"Nothing? Was there really nothing?" It was hard not to frown after I said that.
Natsu tried to look back at the book again, he was apprehensive as he did so, but he seemed to try to push his own feelings back for mine. "I-I think there are other books, right Levy?"
The blue haired girl frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry Natsu that was the last book. There are no more of them in the orb." As she said this, she brought up the green orb that was gifted to us by Jeremiah. It was indeed empty with how dull its color had gotten after we emptied as many books on lost magic as we could.
Figures, around 80 books worth of lost spells and none of them have anything to do with traveling to other worlds.
"These books are useless! What's the point of having them, if they can't do crap!" Natsu yelled angrily.
"We only read the titles, so maybe there is an excerpt somewhere in one of them! We just have to look again more thoroughly!" Levy tried to say, which only made Natsu blanch considering reading around eighty dictionary sized books with small texts didn't quite appeal to him.
It was such a shame he was the only one who could read the books.
"Guys, it's alright. Thanks for trying. We don't need to continue this for now." I told them.
"H-Hey! Don't talk like that! One of these…" Natsu paled as he reopened the spell book about Lost Golem Magic again. "This passage looks interesting!"
"Well, I won't deny golems made of pure light energy are interesting, but really Natsu, I know you're getting a head ache just after trying to read one of these that isn't the pyromancy book. You don't need to push yourself." I told him with a smile.
Natsu slumped into the chair. "Ugh, I haven't read so many words since Erza had to re-teach me the entire alphabet again."
"Thank you for trying. I know reading isn't your strong suit in the first place. How about you try out one of your new fire spells?" I offered to him.
Before he could answer, the three of us had our attention caught to Macao who had stood up on his table and pointed the blade he got from Gomez into the sky.
"It was a hard fought battle, but in the end, I won!" Macao cried out while laughing with excitement. "As he faded, he gave me his blade as a sign of respect!"
"Really dad!? You beat Gomez Bison, the famed exploration mage!?" If the light in Romeo's eyes were any brighter, they'd have to replaced the sun with them to power the planet.
"Yep! But he was one tough cookie, didn't go down easily!" The proud father sheathed the blade and rubbed his son's head before he turned to me. "Isn't that right, Kain?"
"I was unconscious at that time." I smiled as I walked towards them to pick up some of Macao's empty jugs. There really needs to be a official Happy Hour in this guild.
"Oh, right." The purple fire mage rubbed his head as he recalled that I was knocked out and in a different area when that happened.
"Here are your drinks." Éclair had walked in with an obvious frown on her face.
Seeing that, and how quickly Macao, Wakaba, and Romeo's mood fell, I stepped in. "Éclair, what did Mirajane and I tell you when working this job?"
The dark brown haired girl sighed. "I should serve with a smile."
Man, she is just like Kageyama when he first arrived here. It was bad enough that she apparently lost her money during the event, but apparently she disliked mages in general and didn't really have much a choice when I offered she could temporarily work here. "You know, come to think of it, I haven't really seen you smile yet, but Momon tells us you've got a nice one. There's no harm in showing it."
Éclair's lips twitched upward as she smiled with all the beauty of a deranged, mentally challenged serial killer.
"I-I gotta go home and do homework, bye dad!" Romeo Conbolt bolted out the door.
"Wait, let me come with you!" The dad was quick to follow before I saw Éclair try to smile to Wakaba.
"…" The smoke mage didn't even try to make an excuse and just ran.
After a few seconds, I turned to our new waitress. "You're going to be here a while."
Much to the relief of everyone else around us, Éclair dropped her bastardization of a smile and sighed tiredly. "Why was my wallet accidentally dropped to the lava?"
"We were in an active volcano." Volcanoes are going to be a thing with me, aren't they? "But come on, mages aren't that bad."
As if to prove me wrong, Kageyama was about to walk up to us until Éclair saw him and scowled with all the intensity of Batman. The shadow mage stopped mid step and promptly retreated from both of us, or mostly Éclair.
It was kind of pitiable since I think Kage fancied Éclair, but she saw him as some kind of criminal—wait that was the wrong word to use. Uhhh not reformed criminal?
"Okay, in Kage's defense, he is trying to be good now. Could you please tone down the death stares to him?"
The newcomer sighed before heading back to Mirajane. "I wish Momon didn't like this place so much." Even though she tried to whisper that as she left, I had mostly caught on to what she was implying and turned towards a different corner of the guild where a large majority of female mages were gathered around.
"Aww! You're so cute!" "Can I get a hug?" "I wanna pet you!" Those were just a few of the words I heard as Momon seemed to enjoy the attention coming over to him.
Over all, despite Éclair's partial reluctance to let us help her, both she and Momon were welcomed into the guild like me.
"Grrrr…"
Huh? Oh right. That.
I looked down towards a rather unhappy Happy, the flying cat. He was currently chewing angrily on a fish like an angry dog… huh.
"You know Happy, there's a saying in my world that goes like this: 'Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die'."
"… Hmm… Poison…" The cat mewled over the idea carefully.
Well that figures. The first time I try to be sagely and I only ended up giving him bad ideas. "Happy, you aren't jealous of Momon, are you?"
"I'm not jealous! That fowl is coaching in on my territory!" Happy, that sounds like you are jealous.
"Happy, you're still the mascot of Fairy Tail, just because there's another cute animal sidekick here doesn't mean you'll be replaced."
