Soul magic.
Few magicians could control or even master this gift.
The Essence of Souls is the key to its power.
But you must be careful;
Without this essence your own soul's power will be used.
And that power is not infinite.
"Why exactly do we have accepted this job? I still think that it sounds very dangerous ... "
Lucy Heartfilia brushed a strand of blond hair from her face and looked at her teammates uncertain. She remembered their last job, Lullaby, as if it happened yesterday, and that Natsu had decided to immediately pursue a new but no less dangerous-sounding job wasn't something she was looking forward to.
Natsu Dragneel answered with a smile: "We are the strongest team that Fairy Tail ever saw! I'm not afraid! "
Happy agreed with a happy "Aye, sir! ", and Erza Scarlet and Gray Fullbuster seemed to be completely inexplicable relaxed , as well.
Natsu had simply opted for the whole group, once he saw the new mission on the request board; Lucy's protests were ignored completely, but because she needed the money badly to pay her rent, she had no option left than to follow the others.
Nevertheless, Lucy was still not very enthusiastic about the whole thing. She was not a good fighter as opposed to Erza, Natsu and Gray and felt somehow superfluous.
"So, instead of just making everything broken, we should perhaps consider a plan," thought Erza, as she put her hand on her chin. Master Makarov told her that Natsu was prone to unnecessary destruction, and she herself had not been better in the past. She wanted to avoid any trouble, and finally finish a mission without answering uncomfortable questions afterwards.
Gray smiled, his hands in his pockets, and replied: "Or we just do what we always do."
Erza sighed. "According to the poster, it is about a magician. And 190 000 Jewels as a reward would be way too much for a beginner, otherwise the client wouldn't have asked a guild to help."
The client, Sabel Hunfring, was a wealthy businessman who was known all over Fiore. He owned factories of all kinds, but lately his business was disturbed by someone named "Moonchild". That someone had apparently the intention to stop him from realizing his plans for a newly acquired property. No matter how many times he tried to build a new factory, the next day everything was in ruins.
The task was clear; render that Moonchild person harmless and help Hunfring to achieve his goal.
But there still was that magical problem.
According to the poster , Moonchild possessed an eerie magic, that couldn't be stopped by normal weapons. For this reason they had given up trying to fight Moonchild themselves.
"I really wonder what this magic could be...," Lucy said softly and began to think that they had no idea what they were getting to tremble.
Happy, who had been flying in the sky all the time to look for their destination suddenly came back in panic. "It's terrible! Flames and burning buildings and people running around screaming ... "
The fear in his little cat face was clearly visible, and Erza slowly started doubting the validity of this mission. Without saying anything, the group began to run, and Happy was right.
The land was fenced in by a large forest, and contrary to their expectations the property was not empty... there was a small village! Not much of it was left due to the raging fires that destroyed almost everything. Only a white building on the edge of the forest was still reasonably intact, and the group was able to watch as the villagers took refuge there.
"What the hell is going on here?" Natsu asked angrily and clenched his fists.
"Looks as if we were not told everything ..." said Erza and narrowed her eyes to slits.
Suddenly, a desperate woman showed up, or better nearly ran into them, her face bathed in tears and calling a name again and again. She ignored the group, or rather was not able to see anything except her own desperation.
She sobbed and trembled, and slowly she began to cough from the smoke caused by the fires. Suddenly she stopped and it seems as if she'd break down any minute when she was pushed away by a white-shrouded figure.
Just as fast as that figure had appeared, it formed a purple, magic circle with its hands above its head, which immediately became a kind of shield.
The Fairy Tail mages instantly saw, why; a burning timber from one of the houses crashed down and would have killed the woman. Kneeling on the ground whimpering she watched as the figure threw the timber with much effort over its shoulder. It then helped the woman back on her feet.
"My daughter! She must be here somewhere ... the attack went too fast, I did not have time, they-"
"Are you guys crazy?"
A young man with lightblue hair, crossed by lilac streaks, approached cautiously. "This degree of hell breaks loose and you stand here and calmly chat?"
The woman squeezed out, "But I have to find my daughter ..."
The young man sighed. "No, no, Rui takes over, you have to get to safety!"
"But-"
He grabbed her arm and nodded toward the robed figure that silently pointed behind its back. Unlike the woman and the young man it had noticed Natsu and the others very well, and just at that moment the man lost his temper.
"What are you doing? Are you tourists? You want to die? Damn, this is driving me insane ... "
Gray took a step forward. "You should rather tell us what is going on here!"
A telltale creaking announced the next falling timber, as the hooded figure quickly disappeared and reappeared behind the Fairy Tail mages, forming another magic circle and somehow pushing the group towards the white building without even touching some extent.
Little time remained to protest, because the young man pulled them into the building already and struck the door, panting. His ice-blue eyes stared at the magicians suspiciously, but he said nothing.
As Natsu tried to say something, Erza shut him up with just a glare.
"No. Take a look around! Whatever is going on out there, he and this mysterious other person have brought the entire village safe here ... "
And it was true. All the villagers were gathered in this building, whimpering, scared but alive. Erza noticed that hardly anyone of them was hurt, although it was almost impossible in fact.
"So who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" The young man suddenly asked, folding his arms across his chest, "This place is not a children's playground, where you can just walk around like that."
Erza went a step toward him, looking serious, and held out a hand. "My name is Erza Scarlet. And we didn't know there was a village until now. We came here to ... "
Wide-eyed the stranger began to stammer: "T-Titania? Fairy Tail's...?"
Shocked, he looked down. "I knew he would eventually ask a guild to help him, but..."
Just at that moment the door was pushed open, and the hooded figure, whose white robe was now more gray than white, stood there in the doorway with an unconscious girl in its arms. Apparently it was the daughter of the desperate woman Natsu and the others encountered earlier, because she ran there immediately and took the girl into her own arms.
"Thank you! I was so scared ... "
The figure stopped her with a wave of its hand, closed the door and came slowly toward the young man who breathed a sigh of relief.
"This has really taken a long time, dear."
Only now Natsu and the others noticed the white fox mask the figure was wearing, which bore its face, and the strange purple glow that emanated from its body.
The figure took off its white cloak, and thus revealed that this was a woman. Her long hair was a color of blue-grey braided into two pigtails front, while the rest remained open. She also had streaks which were lilac, just like the young man's.
"Be quiet. This is not a competition, kagami ... "
Her voice was muffled by the mask, but it was still audible that she was in pain. Her left arm was injured and bled, the red liquid flowing down and dripping onto the floor.
Suddenly Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Happy realized that they had just found what they were looking for.
Moonchild.