Just reposting this chapter due to the recent technical issue of chapters not showing up.

They ended up outside the cave at a rocky part of the beach.

Karissa inhaled the fresh air while Natsu jumped with joy now that their S-Class quest was 'over'. False. It wasn't. She knew it wasn't over now that she was recalling all the events that transpired.

Karissa was leaning on the rock that Lyon, who was escorted out of the cave, was sitting back against as she watched the Lucy look hopeful. She was about to say something until she heard the girl say something so ridiculous.

"Do you think they'll let us on the second floor now?!"

The black haired girl's hand shot up to muffle a laugh. Lyon slightly glanced up at her and watched her shake her head in amusement. There was no way that was going to happen any time soon.

Erza looked at the rule breakers with a dirty look and it instantly made them shut up.

After this, we're probably getting nowhere close to the second floor anytime soon.

Lucy held her head in despair as her optimism flew out the window. "Right… There's still a punishment in store for us!"

"But isn't there something you need to do first?" Erza asked them, "Wasn't the real objective of this job to help the villagers who've been transformed into demons? The S-Class quest isn't over yet."

"B-But Deliora is dead," Lucy turned to look at Karissa who was staring blankly back at her. "Karissa thought that the village's curse was coming from a source. That source must have been Deliora!"

"No." Karissa shook her head. "You heard your celestial spirit, she said that their bodies had been contaminated by being exposed to the Moon Drip." Karissa's eyes shifted to look up.

But yet, I'm starting to think she might be wrong.

Because if we look at Lyon's followers AND Lyon himself then something doesn't add up.

None of them look like demons.

The blonde sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hand. "So… how do we heal them now?"

Gray turned towards Lyon. "Hey, Lyon!"

The older ice mage stared blankly with those slanted eyes of his, "I have no idea, just so you know."

Karissa put her hand under her chin and narrowed her eyes, "Lyon's group hasn't been affected by the Moon Drip despite spending much more time exposed to it. They still look very human." She looked down at him. "How long have you been here for?"

"Three years." He replied. "But we never interacted with the villagers. They never once came to see us, either." He added and then looked to the side. "It's as you said, we've been exposed to the same light for three years and yet we haven't changed one bit. I have some doubts about the Moon Drip's influences on the human body."

"He's right." Karissa looked at Erza and Lucy. "You saw the people of Brago. No horns or anything like that."

"Right. That's true." Lucy put a hand under her chin thoughtfully. "Things aren't adding up…"

"And I'm starting to think there might not even be a curse…" Karissa muttered to herself but she was sure Lyon heard her due to their proximity. She put her hands in her pockets and paused.

Right… I forgot I brought this.

"Be careful. They're hiding something." Lyon then shrugged. "But anyway, this is guild work now."

The others began making their way back to the village but Gray and Karissa lagged behind to turn their attention back to Lyon. The older of the three looked at Gray in surprise before narrowing his eyes at him. "What are you looking at?"

"You should join a guild too." Gray suggested. "I'm sure you'll find friends, rivals, and I'm sure you'll find a new goal."

Lyon looked away from him, "What rubbish. Just leave already!" he flicked his hand.

Gray smiled a little and started to turn until he noticed that Karissa was looking into her pocket.

"You coming?"

Her head shot up. "H-Huh? Oh, yeah. Just go on ahead. I'll be there soon."

The two stared at each other with Gray being the one trying to figure out why she wanted to stay but he didn't question her, he just nodded, and turned to walk after his friends. "Don't stay away for too long. Erza will think you're trying to escape."

Once Gray was out of earshot, she could feel Lyon's gaze on her. She heaved out a tired sigh. "You got any place where your friends will find you?"

"What?"

"Well, you're far from that exit of the cave and I doubt people could see you hiding behind this rock." She pointed her chin at his body. "Plus, you got wrecked by Gray. Can you even walk?"

"… I don't need your pity."

"Who the…" she narrowed her eyes. "Who said I pitying you?" she clicked her tongue in annoyance and started walking around the rock to stand in front of him. She reached out for him and did her best to hold him up until he started struggling against her.

"Hey! I didn't ask for your help—"

"I'm so tempted to drop you sideways." She said apathetically while staring at him. She was warning him not to take that threat lightly. Lyon was no longer her enemy so she found no problem in helping him out a little.

