A.N. (7/9/21) - Wow, a whole month since this was updated. Sorry for the wait, enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 4 - Burning Passion
Part 1
He could tell he was dreaming.
Although, it was less of a dream and more of a memory. Vale watched as his younger self laughed cheerfully as he played with several others running around him. From how his younger self looked, it was easy to determine how far into the past his dream was.
A bright glow slowly enveloped his body, and Vale watched as his younger self's eyes widened in response. The next second, his younger self began whooping with glee as he ran off to show the others what just happened.
That was the day he first awakened to his magic.
It wasn't exactly like his mother's, but then again, there weren't many others who were like her. His magic seemed more in tune with a different kind of magic that she quickly recognized.
"You are a budding sage," she told him. "One with potential to become a Master Enchanter. It's just too bad…"
At the time, he didn't understand what his mother meant when her words trailed off. But as he grew, he understood what she was about to say.
It was lucky that he wasn't truly human. Otherwise, his mother might have decided to kill him there and then.
After all, that was one of his mother's greatest desires.
For Irene Belserion to once again regain her old life.
Even at the cost of his own.
}-{
Vale was not a morning person.
Opening his eyes, he winced as he felt the rays of the morning peeking through the blinds of his windows. Groaning to himself, he turned over to his side where his face was more covered by the shade.
Although he didn't exactly follow a strict schedule of hours like most students or workers, it was still rare for him to sleep in during the weekends. But after last night's revelations about the current living status of the Fairy Tail members on Tenrou, the entire guild had suddenly decided that a full-blown party was in order. Everyone celebrated together long through the night, and right past into the morning as well.
So it was an exhausted Vale that had collapsed on his bed at four in the morning. Right now, he guessed that it was almost afternoon judging by the brightness outside. At least, that was his best guess without forcing himself to find a clock to check the time.
"Wow, your sleeping form is horrible."
Vale only gave a muffled gruff at that, too tired to lift his head from the pillow.
At that moment, his eyes suddenly opened wide.
Wait a minute…
He thought he heard a familiar voice.
No, there's no way she'd be here…
It was probably just his imagination, but just in case, Vale slowly lifted himself off of his bed and looked around his room. Seeing that nobody was there, he gave out a sigh of relief.
Standing up, he made his way towards the restroom and closed the door behind him. Giving his reflection in the mirror a dead look, he yawned as he tried to get rid of his drowsiness.
And that was when he heard that familiar voice again.
"Hm, you act so differently when you think you're by yourself. It's honestly quite a shock."
Funnily enough, it was almost as if that voice was coming from above his head—
Of course, it was at that moment that Vale looked up.
"UWWAAAHHH?!"
Floating close to his bathroom ceiling was the illusionary teenage girl, Zera. Forgetting for a moment who he was, his phobia of ghosts flared up at that moment, causing him to trip in surprise and crash into the bathtub with the shower curtains wrapped around himself.
He glared at the girl once he calmed down.
"Zera! Wha— the heck do you think you're doing in my place?!"
The girl crossed her arms and pouted at him.
"What's with that response? Seems rude when it was you who invited me here."
Desperately, he tried to recall his memories of the events before waking up. All he got was a vague recollection of daring Romeo to light himself on fire with his magic mixed with highly combustible alcohol.
On a side note, Vale vowed never to allow the other guild members to pressure him into drinking alcohol again.
"Remind me what I said again?"
Zera sighed at that.
"You said - and I quote - you should just ask to go with one of our guild members to stay at their place tonight. Pretty sure this place - the guild building - is gonna end up trashed once we're done. So I asked if it would be cool if I went with you, and you said yes."
Already, he could feel the headache forming in his head.
Calm down… calm down…
Right now, Vale was trying to get some semblance of control as he took in his current situation.
Zera, a not-a-ghost but a magic sentient illusion, was in his bathroom floating near the ceiling. And somehow, he had apparently given her consent to follow him home to his apartment to stay over at his place.
He was also in said bathroom stuck in his bathtub entangled in his shower curtain. Something that normally would never happen to him, but he chalked that up to anime and manga logic for putting him in hilarious compromising scenarios.
Oh god, was this the start of him becoming the new Lucy?!
"Right," he said. "I have to ask, why me? Why didn't you ask to go back home with one of the other members of the guild? Specifically, the female ones?"
"Because you asked me."
"Huh?"
He tried to recall what she was talking about.
"Don't you remember? The first time we met, you asked me to follow you."
A mischievous smirk covered her face as she floated in a circle above him.
"Does that answer your question?"
Not really, Vale wanted to say. But he figured that was all he was going to get from the other girl. Once he realized that, he gave out a heavy sigh.
"So, now what? Are you just gonna follow me around from now on?"
"Sure, why not?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Beats just hanging around at the guild again."
Vale had the uneasy feeling that he was going to be pulled along by Zera's whims if things continued like this. The realization made him twitch, which also reminded him that he was still lying in his bathtub.
"Alright," he slowly forced himself to stand. "Just let me prepare for the day, and we'll discuss this later. Can you please leave so that I can change?"
For some reason, Zera gave him an embarrassed look.
"Erm… yeah, about that. There's something that you should probably know."
"What is it?"
She tried to play it off as casual, but it was obvious that her words were going to be a shock to him.
"It seems that I'm sort of haunting you, so I'm kind of forced to stay within a certain distance around your guild mark. Please, just ignore me and carry on with whatever you're doing."
At her words, Vale suddenly had the urge to scream out loud.
}-{
Luckily for his modesty, they were able to figure out a hard limit to how far Zera could float away from him. Since distance was the only limitation, they discovered that it was still possible for Zera to float outside the bathroom door while Vale was inside, making it possible for the two to be separated temporarily.
"I'm definitely passing you on to one of the females of Fairy Tail."
Zera yelled at him from the other side of the door. "It's alright! We can work around this, don't just give up after one day. I believe in you!"
"Stop trying to encourage the idea of us being roommates! Don't you know that past a certain age, boys and girls shouldn't be alone together in the same room?"
"Nope. I've lived on an uninhabited island most of my life, and the only other roommate I had was Mavis. And we did everything together, so I don't see the problem."
"Two girls being together is very much different from a boy and a girl being together!"
"Your human laws do not apply to me!"
"Is that a reference to something? Wait, that's not the point!"
That was pretty much how their morning together went, and it was an exhausted Vale that left that day to head towards his guild. He noted with some interest that none of the people he passed had shown any indication that they noticed the floating girl beside him.
So only guild members can see her…
That was pretty similar to the First then, which was something interesting to know. After all, having an invisible companion with the ability to contact others for help was definitely going to be useful.
"So, what are we going to do today?"
Vale sighed at Zera's question. From her words, it was clear that she was planning on following him for the rest of the day.
"I'll ask Romeo if we can do a job together. We'll probably do something like monster extermination again since that's usually what we're good at."
"Great. That sounds fun."
For her, maybe. Vale was somewhat tired of the dull missions of exterminating groups of weak monsters. Is it too much to ask for something new to spice things up?
And that was when the universe decided to oblige him.
"Hey, Vale!"
The young boy turned towards where Macao was yelling at him.
"What is it, Master?"
