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.

9. Merciless Monsters (R)

Day 62

It's hard to believe that it's only been two months
since I had lost everything. Since I watched all
those that I loved die right before my eyes.
My nightmares seem to have temporarily gone
away, thanks to sharing a bed with Lelyanna.
I have to admit, I find it a little comforting
to wake up with someone in my arms again, but
this won't last. Come the job's end, I'll be returning
to my own bed, back to the memories of my
previous life being played during my sleep.
Maybe if it gets too much for me to bear,
I'll see if she is willing to sleep in my arms
and whatever happens from that happens.
Even though she's a nice woman who is kind
and caring and surprisingly a little playful.
there's no room in my heart for her…
she is fairly cute though, she has that
adorable innocence about her. Probably won't last
long… she'll see the ugly side of the world
working alongside me.

As much as I want to see Lucy, I don't think
that I can hold myself together if we did cross paths,
not yet anyway. Who knows, she's always had a
positive effect on me, so maybe it would actually
help me. Maybe if I found my counterpart, Natsumi
Dragneel, then I could work my way into their lives.
It could be dangerous though as one wrong move
and it might all get fucked up and I'll be stuck here,
alone. If, by chance, Lucy is in a relationship with
someone… well, it'll be painful but I don't have
the right to interfere. I'm just a random face in a
crowd of nobodies, after all.

Speaking of my counterpart, I wonder what she is
like? Is she hot-headed or is she calm and controlled?
Just how much resemblance would there be, and
would we notice something strange about each
other the moment we lay our eyes upon the other?
More than anything, is she like me; who has been
a fully-fledged demon hybrid for as long as I've lived,
complete with full access to the library of curses
created by my brother… even if I can't forgive myself
for using some of them like I have…

Anyway, I'm still in the middle of a job. During the night,
we took care of a bunch of bandits who were kidnapping
women and girls for their pleasure and to sell them on the
black market. I decided to take a day's break and to
move onto the second part of this job come tomorrow.
We'll be going after the monsters who were abducting
females for use in breeding more monsters and as
food at midday when they should be the most tired.

On a side note; I wonder how my weapons are coming
along, it has been ten days since I helped Saiko get her
equipment to handle the extreme temperatures needed
for the alloy, hopefully she hasn't burnt down her shop.

Natsu sat back with a sigh. He had slept for around five hours or less since they had returned to the Inn in the early morning. He had remained awake until Lelyanna had finally fallen asleep which had taken longer than he had expected considering how exhausted she was but it was likely from the stress of the job. Even when she was nestled in his arms, it had taken her a little over an hour of lying in the bed for her to finally settle down and begin to drift off to whatever land awaited her in her dreams. He only hoped it wasn't a nightmarish loop of the night's events, she didn't deserve that kind of repetitive trauma. A faint murmur pulled Natsu from his thoughts, making him take his eyes off the diary laid out on the desk and turn his attention to the messy mop of bluish-silver hair that rose up from the pillow. "You're finally awake."

"Ugh…" Lelyanna groaned softly and pushed the sheets back. She crawled to the edge of the bed, her thin nightgown settling down around her slim body as she slowly swung her pale legs over the end, sitting less than a metre from the man in his chair. "I feel like I could use a bit more sleep though…"

"I've made some coffee if you want some." Natsu tapped a small pot of coffee that sat atop a hotplate on the desk with his empty mug next to it. "The pot is completely safe to touch so don't worry about burning yourself. And I've only got the one mug but I don't have any diseases or shit like that, so you're not going to catch anything from me."

The woman's eyes drifted across the desk to the strange packets clustered near the pot. It took a moment for it to settle in but once the recognition flashed across her eyes, she raised her gaze to the pinkette. "Would it be safe for me to drink? They look like they are from your homeland, wouldn't they be ir-ira… What's the word?"

"Irradiated? No, not that stuff. Most of my rations were kept within my Requip dimension so they wouldn't have been exposed to it, and I only ate that stuff when I couldn't find anything suitable to eat while I was out scavenging or roaming that wasteland." Natsu replied softly and he poured her a cup of coffee and held it out to her. "It's done to my taste, and I don't have milk, so it might not be all that appetising to you but it'll help wake you up."

"Thank you." Lelyanna murmured as she wrapped her hands around the white porcelain and took a sip of the coffee. She let out a soft shaky sigh at the gentle warmth soaking through her body and brought the mug down to her chest as he eyes drifted to the book. "Writing an entry? Don't worry, I'm not rude so I'm not about to sneak a peek at what you've written."

"Yeah, I hadn't written one in a bit so it was about time I made a new entry. I figured I'd get it done while you were still asleep." Natsu carefully closed the book and sent it away, it was his personal thoughts after all. He returned his gaze to the woman and his eyes drifted down her body slowly.

"It's see-through, isn't it?" The woman asked, sparing a glance behind her at the sunlight coming in through the window above the bed before turning her attention back to the man, though she made no effort to cover herself up, after all, there was no lustful glimmer in his void-like onyx eyes.

"Yeah, kinda. It is thin, after all. I can see your skin on your sides thanks to the light coming in from behind you but that causes your chest and stomach to be harder to see." Natsu admitted casually while running his eyes up and down the short woman's body before settling his eyes back on her face. "Aside from some faint colouration from your nipples, your tits are mostly obscured. I can only really see their curves."

Lelyanna giggled softly behind the mug and sipped at the coffee, it was causing her mind to finally catch up to her body. She idly fingered the handle of the mug as she gazed at the clock on the wall. "It's a little after midday… Since you're already dressed, I'll go have a shower after this coffee and get ready to head down."

"Are you still wanting to go shopping for some clothes to wear on the job?"

"Yeah, I want something that would be easy to move in while still offering some minor protection. Something like those dark clothes that Lady Ceres got me."

"Well, if you don't find something you like, maybe I can find something when I return to my homeland. Ceres can alter her private domain and turn the water into a solution that removes things like radiation, it's how she cleansed me of all that crap."

Lelyanna tilted her head, remaining silent for a few seconds before slowly replying. "Hmm, maybe that would be better. I'm sure you can find better protective clothing over there. But would it be worth the hassle?"

"You can get protective stuff that looks like normal clothing. I should at least be able to find a jacket with special high-strength synthetic fibres woven into it. And if I find a motorcycle store, I can get pants that have them woven into it too." Natsu reached across the desk and lifted his coat off the far end. "It'll be much lighter than this, so it's more suitable for someone of your stature. The only problem is, I'd need you there to get a proper fit." He returned his eyes to her body and his eyebrows furled as he tried to visually measure her. "Yeah… that'd be the best course of action. Alternatively, we can go to the place in Magnolia that made the clothes I'm wearing. The Arachne woman there should be able to create something suitable providing we provide specific designs for your clothing for her to work from."

"You know, it's strange…" Lelyanna watched the man calmly, knowing he was practically looking right through her short nightgown at the skin exposed by the light shining in from behind her. "When you look at me, I don't feel uncomfortable, even though I'm practically naked to your eyes. I guess it's probably due to not feeling any lust in that gaze of yours, just the same hollow emptiness that fills your eyes."

