Re-edited 04-01-22

Welcome back everyone!

I just wanted to say a big thank you for all of your continued support, those of you following along on this journey keep me motivated to work through the writer's block! Here we go...

~Onward!

11

-Zeref's Cult-

"Well fuck," Natsu said, though the words lacked any note of actual upset. "Guess we just got dragged into those idiots' self-imposed mission."

Erza nodded, her lips pursed, "It seems so... We can't turn a blind eye on a potential conspiracy plot, especially with a tenuous relationship between Seven and Fiore." The redhead cursed under her breath. They didn't have any way to contact the Master for input, so they'd just have to rely on their own instincts. "I am going to knock their heads together when I finally get my hands on them," she grumbled.

Natsu and Lucy exchanged a sidelong look with a mix of amusement and empathy for their missing comrades. As reckless and impulsive as it had been for their friends to run off without a word, Deliora, and whatever Ultear was planning would be happening regardless of their choices. But Natsu knew there'd be no talking sense into the redhead when they did catch up with the boys, he'd just be relieved if they were both well enough to take an Erza beat-down.

"Well, we have no other information," Natsu began, raising an eyebrow at the journalist to confirm. The lanky man raised his hands and shook his head in response. "So, I guess we start west then. No choice but to follow the last known direction Deliora was heading in…" Growling under his breath, he added, "even if that was eight months ago."

"At the very least, we know that is likely the direction the guys would have gone in too, our first goal is still finding them," Lucy interjected. She turned to the sleazy reporter again, "could you provide us with a map of Seven?"

The journalist huffed, crossing his arms at his chest and leaned back in his chair.

However his tune changed instantly when Erza turned a dangerous look on him and wrapped her hand around the hilt of the sword still embedded in his desktop. He pulled up a map of the train line that ran up the west coast and held it out to Erza with a bored look. Satisfied, she returned her blade in a flash of light.

"Take the train to Taurance… the Capital of Seven," he said. "If you can't get information there, you won't find your friends."

The trio simultaneously turned furious looks on the man who cowered slightly under their glare. "You haven't had many friends in your life… have you?" Lucy spat, clenching her fists subconsciously. "You're also a sorry excuse for a writer," she added for good measure before pivoting and storming out. Erza glanced at Natsu with a hand hiding her amusement, he just gave a toothy grin back and followed after the irate blonde.

Nearly two weeks of travel and recon later, Erza and her team found themselves in a deserted town in the far north of Seven. She refused to show any signs of her battered hope; especially when she knew her comrades were just as worn out and feeling more than a little discouraged as well. They hadn't found any new leads on Deliora, or any sign of their friends.

After making it to Taurance, they'd discovered all the inns and guest houses to be fully booked already. As it turned out, there had been mass exodus from the northern cities to escape Deliora and the resulting influx of Zeref cultists that wreaked havoc in the region. The trio had made their way through various towns and cities experiencing the same, which also meant they hadn't had a decent sleep in days. Having no other options, they'd spend the past weeks camping out with the refugees, and sharing a cramped tent had proven less than restful.

"Nothing about this feels right," Lucy began, as she surveyed their surroundings, "why do you think we haven't heard about any of this?"

"I've been wondering the same. If Deliora has been rampaging and causing such a huge disaster in Seven, how have we not heard anything in the global news reports?" Erza chimed in.

"What if…" the blonde paused, pressing a knuckle to her lips and Erza and Natsu both turned questioning looks on her. "What if that reporter was on to something? If this isn't dark mage activity, but actually the Magic Council behind this… than they could be censoring outgoing news reports."

Natsu glared at the ground as they walked. "The Magic Council may be full of a bunch of old rule-sticklers and blowhards, but this? This doesn't make any sense. What could they possibly want with a demon of Zeref?"

Falling back into silence, the continued to dwell individually on the puzzle that was the situation in Seven. They barely paid any mind to the deserted town they currently found themselves in, until Natsu froze so abruptly that Erza bumped right into him. "H-hey! Natsu—" Her jaw clicked shut when she noticed the serious look on his face as he scanned the homes with sharply focused eyes.

"Guards up, we aren't alone," he announced urgently. Erza postured quickly, reflexively shifting into a circle back-to-back with him and Lucy to reduce blind spots.

Lucy's hand twitched over her keys as her eyes shifted over the shadows between the buildings. She could feel the magic pressures of both the S Class mages behind her flaring up as well. "Natsu, how many, can you tell?" she asked in a tight whisper.

