I burst awake, my memory hazy for a brief, second, everything around me seemingly blurring into static for a moment, something I would later realize was due to my health worsening in the real world, but even still, it caused a slight jarring effect to my memory.

After the dizzy spell lifted itself, I stood, my ribs aching and my broken arm numb. I stumbled forward, remembering finally that Mard Geer was going to attack Rosemary Village; he was going to kill Kagura, and I wouldn't let that happen.

I stumbled back into the village, getting weird looks from the townspeople, but not as weird as the Rune Knights who were waiting for me. I saw Siegrain himself standing at the front, a blank expression on his face. "Did you…come here to kill me?" I questioned.

"I've no reason to; you're worthless."

"…If that's all you came here for, then leave already."

"Oh, but that's not all; I came to tell you that our deal is null and void. I'll be taking over the job from here."

"Don't…touch Mard Geer," I warned.

"I vow that he'll come to justice."

"And I'm going to do it," I stated, glaring at him and lighting up magic in my good hand. "And anyone who gets in my way is going to regret it."

"You of all people I wouldn't expect to want to hunt down the demon."

"He made it personal," was all I said.

"Tch, even if I were to agree to that, you are broken; what could you possibly do?"

"You have healers, so heal me!" I snapped, becoming impatient.

After a bit of hesitation, he motioned for one of his knights to use their healing magic on me, rejuvenating me back up to near 100%. "And what do you want in return."

"Nothing," I stated once again. "Just like before. Be at Rosemary Village after the fight in case I fail, I'm sure you'll be able to track it," I stated as I began to leave.

"You still haven't told me how you're going to beat him."

I dropped my arms to my sides, looking up at the sky. "I…always thought he'd become my greatest ally, a lifelong friend…but now…" I looked back to him. "He's my Archenemy," I said before taking my leave, catching the first train to close to where I needed to go.

I entered the village with a large hood covering my face, so no one would recognize me and distract me. If anyone even got close to me, I pushed them away, not wanting unnecessary annoyances as I entered mine and Kagura's old inn, finding it locked. I reached into an adjacent flowerpot and fished out the spare key we always put in there and went inside, soon finding the thing I was looking for, and thankfully not the person I was afraid of finding. I picked up the sword left abandoned, the Archenemy, and left before anyone noticed I was inside, and went outside the village, sitting down and waiting, the sword strapped to my back, under my temporary cloak.

"What the hell are you doing?" a voice came from behind me.

I waited for the person to come into view. "You're…"

"Kagura; Kagura Mikazuchi," she introduced herself, not realizing who I was. "I ask again what you're doing outside my village."

I stood, careful not to show my face, as she would no doubt want to help in the fight should she see it. "Go back to your home, girl. A storm's coming soon, you need to protect the village."

"And who are you to tell me that?"

"Someone who…knows how important this place is to certain people," I stated. "Now get out of here," I ordered, to which I got no response. "Didn't you hear me? I said to get out of here!" I yelled.

"I…" she hesitated.

"Leave!" I blasted her away, more lashing out in blind anger than to really harm her, and it turns out that she was just a little shocked at the outburst, before retreating to the inn.

After a while of nothing, I finally caught their scent, their presence filled the air. My intuition told me so, and then there they were, each facing me down. I lowered my hood.

"I'd thought you dead, Brother," Mard smirked.

Jackal cracked his knuckles. "Good, another chance to knock the Devil Slayer on his ass."

"This time I rend his flesh from his bones," Tempester vowed.

"Mmm…I'm more interested in causing pain to his…what is it called?" Kyoka grinned. "Family."

My magic flared and I swiped my arm behind me, creating a solid, sustained wall with my magic. "They stay out of this; you're fighting me," I ordered. "And this time I'll destroy you."

"My ultimate defense says otherwise."

"My magic to counter yours says I will," I retorted before taking up a stance.

"So come on then; find out whether you have what it takes to be a Devil Slayer or not."

We all stood silent, a tense stand-off to see who would attack first, and it turns out to be the most hotheaded one; Jackal.

He burst forward rapidly, not wasting any energy in doing fancy moves, but rather simply applied brute force and animalistic tendencies to his attacks. I countered every last one of them and then retaliated with a Thunder Devil's Flash, blasting him away, following him, leaping above him, and putting him out of commission with a Thunder Devil's Rage right on top of him.

I landed and waited for the next assault, this time a group attack by all but Mard Geer. I dodged around Tempester's attack but was caught off guard by Kyoka's kick, which sent me flying into a hold from Torafuzar, where he attempted to crush me. I simply released my magic and he was all but forced to let go, where I uppercutted him. "Zeus' Wrath!" I yelled as a burst of electricity shot him away as well, soon cornering Kyoka and knocking her into their "ultimate defense", keeping him down, soon doing the same for Tempester and blasting them all out of commission. Mard Geer simply watched as his partners were knocked out one after the other, then clapping when I'd finished them off.

"Simply amazing, Asher. But it's really a shame. You didn't kill them; and you call yourself a Devil Slayer."

"I'm giving you one last warning. Leave this place, forever."

"You should know by now that once I get my mind set, I won't let anyone get in my way!" he yelled as he changed into his Etherius form. Before I could react, he appeared behind me, and knocked me away. Just as I landed, he knocked me into a tree and smashed me through it with a powerful kick.

He waited this time, giving me the opportunity to unveil my secret weapon. I threw my cloak off, revealing a sword in its sheath.