"It's not that you aren't an attractive woman, Lelyanna." Natsu sat back and lifted his gaze to her face once more. "In fact, you're rather beautiful and have an alluring innocence about you."

"But your heart belongs to someone else." She giggled light-heartedly as she reached across him and put the now empty mug back down on the desk. "I don't intend to replace what you lost, Natsu. I do harbour some affections for you, but it's not love and I don't think it'll turn into it. You're someone I can wholeheartedly trust with anything, my body and safety included in that. I don't believe you would harm me even if you set fire to everything around you."

"You know, I've been wondering; why do you trust me so much?"

"Hm?" She tilted her head and blinked before smiling gently at the slightly older man. "Because Ceres delivered you to my cathedral, she left you in my care. She wouldn't have done that or even saved you, if you weren't someone who would be trustworthy. I may just be one of many that she has chosen over the untold millennia across all the worlds in her domain. But she has blessed me with powerful healing magic that is borderline divine in nature, I'm not a tool that she would throw away carelessly, I'm someone she has invested time and power into. Just like with you." Her pale eyes gave off their unusual faint mystical glow, one that was created through divine intervention, as she gently cupped the man's jaw with both hands and gently ran her thumbs along his cheeks. "I know you think that your humanity has been torn from you, that all that remains is this stone-faced demon that hides behind eyes as dark as the void, behind the human-like mask that you wear. Yes, you may be a demon, but you're no less a human than you were before the cataclysm, you've just suffered so much at the hands of the cruellest that humanity has to offer that you've forgotten the other side of that coin."

"Heh." Natsu gave the young woman a slight smile and shook his head. But it quickly turned into a small playful grin. "Don't tell me you plan of stuffing my head between your tits as a means of comforting me?"

"Mm, maybe. If you're lucky." Lelyanna returned the smirk with playfully narrowed eyes and looked down at her own chest. But instead of pulling him to her chest, she slipped off the bed and lowered herself onto her knees as she slipped her arms around his chest, giving him a firm hug and relishing in his warmth. "I don't know how I'll cope without your warmth after we return to Magnolia."

"Yeah. I admit, I've been finding it nice to be sleeping with someone in my arms again. Not only does it help with the nightmares, but I wake up feeling a little better than I did the previous night."

Lelyanna slowly rose to her feet with a light giggle and smiled down at the man. "Maybe I'll treat you every now and then and come sleep in your bed when I stay over to do some reading. But I think I'll need to get some new sleepwear that you can't see through before then. I'll see how I feel later."

"You're forgetting I can alter the properties of things with one of my curses." Natsu shook his head gently and placed his index finger on the thin gown, right above her navel. But before he could apply his curse onto the garment, two small hands grasped his hand and slowly lifted up.

"I know you're doing it for my sake, but you really don't have to do that, Natsu." Lelyanna smiled softly while playing with the man's fingers. "But thank you for being considerate."

"Are you sure?"

"I said it just before; having your eyes on me doesn't make me uncomfortable. Why make a solution for a problem that doesn't really exist?" Lelyanna replied gently and she sat back on the edge of the bed. "I trust you, Natsu, I don't mind it if you see something every now and then. It's not like you're going out of your way to see me naked or anything, it's just a side effect of having enhanced vision."

"You almost sound like a closet exhibitionist." Natsu smirked playfully, earning a giggle from the woman.

"Says the man whose eyes practically make him a peeping tom wherever he goes." Lelyanna shot back before flashing the man a smile and making her way to the bathroom. "I'll try and be quick."

"If I start hearing you moan then I'm heading downstairs."

"Oh?" Lelyanna spun with a quick giggle and half hid herself behind the door. "I thought you'd come and join me if you heard that." She gave the man a glee-filled grin but it sagged slightly before falling completely and she let out a small sigh, visibly deflating as her shoulders slumped and she hugged her arms around her body. "I'll be honest with you… While I've been feeling pretty in need of… self-care, especially after sharing the bed with you. Seeing all the stuff the bandits did to those women has really taken the wind out of me, so I'm not really in the mood for pleasure." Her voice slowly trailed off as she looked down at her feet. "Thank you for being warm and cuddly when we got back… I needed it after everything that happened last night."

"Are you doing alright?" Natsu rose from the chair and walked to the bathroom, leaning on his arm against the door-frame. He watched the short slender woman slip out from behind the door and press up against his chest, so he looped his arms around her slim body and ran a hand through her messy bob in an effort to sooth her.

"The sight of the blood and gore shooting out from that man's face and the snap of the bullet impacting the wood keep flashing to the forefront of my mind… And the man suddenly becoming limp and heavy… He could have crushed me if I didn't roll with the weight and bring him to the ground…"

"That's a bit of an overstatement with the crushing part. But it doesn't get any easier, you just learn to live with it. There's shit that I've seen and done that still plagues my dreams but I've dreamt of and done far, far worse things that what happened last night."

"I'm almost tempted to have you stay here so I'm not alone with my thoughts… But I do need a little bit of alone time."

"You'll probably feel better if you do just rub one out, it'll make you relax. Even if you don't feel like doing it right now, once you start, you'll probably get into it, especially if you allow your mind to wonder to more fanciful thoughts."

Lelyanna's face rapidly flushed and she slowly lifted it to look at the man, bashfully. "O-ok. I'll see if it helps. Could you, um, turn off your ears?"

"You want me to stay in the bedroom?"

"T-the thought of doing it with you nearby might just be a little bit of a turn-on…" The woman murmured under her breath and she slyly turned away in his arms so he wouldn't be looking at her face and seeing her embarrassment. "Not that I can hide anything like that from you anyway… So, on second thought, you might as well just head down and have your late breakfast. I'll be down once I feel better."

"Alright. I'll either be at the bar or at a table. Take your time and give yourself as much care as you need, even if it means finishing yourself off a few times."

"Please stop, Natsu… The way you're so blunt about it is embarrassing me."

"Well, go and have your shower. Come find me once you're done." Natsu gently pushed the slightly wiggly woman over to the shower and left the room, closing the door behind him. He could hear the gentle rustle of fine fabric sliding down smooth skin, but pushed it from his mind as he grabbed his coat and made his way out and down to the front-of-house where he was greeted by the owner, Joline.

"Word around the town is that you saved Lawrence's family. I know he can be a bit of an arse, but thanks for looking after them. Hopefully he stops being an arse and pays more attention to his family."

"We also tracked the bandits back to their hideout. They were occupying a farmstead just outside of town and were keeping a bunch of females there in pretty fucking shitty conditions." Natsu added as he took a seat at the empty bar. Even though it was a bit after lunch, there weren't many customers, just himself and a small group of young adults sat at a table having lunch and coffee. "My job is almost over; I just want to check on the possible monster sightings and eliminate them if they are there."

"What can I get you?"

Natsu glanced up at the boards above the woman's head for a moment then dropped his gaze back to her. "I'll have the battered fish and chips with a fresh salad and something refreshing to drink."

"I've got some freshly squeezed orange juice if you want some?"

"Yeah, that'll do. Make it two servings, so Lelyanna has something to eat when she comes down."

