The Fallen Dragon

by Draconian Enigma

Natsu loses his world and gets taken to an alternate version where he must recover and build new bonds with this world's Fairy Tail over time. Natsu is stronger, darker, smarter, but can still be a little bit of a goofball. Contains gore, violence, swearing and other mature themes so read at your own discretion. AU to AU. If these themes upset you, just don't read. Info in Profile.

8. Bandit Troubles (R)

I'm just going to reiterate my warning from the end of the last chapter; this will not be a pleasant chapter once the bandits come into play. So, if you're easily triggered, then prepare yourself, because you're in for a dark chapter.

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"Knock, knock~." Sang a woman of unparalleled beauty as she appeared from a burst of white divine light. She sat down on the edge of the queen bed and gazed around the room, only spotting the pink-haired Shock Trooper. "Where's Lelyanna, I could have sworn I sensed her with you?"

"You just missed her." Natsu informed the woman. He took his eyes off his diary for a moment and pointed to the bathroom door with his thumb. "Just hopped on the can." The man returned his attention to his entry and continued to fill out the most recent events. "Give her a few minutes."

"That's fine, probably for the better really. I wanted you to inspect the clothes that I grabbed for her." Ceres placed the duffle bag she had slung over her thin shoulders onto the bed and unzipped it. "I grabbed boots that would fit her foot size, and found some clothes that seemed to belong to a woman of a similar body type to her."

"And those little charms of yours?"

"Already on the clothes." A gentle, melodic hum flittered throughout the room as the goddess laid out the garments on the bed. "I've made the necessary changes too, so they'll hug her body as if they were made for her. Just so they don't rustle when she moves about."

Natsu finished up writing and closed the book, and as usual, he sent it away for safe keeping before he rose from the chair and stood beside the deity. His eyes roamed the gear she had laid out, checking for imperfections. "Did you have to show me that you got her black lace bra and panties too...?"

"I wanted to get her something that matched. I had also found some kind of harness that looked like it would strap around your torso, and was thinking of grabbing it for you for your weapons…"

"No, it's fine. I don't need it now and if I do then I'll just make some or get some made for me. The coat you got me has enough storage along the inner lining for me to carry what I need inside it, and if I wanted the magnetic mounting system built into the back of the harness for the coat, I could easily replicate it. My SPSR will need it anyway due to the length. But right now, I don't plan on carrying those weapons openly, not until I can do something about their uniqueness."

"And it would get in the way of those swords you commissioned too, right?" Ceres looked up at the man and crossed her arms under her bust, her head tilting ever so slightly. "I was watching your training of my little priestess, and saw that you went to check on that weaponsmith. I still can't believe that you stuck your head inside a running furnace…"

"I mean, it's not like I can catch fire, you know."

"I know, but it was still shocking."

The gentle click of a door being open drew their attention to the priestess, clad only in her white dress. She gazed blankly at the pure-white woman before smiling brightly and trotting over, her small feet pattering on the hardwood floor. "Good evening, Lady Ceres." When she reached them, she glanced down and leaned over the bed, smiling brightly at the dark clothing that consisted of black pants, boots, and long coat with a hood, and a dark grey long-sleeved crop-top shirt. "Are these clothes from Natsu's… they look a little small."

Yeah, well, you're a woman who is on the smaller side. At least it would make it easier for you to slip between objects without getting stuck. Get dressed, we're running low on time." Natsu turned his back to the women and sat back down at the desk. He brought out his DMR and began to check it over to make sure it was ready for action. The air shifted, and he felt a prickle run across the back of his neck. He raised his eyes from his rifle and looked at the wall in front of him. "Whatever you're planning, don't."

"Wha…?"

Ceres gasped softly from behind him, and since he hadn't heard any rustling of clothing, he half-turned to the two women and stared at them out of the corner of his left eye. "Don't try and prank someone who has enhanced senses and the ability to passively perceive the emotions of those all around him. I sensed that little spike of mischievousness coming from the two of you."

"Hmph, hard-arse." The goddess grumbled, but the slight curl of her lips and the twinkle in her eye were too plain to see. She wasn't about to let this go just yet, and the sly glance she shared with the priestess showed that neither would the young woman. Ceres smiled freely as she turned to the bed and admired her work. "Well, Lelyanna, might as well do as he said. The clothes should fit you just fine, but I'll stick around just in case I need to make adjustments. And you…" She quickly pivoted and faced the man, pointing toward the wall in front of him. "Eyes forward, Mister."

"Yeah, yeah." Natsu shrugged and turned his attention back to his rifle. While he worked, the rustling of clothing tickled his ears but he tuned it out. "Lelyanna."

"Yes?"

"Remember how I was telling you about my eyes, how I can see into the Infrared part of the light spectrum?"

"Yeah, it helps you see in the dark. Right?"

"I feel obliged to tell you a quirk of Infrared light; unlike visible light, Infrared light can pass through some fabrics, especially when they are thin, and it will reflect off the skin underneath and come back. I'm sure you understand that how everything that has the ability to see does it by having light reflect off objects and bounce into our eyes."

The young woman was silent for a moment, the only sound coming from her was the rustling of the smooth fabric belonging to the clothing followed by a clinking of a belt. "So, if light passes through the fabric, like it would with glass, you can see under the clothing?" Natsu felt her gaze rest upon his back for a moment before it drifted away slowly. "So… can you see under my nightgown?"

"Under the right circumstances, I can, and clearly. But these lights don't emit enough infrared for me to get a clear view; I only a slight illumination of your body, no real detail beyond how it is shaped. I figured I'd warn you before you exposed that gown to a stronger light source, like open sunlight coming in from the parted blinds." Natsu paused his check for a moment and gazed up at the ceiling. "Oh, and you're probably wondering about those clothes you wore during training. The colour and material do a better job at blocking light, I can't see through those even with full sunlight."

"I know!" Ceres chirped playfully. "Let's paint a message on your stomach, if his eyes go to it then you'd know he's been perving on you."

"But his vision is so good… he could probably read it in his peripheral vision."

"I could. Plus, that top is a crop-top, so everyone else would too."

"Ok, so you've gone from perv to show-off?" The deity chuckled and smirked at the man's back.

"Said the woman who wanted to write some potentially perverse message on her follower's stomach. You've been hanging out with Io too much I think, that closet perv of a goddess. Who knows what ideas she's been putting into that head of yours."

"Say, Natsu. Your eyes… were the others like that?" Lelyanna asked softly as she padded over to him and pushed herself up onto the desk. She was halfway through dressing and just had her lace bra on to cover up her chest but since she felt comfortable enough around the man that it didn't bother her too much. She leaned back and looked down into his dark onyx-green eyes with an innocent curiosity.

Natsu's eyes drifted up from his weapon, slowly rising up the woman's slender body until he reached her pale-turquoise eyes. "Yes, they could see into the IR range like I can. But their vision wasn't as sharp as mine, save for Wendy and Gajeel. While you do look good like that, it's hardly suitable for wearing outside in the weather we've been having. So, hurry up and put the last of your clothes on."

"Okay, I might need help with the weapons though." Lelyanna hopped off the desk and threw on the shirt. It hugged her breasts like her dress did but between it and her low-rise pants, it showed off a lot of her midriff. It was a little embarrassing but when she looked in the mirror, she couldn't help but like how it looked on her. It was a nice change from her dress and it made her look more like a Jaeger with their eccentric fashion. She looked back at Natsu and smiled brightly as she asked, "How do I look?"

"Cute but in a different way to when you're in your usual outfit. That's innocent cute where this is more of a sexy cute. I think the clothes suit you." Natsu replied honestly, letting his eyes roam her body. "You should keep these in your wardrobe and use them for the warmer months."

"Hm, it's heading into winter, so I should look into getting something suitable for working in that weather." Lelyanna murmured in thought as she looked back at the holster and harnesses sat on the desk beside Natsu. The white leather would give a nice gradient to her clothes that transitioned from mostly black to some grey then to a little bit of white. "Can we get a white sheath for my knife? I would like it to match my holster."

"Hold on." Ceres walked over to the desk and reached down. She tapped her finger on the black sheath and turned it white. "There you go. Let me know if any of the clothing needs adjusting to better fit your body."

"Oh, thank you, Lady Ceres." Lelyanna looked at herself in the mirror as she twisted and turned, admiring her reflection. "It seems to all fit properly. I can move pretty well in them and they don't feel very restrictive." She grabbed the waxed cotton coat from the bed and quickly put it on to test the fit. She lifted the hood to see how it would look and how it covered her hair and protected her from the rain. "Thank you again, Lady Ceres."

"If you two need anything else, just let me know. It adds a nice touch of excitement and entertainment to my life." Ceres gave the two mortals a motherly smile. "I'm heading home now, good luck with the job."

"The clothes feel snug but they're comfortable." Lelyanna bowed gratefully to the goddess. "I love them."

"It's not the only thing that'd be a snug fit." Ceres grinned playfully before vanishing with a flash of divine light.

"Huh?" The woman stared blankly at the space that the deity just vacated before turning to Natsu for an answer. But as she opened her mouth, she blinked rapidly as she came to a stark realisation.

"She's talking about sex, Lelyanna."

"Y-yeah, I realised that." The woman pulled her hood down over her face, masking her darkening cheeks. "I-I'm innocent, not naïve… We get taught all about this stuff by the other sisters as we grow up." She took a few deep breaths to calm her heated cheeks, only then did she lift the hood. She quickly slipped out of the coat and carefully laid it out on the bed. "Could you help me with my gear?"

"Ok." Natsu grabbed her weapons off the desk and walked to her. He handed the holstered pistol to her and knelt down in front of her. "Just don't get so excited this time." He murmured with a shadow of a smirk as he began to buckle the now-white sheath to her right thigh.

"Try not to feel me up so much then and I won't." Lelyanna shot back playfully. She put on her harness and glanced in the mirror, smiling as she admired herself. "You know, I think I could do away with the innocent young priestess look, at least when we're out on jobs or are just around your manor. I really like this look."

