Chapter 75: The Gathering
The very next morning, Gray's wishes came to fruition as the White Eclipse Foyer became filled with both rival guilds. Fairies and Eclipse members alike all stood or sat around, Makarov at the helm at it all as he stood in the midst of the large and potentially hostile crowd.
"You guys really ran into them, huh? I'm surprised you survived your first mission then!" Waiston told the rookies, laughing as a cloud of despair floated over their heads from his comment. Reiss then pointed to his chest. "No way, it was a piece of cake! We took down one of Kiora's pets, and if it was up to us, we probably would have taken her down too!" Zalen raised a brow, the brunette running a hand through his hair. "You're really confident, huh Reiss? That's a great trait for all of you to have, but also be sure to know your limits. Not so you know when to stop and admit defeat, but so you know what you have to do to surpass them. Kiora would have slaughtered all five of you without even trying, so you running up to fight her would not have been a good idea." That comically dark cloud of despair came back, and this time they remained quiet, all except for Tyson who bowed before Zalen. "Zalen-Sensei! Teach me to break those limits!" this comment caused Zalen's hands to rise in surrender. "H-hold on now! We'll figure all of that later! Let's just take in what happened first!"
"Oh yeah." Micaiah stated, turning to Tayakata. It caused the vector user to raise a brow. "I'm sorry that I forgot to mention this, but that one demon, Daityas. He told us to tell you that 'he' is coming back. I don't know what he meant by that or who he's talking about though. Sorry."
Taya blinked a few times, then shrugged with a sigh. "I'm at a lost too. Arcturus? That's all I can think of, but I guess we'll find out when the time comes."
"And we'll pulverize them!" Nami shouted in her high pitched cheering voice, punching the air. "Right, Sidney!" The Ace didn't say a word, yet remained perched upon the rafters, watching everyone from above.
Allowing idle chatter to continue, Makarov turned to Reve to ask a question. "He's still not feeling well I take it."
Reve scowled. He then averted his eyes with a camouflaging sigh, pressing his chin to his palm as he rested that elbow upon the table he sat before. "He's on his way to recovery. It's just taking a while. Just proceed with this meeting." The venom he spewed was harmless to Makarov, for the tone in his voice, the Fairy Tail Master could tell Reve just wanted the subject to change more than anything.
"Right." The old man said, clearing his throat to gather everyone's attention. "It seems that even with the defeat of Zeref, the demons he created still have the free will to cause havoc and do as they please. We have no idea what they're up to, but we don't need such information. Our job is to exterminate at any cost. Right now, according to the demon himself, Tartarus has Kiora, Rugal, Ruika and Daityas himself. What we do know however, is that he is not taking his time in retrieving the other demons, yet he hasn't collected them all. That means that something is preventing him from finding their locations so easily."
"Her memories." Takeru answered, Erza nodding in agreement. "It's been over half a year now, but the second Kiora saw us, according to those bandits that were with her, she became aware of who she was. Maybe her memories triggering had something to do with Daityas being able to find her location so easily. In fact, I'm one hundred percent sure that's the reason." "I see. So that means he quietly go to Rugal and Ruika because something triggered their memories and he was able to stay under our radar before any commotion was made." Makarov deduced. "But that's not the case anymore." Reve interjected. "After that incident with Kiora, we know that this whole thing is happening. So we need to act upon it and take out as many left as we can. That's Sora the Shadow Puppeteer, Tobias the Elemental Demon, and a huge target, two actually, that could really swing the odds in our favors. Maggie Solfatara... that should be our top priority there. Like Kiora, she does so much damage just by existing, but that doesn't mean to disregard the other two. And finally, as I regret to say it.. Arcturus."
Tak immediately gave a subtle tense of his body, Selene pressing a hand to his shoulder to calm him as the Shadow Dragon remained staring at the table before him. "You okay?" The Diamond Dragon Slayer asked. Takeru nodded once as there was a knock at the door. He elected to go answer it. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'll get it."
As Takeru walked away, Makarov tossed a bundle of job flyers upon the middle table. "These are all the job requests between the two guilds. My first suggestion is to file through them and if you think there's anything out of the ordinary, no matter the level of request, take it and see if you can find the missing demons. It's the only leads we have since that's how we found Kiora." Reve picked one up after a bit of shuffling, holding it up in the air. "A good plan for once. Because this one has Sora written all over it. That child-like demon would most likely be the culprit for a haunted foster home." Kuro took the paper and read over it. "Caretakers wanted for a haunted Foster Home. It sounds like they can't keep any employees there. That definitely sounds suspicious. I'll check it out."