"What's she up to?" Joline asked curiously as she wrote down the order on a slip of paper and passed it through a partition behind her. She quickly grabbed a tall glass and filled it with orange juice and placed it down in front of the man.

"Just freshening up, she only just woke up. It took her a bit to fall asleep after what happened last night. I believe it was the first time she witnessed anything like that. Poor woman isn't used to seeing the horrors that some people are capable of."

"Fair enough. If you're after a place to check for monsters, you should probably take that bandit motorcar down south. Just over ten-minutes down the road, you should be able to see the ruins of an old fort with walls around it. Word is that there have been sightings of monsters over there, mainly just little green bastards."

"I'll have a look. Depending on how it's constructed, that fort could prove to be a pain in the arse to assault. I'll probably have to do another infiltration over an assault. Do the guards know about it?"

"Yeah. But unfortunately, they had their hands full trying to investigate both those bandits and the monsters while trying to protect the town and find the missing people. And since there was a high chance that there was a horde involved that wanted to grow its numbers, they sent for a Jaeger." Joline rested her elbows on the bar and placed her chin atop her folded hands as she stared into the man's abyssal onyx eyes. "I'm a little curious about something. Lawrence told me the one thing that stuck with him the most about last night was a pair of menacing glowing red eyes, yet at no point that I've seen you have you had eyes like that even though the description matched you to a T; the long spiky hair, tanned skin, fancy clothes, and those inhuman fangs of yours. He mentioned a cold merciless brutality too."

"Joline, there are people in this world that are no better than the monsters they demonise." Natsu straightened up and bared said fangs, his eyes quickly switching to a dangerous, demonically glowing crimson as he narrowed them at the woman. "Take it from someone who is barely human as it is; humanity is no race of saints no matter how holier-than-thou they try to be. Those from last night, for example, I'm sure you know what was happening to his family? It was much worse at the farm. They were a cancer that needed to be cut away, to be killed off completely before they could do any further damage."

"I guess this is why you're called Báleygr." Joline murmured as she stared into the blood-red eyes in shock before saying, "He said you crushed one under your boot as easy as stepping on a grape…?"

"I did, and it was. That was the leader, and the one who was anally raping his wife." Natsu replied, his voice quiet and calm, not a single inflection to be heard. "If I told you exactly how the ones at the farm died, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to hold onto the contents of your stomach." A pair of gentle footsteps tapped down the stairs and drew his attention, it was Lelyanna rushing over, looking fresh from her shower. She was as neatly dressed in her archbishop garb but had her hood down because her hair was still damp. "Aren't you practically glowing."

"Shush." Lelyanna muttered as the light pink blush on her cheeks darkened a few shades. "I felt something odd as I was dressing, didn't have a chance to fully dry my hair because I thought you had found yourself in some trouble…" She took a seat on the stool on the man's right just as a chime rang from the partition.

"I wouldn't be surprised if I did, but no; I was just talking to Joline about what Lawrence saw of us and my particular views." The pinkette reached out his hand and slowly ran it through the woman's hair, using the heat from his magic to quickly dry the bluish-silver strands and making steam rise from her head. The clinking of plates and ice announced the arrival of their food. "There, now it won't be an issue. I went ahead and ordered your lunch, by the way."

"Thank you." Lelyanna willed her pink cheeks away and let out a sigh as she grabbed the provided knife and fork while Natsu paid for the meal. "I was doing a little bit of thinking while I was having the shower, and not the kind you are probably about to joke about…"

"I have no idea what you're on about." Natsu replied with a shadow of a playful smirk as he grabbed one of the hot chips and tossed it into his mouth. He spared the priestess a quick glance and a raised eyebrow as his eyes reverted to their natural abyssal onyx. "What was it?"

"I'd like to return to Magnolia as quickly as possible. So, if we could, I'd like to hurry up and complete this job."

"I understand, I didn't expect it to go like this, not for your first outing into the field. I was hoping it wouldn't be as violent, but at least you were able to help a lot of people."

"Yes, true… But I think we should skip what we had planned today and head out in search of the monsters. I just want wind down in the Cathedral or reading one of the books in your library… I can't stop thinking about what I saw and since I can't comfortably process it, it's a little difficult right now."

"You get used to it." Natsu replied gently. "Whether that's fortunate or unfortunate is up to you."

"Well, as I was telling Báleygr; there is an old fort south of here and the monsters were apparently sighted in that direction. So, they are either between the town and that fort or are occupying the fort's structures." Joline glanced between the polar opposite people in front of her; Lelyanna was sitting up straight and using her knife and fork like someone trained to be in the company of nobles, yet next to her was a man who was dressed like a noble upon first glance but held none of the etiquette or didn't care about etiquette to begin with. He was leaning on his elbow with his check planted on his fist while he casually flicked a chip into his mouth, but at least he kept it closed when eating. Sensing a gaze on him, Natsu's void-like eyes slowly shifted from the priestess to the Inn's owner but he didn't say anything, instead let the woman continue talking. "I take it that you two will be heading out immediately?"

"Yeah. The plan was to find some clothes for the archbishop that are better suited for my line of work. It also served as a means of letting her wind down a little." Natsu replied, pointed to his partner with one of the last few chips on his plate before he tossed it into his mouth. "But I think we'll stick a pin in that for until we're back in Magnolia and can go to the woman who made my clothes. At least then I can guarantee that they'll provide some degree of protection over basic cloth."

"Thank you for the food." Lelyanna gave Joline a smile as she pushed her empty plate and glass forward. She brought her hood up over her head and rose up from the stool just as the doorbell rang, announcing the entrance of a chatting group of locals who made their way to a table near the window. "Not to rush you, Na… Báleygr, but you should finish your food. The less we dawdle, the sooner we can ensure the safety of this town. At least until the next group of monsters decides to come around."

"No rest for the wicked." Natsu straightened up and polished off the last of his food before washing it down with what was left of the juice. "Thanks for the food, Joline." Natsu called out to the woman as he and Lelyanna quickly left the building and walked to the vehicle they had taken from the bandits. Once they were underway, his eyes flicked to the woman next to him, she seemed slightly off-colour still. "What's eating you?"

"I just still have the jitters from last night. Partly from firing the handgun you gave me at someone. It's just nerves and a little bit of disgust from watching people die, seeing what people can do, and myself being the cause of one of their deaths, even if I know they deserved it..."

"That bitter feeling that won't go away, that is a reminder that you are normal and not some kind of monster or killing machine. Thankfully, even though killing is as easy as breathing for me, I still feel the same bitterness. I'm just used to the taste. No idea if that makes me more of a demon or what, though, I don't deny being one considering the things I've done."

"I don't suppose there is anything you can do about this?" Lelyanna turned to look at the man, her face half obscured by her veil.

"One of my curses, Macro, allows me to control inorganic things and influence organic things, people in other words. So, yes, I can." Natsu nodded slowly while navigating the rural roads and leaving the farming town behind them. "However, while I have no real issues using my curses… after I lost everything, I went down to the bunker those fuckers were hiding in and did some fucking heinous shit. I was so enraged that I used my curses to tortuously murder them. I won't get into details, but believe me when I say that I'm every bit as much a monster, a demon, devil, whatever you want to call me, as these fuckers we're looking for. I don't want to use my curses on you."

