Mercury fished through the mushroom demon's jacket for any unbroken vials. He needed one to store some of Tempester's blood in, because even though there's copious amounts coating his own body and clothes, it would be better if he had a less contaminated amount available somewhere.

Less contaminated than it already was, anyway.

By some miracle, there were a few unbroken in the pocket. They didn't seem to have touched any of the broken vials and syringes that had apparently been full of poison, so he found himself breathing a sigh of relief. Mercury's only other option was removing his shirt and lugging that around, as soaked as it was, which would have been far from ideal. He grabbed one of the empty vials, leaned in to scoop up the remains of Tempester's body, and ended up breathing in something that didn't quite feel right.

With no sense of taste or smell to call his own, Mercury couldn't exactly figure out what felt wrong, but he still stumbled back. He was certain that feeling wasn't good. It made his lungs feel like he'd inhaled dirt alongside oxygen – and that could never be a good thing.

He set the vial filled with blood down and immediately fell on his ass.

At first, he thought he'd managed to get himself poisoned by the mushroom, but he quickly realized that wasn't the case. He didn't touch anything that would cause this. No open vials or syringes, no needles. Nothing like that would even make it through his scales unless intentionally inserted.

With that in mind, Mercury quickly came to the conclusion that rather than it being his body that was a mess, it was his head.

He briefly lost the ability to muster his own strength, wincing as something loud roared in his ears – his heartbeat. It was followed by the sound of his muscles stretching, groaning, and tensing, of water dripping down the walls as loud as waterfalls.

What the hell?

Why was he suddenly hearing things like that?

He pressed his hands to his ears, hoping to stop the noise, but it was no use. That just made it so that everything was muffled but echoed, which made him dizzy and nauseous and –

No.

There was absolutely no way he was going to let himself vomit in the middle of the enemy's base. There was no way. Mercury winced again and slowly uncovered his ears, trying to focus on only one sound at a time so that he wasn't overwhelmed again.

It only half worked, but that half was enough. He immediately realized what was going on, prompting him to scoot further away from Tempester's remains. That "air" that he breathed in wasn't air at all, but that same crap that's stuck in Laxus and the others' lungs – the anti-magic, or whatever. And now that it was in his lungs, it was clashing with the magic already there, blocking his ability to "hear" magic. It was absorbing the ethernano before Mercury's body could use it, thus entirely demolishing his sixth sense, and leaving him with his "natural" healing in exchange.

But, damn.

If this was what Fiernen had in mind in terms of hearing capacity when creating his species, she was insane. This was just insane. He could hear everything. His heart beating. His breaths, in and out. His own eyeballs moving.

Ugh – just. Ugh. It made him ill to even think about what each and every new noise he was hearing was from, so he chose to focus on the sound that the air made as it brushed against the ground.

Mercury braced himself, expecting the worst to come after that. Surprisingly though, it didn't feel like he was going to just keel over, nor end up in a coma like his friends. He sat there a moment longer, waiting to see if he was just going to stop breathing or something – based on his issues in the past, it wasn't the most illogical conclusion he could come to – but that didn't happen.

Other than the sheer amount of sound, everything was more or less the same as before. He still had access to his magic, so that was good. His leg still ached, which wasn't ideal, but also not the worst – and definitely not a sign of anything the anti-magic had done.

Overall… he was fine.

Somehow.

Mercury wasn't going to question it. He was still able to mostly function correctly, and that was the important part. Not the why or the how. Just that he could. He stood, grabbed his already filled vial, then thought better of it and collected a second one filled to the brim. It didn't hurt to be safe, especially with Laxus and the others' lives on the line. Hell, he'd collect a million of these if it meant even a one-percent increase in the chance Porlyusica could make a cure with it.

But that would have to come later. Porlyusica could only make a cure with these vials if they got to her, and they'd only get to her if Mercury managed to put a stop to the rest of the crap going on. Namely, Face.

Now, what was he supposed to do about that?

Stopping it was the first and most obvious solution, but that might have been out of his grasp. Mercury didn't know anything about Face other than what it did, so just planning to stop it meant nothing. How could he stop it? In fact, how was it even activated in the first place?

"So damn confusing," he muttered and hobbled to the exit of the room. He'd figure it out somewhere along the way. The first thing he had to do was find someone else who knew what the hell was going on, whether that be a demon or a human, and to do that, he had to leave this room first.