"We got a request for you," he showed him a piece of paper in his hands as he said that. "And I mean they specifically asked for you, not just someone from our guild."
"Huh," Vale gave the paper a quick skim. "Any idea why?"
"Not sure," Macao replied. "The request is something to do with investigating a Dark Guild that's been making the news in the last few months. But that's not important, what's important is who's requesting for you to help them."
"And who's that?"
"Blue Pegasus."
That caused Vale to blink.
"What?"
"And not just that," Macao continued. "But they're calling in Lamia Scale as well. I'm pretty sure they're invoking old alliance relations to call us in."
Long ago, an alliance between the top Legal Mage Guilds was made between Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale, and Cait Shelter. Even after the years passed and the discovery of Cait Shelter's true origins, the alliance still held some significance to this day.
"This sounds serious," Vale frowned. "All of this for one Dark Guild?"
"It's not just any old guild," Macao warned. "But the remains of one that Fairy Tail fought before."
"Which one?"
"Grimoire Heart."
}-{
Elsewhere, at an unknown location…
A hooded figure looked up as he stared off into the distance. The sounds of something crashing were all he heard around him.
"Jellal, we're finished with this place."
The hooded figure turned to face the woman who spoke to him.
"Then let's move out, Ultear."
"Right, Meredy should be waiting for us outside."
The two of them left, ignoring the moans of pain from all the Dark Mages they left lying on the ground. As the two of them exited the burning remains of another Dark Guild, a third figure joined them and smiled at the two.
"Looks like we're done here."
"We should go," Ultear said. "We've already drawn too much attention from the locals, it's only a matter of time before someone is sent to capture us."
Jellal grimaced at that. Even though the three of them were technically criminals, their actions were only for the betterment of everyone else. It would be troublesome if they were forced to fight against the authorities.
"Alright, we'll leave first thing tomorrow."
As the three of them ran into the woods, a strange feeling began to prick at Jellal's thoughts. A premonition that something big was going to happen soon.
Still, he decided to ignore it for the moment. Right now, his only thoughts were on fleeing as fast as possible before anyone decided to investigate.
Part 2
"Woah, this is so cool."
Romeo's shout of glee echoed as he peered through the glass showing the passing landscape. Vale had decided to borrow a Magical Vehicle to travel since the location they were headed to was quite far from Magnolia.
It didn't surprise Vale that Romeo had decided to go along with him. What did surprise him was that nobody else from Fairy Tail decided to join. Considering that they were involved in a request relating to one of the top three dangerous Dark Guilds, Vale was surprised that they didn't seem so worried.
Then again, it might have something to do with the fact that this job wasn't an extermination request. It wasn't as if the alliance was asking for Fairy Tail mages to help fight against Grimoire Heart. No, there was a different purpose for requesting their purposes.
Specifically, his purposes.
"Ugh, can you seriously not stay still?" Zera complained to Romeo. "Seriously, you're acting like such a kid."
"Hey," Romeo complained. "You're not that much older than I am."
Zera gave him an annoyed look. "I'll have you know I'm over a hundred years old."
"Hah! Then that means you're a granny!"
"What did you say?!"
Vale sighed as his two tagalongs began to argue next to him. Somehow, his nervousness for the upcoming mission faded away as he instead focussed on his teammates' bickering. He was just glad that they were currently the only ones in the room.
"Guys, can we please not do this now?" The two turned his way. "We're going to be meeting with some of the strongest mages in the country. It's likely that we'll be the weakest ones there, and I don't want to give them any more reason to think that we're just dead weight."
The two of them just gave him a weird look.
"Are you okay?" Romeo asked. "Normally, you don't sound like that."
"I just want to make a good impression," he said while fidgeting in place. "I mean, Blue Pegasus specifically requested me to help them. I don't want to disappoint anyone."
Romeo continued to give blank looks at that until finally, a look of comprehension came to his face. "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot. You're weak to pretty people."
Vale blushed. "T-That's not it, I just really admire Blue Pegasus."
"No, this all makes sense." Now, Romeo was grinning like mad. "You look up to Blue Pegasus, don't you? Total hero worship!"
"Aw, how cute." Even Zera was smirking. "Who would've thought you had a side like this."
"S-Shut up," Vale's face was bright red. "So what if I like them, that doesn't make what I said wrong. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, so I don't want to mess this up."
If he was being honest, then it was true that he did have some lingering fascination for the guild from his last life. Even though they were only supporting characters, Blue Pegasus always helped backup Fairy Tail whenever they appeared. Out of all the side characters introduced in Fairy Tail, they were some of his favorites.
Romeo interrupted his thoughts. "Well, you might want to think about what to say. Because it looks like we're here."
The sound of wind being blown around made Vale look up to see a large flying airship traveling above their heads. Landing a distance away from them, Vale steered the Magic Four-Wheeler towards its direction until they stopped near it.
Zera floated out the doors of the vehicle. "So, this is it?"
"Huh, this is the first time I've seen their ship." Romeo narrowed his eyes as he took in its appearance. "I've met some Blue Pegasus members a few years ago though. Hopefully, they'll remember me at least."
"Why, of course we do."
"GAHHHH!" Romeo screamed as a voice came from behind him, and all three turned towards the direction the voice came from.
"Meeen~!" The figure of a strange man pointing at them greeted their eyes. "Ichiya is here!"
Behind him were three other mages, who only game amused looks at their guildmate.
"Apologies, Ichiya does like to make an entrance."
"Oh, hey look. Isn't that Romeo?"
"It's been a while since we met up with Fairy Tail."
Vale recognized the others immediately as the rest of the Trimens, three pretty boy mages who worked under Ichiya as a team.
Ichiya slowly turned to face Vale. "So, I'm guessing you're the newest member of Fairy Tail. The Enchanted Fairy, Vale."
"The what?" Vale gave a confused look at that. "Is that what they're calling me now?"
"No fair," Romeo complained. "You have a cool title that others call you by?"
"Well, let's not stay out here too long." One of the mages gave a kind smile to Vale. "The name's Hibiki."
"I'm Eve," another said to him. "It's nice to meet you."
"Greetings," the last said. "I'm Ren, nice to be working with you."
For some reason, all three of them seemed very accommodating of him and ignored Romeo in the background. Vale turned around and gave confused looks to Romeo, who only shrugged back in response.
Actually, now that he noticed, Vale found that Zera was nowhere to be seen.
Ah, never mind. It turns out that she was just hiding behind the Four Wheeler, not that the other mages would have been able to see her anyway. Still, Vale decided to keep quiet about her existence and made a mental note to warn Romeo later to keep her a secret.
As they began making their way towards the ship, a question Vale had been meaning to ask came from his lips.
"So, what made you guys decide to ask for my help?"
"If you must know," Hibiki began. "We heard about you when we discussed plans with several members of Lamia Scale."
"We already picked them up a while back," Eve said. "So you'll be able to see them once we get on board."
Ren nodded. "Some of them apparently have met you personally."
The doors closed behind them as they began to take off.
"Wait," Vale realized something. "You don't mean…"
"HEEEEYYYY!" The loud cheer was his only warning before something suddenly crashed into him, causing Vale to fall to the ground. "It's been forever since we last met. It's me, Sherria! Did you miss me?"