"Even if I'm willing to take on the onus of the action?"

"I'm not about to fuck with your mind, Lelyanna. Even if you're willing to let me poke around in it." Natsu growled and shot the priestess a quick glare but it let out a gentle sigh and his face relaxed. "I'll help however I can on a personal level, but I'm not going to use my curses on your actual body unless our lives depend on it, at which point I'll be the one responsible for whatever I made you do."

"Okay… Well, I guess I'll try and move past this as best as I can for now. But getting back to Magnolia is a priority. A familiar environment should be more relaxing… right?" Lelyanna murmured. She leaned across the very short gap between them and rested against the much warmer body of Natsu, finding solace in his comforting warmth. "What's the plan?"

"I'm willing to bet that they would be operating out of the fort. It's an existing fortified location so no work would need to be done to it bar minimal maintenance, and I doubt goblins would bother doing that. Though if there are some big bastards in there then they could order them to do labour and patch up holes in their defences. They don't have to dig anywhere, and it could even have a bunch of weapons already there for them. Traps too, not including the ones they would make." Natsu's eyes flicked up to a nearby hill where he could see the structure growing larger as they drew closer. "Looks to have high stone walls bordering the fort itself with a broken wooden palisade creating a perimeter wall further down the hill… Not very many blind spots at that elevation but if those books you had me read were correct, then this is the best time to attack them as they are nocturnal creatures. Still feels wrong to me though from a strategic standpoint, normally I'd be conducting this under the cover of night as it would be easier for me to hide."

"I made sure to get you the most current Monster Encyclopaedia, so everything in it should be correct."

"That's if it isn't some kind of gimmick." Natsu muttered under his breath. He pulled off the road and eased the vehicle into a clump of tall grass. Once they were out of the motorcar, he collected up loose branches and rested them up against the vehicle to obscure it from sight. "Probably won't work for monsters that can smell better than a normal human, they'd pick up on our scents and track us, following parallel to our approach and setting up an ambush. At least, that's what I'd do." He brushed the dirt from his hands on his coat and waved the woman after him as he set off into the trees with the loaned sword appearing on his back.

Lelyanna kept quiet and stayed glued to the man's back, following him through the foliage step-for-step. Her eyes focused on the back of his head, watching the minute twitches of his ears and the slight turns of his head as he scanned the area around them. He walked with a purposeful stride, maintaining a constant pace through the brush, and it was a little hard to keep up with the man. Lelyanna was by no means unfit, as she had a daily routine that she stuck to while in Magnolia, but her small slender body started to ache from trying to keep pace with the Shock Trooper up the incline of the hill and the twigs and bramble that constantly caught and tugged at her Archbishop's Garb made her stumble occasionally. As they neared the edge of the forest, where it had been cleared to make room and materials for the fort, Natsu held out his hand to bring her to a stop as he crouched low in a thicket. "What do you see?"

"They've got the gate open with two goblins out the front. I can sense more along the ramparts above them, probably have bows or something but they won't do much at this distance unless they were longbows and even then, I can still send them off-course." Natsu glanced back at the woman then brought his hand forward, pointing out the positions of the monsters. "Thankfully, it seems I can sense them with my demonic empathy. They feel different to humans, so my instincts are warning me about them… makes it easier to accurately pinpoint their locations."

"What about the females?" Lelyanna murmured as her eyes followed his finger. She could make out the little green figures plodding around lethargically, seemingly waiting for the end of their watch so they could go and sleep. "Can you detect them?"

"Faintly. It seems their willpower is waning. They're undoubtably wishing to be killed to end whatever suffering they're being put through. They're underground so it's making things a little difficult to get a proper read on them; it's dampening my ability to hear them and I'm only getting the faintest trace of scent which is likely on those monsters."

"Ok, then do you know how many monsters there are inside the fort?"

"It's murky… I can't really differentiate between types just yet, but I can sense about a hundred of them, and there are probably more that I can't sense. Undoubtably a raiding group that was amassing troops to attack the town. They were probably going to pillage it and take all the women captive so they could amass an even larger force and move onto Dianthus or one of the other satellite towns to further bolster their forces before that."

"I won't be of any use in that kind of fight… What do you want me to do?" The bluish-silver-haired woman glanced up at the pinkette who's eyes were flicking between the gaps at the top of the ramparts, probably counting enemies.

"Stay close to me as best as you can. If you do, then I can guarantee your safety even when I'm neck-deep in bodies. Above all else, shoot anything that threatens you." Natsu rose to his feet and glanced back. "Let's move, they're changing the guard so we have an opportunity to advance to the stone wall."

"Huh?" Lelyanna's eyes widened as the man took off running, but thankfully it was at a speed she could match. She staggered on some vine-like weeds but wrenched her boots through it and raced after him, further sullying their pristine white material with even more streaks of green and brown. She followed him through a gap in the wooden palisade and crossed the stretch of land between it and the fort's walls. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as she came to a stop with her back against the stone wall. She placed her hand over her racing heart while trying to even out her breathing, but her nerves were getting in the way; she was about to follow this man into a fort that was chock-full of dangerous monsters and all she had was a knife and a pistol with just a few spare magazines worth of ammunition. Her eyes darted up to the man and she noticed the grave look he was giving the wall between them; his eyes were narrowed and his jaw was tense.

"Come here. Keep your mouth open and cover your ears." Natsu ordered quietly as he placed his right palm flush with the stout stone bricks. Once the woman had taken cover against his chest with her hands over her ears, he clamped a hand over her right ear and pressed her left firmly against his chest, further muffling the imminent dangerously loud soundwave that was about to wash over them. Once he was certain she was safe, a yellow web spread out along the surface of the stone and grew to the full height of the wall. He brought his arm back and pulled his coat around Lelyanna just as a blast rang out, filling the air around them with a cloud of dirt and debris. His unprotected ears rang painfully but it didn't concern him as his body would repair the damage quickly so all he had to put up with were the temporary side effects like impaired hearing and balance for a short time. "Let's go."

As the man made to move, Lelyanna stopped him as she noticed the blood beginning to leak from his ears. She held up her hands and her eyes became illuminated with a divine glow, a by-product of the blessing she received. Once she had worked her healing magic on the man, she stepped back and drew her M12 handgun. "Ok, I'm ready."

Natsu murmured a quick word of thanks as he drew the blade from his back and stepped through the hole he had created. His freshly mended ears picked up on multiple jabbering creatures surrounding them, trying to determine the source of the blast in their incomprehensible tongue. Thankfully, the thick cloud of dust blocked their senses of sight and smell, masking their presence to the monsters. Natsu exhaled slowly, his body settling into a familiar steady rhythm and he stopped constraining his aura, allowing it to readily exude from his body and create a heat mirage in the dusty cloud.

