[X784, The skies above the Tower of Heaven]
— Laxus Dreyar —
When the meteor was destroyed, it revealed Jellal flying there with his breath ragged. Pulling a spell like the one he just did must've cost him dearly. A damn celestial nuke would do that to you.
Laxus hovered beside Dannis, his arms still humming from the Unison Raid. That kind of magic didn't come without a price—even he was winded—but he'd be damned if he showed it.
Jellal's eyes widened in disbelief, pupils trembling.
"Impossible," he hissed, voice cracking. "I can't be defeated! It's my destiny to create a land of freedom! For me! For Zeref!"
Laxus sneered.
Another self-righteous lunatic using destiny as a damn crutch.
"Yeah well, your idea of freedom was flawed from the very beginning." Dannis started, the darkness on his blade lengthening and lengthening until it stood four times as tall as Laxus himself.
"Erza told me everything, about your so-called change after you were taken," The darkness on Obsidian intensified. "You want to find freedom by taking it from others? Don't make me laugh. You're no better than the slavers that kept you here."
Dannis must've hit a sore spot, as Jellal's eyes widened in manic rage. Laxus still didn't really know much of what's going on here, but he could hazard a good guess.
Jellal's composure shattered.
With a scream, he surged toward Dannis, a comet of rage. Laxus met him in the air before he could do so, their forearms locking as a shockwave emanated from the impact. Lightning burst out in wild arcs from Laxus' skin, and for a second the sky looked like it was cracking.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
"Nah." Laxus gave the Wizard Saint a mocking grin. "You're not skipping my dance card that easy."
He knew Dannis had some sort of plan, given that he was putting much magic into his lengthening sword. Laxus needed to buy time.
He intercepted Jellal again as the man tried to sidestep him, slamming a fist into his gut.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
Jellal snarled and retaliated with a volley of high-speed blows. Laxus met every one of them head on—Dragon Force surging through his limbs, his power on a level he rarely needed to reach.
But even so—Jellal was fast. Even tired, even rattled, the guy was a Wizard Saint for a reason.
Their clash became a blur of fists and magic, lightning crashing with starlight, each strike rippling across the sky.
A serpentine tattoo slithered out from Jellal's fingertips. It wrapped around Laxus like a constrictor and tightened.
Laxus recognized the spell, the Snake Bind. A form of sealing magic meant to restrain someone's movements.
His limbs froze for half a second. Just long enough.
"Grrrahh—" With a burst of effort, Laxus exploded in lightning, vaporizing the bind, but the delay was all Jellal needed.
A kick landed flush on Laxus' cheek, sending him flying backward through the sky. His vision spun as he tumbled through open air before catching himself with a burst of momentum.
He snapped his head back up, spitting blood.
"Son of a—!"
Jellal was already charging Dannis again.
"DANNIS!"
But it was too late. Jellal hurled a beam of raw energy straight at him, enveloping the area in smoke and crackling heat.
Laxus' gut clenched. He was already surging forward when he heard—
"I'm fine! Focus!" Dannis' voice cut through the smoke.
As the haze cleared, Laxus saw it.
Dannis stood tall, his massive blade now extended into the heavens like a monolith, it stood taller than even the Tower of Heaven itself, vanishing into the stratosphere.
What the hell is he—
"This tower is important for your plans, right?" Dannis said grimly. "Well here goes!"
He raised the blade high—Laxus could feel the pressure in the air, the gravity of the spell about to be unleashed.
"Darkness Magic Secret Art, Dimension Wild Slash!"
The spell came down. A whirlwind of chaotic arcs, Dannis swung the blade that carved through the Tower of Heaven like a mad god's brushstroke across a canvas.
The tower didn't explode—it fell apart. Sliced into perfect, clean pieces, falling away from one another like someone had taken a blade to a pillar of glass.
Laxus' eyes widened as understanding hit.
Curse power.
That's why it had taken Dannis so long. He couldn't use magic for this. The tower was built to absorb magic due to the lacrima—but not curse power. He needed time to pull upon enough of it to do damage.
Smart bastard.
The base cracked. Entire wings of the structure slid away and began tumbling toward the sea.
Jellal hovered in stunned silence.
The last remnants of his delusion crumbled along with the structure he'd built it upon.
His breathing turned ragged. Eyes wide. Bloodshot.
