The Rise of a Warrior: Fairy Tail

by The Legendary Dragon Reaper

Luke Drako, S-class wizard of the Fairy Tail guild, the true Lightning Dragon Slayer, student and son of the Lightning dragon Kaminari. This is his story. The story of a Dragon Slayer trying to find his place in the world, and make one hell of a strong team along the way. And with any luck, he just might win the heart of a certain brunette card mage. OC x Cana. Read and review.

7. Galuna Island II

I would like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited or followed this story since I updated it.

DoomMarine55: Look I told you before, if you don't like it then stop reading it, but I don't need you spewing hate over the work I put in for no reason.

Ragnas Bredvolts: Good to have you back, and I'm glad you're feeling better. Yeah I've really been building up Luke's power over the last few chapters, but since Gray is the main character of the Galuna Island arc Gray and the others are going to have more of a supporting role. No need to worry though, I plan to show off Luke's full power in the next arc. As for his swordsman techniques, it's mainly channeling his Lightning Dragon Slayer magic into the blade, but I'm willing to try and add some new techniques in to give him some more variety with it. I've never watched Demon Slayer or Rakudai Kishi, but I'm willing to look into them and see if I'm able to incorporate them somehow. And also, you have a glorious day as well my friend.

Darkmaster10000000: I'm glad to see I've caught your attention. Also, I don't intend to have any three way relationships in any of my fics.

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"In a land far far away lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small and peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic. Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace. For most people, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some however, magic is an art, and they've devoted their lives to its practice. These are the wizards and mages, and banded together into magical guilds, they ply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore, but there is a certain guild in a certain town that stands high above the rest of them, one from which countless legends have been born, a guild that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. This guild is known as Fairy Tail."

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At the same time, Lucy had begun battling against Sherry, only to find that she had the power to control Lucy's Celestial Spirits, examples when she forced Taurus to attack her.

Fortunately, Lucy was able to use Aquarius (as well as her dislike of anyone that tries to summon or control her) to defeat Sherry, but this still left Angelica to deal with.

In a mix of both good luck and bad luck, Erza arrived and defeated Angelica with ease, only to set her sights on Lucy and Happy and tying them up as punishment for taking the S class quest without permission.

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"Well that was… incredibly easy." Lisanna transformed back and let out a sigh "Maybe Natsu is rubbing off on me too much."

"Better the Salamander than these the other two idiots."

Lisanna whipped around to find Noah standing a short distance away stretching in a very nonchalant manner "What are you-"

"Still not too shabby, I mean granted even a pickle jar could take down the likes of the dog guy but tricking him into stabbing himself with his own claws wasn't too bad of a strategy."

"Are you one of their allies?"

"I'm working with these idiots under orders, otherwise I wouldn't be caught dead with a guy who's more dog than man and tries to sniff my ass on at least an hourly basis. Anyway now that both him and Yuka are down I figured it's about time I threw myself into this little mix, and since I'm bored and could use a good warm up you up for showing me what a Fairy Tail wizard can do?"

"I don't fight for the sake of fighting like Natsu and the others do, but I can't let you hurt anyone from the village or any of my friends. Animal Soul: Cat!" Lisanna reactivated her cat based Animal Soul form and pounced at Noah with her claws barred.

Noah just cranked his neck to the side and a large slab of rock appeared, protecting him from her attacks "So you're one of the Take Over siblings of Fairy Tail, Lisanna Strauss of the Animal Soul right? You wanna see what I've got now? Well you will." the ground beneath him started shaking as he powered up.

'No way, he's so strong he's shaking the ground!'

"Mountain Dragon…"

'And he's a Dragon Slayer like Natsu and Luke?'

"ROAR!" Noah breathed out a large orange colored tornado, and with it a large barrage of small rocks and pebbles.

"Animal Soul… WINGS!" despite taking a few hits from the roar, Lisanna managed to swap to her wings form and take to the air.

"Mountain Dragon Terra Fist!" Noah broke off from his roar and charged at Lisanna while she was still in mid air, his arm coated with a gauntlet made of rock and earth, and he slugged her across the face before she was able to react, sending her hurtling towards the ground.

"Animal Soul: Bunny!" Lisanna flashed into a new form as she hit the ground, giving her a set of bunny ears, a bunny tail and what looked like a bunny girl outfit.

"Well the guys in your guild must love that, and for the record when I say that I mean that they're all a bunch of pervs."

"Some of them are, but I only like to show this when I really have to." Lisanna blitzed forward and dealt Noah a fierce barrage of kicks to the face and torso, sending him skidding backwards a few feet.

Noah eventually managed to summon another Terra Fist and slugged her in the gut, sending her skidding backwards "A little bit on the light side in terms of physical strength, but all things considered not too bad. Mountain Dragon Boulder Barrage!" Noah summoned a large number of boulders from within the ground and fired them all towards her at once.

Lisanna dodged and parried her way around each one "A little bit on the light side huh? You might want to take your own advice."

"You're not the first person to tell me that, it's why I usually only use that technique when I need a distraction." Noah blitzed in front of Lisanna and slugged her full force in the gut with another Terra Fist, causing her to cough up blood and fall to her knees from the sheer force "You know some might call this abuse on some level, but I like to think of it as gender equality. You put up a good fight but you've got a ways to go, and unfortunately I'm not here to act as sensei like in some old porn flick. Now then-"

"Lightning Dragon Heavenward Halberd!" a massive halberd made of lightning magic shot towards Noah, forcing him to retreat in order to avoid the impact.

Noah shook off the explosion that followed "That was pretty close, if I hadn't dodged that then who knows what would've happened. But more importantly I'd say we've got some more company right about now."

Sure enough, the smoke cleared to reveal Luke with his dragon scale sword drawn and Bolt hanging onto his shoulder, and Luke was ready for a fight "Bolt just take Lisanna and hang back, I'll deal with this guy myself."

"I gotcha, just make that fast." Bolt latched onto Lisanna and pulled her away through the skies, leaving only the two Dragon Slayers remaining.

"I thought it was strange that I caught the scent of a dragon that wasn't coming from Natsu, I didn't expect to meet another Dragon Slayer. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Luke Drako and I'm the Lightning Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail."

"Oh believe me I know damn well who you are." Noah dusted himself off "Mountain Dragon Terra Fist!" and then he launched an earth covered fist.

Luke quickly cut through the rock and earth on Noah's arm "I'm not one for arrogance or to be completely merciless, but at the same time I don't take too kindly to people who try to hurt my friends."

"Hey I wasn't out to kill the bunny girl, I was just testing her to see what Fairy Tail wizards are capable of these days."

"And?"

"Could be better, could be worse. Well anyway knowing what you guys are like I'm guessing you'll want to tend to her and round up the other idiots who came here, and frankly I have to take a leak, so we'll have to finish this later. Mountain Dragon Collapsing Crater!" Noah promptly slammed his fist into the ground, creating a massive uprising of rock and earth.

Luke braced himself with his dragon scale sword, but by the time he could see through it, all he knew now was that Noah was gone "Looks like I'm dealing with draconic brains and brawn mixed into one package, kind of rare but also kind of refreshing."

"Emphasis on rare." Bolt lowered Lisanna back to the ground, only to promptly be grabbed by the tail by Luke "And now this is happening."

"This is punishment at least for now, we have other things to deal with, Lisanna needs medical treatment for the beatdown she suffered."

"No no, I'm okay." Lisanna wiped some of the blood from her lip "But in the meantime Gray is hurt pretty bad, and Natsu is off doing who knows what in the jungle. A group of wizards are trying to resurrect a really powerful demon, and the villagers have been living under a curse for three whole years."

"Have they reached the point where they started purging their own kind?"

"Yes. I'll go with you back to the village to make sure Gray is alright, but none of us can just leave people and let them suffer like this."

"...I hate it when people assume that I'm just heartless, yeah I know that rules have to be followed by the point of magic is to use it to help people." Luke slung Lisanna's arm over his shoulder and started carrying her that way "At the very least I'll make sure Erza agrees to wait until Gray's well enough to move, then we'll try and track down Natsu wherever he is and we can go from there." this was met with a sigh from Lisanna.

"Thank you."

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Morning came, and the sun was shining brightly over Galuna Island.

Gray finally opened his eyes and found himself in one of the tents in what looked like the village, much to his confusion "Where the hell am I?" he made his way out of the tent and into the open, which looked very similar to the village.

"Oh thank goodness, I'm glad you're awake." one of the village girls got his attention.

"What is this place, where are we?"

"This is a storage area that's not too far from the village itself, everything was destroyed in the attack last night so we decided to come here for shelter."

"The whole village? You can't be serious. I can't believe it, Lyon and his lackeys actually went and did it.' he cringed at the pain of his wounds.

"You know it's a miracle that Natsu and the others were here, it was thanks to their bravery that everyone was able to make it out alive of the attack."

"Well at least that's a relief, so are they still around here somewhere?"

"Yes they are, they actually wanted me to show you towards their tent once you had finally regained consciousness."

"Which tent exactly?"

"They're waiting for you in that big one right over there." she pointed.

"Alright, thanks." and so Gray made his way over to the big tent, only to be horrified instantly by the sight that was waiting for him inside "Oh shit."

As it turns out, it was a terrifyingly pissed off Erza sitting there waiting for him while tightly holding onto the rope to which Lisanna, Lucy, Bolt and Happy had been tied, with Luke just calmly sitting off to the side and reading a book "You made me wait, not smart."

"Uh… why are they tied up exactly?"

"Lucy and Lisanna have myself and Luke up to speed on everything that's happened. I thought the two of you were sent to stop Natsu and these three fools, needless to say you've greatly disappointed me."

"Where is Natsu anyway?"

"That's something we all need to know, last any of these four have heard he was fighting off the lackeys of this so called Cold Emperor." Luke noted.

Lisanna nodded "Yeah, but when we went back to where the village was there wasn't any sign of him. I just hope he's okay wherever he might be. Anyway, since we couldn't find him we just decided to come and look for you, but we didn't have any idea where you had ended up, so we had Bolt and Happy do some scouting from the air, and from up there we could see that the villagers had moved into this storage area."

"Uh huh."

"Alright then, we're going to search for Natsu and then we're going to be heading back to the guild." Erza told him firmly.

"But we can't leave the island just yet Erza, if you already got filled in on the situation then you already know exactly what these villagers are going through right now."

