Arriving on the scene of the crime, Natsu and Happy landed on the debris of what used to be Crawford's house. Upon landing, Natsu started to sniff around immediately. "Mira and Erza were here not too long ago…!"

"R-Really?" Happy looked around.

"Yeah…" Natsu nodded while putting his nose low to the ground. Using his enhanced sense of smell, he dragged his face along the broken floorboards before coming across the plants. "These herbs…they were drugged. And…Maggie was here too!? What happened here?"

"What do we do, Natsu?" Happy questioned.

"We go after them, of course!" Natsu stood up and pounded his fists together while nodding towards Happy. The Exceed picked up on this and went over to Natsu once more, lifting him into the air before flying off into the distant. "Don't worry! We're coming for you both!"

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Kagura gripped the hilt of Archenemey while dashing towards Torafusa, using her Gravity Change to decrease the gravity around her body to make her movements faster. Once reaching the Demon Gate, she slipped the sword from its sheathe and aimed a horizontal slash at the demon's chest. It was a direct hit; however it was arguable if any damage was dealt. "…!"

"Pathetic." Torafusa merely grunted before turning around the second Kagura slipped by him. With his sharped fin extending from his arm, he aimed to cut Kagura down right there; however she brought up Archenemy to defend against the slash. Sparks flew before both sides for a few seconds before they leapt away from each other.

The second Kagura and Torafusa distanced away from each other, Blues made his move. Water swirled around his fists and he slid into the space between Torafusa and Kagura. "Blue Dragon's Iron Fist!" Swinging his arm forward he landed a direct hit on the Demon Gate, forcing it to slide back several feet from the impact of his blow. The aquatic slayer was not done just yet! Leaping into the air, Blues spread his arms wide before bringing them back down with force. "Blue Dragon's Wing Slash!" The second he brought his arms down, several sharp, high pressure beams of water shot forth, raining down on Torafusa. Though the Demon Gate did defend against the attack, Blues' strength was shown as the cobblestone ground the demon was completely and utterly sliced through.

"Is that all the power you can really muster?" Despite the property damage Blues may have caused, it seemed that Torafusa was unfazed by his attacks. "Humans are truly weak creatures…"

"I wonder about that…" Lyon spoke while preforming the Ice Make motions. "Ice Make: Eagles!" With an elegant wave of his hand, several frozen eagles flew forward, all converging on Torafusa at once. The eagles shattered on contact, though it looked like Torafusa had seen much better hits. "Tch…"

"Seriously?!" Blues grit his teeth in the slightest bit of annoyance. "I guess these guys are made of pretty tough stuff. Figures it wouldn't be so easy…"

"Easy or not, we have a task to do regardless." Kagura said while keeping a tight grip on the hilt of her sword. "So be quiet and fight. I can't concentrate with you talking."

To Kagura's comment, Blues rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while staring at Torafusa. "…And I can't concentrate without talking. So…we're kinda stuck…"

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"Skeletons…everyone's favorite thing to deal with…" Raven rolled his eyes while firing off consecutive arrows of wind at the slow skeletons Keith sent towards the group. With Chelia by his side they were able to pick off the skeletons rapidly.

"I'd rather Kagura not deal with these…! I think she's still bothered from that Daryan encounter…" Chelia mumbled before flipped forward, releasing a wind arrow from her bow that took the form of a raging tempest, mowing down the army of mini skeletons in its wake. "Now, Raven!"

"On it!" Side by side, Raven and Chelia drew the bowstrings on their bows, gathering a cyan and emerald wind arrow within both strings. Once they released, these arrows of wind spiraled around one another before merging together, rushing directly towards Keith! Once this unison arrow reached Keith it pierced right through him, leaving a gaping hole in the middle of his chest.

"Did we get him!?" Chelia questioned.

"Ho ho ho…" Keith's voice was calm, yet taunting. His body easily reconstructed itself from what would have been a devastating blow otherwise. "Children taking to the field of battle? How amusing…I suppose they would make good experiments in the future. I'll have to collect your corpses, but that won't be a huge problem."

"Absolutely no effect…" Raven grit his teeth.

"I have a problem with that." Jura clapped his hands together. A golden light wrapped around several chunks of rock and rubble scattered about from the battlefield. With one hand motion, these rocks flew towards Keith as though he were a magnet, piling on top of him. "Supreme Rock Crush!" Hands then formed on either side of the pile of rocks, coming together in the middle for a clap that created a resounding quake. Keith was nowhere to be scene after Jura's attack.

"Oh, nice one Jura!" Raven turned while offering thumbs up.

"…Ah yes…the power of a Wizard Saint. Quite formidable indeed. You would make an excellent corpse solider." Keith's body was a black mist that steadily reformed where Jura was! "Yes, I think I'll take every human here and turn them into my servants, starting with you!" Keith's misty body, composed of Magic Barrier Particles, surrounded Jura in attempt to invade his system.

"Jura…!" Chelia was quick to act, firing off a wind arrow that turned into a strong current of wind that blew Keith's body away a fair distance. Luckily Chelia was just fast enough to prevent any serious damage done to Jura…but he would still be unable to fight now after that as he was knocked unconscious by Keith's surprise attack. "Ugh…"

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"Cynthia-san, please snap out of it!" Juvia swiped her arm horizontally, sending sharp scythes of water at Rose. She made sure to keep her distance since Wendy's warning still rang in her head.

"If any of you run into Cynthia, please be careful! If you touch her, your body will erupt in flames!"