(Mercury stepped over the mushroom corpses as well as he could, but when his foot accidentally clipped the cap of the yellow one, it made a squelching noise that was almost enough to make him vomit.)

(Disgusting.)

The outside of the room, however, did not seem like it was going to help him much. It was just a nondescript hallway – his least favorite type of hallway. With no indication of which direction led where, all he could do is pick one at random. He picked left. His fifty-percent chance to go in the "right" direction didn't seem too bad when there were at least four people he had to look for. Mira, Erza, Natsu, and someone else. Maybe even more people. The mushroom hadn't exactly seemed too interested in what was going on around here, so there was still a chance that there were more people who'd made it in.

Though, that begged the question. Exactly how long had Mercury been in here? And what exactly had brought Natsu all this way?

Actually, scratch that. There was a far better question.

Where the hell even were they?

The walls were a mixture of plaster and solid rock. They almost looked like they'd been carved out by some sort of burrowing animal – ants, maybe – but there was something about the way they were structured that made Mercury dismiss the possibility. Plus, the repeating hallways definitely looked like they were made from a cave or tunnel, but air was a lot smoother than what you'd feel underground. It felt more like he was on top of a mountain.

Mercury was understandably confused, then, when he finally found a window and saw nothing but open sky in front of him.

Clouds brushed by the window. He could feel the water literally touch his skin as he reached through and touched them, but that didn't alleviate the disorientation he felt as he leaned his head through the opening to see where exactly they were. When he looked down, he saw a city – a very familiar city.

Magnolia.

They were above Magnolia. And to make matters worse, a giant plume of smoke rose from what should have been a large, proud building, replacing it entirely. Instead of a building, it was just rubble.

… What the hell had happened while Mercury was out?

Given that Face had already been activated and was now on a timer – a timer that couldn't have had more than fifteen minutes left on it – he couldn't have been out for more than half a day, yet it felt like so much stuff had happened. In that amount of time, Natsu somehow managed to track them down and get himself captured, Face's countdown had started, and the guild hall had apparently been blown up.

This wasn't just confusing. It was mystifying. Mercury bit his lip and moved on, hobbling forward in search of anyone who could tell him what was going on. Soon, he began to hear the sounds of fighting. From the sounds themselves – the roars, the grunts, the shouts – one of the combatants was probably Natsu.

The water mage turned a corner with as much speed as he could muster to find that he was correct: the ping-haired boy was fighting something that could only be a demon. Lucy stood behind him, barely dressed and looking dizzy.

Could she have been the other one the mushroom saw?

He wasted no time in joining the fight himself. The burn in his leg wasn't so bad, and fortunately, the anti-ethernano didn't seem to have an effect on his ability to wield magic. With Natsu doing his best to avoid grappling with the unknown enemy that had the appearance of a clown, the water mage decided it was probably best to stay at a range. He shot a blast of water from his palms, barely missing the demon.

Natsu turned to him, though only slightly. His attention was still mostly on the demon. "Merc?"

"In the flesh," Mercury said. "Watch out –"

The demon's face shifted from a one-eyed cyclops to something much more familiar to mercury, though familiarity didn't make it make any more sense. The face it now wore was Guildmaster Precht's face – or, rather, a much older, much crueler version of him. His face didn't look anything like it was supposed to.

Where was the angry frown? The disappointment in his eye? This one just looked like a jester.

It gave Mercury the fucking creeps.

"That's a demon," said Lucy. "He uses souls to fight – it got Aries and Taurus!"

Those were… the ram and the bull, right? Mercury nodded and moved in, allowing adrenaline to ward off any of the remaining pain in his leg. He cloaked his body in a thin layer of water.

But before he could make it very far, Natsu threw something towards him. He caught it without looking.

"You lost that, right?"

It was his sword.

Mercury barked out a laugh he didn't think possible. "Yeah. Thought I lost it for good this time. Thanks."

Natsu didn't return the smile, returning his attention back to the demon he was facing. He stood between Precht(?) and Mercury, who in turn was standing between the other two and Lucy.