"Don't go alone." Taya reminded. "Take whoever you need with you. This isn't a normal job if it's who we're looking for."
"I'll go!" Nami shouted. Gray stood up, which caused you know who to do the same behind him. "I'll tag along as well. We should split the teams evenly between Fairy Tail and White Eclipse anyways."
"Then Juvia is coming too!" She shouted, clinging to Gray's arm and garnering the usual reaction from him.
Reve then turned back to the lot looking through the flyers. "Anything that seems like an elemental problem? Ruined rivers? Burned down forests or cities? Unusual lightning storms?"
"Nothing yet." Jaxon replied, shuffling through the flyers. His eyes then lit up as he picked up the latest paper. "Wait! I think I found something. And it's definitely Tobias related!"
"Good. Let's hope you're right. Take a couple of people and find out if you are or not."
"Yeah." The Weather God Slayer nodded.
Selene looked over her shoulder. "Tak?" She questioned, getting up from her seat to see where he went. She sighed heavily as she walked. "He's been so out of it, I wouldn't be surprised if he was in an argument with whoever is at the door. I think Arc is getting to him." The Diamond Dragon Slayer then turned the corner, and immediately stopped in her tracks, as frozen as Takeru was — holding the door open as he stared upwards at the figure before him in complete shock. Sniffing the air twice, he grinned. A grin that could never be deciphered as good or evil. "Selene, is that you? It's been a while. I hope you've been taking care of this wimp for me. He can be a handful."
She couldn't respond with a complete word, let alone sentence. "A...Ar...—"
"Arcturus!"
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Ten hooded figures all stood waiting for the arrival of their guests. And as the gates of their fortress opened, in they walked. Tall with green hair draped down to his backside, it was Rugal the Dimensional Demon. The woman with black and white hair split evenly, one eye red and the other blue with keys dangling from her right hip, the Celestial Demoness, Ruika. Their newest recovery, the embodiment of evil, Kiora Sidero, and finally, their leader, Daityas. Four demons of Tartarus stood before the ten hooded ones, but they weren't alone. Behind the four, a human walked in, his eyes hidden behind his frames until he pushed up his glasses to remove the glare within them. Aiden Viscard, the one from Cynthia's memories strolled in right behind, fearless and holding a smirk as he remained in the protection of Daityas and the others.
"So they are alive." Gajeel thought to himself, hiding behind that hooded cloak, and his mangled iron mask he created for himself. "Gihe... it seems things may get interesting here."
"A human?" The voice of a female asked. "How low of you, Daityas." The King of Hell laughed. "I'll leave that one alone." He said ominously. "He's actually here for a favor, which is the only reason why we're here in this hellhole as well.
"We figured you had no intentions for reconciliation." Another hooded figure spoke, laughing as well. Daityas merely smirked at the comment and it's correctness. "The machines." He continued. "Our friend here would like to use one of them to create his own demon."
"A human wants a demon as if we're measly house pets? Your jokes were never funny, Daityas." The hooded female replied with disdain. That's when Aiden stepped forward. "Not at all. You see, I have an experiment on the loose already, filled with such destructive magic, but she's just not cutting it. I believe her sloppy human emotions are getting in the way, interfering with what she's capable of, and she'll never reach her full potential, ultimately leaving me to fail in my main goal; to destroy all of Fiore for what they did to me."
Destroy? Now he's captured their attention, including Gajeel. He thought he was just here for another boring checkup meeting, but now things were getting interesting; even more interesting than when they first walked through the door. "So what is it you want with our technology?" She asked.
"It's simple." Aiden explained. "I have the formula, and the DNA needed already. But this time, instead of magic which is known to come from emotions, and the heart of a living creature, I want to use something more powerful, more destructive, yet a lot less costly when it came to those emotions. I want to use Etherious! None should be spared, and for that to happen, my weapon must like this kindness and sincerity that my current project has. And Daityas has told me that I can do that here."
A pause formed between everyone. Seconds later, a deliberation was made. "Fine, you may do so, but the results of your experiment are in your hands and no one else's. If it turns on you..."
