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Chapter 7: A Nice View Of The Sky
Ice and snow started spinning around Gray's feet, forming a whirlwind of bitter coldness that started to form a transparent sphere around Gray. Ice started to rise up from the ground and it started to cover his soles and spread upwards towards his ankles. A steady look of determination on his face as he stared straight into Lyon's own unwavering gaze. Lyon himself hadn't moved yet, he believed it all to be a bluff, even if he wasn't kidding the poor fool would only waste his life since his followers could put him under the Moondrip.
Just as the ice started spreading upwards even more towards his shins, they stopped. The spell had been interrupted by Natsu of course, with a flaming fist into Gray's soft cheek, he stopped the mighty Iced Shell from being fully casted. Gray's body was propelled by the speed at which his jaw turned from the punch, sending him flying to the ground.
"What the hell do you think you're doing stripper?! It's my fight damn it, I'm gonna beat that no-good Popsicle down!" Natsu yelled, smoke billowing from his flared nostrils.
"Go away Natsu! I have to end this once and for all!"
"Shut the hell up! I may not be the smartest person but I know that your damn spell is gonna kill you, and killing yourself is basically the same as running away from this fight!"
Gray wasn't happy to admit it, but the pyromaniac was right. That spell would have to be used as an absolute last resort. And if he couldn't beat Lyon on his own, how could he bring pride back to his teacher's name after he had shamed it?
"Alright fine, just shut up and let me fight with you then." Gray grabbed a hold of Natsu's outstretched hand and picked himself up.
"Tch, fine. But you better not get in my way you pervert." Natsu faced Lyon, and grinned toothily.
"I should be worried about your slow ass getting in my way Matchstick." Gray squared up, magic circles already being formed at his hands.
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Zalty and Ichigo both found themselves having a standoff in a secluded area on the temple. Ichigo had his bow out and arrow nocked and pulled, ready to fire. Zalty seemed unarmed but Ichigo knew that it wasn't the case. It's never the case. Someone like him wouldn't dare try and fight Ichigo with nothing but fists. He knew that the masked weirdo would definitely have some form of way to combat him. Zalty moved his wands in a waving motion and quickly sprang to the side, avoiding the arrow that Ichigo sent flying when he saw the movement. Ichigo prepared to nock and let loose one more when he heard rumbling, and looked above. The ceiling was started to collapse straight on top of him! He managed to roll out of the way of a particularly heavy piece of rubble before they started raining down on him, trapping him inside a prison of rock and stone. He was starting to get irritated. Through a small opening he saw that Zalty was started to make his escape, running away further into the secluded ruins. That was the last straw, Ichigo sent a strong right hook towards the fallen rocks. They blasted away and he began to chase the masked man.
He caught up quite fast, and shot an arrow straight at Zalty. The blue arrow of spiritual energy was about to hit Zalty when an orb of what looks to be marble rose up in front of her. The arrow broke the sphere into tiny pieces, but sacrificed itself as well. The strangest thing happened though, the orb started forming back to its original form out of all the tiny pieces. After the last piece set in place, it shot towards Ichigo like a cannonball.
Ichigo's eyes widened. 'Shit…' He rolled to the side to dodge the flying orb of destruction. It impacted the ground next to him and sent dirt and debris flying everywhere. He readied an arrow again and let go. Once again, Zalty moved the orb in front of himself to block the arrow.
'Damn, these arrows are strong enough to obliterate a tree… What the hell is that orb…' Ichigo was getting frustrated. The cycle continued where he would shoot and dodge, shoot and dodge, shoot and dodge. He wasn't getting anywhere damn it. He noticed something as well, 'He isn't aggressing… It's almost like he wants to keep this cycle going… Let's see if I can pull something off'. He readied an arrow but instead of letting go, he ran straight at Zalty. Zalty was shocked as well. He readied the orb and sent it barrelling to Ichigo, expecting him to destroy the orb. He was shocked even further when Ichigo rolled towards the side, dodging the orb. Zalty smirked, even if he shot the arrow, the ball would be fast enough to block and hit. Apparently Ichigo thought this through as well as he fired the arrow backwards against the orb and leapt towards the unsuspecting Zalty. He launched a kick towards his face, aiming to land his shin into his jaw. He was about to but he got smashed in his rib with an orb. He was knocked back a distance, and he disengaged.