Without taking his eyes off the buildings in front of him, he assessed their situation with his senses in overdrive. 'Too many,' he thought. "Shit, we're surround—"

Walls of glowing purple erupted from the ground and slammed in around them, sealing the mages in a cubic prison in a fraction of a second. "Requip!" Erza shouted, reacting instantly. Her clothing flickered as her magic flashed and died out abruptly. "Not good," she called as her attempt to requip failed, "we're being hit with anti-magic."

"What?!" Natsu shot forward, thrusting a fist into the transparent wall in front of them, notable only by a subtle shimmering. Smoke rose from his fist as deep purple runes pulsed out from his contact point. "DAMNIT!" he skipped backward, returning to his spot between the girls.

A figure seemed to materialize from the shadows themselves, striding forward to stand a few feet in front of Natsu. "More interlopers sticking their noses where they don't belong?" a baritone voice questioned.

"What…? More? Think he's seen Haru and the others?" Lucy whispered to her comrades.

"Maybe Lucy, but we need to take care of ourselves first," Erza responded, eyeing the crowd of cloaked Zeref cultists that advanced upon them in a thick circle. 'Not good… we're in serious trouble here.'

"Crush them," the cloaked leader commanded, and another cultist stepped up beside him with his arms spread wide. He began pushing his hands together decreasing the space between his palms. The walls of the cube that trapped the mages began to push in further against the trio in time with the movement of his hands. "Drain them," the leader added.

All three of the Fairy Tail mages gasped suddenly as a magic circle appeared beneath them and a spell took hold, beginning to steadily zap their magic power from them. Erza took another step back as the walls forced them back more. Her shoulder hit Lucy's to her left, prompting her to glance over her shoulder, they were almost out of space. She fought for air as the space shrunk steadily, squishing her and her comrades into smaller and smaller quarters. As the ceiling began to press down upon them, Erza and Lucy dropped to their knees. Natsu, behind her, let out a draconic roar as he was forced down to one knee in front of them as well. He pressed his palms out to either side, against their invisible barriers. Rage building, scales burst across his skin as the red aura of his magic pressure rippled around him.

"Natsu! You idiot, what are you doing?!" Erza cried. She shook his shoulder in a pointless attempt to stop him from fighting the spell at the detriment of his own safety. Natsu's eyes were screwed shut in pain, his muscles already shaking with the strain, and his breathing rapidly becoming more laboured with the demands of unleashing his power under anti-magic constraints. Only the deep well of Dragon Slayer magic allowed him to keep up a fight at all, Erza knew. If he kept this up, he'd end up with Magic Depletion Syndrome. "Natsu, stop!" she tried again.

He ignored her, forcing more power into their walls and golden flames answered, bursting off his palms. Lucy cried out and reflexively recoiled into Erza's side, gripping her forearm, but neither felt any heat from Natsu's flames. The redhead angled her body inward toward Lucy as Natsu roared again, still pouring fire magic into their cage determinedly.

The runes to pulsed in protest and the rogue mages before them began backing away slightly, looking nervous. "Uh... sir?" the anti-magic user said in a shaky voice, appearing visibly challenged at keeping a lid on the Dragon Slayer's power. Likewise, the rune mage to the leader's other side appeared to be struggling just as much. But just as the first cracks began to fracture their cage, Natsu's spell broke. His fire extinguished and he collapsed backward, magically exhausted.

Lucy gasped, "Natsu!" she cried, releasing her grip on Erza's arm to catch him. "No..." she choked out, "what are we going to do Erza? My magic… I'm almost out of magic power."

"I wish I knew Lucy," Erza breathed back. Lucy collapsed forward onto Natsu's chest without replying. "Natsu, Lucy, I'm sorry..." she apologized weakly to her unconscious comrades. The redhead shifted her body, trying to guard them as much as possible from their enemies. She glared defiantly at the cult mages before her, not ready to give in just yet.

Then a crystalline orb flew out of nowhere and collided with the temple of the anti-magic user. Erza sucked in a deep breath as the stead drain on her magic stores lifted immediately. Her eyes widened, darting over the crowd in search of answers and watched as the orb swung around before slamming into the gut of rune user next. Their prison shattered around them in response, and Erza barely caught her weight on her hands as she fell forward.

