Chapter 81:

His fingers hovered above the ice, painfully aware how every eye in the street was trained on him. Even without touching it he could tell the magic was wrong. He steeled his nerves, swallowing at the uneasiness this whole village seemed to radiate and pressed his palm against the ice. It felt… more like glass than actual ice – not nearly as cool as it should be. It actually had a purplish sheen to it.

He frowned, concentrating on the feeling. It… felt familiar.

"And?"

Erza's voice all but made him jump out of his skin. He turned around, sheepish, "Sorry, got lost in thought. I definitely can't melt it. It's completely different to anything I've felt before," Gray paused before he shook his head, "Not completely different, it feels familiar but I can't put my finger on it"

"Familiar how?" Natsu walked closer, standing shoulder to shoulder with the ice mage, staring at the ice before he put his own hand against it. Gray couldn't help but note the pallor of his skin and he glanced at the dragon prince. The scar dragging across his eye pulled at his skin and made the profile set in a constant frown. He hadn't noticed it until now, he wasn't sure if he had been this close to him to even notice, but the eye looked… duller. He raised his eyebrow staring at the eye, trying to figure out if he was just imagining things when suddenly the eye turned towards him, the frown made by the scar deepened. "You're staring," the dragon prince remarked, removing his hand from the ice and Gray felt his ears turn red as he quickly looked away.

"I can see what you mean about it feeling familiar," Natsu concluded, "It has traces of Curse mixed in it. Magic and Curse so tightly weaved together that it's just enough to be completely different from either. It feels familiar because it's similar to my magic"

The hush fell over the group, the disbelief silencing everyone. Lucy opened her mouth, closed them, then opened them again, ready to say something when Happy blurted out, "A dragon did this?!"

Natsu raised his eyebrow, "No. Did you even hear what I just said? It's similar to mine but it's not the same. Mine is far more volatile because it was not a natural integration of the Curse, really nothing about my magic is natural anymore, that's part of the reason why I don't look forward to seeing what happened to my other forms. In any case, this is like… like what Dragon slayer magic is to Dragon magic"

"A Demon slayer?", Wendy whispered, staring at the giants and the ice-cowered village. "I've never heard of one"

"Neither have I," Natsu admitted, "Logically, there's no reason one shouldn't exist, there are Dragon slayers and God slayers after all"

"You think this magic could be dangerous for you?" Arthur asked, eyeing the ice with narrowed eyes.

"All magic is dangerous," an odd smirk crossed Natsu's lips. 'It is giving me a headache,' he pressed his hand against the ice, its surface a burning cold that brought goosebumps to his skin. He wondered how immortal he actually was, was it the aging part that stopped, would beheading still kill him? He removed his hand from the ice, rubbing the palm absently as he turned to the group.

Erza was already talking, one hand on the hip and the other waving around as she gestured to the village, "- split up so that we cover more ground. Maybe we can find something that would point us to whoever did this and we can make them reverse it. Lucy, Arthur and I will head to the outskirts and Wendy, Gray and Natsu to the center. Happy can go with you and Carla with us. If we find anything, we send them"

"Sounds like a plan," Arthur agreed, grinning and almost outright laughing at the horrified face Wendy made. The blue-haired girl glanced at Natsu who didn't so much as twitch before she turned to glare at Erza who grinned and winked at her. She knew exactly what she was doing. Wendy opened her mouth to say something but the sentence died in her throat. It would only make things worse. She hung her head, aware of how awkward this was going to be. She dared a glance at Gray and winced. The mage was well aware of that if his expression was anything to go by.

"Who put you in charge?", Gray muttered. Erza turned towards him, eyes flashing under red hair. In retrospect he should consider himself lucky all he got in return was a glare.

And that's how the three of them ended up walking through the village in incredibly awkward silence. Gray considered whistling, and if he was actually able to whistle anything that resembled a tune, he might've done it. He glanced at Wendy, surprising himself with how glad he was she looked as uncomfortable as he felt. It was her own fault. Natsu on the other hand had that same half-frowning expression that never told you anything about what was going on through his head.

