Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Fairy Tail or Artemis Fowl
"Sounds to me like you're talking about picking a fight with a god. If you are, then there's no way I'm just running out of here!" Natsu grinned at them, taking his own seat at the table before Foaly could continue. "Seriously, Mavis, what makes you think I need to get out of here?"
The commander eyed Natsu warily, with a frown on his face. "If you're joining, then you better shut up and listen." Next to him, Mulch approached with a slight wave.
"Hey, Julius, how've you been?" There was a mild nervousness in his tone, despite the smile on the dwarf's face.
Leaning towards him, Root shrugged. "Fine, but you know better than to call me by my name, reprobate. I got a nice comfy cell ready for you when we're finished here."
"Aww, you flatter me. Don't tell me you still plan on putting me back there, not after I found out that there're still dragon slayers around."
"What—the curse, and slayers? Foaly, remind me again why we're still pouring funds into your department?"
The centaur took a moment to reply. "The dragon slayers…not certain about that one, Commander. Based on my accounts, all that remained of the dragons were a few lacrimas imbued with their magic. So, the most any wizard could accomplish is a remedial variation on it, nothing that would get even close to having the concerning side-effects we'd need to watch out for." He paused for a moment, the camera buzzing near Natsu. "Though…this one may be concerning. Amazing, actually, is a better term. Can you believe what he pulled off? All of our records list such a successful variation on resurrection impossible…but he seems sane enough."
"Sane? Why the hell wouldn't he be?" Gray glared at them, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Because dying and coming back damages the soul. Resurrection magic is banned for a reason, and in the past, when it was successfully done, the ones brought back were deranged, attacking almost anything that crossed their path." Root explained, shaking his head. "But like I said, that's a story for Foaly to tell. Ancient history, and while I may be old, I'm not that old."
"Right, right. So…to start, I'm probably going to give you some background information. See, about a millennium ago, wizards were really just starting off. The People, or fairies as some like to call us, actually still lived above ground. Granted, there were still tensions, we argued, some of us were beginning to feel the need to separate…but we were still there." Foaly paused for a moment. "Really, I don't think anyone knows who first started the whole thing. Back then, people were religious nuts. The People called them crazy. After all, can we not give rules and laws that are always constant about how the world acts? Science explains it all…or so we thought."
"Well…it only makes sense that gods exist." Wendy saw the rest of her team blink at her in surprise. "I mean, Chelia is a god slayer…and if we were trained by dragons, doesn't it make sense that for a god slayer to exist, gods must be real too?"
"So that was what he was referring to…" Artemis sat down and folded his fingers together in his lap. "I do believe they exist. Zeref himself claimed I would not believe in the existence of that which cursed him…and I am one who holds strong belief in the laws that dictate nature."
"And breaking those very rules is what resulted in Zeref's curse." Mavis replied, staring down at her feet. Noticing they were bare, Artemis considered saying something before stopping himself. It wasn't as if she was truly alive, after all, no matter how she seemed.
"In mine as well, I suppose." There was a pause between her first response and the second as she glanced away, her green eyes narrowing.
"Yeah, we've pretty much boiled it down to the gods only act when someone screws up those laws." Foaly continued his explanation, while Artemis nodded. "Anyway, it started off kinda slow. Maybe it was just one person, maybe they worked as a group, but either way…rumors spread about humans with powerful death magic. People were terrified of them, describing the magic with nothing more than the color it created, labeling it as black magic."
"Isn't that a broad term, though?" Erza frowned, placing a hand on her chin. "I had always assumed black magic referred to any power dealing with death, be it causing it or undoing it."
"In essence, you are correct. However…as he is speaking to the curse, I believe this is where the name came from. Its death magic takes on the form of a wide-spread black cloud, spiraling much like a vortex as it expands and takes shape." Artemis saw Root sputter at that, barely catching his cigar before it fell.
"You've seen it? What the hell have you been up to?"
"Studying the captured black wizard, among other things." He leaned back in his seat with a smile. "I did not come to you until I saw it as absolutely necessary, Commander. There are certain risks involved, especially with my father returned. Not to mention the fact that we've successfully ensured peace between our two races for four hundred years simply by remaining ignorant of your existence."
