprayed a fog of poison towards Natsu.

Although Natsu wanted to use his flames to evaporate the poison like he had done before, just as he was about to use his breath attack again, his instincts warned him that it was a bad idea. Then, he leapt away from where he stood.

A moment later, after circling around the fog, Cobra and Cubellios swept through his former location before soaring back into the sky.

Shortly after the spot was vacated, the poison fog descended on the spot where Natsu stood moments before.

*Sizzle!*

Not long afterward, all the plant life that came in contact with the poison fog began to decay rapidly.

"Natsu, look out." Happy shouted from nearby.

With Happy's shout, Natsu dodged away from where he stood again before Cubellios dive bombed down on his former location again. This time, however, Natsu fired a stream of flames at the flying serpent from his fist in retaliation.

"Ha! That will never work." Cobra said in a mocking tone. "I can hear your thoughts, there's no way you'll ever hit me."

"We'll see about that!" Natsu shouted, the heat of his flames growing with the irritation and anger he was feeling during this fight.

Then, with his flames as boosters, Natsu shot himself into the sky towards Cobra who was standing on Cubellios back. Then, with a summersault, Natsu launched his right foot at Cobra's head.

"[Fire Dragon's Talon]!" Natsu shouted as his flame covered foot came crashing down.

Unfortunately, as Cobra said, he had already heard Natsu's plan of attack. So, with little in the way of movement, he and Cubellios dodged the attack. Then, he took a deep breath.

"[Poison Dragon's Roar]." Cobra chanted as he spewed a stream of poison out of his mouth.

Reacting quickly, Natsu also took a deep breath before the poison arrived and spewed his [Fire Dragon's Roar] once again to meet the incoming attack.

Unfortunately, Natsu, without proper footing in mid-air, was blown away when the fire and poison exploded on impact.

"Natsu!" Happy shouted as he flew at high speed after Natsu.

A moment later, just before Natsu slammed into the ground, Happy managed to catch him before flying up into the air.

"Natsu, are you alright?" Happy asked while holding Natsu.

"Yeah, nice save, Little Buddy." Natsu replied with a smile. Shortly afterward, however, his smile turned into a frown as he continued. "Is that guy a Dragon Slayer, too?"

In response, Happy could only look at Natsu blankly.

"He's been speaking the names of his spells since you started fighting." Happy said in atone filled with disbelief. "But you're just now noticing?"

"Huh? Really?" Natsu asked with confusion written all over his face. "I wasn't really paying attention."

"*Sigh* That's just like you, Natsu." Happy said with a wry smile.

"Anyway, let's get back in the fight." Natsu said with a battle thirsty grin. "I'm even more fired up now!"

With that, Happy, with Natsu in hand, rushed forward, towards Cobra and Cubellios.

Nearly half an hour later, while the battle between Natsu and Cobra raged on, Brain met up with Midnight a short distance away from the altar. And Midnight, despite all that had happened, was still sleeping atop his flying carpet.

"It won't be much longer." Brain said as he watched the magic power density in the air. "Soon, we will have control of Nirvana and this world will be ours for the taking."

As if to confirm Brain's words, the ground began to shake as stone buildings began growing from the surroundings. Then, before too long, an entire city sprung up from the ground.

"Yes." Brain said as he watched the surroundings change. "This is exactly what I've been looking for."

Once the entire city had risen, the shaking intensified. Then, a chunk of earth rose from the ground with all those in the city rising along with it. In other words, Ur, Ultear, Sorano, Karen, and Jellal were carried into the air along with Brain and Midnight.

"What the hell is that?" Gray, who was unable to make it close enough to where the light pillar originated, asked with disbelief in his tone.

"That must be the second stage of Nirvana." Lyon replied in an astonished tone.

What those who were not close enough to end up in the city that sprouted from the ground were currently seeing was the land mass housing the city rising above the trees in the Worth Woodsea. Being suspended by six legs that seemed to be made of flexible stones, they could all understand why Hibiki called it a walking weapon of Mass destruction.

Before the walking land mass that was Nirvana began to move, however, a spot on its front began to glow. And to anyone looking from the outside, it would be clear that the glowing point was drawing in ethernano from the air.

A few moments later, when the glowing spot was saturated with ethernano, a beam of black light, most likely [Darkness Magic] converted from the gather ethernano, was fired forward.

Cutting through everything in its path, whether it be the air, a rocky outcropping, or an especially tall tree, the beam of [Darkness Magic] eventually reached the mountain range on the other side of the forest.