After a short staring contest, Lyon just huffed and resigned to his fate. He forced himself to stand upright while she gently supported him. She was perceptive of Lyon's silent winces and did her best to lessen the pain by taking it easy. With his help, they were able to find a place that would allow his comrades to find him when they had a better view of the area. Luckily, there was some long rock that look like a bench. A perfect place to leave him.

She put her hands in her pockets after setting him down.

"Thank you." He quietly said.

"You're welcome. Now…" Karissa pulled out a bandage roll from her pocket. He blinked in surprise. Was she serious? He was staring at her dumbfounded as she approached him.

He leaned away, "That's not necessary." he looked up and down between the roll and her face.

"I already had this with me just in case something happened, so I might as well use this. Here hold it." She gave him the bandage roll and reached for her back pocket to pull out a dry wipe. She created a small ice cube that melted fast. She used the water to clean his wound carefully before dabbing it with the wipe. When she finished cleaning it, she reached for her other back pocket to pull out a square packet that was the size of her pocket. She held it up to her teeth and, with practiced hands, she ripped off the opening and quickly pulled out the antiseptic wipe just before the packet fell to the ground with a flick of her wrist. She'd have to pick it up later.

She spat out the paper. That too.

Karissa moved closer to Lyon and pushed his disheveled hair back to have a better view of his head injury. He had some open cuts on the forehead but nothing too serious.

She applied the antiseptic.

He hissed and narrowed his eyes at her. "At least be gentle!"

"Sorry."

She usually had antiseptic wipes on her just in case. There was nothing wrong with being prepared after all. Her wounds never got her any infections so far and she wasn't trying to experience them either.

With a hand still holding his hair up, she held her hand out to him for the roll which he gave her back.

"… You look awful." he said after a few seconds of silence.

Karissa paused and gave him a look. "Gee, thanks. You're a real charmer, you know that?"

Lyon rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant."

"I haven't slept nor ate anything in the past two days." Karissa explained while wrapping the bandage around his head. "I guess it's catching up to me now that I have time to breathe."

It fell silent between them again while she did her task. He was taking a good look at the person standing before him and comparing her to the eight-year-old version of herself that he remembered. The one thing he noticed was she wasn't as smiley as she used to be. Surely it must be because she kept sticking with Gray, the grumpy one out of three.

When she finished her task, she dropped his hair and let it fall back in place.

"There, all done."

"Thank you—" he yelped in pain when she felt her fist land square on his head. His hand shot up and he stared at her in disbelief. "What's your problem?!"

Karissa held her wrist and flexed her hand nonchalantly. "You used one hand for molding magic. You didn't learn your lesson from Ur. Fix that."

Lyon rubbed his head and stared at her warily.

She shook her head and picked up the trash she threw on the ground. "Anyway, yeah. Go join a guild or something. You'll finally breathe in new life once you do." she treaded back to the village with a lazy wave.

As he watched her leave, he lowered his hand. She had punched him in the same manner Ur used to do whenever she scolded him about not using both hands. He opened his hand and looked down at it pensively.

When she returned to the village, she found everyone staring up at something. They were inside the village that supposedly destroyed the previous night. She had no idea how it was returned back to its original state.

Anyway, everyone was staring at something and that was Erza and Natsu. She had a spear pointed up at the moon.

Wait what?

"Is she serious?" Karissa furrowed her brows. "The moon…?"

"You don't really think they're going to pull this off do they?" Gray asked the girls.

"Hell. No." Karissa said flatly.

"Well, I think they've totally gone off the deep end this time." Lucy replied.

Erza, with the help of Natsu, threw the spear towards the moon. The spear then cracked the moon at least that's what it looked like until the sky began to crack. Even after destroying the sky, nothing happened to the villagers, they remained the same. According to Erza, the Moon Drip spell had released evil energy in the form of gas which eventually crystalized over the island, forming an invisible shell above the island. It explained why it made the moon look purple inside the shell's perimeter. It also explained why the villagers thought they had a curse since it affect their memory. They were all demons to begin with. Quite a shocking revelation.

After knowing this, the demons of Galuna Island wanted to throw a huge party to celebrate their freedom from the 'curse'.

"A demon celebration…?" Lucy said uneasily as she tried to picture it. "That sounds… really intense."

Karissa apathetically held up her hand. "I'm down. I'm starving."

"For demon food?"

"Anything at this point. I'll even eat wood."

