And we're back!
Didn't have to wait too long this time huh?
Yeah, we wanted to get this one out soon after so you could see more of what Rouki can do, and also finish the arc instead of leaving it hanging for so long... again.
So without further ado, let's get into it!
"Damned mage!" Andras growled, trying to fly away once again, only to get yanked down by Wizard, still managing to hold the chain "Just let me go already!"
"Oh yeah, sure, totally, all because you asked nicely." Wizard said in deadpan, before snorting "You really think I'm gonna let a member of Goetia escape me again? You're going down."
"Fine then, I'll deal with you right now!" Andras growled before using his wings to propel himself at Wizard.
Wizard reacted quickly, and pulled out the WizarSwordGun and opened fire, hitting Andras head on and knocking him off course. "Charging straight at someone? Not so smart when they have a gun," Wizard smirked a bit. However, his smirk didn't last long as he was abruptly pelted by projectile feathers when Andras regained some balance.
"I could say the same to you!" Andras growled before plucking out one feather. One feather that turned into a sword before he charged forward, Wizard quickly meeting the strike with his own sword. "Give it up already, you can't win!" he growled, only for Wizard to kick him in the gut, forcing him back before Wizard initiated the blade lock again after quickly changing into Hurricane style.
"Not happening! Ever!" Wizard growled.
As the two were fighting, the others were busy fighting the Ghouls and the Ghoul Generals.
"These things are a LOT more durable than the normal variety, not that that's unexpected!" Beast growled as he parried a strike from the General Ghoul before quickly kneeing it in the gut and forcing it back. Taking advantage of the momentary stall, he pressed the advantage and landed a series of stabbing thrusts at the General Ghoul, causing sparks to fly from its body as it was forced back further, yet where a normal Ghoul would have been destroyed, this one remained.
"They aren't called 'Generals' for nothing!" Erza frowned as she requipped into her yellow Giant Armor, spear in hand as she fought against the General Ghoul wielding a spear, proving himself to be quite an able wielder… though not quite on her level.
"Why are they all coming after me?!" Lucy shouted as she was left to fend off the normal Ghouls, using her whip to keep them back, before she went for one of her Keys. "Open, Gate of the Giant Crab!" she declared as the gate was opened in response to her use of Cancer's key. The Celestial Spirit soon emerged revealing a tan man with a pair of sunglasses on his face and a… unique haircut, wearing a simple shirt and pants combo with crab legs coming out his back… oh, and he was holding a pair of scissors in each hand.
"What haircut would you like today?" Cancer asked Lucy.
"No time for a haircut, Cancer!" Lucy said quickly, pointing at the Ghouls that were coming. Cancer saw them as he adjusted his sunglasses before he moved quickly…and the Ghouls were soon left looking at what used to be their spears which had been cut apart…and then their horns came off too. The Ghouls were now VERY confused…and thus left them fully open to having Lucy hit them with her whip, knocking them aside.
Meanwhile, Beast and Erza were quickly getting the hang of dealing with the General Ghouls, and evident by the fact Erza had just slammed her spear right through said General Ghoul which promptly exploded, things were going well. Seeing an opening, Beast quickly rolled the Dice Saber, and landed on a 5, the ensuing stampede made short work of the General Ghoul who despite being stronger than an average Ghoul was nowhere near as strong as a Phantom and thus could not survive the attack.
With the General Ghouls taken care of, Beast and Erza quickly set their sights on the Ghouls that Lucy was managing to hold back with Cancer, while Happy was in the air, dropping rocks on them to further keep them from being able to fight effectively. A quick sweep from one of Erza's swords later, and the Ghouls were all destroyed, Beast quickly sucking up all the magic that was released from the destruction of the monsters.
And of course, Andras noticed this, grimacing as he pulled away from his bladelock with Wizard "Dammit!"
"Oh no you don't!" Wizard shouted as he fired several wind enhanced bullets ahead, Andras barely managing to deflect them.
"That's it for today!" Andras growled, before channeling as much magic as he could into his feather sword…and brought it down on the chain, managing to break through the chain. The moment he was free, he did an about face and flew away.
Wizard growled and opened fire, hoping to shoot him down. However, Andras was able to evade most of the shots. All except one that hit him right in the leg, blowing a hole through it. Andras shouted in pain, sparing a moment to glare back at Wizard before quickly vanishing into the night.
