When the dragon siblings arrived at the camp, they were met with an amusing but rather strange sight. In front of them were the barely conscious forms of Gray and Lyon who were lying on their stomach on the floor with a huge smoking bump on the top of their head each and their eyes spinning in all directions. Next to them, their revived teacher was glaring down at them with her fist, which was smoking too, raised in the air.
"W-What was that for?" the Fairy Tail ice mage barely managed to ask.
"Being a jerk to your guildmates? Stealing a mission from your own guild? Wanting to use Iced Shell on Lyon? I'm honestly spoiled for choice." she answered angrily before turning her gaze towards her other student. "What about you? You're gonna ask me why as well?"
"N-No. I already know." he replied in both pain and guilt.
"Good." Ur stated, still glaring until it was replaced by a soft look. "Now, get up. Both of you. Get up and stop fighting each other."
Her words made her two students' eyes widen in surprise before they smiled slightly and got back on their feet with each other's help.
"I must say, this was all quite worrying. But it all worked out in the end." Lucy observed thoughtfully.
"Aye! And we have completed an S-class quest!" Happy added which made his pink-haired partner facepalm.
"You did no such thing." Erza countered, putting an abrupt end to the cat's excitement. "The request was for you to lift the curse from the villagers, which you haven't done yet."
"But shouldn't the curse have disappeared along with Deliora?" the blonde of the group asked in confusion.
"No, it didn't." Natsu answered while joining them along with Wendy. "Deliora, the Demon of Destruction, turning human beings into demons? Do me a favor. As if it could ever possess such power. And before you ask, their misfortune comes from the prolonged casting of Moon Drip."
"Oh no…" the Celestial mage whispered, covering her mouth with one hand.
"But then…how are we supposed to help them?" the white feline wondered aloud.
"Lyon, do you have any idea?" Gray asked his former fellow student.
"In all honesty, I wasn't even aware of their…predicament until today." the light-haired wizard confessed.
"You mean you've been on this island for several years and you never noticed them?" Lucy asked in both shock and disbelief.
"Well, we learned of their existence on the very day we arrived but we had no business with them so we decided to leave them alone so long as they did not interfere with our plans which they never did. Come to think of it, they never even approached the temple."
"Wait. The light from Moon Drip is so bright. There's no way they have missed it for three years." the blonde mage established.
"I know I've just come back and all but…isn't it strange that the villagers were affected by the Moon Light but Lyon and his companions weren't?" Ur questioned.
"Oh yeah. That's true."
All the while, Natsu was struggling not to facepalm again or grunt in frustration. 'And what about the fact that the moon is purple on this island, but still white everywhere else on the planet? How long is it going to take them to think about that "small" detail?'
'You mean you have already figured it out?' Mavis asked.
'Oh I have since the very beginning.' he clarified but then paused briefly as the realization hit him. 'Wait…You mean you still haven't?' Her silence was all the confirmation he needed. For the first time in a long time, he felt the extremely strong urge to tease someone but decided against it and to keep it in his pocket instead.
Once again, his attention was drawn from his thoughts when his sleeve was tugged gently. Refocusing on his surroundings, he noticed his guildmates walking away except for Gray and Ur who seemed to be waiting to talk with Lyon, as well as Wendy who was the one who had brought him out of his daze and was now looking up at him with curiosity.
"Erza said we should go and talk to the village chief again." she informed him. With a nod of conformation both of them followed, leaving the teacher and her former students alone.
Once they were far enough away, Ur decided to speak up. "What are you going to do now, Lyon?"
After a moment of hesitation, the light-haired mage answered. "Regroup with my comrades…and then probably turn ourselves in to the Rune Knights for what we have done."
The three of them all frowned at the thought. For a few seconds, all of them remained silent. Until Gray was the one who broke this silence. When he started laughing.
Both of the other ice mages stared at him in confusion and slight anger.
"Is something funny? Did I miss a funny thing?" the former Cold Emperor asked in evident sarcasm and bitterness.
"Sorry…. It's just occurred to me what Natsu would say if he was still here…. He would so call you a coward." the dark-haired teenager explained while still smiling and chuckling. His explanation caused Lyon's eyes to widen as much as they could while Ur raised a brow in curiosity.
