Chapter 23: Wizard Saint vs. Demon Devil Slayer

Gray

A possessed Silver smiled evilly at Lyon and I. He lifted his hand up and inspected it. He then cracked his neck and took a deep breath.

"I thought I felt some Demon Factor in this guy." He remarked, "A perfect vessel. He's even got a really good magic I can use!"

I slammed my fist on my palm, "Let Silver go!"

Ice rushed towards the possessed man and encased him.

"Ultear, get back!" I shouted, knowing that I wouldn't be able to hold him.

Ultear did as I said and got a bit of a distance away. As I expected, the ice encasing Deliora shattered and rushed into the demon's mouth. The demon patted his stomach and exhaled.

"Ah, that tasted pretty good." He remarked, "Got anything else."

Lyon swiped his hand to the side, "Ice Make: Tiger!"

Three tigers took form and rushed towards Deliora. One tiger took him from the front while the other two went for his sides. The front tiger was instantly destroyed when Deliora lunged at it and quickly ate it. The tiger instantly broke apart and rushed into his mouth. The remaining two tigers hit their mark though, and latched onto his arms as he pulled one closer and bit into its head. The ice tiger cracked and shattered, being absorbed into Deliora's mouth. The demon went on to repeat the same process on the other tiger.

Blood seeped from the bite marks left on Deliora's arms. Deliora ran his right hand across his left arm, forming an ice cast over his wound. He repeated this with his other arm.

"He took it out in one punch!"

"Why aren't you casting with two hands?"

"Just because you can't cast with two hands doesn't mean I have to!"

I was about to retort but was swiftly punched in the face by the Deliora-possessed Silver. Deliora then pivoted so he was facing Lyon and proceeded to punch him.

"Ice Make: Hammer!" I called out, as a hammer slammed down on Deliora.

Like with the tiger, Deliora attempted to just punch and shatter my hammer, but it didn't work, and he was flattened beneath my hammer.

"See!"

Deliora slowly lifted himself up, and slowly the hammer slid off him.

Lyon swiped his hand and called out, "Ice Make: Prison!"

A cage fell on top of the hammer, pinning the demon down. For a moment, it seemed we were able to contain the demon somewhat. Then Deliora fired a blast from his mouth, launching himself, the hammer, and the cage high into the air.

The demon slammed his fists together.

My eyes widened as I realized what he was doing, "Take cover!"

"Ice Devil's Rage!"

Ur

We rushed as fast as possible in the direction Deliora was thrown. We watched from a distance as Deliora made battle with who we could only assume was Gray, Lyon, and Ultear. When they knocked over Deliora and he began to disappear from our sights, the others began to celebrate. I wasn't so quick to celebrate though. Something didn't seem right. I was proven right when we got closer and I found a man I didn't recognize fighting Gray and Lyon. A quick survey showed Ultear was also there, off to the side.

The man was pinned by a hammer and a prison when he launched himself into the air and began powering up an attack. I placed my fist upon on palm and called out, "Ice Make: Dome!"

A massive dome of ice shot forth from in front of me and easily covered the three mages from the attack. The purple blast of what looked to be ice magic made contact with the dome. The attack drilled away at my dome before finally dissipating, leaving a sizable dent in it.

The man dropped down on top of the dome in the crater formed by his attack. I jumped off my snow mobile and cautiously went forward, signaling with my hands for everyone else to wait.

To my surprise, as I got closer, the entire dome began to disappear. It appeared as though the dome was being sucked up towards the dent for by the man. As the ice receded, the man reappeared, I had lost him when he fell into the dent he had created. I saw the ice was being pulled into his mouth. Once the dome was gone, all that was left was the man and the three ice-make mages on the ground.

"What's going on?" Sherry asked.

"Who are you?" I yelled out to the man.

The man looked over to me and yelled back, "You don't recognize me? It's me, Deliora!"

The man turned back over to Gray, Lyon and Ultear, "Now just a minute. I'll be right with you!"

Before he could do anything, Mira transformed into her demon form and rushed towards the human claiming to be Deliora. I cried for Mira to wait, but she didn't listen and flew headfirst at the supposed demon.

"Mira, no!" Gray shouted to his comrade, but it was too late.

Deliora had swiveled around quickly and impaled Mirajane with a purple icicle. Mira coughed blood onto the ground and immediately dropped out of Satan Soul. She fell to her knees with her hands around the icicle. Deliora ready another attack on Mirajane but stopped. His hand began to shake as though he was struggling against something.

"Everyone, stay back!" I barked.

Deliora looked up at me and said, "Get the girl out of here. I can't hold him for…!"

Deliora snapped suddenly and fired another icicle at Mirajane. Fortunately, Zalty acted fast enough to stop the Demon's magic before it could hit Mira.

"Not bad, Zalty. That's some impressive speed."

Seeing the frustration on Deliora's face, I rushed in.

"Ice Make: Shovel!" I cried out as an ice shovel formed in front of me.

I proceeded to swing the shovel at Deliora's face, following through to knock him away from Mirajane. Mirajane fell to the ground when I reached her. She laid withering on the ground in pain, gasping for air. She was clutching her stomach in agony at my feet.

"Take her and get out of here!" I ordered Gray, Lyon, and Ultear.

Lyon and Ultear ran in my direction while Gray stood in place facing the man claiming to be Deliora.

"Gray!"

"Deliora, he took him over."

"You can't take him Gray, leave him to me."

"But he has the Ice Devil Slayer magic!"

"That man went to Devil's Keep and absorbed the magic." Lyon informed me, "He was hoping to use it to kill Deliora."

