Chapter 8
Galuna village near midnight
The group had been busy contemplating in their room, away from the purple light of the moon and trying to think of a way to destroy the moon or an alternative, "how do these people expect us to destroy the moon?" Gray asked incredulously, "good question, can anyone fly 384,400KM in one go?" Strife quipped, "wait the moons that far away?" Lucy nearly shrieked, "uh yeah how far did you think it was?" Strife asked, "well there goes my plan for making Happy fly me up there" Natsu said as even he could see that it was out of the option box.
"You all speaking as if it's the only option" the Watcher said, "there are plenty of other option and yet you all only focused on one way, if we investigate we could find the source of the curse and conquer it", Gray then all of a sudden stripped his shirt going into Lucy's face and then yawned, "we'll i'm going to get some sleep see you tomorrow" Gray said.
"Yeah 'the mystery of galuna island begins tomorrow" Natsu said jumping onto the sleeping mat, "time to hit the hay", "i'll keep watch" the Watcher said dismissively, "yeah i'm gonna sleep to" Strife said as he sat down against the wall.
Middle of the night
Lucy woke up from the snoring of Natsu, Strife and Gray, "how can i sleep when the beast, the perv and the gunner keep snoring!?" she exclaimed to no one exasperated, "oh well at least I'm not the only one" the Watcher deadpanned at her.
Next morning
"Alright up and at em people" Strife said waking to the still sleeping group, Lucy had somehow been able to sleep with all of them snoring and was snoring herself, he, the Watcher and Huninn and Muninn looked down upon the snoring trio, "um can you please wake up please" Strife said tapping Natsu with his toe.
"Well we tried it the nice way" the Watcher said, "yup and now we do it my way WAKE UP!" Strife screamed firing his guns in the air like a maniac, the trio woke up with a Scream hugging each other cowardly. Happy was still asleep so Muninn pulled the cat's tail, Happy screamed and tried to fly away but was held back for a second by Muninn who let go a second later and Happy went full speed into the Watchers face.
Said Watcher groaned, "damn it Happy watch where you're flying" it scolded, "but good job Muninn for waking this furball up", he tossed the raven a bit of meat, "Muninn?" Gray asked after recovering from his scare, "the name of the raven, the other is Huninn" Strife explained, "their my scouts".
"My tail" Happy moaned chewing a fish depressingly at his rather messed up tail, "anyway let's go investigating before you lot become cursed" Strife said, "fine" Lucy moaned and then pulled out a key, "open gate of the clock Constellation Horologium" Lucy said and in a puff of smoke a sentient grandfather clock with human arms, legs and arm appeared, "it is 7:48 AM in the morning" it said.
"Uh how does he contribute to the team" Strife asked quizzically, and Lucy opened the transparent front and get inside the clock, "it gets Lucy around because she's lazy" Natsu explained, "let go, the Lady says forcefully" the spirit said repeating what Lucy had said inside him.
"Geez girl it's usually the men who are supposed to go inside you" the Watcher quipped, "uh you perv the lady says disgustingly'' the clock said as the Watcher chuckled as they followed, the spirit was ironically pretty much slower than Lucy usually was. "Do you really think there another way to lift the curse" Natsu said to Strife, "yes if there is let's exhaust those first to going to the first option" Strife said, "destroying the moon is the kind of option i don't want to make, it will cause more harm than this curse".
"That is if Watcher doesn't get to the people first" Gray said, the Watcher gave a low and loud growl of warning to show he was on the verge of doing something bad to Gray, "will you guys keep it down" Horologium asked, "we don't know what's lurking out here, so we shouldn't draw any attention to ourselves, the lady demands impatiently".
"You should be on the one who feels the most safe, why aren't you walking, you aren't even tired?" The Watcher said indignantly flying in front of the clock, "Listen this curse freaks me out and I really need the bathroom, the Lady says nervously" Horologium said, the Watcher rubbed all six of it's eyes in exasperation, "the bathroom seriously?" Strife asked indignantly, "you were the last one to use the bathroom" Natsu pointed out.
"I have a nervous bladder okay, the lady says angrily" Natsu said, "are you kidding S-class missions are awesome" Natsu fist pumped, "yeah we get to die like badass" Strife said hoping to make Lucy even more squeamish, "your not helping strife!, the Lady shrieks indignantly" Horologium said.
"Oh come on Lucy i can beat this curse better then Natus or Strife" Gray said arrogantly, "Oh now it's on" Strife said drawing Mercy and redemption, "yeah it's a challenge" Natsu agreed pumping his fist, "you guys are morons, the lady says desperately" Horologium said, "aye" Happy said flying next to the clock.
