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.

12. Chapter 12

He didn't quite know how, but Gray Fullbuster was sensing a pattern here.

It all started when Erza first invited him and Natsu to fight off Eisenwald. The mission was important but simple, and then it escalated into all of them including some newbies fighting against a super fast demon.

A super fast demon that still kicked their butts.

Next, he had to bring back Natsu and Lucy from reaching Galuna Island. After a sucker punch—Natsu would say he did it fair and square—the dragon slayer dragged him along the island where he had met his childhood friend doing something really stupid in releasing Deliora, the demon that ruined his life, back into the world.

If that wasn't bad enough, Lullaby had returned and fused with a dying Deliora, giving birth to a new demon that also kicked their butts.

Now, here they are in a secret underground volcano base fighting zombie mages and trying to stop a necromancer when they didn't even have a mission!

Gray was thinking this was starting to look more like causation than correlation especially since all common factors in these increasingly high stakes missions always seemed to be because of Kain.

But hey, he probably shouldn't be one to judge. He randomly strips anytime during the day so who was he to judge how impossibly stupid Kain's luck was with missions?

"Gah!"

Okay, maybe he had some validation to be hard on the boy from another world considering Gray just felt like he was punched by a fast moving truck.

Gray flipped back mid air and slid on the floor before looking back up to their opponent. They were outclassed—well that was a dirty word to go through his own mind. But yes, he and the others were getting outclassed by a powerful mage who hadn't even begun to use magic against them.

For the love of whatever being above, why was this happening a third time to them!?

Gray got back up and formed his hands together to gather magic. "Ice Make: Bazooka!" In one motion, a large cannon appear in front of Gray and he quickly fired a blast of ice towards the crusader.

Much to his horror and annoyance, his blast was swatted away and exploded some distance behind him.

"That was…" Their enemy began. "Young man, you're an Ice Make mage correct? Why have I not seen any dynamic styled attacks yet?"

Dynamic? Did he mean animals like Lyon made? "Those aren't really my style."

"They aren't your style?" The way their opponent repeated that sounded like he was surprised and shocked someone would say that. "How can you call yourself a master of Ice Make magic if you don't use both static and dynamic styles together?"

Gray paused at the question. "What do you mean use them together?"

For the first time in their 'fight', Horus raised his arm towards Gray. Instantly, everyone felt a spike of magical energy. Not once had their opponent used his magic on them until that very moment, and seeing as how he didn't seem to need it before hand, things were about to become much, much worse. "You really are missing out on Make magic's full potential if you don't use both sides. Essence Magic: Flora, the Ice Princess!"

To the surprise of everyone, another figure instantly appeared beside Horus, a beautiful woman wearing what looked to be a combination of a military uniform around the top and an elegant dress that flowed into the bottom. She had gorgeous flowing blue hair and had beautiful silver eyes.

She did a curtsy as she saw the crusader in front of her. "General, how may I be of service?"

"Flora, if you would be so kind to show how Dynamic and Static Ice Make magic can be used together?"

"As my general wishes." The woman looked over to the shocked gray before she slammed her palms together and instantly a dozen light blue appeared. "Ice Make: Tyrannosaurus Rex!"

All of the magic circles shattered and in a flash of bright light, a giant lizard appeared with a powerful roar that echoed through the room.

However, even though Gray was wondering what this creature was, he noticed the woman still performing another spell. "Ice Make: Battle Armor!"

More magic circles appeared over the dinosaur before slowly, the creature was being covered with some kind of armor with cannons attached to his back. After the spell died down, not only was Gray facing down a powerful beast, but now that powerful beast had enough fire power to wipe out an army.

The ice creature roared before pointing seven cannons at the direction of Gray. The ice mage's eyes widened, "Oh sh—"

He jumped out of the way as seven blasts fired past where he was and blasted through the wall. From outside, a large beam of light blue was seen and exploded from a low part of the volcano and shot out into the ocean.

As the isle stopped shaking and as the dust settled, Gray noticed the giant gaping hole that led back outside the island made by that combined blast. However, he suddenly realized that something was right behind him.

"ΩΩΩΩΩΩ!" The Ice T-Rex roared as it tried to swallow Gray whole. Yet the ice construct did not do so when Natsu came in a flying, flaming kick, shattering the head of the dinosaur and cracking it into pieces.

"Get your head in the game, you walking clothe violation!" Natsu snapped at the ice mage before looking back towards Horus.

"Shut it, anger prone jerk!" Gray snapped back before he got back up to his feet. "I wasn't expecting something like that!"

The helmed crusader turned over towards the woman as the ice dinosaur started to fade. "Thank you, Flora."

At the thank you, the phantom of the girl curtsied once more and started to become more transparent until she vanished. However, she at least said, "Always a pleasure to help you, general."

As she disappeared, Horus turned back to Gray's direction. "Make magic has a near infinite possibility and flexibility when combining both its dynamic and static counterparts. If you want any chance of even harming me, you're going to have to stop using conventional means and evolve further than what you already have."

Gray gritted his teeth and snarled as he heard this. As much as he hated to admit it, the man was right: this fight was different from all his other ones so far. Despite how much he wanted to deny it, he had to be stronger than what he was now if they were to actually have a fighting chance against someone on their master's level, maybe even more.

If he couldn't grow stronger mid fight… he was going to have to use his magic differently!

"Natsu, stand back!" Gray cried out as he slammed his hands together and instantly made a dozen magic circles in a row in front of him.

It was true, Gray was more used to static than dynamic like his friend Lyon… but that didn't mean he didn't know how to use it!

"Ice Make: Wolves!" Out of all twelve magical circles, twelve ice wolves jumped out in a stance ready to attack Horus.

Gray twitched a bit. He hadn't done dynamic ice make in years since they were fundamentally different from his usual spells and his magic hadn't acclimated to the sudden use of a high level dynamic spell. But he gritted his teeth and continued to make his move.

"Ice Make: Blades!" Static Make magic on the other hand…

Twelve swords of varying size and shape all fell towards each wolf. Each of the canines caught their swords by their jaws and looked towards Horus with fierce growling.

"Attack!" Gray ordered the twelve wolves to rush for their opponent. Horus wasted no time at all to try and slash the first wolf with a broad sword. However, he wasn't expecting the first wolf to suddenly jump back towards another wolf and then be lifted up into the air to avoid the blow.

Horus looked up, only to realize his mistake a second later as he used his blade to block several other wolves trying to attack him in the front. Two more wolves went past him and stabbed their swords to pin his large cape into the ground. The crusader saw this and pushed the three wolves attacking him back, only to realize the wolf that jumped earlier was now descending quickly on him and tried to cut him right down the middle.

Horus moved with uncanny speed to avoid the attack. However, even though he did avoid the attack, his cape was torn and cut from his armor as he did so, leaving him cape-less to avoid the blow. Suddenly, his blade turned into a golden staff and he quickly spun it.

In a blur, he struck all ice wolves with enough force to shatter all but one of them into glass.

"Oh? Much better. Flora never thought of something like this." Horus admitted before a shadow loomed over him. He turned back to see a giant Ice Gorilla towering over him with a giant Ice Hammer.

The Ice Gorilla roared before trying to smash the hammer down on the crusader. Horus acted quickly, his staff turning into a spear and stabbed it into the falling hammer, creating a shockwave as the two weapons connected.

Horus actually twitched from the impact, but everyone saw the Ice Hammer start to crack all over. Yet the zombie mage quickly released his spear, spun 180 degrees, and punched through the sword that was trying to stab him that was held by the last wolf. The blow shattered the smaller beast into pieces, but with him no longer holding his spear, the giant hammer fell right on top of him. The crusader had no choice but to grab his spear and punch the hammer right where his spear cracked it. The force of the knight was strong enough to not only break the hammer, but shatter the head of the giant ice gorilla holding the weapon.

As ice chunks fell down, Horus looked back to Gray who was now gasping for breath. Just a few spells seemed to have drained much of his stamina.

"That was excellently done. If you keep practicing it, you're body will be far more used to combinations like that and you'd make even Flora seem like an amateur." Horus then jumped as he avoided a large slash meant for him.

He landed gracefully even with armor as he looked to see Erza was the one who attacked him next.

"Your magic is… Re-Equipping right?" The man pointed to her as she only fixed her sword posture in response. He threw out his right arm beside him and said, "Alright then. Essence Magic: Oberon The Arms Master!"

This time, a dark skinned man with bulging muscles that had many scars across his body stood beside Horus. He wore nothing but large pant overalls and had energetic green eyes.

"General!" The man saluted in an excited and boisterous manner. "So what crazy fight do we have on our hands today!?"

Horus pointed to their opponent. "Please show this woman a secret in Re-Equip Magic."

Oberon whistled as he seemingly sized up the woman in front of him. "A beautiful armor and beautiful figure? General, you're too kind!"

"Careful, Oberon, you don't want me to summon your wife, Flora, because of that kind of talk." Horus casually shot to his friend.

"N-Now please, General, don't bring my wife into this…" The large man laughed nervously.

"Then if you would kindly…" Horus pointed a hand back at Erza.

"Yes, sir!" Oberon summoned a hammer out of thin air and with uncanny speed, ran up to Erza to smash her into the ground like a nail.

The S-Class mage wasn't expecting such speed from a bulky man and backed off by jumping high into the air.

As she did, she seemed to notice that everyone else on the ground except Horus started to lose balance with how hard the ground was shaking form that one blow. Erza acted fast, quickly changing into her Lightning Empress armor mid air and then firing a bolt of thunder down on the hammer wielding man.

Oberon smirked as he removed his hammer but shot a hand out in front of him to withstand the attack.

Erza and the rest looked on with surprise as the magic thunder vanished into Oberon's arm.

"That's a nice attack. Mind if I use it too?" Oberon shot out his other hand where thunder shot out of it—that was Erza's attack deflected back at her!

The S-Class mage braced herself as her own attack knocked her down back into the ground. Since she was still wearing the Lightning Empress Armor, the attack stung more than hurt. However, it secretly damaged her pride to be hit so easily with her own attack.

"H-How?" Erza gasped as she stood back up in a fighting position against her opponent.

"Well, as you know, we Re-Euip Mages have our own hammer space, right?" Oberon began as he placed his hammer down casually. He then pointed a thumb to himself. "I found out we can do more than just store cool trinkets in them. You can also reflect magic blasts right back at your opponent if you do it right."

The red head looked on with disbelief. "Our magic can't do that!"

"It can if you use it enough times. See, I found out that if we choose a part of our hammer space that is purposely empty, you can use it to contain an opponent's attack for three seconds and fire it back right at them. However, you can only keep it in your hammer space for those three seconds before our magic becomes violent at the captured energy or projectiles." He summoned a spear in his hands. "Here, let's start with physical objects, use your Hammer Space defensively!"

The phantom under the general threw that spear with enough force to create a sonic boom the moment he released it. Erza panicked as she didn't have time to move out of the way of the attack and did what her opponent told her to do.

She hurriedly opened her hammer space in which the spear flew in. Her magic practically screamed in pain at having something enter into her magic space so violently, but for some reason she could still feel it moving. Her battle instincts kicked in as she placed both hands out and opened her magic space again—only this time outward rather than towards her.