"Damn! He got away," Wizard said.
"But at least you got a good shot in at the end," Beast chuckled, before frowning under his mask. "Think he's long gone?"
"Can't say for sure. Maybe he ran off, or maybe he'll lie low till a better time for him," Wizard frowned.
"Whatever the case, we still have to go after the others," Erza frowned.
"R-right! We can't let them release that Demon," Lucy said "Though, with the ruins tilted, that should be har-" she cut herself off as the ground started to shake… and her eyes widenned when she saw the ruins moving back in place "Oh… that can't be good."
"I'm thinking we should hurry now." Beast said with a frown, quickly summoning his Falco and Ice mantles.
"Agreed." Wizard said with a nod, before they started running.
"Well… this is all really going to shit." Rouki grunted as he kicked a Ghoul in the stomach, sending it flying back.
He'd chased after Gray, just like the others told him to, the Ice mage understanding his reasons for coming along, and he got to meet this Natsu guy the others were talking about.
… definitely not the brightest bulb in the box, that one.
He also met Gray's former student under their mentor Ur, Lyon… and then Gray almost killed himself with a spell before both Natsu AND Rouki punched him good for such an idiotic thing.
He may not be a member of Fairy Tail himself… but he felt that he understood their spirit well enough even after just meeting them.
Then the tilted ruins returned to normal, and a weird man appeared before running away, Natsu chasing after him, which then turned left him, Gray and Lyon… before Lyon deployed some Ghoul Stones he'd gotten from one of their members apparently, one of them being bigger than the rest too, a General Ghoul apparently, and Rouki took them on while Gray and Lyon… well, calling it fight didn't do it justice.
It was a bloody brawl between those two.
Both of them used Ice Make magic, but whereas Gray made more solid, inanimate constructs, Lyon made living, animal-like constructs.
Not only that, Gray used both hands to make his constructs, while Lyon only used one.
Rouki may not be an expert of magic… but he could already see the difference between the two just from those facts.
Which was why when Lyon made a tiger out of ice… well, it was stupidly easy for Gray to cage it… and then make a BAZOOKA of ice and blast Lyon with it, knocking him out.
"Welp… guess that's good then." Rouki said, as he destroyed a few more Ghouls, leaving only the heavily weakened General Ghoul, before he grabbed it by the throat, and squeezed hard while smashing it into the ground, destroying it "Guy didn't go into despair either, so that's just fine with me." he said, heading to Gray who faltered a bit, but stood on his feet, moving to cover one of his bleeding wounds "I'd prefer to get to know my Phantom first before I'm forced to use it." he said with a grimace, and almost moved to untransform.
Before they all heard the roar.
Everyone's attention was immediately drawn to the roar. "That's…very bad isn't it?" Rouki groaned.
"It can't be…!" Gray gasped.
Rouki frowned, that reaction being all the proof he needed "Right… time to see if THAT will work." he said, grabbing one of his rings and sliding it on a finger.
When he designed that one, its power had ended up being the most unique, and if it worked like he wanted it too…
It might just do the trick.
"I don't know what you have planned," Lyon groaned as he pulled himself back to his feet. "But it won't matter. Only I can defeat Deliora now that the ritual is complete!" he said, a half determined, half crazed look on his face as he started basically forcing himself to go to the room that held Deliora.
"Dammit! Looks like that's the only way now," Grey growled.
"Hey, before you go and try something stupid again, I MIGHT have something that will work that doesn't involve someone committing suicide. Though even then I'd rather not use it unless we have to," Rouki said as they followed after Lyon to make sure the demented idiot didn't do anything stupid when he was in such bad shape.
Gray didn't say anything, just kept moving as they soon reached the room, just in time to see the last of the ice melting off and Deliora beginning to move.
"Hey, you're both here!" Natsu shouted. "We got no choice, now that its revived, we gotta take it down!"
"That's impossible," Lyon said as he was now literally dragging himself. Let…me…" he wheezed a bit. "To surpass…Ur…"
"...okay, ignoring that guy, let's go with Natsu's plan, yeah," Rouki said with a sweat drop.
"Somewhat agreed." Gray said, walking by Lyon… and just chopping him on the back, knocking him back down, before turning to Rouki "Your idea… what is it?"
"It ain't that Iced Shell thing you tried to pull earlier, that's for sure." Rouki snorted.