Laxus could see it, the moment the hope left his face. The whole facade he had adopted, the easy and the amused smirks. All of it was gone.
That was when the sky suddenly lit into brightness, a massive surge of white-blue light flaring from beyond the clouds like a second sun.
He turned sharply—eyes narrowing—just in time to see the swirling magic above begin to pulse with impossible energy.
"So it's time…" Jellal muttered, as if the light had burned the last of his resistance. He exhaled, slowly… almost peacefully. Then he raised his arms—not in defiance, but in surrender.
"After everything I've done, only for it all to fall apart meaninglessly. This isn't a bad way to die—"
"Shut the fuck up!"
Laxus punched him, hard.
Jellal rocketed upward like a cannonball—straight toward Etherion's descent path.
Laxus didn't even look back.
"Oi!" he barked toward Dannis, who was panting heavily, that enormous sword now fading back into dark mist. "You got a plan?!"
"Sort of," Dannis replied through bated breath. "I can use a Black Hole to absorb it… but it's definitely too much for me to handle alone. I need you to weaken it if you can."
Laxus nodded once. "Got it."
He turned his gaze upwards to see the coming beam of Etherion. It was massive, magic arrays stacked high reaching even higher than Dannis sword previously was.
Jellal was still hurtling upward from Laxus' punch. Good riddance.
Placing both hands in front of him, electricity began generating at rapid speeds between his open, facing palms. The lightning began crackling as he compressed the energy more and more, creating a sphere of electricity that emitted sparks everywhere.
The scales of his Dragon Scales intensified as they began turning a solid golden color. Beside him, Dannis prepared his own spell, a swirling hole of Darkness appearing on Etherion's path, ready to catch the result of whatever clash is about to happen.
Laxus roared. The sphere shrank until it was no larger than a fist—and then, with both arms forward, he unleashed it.
"Lightning Dragon, Secret Art: Roaring Thunder!"
The sky screamed as the blast shot upward—a compressed beam of pure destruction.
At the same moment, his best friend raised his voice to the heavens.
"Darkness Magic: BLACK MOON!"
…
— Gray Fullbuster —
When the meteor first showed up, Gray had been ready to throw up as many walls of ice as he was capable of to shield his comrades.
But what came next froze him—not in fear, but in awe.
The sight of Laxus and Dannis performing a Unison Raid was something that would be etched in his memory forever. It wasn't just the magic—though that alone had been terrifyingly immense—it was the harmony behind it. Magic so powerful that it took not just raw strength, but true connection between the casters to pull off. It was said to be the highest level of magical teamwork. And they had done it.
A meteor the size of a damn island had been vaporized like it was nothing.
"That's crazy," Gray whispered, watching the sky detonate.
Erza and the others had woken up then. They all saw how Laxus clashed with Jellal to buy time for Dannis, who pulled a similar move he had done to destroy Phantom's guild building back in the war.
Erza had let out a small sob when the tower began falling apart. Whatever demons she held in her heart, it seems she was finally able to let it all go.
When they saw Etherion finally finish charging up, they all let out a grimace. Just when victory seemed at hand, yet another thing showed up.
They were all further surprised when Laxus sent Jellal flying straight towards the path of Etherion. Gray had to admit that seeing him get punted was satisfying.
Then Laxus and Dannis prepared another last-ditch effort.
It wasn't another Unison Raid this time. Their magic didn't mix or combine. Instead, Laxus shot forward a beam of lightning, smaller and thinner than the beam of Etherion, but unbelievably dense in power.
Jellal was caught between both forces—the Etherion and the Roaring Thunder—and just like that, he was gone. There was no scream of pain nor suffering. His body was atomized in an instant. All that ambition, hate, and ego… gone like dust in the wind.
None of them, save for Erza who let out a shuddering breath, cared for the death of the man who had orchestrated this entire thing.
They all just watched, frozen, as the true battle began. Laxus roared in defiance, electricity bursting around him as he strained to hold Etherion back. He poured everything he had into his magic, but the beam just kept coming. Inch by inch, it descended. A force of nature that couldn't be stopped—only resisted.
And for a moment, it worked. The beam of Etherion thinned.
Gray's jaw dropped. "He's… he's pushing it back."
