AN: So one of my reviewers said that they preferred Juvia the way she's portrayed in the anime. They weren't completely happy with the conversation Lucy had with her. This is my reason for that- in this retelling of the story I've been avoiding the anime tropes.
This retelling with Natsu and Lucy back in time they're both in a much more mature mindset with completely different priorities. They saw a war – one that ended with the death of everyone they cared about. Juvia's jealousy doesn't fit in well. She is often distracted by her feelings for Gray like in the Naval Battle in the GMG arc. It makes her foolish and immature.
Also in the real world she would be a stalker and probably arrested. Also I seriously don't think her obsession with him is healthy. I do ship them after the Tartarus arc. We see the depth of Juvia's feeling very clearly there however in the anime with her being crazy it makes her an airhead. In a world filled with magic and dragons I'm trying to write it in a more realistic manner. Which means crazy will probably have you end up in a padded room.
I want to explore the characters to their full potential without denying any part of their personalities as realistically as possible. Juvia is a strong beautiful woman. She makes a good partner for Gray but only if we pull away from her antics that are used for humor purposes.
Sorry for the rant but I hope this helps you guys understand why I've written my story like this.
Now I've been playing with this idea for a long time now. The Galuna island arc is something that I have put a lot of thought into mostly because if this is Natsu from the end of the Alvarez arc then he is technically more powerful than Gildarts.
I say this because we see that he takes out Bluenote Stinger with one hit something that Gildarts couldn't do when they fought. (I don't care if you think I'm wrong. I know that this is something heavily debated and this is my opinion. Since I'm the author of this story its what I choose to believe.) He cannot hide that much power any longer so I hope you guys like the direction we're heading in.
This arc will be split up into two parts, maybe three depending on how long the next chapter will be. It will take some to pick up the depth of what I'm doing so if you think you know where I'm taking this arc review and lemme know.
Chapter 19 – Galuna Island Part 1
After dealing with the lullaby debacle Lucy was actually quite surprised when the magic council didn't send anyone to arrest Erza or Natsu. When she thought about it logically she could see the reason why they managed to avoid the consequences that they faced the last time. The magic council just wanted to be seen as doing something when they arrested Erza. She technically was never in any danger.
A demon of Zeref no matter how easily it had been dealt with had terrified the population. The people of the Kingdom relied on the military to keep them safe. The magic council was part of that military and they had failed to do anything about the situation. They hadn't even known what was happening until it was too late and their men failed at bringing down the guild responsible for unsealing the demon.
The guild didn't really advertise their actions. It was left to the magic council to clean up their mess and it was a mess. They had destroyed the train station, the railway line and the regular meeting place, not forgetting the mountain and land that the monster destroyed. Someone had to be seen taking responsibility for everything that happened in their first lifetime. Erza being the center of everything that happened was the perfect pawn.
This time even though there were damages to the train station it wasn't as severe as it had been in the past. Natsu knew was going to happen so he took out Kage with one punch and left to follow Wendy. Some broken windows and a broken door was the worst of the damage. Wendy fought in the air and she didn't damage the railway lines. Lucy had thrown Lullaby into the air which saved most of the land from the damage that had been caused when they destroyed the monster.
The magic council needed to do something however this time they couldn't blame anything on anyone. Lucy nearly groaned at the cover page of the Sorcerer was of Lucy in her Libra star dress with Libra by her side changing the gravity on Lullaby. It also showed Gray throwing Natsu towards the monster with his entire body on fire. Erza was in there somewhere with her sword cutting off an arm. She didn't even want to know where they got the picture from but she had a sneaking suspicion that it was Master Bob.
The article explained that a dark guild unsealed the demon and it attacked the regular meeting. Mages from Fairy Tail had already been in hot pursuit of the demon. When the demon threatened the life of their master they turned it to ash. There was even a 'congratulations on your marriage Salamander' message at the bottom of the article.
There was an entirely separate article of Lucy wearing her Taurus star dress from the train station. It went on to introduce her as Lucy Dragneel, wife of the Salamander. A celestial spirit mage capable of magic that no one had ever known was possible. She vaguely remembered trying and failing to get Jason's attention when he came to interview the guild in one lifetime.
In this one she was already on the cover of the magazine and people were thanking her in the streets for helping get rid of the demon of Zeref. Lucy had no idea what to do anymore so she did what she always did – Lucy rolled with the crazy. She smiled and told everyone that thanked her that it was a team effort and that they didn't need to thank her for protecting her family.