"All the more reason for you to get out!" I yelled.

"But!"

"Listen to her Gray!" A struggling Deliora shouted at Gray, "I can't hold Deliora for long!"

Finally, Gray ran towards me as Deliora seemingly regained control and came running up to him. I quickly fired off a barrage of icicles at the demon, successfully nailing him and knocking him away from Gray. Gray caught up to me and turned around to face Deliora.

"We need to get Mira to safety, now." I told the group.

Ultear gave Mirajane a contemptible look but said, "I'll take her back. I'm not as suited for combat as these two are."

"These two are not staying." I informed my daughter.

"I'm not leaving." Both boys replied in unison.

Before I could reply, Deliora sent shards of purple ice at us, which I successfully blocked with an ice shield.

"I need to save Silver." Gray told me.

"Who?"

"He's the guy who's being possessed by Deliora." Lyon explained to me.

I sighed, "Fine, just stay behind me and stay alert!"

The sound of ice breaking sounded off in front of me, and I watched as my shield was swallowed by Deliora. He then followed up by attempting to punch me, but he suddenly stopped. I jumped back, with the boys following suit.

"You have to kill me." Deliora, or rather Silver, said to the three of us.

"Silver, you have to fight it!" Gray plead with the man.

I took my stance, readying a spell. I silently hoped that this Silver person would be able to force Deliora out of his body but was ready for the possibility that I will have to kill this man to get to Deliora.

Behind me, Ultear and the others were turning around back towards the city.

Silver groaned in pain as he tried to keep Deliora down. Silver began to take a step towards us with determination in his eyes. Assuming that Deliora had taken control once more, I decided to cast a spell. Raw magic began to materialize around me, circling around me and whipping up the snow around me. The force of my magic knocked Gray and Lyon to the ground and pushed Silver back.

"Ice Make: Rose Garden!"

Icy vines shot forth from the ground towards the possessed man. He jumped out of the way of one, only for a second to grab hold of his ankle. A third vine contacted his wrist, which he promptly brought up to his mouth and inhaled. All the vines I crafted proceeded to break apart and fly into his mouth.

"Ice won't work on me!" Deliora cried as he rushed at me.

The demon cocked his fist and aimed for my head. I side stepped away from the demon, jumped a good distance away, and casted another Ice Make: Rose Garden. This time, the ice shot forth from right under him and wrapped tightly around his head.

"I beg to differ."

I watched as Deliora attempted to open his mouth, but it was to no avail. My ice was sturdy enough that his jaw was locked in place. The demon tried to rip the ice from his head, but more vines shot forth from the ground, binding his arms behind him. I proceeded to wrap his entire body in the icy vines.

"Heh, you can't beat a master of ice." Lyon commented.

"It's not over yet." I warned Lyon.

Gray walked up to the restrained demon, "Let. Silver. Go."

Deliora struggled against the icy vines keeping his mouth shut. He seemed to have muttered something, because Gray cocked back his fist and punched Deliora in the face. Fortunately, my hold on Deliora was strong enough that he was not knocked from his binding.

"Let's just kill him, Gray!" Lyon called.

Once again, Deliora seemed to mutter something to Gray, which only seemed to enrage him more. Gray went in for another punch, but this time, he was stopped by Lyon's timely intervention. Lyon grabbed Gray's arm and threw him towards me.

"Ice Make: Dragon!" Lyon shouted as he swiped his hand to the side.

"Lyon, no!" I cried as a serpentine dragon materialized out of nowhere and crashed into Deliora.

The force of the impact was just enough to break my hold on Deliora, who swiftly inhaled all the ice around him.

"Heh, should have listened to your Master brats!"

"Lyon, what the hell?" Gray and I shouted.

"Now you just helped him recover magic!" I yelled.

"You could have hurt Silver!" Gray yelled.

"I thought that would be enough!"

"An off-balance spell like that isn't going to be enough!" I yelled at Lyon in frustration.

Deliora fired a few purple icicles at Gray who erected an ice shield to block the incoming bullets. To my amazement, his shield held up, albeit with major cracks in it. Deliora fired off a few more at Gray, but Gray was able to reinforce his wall to prevent it from breaking through.

"Why isn't his magic stronger. Slayers get stronger when they eat their own element, so why…?"

A moment later, my question was answered by Gray, "It's obvious that you have no idea how to properly use Devil Slayer Magic, so why don't you just give up and let Silver go!"

"And what do you know about Devil Slayer Magic!" Deliora shouted in frustration.

"Not much, but I know a bit about Dragon Slayer Magic, and if the two are similar like I think they are, you're just an amateur with it!"

I smiled, if what Gray said was true, I could defeat Deliora like this. So long as he didn't transform into his giant demon form, I should be fine. The only problem was that Gray and Lyon were getting in the way of me defeating the demon. As much as I want to help this Silver guy, I had no idea how to exorcise a demon. Killing Silver to get to Deliora might be my only option.

Deliora wore a wicked smile on his face, which suddenly became dazed as he swiped his hand to the side. Purple ice quickly encased Gray and Lyon, effectively freezing them.

"I won't let you…harm my family anymore."

Purple ice began to coalesce on his right hand, forming a sharp gauntlet of sorts. Silver's face was contorted in pain as he struggled to lift his hand.

"Ur…I'm sorry, but please take care of Gray."

Silver proceeded to stab himself with the sharp gauntlet in the chest. He cried out in pain as he dug the gauntlet in. I covered my mouth and instinctively looked away. The next thing I heard was the sound of his body falling to the cold ground.