It was unbelievable. Laxus Dreyar, matching against the most destructive spell known to man. Even if he couldn't stop it, the fact he could slow it at all was insane.
Then came the inevitable collapse.
Laxus faltered, the scales on his skin vanishing. His body began to fall, too drained to even hover. But he didn't hit the ground. Dannis's wraiths caught him gently, holding him afloat.
Now came the final line of defense.
The Black Hole.
Dannis's magic had always unsettled Gray. He wasn't alone in it either. Dannis' darkness often times felt wrong, heavy. Of course they knew the reason now, him being a Devil Slayer of all things.
Now though, it felt like salvation. The swirling void he created stood like a wall between them and certain death. The Etherion beam plunged into it. There was no sound nor sign of impact. Just the vacuum of air and gravity being devoured.
Dannis strained to keep it up as long as he could. He shook violently in the air as Laxus could do nothing more but breath heavily in wait. The effort it took to maintain such a spell must have been astronomical.
Then the beam finished, the last of it being swallowed into the hole.
Cheers erupted from the boat. Lucy and Levy hugged each other in glee. Happy cried out in joy, wrapping himself on Natsu. Juvia smiled wide, muttering about how wonderful a guild Fairy Tail truly was.
But Dannis wasn't finished.
In one final, breathtaking move, he redirected the consumed Etherion. A beam of pure white light was sent back into the sky, reversing the magical torrent. It tore through the magic arrays stacked upon one another in the sky, leaving a trail of explosions in its wake.
All that was left was a brilliant display of light that consumed the night, turning it as bright as day.
Gray shielded his eyes from the light, a stunned grin tugging at his lips. "That guy never does things half-hearted, huh?"
He could only shake his head at the sight of it all. Lucy and Levy began cheering and jumping with joy at all their safety.
Despite the burns and cuts across their bodies, despite the weight of exhaustion hanging over all of them, it finally weighed in that they all made it out alive.
Eventually, Dannis landed on the boat, carrying Laxus with him. His wings vanished like mist, and he nearly collapsed from sheer exhaustion.
Gray watched with visible relief when every single member of their guild was now finally reunited after the harrowing experience of the Tower of Heaven.
"Laxus!" Natsu groaned, holding his stomach and grinning through the motion sickness. "Blurb… You were… a Dragon Slayer too?! That's so cool!"
Laxus barely looked at him. "Shut up, Natsu."
Even Gajeel gave a slow nod, arms crossed, watching Laxus with new eyes.
"We need to get out of here." Dannis said through labored breaths. "We stopped Etherion from firing the first shot, but I doubt we managed to destroy it. It may fire again."
"I'll row the boat," Gray offered. With a deep breath, he conjured long paddles of ice and dipped them into the water, moving them steadily away from the ruined tower.
"Juvia will help by altering the water currents," she said sweetly, gesturing toward the sea. The waves beneath shifted, guiding the boat forward with newfound speed.
Lucy lifted her head. "If you need help rowing, Gray, I can summon Taurus as well."
"We managed to contact the Master using your communication lacrima when we got out of the tower, Dannis." Levy said. "He said he will wait for us at Akane Beach. He tried to contact the council to stop them from firing Etherion, but it seems something happened in Era. They said the council was attacked and the whole building crumbled. We should all prepare for a round of questioning regardless."
"Great." Dannis breathed exhaustedly, with Laxus rolling his eyes as well. He looked sick, added to his exhaustion.
Gray raised an eyebrow at that. 'First Gajeel and now Laxus. Maybe it's a Dragon Slayer thing?'
Dannis slumped against the side of the boat, finally letting his weight settle. The wind blew past them, cool and calm. The stars above had returned, unmarred by magic. The sea shimmered like glass.
"Nevertheless," Dannis murmured, just loud enough for all of them to hear, "good job, all of you."
He opened his eyes, and a small smile crossed his exhausted face.
"You've all completed your first SS-Rank mission. Be proud."
And in that moment, despite everything… they were.
…
AN: With this, we should reach the second to last chapter of the current saga. The next chapter or two should deal with all the necessary aftermath.
Really sorry with how late this chapter turned out. I'll start streamlining my schedule for the next few chapters
As always, advanced chapters on my Pat_reon page. There are 5 chapters you could get ahead if you're interested. Chapter 80 should be available by the time this chapter as posted.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Cheers!