Lucy wrote to her father about the magic council. She was worried since they hadn't done anything with all the attention that Fairy Tail was getting. The council was getting some seriously bad press since they had failed to protect the population. Jude wrote back telling her that while the council was furious over the fact that they technically owed Fairy Tail for picking up their slack and they still hated the guild.
However they couldn't cover up the fact that the guild did a pretty good job here. The guild had limited the damage more than the council thought possible and they managed to stop the demon. All in all they would have to wait and see what the council came up with. Since the event had been made so public they couldn't turn this around on the guild and blame them. They would have to acknowledge the guild in some way and it would have to be soon.
Lucy half expected the council to dismiss some Fairy Tails debts since they were always breaking things. Either they would dismiss the debts they already had or they would give the guild a donation which would go back to the council when the master paid all his debts. Even though Team Natsu was being careful about the damage they couldn't help the fact that destruction always followed them.
She barely realized that Macao had been missing due to the fact that she was spending so much time writing back and forth with her father. He also sent her detail notes on everything that he heard from the council. Jude wasn't really sure of everything that happened in their other lifetime but he had a list of some of their main enemies. He kept an ear out for their movements. Jude thought it would be best for Lucy to double check for anything that he might not know about or might have missed.
Lucy felt better knowing that she was able to look through their notes with her own eyes. There were several members of the council that were working with the Tartarus guild. It would have been impossible for the demons to keep such a low profile without someone from the inside providing them with some information. Honestly she didn't know what she was looking for exactly, she just knew that she would know it was important when she saw it.
Natsu took one look at his stressed out wife and went to drag the old man home to his son with Happy. Macao had taken that Vulcan job and he hadn't come home again. Lucy wasn't in the guild this time when Romeo had come asking about his father. Natsu decided to take Happy and drag the man home.
Happy on the other hand seemed a lot happier whenever Natsu would make some extra time for him. Natsu tried to make sure they either went on a small mission together or on a fishing trip at least once a month. That way he didn't feel neglected. However now that Carla was in the picture he wasn't so lonely when Natsu and Lucy were off in their own world. Happy would just go join Wendy and try to get his beloved to accept his fish as a token of his love for her.
Wendy would also often take the two exceeds on smaller jobs around Magnolia. She appreciated all the help that received from her parents and Aunt Erza and Uncle Gray but she still wanted to go on solo jobs. It was the only way she would gain experience and grow as a mage. Team Shadowgear often allowed her to go on jobs with them as well.
By the time Lucy remembered Macao, Natsu and Happy already brought him home. The man seemed sheepish when Natsu dumped him on the couch and called for Lucy to help bandage him up. Wendy was out on a mission with Levy. Lucy kissed Natsu and ignored the grumble of how Macao wanted to be welcomed home in the same manner. Natsu might have growled a little too loudly at the comment.
It was Natsu who remembered that they went on mission to find and destroy the Daybreak book. Lucy remembered that horrible man and instead of going and getting the book she just decided to have a look at his finances. He was a Baron which was technically the lowest title a noble could have. Her father was a Duke which meant that she could investigate his dealings.
When the foul man was found guilty of a number of crimes he was jailed. His lands seized and all his possessions were sold by order of the Royal family Lucy ensured that Kaby got his fathers book. Natsu was sort of disappointed that they didn't get to go for that mission but Lucy had more important things to deal with at the time.
Lucy just reminded Natsu that as long as the book was in the right hands it didn't matter how it happened. Besides the last time they went on that mission they didn't accept the reward. Kaby wasn't a very wealthy man and it wasn't right to make an even bigger deal out of the whole situation. All that mattered was that Kaby had the book now.
Lucy was keeping an eye on the council and the last thing her father was able to tell her was that the council was meeting and discussing something to do with the guild. They didn't know what was heading their way via the council because they changed everything. If they were discussing a reward it would have been done by now. The fact that they hadn't been able to reach an agreement worried her.
However they couldn't solve the next mission as easily as they had all the others. Natsu had Happy check out the request board on the second level. He was to look for a mission that involved Galuna Island and he had been checking daily. It seemed like yesterday it was put up by Mira. No one took it before but she couldn't be sure how long the request had been there before Natsu stole it the last time.
They had a vague idea of when they went on this mission so Lucy had kept Erza away from the second level for the past week. Juvia, Erza and Lucy had spent a lot of time getting to know each other, mock fighting and shopping. Lucy wanted Juvia to open up more and Erza was basically Gray's big sister. She wanted them to be able to fight well together but also to be good friends.