"Hey, hey," the demon said, apparently realizing who he was talking to. The voice that came out of its mouth wasn't Precht's, though it had swapped back to his face. "Weren't you supposed to be off in the lab? They shouldn't be done with you yet! Not 'til Face goes off in about five minutes, anyway."

"Do I look stupid enough to stay there, idiot?"

"Well, yes."

"That's Hades," said Lucy. "He's the guy who attacked us on Tenrou! This guy stole his soul."

"Yeah, I know." Mercury turned to the demon who was leering at the three of them. "Good choice in faces, I guess."

For some reason, that made the demon smile. "I know, right? Had to work real hard to get this one – it was almost dead for real by the time I got to him!"

"I think the reasons you and I are thinking of are entirely different." The water mage let his water swirl over his body, forming a barrier and an enchantment in the same move. "I never got a chance to punch this guy in the face."

Mercury's fist made a resoundingly satisfying contact on not-Precht's nose. The demon flew back, too startled by the punch to react in time, but not before Natsu could get in close, too. He swiveled around and set his foot ablaze to knock the demon in another direction, but as it made contact, the flame fizzled out.

Natsu cursed loudly.

"He can absorb the soul of magic, too?" asked Happy, sounding almost afraid. "That's so not fair!"

"But then how did Merc's attack work?" Lucy countered. "The water should have been absorbed."

The demon wasted no time in standing up, so Mercury had to track it down again. It seemed like a real slippery bastard – and that was saying something coming from the guy most people considered the slipperiest of bastards. He summoned chains of water to snag the creature, which clinged to its arms and legs. It made a very un-Prect-like expression, eyes going wide and forming curses that couldn't make it past its lips. With itself restrained, it had no way to dodge as Mercury got in close, his sword raised in order to smack his former guildmaster in the face –

– and instead of Precht's ugly mug, he found himself face to face with the Gate of the Ram, Aries herself.

Mercury didn't have the time to halt his momentum entirely, so instead, he directed the still-sheathed sword upward, slamming it into the rock wall. Shards shattered right into his face. The noise of metal on rock made him wince, but not as much as the demon's arrogant chatter.

"See? See? Hit the pretty sheep lady instead of me!"

While Mercury's sword was stuck, it took the opportunity to slam him with a wave of pure black magic that seemed to be what he'd taken from Precht. It hit Mercury in the ribs, breaking some on impact. He tumbled backwards.

"Merc!" both Happy and Lucy shouted.

Fortunately, Natsu was there to pick up the slack immediately. He grabbed the sword that had skittered away when the water mage fell and slammed it straight into the demon's side. Magic didn't seem to work against it (though, the reason that Mercury's still did was still undetermined) but objects without a "soul" worked just fine. The demon groaned, then slipped away.

"I'm fine," Mercury barked back to Lucy. "Can't you do anything about the Spirits? If you don't want them being hit, that is."

"Oh – yes! Close, Gate of the Ram, Aries. Close, Gate of the Bull, Taurus!"

The water mage didn't wait for the golden sparkles that signalled the Spirit's departure to fade away entirely. He got in close in tandem with Natsu, who continued to brandish Mercury's sword. He said nothing of it, figuring that the Fire Dragon Slayer was basically out of a job without having any magic to rely on.

"M-My souls!" the demon wailed with confusion. "Give them back! That'll cost you one thousand souls – oof!"

Natsu swung the sword like a battle axe, but that was fine. That's how it was intended to be used. Raising the weapon in an arc over his head created the perfect opportunity for Mercury to counter with his own kick, though the demon batted the sword away easily enough and grabbed Mercury's leg with the same motion, then threw him straight into the wall.

"With a debt of one thousand souls, I think I'll start with you! Get ready, fish-boy!"

"Huh?" Mercury was far too disoriented to do much but roll out of the way. The demon grabbed onto his ankle so tightly that it could probably bruise even through the scales there.

"Merc!" Lucy cried. "Natsu!"

"On it!"

The Fire Dragon Slayer rushed in, trying to drag the two apart, but Mercury was just… confused. So was the demon. It looked like something was supposed to happen, but…

He felt the same. Normal, even.

He kicked the demon off of him and scrambled up while Natsu started swinging the sword haphazardly again. By the time he'd managed to stand again, the demon was on the other foot, looking confused. "You – what are you?"

