I'm not the best of writers but I shall try my best to present you this story.
Also, this is the kinda slow burn that will put slow burn into shame, yeah, it's that slow. If you're not into it, I'd suggest clicking out like now.
If you are into it, I will appreciate your patience and dare I say, support till the end thank you.
This is probably the only Author's note, you'll see at the beginning. I hope you enjoy this and it's safe to say I don't own Fairy tail.
Part I
Chapter one
Bells Ringing In Warning Quell
-•-
Gray Fullbuster wasn't the most chaste priest one would've ever met.
He was good at his work.
That is to say holding mass, giving out sermons and listening to confessions even if they were as bizarre as burning up a car because of 'uncontrolled excitement' but that was a story for another day.
And that was all if one also conveniently ignored the fact that he was one among the most trusted security liaisons by the Vatican.
Not his proudest achievements but it did get his work done easier than said.
He was single, had a love attraction long ago before becoming a priest. And Gray would happily skip that part. Now he was a man of God for all reasons sane.
A life of chastity and peace was all he received and for good purposes, they were enough.
However.
Some moments made Gray thoroughly question his line of work. They mostly would comprise of covering up dirty, underhanded dealings and sometimes even committing them himself. If he had to be truthful, he wouldn't say that his hands were clean of sins.
But when the former head of London Metropolitan Police, Mest Gryder called him in, it didn't hit him in the slightest that this could be one of those moments.
Gray took in the neo-classical features of the large infrastructure, people pacing around it in multiple directions talking about present governance or anything else that mattered, it was the quintessential example of a busy weekday. Wondering curiously why he was sought out, Gray walked into the building of the New Scotland Yard.
A ghost of a smile graced his lips when Mest came into his view.
Not much had changed about the latter, lean and pale that contrasted starkly with his bright turquoise eyes. He had multiple scars over the side of his face, the most prominent one lay on the edge of his cheekbone. Giving him a fairly sharp and somewhat gruesome look to those who didn't know him.
But Gray did know him. And he also knew that the same man was capable of spilling tears over the death of an ant.
He grinned wholeheartedly.
It had been a short while since he met his old friend.
Mest had resigned from his job as a Commissioner to travel around for a while. Something that didn't come as a surprise to Gray. He always had his roots for the needle of the compass and the wanderlust that came with it. Even back in high school, he had made this adorable looking scrapbook comprising of all the places he wanted to visit or better yet live in.
"Well, well, if it isn't our very favourite priest. Gray, picking your phone up once in a while would do you more good than me."
"I've been busy," Gray responded, shaking hands with him.
"Busy?" Mest raised a critical brow, "Pray, tell me how so? has Jesus been keeping you up all night? well, that's very naughty of him."
"Mest, I haven't had a reason to punch anyone in a long time, don't make your existence a good one."
"My, my, will you look at that?" Mest feigned innocence. "For a man of God, you're pretty violent."
"Please." Gray groaned, "I did not come from Brixton to listen to your wholesome nonsense."
"It takes half an hour to get here."
"Precisely my point."
"And I thought Sloth was one among the cardinal sins." He grinned. "Anyway, let's grab a coffee and we'll be on our way."
He walked ahead while Gray processed his words. "Wait!"
He caught up with his friend's unnaturally fast pace, "Where are we going?"
"Soho."
"Why?"
"Because my friend something deeply of your interest resides there."
Gray narrowed his eyes, partially confused and a foreboding weakened the glow of his eyes. They reached the Golden square of Soho in a long while as Mest led him to a residential area. A good number of police cars were surrounding the house and as Mest went past the yellow tape Gray took a deep breath and did the same.
"Walter M. was the head of a charity organisation for the Holy faith Church."
"Okay?"
"And guess where?"
Gray furrowed his brows, grasping at straws for what Mest was hinting at before he realised.
"In Fiore?"
While most places in and near London had been popularized for their isolation and scenic beauty, Fiore fortunately or unfortunately didn't come under that list. If Gray had to be accurate, Fiore felt like a different land in itself, set apart from the outside world. Heck, it could sure constitute as one. It was an odd thing about that place though because when one would ever travel there they would find none but those born and bred there with ancestral roots lingering to ages ago.
Which made it nil of outsiders.
"Magnolia. The last anyone saw him was Friday, he's been missing two days before he was found dead this afternoon."
