The Muggle among Mages

by PhantomGalaxy13

What happens when a young man suddenly finds himself in the land of Fiore where danger lurks around every corner? Why overcome all odds with the power of friendship! …Yeah-no. That kid is going to be deader than his own ancestors.

11. Chapter 11

{Author Notes}

Happy Thanksgiving. I'm in Orlando Florida, in Disney World! (Y'ALL SHOULD GO TO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM AND RIDE THE NEW AVATAR FLIGHT SIMULATOR. IT'S SO UNEXPECTEDLY GOOD AND DESERVES TO BE ALL CAPS.)

---

Natsu was tapping his fingers on the table with all the grace of an angry piano player with none of the musical rhythm. That was just a fancy way of saying he was as impatient as a child told to go to a corner after a tantrum.

One could argue that Natsu was acting like a child after a tantrum, but that could be considered semantics.

It was a dark and stormy night, but surprisingly the guild was rather peaceful for once. Mostly everyone had left the guild for the day leaving the following besides Natsu and Happy: Lucy and Levy were talking with each other; Gray was hearing jokes being passed between Jet and Droy; and Mirajane was cleaning up tables.

To Mirajane's confusion, she saw Erza walking up to her. "Oh, Erza, I thought you left already?"

The S-Class mage responded plainly. "I received a call from the owner of the quest. Apparently it was already completed by Bacchus Groh of Quatro Cerberus, but there was a technicality in the process that made it look like the quest was still open. So here I am instead," The knight mage looked down at the table. "I could help you with cleaning if you would like?"

"Oh it's alright, I'm about finished anyway. The guild is actually quiet when there's a storm funny enough. Even Master decided to go home early for today."

After she had said this, the heavy rain from outside seemed to let up until it went to a complete stop.

Natsu, hearing the rain vanish looked up a window. "Finally, the rain is gone. I was getting sick of hearing it." However, with the rain finally gone, his ears started twitching and he suddenly stood up from his seat and looked out the door.

To the surprise of everyone else, the resident dragon slayer bolted out the door regardless of the splashes of water he was making as he sped out.

"Natsu!?" Lucy cried out and eventually chased after him as everyone else did the same.

They didn't have to run far because Natsu stayed a little way outside of the entrance looking up into the sky.

To their surprise, up among the starry sky, a bright red and familiar creature that was drenched in water and covered in wounds flew towards them with all the stability of a bumble bee. As he came closer, everyone stood back as the usually powerful wyvern made a clumsy crash right in front of them, but then forced himself to get back up.

The fired dragon slayer did not waste any time as he ran up to the weakened and soaked red wyvern. "Ignis! What happened? Where are Kain and the others?!"

The pseudo dragon only got back up and turned away from them with his saddle facing them. It was wet, but it still looked to be in good condition. For the dragon slayer, he understood the action and quickly got on the wyvern. "Come on guys, Kain and the other need help!"

Lucy was the one to point out something first. "W-Wait, Natsu! Can Ignis even carry us at that state?"

Ignis growled at the question and flapped his wings as if to show he was fine.

"But Ignis, you're hurt!" Ignis' response to Lucy's declaration was to growl louder, as if he was saying he was fine.

It seemed like Ignis was as stubborn as Natsu during desperate times. "He must be desperate if he's willing to carry us all even in his state." Erza stated before looking to everyone. "We must go."

"Should we come too?" Jet asked as well, referring to him and the other members of Team Shadow Gear.

Ignis was the one who answered this by nodding his head.

"Seems like Ignis thinks we need all the help we can get," The dragon slayer repeated for him. "Now come on, we gotta hurry!"

It seemed like Team Shadow Gear and the rest of the newly named Team Valiant climbed aboard Ignis.

Mirajane, being the only one left, looked to Erza and said, "Please be careful, all of you!"

"Don't worry, Mira! We'll bring them all back in one piece!" Natu cried out as Ignis ducked then flew off into the night despite carrying more people than before.

The beautiful white haired woman frowned as she all saw them speed into the night. Despite her best attempts at believing Natsu, there was a part of her that had a very, very bad feeling about this. Still, Two of Fairy Tail's most prominent teams are on the case.

"Please be right, Natsu…"

---

After flying for a while at great speed, Erza looked on ahead and shouted over the winds, "We shouldn't be far from Telo City now! Get ready everyone, we don't know what kind of situation happened to Cana, Macao, Kageyama, and Kain!"

However, Droy was the one to point at something in the distance with a rather uneasy tone. "Guys!? Is Telo City supposed to be a giant, glowing pillar shooting to the sky!?"

When he pointed, everyone saw that he was indeed correct. Where the tone should have been, a large pillar of light surrounding the entire mining city was standing in its place.

While everyone was in awe, Ignis suddenly lost strength for a second which caused everyone to stumble at the sudden loss of balance. Thankfully, Ignis just as quickly regained himself and flew faster towards the edge of the town.

At the outskirts of the City, Ignis slowly started to lose feeling in his wings. Natsu noticed this and quickly shouted to everyone. "Guys, get off! Ignis, can't handle it anymore!" He quickly jumped off the wyvern, prompting everyone to do the same. No sooner than they all did, Ignis crashed and slid on the ground, utterly exhausted on the return trip.

"Ignis!" The dragonslayer ran back up to the red wyvern who only growled weakly before closing his eyes. Natsu sighed in relief before looking to everyone else. "He's just tired."

"Are you sure he's alright?" Lucy asked as she looked at the state the red creature was in.

Erza put a hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Ignis is stronger than he looks, and that's saying something. However, we need to put Kain and the others as our priority."

The two teams looked at the large pillar in front of them that was shooting upward even beyond the ceiling of the cliff.

"Man, what is this?" Jet asked as he looked at it.

Levy took a step closer and looked towards the ground. "Hey look at this. There are so many claw marks and it looks like something here was burned recently."

"Don't they kinda look like Ignis' talons?" Gray pointed out as the foot prints did seem to match the wyvern.

"Was this it then? Was this why he was so injured? He must have been trying to get in, but couldn't break through it." Lucy said while deep in thought.

"Which means we gotta break through it!" Natsu lighted his fist before rushing for the pillar of light without anyone able to stop him.

However, instead of his attack connecting, Natsu's fist phased through and he ended up falling into the pillar of light as if it was never there.

"Natsu!" Happy cried out as he flew right after his buddy. Yet unlike his friend, the cat was instantly shocked and warded away by the pillar of light. Erza was the first to act and catch the falling blue cat.

"Happy, are you alright?" Erza asked the cat.

"O-Ow…" Happy groaned before Erza carefully put him to the ground and walked up to the pillar of light herself. She carefully put a hand out—when she did her hand moved through it as if it wasn't there at all. Erza looked back at Happy then over to Ignis before seemingly getting something.

"I think it only lets humans in. Ignis obviously tried to get in but he couldn't, when Happy tried to go in, he couldn't enter in as well."

"W-Wait, what does that mean!?" The blue cat asked.

Erza knelt to the cat. "I'm sorry, Happy. It seems you must sit this one out and watch over Ignis."

"B-But I've never been separated from Natsu before in a quest yet!"

"I apologize, but it appears that the pillar only accepts humans, not animals. But you have my word we will ensure Natsu will be safe… as possible as he usually is." The red haired mage stood back up and turned her back on the cat. "Watch over Ignis for us."

Happy couldn't even remember the last time he was separated from Natsu. He felt a pat on the head by Lucy before she followed the rest in front of the pillar.

"Everyone, be careful. There's no telling what's beyond this." Erza said before she led them all into the pillar of light.

Happy's ears fell at the fact he was almost all alone. "Please be safe guys."

---

Natsu Dragneel was looking around the area for any sign of the lost members when he heard a strange sound coming from the area above and behind him. As he turned to look, he saw everyone else falling from a few feet in the air and all but Erza and Gray landing on their feet.

"About time you guys came—hey, where's Happy?" The fire dragon slayer asked as he quickly noticed the severe lack of a mascot with them.

"The barrier only allows humans in, Natsu," Gray said as he walked up to him. "He had to stay behind with Ignis."

The dragon slayer's eyes widened. But after a second, he folded his arms and looked away. "At least he should be safe…"

It was obvious the absence of his friend affected him more than he let on.

As soon as everyone got back up on their feet, Jet was the first to look around. "Are we in some kind of jungle?"

Out of everyone, Droy was the one to speak up. "I think we're somewhere on the Volcanic Isles, a south western series of island from the coast of Fiore famous for having many nearby islands with volcanoes."

"How do you figure that?" Gray asked the black haired member of Team Shadow Gear.

"My spells are basically plants. I understand enough about flora to recognize trees from another." Droy walked over towards a tree as he said this. "Huh, I just noticed that some trees and plants have symbols I've never seen before marked in them."

As soon as he said this, everyone looked around, indeed spotting unfamiliar symbols scattered around them.

The celestial mage among them looked around with worry. "I have a bad feeling about this. How are we supposed to find Kain and the others here?"

Natsu pointed over to himself. "Happy can fly me over and…" He trailed off when he remembered the cat wasn't here. "I mean, I can sniff them out! It's hard not to smell Cana's drunk body from all the way at the end of Magnolia."

"Hey!" Gray tried to say, obviously offended by the tone the dragon slayer took towards their friend.

"What? It's true though."

"Still…" Unfortunately, Gray didn't really have a way to prove him wrong in that.

With that, Natsu sniffed the air around them. "Hey, I think I got their scent! Follow me!" With that he ran ahead again. This time, everyone was more prepared than a while ago.

The dragon slayer was in the lead as he let his nose lead them closer and closer until…

"Macao!" The salmon-haired young man smiled as he and the other spotted the older and slightly disheveled fire mage, a flying bird they had never seen before, and a somewhat injured Cana.