The result was the same spear flying towards Oberon who seemed a bit surprised at the speeding lance he threw until Horus had stepped in and caught the lance with one hand.

"Impressive, she mastered that in an instant." Horus said as he easily tossed the lance back at Oberon who put it back into his hammer space. "Well almost. It takes a bit for your Hammer space to adjust to having something violently enter into your hammer space, but now you know you can do that."

"W-Why?" Erza looked back at Horus. "Why are you teaching us?"

Oberon looked to his leader as the red head asked this. "… I've always found it fun when my opponents become stronger in our fight."

The phantom scoffed after hearing that. "Pfft! Yeah right, General! We all know your one of the biggest softies in the land!"

"Okay, you go back to your wife." Horus pointed to Oberon who laughed at the response.

"Sure, sure! General Softie!" And just like Flora, Oberon vanished into thin air.

"Open Gate of the Archer: Sagittarius!"

Horus tilted his head slightly before his golden spear turned into a tower shield he lifted to prevent a raid of arrows from striking him.

"It appears our opponent is one of high caliber, Miss Lucy!" The celestial spirit, Sagittarius said after firing a volley of arrows.

"I'm counting on you, Sagittarius!" The blonde celestial mage told her friend.

"That voice…" Horus began to say behind his tower shield until he felt another shadow descend on him.

"I've got you now! Fire Dragon's—"

"Excuse me for a second, good sir." Horus jumped and kicked Natsu in the face, sending him flying towards another part of the room before jumping back down with excellent form as if he hadn't moved from his spot previously.

He removed his shield and face down the archer. There was a slight pause in his stance, but he then spoke out out of recognition. "It is. Sagittarius, it has been a long time old friend."

Lucy seemed surprised, but she was more startled when she saw her spirit lower his bow with a frozen look on his face. "Sagittarius?!"

"Lord Horus? Is that you?!" The archer looked on with awe and confusion.

"Wait, you know him!?" Lucy cried out as she held her hands over her head at the revelation.

Horus looked over to Lucy. "He was a friend of a friend back during the siege of the Vortun Clans." He motioned out his hand again just like the first two times. "In fact… Essence Magic: Beatrice, The Celestial Warrior!"

In a flash of light, a woman with green hair tied into a bun and wearing armor similar to Horus appeared beside him. She held a shield and a sword with hollow holes that could fit specially designed keys in them. As she opened her cerulean eyes, the first thing she saw was Sagittarius and a small smile appeared on her lips.

"Sagi, you've grown."

"Lady Beatrice…I-Is that really you?" The archer gasped in awe.

"I'm sorry Sagi, I'm a phantom copy of your long former master. If you recall, General's magic has the ability to summon near copies of his allies and enemies as phantoms and access their magic, personality, and whatever memories they had of the time they had met. In layman's terms I am the closest possible copy of your old friend. But if I was the real thing, I'm 100 percent sure she'd be glad to see you as well as I."

The archer started to tear up, even his horse head was doing the same. "I-It's been too long… madam…"

"Dry your tears, Sagi, you are contracted to someone who seems quite nice. And circumstances means you and I must do battle."

"Ri-Right! Forgive me Miss Lucy and Madam Beatrice! That was most foolish of me!" The celestial spirit hardened himself as he faced the opponent before him.

"Sagi? Sagittarius, was she your former master?" The celestial mage asked carefully towards her contracted spirit.

"No, I had masters between you and her. But she was as kind as you, Miss Lucy, and one of my more fondly remembered users," The centaur readied his bow. "But please, Miss Lucy, I'm contracted to help you. Please do not return me back for it would be an insult to everyone if you did."

Beatrice readied her blade. "Since you are a celestial mage, you should see what you can do! Celestial Robes: The Archer!"

In a flash of light, Beatrice's get up changed dramatically, from armor, she turned into an archer get up with green hair now stilled into a pony tail. She drew a bow and fired several arrows at her opponent.

Sagittarius did the same. However, one arrow was different from the rest it weaved past the spirit's arrows and lodged itself into the centaur's knee.

"Sagittarius!" Lucy cried out as she ran up to the injured spirit.

"You're form is as excellent as ever, Madam Beatrice." The Celestial Spirit spoke to his opponent.

"It should be, you taught me how in the first place, old friend." Beatrice put the bow away before looking towards Lucy. "Young miss, the surprise in your face speaks volumes. We celestial mages have the ability to borrow the power of our spirits as you see before you. This allows us to bolster not only our own magic, but assist our spirits to much better degree."

"I-I didn't know we could do that…" Lucy admitted as she heard such a thing.

"Aaaahhhh!" There were two screams coming from two opposite sides of Horus, making the crusader look back to see Natsu and Gray attacking him with ice and fire respectively.

The crusader stretched out both of his hands to catch both attacks… then slam them together. The resulting clash let a pool of water fill the room along with a bunch of steam.

Lucy, seeing water, quickly returned an injured Sagittarius and brought out another key and stabbed it into the water near her feet. "Open Gate of the Mermaid: Aquarius!"

In a flash of light, the blue spirit had also appeared once more. Lucy, seeing her chance, pointed over towards Horus. "I need you to blast that crusader with all the water you can muster!"

"Tch! Why I otta—"

"Aqi? Is that you?"

The usually violent and mad spirit paused at the sound of the Beatrice's voice as the fog died down. "Big sis?"

"WHHHHAAAAATTT!? BIG SIS!?" Lucy hysterically yelled in a cartoonish manner.

Beatrice saw Aquarius and suddenly gave a huge smile. "Aqi, it is you! You've grown so much since I last saw you!"

"Big sis!? H-How are you alive?" Beatrice told her the same thing as she did as Sagittarius, she was just a close copy of her dead master, but she still expressed happiness at seeing her.

"Any way, Aqi, you look so beautiful now! Were you really that same shy spirit that hugged my legs like a life line every time I brought you out?"

"B-Big sis, don't say that! Y-You're embarrassing me!" Lucy's draw dropped and if it wasn't connected to her mouth it would have fallen straight into the center of the planet. Why was Aquarius acting embarrassed and cute!?

"Oh! Have you finally asked Scorpio on a date yet? You were always so flustered around him whenever I brought you both out. It was without a doubt the most adorable thing in the world and you were so precious." Beatrice gave a smile like a gentle mother and laughed fondly at the stories she was saying.

"Stop talking, Big Sis! You're still so annoying!" Unlike when she says insults to Lucy, it seemed Aquarius had actual respect for Beatrice and didn't mean any real offense unlike towards her current contractor. "Aahh I can't take you like this! I'm gone!"

"W-Wait, Aquarius! Stop!" Lucy tried to no avail as the water spirit suddenly vanished with a red face.

"It's good to see that Aquarius has a good friend like you. I'm glad." Beatrice said towards Lucy. She turned back towards Horus then saluted. "General, I have seen what I needed to see, may I please be dismissed?"

"Dismissed." Horus said as Beatrice gave one last wave to Lucy before leaving. "Now that's three… if I recall there was one more…"

"Stop looking down on me!" Horus looked back up to see Natsu unleashing a powerful breath of flame on the zombie mage.

"These flames seem oddly familiar." With a slash of his blade, the fires instantly died due to the force put behind the swing. Natsu growled at Horus even though he was injured with those few attacks he put out. But after everyone's attempts, they were finally making progress in fighting against their powerful foe.

"I heard several of your attacks, but did you say Fire Dragon Slayer?" Horus asked as he pointed towards Natsu.

"Yeah, and I'm going to use it to kick your butt!"

"I ask this because I'm curious. Who taught you that magic?"

"Igneel, my father!" Natsu cried out proudly.

The crusader in question tilted his head. "Igneel taught you that? … I mean… I had been revived at a time to find out dragons were nearly extinct so who knows what…" he seemed to be mumbling about something.

Natsu seemed to be surprised at what he said. "You know Igneel?!"

Horus looked back at him and raised his hand the same way he had done so many times before this. "Actions speak louder than words in this case. Essence Magic: Igneel, The Fire Dragon King!"

As those words escaped his lips, everyone in the room paled at the thought their opponent's magic could even copy dragons, but not just any dragon, the very one Natsu had been searching almost all his life for!

Unlike all the other ones before, a large magic circle appeared behind and above the crusader. The magic circle fell down and as it did it revealed a powerful red dragon that took up a large majority of the room.

The dragon boomed with a mighty voice. "Horus, you midget, you summon me to fight against four nearly defeated mages? I'm insulted!"

However, Natsu stared in utter shock. His voice, his speech pattern, his scales, his personality… he had overheard several times that the undead mage can summon phantom that were near copies of his old friends, but he never thought he would see his father among the phantoms this man could use.

"D-Dad!" Natsu shouted at the dragon. Tears were starting to cloud his eyes even though a small part of him knew this dragon wasn't real. How could he? His mind knew it, but his heart seemed completely fooled because the presence was so identical he couldn't tell the difference.

"Dad?" The Igneel Phantom looked down on the boy as he repeated the word with confusion. "Horus, how hard did you hit that boy in the head… hold on."

The phantom lowered his head towards the human dragon slayer. Natsu didn't hesitate and hugged the huge dragon's mouth much to the surprise of the big lizard.

"A lot can happen in seven hundred years, Igneel, it appears you adopted a human child since we last met." Horus mused.

"I… uhh…" Igneel nervously looked back to Horus before he froze. "Young man, open your eyes." He then slowly moved out of the grasp of the young man that suddenly hugged him.

"I missed you, you horrible jerk!" He yelled with tears in his eyes as he suddenly jumped on his face and unleashed a heavy punch that made the dragon flinch downward. After the blow, Natsu jumped back down to the ground.

Phantom Igneel didn't really seem bothered by the hit, but as he looked down on the still crying Natsu, he sighed. "Dry your tears child, if you really are my future son, you should save your tears for your true father, not a phantom like me."

"Well!? Then why the heck did you leave me in the first place!? I looked all over for you, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find you!" Natsu yelled back to the near imitation of his missing father.

Igneel lowered himself to Natsu's level to look him in the eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm a younger memory of your father. I don't know what caused my future self to leave you, but I'm positive he didn't do that because he didn't love you otherwise he wouldn't…." Igneel shook his head. "I am unsure of my other self's intentions, but I know that much at least."

"Damn it, you jerk! Even when I find you, I still can't find you!" Natsu wiped his tears as he said this. Normally, something like that would make no sense, but for the dragon slayer, it was getting frustrating that even a past version of his father did not have any idea where his current father was.

Phantom Igneel sighed. "Come now, young man, dry your tears once more. In return for my future self's actions, I will give you a gift."

The dragon slayer looked up to the memory of his father as he spread out his wings. "I can sense your magic… I feel as if your Fire Dragon training wasn't fully completed, was it?"

"… I think there were things you had not taught me yet." Natsu admitted.