The other reason was because they wanted Erza to be in the guild when the request went up so they could ask her to take it and them. They couldn't steal the mission again. It would be best if they were all together and were working on the mission instead of fighting each other. This mission was important and it would also drop Gray to his lowest but he would also rise above his past and move onwards. They needed to do this right.
"Erza could you take team Natsu with you on an S-class request?" asked Lucy.
They were sitting in the guild and Gray already mentioned that they would need to do a job soon. He was running low on cash even though he basically lived with Natsu and Lucy. He always made a point to put in money for food or buy groceries since they were always there. It was only fair especially since Natsu had a kid to think about. He slept over at least twice a week so did Erza.
"Is there a reason you want to go on an S-class job Lucy?" asked Erza and Lucy just shrugged.
"Natsu was telling me about how Mira would take her siblings on S-class requests as back up. Elfman said that he learned a lot about being a mage working those jobs with Mira. I wanted to experience it and see how well I would do." Replied Lucy.
Gray even leaned forward to see what Erza would say and the red haired mage could see the excitement in his eyes as well. He was hoping she would agree to take them on a mission. Natsu was grinning at her in excitement and she couldn't help but smile at them.
Gray and Natsu had become very powerful during the training trips that they had taken. She had a feeling that she had not seen all of what Natsu was capable of yet but they were both S-class candidates this year. The other S-class mages were allowed to put forward names of mages they believed would pass the test but the final decision belonged to the master.
However this year, Erza and Mira already knew that both Natsu and Gray were ready for the trials. She knew that the master was even considering Lucy however he wasn't sure yet. He wanted to see more of what she was capable of before he made the decision.
Juvia was sitting with them and she was sought of smiling sadly thinking that she was going to be left out when Erza stood up, "Alright we'll go on an S-class request if Juvia comes as well."
"Me?" cried out Juvia and Lucy laughed. Natsu and Gray fist bumped.
Lucy put her hand on Juvia's shoulder, "We would have taken Wendy but since this is an S-class request I don't want to put her in so much danger. I believe Erza agrees that she isn't ready yet especially since we don't know what we might see. I want my daughter to keep some of her innocence. You were an S-class mage before you joined. I believe we're safer with the five of us plus Happy."
Erza moved towards the second floor when Natsu jumped up, "Can I pick it Erza?" he cried out and the master looked at the group.
"What's going on with you brats?" he asked and Erza explained that she agreed to take them on an S-class job.
Master Makarov narrowed his eyes at Natsu. He was extremely different since he had returned from his training trip and he was sure that Natsu was still masking a lot of power. Every time someone tried to bring it up they always got side tracked. He didn't know why Natsu wanted to hide so much of his power but he was also worried trying to figure out how he could have possibly powered up so much in such a short amount of time.
"Alright Natsu, you can choose one S-class request as long as Erza agrees to go on the request you pick." Said the master and Natsu all but jumped towards the board. He looked over the requests for a minute before grabbing one and all but jumping back towards Erza.
"Is this one alright? We can go right?" questioned Natsu.
Lucy was already smiling in amusement at how excited her husband was and she knew that this was his real reactions. He really was excited to be able to go up there and choose a request. It was something he was never able to do because they got rid of the S-class lounge after the Phantom attack. This time for some reason the master kept the S-class lounge in the new guild.
Erza read the flyer before frowning and passing the flyer to Gray so that he and Juvia could read it.
"I do not mind going. How about all of you?" she questioned.
Lucy nodded and Gray just shrugged, "Sounds interesting at least."
Lucy nearly sighed in relief that they all decided to go to a cursed island. She honestly wondered if mages were all a little crazy considering all the insane things they did for money. She couldn't help but wince at the thought of the Chief of the village telling Erza to destroy the moon. In the end she was just happy that she managed to get the job request accepted which meant that they would get paid the full reward. She checked the end of the page and there was no key as part of the reward this time.
Levy agreed to watch Wendy for them while they were away. The girl didn't need much supervision however Lucy felt better knowing that someone was keeping an eye on her. The group set off towards Hargeon the next morning since they would have to take a boat to get to the island. Lucy spotted Bobo and immediately asked him if he was willing to take the mages to the island.
The five of them piled onto his boat and Bobo explained that he once lived on Galuna Island. However one day the moon turned purple and the people in the village started turning into demons at night. He showed them his demonic looking arm and there were several sets of eyes that widened at the sight. He explained that some people were killed because they lost their minds. He left the island in fear. Bobo added in that he hoped that they would be able to lift the curse.
