Chapter 1: The Fire
News of what happened to the Tenrou group hits hard for the people of Fairy Tail. Even after six months, they still find the news hard to believe. The loss of their strongest members were without doubts a major blow to the guild's reputation and power and tries as they might, the people left behind just couldn't fill that gap. Some choose to have faith that the people that were lost are still out there, waiting to be rescued, and working tirelessly to search for them. Many however, have no choice but to leave the guild, and no one could blame them since jobs were becoming much harder to find and maintaining a lively hood with such conditions were difficult to say the least.
Sitting on a harbor dock is a boy barely even six. His raven black hair flowing to the wind. His face is for the most part blank, except for his eyes. His eyes, puffing from so much crying, gazed towards the vast expanding ocean not to watch the beautiful sunset, but seemingly to watchout for any sign of … something, anything.
Romeo hasn't been the same since the news hit. That boy loved and cared for everyone that went to that island, especially one certain fire mage who he idolized after he saved his dad from his stupid outburst. Romeo had wanted to ask Natsu to help train him after the group returned and they celebrated the promotion. Romeo was so certain that Natsu would make the promotion that he even planned a celebration party specifically just for him. But all of that is down the drain now isn't it. Needless to say Romeo didn't take the news very well. The boy cried nonstop for a week straight and no one was able to console him. Afterward Romeo changed. What was once a happy, energetic, kind and a bit of a crybaby boy was now a quiet, closed off, and violence child who attacked anyone who insulted his guild whether it was warranted or not. He spoke very little, rarely interacted with anyone, barely took care of himself, refused to listen to others, not even his dad, and often spends a lot of his time just watching the sea.
"Are you ok son?" Macao asks, approaching the boy. The boy flinched a little, but showed no other sign of a response. Macao sighs, sitting next to the boy.
"You know you can talk to me about anything that's bothering you, right?" Macao said with a small smile, though both of them could tell that it wasn't a sincere smile without even needing to look at him.
The two stay in silence for a while, not saying or doing anything, just watching the sunset on the horizon. Once the sun has set and the darkness overtakes everything, Macao finally turns to his son.
"Listen. I know things have been hard for you. It has been hard on everyone. But I need you to start opening up to me so we could start working things out. We need to move on and plan the next step for everyone and I need you to change how you're acting so that could happen"
Romeo said nothing.
"I-I know that you're not happy with how things are. We lost the guild hall, in debt with those bastards from Twilight Ogre, and you're probably very disappointed in your dad for being this … screw up of a master." Macao continues, his voice hurt.
Romeo turns to look at his dad, but still says nothing.
"Please Romeo. Say something to me, anything. I can't keep seeing you like this." Macao pleaded, his voice hitch, tears started to build up in his eyes.
"What would you have me say?" Romeo finally speaks, his voice starts out small, but slowly rising. "That I'm happy that they're all gone? That I'm glad to hear other people insult the guild? That I love seeing Fairy Tail down in the dump like this?"
"N-no, of course not." Macao tried to reason. "I just want you to tell me how you feel so I can help you feel better."
"Well let me tell you how I feel." Romeo snapped, he stood up from where he was sitting, and started yelling. "I hate seeing the guild being insulted and I just want to beat up all those people that do it. I hate how pathetic we look. I hate how we went from the top guild to the bottom of the barrel. I hate seeing people leaving the guild. But worst of all, I hate believing that the people on Tenrou are actually gone but I keep thinking that they are. You want to help me? Unless you can undo all of that you can't. You can't even help yourself and just drown in all that alcohol."
"Don't you start talking to me like that youngman." Macao snapped back, stood up and started yelling back at his son. "I'm still your father and you still need to treat me with respect. I know you're hurt but that doesn't give you the right to hurt others. What you're doing right now is hurting everyone and you need to stop. You need to stop keeping to yourself. Stop ignoring others who are trying to help you and stop fighting anyone who bad mouthing the guild, especially Twilight Ogre. That will only make things worse for us."
"Why should I stop fighting the people who insulted our guild?" Romeo screams. "Natsu wouldn't let that go."
