Fairy Tail Rewind (Completed)

Chapter 18 -- Elfman and Lucy

Elfman swung his black beastly right arm towards Monsieur Sol. That scaly arm was as thick as the trunk of a matured oak tree, with spikes growing all over it. With that kind of speed coming down, no one would be able to block it, but the boneless mage managed to bind around it like a leather strap. Elfman struggled to pry the coriaceous substance away with his left arm, when Monsieur Sol's body elongated, strapping Elfman. With a smirk, Monsieur Sol recited an incantation, putting pressure onto Elfman. The cracks of tendons filled the air, followed by a heart-piercing yowl of pain when Elfman's limbs returned to normal.

"What a shame!" Monsieur Sol shook his head. Stroking his mustache, he mocked, "I understand the problem to your weakness. It has something to do with your little sister, right? What was her name again? Ah, I recalled it. Lisanna."

Elfman's face blanched. Lucy was surprised to see Natsu's expression darken on the other hand. Natsu was dueling with a three-headed wolf but he stopped at the name, allowing the monster to chew off his vest. Lisanna... She heard Natsu mutter helplessly, as he sank his fiery fists into the soil. If Erza's name brought fear to the ears of the hearers, Lisanna's name sounded like a hope that had withered too early. Most of the mages were being distracted as well. Spell-words shot aimlessly in the air, hitting too many wrong targets. Gray's ice knuckles knocked Wakaba's tobacco pipe out of his mouth. Kana's card slashed Makao's cheeks.

Monsieur Sol, however, giggled at appalling atmosphere. He put a hand over his mouth to suppress his giggles before saying, "Pardon my rudeness, but where is she now, I wonder. Ah, she's being buried in the cold soil down there. What a pity! She was so lovely!"

Elfman gazed at him with hostility as concentrated as acid. He tried to transform his arm but failed.

"What a shame! You failed a full body takeover, gone berserk, and killed your own sister. Such cruelty!" As he spoke, he twisted his monocle menacingly. Like a projector, a dozen of apparitions twirled out of it, surrounding the mortified Elfman. All of the ghosts bore an angular face of a teenage girl with short hair, the colour of a cherry blossom petal. They smiled as they stared at Elfman with watery cerulean eyes.

"Brother, I feel lonely. Come join me!" Suddenly, those eyes cracked as blood oozed out, the lips crooked. With a loud cackle, the apparitions all lunged at Elfman, their talons outstretched, trying to tear his limbs apart. "You should die! You don't deserve to live!"

"Wake up, Elfman!" From the other side, Mirajane struggled to free herself from the automaton's grasp. "That's just hallucination. Lisanna is no longer here with us, but she always wants us to move on! Stop blaming yourself and wake up!" Tears gurgled out of her eyes as she yelled.

Elfman's body trembled profusely. "I vowed not to see my sister's tears anymore. Why did you do that to her? Why did you make her cry!" Elfman howled and to Mirajane's horror, he transformed into an eight-foot-tall black sphinx. His red eyes glinted with inhuman hunger.

Monsieur Sol tried to bind around the sphinx's body but the proportion was too massive. The sphinx roared as it flapped its wings, churning up the river water. Despite the earth mage's plea of mercy, the sphinx sank its fangs into the mage's waist and began chewing the entire coriaceous substance. When it finally spat Monsieur Sol out, he was nothing but a thin strip of leather. The sphinx gagged, probably at the foul taste, before pouncing towards Mirajane. 

Basically, every of Fairy Tail's mage had stopped battling the three-headed wolves. Even the monsters had stopped attacking. They whimpered at the sonorous sound of the sphinx and retreated a few steps from the Fairy Tail's mages. The sphinx roared again as it tried to pry open the automaton's hand. Several heartbeats later, uproarious of cheers filled the air as the sphinx returned to the ground with Mirajane. With a flash, the sphinx transformed to Elfman.

"You made it!" Mirajane threw her arms around Elfman's neck.

Elfman said in an undertone, "I know you didn't like to see me in such form, elder sister. But I couldn't think of any other ways just now."

"Don't say that. I'm proud of you. Lisanna will be too."

As everyone was congratulating Elfman, Natsu remained silent. Unshed tears lingered in his eyes. As he found Lucy staring at him, he turned to look the other direction. If being quiet was weird for Natsu, sucking up tears would be even weirder. 

As the Fairy Tail's mages had let their guard down, the three-headed wolves attacked again. One of them pounced on the seven-foot tall Nabu, biting off a chunk of flesh from his left shoulder. More wolves sprang on him, crumbling his mooncake-like black hat. The skeletons on Nabu's neck strewn around as the string binding them snapped apart. Nabu wailed in pain and fainted. Bisca and Alfonso kept shooting at the monsters but they just wouldn't budge away.

The gory scene was too much for Lucy to handle. Her heart almost torn apart as she shared Nabu's agony. How could Master Jose do this to her comrades, when joy was only what he was seeking? How could one living thing become so bloodlust, never cared about the others' feelings? Holding her fists, she screamed. She screamed like she had never done so before. Her head spun at her wrath -- that kind of feeling one would have when looking into a kaleidoscope. Suddenly, the gloomy shadows in front of her dispersed away, as rainbowy flashes of lightning shot down from the sky. The wolves squirmed, before disintegrating into black dust.

Everything happened so suddenly that Lucy couldn't even register any senses in her mind. What had I just done? she wondered. But she really couldn't stress her mind into thinking anymore. She felt all life was being extracted out of her body, as she collapsed into Mirajane's arms.

"That's the Ultimate Strike! You did it!" Mirajane's eyes widened in amazement as she regarded Lucy. 

Loki added, "Your power has reached the Seventh Sky. Even Master couldn't do that at such age."

"It's too early to feel happy!" came Master Jose's voice from the distance. "This time, I'll crush all of you!"

The automaton charged towards the Fairy Tail's mages. It was only then that they realized they had only defeated the fire mage and earth mage of Element Four. They had to defeat the other water mage and wind mage so that the power source of all these crazy mechanisms would stop.

"Let me go find the water mage! I'll put an end to all of this!" Natsu climbed out from the ground with difficulty. To be exact, he'd just woken up from his whatever memory with Lisanna. Marks of claws tore from his chest to his abdomen; blood soaked his white scarf red. 

"You're in no shape to fight." Gray put an arm in front of Natsu, stopping him. "I'll go. You can't be the one who always steals the limelight. Plus, that thing is moving. If only you can defeat it with your vomits." Gray winked at the awe-stricken Natsu. After receiving too many patting on his shoulders, with a determined expression, Gray turned to the blue cat, whose wings were already spread out. Like a general, Gray commanded, "Happy, fly me there!"

"Aye, Sir!"

In a turbulent of wind, they sped towards the automaton, entered the opened jaw, and were soon swallowed by darkness.