Chaos XV
Natsu returned to the guild early.
After his horrific run in with the remainder of the Emissaries of Revival in Morgate, all motivation to hunt for the truth was lost. Whatever the Zeref cults, Siegrain, or anyone else was up to- Natsu no longer cared.
He needed to refocus. Acnologia. Igneel. They were out there somewhere. The schemes and plots were all distractions. Today, he needed to grab a job, avoid Master Makarov, and get out. That, unfortunately, would not be the case. Lucy was more energetic than usual, not letting him reach the stairs before jumping in front of him and waving a golden ticket in his face.
"Good morning!"
"Morning." Natsu replied flatly, trying to sidestep past the blonde.
"Nope, no jobs today. Loke gave us these tickets. He said you helped him out a ton, so one is for you. Also, how could you not tell me he was Leo?!" Lucy batted him with the stack of tickets. Natsu shrugged.
"He would've just run if I told you. Had to make you figure it out yourself."
"Well, thank you. For the hint about Karen. Anyway, you should pack. We're planning to leave tomorrow." Natsu opened his mouth to decline, but Lucy cut him off. "Not going is not an option. We all need to relax."
So, the next day, Natsu found himself on a South Fiore beach, listening to the tranquil sound of screaming from attractions flying over his head and watching his guildmates scare every tourist out of the water.
He wouldn't say it was relaxing. But it was a welcome change of scenery.
Still, he couldn't shake the sinking feeling that something was off here. And it wasn't the water mage from Phantom Lord hiding behind a palm tree nearby.
As the tides rolled in and the sun began to set, Natsu felt a new spark of motivation. He needed to figure out what was going down in the coming days. Between Siegrain's well-placed lies and the unusual activity of Zeref worshippers, there was no time to relax.
"How are you not burning hot in that?" A voice appeared behind him. Natsu shrugged, flipping up his hood. "Never mind, forgot who I'm asking." Lucy took a seat next to the fire mage. "What's on your mind?" She asked, leaning forward to see his face.
"What if I told you there's some evil shit goin' down right now and we should be preparing to fight back?"
"I'd tell you 'No brooding, we're on vacation.' Seriously, the fighting will have to wait. Come swim!" Lucy dragged him off his towel and flipped his hood back, pulling him towards the water. Natsu shook her off.
"I dunno. I feel like gambling."
"Since when?!"
"Yo, Chaos! You goin' to the casino? I'll come with!" Gray called as he slid across the surface of the water back to the shore, many bystanders yelping as icy cold mist hit when he passed.
"Suit yourself."
Erza appeared behind them, shoving the remains of a surfboard in the sand. "A casino, you say? I'll join you. Give me some time to get dressed."
"I'll come with you, Erza! I have the perfect outfit. Bye guys, we'll meet up!"
And the group split up.
"Yo, Fullbuster. Does anything seem weird to you here?"
"Actually, yeah." Gray paused, stopping in his tracks. Natsu tilted his head. "I can't shake the feeling that someone's… following me." He shuddered. Natsu deflated, glancing at the blue-haired girl who was suspiciously invested in a random rock nearby.
"Never mind. Let's go."
Natsu looked out into the ocean before going inside. Whatever was happening out there was far away enough for no one to notice, but close enough for thick remnants of Ethernano to taint the air. Someone was creating something big. Something that needed a lot of magic.
He just hoped they knew what they were doing.
The casino was as lively as expected on a cool spring evening at this popular resort. Hundreds of people crowded the scene, various levels of energy sparked in every direction.
Natsu scanned the area for his guildmates. Gray casually (unknowingly) conversed with his disguised stalker at the bar. Happy cheered on Erza as she dominated a poker game. Lucy found entertainment through a jazz duo on a small stage. And Natsu hovered by the wall, still uneasy.
Then the sound of an explosion echoed outside.
There it was.
The sound of a fight. Gray was first on the scene, Natsu heard shouts of ice-make spells against whoever caused the explosion. There were spells of a water mage too, the Phantom girl must be helping out.