"Do you know about the blue flames?" The dragon slayer looked back up to Igneel and titled his head. "Oh dear, he did rush your training. Or I did—bah semantics fail me. Regardless, I am now here to teach you the second stage of Fire Dragon Slaying magic: Flame Temperatures and Colors. I learned how to increase the temperature of my magic from red and orange flames to white and finally blue flames. As the temperature grows, so does the ferocity of your spells and other abilities, but it drains one's magic power faster: a high risk and high reward state."

Phantom Igneel gave a toothy grin that made Natsu instinctively shiver. He had almost forgotten that evil glint in the dragon's eyes when his father was about to up his training. "Now then, the first step is for you to master White Flames. Focus your fire into stronger intensities… while avoiding me!"

That was Natsu's only warning as the memory of his father started swiping for him with incredible speed. After one duck, Natsu attacked with a fire dragon roar at the Phantom who just promptly ate it.

"You're going to have to do better than that!" Phantom Igneel cried out as he chased Natsu out of the room where Flora had made a giant hole earlier. Horus went after them, which made Erza and the others do so as well.

As they went outside, they continued their mock battle. However, Natsu was… well he was smiling. How long had it been since he last trained with his father? There was still that little part of him that still knew this wasn't the real one, but every other part of him felt relieved, nostalgic. It really was like the good old days where Igneel was pushing him further than he believed.

The phantom was right though, Igneel really did care for him. Natsu promised to get strong enough to punch him so hard in the nose he would definitely feel it for months for leaving him all alone without a goodbye. Since his own regular punch didn't do much to the phantom, he knew he had to tap into the white flames.

So he did something he didn't usually do. He concentrated. He focused on his magic. Even while avoiding Phantom Igneel, he focused more on his magical power. There was a small part of him he could feel deep inside him about his flames and then…

Natsu grinned.

"Got it! Advance Dragon Slayer Art: White Flame Mode!" In a burst of magic, flames covered around Natsu however, the orange flames around him no longer started to fluctuate like wild fire. It became more intense, which meant that it was more solid instead of swaying around to whatever wind was around it.

Phantom Igneel blinked, but as he did so Natsu had somehow closed the distance between them and was already right in front of him with his fist reclined.

"HAAAA!" The Dragon Slayer cried out as he punched the phantom with enough force to make the larger dragon slide back a good distance away from him.

Natsu landed down with the white flames still surrounding him. "Aww yeah! I did it!" He suddenly gasped and dropped the flames around him. No sooner than he did, he also dropped to his knee and started gasping for breath.

The memory of the dragon gave a soft laugh as he walked towards Natsu. "Did I not just say that it drains magic faster in that mode? There are still blue flames after the white ones and if you felt that much power with white, then imagine what you could do with blue. But be warned again, since I think you have a thick skull—"

"The Pot is calling the Kettle black!" Horus shouted quickly.

Phantom Igneel snorted and rolled his eyes before continuing. "Each mode drains your magic rapidly. Now that you've started to open the use of white flames, a new branch of fire spells have been opened up to you. Use them well."

Then the ghost looked over to Horus. "You really are a softie."

"I beat you didn't I?"

"After I beat you, don't you recall?" Igneel leered at the crusader.

"You only won the first time we met because I just came back from fighting three other dragons before you!"

"That's bullshit, you midget, and you know it!" Surprisingly, the two butted heads with each other as they started snarling at one another.

"Oh my," Lucy stared in shock at the sight before them. "They're like Natsu and Gray."

Horus snapped his fingers, making the dragon disappear. Afterward, he turned towards all four of his opponents.

"I have taught you all about the potential each of you can wield. You are now stronger than you were before you faced me as of this moment. Because of this, I can no longer hold back…" He raised his blade and suddenly, electricity started to dance around it. "I must now obey milord's order to the fullest. Do your best to fend me off until my lord is defeated or you shatter my orb; do not let me kill you."

Erza prepared a blade of her own. Now that they were much better rested, they were all ready to see if they could use their new tools to fight against Horus.

They were going to need them. Horus felt his order trying to override what was left of his free will.

He could only hope the others were doing better than him.

---

Cana dodged another laser of black light.

"These words of power shall make you fail, go my power! Unleash Blast Hail!" Over hundreds of small black orbs appeared behind Jeremiah before launching themselves like bullets at the running card mage.

At the large quantity of blasts, Cana believed she couldn't out run that if she tried, instead she used her card magic to form a shield to protect her from the attacks. However, instead of fading when making contact, the bolts of black energy seemed to be sticking and stacking on to her shield. Their power seemed to combining until she realized the spells were stacking up on each other.

With a crushing motion of his fist, all the attacks gathered around Cana's force field and exploded, creating a hole in the wall the card mage was in front of when she made the shield.

However, to Jeremiah's surprise, something started rolling out of the smoke… a wine bottle!?

As the smoke died down, Jeremiah dropped his jaw at the sight before him. Cana was slowly getting back up, putting a lot of power into her shield, but as she looked back at her opponent, she was confused at the look he was giving her and turned around.

To her surprise, the wall behind her collapsed, revealing a stash of wine and other alcoholic beverages.

"THIS IS WHERE GOMEZ KEEPS THOSE DRINKS!? BUT IT'S IN MY ROOM!?" Jeremiah yelled as he clamped his hands on his head. "Gomez, you asshole, leave this stuff in your place dammit!" He shouted to the ceiling above him as he shook his fist.

"Arf!"

The celestial knight looked to his companion before looking towards Cana who had already finished over a dozen of Gomez's drinks.

"Miss, are you… drinking?"

"Shut it, will you!? I haven't had a good drink for a day!" Cana snapped before she picked up a barrel and started drinking it's contents.

"Arf?"

Jeremiah looked down to his dog, Audolf. "No, I'm not attacking her right now. It's rude. Also, screw Gomez, she can have it all."

However, as more second passed, Jeremiah noticed something… off… with his opponent. "Miss?"

He went ignored as Cana continued drinking.

"… Are you… alright?" He began but he soon found out he was ignored again. Sensing something off, he whispered an incantation before firing a bolt of black light at a wine bottle Cana was about to drink.

"I'm going to assume that you have a high tolerance for alcohol considering the amount you drank in such little time. With that in mind, why are you trying to get drunk in the middle of our fight?" Jeremiah asked. "That's very rude, isn't it?"

"… Shut up. I haven't had a drink in a day. I need this."

Jeremiah looked to Audolf before back to Cana. "No matter how much time passes… I've always noticed there are two types of drinkers. The ones who drink to enjoy… and the ones who drink to forget."

Unlike his previous attempt, those last words made Cana flinch just as she took another bottle.

"Is there something you want to forget—"

Jeremiah jumped out of the way a bolt of energy fired where he once was.

"Don't try and psycho analyze me. I just find it's better to fight drunk than sober."

"Is it because you don't think of some depressing thoughts when you're wasted?"

A traitorous part of Cana's mind flashed back to Kain's memories. When everyone was feeling proud of the scholar at the triumph of his past, she was feeling… conflicted. On one hand, what he did was amazing by his standards, to fight against the unfairness of his world in a positive manner and win. However, the other, crueler part of her mind she tried to tie up…

It was the side of her that was horribly jealous. She hated how when she should be proud of him, she felt bitter towards him for doing something she couldn't do. He had a potentially worse background, but he did better than her in her issues. It was only making her feel worse if someone can overcome such odds, then why was she struggling so hard with something with less stakes?!

Jeremiah tilted his head to avoid a thrown card that exploded a bit after he dodged it.

"Shut up!" Cana cried out before throwing more cards, creating a powerful thunderbolt to be thrown Jeremiah's way.

Aduolf stepped in, and as soon as the blast was aimed at him and his friend, the attack was reflected back at Cana—or where Cana previously was.

"Ha! You activated my trap card!" Cana's voice echoed around the room but she was still nowhere to be seen because of the smoke.

However, the term 'trap card' made Jeremiah glance down towards his friend's feet where the sheep dog was indeed stepping on top of a glowing card. No sooner than he saw it, the dog yelped as he was sucked right into the glowing card and trapped with no way out.

"Audolf!" Jeremiah tried to reach for his friend, but then backed off as a blast of fire nearly hit him.

Cana picked up the card holding the celestial spirit captive. "Not so tough without your doggie friend, are ya?"

Jeremiah gave an unreadable stare towards Cana before he stood back up. "… Actually, you're right."

"Huh?" Cana momentarily let her guard down at the admittance.

"Audolf has been my best friend for as long as I could remember, he keeps me straight. In all honesty?" Jeremiah bent down and picked up a wine bottle that was nearby him. "I am so much like you it hurts."

"We are nothing alike!" Cana quickly shouted before drawing another card.

However, instead of getting back into fighting position, Jeremiah just laughed. "Hahaha! Alright then, I suppose honesty it my best option: … I, Jeremiah Archibald, a man who has helped hundreds of people throughout his first life… am a fraud." The surprisingly fresh looking corpse admitted.

Cana blinked in surprise at the declaration. "What-What do you mean?"

Jeremiah looked at the bottle, rather than the contents, it seemed like he was staring back at his shameful reflection. "By any chance have you heard stories of my exploits?" The red head asked for a second before continuing. "They're all lies."

That… Cana wasn't expecting that. "Wait, so… you didn't do heroic things?"

Jeremiah rubbed the back of his head. "I did, but why I did them wasn't really heroic. My fans describe me as some kind of chivalrous knight who fought for the weak and defended the poor… they… well I'm faltered, but in actuality I am a damn coward."

The heavy drinker of Fairy Tail raised her brow. What did he mean by that?

As if reading her mind, Jeremiah continued in a very honest voice. "There was a woman in my time that I was head over heels in love with. Her name was Anna Heartifilia and she was the most beautiful, kindest, and smartest woman I had ever met. Before I became a hero to the people, I was an absolute nobody until we met by chance… while I was delivering her milk as the town milkman."

"Wait, Anna… Heartifilia?" Cana asked in shock. Was this guy in love with Lucy's ancestor?

"Okay, at least you don't look down on the milkman job. That's both a first and something weird, but then again I always complained when the others kept focusing on that…" Jeremiah commented to himself before walking over towards another wine bottle scattered on the floor that wasn't hit by a stray magic blast and picking it up.

"So, here I was wanting to do anything to impress her if I could just get past my irrational sickness of not being able to string coherent words whenever she tried to talk to me." He smiled as he seemingly remembered something fond. "I had soon found out she was a celestial mage, and figured that I could finally talk to her if I had one of them myself. And then I was scammed by a con artist who gave me a spirit no one liked."

The black light mage pointed over to the dog Cana had captured.

"Joke's on him though, he became an irreplaceable friend to me." Jeremiah gave a goofy grin that didn't fit a knight's image at all… but strangely it seemed like it suited him better. "Even after finally getting on at least acceptable terms with the shaggy monster in disguise, I still couldn't utter a single proper word in any language to Anna. It was actually worse. I made a fool of myself so many times that when it came to trying to meet with her from then onwards… I ran away." He sadly admitted. "I ran and ran to go to different places, and accidentally ended up helping people when I was running from a woman I fell madly in love with. All those adventures people praise me for… hahahaha… they only happened because I was too afraid to face Anna each of those times."