"And what exactly would be your point?"

"Luke and I came here for the sole reason of apprehending these fools for breaking the rules of the guild, I'm not interested in anything else other than that."

"Rules, are you kidding me? Have you even seen what's been happening to the people on this island?"

"I have."

"And you're still just gonna turn your back on them?"

"Their request has been posted on the board of every guild hall in the kingdom, the villagers would be better served by wizards who are actually cleared for S class quests. You don't meet the qualifications."

"I never thought you of all people could be so heartless."

"...Would you care to repeat that?" Erza promptly summoned a sword and proceeded to hold it against Gray's throat while casting him a dark glare "Am I supposed to take this as a declaration that you've chosen to defy the rules of the guild as well? You're going to be facing the same punishment." she was answered with Gray grabbing the blade of her sword and pointing it at the guild mark on his chest.

"Go ahead and do whatever it is that you have to do. For me there's no other choice that I can possibly make, I can't just walk away from what I know is right. I don't care what you say and I don't care what you do, I'm going to see this through to the end and there's no way you're going to stop me " and with that, he made his way out of the tent.

"And that about sums up what happens when someone has the guts to defy Erza knowing she'll most likely kill them for it, but at the same time, knowing that they're making the right decision." Luke promptly used his dragon scale sword to cut Lucy and the others free "You guys will still have to be punished once we get back to the guild hall, but at the same time there's no way we're just ignoring it when people are suffering. Get ready you four, we have a serious fight in our hands this time around.

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Natsu let out a yawn as he made his way through the jungle towards the temple "Dammit, I finally came up with the perfect plan and then I go and oversleep like that. Well whatever I guess, let's get this shit done."

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Lyon looked down at Toby with clear disappointment "How disappointing Toby, the fact that you of all people are the only one still standing. Those wizards of Fairy Tail, they've proven to be quite impressive."

"And it also speaks volumes about the quality of your other lackeys." Noah pointed out, his tone dry "But at the same time, it might put a damper on your plans to resurrect Deliora.

"And you Noah are as blunt as you've ever been."

"Well if all goes according to plan then the demon should be brought back by some point later tonight, but those wizards from Fairy Tail are people to keep an eye on. If they manage to screw up the Moon Drip ceremony then nothing would be able to free Deliora from the gigantic ice cube. They have two Dragon Slayers and Titania with them, and those three are nothing to scoff at and if you don't play your cards right then everything could be ruined."

"As always, you seem to be quite well informed of our situation. No mind, I can't say that I'm exactly worried. Those fools may prove to be formidable but they're no match for me."

"Yeah that's about what I expected to hear from you, but either way I'm still joining in on this fight."

"It's been quite some time since I've seen you in battle."

"I haven't had a good reason to get involved, but with two Dragon Slayers on the scene not to mention Titania herself how could I not get in on the fun?"

"So be it, we could use another wizard on our side." this was followed by the temple shaking and then suddenly shifting to a diagonal position, and then a blast of fire bursting upwards from beneath the floor "What in the-"

"Well that was unexpected, but at the same time kind of epic."

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"I should've figured He With More Flames and Balls than Brains, AKA the Salamander, would charge in head first like a crazed bull and make the first move. To keep it so simple that even the dog man would understand it, we've got company."

As it turns out, at the bottom of the gigantic and comically oversized hole was Natsu himself, looking increasingly smug "You know it's kind of funny, usually I end up breaking stuff by accident but now that I'm trying to do it on purpose it's actually kind of funny just how hard that actually is."

"And you're here because of why exactly?"

"What's it look like genius, I'm knocking this place over so then you guys won't be able to to shine moonlight on that demon you've got underground."

"And that about sums up how blunt he can be and how overconfident he is to the point where he's annoying as hell." Noah let out a sigh "Or to dumb it down for the dog man this idiot is the reason why we're slanting with the rest of the temple. My guess is that he destroyed the support pillars on one side of the temple and that caused the temple to slant, and that's gonna stop the moonlight from shining down on Deliora. All things considered that's actually a pretty good plan for someone so simple, you have to wonder where that brain power or lack thereof is most of the time with this one."

"So are you gonna fight me or what?" Natsu started generating fire in his feet.

"Flames shoot from his feet? Well that's quite unexpected." Lyon noted "Then again, considering what I've seen you do Noah I shouldn't be surprised."

"Fire Dragon Rocket Booster!" Natsu burst upwards with flames shooting out of his feet and rammed straight into Lyon, only for him to shatter into thousands of shards of ice almost instantly as a result "What the hell, what is he a fake or something?"

"You won't be able to dodge in mid air! Ice Make: Eagle!" the real Lyon summoned a swarm of ice eagles.

Natsu used his fire to force himself downwards in order to avoid the attack and then breathed out some more fire aimed at Lyon himself.

Lyon quickly ducked underneath the attack, leaving the walls to be scorched in his place "What kind of ridiculous magic is this?"

"The Dragon Slayer kind mother fucker! Fire Dragon Roar!" Natsu tried to breath out a fire roar at Lyon, only for the floor beneath him to give out and for him to fall through the hold mid-roar, which resulted in only Toby getting charred by the blast.

"Lucky for you king of dick-cicles, and the only price you had to pay was a comically charred dog man." Noah noted dryly.

Lyon promptly shot him a dirty look "What did you do?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what it sounds like, you use earth based magic so it had to have caused that hole in the floor."

"Looks like somebody's got the Devil's Eye. Look if I have to say this then the fact is that you're the only one strong enough to defeat Deliora, don't bother wasting any more energy than you have to before the time comes for you to actually fight it."

"Are you suggesting that I would actually fall victim to such paltry magic?" Lyon promptly covered the floor in a thick layer of ice "Now leave me be, I can take care of this myself. All I have to do is finally defeat this demon and then everyone will worship my name, the name of the Cold Emperor Lyon. I've worked too long and too hard to allow a brat like him to tarnish all of it."

"Whatever lets you sleep at night."

"At least you have common sense."

"So that's it?" Natsu pulled himself back out of the hole "So you're doing all of this because you want to defeat Deliora? That thing looks half dead already. So let me get this straight, you're going to all of this trouble to melt that ice just so you can fight the thing? That's pretty messed up if you ask me."

"I'm doing this because I have to rise above the legacy left behind by my master Ur, I will not rest until I've fulfilled my dream! Ice Make: Eagle!" Lyon fired off a barrage of ice eagles from one hand.

"Fire Dragon Talon!" Natsu launched a barrage of fire enhanced kicks to cancel out the ice eagles "But why bother to go this far, can't you just challenge her and be done with it?"

"Don't you think I would if I could? The fact is that Ur has been dead for years."

"Oh. Shit. Gray said she sacrificed everything to seal the thing away, I didn't realize she ended up dying in the process."

"Yes that's right, but she would still be alive if it wasn't for Gray!" he hit Natsu with an ice eagle from behind.

When the frost cleared, it turns out that Natsu had blocked the attack "Look I don't know a damn thing about what happened to you in the past, but I do know what you're doing in the present and it's hurting a lot of innocent people who haven't done anything to deserve this, and since you don't seem to realize that yourself I'll have to fry it into your skull!"

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Luke glanced over at Gray as they and the others rushed towards the temple "So you're telling me he's going to all this trouble just because he wants to fight that thing?"

Gray let out a sigh "Even when we were little kids Lyon has always dreamed of surpassing Ur and her magic abilities, but since she's gone and he can't challenge her directly now he's reached the conclusion that it's up to him to kill Deliora because it's the one thing that she wasn't able to do."

"Well yeah I sort of understand the logic in that, but that doesn't mean that what he's doing is right."

"Of course not. Anyway listen, there's something that I never got to tell Lyon. I kept this a secret from him for years, Ur made me promise to never let him know about this, but now I don't have any other choice. Ur may not be with us anymore physically, but the truth is that she's actually still alive."

"...There's a complicated backstory to this isn't there?"

"Yep." Gray let out a heavy sigh and began his story "It's been 10 years since then, my hometown was attacked and massacred by Deliora. I had never seen so much destruction, the whole place was wiped out in less than a day. My parents and everyone and everything I knew was wiped out before my eyes, and I was the only one who survived. Ur and Lyon found me and they pulled me from the rubble, and I made a vow that I would find Deliora and make it pay for what it had done, and that vow was how all of it had begun. After that Ur took me in as her second apprentice and started training me along with Lyon, but I was too impatient and hot headed."

"Like you are now."

"But nowhere near as bad. Anyway, this also happened to be where I got my stripping habit from too. It was a simple life but I enjoyed myself for the most part, at least until I heard some news about the whereabouts of Deliora. That was when I made the biggest mistake of my life, I left and went after the thing alone."

"Yeah hold on a second." Luke glanced up at the temple "Am I the only one who thinks that temple isn't supposed to be crooked? Was the thing always like that or was this some of Natsu's handiwork?"

"My guess would have to be Natsu, I don't know how he managed to pull it off but he's the only one who would do something that batshit crazy."

"Well if he did it on purpose then there's a twisted sort of genius to it, since the temple is tilted then the moonlight can't shine directly on the demon."

"Which means that his habit of destroying stuff actually came in useful for once, which is about as ironic as someone can get."

"And if not?"

"Then he's about as destructive and comical as he always was- Wait hold that thought, everyone get down!" he shoved Lucy and Bolt to the ground and fended off a barrage of energy blasts with his dragon scale sword "Whoever's there come out now."

The ones that came out were actually a bunch of the cultists working for Lyon "We've tracked all of you down now Fairy Tail, we won't allow you to interfere with the Cold Emperor's plans any further!"

"I'm gonna go out on a whim and assume that these guys are working for your senpai?"

"Don't call him that." was all Gray said.

"No promises."

"Don't waste your energy Luke, I can handle this myself." Erza promptly summoned two swords to her side.

"You sure about this?"

"All I need is Lucy, Lisanna and your cats to back me up. Gray you go and settle things with your senpai (cue Gray's eye twitching), and Luke you go along with him just to be on the safe side."

"Just make sure you don't take too long or Natsu will never let you live it down until you beat him down. Alright Gray let's get moving before Natsu does anything else stupid."

"Got it." with a small smile, Gray and Luke both bolted off towards the temple "I have to hurry and tell Lyon that Ur is still alive, there's only one person who can stop him now."

"And that's you?"