The jabbering around him shifted through multiple emotive ranges, going from tired but alert and curious, to shocked and stunned, before quickly devolving into a panicked rage, someone had breached their fortress and must be killed. As the cloud thinned, the goblins charged forward, daggers and hatchets in hand but they were met with a red glow and a vicious snarl before metal flashed in an arch through their ranks. Heads separated from necks as the man dashed forward, the Grosse Messer shrieking like a banshee as it pierced through air and flesh alike with blinding speed. The goblins in the immediate area were slaughtered near instantly, their little green bodies falling apart and spraying dirty red blood across the ground.

Lelyanna followed the man into the fray, the inhuman shouts and screams of rage, pain, suffering, and panic thundering in her ears. She did her best to stay close enough to Natsu so he could keep her safe, relying on him even though he had armed and trained her due to how her body shook uncontrollably from the horrifying scene unfolding around her. Unintelligible shouts came from behind her and she spun around with her pistol raised, finding three goblins mid-leap and about to bury their little weapons into her or rip her clothes from her body. She aimed quickly and pulled the trigger, sending the bullet through the head of the closest goblin and the round continued into the horde gathering around them.

"NATS…!" She started to shout but a rolling inferno washed over her, leaving her unharmed but coating the two remaining goblins and a dozen more behind them in a combination of brilliant orange and deep maroon flames which clung to their bodies like tacky tar. She glanced behind her and saw the pinkette's outstretched left hand for a moment before he raced past her, she caught a glimpse of his terrifying vicious snarl and crimson eyes, all of his dark emotions that he kept bottled up, the intense rage and hatred, the self-loathing, the pain of loss, everything was being channelled and vented in this fight; he had let loose the demon within him on these goblins, it was monster verses monster and only one of them sat at the apex.

Natsu left the writhing monsters alone, not wasting the energy on finishing them off as he swung his sword through the group with little to no refinement to his technique. His powerful aura flooded the area, barely contained by the fort's tall stone walls and leaving them glowing like lava rocks in a barbeque which further increasing the heat within the fortified structure. The trees within withered and caught alight and the grass turned into blankets of orange and maroon flames, flowing along the ground like burning oil. The wooden buildings spontaneously combusted, sending plumes of smoke high into the sky. Amid the stifling heat, the man-turn-demon raced through the thinning horde of monsters as they scrambled for safety, seeking protection from the flames and heat underground.

He skidded to a stop at the front of a line of goblins and flipped the sword around in his hand, throwing it point-first through the chests of the waist-high creatures and piercing clean through six before carrying the final four through the air and impaling them against a burning building. He slammed his right hand down against the ground and vines shot out like spears from underneath a dozen more goblins around him, punching right up through the middle of them and lifting their lifeless impaled bodies two metres into the air. Alarm bells rang through his mind and he dashed forward as a large green fist passed through the space his head had been an instant before and cratered the ground.

"Demon."

"Oh, what do we have here?" Natsu straightened up beside the burning building and wrenched his sword free from the wall. He incinerated the bodies as he turned to the green monster who stood as tall as him but was far bulkier with bulging muscles all across his body. The monster's torso and legs were covered in a hodgepodge of metal and leather armour which looked to be scavenged from its victims. Baring his fangs in a vicious, predatory snarl, Natsu slowly approached the growling Orc, dragging the tip of his sword along the pavement and sending up a flurry of sparks. "To think there were monsters like you who could speak our language. Though, all that grunting and growling makes it hard to understand you even if you seem a little more intelligent than the goblins."

"You dare…!" The Orc growled as he lifted his large maul but the monster was quickly restrained by vines that shot out from the ground underfoot. "Why are you helping the humans?"

"The pay is much better and it comes with some sweet perks, if you know what I mean." He gave the monster a devilish grin. With the click of his fingers, he extinguished the inferno that had been raging out of control around him, leaving behind smouldering ruins. As he came to a stop less than a metre from the Orc, he looked the monster dead in his grey eyes, still baring his own fangs. "And if you think I only kill monsters, then you'd be mistaken. If I think humans deserve to die then I'd kill them too, case in point; last night I killed a bunch of bandits who were kidnapping whole families and selling the women as sex slaves. You lot just happen to be a threat that I can't leave alone, too close to human settlements and taking their women to build up your forces. That woman over there happened to take this contract thinking it was just a simple investigation something that would be easy for herself to handle." Natsu jerked his head at the priestess who was jogging over to his side, looking completely unharmed and unaffected by the fires and heat that had been raging all around her. "Sadly, her first time hasn't gone to plan."

"If I must die here, then I ask that you allow me to fight to the death, if you give me that, I'll answer your questions, Demon."

"Fine. But if you try and harm the priestess, then I can guarantee you won't get an honourable death." Natsu held out a hand to stop the woman from approaching as he took a few steps back. "Ready your hammer, Orc."

As the vines retracted into the ground, the green monster rubbed his thick neck and wiggled his jaw, his eyes moving from the Demon in front of him to the human woman about twenty metres away. As easy as it would be to kill her by throwing his hammer, he was certain that the pinkette would be able to intercept it with very little effort. "Have you not got any questions? Our plans, how many there are below, where the human women are and what their condition is?"

"Now that I've thinned out your numbers a bit, I can sense the last two, and I can guess the first two fairly easily." Natsu shrugged and stabbed the tip of the sword into the ground to hold it in place as he cracked his knuckles. "The only question I think I have is how many Orcs can I expect down below?"

"Five, including our leader." The Orc lifted his maul and rested it against his shoulder. "In my culture, it's customary to share names before you go into your final battle. Mine is Vrikdarok."

"Báleygr." Natsu pulled the sword from the ground and checked the cutting edge, finding that it had become dulled from cutting through goblin after goblin and being coated with their blood, organs, and fat. It was the unfortunate problem with using inferior materials to create bladed weapons, his knife would retain its edge even after constant use, and it was one of the main reasons he needed weapons made from the same alloy as his combat knife with the other that it could stand up to the amount of physical strength he could output. He was fully expecting the weapon to break at some point during this job.

"Focus, Demon!" Vrikdarok roared as he charged at the demonic man, his hammer held aloft to his right. The Orc swung his mighty maul at the physically less imposing man with all his might as something was telling him that if he didn't then he'd surely meet his end but his vision tilted and his head tipped to the side by itself, it rolled as it fell and the Orc saw the Demon walking away with his back to him.

"Enough of your grunting, I've got a job to do." Natsu growled quietly as he walked towards the door the Orc had emerged from, leaving the monster to die a pitiful death. The clacking of boots alerted him to Lelyanna's approach as he brought out a whetstone normally used with his combat knife and began to sharpen the sword. "I think we've taken out a third to two-fifths of the monsters here, and according to that Orc, we still have five more of his kind left to kill."

"I've never seen fire behave that way." Lelyanna murmured as she glanced back at the charred, unmoving corpses. "I get that it's a combination of your dragon fire and demon fire, but what's with it?"

"It's based on an incendiary weapon called Napalm. Basically, it's an incendiary liquid mixed with thickeners and shit that turn it into a sticky gel. My demonic fire has a lot of utility and provide me with the ability to create the Napalm, and while it is powerful in its own right, my draconic fire is far more destructive and those are what provide the raw power since they can reach over three thousand degrees Celsius which allows me to easily cut through steel. The downside is that the hotter the flames, the more power I need to pour into them to fuel it. So, I usually keep it just hot enough for antipersonnel uses and pump it up only when needed."

