Catching up was easy as the trio of Natsu, Happy, and Lucy had just barely finished searching for anyone willing to ferry them to Galuna Island to no avail before Gray tried to get them to go back, Natsu willing to put up a fight to Gray's own threat, only for one of the civilians to enable their passage and quickly got them on, Alex blinking before he rubbed the bridge of his nose while Freefall had been laughing as, no sooner had they landed, did the drake quickly gone for the fish market and Alex was left to pay for the drake's coastal meal and just completely miss Natsu get on with Lucy and Happy and a bound-up Gray. "I dare not ask..." He took a breath before he pulled out a Lacrima and activated it, hoping that it would connect and it did as Makarov appeared in projection.
"Alex, I trust that you have good news."
"Sadly, no, Gray and I made it to Hargeon, but we got separated because my drake decided he would partake in some coastal meals." There was a bit of laughing on the other side as he continued. "Gray found them, but there was a civilian that enabled them to head for Galuna, Natsu got a quick shot on Gray and now the four of them are heading for the island, so far, the route has been tame, Master. I will update on the situation as it happens, sir." Makarov breathed as he spoke.
"I had hoped that Gray would have been able to stop Natsu, but it would seem that his own confidence was his downfall, but it is strange that a civilian would be willing to ferry them to Galuna, I value Natsu, so I am understanding why he dared to do this, but he could have asked for Erza to at least help him in this." Alex shrugged as Makarov continued. "Can Freefall follow them to Galuna or can he pick them up to bring back to the harbor?"
"He could try, but the saddle can only stand to ferry three, anywhere else is carried by mouth, talon, or tail, so I doubt we can bring them back." Alex sighed as he continued. "I think I can assess the situation on Galuna if Freefall and I take to the air again, and any new developments will be known."
"Excellent, I can expect some decent information from you, just keep my brats and your guildmates alive."
"Will do and don't worry, every kid wants to prove they are capable of the highest levels."
"That's what I'm afraid of with you kids..." The link cut and Alex pocketed it again, taking a breath before turning to the drake.
"Freefall, stop laughing and eating the trout and let's fly." The drake just laughed, hacking up chucks of fish before laughing again before Alex kicked him as he spoke. "Some mighty beast you turned out to be, a complete joker..." He shook his head as he, at least, hoped that...
'Hey there, kid.' Alex jumped at the sound of a woman in his mind, Freefall stopping as well as he quickly got up and they listened to what must have been a mental message through telepathy, its source being Galuna. 'I'm glad that I got someone to hear me, it has been tiring with holding Deliora like this and killing the foul bastard off, but now one of my pupils, Lyon, is trying to use the moon and the Moon Drip spell to melt my ice and my life, so he could fight Deliora and win, and I thought the Gray was a numbskull...'
'You trained them both in underwear, so I don't doubt, I am doubting who is more of the numbskull...' Alex breathed as he spoke. "I do have a usable spell that should put you back together, but it will require the ice to melt, it's...'
'Water Body, good choice, kid.' Alex huffed as the voice continued. 'I have it down pat, but also find 'Zalty' for me, even if she never forgives me, I will be more than happy to know that, after all of these years, she is still alive and well...'
'...Alright...' Alex breathed and the link faded before Alex rubbed his temples. "Might as well get this out of the way." He scaled onto Freefall and secured himself as he spoke. "Freefall, let's head for Galuna, no sense in not taking in the effects going on within the island." The drake screeched before taking flight and Alex narrowed his brows from high above before turning his attention to the island, its distance closing as he tried to isolate...
Bingo... there was a clear invisible layer hovering over Galuna Island and Alex pulled out his notes to check it over for any good reference on the spell. He did find a good relation to the layer, the Moon Drip spell, a Dispel-type of spell that takes a tremendous amount of magic power and it had been cultivated over a few years from the layer the exhaust that has now hung over the island before he breathed and pulsed. The point of using Observation here was to both isolate Zalty and also establish the presence of Deilora, in case the demon could be revived, but the answer was not that simple as Zalty was all over the place, sure, but Deilora... well, the demon hadn't kept its life, it once may have been about to be revived, but the soul was completely frozen and decayed in that non-meltable prison, its soul couldn't be cycled back into the fray, so there is no demon returning to life, maybe a few moments of energy before it completely fell apart at the seams.
It made sense before he took to his book again, the sun fading to the moon appearing and Alex witnessed the whole picture of the Galuna islanders changing into demons fully, but looked more horrified than calm, his mental probing also gave him the answer in the form of muddled thoughts and jumbled identities, his notes telling that Moon Drip has a slight effect of befuddling any demons caught under the layer, so that was an issue, but he will leave it to the Wizards who have just been shipwrecked by a monster wave.