"Actually, I think that's a pretty brave and responsible thing to do." she countered.
"Yes well, not to him. He would probably say something like: "If you feel guilty, try to make up for your mistake. Don't just turn yourself in to a corrupt government that will cover the whole thing up to save face."…. And you know what? I think I agree with him. You should try to join a guild. You'd make new friends, new rivals and you'd get the chance to help people."
Lyon was, once again, taken aback by his former rival's declaration and could do nothing but gawk awkwardly. When the initial shock subsided, it was replaced by a look of deep reflection. So deep in fact, that he didn't even notice the other two ice mage walking away.
As their were catching up to the other Fairy Tail wizards, they started talking again.
"What about you Ur? What are you gonna do now?" Gray asked.
"Well, if it's okay with your friends, I think I'd like to see this guild of yours. Then, who knows?" his teacher responded, unknowingly making a hopeful look appear in the teen's eyes.
As the mages were walking through the tent village, they were rather unsettled to see that there was no one there. After several minutes of searching and calling, one of the villagers finally showed up to tell them what was going on. Well, he didn't so much tell them as he frantically made them follow him. And where he was leading them was nowhere else than where their original village used to be. Except that instead of the huge crater that Lyon's acolytes had created were now the dwellings as they once stood. Needless to say, all of the mages were thoroughly confused. So confused in fact, that all they could do was stare at the scene while the villagers were celebrating.
"What the…" Gray wondered out loud.
"But how?" Lucy asked.
"Just yesterday it was a complete mess and now it's perfect." Happy stated in awe.
'Okay, now I'm lost too.' Natsu inwardly admitted.
'Happens to the best of us.' Mavis mocked teasingly.
'Yeah, yeah, whatever….But I mean, it wasn't just rebuilt. It was entirely turned back to how it was before. What kind of magic does that?'
'Good question….It used to be an enormous hole in the ground. And now, the ground is perfectly flat. Which means that whoever did that didn't manipulate the surrounding matter to rebuild manually, but restored it completely….Well, almost.' the Fairy Tactician analyzed.
'Almost?' her host asked.
'There used to be a bit of grass and some trees here and there the first time we arrived. Now, they're gone. So, we're talking about some form of Restoration Magic that works perfectly on inanimate objects, but is powerless on living beings….' the blonde girl explained and then trailed off.
'Time Magic?' the pinkette theorized.
'Time Magic.' the First Master confirmed. 'That's quite rare. And for it to be used on this scale with this level of precision, it must be very powerful.'
'I see.'
Before their conversation could go any further, it was interrupted by the loud voice of an angry old man. "When will you wizards finally decide to destroy this moon for us?"
Turning his head towards the source, neither Natsu nor Mavis were surprised to see it belonged to an impatient and frustrated Moka.
'Ugh. Screw this.' the pink-haired mage thought in exasperation.
"Destroying the moon isn't the problem, Sir." Titania declared as she stepped forward, shocking all of her guildmates. Well, the ones who were paying attention that is. "But before we do it, I'd like to get more information. You only get these demonic forms when you're under the light of the purple moon, right?"
"Yes. During the day, we are almost completely human. But as soon as the moon appears, we transform into what you see now." the old mayor confirmed.
"And the moon turned purple around three years ago. Approximately at the same time as the Moon Drip ceremony started being cast every night. A ceremony which produces an extremely tall and brilliant ray of light that you can see from anywhere on the island. So, how is it that you never seemed to have noticed?" the knight said while walking around.
Her last question caused the villagers to whisper among themselves until Moka spoke up again. "We would have looked into it, but the village law forbade us from ever approaching that temple." he explained.
"But shouldn't the circumstances have warranted an exception? I mean, you have even posted a request to the magical guilds for help, so you must have known something was going on." the Celestial mage rebutted.
Her arguments caused the old man to sweat nervously and stutter while looking at the ground. "W-Well…I…"
"Why don't you tell us what is really going on here?" the red-haired woman asked in a serious tone.
"In all honesty, we can't for we do not know it ourselves. We have tried to investigate the light multiple times throughout the years. But for whatever reason, every time we came within visual range of it, we'd suddenly return to the village in the blink of an eye. We've all tried but not a single one of us was successful." the chief supplied.