"Then it'll just complete my dream without me." Aiden finished. He could feel the grin under her hood, and with that he was escorted by one of the others to where he needed to go.
As they walked away, Daityas turned back towards the others. He would fold his arms over his chest, glaring with a grin to his brethren. "So, what are your plans now? I'm sure you've heard, correct? Bune and the other demon generals, and even Zeref himself. They're all gone."
Chuckling came from the lead hood, but Daityas wasn't fazed at all. No one was. It was as if Daityas had just told a joke. Everyone had a humorous aura around them except for Gajeel, who was completely lost at the matter. "What's so funny? Their leader is dead, but they're laughing?" He asked himself, but his question was quickly answered. "To kill an immortal, what a fairy tale."
Gajeel's eyes immediately lit up in disbelief, but he couldn't speak, he refused to even think at this moment, trying to remain as stoic as possible. She continued on. "We have no clue of his whereabouts at this moment, but when he returns, all will continue as usual, Daityas."
"That's where I must correct you." She looked, glaring Daityas right in the eyes from his words. "Six months ago, during that war, me and my camp were robbed of something. Lord Zeref, as I will no longer call him, took his loyalty away from his own. Me, Kiora, Rugal, Ruika, Tobias, Sora, Maggie, Arc. We were all betrayed by him, and he nearly killed us."
"Then that was his design." She protested. "Shut up. I don't want to hear such an excuse." Daityas fired back. "That's why..."
As he spoke, Kiora created a scythe within her hands as Rugal's hands began glowing green. Ruika held a key within her hand, the tip of it glowing black as Daityas conjured a bunch of Hell's Flames around him. "...We've decided that we're going to kill him. Once we're whole again, Tartarus will be Zeref's undoing."
Another stint of laughter, except this time it was anything but the atmosphere from before. She was slowly reaching for her hood. "If that's the path you've chosen, then I must say you're a fool, Daityas. We won't allow such betrayal, so whatever you're planning will have to cease here. Not that it will succeed go begin with."
"Now now..." Aiden spoke, reappearing from inside of the fortress. "Ten against four hardly isn't a fair fight against brothers, is it? Daityas tells me he has a few more partners on the way? You said it's apparently impossible to defeat Zeref, so why not let this play out and wait until both sides are complete before starting such a drastic fight?"
He boldly walked past the hooded ones, making his way back to Daityas and the others, nodding once as he passed them to signify that his project had begun. Weapons were retracted, and Daityas began walking off as well. "Well, we'll be seeing you guys very soon. I'm sure you're up to something on your own, but waiting on a person who doesn't even want you isn't the brightest idea. Soon you'll see exactly who's side you should be on."
As they walked off, Gajeel watched. "So they plan on taking on Zeref? This is huge news...I have to tell the old man that he's still alive... Once we're dismissed here—"
"Well then it sounds like it's time to put plans into action then, hm? No need for us to split anymore." Footsteps were heard from behind him, and suddenly, that same pressure Daityas always created when entering a room reappeared. Stunned, Gajeel slowly turned around with the rest of them to see the demon standing at the highest perch behind the slew of demons. One arm tucked around a book, long hair tied back into a tail, the low grin upon his features... Mard Geer gave his henchmen that cold stare as his eyes then averted back to the retreating Daityas. "We will start without Lord Zeref. Once he sees our accomplishments, well that'll just be even more rewarding. Now, let's head inside and map everything out, shall we?"
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All eyes were in the blindfolded demon, and most of them were vigilante, cautious, especially those from Fairy Tail. Even Takeru kept a distance from him, watching him carefully without a blink. "You know it's going to be a bit hard to trust you, Arcturus. No offense." Reve said, a single pistol lying in his lap as he sat across from the demon. "I understand. With my memories intact again, I'm fully aware of what happened and what I did. Even when I tried to do the right thing, my revival would lead me back down that path of darkness it seems. But with a fresh replay of everything that happened, it was clear as to what side I'm supposed to be on. I'll do whatever needs to be done to prove that, but for now, your skepticism is warranted and justified."
"I still don't trust him!" Natsu shouted. Lucy then gave him a face. "He just said all of that, Natsu. You don't have to summarize it." Happy then added with paws over his mouth. "Then why are you hiding behind Natsu?"
"I trust him." Skye rung in. She then smiled towards the demon. "If he wasn't on our side, he wouldn't be here. Arc has no reason to sneak attack anyone with how strong he is, so I'm sure he's with us!"
