At the sight of the towering prison of ice, Gray takes in a sharp, shuddering breath that echoes throughout the cavern. Erza shoots him a concerned glance, but she quickly switches back to perusing the room for danger. He steps back, shaking, and she knows he's quickly covering the air around him in a thin layer of dark mist without even looking at him.

Vatra taps the side of her head to catch her attention, and she picks the red-head up off her shoulders. But as she goes to place her down gently, she twists in her grip and drops to the ground next to Natsu.

Someone snorts, but she detects no amusement in it. It was as if it escaped unconsciously. But she doesn't mind, not when Gray - and everyone else - is so clearly distressed at the sight of Demon before them.

Lura takes a hesitant step towards the monolithic structure from beside her, reaching out to touch it. Just as her fingers brush against the ice, Gray darts forward and snatches her wrist away, her pupil's slit at the unexpected contact and she hisses, showing off sharp canines. He glances between Lura, and her and Natsu, and draws his hand back towards his chest, slowly, and without making any sudden movements that might cause them to attack him.

When his hand finally leaves her wrist, their hackles settle, and she pulls her magic back into her, keeping it laying just beneath the surface of her skin. "This ice imprisons Deliora, the demon that ravaged my homeland." As he spoke, writhing layers of black seeped into the air, curling and twisting as Gray seethes, releasing the ice-cold fury that usually lay dormant.

It was frightening how used she'd gotten to her new sensing abilities, and she knew she had gotten somewhat reliant on them, but she'd had no idea just how much until they'd disappeared. Her world was dark, and the only thing she could feel was hatredrageloathing, but at least she could still see.

Lura jerks back from the ice mage, and she can see her panicking as the dark emotion suffocates her sixth sense. She frowns; she can't imagine being completely blind would be pleasant.

Gray moves closer to the ice, leaning forward to rest his forehead on it. "My master, Ur, sacrificed her life to imprison it within this ice, using her very life force to seal it inside."

The bond between them flooded with enough fear and panic that they very nearly started a feedback loop, which would only make things infinitely worse.

Finally, the hatred becomes too much for her to bear and her legs fail her, and she crumples, falling backwards into Natsu. Vatra skitters over to hide behind her, and she spots Erza striding forward from beside her and smack the back of Gray's head with her armoured hand.

The force of Erza's hit sends Gray tumbling to the floor with a yelp, and the fury suddenly vanishes.

As three sets of footsteps echo behind them – with another, smothered presence dogging their steps – from where they'd entered the cavern from, they scramble to their feet, readying themselves. To run or fight, Lucy didn't know, but nor did she care all that much.

Voices start to accompany the footsteps, and they dart behind a small outcrop of rocks that jutted out from the wall beside them.

Just as they dive behind the rocks, the footsteps stop and a female voice reverberates throughout the room, "My poor Angelica, she was defeated by some positively awful people! We just have t–"

"Sherry. Shut. Up." The female – Sherry – stomps her feet but does as the male says. "If your rat was defeated, then we have intruders. And if we have intruders, then they've likely seen Deliora. So, we must locate and eliminate them before Reitei finds out."

She frowns at his last comment, Reitei must be either the mysterious fourth pursuer or, someone she hasn't encountered yet. The five of them share a glace before Lura's face lights up with an idea and she slowly crouches down, laying her palms flat against the floor.

One of the tunnels across from them – that she knows leads to a dead-end – echoes with the sound of a rock clattering across stone, as if something had disturbed it. Another male voice shouted something that sounded vaguely like a howl they rush off to the tunnel, the other two following in quick succession.

As the three move away from them, Erza lets out a sharp breath and fixes her attention on Deliora. "The curse on the residents and this might be related… Gray, what was the spell Ur used to imprison Deliora?"

"Iced Shell."

Lura gasps and collapses to the floor, face white as Natsu's scarf. Her body trembles and she whispers to herself, "No…"

She crouches down and places her palms on the spirit's shoulders, keeping her from falling over any more. "Lura? What's wrong?" She doesn't answer, only starting to shake more violently. "Lura. What's the matter?"

Natsu bends down beside her, and Vatra plants herself in her lap, both offering silent comfort.

"Lura." Lucy tries again, but this time her tone is sharp, and she hates the way Natsu locks his emotions away and turns to look at her with a blank gaze, lost in bad memories and hiding behind the conditioned response. Lura straightens out of her folded position and mimics Natsu, expression neutral and ready to execute any command she might order, even if it might cause harm to herself.

Erza and Gray jump when Saol suddenly summons himself and pulls the two away from her. "What are you doing?" He hisses at her, keeping his gaze on the two catatonic spirits. Vatra scrambles off Lura's lap and dives behind her back to hide.

She hastily brings her hands up to soothe him, rushing her words out. "I had to, she was panicking and shaking violently. She couldn't explain why, and she would've passed out if I hadn't done anything. You know I love you all like family, I wouldn't use it unless it were absolutely necessary."

The vines behind him stop writhing and droop limply as he relaxes. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry. I just felt them lock their emotions away and anger took over so fast that I didn't have time to think about the why, just that it had happened."

Erza carefully steps over to them, curiosity wafting off her in droves. "What did you do?"

Lucy sighs, carefully restraining her instinct's offence at the almost accusation. "It's a conditioned response from their time with their previous summoners, who treated them like they were emotionless tools, just because they weren't human – even though most of them look like it. If they follow orders to the letter and don't let their emotions get in the way, there was less of a chance they'd be punished, or hurt further."