"N-Natsu!? Erza!? What the—what are you all doing here!?" Macao had dropped a fighting stance he was holding up. It seemed like he expected a fight, not the cavalry.

"Macao! Who's the bird? And where's Kain?!" Erza stepped in and motioned Natsu to calm down.

"Macao, sorry, but I'm going to need you to tell us what had happened ever since you four went into the quest." The red head calmly explained.

The older fire mage sighed. "Sure, you guys might want to take a seat though."

---

As his mind resurfaced, the first thing that popped in his head was the image of the imposing man in a crusader armor somehow taking him down without a sweat.

Kageyama groaned. Out of all the ways to wake up, it had to be with that memory along with him being chained and being surrounded by the voices of hundreds of worried screams—wait a second.

He snapped his eyes open as color, vision, and depth perception came back to him. The first thing he felt was the fact he was chained to some kind of upright table. He instinctively pulled his hands; however, the restraints around his legs and hands didn't budge. Next, he tried his magic, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get it to activate. However, he noticed the strange runes around his body seemingly glowing whenever he tried to activate his shadow magic. He had never seen anti magical runes like that even back in jail.

However, Kageyama looked over to where exactly he was in.

He was not expecting a room—no stadium with walls and floors so white it looked like it could go on forever. He didn't like how massive this room was filled with chained slabs like his all full of people he had seen in Telo City.

And in the center of the large empty room, was a pool of odd green liquid that slowly filled out lines all across the floor.

Yet despite all of this, something else had caught his attention. In the distance, he saw the familiar body of Kain being taken into a different hallway with two figures carrying him. One familiar and one he had never seen before.

"The hell? Kain?"

*Pop!*

Kageyama was stopped from whatever thoughts he was forming when he heard the sounds of bubbles coming from the center of the room. It was one, but then two other popped up, then three, then four, then seventeen…

His unsettling feeling started to become worse when he noticed the bubbles were now moving down the miniature moats made throughout the room.

The bubbles unnerved him. What came out horrified him.

The ones closest to the pool, what came out of the green liquid were symbols; symbols that moved like swarms like insects and started covering each person in a cocoon of green web. Slowly but surely more and more of these alive written symbols crawled out of the green liquid like spiders wash away by rain. They swarmed over their host and began to spew web all over them.

Kage started to panic when he saw the strange, animated symbols now heading towards his legs.

"Back off! Back the hell off!" His shouts were futile as he actually felt them climb his feet. It was like he was being swarmed by ants. "No! NO! NOO—"

Despite his increased struggles, he could not stop the runes from covering him and everyone else.

For the first time in a long time, Kageyama was afraid of the dark.

---

Macao explained everything that happened, not that in the grand scheme of things explained what exactly was going on here, but it did explain enough to get everyone up to speed at what could be happening.

"Kain got kidnapped again? Never thought of him as the damsel in distress type." Gray commented. On one hand, it was bad for Kain to be captured by the enemy again. On the other, the impact of it was lessened greatly considering this had happened not too long ago.

"Have you seen Kageyama?" Erza asked towards the original group.

"No, there's a chance he might have been caught by an ally of the two that defeated us," the older fire mage looked at Momon. "Along with Momon's friend here."

It was after that conversation that a new voice started a new topic. "Hey, Lucy," Cana spoke up, making everyone look at both her and the Celestial mage. "One of the jerks I was fighting with was a really weird celestial mage. What do you know about bronze keys?"

The look on the blonde's face was one of bewildered surprise. "Bronze keys? Oh wow, I haven't heard of those in a while." Lucy put a hand near her mouth after hearing that. "Bronze Keys were pretty much like the prototype Celestial Spirit Keys. Old wizards wanted to base their power off the gold keys, but the keys they forged where never strong enough to summon even normal spirits and could only summon much weaker spirits than silver ones."

"Wait what? Weaker spirits?" Cana repeated that with shock. She definitely didn't see that in Audolf. "I wouldn't call that dog weak."

"Dog?" The celestial mage repeated. "Did he have a Nicholas Spirit?"

"No, like an actual dog: an English Sheep Dog named Audolf."

The card mage and everyone else was not expecting Lucy to gasp in shock. "Audolf!? The fabled dog spirit!?"

"Wait, you know the name?"

Lucy seemed surprised but nodded. "Know it? It was one of my favorite stories my teacher spirit kept telling me, The Exploits of Jeremiah Archibald and Audolf, The Heroic! But he died around three hundred years ago. Is this guy parading as him with his celestial key?"

Cana's eyes widened. As she thought back to her opponent, some things start to add up in a way she didn't like. "Uh hey? Just a quick question, what does anyone know about rhyming incantations?"

Levy was the first one to speak up. "Rhyming incantations? Those are so old, and they fell out of style when mages figured out magic didn't need to have rhyming incantations during battle."

"How old?" Cana asked with a strange amount of seriousness.

"Like… three…" Levy trailed off as she looked to Lucy. "Hundred years ago?"

"Cana, is there a point you're trying to make?" Erza asked as she noticed those two strange coincidences the card mage brought up.

"Because I think that man I fought might have been the very same Jeremiah Archibald described in Lucy's stories." Cana put a hand on her head. "He kept saying strange things like 'our generation' and he fought with rhyming incantations with a magic I haven't even heard off in history books."

"But that's impossible he's been dead for three centuries!" Lucy began. "Maybe he's an imposter who posing as him! There's no magic that can revive the dead! … Is there?"

"Hold on. I may not be a history buff," Macao started. "But does anyone know the name, Gomez Bison?"

"You mean the famous cartographer and explorer?" Jet spoke up, much to the shock of the older flame mage and the heavy drinker. "He's the guy who explored all of Ishgar and created the maps we all use today."

"You're kidding me, he's famous too!?" Macao looked on with shock. "Do you know anything about him?"

Jet was kind of surprised at the intensity of how it was asked, but complied. "Huh? Yeah, history describes him as very eccentric. One of his most famous quirks was giving a sword to random strangers he met and dragging them into a sword duel."

Macao leaned into the rock he was sitting on and put a hand on his head. "Holy crap."

"Are you both saying that you just fought legendary mages who should have been long dead?" Gray looked surprised to even say something like that from his own mouth.

"I'd say it sounds impossible, but to quote what Kain once said, 'Magic is bullshit'." Macao stated.

Natsu stood up with an angry growl. "Then we gotta find him and Kageyama and beat these guys back to their grave or something!"

The others seemed to agree with their resident dragon slayer. However, Erza was the first to ask, "Do either of you know where they took him?"

Cana and Macao shook their heads.

"Actually," Everyone turned to see Momon. "While I was flying around, looking for Éclair, I saw a strange cave with a lot of runes. It gave me a weird feeling and I flew away from it instantly."

"That sounds like a base of operations to me," Gray stood up. "Where did you see it?"

Momon pointed, "Over there, in that smoking mountain!"

The bird was pointing to none other than a volcano.

"We have to go inside there!?" Lucy cried out.

"I think my magic is a bad match up inside there." Droy commented out loud since his magic was based more on plant life. The temperature there could instantly burn up his spells.

"Same for me." Gray clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"We'll need to be careful then. Who knows how many of these 'acclaimed' mages are in this mysterious group? Remember, they had enough power to abduct an entire town that had a fair amount of mages themselves and we have no idea how many allies they have in there." Erza then looked to Momon, "Please lead the way to where you saw this cave."

---

"It has begun."

An ancient and echoing voice in the darkness of the lava smoke spoke out as he looked on above with glowing yellow eyes. "How long has it been? Since I've seen those smiles that made even the sun seem dim and pale? I've dreamt of nothing but it in these endless days, yet for the first time in eons… despite my own eye balls having long dried and turned to dust… I wish to see rather than imagine."

The being slowly looked towards a tabernacle where a woman was chained down and had symbols written all over her exposed skin with goat's blood. Beside her, there were two other tabernacles, both with chained skeletons that seemed persevered. One was small, the other was smaller. All around them was an intricate and detailed magical circle filled with symbols and writings the likes the masses had not seen before.

"Now then… it is time to begin…" The owner of this voice grabbed an elegant, black staff with a white orb in it.

"ÝËĀΛΖ ЮФШ ЖΣΚΨΦ!"

He slammed his staff into the marble carved floor beneath him.

And then there was light.

However, the necklace Éclair was wearing started to shine a different light than that of the circle. As soon as it did, a large ghostly figure with a hundred arms towered over the cloaked figure.

कौन मेरे जादू पर अपमान की हिम्मत !?

It uttered sounds of an ancient and forgotten language as its eyes lit aflame with blue fire and pointed half a dozen hands towards the figure with a staff.

"So the rumors were true. However, not even a god can stop me now. ꙈꙊꙚꙘ!"

Some of the symbols on the ground threw itself on the ghostly figure and then more and more did so, swarming the strange apparition until it started to shrink despite all of its efforts. It retreated back into the necklace where a new symbol was written over it.

"Now then," The voice began as it went back to his original position. "to begin the ceremony once more…"

---

It was as sudden as an earthquake, coming from nowhere, but felt all around. Fairy Tail was quick to notice how the volcano was now marked with hundreds of giant runes that now glowed a pale green in the night.

"That doesn't look good!" Lucy stated the obvious before the runes started to spread from the top of the volcano to around the trees surrounding them in the jungle.

"And that looks worse!" Droy added as soon they all noticed something in the distance.

At the very edge of the island… trees were dying.

As soon as the last of the runes hit the edge of the island, the trees from outside to in started withering and being drained of all life. Great trees withered, water dried up, stones cracked and turned to dust, and so on and so forth.

