Chapter 32- Out of the Frying Pan, Into the-

"We need more time!" The dark priest roared across the meeting table. At the center of the ovular table was an engraving of the insignia of Demon Machine. And the denizens who sat around it were far from pleased.

"I'm aware, Irae…" Rumbled the guild master, the grand architect of the misfortunes caused at the most recent Grand Magic Games. "But even now a little expedition force of wizards approaches us."

"We can hold them off!" Spat a darkened figure. One of the guild master's personal guards. "The Millions are trained for this!"

"You underestimate them, Mercutio." Said another voice calmly. "With them is that traitorous Montezuma, who used to be a member of the Millions. Unless you've already forgotten…"

"It isn't just Montezuma, either," Crooned a female. "With them are some very powerful wizards. Natsu Dragneel, Jura Neekis, and Jellal Fernandes, to name a few. I'm sure we can all deal with them, but it would be challenging."

"And the success rate would be low." The dark priest, Irae, drummed his iron fingers of the metal table. "We've never had a break-in, so the security systems remain untested. That being said, through drills we've conducted the effectiveness is rated at an overall seventy-two percentage. It's all about buying time." The guild master nodded and looked at his veteran warriors.

"Time. Time indeed. We'll funnel them into chamber four. Scenario sixteen dash six in the manual. Now read up, they'll be here within the hour." The guild master rose and turned. The time of judgement was at hand.

The rag tag team of wizards stood at the base of the mesa. It looked unassuming, just another rocky formation in the middle of dozens of others. But Monte knew better. He crouched to the ground and pointed at the dust beneath his feet, tracing a line with his finger.

"There's only one way in from out here. It'll either be heavily guarded, or they'll just let us in…"

"Why would they do that?" Lia asked, interrupting him. Monte sighed and glanced at the mesa once more.

"There's a very detailed manual outlining what they need to do for every possible scenario. And a lot of them hinge on trapping the enemy inside."

"Does it count as a trap if we know we're about to get trapped?" Lyon questioned. Monte let out a dry laugh, which quickly turned into a sigh.

"This is going to be so fucking dangerous. And there's a very high chance anyone who isn't Natsu or Jellal will die. But we have to get in there before they move the equipment. The last important detail is this. The place will be crawling with science experiments gone wrong. I don't know what that entails exactly, but it'll grotesque and dangerous. The foot soldiers will be armed to the teeth, and you may even encounter a vehicle or two. But the most deadly of all is the Millions. The taskforce I was once apart of. We weren't allowed to know each other's magics, but I'm sure they're all S class level, at least. Making a thought out plan won't work here, so our best bet is to brute force these fuckers."

"That works for me," Natsu commented. Monte nodded his head and stood up. He looked to Natsu, who looked back at everyone else.

"Let's fucking do this."

The silence was beyond eery. Monte had been right, unfortunately. The group stalked through the huge metal hallway slowly, the only light coming from flickering bars of lacrima hanging from the ceiling.

There were about ninety mages in all, with the best and brightest from several guilds along with a few volunteers of less notoriety. And to Monte most of them were dead men walking. In fact he doubted more than four of them would walk out alive.

The hall opened up and spilled into a much more massive cylindrical chamber. It had similarly dim light but several shapes could be made out. Hanging cranes and trellises were extending from the walls, and a massive pit was open in the center of the room. The group crept carefully in, nervous and on edge. If there was going to be a trap, now seemed a good a time as any for Demon Machine to spring it.

And spring it they did.

The lights all turned on at once in a blinding fluorescent glare. Many of the wizards were taken aback and quickly raised their palms to blot out the light. But the damage was done. On the trellises and bridges men in gas masks and body armor marched out into neat rows, extending rifles downwards at the mages who were gathered like fish in a barrel.

Thousands of bullets filled the air. Jura roared and raised several stone walls in front of who he could. Lia redirected the shots that came near her, but to her dismay controlling an enormous steel ship and controlling thousands of tiny bullets were tasks of similar difficulties.

Several of the wizards fell to the ground in bloody messes, which was enough to break the wills of others. Jellal shouted for them to stay calm but they paid it no mind. The only way out was the pit. Two mages jumped in desperately to avoid getting hit with more twenty-two millimeter.

The pit wasn't any better, though. A huge snake like demon machine slithered out of the pit with the shredded torsos of its latest victims in its swirling jaws.

Natsu roared in anger and sprinted forward with his dragon force activated and flaming. As his body soared through the air he felt a tensing of his muscles and an immense pain shoot through his body.