"Well we can play this game all day, or we can go back to finding the remaining demons and killing them." Reve put it bluntly, and purposely too as he then side eyed Arcturus for a reaction. Arc simply replied with a smirk. "My pleasure." Not the reaction Reve expected, but it was a positive one for the humans at least.
"Kuro's team already set out to see if our hunch about Sora is correct. Same for Jaxon's team and Tobias. So hopefully, all that's left is Maggie. But I don't see any clues at all about her whereabouts. Nothing volcanic, nothing overheating anything."
"Don't be so one dimensional about it." Taya said, taking the flyers. "We got lucky with Tobias and Sora, and that's it they're correct. But to find her, we may just have to do all of these jobs, thin out the team and search from there, and even have a few just scouting some of the areas of Fiore just in case she isn't in here."
"Not bad actually." The gunslinger followed up. "We'll do just that, but if you spot her, don't engage. Contact everyone. She's the most important piece, alright?" Makarov commanded. Natsu and the others then followed up with an agreeing cheer. "Then lets go demon hunting!" The Salamander shouted as Fairy Tail and White Eclipse began shuffling out of the guild with flyers in their hands.
"It's funny." Lucy stated, capturing her partner's attention. "Oh nothing. It's just, this is exactly what White Eclipse did to get our attention when we first met them. Taking all of the jobs and completing them before we could grab any. This time however, we're helping. I hope the other guilds don't get upset about it."
"I'm sure they'll understand!" Natsu shouted as the two ran off in their direction with Happy next to them and Waiston right behind. The others would split up accordingly. Cynthia of course ran off with Wendy and Charla, but she kept such a saddened expression as she did. Wendy caught whim of it, turning her way with a worried expression. "Cynthia? What's wrong."
She shook her head. "It's nothing. Just...what if I have the same problem as back in Dawn City. What if I go out of control again?"
Wendy smiled, shaking her head in response. "You won't have to worry about that. No matter how many times it happens, I promise I'll be there to calm you down and help you. I made that promise, remember? And I don't plan on breaking it!"
She nodded, managing a smile as the two continued running off...with Luke making a single gag noise. "I couldn't have picked a better team, could I?"
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"So what's the full plan, Daityas the man?" Kiora rhymed, lying upon a fully recovered and healthy Cerberus. "She turned to him, kicking her feet up as she laid on her stomach. "When do we get Maggie and Sora back?"
"You're forgetting Tobias." Ruika added. Kiora let that simmer for a bit before repeating her question. "When do we get Maggie and Sora back?" A sweat drop appeared on Ruika and Rugal's head, but they ignored it as Daityas stood up from his seat, closing a certain book in his right hand. "Very soon. Don't worry, by the time this day is over, we'll be complete again. Then we'll head right back to the fortress and decimate those fools that still follow Zeref. Then, with his own book, we'll kill that traitor too."
"Clapping." Kiora hopped up to a seated position. "I love it! Ten out of ten plan! Except one small detail. Zeref is immortal."
It caused Daityas to laugh. "Don't worry about that part, Kiora. There's always a way, even for an immortal. It seems that Natsu and Fairy Tail almost got him there, but just didn't finish the job. We will be sure too. This book of his, I'm sure there's an answer somewhere. And even if there isn't...we'll just beat him until he wishes he was dead. Then we'll grant him that wish."
"They're not going to wait for us you know." Rugal stated. "They're probably preparing right now, and will commence with any plan they have."
"That's why we need to move as well. This will be our biggest challenge yet." Daityas admitted. "A three way battle for this land. Us, versus Mard, versus the humans. That's why this time...I've called upon the entire camp."
On cue, footsteps made their way towards the group. Kiora raised a brow, looking over her shoulder, and as soon as she saw him, she grinned maliciously. Smoke trailed from the cigarette that balanced between his lips. White hair overshadowed his eyes, and even as he raised his head, those eyes still remained hidden; only a yellow glow could be seen as a substitute. The demon in question stopped, stomping out the cigarette before turning a grinning gaze towards his brethren. "Long time no see, family." They were all smiles, to which Kiora returned his introduction with another one. "Well well. A sight for sore eyes. That means the others will be joining us as well, huh? But anyways... Welcome back, and welcome to the fun...
Crow."
