348. Tartaros
Sometime after Mira & Erza lost consciousness, some Fairies come to Crawford's house. They have gotten bad information from Jarvis after the home AI detected that Mira was in danger. Natsu, Wendy, Happy, Carla, & Bella come to the house.
Wendy leaves the kids to Makarov & the other guild members who stay in Ben's house. They are connected to the ones who went to Crawford's house through Bella. She is carrying a small lacrima ball that acts as a communication lacrima that keeps connected to Jarvis like a CCTV, so everyone can watch what happens.
The group finds Crawford's house has a big hole which was caused by Mira's attack. They enter through it and can't find anyone there. It makes them realize that Crawford might be working for Tartaros and he was the one who leaked the information of those who become the keys for 'Face'.
In a fit of rage, Natsu destroys the house and immediately goes to find Erza & Mira. He tracks their smell using his sensitive Dragon Slayer's nose. Wendy also helps and they follow the smell while informing their guildmates.
"Jarvis, keep tracking us and tell Big Brother Ben about this," says Wendy while Carla carries her to fly.
{Understood.}
While the group is tracking Mira & Erza, Makarov tries to contact the other Guild members who were sent to protect the Council members. Saving Erza & Mira is more important right now, after all. Those old bastards are less important than their family members.
Natsu's group find where Mira & Erza were taken to. They find a huge floating cube at the end of their tracking. Then without any hesitation, they break into the cube through the spot where they can find the smell of Mira & Erza.
"WHERE ARE MIRA & ERZA?" shouts Natsu, alerting those inside.
The ones inside are Etherious Demons as this is Tartaros's base. Some underling Etherious Demons approach the group, but they get beaten up easily by Natsu & Wendy. The Mages' presence surprises Tartaros's higher-ups because they never thought their base would be found this fast.
Natsu then sees Crawford who stands beside an Etherious Demon that looks as if it wears yellow armor. The angry Natsu then attacks Crawford and questions where both Mira & Erza are. Crawford is knocked out though, so the only one who can talk is the demon now.
"If you are searching for those girls, then you must be from Fairy Tail. I'm very impressed that you can find this place so soon. Ah, I'm Franmalth by the way, and I won't tell you where they are," says Franmalth playfully.
Natsu then angrily says, "You don't know who you're messing up with. Hurry up and tell me where they are before you got your ass beaten up."
"Hohoho, you? Beating me? That's funny. A Magic-user like you won't be able to do anything to us who use Curse, the power that stands above Magic," says Franmalth.
"I never said that I will be the only one who beat you up. Although I will do it too, but at the very least, you will be glad if I am the one who does it. If that guy comes, then you'll regret every decision you made today," says Natsu seriously.
"Oho? It makes me want to meet that person instead," says Franmalth, not taking this seriously.
"That's up to you," says Natsu before he dashes and punches Franmalth's stomach.
Franmalth then sheds his armor and now looks like a big round bacteria with spikes on his back. Both of them then start to fight while Wendy is trying to get information from Crawford by waking him up. The old guy is very stubborn though, so she doesn't get anything.
Wendy then decides to move while Natsu is fighting and he agrees. So she moves with the Exceeds, leaving Natsu who fights Franmalth. Wendy is trying to find Mira's & Erza's smells, but they've mixed up with other smells, making it very difficult for her.
Back with Natsu, he is having a rather hard time with Franmalth. The Etherious Demon is using an ability that lets him absorb Natsu's magic power upon contact. He can even absorb magic spells, which makes him a tricky opponent.
But sometime later, their fight needs to stop when someone comes. It's a black-haired man wearing body armor. If Ben & Mira are here, they will recognize this man. He is Silver, the Ice Devil Slayer they met on Sun Village who ironically is a member of Tartaros.
Silver tells Franmalth to take care of the injured Crawford. Franmalth who seems frightened of Silver complies and leaves with Crawford. Then Silver looks at Natsu who looks at him with a rather strange gaze.
"You, you smell like Gray," says Natsu blatantly.
Silver seems disgusted and says, "Don't mention that name in front of me."
Then without any notice, Silver uses his Ice Devil Slayer Magic to freeze Natsu. A hard layer of pinkish Ice is covering Natsu's body. He gets frozen and can't move now because his body is well-frozen.
When Natsu wakes up, he is already in a prison cell. The ice on his body has melted, so he can move again and tries to break free from the cell. But then a girl's voice tells him to calm down and he knows this voice, it's Lisanna.
She has been captured by the Etherious Demons too and has been put here. Both of them then talk to exchange information and Natsu finds out that Elfman has disappeared. The Etherious Demons must've done something to him too.
"What about Big Brother Ben?" asks Lisanna.
"Wendy has informed me what happened to Jarvis. So Ben must've known it too. He must be on his way already," says Natsu.
"That's good to hear. But can he move already? He is in a secluded training and hasn't gone out for 22 days, right? I don't know what kind of training he does right now, but it must be more tiring than usual. Even his usual training was very hard already that no one else can finish it. So this training must be a lot harder and he must be very tired. He might not be able to fight now," says Lisanna worriedly.
"Don't worry, if there's someone who can do the impossible, then it's him. If he can't do it, then no one else can. He will come. Even on the brink of death, he will come to save Mira. That's how much he loves her," says Natsu very seriously.
Lisanna is speechless hearing Natsu talks about love, so she says, "You sure know about someone else's love so deeply while being ignorant yourself."
"What are you talking about?" asks Natsu confusedly, making Lisanna sigh deeply.
On another place, Wendy & the Exceeds are still tracking the trace. They've lost it, so they are now trying to find it again. But the smell of the Demons here has covered up all the smells that Erza & Mira left.
The group meets several Etherious Demons on their way. But they defeat those things without a lot of effort, except for Happy who struggles a bit. They've been trained well by Ben since they were young, so their battle power is high, even Bella & Carla.
Then when they walk in a dark corridor, they meet another Etherious Demon. But this one looks stronger than the previous ones they met and emits far more magic power too. This Etherious Demon is big, has 4 arms, greenish skin, and he has spikes on his head & shoulders.
"Oh? Are you lost, little girls?" asks the Demon while smirking.
"Girls? I AM A BOY, YOU KNOW?" shouts Happy angrily.
"Really? But you look weaker than these little girls," says the Demon while smirking.
Happy gets depressed at that statement because it's a fact. He is the weakest here and can't help much in battles. But Wendy doesn't think about that right now because there's something more important.
"Where are Big Sister Mira and Erza-san?" asks Wendy while looking at the Demon firmly.
"You don't look scared at all, I'm very impressed by that. Then what if I tell you where they are after you defeat me?" asks the Demon.
"As you wish," says Wendy without any hesitation before she jumps toward the Demon.
The Demon gets surprised that she attacks immediately. So he gets ready to fight her and gets into a stance. However, before Wendy's attack arrives, they all feel heavy pressure on their bodies.
It's not just them, but every creature in the cube feels the heavy pressure. Then they all fall into the floor because of the pressure and no one can resist it. Everyone then feels a strong crash below them.
The giant cube has crashed onto the ground below it and it really surprises the Etherious Demons. This cube is their base and they all know how strong this thing is. But it actually crashed onto the ground because of outside pressure, which is unbelievable for them.
Wendy looks at the confused Demon as they lay on the floor and smiles, "It's all done now."
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