"NATSU IS GONE. EVERYONE IS." Macao couldn't cover his mouth fast enough.
Romeo said nothing, his face portraying nothing but hurt, and started running away.
"Wait. I didn't mean to." Macao tried to chase after his son.
Romeo doesn't know how long or far he has been running or how much he cried, he just doesn't want to stop. He knows his dad didn't mean to hurt him and is aware that what he's currently doing is wrong, that his actions for the past six months are wrong; how he acts, how he treats others and his own isolation did nothing but hurt others and himself even more than how things already are.
Part of him wanted to change, to open up to others and to move on from this pain. But he just can't stop. He's afraid that if he tries to face his issues, he'll just end up in more pain than he already is but above all, he's afraid that if he tries to change, to be better, he has to accept the truth.
Everyone on Tenrou is dead.
He hates thinking about it. The very idea frightened him to no end. He tries to bury those thoughts by closing off and lashing out whenever he can but his father's earlier outburst forces those thoughts to resurface at full force and he doesn't know how to deal with them besides doing what he's been doing all this time.
He ran.
Which brings us to now. Romeo is currently resting on the outskirts of the city, sobbing and panting uncontrollably, trying to keep his emotions in control but he just couldn't. "How am I gonna face dad later? It wasn't his fault that he tried to help me." He thought remorsefully.
Romeo was snapped out of his thoughts however when he heard rustling leaves in the nearby forest. Thinking it to be some kind of wild animal, Romeo prepares to leave when he is suddenly restrained and his mouth stuffed, keeping him from screaming. He tried to struggle but was quickly overpowered. Romeo was then carried over the kidnapper's shoulder like a bag and was carried into the forest for a little bit before being tossed into a carriage.
"Got another one. A kid." The kidnapper calls out, a man judging by his voice.
"You think this is enough?" Another voice calls out, also male but younger than the one who kidnapped Romeo.
"I think we already have more than enough but you never know. Better to be safe than sorry." A different voice, this time female, spoke up from the carriage's driver seat.
"Great. We should get moving then. Don't want to be late." The younger man spoke with excitement.
"Right." The kidnapper agreed, then knocked Romeo out.
Some time later
"Still no signs of him?" Macao asks, his voice filled with dread and exhaustion.
"Sorry man." Wakaba answered, his voice similarly laced with fear and tiredness.
Macao falls to the floor, slumping in defeat.
"Where are you Romeo?" He barely whispers through his tears.
Someplace unknown
Romeo suddenly awakens and finds himself surrounded by a lot of people similarly tied up like him; men and women, old and young, civilian and law enforcement, all kept inside a large cage with bright torches throughout the edge of the cage, where he was placed, revealing a huge group of people in black ropes surrounding them. He also noticed a full moon above them.
The cage is filled with the sound of crying and screaming from the people trapped inside while the people outside are chanting some form of ritual.
"What's going on?" Romeo manages to scream through all the noises though he wasn't really expecting a response. Surprisingly, he did get an answer.
"We're being used as baits by Zeref's cultists." A voice spoke up to Romeo's side. He looked over and saw a man dressed in rags laying on the floor with a smirk on his face. The man looks to be in his mid 30s, fairly muscular, his whole body is covered in ash and soots and his clothes look charred in many places. He has short, spiky, brown hair and some beard growing on his face. His skin is reddish and dry like it's been burned though he doesn't seem to be in pain. His most striking feature though, are his eyes. Despite the cage being fairly lit, a red glow emits brightly from his eyes which portrayed amusement, almost like this man is enjoying this situation. Truth be told, Romeo is a bit unnerved by this man.
"W-what do you mean by that?" Ignoring his feelings though, Romeo keeps asking the man, knowing that he's the only source of information he could have right now.
"It means what I said it means." The man sat up, looking straight at Romeo with his crimson glowing eyes, his smirk still present. "These bastards in ropes surrounding us are people who worship the dark mage Zeref and they are planting on using everyone in this cage as bait."
"B-bait for what? Why would they do this? And how are you so calm about this?" Romeo screams in panic though it doesn't seem to affect the man. He just kept smirking then went into more detail.