"Bwah?"
A hand suddenly grabbed the back of the girl that crashed into him and lifted her into the air. "You really need to learn some boundaries."
"Eheheh," the girl gave an awkward smile. "Sorry for the trouble, Jura."
Vale's eyes widened as he heard what she said, and he turned to face one of the most powerful mages he's met so far on Fiore.
Jura Neekis.
Even standing in front of him was awe-inspiring, a deep presence empowering the man before him and causing Vale's mouth to gape open. Even Romeo to his side was unable to tear his eyes away from him.
The large man smiled at the two of them. "It's nice to meet you both."
"We asked for Jura and Sherria to join us on this investigation," Hibiki explained. "Jura is here in case of insurance, while young Sherria is an accomplished healer. While we aren't expecting any trouble, there is the possibility that we may encounter hostile forces."
"Their perfume smells great~!"
Everyone ignored Ichiya's comment, and Hibiki continued to speak. "Our mission is to investigate the possible revival of the Dark Guild Grimoire Heart, who everyone thought had perished during the conflict against Fairy Tail."
A dark look passed Romeo's face for a moment before it changed to a determined one. "If this really is them, then Fairy Tail will do our best to help however we can."
"Then that will help us greatly," Jura responded with a nod. "So what have we been able to gather so far."
"I'll continue explaining from this point on," Hibiki responded. Waving his hand, a holographic screen appeared before him. "Recently, several reports have noted that several Dark Guilds have been getting annihilated mostly north of Fiore. Investigations have revealed that most of them were affiliated in part with Grimoire Heart."
Jura nodded. "With two of Fiore's underground powerhouses gone, many were expecting the possibility of infighting between the dark mage factions. But how does this translate to the reappearance of Grimoire Heart."
"Because we have several sightings of a few of their members," Hibiki answered. The screen flickered and two images were displayed. "These two are former mages of Grimoire Heart that have been sighted in the area. Our goal is to investigate and see if they are planning on reviving their guild."
Catching sight of the two people displayed on the screen, Vale froze as he realized that he was looking at Meredy and Ultear, two members of the yet-to-be-known Crime Sorcière.
Shoot, does this mean we're going after them?!
Because that was bad for several reasons. One was that Vale knew for a fact that those two had repented already, deciding to fight against other Dark Guilds as penance for their sins. Another reason was that the two of them were also working with Jellal, who was not only another well-known criminal but also on par with the Wizard Saints of Fiore.
Except for Jura, everyone else was screwed!
"Just to make sure," he interrupted. "We're not expected to fight them, are we?"
"No," Hibiki answered. "Again, this is merely an investigation to understand their motives. While it would be nice to bring them in, our primary goal is to see if they are attempting to revive their guild or not. Once we determine that, we can head on home and leave the rest to the Council."
That caused Vale to sigh in relief.
"But because both of these individuals are known to be powerful mages, we decided to gather some back up in case something went wrong."
Gesturing towards Vale. "An Enchanter who can boost others and their abilities."
Gesturing towards Sherria. "A healer who can recover our wounds."
Gesturing towards Jura. "And a Wizard Saint to face off against a former Council member."
The screen disappeared and Hibiki clapped his hands. "But that's enough for now. It will take about an hour or so before we reach our destination. So until then, let's learn to know each other. After all, there are some of us whom the rest haven't had time to interact with yet."
As everyone began moving to casual conversation, Vale couldn't help but feel that somehow this mission was more than it seemed. According to his memories, Crime Sorcière was supposed to have been a group that had managed to avoid the limelight for several years. So he was somewhat suspicious as to how two of their members were seen by several witnesses.
I really hope we're not going to end up fighting them, he thought to himself. If possible, I want this to be a simple scouting mission and nothing more. No excessive drama or fistfights if possible.
But really, who was he kidding?
Fairy Tail luck was never that kind.
Part 3
The ship touched down onto an open clearing next to a wooden building. As everyone made their way off the ship, the members of Blue Pegasus began to explain where they were.
"This place was reported to be the former headquarters of a small-time Dark Guild," Eve explained. "It was also the place where the members of Grimoire Heart were last sighted."
"Haven't there been others who checked this place already?" Romeo asked.
"There have," Ren confirmed. "But only a couple of soldiers from the Council. Since so far, the only issue is that there's some infighting between the Dark Guilds of the underworld, the Council is content with leaving them alone unless they do something dangerous."
"Remember," Hibiki said. "Our goal is to make sure that Grimoire Heart isn't a threat to the public anymore. If they're just taking out other Dark Guilds, we can leave them alone if they aren't taking things too far."
"So now what?" Sherria asked. "If they were here recently, I might be able to see if the winds could track their location."
"Don't bother," Ren said. "It's been a week since they were last here, so I doubt you'll find anything. Even Ichiya won't be able to sense their smell anymore."
"Meeen~" Ichiya nodded. "The plan is to investigate this place and see if we can figure out any clues. Maybe locations to other Dark Guilds, or a hint at why Grimoire Heart is after them in the first place."
Everyone nodded at that before they split up. Vale was with Romeo and an invisible Zera as they went upstairs to look for anything interesting.
"You know, this is actually pretty exciting." Romeo turned towards Vale. "I've never been in a job this big before."
"It's a bit dangerous though," Vale replied. "I dunno about you, but I don't see myself going well against Wizard Saint-level foes."
"Well, we can always just run away." Romeo shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like we're supposed to fight."
"I guess."
"Ugh, can we talk about something else?" Zera complained. "I don't want to hear any more whining about how we're out of our depths. Not that I can do anything in case something does happen."
"Really?" Romeo turned to face her. "Don't you know any magic other than Telepathy?"
"Well, I do sort of have an affinity for fire magic," Zera admitted. "But it doesn't actually hurt people. Since I'm not a real person, I don't exactly use the same magic as regular people do."
"Huh," Vale said. "So our team has two fire mages. Guess that makes me the odd one out then."
"Our team?" Romeo parroted. He glanced at both of them. "Huh, I never really thought about it before. But we don't have a team name, something to call us by."
"What?" Zera gave him a confused look. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"No, he's right." Vale nodded. "A proper team name can do wonders for group unity and camaraderie. We should totally call ourselves something when we introduce ourselves to others."
"Yeah," Romeo nodded. "A lot of old Fairy Tail members used to go by team names too, like Team Shadow Gear or the Thunder God Tribe."
"You're serious?" Zera gave an incredulous look at that. "My gosh, those names sound so lame. Please don't tell me we're going to be called something stupid like that."
Romeo blinked. "Well, what do you want us to be called then?"
Zera paused as she thought about it for a few seconds, and the two boys leaned in to hear her response.
"...Team Fire Faeries?"
Vale facepalmed. "That's even worse. And I'm not a Fire Mage, so that doesn't really work for me."
Zera blushed at that. "Well, what do you want us to be called then?"
With a completely serious face Vale answered, "Team Underpaid Child Labor Force."
"You can't be serious," Romeo said with boggled eyes. "Nobody will take us seriously if we're called that."
Zera blinked. "Wait, that's your only problem with that name?"
"Besides, we totally get paid fairly."