'Damn, that feels familiar. His magic is kinda like that police woman that arrested me and Grimmjow… He's not going all out… Every time I've fought anything in this world, they always say the name of the spell. So far, he hasn't used anything…' Ichigo frowned, his opponent wasn't taking him seriously. "You aren't even trying much are you?"
Zalty smirked at Ichigo. "Nope, but you aren't either. I've seen the kind of things you can do and what you're capable of. This little dinky bow and arrow isn't going to do much to me. So I would recommend getting serious."
'Strange, I never fought him before… How does he know what I can do?' It confused Ichigo, he has never seen this creep in his entire life. "I haven't fought you before… Or your allies, how do you know what I can do?"
Zalty's grin grew further, 'Good… He doesn't know me…'."How I got to know about you is none of your business."
"Tsk. You're quite an annoyance…" Ichigo nocked another arrow, this time it had significantly more size than the previous few. Zalty lost his smile.
The arrow was faster too, Zalty barely managed to dodge the arrow after noticing his orb was too slow to block it normally. Zalty prepared his own assault as Ichigo readied another arrow.
"Flash Forward"
Dozens of the same orbs that Ichigo was dodging appeared out of this air, and rocketed towards him. He tried dodging them by running to the side and rolling away, but they were homing. Just great…
He managed to dodge a good five or six orbs before his leg got clipped by one of the orbs, which slowed him down enough to get smashed by the rest. He rolled across the floor before getting up, noticing that he now had some blue vein looking lines along his forearms, which he used to block most of the orbs. Ichigo was boggled… The old man didn't teach him Blut yet… Or at least how to activate it on his own. 'Ossan?'
"You have gotten tardy in dodging enemy attacks Ichigo. I have activated Blut Vene for you so you wouldn't get too damaged, but it's the last time I will do it in this fight. However I am satisfied with your control over your Hielig Pfiels. Try using a Licht Regen to combat his large number of orbs. Gather up some reiatsu in your shooting shoulder before releasing the flood gates and sending a flood of arrows at your enemy."
'Ah damn, thanks Ossan… Just what I needed.'
"You wouldn't need that stupid attack if you would just cleave that dumbass in half with my blade…"
Looks like Zangetsu is still irked that Ichigo isn't using him…
'Ah shut up… You know I can't use you! If you have any problems take it up with the Old Man damn it! Now stop butting into our conversations if you have nothing good to say!'
"Well I can't exactly help butting in when your conversation echoes throughout your whole fucking Inner World!"
'Just deal with it! Ossan, help me keep him under control! I gotta get back to the fight!'
'Will do Ichigo.'
Ichigo came back to the material world. Barely a second has passed. Ichigo tried to use the tactic he employed before. He ran at Zalty.
"You're really gonna try that again? You're not stupid are you? C'mon… Get serious!" A magic circle appeared in front of his hands. "Flash Forward"
Ichigo planted himself onto the ground, the gathered reiryoku was released, forming hundreds of arrows. Admittedly they were weaker than the standard Hielig Pfiel, but all together they would destroy many things in front of it. "Licht Regen"
A few dozen orbs against a few hundred arrows, the arrows won out. They melted the orbs into basically powder before smashing the ground Zalty was previously standing. He grimaced, it looks like the fight wouldn't exactly be an easy one…
Ichigo wasn't about to let his opponent have some breathing room though, he started pumping reiryoku into his shoulder once again. He angled his bow towards Zalty, and let another blast of arrows fly forth.
Zalty had a tough time dodging this one. A few arrows managed to tear his clothes. He even got a tiny cut on his chin. It would leave a small scar but that was about it.
