They are… alive?

Ultear blinked and slowly raised her head to check over her body. She is aching in many places, injured and bleeding in several others, but she is alive.

How?

"Just a little later and all of you would have been truly dead."

"M-Master Hades?"

Sure enough, Hades stood in front of them in that usual regal manner, his cloak billowing with the wind. Zancrow and Kain are still alive, but barely. Kain had been rendered unconscious and his injuries were grievous. Zancrow is only doing slightly better, barely able to keep himself awake.

Guess Master Hades was fast, but still wasn't fast enough.

"Interesting. Look at all this damage, Ultear. This is a spell that can potentially rival the Etherion, a spell that even I had never seen before, almost like it doesn't belong to Earthland."

Hades is right. Everything around them had been reduced to nothing but a huge crater.

"He uses so many types of magic that it is impossible to predict what he is going to do next." Ultear replied through gritted teeth, her hate for that unknown mage overshadowing the respect of the skill he wields. She looked around, trying to find that annoying masked mage and more than ready to tear him apart for ruining their plans. It's because of him that a small number of the townsfolk had escaped. How are they going to forge the keys to awaken Zeref if not all the townsfolk were sacrificed?

This fucking meddler.

She spotted him soon enough. The masked mage is not doing any much better than them, still trying to stand up with him leaning the bulk of his weight on a stave. She could feel his hateful glare from beneath that cloth mask and she returned it in kind.

Master Hades was the one who broke the silence.

"What's your name, kid?"

"Fuck… Off…"

"Your magic… No, you have no magic, I cannot feel an ounce of magic in you. You are a magic-less person who obtains his power from his magic tools. Your level of skill is impressive, but ultimately an existence not needed in my perfect world of magic."

Ultear cannot help but do a double take. This person is not even a mage? And he fought the three of them to a standstill and nearly killed them?

How?

"Someone like you… needs to die." The masked mage spat through laboured breaths. "Someone like you… who does not value lives… is nothing more than a heartless monster. Perfect world? Don't make me laugh. There's no such thing as perfect in this world."

The boy activated another spell which Hades immediately moved to dispel it, only to find that it wasn't directed at him.

"Grudge of the cursed."

Zancrow began to scream and convulse uncontrollably on the ground in pain. Ultear immediately launched her orb at their enigmatic foe only for the masked mage to activate another of his staves to block her attack. Hades tried to remove whatever the masked mage had inflicted on Zancrow, only to find that whatever cursed inscriptions that were somehow scribbled on Zancrow's body without them knowing how or why is not something he can undo in a moment's notice.

"I cannot kill all of you today, but I sure can at least kill one of you." The vindictive voice of the masked mage rang through the air before Zancrow suddenly limped and went perfectly still. A growing surge of magic suddenly grew in the direction of the masked mage and Ultear's eyes went wide after understanding just what really happened.

"H-He stole Zancrow's magic!"

Black flames screamed as they manifested into existence and headed their way. Like she said, the masked mage had somehow stolen Zancrow's magic as his own and turned it against them.

"You have successfully angered me now, boy! Return Zancrow's magic at once!"

The lacrima, it must be the lacrima. The God Slayer lacrima implanted within Zancrow's body that granted him God Slayer magic must have been stolen somehow and resulted in his death. She doesn't understand how, but she just knew that the masked mage had somehow extracted the source of God Slayer magic found in that lacrima within Zancrow's body and then proceeded to somehow utilise it immediately.

She saw how an angered Hades pushed the flames aside with his magic as he strode towards the masked mage in fury, attempting to end him and retrieve what was stolen. It's over, it's over for that masked mage, powerful as he is. Nobody can stand against the mighty Hades.

She was proven wrong once again.

The earth cracked as a powerful blast of magic sent Hades skidding back from the impact. A large man with messy dark orange hair stood in the way, his dark cloak fluttering with the wind, the expression on his face is one of murder.

"Touch the boy, and you die."

"Gildarts Clive. Hmph." Hades snorted before he narrowed his eyes and expanded his senses. It seems that hostile reinforcements are on the way. He is confident in his strength, but it's no longer wise to stay here for any longer lest Grimoire Heart's movements are further exposed.

Hades' gaze went back towards the struggling masked mage who cannot be any much older than his kins. He doesn't know who he is, but he will remember this setback. He will have his vengeance one day.

"Mark my words, fairy. Grimoire Heart will remember this."

With that, Hades fired a powerful blast of magic in Gildarts' direction which he promptly dismantled. When Gildarts finally cleared the smokescreen with a wave of his hand the Grimoire Heart dark mages were already gone.

"Fuck." Gildarts cannot help but mutter when he realised the dark mages had given him the slip. He had to forcibly cool his head lest he accidentally obliterate something else in anger. It will not do well considering that there is an injured child right behind him.

He turned around and immediately knelt down to inspect the brave kid who had tried to defend the town all on his own. He is barely awake, barely hanging onto consciousness. Gildarts doesn't know how he looks thanks to the mask but he knows the face behind it must be a child's. He isn't any bigger than Natsu from the looks of it.

"It's alright now, I got you."

Like a puppet whose strings got cut, the boy finally went slack when Gildarts carefully carried him in his arms. Gildarts made sure to bring along the boy's weird looking magic staves. Those look important.

Gildarts turned on his heels to move out of here, but not before giving the partially destroyed town one final glance.

"Mark my words, fairy. Grimoire Heart will remember this."

Grimoire Heart, eh?

Mark his words, demons. Fairy Tail will remember this too.

I woke up in a world of pain.

