Karissa emerged from her room with a dazed expression, she felt so detached from reality. She had spent four hours in her room, her mind had been completely focused on drawing designs for the Souvenir Shop. According to her latest memory that didn't involve drawing, the last time she glanced outside her window it was still light outside. It only felt like a mere thirty minutes had passed before she was greeted by dark skies. It completely threw her off. Now that she was back to the real world, she felt the need to see another human being and to hear them talk since she hadn't heard another voice speak. She was really detached from reality from her flow.
Her feet brought her down the stairs as her ears picked up the faint voices coming from downstairs. She wanted more noise to feel a little more alive. The darkness she was traveling in slowly became illuminated as she descended until her sight was filled with brightness. Her eyes squinted from the change in contrast.
"Van?" she mumbled like a sleepy child.
The older brother who had been sitting on the couch with his back facing her, turned around to watch her approach him. He gave her a gently smile as he saw her walk towards him with a hand rubbing her eye.
"What's up? Done being cooped up in your room?"
"Hmm."
She settled down next to him and heaved out a small sigh. Her brother merely chuckled at that and looked back in front of him where a screen was projected a few feet from the couch thanks to a magic movie that came from some lacrima crystal.
"What's this?" she asked while leaning back against the fluffy pillows.
"A movie that I got on my last job. The shop owner said it was a pretty good movie."
Gunshots and magic sounded from the film.
"Seems like a typical action movie to me." Karissa remarked, not really impressed from what she was currently seeing.
"It gets bonus points for being a distraction."
"Hmm… I guess." Karissa slowly dropped her head on his shoulder as she gazed blankly at the screen, somewhat taking in the scenes before her but also not.
Her brother was always willing to lend his shoulder for her to lean on whenever she wanted. Now seemed like one of those times she could. Her sister, however, was different considering she always shrugged her shoulder to push her off, telling her that she didn't like having heavy weight on her shoulder. She didn't know if her sister was insinuating that she had a rock for a head but she chose to believe that it was intelligence weighing her head.
Van snorted. He reached for her head with the hand from the opposite side and ruffled her hair. It felt like he was praising her for her good work.
The gentle and welcoming warmth that her older brother radiated was very comforting.
It reminded her of her father.
…
…
…
Pandora stretched her arms over her head as soon as her house came in sight. She was finally home from a job that the Master personally asked her to deal with sometime after Erza had been arrested for show.
It was late. There would most likely be no one left at the guild. Mirajane would probably still be there to clean up. But that didn't motivate her enough to head to the guild and check to report on her job so she headed straight home. The current ungodly hour should have the majority of the town in their beds, dreaming away to lovely dreams. Yet she was surprised to see the lights of her house illuminating the ground floor.
The first thing she heard was jolly music playing in the back, piquing her curiosity. With discretion, she opened the front door and peeked into the living room. She was greeted with the sight of her two younger siblings sleeping on each other on the couch. Van's head was resting upon their little sister's whose head was resting on his shoulder.
"Pfft, how cute." Pandora giggled softly behind her hand.
She walked in with steps as light as feathers, doing her best to not make a sound. She picked up the duvet that was lying on the armrest. They didn't stir even as she opened the duvet and gently wrapped them in its softness.
"Goodnight." Pandora said in a murmur, gently stroking their foreheads with her thumbs. "Sleep well."
She didn't want to wake them up at this hour. It was better for them to get the most sleep.
After shutting off the lacrima movie, she stood in silence a few feet away from them, gazing at them with a small smile.
…
…
…
Pandora gently rolled away from them and then slowly got off the bed. She was making her way to the door, freezing every few seconds to check behind her just in case she shattered the silence. She let a few seconds pass before holding the cold doorknob and twisting it. She glanced behind her shoulder once again to make sure it was safe.
Then she opened the door. It made a light creaking sound followed by rustling sounds behind her. Instantly, Pandora jerked her head back with wide eyes.