Erza was the first to act as she saw the decaying force reaching them and pointed to their destination. "Everyone, head for the volcano!"

That was more than incentive to make everyone beeline towards the volcano with Momon leading the way towards where he saw the cave.

"There it is!" The small bird cried as he flew into the cave with everyone from Fairy Tail not even hesitating to run in as well.

As they blazed through the cave, no one had quite noticed that they were no longer running on a ground or rocky path. The sounds of feet running on dirt were soon replaced with feet running on something metallic.

"Is anyone else hearing that sound we're making now? It's so dark in here I can barely see."

At the sound of Lucy's point, both Macao and Natsu lit up their hands to light up the path they were in.

As soon as the light surrounded them, they all noticed that they were now in a metal corridor.

"What the heck? There was something like this here?" Droy managed to say what everyone was thinking.

There was a sudden sound coming from up ahead that made everyone tense into battle positions. In the distance of the hallway, lights started to activate one at t time before they reached up to the Fairy Tail group.

"That's creepy." Everyone silently agreed with Levy's point as she drew her own hand closer and made a slight step backward.

However, with the lights now on, they all saw the metal corridor lined with lights etched into the walls with items they have never seen before.

"Hey guys… I think I hear something up ahead…" Natsu pointed down their path. After Lucy asking for clarification on what he heard, the dragon slayer responded, "I think I hear… music?"

Needless to say with what was going on, and how they still had no idea what was happening, Fairy Tail seemed to be on the cautious side for once.

Soon the entire group decided to move after the sound Natsu was hearing. As they kept moving forward, they did hear what Natsu was listening to earlier. It was a strange melody composed of slow high notes and fast low notes.

The music became louder and the further they traveled, the more they realized that there was a light at the end of the hallway.

As Fairy Tail went through the hallway, no words and no thoughts could capture what was in front of them.

A room filled with uncanny white walls that seemed to go on for miles and with a mysterious green pool of green liquid that filled out the markings in the floor, creating the illusion of a moving and animated magic circle.

Those were not the strangest things seen in the room. It was not the hundreds of green, giant cocoons that surrounded the room, but instead… they all looked to the roof where circling above all the cocoon was the source of the musical notes: flying and moving symbols.

"Holy shit… I… I didn't know magic could do this…" Macao breathed in shock as everyone took in the sight before them. To them this wasn't even magic—there was something about this that was so much more raw and primordial before it became a studied craft.

However, Natsu felt a strange feeling in his stomach. There was something nostalgic about seeing something like this but he didn't understand what. However, his nose started to pick up a familiar but covered up sent.

"Guys, I smell Kageyama!" The dragon slayer cried out before jumping like a track athlete over the rivers of green liquid and making sure to avoid the strange flying letters.

They all eventually stopped in front of a random cocoon and after a small confirmation from Erza, Natsu enflamed his fists and ripped open the cocoon.

However, no sooner than he did, the music stopped and all the flying symbols froze in an unsettling manner.

"Uhh am I the only one who thinks that's a bad thing?"

"No, Droy." Jet returned to his best friend.

"Okay, thought I would check first."

However, before anyone could say anymore, a scream that sounded so desperate and mad came from Kage's opened cocoon.

"Kage! Kage! Calm down man!" Natsu said as he pulled what was left of the cocoon out of the way and the others all came in to get the man out of his chains and to somehow clam the man down.

The way he was screaming was as if he was seeing some kind of unimaginable horror.

"Ahh…ahhh!" After a few seconds, Kage started to calm down. "S-Shit! W-Where am I!?"

"Kage, calm down. You're safe with us." The red haired S-class mage began.

"Erza? Oh man, I take back everything I ever said about you guys. You saved my butt a second time!" He said in what seemed to be elation.

"Well that's different from before." Cana was the first to note that considering his somewhat confrontational attitude before today. "What the heck happened in there?"

Kage shivered as he looked back in where he was just recently freed. "I-I don't want to talk about it."

At this point, Momon flew over to Kageyama with concern. "Hey mister, have you seen Éclair?"

Before Kageyama could answer, everyone suddenly looked to the edges of the room where they had come from. The reason for this was they heard a large amount of footsteps that were all united in synchronicity heading towards them.

Soon, they were surrounded by a large amount of cloaked figures with eerie white raven masks all pointed towards Fairy Tail.

"Looks like we've got the entire Island against us…. where ever we are." Macao got his fists ready as all the other Fairy Tail mages prepared themselves.

Yet eerily enough, a few tense seconds passed with no trace of a twitch before Erza looked on with worry.

"Why are just standing there?"

There was suddenly a blare as the pool in the center of the stadium turned red and the symbols started to wildly trash around like erratic static.

The pool started to over fill, filling the lower floors with a red liquid with screaming symbols of madness.

"Okay, all in favor of getting to Kain, run for your dam lives!" Cana yelled as they all made a beeline for the opening Kage pointed to.

Natsu and Erza suddenly sped ahead only to suddenly motion everyone to stop. Before anyone could ask why the two did that, Erza slashed the air in front of her while Natsu punched it. No sooner than they did, several figures were sent flying and crashed into the wall.

"Everyone, the figures all have invisibility!" Erza cried as she looked to her right to avoid something hitting the ground and used a sword to down a large henchman that was previously holding a mace.

Natsu jumped back and flying kicked an attacker that was heading towards Lucy and Levy into more of his comrades.

"What the heck, I can barely even hear them!?" Macao cried out as he fired randomly, hitting several people before he felt something sucker punch him in the cheek. He didn't have Erza's prodigal battle senses or any of Natsu's super human senses to figure out where his opponents were.

Despite those two, the others were having trouble being attacked by almost anywhere. Erza and Natsu themselves seemed to be separated from the others by sheer numbers of the invisible warriors.

"Cana!" Levy cried out. "Cover us! Droy, Jet: Petal Field!"

"Right!" Droy reached for his pockets and threw seeds into the ground as several magical circles opened up. "Plant: Giant Thousand Petal Flowers!"

The seeds planted into the metallic ground and instantly grew into tree sized flowers with a multitude of small petals all combining to look like one giant flower.

"Speed: Arms!" "Solid Script: Gale!" Jet started moving his arms in circles at such fast speeds, he created a cyclone blast towards the flowers at the same time Levy fired a word Gale that came to life and suddenly burst into a bomb of winds.

But the air blasts were all aimed at the flower that suddenly exploded with petals scattering out throughout the stadium. After the winds died down, they noticed petals scattered everywhere, including all over their invisible opponents!

"Now we can see them!" Cana excitedly said as she proceeded to electrocute the closest enemies to her.

"This is much easier than before!" Erza took down several henchmen by the petals sticking on them. "But we must get going: they'll still overwhelm us at this point!"

That was all that was needed for the rest of Fairy Tail to plow through the henchmen in front of them as they entered into the corridor Kage pointed to. As soon as they were all in, Droy instantly threw seeds into the ground again.

"Plant: Wild Barrier!" Suddenly, very thick vines grew and closed up the entire entrance of the corridor.

"Ice Make: Barrier!" Gray shouted, also adding another wall of ice behind the wall of thick vines.

Cana prepped two cards then threw them. "Card magic: Enhance!"

Both cards hit the ice barrier and suddenly they made both the ice and vine barrier glow white. As soon as that happened, two floating white magic circles appeared in front of

"Well done everyone. That should buy us some time." Erza said, eying the triple enforced blockade. "We should use this time to begin searching for Kain—"

*BOOM!*

Fairy Tail quickly snapped back to the barrier. They didn't know what, but something was trying to break through the impromptu barricade made by three mages.

The first magic circle seemed to be cracking… even the wild vine barrier seemed to be loosening with each hit.

"Perhaps less time than we imagined. We must make haste!" Erza corrected herself as they all began to run into this next corridor. However, not long after they did, they heard something that chilled their bones.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!?"

It wasn't the horrified scream that got them. It wasn't how even though it sounded distant, it sounded so vivid as if the owner of the voice was right in front of them. It wasn't even how it also seemed to be in horrible pain that made them pale like ghosts.

It was the fact they all recognized it to be Kain's cry of horror that made them give pause.

"A-Are they doing the same thing to him!?" The dread in Kage's tone was noticeable by even Natsu as he ran along with them towards the sound.

"Kage, what do you mean by that!?" The blonde celestial mage asked off him.

"When I was covered by those eerrrggghhh! By those things!" Kage shivered as he recalled. "I… I think I was trapped in my worst nightmare. It felt like I was there for days, but when you guys got me out, I realized I was there for only a few minutes. I can only imagine what they're doing to Kain. Poor bastard."

"We gotta hurry up then!" Natsu shouted as he picked up the pace and ran even harder than before, racing towards the new corridor.

They had reached a smaller room than the one before. However, they had all seen Kain, chained to a cross as right in front of him was a floating, giant orb with a bunch of images moving so fast, no one could catch. The orb was even shocking Kain's head with electricity seemed to only be aiming for his brain that was the cause of the young man's horrible screaming. Behind him, a different cloaked and masked figure was writing on a book. The figure turned around towards the group that had come in.

"Wait, where you the ones who were making all that racket? But the ceremony—"

"KAIN!" Natsu forsook all pretenses and completely ignored the man as he jumped, fists blazing and tried to punch the orb.

"NO, YOU FOOL, STO—" The figure desperately threw a hand out towards Natsu but was unable to even finish his sentence as the dragon slayer punched the orb with enough force to make it crack all over— and then it instantly exploded with light.

---

…

When Natsu woke up, he felt like he was lying down on stone.