They lost their train of thought when they heard the sound of humongous footsteps. Everyone saw a giant shadow from behind. The creature was easily 30 ft. tall, but the sun was behind it, so no one could see it clearly, preventing them all from getting a good look. Whatever it was, it started to laugh in a high-pitched, menacing hiss.
"Uh what is that?" Strife said, "no idea but i'm gonna fight it" Natsu said, igniting his hand on fire, it turned out to be a giant rat in maid outfit, complete with a apron and bonnet, "uh what the fuck is that? Mammon's wife?" Strife asked in absolute disgust, "it's a giant rat! The lady exclaims worriedly" Horologium said.
The rat breathed in deeply and breathed a spray of green gas, "ice make shield" Gray said forming a shield of ice that stopped the gas attack but it didn't stop the smell, "uh dammit, this is definitely Mammons wife" Strifes said, "and i'm gonna take her out the same way". Strife jumped out of cover guns raised and fired a powered shot at the rat, he had set it to lethal and it killed the rat instantly blowing a large whole through its head.
Blood and brain spread everyone onto the group very shellshocked at the brutal killing, Strife didn't play around did he?, "ohohoho now that was a show" the Watcher chuckled as the rat crashed down to earth dead, "uh yuck" the Watcher then explained as a bit of brain fell onto his head, "grah your telling me" Strife said as a blood got all over his armor, most importantly his boots, he had just cleaned them as well since that butcher on Bora's boat.
The sight of the brutality had made the rest of the group ignore the smell, even Natsu who had previously nearly had been knocked out by the smell "God damn Strife's ruthless" Gray shivered realizing just why Strife was not to be messed with by anyone not even Laxus and he figured that even the most powerful member, Gildart would end up worse for wear.
Natsu was very conflicted, did the thing really need to dye?, had Strife done the right thing?, it may have been in the way but wouldn't another solution have done the job like knocking it out?Happy's small brain couldn't take the trauma of the kill and fainted and Natsu had to die to catch him and cradle him.
Horolugium had also disappeared and now Lucy were left by herself and being showered by blood, Lucy took a moment to register this, it was on her face, just like the blood of Bora's men, Lucy's terror rose as she remembered that dreadful night, Strife had killed those people. Butchered them, murdered them all for her. Was there blood on her hands?It was too much, honest to god it was too much for her to think about. Lucy ran away from the scene terrified the others watched her go, the memories flashing in her mind, "huh we're Lucy going?" the Watcher asked.
"Maybe you scared her off?" Gray said accusingly, "is now really the time to be doing a false accusation" Strife asked, eyebrow raised, he took one last glance at the right before going in Lucy's direction.
"Why did she run?" Natsu asked the Watcher and Gray, "beats me" Gray said, "she seems a little squeamish, probably didn't want any blood to get on her" the Watcher said, that made sense to all of them, "still Strife did that thing really need to die?" Gray asked, Strife stopped dead and rounded on him, "what did you just ask?" Strife asked not in a calm manner Gray got nervous.
"Uh did you need to kill that thing?" Natsu clarified, the Watcher wisely backed away from the two just incase Strife unleashed his wrath, "listen Natsu that thing was not human, i don't care if it belonged to someone, Humans i make exception, but with wild animals like that goddamn...thing, no exception it dies, sometimes i don't like it but that's what it takes" Strife said, "so you just kill whatever you see as a threat?" Gray asked angrily, "you won't get it, sometimes things need to be done, things like I did to that rat".
"Your just a killer Strife if you live like that, no one gets to play judge that's not how Fairy tail works" Natsu said, "your right i am not a judge i am an enforcer that was my job before Fairy Tail hell it's still my Job" Strife shot back, Natsu couldn't find a response for that, "an enforcer?" The two questioned but their conversation was interrupted by Lucy who ran back.
"Hey guys" she called, "i found something"
Forbidden temple
After another long trek the group arrived at the doorways of a strange temple, it was large and stature and covered in cracked and vines, "damn" Strife said, as they entered, the interior was decorated in crescent moons, Strife then suddenly had an intense headache, "Strife?" the Watcher asked, Strife began to hear whispered voices, "we have been waiting" said one of the voices that reminded Strife of his brother's voice, cold, raspy and rough as stone.
"We have been waiting for Strife" it finished, "hey Strife you okay?" Natsu asked, clapping the horseman's shoulder, "yeah i'm fine" Strife said, "also Lucy why did you run off?" Strife asked, Lucy gave him a fearful look, "i-" Lucy said hesitating, "uh are you okay, look if what happened scared you-?" Strife asked, "no i'm fine" Lucy said hurriedly, Strife was obviously not convinced but he let it slide for now.
