Obstacles of Normality |A Fairy Tail Love Story|

Chapter 11: Burst

          "What the heck was that noise?! It sounded like a monster growling!"
The ear-splitting sound only continued to build in volume, aggravating even the land itself and testing one's balance. Finding no hope in regaining my own stance, limbs instantly shot out, slender fingers groping for something, anything, to keep me from accepting a one-way ticket right onto my backside. Naturally, nothing promising was in my direct proximity.
The blue feline patted his middle, a reassuring grin stretching his furry lips. "Don't worry, it was probably just your stomach, Lucy!"
"Ya know, you're not half as funny as you think you are." With the roll of her chocolate hues, it wasn't hard to miss the accompanying sweat drop making an appearance atop her golden locks.
Erza's sharp gaze flew about the temple's interior, darting amongst every object between one side of the room and the next. Her calm, cool, and collected demeanor had splintered, something that reminded me that though amazing, she was still a human hardly older than myself. "So do you think that sound might have been Deliora?"
"Oh no, you mean... they brought it back to life?!" Lucy wailed, bringing a dainty hand to her mouth as a look of terror slithered its way across her features.
A gasp emanated from the winged cat. At the end of an indicative paw were tiers of glowing rings, rotating delicately atop the floor's ancient stones. Swirling within their multi-dimensional depths were ancient symbols long omitted from the current era's language. "You see that purple light? That's the Moon Drip!"
"But..." Words faded into inexistence as I attempted to arrange scattered thoughts into an ordered statement. Brows knit together, forming shallow valleys on my porcelain skin. "Why? If the demon is already free; then why does the spell still continue to cast?"
Violently cutting through the air was a second roar, this time brandishing many times more power than the previous. Ground vibrating underfoot, my steady balance was greedily snatched from my control. Even after a great flailing of limbs and the mutterings of an impressive string of curses in a feeble attempt to re-center my gravity, I still found my body keeling to the side... and directly into one of the columns that already looked as if it would deteriorate under the temple's weight. Happy made another comment about Lucy's failure to eat something, which was quickly countered with a witty remark of the blonde's own invention.
"Someone is still performing the Moon Drip ceremony up there, which means they haven't fully revived it yet! We still have a chance to do something!" Throwing beckoning words over her shoulder, the armored mage shot into an adjacent antechamber.
"But Deliora's below us!" Lucy noted loudly, directing a thumb in the corresponding direction.
There was no falter to Erza's pounding sprint. "Putting a stop to the ceremony is our only hope! We must hurry!"
The beginnings of a protest leaked from Lucy's lips, though as it was clear our female guild mate was far beyond earshot, she decided better of it and swallowed her words. Shrugging and casting the Celestial wizard a concurring glance, I jogged after what I thought was the general path Erza had taken.
She went this way... right?
Honestly, it probably wasn't the same path, but I still led the remainder of our party to the correct destination. Clink! Clank! Clinkclink! One could not easily mistake the metallic noises produced of armor as is bounced off walls, floor, and ceiling, multiplying in quantity to a dull symphony. Up ahead, I caught a glimpse of a blur rounding a corner at such speed their crimson tresses could hardly keep up, instead tangling within themselves. Our group of mages found ourselves retracing already trodden paths as we sprinted blindly through the maze-like interior of the temple. Hell, why does it feel like we're moving anywhere but up?! I was beginning to question the armored wizard's sense of direction when the compromised materials overhead vanished, replaced by a vast sky alive with the twinkling of a starry sea. The chamber that let out onto the conspicuous mountaintop I'd observed form the pirate ship not too long ago, plateaued surface accentuated by the ruins of posts and lintels integrating themselves with nature.
Purple. It was blinding, cascading from the heaves in a uniform column of magic circles. In their immediate area was a figure bowing repeatedly on their folded knees, animalistic moans rolling steadily off their tongue. Erza advanced with a great war cry, not once breaking stride. Shiiiing! Howling, the unidentified individual soared an impressive distance from the adverse force of the blade's skillful strike.
"Awesome! The Moon Drip should... stop any minute now!" Cheered the Celestial wizard, struggling with uniform sentence completion as she sucked breath in after breath out.
Verdure orbs bore into the ominously colored circled drawn on the ground, expectantly studying the intricate letterings and shapes before being coaxed to the darkened sky above. Unfriendly clouds meandered across the sky, greedily consuming all available light of the heavens within their reach. Striding by at their own pace, an unnaturally vibrant glow was revealed. "So it really is purple... very purple. How is that even physically possible?!"
One could not help but we wary of the beauty within the purple hue of the moon's tarnished rays. Concern flooded my inspection as I observed the planet with an emotion I had never once associated it with... distrust, possibly even an inkling of fear. Any further hopes of investigating were cut short as the evidence's existence began to dwindle. Rotating circles decreased their diameters rapidly, condensing into themselves until they were no more. All that remained was the unsettlingly discolored Moon usurping over the darkened sky.
Happy bounded towards the stranger, limbs still strewn about in all sorts of awkward angles that defied laws of human anatomy. "You mean... this guy was doing it all by himself?" Questioned the feline, making no attempt to disguise the disbelief in his tone.
"Too late! It's over!" Snapped the apparent adversary, baring two yellowed rows of pointed, almost canine teeth. "The ceremony's already been completed!"
"What?!" In disbelief, the single word flew past my lips within the perfect ratio of a wheeze and gasp. Instinctively, a foot brought my body a single intimidating step closer. There were not seconds between the contact of the sole to the cobblestones and what happened next. Slithering from the cracks in the aged stones came blue light, beginning as only a handful of fluid snakes curling around my foot. Abruptly, they multiplied at an alarming intensity, morphing into another column of blinding light reaching for the sky, glowing tendrils of icy blue creating wonderful swirling patterns in and around themselves.
Accompanying the pillar was a blast of chilled air, brewing with just enough force to send me up and off my feet. Yelping, my body was thrown backwards, my butt not so gently reacquainting itself with the hardened earth. A third roar, the most ferocious of them all, closely ensued. This one... this one was different from the others... more threatening, primal.
"So loud!" Mewling, slender hands clapped down upon my ears. Needless to say, they did absolutely nothing to control the erratic vibrations of the ear drum's delicate tissue.
Then... all was silent.
"What's going on?" Happy's comment was not directed at the sudden stillness of the atmosphere, but rather what was occurring on one of the geographical formation's raised faces. Bursting from the mountain was... water? Gallons upon gallons of the foaming liquid continued to cascade from unseen wounds in the land's body, mingling as one with the vast ocean below.
"I don't know, Happy. I... I don't know."