Ok, the last chapter was quite boring, I know; I'm sorry. This chapter is different, I promise. So please welcome the RETURN OF COOLNEST! (Couldn't use awesomeness because some cartoon series is using it)

To anyone reading this, I apologise if you've been waiting ages for an update (though I doubt there will be more than 5… and even that's hoping too much!) I simply had too much to do, so please understand.

Disclaimer: I do not own 'Fairy Tail' or the backdrop this story is based off of, and neither do I own any characters that might appear in this story that weren't created by me.

Acknowledgement: This story is based off a fanfic for 'Fairy tail' called 'That's a bit optimistic' written by 'InsertDecentNameHere', whom I would like to thank for giving me permission to write this story.

WARNING: Since this story is a separate project, spoilers to 'The Phantom' may or may not be present.

Chapter five: They will only torment

[Imagine cool song]

Marvin rushed through the hallways of his guild, ignoring the glares of curiosity he got from his fellow guild mates. In a secluded area of the guild that was facing the west stood the person he was looking for – Valkyrie.

When Valkyrie saw him coming, she initially raised her hand to greet him, but then she noted his demeanor; he was in a bad mood.

What's more, he was glaring at her.

She took a step back, "Marvin?"

He kept coming, even until he was far too close for comfort. He grabbed her by her collar and slammed her against one of the many pillars adoring the side of the hallway that was facing the now setting sun.

Valkyrie winched in pain from the impact. She may be the strongest mage in the guild, but physically, she was quite weak.

Marvin didn't relent. He looked at her intently and asked a simple question, "Tell me the truth."

It wasn't a threat; nor was it a demand. He was just asking a question. However, Valkyrie could feel the intensity behind those words.

"Tell you what?"

"What happened… to my parents…" he managed to force out.

…

A day earlier

"Damn it!" Gillian swore as she straight punched a manticore in the face. The man-faced lion was sent flying back a couple of meters, despite its massive size. It stopped its backwards momentum and whipped its spiked covered tail towards Gillian, three black thorns shooting out towards her.

"Shi–" she jumped up into the air, her gravity directional magic pulling her upwards, causing the three poisoned missiles to sail pass harmlessly below her.

She landed just as the creature pounced on her, so fast she couldn't react in time. She closed her eyes and waited for the pain.

When it didn't come, she opened her eyes to see her manticore clawing the air around it, as if it was trapped in an invisible box. From the look on its human face, it was suffocating. Whatever had trapped the creature was apparently sucking the air out of its lungs.

After a few more seconds of struggling, the strange lion stopped moving entirely, its last twitches fading away with its life.

A faint foot step caused Gillian to turn around.

"Yo." Marvin said.

She breathed a sigh of relief, "Thanks, Marvin."

"No problem. Now, shall we go help the others?"

Gillian nodded and chased after Marvin as he raced towards the center of the village.

"Marvin, slow down! Those manticore spikes are still poisonous; one cut and not even the best healers can cure you. You'll be dead in seconds!" she warned as the thief skipped around the thorns without a single care in the world.

"This can't wait, Gillian!" he yelled back, "Greg is in the village fighting!"

"Wait, I thought you said he was a mercenary. What kind of mercenary can't take care of himself?"

"That's not it! If I'm not there, he might destroy the entire village!"

Gillian's blood ran cold, "You are kidding, right?"

Marvin looked at her and said, "Of course I'm joking; he won't destroy the village."

Gillian sighed in relief.

"He'll just turn everything to rubble," Marvin continued in all seriousness.

[_]

In the middle of the flaming village, a circle of eight masked individuals were facing a single unarmed figure.

All eight of the attackers were already severely wounded, while the single individual had barely broken a sweat.

"Come on, man. If we work together, we can take him!" one of them said.

The figure shock his head, "Won't work." He whispered.

His attackers, however, didn't hear his warning, and charged in all at once.

He sighed, and clapped his hands together in front of him. His hands turned into fists with their sides to each other. He then pulled his hands apart, causing a bright flash of light.

"Reversal, Sidewinder."

When the light subsided, his right hand was holding a large grey saber, and on his left hand he had a light brown short sword.

He twisted the great saber until he was holding it back-handed, its blade pointing up. His attackers felt a sudden shift in their weight, and soon they were floating skywards, as if gravity had changed direction.