They found themselves at a standoff once again. Staring each other down with orbs and arrows at the ready. This time they didn't get the chance to start fighting again though. A thundering roar was heard by everything in a half mile radius of the temple. Ichigo was curious.
"Oi! What the hell was that roar!? You and your group have been doing some freaky shit about a demon, was that it?" Ichigo shouted.
"Aw, is the big bad bowman scared of a demon now? Just to humour you, that's Deliora. The demon of destruction. Speaking of which I should probably make my way there, you should too if you want to save your friends. See ya" Zalty replied. He activated his magic on the ground below Ichigo and the ceiling above him, sending him a floor down and having some rubble block his path for a little bit. He didn't expect it to damage him at the least but it would serve as a good distraction.
Ichigo punched through the rubble once again. He frowned before bolting off into the direction of the roar.
"Ice Make: Hammer"
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist"
Gray leapt up with his hammer, bringing it down to Lyon's location. Lyon dodged, but he wasn't expecting Natsu to be so fast as he saw his out of the corner of his eye taking a swing to his midsection. The impact of the flaming fist sent Lyon flying.
So far, the fight between them has been a one sided smack-down. Lyon knew he could go toe-to-toe with Gray no problem, but add the Salamander of Fairy Tail into the mix, it became an impossible task for him. At this point he would just have to try and buy time.
He looked down and grimaced at the state of his attire. Frozen bits and burnt edges. The occasional hole either burnt into his clothes or skewered by ice. Bruises covered his body and other injuries littered his being. He tried to fight back, but between the heat of the dragon slayer and Gray's own proficiency with Ice-Make his attacked would just get mowed down. There was one thing that he just didn't understand… Whenever they traded blows, Gray's ice would plough through his.
"Your attacks, how are they destroying my creations? When you're using that weak form?" Lyon let his inner questions known.
"You're pathetic you know that? The fact that you don't even know why is enough evidence to show that you've blinded yourself. I'll show it to you if you want the answer. Natsu you can stay out of this for a bit now. It's personal."
"Tch, fine. If you hate living so much then I'll relieve you of your burden! Ice Make: Eagle"
Gray summoned a sword of ice, and cut through the ice creations. He leapt into the air before summoning a hammer of ice and sending it smashing downwards at Lyon. Lyon shattered into ice, signalling a clone. From his back Gray heard "Ice Make: Tiger"
Gray was good at thinking on his feet though, he quickly created an ice cage around Lyon –and his tiger- trapping him in. Lyon tried his best to bust out of it but found that he couldn't.
"You wanna know why you can't bust out even with the tiger? Because when you use one hand, it makes you unbalanced and you can't use your full power. This was one of the first ever lessons that Ur thought us… And you just abandoned that and dared to mock it. I can't let you get off easily for that. Besides it's time we brought this fight to a close. Ice-Make: Cannon!" Gray summoned his frozen artillery and shot a giant ice ball at Lyon, smashing through the cage and tiger and sending Lyon into a wall. A quick check showed that he was unconscious.
"Heh, guess you didn't do that badly stripper." Natsu walked over, grin on his face.
"Oh shut it you kitchen stove, I definitely did twice as much as you." Gray replied back with a smirk.
Natsu was about to retort and challenge the shirtless (and soon to be pants-less) Ice mage, but was cut off when they both heard a roar echo through the temple.
Gray and Natsu both nodded at each other before sprinting towards the sound.
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Erza found Toby, and smashed the flat side of her blade into his head, knocking him out and sending him away from the ritual site. Erza and Lucy were hoping it wouldn't be too late, but their hopes were shattered when they heard Deliora's roar. They ran downwards to the where the beast was kept encased.
When they reached they heard more sounds of footsteps coming their way. Erza and Lucy prepared weapons and keys respectively in case it was another enemy. They were pleasantly surprised when they saw Gray and Natsu running towards them.
"Natsu! Gray! Over here!" Lucy signalled.