"Pretty good goddamn question," Mercury huffed. Did it really matter? And besides, he'd just figured out why the demon's soul-stealing attack didn't seem to be working.

What was it that Bixlow had once claimed? That he'd tried to "mess with" Mercury's soul and found it unshakable? Yeah, the same concept probably applied here.

This freak wasn't getting Mercury's soul a budge an inch.

(Though, thinking about Bixlow… made his chest hurt.)

"Urg – it doesn't matter. I'll give your body back to Kyouka after Face manages to activate," said the demon. It jittered left and right, looking almost uncomfortable with the fact there was someone its curse didn't work on. "There's only thirty seconds before Face activates, you know!"

Thirty seconds until –

"No!" Lucy shouted. "I believe in Wendy – she'll stop it! I know she can!"

The demon laughed. "It's not a matter of can or can't, it's a matter of that little rat isn't strong enough to destroy it by herself!"

"I already said she ain't a rat!" Natsu's fists caught fire again despite the fact he could probably tell by now that wasn't going to work. "Merc, let's go!"

"Right!"

The dragon slayer threw his sword to him, which the water mage finally unsheathed, tossing the leather off to the side. The way he handled it changed. Rather than holding it like a bat, he began to wield it like an actual sword.

"What's a little weapon gonna do to me, huh? Fifteen seconds!"

Natsu lunged at the same time Mercury did, aiming high while the water mage stayed low, pressing himself into the ground. Their movements became fervent despite the countdown being entirely out of their hands now. Nothing that they did would halt or speed up Face. Nothing they did could have an impact on whether all magic on the continent was destroyed.

But what they could do was shut this arrogant son of a bitch up.

Mercury's sword hit it in the side of the leg. Natsu had somehow managed to pick up a brick on the way, which he slammed into the side of the demon's head as though it were made of flames, sending the creature flying back into the wall, though all it did was laugh.

"Five, four, three – aww, shucks let's just skip to one! Goodbye, magic!"

… And nothing happened.

"Huh? What?"

"My magic's still here," said Natsu. His fist was draped in flames as usual, not even showing the slightest amount of flickering that a lack of magic would have brought upon it.

Mercury tried it out, too. Water swirled around his finger easily. Almost lazily. It was true – magic was still present in the air as abundantly as it had ever been, prompting confusion from the mage.

Wasn't this not supposed to happen?

Had Face failed? How anticlimactic.

"It's true!" Lucy announced. "Wendy and Carla did it!"

"That's… impossible…" the demon said. It fell to the ground, seemingly defeated, and laid there for ten seconds before anyone else moved.

Then, Natsu took a step towards it, a frown etched into his face. "Your evil plans end here," he grumbled.

"Ohh… do you know how much this mistake will cost you?"

Mercury stilled, eying the demon cautiously. If his experience with Temepster was anything to go off of, it probably had another trick up its sleeve – one that he couldn't predict. "Be careful – it's not defeated yet."

But Natsu only took another step forward, unbothered. "Give back Mira."

"Do you know how much…. How much… how much… It's worth one million of your souls!" the demon declared, leaping up and attempting to grab onto the boy's shoulders. "Give me your soul! I've decided, if fish-boy isn't going to give it to me, then I'll take yours!"

Natsu, ever lithe and reactive, dodged under the attempted grab. Mercury slammed the broad side of his blade into the demon's side as well, to very little result. It seemed like its body had become more pliable than before, enough to avoid being cut.

"Did you forget that I also have Hades' magic?" it declared. Magic began to float in the air in the form of a purple magic circle wrapping around all four of the Fairy Tail members. "You can't win!"

If Mercury's magic sense was working, he was sure it would be an overwhelming crescendo of Precht's familiar magic, but his hearing was still warped, so all he could rely on were his eyes and own instincts – both of which were telling him that this was going to be bad. That he needed to prevent the demon from casting somehow. But the activation sequence was already in the air, and there was no way to stop it, so he decided to go for his second best option – stopping the blast from hitting all of them head on.

Except… the spell was definitely going for an area-of-effect style of attack. No matter what happened, it would hit all four of them.

And that was… fine.

Mercury was already past the point he'd expected to get to. Honestly, if Face activated, he probably would have been knocked unconscious on impact – that was the difference between himself and these human mages. Taking one big hit like this… wouldn't be the end of him.