"Who found him?"
"His nineteen-year-old daughter did," Mest said, "However, the question of how he was found might be trickier to answer."
"Why?"
Mest scratched evenly the side of his jaw, glancing briefly at his friend."That's what I'm hoping you could answer."
And without any more explanation Mest continued his way into the residential home of Mr Walter M. The white porch beyond the lush green lawn was decently cleaned and the building seemed relatively normal.
Until it wasn't.
Gray followed him inside as a few police officers moved aside for him to pass (if not doubtfully) Before stepping into the threshold, he felt it. He felt the darkness seeping through the corner. And in words, if one had to describe it then it would be evil. Pure evil. He should've known the reasons why he'd be asked for in a crime scene of all places.
"Gray? Anytime before Christmas, mate."
"Yes." He replied, entering the house that grew in its ominously odd aura. And he wondered if it was the house or that which lurked within it. Normalcy preceded the making of the house, open space and quiet if possible. In fact, Gray would've been genuinely surprised that there was someone in their presence. If there was then it was doing a good job staying silent.
After passing the stairs, Mest opened a door and began climbing downstairs with walls of pale pastels as Gray lagged, examining the scratches, likely made by nails alongside the steel-plated railings. It wasn't just a mark, the gash had penetrated the steel of the railing and its depth was sharply defined as Gray let his fingers run in the groove.
He continued climbing down, watching his step cautiously and what he saw made him wish Mest had given him a two-second incoming warning. His eyes lingered on the floor where the grotesque sight of a man who was laid stark naked on the floor where drawn with powder mixed in blood of the same was a reversed pentagram.
The room smelled weird though Gray knew it probably had something to do with the body lying on the floor. But God in the heavens above, it felt rotten, not in the terms of decaying flesh but something more engulfing.
"When his daughter found him like this she immediately called us. And no one knows how he got there with all that-"
The man had been positioned with his legs stick next to each other and his arms spread out wide, reaching out to form a horizontal line as would an upended cross. He was sacrificed, Gray deduced, willingly? another part of him exclaimed.
-"and she panicked and called us and when we reached her this is what we found. Poor thing was left in a pool of stutters."
"I can imagine," Gray responded, faintly. "Seeing something like this must've been quite a . . .shock."
He looked around at the room pitch black with markings of strange alphabets before he realised that they weren't just any markings.
Ishgar runes.
You've got to be kidding me, Gray surmised.
"I need to leave."
Mest blinked twice before processing his words, "Why?"
"This case comes officially under the church's jurisdiction."
"What? Why?"
"I don't think I'd make sense if I did tell the truth," Gray replied, honestly. He brought his phone out of his pocket, flipping it open before dialling a number.
"Don't be ridiculous, Gray," Mest argued at his friend's underlying connotations. He was his friend from like what? high school? The nerve of him saying that Mest wouldn't believe him was simply beyond infuriating.
"I'm not. I just don't think I have the authority to tell you what this. ." He gestured to the scene, "entails." Gray replied as the person on the other line picked his call up.
"Hello?"
"Jellal." He breathed out.
"Gray, it's been some time." The man responded, almost as if his call was unexpected.
"Yes, I had hoped it would remain that way but-"
"-is something wrong?"
"About that, I think we have a problem." he ran a hand through his hair, a habit, Mest had observed, he had inculcated to repress nervousness.
"And?"
Gray maintained eye contact with him as he continued, "There was a man murdered here in London. And I think it was a human sacrifice."
Mest jerked his head back as if to say, what the hell?
"Go on." Jellal prodded.
"The sacrifice is written in runes of ancient Ishgar."
His response was answered with an eventful silence which gave him an answer that wasn't sounded. So instead Gray said, "I'll be leaving for the Vatican tomorrow. And you inform the Council. "
"I'll see you there."
Gray disconnected the call and took another look at the body laid on the ground.
"Yeah and a cult sacrifice for what? Summon the Lord of darkness?"
"Like I said you wouldn't think that I'd make sense, my friend."
And his gaze moved to the writings on the wall while most were in Ishgar. They were written in red and it took Gray less than a second to know it was in the blood of Walter M. The runes were plotted in sequences of infinities which circled a single phrase. Something that he had dreadfully failed to notice.