He sighed as he sat down and opened a bottle. "So yeah. I'm a fraud. All these people calling me a heroic knight when in actuality, I was just running away from my problems. … And the thing was? I sorta gave in to it when one day, she disappeared off the face of the earth without a trace. So yeah, I act and pretend like a chivalrous knight, but only because I really am nothing without it. Adventuring was all I had left after Anna vanished. Most of those times, I was desperately trying to look for her and where she left, but people have always misunderstood my selfish actions as something noble."

Cana… was not expecting that. She also wasn't expecting for Jeremiah to toss her the other wine bottle.

After she caught it, Jeremiah continued on. "The reason why I could tell something was bothering you was because it was the same look I had every night before I went to sleep after she vanished. If it wasn't for my friend, and the 'reputation' I had built for myself, I probably would have ended up drinking as much as you in my life." He removed the cork of his bottle as he said this. "So I propose a toast: to us cowards among brave heroes. Maybe one day being around real paragons might finally rub off on us."

And with that Jeremiah started chugging the drink.

Cana Alberona couldn't help but smile before opening the wine and doing the same thing as well. Who would have thought she would be having a really good drink with her enemy? They both finished drinking at the same time and Jeremiah stood back up. "Now? Are you ready to fight with a clear conscious?"

The card mage blinked before realization hit her. "Wait a second… did you tell me your life story just so I could fight better?"

"Oooohhh—yeah. I don't know how to tell you this? But you suck at fighting. … Oh hey that was easier than I thought!" Jeremiah chuckled as he said that. "So yeah it doesn't matter."

The heavy drinker of Fairy Tail narrowed her eyes, but not out of anger this time. "Oh you're going to get it now!"

"Bold words from a half naked lady!" Jeremiah shouted before he chanted, creating a shield and a sword from his magic.

Cana held out three cards that when combined summoned a tornado towards her opponent. Jeremiah spun his blade in his hand. In one powerful vertical slash, the gales instantly died down. However, no sooner than it did, the zombie was surprised to see Cana behind the gales with a glowing hand of cards.

In a flash, Cana threw a card instantly at Jeremiah's feet that instantly captured his body and sucked it into the card. Cana smiled as she saw Jeremiah's figure disappear in front of her and looked at the card where Jeremiah's body should have been. However, to her surprise, she only saw the card as full black.

"With this magic, I'm never alone." Again, Cana realized that voice was behind her. "Come forth, Twilight Clones!" Eleven other clones of Jeremiah surrounded the card mage in a clock formation before they all brought their swords down and made the area inside them explode with black light.

The first Jeremiah suddenly ducked just before the attack finished, and then a slash appeared on every other clone that looked like they were cut from their torso. In a puff of light, all the other clones vanished as Jeremiah turned behind him to see Cana beside a card with a blade etched to it.

"Did you think I'd fall for the second trick again?" Cana smiled before she held twelve cards in her hand and threw all towards Jeremiah. The red heeded warrior readied his weapons, but to his surprise, all the cards missed him and hit around him—

"Shit!" The zombie cried out as he saw all cards start to glow with different colors.

"Card Magic: Full House!" The Fairy Tail mage cried out as electricity, wind, fire, ice, light, and water all gathered and trapped the zombie before he could get out. Cana made a crushing motion with her fist, causing one last card beneath him to explode, causing a chain reaction of elemental explosions.

Jeremiah's body was seen flying in the air. Cana quickly took out a card and threw it at him. the light enveloping around the mage before he was absorbed into the card. After it was done, the card flew back to Cana, who caught it and looked at it with a smile.

"I lose fairly." Jeremiah said inside the card. "I recommend keeping me here; milord's order still stands even now, so be careful."

Cana scoffed before she looked at Jeremiah with a small frown. She sighed deeply before saying something, "… My dad."

"Excuse me?" The card asked.

"I have… issues with my dad. It's not that he's mean to me it's just—well it's complicated. But long story short, I was feeling jealous of a friend who had it much worse than me but was able to make amends with his family while I still hadn't done anything." Cana laughed almost pathetically next. "But it's like you damned said. I didn't have a noble reputation to hold and I ended up drinking early in my life to kind of… forget about how bad things were for me. I ended up doing it even when I guy I crushed on started dating a girl he liked too and I was around 13 dammit."

"So how do you do it?" Jeremiah sat down in his trapped space and asked honestly and with patience. "How do you deal with everyday?"

"I guess being drunk was a lot easier than feeling sober and like a piece of shit." Cana scoffed. "But… thanks to you, for once I feel less like one and I'm not even fully drunk yet."

"Ha. Glad to know that when I'm trying to help someone on purpose, it still goes well." Jeremiah said before he seemed to look at something in the distance. "You must go ahead. Milord is more powerful than you can imagine as a Lich."

"Yeah—wait Lich!? I thought he was a Necroman—shit!" Cana had realized that she let the others ahead to face something even worse than they expected. She quickly ran towards the door after thinking this, hoping her friends were still alright.

"Wait!" Jeremiah cried out, making the brunette woman slid to a stop.

"What!?" Cana asked with fear.

Jeremiah pointed towards what was left of the hidden drink chamber. "Take all those drinks. I wanna get back at Gomez."

What? Jeremiah wanted Cana to stop rushing for her friend's safety for a bunch of free, awesome tasting booze and wine?! Especially since she was in debt and couldn't afford more drinks even after this stupid quest was over!?

Why wou-Cana was already back tracking, wasn't she?

"I'm sure the others could handle it just a little longer."

---

"Well this was the worst decision I've made in a while!" Macao parried Gomez's blade before backing up.

Oh sure, challenge the obviously better swordsman to a sword duel—that was sure to work! Then again Macao didn't want to be overwhelmed by the other man's other weaponry which had more variety and fire power.

"Come now, you magnificent bastard! Nothing quite speaks to the souls of men than a good ol' fashion sword fight!" As soon as he finished, Gomez side stepped before stabbing where Macao's heart would have been had the older mage not jumped off.

"Easy for you to say, you're winning!"

"I call it having an advantage." That response was followed up by several thrusts by Gomez. All of which were aimed at pressure points had Macao not backed up again and blocked a few of them. "You can't win by just playing defensively! I mean you can, but usually the circumstances behind that are—" Gomez parried a slash by Macao. "They're usually very specific."

Macao knew this was getting him nowhere. He hadn't even used a blade until today and the only reason why he wasn't defeated yet was because of his years of fighting experience.

"Huh," A small sound escaped Gomez as he fixed his fencing stance. "Are you by any chance married?"

The fire mage gaped at the sudden question. "W-What!?"

"… Oh, are you divorced? My condolences."

"How the hell did you know that?" The purple fire mage asked in shock.

"Would you believe through your swordplay?" Gomez asked innocently before tilting his head slightly. "No? Then just tell others I can read people sometimes."

However, at this point, Gomez sheathed his blade after another clash. "Now, as fun as this was, I'm going to have to end this and go after your friends."

Macao was about to speak up until he saw Gomez's eyes turn purple.

"Psycho Magic: Mind Lock." In one instant, Macao's entire body froze solid against his wishes. Even as he tried to move, he couldn't.

"Now I couldn't use this earlier because there was a lot more of you, but in one on one, it pretty much locks my opponent frozen still. Usually they are human though. I can't quite get this to activate on Audolf sometimes when he's pestering me about." Gomez with glowing eyes walked up to Macao and took his blade back. "I still had fun with this, but now I better go after your friends, toodle-loo!"

With that, Gomez started to walk towards the door. As he did, Macao desperately tried anything to move, his fire magic didn't seem to be starting up and his body was still stiff as a statue. How could he even get out of this—wait. He said that the lock didn't work on animals.

"Dammit." Macao gritted his teeth as he found out there was something he could do, he just needed to throw away what was left of his pride.

Gomez was about to reach the door when he felt a presence behind him. As he turned around, he felt a large hand grab him by the head and throw him back into the room like a spear. He landed like a skipped stone before trying to balance himself and slid on the floor. As Gomez looked up, he was surprised to see a white and black Vulcan had just tossed him back into the room with Macao nowhere to be seen.

"Ahh, I didn't know you knew Take Over magic!" His facial expression lowered as he put a hand on his chin thoughtfully. "I do suppose that does get around my psycho lock."

"Actually," The Vulcan began speaking. "I don't know Take Over Magic. There was a Vulcan that possessed me and forced me to change into him… the thing was though, after my friend defeated him, I found out I could still change into the guy's body, but I promised myself that I'd never use it because it would only remind me of my failure."

"Yet… you're using it now?"

"Hey, I'm the oldest mage among all my friends here. Someone has to be the responsible one when Erza's not here." The Vulcan lowered his stance into a running position. "As an adult, I've gotta learn to admit my faults and protect the younger generation!"

With that, Macao Vulcan ran off with amazing speed, causing Gomez to summons dual pistols that fired a barrage of bullets. Macao was using the advance agility of the Vulcan to increase his physical prowess and avoid a hail of bullets coming his way while still advancing on to the dark clothed man. Seeing him avoid all his bullets, Gomez switched back into a fencing sword and tried to stab Macao as he got close. However, the Vulcan jumped right above him and while mid air, performed a large right hook on to the mage that made him fly again like a thrown baseball.

Macao Vulcan landed on his feet as he landed on the ground after. He looked back to his opponent also jumping back to his feet who seemed more excited than hurt.

However, while there was a small lull in their fight, a question that had been eating at Macao's subconscious finally surfaced. "I gotta ask: why is it that you and that red haired guy look like you're actual humans and not zombies?"

Gomez blinked at the question before realizing what he meant. "Oh! You see, Archibald and I are later experiments. We were brought back to unlife while our boss was trying to find a way to fully bring back his dead loved ones. The earlier two, Mr. Anhur and Mr. Rattleblade were from his earlier and less refined experiments, and look far more zombie like as described in mythology."

"Wait, but you already look good enough to pass on as a normal person!" Macao cried out.

Gomez sighed dejectedly before lifting up his shirt to reveal an orb where his heart once was, the same one Rattleblade told Fairy Tail to aim for to kill him. "Wrong, we're very well made zombies, but still zombies. Our boss wants his family full back, absolutely no living on another's magic to live—as he believes."

"And he has to kill hundreds of people to get what he wants?! Rattleblade said there was nothing you all could do, but wasn't there something!?"

Gomez, for the first time frowned solemnly. "We have free will, but it can be taken from us in an instant. As of right now, we're all battling our best to get around the 'kill you all' order. Mine? He never said when I had to do it."

The Vulcan relaxed as he heard this. "So that's why you tried to leave me, you thought you would kill me later."

Gomez nodded while closing his eyes. "Unfortunately, you proved stronger than you let on. Which means now I have to be more serious." Gomez's eyes snapped open, revealing them to be glowing purple.

Macao's new animal instincts practically shrieked at him to run at that very instinct. It took a lot of will power to not give into to it, and even more will power to remain in control of his new body.

However, before the Vulcan could even blink, Gomez vanished. Macao Vulcan suddenly had the urge to look down—and saw Gomez right in front of his stomach with his fist reclined. "Psycho Punch!"

