Prologue The Many Morally Questionable Deeds of Precht Gaebolg

Chapter 1

==November Year X765==

The sky was dark with snow as Precht observed the wreckage of the small town before him. Precht stroked his long white beard, "Zeref's handiwork certainly packs a wallop." He gazed after the retreating form of the flying island known as the Cube.

In less than an hour, the demons of Tartaros had annihilated the town before him. Precht had felt the massive eruption of power from a hundred kilometers away and quickly arrived to investigate. By the time he had arrived, it was too late and the town was already in ruins. Not that even I could likely have done much against so many of Zeref's demons, Precht mused. Then an idea occurred to him and he shot a small sly grin at the wreckage, "But that doesn't mean I can't make a demon of my own to fight them next time…"

He pulled a tattered tome from the extradimensional pocket where he kept his things and willed it to hover in the air before him, "Let's see now…" He turned through the tattered tome and review the magic spells within, nodding and muttering to himself as he conjured a chair to sit in while he brushed up on the black magic he was preparing to use.

After nearly two hours, he was ready. Precht rose and raised his hands before beginning to chant in an ancient tongue which sounded much like vaguely musical and ominous gibberish to any who did not know it. As he called upon the darkness within himself, the magic he was using began to draw upon the lost souls of those in the wreckage before him. He tried not to let it rattle him as he heard the howls of despair and cries of torment echo through the past. The crack of whips and the squelch of blood echoed in his ears as every misfortune that had befallen the bodies before him made themselves known. The roar of flames and crashing of buildings were like thunder in his ears as the darkness washed forth from his hands and swept over the small town like a tidal wave.

Precht resisted the urge to look around and see what his magic was doing. A single mispronounced syllable could kill him, he dared not look away from the tome before him even as the howls and screams intensified. The incantation took almost a solid five minutes, then it was finished and Precht was able to look at what he had wrought.

A massive glowing black and purple mass had formed over the wreckage. It was a writhing thing lined with red and echoing with the screams of the doomed. Then, just as Precht turned his gaze upon it, the massive blob of magical power shuddered. As Precht's breath left him in awe, the blob formed from the wrathful and despairing ghosts within the town seemed to lean towards him. Precht's breath seized in terror as he wondered if he had misspoken the incantation. Then the blob screamed in a chorus of voices, "WHAT DO YOU WAAAAAAAANT?!"

Precht stared in shock for a moment and then he recovered, "Choose the herald of your vengeance to impart your power upon! I will train them to be the greatest wizard in history! Mighty enough that even the demons who left you in this sorry state will be unable to stand against him! Choose a mighty vessel, capable of holding all your anguish and rage at those who have wronged you! Choose well that they might one day take vengeance in your stead!"

The blob of torment was still and then it began to howl. Precht took a step back in fear as the wordless howl rose to a fever pitch and then the blob began to whirl like it was made of some strange liquid wind. It crackled with lightning and shook with thunder, raging cold and searing flame burst out in waves from it along with torrents of emotion and the world itself seemed to ripple around it from the force of its power.

The whirling mass of darkness grew and grew until it was a massive twister of power. In a matter of seconds, it was a sky-high hurricane of purple magic glowing with wicked light, looking not all that dissimilar to a malefic version of Fairy Law up at the top. Precht watched in awe as the cyclone of magic raged, stirring the storm clouds overhead until they were raging out of control with rain, thunder and lightning. The flames and the wreckage were sucked in as the wind howled in to the twister with such force Precht had to use his Chain Magic to hold himself down, "What is this?!"

Then before his eyes, the twister began to shrink as the glow from the heavens narrowed. In mere moments, the twister was gone and there was a tiny purple spotlight shining down on what had been a ruined building until it was absorbed by the twister.

Precht released his Chain Magic and quickly walked over to the spotlight. He found lying in the middle of the purple spotlight a small being. The being was snow white all over, except for a pair of glowing green eyes. It had two small nubby horns poking out from above its eyebrows and a wicked looking set of talons for hands. There was a forest of thin tendrils of snowy white flesh issuing from along the backs of its shoulders and what looked like a tail with a barbed spade at the end. It was undoubtedly a demon Precht knew, but aside from the much too wide mouth, its face and size were so much like that of a child he had to marvel at it.

Then as he watched, the demons flesh began to turn to a more normal human color. The tendrils and horns and tail all began to retract, like fishing line being reeled back in. Its eyes slid shut as the small demon's claws went from black to pink and shrank until they were just normal fingertips. In mere seconds, the small demon was a little boy in tattered clothes with stark white hair despite looking to be barely more than a toddler.

Then the boy's eyes flickered open, bright, alert and completely devoid of the pupiless green glow that had pervaded them a moment before. He sat up, "Where am I? What happened? Is it gone? Is everyone okay?!"

Precht blinked at the onslaught of questions and then answered them, "You are right where you dropped. The demon band known as Tartaros attacked and leveled your hometown, horrifically killing all who lived here. Yes they are gone now. If there were any other survivors, which I doubt given their reputation, then they have fled. You have only survived because my magic revived you just now."