"We're bait for a demon. Apparently a demon that was not a Zeref's creation are actively trying to sabotage Zeref's empire by hunting his etherious demons and destroying any ships from Alvarez, be it military or trading ships. These cultists want to get in Zeref's good grace by killing this demon and since human's blood is apparently attractive to non-etherious demons they plan on luring it by gutting and letting us bleed out. As for why I'm so calm, well if we're gonna die anyway I figured why even bother panicking, just kick back, relax, and enjoy your final moments."
The man lay down, Romeo sat in shock. "T-there's gotta be someway to-"
"Listen kid, no one is coming to save us. These bastards make sure no one was able to tailed them so no one even knows where we are. You can't fight back either, this whole cage is rigged with magic suppression seals, we're all tied up, any attempt of resisting only results in your early registration as bait, just look around."
Romeo did, and finally noticed several puddles of blood along with corpses lying around. He felt sick from the sight, and vomited.
"Yeah, that's it, just let it all out of your system. May or may not make you feel better but should keep you from feeling worse." The man said from where he's lying, his smirk gone for a moment before returning once Romeo finished.
Just when things couldn't get any worse, Romeo overheard a conversation from the cultists outside.
"It's good to see that the empire of Alvarez has sent us aid. With this our endeavor should be a guaranteed success." One of the cultists who seems to be the leader spoke.
"Your efforts here are of great benefit to the Alvarez empire and so we simply see fit to show our support. We'll make sure that once this is done this filthy thorn will be forever plucked from our great empire's side." A woman clad in advanced heavy armor approaches the leader. Following her is a unit of soldiers and mages in the hundreds, seemingly from Alvarez, all clad in advance gears and armors.
"What are your plans in dealing with this demon if I may ask?" The woman spoke.
"Simple. This place here is a large source of holy energy along with the full moon that would further amplify the energy even more. We've prepared cannons that can harness all that holy energy and amplify it even further. Our plan is to lure the demon to a clear area far enough from here to keep us out of its range but not too far out of our range using all these people as bait. To ensure absolute success, we'll strike at midnight, when the holy energy is most potent. A demon, regardless of origin, is weak against holy attacks and no matter how strong this demon may be, it would still fall by such a force." The leader responded with pride.
The woman nods. "Excellent planning my friend. If this foul creature somehow survives such an attack, it would be severely weakened and our troops would easily be able to slain the beast then. I even have them armed in holy gears. If this operation is successful, I will make sure lord Zeref is aware of your excellent service."
"I'm just happy to be of service m'lady." The leader kneels, then stands up to address the other cultists.
"Prepare to move the bait. We'll gut these vermints once we've transported them to the selected area." The leader screams, the other cultist begins casting magic to move the cage which causes great panic from within.
"Do not fear. For your death will help rid this world of a great plague and ensure the glory of the great Alvarez empire and our great emperor Zeref." The woman spoke with pride which did nothing to quell the screams of fear and rage roaring from within.
Romeo falls to his back, devastated. He doesn't know when midnight will strike but he's more than aware that he won't make it to that point. He's not ready to die and there's a lot of things he still has to amend for. Overwhelmed, scared and lost, for some reason he doesn't cry.
"Where are we?" He asks, trying to distract his mind from the impending doom.
"Some broken down abandoned temple deep in the woods near Alvarez." The man answered. "It was used for worshiping some fire god until that god was killed. Still plenty of holy energy remains though. Should be enough to keep the demon from entering and attacking the cultists."
Romeo was suddenly snapped out of his dark mind when he heard the answer.
"What could've killed a god?" He asked, shocked.
"What could've killed a dragon?" The man asked back.
"... A dragon slayer."
"And that's your answer."
The two stay in silent for a moment
"Who are you? How do you know all this?" Romeo finally asked.
"Just overheard the cultists' conversations, they're surprisingly chatty. Ask for who am I, well-" the man was interrupted by a snake hiss. It wasn't a regular snake's hiss, but an ear-piercing hiss that echoed through the forest, carrying with it an enveloping darkness and wrath, trapping those who heard the howl in terror, pain, and surprisingly static shocks.
