Here is the next chapter for The Game of Life. And that chapter 465, wow, I've never been so disappointed with a manga before, completely destroyed the build up to E.N.D. I don't want to rant about it so I'll just leave it at that. But just to clarify in this story Natsu/E.N.D is the creator of Tartarus and in this story the creator of all the demon's currently in the guild.
Hope you enjoy this chapter
Wendy Dragneel, younger sister of E.N.D and one of his strongest creations; even though she was over one hundred years old she possessed the body of a small child. She folded her arms in deep thought; next to her was Mard Geer another of E.N.D's creations, the two of them represented the Master's sword and shield; Wendy struck down the guilds enemies without mercy while Mard defended it no matter the cost. The two stood side by side in silence none sure as to why their Master had called for them to the caverns of truth, a place where one could find the truth within one's self.
"Good evening you two" E.N.D called out, the two immediately straitened up and gave their Master a bow. Their heads turned to Mavis who was lagging behind, Mard immediately recognized her as the girl who was playing his Master's game; he was a still confused as to why she was here though. Wendy however did not recognize her and was immediately suspicious
"Master... who is this?" she asked. Natsu glanced back to Mavis who was marveled by their current location.
"This is Mavis Vermillion, I'm fairly certain I have told you about her" he responded. Wendy glanced back to Mavis; that was right, her Master had mentioned her before and the significance of her existence; but upon meeting her she was not that impressed. She walked passed Natsu and approached Mavis, they were about the same height, so for Mavis she found it odd when Wendy made an attempt to stare down at her, but she was a little concerned as to why the girl was glaring at her.
"Hello?" she greeted.
"So you are the infamous Mavis Vermillion, Master E.N.D has spoken highly of you" Wendy said. Mavis raised a brow; she didn't exactly know what she did to receive such high praise.
"Thank you?" she responded unsure with herself. Natsu placed a hand on Wendy's shoulder.
"This is Wendy Dragneel" he introduced, "and this is Mard Geer; both are demon's like me" Mavis looked between the two nervously; the two of them gave off a similar feeling to Natsu, death and destruction.
"It is a pleasure to meet you two" she said. Mard stared blankly at Mavis, he really did not have any interest in the girl or her purpose, but Natsu seemed to show great interest in her and that alone was enough for him to at least acknowledge her presence.
"Master E.N.D" he called, Natsu turned to Mard, "you had Mystia tell us to meet you here, but she did not say for what reason".
"The reason why I called you two here is for insurance" was Natsu's answer.
"Insurance?" Wendy asked.
"Yes, because we are going to help Mavis control Ankherseram's Curse" Wendy raised a brow; he glanced to Natsu before looking back to Mavis. She now understood why her Master held such interest in the girl.
"Ankherseram's Curse? But Master what exactly do you want us to do?" she asked, Mard nodded seeing Wendy's confusion in the matter, even if they know about the curse, the two don't exactly know how it functions.
"I need you two to make sure Mavis here doesn't accidently destroy this establishment" Natsu answers. Mavis was quick to voice her concern "destroy this place? What exactly do you mean?"
"There is a good chance that you will go out of control with your power" he explained.
"You didn't say anything about this!" Mavis was beyond concerned, releasing killer waves is one thing, at least she was able to isolate herself from everyone so nobody could get hurt; but going out of control meant that she had absolutely no control over her actions.
"Of course, if I told you before we got here then you wouldn't have considered accepting my offer" he smiled, "but don't worry we're here to make sure none of that happens" Mavis did not look convinced, "It's either you live your life in fear of killing people, or take the chance of going out of control but being able to control your power" Mavis remained silent for a bit, but moments later she looked into Natsu's eyes.
"What do I have to do?" Natsu's smile widened.
"Excellent." he motioned for her to follow, "please enter the cavern and we shall begin." Each step Mavis took she could hear them echo in her ears, the cave was to put it bluntly, dull, with a name like Cavern of Truth it lacked any sort of wow factor to go along with it; there was nothing, just an empty hole. Mavis stopped, she had reached the end.
"Good! Now get yourself settled down" Natsu said, "We're going to be in here for a while".
"What exactly am I supposed to do?" Mavis asked.
"Meditate." was Natsu's simple reply.
"Meditate?" Mavis repeated, "How is meditating supposed to help me control this power?"
"That is where this cavern comes into play" He replied pointing up at the empty ceiling, "as you may have sensed; this cavern is laced with powerful magic. All you need to do is let go of your mind and the cavern will do the rest" Mavis stared a little skeptical but didn't question further, she could feel Wendy's glare at the back of her head. She sat cross legged, and closed her eyes. Minutes passed and she could feel her eye twitch.
"I can't do this with all three of you staring at me" she muttered.
"oh sorry." Natsu replied with a chuckle "we'll give you some room." she could hear their footsteps echo into the distance, she was now alone. She let her mind go blank and for a moment she could feel a rush of energy course through her body; she felt a little refreshed and normally her worries would continue to linger in her mind, but for some odd reason it was easier to let go of such thoughts. Minutes passed and now she felt a fresh breeze pass through her hair which was odd; she opened her eyes and much to her surprise she found herself in a grassy field. She stood up a looked around, it was nothing but endless fields of grass.
"So this is your consciousness." Natsu suddenly said from behind her; Mavis whipped around.
"My consciousness?" she asked, Natsu nodded.
"That's right. We've entered your inner mind, pretty cool right." Natsu got a good look around.
"I didn't expect my consciousness to be so... empty." Natsu shrugged.
"At least it isn't a sewer, now that would be unpleasant." Mavis nodded.
"Indeed." she turned to look at him, "now tell me what do I do from here?" Natsu held up three fingers.