"Hey, Momon! Do you want some fish?!" Godammit Natsu, why are you offering fish to Momon!?
"Fish! I wuv fish!" The bird flew over to Natsu with his tiny wings. The manner he did so looked cute to even me, but to the girls around him….
"Did you hear that!? He said 'wuv'!" "He's so adorable!" "He should be the mascot of Fairy Tail!" Several other female mages said.
Against my better judgment, I looked back at Happy and noticed the dark and suspicious-as-all-heck aura around him.
"Don't." I said.
"I didn't say anything." Happy eerily returned.
"You were thinking it."
"You're not Warren, you can't prove it."
"Uhhh…" We both happened to look over to the sound to see Warren Rocko, the telepathic mage of Fairy Tail walking right by us at that very moment.
The raven haired mage looked down at Happy and began to sweat. He turned to me with the expression of a man held at gunpoint and made to say things he didn't want to. "K-Kain, you're over thinking things! There-There is no way Happy would harm… wha?" He paused as he looked back to Happy before his eyes widened in horror and his face lost color. "I-I mean there's no way Happy would harm a horrible and miserable creature like Momon!"
I noticed the sweat pouring down the telekinetic's face then I sighed. "You can go now Warren."
He whispered a thank you before bolting away from me and Happy.
"Tch! I need to get rid of Kain before I can begin my plans." I don't know if my hearing has become sharper because of The Morpher, or if everyone is just bad at whispering today, but I totally heard what Happy just said.
Now I'm on a hit list of a flying cat trying to potentially kill a talking bird… wait a second. Why does this feel familiar?
I ended up doing a face palm as I realized something: this is shaping up to be Tweety Bird and Sylvester from Looney Tunes only with magic instead of carton physics which may or may not be worse.
"I don't get paid enough to deal with this crap."
"W-What are we doing here?" Bora, excommunicated mage of Titan Nose asked as he looked up to the guild doors in front of him.
"Hmm? Were you misinformed somewhere? I do recall briefing you that we were to follow our boss as he went to do business with a client." Fero, the white haired, gray-eyed mage assassin dressed as a navy commander said to the excommunicated mage.
"N-No, I remember you saying that, it's just…"
A new, smoother yet confident voice spoke up. "What our friend is trying to say, Fero, is that you must have neglected to specifically say where we were going to meet our client. Our new employee obviously didn't realize we were going to one of the Phantom Lord guilds."
"Ah," The navy captain looked back to Bora. "In that case, my apologizes. I thought it wasn't necessarily important to mention that detail."
Not important!? Weren't they all wanted criminals? Why were they just practically waltzing into one of the top legal guilds?!
Before Bora could start to express his worry, the owner of the third voice spoke up. "It's nothing worth apologizing over considering he was just surprised rather than alarmed. Not to worry, Bora, Fero here is capable of being a bodyguard for the both of us when we enter." The third voice then knocked hard on the wood of the massive door.
The trio watched as the large wooden doors slowly opened, revealing dark room dimly lit by candles.
The third man practically walked in as if nothing had phased him in the slightest. Fero followed after him with Bora being the only one to show actual worry at where they were going.
"Attention all those that hear my voice! I come to make the transaction of jewels and materials known as consumerism!" The third voice made a grandiose and superfluous movement as he strode into the darkly lit guild, much to the horror of Bora.
Fero cleared his throat. "Erhm! Bora, please close your mouth. You'll catch a fly."
Instead of doing so, Bora stared at his potential acquaintance with equal amounts of shock.
"Yes, I know he's… eccentric." The way the gray eyed man said that seemed like that was all that needed to be explained.
It was.
"Who the hell are you?" One of the mages around them finally stood up, causing a reverse domino effect and made the other mages around them rise up as well with the obvious intent to kick them out.
It was then that a loud voice from above the room caught everyone's attention.
"Now, now everyone. These are my guests, and it would be a very rude if you all were to treat them so poorly." The voice made nearly everyone look up to see a man dressed in dark purple clothing in a balcony above. "Mr. Ryan Peloth. I wasn't aware you made deliveries in person."
"Walking is good for the legs, Mr. Jose Porla." The handsome, Adonis-figured man with swept back black hair and glasses tapped his legs before motioning the suitcase he was carrying. "Where would you like me to hand you this?"
"Come to my office. Lawrence over there will guide you over."
Ryan Peloth pointed over to the closest man to them who of which Jose was referring too. "Ha! Your name is Lawrence! That's so not fitting to your appearance."
Lawrence's response to that was only to glare worse at the seemingly oblivious man.
"S-Sir, can we please hurry?" Bora offered as he seemed to be the only noticing the increasing tension in the room.
"Well you heard my friend, Lawrence! Press on! I've got important paper work to pretend I'm filing later!"
Bora sighed as he saw his boss and his co-worker practically brisk ahead without seemingly taking in the amount of glares towards their direction. He put a hand worryingly over his head.
"I don't get paid enough to deal with this crap."
"Thank you for coming in such short notice. I admit I'm pleasantly surprised at how quick you came." Jose Porla, Wizard Saint and Guild Master of Phantom Lord spoke as he sat on one end of a table away from Mr. Peloth and his two bodyguards.
"It's really no biggie." Ryan dismissed easily. "We've got some mages working on Portal Magic, so travel isn't that much of an issue."
"Oh? Portal magic? I thought we were one of the few guilds with someone capable of that lost magic?"