Following the hiss, chains of red lightning rain down surrounding the temple, destroying many of the landscapes and sending debris all over the area, including inside the temple. Suddenly something huge crashes in front of the temple, sending further dust and debris everywhere.
"The demon!" The female knight captain shouted.
"I-impossible, that beast shouldn't be able to sense this place let alone approach it." The cultist leader screams in terror.
All the cultists stop chanting the cage and begin focusing on the demon.
Once the dust settled, everyone saw a gigantic snake, easily larger than some of the largest hill out there and long enough to wrap around a large city; its amethyst purple scale had bright red glowing lightning patterns running all over its body. The demon's eyes have black sclera and blue glowing irises. A scar ran through the demon's left eye to its mouth which revealed sharp white fangs.
The snake stares at the temple for a short moment before flicking its tongue and charging at the temple, sending waves of lightning blasts along with it. The demon and its attacks were stopped by some invisible forcefield, perhaps from the holy energy remains, but it still violently shook the temple.
"Arm the cannons." The knight commanded which many cultists complied. They begin charging the cannons and aim them at the snake.
"Fire." The knight shouts, wasting no time once the cannons are fully charged. The cannon blasts fire at full force against the beast who has recovered but refuses to move and chooses to counter them with its lightning. Some blasts were stopped, some missed despite the demon's size, but many found their mark which did cause some discomfort but not enough to stop the demon or even chase it away.
The demon increases the intensity of its lighting attack, managing to crack the force field and causing some part of the temple to collapse. Many cultists and Alvarez's soldiers begin to counter attack with their own spells. The people in the cage were ignored but unable to escape, many screams to be released but were all ignored. This went on for a little while.
Until the demon managed to break the forcefield, sending direct lightning strikes to the cannons, destroying them. Many cultists begin running for their lives in terrors, the ones that stay to fight desperately blasting their strongest attacks in hope of accomplishing anything. Most of the Alavrez's forces stays in their positions although the captain has already give the command to prepare to retreat. The victims inside the cage were caught in the crossfire, leading to many dead or severely injured. A stray blast flew towards Romeo but was blocked by the red-eyed man with little effort. "You're welcome" was all he said.
"Stupid demon!" The cult leader shouted. "You think just because you destroy our cannons we have no means of harming you. I've personally altered this very temple to serve as a cannon itself just in case the other cannons failed. Approach us like this was your biggest mistake. Now witness your demise!"
The leader then activates a spell which forces all the holy energy in the area to quickly focus into one point before blasting towards the demon. The attack sends a bright blinding white beam of light and hits the demon before it could dodge, causing the snake to roar in pain and recoil. This halted the snake's advances for a moment before the beam was suddenly blocked by a wall of blue fire which then pushed back against the beam. The source of the fire was the strange man who increased the power of his flames and overpowered the beam of light completely, sending a wave of fire back to the source of the light, completely destroying it. The resulting shock wave knocked many, including Romeo, unconscious. The last thing he saw was the snake recovering and joining the man before passing out completely.
Midnight
Romeo awakens suddenly, surrounded by fires and ruins. He begins to walk around and sees the many corpses lying in the area. If one were to describe the scene, it would be like something ripped straight out from hell. He would've collapsed from the sight had he not been in a state of numbness, a result from everything he just went through just now.
As he kept walking, he heard some noises, the sound of a voice, a voice that set a fire of rage deep in him.
"Come on, you rats. We don't got all day, or do you prefer facing those two demons again." It was the same cultist who had kidnapped Romeo, and he's currently trying to get a group of tied up injured women and children who must've survived the onslaught onto a somewhat intact carriage.
"You!" Romeo screams. "What are you trying to do?"
The man looks over and sighs. "Must've missed one." He mumbles, before turning to face Romeo fully. "What do you think, brat? I'm trying to get these lowlife out of here to sell them for some cash. This whole operation was a bust but I'm not leaving empty handed. Now get over here peacefully and maybe I won't beat you up too badly."
