Chapter Nineteen…
(Lucy Heartfilia - Part 7.)
11th of February 783 - Cait Shelter, Evening:
It has been two hours since Natsu and his group, discovered the four people from Edolas, they were now at a village known as Cait Shelter. It would seem that the village and guild was one and the same. It was a small village, with a few buildings. The headquarters stood in a small plain, with rocky formations visible behind it. The formations housed tall, wooden watchguards and several massive poles, a large, round tiled space in front of the structure had more buildings overlooking it.
The building itself was a large pavilion, which, living up to the guild's name, took the form of a cat's head. Its central section sported two large rhomboidal windows, which resembled feline eyes, each possessing two sticks placed in a cross shape crossing it; topping the cloth door standing in the central lower part of the pavilion were two curved corners, each bearing a pair of capsized triangular flags hanging from it, with their inner edges ending in a dark circle; something which made the whole entrance look like a cat's muzzle with an open mouth and bared teeth. The rounded top part of the structure, separated from the rest by a row of large feathers hanging vertically, came with a pair of massive, triangular protrusions, which served as the cat's ears, with the guild's name being placed below them, in the middle.
Flanking this main section were two smaller ones, elongating from its sides, which possessed dark parts topping their roofs. Sitting behind the right wing from the main pavilion's door were three high poles, each bearing a banner secured to its central upper part by ropes: the banner in the middle was adorned by Cait Shelter's symbol, the one to its right by the emblem of Fiore, and the one to the left by the insignia of the Magic Council.
Sitting before the pavilion, at both sides of the main structure, was a pair of large, ornamental objects similar to short columns, which in the upper part bore a dark symbol reminiscent of a wind rose; these very upper parts had their edges curving outwards, generating three protruding semicircles which made them look like paws, thus granting the feline structure its forelegs.
As the group entered the village, they saw about fifty to one hundred people there. At first sight, nothing seemed to be out of place, it was a small village with a small guild, as they looked after each other. But for Natsu it didn't seem right at all, as there was no scent to the village. No food, no people, no thing, and Natsu found it strange, for a people up to one hundred people, he was suspect a lot of smell here. He was catching a bit of smell here and there, but it belonged to Wendy and Carla. Natsu had no idea why this was, this was the first time that something like this ever happened to him.
So as they entered the village, the villagers or whatever they were, greeted them and Wendy. As the villagers saw the newcomers, a small, slim elderly man came up to them. The man had a long white beard, complete with a moustache, which extended up on his face sides, making for a large pair of sideburns and his two bushy eyebrows as well. On his forehead was a tattoo, composed of a dot surrounded by two arched stripes.
Now he was wearing an attire somewhat reminiscent of that of a Native chief of the past, with a large headgear composed of feathers, with more, lighter-coloured feathers adorning the back of his waist. He had a light cloth tied circling his waist, paired with loose dark pants reaching below his knees and simple shoes, and his chest was bare, with a necklace seemingly made of massive teeth around his neck, hanging over it. He also sported a large bracelet on each arm bicep, and some bandages wrapped around the forearms.
"Nice to meet you all, are you all new friends of Wendy's?" asked the old man.
"You could say that yes," Natsu informed the old man, "we saved her from some bandits that wanted to make her into a slave."
"What!?" the old man and the villagers/guild members asked in shock and worry, before turning to Wendy and hugged her and asking her if she was alright.
"I'm alright everyone, Natsu saved me and he and his friends looked after me and brought me back her to make sure I was alright." Wendy explained to the villagers and her family.
"As her Guild Master, I would like to thank you for saving her and bringing her back to us," the Guild Master thanked Natsu and his friends, "if there's anything you want just ask and we'll see if we can give it to you without question."
Behind him, Natsu saw the group about to say something, but he held his hand up to stop them, as he turned to the Guild Master and said, "I know my friends would like something, but there's one thing I would like to ask you."
"And what would that be my boy?" the old man asked the Dragon Slayer, not knowing this would be his and his village downfall.