"Yeah, that thing was dumb!" Natsu said "What's your plan, new guy?!"
Rouki was about to say something, but Deliora's roar and raised fist reminded them that they were in the same room as a hostile demon, forcing them to quickly get out of the way, Rouki being quick to grab Gray in light of his injury. "For now try and hurt him with what we can do! He's been trapped in that ice for a decade yeah? It MUST have left him a lot weaker than he previously was!"
"Sounds good to me!" Natsu grinned as ignited a fist and charged at Deliora, smashing it into the monster's side…which did absolutely nothing.
Deliora responded with a swing of his fist, and while Natsu managed to evade, the force still pushed him back considerably. "Okay, this guy seems pretty tough still," Natsu growled.
"No, Deliora's definitely been weakened," Gray frowned, creating a rampart and fired it at Deliora, the ice construct smashing into the Demon, yet it didn't show any notable damage. "But I don't think anything we're doing is working either," he growled.
Rouki frowned at that, before he spun the roulette on his weapon, stopping it with his ring a moment later.
"QUAKE! LANCE STRIKE!"
With the element set, he spun his weapon, before stabbing it into the ground, a glowing crack travelling along it towards Deliora, before several sharp spikes of stone and earth rose up from the ground, stabbing into the demon… only to not do much in the way of damage "So he's weak and slow… but he's still resilient enough to tank what we throw at him."
"So… was your plan just to attack him then?" Gray asked him as they backed off from another hit.
"Naw, that was just gauging its strength." Rouki answered, cracking his neck, stabbing his lance into the ground "Now that I know how strong he still is, I can say this with full confidence. I can kill Deliora for good."
Lyon finally went still on the ground at that, the words apparently shocking him, Gray's own face showing similar shock.
"Just… like that?" the ice mage said slowly.
"There's no 'Just' about it." Rouki snorted, cracking his fingers, showing off his ring at the same time, the face of a wolf visible on it "Besides, pretty sure we have Ur to thank for me being able to in the first place. She weakened him. I'm just here to deliver the finishing blow and be a kill stealer." he said in amusement.
However, before he could make use of the ring, Lyon who at this point was fully focused on Deliora, forced himself to stand, and pooling whatever magic he had left, he created an ice dragon which flew straight at Deliora, the dragon roaring as it smashed into Deliora head on.
Deliora merely scratched where it was hit, as if it had felt a mosquito bite.
"...if this situation wasn't so serious, I'd actually find that kind of funny," Rouki said as Lyon had a look of disbelief…before his body reminded him why what he did was a bad idea and he collapsed in exhaustion.
Rouki eyed him for just a moment, before nodding when he saw a total lack of cracks on him. No despair then, good.
With that now settled, he held up the hand with the new ring, before bringing it down to his belt and slotting it in on his right hand side.
"FENRIR!"
He held it there for a moment as a standby loop started, taking a deep breath "God I hope this doesn't bite me in the ass." he said, before finally pulling it away.
"GO! FE-FE-FE-FENRIR!"
His magic seal appeared in front of him before moving towards him, passing over his body, creating some extra armor on his chest, a dark silver breastplate with runes engraved into it, and the face of a snarling wolf molded into the front of it, while hanging off the back of the armor was a grey cape that went down to his waist.
He didn't take any time in noting the form change as he immediately charged forward. Deliora noticed him and swung its fist down on him, but he was quick to evade, before he soon leaped at Deliora letting out a savage roar as his right arm glowed with energy. However, Deliora was not idle before it swung its other arm, aiming to punch the Rider out of the air. However, at that moment Rouki thrusted his arm forward, meeting the punch head on. The moment the two made contact…well…it was something that everyone watching would have some issues describing.
It was as if a surge of energy happened, followed by a vortex of some kind appearing between them…and then the real strangeness started. Deliora roared, seemingly trying to pull its fist away, but for some reason it couldn't move, and right before everyone's eyes, parts of Deliora seemed to come off and be pulled into the vortex at Rouki's palm. What followed was like watching a savage wolf tear into and devour its prey piece by piece as more and more of the mighty demon was pulled in, its roars and struggles being ignored by Rouki as before long its entire arm was pulled in, then its torso began to break down and after what felt like an eternity, the last bits of Deliora seemingly vanished from the world as Rouki shut down the vortex, his armor shattering off him the moment he did as he landed on the ground with a groan.