"Like hell!" Romeo charges at the man, who simply kicks him in the guts and punches him in the face, sending the boy quite the distance away.
"I'm surprised." The man said, approaching Romeo before lifting him up by his shirt. "You could've just ran away and I would've been none the wiser. Instead you choose to face me like an idiot."
"I'm not just gonna stand by and let you continue hurting others." Romeo spat out before trying to bite the man's hand only to receive a knee to the face before being dropped to the ground.
"Admirable I guess, but really it's just stupid. You really expect a weakling like you could do something. Listen up kid, in this world, might make right, and you, who are powerless, can only serve me, who has all the power here. Get it kid? You're too weak to do anything."
"Maybe you're right." Romeo weakly mumbles out. "Maybe I am too weak. But that doesn't mean I'm just gonna give up and let you do whatever you want. That's not what I do." Romeo charges at the man.
"That's not what he'd do." He thought.
The man was about to charge back before suddenly getting pierced by a bident then sets on fire, shocking Romeo. The man screams in agony and collapses.
"Admirable words indeed, child." An unfamiliar voice spoke, followed by the red-eyed man from before and a different man. The other man looks to be in his mid 20s, lean muscular, dresses in a purple set of leather suits with red highlights, he has tan and smooth skin with shoulder length silky black hair. His eyes glowing turquoise blue with a scar running through his left eye. The second man went to pick up the bident while the first man checked on Romeo.
"Not too bad. A bit roughed up but nothing that some healing ointment and plenty of rest won't fix." The man said, patting Romeo on the shoulder. "Good speech there by the way. Though even you admitted that the scumbag got a point right?"
Romeo weakly nods.
"I hate to say this kid, especially to someone as brave and good-hearted as you, but you're not ready for these kinds of things. Next time if you find yourself in situations like this, just run."
"You can't tell me to just ignore people being hurt." Romeo suddenly snapped.
"We're not, child." The blue-eyed man spoke up. "But if you escaped you could get help from people who can help. At the very least you'd still be unharmed, which could accomplish more than getting hurt, captured, or downright killed."
Romeo suddenly thinks of Fairy Tail. How the people that left have no one that saved them, how the people alive have no one saving them. How the guild can barely pass by without many helping hands, and the hands that helped them couldn't really do much. The only people that could really help Fairy Tail are themself now.
"What if no one would help, or could help? What if the only one that's available is me?" Romeo asked.
"Then you either just run or get beat up." The red-eyed man spoke up. "You're too weak to really do anything to help, hell you could actually make things worse."
"Then what if I become strong." Romeo pressed on. "If the problem is that I'm weak then getting stronger is the answer right?"
"Strength is not the full answer, child. Regardless, the path to power is not an easy one. It could take many years for someone like you to gain the strength needed to even start changing the world and even then it might not even be enough." The blue-eyed man advised.
"But what if you helped me?" Romeo pleaded. "I've seen what you can do with that fire(he pointed to the red-eyed man) and I know you're that snake demon(he pointed to the blue-eyed man), the scar kinda gives it away. If I got trained by someone like you guys, I could get stronger faster right?"
The two men look at eachother, then look back at the boy. The fire mage spoke first.
"You're not wrong kid, and we're not exactly against having apprentices, but-" the snake demon continues "the training would still take years and would be very harsh especially for one so young. We commend your determination, child, but are you really sure you could go through with this? Forget the difficult lessons that we would need to put you through, are you ready to say goodbye to your family for years to come? To not see any of them for who knows how long just to pursue power?"
Romeo took a moment to think. He thought of Fairy Tail, his home, his family, how bad of a condition they've been in and how much they need someone strong to help pull them through these tough times. He thought of his father and imagined his distraught of not knowing his son's wellbeing but can also see the stress his father had gone through to keep the guild running. In the end he decided that if he can gain enough power to help the guild then he could alleviate both of his father's biggest concerns. Even if that means they have to say goodbye to each other for a while.
Romeo finally answers. "My family is in a rough shape right now. They could really use someone with power to help them and I'm definitely not it, at least not yet. I don't want to leave them but it's for the better good so I'm sure they understand."
