Hello, everyone !

I'm back with the third chapter :D

I hope you enjoy reading this one~

Disclaimer: My deepest gratitude to Mashima Hiro for bringing this wonderful Fairy Tail alive.


Team Natsu stood in front of the huge mansion where they would be meeting their client for this time's mission. Erza rang the doorbell and waited for someone to open the door. Soon after, a servant opened the door and greeted them. The servant—a maid—invited them to come inside as her master had been waiting for their arrival in the guest room. They looked around with amazement, while Lucy missed her old home a bit upon seeing the interior of the mansion.

She remembered all of the good times she had with her mother.

The servant opened the guest room and Team Natsu stepped inside. Their client this time was Fabian Woodler, the young master of Woodler family, one of the prominent families in the entire Fiore. He was a man in his early thirties with quite a muscular body. He had a light brown hair and a pair of dark blue eyes. He would surely make Cana's eyes glint with interest.

"Welcome, mages of Fairy Tail!" Fabian smiled warmly. "I hope you have a pleasant journey coming here."

Natsu snorted a bit upon hearing that but he didn't say anything because Erza glared at him.

"Of course, Sir Woodler." Erza answered.

"Please, have a sit." Fabian said. "We better get into our business right away."

All of them sat down and that was when Fabian's eyes caught Lucy's figure better. His eyes widened a bit. "Lucy-sama?"

Lucy's head turned in confusion and surprise, it had been years since the last time she heard someone addressed her that way. "Yes?"

"Oh, such a lovely surprise!" Fabian's eyes glinted in happiness. "This is the first time we met, but you sure look like Sir Jude very much!"

"You know my father?" Lucy asked.

"Of course!" Fabian replied, his tone was getting a bit more excited. Natsu decided that he didn't like that kind of tone. "I have the pleasure of working with him for a few years for a project. I'm so sorry for your loss."

Lucy smiled politely. "Thank you."

"Perhaps we can do a bit of catch-up after your mission is over?" Fabian offered. "How about a lunch? I know a great place—"

"The mission." Natsu cut, his voice was a tone deeper.

Fabian was taken aback by Natsu's sudden interruption, he shuddered a bit upon seeing his sharp stare at him.

He cleared his throat a bit. "Y—yes, we'll just discuss about that later. The mission first."

Natsu scoffed inwardly, making up his mind to whisk his team away from the town as soon as the mission was over.

"So, what kind of book we are looking for, Sir Woodler?" Erza asked.

Fabian's expression became solemn. "A very dangerous book, to be exact." he said. "A book written by a certain dark wizard."

Their eyes widened upon hearing it.

"A Book of Zeref?" Gray asked.

"Fortunately, no." Fabian answered. "It is a book written by another dark wizard. Not as famous as Lord Zeref, but nearly as dangerous as him."

"What does the book look like?" Lucy asked.

"It is pitch black in color, as black as the midnight sky. Kurohei's name is printed on the cover." Fabian answered.

"Kurohei?" Wendy asked in confusion.

"That is the name of the dark wizard who wrote the book." Fabian said.

"Please explain more about the book." Erza asked.

Fabian nodded. "You see, it is a book written by Kurohei. He was a dark wizard who was deeply infatuated with Lord Zeref. Kurohei strived to be his equal, which drove him in creating a book which contains a massive amount of the Underworld's spells. Since ancient times, my family is a guardian to this book. We have been sealing this book for generations. But a few days ago, a certain dark guild managed to break through the guarding vault and stole this book. I cannot defeat the guild with my own forces, so I ask this mission to Fairy Tail."

"Which dark guild stole the book?" Wendy asked.

"Its name is Apocalypse. It is an independent dark guild, and they are not a part of Balam Alliance." Fabian answered.

"Do you have any idea why they suddenly stole the book?" Lucy asked.

"This was their second attempt, to be exact." Fabian said. "They have tried once before, but we managed to stop them. After that, they seemed to be staying quiet for a few years. I guess they were amassing their own forces back then to try to steal the book again."

"And their recent attempt was a success, I see." Erza said.

"Do you know where we can find them?" Lucy asked.

"Yes. Their base is located in an abandoned church near the mountains. They are the only dark guild in this city, so it isn't that hard to locate them." Fabian answered.

Erza raised her eyebrow a bit upon hearing the information. Hmm… Jellal didn't say anything about this dark guild the last time they talked. Maybe he wasn't aware of it yet?

