⚒ fifth - The Gates of Hades

[deathsought]

WHO: Zeref, OPEN
WHAT: A sudden influx of demons, all carrying bad news.
WHEN: May 13, 2014 - Late night.
WHERE: Small clearing near Fayren Lake - Dream World
WARNINGS: Jackal's language, possibility for violence, omnicidal demons.  Also, spoiler warning for Fairy Tail's latest arc.

Zeref didn't dream often. His light sleeping schedule, created by at least a century of living on an island with a bunch of giant monsters and a ghost, didn't lend itself to sleeping longer than four or five hours on a good night. When he did, the dreams were very rarely pleasant. He'd occasionally relive the few good moments of his very long life, but more often than not, they were nightmares fueled by guilt or the horrific things he witnessed during the various wars he was involved in. At least Exsilium had actual beds.

The dream Zeref was having that night was so uncharacteristically vivid, that he wasn't lucid. He had been sitting on a rock, watching the moonlight reflecting off of the waves. He'd had a lot on his mind recently, with Silver and Mavis's arrivals. Right now, keeping the peace between Fairy Tail and Tartarus was his priority. Whoever had brought them here was a far bigger threat in Zeref's mind, not to mention that Kefka... thing. That would become much more complicated if they started fighting.

Zeref mounted his chin on his fist, staring at the water. He heard something snap nearby. A twig, maybe? He had seen Lucy near this lake before, maybe she--

"Gyeheheh! He's here! Just like Silver said!"

That voice. That presence. That annoying laugh. "Finally... if only the Master were here to see this." "Our story can end happily, now." "The loving author, given birth to Etherious, sewing seeds of devilry upon the blighted land of cursed beings." "'Bout fuckin' time." "Oh, Master Zeref, you shoulda seen it! I ripped those human weaklings limb from--" "Quiet, Ezel. You will embarrass us in front of our creator." "Fufufu~! ♡ He's even more of a hunk than I imagi-" "Touch him and I'll kill you myself, Lamy."

Were it not already dark out, the color drain from Zeref's face would have been more obvious. All of those voices at once... as Zeref turned to face them, he saw the emerging silhouettes from the trees. Zeref felt his eye twitch. The demons kept speaking, but he couldn't hear anything. "Look at this! See? It's my most powerful soul! You killed him, remember? How much is his soul worth? How much?!" "Not this again, you wouldn't shut up about it for months! Don't bother him with that." "After the way Master Hades tried to use you, he's lucky you found him before we did."

Zeref's head was swimming. How was he going to explain everything? He didn't appear to them voluntarily for a reason, and now he was going to have to keep all of them in line. The moment they found Fairy Tail here, all hell would break loose, no pun intended. "All of you, quiet." A demon wearing a mask, helmet, and a leotard with avian feet and massive claws extending from sleeves on her arms stepped forward. The other demons fell silent almost immediately. "We did it, Master Zeref." She said, clearly nervous, but absolutely radiating pride. "Face detonated. Magic has been wiped out, and can't be abused by humans anymore. Master E.N.D. will be summoned by tomorrow morning. Marde Guille stayed behind to make sure it all goes smoothly."

Were Zeref more lucid, he'd have realized that that's not possible. Wendy already had told him that Face was stopped. Ezel shouldn't even be there, or at least not in that body.

"Then... Natsu failed." Kyouka raised an eyebrow at his words. "Who is Natsu?" "The fireball bastard," Jackal piped up from behind Franmalth, kicking his cane out from under him. "This armored jackass absorbed him before I could get my payback." "Don't touch my-- wait... where did his soul go?" "You couldn't even keep track of it!? I should splatter you all over the lake right now, you fucking--"

Zeref looked away from them. Be careful what you wish for, right? "May we stay here, Kyouka-sama? I want this world to hear our story as well." "You just want to go back to that library." Zeref began tuning out again. His eyes were wide, and he was staring at the ground. He knew Tartarus wouldn't be able to sit still for long, but he didn't expect them to actually succeed. If Mavis knew about this, there would be no possible way to avoid an all-out war on Genessia, and he'd be forced to pick a side between the guild he had been living alongside for two different worlds now, and the guild who owed their very existence to him.

As Kyouka went on to explain that Magnolia was in ruins with Crocus next on their list, Zeref didn't appear to be paying attention. "Marde Guille said he was going to look into creating a second Cube here. This world will be yours, too." He kept staring at the ground, with none of the demons seeming to notice. This isn't what he wanted. Did this mean he was never going to be able to die?

"... I'm sorry." The words were whispered under his breath. He felt tears forming in his eyes, which he had to close to ensure none of the demons saw them. "This era truly is over, then."

Comments

[warring_triad]

Kefka sighed, folding his arms behind him, leaning back farther than he would really be able to keep his balance with, just hovering in the air. There was a quiet moment as he stared up at the stars.