Van was groaning in his sleep when he had moved his legs under the blanket. Other than that, nothing else was amiss. In his arms, Karissa was sleeping in front of him with dried tears. Van and Karissa were cuddling in their parents' bed with the first nuzzling his head in her hair. He hugged her closely. Both of them were unaware of their older sister's gaze watching them from the doorway.
With one last look, she left the room and silently closed the door.
…
…
…
Pandora's small smile slowly became a straight line as she kept gazing at the two. The scene was a bit similar but still the same.
They were both completely unaware.
With a sigh, Pandora went over to the stairs and flicked off the lights, blanketing the two in complete darkness.
Karissa was sitting next to Cana, listening half-heartedly about her complaints about terrible booze from her previous job. She never drank a sip of alcohol in her life so she couldn't really relate to her distress. Thankfully, her lack of concern over it would go unnoticed with Van and Gray listening and talking.
The female ice wizard caught the sound of heels quickly pounding down the steps.
"Master! A job flyer is missing from the second floor request board!"
Van paused his sentence as Mirajane's voice sounded in the guild hall. The worry and panic in her voice made everyone cease their chatter, especially with what she just reported.
Master Makarov spat out his booze from the shock.
"What?" Wakaba drawled, "A job request is missing?"
"If it was on the second floor, it was an S-class quest." Macao deduced easily.
"Who would be stupid enough to do that?"
"A cat." A deep voice from above said simply. "I saw a cat with wings take off with it."
"So it was Natsu." Van sighed and ran his fingers in his hair. "I'm honestly not surprised."
"He's in a team with Lucy, right? So, she probably went along with him." Cana brought her mug to her mouth.
"That idiot." Gray spat.
Karissa didn't say anything. After that distance grew between them from the lack of communication, she eventually just lost her tongue around him. She had no idea why. She just felt like she had no right to speak, her words dying in her throat. If she had to take a guess, it would have to be from getting harsh responses from him back a few years back.
She just slowly turned her head to glance up at the second floor. She found Laxus smirking. While he was seated, he leaned towards the edge and craned his neck to look down at his grandfather who looked worried.
"This is a serious breach of the rules. Gramps! You're kicking them out the moment they back, right? That one little mistake of theirs is enough to get someone kicked out." He said almost bitterly. Karissa could tell that he was speaking from second-hand experience. She remembered him telling her about mistakes that his father made that resulted in him getting kicked out of the guild.
Laxus then snorted mockingly. "Though, given their skill level, I doubt they'll come back alive from an S-Class job…" he then shrugged with his hands. "Oh well." He said without a care in the world.
"Laxus!" Mirajane approached him. "Why didn't you try to stop them if you knew?!"
"All I saw was a sneaky cat run off with a piece of paper in its mouth. I never imagined it was Happy or that Natsu was going out on an S-Class quest." Then he chuckled as he saw the downright pissed look on Mirajane's face. "You haven't given me that look in a while."
Master Makarov pinched the bridge of his nose as he exhaled. "This isn't good. Alright, which job was it?"
"The cursed island of Galuna."
Master Makarov looked up at Laxus who didn't seem interested in the matter. "Laxus! Go bring them back!"
"You're kidding, I have my own work to attend to. Besides, members of this guild are supposed to be able to take care of themselves. Right?"
"Out of everyone here, you're the only one who can bring them back by force!"
"Nah, forget it. I'm not doing it."
Frustrated by his defiance, Master Makarov whirled around and looked at their table. "Gray, Karissa!" he shouted. "You both are going to get Natsu and Lucy back!"
The two ice wizards looked at each other before sighing, they got up from their seats and complied with the Master's orders.
"I could have handled it by myself but okay." Gray stuffed his hands in his pockets.
Seeing the two obediently listen, Laxus guffawed which made the two look back at him.
"Good luck on bringing back that stupid hot head back to the guild. You'll need it."