*Boom~~~~~~~~~!*

With an ear deafening explosion that shook not only the forest, but much of the land surrounding it, a large amount of rock and dust was sent flying.

Eventually when the dust cloud settled, the effects of the beam were obvious. Part of the mountain range had vanished from where it stood, creating a valley that led from one side to the other.

"Very good!" Brain said excitedly. "With this kind of power at my disposal, no one will be able to stop me. Not that old man, Hades, or those demons from Tartarus. Hahahahaha!"

At the same time, in a village nestled at the foot of the same mountain range, a short, slim, bearded, elderly man wearing tribal attire watched the destruction along with the rest of the people in his village.

This was no ordinary village, however. Instead, it was the village that served as the headquarters of the Cait Shelter guild. The guild that raised Wendy and Carla. Or rather, the guild that was created with the express purpose to do so after Wendy was brought to them seven years ago.

"*Sigh* It looks like the end is near." Roubaul, the master of the Cait Shelter guild, said after seeing the destruction Nirvana caused. Then, he raised a goblet of wine and poured its contents into his mouth as he continued. As a result, Roubaul spilled wine all over himself as he spoke. "Wendy, Carla, please be safe."

"Hey, Master, either drink or speak!" One of the members of Cait Shelter shouted after seeing Roubaul's actions. "Don't do both, your wine Is getting everywhere."

Back atop Nirvana's back, after admiring the destruction it brought, Brain turned around and began walking into the building, though it would be more appropriate to call it a palace, that sprouted behind him and Midnight.

"Midnight, stand guard here." Brain said as he walked into the palace. "Do not allow anyone to disturb me. I'm going to take control of Nirvana. Kill anyone who gets too close."

Though Midnight did not reply and still appeared to be asleep, he stopped floating after brain and waited in front of the palace's entrance, intent on following Brain's order to the letter.

L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
SixthSense1029

1/2

Forgot about the change for DST so the chapter wasn't uploaded on time.

If you wanna read 5 chapters ahead or just give me a little support, join my patr3on at:

https://patr3on.com/SixthSense1029

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the story.

Comments, Reviews, and Power Stones are always appreciated.

commentaire Commentaire 4

Voter

Chapitre 235: Forcing the Snake into Hibernation

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

November, x784.

"Whoa!" Natsu shouted as he looked down from mid-air. "Look, Happy, it's moving."

"Focus, Natsu." Happy said while watching Cobra and Cubellios. "We can check it out after we beat this guy."

"Right." Natsu said through gritted teeth. "But how are we gonna do that? No matter what I do, I can't hit him."

In response, Happy fell silent. Like Natsu, he had no idea how to get around the fact that Cobra could seemingly hear their thoughts.

In fact, ever since the mid-air battle started, Natsu had yet to even land a glancing blow. Naturally, this frustrated Natsu to no end. As a result, thanks to his [Flames of Emotion], his power had shot through the roof. Unfortunately, having all that power and not being able to hit his opponent with it was meaningless.

Meanwhile, Cobra, who was still completely unharmed was sweating nervously on the inside.

'He was already stronger than me at the beginning of the fight.' Cobra thought to himself as he watched and listened to Natsu and Happy from atop Cubellios back. 'But for some reason, he's been getting stronger ever since the fight started. If he were able to land even one lucky hit, I'd be done for. And the worst part is, no matter how hard I hit him, I can't keep him down. I've even tried targeting that blue, flying cat, but he always takes the hit in his place.'

Just like Natsu, Cobra's frustration had been rising since the beginning of the fight, as well. He had even started taking on draconic traits to try and improve his offensive output, with his arms turning into dragon claws covered in purple scales.

"Argh!" Natsu shouted in frustration once again. "Let's just go, Happy! I'll just use my dragon roar as hard as I can. And if that doesn't work, I'll just keep trying."

Though Happy thought yelling his plan of attack was one of the dumber things Natsu had ever done, Happy did not have a better idea. So, with Natsu in hand, he decided to just follow the pink-haired Dragon Slayer's instructions.

Cobra, on the other hand, only smirked in response. However, that smirk widened into a smile after hearing Natsu's thoughts.

'So, he's not even trying to deceive me, huh?" Cobra asked himself after hearing that Natsu's thoughts matched his words. 'You'd think he would get tired of doing the same thing and failing so often. Whatever, I'll just try to knock him out of the air and onto Nirvana, the Dragon' Slayer's weakness to vehicles should do the rest.'