"I understand." Erza stated, surprising everyone. But instead of explaining, she started walking as the usual light of her magic surrounded her. When it died down, she was wearing a large, furry, golden colored armor that sported a large cross on the breastplate and was completed by a headgear with the appearance of a pair of large metal ears. In her right hand, she was holding a long and elaborated pole arm sporting a cross just like the one on the armor. "Natsu, I have a plan to destroy the moon, but I'll need your help…" she trailed off when she was unable to find the aforementioned pinkette. She then began to look around her with her eyes to try to spot him but to no avail. "Where's Natsu?"
Upon hearing her question, her guildmates too noticed the man's absence and started to look for him. Erza was about to call his name when she was interrupted by fine purple dust that fell before her eyes. As she looked up, her vision was naturally drawn to the strongest source of light in the sky: the moon. She instantly noticed the different cracks of various sizes that were all over it. Moreover, similar cracks could be seen elsewhere in the sky. As they grew and spread, the sound of cracking glass drew the attention of everyone else in the village. And their reaction to what they saw wasn't nearly as calm as the knight's.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Gray yelled and was instantly smacked over the head by Ur for cursing.
"We only asked them to destroy the moon! Not the whole sky!" one of the villagers shouted.
"We're all gonna die! Everyone run!" Happy screamed and ran around in panic.
After a few seconds of this, all of them stopped when some of the cracks connected to each other and entire chunks of a purple glass-like material began falling from the sky, disintegrating as they fell. Each time this happened, it revealed a view of the usual sky and moon. Little by little, this transformation applied to the whole sky.
"The moon wasn't the problem…it was the sky." Lucy observed while looking at the debris in awe.
"Yes. The cast of the spell caused a noxious membrane to form around the island. And that membrane was the source of both the purple color that the moon had and the curse that affected the villagers. Now that it's gone, its effects should vanish within the next few minutes." the Queen of the Fairies clarified.
"But how did it just start to crack on its own?" Ur asked.
After sighing and pinching the bridge of her nose, Erza answered the question. "It shouldn't have. And I don't think it did. It's more likely Natsu figured it out on separately and took care of it."
A few moments later, each and every one of the villagers started glowing of a golden light. They all thought they were going back to their human form. Unfortunately, when the light died down, nothing had changed.
"Huh? Why are they not transforming?" Gray wondered aloud.
"Because Moon Drip was not responsible for their demonic appearance. This is their real form. What it did do however, was causing them to experience memory loss. You see, they were under the impression that they were human beings transformed into demons. While in reality, it's the exact opposite." the S-class mage responded while returning to her usual armor.
"But didn't they look human when we first met them?" Carla questioned.
"Yes, because they naturally possess the ability to take on human forms. Moon Drip simply made them believe these temporary states were their true forms. That is also why only they were affected while Lyon and his associates were not. The moon light is sacred and demons are creatures of darkness. This is also why they were unable to approach the temple."
"Very impressive. Although, I've always known you'd be able to figure it out." a voice behind them complimented. When they turned around, a few of the wizards were shocked to see it belonged to the man who had brought them to this island: Bobo.
"THE GHOST!" the blue-furred cat yelled in panic.
"You're the guy from the boat!" Gray loudly observed.
Other people who were stunned by the young man's sudden appearance were the various villagers, especially Moka. "…B-Bobo…"
"B-But you were…" one of them trailed off.
"Stabbed in the chest. Yes, I know. I was there. But that would never be enough to kill a demon." the sailor explained, laughing at the end.
"What about the boat? You just disappeared into thin air." the male ice wizard asked.
As a response, two massive bat-like wings popped out of the demon's back. "I'm really sorry for making you freak out like I did. But I was the only one who remembered everything. That's why I had to leave."
"B-Bobo…" Moka repeated as tears were building up in the corner of his eyes. Then similar wings shot out of his own back and he used them to propel himself at his son, wrapping his arms around him.
Seconds later, all the villagers started cheering for Bobo's return and decided to throw a party on celebration. The happy atmosphere even made some of them forget about Natsu's absence.
Somewhere deep in the forest of the island, Ultear was striding happily with her characteristic green lacrima in her hand, occasionally throwing it in the air and catching it when it fell back down. She had a sly smirk plastered on her face and was humming cheerfully while bouncing up and down every now and then.
