Chapter 71

The Demon Swordsman

Soon enough, Erza Knightwalker, Sugarboy, and Hughes made it to the Royal Capital which was also the headquarters. When they arrived, they all took a good look at the giant lacrima that was hovering just above the city.

"Oh crap! Look at the size of that thing!" cried Hughes. "It's huge! Isn't it awesome Erza?!"

"I saw it, Hughes," replied Erza. "I saw it when we arrived. It is rather exquisite."

"Yes. That lacrima alone contains the magic power of tens of thousands of people which is the equivalent of a hundred wizards," hummed Sugarboy. "Not to mention that it also contains other people inside as well."

"Never mind the details, Suagrboy! The point is that it's awesome!" said Hughes excitedly. "I mean do you guys even understand how awesome that lacrima even is?! It's like super mega awesome!"

Then another man came walking up to them. He was a short elderly man who had a strange nose and large eyes with horned eyebrows on top of them. His body was covered mostly by a cape that was decorated, which had a wide collar and two large medal-like ornaments on the front with a simple dark robe underneath it.

The man looked at Erza with a slight condescending look. "Miss Erza, I heard that you still haven't been able to eliminate the Fairy Tail guild," he snickered. "I'm starting to wonder when you will be able to wipe out that troublesome guild. You're starting to tarnish your name as Fairy Tail."

Erza eyes narrowed at the man. "Byro. So you're here too," she spoke.

"Fairy Tail is the only magic guild that's remaining and hasn't disbanded," continued Byro. "I understand that they're the fastest when it comes to run away making them difficult to track down, but his majesty's patience is at an end and is demanding results."

"Now, now. No need to rush the lady," said Sugarboy. "The day the goddess fells the fairies is close at hand."

"They think they're tough, but those fairies don't stand a stance against her," added Hughes. "Besides, Erza's awesome with a sword! She'll finish them with one fell swoop, you'll see!"

Byro replied with a throaty laugh. "We'll soon see," he said.

Then someone else came walking to them. The being had a muscular build like a human's but had the face and head of a panther with his own battle armor with a cape draped around his body.

"It would be wise to cease that unnerving laugh of yours Byro," the being spoke. "I don't like annoying noise and it's grating my nerves. And that also goes for you too, Hughes."

Hughes glared at the being feeling angry. "What the heck's your problem, Pantherlily?!" he snapped. "You swank around thinking that you're so much better than the rest of us. Well, you'd better think again because you're not awesome at all!"

"And you need to watch your mouth," Panterlily shot back.

He then walked past the captains and Byro not saying another word.

"My, my. It seems that Pantherlily's in a bad mood," mused Sugarboy.

"He's apparently displeased by the sudden increase of armament," spoke Erza.

"Is that all? I thought that he'd be elated," spoke Sugarboy. "Especially since that he's a military man himself."

"You would think that however, our kingdom has nearly united the entire world," said Erza thoughtfully. "I must admit that even I see no reason to build our arsenal any further."

"Perhaps it has to be with something to do with the pockets of resistance that are still out there," Sugarboy hummed thoughtfully.

"That may be so," said Erza. "But we're perfectly capable of handling them ourselves."

"Aw, come on! Would you guys speak in plain English please?!" cried Hughes in frustration. "I don't understand a thing you're saying!"

"Then maybe you should learn to keep your eyes and ears open rather than your mouth," said a voice. "You always were the type of person who doesn't listen, Hughes."

Everyone in the hallway then heard the sounds of clanging footsteps following the voice. They then saw another person walking down the hall from the opposite direction.

The person coming wore black armor covering mostly the upper body with a large chest plate and semi-heavy armor on the shoulders and arms with a white bodysuit underneath exposing the abdominal region. The person also wore a traditional hakama matching the color of the bodysuit that had ballooning pants with black metal boots with a long sword strapped to the side. On top of the head was long silver hair that went to the waist tied in a ponytail and a helmet matching in color of the armor that was completely faceless and had three horns on it. Two of them were on the sides and one in the middle.

The moment that everyone saw this being walking towards them, everyone went silent seeming to be surprised and frightened upon seeing the being with the exception of Erza who kept a neutral expression.

"It's... it's you...!" murmured Hughes. "But... what are you doing here?!"

"His Majesty, King Faust summoned for me," the being spoke in a low and metallic voice. "Since you appear to be having trouble tracking down that troublesome guild, I was summoned to help with the search and eliminate the guild and its people once and for all."

Erza then looked towards Byro. "Did you know anything about this?" she asked.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps not," smirked Byro letting out a wicked chuckle. "Besides, what does it matter? You now have someone else helping in the search, Miss Erza. And who better to have with us than none of the deadliest and most powerful warriors in our arsenal?"