"You remember the first time we went on a job together?", Gray blurted out, half surprised himself by what left his mouth. Bur really… Damn, that felt like a lifetime ago. And he wasn't the one who spent seven years away from Tenrou. Natsu actually paused at that, eyes turning towards him under the hood before a smirk pulled at the scar on his cheek. "Makarov made us all go together to stop Erigor"

"No one was happy about it except Wendy I think," Gray laughed and Wendy ducked her head, face bright red. "Honestly I was half worried Natsu would just tie you all up somewhere and do it alone"

"It would've made things easier," Natsu muttered, eyes scanning their surroundings, and Gray couldn't help but give himself a mental high-five that he managed to get some sort of a conversation going.

"But we wouldn't be such good friends now!", Happy put in his two cents, hovering above them. At Natsu's raised eyebrow the cat continued, "Think about it, had you not come along on that job Lucy probably wouldn't even ask you to come along on that trip where you sort of killed Jellal, and I think we really bonded over all that, right?"

Natsu huffed something that sounded suspiciously like a laugh, "That's not how I remember it. Erza couldn't stand the sight of me for the next few months"

"But he's not wrong either; until Eisenwald and Erigor I can't recall we ever talked all that much… at all really," Gray added.

"You didn't," Wendy agreed, a sly smile on her face, "You were too scared to even try"

"I was not!", Gray quickly denied and the conversation trickled away after that but the silence was a lot more bearable now. Almost companionable. Definitely a mental high-five and a fist bump were required.

They walked a good distance in to the village by now, the village itself was probably not so large, only a few dozen houses but the size of the residents made it all seem endless. He shifted hands in his pants' pockets, wondering when did he lose his shirt and if there was even hope of finding it again. The purplish sheen of the ice was actually quite nice to look at though after he learned what it was, he didn't feel like touching it anymore than necessary.

"Do you think there was a demon here?", it was surprisingly Natsu who broke the silence. "Presumably that a demon slayer did this, did he freeze the whole village while trying to kill a demon or did he think the residents were demons?"

"If we find him you can ask him," Gray shrugged, "Aside from their size I don't see how anyone could consider them demonic, though," his eyes moved over a dog that was larger than his house.

"Collateral damage… Maybe… they do look like they are moving to attack something, right?", by now Gray was fairly certain the Dragon Prince did not expect an answer to what looked like a beginning to a monologue. "Maybe they are moving towards the demon slayer and the whatever's behind them is where the demon is or was"

That was a lot of assumption but apparently it didn't matter much because Natsu was already walking faster, his cloak billowing behind him as he all but started jogging to the mountain in the center of the village.

**line break**

Lucy liked to think that people were generally good. It might be naivety or just plain stupidity to think like that but she believed that people are, in the majority, good. Her time in Fairy Tail strengthened that belief despite the amount of utterly unpleasant idiots they had to deal with on a seemingly daily basis. Erza agreed with her on this, despite what the redhead lived through. It was a bit surprising to hear Arthur disagree, honestly. She wasn't even sure why it was so surprising; he had spent over seven years around Natsu and Lucy has yet to meet a bigger pessimist – and she met Acnologia.

"Just look around you, look at everything that happened to us in the last few months. I honestly don't see it. I'm not denying that there are good people, I'm just saying; the world is filled with assholes," Arthur shrugged, ignoring the way Carla snorted. Erza frowned, looking down at him – and it did annoy the seventeen-year-old that he was still as short as he was – before she spoke, "That kind of outlook isn't healthy"

Arthur raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Look, I'm not saying 'don't trust anyone' or things like that. I'm just saying people are assholes and that you need to accept that. A person individually can be both intelligent and good but people as a group are stupid and selfish more often than not. It's a matter of -"

"Well, well, well," a new voice joined them in the clearing and the three mages jumped in surprise, turning to look at the three men standing on the frozen wall. "Seems like someone came here before us. My, oh my"

The second man snorted, "It's just some women and children"

"Dun dun," the third agreed.

Erza eyed the three, hand twitching slightly as she prepared to summon a sword at the moment's notice. They didn't look particularly intimidating, but looks could be deceiving. A sniper rifle, a sword, and… was that some sort of a hammer. So holder magic – if they were even magic users to begin with.

"Is there something you want?", she decided to try and talk, just because they look like trouble, doesn't mean they are. And didn't that just spring the previous conversation to the front of her head?