"Yeah." Gray let out a heavy sigh and continued with his backstory "Like I said, I made the dumbest move of my life when I left to challenge Deliora on my own. I don't remember much about when I fought the thing on on one. When I came to Ur was in front of me, and her leg had been blown off so she was using her magic to make a replacement one out of ice. She told me to grab Lyon and get out of there, but then he woke up and in a moment of insanity he tried to use a sacrificial spell called the Iced Shell, a spell that turns the body of the caster into ice for all of eternity. Ur froze him to stop him from using that spell, and then Ur decided to use that spell herself to stop Deliora. There was nothing I could do to stop her, but as she cast the spell she asked me to tell Lyon that she died, or else he would probably try to waste his life looking for a way to undo the spell."

"Which he has."

"But not for that reason. When I watched Ur finish casting the spell, I felt all of the anger and sadness within me just wither away. It was at that moment that I swore that I would always be strong for her, I would become the best wizard that I could in order to make sure that she would be proud of me."

"But Lyon didn't take it well I'm guessing."

"Far from it. When he came to I told him that she died, he blamed me for killing his dream along with Ur, and I hadn't seen him since that day. Not before yesterday."

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Natsu was growing impatient over his battle with Lyon "You know this could totally go on forever dude, so just do yourself a favor and give up."

"Oh please." Lyon let out a scoff "You say that like I would ever give you the satisfaction of my surrender."

"Then you're asking for it asshat."

"Oh am I now?" this was followed by a crack forming in the wall between them.

"What the hell?"

The crack shattered the wall to reveal Gray and Luke standing there ready to fight "You guys just leave Lyon to me, I think it's time for us to settle things between us once and for all."

"Not a chance in hell man, you already lost to him once."

"Yeah I know, and there's no way in hell it's gonna happen again. I'm more than ready to end this right here and right now."

"You seem awfully confident in yourself." Lyon pointed out.

"You were right Lyon, I'm the one who's to blame for the death of our master. But you're no better, you threatened my comrades and brought harm to the villagers, and now you're trying to destroy what Ur gave her life to create. It's time for us to accept our punishment together." he got into a certain stance that made Lyon freeze in terror.

"That stance, don't tell me you're going to use the Iced Shell! You wouldn't dare, you would have to be insane!"

"If you want to live then change the villagers back to their human forms, and then leave this island and never return." Gray summoned the magic circle "If you agree to that then I'll stop the spell, otherwise this is the end."

"Is that so? Well I don't believe a word of it, I'm calling your bluff."

"I would beg to differ." the Magic Circle appeared and a tornado of ice and snow swirled around them.

"But you'll die!" Lyon was blown back by the force of the magic power "Don't do it!"

"All this time I've just been lying to myself, I didn't want to admit that Ur was dead because of me but she did, and now it's time for me to take responsibility. And that's what I'm going to do here and now, I'm not afraid to die if that's what it takes!"

"Stop it Gray, stop it now!"

"What's it gonna be Lyon, are we gonna die or are we gonna live? It's up to you!"

"You wouldn't, you don't have enough courage to give your life! You're nothing but a coward in the end!"

"Just watch me! Luke, Natsu, Erza, and all of my friends from Fairy Tail… I'm leaving the rest of this up to you. I don't want to have to leave you, but my time is up now. Farewell my friends, live long and prosper. Absolute Freeze, Iced-"

"Boot to the head!" Luke dealt Gray a sharp kick to the head, sending him skidding backwards a few feet and cancelling out the Iced Shell spell before it could officially be cast "What the hell did you think you were doing?"

"Did you not hear my epic speech, I'm correcting a mistake I made years ago."

"By killing yourself to take him down with you?" Luke grabbed Gray by the wrist and pulled him back to his feet.

"If I have to then I'll die to make things right."

"That's not gonna change anything, I know that from personal experience that that isn't going to change what's been done." that shut Gray up "I know damn well what you're going through with this guy Gray, I've had the same burden on my shoulders for almost 2 years."

Gray froze in place and paled slightly.

"At least you know he blames you, they even have the guts to look me in the eye and say that they don't blame me for what happened. But I didn't sit around whining about it or try to kill myself because of it, because I know just killing myself isn't going to bring her back. The way I see it, all you're doing is running away like a coward, like I did." this was followed by the temple beginning to shake "And now that's happening."

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Erza and the others continued to cut down one cultist after another "We have no intention of letting you past us."

Of course, the cultists remained defiant "Do not falter, we must strike down all of those who oppose the Cold Emperor without any hesitation!"

"And we'll strike down those who dare to hurt our comrades without hesitation." this was et with the loud shaking across the entire island "What in the world is that sound?"

"Oh crap, hey you guys you might wanna take a look." Bolt pointed to where the temple was sitting upright again "I'm pretty sure temples aren't supposed to do that."

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Luke glanced over to where Natsu was trying to re-tilt the temple in a comical rage, but after a few seconds he just decided to ignore it 'This is bad, now the moonlight will be able to reach the demon.'

"The key takeaway is, you're welcome." that was when Noah showed up on the scene.

"I should've known." Lyon let out a groan "I take it the temple repairing itself was actually your doing?"

"Like I said, you're welcome. It's only a few hours now until so someone had to make sure the idiot with more flames than brains didn't screw up your plans, so I used my earth manipulation magic to straighten out the temple for you."

"Well that fucking sucks." Natsu muttered "That shaggy jackass fixed the place all by himself, and after all the trouble I went to all that trouble to mess the place up to. Hey so what the hell did you do to fix it huh?"

"Like I just said dumbass, earth magic." Noah promptly flipped him off.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY TO ME YOU ASSHAT?!"

"Nothing you're not already proving, anyway now that that's taken care of I should probably go ahead and start with the Moon Drip ceremony." and so Noah promptly took his leave.

"HEY, QUIT IGNORING ME YOU DEMON HEARTED SON OF A MOTHER FUCKING LITTLE-"

"Boot to the head." Luke dealt Natsu a sharp kick to the head, knocking him out cold, and then he turned to Gray "I'll drop this one off with Erza and the others and then I'm going after that one, if I leave you to deal with your senpai will you promise me you won't kill yourself to take him down?"

"So long as you stop calling him that." Gray gave him a simple nod.

"Don't lose to him again or it's not gonna look good, for you or for any of us, for all of Fairy Tail."

"Yeah I know what you mean."

"Then prove it by taking him down." and so Luke slung Natsu over his shoulder and promptly took off.

"And then there were two."

"My my, quite the boisterous entourage you have." Lyon let out a chuckle.

"Just tell me something Lyon, a second ago when I was gonna freeze both of us for good with the Iced Shell you were counting on Luke or Natsu to stop me before I was able to finish right?"

"No, in fact it was quite the opposite. I never thought either of them would be reckless or foolish enough to come near a spell like that one."

"So what then, you were just gonna stand there and take the hit?"

"Exactly, because I knew someone would come to rescue me. You on the other hand would be finished for good."

"I should've known as much."

"Certainly, it would be quite inconvenient to be sealed away in ice but my allies are as devoted to my cause as I am, and as long as we're on this island they could use the Moon Drip to melt the ice whenever they saw fit."

"I didn't think of that actually, I guess the Iced Shell is completely useless here."

"And even despite that fact, you still wish to fight me after what happened last time? Don't lie to yourself anymore, you could never-"

"That's enough of that."

"What?"

"Just forget about Deliora already."

"What kind of nonsense is this, you're threats aren't working so now you're going to resort to begging? Does your guilt have a dentist that removes your fangs? That one sounded better in my head, but the point is are you just a coward?"

"Lyon listen to me, there's something that I have to tell you."

"What is it?"

"Ur is still alive." that left Lyon frozen in place and in silence "Using the Iced Shell doesn't kill the one who who casts it, it uses their physical body in order to form the barrier. The ice that's keeping Deliora sealed away, the ice that you've been trying to melt all this time is actually our master Ur herself. She isn't dead, she lives on as that ice. I'm sorry that I was never able to tell you the truth back then, Ur made me promise to tell you that she died or else she thought you would waste your life trying to undo the spell."

"...Of course."

"It's over Lyon, there's no reason to go through with this anymore." he was met with a blast of ice to the chest that resulted in an ice panther bursting out from his back, causing him to fall to his knees.

"Don't take me for a fool you imbecile, I'm well aware of how the spell works. I'm also well aware of the fact that Ur isn't alive, not anymore at least. That ice that keeps Deliora prisoner is nothing more than a chunk of ice."

"You… You knew… knew all along… and yet…"

"I've learned that there's a fine line between knowing and believing, and if you truly believe that our master is alive in there then you're an even greater fool than I thought."

"You knew the truth… and yet… you still did all of this?!"

"And what of it?" Lyon was met with a fist to the face that sent him crashing into the icy wall behind him "That… That shouldn't be possible, how can you even move with a wound like that one?"

"I've had just about enough of this, I wanted to save you but now I'm just giving up on you."

"So what then, you want the title of star pupil all to yourself? Well I'm sorry but I have to fight against Deliora soon, and I would rather not waste any of my magic energy on fighting the likes of you."

"Then we'll just use our fists."

"You want me to fight you without the use of any magic? That's fine by me." he promptly slugged Gray in the gut full force "Aim for your opponent's weak spot and hit it with all you've got, Ur taught us that remember?"

"You have no right to speak her name, and I won't let you!" Gray was only met with a knee to the gut again.

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Noah stood in a solitary area of the temple, lying in wait "I was wondering how long it was gonna take for you to show up."

Sure enough, Luke calmly made his way onto the scene with his dragon scale sword in hand, ready to fight "I had to drop off Natsu with Erza and the girls, and now it's just one Dragon Slayer facing off with another. At least I know the place won't come down on top of us, now that it's upright again."

"Having earth based Dragon Slayer magic does have its advantages aside from using it to crush people, observe. Mountain Dragon… Death by Boulder!" using incredible physical strength, he ripped a massive chunk of rock out of the roof above them and threw it forward "So what are you gonna do?"

"You're about to find out. Dragon Sword Style: Thunder Flash!" faster than the eye was able to see, Luke drew his dragon scale sword and blitzed through the boulder, obliterating it with a series of strokes at incredible levels of speed "Not many people or dragons actually know about this but Dragon Slayer magic can be transferred into objects created from dragon scales, and thus add them on as extensions of the magic itself. It's actually derived from certain principles of swordsmanship as well, they say that for a true master a sword is supposed to be an extension of the arm."