Suddenly the black armored person looked at Byro seeming to be glaring at him. "Don't get so cocky, old man. I'm here because the king summoned me here, not you. I only take orders from the king and him alone. All those who dare to give me orders or stand in the way of my king's will shall meet the end of my blade."

Byro wasn't smirking anymore. "You dare say that to me? You superior?" he demanded. "I don't care if you are the king's loyal servant, you'd better learn your place, you filthy-"

The black armored person then drew its sword and pointed it dangerously at Byro's face. The other captains immediately readied their weapons thinking that the black armored being was going to kill Byro, but thankfully the being kept his sword pointed at his face threatening to stab him.

"It would be wise for you to mind your tongue when speaking to me, old man," the black-armored being spoke. "We may be on the same side, but I refuse to be ordered around by someone as senile and cowardly as you."

"Now, now. Let's not do anything hasty," spoke Sugarboy calmly. "Why don't you settle down and put away the sword?"

"Kuromen, lay down your sword," said Erza. "As annoying as Byro is, he's still the Chief of Staff. If you kill him, the king will be greatly displeased with you. And you wouldn't want that, would you?"

Kuromen looked at Erza and after a few seconds, then he calmly sheathed his sword with a clink.

"Very well. As you say Miss Knightwalker," he spoke. "I apologize for any trouble that I have caused. Now if you'll excuse me..."

And with that, Kuromen walked away leaving Erza, Sugarboy, and Hughes staring at his back as he walked while Byro was holding his hand to his chest trying to calm his pounding heart. Erza especially watched Kuromen in a mixture of emotions. Mostly, anger towards Kuromen for pointing his sword at Byro, fear from how intimidating he was, and awestruck from him not taking anything from Byro.

"Oh man... I never thought that the king would summon him here," hummed Sugarboy. "He's as defiant and intense as ever."

"Who the hell is that guy?!" asked Hughes. "And what is with that attitude of his?!"

"I'm surprised that you didn't know, Hughes. Then again... it's been a while since I've last seen him," spoke Sugarboy. "He's known for being one of the strongest warriors in all of Edolas, on par with Erza. He's also a frightening fellow. So much so that even Pantherlily steers clear of him. I recall Erza here fighting that person and she had barely managed to beat him."

"Not only that but around the time when the king wanted all the guilds to be disbanded, he's been able to destroy a large number of them all by himself," spoke Erza. "Because of that, he's known by a couple of names. 'The Black Beast.' 'The Masked Samurai.' But the king, as well as everyone who comes across him, calls him by another name... Kuromen the Demon Swordsman."

Hughes looked at Erza incredulously before looking back towards Kuromen's disappearing figure.

"Whoa... that... is totally awesome..." he murmured. "But also... freaking scary."

WILLY'S POV

The two of us walked all around town trying to search for any clues or information about the Royal City or anything about the lacrima that was Magnolia, but we didn't find anything. We even went as far as to split up to cover more ground, but we still didn't find anything. Eventually, the two of us met up in an alley, so we wouldn't be seen and so no one would hear us.

"Any luck finding anything?" I asked Gajeel.

"Nothing. I couldn't find a single thing in this town worth mentioning," replied Gajeel.

"Man... what now?" I wondered. "Where are we supposed to go from here?"

"Well, I guess we'll just have to start asking around," said Gajeel. "It should make things a little easier."

The two then exited the alley taking the hoods off of our heads and then went around trying to ask people for some information.

I went up to a young woman and her two kids that happened to walk by. "Excuse me, ma'am," he said. "But may I have a moment of your time and I ask you something?"

The young woman took one look at Willy and not only didn't respond to him but walked away taking her kids with her.

Gajeel came up to a young man that was walking by. "Yo. Mind if I ask you something?" he asked.

The man looked at Gajeel and walked right past ignoring him.

"Hey! Get back here," Gajeel spoke crossly. "I'm talking to ya!"

But the man paid no attention as he continued on. Me and Gajeel tried, again and again, asking people, but one after another they would either walk past ignoring us or would just avoid us entirely.

Gajeel was now starting to feel irritated. "What's their problem?!" he growled. "Some friendly place this Edolas place is. These jerks make the other jerks we have to deal with back at home look like a bunch of saints."

"No kidding," I agreed. "But we can't give up now. There's gotta be someone we can ask around here."

We continued walking around hoping to ask someone else to help us when we noticed a group of three men snickering and glaring at us. One was tall, had a small afro of gray hair with a beard to match and wore a green long-sleeved shirt and brown pants, one was average sized, had a brown mohawk of sorts, and wore a blue shirt with a purple jack with white pants, and the third was short having a large brown afro wearing a brown vest with a white shirt underneath with gray pants. They all also had mustaches and wore black sunglasses.

