Chapter 22: Devil Slayer

Mirajane

I panted deeply and heavily as I slouched forward onto Cana's back as we trailed on the snow mobiles behind Deliora. In the sky, Lisanna was flying around acting as distraction while I recuperated. None of my own attacks were able to so much as harm the thing. I even attempted to perform a take-over on it, but it was too strong and knocked me off before I could make any headway.

Deliora's mouth began to glow, signaling he was about to fire off another laser. Beside me, Yuka, who was riding with Sherry, extended his arm. While not as effective as Zalty's magic, Yuka's wave magic was able to nullify a good portion of Deliora's magic attacks.

Deliora fired off a laser at Lisanna as a blue shield formed around her. The laser managed to hit a part of Lisanna, but fortunately, the shield was able to negate that magic.

"I need to get back up there."

"You need to restore your magic." Cana reminded me.

"Hyah!"

Elfman launched out of the snow, in a form I had never seen before, and punched Deliora square in the back. The resulting impact forced Deliora forward a few steps. The demon almost hit Lisanna, but she was able to fly out of the way.

"Elfman be careful!" I yelled to my little brother as Cana, Yuka, Ur, and Zalty sped forward in pursuit of Deliora.

"Could you keep it down?" Sherry yelled to me from Yuka's vehicle, "I'm trying to concentrate. It's hard enough with these engines buzzing."

I wanted to snap back at her, but I chose not to. I could feel the magic radiating off her. Whatever she was planning, it required a lot of magic and she clearly wasn't used to summoning a large quantity of it.

Once more, up in the air, Lisanna dodged a swipe from Deliora. We weren't making much headway like this. Deliora had pretty much stopped moving, and we were able to catch up to it was ease.

"Sherry, are you ready?" Yuka asked.

"Ugh, as ready as I'll ever be."

Yuka revved his engine and blasted off towards Deliora.

"What are they doing?" Ur cried in frustration, revving her own engine.

"Let them go!" Zalty called to the Wizard Saint, "Sherry's been preparing a spell that can help us."

While Lisanna continued dodging hits from Deliora, Sherry and Yuka sped forward. Once out of eye-shot, we all waited for whatever spell Sherry had prepared.

"Well where is it?" Cana asked.

"Just wait for it."

We waited for a few more seconds. I was becoming increasingly annoyed by the lack of spell casting as my little sister was dodging for her life.

I was about ready to use Satan Soul again when the ground beneath us shook and snow appeared to gather in front of Deliora. Speeding towards us was Yuka, now without Sherry. The snow gathering in front of Deliora began to take a shape, forming legs, a torso, arms, and finally a head. On top of the head, I could barely make out the pink haired girl riding it. I watched as the speck that was Lisanna fly over to the snow-giant and land next to Sherry.

"Doll Attack: Snow Doll." Zalty told us, "Sherry can manipulate the land around her to make dolls for battle. Given its size and the amount of magic required, she could only use snow as material. If it were something smaller, she might have been able to use something more durable, like rock."

"Not bad…" Ur remarked.

Deliora pulled its hand back and swiped at the giant doll. Snow blew everywhere as it ripped a large chunk of snow from the torso. The doll showed no signs of feeling pain and proceeded to grab Deliora's now outstretched arm. Taking a firm grasp on the demon, the snow doll proceeded spin 180 degrees with so much force as to launch Deliora behind it into the plains leading towards Devil's Keep.

Unfortunately, this was all the doll was able to do. The doll never actually let go of Deliora, instead its arms were launched with the demon into the plains. The rest of the doll's body proceeded to break as the snow that made up the giant dispersed in all directions.

"Take cover!" Ur cried, "Ice Make: Dome!"

A dome of ice formed over us as the snow blasted towards us, shielding us from the onslaught of snow.

"Wait, where's Elfman?" I cried.

"Behind you."

I quickly turned around to find Elfman driving a snow mobile with Toby.

"When did you?"

Gray

Silver and I rode together towards Deliora with Lyon and Ultear in tow. The only problem was we were travelling through a snowstorm. The blizzard was dying down, but there was still little to no visibility. Silver quickly cut the handles to the side and nearly knocked me off the vehicle in the process as a giant body came roaring down on us. Silver drove past Ultear, who quickly turned around and followed us.

The ground beneath us began to shake as whatever fell in front of us lifted itself from the ground. The impact the thing made on the ground managed to disperse the worse of the snowstorm. Off in the distance, going in the wrong direction, I found Lyon. Lyon was turning around now to meet back up with us.

A roar echoed through the plains as I looked back to see Deliora in all his horror. Silver turned us ninety degrees and stopped. We both got off our vehicle and faced the terrible demon.

"It's about time." Silver said as he reached out his hand, "This is for my family! Ice Devil's Lance!"

A purple lance of ice shot forth from Silver's hand, stabbing into the demon's chest. Deliora screamed in pain, momentarily deafening us. The demon then looked down at the the man who had taken the devil slaying magic from the Devil's Keep.