"Jose, buddy! People always call rare magic like that lost, but they don't have my resources in finding them!" The black suited man laughed jovially.
The Phantom Lord Guild Master laughed earnestly as well. "I suppose that is a true. It is why I was surprised to hear rumors of a certain… item… in your possession."
Ryan nodded. "And why you wanted to buy it from me, no? It's only experimental, but I theorize along with some of my magical experts it has the same basic abilities of the rumored 'Ancient Weapon' that is said to be floating around Fairy Tail."
Bora instantly noticed the guild master's face frown deeply at the mention of the other guild's name. However, it disappeared as fast it happened. "What type of basic abilities?"
"The major one: it amplifies battle and magical prowess." The vendor answered easily before putting the suitcase into the table. "However, it requires… a direct input… to activate."
"A direct input?" A voice in the shadows behind Jose made Bora blink in confusion. As he focused his sights, somehow he realized that there were five mages all behind the Phantom Lord Leader and somehow he had missed them.
"Yes, you see…"
Everyone in the room except Jose and Fero seemed to gasp at the explanation.
"You're crazy!" One of the mages behind Jose cried out.
"Calm down," Jose told one of the mages behind him before looking back to his guests. "Mr. Peloth, wouldn't this be extreme useless if it needs such an action to work?"
"It would be… if it actually killed the user." The silence after he said this spoke in volumes. However, Ryan didn't seem to let it bother him as he continued. "We actually did a test and our subjects only felt brief pain before… you get the idea."
"… I see. So it does work?"
"Well, in an unorthodox manner, but yes. It does."
After hearing that, a smile spread across Jose's lips. "Well then, Mr. Peloth, I would be glad to buy this new product of yours."
"You serious?" A gruffer voice spoke out from behind the guild master.
"Gajeel, trust me, I know what I'm doing. Now kindly hand these men their money so they can be on their way."
The one referred to as Gajeel grunted as he stepped out of the shadows with long black hair and a get up that made him look like the toughest man in the room. He carried a suit case and placed it right in front of the excitable man with black hair.
Or he should have. He slammed it into the table and towered over the still smiling salesman. "I don't like your attitude towards the strongest guild in Fiore."
"Ah? Really?" Ryan looked over to his right briefly before looking back to the raven haired man with long unruly hair. "My apologizes but you might want to step back."
Gajeel, feeling defiant, moved forward, "Oh and if I—" At least he tried to move forward closer to threaten the vendor. However, he found it actually hard to do so with something around his neck: string.
Gajeel then followed where Ryan had glanced over, seeing Fero glaring at him while holding his fishing rod.
"I recommend you step back this very instant." Fero spoke in a low tone as he lifted his right hand up, revealing string coming out from inside his fist and slowly putting pressure to the string around Gajeel's neck.
However, instead of feeling fear, Gajeel smiled. "Ha! You think string like this is going to stop me? Go ahead!" The Phantom Lord mage declared with a smirk.
"Are you referring to the fact that you are an Iron Dragon Slayer, and therefore have a body like steel?" Fero asked, much to the surprise of everyone in the room except Ryan Peloth. "It is true, string is good for cutting flesh, but yours is as hard as steel and my wires might not be strong enough to match how well you can harden your body no matter how much magic I put into them."
"Then what's the point?" It took Gajeel a second to realize that his arm was no longer moving and quickly looked down to see both his hands and his legs covered with string without his notice. Which he had to begrudgingly admit was impressive to get the surprise on a dragon slayer mage with their heightened senses.
"The point is, Mr. Redfox, that I knew my string couldn't harm you." Fero's eyes narrowed. "But my magic isn't just the string." His tone became eerily calm and soft.
"Ahh! Gajeel, your chest!" A female voice from the shadows cried out, making everyone look towards the chest of the Iron Dragon Slayer.
To nearly everyone's shock, there was a huge bulge nearby where Gajeel's heart would be.
"W-What the hell!?" The Phantom Lord Mage cried out as he tried to move—only to instantly feel pain as he never felt before when he even twitched.
"My magical tool is a Fishing Rod, so I ask: where is my fishing hook? I'll give you one guess." The darkness around the room obscured Fero's face except the glow from his gray eyes and the light reflecting off his strings coming from his finger and rod.
"How'd you get it in there!? Forget it! I'm going to kick your ass!" Gajeel roared as he tried to move, only to feel another shock of pain and stop.
It was then that Fero started speaking in a low but clear tone. "I wouldn't move if I were you. As of right now, I used magic to make my hook phase through your skin and attach itself to a small but important vein in your heart. The more you move, the more the hook will start to tear open that vein, causing you to internally bleed from the inside with each heartbeat." Fero coldly stated while Bora stared in shock and fear. He knew his ally's magic was deadly, but he didn't know he could do that with it.
"You bastard!" Gajeel leered at Fero with obvious intent to kill.
"Judging by that reaction, you can't solidify your insides like you can with your skin and muscles, can you?" Fero observed calmly.
"Fero, let him go. I think you've shown off enough." Ryan nonchalantly commented out loud.
The navy-uniformed assassin quickly reeled his rod, releasing Gajeel and making the hook pop out of his skin like it came out of water.
"Forgive me sir." Fero bowed to his boss.
"That's it, I'm going to—!"
"Gajeel, let it go." Jose spoke up, much to the annoyance of the Iron Dragon Slayer.