'Ah. What a wonderful day this has been! Natsu gave me a chance to get my revenge, I finally got to see him in action, and I can't wait to see the look on Siegrain's face when I tell him what happened to Deliora. Especially when I show him that great footage-' she marveled but stopped herself when she realized her green orb had not fallen from her last throw.
The young woman started to frantically look around her on the ground in search of her lost lacrima. She was interrupted in her quest when she heard a voice she was beginning to know coming from above her.
"You're looking for something?" it said. As she looked up, the council member saw the aforementioned pink-haired Fairy Tail member standing on a tree branch while leaning on its trunk and holding her lacrima in one hand.
Despite her surprise, Ultear managed to keep her composure and even sent him a firm look while extending her hand towards him. "Yes. Now, please give it here."
Much to her frustration however, her show of strength and resolve were only good at making her interlocutor smirk. "Yeah, right. Like I don't know what's on it. By the way, what is it with you and trying to record me all the time?" he mocked while requipping the lacrima away. He then jumped off the branch he was on and gracefully landed on the ground in front the dark-haired woman.
Ultear internally cursed at the pinkette's decision to keep the footage instead of destroying it. Nevertheless, she once again hid it very well and put on a playful demeanor. "Oh… But can you blame me? You looked so awesome when you killed that demon." However, the stern look she received convinced her to drop her act. "And also because I was told to."
This statement piqued the Fairy Tail mage's interest a lot more. "Speaking of which, are you going to tell me what's up with you?"
After a short sigh, the councilwoman gave her answer. "You know who Siegrain is, right? He's the one who sent me here to monitor Lyon and his henchmen's work. He and I both knew very well Lyon never stood a chance, but Siegrain wanted to get control of Deliora for his "grand plan"."
"Which is?" the S-class mage questioned with a raised eyebrow.
This made Ultear smile in amusement. "Now that will be a story for next time. I have to keep at least some secrets if I want to be sure I will see you again. But as a show of goodwill, here's what I can tell you: he's afraid of you. That's why he wants me to gather as much information on you as I can. And by the way, you don't give me much to go on. If you want information from me, the least you can do is return the favor."
"What? You mean giving your mother back to you wasn't enough?" Natsu sarcastically asked with a sly smirk which only grew with the young woman shocked expression.
"W-Wha…H-How do you know that?" she asked, stammering.
"Well, other than the fact that you look a lot alike and you're weird reaction when I told you I was going to bring her back? You have very similar scents…. Well, underneath all of your perfume that is." he supplied.
Being aware that lying to this man wouldn't do her any good, Ultear sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fine. I admit it. She did give birth to me. But as far as I'm concerned, she's no mother of mine. And that's the last we'll talk about it." she firmly said.
"As you wish. But while we're on the subject of confessions, I must say I'm rather curious. What kind of Time Magic allows you to restore an entire village?"
At this point, Ultear wasn't even surprised Natsu knew things about her anymore and just wanted to get this over with. "It's called "Arc of Time". It's a Lost Magic that enables me to manipulate the temporal state of any inanimate object but is powerless on living beings."
"I see. Well, if that's all, I should get back to my guildmates before they start to worry." the pink-haired mage stated while looking in the distance towards where said people would be.
Feeling her mischief come back to her, the council member gently placed her hand on her interlocutor's chest, thus making his head snap back towards her, only to be met with her usual seductive smile. "Sure thing. I'll be in touch." She then proceeded to walk away and disappeared into the woods.
As she was doing so, Natsu was silently watching her. Even some time after she was gone, he still had his eyes fixed on the place where she had disappeared, blinking every now and then. He did end up breaking the silence eventually though. "I swear I don't understand this woman at all. Every time I think I'm making progress, she does something to prove me wrong."
'Yeah. She confuses me too.' Mavis agreed. 'But more importantly, who's that "Siegrain" person she mentioned?'
'He's a member of the Magic Council just like her, but also one of the Ten Wizard Saints. In his early twenties, with blue hair and a red tattoo around his right eye. I have never exactly met him, but I don't trust him for a second.' her host responded.
'Well, given what we just learned, I guess you were right about that. Speaking of which, what do you make of what Ultear just revealed?'