"First is who are you, and the second is who or what the hell are you and who created you?" Natsu asked darkly, not liking someone lying to Wendy. Sure he would keep things from her and lie to people, but he would never lie to those close to him. Sure keep things from them, but he would never lie to those close to him unless he had to.
"I'm Roubaul." introduced the Guild Master, then looking confused, and with a hint of worry in his voice, he asked, "What do you mean who or what we are and who created us?"
"Simply put, unless my nose is playing up, it would seem none of you are real." Natsu inform him and the rest of his group.
"What do you mean none of them are real?" Wendy asked worriedly, hoping that her new friend wasn't going to say what she feared what he was going to. She didn't know if she could take it, not after what she learnt about her family.
"Yeah, what do you mean they aren't real?" asked Minerva, "They look and act like they are real."
"They might look and act like they are real, and you might be able to touch them, but they are missing one thing that makes them real." Natsu told them all, "They don't have a scent of smell, anything alive be it animal or human, everything has a smell to them, but this village and these people have no smell to it other than Wendy and Carla. So my question is why is that?"
"I can't smell anything." Rouge told Natsu, with the others nodding in agreement.
"It's not surprising that you and Minerva can't smell anything," Natsu informed them honestly, "as to a normal person you would only smell things like cooking and other strong smells. But for us Dragon Slayers, we have strong senses like smell and hearing, so we can smell and hear things that you wouldn't normally would."
"If that's the case, and what you are saying is true, why hasn't Wendy smelled something wrong?" asked Happy.
Wendy turned red, if what Natsu was true, she felt ashamed and embarrassed, as her sense of smell and hearing wasn't all that good in fact her mother really didn't trained her in that before she disappeared. But she didn't have to say anything though, as Natsu said, "I would blame her mother, as from what I can tell, she wasn't all that good at teaching Wendy what she should have been teaching her at a young age. That or she has been here so long that she didn't notice, but I would put down to the later than the former." Than looking at the Guild Master, Natsu asked darkly, "So are you going to tell me why you don't have a smell or do I have to do something drastic to get answers."
One look at Natsu and Roubaul knew that this teen would do something drastic to get his answers. Roubaul never thought that he would have been found out like this, he thought he would have time before he would have to tell Wendy the truth. And by the look of things she already had some bad news, something about her mother if he guessed right. He didn't want to think about what to think about how she was going to react to the news he was going to tell her, but he knew if he didn't, this Natsu character would force him somehow.
With a sigh of defeat, the old man said, "Okay, I'll tell you the truth, this is something that I wanted to wait for until Wendy was older before telling her. Unlike we lead Wendy to believe, we're not descendants of the Nirvit Tribe." This got a gasp from Wendy, as Roubaul went on to say, "In fact, we are the Nirvit Tribe."
"Never heard of the Nirvit Tribe." Happy admitted, as apart for Wendy, all agreed that they haven't heard of the tribe.
"Not surprising," Roubaul acknowledged, "seeing that until a few years ago the tribe was extinct for the last four hundred years."
"How is that possible?" asked a shocked Rouge, "There's about a hundred people of you here."
"That's not true," corrected Roubaul, "there's only two people really technically three if you count me."
"What are you talking about Master." asked Wendy confused and worried.
"You see I'm the last of the Nirvit Tribe," Roubaul informed the group, "and I have been for the last four hundred years."
"How? Unless you have some kind of magic to make you immortal, that would be impossible." Natsu told him, "And what about the rest of the villagers?"
"You're right it impossible, and I'm immortal, I am in fact dead." explained Roubaul, seeing no reason to lie now, as he became transparent for a few seconds before looking solid again.
"So you're a spirit," Natsu said thoughtfully, "and the villagers? Are they spirits too?"
"No they are not," the spirit admitted with a sigh, "they are illusions." And with that the villagers, one by one the villagers disappeared. It hurt Roubaul to tell them this, as he could see the hurt in Wendy's face and she started to cry at the truth of what is happening around her. But now that she had living people around her, those who care and want to help her, this is something she needed. So even it hurt her, he needed to do this, so that she can have a better life.