"Why, indeed there is," the sniper started talking, likely a leader of the group, "We're a guild of treasure hunters"

The swordsman grinned confidently, crossing his arms over his chest, "Slyph Labyrinth"

"Duuun!"

Erza blinked. From the way they said it, she assumed they were supposed to recognize that name. She didn't. And by the looks of it neither did the rest of her team. The treasure hunters didn't look impressed. So, they proceeded to repeat themselves.

"It's okay, we get it," Arthur spoke up dryly and Erza couldn't help but chuckle at his rather impressive channeling of Natsu. "Well, regardless if you heard of us or not, we are here now," the sniper spoke, his tone derisive. "So don't get in our way"

"In your way? What do you think we're doing here, looking for treasure?" Carla snorted and then paused, "Actually, I bet that's exactly what you think we're doing here"

"Why else would you come here if not for treasure?", the swordsman snorted, "Beat it kids, Eternal flame is ours!"

Arthur raised an eyebrow, "Eternal what now?"

Sniper looked at him as if he was the crazy one, "Eternal flame… If you don't know it's here then why are you here?!"

"We came here to melt the ice and free the villagers, we have no intention of getting in your way" Lucy informed them cautiously, her own fingers wrapped around the keys.

The hunters exchanged a look, a silent conversation that lasted a moment before they yelled in unison, "That's getting in our way!"

"Uh… no, it's not?", Lucy pointed out somewhat confused. "Uh, yes, it is," the swordsman mocked, "The Eternal flame is here since like forever, it's for us an S-class super treasure"

"But we were never able to get close because the giants protected it, duun"

"And now with giants frozen, we can just waltz to it," the sniper grinned at them.

"That flame is likely some sort of deity to the giants, you can't just take it!" Erza spoke up, angry, and more than ready to draw her sword out of its pocket dimension. "Taking away that would make you nothing more than thieves!"

Apparently, that was very amusing because the three hunters burst laughing. The swordsman straightened slightly, still laughing as he spoke, "Let me get this straight, you're telling us – treasure hunters – to not take the treasure? HAH! Good one!"

Arthur rolled his eyes, glancing at Erza and wondering how long will it take for the woman to snap. She didn't take kindly to being mocked, least of all by people who were obviously little better than buffoons. "Well, we can't lose any more of our precious time, kids," the sniper told them, "We have a treasure to find"

With that, they turned to leave and good riddance, Arthur thought, watching their back when something occurred to him. It wouldn't hurt to point that out - if they were lucky, he might be able to get them to leave. "You do realize it's likely frozen?"

"What kind of treasure hunters do you think we are? We came prepared," the sniper explained and the swordsman raised a vial in the air, "We have this super treasure, 'Moon drip', we can super melt this ice!"

"Wait, what?!"

"With that we could bring back the village to how it was!", the shadow mage yelled, pointing at the vial and that was all that needed to be said to start the chase. The treasure hunters rushed forward, seeing that they were not about to just walk away after sharing that information.

"You idiot! You don't share information like that with everyone!"

"So much about how stealing is wrong, duun!"

"Fuck! Watch the shadows!"

"What?!"

"The guy can super move through them!"

"Got it!", Arthur yelled, jumping out of the shadow completely with the vial in his hand. The swordsman reached out but the younger mage jumped back, sinking into the shadows along with the vial just as the hand-shaped hammer slammed into the ground and proved that it was not just hand shaped but could actually spread its fingers. "Who are these guys?!", the swordsman asked incredulously as he barely brought out his sword before Erza slammed her own blade down. The scarlet-haired woman whirled around him, another sword appearing in her other hand as she proceeded to stab the hunter with them. The man proved surprisingly skilled, considering she had yet to see him perform anything magical. She frowned, another sword appearing behind the man, ready to impale him from both sides as she moved in and – she quickly jumped back as two bullets flew past her ear, barely missing her head.

"The sniper!", Erza called, glancing around. The hammer-hand guy was dealing with Taurus and part of Erza wondered when did Lucy summon him and Arthur was nowhere to be seen.

"Thanks Drake," the swordsman breathed out, raising his sword back up and glaring at Erza. "That's a dirty trick, bitch"

Erza frowned but didn't answer the jab, the swords in her hands disappearing to be replaced by a double-bladed sword almost as long as she was. The swordsman balked briefly before he glared at her again and rushed towards her.