Erza checked her comrades to her left. Lucy had an arm wrapped protectively around the fire mage's chest, even in her unconsciousness. Erza reached for them weakly as she eyed the cultists still surrounding them. Then a new person leapt from a rooftop nearby, landing in front of Natsu and Lucy with their back to all of them. Obscured in a thick cloak, their rescuer extended their arms, shielding them. "Wh-who are y-you?" Erza murmured.

Then her vision finally went black.

Unknown Location

"Erza… Hey Erza, wake up."

The requip mage squeezed her eyes before gradually opening them to find darkness, and a very relieved looking stellar mage hovering over her. "There you are," Lucy smiled, gripping one of her friend's shoulders to pull her up into a seated position.

"Lucy… where are we?" Erza asked as she scanned the room they were currently in. It was a small, nearly empty space. A couple cots were set up against the wall and a simple table in the corner held a pile of cuts of cloth and a bucket of water. "Where is Natsu?"

Lucy moved slightly, revealing the dragon slayer who was on his side a couple feet from them, still unconscious. "He seems okay, but I think he'll be out cold for quite awhile after expending so much magic while under anti-magic and with metsu draining us." A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she looked at him with admiration. "Idiot..." she murmured the word so quietly, Erza almost missed it.

Erza shifted in her spot, bringing her hands up in front of her and eyed the cuffs on her wrists, "Any idea what's going on?"

"Mmm. No, I only came to a little bit before you. Someone saved us from the cultists, but, judging by the anti-magic cuffs," Lucy said, raising her own bound wrists, "we may have been better off taking our chances with the cult." The blonde stood, moving toward the table and dipped a scrap of cloth in the water. Running it over her face, she sighed at the cool moisture before submerging the cloth again. She wrung it out and returned to Natsu's side, pushing his wild hair back to set the cloth on his forehead. "So, what's the plan?"

"We stay on alert, wait for someone to come in. If they wanted us dead, we'd already be dead and if they want us alive, then they will need to feed us at some point. When someone comes, we strike, before they even know what hit them," Erza said, confident in her plan. "All three of us—" she cut herself off, deadpanning as her eyes drifted over to the unconscious fire slayer. "Uh... I was going to say, magic or not, we can put up a serious fight, all being well versed in hand-to-hand... But I guess this plan is largely contingent on Natsu coming to soon."

"I wouldn't count on that," Lucy mumbled. She was confident she and Erza could handle some guards, but whether they could do that, escape, and keep Natsu out of harms way was another story.

Natsu groaned then, rendering Lucy's thought moot. She blinked at him in astonishment, Dragon Slayer healing capacity was something else... "I stand corrected," she stated dryly, watching as he rolled over and pulled against the restraints binding his hands behind his back. "What the hell happened? I feel like I've been stuck on a fucking train for a week!" he cursed. Lucy noted the subtle green-tinge to his cheeks and realized he hadn't completely recovered yet. She and Erza just smiling back at him, each grabbing a shoulder and pulled him up.

"What? Why are MY hands behind my back?!" he snapped when he noticed both their wrists were cuffed in front of their bodies.

Lucy shrugged a shoulder, "Maybe they wanted to be kind to delicate maidens," she said with a mocking smirk.

"You two?! Delicate maidens?!"

"Hey, watch it pal, it'd be awfully hard for you to block with your hands cuffed behind your back."

"Oh, shut up, and wipe the smug off your face…"

"Shut up both of you, will you concentrate? Or did you forget that we are being held captive by, who knows who?" Erza reprimanded.

The three were snapped out of the squabble when the doorknob rattled a second later. Erza was on her feet and behind the door in a scarlet blur inside a second. The door opened and a man walked in with a tray of food, looking at the two mages sitting on the floor. Just as it seemed to dawn on him that the third was missing, Erza jumped out of hiding, throwing a devastating sidekick into his head that nailed him into the wall. She twirled around the open door and sprinted down the hall as Lucy darted over to the unconscious enemy to search him for a key to their cuffs. Erza's scream sounded from the hall and an explosion sent her flying back into the room. Natsu leapt to the side, absorbing the impact of her body, he dug his boots into the ground, skidding backward until they slammed into the wall behind them. They both slumped against the wall, ending up on their butts with a combined groan of pain.

A second figure stepped into the room, covered in a cloak like the one earlier. "Can you three give it a res—" Lucy was on her feet instantly, launching a powerful round house kick at the newcomer. Her foe got a forearm up to block and extended the arm to catch the blonde's shin in a strong grip. Using Lucy's own momentum against her, the newcomer sent her flying into the opposite wall.

