Chapter 60: Deliora

"Iced Shell!? Have you gone insane, Gray!" yelled Leon as he recognized the pose.

Zeldaris and Aversia narrowed their eyes and readied themselves to act at any moment.

"Turn the people of this island back to normal right now and leave this place for ever. This is the last warning I will give you."

"Hahaha, I see, so you are using that spell as a threat. How ridiculous!"

The second Leon finished his sentence a large amount of magical power released form Gray´s body and created a shock wave.

It was strong enough to send Leon flying, before smashing into the ice wall behind him, and even Natsu had problems to keep standing.

As for the two half dragons, what do you think?

Both of them were not even bothered by this, instead their concentration and caution were raised to the max.

Leon tried multiple times to stand up and use his magic to attack Gray, but every time he was forced down again by the shock wave.

Gray´s body started to change, his and eyes turned white, the shape of his upper body begun to distort.

"The fact that Ur died because of me will never change and nothing will change that. I need to take responsibility for it, one way or the other. Now the time has finally come, and I am prepared to die. What about you Leon?"

"Bahahaha. Do it, Gray. You do not have the guts to do it or to die!"

Gray closed his eyes for a second and took a long breath before opening his eyes again.

"You disappoint me, Leon."

Gray moved his arms so that his hands were a both each other.

"This is the end!!! ICED…."

"Fool!"

"Idiot!"

"Moron!"

Before Gray could even finish his sentence, three fists were hitting him and sending flying into the ice wall.

Those three fists belonged to Natsu, Zeldaris and Aversia and all three of them were extremely angry at Gray.

Gray tried to slowly get up, using the ice wall as a support.

His body was hurting like hell, Natsu didn´t hold his punch and Zeldaris and Aversia didn´t hold back enough.

"What the hell guys?!"

"Don´t just barge in like this to start talking about responsibility or shit like this. This is my show! Ouch." said Natsu before Zeldaris and Aversia had even the chance to open their mouths.

"That´s not even the point you idiot!" yelled Aversia as she punched Natsu.

"*sigh* Gray, let me ask you one thing, what do you want to achieve with sacrificing yourself?"

"To stop Leon and take responsibility for Ur´s death."

Zeldaris slapped Gray, sending him to the ground again.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK THAT UR WANTS YOU TO DIE LIKE THIS?! DO YOU WANT TO MAKE HER SACREFICE MEANINGLESS?! STOP RUNNING AWAY YOU COWARD!"

Zeldaris wanted to say more but the ruins started to shake and moved.

Outside the ruins, Erza, Lucy and Happy had just finished the last opponent.

Well, Erza defeated almost all of them herself and Happy was hiding most of the time.

The three of them looked in shock as they saw how the temple started to magically turn back to its original form.

"Lucy, we need to hurry. We don´t have much time, can you bring us to the room is where Deliora is?"

"H-Hold on, why do you want to go there?"

"There is no time to explain!"

"O-Ok follow me."

Inside the ruins everyone could guess what happened, the ruins were back to normal, meaning that the ritual for Moon Drip could begin without any problems.

A large hole appeared in the wall of ice and Zarti walked through it.

"I am sorry to disturb you, my lord. But the sun is about to set, so I decided to repair the ruins."

"Good. I will not need much time to finish here. Finish the preparations for the ritual in the meantime."

"As you wish."

Zeldaris and Aversia changed their focus toward Zarti, in their minds he was far more dangerous than Leo.

Even though Zarti was hiding his magical power well, both half dragons could still feel it and it was on another level.

Leon was powerful, but only a bit stronger than Gray.

Another thing that made them vary was the fact that his body smelled like a woman.

"Are you kidding me?! I destroyed half the god damn temple and you just repaired it like that?"

"Hohoho. It was not as easy as you make it sound like. The damage that you made took a lot to repair."

"That just makes it even more impressive. Is there any chance that we could hire you? Because with magic like that, we could repair the damages that Natsu causes with no problem what soever."

"Sorry, but I have to decline, bye." said Zarti as he run away.

"Come back here you bastard!" yelled Natsu as he run after Zarti, to everyone´s surprise.

Maybe it was the fact that his plan was dealt with in such a simple manner or that the destruction he caused was repaired with ease, no one knew.

"Gray! Don´t you dare disgrace the name; you hear me!" yelled Natsu.

"Yeah, I hear you. I won´t disgrace the name of our guild."

"YOU ARE ONE TO TALK!" retorted Zeldaris.

"We will take our leave as well and leave you two alone." Said Aversia as she punched the ground, creating a big hole.

"Go, I got this."

Both Zeldaris and Aversia jumped through the hole leaving Gray alone with Leon.

Zeldaris and Aversia soon reached the underground cave in which the frozen demon was.

Deliora was gigantic, dark blue, humanoid demon.

Spikes were coming out of its chest, back and head, its feet were similar to those of birds and its hands were giant claws.

Even in this frozen state it was screaming brutality and destruction.

