Thank you to everyone who read the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 59

The Mission to Stop Oracion Seis Begins!

Lucy

Our mission was easy enough on paper. Capture the members of Oracion Seis and try to find the location of Nirvana before them. This was, of course, easier said than done. We honestly had very little information on Oracion Seis to identify them and only had a vague idea of where Nirvana was located. All we knew was that Nirvana was located somewhere in this massive forest!

The good news is that our inter-guild alliance was large enough that we were able to split up and effectively cover more ground. Strangely though, we split up with members of our own guild, rather than mixing with the other guilds. Not that I'm complaining, I would have gone with Siegrain no matter what. I did notice Juvia was somewhat upset when it was decided that guilds would not be mixing together. I had a feeling she wanted to be with Gray.

"Have you picked up on anything, Natsu?" asked Siegrain as we ran through the forest.

"Huh, what do you mean?"

I saw Siegrain give Natsu an incredulous look, "Have you picked up on any scents?"

"Oh, was I supposed to be on the lookout for that?"

I could FEEL the annoyance coming off of Gray as he said, "Come on Flamefreak, that's like, all you're good for!"

Natsu stopped in his tracks and turned around. He ignited his fist aflame, "You wanna say that again, Icicle?"

Gray fell into his Ice-Make stance and readied an attack of his own, "Bring it on."

Siegrain and I both had the same feeling of annoyance, but he was actually willing to step between the two.

"Knock it off, both of you!"

"He started it!" Natsu yelled, pointing at Gray.

"Do your job!"

"I said, KNOCK IT OFF!" Siegrain yelled, "We're on a very important mission right now, so act like it!"

I smirked as Natsu and Gray shrunk at Siegrain's words. I even noticed Happy getting a little worried about the blue haired man. I wasn't intimidated in the slightest though. I remembered my days at Mildian Academy, when kids would make fun of me for having "a boring magic". Siegrain never put up with stuff like that and would shut that down the moment he saw it happen. It's part of the reason why he was elected the Student Council President. Everyone knew they could count on him.

"Natsu, focus on picking up any scents around us." He ordered, "Lucy!"

I jumped as he called my name, "Yes?"

"You have the silver spirit: Canis Minor, right?"

My eyes widened in realization. While Plue may not have any real combat usage, his sense of smell is supposed to be really good. I pulled out his key and summoned him to me. The little snowman dog spirit appeared before me, shaking nervously like he always does.

"Hey Plue," I say, leaning down to his height, "We're looking for some dangerous guys, think you could help us find them?"

Plue looked around and pointed at a smiling Siegrain. He was probably smiling because I was able to figure out what he asked without him explaining himself. He didn't seem that happy for Plue to just point him out immediately.

"Um…no," I said with a sweat drop, "I mean dark mages."

"Come on, I'm not that dangerous." Siegrain said.

"If anyone's dangerous, it's the pyromaniac. He'll light us all on fire."

"Yeah, well you'll just freeze us all!"

Once again, Natsu and Gray were at each other's throats, forcing Siegrain to separate them once more.

Happy meanwhile, cried out the dumbest conspiracy theory I'd ever heard, "Wait, but Siegrain was supposed to be the vessel for Zeref…maybe he really was taken over by him!"

"I think we would have known about that by now."

"I'm not Zeref." Siegrain told the blue cat, clearly annoyed to be accused of that.

"Hehe…sorry."

Siegrain took a deep breath, "This is going to be a very long mission."

"Heh, maybe not." Natsu said.

"Plue!" Plue cried, indicating that he picked up on something.

Natsu and Plue both turned towards wherever they picked up a scent and we all fell in line, prepared for battle. It wasn't long before we could spot a large group of people running at us. They opened up their attack by sending a moderately sized fireball our way. Natsu was at the front of our group, so he easily ate the spell.

A man comes running up to me and focuses his attack on me. I quickly pull out my key, and in mid summon, Siegrain quickly dispatches of the foe. I return Plue to the Celestial Spirit Realm and summon Taurus to my side. Once he goes through with his usual compliments to my body, we were all ready to take down some dark mage scum.

More dark mages take their aim at me, but with Taurus here, they were unable to get close enough to land a hit. With a single swing of his Labyrs axe, Taurus easily dispatches of the enemies and knocks them unconscious.

"Moo!" Taurus cries as he cuts down more dark mages.

"Yeah, go Taurus!" I cheered for my spirit.

"Anything to protect that beautiful body of yours!" Taurus cried out, much to my annoyance.

Taurus goes to attack the last remaining dark mage aiming for me, but to our shock, the mage casually blows Taurus away with a powerful gust of wind. A white-haired man stands before me wearing a black overcoat with a gold trim. This man looks strangely familiar.

"Hey, I know you!" Natsu yelled, "You're that guy that tried to kill Gramps and the other Guild Masters!"

It was then that I realized who this man was. He was a part of a dark guild that threatened the Guild Master's meeting with a Demon of Zeref. I wasn't sure of exactly who he was, but I recall him being featured during the trial that came about after that incident. He may have been the guild master of that dark guild.

"How'd you get out of jail?" Gray asked.

The man smirked to himself and cracked his neck. He pulled a scythe off his back and pointed it towards us.

"Who said I ever went to jail? You Fairies are going to pay for what you did to Eisenwald!"

Gray and Natsu jumped at the opportunity to fight this guy. They both threw their magic at the man, who caused an updraft to pull their magic's away from him.

"I got this, Gray."

"Yeah, well so do I?"

The two boys looked to each other with annoyance. Evidently, they both wanted to take a crack at this guy.

"I never got to fight him!" Natsu argued.

"And neither did I!", The two then butted heads and growled at each other, "You were never going to fight him anyways!"

"Yeah, I was!"

"Guys!" I was about to shout for them to watch out, when Siegrain flew in and pushed the two of them out of the way as a gust of wind enveloped the place where they were just occupied.

"Would you two knock it off! We need to take this guy down and keep looking for Oracion Seis!"

I heard a female chuckle behind me. Before I could react, Siegrain was at my side, Meteor active, and moving me out of the way. A moment later, a laser beam was fired right where I was standing.

"Well, if it's Oracion Seis you're looking for, I'm right here."

Stepping out of the bush, was a white-haired girl wearing a white, feathery, and revealing dress. By her side was a floating cannon-like machine. From my studies into Celestial Spirit Magic, I recognized the machine as The Chisel: Caelum, a silver celestial spirit. This particular spirit was offensively based, whereas a silver spirit, such as the Canis Minor: Nikora, was more support based. It was also regarded as a stronger spirit compared to one like Plue.

"Lucy Heartfilia, it's nice to finally meet you." The woman said.

"H-How do you know my name?" I asked, somewhat concerned.

I reached for my whip as Taurus moved in closer to aid me.

The girl smirked, "I like to keep tabs on other Celestial Spirit Mages. Find out who has golden keys and who doesn't."

Siegrain stepped forward, while the woman reached for her own keys, "I take it you are a member of Oracion Seis?"

The woman replied with a dumbfounded look, "Yeah, that's what I said."

"Surrender now and come peacefully."

The woman busted out laughing, "Oh please, I'm not afraid of you! Erigor, kill them!"

Siegrain leapt at the woman. Just inches from reaching her, she had a key in hand and opened a gate.

"Open: Gate of the Snake Charmer: Ophiuchus!"

Ooh, Angel has a new key. It always disappointed me that Yukino never used Ophiuchus after its introduction, so I decided to give it to Angel, give her a little powerup.

I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! Let me know what you thought in a review.