"Oh, alright then." Vale rolled his eyes. "Just call us Team Paid Fairly Child Labor Force then."
Romeo mulled the words over for a second. "Still a bit of a mouthful."
Zera just gave out an exhausted sigh at their antics.
}-{
It took a few minutes, but they finally decided to take things a bit more seriously as they continued to explore. Making his way into a room, Vale looked around curiously to see if there was anything that stood out.
While he knew bantering with his friends wasn't exactly something he should have been distracted by, Vale was kind of glad that Zera was getting along with them. After all, it was only about a day or so that they'd just met. And Romeo seemed fine with their unexpected new teammate.
That said, Vale needed to concentrate on the problem at hand.
His magic was great for a lot of things, including seeking out targets. However, at his current power level, his magic wasn't as versatile as he needed it to be. So at the moment, all he could do was rely on good old-fashioned instincts.
It was those same instincts that warned him at that moment to dodge out of the way right as something attacked the spot he was at. Landing on his feet a small distance away, he yelled out to his other guildmates. "Guys, there's someone here!"
Chantless, Vale poured his magic power into the wires attached to his back and controlled them to fly in front of him towards whatever attacked him. The figure roared as wires wrapped all around its body.
Upon seeing exactly what he caught, Vale's eyes widened. "Am I crazy, or am I fighting a giant chicken monster?"
"Peh peh peh," the giant chicken laughed. "Fear the almighty power of Kawazu. Egg Buster!"
The giant chicken monster suddenly spat out a large number of eggs towards him, which transformed into fist-shaped yolk attacks that struck Vale directly. Crying out in pain, Vale's body crashed against the wall from the unexpected attack.
"Vale!" "Are you alright?!"
Romeo and Zera both entered the corridor only to stop in surprise as they caught sight of Kawazu.
"What the heck is that?!" Romeo cried out. "Wait, that's not important right now. Blue Fire!"
A burst of blue flames shot out of Romeo's hands and towards the enemy. Kawazu sneered before swiping it to the side with his wing.
"What are you brats doing here?!" Kawazu yelled before opening his mouth and firing off several egg projectiles towards Romeo. "Peh peh peh peh peh peh peh!"
Romeo's eyes widened. "Aaaggghhh!"
"Enchant Type - Boost Defense Attribute."
Crashing into him, Romeo was surprised to find that the projectiles barely did any damage. Seeing Vale getting up with his arm stretched out in his direction, he grinned before glaring back at Kawazu.
"What?" Kawazu gave them shocked looks. "How did you block my attack?"
"Because my friend is awesome," Romeo replied. "Vale, boost my next attack!"
"Alright," Vale cried out. "Enchant Type - Boost Attack Attribute."
"Rainbow Fire!"
Kawazu's eyes widened as a gigantic burst of multi-colored flames flew towards him and impacted his chest. A loud explosion occurred once it did, and the entire room was filled with smoke.
"Keep guard," Vale cried out. "He still might be conscious."
But to their surprise, Kawazu was nowhere to be seen once the smoke faded away.
"Where'd he go?" Zera asked. "Did he take off while we couldn't see him?"
"He must have," Romeo said. "We better warn the others that we found someone."
}-{
"Kawazu," Hibiki began to mutter to himself before looking up to address the others. "I recognize him. He's a former low-ranking member of Grimoire Heart, but still quite the formidable foe."
"Yeah, I figured." Vale winced as he felt another bruise on his arm when he moved. "Attacked me out of nowhere. Did anyone else run into any trouble?"
"No," Sherria answered even as she healed him. "Jura and I didn't see anything."
"Neither did the four of us," Eve answered. "We did find some records that might hold some clues, but no encounters with any enemy Mages."
"But what's a former low-ranking member of Grimoire Heart doing here?" Romeo asked. "Unless he's working with Grimoire Heart again."
"Hm, we can't say." Hibiki gave a thoughtful look. "But the fact that we've already run into a former member might be signs that we're on the right track. It's not just two of their main forces anymore. I think our next plan should be to head to the nearest town and ask if there have been any more sightings of other Grimoire Heart members."
As everyone began to board the Christina, Vale began to think about everything he just learned.
Kawazu was a member of Grimoire Heart?
Somehow, that revelation made him rethink their current situation. At first, Vale thought that their job was going to only involve investigating the upcoming Crime Sorcière. He never actually expected to encounter any other former members of Grimoire Heart. And he knew for a fact that there was no such person named Kawazu that was part of Crime Sorcière.
So what was going on? Was Grimoire Heart really trying to revive itself?
And the way Kawazu disappeared, there was no way Vale could have missed the giant chicken running past them. He checked at the time, and Vale knew for a fact that Kawazu should have been unable to get past either Vale or Romeo without at least alerting one of the two. The only other way he could have escaped was into one of the rooms in the hallway, but none of them had any windows or other avenues for Kawazu to escape.
Either he somehow teleported out of there, or he actually disappeared.
Still, if this mission was suddenly going to throw at them actual members of Grimoire Heart, then Vale realized that the job was going to get a lot harder than he was expecting.
What was worse was that Vale couldn't even find something to track Kawazu. You would think that a chicken monster who used egg magic would leave a mess whenever he fought, but somehow, Vale was unable to find any remnants of Kawazu's attack.
A voice suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "What's up in your mind?"
Vale looked up to see Zera giving him a curious look. The other girl was floating upside down while staring at him weirdly.
"It's nothing," Vale said. "I was just thinking about the earlier fight. I got taken out pretty easily."
"At least you fought," Zera pouted. "I can't even fight if I want to. All I did earlier was just watch as you two were in trouble."
Vale noticed that Zera looked annoyed by the fact that she couldn't contribute. As a magical simulacrum, it must have been quite annoying for Zera to know that all she could do was watch as her teammates got hurt.
"Hey, how about this?" Vale waited until Zera looked at him. "Next time, we're gonna count on you to make sure we don't get any nasty surprise attacks. Your telepathy can warn us in an instant if one of us gets in trouble. And this way, we don't alert the enemy either."
She nodded slowly at that. "I guess I can try that."
"Great," he smiled at her. "Now, let's get back to the others before they take off without us."
Part 4
On the Christina, Vale was alone in an empty room as he began to think.
From the aftermath of the earlier battle, there was nothing he could salvage that could allow him to track Kawazu. Under the assumption that he was a part of Grimoire Heart still, they currently had no means of tracking down their location.
Since his knowledge regarding the events during the seven-year time skip was vague, he wasn't sure about how things would play out from here on out. Even if he could remember all of the events from the source material, Vale was pretty sure that Grimoire Heart wasn't mentioned that much anymore after its collapse. Whether they regrouped or not was something that he had no clue about.
Still, the rest of the members of their investigation team at least figured that something was going on. Ever since Hibiki pointed out the connection between the sightings of Kawazu and the members of Crime Sorcière, everyone else agreed with the idea that Grimoire Heart was most likely trying to rebuild itself.
"The Balam Alliance ended after the destruction of their guild," Vale muttered. "Leaving Tartaros as the strongest dark guild. All of the minor guilds that used to follow the other two former guilds are either warring amongst themselves or being assimilated into Tartaros."
