And, thankfully, it only took us a few months this time before making a new chapter for this story.
Of course, after how the last chapter ended, it's pretty obvious how this one will go.
So, hope you enjoy.
A week had passed since the incident with Lullaby, and things had more or less gone back to normal for the Fairy Tail Guild. Though as some would notice, not everything had gone back to normal.
"Hey, has anyone seen Marcus and William lately?" Natsu asked, having noticed that he hadn't seen the two brothers for the last few days.
"Come to think of it...yeah, I don't think I've seen them around lately," Loke noted with a raised eyebrow.
"Maybe Saito and Louise know where they are?" Cana said, pointing at the two that were sitting at the bar.
"Oh yeah, good point." Natsu admitted, before going up to the two, sitting down next to Saito once he reached them "Yo!"
"You don't need to be so loud," Louise groaned.
"Though since you're here, do you need help with something?" Saito asked.
"Yeah, you know where Marcus and William are? Haven't seen them since last week." he asked curiously… at which point the two slowly looked at him, and their gazes could be translated as 'are you an idiot?' "What?"
"You're joking… right?" Saito asked with a deadpan look.
"Uh...no?" Natsu blinked.
Saito and Louise facepalmed with a groan. "Really, Natsu?" Louise groaned. "Have you forgotten what just happened recently?"
"Did something happen yesterday?" Natsu blinked, remembering that yesterday was a slow day, no interesting jobs were posted.
Saito gave him the dullest stare possible… before he made a blunt looking sword made completely out of stone appear in his hand… and just dropped it right on Natsu's head.
Natsu let out a shout as he dropped to the ground, the sword keeping him pinned there, until Saito sent it back to his personal space and he spring back up with a bump on his head "The hell was that for?!"
"For really being that much of an idiot." Saito told him in deadpan "Since it seems you've really forgotten, let me remind you that our sudden mission a week ago to stop Eisenwald ended with literally a personal failure for the guys."
Natsu blinked, thinking back "Uh… oh… right, that Phantom thing yeah?"
"Yeah… they're taking the fact they failed to save Eligor's life pretty bad. Sure, he was an asshole, but they still watched a person die and be replaced with a Phantom right in front of them." Louise said with a sigh.
"Yeah, I get that. I mean, I wanted to kick his ass, but I sure didn't want THAT to happen to him…" Natsu frowned. "So Marcus and William are still taking it really hard, huh?"
"Of course. They're Kamen Riders after all," Saito nodded.
"You know, I've been wondering about that." Elfman asked, having been sitting close by "We hear them call themselves that all the time, but what does it mean exactly?"
"Well, not surprised you don't know," Saito chuckled a bit. "That's a title that exists where we came from. If I were to put it in short terms, Kamen Rider is the title of a type of Hero. But to us who know about them...it's a lot more," Saito said, a fond smile as he remembered the various Kamen Riders he'd seen. "It didn't matter what they faced, be it evil organizations to straight up demons or gods, if there was evil that would threaten the world, the Kamen Riders would rise up and face it without fear. No matter how hard the battles were they never gave up, and they made the impossible possible as they did, all to protect the smiles of the people who can't protect themselves. That's the kind of legacy they are trying to live up to everytime they call themselves 'Kamen Rider'," Saito said, a fond yet solemn expression on his face.
Everybody who'd heard him stared at him with wide eyes… and that ended up being pretty much all the guild, hell even Laxus had shut up and just listened to him speak, the blonde looking rather pensive for once.
"I see… to think they shouldered such a great legacy of heroes." Erza said "It's no wonder they want to live up to the names they've taken on."
"Making the impossible… possible, huh?" Grey repeated thoughtfully "Sounds… kinda extreme… almost self-destructive even."
Saito sighed "It… is sometimes, I'll admit. Not every Rider came out of their battles unscathed, some even perished while fighting till the bitter end."
A heavy silence descended at that. Now one might not think it strange considering the weight of what Saito had said...but then one shouldn't forget that this is FAIRY TAIL we're talking about. The fact that his little explanation had managed to make the guild quiet was an achievement in and of itself.
"But…we won't let them be like that," Louise said after a moment, catching everyone's attention. "I mean…we're here for them, right? We won't let them end up like those Riders."
Everyone present gave a firm nod to her words. They were Fairy Tail, and Fairy Tail always looked out for their fellow guildmates. Speaking of which though…
"Hey, where'd Mirajane go?" Levy suddenly noticed, looking around for the barmaid.