"LUCY!" Natsu called out, still trapped between the back wall and his red-haired companion.

Lucy rolled onto her side, forcing an elbow under her to prop herself up a bit. "Okay, that hurt," she groaned.

"As I was saying, before I was rudely interrupted," a female voice said, "if you three can behave yourselves for five minutes..." She raised her hands to slip her hood off, and shook her raven hair out to let it fan over her shoulders.

"Ultear," Erza stated with malice, "what in the hell is going on here?"

"Tell me what you want with Deliora?!" the fire mage demanded as soon as she'd revealed her identity.

"I knew you'd show up at some point, Natsu." The trio of Fairy Tail mages looked up in surprise when the Dragon Slayer was addressed by name. Another person had appeared, standing in the doorway over Ultear's shoulder. He pulled the hood off his head, his eyes roaming over Lucy on her side to his right and Erza slumped against Natsu's chest, the wall heavily cracked behind them. He sighed and rolled his eyes, "always causing trouble."

"Gray?!" the trio yelled in unison.

Gray stepped around Ultear. "I'm going to get them out of those, they're comrades not enemies," he addressed Ultear in an accusatory tone as he held his hand out expectantly, waiting for the key.

"What'd you expect? It's not like I could predict their purpose after waking up here," she huffed out, dropping the key into his hand regardless.

Gray unlocked Lucy's cuffs, before moving to Erza and repeating the action. Now free, the redhead carefully pulled herself away from the fire slayer's lap. Natsu narrowed his eyes at Gray, "What the hell are you doing with these assholes Gray?"

Gray guided Natsu forward a bit with a hand on his shoulder, so that he could reach the cuffs behind his back. He paused to meet Natsu's gaze, before unlocking the restraints, "Don't do anything stupid Natsu, okay?" Natsu glared back defiantly at the ice mage's request, but gave in despite wanting to argue. He nodded begrudgingly and the cuffs clicked and fell off. Natsu rolled his shoulders, pulling his arms across his torso one at a time to stretch the dull ache from them.

"Okay Gray, I think it's about time you get explaining," Erza commanded.

Grunting in response, Gray dropped onto his butt with one knee folded in front of him, joining the circle of his comrades. Ultear remained silent, crossing her arms and leaning against the wall opposite them.

"Judging by the looks on your face regarding Ultear, I imagine you found and spoke to the journalist in Verona," Gray began, gaze taking in their silent nods of confirmation.

"Yeah, so why would you team up with her?!" Natsu cut in, getting a threatening look from Erza that he promptly ignored, "and where is Haru?"

"If you'd just shut up, I would get to that… Haru is fine, he and Lyon are with Meredy." Gray watched as Natsu's mouth opened again with more questions and he held up his hand in irritation to stop him. "Seriously man, please shut up so I can explain. I know we owe you guys that much." Crossing his arms with a fiery huff of impatience, Natsu leaned into the wall behind him, chewing the inside of his cheek to keep from spouting out all the questions flooding his mind.

"We—Haru, Lyon and I, have been here about two weeks. We are currently in the basement of a small shop where we have been taking refuge," Gray revealed. "We made our way north, following rumors of Deliora, and when we arrived here, we decided to split up to inspect the deserted town, communicating with Haru's telepathy. I became ensnared in the same trap that you all fell victim to. As we learned, the cult that has taken over this town is mostly made up of your average misguided Zeref worshipper, but they have three mages among their ranks that combine their magic to form the perfect trap. A Unison Raid between a rune and an anti-magic user, and Metsu cast after the trap is sprung to drain magic power. As I imagine Natsu learned, the more you fight against the anti-magic, the faster and more devastatingly your magic is depleted." Natsu scoffed, turning away and clicking his tongue in irritation. The girls both laughed in response, confirming Gray's suspicions. Gray chuckled, "Ultear saved me, just as she saved you."

Erza and Lucy turned their attention, still tainted with suspicion, to the council woman. "I have an associate undercover in the cult, they contact me if someone falls into the cult's trap," Ultear explained. "Or if there is any movement to be reported on Deliora's location."

Natsu's eyes shifted from the raven-haired woman back to the ice mage. "Okay… so she saved you... and us," he begrudgingly added, "that still doesn't explain why you'd align yourselves with the Council."

"The enemy of my enemy, is my friend," Gray responded simply. "I don't pretend to trust them, and I would guess that Ultear feels the same way. They still want control over the demon, Haru, Lyon and I, want to see its elimination from this world."

