Nobody POV
It was an hour later when Natsu and Happy returned to the guild with Erza, Gray, and Juvia in tow, only to find that the infirmary beds had been moved out into the guild hall with the tables and chairs being moved to make space for them.
"What's going on here?" Erza asked no one in particular.
The few people that had been in the guild hall before weren't there anymore.
"Why are you asking us?" Gray assumed, thinking that she was asking them. "We don't know anymore than you do."
"I wasn't asking you, Gray," she retorted.
Before the conversation could continue further, Levy came out of the guild's library with papers in her hands.
"Okay...hopefully I got everything," she mummbled to herself, before looking up from her papers. "Oh, you're back."
"Levy. What's going on here?" Erza asked the solid script mage.
"I'll explain everything in a bit," she answered. "For now, just sit down and let's wait for the others to get back."
They didn't see a reason not to so each of them sat down on one of the infirmary beds. Juvia of course, sat right next to Gray on the same bed that he was sitting on. The devil slayer made no move to protest her seating choice, just stayed silent, his usual stoic expression on his face.
"So where did the others go?" Happy asked Levy as she took a seat as well.
"They went looking for you a while ago, but they should be back pretty soon," Levy answered. "What took you guys so long anyways?"
"It took Natsu quite a while to find me, but it wasn't too hard to find Gray as he was nearby," Erza explained. "We spent a few minutes trying to find other people but the only person that we could find was Juvia."
"It's because Juvia was looking for..." She cut herself off. It would be a dumb idea to openly confess that she had kidnapped her love rival and Lisanna! No, she would keep her mouth shut. "Nevermind..."
"I'm guessing that everyone else is probably off on some sort of mission or errand?" Levy guessed.
"Either that, or whatever is happening to Mirajane, Wendy, and Lucy is happening to them, too," Gray guessed, his eyes holding a gleam of worry in them.
"I really hope that it's the first thing then," Happy said, looking down at the ground.
"Juvia hopes so too," the water mage agreed, wringing her hands together.
The six of them then proceeded to sit there making idle conversation, until Gajeel, Lisanna, Pantherlily, and Carla came back.
"Levy, we couldn't-" Lisanna's words stopped short upon noticing them. "They were here the whole time?"
"No, they got here a little while ago," Levy corrected her, and Lisanna was relieved that they hadn't wasted the whole time for nothing.
"What took you guys so long to get back?" Gajeel asked them.
"It took ash-for-brains over there a while to find Erza, but they found me pretty quickly since I was in the neighborhood," Gray explained, leaning back on his hands. "Then we spent a while trying to find other mages to help, but the only person we found was Juvia."
"So we're going up against that creature with just twelve people?" Carla asked no one in particular. She crossed her furry arms over her chest. "It's going to be a difficult fight, then."
"Creature? What are you talking about?" Erza frowned, not understanding. "What creature?"
"You haven't explained things to them yet?" Pantherlily asked Levy.
"No, I was waiting for everyone to be here so I didn't have to explain things twice," the blue haired girl answered. "But now that everyone is here, I'll start."
Levy stood up and moved to stand by the bar as the others sat down.
"Alright, so as you all know by now Lucy, Mirajane, and Wendy have all fallen into a deep sleep that they won't wake up from," she began, her eyes traveling over all the people present. "You guys do know this, right?"
Erza, Gray, and Juvia all nodded as Natsu had already told them about what happened.
"Just making sure, but I believe that I've found the culprit," Levy continued.
"Who is...?" Gray asked.
Levy didn't respond as she took out a light pen with her free hand and drew a stick figure with the characteristics of the 'Lucy' that Lisanna described.
"This is the creature that's keeping the three of them asleep, I don't know what it's called because the page that talks about it in the book only refers to it as creature," she explained to them. "It's a dream dwelling creature that was thought to have gone extinct a long time ago."
"But it isn't extinct," Happy interrupted.
"Right, it isn't...the creature appears to people when they dream about its chosen domain, and continues to bring them back there for reasons that aren't stated in the book," Levy continued, her voice level. "The creature manipulates the victim's mind into thinking that it hasn't slept, which makes it so that the victim will sleep more and more."
Everyone stayed silent as they listened to every word that came out of Levy's mouth.
"Eventually, the creature doesn't want them to wake up anymore and makes it so that they won't wake up by pulling their entire mind into the dream world. This causes the skin to become cold, their breathing to slow down, and their pulse to slow down as well," Levy said, her voice becoming serious.
Once again, everyone stayed quiet, listening intently.
