"We have to save Kain!" Natsu cried out heroically.
As heroically as someone brought to crippling nausea could muster mind you, but it was something still worth praising would one could argue.
The celestial mage, Lucy Heartifilia, looked outside the fast moving cart with worry. "I hope Kain is alright."
Fairy Tail's strongest team was in hot pursuit of their kidnapped member, the non-magical Kain Reynolds, who was abducted by none other than the ancient and dark magical flute Lullaby, created by Zeref himself.
"How was Lullaby even able to hold him hostage like that? Was it because Kain had no magic?" Gray spoke out loud while he was doing his best impersonation of The Thinker, but with boxers instead of being fully naked.
"Gray, your clothes!" Lucy shrieked as the ice mage panicked to see his clothes off him again.
Suddenly, the car moved faster. Everyone in the carriage looked to Erza who was clearly more than ticked off at this point. "I should have seen it earlier! Kain has no magical affinity whatsoever, so of course if he was to hold something with so much dark magic, he would have no resistance if it tried something when he touched it! I should have had more insight to warn him!" Her anger was more placed to herself for endangering the most vulnerable of their group.
"Don't push yourself too hard Erza," Gray was somewhat nervous when he said this and as he put his jacket back on. "We still need you for the fight. What I wanna know is where the flute was heading when it took Kain?"
At the mention of that, Lucy's eyes widened. "Wait. When he left, I saw Lullaby following the direction of the train tracks."
"Wait that's the direction of Eisenwald; is the flute heading back there!?" Erza heard Gray say this and somehow applied more pressure into the cart to make them move faster.
Struggling to stabilize herself, Lucy added more to that thought. "But why would Lullaby go back to Eisenwald!?"
Has there ever been a time where you worked so hard to avoid someone, but no matter how hard you try you still end up meeting the people you didn't want to meet? What did Oedipus Rex and Kung Fu Panda always warn? One often meets their destiny in the path they wish to avoid it, right? I really should pay more attention to fictional works, they might have actually had some clever warnings I didn't pay attention to.
My current situation was something a lot like that, only it was real in a fictional world.
Lullaby made us land with a boom at what I assumed was Kusanagi Station if I recalled the map of the train before we got on. However, instead of meeting a large group of people who would be surprised at my appearance, I saw Eisenwald mages staring right at me and with some goth I assumed was their ace, Erigor.
Why is he wearing eye liner?
"Lullaby…" Oh wow, over doing it much? "How do you have it, fly?"
Okay mind, this guy is obviously really close to killing me. I have to say something clever enough to make sure he doesn't do that. Don't fail me now years of studying and late night work!
"I got it as present?"
The hell, brain? At least the jumping off the boat plan worked.
My eyes widened as I saw Erigor raise his scythe upward.
I can't believe out of all the ways I could have possibly died, being killed by an emo edgelord was going to be the one that did me in.
However, as he put pressure into his swing, I noticed Lullaby glowing and suddenly repel the scythe back.
"(Yield, mage. You shall not harm my host.)" Out of everything, Lullaby was the one who spoke up for me. Why was this the case? I have no idea.
"Lullaby," Erigor stared at the flute. What? So am I just not that important compared to a demonic flute that can kill people? … I probably am in all honesty… that does not help my ego. "So the rumors of you having a dark spirit within are true."
"(This host has interested me.)" That caught my attention. Why did it say that? "(I will ally myself with you in your quest, but make no move against this host, or else I will not hesitate to activate my song then and there.)"
As if to further emphasize this point, he then started making his eyes glow, making the Eisenwald mages except Erigor back away slowly.
The leader of said dark guild looked back to the train. "Where is Kageyama?" Something told me that was the name of the guy who looked a lot like Shikamaru.
On one hand, I was glad that people were no longer paying attention to me, on the other I saw what happened to the others when Erigor was done with them. Needless to say it wasn't pretty. He beat them all up pretty bad for failing to catch me, and that was the best understatement I could say for it.
They were put on duty of watching over me and making sure I didn't escape this time.
Needless to say, it was really awkward sitting right in front of the guy who tried to kill me a while back and is now forced not to harm me. If you looked into a dictionary and saw the word 'unrelenting', you'd find a picture of Kage looking right at me.
As the train started to move to the next station, Kageyama stood up to tower over me. "Listen here!" However, whatever attempt he had to intimidate me was foiled due to the fact he flinched in pain from the beating Erigor gave him not to long ago for almost losing Lullaby in the first place.
One of the others with us, the guy who told my fortune, tried to calm the shadow mage down. "Hey, Kageyama, chill man."
"Like hell I will!" He raised his fist and quickly punched me off my seat. It stung like hell, but it was nothing compared to what happened next. "This is your fault, you stupid fairy! You just had to butt into our business! Until we get to our destination, I'm going to make you live in hell!"
His idea of that was kicking me while I was down like some soccer ball.
In his defense, it really, really hurt. Being a law and magic nerd was obviously not helping my physique.
It also seemed like the flute wasn't choosing to do anything and seemingly let me suffer as long as I didn't die. I so hated this.
"Why!? Why are you doing this!?" I blurted in between the kicks.
"WHY!?" He stopped kicking, which only meant something worse was going to happen. Pulling me by my neck was a bit much though. "You don't know what it's like to be treated like a known criminal when it was the council that took away everything from us!"
Wait, that's not how I heard it from Master Makarov. "What the hell are you talking about!? You knew that taking jobs of assassination were illegal but you still kept doing them! You abused your rights, which is why they were taken from you; don't say that they were stolen from you! Is that all you do, blame others for your own incompetence!?"
That last sentence might have come from the fact that it was taking a lot for me to stay conscious or the fact I received a few blows to the head, but I didn't stop there.
"Let me remind you that I was trying to leave you alone but you were the idiot that locked me in and tried to beat me up for no reason! You were the one that got close to me so I could easily see the flute in the first place, and now you're blaming me for when it was obviously your fault to begin with!" I started to stand back up as his hold lessened.
"Well guess what, fancy-pants? Blaming other people for your own mistakes does absolutely nothing! You want something? Go and get it; don't just sit on your ass blaming everything that happened when you could be out there, doing something to make it better! Did you even try to explain to the council why you should keep your rights? Did you go to them and demand that your rights not be removed!?"
"Shut up!"