Natsu was passed out on Lucy's lap mumbled something which everyone ignored until Happy pointed out that he could see the island. Before anyone could do anything else a tidal wave appeared and Juvia immediately encased them all into her water lock. They crashed onto the beach but thanks to Juvia no one was really hurt.
They made camp since Erza had stored their luggage in her requip space. It was decided to wait until morning to find the village. They weren't sure how long they were on the boat for but it was already dark when they crashed onto the shore. No one wanted to walk through a cursed island looking for the village with so little light left.
In the morning, Natsu sniffed the air and pointed in a direction, "I smell fire and food in that direction."
Juvia was used to working with a dragon slayer. Gajeel would often scent the air as well when they needed to find someone or something. She set off in that direction without a single thought. Gray was the one who grabbed her arm, "You're just gonna head that way?"
Juvia smiled, "Juvia is used to working with dragon slayers. Gajeel-kun often tracks through scent as well. Has Gray-sama never seen Natsu-san track via scent?"
Erza stared at the blue haired woman in a little bit of surprise, "We always knew that Natsu had a good sense of smell but we never really realized that he could track in that sense."
Lucy giggled at the lost expression on Juvia's face, "They didn't think that Natsu would be able find the village just because he could smell their food and fire. They assumed he would need to know someones scent to find them."
Juvia looked towards Gray and Erza and found them both blushing slightly, "Gajeel-kun said that everything carries a scent. Every city and village smells differently but places where people are always have certain types of scents. Villages for example use fire to cook their food. On an island like this where there is only one village there will only be one place where there will be the smell of cooking food."
Erza nodded her head as they followed Natsu through the forest, "That actually makes a lot of sense. What do cities have in common Natsu?"
Natsu frowned at Erza, "Depends on how large it is. A place like Hargeon smells mostly like fish and the sea. Even the people that live there carry a saltier scent because they live so close to the sea. Magnolia smells like home. It has more stores as well so there are more scents. Its hard to explain."
Before they could question Natsu anymore they reached the village gates. This time instead of asking them to prove that they came from a guild, the villagers were already expecting them. They opened the gates and provided the mages with water and food after their long journey.
Erza spoke to the village chief in private and Lucy could see the frown on her face when she returned to the group. Gray looked at her in worry, "What did the chief say? What do we need to do to help these people?"
Erza sighed, "He says that the moon turned purple some time ago. When it happened the people of the village started turning into demons at sundown. Eventually they stopped being able to change back to human form and went mad. They were forced to kill some of them because they attacked them. They were afraid that the demons would kill them. The request is that we destroy the moon which he believes to be the source of the curse."
Gray's jaw dropped, "Please tell me you're not going to destroy the moon."
Juvia threw her hands into the air and cried out, "Its impossible to destroy the moon."
Erza nodded her head and Lucy finally decided to speak, "We all agree that even though the purple moon seems strange it can't be the reason for this happening. They say that the moon turned purple so why did that happen?"
Erza nodded her head, "That is a good question. If the purple moon is the source of the curse then what is the reason the moon turned purple?"
Natsu seemed to be scenting the air when he turned back to the group, "What do we know about the island? What's so special about the island that the moon turned purple and why only here? We were in Hargeon and the moon is normal there."
Erza smiled, both Gray and Natsu were thinking about this mission very logically. She had been quiet surprised when the village chief explained what had been done to the villagers before they got here. He had tried to lock them away but in the end he had been forced to kill his own son. These people were afraid and often fear led to irrational actions. The chief was desperate for this to end so he asked that they destroy the moon but she was sure that even he knew that it was an impossible task.
She was also interested in seeing how well the rest of the team adapted to the complications of this request. S-class requests were often left without a lot of information. The mage would have to do a lot investigating before they finally found what they had to fight. It could also be that they needed to fight mages and not know what magic they used or it would be a large beast attacking the town. The beast would be very powerful and that was the reason you would need to be an S-class mage.
Erza was proud at how well they were all handling the information that they were given so far. They were going through the little information that they had very logically trying to find a solution. No one was running off into danger without thinking their plans through either.
They had come a really long way especially Natsu. She was shocked that he hadn't attempted to destroy the moon. Then again it could have been because it was day time and Natsu couldn't see the moon so he didn't try to destroy it.
Erza shook herself out of her thoughts and declared, "We should search the island. Natsu is correct. The only place that is being affected is this island which means there has to be something here that is causing this curse."