"Who said anything about ruling?" He shrugged, stretching an arm upward as if to touch the sky itself. "That's not what is at the core of magic, buddy. Magic - at its very core - is all about one thing. Destruction."

He clenches his fist around something unseen before jerking a thumb at the demons assembled behind them. "Your buddies seem to get the idea. I mean, look at 'em. They're practically built to kill. But something tells me that not even that would be enough..."

He sighs again, going back to staring out at the lake. "Tell me, in your world, what is the single most destructive spell you can think of? Not in terms of just killing outright, or making people act weird... but what makes the biggest boom?"

[deathsought]

"You wanna see something blow up? I'll give you a 'boom,' you--" Kyouka shot Jackal a glare, silencing him immediately. Zeref, however, frowned at Kefka's words. Why would Kefka want to know something like that?

"That depends," Zeref answered quietly. The biggest explosions he can think of were Jackal's, since that's pretty much the entire spell in a nutshell: Explosions. Except, technically, it wasn't magic, but a Curse. There was Etherion, but that wasn't a spell so much as it was a giant weapon of mass destruction.

"Abyss Break. Or perhaps one of the Amaterasu formulas, or one of the Three Fairy Magics."

All of which he's quite sure Kefka has no access to.

[warring_triad]

Kefka raises his hand once again, though this time he stretches out a single finger, seemingly pointing directly at one of the stars overhead.

"I'm not familiar with any of those, unfortunately. In my world, there is a single spell that is the purest form of magical expression. A spell that even the Warring Triad, the gods that created magic, feared..."

He trailed off for a moment, flicking his outstretched finger downward as the star he had pointed to began to shine brighter and larger.

"The Light of Judgement~!" As soon as he had finished speaking, the 'star' came shooting down in a large beam of light, hitting the lake and creating a massive crater that quickly began filling with what little remained of the water after it began to rain down over the surrounding area.

[deathsought]

Zeref was quiet, as Kefka began his monologue. A demonstration of power, of course, trying to impress someone like Zeref, whom just about everyone except perhaps Acnologia feared on some level. He'd seen a sample of Kefka's power before; using Haste on the demon-like things that spawned from that giant monstrosity wasn't terribly different from Ultear's Arc of Time magic, and that would really only take Zeref by surprise once. Heartless Angel was worrying, but Zeref had countered it by summoning Nemesis and using them as meat shields of sorts to send on a collision course with the cherubic creatures. This, however... this was different.

In fact, it was disturbingly similar to Etherion. Something that, without the Magic Council intact, was no longer a threat. Tartarus watched in awe, with even Keith taking a few steps back, about the closest thing a skeleton can do to expressing intimidation.

"That..." Zeref said quietly, the lake behind him now gone. It was like watching Acnologia devastate Tenroujima, only on a smaller scale. "I see. But what does this have to do with me?"

[warring_triad]

Kefka just tilts his head to one side, looking... disappointed slightly. "Huh. Usually it's stronger than that. All well, it's easier to cast in my true form, but never mind..."

He floats up, billowing his robes dramatically, turning to face both the assembled demons and Zeref. "As the God of Magic, I just hate to see you not live up to your potential~"

[deathsought]

Quite a few of the demons' expressions soured, seeing that as an insult, before softening again, as Zeref only nods. Of course Zeref knows that he's not living up to his full potential, at least not anymore. It's no secret as to just how powerful Zeref is (he had his reputation for a reason), and the fact that he's been intentionally holding back and not abusing his powers does constitute him not living up to his full potential, which would mean turning just about everywhere he goes into a barren wasteland full of demons.

"Too many people are dead because of me already."

Tartarus seemed rather confused, hearing that come from him.

[warring_triad]

"You wield the very fabric of the universe itself! You should be worshiped like gods! All of you! Instead, you're skulking around out here like bugs, scared of being stepped on..."

Kefka just cocks his head to one side, grinning a manic grin as he shifts into his more godlike appearance.

"Sounds to me like there's not enough of them dead."

[deathsought]

Zeref grit his teeth. The demons understood, taking several steps back, giving Zeref room. "My patience is wearing very thin with you," he said to Kefka, in response to his not-so-veiled threat against the other people here. While Tartarus was quite confused as to why Zeref would disagree with the overall sentiment, they must have believed that Zeref's reaction was due to the insult, rather than the fact that Kefka's threatening to do the same thing Zeref said he wanted to do to his world.

"It's people like you that made it possible for people like me to exist."

[warring_triad]

Oh, if this may as well be Kefka's dream, as much fun as he's having. He'll just hang in the air, cackling for all he's worth.

"Of course I made it possible for you to exist. Your power is nothing more than an extension of mine! I am the source of all magic! I am the source of all power! You draw breath because I demand it!"