I for one wanted nothing to do with them considering my recent experience with thugs like these, but Gajeel was smirking from cheek to cheek as he went over to them.

"Gajeel, hold a minute," I said. "You don't need to bother with those guys. They're obviously looking for trouble."

"Yeah. You may be right about that, but there's one thing that's the same wherever you go," smirked Gajeel. "There's always some clowns that can be convinced to helping you out."

Gajeel was soon right in front of the three men. The three of them scowled at the iron dragon slayer not wanting to back down.

"Hey, punk. You looking to start something with us?" asked the mohawk guy.

"Yeah. Step off you horsefly!" scowled the brown afro guy.

"Lousy horsefly? Me? You must be talking about somebody else," spoke Gajeel.

"Who else would I be talking about?" said the mohawk man. "Unless you've gone deaf in the ear."

"If you don't like 'horsefly', then how about maggot instead?" laughed the brown afro guy.

All three then laughed rudely at Gajeel thinking what they said was pretty funny. Gajeel wasn't amused.

"It wasn't that funny," he spoke.

Then Gajeel gave the mohawk guy a hard and wicked headbutt right in the middle of the guy's nose causing the guy to fall flat on his back dazed and stunned. I for one couldn't help but wince at the hard blow.

"Oh man, he'll be feeling that tomorrow," I murmured.

The other two men then glared at Gajeel now angry at him for hitting their leader. "You bastard! You wanna piece of us?!" they roared as they clenched their fists and swung them aiming for Gajeel's face. Their fists slammed into Gajeel's forehead with a mighty clang, but he wasn't fazed by the attack at all. Considering the fact that he was an Iron Dragon Slayer, Gajeel's skin was harder than... well iron, making the blows ineffective.

The two men recoiled in pain holding their fists in agony as they throbbed and swelled. Gajeel then punched the brown afro guy in the nose while he punched the guy with gray hair in the gut making the two fall down to the ground in pain. The mohawk guy recovered from the blow and saw his two buddies on the ground. He wasn't feeling very confident anymore. Gajeel then grabbed a guy by the collar pulling him up close to his face as he glared at him threateningly.

"Listen, a giant lacrima shoulda popped up somewhere around here recently," he said. "And you and your buddies are gonna tell us where to find it. So start talking!"

"I-I-I dunno!" the mohawk guy squeaked shaking his head furiously. "I have no idea where it is!"

"Is that so? Then maybe I should jog your memory," spoke Gajeel. "Get ready for another wallop."

He brought his head back about to headbutt him again, but I immediately came up placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Gajeel, that's enough," I said. "There's no need to get excessive."

The mohawk guy nodded furiously his face now pale with fear. "Yes! Please don't hit me!" he begged. "We honestly don't know! I swear! Right fellas?"

The mohawk guy's two friends shakily got back on and nodded not having any idea either.

Gajeel clicked his tongue and then let go of the mohawk guy. "Fine then. Guess we'll have to ask someone else then," he said. "You guys are off the hook, so get lost will ya?"

"Geez. What the heck happened you, Gajeel?" asked the mohawk guy. "I mean when the heck did you get so strong all of a sudden?"

"Wait... do you mean to say that you guys know him?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I never would have taken him for the kind of guy who goes around picking fights with people," said the brown afro guy. "Normally you'd just stay out of the way or disappear."

"I doubt that these guys would know Gajeel personally," I thought. "So they must be talking about someone that looks like him. Could it be Gajeel's Edolas counterpart?"

I looked back at Gajeel and I could tell that he was thinking the same thing I was.

"Look, you must have got me confused with someone else," said Gajeel. "I may look him, but we just look alike. That's all."

"You sure? Because you definitely look like him," said the mohawk guy. "Like exactly like him."

"Just answer a question of ours," I cut in. "What does the Gajeel you know do for a living around here?"

"He's a freelance journalist and has a notorious reputation in Edolas for being way too nosy about stuff," said the mohawk man. "That guy's written a whole bunch of magazine and newspaper articles criticizing the king."

"Yeah. And that's also the reason why no one in town can stand him," added the brown afro man. "He's a real busybody."

"Well, I guess that explains why everyone wasn't talking to us," I said. "They must have assumed that we were freelance journalists."

"But you gotta admit it though, a freelance journalist sounds interesting," smirked Gajeel. "I say we go meet this guy, so we can get the scoop on him."

"Do any of you know where to find this Gajeel?" I asked the three. "If you do know, that would really help us out."

"I heard that he's somewhere in Sycca City," said the gray-haired man. "We don't know for sure if that's where he is, but it's a good place to start."

"But if you're planning to go there, you two better watch out for the Royal Army," said the mohawk man. "If you guys tick them off in any way, they'll arrest you on the spot!"