If it was, then he probably shouldn't have come out of retirement anyway,

He slammed as much water magic as he could around himself and threw his body down right in the path of the demon's spell, preparing to cut right through it. Though it was technically impossible – a sword of this caliber was no match for a spell of that one – he still tried anyway, because what did it matter?

Either they'd all get hit in the face right there and get knocked out, or he'd take the hit insead. And since he was by no means intending to go down with this – because please, he'd never hear the end of it if he got done in by a mere specter of Precht's presence – it wasn't breaking his promise to Laxus.

"Amateratsu Form 28!"

Mercury exhaled the moment the demon unleashed the spell, forcing all of his own magic into the small chain dangling on the hilt of his sword. He was surprised it was still there, honestly. A smart man (or demon) would have grabbed it, even if it was only of the quality a little kid could buy.

But it was enough.

He'd make it enough.

The blindingly bright darklight reached him in an instant, threatening to encompass the water mage, but he brought the sword down right through the middle of it. The tip of the blade sheared through the middle of the blast. With a resounding, deafening pop, it cut all the way through, pushing the force to either side of Mercury. One half slammed into the wall, knocking it down, and the other demolished the only thing separating them from the outside word. The charm on the end shattered like dust in the wind, it's ultimate purpose achieved.

For an incredibly brief moment, everything was quiet.

Mercury breathed heavily as he winced. Perhaps the world itself wasn't quiet, just him – he'd legitimately gone deaf from the roar of the magic being cut. Blood dripped down from his ears, but he'd be loath to lose this opportunity. Even if the demon had swallowed Precht like a morsel of food, that sort of attack was going to keep it from doing anything reckless for a moment.

And a moment was enough. "Natsu!"

The Fire Dragon Slayer probably responded. Mercury couldn't tell. But what he did do was raise his sword one more time and flip it in his hand, throwing it with as much strength as his enchanted body could muster. It flew through the air, piercing the demon through the stomach and going all the way through, hilly and all. It clattered against the wall behind it silently.

Mercury couldn't lip read, but he could see the demon say something. Probably saying that such a blow wasn't enough to kill it. It didn't matter, because Natsu slipped in right there behind it, hefting a massive piece of concrete over his head.

It slammed into the demon, and then everything went silent.

Even more silent than before.

The water mage let out a breath that had been stuck in his throat since well before stumbling on this fight. For a moment there, it'd been a little bit rough. He fell into a squat, momentarily spent.

Who knew you could block a demon's magic with anything so long as it was sharp enough?

It took a couple of moments, but his hearing slowly regained focus, though it was just as sensitive as it was before, to Mercury's dismay. Why couldn't a good old shock to the eardrums fix it?

Well, probably because the problem stemmed from his lungs, not his head. He'd be hard pressed to get back to normal until the anti-ethernano ran their course or he managed to flush it with more magic.

He suddenly felt little paws on his arm. Mercury looked over to see Happy pressing his arms into his, looking a mix of concerned and awed. "That was so cool, Merc! Where'd you learn how to do that?"

"You can cut anything if your knife's sharp enough," he explained tiredly. "Though, I'll admit magic usually isn't included. I'll have to thank Romeo later."

"Well, it worked out, didn't it?"

What a blasé attitude to have for a little cat that nearly got blown to pieces. Still, Mercury couldn't quite fault him for it. As the saying went, all's well that ends well, and this ended about as well as it could have – with no one lastingly injured, a demon down, and Face apparently deactivated…. For the time being..

The water mage gave Happy a pat on the head and stood up. That's right – they no longer had the threat of Face looming over their heads, but they still had the rest of Tartarus to deal with. He had no idea what Tartarus's leadership looked like, but the demon they'd just fought had to have been pretty far up in the pecking order and Tempester was likely just as high.

"Not to take away from saving us, but what the heck are these things?" said Lucy, looking around, awestruck. "They look like little spirits!"

Mercury followed her gaze. After the demon's defeat, small lights started pouring into the air, appearing like little tufts of dandelion fuzz. They glowed almost iridescently. He couldn't take his eyes off of them.

Part of him wondered what they'd sound like if he could hear them.

"Hmm. The souls that guy collected?" Happy offered.

Natsu nodded. "I think they're free now that he's dead."