…

…

…

Lucy sweat dropped at how Karissa was practically inhaling the food given to her. It almost reminded her of Natsu bar that Karissa had the decency to not throw food everywhere as she ate. She was so hungry that she didn't think even think about how the food looked like. It wasn't so bad though even if some of the food looked like literal botflies.

"Were you really that hungry?" Lucy asked after swallowing down some crab. She noticed that Karissa was quite talkative right now so she figured she might as well strike a conversation with her while she had the chance since she never knew if she'd get the chance. It was always good to get to know her fellow guild members.

Karissa had a bowl in front of her mouth as she glanced up to look at the celestial mage sitting in front of her. She lowered her bowl and licked her lips. "Weren't you? She tipped her head. "There was hardly any time to eat anything during the whole quest."

Lucy grinned uneasily as she remembered her state several hours ago. "Happy and I got something to eat this morning while Erza had us tied up."

Karissa's eyebrows rose. "She tied you up?"

Lucy sighed. "Right after I beat Sherry she ended up finding me first with Happy." She said before sipping from her cup.

This made Karissa chuckle softly at the thought. Lucy must have been terrified since Erza was pretty scary. A newbie like her had yet to adjust to scary Erza. Karissa wasn't too scared of her since she practically lived with someone who could just be as terrifying as her. Mirajane, Erza and Pandora were quite the scary trio.

Right…

Karissa set her bowl on the table and sighed tiredly. She wasn't ready for it.

"Hm? What's the matter?"

"I have my own Erza to deal with when I get home."

A second Erza?

As if she read her mind, Karissa gave her a reply: "Pandora."

Lucy repeated the name softly. "Oh, her? The one who sometimes models with Mirajane?"

"Yeah, she's my sister. So, I'm bound to get some strict scolding when we get home…"

"Wait! Seriously?! Your sister?"

"Yeah… you didn't know? Ah, right. I never told you my full name. It's Karissa Sinclost."

Lucy gasped and hovered a hand over her mouth. Now it made sense why Karissa Sinclost usually refused to have her picture taken by the magazine. She was shy. The Sinclost siblings' origin story was not too unheard of in the Kingdom of Fiore. They weren't superstars but still.

"Is our reputation really a big deal?" Karissa asked curiously, tipping her head.

Lucy recovered and quickly waved her hand dismissively. "I just wasn't expecting it." She laughed nervously. Then she smiled at her. "I'm glad I got to know you before I knew who you were."

Karissa raised a brow. "Why?"

"Because I got to see what an amazing wizard you are without expecting it. It's like spoiler-free, you know? I can be pretty bias when it comes to Fairy Tail." Lucy smiled sheepishly.

The black haired girl closed her eyes and chuckled with a shrug. "I guess. But the reason I became like this was because Ur told her to make her proud. She told me I would become a wonderful mage when I grow up. I wanted to live up to her expectations to make her proud."

Lucy smiled softly at the nostalgic look on her guildmate's face. She was conjuring up an old memory of the past. Lucy had only heard bits and pieces about Ur, the beloved teacher of the three ice mages, but she understood how great of a mage she must have been.

Karissa lifted a hand when she felt a yawn crawling up. That was her cue. She needed to sleep now. Like right now.

Just as Erza came over to sit with them, Karissa got up. The older mage looked at the shorter girl curiously when she saw the sluggish movements. She knew that posture all too well.

"Are you going to retire for the night?" Erza asked her with a small smile.

"Yeah." Karissa hid another yawn. "I haven't slept in the past two days…" she trailed off and paused. "No, wait… I haven't slept in probably three days actually if we count the time we spent in the cave… Oh god."

She was horrified at how long she had been up. No human should be staying up that long and still be walking. It became a habit to sleep late when she was at home but she never tried to stay awake past 3 AM. It honestly felt like something bad might happen to her if she stayed up any longer.

Lucy grinned at her. "You should have slept like me and Natsu." She said with amusement.

Karissa scoffed. "Not with Deliora staring down at me. I'm not that relaxed." She turned around and started walking back to the little hut where they stayed. "Goodnight."

She lazily waved her hand when she heard Lucy and Erza bid her goodnight.

With another yawn that nearly cracked her jaw, Karissa opened the door and found the lights open. Inside she found Gray wrapping his waist with a bandage roll. When the door opened behind him, he perked up and glanced over his shoulder curiously.