"That's about what someone should expect from the likes of Lost Magic, with these kinds of spells strength and side effects are so powerful it's been erased from history as most people know it."

"For some of these kinds of magic, that's probably for the best."

"Oh without a doubt, I actually know a woman from my guild actually uses a sort of time based magic."

"Good to know. As much as I enjoy this conversation, I think it's safe to say we have more important things to think about."

"On that we can agree, although I'm pretty sure we're thinking of different things. Mountain Dragon Earth Collapse!" Noah slammed a hand down onto the floor, causing the ground beneath him to shatter and allow him to dive into the hole he created.

"You know I'm not letting you get away."

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Lyon dealt Gray a severe uppercut knee to the jaw "What a shame, your fists are as weak as your magic."

Gray tried to aim a fist at Lyon's face, only to be met with a kick that sent him crashing into the ice wall behind him, but he let out a bitter chuckle "You know something… What you and me are doing right now… it kind of reminds me of someone I used to spar with as a kid… back in Fairy Tail…"

"This is the end!" Lyon slugged Gray across the face, sending him crashing straight through the icy wall.

'Natsu… every time we knocked each other down back then, we would both just keep on getting back up, and that still hasn't changed even today.'

"Well that settles it, you were no match for me after all." Lyon turned to walk away.

"Hold on." Gray pulled himself back to his feet "This fight isn't over… not yet…"

"You stubborn little- I should've killed you when I had the chance!"

"And now you won't get that chance!" Gray suddenly burst forward and slugged Lyon across the face, sending him crashing into an icy wall "You're gonna have to step up your game if you want to take me down!" he received a fist to the face, but he rebounded and countered with a brutal headbutt almost instantly "I never gave up against Natsu back then, and I won't against you here and now! I'm not gonna lose, you hear me?!"

Lyon dealt Gray a knee to the gut, followed by the two of them repeatedly punching each other over and over again "Why do you keep struggling against me like this?!"

"I'm not gonna lose, you're going down!"

"You could never defeat me and you never will!"

"We'll see about that! I remember looking at the sky that day, I don't know why but it was so blue that it just made me so angry.' with a mighty roar, Gray dealt Lyon one final kick to the face, sending him flying backwards.

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Erza and the others continued battling against the army of cultists "Tell me something you two, do you notice anything strange?"

Lucy nodded "Yeah, even though there's a bunch of them their magic seems really weak for some reason."

"Yes exactly, as far as I'm able to tell there are only five wizards among them."

"Which means what, that we're gonna have to go easy on them?"

"By no means, it just means that it will be easier for you to deal with. Do you think you can handle this one?"

"Oh without a doubt in my mind. Open the gate of the Giant Crab, Cancer!" she pulled out one of her golden Zodiac keys and opened the gate.

And who should appear but Cancer himself in all of his glory "You summoned me baby?"

Erza studied him for a moment "Correct me if I'm wrong but the two of us have met before, haven't we?"

"Indeed we have." he suddenly got down on one knee with a bouquet of roses "And as always miss, I am at your service."

Lucy was less than pleased by the sudden change in attitude "I thought you always called people baby, what the heck is with the "miss" stuff and aren't you supposed to be at my service? Okay you know what, screw that. Just take all of them down but don't kill them, just rough them up a little bit okay?"

"Alright then baby- I mean miss."

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Lyon struggled to pull himself back to his feet "The Cold Emperor, defeated in battle by the likes of you? I refuse to stand for it!"

"Then get over here and fight already." Gray told him simply.

"As you wish. Ice Make: Snow Dragon!" Lyon attacked Gray with a dragon made out of pure ice magic.

Gray quickly shattered the snow dragon with a fist to the head, freeing himself and causing the dragon to shatter "You know Lyon I thought we agreed not to use any magic."

"No need for you to be a sore loser, this duel was pointless from the start. Deliora is going to be revived either way, alas it's far too late for you to stop me now."

"That doesn't mean I'll give up on trying."

"You can try as much as you want, but the fact is that Noah is preparing to start the Moon Drip as we speak."

"Luke isn't going to let him do that. Trust me, the second you underestimate anyone from Fairy Tail is the second you lose."

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Noah glanced up at the frozen monstrous form of Deliora "My god this thing is ugly, but it's what they need so…"

"You know you really should never take your eyes off your opponent! Lightning Dragon Iron Fist!" Luke blitzed above Noah and slammed his lightning enhanced fist into the ground, creating a sizeable crater.

Noah leapt upwards to dodge the attack "Hey in my defense I didn't expect you to be able to track me down so soon, how did you find me here anyway?"

"I followed my dragon nose, all Dragon Slayers have that ability."

"Oh yeah, you know that doesn't come up very much except for comedic purposes."

"No it really doesn't."

"As much as I enjoy our witty banter and I hope to see what you can really do, I actually have some other things to do right about now like reviving Deliora."

"Yeah you might as well forget about that, it's not going to happen."

"And what makes you so sure of that fact?"

"Because I'm going to defeat you and Gray is going to defeat his senpai, and once that happens this will all be over. Cut off the head and the beast will fall."

"Not a bad thought process, but there's one thing I know that you don't."

"And what would that be?"

"That there are people up there doing the ceremony right now."

"...Oh crap."

"Well not people actually, truth be told it's just the stupid dog guy up there right now is it's actually pretty weak, but since we already have a decent amount of moonlight it's not that much of a concern for us. All we have to do is give it a little nudge to finish the job, go ahead and see for yourself." Noah pointed to where part of the ice suddenly melted away.

"So the ice is melting away as long as you and the others are working to revive it, which means that I just have to stop you and the dog guy up there and then the spell will stop right?"

"Mountain Dragon Quake!" Noah slammed his fist into the ground, creating a sizeable tremor that caused part of the cave roof to come down on them "You know that if you want to get up to the dog guy then you'll have to go through me."

"I figured as much."

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Erza and the others (now accompanied by Natsu, who was now tied up and struggling to free himself from Erza's grasp, to no avail) looked around at the defeated cultists "Excellent work you two, now let's all head over to the temple."

"No wait!" that was when a few of the cultists got back up and removed their masks, revealing their faces "We won't allow you to interfere with the Cold Emperor."

"Those headpieces, that must mean that you're from the city of Brago and what you want is to get revenge."

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Noah dodged a slash from Luke's dragon scale sword "You know I wouldn't do that if I were you, it may not be like Salamander's fire magic but power of that magnitude might have an impact on the revival of Deliora. I can't say for certain really."

"Lightning magic doesn't have anywhere near the same level of residual heat as fire magic does and it can't work on the Iced Shell." Luke pointed out "If it could then you wouldn't have gone to all this trouble, you can bluff as much as you want but once I'm done here all I have to do is stop the Moon Drip and then it's all over."

"Well what do you know, power and skill combined with a sharp mind and a surprising level of decorum and formality. That's pretty rare for a Dragon Slayer."

"Oh you have no idea." then the temple began shaking again.

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Gray looked around as the temple began shaking "I've got a bad feeling that for once the chaos isn't coming from Natsu."

"That means that the ceremony is finally reaching completion." Lyon told him "The ice that was sealing Deliora has at last begun to melt away."

'Ur…'

"There's nothing you can do Gray, you no longer have a chance of stopping me. You and your friends have failed! Tell me something Gray, do you have any idea how long I've waited for this moment? Since the last time we saw each other I've been gathering knowledge and allies who will aid me in my quest. I was fortunate enough to discover this place, an island where you can collect the light of the moon, Galuna. Ice Make: Eagle!" he sent forward a barrage of ice eagles with a wave of his hand "It wasn't an easy task transporting Deliora from Brago, and the Moon Drip itself has taken three years!"

"Ice Make: Shield!" Gray summoned an ice shield in order to protect himself "You mean you've been working on this stupid plan for three years?"

"Stupid? How dare you say that, you've spent the last 10 years in some foolish guild piddling your life away!"

"You think I don't know that?!" Gray dodged another ice eagle once his shield had shattered "I went there because I put my faith in what Ur had told me! She said that the western countries had a lot of wizards more powerful than her, but you were too blinded by your obsession to accept that fact. Once she was gone and we went our separate ways I went west like she said and I eventually ended up in Fairy Tail, and it turned out she was right and the guild was so full of powerful wizards that I couldn't believe what I was saying. The first thing I did was talk to the master Makarov, and he did say that there was one way to undo the Iced Shell spell, but if I was going to melt the ice then it would just be the same as killing Ur. I didn't realize it at the time but I'm pretty sure the old man was talking about the Moon Drip when he said that." his glare hardened furiously "After everything Ur did for us you would kill her without giving it a second thought, you make me sick."

"Say whatever you will Gray, I don't care. My entire life has been leading up to this one single moment. Our master is long dead, if we want to prove that we have surpassed her then what can we do in her absence? Think about that Gray, there is only one answer and it likes with the monster Deliora! I will surpass our master by defeating what she could not!" he summoned an ice dragon on his arm and started swinging it in a blind rage.

Gray dodged every strike with ease "Well I admit that that's a pretty ambitious plan, but I can't stop thinking you might have missed the point somewhere along the way!" he summoned an ice sword and shattered the ice dragon with one stroke "Someone as blind as you are could never be better than Ur, not in a hundred years. Now wake the fuck up Lyon!" he slashed Lyon across the chest, only for him to shatter into ice.

"I fooled you didn't I? Ice Make: Snow Tiger!" Lyon blitzed behind Gray and unleashed an ice tiger from one hand.

"Ice Make: Prison!" Gray summoned a cage made of ice, trapping the ice tiger before it was able to hit him "Are you seeing this Lyon? This is what you are, a beast in a cage that's constantly lashing out a world that he barely knows."

"Utter nonsense, I'll make quick work of that spell of yours!" and yet he quickly found that his snow tiger was unable to break free from the cage "What?"

"Casting a spell with a single hand is too unbalanced, your creations will let you down when you need them the most. Ice Make: Ice Cannon!" Gray summoned a cannon made of ice and fired it at Lyon, blowing a hole clean through the wall of the temple as well as hitting Lyon dead on "We learned that from Ur remember?"

"Gray… you… how…" and then Lyon finally collapsed.

