Happy New Year! Hope you all had a fun 2015, and we start the new year up with a fresh chapter for Of Demons and Men! I don't know about you guys, but I personally think that this year is gonna be fun!
Erza slowly opened her eyes. She was tied to a pole on what seemed to be a boat, judging by the rocking and the salt air. "This place… Where are we?" she asked Shô.
"Inside the hold of a ship at sea," he said quietly.
"A ship?"
"That's right. And our course is set for the Tower of Heaven."
"I see," she murmured after a moment. "I should've known. Would you untie me? I won't cause any trouble."
"I'm afraid I can't. You've proven yourself untrustworthy. That won't help," he added as she pulled a little. "Millianna's binding's can seal magic, so you're struggling in vain. You'll find that you'll have no luck in breaking free from them. The effort will just tire you out."
"Fine," Erza said. "I won't resist. But please, Shô… will you allow me to requip into my armor? The Tower… I'm afraid of going back there… I just want to have it on so that I… feel safe…" She was ashamed at how close she was to tears.
"But the outfit you have on now is so lovely." Shô suddenly fell to his knees and hugged her. "Honestly, I didn't want it to happen like this."
"It's ok," she said quietly.
"I missed you so much," he whispered, tears streaming down his face. "It hurts me! Tell me… why? Why'd you do it? Why'd you betray Jellal?!" Shô screamed.
Jellal…
"I'm worried about those people who are stuck in those cards," Lucy said as their boat grew closer to where a motion sick Natsu claimed Erza was. "You think they're ok?"
"We let the military know about them before we left," Gray shrugged. "I'm sure they'll be fine.
"I hope so…"
"Wait a minute… Where the heck are we?!"
"I don't know," Juvia said. "We've been following Salamander's lead."
"Natsu," Lucy said. "Are you sure we're going the right way?" Natsu groaned. He was too sick to answer.
"Man! We're relying on your sense of smell! Pull it together!"
"How dare you disappoint my love with your childish actions?!" Natsu didn't give a flying crap about their opinion. He just wanted off the boat.
"Geez… I can't believe how easily they were able to knock us out and kidnap Erza and Happy. We're pathetic."
"Good plan…" Natsu groaned. "Strong wizards… we… weren't prepared…"
"Salamander is right," Juvia said. "In our defense, it must have taken powerful wizards to defeat one as strong as Erza."
"What?!" Gray snapped. "They didn't beat her! Quit talking like you know her, cause you don't!"
"Ah! I'm sorry!"
"Gray, calm down! What's your problem? Those goons that attacked us said they were good friends of Erza's… Which makes me wonder if we know her any better than Juvia does." They all looked at Natsu as he pulled himself together and stood.
"I got a bad feeling about this…" Birds began to fall from the sky, dead, as fish floated belly up. So much dark magic…
"That's wreckage from a Fiore battleship!" Gray shouted.
"We should check for survivors," Lucy started.
"No." They all looked at Natsu.
"Why the hell not?" Gray demanded.
"Because there are none." Their attention was quickly diverted from him to the monstrous tower in front of them. Those cultists actually did it…
"It must be the Tower of Heaven!" Lucy gasped. Juvia quickly summoned a water dome, effectively hiding them from anyone on lookout duty.
"Good thinking," Natsu muttered. He grunted softly as he felt a sharp pang. Not now!
"Are you ok?" Lucy asked, hearing his grunt.
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"The Tower of Heaven?!" Erza gasped. "It's been completed?!"
"I don't know why you're so surprised," Shô said. "We've been working on it since you left eight years ago."
"Has it really been that long? It's amazing how much you've all changed."
"The ceremony will take place later tonight," Shô explained as he locked her in one of the unused cells. "You'll be staying here until then." Ceremony?! Are they going to activate the R-System?! "I'm sorry, but this is the price of betrayal. And although you've hurt him, Jellal is giving you a special honor. He's chosen you to be the sacrifice for the ceremony. I'm sad I won't ever get to see you again. But you're going to help us get to heaven. Oh, you're trembling… Are you afraid of being sacrificed? Or does this cell bring back memories?" She remembered how their escape failed so horribly.
"Did you brats really think you could get away that easily?" one of the guards demanded. "Aw, you're all going to be punished bigtime for trying to pull one over us!"