It was something he learned over the past few months. While he knew that Tartaros was going to be trouble later, he and everyone else in the guild were too weak to do anything about them at the moment. Still, it was in his best interest to keep an ear out about their activities.
"If this really is Grimoire Heart trying to rebuild itself, then they'll want to try and take back control of their forces." And that meant taking back control over all of the dark guilds that used to follow them. "I'll have to ask Hibiki if he knows any other former guilds around here that used to be subordinate to Grimoire Heart."
Making up his mind, Vale began to make his way towards where everyone else was.
Opening the doors to leave his room, he was surprised to find himself running into Jura. The older man looked as if he was about to knock on Vale's door, and his eyes widened as he noticed him.
"Ah, my apologies. I was hoping to speak with you."
"Oh," Vale blinked. "Well, I was about to go talk with Hibiki about something. But I can at least hear you out first."
"If you don't mind then," Jura smiled. Vale gestured for him to enter and once the older man did, he closed the door behind him and followed after. "This conversation is something that I'd like to have out of the other's ears."
The two sat at a table, and Vale gave Jura a curious look.
"A private conversation?"
"Yes," Jura nodded. "Honestly, I have a few questions I'd like to ask you."
"Alright then, what is it?"
"You are not from Fiore, correct?" Jura asked. "Specifically, you are an immigrant from the western continent of Alakitasia."
"I am," Vale nodded. "But that's not too unusual. I personally know two others in my guild who also immigrated from Alakitasia."
It was interesting for him to learn that the Connells were also immigrants. The two of them often traded stories with him about their times before moving to Fiore and why things were better here.
Still, judging by the look on Jura's face it seemed that he was asking something else.
Vale sighed. "How about you just get to the point."
"Very well then," Jura gave him a serious look. "Were you part of the Alvarez Empire?"
Well, he wasn't mincing his words anymore.
"I used to be," Vale answered. "I left a little over two years ago, during a time when my homeland was still recovering from the war efforts after Fiore repelled the invasion force."
It was barely a footnote in the story, but in the year X781, the Alvarez Empire attempted to invade Fiore in the past. A lot of resources were poured into the invasion force, so it was quite a surprise to the citizenry when the invasion failed.
Jura gave a strange look at that. "An invasion you were a part of?"
Vale's body suddenly stilled.
There was silence after Jura said that, only broken when Vale started chuckling.
"I'm sorry, what?" he asked in disbelief. "I don't think you understand, but I was only four when the invasion happened. Are you seriously asking me whether or not I was part of the invading force when I was barely a child?"
"You have a very familiar magic," Jura continued. "Ah, to clarify what I am speaking of, I used to be a part of the first wave of defense against the Alvarez army. It was during my time when I had yet to be titled a Wizard Saint, a request from the Council to send in some of our most powerful mages."
"That's nice to know," Vale interrupted. "But I think you're mistaken. I was never a part of the attack force."
"I never said that," Jura sighed. "I said you were a part of the invasion, I never specified that you were involved in it. Your magic felt familiar, and it took me a while to realize that it was similar to a woman that led several troops to battle against us. She never participated herself, but even from a distance, I could recognize the incredible might of her magic even though she only watched. Now, imagine my surprise when you came here and I felt that your magic was almost identical to her."
Vale's eyes narrowed. "What's your point?"
"Does the Council know about your parentage?"
"Yes, they do." Vale glared at Jura. "But it doesn't matter. Warrod Sequen himself vouched for my stay here. By law and spirit, I've already cut off all ties to my former birthplace."
Even though Vale was still glaring at him, Jura smiled. "I admit, that is a relief to hear."
"What? Were you worried that I was some spy or something?"
"Somewhat, but that was not my main concern," Jura shrugged. "I was more curious about why you were holding back during your encounter with Kawazu earlier."
Shit.
Looking at Jura's face, he knew that there was no convincing him that he was mistaken. Vale sighed in resignation. "How did you find out?"
"If you must know, it was young Sherria who first made me curious. She recounted her adventures with you and how you helped defeat the air mage from Orochi's Fin. During her account, she told me about how you were still able to use your magic even while it was within airspace magic."
He knew that moment was going to bite him back later.
"And when we met, I sensed that your magic was strangely bound. Somewhat like a wine bottle about to pop its cork. Even now, it still feels like that."
Note to self, Vale thought. Wizard Saint-level mages can sense magic pretty well.
Well, he had to say something now.
"I'm not really holding back," Vale finally admitted. "Truthfully, my body is actually trying to prevent Magic Overload Syndrome. With how young I am, if I throw around large amounts of magic power I'll end up crashing quickly as my body becomes plagued with fevers and headaches."
Magic Overload Syndrome— a type of affiliation for those born with a bit too much magic power within their systems. In Vale's case, it wasn't exactly something he had when he was born. Truthfully, it was more of a mistake of his youth from trying to become strong too fast.
Apparently, people weren't meant to suddenly force open their Second Origin during their formative years. It would have been nice to know before Vale subjected himself to incredible amounts of pain to release it. Waking up in the hospital after a three-day coma was a surprise, especially when everyone started lecturing him about the risks after they figured out what happened.
Jura stared at him for a few seconds before his eyes widened. "Did you enchant yourself so that your magic is always weaker than it should be?"
Vale raised an eyebrow at that. "Huh, you can tell?"
"T-That's certainly a unique approach to fixing magic overload," Jura muttered with some amazement in his voice. "Not only is your magic constantly drained to power the spell, but it also quells the intensity of any active magic whenever you use it."
Vale watched as the other man continued to ponder over something for a few more seconds. Realizing that Jura was probably going to be like that for a while, Vale got up from his seat.
"Well if that's all, I guess I'll take my leave here. I still have to talk to Hibiki about some stuff."
"What?" Jura looked up at that. "Oh, my apologies. Don't let me hold you back anymore."
Vale nodded and made his way to the door. As he opened it, Jura's voice called out.
"You never answered my question."
Turning back, he gave Jura a curious look before comprehension dawned on his face. Jura was referring to whether or not Vale was part of the invasion force or not.
Vale smiled. "I think my mother would have words with me if she knew I was there."
Before Jura could say anything, Vale took a step outside and closed the door.
}-{
The airship touched down on an empty clearing.
"Alright, here's our stop." Hibiki smiled at everyone as they stepped down. "This area is another location where suspected dark guild headquarters are. Unlike before, we confirmed that the dark guilds in this area used to be former affiliates of Grimoire Heart."
"We should be careful though," Eve said. "This time, we're not dealing with an empty base. The guilds around here have dozens of members that we'll have to watch out for."
"Got it," Romeo nodded. "So are we splitting up again?"
"Sort of," Jura answered. "While several of our members will stay back to keep guard of the Christina, the rest of us will move together as we investigate."
"Blue Pegasus will stay back," Ren said. "But Hibiki will keep watch over you guys with Archive magic. If you guys get into trouble, we'll come flying towards you."
"That's reassuring," Sherria said. "So that means that four of us will investigate while the other four stay back."
Five, if you count Zera. Not that anyone but Romeo and Vale knew that the invisible girl was following them.
Hibiki raised his fingers and Vale sensed a trickle of magic connected to him and the others. A marker suddenly appeared in his vision pointing towards a certain direction.