Gray cringed as the pain of his wound finally caught up to him, and he quickly got to work sealing it with his ice magic "Dammit, I really should've sealed up this wound earlier." but then the temple was suddenly shaken by an absolutely monstrous roar "Okay, that definitely doesn't sound promising in the slightest."

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Noah himself was cringing and covering his ears at the monstrous sounding roar that was coming from Deliora, but then he glanced over and noticed Luke looking calm as can be "How the hell are you not on the floor screaming in agony over that thing?!"

Luke blinked, then pulled a set of earplugs out of his ears "Sorry you say something? Kind of preoccupied with that." he pointed to where Deliora was bursting out from the ice.

"On the one hand, it's free and I can do my job. On the other hand, good fucking god that thing is loud!"

"What?! Earplugs are out but I still can't hear anything!"

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"That sound…" as he finished sealing his wound, Gray felt the horrible memories of a decade ago flash through his mind "I could never forget that sound…"

Lyon could still hear it as well despite being only semi conscious "Deliora…"

'They did it, they actually brought Deliora back. There's only one thing I can do now, I have to use the Iced Shell.'

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By this point, Lucy and the others had reached the temple, only to catch wind of Deliora letting out its roar "What the heck was that noise, it sounded like some kind of monster growling?"

"Call it a hunch but it was probably the monster thing Gray's senpai was talking about and trying to bring back." Natsu wrapped his arms around Lisanna protectively "Either that or it was Lucy's stomach."

"You know you're not half as funny as you think you are."

"Yes I am."

"No you're not and I'm pretty sure that was Deliora and that means they actually brought the thing back to life." Bolt pointed to the Moon Drip shining through the floor "The purple Magic Circles on the floor are exhibit A."

"We still have a chance though." Erza told them "That may be the growling of the demon but someone is still performing the Moon Drip ceremony up at the top of the temple, which means that they haven't finished fully reviving it yet, so that means that we still have a chance to do something. Come on!" she rushed off towards the temple stairs.

"But isn't the demon in some kind of underground cave?"

"The only hope we have is to put a stop to the ceremony, we have to hurry!"

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Noah cleaned the blood out of one of his ears and glanced down at Luke "You know you could've mentioned you had earplugs."

"I only brought them with me to drown out Natsu whining over me sticking him back with Erza and the others before I came after you." Luke pulled out his set of ear plugs and stuck them in his pocket "And I stuck them back in when I saw the ice starting to melt."

"And you could still hold a conversation with me despite having them in?"

"Dragon ears, Dragon Slayers have basically everything heightened. So are we gonna finish this or what?"

"Go ahead and show me what you've got."

"After you."

"I'm flattered. Mountain Dragon… ROAR!" he let out a roar that took the form of a tornado infused with many small rocks and boulders and the like.

"Lightning Dragon ROAR!" Luke let out a roar and a blast of lightning from his mouth, the two Roars cancelling each other out and sending both of them skidding backwards "Not too shabby of a roar."

"You either, I guess your dragon taught you well."

"I learned from the lightning dragon Kaminari."

"I learned from the Mountain dragon Jishin (quake). You wanna see what else he taught me then?"

"I feel like I will either way. Lightning Dragon Iron Fist!" Luke fired off a blast of lightning from his fist.

"Mountain Dragon TALON!" Noah blitzed away from the attack, then summoned some rock armor onto his leg and dealt Luke a sharp kick to the head, sending him tumbling away from the impact.

Luke quickly rebounded and skidded to a stop, and he wiped the blood from his lip "So you use earth based magic to enhance your physical attributes instead of using it to blow stuff up."

"It's a nice change of place from working with people who know how to blow shit up all the time."

"Sad thing is that I can't really argue with that." Luke cracked his neck nonchalantly "Not gonna lie you are good, but you know damn well that I can't afford to lose this fight."

"Not like I ever expected you to know just when to give up. Mountain Dragon… TERRA FIST!" Noah summoned another Terra fist and let it fly forward.

Luke was pushed back a great distance, but he managed to block the attack using his sword "You seem to know me pretty well. We both live and breath Dragon Slayer magic every single day, and you realize just as well as I do that we spend all of our time honing our skills in the face of the greatest rival we could ask for: the future." the blade of his sword began crackling with electricity "Dragon Sword Style: Lightning Blade!" the blade was covered by what appeared to be a magnetic field, and then it shot forward towards Noah faster than he was able to react, the force sending him flying backwards through the cave as a result of the explosion that followed the blast.

Noah pulled himself out of the rubble and spat out some blood as he dusted himself off "Not too shabby with a sword either, I appreciate a little bit of variety from time to time."

"Glad to see someone actually says it. Let me ask you something though, why go out of your way to help a guy like Lyon anyway? It looks to me like you're working pretty hard trying to bring back this demon just so he can kill it to boost his ego, that might be good for him but what the hell do you get out of it."

"Well yeah it's obvious this is just an ego boost for him, I can't speak for the lackeys that joined up with him before I did so you'll have to ask them."

"Pretty obvious in retrospect, so what about you them? What do you hope to gain from all of this?"

"I admire a guy who knows how to get straight to the point, the fact is that Lyon is a pain in the ass with an ego bigger than a brain and he doesn't have a hope in hell of defeating Deliora as he is right now. That's where I come in."

"So what then, you gonna swoop in after he bites the dust and take the credit for yourself and get a huge fan base or something?"

"Look I don't even want to be here, my superiors ordered me to come here in order to see if they'll be able to control Deliora for themselves. You see there are a few spells that give the caster power to control immortal monsters like the charmer over there, they think they'd be the most powerful beings in the world if they could have a powerhouse like Deliora at their beck and call."

"Well that pretty much sucks, I'm sorry I asked. If anything that's more of an ego boost than what Lyon is after, just having a monster as your lap dog doesn't make you powerful."

"That's what I tried to say but my superior is kind of a (bleep)."

"Not very tactful are you?"

"Well she is. She's not like us, we understand that power only means something if we earn it for ourselves."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Luke's sword began crackling with electricity "I know for a fact that the people I've sword to protect are what keep pushing me to get stronger, and you and those friends of yours screwing things up for the people of this island are done here. I'm putting a stop to it here and now, you got that?"

"Loud and clear." Noah held up a hand "Mountain Dragon Rock Dragon!" he slammed his hands together and summoned a massive dragon made of stone "Let's see if you've got what it takes to stand up to an actual dragon!"

"This thing is a far cry from an actual dragon, and frankly I don't care what you all it. All I know is that this has to end. Dragon Sword Style: Thunderclap Strike!" Luke pointed his sword forward and shot out a blast of lightning from the blade, the force obliterating the rock dragon in an instant as well as sending Noah hurtling down into the waters below.

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Meanwhile, at the top of the temple…

Erza watched from afar as Natsu repeatedly punched Toby in a comical rage "Well it would seem that he has this covered, and now the Moon Drip should stop any minute now."

Natsu looked down at Toby with a mix of comical rage and confusion "You mean a dog was doing this all by himself?"

"I'M NOT A DOG DAMMIT!" Toby barked "And you're too late, it's over now! The ceremony has already been completed." this was followed by a white light shining on the center of the temple, and a monstrous roar ringing through the air.

"Son of a-" Natsu paused when he glanced back at Lisanna and Happy "-itchbay."

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Gray had arrived in the cave just in time to see the Iced Shell completely melt, and Deliora at last free itself, and he glanced down at the waters that once held it prisoner 'Thank you…'

"Well your timing definitely couldn't be better." Luke leapt down onto a rock in front of him and let out a sigh.

"Luke…"

"Well I think it goes without saying but there's only one thing we can do now, we have to take that thing down with everything we've got."

"No…" that was when Lyon crawled onto the scene with an insane grin "Neither of you… are strong enough… but I am… I can defeat it… I will defeat it… I will surpass Ur… I will realize my dream… and make it a reality…"

"This coming from the guy who doesn't even have enough energy left to stand."

"I've waited for this moment… for so long… From the very moment I first heard of her… I knew that Ur would be the one… that I would have to surpass… She was strong… but still not strong enough… to kill that demon…" Lyon staggered to his feet "I'm going to do the one thing that Ur never could! Finally, after all this time my dream will be fulfilled!"

"Oh for the love of-" Gray chopped Lyon on the neck and left him to fall to the ground "Yeah I think it's safe to say you've caused enough trouble, and now I'm going to clean up the mess you made." he made his way into the water and got into the stance "I'll seal the demon back up myself. Iced Shell!"

"No Gray you can't do this to me , do you have even the slightest idea how long it took me to melt that ice?! Sealing it again isn't going to stop me, I'm never going to rest until I've finally defeated Deliora!"

"I can't worry about the future, I have to do this to keep it from killing all of us right here and right now!"

"Or we can go for plan B." Luke stepped in front of Gray and promptly activated his Thunder Drive technique "As in the plan where you don't sacrifice yourself, you get your senpai out of her and you let me handle this."

"Don't be stupid, just get the hell out of my way!"

"If I didn't let you kill yourself before then why would I do it now? I'm not going to let that happen to any of my friends or comrades again remember?" he watched as Deliora let a fist fly forward.

"LUKE DON'T!"

"You already know that Fairy Tail wizards never know when to quit, because they don't give up until the bitter end. Dragon Slayer Secret Art… ROARING THUNDER!" packing as much power into his fist as he could, Luke fired a blast of lightning from his left hand at Deliora, the force of the blow resulting in a massive backlash of magic power that sent Luke tumbling backwards, while Deliora itself suddenly began to crumble and fall apart.

"What the hell…? But that shouldn't be possible…" Gray's expression was one of pure and total disbelief.

Lyon's on the other hand was one of mostly horror "No… No, it can't be!"

"Deliora… it was already dead…"

"For 10 years… Ur spent the remainder of her life as the Iced Shell gradually depleting the life force of the demon… and what we saw was nothing more than its last dying breaths…" now filled with pure frustration, Lyon slammed his fist into the ground "My dream is dead… there is no hope now… I will never surpass Ur…"

"Ur… I guess she was even more amazing than either of us thought." Gray had full on tears streaming down his face "You saved my life again… Ur… thank you…"

Luke pulled himself out of the rubble and looked out at the water gushing out of the temple and into the open ocean 'So the ice that was once the wizard Ur melted and turned into water that flows into the open sea. Even if she isn't physically with us, Gray said before that she's still alive so that's good enough for me. From her new place in the seas, Ur will be able to watch over her beloved students forever. It's like she's looking down at them telling them not to fight with each other anymore.' he looked over to see Natsu, Erza and the others rushing onto the scene and gave a small smile 'And now that that's taken care of, there's only one last thing we have to do before we can go home.'

