"Men.....Oh the beautiful women I have seen, how all of them have danced before my eyes with ever rippling wonder.." said Ichiya. "But this one female.....IS HIDEOUS BEYOND MEASURE!!!"1
Ichiya was hanging upsidedown in a dark alleyway, wrapped in webs as Arachnis Widower clicked her pincers and crawled along the walls eying the mage.
"Click click...you have quite the strange body for a human...click click.." said Arachnis. "You look like the combination between a handsssome man...click click...and an ugly baby...click...click... I think I will call you...Man Baby."
"No!" said Ichiya. "I refuse to accept such a name, especially from a woman who in no way looks like a woman...men!"
"Click click...why would I want to look like a filthy human girl!?" said Arachnis indignantly. "That putrid smooth skin...that unnatural curvy figure...the smell of assorted sweet fruit in their hair thanks to the abomination known as shampoo!!"
"Ahhh..." said Ichiya dreamily. "You have described Ms. Misaka perfectly...or Erza..It could be whichever..Men..."
"You really are a little pervert.." said Arachnis letting out a hissing laugh. "Click Click! It's too bad your subordinates aren't awake to see this.."
Arachnis pointed a furry tarantula leg at the two human sized web cocoons that were stuck to the wall of the alley.
"They are strong...men." said Ichiya. "They will escape!"
"Well conssssidering you are their leader, and leaderssss tend to be the sssstrongessst.." said Arachnis with a chuckle. "I would say thissss issss too easy....I wassss never one to judge basssed on a sssingle encounter....but you are quite weak...click click...
"Don't underestimate us...men.." said Ichiya. "We are of course, the strongest mages in Blue Pe-"
Arachnis spat a web glob from her mouth which went splatt right onto Ichiya's mouth.
"Ohh..would you jussss shut up! Click click!!" said Arachnis. "You have absssolutely no business talking you sssstrange Man Baby!! Click click!"
As Arachnis continued to complain about Ichiya, a little spot in the back of Ichiya's webbed body near his restrained hands began to wriggle until a small vile shifted through the webs. The vile fell to the ground and smashed apart, letting a scent flow through the area.
Arachnis immediately screamed and fell to the ground, curling up in a ball like position. "WWWHHHHHAAATTTT!!!?? WHAT IS THISSSSS!?"
There was a hissing sound, and the webs melted off of Ichiya and he landed on the ground and dusted himself off. "Men...it's a good thing I brought both my parfum of pain and parfum of decomposition with me...or this would have turned unfavorable."
Ichiya moved quickly to the other two web cocoons and poured some of a substance he had in another vile. The webs immediately decomposed and Ren and Eve both burst out coughing.
"I think I almost suffocated..." said Eve. "Thank you Ichiya sensei!"
"I knew she might try to ambush us...men..so I kept myself prepared."
"Speaking of which." said Ren. "Where'd she go?"
The threesome turned to look where Arachnis had been before...but she had dissapeared.
"Men?" said Ichya. "But how could she could have shaken off my parfum of pain so easily?!"
Suddenly, there was a massive crack in the ground and humungous spider legs smashed outwards. Ichiya and the others leapt out of the way as Arachnis burst out of the ground spitting madly. "Foolisssh humans! My body becomes immune to different poisons after one dose...My body wassss built for ssssurvival!! CLICK CLICK!!!"
"So it seems we need to try a different approach!" Eve thrust his hand out and a magic circle opened up, shootin a massive blizzard of snow.
"White Out!"
The massive blizzard engulfed Arachnis and buried her in a massive pile of snow.
Arachnis burst out of the snow angrilly, spitting massive globs of webs at Ren and Eve. But Ren thrust his hand out, and a large spherical vacuum of appeared around Arachnis. Arachnis began to choke.
"This change in air current can be deadly to any sort of arachnid." said Ren. "My appologies.."
"DON'T UNDERESSSSSTIMATE ME!!!!!!" screamed Arachnis. "I WILL DEVOUR YOU!!!!!"
There was a massive burst of purple light, and the sound of crumbling crashing buildings. When the dust settled, Arachnis had grown massive. Each of her eight legs had flattened a building in the alley. Her now housed sized body glowed with a dark purplish aura.1
"I am the Queen of Ssspiderssss." said Arachnis. "My powersssss far exceed you own!! Click, click!! Prepare to be dessstroyed."