"What!?"
"You were a bit rude to our guests, so of course one of his body guards will try and make a move." Jose began.
"Oh and don't take it personally. In terms of magic power and raw strength, you definitely outclass Fero here for miles!" Ryan began. "However, he's not a battle hardened mage like you, but an assassin mage. A good one knows how to pick their fights to their advantage."
With that, the eccentric vendor stood up. "Alright, but that's enough. I wish you well in your future endeavor! We'll all be leaving right now."
"Thank you for your business." Jose responded as Bora nervously took the money and the three left the room with their original suitcase.
With them leaving, Gajeel didn't waste time to kick the table into the wall in anger, but not before Jose used his magic to snatch the original suitcase and bring it into his hands. "Dammit! I'm kicking that slob's ass all across Ishgar for that!"
"How about a job to make you feel better?" Jose asked quickly, stopping the fuming mage from acting out even worse. "It involves your specialty and it involves a certain guild that we are about to crush."
Gajeel's smile returned full swing.
…
Okay, from what Levy told me, these two symbols translate into… this… which means this passage is as follows:
The language of magic has long eluded the most studious of interpreters and scholars. However, these symbols are designed to increase certain attributes if done correctly and with perfect tracing.
Sweet. Though decoding really is a tedious process and Natsu isn't actually the best teacher in learning dead languages.
Still, everyone in the guild is excited to eventually start reading these books as soon as Levy, Natsu, and I start transcribing them…
Hold on…
What was this feeling of dread in the air?
Ꝏ
KKRASH!
… Whoa, did I just slide out of the way from a giant metal pillar piercing into the guild? How did I—the shine of my gauntlet distracted me. Was it because of that I had some kind of strangely zen warrior moment?
Ꝏ
KRAKOOM!
Alright, going to take that as a yes, and I should probably get out of here.
Against the more logical part of my mind, I ran out to see what was attacking the guild.
"Finally! I thought people would come flying out the doors to stop me, but imagine my surprise when there's only one of you here!" There was some really tough looking dude with super saiyan 3 hair shouting at me from above one of the nearby roof tops. "I've been itching for a fight all day, and you're not getting away!" He jumped into the air before a large magical circle appeared and fired a bloody tower sized piece of metal at me.
I quickly hopped away, instantly regretting lending Natsu and the others Ignis for their mission while I stayed behind to catch up on legal work. Looks like I was completely on my own while the guild was under attack…sunnuva. Why? Just why?
Pushing those thoughts aside, I spotted the raven haired man jump down with a boom into an area nearby me. I didn't waste time and quickly activated my morpher.
"Huh." The stranger put his hand down after the quick flash of red light. "So you must be the rumored Wyvern Rider in Fairy Tail's guild."
"Wyvern Rider?" Is that what other's have been calling me? You know, it's really catchy. And since Erza is already a knight mage, I think I might take up that title—oh crap I'm in a fight!
I barely avoided his fist becoming some kind of metal pillar that extended into trying to punch me. However, he had used that extended limb as a distraction as he came in and kneed me right through a wall back into the guild.
"Now I definitely know who is going to be douche bag of the week…" I groaned as I got back up before noticing my opponent running at insanely fast speeds towards me. His hand then turned into a bloody giant sword that tried to cut me in half like the three tables he hit if I didn't jump out of the way.
"That's it!?" The raven haired mage looked at me with obvious disappointment and disgust. "Quit running and fight damn it!"
"But I barely know how to fight! It's just this stupid thing that gives me armor in the first place!" I pointed to my wrist where the morpher was gone.
Unfortunately, while I'm in my armor, my emotions get amplified. And since I like to be snarky when I'm terrified sometimes, I end up babbling like an idiot.
That last sentence I said gave my attack an interested look.
"Well then, looks like I'm going to take it from your corpse!" He jumped up into the air before his hand turned metal again and another magic circle appeared. I quickly started to run—good thing too as a multitude of metal arrows shot where I was all over the guild.
As I kept running from the barrage of arrows, and letting them hit nearly all of the Guild's main hall, I instantly realized that my opponent was right. Running away would not solve this. I would have to fight.
I just hope Erza's training really has prepared me for this.
As I ran, I picked up a broken bench and tossed it right for the black haired assailant. He stopped his spear shooting at me in order to break it, but that is what I was counting on. He wasn't expecting me to knee him in the face with my top speed and send him flying through one of the guild's halls.
However, even with that clean hit, I felt my own knee cap buckling despite wearing the armor. It was like I hit something made of titanium!
A dark laughter filled the air as out of the dust my opponent walked out with a grin on his face and no seeable damage because the universe just hates me. "Now we're talking!"
As soon as he said this, he jumped into the air and stretched his leg—I knew what it meant as I jinked right to avoid his leg turning into a spear and shooting right where my chest would have been.
I noticed that I landed near the first giant pillar that my opponent threw that pierced through the guild and quickly I decided to run on top of it to the roof of the guild.
"Hey! Get back here!" I heard the steel mage cry out as he jumped after me to the roof of the guild.
I made a beeline for the very top of the roof before I heard another hum of magical energy behind me. I turned and tilted my head to avoid another spear limb thrown at me. However, I noticed the pillar shrinking and then realized that my opponent had used that punch like a hook shoot to get to me—
I blacked out for a second from my familiar opponent's punch and ended up landing near an edge of Fairy Tail's roof.