"Ugh, Kain?" He groaned as he got back up. However, to his surprise, he wasn't in the strange metallic room where he saw his friend being tortured. Instead, it looked like he was in some kind of house.

"Natsu? What the hell lizard brain!? Would it kill you to not charge in like that because it's starting to look like it will kill you if you do!" Gray snapped at his rival with a snarl as he came from behind a sofa in a living room.

"Shut up! That bastard was hurting Kain!"

That was really all the two needed to get right into each other's fac—

To both of their surprise, when they tried to butt heads, they both phased through each other as if they were made of nothing but air.

"What the?!" Instead of both questioning what had just happened, the two just jumped to the conclusion that the other was messing with them and tired to punch each other.

Yet the two didn't seem to realize that the repeat from before was no fluke. Both of their punches and future attacks kept flying through one another.

"The hell!?" Natsu, not quite understanding what was going on started to use magic. Gray did as well. However, just like their physical punches, neither found out they could access their magic.

That was enough to get the two to finally start using their heads and not their fists.

The two then heard the sounds of footsteps and looked towards a person who seemingly entered into the room from upstairs.

"Gray? Natsu?"

"Levy?" The fire and ice mage repeated at the same time.

"It's good to see you guys. But where are we?" The solid script mage asked.

"Who knows? The last thing that happened was pinkie here punching something that was obviously more complicated than it looked." Gray motioned to an irate Natsu who tried to punch him only to have his fist pass through him again.

"Wha? Did your body phase through Gray's?" Levy asked in confusion before the two explained that it seemed like they couldn't touch each other or use magic. After hearing all of that, Levy put a hand on her chin and seemed to wonder. "Hmm, now that I think about it: the figure who was managing this thing sounded desperate to stop Natsu from hitting it. Was this what he meant by that?"

Levy looked back at the two. "We should probably try to find the others. Natsu, can you sniff them out?"

At this, Natsu sniffed the air. However, no sooner than he did, the other two mages noticed the look on shock on his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Natsu looked over to the two and sniffed the air again. This time it looked like he couldn't believe something was happening. "I can't smell you guys."

"What?"

"I said, I can't smell anything! This entire place doesn't even have a scent, and then there's you two! I know your scents by heart, but I can't even smell it on you!"

As soon as Natsu said that, it made everyone in the room realize something was wrong.

"We should still find the others," Levy nervously said. "I think we should try to find out where we are." As she said this, she started to walk to the door and tried to reach for the knob leading outside. However, as she reached for the door, the knob started moving by itself.

The door opened, forcing Levy to move back. Natsu and Gray were quick to jump ahead in case someone tried to hurt them.

However, all three were surprised to see two kids entering the room.

"Hey, Rico, do you understand how multiplication works?"

"It's not that different than adding, Kain. You need to study more."

One kid looked like a young boy with black hair and tan skin, but the other was someone they were all too familiar with.

"Kain?! Kain is that you!?" Natsu asked towards the two talking children who didn't seem to notice them. "Why are you so sma—"

The two young boys raced past Natsu, phasing through his body as they did and jumping on the couch as the small Kain started pressing buttons on a strange black device. It came to life with strange sounds and a moving picture.

"What the heck? Kain?! But you look like a kid! And who's that guy?!" Gray asked a bunch of questions but again the boys didn't seem to notice.

"Levy, Natsu, Gray?"

The three looked at the back of the door to see Erza in the lead with everyone else. "Are you also following the memories?"

"Memories?" Gray asked as he looked back at the two boys.

"We kind of figured out a while back when we were in a school," Macao began while the two were playing video games. "It seems like we're trapped in Kain's memories of when he was a child which explains how eerily similar but different this place is to a home in our world."

"So we're in his world?"

"No, we're in a memory of his world. We sorta pieced it together when Erza said she saw some familiar sites around this place from the flashes of images going through the orb that was torturing Kain … Yeah it's still pretty hard to understand ourselves since we had just come from a secret base inside a volcano." Jet rubbed the back of his head. "It's like this rabbit hole doesn't end."

The new trio seemed to understand now. This was the reason why their opponent seemed desperate to stop Natsu, his attack somehow trapped all of them into the young man's memories.

"So what do we do? Just follow Kain's memories?" Gray asked.

"It was the only thing we could do for now…"

As soon as Erza said this, the world around them turned black, even swallowing the memories of the two young boys.

"Kain!"

"Relax, it did this before when Erza and I ran into Cana and the others. After a random period of time, the memory skips to a future event." Macao explained.

The place changed into the same living room. But instead of the day, it was late night and Kain was all alone on the sofa covering himself in a blanket.

Unlike before, he seemed sadder and was doing his best to cover his ears.

There was a sound of glass shattering that made everyone look towards the kitchen where the light showed the shadows of two silhouettes arguing.

"That was not your decision!"

"It was! And you had no right to say in that room!"

It was a man and a woman, and they were arguing passionately with each word flying more brutal than the last even though not too far from them, a small boy was wishing they would stop.

"Are-Are those Kain's parents?" Gray asked nervously before the screams became more hysterical and things were starting to be thrown.

Instinctively, everyone looked over to Macao. "Oh no…" The words were different, the voices were different.

But the hurt, raw emotions coming from both of them? He knew it far too well.

Even when they found themselves in a giant tower filled with people that looked over a city potentially even larger than the capital, Macao still stared with horror as he read the words on the door.

Divorce Lawyers.

It was… horrifying to know even in another world marriages could fail. It was worse to know that Kain of all people was one of those people caught in the crossfire. Romeo had the advantage to be far too young to even know what it was like those last few years with his mother was like.

Kain didn't.

The memory passed over again with Kain sitting down on a bench with his best friend Rico.

"Are you alright?" The black haired boy asked his friend who was just sitting in the corner.

"I miss mom." That was all he said, but everyone could tell those three words held more emotion than a child was supposed to feel.

"Hey, it'll be alright. I'm here for you! We're friends aren't we?" Rico said with a smile.

Seeing Kain not reacting, Rico pulled something out of his pocket. "Hey, ya wanna see something cool?"

The small brunette looked over as Rico took out a piece of paper. He crumpled it up as much as he could in front of Kain and kept it frozen in front of him as he closed it as much as he could. Rico gave a huge dorky smile to the boy. "Abra kadabra!" As soon as Rico opened his palms, instead of crumpled paper, there was a chocolate chip cookie in his hands, surprising Kain and everyone else.

"Here, take it." Rico laughed as Kain took the cookie in awe.

"How'd you do that?" Kain asked with light returning to his eyes.

"Magic tricks! They're so cool! I could teach you some if you like!"

Kain smiled and nodded quickly at his friend's offer. Rico's friendship was really all needed to bring Kain back to smiling as well.

It was too bad the next memory was that of Kain standing in front of Rico's house with the door broken down and police everywhere.

"Mr. Cop!" Fairy Tail watched with frozen horror as the young seven year old Kain looked towards the man in a strange uniform. "Where's my friend!?"

The cop had a frown as he looked at the kid. He took off his hat and kneeled to the boy. "I'm sorry kid. He and his family were hiding a drug dealer, who more than likely was helping them with finances to support their family—poor guys. Not only that, it seemed like they came to this country illegally, which means they're all going to be deported to Mexico for not having legal papers."

Fairy Tail didn't know what Mexico was. But they did understand what happened to illegal immigrants.

"B-But, he was my best friend!" Young Kain said near tears.

"I'm sorry kid, nothing we can do about that but hope they've got a good lawyer." The police man got back up as soon as he said this.

For some reason, that word made everyone look up.

"Did he say lawyer?" Kage asked with confusion. There was a small feeling inside him that maybe… he knew what was going to happen next.

When the memory changed again, it was of Kain talking to his dad, a brown haired Caucasian man over a dinner table.

"Can't we lend our lawyer to them? I think he's much better than the one standing up for Rico's case! At this rate, he'll be sent back to Mexico and no one's helping him!" The young boy cried out.

"Kain, he's not a defense lawyer. And don't ask me for helping you, don't be selfish." The father coldly finished.

Natsu stared in shock at the cold and somewhat cruel answer from the young man's dad. "W-Wait, I thought Kain had a good relationship with his dad?"

Soon after, the memory had changed with Kain sitting in a police station. Fairy Tail watched as the man kneeled in front of Kain again and handed him a note.

"This was found on your friend's body after the prison riot in the border jail. It had your name on it." It was just words, but after it was said, everyone filled up the gap. It meant that Kain's best friend was…

The young boy noticed the bulge in the note and as he opened it up, he found a crushed chocolate chip cookie along with a crumpled piece of paper.

Even when Rico was away, he still cared more about his friend. Kain started to cry at the realization he wouldn't be seeing him anymore.

The older cop started to hug the crying child. "Sorry kiddo. They didn't have a good lawyer after all."

As soon as the older man said that, the memory faded again.

Levy was the first to realize something after seeing those sequences of events. "Wait, is that why Kain always studies our laws back in the guild?"

"So, he's studying to be a lawyer, because he lost his friend to a bad one? Damn, I didn't know that." Macao added on.

Erza looked down into the ground after hearing that. This was the reason Kain was helping out someone like Kage in the first place before he left for this quest gone wrong. He lost his best friend to a bad lawyer and didn't want that happening again.

The memory passed and it showed a seven year old Kain staying with an old man in a different house.

"Grampa, when is dad coming back from his business trip?" The young and sad looking child asked.

However, Fairy Tail seemed to get a bad feeling when they saw the old man scoff and give a needlessly stern look. "He'll get here when he gets here! It's for your own good, so don't be selfish!" The old man yelled at the boy.

The memory changed again with an older nine year old Kain now looking at the wedding invitations of his father and a completely different woman. It wasn't hard to see that their usually unflappable friend was looking much worse than before.