"Wh, why?" asked a sobbing Wendy, "Wh, why did you lie to me all, all of this time?"
"Because at the time, it was something you needed." Roubaul sadly explained, "You remembered when first came to us? When the blue haired boy name of Jellal left you here."
"Yes, yes I do." Wendy sobbed, as she remembered that day.
"Well on that day, he begged me to take you in and look after you, as he had something important to do and couldn't risk your life." Roubaul informed Wendy and the rest of the group, "I was taken aback by his clear and earnest game, that I couldn't help but to agree to take you in. Even though I had sworn to lead a solitary life…"
"Why did you create the villagers then?" asked Happy.
"For Wendy." Roubaul admitted simply, "When Jellal left Wendy here, she was asleep, and when she woke up, she was upset and crying that her friend left her. She said he was going to leave her at a guild. I couldn't send that the young girl crying, so I created the village and the guild for her, as I couldn't stand her being upset."
Here Natsu hated the man a little less, as this lie was to make her happy, whilst he had some revelations about it, he couldn't hate him for it. But that didn't stop him hating the elderly man, as he hadn't trained Wendy at all. It showed that Roubaul was powerful even in death, to be able to use such powerful creation magic to create the villager giving them form and personality. But yet with such power, he hadn't even trained Wendy to become stronger, so she could look after herself on missions.
But before he could say anything about it, Minerva said, "From the stories that I have read, the dead only become spirit if they have unfinished business, so what's your unfinished business?"
Roubaul sighed at this, he didn't want to tell them, but as he thought about it, he realized that they might be able to protect his dark secret and make sure no one gets it. So Roubaul sighed as he decided to tell them the truth, "Because I'm keeping an eye on the forest not far from here, so that no one finds what is there."
"What is in the forest?" asked Rouge.
"A powerful magical artefact that I designed and my people created," explained Roubaul, "it was known as as Nirvana. At the time we were at war. We had not long defeated the dragons that were killing and enslaving the human race, and so there was a power vacuum, and the remain humans were fighting to fill the void of power, to see who would be in control. My people and I had enough with war, and wanted a way to stop it, to stop the people of the world fighting each other. So I designed Nirvana, in hopes of reversing the morality of those whose minds were set on the destructions of others.
"Once it was built, we made our home there, and took great joy at what we had accomplished through peace. We were a shining beacon of light in a once dark and shadowy world. However there was a slight problem that we didn't realize would happen, despite our best intentions in keeping the dark away, we couldn't change the fact that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Whilst Nirvana had brought light to what was once a terrible darkness, but it wasn't by chasing it away but absorbing it so to speak."
"I see." Natsu said thoughtfully, as the others were shocked at the story. But his mind was working on what was said, he was imagining something like a sponge absorbing all that darkness like water, but like a sponge, over time it'll be too much and that darkness would leak out. "Let me guess, over time Nirvana took to much darkness and it began to leak out."
"You right, I learnt this too late," Roubaul admitted sorrowfully, "I learnt that the world yearns for balance and order, the light serves no purpose without the darkness and vice versa. Light is born from darkness, and darkness is born from light, the two are forever intertwined. You cannot have one without the other."
"That makes sense," admitted Minerva, "how can you have hope without hopelessness, and how can you become brave without fear. With too much light, you'll slowly die and wither."
"Yeah, but we learn that too late," Roubaul sighed sadly at this, at the loss of his tribe, "All the world's evil take from those whose hearts were once consumed with darkness, was now transferred to the peace-loving Nirvit. It was a nightmare."
Wendy couldn't believe what she was hearing, everything she knew was crumbling around her, first her mother now the people who brought her up. She didn't know what to think, her heart was breaking and she didn't know what to do with all the information she was gaining.