The boy blinked as he took that in and then a moment later he drew his knees up to his chest and rain started pouring, "If that's true and my family's dead then I wish you hadn't. I don't want to be all alone."

Precht blinked at the sudden downpour. He looked up at the sky and then back at the boy and considered what the spell had done, Could he be causing this? Then he put on his best Fairy Tail smile, "Why you're not alone at all boy! I'm here aren't I?"

The boy looked up with watery eyes and the rain abruptly stopped, "You mean it?" Precht smiled awkwardly in the sudden lack of rain, "Well of course! I said so didn't I?" Definitely the boy controlling the weather, and his vocabulary is impressive for one so young. He's probably very smart, "After all, you seem to have the makings of a terribly powerful wizard! Wouldn't you like to learn magic so that maybe one day you can pay those nasty old demons back for what they did to your hometown? Come on, we'll get you somewhere warm and dry to recover!"

The boy looked troubled, "Mommy said I shouldn't talk to strangers." Precht stood up and stroked his beard, "Oh? Is that so? Well then, we must simply introduce ourselves! Then we won't be strangers!" The boy brightened considerably, "Really? Ok, I'm Oby!" Precht smiled warmly back at him, "And I'm Precht Gaebolg. Come on, let's go see about that warm meal I offered you!"

"How about a heaping helping of death before you go?" A voice called with a smirk. Precht whirled and his blood ran cold as he saw a pack of demons standing on the hillside above them, the Cube hovering not far behind them.

Before Precht could come up with a witty response or activate a magic that would allow him to flee with the boy, he heard a strange choking sound. He looked down and saw the boy, Oby, staring at the demons, bug eyed with rage. Precht stepped out of his way, This is probably not going to end well…

"YOU." Oby snarled in a chorus of voices that Precht recognized as the souls of his town, "YOU KILLED MY FAMILY!"

"Probably," the lead demon declared nonchalantly, "Did they live here? I'm sorry, I can't tell one fly from another." POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Said lead demon was immediately blasted with a bolt of black lightning that fell from the sky like the wrath of some raging god. Precht's gaze snapped to the boy and he saw that the child was quickly reverting to his demon form, black markings rapidly spreading across his body as violent purple light began to play around his rapidly changing form.

"YOU. WILL. PAY." The boy snarled, "STORM DEEEMOOON'S RAAAAAAAAAAAGE!" Precht only narrowly managed to spring clear of the beam of wild destructive power. Precht's eyes were wide in surprise as the massive violet storm erupted towards the demons. So this is the power of Lord Zeref's demons! Precht thought in shock.

Then he became aware of another massive whirlwind holding back the boy's attack. Eventually the boy's attack petered out, the cyclone countering it didn't. The cyclone rushed forward and Precht thought for sure he was about to be sent flying. Then the cyclone focused itself and became a seething black mist that the boy inhaled in an instant. "THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?!" The boy asked with a vicious grin.

"Hardly," the massive leonine demon that had produced the cyclone replied, "Inferno." He flicked his finger and a bolt of flames erupted forth, quickly spreading into a wave before being dissolved and swallowed as well.

"THAT TASTES LIKE BURNING CRAP," the boy-demon told the leonine demon with a smirk. The leonine demon looked slightly taken aback and then he turned to the leader, the one that had been blasted by the boy's lightning, "Kyoka. Your turn."

The now named Kyoka wiped a bit of blood from her lip and looked upon Precht and the boy-demon with pure undiluted hatred. Before she could invoke her curse, the boy-demon disappeared, "I REMEMBER YOU." He hissed as he delivered a massive kick laden with lightning to the back of Kyoka's neck. Kyoka had enough time to gasp in shock and then the boy-demon twisted mid air and wrapped a volley of his tentacles around her throat before blasting her with a fresh bolt of lightning. Precht stared as the demoness was sent to her knees, struggling with the tentacles around her throat as she screamed in the center of the blinding nimbus of purple lightning. "PAYBACK'S A BITCH AND SO ARE YOU!" The boy-demon declared with sadistic delight.

Precht made a note to temper the boy's language if they survived. Then he flinched as the boy-demon's claws erupted through Kyoka's chest, first once and then repeatedly, tearing away large chunks of flesh until there was nothing left of the demoness but a tattered and charbroiled lower half, a cooked head with a surprised expression and some disembodied limbs.

The other demons stared as the boy-demon stood there panting in wake of his shockingly brutal kill. Then he turned to face them with a savage grin, "WHO'S NEXT?"

The boy was then flattened as a dark figure landed on his head from above, "That would be me." Precht felt terror grow in his gut as he sensed the immense power of the demon before him as it drew itself up to its full height and turned to face him.

The demon was tall and took the form of a young man with long dark hair and a longer dark cloak. "I am Mard Geer, King of the Underworld," the demon declared, "Your imitation of Lord Zeref's magic intrigues me human. How have you created an Etherious strong enough to challenge my comrades?"

Before Precht could answer, Mard Geer looked down in surprise as the boy-demon's tentacles wrapped around his legs, "I'M STRONG ENOUGH TO FIGHT YOU TOO." ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!