Everyone blinked in surprise at that and looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be found. "Hey, do you think…?" Louise wondered.
"Considering what we just talked about? I wouldn't be surprised. If we're right though, I hope she can help," Saito nodded.
Meanwhile, at the shophouse that the brothers lived in with Louise and Saito, the jewelry store had the sign flipped to 'closed'. Inside, Marcus and William were…rather absent mindedly going about their day. They weren't exactly going through a BSOD moment, but they were clearly not fully there.
Marcus was idly carving a gem in preparation for more jewelry, while William was making lunch, nothing too complicated, but lunch all the same. Needless to say as Saito and Louise had said, both were still taking the fact they failed to prevent a Phantom from being born pretty hard. That isn't to say they never considered that it might happen, but still…
Marcus sighed, putting down his tools and hanging his head "Dammit… you gotta wonder how Haruto always made it look so easy."
William nodded from where he was. "I don't think we've ever seen him fail… though, I think that, from a story-telling perspective, he probably SHOULD have had one or two failures… they kind of made him a bit too good at his job."
Marcus heard Dragon snort inside of him 'From the point of view the show gave you, that may have appeared to be the case, but you need to remember, the Haruto that you saw in the series was experienced… he DID fail early on in his adventures, which started months before the events of the show.'
"I guess that's SOME kind of comfort… still feel like shit though… and I'm sure you know why Dragon." Marcus sighed, knowing that Dragon could read his memories, earning a rumble of agreement from his Phantom.
Before they could speak further, the sound of a knock on the door drew their attention. "Wonder who's visiting now. I know I left the sign on 'Closed'," Marcus frowned, before going over to the door, and opening it, revealing Mirajane standing at the doorway. "Mirajane?" he blinked in surprise, not expecting to see her here.
"Hi Marcus." she greeted him with a smile, before stepping forward, and he moved out of the way to let her come inside "So… how have you and William been?" she asked him with a small frown, deciding not to beat around the bush.
Marcus sighed, going to sit back down "Not the best… it… stings a lot to know that we failed to save someone's life, even if they were a total jackass, and now there's another monster running around in the world, probably turning more people into Phantoms."
"I know…Saito told us about Kamen Riders," Mirajane said.
"Then you know what we're trying to live up to by using the titles," William said, having turned off the stove as he'd just finished cooking. "Oh, and would you like to join us? I was initially making for two, but I can adjust the portion to make it enough for three."
"No, its alright. I already ate before I came here," Mirajane waved the offer off with a smile. "I just…wanted to make sure you were both alright. Even if things didn't go how you wanted, you've saved other people before. You even saved me, so please don't be like a single time failing is the end of the world," she said.
Both of them winced at that, before William sat down at the table with two plates, Marcus looking down for a few moments before he looked up at her "You… might want to sit down… this is going to be taking a bit." he sighed.
Mirajane blinked in confusion, before sitting across from him at the table, while William gave him a concerned look "Are we really…?"
"I… I'm freaking tired of us just trying to ignore it man. Maybe telling her will finally just… help." Marcus shot back.
William looked at him for a long moment, before he sighed, nodding in acceptance, as Marcus turned back to Mirajane.
"The reason we're taking it so badly… that wasn't the first time we've failed to save someone… and I don't mean saving them from becoming a Phantom." Marcus started.
"What do you mean?" Mirajane blinked, a worried look on her face. She could already tell this wasn't easy for them to say, what with the pained looks both of them had.
"First, we need to start at… pretty close to the beginning I guess." Marcus sighed "Will and I… we aren't really brothers. Not by blood at least. We're brothers by choice."
"We grew up together, never strayed far apart from each other." William added "It only made sense we started to see each other as brothers."
"See, our families were… pretty close friends of each other… to the point that both of them fell into a cult together." Marcus sighed as he finally revealed it.
Mirajane gasped at that. Strictly speaking, Cults weren't exactly common in Earthland, but many Dark Guilds that had been taken down over the years behaved a lot like Cults that the concept was known enough, and very much a negative concept to most people on Earthland. Either way the idea that the brothers' families had been in a cult…that was a concerning thought.
"The cult was dedicated to granting Dark Magic unto those wishing for it, kind of like people who worship the Dark Mage Zeref." William explained "See, truth is, back home, not many people actually HAD access to magic, so because of that, this cult formed and tried all sorts of dark rituals to obtain Dark Magic. We don't really know what their ultimate goal WAS with this magic, we just know they did… a LOT of terrible things in their quest to get it."