While Cobra prepared himself to counterattack, Natsu and happy approached at high speed. This time, however, Happy did not stop at a safe distance. Instead, he came close enough that Natsu's breath attack would be fired point blank.

Natsu, on the other hand, took a much deeper breath than he had for any other breath attack during the battle. Then, when he was right in front of Cobra, ignoring Cubellios, who seemed to be ready to sink its fangs into him, Natsu opened his mouth to roar.

"Fire Dragon's Roar~~~~~~~~~!" Natsu roared at the top of his longs.

Instead of using a spell, Natsu simply shouted the name of his spell as loud as he could. And somehow, this caught Cobra off guard. As it turned out, Natsu meant that he would roar as hard as he could, literally.

Unfortunately for Cobra, due to his super-enhanced hearing, this was a more powerful attack than any he had faced up to this point. As a result, he could not do anything but cover his ears with his hands while wearing a pained expression on his face.

Even Cubellios, who was lunging towards Natsu with its mouth open, forcefully came to a stop thanks to the high volume roar.

In fact, even those who were not involved in the fight stopped what they were doing to look in the direction of Natsu's roar, which from a distance actually sounded like the roar of a real dragon.

"Now!" Natsu shouted once his roar ended. Then, taking advantage of Cobra's current state, Natsu chanted his next spell. "[Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist]."

With that, Natsu's hands were lit a blaze with much higher temperature flames than normal. Then, he threw a barrage of punches towards both Cobra and Cubellios, with each punch triggering an explosion on impact.

After about ten seconds and more than two hundred punches landed, Cobra and Cubellios were both sent hurdling down towards the city atop Nirvana's back.

*Boom!*

A moment later, after crashing through several buildings, Cobra and Cubellios came to a stop at the bottom of a crater. With Cubellios unconscious and Cobra on his way to joining it shortly, Cobra could only stare at his closest companion with sadness.

"Cubellios…" Cobra muttered as he stared at the giant cobra with his fading vision. "The only thing I ever wanted was to get strong enough that I would be able to hear your inner voice…"

With that said, Cobra started to close his eyes and fall into unconsciousness. And just like with all the other defeated members of the Oración Seis, he started recalling the events that led him to this point after being defeated.

Cobra, or Erik as he was known in the past, was also a slave forced to build the Tower of Heaven as a child. An orphan who had never had anyone to rely on as far as he could remember. He eventually came across a small snake while resting after a grueling day of forced labor.

Quickly becoming friends with the small serpent, Erik would spend almost all of his free time speaking to it. At the same time, he always wished that he could hear the snake, who he named Cubellios, respond to his ramblings.

Meanwhile, Brain, who had arrived at the palace's throne room, which served as Nirvana's control room, felt another one of his [Six Prayers Seals] vanish from his face.

"Cobra lost as well." Brain muttered as he fed his magic power into the throne that served as Nirvana's control device. "No matter. Now that I have control of Nirvana, none of those foolish children are necessary anymore."

Back at the crater, Happy lowered himself and Natsu into it. Watching the unconscious Erik and Cubellios, they could not help wearing relieved expressions on their faces.

"Wow, Natsu, that was incredible." Happy said with praise. "How did you think of that?"

"I didn't, really." Natsu replied with a sheepish smile on his face. "I was just so mad that I wanted to yell in his face. I was just as surprised as you when I saw that he finally stopped moving. But I wasn't gonna let the opportunity go to waste, so… I beat him up."

Once again, Happy could only look at Natsu blankly. On one hand, he could not believe that Natsu had won without a plan. But on the other, it was exactly something Natsu would do just because he was angry.

"Anyway, Happy, it looks like we've got company." Natsu said, his eyes narrowing as he did so.

Just as Natsu's words fell, a crowd of dark wizards, who had not been wiped out by the other members of the alliance while they were searching for the members of the Oración Seis, surrounded the crater where Erik and Cubellios fell.

Looking around at all the dark wizards who were looking at them with murderous intentions, Happy finally showed a panicked expression on his face.

"Natsu, this is bad." Happy said nervously. "I'm about to run out of…"

*Poof!*

At that moment, Happy's wings made with his [Aera Magic] popped out of existence. As a result, he and Natsu fell into the crater with Erik and Cubellios.

"Urgh!" Natsu immediately began to dry heave as he came in contact with the moving weapon of mass destruction.

"… magic power." Happy said, finishing his sentence.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" One of the dark wizards said with a cruel smile on his face. "Looks like a defeated member of the Oración Seis and an exhausted legal wizard."