"No, you listen! It sounds to me you're not even trying to explain yourself!" I looked around to all of them. "Now tell me: why did you all become mages!? Was it just for the money? For fame, glory? Why kill if you know it brings only money, when other legal jobs can give a large amount just as easily!? Why did you all become a mage!? Just to use your powers to bully people!? What did you want!?" I shouted out and gasped for breath after my rant, seeing everyone oddly silent.
A strange thought occurred to me as I spoke much quieter. "Are those complaints really yours? Or are they what Erigor told you to feel?"
Their silence spoke more to me than any of their words so far.
But it was the sound of the door opening that broke the silence first.
"What is all this racket?" Speak of the devil and he will appear. Or in this case: speak of the wannabe goth and he will model walk into the train cart like it's a runway.
"(They were planning to betray you before forcing my host to play the song and have me kill everyone but them)"
I stared in horror at the flute as he stated one of the most remote lies in that moment in a calm manner.
"I-It's not true!" Kageyama and the other started to shiver as Erigor turned to them with eyes that screamed murder.
My eyes widened as he raised his scythe. He wasn't even going to let them defend themselves!? He believed the demonic flute over his own team!?
No! No! No! They can't die!
With everything I had left, I stood up, jumped, and slammed Lullaby into the back Erigor's head with everything I had left.
I had less than half second to feel proud for what I did, but I was too slow to enjoy it due to the fact I was distracted by a blast of wind magic and got thrown through probably… my mind was spinning around here so… I guess one or four carts down? I was still in one piece even though my body was super numb but somehow still in pain.
On the bright side, it seemed that this confirmed that I was indeed more durable than I thought I was from before. Despite all the pain I felt, nothing seemed broken which was practically a miracle by my old home's standards. Downside? It was only enough to keep me alive, not prevent me from feeling almost everything sore. And the numbness made it hard for me to even move anything left.
Man, having no powers in a world full of them sucked all ass. No wonder everyone always writes giving original characters powers when they enter into their favorite worlds. They rather be kicking ass than getting their asses kicked.
… which was happening to me.
"(Interesting, I sense your mind moving quicker than ever before.)" Of all the darn senses I still have why did hearing have to still be fine? I'd rather have white noise than listen to this jerk. "(I see your mind is attempting to distract the pain by focusing on sarcasm. How… rudimentary… but considering your state that is rather efficient.)"
Oh so that's why I've been extra snarky lately. According to him I'm doing it to avoid focusing on all the pain and fear that's bubbling up behind me. I guess that is the lesser evil here.
But why was he sounding more intelligent? He didn't seem as talkative as before and why did he lie?
"(I've been trying to tap into your mind, but for some reason, I cannot fully control you. However, I have been feeding off your essence, a rather studious and overtly calm headed mind and character. My magic has automatically decided that these traits would help me so I adapted them into my own being.)" In other words, he became smart by leeching off me. Go figure.
But what was that about him not being able to fully control me?
"Brat," I managed to look up to see Erigor finally walking over to me. "You dare touch me?" Said the guy who blew me through like four carts after just getting tapped on his head.
"You," Ouch just saying one word seems to take a lot out of me. "You shouldn't… hurt… guild members…"
Erigor looked even more edgier—I mean angry.
"You dare question me!?" I would have said yeah if I had more energy… and if he wouldn't kick my ass again if I did say something like that…. and if Natsu and the others were in front of me… okay so there were a lot of reasons why I couldn't talk back to him, but I liked to think I could. "I would kill you if Lullaby himself said he needed you. But seeing the fact you are writhing in pain like the worm that you are will have to do."
He then moved closer to me.
"But that is not enough."
With him glaring threateningly at me, I found the opportunity to finally do what I needed to do.
"Question: just what mascara did you use? It really brings out your eyes."
My question was answered with him grabbing my head and slamming me into the floor.
"So," I coughed several times. "L'Oreal?"
I learned that people's boots taste different. I say this because first Kageyama planted his foot to my face and Erigor kicked his foot into mine and they both tasted weird. "Take this punk into our special gift. I hope he likes being chewed like a rag doll."
Everything hurt as I was dragged into somewhere dark, cold, and metallic and thrown into it.
"Oh god," I gasped as I tried to at least sit up right despite by body pretty much being a jerk and not listening to what I wanted it to do. "I'm bleeding, yeah. There's blood on me. Ooooowwwww."
"(Your attempts to calm yourself are bizarre.)"
"W-Why," I asked. "Why did you lie?"
"(It seemed like an opportune moment to test a theory. How easy is it to kill humans without using my song? The answer surprised even me.)"
Oh great, not only was he an ancient demon bent on killing people, now he was becoming smarter, more cunning just by being trapped in my arms.
"(But if we are asking questions, who are you?)"
"Wha?" I gasped.
The flute went on to explain that he still didn't have full control of me. I was probably knocking on death's door and all he could do was ensure that my fingers were stuck to him. I had a surprising magical resistance despite my nonexistent magical affinity.
I thought he was absorbing my essence or something, but he explained something was… filtering what he could and could not do. Example: sometimes he could hear my thoughts like a while ago, and sometimes he could not like now.
That interested but confused me to no end. I lacked any magic, so what was preventing an ancient demon from fully killing or harming me?
"(Hmm? We are not alone.)"
I looked up from the flute to peer into the darkness.
I wasn't expecting a large pair of amber eyes to stare right back at me. I quickly looked at the wall I was leaning on and then I noticed there were runes carved all over the place that I was too injured to notice right away along with the fact that it was really dark.
The large metal cage was actually bigger than a normal train cart now that I was paying more attention. And then the eyes went up as well, revealing that there was indeed something big and scary in here.
In my hands, Lullaby started glowing brightly, and created a purple light that surrounded the box.
My eyes widened as I saw what I was locked in with: a wyvern. It was a thirteen foot tall, crimson scaled red wyvern with chains around its foot and neck.
I knew it was a wyvern because they usually had two large wings and two legs while a dragon had four legs and two wings. This one, I could easily see people mistake it for a dragon. It looked vicious, angry…
And it was staring right at me.
I coughed a little more violently this time, spitting blood down on the ground. "G-Good wyvern?"
The creature took a step towards me, sniffing me while breathing his really, really burning hot breath.
Suddenly, the collar around his neck started to glow, making the Wyvern screech in pain. It really didn't help my recovering ears since I couldn't close them.
"(The chain around its neck is what is keeping it bound by the other mages.)"
