Erza's mission was supposed to be the easiest. All she had to do was locate the cult that worshiped Deliora and stop the Moon Drip. But she couldn't get Allen's last look out of her head… that look of concern.
Erza didn't believe Allen thought she was weak—he had to know her strength. And yet, he gave her that strange look that didn't match his usual personality. Unsure of what to think, Erza decided to finish quickly and help the others...
"I hope you're not planning to face Deliora..." Erza muttered.
Erza arrived at a temple and, without hesitation, entered with the intent of reaching the top. As she advanced through the halls, she began to hear chanting. That was all she needed to confirm she had cornered her target.
Climbing to the top, she saw dozens of dark mages in cloaks, their heads covered. From the sky, a crimson glow poured down like a waterfall.
"You bastards! What do you think people's lives are?!" Erza growled. These people had sacrificed everyone on this island in their obsession with reviving a demon. Erza couldn't allow something like that to happen.
She summoned a sword and prepared to cut them all down.
"An intruder!"
"Stop her!"
The dark mages didn't hesitate to attack her. Magic circles lit up in their hands and various spells flew toward Erza.
"These guys..." Erza found it strange. She was used to villain henchmen showing up as cannon fodder and getting wiped out instantly. But these ones reacted like machines and attacked without delay.
Erza summoned a shield and charged straight at them. Her shield absorbed the blasts of rock and ice, shattering them without even making her flinch. Erza was like a battle tank.
"Don't think you can toy with people's lives and get away with it!"
Her rage seemed to ignite her scarlet hair. If there was one thing she hated, it was people who used the weak as disposable pawns.
By the time she reached them, their faces had gone pale. Without hesitation, she swapped her sword and shield for a halberd and sent a dozen dark mages flying with a single sweep. Whether these mages were capable or not, it didn't matter—they were still fodder against Titania. The mages fell to the ground, and several lost their masks. That's when Erza recognized them.
"You're from Bravo... What are you doing here?"
They didn't answer and attacked Erza again, who didn't hold back either.
...
Lucy watched the fight nervously. Natsu was facing off against three mages. One of them had spiky blue hair and was short. Natsu recognized him as Yuka. It hadn't been hard for them to find Lyon's minions, thanks to Natsu's nose.
"Take this! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!"
Natsu struck with his flaming punch, but Yuka raised his hand and a shockwave extinguished the fire and forced Natsu back.
"Idiot! Didn't you learn last time? Back in my Lamia Scale days, I specialized in fighting other mag–!"
Natsu threw a kick before Yuka could finish, which pissed him off. At that moment, Natsu was struck by a rock manipulated by Sherry. Sherry wore a gothic lolita dress and had her hair in two pigtails. Her gaze was melancholic, as if her heart were always in a fantasy.
"You should've stayed gone after escaping last time..."
"Shut up, you crazy woman! I'm here to kick your asses!" Natsu growled before rushing Sherry, but Toby jumped in front of her. Natsu saw the green claws and stopped his attack.
"Rahh!" Toby attacked Natsu.
"Whoa, that was close..." Natsu had to retreat—if those claws hit him, it was game over.
"Why are you dodging me?!" Toby growled.
Toby was a human with canine features, a dumb expression, and he liked to shout about everything.
'People normally dodge attacks...' Lucy thought.
"This trio isn't all that impressive. If even one of them were missing, Natsu would've won easily. But the situation wasn't that kind."
Natsu had warned Lucy not to get involved, but she reached for the key Allen had lent her. However, she hesitated—it truly was a terrifying spirit, and if it was, should she even summon it in this situation?
Lucy pulled her hand back. She could not afford to be unconscious now. So, she drew another key—Taurus's. When she summoned the bull-cow or whatever he was, he didn't arrive with his usual energy. Instead, he appeared beaten down by the earlier experience.
"Lucy-chan... you're so cruel..." Taurus said, sitting on the ground.
"Ah, I'm sorry, Taurus. We shouldn't have sent you flying like that..." Lucy didn't know what to say to comfort her celestial spirit. "Taurus, I…"
"What's this? A spirit?" At some point, Sherry had stopped helping the other two and approached Lucy, who hadn't noticed.
"Stay out of this or you'll end up like your friend."
"Natsu?!"
Lucy looked on in shock—Natsu was on the ground, apparently poisoned by Toby, and in bad shape.
"Lyon-sama will awaken Deliora soon, and there's nothing you can do to stop him. Because his reasons are the purest in the world—love~"
"You're planning to release a murderous demon—what kind of twisted love is that?!"
"That won't matter, because Lyon-sama will defeat him," Sherry clasped her hands as if praying. "Lyon-sama has suffered for years from the loss of his master. At some point, that pain turned into hatred, but once he defeats Deliora, his love will be purified."