The demon gets on one knee to look Romeo directly in his eyes. "Are you certain?"
"Yes." Romeo nods determinedly. "I will let them know what I'm doing of course. I don't want them to be worried about not knowing what happened to me."
The demon nods, then gets up, his mouth forming a thin line of a smile. The fire mage spoke up excitedly. "It's settled then kid. Welcome to the team, we'll break ya then remake ya, hope you're ready kid 'cause when it comes to training we're not unforgiving but we ain't hand holding either."
Romeo nods and smiles. The demon then transforms into his snake form, though much smaller than before, only the size of a large train, then speaks, his voice echoing throughout the area.
"Where do you live, child? Your parents must be worried sick and we need to get the survivors somewhere safe."
Romeo looks over and sees several groups of victims being loaded and secured on top of the serpent thanks to the fire mage's help. He then picked up Romeo and placed them on top of the serpent's head with one jump.
"So, where do you live?" The fire mage asks.
"Oh right, sorry. I live in Magnolia Town in Fiore. I'm a part of the guild Fairy Tail." Romeo answers.
"Fairy Tail huh. Heard something bad happened to it. Sorry to hear it kid"
"It's … alright. Thank you." Romeo looks down.
"We should get there before sunrise if we hurry. It would be much faster if I took my full size but we need to avoid detection. I hope you understand, child" The demon tries to get Romeo out of his down mood.
"It's alright. Oh that reminds me, my name is Romeo. Romeo Conbolt. I don't think we were properly introduced yet." Romeo realized.
The fire mage snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah. You never catch my name since we were interrupted. Well, my name's Belenus, fire god slayer and this scaly fella here is Ace, a lightning demon."
"Nice to meet you, young Romeo." Ace response.
"Nice to meet you Ace and you too Belenus. And please, just Romeo is ok."
The group stays silent as they begin their journey, then a thought crosses Romeo's mind. "If you don't mind me asking Belenus, you said you're a fire god slayer, do you happen to have some connection with the fire god you mentioned?"
Belenus chuckled. "I'm surprised you remember that detail, also quite a leap in logic there kid. But to answer your question, kinda. The details are a little fuzzy but the gist of the story is that, long ago, there was an evil fire god that hurt people and forced them to worship him, so a man decided to stand up to him and taught himself the art to slay a god, god slayer magic, though his brand of god slayer magic is different from other form of god slayer magic. He succeeded in slaying that god but died in the process. He left his teaching behind so his descendants could prepare just in case the need to slay a cruel god rises again. Guess who's his latest and probably last descendant?"
"You." Romeo murmured.
Belenus chuckles some more and ruffles Romeo's hair. "Correct. And now you're about to learn the family's sacred gift."
Romeo pushed his hand away but started to look uncertain. "Are you sure you want to teach me something so sacred? I know I asked you to teach me but you don't have to force yourself if you don't want to."
Belenus only smiles. "Don't worry. You ain't the first outsider who's been shown the family's special trick. I don't mind teaching ya any of this(he ignites a fire in his hand) if you can keep up with my training."
"That's good (Romeo yawn) to hear." Romeo smiles and starts to doze off.
"Get some sleep Romeo. You've had a rough night and the journey is still far ahead." Ace spoke up.
"Sounds…good…to me." Romeo falls asleep.
Ace and Belenus watch him dozed off then smile, Belenus let out a chuckle.
"Cute kid." He snuggles Romeo a little.
"Resolute too. But are you sure he's up to our lessons?" Ace asked.
"We'll see. If it gets too much he can always quit, wouldn't be the first time. Although I have a feeling he'll push through with flying colors."Belenus confidently said, hugging Romeo closer.
"Romeo certainly has endeared himself to you it seems." Ace teased.
"What can I say, the kid has his charms."
Belenus suddenly turns to face the other survivors, his face becoming melancholy.
"We should've saved more."
"We did the best we could. Don't blame yourself for the ones you couldn't save, the cage was huge with too many people, too many, and you're only one person. The majority of the hostages were saved and will recover." Ace consoled Belenus.