He was on the phone and talking to someone else. "Mom, are you sure you don't want to come? I-I… It'll be nice to see you after a few years."

He missed her. He missed the old times that was so much simpler and kinder.

"Your father and I do not want to see each other again, Kain. It'll also be too hard to pay for a flight back to Vancouver. Don't be selfish!"

There were those words again. "Don't be Selfish." Fairy Tail noticed how Kain's face seemed to grow sadder whenever he heard those words. It looked like even they were starting to feel it too. How could they not? Their friend had suffered this much and none of them had a single clue of that happening!

"I-I don't think I can keep watching this. I-Is this Kain's worst nightmare!?" Droy asked as he looked at Kage, recalling that the shadow mage did say he saw his worst nightmare.

That sadly gave everyone hope. Maybe this really was the worst possible things that were happening to Kain, and his real life was nothing like this.

"S-Something isn't right," Kage started to say as the memory vanished again. "When I was subjected to my worst nightmares, everything was twisted to the point where everything looked monstrous. This? I- I think these are his real memories."

"You mean this was Kain's life? But he never showed any sign of something this heavy!" Gray shouted as he pointed to where the young man moping used to be.

And it only became worse for there, memory after memory, it started to show how Kain's father and mother were both starting a new family away from the other. Not only that, they kept hearing the words, "Don't be selfish," used on Kain all throughout his life when it was so clear that the young boy actually wanted something that was needed not wanted like affection, yet everyone ironically was caring for themselves rather than him. Hearing those words used so many times made Fairy Tail sick to hear those words uttered in hypocrisy, but they were so angry that they could do nothing but watch a good friend of their suffer.

Neither of his parents seemed to care for Kain as he became more silent, and so lifeless compared to the sarcastic yet kind man they knew back in the guild.

And then, the memory jumped to when Kain was in high school, he was holding a paper that read a big bold F and a note saying to see the teacher after school. It was a bit of a surprise for everyone in the guild considering that their friend was so studious when they had met, but at the same time it looked like at this point the boy seemed to care very little about himself or his academics.

There was a ringing sound coming from one of his pockets at the time, he took out a device that was unfamiliar to all of Fairy Tail and Momon and soon started to walk. Later on, Fairy Tail found out from Kain that he had gotten what he called a 'text' or message from his dad to pick up his younger step sister in a nearby school and he walked over to it.

Fairy Tail watched as Kain walked over to his little sister who was five years old and crying nearby the street because her doll was crushed by a car.

"Hey, Laura, are you alright?" Kain asked in a voice that almost felt empty. However, Fairy Tail seemed to be the only ones to notice that, not anyone else in the memory did.

"Pauline got broke!" The small girl said between hysterical sobs.

"Aww the poor doll broke…" Momon said this as he floated over towards the broken doll.

Kain tried to comfort his little sister. "H-Hey, calm down. D-Dad and… your mom can buy you a new one." The hesitation in his voice to say the young girl's mother was very noticeable to his friends.

"No you don't understand!" The little girl shouted harshly to her older half brother. "You're just being selfish!"

Fairy Tail flinched hearing those words coming from a small girl of all places. However, this time was different.

Kain's eyes… they looked more than dead at this point. They were just staring at the crying girl in a manner that looked almost… scary. Years of hearing those words told to him by his supposed loved ones and now a little, ignorant girl had said those very same words that made him feel so lonely and cold in this world? Even Fairy Tail could only imagine how much that could have hurt the young boy at his state.

"Kain?" Natsu worryingly called out to his friend even though his voice wouldn't reach him.

In the distance, all the Fairy Tail members here looked back behind them to see a car moving so fast in the road in the distance. It was swerving all around and it looked like someone was recklessly driving.

Lucy gasped as she pointed back to the young teen. "Uh guys!? Why is Kain staring at the fast moving car?!"

They all looked back again. Kain had a very unnerving look in his eyes as he looked at the incoming car… and back to his crying little half sister. There was something dark in his eyes as he stared at his half sister like that of an executor and his prisoner.

"H-Hey, y-you don't think—" Jet shut up immediately when they all saw Kain raising a hand towards the still crying girl who was obliviously close to the road.

"Kain, don't!" Natsu and the others cried out desperately as they watched Kain's hand moving closer to the girl as the wild car came speeding in that forced everyone else in the area to back from the road.

"Kain!"

The hand moved closer.

"Kain!"

The car moved closer with faster speed.

"Kain, don't do it!"

Then in one quick motion…

Kain grabbed Laura as the car quickly passed by her.

….

"Hahahaha!" Kain started laughing as he let go of Laura safely into the sidewalk. He was laughing so hard, he was crying. "S-Sorry! Sorry! You're right though… I was being selfish."

Everyone released a breath they were holding when they saw Kain save his half sister. But they were all also confused as to why Kain would suddenly admit that.

"Hey," The young teen looked to the teary eyed girl and gave what seemed to be a genuine smile. "Watch this."

He took a piece of paper and crumpled it right in front of her. He made sure that it stayed right infront of her face before he said, "Abra kadabra." And when he opened them, a cookie appeared in place of the crumpled ball.

The girl looked on with shock, stopping her cries as she took the cookie. "How'd you do that!?"

Kain just gave a soft laugh again as he stood up… and picked the crushed remains of his half sister's doll. "You were right though: I was being selfish. I'm sorry. But hey: why don't we talk to your mom, and she can hire someone to fix up Pauline for you." Something was different. His voice sounded much livelier than it was a few seconds ago, but calmer? More at Peace? How? And why?

The memory showed the little blond girl, Laura slowly stop her crying and sniffing to a stop. She then held her hand out. "Really?"

The older half brother caringly rubbed her head and smiled. "Yeah, don't worry about it. Pauline will be as good as new." Kain said as he held her hand and started walking.

Everyone was still confused though, what was with that incredibly sudden change? They were thankful Kain had snapped completely out of it at the very last second, but what had cuased him to make such a decision then and there?

"You know, I have to thank you."

Both his half sister and the people watching the memory looked up to the younger Kain as he said that.

"Huh?" The little girl tilted her head at her older half brother.

"All this time… I was just moping around, waiting for things to get better. I really was being selfish. But then, when I saw you crying, I was reminded of Rico," The old name caught everyone's attention and made the little girl look with even more confusion. "He went out of his way to help me… even though he was having his own problems, he still helped me. How could I be so stupid? I shouldn't have been feeling pity for myself, I should have been making an effort just like him in trying to help others—trying to help myself." Kain babbled out loud as if someone there would understand his strange monologue. There were.

Hearing that…

It was relieving for Fairy Tail.

"Whaaaaa?" The little girl seemed more confused before Kain laughed again.

"Never mind. I was just thinking out loud."

Fairy Tail watched as Kain walked with his half sister. Gone was the near dead, soft spoken boy tortured by life's unfairness, in his place it looked like he had an epiphany in his darkest hour and there was something brighter about him.

The memories changed again.

Instead of dark, dreary, and miserable memories—they were replaced with Kain working tirelessly on his grades studies, and even joining his local town hall to learn more about the judicial system.

His grades got pushed up to straight A's, he had more friends, and he was smiling much more often now. They even showed Kain playing with all of his half brothers and sisters from both his mom and dad's side.

In one memory, Kain was surprised as just he and his dad walked into an old ice cream store.

"W-What? You don't like it? You used to love coming here." Kain's father said to the now sixteen year old Kain.

"Well yeah, when I was four years old." He didn't say when he still was part of a whole family, but it was still in the air even though he tried his best not to mention it. "God this place hasn't changed at all…"

The two went into a booth where they seemed to be looking through the menu. "So, dad, why are you taking me out here? You and I are now busy with work and school respectively."

"Well, I just received word that you've gotten invites from over 100 colleges because of your grades and community service." Fairy Tail was surprised to hear that. Kain was wanted that much by that many colleges? "And I thought you might like a reward after all that hard work."

The young teen seemed uninterested at this fact. "Not really. I still have a few projects to do…"

"… Kain, did you forget it's your birthday today?"

Kain shrugged his shoulders as he heard this. "No, but I don't really expect anything on my birthdays." There was a silent, 'anymore' that everyone caught in that sentence.

"Listen, Kain…" The dad started slowly. "Laura and Joseph have been spending a lot of time with you—they really look up to you. Even Yana's kids, Anthony and Caitlin, like you a lot."

"And I like them too?" Kain seemed more confused at what was going on.

The dad seemed to put his hand on his head as if he was having a hard time trying to remember how to speak. "Listen, the more time you spent with them made me realize… you didn't have the same childhood as them."

"Understatement. Urgh!" Droy felt a chill as he felt Levy plant an elbow into his body in an attempt to hit him, but instead phased into him. "W-What? It was though!" The plant mage said to the smaller girl.

Everyone ignored him as the father of Kain continued. "And the more I thought about it… the more I realized that I didn't do anything to really help you after you lost your mother or your best friend. So what I'm basically trying to say is… I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry."

Two people among Fairy Tail, both female, stared at the sight before them: a father apologizing for his mistakes and getting closer to their child. While most of Fairy Tail was feeling happy they patched things up, making it the implied relationship it was now, the two girls felt an uneasy part of them grow when they saw this.

At the admittance of an apology, Kain seemingly stared in disbelief at his own father. He remained frozen like that for a few seconds before his face turned into something like that of a nervous and confused young man. "Apology accepted? I don't blame you dad. It really was mostly just… my fault for growing up weird. I felt bad for a long time, but I don't really think you or my mom should take all the blame. I'm okay with what happened now, so you didn't need to apologize in the first place. And-And can you lower your voice? I think people are starting to stare." He said with a blush.

