A/N: Now that you've all survived the ending of the Dreaded Chapter Seven (ahh I'm evil), I though that well, I can't just leave it at that for a week, so here's another chapter. Have strength, my dear readers. You're all in luck; I may play around with adapting canon but I wouldn't change it that much. That said, I have a newfound enjoyment of writing character death angst, so we'll see where this takes me heheheh


Natsu cried with a voice that was not his own. Lucy...no…this couldn't be happening.

He wanted to go into a rage, but instead he just stood there in shock. His heart must be racing a mile a minute, but he couldn't even feel anything. Every bit of him was focused on the horrific vision before him; there was no room for anything else to fill his mind.

Then, suddenly, the world snapped back to normal.

He blinked. Lucy was standing right where she had been before, the only difference was that her eyes were wide and overflowing with tears. Behind him, Erza was grappling with Midnight. So had that all been an illusion? But it was the most vivid and immersive illusion magic Natsu had ever experienced. Fairy Tail's first guildmaster was supposed to have powerful illusion magic, but this was the first time Natsu had experienced it for himself. And it was terrifying.

Natsu didn't know how the illusion had been dispersed, but it probably had something to do with Erza, given how she was already fighting Midnight in hand-to-hand combat by the time Natsu's vision had cleared. He would leave her to it. Right now all he wanted to do was confirm that this, what he was seeing now, was the true reality.

Stepping forward, hesitantly, he approached Lucy. She looked at him.

"My…my head was…"

Natsu swallowed. "I saw it too."

"It…it was an illusion, right?" she said, putting her hands to her face. She patted around her head, affirming its presence. He did the same, reaching out to brush tears from her cheek. They were cool to the touch, and her skin soft.

"You're real," he said aloud, just as much for himself as for her. "This, now, is real."

Lucy let out a long, shaky breath and wiped at her cheeks with the back of her hands. "That was some illusion," she said with a weak laugh. She looked over Natsu's shoulder. "Will Erza be okay?"

"I don't think she was affected," Natsu said. "She looks fine to me."

"We should help," Lucy said, reaching for her whip. Natsu's hand stopped her.

"We can step in if she needs us," he said. His hand curled around hers. She was trembling. And, well, so was he. This Midnight person sure knew how to come up with gruesome images.

Natsu caught a whiff of Jellal's scent, and then the man himself returned to stand by the riverbank on the opposite side from where all the fighting had been taking place.

"What's going on here?" Jellal said. "And why aren't you helping— Wait, what happened?" Jellal seemed to notice that something was off with Natsu and Lucy, because he stopped and approached them when he met Natsu's eyes.

"That Midnight guy has some interesting magic," Natsu said through his grimace.

"Illusions," Lucy supplied. "It was…vivid."

"Ah. I see," Jellal said. He looked to where Erza had just pierced Midnight through the gut. "Well, looks like Erza's holding her own."

"Of course she is," Happy said. "She's Erza."

Natsu looked down. "Happy! Where've you been all this time?"

"Hiding," Lucy said, annoyance in her tone. "He was with me up until I left Sagittarius to help you with Cobra."

"I protected your celestial spirit," Happy said, nose in the air and tail held high. "You're welcome."

Lucy sighed. "You useless cat."

"Hey," Natsu said. "Happy is my best friend. He's not useless."

"Yeah," Happy chimed in. "You'll take those words back when you need me to fly you somewhere. And I won't help you until you tell me I'm great."

Lucy waved a hand. "Yeah, whatever. Oh, hi, Gray. What was your illusion?"

"Apparently not as bad as you two's," Gray said as he approached them, but Natsu could tell that his face was a little paler than usual. "Jellal, what's the situation on Wendy and Levy?"

"They were already in the cave when I arrived. According to Charle, the person guarding the hideout wasn't actually a person at all; it was a magical staff belonging to the guildmaster. They took it out no problem. It looked like they had everything covered, so I came back here."

"And Deliora?"

"Not there," Jellal said.

"Then it must be that big hill Wendy mentioned," Gray said.

Jellal looked up sharply and winced. "Oh! That oughtta hurt. Nice one, Erza!"

They all turned their attention to where Erza had Midnight pinned to the dirt by a sword driven through his stomach. Midnight was already a bloody mess, eyes bulging and his chest rapidly heaving as he gasped for breath.

Erza looked up to see the rest all watching her intently. She gave them a sly smile. "Oración Seis didn't put up that much of a fight after all," she said.

"Only because of the team you assembld," Jellal said. "I was surprised to see all of you here together. Especially you, Natsu; it's been two years since you've done any jobs for Fairy Tail, if I remember correctly."

"You've been keeping tabs," Natsu observed.