"Man what's the deal with these moon symbols?" Natsu asked looking around, "maybe they can tell us how to break the curse" Happy said, "worth a shot" Gray agreed, then Strife came on with another headache before he could respond, this headache was worse than before.
This time was absolute agony making the horseman fall to his knees, "Horseman?" the Watcher said accidentally as he kneeled next to the gunslayer, "Strife! Is he okay?!" Lucy asked concerned. The voices were back, Strife sweated uncontrollable and even howled a little, "destroy the floor" the voice said, in one swift movement, Strife stood up drew his pistols charged up a power shot waited for it to be fully charged, "it's the Watcher" Gray said accusingly "get him and Strifes free".
Too late Strife fired the power shot at full power, and the floor crumbled beneath them and they all plummeted into a dark hole.
Strife woke up falling and immediately looked around, Lucy, Natsu and Gray were falling all around him, "grab them horseman" the Watcher said, Strife used his ghost hand to grab all of them, "okay now what?" Strife asked, "if the creator wanted me to fly he would have given me wings", "you do have wings horsemen use them to conquer gravity" the Watcher reminded him.
Strife remembered, he focused his Shadow magic on his back, he pushed it out, he pushed and pushed and the wings Sprouted at the last minute catching the wind and jolting them up for a second, Lucy might have screamed. They floated safely down to the ground floor, and Lucy and Natsu collapsed to the ground. Natsu hadn't even got motion sickness to the ride, which made sense considering that flying with Happy didn't make him sick.
"close one" Strife said, the Watcher appeared, "good call on your part". Gray was not convinced, "what!? that thing is what made you destroy the floor to begin with", the Watcher had had enough of this, he pushed Strife to the side and floated in a challenging manner, "i did not do shit you little welp" he said, "i was the one to wake Strife up to save your sorry ass and i'm starting to regret it".
"Yeah right you're just a slave of Deloria here to free him and you're using Strife to do so" Gray said, "and I'm gonna end you, Ice make Lance" it was the wrong thing to do and Slave was the wrong thing to say. The Watcher in rage used dark magic and grabbed hold of Gray telekinetically, this canceled out Gray's attack, making the ice clatter uselessly to the floor and Strife stood rigid not under his own control.
"Let's get one thing clear, I am not a slave!" he tightened his telekinetic grab and the force caused the cracking of some bones, "i am here to keep you and the team in line! I shall never be a Slave!" He then made a series of sharp movements with his hands, causing Gray's limbs to move sharply and painfully for the wizard and making violent cracking sounds, his body was in agony and he cried out in pain.
"I can crush your limbs in an instant" the Watcher continued, "your hands would be the first to go" Gray's hands shot forward in front of him and pressure was added sharply almost breaking them completely. "That's how you use your magic, i'm sure that would be a fate far worse than death for a wizard like you, so let's get one thing clear" he shot forward and got right in Gray's face his six eyes boring into Gray's, "I WILL NEVER BE A SLAVE AGAIN!".
The voice echoed across the room, even Strife was a little nervous of the Watcher outburst, they were all so focused on these events that no one noticed a rather large yellow puddle of urine on the floor or the wet stain on the back of Lucy's skirt.
Strife stood up and spoke to break up the argument "okay we are all in a bad spot i get that but let's not turn against each other and no accusations'' he aimed the last one at Gray, "all it's causing is trouble and it's not going to get us anyway.'' The Watcher cast one last glare at Gray before dropping him.
Gray simple nodded in shame the words repeating over in his head, so he had been a slave and it was clearly something that made the Watcher suffer, guilt sank in as the Watcher floated past him without a second glance and began looking for an exit, Strife helped Gray to his feet as Gray was rather sore from the torment he had been through.
"so, now that that's done can Happy Fly us back up" Lucy asked, now well away from her accident as she slowly backed up in shame, "sorry way too many trips for me" Happy said, "and my wings aren't for flying they are used as parachutes" Strife said regretfully. "Hey found something" the Watcher said, everyone else turned to him, "hey check it out!" Natsu said as he ran up to the entrance, "a secret cave! Let's explore!" he then ran through the cave, "would that idiot quit running off" the Watcher complained.