"Yeah, yeah, you're smart and figured out our secrets. Don't think I'm not going to ask you about how you did that later on, boy. We may have bigger problems now, but I've got a mind wipe waiting for you and your friends when this is over with."
Nodding towards Root, Artemis glanced back towards the camera, hearing a slight clearing of Foaly's throat to get attention back. "As I was saying…the curse began to spread. Mankind feared death, and once the People realized that they were trying to create their resurrection magic based on our own healing…we tried to separate ourselves from them. They were starting to realize what it was causing, that resurrection would create the curse, but no one actually stopped. Some thought the price was worth it. Others thought it was just some stupid rumor."
"After about two centuries, the People were terrified. That black magic was too strong, and we couldn't create anything that would counter it. In fact, we had nothing even close to that kind of power at the time. We thought mankind was going to kill us off, along with the planet and themselves in one blow. All living creatures reached a new low in survival rates. I'm fairly certain a few species went extinct too. The world itself turned into a blackened dead landscape…and with how few of us there were left, we fled. However, we kept watching. We live in this world too, right? So that meant we had our own reasons to worry over what humans were doing to it."
"Some of the fairy races disagreed with running from the curse, mainly the dragons and demons, but they kept themselves hidden anyway. As for mankind….things got far worse. About half the population had the curse, some older than others. I'm fairly certain quite a few of them had been the same wizards that started it all a few hundred years prior…but that isn't the worst bit of it."
"Wait…you're telling me a massive group of wizards with death magic killing the world wasn't the worst part?" Lucy looked stunned, while Artemis frowned and tried to think of what it could be before Foaly revealed it.
Just as he was beginning to theorize, Foaly continued on. "See, resurrection goes against the natural life cycle of our soul. To pull it back so harshly from whatever existence we lead after this one…well, as we said before, there wasn't a single sane resurrected being on the planet. And there were quite a few of them, too. I know Root said they all got pretty violent, but that was just one segment of them. Depending on the variation of resurrection used, some lacked the ability to think for themselves, others lacked emotions, some were too emotionally unstable to act…it was just chaos. By then, we'd started monitoring resurrection attempts. The People knew better than to use them, but mankind was still trying. So, we watched, and when someone got too close to a successful spell, we'd intervene. The LEP actually was founded to do just that…later staying in place to maintain peace and be somewhat of a law enforcement body…but they started out hunting down potential curse victims."
It made sense, in a way. With how the LEP handled things above ground, it only made sense that they had begun doing the same. "Then, we found the worst one yet. A resurrection spell meant to span the entire planet…at the cost of the caster's own life. The man, a wizard by the name of Omar, had already lost everything. In fact, mankind itself was nearing extinction because of all the rampant death magic that hardly anyone seemed to be capable of controlling. Omar believed that his spell could save them…that if he brought all of the dead back to life, they could start over again and stop the cursed wizards. We sent out a team to prevent his spell…but they arrived too late."
"Omar didn't die." Mavis spoke quietly, while Artemis turned towards her with a frown. Since Natsu had already spoken to her earlier, Artemis decided there was little harm in addressing her now.
"And what makes you so sure of that?"
"Ankhseram wouldn't have allowed it. Omar would need to be punished…and as immortality is part of the curse, it is actually quite possible for that to have occurred."
Before Foaly could respond as well to the question, Artemis straightened his tie and turned back towards the fairies with a nod. "Ah, sorry about that. Fairy Tail has introduced me to a rather unusual member that can only be seen if you bear their guild mark." Artemis showed them the back of his hand with a frown. "While I am not part of this guild, she wished to speak to me for a time and gave me the mark."
"Huh. What kind of stupid magic is that?" Root's harsh words made Mavis flinch slightly.
"If he's talking to her, she is right here, Commander." Foaly at least was kinder about it. "And based on my previous scan…I'm inclined to say something along the lines of illusion and thought projection. Kinda odd that only Fairy Tail can see her, but that's not what we're looking into now. The curse…or more accurately, the Apocalyptic rebirth." The contradiction in the name had once confused Artemis, but it made far more sense now. "So, you can already imagine what Earthland was like after that. War, bloodshed, death…we were all going to die. Then…as we were underground, we were the only ones who saw it. The only ones who could even live on to remember it. It was as if someone had coated the entire surface of the planet in a brilliant white light. Everyone, people, plants, animals…they were sucked into the spell, far more powerful than any I'd seen. It blinded my cameras, and for a moment, I thought they'd all broken somehow."