As she speaks, Natsu and Lura start to brighten up, recovering from their automatic shutdown. Gray moves closer, but the approach of an unknown entity triggers their threat response. They leap away from the group, lips drawn back and magic streaming through their systems to curl around their hands.

Gray slowly steps away from the two, seeing them relax a bit more the further he is away. She straightens herself from her crouch and makes her way towards them, hands hanging limply by her sides and posture relaxed. As she moves closer, they settle down enough for her to pull them into her lap and drag her fingers down their spines. Vatra settles beside her and runs her hands through Natsu's hair, messing up the already disarrayed spikes.

Saol loses all of his tension and stress when loud purrs fill the room, and he collapses bonelessly beside her, falling asleep almost instantly.


A loud tremor is what wakes them in the early hours of the morning, and there's a moment of confusion as everyone tries to identify their limbs in the dark, but they manage to brandish their weapons and magic in a matter of seconds.

As the shaking subsides, a harsh, iridescent purple beam of magic slices through the roof of the cavern, blinding them – even if it's only for a moment.

The ice before them starts melting – nearly imperceptibly, but it does – and tiny beads of Ur's ice form a ring around where the light is boring into the prison, only visible to her and her spirit's enhanced vision.

Gray's face twists in anger, and he readies himself to rush away from them and find a way to the top, where he could stop Deliora from being released. But stone walls block him off from the first passageway, and the next, and the ones after, until the only way out is up.

He spins around and stalks towards Lura, where small concentric ripples spread from where she has her hands placed on the stone. She still has an expressionless mask on her face, but she doesn't seem to register Gray as a threat any longer and lets him approach.

Before he gets more than halfway, she says something that stops him in his tracks; "Moon Drip; A system that requires at least fifteen low-level magic users, that harnesses the force of the moon into a spell that nullifies any form of magic. Including, Iced Shell, any form of Summoning magic, and possibly the Magic Council's Etherion Cannon."

Erza gasps softly, "Etherion?"

Saol nods behind the Requip mage, humming in agreement. "Etherion is powered by giant lacrima crystals that sit underneath their Ishgar Headquarters in Era, that passively absorb the excess magic the council members and visiting mages release as they go about their day. If somehow, enough Moon Drip was to come into contact with the lacrimas, they could theoretically destroy Etherion. Of course, no one but the Chairman and a few others know about it."

She goes to speak, but Deliora's prison shatters and shards of ice explode towards them. She panics and dives at Vatra, curling around her to shield her from injury.

The last thing she felt was something sharp lodging itself in her back and arms.


There was only pain nowadays. It consumed his energy, his motivation, his magic, and he suspected it would take his life soon. He was tempted to give in, to let the spell take everything, and leave nothing but a husk, but a soft cry of pain caught his attention. It wasn't his, and his captors weren't that young, but there was no one else around.

The cry came again, this time louder, but it was distant, buried underground hundreds of layers of stone, in one of the cave systems scattered throughout the mountain. There was a different scream, this one child-like and full of agony. It was familiar, but he couldn't remember where from.

Opening his eyes should've hurt - especially with how bright his surroundings were - but what were needles piercing his eyes when he was in enough agony to fell an army.

His eyes adjusted to the brightness, not that it helped much, and for the first time in a long, long while, he took in his surroundings. He was suspended high in the air, high enough he could see the whole island laid out below him, and his wardens were but ants under his feet. He was bathed in purple, stretching down from the heavens in a beam of magic.

So, he was being used to accelerate the Moon Drip process again. That explained the pain then. It made sense, he used Moon Magic, so his captors would be able to channel the spell through him to make it much more effective.

There was something below him; it was drawing his focus, demanding he pays attention. Another joined it, on the opposite side of the mountain, splitting his mind in two. The first one was familiar, like that scream earlier, but he couldn't ignore the other, no matter how much he wanted to.

The spell abruptly cut off, and for a moment, he was flying, before gravity took hold once again and he fell.

It was a familiar sensation; the way his body cut through the air, how his hair whipped around him, even the feeling of his stomach situating itself in his throat. He glanced down, noting how close the ground was, it wasn't far now; twenty, fifteen, ten, eight feet. Now that he was close enough, he twisted in the air, positioning himself so to land safely.

Falling from such a height was almost guaranteed to spell anyone's demise, even those like him. He survived, yes. But his ward, she was the holder of Grandeeney of the Sky's magic and had softened his fall with a powerful twist of wind.

As he stood from his crouch, he blithely cast his attention over the area around him; the force of his shockwave had bowled over what little vegetation that had used be there. Most of his captors were in the same state, lying flat on their backs and unconscious, but there were a few to his right that had managed to get themselves behind someone's barrier and were gearing up for a fight.

He had just enough in him to put up a rune barrier around the four, but he'd be more than useless afterwards. It didn't matter though, the four before him were his ward's keepers, and she was close enough that once they were down, she'd be able to protect them.


A desperate scream tears itself from his throat, only able to watch helplessly as his master rushes headfirst into the shattered ice to protect her ward. He's only vaguely aware Lura and Natsu have finally come back to themselves, and the others have appeared as they do whatever they can to shield their summoner from the incoming damage.

They end up being too late.