Karissa's eyes widened by a fraction when she made eye contact with him. Her head quickly turned away and her eyes shut tightly to avoid everything around her. She sped off without saying anything, eager to leave the place that suddenly felt suffocating by his presence.
Van watched Gray walk hurriedly after her through the corner of his eye. It was always such shame that she let the past control her current actions and thoughts.
They sat on the train in silence minutes after the train took off for Hargeon. It was the only place that was located close to Galuna Island after all.
"You okay?"
"Hm, what?"
"You looked tense earlier." He pointed out with a shrug.
Karissa waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I'm fine. Just got tongue tied like usual."
Gray didn't respond after that. He just sat back and closed his eyes, choosing to sleep until they reached their destination.
Earlier, they met up at Magnolia after heading to their respective homes to change and grab some things for the short trip. Karissa was still dressed in a long gray t-shirt and dark blue jacket that was pretty light with some black fitted pants. Gray arrived in a new open navy blue shirt and his usual dark pants. She didn't see the point in changing clothes honestly. But during that time interval, she was able to be at ease again.
Karissa crossed her legs and put on her headphones.
Now, they just needed to wait for the train to reach Hargeon so that they could find the two and throw in a little scare to convince them to come back so that the Master could deal with them himself. And sure enough, Gray and herself would be curiously looking forward to what kind of punishment the Master would dish out.
When the train stopped at Hargeon, Karissa shook him awake. They walked into the streets of Hargeon while taking a shortcut to the harbor. They couldn't take the long route there just in case they were already boarding a boat. They arrived at the docks and simply waited there where they would have a perfect view of any boat leaving Hargeon.
It didn't take them long to finally catch sight of them. They were sitting down on a wall, looking a little dispirited. Gray and Karissa hopped on the wall and casually appeared behind them.
Gray squatted down and plopped a hand on each of their shoulders, "We found you~" he sang with a grin.
Natsu and Lucy turned their heads to see Gray looking at them and Karissa looking down at them, they instantly bolted up in surprise and backed a few feet away.
"Karissa! Gray!" Lucy exclaimed. "What are you guys doing here?!"
Karissa put her hands in her jacket pockets and huffed. "Did you think no one would notice? Mirajane checks the request board every day. So everyone found out."
"And now, we have orders from Gramps to bring you back."
Karissa's reflexes allowed her to latch onto Natsu's scarf the moment he tried bolting away, he choked and stumbled in her direction. "Come on, Natsu. Don't make this harder."
"But why?! I'm more than capable to take this on!" Natsu argued while struggling to free himself, she just held on tighter while occasionally tugging harder.
"Are you willing to risk failing this job for the sake of proving yourself?" Karissa asked apathetically, almost darkly. That just scared Lucy since she couldn't read her. "Are you willing to risk getting kicked out of Fairy Tail?"
"Kicked out?!" Lucy freaked. Unlike Natsu, she looked ready to drop on her knees and beg for forgiveness.
"Your lucky Erza and Pandora weren't here instead of us." Gray commented. "They wouldn't even let you talk. Now, let's go."
"Pandora?" Lucy repeated.
"Screw that!" Natsu yanked his scarf out of her hand much to her annoyance. "I'm doing this S-Class quest!"
"You don't have the skills for it!" Gray shouted.
"I'm gonna show Erza what I can do! I can't turn back now!"
"This is a direct order from our Master! I'll drag you back if I have to!" Gray held out a hand and created some ice in it. "Don't blame me if you get hurt!"
Natsu twitched and held a fistful of fire. "You wanna fight?!"
Karissa face palmed. This is was probably the reason why the Master wanted Gray and Karissa to go get them.
"Enough!" Karissa's wind arcs flew towards them, blowing out Natsu's fire and shattering Gray's ice. "We're going back." She said firmly.
"No!" Natsu said childishly. "You guys can take a hike!"
"Damn it, Natsu!"