Engulfed in rage and hatred by the darkness that we took from others, we slaughter each other until no one was left standing. Will that's not accurate, as I am the only survivor." Then with sigh he said, "Then again in this particular situation, the word survivor is a little misleading, seeing that I am a spirit of the man I used to be. I am a spirit as punishment for my sins, I this powerless spirit have stood as a Sentinel over my creation for the last four hundred years. Keeping my weary eyes open, hoping to find someone who could destroy Nirvana and consign it to the pages of history."
Upon finishing hearing this story, Natsu didn't like the idea of an artefact that could turn someone good or evil. Sure making a person evil was something he wouldn't mind too much, other than they might turn on him, but he could deal with that should it happen. But the thing was turning him or someone else in his group who was evil to good.
Sure for him he wasn't fully evil, but he was on the dark side and was slowly getting to full evil and he liked it. He felt free, he had nothing holding him down, and he was truly happy, something he hadn't felt for a long time, even when he was in Fairy Tail. And he didn't want to return to his old ways, pretending to be happy and have people making fun of him for one reason or another.
However, turning people good or evil wasn't Natsu's only problem with the story, but how Roubaul treated Wendy in the long run. First pretending to be real when they won't, to him it was a cruel thing to do, as one day Wendy would have found out about and be heartbroken about it more than she already was.
But what got him the most was that when the merchants stopped coming to the village because they run out of money, Roubaul sent Wendy out on missions to get supplies and done so without any training. What was worse was that the spirit expected someone to come looking for this Nirvana, and done nothing more than watch and done nothing to protect Wendy.
What if someone came looking for information about where to find Nirvana, they could attack them and Wendy would be defenceless and get hurt all because the damn ghost didn't train the young Dragon Slayer. At this thought he let a low growl, not a normal growl, but a growl that could be mistaken as a dragon, other than Wendy, it frightened the group. "You goddamn lucky that you're dead already, or I would have killed you myself." this shocked the group as he openly threaten a man, "As you didn't train Wendy at all, not for the jobs that you sent her on, which was bad enough. But what would have happened if a Dark Mage came here looking for this Nirvana?"
"The missions that I sent her was safe enough with the skills that she already had," explained the spirit, a bit scared at the young mage in front of him, "as for training, I was hoping to wait until see was a few year older to train her."
"What is it with Guild Masters that I meet, and them not training their Guild Members unless they are forced to? What damn fools they are. It is like they want to keep their members weak." Natsu muttered to himself, than turning to Roubaul, he said darkly, "Her skills were good enough for now? What fucking bull shit. It was her lack of skill that she almost got kidnapped, and if it wasn't for us she would have been, it has only been by luck that it hasn't happened before now. You lucked out that the history of Nirvana has been forgotten, otherwise Wendy could have been hurt much sooner. What would have happened if some did come looking for the damn thing? She could have been killed, or worse, used as some sort of play toy for them before they decided to kill her."
Natsu wasn't against the idea, but the idea of who it would be been used against, a follow Dragon Slayer, something he was against. To him, if she couldn't be turned to his side, it was better to kill her then to make her something like a slave. As a Dragon Slayer, it was something he couldn't see himself doing, could be a race thing, but he a line he wouldn't cross, at least for now and hope he would never cross. This line was turning a follow Dragon Slayer into a mindless slave, normal humans yes, but not Dragon Slayers. If they didn't follow, he would give them a quick and painless death.
Here Wendy ran off when she heard this, feeling too upset to hear any more of this. At this, Natsu looked at Roubaul darkly as he said as he watched Wendy run off, with Carla, Wendy and Rouge went after her, "Listen I'm going after Wendy and make sure she'll be okay, but I'll be back in a while to talk about what we'll be going to do next."
"That's fine," Roubaul sighed in defeat not sure what to say or do here, "please just look after Wendy. She doesn't deserve to be hurt, and no matter what you might think, I didn't mean to hurt her but to make her happy."
"You might not meant to, but you have." Natsu told the spirit, "I'll make sure she's okay." And with that Natsu and Happy went after the girls.