"Dude, what the heck was that?!" Natsu shouted in shock as Gray went over to Tony.
"You alright man?" he asked him as he pulled him to his feet.
"Yeah… just tired." Tony said, holding his stomach… which growled VERY loudly a moment later, startling them somewhat "And VERY hungry too… we got anything to eat?"
It was at that moment the others finally arrived in the cave, Wizard and Beast leading the charge, only to pause once they arrived, undoing their transformations as they stared at the scene before them.
"The heck did we miss?" Marcus asked with a blink.
Minutes later, the group were leaving the ruins, Gray having had a talk with Lyon first… and Natsu having gotten a good punch from Erza.
"So… Fenrir Cape is basically like my powers… but kicked into overdrive." Will said as he listened to Tony's explanation.
"Yeah." the blonde nodded, still holding his stomach as it kept growling occasionally "Basically the form is an eternal glutton and it's made to suck in magic from the air around it… although it doesn't replenish me at all, it just gulps it all down and has me constantly feeling hungry."
"The end result being 'could eat a horse' levels of hungry?" Marcus said with a wince.
"Pretty much. It was cool on paper, not so cool when it's actually happening to you. At least it was worth it though," Tony chuckled a little at the end.
"You literally ate a demon! How are you not freaking out about that?!" Lucy shouted at him from in front of the group.
"Considering I feel like I could eat my own weight in food, I think its less that I ate Deliora, and more that I shunted it into a void. That or a bottomless pit, take your pick," Tony groaned a bit as another hunger pang hit him. "Point is Deliora's gone and that's all that matters right now."
"Well…not quite," Will mused. "I mean, sure we got rid of Deliora but there's still a matter of the curse on the villagers and all that."
"On top of that, the Phantom that'd infiltrated the cultist, Andras, got away." Marcus said, before frowning in thought "Also… earlier, Lyon… when he realized his attack couldn't affect Deliora… I dunno, the way you described his face and reaction, it sounds a lot like he DID despair." he mused, narrowing his eyes in thought "No cracks appeared though… I'll have to think on this some more."
"And of course there's a matter of punishment that needs to be dealt," Erza said, glaring at Natsu, Lucy, and Happy, reminding the three that yes, they were NOT off the hook.
The group soon reached the place where the villagers had been before…only to find it empty as nobody was there. "What the?! Where'd everyone go?!" Tony gasped.
"They should have been here considering the state the village was in," Lucy frowned.
The group was about to discuss what to do next when one of the villagers came running towards them, telling them that they had to see the village. Now confused, the group followed him…only to find that somehow the village had been completely fixed.
"...okay, who pressed the Reset Button?" was all Tony could say as he looked at the scene a bit dumbly.
"Man that's weird… it's almost like it went back in time." Natsu said, before blinking in confusion "Back in time?... naw, no way."
Marcus and Will shared a look, knowing what he meant.
Ultear really was hard to figure out in the early days.
The two watched the others talk with the villagers, and naturally it wasn't long before the village chief was once again asking them to destroy the moon.
…yeah, that's never gonna sound sane. Neither was the part where Erza said such a thing would be simple enough. Seriously, did they think the moon on Earthland was inside the atmosphere or did they just think THAT highly of their magic?
Fortunately before anyone went and did something drastic, Erza pulled everyone aside to try and figure out what was going on, seeing as Lyon had made a VERY good point back in the ruins. Namely the fact that he and his group had been at ground zero of the ritual…and they all were perfectly fine. So it really didn't make sense that the Moon Drop Ritual was the cause of the Villagers' affliction.
"There's probably SOME relation though." Will spoke up "I mean… while we're on the island, the moon is purple, and the moon drip was the same color. No way that's just a coincidence."
Erza nodded "Indeed, something is afflicting the moon, and only when visible here, on this very island."
"But still, breaking the moon, isn't that still way too crazy?" Lucy said incredulously.
Tony blinked a few times as he turned to the blonde "But… it's not the moon though that we're gonna break?"
Gray blinked at that, before turning to the taller blonde "Wait, what?"
"I mean… seems pretty obvious." Tony said, before turning to Erza "Some kind of magical dome around the island, yeah?"