"You guys are wizards? Are you… here to stop the curse?" a mysterious voice said. Karissa hopped off the wall, startled from the person speaking behind her. It was a man with a small blue cap with a long beige coat.
"Yeah!" Natsu said enthusiastically.
"No way. We're here to stop them." Gray said.
"Hop in."
Karissa held up a hand to stop him. "Wait, listen—" she heard Gray's shout get cut off followed by the sound of a body flopping on the ground. Karissa turned her head and found her childhood friend knocked out.
Natsu and Karissa stared at each other.
…
…
…
"I'm getting this creeping feeling of anxiety." Lucy said shakily.
"You tie us up and then say that?!" Gray said in annoyance.
"Sorry, Gray." Karissa mumbled, gently bumping the back of her head on his shoulder. "Natsu caught me off guard…"
They were tied together back to back by the idiot who was currently in state of misery from his motion sickness.
The man bringing them to the island was named Bobo. According to him, Galuna Island started having mysterious purple light shinning down on it and caused people to change into demons. Bobo was in fact one of them, Karissa had to glance back to see his demonic arm with her own eyes.
"Yikes…" Karissa muttered.
"I left as quickly as possible, and I never went back." Bobo said, then they all noticed something small far away. The island was becoming bigger and bigger as they rode the waves. Karissa couldn't see but Lucy was saying that the top of the island was glowing.
Suddenly, she felt Gray squirm. "Where did the guy go?" Gray asked. "Did he fall over?"
"I didn't hear any waves." Karissa pointed out. "Did he just ditch us?" she wondered mildly annoyed. Then she looked ahead. Her heart rate jumped when she saw a huge wave of water shadowing over them.
"Gray! Lucy!" Karissa panicked. "We're in trouble!" she started squirming against Gray to try and get out of the ropes. She heard Lucy screaming as the water came closer.
"Damn! I'm going to die at this rate!" Gray exclaimed after the no one tried to untie them. He froze the ropes and hurriedly forced his arms out to break the ropes, freeing them both.
Karissa didn't have enough time to cast wind magic.
Natsu was spewing nonsense as the boat started bucking and rotating in the water.
"Damn! Because of you guys…!" Karissa heard Gray's voice dripping with panic before she felt him grab her suddenly just as the humungous wave crashed on them, drowning out their screams and drifting them off into an abyss.
When Karissa came to it was because of some loud voice, Natsu's voice.
Damn him.
The last thing she recalled was Gray grabbing her before the giant wave crashed on her. The rest was blank.
The youngest Sinclost opened her eyes slowly and tried to adjusted to the morning brightness. Morning. They were knocked out the whole night.
When her brain was finally ready to register her surroundings, she found Gray at least three meters away from her, fully awake. He looked super annoyed by their current situation. She was pretty annoyed too.
As soon as Lucy suggested that she and Natsu start looking for the person who sent the job request, Karissa and Gray rose up to their feet.
"Wait." Gray brushed off the sand from his hands.
"Ugh," Natsu frowned. "What? The boat's busted! You can't take us back!"
"No. I'm coming with you. I can't let you guys beat me to the second floor, and it'd be no fun if you got kicked out."
Karissa stared at Gray like he grew six heads. Was this guy serious?
"What the…" Karissa muttered. "Are you for real?" she asked, baffled.
"What? If we do this job right, Gramps can't complain that much." Gray reasoned. "Don't tell me you're planning on heading back to the guild after all this."
"Even with the amount of magic power I have, I doubt it'd make it back to Hargeon with wind magic." Karissa groaned and rubbed her temples. This thing was seriously conflicting since she could be quite the goody two shoes.
She wasn't sure what to do now that it had come to this.
"So, come along with us!" Natsu said cheerfully. He put an arm around her shoulders. "The more people we have the better!"
"Yeah, it won't be that bad." Gray shrugged nonchalantly as he was already on Natsu's side, leaving her alone on the doing-right team.