"You have to bring the book back to me, please." Fabian urged. "If the spells are released, it will truly be the end of the world. That book must be sealed for eternity."

"Or we can always destroy it." Natsu offered.

"It's impossible to destroy the book, unfortunately." Fabian sighed. "My ancestors had tried for years, but to no avail. The only effective way is to seal it."

"Don't worry, Sir Woodler, we'll get it done." Erza said and stood up. "We'll bring the book back to you."

"Then I will be waiting." Fabian also stood up.


"It's been a while since the last time we kick some dark guild's ass." Gray said.

"As long as I can fight a lot, I have no other complaints." Natsu grinned in excitement.

"Our goal is the book." Erza reminded.

"Did Jellal tell you anything about Apocalypse, Erza?" Lucy asked.

Erza shook her head. "I'll talk to him once we finished our mission. He probably isn't aware of this guild's existence yet. Leave the destroying to his guild."

Natsu whined. "But I want to wreck things!"

"Yeah, what's the fun of busting into a dark guild without kicking some of their asses?" Gray added.

"You two…" Erza started to growl.

"How about leaving them to fight against the guild while I'll go look for the book?" Lucy offered. "Once we got the book, we get out of there."

"What? You won't give me time to finish my wrecking?" Natsu asked.

"Like Erza said, Natsu, our goal is the book." Lucy said.

Natsu pouted but reluctantly agreed.

"There!" Wendy pointed. "I can see the guild's base."

Natsu's pout quickly turned into a mischievous grin. "Okay, time to—whoa!"

His words were cut off as Erza grabbed him by his collar and pulled him behind a huge rock, located not too far from the guild.

"What the hell, Erza?" Natsu asked.

"We are not going to walk through the front door." Erza said. "We have no idea how many members are inside of there and we don't know where they're keeping the book is."

"Aww, man!" Natsu whined. "I'm itchy for some fighting!"

"You know, we can always use this idiot as a bait." Gray offered.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"What am I? A guinea pig?"

"Sort of." Gray nonchalantly shrugged.

"You bastard! How about we use you instead, you pervert popsicle!"

"You're much better than I am." Gray scoffed and smiled smugly. "Not that I care about that, anyway."

"Why you, Gray…"

Erza's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. "Knock it off!"

"Y—yes, ma'am…" Natsu and Gray instantly obliged.

"How about using Natsu and Gray as our diversion?" Lucy asked. "Meanwhile, I will call Virgo and we will dig a hole to infiltrate. Once we're inside, we can start looking for the book."

Erza put a hand under her chin to think. "But we don't know where the book is, Lucy."

"I'm sure it must be somewhere inside their guild." Lucy answered. "The point is for them to have their complete attention on Natsu and Gray so we can look for the book safely."

"Hmm…"

"Besides, a book like that must be giving off some kind of an aura." Lucy added. "I don't think it will be that hard to find it."

"Alright, let's do that." Erza nodded in agreement. "I will help Gray and Natsu in diverting their attention. Wendy, Lucy, Happy, and Carla will look for the book."

They all nodded, and Lucy took out the Virgo key.

"Gate of the Maiden, I open thee! Virgo!" Lucy called out her Celestial Spirit.

"You call for me, Princess?" Virgo greeted. "Hello, everyone."

"Star Dress: Virgo Form!" Lucy donned her star dress. "Okay, we're all set!"

Erza nodded and turned to face Natsu and Gray. "Are you two ready?"

Both Gray and Natsu grinned as their bumped their fists. "Let's wreak a havoc!"

"Don't destroy too much, okay?" Lucy said.

Natsu grinned back at her. "No promises. Be careful there!"

Lucy chuckled and shook her head slightly, then jumped down to the hole Virgo was digging. Wendy and the Exceeds followed, while Erza and the boys ran towards the guild's entrance. Gray and Natsu used their magic to make a flashy entrance while Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armor, toning up the uninvited welcome.

"INTRUDERS!" The guild members screamed. "ATTACK!"

Meanwhile, Virgo and Lucy kept digging while the others closely followed them. The ground shook a bit as Natsu and the others were wreaking havoc. Lucy and Virgo fastened their digging speed so they wouldn't be buried.

Just then, Lucy's ears suddenly caught a peculiar sound.

"Wait." she hissed. "Did you hear that, Wendy?"

"Hear what, Lucy-san?" Wendy asked in confusion. Her ears perked up to listen, but she couldn't hear anything strange.

Except the muffled battle voices above them.