Natsu and Gray sprinted over to them and doubled over, catching their breath. Natsu was first to speak. "Oh hey… Lucy and Erza… When did you two… Get here…" He managed to utter out a few words in between pants. "Wait… Erza?!" Natsu suddenly stood ramrod straight, looked into Erza's eyes and prepared to run in the opposite direction.
Erza caught hold of Natsu collar before he could get away though. "We have more important things to worry about Natsu, I think Deliora's coming back to life. I shall settle your punishment later. And have any of you seen Ichigo?"
Natsu adopted a look of thinking, before he responded. "Yep! He decided to help us out and went to fight that masked creep Zesty."
Gray sweatdropped. "I'm pretty sure his name was Zalty Natsu…"
"Ah whatever…"
Erza was pleased by Natsu's answer. Even though Ichigo's lack of discipline and obedience in carrying out the task and fulfilling the rules irked her, it still showed that he had a heart.
The group once again heard some footsteps, this time it was Zalty.
Zalty stopped in his tracks as he saw the group. 'Aw shit…'
Gray and Natsu were about to send a bombardment of magic attacks, but Erza stepped forward with sword in hand.
"Flash Forward!"
Erza sliced through a few of the orbs, the rest were dealt with by Natsu and Gray.
Zalty tried to run towards Deliora, but a few arrows imbedding themselves in the side of the wall she was just about to run in front of stopped her.
The blue arrows could be traced back to the white-coat wearing Ichigo. Erza and company were shocked. If Zalty had been any faster, he would have been dead.
"I was hoping you wouldn't be here that fast… Damn."
Ichigo had his trademark scowl. "You don't honestly think a little rubble and a floor difference is going to stop me do you?"
"Could always try."
"What the hell are you even doing here? You're not one of Lyon's lackeys. You have another agenda don't you?"
Zalty actually smiled a little at this. 'Good… He isn't stupid.'
"Looks like I'm caught red handed. Truthfully I knew with all my heart that Lyon can't beat Deliora no matter what he did. I just wanted him released so I could control him."
Gray was infuriated by this. "You… You want to release the demon of Destruction just because you want to control him?! And you think you're strong enough to control him?! What kind of nonsensical bullshit is this?!" Gray started charging up his magic, and shot an ice ball using his cannon. Natsu added in his roar. Zalty used orbs to block and dodge both attacks.
"Hahaha you really think that would do anything?" Zalty taunted.
"No, but this will." Ichigo spoke up from behind him. By the time Zalty turned to face him, Ichigo had already kicked his face round house style, smashing him against the wall behind him. Then he proceeded to knee Zalty in the gut and deliver a sharp punch to his chin to knock him out. And it worked.
Another roar from Deliora brought everyone's attention to it. The ice that trapped him was started to break into chunks.
Lyon's voice was suddenly heard. "All of you go away! This is my moment and mine only! I have to surpass Ur." The group turned to see Lyon with his multitude of injuries barely keeping himself up. Gray had enough of him at this point, and walked up to him and delivered a solid body shot with his right fist and Lyon crumpled back down to an unconscious form.
Deliora roared once again, and now it was almost completely free of ice, only its feet were still covered.
Gray sprang into action, he ran up to the demon and started charging up a spell that he got his ass handed to him for almost using earlier. "Iced Shell"
Just like earlier, he got his face pummelled by Natsu's fist. But this time he didn't understand why he did it.
"What the hell are you doing Natsu?! This isn't like before! I actually have to use it to stop that thing!"
"I'll fight it damn it!" Natsu shouted back.
"What do you mean you'll fight it!? You are definitely not strong enough! This isn't some competition of strength Natsu!"
"Shut the hell up! I'm not fighting it because it's a competition, I'm fighting it because I don't want you to die damn it!"
Gray stopped his argument. Natsu was right though. He was prepared to fight and risk his life so they could all escape together…
"Fine, we're taking him down together."