Up in the bushed, the sniper – Drake – lined his sights on the redhead again, "No problem, Hiroshi"

He was ready to press the trigger when a hand shot out of the shadow of his rifle, lifting the barrel into the air and the shot went off into the trees. Drake cursed, quickly climbing to his feet and staring at the shadow underneath him. It most definitely wasn't his shadow and the way two holes for the eyes were actually visible and the way they were obviously laughing at him was incredibly unnerving. And as suddenly as it appeared the shadow reverted back to his own and the younger mage disappeared. Drake bit the inside of his cheek, the butt of his rifle pressed against his shoulder as he looked around, trying to find the shadow user. He all but screeched when he turned around and came face to face with him. The bloody bastard wasn't even an inch away from his nose!

Which he promptly used to slam his forehead into it. Drake hissed, head reeling as his nose burst and soaked the front of his face in blood. Arthur grinned, ducked under the wild swing of the barrel, and proceeded to drive his knee into Drake's stomach. The hunter hissed, losing his footing and dropping down from his vantage point and onto Rala who was just about to hit the talking cow.

He groaned, wondering if he broke anything else but his nose while dragging himself off of the larger man. "Seriously, who are these guys?"

"We're Fairy Tail mages," Arthur informed them, rising from a shadow not too far from Drake's landing spot and the treasure hunter felt another strong urge to groan. Of course, it had to be them. Part of him wondered if it wouldn't be such a bad idea to just call this treasure lost and be done with it. He, however, never liked to be particularly logical and knew that leaving now would be to admit a bunch of kids beat them.

Hiroshi was still fighting with Erza – or more accurately he was trying to avoid being skewered. Rala was on his feet again, doing actually well against the spirit and that left him to face the shadow user and the blond bitch that apparently didn't just let her spirits do all the work if the way she was running at him was any indication.

"Shit," he muttered, trying to fire from his rifle at the blondie only for Arthur to once again push the barrel away. Fuck and all, he was not made for close combat.

"Was that a gunshot?" Gray asked, looking towards the forest he couldn't see because of the houses but he could see the birds that suddenly shot into the air. Wendy nodded, frowning, "Maybe the others got into trouble"

"If they came across anything that they can't handle they can send Carla," Natsu reasoned, glancing towards the forest as well before he continued his track up the mountain in the center. They were already almost to the top and whatever was happening in the forest will have to wait or he'll have to go alone. Dragging the two through the Void would hardly be beneficial to a fight and leaving on foot now was not something he considered doing. It took them too long to get here in the first place. He doubted it was anything serious, whoever it was that fired that shot. Demon slayer who froze didn't strike him as someone who would use a firearm.

"We should check it out," Gray said after a moment, "Doesn't seem right to just let them fight on their own"

Natsu resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he grasped the edge of the small cliff and hoisted himself up. The ice made the whole path slippery – if it could even be called the path – and the headache it gave him from the begging was now bordering on a migraine. "What exactly do you want me to do? Go and see what they are doing while you continue to climb – and before you say anything, going back down together isn't an option unless you want to go through the Void. I am not doing this snail's pace twice"

Gray blinked in surprise and Natsu realized he probably sounded a bit too harsh. The chaos dragon sighed, waving his hand dismissively, "You go to the top and see if you can find something useful and I'll see if I can't find them"

"Can't you just pop to their location?"

Natsu raised an eyebrow that made Gray feel like a small kid who was about to be berated for asking stupid questions. "I can't teleport to their location when I don't know the said location. I believe I had explained this before – I need to see a place at least once before I can use the Void to get there. I can, however, go to the place where we separated quickly enough"

He didn't say anything else, only gave the two a sort of, 'Get going!', look before he sank into the ground.

He rose from the Void on the outskirts of the village, looking around the quiet place just in time to hear another shot come from the forest. Something was wrong. He looked around, noting the buildings, the trees, and finding nothing that looked any different than it did the last time he stood here. Yet there was… something… odd about it all. Like it grew even larger than it had been before. His frown turned into a scowl and he scratched the scar on his cheek, looking at the ground.