And Then…
Natsu and Happy caught up with the girls at the entrance of the village, seeing Wendy crying, Natsu asked kindly, "Are you okay Wendy?"
"I, I don't know what to think or feel," admitted Wendy as the girls were hugging her in comfort, "in the last few days everything I knew and believed in has been destroyed."
"I'm sorry." Natsu apologized to Wendy, although part of him wasn't. Whilst he might not planned it, if he knew the village wasn't real, like what happened in the village, what happened had the effects he would have wanted. She was distressed and unsure of herself, and so easier to manipulate. Natsu would prefer if he had built a bit more of relationship before this happened, as if he go now, he might fail to get her on his side. But at the same time though, he couldn't let this opportunity slip out of his hands, he didn't know when the opportunity could reappear like this. So he had to play it by ear and hope for the best.
"Don't be sorry Natsu," Wendy sobbed, "it wasn't your fault. I was the one who asked about my mother, you told me that what you knew wasn't good and should wait until I got here before letting you tell me about her. Also you didn't know that this village and guild wasn't real, and you were only looking out for me by forcing my Guild Master to tell me the truth. You got nothing to be sorry for."
Whilst Carla didn't say anything, the Exceed give Natsu and Happy dirty looks. She was still unsure about them and the other girls, they might have saved hers and Wendy's life's, but the way they acted was off. She didn't want them around her or her friend too often, or if at all. But knew that she couldn't say anything, as of right now they were the only ones keep Wendy together and if she said anything, it could break her friend fully. And that's something she didn't want, as she didn't know if the Sky Dragon Slayer would recover after this if she tried to break the only thing she had left keeping her together at the moment.
"But still, I'm sorry." Natsu apologized once again to the young girl.
"Listen Natsu do you mind if I stay with you for a while?" Wendy asked somewhat shyly, "I have nowhere else to go."
"I don't mind you being around me, but the thing is I need to leave for a bit." Natsu explained as he suddenly remembered he was going to return to the Netherworld Tower, as he wanted to see if Gnarl or Inferna had any leads about Lucy. Sure he could talk to the through his Overlord Helmet, but he want to personal check on a few things to make sure everything was going will seeing he hadn't been there for a while.
"I can come too." Wendy informed Natsu, as the human girls agreed with her, as they too wanted to come with him.
"I know you lot would want to come with me," Natsu admitted to them, "but I'm visiting the people who helped me train the last few months. And they aren't the sort of people I would like you to meet right now."
"Why not?" asked Wendy with an puppy like look face, a face that Natsu couldn't say no to.
'Damn that puppy look,' Natsu cursed to himself, 'I swear it is a spell a female created it so that kids and good looking women could get their own way.' He might be becoming a cold hearted person, but he still had a few strings that if the right group of people pulled, he couldn't say no to them: mainly kids without parents or kids whose parents might be in danger.
Sighing in defeat seeing the other girls giving him the same look, he knew he had to say something. It didn't help that Happy was laughing at him about this, seeing him, someone who had become strong and dominant, being brought down by one look. "These people are dark and violent, they have no problems killing someone, they would happily do so without a second thought. They are someone I don't want you face just yet." Whilst the older two might know the truth about him, he was trying to hide as much of the truth as he could from Wendy as he could for now. As he wanted to pull her into his new world slowly, and not scare her off too soon.
"If they are Dark, why are you with them?" asked Wendy, as far as she could tell she didn't see Natsu as someone as Dark, he was kind and caring to her. Why would he be with anyone who was Dark?
Natsu thought about it for a moment before deciding to tell her a bit about what is going, she was going to learn this sooner or later. This would be a bit sooner than he would have liked, but he didn't have time to give her a decent enough cover story, at least he wasn't planning to tell her the full truth, at least not right now if he could help it. So with a sigh Natsu told Wendy, "They think that I'm their new master for some reason, and they are training me to become a master that is strong and powerful, someone they can respect."
"But you're not Dark." Wendy told him, shocked at what she heard, "So why would you agree to allow them to train you to become their master and why would they? Why not have one of their own become their master?"