Erza smiled at his words, nodding "Indeed, you catch on quick Tony." she said, before she started pacing "It's simple to assume that the Moon Drip ceremony likely created some kind of magical residue that hardened and crystalized into a barely visible membrane, tinting the moon in the-KYAH!" and she stepped on the pitfall Lucy had made earlier which got restored with the village, falling down with a… surprisingly cute scream.
Everyone WANTED to comment on that, but they all knew that that would be digging a grave if they did so. Even Tony instinctively knew that much.
Although he DID think it made her sound super cute.
"At any rate," Erza said as she climbed out, acting like nothing happened, "What we need to destroy is this dome, and not the actual moon itself," she said before she soon requipped the same armor she'd used to fight the General Ghouls.
Long story short, Erza had Natsu use his Iron Fist to boost her De-Malevo-Lance which sent it flying straight at where they could see the moon hanging in the sky.
"This is gonna work, right?" Gray said as he squinted, trying to see if he could make out the supposed barrier.
"Give it a moment." Marcus said, before grinning when the lance stopped in the air after striking something "There we go." he nodded as cracks started to spread, seemingly across the sky. Soon enough the whole barrier came down as the cracks spread and the villagers began to glow, before…seemingly nothing happened.
"Uh…wasn't something supposed to happen?" Tony blinked.
"Yeah, shouldn't they have turned back?" Lucy asked, now very confused too.
"No, that's because what the barrier affected was their memories not their bodies," Erza smirked a bit. "They were always demons who could take on a human form, they simply THOUGHT they were humans who were cursed to turn into demons."
"And the reason the barrier had no effect on Lyon's group is because they were human, and this only affected demons." Will added with a sure nod.
"Huh… yeah, that makes sense to me." Tony said with a shrug.
The villagers were a bit confused, but their confusion was slowly giving way as their memories slowly returned. That soon turned into joy when the person who'd first brought Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and Happy to the island appeared, revealing that he was the Chief's Son who had managed to escape the effects of the barrier first.
"Yeah…this kind of sight is what makes these jobs all the more worth it," Marcus smiled and everyone agreed as the village of demons was joyfully celebrating their lives finally returning to normal and welcoming back the one they thought they'd lost.
And of course, this soon turned into a full blown party… with an actual feast being made for everyone to enjoy.
"Oh finally, I'm starving!" Tony said as he practically dived at the food and started devouring as much of it as he could in a frenzy of hunger.
"He certainly has quite the appetite." Erza blinked as she stared at Tony, having removed her armor, currently wearing her usual blouse and skirt.
"Well, guess that's to be expected if his Fenrir cape makes him go super hungry." Marcus chuckled.
"I'll have to see what he thinks of my own cooking then once we're back at the Guild." Will added in amusement.
It was at that moment the chief approached them, his son at his side "I really must thank you all again for helping bring peace to our village again. We truly don't know what we would have done without your help." the man said with a bow "Please, you must accept the reward for the job."
"Oh yeah! Lots of cash!" Natsu cheered… before Marcus knocked him upside the head with a smile on his face.
"We won't, since the job wasn't accepted through the proper channels by a bunch of idiots who weren't even qualified for it." he answered "Keep the money, please."
"Well… if you insist." the chief sighed, before he smiled, reaching into a pouch "Then, instead of the reward, allow me to at least give you a gift as thanks." he said, pulling out a golden key "It was originally part of the reward, but the key has no use to any of us anyway, and one of you is a Celestial Spirit Mage."
Lucy perked up, and almost reached for it instantly, before pausing, glancing to the others "Can I?"
Will hummed, thinking about it, before looking to Erza "What do you think?"
Erza shrugged "That much is fine, but nothing more."
"Yes!" Lucy cheered, accepting the key, finding it to be the Key of the Archer, Sagittarius "Thank you so much!"
"Well, let's relax for the rest of the night then." Marcus said, leaning back in his seat with a sigh of content "Sun's gonna rise soon. Then we can head back home… and you idiots will get punished." he added, reminding Natsu, Happy, Lucy and Gray that even though they'd done good… they still had to face the music.
Truly, it sucked to be them.
And there we go.
Andras survives unlike some of the other Phantoms faced so far, and we get to see more of what Rouki can do with what we call the Fenrir Cape.
Yes, his forms are Capes instead of Mantles, we wanted him to be at least a LITTLE different from Beast.
You'll get to see the other capes in the coming chapters eventually, but for now, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and see you all next time!