"Like I said, it looks good on you." Natsu rose to her feet and gave her a little push back toward the mirror so she could admire herself some more. He grabbed her coat and walked up behind her, placing it over her shoulders.

"Thank you." Lelyanna smiled at the man, blushing gently as she slipped her arms through the sleeves and adjusted her clothes. She glanced back at her jewellery and frown; she didn't want to leave it out but she didn't want to rely on Natsu all the time. "Umm, Natsu? Could you teach me how to use Requip? I want to be able to do what you do with your gear and clothing, you know, store them for when I need them."

"Sure, I can do it when we have some downtime during the day. But don't expect to be able to pick it up immediately, magic can be very fickle and some people just aren't compatible with some magics, and there are some types that you can't learn."

"Like how you were gifted dragon magic." Lelyanna returned to the bed and sat down, habitually crossing her legs. "About requip magic; how does it work?"

"It's a bit harder to explain in this world since you don't have computers or computer games… I used to explain it like a character's inventory space; they have their equipped gear – what you and I are currently wearing – then they have their inventory which sometimes wouldn't match with their physical appearance…" Natsu sighed and stopped himself from rambling. He sat down beside the young woman and held his hands out like he had something between them. "Think of it this way; between my hands is an invisible chest. This chest is a pocket dimension, one which I create with Spatial Magic, and this chest holds my stuff. Hold out your hands with your palms up."

"Ok?" Lelyanna did as she was instructed, and watched as Natsu placed the invisible chest onto her hands. "So, I have your chest, now what?"

"Now, this chest isn't physical, as I said; it doesn't exist in the same dimension as you and I. But through magic, this chest exists and I can prove that by doing this." The man pointed to his left and a holographic window was projected with his Requip Magic which contained categories like 'Armour', 'Clothes', 'Weapons', 'Ammo', 'Medical', along with many more. "What you're seeing is the contents of that chest you are 'holding', this is my Inventory. You can see how each category is laid out. So, say if I go into weapons," He tapped on the screen and the folder dropped down to reveal the contents. "You can see the SPSR, M7BR, MG80, and so on but since my SR32 is currently on the desk, it isn't listed here. It's the same for the armour I used to wear."

He quickly navigated to the category to show her it. "It's listed as a whole and subbed to that is the individual parts like the helmet." With a tap on the screen and some mental directions, his helmet appeared on top of the woman's hands. "Now that helmet is out of the non-physical inventory and is in the physical world, I can put it on. Since I am skilled with Requip, I can also put it on directly from storage. The same is true for putting it away; with my magic, I dictate the object I want to put into inventory providing it is within close proximity, then trigger the spell."

The helmet flashed away and the listing reappeared in the armour folder. "And boom, it's back in my magic chest. That's the best way I can explain it off-the-cuff like this, in the morning or whenever it is we wake up, I'll write up the theory for it so you can read and hopefully fully understand and begin to practice. The added bonus of keeping things stored this way is that their state doesn't change, so gunpowder doesn't begin to deteriorate, batteries don't go flat, and any rations you have will not go bad or get contaminated."

"I suppose it comes down to whether I'm capable of using any other magic or just what Lady Ceres blessed me with…" The woman dropped her hands to her legs and gently rubbed her thighs as she gazed up at the man. "You remember that I wasn't capable of using magic without her, right?"

"I believe you would be able to, since you can do everything that a normal mage can do. Take in Ethernano then use that to fuel your magic in the shape of your spells. All you would need to do is know what form the spell you're shaping is, and practice creating the spell. Once you're good enough then it can become second nature and you would barely even need to think about the process." Natsu stood and grabbed his rifle, sending it away so it would be away from curious gazes. He brought out his binoculars with their pouch and attached it to his belt. "I believe what she had done was gift you with the ability to use magic as a whole and gave you healing magic as your natural magical affinity, just like my affinity is for fire magic. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you're the best healer in the world due to being granted your powers by a deity."

"Eh-heh…" Lelyanna blushed and hid her cheeks behind her hood, turning her gaze away from the man. "I'm certain there are people who are far better than me."

"Currently, that may be true. But don't forget that you are learning medicine and medical practices from a civilisation that is far more advanced than your own. And that you've been adapting that knowledge to work in this world. You could easily outshine those currently better than you in very little time. Speaking of which…" Natsu pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch. "Since we're all done, let's get out of here."

"Alright." Lelyanna smiled and followed the man to the door where he grabbed his coat, but she glanced back at the window above the bedhead. "Should we open the window, just in case we can't get into the Inn?"

"Yeah, but just take it off the latch and crack it open barely." He watched the young woman hurry to the bed and climb onto it, crawling along on her hands and knees until she reached the top and began to fiddle with the latch. She must have felt his eyes lingering on her as she glanced back at him and gave him a little playful smirk and wiggled her hips.

"Staring at my butt, are you?"

"Lelyanna, you're in tight pants and are bending over which is sticking your ass out while you're unlocking the window, so of course I'm going to be looking at it while watching you. And shaking it will just draw my attention to it even more." Natsu took the time to store her bag, keeping her valuables safe within Requip.

Lelyanna giggled quietly and slipped the window open just half-a-centimetre before hurrying to his side. She followed the man out into the hallway and waited for him to lock the door. Her hands went up to the lowered hood around her neck as she toyed with the idea of keeping it down or putting it up.

"Something on your mind? I can feel you're troubled."

"We priestesses usually cover our faces with our veils… But I can't do that with this… And I mean, you're changing to fit into your new role, so I feel I should do the same and have two versions of myself; your supporter who wears gear that's good for dirty work, and the archbishop who dresses to suit her role."

"I understand wanting to hide a face like yours, you would draw a lot of attention due to being adorable."

"Yes." Lelyanna cheeks tinted a faint red as she fell in-step next to the man and made their way down the hallway. "And while I don't mind revealing my face, especially to those I trust like you. I'm not the biggest fan of having everyone lusting after me."

"I'm pretty sure that little scuffle we had when we arrived would have sorted out that issue. They know you're armed and will pull it if someone tries something with you."

"Hmm, maybe you're right. And since they know about the pistol, do I really need to conceal it?" The woman trailed off as she pondered her question. She fiddled with her coat but decided to leave it on since it was warm. "It'll be good if I can learn that magic… then I can just send it away like you do when I don't need it."

"Put it to the back of your mind for now, use that desire later for your study."

As they descended the flight of stairs leading to the front-of-house, eyes began to turn their way, one after another. Lelyanna couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious about the stares and murmurs but she kept a passive expression, ignoring the gazes that ran their way up and down her body. Once they were outside, she let out a sigh and ran her hands down her body trying to brush the residual unwelcome feeling. "Could you ogle me for a bit? I want to wash off this unwanted feeling."

"You want me to ogle you…?"

"Yes. Natsu, I saw a bed with you, you should know that I'm comfortable with your eyes on me… I prefer having your eyes on me rather than some slimy bugger that I don't know. You saw how I reacted when that guy tried coming onto me…" She stepped in close and held her arms to her chest as she pressed herself against the man's warm chest, using his radiant heat to cleanse herself. "You know just how much I hate it…"

Natsu sighed softly and pulled the woman out of the streetlight, bathing them in darkness as he put an arm around her waist and ran his hand through her hair to sooth her. "Don't take too long to shake it off, we need to get a move on. If you still feel put-off once we're back in the room, just let me know."

"Natsu…?" Lelyanna murmured into his chest before lifting her pale-turquoise eyes and gazing up at the man's shadowy outline. "Is it ok if I carry one of your weapons, one of the bigger ones. I know you haven't trained me on any of them yet… But I just want to give off the 'don't eff with me' feeling."

"And you think that carrying a rifle that this much more advanced than anything in this world would satisfy that need?" Natsu asked quietly, his hand coming to a stop in her silky hair as he carefully studied her face. When she nodded slowly, he let out a deep sigh and gently moved her back. "Okay, okay. I'll let you carry the SR32, but keep it slung over your shoulder. If you get questioned about it though, say that it's one of my personally made weapons used for taking out targets at long range. It already has my logo so no one will question it."

"Thank you." Lelyanna gave the man a small smile as he brought out his rifle and hung it from her shoulder by the sling. She gave him a quick hug and looked over her shoulder at the rifle. The priestess followed the man out of the shadows and down the streets. Her breathing became a little laboured as she followed him up the hill and she asked, "Did you walk like this often, and in full armour?"

"In the war?" Natsu looked back at the woman and nodded. "Yeah. Full kit, so my weapons, ammo, grenades, armour, plus some other stuff all on my person as we didn't know when we'd encounter a Magic Suppression Field and have our spells blocked. It could get heavy for a normal person but it was nothing to us."

"Wasn't it tiring? We're barely halfway to the station but I can already feel this rifle becoming dead weight."

"You get used to it, though I'm not saying it wasn't daunting even for people like me. Even Shock Troopers had their limits."

"And I know that big rifle of yours is weighty, even with all of your advanced materials."

"Yes, now add the weight of the ammunition, those aren't tiny cartridges." Natsu chuckled softly and he turned his back to the woman, continuing up the hill. "You know, this whole situation is fairly calming."

"It might sound crazy, but this is likely your comfort zone. You're just so used to combat that it calms you down when you're about to get into it. I understand that you'd want to hide your past from people here but it's such a drastic change for you – going from all-out war to a calm life – that it can't be good for you, mentally."

"No. It's not an easy thing to deal with. That's why I try to keep myself busy."

"If you ask me, you need to find a healthy bridge between the two. But only you will know what that healthy bridge is."

"I'll give it some thought." Natsu replied and he took a deep breath. He restructured his face into his usual hardened expression before he pushed open the door to the station and was met with a different man behind the reception desk. "Is Remick still up? Wanted to let him know that we'll be beginning our overwatch."

"He was having a nap right after dinner, said to wake him near midnight so he ought to be out the back or upstairs still. Want me to grab him?"

"Yes." Once the man had disappeared out the door, Natsu turned to the silver-haired woman just off to his left. "That's not getting too heavy for you?"