Mirajane gulped at that. "How…how bad was it?" she asked, sounding a little scared.
"There was literally no limits they'd go to. Butchering animals was bad enough, but then they started using people. They orchestrated major accidents, sacrificed people they took off the street in increasingly gruesome ways, one poor guy even being mummified while still alive…apparently they thought the 'suffering' would make a good offering to whatever dark being they hoped would give them the power they wanted…" Marcus said, he and William shuddering violently at the memory, a feeling of being so…unclean…coming over them at the memory.
Mirajane also looked like she was going to be sick at hearing what their families did. "But…you two never…" she started, but they immediately cut her off.
"Never!" they both gasped…a bit louder than they probably intended. "Sorry…" Marcus apologized, to which Mirajane gave them an understanding nod.
"That whole cult somehow managed to brainwash nearly everyone in our families. Our parents, our older siblings, all of them bought into it." William said with a snarl "I don't regret that we left them behind in the end, and I think the only reason WE avoided the same fate is because we were bored kids who kept sneaking off to have fun, playing pretend in the woods near the compound we'd moved to." he said, his face turning into a smile "We'd always act like we were heroes on a quest, with our magic sword just being random sticks we found."
Marcus chuckled a little "Probably the only source of fun we had as kids." he said fondly, with Mirajane smiling a bit.
"Yeah… and then the clincher happened." William said with a sad look.
"The clincher?" Mirajane asked curiously.
"It's what we call the… I guess you could say the deciding factor that led us to run away." Marcus explained. "When we were about 9 or 10, another family joined the cult. They had a daughter our age. Her name was Mirabelle… we called her Mira for short."
Mirajane had…quite a mix of emotions at that. Not just from hearing what their families were like…but the fact they had a friend who just happened to have a name similar to hers. "What…happened to her…?" she asked, having a good idea that whatever happened was NOT pleasant…
"Well… at first, nothing, we became her friends as fast as we could to stop her from being brainwashed by the others, since by then, we fully understood what was going on. We brought her with us to play whenever we could, and we just made sure she was always far away from all the crazy cult stuff." William explained.
"We thought that what we were doing was working at first, and, really, it was… but, obviously, if it had really worked, she'd be here with us and probably be our sister." Marcus grimaced "At first we didn't know how, but looking back on it, they probably manipulated her. See, one day, the cult FORCED us to come to one of their rituals, and they called on her. I think they promised if she did this, then something good would happen to us, because… they brought in an Iron Maiden, and she looked at us with a smile on her face and said that she was doing this so we could be happy, before she stepped into the Iron Maiden… and we just heard her final gasps, not even any screams, before her blood started running out of it. All to fuel some crazy ritual, that obviously FAILED as well, they made her sacrifice herself, because, I'm sure you know, what would people say is the BEST type of sacrifice to dark gods and the like?"
Mirajane's only reaction was to turn a little green, understanding fully what they meant, but she didn't want to say it. It was clearly a bad memory for them…and she was pretty sure she'd be more than a little sick if she did. Eventually she settled on the important question. "How…how did you both escape?"
"That…well…long story short we couldn't take it anymore, but if we just walked out, WE'D be the ones on the next crazy ritual altar, so we had to make a distraction. Fortunately the Cult Head gave us the perfect opportunity when he came up with this 'Grand Ritual' that apparently was guaranteed to succeed," Marcus said, though his voice was dripping with sarcasm at the end.
"Either way, according to him, if the ritual wasn't done correctly, the backlash could be disastrous, and considering they were using volatile chemicals in the ritual, that's actually no surprise. Anyway, that was our best chance we could think of, and just our luck, we were asked to help with the ritual prep," William said…before an almost vicious smirk appeared on his face. "We 'helped' alright. Helped so good that whether that ritual would have worked or not, it blew up in the cult head's face. Literally."
"That was when we made our escape while everyone was busy trying to put out the fire…and trying to figure out how to save the cult head who probably had fourth degree burns considering he was at ground 0 of the explosion. After that we did everything we could to stay hidden. We changed our family names, we even had an operation to make ourselves look different while making ourselves look more like brothers, and as you can guess…we even used the magic to come here as a means to escape them," Marcus said. "We'd heard about Fairy Tail through the grapevine… and we wanted to be part of a guild that treated it's members like family." he said with a smile.
"And now that you know the full story… you can see why we took the fact we failed… pretty badly… it reminded us of Mirabelle a bit, how we failed to save her and she was just so close, yet just out of reach." William said with a sigh.