"I bet we'll be able to replace the defeated members of the Oración Seis if we kill the two of them." Another dark wizard said while flaring his magic power.

"Oh, but they're both pretty good-looking." A scantily clad female wizard said in a lustful tone. "Can't you wait until I have a little fun with them? At least they could die happy that way."

Without exception, all the wizards surrounding the crater wore cruel smiles as they slowly approached.

"[Angel Magic: Punching Angel]."

"[Ring Magic: Fire Storm]."

Before they could act on their intentions, however, two spell chants interrupted the dark wizards' approach. A moment later, half of the dark wizards were engulfed by a spinning column of flames while the other half were sent flying by a large, muscular angel throwing powerful punches.

In the end, it did not take long for all the dark wizards to be subdued by the new arrivals, Sorano and Karen.

"What's wrong with him?" Karen asked as she looked down at Natsu who was suffering from motion sickness.

"Natsu doesn't really go well with vehicles." Happy said with a wry smile.

"I heard something about that from Erik a long time ago." Sorano said, looking at the downed member of the Oración Seis. "He never really had to deal with it, though. He would just ride that snake of his around. I never really understood the difference, though."

"Of course… it's…. different…' Natsu said weakly. "Just like Happy… that's his… friend…Ugh!"

"Whatever." Karen said while rolling her eyes. "That's not important. With that guy down, at least three of them have been defeated."

As she spoke, Karen pulled out a pair of anti-magic cuffs before using them to restrain Erik.

"Yeah." Sorano replied. "That leaves Hoteye and the most dangerous two, Brain and Midnight, left. Speaking of Hoteye, I wonder if he's still fighting Jura."

At the same time, Jura and Richard had made their way to the front of Nirvana.

"I don't' know where this thing is going, but we can't let it arrive at its destination." Jura said.

"Agreed." Richard replied with a nod. "But after seeing its destructive power, how are we going to do that?"

"Well, I doubt we could stop it permanently." Jura admitted. "But every second that we can slow it down, is another second those who managed to follow Brain will have to stop him."

Nodding in response, Richard flared his magic power with Jura following shortly afterward. A moment later, Richard used his magic to liquify the ground. As a result, Nirvana's front most leg sank deep int the liquified ground.. Then, before it could recover, both Jura and Richard used their magic to harden the ground around the captured leg.

Although this won't last long, it should buy them a little more time." Jura said while channeling his magic power into the ground he was hardening.

"It looks like Jura is working hard." Ur said as she and Ultear made their way towards the palace. "At least he's not slacking off. Though, I'm surprised that big guy from the Oración Seis is helping him."

"I guess he wasn't' as bad as we thought." Ultear replied. "He probably switched sides during Nirvana's first stage."

"Probably." Ur said with a nod. "Either way, they're buying us a little time. And now that I've had some time to calm down, stopping Brain shouldn't be all that difficult. Then, he'll finally pay for what he did to us all those years ago."

Nodding in response, it was clear that Ultear had not calmed her emotions as much as her mother. And naturally, Ur noticed.

"Ultear, leave Brain to me." Ur said, placing her hand on Ultear's shoulder.

Hearing that, Ultear looked at her mother with discontent. For years, Brain had experimented on her, and she wanted revenge. However, after turning her head to complain and making eye contact with Ur, Ultear's words were caught in her throat.

Swirling in the depth of Ur's eyes, Ultear could see the unimaginable out of rage her mother felt towards Brain. Yet, she could also see the concern she had for her.

'She's afraid I'm gonna lose control when I see him again.' Ultear thought after seeing the look in her mother's eyes. 'And I can't even, in good conscience, say that I won't. I mean, that iceberg in the middle of the forest should be proof of that.'

The iceberg Ultear referred to was actually the old Oración Seis base in the Worth Woodsea.

After realizing that Brain was able to escape from her, she lost control of her magic power and froze the entire thing, freezing more than a few dark wizards with it.

"Fine~" Ultear said with a pout. "But if we come across any other members of the Oración Seis, they're mine."

"Sure." Ur replied with a loving smile. "As long as you don't kill them, you can go as wild as you want. In fact, it looks like your chance to go wild is here."

As she finished, Ur and Ultear arrived outside the palace. In front of them, Midnight, still sleeping on his magic carpet, was blocking the gates. And as the mother-daughter duo approached, he slowly opened his eyes.

"You shall not enter." Midnight said while glaring at Ur and Ultear. "Father has ordered that he is not to be disturbed."