As Gray and Natsu prepared themselves to attack the demon, they noticed that it was started to crumble. The demon lifted his arm and formed a fist, preparing to smash the mages below it. But alas that never took place as his hand started to crumble. The effects of being in the prison of ice that long were started to show.
"Ur's Iced Shell completely drained it of its life force… It was already dead… Damn…" Gray came to the conclusion on his own. Such was the effect of the spell.
"You know, you keep talking about this Iced Shell thing but I still have no clue what it is…" Ichigo commented.
This time Erza decided to explain it. "It's a spell that transforms the user's body into ice to trap the recipient's body in it. It's a special type of ice though, since it can't melt."
"Wait, so it only transforms right?"
"Yes… Why is that information important?" Erza was confused, why would he pin point that exact detail?
"Because I have a way to bring her back to human form. But it's all dependant on much you can Requip now." Ichigo learnt of Erza's main form of magic while on the boat ride. Little chit chat to pass the time eventually lead to a conversation on how she pulled weapons out of thin air.
"I can Requip quite a decent amount of material. Why?"
Ichigo didn't bother to answer the question, he just ran off and started carrying some of the ice chunks. "Find and carry as much of the ice chunks as you can! Erza I need you to Requip these so they don't melt."
Erza and company did as they were told, if it meant that they could save Gray's teacher, then by all means they would do it. They gathered all the pieces they could find, thankfully none of them have started melting just yet. Erza concentrated deeply and managed to Requip all of the ice at one go. It took quite a bit out of her though.
"I know it seems weird right now, but just trust me I have a friend that's capable of some amazing things."
The group did think it was quite weird, but the new guild was just full of weirdness. And their weirdness almost wiped them off the face of the world.
Ichigo noticed that Zalty disappeared sometime during the whole debacle but he chose not to comment on it.
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The group was celebrating in the village now, somehow it had been rebuilt completely, almost as if it never happened. Natsu was scoffing down huge amounts of food. Happy had his own fair share, admittedly less than Natsu, being a cat and all. Lucy was just happy in her own relaxing chair, enjoying a drink. Gray was in a party mood, eating a little bit before going off to dance with some of the locals. Lyon was still tied up in one corner.
The mood of course had to be spoiled by none other than Erza. "Must I remind you all that we still haven't completed this mission yet? Why can't you all be more like Ichigo here, who is still prepared?" She gestured towards Ichigo who still had his gargantuan metal bow on his left hand.
"What?! How is it not over?! The demon's dead!" The group collectively complained.
"Killing the demon was not the purpose of the quest. It was to lift the curse on the villagers."
"But Deliora is dead… Shouldn't the curse have been lifted?"
Erza pondered about this information… Why is the moon a different colour?
Gray turned to Lyon, hopefully he would have some answers. "Hey, you started this whole Moon Drip thing, is that what's causing this moon?"
"I don't know why I should answer, but I have no clue. I have never interacted with the villagers, and vice versa. The Moon Drip has never affected me or my followers though. A word of caution, the villagers might be hiding something."
Erza decided to confront the villagers straight up, and left the room. The rest except for Gray followed too. Gray stayed behind. He found a chair, pulled it across and sat next to Lyon.
"You know Lyon, you should find a guild to be a part of… After I lose Ur, Fairy Tail was just as much of a family to me as her. They helped me recover and get over it. You should consider it, I'm sure if Ur really was brought back, she would love to see her two students doing well in guilds." With those parting words, Gray stood up from his chair and left, following the group's trail.
Lyon was left to stew in his own thoughts. 'Guess you're right…'
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Erza rallied the villagers to the town centre with the chief's aid. "We are here to try and dispel this curse affecting you, but we need your cooperation to help us do so. Please bear with us."
"Now, from what I have gathered, the Moon Drip has only been active for three years on this island. It has not had any effect on Lyon or his followers whatsoever, which puzzles me as you have said that the moon is causing you to transform into demons. There's something off here… Have you ever tried to investigate for yourselves?"