"Ice Make: Tiger!" came Lyon's voice.

Two ice tigers came running at Silver and I. They headbutted into us, flipping us onto their backs, as Deliora tried to trample on us.

"Ice Make: Lance!" I cried out, placing my fist over my palm once I was able to stabilize myself on the tiger.

A multitude of ice lances, larger than the one Silver shot, fired at Deliora. Most broke on impact, but a few were able to pierce his skin, causing him to flinch. I noticed that there were more lances fired at the Demon then I had created. I looked over to Ultear, who was still on her snow mobile, to see her hands in the same position as mine. I looked over to Lyon and saw him swipe his right hand as a several ice eagles formed into existence and hit Deliora to no effect.

"This is bad." Silver commented, "If me and you are the only ones that can actually hurt that thing, we're in a world of trouble."

"You have any ideas?"

"Well, a bunch of scratches can add up. But if we want to beat him fast, I have a spell that might be able to finish him quickly. It'll take a bit to charge up though. Alternatively, if I can meet up with Ur, I can pass on the Devil Slayer magic to her. I'm assuming a Wizard Saint is stronger than me."

"Look out! Ice Make: Wall!" Ultear called to us.

A wall of ice formed in front of us as Silver and I reinforced the wall ourselves. With Ultear right behind us, a huge magic blast hit the wall. To our relief, it held up to the demon's attack. When the dust settled, I noticed the shield was entirely purple. Whatever ice Ultear and I used to reinforce the wall was knocked away by the demon's attack.

We watched as Eagles once again flew at Deliora. While some even hit the parts Silver and I weakened already, it didn't seem like they did any damage whatsoever.

"Why is Lyon's Ice Make magic doing nothing to Deliora?" Ultear asked with concern.

I looked over to the white-haired mage, and immediately realized what was wrong with his spells.

"He isn't casting it properly. That's not how Ur taught us." I informed Ultear.

"Why would he?" Ultear began.

"No time, I need to gather up a lot of magical power. I can do this by eating the snow around us, but it'll take a while. You guys will need to cover me." Silver informed us.

"Eating snow? Wait, like Natsu eats fire?" I thought.

"Is it like when a dragon slayer eats their element?" I asked.

"If that were the case, you could just eat mine and Gray's ice and use that. It would be way faster."

We suddenly felt a large concentration of magic forming around Deliora's mouth. We noticed it was pointed directly at Lyon. Deliora let loose the magic blast at our comrade, who was fortunately able to make a large ice bird to fly safely out of the way. Unknowingly, Lyon served as a distraction by summoning more eagles to attack Deliora from atop his large bird.

"We need to hurry." I said.

"Ice Make!" both Ultear and I cried out, shooting rods of ice at Silver, who immediately began eating away at the ice.

After a few seconds Silver gave us a thumbs up.

I turned to Ultear and told her, "Get back."

Ultear and I stopped making ice and stepped behind Silver, who after a few seconds, stopped inhaling the snow and ice around him. The ice wall in front of him broke, and he shouted out, "Ice Devil's Rage!"

A purple vortex of ice and snow shot forth from his mouth and drilled into the chest of the demon. Deliora cried out in pain as it took a step back, lost it's footing and fell to the ground. A black mist rose from the newly formed cavity on the demon's chest, which began to spread to the rest of the demon's body.

Lyon landed next to us.

"Did it work?" Ultear asked.

"Devil Slayer magic…works like a charm." Silver panted out.

The body of Deliora began to dissipate.

"Is it supposed to do that?" Lyon asked.

"It's probably returning to it's book form." Silver informed him, "Once like that, it'll be defenseless against us. Any one of us will be able to destroy it then."

I began to smile as I fell to the ground. Finally, after all this time, Deliora will no longer threaten the world. I will have avenged my dead parents.

It didn't take long for the body before us to dissipate into nothing but a book.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to be the one to finish it." Silver said.

"Hold on, that thing took everything from me." Lyon argued, "I want to finish it!"

I rose from the snow myself and echoed Lyon's sentiment.

"Why don't the three of you just finish it together?"

We looked to each other and nodded our heads. We headed over to the book and stood over it.

"For my family." Lyon shoved his outstretched palm forward.

"For my parents." I placed my fist over my open palm.

"For Mika and," Silver was cut off before he could finish. A black mist erupted from the book knocking all of us back. The mist began to surround Silver who cried out in pain.

Once Lyon and I recovered, we let loose our ice spells at the book, but it was already too late. The book had totally turned into the black mist and was enveloping Silver. The mist forced its way into Silver's mouth, causing the man to begin to choke and cough. Lyon and I started to run over to the man to assist him.

"No, don't!" Silver cried at us as he fell to his knees.

We stopped in our tracks and watched as Silver tried to cough up the demon mist. Suddenly, he collapsed face first on the ground.

"Silver?" I called with uncertainty.

Silver slowly pushed himself off the ground. He faced Lyon and I with a devilish grin.

"No, Deliora."