"For you to master this curse you must first master your own self, your past, present and future" Natsu could tell that Mavis was a bit confused "don't worry, I will walk you through the stages one bit by bit."
"You say that but I still do not understand how this training works" Natsu paused trying to ponder his words, he turned back to Mavis.
"Let me put it this way, the curse feeds from your doubts and fears, by revisiting your past, confronting your present and controlling your future you can eliminate those doubts therefore weakening it and from there you will take over its power." He explained, Mavis pondered his words, she was still unsure how the curse functioned but she's come this far now might as well continue to follow Natsu's instructions. She sighed before sitting herself onto the ground.
"So how do we start?" Natsu waved his hands, a ring formed, expanding, opening up an empty void; he motioned for Mavis to step through, of course she was hesitant.
"Your first test will be conquering your past, step through and confront your greatest regret" Mavis swallowed hard she looked between Natsu and the dark void before stepping through; there was still some light emulating from the ring but it soon disappeared; spinning around Mavis was left alone.
"Natsu!" she cried out, she suddenly felt afraid.
"Don't worry I'm still with you" hearing his voice suddenly made the sudden tension disappear. The darkness shifted around morphing into a forest. Mavis' eyes widened, this was Tenrou Island.
Wendy perked up sensing something ominous in the distance; she turned to Mard who also sensed it but chose to ignore it.
"We have company, and by the presence it seems to be him" she said, Mard nodded.
"Indeed, however one of us needs to watch over Master and the girl, you go greet our guest" he instructed. Wendy didn't say anything she merely stood up and walked towards the cave entrance. There was a wonderful breeze, Wendy let the wind blow through her hair but was suddenly disappointed when it subsided.
"I didn't think his majesty would go through the trouble of coming all the way here" she said while looking dead into the eyes of Zeref.
"I'm here to stop whatever Natsu is planning with Mavis" he said, this caused Wendy to raise a brow; it was unusual for Zeref to mingle in her Master's affairs, this only meant Mavis was actually dangerous to him and her Master intended to control her for that reason; or that is what she has come to believe, whether it was true or not was a different story.
"And why would you want to do that brother?" she asked, "Should I even call you brother?" Zeref glared at Wendy.
"No you may not, the only family I have is Natsu" he growled out.
"Good, we're in agreement then, I wouldn't want to call trash like you family anyways" she responded; Zeref ignored the insult and tried to walk past Wendy but the girl stepped in front of him.
"You still haven't answered my question" she said.
"I do not need to answer you, now step aside" Zeref answered.
"I don't think so" Zeref's glare darkened.
"Do you really think you can kill me?" he asked. Wendy laughed.
"Of course not, but I do know that I can defeat you" she struck first sending a blast of wind sending Zeref back creating distance between the two. Zeref immediately sent forth a barrage of dark energy. Wendy jumped to the side avoiding the explosion; she swept her hand in an arc sending a blade of air. Zeref ducked with the wind blade cutting down multiple trees, he was about to retaliate only to be taken by surprise with Wendy appearing right in front of him, she kicked him with powerful force sending him through a couple of trees. However Wendy was not allowing for the dark mage to get the chance for a counterattack; moving at full speed she appeared where Zeref was going to land kicking him up into the air, she followed him closely, grabbed him by the ankle and flung him down. Close behind Wendy dashed down, powerful air shimmered around her fist before she dealt a crushing punch into Zeref's stomach. The dark mage received the devastating blow causing him spit out blood. He gasped out attempting to shoot Wendy with dark energy but Wendy disappeared dodging the attack.
"You're strong" he gasped out struggling to stand up; Wendy didn't say anything, however she did sense multiple presences appear, surrounding them; she disappeared, reappearing in front of the cave entrance. There were eight of them, all relatively high level demons from the way she picked out their signature.
"Mard!" she called, her companion walked out from the cave and behind her, he let out a deep sigh.
"What is it" he asked, Wendy smiled to him walking deeper into the cave.
"Switch with me" sighing once more Mard stepped out, looking at the approaching opponents.
"Always leaving me to take out the trash" he cracked his knuckles, "though Mard Geer could use the exercise" smirking darkly he looked between the hulking demons, with the click of his fingers a massive vine shot out of the ground piercing one of them through the chest instantly destroying it. The other demons saw what happened to their companion immediately attacked Mard Geer, some shot powerful beams of energy from their mouths others threw large chunks of tree and rocks. Mard Geer raised his hand and pointed his finger upwards, multiple thorns shot up from the ground in a wide spread blocking the attack, defending himself and the cave. Upon impact there were multiple explosions, though the attack was terrifyingly strong it did not faze Mard Geer at all, rather he just continued to smirk. The sounds slowly subsided; the demons had stopped their assault. Mard Geer clicked his fingers once more, the wall rised further up before diving back down each vine easily striking the demon's through their vital points killing them all instantly. Mard Geer sighed once more, but this time out of boredom.
"It would seem that it wasn't even a warm up" he said. His eyes then locked onto the approaching dark mage.
"It would seem that I have greatly underestimated the power of my brothers demon's" Zeref said.
"And it would seem that Wendy has done much damage to you Zeref" Mard spoke with a hint of smugness. Zeref glared at his brothers demon before walking away from the cave; yes he did indeed underestimate their power; it was his loss, he needed to retreat now he had wasted enough time, he needed to return to his country; he had a empire to build after all.
Compared to their canon counterparts I've decided to make all the demon's (Mard Geer, Sayla, Kyouka, Jackal, etc) far more powerful, as in take on the world by themselves powerful. Main reason is because they will basically take the role that Gildarts has in the canon universe, the powerful mage that mentors the younger generation (basically only Canon!Natsu) but won't appear much. Also there will be a lot of OC characters that will fill the roles of the other demons in the guild just so you know.