"I probably visit the guild more than you do," Jellal said. "Well, I'm glad I saw all of you here. Makes completing my objective a lot easier."

"Yeah, why are you here, anyway?" Gray said.

"Same reason you are, I guess. Or maybe a little different."

"We're here to stop them from reviving Deliora," Lucy said.

"Then it's a little different. I'm just here to whip these kids back in shape. Zero's the one in charge of this dark guild, but the rest are just kids that he took in. They were orphans in the Tower just like me and Erza. I, uh…well, I let Zero take them, so I came to take them back."

"They're all yours," Erza said, tossing a bleeding Midnight on top of Cobra, who by now was unconscious. "I'm not going to have Wendy waste her magic healing them, though."

"I won't let them die," Jellal promised. "I came here to take them back, so I'll do just that."

"This is two of them. The other two are over there, and the fifth is…?"

"Across the creek," Jellal said, pointing. Natsu couldn't see anything but trees, but there was another person's scent somewhere over there. Probably the speedy guy.

"Then that's that," Erza said. "Next?"

"But Erza," Lucy said, "are you okay? Midnight's illusions were really gruesome. Maybe you should rest a bit first."

Erza smiled. "If you're worried that I'm shaken because of some illusion, don't be. I didn't see one." She brushed aside her bangs to point at her right eye. "This eye is a prosthetic. Illusion magic manipulates what the eye sees, but this eye is an object, not flesh. It cannot be manipulated by such magic."

"You have a glass eye?" Lucy marveled. "Don't knights need to take a vision test to get qualified? Even if you can still see with it, they're strict about those things."

"I may have intimidated the tester a bit," Erza said, smiling mischievously. "Having one fake eye mostly just messes with my long-distance depth perception; it is a magic object, after all, so I can still see out of it okay. And it means illusions are useless on me, so really it's an advantage."

"It may be an advantage, but you have to gouge your eye out to get it," Gray said.

"Well, in my case it wasn't voluntary," Erza said, walking back to where she was fighting and pulling a second sword from the ground. She took another pair of cuffs from her belt and slapped them on Midnight's wrists. "There. That's the last of them."

"Not quite," Lucy said, hand still on her whip. "It might just be that demon mountain Wendy spoke about, but there's something evil out there."

"Deliora," Gray said darkly.

"But we already defeated all of Oración Seis, so they can't revive it anymore, right?" Natsu said.

Gray shook his head. "Wrong. The magic used to seal Deliora cost my teacher's life, but there is a way to wear it down. If they've already started the process, we need to go stop it. Now."

"Right," Erza said. "Let's go. Jellal?"

"I'll catch up," he said. "I need to secure the Oración Seis members first."

Erza nodded. "Thanks. Then, we'll go ahead first."

They followed Wendy's directions and Lucy's sense for magical energies until they reached a large clearing, at the center of which was a huge block of ice. It towered above them, taller than even the trees. If not for the thickness of the treetop canopy, they would have seen it long ago; it was that massive.

The ice was fogged over, its transparency warped by dust and debris and streams of water that trickled down its sides, but Natsu could see something huge and dark at the center. Looking closer, he could make out a wide, muscular body and powerful jaws open wide as if caught in the middle of a cry of rage.

Natsu lowered himself into a fighting stance. The ice that trapped it was thin. Whatever methods Oración Seis had used to undo the seal Gray's teacher had put on this thing, they were working, and fast.

"Shit," Gray muttered. "Hey, Kindling, don't use your fire around this thing. Normal flames shouldn't be able to melt it, but at this stage…"

"Gray, do you know how they did this?" Erza asked.

"It can only be unsealed by concentrating the power of the moon into this…well, it's a purple-ish substance, I'm not sure what to call it. I've only seen it once, when I was a kid and Lyon was trying to do this very thing. He didn't succeed, obviously. But once any part of Deliora is exposed to the air, the seal will break. We need to stop the ice from melting."

"Not to be a joykill or anything," Lucy said, "but it looks like it's a bit late for that."

Gray licked his lips. "Yeah. You're probably right."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Natsu said impatiently. "That thing's gonna awaken soon, and we've gotta stop it, right?"

"Right," Erza said. "I hope you're not all too exhausted from that fight with Oración Seis just now."

"I'd say we have a few minutes, but no more than that," Jellal said. "Look, the ice over the left arm is almost entirely melted. You said even one part exposed will break the whole seal, right?"

Gray nodded. "Yeah. Unfortunately. The moon drip is this spell's one weakness."

"Then we'll just have to fight it," Erza said.

"Let's do this," Natsu said, lighting his fists on fire. He'd only taken out one guy, and he was itching for another fight.

Lucy nodded, and her hand flew to her keys. "Open the gate of the Lion, Leo!"