I tried to get up—only to grunt when a heavy foot slammed into my chest plate. "Heh! Don't worry about dying alone! I'll make sure your other friends get sent to hell with you!" My assailant turned his hand into a giant blade ready to decapitate me again.
However, as he tilted his hand back, time slowed down. My life started flashing before my eyes… wait. Why are my memories of Erza's sword training the only ones being shown? And why are they showing me back in the fight against the Lullaby and Deliora Fusion, Symphony? Huh? The sword I picked up from Sypmphony?
Clang!
"What the—!?" My assailant jumped back away with all haste to avoid a sword trying to stab him in the face.
Slowly, my mind had caught up what my body had done without it telling it to move.
Somehow, I had summoned the same blade that Symphony had stolen from Erza, but instead of that dark eerie katana he used, it turned into a sleek red broadsword in my hand. With one of my free hands, I somehow summoned that same blade to block his sword arm from decapitating me. But then my other hand summoned the same blade and tried to stab him while he was still standing over me.
Now here I was getting back up wielding two red broadswords in my hand. Looks like the armor is kicking in with toys to help protect me… good. It's time to test these babies out!
I focused in on my opponent and ran quickly at him, slashing at him with all the form that Erza had taught me. My tougher opponent who was kicking my ass just a few seconds ago was now actually on the defensive for once as he dodged every slash I threw at him. And boy did I not let up in my attack! I was swinging these blades like a master somehow! It's like the armor knew how to move my body for me!
I-I think I can win this!
"This is much better!" Aaannnddd my confidence died when I saw him smile that battle hungry smile again.
After I tried to stab him, he tilted his head then bit my sword off.
I instantly backed away as I noticed my left blade looked like it was torn like a piece of cardboard. Then I heard the sound of crunching as I looked back at my opponent eating my blade as if it was a snack.
He then swallowed and gasped before wiping his mouth with a scary looking grin in his eyes with the full moon seen behind him.
"Well that was an exotic tasting metal!" He laughed darkly as he seemed to spot my frozen and stupefied self. "Sorry, kid, you can't use metal to beat the Iron Dragon Slayer."
"Iron Dragon Slayer? You mean… you mean you're like Natsu?"
"The famed Salamander huh? I kinda hoped to meet him here, but all things considered this isn't too bad." His smile became feral when he suddenly took another fighting position. "Unfortunately, I've played with you too long and we're both on a deadline!"
It took me a second to realize the second meaning of that before he rushed for me again with his giant arm, metal blade. Instinctively, I braced myself and parried his blade with my own despite feeling my armor exerting a lot of my enhanced strength to take that blow.
Instantly, I realized my mistake, in this dead lock, the Iron Dragon Slayer was now close to my second blade! He quickly bit it—
*The red blade flashed in an instant.*
"GAH!" I wasn't expecting him to actually release his bite over the sword. I wasn't expecting him to stagger backwards as if he was in pain. And I certainly didn't expect to see his mouth bleed while my last blade remained untouched!
"W-What the!? The hell was that!? It was like eating sharp paper!" My opponent cried out as he looked at me.
Suddenly, there was a liquid like sound coming from my left side. To both my opponent's and my own surprise, the blade he had originally eaten started forming back to normal as if it was never bitten off before.
"The hell!?" My opponent had the same reaction as me only more exaggerated. "What are you!?"
"Would you believe me if I said a spatially displaced boy from another world given an ancient weapon believed to be created during the final life span of a dying god?" Ah banter. Way to put my thoughts out in public like that.
In the distance, I noticed the other houses around Magnolia starting to light up. No doubt the town was just now realizing something was going wrong here in the guild.
"Well looks like I've got to cut this short." My opponent said before he spit some of his blood on the roof. "The guild ain't as trashed as I wanted it to be, so consider this a parting gift!"
He smiled before leaping into the sky like Super Man would and even from up there, my armor could see him smirking as he inhaled—
{Iron DRAGON SLAYER}
"Shit."
"Iron Dragon's Roar!"
After my short whisper, my enemy opponent released a massive maelstorm right for me and the guild. However, to my surprise, I found myself swinging both blades in circles before stopping with them positioned behind my back. They were also glowing faintly in a way that I never saw before.
I was briefly confused, but with the massive energy blast heading my way, I let go and let the armor guide me.
To my surprise, I took two steps forward before putting a lot of power into swinging both my blades at the torrent of energy.
What happened next silenced every thought in my mind except my inner five year old as I launched a giant sword beam at the Dragon Slayer Roar.
Unfortunately, even my inner five year old was silenced when the two powerful attacks clashed—
KKRAAACCKKKOOOM!
And sent me flying off the roof and crash landing right into Ignis' stable.
My body was aching and all I could hear was white noise. Even so, I still got up; ready for anything else he might throw at me.
However, nothing came.
After the white noise died down, I tried using my senses, but I couldn't hear him or see him anymore.
Seeing that it was safe, I powered down my armor. Instantly, my body felt even worse than before since I'm assuming my powered up mode somehow lessened the pain I was supposed to feel. I think I even felt one of my eyes throbbing—wait no. It's black—ow—yeah. Somehow I got a black eye in armor because apparently that just is.
Ughh…
I looked up and whatever feeling I had then, only felt worse.
Despite how banged up I was, the guild was much worse off since it was now without a roof.
"I better not get docked from my pay for this."
Ugh… even with this ice pack on my right eye, everything still hurts.
