"Where is Happy?"
Those words were the first things Ksaner heard as he opened the door into the infirmary, where Natsu, Lucy and Gray had been recuperating, and where Erza had been explaining her newfound information to them, though to be more specific she was waiting for Ksaner to come in, so that he could answer the only question that was on Natsu's mind. After he had left her on the balcony, Erza had promptly caught up with him again, demanding him to explain what happened to Happy to them, since she didn't feel comfortable doing it herself. He had obliged albeit rather reluctantly.
As soon as Ksaner had entered the room, Natsu was already in his face, waiting eagerly for an answer to the question, although deep down he knew that it would not end well, although he did well in ignoring that possibility. When he had woken up the day before, his mind had been hazy and to be frank, he wasn't sure whether or not he had actually woken up, or if it had been a dream. It might have been, but he had realized that it wasn't when Erza had asked him if could remember anything else since last night. He hadn't actually remembered anything, until he randomly saw a cart filled with fish stroll by on the street outside the window, which for some strange reason reminded him of Happy, whom up until that point had been completely forgotten. It was as if his entire existence had been completely erased, or blocked out, which it was: he was not sure.
When he remembered Happy, he had asked Erza rather hastily, but she had just deflected the question with that wistful expression that she had been wearing rather frequently, ever since she had seen Ksaner near Galuna. Natsu was not normally one to react to subtle hints, but he knew what she meant when he saw that expression, although he still refused to acknowledge it until he heard the definite words. Words he was truly, utterly dreading.
Ksaner closed the door behind him, and sighed deeply, which only seemed to increase the worry shown on Natsu's face. "I'm afraid," he began, and as soon as he had said those two words, Natsu turned away from Ksaner and looked around bewildered, almost like a child who got lost. "That Happy isn't here anymore…" Ksaner said, finishing his sentence, as well as finishing the illusion Natsu had created in his mind.
Happy is dead. Those words resounded within Natsu's mind as his head sunk lower and lower. His face contorting into a fusion between anger, pain and sorrow. It was not long before the tears started to pour like a torrent from his eyes, and with it, the insatiable sobbing. It was as if his heart had been forcibly torn out of his chest, along with everything connected to it…the pain was unbearable, it was overwhelming and it was all consuming. He did not hear any of the comforting words from Erza, nor the angry questions to Ksaner. He did not see how Lucy was trying to keep herself from crying. There was nothing anyone could have said or done that could overpower the grief that consumed his entire world.
After fifteen minutes of solicitous silence, in which Lucy's attempt at trying not to cry had failed, Gray had managed to bottle up his anger, confusion and the relentless questions as to what happened. Erza was trying to continuously comfort Natsu, although she had given up ten minutes ago, letting him be alone with his feelings, as her compassion didn't seem to help. And finally Natsu, whom had eventually managed to stop weeping incessantly, and was now resting on his knees, his face submerged in darkened shadows, with the eventual tear drop falling from his bloodshot eyes. Ksaner just stood there, watching each of them react to the news, with an apathetic facial expression, something, which Gray had been quick to notice and had promptly inquired as to why he could look so careless. He had tried to brush it off; however, Gray, deluded by the loss of Happy had continued to question him in an ever-louder voice, only to stop when Erza eventually told him to do so.
Back in the present, Natsu finally looked up. His eyes were red and his cheeks were still stained by the diminishing flow of tears. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at Ksaner, with a mask that was on the verge of breaking. "H-…how did he die?" Natsu asked with a shaky voice, a voice that was teetering on the edge of yet another breakdown, yet somehow managed to bolster whatever strength was left inside of him.
"I don't know exactly how it happened, but…" Ksaner started, glancing over at Erza.
She was at first surprised by this action, mostly because she had imagined him to state it bluntly without consideration…maybe not the nicest perception, but nevertheless the one she had. Hesitantly, she nodded, hoping with every inch of her being that it was the right decision.
"He was…used, so to speak, by the cultists. The thing is, Deliora wa-," Ksaner began, but was rather abruptly interrupted by Gray.
"That thing really was Deliora?! Wait…what happened to Lyon?!" he almost shouted at Ksaner, jumping up from the bed.
"Could you just…try to calm down, I'll explain everything, so please, be patient," Ksaner said, with as much sympathy as he could.
Gray furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance, but gave up in the end and nodded reluctantly, after which he sat down on the bed again.