Lucy looked towards the window. She could see the people of the village staring at the hut they were given with hope, longing and impatience. They wanted their nightmare to end which meant that they were betting everything on strangers they didn't even know.
"What should we tell them? We can't just stroll out of the village. They'll think we're abandoning them."
Juvia agreed with Lucy. The last thing they needed were angry villagers after them, "Juvia thinks we should tell them that we're going to explore the island. It is day time so we just return when the moon is out. Hopefully by then we'll have more information."
No one could argue with her logic and before long they packed some supplies and decided to look around the island. There wasn't much in the forest besides the trees and bugs. Lucy remembered that Sherry's rat attacked them the last time which was the reason why they ended up finding the temple. She wondered if that would happen again or if this would turn into a different mess.
Natsu stopped suddenly and started sniffing the air, "Natsu what do you smell?" questioned Lucy.
"Blood." Replied Natsu and Lucy froze. There shouldn't be any blood on the island. Lyon never hurt the villagers until he found out that Gray was on the island. No one ever got hurt during the moon drip ritual. The villagers hadn't even realized that there were strangers here because they kept out of sight.
Lucy actually spent some time studying the ritual once they returned home. Lyon only ever tapped into the basic power of the ritual which was to melt the ice. It was possible to do more but it depended on how the ritual was altered. The moon was a major source of energy if you used the correct magic to draw on its power. However she couldn't find any information on how the ritual could be changed.
"Can you tell where its coming from?" asked Erza and Natsu frowned.
He spun in circles a couple times, climbed a tree and then sniffed the ground. Juvia even looked a little concerned with his antics and muttered, "Gajeel-kun never did any of this."
Lucy sighed and grabbed him by the scarf, "Natsu whats going on?"
"There's too much blood. The scent I caught at first was very faint but then I realized that it was old blood. Its not just one person. Its a lot but I don't know where its coming from. Its everywhere on this part of the forest but the part of the forest that the villagers would hunt in is clear."
Gray's eyes widened, "Are you saying that someone else is on the island?"
Natsu nodded, "A lot of people have to be here. I don't understand what they're doing with this much blood though. I can't track it. There's too many scents."
Before anyone could comment on the latest bit of information that they had been given a 20 foot rat attacked them. Lucy had actually forgotten how large the rat had been and Juvia took one look at it and shrieked, "Water nebula."
The amount of water that Juvia hit the rat with sent it crashing through a tree. However it didn't keep the rat down for long. All it did was make it mad. The rat threw itself towards them and they all scattered. Gray iced over the floor which gave them time to get away from the creature but Erza seemed worried.
"That is not something that should be on this island. It isn't native to this place." She said.
Lucy on the other hand was just grateful that she managed to spot the temple and that they were away from that rat. There were so many levels of creepy, scary and terrifying that she had seen in her life time and that rat was just wrong.
"Is that supposed to be here?" asked Lucy.
The group entered the temple and Happy peeked out of Natsu's bag. He had been sleeping in there while they explored the forest. Lucy left Happy to float around for a few moments while she translated the carvings on the walls of the temple.
Juvia stared at the opposite wall from Lucy, "These are all various phases of the moon."
Erza frowned deeply and turned to Lucy, "Have you managed to figure anything out?"
Lucy nodded, "This used to a temple where people would worship and draw on the power of the moon."
Gray walked a little further into the temple looking to see if there were anymore cravings on the wall, "This island seems to be obsessed with the moon. Everything that we have come across relates to it in some way."
Erza nodded her head at him. Lucy, Natsu, Juvia and Erza all followed Gray deeper into the temple and Erza muttered, "This place looks like it hasn't been used in a long time. I don't believe the villagers would have come here."
Before anyone could say anything else there was a loud creaking sound and the ground beneath their feet crumbled. Happy grabbed onto the closest person to him which happened to be Erza and flew her down to the rest of the group.
Natsu dove and caught Lucy while she was falling. Gray landed flat on his face with Juvia on his back. Natsu back flipped through the falling stones with Lucy in his arms and landed on his feet. Erza was set down by Happy. Gray groaned and Juvia immediately helped him to his feet. The group stared at the different tunnels that were in front of them.
Erza tapped one of the green looking crystals that were growing everywhere, "This is magic lacrima. It is raw and has not been mined but I believe it grew by absorbing the magic from the moonlight."
The crystals gave off a glow which allowed them see inside the caves just barely. Natsu was holding a ball of fire in his hand as he turned in circles with an angry expression on his face.
"What is it Natsu?" questioned Lucy.