"KAIN!"
Ow. No, really; add a headache to the list of things I desperately needed right now why don't you?
Though it's nice to see that everyone returned safely.
"Kain! Are you alright!?" "What happened to you!?" "Yeah, tell us!" Most of Team Valiant ran over to me as soon as they came into the guild's basement were everyone else was stationed.
"Natsu please be softer, my head is still ringing from the fight." I said to the salmon-haired dragon slayer before easing into a magic bean bag Kageyama was kind enough to let me borrow. Where he got a bean bag, he was suspiciously quiet on.
"Fight?" Lucy repeated in confusion.
It was at this point Mirajane came in. "Last night, the guild was attacked by a lone mage from Phatom Lord and Kain was the only one there to ward him off."
"I didn't even know about a guild called Phantom Lord until today." After my comment, I noticed Mira hand me a drink. "Oh thanks? But I didn't order one?" I raised my brow in confusion before taking the drink.
"It's on the house… or what's left of it in this case." She said as she put the tray to the side. "You deserve it for trying to protect our guild.
"In all fairness, I think I ironically made it worse by fighting him and using the place as a battlefield." Yeesh, saying that makes me feel like I don't deserve this smoothie. Wait, no. I'm still drinking it anyway. Grape is my favorite fruit.
"Aaah!~It's fine! This place is always getting beaten up!" We all looked over to the side to see Master Makarov drinking to his heart's content and currently not fully sober.
"What!? Master, we gotta get back at the guys who did this to our guild and Kain!" Natsu passionately yelled as he pointed to me as if I was dead. I'm flattered but at the same time…
"Ahh guild's can be rebuilt and Kain is alright, in fact he told me he gained some new powers in the fight so all in all, everything is alright!" Makarov laughed again as he drank, much to everyone's rising anger.
"Master, do you understand the gravity of this situation?" Erza asked the drunken guild master carefully.
"The guild's been demolished and heck they beat up Kain!"
"Hey! I lost, not got beat up! I'm fairly certain I put up a decent fight…" I mumbled that last sentence after I shouted in right after Natsu agreed with Erza.
The small Wizard Saint stopped drinking for a second before dismissing the other two. "There's no need to get so worked up about it. In fact, it goes to show those Phantom Losers can't even beat one of our weakest guild members in a fair fight."
"Sir, you are lucky I'm allowing that backhanded praise to slide because you're drunk." I mean I can't believe I'm considered lower than Happy of all people in the guild. And it sucks that when a complement finally comes my way it's also in the form of an insult. I just can't damn win here, can I?
"Overall, we shouldn't worry about punks who don't have the guts to face us head on! Forget about those jerks!"
Suddenly, I looked back up to the sound of Natsu's fist connecting with that poor crate.
"Ain't going to happen, Gramps! We can't just let them trash our place and one of our friends and get away with it!"
"Again, I'm bruised but alright!" I yelled after our dragon slayer's angry yell. I can understand how he feels about it but…
"Until the upstairs is repaired, we'll handle job requests down here in the basement." Makarov went on, seemingly ignoring our resident fire mage.
"Grr! We shouldn't be worrying about jobs right now—"
"Natsu! That's enough out of you!" Makarov shouted to interrupt him before the sound of a slap caught my attention. I felt my headache return tenfold when I saw Master slapping Lucy's butt.
"Godammit, sir." I groaned before continuing to drink my grape smoothie. If only there was magic here that could refill drinks like I think they do in Harry Potter and Marvel—this is the worst magic world ever.
After a comment by Mira to keep his hands to himself, the small man ran out to go to the bathroom, much to Natsu's dismay.
"Why is he being like this?" That was my cue to finally stand back up.
"Because he was the very first person to come to the guild after the attack." I told the newcomers as they all turned to me.
"He was the first one?" Gray looked at me with surprise which was just like the others.
I sighed before I noticed everyone in the guild looking at me. It seemed like I had now caught everyone's attention since what I just said was news to everyone.
"I probably shouldn't say this, but Master is as worried as all of you, if not more. Okay, first I have to tell you all what happened when the guild was attacked."
Everyone listened closely as I described what happened when I was attacked and what followed after.
I was sore all over, but I could still walk fine. As I pushed through some of the debris of our guild, I tried to get back to my room and fish out anything that was still intact. Most of my stuff was actually in good condition, although somewhat dirty and scattered around, but before I could figure out how to pack everything, I heard a voice.
"Kain!" I walked out of what was left of my room to see Master Makarov.
When he saw me, he was instantly relieved. But despite that, he wasn't fast enough to change it for me to see the look of horror in his face before he spotted me.
"Are you alright?!" He ran up to me worried as he viewed me all over. "Who… who did this!?" At that time, even though it was still the dead of night, I could still visibly see the veins in his head popping.
"I… don't really know. It was some kind of Iron Dragon Slayer… a guy that had similar magic to Natsu but a different element."
"An Iron Dragon Slayer? Wait the only one I know is… Phantom Lord!" He was actually gripping his fists so tightly they were trembling when he said those words. "Damn them!"
"… He then told me how guilds are forbidden from clashing with one another." I told everyone who was deeply into the story. "He apologized to me for the night, but I told him that I was still in once piece and that no one else really suffered for it. It's half the reason I understood why he was drinking so much this morning. He feels more trapped about this situation than anyone, but he can't do anything without risking the council's wrath."