"First off, whilst I might not be Dark, I'm not Light either and might never be again." Natsu informed the young girl, "I've seen how so called Light treat people, they say and do one thing, but do the other. They would treat people one way, but then treat them another if they don't like someone for one reason or another, or when they don't think anyone is looking."
"It's true," Minerva admitted to the young girl, "my father is such a person who claims to be a good person, but behind closed doors he is another person all together. He acts respectful to the Magic Council and his clients, only showing part of his dark side when he is pushed too far or gets angry. But none of them suspects anything, as he shows them that he is sorry when he isn't.
"To his Guild Members though, he was anything but good." Minerva admitted darkly, "He would punish them badly if they fail him, or if he consider them too weak he would kill them. In fact he killed my friend and trainer because he was defeated by me. No one reports him, as they don't have the guts to do so as they fear what he would do to them, or they agree with his actions."
"So you see, whilst Dark Mages might not be the nicest of people, they lie, kill and many other things that people wouldn't normally, at least they are honest about it." Natsu told the young Dragon Slayer, "Not honest as in they would openly say that they are a Dark Mage, as that would be foolish to do as you would be captured, but honest that they are Dark and would do things that true Light Mages wouldn't do."
"So what would you class yourself?" asked Wendy, shocked and confused as to what she had learned. Over the last few days she had been learning a lot, and it was getting too much for her.
"To be honest for now I would say I'm a Grey Mage." admitted Natsu, as of right now that's what he thought himself as, Grey going on Dark. "I'm willing to do what is needed to be done, things that Light Mages aren't willing to do, even if I am considered Dark, like killing."
"But killing is wrong." The young Sky Dragon Slayer said innocently.
"Yes but we are Dragon Slayers, and we were brought up to learn how to kill dragons and people should the need arise." Natsu told the other Dragon Slayer, "We aren't like normal people, we are raised to be fighting killing warriors, doing what was needed."
"But my mother taught me how to heal," explained the blunette, "and that fighting should be the last result."
"Then your mother must have been a fool," this came from Minerva, "from what I learnt about the time you came from, there was the war with the dragons and the war after they were defeated. So if you didn't get sent to the future, you would be fighting for at least another hundred or so years. There was no talking to the people at the time, she did you the injustice of not teaching you this when she could have. If you stayed in your time, you could have been killed before you turned ten."
As much as Wendy hated to admit it, she knew that her new was right, she had no real fighting skills at all. And if what she was hearing was right, if she stayed in her original timeline, she would have been killed because she didn't know how to fight. For not for the first time, she wondered why her mother didn't train her how to fight.
"Anyway, back to the main question," Natsu decided to get back to the point of things, "I'm with the group as they were willing to train me where others wouldn't. They didn't treat me like a fool, because I didn't know anything, or because I said my father was a dragon. And didn't threaten to hurt me if I did something wrong or didn't get it right is amount of time, like happened at Fairy Tail. It's thanks to them that I had gotten so strong, I don't care if they were Dark or Light as long as they able to make me stronger."
Wendy had to think about it, whilst the people that trained Natsu seemed to be Dark, they were able to train her new friend to become strong. And she begun to think, did it really matter if they were or not, as long as they were able to make Natsu strong? More importantly, did she care about them being Dark? Sure she was taught that Dark meant evil, but if they could make her stronger, would it really matter to her in the end.
Looking at Natsu and how he acted, being Dark or in Natsu's case Gray Mage, couldn't be all bad, could it. So looking at Natsu, she sighed and asked, "Natsu, do you think that the people who trained you could train me too?"
"This is where I draw the line child," Carla interrupted before Natsu could say anything, "I'll won't have you going anywhere near these Dark Mages. It is bad enough that we're hanging around these hoodlums, but to go to their home where they admitted they live with Dark Mages is as far as I'm willing to go."