"And I'm guessing that ability to control your fire is what protected me when I had a wave of fire wash over me?"

"Yes, and it's what is protecting both you and our gear from the raw heat." Natsu turned his red eyes from the door and to the woman who started to match his steps at his side, happy to see that she wasn't even breaking a sweat. "You'd be suffering from heatstroke if I wasn't doing that. And your ammo could potentially cook-off in the magazines and you'd have an accidental discharge of your pistol." He ran his fingertips along the sharpened edge and gazed down the length of the sword, it was perfectly sharpened and honed once more so he sent the whetstone away and advanced on the door.

The descent to the fort's underground rooms was slow, the stairway was narrow and it would be difficult swinging the Grosse Messer without damaging it. If he had his new weapons, he would have switched to the two Messer fighting knives that he had ordered for this exact scenario. So, he placed the sword in the scabbard on his back and brought out a second combat knife in his right hand while drawing the one from his left thigh. "It's bound to be dark down here, so use the lights on your pistol. I'll be sending out some embers to give the areas some low-level lighting for you too but they'll mainly be designed to emit infrared light."

Lelyanna's eyes darted around the man as embers started to float around his body like fireflies, faintly illuminating him but it was more than enough for her to keep track of him. She pressed a button on the grip of her pistol, turning on the flashlight as she took a step to the side and levelled the weapon down the stairs. "I can take care of anything that gets too close to me, but hopefully you can make sure nothing gets to that point."

"Heh. Yes, Ma'am." Natsu cracked a small grin but quickly stowed it as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He could sense the largest concentration coming from the door in front of him, likely a large underground storeroom, but there were also groups in other rooms around them that would join the fight the second it started. He made the snap decision to wall off the stairs with thick vines to prevent escape, he also sent thorny vines down the hall to trip and rip up any who tried to follow them into the room. His left shoulder pressed against the doorframe and placed the back of his hand on the wooden door, sending out a web of yellow lines. "I'm using a low-power charge to breach the door, so your ears should be fine and the blast is designed to throw everything inside. Take position opposite me and get ready to follow me in. Try not to hit any hostages."

"Right." The woman whispered and followed his instruction, pressing her shoulder against the right side of the door with her muzzle pointed to the roof. She was still a little on edge but she somehow felt calmer now that she wasn't in the middle of an inferno. As Natsu counted down from three on his fingers, she took a deep breath and released it through her nose just before the door flashed and blew into the room. Natsu pressed a button on the top of a strange tube and tossed it in the room and a moment later she was greeted by a loud bang and a bright flash which lit up the wall opposite the door. As frantic jabbering and grunting shouts rang out through the doorway, Natsu stepped inside and she quickly followed in behind the Shock Trooper.

The dark room was lit only by the embers sitting in recently snuffed torches. It showed that he had hit them at the right time as most of them seemed to have been sleeping. The embers that had been dancing around the salmon-haired man's body shot out and glowed bright as they zoomed around the stone ceiling, further disorientating the monsters with their rapid movements, and even buzzing around the monsters' heads like annoying blowflies. Natsu's eyes darted around the mutely coloured room, quickly identifying the most efficient path through the monsters to take out the leaders and clear a path for Lelyanna to reach the women. The stone floor under his feet shattered as he launched forward and darted through the horde of goblins, easily slipping his KMXX combat knives through their thin neck on his way past.

Sparks flew from his right knife as it grinded along the longsword belonging to an Orc, the guttural growl the monster released drew his gaze to its face. "Kill the Demon!"

"How about I give you a split jaw to go along with that line?" Natsu joked quietly as it reminded him of a game that Happy used to play. He spun on the balls of his feet and twisted around the Orc, driving a knife through its back and into the heart. A quick push was all it took to drive the blade out through the side of the armoured Orc, the considerably lower quality and softer metal unable to stand up to the alloy from his world. The momentum carried the knife around through the neck of and claiming the life of the third Orc of the day.

Unlike fighting with the sword, Natsu was more at home using his two combat knives and they allowed him to gracefully float about the battlefield like it was a ballroom dance. When the vicious roar of a group of goblins alerted him to their imminent attack, Natsu's right boot arced around and he drove his heel into the airborne monsters, bursting their skulls like watermelons one after another before using the momentum to launch into the air and sling a knife across the room and into the skull of the fourth Orc.

Moving through the bloody swath Natsu cut through the monsters, Lelyanna was running across the room to the captive women. Flecks of filthy red blood spattered her face and pristine white clothes as she unloaded a quick burst of three rounds into a goblin who had leapt at her, she didn't have time to properly line up the shots so she had to fire off more than she liked to ensure her safety. She didn't even spare the dying monster a glance as it collapsed behind her, she just kept running to the women that were tied to various crudely constructed stays to restrict their movement and keep their legs open.

Some of the women were missing limbs and digits or had burn marks where their flesh had been cauterised after something had bitten a chunk from their body. The sight made her sick to her stomach, this was much worse than what the bandits had done. Acid burnt its way up her throat but she forced it back to her stomach as she slid into a kneel in front of the first woman, she was alive, they all were even if it was just barely. They looked very lifeless and some had eyes that were duller than Natsu's void-like eyes. Something large flew over her head and crashed into the wall not far from her and smashed into an adjacent room, her gaze flicked up from the woman to the shadow looming over her with glowing red orbs. "This doesn't look good…"

"If you think they're beyond saving or won't live long even if they are saved then show them some mercy and take their lives, better to end it than have a life of suffering."

"I-I-I can't do that, Natsu!" Lelyanna's eyes shot wide open and she raised them to meet the red-eyes of man standing over her. Contrary to his cold, harshly-spoken words, there was a softness in his demonic eyes. It seemed that he didn't like the idea either but he was right, letting them live in suffering would be far worse than ending it. So, the priestess looked back to the half-eaten woman in front of her and shook her head lightly. "You're right… but I still can't bring myself to do it, Natsu…"

"Cut them free and take the ones you deem salvageable out into the hallway. I'll deal with the rest." Natsu's head instantly tilted up as he sensed humans above them, they were the familiar presences of the guards from Papaver who must have mobilised the full force to investigate the explosion and smoke from the fire. "Shout out to me once you get all the recoverable ones out, I'll remove the vines obstructing your path to the surface. You'll find Remick up there with his guards. I'll come up once I'm done cleaning up the place."

"I'm sorry…" The archbishop whispered to the woman as she cut her free, helping her down onto the ground but when the woman remained unresponsive the priestess said a quick prayer then moved onto the next captive while Natsu darted around her with blinding speed, leaving a trail of bodies floating in a shallow river of blood in his wake. Lelyanna's boots and the lower half of her dress had become stained a dirty red, much to her disgust but thankfully it could be cleaned off easily thanks to her goddess' enchantment. All she had to do was to just push the slick feeling and the growing urge to vomit from her mind and focus on her task of helping the injured women.