"Must be," said Mercury. "I never thought souls would be something you could reach out and touch like this though." He raised his arm, briefly attempting to poke one with an outstretched finger before thinking better of it and pulling back.

His scales were still plastered with Tempester's blood. He wouldn't want to taint the newly freed souls with anything that came from a demon.

He didn't get very long to stare at them. As soon as he'd drawn his hand away, he heard the sound of an awkward, intentional cough from nearly right behind him – which was impossible considering the only thing that he stood in front of was a gaping hole that led to open air. He whirled, startled by an apparition that had appeared behind him – Precht.

But to Mercury's somewhat begrudging relief, it was a version that looked a lot more normal. The man's hair was longer. His face was older. His skin was wrinklier – but underneath at all, it was still him.

Still the guy who loved to get on his case for everything.

Natsu, on instinct, whipped around with wide eyes, prepared to fight this new specter, but Mercury held his hand up. "What're you doing here?" the water mage asked. "Dead people don't get to speak to the living."

Precht gave him a brief unamused stare. "Still causing trouble, hmm? I knew you'd never change."

"Hey –"

"It's not over yet," the ghost cut him off. "Tartarus's real goal is not Face. Tell Makarov that it's time to let out the light."

Then, he disappeared as though he'd never been there in the first place.

All four of them stared in silence at the spot where Precht had been a moment ago, dumbstruck – Mercury most of all. "... What the hell does that mean? And why was the first thing that came out of his mouth that?"

"You don't know either, Merc?" Lucy asked, walking closer to the mage.

He fervently shook his head. "No. That guy usually speaks in riddles, but I didn't think he'd drop something like that and then float off into the afterlife, or whatever just happened."

"'Sides," added Happy, "isn't he evil now?"

That, Mercury had no answer to. "Hades" certainly had a blackened heart, driven to near madness by whatever had drawn him to attack Tenrou Island all those years ago, but could they really say that the apparition they'd just seen was truly him? Or was the specter the old version of Precht, the one these kids wouldn't have known?

They had no way of knowing which it was.

"... I think I dislike that guy even more now," he muttered. He stretched out his legs, feeling for any wounds he'd missed and cringing at the sound of his joints popping. The ribs that had been broken were more or less healed, and his eardrums had already fixed themselves too.

"Hades?" Natsu repeated.

"Precht," the water mage corrected. "Don't get me started – if you think that Laxus is a hardass, you should have met him when he was guildmaster. But that's not really important now, is it? Can someone please explain to me what had just happened? I just woke up, so I'm kind of lost."

Quickly the somewhat rabid combination of Lucy, Happy, and Natsu tried to explain everything that had happened in the last twelve hours, from the part Mercury already knew (the deaths of the Council members, him, Erza, and Mira being drugged and kidnapped) to the stuff that was new to him (their guild hall was a pile of cinders because Elfman blew it up, and Wendy had gone off to stop Face on her own). Then, it was his turn to explain what had happened on his end, which was far less than what they'd had to go through because he'd only woken up about thirty minutes ago.

"We got drugged, so I can't really speak to what happened after that, but Crawford's dead, Erza is being held in a prison by someone named Kyouka, and Mira's in a lab somewhere," he said. "And this blood isn't mine, so you can stop looking at me like you're expecting me to fall over and die, Lucy."

She squealed as though not expecting to be caught. "Then whose is it?"

"Its name was Tempester – the guy Laxus and the others fought. I happened to run across it right after I got free." He fished around in his pockets for the two vials of blood. "Got what Porlyusica needed, too. Here, one of you should take one in case we get separated. I'd rather have higher odds of this making it to her."

Natsu and Lucy exchanged glances before Happy raised his hand. "Aye, sir! I'll take it. Miss Porlyusica will be getting this ASAP! No need to worry."

"I wasn't really worrying…"

All three of them gave Mercury stares as though to say they wouldn't believe him even if he swore on his life, so he signed. "Fine, I'm a bit worried. I got really lucky these didn't break while fighting that demon over there." Though, there was still plenty of blood a couple of hallways back that they could probably go collect if needed…

"Then we only need to find Mira," said Natsu. "We already saw Erza – she was fighting some bird lady outside."

"Probably whoever 'Kyouka' is, then," Lucy surmised.