The father of the young boy heard this gave and silently thought to himself. That was rather adult like to share the blame. When had his first son turned into a mature adult without him looking? The father found himself picking up the ice cream menu, seeing as there really was nothing more to discuss about that topic. "So what are you ordering?"

"I'm actually curious what you're getting, dad. I thought you didn't like ice cream?" Kain honestly asked as he picked up his menu again.

A small smile appeared on the father's face. "I don't. Especially when the kids start eating them, but if any of my kids are allowed to eat ice cream, it's you."

"I'm sixteen, dad. I out grew my sweet tooth."

"And that's why you're now allowed to eat ice cream whenever you want." He… needed to do better as a father, but apparently his own son was good enough for the both of them.

"But I thought you liked chocolate." For now, the Father thought to himself that he needed some catching up to do.

"I haven't ate that in years."

While mostly everyone was feeling warm from the interaction between Kain and his father, two females weren't as happy as the others. They were happy for him—don't get them wrong. However… for both Cana and Lucy, they would be lying if they said they weren't feeling 'jealous' of Kain for patching things up with his father.

Then that memory went by as Fairy Tail found themselves on a top of a stage that was in front of a large amount of people inside a gymnasium.

"And it is my great pleasure to introduce to you all, The Class of XXXX's Valedictorian, Kain Obadiah Reynolds!" A man stepped off the podium as the entire student body started chanting out Kain's name as he walked towards the podium in decorated form.

It was so different, seeing the lonely boy now turn into a shining star in his community.

When Kain came to the podium, the chants died down as Kain spoke to the mike. "My fellow students. I'm here to give us our graduation speech because apparently people think giving the smart guy that job is a good idea even though most smart people are busy as all heck and don't have any form of free time. … That was a veiled insult, Principal, I didn't have free time when you told me to do this. " He began honestly, making everyone smile and giving a few giggles at his personality.

"Now that sounds more like the Kain we know!" Natsu beamed with a giant smile as everyone else silently agreed, watching with pride seeing someone overcome harsh conditions by himself.

"Though, I don't know what to say really. Thinking for hours and hours, I couldn't come up with any speech no matter how hard I tried. So instead of the mind, I tried to ask what my heart wanted… and boy did he have words!" Kain laughed before he calmed down a bit and looked over everyone seriously. "Life is different for everyone. No matter how much things seem similar from one life to another, how we react to them is different. I found out that we all suffer, we all have our inner demons, and sometimes we fail when we shouldn't have."

Everyone stayed silent. The people of Fairy Tail also listened intently to Kain's speech.

"But I am a firm believer that we are better than our faults." Kain said with confidence. "Despite everything, we do have the ability to face our demons and win over them. … I wouldn't be here if I didn't, so I'm here to tell you that it is possible to see past all the bad things, it is possible to make good in this world that seems so horrible and scary and makes you feel powerless. And if you don't believe me—that's fine, but listen to the immortal words of Rocky Balboa: 'Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!'"

Everyone but the Fairy Tail group cheered after hearing that. They had no idea who this Rocky Balboa was but the quote Kain took from him sounded so true in every sense of the way.

"A cynic would say that kids like us are going to be swallowed up whole by the world and real life when we get out of school life," Kain continued with his voice rising in defiance and to silence the crowd again. "Me? I say we go out there into the world, and show them what true hell is!"

Kain threw his fist into the sky, pumping up his fellow students as well to go out there in to that unfair world… and win every battle that goes their way no matter how difficult it was. Fairy Tail, especially Natsu, was cheering on with the other students at Kain's speech.

Once more the wild cries of acceptance died down, but it seemed like the brunette had one last thing to say. "I know that sometimes, things will get hard. When things seem impossible, don't give up. But most importantly, don't lose yourself. It's easy to retreat and blame others for our misfortune, but in the grand scheme of things it does nothing," Kageyama seemed shocked when he heard this. It was similar to when Kain had called him and the other Eisenwald mages out back at the train. Back then, Kain had spoke similar words to them with such energy despite his situation, was this why? Was it because he technically survived something far worse in his own life emotionally that he could say something so fiercely?

Seeing his life, Kageyama finally understood Kain. He was just like them in begin thrown out, cast aside, and uncared for. But unlike him and the other mages, Kain really did take back his own life when so many things bad happened to him.

That… so that was why he helped him so much. The boy from another dimension believed in him.

"So take your time, cry, whine, and curse. But know that when the time for moping passes, it then becomes the time for you to get up and show everyone, including and especially yourself what you're really made off." He said those words genuinely as he looked to the side and seemingly nodded at a signal.

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and future world challengers, it is with great honor that I am allowed to say: that we of Class XXXX have now graduated!"

All students stood up, then moved their tassels to the left. After they did, the roars of cheer came out as everyone took their caps and threw them into the air above them.

Kain smiled as he turned and glanced towards Fairy Tail's direction. This surprised the group before Lucy looked back and pointed to what Kain's memory was really looking at.

It was his dad, step mom and two other people with their children, meaning that his mom and her new husband where there with their own kids. All the children were smiling brightly with 'go big brother signs' and whooping in joy towards him.

Fairy Tail turned back to see Kain smiling softly, before he too tossed his cap into the air with all the vigor of a slave that was finally freed from slavery.

However, it was at this moment that everything froze into place.

"Huh, what happened!?" Macao asked as all of Fairy Tail noticed the memory freezing in place. "This never happened before!"

"There you all are." A new voice echoed around them as something was appearing behind a frozen Kain.

It was the man in the same mask who was watching Kain a while ago.

"You bastard!" Natsu was first to pull the trigger as he rushed straight for the guy… and had his punch fly threw him.

"You idiot! Don't you ever learn!?"

"Shut up, stripper!" The dragon slayer snapped back to his rival.

There was a sigh coming from the masked man as he shook his head. "I don't have time for this!" He snapped his fingers and the world went black.

Fairy Tail quickly tensed into fighting positions in the face of their enemy.

"None of you can perform magic while in your astral projections, so don't bother." The man said. "In fact, I actually am here to thank you and ask a favor of you."

"Why should we listen to you? You were hurting one of our own!" Macao cried out.

"Then don't listen to me, you all don't have much time left before you get back to your bodies, so I'm just going to say this right now: when you all get back to your bodies, kill me."

That surprised everyone. A bad guy was asking them to kill him right off the bat?

Erza was the first to relax as she had a feeling he was being genuine. "What's going on?"

"I don't have enough energy to show you so you're going to have to listen to what I say. I was originally trying to rewrite this boy's memory into someone else."

"What?! Why would you do that!?" Natsu angrily shouted.

"Because we were desperate to stop our friend from doing something stupid." The man fired back, quickly making everyone blink in surprise. "Your friend… looked exactly like our friend's dead son and we were trying to gun on the fact that if we re-wrote this young man's memory, we could stop our leader from killing hundreds of innocent lives."

"Kain looks like your boss' son?" Jet repeated. "Did you really think that would work? I mean, his son's been dead, it would look like an obvious trap."

"It would if he wasn't sacrificing so many people to revive his family in the first place." The masked figure responded, making everyone pale at the mention.

"W-What did you say?" Cana asked for repetition at the casual way he had said something so unbelievable.

"To make a very long story short, my leader lost his family and it changed his life forever. He dabbled into lost magic for such a long time that he created a spell that potentially has the ability to fully revive someone from the dead and he based it off the lost notes of the black wizard, Zeref that he found." The man quickly explained. "Everyone you see on this island is a product of his work, of the old ancient magic known as Necromancy which brings back the corpse of a dead person and animates them to the will of the caster."

"Necromancy is real!? But legends say that even Zeref abhorred such magic!" Erza said what Kage had said not too long ago.

At this point, the stranger reached for his mask and removed it. Everyone watched in anticipation as he did so, but only paled as he revealed his visage.

"W-What's wrong with your face?!" Natsu was the first to yell as he pointed to the man's face or what was left of it. It was rotting, green, moldy, and some parts of it were gone.

"Y-You're just like him aren't you!" Kage was the next to respond, ignoring Natsu's comment. "You're a zombie like that crusader guy!"

"I see you've met my associate, but this should prove to you all that I was telling the truth. Most of your opponents here are revived acclaimed mages from their time to help assist our leader, but even we do not wish for him to go through with this."

"Wait, if you all don't want to do this, why are you obeying him?" Levy asked.

"He was the one that re animated us in the first place. If we openly spoke out about it at the state he was in, he'd no doubt send us back to being corpses where we could do even less." The zombie frowned after saying this. "Please believe me when I say that he is a good man. It's just years of isolation and desperation to see his family have blinded him from his morality, but we can't properly tell him he is wrong about this."

No one expected this, but the zombie in front of them sounded so sincere. Everyone looked at each other before Erza seemed to speak up for everyone involved.

"I am sorry to hear the situation you are in. It seems all of you deeply care for your leader even with the state he is in along with your situation. But please, do not erase our friend's memory." The S-class mage began. "After seeing it fully, it would be an insult to everything he has accomplished to change any of it."

Everyone silently agreed. To see Kain's past and what he had accomplished… it was such an underdog story that they couldn't help but love it.

The zombie laughed that sounded as joyous as Santa Claus'. "That was the reason I was so hesitant to do that. When I saw that boy's memory, every fiber of my being thought it was an insult to touch it, so believe me when I say I'm glad you all stopped me even if he had a surprising amount of resistance against my magic."

Suddenly, the black world around them started to shake. White giant cracks appeared around them.

"We've run out of time!" The zombie said as he put on his mask and looked to everyone. "You must kill me the moment you all get back to your bodies!" He removed his cloak, revealing a rotting body but a strange orb etched into his chest with runes all around. "The best revived undead have this orb where our hearts used to be, shatter them, and you will send us back to our grave. It is important that you shatter mine the moment you get out of here!"