"KILL THE HUMAN BEFORE SHE FREES THE WOMEN!" Bellowed an Orc clad in heavy plate armour. The bloodstained armour was creased and dented from impacts with blades and lead bullets, the owner had clearly seen his fair share of battle with humans and was certain that his armour would protect him against the woman's little handgun. So, when the priestess brought the pistol to bear on him, he thought nothing of it and continued his charge with his battle-ax prepared to split her in two.

Lelyanna's eyes shot wide and her hands shook the pistol gripped between them, but in the back of her mind she knew that hesitation could spell her end, even with Natsu nearby. A moment later, a 10mm full metal jacket bullet punched through the front of the plate armour with ease and was quickly followed by nine more. As the slide locked back on her pistol, Lelyanna dropped the magazine and slotted the next one in without taking her fearful eyes off of the monster, the slide came forward and shot back and forth rapidly, riddling the monster with the entire contents of the magazine and only then did the Orcish leader come crashing to the ground right in front of her. She let out the breath she had unconsciously been holding and gazed down at the monster as its blood pooled around her boots and pushed the spent casings across the stone floor. Everything had gone quiet around her but as she gazed around, she realised that all the frantic jabbering of the goblins and the roars of the last two Orcs as they gave orders to their minions in some language that she didn't understand had just been drowned out by the thunderous noise of her racing heart beating away in her ears. She reloaded the handgun and took her knife in her left hand, quickly cutting the second woman free but not hanging around to check on her. "If You Can Move, Follow Me!"

Natsu deflected an attack from one of the two remaining Orcs, pushing their claymore to the side with an easy that shocked the monster but the man had to shift his focus to the second Orc who took the opportunity to lunge at the pinkette and try to run him through with their longsword. Natsu flicked the sword up with his right knife and stepped in, delivering a powerful side kick to the monster's metal kite shield. The blow crumpled the sturdy shield like it was made from paper-mâché and launched the monster across the room. The shock had caused it to loosen its grip on the sword which hung in mid-air for a just a moment but it was all the time Natsu needed. He flicked his foot forward, catching the pommel on the toe of his boot and kicking the sword through the armoured chest of the Orc. As the monster fell to his knees, Natsu's right hand followed the momentum of his body and the knife sliced through the Orc's neck, cleanly separating the head from the rest of the body and before it could hit the ground, he flicked his wrist and sent the knife streaking across the dark room and embedding it within the remaining Orc's head.

With a glance over at his partner, Natsu realised she was still halfway through triage, so he still had to ensure her safety from the remaining goblins most of which were trying to play dead among the corpses of their brethren. "Don't let your guard down, Lelyanna. Some of these fuckers are still alive but hiding among the dead."

The priestess glanced up from the woman she was cutting free just in time to see the man crush a goblin's head under his gore-coated boot before walking over to an Orc and pulling his knife from its skull with his usual cold expression freezing his face in a merciless snarl, but it was as if all of his prior aggression had melted away to emptiness. She had a quick look around herself but couldn't differentiate the living from the dead, so she glanced back to the man. "I need you to clear a path for me. They all look dead to me."

"Alright." The pinkette cleaned his combat knives on the fur lining of the Orc's armour then slotted one back into the sheath on his thigh and sent the other back to his magical storage. He drew his M12 pistol and walked a winding path between the captive women, stopping every now and then to put a bullet through the head of a prone goblin before he moved onto the next.

Once the path between them had been cleared of goblins playing crouching tiger, hidden monster, he pushed out a little further and started walking in expanding concentric circles to systematically kill every last goblin in the room. There were still others in neighbouring rooms but he'd deal with them once Lelyanna had rounded up the women most likely to recover from the incident. His fingers drummed against the grip of his pistol as he walked around the room, as much as executing innocent civilians made him sick to the stomach, he had no choice to do it after witnessing the state they were in. Putting them out of their misery was just another thing that he would have to push deep down, another memory he'd have to relive in his dreams, just like he had to do many times before. "It's almost like déjà vu."

"Natsu. I'm heading up!"

Natsu glanced over to the door as he shot another goblin, it was strange how none of them tried to intervene but it made his work easier. Lelyanna waved at him from the doorway, she had managed to get eleven survivors out of eighteen and was just waiting on him to remove his barrier. Once she was on her way to the surface, he walked over to the first woman left behind. All he had to do now is to end the captives' suffering. His fingers tapped a rapid irregular rhythm on the grip of his pistol as he stood over the first women Lelyanna had cut free, the one he had ordered her to kill.

"It'll just take one bullet…" He murmured as he took aim at her head, staring into the woman's cold lifeless eyes. "Just pull the trigger and end her suffering…"

Ten seconds passed, then another ten, and the man finally lowered the pistol; he had killed people in a similar situation before, gave them mercy from an unrecoverable injury, but they were always soldiers on one side or the other, not civilians. Natsu slipped the pistol back into the holster on his thigh and slowly got down onto his knees. He brushed the woman's matted hair from her face and stared into her blank eyes as he spoke to her with a slow and smooth whisper. "Focus on me."

Life slowly returned to the woman's eyes and they drifted up to look into the man's glowing red eyes, but she didn't make a single sound, only stared into the demonic crimson irises.

"In one minute, your brain is going to shut down, and you will die a peaceful death. In this last minute, you'll focus on your life prior to your capture by these monsters, and you will remember all the happy memories you had made over your years in this world. Now, close your eyes, and reminisce…" As the woman's eyes closed, so did his own, silently asking for forgiveness for what he was doing. He rose to his feet and move through the field of bodies, stopping by the next four women and giving them the same lethal command.

The sixth woman, however, had been watching the entire events unfold and her eyes were glued to the man the monsters called a demon and saw how the other women died from his words alone. Once he reached her, she gazed up at the man with her hand on her belly, her distain for the foetus within written all across her body from her face to the scratches on her stomach. "Get this fucking thing out of me… I don't want to die with it inside me."

Natsu stared down at the woman for a few seconds before closing his eyes and letting out a short breath. "Alright. In thirty seconds, your body will eject the foetus within your womb, but you'll feel no pain from the process." After the allotted time had passed, the woman's body ejected the half-formed goblin and he severed the link between them with a quick slash. But before he could slot the knife into the sheath, it was snatched from him by the woman and she began plunging it into the goblin foetus.

"I hope you fucking cunts rot in fucking hell! I hope you fucking die a long and painful death! I hope your fucking bodies are burnt to ashes and not a single fucking trace is left of you in this world!"

Each word was punctuated with a thrust of the knife into the partly formed goblin, and only after the woman had vented all of her anger and pain into the foetus and directed the tip at her chest did Natsu take his knife back. He wordlessly held his right hand over the small body and deep maroon flames shot forth, rapidly burning away at the bloody mess until nothing was left but charred stone. He lightly gripped the woman's chin between his thumb and forefinger and slowly lifted it to meet his demonic gaze. "Are you ready to leave this world?"

