Eclipse Celestial Spirits arc

The Eclipse Celestial Spirit arc is an anime-exclusive story arc of the Fairy Tail series. The arc happens between the Grand Magic Games arc and the Sun Village arc.

The calamity from Eclipse has not ended yet, as one day, the Twelve Zodiac Gates refuse to respond to their summoning. In addition to their sudden change in appearance and personality, they also sever the bonds they have with their contracted Celestial Spirit Mages! These rebels, who have set off the Beacon of Rebellion, demand only one thing, "total freedom"!! In front of those who rise up to recover the bonds, are the new twelve gates, and are ready to stand in their way!

Gratitude to the Spirits
Lucy Heartfilia and Yukino Aguria arrive at the Hill of the Stars alongside Natsu Dragneel and Happy to thank and reward their Celestial Spirits for their help in closing the Eclipse Gate during the Grand Magic Games and the subsequent Dragon invasion. The two Celestial Spirit Mages decide to grant a wish to each of their Zodiac Spirits one by one. Each Spirit has his or her wish granted in some way or another until only Aquarius is left at last. Being in a foul mood, she requests Lucy to make her laugh, which she fails at initially. After being sent off a cliff and hanging by a branch, Aquarius laughs and helps bring her to safety, remembering their times together as Lucy was growing up and they then sit together under the stars.

The Spirits' Rebellion
Some time later, Natsu, Lucy and Happy arrive to the guild hall just to find it completely empty. Mirajane explains that everyone is out on jobs, dealing with the recent natural disasters and then gives Lucy a job she had saved for the Celestial Spirit Mage. After arriving to the requested location, however, Lucy's group gets attacked by a sea slug. Natsu eventually defeats it, but during the battle, Lucy finds out that her golden keys are not working as the Spirits would not respond to her summons. While Yukino arrives to the Fairy Tail guild with a similar problem, Lucy successfully summons Crux just to find out that something terrible is happening in the Celestial Spirit World. That is when Virgo, and eventually, the rest of Lucy's Spirits appear, attacking Lucy and others. Natsu attempts to fight them, but in the end, Happy carries both him and Lucy away, wondering what caused all of this. Meanwhile, the rebelling Spirits return to the Celestial Spirit World, with Leo stating that to achieve a complete freedom, there is still something to be done.

Lucy, Natsu and Happy return to Fairy Tail where they tell the others of what happened. Lucy once more summons Crux, who this time is aided by Horologium to cross the dimensions without harm. Crux explains that the Spirit King has suddenly gone missing and the Gold Key Spirits have trashed the Celestial World during his absence. He's not sure what caused their change, but mentions something called the Liberum. Yukino produces a tome which Levy deciphers that Liberum is a ritual needed to achieve their "perfect freedom" but they need a mystical globe to do it. Reasoning that the weather anomalies is linked to the Celestial World. Fairy Tail split into teams to go gather more information. Natsu, Happy, Lucy, Levy and Yukino are sent to the Magic Library but before the group can head out, Natsu suddenly goes missing. Having hitched a ride with Horologium in the hopes of fighting Leo and beating him to his senses.

However upon his arrival, he's met by Taurus who proves to be much more formidable in his current state. Natsu tries to get him to remember Lucy as a friend as they fight but Taurus keeps claiming he doesn't know what he's talking about. Ultimately Natsu ends up accidentally flinging himself out of the dimension before their battle can go any further. Meanwhile, his assigned team go to the Magic Library to investigate only to be attacked by Virgo. Lucy, Happy and Yukino try to hold her off to allow Levy to continue searching. She manages to find a donation list which leads her to the mystical globe. But Virgo steals it away from her and escapes just as Natsu falls into the building from the Celestial World. Despite this, Levy reveals a critical warning packaged with the globe. If the Gold Spirits do indeed complete the ritual, they'll only live for twelve days. The price for their "perfect freedom".

Not long after learning this, Natsu's group head for southern Magnolia to find the location of the Astrial Spiritus, an area needed for the ritual. Along the way they run into Princess Hisui and Arcadios who were on their way to Fairy Tail to inform them about the spirits with Hisui even mentioning that it was because of using the Eclipse Door that caused the Gold Spirits change, though the group state they don't blame her. Hisui then presents the group with a batch of new celestial keys she made which she states will be able to close the spirits' gates. However the group is suddenly attacked by the Eclipse forms of Pisces who now resemble a humanoid fishman (the son) and a shark (the mother). The duo steal the keys from them prompting Natsu to attack. He takes on the son while the others deal with the mother. However the duo display new powers such as the resistance to water when they were originally weak to it, the son being able to cancel out Natsu's fire power and the mother having the abilities to eat most attacks thrown her way, swim through the air and surfaces making making her own water, harden her skin and change her size.

After some fighting, Pisces ultimately end up getting away with the case. However Arcadios had foreseen this and switched it with a fake, meaning the group still have the keys. What's more Hisui reveals she knows the location of the Astral Spiriytus. With this, the group head out in hopes of stopping the ritual.