"… I guess." She mumbled reluctantly.
"Alright!" Natsu cheered.
I wonder if I'm going to regret this…
…
…
…
Karissa misjudged the size of the island since they spent the whole day walking around looking for any sign of civilization. But after hours of walking, they found a village gates forming a huge circle. The gates were freakishly huge and made out of thick sturdy logs of wood.
After calling out to someone, they were eventually granted passage through the gate once they presented proof of their allegiance to a legal guild.
When they entered the village, they were surrounded by people cloaked from head to toe. One of the villagers stepped up and introduced himself as the village chief, Moka. They didn't waste any time showing their predicament by removing their cloaks. Just like Bobo, they each had body parts that looked like a demonic.
Everyone kept saying it was a curse, but Gray and Karissa wasn't so convinced. When the male ice wizard asked if it may have been some kind of disease, the chief said they had consulted with every doctor they could find. It had to be a curse, since nothing else seemed to be causing it.
Once the clouds moved away from the moon, the whole area started to have a tint of purple followed by screams of agony by the villagers. Their appearances began to change until they looked more demon like. The Fairy Tail wizards could only stare.
With that, their task was given to them.
They had to destroy the moon.
Karissa entered the room she and her guildmates were staying in after she changed in a separate room. There was no point in running around at night to try and figure things out when they literally saw what just happened to the villagers underneath the moonlight. The village chief insisted that they go to sleep and wait for morning.
She was dressed in a loose navy blue t-shirt and a light red sweater with jogging pants that she found in her bag. It was a habit of hers to prepare clothes in her bag ahead of time so she wouldn't need to think about packing night clothes whenever she had to leave on a job the next day.
Lucy was busy digging through her bag while the two guys in the room simply looked up at the ceiling at a loss. Karissa strode over to the window where Happy was looking out of.
"C'mon, we need to close that." She patted his head. The blue cat just jumped away from the window to let her close it.
"Asking us to destroy the moon is a bit too much." Gray said in his underwear.
"I wonder how many punches it'll take...?" Natsu wondered.
Gray's eyes popped out in surprise "Are you kidding me?!" he shouted. "What are you thinking?"
Karissa walked past Gray and Lucy and plopped herself on her futon without a word.
"I don't think there's a wizard alive who can do it." Lucy said with her arms crossed.
"But he hired us to do it. It would tarnish the name Fairy Tail if we backed out."
Karissa sighed tiredly and grabbed her magic headphones. "We're not destroying the moon, that's obvious, because the moon isn't to blame for their condition."
Happy cocked his head to the side. "How do you know that?"
Karissa shrugged. "Simple. The moon has existed for a long time yet I've never heard of people who turn into demons once they bathe in moonlight. If the moon was to blame for turning people into demons, then Galuna Island wouldn't just be the only place affected by it. If Galuna Island, the island of the moon, is under some sort of curse then it would be because of something else." She explained slowly while adjusting something on her headphones. "I believe that the moon is merely serving as a conductor to spread the curse while something else initiating it."
Gray waved his finger in her direction when her explanation was making sense to him. "That makes sense."
"I guess." Natsu scratched the back of his head. "I still think destroying the moon would be faster though."
Ignoring him, Lucy put her hand under her chin thoughtfully. "Right. Then maybe, if we do some investigating, we'll be able to find the original source of the curse?"
Karissa yawned into her sleeve. "I'm done using my brain." She said flatly and just lied back on the futon after slipping under the covers. Gray followed in suit and dropped on the futon next to hers saying that they'll just think about the rest tomorrow.
Natsu stood up with a smile, he put his hands on his hips. "Okay! Our investigation starts tomorrow morning!"
He and Happy dived into their bed.
"Aye!"
Karissa inwardly wished Lucy luck for the night as she set her headphones on her ears. She knew first hand how noisy those boys could be when they slept thanks to some sleepovers they had at her place. Those nights helped her tune out noisy environments. Even with her ability to tune out noise, the idea of someone snoring in her ear annoyed her. She'd have to listen to music to avoid fully hearing Gray snore in her ear if he turned her way.
