The Moon Drip...

Chapter 15 - The Moon Drip...

Galuna Island: Outside the Village, The Next Morning…

"Alright, let's go you guys!" Lucy said energetically, a determined expression marking her features.

The group of Fairy Tail members had gathered outside the gates of the village rather early in the morning, hoping to get a head start on their quest to lift the curse in a manner that didn't involve destroying the moon.

Currently, however, only Lucy and Ichigo were awake and ready to go, the substitute currently residing in his soul form since it didn't make any logistical sense to carry his body around in such conditions. Natsu, Gray, and Happy, had extremely tired looks about them and that was excluding the heavy look in their eyes, as if they were struggling to keep them open.

"Why are you so loud? It's too early to say things like that…" Natsu groaned.

"Well you two kept me up with your snoring last night and I'm not complaining! Now let's move!" Lucy exclaimed.

"How is it that you three are struggling to stay awake right now?" Ichigo questioned, looking towards the two teens and accompanying cat for an answer.

"I'm just usually never up this early." Gray answered, yawning as he finished.

"Ditto." Natsu and Happy said in unison, sounding rather tired in their reply.

Ichigo just shrugged before turning to face the blonde-haired celestial mage, at which point he took not that she wasn't as she had previously been. Currently, Lucy sat within the spirit of the clock constellation Horologium, which caused the substitute to release a tired sigh.

"That guy again?" Ichigo asked rhetorically.

"It's too humid outside and my hair would be ruined, she states defensively." Horologium replied.

"Whatever… anyway, let's go you three, our only real option is to walk around and hope for the best at this point. I've got a feeling we'll eventually stumble onto something." Ichigo said.

"You really think we'll be able to find something else to break the curse?" Gray inquired curiously as the group began to walk.

"I have absolutely no idea, but that shouldn't stop us from trying to find something." Ichigo replied.

"Yeah, I mean we can't just blow up the moon, that'd be crazy." Gray stated.

"You're just realizing that now, she asks tiredly." Horologium said.

"It is true though. I mean if we didn't have the moon then all kinds of stuff would go crazy!" Natsu exclaimed.

"This from the person who asked how many punches it would take?" Ichigo thought aloud.

"But we still have no idea what we're up against and if I'm being honest I'm… I'm scared." Lucy stated nervously from within the clock spirit, who relayed her words a second later.

"Are you kiddin'? This is awesome! S-Class quests rule!" Natsu exclaimed excitedly.

"Yeah, I could probably freeze that stupid curse." Gray commented cockily.

"You might wanna unfreeze your brain first, Gray. Also, you might want to be a bit more on guard, Natsu. This island isn't a joke, and I remember the village chief saying the animals were affected as well, which means that we can't assume this mission will be a cakewalk." Ichigo stated.

"Aye." Happy commented quietly.

"Relax Ichigo, what's the worst that could happen?" Natsu asked rhetorically.

As it often always did whenever someone raised that particular question, something bad happened. Off from inside a nearby collection of trees, a large creature began to stir, shaking the nearby ground in its wake. None of them could see it at the moment, but even so it was presumably massive.

"What's that?" Gray asked, looking off at the direction the sounds were coming from.

A massive creature soon reared its ugly face out from atop the trees, giving off the appearance of a giant rat clothed, oddly enough, in bits of a maid's uniform. It had a glint in its eyes, and gave off a clear intent of devouring or at the very least killing the prey it currently saw.

"Why'd you open your big mouth, she asks angrily." Horologium said.

"Whoa, that's things huge!" Gray exclaimed.

"Don't just stand there, beat it up you guys, she shouts urgently." Horologium stated.

"I got this…" Gray said, bringing back both of his hands and taking on the stance he traditionally did before casting his particular brand of magic.

The giant rat took in a deep breath of air, giving off the impression it was about to perform some kind of attack. Seeing this, Gray opted to air on the side of caution in favor of protecting the group.

"Ice Make Shield." Gray uttered, pounding his two combined hands into the ground.

A large shield made of ice formed directly in front of him and the rest of his comrades. Sadly, the shield proved useless in defense of the rat's intended attack.

The large rodent released its breath a moment later, coating the entirety of the nearby area with a large amount of rancid-smelling gas that instantly caused everyone present to hack and cough uncontrollably due to its vile nature.

"Holy crap that's rank!" Natsu shouted, holding his nose so hard that it hurt. Even so, the smell still unfortunately reached his senses and caused him to roll helplessly on the ground. A strong sense of smell did have its drawbacks in these types of scenarios.

In the wake of the rancid smell, Horologium vanished, unable to take it anymore, which was subsequently followed by Lucy being exposed to the horrid odor as well. As was to be expected, she took it quite poorly just as the others.

An instant later, however, the rancid gas was cleared away by a very powerful gust of wind. Each of the Fairy Tail wizards was so relieved that they ignored the source of the gust, but momentarily after their collective recovery they turned to see Ichigo with his sword drawn and his form giving off the impression that he had just swung it.

"That's enough of that." Ichigo stated, the smell having bothered him a high degree as well.

"Thanks for that." Gray said honestly, clearing his throat a moment later so as to rid his senses of any residual effects of the gas.

"It's gonna do it again! Someone stop it!" Natsu begged, having practically been knocked out the first time the rodent had released the toxic odor.

"Like hell I'm putting up with that smell again." Ichigo said in an annoyed tone before deciding to take action.

The orange-haired teen used flash step to appear directly on the rat's midsection, after which he sent his left fist flying directly into its gut. The effect was exactly what one would have expected, and that was the overgrown vermin flying very quickly across the nearby section of trees.

A large portion of the nearby woods was torn down since it was just so massive, but the creature appeared to be knocked out, and the odor hadn't reared its ugly head again so all in all it was completely necessary.

"Stupid rat." Ichigo scoffed as he floated back down towards the ground.

"Nice job." Natsu commented with a happy, if not relieved, grin.

"Thanks, but we should probably get moving. I didn't kill it and something tells me we don't want to be near that thing when it wakes up." Ichigo stated.

"Hey you guys, look over there." Lucy said urgently, pointing in the direction of the recently cleared trees.

Each member of the group turned to see a large stone temple with the insignia of a half-moon placed atop its entrance. It actually appeared that the large creature had been guarding it, or at the very least roaming around it, which was all the more reason to investigate.

"That looks like some kind of temple." Natsu stated.

"Aye." Happy said in agreement.

"Look at that symbol. You think that maybe it has something to do with the purple moon?" Gray questioned.

"Don't know, but we're going to find out. Come on, let's go check it out." Ichigo said, after which he and the others walked towards the temple.

Inside the Temple…

"Whoa, this place is massive!" Lucy said in an impressed tone.

The inside of the temple was in complete tatters, the stones and columns being all but completely destroyed. However, that didn't change the fact that it was very large in scale. Whoever constructed it definitely built it to last for a very long time, which turned out to be the case if its aged appearance was anything to go by.

"Yeah, but its fallin' apart." Natsu commented.

"I wonder how old it is." Gray thought aloud.

"The village leader did say that since ancient times the moon's energy was collected. Maybe this temple has something to do with it. Still, it looks abandoned so I doubt we'll find anyone who can explain what this place is." Ichigo stated.

"Well, all the symbols of the moon on these walls definitely back up that line of thinking. We should probably look around and see what we can find." Lucy reasoned.

"I don't know if it's all that safe. I mean, this floor doesn't even look like it's safe to walk on." Natsu said.

The dragon slayer began to tap the stone floor of the temple a little bit too roughly with his foot. Ichigo, noticing this, made to say something, but it was sadly too late.

