I might write another chapter today, might not. who knows.
I don't own Fairy Tail
The library of sorcery was a huge spiral structure, about twenty stories high. The Fairy Tail mages after a long train ride and a day of walking through an uninhabited forest finally arrived at the entrance to the library and stood in awe of its grandeur. Erza however was harboring an extremely pale complexion as she stared at its entrance. She was fighting with the desire to run and hide in light of what had previously happened at this tower while the Fairy Tail had attempted to gather pieces of the Infinity Clock. This was the same library at which she, Wendy and Carla had been forced to fend off the Butt Jiggle Gang. Lucy, Levy and Happy had also visited the library before but had less disturbing memories. If anything, Lucy was happy to look upon the library and remember how she had saved her spirits after her last visit there.
Gray was impressed with the library and tried to count exactly how many stories high it was but the tower extended into the clouds and it was impossible to tell. Awe was soon replaced by concern, however, as he realized just how daunting this task would be. Hopefully this library was alphebetized or has clear sections, or else we could be in there for weeks… Gray was lost in thought but snapped out of it when Natsu gave a sharp shout.
"Hey are we gonna go in or what?! It's just a library, why do you guys keep staring at it like that?" Natsu walked up to the large circular door, which had one large center circle and three other circles outside connected by large golden colored wires. Natsu pushed the door to the side and it easily opened up as the group moved in closer. Though the exterior was impressive, the interior was even more impressive, with lines of books everywhere in sight. Natsu barely spared a glance to his surroundings and walked to the center of the room, looking at his comrades expectantly. The rest of the group circled around and Erza, being Erza, began to give direction on how to accomplish their task.
"Okay first thing's first" the scarlet haired mage began, "we need to find novels on Devil Slaying Magic. Chances are the library will be split by subject or magic type, so find a section either labelled with devil, demon, slayer, ancient magics etcetera. Since there are about twenty levels, each one of us will take three levels to start with, so Happy, you fly and take everyone to their respective levels. I will start on the ground level here." Erza pointed at the ground beneath her before directing her gaze to Lucy. "Lucy you take the fourth through sixth level, Gray you take seventh through tenth, Nastu eleventh through thirteenth, Gajeel fourteenth through sixteenth and Levy, you take the rest. I'm sure with your superior knowledge finding abilities, you can go through each section in half the time." All the mages nodded their affirmation to their assignments and Happy went to work taking mages up. He took Levy up first and Gajeel next, placing them both on the fourteenth level since they had decided to work together. Natsu, Gray and Lucy started walking up the stairs since they weren't as far away from their levels and had made it to the third level by the time Happy came back. He flew Natsu to his level and then Gray, before flying back to stay with Lucy who had arrived on the fourth level and started her search already.
Gray walked in a slow circle, taking in the huge array of books on the first of his levels and sighed before going to the nearest bookcase. The sections were labelled in an ancient unknown language and he growled in frustration. Thankfully, the books themselves were in many languages, including his own which he began to read. His eyes scanned over the shelf. Tea Leaves and Magical Properties,Magical Flowers, Magical Burn Healing 101… ok well obviously this is not what I'm looking for, though a magical burn book might be handy with that pyro around… He continued to peruse the isles but it appeared that the entire level was in some way tied to botany and magical properties in plant life. Gray finished his first level and moved up the stairs to the next. Every step was loud and echoed in the vast library. It was somewhat ominous and eerie how quiet it was, he could even hear Erza's clanking armour echoing from many floors below him.
