Tenrousha

A lone horse waited in the stall of a large, enclosed stable. The stable was nothing out of the ordinary; roomy, spacious, and constructed of a light hardwood. The first level had twelve stalls of equal size, six on each side of the barn and with enough room for a horse to be able to move around in without much difficulty. Each stall was layered with hay to provide bedding and had a water trough that extended through each group of stalls. The overhead rafters had several bays of hay stored up there in addition to various, miscellaneous equipment. The horse, a full-grown mare, was the only unusual sight to be seen; colored a beautiful, deep auburn, she had a white stripe on her head that almost reached her black snout, a white mane and tail, and small white circles on her legs by her hooves. The mare gave a soft nicker as her tail swished, her azure eyes showing a distracted restlessness. The stable door suddenly opened and the horse turned her head slightly to better view the

Chapter Thirty-Six The sun shone brightly in the sky as Link breathed easily in sleep under a large, red quilt in the large bed of his Akane Resort suite. His ears twitched occasionally as he laid there, but other than that and the rise and fall of his chest the blonde made no other movements. Nor was he alone in his suite, being looked after carefully by his fellow Fairy Tail Mages. Erza sat on the left side of the bed in a padded chair just far enough away from his bed to allow room for her legs and not a centimeter more. The redhead wore her silver earrings and a set of green silk pajamas; the pajama pants reached her ankles with the top sleeveless and opened enough to show a fair amount of cleavage. Her brown-eyed gaze was fixed on Link as he slept, determination and concern reflected in them, and her arms were crossed over her stomach. Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy sat at a table by a wall on the other side

Lucy, Happy, Juvia, Milliana, Sho, and Wally all looked up from the deck of their ship to the sky with wide eyes. "Were… were those golden flames?" Wally asked as he looked up at the Tower of Heaven, now a massive blue lacrima formation. They had just seen two different flares of fire a little while ago from the top of the tower, the first sign of life they had seen since the Tower had absorbed the Etherion and transformed into its current state. The previous one had been a bright red while the second had appeared to be gold, and both had been accompanied by obvious damage to the Tower. "Those were Link's!" Happy said excitedly as he brought one blue paw up. "When you see gold flames, Link isn't holding back!" He explained as he looked at Wally, Sho, and Milliana. But I don't know how Link is able to use them after trying to block Etherion. The blue cat admitted to himself. Even with his potions and tonics, this shouldn't be possible. He would never underestimate Link, but this was

Lucy, Happy, Juvia, Wally, Milliana, and Sho all watched as the massive, pure white blast of Etherion slammed down into Nayru's Commandment, the large blue crystal shield summoned by Link, with a mixture of fear and hope in their eyes. The moment it hit, their eyes went wide as the crystal immediately started to splinter under the blast with the sound of cracking glass. An instant later, though, a golden light shone from the cracks, fighting against the white light and preventing the shield from splintering further. Jellal's Throne Room Erza and Jellal looked on in stunned disbelief as Link stood unyielding against the incredible power of Etherion. The moment Etherion had hit Nayru's Commandment Link had almost been driven to his knees in an instant, fresh blood staining his tunic from the mostly healed but now reopened injuries. His body screamed in protest from the impact against the crystal, but he was only aware of it peripherally, as if noting it from a secondhand source, and

Natsu groaned as his eyes fluttered. "You finally waking up, hothead?" He heard and gave another groan as he recognized Gray's voice. Natsu's black eyes suddenly shot open as he rocked back on to his shoulders and jumped to his feet. "Calm down!" Gray, still sitting against the wall, snapped as he saw Natsu look around. "Gray, there's an owl bastard-" Natsu started to say before Gray's chuckle cut him off. "Gray already took him out." Simon said, also still sitting, and Natsu froze. "He's up on that cage." He added, pointing up, and Natsu immediately took off. "Hey-!" "Give him a minute for it to sink in." Gray cut in with a smirk. When Natsu jumped up to the designated cage he moved to stand up and brushed his pants off.Natsu landed on the cage and his eyes went wide to see Fukuro lying down unconscious, his entire body now with a blue tinge. "Hey, wake up!" He shouted as he ran up to him but got no response. The Dragon Slayer dropped to his knees next to him. "Come on, get up and