A moment later the floor collapsed entirely, causing each of the group members to enter a state of free fall down a long section of cave towards a very hard rocky surface.

"Natsu, you idiot!" Gray shouted as they continued to fall.

"Hang on you guys, grab ahold of me!" Ichigo said quickly and decisively.

Knowing the Substitute Soul Reaper's ability to transport people a great distance in little time, Natsu, Lucy, Gray, and even Happy grabbed on to one of his limbs. When this was done, it took but one single flash step for Ichigo to transport the group directly over a less jagged portion of the cave's floor.

They still hit the ground in a less than graceful manner given their position prior to the use of flash step, but they were less likely to be injured this way than if they were left to fall into the rubble of the floor Natsu had recently destroyed.

"Is everyone okay?" Ichigo asked, looking as his comrades picked themselves up.

"We would be even better if Natsu hadn't blown out the floor." Lucy stated, glaring at the dragon slayer as she spoke.

"You should think before you speak ya flame-brained moron!" Gray exclaimed.

"It worked out okay, didn't it?" Natsu countered.

"Except for the fact that we're underneath the temple." Lucy said in an annoyed tone.

"Aye." Happy said, looking up at the large hole they had fallen through.

The substitute, however, knew very well he could get everyone back up to the temple if he took them one at a time through his ability to 'fly'. All he needed to do was inform them and the problem was solved. Once that was done, perhaps they could continue with their investigation, provided a certain pink-haired wizard decided not to break the floor beneath their feet anymore.

"I don't know… I think I could…" Ichigo began, only to be cut off.

"This is great, a secret cavern is so cool!" Natsu said excitedly, after which he ran off into a nearby passageway.

"Can you go two minutes without running off like a crazy person?!" Gray shouted.

"Get back here Natsu!" Ichigo exclaimed, after which he and the others ran after the overjoyed dragon slayer.

Down the Passageway

"Natsu, I said wait dammit!" Ichigo shouted.

For someone who couldn't handle transportation so well, Natsu was exceptionally fast. It struck him as ironic, but maybe it was just a bit of a balancing mechanism by whomever it was that gave people their personal abilities.

"Whoa…" Natsu said in an awestruck tone.

Ichigo and the others heard the dragon slayers voice and an instant later they turned the coming corner and saw that he had stopped dead in his tracks and currently stood in place staring directly at his front.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked as they slowly walked up.

"Is something wrong?" Gray questioned in a voice of slight concern.

"Hey guys… what's that?" Natsu inquired, his vision still not shifting from whatever it was that he was looking at.

Everyone then walked out onto into the large section of the cave and instantly saw what the pink-haired teen had been staring at. Before their very eyes was a massive demonic-looking creature encased in a large shield of ice.

'What the hell is that thing doing here? I think it's some kind of demon, but if that's the case then does it have something to do with the curse?' Ichigo wondered.

Moreover, the vibe that he sensed coming off of it was something he never expected to feel, and it wasn't because it was different, rather it was because he had felt this very kind of energy, or very close to it, coming off of spirits in his world. Whether that was because of the creature within or because of something else entirely, he didn't know, but in any case he could safely assume that something about this demon being present on the island was off.

"That's impossible…" Gray trailed off in a shaken voice.

Most all of those present were shocked at the sight of the encased monster, but Gray looked visibly disturbed more so than anyone else. His pupils were shaking, slight amounts of sweat dripped from his brow, and his skin paled. However, the only one who seemed to pick up on this was Ichigo as he happened to be the first to recover from seeing the massive demon.

He'd definitely seen far more frightening things in his day, which at this point allowed him to build up a bit of immunity for the sight of beings like this. This demon, while terrifying in its own right, had nothing on the some of the monstrosities he had faced.

"It's Deliora… but that's impossible!" Gray stated in a shocked tone as he began to walk towards the ice that imprisoned the beast.

'He knows what this thing is?' Ichigo thought. He assumed that the raven-haired wizard had known something about it, but the way he spoke coupled with his reaction now gave him the impression that he had experienced this terrible creature firsthand.

"How… how could this happen? Why is it here? What the hell is it doing on Galuna Island?!" Gray asked frantically, his feared disposition not changing as he spoke.

"You've seen this thing before?" Natsu asked confusedly.

"It just can't be… it just…" Gray began.

The ice make user was silenced upon a hand courtesy of Lucy being placed on his shoulder. It was very obvious to everyone, including himself, that Gray was in no condition to think rationally.

"Gray, please calm down." Lucy said in a low comforting tone, prompting the raven-haired teen to take several deep breaths of air to calm himself.

"This thing… its Deliora, the demon of destruction." Gray began.

"Demon of construction?" Natsu uttered, earning a slap on the back of the head from his orange-haired friend.

"Destruction." Happy corrected.

"But why is it here?" Ichigo wondered aloud.

Before anyone could say another word on the subject, several footsteps could be heard from down a nearby passageway. Hearing this instantly caused the Fairy Tail wizards to hide behind a nearby rock formation, deciding to air on the side of caution given that they didn't know what could be coming their way.

Two men came out of the cavern a moment later, each having a very distinct appearance. One was a short, slim young man with blue hair and black square eyebrows. He wore what appeared to be a green robe-like garment overtop a pair black pants.

The short man was accompanied by a rather tall somewhat-muscular individual with shoulder-length, straight brown hair who appeared to be a man himself, though of what species was difficult to tell. He had a pair of canine ears sitting on his head, a small, dark nose, and a lower face that was of a different color than the rest of his body. The only article of clothing the canine-like man seemed to wear was a pair of blue jeans and an accompanying belt.

"The voices seemed to come down from here… I hate being awake during the day." The shorter man stated.

"So, Toby, were you exposed to the Moon Drip? You've got those pointy ears…" The man said jokingly, aggravating his companion.

"I already told you, they're a fashion statement you jerk! Why can't you ever be nice, Yuka?!" Toby shouted.

"Calm down, I was only joking." The now named Yuka replied calmly.

"Ya don't have to be so mean about it…" Toby said in a low voice.

"Those two said Moon Drip… could that be the name of the curse?" Lucy wondered aloud.

"He did say it in reference to those weird ears, so maybe it is." Ichigo reasoned.

Anything they would have said was cut short upon the arrival of another individual, though this time it was a woman who entered via the very same cavern. She was a pink-haired woman with pigtails, blue eyes, large breasts, and a curvaceous body. She chose to wear a short, pink dress, black leggings, and high-heeled sandals.

"Toby, Yuka, something terrible has happened…" The woman said in a saddened tone.

"What now Sherry?" Yuka asked in an annoyed tone while his other companion greeted the woman with a friendly wave.

"It's Angelica, she's been attacked and I'm sad." Sherry replied.

"You're moping around because someone attacked your stupid pet rat?!" Toby exclaimed.

"That thing was her pet?" Ichigo wondered aloud.

"What a weird chick…" Lucy commented.

"Look who's talking." Happy said.

"What'd you say?" Lucy asked in a low threatening tone, glaring heavily at the blue-haired cat.

"She's not a rat… she's a brave hunter prowling the jungle to protect us. She is… love…" Sherry stated.

"Nope, Lucy's right on this one. That girl is completely nuts." Ichigo said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, and judging by the scent I picked off 'em they're not from the island." Natsu stated.

"And they don't look like they have the demon curse." Happy commented.

"Intruders you say?" Yuka asked, breaking up the conversation that was happening unbeknownst to his current company.

"Yes, and it's almost time to collect moonlight again." Sherry replied.

'Collecting moonlight? That has to be what the Mood Drip is… but why the hell would they do that in the first place? Moreover, why are they not being affected by the curse?' Ichigo wondered.