"But they were the ones who started it!" Natsu yelled to me.
"Exactly, and isn't that the weird thing?" No sooner had my mouth said that, everyone stared at me with confusion. I started to elaborate. "I only now just heard it, but Makarov has explained to me that Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail have been on bad terms for years, so why is it only now when they finally decide to attack? Master clearly said to me that it is illegal for one guild to attack the other, so why did Phantom Lord attack us knowing that it was illegal?"
"They hate us!" I and everyone else turned to Wakaba after he shouted an answer to my rhetorical question. "Right?"
"It's more than that, Wakaba. Their attacker that night… he let some things slip when he was fighting me. I never once got the impression that he was attack our guild for the heck of it. There was purpose in how he carried himself, like he was ordered to attack the guild… and how it wasn't going to be the end."
The air in the room felt thicker after I just said that, but I continued. "I told master this as well. He doesn't understand why Phantom Lord would do this even with their hatred. It was then that we both realized it was some kind of trap. Phantom Lord is goading us into fighting them for some reason and despite how much Makarov wants to pay them back in kind, we have no idea what they're planning."
After I said this, the room became deathly quiet. Erza was the first to speak up after a few more seconds. "So that's why Master is choosing to let this slide even with you injured. Phantom Lord is up to something suspicious and he doesn't want to take risks."
"He asked me to go to the Magic Council tomorrow with him in order to get them to cease Phantom Lord's actions for a while or at least stall them some way until we get more information on what we're dealing with." I responded to her. "And again, I'm bruised, not injured."
Erza nodded. "In that case, it's best if we trust the master's word."
That night Kageyama Maru heard knocking—knocking on his chamber door.
"Now which late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door? It better be this and nothing more." The shadow mage paused for a second at the rhyme before shaking his head. It can't be Phantom Lord; they definitely don't knock on his chamber doors nevermore.
Kageyama Maru opened the door.
"Heeeeyyyy~ Kage!"
Then he slammed the door to be opened no more.
"Kage," The muffled voice screamed behind the closed door then started tapping—tapping on his chamber door. "I have Ignis with me. Do not tempt me to break it down with a wyvern. I warn you the idea actually sounds appealing to me since having Ignis break a wall or door is kinda cool."
Kageyama sighed and opened the door back open. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't you remember Mira saying that we should party up for the next few nights?" The brunette asked carefully.
"Well yeah, but aren't you with Team Valiant?" Kage quickly pointed out. "Why are you here?"
"Oh they can handle themselves, but you didn't really have others helping you out, so I asked if I could come over to your place."
Despite his eyes being naturally low, Kageyama leered. "Wait. Why do I have a feeling you aren't telling me everything?"
"Uuuuhhh?" Kain paused suspiciously before to Kageyama surprise… and horror… Natsu Dragneel appeared and wrapped his hand around Kain.
"Yo Kage! Can you let us in?" The salmon haired fire mage waved hello nonchalantly to the shadow mage.
Kage stepped out of his apartment. He later found this an unwise decision as he found out all of team Valiant was waiting out his door.
The shadow mage turned back to the wyvern rider. "Explain."
"… Slumber party?" The young lawyer offered before the door was closed on his face again.
It took a while, but Kageyama did begrudgingly let almost everyone in. Except Ignis because no room could fit in a wyvern.
Still, it was a relatively peaceful night for everyone… except Team Shadow Gear.
That next morning…
Master Makarov could handle the guild being destroyed. Despite Kain's brush in with Phantom Lord's mage, he was relatively fine and Kain understood what it would mean to go to war at that point.
However, Kain, for the very first time since he got here, was considered lucky the one time he wished he wasn't.
Team Shadow Gear did not share that same luck.
They were all pinned to a tree with Phantom Lord's symbol painted on to Levy's stomach as if they were all executed.
Makarov could accept the previous two. But this?
"Kain," The small guild master started.
"Yes sir?" The young man felt nervous but understood what was going on as he saw nearly every civilian back away from the guild master by his rising pressure alone.
"As our finance expert, order me a new staff."
"What's wrong with the one you're carrying—" Kain said nothing more when it was crushed with ease.
"Fairy Tail," A sudden burst of energy exploded from the small guild master. "We're going for a walk."
The attack on Phantom Lord's main branch was anything but silent. Nearly all members Fairy Tail members were present when they launched an attack on the Phantom Lord guild.
Including the Guild Master, Makrov, the Wizard Saint himself.
The guild master climbed the highest tower with an aura that destroyed nearly every object in sight. Eventually he blasted the doors and came face to face with Phantom Lord's guild master, Jose.
"Ahh Makarov, it's been six years since we last met at a Guild Master's convention—"
A giant fist punched the area the purple clad guild master was.
"Enough small talk! What is the meaning of attacking my guild!?" Makarov demanded before instantly realizing his fist connected with nothing. "A projection?! I knew you would have tried to run away at the first opportunity! Face me like a man!"
At this moment, a new projection appeared before Jose's feet… it was Lucy Heartifilia tied up. The image of such a thing snapped Makarov out of his anger and was replaced by shock.
"Lucy?" Makarov asked in disbelief. She was the reason why Phantom Lord attacked them?! "But why!?"
"Really? You don't know why?" Jose asked with equal amounts of confusion. "She's in your guild and you don't know why we captured her?"
As soon as a magic circle appeared in Jose's hand, Makarov cried out, "Wait, stop!"
