Natsu kicked open the doors to Fairy Tail, walking outside with Gray, Lucy, Happy, Wendy, Carla, and Erza. "Alright! Tell us what we have to do and where we have to go, Erza!" Natsu shouted happily, pounding his fist together from the excitement.
Erza motioned for the group to follow behind her as she started walking, "The details of the mission were to bring down several dark mages who are a threat to society; they're based in a building at the base of the snowy mountains."
"Snowy mountains…?" Gray repeated.
"That's near…" Lucy started, subconsciously clenching her fist, from a memory.
"It's not them," Erza stated, "None of those mages had their guild mark."
"I know, they wouldn't be so stupid to try and ambush you during a mission. But it's uncomfortably close to their home all the same." Lucy said while shaking her head.
"E-Erza-san…?" Wendy whispered just barely audible.
Erza turned to look over her should at Wendy, "Yes, Wendy?"
"How did they beat you…?" Wendy asked, poking her fingers together shyly, unsure if she should've asked that.
Erza remained silent for a few minutes before sighing, "It was an ambush. A member posed himself as someone being attacked; I went to help them only to be ambushed. I managed to fight a number of them off, but I had my magic power drained and the next thing I knew I was in the infirmary…" She would never regret leaping in to help someone, but she only wished that she had seen through the deception sooner.
"Did you get a look at them?" Carla asked, her wings extended as she and Happy flew beside Wendy and Carla.
"Unfortunately, I didn't," Erza sighed, "But I'll know them when I see them; and I won't lose once again to them."
"I can't wait to punch those guys in the face, my fist are shaking from excitement!" Natsu grinned, throwing an arm up into the air with a clenched fist.
"Wait until we get there before you start throwing punches, Flamebrain," Gray sighed.
"You should be quiet before I throw the first punch at you, Underpants" Natsu remarked immediately.
"Gray. Natsu," Erza's tone was deep and menacing, causing the two males to snap back to normal from fear.
"Erza-san sure has a way with words…" Wendy said in a slightly nervous tone, covering it with a nervous giggle.
.
.
After about an hour of walking, the group finally made it to the base of the snowy mountains. A light snow was progressively increasing in aggressiveness every few minutes. The group stopped in front of an old, three-story mansion standing in front of them.
"Is this the place…?" Lucy asked, looking over at Erza for confirmation.
Erza nodded slowly, "Yes, this is the place. Don't let its looks fool you; this place is filled with traps, mostly to keep official guild members like ourselves out."
"W-What's with all this snow…?" Wendy stammered, rubbing her arms in attempt to keep warm.
Carla looked over at Wendy in concern, "Let's hurry inside, you could get sick from this cold…"
"Aye…" Wendy nodded, and the group slowly walked towards the mansion.
As they approached the building, silver lances rained down from the sky onto the group. Gray noticed this right away and struck his fist into his palm, a frozen wind appearing around his feet, "Ice Make: Shield!" A crystallized ice shield appeared over the group, blocking the silver lances; the shield eventually gave out as Gray flew back, skidding across the snow. A female with long white hair and red eyes approached. This female seemed to be in her late teens, and she was wearing a thick black jacket, black jeans, and black boots.
"So this is one of them?!" Lucy said while getting ready for a fight.
"Looks like it!' Natsu said with a wide grin. If this was the first person they had to punch, he was more than happy to get the action ball rolling.
"You've returned, Titantia?" The female raised an eyebrow, resting a hand on her hip, "And you brought back up?" The female snickered, "It's just gonna be a repeat of last time, you know."
"That's funny. Because the last time I saw you, you were unconscious on the ground. That goes for the rest of your friends, barring your underhanded guild master." Erza replied with a sneer. While it was true that Erza ultimately suffered a defeat, that did not mean she went down without a fight. Clearly this woman was but one of many victims of Titania's stand.
"Tch!" The woman growled. She couldn't deny that Erza said.. "My only regret is that I wasn't conscious to see you get turned into a helpless ragdoll!"
The woman's remarks made Erza growl, but Gray stuck his arm out to hold Erza back, "I'll take care of this girl, you guys go inside." The group nodded, running inside the run down mansion. They easily trusted Gray to handle a situation like this.
"Oh? And who might you be?" The girl asked in a curious tone.
"Gray Fullbuster, the one and only Ice Make Mage from Fairy Tail," Gray slid into the stance his teacher, Ur, had taught him many years ago while eying the female.
"Ice Make Mage? Interesting," The girl also slid into a stance, placing her fist into her palm, smirking, "My name is Melody Silver, Silver Make Mage," she said with a prideful tone, "Silver is harder than ice, you know~."
"Oh yeah? Ice Make: Lance!" A blue magic circle appeared as Gray threw his arms forward, crystal ice lances firing from the magic circle from all directions, all aimed at Melody.
"Mhm~." Melody nodded, not fazed by the amount of lances flying towards her, she calmly spoke, "Silver Make: Lance," as she through her hands forward, a silver magic circle appearing an equal amount of silver lances shot out from the magic circle. The Silver lances easily shattered the incoming ice lances and struck Gray, causing him to slide back across the snow, a shocked expression on his face, "Surprised, are we? Don't worry, sweetie, there's more where that came from. Don't get so cocky just because Titania got the best of me. I'm still more than enough to handle some weakling like you!"
Gray was shaken at first, but soon he just gave a confident grin in turn. "Is that what you think? If Erza can take you down, then so can I. That's just the way of Fairy Tail."
.
.
"Luke. Reve. You hear that?" Takeru asked while traveling down the mountain with Luke and the black haired male, Reve. "They're starting already."
"Of course they are..." Luke said while shrugging his shoulders. "They always enjoy bouncing back fast."
"Doesn't matter." Reve said while continuing down the mountain path. "Fiore's strongest guild can't even clean up a mess on their first try. The power balance is already tipping, and I, Reve Volver, am going to be the one who tips that scale with the rest of White Eclipse behind me."