'I…am not sure. It's definitely plausible. And I couldn't find any sign that she was lying. Nevertheless, her attitude still gives me pause. Like she's glad to denounce Siegrain, but at the same time, wants to keep as many things from me as possible so as to be in control.' the pinkette thoughtfully established.
'I mean, she has repeatedly shown to be extremely manipulative. She's tried to outsmart you a couple of times and now she's trying to outsmart him.' the blonde girl developed.
'That's true. But what I can't quite wrap my head around is why. There has to be a reason why she's doing all that. There has to be something she wants. But what?' he wondered.
'I guess we'll just have to wait and see?' Mavis theorized.
'I guess so.' Natsu concurred with a sigh as he started walking back towards the village.
Some time later, Ultear was sitting cross-legged in front another one of her round lacrimas, except this one was glowing pink and floating in the air. She was near the spot where Natsu had ended Deliora's life for good.
"And you're absolutely sure there's nothing left of it?" Siegrain's voice rose from the lacrima.
"Unfortunately, yes I am, sir." she confirmed.
Her reply made the blue-haired man sigh in disappointment. "That's a shame. But at least we learned a few things about him."
"Are you still worried that he might be troublesome to your project?" the young woman asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not just him. His entire guild could pose a threat if we are not careful." Siegrain answered while resting his chin on fist and with his eyes closed, appearing deep in thought. When he reopened them, he also sported his usual confident and cocky smile. "I'm not too concerned though. I'm sure I'll find a way to deal with them. I just need time to think about it. Anyway, you should leave before anyone notices you." And with that, the lacrima returned to its regular green color, indicating the call had ended.
Ultear then used her magic to bring said orb into her hand and looked down at it thoughtfully. For the first in a very long time, the dark-haired woman was feeling…conflicted. There was only one thing she had ever wanted. And until today, she had been sure there was only one way for her to get it. But now, she had been given a second option, and she honestly didn't know whether she should be overjoyed or horrified about it. "Curse you, Natsu. This is all your fault. What am I going to do now?"
The following morning, all of the Fairy Tail wizards were scattered around the village, doing different things. Erza was helping Ur catch up with the years she had missed and informing her about their guild. Natsu and Wendy were leaning on a fence, talking about their usual topics of conversation. Both of their partners were sitting at their feet, one of them trying to seduce the other, and the other drinking tea while looking away from the first. Not too far away, Lucy was examining Gray's wounds, especially one he had on his forehead.
"I think this one is going to leave a scar." she stated.
"I really don't care." the ice mage countered.
"Really? Even though it's on your face?" the Celestial mage asked in surprise.
"Especially if it's on my face. I don't care about having a scar as long as it's visible." Gray explained with a smirk, thinking he sounded cool.
Unfortunately for him, this didn't escape Natsu's sensitive hears. "You have a stripping habit, Gray. No matter where you get a scar, it's always visible."
"Wha- Shut up!" his dark-haired guildmate yelled back but everyone was already laughing at his expense, even Carla.
It was about this time that the villagers approached Erza to give her the reward money for the mission. However, she adamantly refused to take it, insisting that it had never officially been accepted by their guild. Nevertheless, to Lucy's great delight, she did accept to take the Gate Key that had been offered as part of the reward.
A few minutes later, they were all gathered in front of the pirate ship Natsu, Wendy and the cats had arrived in. As they were staring at it, the pink-haired mage suddenly realized something.
"That makes me think, how did you get here?" he asked his fellow S-class mage.
"I stumbled upon this ship's previous owners and convinced them to give me a ride." she explained simply.
At first, the pinkette looked at her blankly, knowing full well what "convinced" meant for the woman. He then started chuckling out of nowhere. 'And to think Carla would berate me for taking a pirate ship while Erza would go as far as to abduct the pirates themselves.'
He then stopped as soon as he noticed how his sister was frowning while looking at the boat. "What's wrong, Wendy?"
Upon realizing that not only had she been frowning, but that her brother had seen it, the young girl blushed with embarrassment and turned her head away. "N-Nothing. I just…don't really like the idea of going back on that boat. That's all…"
The explanation she gave him reminded him of when he used to have this same problem a few centuries ago and he chuckled. As he had become accustomed to, he placed his hand on top of the Sky Dragon Slayer's head and he patted it gently, thus prompting her to look at him curiously. "Don't worry about the motion sickness. I'll cast that spell for you again. Actually, you're kind of lucky. I didn't have any miraculous spell to counter my motion sickness when I had it."
