"Gray, watch out!" Erza shouted as she cut a wolf down. Gray grunted as he dodged a wolf that jumped at him from behind.
"Ice Make: Lance!" He took down another group of wolves before running to Erza and pressing his back to her. They were both getting worn out, and needed a minute to catch their breaths.
"Damn it, why are there so many!?" Gray growled under his breath as he took up a fighting stance.
"We've certainly never encountered this many at once before." Erza glanced around at the wolf-like creatures. They had first started appearing about a week ago, in small packs around the forest near Magnolia. Traveling merchants sent in job requests to get rid of them because they were attacking caravans. Team Natsu took on several of these jobs, finding small groups of these wolves dotted here and there. This time, however, they found a massive pack on the shores of a nearby lake.
These were not normal wolves. Erza really couldn't find words to describe them well. They were gray in color, but there was also an iridescent shimmer to their coats. They were all a bit transparent as well. Certainly not of this world. And they vaguely match what Lucy encountered back when she was attacked. Erza huffed before lunging at a nearby wolf.
"Don't stray too far, Gray! Natsu, Wendy! Are you okay over there?" The dragon slayers were farther down the shoreline, fighting on their own.
"We're fine! Vernier, Arms!"
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Erza nodded, taking the chaos Natsu was creating as a sign that things were indeed fine.
"Requip: Heaven's Wheel Armor!" She began gliding through the wolves, partaking in a deadly dance of swords as she did so.
Countless creatures fell, but countless more still remained. They were wearing out. They've been fighting for some time now, and the hundreds of wolves didn't seem to be thinning out. They were starting to get surrounded, with only the lake to their backs.
Panting, Gray spoke up. "What's the plan?"
"We need to break through them somehow."
"But we're all running out of magic power.."
"Celestial Decree: Nullify." A familiar blonde jumped in between the group and the wolves, and spread her magic around everything in the area. The lake itself turned golden as her power flooded it.
"Now! Loke! Aquarius!" Loke and a blue mermaid emerged from the water. Together, they made quick work of the remaining wolves.
When Lucy was done, she addressed the team while still facing the lake. "I didn't know the Specter situation was this bad here. I would've been back sooner if I had known. Sorry, guys." Not hearing any response, she turned to see four stunned faces. She suddenly got uncomfortable and shifted nervously.
"LUCY!" Natsu tackled her, and sent them both flying to the dirt. "You're back! That's great! It's been three months!" She would have laughed, but she was suffocating under his weight.
"N-Natsu.. can't breathe.."
"Yeah, get off of her." Gray shoved Natsu to the side and helped Lucy up. "So what's up? If you're back, that means you finished your work in that other world?" She nodded.
"Yup. I did some information gathering, and made some progress. These things you just fought are called Specters. They're made from a corrupted form of Celestial Magic. There are some gates around Earthland that are bringing in Celestial Magic and forming these Specters. I need to find these gates and shut them down to prevent any more Specters from showing up." Natsu blinked.
"What?" Lucy sighed. She should have expected that he wouldn't understand.
"Bottom line is, these things are called Specters, they spawn in huge groups, and we need to find them." Natsu grinned.
"Got it!"
"But first, why don't we go back to the guild to celebrate your return?" Erza walked up and put a hand on Lucy's shoulder. The blonde smiled, and nodded.
"Sure!" With that, the group headed back to the guild.
As Lucy expected, they threw a huge party to celebrate her return. The guild would take any reason to start drinking and partying. She sat at the bar, a nostalgic smile on her face as she took in the scene around her. This was the family she had missed for three months. On the topic of family, she thought, I still haven't seen him yet.. She shook her head of its thoughts as Mirajane passed her a drink with a smile on her face.
"Welcome back! An extra special drink, on the house!" Lucy beamed.
"Thanks!"
She spent most of the night talking and catching up with the guild members, and generally enjoyed herself. Later that night however, when the party had died down and most of the members had gone home, Makarov walked up to her.
"Welcome back, Lucy."
"Thanks, Master." He gave a small sigh. Lucy suddenly noticed that he seemed to have aged noticeably since she last saw him, if that was even possible for someone already so old.
"Are you alright, Master?"
"I'm fine. It's just.. these creatures-I believe you call them Specters-are becoming quite troublesome. The Magic Council is offering little support, because they seem to only be affecting Magnolia and a few surrounding regions. I've had to go through a lot to prevent them from spreading further." Lucy gave a thoughtful nod.
"They can continue to form indefinitely as long as the corrupted gates are active. You see, magic gets here from the Celestial Spirit World through gates, much like how spirits travel. The gates here have been forced open, and their corrupt nature keeps them open. I have to find them all and close them to prevent more Specters from spawning. Normally, any Celestial Spirit Mage would be able to forcibly shut down the gates, but because of the fact that they're all corrupted, I have to completely shut them down. Fortunately, according to your report, they seem to only be around Magnolia and its surrounding regions. I should be able to go around and close them all in no time." Makarov nodded in agreement to her plan.
"Take Natsu and the others with you. You will be on an extended mission to find and close all of the corrupted gates. I'll send contacts out to find and relay the location of the gates to you. We have Warren here for telepathic communication, so we should be able to efficiently take care of the abnormalities. Can you leave tomorrow?" Lucy nodded.