It wasn't a stretch to say that the amount of pain Macao felt as he started flying through the room this time was strong enough to put him into the brink of unconsciousness. He was even in a much more bulkier and sturdier Vulcan body and it still hurt him so much.

As he landed, he instantly coughed and hacked up spit and some blood because of that one blow. He didn't quite know Vulcan physiology, but it looked like the pain was lessened at how bad it could have been if he was human.

"Psycho Magic—" That was all Macao needed to get the hell out of where he was. "Wave Blast!"

As he did, a large wave of purple energy exploded where Macao was previously in. As he got back up to see where Gomez was, he found out that he couldn't see Gomez any more. However, his Vulcan senses did know where he was.

Macao rolled to avoid another powerful punch by Gomez who had teleported behind him. As he got back up, a bright light shined over the Vulcan as he turned back into his human form and pointed a fist—and a magic circle right at Gomez.

A torrent of purple fire blasted from the circle. However, as it died down, it revealed that Gomez was in a force field of purple energy. The dark clothed zombie summoned his blade and once more made an attempt to stab Macao as he dove in close. Yet this time, Macao had a much better time dodging his opponent due to the fact he was fighting without a weapon he was unfamiliar with. In one motion, Macao kicked Gomez's forward leg as he tried to stab him and swatted the blade out of his hands before following that motion with a round house kick to knock Gomez away.

"Got ya!" Gomez cried out as his eyes were glowing purple again even after he was sent flying back this time. Since Macao was back to being human, he instantly locked Macao into stasis again. Gomez didn't hesitate as he fired a large volley of energy blasts around Macao no sooner than he did that.

"Psycho Cage!" Gomez cried out his spell as soon as Macao transformed back into a Vulcan, he found himself trapped by hundreds of purple orbs surrounding him in every direction. Gomez was about to bring all the energy orbs down on the fire mage until Macao noticed something on the floor beside him.

"You fought well, but not good enough! Psycho Grenade Zo—"

And then there was a sound of glass shattering.

Macao as a Vulcan realized that beside his tail was Gomez's blade that he dropped. Seeing no other way left to avoid this attack, and with how weak he was from the previous direct hit, Macao picked up the blade and threw it with what was left of his strength right at where Gomez's orb was. The blade flew straight through and stabbed past the orb.

Instantly, the attack died down and Gomez fell, pushing out the blade as he landed on his back.

Macao gasped for breath as he turned back into his human form and fell to his knees, coughing up more spit and a few blood from the fight.

"W-Well done…" Gomez started to say. "You beat me."

"Don't," Macao gasped for air. "Don't sell yourself short… you… you were one tough bastard."

"Still though…" Gomez's voice sounded weaker. "I have to thank you. I can no finally go back to my wife, a lovely person she is. Haha… I'm glad I met some nice people in my second life, but it was such a sausage feast in here!" Gomez laughed again, but started coughing out body parts and his skin as he did. "Bollocks this hurts. Even my first death didn't hurt this much…"

"Sorry about that, it was either you or me." Macao said as he started walking over to his opponent.

"… Hey? Do you want to know something about me?" Gomez started. "Bah, I'll say it anyway. How many people do you know get to have a second chance at last words?"

"That would be a first, yeah."

"Well here they are then: I can tell you're a good man by how you use your blade. Yet, at the same time I can tell you have your own troubles and doubts… I'm assuming family troubles?" Macao's flinch was more than enough reason for Gomez to continue his rant. "I never had those, thankfully. My wife was perfection in everything she did, how she concocted potions to drive the will out of any other foolish man, or how she created the darkest of rooms to torture her enemies, she was sexy as hell!"

Macao wanted to say something about that but choose not to.

"But, I can understand there are people who aren't as fortunate to find that one person who will love them beyond the end of time. So as I lay here dying, I say treat your next love like she is your universe. Every time you meet, feel as if you are meeting her the very first time with all of her glory. And if she treats you the very same way you treat her, she is the one."

The fire mage stayed oddly silent as he heard that. After a second he asked, "Are you saying, to really give it my all?"

"My good man, I can tell that you did in your previous one, but the thing about a good marriage? You have to do even better than that." Gomez smiled as he looked up. His legs were starting to collapse into dust and it looked like he was going to go soon. "Give everything you have and more, but if your loved one doesn't return anything like that, then there's no point."

More of Gomez's body started to fade into dust, leaving only his clothes until he was nothing but a head.

"Oh, and one last thing before I go back: you can keep my blade. I don't need it anymore, and I'm sure it'll have more adventures in your hands then. I call it, the Corazon. A fine fencing blade that can be used for others if you fancy those styles…"

"You're giving me your blade?" Macao asked in shocked.

"Why not? What purpose is a blade to a dead man?" The color in Gomez's eyes faded as he said this. "Drat, I'm blind and my magic is running low. Do me one last favor though and snap my boss out of his senses? Believe me when I say he's still a good man."

"…I'm sure my friends have that covered, but yeah. I'll make sure of it."

"Splendid…" And with that, Gomez faded into dust with a smile.

Macao sighed as he picked up Gomez's bejeweled blade. However, as he did, he noticed something etched into the metal he didn't notice before.

"Dedicated to my wife: she is always my quest." Macao read out loud before scoffing and walking up to pick up the thrown scabbard. "Dammit, even a zombie has a better love life than I do."

He gave a proud, fake scoff before sheathing the bejeweled fencing blade in. As he carried it for a second, something felt different about it, but also it felt right having a blade with him now.

Macao then heard something in the distance and turned to see Cana coming in to the room.

"Hey Cana!" Macao called out.

"Macao?" The card mage looked around the battlefield. "Wait, did you fight one of these guys by yourself?"

"Yep, and I won and got this sword as a reward, pretty cool huh!?"

"Wait, you actually won!?"

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Macao shouted out in a hurt manner after seeing the look of surprise on her face.

However, before the two continued, there was a loud sound that caught their attention up ahead.

Macao gripped the blade tightly before looking to Cana. "We gotta help the others."

The heavy drinker agreed before the two ran for the stairs.

---

Levy Mcgarden would be the first to admit that she and the rest of Team Shadow Gear don't take a lot of high level quests. So taking on something like a Lich was definitely an unfair difficulty spike from easy to hardcore mode.

A small part of her actually didn't want to ride on Ignis' back to save the others, and that part only grew when the situation started escalating to how out of their league they were with the likes of Horus.

Yet here she was with Jet and Droy facing down a Lich that was firing completely unknown lost magic at them like the tables that are thrown a lot in the Fairy Tail guild during a brawl. Please forgive her if she was having doubts about this.

"∑⌡ⱢⱺΦⱴꙓꙈꙊ!" The lich uttered sounds that she wasn't even sure were words before the lava beneath them shot up like a geyser and started to form into a large alligator-like creature with wings.

"Holy crap!" Jet yelled before the three of them scattered from being slammed by a giant lava gator.

With Team Shadow Gear distracted by the lava monster, the Lich looked up at the tower and over heard a talking bird begging his friend to stop choking another person. With a single bound, the Lich leapt for the top of the tower once more.

However, a word was thrown in his path between there and his destination. The word was, "Explosion".

"ШФ!" A barrier appeared around the lich as the word exploded and sent him flying back down. He quickly looked back to see Team Shadow Gear, while avoiding his lava golem, still seemed coordinated to stop him from getting on top of his tower.

The walking, magical skeleton placed a hand on the tower's body where instantly, unknown runes started to spread out around it like ants with super speed. With that done, he threw out his staff as it started to glow blue and stalked towards team Shadow Gear.

The runes all trailed up the tower, suddenly shooting out bits of the tower itself like tentacles all sharpened and aimed at Kageyama who was still trying to break free out of the possessed Éclair. "Dammit!"

He chocked before he activated his shadow magic and vanished into his own shadows before the spikes could stab him like Swiss cheese.

Back down, Droy and Jet backed off before the magma gator snapped at them.

"We gotta stop this thing!" Jet said.

"Don't look at me, I may have some fire proof plants, but none of them can handle magma's heat!" Droy shouted back.

Levy heard this and was about to use a water based script to help. However, she froze mid cast as she felt a shadow cast over her.

"ꙓⱴ" The script mage jumped out of the way before the Lich slammed down his staff at where she stood. No sooner than he did, he pointed his staff at her as it glowed purple and a slow moving orb was making its way towards Levy. Confused, Levy jumped back only to notice the Lich firing more spells that shot beams into the sky… then landed right behind her, trapping her in a cage. Seeing the slow moving orb, Levy blasted it with several magical elements.

However, no matter what she did the slow moving orb was still making its way towards her. That's why it was so slow, it was nigh impossible to stop!

"Levy!" Droy and Jet cried out as they saw their friend in that state.

"Droy, seeds!" Jet cried out before his friend quickly gave him a dozen from his person and the speed mage blasted off to avoid being pinned by the magma gator. The lich acted fast, chanting another unheard spell and sending the same white pillars to bar Jet's path. No matter how the speed mage tried, a pillar always blocked his path.

Seeing his window closing, Jet used one more burst of speed, faster than he ever moved before… but it still wasn't fast enough to get past the pillars blocking his way. Desperate, he had to resort to plan B and ran around one pillar one more time and threw the seeds as hard as he could so they ended up scattering right in front of Levy.

Jet yelled as a pillar landed in front of him, "Now Droy!" And then he crashed into it like he had fallen from a two story building.

Droy activated his magic, instantly making wild vines grow on metal that lifted Levy up and out of that area while also trying to wrap around the slow moving attack. However, as the plant mage did this, he failed to recall that there was a fire monster barreling down on him.

Yet, it was Levy's turn as she jumped on the pillars and fired the word, 'Tsunami' pointed at the lava gator and a rapid torrent of water blasted right for the fire monster before it could hurt her teammate.

As the water and lava made contact, a large cloud of steam filled the area beneath the tower. Up on above, Momon watched with worry, but he didn't notice the spikes in the tower now slowly inching towards him.

"Duck, you duck!" Kageyama jumped out of the bird's shadow and caught the small bird before it was attacked.

"Hey, I'm not a duck!" The small bird squawked.

"You're not?" The shadow mage seemed genuinely confused. "Really?"

His question would remain unanswered when he heard a growl come right for him and turned to see a maddened Éclair rushing right for them. Kageyama jumped back, still holding on to Momon before noticing the tower's defenses now aiming for him. "Dammit! I can't undo the seal under these conditions!"

An idea came to him at that moment. "Duck-bird thing! Head into my shadows!"

"What? But it's scary in there!"

Kageyama weaved through several spikes attempting to stab him and pointed to the possessed and angry looking Éclair and the spikes all drawn to them. "Scarier than this?!"

"Okay, I see your point." The Shadow Mage then used his own shadow tendrils to stop a dozen or so spikes from trying to stab him while jumping again away from Éclair and her inhuman strength while under the influence. "What do I do?"

"Get in there, and wake up sleeping beauty!" That was all Kage said as he dunked the bird into his shadow and now better prepared himself against the situation around him.