"When this happens then it's only a matter of time before the victim dies, with the time before death being different for every victim," Levy said softly.
"So you mean that thing is going to kill them?!" Natsu shouted, leaping up from his seat. His fists were clenched. "We can't let that happen!"
"For once I agree with him," Gray said begrudgingly. "There has to be something that we can do to stop this."
"I was getting to that...there's a spell on the next page of the book that apparently can send people into the dream world to rescue the victim from the creature," Levy stated. "If we use it, then we can go into the dream world and save them."
"How does the spell work?" Erza asked, her eyes focused on the short girl.
"You have to draw a symbol on the floor and everyone that wishes to go into the dream world must say the exact same sentence at the same time," Levy explained to the scarlet-haired woman.
"And what's that sentence?" Juvia asked curiously.
"Pass this paper around from person to person," Levy handed her one of the papers. "But whatever you do, don't say the sentence out loud."
They did as she said, and Levy then began to arrange the letters using her solid script magic. She formed the symbol on the floor in the middle of all the beds, as she didn't have anything else to make the symbol other than a light pen at the time. She had to constantly looked at the paper that she copied the symbol onto from the book to make sure that she didn't mess it up.
"Okay...does everyone know what we have to say?" She asked once she was done, receiving nods in response. "Good."
Levy turned her attention to Happy, Carla, and Pantherlily.
"I think that it'll be best if you guys stay out here," she told them.
"What?" Pantherlily asked. "Why can't we come with you?"
"Yeah...why can't they come with us, Levy?" Natsu asked.
"The book says that the spell is only meant for humans, and it'll kill an animal if it's used on them because their minds are weaker than a human's," she answered. "It doesn't say anything about exceeds, but I don't think we should risk it."
"Levy's right," Erza agreed with her, crossing her arms. "If the spell kills animals then we shouldn't risk using the spell on animals."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Carla asked, somewhat frustrated.
"You guys can keep an eye on us and make sure that nothing bad happens while we're in the dream world," Gray answered her question.
"You could also explain things to the people that come to the guild," Juvia added, happy to speak up for her beloved Gray.
"Yeah, and if anyone else get's taken by the creature then you guys will be here to take care of them," Lisanna said supportively. "Do you guys think you can do that?"
"Of course we can!" Happy answered in his usual upbeat manner. "Right guys?"
"Right," they both agreed with the blue exceed.
"Then off we go...I suggest that you all go and lie down on one of the empty beds, unless you want to fall over and sleep on the floor," Levy suggested.
Everyone did as she said and laid down on the infirmary beds, while the ones who were sitting on already taken beds got up and moved to an empty bed.
"Is everyone ready?" Levy asked them as she laid down. She got a chorus of 'yes' in reply.
"Okay...on three, we all say it at the same time," she told them.
Natsu POV
I was lying on the bed that was right next to the one that Wendy was in.
"One..." Levy started to count.
I turned my head and looked at Wendy. Her face was peaceful, and her skin was pale. Too pale then it should ever be. Wendy should be smiling and happy and full of life, not lying comatose on a cot, her skin cold and her face void of joy. The thought made me grip the sheets of the cot I was laying on.
Don't worry. I thought as if I was talking to her. I'll be there before you know it.
"Two..." Levy continued.
And once I find you, I'll punch that monster so hard in the face that it'll wish that it would've never taken any of you. My face was set in determination as I continued as if I was talking with the her. I swear.
"Three!" Levy finished.
"Our loved ones have been taken by a creature most fowl, and we wish for nothing more then to save them from the terrible fate that the creature will, with no doubt, subject them to," we recited the sentence in unison. "So may the dream realm allow us entry into the creature's domain so that we may fulfill our wish to save them."
I felt a powerful magic appear in the room and I looked to see what was causing it with the others appearing to feel it too as they looked as well.
The symbol on the floor was glowing, and at the middle of it was an orb of magic that was changing color as it got bigger with every passing second.
It was as big as Happy when it stopped growing and stopped changing color, leaving it a plain white color. It did nothing for a few seconds and then beams of light shot from it.
Each of the beams hit us right between our eyes and stayed there. I could feel myself becoming more and more tired the longer that it remained there, until I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore.
My vision became blurred and my eyes started to slide closed, but right before they closed, I saw the beams retracting into the orb as it quickly shrunk down to the size of a pebble and started to change colors yet again.
And the next thing that I knew I dozed off into a deep sleep, and the sensation felt like I was falling.
I didn't panic though, because I knew wherever I was falling to, it was into the dream world where everyone else was.
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