There was a flash of light and a man appeared by Lucy's side. His hair was wild and orange, and Natsu would recognize that obnoxious outfit anywhere.

Natsu gaped, fire extinguishing immediately. "Loke?!"

Loke's eyes widened. "Shit."

Lucy looked between all of them. "What? What is it?"

"You're a celestial spirit?" Gray exclaimed, flabbergasted.

Loke looked panicked. "I-I can explain."

"We know him," Jellal said for Lucy's benefit. "He's a member of Fairy Tail."

"Leo is?"

"Well, he goes by Loke."

"We can talk this out later," Loke said, pushing his rosy glasses up his nose. "Right now, I got called out for a reason. I assume it's that big monster over there."

"Yeah. It's called Deliora," Gray said. "And it's one hell of a demon."

Loke smirked. "Perfect. You guys know who I am now, so I won't hold back."

"You've been holding back? No wonder you're always so damn weak," Natsu said.

"No fighting amongst each other," Erza ordered, triggering a chorus of yes, ma'ams. "Loke, Lucy, you take the right side. Natsu and Gray take left. Jellal and I will hold the center. We don't know how much longer until this thing awakens, but we need to be ready when it does, so don't let down your guard no matter how long we have to wait. Understood?"

There was another chorus of yes, ma'ams, and they spread out. Natsu eyed Lucy and Loke standing on the other side of the demon, talking animatedly while they both kept their eyes on Deliora.

"We need to get an explanation out of Loke when this is all over," Gray said. He stood by Natsu, periodically smacking his hands together as he swung his arms. For someone who had some childhood trauma regarding this demon, he was awfully composed.

"I'd say the same about Jellal, but I don't think we'd get one," Natsu said. If anyone were going to hear about the exact nature of Jellal's relationship with the Oración Seis, it would be Erza, and Erza alone.

They stood around Deliora, waiting. And waiting.

And waiting.

"I'm bored," Happy complained, rubbing his face on Natsu's leg.

"Same," said Natsu.

"Gray, do you know if there is any chance we can speed up the process?" Erza asked. "If we can accelerate the melt rate of the ice, we can control when Deliora is released from the seal. That would give us the advantage of preparedness."

Gray furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at the thin ice just barely covering Deliora's left arm. "Uhh…I don't know. The moon drip is already applied, and I don't know how fast it's eating through the ice; it could've taken either days or months for it to get this far for all I know. Like I said, Lyon was never successful in getting more than a drop of the stuff."

"So, you don't have a clue," Natsu concluded.

"The ice might be more brittle, so we could try breaking it ourselves?"

Oh. Natsu liked that suggestion. He pounded his fists together and leapt in the air, aiming his arc to land on the thinnest part of the ice.

"Natsu, wait!" Erza shouted, but he was already in action and he wasn't about to back down. There was no way he was waiting around for hours just to see if this thing would melt. Giving it a good smack was worth a shot.

With the full force of his flames behind him, Natsu slammed into the thin patch of ice, letting a violent explosion tear through the air around him. Natsu landed in a crouch in front of Gray, eyes on Deliora's left arm.

Gray was right; this ice was impervious, even to fire magic. Natsu's explosive fire hadn't even made a dent.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Natsu said, standing up and brushing off his hands. But his sentence hadn't even finished before a large snap reached his ears.

All eyes went to Deliora. The area around where Natsu had aimed his explosion, the thinnest section of ice, now had a large crack through it. The ice had become brittle from the moon drip after all.

Another loud crack, and a chunk of ice fell from Deliora's arm, exposing the lumpy grayish skin underneath.

"Get ready! Here it comes," Erza called, readying her swords.

A huge rush of air sucked into the gap in the ice, filling the vacuum. Pressure from inside building, the icy seal cracked once more, then shattered.


A/N: I appreciate the reviews you leave for me! I know I don't reply to them individually but that's just a personal thing with me being shy haha. Feel free to PM me though if you want to start a conversation; if messaged first, I'll always write back. It's just that with reviews it can be hard to tell if a response is expected so I make it a rule to not let myself worry about them haha. Social cues are hard.

This story is kind of a big undertaking and I wouldn't be able to get through it without knowing that there's someone waiting for each new chapter. You guys are the best. I'm already at half my projected word count! It's all out of order, but now I just need to connect the dots and write those fight scenes (argh they give me so much trouble) and I'll be done! Easier said than done, of course. All for the sake of you guys reading it hehe 3 I know my writing is far from perfect but it makes me happy that people are enjoying it anyway.

Anyway, that's enough sappy rambling haha. Just wanted to make sure you guys knew how much I appreciate each one of you. Keep an eye out for the next chapter in about a week. Some familiar faces finally show up. Who could it be...?

Thanks for reading!