Okay, screw pain, I got up and moved when the wyvern tried to bang his head against my fragile body.
"Can you get it to stop!?"
"(Why should I? In fact, this is opportune. It kills you and now I'll have a better body to posses.)"
Well shit.
I avoided another headbutt by jumping to another corner, but I almost got hit by its tail.
I had to think of something, but I was still feeling snarky to just complain and not really deal with this…
Wait a second. Maybe sarcasm and wit can get me out of this!
"Or," I said mischievously as I looked to Lullaby. "you can't do anything."
"(Excuse you?)"
I avoided the dragonic cousin from biting me by sliding under him, but hurting myself more in the process. "Oh look at me, I'm Lullaby, I can't even control a bratty, wimpy kid! Eeiee! Face—Ak! F-Face the facts, three eyesSSSS! Y-You can't remove those chains. You can't even posses me!" I managed to somehow avoid the wyvern several more times in that sentence alone.
Gotta keep moving. Oh crap is he using his fire breath!?
"(You accuse me, the great Lullaby as weak!?)"
"Yeah, I bet their chain magic on this wyvern is too much for you!" I can't avoid his breath! Crap! Work!
"(I'll show you!")" With another flash of light, Lullaby stretched several tendrils at the chains of the wyvern and cracked them into pieces.
"(Do you not see the impudence of your pathetic calls, mortal!? I keep you around because you interest me, anything else, and I will not hesitate to kill you by ripping your heart out of your chest! Do I make myself clear?!)"
"… Crystal." I smile with all the smugness of an internet meme. "And adults always told me that I could never learn from cartoons. Thank you, Bugs Bunny."
There was a moment of silence until the flute opened up with a stronger voice. "(YOU TRICKED ME!)"
"For someone getting my essence, you sure don't know how to use it." I laughed before realizing one thing.
I only broke the collars.
The wyvern was still there.
I looked back up to the creature, who was kicking away pieces of the chains that surrounded it. Now that it wasn't trying to kill me, I noticed that it looked just as injured, with broken and cracked scales, as me. Well, it was obviously in much better condition than considering I had just lost all feelings in my legs again—oh here we go.
*Thud!*
"Oooooowwww…" Adding insult to injury, I heard the wyvern walking up to me. I tried to get back up, but instead, the wyvern just seemed to stop just before me, and gently nudge it's head on mine. It felt really hard and hot…
But it strangely felt nice and warm.
I… I was so tired. So I… closed my eyes and leaned into the wyvern.
I… I… I still want to see Natsu and the others.
Despite how urgently Team Fairy Tail—name still pending—was heading towards Oshibana Station, Happy seemed distracted by something as he tried to talk to Lucy about something important.
Unfortunately, he couldn't recall it and just kept calling Lucy weird when trying to actually recall it.
However, everyone turned their attention when they saw smoke up ahead.
At the station itself, there was a large group of people gathered around. And so the five—even if you counted how out of it Natsu was from the trip over—tried to get into the station.
This was also the part where Lucy found out more about Erza's character via the amount of knocked out guards by head butt related injuries when they didn't answer her instantly.
Through this, they found out Eisenwald was holed up in the station and a group of militants tried to go in and stop them. They later found out that said group were beaten like toys and stood no chance against a guild filled with mages.
Soon Team Natsu—name still pending—came face to face with the entire guild of Eisenwald.
Erigor was the first to speak to them while sitting above a train. "Welcome! Step into our parlor, fairy tail flies! We were getting bored just playing with this one."
Natsu, previously dizzy, suddenly snapped out of it when he smelled blood and looked up.
Fairy Tail was horrified to see Kain, bruised, beaten, bloody, but still holding on to Lullaby while Erigor dragged him out into the air.
"C-Can I just say you guys are the worst rescuers… ever?" Kain managed to weakly laugh as he saw his friends.
"For the love of god, why won't you shut up!?" Erigor was more than a little peeved to see nothing he did could stop the blasted one from talking. He did however punch him in the gut.
"Ahahaha!" Kain managed to gasp. "Your minions hit harder than you."
"I cannot wait to kill you."
Kain returned the glare Erigor was trying to give even though he was weakened and injured. "I'm not intimidated by bullies."
"Don't worry buddy," Natsu pounded his fists. "I'll make sure these guys pay for what they did to you."
"We don't take kindly to those who hurt one of our own." Erza's voice and glare could scare death into cowering fear.
"Same, you're all going down!" Gray also prepared himself as things were looking like a scene before bloodshed.
"Tch." Erigor flew up with Kain in tow. "Deal with these brats while I go make preparations."
The scythe using mage then flew out of the window, much to the charge in of Natsu as he bolted right after him.
"Gray, go after him!"
"What?"
"Go." Erza demanded, scaring Gray as he ran after Natsu.
Seeing two mages go after Erigor, two other mages also vanished to go after Gray and Natsu.
"You think you're all hot shit, don't ya!?" One Eisenwald mage declared as he got a strange device and pointed to a large metal container that was moving up and down violently. "Well feast your eyes on this bad boy!"
Ht then pressed button, opening the cage and revealing a very, very ticked off wyvern.
"A wyvern!?" Erza looked at the creature as it started glaring and growling angrily at everyone around it.
"Hahaha! This was a gift we bought and it comes with a controlling shackle that'll allow us to make it attack you!" He motioned to the box he was holding. "Listen to me you stupid wyvern and kill—"
That person didn't get to finish his sentence due to him suddenly catching a curious case of a wyvern foot stomping him down into the ground.
The large red wyvern gave an ear splitting screech before promptly attacking all Eisenwald mages around it, making them all panic and cry out in surprise.
"Wow, it's attacking them!" Happy threw his paw out at the obvious sight before them.
"Oh!" Lucy then took a closer look. "They said it had shackles, but I don't see any on it. I think I see fragments of chains in the box they opened."
Erza looked over to Lucy. "So they've lost control and now it's attack them for enslaving him? I suppose that is most fortuitous."
One of the Eisenwald mages was thrown nearby them, disbelief on his face. "H-How? As long as the chains were on him, he would listen to us…" his eyes widened, revealing all the red veins in his eyes. "Was it that fairy brat?! That does explain why he wasn't injured after we locked him in there…"
And then he fainted.
Overhearing this, Lucy smiled. "Did you hear that!? Kain released the wyvern that's now helping us!"