"W-What? Why would we do that!?" Lucy cried out. A while ago, they wouldn't have minded taking out an enemy, but hearing a shortened version of the full story, it felt kind of sad hearing a man ask them to kill him.

"Do not worry, I already died once. However, the moment we get back, my master will order me to kill you for interrupting the ceremony! You must kill me before I can receive that order!" He cried as more cracks started to appear and the world started shaking. "My magic can directly manipulate memories! I can literally turn you all against each other against your will! Before I can do that, you must kill me once more!"

The idea of a mage being able to freely re-write someone else's memory was a scary ability indeed. No one liked the idea of fighting their own friends or having their memory perverted, but they also didn't like the idea of hurting an innocent man, even if he already died.

Erza stepped forward to the man. "There are still other powerful undead mages like you under your leader's wing, isn't there?"

The zombie nodded only once, but that was all it took.

"Then I will do so. We will stop your leader for you, and try to convince him out of this if we can."

"I hope you can. By stopping this, we now have to leave things to you all." The zombie said as all the blackness started to disappear and slowly everyone was being enveloped by light.

"Good luck." The zombie said as the light enveloped them all.

As the light died down, everyone slowly seemed to get up.

The cloaked figure seemed to get up as well—

*Stab!*

The sound of rotten flesh being pierced echoed in the room as Erza pierced through the area she was shown to aim for.

"Hahaha… thank you… for listening to my request," The zombie weakly said. "If I may ask another? Defeat my leader, and make him realize what he is doing… is wrong. He revived me against my will… but… my second life was actually filled with a lot of good idiots that made me wish I met them in my first one… so don't… hate… him…"

"Wait, please!" Erza cried out to him as she caught his falling body. She removed his mask, revealing his rotting and fading face. "What is your name!? We never got it!"

"Oh… that? … It's George… Ra…ttleblade…" and with his second last breath, the zombie ended with a small hopeful smile and his body turned to dust, leaving only the cracked sphere, his cloak, and mask where he was.

"George Rattleblade? No way! He's a famous for writing so many legendary plays hundreds of years ago!" Levy explained the name of that man. "I-I didn't know that was him! I'm a huge fan of his works!"

"Me too!" Lucy added in, shocked that she was actually talking with a (un)living legend. "I also recall history saying he was a mage, but I had no idea he had such potent magic!"

Erza got up and looked to the imprisoned Kain who seemed fast asleep. With a few slashes, she freed and caught the brunette before gently laying him down on the floor.

"Is he alright?" Macao asked the red head.

"He's fine, he's just sleeping."

The fire mage sighed in relief knowing his younger friend was alright. "That's great to know. … Now what?"

The red head mage stood back up and looked to everyone in the room. "We stop Rattleblade's leader. He plans to sacrifice hundreds in order to revive his family differently than how he raised these men from the dead. We must stop him from doing this for not only our sake, but for his and his friend's sake as well."

"Right! Let's do this!" Natsu cried out before realizing something. "Uhhh how do we do that?"

It was then that people were surprised at two things. In Rattlebalde's haste, he never told them how to stop his master. The second thing was that Natsu of all people was the one who pointed this out.

As if to answer his question, the wall behind all of them opened up, revealing a new area with a staircase leading upward.

Kage was the first to start moving, but instead of towards the door, he moved towards Kain. "Here, I can keep him tucked into my shadows where he'll be safe. I… owe him for being a jerk to him."

The shadow mage waited for the red head to nod before he made his shadow swallow Kain whole. "He's fine. This way, he isn't slowing us down too much."

"Right, everyone, let's go!"

---

Fairy Tail and Momon ran up the stairs (or in Momon's case, flew) to enter a large, empty room where one lone warrior was standing in front of an elaborate door.

"… It seems my friend Rattleblade has fallen. I am a bit sad at this, but then again, we have all died before." The man wearing armor reminiscent of a crusader declared as the group of people stood before him.

"Crap! Him!" Kage yelled as he pointed to the guy in front of him. "This guy beat me without breaking a sweat! He's really powerful!"

"Oh?" Instead of fear, Natsu seemed pumped up as he pounded his fists together. "You sound pretty strong, what's your name?"

"While it is manners to introduce your own name first, I will do so anyway," He planted an elaborate broadsword into the ground for him to rest his hands on before declaring, "My name is Horus Anhur, Grand General of the Yldarian Kingdom."

Everyone in the room paused in shock. They had recognized that name whenever they had looked into a history book!

"Horus Anhur!? The strongest mage in The Gathering War and history's first dubbed Wizard Saint?!" Lucy cried out in shock again. Did they have to fight through an army of acclaimed past mages!?

"What is a Wizard Saint?" The crusader asked innocently. "Is it a title future historians have given me? I appreciate it, but I don't believe I did much." He pulled out his blade and pointed to the group. "Now then, by order of my lord, I must defeat you for interrupting the ceremony."

"You're a Wizard Saint like gramps!?" Natsu, instead of being shocked like the others seemed only more pumped up. "Well now I'm more excited! Show me what you got, old man!"

Natsu didn't hesitate to set his fist ablaze as he rushed right for the giant of a man, despite both Kage and Erza saying that he shouldn't do that. The Dragon Slayer threw his signature punch—

Only for it to be to be stopped fully by two fingers from the blue crusader.

"Is that… Fire Dragon Slaying magic?" Horus began with interest at the spell more than the fact he was attacked.

The pink haired man in question grunted as he tried to push harder with his fist. However, much to his growing frustration, the two fingers were not even budging while his fist was shaking.

"Take me seriously, damn it!" Natsu stopped the attack and tried to reverse round house the crusader. However, as he did, Horus ducked under the kick and moved his hand close to Natsu's forehead with it in flicking position.

Then he released his middle finger.

That was all it took to send Natsu flying into Droy and Jet and knock them over like bowling pins.

"Ice Make: Lance!" A large spear of ice shot itself towards the wizard saint. However, the giant crusader picked his blade and with one slash shattered the ice into pieces.

"The history books weren't kidding! This guy is as strong as he deserves to be!" Gray started to sweat as he felt the magical pressure destroy his spell with ease.

Erza re-equipped into one of her sword armors and pointed a blade towards their opponent.

"Everyone, attack! Do not just fight him one on one!" With her command, the ten Fairy Tail mages except Momon attacked Horus in tandem.

…

But even that didn't work.

Horus was skilled as he was powerful. He avoided the likes of Jet and Erza as if they were snails compared to him and took on blasts of both Gray and Natsu like they were nothing. Even against more flexible spells like the ones Levy and Cana fired at him did little to even slow him down.

After only a minute, all of Fairy Tail was pushed back like they were minions in the way of a hero's path.

However, the room around them started to hum and shake.

Horus looked back up and sighed. "It seems like milord is once more starting the ceremony. Alas Rattleblade's second death most have meant little to him at this state." He looked back up to the warriors getting back up and said, "We are running out of time. You all must find a way to get past me."

Erza stood back up, and reequipped into her black winged armor as she held her blade. "He's right. Everyone, go on ahead and leave me to battle him."

"What!?" Everyone but Natsu cried.

"Hell no!" Natsu cried out.

"We don't have enough time! We have to stop the necromancer!" Erza barked.

"I'm staying to beat this guy up. There's no way I'm missing an opportunity to fight a guy around Gramp's level again!" That was something Erza expected Natsu to say. However, she wasn't expecting how he said it. His tone was much more serious than it was usually. And he didn't specifically tell Erza to go ahead instead.

It was like he was secretly saying, 'I'm staying here with you since you also don't stand a chance alone.'

"If ash-for-brains thinks he can hog one of the strongest fighters here, he's got another thing coming!" Gray stepped beside Erza as he stared down Horus. "If anyone's going to reach Gramp's level first, it's going to be me."

"Keep dreaming, always-naked!" Natsu fired back without looking at Gray.

"I-I'm joining too! I'm also a part of Team Valiant!" Lucy cried out as she somewhat hesitantly stood beside Natsu against Horus.

Erza wanted to argue, but against the overwhelming pressure of Horus, and with how short they were running on time, it had to be done.

"Everyone else, get to the door past him. We'll take care of him!"

"But Erza—"

"Go!" The red head shouted at Cana before she and the rest of Team Valiant attacked Horus once more.

The others watched as Fairy Tail's best team, while missing both Happy and Kain, were fighting hard against Horus and trying their absolute best to hold him off.

Cana gritted her teeth and looked to everyone else. "Come on! We gotta go!"

"But the others—"

"They can handle themselves!" Cana quickly stopped Droy from finishing that even though she wanted to help them. "We need to save everyone on the island or else!"

Everyone understood the weight of her words as they all resolved themselves and ran straight for the door.

Each of them heard the cried of their friends as they continued to get beaten up by the powerful zombie, but none of them turned back no matter how much it hurt… Kage on the other hand did look back and worried for them, but he had to trust the guys who defeated Lullaby, even if they were three members short.

Cana threw her cards at the large door, making an explosion and making a hole for everyone to pass through.

As Horus saw the other six move in, he raised his blade back at the already gasping Team Valiant. "Let us hope your friends are strong enough to fight mine."

"They will win and beat your allies, just as we will do to you!" Erza cried before rushing right for him.

---

The other six ran up the stairs until they reached another similar room where someone familiar was waiting for them.

"I honestly never expected someone to get past Rattlebalde, let alone Horus. Did you, Audolf?"

"Arf!"

Jeremiah Archibald the Seventh and Audolf, The Shepherd were the ones who greeted the other mages into this large room.