Battle for True Freedom: Fairy Tail vs. Eclipse Spirits
At the Astral Spriytus, the 12 Zodiacs begin the ritual just as Natsu's group close in on their location. Using the new keys, the group manage to find the ritual ground and Natsu interrupts the ceremony. Lucy tries to warn the spirits what they're getting into but Leo reveals they already know but don't care. When the keys that Pisces stole are revealed to be a fake, the spirits start to attack the group as they largely outnumber then. That is until the rest of the Fairy Tail teams arrive, revealing that Warren used his telepathy to guide them there. At a disadvantage now, the spirits run to their gates challenging Fairy Tail to come fight them. The teams are all given a closing gate key before splitting up and following after them, each finding themselves in a different dimension. Lucy confronts Virgo once more in a mansion like setting. Erza and Sagittarius find themselves in paper mâché recreation of a war like setting where the objective is to shoot down targets on boats. Yukino find herself in a canyon area where she faces Libra. Cana arrives in a coliseum area where she's forced into a card battle against Scorpio. Gray faces Cancer in club setting for a dance off. Juvia arrives in a desert to fight Aries but sees no sign of her. Levy finds herself in a quiz match against Capricorn. Natsu and Happy arrive at some ruins where he quickly attacked by Leo. Wendy and Carla find themselves in a amusement park where Aquarius greets them. Mirajane arrives a beach but is instantly forced into an underwater battle against Pisces. Gajeel and Pantherlily face Gemini in a forest setting who quickly unleash a power on them and Elfman faces against Taurus in another forest.

Elfman attacks furiously, but Taurus easily dodges and counters him. However, when countering one of Taurus' ax swings, Elfman finds out that Taurus is deathly afraid of germs, in this case the sweat coming off Elfman's body. Elfman quickly uses it to his advantage to defeat him and closes his gate.

Natsu and Leo continue to clash, but Leo aims for Happy during the fight and knocks Natsu into a floating platform which activates his motion sickness. Just as Leo is about to attack him in his weakened state, a black flame suddenly engulfs the two. Lucy, meanwhile, is having difficulty fighting Virgo who knocks her to a lower level. Cana still struggles against Scorpio who refuses to tell her the rules of the card game as he summons Gemini to the field and has them attack her. Likewise, Mirajane's fight is going poorly against the underwater Pisces. Over with Wendy and Carla, they find that Aqaurius in her Eclipse form has much better control over her water, but sees the fight as nothing more than a game. After dodging most of her attacks, Aquarius calls "time out" and treats the two to ice cream to the two's bewilderment. They accept and bond a bit with the Spirit before she "continues the game". Wendy and Carla end up knocked into the ferris wheel and are trapped there as Aquarius keeps firing on them. Just as one of her water shots is about to hit them, Natsu and Happy suddenly fall into the dimension with Natsu managing to save the pair. Natsu fights Aquarius for a bit until the battle destroys the ferris wheel and sends everyone falling. Wendy manages to save Aquarius with her Sky Dragon Slayers Magic and they land safely. Aquarius admits defeat and lets Wendy close her gate as all she wanted was to have fun.

Levy and Capricon, meanwhile, start their quiz game where Levy already finds herself in trouble after answering the first question wrong. Lucy, likewise, runs into more trouble with Virgo who tries to drop her into a spike pit and then have the walls crush her. Mirajane manages to gain the advantage in her fight after going into her Satan Soul form and defeats Pisces, closing their gate. At the same time, Natsu, Happy, Carla and Wendy try to find a way out their current area to find Leo. As this goes on, Cana's battle with Scorpio continues. She finds out that she can summon illusions of people she knows and, while there are rules in turns, summons and combos, Scorpio essentially just makes things up on the fly to keep the advantage. After some back and forth, Cana is down to one life point while Scorpio manages to regain his lost health during the battle. However, Cana manages to summon Gildarts to fight for her.

Using Gildarts' illusion, Cana eventually defeats Scopio and closes his gate. Meanwhile, Levy finds herself in danger of being dropped into saw blades after she incorrectly answers another question. Virgo tries to drop Lucy into a spike pit, but when she uses her whip to tickle the Mage in order to make her loose her grip, she interpenetrates Lucy's laughing as "enjoying" the punishment and changes tactics by taking away her clothes and pulling out a watermelon, much to Lucy's confusion. Back to Yukino, she finds herself at a disadvantage while balancing on a rock over the canyon with Libra asking what is the most important thing between a human and a Celestial Spirit. Elsewhere, Natsu, Wendy, Carla and Happy head back to the ruins where the Fire Dragon Slayer fought Leo, following his scent into one of the temples. As that goes on, Gray and Cancer begin their dance off, when Gray finds he can't bring himself to dance. Cancer uses his power to make him realize his potential, turning Gray into an expert dancer to be more of a challenge. After showing off some dance moves, Cancer turns it into a literal dance battle where they attack each other. Gray ultimately manages to win, however, and closes Cancer's gate. Natsu's group manages to track Leo's scent to a wall where Natsu smashes it open revealing a passageway, this has an effect in hub area where Hisui and Arcadios are and they see a new gate has formed in the area. Curious, the two decide to venture in and investigate.