Lucy stared at Sherry like she was insane, but that didn't matter right now. She had to help Natsu or he would be killed. "I don't care about your words anymore. We're here to stop you. And I hate to break it to you, but your beloved Lyon's plans won't come true! Because to do that, he'd have to defeat the strongest wizard of all, that Lyon won't stand a chance against my... my... partner" Lucy blushed as she realized the shameful words she was saying. Fortunately, Allen was not here.
Lucy wanted to say something else, but couldn't. Sherry, an expert in such things, picked up the scent of love coming from Lucy and smirked mockingly. "Oh, liar... Of course, Lyon-sama won't lose. But I can see we're very alike..."
"In what?!" Lucy snapped, her cheeks red. "I'm nothing like a lunatic like you! I've had enough—Taurus, defeat her!"
"Mou!" Taurus forced himself to fight. Even if he wasn't in the mood, he knew Lucy was in danger. However, just before he could charge Sherry, Taurus stopped moving, turned around, and attacked Lucy.
"Taurus?!"
Lucy's pendant activated, and a magical shield blocked Taurus, then fired a repulsor blast that knocked him away.
"Did you think a spirit could resist my magic?"
Lucy knew about Sherry's magic from Natsu, but he told her Sherry had never controlled him. She assumed it didn't work on living beings. Taurus stood up, grabbed his axe, and attacked the shield again, unable to stop himself.
"Taurus, stop!"
"I'm sorry... Lucy-chan... I can't control my body!"
The shield didn't flinch as it absorbed Taurus's axe blows, but Lucy still felt at a disadvantage. Without spirits, her offensive power was reduced to her whip, and she couldn't afford to waste time.
"Damn it!" Natsu cursed his luck. If Sherry hadn't been here, he could've taken out the other two long ago, but now he was in danger.
"Natsu!" Happy tried to help by throwing stones at Toby and Yuka, but only managed to distract them briefly.
Lucy saw this out of the corner of her eye as she watched Taurus lose control. That awful feeling returned—the same as she had in Hargeon. Like everything was going wrong, like her luck had run out and everything kept getting worse by the second.
"No!"
Lucy pulled out a golden key—but this one was different. It looked like a sword, small and glowing with a faint light that surrounded it.
"Open, gate of the great heroic spirit—Knight King!"
A pillar of golden light shot into the sky, visible from all over the island. All the mages from Lamia Scale were stunned, including Lyon, who was fighting Gray elsewhere.
The pendant's shield deactivated, and Taurus lunged at Lucy—but his axe was stopped… by two fingers. Lucy's eyes widened. In front of her stood a young woman with blonde hair tied up, wearing blue clothes and silver armor.
"This is… strange?" Artoria looked at her own hand. It was her, but not quite—this was her younger self, a form she thought she'd never have again. "Maybe this is a side effect of becoming a spirit…"
The dolls had to adapt to this new world. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to help Allen. So they became spirits. Of course, for Kurumi, this change was hardly noticeable, but for Artoria, it was drastic—as a summoned spirit, she now had the appearance of the classic Saber.
"Who…?" Taurus asked, unable to believe he couldn't move his own axe an inch, even while using all his strength.
"You're alright. I know you don't want to hurt your master." Saber smiled, forcefully canceling the summoning.
"It's a lie… a spirit forcing another to vanish…" Lucy collapsed from magical exhaustion, but Saber caught her. Only a few seconds had passed, and all her magic was already drained.
"You did well, Lucy Heartfilia. You showed courage beyond your limits. That's why I lent you my strength…"
Lucy's eyes felt heavy, and she was starting to fall asleep.
"Well..."
"...!" Sherry shivered and backed away, freezing when Saber's eyes locked onto her. Saber extended her hand, as if grabbing something invisible.
"Stop!" Sherry screamed, but Saber didn't flinch. Sherry summoned a giant golem armor, but her face was still terrified.
"I'm sorry… I only obey my master, and he's very possessive…" Saber moved her invisible sword, slashing Sherry across the chest.
The armor shattered...
"Huh?..." Sherry dropped to the ground, not even understanding what had happened. Of course, she wasn't dead—a small act of mercy from the King of the Knights.
Lucy fell unconscious, but she would be safe thanks to the pendant. Saber gently laid her against a tree before standing and glancing at Natsu, who was standing with the two defeated mages. Then she disappeared.
Natsu frowned. "That woman looked like Erza… well, only when she's not acting like a crazy lunatic."
He looked up and smiled. "Thanks, Happy. And… I think your name's Timcampy, right? Thanks to you too."
Timcampy nodded while flying in circles. Just as Natsu was in danger, Tim had appeared and thrown a detox potion at him. Seeing Tim, Natsu took it without hesitation, broke out of paralysis, and beat the crap out of both enemies. This wasn't luck—when Allen heard that the guy Toby used venom claws, he'd prepared Tim with a potion from a previous mission.