The last sentence got the bluenette's eyes to widen in surprise. "You used to have it too?!"
"Yeah. A long time ago though." the pink-haired mage confirmed.
"Did you overcome it?"
"Well…in a sense…yes." Natsu slowly answered while scratching the back of his head, the painful memories coming back to him.
"How?! Can you teach me?!" his sister eagerly asked, her eyes full of hope.
"I…guess I could show you…but I warn you…you're going to hate it." the S-class wizard hesitated.
Before Wendy could question him any further, their conversation was interrupted by Erza declaring it was time for them to leave. As a result, Natsu cast Troia on the blue-haired girl as promised and they all boarded the ship. Then, with a simple snap of his fingers, he used his magic to manipulate the water around the boat and make it turn around and go back towards Hargeon, much to their amazement.
During the return trip, all of the passengers had once again scattered around the boat to do different things. In particular, the teacher and her student were leaning against the railing of the main deck, catching up. However, the problem it created was that the sun was already high in the sky and there was not a single cloud. As a result, the woman's ice leg was not exactly having a good time. At some point, it had melted so much that it was unable to support her weight, even though she was leaning against the railing, and so it broke in two as a result. When it did, she was caught off guard but managed to catch herself, not without cursing though.
This caught the attention of Natsu who happened to be nearby. Therefore, he walked towards the dark-haired woman. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah. I just didn't notice my leg melting in the sun and it broke in half." she explained while straightening up before sighing in exasperation. "This is going to be such a pain. I just wish I could make all of my creations as resistant as an Iced Shell."
"I can help with that, if you want." he offered.
His proposition caused both dark-haired mages to raise an eyebrow. "You're an ice mage as well?" the older of the two asked.
"He is, but I didn't know he could use his magic this way." Gray responded just as Natsu was went down on one knee towards what was left of Ur's leg.
"I can't. But there are other things I can do." the pinkette clarified while he brought his hands together and placed them near the spot where her leg ended.
A soft blue light was emitted from both his palms and the extremity of her limb. Neither Ur nor even Gray could believe their eyes as her leg began to regenerate. Within a couple of minutes, it had been completely restored and Natsu stopped his magic.
"Sorry I didn't do that earlier. There were so many things going on that I…" the S-class mage apologized as he rose up but trailed off when he saw the wide-eyed and opened-mouthed looks he was receiving from the two.
They stayed like that for a few but rather awkward seconds. With the ice mages staring at him in utter shock and Natsu looking at them alternately with confusion. Eventually, Gray started slowly walking away with his facial expression unchanged. "How is this guy real?" he mumbled. As he did all that, his pink-haired teammate followed him with his eyes, his eyebrows furrowed.
His gaze snapped back to the older woman when she finally spoke up. "How did you do that?"
"I used Sky Dragon Slayer Magic. It has nearly unmatched healing powers." he explained.
"Dragon Slayer Magic? I thought it was long gone." she thought aloud, bewildered.
"Not quite yet. There are only a handful of us left. For all I know, my sister and I could be the only two left." her interlocutor corrected, getting a sad smile in the end.
Seeing this, Ur decided to change the topic. "Is that also how you reversed the Iced Shell?"
"No. That was a combination of my Ice and Water Dragon Slayer Magics. You see, I started by…" Natsu wanted to explain but stopped when he realized Ur had developed the same facial expression as before.
That expression vanished when she started chuckling. "You're a man of many talents, aren't you? I'm glad Gray and you are in the same guild. He might learn a thing or two from you."
"You, of all people, should know that Gray is too stubborn to learn." he declared and they both started chuckling.
In the city of Era, Siegrain was standing in the library of the Magic Council's headquarters, reading a book on the table in front of him. After a while of flipping through the pages, he sighed and closed it. He then made a small gesture with his hand and the book floated back to its place on one of the shelves. It was at this same moment that Ultear walked into the room.
"Is something the matter?" she asked curiously and inwardly kind of amused to see him troubled.
"I was trying to find information on Dragon Slayer Magic. But all I could learn is that we almost don't know anything." he explained, which only amused her further.