Back down in the fog, Team Shadow Gear had regrouped thanks to Droy's plants and had hidden behind a pillar.

"Okay, Levy, what's the plan to defeat this guy, because he is in a completely different class!" Droy whispered as team Shadow Gear hid behind one of the Pillars that the Lich summoned.

"W-Wait, I had to come up with a plan?" Levy whispered in shock as she pointed to herself.

"Levy, everyone knows you are the brains of our group. Heck, you've even been doing it when we were kids!" Jet whispered in a somewhat harsh tone.

"That doesn't mean I can come up with a way to beat a Lich spamming magic I doubt even our master has ever seen before! I don't know how to deal with this!" Levy half shrieked before realizing she was trying to be quiet.

The three all looked around the area, but as soon as they saw glowing yellow eyes they instantly hid behind the pillar again.

Their leader started to pant for air rapidly. "W-We have to leave! We can't handle this! J-Jet, you gotta get Kage out of there so we can all go back down and get the others, maybe they won and are on their way back here!"

The speed mage grabbed his friend by the shoulders. "W-Whoa whoa! Breathe, Levy, breathe!" He made motions to breathe in slowly and exhale slowly which Levy eventually did as Droy kept watch for the glowing yellow eyes among the fog.

"Levy, the guys are having their own fights right now, and if I make a dash for the tower, I will be spotted immediately. For now, we're on our own."

"W-We can't handle this! It's way out of our league!"

Jet shushed his friend before exhaling. "Levi, do you remember the days after you rejected my love confession?"

"W-What? Jet, why are you bringing that up—"

The speed mage elaborated. "Levy, those were the most awkward and horrible days of my life yet. But you made me realize that even though I had made things awkward as hell you still held the team together. I appreciate that even though I screwed up, you were willing to still be friends with me, so believe me when I say you are capable of just as being a great leader as maybe Erza! But we need you to calm down if we have any chance of beating fighting this guy long enough for the others to get here."

Levy was surprised to say the least. She never expected Jet of all people to say something so profound. "Did… did you hit your head harder than I thought when Kain tied your shoelaces?"

"Oh haha. See? There's the brave Levy I know! Now, let's show this walking skeleton decoration who he's messing with!"

No sooner than Jet said this, the fog was quickly sucked into a vacuum into a ball that floated right next to the Lich as he seemed to be chanting. The orb was condensed until it turned back to water and the cooled off magma gator returned, only to also be condensed into an orb of fire.

Rocks from all around them started to gather in the sky until they were all crushed into the size of pebbles and shot down to form a floating ring of rocks circling the lich. And lastly, strong winds gravitated towards the lich as a secondary outer ring spun outside the floating boulders.

"You like to fight with elements?" The cold voice of the lich began as it echoed through the area. "How pitiful. Allow me to show you true elemental magic!"

Droy looked back to Jet with a deadpan. "Jet, I think we're the ones who don't know what we're messing with."

"Dammit, Droy, I'm trying to—"

"You idiots, move!" Levy cried out to the two as the Lich pointed towards the area they were in. One rock flew, but suddenly burst into a hundred smaller rocks that pierced through his pillars like tissue, creating holes and causing a row of them to start falling down on Team Shadow Gear.

When dust filled the area, the Lich pointed his hand forward, creating a gust of wind that blew the dust away, revealing Team Shadow Gear right in front of him with nowhere to hide this time.

As the lich lifted his staff once more, Levy looked to her teammates. "Guys, Equilateral Formation!"

"Right!" With that, all three of them broke off with Jet running right for the Lich. The skeleton magician fired a piece of flame right in front of him, but Jet circled around him and kicked him at the back before retreating again. The lich slammed his staff on the ground, creating a circle around him that caught Jet. As the speed mage tried to move, he noticed that he wasn't moving fast at all!

A blast of pressurized water forced Jet to duck normally and run with normal speed away. It was a good thing too because the debris behind him was cut like paper with the water being shot out of the orb. The lich suddenly froze before he placed a barrier to one of his sides as a bunch of plants attempted to punch him.

"Plant Magic: Wild Armaments!" Droy cried out as all the plants he threw started to get sucked into his magic circle then wrap and dense around his arms until they were fully cloaked in leaves. He threw a punch and then his right punch quickly extended into a giant plant fist rushing right for the lich. In retaliation, the Lich laced his staff with wind and cut through the giant fist in half.

The plant mage himself sidestepped the attack and his ripped up arm was forming back together despite the attack.

The lich felt something off and then looked down to see his spell circle he planted vanish. His skeletal neck turned to one last area where Levy was seen kneeling on the ground de-spelling the magic circle they were all under.

"Jet, it's gone, your magic should be up again!" Levy cried out as she also stood up and started making hand signs.

"Right, thanks!" Jet's legs started glowing as well.

"Here we go guys!" Droy cried out as a large green circle appeared in front of him.

Their enemy suddenly realized he was surrounded by the three mages and with the sudden spike in their magic power they were about to use their best attacks.

"Wild Assault!" Droy reclined his two fists and threw them. The two vines stretched into two giants fists which then started to branch out smaller and many other plant fists.

"Sonic Blast!" Jet started condensing a lot of speed magic in his right leg before kicking in the air, launching a missile-speeding shockwave right towards the lich.

"Verba Infinitum!" Levy cried out as out of her hands shot out a thousand words that all were attacked based and aimed right for the trapped Necromancer.

Each powerful spell raced towards the skeleton sorcerer before he slammed his staff into the ground to form a powerful barrier around him while firing all elements to each of the attacks: wind to Jet's, fire to Droy's, and water and earth to Levy's attack. The attacks clashed, but Team Shadow Gear's attack were pushing him back despite the Lich's best attempts. The attacks not only pushed back the Lich's advance, but seemed to break through the barrier and made it explode with a boom that even Kageyama felt from the tower.

"Yeesh, everyone in this guild really is a monster!" Kage commented as he felt the magical powers clash and cause the tower to rumble and make him and Éclair lose his balance. However, because of that, he tripped over when the spikes were still trying to attack him.

His eyes widened as he noticed the spikes of the tower all race for him.

Then he saw a flash of red light—

Several loud cracks echoed along with a yelling bird as Momon was seen holding tightly to a red knight's cape.

"Kage!" A filtered but familiar voice came from the knight. "Where am I?!"

"Kain?" Kage asked in a bit of awe. He didn't use that when they had first met; did it have something to do with that armlet that was on his arm?

A loud yelling made the three look back to see Éclair running right for them. Kain grabbed Momon and tossed him to Kage before charging towards the possessed woman, ducking under her attempt to grab him and sliding to put her into an arm hold. The red knight struggled to keep the flailing berserker at bay. "Kage, I know you can de-spell things, do it on her dang it!"

"R-Right!" Kage wasted no time as a dozen or so shadow hands reached and touched all the written runes on Éclair. As they started glowing, Éclair's trashing became worse, but Kain held on tightly until her trashing slowly but surely slowed down. Kage gasped for breath as he retracted his shadows, revealing that the girl was now free from the influence and unconscious in Kain's arms.

"Finally!" The shadow mage gasped. What should have been simple was turned much harder than it should have.

"Seriously though, where am I? The first thing I wake up to see was Momon begging me to wake up in some dark place which apparently was your shadow."

"That…" Before Kage could begin trying to figure out how to explain something so elaborate, they all heard something below and the three looked down.

The dust was settling and they saw Team Shadow Gear looking around relentlessly.

"What the? Levy, Droy, Jet! What are you guys doing here!?" Kain asked as he carefully handed the woman over to Kage before jumping off the tower. He used his hand to grab on to the tower to slow his descent before landing in front of the other Fairy Tail team.

All three were happy to see the red knight and Kage appear soon after with Momon and the captured girl. Levy was the first to run up to him. "Kain! Thank goodness you're awake! We need your help to defeat the lich! We just spent all our magic trying to injure him!"

"Lich?" Kain repeated before they all heard another sound coming from the entrance they came from.

Macao and Cana had arrived and spotted the group among the rubble.

"Hey, guys!" The purple fire mage cried out before spotting the red knight. "Kain! Glad to see you're finally awake!"

"What the heck happened? How are Levy and the others here!?" Kain motioned over to Team Shadow Gear who was still looking around frantically.

"Yeah, you missed a lot." Cana admitted but patted the knight on the shoulder.

"Guys," Jet yelled. "The Lich is still around here! He must have evaded our attacks at the last second!"

"Wait Lich!?" "A Freaking Lich!? The hell did I miss!?" Macao yelled out in horror while Kain yelled out in confusion. Cana had a look on her face that looked like she had forgotten to tell Macao about that important info a while ago.

"I thought we were fighting a Necromancer, not a Lich!" Macao said before he and Cana also started looking around. The crimson knight among them just gave up and went along since he was being ignored.

There was another loud explosion, followed by screaming as several figures shot up from below the volcano. Instinctively, Kage fired out large shadow hands that caught the flying objects and brought them down to reveal…

"Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Lucy!?" Kain yelled as the four of them were brought down gently. "You're here too!?"

"Oh good, Kain's awake," Gray, looking like someone had made him a very well used door mat on a well-visited porch, said this to the red knight with relief in his voice. "We could use one of your plans right about now."

Before the red knight could ask, something else followed the four, a large crusader with smudge and dents on his armor with his cape torn landed on the platform with a boom. Kain was surprised at the appearance and made the conclusion this was who his friends were previously fighting, especially with how everyone but him took a step back at his presence.

The Crusader pointed, stiffening everyone back into a fighting stance despite how injured and tired they all were—

"You stopped it."

They all paused for a second.

"You stopped the ceremony." Horus explained as he pointed to the tower which was now losing its color with Éclair no longer in it.

"Holy shit, how much did I miss!?" Despite Kain's complaint, he moved a hand to his head as the word, 'ceremony' hit his mind.

A blue light started to appear near the tower as the lich, Gomorah, appeared behind Fairy Tail while in a state of cracked bones. He fell to one knee and dipped his head down.

"Horus," the ancient sorcerer ignored the group in front of him and addressed the servant while his head was still down. "Where are the others?"

The crusader in question was silent until after a few seconds, he answered, "I don't know sir."

"The ceremony… I've come too far… too far…" The lich's magic voice seemed weaker than usual, instead of scary like it was a few minutes ago, it almost sounded pitiful.

"Surrender, it's over." Erza said as she stepped forward. "Cease this foolishness, at once."

Unfortunately, while her intentions were noble, they all saw the skeleton freeze his entire body in an uncanny manner.

"Foolishness?" His voice was eerily calm by just repeating that word.

"Oh no…" The zombie crusader gasped with a whisper full of horror.

There was a sudden burst of light in his eyes as he snapped his head up, only instead of yellow, it was glowing a deep black. "ḞṌṎḺḹṦḦṊḜṠṢ!?"

All of the island's runes started glowing again, this time it was all black and the island trembled horribly while the lava below turned black as tar.