"He has earned much of my respect for doing so much even for someone in his state and condition. All the more reason we must try and rescue him from Lullaby and Erigor. Come on. We can deal with the wyvern later, Kain comes first—"
However, before she could leave, Erza jumped back, pulling Lucy and Happy before a large flame breath almost singed them into cinders.
They all looked back to the wyvern roaring angrily at them.
Lucy and Happy were obviously scared by the presence of the creature. "W-What's going on!? I thought Kain helped it!" Happy cried out as he hid behind Lucy.
Erza got into a fighting stance. "It must believe we're with Eisenwald! Lucy, move!" She shouted as she ran away to avoid the flames. Despite wearing armor, she moved swiftly, picking up a blade from her space and running towards the wyvern. The wyvern then suddenly increased his speed, surprising the scarlet haired mage as she was whipped into the wall by his tail.
Erza braced for impact but then landed back on her feet.
"What?" Happy looked scared. "I-I've never seen Erza nervous before in my life!"
Lucy quickly looked to see that Erza was indeed starting to sweat as the wyvern stalked closer. In truth, Erza could handle a wyvern… if she was at her full strength. However, she had spent a large majority of her magic getting here in the first place. The Eisenwald mages, she could handle. An opponent such as the Wyvern who seemed intelligent and skillful as he was strong and ferocious would prove to be a problem to even Tatiana at her current state.
"No choice. Re Equip!" In a flash of light, Erza had changed armor into a red and black armor with a fire themed sword before charging right for the wyvern.
In retaliation, the pseudo dragon spewed fire onto her, only for the armored mage to slash through the flames and kick the dragon's chin upward. The pseudo dragon staggered back but then stood firm as he tried to swat away Erza. Thankfully, Erza backed off before getting hit by the tail again.
The wyvern snarled and fired another large fire breath at the S-class mage. With another swing of her fire blade, she cut the flames in half—
"Huh—AAUUGHHH!?" No sooner than she did, this time, a talon was waiting for her as the wyvern swooped in and slammed her into the wall with his talon. Then he quickly wrapped his tail around her body and slammed her into the ground opposite from where she was before lifting her up and tossing her aside.
The red haired mage braced for impact, but this time she felt something a lot softer break her impact, like she was caught or something.
"Good job, Taurus!" As Erza opened her eyes, she noticed a giant cow mentioning something about nice body and slowly put her down.
Lucy looked over to her, getting her whip ready while also somewhat sweating a little. "Erza, let me help to!"
The S class mage gave a small smile. "I appreciate it." She slowly prepared her blade at the wyvern. "Be cautious, this wyvern is more skilled than he appears."
However, it was then that Erza noticed something. The wyvern was now panting hard. Was it actually weakened as well? Now that she was paying more attention, she noticed several cracked and cut scales, the dirt all over it, and how one of its wings kept twitching.
Was the wyvern also battered and injured? But it kept fighting even in its weakened state, why?
Suddenly, there was a loud humming sound heard across the station. Everyone panicked for a second at the thought of it being Lullaby, but instead the outside suddenly got covered by a large gale of wind.
The wyvern looked away from his opponents and roared with anger as it flew right for the wind wall.
"It's ignoring us?" Lucy asked before seeing the wyvern bash its head against the powerful winds.
Erza also watched it as it tried to break through, but then stepped back as the wind wall repelled the pseudo dragon back into the station.
"That must be Erigor's magic trapping us in. Where could he be going if he wasn't planning to use Lullaby here?" The red haired mage looked towards the injured dragon and turned back into her normal armor.
"Huh? Erza, where are you going?!" Lucy cried out as she saw Erza run up to the fallen wyvern.
The S-class mage didn't know what compelled her to walk up to the creature, but all of her instincts told her that there was something about this mighty creature that seemed… sentient. The way it fought even when it was tired, how quickly it adapted to when she went through his flames. How it seemed so angry… as if a friend was taken away from him.
"Stop!" The knight mage placed a hand towards the pseudo dragon before removing one of her shoulder pads. "Do you know this symbol?"
Her hunch was validated when she noticed the wyvern relax.
"You do know it, don't you? And you do understand me? Then please, listen to me when I say the friend that freed you was our friend as well! We need to work together in order to escape and save him, will you help us?"
Lucy tried to speak up. "Um Erza? I'm not sure that…" The blonde mage became silent as the wyvern nodded.
Erza smiled at the reaction and jumped off, allowing the wyvern to stand up, albeit weakly.
"You were quite a fierce opponent. Perhaps when we are both at full strength, we can have a proper match." The wyvern, in response to the red head's comment, just snorted weakly.
Lucy walked up somewhat hesitantly, eyeing the red dragonic beast carefully while speaking to Erza. "Now what?"
"We need to find a way out of here. No doubt that wind wall is Erigor's doing. I doubt I could break through if this wyvern here couldn't."
Erza looked around and then spotted a still conscious Eisenwald mage slowly getting back up. Unfortunately for him, this meant Erza would now pick up him by the collar and glare dangerously at him.
"This wall of wind, what is it and how do we break free of it!?"
The Eisenwald mage seemed to look afraid before noticing the Fairy Tail brand on Lucy's hand. His eyes widened as he looked to the swordswoman. "You… you're with that boy, aren't you?"
To be fair, the S-Class mage seemed to be taken by surprised by that question. She was half expecting this man to be difficult. "Yes, we are. And we will save him from you."
The man's eyes widened at the sound of that. It looked as if some part of him wanted to honestly help them but he seemed hesitant and fearful. He looked down to his right to see a cracked crystal ball before sighing. Now he looked more resolved as he looked back towards the woman holding his collar. "He saved us and six others from Erigor. Even though we treated him badly, he still saved us from our own guild mate. His actions and words changed us," after pausing for a while, the fortune teller continued. "That is Erigor's spell and it can't be broken through. However, look for Kageyama, he can probably de-spell it. He's the black haired man that went after your friends, and he also was one of the men your friend saved."
After hearing all of that, Tatiana nodded at the man. "You have my sincerest thanks."
"Traitor!" One Eisenwald mage in the distance coughed. Erza Scarlet glared at this man in particular in response to that.
"The only traitor I see is your guild who was so quick to get rid of your own members!" Erza then turned to Lucy and Happy. "Tie the rest of them up but leave the man who helped us in a different area. Keep him safe from the rest."