"That makes me sad… this news would displease the Cold Emperor. We should get rid of them before he finds out. Yes… we must find them before the moon's first light." Sherry stated.

"Agreed." Yuka said, a sickening grin not coming onto his features.

The sound of a rock being tosses down a nearby cavern caught their attention, after which each ran towards the source of the sound, leaving the Fairy Tail wizards alone in the demon's resting place.

"Good job Happy." Lucy said as she and the others came out of their hiding place.

"Umhmm." Happy replied, giving a nod as confirmation he accepted the blonde's praise.

"I still say we should've grabbed them and beat some answer out of 'em." Natsu stated.

"Normally I'd agree, but that might not have worked. We also don't know what they're doing here and how it relates to this Deliora thing. But if my guess is correct then we'll know what they want when the moon finally comes out." Ichigo said.

"Still, I don't know what anyone would want with Deliora in the first place." Gray stated.

"You seem to know a lot about this thing. Mind telling us what you know?" Ichigo asked.

"Alright… Deliora was trapped around a decade ago after it rampaged across a series of villages…" Gray began.

The raven-haired teen explained that Deliora had been trapped in ice as well as how it had happened in the first place. Evidently, his master Ur had given up everything, even her life to seal it away for good. How this happened, he didn't say, but telling the story of the demon's encasement was had definitely angered the ice mage a great deal.

"She sacrificed everything to seal it away… I don't know if it has anything to do with the curse on this island, but I do know that it doesn't belong here. This Cold Emperor… I don't care who he is, but if he tries to tarnish my master's legacy, then I'll make him regret the day he was born!" Gray exclaimed, the makings of his ice magic forming in his right hand due to his rage.

"Calm down." Ichigo said firmly, placing a hand on the wizard's shoulder.

He, more than anyone, understood the desire to get revenge on something that took away the life of someone precious. For him it was Grand Fisher, for Gray it was obviously Deliora. While the ice magic user was not at all likely to be capable of defeating the demon itself, he could very easily prevent anyone from using it in any way.

"Yeah, don't worry. If it comes down to it then all we do is find this Cold Emperor guy and kick his ass." Natsu assured, a grin present on his face.

Cavern Beneath the Temple of the Moon, Some Time Later…

Since discovering the cavern and overhearing the conversation had by those that were deemed not to be the natives, the Fairy Tail members had opted to wait it out and see what exactly the Mood Drip was. Very clearly it had something to do with Deliora, and perhaps the curse, but one way or another this odd series of happenings was too odd to ignore.

The group had sat in practical silence for some time, no one saying a thing in the presence of such a colossal demon, though the demon itself was not the reason for the silence.

Most of the reason came from the emotional turmoil that currently afflicted a certain ice make user as a result of seeing the creature that had cost him so much in the past. That was perfectly understandable though, especially given that his master, the person he likely trusted more than anyone else, had given her life to trap in.

The teen's mood had been upset and saddened at best, at worst he was borderline depressed at the memory of his former master. If pained Ichigo a great deal to see someone he considered to be a friend like this. It was the exact same look of loss he had for a long time after losing his mother.

'His master, Ur… she must've been a hell of a person. Still, I know he doesn't want to talk about it right now. I've been in that position far too many times to not have a sense of what he's feeling.' Ichigo thought.

"I know I agreed to wait, but this is still too much…" Lucy sighed out.

Currently, Natsu slept directly in front of her in a very peaceful manner, though in all honestly she wished she were able to do so. At the moment, however, she was far too nervous.

"Aye." Happy commented.

"Oh I know!" Lucy stated in a moment of realization.

"Huh?" Happy uttered, seeing the blonde grab one of her gate keys.

"Open, Gate of the Harp Constellation, Lyra!" Lucy shouted.

From the world of the celestial spirits, the called being came forth. Lyra had the appearance of a young girl, having waist length strawberry-blonde hair and black eyes. She wore a pink bonnet on the top of her head, and a long blue dress with heart prints by her waist. The most noticeable thing about her, however, was the harp that was strapped across her back.

"Oh hey Lucy, I haven't seen you in forever!" Lyra chirped in a friendly manner.

"Hey Lrya." Lucy greeted, smiling at the sight of the female spirit.

"Say, how come you never call me anymore? It's not fair. I would love to help you out, but you ignore me, meanie." Lyra said, a smile on her face all the while.

"Meanie, huh? You're the one who told me you were only available three days a month." Lucy countered, surprising the spirit.

"Are you sure about that?" Lyra asked confusedly, scratching her head given that she was sure she hadn't said only three days.

"Um, Lucy… why did you call that spirit here?" Ichigo asked confusedly.

"Oh wow, your hair is really nice! I love the color! I try to get mine to be orange but I just can't get it to be that shade. What's your secret?" Lyra asked in a cheerful tone, though her series of compliments and questions greatly annoyed the orange-haired teen.

"It's my natural color, I don't have a secret. Also I will warn you not to say you don't believe that because then you'll just make me repeat myself and then I'll just get pissed off." Ichigo replied, trying to maintain a calm tone.

"Okay… well someone's grumpy. Anyway, are there any requests?" Lyra asked, a smile still etched onto her face.

"Nope, just play what you feel like." Lucy permitted.

"Can you sing one about fish?" Happy requested.

"Okay, I've got a song that I think will knock your socks off Lucy!" Lyra exclaimed in a cheerful voice.

"Lyra has the most beautiful singing voice." Lucy commented.

"Yeah, well Mira's a singer too and she sings songs about fish for me." Happy said in a tone of mild contempt.

"Mira's a singer?" Ichigo asked curiously.

"Yup, and she's really good too!" Happy replied.

The substitute was about to speak once again, but the harp of the spirit began to play and caused him to be silent for the moment. Once she began to sing, however, that was when he didn't want to speak simply so that he could hear the wonderful voice more clearly.

Ichigo wasn't necessarily a fan of music or singing in general, though he didn't particularly mind it. However, the voice of this spirit was really something else. In fact, he could feel her voice call out memories and images inside his head. Almost on instinct, he shut his eyes and allowed them to flow freely through his mind.

Rather cheerful images of his sisters, of his times with his friends, both human and Soul Reaper, all passed through at what seemed like all at once. It didn't depress him in the slightest, in fact on some level he wished it would never stop. In fact, it was much the same for the others as well, though each experienced something different in their own right.

However, off in the corner of the cave was someone who didn't quite experience any happy memories. Well, perhaps they were happy, but at this current moment in time they were sadder than anything else. As a result of this, he began to sob, tears openly falling from his eyes as a result of the spirit's music.

"Gray? What's wrong?" Lucy asked, prompting the spirit to stop her singing and accompanying harp-playing.

"I-it's nothing, I'm fine." Gray replied, a deep sense of sadness in his voice as he did so.

"You seem upset." Happy commented.

"Well one of Lyra's talents is to bring out what people are feeling." Lucy stated.

"Is that why you cried?" Happy asked.

"I wasn't crying." Gray stated.

They were about to continue the conversation, but they stopped when Ichigo stepped up and began to walk towards the saddened wizard. The substitute took a seat directly next to him a moment later, his eyes not looking towards his friend but rather being directed towards the caged demon before them.

"Gray, what you're going through… I understand the pain you feel of losing a loved one. But for what it's worth, your master would be proud of who you became. You're a Fairy Tail wizard who looks out for his fellow guild members, for his family. More importantly though, your strong enough to take down this Cold Emperor guy and stop him from doing whatever the hell he intends to do with Deliora." Ichigo stated, drawing a surprised look from the black-haired ice mage.