"Men...what is she?" said Ichiya looking rather stunned.
"An ugly bug.." said Eve.
"And we squash ugly bugs." said Ren.2
"Good answer...Men!" said Ichiya. Ichiya took out another vile and uncorked in front of his nose. Immediately he became massive and muscular as the parfum of power took effect.
"MEN!!!! " Ichiya jumped into the air and brought both fists down in a deadly overhead blow on Arachnis Widower's multi-eyed head.
Arachnis spat out a bit of venom as she was brought down to the ground in a huge crash. "CLICK CLICK!!! HISSSSSSSSSS!!!"
Ren thrust out his hands in a windmill like motion and a huge cyclone like sphere blasted out and blasted Arachnis onto her back.
"Queen of spiders huh?" said Eve. "What a joke!"
Eve blasted another huge blizzard at Arachnis who scrambled aside and bulldozed several more buildings in the process. "You won't take me yet!! I have otherssss to help me yesssss, thissss city isss filled with Diablo'ssss sssservantsss!! Click click!!"
As if on cue, hundreds of molten skeleton minions came running and chattering with ethereal cries through the wrecked alley way.
"Darn it!" said Eve. "Reinforcements I presume."
"Wait..." Said Ichiya. "They don't seem to be coming for us! Men..."
The skeleton creatures swarmed the alley, completely ignoring Ichiya, Eve, and Ren. Instead they began to swarm around Arachnis who backed off in surprise.
"What!? What issss thisss!!? You're sssupossed to kill them!!! NO NO!!!"
The skeletons all piled on top of Arachnis and began melting into lava. The molten bones melted straight into Arachnis and formed themselves into blackish armor. Arachnis screamed in pain as the skeletons transformed her.....
When the last of the skeletons had melted away. A massive armored spider stood in Arachnis's place. Her legs were covered in horned black armor as well as her entire body. The massive shell on her head had morphed to look like the face of a grotesque horror even more frightening then before. Each of her eight eyes glowed a molten orange and molten edged blades stuck out of her back.
"What hassss happened to me..." said Arachnis in a new demonic voice. "What am I!?"
"Why, I have merely granted you a greater power..." Diablo Etwatia was standing on the roof of one of the only buildings that hadn't been demolished.
"Diablo! I would have ssssusspected asss much!!" said Arachnis. "What have you done to me!! Click click!!?"
"Given you the power of the demons long forgotten..." said Diablo. "It is obvious you were the most vulnerable in our current force...so I rectified that problem....now, you can destroy those foolish mages at your leisure."
"You don't sssssay..." the tank-like armored spider turned to face Ichiya and the others. "Well then, I think I'll have a little fun!!!"
"M-men..." said Ichiya. "This is not good."
"RRRRAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!" Arachnis rumbled at the mages, her entire body engulfed in intense purple flames.
"MOVE!!!" Ichiya used his powerful body to pick up Ren and Eve in both arms and jump out of the way as Arachnis stormed past like an angry freight train.
Arachnis turned sharply and chased after the threesome as they ran. While Ichiya continued to run, Eve and Ren each shot out a blast of wind and snow at the demonic spider. But the moves glanced off of Arachnis like they were nothing.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!! Thissss new power!! Click click!! Incredible!!!"
"Aw crap..." muttered Eve.
"Men...there is no fighting her now!" said Ichiya. "She has been cursed with an ancient magic of forgotten power!!"
"And, though it might be a bad time to mention this, she just so happens to be gaining on us." said Ren.
Arachnis raised one of her spear-like legs. "Now...prepare for death!!!"
But before Arachnis could smash her leg point into Ichiya's group, there was the sound of breaking rock, and Accelerator burst through a building and rammed straight into Arachnis, his black ethereal wings slammed the large spider into the ground as he landed on top of her struggling form.
"Keh!" spat Accelerator. "First a stupid lizard man, and now I have to deal with this demon tarrantula! Is Hydra Head starting a zoo?"1
"You!!" hissed Arachnis as she stood up and began to trying shake Accelerator off. "Who are you!!?"