"No, it's fine for now." Lelyanna adjusted the weapon slightly and shifted the weight. She crossed her arms under her bust and waited by his side for the head guard. Though, they didn't have to wait long as the door by the waiting room opened and Remick stepped through.

"Is it time?" The man asked the pinkette but his eyes were drawn to the strangely familiar woman beside him and the weapon hanging from her shoulder. "Is this the specialised equipment you were talking about? Also, is that who I think it is…?"

"Yes, it is, to both of those questions." Natsu sighed internally. He knew that it was a bad idea going along with Lelyanna's idea when she wasn't in the best state of mind but her wellbeing came first no this man's suspicions of his rifle. "What better way to kill something as weak as a human than with a bullet, even more so when you can do it at a great range."

"Aren't you a mage though?"

Natsu sighed and held out his hand, emitting rich orange flames from the tip of each digit. "Yes, but do you really think any spell you can think of can outstrip a bullet? Say that I was set up on a hill with my Marksman's Rifle." He slipped his rifle from Lelyanna's back and held it side-on to the man. "With this optical sight mounted on top, I can see long distances. Now, say you were a hostile mage that didn't know exactly where I was but knew I was in the area. Do you think your magic would stop me from turning your entire head into pink mist? Not only that, but I've trained to be able to conceal my presence and use my surroundings to my advantage. You can't see me, you can't sense me, you can't attack me without giving away your position by way of your magical signature. But I can see you and I can hit you from well over a kilometre away and you wouldn't even know what had killed you." Natsu gently placed his weapon back on Lelyanna's back and turned to the man, giving him a wry snarl. "And mind you, that rifle isn't even the biggest one I have. That one would blow you apart with a shot to the chest while saying 'fuck you and your armour' and will say that to the four or five people behind you too."

Lelyanna's lips tweaked up in a shadow of a smirk as she cocked her hips. "I agree with him, I've seen enough duels between nobles to know that firearms have caused a need for more cautious mages. And they just use ornate single shot pistols, not like the ones he and I carry or the revolvers that you guards use."

"Do you even know how to use that thing, your Grace?" Remick narrowed his eyes at the woman, specifically the holster poking out of the coat beside her left breast before his gaze flicked up to the pale-turquoise orbs that twinkled slightly. "You may look the part of a Jaeger…"

"I'm going to stop you right there." Natsu grunted and gave the man a cold stare. "Do you really think I'd put someone of her stature in harm's way without giving her proper training? Yes, she does know how to use it."

"Regardless." Lelyanna turned to leave, but glanced back over her shoulder. "Be prepared, they may not come tonight, but I don't want you all to slack off. Lives are at stake here."

"That's all we came here to say." Natsu added as he followed the woman to the door. "Just to let you know that we're going on overwatch." Without another word, they left for the church so they could take up a position in the bell tower.

---

Late into the third night of their investigation, Natsu stood in the belfry of the church's bell tower with his binoculars and scanned the horizon once more but he was still yet to find signs of anything unusual. He was beginning to think that they had heard that there had been a Jaeger dispatched to the area to investigate and probably moved on to avoid detection.

"Natsu, what time is it?" Lelyanna moaned tiredly with a bleary glance up at the shadowy figure towering over her, she was curled up in a ball under a blanket she borrowed from Natsu. "I don't know if I'm cut out for these long nights."

"Almost half-three." He replied quietly after a quick glance at his watch. "Do you want to head back to the room?"

"No, I can tough it out… I wish it was a bit warmer though. Or that Lady Ceres got me a sweater as well as this coat."

"Yeah, I noticed that you were shivering slightly. That and your body is behaving in the usual fashion that it would when you get cold."

"Yes… I know my nipples are hard." Lelyanna blushed lightly and sighed. She rubbed her breasts to get some heat into them and try and get the little nubs to go down. "Don't worry about skirting around the subject of my body, I'm fine with you saying whatever you want about it, remember?" She rose to her feet and pressed herself against the man's back, wrapping her arms around his waist in an effort to warm back up. "Stay put for a moment, please."

"If I voiced everything I picked up on, you probably would die of either shame or embarrassment. Like knowing the kind of mood you've been in while we've been sharing the bed, and the state you're in when you wake up."

"Okay, I can't help those ones..." Lelyanna buried her face into the square of his back as her cheeks turned into an inferno. "It's a natural reaction…"

"Told you so."

"And you're saying that you are any different? I swear that I've felt something poking my butt during the night. That's probably why I keep getting…. excited." The priestess trailed off to a murmur that was muffled by the man's back and she began to wonder what was hotter; his back or her face. She decided to change the subject before she dug the hole any deeper. "See anything?"

Natsu hummed softly as he gazed through the binoculars at the southern side of the town, he felt the woman slide up his back to look over his shoulder, most likely standing on her toes to peak just over it since she short. At his insistence, they had gone without the SR32 after the first night as he still wanted to keep the comparatively alien firearms a secret, leaving them only with the pistols and knives like he had originally planned. "Still nothing, no foot-traffic nor vehicles. Anything around this time would be cause for alarm."

"I wish it wasn't so dark…" Lelyanna muttered as she gazed up at the moonless sky that could only just be seen in the small gaps between large, thick clouds. She stepped back from the man and sat down on the low wall near the front of the man. "Even when my eyes have adjusted to the darkness, I can barely see anything." She noticed movement in front of her and realised the shadowy figure was holding out the binoculars for her.

"Here, you can use them since my eyes are working just fine."

"Thank you." Lelyanna murmured quickly before bringing them up to her eyes and grinning widely as the world around her came into view, albeit just in various shades of black and white. She wandered around the tower, gazing out at the four cardinal points; the church was build facing north. "Hey, I can see something not far from the town. Two vehicles coming from the north-east, down the paved through-road. Can you sense anything?"

"Hm." Natsu crossed to her side in only a few strides and gazed out across the town to the road leading in. He focused his senses and cut through the background noise of the sleeping town to focus on the occupants. "Seven, split three and four between the lead and rear vehicles. They've got a sense of malicious calmness about them. Looks like our guys, keep your eyes on them."

"They both look like cheap long-body cars… a pair of station wagons?" Lelyanna glanced up at the man, looking for confirmation.

"Probably to keep their captives concealed in the back." The salmon-haired man kept his eyes fixed on the vehicles as they rolled quietly into town; road noise being the only thing that accompanied the faint magical hum given off by their powerplants. "They're entering the northern part of town, right on the fringe. We better get a move on; I can track them from here on out." He let the woman slip the binoculars into their pouch on his belt while he shot a small fireball from his fingertip down to the guards' parking lot behind their building, it hung in the air just a metre off the ground and served as an alarm. After he collected Lelyanna up in his arms, he leapt from the tower and shot fire from the soles of his boots, controlling his descent and extending it into a glide as he drifted down to the station in time for sixteen fully armoured guards armed with bolt-action and lever-action rifles to line up in sets of four before him. "Load up. We've got hostiles in the North-western edge of town; seven, split between two vehicles."

"I'm riding with you, Station Sergeant." Lelyanna informed the man as she was set down on her feet. She placed her hands on her hips and leaned in, her eyes twinkling softly in the flare's light. "We should hurry; the more we dawdle, the more likely it is that they get away and without a trace."

"You heard the Lady! Double Time!" Remick ordered his men as he hurried past the pink-haired Jaeger. "Lead the way."

"Try to keep up. Oh, and make sure to keep the lights off, don't want to give them any warning." Natsu smirked as he waited for each group to file into their waiting vehicle before making his way down the driveway and out onto the road, with Remick and Lelyanna leading the convoy of cars. He took off at a run, accelerating quickly beyond the sign posted speed limit. The man could feel the magic pulses of the vehicles almost on his heels, so he sped up more as he came out onto the main road. Embers coalesced around his body and trailed behind him as he pushed faster, leading the cars through the small town.

Once they hit the road where the bandits had turned off onto, Natsu shut off the embers and narrowed his eyes; spotting the cars haphazardly parked on the front driveway and lawn with a pair of bandits guarding them just a little over three hundred metres from the intersection, the rest must have been inside. He instinctually activated Reflex as he leaned into the next step, shattering the road as he launched forward in the blink of an eye.

In an instant, he was between the two bandits with lever-action rifles, his hands already twisting the weapons out of their grip. He used his momentum to rotate around and bring his right boot whipping through the air and into the stomach of one of the bandits, sending him skidding along the grass. He followed through into an axe kick, bringing his leg high before driving it down on the second bandit's shoulder and tearing straight through the joint, taking the arm clean off. Before he could scream out in agony and alert the bandits inside the building, Natsu silenced him with a pair of bullets; one to the heart and the second between the eyes.

"Holy crap…" Remick muttered as he exited his vehicle, he and the rest of the guards had just pulled in around the cars and jumped out to assist, rifles at the ready. But they could only gaze in horrified awe at the man with glowing red eyes.

"Secure that one. Make sure he doesn't make a sound, but keep him alive, I need at least one that would be able to answer my questions." Natsu hissed quietly, pointing to the bandit he had sent flying before turning to the silver-haired woman dressed in dark clothing. "Come with me, we'll handle the ones inside."

"Right." Lelyanna whispered. She drew her pistol and turned on the green laser so she could aim quickly. The priestess followed the man to the door and watched as he tested the doorknob. "Unlocked?"

"No sign of damage, probably picked the lock. We've got two at the far end, three up this end, positioning suggests that they are in a bedroom belonging to one of the children, and the master bedroom."

"I'm ready." She quietly notified the man while tightening her grip on the pistol. "I'll follow you in."

"They are currently occupied; yes, it's what it sounds like. So, check your targets before you fire." He nodded over to the dead body on the grass but kept his menacing red eyes on the young woman. "Do it like that; two shots, one to the heart, one between the eyes. Or if from behind, go for the base of the skull, right where the spine goes in." He reached forward and tapped the back of her skull, right where he mentioned. "Angle the shot up slightly so it goes up through the brain stem, you'll kill instantly doing that; there will be no suffering." When the woman nodded softly, he quietly pushed open the door and made his way into the house. Right as he entered the building, he was hit with the scent of fresh blood and gunpowder; shots had already been fired, and the victim was a few metres into the room.