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A short amount of time went by, and everyone regrouped along the shore of the island.

"OH HELL YEAH!" Natsu let out a flaming roar of triumph aimed at the upper atmosphere in his oblivious joy "Yeah that's right people, we won!"

"Yeah, somehow we pulled that off." Luke glanced over at Gray "You know part of me was a little bit nervous about fighting another one of Zeref's demons, but I guess everything worked out in the end thanks to your master."

"WE TOTALLY FINISHED AN S CLASS QUEST ALL BY OURSELVES! HELL I BET GRAMPS IS GONNA LET US ON THE SECOND FLOOR NOW AND LET US DO ALL SORTS OF AWESOME SHIT-" Natsu was silenced by a chop to the head from Luke and the rest of them were silenced by a dark glare from Erza.

"I think you guys are forgetting two things."

Lucy quickly broke out in a cold sweat "Oh crap, you guys are still going to punish us after everything?"

"Make that one thing. The original request that you guys took was to help the villagers return to their normal forms, Deliora originally had nothing to do with it so you still haven't completed an S class quest yet."

"What? But I don't get it, the curse should be lifted now if Deliora is dead."

"That's not the case, the villagers being cursed never had anything to do with the demon in the first place. The villagers were being affected by the intense levels of magic energy that the Moon Drip spell was releasing, which means that the death of Deliora isn't going to change their current situation in the slightest."

"But that means… Oh no."

"Which means that we still have a fair amount of work ahead of us if we want to change the people back, starting with figuring out how."

"I think I know where to start." Gray glanced back at Lyon "Hey Lyon, do you know anything about changing them back?"

"To be quite honest, I don't have any sort of clue." Lyon told him flatly.

"Are you sure you don't know?" asked Lisanna "We heard from the villagers that the curse started around the same time you and your friends got here."

"When we first arrived on this island three years ago we were already aware that there was a village somewhere on this island, but we had absolutely no reason to communicate with any of the villagers so we left them alone until now, and they never came to the temple to see what we were up to."

"You mean you've never interacted with any of them in three years?" asked Erza.

"That is what I said yes."

"But I don't understand it, the light from the Moon Drip is so bright that you can see it from almost anywhere on the entire island." Lucy pointed out "It's kind of weird that they saw it pretty much every night and never went to investigate it."

"The villagers weren't transformed by the Moon Drip, it doesn't affect the human body in any way."

"Yeah cut that bull-" Natsu paused and glanced at Lisanna "Stuff, cut the bullstuff. How do we know you're not just saying that so you and your lackeys will be off the hook?"

"Just think about it, I've been exposed to it for as long as they have and my appearance hasn't changed in the slightest."

"That does make sense." Luke frowned in thought "So then what could've caused it?"

"I wouldn't trust them if I were you, those villagers are hiding something but of course I'm sure you guild wizards can handle it."

"Well they're still the clients who hired us, but with that being said you did still destroy the village-"

"Please stop Luke, that's enough." Erza told him quietly "They all have their reasons."

"Everyone does, it's just a matter of whether or not they have good reasons."

"This is more debatable, but it's certainly understandable. All of Lyon's followers, they all lost the people they loved at the hands of Deliora and they wanted to get revenge and closure over their losses. They were simply doing what they believed to be right, and that's all any of us can do."

"...And it's all that any of us really should do, I guess I jumped the gun a little bit."

"We all have those moments, but it doesn't matter at the moment. Let's get going."

"Right.

"But what are we gonna do to lift the curse?" asked Natsu.

"Do what people in Fairy Tail always do, improvise." he glanced back to notice Gray staying behind, but he and the others left anyway.

Lyon scowled at the look Gray was giving him "What the hell are you looking at?"

Gray let out a sigh "Look I know you don't want to hear it, but I really do think you should try and join a guild. You'll make some new friends, you'll meet some new rivals, and maybe you'll even find a new dream you can live for."

"...Whatever, just get out of here."

"Yeah, sure thing." Gray gave him a small smile and then went on his way to join up with the others.

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Soon enough, Luke and the others met up at the village storage/ camp area, only to find that there was no one in sight "Are you guys sure this is the place?"

"Yeah, this is the place they were using for camp." Lucy told him "I wonder where they all could've gone."

"Probably hiding somewhere in case more Lyon's men showed up."

"Well since we're here I might as well I'm gonna go ahead and grab some bandages and some medicine." Gray made his way inside one of the tents.

"Might as well, he got pretty beat up fighting his senpai."

"You guys finally made it back!" that was when one of the villagers rushed up to them "Come on and follow me to the village, there's something you guys need to see!"

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And so they did, only to find that the village had been completely restored.

Luke blinked "Okay so destroyed village was completely restored, not gonna lie was not expecting that one. Everything looks like nothing even happened."

"What the hell is going on here?!" Natsu started punching one of the buildings "It's like pretty much everything is back to how it was, it's like the village went back in time!" he was promptly grabbed by the back of his shirt by Luke and pulled away from anything breakable "Hey what the hell dude?!"

"Stop talking about everything being fixed like it's a bad thing, and for that matter stop breaking things."

"ARE YOU SAYING THAT I DESTROY EVERYTHING I TOUCH?!"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Back in time though… Wait no it couldn't be him."

"What is it?" asked Erza.

"That Mountain Dragon Slayer I fought said that one of his comrades used some kind of time based magic, so maybe it could've been them. Well I guess that would make sense, he didn't really strike me as evil, just doing what he had to do. But then again, I'd probably pick up the scent of someone else here wouldn't I?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Lucy.

"...It's nothing, forget it." Luke glanced over to see Moka sitting by Bobo's grave, which had been restored along with the village 'I'm guessing that's the village chief and that's his son's grave that Lisanna told me about, it's a good thing it was brought back along with the rest of the village. I'm sure the chief must be relieved about that too.'

"Tell me young man." the chief glanced back at Luke "You and the rest of your wizard friends used magic to restore our village didn't you?"

"I'm guessing it will be a lot easier if I just say yes."

"I can't tell you how much I appreciate it, however there is one thing I still need you and the others to tell me."

"And that is?"

"When are you wizards finally going to destroy the moon for us?!"

'...Wait they were serious about that? I thought they were just kidding.'

"Well, answer me!"

"I honestly have no idea what to say to that."

"You have no need to worry." Erza quickly assured Moka "Destroying the moon is but a simple task for us."

"I can't tell if you're just screwing with us or if you're actually Natsu levels of insane or if you're actually planning to destroy the moon, either way I think you need some serious therapy right now."

"But before I do that I need to ask all of you a few questions, would you be so kind as to call everyone together in the center of the village for a meeting?"

"Well at least that makes more sense."

"Give it a few minutes." Bolt told him.

"For the record I'm still punishing you when we get back."

"Fuck!"

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A few minutes later…

Soon enough, Erza and Luke had found everyone from the village gathered in front of the gates, and she began questioning them "So let me see if I understand this correctly and have all of the facts straight, the first time everyone in this village took on these demonic forms is when the moon began to turn purple, is that correct?"

Moka nodded "That is indeed correct yes, during the day we're fine but when the moon comes out we transform into what you're seeing now."

"And you said before that the moon first started to turn purple around three years ago, isn't that right?" asked Luke.

"It feels as if it's but a fraction of that time, but yes."

"Uh huh. Erza I honestly have no idea where you're going with this, but you usually know what you're doing so I'll let you take the lead on this one."

Erza nodded and started pacing around the village "Very well. From what we know so far the Moon Drip ceremony has been performed on this island every night for the last three years, and each night it produced a beam of light so brilliant that you couldn't possibly have missed it-" but then she let out a yelp as she hit Lucy's pit trap and fell in with a loud thud that left several of the others shaking in a mix of terror and disbelief.

"Okay so a couple of things to note now. One, yes she screamed like a girl and yes it was cute but if any of you value your lives then what happens in the pit trap stays in the pit trap. Two, a pit trap? Are you guys for real right now? Three, you okay in there?"

"I'm fine." Erza climbed out of the pit trap and continued on as if nothing even happened "But in all seriousness, did none of you ever wonder where that light was coming from?"

'Yep she got up like nothing happened, but everyone is too scared of her to comment. That sounds about right.'

"That's what I don't understand, why did no one ever bother to investigate?"

"Actually that's a fair point, why didn't anyone ever bother to look into it?"

"Well…" Moka let out a sigh "We would've looked into it, but according to the lore of our village our people must never go near that temple."

"Your own people are dying because of this curse, village lore shouldn't mean anything in comparison to the lives of your own. It's obvious that you knew that there was a problem, why else would you have contacted the magic guilds for help?"

"Oh. Well…"

"Why don't you just tell us what's really going on here?"

"To be honest we don't even know that ourselves, please just allow me to explain. We've tried to investigate the light many times, we'd take up weapons we've never had to use, I'd trim and style my sideburns and then we'd venture in the jungle towards the temple but we could never get near it. We'd get close enough that we could see the temple through the trees, and then suddenly we'd find ourselves back at the gates of the village."

"But that doesn't seem right, my friends and I got into the temple without any sort of problems like that so what makes you and your people different?"

"We never said anything to any of you earlier because we were worried that you wouldn't have believed us. We're telling all of you the truth, we've tried to go back to the temple many times but not a single villager has ever been able to get inside."

"So that's it." Luke shared a glance with Erza and both nodded.

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Noah (now sporting a large bruise on his cheek) observed the discussion from his perch high atop a cliff just outside the village gates "Well what the hell do you know, I figured the likes of Luke and Titania would be able to figure that out as fast as that. I guess not all Dragon Slayers are mindless brutes after all."

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Erza wasted no time in requipping into a gold and blue colored suit of armor "Alright Luke let's go, we're going to have to work together in order to destroy the moon." this was met with various horrified gasps from Gray, Lucy and Lisanna, with Natsu just pouting in what appeared to be jealousy.

"Okay, if you're sure about this then I'm all for it." Luke was met with several stunned looks of disbelief.

"It's the only way we'll be able to change the villagers back to their human forms." Erza was met with various cheers from the villagers.