Back with Levy, she manages to tie with Capricorn and both are now in a position to be dropped into the saw blades. The last question is asked of who is Levy's secret crush. Despite being embarrassed to answer it, Levy does so, winning the quiz contest and closing Capricorn's gate. Meanwhile, Lucy manages to make her way out of the trap despite Virgo's watermelon punishment, but is quickly forced run when Virgo chases after her with some mayo. She finds that the dimension she's in has endless hallways and, with no way to escape, is forced to hide. Natsu's group continues to follow Leo's scent, however, they're suddenly attacked by the Eclipse form of Ophiuchus who looks like a nurse. After taking many of her medical related attacks, Natsu prepares to counter only to find she has more machines as a backup. Juvia, meanwhile, continues making her way though the desert, looking for Aries, realizing this was part of her plan to let the heat tire her out. Sure enough once she's weakened, Aries attacks her by dragging her with her magical four wheel-vehicle. Just as she's about to finish Juvia off, Juvia realizes that the vehicle has a cooling system full of water and uses it to re-power herself. She quickly defeats Aries and closes her gate, though is still stuck in the desert. Yukino's battle with Libra continues as they balance on a rock over the canyon with the threat of falling into it. Hisui and Arcadios continue down the mystery gate's passage, with the former realizing that Leo didn't have the globe artifact with him while fighting Natsu and wonders what he has planned. Meanwhile, Erza and Sagittarius prepare to start their battle, both agreeing that it'll be a fair match.

As that goes on, Gajeel and Pantherlily finds themselves turned into hamsters by Gemini's power and being played with like pets. Pantherlily provides a distraction so Gajeel can escape while being chased by the spirits who keep zapping him and changing him into different animals before settling on a cat. Gajeel however uses the aid of the animals in the forest to get Gemini to zap each other before realizing he can still uses his powers in his animal form. He swiftly beats the twins spirits and closes their gate. Changing Pantherlily and him back to normal. Hisui worries about what Leo plans to do with the globe and comes to the realization that there are 13 spirits and ponders if Ophiuchus is the key to everything happening. Meanwhile Lucy continues to hide from Virgo, she tries to get the drop on her with the gate closing key but Virgo dodges. Lucy runs but soon reaches a dead end and ultimately resolves to fight. Over with Erza and Sagittarius, Erza questions him why the spirits are doing this if their freedom will only last 12 days and even moreso why they would forget Lucy, but the horse spirit answers pretty much the same as the other spirits: he's steadfast in his reasons and doesn't remember Lucy at all.

Thus the two begin their battle in a contest of best two out of three. The first is an archery contest which Erza wins easily. Second is a horseback riding contest which Sagittarius wins due to being faster. The third is a combat match over a minefield. Erza has trouble at first but ultimately wins by jumping and riding on Sagittarius then having him step on the mines. With her victory, she closes his gate.

Eclipse Endgame: The Final Battles


Back with Natsu's group, they continue to have trouble fighting Ophiuchus. Just as Natsu starts to gain the advantage. Leo suddenly appears and calls her off, citing they're ready to begin the ceremony once again much to the confusion of Natsu's group who tell him most his comrades have likely been sent back to the Spirit World. However Leo reveals it doesn't matter to him as he can still do the ceremony one way or the other. The tunnel suddenly breaks apart and Ophiuchus appears once again, this time merged in her snake form, telling the group that they've been fighting inside her the entire time. Natsu's group find themselves facing down both Leo and Ophiuchus as the former prepares to do the ceremony once more.

Meanwhile the rest of the Fairy Tail teams meet back up in the hub world though notice that Natsu, Lucy and Yukino are not around deducing that the spirits they were fighting are still active. Over with Natsu's group, Leo does the ceremony revealing the constellations of the spirits defeated in the sky. Leo tells the group that even though the spirits were sent back he can still use their constellations to continue the ritual having found out from Ophiuchus. The Liberum activates once more prompting Natsu to try and stop Leo while Wendy, Happy and Carla try to stop the Liberum. Leo reveals he has the power of Dark Regulus which are essentially dark flames and clashes with Natsu. Both are eventually matched at first until Leo reveals his flames can suck in Natsu's. As this goes on, the Liberum's power hits both Virgo and Libra. Virgo proceeds to attack more seriously against Lucy resulting in a whip battle while Libra finds she's losing her balance. Wendy and the Exceeds likewise run into trouble as the Liberum fires out lasers as they try to get close to it.

Natsu finds his power slowly sucked away until he has no flames left. Leo tries to finish him until Natsu blocks his attack and sucks in Leo's flame since it now has both properties of Leo's and his fire. He combines the flames and sends it back at Leo, which manages to beat him. Natsu closes his gate, however the Liberum doesn't stop much to the group's confusion. It's then Hisui, watching the battle, comes to a realization.