"Oh, hey." He looked back down at himself.

"What's up."

"Nothing. Just patching myself up."

Karissa hummed and walked over to her bag. It was only then that she realized that the acid jelly that destroyed the village had actually destroyed her headphones in the process. Thank god it was somehow in one piece. She dug inside the bag for her sleeping clothes.

"You going back outside?" she asked while walking to the screen in the room that would give her enough privacy to change.

"Nah, I'm going to bed right after. I wanna speed up the healing process even if just a little. Sleeping helps, you know?"

Karissa sighed tiredly and pulled off her dark blue jacket and just tossed in on the floor. "Of course, I know that."

"What about you?"

"If I stay up any longer than this, I'm scared I'll cough out blood or something."

She heard him laugh while she put on her shirt. "You're being ridiculous."

"I don't care, it's not normal to stay up for more than forty-eight hours!"

"This is coming from the girl who'll stay up past 1 AM for who knows what."

Karissa yawned and stepped out from behind the screen in her nightwear. "I know my limits." She said simply as she went over to a table to fold her clothes neatly.

They closed the lights but left a lamp on so that the others could see when they came inside the hut. Karissa was settled inside her futon and she was staring up at the ceiling blankly. The threads of sleep would eventually wrap around her and pull her into a deep sleep, but she was still awake with her mind going over that dreadful scenario in the throne room.

"… Gray?"

"Hm, what?" he sounded on like he was on the verge of sleep.

"I didn't want you to die." She admitted softly. "But you wanted to be a suicidal maniac."

Gray was pulled away from sleep when she called him that. He shifted his head on the pillow to look at her. She was just staring up at the ceiling with a small frown on her face.

"You can't just die easily like that. Your life is not just yours. It also belongs to the people who care about you. So… you can't just take it away from us, okay?"

It wasn't often that Karissa became so openly honest like this. Sometimes, her true words were usually whispered behind different words that only scrapped the surface of its true meaning. One only needed to listen carefully for them to understand. He had gotten used to this a few years after she hopped onto the timidity boat. The words she told him earlier back in the cave, he understood their meaning. Maybe she was thinking she wasn't clear enough that's why she was telling him her honesty words now?

Karissa turned her body to face him with an unreadable expression. "Did that make sense?"

He nodded lightly. "Yeah, I get it."

There was a brief silence as they just stared at each other with no awkward air.

He promised me he wouldn't do it again.

I want to trust him, I really do, yet my nature to be extra cautious won't let me fully do so.

"Can I hug you again?"

Gray blinked and then felt a little warm as he continued staring at her. She just stared at him with that unreadable expression but the longer he stared the more he could see her eyes wavering with lingering fear. He sighed. Making her worry and nearly cry for him was something he disliked. His body turned on its good side and he lifted his arm with his blanket. He could have sat up and let her hug him but he didn't feel like moving unnecessarily with his injury.

Karissa slowly shuffled out of her futon, her sleepy state impeding her movements, and clumsily laid down next to him. She put a single arm around him and he dropped his on her.

Not the best hug but it'll do.

"Sorry I worried you."

"Scared is the proper word, weirdo."

"Right, scared. Sorry about that."

Everyone in Fairy Tail should live a long life because they deserve to.

I want to keep you safe; I want you to live.

That'll be a promise made in my heart.

She lazily stared at his necklace, "What did you think about when you were about to use the Iced Shell on Lyon?"

He lightly furrowed his brows, "What did I think?"

"You must have thought of something. Like, I dunno, a regret?"

He thought for a moment, "I was apologizing for leaving you guys. That was the first thing on my mind." He replied.

Karissa hummed and dragged it a few seconds. "I don't understand how you could think of throwing you life like that. I feel like I wouldn't be able to do it."

"You… don't really think of anything. You would understand if you were in my shoes, not that I'd want you to do that."

She laughed lightly. "Good to know."

"I'm serious. Anyway, that's enough about this depressing subject. Anything else on your mind?"

"… Hm… what do you think our punishment will be when we head back home?"

She heard him groan from her question. "Aw man..."

They just ended talking about the possibilities of their punishment and occasionally laughed softly together when they brought up the stories of old punishments that Natsu went through. At some point, they began to slur until they just fell asleep.

…

…

…

A roar echoed behind me. It was coming. It was after me! No, no, no, no!