The rest of the group looked on in shock as Natsu was swatted out of the air like a fly. And it kept worsening. A demon machine that had the appearance of a wyvern soared downwards through the cylinder and a gust of flame covered the floor. Everywhere wizards shrieked as they were torn to pieces by bullets, consumed by the snake, or burned alive. It was an absolute slaughter. Jellal and several others tried to fire back their magic into the trellises to down a few attackers, but everytime one of their abilities flew into the air a black rift would open and consume it. Jellal cried out in enraged frustration and looked to Monte.

"What the fuck do we do?!" Monte stared at Jellal and then at the scene surrounding him. Truthfully, the blonde mage had no idea. This was far worse than he'd expected.

A loud creaking sounded through the chamber and several huge doors slid upwards, revealing long and dark halls. Monte knew that entering any of these was just hopping out of the frying pan and into the fire, but to the egg burning on the pan even the fire seemed better from afar.

It seemed everyone else had jumped to the same conclusion. Mad dashes were being made to the nearest entry, splitting up the task force into four small splinters of maybe seven or eight people each. They'd lost over half of their original amount.

Natsu stepped into the hall and glanced behind him, watching the door slide back down to close them off. There was only one way to go now. And that was forward.

"Alright, what's the next phase?"

"Let the traps and specimens do the hard work. I'd bet each of us individually can take them down if there's only two or three. Personally, I wanna fight the salamander…"

"He'd eat you alive, idiot. For now we watch and study. Then we can have our fun."

It was dark and extremely difficult to see, but Kagura innately knew that she'd been separated from Lia. The girl gripped her sword tightly as she walked further into the dark tunnel. She had no clue who these other people were. A purple haired woman. A pink haired girl. Some other varying hair colors. It didn't matter. What mattered was in front of her. The frightening darkness and the sinking feeling of despair in her chest.

The walls around her trembled and shook and several of the light fixtures on the ceiling erupted into storms of glass. And then from behind them the drumming of feet.

"Run!" Someone shouted. Ultear flung ropes of ice through the corridor to slow the advance of whoever it was that was chasing. But as they sprinted a loud shatter pierced their ears and one of the wizards in their group fell to the ground. There was a huge metal harpoon connected to a chain embedded in their dead comrade, and his bloody body was now being dragged backwards into the darkness. And then it came forward. The corpse of the wizard was ground to pieces in the surging maw of the iron snake, which hissed menacingly at the group.

Ultear took a step forward and gestured for the rest of the remaining mages to get behind her. The snake snarled and dashed forward slithering along the corridor ready to strike.

"Luminous minutes!" Ultear yelled. Her orb multiplied and flew forward so quickly that it's appearance changed entirely, looking like beams of pure light. The attack pierced dozens of bleeding holes in the snake and thwarted its charge forward. Kagura didn't want to stand by uselessly.

The corridor began to crumple around the beast and it became entirely incapacitated. Ultear smirked and pulverized the head of the creature with her orbs, leaving it a steaming mess of broken metal and destroyed skin.

"That's Ultear for you!" Meredy shouted happily. But their trials were far from over. The whole area darkened more than it had already been, and the room took on a strange humidity. Kagura could no longer even say her hand in front of her, and she began to panic. But another oddity, her panic didn't create gravity. She felt like nothing was changing at all.

Ultear was nervous as well. She tried to cast her orb into the air to create light, but as soon as it left her palm it disappeared into the darkness.

"What's going on?!" Meredy asked, her voice quivering with fear. A loud chuckle resounded around them all.

"You've now entered my domain…" A booming voice announced. "Your stories have come to an end."

It was hot. Blazing. Lia stripped off her last garment, leaving herself in her underwear. But even then it felt like she was wearing too much. Everyone in her party had done the same. Lyon was fighting with his fists, as every time he tried to create ice it would evaporate before it could reach its target.

Lia swung her hand and one of the boilers turned over, spilling molten metal on top of the soldiers gathered to her right. They screamed in pain as they boiled and melted concurrently. Jura was making short work of his targets as well. But they kept coming. The room they were in looked like a huge refinery, with boilers and blast furnaces spraying steam and slag into the air all around them. It was worse than even the desert in terms of heat. Lia flung another soldier away when something huge came into view from behind one of the furnaces.

An enormous brute wearing no clothing at all with ripped skin and lesions on his body pouring pus and blood. At least his face was covered though. Lia cringed and threw several of her blades at him, but to her dismay he took the damage in stride. The weapons made contact but it didn't have any obvious effect on him.