"I… I don't know what to say. Thanks, Ichigo… I know you're right… but it's still hard remembering what happened." Gray replied.

"It always will be, Gray, it always will be. Still, her dying isn't something you can't change… no matter how hard you try, no matter how strong you get, you can never change the past. Trust me when I say I know the feeling." Ichigo said before getting up.

The orange-haired teen walked off a moment later, deciding to lean against a nearby rock formation given that the moon should have been up anytime now. He, however, drew the surprised glance of each of his friends present. Each of them took note of what he had just said, but only two of them knew what he could have been alluding to.

'Was he… was he talking about his mother?' Natsu wondered, having woken up as a result of the substitute's words. He had been awake for some time, but resting your eyes never hurt anyone.

"Ichigo, what…" Happy began, only to be cut off by the appearance of an unforeseen energy.

A magical seal appeared on the ceiling of the cavern, appearing directly on top of the large demon's ice prison. Little bits of purple energy surrounded by an eerie purple light began to descend, making contact with the ice in a continuous beam.

"It's shining on Deliora." Gray observed.

"That can't be a coincidence." Ichigo stated.

"Then we should find out where it's comin' from." Natsu reasoned.

Everyone nodded in agreement, after which they ran off to see exactly where the source of the purple light was located. Presumably it was at the apex of the temple, and that's just where they intended to go.

Top of the Temple of the Moon, Some Time Later…

A circle of individuals wearing the exact same purple robes began to mutter an incantation beneath a large half-moon stone sculpture that surrounded the hole above Deliora's resting place. They gave off the appearance of a dark cult, plain and simple.

"What're they doing?" Natsu asked quietly as the group hid behind a nearby pile stone wall.

"I'm not sure, but I think they're casting some kind of spell to capture the moonlight." Ichigo stated.

"But then why are they shining it on Deliora?" Lucy questioned.

"It's an ancient spell called the Moon Drip." Lyra began, revealing herself to have traveled with the group of Fairy Tail members.

"What are you still doing here?" Lucy asked confusedly. Clearly she was under the impression the spirit had been dismissed.

"I think I see what they're trying to do…" Lyra continued in a serious voice.

"Okay, then go ahead and fill us in." Lucy requested, no longer caring whether she had or hadn't sent the celestial spirit back to her world.

"They're using that spell to melt the ice surrounding that demon underground so they can resurrect it." Lyra explained.

"I was worried about that…" Ichigo said, glaring at the assumed cultists who continued to cast their spell. In his mind there really wasn't any other reason to shine anything on the demon.

"What? That's impossible, the ice from an Iced Shell can't be melted." Gray said, using a volume of voice that was unwise given their proximity to a group of enemies. Still, they weren't discovered so it didn't quite matter.

"I hate to say it, but that's not entirely true. The ice from an Ice Shell can be melted by the Moon Drip. The energy from the moon can break any spell." Lyra stated.

"Those idiots!" Gray exclaimed.

"I also think that what the islanders think is a curse is a side effect of the Moon Drip. Concentrated moon energy from the spell can contaminate the body, and I'm afraid the islanders have been exposed to way too much of it." Lyra continued.

'How the hell does this spirit know so much?' Ichigo wondered. He supposed it didn't matter as long as it worked out for them in the long run, so he didn't really dwell on it.

"I'll make 'em pay." Natsu said, pounding his fists together.

Before the dragon slayer could take any significant action, Lucy opted to elbow him in the face, effectively causing him to fall backwards and land directly on the ground with a small thud.

"Shush, someone's coming." Lucy stated.

Surely enough, an oddly dressed man did appear, being accompanied by an entourage of individuals that the observing party knew to be Sherry, Yuka, and Toby. The man that they currently followed was a fairy tall individual whose complete appearance was masked. He wore a silver horned helmet with a long red-colored fake ponytail extending from its rear. His legs were covered with armor up to his knees, and he chose to sport a white overcoat with tuffs of purple fur covering the area around his neck and shoulders.

"What a waste, I lost so much precious sleep for nothing. We searched all day for the intruders and didn't find anything." Yuka said in a bit of a melancholic tone.

"Maybe there wasn't any!" Toby countered, sounding angry for some reason.

"I'm afraid I have some sad news Cold Emperor. We thought we had intruders earlier today, but they seemed to have gotten away. I cannot speak of love in this situation." Sherry informed, using a sad tone of voice as she spoke.

"Intruders?" The masked man questioned dispassionately.

His voice was very calm if anything, but the simple sound of it caused a look of realization to dawn on Gray's face. However this time it was noticed by everyone save for Natsu, who could do nothing but glare at the form of the esteemed culprit behind the Moon Drip.

"So that's the Cold Emperor huh?" Natsu sneered.

"Has Deliora been awakened?" The Cold Emperor asked.

"It should be later tonight or tomorrow." Sherry answered.

"Then it doesn't look like we've got much time…" Ichigo whispered from off to the side, knowing full well that they'd need to take action.

"The time has almost come… if you see those intruders again, kill them. I don't want anyone getting in my way." The Cold Emperor ordered.

"They must've been villagers. No one else would be on this island." Sherry reasoned.

"Then destroy the village." He ordered in an annoyed tone, obviously having no time for such petty obstacles.

"Yes sir." The three answered immediately.

Ichigo glared heavily at the form of the masked man after hearing such callous words. If he really cared so much about resurrecting the demon, then he was completely out of control. It was either that or he truly didn't care what had to happen in order for the demon to be resurrected. Still, they currently had the advantage of not being seen, which gave them the upper hand.

"I've had enough of this sneaking around!" Natsu shouted, stepping atop the stone wall he and the others had previously hid behind.

'So much for that…' Ichigo thought, releasing a tired sigh. It wasn't like he needed the element of surprise, however.

"Well, guess there's no turning back now…" Lucy stated, noticing that the dragon slayer had garnered the attention of the proclaimed emperor and his lackeys.

"I wanna help too! You want me to sing?" Lyra offered.

"No, I want you to go back." Lucy replied tiredly.

"Aww, you're no fun." Lyra said, after which she vanished in a puff of smoke in a manner that was traditional of returning celestial spirits.

"Natsu, I really need to teach you about how not to do stupid things every two minutes." Ichigo chided, after which he too got up from behind the barrier and stepped forward to directly face their soon-to-be opponents.

"I recognize that guild mark… they're from Fairy Tail." Sherry observed.

"I see, so the villagers must've gone to the magical guilds for help." Yuka mused.

"Don't worry about them. Go eradicate the village." The Cold Emperor ordered.

"How can you order something like that?!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Anyone who stands in my way is my enemy." He replied callously.

"What kind of answer is that?!" Natsu shouted, after which he charged the masked man.

Gray, however, beat him to the punch and currently had a bit of a head start. With his hands giving off the aura of energy they did before he cast a spell, the ice make user began to shout out of anger.

"Stop this crazy ceremony right now!" Gray shouted, after which he slammed his hands against the roof of the temple.

A large amount of ice shards sprouted forth from the ground, charging forward and forcing both the Cold Emperor and his three subordinates to leap backwards lest they be skewered.

The masked man, however, leaped backwards and began to cast a spell in order to counteract that of the raven-haired teen. With a single hand, he cast the exact same spell, which met with that of Gray's a moment later, successfully canceling the two out.

"So he uses ice magic. Guess his name isn't just for show." Ichigo mused.

"Lyon!" Gray growled out, surprising everyone else present.

"Wait, you know him?" Ichigo asked confusedly.

"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" Gray questioned angrily, simultaneously ignoring the substitute's question.

"Oh Gray, it's been quite a while hasn't it." The now names Lyon thought aloud.