"A buzzing sound…" Lucy mumbled.

"What?" Wendy blinked her eyes. She then tried to listen again, but she couldn't hear any buzzing. "I don't hear anything…"

Lucy raised an eyebrow, wondering how on earth she could hear something that even a dragon slayer didn't hear. Did she hear it wrong? Lucy's ears perked up to listen more closely and she indeed heard a buzzing sound somewhere not too far.

Lucy contemplated a bit. Should she follow the sound? But Wendy didn't hear anything. How come she was the only one who could hear it?

"Lucy-san?" Wendy softly called.

"Over here." Lucy turned to right and started to dig through it. She decided to follow her gut which was telling her that the buzzing came from the book. She had no idea though why she was the only one who could hear the sound.

The buzzing sound gradually became louder the farther Lucy dug. She asked Wendy again and this time, the petite dragon slayer could also hear the faint buzzing sound. Lucy smiled to herself, so she did not hear it wrong! There must have been a reason why Wendy couldn't pick up the sound earlier. Perhaps the sound of the fight above them monopolized her hearings.

Lucy finally stopped as she could hear the buzzing sound directly above them. Virgo took the lead back from Lucy and dug out. They came out of the hole one by one, standing in an empty huge room made out of stone.

"There!" Wendy softly spoke and pointed.

All of them followed her finger and their faces lit up as they saw a cased black book on a stone pedestal. Happy flew to take the case away and grabbed the book, but he was thrown back before even had the chance to.

"Ouch!" he whined as his back slammed the stone wall at the other end.

"Happy!" Carla called.

WUUSSHH!

A strong gust of wind suddenly appeared.

"Wind Scythes!"

Lucy and Wendy gasped in realization that there was an enemy waiting for them here and jumped aside to avoid the attack.

"Carla! Get Happy and hide somewhere safe!" Wendy said.

"Wind Whirl!"

"Sky Dragon's Talons!" Wendy launched her own attack and dispersed the whirling wind.

The gust of wind dissipated, allowing Lucy and Wendy to take a better look at their opponent. A woman was standing beside the pedestal, her pointy black eyes stared back at Lucy and Wendy in amusement. Her green hair was flowing gracefully, her curvaceous figure was accentuated with her choice of clothes.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" The woman asked. "I'm glad I followed my guts to come back here, rather than joining the fight out there. Nice diversion you have there."

Both Lucy and Wendy didn't say anything as they stared back at their opponent. They could feel her strong magic power, both of them were aware that their opponent wasn't someone to be underestimated.

"Hmm… Fairy Tail, eh?" The woman smirked as she eyed the guild's symbol on Wendy's right arm. "I guess that young lord is desperate, considering he even hired Magnolia's strongest guild."

"That book belongs to the Woodler family!" Lucy said. "We're taking it back!"

"No way, blondie." The woman scoffed. "This book now belongs to us, Apocalypse!"

"Not if we can help it." Wendy said and jumped up to launch her attack. "Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"

"Hmm… Wind attributes, huh?" The woman smirked even wider. "Not going to work with me, the great wind sorceress! Wind, disperse!"

Wendy's attack dispersed and her eyes widened in surprise. She didn't have enough time to block, however, as the opponent gave her stomach a solid kick.

"Wendy!" Carla worriedly called.

"AHAHAHA!" The woman laughed. "I am the great wind sorceress, Aira! Your wind won't work on me!"

Both Wendy and Lucy gritted their teeth, both of their brains spun to think how to defeat Aira. Clearly, it would be tricky to get pass her and stole the book back.

Aira decided to not give them enough time to think. She thrust her hand forward to attack. "Eat this! Wind Drill!"

The wind condensed, forming a shape of a huge drill and headed towards them in great speed. Lucy quickly responded and closed Virgo's gate, then opened Aries's Gate.

"Gate of the Ram, I open thee! Aries!"

Aries appeared and quickly thrust her hands out. "Wool Wall!"

The wind drill came into contact with Aries's wool wall and stopped. It tried to drill through, but Aries's wall held strong. As Lucy's own magic powers were getting stronger by day, so did her spirits'. Aries's wall which was usually used to render opponents immobile was now strong enough to block attacks effectively.

"Celestial magic?" Aira blinked her eyes. "Hmm… Quite a fascinating magic you have there, blondie. But… Nothing can stop me, the great wind sorceress! Wind Scythes!"

"Wool Wall!" Aries blocked the sharp scythes.