I screamed for help while running in the woods. My clothes were dirty from all the times I tumbled in the dirt. My left foot hurt was hurting from having rocks dig into my heel.

"Help me!" I wailed. "Please! Somebody!"

I tripped over a root and landed harshly against a stray branch.

"Mommy! Daddy!" I continued to scream while struggling to get back up.

I wanted to get away. I wanted to go home!

After I took got back up and ran a few more steps, I was shoved onto the ground aggressively. A hand was pushing my neck against the cold soil. My fingers dug into the ground from the fear.

"No…!" I whimpered as I started crying. "Stop! Let me go!" I shrieked while trashing around futilely.

A laugh above me mocked my attempts. I looked back and saw the figure above me but my tears blurred them to the point where I could only see piercing glowing purple eyes and a wide grin. I froze when I saw them lift a hand, his hand looked like a claw.

Then it swooped down and dug into my back.

I let out a blood curling scream when it dug into my flesh.

…

…

…

Karissa's eyes shot open and she instantly sat up. She was breathing heavily as her eyes darted around the room to take in her surroundings. The darkness had frightened her since she couldn't tell where she was. It was only thanks to moonlight peeking through the closed window and Natsu's snoring that the was able to get a grip on her surroundings.

When she felt something stir next to her, she flinched with a small gasp and looked down to see Gray next to her, shifting around in his sleep. They fell asleep close to each other.

This wasn't good.

I need to get some air.

Karissa didn't even bother being discreet. She went to her bag and grabbed her shoes and then darted out the hut to who knows where.

…

…

…

Karissa sat on a rock with her knees pull up to her chest, watching the waves of the water sway gently under the moonlight. Her mouth was hidden behind her arms and her nose was pressed on it as she stared ahead without really thinking about anything. She was grateful to her resistance to the cold that she didn't need anything to cover herself to keep her body warm.

The dream she had was a tough one to swallow. It didn't feel like a bad dream. It was a real nightmare that shook her to the bone. A few minutes ago, when she just sat down, she realized how hard her heart pounding against her rib cage, and how her hands trembled when she placed them on the rock. Now, she seemed calmer than before after watching the flow of the waves.

Then, she heard a twig snap behind her. The adrenaline of her nightmare nearly surged back when she whipped around in fright if it were not for the familiar sight of scarlet hair.

"… E-Erza." she breathed out.

She was dressed in her light purple pajamas with the Heart Kreuz patterns and a pair of sandals.

Erza noted how her reaction was not a simple response of startlement. It almost looked like pure terror on her face, and seeing Karissa so worked up was an unusual sight.

She offered her a friendly smile and got closer to her. "If you stay out here too long you're going to catch a cold." She sat next to her while Karissa just resumed her fetal position.

"It's fine." She tucked her head in her arms and sighed. "Why are you out here?"

"You weren't exactly quiet when you woke up." She informed her. "You've been gone for a longtime. Was it a nightmare?"

"Mmhm." She peeked up and stared back at the sea. "It was really scary."

"Do you think it'll make you feel better if you talk about it?"

"Maybe but I don't really want to think about it now. Besides, I've been feeling better just looking at the sea."

"Is that so?" Erza smiled and looked ahead. "I suppose the sea does have some therapeutic effect."

"I think so too. It made me think that maybe my dream was because I was around a demon of my past."

She just didn't understand why it had to go as far as having something clawed into her back though.

"Dreams do tend to form based on what we've experienced."

"I guess."

After a while of staring at the sea in silence and listening to the waves, Erza looked away from the sea and looked at her friend who seemed more relaxed. She put a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner, "We should really get back to bed. You said it yourself: you need to get some rest."

The black haired girl inhaled and sighed through her nose. She swallowed and then nodded. Erza was right. She couldn't just spend her time in front of the sea waiting for dawn of the new day even though it seemed like a good way to avoid another nightmare.

"Alright."

The next morning, Karissa was able to bounce back to her usual composed self. Erza was the only person to be aware of her state that night but she didn't press on the subject since Karissa was feeling okay. In fact, she slept a good dreamless sleep.

They took a ship back to Hargeon, a ship that Erza had hijacked from a crew of pirates, and took the train back to Magnolia. The others didn't want to know how she was able to do it.

"We're back home!" Natsu cheered joyfully once he recovered from his motion sickness on the train.

"Quite the delayed reaction there." Karissa arched a brow.