Natsu crossed his arms. This situation had happened before. It was like fate itself wanted everything to go wrong for them. He remembered how he almost died to Bora some time ago and clenched his teeth.
"What a nasty smell!"
...
When Zalty heard she'd been discovered, she saw no point in maintaining the disguise. She transformed from a short, creepy, masked man into a beautiful woman with black hair and red eyes. She was Ultear Milkovich. However, there was no friendly exchange inside the cave of Deliora.
The air grew heavy as Ultear's magic power exploded. She was extremely strong—at the very least, at the level of an S-Class Fairy Tail mage. And yet, her face showed she was under tremendous pressure at the moment.
Allen's calm eyes made Ultear—the expert manipulator—feel exposed. She knew she wouldn't be able to fool him with words, so she chose to attack.
'What are you afraid of Ultear...you are strong, you have the Lost Magic: the Arc of Time!' Ultear reminded herself. She raised her hand, and a dozen crystal spheres shot at Allen, seemingly controlled via magical telepathy. Allen vanished and reappeared above her.
Ultear quickly looked up but was startled to see Allen holding a marble-sized ice orb between his fingers.
"One-Man Army… x20 strength…"
Allen fired the ice orb with the force of an artillery cannon. Ultear formed an ice shield, but when the orb struck, the shield shattered. She flew backward but teleported elsewhere.
"You're too naïve…" Allen appeared behind Ultear, back-to-back.
"Arc of Time!" Ultear rolled across the ground and made the entire cave collapse. Massive rocks fell from the ceiling. Allen stood still, observing the destruction in silence.
He reached out and touched the first rock, which stopped mid-air. Then he whispered something—and the entire ceiling restored itself.
"Impossible!" Ultear was in shock. "It's impossible! You can't have the Arc of Time too! That's a magic only I possess!"
Ultear backed away, frightened. Allen was already a monster with unknown power—if he also had her Lost Magic, then what kind of terrifying creature in human skin was he?
"It's not your Time Magic. It's just a spell, and I can only rewind time for objects… not stop it or fast-forward it."
Allen revealed this for no apparent reason. Many in the Chat thought it was careless and dumb to give away such info—but Allen said it so Ultear wouldn't panic and run away. There was something about this girl he needed to understand.
And his plan worked. Ultear calmed down a bit. Strangely, she trusted Allen's words. After all, he had no reason to lie.
"…" Seeing Ultear had stopped attacking, Allen turned toward the ice, which was now cracked. "What do you mean by Lost Magic?"
Ultear looked at Allen with suspicion, but still answered, "I possess a Lost Magic—the Arc of Time. This magic was so powerful and so difficult to use, that over time the number of qualified users dwindled… until it was lost to history."
"I see…" Allen smiled at her. "It's weird coming from me, but I don't get why you'd tell me that… Ultear."
"You asked me, dumbass! Tch… you're an annoying guy…" Ultear pouted, glancing at Allen from the corner of her eye. Now that she knew how powerful this unknown mage was, she couldn't help but wonder what he planned to do with Deliora.
"Honestly, I think I'm quite charming…"
Allen teased Ultear, and in response, she attacked with Ice Magic—the same type of magic Gray used. Ultear created spears and accelerated them using Time Magic so they looked like missiles. Allen smiled and launched several wind slashes to destroy them. After that, Ultear didn't attack again.
"As the Council said… you're a monster…" Ultear muttered, a drop of sweat running down her forehead.
"In that case, stop fighting and stay put, girl. You might witness something that leaves you speechless…"
Ultear was already crafting magic in secret, but when she heard Allen's words and saw his eyes, she froze—her curiosity got the better of her.
*Crack*
"...?" Allen turned to see a massive fracture forming in the eternal ice.
"...!" Ultear also looked in surprise—the Moon Drip wasn't enough yet to unfreeze Deliora.
...
Gwen – This doesn't make sense!
MJ – He shouldn't be ******
Felicia – Deliora ********
Ruby – Be careful!
Rogue – There's something different about *****
...
As usual, the Chat could not give him much information. But it was enough for Allen to sense that something that was not supposed to happen was going on.
Deliora, the Demon of Disaster was breaking free from the eternal ice by itself. This didn't make any sense. In the original story, Deliora should have died at this point. But here, it was still whole—and it looked even more dangerous.
More cracks spread across the iceberg, and chunks of ice began to fall. Sensing the life force in that ice was fading, Allen stored all of it in his inventory. Every ice sin was a part of Ur's life. Allen cursed Lucifer, which made it difficult if there was any chance of reversing this magic.
"It's coming…" Allen muttered, as the entire island trembled.
KU-THUM… KU-THUM… KU-THUM… KU-THUM… KU-THUM… KU-THUM…
...