As she left to find Kageyama, the man who had shouted traitor slowly whispered to a wall. "Laracka, get out here!"
A magic circle appeared discreetly from the other's notice. Out of it, a man cautiously poked his head out. "I'm sorry, but I was scared."
"Go to Kage before they do, now!"
"Please don't make me! I'm no good at fights!"
"Calm down," the eyes of the mage looked desperate despite his calm voice. "It's a simple job, even you could do it."
I… I can't… stay up much longer. My eyes are getting really heavy and I'm so tired along with hurt like crazy.
Erigor is shouting some kind of profanity at me, but at this point he's just a broken record. Maybe I should have done the choice in not going with the main story.
…
Too late for that; I like these guys I've met even though it hasn't been long. They were fun as my friends back home.
Though I'm sad to say that it's looking more and more like I might not make it.
Dammit. I didn't even start finding a way back home. I'm really sorry dad.
I'm really, really sorry.
"…"
Huh? Oh right, the town. Even I can see it through my heavy eyes. Dang. I can't rest yet. I need to find a way out of this…
Ugh… so tired… so hard… I can't…
"We've got you now!"
Na…tsu? Either I'm dreaming, or is that Natsu and Happy coming at us like a missile— ow. What?
I…
I'm… sorry. I couldn't stay awake anymore…
…
…
…
"…in!"
Ugh.
"K…"
Oww…
"Kain!"
"W-What?" I opened my eyes slowly. As my focus slowly returned I saw Lucy, Gray, Erza, Happy, and Natsu all smiling at me. Either I died-wait no. I'm still in pain.
"Kain! You're alive!" Happy cried while sniffing tears.
I managed to give a smile even if it did kind of hurt to move just some facial features. "Of course I'm alive, Happy. Who else is going to cover up Fairy Tail's law suits?"
They all seemed relieve to hear that, even though my voice was somewhat weak. "You guys suck, you know that? I expected rescue like an hour ago."
"We promise to do so a thousand times better next time." Erza admitted.
I then felt my arms, which was weird because I thought I was holding Lullaby. I looked down to see both of my hands were free.
Happy was the one who noticed this. "It seemed like when we knocked you and Erigor in the sky, we must have disrupted even Lullaby's hold on you to make him let go!" Then the cat pointed over to Lullaby who was just a few feet away from us.
"I hate that thing." I managed to blurt out.
Natsu was all too eager to concur by pounding his fire fists together. "Me too! I'm going to burn it to cinders worse than Erigor for what he did to you!"
That made me realize that Natsu was also roughed up somewhat as I looked beyond the team to notice Erigor in a crater, unconscious and smoking.
"Oh, you beat him up? I was hoping to see you kick his ass in front of me though."
Natsu gave me a thumbs-up. "Don't worry about that, Kain! I kicked his ass hard for what he did to you!"
While I greatly appreciated it, I noticed something moving behind everyone. I tried to speak up but I was too slow as everyone was forced to move out of the way by the carriage along with… Kageyama?
"Thanks for Lullaby, suckers! You shouldn't have left your guard down!" I don't know why he was here, but I saw him run away in the carriage while using a shadow to snatch away Lullaby.
However, seeing all of our hard work gone to waste made me a little more than peeved because of that.
"Alright," I felt pain when I realized my face was making a frown. "who brought the douche bag?"
Gray instantly turned to Natsu. "Fire Breath did!"
Natsu seemed angrier at Kage than Gray at that moment. "That bastard! After what we did to help him!?"
Erza was the one to quickly stand up. "We must go after him!"
"How!? We don't have a way to catch up with him if we're dragging Kain and Erigor along!" Lucy pointed out.
It seemed like fate was going to help us once more as a loud roar caught all of our attention to the sky.
"Oh hey! He followed after us after all!" Natsu waved as the Wyvern dove down towards us.
"The wind wall must have died down instantly when Erigor was defeated! He must have flown after us even when we left him behind after using Virgo!" I have no idea what Lucy said, but I'm just going to ask later.
"This is perfect." Erza said before looking towards the Wyvern. "We need your help. Will you assist us once more?"
The pseudo dragon nodded and soon Erza and Lucy helped prop me atop the wyvern's back while Gray and Natsu hung on to the wyvern's talons. Erigor was tied up by the wyvern's tail as it then started to fly up with Happy hanging on to Lucy.
"Oh wow!" I managed to weakly say. "So this is what it's like to ride the back of a wyvern. It's kind of like how I imagined ridding a dragon."
"I know right! It's so cool!" Natsu declared.
"Oh? Natsu, you don't seem to be having motion sickness." Lucy noted as the wyvern flew higher.
"Why would I be motion sick on a wyvern?" Natsu asked simply.
"Regardless, we must go after Kage!" Erza shouted while pointing in which direction we had to go. "There is no telling what kind of damage Kage could unleash!"
None.
He. Did. No. Damage.
Okay, no. No! That's it!
"Time out! Time out!" I ended up shouting out loud and stomping over to Kage after he dropped Lullaby to the ground following Master Makarov's conversation.
I know I was just recently healed thanks to Master Bob and probably shouldn't be pushing myself, but I was having none of it as I walked up to Kage.
"I was attacked, chased, almost killed, tortured, was locked in a steel box with a wyvern, dragged like a doll in the sky, dropped down to the ground like a boulder because it was all for the sake of stopping Lullaby. And you just choose NOW to do the right thing? Where was any of THAT earlier today!?" The anger and hysteria coming to my voice as I ended my rant was very noticeable.
I heard Natsu laughing in the distance and I quickly snapped my head back and barked, "Dragneel, I have access to the guild's debts! Do not make me triple yours!"
That shut up him up almost faster than Erza ever could.
"Uhh well?" Kage started before looking to Markarov, who was wisely stepping away from this. "Y-Your words and actions inspired me? A-And thank you for saving my life?"
I was later told that my eyes were twitching dangerously without me noticing after he said that.
"N-Now, now Kain. The important lesson is that he did learn his lesson. And while he may be punished for his actions, he'll live to see a brighter future." Master Makarov tried to say to help put me at ease.
I inhaled deeply and calmed myself down. I heard everyone behind also seemingly sigh in relief as well.
…
Screw it.
I punched Kage in the nose.
The man groaned before cradling said broken part of face. "W-Whab waz thaf door?!" Huh did I break it? I mean, I tried to give what was left in my body into that one punch but it looked like he was pretty weakened too.