The chief replied, "Its tradition not to get far from the village. But even when we do try, we just end up reappearing at the village."
Erza went into some deep thinking. While she was thinking, she heard an understanding hum from Ichigo, but he paid little mind to that. She finally understood though. It looks like Ichigo understood faster though.
Erza Requiped into her Giant Armor. "Let's destroy the moon, Natsu. I need you to help me out. Use your magic and boost my spear."
"Sure I guess…"
Erza pulled back, and cocked her shoulder. She twisted her hips and threw the spear with as much force as she can. Natsu added in his power too. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist"
His fist impacted on the butt of the spear and combined with Erza's throwing force, the spear rocketed towards the moon, and it impaled it. And it started to crack.
"Eh?!" The rest of the group, sans Ichigo, and the villagers shouted in disbelief.
The cracks spread like cobwebs, and the moon and part of the sky shattered. It revealed a normal coloured, white, moon and clear sky behind it. There is what appears to be a purple film on top of the village, tinted the light that passes through.
"The Moon Drip left a lot of magic residue with started to float and cover the sky. Now that it's broken, it'll wear off."
The villagers weren't pleased though. "But we're not changing back! We're still demons!"
Ichigo cut into the conversation. "She's right, the magic wore off. But the magic didn't affect your forms. It affects your memory. Which is why it made you think you were human and why you always reappeared in the village."
"He's right." Bobo's voice cut in.
"What?! Bobo?! I thought you were dead!" The chief was almost in tears at seeing his son alive once more.
"I had to run away from the village so you all wouldn't be scared. But he's right. We're demons, not humans."
The chief was going to deny his claim but his head started hurting quite a bit. A flood of memories invaded his mind. Everyone else got the flood too. They spread their wings and took flight, afloat in the sky the chief embraced his once thought to be dead son.
"We cannot thank you enough Fairy Tail mages! Stay and have a feast to celebrate tonight!"
Natsu was absolutely thrilled. "Hell yeah!"
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Zalty turned off his transformation magic, turning into a curvaceous woman. Ultear watched the celebrations from afar, and she was aware that Siegrain was trying to talk to her but she had some more important things to think about. 'How does he plan to bring her back? I should keep an eye on him... If she's back though… Maybe I have a chance… But what should I do…?'
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[A/N] Hey, last week's upload was missed. Sorry bout that. Had things to deal with at the time.
This chapter is the basically the last Galuna chapter, since the next chapter will end off the Galuna, and have a little filler and start the eisenwald arc.
Some review reviewing c:
To Goost: The whole Gray thing is basically because in Canon, we had this long ass flashback, which then Erza and Lucy suddenly understand everyrthing, so i tried to turn said flashback into a more emotional moment to show some depth to Gray's character, because I've noticed in a lot of fics that the characters aren't fleshed out in terms of depth a lot. Its mostly just using a typical cliche. Even in canon sometimes the characters feel a little shallow in the sense that they rarely show emotions other than the ones the readers are already used to. The Galuna arc actually shows a lot of the camaraderie and brotherhood that Natsu and Gray have for each other, which is often left out or overlooked in fics.
I plan to make Ur join FairyTail since I think that's what would be best for her. Other than that, thanks for the advice of getting Ur's character fleshed out. Will check it out. I'm not too sure if I should make Ur a character of equal importance to the FT team or should I have her as a minor character that plays as a key in vital moments.
Honestly to me, the canon scene when Orihime healed Loly and Menoly, seemed kinda just shoved in for convenience but i guess that works out for me because in this fic im going to introduce a few characters where their deaths have been reversed, one of them will probably be teased next chapter.
To MementoMori115: Yeah the fraccion are in HM. And If I do need to have a OC Enemy then I'll be sure to PM you, thanks :D
To warrior of six blades: Thanks for all the reviews :D
To LightningBlade49: Thanks for the kind words.
To daizuke: Still have no idea what you're saying but whether there will be Ichigo level opponents? we will just have to wait and see
To SilentXD7: Thank you so much.