"Forget who I am..." said Accelerator. "What the heck are you? Your ugly face would make Godzilla puke."1
"GRRRAGGGGH!! All you humansssss jussst assuming that they are the beautiful onessssss!! We spiderssss are the greatesssst speciessss on Earth!! Our formsssss are the greatesssst in image and beauty....you humansssss are the ugly onesss!! CLICK CLICK!!"7
Ehhh?" said Accelerator. "Is that so? Well then....I'll spare you the suffering of having to look at us."
Accelerator's wings seperated into windy tendrils and shot straight into Arachnis like spears, pinning her to the ground. Arachnis coughed up some sizzling venom and screamed in pain.
"Haha!! Looks like this power you gained isn't all powerful!" said Accelerator. "Well, Exisio may have escaped from me...but I'm pretty sure you don't have such special privelages with Dravis!!"
Accelerator's wings spread themselves out and tore Arachnis in two in a blast of black smoke. The demonic spider gave a final scream of pain before it's two halves exploded into nothingness. Accelerator landed before the stunned members of Blue Pegasus, dusting his shirt off and turning off the knob on his choker.
"M-men..." said Ichiya. "You're one of Fairy Tail....m-men.."
"I take it he's the reinforcement they call called for." said Ren with a grin. "Dang, he's scary."
"Yeah yeah.." spat Accelerator. "I'm super scary, I get it."
"So Arachnis is down." said Eve. "I wonder how many of the others were able to take down their opponents."1
"Normally Hibiki would be able to inform us with his Archive magic, but for some reason, we haven't been able to contact him." said Ren.
"Oh that's easy." said Accelerator. "Turns out they had a little enchantment going from the moment I came in this city. They knew you all were going to fight back, so they had a magic communication jammer cast...now only Hydra Head can contact each other."
"No wonder..men.." said Ichiya. "This could prove to be a problem."
"Or it could've..." said Accelerator. "If we decided to use magic to communicate....You see I depend on more scientific means."
Accelerator threw a walkietalkie at Ichiya who caught it.
"The jammer only affects magical methods of communication." said Accelerator. "I've already run into most of your fighting force as well as your buddy Hibiki. I still have to find Natsu and Mikoto though...where have they gone?"
"They were supposed to take down the assasins with a trap." said Eve. "Where they tracked the assasins to however, we can only guess."
Accelerator cursed. "Diablo's going to be heading for Mikoto...we have to find them before then."
"But how could they have known exactly when we going to attack...?" muttered Ren. "We thought the element of surprise would at least come from the fact that they didn't know precisely when we were coming."
"Dravis warned them." said Accelerator. "He's been here all this time, watching the island, watching us."
"Dravis..." said Ichiya. "Of course...Men...I thought I felt something poisonous in the air..."
"Geh!" spat Accelerator. "It was easy to tell once Nicole Mavros started getting sick..."
"Nicole?" said Eve. "Is there something wrong with her?"
"Apparently she's grown weak from the air of Dravis's presence." Said Accelerator. "Erza and Gray are tending to her right now. And I have no doubt that Railgun's going to be feeling the effects right now too. Dravis is growing stronger....we're running out of time."
Accelerator looked into the night sky. This battle had a slim chance of victory...but they had to try..or nobody else would.
Images swam in and out of Mikoto's head. There were some moments when she could see scattered fragments of the town of Fulmen. Other moments all she saw nothing but blackness. She could feel the pain...the power of Dravis was like a parasite on her nature as a Dragon Born.
She couldn't fight, think...she might as well have been dead. Except, she could still feel Natsu's arms, Elli's warm fur, the voices of her friends as they tried to keep her concious.
At one point, Mikoto tried to speak, but only one word escaped her mouth. "Elanis..." After that, she could say no more.
Then, like a bright warm light within her, she felt the scales of a dragon brushing up against her skin. It wasn't as if the dragon was actually there, the presence felt seperate from that of Natsu and the others. It was as if she were standing right at the gate between two realities, and one part of her just so happened to have awoken one of those realities.
"You must not falter yet child." whispered the voice of Elanis. "You must fight...you must continue to fight...or all will be lost."
"I...can't...too...weak..."
"Child...do you remember what you said before you came to this world...when you fought for your friends in that place called Academy City?"
"Huh...?"
"When you were fighting against the horrors of the scientific community...and spoke with one of your enemies...you said one thing..."
"I said...something?....I don't remember."