"Why would you of all people revive Deliora?" Gray asked.

"I wonder if you came here knowing we would meet or if this is just pure coincidence." Lyon thought aloud, ignoring his former friend's question.

"An acquaintance of yours, Cold Emperor?" Yuka guessed.

"Do as you were ordered. I can handle these intruders on my own." Lyon said sternly.

"Yes sir." They replied before vanishing in an instant.

"What, get back here!" Natsu demanded, after which he charged the Cold Emperor without delay.

"Wait Natsu, don't go near him!" Gray shouted urgently.

It was sadly too late as the dragon slayer had already fallen into the ice wizard's trap. Lyon merely extended one hand towards his opponent, shortly after which a large amount of ice surrounded his midsection and most of his lower and upper body. His head, half of his arms and feet, however, were left completely uncovered.

"Happy, get Lucy out of here." Gray ordered.

"Aye." Happy replied, after which he grabbed the blonde's backpack and flew towards the village.

"What the hell, I can't move!" Natsu exclaimed angrily.

"So… you're the guy who's trying to resurrect Deliora." Ichigo mused.

"Yes… but I don't have time to mess around with the likes of you." Lyon replied icily, after which he extended his right hand and prepared to cast a spell.

"Ice make…" Lyon began.

Before he could even do so, the orange-haired teen appeared directly in front of him and opted to slash his zanpakuto directly across the man's body. His blade did indeed make contact, but as opposed to piercing armor as he had initially expected, all it succeeded in doing was destroying an ice duplicate that had obviously been magically engineered moments prior.

"Ice Make Eagle!" Lyon exclaimed, sending a flurry of the magic-enforced aviaries at his opponent.

Ichigo vanished in the blur of flash step appearing behind the Cold Emperor before sending a kick directly at his back. Lyon, naturally, was greatly surprised by this and subsequently shot into the side of a nearby boulder, releasing a pained grunt as he did so.

'Impossible… no one should be able to do that to me!' Lyon thought as he dislodged his body from the boulder.

"Sorry, but it's over…" Ichigo began, aiming his sword directly at the armored man across the temple's roof.

He was about to perform a finishing move, but before he could charge the clear enemy, a hand placed itself firmly on his forearm as if to stop him from doing so. When this occurred, Ichigo directed a confused look to the owner of the limb, at which point he came to find that Gray had been the one to stop him.

'Dammit… I… I know that look…' Ichigo thought.

When his eyes settled on Gray's facial expression, he wanted to release an annoyed groan, but he couldn't find himself to be annoyed given that he understood perfectly. The ice make user wasn't even staring at him, he was staring directly at the man who claimed to be the Cold Emperor.

"Please… let me handle this." Gray said in a low but extremely serious voice.

The eyes he sported were those that were of a man who simply had something they needed to do, a battle they wished to fight for their own sake, and even if Ichigo was callous enough to push that aside as a person, he couldn't bring himself to do it as a warrior.

"Gray… can you handle this guy?" Ichigo asked, momentarily ignoring both his opponent and the struggles of his fire-friendly comrade.

"Yeah… leave Lyon to me." Gray said, a glare firmly fixed on the form of the Cold Emperor.

Ichigo knew very well what was going on. He may not have known the background information such as how exactly the two knew each other, but he could tell that their battle was one between rivals.

Perhaps this wasn't on the same level that required it to end in death, but still it was a battle that he had no place butting into. He would respect the right of a warrior to choose to fight on his own, even if it meant he was going to lose.

Still, at this point in time, he already knew that with Gray's mindset the outcome of the battle was already decided. Even so, defending the village came first, and he would rather get back there without any delay than stay here arguing with Gray over who would be the one to go back.

"Got it… I'll take Natsu back with me. Beat this guy, alright?" Ichigo said.

An instant later he grabbed the pink-haired teen's hand and used flash step to vanish, which incidental surprised the Cold Emperor given that he hadn't even sensed the man's presence leave.

"Your friend has an interesting ability… but even so, he will not be able to defend that village." Lyon stated matter-of-factly.

"Don't underestimate him, and don't underestimate me either, Lyon. I'm taking you down, cuz' there's no way in hell I'm letting you bring that monster back into this world!" Gray shouted.

Outskirts of the Village

"Whoa!" Natsu uttered, nearly losing his balance after having come out of Ichigo's flash step.

Oddly enough, he didn't even feel sick this time. He just assumed that the amount he had done it in the past day had allowed him to become immune to the effects of the speedy method of transportation.

"Hold still." Ichigo ordered.

The pink-haired teen didn't even have time to ask why this was asked before Ichigo punched the ice so hard that it shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. Natsu blinked several times out of confusion, after which it seemed to register that he was once gain able to move his limbs.

"Hell yeah! I'm free again!" Natsu cheered.

"Thank me later. Right now we need to get back to the village. Those three are trying to destroy it even as we speak, which means that we don't have a second to waste." Ichigo stated.

"Why didn't you take us to the village in the first place?" Natsu asked confusedly.

"Because I didn't want to go too far using flash step since you don't do well with high speed movements." Ichigo replied.

"Oh yeah… well, at this point I think I should be good. Just take the risk I guess." Natsu reasoned.

"Alright, then hold on." Ichigo stated.

The dragon slayer took the hand of the Substitute Soul Reaper, after which they were once again off. Hopefully by this point Lucy had been taken back to the village by Happy, which was likely given that they had the added benefit of a head start. Still, they wondered if the attack had started just yet.

The Village

"Okay… so at least the trap is set." Lucy thought aloud.

"This was really the best you've got?" One of the villagers asked.

"Well they'll need to come through the gate, right? So that means that this should work." Lucy replied, her logic being at least somewhat sound.

"Still, when the attackers come you will need to defeat the other two if what you've told us is true. Where are your comrades, by the way?" Moka asked.

"Um… I don't really know. They should be back soon though…" Lucy thought aloud.

As if on cue, Ichigo appeared with Natsu directly by his side a second later, taking position directly in front of the gate, orange hair and all. Lucy, in response, sighed out of pure relief. It was certainly a good thing that she wasn't fighting one against three.

"Hey wait, where's Gray?" Lucy asked.

"He…" Ichigo began, only to stop upon taking a single step forward.

Both he and Natsu took a fall down the pit that Lucy had prepared. However, only one of them hit the bottom. Shortly after he realized what was happening, Ichigo had opted to stop his fall by taking flight through the use of his own abilities. Unfortunately, he didn't have the foresight to also grab the dragon slayer's arm in an attempt to stop him from falling as well.

"Dammit… are you alight down there Natsu?" Ichigo asked.

"Why the hell is this even here?!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Um… Ichigo… are you flying?" Lucy asked confusedly, staring in awe at the levitating form of the orange-haired teen.

"What? Oh, yeah, technically not, but I may as well say I am. Anyway, why is this here?" Ichigo asked, nonchalantly answering the blonde's question.

"The princess had me create it in the hopes of capturing a wizard." Virgo answered.

"You got the wrong one!" Natsu shouted as he began to climb out of the pit.

"Yeah, but I did prove it works." Lucy countered.

"Indeed, princess." Virgo said in agreement, after which she vanished given that she was no longer needed.

"Stupid hole…" Natsu griped as he finally climbed out of the large pitfall.

"To answer your question, Gray wanted to stay behind to fight that Lyon guy. It was just something he needed to do and I wasn't going to stand in his way." Ichigo replied.

There was, however, the distinct fact of the matter that could lose, in which case Ichigo knew very well he'd have to be the one to fight the Cold Emperor and defeat him. Sadly, giving Gray a single chance to take him down was the best he could do given the circumstances.