"M-My lord," The crusader tried to say over the rising magic power. "Pl—"

The lich pointed towards Fairy Tail, no longer seeming to acknowledge his own subordinate. As soon as he did, the winds surrounding him started to increase in velocity with thunder and lightning dancing in out the clouds like a bolero. "Ḟṓṍḻḭṡḩṉḙṣṡ ḭṡ ḩḁṿḭṉḡ ṯḩḝ ṗḛṓṕḽḙ ẏṓṳ ḽṏṽḗ ẃḭṱḩ ḙṽḝṝẏ ṧḭṉḡḷḕ ṫḯṉẏ ḟḯḃḗṝ ṍḟ ẏṓṳṝ ḃḕḭṉḡ ṜḮṖṖḜḎ ḁẁḁẏ ḻḭḱḕ ả ẅḙṫ ṩḣḙḗṭ ṓḟ ṕḁṕḛṟ!"

A single utterance of his mad, god like voice was enough to put everyone back into fighting positions even though a small and cowardly part of their minds were begging them to flee, even the bravest of them had doubts in their minds. Everyone, but Kain who only seemed to have a bigger headache along with flashes of a man in front of a burned home and holding two dead bodies while crying out desperately.

The lich stepped forward again, causing another burst of magic as even his staff started to crack. "Ḟṓṍḻḭṡḩṉḙṣṡ ḭṡ ḩḁṿḭṉḡ ḿầḡḭḉ ṱḧḁṯ ḫậṧ ṃḭḻḷḭṓṅṡ ỏḟ ẃẵỹṣ ṭồ ḫẳṟṁ ậṅṑṱḣḙṛ, ẏḝṫ ḥậṣ ṅṑ ḁṟṱ ṭṍ ṣṑṫḥḝ ṑṫḥḙṛṣ!"

Kain held his head harder, seeing a flash of a hurt man desperately holding on to books while thuggish figures with glowing fists kept beating up on him.

"ḞḮṄḖ‼ ẎṒṲ ṤḨẦḺḸ ẀḬṪṈḜṤṨ ḨṌẈ ḞṌṎḺḹṦḦ Ḯ ḈẶṈ ḄḘ‼!" The spike of magic that burst out was more than enough to sink the island they were all on to the ground.

Erza was sweating as she tried to put her blade out. "Everyone!" She tried to yell over the howling winds and the frequent lightning and thunder, "We must stop him!"

"No!" Kain of all people stood in front of her and with his back facing the howling sorcerer.

"Kain!?"

"Please, let me try something first!" Kain yelled before he turned back and ran towards the Lich.

The Lich, eyes glowing a black light, pointed his cackling staff towards the red knight…

Who instantly powered down in front of him.

Despite everyone crying out his name, Kain stepped forward again. "Gomorah."

The lich froze at the sight of the child. The gales died down, the runes light got snuffed, and the clouds were silenced as soon as he saw the young man.

"Zibbs?" The lich dropped his staff as he stepped forward, carefully touching the face of the brunette. "H-How!? The ceremony wasn't…"

To nearly everyone surprise, Kain' didn't flinch when the lich's cold bones touched his cheeks. Instead he raised his hand to hold on to it as he then said, "I'm not your son, Gomorah. My name is Kain Reynolds. I just… look like your son."

"Zi-Zibbs, what are you…" The lich trailed off when Kain placed a hand on his head then started rubbing it with care.

"Your son and wife are dead, Gomorah Volan. They have been for the past six hundred years." Kain said clearly to the lich. "Please stop this. Neither of them would want to come back to you at the price of so many innocent lives."

The glowing yellow eyes of the lich seemed to flicker. "N-No!" He stood back up frantically and away from the brunette young man. "Y-You're trying to confuse me! It's a magic attack!"

"I'm not a—"

"Shut up! The lich cried as he raised his staff that suddenly released an energy blade surrounding it. In a fit of confused rage, the lich swung his axe right for the boy.

Kain was too stunned to reach for his morpher, everyone in Fairy Tail was too far from the boy. Even Jet wouldn't make it in time at his top speed.

Yet among them, there was one faster than Jet with enough precision to save the boy.

*Slash!*

Kain landed with a thud as he looked back up to see Horus had pushed him out of the way and let the energy blade of the staff almost cut right through him.

"Horus!?" The lich was not only shocked, but horrified to see his own weapon nearly splitting his comrade in half and crushing his orb that kept him animated.

"Forgive me my lord," The voice of the crusader sounded weaker than the usual calm but confident voice it always was. "It seemed my order to stop these trespassers was still active, and it got in the way of your actions." Even in his state, he gave a small laugh. "But please, listen to the boy. With me dying a second time, I need to tell you that this isn't the way to bring your family back. Take it from a man who was apparently lauded in history for killing hundreds of soldiers and orphaned thousands of children…." As he gasped that last sentence, the mighty crusader fell into Kain's arms.

"N-No! Horus, no! What have I done!?" The Lich yelled as he stood back up and yelled out in an inhuman screech.

There was another burst of energy that pushed everyone away. Kain saw Horus' body being blown away and quickly activated his armor to catch him.

"Well damn," The zombie said even after the red knight caught him. "Milord really can't handle death of loved ones, even second deaths…"

The isle started to glow black again and the island started to rumble violently like before.

"We need to stop him!" Erza acted quickly as she pointed to the crying Lich. "Blast him before he takes everyone in the island with him!"

The red knight heard this and shouted out to his friends, "Wait! No!"

However, unlike him, they couldn't hear him over the sad yelling of the Lich. Natsu did actually, but he begrudgingly agreed with Erza, the Lich needed to be stopped before they killed everyone on the island.

They all opened fire on the vulnerable Lich with a rainbow of magical blasts, much to the horror of Kain.

No sooner than they did, the shaking and the isle's runes stopped and there was only a large smoke of dust, smoke, and lava that remained.

"I will…" A bony arm stretched out of the cloud as the Lich was seen with his legs blown off and now crawling on the ground. "I will! … I will… damn… ḎẲṀṈ ẎṌṺ ẢḺḸ‼"

His eyes shinned black once more, only with more ferocity than before. Fairy Tail tried to act again, but suddenly a large flock of the runic and alive symbols from the cocoon room had burst through the remains of the last door entrance and swarmed Fairy Tail, making them busy as the isle stared to actually crumble this time at the second attempt to destroy itself.

"ẎṎṴ ṨḜḚḰ ḌḜẬṰḢ ṮḪẬṰ ṖṚṐḞṲṦḔḼẎ!? Ḭ ṠḢẠḺḸ ḈṒḾṔḸẎ‼" The skeleton wailed like a demon.

Kain was nowhere near his friends when the symbols swarmed his friends. Yet he placed down Horus carefully and bolted right for the lich.

The skeleton, seeing this, yelled out, "ῩỌỦ—"

However, he was surprised when the man from another dimension deactivated his armor once more and quickly kneeled to the fallen skeleton…

Then hugged him close to his chest.

"W-What? U-Un hand—" The skeleton was so shocked at the act, his anger had mostly fallen. Yet some still remained as he tried to push the boy away until…

"Please," Kain begged as he held the skeleton's face closer to him. "Please stop this. Don't let anyone else suffer like you did."

The lich was mustering magic in his arms, he was about to strike this fool right then and right—

*Lub-DUB*

The Lich froze at the sound.

*Lub-DUB*

What was that sound coming from this man's chest?

*Lub-DUB*

… It… it was a… heart…beat…?

---

"Aisha, are you sure about this?" So long ago—so very, very long ago; to the point where it even seemed like a completely alien world… there was a man. Time had long since forgotten his face, skin, hair, physicality, but it had never given up the nervousness and hesitation in the man's voice as he spoke.

"Gomorah, come on. You're being a bigger baby than the one in my stomach," Time had also forgotten her face, her other physical attributes, but time be damned if the man had ever chosen to forget the love in her voice, the character that was as bright as the sun, and beauty that could shame the universe. "Just put your ears and listen."

The man recalled doing so. With some hesitation, he placed his ear into the stomach.

*Lub-DUB*

There was a sound of a yelp as the man stood back up. "I-I heard it! I heard our Child! … Or you ate our poor puppy whole! HAhaha—wait. You're eating habits have been scaring me lately…. Did you!?"

Oh. A sense of humor. He had that also didn't he? Why did he… get rid of that?

It died with them didn't they? No. It burned with them, it was eaten up by flames so much that it shrunk to ashes and scattered into the wind to never be whole again… just like them.

"Yes, I ate our puppy. That little dog you see in the next room is a clone from my magic that I am incapable of using." Ah yes, his wife's trade mark sarcasm. Gods, how long was it since he last recalled that? How many suns and moons have passed since he last loved it?

Too much. Far too much.

The memory of the man fell to his knees and screamed to the ceiling of their humble house. "NOOO! YOU MONSTER THAT I HAD HOT SEX WITH! I LOVED HIM!" What? Oh right, he was sometimes overly dramatic. Did… did he [the lich] forget that too?

"Forget the couch, you're sleeping on the floor!" The woman barked back before placing a hand on her head. "Our child is going to mature quickly with an irresponsible father like you."

He remembered… smiling as he got back up and listen to their child's heartbeat. "I'm strangely Okay with that."

---

"Aisha…" The word that came out from his voice, it was like a piece of gold found in a polluted river. "Ooooh! OOOh!" The Lich relaxed as he suddenly returned the hug with Kain.

He didn't have eyes, he didn't have a nose, but his emotions that were buried so long… had finally resurfaced. Sorrow flowed out his voice as he cried out in only voice, but it was enough to make everyone feel the weight of it all.

The symbols have long stopped swarming, and the runes… instead of stopping, they cracked and vanished all across the island. As they did, even the dying trees among the jungle soon came back to life with their life force returned to them.

"A heartbeat… it has been so long… since I heard it." The lich weakly said.

Kain caringly rubbed the lic—the man's skull.

It was then that the remainder of his bones… they all started to crack.

The brunette found the skeleton hugging even tighter than before.

"I-I don't want to die." Those were the most honest and innocent words Kain heard uttered from a Lich of all things.

Pity filled everyone's heart after hearing that. Even though he had captured hundreds against their will, had sent his own men to kill them, tortured even one of their own, and battled with the intent to kill…

No one in Fairy Tail could hate a scared and lonely man.

Kain saw something in the night sky and looked back to the Lich. "Would you like to come with me for a second?"

The lich only nodded once with his skull. The non-magician carried the torso of the skeleton, which was surprisingly light, and walked towards the edge of the volcano where everyone followed him. Kain held the skeleton's hand and placed him gently near a rock before he sat down beside him.

They all watched as the night had finally set… and the sunrise was rising in the distance.

Kain sighed as he looked to the horizon. "It's nice to know that no matter where you are, Sunrises are still just beautiful to watch."

There was silence, but everyone seemed to agree with him.

The brunette felt the skeleton's hand squeeze tighter as more cracks appeared on his body.

"I'm scared."

That was all the Lich—Gomorah said. No longer was he some scary lich, but just a scared and flawed human trying to make his own sense in a cruel world.

The young man held up his hand and said, "I promise to be here with you… until the end."

"W-Will I meet my family again?" He asked as his other hand started to fade into dust. The fear in his tone was far more vivid than his own fading voice.