Aira clicked her tongue in annoyance. That Celestial spirit had one impenetrable defence, alright. How could she break through?

But Aira didn't have enough time to think. She gasped as she realized a close-range magic power around her. She looked up and saw Wendy was up there to attack her.

Wendy puffed out her cheeks and attacked. "Sky Dragon's Roar!"

Aira didn't have enough time to block the attack and got thrown over to the end of the room.

"Nice, Wendy!" Carla cheered.

"Damn you, little fairies!" Aira gritted her teeth and stood up. "WIND DRILL!"

She poured out more magic this time, making her drill two times bigger and faster than the previous one. Aries launched her Wool Wall again and both magic clashed with each other. Aira poured her magic to break through Aries's defence, while Lucy poured her magic to stop her attack.

At the end, Aira's wind dissipated. She gritted her teeth in annoyance upon seeing Aries's wall was still standing tough.

"Damn it!" she hissed. She didn't know Celestial wizard could be this strong!

Wendy jumped up and launched her attack. "Sky Dragon's Wing Attack!"

Aira crossed her hands in reflex to protect her head, but Wendy's attack managed to make her slammed back to the stone wall.

"Wendy, now!" Lucy said.

"Sky Dragon's Roar!" Wendy roared at her full power.

"Don't underestimate me, you puny fairies!" Aira gritted her teeth, thrusting her index and middle finger together. She then flicked her fingers, making Wendy's roar took a U-turn.

"She's controlling my wind!" Wendy gasped in shock.

"EAT THIS, FAIRY TAIL!" Aira shouted.

Aries's Wool Wall blocked the attack, but Wendy's full power roar was really strong. Aries furrowed her eyebrows as she poured out every ounce of her strength to block the roar. Lucy gritted her teeth as she poured her magic out to Aries. Happy and Carla grabbed onto the stone floor so they wouldn't be blown away.

The roar finally dispersed and Aries's wall collapsed at the same time. Both Lucy and Aries panted in exhaustion, while Aira's condition wasn't any better herself. Controlling other wizards' wind always drained her magic power, which was why this was Aira's least favorite move.

"Great work, Aries." Lucy smiled proudly to her Celestial spirit. "You can go back now."

"I'm sorry, Lucy-san." Aries nodded and timidly said her usual catchphrase.

"Lucy-san, are you okay?" Wendy asked in worry. She knew how draining it was for Lucy, she had dug a quite long hole to infiltrate and then blocked all of Aira's attacks—even her own full power roar that Aira controlled just now. Not to mention she said she was often feeling sluggish after the war, a physical strain Wendy knew shouldn't be taken light of.

"I'm fine." Lucy huffed. "We've got to finish this, though."

"Yes." Wendy agreed. "But how are we going to do this? She can control my wind."

An idea crossed Lucy's mind and she contemplated a bit, before deciding that this was the only chance they got. Besides, if she didn't try that move here and now, when else she could get the chance to?

Lucy took out Cancer's key and placed it on her chest. "Star Dress: Cancer Form!"

Aira blinked in confusion upon seeing Lucy's star dress. Could Celestial wizards implement their Celestial spirits' powers onto themselves like that? This was the first time she had ever known about something like that.

The wind sorceress clicked her tongue in annoyance. This Fairy Tail's blondie was sure an annoying opponent. She disliked her very very much.

Lucy held her scissors firm. "Wendy, give me a boost."

"Sure, Lucy-san." Wendy nodded. "But… What are you going to do?"

At Wendy's question, Lucy smirked. "Something I learned from Erza."

"Eh?" Wendy widened her eyes in surprise. "You are training with Erza-san, Lucy-san?"

"Sometimes." Lucy grinned. "Who else will you turn to in order to learn some swordsmanship?"

"Wow…" Wendy's eyes glinted in amazement.

"Stop your talking over there!" Aira cut and stood up. She gathered all of her remaining magic power into this final attack. "Time to finish this, you little fairies! WIND JIGSAW!"

A huge vortex of wind appeared, the rough edges of the wind were sharp enough to shred anything to pieces. The jigsaw quickly made its way towards both Lucy and Wendy.

"Wendy!" Lucy jumped up.

Wendy nodded and gave Lucy a boost. "Sky Dragon's Talons!"

Lucy lunged forward towards Aira's wind jigsaw.

"FOOL!" Aira bellowed. "SHRED TO PIECES, FAIRY TAIL!"