"Still, never thought they'd pick that dilapidated temple to set up the trap. We could've sensed their presence and stop this madness much sooner then." Belenus spats.
"Don't be too harsh on yourself. It was you who came up with the idea to let yourself get captured after all. If you hadn't we wouldn't have found their base until too late."
Belenus sighs. "Still can't help but feel shitty about it though." He muttered.
"Who knows, maybe young Romeo can be the good thing that comes out of this. If he makes it through our training we'd have another warrior fighting the fight against Zeref and we wouldn't even have met him if it weren't for this incident." Ace encourages his friend.
Ace smiled. "Maybe."
The group resumed their journey in silence.
Near sunrise
Macao is currently walking in the outskirts of Magnolia, he hasn't slept all night and it shows. His eyes are baggy, his clothes are all disheveled and he can't even walk straight, tripping over himself every other step. Suddenly he feels the ground shaking underneath him. Not to where it becomes an earthquake but just enough to make him fall completely.
When he got up he nearly pissed himself. In front of him is a huge serpent, bigger than any he had seen. Its sheer size alone was enough to send many into hysteria, let alone the demonic energy emitting from its presence. However, Macao's fear was quickly replaced with confusion when he noticed an unconscious boy being held by a man sitting on top of the serpent then rage when he noticed that it was Romeo.
Without even thinking, Macao jumps up, using his Purple Flare to push himself towards the man then blast a large hand made of that same fire at him.
"What are you bastards doing with my son?" He shouts.
Belenus simply ate the fire hand then got up, Romeo still in his arm.
"Mmh, that's some good fire. If your son possesses your talent with fire magic then teaching him would be easy then." Ace spoke calmly.
Macao went in for another attack, this time a fire coated punch that Belenus easily blocked. He then throws Macao's hand away, not too hard to send him falling but enough to create some distance.
Belenus tries to reason, "Ok, I know how this looks but.-", only to be interrupted as Macao continues to throw hits after hits at him, all of which Belenus easily dodge. The commotion managed to wake Romeo up, just in time to see Macao's kick being blocked by Belenus.
"Dad!" He yelped in shock.
"Romeo." Macao and Belenus shouts. Belenus then sets Romeo down.
"You're ok." Macao cheered.
"Dad!" Romeo runs up to Macao and hugs him tightly, tears running down his cheeks. "I'm so glad to see you."
"I'm glad to see you too." Macao hugs back, tears in his eyes.
"Thank goodness you're awake, kid. Hey, can you help calm your dad down, he's not listening to me at all." Belenus pleaded.
"Maybe if you didn't have such poor communication skills." Ace finally spoke up.
"And where were you this whole time?" Belenus screams down to the demon.
"Just enjoying the show. Also a talking giant snake isn't exactly the most calming person now, is it?" Ace taunts a little. Belenus sulks and grumbles something about smartass snakes.
Macao is completely lost. "Romeo, what's going on here?" He asks concerningly.
"Oh right." Romeo breaks from the hugs and turns to introduce his new mentors. "That man there is Belenus, a fire god slayer, and the giant snake that we're standing on is Ace, a lightning demon. They might not look like it but they're really nice. They saved me in fact."
"A pleasure to meet you, Romeo's father." Ace spoke up
"Nice to meet you. I must say, you have some nice moves going there." Belenus waved.
"Nice to meet you too. I'm Macao." Macao cautiously replied. "We should get down from here."
Macao grabs Romeo and jumps to the ground, followed closely by Belenus. Ace transforms to his human form once all three have touch grounds. The group of survivors was then carried to them on a fire carpet that doesn't hurt them created by Belenus.
"We have a large group of people who were kidnapped for a dark scheme that we saved, young Romeo here among them. We hope you can help them find the help they need to fully recover." Ace sincerely speaks. Macao observes the survivors, then slowly nods, still holding on to his son.
After a moment of silence, Belenus sighs, "Here comes the hard part" then shouts at Romeo "You need to tell him kid. Sooner than later."