From his spot still leaning against the wall, Natsu looked no more pacified than before Gray had started his explanation. Grumbling, he stood up and moved toward the door, glaring at Ultear as he stalked passed her. "I assume we aren't prisoners anymore?" he growled at her before starting down the hallway, "I'm going to find Haru," he called back to his comrades.

Natsu surveyed the basement they were currently in as he explored their temporary refuge. The hall appeared to have been fashioned roughly with magic to connect various cellars of the adjacent businesses. His eyes shifted to his right, taking in a small space lined with shelves of food products, and then to the left to find another room identical to the one he and the girls had been held in. His nose guided him to a stop in front of a closed door, letting himself in without knocking. He found himself in the doorway of a medium-sized cellar turned makeshift living space. Rugs lined the concrete floor, and an assortment of chairs surrounded a fire pit with a kettle hanging over it, stairs at the side led up to the shop above ground.

"Natsu," the addressed mage's eyes flicked over to fall on his partner, who stood and walked over to him. Haru seemed to consider Natsu carefully, and Natsu made no effort to mask his anger. It was the layer of betrayal hidden beneath though, that appeared to hit the water slayer with a stab of guilt. Haru sighed heavily, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into a hug, "it's good to see you, Natsu."

"Yeah," he agreed quietly as he reluctantly lifted an arm to return the hug.

Haru released him shortly after. "Do you want some tea, or a coffee?" he asked pointing at the kettle, "though I have to warn you, the coffee is shit, all we have is instant."

Grimacing, Natsu replied, "Tea it is then."

The laughter in the corner drew the fire mage's attention to his other company. "Haru said the exact same when we first arrived," Lyon said. He was lounging on a cushioned chair, his leg slung over one of the high arm rests. "I will stick with the sad excuse for coffee, regardless," the ice mage declared, raising his mug.

Natsu chuckled, "It's good to see you out of your zombie-state, Lyon."

"I owe that much to Gray and Haru, for giving me a chance to overcome past traumas."

The fire mage nodded in understanding. He might've been pissed that two of his closest friends leaving without even talking to him, but he could empathize with the trauma that could drive someone to do something reckless. Natsu dropped into one of the empty chairs next to the other pink-haired mage in the room and raised his hand at her in a silent greeting. The girl looked to be maybe a couple years older than Wendy, a gold winged headband tamed some of her long pink curls. "You must be Meredy," he said. She gave a sharp nod in confirmation but remained stoically quiet otherwise.

As Haru pressed a mug of tea into his hands, Natsu pointed flatly, "So I guess you guys aren't much better than their prisoners either."

The water mage smirked, "It goes both ways. They don't let us out of their sight, but us guys always make sure at least one of us is with each of them as well." He eyed Meredy as he returned to his chair across from her, "there is no trust between us, isn't that right, Meredy?"

The girl still didn't say anything, just leaned her head against her palm and narrowed her eyes at him. Haru's eyes shifted back to Natsu, "So, just how pissed is Master?"

Natsu finally let a grin break across his face, his tension easing. "Gramps was already plotting punishments while our team was preparing to leave." He watched the colour drain from his fellow slayer's face, his own grin widening, "when this is all over, you'll have to let me know if it was worth it."

Dropping his face into his palms Haru groaned, and Natsu laughed all the harder. "Oh man, one year, me an' Gray were punished for nearly totalling the guildhall, WHILE Sorcerer's Weekly was visiting for a feature spread..." He broke off in a peel of laughter, wrapping an arm around his middle. "Gramps was so angry, he sent us BACK with the reporter to do a multi-page PIN-UP spread!"

Lyon spat out his mouthful of coffee, bursting into laughter and falling forward as he imagined Gray in bunny ears and a humiliatingly skimpy costume. Haru glanced at him from the corner of his eye and back at Natsu who was still in the grips of his own uncontrolled laughing fit. "That's just perfect," Haru muttered blandly, rolling his eyes.

The moment was broken by a light clinking sound that parted their attention from the conversation. Three metallic spheres bounced down the stairs from the shop above them, one rolled to a stop at the leg of Natsu's chair. In a flash Haru grabbed Lyon's wrist pulling him over to Natsu, Meredy leapt forward too and kicked the orb at Natsu's chair away. "Water Dragon's lair," Haru shouted. Water swirled up around the four at his command, sealing them all in a protective dome. The spheres split open and a translucent mist spilled from them, filling the small cellar in a matter of seconds. The four mages turned in unison watching as cultists started pouring down the stairwell before them, each outfitted with some sort of gas mask. "Ready everyone?" Haru asked, sweeping his arms out and showering the room with the water from his dome. The moisture weighed down the gases, allowing them to breathe freely and begin their counterattack.