And then there was Lucy and Erza. Lucy wasn't far ahead of him, collecting a pile of cards from the floor. Any bystanders in the area had disappeared, Natsu assumed they had become the cards Lucy was picking up desperately.
Erza engaged in an emotional conversation with a blonde poker dealer.
Now it made sense. He emerged from the shadows, letting chaotic energy radiate from his person in a show of ability.
"Natsu!" Lucy called.
"Chaos!" Erza exclaimed at the same time.
"Chaos?!" One of the perpetrators with a prominent square jaw cried. "You said he wasn't supposed to be here!" He snapped at someone Natsu couldn't hear.
"Schemes and plots." Natsu grumbled. "I'm sick of it." His body ignited as he tracked towards the setting ahead. A blue tint to his flames was a warning of the magic he would release should anyone get too bold.
And then he was nowhere.
Wait.
Where was he?
He was about to cast a spell. Take all the weirdly dressed bad guys out in two hits and squeeze out any information he could get. Now he was trapped. And the world was big, blurry and… blue.
Ah, I'm in a lacrima.
So, the bad guys did have a backup plan. A cheap trick, they got lucky. He'd just have to wait patiently for an out.
Tears, screams, death.
The tower was not a home. It was a prison. How did she get here? There was nothing she could do but obey. Pick up the bricks. Raise those planks. Injured? Don't cry about it. They'll kill you and replace you with someone else.
Why her? She was a child. They didn't care. She was a slave.
"Erza. There is no such thing as freedom in this world."
Erza shot up in a cold sweat. A single tear rolled down the left of her face. What was that dream? Lifting a hand to her head, she noticed she was chained to a bed. Observing her surroundings, she was in an empty bedroom. It was plain, dusty basic furniture placed in no noticeable pattern. There was a closed balcony, the glass doors revealing a beautiful, almost tranquil, stretch of ocean. If it wasn't for the barrage of naval ships aimed directly at the structure she was trapped in.
She tugged at her restraints, reaching out with her free arm towards the balcony doors. If she could just push one open, maybe they'd see…
"Good morning, Er-chan."
Titania froze.
She turned around, a new figure stood in the doorway on the opposite side of the room. Erza knew the face, the voice, the person- despite having not seen or heard from her in a decade.
"Millianna?"
"Oh, you do remember me!" The girl launched herself at Erza, wrapping her arms around her in a hug. Erza tensely returned the act with her one free arm. "I sure thought you would've forgotten all of us by now. The way you became a bigshot in that light guild."
"Millianna, what are—where are we?"
"Well, Er-chan, we're home!"
Then it all came rushing back to her.
The casino attack, her childhood friends, the tower.
"The Tower of Heaven… it's finished?"
Millianna only laughed.
The Magic Council Investigation Team was tired. Something strong was brewing in Fiore. Something way out of the investigation team's paygrade. Things were starting to interconnect, and the connections were not pretty.
The latest addition to the centuries old Zeref case came from the secluded port town of Morgate.
The port was not a main trade route for Fiore and seldom used by anyone official. The country of Caelum, Fiore's unfriendly southern neighbour, had near complete control of the waters near Morgate, including the Ka Elm Sea and the Divide Gulf, therefore Fiore left the area alone.
It wasn't a big loss for the country. Caelum did not trade with Fiore, and the coastline consisted of an unstable mountain range and monster ridden desert. It was better, safer even, to leave the entire general area alone.
And when the investigation led them to the harbour, the investigation team was disturbed at the sight that awaited.
Thirteen charred bodies. Permanently resting in piles of ash around a local tavern.
"D-did someone…"
"No. This is not the work of a single person."
The commander listened to his team gag and choke as he checked the corpse of the once barkeep.
It didn't make sense how everyone here had burned to death. The building was in perfect condition. Only the people had, seemingly, spontaneously combusted. It would've been easy work for any above average fire mage. But, upon closer look, this was not triggered by an outside source. The spark had emerged from the barkeep's wrist.