As for the ice, there was only a thin layer on it left.

The two of them picked an area that looked comfortable and started to play cards while waiting for the other.

It didn´t take long for Zarti and Natsu to arrive at the place, both of them were surprised as they found the two half dragons playing cards.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" yelled Natsu as he saw it.

"You take care of that guy first, before you berate us. On that note look behind you" said Aversia without even looking up from her cards.

Zarti on the other hand didn´t know why those two didn´t move, but that meant that he could concentrate on Salamander and after finishing him take care of Titania.

And shortly after their fight begun, the light of the moon started to shine upon the frozen demon, Moon Drip was activated.

Compared to the last time that Natsu had seen it, it was smaller and weaker.

Turned put that only one person was doing the ritual, but that was already enough too free Deliora from its prison.

The ice started to melt and for a moment a thin shine of magical power appeared on the ice, shocking Zeldaris and Aversia to their core.

Because they recognized this magical power, there was no mistake in it.

(Lady Irene!) thought both of them at the same time.

Both of them could not understand why Irene´s magic power was on that ice, hidden.

No matter how long they thought about it, they were not able to figure it out.

Zarti and Natsu had stopped their fight for a moment and were looking at the two half dragons, confused about their reaction, before continuing their fight.

Around this time Erza, Lucy and happy arrived as well and all three of them were confused at the situation, however this turned into shock as they saw the melting ice.

The arms of the demon were already free, and the head was also almost free.

The head of the demon started to move and destroyed the remaining eyes that enclosed it´s head and as it was freed, the demon released its fury with a loud roar.

Zarti looked with joy at the demon, while Natsu was cursing, why the hell were Zeldaris and Aversia just standing around doing nothing.

But they continued their fight soon after and Natsu was finally able to defeat Zarti.

Erza was regretting her choices, it was already too late to try and stop the ritual, she should have gone to the top and stopped it.

Why? Why did she listen to Zeldaris and came here?

Zeldaris had told her, back when she held Leon´s followers back, that she should meet them down there.

However, there was no time for regret because the demon was finally freed from its prison and looked down at them.

Gray entered the room as well and stared with hate at the demon, he crossed his arms, trying to seal the demon again, but a hand grabbed his shoulder and stopped him.

"There is no need for you to sacrifice yourself, Gray." said Aversia.

"Let go of me, Aversia. If I don´t seal this demon back in ice than all of us are going to die."

"Y-You w-won´t be ab-able to dea-deal with it, o-only I c-can defeat it." Said a beaten and bloody Leon as he crawled into the room, his eyes focused on the giant demon filled with desire and insanity.

"Natsu, Gray, stay out of this and Leon, I want you to watch this carefully. Because the last three years that you and your followers spent here were for nothing, you wasted that time. Gray let me show you, why that sacrifice meaningless is." Zeldaris said as he walked toward the demon.

Erza and Natsu wanted to face the demon as well but were stopped by a wall of fire.

"Erza, trust me, ok? There was a reason why I told you to meet us down here. Now, let me show you what I mean and why all of this is a huge waste of time. Because all of you waisted your time for something that is already dead." Zeldaris said as he stood before the demon, who in turn was looking at him, the demon had only moved its head up till now.

Zeldaris flicked the demon with his finger, before turning around and walking to the others.

Everyone looked stupefied at Zeldaris, but everyone's jaw dropped to the floor when they saw that appeared and spread through the entire body.

Deliora managed to produce one last sound, before crumbling into pieces.

Somewhere at the northern coast of Fiore, a woman with scarlet red hair stood before a cliff.

She wore a thin, long, black coat that was hanging loosely around her body, the bottoms were open revealing the clothes beneath it.

A long, black dress that reached down to her ankles could be seen beneath the coat.

The upper part of her cleavage and part of her stomach was exposed, and two long slits at the legs.

Black stockings and black boots that fit with the rest.

On her head was a large witch had and a staff was in her left hand.

Her scarlet hair reached down to her hips, her face was framed by long braid to her right and a long strand to her left, both of them also reached down to her hips.

In her right hand she holds a piece of ice and was currently using her magic on that piece.

"Only a little bit more Ur and it is over." said Irene as she tried to stabilize the piece of Ur that she separated long ago.

Even though the piece was separated from the rest, it still had a connection with the rest, after all it was part of Ur.

This continued for a few minutes, before the piece of Ur was stabilized.

"Phew. With that the worst part is behind us, now it is only a matter of time. So please wait only for a little bit more, Ur. But to think that at all of the people that you hold dear would be present, it sure is a wonderful coincidence. And the faces that Zeldaris and Aversia made when they noticed my magic power really was priceless."

Irene giggled as she remembered shocked faces of Zeldaris and Aversia.

"To be fair, not even in a million years would they guessed that your magic power would be there." said Belserion, who stood behind Irene.

"I know, but it is still funny." Irene said while smiling.

"Only a bit more time and we will reunite. Only a bit more patience and then I will finally stand before you, my child."