"I welcome you all here. However, orders are orders. I must stop you from reaching my lord even if I am against his wishes." The red haired man declared as he stepped forward, said a familiar rhyming incantation and summoned a shield and sword made of black light.

Cana stared before stepping forward. "You guys go on ahead. I've got a score to settle with this one."

"Cana, not you too!" Levy cried out.

"Don't worry. I know this guy isn't as strong as Horus. I can handle him."

Jeremiah gave a deadpan after hearing such a bold claim, "I am right here, miss." He said with a deadpan.

"Arf."

"Pfft hahaa!" Momon laughed at the dog's comment as if he had understood what he had said.

"Why are you agreeing with her!?" The modern looking man cried out to his dog in a somewhat hysterical manner.

"Just trust me, and go!" The brunette drinker yelled to her allies.

Levy tried to say something again, but Macao put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. "She's right. We still need to stop the necromancer." The flame mage told her before looking to Cana. "You kick his ass, alright?"

"I was going to do that, even without you saying." Cana told herself as Macao and the others ran ahead.

"Hold, I cannot," Jeremiah was interrupted when a bolt of lightning nearly struck him and his dog where he stood if he didn't pick up his friend and jump out of the way.

"Sorry, your fight is with me." Cana smiled before she threw half a dozen cards at her opponent.

---

Again there was another room, and again, there was someone waiting for them.

"We were stationed here in the case someone tried to get to our boss." Gomez explained to the five mages plus a bird that entered into the room. "It wasn't fully thought out since we never expected people to get pass Mr. Rattleblade or Mr. Anhur. But in this case, I think that was for the best. Now, you all have a chance of actually reaching for our boss who is trying to continue the ceremony behind this door." Gomez mentioned as he motioned to the door behind him.

Yet the dark clothed man pulled out two intricate looking pistols and aimed them at his opponents. "However, orders are orders, I cannot let any one of you pass."

"And we've got stuff we need to do." Macao stepped forward. "You guys know this song and dance, I'll handle this guy."

"You sure, Macao?" Droy asked with some hesitance. Unlike the others, Macao wasn't exactly one of their high tier mages.

"What? You think I can't do it because I'm older than you guys?" He chuckled at them before his face turned solemn. "Just trust me like you would the others."

Levy exhaled before nodding. "Alright. Come on guys, let's go." She said to the remaining members as they started to run.

Gomez, seeing the group decided to put his pistols back into his hammer space, and summon a rocket launcher into his hands and aimed at Levy and the others. However, he quickly spun on his feet and fired right at Macao who was just about to blast him.

"Gotta be quicker at the draw than that, old sport!" Gomez cried out before he heard a boom and realized that he missed his chance to stop the others. "Oh great. Now I really hope your friends win or else my boss will be pissed at me."

"You've got to worry more about me than you do about your boss." Macao got back up as he wiped the sweat of his brow. "I challenge you to a sword fight."

A smile appeared on Gomez's face. "Well fancy that; I accept!"

---

Team Shadow Gear, Momon, and Kageyama were all that was left as they entered through the last door… and found themselves on the top of the volcano where below them, magma was bubbling and giving up extreme heat despite being what was supposed to be at the bottom of a mountain.

There was a large platform in front of them. In the center of the platform, there was a large pillar with a huge rainbow orb at the top.

"How!?" A voice that sounded like the bellowing winds in a dark canyon howled to the skies.

The remaining mages looked up to see a figure in heavy robes, holding an elaborate orbed staff pointing down to them.

"How did you get past my body guards!? They may have had their magic powers reduced, but they are all still acclaimed mages!" The echoing voice cried out.

Levy pointed to the man she assumed was the necromancer. "We are here to stop you!"

"Stop me!? I have waited one five hundred years for this, and you three are planning to stop me?!"

"Yes we will… wait, three?" Levy quickly turned around, as did Jet and Droy.

"Wait, there are four of us here, not three…" Momon said out loud which made him realize he wasn't counted among those who were here.

After they heard that, and somewhat ignored the small bird, they noticed that they were lacking a certain shadow mage.

Then there was a sound coming back from the pillar. The necromancer looked back to see Kage already behind him with several magical circles pointed to him.

"Gotcha!" That was all Kage said as several fists slew out and punched the Necromancer out of the pillar and into an edge of the platform away from Team Shadow Gear.

"Nice one, Kage!" Jet shouted out with joy. "Way to pull of that sneak attack!"

Kageyama looked back and was surprised to see the girl he was with earlier now tied up a tabernacle up here. There looked to be symbols written all over her body, which seemed like they were holding up whatever spell the necromancer was using that had something to do with those two other skeletons that seemed to be… growing their own flesh?

Kage instantly felt a spike in magical pressure as he instinctively looked back towards where he punched the necromancer down.

Quickly, he ran to the ledge and shouted over. "Hey! I think I can undo whatever revival ceremony this guy is putting up! But you have to hold him off while I do it!"

"NO! I will not be denied what was unfairly stolen from me!" The fully robed figure manically yelled with all the anger of a demonic shadow as his eyes glowed yellow and leapt back towards the tower in a single bound.

However, vines suddenly coiled around the legs of this necromancer before he was suddenly pulled out of the sky and crashed back down into the ground.

Kageyama looked down to see Droy who was kneeling on the ground and had a green magic circle beneath him. Levy turned to Kageyama at this time. "Hurry up and finish it!"

"Right!" With that, the De-speller quickly went up to the girl.

Momon had taken the time form before to fly up and catch up with Kage. As soon as he saw his friend, he gasped. "Is that Éclair!? Éclair, it's me! Wake up please!"

"Here, let me help." Kage said as he used his shadows to remove the chains holding the girl. "I hope this time, she'll think twice aboutKRARKC!?

Much to his surprise, no sooner than when Kage removed the shackles, Éclair's arm shot up and grabbed the shadow mage by the neck.

"Éclair!?" Momon cried out as the girl slowly sat up. "He's trying to help us, don't hurt…" The bird trailed off when he saw his friend's eyes open with bright glowing yellow eyes.

"Well… shoot…" Kage managed to say between gasps before he was slammed to the ground.

Meanwhile, back down the pillar, Team Shadow Gear got ready for their opponent behind the cloud of smoke.

"Man, we've never face a necromancer before." Droy began a little nervously as he held seeds in his hands.

"Focus, both of you! We have to at least hold him off until Kage can finish what he started!"

"You have no idea…" If possible, the voice sounded even scarier than before. "What you are stopping, do you?"

A pair of yellow lights appeared behind the smoke which made Team Shadow Gear tense for what could easily their biggest fight yet.

"We can t-ta-take…" Jet struggled to find words mid sentence.

The reason for this was rather simple, the clouds and finally departed and the trio of mages could see their opponent.

However, they noticed that all of the robes of the necromancer were ripped up in the crash.

Instantly, Levy wondered what other important details did Rattleblade skip when he was in a hurry to tell them to stop their boss?

The reason she thought this was because when his full robes were ripped, they didn't see the naked body of a necromancer…

They saw the bones of a skeleton with glowing yellow eyes and a magical skull necklace around his neck.

They weren't facing a necromancer.

They were facing a lich, an undead necromancer.

The lich moved his staff upward and many unknown symbols came to life around him as clouds started to obscure the night sky as if the heavens dare not watch at what would be unleashed by that unholy monster.

"I will make you all beg for death…"

It was a miracle that all their courage did not die the instant the lich uttered that before he attacked.

---

{Author Notes}

Dam! This was one of my longest chapters yet!

The next chapter should be the finale of the original arc that I'm dubbing, Isle of the Undead.

I hope you all enjoyed it so far, I really wanted the smaller characters to shine and now they're going to get their chance here!

Also, I felt like I needed to explain some context to you guys about Kain's backstory.

I will admit it, I absolutely loathed tragic back stories because they're so overdone and poorly made. But at the same time, I do recall liking tragic stories in certain characters like Professor Snape from Harry Potter.

So when I crafted Kain's back story, I wanted to try something.

I always noticed that most self inserts have always giant anime fans enter into their favorite world and suddenly have a life better than what they had in the real world.

I have always been PISSED OFF at this.

Out of all the troupes out there, this is the one that pissed me off the most.

Why? Because nearly all self insert stories I've read describe the OC of having a normal or horrible life before coming to their favorite world. And then when they have powers, they suddenly become the most charismatic thing in that world when in their previous one, they were basically nothing.

It's like they're saying our world sucks, which it does, but then I always feel like they're implying that life in our world couldn't be any better than it could be in a fantasy.

Bullshit.

Stories like these aren't supposed to make us envious about fantasy world. I believe they are supposed to help inspire us to tackle the insurmountable odds in the real world today. To face overwhelming odds like them, and win!

I admit it. I'm a loser, I even have low grades in my college and I'm struggling to keep up even with help.

But I'd be damned if I give up just because things are looking hard for me. That's an insult to me, my loved ones, and everyone that ever believed in me. I believe to give up would be an insult to the stories that I love that inspire the best out of me.

That is why Kain's story is made to be different than almost every OC out there.

I learned from one of my favorite shows, Criminal Minds, that sometimes tragedy can bring the worst… or the best of us.

That's what Kain's story is supposed to represent. That tragedy can make us stronger, it's infinitely harder than the other path, but it's something everyone dreams of doing.

Kain is my attempt to show there are more than just one type of person out there and those socially outstanding characters are just as interesting as someone who only loves anime when they are pushed to these kinds of worlds.

I'm sorry for the rant.

I just really hate it when people bash our real world so much. It does suck like hell, but it doesn't deserved to be so critically harsh when we do have the potential to change it for the better.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy your day.