"I-is that?" Lelyanna whispered as she looked down at the headless body.

"Family dog, head was blown apart by a shotgun going by the holes in the wood." Natsu murmured back, but didn't linger as he quickened his pace. He quietly stalked through the house and reached the hallway; to his left were a group of four, and to the right was a group of five. With a quick gesture, he instructed Lelyanna to move down the left so they could save the two girls first. "We'll take these two out quietly; hand over the mouth and a shot to the back of the head. Keep the muzzle on an incline so you don't shoot your hand."

Lelyanna nodded and followed the man into the bedroom, she was doing her best to put the whimpers out of her mind as the two men forced the barely teenaged girls to give them fellatio. They had their hair gathered in one fist and the other holding a revolver to the sister's head so if one didn't perform the sick act, then the other sister would be killed. The woman gulped quietly and stalked up to the man on the left, her body had gone cold but her heart was racing. She forced all unnecessary thought from her mind and focused on the task she needed to do; kill. In the corner of her eye, Natsu was counting down on his left hand; three, two, one. Lelyanna launched forward, jamming the end of her suppressor against base of the man's skull and placing her free hand over his mouth. The hammer snapped forward and the slide reciprocated, the only noise was the metallic thwack of the next rounds begin pushed into battery as the spent cartridges vanished in mid-air.

As the two bodies slumped lifelessly to the wooden floor, Natsu knelt down in front of the two girls. They had been stripped bare, smacked about, and forced to preform sexual acts, something that would no doubt leave a scar on the two young children. "Grab something to wear and cover yourselves up." He whispered quietly, his red eyes flicking between them. "We brought the town's guards with us; they are out the front. You can either wait for your parents out there or wait in the lounge room, but it will be safest outside. I don't want anyone to be hit by stray bullets. But above all else, do it as quietly as possible, otherwise your mum and dad may become victims of murder as well as molestation, rape, and potential kidnapping."

Lelyanna watched as the two girls hurriedly padded around the bedroom, gathering a full set of clothes each and donning them. "Should I escort them?"

"Do it quickly and quietly. I'd at least like to take two of them alive to corroborate their story, I've already got one, so I just need one more from this group. Sounds like the leader of this group is occupied with the woman. One bandit is by the door, and the other by the bed with the man." Natsu quietly walked to the door then glanced back. "I'll be waiting by the door if I can, but if I need to step in, I will."

"Don't wait on me if you can't. I know you're more than capable of taking down three people."

Natsu turned his cold red eyes back down the hall and slowly crept towards the master bedroom. Glancing around the doorframe, he confirmed the positions of the bandits and they were right where he could sense them. Not one of them had their eyes on the door, clearly not expecting company. One had the woman pinned face-down on the bed with her head against the pillow to muffle her pained sobs and screams as he fucked her arse. The second had stuffed the woman's underwear into the husband's mouth to stop him from making noise and the bandit made sure he watched his wife be raped with a revolver pointed at his head. The third bandit was by the door, just in front of Natsu, and was probably supposed to keep watch but was instead watching the group's leader fuck the wife.

Something shifted in the air, and Natsu's eyes snapped to the captive man who was being forced to watch his wife be raped, and would probably have to watch her suffer through the other two men too while knowing his daughters were going to face the same treatment, but the man was no longer watching the woman, instead he had noticed the pair of glowing red eyes peeking around the door and silently begged the floating orbs to intervene.

Behind him, Natsu could hear Lelyanna's boots creek and her coat rustle as she passed by, accompanied by two pairs of pattering feet. He clicked his tongue, there no reason to let the woman suffer more than she already has. So, he drew his knife from his left thigh as he slipped into the room. The black metal blade quickly found a home in the chest and heart of the bandit by the door as Natsu levelled his M12 with the one holding the man hostage, he pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession, send a bullet through the hostile's heart and head before bringing the muzzle around and administering a shot to the first one, right between the eyes. Natsu yanked the knife from the man's heart and stalked over the last bandit who had begun to turn around to the door.

"Who the fuck are…"

"Shut the fuck up." Natsu growled coldly and cut the bandit off while burying the knife into the man's right lung. Now that his hand was free, he grabbed him by the neck and dragged him out of the woman then he threw him across the room like a child discarding a toy.

"W-wait, aren't you…?" The husband stuttered at the Jaeger's back while he comforted his wife, but before he could finish the question, a woman with bluish-silver hair hurried into the bedroom.

"Hmm. Hello, Lawrence." Lelyanna spared the man a quick glance before coming to a stop beside Natsu and gazing down at the stabbed man. "The children are safe. I didn't have time to check them over as I heard a crash and hurried back inside."

"Deal with the woman first." Natsu ordered, softly. "She was being fucked in the arse, dry. Can't have been pleasant. Looks like she has taken a few hard slaps too. The man is in a comparatively better condition, but probably has blunt-force trauma, he is holding in the pain to not worry her." He heard the young woman squeak softly and cover her ass with her hands, but he ignored her as he knelt down in front of the bandit. "That knife in your back is the only thing standing between you, and a collapsed lung. Believe me, it fucking sucks. You slowly begin to feel like you can't breathe, and the more blood that fills the chest cavity, the harder it'll be to breathe. Not to mention, if I pull that knife out, you'll have a sucking chest wound, and you won't be able to fill that lung with air until it is repaired."

A cool turquoise light filled the room, emitted from Lelyanna's hands as she began to tend to the woman. She glanced up at the shaken man and gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, your two girls are safe. They may need their parents though, both of them were forced to take a penis into their mouth, at gunpoint. They looked a little battered about too, I'll take you to them once I've helped your wife."

While the priestess was dealing with the victims, Natsu grabbed the bandit by the throat and lifted him into the air, effortlessly dangling him half a metre off the ground with his arm fully outstretched. "Now, tell me; where are you keeping the women you've kidnapped?"

"Why the fuck should I… FUCK!"

Before the man could finish, Natsu had pulled the knife from his back and drove it into his left thigh, careful to not hit any of the major veins or arteries that ran through it. His voice stayed cold and level as he issued a warning. "Don't try and be a smart-arse."

"Aargh! Fuck you!" The bandit gasped, struggling to breathe through the man's grip and the punched lung.

"Now answer the question or the next thing that I'll target is your cock." He gave the bleeding bandit a few seconds before he wrenched the knife from his thigh and tossed him to the ground between himself and the bed. He flicked the blood from his knife and slipped it into the sheath, then redrew his pistol and took aim at the man's crotch. "Five… Four… Three…"

"Alright, alright!" The man shouted and covered his exposed penis with his hands. His eyes were wide with terror as they stared down the barrel of the strange handgun that didn't go bang, it just clacked and popped softly and a hole appeared in whatever it had been aimed at.

"Two… One…" Natsu had still been waiting for an answer, but at the final number, he fired a round between the man's legs which skimmed the man's testicles down the centre line. He knelt down and jammed the end of the suppresser between the man's hands and right against the base of his now flaccid penis. "Answer. Now."

"FIFTEEN MINUTES NORTHEAST!" The trembling man bellowed. "T-there is a dirt road off the Sprig Creek Highway after fifteen minutes, called Margret Road! T-turn left onto it and you should reach the camp after five minutes! It's an old farmstead that we took over…"

"You're not lying to me, are you?" Natsu growled and he pushed the suppresser even more firmly against the man's cock. "I saw you come from the northwest."

"I'M NOT LYING!" The bandit screamed. "We circled around!"

"How many of you should I expect to find there?"

"Thirty, split between the buildings."

"And the captives?"

"We hold them in the barn."

"Good." Natsu slowly stood up and holstered his pistol. "You've outlived your usefulness." He growled quietly and pressed the sole of his boot to the man's fear ridden face, pushing him down onto his back and firmly holding him in place despite the intense struggle. With one great downward thrust, the man's head splattered across the wooden floor, crushed underfoot like a large, juicy grape. "Lelyanna?"

"The woman is back to full health, aside from some damage to her rectum and anus and a few hard slaps, she was still in good physical condition. Lawrence is almost finished; had some broken ribs so it has taken me a little bit longer to mend him than I originally thought." Lelyanna glanced over at Natsu as he pulled his boot from the mess he made. After a quick pulse of magic, he had cleaned his clothing and footwear and walked to the couple. "Was he telling the truth?"

"Yes. Sometimes interrogation doesn't work due to the subject just telling you want you want to hear, which is why I go for the shock tactics. Quick and easy, it puts them off balance from the beginning and they are more likely to spill their secrets when compared to the drawn-out, beat-a-man-down process. But in this case, yeah, he was telling the truth. We can expect them to be not far out of town."

"Alright." The glow faded from the priestess' hands as she rose to her feet. Though the man noticed something strange about her; while she was using her healing magic that Ceres had bestowed on her, her eyes emitted a gentle divine glow that matched the aura around her hands. "I'm all done here. What do you plan on doing with the one outside?"

"No point keeping him alive since we have what we needed to know, and I'd rather not let him walk and cause more suffering." Natsu turned to the now dressed woman and her husband, Lawrence. "Your kids are outside, waiting for you. They'll be needing their parents after what they went through."

"T-thank you. And I sorry for my actions the other night…" Lawrence had tears in his eyes as he bowed his head to both of them before both he and his wife raced out of the bedroom while avoiding the pools of blood.

"I didn't realise he was married. Must be a rough relationship." Lelyanna murmured as she stared at the door. But she quickly turned her eyes up to the glowing red orbs above her. "Did you know?"

"I could smell someone else's scent on him, but I figured it was just some easy woman." Natsu lead the way out of the room, leaving the bodies where they lie. When they exited the house, they saw the family of four embracing in one big hug. He heard Lelyanna quietly fawn over the sight but she quickly rushed over to finish tending to the children, leaving him striding across the front lawn to where the last bandit sat with his hands bound behind him and a pair of rifles ready to take his life. Natsu glanced at Remick, who stood not far from the captive. "I've got the location of hideout. It's not far from town, in an old farmstead."