It was a violent and rude awakening. I could not remember what led me to such a state until the vivid memories rushed in with the grace of a speeding train and grinded my mind to paste.

The town. Malcolm, Mary, Grimoire Heart, Hades.

Fuck.

I tried to sit up, only to let out a hiss of pain when I so much as tried to move a single muscle. I heard movement beside me and I instinctively tried to reach out for my magic staves only to find that they aren't where they are supposed to be.

"Stop struggling, boy. It's a miracle you managed to come out of that battle without losing your life. Stop making things harder than they should be."

I am not a true mage, but that does not mean that I cannot sense magic at all. There's no way residents of Edolas could harness the power of magic without being able to sense it at all. Every one of us is able to sense magic to a limited extent.

I blinked my eyes when I felt that familiar aura surrounding this elderly lady. It is one that I can only feel from the exceeds or another fellow lost soul from Edolas.

"Edolas…"

The look on the elderly woman softened upon my words.

"I had my suspicions when I saw your magic staves, but I guess it has to be true. Yes, like you, I was from Edolas. My name is Porlyusica and I am now the healer of the mage guild, Fairy Tail."

My eyes widened when I finally realised who she really is. Porlyusica, Grandeeney's Edolas counterpart, that is who she is.

"For now, just rest. Wendy and Meredy are fine. They will be looked after by the adults in the guild. Makarov and the clumsy oaf are doing what they can to seek justice for the massacre that you had tried so hard to prevent. We adults will do something about this, so just rest and concentrate on getting better. There are people anxiously waiting for you to make your full recovery."

I cannot fight against the heavy feeling of my eyelids closing shut. I don't need to be a genius to know that Porlyusica must have done something to allow me to rest.

"Rest, my fellow Edolas kin."

"I'm sorry."

Those were my first words to Meredy.

When I had woken up a second time, Porlyusica had given me a brief rundown on the aftermath before she allowed Wendy and Meredy to enter to see me. Malcolm and Mary did not survive, they were not among the survivors the Rune Knights had found. I had failed my promise to Meredy.

"N-No… You… I… Don't say sorry to me! You have nothing to be sorry for!"

Meredy hugged me tight and I tried my best to keep the pained wince away from my face when she unknowingly aggravated my injuries with that tight hug. Wendy is smiling through her tears, simply happy that I'm back.

"Hey, Wendy. Stop crying, okay? And get Meredy off me while you're at it, please?"

Her only response was to throw herself at me as well. This time, I could not keep the groan of pain from escaping my throat.

"Guys? Be gentle with an injured patient?"

"S-Sorry!" They quickly let me go and squeaked out simultaneously. The Strauss siblings chose this moment to enter and I saw a very worried Mira striding up to me. She is dressed very differently from the last time I saw her. Everything about her screams gothic punk and she is showing a lot of skin that a girl her age shouldn't be showing.

"Mystogan! What on earth is going on? Why are you… Nevermind, at least you are fine. But you owe us answers, geddit?! Do you know how worried we were when Wendy and Meredy just appeared from out of nowhere and saying that you w-were…"

"Please don't do that again." Lisanna said softly. "We were really scared."

"Sorry, it wasn't my intention" I breathed out tiredly before remembering something. Makarov has to be involved in this situation by now. There are things I have to let him know.

"Is it possible for me to meet Master Makarov? In private?"

"Edolas, I see. So there really is such a world. But Porlyusica, I never thought that's where you were from."

"Hmph."

"Edolas will never come to cause trouble for Earthland again." I told him with a tired voice. Everywhere just hurts at this point. "But I have no idea who my Earthland counterpart would be and I don't want to cause unnecessary trouble, like how Wendy mistook Porlyusica for Grandeeney when they first met. I have no legal or legitimate identity here, so I'm hoping that you might be able to help me."

"If I may ask, what was your real name back at Edolas?"

"My name was Jellal, but I had long since discarded it. I was the Prince of Edolas."

"You are Faust's kid?" Porlyusica questioned, which I nodded in response. I have no idea how to explain my existence to Erza at this point and frankly, I want nothing to do with the things between her and Earthland Jellal.

At least, not right now.

"We need to do something about that right eye of yours. What did you do to it?"

"Ah, that." My hand reached out for my right eye subconsciously. "A price to pay to invoke my strongest spell, the Eye of Heaven."

The Eye of Heaven is a spell that condenses the magic from the sun, stars, and moon. It coalesces to form a single destructive beam of energy that descends from the heavens but it is extremely difficult to accurately direct it to your target. Hence, something is needed to make sure the attack hits where you desire it to be.

That spell is named Eye of Heaven because your vision is what is needed to be sacrificed for the successful invocation of the spell. By sacrificing the vision of one eye, the spell would land exactly where you want it to, the area which your line of sight is focused on. It can be argued that it is a spell that can only be invoked with the prerequisite of having a clear visual of your target.

"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about that right eye of yours. Do you want me to replace it with an artificial one?"

"It's fine." I replied after a moment of silence. It felt wrong to get a replacement, not after how I failed my promise to Meredy even if she never blamed me. I know this is me being irrational but Malcolm, Mary, everyone else, if only I was faster, stronger, better…

They need not have died.

I'm not sure if this is survivor's guilt that I am experiencing, but I cannot help but think that maybe it would be better for me to keep this blind eye as a reminder of what had happened today, that every change I made comes with a cost, that I am nothing but a mere mortal who burnt himself while trying to mess with the threads of fate even if I never regretted doing so.

"I want to keep this eye."