"He's either brave or stupid" Strife said, "both sadly" Lucy agreed, "yeah also you need a watching machine" Strife told Lucy, referring to Lucy's wet skirt. This got LUcy into an embarrassing stutter and he hit Strife on the head and then dragged him by the cloak, "hey easy" Strife said. "If you tell anyone you're as dead as that rat" Lucy said scoldingly, "i won't say anything if you stop dragging me" Strife told the girl, "fine but i have not wet myself since i was 5-years-old" Lucy replied still embarrassed.
"So what? Fairy Tails a family, i haven't had a family like this since my three siblings and believe me Family always like to have a poke at one another" Strife said reassuringly "besides i'm sure Natsu and Gray would give punch the lights out of anyone who would be dumb enough to laugh".
Lucy gave a reassured smile at Strife with a mild blush on her cheeks, "thanks Strife that makes me feel better, '' then she frowned, "why did you go berserk back there?" she asked, "heard voices, the kind that like to causing havoc with your brain" Strife told her, "sorry for that", "it's okay we'll break this curse no matter what" Lucy told him with a sisterly hug, "never got hugged by my Sister" Strife thought this felt surprisingly warming.
"Okay now let's catch up with the others" Strife said, meanwhile Gray was having his own conversation with the Watcher, "hey what did you mean by all that?" he asked, "what do you care about?" the Watcher snapped, "look just tell me and maybe we can work something out" Gray said.
"Fine, my people are a slave race and that's all we are, created for the soul reason, our master's treated us the same way" the Watcher ground out, "my people were hated across all of existence and we were punished for the most ridiculous of reasons" "what kind of reasons?" Gray asked beginning to synthesis with the Watcher, "one watcher got killed for simply doing her job without permission" the Watcher said, Gray was horrified.
"I abandoned my post and ran and hid from their wrath, and now I'm stuck with verbal abuse from you!" the Watcher continued, "I'm sorry" was all Gray could bring himself to say, "you should be" the Watcher said harshly, "hey guy's" Natsu called to them all they caught up and were met with an amazing sight.
Strife and Lucy caught up a little later to find Natsu, Happy, the Watcher and Gray staring up at something, they then noticed what they were looking at, "holy damnation" Strife said, "aye" Natsu agreed.
It was a massive chunk of ice, easily 50 ft. tall and circular; the ice itself was a light blue, which glowed an eerily calm light. However, this was not why they were gawking at it. Inside the ice was a creature, barely smaller than the ice that contained it. It had scales, fangs, and claws, and it promised nothing but death and destruction. It did not even look conscious or alive.
"I think i'm gonna crap my pee stained panties" Lucy said, "uh please don't" Strife said, "also what the hell is that supposed to be? A demon?", "yes it's deloria" Gray said, "the same person you accused me of being a slave of?" the Watcher said, "it's impossible" Gray whispered fearfully, "what is it doing here on Galuna island".
Natsu had never seen Gray like this before, not in this fearful demeanor, not even Erza made him this scared, "t-there's no way…" Gray trailed off, "calm down Gray" Lucy said grabbing his shoulder, Gray took a few deep breaths and seemed to calm down even with his still haunted face. "So you're going to introduce us?" Strife asked, "it's Deloria, the demon of destruction" Gray said.
Strife almost scoffed but didn't as this was a sensitive moment for Gray, "demon of destruction, typical of a low level bottom feeder which this no doubt is" Strife thought, they then heard the caw of two ravens, Huninn and Muninn, "someones coming" the Watcher said disappearing, the group took cover behind some boulders while the two ravens simple rested on a branch somewhere near the roof.
They hid just as two people entered the cavern. One was a short young man with a knee-length green coat, spiky blue hair, and the thickest eyebrows Nightcrawler had ever seen, except maybe Beast. This was Yuka, a minion of the Cold Emperor. The other one was a shirtless man wearing blue jeans. The strangest part about this man was that his face was dog-like, not that it was ugly, but like someone mixed a human face with a dog. He had shaggy brown hair and a pair of dog-like ears from his head. This was Toby, another minion of the Cold Emperor.
"The voices were down here I'm sure of it" Yuka said and then sighed, "I hate being awake during the day", he then turned to his partner Toby "by the way were you exposed to Moon drip? You certainly got pointy ears". "I already told you their fashion statement Yuka" Toby yelled, "just teasing you that all" Yuka chuckled, "yeah well that's mean" Toby pouted.
"Moon drip?" Lucy whispered to the others, "is that the name of the curse?" "looks like, and these guys are the masterminds" Natsu whispered back, "nope these are just the stupid henchmen" Strife whispered in reply.
"Yuka! Toby!" called a new woman's voice, it sounded uneasy like she was crying and regular as clockwork, in ran a woman covering her face so no one could see she was crying.
