Beacon of Flames | 𝔬𝔭 𝔣𝔱.

𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀

c h a p t e r  s e v e n
o l d & n e w f a c e s

Alzack was thrown back, a giggly girl being placed on his chest.

"Oh thank god you're okay!" Alzack hugged his daughter as tight as he could. "Don't ever do that again, understand?"

Asuka nodded with a smile before waving off Ace, "Good luck, Acey!"

The running Ace only lifted a hand and yelled over his shoulder, "Watch her more carefully dumbass!"

"Ace!" His head turned, coming into view with Gray.

"Yo!"

"Hey, out of curiosity-" Gray jumped over a hatchling, easily freezing it while doing so. "Did you have a vision or something, like you knew what was gonna happen?"

"I did!" Ace burned off another. "You too, huh?"

"Are you also heading to the gate?" Erza quickly joined the two, followed by Wendy and their feline friends.

"Duh." Ace laughed, smiling brightly towards Wendy. "Good to see you're okay!"

Wendy nodded, "Of course! I told you I'd be careful, didn't I?"

"Lucy! Yukino!" The group shouted as they neared the gate, speeding up as they noticed a drained out Lucy with all of her celestials trying to shut the gate. 

"NATSU!" Lucy exclaimed in surprise, her eyes widened as he came crashing down with a dragon– completely destroying the gate.

Natsu laughed loudly, "Guess that's done!"

"And we're not surprised." Gray and Ace snorted playfully as they reached their friends.

"Lucy, be sure to rest." Loke walked up to them, a smile on his face. "I sent the rest off for you."

"Thank you." Lucy gracefully nodded.

"Also," Loke stepped over, fingers pointing at a couple of unconscious personas. "These people appeared out of nowhere."

They all seemed to look confused, not at the unknown people but at the fact that Ace let out a loud gasp and stared at them in shock.

"HEY!"

Lyon and Juvia were making their way to them.

"What happened here?" said Lyon, eyeing the destroyed gate. "We came to check up on this area after those people went off flying."

"What?" Erza voiced out. "What people are you speaking of?"

"You didn't see them?" Juvia tilted her head. "It was a couple of them, and they were seeing flying off to different directions."

"More of them?" Ace widened his eyes before running towards one of them and kneeling beside him. "Hey! Wake up!" He shook the man in hopes of waking him. "Wake up, you hear me?!"

"Ace!" His friends were soon behind him, watching him worriedly. The sight of their friend holding in his tears only making them anxious.

"Come on, wake up!" He proceeded to shake the man. "Open your eyes! Is he here?!"

"What's he talking about?" Wendy said softly, her sad eyes meeting Lucy's.

Lucy only shrugged, "I don't know..." she answered quietly. "But it seems he knows that guy."