"Tch, you shoulda just gotten me out of that ice thing and fought the guy with me. We'd kick his ass easy." Natsu stated.

"It wasn't our place, Natsu. Gray needs to fight him on his own first, and then if it comes down to it I'll take him down." Ichigo replied.

"What's that?" One of the villagers exclaimed worriedly, looking up to the sky and pointing fearfully at something.

A sizeable green blob fell from the sky onto a nearby hut, after which the hut itself began to disintegrate into nothing, giving off a small trail of smoke as it did so. Shortly thereafter everyone's attention was brought towards the large flying rat in the sky and the three wizards that sat atop its back. Said oversized rodent, however, was carrying a large bucket that was presumably filled with the green ooze.

"They're here!" Lucy stated.

"That bucket's probably full of acid. If all of it drops then the city's gonna get destroyed." Ichigo said.

"Yeah right, as if we'd let that happen." Natsu proclaimed with a determined expression on his face.

"I didn't realize that the double-poison jell would take so long to prepare." Sherry thought aloud.

"It actually looks like the timing was perfect. Those wizards just got back. That Gray person seems to be missing though." Yuka commented while his dog-like companion just barked lightly in agreement.

"We cannot rest until the demon Deliora is revived for the cold emperor… Angelica, if you would do the honors." Sherry said.

The large rat did as it was asked a moment later, swinging the bucket so as to spread the acidic liquid all over the entirety of the village. If it were to connect, the entire village and everyone it in would be completely destroyed.

"Natsu, aim for the right side, I'll hit the left, we need to disperse that thing now!" Ichigo shouted urgently.

"Right… everyone get to the center of the village right now! Happy, take me up!" Natsu shouted, flaring his magic energy in preparation for what was to come.

"Aye sir!" Happy chirped, after which he grabbed ahold of his most cherished friend and did as he was asked.

"Chief get to the center of the city right now!" Lucy said, noticing the elderly village person had yet to leave the stone that signified his son's grave.

"I'm not leaving Bobo's grave." Moka said defiantly as he hugged the tombstone.

Several village people then grabbed their cherished leader and carried him off despite his many and frequent protests. With all of the villagers at the center of the city, Natsu and Ichigo went to work.

"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Natsu shouted, smashing both of his hands together and sending a large ball of pure fire energy shooting towards the incoming mass of acidic jelly.

"Getsuga Tenshou!" Ichigo exclaimed, firing off a lighter version of his destructive technique so as to properly deflect the acid.

The fire created a large outward explosion upon connecting with the green substance on the right while Ichigo's trademark attack hit the left. A massive explosion sounded off due to the collusion, after which the jelly dispersed just as was intended.

Most of the village's outskirts and a good portion of the land around its center were completely destroyed, but more importantly the villagers themselves appeared to have been completely safe for the time being.

A slight side benefit of this was that the hut the Fairy Tail wizards had stayed in was located at the center of the village and was currently undestroyed, which was quite a relief for Ichigo given that his body was still located within it.

"That's just typical." Yuka commented.

"I must not have made the poisonous jelly with enough… love…" Sherry reasoned.

"Good job Natsu!" Ichigo shouted as the dragon slayer landed on the ground once more.

"Thanks, but this ain't over yet. I hope yer' ready for a fight Ichigo, cuz' it looks like we're gettin' one." Natsu stated, glaring up at the large rodent that still flew over the village, or what was left of it anyway.

A moment later the subordinates of the Cold Emperor landed on the opposite side of the village, after which they began to slowly walk towards the group that currently opposed them. The rat, however, still remained high in the sky, waiting for its master's orders before it chose to do anything else.

"Now this is a pain… we we're trying to make your deaths quick and painless. However, since the Cold Emperor has ordered us to destroy both the village and its people we really have no other choice." Sherry stated.

"Fifty villagers, three wizards, shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes." Yuka stated cockily.

"You might wanna count again…" A voice called out from atop a nearby hill.

Everyone turned to see Gray, looking worse for wear, stumbling back towards the village. How he managed to move given his current wounds was beyond anyone's understanding, but even so he was moving. It may have been a hefty bet to say that he could fight, but even so his presence was nevertheless appreciated.

'So I was right…' Ichigo thought with a small frown.

In the back of his mind he had a sneaking suspicion that simply became more along the lines of what he believed would happen. Said suspicion was that Gray would, in fact, be defeated by the Cold Emperor. Perhaps mindset had a good bit to do with what had transpired, but the end result wasn't something he could change.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked worriedly, noticing the somewhat severe injuries.

"I'll be fine… just let me fight." Gray stated defiantly.

"Yeah right." Natsu simply replied, after which he punched the raven-haired teen directly in his stomach.

Gray let out a quiet gasp, after which he fell to the ground, unable to move or fight for the time being. Miraculously he was still conscious, but currently he couldn't form a sentence due to his struggle to stay awake.

"Why'd you do that, he…" Lucy began.

"I'm not lettin' that moron fight in his condition. Even he should know he'd just wind up getting more injured than he already is." Natsu explained, cutting the blonde off.

Since Ichigo had said nothing on the issue Lucy just assumed that this was the right call. Besides, Natsu may have been an idiot, but when it came to fighting his mind was like a steel trap.

"That just makes it one less person to deal with. Now all we have to do is kill you before moving on to the villagers." Yuka stated uncaringly.

Though the words of the three had previously angered the Fairy Tail members a great degree, the repetitiveness with which they said them started to take their toll on a certain Substitute Soul Reaper.

A large wave of pressure began to surge around the area, its full force being directed at the Cold Emperor's subordinates. The air became thick and heavy, and they felt as if some force was pushing down on their body in an effort to slam them against the very ground of the earth.

"What is this?" Sherry exclaimed worriedly, sweat dripping from her brow as she spoke.

Each turned to look at a very angry looking teenager with a large sword strapped to his back. The air around him even seemed to be shaking in the wake of the massive force, and his eyes had a slight light-blue glow to them.

"You people… you think I'm going to let you get away with something like that?! I've had enough of your talk about killing everyone in this village just so that you can resurrect some monster for your own reasons! I don't care who you are or what you're trying to do, but I'm not letting you touch a single one of these people!" Ichigo shouted angrily.

He drew his zanpakuto a moment later, after which without a moment's hesitation he let loose a powerful swing in which he held absolutely nothing back. A large concentrated blast of wind roared across the battlefield and shot directly towards the three collective enemy wizards, cracking the ground as it relentlessly continued in its path.

The wind blast seemed to connect, though it moved around the bodies of the wizards for some reason as if a barrier of sorts had stopped it. When the small amounts of dust had settled, the blue-haired man could be seen with a surprised and worried look as he outstretched his hands.

His two comrades were much the same way, equally as shocked that such an attack had even been possible. It was clearly just brute strength, and yet it required one of Yuka's shields to be blocked. Moreover, the ground leading up to them was completely torn asunder. It was as if the earth itself bent towards the will of the man they had evidently angered.

'Who the hell is this guy? I've never felt power like this before… is it even magic energy?' Yuka wondered worriedly.

'He's pissed…' Natsu thought, smirking given that this was exactly the way he wanted it to be. He pictured S-Class as he and his teammates defeating any obstacle in his way, and he was starting to think that with the people he gathered, minus maybe Gray, he could easily do just that.

"You will not stand in our way… Angelica, take them down!" Sherry ordered.

The large rat turned around and prepared to perform a full frontal charge at the group of three wizards, though with how it was moving it didn't seem as if it would hit anything if they just moved out of the way slightly. Sherry herself jumped on the creature's back, mounting it as if it was meant for battle.