"Yes"

"Very well. In one minute, your brain will cease to function and you will die. How you choose to spend this last minute of your life is up to you. Take up a weapon and stab the crap out of these bodies, hack them to pieces, rip them to shreds, do as you wish." Natsu rose to his feet and gazed down at the woman with a gentle warmth before moving onto the final woman he had to send to meet the gods and goddesses.

Once all the women had breathed their final breath, Natsu sent them to the surface in a cocoon of vines and he fell to his knees in disgust, snarling at his reflection in a pool of blood. He despised himself for what he had done, what had needed doing but he couldn't flounder in his self-loathing as so long as there were monsters in these ruins, he still had a job to do. Quickly pulling himself together, he rose to his feet while murmuring, "Get it together, there's time to be pissed off later. You're a cold-hearted demon who hunts monsters, this is just another day for you. You deal in death for humans and monsters alike, the death of a few humans by your hand is nothing to you."

Natsu held out his hand and used Macro to collect up all the spent casings and the reusable flashbang, giving them a quick but powerful jet of air from his right palm to blast the blood from the items with his Calamity curse before sending them away to his magical storage. A ball of condensed two-tone fire grew in his slightly curled hand as he walked out of the room and to the end of the hall, he knew each room contained goblins that needed to be exterminated and so he started at the very last room with a heavy kick to the door. There was a group of young goblins inside that were huddled in a corner, frightfully shaking but their eyes were already seething with hatred and cunning. They couldn't be left alive, otherwise they would continue to terrorise humanity, so he tossed the ball of fire into the room and walked to the next room as fire burst out through the doorway behind him.

0=0=0

"If I had Báleygr up here then I could give these women the water they need…" Lelyanna muttered to herself while she knelt in front of a woman, a healing aura around her hands and a divine glow to her pale-turquoise eyes. Her gaze flicked up to an armoured man standing just a little off to her side. "Thanks for letting these women borrow your coats, Remick."

"When we heard the explosion and came running, I thought these monsters found some gunpowder stores and were experimenting so I wasn't expecting to find you two being the source. What the hell did you use?"

"Do you remember when I said that he can be a bit demonic when he is angry? That wasn't some playful choice of words. For the most part, he's just being carefully about who he trusts and confides in, who he can relax around. But in this case as you see around us and down there…" The bluish-silver-haired woman nodded her head toward the stairwell to the underground storage rooms where a pillar of smoke spilled out from, the stomach-churning stench of burning bodies coming out in puffs alongside strong bursts of a terrifying aura amid the horrifying screams and shouts of the monsters. "Well, he has suffered a lot before he came here, before we met and became partners in this field. This is his way of venting all of his self-hatred and pain. He can do this and trust me to be safe because he made sure me, a young priestess who hadn't been in a fight at all, could protect myself and kill to save myself or others…"

Occasionally, one or two goblins made it to the surface but were covered head-to-toe in maroon and orange flames. Some made it a few steps before collapsing while others charged toward the voices, only to be cut or shot down by the humans. "One of the two men in that bedroom were killed by me…" Lelyanna let out a shaky breath and rose to her feet. She glanced over to the women lying not far from them, each covered up by a coat but never to wake up from their slumber. "He was the first person I've had to kill, that I wanted to kill too… after seeing what they were doing for myself. I don't know how you all can handle this awful feeling. Him especially, knowing that he fought in the war that resulted in the destruction of his homeland. He's seen many people die, both by his hands and by that of others."

"You learn to live with it." Remick answered softly. He moved over to the dead women and carefully inspected their bodies, his eyebrows furling slightly. "They died recently, very recently, but I can't find anything that would be their cause of death…"

"Their bodies completely shut down a little over five minutes ago. Complete collapse of all functions, all at the same time."

Silence filled the air and the oppressive power coming up from below their feet faded away, Lelyanna made her way to the stairs and was greeted by the slow and somewhat menacing clacking of boots and slight jingle of belt buckles as long salmon-coloured spikes emerged from the stairway, followed by a pair of cold red eyes. She noticed the faint glimmer of self-loathing in the depths of his eyes but chose to address it later. "I've done what I can for the ones that survived, but they're in need of water and a decent meal, but I don't trust the water around here."

"Here. Make sure they drink slowly otherwise they'll just bring it right back up." Natsu handed off a full canteen to the woman as he walked past her, his eyes set on the head guard as a bundle of folders appeared beside him and floated just off from his shoulder. "Here's your reports back. I haven't had a chance to check if they match up as I was busy securing the area, so I'll leave it in your hands. I'd hand them to you normally, but as you can see…" He held out his bloody hands and flipped them over before waving them down his body. "Killing monsters is a rather dirty job and I haven't had the chance to properly clean up." His crimson eyes flicked down to the women he had killed and he let out a slow breath from his noise, maintaining his cold expression as he looked at the faces of each one. "I'll leave them in your care. Lelyanna's a very skilled healer, so there should be no complications outside mental trauma and needing to bring them back to a healthy condition."

"Will you two be sticking around?" Remick asked as he plucked the documents out of the air and began flipping through them and checking who is who.

"Not for long. Just enough to get cleaned up and to clean our gear. I'll be leaving the car on the main street for you to do whatever you want with. If I were you, I'd convert them to extra transports for the guards."

"Noted. Swing by the station when you're ready to go and I'll have one of my guys take you back to the train station. It's the least I can do since you've done so much in so little time."

"Thanks." Natsu sighed softly and walked over to the nearby well, he drew up a bucket of water and used it to clean his hands and face. It didn't smell great, in fact it smelt stale, but it got the blood off of him. He had sensed the man watching his back and walking over to him but he didn't look up from the water. "Something wrong?"

"For a demon, you aren't that bad of a man, Báleygr. You can be brutal and cold, yes, but I've seen how you are around that young woman and those women you saved, you're caring even though you don't show it on the surface for the vast majority of time."

"Regardless of what I am, I still have a moral code I live by, and I had to bend it with those women because the situation called for it." Natsu shook his head lightly and leant his sword against the well then shrugged off his coat, hanging it over the side of the well. He tipped the red-tinted water onto the ground and got a fresh bucket, which he lifted it over his head and poured it over himself to wash away the majority of the blood. A quick pulse of magic returned his clothes to a pristine condition and a second pulse dried him. While he had his coat off, he shifted his weapons back to the small of his back with his original holster, giving him a cleaner appearance at a passing glance. After his slipped on his coat and the harness for his loaner sword, he glanced at the man but turned and walked over to the young priestess. "If you're all set, let's move out."

"Yeah, I'm done here. Things are at a point where I'm content enough to hand over the reins and head home after we tidy ourselves up." Lelyanna turned her back on the women they saved and looked up at the red-eyed man with a small but bright smile. "I think I might sleep on the train… This past week has really taken it out of me."

"Let's get going then."

---

That's this chapter's rewrite complete. With all the changes, the word count increased by 500 words.

This wraps up Natsu and Lelyanna's first job, it wasn't a very pleasant one but such is the world they live in. Danger lurks everywhere if one isn't careful.

Natsu's reluctance to use Macro on people comes from what he did in the first chapter where, in his rage born of watching his loved ones die, he forced the leaders of the Pergrande Kingdom to obey his vengeful demands.

I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one.