"Duly noted," I replied. "Thank you very much for the info."

Gajeel and I then walked off leaving the three men behind us.

"Well then, I guess we're heading to Sycca City," I said. "Hopefully it's not very far. Although, it would help if we have some kind of map. That way we can at least know where we are."

I looked around trying to find some form of a map. Then I saw a male merchant next to us and saw that he had a bunch of papers of which I could assume that they were maps. I went over to the merchant and then got myself a map and went over to Gajeel opening it up.

"Well, what do you know," said Gajeel. "Edolas looks just like back home if not only a little different when it comes to names."

I took a quick scan of the map until I found our current location.

"Alright. This is where we were when we first came to Edolas," I said pointing to an area on the left as I traced over to another area to where the map said Louen. "And this is where we're currently at right now." Then I traced over to the part of the map that read Sycca. "And this is where those guys said where we'd find Edolas Gajeel." I then traced my finger over to where it said Royal City. "And this is the Royal City is where the lacrima containing Magnolia and all of our friends is located."

"Damn... that's a long ways away," spoke Gajeel. "Not only that, but those guys mentioned something about there being soldiers over there. As if things can't get any more complicated."

"Well, let's take things one step at a time," I said. "First, we'll head over to Sycca and try and see if we can find the Edolas Gajeel. Maybe he knows a way for us to get to the Royal City without having to walk there. Till then, I guess we'd better start walking."

I had just started to walk hoping to get to Sycca as soon as possible, but then Gajeel grabbed my wrist stopping me.

"Hold on a minute. If we're going to this Sycca place, then we'll need to get there as quickly as possible," he said. He then flashed a mischievous toothy smile. "And I know just the way to get there quick."

I gave Gajeel a sideways glare immediately knowing what he had in mind. "No way. You can just forget it."

"Oh come on! I didn't even say what it was yet, ya jerk!" complained Gaeel.

"You didn't need to. I already know exactly what you were thinking," I spoke huffily. "You were planning on having me carry you as we use my wings to get to Sycca, right?"

"Good guess," smirked Gajeel. "You must be psychic or something."

"It's not gonna happen," I said crossing my arms. "I never exactly carried an actual person for that great a distance before and you're not exactly the lightest person out there considering that you're an Iron Dragon Slayer. Not only that, but we can't just use our magic out in the open like this. If someone saw us, we could get arrested catching the unwanted attention of the king."

"Then we'll just have to not let anyone see us then," said Gajeel. "Besides, you were able to carry me before."

"That was only because we practically were in the sky when we entered falling to our deaths!" I cried.

"Oh, quit with the whining and excuses," scoffed Gajeel. "We really don't have a lot of options at this point. With your wings, we'll be able to get there in no time at all and without having to walk. You do wanna save our friends right?"

I let out an exasperated sigh gently facepalming my forehead. "Well... I guess if you put it like that... but don't come crying to me if we fall to the ground due to your weight."

"Shut up. I'm not that heavy," Gajeel said. "And if you drop me, I'll give you a knuckle sandwich!"

Gajeel and I then scaled on top of one of the tallest buildings making sure we were high enough, so no one could see us. This was the second time I had to carry him, but I had many concerns about flying this time around. The first was someone seeing us and second, the desert that laid ahead which was the direction of where Sycca was. I really didn't want to fly through that, but I didn't really have any choice in the matter. Time was of the essence. I just had to hope that I didn't get too hot or dehydrated.

Gajeel, on the other hand, was excited. "Alright. You ready to fly, Waterboy?" he asked. "Cuz the sky's calling my name!"

I looked at Gajeel scowling a little. "I'm going to pretend that you didn't call me that," I said. "But yes. I suppose I am. Make sure you hang on."

I then took hold of Gajeel by his arms and then spread my water wings. Then I concentrated my magic power towards my feet. Then...

"WATER DRAGON AQUA JET!"

Like a rocket, water gushed from the bottoms of my feet and we shot into the air like a rocket. When were high enough into the air, I spread my wings and my feet gushed with water as were now flying. As we flew, I was a bit surprised to find that while he did have some weight, he wasn't all that heavy. Speaking of the Iron Dragon, his eyes seemed to sparkle with excitement as we flew.

"Man! This is the only way to travel!" he whooped. "This just be how Salamander and that sky girl feel when they fly with their kitty cats!"

"Don't get used to it!" I called. "Just be sure to hang on!"

And with that, I flared my feet as we shot across the desert heading towards Sycca flying as fast as my wings could carry me.

I've noticed my lack of updating on the Wikipedia of this story, so I'll try to work on updating it now.

Till then, you know what to do. PM and Review me if you have any questions.

Dragoman out!