And in what was likely the first time since he was a child he yelped, stumbling back and, tripping over his own too large boots, landed in a heap on the frozen ground. He stared in horror at his hands and then at the clothes, tugging at it and not truly believing his eyes. Why was it all so large?! No… It wasn't larger. It… He… His brain came to a halt, refusing to process that for another minute before he forced himself to calm down and looked at his hands again. He looked at the hands of a child. He pulled off his cloak, looking at the bare arms and he could feel his muscles relax a bit at the sight of the familiar scars.

So, it just… shrunk him.

Whatever it was.

He frowned again, pushing away all emotions as fast as he could. It was rather frightening how easily he did it now. A spark of annoyance flashed in him but he pushed that down as well. He had to be completely and utterly logical about this before he started panicking. Once he accomplished that he carefully released the grip on them and tried to stay as calm as possible.

He moved to stand up and take a step forward only to almost land on his nose again. His coordination was… abhorrent. And those boots didn't help. He scowled again before he sat back on the ground and pulled off his boots. Thinking about it for a moment, he stood up again and pulled off his cloak as well. The last thing his pride needed was for him to trip on the blasted thing. He grimaced as he looked down at his feet, now in direct contact with the ice. If he didn't have a migraine before he will have one now.

With a tired sigh, he untied the sash around his waist and pulled his pants higher (and he snorted in a mix of annoyance and amusement when he practically pulled them to his armpits), then let his tunic fall over and he tied it all together back with the sash.

He sighed again, he looked ridiculous.

Now that that's taken care of, he can actually turn his attention back to the actual problem. It must be a work of a mage. That much he didn't even have to think about. But he didn't know of anyone who could do… this. And he again had to snort in annoyance. He sniffed the air, trying to figure out where Erza and the rest of her team was. Maybe it was done by whoever they were fighting. Which would mean that whoever did it could cast something on a ridiculously large scale. At least it wasn't anything lethal.

He sniffed the air again, finding the general direction they went in.

And then quickly throwing himself as far as he could from the place he stood in, seconds before something large and heavy landed right where he had been standing. Cursing his distractedness and blaming it on the fact he looked like a ten-year-old, he glared at the figure that nearly landed on him.

The figure stood up quickly and easily, obviously not fazed by falling who knows how many feet and looked at Natsu. A large man with a bandanna hiding his lower face. Natsu didn't move even when the other looked at him with a raised eyebrow. There was something… familiar about the man.

"Who are you?", the unknown mage finally demanded and Natsu felt his annoyance spike. He did not appreciate that tone much.

He was however surprised the other mage didn't recognize him. Maybe it was his child-like appearance. Well, he could use that. "A Fairy Tail wizard," he responded at length, barely pushing back a grimace at the sound of his own voice.

The mage snorted, and from the way, his eyes crinkled a moment later grinned sinisterly. He raised his head and straightened his back, obviously making sure to look as large as possible and likely trying to scare him.

Natsu almost snorted. He could try.

"I know that little mage," the way he said it told Natsu all he needed to know. "So, you are behind this?", if the mage wanted to talk then they could talk.

"Doriate," the mage said with a smirk and it took Natsu a moment to realize he introduced himself. "Why are you here?"

"And I will tell you this... because?", Natsu asked dryly.

Doriate response was to grin again and then he moved. Much faster than it should be possible given his size. The sudden movement was almost enough to throw the dragon prince of balance. He dived to the side, throwing himself onto his hands as he flipped away and already started preparing the spell. But Doriate barely seemed to touch the ground before he jumped at Natsu again, far too fast this time for the dragon prince to respond and the resulting kick sent him flying into the trees just as he released the spell that should've exploded into the man's face.

The kick was hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs and almost make him sick. He gasped for air, the giant of a man had hit his diaphragm and it refused to work for one precious moment. He looked up through gritted teeth at Doriate, trying to figure out how the spell hadn't done more damage than tearing the bandana off and leaving him looking slightly burned.

Apparently, it wasn't just his perception that was screwed. He was getting properly annoyed by now.

"You're a fast little fucker," Doriate growled as he came closer in three long strides, grabbing Natsu by his face and lifting him into the air. Natsu growled at him, glaring through Doriate's fingers. Doriate cocked back his fist and drew it into his stomach again and Natsu could feel the bile rise before he swallowed it quickly. It hurt more than it should. "Why is Fairy Tail here?", Doriate growled at him, spittle flying from the fanged mouth, and Natsu blinked, realization hitting him.