"It's quite a shame we couldn't take possession of Deliora. Maybe it could have helped with this problem." the dark-haired woman commented.
"Considering how easily he beat it, I doubt it. Actually, the fight you witnessed may prove more useful than Deliora would have been. Moreover, the fact that he was able to return Ur to her human form is also quite remarkable."
"I must admit, I never thought that wench's magic would be so powerful. But if she managed to keep Deliora sealed for ten years, she is not to be underestimated." the time mage said as she walked towards her interlocutor.
"You shouldn't call her that. Even back then, she was a very powerful and respected wizard. And if she hadn't been stuck as a block of ice, she might have become one of the Ten Wizard Saints." the blue-haired man corrected.
"That must be because she has only ever loved her magic and nothing else. No wonder my father dumped that wretch first chance he got." Ultear countered.
"Well, I suppose you'll get your chance to tell her how you feel now. And, who knows? Maybe you'll learn something unexpected…" Siegrain would have continued but he was silenced when Ultear's finger came to rest on his lips.
"Could we please talk about something else? Do you have any idea how we will deal with Natsu?" the dark-haired wizard questioned, removing her finger from his mouth.
"I have a few. But before I make a decision, I'll need to hear what you saw during that fight he had with Deliora. I need to know if it is worth trying to use him instead of Erza or if I should just try to get him killed right off the bat." the other council member responded while holding his chin thoughtfully.
The young woman had to make an inhuman effort not to scoff at this. 'Either way, you've already lost, moron. Although to be fair, you were doomed from the start. It's just going to be so much more spectacular now.'
Back with the Fairy Tail mages, they were finally back in the city of Magnolia and were currently making their way from the train station back to their guild hall. Well, it would be more accurate to say that they were all walking, except for one of them who was limping. Indeed, Ur had had the unpleasant surprise to discover that while her leg had been fully restored, its muscle were still atrophied and she would need to go through rehabilitation. As a result, Gray was helping her by letting her lean on him while walking. And it was safe to say she wasn't too happy about it.
"Man, did they really have to put your guild hall on the opposite side of the town?" she growled in frustration.
"Well, it's pretty big, so they had to put it where they had enough room." Lucy explained.
"I still can't believe we spent all that time and effort for some lousy Gate Key." Gray complained.
"You've got some nerve complaining! At least, you chose to go there! We had to come and save you!" Carla aggressively told him.
'I don't recall you taking any part in the saving.' Natsu corrected in his head with a chuckle.
As for Gray, the white feline's outburst made him sweat drop. "Oh, come on. It all worked out in the end."
"The end? You seem to be forgetting this isn't over yet, Gray. You, Lucy and Happy still have to face punishment by master Makarov when we return to the guild." Erza corrected, dragging her usual giant pile of useless junk in a wooden cart.
Her statement caused the three people mentioned to look at her in horror.
"W-What kind of punishment?" the blonde Celestial mage asked shakily, unsure if she wanted an answer.
"Please don't tell me he's gonna make us do that." Happy pleaded.
At the same time, Gray started sweating bullets in nervousness and fear. "No! Please! Anything but that!"
'I'm getting to like this guild more and more.' Ur thought while giggling.
As they were walking, people around them whispered among themselves and looking at them with concern and pity. Most of them couldn't make out what they were saying, but the dragon siblings could hear it very clearly.
"Are they Fairy Tail wizards?"
"They must not know it yet."
"I feel sorry for them."
"Why is everyone looking at us like that?" the male ice wizard wondered.
"I don't know. But I really don't like it." Lucy responded.
They stopped talking and walking when their guild hall came into view, for what they saw shocked them to their core. Their guild hall had multiple large metal pole rods running throughout it and looked like it could collapse at any moment. Lucy and Wendy covered their mouths with their hands to stop themselves from screaming in horror. Both of the cats stared at it with wide eyes and open mouths. Erza clenched her fists and glared in rage. Gray did the same as the knight, except for the fact that he was also gritting his teeth. Ur didn't really understand what was happening but didn't like it. But the most surprising reaction had to be Natsu's. He looked…somewhat disappointed.
'And so we meet again, huh? It's been a long time, hasn't it...Gajeel?'