Yeah, I'm not even sure a saint would forgive the whole torture thing. Maybe they would, but I sure as hell ain't no saint. "I'm a petty son of a gun. Consider us even." I dusted my hands off.
"And you guys are telling me that he isn't a mage?" Guild Master of Quatro Cerberus Guild, Goldmine, asked with some nervousness even though I was somewhat far away. It was a quiet night despite everything that happened so far, so I guess that made some sense. "Yeesh, Maky, do you only bring in odd balls?"
"I think he's quite the looker! Men love battle scars, even if they are healed." Guild Master of Blue Pegasus, Bob, gushed from the audience from the side. Considering those people we met in Hargeon, I wasn't all that intimidated by him. In fact, he seemed like a really swell person. I really do have to properly thank him for healing me better with magic.
Wait.
I feel like I'm forgetting something very important.
"(I see.)" How the hell did I forget about a talking demon flute?!
We all turned to Lullaby, who was now floating mid air and glowing purple.
"(You have my thanks, Kain Reynolds. Had I not been tricked by you, I would never considered this possibility.)" Okay, if it's thanking me, it's obviously not a good sign.
The flute suddenly levitated off the cliff and several dozen magical circles started appearing and covering it like some kind of cocoon. In a flash of light, Lullaby reappeared around ten feet tall with a long humanoid but wooden body.
"This is my original form albeit made smaller." The new voice of the demon said as he started viewing his own body. "I have learned much from our short encounter human. As your reward," He pointed a palm towards me. "Your death shall be swift."
Erza, Natsu, and Gray all got in front of me. "If you want him, you'll have to get through us!" Natsu declared with all the rage of fire itself.
"You say you made yourself smaller? Well then this should be easier to knock you off your feet!" Gray got prepared to attack.
"You will end today, Lullaby!" Erza declared as well before all three charged for the wooden demon.
Erza was first to—get knocked back into the hill cliff before Lullaby moved with uncanny speed and crescent kicked both Natsu and Gray right into the guild master's building.
Lullaby slowly lifted his hand. "Power… is nothing without mastery." Then he made a crushing motion with his fist as he finished. "I understand that now."
"This might be trouble." Makarov noticed darkly as Erza, Gray, and Natsu went back to fighting Lullaby, only for the wooden demon to dodge and counter Fairy Tail's greatest team with relative ease.
"I-I don't get it!" I yelled to him. "I had no magic power whatsoever, so why does he say he gained something like a power up from cursing me?"
Makarov looked to me before sighing. "It's because you've obviously got a sharp mind, Kain. That's far more dangerous."
"What?"
"From my understanding, Lullaby was bent only to kill humans by playing his song. However, by cursing you he gained something that made him even more dangerous: cunning and the ability of observation. These aren't necessarily physical strengths, but they give him the ability to know how to fight against those stronger than him." I looked back to the fight in horror as Lullaby grabbed Natsu by the head and pinned him to the ground like a basketball player would slam dunk a ball.
"I can sense extraordinary power within Lullaby, but he's using that power in a compact body that is boosting his speed and accuracy than raw power."
I grit my teeth as I see all three of them get knocked back into the building with relative ease. Erza came out in a different armor that made her move faster. However, her sword was blocked by a magical circle that was used as a barrier. Lullaby opened his mouth, and fired a beam that hit the S-Class mage and exploded some parts of the forest.
"Erza!" Lucy cried out.
I couldn't take this anymore! This was all my fault, but I'd be damned if I just let everyone suffer for my mistake!
I looked at Lullaby as Gray called out an Ice Lance attack. Again, Lullaby created another magical barrier to block the attack before jumping out of the way when Natsu tried to burn it with his dragon flames.
It was then that I noticed something that went on as the fight continued. I quickly looked back and ran up to the wyvern that brought me here.
"I need your help! Please!" I told the creature with urgency as he allowed me to get up on his neck. I looked to Lucy and Happy and shouted, "You two, get to the others!"
"What?"
"I have an idea!" I yelled back to the celestial mage as I motioned to the wyvern to fly up. Up in the sky, I noticed Lullaby looking over to me. In that second I felt my heart skip a beat out of fear, but I shook my head and told the wyvern to burn him.
The wyvern unleashed a powerful fiery breath, but Lullaby did what I expected it too in that he summoned a magical barrier to stop the flames. I held on tight as the wyvern followed my next instruction and swooped in, talon first to kick Lullaby along with his barrier into the trees beyond.
"Oh thank god, that barrier could only handle one attack at a time." Pressuring two attacks, the flames then the talon was more than enough to finally land a blow on him.
Acting fast, I jumped off the wyvern and pointed to where Lullaby went. "Can you do me a favor and hold him off for as long as you can!?"
Again, the wyvern seemed to understand and obey me instantly as it flew after the thrown Lullaby with a roar.
I looked towards Natsu and the others before running up to them. "Guys, listen! I have a plan!"
"Well speak up," Gray grunted in pain before continuing. "So far what we're doing doesn't seem to be working."
I nodded at what he said. "I noticed something when you guys were fighting him. He kept avoiding all of your attacks. I then remembered he said that he miniaturized himself. By making himself smaller and faster, I think he's more vulnerable to a good hit because he sacrificed power and defense for speed and accuracy. There's a good chance he might still be vulnerable if we land some good hits on him."
"That's all well and good, but he's way faster than he looks!" Lucy noted.
"Actually, I have a plan for that." I responded. "But we're going to need everyone to beat him."
"Go on, Kain," Erza began. "tell us your plan."
I was about to until a loud dragonic shriek caught our attention and we saw the Wyvern was thrown back at us.
We all scattered to avoid being crushed but also saw Lullaby walking towards us.
"Looks, like we're doing it on the fly! Natsu, Gray, Erza hold it off for a second!" I yelled quickly as the three didn't hesitate to go back to fighting the demon.
I ran up to Lucy and pointed to Lullaby. "Get Aquarius out when I say so!" No sooner than I did, I already saw Natsu get knocked back through several trees.
Lucy saw this too, but only started to panic even as Natsu got back up...only to be tackled by a flying Gray thrown his way. "W-Wait Aquarius?! B-But there's no water!" She cried out to me.
There was a large magical hum in the distance as Erza avoided several magical based attacks from Lullaby. However, instead of hitting their target, they exploded right behind her, knocking her off her feet and allowing Lullaby to kick her back through the guild master's building.