Natsu burst out the water spell with a flaming knee into the gut of the first enemy to hit the bottom of the stairs. Vaulting over him, he threw a bone-cracking fist into the next one's face. "No destructive spells while we're underground!" he called back to his comrades as he sidestepped the slash of a sword and rammed an elbow up into the jaw of its wielder.

"Ironic, coming from you!" Lyon shouted back. The ice mage jumped passed the two dragon slayers and planted his hands on the ground, "Ice Make, floor!" he shouted. Ice shot up over the staircase, forming a smooth slide, causing the cultists to slip and land in a heap at the base of the stairs.

Chuckling in response, Natsu jumped over them, a fire-coated foot making contact with the ice and melting a foothold into the slope instantly. He bounded up the slide and burst out of the cellar in a stream of fire, launching back a large group of foes that had converged in the storefront. Charging out into the streets, Natsu found hundreds of cultists swarming outside, the others darted out on his heels, skidding to a stop beside him. "Careful everyone, they may not be mages, but their numbers could easily overwhelm us if we lose focus!" Natsu warned.

Haru smiled, it wasn't often he saw his hot-headed partner taking his S Class leadership so seriously.

The group fanned out, unleashing a barrage of attacks at the hordes of enemies. "Stay spread out, we can't risk all getting caught up in that rune trap. If one of us gets caught the others can break the spell," Haru called to his comrades telepathically. Their confirmations echoed in his head as Haru ducked under the swipe of a sword, skipping back a few steps to gain some distance. "Water Dragon's piercing bullets," he called, holding both hands in front of him like a pair of pistols. He moved agilely through throngs of enemies, shooting off multiples of compressed bullets of water.

"Fire Dragon's wing attack!"

Dozens of cultists went flying in twin lashes of fire and Natsu flipped midair at the tail end of his spell. He landed soundlessly on one knee, eyes already scanning the next round of enemies advancing on him. Looking up, he watched a flock of ice eagles arc over his head to slam into another wave of cultists. Meredy walked by calmly, raising a hand overhead as glowing spectral swords appeared and shot outward as she coldly stated her attack.

A block away, Taurus suddenly exploded through the entrance of one of the storefronts connected underground. Swinging the flat of his axe, the Bull Spirit bowled over a large group of enemies like they were nothing. A pair of crimson and gold streaks shot out of the newly destroyed entrance, and the Fairy Tail women skidded to a stop, standing back-to-back. Erza leapt into the air, instantly reappearing in her Heaven's Wheel armour and flew over the crowd of cultists with countless swords swirling around her.

Lucy whipped around, nailing a man in the chest with a strong kick before dipping to a knee and spinning a low kick to knock her next attacker down. Still on her knee with one leg outstretched to the side, Lucy extended her arms overhead. "Star Reform:" she called as a ball of glittering gold built up around her hands, "shatter!" The light shot into the sky, exploding into a shower of piercing lights that took out a wide circle of cultists.

Natsu smirked as he watched his comrades easily decimating the overwhelming numbers of the Zeref cult, even as he continued to throw his own fire laden strikes into a mass of enemies that had stupidly ganged up on him. His eyes shifted to his left as Gray and Lyon went sprinting by, shedding their cloaks in unison as they both slammed their hands into the ground, summoning waves of icy spires that exploded forward. More agonized screams joined the chorus of pain from their attackers.

"They're too powerful! Retreat!" a voice commanded. Weapons clattered to the ground, abandoned all around them as Zeref's worshippers spun in retreat, desperate to escape Natsu and his comrades.

"Not so fast!" Gray shouted, pounding a fist into an open palm, "Ice Make, prison!"

An icy jail crashed down around four of the cultists, seizing their escape. Gray smirked as he approached and leaned against his new creation. His smirk turned dangerous as he eyed the people trapped inside, "We have some questions we need answered," he said with deceptively calm tone. The four inside the prison cowered back as the group of mages advanced on them, all looking entirely too predatory for their comfort.

A/N. Deliora's on scene next chapter, should be a fun one.

'Till next time,

R&R

~Loka Muse