"I take it that you aren't planning on taking us along?"

"No, I will bring you and your guards along. But I'm going to be assaulting them alone, with Lelyanna hiding nearby so she can quickly tend to the kidnapped women and girls. You lot will hang back and wait for my signal, my weapons are much quieter than yours so I can go about eliminating the hostiles without alerting the entire compound."

"Alright. I'm leaving one group behind to tend to the family and remove the bodies." Remick turned to a group of four that were stationed near the house's front door, letting them know that they can proceed into the building. When he returned his attention back to the salmon-haired man, he jerked his head to their bandit captive. "What about this one?"

Natsu quickly drew his pistol and executed the bandit without taking his eyes off the head guard. Like with the shots fired inside, the ejected casings vanished after travelling thirty centimetres from the handgun. "Problem solved. I'm commandeering one of their vehicles, it shouldn't put them on guard if I come close in that. Once Lelyanna is done, we'll be moving out, so have your guys be ready. I'll probably have you guys wait halfway up the road. I'll shoot up a flare when I get the kidnapped people to safety."

"Hopefully, they'll be all in the one spot and not spread across the buildings."

"I hope so too, but I doubt it. They'd probably want to test the merchandise for themselves, including the younger ones, though they would get less money if they deflower them, but even then, they'd probably just lie and say they are as fresh as the day they were born." Natsu sighed and snarled with disgust, baring his inhuman fangs as he turned his demonic eyes to Lelyanna just as she rose to her feet. "You all set?"

"Yeah." Lelyanna dusted her hands off on her pants and she adjusted her coat and shirt as she approached the man. "The family is back to full health, but I can't do anything for the mental trauma they've been through."

"That isn't so easily fixed, I'm afraid." Natsu looked past her, his red eyes settling on the family of four who had their eyes glued to the priestess' back. "We've done all we can for them. Now, we just need to find the other victims and treat them." He turned back to Remick and jerked his head to one of the bandit cars. "We're heading out and I don't want to be waiting around. To find the farmstead, head down the Sprig Creek Highway until you find a dirt road labelled Margret Road and turn left, don't come all the way in until I send up the signal."

"We won't be far behind."

"Let's go, Lelyanna." Natsu threw over his shoulder before getting into the nearby station wagon. It seemed that the cheaper cars didn't have the same primer and power setup that his does, but had a brass key card that was inserted into the centre of the dash and turned. It was probably encoded with runes and paired with the vehicle. He turned the card to prime and a light came on, and when it when out, he switched it to start and felt the familiar magic pulses of the engine. The front left door shut and Lelyanna sighed from the passenger seat, drawing his attention. "Holding up alright?"

"I just killed someone… I had my hand over his mouth and shot him in the back of the head…"

"I wish I could say it gets easier to deal with, but all that happens is that you become numb to the act of killing. Just… think of it this way, you killed that man to save two young girls. You killed because you had to not because you derive some sick pleasure from it."

"But you crushed that man's head under your foot, and then killed the man out here?"

"Simply for the sake of ridding the world of vermin. Those men were a plague on this world and had to be eliminated so they wouldn't commit any further atrocities." Natsu dropped the clutch and spun the car around on the driveway before rocketing off onto the road and racing away from the guards. "I may have been saved by a goddess but I'm no saint, in fact I'm closer to a devil just like they used to call me... I'm just some despicable demon who has lost everything that kept him human. I mean, just look at me, losing control of myself and letting my demon side come to the surface." He pushed back his sleeve to reveal maroon demonic markings, the same demonic dark red as his eyes, complete with the faint glow. "Just you wait until I start to grow claws and rip people to shreds, then we'll see who the real monster is; those goblins and orcs or me?"

"You may be a demon from another world, but I don't think Lady Ceres would have saved you if she thought you were a monster, or would become one." Lelyanna smiled softly, placing a hand on his left arm and running her thumb along the markings. "Those eyes of her see everything, after all. So, she would've decided that any action you took, no matter how violent or 'demonic', would be justified. And anyway, I doubt you would go around raping and pillaging like those bandits and monsters do."

"But you think murder and torture is a good thing?"

"If it is needed, yes. If a man is sent to war for Queen and Country, and is ordered to kill his enemy, to murder them, is it considered necessary? As said man who was sent to war for his Queen and Country, what do you think?"

"We killed so we could continue to live and ensure a better world for our families back home, and to stop atrocities from being committed on both sides of the war. No one wins a war, both sides suffer hardship, heartbreak, death and despair. It changes those who participate, and never for the better." Natsu shook his head and sighed. "We're just talking in circles now, so let's just leave it at this: Death is a matter of life and for some it comes too early and for others, not early enough. We'll just say that the people we have killed tonight had run out of time but are now no longer able to harm anyone anymore. When we die, the gods and goddesses can judge us however they see fit."

"Agreed." Lelyanna giggled softly, the confliction she felt ever since ending someone's life slowly faded and gave way to a peacefully clear conscious. She yawned softly and shifted in her seat; she didn't let herself get too comfortable otherwise she might fall asleep. "How do you function so well after many long hours on the job?"

"You just get used to the fatigue and catch up on sleep whenever and where ever you can. Though, I don't suggest taking a nap just yet, we're going twice as fast as we're supposed to be, so we've got probably ten minutes or less on this trip." Natsu's eyes flicked about the scenery as the raced along the asphalt highway. The Country must invest a decent sum into road network infrastructure as the asphalt had no bumps or pot-holes, it seemed to be very well maintained. He'd have to slow down once they hit the compacted dirt, both so he wouldn't alert the bandits through noise and dust, and so he didn't end up in the ditches along the sides of the road.

"I'm still amazed at how well your eyes work in the dark; you don't even need to use the motor car's lights."

"I admit, being the only person with these eyes does make things easier. Though, when it comes to monsters, I'm sure all it will do is level the playing field." The man spotted a small street sign in the distance; Margret Road. So, he quickly began slowing down, keeping it nice and smooth so he wouldn't send Lelyanna through the windshield. "I'm going to be parking about half a kilometre from the perimeter of the farm. I wish I had more intel about what it looked like, but we'll work with what we have. Once there, we'll push up through either the ditch or through the fields, assess the compound and see where the individual buildings sit, from there we'll deduce the location of the patrols and the captives; whether they are all in the barn or if they are spread around the compound." He checked his watch and looked out at the horizon as he turned onto the dirt road. "Dawn is approaching rapidly; we don't have much time."

"Will we need rifles?" Lelyanna asked curiously as a box appeared between them and Natsu placed his pistol down next to it.

"I'll carry the M7, but I won't use it unless I have to due to it being supersonic, the cracks would alert everyone. Top up your mag, do my too, please."

"Alright." The priestess dropped the mags from both pistols and quickly loaded his with deft hands, her training was paying off spectacularly. She slid the magazine back into his pistol and held it out to him; grip first. "Done."

"Well done." He murmured as he slipped it back into his holster. Once she had replaced the one round she had used, he sent the box away for safe keeping. "We're here." Natsu announced as he pulled off the dirt road and slowly eased the car into the ditch so it would be hidden. "Let's go."

Lelyanna glanced at the man and quietly exited the car, pistol in hand. With her free hand, she lifted her hood over her head and met the man near the dirt road. "These crops can cover our approach, right? And they should allow me to stay hidden while you do your thing."

"Looks like wheat, nice and tall too. Should work well." Natsu brought out his Battle Rifle – slung across his back – and a set of full magazine pouches on his belt as he drew his pistol and approached the wooden fence. He glanced back and held out his free hand, helping the priestess over before they disappeared into the thick slab of green.

They stayed silent on their approach, keeping low among the crops and passing through it with as little disturbance as they could muster while they covered the final five hundred metres to the farmstead. The lights were out in all the buildings, from their position at the edge of the field they could see the barn, as well as the main farmhouse, two satellite houses, a large water tower, a shed for farm equipment, and a small building which faintly pulsed with magic; most likely a generator ran by a Magic Pulse Engine, which powered the entire farm.

"What are your senses picking up?" Lelyanna whispered softly, glancing at the man before turning her gaze back to the shadowy shapes looming in front of her.

"Four hostiles in the barn's old hayloft, two in the main section of the barn in a patrol pattern, eight walking in pairs around the grounds, four in each satellite house, and the final eight are in the main house, with only three of them currently awake." Natsu pointed to each building as he listed them, but he paused for a moment and grunted softly. "The majority of the captives are in the barn, but there are two in each satellite house and four in the main house… I'm sure you already understand why."

"What's your plan?"

"I'll secure the barn first, the captives are all asleep so if I can do it without alerting anyone, then I should be able to move on the houses and secure them without an issue. Stay low and out of sight, if I'm able to, I'll bring them here and you can take them further into the fields, until it's safe to come out."

"Good luck."

"Don't connect with me at any point during this assault. I don't want to be distracted." Natsu handed her his binoculars and took in a deep breath before he let it slowly vent from his nose, falling back into the familiar flow of this deadly dance. He shot forth from the wheat field and darted along the compacted dirt, his footsteps as quiet as a prowling predator. He had timed his push for the gap in the patrols, allowing him to dash through the darkness unhindered. His eyes darted up to an open door at the front of the hayloft, from which a wood beam protruded; an old mounting point for a block-and-tackle. He leapt up the side of the building and put a little rotation into the jump so that when he reached the beam, he was able to wrap his legs around it with his pistol aimed through the open door, its IR Floodlight illuminating everything inside to his eyes only.

Four bodies laid sprawled out on futons, some silent and other snoring but their noise was mixing in with the lot from below, becoming an indistinguishable mess to the standard ear. from the ground floor, footsteps echoed faintly among the sound of sleeping women and children, with the occasional pained grunt and groan slipping in. The sickening smell of urine and faeces wafted up and out the window, mixed in with the scent of blood both fresh and dry. Even without seeing it, the conditions were horrific.