In the middle of the night, she felt Gray arm practically knock the air out of her. Her eyes shot open in annoyance before she gave Gray a sleepy glare. He was facing her; his hair fell between his eyes and he kept snoring while being completely unaware of his aggression. She left his arm on her stomach just to avoid another air knocker.
Her eyes fluttered open for the first time of the new day when she caught the sound of a door closing. Dark brown eyes were fixed on the dark blue Fairy Tail mark on a bare chest that was touched by a ray of sunlight that poked into the room. Eyebrows knitted slowly. She looked around slowly to register the things around her.
She was still in the room from last night.
Her headphones were off her head.
She was curled close to Gray but not enough to touch him. He was touching her with that stupid hand of his that smacked her. It was angled awkwardly on the side of stomach since she made no effort to remove it off her at night.
I should have put my bag between us.
After carefully removing his arm (and freezing after he nuzzled into his pillow), she sat up and rubbed her eyes drowsily. Lucy's absence didn't go unnoticed and she figured that was her cue to wake the others to get ready for their little exploration.
She tried shaking Gray awake but he was being stubbornly adamant about not waking up. When she poked his cheek, he just took her hand and laid it flat on the futon.
"Five more minutes…"
Karissa stared at him.
Gray smiled at the feeling of a hand running through his hair, diligent fingers scratching his scalp.
Karissa grabbed a handful of his hair and gave it a mild tug that was enough to tickle his pain receptors. He gave her a look of disbelief when he shot his eyes open, her hand merely moved away from his head. "The hell's the big idea?!"
"If we do this job right, Gramps can't complain that much." She mimicked him apathetically. "Yeah, and the more time we spend laying around here the longer it'll take for us to finish this S-Class quest, and then we'll have someone coming to fetch us. And then he'll complain."
Gray held her gaze with a tired one. He sighed, "You didn't have to pull though…" Gray frowned as he sat up tiredly.
Karissa rolled her eyes. "I made sure it didn't hurt." She said before reaching for his head and rubbing the hair to soothe the spot that was abused. "Now get ready. Wake up Natsu and Happy while you're at it."
"Yeah, yeah." He let out a big yawn.
She reached for the door after getting her clothes. "And don't sleep or else I'm throwing a wet towel at your faces."
They all left the village behind as they began their exploration of Galuna Island at 7:40. Karissa wasn't so tired like the two guys and the cat walking behind her so she was able to keep up with Lucy's energy. Her energy, however, ran out not even ten minutes after they left the village. She summoned one of Celestial Spirits, a walking grandfather clock, and then climbed into the small compartment so that it may do the walking for her.
With the clock being slower, the three mages walked ahead to guide the way.
"Are we really going to find another way besides destroying the moon?" Natsu wondered with his hands behind his head.
"We have to." Karissa scratched her neck. "We can't destroy a freaking moon."
Gray shoved his hands in his pockets. "People wouldn't be able to go moon-viewing anymore."
Natsu gasped. "You're right!" he had a look of horror. "Then there'd be no more limited-time Fairy Tail moon-viewing steaks!"
Karissa chuckled softly at that. "I'm pretty sure people would make it on some other day since it sells so well. I think that should be the least of your worries."
Natsu continued to bring up all the possible food choices that would vanish if the moon were to disappear while Gray just called him an idiot. During the chatter, Karissa picked up on some tree leaves rustling behind them followed by a faint stomping sound. Quickly, she tugged Natsu and Gray away from view and practically dragged Horologium with them.
"What happened?! She says." Horologium spoke.
"Shh." Karissa pushed Natsu's head down when he tried standing.
They stilled when they saw a blue giant rat foot land in front of them. Gray and Natsu flinched and stared up at the rat that they couldn't completely see thanks to the trees. Lucy and Happy were inside Horologium with their mouths covered to stop themselves from making sounds that Horologium might repeat.