And then he felt the presence of a large man behind him. Makarov quickly turned around, realizing he did not sense the large man's presence before that very moment.
"It's so sad! So sad!" The large man cried as magical energy started to gather in his hands.
However… instead of panic… Makarov was eerily calm at the attempt to ambush him. "You're right it is sad. If you weren't wearing a blindfold, you would have noticed my shadow wasn't moving normally."
The crying mage paused for a second. Even though he was wearing a blindfold, he tilted his head down—
Then the sound of a heavily coated and plated fist crushing a jaw bone echoed throughout the room.
The light coming from his close range spell was cancelled due to the large man being thrown out of the room as if he was turned into a baseball that was hit by a home run.
Jose was shocked as he saw Makarov's shadow jump out and punch one of the Element Four in the face. He was more shocked to see the shadow start to form out to reveal two young men coming out from the small midget.
"Looks like you were right after all, Kain. They did have a trap waiting for me." The Guild Master said as he looked to the red wyvern rider.
"I'm glad I was at least able to convince you to have Kageyama and I follow you sir," Jose looked towards the young man in red armor with curiosity before the crimson rider then turned and pointed to him. "What the hell did you do to Lucy, you bastard!?"
Jose looked at the scene before him. It seemed their plan to make Makarov's magic fail didn't work out. It seemed like Phantom Lord would have to fight Fairy Tail at one of their strongest. Yet on the other hand…
"Well this is an interesting turn of events. I actually had planned for Aria to scatter your magic and crush your guild while you could do nothing." Phantom Lord's guild master mused with interest before a dark smile spread across his lips. "But as much as that was preferred, a piece of me is actually glad you were able to see through this two-bit ruse! Now I can crush you beneath my feet at your maximum strength to fully humiliate you!"
"Don't you recall our last encounter? I'm sure to give you a worse beating than last time!" Makarov barked back.
"A lot has changed since then, Makarov," The opposing guild master said with a creepy smile remained on his face. "A lot has changed…"
Behind the three, the dust settled to reveal Aria, one of the Element Four now flying in the air where Kain had knocked him out of the tower.
"Aria, be a dear and start Plan B will you?" The Phantom Lord asked one of the Element Four.
The crying wind mage could only nod. "How sad! Plan B! It's so sad!" He cried out as he vanished back in to thin air.
"Plan B? You mean they actually had something incase this trap failed?" Kageyama asked in shock.
"Jose!" Makarov yelled as the image of both him and Lucy started to fade.
"I'm feeling generous, Makarov. One day. You've got one day to prepare your best… don't disappoint me." And with that, Jose's image left the room.
"Damn it!" Makarov roared as he blasted the wall where Jose was previously standing. "He got away!"
There were hundreds of sounds of screaming coming from below as the three looked over to one of the holes made at the top of the tower. Phantom Lord mages were in retreat with Fairy Tail pushing them back.
Despite it looking like a victory, the three on top of the tower knew something bad was going on.
At this point, Makarov looked over to the young man in red armor. "Kain, I need a favor from you."
Later, Makarov and Kageyama walked down to the ruined main hall of Phantom Lord, as soon as he did, the rest of Fairy Tail started to cheer.
"Everyone," Makarov's voice was not as jubilant as the rest of them. "Return to the guild at once!"
"Wait what? But we won!" Macao cried out.
The wizard saint was quick to shake his head. "I wish that we did, but this indeed was a trap. If not for Kageyama and Kain, I might not be standing in front of you all as I am now."
Erza seemed to be the first to notice that. "Where is Kain? Was he not with you?"
"I immediately sent him and Ignis on a mission. But come on, we must hurry back to Magnolia… where's Natsu?" The wizard saint asked.
Gray was the first to respond. "Now that you mention it, he was fighting Black Steel Gajeel until he said something that made him high tail it out of here with Happy."
To everyone's surprise Laki was the one to talk next. "Actually, when Natsu left, a tall green guy appeared behind Gajeel and the two retreated as well."
"Master, what's the matter?" Erza asked after hearing all this.
The guild master looked to everyone in his guild with worry. After a second he sighed and revealed what he knew. "Phantom Lord has a plan B."
{Author Notes.}
Funny how Kain's first official brawl in the guild is him defending it.
Also the part with Kain sleeping over with Kageyama is a parody of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Foolish Internet! While you all dawdle with your memes and references from other pop culture, I, PhantomGalaxy13, choose to parody a famous dead poet who married his cousin! Truly I have the better and more refined tastes than the likes of you masses!
So snap your fingers! Snap like they would in a poetry house when praising ingenious writers! MWAHAHAHA!
*Obnoxious snapping intensifies in the background.*
Now I am excited for this whole new take on the Phantom Lord Saga! I changed and Ret-conned a few things here when making this saga: Jose mostly. Let's just say he hasn't quite changed in power, but there are some life tweaks I made to him to make him a little more credible as a villain.
You're all also probably wondering, with Makarov seemingly in good health, how can the stakes be raised in this arc?
*Evil smile*
Anakin Skywalker, if you will?
Anakin: YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER!
Well said, Anakin. Go challenge Obi-wan over the high ground. I'm sure it'll work out.
So back to this story, I am excited for my take on the Phantom Lord Saga. I really hope you'll enjoy how different things are this time around.
Anyway, thank you all for reading and check out my other stories too if you have the time!