When the light faded and Precht finished blinking the stars from his eyes he found Mard Geer looking down at the boy-demon with an unamused expression, "With a few decades of training, maybe," Mard Geer declared before yanking his foot free from the boy-demon's tentacles and stomping his head into the ground, "Until then, remember your place."

The boy's reply was muffled and then a massive explosion erupted out from him. Precht stared in shock as once again Mard Geer was unharmed and looked only severely annoyed despite his subordinates having been sent flying.

The boy grumbled something else muffled and then flung Mard Geer off him before rising back to his feet. He summoned two whirling vortexes of energy around his hands and began to storm forward as his tentacles crackled with lightning behind him and his eyes glowed with vicious purple light. Mard Geer landed effortlessly on his feet and raised an eyebrow at the young demon storming towards him before casting a glance at Precht, "Human, what book did you use to summon this one?"

Precht looked at the book he had gotten the incantation from and then realized that telling Mard Geer might get his creation and him killed more swiftly. He grinned, "Why should I tell you that? It seems to me that the boy there is saving my life from you. It would be shameful of me not to help him don't you think?"

Mard Geer's expression turned even more sour, "I suppose I shall have to remove the book from your corpse to find out."

Precht grinned and aimed a finger gun, "You go right ahead and try that." The bullet magic rocketed forward at blinding speed and actually succeeded in rocking Mard Geer's head back as it slammed into his face right between the eyes. "NICE!" Oby exclaimed as he sprang forward and began to pummel Mard Geer with everything he had, his hands and crackling tentacles dissolving into a blur of motion as he slammed attacks into every opening in Mard Geer's defenses with manic fervor.

Precht cast a glance around at the demons pulling themselves back to their feet and put the book away before raising a second finger gun with a grin, "Shall we dance?" Before the demons could reply Precht cut loose with a hurricane of bullet magic that rained down upon the demons like a storm of artillery. The instant Mard Geer and the demons thought the unexpected assault was letting up, Precht and Oby switched opponents. Precht's chain magic latched around Mard Geer's throat and ripped the Underworld King from his feet as Oby turned and unleashed a massive Storm Demon's Rage on the nearest demons.

The demons of Tartaros weren't quite sure how to handle the situation. It was the first time any of them could remember being battered about so easily. That being said though, they were among the oldest combatants in the world, and quickly regrouped. Slowly but surely, they began to regroup and once they had, they quickly began to force Precht and Oby onto the defensive until the two were back to back and surrounded. "Any last words?" Mard Geer asked smugly as he readied a curse to obliterate them.

"Just two," Precht replied with a cheeky grin as he held his hands in a gesture that the demons of Tartaros would never forget as a blinding golden light appeared between them. Precht clapped his hands together and the light became blinding as the sky seemed to open up and then Precht roared, "FAIRY…LAW!"

There was a massive downburst of glowing golden power, and when Oby and Precht finished blinking the stars from their eyes, the eight demons facing them were gone. Precht coughed lightly, certain that his already pale hair had grown even whiter, "I had forgotten how much that takes out of me."

Oby stepped around him, his demonic form quickly fading back to human as he looked around with wide eyes. Then he looked up at Precht, "Hey Grandpa Precht?"

Precht looked down at him, slightly baffled by the term, "Yes?"

"Anyone ever tell you that you're freaking awesome?!"

Precht blinked in surprise and then began to laugh.

==Meanwhile, Aboard the Cube==

Lamy flinched as eight more tubes in Hell's Core began to bubble with power, "Thaaat's not good…" she muttered as the first thing to manifest in the tubes was a pair of eyes brimming with the smoldering fury of Mard Geer.

…

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AN: Before anyone goes to complaining that Oby and Precht are too strong, I'd like to point out three things:

-Number one, Grimoire Heart was canonically stated to be the strongest of the Balam Alliance's Big 3 (Grimoire Heart, Oracion Seis and Tartaros), so it serves to reason that at the height of their power they could beat Tartaros.

-Number two, Oby was resurrected with the magical power of an entire town infused with vengeful intent stuffed into him for the sole purpose of hunting down and crushing the demons of Tartaros, and turning him into the perfect weapon to do so.

-Number three, even with that being said, Oby and Precht would have lost this fight against eight of the Nine Demon Gates (Silver's not dead yet and therefore hasn't been resurrected to join) plus Mard Geer if Precht hadn't used Fairy Law when he did, and they would've lost BADLY. They're strong enough to give those nine they fought in this chapter a workout, but they were still out numbered 4 to 1, and Mard Geer alone is about three times stronger than any of the others, so after he joined the fight it was effectively 5 to 1 since they had just lost Kyoka. A very large part of the reason is that Tartaros wasn't expecting them to put up anysort of a fight against that many of them, and Oby's multiple elements of Demon Slayer Magic caught them severely off guard.

As for Kyoka, she tortured Erza (my favorite character) and I'm pretty sure there were some major rapey vibes in that scene. That is unforgivable, therefore Kyoka must die repeatedly, painfully and in ways that would make even her sadistic ass squeamish.