Gray got to the next level and began perusing the shelves once again, noticing that this section was much more interesting. His gaze landed on a particular red colored book slightly higher than eye level on the middle of a shelf. Fire Dragon, King of the Dragons oh I bet Natsu would love this, I wonder if it makes any reference to Igneel.. He picked it off the shelf and wrapped it in the shirt he hadn't noticed he had taken off, wondering if he should call Natsu down even though this was not the section they were looking for. By looking around the level, it seemed that half of the books were about all kinds of dragons. Not dragon slayers, Gray noted with disappointment, but just dragons. Gray decided against calling Natsu, knowing that any distraction would just make their research go by even slower and they had already been there a few hours. Instead Gray examined the other half of the level, which seemed dedicated to other magical creatures from what he could tell. Most of them he hadn't even heard of, and were probably long extinct. He sighed, miffed that no one had shouted that they had found anything yet, and made his way up the stairs to his last level. He walked to the nearest shelf on his left and began reading titles once again. This level he couldn't even understand, as it seemed all scientific-based. Alchemic Processes and Molecular Make-Up, Alkaline Mixtures and Chemical Reactions… Yeah this is definitely not what we're lo-
"Hey guys I think I found something!" Levy's voice echoed loudly in the large cylindrical structure and the mages each gave shouts of relief and raced up the stairs to get to whichever level she was on. Gray tucked the book bundle tightly under his arm and ran up the stairs making it to level thirteen before he noticed a bushel of pink hair peeking out from behind a shelf across from the stairwell. He ran over to it and groaned in frustration as the fire mage that was snoring on the ground, book over his face. Gray picked up the book which seemed to be about magical fireworks and grabbed Natsu by the collar, hoisting the fire mage up and throwing him toward the stairs.
The dragon slayer woke up in midair and and had a moment of panicked flailing around before crashing painfully against the bannister of the stairwell. He blinked a couple times, head and back aching from his impact, before jumping up and pointing accusingly at his rival.
"WHAT THE HELL ICE PRINCESS!? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO THROW ME TO WAKE ME UP, JUST TAP ME OR SOMETHING LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!" Gray crossed his arms, shirt-wrapped book against his chest, and raised an eyebrow, not saying anything. Natsu kept pointing, the two locked in a silent showdown.
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The silence stretched until Natsu slowly lowered his arm and huffed indignantly, turning his back to Gray and muttering "ok so maybe I'm a little hard to wake up…"
Gray snorted, put his arms down and walked to the stairs, passing Natsu. "A little hard to wake up? Try practically impossible. Now come on, Levy's found something and I wanna get this over as soon as possible." Gray resumed climbing the steps and was surprised to hear Natsu silently do the same.
Six floors and some sore calves later, Gray could finally see the figures of his friends gathered in the center of the room of the nineteenth floor, Levy standing in the middle shifting from one foot to another in anticipation and excitement and wearing her Gale-Force reading glasses. He also noted that Erza and Lucy were already there even though they had been floors below them but Gray figured that Happy must have flown Lucy up and Erza was just...Erza.
"Gray! Natsu! There you guys are! Now that we're all here, I think this is the section!" Levy waved to the large floor around her, one that was even more packed with books than the others, despite the room being slightly smaller in area. "This whole room is filled with Slayer magic! I don't know yet where exactly the Devil Slayer section is but I did see some books on Dragon Slayer and God Slayer magic. We should examine this room. The team, with a renewed sense of vigor split up and began to search the shelves for demon slaying magic. Gray examined the shelves on the right side of the room, close to the staircase and was disheartened to find that most of these books were in an ancient runic language. After what seemed like hours of fruitless searching, his eye was caught by a navy blue book that had an interesting black design on the cover. He held his right arm next to it and smirked. Gotcha! The mark on the book was identical to that on his right arm, the one he had received after inheriting his Devil Slaying magic. He hastily pulled the book off the shelf and opened it, only to discover the book was written in that old language as well.
"Hey Levy, can I get some help with translating this?!" he called over his shoulder. Levy walked briskly to his side and he held the book out to her, letting her take it. She opened it up to the first page and smiled widely.
"I think this might just be what we're looking for!" She waved at Gray to follow her and called the others to the middle of the room, where they all sat down together and gathered around the Solid Script mage. "This is a book about Devil Slaying magic! It appears to be specific to the ice form as well. It's written in ancient runes but I have the language inlaid in my glasses so I can read it. Here I'll read the introduction.. 'Devil Slaying Magic is a dangerous and somewhat dark form of power, a form of magic that imitates demon curse power and uses a combination of light and dark magic to fulfill its ultimate purpose of destroying demons. While a magic created for good intentions, it is a dangerous and destructive magic as well. This book, focussing on Ice Devil Slayer magic, outlines the effects on both caster and victim of this form of magic, as well as the attacks an Ice Devil Slayer can use and how to pass the power from mage to mage.'" Levy flipped to the table of contents and began reading the chapter titles. "'Origins of Ice Devil Slayer Magic, Attacks, Gathering Power, Ice Immunity, Effects of the Magic on the Caster…' ah here we go! 'Effects of Devil Slaying Magic on Human Victims'!"