"As I was saying, Deliora was actually dead…the spell that was used to seal it slowly drained whatever was left of its magic over the years, eventually killing it, but as far as I know, the cultists possessed some hex doctor that could control time, as well as some other person with an almost insurmountable amount of knowledge in regards to transmutation of living creatures. It's unfathomable that they were in possession of both those things, but that's how it turned out. Anyhow, they somehow managed to capture Happy and funnel his magic essence, which in this case roughly translates to his soul, or spirit, into Deliora replenishing it entirely and reviving it from the dead," Ksaner explained slowly and clearly.
"But Happy didn't have the magic to fuel that…monster," Erza noted, looking somewhat skeptically at Ksaner.
"That's true, however when Deliora, as well as Lullaby, were initially created, Zeref used a normal magic essence, weaving it into the monsters that we know. Transmutation of living creatures are dependent on the one who made the transmutation to begin with, and how powerful he is. The more powerful the mage, the more efficient will the container be spending each newly acquired soul. Essentially, the mage can create a vessel that feasts on souls and grows stronger with each new soul it obtains, but never truly requires more than a single spark of magic to function at full capacity. That's why it's so dangerous if those kinds of demons first start their onslaught, because at the end they have the potential to become unstoppable, even if the original spell is subpar, which in this case, it wasn't. It took a lot to bring it down, and the collateral damage was immense…you three, excluding myself, were the only ones to make it off the island alive, the island was obliterated entirely during the fight," Ksaner continued. The last two remarks hit Gray hard, almost as if someone had just punched all the air out of him. Whatever strength he had managed to keep hold off before quickly vanished, as he sunk down in the bed, his head hanging dejectedly. "When I arrived, Deliora had just been awakened…it was pandemonium, absolute chaos. There were cultists running away, some simply dying from hearing the monster roar…they were massacred indiscriminately…it turned out that they were only innocent people wanting revenge because the monster destroyed their homes and ruined their lives when it rampaged in the north. They were misled by this, 'Lyon-person', blinded by the prospect of finally seeing an end to Deliora, but little did they know that it was already dead, and if anything they worsened the situation…I don't want to imagine what would've happen if I hadn't stopped it," he said, whilst keeping an eye on Gray who had now sunken even further down in the bed.
"But…if Happy's soul was transferred, it should still be around…right?" Erza said with an almost pleading look, which quickly directed back to Natsu who seemed to lighten for but a second.
"You're grasping for straws…I'm sad to say this, but he's dead. There's no coming back after what happened. You can only let go of it, or become stronger in order to live with it," Ksaner stated plainly, and from Erza's perspective, also callously.
She gave him a sharp look, clearly saying, 'how could you say that' or 'couldn't you just have lied'.
Ksaner just briefly shook his head in response to Erza, after which he turned his focus towards Lucy, who had been slowly fading into the background, not saying a word in fear of interrupting any of the others. Needless to say, the sudden attention she received caused her to flinch slightly, though she quickly managed to settle down again. "I managed to salvage this, if that is at least some form of reconciliation," he said after which he threw a golden zodiac key to Lucy, who barely managed to catch it after fumbling with it for a bit.
"T-than-," she started, though was interrupted by Ksaner making a gesture with a hand signaling for her to stop.
"Please, don't. Just…" he started though his voice trailed off. "Just, live…" he said to no one in particular. After he had said that, he turned around, opened the door, walked out of it and closed it behind himself.
As soon as he turned around after closing the door behind him, he noticed a quite short person standing in front of him, leaning against the opposite wall.
"How are they?" Makarov asked Ksaner, his concern clearly apparent in his voice.
"They…aren't good," he responded rather dryly. "They took it pretty hard, but that's only to be expected…anyway, it's probably for the best to wait for them to come out by themselves…Natsu is really shaken up about this, Gray is as well, at least more than what he is letting on."
"Gray too?" Makarov asked with a raised eyebrow.
Ksaner nodded. "Turns out that someone called Lyon was also there, and Gray knew him somehow, what their connection was I'm not quite sure, but I can guess that they met up north, but then something happened to them because of Deliora probably, though that's just me guessing."
"Lyon was Gray's master's other apprentice," Makarov said, answering Ksaner's speculation.
"Ah, I see. Anyhow, I'd best be going now, I don't know how much longer I can keep myself awake anymore," he said casually, starting to walk away.