"We're not letting you get away with this!" Lucy exclaimed.

Unfortunately, the blonde did not mirror what Ichigo and Natsu had chosen to do. Each of them decided to merely step off to the side a small margin and dodge the incoming rodent. She, on the other hand, latched onto it and began to fly away, screaming the second after she realized this was the case.

"Why the hell did I decide to grab on?!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Yup, she's stupid." Happy commented.

"More like insane." Natsu corrected as he looked up worriedly at the flying vermin.

"Why the hell didn't she just move?" Ichigo wondered aloud.

Currently, they just watched as the blonde punched at the toenails of Angelica, hoping desperately that it would at least accomplish something. She seemed to switch to tickling a moment later, and that, to the surprise of absolutely everyone present, worked.

The creature stopped spinning its tail, shortly after which it began to plummet down towards the earth. This, naturally, was accompanied by the panicked screams of both Lucy and Sherry, who fell with the rodent off in the distance.

"That was the absolute dumbest thing I think I've ever seen… and that's saying something." Ichigo thought aloud, sweatdropping alongside his pink-haired friend.

"Ditto." Natsu commented.

"Aye." Happy said in agreement.

"Oh man, he's gonna be ticked…" Yuka thought aloud.

"I already told you that I don't have any ticks!" Toby shouted.

"I wasn't talking about you." Yuka clarified emotionlessly.

"Happy, you mind going to look for her? That rat might've crushed her and I want to make sure she's alright." Natsu said.

"Alright, I'll go check on her." Happy replied before summoning his wings and flying off.

"You ready to kick their asses, Ichigo?" Natsu asked, cracking his knuckles as he did so.

"Do you even need to ask?" Ichigo replied, smirking slightly.

Obviously wanting to make the first move, Natsu lunged towards the two enemy wizards and instantly punched the dog-like man in the gut, effectively sending him flying across the crater that resulted from the village's recent destruction.

Still, the dragon slayer was in no way done as he almost instantly turned to the blue-haired man and let loose a powerful fire dragon's roar in an attempt to gain an offensive edge. However, yet again the said wizard just extended his hand and summoned a defensive barrier directly in front of him, causing the flames to do little more than dissipate before his very eyes.

'Tch, figures.' Natsu thought out of annoyance as he regained his footing.

"A wizard who can breathe fire… I see. Don't tell me you're the Salamander from Fairy Tail I've heard so much about." Yuka stated, though he got no reaction out of the pink-haired teen.

"I'm good!" Toby exclaimed, quickly getting up and appearing to be in perfect health despite the fact that he was just recently punched across a crater.

"You know you shouldn't take us so lightly. We used to be members of a famous guild ourselves… so you shouldn't blow us off. In fact, Iron Rock Jura used to belong to the same guild, surely you've heard of the Lamia Scale." Yuka said contentedly.

In response, however, Natsu just shot two large waves of fire directly at each of the enemy wizards. Yuka just called forth another barrier and received no damage, though he was now severely annoyed, while Toby was much less fortunate and was charred a good degree by the attack.

"Hey cut it out! Listen to me when I'm talking to you." Yuka lightly demanded.

The dragon slayer wasn't the one to make a reply as the orange-haired teen wielding a large sword in his right hand seemed to appear out of this air directly next to his comrade.

"You really think we care who you are or what guild you used to be in? Please, we couldn't care less. All that matters is that you two destroyed most of this village and are currently trying to kill them off." Ichigo stated.

"Which makes you Fairy Tail's enemy, and that's more than enough reason for us to kick your ass." Natsu added.

"Hey, Toby, stay back. You don't need to get involved, I've got thi…" Yuka began.

Before the blue-haired man could even finish his sentence, a palm firmly gripped his face before he found himself being thrown across the battlefield and into a nearby hillside. His body crashed into the side of the crater so hard that dust and rocks flew everywhere around the point of impact, rendering his body invisible for the time being.

"Natsu, take care of the other guy. This one's mine." Ichigo stated, not bothering to look at his comrade as he spoke. Rather, he just chose to walk towards the hole his opponents landing had created.

"Right…" Natsu replied, directing his gaze back to the man who gave off the slight appearance of a dog.

"You think ya can beat me? I'll show you!" Toby shouted before charging the Fairy Tail wizard.

From within the body-shaped hole on the freshly created hillside, Yuka's eyes opened. What had just happened had rattled him slightly, and more for the reason that he didn't know how it was possible.

'I didn't even see him move… and on top of that, I couldn't sense him use any magical energy, which means that what I just saw was his basic speed. But that can't be right… how would that even be possible?' Yuka wondered as he exited the resulting hole of his recent collision.

"Are you just going to stand there and wonder how I just did that or are we gonna fight?" Ichigo taunted, resting Zangetsu across his shoulders in an uncaring manner.

"Heh, I wouldn't be so confident if I were you. My magical abilities render both your sword and any other magical attacks useless." Yuka stated.

In the next instant, the blue-haired wizard extended his right hand and sent forth a large wave of concentrated magical energy in the form of matter shooting across the battlefield directly at his opponent.

The attack ripped through the earth and appeared somewhat dangerous to most, but it was nowhere near fast enough. Ichigo carelessly leaped to the sides before the attack could connect, barely even finding the need to take his zanpakuto and make a ready stance once his feet hit the ground again.

"My magic allows me to diffuse the attacks of an enemy and it's designed specifically for combating other wizards. No matter how strong they might be, they are all equally susceptible to my abilities." Yuka said contentedly, clearly being rather proud of his own powers.

"Really? Well fire that last attack again and I guarantee I won't even have to move an inch." Ichigo stated.

Somewhat to the surprise of his opponent, Ichigo pointed the tip of his cleaver-like zanpakuto directly at the blue-haired man, though he made no effort to mount an assault. He just stared the man down and gave off the appearance that he intended to take the attack head on with just his sword.

"As you wish." Yuka replied, smirking heavily given that his opponent seemed, at least to him, to be underestimating the power of his attack.

The former Lamia Scale wizard extended his right hand once more, firing off another of his magic pulse attacks directly at his opponent just as was requested of him. At first he had thought it was bait so that the orange-haired teen could mount a counteroffensive, but as the attack continued to near he made no move to get out of its way.

'He isn't seriously intended to take my attack head on… is he?' Yuka wondered out of disbelief, though reality told a different story than what he had initially believed.

What happened next, however, shocked him even more so than when he had been initially thrown into the side of the crater. Before his very eyes the pulse of magic energy made contact with the tip of his opponent's sword, but mere seconds after the initial clashing of chosen weapons, his own attack shattered like glass. Despite what he had believed, it was unable to get past even the tip of the large cleaver.

"I-impossible…" Yuka uttered.

"I told you what would happen and you seem to have refused to believe me. Does it scare you that I was able to stop that attack so easily?" Ichigo taunted in a clam voice, his eyes possessing a hardened look to them.

"Don't think that you've won… I haven't been beaten just yet. Wave Bullet!" Yuka exclaimed.

Smaller projectile versions of the magical pulse attack began to fire off relentlessly from both of the blue-haired wizard's hands. Ichigo, however, just continuously jumped from location to location, never really fining the need to use flash step given that even if an attack had come close he could easily bat it to the side. Still, he needed to create a single opening and then the fight would end in an instant.

"Would you hold still?" Yuka asked, never ceasing his onslaught.

"We both know that I don't need to dodge these attacks…" Ichigo stated.

As if to prove his words were true, he stopped his constant movements and readied his zanpakuto in order to finally bring about the beginning of this fight's end. When each of the Wave Bullets came close, he simply batted them off to the side, no matter how many his opponent chose to fire. In fact, it appeared that Yuka was expending more energy to fire the attacks than the substitute was to deflect them.