Before they could comprehend what had happened, the blade of the short sword extended and shot out like a whirlwind, striking each of them multiple times.

Greg's attackers were just starting to fall when he kept his swords.

"Lame," he said.

"Ho, so you think so too, huh?" a rough voice said behind him.

Greg turned around to find a huge muscular man standing behind him. He was wearing a brown T-shirt with its sleeves torn out. He was also wearing boots. All in all, he looked like a person from the army.

He had dark brown skin, and his head was bold. He had a huge mustache on his face, but it did nothing to hide his huge grin.

"My name is John the Earthshaker of the manticores! Now it's your turn; are you one of those dagger mages?"

Greg just looked at him and asked, "You. Are you strong?"

John laughed, "Strong? I am one of the strongest mages of Manticore thorn!" And with that, he slammed his feet down on the ground, causing a huge eruption of earth all around Greg, encasing him in stone. The resulting fissure from the magic caused the houses around Greg to sink into the earth, so strong was the impact.

"Ha ha ha! No one can survive being crushed by me earth tomb! That will teach you daggers to look down on us Manticores!"

[_]

On the outskirts of the village, Marvin was facing a problem of his own: namely two manticores and their masters, plus one mage from Manticore thorn.

The two beastmasters rode atop their soul-bound creatures. They wore Brown robes that covered their entire bodies, leaving only their eyes visible. The mage, on the other hand, wore a red shirt that resembled that of a Chinese martial arts uniform. His brown hair was short, and he had black eyes. He was also shorter then Marvin by about an inch. He looked like a melee type of person, and his heavy build solidified that look.

"So you are a mage of Kléfti̱s mágos. I am sorry, but I have orders to kill you." The martial artist said.

Marvin shrug, "Sure, no problem; I understand. This is strictly professional, so no hard feelings from me. By the way, the name's Marvin, and I'm a tarot magic user. Who are you?"

"Danny Chan, mana enchantment fighter."

"I see. Well then, shell we begin?"

Danny waved for the two beastmasters to stay back. He then dug his leg into the ground and said to Marvin, "Again, I am sorry."

Marvin had just uttered the words, "Sure–" when Danny struck him with an uppercut that sent Marvin flying. Just before Marvin hit the ground, Danny appeared right next to him, slammed his right foot down into the earth for leverage, and punched forward with his right fist, his entire body swinging to increase the impact.

Needless to say, Marvin went flying once again, this time straight into a tree, causing it to snap in two.

"May you rest in peace," Danny said, relaxing his pose.

[_]

"Well, that was boring; he died with just one move!" John said to himself. The 10 feet tall earth tomb that Greg was in had solidified, crushing his body completely.

"I guess it's time to look for another victim!" declared John before laughing happily.

"… Interesting…" just then, a voice came from behind the stone formation.

John stopped laughing, "Wha… what?"

Right in front of his eyes, his earth tomb crumbled with a thunderous echo, and behind it stood Greg, appearing unscathed; a rapier in his left hand, and a great sword in his right.

[_]

"Earth contraction… interesting move," a voice said behind Danny, startling him. He turned around and saw Marvin standing just three feet behind him, completely unharmed.

"So you contract the space in front of you, causing you to literally step through space towards your destination. Neat trick," Marvin continued, oblivious to the stares the other three gave him.

[_]

"How… how…" John kept repeating, disbelief dense in his voice.

"Chain Breaker cuts almost anything. Titan's grip grants strength." came the lazy reply.

[_]

"But how? No one has ever survived an attack like that." Danny asked in total astonishment.

"Oh that? It's a secret." Marvin said. Obviously, he had used his illusions to make Danny believe that he was hitting a person, when in fact he had been hitting nothing at all. A look at the tree would conform this, but Danny was too shocked to do so.

[_]

"Hey," Greg began.

John swallowed, "Wha… what?"

"If that was strong…" Greg said as his rapier changed into a green curved blade. He then shot forward at an amazing speed and slammed his great sword into John's stomach, the enchanted strength granted by said sword doing more than knock the wind out of his lungs.

As John's eyes rolled back into his sockets, he collapsed, thanks to the sudden shock of pain to his system, the last words he heard was that of Greg saying…

"… Then your guild is just pathetic."