Natsu brought a hand up and grabbed onto the beam, freeing his legs. He swung into the room and landed on the wood with a gentle creak before he crept towards the first bandit. It was too dangerous to kill him with a bullet as it would go down into the pens below, or would create a loud crack as it split the wood. Even if he shot from the bottom of the head, it would it the wall and make a noise.

Natsu switched to his knife and knelt down by his first target, placing a hand over his mouth and quickly driving the knife up through the bottom of the mouth and into the back of the skull, stabbing through the brain stem and killing him instantly. One by one, the three other bandits met the same fate, dying in their sleep. Now he had to dispatch the two guards below without waking the captives, a taller task than killing people in their sleep. He wiped the blood onto the clothes of the last corpse then returned the knife to his left thigh as he walked to the wooden railing and peered down to the pens below.

It was as he thought, the females were treated like animals, with some bound to wooden saddle stands – lying face down with their wrists and ankles bound by tight rope to the stand's legs – while others were tied to tables. But all of them had been stripped of their clothing, no matter the age. And each one sported multiple dark bruises and lacerations across their bodies, though thankfully, it seemed that none of them had any broken bones. At least it looked like they were getting fed though he didn't know with what exactly but they didn't look too malnourished.

Natsu's eyes were drawn to the pair of bandits lazily patrolling below him. He could tell that they must have been near the end of their shift, they were tired, not paying all that much attention. He glanced around the upper floor, searching for something he could use. His eyes settled on a length of rope that hung from a nearby hook and he grabbed it and quickly tied it into a hangman's knot. He waited patiently for the opportunity to eliminate one of the guards, which thankfully came quickly.

"I need to take a piss…" One of the guards grumbled to himself before he wandered over to one of the pens, putting his back to the other bandit.

The rope slid through Natsu's hands, the noose descending until it reached the bandit who was about to pass under him. He hoped it would be dark enough for the rope to go unnoticed. And he got his wish, the bandit practically walked into it. And with a quick yank on the rope, his neck was snapped cleanly and he was quickly pulled up. This left the bandit who was emptying his bladder all over a poor young girl who had been sleeping up until that point. He discarded the body – still with the rope around the neck – and drew his knife, his faintly glowing red eyes glued on the man below.

Before the man could finish his urination, Natsu leapt down and landed behind him and covering his mouth with a hand as he turned and forced the bandit face down on the ground and slit his throat with a deep stroke of his combat knife. He heard a gasp behind him and he turned his head, spotting the young girl staring at him with large yellow eyes. "Shh. This'll be all over soon." He whispered softly. "I'll bring the ones in the other buildings to here, and then take you all somewhere safe where a priestess is waiting to heal you all. Just don't wake anyone, it'll be safer that way."

"Okay." The girl's eyes slowly lit up in realisation and she nodded rapidly as she whispered back, she took a few steps back from the pen's fence and curled up on the ground, closing her eyes once more.

Natsu grabbed the two discarded rifles and the slowly dying bandit who was quietly gurgling as air escaped his lungs through the deep slit that oozed blood and carried them up the nearby ladder to the hayloft. He laid them down with the rest of the bodies and took a quick glance at his watch caused him to let out an irritated grunt; it was getting too close to dawn and the risk of the other bandits waking up was becoming greater by the second. Even worse, the lightening sky would allow those patrolling outside to see him. He needed to either eliminate those bandits first or extract the captives.

However, it seemed that Lady Luck was on his side as the tired bandits began to congregate in the middle of the farmstead. Their shift must have been coming to an end or was close enough that they'd shirk their duties. They seemed to be talking loudly among themselves, though he didn't care to listen in, but since they were grouped up and slowly walking to the main building, he had the perfect opportunity to attack while they had their backs to him.

Natsu dropped down to the ground as quietly as he could and shot forward, drawing his pistol and knife as he rapidly closed the distance between him and the group of bandits. When he neared the bandits, he threw his knife into the head of the first bandit. In an instant, he closed the gap and spun on the ball of his foot to deliver a vicious kick to the bandit and driving the knife straight through the skull and embedding it into the head of the bandit leading the group.

With two bandits dead, he flipped over the falling bodies as the other bandits tried to turn to the source of the initial attack. But it was too late as he was already behind their heads and lining up his pistol with the next hostile; one shot, two shot, and another bandit began to fall.

Natsu snatched his knife from the second bandit and drove it through the neck of the fourth hostile, decapitating him and using the momentum to bring his pistol around to deliver two more lethal shots of alloyed lead into the next man.

He drove the knife into the chest of the sixth bandit and pressed the suppressed pistol flush with the bottom of the man's jaw, sending a round up through his head before flicking the gun to the seventh and putting two bullets into him; to the heart and between the eyes.

With one final movement, he dragged the knife through the body of the sixth bandit and whipped it through the air into the eighth's man's temple while finishing him off with a shot to the heart. The first body slumped to the ground as Natsu flicked the blood off his knife and returned it to his sheath, he slid the mag from his pistol and checked how many bullets were left, he was halfway through the magazine, it was enough for now so he slid it back into place.

He stepped out from the middle of the pile of bodies and made his way to the main house, he needed to deal with the only bandits who were currently awake before he moved onto the two smaller houses. Natsu quietly opened the door, his face calm and indifferent as his cold demonic red eyes scanned the area. The immediate threat was a man seated on a couch to his left, a soft slurping and occasional gag coming from in front of him. It was one of the three bandits who were awake and he had one of the captives sucking him off. Deciding to not let the act continue, Natsu walked up to the back of the couch and shot the man through the head. He glanced down at the naked teenager and brought a finger to his lips. "Hide somewhere."

The wide-eyed blood-spattered girl nodded silently and hurried into the hall, slipping into a cupboard underneath the stairs as quietly as she could.

Grunting and the squeaking of bedsprings drifted down through the ceiling of the two-storey building, slowly drawing Natsu's red eyes up to the wooden surface. It felt like two bandits were ganging up on one of the captives in one of the bedrooms.

He slowly ascended the stairs, making sure his buckles didn't clatter as he stalked through the house. The door to the bedroom was open and the light was on, giving him a clear view of the room as he peeked around the doorframe.

There was a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties lying limply on the bed, covered in semen and being spit-roasted by the two bandits with one forcing her to deepthroat him while the other was buried into the woman's vagina.

Both were too occupied with their plaything to notice the third man who raised his suppressed pistol and delivered a pair of shots into both bandits, causing them to slump over and a little spark of life to return to the woman. His eyes lingered on the woman's bruised green eyes before he broke eye contact and continued down the hall. An uneven patter raced out into the hall behind him but kept their distance, he allowed the woman to follow him as he could tell that she was probably searching for someone.

All that were left in this building were five bandits and three more captives, all spread out through the last three bedrooms. Each room had one captive; no doubt kept there as permanent entertainment for the bandits. He entered the room where he could sense one sleeping bandit and he walked up the side of the bed. Beside the man was a girl who looked to be in her early teens, she was curled into a ball and whimpered softly in her sleep.

Natsu bared his fangs in a cold snarl and levelled his pistol with the bandit, quickly putting a bullet between his closed eyes. This left him with only one round left in his gun, so he quietly switched out the empty magazine for a fresh one as the woman who had been tailing him walked up to the girl and carefully shook her awake, whispering a few hushed words into her ear before the young girl slipped out of the bed and took the woman's hand.

Natsu spared them a glance before he left the room, crossing the hall and entering the bedroom directly opposite. Two men were sharing a bed with the captive being a young woman who was nestled between them, he couldn't avoid getting her covered in blood and bits of skull and brain matter, so he didn't bother trying. He just lined up his pistol and administered two doses of alloyed lead to the heart and brain of each man, ensuring that they never woke up from whatever filthy dreams they were no doubt having. This just left two bandits remaining in the main house and then the four that were in the satellite houses.

As Natsu entered the final bedroom, he was met with the bleary eyes of one of the bandits. He seemed to have just woken up and was blankly staring into the cold, emotionless face of the man in the doorway, illuminated by the rising sun's rays coming in through the window. As the bandit was about to shout in panic and wake the other man in the bed, he felt the kiss of a pair of hot bullets, one to the chest and then one to the head, and then it was lights out. Natsu's aim snapped across to the second man and he put two bullets into him before he could even begin to wake from his slumber.

"What happened to Mary?" The semen-covered woman quietly asked the Jaeger as she let the young woman wake the last captive. "She's a sixteen-year-old blonde girl."

"I found her first, she was in the lounge room being made to suck on a bandit's cock. You'll find her hiding under the stairs." Natsu replied quietly as he turned and made his way back down the hall and the stairs. He heard multiple soft footsteps race after him and a door creak open from under the stairs. The girl called Mary quickly slipped out and hugged her fellow captives. "I need you all to stay in here until I shoot a flare into the sky. You can use the time to clean yourselves up and find something to wear, be it clothes or a sheet that can be wrapped around you. As for your injuries, I have a priestess waiting nearby who can heal all of the physical trauma once it's safe."

"Thank yo-"

"Don't thank me yet." Natsu cut the woman off but he spared her a sympathetic glance before he opened the front door. "I still haven't secured the area. Stay low and keep away from the outer walls and windows, if bullets start flying, I'd rather no captives get hit." He pointed to the rifle slung on his back with his thumb. "If I need to resort to that, I can tell you now that just a simple wooden wall or one body won't be able to stop it."

With nothing more to say, he closed the door behind him and glanced at the horizon. The rising sun made sneaking around more difficult but he hoped that the bandits would be too preoccupied with their playthings to notice him enter the buildings, or look outside at the pile of bodies he had left in the middle of the compound. He needed to finish up quickly, otherwise they might hold the captives at gunpoint and make things difficult for him.

He picked up the pace, running to the closest satellite house and slipping inside. It was only a single-storey house, so he wouldn't have to travel far to reach the hostiles. It seemed to be a standard setup, one captive for two bandits, and it seemed that they were split between two bedrooms, though it seemed that the lightening sky was causing them to stir, he would need to act quickly before he faced any resistance.