"When the magic faded away…little remained. Sure, there were a few survivors from that massive spell…but it was as if the others had just vanished from sight entirely, disintegrating into nothing. Even more baffling…is the fact that everyone killed was either a resurrected individual, or a cursed one. Those untouched were left alive…to cary on the warning of Ankhseram's wrath to future generations. Just knowing the risks kept mankind away from it for a while….but that event had made some dragons wary of humans. Arguments and debates began amongst themselves over how to act. It wasn't as if they could move underground like we could. Some wanted to try and join the Demons in their…ah, hiding spot." Artemis had already seen that they were trapped on an island sealed out of time, so Foaly's attempt at hiding it really was useless. "Others wanted to leave things be, and others wanted to fight for control. In the end, this debate was what led to the war…and to mankind looking into resurrection yet again with more death filling their lives."
"But no one got anywhere near succeeding. Notes and records of resurrection had been taken by the LEP, so they were starting from scratch. Those that neared anything useful were warned off by their mentors who had heard stories of Anksheram from their ancestors." Root continued for him for a moment, nodding back towards the camera for Foaly to continue.
"We thought that's what happened to Zeref…after he received his warning, we saw him looking into time magic instead. While still risky, we have yet to see evidence of widespread curses coming as a result of that…so we left him alone and moved on. It's not like our resources are unlimited, and if the kid had learned, it was pointless to keep watching." He paused for a moment, the camera turning towards Natsu. "Still, before we left…we had managed to see who it was he was fighting hard to bring back. The pictures are still stored in our systems…images of a pink-haired boy, probably about three or four, trapped in a suspended state in some kind of lacrima. Now…call me crazy, but I'm fairly certain that Natsu looks identical to that kid."
"Wait…you're saying that I'm one of the crazy resurrected guys? But I never even died!" Natsu paused for a moment, glancing towards Happy. "I haven't died, right?"
"No, you're too strong for other wizards to get even close." Happy glanced towards the others, seeing Root blink at him for a moment. "What do you think Charle?"
The white cat next to him focused on the fairies. "Isn't it obvious? Since true resurrection had failed, that boy began looking to change the past to save him. Perhaps—" Her words broke off, her eyes suddenly growing wide as she held her head. "What…this can't be…how?"
The white cat was trembling, and the other wizards knelt by her side to watch her. "Did you have another premonition, Charle? What happened?"
"Talking cats…that see the future? Foaly?" Once again, Root seemed lost.
"They're from Edolas, sir. Remember the hypothesized parallel dimension that explained the sudden appearance and disappearance of wizards, not to mention the lowering density of Ethernano in the atmosphere, when it is a self-replenishing lifeform that replicates itself faster than bacteria?" The commander nodded, but he still didn't look pleased with the idea. "Though…it doesn't look like she's seeing anything good."
Charle glanced over towards Artemis, her eyes wide as she nodded. "It wasn't…because Artemis is right. We need to get out of whatever this spell is now and find Zeref before it is too late." She seemed to hesitate, focusing on the young genius in particular. "I just saw our future…or at least, a glimpse of what may come. Zeref was there…and oddly, he was standing in front of a door that appeared to be attached to nothing. The land was dead, the city surrounding the ornately decorated massive door was in ruins…but Zeref still stood." The exceed paused, glancing away and focusing her gaze on the table in front of them. "That's not even the worst bit. It appears as if we were correct to distrust you, non-wizard. In front of the doorway by his side…I saw you, Artemis. And you were smiling, as if pleased to live in a world where nothing living remained."
There's the history we were missing! From this perspective, I couldn't quite work in the detail about the fact that Ankhseram was responsible for killing off all the cursed/resurrected people to preserve the balance that had become so unstable at the time...but I hope it was clear enough at least with the story what happened. Plus, we've now got Charle's vision to worry over...more will be coming soon! Feel free to review and tell me what you think!