"Can you do without it!?" I turned back after Gray and Natsu were able to charge at the demon, and ward it away further from us.
"I-I think I can?" Lucy responded a second before Erza got back in the fight.
It had to be good enough. "Summon her now!" I turned towards Natsu and the others. "guys, back off and get back to the cliff! Lucy, Happy, and I will handle it from here!"
All three mages seemed to hesitate for a second. I think I heard Lucy gasp before the three did as they were told. Lullaby, seeing his first opponents flee, turned towards me and Lucy's direction.
"K-Kain!?" Lucy cried before I looked back and saw that she didn't summon Aquarius yet.
"Hurry up, Lucy! Happy, get ready to get Lucy out of here!" I yelled as I put on my shoes and started running. They were fully charged but I was to run up to Lullaby and do my turn with distracting him.
"What are you up to, mortal?" The three eyes of Lullaby looked down on to me.
I forced a smirk despite how I knew was shivering. "What? I thought you got my essence. You should know that I'm doing a plan to beat you up."
"Then it's best to kill you now." I wasted no time and jumped back to avoid him striking at me. He was much faster than the others, so even with the shoes it was getting somewhat hard to avoid him.
"Lucy!?" I yelled before sliding under a beam of energy that blew behind me.
"I-I got her out!" She yelled as she pointed to the angry looking blue mermaid.
"What do you want girl!? This obviously violates our contract—"
"Hey, fish girl!" I yelled, catching the irritable spirit's attention instantly. I cupped my hands and shouted out loud. "You're a whore and your boyfriend has never been sober in his life which is the only reason he puts up with you!"
Damn, I expected some reaction from the aqua spirit, but not from Lucy looking so horrified that the color from her left her body.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, PUNK!?" The devil herself screamed as a large amount of started water started to gather.
"Happy, get Lucy out now!" I yelled, snapping both the cat and the girl out of their stupor and doing what they were told.
I looked to the shocked and surprised Lullaby before smiling. "See ya!" I yelled to him before I ran quickly to the wyvern, who was getting up from his beat down, and then flew away instantly as I climbed on to him.
It was fast enough to dodge the tsunami coming in to us that swept away even Lullaby.
Despite that, the wyvern started to fly erratically as shots of water came our way. "I will drown you asshole!" The spirit was relentless in her attacks to knock me into her grasp.
Seeing the angry spirit, I yelled back to her mage, "Lucy, put her away!" I yelled as Lucy did so right from the cliff with the other masters.
I pointed down to the water. "Gray, freeze it now!"
Gray seemed surprised for a second, but that was his only hesitation as he jumped down with a magical circle as he landed on the water, instantly freezing it as he touched it and quickly encasing every ounce of it with ice.
As the cold magic quickly went after the water, Lullaby tried to get out. However, he wasn't fast enough as his lower torso was caught mid freeze of the liquid while trying to get out.
"Good, we got him!" I knew he would try to get out of it! I was a bit afraid if he got out too quickly, but I guess I was right in that he was swept farther down than he wanted to be which slowed his time to get out.
I then pointed again at the frozen Lullaby. "Everyone, hit him with everything you've got!"
"Aye sir!" Natsu and Happy had both cried out with fervorous joy and were already way ahead of me, flying to the trapped demon and unleashing a powerful blow of fire after powerful blow of fire into the wood demon, finishing his combo by kicking up high into the sky.
Gray created an Ice Bazooka and blasted the demon mid air, sending him flying further into the air… where Erza already was holding a sword and wearing a black armor to unleash a powerful amount of slashes on Lullaby mid air.
I was let down by the wyvern nearby the others as it sped back into the fight. After Erza finished her final slash, the wyvern ascended up, the dove down right into the airborne Lullaby and made him crash into the frozen tsunami, cracking every corner of it into many pieces and crashing Lullaby into the ground like a high speed meteor. Out of the cloud of smoke, the wyvern flew back to us and landed along with everyone else to watch the dust settle.
A few seconds later, the cloud parted, revealing Lullaby, injured, cracked, and singed but standing tall and turning his pale, purple gaze towards us.
At this point, I heard Lucy's panicking voice. "K-Kain, do you have any other plans?!"
"I'm working on it." Okay, I was sorta hoping that would be enough to take it down. Come on brain, what else do you have!?
Lullaby took one step towards us—then fell into his knees with his hands propping him up.
Everyone else thought what I was about to say. Natsu, Erza, and Gray didn't hesitate to unload another barrage of long range attacks down on the weakened demon. The wyvern as well fired his own flame breath on to the demon. All attacks mixed together to form a powerful explosion mixing from the three magic and wyvern's breath.
This time, after the cloud passed, there was no sign of Lullaby anywhere.
"W-Where did he go!?" Natsu yelled.
I felt the air was much lighter than the heavier pressure from before, but a horrible feeling washed over me the more I looked for any sign of the demonic flute.
Much to my dismay, I didn't even see a fragment of his skin, let alone his flute form broken and weakened. "H-he must have escaped." I realized.
"What!? Come back here coward!" Natsu took one step forward then tripped with the grace of a bear trapped in a small room filled with fine China. He didn't get back up from that fall as easily as well.
I also was completely tired as I dropped to my knees and gasped for breath. "I wanna go home."
"You did well, all of you." Master Makarov walked to all of us after seemingly watching our fight.
Erza bowed her head in shame. "Forgive us master, Lullaby escaped."
"It could not defeat you, even when all of you were weakened fighting the whole day. There is no amount of words to show how proud I am of each and every one of you for today."
It was really nice of master to say that. But I really needed more than just that after what we went through. "Hey? By any chance, can we get a reward for this? I think there's a reward for Erigor's wanted sign if I recall and we had him tied up and brought here."
"Wait, that guy had a wanted poster? Sweet!" Natsu threw his fist out in cheer after getting back up from his fall.
Makarov nodded before looking towards the guild master's hall. "I'm sure you all deserve that and more for saving…"
He trailed off as we all heard a deafening sound coming to our side. It seemed like the building couldn't handle having three mages thrown through it a few times along with not being able to handle a random tsunami in dry land.
Needless to say that it could no longer support itself and collapsed into watery rubble.
"Our meeting hall!" The other guild masters cried out before looking in our direction. "Fairy Tail!"
Our master looked like he was about to die, but I just rolled my eyes.
