The ground heaved beneath their feet.
Massive stone legs tore through the ancient forest, lifting the sprawling, ruined city of Nirvana into the dark sky.
The sheer scale of the walking fortress defied logic, its colossal joints grinding with a deafening roar that shook the very air.
High above the canopy, clinging to the side of one of Nirvana's moving stone pillars, Natsu gritted his teeth.
The wind whipped past his face as he propelled himself upward with bursts of flame from his feet.
Happy flew right beside him, his small wings flapping hard to keep pace.
"We have to stop this thing, Natsu!" Happy yelled over the grinding stone. "It's heading straight for Wendy's guild!"
"I know!" Natsu growled, his eyes locked on the edge of the platform above. "We're going to smash it to pieces!"
Natsu launched himself over the ledge, landing heavily on the ancient, cracked cobblestones of Nirvana's lower tier.
But he wasn't alone.
Standing amidst the crumbling ruins, waiting with a smug, arrogant smirk, was Cobra.
The massive purple snake, Cubellios, hissed menacingly from his shoulders.
"You fairies just don't know when to quit, do you?" Cobra mocked, resting a hand on his hip. "I heard your footsteps from a mile away. Your heart is beating so fast. You're scared."
"I'm not scared, I'm fired up!" Natsu roared, his fists igniting with blinding heat. He didn't waste another second.
He lunged forward, swinging a blazing right hook at Cobra's jaw.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Cobra didn't even blink, he merely tilted his head an inch to the right.
Natsu's fist sailed past his ear, hitting nothing but empty air.
"Too slow," Cobra whispered.
He drove a brutal knee into Natsu's stomach, following it up with an elbow strike that sent the Dragon Slayer tumbling across the stone floor.
Natsu sprang back to his feet, wiping a streak of dirt from his cheek.
He fired a rapid barrage of flaming kicks and punches, but the result was the same.
Cobra danced through the assault with effortless grace, weaving around every strike as if he knew exactly where they were going to land.
"It's useless," Cobra laughed, pointing a finger at his own ear. "My hearing is beyond human. I can hear the friction of your muscles before you even throw a punch. I can hear your breathing change. I know what you're going to do before your brain even sends the signal to your arm."
Natsu scowled, his flames burning hotter.
He remembered Ace's harsh lesson on the island.
'If you can't overpower your enemy, you must outmaneuver them. Instinct gets you killed.'
But how do you outmaneuver someone who can hear your thoughts?
"If you can hear what I'm thinking," Natsu muttered, a feral grin spreading across his face, "then I just won't think at all!"
Natsu let his mind go blank.
He stopped planning his attacks. He surrendered his body to raw, chaotic reflexes, letting his magic flow without direction. He charged again, his movements erratic and unpredictable.
He tripped on purpose, turning the fall into a sweeping kick, then bounced off a ruined pillar to launch a wild, spinning strike.
Cobra's eyes widened.
He dodged the kick, but the spinning strike grazed his shoulder, tearing his coat. "What is this? Your inner voice... it's just static!"
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu didn't aim at Cobra.
He aimed directly at the ground between them!
The fiery explosion sent a shockwave of shattered stone and smoke into the air.
The deafening blast echoed through the ruins as Cobra clutched his ears, his face twisting in pain.
His enhanced hearing, his greatest weapon, had just become his biggest weakness against the sheer volume of a Dragon Slayer's roar!
"My ears!" Cobra screamed, stumbling backward.
Natsu burst through the smoke, his fist blazing like a miniature sun.
"This is for Erza! Fire Dragon's Sword Horn!"
He slammed headfirst into Cobra's chest, the impact launching the dark mage off his feet and smashing him into a crumbling stone wall.
The wall shattered, burying Cobra under a pile of heavy rubble.
Natsu landed on his feet, panting heavily as the flames flickered out.
"That's one down."
...
On a higher tier of the walking city, the air was eerily quiet.