"Natsu!" Lucy shouted through cupped hands as she walked through what appeared to be an amphitheater. Constructed of the same dark stone as the rest of the Tower, the front row seats were twenty feet up and the circular ground floor was about 125 feet in diameter. It almost gave her the feeling of stepping into gladiatorial combat. Luckily, though, the two entrances were large double-doors instead of barred metal gates. "Natsu-san!" Juvia echoed as she walked a few feet to the left of Lucy, a distance she had kept almost constant since they had appeared together at the bottom of a stairwell. "Juvia still feels she should be trying to find Gray-sama." She said as Lucy was about to shout again and got a sigh from her. "I already told you, the ones most likely to actually hear us are Natsu and Link." Lucy explained for what felt like the tenth time in the past four minutes. "It'll be especially good if we can find Natsu, he can track down everyone else easily enough." She added and

The sound of waves lapping against the hull slowly brought Simon back from the edge of unconsciousness. The big man groaned and winced as shifting caused something hard to poke against his skull. What… happened? He asked himself as he reached up to pull the offending object out of his turban. When he saw the crystal with the green sphere inside, his memory came back to him in an instant. "No!" He shouted in denial as he forced himself up, and the sudden shout stirred Sho, Wally, and Milliana. "What is it, Simon?" Milliana asked sleepily before she winced and grabbed her stomach. "Ow… what… Er-chan!" She said as her cat eyes snapped open; and the sudden use of that long ago nickname brought Wally and Sho back to focus as well. "Why… why did she do that?" Sho asked as they all struggled to stand up. "I thought we were supposed to fight together… to-" "She only wanted us to show her where the Tower was." Simon said, having already figured it out as he tightened his free hand into a

Chaos. That was the only word that could be used to describe the scene inside the Cult of Zeref's tower as the slaves rose up to fight for their freedom. Underfed, overworked, and clothed in rags, it seemed as if the slaves would be overwhelmed shortly as they rushed in against their oppressors. However, one thing gave them hope, gave them spirit, and gave them strength. "Push forward!" Erza yelled as she took down slaver after slaver with her sword, her shield moving around almost effortlessly to block whip and rod strikes from her oppressors. Their desire for freedom rekindled by this ten year old girl, the only ones that weren't down in the thick of it had been ordered to break off and free the others from their cells. So fierce were her strikes, so strong her presence, that the slavers found themselves torn between trying to focus their attacks on her to take her down and staying far enough away to avoid her. Those that tried to converge found that they had more to contend with

Quick recap. Link, Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy were all given tickets to the number one tourist location in all of Fiore, Akane Resort by Loke, the recently reinstated Lion Stellar Spirit. Taking advantage of his generosity, the group happily went to enjoy themselves. Their first day started off perfectly, as they went and swam in the crystal clear waters and played in the white sandy beach. As the day waned towards evening, Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, and Happy went to the underground casino of the resort in different groups; Gray by himself, Natsu with Happy, while Erza and Lucy grouped up after stopping by Link's room to let him know where everyone was going. While Gray was having a good time at cards, he was surprised with the appearance of former Phantom Lord Element Four, Juvia of the Deep. To his further surprise, it appeared the blue-haired Water Mage wished to join Fairy Tail. Before they could continue, a large man walked up behind them and said Gray's name before

The sun was high in the partially cloudy sky as its brilliant rays came down unimpeded into the Fairy Tail construction site. The building was definitely well along on its way, a testament to the ingenuity of the mages considering that none of them were trained carpenters. At the moment, everyone was taking a break to get some food, a drink, or to check out the Job Board. Standing by the bar, Natsu and Gray had matching expressions of bewilderment as they looked at Loke. "So let me get this straight. You're actually a Celestial Spirit?" Natsu asked as he tilted his head to the right. "Yeah," Loke answered with a short nod and an embarrassed smile as Natsu started circling around him to look for a clue he had missed before. "I never noticed at all." Gray said as he crossed his arms over his shirtless torso, his sword pendant necklace shifting with his movement, and Happy nodded his head. To his credit, Gray was at least wearing a pair of black pants and black shoes rather than