"Tell me? Tell me what?" Macao looks at his son confused.
Romeo looks away. "I…um…I'll be leaving … for a long time … I…don't know how long… with them." He answered sheepishly.
It took a moment for Macao to truly process what his son just said, but once he did, he was shocked to say the least.
"WHAT?" He screams "What are you talking about? Leaving? With them? Why? Are you joking? Please tell me you are? Is this payback for what I said before?"
"DAD!" Romeo screams, stopping his dad from his rants. "I know you have a lot of questions and are not happy about me leaving. But I have to. These guys are strong people, good people, and they can help me become strong too. I know you don't want to see me gone for such a long time but please, me becoming stronger is not only for me, but the guild too. If I go and train with them I could be just as strong as Natsu was. Then Fairy Tail can be on its path to the top guild again."
"But why do you have to leave?"
"The training will take a lot of time and we can't be at one place for too long." Ace spoke up, pointing to the survivors. "We're constantly on the move to save people like them from threats beyond their capability. We can't just selfishly stay in one area to train someone while ignoring all the people we could help."
"Also the training is better with on-the-field practice." Belenus chimed in.
"But I can't just leave you with complete strangers. I don't even know what kind of lessons they'll put you through." Macao pleads.
"Oh don't worry the lessons will be harsh but he can back out anytime he wants." Belenus offered. "Anytime he feels that he can't keep up with his lessons anymore we'll just drop him back here. We've had students who quit before like that."
"Do you hear what they say?" Macao asked, grabbing Romeo's shoulders. "They've had other students who quit before, how would you be any different? Why would you waste your time on something you're not even sure would pay off?"
"Because I need to." Romeo answered determinedly, shaking his father's hands off. "Because I need to get stronger, and even if I quit, training with them will certainly make me stronger, even just a little. I know that you know that in this world, we need power to make a different"
"I… I just don't want to see you gone again, to not know what's happening to you." Macao desperately speaks.
"I know." Romeo hugs his dad. "I hate it too, to not be with everyone and not spending time with you. But I have to. I need to. Please dad, I promise I'll write to you, keep in touch with you. Just please, trust me."
Maybe it was just his sleep deprived state of mind, maybe there was just too much information for him to process, but Macao swore he saw in his son's eyes something he hadn't seen for a while, something he thought was gone for good. He saw a look of determination, one that tells him that his son will see through his decision here today to its end, that he refuses to back down from this challenge no matter what. The look of someone he used to know.
"Like Natsu's." He thought to himself.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" Macao asked, holding his son.
"This is what I need." Romeo nodded.
He shouldn't be doing this, he shouldn't be saying this. He should just say no and take Romeo away from these strangers. They may have saved his son but that doesn't mean he'll entrust his son to them so easily. Yet he does and he lets Romeo go.
"Promise me you'll write often and that you'll quit if it gets too hard."
"I will." Romeo smiles. "Thank you dad."
"Just don't make me regret my decision here today."
"I promise I won't"
The group stays silent, the sun starts to rise.
"We should leave before the sun rises." Ace spoke up, transforming to his snake form the size of a small house. "Our activities work better without government interference so we prefer not to get caught by them."
Everyone nodded. Macao and Romeo hug one last time before Romeo departs with Ace and Belenus. Once Belenus has settled Romeo on top of Ace, he turns to face Macao.
"Take care of those victims for us."
"What should I tell people about them?" Macao asked.
"We've already discussed the details with the survivors so just talk to them." Belenus answered.
Macao nods, then turns to his son.
"Take care, and good luck." He shouts.
"You too dad. Thank you." Romeo shouts back.
Ace starts slithers off, taking Belenus and Romeo with him. Macao watches his son as he rides off into the sunrise with his new companions. As he walks towards the victims to discuss their situation, he prays with his life that he'd made the right decision then, though only time can tell at this point.
Author's Note
So not gonna lie, this story came from a different story with a similar premise I read on AO3. Unfortunately, last I check the story was deleted with only two chapters out so here we are. Also don't be fool by the length of this first chapter, subsequence chapters are gonna be shorter than this. Much shorter.