"So what is your plan for this to work exactly, do we do it from the top of the temple? It's a lot higher up there so it might be easier."

"We'll do it from here, the villagers can't go near the temple and they need to witness what's about to happen."

"Or else they won't be satisfied, I think I understand." he leaned in and lowered his voice "Just for the sake of being clear we're both just screwing around right?"

"Of course we are, there's absolutely no way we're destroying the moon."

"So then what exactly is our plan?"

"You're about to find out, but for now just play along." Erza quickly got the attention of the rest of the villagers "The suit of armor I'm currently wearing is known as Giant Armor, it increases my physical strength and allows me to throw farther." she used her Requip magic to summon a massive spear "This is the spear of Haja, it repels darkness."

"That's right, Erza intends to use the spear of Haja to blow the moon clear out of the sky before our very eyes."

"That is my intention yes, however I'm afraid I'll need to harness more strength than this armor will be able to supply for me. This is where you come in Luke, I'm going to need you to use your Lightning Dragon's Roar to give it a boost. When I throw the spear I want you to hit it the back of it with your Roar, the result should be a backlash of enough kinetic energy to help it to reach the moon. Now we'll have to time our attack perfectly, but I believe that you should be able to give me more than enough power to get the job done."

"I give you my word as a Fairy Tail wizard, we'll pull this off or die trying." they started to climb up to the highest point in the village "Okay this is fun."

"It's necessary to complete the job." Erza aimed her Spear of Haja up at the moon, and with a mighty roar she hurled it into the sky "Now!"

"Right! Lightning Dragon… ROAR!" Luke breathed out a roar along with a blast of lightning, the force blowing apart the tower and propelling the Spear of Haja higher and faster "You think that did it?"

"If all goes well then it should hit our target right about… now!" sure enough the Spear of Haja hit what appeared to be the moon, but once it shattered it revealed the moon in place where it always was, only it lost its purple glow and the sky around it shattered, revealing a barrier over the entire island itself "And that should return the villagers to normal at any moment now."

"So that's what you meant, there was a spell cast over the island but it wasn't the moon that was causing it."

"That's right, as a result of the spell there was a noxious membrane covering the island. The Moon Drip was releasing evil energy in the form of a gas, that gas took on a crystallized form and formed an invisible shell in the sky that covered the island."

"And that's what caused the moon to look like it turned purple up there, it was actually just the color of the shell."

"And now that the shell has been broken everything should go back to how it was three years ago."

Luke glanced down at the villagers, only to find that their appearance hadn't changed in the slightest "I'm not so sure about that."

"That's nothing to be concerned about, the reason their appearance hasn't changed is because these are their true forms. The Moon Drip never had any effect on their appearance, but with that being said it does appear to have altered their memories."

"Which means what exactly?"

"That means that they think they're humans who were transformed into demons, but in reality it was just the other way around."

"So to put it so simply that even Natsu could understand it, they've always been demons right from the get go." this was met with gawking and a couple of looks of terror from Natsu and the others.

Gray glanced over at one of the villagers "Hey is that true?"

"Well, I mean it might be." the villager let out a sigh "I mean my memory is kind of hazy to be honest, but we all looked pretty human when you met us didn't we?"

"Yeah but that's because all of you possess the ability to look human." Luke told him "The spell messed with your memories and they led you to believe that your temporary human forms were actually your true forms, but the fact of the matter is that you were demons who fell victim to the side effects of the Moon Drip. As for why Gray's senpai and his lackeys weren't affected, my guess is because they were already human to begin with, from what Erza was able to deduce the only ones that were affected by the memory loss were demons."

Erza nodded "Yes, I knew what was going on as soon as the villagers told me they were unable to go to the temple. The moonlight collected there was sacred, and because of that creatures of darkness couldn't go near it."

"In other words, they couldn't go near it because of what they are."

"Well what do you know, you guys proved to be quite the detectives." a new voice noted, freaking out Natsu and the others once they realized it was Bobo, or rather Bobo in what was now known to be his true form "Thanks a ton wizards, I owe you guys one."

Moka was left shaking when he locked eyes with him "Bobo… but I thought… all of us thought you were…"

"Well yeah it hurt pretty bad to get stabbed in the chest but it takes a lot more than that if you want to kill a demon." Bobo let out a chuckle.

"But we were on the boat, you just disappeared into thin air." Lisanna pointed out "I used my mermaid form to search all around for you but I never found you."

"You weren't looking in the right place." Bobo suddenly sprouted wings and took to the air, freaking out the others considerably "I really hope you kids can forgive me for not telling you the truth sooner, you see I was the only one who didn't get hit by the memory loss and I had to leave because everyone went nuts. I knew I was a demon but everyone else, well all of a sudden they thought they were humans who got cursed."

"Bobo… BOBO!" with tears streaming down his face, Moka suddenly sprouted wings as well as he burst into the air and pulled Bobo into a bone crushing hug.

"I'm so glad you finally snapped out of it pops!" this prompted all of the other villagers to join in for a group hug.

Luke let out a sigh "Yeah they're definitely demons, but that doesn't necessarily mean that's a bad thing. Looking at them now, they actually kind of seem like angels don't they?"

"Let's have an all out feast tonight to celebrate, I say we party demon style!"

"Demon style maybe, but I still say they can't top a Fairy Tail party. That's just straight up impossible."

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Toby and the others looked down at the village from a short distance away, and he nervously glanced over at Yuka "Are you really gonna go down there?"

"It's not like I have any sort of choice." Yuka let out a sigh "It just wouldn't be right to leave things as they are right now, you just stay here with Cold Emperor Lyon okay?"

Sherry nodded "We have to do this, it's all in the name of love."

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Luke downed a drink and watched as Gray was dragged away by several of the demon girls from the village "Looks like a certain someone is getting a lot of attention from the ladies."

"You seem to find that amusing." Erza noted.

"Give it a few hours, he'll scare them off at some point."

"Truth be told I must admit, I was wrong about you humans." Moka let out a sigh "All these years we've chosen to hide from the outside world, we were so afraid that others would judge us by our appearance."

"People are prone to make those sort of rash judgements about people, but not everyone is like that."

Bobo let out a chuckle "You know the curse, that was actually just a rumor we spread so no one would come to the island and bother us."

"Well it definitely worked, it took me and Erza forever to find any sailors who were willing to take us here."

Moka nodded "I know, it's truly such a shame but after meeting all of you we've changed our minds. You and your companions have restored our faith in humans, and now we're not afraid anymore. We're ready to go out and befriend people from other lands."

"That's good. Friendship is a really beautiful thing, it's an emotional bond that transcends the physical appearance and goes far deeper." Luke glanced over to see several of the villagers looking fearful, and he glanced over to see Yuka and Sherry standing before them "And here come the mood killers."

"Those are the minions of the Cold Emperor, now what do we do?"

"Just hang back, my comrades and I will take care of them." Gray pulled himself to his feet and made his way over to them, with Luke and the others right behind him "Is there something I can help you guys with?"

"You Fairy Tail wizards proved to be quite formidable." Yuka noted "The Cold Emperor is so badly wounded that he couldn't even make it down here, and that's why we've come to pay you a visit in his place."

"So you've met with Lyon, that means he told you everything that happened didn't he?"

"We did and he did yes, but that doesn't matter to either of us. We wanted to settle things with you ourselves."

"If that's what you want then so be it, but you'll have to go through me first."

"Hold on a second." that was when Bobo stepped forward "We're grateful for your help but we can't keep relying on you to save us from anything that moves, so please just let us handle them ourselves."

"You sure about this?"

"Of course I am, if we want to protect our village and each other then we have to protect it with our own two hands."

"Hold that thought you guys." this was when Luke and Erza stepped forward "Under any normal circumstances we'd agree with you, but I think it's for the best if you let us handle it this time around."

"So we meet at last, Thunderclap and Titania of Fairy Tail." Yuka noted "From what I've heard you gave Noah and Angelica both quite the beating during your encounters with them not too long ago. You both seem to be extremely formidable opponents."

"We've already heard about your abilities, your friend over there is able to control inanimate objects to her will. Using our magic on you won't do anything but inflate your ego, you specialize in cancelling out any magic used on you. Old fashioned way it is. Erza you get the living doll, Bushy Brow over there is mine."

"Very well then." Erza promptly dealt Sherry a spin kick to the side.

Luke struck Yuka in the gut using the hilt of his sword, the force of his and Erza's attacks sending both of them crashing to the ground "If we're useless without magic then we don't deserve to use it, a true warrior knows how to fight with or without it instead of just using it to blow stuff up all the time."

Yuka pulled himself back to his feet despite the pain, with Sherry doing the same "I can see it now, you're both truly amazing warriors. We're no match for either of you."

"So then you're not here to attack the village or its people then, so what exactly do the two of you want?" Luke was met with a sigh.

"I doubt this is going to make amends for all of the trouble that we've caused you, but we wanted to apologize in person. The Cold Emperor, he wants you to stop calling him senpai by the way, he told us everything about what happened. It's thanks to all of you that we're finally able to let go of the pain we were caused by Deliora so many years ago."

"Yeah that's right, Erza mentioned you guys lost your families when it rampaged on your homes."

"When we were children the monster ravaged our village, we watched it murder all of our friends and family. The Cold Emperor had a plan to kill the demon once and for all, that's why we joined him in the first place. What we wanted was to get revenge, and we were focused on getting it we never stopped to think about how we were hurting innocent people. We were so blinded by our hatred that we ended up acting no better than the demon itself. From now on we'll try to treat other people with respect and compassion, as you do."

"...Works for me." Luke gripped both of them by the shoulders "I think you guys should stick around and see how we party Fairy Tail style."

"Wait what? But we were enemies just a second ago, I'm not sure if that's such a good idea all things considered, plus she's trying to watch her figure and-"

"Big whoop I know a woman back in Fairy Tail who's responsible for at least 30% of our alcohol budget and she's got the figure of a goddess. Just live a little bit, life can turn out to be a lot of fun if you just give it a chance.

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What no one realized was that Noah was observing the inevitable celebration from his place perched atop a cliff outside the village, and talking into a communication lacrima "So were the two of you able to see all of that Siegrain?"

"We were. Tell me Noah, why did you restore the village using Ultear's time crystal again?"

"I'm not in this to be a dick, just call it a favor for all the crap they went through, and to Luke for dealing me that little present on my cheek."