Happy wanted nothing more to show this pussy cat what he could really do for insulting him and Natsu, sure they aren't the people you would want to be around with as they used to be. But they were still loyal to those that earned their loyalty, and were willing to protect and train them. But if they betrayed or pissed them off, Happy was more than happy to show them why a Dark Mage can really do to those who cross them. The only thing that was stopping him from doing anything to the white Exceed was the look that his father was giving him.
"Listen I understand that you don't trust me, and that's your right to do so." Natsu acknowledged Carla fears, "But let me ask you, who in this world is able to help Wendy train her Dragon Slayer Magic better than another Dragon Slayer? Sure our magic is different, and whilst I can't help her in everything like her Healing Magic and her advance Sky Dragon Slayer Magic, I can help her with the basics and how to fight. And I won't force her to do anything that she isn't comfortable with."
"You might be right but -" began the white Exceed, but was interrupted by her friend, "Carla I know you're my best friend, and you're worried about me, but this is something I need." Wendy told her best friend, standing up to her for the first time, "I need to get stronger, so that what happened in the forest doesn't happen again. And Natsu and the people that trained him are the only ones I know who can help. So what if they might be Dark Mages. Natsu said it himself, I don't have to do anything that I don't want to. So once I become strong enough, I can simply leave, right Natsu?"
"That's right Wendy, I won't force you to stay if you don't want to." Natsu informed Wendy and Carla, but what he didn't tell them was that he would make it hard for them to do so. He couldn't just let those who were trained by him or by one of his men go, as they could pose a threat to him and that's something he couldn't allow.
"So you see Carla, there's no reason to worry, I trust Natsu and he is the only one who can train me." Wendy told her friend.
"Fine, but that doesn't mean that I trust them," Carla informed her Dragon Slayer friend, "I'll be keeping an eye on them and these people that'll be training you."
"Whatever you want," Natsu said dismissively, as the white Exceed getting on his nerves, "but I should warn you a few things before we go. First apart for them being Dark, the people who trained me, apart for one person, the rest aren't human although I do have a few human friends there, they are like imp like creatures known as Minions, and even then that person is an undead human. Not only that, but apart for a handful of them apart for the human, most of them are simple minded.
"If not supervised carefully, a group of these Minions, Brown Minions as they are called, love nothing more to fight with each other, and those who get in their way." Natsu informed them about the Browns, "Not only that, they love to eat and drink, and get a little pissed if you interfere with that. But as long as you as they kept busy, and you don't get in the way of their fights and food, you are fine. Thankfully though, there's another group, known as the Blue Minions, who have the basic healing abilities and able resuscitate people if they haven't been dead for long."
"You have people who can bring people back from the dead?" asked a shocked Wendy, with others in the same state of shock. As far as they knew, there was no magic that could bring the dead back to life, there was, dark, dark magic and there was side effects to them that made the magic dark and forbidden to use.
"As long as the person hasn't been dead for longer than half an hour they can," Natsu informed them, then a thought occurred to him, "that's for their own race. I don't know if they can use it on humans, and I wasn't willing to test it on a human as I would have to kill someone. Something I don't want to risk, for reasons you can guess."
And they could, if Natsu had tested this ability on a human and it didn't work, the human would be dead for good. So they were glad that he didn't test this magic on a human, it showed that he cared. But the thing is that Natsu didn't really care about killing someone for a test, but he didn't want to waste a useful resource such as manpower. Sure people will die for him to take over the world, and him to become a true Overlord, but he didn't want to kill people when he didn't have to. As if he did, he would have people coming after him, or not having anyone to rule over. So he wouldn't kill carelessly.
"The last thing is that these Minions will call me Master or Overlord, another title that they have for their master." Natsu warned them, mainly for Wendy and Carla, as the other two see him as their master already. "So unless there's any questions, how about we leave this village and get to where I am living at the moment."
"Just one question," admitted Wendy, "how can I thank you for willing to train me?" She wanted to show her gratitude to Natsu for him willing to train her, something no one she meet has done so far.