"This will take you to the nearest dark guild that we've confirmed to be in the area," he explained. "Once you reach there, you guys will investigate to see if there are any hints of Grimoire Heart around."
"Got it," Vale nodded. He made a mental note to later corner Hibiki to see if he could somehow combine Archive magic with his Seeker magic.
It was Romeo who said goodbye first. "Well, wish us luck."
Everyone else quickly said their farewells before they split into the groups. Jura took the lead while Sherria moved to converse with Romeo. Zera trailed behind everyone with a bored look on her face.
As Vale followed after them, he blinked as he felt something in a certain direction. Turning to face it, he saw nothing that stood out.
Shrugging, he hurried after everyone else.
Part 5
"This has got to be the most boring job ever."
Beside him, the other mage nodded in agreement. Even if it was annoying to listen to his companion whine, at least he agreed with his words.
"I mean, what's the point of patrolling? Nobody ever comes out this far north. Seriously, it's an hour trip by airship to the nearest town."
"Ugh, but our guild master is so worried these days."
"Tell me about it."
Lazily keeping watch from their patrol tower, both of them yawned as time passed. It was a new thing, something that the guild didn't bother with until recently. After all, it's not like they thought anyone would attack their headquarters. The only ones that counted were the occasional wild monster that approached their territory.
But ever since their guild master heard about several other dark guilds getting attacked, they were forced to be more vigilant of any potential attackers.
They did their job and kept watch. But both of them knew that if they ever ran into someone dangerous enough to fight entire dark guilds on their own, they wouldn't even last a minute. The two of them weren't stupid after all.
Still, they did their job whether they liked it or not. Because even though they weren't doing much, they still got paid a small fee to keep guard over them. And as long as there weren't any attacks, they would get paid for doing nothing else but sitting around and being bored.
Of course, the moment someone did attack them...
One of them shifted and slowly tugged on the other's arm, causing the other mage to narrow his eyes. The first mage held a finger to his lips before pointing towards a certain direction, the second following it with his eyes.
The reason why became apparent once he caught sight of a lone man walking across an empty field towards them. Both of their eyes widened as they recognized who it was.
"Wait, could it be—?"
"But that's impossible! He's supposed to be dead."
Seeing what they thought to be a dead man just walking in the middle of nowhere should have been impossible. And yet, the proof was right before their eyes.
"Do you think that's the person attacking the guilds?"
"Might be," was the reply. "But why? We used to be part of Grimoire Heart, so it doesn't make sense that they'd attack us."
"Or maybe they're taking out everyone who's not a part of Grimoire Heart anymore."
The implications of that were worrisome. "We need to call this in."
Turning around, he was about to reach for the communications lacrima when a hand suddenly grabbed his arm. Looking up, he saw that his companion's face was pale white.
"H-He's looking right at us!"
Eyes widening, he too stared back where the lone man was and saw that his friend was right. The man was staring directly at where their tower was hidden in the trees.
Even from a distance away, they could see the feral grin growing on his face.
"Fuck, he's going to attack—"
Before he could finish his sentence, the entire tower exploded in a ball of black flames.
}-{
Vale had once heard that a proper team covered all aspects needed for engaging others. It was something he had thought about when he first teamed up with Romeo but now saw more clearly in their current party composition.
Romeo used to be the front-liner but was now keeping watch at the back with his magic ready to act at any moment. Instead, Jura took the lead since he was their strongest member. While Romeo wouldn't act in a main attacking position as much with Jura here, his multi-colored fires could be useful for crowd control.
Walking side by side were the two supporters, although they weren't necessarily limited to just those roles. Sherria was a competent fighter on her own, but everyone decided that it would be best if she spared her magic power in case anyone got hurt and she needed to heal them.
And while Vale's main role was to enchant Jura or Romeo, his other role was to also keep an eye out for Sherria in case somebody tried to take her out first. Even if Sherria wasn't a well-known figure yet, somebody might deduce that she was the healer of their group. Anyone smart would attempt to take her out first if they knew.
As for their fifth member, Zera was floating several feet above everyone as she kept watch from above. Since nobody but Fairy Tail members could see her, any potential enemies wouldn't notice Zera blatantly staring at her surroundings.
Without bothering to whisper, she informed her fellow guildmates. "I sense several mages up ahead. Be careful."
That was something else Vale learned. Apparently, Zera also had some kind of sensing ability that allowed her to detect any others nearby.
Romeo's eyes narrowed. "We're getting close."
"Yes," Jura agreed. "But something's wrong. Have any of you noticed yet?"
Pausing, Sherria blinked as she noticed it first. "Smoke, and a lot of it at that. Something big is burning?"
Makes sense that the Sky God Slayer would notice something wrong with the air, but it was impressive how Jura seemed to know before her.
"Could we be too late?" Vale finally voiced. "Maybe their guild has already been attacked."
"Let's see ourselves," Jura replied. "According to Hibiki's magic, it should be just around the corner…"
His words trailed off when everyone finally saw what was the cause of the smoke. Right before their eyes was a gigantic bonfire that was currently consuming a large building. Sprawled across the grounds surrounding it were the fallen bodies of dozens of unconscious mages.
"We're too late," Sherria muttered.
"Wait," Romeo blinked. "Why is the fire black? Is that some kind of cursed fire?"
As Romeo said, the bonfire consuming the guild building was completely black. Something about that tugged at a buried memory in Vale's head.
"Those black flames," Sherria muttered. "They're giving me a bad feeling…"
"Black… flames…" Jura's eyes widened. "Could it be…"
"G-Guys," Zera's voice suddenly called out from above, although only Romeo and Vale reacted to her words. "I-I think you should take a look behind you…"
The both of them did so, alerting their other two companions at the same time. All of their eyes widened as they finally noticed the person standing a few feet away from them. Somehow, none of them had managed to hear him coming, and now faced with his appearance, everyone's instincts were screaming that he was a threat.
Romeo trembled.
Sherria gulped.
Vale's eyes widened with recognition.
But it was Jura who spoke. "You… you're Azuma of Grimoire Heart!"
"Indeed, I am." The other man nodded towards Jura before giving a glance over to the rest of them. "I recognize one of you, but everyone else is unknown to me. Although the prospect of fighting the famed Jura Neekis is compelling, I wonder whether or not you'll be able to use your full power with the children here."
Currently, Vale was swearing inside of his mind as a thousand thoughts flew around. Not only had they encountered one of the former main members of Grimoire Heart, but out of all of them, they came across possibly one of their worst matches yet.
It was vague, but Vale was able to recall what Azuma's magic was. A type of lost magic that gave him control over trees and other forms of vegetation. More specifically, its true power was taking and condensing all the power stored within the earth. Against Jura, who primarily used Earth magic, Azuma's magic was a perfect counteragent against him.
In other words, they were screwed.
Jura glared at the other mage. "I'll show you how powerful I can be if you dare attack us."
"Uheeheeeheehee!" Another voice cackled as another person stepped out of nowhere. "I thought I sensed something funny earlier, but to think I'd find another God Slayer all the way in the boonies. I guess it's my lucky day."
Vale's heart raced as he took in the sight of the new mage. Next to him, Sherria's eyes widened as she took in what the other person just said.