His primary task was to bind Zalty, melt Ur's ice so that she can reform, and put the two together to make up for what had happened in the past.
'Why not just melt the ice now, they darn well built up enough, so it should be a simple smash and grab and a ride out into the sunset.'
'It is not that simple, time is key and I don't...' Alex froze right then with wide eyes as Freefall looked with speaking.
'Alex, are you okay?' Alex breathed before he spoke.
"That clears it up..." Alex rubbed his head in surprise as he spoke. "Just thinking to myself, Freefall, nothing of grave concern..." The drake hesitated, but nodded as they headed for the temple right off the bat as Alex pieced his thoughts together.
That wasn't Freefall's voice, nor was it Ur's, it was the voice of his younger brother that gave the idea of melting the ice right then and snatching Zalty, that was a problem as he was clearly still in his world and alive, the chances of his brother somehow crossing the border and getting the same deal as Alex was a slim chance, VERY slim. Sure, it is increased in Fairy Tail logic, but that was in connecting the other worlds of Fairy Tail together, it does not break past those, not even that Moon Dragon has the power and Alex would make it VERY clear that there would be no more dimension-hopping in her FRANKLY SHORT lifetime.
He shook his head and readied for action, it was time to get to work...
The cultists were hard at work, channeling the energy of the Moon into the Moon Drip spell, the Cold Emperor internally pleased with the progress that will finally surpass that of the former teacher, before a screeched filled the air and a drake came crashing in, all of the cultists and Wizards yelped as the beast snatched someone and took off with a heavy pound of air before disappearing into the fading sunlight before Sherry spoke in confusion. "Wait... where is Zalty... was our love not enough?"
"How does love work into that!?" Toby exclaimed as Yuka made a joke about the dog ears, the Cold Emperor frozen in place before he blinked.
"Ah..." The Emperor looked down to his feet and hands that were somehow binding his limbs in place through ice, not an issue to deal with, but... it was encumbering, so he was only stay until he could render the ice from his body or just waited and considering his plans... waiting was not an option.
Alex glanced back slightly before he rolled onto Freefall's underbelly and inscribed a Rune onto Zalty's neck before he pointed and Freefall nodded as they headed for a wide patch and dropped them both, Alex landing while Zalty was caught in a rope trap as he exclaimed. "What is the meaning of this, how did...!?"
"Cut the act, Ultear." Zalty froze as Alex dusted himself off and spoke with glancing at the man bound up with arms behind and rope gripping every part of him as Alex continued. "I realize that you are just playing second fiddle here, what with getting Deilora freed and cutting Lyon off from his misconception of vengeance, but are you doing it on purpose or are you still playing to Jellal's tone?" Zalty froze again and growled.
"You're the reason he just stopped, I knew something had happened when Siegrain vanished, only to reappear a bit more remorseful than before." Alex reached over and pulled off the mask, it being the trigger as the male form transformed back and the ropes accompanied the change, but it did little in dissuading the glare from Ultear's eye. "I don't know what you intend to do, but know that I will-"
"Okay, stop, you are giving me a headache on your superiority speech." Alex rubbed his nose as he spoke to the air, trying to broadcast a link between him and another place. "She is not going to listen one bit, even if we try to puzzle out what even happened."
"Oh, so you're-"
"It's not too annoying, the most annoying thing I have ever dealt with was Gray's stripping, like he keeps on trying to train and get stronger without pause." Ultear's voice stopped in her throat at the sound of another voice, a woman's voice, as Alex continued with folding his arms while Freefall roamed the premise of the clearing for any tails.
"That doesn't excuse her wanton lust for power and rage, dark magic is dark magic, but only if you let it consume you. Why do you think Grimoire Heart is a dark guild of demons exactly, especially with one going rogue and rampaging across Isvan?" Ultear blinked at what was clearly a conversation, and what was it about...
Her heart stopped before she exclaimed to the air. "Wait a minute, that voice... is it..." Her eyes widened as she looked up for any sign of life that could tell her one of two answers. "Is that you... Mom...?"
"Ah, Ultear..." The voice spoke as it mused with sorrow. "I'm sorry... I have no excuse for what I had done in replacing you in my heart with Gray and Lyon, but they told me... they told me you died and something broke inside..." Ultear gasped as tears started to bubble up in her eyes. "I... may have taught Gray and Lyon how to use Ice-Make, but Gray... I could see anger, rage, pain in his soul that prompt him to try a vain battle against Deilora, a battle I was forced to settle in sealing the force of doom in ice, at the cost of my own life, or so I had believed..."
"You mean... you never..."