"Obliterate…" The thing groaned. "Requip…" But if he was a requip magic user, than it was a dark and tainted requip. His skin tensed and weapons pushed themselves into the air. Mostly ranged weapons. Lia pulled sheet metal from the floor up to act as a shield, but it didn't last long. The dents and craters from the bullets were expected. But it was the pure agitated heat that melted right through the sheet metal that lia didn't expect. She vaulted away using the metal beneath her, quickly absconding to the side. And then she realized there were more than one of these things. Another brute was dealing with Jura, but instead of guns there were hammers and saws and melee equipment coming from his arms. Every block of stone that Jura erected to use as a weapon or shield was sawed through effortlessly.

Lyon lepat onto it's back and tried to strangle it or give Jura time to fight, but several blades came from its spine and threw the ice wizard to the ground as a bleeding mess. Jura cried out and clenched his fists in rage. Power began to gather around him and he pointed his palm at the beast.

"Rumbling Mount Fuji!" Lia tried to scream to stop Jura but it was too late. The brute was disintegrated, but now Juras weakened. The saint ran to Lyon and picked him up, observing the damage. He wasn't looking good, but he would survive.

Meanwhile, Lia needed to finish this monstrosity in front of her off. She had never controlled metal that was less solid or small, but she was going to try. The magnet mage dodged another volcano of pure heat and looked to the puddle of slag beneath her. She concentrated hard and gritted her teeth. The obliterator in front of her cackled and raised his array of weaponry towards her, the barrels of his guns spinning and glowing.

The projectiles entered the air and flew towards her, but so did the slag. The molten metal intercepted the foreign invaders and coated the hulk of metal and skin, burning through him immediately and bringing him down. Lia sighed and looked around. The rest of the enemies had been cleared out, and they'd only lost one. Lyon had been injured though. She huffed and wiped the sweat off of her skin.

Something tapped her shoulder. She glanced over and saw that a droplet of silver liquid had hit her. And more droplets of silver were falling to the ground from the ceiling. But the strangest thing was that they were all gathering at the center of the room. And when they'd all gathered Lia's heart sank. From the pool of mercury a figure was growing into the air. A man made of liquid metal.

He didn't speak a word. He just stepped forward and all hell broke loose.

Bisca pulled the trigger and a scattershot roared out of the barrel of her weapon, caving in the face of the man in front of her. The bloody corpse hit the ground like a weight and signalled the end of this wave of attackers.

For whatever reason this latest batch of Demon Machine soldiers were dressed more like aristocrats than fighters; with fine silks and patterned clothing. It was nicer to look at than the other people Jenny and Jellal had helped Bisca gun down, but that didn't matter when they became bloodsoaked and dead.

"So, do we bust these doors down?" Jenny asked to the other mages. There were about eight of them left in this group, which was a sad and unimpressive amount. Jellal crossed his arms and waited to think. Bisca did likewise, mulling over the possibilities in her head.

"Anything could be through there." Jellal stated bluntly. "But the only other way to go is backwards, so I'm not sure we really have a choice."

"Anyone who wants to wait here for us to clear out the next room can," Bisca offered to her companions behind. As she expected though, they all denied that and elected to advance with the rest of them.

The doors broke in to reveal an enormous chamber filled with rows and rows of… sewing machines? Laborers leaned over sewing machines and were going about knitting steel fibers into cloth in front of them. Further away larger bits of muscle tissue and steel were being welded and tied together into sickening armor plates. It was horrific. But above it all was something else, glowing like a star. It was a woman wearing pure white with hair equally pristine. She looked down at the ragged group of seven mages and laughed, holding her arms up.

"Welcome! Welcome to where beauty is made! And now I shall make you beautiful as well!"

"I'm literally fucking useless bro," Monte whined as Natsu and Alzack wrapped up the last of the enemies.

"Then why don't you help out more?" Alzack asked in annoyance as he laid his revolvers back in the holsters at his waist.

"I need sunlight to be really strong, and I stocked up a bunch but wasted it earlier," Monte said defensively. Natsu sighed and looked around the massive chamber in which they currently stood. The salamander worried about how easy this had all been so far. Not that the initial chamber had been of ease. But he had expected to be leaping straight into the fire out of where they'd been, but it felt like they'd leapt into a cool river. It didn't feel right.

The ceiling began to rumble. Water and condensation built up on the walls as the ambient heat rose as well. Sparks flew. A large figure flung down off of an overhang and crashed into the ground in front of all of them.

"Well, I guess I get to kill the traitor and the salamander…" The enormous figure said with a smirk. He was dressed in tribal garb and his body sparked with energy.

"Fuck you, Min," Monte huffed. Lightning flew off the ceiling and onto the back of the large man. With a jolt the enemy began to power up, glowing with force as his muscles swelled.

"None of you can kill a titan…"

A/N: Sorry for how long this took. Been getting over block. Updates will probably still be erratic. Thanks to the fans, keep reading.