"Oh wonderful, a toothpick!" he dashed forward toward me, but this time I drew the sword and slashed as he tried to attack. A massive ray of energy erupted from the blade, piercing through the gauntlet of Mard Geer's armor. "Argh!" he cried out, throwing off the steaming armor piece.

"This blade has been passed down through my family for generations, powerful enough cause a cataclysm. I promised that it would only be drawn when absolutely necessary. This is what you've pushed me to, Brother."

"It doesn't matter! I'm still going to kill you!" He dashed forward again, but this time flew above me and circled me. I couldn't even react as he dashed and attacked me. "I was always faster than you!" he exclaimed repeating the same tactic three times.

I stopped, and waited. I realized that I needed to slow down to win this fight. I heard him coming from behind, turned around, imbued my entire body with my magic and swung five times, faster than could even be seen, appearing to swing only once, clean across Mard Geer's torso.

He fell over, unable recover from the blade's power. I was shaking. I clenched my fist around the blade, and then kicked Mard away. "I trusted you!" I yelled. "I would've given my life for you!" I followed him, picked him up by his ankle and swung him into a tree. I went over to another tree and sliced it so that it would fall on top of him. "And what do I get for it? A stab in the back!"

He chuckled weakly under the trunks. "I am a demon…" he reminded me, which only made me angrier. I raised the blade and swung downwards, picking it back up and smashing it down onto him through the debris, again and again and again.

"I hate you!" I yelled as I brutalized him. "I hate you! I hate you! I hate you!"

I swung down one last time and stopped, dropping to my knees and panting. Mard Geer was nearly dead. "Heh…you really don't have what it takes…you won't kill me…" he claimed.

I glared at him, but didn't retaliate. "I'm…" I took a deep breath. "I'm done fighting you…I'm leaving. If you hurt Rosemary Village or anyone in it, I'm going to kill you. If you try and find me, I'm going to kill you. And if you ever threaten to even look at my family wrong, I'm going to kill you."

I stood and turned around, tears falling from my eyes.

"You…were…my last brother…" I muttered before I ran off. Upon getting a few miles out, I went back to Rosemary Village, garnering a new hood to conceal my face and knocked on the inn door.

"Hello, we provide services for all who-"

"I don't want service," I said. "I came to return something," I offered the blade.

"Igi's sword!" she snatched it away and checked for any damages. "Why did you-"

"I needed it," was all I said before I turned around. "You should take better care of it, your brother would be disappointed that you just leave it here."

With that, I took my leave, finding Rune Knights outside the village for protection while I saw the places where I left the demons to be empty; they'd fled.

When I looked at where I left Mard Geer, I had another dizzy spell, and everything stung for a moment before it all returned to normal.

As I board the nearest train, I vowed to myself that I would take care of any demons I found, and I sure as hell wanted to find a lot of them.

I took the train as far away as I could from the village, stopping in some town someplace for a book on a certain magic type; tracking magic, specifically dark magic or demonic magic; a Demon Detector if you will, and I mastered it quickly, soon getting a ping.

I stopped the night before I was going to strike, soon getting a ring from my notebook. I took it out and opened it, seeing Siegrain's hologram. "What do you want? Our deal is null and void, remember?"

"I also expected you to be dead by this point, Devil Slayer," he retorted.

"I said I'd handle it, and I did."

"An impressive feat for one who couldn't even beat me, a 'second-rate'."

"Shut your trap if that's all you wanted to say," I began to close the book.

"Wait!" I stopped. "I offer you a reward."

"I said I didn't-"

"But you do," he interrupted. "This will be the last message you ever receive from me, and trust me, you won't be able to find me. The truth is, I've been keeping a secret from you; one I'm sure you're dying to hear."

"Then tell me!" I yelled.

He looked up at me. "I…am Jellal."

I closed the book immediately, moving it one hand. I felt my anger spiral out of control as I shot a bolt through the book, incinerating it. I stood, walking away from the camp. I needed to hit something, and a demon would do fine.

I went to the town and found her quite easily, with her not exactly hiding her magic power. "I found you, demon!" I called to her, and she turned around, revealing sapphire eyes and beautiful white locks.

Suddenly, everything went dark, or rather, everything seemed to illuminate back up. The girl was still there, but was aging rapidly, before she appeared around twenty and held her hand out to me. "Come back to us, nakama…" she begged, tears falling form her eyes.

I held my head, my memory becoming foggier and foggier and everything came rushing back. "Who are…" then I got this splitting headache as literally every memory came back to me all at once before I was my old self again. I even caught glimpses of what had happened in my absence, Natsu waging war on Tartarus, Mirajane and Erza fighting losing battle against faces old and new, Gray fighting an Ice Devil Slayer, and finally, as the pain coursed through my body fifty times faster than my heart beat, I saw a vision.

"The ultimate curse!" I heard Mard Geer yell as he faced down Natsu and Gray. "Memento Mori!"

I writhed as the spell was shot off, every muscle in my body burning as if I was swimming in lava before everything disappeared.

The pain, the darkness, everything; I was finally able to walk into the light again, a bright light that shone through my deepest despair, when I was on the verge of death. I reached for it, holding out my hand to it, and I was lifted up, higher and higher, until I could almost feel it.

I was finally going home.

Author's Note:

Ah, finally, I'm done with the past and everything about it...for now. From here, it'll pick up right at the end of the Tartarus arc, basically after the dragons had their time in the sun, and assume that none of the demons present int eh past have been killed, like Tempester would have at that point.

Anyway, whatever, I guess that's it; this fic is almost at an end, but for now, go ahead and leave a review for me!