"Now, now, normally I'd agree with you, but we cannot afford anymore construction delays on the R-System. If you tell us who came up with your escape plan, we'll just take them and leave the rest of you alone. That's pretty nice of us, don't you think?"
"Speak up! Which one of you was it?!" Erza took one look at the mastermind of the plan - Shô - and knew that she couldn't let anything happen to him.
"It wa-"
"It was me!" She looked up at Jellal. "I came up with our escape plan. It was all me."
"Oh?"
"Hmm, well aren't you brave? But I know it wasn't you. It was the redhead!" Erza's eyes widened in horror.
"Take her away!"
"No, it wasn't her!" Jellal insisted. "I swear it was my idea! She didn't do anything!"
"Yeah, let her go!" Simon shouted.
"That's enough!" Erza heard her friends scream as they were punished.
"Please," she said. "Don't worry about me. Cause I'll be ok…"
"Erza!" Jellal screamed as he helped Simon up.
"It's just like you said, Jellal," Erza whispered. "There's nothing to be afraid of." She beamed at them as she was led away to her doom.
"Erza… They won't get away with this!"
"You're the one that ended up being punished, even though I came up with the plan," Shô said. "I was too scared to say anything. I'm sorry. It was my fault."
"That's in the past, Shô," Erza said. "Right now, I'm worried that none of you realize how dangerous it is to resurrect someone using the R-System!"
"Wow. I didn't expect you to know what the R-System's purpose was. That's quite a surprise."
"The R-System?" Natsu said. Erza could hear the frown in his voice. "Why in the world do you want to learn about that?" She had heard that this new member of the guild knew countless things about ancient and forbidden magic. She had to know what she had been building all of those years.
"That's none of your business," she said. "Do you or do you not know its purpose?"
"Yeah, I know. Normally, you'd have to pay, because no information is free and I came by it the hard way, but I'll tell you a little secret." He leaned forward a little. Despite being four years under the legal drinking age, he had somehow procured a bottle of potent fire whiskey. "Out of everyone in this guild, you'd have to be my favorite, so I won't charge." He explained everything about it to her. "Now that you know, why the sudden curiosity? You planning on bringing someone back?"
"No. I just wanted to know."
"The Revive System. In exchange for countless sacrifices, it brings a single person back from the dead. It is inhumane, forbidden black magic."
"Sure it's forbidden," Shô smirked. "But whoever said that magic had to be humane? I happen to believe magic wears away at one's humanity."
"That's a black magic philosophy! Are you one of them now?"
"Are you seriously comparing us to those idiots?! They thought this tower was only good for resurrection magic! We know better because we've been enlightened. Jellal told us that he can use the Tower to get us into heaven!" Shô's back was turned. Erza began to lift her bonds over the hook in the wall.
"To heaven?" she asked. The longer she kept this going, the more she would know and the better her escape chances would be.
"Once we use the R-System to revive him, the world will be reborn! And we will become its rulers! The cult members who kept us prisoner for all those years… The loved ones of the sister who betrayed us… The citizens who live their entire lives blissfully ignorant! Those fools on the Magic Council! We're going to put fear and sorrow in the hearts of every one of them! They'll be stripped of their freedom and denied any rights once we're in control! They'll have no choice but to bow down before us!" He laughed evilly. This was not the boy she grew up with. The moment Erza landed, he turned around. She just punched him in the jaw, knocking him out. Erza ripped her bonds off with her teeth, rubbing her wrists.
"Shô," she murmured. What could have possibly caused you to change so drastically?! She requiped into her normal armor. Jellal… What has he done to them?!
So while Natsu is no Cana by any means, he apparently enjoys fire whiskey... Hmm... On another note, there's a huge plot twist coming up - well, two, actually, I suppose. I want to hear your theories before they get revealed, so please send them in! There are several obvious questions to ask - mostly about Natsu -, and I'm surprised none of you have asked them yet. Oh well.
Oh, to those of you who are following Midori: The Green Flame, I am so so sorry for not updating in so long. There's an epic scene in the next chapter that I can't write until I've watched The Fast and The Furious. I've never written race scenes before, so I figured I'd watch that. So please don't kill me.
Ok, you guys, I hope you start the year off awesomely!