Mirajane looked at them sympathetically, before placing a hand on both their shoulders. "I'm sorry…about your friend…and about everything you had to go through," she said. "I know it won't change anything, but sometimes…sometimes no matter how much we try, things just don't work out the way we want them to, so please…don't blame yourselves over it…and don't forget that if everyone is here for you. That's what Fairy Tail is about," she said with a small smile at the end.
They both smiled a bit at her words "Thanks Mira. We know we can count on the guild."
"It's just… well, sometimes it takes a bit of time for people to finally be ready for the world again, you know?" William said with a shrug.
"You guys… you don't doubt your abilities, do you?" she asked them in concern.
"Not really." Marcus shook his head "It's more that we just need to… I guess come to terms with it."
"I understand," Mirajane said with a sad smile. "When Lisanna passed away, my brother and I were inconsolable for quite some time. Take as long as you need, just remember that you're not alone," she said, and with that said she bid them good day and excused herself as she left the house.
With her gone, the brothers both sighed. They felt a bit better, but…they still felt like they weren't fully ready to get back into the swing of things…
A short while later saw Mirajane going back into the Guild Hall. When she entered, the first thing she saw was everyone looking at her rather expectantly. "So, how'd it go?" Louise asked.
"Well, they're feeling better now, but they said they still need time before they're ready to be back to normal," Mirajane sighed.
"Still, we really appreciate you going to talk to them so….thanks, Mirajane," Saito smiled.
"Of course. They made sure I didn't become one of those Phantoms myself after all, and I can understand how they feel a bit." she said with a sad smile, while Elfman nodded in agreement with her, knowing what she meant. "Trying to cheer them up is the least I could do, now it's just a matter of waiting for them to come back. I'm sure it won't take much longer."
"And if they do take a while, we'll just have to help them cheer up faster," Natsu grinned.
"Ignoring how they may or may not appreciate rushing them, we appreciate the sentiment," Louise chuckled.
However, the mood was interrupted when a loud explosion was heard from outside of the Guild…and the screaming started.
"What the heck is that?!" Gray gasped, while Elfman went over to the door and opened it. What they saw…
"What the heck?! Where'd all of THESE guys come from?!" Saito gasped in alarm, as the city had inexplicably been invaded by a massive army of Ghouls.
"Dammit, those Phantoms are really in for it now!" Natsu growled at the sight.
"I'm…not actually sure it IS a Phantom," Louise blinked.
"What makes you say that?" Lucy asked, surprised by her words.
"Well...look at how many Ghouls there are. I've never seen this many of them in one place before! None of the Phantoms we fought in the past even CARRIED this many Ghoul Stones," she elaborated.
"Well, no matter what it is, I think we've all got a job to do people!" Saito said, before summoning two of his swords "Time to kick these guys out of town!"
The majority of the guild roared out in agreement at that, before rushing out into the town to deal with the surprise Ghoul invasion… and then a single ghoul tried to stroll into the building before being blasted back by lightning.
Meanwhile, back at the apartment, the brothers were thinking about their talk with Mirajane. "You know…maybe we SHOULD at least go to the Guild Hall again," Marcus mused. "I mean, talking with Mira definitely helped a bit…and let's be real here...when was the last time shutting everyone else out helped anyone in our position?"
"When you put it like that…yeah…maybe we should at least talk to the others rather than wallowing in our apartment," William admitted.
However, before either of them could start to actually make moves to try and speed up getting out of their funk…the screams reached their apartment. "That can't be good," Marcus gulped, both of them opening the nearest window and…
"What the hell?! Where did all of these guys come from?!" William gasped at the sight of the massive army of Ghouls.
"Not even Phantoms carry THIS many Ghoul Stones!" Marcus gasped, before both of them stopped short. "You don't think…?"
"I think I do," William groaned, both of them remembering how Ghoul Stones did exist on the Black Market…and how in Earthland there are all sorts of magic, including duplication. So with 2 and 2 together…both of them groaned. "Some idiot is mass producing them…and 20 Jewels say that they probably aren't in control."
"No bet," Marcus groaned.
"Alright… screw throwing a pity party for ourselves, I'm WAY too pissed off at the idiot whose mass producing all of them." William said in annoyance.
"I'm gonna kick them so hard they'll end up on the moon." Marcus said in equal annoyance before they both summoned their Drivers and held up their rings.
"Henshin!"