The dimensionaly displaced man hesitated for a second. "Are you sorry for all the bad things you did?"

"… Yes…"

"You'll meet them then. I'm sure." That was all the young man could say. But he believed it with his heart, he had to have faith that the man would. "Come on, look back at the sunrise, it really is beautiful, isn't it?"

Gomorah turned back to the sunrise, as he did, his spine cracked and his torso started to turn to dust quickly from the bottom up.

"It is." With even his neck starting to turn to dust, Gomorah turned to Kain. "Thank you."

With that, his skull faded into the gentle wind, hopefully carrying that fool to where he belonged.

All was left of the skeleton was the hand holding onto Kain's… but after a few seconds… it also turned to dust.

Kain let the dust fall out of his palm as the wind scooped it up and flew high into the sky.

They all stayed there, watching the sunset.

"It really is beautiful, isn't it?" The non mage asked to no one in particular.

...

"It sure is." Natsu was the only one to vocally respond as most of Fairy Tail watched the rising sun of a new day.

---

"I wished I could have enjoyed that sunrise." Horus smiled at Fairy Tail as they all finished watching the sun rise.

"Sorry about that, we forgot about you." Kain sheepishly admitted first before bowing his head. "Thank you for saving me."

"Don't mention it. … I'm assuming you all defeated Gomez and Jeremiah?" Horus began.

"Aww shit," Everyone turned to Cana after she said this and quickly took out two cards. In a flash of light, both Jeremiah and Audolf were freed.

"Sir Horus!" Jeremiah and Audolf ran to the injured zombie. "What happened!?"

"Long story short, boy, we won. The people have been saved and our leader finally got the peace he deserved… all thanks to these young ones." Horus looked over to Fairy Tail.

"Don't look at us: Kain was the one who was able to talk your boss out of it." Macao was the first to say.

The young man in question shook his head. "Heck no. Rattleblade did try to rewrite my memories, but when he saw my memories, he tried to give me enough of your boss' so I could empathize with him. He also told me that was your plan from the start. In actuality, we just gave you guys the push to free yourselves."

"Let us not undermine what we all have achieved this day." Horus said as he tried to stand back up by himself. Despite some trying to help, he politely refused. "Now, it is time for my last good byes."

"Sir?" Jeremiah asked before Horus gave him a small nod.

Jeremiah sighed deeply before he stood up straight and saluted with all of his strength, even Audolf became stiff to show his respect. "It's been an honor and a privilege, sir."

"And you too, Knight of the People." Horus raised his free hand and his golden sword came to him. The zombie's helm turned towards Erza's direction. "Miss?"

"Yes?" The red head was surprised as Horus walked over to her.

"Put your hands out," Horus waited as Erza did so with a confused face and he placed the broad sword in her hands. "This was my trusted weapon, The Omni Tool. A magically crafted gift by an alchemist that can transform into any weapon you wish. I give it to you."

"I-I don't deserve—" Erza was silenced as Horus raised out his hand.

"The weapon was buried with me the first time, and all it did was collect dust. I think a blade that once killed many people, can now be used by someone willing to protect them." Horus removed his helm as he did, revealing an ugly, rotting face… with a bright and kind smile. "Please honor this weapon by using it justly."

At that, Erza could only bow her head to history's first Wizard Saint. "I am not worthy of this honor, but thank you."

Horus nodded. "It's time to go back to my family and friends. I wish you all well in this life." He turned around and started to walk, as he did his body fell down instantly and turned to dust with his magic no longer trying to support him.

However, where his body fell, a phantom appeared where he was walking. He turned back towards the group, revealing a handsome man with raven colored hair swept back and bright green eyes. Horus stood tall and saluted them all. Jeremiah and Audolf returned the salute, prompting everyone else to do the same.

With a smile, Horus dismissed himself and turned back around to walk, fading into light as he did so.

Jeremiah sighed as dropped his salute. "And of course, even when it's all over, I've got to clean everything up." He gave a somewhat somber chuckle before looking to Fairy Tail. "I know the spell that brought you and the civilians here. I can still reverse it from here and it should bring you all back, but before that… I need you all to come with me."

---

They were all led into a large intricate room with a lot of papers, strange gadgets, elixirs, glass tubes of all shapes and sizes, and anything that seemed science related.

"This was my lord's chambers." Jeremiah began as he walked past all the strange things as if they were nothing.

"Why are we here?" Lucy asked out loud while looking around the place.

Everyone turned back to Jeremiah as he looked for a second before taking a green crystal orb. "Here it is."

The twilight caster turned towards everyone. "This orb contains a hammer space of all of milord's spell books there is a small collection of them in here. He nor I will be using them, so consider it another gift."

"Wait, you won't be using it?" Cana looked at the modern looking zombie in confusion.

"No, after sending you all home, I'm going back to journeying. Without my lord supplying magic as he usually does, I now have I'd say… ten years before I fade? Until then, I would like to continue back into my main quest: finding the love of my life."

The card mage then recalled a certain name being dropped, but before she could speak it out, Droy said, "Wait, but aren't you three hundred year old? Wouldn't she be long dead?"

Levy elbowed Droy in the rib for that. "What? It's an honest question!" The plant mage rubbed his ribcage.

"No, she is. … But I would like to find her body at least." Jeremiah wistfully stared in the distance. "I'd like to bring her home if possible. She deserves to be buried with her family: it's the least I could do."

Cana lost her chance to speak up again when Lucy was the one to speak up. "What's her name?"

"Anna Heartifilia." The knight spoke up. No sooner than he said that, everyone but Cana looked on with shock.

"H-Heartifilia!? T-That's my last name!" Lucy cried out as she pointed to herself.

"Oh? You do look like her somewhat." Jeremiah said as he leaned in close for a second. "You must be Lana's descendant then! She was Anna's little sister."

He then dipped his entire arm into the green orb, much to the surprise of nearly everyone. As be brought his hand out, he was carrying three books.

The twilight mage handed the first one to Natsu. "This is a Pyromancy Book filled with lost fire spells. I think it would suit you in the long run."

"Whoa sweet!" Natsu said as he opened up the book.

Macao looked over the dragon slayer's shoulder. "Hey, I'm a fire mage too! Let me see—oh great it's in a language I don't know." He said quickly as he saw the foreign symbols written on the book.

"Really?" Jeremiah asked as he opened the other books. "Huh, I had not taken into the possibility of you all updating your literature."

"You mean we've got a library filled with awesome lost spells, and we can't read it!? That sucks." Gray complained.

Everyone paused for a second. "Gray… you lost your pants." Cana said, causing the ice mage to panic and run back to where ever he dropped it.

"What are you on about, pervert?" Natsu cried out before looking back at the book. "This stuff makes perfect sense!"

"Wait! Natsu, you can read it!?" Lucy cried out to the salmon haired mage.

"Duh! If anything, this is the language and writing Igneel taught me before I came to Fairy Tail!" Natsu said.

"Oh, I get it." Kain spoke up. "That means that Igneel didn't teach you modern language, he taught you ancient human language thinking that it hadn't changed when he last saw human civilization."The young man theorized.

Erza seemed to think. "That does explain why you said you couldn't read anything in the guild despite calming you could. Igneel taught you the wrong thing."

"What!? Dang it, you bastard! I went through hell because of that mistake!" Natsu cried out as if his father was somewhere there.

"But doesn't that mean you can actually learn those lost spells now?" Jet asked, instantly snapping Natsu out of his anger.

"Oh yeah! Never mind that! Thanks, pops!" Natsu said as he went back to reading. "No way! I didn't know we could do that with fire!"

"That's not fair, how come Natsu's the only one who gets to read this stuff!?" Droy whined. He risked his life in this adventure too and he wasn't getting any of the cool things the others were getting. Heck, Macao had a fancy blade now!

"Actually," Levy spoke up, "With Natsu's help, I can transcribe all the books into our language. It will take time though."

"Ahh so then that's settled then." Jeremiah placed the other two books back into the orb and handed the green orb to Levy. "I just wanted to give you that. Now I can send you all home."

---

Happy was waiting silently next to Ignis.

"You think they're all right? It's already morning." Happy said as he looked out to see the sun rising.

Ignis gave a low growl.

"Aye, you're right. Natsu's with them so they're sure to win!" The blue cat admitted.

There was a large hum coming from the pillar. Ignis stood back up and quickly took a position to protect Happy.

The large pillar had died down, revealing Telo City once more. Everyone seemed surprised at where they last were but Happy and Ignis noticed a large group of people walking over to them.

"Yo, Happy! Sorry to keep ya waiting!" Natsu cried out as he waved with a goofy smile.

"Y-You guys took too long!" Happy instantly yelled as tears came to his face and flew right to Natsu.

Everyone laughed as Happy practically tackled down Natsu.

It was at last the end of their adventure of the Isle of Undead.

---

{Author Notes}

Oh god. These were my longest chapters yet!

I didn't want the Arc to drag out too long over the course of time, which is why these chapters are so long.

I hope you all enjoyed it. I for one enjoyed having the side characters have better fights than usual instead of being left off in the background.

I also changed their magic somewhat and gave them buffs, but all in all I believe it's still within their power to do the following: example with Team Shadow Gear. I basically buffed all of them since we barely seem them fight in the main story. They'll have definitely more character and opportunities in the future, and not just them, I'm talking about the others as well.

I'm really excited for the side characters, because there is so little known about them, they can basically be seen as OCs that exist in the main story. (My next original Arc really focuses on one of them but it'll happen after a REALLY DIFFERENT Phantom Lord Arc.)

I hope you all enjoyed the Mages V.S. Undead Arc! See you all soon!

---

Extra: A heart to heart.

"Hey Kage, a word?" Kain asked the Shadow Mage while he was standing at the corner, watching Momon talk to Éclair and introduce them to the mages that saved her and what had happened on the island.

"Huh? Oh yeah." Suddenly, he remembered seeing the young man's memories and what he had gone through… and what he achieved through it.

"I… I never did tell you why I helped you, did I? You were in the middle of asking me until we saw the rain go upside down."

Kage already knew why. He saw what had happened.

"You don't need to."

Kain shook his head. "It's fine. The reason why I decided to help you was because back where I'm from, I lost a really great friend because the legal system in my world was horribly unfair. Bad things happened to him and they probably wouldn't have if their lawyer was even remotely decent." He frowned as he said this. "I helped you out because you remind me of him."

Now that caught the shadow mage in surprise. He had seen, Rico, the friend was talking about, but Kageyama was nothing like that kid.

"How?" Kage asked.

"Well… I believed that you two were both good people trapped in bad circumstances. It's why I wanted to help you so much. … Not everyone can get pass those."

The shadow mage hadn't thought about that. He really didn't see anything he had common with Kain's old friend, but hearing that…

Kain really cared, didn't he?

"Thanks."

"Huh?" Kain looked back to Kageyama.

"I said thanks… and sorry. I… don't really deal well with others, even in back at my own guild. I'll… try to be nicer to everyone." He said as he looked away from Kain.

The young man smiled at that. "It's alright." He turned back to see Erza punching Gray and Natsu to the ground. "Just be you: that's the best anyone can really be."