Lucy gripped her scissors tight and swung it. Aira expected her scissors to be propelled away and her body shred into pieces, but none of that happened.

To her utter shock and surprise, Lucy's scissors were slashing through her wind.

"I—impossible!" Aira gasped. "She… She's cutting through my magic?!"

"I didn't train with Erza for nothing!" Lucy said, the memory of Erza training her surged back into her mind. Despite the soft spot Erza had for Lucy, she was still a deadly trainer. The red-haired really trained her hard, considering Lucy's Cancer Form was the most similar requip to her own in terms of using weapons.

Lucy broke through the wind vortex—she even dispersed it away—and directly came face-to-face with a shocked Aira. Lucy wasted no time and swung down her scissors, effectively brought Aira to her defeat as she was knocked out.

"Amazing, Lucy-san!" Wendy came over in complete amazement.

"I agree." Carla also added. "You made yourself a quite formidable opponent, Lucy."

"She—she's scary…" Happy trembled as seeing Lucy's earlier fight reminded him so much of when Erza cut through Aria of the Element Four's air magic.

Lucy sheepishly grinned and changed back into her normal attire. She then walked towards the pedestal, where the Book of Kurohei was placed within a case.

Happy gulped down nervously. "S—should we open the case?"

"Of course." Carla answered. "How are we going to take back the book if we don't open it?"

"I don't sense any magic around the case." Wendy commented. "I can hear the buzzing sound, though."

Lucy nodded and stared at the pitch-black book. The word 'KUROHEI' was printed on the cover and her ears were getting filled with the buzzing sound. As if she was entranced, Lucy opened the case and touched the book.

Lucy's consciousness slipped out and everything around her instantly became black. There was no one around her in this thick darkness, but Lucy could see her body as well as the book in her hand. A pair of red eyes suddenly glowed from within the darkness, it seemed quite far away but nevertheless still brought shiver ran down along her spine. Lucy unconsciously gripped the book tighter, she wanted to get away from the glowing red eyes but she couldn't move a muscle.

She realized the book's magic somehow trapped her in this darkness. She wanted to let go, but she couldn't do anything. The red glowing eyes slowly came closer, slowly emanating the heat that Lucy came to recognize. The same heat she felt whenever that mysterious figure appeared in her dream.

Fear started to creep into her heart.

"…cy!"

Lucy's ears twitched. What was that?

"…cy!"

There it was again. Was that a voice? Where did it come from?

"…cy!"

That voice sounded familiar.

"LUCY!"

Lucy's consciousness came back and she gasped in surprise. The first thing her chocolate orbs saw was Natsu's worried face as he stared at her.

"N—Natsu…?" she called.

"What are you doing?!" Natsu growled in annoyance. "Let this thing go!"

"W—what?" Lucy blinked, her brain was processing what Natsu said. But she didn't have to think much because at the next second, she felt her hand was burning. "Ouch!"

Lucy let her hand go in reflex and the Book of Kurohei dropped onto the stone floor.

"Lucy-san, are you okay?" Wendy asked in worry as she quickly worked her magic on Lucy's burned hand. "You suddenly became unresponsive the moment you touched that book and I can't snap you back!"

"The book then started to burn your hand, Lucy!" Carla added. "But you won't let go no matter how hard we screamed and we can't pry that book away from you either! Thank goodness Natsu and the others came soon after!"

"What were you thinking, Luce?" Natsu asked in annoyance. "Didn't you know that your hand was burning because you were holding that book?"

"I—uhm…" Lucy suddenly didn't know what to say.

"You were too reckless, Lucy." Erza also reprimanded. "You know that's a book written by a black wizard, you shouldn't touch it so recklessly like that."

"I'm sorry…"

"There you go, Lucy-san." Wendy smiled. "Your hand is healed."

"Thank you so much, Wendy." Lucy smiled back to her teammate.

Gray encased the Book of Kurohei in his ice and picked it up. "Well, aside from Lucy's recklessness, this book is in our hands right now. Shall we head back?"

"Let's go." Erza nodded in agreement. "After seeing what that book did to Lucy's hand, it'll be better if our client sealed that book again."

They then walked out of the stone room. Lucy stared at her healed hand in silence, pushing away the incoherent murmurs she heard at the back of her mind. Lucy stared at the Book of Kurohei in Gray's hand, wondering what did just happen earlier.

Whose glowing red eyes it belonged to?


Done !

I'm not good in writing battle scenes, but I hope I did a pretty decent job back there XD

What do you think about this chapter ?

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