Natsu being the pervert he was becoming, and getting addicted to sex, had one thing in mind, but knew better to say what he really wanted. As not only was she still young, he didn't want to frighten her away, or make her think the worse of him. That and the damn white Exceed would get bitchy about it if he said sex, and he didn't want to deal with her right now as he might kill her if he had to deal with her rambling about him not being good for Wendy. And killing Carla would push Wendy away, which wouldn't be good for his plans for the Sky Dragon Slayer.
So he was about to say she didn't have to do anything to thank him, he was more than happy to help to train her to become stronger. And that would have been the truth, but a thought came to him. He remembered the talks about what Wendy could do and thought it would be useful if the Blue Minions could learn this too. If they were able to use the Enchantment Magic on him and the other Minions, it could mean a matter of winning or losing the upcoming battles.
"Well there is one thing," Natsu admitted thoughtfully, "I was wondering if you could try and teach the Blue Minions some of your own Healing Magic, and some of you Enchantment Magic."
"I don't know if I can," Wendy informed her follow Dragon Slayer, "as I was told only other Sky Dragon Slayers could learn it. But I'm willing to give it a try."
"That's all I ask Wendy, that's all I ask." Natsu told the young girl with a smile, "If you can great, but if you can't then it's no big deal, at least you tried."
"Than in that case I'm ready to leave whenever you're ready," Wendy informed her friend, with the other agreeing that they too were ready to leave, "I don't want to be here for a while. I need to think about what to do with what I found out in the last few days."
"I understand, it is a lot to take in." Natsu acknowledged her plait, he too had things to go through a few months back when he first learnt he was the new Overlord and all the information he learnt: being the new Overlord, being from a different time, what really happened to his father, and so much more. So he could understand where the young girl was coming from. "I'll just let Roubaul know we are leaving and when I return, we can leave."
And so Natsu went to Roubaul, to let him know that they were going and will be back in a few weeks to work things out with the village and Nirvana. Once done Natsu lead the group away from the village for a mile, and making sure no one was around, he summoned the Netherworld Gate. Other than Natsu and Happy, the others were shocked to see something looking like a claw coming out of the ground, and Natsu and Happy walking on it as if it was nothing.
It was Happy who smiled and said happily, "Don't worry, this is a transport device, that'll teleport us to where we need to go." The girls were shocked to hear this, as they never heard of such a device before. But if that's how these two got around, than they would use it too and they stepped on the claw. The grasped in shock and fear when the claw closed on them, and blue glow went around them as they were pulled into the ground.
To be Continued…
Here ends the next chapter of Dragon Overlord, I'm sorry that this chapter was late, but at the moment I've got a bad case of writer's block. I'm trying to keep on writing so I don't stop writing, as if I took a break, I fear I wouldn't start again. This means that some of my work might not be as good, and for that I am sorry.
If you think that it feels rushed that Wendy is arriving the Netherworld Tower a little too soon, I agree with you, but with the things went in this chapter it couldn't be helped. I tried to look at this part in different ways, to see if there was something I could do to make so that she didn't see the tower or the minions just yet. But I shoot myself in the foot with how I dealt with Wendy's Guild, which lead me to Wendy going to Netherworld Tower. So forgive me if you felt it was rushed, I agree with with this one, but I couldn't think of anything to make different.
Now as I said in the last chapter I'm planning to add a few OC Dragon Slayers, and I would like to hear any you might have, the best ones I'll add to the story. I'm still after your thoughts about Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney, how should I add them into the story, as I have no idea at the moment as to how I can do this.
Now about Sting and Rogue, as you know I was thinking about making Rogue into a female. Now I have a mixed review about this, some are against it some are ok with it. One in fact thought it was a good idea, as it give the yin and yang idea of the two something extra seeing that they were light and dark. It was also said it would be great that Sting could have been female, and not only been Natsu's fan, but had a crush on him.
But because of your mix feelings, I'm going to give you a poll to decide which one, if either of them, should be female. So pick:
Rogue as female.
Sting as female.
Neither as female.