Gray realized his fists were clenched and his head was pounding. He felt wary of his magic suddenly and realized that there was a lot more attached to it than just extra power. He would have to take this book and read the rest of it as soon as he could, especially with that effects on the caster chapter, that didn't sound like a good thing. He sat tensed as Levy frowned and started reading again. "It says here that Devil Slayer's magic is the same in effect as other magics, I don't get it… 'Ice Devil Slayer magic acts similarly to other forms of ice magic, only on a stronger level. To demons, the ice is potent, but to humans it is dangerous but not any more dangerous than other magic. The Ice Devil Slayer does, however have the ability to turn anything to a nearly unmeltable ice (see chapter 2) and can create an array of fatal weapons to fight their opponent with…' Well it looks like it just keeps going on like this, talking about how effective the ice magic can be in a fight." The blue haired mage flipped a few pages and bit her lip, eyebrows furrowed. "Although…"
"What is it?" Gray inquired. He didn't like the confused look on Levy's face and knew whatever she was going to say was going to raise more questions than they had originally came with.
"Well.." Levy read a few lines and then backtracked to read aloud. "It says here, 'Devil Slayer magic is potent when in contact with demons. Though there haven't been many recorded fights between a Devil Slayer and a demon, it is said that when in contact with a demon, the ice, or other element dependent on the Devil Slayer, will on contact with the demon, poison the demon's body. Reports say this can include growing burns, deepening wounds, or intensified bleeding. When in human form, the demon's true form can be revealed by contact with Devil Slayer's magic. Their blood returns to it's true color and the body is forced to transform.." Levy trailed off and met eyes with Gray, Erza, Gajeel and Lucy before each of them looked at the fire dragon slayer. Said mage had once again fallen asleep, somehow sitting up, and was drooling with his head tilted to the side. His blue furry companion was sitting in his lap, also asleep.
It was Erza who broke the silence. "So maybe Natsu is a demon? I mean it's a little farfetched but-"
Gray let out a short laugh and looked back at the others. "Oh please. Unless there's a demon of eating food, Flame Brain is definitely not one, we've known him since forever. I mean just look at that!" He pointed at the sleeping mage and everyone nodded their heads, agreeing that it was the most bizarre idea they had ever had. They all started laughing and stood up. Natsu woke up at the commotion and blinked up at the scene around him, confused.
"What's going on? Why are you guys all laughing?" Natsu frowned as the laughing intensified.
"Can you imagine?!" Lucy wiped her teared up eyes and struggled to get words out through her violent gasps of laughter. "Natsu as a demon?!"
Natsu just watched confused as the others continued their amusement without him and stood up.
Gray was laughing as well but internally felt something prickling in the back of his mind telling him that something bad was happening. He was annoyed that he had no idea what was going on, there were pieces of this that didn't add up. Gray told the others that they should keep searching, maybe this was a faulty book, and in the end the group walked down the steps after a couple more hours with two more books in hand, the only ones they could find written about Devil Slaying magic. At the bottom floor of the library, they decided to camp out inside, seeing that it was dark outside and they had nowhere else to go. The group set up sleeping bags on the floor and went to sleep, the library going dark as if it had known there were occupants sleeping in it.
Gray lay awake on his back, listening to the quiet breaths of the others as they slept. Thoughts were tormenting his mind and the ominous feeling in the back of his head had refused to leave. He glanced at Natsu's sleeping form to his left and gazed back up at the ceiling high above them. The ice mage desperately wanted to know what had happened on that day, but it seemed like the answer was too far out of reach. He was relieved, however, that at least the magic wasn't supposed to have any effect on humans other than normal magic wounds. But that didn't explain Natsu's gushing black ooze, the veins on his body protruding and turning purple.. 'Their blood returns to its true color'... Gray remembered the fight with the Tartaros demons. The blood had been..Black.. But I don't understand, that can't mean.. No this is crazy. I must have done something wrong, I must have incorrectly cast the spell or something, Natsu can't be…
Gray fell asleep, attempting to shield his mind from nonsensical and dangerous thoughts..