"Tch…! I hate having to repeat myself…" Rose grunted while swaying her body through the incoming scythes of water. Some of them managed to graze her skin but durability was her strongest point! She closed the gap between herself and Juvia while rearing a fiery fist backwards. "I am NOT Cynthia!" With that cry she threw her fist forward at Juvia's abdomen, an explosion of demonic flames ensuing. While Juvia managed to block the attack itself, the burst of flames is what truly caused damage; with a cry of pain the water mage found herself sliding backwards as steam emitted from her body.

"Agh…" Juvia's burnt arms trembled from under Rose's might. She didn't want to fight Cynthia like this, but she was willing to do whatever she had to to ensure that Cynthia returned to the guild safely. Thrusting her arm forward, the aquatic mage unleashed a powerful beam of water that cut across the ground while rushing towards Rose.

Rose crossed her arms, sliding back from Juvia's beam of water despite trying to hold her ground. Arms were bruised but she was ready to counter attack…until Juvia wrapped her watery arm around her waist. "Huh…!?"

"Please forgive Juvia for this…!" Juvia shouted while shutting her eyes, raising Rose's little body up before bringing her down harshly to the ground. She knew she was better off not touching Rose, but perhaps she could knock some literal sense into the girl! Either way, Juvia's attempt would earn her some searing flames as a result. "Ngah…! Those are strong flames…" Juvia tried to keep her hold on Rose to repeat the process, but during the second trip up she found herself releasing Rose to grimace in pain.

"Oof…!" Rose tumbled about in the air before somehow managing to land on her feet, staggering slightly before regaining her footing. "You're all the same stubborn bunch…I hate having to repeat myself 50 times over…!"

"If Gray-sama were here, perhaps this would be much easier…" Juvia grumbled, however it appeared that Keith overheard her. In the next instant, the Demon Gate appeared between Rose and Juvia with a menacing grin on his face just as Juvia received another eruption of demon flames from Rose's curse. "A-Ah!?"

"Keith, this is my fight!" Rose shouted.

"You can deal with those children over there." Keith simply waved Rose off with his staff to Chelia and Raven. "I want to deal with this one personally…"

"Cynthia…!" Chelia called out to Rose, causing her to turn with an irritated expression. "Yikes…that's not a good look for you. Now I don't know what's gotten into you…but you're causing Wendy a lot of grief, and as much as I don't want to hurt you…you're not really giving me a choice right now."

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Gray turned to Kuro, furrowing his brows before pointing at Sliver. "Stay outta this! This is my fight, got it!?"

"I don't care." Kuro responded with a shake of his head. "This demon put my family in danger…so now I have to slay him; it's as simple as that. As long as you stay out of my way it should be easy enough, right?"

"Now boys…" Silver chuckled at Gray and Kuro's little spat. "Don't worry. There's enough Silver to go around…" With a wicked grin, the demon inhaled briefly before throwing his head forward, releasing a torrent of purple tinted ice at the pair. "Ice Demon's Rage!" The beam of ice took both Gray and Kuro off guard, sweeping them off their feet while completely freezing over that section of the mountain.

"Agh…!" Gray grunted while sliding along the icy terrain. Coming to a halt, he wasted no time in leaping forward, bringing a hand to his side in the process. "Ice Demon Zeroth's Blade!" Gray smoothly slid to a halt just in front of Sliver, unsheathing a blade of demon slaying ice for a swift slash across Silver's chest. The slash was a direct hit that sent Sliver sliding backwards before coming to a halt.

"Ah…" Sliver glanced down at his armor, noticing the deep gash in his skin. "That's some power you got, Gray. It's almost just like mine, how about that?"

"I never told you my name…" Gray had to pause for a moment to wrap his head around this situation.

Meanwhile, Kuro sprang back into action with devil slaying flames wrapped around his fist. "Fire Devil's Thermal Fist!" Coming to a stop in front of Sliver, Kuro aimed his blazing fist right at the demon's armored abdomen. It was a direct hit which caused Sliver to stagger backwards a few steps before coming to a halt.

Sliver grunted before wiping away the blood leaking from the corner of his lip. Despite the damage taken he could still face the two Devil Slayers with a smile. "As I expected…this was going to be very interesting indeed!" With a quick swipe of his hand, another explosion of ice occurred where Gray and Kuro stood, sending them rocketing off in different directions. "Come on now! Can you slay this demon, or will you die trying?!"

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Now leave it to Natsu to barge in unannounced until the last second. With Happy's assistance, Natsu broke right through one of the walls of the castle. "ALRIGHT YOU BASTARDS! I'M GONNA KICK ALL YOUR ASSES!"

"I thought we were SNEAKING in!?" Happy flailed his arms about. But it was too late to stop Natsu once he got that firing going. Before Happy could say too much more, Natsu bolted down the nearest corridor, using his nose to sniff out Mira and Erza.

"They should be around here somewhere…" Natsu muttered to himself. He didn't make it too far because lightning raced down the hallway in attempt to fry him; luckily he sensed it coming and swayed to the side just in the nick of time. "Tch…!"

Tobias slowly walked forward with his hand extended, lightning sparking around his open palm. His eyes were shaded by his hair and he didn't say a single thing after. "…"

"Tobias! Get outta my way, or I'll kick your ass again!" Natsu shouted with flames flaring around his body…but Tobias did not respond. Taking this as his answer, Natsu lunged forward while rearing his arm back. "Then I guess I'll just have to make you move!"

"….." Tobias slowly swiped his hand. Just before Natsu could truly reach him, an instantaneous frost covered the entire hallway. It all happened within the blink of an eye…Natsu never saw it coming, but Happy saw everything. Natsu was completely frozen solid on the spot by none other than Tobias, who was usually known as one of the least threatening members of Tartarus. "Intruder…detained…"

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Next Time: Frozen Tyranny