[_]

"By the way Danny, before you so rudely interrupted me, I was going to say that the same rules applied to you." Marvin began as he took out a pair of tinted glasses and put them on.

"What rules?"

"You know, the one about 'not holding a grudge when you lose' thing?"

"I see. That won't be a pro–" Danny never got a word out before Marvin throw a card at him. He eyed the card curiously as it approached, and then…

Boom! It exploded in his face.

Marvin took the opportunity to pull out a card from his pocket and shouted the words, "Illusion Tarot card: Lightning storm!"

The skies immediately went darker then the night, and thunder could be heard overhand. A few moments later, bolts of electricity came rushing down onto the two beastmasters and their mounts, causing them to pass out immediately.

Danny stood there, terrified. Those bolts were… huge! The amount of power needed to generate such magic… just how powerful was this guy?!

He felt the hair behind his back stand up, and he immediately looked up at the sky.

"Oh, by the way Danny." Marvin said, causing a nervous Danny to look back down.

"I hate it when people interrupt me while I'm talking."

And with that, Danny's world went white, and the next thing he knew, he was unconscious. Oh he tried to dodge, but lightning travels at 220,000 kilometers per hour. By comparison, the muzzle velocity of a bullet from a high powered rifle is roughly around 1400 meters per hour.

Needless to say, he didn't stand a chance.

…

A few hours after the raid began all of manticores mages were defeated and tied up in front of the village.

Marvin and Greg were wondering around aimlessly while checking for any raiders who might have escaped when they were approached by a white haired elderly woman.

"Thank you for saving us, Marvin." she said in a rusty voice.

Due to her short stature, Marvin had to look down just to see her and said kindly, "No problem, ma'am."

He was just about to walk away when he noticed that the old lady had called his name, and he hadn't even given it to her.

Marvin turned around and asked warily, "Why did you call me that?"

"Oh, I'm sorry; it's just that you look so much like this kid I use to know who once lived not far from here… Such a pity, if he was still around he would be around your age now."

"Why isn't he still around, what happened to him?"

The old lady looked away with a painful expression on her face while she recalled that day, "It was horrible…"

…

"She said my family was murdered!" Marvin shouted.

"… I thought you knew about that…"

"My ENTIRE family, including me! She said that despite the fire, the wound marks were unmistakable; they were killed!"

"Calm down… She… she must have been lying… " Valkyrie desperately tried to calm Marvin down.

"Greg was there, HE SAID SHE WASN'T LYING!"

By now Marvin's face was red anger and his grip was tightening, causing Valkyrie to winch.

That caused Marvin to calm down a bit as he took a step back and looked away apologetically.

"… Greg said she wasn't lying; being a mercenary he can spot a lie a mile away. And I trust him because he never lies… and because I consider him the closest thing to family I have."

That last sentence caused Valkyrie's heart to ache, but she suppressed her feelings and instead asked, "What are you going to do now?"

For a moment Marvin just stood there unmoving, "I thought was I came here so that you could tell me it was a lie, but deep in my heart I knew; Lawrence told me he saved me from the fire… In truth, he started it, didn't he?"

Valkyrie turned away to avoid answering, but her silence was more than enough to answer him.

"How… how can you protect someone like that…?" Marvin asked, his voice trembling in rage.

"… He placed a curse on me, preventing me from opposing him." Valkyrie said.

Marvin was speechless, "… I, I didn't… I…"

Valkyrie smile sadly, "Don't worry; I didn't want you to know."

Silently she walked forward and gently cupped Marvin's hands in her own, causing Marvin to blush.

It's warm… was all he could think about.

"You… you want to avenge your family, don't you?" came the sudden enquiry.

Marvin blinked at the question; he had been thinking about this very question ever since he figured out what happened.

And in the end, he still couldn't come up with an answer.

"… It's never easy, is it; killing someone? Not that I'd know, I've never done it before."

Valkyrie shook her head, "No, it's not. No matter who they are or what they've done; a life is still a life, and it's always sad to someone when a person dies."

She took Marvin's face in her hands and looked him in the eye, "I can't help you, but I won't stand in your way, either… good luck."

Marvin nodded and walked away. As he was too far away, he didn't hear Valkyrie murmur to herself, "Kill him Marvin… kill him, for both our parents sake."

[Imagine cool song]

As always, please comment! And thanks for reading!