"And like I said I'd always believe you, no matter how crazy you'd get. So tell me who in hell got summoned?"
He narrowed his eyes to slits down to the phrase. It was the comprehensible language on that wall written in Latin-
Ipse est libero.
"What does that mean?" Mest said, cocking his head to the side in a mix of annoyance and concern.
"He is free." Gray's eyes widened at the consequence of what he was saying.
"No, this wasn't summoning. . .this was trying to play God," He let his hands outline the phrase before considering.
"Or the Devil."
They stopped at the symbol sketched on the white surfaced barrier. Recognizing the symbol was a matter of two steps away from experiencing a panic attack. He flinched his hand back as if lightning shot out from the wall surface.
The mark of a demon lord.
But this was a particular symbol and of all hideous creatures that existed on God's green Earth. It was reserved only for the most indestructible demon that existed in its kind.
It can't, it shouldn't. Gray felt his stomach tying up in irreversible knots.
He. . .He was contained, there's no way. He took a deep breath to neutralize the roaring panic that was rising like bile in his throat.
Of course, none of this made sense to Mest who didn't know what in the blue heck was going down.
"We need to leave. Now!" He said, grabbing Mest by the shoulder and dragging him out of the room and pushing him up the stairs.
"What the heck man?"
The airs of the housing changed and it was all the more reason for Gray to remain persistent instead of explaining.
"No really, we need to leave."
"No, you first-"
Sounds of someone marching on the floor above made a chill ran down his spine as the lights began to flicker. And it went down quiet, quiet and nice just like it'd be at a graveyard at 3 am. Gray swallowed. This was not good.
A bellowing roar tore through the night and echoed in the walls, slowing down to low feral growls quite like a predator prowling for prey. The lights in the room blinked at them. Mest stopped struggling from removing Gray's grip, making the latter stiffen, they had reached the hallway just a few steps away from the entrance of the house.
The priest continued to pull him but Mest seemed glued to his spot, pale as the moonlight that seeped in.
"Gray, what's that? In the living room." He pointed firmly to the red couch in the room. A silhouette of something miserably evil hovered, baring teeth in animosity and lust for blood could be smelled from the air. The glitter of reptilian scales attached to flesh in place of skin was all it took for Mest to finally realise.
"Run. Now!" Gray called out, and he didn't need to be told twice because he leapt towards the door, pushing himself out of the house.
Before Gray could step out, a force grabbed the back of his neck, raising him upwards and pressing against the side of his neck with sharp long nails, almost drawing blood as he struggled to get on his feet.
"Why hey there. It's been a while?"
Gray shuddered a deep breath at the harsh tone of voice, "Dragneel."
His statement was met by a diabolic chuckle.
"See, I'd love to kill you right now for you know, conspiring to lock me down for a decade and all, but I need you for a favour."
"You can go to hell, demon," He grunted.
"Now that's the spirit I was looking for." Gray could feel his grin etching but he dared not to look back.
"Since I'm free. Finally. A decade is a long time you know. " The demon smiled grimly. "Anyway, please give my message to the little bird who trapped me in her cage, would you?"
"The hell?" Gray asked, hating the way he knew exactly who he was talking about.
"I'm going to come for you and believe me, I will." Promise lingered in the hollow of his voice, vowing all sorts of trouble to come as Gray's mouth dried in rust.
"And no God of hers can protect her as I rise to burn her down to ashes."
And the next thing Gray knew was landing on the ground on his behind, the ringing in his ears had got louder as a statement replayed in his head like a broken tape recorder. Beside him lay Mest on the harsh green ground they both watched in horror and awe as the house began burning to the crisp of debris.
"What. . " Mest drew a gasp for air, "on earth was that?"
Gray witnessed the flames engulfing the house and a roaring crackle that accompanied it. Almost in mockery. The fire department arrived and ringing faded to the mere sentence reciting in his head.
Warn her that I'm coming for her.
He closed his eyes before clenching his teeth, "A demon."
And the most fearful of his kind known to the Holy Order. Gray let his back hit the ground at the passing of that thought.
Honestly, he was not getting paid enough for this.
Phew. My first chapter is done. Can't believe it took this long. Next update will most likely be next weekend (I think). I'm still not sure of how I'm mixing both the real world and the actual fairy tail realm but I'll figure something out.
Chaol.