It started sniffing the air.
Crap.
Karissa slammed her fist in her palm and created a clone of herself that was in a flying position. With her wind magic, she let her ice clone fly past the rat. The rat squeaked and started running after it on four legs, shaking the ground with its stomping.
"You think its one of the local monsters?" Natsu straightened up.
"I don't… think so?" Gray scratched the back of his head.
Lucy spotted a temple that they could retreat in for a while to make sure nothing else was stalking them. She finally got out of Horologium and ran with the others inside. The temple was pretty big and rather old judging from all the cracks and broken pieces. There were also strange moons signs on the walls of the temple.
"This floor doesn't even look safe to walk on!" Natsu asked while stomping his foot on the ground.
Lucy and the others turned around to see what he was doing. "Well don't go stomping on it!"
Karissa sighed and walked over to Natsu as he continued stomping lightly. Fragile places that were on the verge of collapse and Natsu was never a good combination. They didn't need Master Makarov scolding them for taking on an S-Class quest AND destruction and old temple.
"Come on, Natsu. Let's just keep—" his foot went through the floor. "going…" the floor collapsed under her.
Everyone yelled fearfully as they fell down the huge hole. Karissa landed on Natsu since she was the closest to him. Natsu held Karissa and made them both sit up, completely oblivious to the nasty glare she was giving him.
"Hey! You guys okay?!"
Karissa crawled away from him and slowly got up back on her feet as Gray and Lucy called him out for being an idiot who acted on instinct. She was concerned about where they were now in this old temple. Was there even a way up? While she and the others were concerned about their predicament, Natsu used this opportunity to go on ahead and explore the cave they found themselves in. He ran off cheerfully. The three mages behind only sighed in unison and followed after him.
Karissa was ahead of the two and ended up catching up to Natsu. She wasn't expecting him to freeze around the corner which made her run into him by accident.
"Natsu?"
The pink haired wizard lifted a finger and pointed ahead. "Karissa, what is that?"
"Hm?" Karissa looked up curiously. Her blood ran cold instantly. Her eyes went wide and she immediately took one step back. Her foot tripped over a small rock, causing her to fall back on her rear, but that didn't stop her from shuffling back fearfully.
It was Deliora sealed away in ice.
Why… why is this thing here?!
She heard Gray and Lucy call her name.
Gray said it was sealed away on the northern continent! How did it get here?!
…
…
Karissa practically shook like a leaf in Silver's arm. "Wh-What's happening?!"
Gray's eyes widened when he saw a large figure behind them.
"Mom… dad…! What is that?"
Karissa turned her head to look back at what Gray was staring at. There was a large monsters towering over the buildings in the back of the town. It was roaring.
The girl shook fearfully and her mouth opened to scream, but nothing came out.
The next second, she squinted from a beam of light.
…
…
"Deliora?!" Gray exclaimed as he stepped past her and closer to it in disbelief. "That can't be! What is Deliora doing here?!"
Too shaken up by the sight of it, Karissa didn't move an inch from where she sat. She was having a hard time processing things. She couldn't understand why this demon suddenly walked back into her life out of nowhere.
"It's impossible! He can't be here!"
"Karissa?" Lucy spoke her name gently. Karissa whipped her head towards Lucy in fright and flinched away when she felt her touch her back. "Can you stand?" Lucy asked after a pause.
The black haired girl swallowed the lump in her throat. She nodded dumbly and hesitantly. "Y-Yeah."
"Come on." Lucy held out a hand for her to stand which she slowly took. She was somewhat grateful for the blonde for putting a comforting hand on her back to guide her to where the others were.
"Do you guys know this thing?" Lucy asked.
"It's Deliora... The demon of destruction..." Karissa answered uneasily.