"G-God Slayer," she said with a hint of realization in her voice. "Y-You're Zancrow, a-aren't you?!"
"Uhahahaha," the other man cackled aloud. "Nice to know my name's still well known after all these years."
Confusion crossed Vale's face at that revelation. But before he could voice his thoughts, Jura spoke.
"Why are you here," he asked. "Are you the ones taking out all the dark guilds?"
"Are we? Oh no, who would be so dastardly? So evil." Zancrow cackled again. "But duh, of course it's us. Not that we're looking for these weaklings specifically, but it seems that we got a rat infestation amongst our numbers. Apparently, some of them are no longer loyal to Grimoire Heart, and we're here to do a little extermination. A culling of the traitors amongst our forces."
A wide grin split across his face.
"Or at least that was the plan. I wonder if a kid like you can show off the strength of a God Slayer of a different element." He cackled once more. "At the very least, you'll hopefully give a good enough fight."
This is bad, Vale thought. With Azuma here, Jura's probably going to be too busy fighting him to help us. And if Zancrow is focused on Sherria, even if the rest of us helped we're no match for him at our current strength.
One of the lessons he learned as a child was that there was no shame in running from a fight. It was important to know which fights needed to be fought, and which fights were just stupid to get into. The essence of wisdom was knowing which was which and making the right decision in the heat of battle.
Problem was, Vale wasn't so sure they would be able to escape if the two mages decided to go after them.
"Wait a minute," Zancrow said. His eyes narrowed as he stared at Romeo's bare shoulder, where the Fairy Tail insignia was displayed. "That guild mark, it can't be…"
Azuma also stared at Vale's hand with a glare in his eyes. "That mark, it's Fairy Tail…"
Vale's own mark was barely hidden either, and both of the members of Grimoire Heart now looked furious as they realized who they were.
"So… this is the next generation of Fairy Tail mages," Azuma said with a frown. "I assumed that their guild died out by now, but it seems that those fairies are like cockroaches."
Zancrow's teeth clenched as he spoke. "Fairy Tail… Fairy Tail… Fairy Tail is here."
His mouth changed to a demented smile.
"That's even better," he exclaimed. "I changed my mind, I'm killing the fairy brats first!"
The tension in the air suddenly grew at his words, and everyone began to shift into battle stances.
"Listen carefully," Jura whispered. "I apologize, but I might not be able to protect the rest of you if they both team up on me. I hate to say this, but it looks like all of us are going to have to fight. We'll all have to work together if we want to make it out of this alive."
"Are you crazy," Zera screamed. "You guys are no match for them, just run away towards Blue Pegasus and get the hell out of here."
"Okay," Romeo said, responding to Jura and ignoring Zera's words. "It looks like that Azuma guy wants to fight you. The rest of us will deal with Zancrow."
"Romeo," Vale said. "You can't use your fire against him, he's a Fire God Slayer. Are you sure about going up against him?"
His face paled, and Vale realized that Romeo must not have thought about that fact until he pointed it out.
"Don't worry," Sherria said. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Zancrow. "If it's a God Slayer we're up against, then it's my role as another God Slayer to face him."
"I'll back you up," Vale said. Turning to Romeo, his face grimaced. "But it's probably best if you support Jura against Azuma instead."
Romeo nodded with a hint of relief on his face.
"Enough talk," Azuma interrupted. "I believe this is a confrontation that we can no longer put off."
"Sheesh," Zancrow rolled his eyes. "Let's just start already."
Without warning, he suddenly leaped towards them.
Part 6
Jura lurched back.
It wasn't because of Zancrow though, since the blonde man barely acknowledged him as he lunged towards the rest of them. No, it was because Azuma took that chance to attack the wizard saint using his magic, causing Jura to jump back to avoid getting hit.
But that moment was enough to split all of them into two groups. Azuma yelled out loud as the entire landscape changed before their eyes, forcing Jura away as dozens of large trunks grew a wall and separating him from the rest.
That was bad enough, but with Jura separated from them Romeo had no choice but to stick with the rest of them. And since he was basically a Fire mage, that basically meant they already took out one of their numbers.
"Dumb thing to talk right in front of us," Zancrow sneered. "You think just because you guys whispered, we wouldn't hear how the brat there is weak against me?"
Vale cursed as all of them grouped up. He was right, but that was a mistake they couldn't take back anymore. All they could do now was work together to incapacitate Zancrow.
"Enchant Type - Boost All Attributes (x3)."
Immediately after using his magic, Vale felt a large drop in his reserves as he enchanted all of them to their peak values. This was no time for him to care about conserving his magic, and there was no choice but for all of them to go all out.
A burst of black fire immediately flew towards him, only to disperse as Romeo quickly covered him by blasting his own magic against it.
"I can't attack him with my magic," he said in a strained tone. "But I'll try to block any attacks that come our way."
"Don't bother," Sherria cried out. "I'll charge towards him, just focus on protecting Vale."
Without waiting for a reply, black winds began gathering around Sherria as she shot forward towards Zancrow, a leg swinging in his direction. The other man only cackled as he threw forth a flame-covered fist of his own.
The two limbs struck, and the force from their attacks blew at their surroundings.
"Hoh," Zancrow raised an eyebrow. "You matched my blow. Was it because of that enchanter brat back there?"
Sherria didn't bother responding. Instead, she held out her palms as black currents of air began gathering around her hands.
"Sky God's Boreas!"
"Not good enough," Zancrow screamed. "Fire God's Kagutsuchi!"
Sensing that it was going to get dangerous, Vale quickly poured magic power into the cable attached to his back. Controlling it so that it wrapped around Romeo's body, he threw the two of them backward right as a giant ball of black flames exploded around the area.
Landing against the ground, Vale cursed and slammed a palm onto the ground.
"Enchant Type," he cried out. "Infuse Partition Element."
A fissure grew originating from where Vale's hand met the ground, widening until Zancrow cried out in alarm as the ground beneath his feet suddenly swallowed him whole.
Again, he cried out. "Enchant Type - Infuse Control Element."
Taking control of the earth, the ground quickly closed up the fissure and trapped Zancrow beneath. A wave of exhaustion enveloped him, causing Vale to stagger with his hands on his knees.
Next to him, Romeo gave him a wide-eyed look. "Since when could you do that?!"
"S-Since," Vale paused to take a breath. "S-Since just n-now…"
The ground began to shake, and a few seconds later, it exploded as Zancrow flew into the air with a look of fury on his face.
"Irritating brat," he spat. "I should have focused on you first. Fire God's Scythe!"
Romeo quickly threw his body over Vale and onto the ground right as a wave of black flames flew above their heads.
"Forget about me," a voice cried out. "Sky God's Dance!"
"Shit," Zacrow's eyes widened as his body was suddenly flung higher up in the air. He narrowed his eyes as he saw Sherria beneath him. "You'll pay for that."
"That's what you get for trying to kill my friends."
"Why you," he growled. "Fire God's—"
"Sky God's—" Sherria said at the same time.
""—Bellow!""
The two attacks met in the air, spiraling black currents versus massive black flames. The attacks canceled each other out, but the force of their blows swept both Vale and Romeo into the air until they came crashing a distance away. Even as they tried to recover, Zancrow dropped down with a roar, acting like a raging demon as he snarled and swiped at Sherria. The girl herself continued to dodge and deflect the blows as they continued to rain down on her.