The woman had violet hair and wore a short, pink-and-black dress with a white lace around the edges. She also wore black thigh-length boots and a strange, feathery scarf around her neck. This was Sherry, the Cold Emperor's most faithful minion, in many ways. The woman was obviously distressed by something as she couldn't stop crying, "what is Sherry?" Yuka asked more concerned than he figured he would be.
"I-it's Angelica" Sherry sobbed, "what about her?" Toby asked, "she-she's dead, someone killed her!" Sherry said and then broke down sobbing and fell to her knees, Toby and Yuka bent down to reassure her and gave Team Natsu a chance to talk. Strife gave the universal sign to say they were crazy and team Natsu shot glares hot enough to incinerate a bird in his direction.
"What?" Strife asked, "I know these people are Crazy Strife but come on you killed her pet, you know how hard that must be for her?" Lucy snapped quietly, "hey it tried to kill us so i killed it first" Strife said non repentantly, even though he could relate to the girl with him missing Mayhem dearly.
"If someone killed Angelica then there are Intruders on the island'' Yuka's voice said, "and i-it's almost time to begin collecting the moonlight" Sherry sighed recovering from her fit of the sobs, "this won't please the cold emperor, we should get rid of them" Toby said, "agreed" Yuka said, "yeah i'll make them pay for what they did to Angelica with the gift of eternal rest!" Sherry yelled.
"Sucks for her i'm the spirit of timeless unrest" Strife thought, not wanting to risk their cover being blown he motioned to the two ravens up above, Huninn flew out of the cave, picked up a small rock with his beak and tossed it against the outside of the cavern. It did its job as the trio went to investigate the echoing sound source.
"Nice job" the Watcher said tossing a bit of meat to Huninn as he returned, "we should've jumped them when we had the chance and beat the info out of them" Natsu said, "we don't even know their strengths or weakness's Natsu, we go jumping in we might be the ones being beaten for information" Strife told him, "sometimes the best battles are won by doing nothing".
"Well that makes no sense but this job is getting a lot more complicated" Natsu said, "aye" Happy said, "well we're the fun in simple even if it's less irritating" Strife countered, "aye and we should probably find out who this cold emperor is" Happy said, "what do you know about this thing Gray?" Lucy asked pointing to the chunk of ice.
But Gray wasn't listening as memories flooded back to him as he stared at the frozen creature wondering how it was here and what did they want with it, "a long time ago it was sealed inside the glacier, in the northern continent" Gray said, "it was an immortal demon that was destroying the town of Isval a decade ago. My Master Ur, the woman who taught me my magic sacrificed herself to seal it away. I do not know if it has anything to do with the curse, but that demon does not belong here" he turned to the group, "we have to find out who the ice emperor ice, if he has tarnished Ur's legacy, he is going to regret the day he was born!".
"Now we are talking" the Watcher said, "so how did you master beat that thing?", "my Master used a pell to trap delioria; it's made of ice that cannot be melted, it's strong enough to resist fire magic but if those people knew that then why bother and bring it here?" Gray responded. "Maybe there's something here that can melt it '' Strife suggested, "maybe the moon drip" Lucy suggested, "your probably right" Gray said.
"Hey i have an idea why don't we wait until they go to collect moondrip then we go to meet them" Strife said, "what? But it's the middle of the day i'll die of boredom" Natsu said and immediately fell asleep, "what does he take to make him go to sleep so fast?" the Watcher asked.
Galuna Island Shores 9:00 AM
A small, hunched man who wore worn, red clothes, a gray cloak and a red, horned mask that covered the upper half of his face. This was Zalty, an unknown wizard. Next to him was a man, wearing a similar cloak of Galuna Island natives, however, his was pure black.
"You know your mission, right Zalty?" the man asked in a deep voice.
"Of course. Once Deliora is free, nothing will stop us from the world knowing of your return, Lord Zeref." Zalty said.
"See to it that you succeed." The man said.
As Zalty left, the man shed his cloak, revealing himself as a tall red skinned demon with huge horns, upside down wings and wearing very unearthly Armor , this was the demon lord Samael banished by the destroyer and Lucifer to this wretched world and seeking for a way to return.
"Foolish human girl. She actually believes I'm that wretch Lord Zeref, although, considering her mental state, I should not be surprised, humans will believe anything with good enough reason and When the time comes, i will be returning and reclaim my kingdom and who knows maybe that horseman can help me tie up loose ends on this side of the human kingdom." Sameal said as he folded his upside down wings around himself and disappeared into a portal underneath him.