The wind howled through the ruined spires, carrying the scent of dust and ancient magic.
Erza walked methodically through a wide, circular courtyard, her silver boots clicking against the cracked marble.
Her right arm was healed, leaving no trace of the deadly poison. Her eyes were sharp, scanning every shadow.
"You're very loud," a sleepy, irritated voice echoed through the courtyard.
Erza turned around.
Floating just a few feet off the ground on a magical carpet was Midnight.
The black-and-white-haired mage rubbed his eyes, letting out a long, exaggerated yawn.
"You woke me up," Midnight complained, his dark eyes narrowing. "Brain said you were dead. It's so annoying when trash refuses to stay in the bin."
"Your guild's ambition ends here, Midnight," Erza declared, summoning a pair of sharp, single-edged swords to her hands.
"I won't let you use Nirvana."
"You can't stop me. No one can." Midnight raised a pale hand. "Reflector."
Erza didn't hesitate.
She dashed forward, her speed enhanced by her magic, and swung both swords in a lethal, crossing arc aimed at his chest.
But the blades never touched him. A bizarre, distorting ripple appeared in the air between them. Erza's swords violently twisted away from their target, the kinetic force reflecting back and throwing her off balance.
She stumbled, barely managing to block an invisible, slicing wave of distorted air that Midnight sent back at her.
"My magic reflects everything," Midnight sighed, looking bored. "Swords, magic, light, sound. Nothing can touch me. Your attacks are meaningless."
Erza backed away, analyzing the situation. She summoned several magical spears from her Requip space and launched them at Midnight from multiple angles.
The spears curved harmlessly around his body, embedding themselves into the stone floor behind him.
He bends the space around him, Erza thought, her mind racing. He doesn't block the weapons; he redirects their trajectory.
She remembered Ace's words.
'You need to combine your magic, cover each other's blind spots, and think three steps ahead.'
She was alone right now, but she had a vast arsenal at her disposal.
She just needed to find the blind spot in his invincible defense.
"If metallic weapons bend, then I'll use something else," Erza said. A golden light enveloped her body.
When the light faded, she wore a sleek, purple tunic with a flexible, elastic combat wrap.
The Robe of Yüen.
It possessed elastic properties that couldn't be manipulated by standard binding or distorting magic.
"A change of clothes won't save you," Midnight sneered.
He flicked his wrist, sending a barrage of distorted spatial blades flying toward her.
Erza moved with fluid, blinding speed.
She didn't try to block the invisible blades; she slipped through the narrow gaps between them, her flexible armor allowing her to bend and contort her body in ways heavy metal wouldn't permit.
She closed the distance in a heartbeat. Midnight raised his hand to reflect her strike, expecting another sword.
Instead, Erza delivered a devastating, bare-handed martial arts kick straight to his jaw.
Midnight's eyes went wide with shock as the heavy blow landed.
He was thrown backward, tumbling off his floating carpet and crashing painfully onto the hard stone floor.
"How?" Midnight gasped, tasting blood. "My Reflector... it should have deflected your leg!"
"Your magic reflects inanimate objects and external spells," Erza stated coldly, standing over him.
"But you can't distort living human flesh. If you could, you would have just twisted my body instead of deflecting my swords. Your defense has a fatal flaw."
Midnight glared at her, fear creeping into his sleepy eyes. He tried to scramble away, raising his hands to cast another spell.
Erza didn't give him the chance.
She leaped forward, delivering a precise, punishing strike to the back of his neck.
Midnight's eyes rolled back, and he collapsed onto the cobblestones, out cold.
Erza stood up, letting out a steady breath.
She looked out over the edge of the courtyard, watching the landscape of Fiore slowly pass by far below. Nirvana was still moving.
"Another one down," Erza whispered to herself. "Hang in there, Wendy. We're going to stop this."
She turned and sprinted toward the towering central control spire of the ancient city.