Before anything else could be asked, a couple of foots steps could be heard somewhere else in the cave. They made too much noise. Everyone became alarmed and hid somewhere behind some huge rocks. They all peeked to see who it was carefully, they saw a short male with tall spiky blue hair with green robes, and beside him was a taller male with no shirt had a collar around his neck and he had cat ears. And his face looked like a dog, his posture was slouched.
"The voices seem to come from down here..." The shorter male spoke while looking around. The dog boy merely made a noise that resembled a dog.
"Ugh, I hate being awake during the day." The blue haired male said as they walked towards Deliora's imprisoned form. "So Toby, were you exposed to the Moon Drip? You have ears and stuff."
Karissa placed a hand on the rock. Moon Drip?
That seem to make him snap, "No! These are decorations! Get it through your head!" Toby barked but the other male just grinned.
"I was only teasing, you idiot."
"You're so mean."
Soon enough some other footsteps approached the scene. "Yuka, Toby." They called. Judging by their voice, it was a female. The Fairy Tail wizards carefully looked at the new company. It was a woman with pink hair tied in two pony tails. She had a choker tied into a ribbon, a purple and pink short dress with light pink trimmings, black leggings and high-heeled sandals.
"Something has happened..."
The blue haired guy looked at her. "Sherry?"
She clasped her hands in front of her chest. "Angelica was duped by some intruders."
All of them tensed and hid more carefully.
"Intruders?" Yuka repeated. "Then they must have been the ones we heard down here."
Sherry sighed sadly. "It's almost time for the collection of moonlight again. All this makes me so sad." she looked at her comrades. "Let us get rid of the intruders before Reitei-sama finds out. Yes, we must find them before the moon's first light..."
Yuka grinned, "Agreed."
Karissa looked over her shoulder when she felt Happy pick up a rock next to her. He flew somewhere and tossed it in a tunnel to draw their attention. Obviously, they ran over to check on it. Once their footsteps were no longer in the range of their hearing they stood up and moved away from their hiding spot.
"Come on." Natsu whispered, "We should have grabbed them and beaten some answers out of them!"
Lucy shook her head, "Not yet. We need to check things out a little more." She told him as they stepped away from the rocks.
Karissa stepped away from the group and moved closer to Deliora. "But why did they bring it from the northern continent all the way to Galuna Island?" he looked at Gray with knitted brows. "You told me it was sealed away there because of Ur…"
"It was." Gray clenched his fists.
"Wait, wait, what do you mean sealed on the northern continent?" Lucy interjected.
"Deliora… is an immortal demon that ravaged the Isvan region ten years ago." Gray began to explain. "My teacher Ur, the one who taught us magic, was the one who sealed it away in exchange for her life."
Karissa heard ice swirling around so she turned and found Gray looking up angrily. "Gray…" she whispered when she saw ice swirling around his hand.
"I don't know what it has to do with the island's curse, but it doesn't belong here! Reitei… who are you?! You'll have hell to pay if you tarnish Ur's name!"
As Lucy kept discussing about Deliora and its potential relation to the island's curse, Natsu suggested they should melt the ice and destroy it. Simply mentioning the word 'fire' was enough for Gray to punch him square in the face.
"What the hell was that for?!"
"Gray!" Karissa ran over to him.
"Stay away from this ice, fire wizard!" Gray spat.
Karissa put a hand on his shoulder to push him back a little. "Punching Natsu isn't going to help!" she told him seriously. "Did you really think Ur would just exchange her life for some flimsy ice that could melt in the presence of fire?!"
Gray's eyes widened a little and then he slowly looked down to the side. "No…"
He was way too tense. She couldn't blame him though. She was internally freaking out but was doing a good job at keeping cool.
The black haired girl glanced at Deliora as she moved away from Gray.
She clenched her fist tightly. Ur...
Due to the information they gathered so far from the three people, it was decided that they would wait in the cave, while keeping an eye out, for the moon to come out. When that time came, they would perhaps find answers that they were seeking.