It was the same for the rest of the victims. A perfect hole completely through the forearm, copied and pasted on every body. Somehow lighting them all ablaze.
"Boss, this isn't alcohol." One of the investigators pointed to an open bottle left on the counter next to an empty glass. The commander pulled out a pair of gloves and a substance test lacrima, then waited on the results of the contents.
Poison.
No surprise there.
The surprise came with the specifics. The bottle held Poison Dragon's venom. It was an extremely rare poison, as the source was long extinct, but highly lethal even after so many centuries. Instant death upon consumption. Even breathing in the fumes could shorten a regular human's lifespan exponentially.
How a sailor's tavern managed to get their hands on such an item and kept it with drinks was a scary thought. Why was it next to a glass? Who were they trying to kill? Who did they fail to kill?
"There's a note on the bottle." The commander took the magnifier from his charge and read the etching in the glass bottle
Kill or be killed.
This would be a long investigation for sure.
"An attack on Akane Resort? How could this be?" Org slammed a hand on the roundtable. The room was in an uproar. News of the incident had already reached the Magic Council, and damage control was proving to be difficult.
"Panicking isn't going to solve anything. We must find the perpetrator and motive with calm minds. Only then will we be able to make a move." Belno responded.
"The R-system." Siegrain spoke loud and clear. The noisy room became quiet in an instant, seven expectant gazes locked on him. "It still exists."
The outrage began again.
"The R-system, those towers constructed by a black-magic cult ten years ago?"
"Yes, the Emissaries of Revival. Do they remain active?"
"There's been multiple reports of the demise of that group over the past decade. The last was only a week ago. They seem to just keep coming back. Or reviving… if the name is any hint."
"Impossible! We destroyed all seven towers ourselves! Nothing was left! No one was left!"
"There was an eighth tower… in the Ka Elm Sea." Belno projected images of the tower in the middle of the room. The council murmured as they observed the structure. "It was beyond our territory, so we never moved on it. The assumption was that it couldn't be complete without the other towers or the cult."
"It looks complete." Ultear stated, notably calmer than the rest of the council.
"The Investigation Team went missing right as these images were sent."
"Why the R-system now?"
"Not the R-system," Siegrain spoke up again. "The Tower of Heaven."
"Who cares what we call it? It's forbidden magic! We can't let its existence be known. It would cause nationwide panic!" Michello shouted.
"We must deploy forces immediately to suppress it. Send the Navy!" Belno called to a guard at the door, who rushed to alert the military.
"If these Akane Beach witness reports are true, the military will stand no chance against this." Councilman Org flipped through a stack of newly delivered papers, sharing his findings with the room. "The black-magic cult is not running this operation. One mage seems to be in charge… going by the name Jellal."
All heads turned to Siegrain once again, who remained perfectly composed. Michello was the first to speak. "That's your twin brother, Siegrain, is it not?"
"Yes."
A group of children rushed through a cave, trying to stay quiet as possible.
"Sis, over here! Hurry!" A young blonde boy called, waving over a scarlet-haired little girl.
"Shh, Sho! We can't be loud." A tall skinny boy with spiky black hair reprimanded the blonde, only to be reprimanded himself by a small girl with a short brown bob.
"You're even louder, Wally."
"Sorry, Millianna."
Another boy with long black hair ran up to the redhead, who kept falling behind. "We have to hurry, Erza. They'll find us if we stay here too long."
"Yes, Simon." Erza trembled, "B-but if they find out… I know… what they do to the kids that are found out." She could barely stand or speak. Fear was all she felt. Until a comforting hand rested on her shoulder. She looked behind her to see a trusted face. Messy blue hair and red markings around his eye, the boy was her closest friend.
"Don't worry, there's nothing to be afraid of."
"Jellal!"
"We're going to get our freedom. Our future, and our aspirations." He reached out a hand to Erza, who grabbed it happily. "Let's go, Erza."