"I never forgot... I just broke a promise I never knew I had made when I held you in my arms, I broke a promise to protect you and I am sorry... for everything I had done to hurt and broke you in such a way that you would only think of vengeance..." Ultear didn't want to believe, she didn't want to admit that what she was hearing was the voice of her own mother, that it was just a trick, an illusion meant to transplant false hopes in her body...
But as the rune on her neck will attest, there was no magic attempting to break her, no spell planted on her to tell her otherwise, nor was there any spell set to free her as she wailed into the air, tears flooding down her face as Alex tilted his hat as he spoke.
"I realize that you two have some catching up, but..." He glanced with a glowing blue of an eye. "...Besides Moon Drip, how are we going to free you from Iced Shell, you put your whole being into it so it will not be easy, especially with the small cult that Lyon had assembled to use Moon Drip following three years of gathering that much magical energy."
"Ah, yes... that problem..." Ur's voice answered with a bit of regretful tension. "Normally, I would not budge an inch and Moon Drip would be forced to melt the Iced Shell away, freeing the corpse of Deilora from captivity, but magically speaking, we could... but I don't know if it could work, not with how things are right now..."
"How so?"
"Iced Shell is powerful in freezing the target and it could last for eternity, time would have no affect on me as Iced Shell would still count as a living presence, I have aged mentally, but only if I can get this job done and be free with Deilora's desperate attempt of living again." Ultear breathed in hearing this, tears still flowing down her cheeks as Alex hummed before Freefall spoke.
'If I could make a suggestion...' Ultear jumped in surprise of another voice as Alex turned to the drake as he spoke. 'Ultear is especially powerful in her magical core and Alex has been a quick study in magical Ethernano, so what if we take away Lyon's chance of vengeance, we use Moon Drip now and free you, Ur, and ensure that Deilora's moments are nothing short of dread, we could kill two birds with a single stone.'
"It could work, but how will we deal with the cult, let alone the layer that formed to affect the islanders' demonic forms and their memories?" Alex pointed out as Freefall beamed with a jaw of teeth as he spoke.
'Well, we do have Titania coming and I have subtly informed her that we have a magical layer that needs to be broken, I have left the pieces to her mind to puzzle out about the sky, the night time, and something empowered with a lot of firepower.' Alex rolled his eyes as Freefall spoke. 'In any case, we should...' Both Alex and Freefall stopped as Ultear blinked at their stare.
"...What...?"
"Oh dear, it seems to have passed on, and I had hoped that Gray was the only one..." Ultear blinked before she noticed a slight chill and looked down, her face flaring red at her state of now-undress before she wailed in embarrassment.
"WWWWWWWHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYY!"
The trio made it to the underground passage, Alex's lower jaw covered with a scarf, slight hint of bandages under it, while Freefall's was muzzled and hidden behind a gauze, Ultear flushed red and redressed as Alex shared his thoughts. 'We deserved that kick...'
'Indeed...' Freefall answered as they took in the demon and Ultear nodded before she turned.
"Alright, we do have enough and Lyon will be none the wiser to our chance, now is the time, I will cast the spell, you two just focus on supplying me with magical energy." Both nodded as Alex shared with rested his hand on Ultear's shoulder while Freefall rested his head on Alex's head as Ultear breathed and started to use the Moon Drip, the light sheering through the ceiling and shining on the entombed Deilora and the ice started to melt, the water falling before lashing onto one of the walls and creeping up, Ultear breathing in focus as more of the prison faded and more water flowed up and joined them in a puddle that was slowly forming into a woman-like form before Deilora roared, its final breath before crumbling to pieces, Ultear toppling backwards with Alex doing his best to keep her upright with her panting, but no exhaustion as the water finally finished and Ur breathed.
"Oh, that was an experience, I am not pulling off anymore hair-brained stunts like that again if I can help it." Alex closed his eyes fast while Freefall did stare, but with whiten eyes before Ultear glanced and she frantically got up and rushed as she exclaimed.
"Mother!? You can't go around, looking like that!"
"Why not...?" Ur blinked before she looked down and hummed. "Oh, my clothes don't really come back, good to know..." She glanced up and eyed Freefall as she spoke. "Your rider is closing his eyes, why are you not...?"
'I am closing my eyes, I am just using a single layer to do it, it is giving you the illusion that I am seeing with blind eyes.' Ur shrugged as Ultear screeched.
"Now is not the time to be nonchalant about this! You need clothes!"
'Then it is probably a good thing that I shopped for a few good coats and coverings...' Alex mumbled in telepathy as he reached out and pulled, a deep-blue poncho coming out before he extend it out to the mother and daughter as Ur spoke.