"'Did you know that Tokiwadai's level 5 started out at level 1? Then she worked really, really hard until she was strong enough to be a level 5. True story. But even if I was still a level 1, I'd still try to stop you.' That is what you said." said Elanis. "Do you still feel the same way? Defeating evil isn't all about power and the ability to dominate others in combat. Sometimes...it merely requires the will to remember that must try, no matter what the odds."1
"I..have..to stop...Dravis."
"And you will." said Elanis. "Because you are not alone fair child."
Immediately Mikoto felt strength unlike any she had ever felt before. Mikoto opened her eyes wide as a surprised Natsu gaped at her. "M-Mikoto! Your arms..."
Mikoto looked at her arms, from her wrists up portions of her forearms were silver white scales. The silver marking on her wrist was glowing brightly.
Natsu set Mikoto down gently as she stood up and looked at her arms. "Wh-what?"
"Incredible." said Hope. "I-I was feeling weak just now...from the power of Dravis. But now I feel stronger..."
"Elanis.." Mikoto whispered as the scales dissapeared. "It really is you..."
Mikoto felt Natsu's scarf around her neck for a moment before she began to run down the street.
"Mikoto wait!" shouted Happy. "Where are you going!?"
"Isn't it obvious!?" Mikoto called back. "I'm going to find Diablo and kick his freaking butt!"
Natsu grinned and joined Hope, Elli, and Happy as they ran after Mikoto. "I was just thinking of doing the same thing!!"
"Battle is just a term used to describe what happens when two sides start hitting each other. War is used to describe that on a larger scale over a long period of time. However, when it is a battle between good and evil, it becomes so much more. It becomes physical and metaphysical. Ying and Yang will always exist in constant battle. Which side wins, depends on whether we choose to take action despite our weaknesses."
-Thundaarix to Igneel during first war between dragons and humans. (war that was described by Zirconis during the Grand Magic Games arc of Fairy Tail.)
Okay, I think it's about time I explained a little bit about Arachnis Widower even though she just died in this chapter.
Arachnis is one of the oldest members in Hydra Head, though not quite as old as Gore Beastwalker, Diablo Etwatia, or Night Reveler. Her race, while formerly numerous, is now very rare, dwelling within the rainforests of Fiore and devouring anything that comes in their path. As the main alpha female of her tribe The Midnight Recluses, Arachnis alone in her tribe can alter her size to that of a large house. While her species does possess the potential to learn magic like Arachnis has, they choose not to, fearing magic as the the thing that wiped out most of their race. Arachnis overcame this fear however, when she killed a former member of Tartarus who had unwittingly wandered into her territory (a minor member.)
Arachnis's abilities are feared by many due to the deadliness of her venom. One death from Arachnis means instant death. Strangely enough, dragons, and in turn Dragon Borns, are immune to Arachnis's venom. Many have attempted to use dragon blood as a means to cure bites from Arachnis's species. But all attempts have failed. It is still unknown how to cure victims of the bites from the massive spiders. Arachnis also has the ability to infuse her webs with magic energy that can serve as sensers, allowing her to see and hear everything within a certain distance of her webs. Her most famous magic spell is the intensely powerful armor that she can cover herself in once every 24 hours. The armor is so powerful that not even a blow from Diablo or Zeref can pierce it. Only one of the 3 Fairy Magics has the power to destroy it. Now counted as one of the 4 Fairy Magics, Fairy Thunder is the only one of the legendary spells developed by Mavis that has actually been used on the armor and successfully broken it. Other then the armor spell, Arachnis contains an enchantment in her body that makes her immune to any poison or enchantment related spells after a 5 second exposure. Her enchantment immunity does not work on gravity magic however, as Gravix was once able to defeat her in single combat quickly and easily.
Powers after Diablo's enchantment: In her new form, before she was destroyed by Accelerator, Arachnis temporarily gained a limited control over Diablo's Souls Of The Damned magic. She can engulf herself in a substance called the Flames of The Damned and burn anything she charges at to a crisp. Her durability has increased so that any kind of magic has no effect, like a half Imagine Breaker. However, as displayed by Accelerator, this armor is not immune to non magical powers like esper abilities. There are also a massive assortment of other abilities that Arachnis would have gained, but she had not the chance to figure them out and use them before Accelerator killed her.