"Hey, Mr. Wyvern? If you would please?" I closed my ears as the wyvern roared at the mad mob to silence them. I stood back up and cleared my throat.
"Excuse me, but if you have any complaints, please file to the Fairy Tail issues center."
"Who are you?" One random bloke asked.
"I am Fairy Tail's lawyer. And any complaints you have against my client can be and will be used against you if you try to sue us in court." I smirked darkly. "I just hope that you are all aware of the concept of counter suing. By any rights, we have the right to sue you all for negligence for not assisting us in our battle to protect you from Lullaby."
I then narrowed my eyes at them. "If any of you dare try to pin the blame on us, I will make sure all of you know how horrible the legal system can be abused by someone who knows it inside and out."
They all were silenced from their complaints.
I gave a fake smile and fixed my torn up jacket. "Then we have no problems at all!"
In my little show, I felt a familiar vice grip around my legs. Makraov was crying as he threw himself at my feet again. "You are Fairy Tail's greatest member!" He said through the sniffles and ignored the cries from Gray and Natsu.
It was then that I looked over to Kage. He seemed tense that I noticed him but I gave him a calm smile. I didn't quite forgive him, but I was pretty cool with him now.
All's well that ends well.
It had been one day after the Lullaby disaster. Kage and the others went to jail and Fairy Tail got rewarded for putting them all away. The complaints that were filled against us were weak and I was more than willing to expose all of their combined insurance actually covered attacks by hostile parties, which did include demon attacks, making them unable to file complaints about us.
Master keeps saying I was his best member ever just for getting rid of the complaints. While I appreciate it, I know it's only because of that he keeps saying it.
I was bought a new batch of clothes while my old ones were being repaired. Gray actually gave me some of his spare clothes from when he was a few years younger that seemed to fit me well enough.
It was a smaller, but black version of the long coat he 'wore' (I use that term loosely since it's almost always stripped off at least once a day) with a white T-shirt and black pants. I honestly felt cool.
He said it was only natural that he'd give me his clothes since when we first met I did the same for him. I had forgotten that little fact in actually until he bought it up.
However, there was obviously one other thing that changed dramatically from the Lullaby adventure.
… "I can't believe he's following me around."
And by 'he' I meant the giant red wyvern. It's still following me around even though I tried to set it free after helping us with Lullaby and Eisenwald. He's now currently in the back yard of the guild because he was unnerving the people in the town by waiting in the front.
While I was standing in front of the beast and staring at it, I looked behind my back because I heard something. That something was the guild master walking up to me and eyeing the wyvern.
"It seems grateful you freed it," Makarov noticed sagely. "but to follow you even here. Does it not have its own home?
I flushed because I was thinking of something else since it wouldn't go no matter how many times I've told it to leave. "Actually… I wanted to keep him."
Makarov looked at me and sighed. "Wyverns are not pets, Kain. They are powerful and wild creatures."
Well, he's not wrong, but this guy seems smart enough to not be a pet. I put my right hand out to rub the wyvern's nuzzle. "Counter point: you keep Natsu and Gray around."
The guild master paled as he did realize both were wild and powerful creatures.
Sometimes worse.
"I heard that, Kain!" Natsu yelled out from behind me from the open back doors of the guild.
"Do I hear you saying you want your debt quadrupled?!" It was a bit mean, but now I technically had leverage over all Fairy Tail members since I had access to their debts. I also took some accounting classes when I was in college so I did really know how to manage finances. God, the jokes were right. Lawyers were evil.
Natsu muttered something as he went back to eating.
"So can I keep him? Please? I never had a pet before and he looks behaved!" I begged the old man like a small kid.
Makarov seemed to sweat. It looked like he was having an internal struggle before he put his hand on his head and sighed. "Alright, you can keep him!"
"Whoo! Now, what to name you…" I looked over back to a pink haired mage. "Hey, Natsu! You're dad's name is Igneel right?"
"Yeah?" He said with a steak inside his mouth.
I nodded and turned back to the red wyvern. "I'll call you, Ignis! I think the name suits you perfectly."
Ignis seemed happy for that name and lowered his head down for me to pet him again.
"Oh wow, you seem happy." Lucy walked up to me while eyeing Ignis carefully.
"Of course I am. I'm feeling much better after that fiasco, and best of all I have both my arms back. No more magical object fusing itself to my skin anymore!"
*Chomp!*
…
…
Huh. Why was everyone looking shocked and stunned in my direction?
And why can't I feel my right arm?
…
Oh, Ignis was clamping down on my right arm while I was looking away.
…
"U-Uh, K-Kain?!"
…
"Yes, Lucy?"
"D-Do you n-notice that…"
"Lucy, I am very aware of what's happening to me right now."
"B-But why are you so calm!?"
"Hahaha. Calm? I AM PANICKING ON THE INSIDE!" I yelled out in horror as I tried to yank out my right arm.
Before anyone could get to me, Ignis let go, freeing my arm and making me fall to the ground.
"Ignis, what was that for—" I froze as I saw my right hand again.
It wasn't harmed at all: no puncture wounds despite Ignis' fangs, no blood, not even saliva was on it.
But there was now a strange object that was wrapped around my wrist that was as long as an arm brace.
"What?" I blurted out in shock.
Then the brace started to glow red as it suddenly shrunk and turned into some kind of strange looking wrist band with a red wyvern head on it that reminded me far too much about Power Ranger morphers.
"What?!"
I didn't know what it was, but I had to get it off me.
…
Why was it not coming off?!
"What's that on your arm?" Lucy asked as she looked at the red object, but suddenly her attitude changed when she suspiciously looked in the direction of where my face was. Her face looked of both pity and surprise.
"Hmm? What's going on here?" I heard Erza's voice. Erza!
"Hey, Erza!"
"Hello, Kain. How may I… why are you crying?"
Ignoring the fact I was probably crying, I raised my right hand where the strange object was attached to my wrist.
"Can you cut off my arms now?"
{Author Notes}
Poor Kain, bad things always happen to him.
Okay, that was a lot longer than I expected to be. I hope you all enjoyed how differently this Lullaby Arc went!
As Kain spoke about in chapter two, "The Butterfly effect" also works here! Just a small change has impacted the future of Fairy Tail in this story! I can't wait to show you all what it has caused.
Anyway, thanks for reading! Look out for an Original Arc coming soon after a different take on the Deliora/Galuna Island Arc!