"I agree. Erza's probably okay for now. I trust her to be able to handle any of the demons here by herself," said Mercury. Then, a thought occurred to him. "Did someone else get captured with you, Natsu?"

The boy's eyes went wide. "Yeah, Lisanna. We got separated a little while ago, but she's probably looking for Mira right now too."

"We should probably try to catch up with her."

"Yeah – er, hold on, one second." Natsu's head tilted to the side, as did Lucy and Happy's. Then, Lucy's face lit up.

"We already ran into him, don't worry! He's here with us," she said, speaking with someone else that the water mage couldn't hear.. She turned to Mercury. "Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna just made it back to Warren's group – he says they're okay."

Mercury let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. There were probably a few more unknown held breaths, but this one was by far the largest.

Of course Mira and Erza would both be fine – they were strong, probably more so than him in most cases.

"And she's okay? They didn't do anything weird?"

"Warren says, 'one second,'" Lucy dutifully passed on. A moment later, and the telepath had already expanded his range to include Mercury, too.

Despite the anti-ethernano in his lungs, he could hear the man clear as day. "Merc, haven't kicked the bucket yet?"

"Unfortunately for you, I'm more or less fine. Is everyone else with you guys already?"

"Well, we got a little separated along the way – Gray went off somewhere and Elfman suddenly rushed out to go find his sister, but we're mostly together again, so don't worry! Even Master's here. We're gonna be fine!"

"... And the injured?"

This time, Warren's response was preceded by a long pause that told Mercury he was either searching for the right words or being fed an answer from someone else. "Yeah, they're here too. We've set up a perimeter around the area so none of the demons can get close. They're safe with us."

The water mage intently studied the telepath's words for any sign of hesitation or lack of confidence, but his voice didn't even shake, mental or not. Knowing that everyone was here didn't exactly make him feel much better, but knowing that Warren was more or less confident in saying that they'd be safe assuaged his worrying heart a bit.

… a little bit.

"But don't worry!" said Warren a moment later as though reading Mercury's pause as discomfort. "We've got everyone looking for the demon that poisoned Laxus and the others. We'll find him soon enough."

This time, Happy broke in. "Oh, don't bother! We've already got it handled."

"Huh?"

"That demon," Mercury explained. "It's dead – I already killed it. I have two samples of its blood. Tell Porlyusica that I've got it, even if it'll be a minute before I can get it to her."

"You – what?"

"He got a lot of blood on him!" Happy declared just as proudly as his namesake without considering the effect that would have.

On the other end of the line, Mira hopped in, apparently having been listening from Warren's perspective. "What? Merc, are you injured?"

"No, I'm fine." He could feel her doubt from the pause and heaviness of the line that came after, so he added, "Really, I am. It's not my blood. Ask Natsu and Lucy."

But when he shot a somewhat pleading look at the two of them, Natsu just looked confused, and Lucy looked like she was trying not to laugh. "He's fine," she eventually said. "Don't worry about him, Mira. Er, we should probably be lucky we got anything for Porlyusica and the others at all, if I'm being honest."

"You're not helping."

She quickly moved on, looking somewhat abashed. "Anyway, Warren, can you make it so that everyone can hear my voice? I have something important to say."

"Uh, sure, one second," the telepath said, apparently fiddling with his mental controls to expand his telepathy even more. "Okay, go for it."

Despite it being a mostly mental message, Lucy cleared her throat. "Everyone – Wendy and Carla stopped Face! We crushed the enemy's plan!" Her chest puffed out, her face becoming a perfect vision of pride.

The sound of cheers coming from everyone else instantaneously became deafening, but not in the same sense that everything else was. This sort of noise filled Mercury's own chest with a sense of pride, too – even if it wasn't over yet, they'd stopped the biggest threat for the moment, and that was cause for celebration.

Even if there were still things left… demons to kill, plans to stop… their first and foremost threat had already been eliminated.

Then again, they probably couldn't call themselves Fairy Tail if they couldn't get at least this far.

"Um, can Master hear this?" Happy suddenly said quietly. Warren adjusted the communication so that everyone else's voices became quieter, leaving the Exceed's as the loudest. "We met the soul of Master Hades just now. He said that even though we could stop Face, it's not over yet. Hades said to tell you to 'release the light.'"