As he moved to the first bedroom, he had to quickly shift to the other side of the doorframe, as mere moments later, a haggard woman slinked out and was murmuring something about breakfast and coffee. He placed his hand on the door as it began to swing closed, pushing it back open slowly and bringing his pistol around the corner. After four quick shots, he slowly closed the door and twisted the knob so it would close without a sound.

"Wake up, Bitch." A heavy smack echoed from the other bedroom, followed by a soft thump. "It's morning, go work on breakfast."

The door flew open and a young woman limped out, hurriedly, a hand on her hip as a red mark bloomed on her cheek. Tears leaked from her eyes as she took two steps down the hall and froze in her tracks, coming face-to-face with the steadily approaching man, his demonic eyes like frozen pools of blood. A jerk of his head instructed her to move aside. She watched on in stunned silence as the expressionless man came to a stop in front of the closed door. He raised his boot and sent it careening into the door, kicking it deep into the room before he raised his handgun and let loose four bullets into the room.

"Find the other woman, in fact, she's coming to check in on you. Lay low for a little bit until you spot a flare shoot up into the sky. When you do, it's safe to come out." Natsu instructed quietly as he passed by her once more. "Find something to cover yourself and the other woman."

"A-alright."

Natsu passed by the first woman who spared him a glance but hurried past him, finding the Jaeger not worth her concern. He heard them whisper to each other but took no interest in it, he still had a job to do. He left the small house and crossed to the other side of the compound where the final bandits were up and moving about.

It seemed that the women were made to cook breakfast, though it was an odd thing to do since one could easily poison the bandits. Maybe they were made to eat the part of the food first like a royal taste tester, to ensure they hadn't poisoned it. But if one of them was hellbent on taking out some bandits with herself, it wouldn't have stopped her.

Regardless of his passing thoughts, he would have to eliminate the bandits quickly as they could already be armed and could kill one of the captives on their way to the grave. He kept a firm grip on his pistol as he smoothly opened the door as if he was one of the bandits. He knew one was in the kitchen, two in the lounge room, and one using the toilet.

"Oi, good timing! Yumiko is about done with the breakfast…" A bandit called out from the open-plan kitchen as he turned towards the front door, but his voice trailed off when he was met with a pair of cold, glowing red eyes, and a strange handgun pointed right at him. "Who The Fuck-?!"

The reply to the man's loud question was a pair of bullets, cutting off the last part of the question. Natsu blurred forward, a flash of black whistled through the air and passed through the neck of the second bandit. Natsu continued the arc and brought the knife near his chest before thrusting the blade back towards the couch, stabbing into the third man's skull and severing his brain stem.

A fountain of blood was the only thing left behind as he surged through the house to the hallway and levelled his pistol with the closed bathroom door. There was only one occupant, the thirtieth bandit, the final one in the farmstead. And after two quick pulls of the trigger, the last bandit fell and the captives were now free from their torment. He slowly lowered the pistol and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly through his nose.

"It's over." He slowly walked back through the house, sparing a glance at the two women in the kitchen. "Find something to wear and meet me outside. Grab as many sheets as you can, so we can cover up the ones in the barn."

"Right!" They both chimed in unison, they looked to be a pair of identical twins in their mid-twenties, though they had non-identical bruises littering their bodies.

Natsu stepped outside and looked over at the sunrise, letting out a tired sigh as he raised his hand to the sky, shooting a ball of fire from his forefinger and letting the guards and Lelyanna know they can move in. He turned to the barn and set out to free those contained within, however a pair of light footsteps racing up behind him caught his attention. "It's all over, Lelyanna."

"Y-yes." There was a slight amount of fear emanating from the woman, but she stuffed it away as she stepped around to the front of the man and lowered her coat's hood. Her usually pale skin was a few shades lighter and she had shadows under her eyes. "I-I could barely believe my eyes, seeing you in the full swing of things. One moment you were here, an instant later you were dozens of metres away, and then to another spot… It was a little disconcerting how ruthlessly efficient you were…"

"It was needed to ensure the safety of the women." He sighed softly and placed a hand on the large wooden door of the barn. "I must warn you, the ones in here weren't kept in the best condition…" He pushed open the door and Lelyanna immediately covered her mouth, going from pale to green as she held back the bile that was creeping up her throat. "I'll leave you to look after them while I go and set up a makeshift shower so they can be properly sanitised. I've got the ones from the houses bringing whatever they can find to help the others cover up."

"O-okay. I'll get to work." Lelyanna squashed her ill feelings and slipped into the barn, pushing the door almost all the way shut. One of her pale eyes peaked out through the gap, twinkling softly. "I'll connect to you once I've got them all free of their bindings."

"I'll make that shower against the side of the barn, on the other side of the side door. They should be able to come and go into it as they please."

As Natsu turned away from the barn, he came face-to-face with the women from the houses who carried an assortment of makeshift garments and cars that were skidding to a stop in the centre of the farm, loaded with Remick and his guards. "Head inside, the priestess has just started. Her name is Lelyanna." Natsu walked past the women and made his way to the equipment shed while he watched the guards hurry over out of the corner of his eye. "Party's over, Remick. It was too dangerous to call you in as I found that the women were spread out around the compound. If I put this place on alert then we would have lost some of the captives."

"Yeah, I figured something like this would have happened." The armoured man muttered but didn't argue the point. He glanced over to a group of guards stood by the eight bandits clustered together near the main house. "What happened there?"

"They ran out of luck. Grouped together and barely awake, perfect target of opportunity. I was able to eliminate the patrols all in one go."

"But they look like they hardly resisted."

"I didn't give them any time to resist. They were all dead before the first one hit the ground." Natsu came to a stop in front of the shed. The doors were sealed shut by a thick chain that had been wrapped through the handles. But the chain wasn't going to stop him from getting inside as he grabbed the links and ripped them apart. The doors slid open with ease and revealed a single chair sat in the middle of the shed with flecks of dried blood spattered across the floor and walls. There was no doubt in his mind that this was used to torture the women and break their minds so they were more receptive to commands. He heard a gulp from the man behind him but ignored it as he walked past the chair and started collecting up tarps, hoses, and metal posts.

"You seem used to seeing stuff like this?"

"I've seen my fair share of atrocities. Executed those responsible, too. This is no different." Natsu replied blandly as he glanced at the green-faced guard before leaving him behind once more and he made his way to the side of the barn. "I expected there would be something like that in there. The girls in the barn were tied to saddle racks, tables, bottomless chairs, and many other things. When I was dealing with the bandits in there, one was busy pissing all over a poor young girl. And all of them seemed to have been on the receiving end of many fists."

Natsu dumped the pile of building supplies on the ground then turned to the man. "Have your men create a perimeter, task some with taking the bodies out of the houses too. I'll deal with the ones in the hayloft once I've built a shower booth for the women. And above all else…" The man stepped forward, baring his fangs as his menacing red eyes bored into the guard. "No man is to enter the barn without my or Lelyanna's permission, understood?"

"Yes, I'll make sure they steer clear of them."

"Good." Natsu pulled back and turned back to his work. He slowly pieced together the metal framework, welding the corners together with his own fire. He felt the familiar small presence of Lelyanna's conscious enter his mind but it only lingered for just a moment before vanishing. He lifted his eyes to the door in front of him as it slowly creaked open and the bluish-silver-haired woman stepped out. "How's things?"

"They're all in bad shape. I'm going to have to mend the worst of their injuries and let the better injuries heal on their own, otherwise I'm going to burn myself out." Lelyanna replied quietly as she sat down on the grass in front of the man, watching him work while she took in the fresh air. "I've decided to not cleanse them through magical means, instead I'll wait for you to finish and have them wash themselves while I clean their wounds by hand."

"Sounds like a good idea." Natsu murmured. He glanced to a spot beside the woman and a backpack with a red cross on it appeared beside her. "That should contain everything you'll need to treat them through non-magical means. Use it alongside your magic to reduce the strain on your body. I'll place a bag with blocks of soap in here once I'm done, so you ought to be able to get the wounds nice and clean. Since you're here, mind giving a hand for a second?"

"What do you need?" Lelyanna smiled brightly as she rose to her feet. She placed the bag onto her back and dusted the dirt and grass off of her knees.

Natsu stabbed the ends of the frame into the ground then held up a long metal rod. "Grab the other end of this and hold it up to the top outside corner, and keep it steady. I'm going to weld it in place." He watched the woman grab the rod and stretch her arms out, closing her hands around the corner to hold it firmly in place.

"Why does it have to be so tall?" She complained softly with a quick glance at the man. She was on her toes just to reach the corner.

"Privacy." He said, simply as he ignited his fingertip and began melting the two pieces of metal together. "You may be a short-arse, but some of those women are as tall as me, and a few are even a tad taller." He felt the woman's glare but into the back of his head and it brought a small grin to his lips. "You know I'm right."

"I know that you are a…" Lelyanna paused and grumbled softly, she hated cursing and outright refused to do so, though it didn't bother her when others did it. But thanks to the man being a bad influence on her, she had almost cursed. "Butthead."

"Heh." Natsu finished up his corner and moved over to the woman, he was thankful that she was being feisty after seeing her looking very put out by witnessing him eliminating the eight bandits right in her line of sight, followed by finding out the exact state the women were in. "Well, at least you haven't picked up my habit of vulgar language. Not yet, at least." He felt the woman turn into his chest when he took a hold of her end of the rod and hide her eyes in it so they won't be damage by the bright light caused by his welding.

"Bastard…"

A faint murmur came from his chest and he chuckled quietly at the woman's adorable attempt at cursing. "Can you grab those tarps and start laying them out on the ground, I'll grab some fencing wire and tie them to the frame. If you're done before I am back, just hook up that hose to the tap beside the door you came out of."