"Thank you kindly..." The sound of clothing ruffled and shifted before Ur spoke. "Okay, I am decent now, boys, you can look now." Both opened to a very large poncho on an older Ur, it barely reaching her knees as Ur nodded. "Good, now we should get off Galuna and fast, as much as I would like to reunite with my pupils, we are not in the best of positions and I would like to check out Fairy Tail as Lyon never mentioned his guild, not even once." They nodded as she turned to her daughter. "You coming?"
"Ah... I think I better keep the plan going, if Lyon assumed something was up, then this whole thing could be uprooted." Ultear donned the mask and transformed into Zalty as he spoke. "I'll follow suit back to Magnolia when Fairy Tail is done here, for now, you need to go... I am sorry that I am just..." Ur hugged Zalty as she spoke.
"Talk to me when you come visit, I do want to hear about everything and I mean everything..." Her expression changed to fury. "I am inches away from hunting down those bastards for lying to me, tricking me, and having the sheer golden balls to keep mistreating my little girl, so you come and visit and keep me from icing the Council building in Era."
"R-R-Right!" A warm feeling filled Ultear's heart at the sheer rage directed at her torturers, proving that Ur was VERY enraged with them for what they had done to her. She quickly warped away and Alex gave Ur a lift on Freefall as they took off, Lyon rushing in mere moments behind as he exclaimed in disbelief.
"Wh-What is..." Lyon gaped before he exclaimed in disbelief in pointing at the opposing wall. "WHO HAS DONE THIS!?"
Written on the cave wall, at Ur's request, was the message that Alex made, it saying 'I rescued only the Iced Shell, find the blue bounty hunter if you want more details. P.S. Deilora has been dead for eight years, its body and soul couldn't withstand a long entombment.' Then Fairy Tail crashed the party and fixed everything for Galuna, Lyon left with more questions than answers with a sense of relief, Gray also finding the message and gripping his hand hard at what the Stetson-wearing goon was up to on Galuna...
"The Fairy Tail guild hall..." A dark-haired, pierced fight mused with a dark grin before he cracked his neck. "This'll be fun..." He gripped his fists, just as someone stepped from behind him, he freezing in surprise as he didn't even smell this one before he was right on him, he turning as the seven-foot being paused with looking up, dressed in bellowing robes of some whiten material, boots, and a cutlass on his side as he took in the water and the landscape before he spoke.
"What the freak...?" He blinked monochromatic eyes of red and brown in taking in his whereabouts before he turned to the... shorter figure of some pierced-up thug before he spoke, closing his book shut. "Excuse me, where am I?"
"Wha...!" The punk shook his head as he spoke with his arms turning into clubs of iron. "A guard for these trash fairies, maybe just a passerby, either way..." He grinned as he bashed the clubs together. "No witnesses for the fairies to find!" He fired off a club and the figure twisted out of the way as he exclaimed.
"What is your problem, metalhead!? I am not some lay-about, just tell me..." He dodged a flurry of attacks as he spoke. "Hey, stop that, I am only asking...!"
"Iron-Dragon Roar!" A torrent of iron fired right for the figure, the guild hall behind him, as he blinked and made the realization with a fist in hand.
"Oh, that sounds familiar, but if this is Magnolia..." The torrent washed over him as Black Steel Gajeel huffed with glee.
"Serves that moron right, now to tear this..." He gasped in pain as a fist slammed into his gut and hurled him down the way as the dust cleared to barely a scratch on the figure as he huffed with pulling out the cutlass on instinct.
"Okay, you want to play hardcase, then let me get a hammer out." He slid his fingers across the length of the blade and it glowed as he bellowed. "Rupture, Toketayama!" Then the blade changed to a colossal hammer and the figure dashed, more like vanished before reappearing to slam the Hammer into Gajeel as he grimaced in flying in intense pain.
'Gah! What the heck is happening...!?' He flipped in gripping the ground to slow down his flight before he got up. 'How is a mere hammer doing...!?' His eyes widened at the sight, the feeling even connecting it, but it made no sense at all. There the figure stood, frown on his face and fury in his eyes, but in his bare-knuckled grip was a weapon unheard of, a giant hammer, like a mallet, but it was comprised of actual molten materials, the grip shredding off flakes of volcanic essence that popped with life and heat as he one-handed the hammer in priming his other hand and a magical circle appeared as he roared.
"Geo Dragon's Titanium Fist!" He charged with knuckles forming over his fist before he punched, Gajeel throwing up bile before he was sent skidding down the road and fell unconscious as the figure relaxed before he blinked and looked up.
"Okay, this is Fiore, Magnolia to be more honest, and I feel like..." He scratched his jaw before he paled as the cutlass resumed form and he spoke. "Oh... Alex is going to kill me... oh, he is going to hurt me so much...! I just KO'd Gajeel Redfox!"