Vale got up and winced, keeping track as the battle progressed.
Not good, he thought. Sherria's barely hanging on as it is, and my enchantment won't last at this rate.
Until now, Sherria was able to match blows with Zancrow because her magic and body were enhanced using his magic. But with how low his current reserves were, Vale won't be able to refresh the enchantment until he recovers his magic power. And if Sherria's enchantment wore off before that happened, Zancrow would defeat her and turn on them next.
Next to him, Romeo was unconscious with Zera floating above him and trying to shake him awake. Sherria continued to trade blows with Zancrow, but Vale could see that she was losing ground as Zancrow's attacks began to grow faster and faster.
What I wouldn't give for Jura to help us out right now.
But Jura was busy with his own opponent. On the other side of the wall of vegetation, Vale could hear the sounds of explosions and roars as Azuma kept him busy.
With no other choice, Vale began to think.
How does one fight against someone stronger than they are? For Vale, his usual solution was to team up with someone strong and boost them up so that they could overwhelm the opponent. But Sherria was still learning how to use her magic, barely able to keep up with Zacrow even with his enchantments supporting her.
They couldn't run away, any help that came for them wouldn't last against two former members of Grimoire Heart, and the longer they fought the more likely it was that they would lose.
Sherria's cry of pain broke his train of thought.
"Arrgghh!" Crashing against the wall next to him, Sherria's body slumped to the ground even as she used her magic to heal herself once more. It was something that she had done multiple times already throughout her battle with Zancrow, but Vale knew for a fact that her magic didn't help her deal with exhaustion.
Zancrow landed on his feet and sneered.
"Hmph, all tuckered out already. I'll give you that, you gave me quite a scuffle. But not enough to warrant any worry out of me."
Taking a step forward towards Sherria, he paused when Vale stood between them and blocked his path. He raised an eyebrow at that.
"Hoh?" Zancrow narrowed his eyes. "So the Fairy Tail brat wants to protect his friend, huh?"
"Zancrow," he responded. "I have a question."
"Hah?" The blond mage gave Vale an incredulous look. "Is this seriously the time for talking? If you haven't noticed by now, I'm trying to kill all of you. The last thing I need is for another Fairy Tail brat to think they can get away with whatever they want in front of me."
"That's the thing," Vale said. "I know for a fact that you once fought against Fairy Tail. I know that you were involved with the events on Tenrou Island."
"And," Zancrow asked with a sneer. "What of it?"
"So how are you alive?"
"...what?"
Vale saw that Zancrow's attention was fully on him, and he continued to speak. "How the heck did you survive? I know for a fact that you died on Tenrou Island, that Zeref himself killed you with a burst of his magic. There's no way anyone is capable of surviving that, not unless you were protected by a powerful artifact or something."
Zacrow's breath hitched.
Sherria stared.
Zera gave them confused looks.
It was a revelation that surprised everyone, especially since most people didn't know much about what occurred during the events of the Tenrou Island incident. Most survivors were either dark mages or council members that weren't involved in the main fights on the island. So nobody should have known for a fact that Zancrow was dead, let alone the exact manner he was killed. There was no way Vale could have known.
Zancrow suddenly burst out laughing, doubling over as he staggered to the side with a hand over his stomach.
"Hah, what the heck." He wiped a tear out of the corner of his eye. "That's the stupidest thing I've heard anyone ever say to me. Saying that I'm supposed to be dead, does it look like I'm some kind of zombie?" He finally stopped laughing and smirked at Vale. "What, did you get a concussion or something. Otherwise, how else can you explain your delusional fantasy?"
"I think it's you who's in a delusional fantasy," Vale replied. "I know for certain that Zancrow is dead. Which means that you're nothing but an imposter, a fake."
Zancrow's teeth clenched.
"And how the hell would you know that," he yelled back. "It's not like you were there on the island. So tell me, what gives you the reason to think that I'm supposed to be dead."
He hesitated.
"What, cat got your tongue?"
Several seconds passed as everyone stared at Vale, only for the young boy to slowly breathe in before exhaling. As silence descended on the area, it was broken when Vale finally responded. He barely raised his voice, so only Zancrow heard his words.
"Because he told me himself."
Zancrow gave a confused look at that. "Who?"
"His Majesty," was Vale's response. "Zeref himself told me that he killed you."
Realization dawned on Zancrow's face as he took a step back, finally staring at Vale as something crossed his mind. Vale stared back, and the two stared at each other as both of them saw something in each other's eyes.
"Hah…" Zancrow said. "Hah… haha… hahaha… ha ha ha ha ha!" He threw back his head and roared with laughter. "Oh my god, I can't believe it. You're one of them, aren't you? You crazy bastard, you're one of them and yet you're also part of Fairy Tail? How the hell did that happen?"
From the corner of his eye, Vale saw Sherria staring blankly at them as she tried to take in what was happening. As far as he knew, she didn't hear what he just told Zancrow so she was probably confused at why Zancrow was acting like this.
"But that just makes me want to kill you even more," and Zancrow finally stopped laughing. "Sorry, kid. But it looks like you're not leaving this place alive."
The blond mage grinned as black flames enveloped the side of his arm. Raising it up, he pointed a fist towards Vale's direction, pulling it back and preparing to launch forth another attack.
Zancrow expected several things. He was expecting for the boy to react, to prepare something to defend himself against his flames. Or maybe to freeze in place as fear settled into his bones.
What he did not expect was for Vale to suddenly smirk.
The air suddenly grew heavier as a torrent of magic power enveloped the area. Zancrow staggered as his body was met with unexpected pressure. His eyes widened as he realized that the torrent of magic power was coming from the person standing in front of him.
A voice echoed out.
"Enchant Type - Second Origin Release."
And Vale stared at him with a cold look in his eyes.
"Well," he said. "Time to take things seriously."
The chunni is strong in this chapter.
So, it took quite a while to post this chapter. The reason for that is because I'm busy with summer school. And not an easy elective class either, but one that I have to study a lot for if I want to pass with a good grade. That means that I won't have much time to write as much if I focus on class.
And as for this chapter, I've shown a bit more about Vale's past. Since he's a self-insert who has some knowledge about how things are going to be in the future, it would make sense that he'd try to get strong as quickly as possible. But due to his recklessness, it seems that he may have contracted Magic Overload Syndrome.
I admit I'm not sure if that's actually what it's called. I tried looking it up on the Wikia and couldn't find it. I'm not sure if that's a fanon term or not, but it's basically what Ultear got as a kid.
So yeah, Vale's one of Irene's kids. Pretty sure some of you guessed that at some point already, so this is just confirmation. Still, I'm hoping this is an explanation of some of his previous actions in the first two chapters. After all, having her as a mother isn't really conducive to a child's proper growing environment (even a reincarnated one).
Hopefully, this power escalation isn't too far out of the left field. I've been dropping less than subtle hints prior to this that Vale's been holding back. As someone who grew up in the Empire as a reincarnated individual with memories of his previous life, Vale is someone who grew up in an environment made for him to grow into a strong mage.