Gray ran a hand through his dark hair and sighed. "All that trouble for one little key."

Happy nodded in agreement. "It was an S-Class quest too."

Naturally, an S-Class quest should have gotten them a bigger reward. However, Erza had politely refused the village's 7 million jewel offer since Fairy Tail never allowed them to take on the job in the first place. But she did gratefully accept a golden key that was offered to them which Lucy immediately took for herself as the sole celestial wizard in the group.

"It wasn't an official job. This is fair enough."

Lucy nodded vigorously in agreement. "Yup, yup. No need to complain!"

"We should just sell it." Happy piped up.

"What are you saying?!" Lucy gaped. "I've told you before; there are only 12 Golden Zodiac keys in the world. They're extremely rare."

Natsu laughed with a lazy grin. "What? Like that cow and that maid?"

"If I train myself more, those stellar spirits will become even stronger than you!"

"So, which key did you get?" Gray asked.

"Sagittarius, the archer!" she waved the golden key in front of the ice mages.

"You got Scorpio?" Karissa wondered curiously.

"I only have Aquarius, Virgo, Taurus, Cancer and Sagittarius." She held up those keys for her.

"Hm… pity. I wanted to see what my zodiac sign looked like."

"We really should sell that key if they're so rare." Happy mumbled.

"I said no!" Lucy hissed.

Karissa sighed and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "We could have gotten at least just a bit of money… I could have use it to buy some art supplies."

"Again?" Gray looked at her with a lifted brow. "Didn't you buy some on your job with Loke a month ago?"

She looked at him and saw the new scar on his forehead above his left eye. "They were cheap and low quality." Karissa said flatly, displeased. "I heard there were better ones somewhere in the southern part of Fiore. I forgot what the town's name was though…"

All of a sudden, Erza stopped in her tracks and whipped around to face the four people behind her, ceasing all chatter. "Now, let's get to the guild and decide on your punishment. In regard to this case, I kept thinking I could overlook your actions. But, it's the Master who renders the verdict. I have no intention of defending you. So be prepared for your punishment."

…

…

Gray suddenly crouched on the floor and held his head. "Wait, I never want to do that again!"

"What is that?!" Lucy freaked from Gray's sudden panic. She looked at Karissa when she heard her hiss and found her scratching her bare arms with both her sleeves pulled back to her elbows.

"… I should have just gone back home." The girl said with immense anxiety while reaching up to scratch her neck. She was usually a goody two shoes to avoid complications.

Happy flew next to her with a worried look on his face. "Calm down, Karissa! You're going to have a mental breakdown!" he told her while flailing his arms.

"Is it really that bad?" Lucy squeaked.

Scared, Lucy watched as Natsu got forcefully dragged away by Erza's mighty iron grip while crying tears and desperately trying to escape. His cries got farther away as Erza continued dragging him with no effort at all.

Soon enough, they others got a hold of themselves and dragged their feet after Erza. When they walked further into town, they noticed a bunch of people whispering amongst the crowd around them.

Karissa looked at the townspeople who were staring at them. The look on their faces. It was pity. But for what? She reached up for her collar and played with it as she observed the people.

Unless Master Makarov decided to announce to the whole town what our punishment is then I don't see a reason why they'd be looking at us like this…

Did something bad happen in town?

"What's that…? The guild shouldn't look like that."

Erza's voice pulled Karissa away from her thoughts and the people. She looked ahead and found the others staring in the direction of their guild hall. Their building was there but it had what looked like massive metal rods impaled through it.

Quickly, they ran over to the guild to get a better look. It was even worse up close. Giant steel rods, cracks and broken wood scattered around it.

What fucking disrespect…

Karissa bit her lip when she took in the sight. It was tough to swallow. The person who did this might as well have stomped on her heart. The building wasn't just a guildhall, it was also their home that they just wrecked.

Gray looked around, "No way..."

"What in the world happened?" Erza asked to no one in particular.

"Phantom…" a soft voice spoke with a tremble from behind them. They all turned to see Mirajane with a crushed expression. They didn't quite catch what she said.

"Did you say Phantom?" Natsu gritted his teeth.

"Phantom Lord…" Karissa muttered bitterly, her eyes narrowed.

The guild towards the northeast that represent Fiore alongside Fairy Tail…

Will this alight the flames of war because this very much seems like a declaration of war…