Fairy Tail: The Phoenix Prophecy [AU] [Discontinued]

Chapter Twenty-Six

[A/N]: Happy (late) Thanksgiving everyone! I've recently come to realize that this book hasn't been doing very well in terms of story. 25 chapters was my goal and as you can see, I am already past my deadline and my slacking has been showing in the quality of these chapters, so I will be editing and revising this story as I go along, rereading and fixing any errors I see. I have another FT fanfiction in mind and I want to get this one done so I can get to that. For now, enjoy this chapter!

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     Sneaking around the underground chambers of Acnologia's kingdom was easy enough for Rogue and his father Skiadrum. They were both shadow dragons so stalking around in the dark was what they were meant to do. However, Rogue was a bit more worried about Sting and Vicelogia for their obvious colors and Wendy and Grandineey for their sky dragon claustrophobia. 

    "These tunnels are so slim I feel like they're squeezing me," Wendy whined, looking very uneasy despite being in her human form. Grandineey, on the other hand, was silently suffering as her tail and wings scraped both sides of the tunnel walls. Since she was older than any of them here including Vicelogia, she was almost too big for the tunnels, and her discontentment was very clear by the look in her eyes.

    "How much further must we go?" Grandineey asked uneasily.

    "I can tell it's not much farther," Vicelogia said calmly, poking his nose around the corners before leading the group down further into the catacombs, "it's getting colder by the second."

    "So what exactly are we doing?" Sting groaned, crossing his arms behind his head. "I mean, yeah, we're gonna check up on some frozen fowl, but what else?"

    "We have to slow their progress at releasing Arekuruu-Umi," Rogue explained.

    "Arekuruu what now?"

    "That's the name of the phoenix. Are you telling me you've never heard of the twin phoenixes?"

    "Nope. Well, maybe. I dunno, I've never liked old stories or legends. They're all lies and I don't like lies."

     Rogue shook his head dismissively. "All legends and stories spring from truth somehow, it's just that they were changed so often that nobody knows what's real or not. But legend has it that when the world was created, there were two phoenixes made to watch over it. Arekuruu-Umi, the frozen phoenix of the moon, and Akarui-hi, the flaming phoenix of the sun. They were polar opposites as Arkarui-hi brought rebirth and light and Arekuruu-Umi death and darkness, though both were equally important. One day, the frozen phoenix grew bitter and spiteful towards her brother for winning the love and affection of the people of the world, and so she decided that if she couldn't have love then no one could, and sought to destroy the earth. But Arkarui-hi intercepted her, and whenever they fought an era would end. One day, Arkarui-hi, who knew he couldn't kill his sister without endangering the balance of all things, went to the humans and sought out one's soul who burned with fire. The Phoenix Priest(ess)."

    "The Phoenix Priestess..." Sting muttered. "Is that some sorta big thing because I've been hearing that a lot."

    "Mhm. The Phoenix Priestess is the only one who could bring harm to the immortal Arekuruu-Umi, and it was the former one who sealed her away into a capsule of ice. Her own power. Arkarui-hi sacrificed himself to the Phoenix Priestess and became their power source, and with the elimination of Arekuruu-Umi, both phoenixes were put out of commission though both aren't truly dead. I guess in a way that's maintaining balance."

    "So, what you're saying is that we're going down this long ass tunnel to guard an immortal entity that could kill us in an instant by freezing the shit outta us. Oh, and not only that, but apparently no one but a human could save us."