And just a moment later, the two jumped out the open window of their house and kicked a pair of ghouls that had tried to crawl through it, donned in their armors. "Alright, first order of business, cut a bloody swath through the lot of them until we found the source of the army." Wizard said as he pulled out his sword while Beast closed up their window.
"And whoever finds the idiot behind this gets first dibs!" Beast added.
"Not that we plan to split up, but I agree," Wizard said as they soon started slashing their way through the army of Ghouls.
What followed was what could only be described as a Mook Horror Show for the Ghouls, as the various members of Fairy Tail all over the city cut loose, blasting the Ghouls left and right, the only reason they hadn't been decimated being their seemingly endless numbers…which itself did very little against the most destructive Guild in Magnolia Town.
The Ghouls did their level best to overwhelm the Magic Users…and while they managed to overwhelm the guards that were a bit too worried about collateral damage to be fully effective against the Ghouls. Fortunately Fairy Tail, as well as a few members from more minor guilds, were able to pick up the slack. Even so, this situation wouldn't stop until the source of the Ghouls was cut off. For that reason Wizard and Beast were literally running over Ghouls with their bikes as they continued to search for the source.
"Feels like we've destroyed more Ghouls in the last few minutes than we ever have in months!" Beast growled.
"Probably because we probably HAVE done that," Wizard frowned. "There's gotta be a way to find the source."
"Considering we're definitely not the only ones exterminating Ghouls, the source has to be wherever we can find the most Ghouls in one place!" Beast suggested.
"Good a clue as any! Let's go!" Wizard nodded as he gunned the engine.
The town was definitely in a state of chaos, but as things were…they weren't as bad as they could have been. Especially seeing as despite their numbers, the Ghouls were having their asses handed to them left and right.
They passed several Ghouls trapped in ice, others running around while on fire, and several just laying on the ground, slowly disappearing as they could see Erza walking slowly through a massive group of them with her swords flying around her. "I see you've all been taking care of things just fine. No surprise there," Beast said with a light chuckle.
Erza looked at them and nodded. "Yes, while their numbers are rather annoying, they're hardly difficult opponents," she said…right before a sword came down and impaled a Ghoul that was trying to get the jump on her. "Though speaking of which, glad to see you two out and about again," she smiled a little.
"Yeah, well, when the town suddenly gets swarmed by an army of Ghouls, doesn't feel right to be throwing ourselves a pity party, you know?" Wizard said, chuckling a bit, before he actually let out an annoyed sigh. "That and we have an idea of what's causing all of them to appear, and it's… actually pissing us off so much the annoyance is overshadowing our self-doubt because if we're right, we're dealing with someone dumber than Natsu."
Erza quirked an eyebrow at that one. "Do I WANT to know?"
"You mean how dumb Natsu is when you're not around or how dumb this person is?" Beast shot back in deadpan.
Erza let out an annoyed sigh. "I'll settle for the latter for now, but I'll ask about the former later," she said dryly.
Meanwhile, Natsu felt a sudden chill go down his spine, and a feeling of dread come up even as he was in the middle of burning up some Ghouls.
Back with the brothers and Erza, Wizard started explaining their theory. "Well, considering how many Ghouls there are and the fact that not even Phantoms carry THIS many Ghoul Stones, we're pretty sure some fool got their hands on some Ghoul Stones and is for some reason using magic to duplicate and mass produce them...and considering how many there are, not fully sure they're able to stop. If we're right, we'll probably find the source in the spot where the most Ghouls are present," Wizard said.
Erza sighed, muttering something about 'fools being fools', before she pointed with one of her swords "Then you'll want to head for Kardia Cathedral, that's where the concentration of Ghouls seems to be the largest."
"Will do, good luck keeping the town safe." Beast said, earning a nod from the redhead before they started riding towards the cathedral.
The path to the cathedral at first seemed decently smooth…before the number of Ghouls inexplicably increased as they had no option but to crash through them, sending several of the hapless creatures flying right into walls and the like. "If we're right I think we found the source," Beast nodded as they soon disembarked, and started taking down the Ghouls with relative ease.
"It's like trying to walk through a whole horde of zombies in the co-op games." Wizard said in annoyance as he kept swinging around his flaming sword, cutting down the swarming Ghouls, Beast doing the same as he'd donned his Ice Mantle and was freezing them with his slashes.
"More importantly, see the source of the Ghouls yet?" Beast growled, cutting down several of the Ghouls and absorbing their magic.