"Good. Rest for tonight. I'm sure you've been working nonstop recently."
"Good night then." She excused herself and proceeded to find everyone else to explain the mission. After telling Natsu, Gray, Wendy, and Erza, she walked back to the dorms with the girls.
When she got to her room, she was pleased to find it untouched and clean since she left.
"I cleaned it once a week to prevent dust from collecting on your things," Erza explained. Lucy thanked her as she got ready for bed, but the redhead waved it off, saying that it was no big deal.
"Anyways, we should get up early tomorrow to get everyone ready for the trip." Lucy nodded.
"Good night, then."
"Good night." Lucy was blessed with sweet dreams that night.
The next morning, Lucy and Erza got ready and packed their things. Erza had her usual cart of goods ready outside, and the two headed out after breakfast. At the guild, Natsu, Gray, and Wendy were packed and ready to go as well. They were about to head out when Lucy remembered that a couple team members were missing.
"Where are Happy and Carla? I don't think I saw them last night, either."
"They're still with Lily and the other Exceeds. They left a message saying that they want to travel a while longer, so they're taking an extended leave of absence from the guild." Natsu pouted a bit at the fact that his partner was gone for so long, but he really couldn't complain as long as Happy was, well, happy.
"Oh, well let's go then. I think there's a gate in the valley nearby."
They walked and talked, catching up some more on the last few months. After a few hours, they stopped to have a picnic lunch. A couple hours after their meal, they finally reached their destination. As Lucy expected, Specters were present, in the form of crows instead of wolves. They were flying overhead, and were ready to attack the group of mages that had intruded on their territory.
They noticed that some other people were farther down the valley, probably sent by Makarov. Getting closer, Natsu realized that Laxus and his Thunder God Tribe were fighting the Specters.
"Yo, Laxus!" The blond dragon slayer turned to the group.
"Oh, you guys made it. We've contained these things for a while, but it'd be nice if you could do your thing already." Lucy nodded and started channeling her magic.
"I'll need a couple minutes to find the exact location of the gate and stop it. Cover for me until then." Everyone nodded and surrounded her. Erza changed into her Heaven's Wheel Armor to be able to fight in the air. Laxus, Wendy, and Natsu mostly relied on their roar attacks to take the birds down, and Gray stood close to Lucy, taking down any that got too close. Lucy concentrated for another minute, trying to sense out the gate's presence.
"Found it! Celestial Decree: Nullify!" She forced the gate to shut down, and sighed in relief when no more Specters were spawning. Everyone regrouped around her and commended her for being able to shut it down.
"There are still a few more to go." Erza nodded.
"I just got a message from Warren. There's another one towards the mountains up ahead. Gajeel and Juvia should be there, containing the Specters. Master also sent Cana and Team Shadowgear to a village near Magnolia to look into reports of possibly Specter appearances." Laxus stretched and gave a yawn.
"Well, our job's done here. I'm tired from getting up early, so I'm going back. Good luck." Lucy nodded, and they parted ways.
The sun was beginning to set by the time they found Juvia and Gajeel. Well, actually, it was Juvia who found them first.
They were following the road when they heard a voice calling out from somewhere.
"Gray-sama, is that you~!?" Gray palmed his face, already tensing up at the voice. Erza smiled and shrugged.
"I guess we're here." It took another few minutes, but with Natsu and Wendy's exceptional senses, they tracked Juvia's voice relatively quickly. The Phantom pair was resting in a small campsite nearby. Gajeel huffed and got up when he saw the group.
"Yo. They're nearby. A whole bunch of bears. Angry bears, at that."
"Bears, this time, huh? Well, take me to them. I'll shut down the gate." Gajeel took the lead, since Juvia was already latched onto Gray. They found the Specters patrolling their territory. Lucy prepped her magic and stood behind everyone else.
"Okay guys, same thing as last time." They all nodded and started fighting the bear creatures. Gray didn't stay as close to her this time, though. He felt a bit more confident, and started to go off on his own to fight.
That turned out to be a bad move.
A Specter managed to slip by the mages, and charged at Lucy with its fangs bared. Lucy couldn't react in time, as she was too concentrated on her magic. Gray cursed as he tried to turn and intercept the bear.
"Shit, Lucy!" She opened her eyes in horror as she stared at the shadowy bear lunge at her.
"Regulus Slash." A flash of pale light blinded everyone as the turned towards where Lucy was, and they all averted their eyes.
"Celestial Command: Disappear." When the light faded, the Specters were all gone, leaving a cloud of sparkles in the air around them. Natsu looked up to see someone standing before Lucy, a slight smirk on his face. Something about him smelled familiar.
Lucy opened her eyes, and after a couple seconds, managed to process that someone was standing in front of her.
Her eyes widened when she realized who it was.
A/N: Hi! Sorry for the late update.. I've been busy for the last few nights, so I couldn't find the time to write/edit anything. I'm also super tired and didn't edit as much as I usually do, so sorry if the writing quality's subpar! I promise to make it up to you in the next chapter :x (Which definitely will come out on time!)
I also have to apologize for the long-winded explanations of the Specters and whatnot. I'm trying to keep those things concise, but I figured that these explanations will be inevitable if I'm going to have original story content. Hope you guys understand!
As always, thanks for reading! Hope you guys are enjoying this!