'Oh', he thought to himself, suddenly amused. He flexed his fingers, pushing the twisted, black magic in his veins into his nails. When he didn't say anything Doriate moved to deliver another punch. Natsu didn't let him.

He grabbed at the hand holding his head with both hands, digging his now clawed fingers as deeply as he could and slammed his feet into the man's stomach as hard as he could, both feet coated in swirling black and red.

Doriate yelled, falling back and releasing Natsu's head on instinct but unable to actually throw him off with how Natsu anchored himself to the arm. The dragon prince bit down the palm when it was far enough, pressing his canines into the flesh until he felt blood and when the other man continued to trash, trying to throw him off he dragged the hands through the arm before releasing, moments before Doriate proceeded to slam him into the tree trunk. Natsu jumped away, spitting out a mouthful of blood and Doriate looked at him with wide eyes, injured hand held against his chest.

"You're a weak, weak demon if you have to reduce your opponents to this to stand a chance," Natsu spoke, straightening his back and doing his best to look as confident as he could. Magic barely responded to him, no matter how hard he tried to call on it. But he didn't have to rely solely on Magic.

The demon looked wide-eyed at him, obviously not expecting anyone to recognize what he is so quickly. Or to stay so calm if and after they realized.

"Who are you?", Doriate hissed. The demon was looking at him more closely now and Natsu wondered what he saw. He apparently saw something that made him pause because his eyes momentarily widened and then he lowered his stance, obviously getting ready to attack again. "You're a demon, aren't you? A true one?"

Natsu blinked before he shrugged. He didn't confirm or deny it. He himself wasn't sure what he was but he was fairly certain that no one else knew exactly either. Doriate didn't like his silence apparently because he lunched at him again. Natsu twisted out of the way, cursing the way his body responded. He didn't remember the last time he felt this sluggish. Doriate ran past him like a bull and Natsu opened his mouth, "Chaos Dragon's roar!"

It was far weaker than it had been when he was half the age he appeared to be now despite the amount of magic he concentrated into it, but it hit the demon and it did hurt if the way he cried out was any indication. He'll take that over the smudge his first attack left. Doriate once again quickly regained his footing and Natsu sighed. That's apparently when Doriate decided he had had enough and promptly started running away.

Natsu was having none of that, two quick steps before he dropped through the void and appeared above Doriate, black claws digging into the shoulders as he fell on top of him and the demon's yell this time was more of a surprise than pain. Natsu still found it rather amusing that the demon didn't recognize him. That was a rather rare occurrence in the last few years. He thought it might be the fact that he died but after shouting the name of the spell he was certain the demon would put two and two together. Apparently, the guy managed to get five somehow. Which for some insane reason wasn't even wrong.

He was fighting like a damn cat, Natsu concluded just as Doriate's large hand managed to grab his leg and sent him flying into another trunk. Natsu winced at the impact but didn't give himself a moment to assess the damage, diving to the side as Doriate's hand slammed into the trunk he was leaning against. A quick series of punching and kicking and avoiding followed. Natsu was fairly certain some of his ribs were broken from the two times he was slammed into the trees but he was also fairly certain he broke Doriate's nose and knocked out a few teeth.

The fight was broken when a screech sounded from above him just as he was in the process of jumping away from Doriate's fist. Huge claws closed around him and with one powerful swing whatever grabbed him carried him away from Doriate. He growled in annoyance, looking up to see what manner of fresh Hell was this when he found himself staring at the large eye of a bird-like creature.

"What the fuck are you?"

End of chapter 81.

Heya! Sorry for the long wait but I actually have good news for a change! The next chapter should be out in a week or two. I already started working on it! I was planning on finishing Sun Village arc in this chapter as I said I would but decided against it in the end because the chapter would be over 12 000 words long. So, here you go, one nice 6000-ish long chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

It's been a while since I updated and I missed the 'anniversary' of the day I published the story, a day I usually try to upload something but life and laziness got in the way so I apologize. What I want to say is Thank you! Thank you, all you wonderful people! You're great!

And please point out any mistakes I made... I should seriously start writing this at a more reasonable hour.

Please review and thanks for reading :)

P.s.

If you're looking for good Dragon Age stories; The Spaces Between by Arcadian90, and it's sequel In Setheneras. Seriously, they are great!