"Alright." Lelyanna ducked out from under his arms and quickly began unfolding the densely woven material. Her skin felt icky and she placed the bag on the ground and took off her coat, hanging it from the newly welded rail. "I think it's going to rain again… I can feel the humidity in the air."

"I want to get these girls out of here before the clouds decide to dump their guts on us…" Natsu muttered while walking past her and fetching the wire from the shed. Once he was back, he erected the shower booth's curtains and made sure there were no gaps that people could peep through. He handed the bag of soap to the woman and allowed her to get back to tending to the women. The crunching of boots on dirt alerted Natsu to the approach of a guard. He looked over his shoulder and found Remick coming over once more. "Yes?"

"We've accounted for twenty-four of the reported thirty bandits, I assume the last six are inside the barn?"

"Yeah. I left them up in the hayloft." The pink-haired man walked to the front of the building and looked up at the open door on the second floor. "I'll go get them." He effortlessly leapt the short distance up to the ledge and walked to the pile of bodies he had left behind, their blood staining the futons a saturated dark red.

"Natsu? Is that you up there?"

"Yep." He leant over the wooden rail and gazed down at the priestess below him, seeing that she was currently tending to the girl who had seen him slit the bandit's throat. "Just taking the dead bodies out from up here. Remick was doing a count and complained to me about missing six of them."

"So, I assume the puddle of blood in the middle of the barn was because of you?"

"Yeah. I won't be up here long." Natsu replied as he pulled back from the railing and grabbed the ankles of two of the bandits he had killed in their sleep. He dragged them to the opening and tossed them unceremoniously to the dirt below. He made the trip two more times, dumping all six bodies before the head guard. Before he joined the guards outside, he made his way to the railing and leapt down to the barn's floor, shocking some of the women but others calmed them down as he approached Lelyanna.

"Yes?" The priestess looked up at the man as she cleaned the girl's wounds with medical-grade alcohol.

"I've got something for you to hand out, it might lift their spirits a little." Natsu brought out a bag of chocolate from his Requip dimension – taking them from his rations – and he placed on the table that Lelyanna had the girl sat on. He took out one of the chocolate bars and unwrapped it. He gently placed it into the girl's hands and offered her a small smile. "Here, for being a tough little bugger."

"Thank you." The girl said quietly before taking a small bite of the chocolate but she quickly stuffed it into her mouth as her eyes lit up. "It's so good!"

Lelyanna giggled softly and took a piece for herself. "Once I'm done with you, can you hand them out?"

"Okay!"

Natsu made his way through the crowd of women and slipped through the front door. He spotted the guards staring at the noose around a bandit's neck in shock. "Don't mind the rope, I had to kill that one and pull him up out of sight of the one with the slit throat."

He walked past the stunned men and crossed to the other side of the compound, sitting down against the wooden fence that bordered the wheat field. He unslung his rifle and gazed at it silently for close to a minute before he sent it away along with the magazines that went with the gun. His eyes drifted up to the cloudy sky that grew ever lighter, and after a few minutes, he closed his eyes and let his head fall forward.

After a few hours, the sun's warm light was blocked and a familiar scent washed over him. "I've done what I can, Natsu." Lelyanna whispered as she leaned over the man. She smiled softly as he lifted his head and looked up at her, the red having long faded from his eyes and replaced by their natural abyssal onyx dark-green. "Let's head back to the Inn. I'm completely spent."

"Yeah, you look like it." Natsu remarked as he slowly got to his feet and stretched. Not only could he sense her exhaustion and tiredness, he could also see notable shadows under her eyes. They had been up for over twenty-four hours at this point and only had around five hours of sleep for the previous nights; usually taken in the mornings. What made things worse for the young woman was that she just tended to around forty kidnapped females with varying degrees of physical trauma using both her healing magic and the medical backpack that he had provided. "Alright. The guards can deal with the clean-up for us. It's their job anyway."

"I feel like I could fall asleep on my feet." Lelyanna murmured through a yawn and she stretched her out her slender body, her pale eyes sparkling softly with their usual strange mystical power. As they left the farm without a single glance back, heading down the road to the car they had hidden in the ditch, she asked, "Do you think they'll be okay?"

"I doubt it. This isn't the kind of thing that goes away, all they can do is move past it as best as they can. They don't have any family to return to, well, some do but others don't." Natsu rubbed his face softly, massaging away the fatigue the best he could. "Mental trauma requires the help of someone you trust. Take my own case; I lost everything I ever knew or loved, I came here with no friends, and yet you've stuck by my side, choosing to be my friend no matter how far you fall down the gory rabbit hole and see just how much of a demon I really am. That in itself is helping me. I only hope that they can find someone like that for themselves."

"Maybe they'll find help in each other?" Lelyanna mused softly. She stepped in front of the man and turned so she walked backwards, albeit with an unsteady gate. "And… as frightened as I was when I saw what you could do… I also felt a little bit more reassured in your words, when you said that you'd protect me, save me if anything happens to me. I feel sorry for whatever poor sod gets this big bad demon sic'd on them for trying their luck with me."

"Heh. They wouldn't get a chance to regret their actions." Natsu gave her a small grin and lifted his gaze from her mysterious eyes as they reached the vehicle. "Fuck. I'm going to have to pull this bitch free." He sighed softly and jerked his head at the car. "Hop in the driver's seat and stick it in reverse. I'll push it out."

"Alright."

Once the woman was inside the vehicle, Natsu trudged down into the ditch and planted his feet as he pushed firmly against the car. It began to edge back slowly while Lelyanna pedalled the clutch and accelerator. It didn't take long to find purchase and she was able to back the car up out of the ditch and onto the dirt road. "There we go." Natsu murmured to himself as he plodded back up the embankment and opened the driver's door. "Shift over, I'll drive. You're too tired."

"Mm." Lelyanna slowly slid along the bench seat and settled down on the other side, slumped against the door. "Hard to tell what's more comfortable, this door or your thigh."

"Smart-arse." He chuckled softly and lightly slapped her thigh, getting a giggle from the young woman. As they took off back down the road, he heard Lelyanna murmur incoherently before turning to him.

"What about Lawrence and his family? They must have had some issues for him to be acting like that at the Inn."

"As bad as it sounds, they only had to suffer through maybe ten to fifteen minutes worth of rape and molestation at most. It'll leave scars, but nothing on the level of what it could have been had we not intervened. And hopefully, he'll be there for his family from now on instead of trying to pick up random women at a bar."

"B-but… in the butt? How can that even feel good?"

"Some women enjoy it, and in same-sex relationships for men, it's the only hole they have. But, technically speaking, there isn't much distance between the rectal wall and the nerves responsible for sexual pleasure, so it can be stimulated from penetrating the arse. Some women do it over vaginal sex as to prevent pregnancy if they don't trust the man to pull his cock out in time, others consider it a religious loophole which allows them to have sex and keep their virginity for marriage, and like I said; some just plain outright love it."

"Have you done it?"

"Fucked a chick in the arse?" Natsu glanced at the woman, noticing the deep blush coming from the heavily embarrassed priestess. "Plenty of times but I do have a specific rule for it. I'll only do it with a condom on and after properly preparing the woman's arse. Otherwise, it'll hurt her like it did that woman, and I also don't like the idea of shit on my dick or the stench of shit on it. Just thinking of doing it raw makes me feel disgusted. Turns me off very quickly, no matter how horny I am."

"O-oh…" Lelyanna murmured and looked at the man out of the corner of her eye. "When you told me what had happened to his wife, I instantly felt sick to my stomach. And it got worse when I was healing her. I don't think I could ever have someone stick something into there… It just looked so painful for her. Maybe I could for the right person, if I can be certain that they'd be gentle and careful…" She slowly leaned away from the door and plopped her head down onto his thigh. "That man got what he deserved for doing that to her, they all did."

"Are you doing alright?" Natsu asked softly.

"No." The priestess replied simply, shaking her head lightly against his leg. "I killed someone, watched two girls be forced to perform oral sex, watched you slaughter almost a dozen men with my own eyes and saw the remains of the ones I didn't witness, saw and smelt the results of the cruelty of those men, personally had to treat each and every one of them…" She rolled onto her back and looked up at the man, bringing her hand up to rest on his left arm as she let out a faint whisper. "No… I'm not doing alright…"

"Humans like to see themselves as the higher being, but they are no better than the monsters we are sent to kill. They all rape, pillage, murder, enslave, commit atrocity after atrocity in the name of whatever they believe in, or even just for their own greed and sense of satisfaction brought on by abusing those they see as below them. Or, it could just be out of spite, 'I may kill myself, but I'll take you all with me', something like that."

"'Cruelty is a matter of life', right?"

"No matter where you go, there will always be some motherfucker who is like that. And that motherfucker will attract people of like mind, and form gangs." Natsu sighed softly and lowered his left hand from the gear stick. He began to slowly run his fingers through the woman's hair in an effort to soothe her. "We'll have the rest of this day off and night off. If it's what we think it is, and we're facing goblins and or orcs, then it would be better if we act during the day due to them being mainly nocturnal monsters."

"I…" Lelyanna murmured softly, not taking her eyes off the man for a second even though they were becoming heavier by the second. "I just want to be held, to keep it all at bay. And hopefully after a decent amount of sleep maybe I'll feel better."

"Maybe." Natsu sighed and ran his hand down her cheek and habitually brushing his thumb back and forth. "This was your first time, so the horrors haven't had time to build up. But what a first time it was… and here I was hoping to take you on an easy job."

"Maybe my second time will be more pleasant." The woman giggled softly and she started to relax under the heat of his hand and his gentle touch.

---

This chapter also ended up just a tad shorter. The main change was swapping Lelyanna's outfit from a Shock Trooper's fatigues – which no longer made sense since I fleshed out the armour to be basically Mjolnir GEN2 Helljumper minus a fair number of things – to a black and grey outfit that'd fit in more with a Jaeger, while also switching Natsu from the same fatigues back to his Jaeger outfit. There were also a few small changes to fix the flow of conversations and other things.

As grim as it sounds, I hope you liked this chapter. I'll see you in the next one.