Natsu sniffed the air again, "There's blood here, lots of human blood."
Lucy shared a worried look with her husband. So far the request hadn't gone too far out of what they expected it to be. They hadn't run into any trouble and no one was injured but this was a strange new development. There shouldn't be any blood down here and Lucy couldn't think of a reason as to why this happened.
She knew that things would change with their interference. Nothing would happen the same way twice but this was something she couldn't explain. She didn't know what change had led to this part of the mission being different. Something had happened, some choice had been altered and it led to whatever was going on here. She couldn't help the sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that told her that this was only going to get worse.
Natsu led them towards a cave where the stench of blood was the strongest. He stopped at a fork in the road and Lucy was completely sure that through the right tunnel would be Deliora. Natsu however was glaring at the smaller cave on the left. They never went inside that cave but now it seemed like something important was happening there.
"There are two scents here. One of blood coming from the left cave and there is another scent coming from that cave. I think its people and I smell ice." Said Natsu.
Erza narrowed her eyes, "Gray and Juvia can go check out the cave on the right. The three of us will see if we can find the source of the blood."
Lucy stared at the cave in front of her in horror. There was a blood red magic circle on the floor and the body of man wearing a black cloak. It seemed like his blood was being funneled through this cave and into the next one.
"What is this?" asked Natsu.
Erza looked at the magic circle in disgust, "Its sacrificial blood magic, illegal magic that has been out lawed for many years by the magic council."
Lucy bit her lip as she stared at the trail of blood leading into the next cave, "What does it do?"
Erza shrugged, "This magic is highly unstable. It is supposed to be able to transfer life energy from one living creature to another."
Lucy's eyes widened in horror as Natsu turned to move towards the next cave. Someone was trying to make sure that once the ice that held Deliora melted the demon inside would be alive once more.
"We need to know what they're trying to keep alive." Said Natsu as he ran towards Gray and Juvia.
Gray stood in front of the frozen monster in horror. Juvia seemed to be trying to get him to talk to her but he seemed lost in his own head. Lucy stared at the demon in the ice. It was dark blue in color with horns on his head and spikes on his torso and around his neck. His hands were scaly and his feet resembled a birds but he was even bigger than she remembered. He was at least 70 feet tall, bigger than some buildings.
However unlike the last time they saw this creature wrapped in ice there was a blood red magic circle under his feet. There were thick red lettering that covered the ice and wrapped around the demons body. The red was probably the blood magic from the cave to the left. They were breathing life into Deliora ensuring that once the ice melted it would survive.
"Gray what the hell are you doing staring at that?" shouted out Natsu.
Gray turned and stared at his friends. He started talking quickly, needing them to understand the true horror of what they were looking at and needing them to know that they had to do something.
"Deliora is a demon created by Zeref. He attacked my home town and killed everyone including my parents. I would have died as well but I was found by my mentor Ur. She took me with her and agreed to teach me ice make magic. Eventually I heard rumors that Deliora was attacking another town. Ur begged, pleaded and threatened me not to go after him. She warned me that I wasn't ready but I didn't listen. She followed me and saved my life. She cast a spell called iced shell. It turns your body to ice and it imprisoned Deliora inside it."
Erza listened grimly at the story, "The magic council would have sealed this away. Someone moved it here to this temple. The cave next to this one is the reason for red magic circle. Someone has been sacrificing people using blood magic trying to breathe life into a dead monster. I don't understand."
Lucy was the one who answered her, "I read about iced shell a long time ago. It is a prison that costs your life Erza. It is possible that within the ice the creature within would die but no one is certain. Whatever they're doing in this temple we know one thing for sure. They want Deliora alive."
Gray growled, "Iced shell is ice that cannot be melted. Even if they give the demon life inside the ice, its still trapped."
Before anyone could comment on that piece of information a purple magic circle opened up above the ice and bathed Deliora in purple moonlight. Natsu stared at the magic circle, they didn't run into Lyon's lackeys and if the ritual was working again it meant that it was night time. They had spent much more time in the temple than they realized.
"Moon drip." Breathed Lucy and everyone turned to stare at her again, "It's a ritual that can melt iced shell. You use the immense power of the moon to melt the ice."
Gray lost it. He ran upwards, trying to find the idiot responsible for trying to kill his mentor. Natsu shook his head, "Juvia and I will go after him. I smell other people in this place. Ones that aren't from the village and the scent is getting stronger. Someone is coming here."
Erza and Lucy nodded, "We'll see what we can learn from them and you stop Gray from doing anything stupid."