"The light…" Mercury could hear the pregnant pause as Makarov turned the phrase over in his head, but even though he expected the man to have some knowledge of whatever Precht was referring to, the man still shouted, "What does that mean?!"

… As usual, Precht's words were meaningless drivel. Or, at least, they would have been, had the situation have been any different. The man had come back to tell Mercury off for being a pest, but that didn't mean the rest of his words were equally as unimportant. There had to be some meaning in there somewhere.

But if Makarov didn't know, no one would – not even Mercury, who'd been in the guild for longer.

As Warren began to shout back at Makarov for shouting through the mental connection (ignoring the fact that he himself was yelling so loudly that Mercury was almost certain it was audible outside of his own head), he suddenly cut himself off with a choking noise. Instead of words, the man let out a long, drawn-out groan that everyone could hear.

It sounded painful. Incredibly so.

"Warren?" Lucy asked. Natsu said the same thing, but his voice came out much louder, echoing around the walls as both pressed their minds through the connection.

Mercury himself stayed silent, trying to figure out what was wrong. He could feel it, and not in the sense he could usually feel magic. It just felt like there was something other trying to enter his brain. If the wince on Happy's face was any indication, he felt it too – an uncomfortable presence sifting through his head as though perusing through a library. THe water mage's mind raced, coming to the same conclusion that everyone else did just as that foreign presence began to speak through their shared connection.

"Wizarding guild Fairy Tail… right?"

The voice sent shivers down Mercury's spine at the mere sound of it. It definitely belonged to a man, and it probably wasn't a kid – not that he'd expected much else, but with the nature of demon's being so confusing, he couldn't say he'd have been surprised if the owner was a little kid. Getting straight to the point, he growled, "Who the hell are you, bastard?" through the mental connection.

If he was being honest… he didn't expect an answer, but he got one anyway.

"The king of Hades, Mard Greer," the voice said coldly. "But you don't have to remember that. After all, you have no tomorrow."

Mercury could feel it before it even happened, even with his magical senses gone. Natsu clearly did too. It was a sensation that surpassed and conscious sense, only noticeable by those with finely tuned instincts – something was coming. Something big.

Something whose results would undoubtedly be disastrous.

"Dodge!" Natsu shouted, grabbing Lucy and pushing her to the side as though expecting something to come shooting out at them.

That cold, calculating voice echoed throughout their heads once more as the magic in the air released. "Alegria."

Mercury followed the Fire Dragon Slayer's example and tried to press himself into the ground, avoiding the sudden shifting of rocks from above that followed, but doing so had him completely falling over – his foot was stuck. It had embedded itself into the ground. No, that wasn't quite right – the ground was pulling him in. He was sinking into it. In moments, he was encased up to his knee, and that's when he realized what was happening.

"We're being sucked in!" he shouted.

The walls around them began to twist and turn. Though Natsu was originally on top of Lucy, he was quickly knocked off just as his own feet began to be pulled into the ground.

Through Mercury's head, he heard someone say that the gravity field surrounding the cube had been destroyed, though the voice was so warbled and warped from Mard Greer's apparent intrusion that he couldn't tell who it belonged to. He heard the voices of a handful of others, too, some panicked, some trying to keep calm, and even some tempting to make sure that everyone else was alright – but alas, they, too, were swept into the shifting of the building, becoming more like clay statues.

Mercury was not spared this, either.

Both of his feet had become trapped in the ground, and with the hallway's twisting, he'd been pulled away from the others. He quickly sank up to his waist. Trying to drag himself out had no effect other than making his arms sink in, too.

In moments, he'd be dragged under. He had to – he had to do something, or else this was all for nothing. All this fighting, all this struggling, ending in a split second as they were dragged into the depths of a building that none of them called.

It was a terrible place to die, but Mercury couldn't even fight it. He found himself up to his neck faster than he could even shout at the others to get someplace high up, as though that would even help. This was it – he was going to drown in a sea of rock without even having a chance to fight back.

He cursed.

This was it.

He was fading into the darkness without a clear way to get out, praying that someone else would fix this for him – because that's all he could do. Hope. Pray. He didn't believe in gods anymore, but he still asked them for help.

And just like that, with one final large breath intended to keep him going as long as possible, he was consumed by the rock.