"How are you able to block my attacks so easily? No wizard has ever been able to do that before…" Yuka thought aloud, momentarily stopping his attack out of sheer surprise.

At the moment he was almost accepting the fact that his opponent was on a much different level than himself. This acceptance, at the same time, caused him to drop his stance and leave his body wide open. It was fortunate that he was in a daze, though, given that when his opponent vanished before his eyes he didn't really feel any pain from what came next.

Appearing behind the enemy wizard, Ichigo used the bottom of his zanpakuto's hilt and hit him in the back of his head, effectively knocking him out and rendering him harmless for the time being.

"Well that's done…" Ichigo thought aloud before walking off to grab his remaining comrade.

With Natsu…

"Wow, you're pretty awesome." Toby commented, sounding somewhat cheerful.

Thus far he had constantly run at the dragon slayer but to no avail. Each instance he came close, his opponent would punch him, kick him, or shoot fire at him in a way that he never saw coming. Still it went a good bit to show how durable Toby was to see that he could take that much continuous punishment.

"Yeah, well your about to see how awesome I really am!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Heh, don't underestimate me. I haven't even shown you my Paralyzing Jellyfish Claws, bet you'll never guess what they do." Toby proclaimed, his nails becoming elongated and green as he spoke.

"Uh… paralyze people?" Natsu guessed, dropping his combat stance given that even he was surprised by this level of stupidity.

"Whoa, how'd you know that, you got ESP or somethin'?" Toby inquired confusedly.

"No, but we might wanna hold off on our fight. You got somethin' right here." Natsu stated, gesturing to the upper left side of his forehead.

"I do?" Toby uttered, after which he brought his hand up to rectify the situation.

Much as the pink-haired fire wizard had thought, Toby was indeed stupid enough to fall for such a simple trick. The second the claws he had spoken so highly of came into contact with his skin, he began to lightly scream as a jolt of electricity shot through his entire body. Shortly thereafter he fell back onto the ground, beaten and unconscious just as was intended.

"Well that was easy." Natsu thought aloud, sounding content.

"Don't go resting on me just yet. We've still got some work to do." Ichigo stated as he walked up to his increasingly close friend.

"Hey Ichigo, you win yet?" Natsu asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Yeah, but like I said we need to get going. The Cold Emperor is still inside that temple, and right now we need to deal with him." Ichigo replied in a serious voice.

"What about Gray?" Natsu questioned, his voice now becoming serious as well.

"As much as I hate to say it, we may need to leave him here. He's too injured to fight right now, and we can't take the risk of that demon being resurrected. At best, we've got until tomorrow night." Ichigo replied.

"Right." Natsu said in agreement before the two began to run off.

Shores of Galuna Island

"You're such a drama queen…" Lucy commented before finally allowing her legs to give in so that she could fall to the ground and gain some semblance of rest.

The battle she had just fought had been a hard won victory. Through it all, however, she found the strength to persevere with the knowledge that her companions were fighting to win, and so she would as well.

"In death… I have failed my love…" Sherry said melodramatically.

"Yeah… you're not gonna die, so tone it down a bit…" Lucy said with a deadpanned expression. It amazed her just how strange this woman could be.

"Angelica… avenge your master…" Sherry whispered before fainting completely.

The large rat that had previously been out of action jumped out from the nearby forest, very clearly being far from defeated. Lucy, in response, could only stare at it with a confused and frightened expression given that she didn't expect to see the damn thing ever again.

"Wait, I thought that was one of your puppets!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Aaaaaa!" The large rat shouted as it leaped towards its prey.

The blonde-haired wizard tried with all of her might to move her legs, but as a result of her recent fight she was unable to do so. With that in mind, she just held up her hands and braced for the inevitable impact.

'This is so gonna hurt…' Lucy thought tearfully, not exactly looking forward to the end result.

Luckily for her, in a way, the rat itself never even made within four feet of her. As the beast charged, a certain scarlet-haired woman clad in armor and bearing two identical swords sliced the beast across its chest.

The oversized rodent let out a pained squeal, after which it shot off into the sands and hit the ground like a ton of bricks. It was by no means dead, but at the very least it was out cold.

'Looks like I got here at a convenient time.' Erza thought as she glared down at the rat's form.

"Thanks for the save Erza! I totally owe y…" Lucy began.

Sadly, her words had the immediate effect of snapping the renowned armor user out of her combat mode and into a mode that suggested she was about to murder anyone who stood in her way of accomplishing what she came here to do.

Erza turned to the blonde, glared at her heavily, and gave off a clear killer intent that caused the target thereof to pale and shiver out of pure fear.

"U-Umm… y-you're not h-here to help us… are you?" Lucy realized.

"I most certainly am not." Erza replied in a tone that possessed a high edge.

"W-Wait! Before you get angry, you should know that the villagers are really suffering! We're helping them, and then there's a demon, and a curse, and we…" Lucy uttered frantically, trying to fit all that had occurred into such a short collection of sentences.

"I don't care. I came here to bring you and the others back to the guild." Erza replied.

"But…" Lucy began.

She was cut off, or rather, stopped speaking the moment that the redhead brought up one of her swords and aimed it directly at her throat. Needless to say the blonde was almost immediately paralyzed with fear.

"Let me make this easier for you to understand… you have violated the guild's rules and betrayed master Makarov. You will be lucky to get out of this with your lives." Erza stated.

"Y-You wouldn't really hurt us… would you?" Lucy asked, sounding very much so unsure.

The redhead just continued to direct an ominous glare at her 'prisoner', though she did have the common courtesy to withdraw her blade given that she felt her point had been thoroughly illustrated.

"Lucy, you're okay!" Happy exclaimed cheerfully as he flew down towards the beach.

The blue-furred cat then instantly paled upon seeing the very same woman he had been so terrified of since they set foot on the island. He knew this would eventually happen, but he had hoped Erza would take more time to arrive.

"Run away!" Happy shouted.

Erza grabbed the cat's tail effortlessly and pulled him back towards her body, after which she threw him at Lucy and effectively terrified the feline to the point that he was latching onto the celestial wizard's body for dear life.

"Ichigo, save me!" Happy exclaimed out of fear, though his words were obviously not heard by the teen he had desired to call forth.

"Now… I will ask this only once. Where are Natsu, Gray, and Ichigo?" Erza asked, using a bit more venom as she uttered the final name on her list.

While she didn't really hold anything against the orange-haired swordsman, the fact that he had so blatantly violated the rules angered her a great deal. It was expected of Natsu to do something so stupid, but she expected a great deal more from him.

On top of that, she had been in such a good mood the previous morning and had looked forward to a sparring match a great deal. Then she had come into the guild only to find out about what Natsu and the others had done. Needless to say, it put her in a much less cheery mood.

Her mood aside, Erza did recognize that perhaps her judgment had been a bit too hasty. She couldn't help her anger, but she did take into consideration the fact that Ichigo may very well have been initially deceived and she believed that when she found him everything would be made clear.

"I… I don't know." Lucy replied.

"You don't know?" Erza growled out.

The blonde almost instantly fell to the ground out of pure fear, the feeling in her legs giving out in the wake of the look that now came onto Erza's features. A dark shade covered her face and fire seemed to burn in her eyes. Evidently Lucy had said exactly what she did not want to hear. Being in front of such an angered, seemingly unstable and powerful female wizard, Happy and the celestial mage could only think of one thing to do.

"Ichigo, Natsu, save us!" The two squealed in unison, holding on to each other for dear life.