"Well it is your decision, but in any case you had better leave before they find you. Those wizards of Fairy Tail, they could pose quite a threat if they were to get in our way."

"Yeah well I'm a lot nicer than you and Ultear, I won't kill them if I don't have to."

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Morning came, and the sun was shining over the skies.

Luke glanced over at where Natsu was eating fire, and then he glanced down at Bolt "So what happened to our two party crashers?"

"Pretty much the same thing as most people that come to a party, they stuffed their faces and took off without a word." Bolt told him.

"Sounds about right." Luke glanced over at Gray, or rather the light scar on his forehead underneath his bangs "So I guess that's gonna leave a scar there, unless Porlyusica can do something about it."

"You say that like she will without bitching at us." Gray gave a shrug "Whatever, it's not like it really matters. I don't mind having a few scars as long as I can see them, the ones that sting are the ones that you can't see."

"Too true, I know all too well. Those kinds of scars are the ones that never go away, they always stay with you not in body, but in mind. I know exactly what that's like."

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A few minutes later…

"What?" Moka and the other villagers gawked at Erza and the others in disbelief "But miss you and your comrades deserve the reward, so please just take it!"

Erza shook her head and gave a small smile "We're grateful for that, truly but your gratitude is payment enough."

"That's nice of you but you should still take the money."

"I can't because your request was never officially accepted by the guild, it fell into the hands of a foolish wizard trying to prove himself even though he wasn't qualified for it." Erza pointed over to where Natsu and Gray were beating the crap out of each other behind her luggage cart "The pink one I mean."

"Foolish as they may be, if it wasn't for them then we would never have been saved. What if I give you the money not as a reward, but instead as our way of thanking you? It's the least I can do after everything you've done for our village."

"Well… When you put it that way you make it quite difficult to say no. But that being said, I still can't accept it because if we did then it would be contrary to the principles of our guild. On the other hand, we would be happy to take you up on the offer of your Gate Key along with the money."

"The Gate Key?!" Lucy bolted upright with hearts in her eyes "Come to mama!"

"She's the only one of us who actually uses them."

"Well at the very least you should let me take you back to Hargeon." Bobo offered "I mean you need a boat in order to get back to shore don't you?"

"I thank you for the offer sir, but Luke and I still have a boat waiting."

"Wait what?" Luke glanced over at Erza "That was more than a full day ago, you mean you never let the guys on the pirate ship leave?"

"Of course not, we needed a way to get home and the men on board were more than happy to stay until we needed them again."

"...So you bascially seduced them through a mix of fear and sex appeal."

"Call it what you will."

"I'm calling it exactly what it is."

"What it is is that they've become quite fond of me."

"After you beat the ever loving crap out of them, personally I'd rather swim back to Hargeon."

"Didn't you swim for about half of the trip?"

"It's a good workout, you never get anywhere in life by taking the easy way." and as that discussion continued, the Fairy Tail group made their way out of the village amidst the massive cheers coming from the villagers.

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Lyon and the rest of his followers watched the ship sail away from the island from their place atop a cliff near the coast 'And thus a story ends, and yet a new one begins.'

"You know they weren't so bad after all." Yuka noted.

Toby on the other hand was outright bawling "I'm totally not crying you guys, I've just got something in my eyes!"

"You could've fooled the rest of us."

Sherry glanced over at Lyon "Tell me Lyon, are you alright? You never got the chance to say goodbye to your friend and give him your love."

"No need to worry, it's fine." Lyon assured her, then gave a small smile aimed up at the sky "The two of you were in a guild at one point weren't you? Tell me, what exactly is it like?"

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Meanwhile, in Era…

Siegrain glanced back at the doorway to his quarters to see Noah enter, followed by a woman with violet colored hair in a white kimono "So I take it you've come here to report in person then?"

"You know me." Noah gave a shrug "Some things just can't be fixed so what the hell can you do?"

Ultear nodded "Indeed, it's quite a shame that the plan with Deliora didn't work out."

"Well how the hell were any of us supposed to know that the demon was already dead?"

"Perhaps."

"No need to worry." Siegrain assured them "Such a setback is relatively minor, next time we'll be sure to be more thorough."

"And I'll make sure that such mistakes won't happen again, I had no idea the spell cast by that wench was so powerful."

"Yeah well at least I know not to speak of my mother that way." Noah pointed out "Does Ur really need to shed another tear. I have no idea why I just said that. Anyway Ur was as brilliant a mage as they come, I would've loved to see her in action in person."

Siegrain nodded "Indeed, Noah does speak the truth. In fact I believe that if she were still among the living today then she would be counted among the Ten Wizard Saints."

"Probably higher than you." this caused Siegrain to sprout a small tick mark "Looks like I struck a nerve."

"I have no intention of letting such trivial things cause me to lose my composure."

"You're both giving her far too much credit." Ultear let out a scoff "My mother loved her magic and nothing else, it's no wonder that wench was abandoned by my father."

"They say that the greater the loss suffered by a person, the stronger they must become in order to triumph over it."

"I highly doubt that my mother ever felt that I was that great of a loss."

"You never know." Noah gave a shrug "For all we know she probably took on those students to fill the void you left behind?" he was met with a finger brushed against his mouth "I'd take that thing away if I were you, you have no idea where it's been." this caused her to retract her hand and wipe it against her robe. And against Noah's shirt.

"Could we please just change the subject you two? I think it's time for us to move onto the next stage. Also Noah, what happened to your face?"

"What do you think, Luke punched me out before Deliora got revived."

Siegrain let out a chuckle "You never cease to be amusing Noah."

"Give me time."

"So how was he, did he prove to be as worthy of an opponent as I told you he would be?"

"I wasn't able to get a good read on him, neither of us were using more than half of our power when we fought each other, but he's definitely someone you've gotta keep an eye on. The guy spent 18 months training outside of the kingdom, word is he even trained with the top ranked Wizard Saint so I guess it's not that surprising. He's definitely not someone you would want to underestimate in a fight."

"I suspected as much, he is the son of the Lightning Dragon Kaminari. In order to him to realize my dream, I'm going to need him to to continue to light up the skies for the time being."

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A few days of travel went by, and the Fairy Tail team was making their way through the streets of Magnolia once more.

"OH HELLS TO THE YEAH, WE'RE HOME!" Natsu pumped a fist in triumph, earning a few eye rolls and a giggle from Lisanna.

"Well that sucked." Gray muttered "All of that worked and all I got was a scar and we only got stuck with a lousy Gate Key."

Bolt nodded "I know what you mean, we got screwed out of big time S class reward money after all of that."

"Not that you ever deserved it to begin with." Luke pointed out "You took the job without permission so it was never official in the first place, as far as I'm concerned you guys got off easy so you have nothing to complain about."

"Oh come on!"

Lucy let out a chuckle "You know he has a point, now quit complaining."

"Look who's talking Loonie, you're the one of us who actually got any sort of reward out of this whole thing. You think we could pawn it for some cash?"

"How the hell could you even suggest something like that?! You just don't get it, these Gate Keys are hard to come by. Sure there are lots of silver gate keys but this is one of the golden 12 Zodiac Keys, there are only 12 of them in the world and I'm lucky enough to be the owner of 5 of them."

"It's too bad they're all fucked up." Natsu muttered.

"Hey you watch your mouth you pink haired punk, me and my Celestial Spirits are gonna be stronger than you someday!"

"Of that I have no doubt." Luke gave her a small smile "So which one of the 12 Zodiac Keys did you end up getting?"

"Oh this time I picked up Sagittarius the centaur."

"You mean the guy with the horse legs?"

"Exactly."

"I thought that was a dude with the horse head." Gray commented.

"You're thinking of a minotaur, and I don't even wanna know what the hell Natsu is thinking of right now."

"None of us ever do." Luke let out a sigh "As fun as it is to talk like this be sure to keep in mind what's waiting for all of you when we get back to the guild."

"Wait what? Why the heck do we still have to be punished, everything worked out in the end so can't we just forget the whole punishment thing?"

"Everything did work out sure, but only because Erza and I came along in time to make sure you didn't get yourselves killed doing a job you weren't qualified enough to do. Stealing an S class quest is a serious offense to the guild."

"But we said we were sorry."

"But with that being said, promise me you'll never do it again then I don't think you'll be penalized by the guild too badly. But with that being said me and Erza don't have any say in that matter, Makarov is the one holding all the cards right now so you'll definitely have to be punished on some level. Lucy you're still new and I'm willing to put a good word in for you, the others on the other hand will probably have to deal with that and that's if they're lucky."

"JUST KILL ME NOW!" Gray suddenly exploded "I DON'T THINK I CAN LIVE IF I HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN!"

"Well to be fair Gray you and Lisanna were the ones sent to retrieve them, so even if you do have to go through that at least you won't be first."

"HA!" Natsu barked out a laugh "Sucks to be you Gray, I can talk the old man out of punishing me and Lisanna no problem, that guy loves us."

"He loves Lisanna, and you can't talk your way out of this one Natsu so that means you're going to have to face that first."

"...BYE!" Natsu tried to make a beeline away from the scene, only to be grabbed by the back of the scarf by Erza and dragged along "NO SOMEONE SAVE ME, NO NOT THAT, ANYTHING BUT THAT!"

"You brought this on yourself."

Lucy, on the other hand, was sweating intensely "Will someone please just tell me what the hell that is?!"

"Something you won't have to go through, not just yet at least." Luke glanced over at noticed that the townspeople were staring at them and whispering "You know Natsu and I can hear everything you're saying right, what did our guild do to piss you off this time?"

One of them actually had the courage to speak up and answer him "You guys didn't do anything, we're just kind of surprised that Fairy Tail wizards don't know about it yet."

"Don't know about what?" Luke glanced ahead and and his expression hardened at the sight before him, that being the guild hall having been torn apart "Oh. That. Fuck."

A/N:

And thus comes the second half of the Galuna Island arc. I tried to hold off mentioning that Noah was an Earth Dragon Slayer (or Mountain Dragon Slayer as he's referred) for the sake of not spoiling it for anyone too soon. All I had planned out in advance was his magic type, his name and his affiliation, I hadn't really planned out anything about his personality in advance, so be sure to let me know what you think.

In case the ending didn't make it clear, I'm going to do what the manga did and skip episodes 19 and 20 of the anime, and it's going to jump straight into the Phantom Lord arc, which I am extremely excited about writing.