Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 89 - A Spirit, A Slayer, A Saint

Lucy blasted her way through yet another wall as water surged behind her and Jackal tried to unleash yet another explosion right where she'd been. Sweat poured down her face, and part of the Virgo Star Dress was torn away, leaving her sleeveless and without half a stocking on her right thigh. Her hair was a wild mess.

She whipped around, feeling the ground beneath her. Jackal was hot on her tail, but closer still was Ezel, a great beast with sword arms.

"Gotcha!" Ezel shouted.

"Diver!"

Lucy sank into the ground again as Ezel cut where she'd been. Lucy plummeted much further this time, falling about ten feet until she hit the surface again. Didn't matter.

The roof caved in as Jackal shot through it. He landed roughly in front of Lucy.

"Spica Lucy Kick!"

Lucy dove into the ground once more as Jackal launched an ungodly amount of power at her, only to reappear from below and kick him in the groin, sending him flying through the hole in the roof he'd come from. He was smashed, above, by a torrent of water that Lucy dove away from. Jackal washed away momentarily, gurgling on gallons of water, until he found purchase on a crook in the wall.

Torafuzar, the shark-looking demon, followed the water down. Lucy took a leap into the water, riding the strong current until she could find somewhere to land, too.

Ezel clung to the ceiling as Torafuzar rose above the water, controlling it. Jackal snarled at her from the furthest away.

Lucy didn't realize how hard she'd been breathing until she was given that moment of reprieve. Her heart thundered, and only as she thought about it did her muscles start to ache. Between fighting the army and her brief skirmish with Kip, she didn't have nearly enough magic to keep outrunning these guys.

"You need to give up, little one," Ezel said. "All this fighting merely delays the inevitable."

"Our kin are on the way," Torafuzar said. "You cannot hope to outlast us."

"You are in the Plutogrim now," Ezel said. "The true form of our home. Humanity's light is snuffed out here. Even your spirits cannot hope to last long."

Lucy could still feel her keys. Summoning her Spirits would give her more of a chance to escape, but...escape to where?

To Kip. She had to find Kip. Maybe if she could get through to him, he would tell her how to undo all of this. Or, she had to at least find her friends.

She grasped two of the keys and raised them as if aiming them at the demons, who didn't seem bothered by it whatsoever.

"Alright, Torafuzar," Jackal said, "drown the bitch before I blow her head off."

"You kill her, then you deal with Mard Geer, fool," Ezel said.

Lucy braced, staring at the two keys in her hand. Capricorn and Scorpio, two of her spirits who'd done a ton of fighting just now.

All of them had been fighting. All of them, while not exhausted, would just be obliterated by the full-power demons. Lucy was beginning to see the terrifying depth of Tartaros's plan, as if they could guess what all of the rebels' moves along the way would be.

Having Mirajane and Kip on their side to tell them all about Fairy Tail's behavior probably helped quite a bit.

Torafuzar raised both arms as Lucy put her keys away. She had her spirits with her in so much as they'd trained her to use their magic. It had to be enough.

Water rushed in from behind Torafuzar, surging toward Lucy. She sighed, then dove back into the monstrous guild hall.

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