Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 0.4 - Fiore

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The Fairy Heart lacrima glowed a violent, iridescent purple hue. A rush of power blasted all of Zeref's research and desks away. It left just him and Fairy Heart.

As it was meant to be.

The lacrima did not crack, but it slowly faded, like drifting into the essence of the world around him. He'd done it.

He'd gone through the defenses, he'd poked holes at the raw, near-perfect traces of Ethernano meant to shield Mavis. Delicately, and with spells that expert wizards would never dare dream of, he prodded at Fairy Heart's lacrima, leaking out tiny bits of its power. A dam could break with a single hit and ruin everything.

Or the river could flow, naturally, on its own until the levee no longer held, and all that remained was the power behind it all.

Mavis's eyes fluttered open. Zeref held his arms out as the power struck him once, twice, then over and over again. Radiance, a beautiful, heavenly, golden radiance, rushed out toward him, and he opened his whole being to it.

She silently screamed. Part of Zeref wanted to stop, to hold her, to tell her that it was all going to be okay. But then, she'd only try to stop him.

He'd worked for years for this one moment. To have this power, to do everything he had to. Invincible before, he would be unstoppable with Fairy Heart.

Zeref's clothes began to warp, morph. Where once were clothes dark as night became a pure white for just a flash, then slowly faded to gray. That power he sought was incomplete, after all. It could not be the pure white force, the pure magic, that he sought. No matter.

What he collected was more than enough to do what he wished to accomplish. Save the world. Slay Acnologia. Make the Dragon Gods bow.

Mavis's form, free of the trapping of the lacrima, struggled against Zeref in the way that someone on a raft struggled against the tide of the ocean.

Zeref closed his hands, and with a mighty surge, he consumed all that was in the room.

Then.

He felt everything.

Mavis, for but an instant, was in front of him, their hands joined together like that day so long ago in the woods betwixt death and life, dark and light. Her lips close to his, her eyes locked on his, their bodies nearly intertwined to become one. Her hair tumbled close to her feet as her arms drifted around his neck for an embrace that sealed her into as her magic burst, her form vaporized, and she was gone.

For her form was not needed.

A gray cloak hung about Emperor Spriggan's form. Dust settled. The purple light was gone.

It took Zeref just a second, perhaps less, to have a lock on each of his Shields. And not only that, he communicated with every single one.

In less than the time it took to blink his eyes, Zeref told them,

"You will come to Vistarion. And then, we will go to war."

Before they could even comprehend the message, Zeref was already out on the sand watchtower of Caracole Island, where he saw the armada of Magic Council ships spread like a shriveled hand over his archipelago, a small crawl toward the mainland. Try as they might to hide it, the Magic Council's brutality was at hand as homes burned, vacation spots were ruined, and men and women alike screamed as they were yanked from their comfort to be interrogated and beaten by the Rune Knights for anything they knew about the Alvarez Empire or Zeref's goal with Fairy Heart, as if they would know anything about it.