Wizard kicked away some of the Ghouls and scanned the area. Eventually he found what appeared to be the source, an active magic circle on the ground, which had a pair of inactive ghoul stones…and the Ghouls were coming from the circle, as if released by the stones. "Looks like we found the source!" Wizard said. "Now we just need to shut it down!"
"Leave that to me, I'll suck out all the mana right out of it!" Beast said, but as he did, more Ghouls came and tried to surround them.
"But let's clear them out first!" Wizard growled. "Normally I'd take the time to deal with them…but I am NOT in the mood to do this bit by bit!" he said as he grabbed the Kick Strike Ring and put it on, before scanning it. "CHOINE, KICK STRIKE! SAIKO!"
Wizard immediately executed the Flame Strike Wizard, crashing into the entire line of Ghouls, destroying them and he kept going before eventually ending the attack, sending several flaming Ghouls flying in multiple directions…and clearing the path for Beast.
Beast didn't hesitate and charged forward, reaching the Magic Circle, and immediately stabbed the Dice Saber into the array. The effect was instant as the magic of the circle was pulled into the Beast Driver, Chimaera gobbling down the magical energy like the bottomless pit he is, and thus the Magic Circle could no longer support its functions and eventually shut down.
With the Circle shut down, he raised his foot and crushed the two Ghoul Stones, but even so, the Ghouls that were still here remained. "Guess we'll have to deal with you lot the old fashioned way," he said, smirking a bit before rolling his Dice Saber, and stopping it with the Falco Ring. "SIX! FALCO, SABER STRIKE!"
As the icy falcons flew through the large group of Ghouls, they could see more explosions going through the town, obviously the others redoubling their efforts now that it was clear the endless wave had been stopped.
"And there!" Wizard said, slashing out with his flaming sword, destroying the frozen Ghouls and finally clearing out the area.
"About time." Beast sighed "Now we just need to find the idiot that let that magic circle running and teach them a proper lesson."
Right as he said that, the both of them heard a weird rustling noise, turning to see a barrel… with water splashed out next to it, the barrel shaking a bit.
They shared a look with each other, before looking back at the barrel "Yeah, whoever it is, I REALLY want to kick their ass for giving everyone this much trouble." Wizard said, before the barrel shook even more… and started to shimy ahead slowly.
"Honestly, this idiot…" Beast sighed, before they went up to the barrel and pulled the lid off, the person inside, a man, freezing and looking up at them slowly.
"Uh…if you're looking for the guy who did it, they ran off already," the man said quickly.
Wizard and Beast looked at each other, and if one could see under their helmets they'd have expressions that just screamed 'How dumb do you think we are?'. "Really now? That's your best attempt?" Wizard deadpanned.
"I swear, it wasn't me!" he gasped.
"Really? Well then, I'm sure you wouldn't mind if we take you to the Guard Station then?" Beast said dryly.
"Um…that's alright, I'll go there mys-!" the person tried to say, but Wizard grabbed him, pulled him out, before the brothers proceeded to…punt the guy between them, ending with one strong kick, sending him flying through the air.
"What are the odds he actually lands in the Guard Station?" Wizard smirked. Right as he said that, a loud crash was heard, and there was the sound of magical sirens.
"Turns out, pretty good," Beast said, the two sharing a good laugh as they fist bumped.
A short while later, with the impromptu Ghoul Invasion dealt with, the two decided to go to the Guild Hall. When they arrived…
Well, swarmed was a good word for what happened when they stepped through the doors.
"Alright already, we get it!" Marcus shouted.
"Thanks for being worried, but we're fine now, so back off already!" William added as everyone thankfully stepped back.
"So, how come you're suddenly fine now?" Natsu asked them curiously.
"Simply enough? Because we found out there was someone dumber than you and he was being an utter jackass, and it actually annoyed us enough to make us move." Marcus said in deadpan.
"Hey, I'm not dumb!" Natsu said in indignation.
"Facts would speak the opposite." William smirked, before turning his head "By the way, want to continue that conversation from earlier Erza?"
And suddenly Natsu felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder and he started sweating immediately "Yes, I believe I would actually."
Natsu's screams were heard for miles after that.
And voila!
Yeah, that's right, Marcus and Will aren't actually related.
And yeah, we gave them a... pretty fucked up backstory.
But I'm pretty sure a lot of you wanted to know what backstory, if any, they had.
Well, now you do, and it's pretty crazy.
And, of course, the chapter was mostly a breather in between arcs, because they certainly needed it after failing last time.
But next time... well, hope you're looking forward to it.