Makarov smiled kindly. "Thank you," he said.
Ksaner stopped and turned his head and looked back at him. "It's the least I could do," he said briefly, before titling his head around again.
Makarov sighed contently, his focus now back to the closed door in front of him, oblivious to the sadistic smile that had briefly crossed Ksaner's face.
The seconds turned to minutes, and as the minutes turned to hours, the door finally opened and the four mentally worn out mages stepped out slowly, each stopping in front of Makarov who was waiting for them.
Lucy was the first to notice him. "Master," she said quickly, quite surprised by his sudden appearance. Gray only barely acknowledged Makarov's presence, phasing out of his daze shortly to nod at him, after which he submerged himself back into his thoughts. Natsu, the last to come out noticed his presence immediately, though he didn't smile at him like he would normally. The thought didn't even crossed his mind.
Makarov started talking to them all as soon as they had all come out of the room. "I know this is going to be a very difficult time for you all, but I want you to remember that you are always at home here, and that if you are ever in need of comfort, you can always come here, because we're family here…never forget that. I want you all to go home and rest...when you've regained your strength, come back here and we can talk about whatever you need to talk about. Just promise me you'll come back here, each of you," Makarov said in a soft tone, one Natsu had heard only once before. When Lisanna died. The memory brought back even more painful thoughts and feelings. It seemed as if this day was nothing more than an endless torrent of sorrow and grief, as if this day was solely designated to stab him in the back and pierce his heart continuously. His face yet again became convulsed in sorrow, and the tears started to flood again…though he still nodded, alongside the rest.
Makarov looked at Natsu with concern…when Lisanna had died, Natsu had taken a heavy blow, but that seemed almost incomparable to what he was going through now. It worried him greatly, and his inability to help him was driving him mad. Some wounds are best mended by time, and this was definitely one of them. They were also the most painful ones, regrettably. The only anesthesia that could relieve the pain was another shoulder to lean on for support.
"Lucy, could you let Natsu stay at your house?" Makarov asked her.
Lucy looked a little befuddled at him, although she quickly nodded and then shot a glance at Natsu, who was still being overwhelmed by a stream of tears that seemed to be never-ending. She had never seen him like that, and she had thought that he under any circumstance would keep his joyous personality, though that idea had quickly burst.
"Natsu, are you fine staying at Lucy's house?" Makarov asked.
Natsu nodded somberly, still looking down at the ground.
Makarov smiled solemnly. "I'll see you soon," he added, after he slowly strolled down the hallway towards the bar.
The four of them stood there for a couple of seconds before Erza started walking, and all of them just sort of followed along, not bothering to ask where they were going, nor go their own way. Natsu was rubbing his sore eyes, trying to remove all of the tears before they went outside, whilst Gray was too preoccupied to pay attention to anything outside of his own head, aside from the most basic of movement. 'Lyon is dead…but why did he lead those people? Why was he even there in the first place?' The thoughts kept circulating endlessly within the confines of his mind. Lucy, the person who was affected the least by all that had transpired, was feeling a deep, intense melancholy she'd never before experienced. She had been sad before, she had cried, she had been angry, furious even, but she had never felt so…empty before. Everything just seemed so sad to her, and she felt like the tears she should, or rather, needed to cry had already been shed, because she couldn't feel them at all, not after the initial wave when she was informed of what happened to Happy. It felt surreal to her, otherworldly. Erza, the current leader of the group, was too busy being concerned about the others to notice the stares from everyone in the guild as they passed through the main hall.
Those who sat close said their condolences, those who didn't, just nodded with sorrowful expressions towards them. The four of them might as well have carried Happy's coffin through the main-hall and it would not have changed the mood, not even in the slightest. With each step they took, they moved an inch closer to his grave, an inch closer to the last farewell.
Author Notes; Another chapter draws to a close, and with that, Happy as well. Anyway, some minor news, I've two beta readers helping me improve the story, so the quality should be above the usual. As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and feel free to leave a review.
Also, I'm trying to mix up the lengths of the chapters, where chapter with little to no major things happen, they will be short short, and the more important ones are going to be longer.
Thanks for reading and I stay tuned for the next chapter, where some things are going to happen.
(I chose to increase the rating from T to M, just to be safe since some of the scenes later on are probably not going to be T rated, and no, I'm not talking about depictions of sexual intercourse, or at least I don't think so)
